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Los Angeles (CNN) -- The attorney representing two men suing John Travolta for alleged groping apologized Friday to Travolta's attorney for how one of the plaintiffs was wrong about the date of one alleged attack. That plaintiff, identified as John Doe No. 1, will remain in the federal lawsuit but will be represented by a different lawyer, attorney Okorie Okorocha told CNN. Travolta's attorney, Martin Singer, has said the actor denies the lawsuit's allegations that he groped two massage therapists while on their massage tables. The suit seeks $2 million in damages for each plaintiff. "I want to apologize to Martin Singer. It must be very upsetting," Okorocha told CNN about how John Doe No. 1 provided the wrong date of January 16 for an alleged groping incident in a bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel. "I believed I was on solid ground or I wouldn't have given the dates on any court papers or to Mr. Singer," said Okorocha, an attorney based in Pasadena, California. John Doe No. 1 "needs a fresh lawyer to handle the case and we're working on that," Okorocha said. "He needs someone to handle the case who hasn't made any mistakes." The current petition will be amended once the new lawyer is hired for John Doe No. 1, and that lawyer would rewrite the section relating to that client, Okorocha said. John Doe No. 2 will still be represented by Okorocha and remain on the same lawsuit, the attorney said. This week, Travolta's lawyer argued a time-stamped photograph and a restaurant receipt show the actor was not in Los Angeles when John Doe No. 1 claimed the actor assaulted him. The plaintiffs are identified in court filings only as John Doe No. 1 from Texas and John Doe No. 2 of Atlanta, a move their lawyer says is allowed by federal law to protect victims. Travolta's lawyers know their names, Okorocha said. Singer said that Okorocha filed his clients anonymously to keep other people from recognizing them and coming forward with evidence against them. Travolta, 58, has been married to actress Kelly Preston for 20 years. The oldest of their three children, Jett, was 16 when he died of a seizure while the family was vacationing in the Bahamas in January 2009. Okorocha said much of his practice is focused on going after sexual predators. He said he is not intimidated by the prospect of going against Singer, a veteran lawyer known for aggressive tactics in his representation of "A-list" Hollywood clients. But Singer came out swinging against Okorocha this week, first questioning the suit's detailed description of the first incident in which Travolta allegedly groped John Doe No. 1 repeatedly and finally masturbated during the two-hour massage session in the Beverly Hills Hotel bungalow. The suit claimed Travolta picked up the plaintiff in a black Lexus SUV and took him to a hotel bungalow where an African-American chef was cooking hamburgers. But Singer said that Travolta "doesn't have a black chef, doesn't own an SUV or a Lexus. He drives a sedan." And Travolta was in New York that day to be fitted for his wardrobe for his film "Killing Seasons," Singer said. He arrived in the city on January 15, a day before the alleged assault in Beverly Hills, and remained there at least through the next day, he said. A photograph of Travolta, which Singer said was taken at the New York fitting, bears a digital timestamp of January 16 at 4:30 p.m., although the time zone was not specified. Singer also provided a receipt for a $382 meal at Mr. Chow, a Manhattan restaurant, apparently printed at 11:38 p.m. the same day of the alleged Beverly Hills assault. The merchant copy of the receipt does not include a signature. Earlier this week, Okorocha had stood by John Doe No. 1's account of the alleged January 16 assault. "My client was sexually assaulted at 10 a.m.," Okorocha said this week. "I can get there on horseback to Mr. Chow's in New York in 12 hours. That's not that remarkable." He noted that Travolta is a licensed pilot with a private jet. The second plaintiff, who claims a similar encounter with Travolta occurred at an Atlanta hotel where he was a staff massage therapist on January 25, was added to the lawsuit Tuesday. Okorocha said the case should be easy to prove because of documentation that was done soon after the incident. "He tells his boss, the employees all talk about it. There's e-mails going back and forth about the incident." Responded Singer this week: "This second 'anonymous' claim is just as absurd and ridiculous as the first one." Singer said it was "obvious" that Okorocha "checked media reports that my client was in Atlanta working on a movie" before filing the second claim about an Atlanta incident, he said. "However, the claim by Doe No. 2 is just as fabricated as the claim by Doe No. 1," Singer said. "Our client will be fully vindicated in court on both of these absurd and fictional claims." Unless Travolta accepts an out-of-court settlement, the actor can expect to testify in public and on camera about the allegations, Okorocha said this week. "He's going to have a videotaped deposition with me asking him questions and if he goes to trial he is going be on the witness stand answering my questions," Okorocha said. "That is far more intensive and productive as far as evidence than any police report will ever be." The lawsuit alleges that Travolta called the first plaintiff, who advertises online with "professionally themed ads," to arrange for a massage at $200 an hour. Travolta picked him up at a Beverly Hills address and drove him to the hotel, according to the lawsuit. When they entered the bungalow, Travolta "shamelessly stripped naked" in front of a professional chef and the plaintiff, the lawsuit states. "For the first hour the massage was without incident, other than he kept purposefully sliding the towel down that covered his buttocks to reveal about half of gluteus area," the suit states. The massage therapist repeatedly slid the towel back up 10 times in the first hour, "reminding Defendant that state law required that a massage client be fully draped during the massage," the suit states. When Travolta "started to rub Plaintiff's leg," he "thought it was accidental," it said. Later, however, there was more touching by Travolta "and this time Plaintiff told Defendant to please not touch him again," the complaint said. "Defendant apologized, but then snickered to himself like a mischievous child," it said. The lawsuit then described Travolta allegedly touching and grabbing the massage therapist's penis. "This was painful and uncomfortable," the suit said. Travolta apologized and suggested they "must have gotten our signals crossed," and that he thought that the massage therapist "wanted the same thing he did," it said. "Defendant then tried to act like it was a simple misunderstanding." Travolta then asked him to switch places on the table for a "reverse massage," the lawsuit states. Travolta allegedly offered to perform a sexual act on the therapist. Although the therapist "felt very afraid for his safety," he agreed to stay and continue with the massage after Travolta told him "OK, I'll behave myself," the suit said. Travolta's statement "gave plaintiff confidence that his predatory behavior was finally under control," the suit said. When he resumed with a deep tissue massage on his shoulders, Travolta told him, "Say something nice to me," it said. Travolta, who allegedly began masturbating, then got up and screamed at the plaintiff "how selfish he was; that Defendant got where he is now due to sexual favors he had performed when he was in his 'Welcome Back Kotter' days," the suit said. Hollywood is controlled by homosexual men "who expect favors in return for sexual activity," the lawsuit document quotes Travolta as saying. "Defendant then went on to say how he had done things in his past that would make most people throw up," it said. The complaint said Travolta told the therapist that "he was smart enough to learn to enjoy it, and when he began to make millions of dollars, that it all became well worth it." When the therapist refused to take part, Travolta said, "No problem. I will find new friends," the suit said. He then offered to call a "Hollywood starlet" who wanted "three-way sex," but "they needed to have sex together first before calling her, so this way they would be in-sync with each other sexually," the suit said. The actor told him he could "make millions and be famous" if he lost some weight and adapted to same-sex relations, the suit said. When the therapist threatened to call police if he was not returned to where he was picked up, Travolta drove him back, although calling him "selfish" and a "loser" on the way, it said. He paid the therapist $800, double the $400 owed for the two hours, the suit said. CNN's Carolyn Sung and Kareen Wynter contributed to this report.

The attorney who filed a sex suit apologizes to John Travolta's attorney . An accuser was wrong about the date of an alleged groping incident, the attorney says . Still, the federal lawsuit filed by two massage therapists against Travolta will continue . Travolta's attorney says the actor denies the suit's accusations .

(CNN) -- Every July in the lush, green mountains of Aspen, Colorado, many of the top present and former U.S. national security officials and other experts gather to discuss how the war against al Qaeda and its allies is going. Ahead of last year's Aspen conference, I wrote a piece for CNN provocatively titled "Time to declare victory: Al Qaeda is defeated." And I then spoke on a panel at Aspen where I tried to make the case for this position. I'm not sure too many of the folks in Aspen were convinced. (If they had been, it would hardly seem necessary to travel back to Aspen again this year!) Since last year's Aspen conference, a group of men only very loosely aligned with al Qaeda attacked the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, killing four U.S. diplomats and CIA contractors. And in April, the Tsarnaev brothers whose family originated in the Caucasus -- one an American citizen and the other a US resident -- were accused of detonating pressure-cooker bombs in Boston that were based on a design that al Qaeda's Yemeni affiliate had widely distributed on the Internet. The bombing killed three and wounded more than 250 and brought ordinary life to a screeching halt in one of the nation's largest cities. Certainly the attacks in Libya and Boston were victories for "Binladenism," the ideological movement that al Qaeda has spawned. Indeed, the New Mexico-born cleric Anwar Awlaki who was a leader of al-Qaeda's Yemeni affiliate before he was killed in a US drone strike in 2011, was influential not only on the Tsarnaev brothers who possessed some of his writings but also on 22 other US-based jihadist extremists, according to a count by the New America Foundation. However, the attacks in Libya and Boston don't really change the prognosis that al Qaeda, the organization that attacked the U.S. on 9/11, is going the way of the VHS tape. Al Qaeda itself hasn't carried out a successful attack in the West since the suicide bombings in London in 2005 that killed 52. And the terrorist group hasn't carried out an attack in the United States since 9/11. Nor have any of its affiliated groups. The killings of several high-level al Qaeda militants -- foremost among them the organization's founder and leader, Osama bin Laden, during a Navy SEAL raid on his compound in May 2011 -- have dealt a serious blow to al Qaeda's core leadership. A few months after bin Laden's death, a U.S. drone strike killed Atiyah Abdul Rahman, who had become al Qaeda's No. 2 commander after Ayman al-Zawahiri had assumed bin Laden's leadership role. Rahman was one of 30 leaders of al Qaeda in Pakistan who have been killed in CIA drone strikes over the past five years, according to a count by the New America Foundation. Al Qaeda "Central," in short, remains on life support. A second chance with the Arab Spring . However, the unrest that swept the Arab world in the wake of the 2011 Arab Spring has provided jihadist extremist groups with more room to operate and injected large amounts of arms into the region. Al Qaeda affiliates subsequently gained significant footholds in Libya, Syria, Yemen and Mali. But the bulk of jihadist violence in those countries is focused on purely domestic targets. And in countries such as Mali and Yemen, jihadist militants have overplayed their hands and have suffered real reverses in the past year or so. As a result, the attacks by al Qaeda-aligned groups on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi in September and on the BP gas facility in Algeria, at the beginning of this year represent the current state of jihadist anti-Western capabilities abroad. Worldwide, al Qaeda affiliates and allied groups aren't a major threat to the West: . -- Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula remains a real threat to Yemen, but despite its strong interest in U.S. targets, the group has not attempted any serious anti-American attack since its failed October 2010 plot to plant bombs hidden in printer cartridges on cargo planes destined for the United States. However, AQAP's capable chief bomb maker, Ibrahim al-Asiri, remains at large. -- A long-term safe haven for the al Qaeda affiliate in Syria known as Jabhat al-Nusra, ( "the Victory Front") could create an organization with the capability to attack the West. For the moment, the group, which is widely regarded as the most effective fighting force in Syria, is focused on overthrowing the regime of Bashar al-Assad, a project that may take years to achieve. That said, this group is gaining substantial territory in Syria; is attracting thousands of foreign fighters, including hundreds from the West; and might eventually turn its attention to Western targets. -- Al Qaeda in Iraq has also become deeply involved in the civil war in Syria. It has also successfully leveraged a growing sectarian divide in Iraq to garner support from the Sunni community and is, once again, a real threat to the stability of Iraq. -- Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and its splinter groups have little ability to target the West but still pose a threat to Western interests in their areas of operation. AQIM and its splinter groups remain active in parts of Algeria, where they attacked the BP gas facility in early 2013, and northern Mali, where they launched an offensive against the government alongside separatist Tuareg rebels in 2012. However, AQIM and its splinter groups were pushed out of major Malian cities by a French military intervention earlier this year . -- In the past two years, the Somali al Qaeda affiliate, Al-Shabaab, has lost substantial territory and influence in Somalia. While Al-Shabaab remains a potential threat to Western targets because of the group's influence among the Somali diaspora in the West, recent battlefield defeats have forced the group to focus internally. Al-Shabaab has never conducted a successful attack in the West and has not conducted a mass-casualty attack outside of Somalia since it carried out bombings in Kampala, Uganda, in 2010. -- Islamist militant groups remain a threat to stability in Libya in the post-Moammar Gadhafi era. Ansar al-Sharia's loose network of Islamist militants have conducted attacks and gained some legitimacy among the local populace in Benghazi. Ansar al-Sharia is not, however, organizationally or operationally linked to al Qaeda, and it operates only within Libya. -- The Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, is largely a threat to Pakistan, Afghanistan, NATO soldiers and Western interests in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region. It has attempted only two attacks outside the region. TTP has not conducted an attack on American soil since it directed Faisal Shahzad to carry out a car bombing that proved unsuccessful on May 1, 2010, in Times Square. -- The Afghan Taliban continue to lead a potent insurgency in Afghanistan, launching persistent attacks against U.S. forces, as well as military, diplomatic, and aid facilities. They remain in control of significant swaths of land in rural Afghanistan, and will continue to threaten Afghan stability after the NATO combat mission ends in December 2014. However, they have shown no interest in mounting an attack against the U.S. homeland. -- The Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba has not conducted a mass-casualty attack outside of the Afghanistan-Pakistan region since its lethal rampage in Mumbai in 2008. Similarly, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and the Islamic Jihad Union have not showed an interest in or ability to engage in international terrorism since an IJU-linked terrorism cell was broken up in Sauerland, Germany, in 2007. -- Because of continued government crackdowns throughout Southeast Asia, the once-virulent threat posed by the al Qaeda aligned regional terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah has decreased significantly over the past few years. Terror groups have local preoccupations . Given the weaknesses and the local preoccupations of the terrorist groups described in this story, many U.S. counterterrorism officials believe the chances of a large-scale, catastrophic terrorist attack in the United States by al Qaeda or an al Qaeda-affiliated or inspired organization are quite small. Also, the long-term prognosis for most of these terrorist groups is poor because they have all tended to kill many Muslim civilians, and they offer no political or economic ideas to cure the real problems of much of the Islamic world. However, continued unrest throughout the greater Middle East, especially the current turmoil in Egypt, the rising tensions across the region between Sunnis and Shia, the continuing Syrian civil war and the uncertain future of Afghanistan after U.S. and NATO combat troops are withdrawn in December 2014 are all potential wild cards that could create an environment that gives al Qaeda and allied groups opportunities to resuscitate themselves. And at home, the Boston Marathon bombings remind us that the United States still faces a threat from disaffected individuals inspired by al Qaeda's ideology and who often radicalize in the online world. Although they are difficult to detect, these individuals are also quite unlikely to be capable of perpetrating an attack even remotely on the scale of 9/11.

Peter Bergen: Benghazi and Boston don't alter reality about jihad . He says al Qaeda central is in trouble and that it offers no solutions to regional problems . Bergen says some affiliates of al Qaeda show life but don't pose major threat yet to West .

(CNN) -- Washington gubernatorial candidate Rob McKenna looks to help Republicans cross an important threshold while expanding their power at the top of state government nationally. McKenna is locked in a competitive race in a state that hasn't had a Republican governor in nearly 30 years. It's just one example of how the party is leveraging trends and strengthening its hand in a number of ways in state races across the country. If projections bear out and they grab four seats in addition to retaining the three they are defending, Republicans could hold the governorships of 30 states after Election Day, the most for them in nearly half a century. Such an advantage would fortify their positions against Democratic policies, like "Obamacare," tax increases and government spending and give them enormous influence in Washington -- even if Mitt Romney doesn't win the White House. "It does help Republicans policy wise if one party controls the majority of governorships," said Cook Political Report Senior Editor Jennifer Duffy. 2012 ballot initiatives: Voter-run or special interest-hijacked? While the presidential campaign impacts state-wide candidates -- especially for increasing voter turnout -- races for governor can turn on more parochial issues. Nowhere is that more apparent than in Washington state. McKenna has deep roots in King County, the state's most populous. He is a former county councilman and has run and won statewide previously. His Democratic opponent, former U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee, is mostly experienced in congressional races. But McKenna is tapping a sense of voter discontent with a string of Democrats, whose margin of support has been slim over the years. "They've had Democratic governors since 1984 and there's a sense that voters are unhappy that despite promises, these governors haven't been able to change things," Duffy said, pointing out problems with education and the economy in the state. A recent Elway Poll of likely voters showed McKenna with a 47% to 45% lead over Inslee, which was within the survey's margin of error. While the fight remains tight in Washington state, Democrats might have to throw in the towel in North Carolina. The Tar Heel State elected its first woman governor in Democrat Beverly Perdue in 2008 but she is retiring amid a campaign finance investigation. Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory could become the first Republican governor since 1985 and only the third since 1901. He leads comfortably in the polls against Democrat Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton. "More than the investigation," Duffy said of Perdue, "you've got voters with buyer's remorse. The reason she isn't running again is she was behind in all the polls - there was no path to victory for her." Key governor's races snapshots . Compiled by Adam Levy and Robert Yoon, CNN Political Research . Delaware . Gov. Jack Markell (D) vs. Jeff Cragg (R) Democratic Gov. Jack Markell appears headed for a second term this November. Markell's Republican opponent is Jeff Cragg, a small business owner from Wilmington. Delaware has become an increasingly reliable Democratic state and with the defeat of former Rep. Mike Castle in the 2010 U.S. Senate primary, the state now has no Republicans in statewide elected office. Cragg is unlikely to change the GOP's fortunes, especially in a presidential election year with Vice President Joe Biden, a Delaware native, on the Democratic ticket. Indiana . (Open seat) -- Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) is term-limited . Rep. Mike Pence (R) vs. John Gregg (D) vs. Rupert Boneham (Libertarian) Six-term GOP Rep. Mike Pence mulled a 2012 presidential bid but opted instead to run for governor to replace term-limited Republican incumbent Mitch Daniels. His Democratic opponent is John Gregg, the former Indiana House speaker. Pence's years in Congress and on the Sunday talk show circuit, as well as his brief foray in near-presidential politics, have given him a relatively high profile for a state candidate. That, plus Indiana's Republican-friendly state voting trends, gives him a leg up over Gregg. Republicans control the governorship, both U.S. Senate seats and a majority of U.S. House seats. Missouri . Gov. Jay Nixon (D) vs. Dave Spence (R) Democrat Jay Nixon hopes to become the first Missouri governor re-elected to a second term since the late Mel Carnahan in 1996. The Republican nominee is Dave Spence, a businessman who has been spending personal funds on the campaign. Nixon won the governorship in 2008 with a comfortable 58.4%, but Missouri voters have proven to be fickle at the ballot box, especially for state office. Since the 1970s, Republicans and Democrats have traded control of the governorship six times. Though a long-time swing state, Missouri has voted Republican in the last three presidential elections. The Democratic incumbent appears to have a leg up in the home stretch. Montana . (Open seat) -- Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D) is term-limited . Steve Bullock (D) vs. Fmr. Rep. Rick Hill (R) The race to replace outgoing Democratic incumbent and frequent CNN contributor Brian Schweitzer is extremely competitive, but it's been overshadowed by Democratic Sen. Jon Tester's equally competitive U.S. Senate re-election contest. The Democratic nominee is Steve Bullock, the state attorney general. He faces Republican Rick Hill, a former congressman. Schweitzer leaves office with fairly high marks. He began October with a 61 % approval rating, which helps Bullock. But the state leans Republican overall. New Hampshire . (Open seat) -- Gov. John Lynch (D) is retiring . Maggie Hassan (D) vs. Ovide Lamontagne (R) As is the case in Montana, the race in New Hampshire to replace a popular outgoing Democratic governor has become one of the most competitive races. The Democratic nominee is Maggie Hassan, a former state senator. She faces Republican Ovide Lamontagne, an attorney and conservative activist who was the tea party's choice over Kelly Ayotte in the 2010 GOP U.S. Senate primary. He also was the GOP gubernatorial nominee in 1996, receiving 39.5% of the vote against Democrat Jeanne Shaheen. John Lynch leaves office with high marks, which helps Hassan. But polling on the gubernatorial race itself has been mixed, with Lamontagne leading in two October polls and Hassan leading in one. Both candidates were well below the 50 % mark in each poll. Democrats have controlled the governorship for all but two years since Shaheen's win in 1996. North Dakota . Gov. Jack Dalrymple (R) vs. Ryan Taylor (D) Incumbent Republican Jack Dalrymple seeks a full term in the office previously held by fellow Republican John Hoeven, who resigned in late 2010 after winning the U.S. Senate seat held by retiring Democrat Byron Dorgan. The Democratic nominee is Ryan Taylor, the state senate minority leader. Although there's a tight U.S. Senate in the state this year, Dalrymple appears to have all the advantages heading into November. Republicans have had a lock on the governorship since 1992. Utah . Gov. Gary Herbert (R) vs. Peter Cooke (D) Utah has not had a Democratic governor in almost 28 years and incumbent Republican Gary Herbert looks likely to continue that trend. Herbert took office in August 2009 when then-Gov. Jon Huntsman resigned to become U.S. Ambassador to China. He won a 2010 special election to complete the rest of Huntsman's term and received 64% of the vote over Peter Corroon, the mayor of Salt Lake County. His Democratic opponent is Peter Cooke, a businessman and retired two-star major general with the U.S. Army Reserves. Utah is solid Republican country, and Herbert is a safe bet for re-election. Vermont . Gov. Peter Shumlin (D) vs. Randy Brock (R) Election Night 2012 should be much less suspenseful for Democratic incumbent Peter Shumlin than it was two years ago. That year, Shumlin narrowly edged his Republican opponent, Brian Dubie, 49% to 48%. Under Vermont law, the state legislature decides the gubernatorial election if no candidate receives a majority of the vote. Shumlin officially won the election in January 2011, though Dubie conceded the race shortly after Election Day. This year, Shumlin is expected to win re-election easily. His Republican opponent is Randy Brock, a state senator. West Virginia . Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin (D) vs. Bill Maloney (R) If it feels like just a year ago when Democratic incumbent Earl Ray Tomblin ran against Republican businessman Bill Maloney for the West Virginia governorship, that's because it was. Tomblin took office in late 2010 after his Democratic predecessor Joe Manchin resigned to take over the late Robert Byrd's U.S. Senate seat. A year later, Tomblin won a special election to complete the rest of Manchin's term. He beat Maloney, 50% to 47%. Now, the two face off again for a full term. The major difference now is that 2012 is a presidential election year, and the shadow of President Barck Obama looms even larger over the race than it did a year ago. Republicans, as they did in 2011, hope to link Tomblin with the president, who is unpopular in the Mountain State.

Republicans could gain four gubernatorial seats this year, crossing the 30-seat mark nationally . Republican gains could help the GOP fight federal initiatives like health care reform . Races in Washington and North Carolina could elect GOP governors for the first time since the 1980s .

(CNN) -- Donna Zovko will have to wait to travel to Falluja to see where her son died in one of the Iraq war's most infamous attacks. Clockwise from upper left: Wesley Batalona, Mike Teague, Scott Helvenston, Jerry Zovko . "My dream was to go for the fifth anniversary, and that didn't come true," Zovko said this week while visiting friends in Boston, Massachusetts. "It's not that I'm afraid for me. But people with me on the trip would be in more danger." Tuesday marks five years since her son Jerry Zovko and three other civilian employees of the Blackwater private security firm were ambushed in Falluja on March 31, 2004. Gunmen attacked vehicles holding Zovko, Mike Teague, Wesley Batalona and Scott Helvenston and set the vehicles on fire. Shocking images beamed around the world showed Iraqis celebrating in front of charred bodies strung up on a bridge over the Euphrates River. The remains were dragged through the streets. Donna Zovko honors her son » . "I didn't realize until way after the incident that he had been decapitated," said Helvenston's mother, Katy Helvenston-Wettengel, from her Florida home. "They cut his heart out. How can anybody be that hateful?" To identify his body, she said, investigators had to gather DNA samples from her son's children. A half-decade after the notorious attack, memories of the gruesome images have faded somewhat from the public eye, as the United States plans to reduce troop numbers in Iraq and a wrongful death suit brought by the four families heads to court-ordered arbitration. The families accuse Blackwater of failing to prepare the men for their mission that day. A 2007 House oversight committee report concluded that Blackwater "ignored multiple warnings about the dangers" and failed to supply armored vehicles, machine guns, sufficient intelligence or even a map. Blackwater responded by saying the experienced military veterans on the team "had all of the resources they needed" and were victims of a "well-planned ambush." In the days after the attack, Blackwater was largely silent beyond a statement that said, "We grieve today for the loss of our colleagues and we pray for their families." But the families said they ran into a stone wall trying to get details of what happened in Falluja. "For the next three months, they never returned my calls," Helvenston's mother said. "Our families were destroyed. We will never be the same." For Zovko, the suit is not about money or punishment. "I want to hear the truth," she said. "I want to know what my Jerry was doing before the mission. Why they didn't they have the maps? I want to know who he spoke to last." What makes this anniversary different from past years, she said, was an encounter this month in Boston with an Iraqi who claimed that he was at the scene of the attack shortly after the massacre. He offered Zovko new alleged details of the attack, which she says brought her comfort. The Iraqi man, whom she wouldn't identify, told her that the attackers did not appear to be targeting the motorcade containing her son and his three comrades. "We used to think maybe the attack was done on purpose," she said. The news made her feel like "I was lifted into the air," she said. "For me, it was good. I miss my Jerry more today than yesterday." The gruesome attack put the little-known North Carolina-based security company into the American lexicon and on the world stage. It also changed the course of the war. The House report called it a "turning point in public opinion about the war," which led to the first major U.S. offensive in Falluja. The fighting lasted three weeks, killing 36 U.S. service members, about 200 insurgents and an estimated 600 Iraqi civilians, according to the report. In the ensuing years, Blackwater and other private security firms in Iraq received hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. government contracts. Tactics used by the private security firms sometimes created ill will among Iraqis and Blackwater in particular was criticized, even by some in the U.S. military, for its allegedly reckless use of deadly force. Erik Prince, Blackwater's founder and former CEO, dismissed such allegations as "baseless" after his company was criticized by the Iraqi government for an incident in which its guards killed 17 Iraqi civilians and wounded others while protecting a U.S. State Department convoy in Baghdad on September 16, 2007. "To the extent there was the loss of innocent life, let me be clear that I consider that tragic," Prince said, adding that the Blackwater team "acted appropriately while operating in a very complex war zone" that day. Five ex-Blackwater security guards pleaded not guilty in January to charges of voluntary manslaughter stemming from their involvement in the shootings. A sixth pleaded guilty to voluntary and attempted manslaughter. That same month, the Iraqi government refused to grant the firm an operating license, and the U.S. State Department announced that it will not renew its contract. In the two months since the exit of the Bush administration, Prince has stepped down as CEO and brought in a new leadership team. The company has changed its name to Xe, but Prince is still chairman. "I think Blackwater's been punished enough," Zovko said, "but they will be punished more. It's time our government makes some rules and regulations about what civilian contractors can do in their wars." This week, Xe released a brief statement to CNN about the Falluja killings, saying the "sacrifices of these brave men have not been forgotten. On the five-year anniversary of their death, the company continues to mourn their loss. Our thoughts remain with their families and loved ones." Prince's promise . Both mothers seem to be making a conscious effort to control their anger five years on. "I refuse to hate, but if I were gonna hate anybody, it would be Blackwater and Erik Prince," Helvenston-Wettengel said. "I want Blackwater exposed for who they are, and I want them out of business." Zovko said she relies on her Catholic faith to control her anger. In 2007, Prince told CNN he would be willing to meet with Zovko, but 16 months later, no such meeting has taken place. "He hasn't honored his promise, but I believe he will," Zovko said. "Sometimes I think he doesn't have a heart, but he really does." Zovko said she wants to ask Prince, "Where are my Jerry's three suitcases with personal things that I have never received?" Also, she said Prince promised to invite Zovko to Blackwater's headquarters in North Carolina to see memorial stones and trees that were planted honoring the victims. "That hasn't happened," Zovko said. Helvenston-Wettengel also said she'd like to meet with Prince. "I'd like to look him in the eye, yeah. I'd say, 'How can you live with yourself?' " CNN sought a response from Prince about his promised meeting with Zovko. Company spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said Prince had tried to meet with Zovko in early 2008 but was unable to "due to scheduling conflicts." Both mothers' sons went to Iraq after careers in the U.S. military. Jerry Zovko, a former Army Ranger, had gone as a security contractor to train Iraqi soldiers. When that contract ended in late 2003, he signed on with a different company, Blackwater, according to his mother. For Scott Helvenston, Iraq was just the final chapter of a colorful career for the former Navy SEAL, a life that included a job as a stuntman and consultant for Hollywood films. On the set of 1997's "G.I. Jane," shot in Jacksonville, Florida, Helvenston put Demi Moore through a rigorous training program, his mother said, even managing to grab a small role as an extra. A divorced father of two, Helvenston told his mother he would return from Iraq in two months, she said. "He was going to go over there and make a bunch of money and come back and give it to his ex-wife," she said. Zovko and Helvenston-Wettengel have become close friends in the years since the tragedy, but on this anniversary, the two mothers will not be together to share their support and grief with each other. "Traveling is getting to be troublesome for us both," said Zovko, who plans to remain near her home in Bratenahl, Ohio, to attend morning and evening masses at Cleveland's St. Paul Croatian Church. Helvenston-Wettengel also said she plans to attend church Tuesday in her hometown of Leesburg, Florida. Legal setbacks . As for the families' wrongful death lawsuit against Blackwater, a federal judge in 2007 ordered that the case be taken out of the courts to be decided by a three-member arbitration panel. Senior U.S. District Judge James Fox sent the case to arbitration based on Blackwater's argument that the four victims had signed an agreement not to sue the company. A hearing is set for June 23. In court, Blackwater had argued that it was immune to such a lawsuit because, as an extension of the military, it cannot be held responsible for deaths in a war zone. At this point, Zovko said, both sides are losers. "I lost my son, and Blackwater lost the dignity of the company they thought they were." Helvenston said she wants the whole thing to just end, but events keep dragging it out. "They won't let me let it go." CNN's Wayne Drash contributed to this report.

It's been five years since killings of four U.S. contractors in Falluja . Victim's mom: "I want Blackwater exposed and out of business" Blackwater, renamed Xe, says it "continues to mourn" the loss of the four men . Another mom: Both sides are losers in Blackwater suit .

New York (CNN) -- In the mid-March chill, the victims and their stories continued to emerge as firefighters ferreted through the piles of bricks and wreckage on the East Harlem block where a powerful explosion and fire leveled two buildings. They brought life to a bustling neighborhood of corner bodegas, botanicas, churches, shops and redbrick tenements whose ordinary rhythms were shattered after the Wednesday morning blast killed at least eight and injured dozens more. They hailed from Greece, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. The eighth body was recovered Thursday night, a fire department spokesman said. Among the victims was Alexis (Jordy) Salas, 22, an aspiring lawyer who checked on an elderly neighbor and member of his church -- who was also killed -- when the odor of gas filled corridors of their building the night before the blast, said his wife, Jennifer Salas. "He knocked on our neighbor's door and when she didn't answer, he was worried," Jennifer Salas said Friday. "Finally, she answered the door and said she was OK." Jennifer Salas, a 20-year-old college student who is six-months pregnant, said her husband was sleeping when she left for school Wednesday morning. The gas odor lingered in the corridors. "It wasn't as strong, but maybe I just got used to it," she said. Her husband, she said, studied at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and taught Sunday school at the store-front evangelical church on the ground floor of the now-destroyed apartment building where they lived. "He liked going to church, studying, watching the news and knowing what was happening in the world," she said. "He cared about his neighbors." Another victim was the Salas' next-door neighbor, Carmen Tanco, a 67-year-old dental hygienist who relatives tried desperately to reach by cellphone. "She's sassy, spicy, which is why her and I are so close," her niece, Marisela Frias, 44, said before learning her aunt had died. "We have the same temperament, character. We tell it like it is, tell you the truth, whether you want to hear it or not. What you see is what you get." Griselde Camacho, 44, who also died in the blast, was a public safety officer at the Hunter College Silberman School of Social Work in East Harlem, the school's website said. "Griselde was a well-liked member of our community, a respected officer and a welcoming presence at our Silberman building," said Jennifer J. Raab, the college president. "Our deepest sympathies go out to her family, and we are committed to doing everything we can to support them in their time of great emotional need. We also know this is a difficult time for all those who knew and worked with Sergeant Camacho. All of you will be in our thoughts in the days ahead." Camacho and Tanco were remembered by Carlton Brown, bishop of Bethel Gospel Assembly, on the church's Facebook page. "Our hearts are heavy as we will truly miss these two beautiful women," Brown wrote. "Many of us share fond memories on how they have blessed our lives with their warm smiles and caring natures. They were both faithful volunteers." Rosaura Hernandez, 21, who also perished in the explosion, was a line cook at Triomphe Restaurant, general manager Robert Holmes said. "We liked her enthusiasm and raw talent," Holmes said. "It's a terrible loss. My staff has taken it hard. ... She was solid as a rock, never got flustered. She was calm, even-tempered. One of our line cooks was quite close with her. When he heard she was missing, he said, 'Can I go find Rosie? I gotta look for her.' I said, of course. It's a terrible tragedy." Another victim was Andreas Panagopoulos, 43. He was a musician and agent for a creative agency who was married to an editor at the Spanish-language daily El Diario La Prensa. "We knew him as a very warm and funny person, who was always ready to help," Neska Husar, a representative of Production Paradise, said in a statement. "We will also remember him by his great sense of humor, eloquence and elaborate e-mails -- he always took his time to explain his thoughts and work process." Other victims include George Ameado, 44 and Rosaura Barrios, 44. One fatal victim remains unidentified. On Friday, former President Bill Clinton, whose foundation still has offices in Harlem, toured the blast site. City officials said they were making temporary housing available for the displaced. Mayor Bill de Blasio said 66 people, including 14 families with children, had received temporary shelter. Though authorities have said a gas leak may have triggered the explosion, de Blasio told reporters Thursday that the official cause was under investigation. "We know there was an explosion," he said, "but we don't know everything about the lead-up to it." Desperate search for survivors . Near 116th Street and Park Avenue, once the heart of New York's large Puerto Rican community, firefighters -- for days -- have been tearing at mounds of bricks in a search for survivors from the collapsed five-story buildings, which housed a piano store and an evangelical church, in addition to apartments. The fire department tweeted Firday that 60% to 70% of the debris has been removed, enabling federal investigators to start their probe of the gas blast. On Thursday, Con Edison officials said the utility received a call reporting a gas leak around 9:13 a.m. Wednesday from a resident at one of the newer buildings on Park Avenue. The utility dispatched a truck two minutes later, but it arrived after the explosion. The caller reported smelling gas the night before but did not call the utility at the time. Two gas repairs were made on the block in January 2011 and May 2013 following complaints of a gas odor, Con Ed CEO John McAvoy said. The utility looked back at 10 years of checks and repairs on the gas main on the block and found no "historical condition," he said. In addition, Con Ed checks for leaks in the area on February 10 and February 28 detected no problems. Fire officials said they received no reports of gas leaks in the area in the last month, while police reported receiving no calls since 2010. Fire marshals, police arson investigators and the National Transportation Safety Board -- which probes gas explosions -- worked to determine the cause of the explosion. "In one word, devastating," was how Robert Sumwalt of the NTSB described the scene Thursday afternoon. He called it an "active search and rescue operation." "You have, basically, two five-story buildings reduced to essentially a three-story pile of bricks and twisted metal." Sumwalt said the agency was "operating under the assumption that a natural gas leak led to an explosion," but that his team of investigators had not yet examined the crater where the buildings once stood. Some wreckage was still smoldering Thursday, with the fire whipped by the cold wind, de Blasio said. "Our biggest concern now is the free-standing wall in the back," Edward Kilduff, fire chief of department, told the mayor during a tour of the site Thursday. "That was a little more solid last night, but it burned overnight." Surreal scene of destruction . The massive explosion shook Manhattan's East Harlem section around 9:30 a.m. Wednesday. Colin Patterson said he was watching TV when a thunderous blast suddenly sent pianos hurling through the air in the shop where he works. "They flew off the ground," said the piano technician, who also lives in the building in East Harlem. He told CNN affiliate WABC that he crawled through the rubble and managed to escape unharmed. A building department official said one of the two Park Avenue buildings that collapsed received a city permit last year for the installation of 120 feet of gas piping. The work was completed last June. In 2008, owners of the adjacent building, which also collapsed, were fined for failing to maintain vertical cracks in the rear of the building. The condition was not reported as corrected to the buildings department. There were a total of 15 units in the two buildings, officials said. Building department records detailed a litany of violations, dating back decades, for one of the collapsed buildings, including a lack of smoke detectors, blocked fire escapes and faulty light fixtures. The mayor told reporters that the report of the gas leak, which he said came about 15 minutes before the explosion, was "the only indication of danger." Blast shook Manhattan for blocks . Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano said responding firefighters barely missed the blast. "If we were here five minutes earlier we may have had some fatalities among firefighters," he said. "Not being here may have saved some lives." Once a predominantly Italian neighborhood, the stretch of East Harlem saw a large influx of Puerto Ricans in the 1950s. It went on to be called Spanish Harlem and El Barrio. In the 1990s, many Mexican immigrants began to move into the area, which has been gentrified in recent years, with many mom-and-pop shops replaced by restaurants and bars. CNN's Poppy Harlow, Rose Arce, Eden Pontz, Don Lemon, John Berman, Ashleigh Banfield, Adam Reiss, Stephany Byrne, Haley Draznin, Laura Ly, Shimon Prokupecz, Brian Vitagliano, Julia Lull, Lorenzo Ferrigno, Steve Kastenbaum, Elizabeth Landers, Susan Candiotti, Haimy Assefa, Chris Boyette, Kevin Conlon, Julie Cannold and Catherine E. Shoichet contributed to this report.

NEW: An eighth body is recovered, says a fire spokesman . Police identify another victim, Andreas Panagopoulos . "In one word, devastating," is how NTSB investigator describes scene . At least one person is unaccounted for, police say .

(CNN) -- What is it about Woodstock? Jimi Hendrix closed the Woodstock festival on Monday morning, August 18, 1969. The 1967 Monterey Pop Festival was arguably more influential and, like Woodstock, spawned a terrific film, D.A. Pennebaker's "Monterey Pop." The 1969 Isle of Wight Festival in England, two weeks after Woodstock, included the elusive Bob Dylan. And there were several other gatherings during the late-'60s and early-'70s festival frenzy, including the ill-fated Altamont festival in 1969 and the record-setting Watkins Glen festival in 1973. But nobody talked about a "Monterey Nation" or a "Wight Nation" or, God forbid, an "Altamont Nation." No other festival prompted Charles M. Schulz to name a "Peanuts" character after it. No other festival has maintained a viable name for four decades. And no other festival is still so present in the public and media consciousness. With Woodstock's 40th anniversary Saturday comes a plethora of releases, including CDs, DVDs, a VH1 documentary airing Friday, the new movie "Taking Woodstock" and several books. Watch Woodstock co-founder Michael Lang talk about the festival » . "There's a quality to Woodstock that has to do with the ... hugeness of it," said festival co-founder Joel Rosenman. "We seem to remember that it involved the whole generation." LIFE.com gallery: Chaos, nudity, spirit . Many members of that generation, he added, weren't aware there were so many others like themselves. "They had ... been reading in the establishment media they were a splinter here and a fragment there," he said. "And all of a sudden, they get to Woodstock ... and saw the entire world as [they] knew it was on [their] side instead of the side you thought it was on. ... It was pretty heady stuff." iReport: Memories of Woodstock . By now, the basics of Woodstock have passed into legend. How four men -- Rosenman, his business partner John Roberts, entrepreneur Michael Lang and record executive Artie Kornfeld -- wanted to put on a concert for the counterculture. How their site choices fell through. How Max Yasgur rented his dairy farm with a month to go. How the event drew half a million people, more than twice what had been expected. How it caused a huge traffic jam. How it became a free concert. How it rained. And how everyone -- concertgoers and security, musicians and authorities, visitors and residents -- got along and made the most of the three days with minimal violence and lots of joy. Watch why Woodstock made a difference » . As a resident of the Woodstock Nation might say, the vibes were good. But that doesn't explain how the event gave way to the myth. Elliott Landy, a photographer best known for his "Music from Big Pink" and "Nashville Skyline" portraits of The Band and Bob Dylan, respectively, believes part of Woodstock's aura came from its isolation. "In the full Woodstock experience, you were cut off from the rest of ... everyday life," he said. "It was kind of a magic land." Rock critic Dave Marsh, who said he was offered a ticket but didn't go, puts it succinctly: "Woodstock was an accident. God liked that one." But Woodstock was also at the nexus of so many swirling currents of the '60s: the generation gap, the antiwar movement, the evolution of rock music, the growth of the youth culture. One person in Barbara Kopple's VH1 documentary said, with still-discernable anger, "They [the establishment] were trying to kill us," and he wasn't kidding; the draft was ever-present, with the threat of Vietnam hanging over many heads. Music was just as divisive. Unlike today, when underground acts quickly become mainstream through word-of-Internet, the underground in 1969 was truly underground. Only the most popular rock acts appeared on prime time television, and a 1966 Harris poll reported a plurality of people over 21 disliked rock 'n' roll. "Longhair" and "hippie" weren't descriptions; they were epithets. Woodstock gave the baby boomers a rallying point. If the special editions of magazines trumpeting its success weren't enough, the movie and the soundtrack album were huge hits upon their 1970 release, bringing elements of the Woodstock experience to millions. Santana drummer Michael Shrieve, whose drum solo during the band's "Soul Sacrifice" became an indelible Woodstock moment, remembers how fame caught him by surprise. He was waiting in line to see "Woodstock" with other band members. As the previous show let out, "We noticed that people were looking at us and pointing at us, and we didn't know what was going on." The band found out soon enough: On a tour of Europe, Shrieve stopped at a newsstand to pick up a magazine, and he was on the cover. "I realized this was taking off," he said. Though much is made of the Woodstock spirit -- the camaraderie, the cooperation through the rain and the mud and the traffic -- not everybody bought into it. The Who's Pete Townshend has often criticized Woodstock, disparaging The Who's performance and calling the audience "a bunch of hypocrites"; he later plowed his Woodstock-era alienation into such songs as "Won't Get Fooled Again." (Townshend has also acknowledged that the Woodstock gig was "important.") Marsh, who wrote a recent cover story on Woodstock for Relix magazine, admires the festival's optimism but not many of its realities: the poor sanitation, the hype, the idea that getting away from society was going to solve its problems. "We were ambitious as people, and our ambition was to create a beautiful new society. ... And this seemed like a step on the road to a lot of people," he said. "I never bought the thing that the artificial wilderness was a solution to our social problems. ... I think a lot of people thought if you got stoned and bonded together with a bunch of people to whom on Monday you didn't feel bonded at all, that that was a step on the journey." For all of the good will Woodstock created, it's also blamed for what it didn't do. The war didn't end. Altamont, the hope for a West Coast Woodstock, culminated in an audience member's slaying. And members of the "Woodstock Nation" went their separate ways. Woodstock also was the beginning of a new era in the music business -- it became a "music industry," Woodstock co-founder Lang noted. Producer-engineer Eddie Kramer, a Jimi Hendrix colleague who recorded the festival, agreed the music world changed after Woodstock. "You have to realize that, in 1969, agents and managers were in the background," he said. "And the musicians weren't really competing with each other. They were friendly to each other and were eager to help." As much as "getting back to the garden," in Joni Mitchell's words, Woodstock now also symbolizes baby boomer nostalgia. Among the related products and events are a 6-CD box set (Rhino); an "Ultimate Collector's Edition" DVD reissue of director Michael Wadleigh's Oscar-winning documentary (Warner Home Video); the new Ang Lee film "Taking Woodstock"; "Woodstock Experience" remastered CDs of complete live sets by such performers as Santana and Janis Joplin (Sony/Legacy); Friday's VH1 documentary by Oscar-winning filmmaker Barbara Kopple; a tour by the "Heroes of Woodstock"; an anniversary concert at the Woodstock site in Bethel, New York; and several books, including works by Lang and Landy. That's a lot to pile on to what was, at its heart, a music festival, and perhaps people have expected too much from Woodstock. Just a year after the event, critic J.R. Young reviewed the soundtrack in Rolling Stone and gave voice to the disappointment and cynicism. "That's why there will never really be a Woodstock Nation," said a character in the review, which was written as a short story. "You won't let anybody live on your land." And yet "Woodstock" remains a magic word -- one that, finally, refuses to reveal its secrets. Woodstock co-founder Rosenman ends up reaching for the elation of Keats' poem "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" -- "Then felt I like some watcher of the skies/ When a new planet swims into his ken" -- when trying to describe the festival's thrill. But he stops short of adding up the details. It was the people, he said, who made Woodstock. "That half a million-strong audience created something -- they created a legend," he said. "I actually don't think it's possible to do the making of that legend and explain it to the satisfaction of almost anybody. I think you'd still come away wondering, 'What the heck made that happen?' " And Shrieve, who's long since come to terms with being known as "the guy who did the drum solo at Woodstock," is equally philosophical about how the festival is portrayed. "It's interesting to observe history from the viewpoint of having been there. It also gives you some insight into everything else," he said. "I mean, any historical moment, there are people that are there and people who are not there. And when it grows into something that becomes more mythological, you see people telling the story of how it happened, and you go, 'Wait a minute! That's not what happened!' "

Woodstock festival was 40 years ago Saturday . Festival represents idealism, music, money, mud, depending on who you ask . Festival co-creator: It was the audience who "created a legend"

(CNN) -- Do the hopeless causes have hope? If so, how much? When it comes to the wide world of sports, it springs eternal. Anyone who saw baseball's Kansas City Royals fight their way into the World Series for the first time since 1985, only to lose to the San Francisco Giants in Game 7 Wednesday night, was reminded that losers have been known to turn into winners. The Giants know that feeling. When they took the World Series in 2010, they had gone without a championship for 56 years. Now they have their third in five years. The Royals will have to wait till next year for a chance at baseball's ultimate prize, but other unexpected teams could surprise us in the meantime. Who might that be? Projections that the Cleveland Cavaliers could meet the Los Angeles Clippers for the National Basketball Association's next championship have not as yet been met with a ha-ha-ha, you-kill-me kind of maniacal laugh. It could happen, relatively smart NBA people believe. Both bad franchises suddenly look uncommonly good. A question of whether the Detroit Lions could finally make it to a Super Bowl now exists, halfway through this National Football League season, without the requisite rolling of eyeballs or a yeah, yeah, yeah, when-pigs-fly kind of reply. It remains improbable, but not impossible, like convincing Matthew McConaughey to make a TV commercial for a car. Not every cause is lost. Some are merely misplaced. Individually in the Long Overdue Dept. of life, Sergio Garcia, 34, is a successful pro golfer who has never won a Grand Slam tournament, or one of the "majors," as they in the PGA say. Danica Patrick, 32, has yet to win a NASCAR race behind the wheel. John Isner, 29, has not been beyond the quarterfinals in a Grand Slam event of tennis. In other sports shots heard 'round the world, not once has the winning goal of a World Cup championship match been struck by a certain soccer team we like to call "USA, USA, USA!" Gotta happen SOMETIME, yes? Doesn't it? Kansas City had not been to a World Series for 29 years, but finally got its act together this fall. Seattle's pro football squad hadn't won a Super Bowl game, but that finally happened in 2014. Los Angeles' hockey team endured decades without claiming a Stanley Cup, but now has drunk out of two of the last three. Teams gotta dream. Some year has to be your year. When previously overpowering organizations such as the Boston Celtics, Dallas Cowboys or Los Angeles Dodgers become teams that no longer play for the championship year after year, your team could actually stand a chance. No one fears the New York Yankees nowadays; they are pretty much just another pretty good team. Who'll finally get lucky? Whose fateful year will it finally be? Here they come, Hopeless Causes R Us: . CLEVELAND CAVALIERS (NBA) Last NBA championship: None. They joined the league in 1970. They got their hands on LeBron James and lost him. They lost 26 games in a row in the season of 2010-11. Were once again mocked as the "Cleveland Cadavers." Ah, but look who's back: King James himself. He went south to Miami for a few winters, turned the Heat into a hot property, then decided that he longed to return to his native Ohio, where he would try to win the Cavs a crown at last. You know what? They just might. DETROIT LIONS (NFL) Last NFL championship: 1957. More than likely, this season's Lions will retreat tails between legs to lick their wounds, as they do year after year. Since the name "Super Bowl" was applied to the league's big game, Detroit has hosted it, but never played in it. But the team's current record is 6-2. It is in first place in the NFC North. It has a legit playoff shot. Who's to say that after Katy Perry sings at halftime, the team from Motown won't win on Super Bowl Sunday and have Detroiters dancin' in the streets? ST. LOUIS BLUES (NHL) Last NHL championship: None. No team has been in the National Hockey League as long as this one has without winning a Stanley Cup at least once. Its trophy haul is an empty net. It looked like last season's team might change all that. St. Louis' record was a fine 52-23. Blues lovers jammed the Scottrade Center expecting to sing a new tune. Alas, out on a sour note they went, in the opening round of the playoffs. The Blues remain O-for-ever. BALTIMORE ORIOLES (MLB) Last World Series title: 1983. Oh, the O's of this season came SO close. They made their division rival Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays and Rays eat their dust. They won 30 more games than they lost. They broomed the man-eating Tigers right out of the playoffs. Even after losing two star players, Manny Machado and Chris Davis, at an inopportune time, the Orioles could have gone all the way. If not for a red-hot Kansas City ball club, Baltimore might well have won its first World Series title since 1983. LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS (NBA) Last NBA title: None. Donald Sterling, the boneheaded owner, is out. Steve Ballmer, the bald-headed owner, is in. Doc Rivers is a smart coach and there's a lot of talent on that court. On the other hand, these are still the Clippers, who have been demonstrating a million ways to die in the West since long before a Seth MacFarlane movie by that name came out. Yes, they really did beat the Lakers in a game last season 142-94. Is this team for real, though? It is not now-or-never, but almost. CLEVELAND BROWNS (NFL) Last NFL title: 1964. Hard to believe this franchise, football royalty, has never been to a Super Bowl even once. This season's record is 4-3. Not awesome, but not rotten. Maybe they can take their division. Maybe they can get on a roll. Maybe they can ask Kevin Costner, who played the Browns' general manager in the 2014 movie "Draft Day," to join them on Super Bowl Sunday 2015, if truth turns out to be stranger than fiction. BUFFALO SABRES (NHL) Last NHL title: None. They tried nine different goaltenders last season -- repeat, NINE. That is a National Hockey League record. It is also ridiculous. Trades, hirings, firings, new ownership, nothing's worked. Not a single Stanley Cup for this franchise, founded in 1970. The honeymoon near Niagara Falls is long over. Time for the Sabres to stop fouling up in front of their fed-up fans. SEATTLE MARINERS (MLB) Last World Series title: None. Quick, name a team that's never even been IN a World Series. Bzzz, time's up. The answer is: Seattle's Mariners, one of the true underachieving organizations of all time. The M's were on the brink, missing this season's playoffs by just one game. They have a super pitcher in Felix Hernandez and a splendid player in Robinson Cano. What they do not have is a single World Series ring with a Mariner logo on any finger. If not soon, when? NEW YORK KNICKS (NBA) Last NBA title: 1973. Last time anybody expected a title: Hmmm, can't recall. Rings-on-every-finger Phil Jackson is in charge now. He helped the Bulls and Lakers try on NBA championship jewelry again and again. It's a long, long way from contender to champ, but maybe Jackson can figure out what his Madison Square Garden predecessors have not. SAN DIEGO CHARGERS (NFL) Last NFL title: None. Zero. It's a franchise that's been to only one Super Bowl, which it lost 49-26. This season's Chargers have a record of 5-3. They and quarterback Philip Rivers look sharp. Not as sharp as Peyton Manning's team and Tom Brady's team, but maybe lightning will strike. TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS (NHL) Last NHL title: 1967. Up there north of the border in Ontario the situation is bordering on tragicomic, kind of like Mayor Rob Ford's. A couple of seasons ago, the Leafs made the playoffs for the first time in quite a while. A franchise that won 13 Stanley Cups ought to be able to win a 14th somehow, sometime. CHICAGO CUBS (MLB) Last World Series title: 1908. Being the butt of every joke can't be easy. "Lovable losers" are still losers, no matter how their fans feel. When you go 106 years without a championship, you are not Cinderella finally going to the ball; you are Cinderella still scrubbing the floors. But, a young star or two, a couple of up-and-comers, and who knows? Good things do happen to bad teams. Although where the Cubs are concerned, nahhh. Join us on Facebook.com/CNNOpinion.

Kansas City Royals made it to postseason for the first time since 1985, lost to Giants . Their move gives hope to other teams that have long tasted failure, says Mike Downey . L.A. Clippers, Cleveland Cavaliers, St. Louis Blues have never won titles . Chicago Cubs fans have waited 106 years for a repeat of their World Series win .

Fort Hood, Texas (CNN) -- The only question left for the jury considering the case of Army Maj. Nidal Hasan is whether he will live or die for targeting Afghanistan-bound soldiers in one of the largest mass killings of military personnel on a post on U.S. soil. Jurors deliberated less than seven hours over two days before finding Hasan guilty Friday on 13 counts of murder and 32 counts of all charges in connection with the November 5, 2009, shootings at a deployment process center. The Army psychiatrist admitted to targeting soldiers, saying previously he wanted to protect the Taliban and its leaders from the U.S. military. The court-martial moves on Monday to the penalty phase, where Hasan -- acting as his own attorney as he did during the trial -- will have the opportunity to address the jurors considering whether he should be executed for his actions. The big question is whether Hasan will take the stand in the penalty phase after declining to testify himself, cross-examine witnesses or give a closing statement. The American-born Muslim has indicated in documents leaked to the media that the death penalty would allow him to become a "martyr." For a family member of at least one of Hasan's victims, the death penalty "would be too lenient." Fort Hood victims feel betrayed . "I would much rather see him sit in prison for the rest of his life. He shouldn't be allowed to dictate what happens. He wants to motivate other terrorists," Joshua Gadlin told CNN by telephone. "...We need to stop him from being martyr" to terrorists. Gadlin's wife, former Army Pvt. Amber Bahr Gadlin dragged a wounded soldier out of the deployment processing center as Hasan targeted people in uniform with his laser-mounted weapon. He shot her in the back. Today, the outer wounds have healed. It's the unseen ones -- the emotional scars of that day -- that haven't, Gadlin said. 'Remember the day' At this sprawling 350-square mile Army post in central Texas, the case has routinely dominated the headlines of the local newspaper and television stations. For many here, there was life before the rampage, one where there was the reality that loved ones could die or be wounded while fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. Then there was life after -- after loved ones were gunned down by a fellow soldier. "You don't hear people talking about it all the time, but you think about it," said Paula Wells, who said works on the Army post in a civilian capacity. "I remember the day it happened, and it was shocking. Here the guys go to war and come back, and they get killed here. It isn't supposed to happen that way." But it did, for those who survived and the families of those who did not. Soldier on soldier attacks . In Lacey, Washington, tears rolled down Autumn Manning's face when she learned that Hasan was found guilty of shooting her husband, Staff Sgt. Shawn Manning, six times. "I've been crying all day, like most of the victims have, but it's a sense of relief. This is just the start for the victims because we have sentencing," she told CNN by telephone. Manning's husband was one of the nearly 90 witnesses who testified for the prosecution during 12 days of testimony, delivering a horrifying account of the massacre as Hasan stared at him. Manning, 37, was in the deployment processing center, texting his wife as he awaited his turn, when someone in front of him shouted "Allahu akbar" -- Arabic for "God is the greatest" -- and began firing. He described his bullet wounds, including one that pierced part of a lung. "I figured the shooter would finish me off," Manning said. The two -- Hasan and Manning -- locked eyes as the staff sergeant identified the major as the man who shot him. Manning's wife, who watched the testimony from the gallery, said there was a relief when it was over. Much had been made about whether Hasan, who was acting as his own attorney, would cross-examine the witnesses, including her husband. "I was pretty angry. I was anxious all week not knowing if he was going to cross-examine my husband or not, and not sure how my husband will deal with that," she said. "I noticed he was making eye contact with my husband, and that just infuriated me." Inside the courtroom, shortly before the verdict was delivered, the judge cautioned the spectators in the gallery against outbursts. Hasan stroked his beard as the jury -- a military panel of 13 senior officers -- filed into the courtroom. He then looked at the head of the jury -- a colonel -- who affirmed a verdict had been reached. Hasan showed no emotion as the verdict was read, a contrast to a handful of some of family members who cried or gave one another brief hugs. 'A first, small step down the path of justice' "Today's guilty verdict, rendered almost four years after the attack, is only a first, small step down the path of justice for the victims," said attorney Neal M. Sher, who represents victims and families of those killed in a compensation claim against the government for failing to stop the attack. Almost immediately after the attacks, there were widespread questions about how Hasan was evaluated, promoted and transferred to Fort Hood with plans to deploy to Afghanistan despite questions about his actions, including giving an academic presentation on the value of suicide bombings. Sher renewed the call for the government to reclassify the shootings as a "terror attack" rather than workplace violence. "Justice for the victims of Fort Hood will be done only when the government admits its mistakes, keeps its promises to 'make the victims whole' and comes clean about Fort Hood, " Sher said. " The victims, and the American people, are owed nothing less." As has been done nearly every day in the three-week court-martial, the judge asked Hasan if he had reconsidered defending himself as the case enters the penalty phase. Jurors "will decide whether you live or die," the judge, Col. Tara Osborn, told Hasan after reconvening the court Monday afternoon as part of the penalty phase preparation. "...I think it is unwise for you to represent yourself." Hasan told the judge he intended to continue representing himself in the case. 'Jihad duty to kill' On Thursday afternoon, the judge handed the case to the jury after Hasan declined to make a statement during closing arguments that followed 12 days of testimony. The prosecution urged the jury to convict, saying the evidence showed that Hasan believed he had a jihad duty to kill as many soldiers as possible. For more than 90 minutes, the prosecutor took the jury methodically through the evidence in the case, meticulously piecing together how he said Hasan prepared and planned for the attack. Prosecutors have maintained that the American-born Muslim underwent a progressive radicalization that led to the massacre at the sprawling central Texas base. "He did not want to deploy, and he came to believe he had a jihad duty to kill as many soldiers as possible," Col. Steven Henricks told the jury. Hasan picked the day -- November 5, 2009 -- because it was when the units he was scheduled to deploy with to Afghanistan were scheduled to go through the processing center, he said. Hasan rested his case without calling a single witness or taking the stand to testify on his own behalf. His decision not to offer a defense was an anticlimactic end to the trial in which prosecution witnesses, primarily survivors, painted a horrific picture of what unfolded inside a processing center during the attack. During closing arguments, prosecutors showed a graphic FBI video of the crime scene hours after the rampage, where bodies, blood and bullets still covered the floor. As the video was shown to the jury, some of the family members of those killed fought back tears. One woman laid her head on her husband's shoulder, tears streaming down her cheeks, while another woman, a wife of a victim, left the courtroom. For his part, Hasan watched the video, appearing to pay close attention . Hasan's defense . Much has been made of Hasan's defense or, as his stand-by attorneys have said, the lack of it. The judge, Osborn, declined a request by Hasan's attorneys to drop out of the case. The attorneys argued that Hasan was helping the prosecution put him to death. There may be something to that claim. Hasan took credit for the shooting rampage at the outset of the trial, telling the jury during opening statements that the evidence will show "I was the shooter." Osborn barred Hasan from pleading guilty at the start of the court-martial. Under military law, defendants cannot enter guilty pleas in capital punishment cases. The judge refused to allow Hasan to argue "defense of others," based on his claim that he carried out the shootings to protect the Afghan Taliban and its leaders from U.S. soldiers. Perhaps as a way around that ruling, Hasan in recent days has leaked documents through his civilian attorney to The New York Times and Fox News that offer a glimpse of his justification for carrying out the attack. Among the documents was a mental health evaluation conducted by a military panel to determine whether Hasan was fit to stand trial. "I'm paraplegic and could be in jail for the rest of my life. However, if I died by lethal injection, I would still be a martyr," he told the panel, according to pages of the report published by The New York Times. The judge excluded much of the evidence that the prosecution contends goes to the heart of the motive for the attack, including e-mail communications between Hasan and Anwar al-Awlaki, the U.S.-born cleric who officials say became a key member of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. He was killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2011.

The jury that convicted Nidal Hasan in the Fort Hood shootings will decide his fate . The penalty phase begins on Monday . Death penalty "would be too lenient," says the husband of one victim . Hasan has indicated the death penalty would allow him to become a "martyr"

(CNN)Night had just fallen when heavily armed Belgian commandos approached a residence on the Rue des Collines in Verviers, a sleepy town in eastern Belgium. They knew the three men inside -- all suspected to be hardened Belgian ISIS veterans who had returned from fighting in Syria -- were likely to be armed and dangerous because they had put them under 24-hour surveillance for several weeks, according to a senior Belgian counterterrorism official. Wiretaps of phone conversations and listening devices indicated the cell members -- who had been under observation for just under two months and were all from in and around the Molenbeek district of Brussels -- were in the final stages of preparing a major terrorist attack in Belgium, the official told CNN. Two suspected members of the cell had taken up lodging in the residence. Belgian security services had learned they were using the building as a safe house to store automatic weapons and chemicals to make explosives. The trigger for the arrests was the arrival at the safe house of a third ISIS veteran suspected of being the quartermaster of the plot, tasked with providing the cell logistical support and providing it with equipment and supplies. Belgian security services wanted to arrest all three together, according to the official, and simultaneously make other arrests of suspects across Belgium. They believed the cell had as many as 10 members. What happened next around 5:45 p.m. January 15 was the biggest firefight Belgian commandos have faced since World War II, captured for the world to see on a home movie shot by one of the town's residents. Toxic mix that makes Belgium fertile ground for terrorism . After the commandos broke into the safe house, the two ISIS fighters who had taken up lodging in the building grabbed Kalashnikovs, returned automatic fire and lobbed grenades, using urban warfare skills honed in Syria, according to the official. But Belgian commandos soon shot them both dead and took the suspected quartermaster of the plot into custody after he jumped out of a window. Inside, Belgian police discovered automatic weapons and chemicals necessary to make the high explosive TATP, an explosive many times more powerful than that used by the Boston bombers. They also discovered police uniforms, suggesting the plotters hoped to gain access to sensitive sites in Belgium, according to the senior Belgian counterterrorism official. A GoPro camera was also recovered, suggesting the cell might have been planning to film the attacks for propaganda. Belgian police made 13 arrests that night. Within hours, Belgian officials announced they had thwarted a major imminent terrorist attack by fighters who had returned from Syria. Belgian authorities publicly stated the cell's target was believed to be police officers and police stations. Belgian security services had listened to conversations in which the cell members discussed killing police, according to the senior Belgian counterterrorism official. But the official told CNN investigators believe the group planned a much more ambitious and spectacular attack with police just being a "bonus target." The official said that investigators do not yet know the cell's main target or targets but are hopeful they will find out. Brussels houses the headquarters of the European Union's institutions and NATO. Belgian authorities later identified the two dead gunmen as Sofiane Amghar and Khalid Ben Larbi and the alleged quartermaster of the plot as Marouane El Bali. El Bali was charged with "participation in a terrorist organization, possession of explosives with intent to commit a criminal attack and prohibited possession of weapons." The senior Belgian counterterrorism official said El Bali was "like a machine" in furnishing the cell with the supplies they needed to carry out the attack. When Belgian commandos moved in, he was still searching for an ice machine so the TATP the group was poised to make could be cooled and transported, according to the official. "TATP is very unstable and would explode otherwise," they said. El Bali's lawyer, Didier De Quévy, told CNN his client denied having anything to do with terrorism and that El Bali was in the apartment in Verviers to bring a pair of shoes to his friend. He said El Bali jumped out of the window because the apartment was on fire. The Belgian official told CNN El Bali has refused to talk to investigators. El Bali and two others charged with terrorist offenses in the plot remain in custody. A 33-year-old Algerian extradited to Belgium after being arrested in Greece was also charged with terrorism offenses in relation to the plot. The senior counterterrorism official told CNN the Algerian had connections to the cell in Belgium. The two dead gunmen and El Bali were all in communication by phone with a suspected Belgian ISIS operative named Abelhamid Abaaoud, a 27-year-old Belgian-Moroccan from Molenbeek. Belgian investigators believed he was the ringleader of the cell and the "link person" to the senior leadership of ISIS in Syria, according to the senior Belgian counterterrorism official. For security reasons, the cell members had an elaborate system to make the phone calls and used coded language. The Algerian extradited to Belgium also had links to Abaaoud according to the official. In the weeks before the plot was thwarted, Belgian counterterrorism agencies traced the calls to a cell phone in Greece that they believed was being used by Abaaoud, according to the official. Other intelligence gathering indicated Abaaoud was linked to several senior ISIS operatives in Syria. Belgian investigators believe ISIS senior leadership directed the cell to launch the attack in Belgium, according to the official. The Belgians brought in U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA, to try to locate the cell phone in Greece, but neither the Americans nor Greek police were able to locate Abaaoud, according to the official. On Thursday, ISIS claimed in a new issue of its English online language magazine Dabiq that Abaaoud had safely returned to Syria and posted several pictures of him. One picture taken at some point in 2014 in Syria featured Abaaoud standing next to what ISIS claimed were the two gunmen killed in the Verviers siege. They identified them as "Abuz-Zubayr al-Baljīkī (Khālid), and Abū Khālid al-Baljīkī (Sufyān)." The Belgian counterterrorism official confirmed to CNN the photograph did indeed feature the men killed in the raid last month: Khalid Ben Larbi and Sofiane Amghar. In a purported Q&A with Dabiq magazine, Abaaoud claimed he had traveled to Belgium with the two gunmen. Belgian investigators are skeptical of that claim and have no evidence to suggest he was able to reach Belgium. But the senior Belgian counterterrorism official said the trail for Abaaoud has gone cold, and it is possible he was able to return to Syria from Greece. "I was able to leave and come to Shām despite being chased after by so many intelligence agencies. My name and picture were all over the news yet I was able to stay in their homeland, plan operations against them, and leave safely when doing so became necessary," Abaaoud claimed in the Q&A according to ISIS. Abaaoud is believed to have joined ISIS in Syria in early 2014 after traveling from Belgium, according to Guy Van Vlierden, the editor of "emmejihad," a blog on Belgian foreign fighters. At some point, his younger 13-year-old brother joined him there becoming the youngest Belgian jihadi in Syria. According to Vlierden, Abaaoud developed ties to a Libyan ISIS brigade called Al-Battar. In Syria, Abaaoud became known by the fighting names Abou Omar al Soussi and Abu Omar al Belgiki. After joining ISIS, Abaaoud posted several videos of himself on the front lines. In one of them, he can be heard saying "it's not fun seeing blood spilled, but it gives me pleasure from time to time to see blood of the disbelievers run because we grew up watching the blood of Muslims being spilled in the whole world on TV." In March 2014, the video and photo files on one of Abaaoud's cell phones was obtained by the journalist Etienne Huver from sources in a Syrian refugee camp on the Turkish border. In a report Huver filed for the Belgian news channel RTBF, Abaaoud is seen driving a car dragging the corpses of Free Syria army fighters. In Dabiq magazine, Abaaoud acknowledged that "a brother had taken video footage of some of us before a battle, but his camera got lost and was later sold by a murtadd (a lapsed Muslim) to a Western journalist." Abaaoud's family in Belgium, after hearing nothing from Abaaoud after he traveled to Syria, received word in October he had been killed in fighting, they revealed in interviews with the Belgian media. Belgian counterterrorism officials believe he faked his own death so he could travel more easily to Europe to coordinate the plot. Western intelligence agencies believe the Belgium plot indicates ISIS is pivoting toward attacking the West, according to a senior European counterterrorism official. Intelligence suggests the group is seeking to send back European recruits to target the European countries involved in airstrikes against it, according to the official. The UK, France, Holland, Denmark and Belgium are carrying out strikes against ISIS positions in Iraq. More than 750 European extremists have returned to Europe after joining jihadist groups in Syria and Iraq, according to official estimates. The Belgian official said Belgium was facing an unprecedented terrorist threat with significant concern returning fighters from Syria or ISIS-inspired lone wolves could be plotting attacks. Last week, Sen. James Risch, a Republican from Idaho and a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that intelligence suggested ISIS was "moving beyond the aspirational" when it came to plotting attacks against Europe and the U.S. homeland.

Belgian counterterrorism official tells CNN how they thwarted an ISIS cell . January 15 was the biggest firefight Belgian commandos have faced since World War II . The trail goes from Belgium to Greece and Syria .

Female CNN analyst Dana Loesch said: 'I'd urinate on dead Taliban too' Four Marines also had support of comedian Bill Maher . By . Daily Mail Reporter . UPDATED: . 13:29 EST, 15 January 2012 . Show of support: GOP presidential hopeful Rick Perry spoke out in support of the Marines who urinated on dead Afghans . GOP presidential hopeful Rick Perry is accusing the Obama administration of 'over-the-top rhetoric' and 'disdain for the military' in its condemnation of a video that purportedly shows Marines urinating on dead bodies in Afghanistan. No one has been charged in the case, but officials in the U.S. and abroad have called for swift punishment of the four Marines. A military criminal investigation and an internal Marine Corps review are under way. The Geneva Convention forbids the desecration of the dead. Perry told CNN that he thinks the Marines involved should be reprimanded, but not pursued with criminal charges. Perry said: '18-19-year-old kids make stupid mistakes all too often and that's what's occurred here.' Although . the vast majority of people are outraged over the deplorable behaviour . of the four Marines shown . in a video circulating the internet, controversial comedian Bill Maher . and one CNN contributor have also said they support their actions. 'A dead body is just, you know a f***ing body that's dead and it just doesn't bother me,' Mr Maher said on his HBO show Real Time With Bill Maher. 'If they were real Taliban, if they were people who burned down girls' schools, and, you know, do honor rapes and throw acid in people's faces, I'm not that upset about p***ing on them,' he continued. Mr Maher's statements came after those of a conservative CNN contributor who said she would happily join the Marines. Dana Loesch made the comments on her own Missouri radio show and not on CNN. Scroll down for video . For and agasint: CNN contributor Dana Loesch (left) said that she would do the same as the soldiers, while Tim Kudo said that their behavior is unlike that of a Marine and therefore he does not consider the men Marines . She said: 'C'mon people, this is a war. 'Do I have a problem with that as a . citizen of the United States? No, I don't.' She added that she wants 'a million cool points for these guys' and would be willing to join them. 'Can someone explain to me if there is . supposed to be a scandal that someone pees on the corpse of a Taliban . fighter -- someone who as part of an organization murdered over 3,000 . Americans,' she said. 'I'd drop trou and do it too. That's me, though…Come on people this is a war.' CNN said its independent contributors often expressed their views, independent of their roles with the network. A spokesman added: 'CNN contributors . are commentators who express a wide range of viewpoints - on and off of . CNN - that often provoke strong agreement or disagreement. Their . viewpoints are their own.' Horrifying: A video posted online claims to show four Marines urinating on dead bodies . On the opposite end of the spectrum, Captain Tim Kudo, a former Marine and representative of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said that the men cannot consider themselves soldiers because of their offensive actions. ‘I don't see them as Marines,’ he said . ‘I see them as people who have set . back the war effort, put their fellow Marines in danger, and who stand . in contradiction to pretty much everything the Marine Corps stands for . and America stands for. So, it's very hard to look at them and see them . as Marines in that way,’ Mr Kudo said on CBS. ‘Every Marine was absolutely shocked . by what happened. Nobody would have expected something like this, not . just from a unit, but any Marine in general. ‘These actions are completely outside the norm, and basically a few individuals who went rogue,’ he concluded. Grinning: One of the men can be heard saying: 'Have a great day, buddy' as his colleagues laugh and another jokes: 'Golden like a shower' and 'Yeahhhh!' The four Marines in the video have been . identified and are members of the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines out of Camp . Lejeune in North Carolina. There has been nearly universal condemnation of the soldiers since the video began circulating earlier this week. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai and Senator John McCain are among the biggest names to express their anger. Florida Representative Allen West, an ex-Army lieutenant colonel, insisted the Marines were wrong but fumed: ‘As for everyone else, unless you have been shot at by the Taliban, shut your mouth, war is hell.’ ‘All these over-emotional pundits and armchair quarterbacks need to chill,’ Mr West told the Weekly Standard of their 'self-righteous indignation'. But he said the men must face a ‘maximum punishment’. A spokeswoman for the Marines said: 'While we have not yet verified the origin or authenticity of this video, the actions portrayed are not consistent with our core values and are not indicative of the character of the Marines in our Corps' In addition he suggested they all receive a reprimand letter, issue a public apology to God, the U.S. and their fellow servicemen - and then sing ‘the full US Marine Corps Hymn without a teleprompter’. The Navy's law enforcement arm is heading the main inquiry, which is expected to weigh evidence of violations of the U.S. military legal code as well as the international laws of warfare. Separately, the Marine Corps is doing its own internal investigation. Pentagon officials said the criminal investigation would likely look into whether the Marines violated laws of war. Comments: Florida Rep. Allen West, an ex-Army lieutenant colonel, insisted the Marines were wrong . These include prohibitions against photographing or mishandling bodies and detainees. It also appeared to violate the U.S. Uniform Code of Military Justice, which governs conduct. Thus, some or all of the four Marines could face a military court-martial or other disciplinary action. The psychologist's advice came as U.S. officials spoke out against the footage yesterday and scrambled to maintain damage limitation and avoid another Abu Ghraib scandal. The four were members of the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines out of Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, reported CNN. An unidentified official said that some of the four are no longer in that battalion. The 40-second clip, which has been described a 'recruitment tool for the Taliban', shows four men in combat gear standing over the three corpses with their genitals exposed as they relieve themselves. There were no further details on their identities. The men can be heard joking 'Have a great day, buddy', 'Golden like a shower' and 'Yeahhhh!' as they groan with relief whilst urinating. It is not clear if the corpses in the video belong to civilians or insurgents engaged in combat, although the film does appear to have been shot in Afghanistan. The anonymous person who posted it included the caption: 'Scout sniper team 4 with 3rd battalion 2nd marines out of camp lejeune peeing on dead talibans.' Camp Lejeune is in North Carolina and is the largest Marine Corps Base on the East Coast of the U.S., home to 40,000 marines. The 3rd Batallion 2nd Marines consists of 800 Marines and sailors and is nicknamed the 'Betio Bastards', a reference to the island of Betio in the Tawara Atoll and the site of one of the most deadly battles with the Japanese in World War II. More recently they have served in Iraq, the Haiti earthquake of 2010 and in Afghanistan. Their motto is: 'We quell the storm, and ride the thunder!' or 'Strength and Honour'. NATOThe NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan described the acts as 'highly reprehensible and disgusting'. ISAF spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jimmie Cummings said: 'The behaviour depicted in this video is reprehensible and is not in keeping with the values of U.S. Armed Forces.' Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State . She said it was 'absolutely inconsistent with the standards of behaviour that the vast majority of Marines hold themselves to.'MarinesMarines spokeswoman Kendra Hardesty said: 'While we have not yet verified the origin or authenticity of this video, the actions portrayed are not consistent with our core values and are not indicative of the character of the Marines in our Corps. 'This matter will be fully investigated and those responsible will be held accountable for their actions.'PentagonThe government body's spokesman Navy Captain John Kirby said the video was deeply troubling: 'Whoever it is, and whatever the circumstances, which we know is under investigation, it is egregious behaviour.' Leon Panetta, Secretary of Defense'Those found to have engaged in such conduct will be held accountable to the fullest extent,' Mr Panetta said. He told the commander of western troops in Afghanistan to launch an investigation.Hamid Karzai, President of AfghanistanAfghan president Hamid Karzai said in a statement: 'The government of Afghanistan is deeply disturbed by a video that shows American soldiers desecrating the dead bodies of three Afghans. This act by American soldiers is simply inhumane and condemnable in the strongest possible terms. The Council on Islamic-American Relations, civil rights group . The prominent Muslim civil rights and advocacy group based in . Washington, wrote a letter to Defence Secretary Leon Panetta condemning . the video.

Female CNN analyst Dana Loesch said: 'I'd urinate on dead Taliban too' Four Marines also had support of comedian Bill Maher . Senseless clip emerged after an anonymous online post on Wednesday .

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama on Wednesday proposed background checks on all gun sales and bans on military style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines as part of a package of steps to reduce gun violence in the wake of the Newtown school massacre last month. With relatives of some of the 20 children killed in the Connecticut rampage looking on, Obama signed 23 executive actions -- which don't require congressional approval -- to strengthen existing gun laws and take related steps on mental health and school safety. He also called on Congress to reinstate an assault weapons ban that expired in 2004, to restrict ammunition magazines to no more than 10 rounds, and to expand background checks to anyone buying a gun, whether at a store or in a private sale at an auction or convention. Senate Democrats hold key to passage of gun legislation . Referring to the young students killed in the Newtown shootings on December 14 and other victims of gun violence, Obama said the nation must do a better job of protecting its children, especially when they are in schools, shopping malls, movie theaters and other public places. While some of the steps he proposed are given little chance of winning congressional approval in the face of the nation's powerful gun lobby, Obama said all efforts must be made to reduce chronic gun violence in the country. "This is our first task as a society -- keeping our children safe," the president said, adding that saving even one life would make the changes he seeks worth the effort. Read Obama's proposals . Republicans immediately rejected the Obama proposals as an attack on the constitutional right to bear arms. "Nothing the president is proposing would have stopped the massacre at Sandy Hook," said a statement by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, considered an up-and-coming GOP leader. "President Obama is targeting the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens instead of seriously addressing the real underlying causes of such violence." The powerful National Rifle Association said it would work with Congress to find what it called "real solutions to protecting America's most valuable asset -- our children." "Attacking firearms and ignoring children is not a solution to the crisis we face as a nation," the NRA said in a statement. "Only honest, law-abiding gun owners will be affected and our children will remain vulnerable to the inevitability of more tragedy." Obama-backed gun bills considered a long shot in Congress . Gun rights at center of debate . NRA President David Keene said the "Second Amendment is going to survive" Obama's efforts on gun control. "What we want to see is what they really have in mind. They've got bullet points. There's going to be a lot more to it than that," Keene said on CNN's "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer." Obama called accusations that he seeks to violate gun rights untrue, saying opponents want to wage a campaign of intimidation and fear instead of working with him for needed changes. "We can respect the Second Amendment while keeping an irresponsible law-breaking few from inflicting harm on a massive scale," he said. Gun control support rises but divide remains over what to do . Gun control supporters, including relatives of shooting victims, lauded Obama's proposals as a good first step to reduce gun violence and urged legislators to take on the difficult issue instead of reverting to partisan postures. "When you are disheartened by the number of steps that have to be taken, by the fears of gun advocates, by the politics, please dig deep and find new heart," urged Emily Nottingham, the mother of Gabe Zimmerman, the legislative staffer killed in the 2010 Tuscon shooting that disabled Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona. "Think for a moment about your young staffers, your children or grandchildren," Nottingham continued. "Now imagine that that cell phone in your pocket is vibrating and the message says they have been murdered by a stranger with an assault weapon. Imagine that, then shore up your resolve and keep working to protect your staffers, our children, our nation. We need you to not give up." However, Jerry Henry of the Georgiacarry.org website, which opposes tighter gun controls, told CNN that the Obama proposals were misdirected. "He did absolutely nothing to address the criminal element," said Henry, who argued that studies show criminals get guns on the street instead of buying them from licensed gun shops that conduct background checks. Fully enforcing existing gun laws and making criminals serve their full prison terms would do more to halt gun violence, according to Henry, who added that government "cannot legislate evil out of the minds of men." Polls capture public sentiment . Vice President Joe Biden led a panel assembled by Obama to examine gun control steps after the Newtown shootings, which sparked a fierce public debate over how to prevent such mass killings. Biden's recommendations formed the basis of the package of proposals Obama announced Wednesday. "The world has changed, and it's demanding action," Biden said at the White House event. Opponents promise a political fight, with an NRA spokesman saying Tuesday that the group has experienced what he called an "unprecedented" spike in membership numbers since new calls for gun control began in the past month. Approximately 250,000 people have joined the organization's existing 4.25 million members, according to NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam. In addition, the NRA is receiving an influx of financial contributions, he said, adding: "This is going to be a very expensive and hard-fought fight." A CNN/Time Magazine/ORC International poll Wednesday indicated that Americans generally favor stricter gun control, but they don't believe that stricter gun laws alone would reduce gun violence. According to the survey, 55% of Americans generally favor stricter gun control laws, with 56% saying that it's currently too easy to buy guns in this country. However, only 39% say that stricter gun controls would reduce gun violence all by themselves. Obama called for citizens to let their elected representatives know what they think, saying: "The only way we can change is if the American people demand it." NRA draws heat over its new shooting game . He proposed legislative steps he previously has backed, such as reinstating the Clinton-era ban on assault weapons, and also requested that funds be made available to help treat mental illness and provide schools with support to enhance their safety. His executive actions signed Wednesday called for tougher enforcement of existing laws and required federal agencies to provide data for background checks. A senior administration official told reporters the price tag for the entire package was $500 million. Obama also said he would nominate B. Todd Jones, the acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, to become its permanent chief. The agency has been without a full-time director for six years. A main focus of Obama's steps was closing loopholes in background checks. While requiring universal background checks would require congressional approval, some of the executive actions signed by Obama were intended to bolster the existing system. Across the country, more than a million people failed background checks to buy guns during the past 14 years because of criminal records, drug use or mental health issues, according to FBI figures. That figure, however, is a small fraction of overall gun sales. Opinion: America's gun problem is not a race problem . "If you look at the combination of likelihood of passage and effectiveness of curbing gun crime, universal background checks is at the sweet spot," said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-New York, a leading backer of such screening. Obama also called for more money to strengthen gun safety at schools, including hiring more counselors such as retired law enforcement officers to help educate students on gun issues. He also called for more funding for communities to hire more police officers, but stopped short of seeking the NRA's proposal for armed guards at every school. The CNN/Time/ORC poll Wednesday showed that respondents favored armed guards in schools by 54%-45%. Congressional hearings planned . Legislators said working with Congress will be paramount in curbing gun violence. California Rep. Mike Thompson told CNN on Tuesday that a ban on high-capacity magazines could garner Republican support, but a full-scale assault weapon ban would be hard to get passed in the GOP-controlled House. House and Senate committees said they would start holding hearings on gun control measures in coming weeks. Oregon sheriff: 'Unconstitutional' gun control laws won't be enforced . In New York, Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday signed into law a series of new gun regulations -- the nation's first since the Newtown shootings. Both New York's GOP-controlled Senate and Democrat-controlled Assembly approved the measure by overwhelming margins. It includes a statewide gun registry and adds a uniform licensing standard across the state, altering the current system, in which each county or municipality sets a standard. Residents are also restricted to purchasing ammunition magazines that carry seven bullets, rather than 10. Keene derided outlawing high-capacity magazines as "a bidding match" that focuses on the wrong issue. "So the president says you don't need 30-round magazines. How about a 10-round magazine? Andrew Cuomo says, 'Well, I can do better than that. I'll make it a seven-round magazine,'" Keene said. "The fact of the matter is the kinds of people who do this, particularly the mentally unbalanced -- who are the most likely people to do it -- shouldn't have any magazines," he said. "The changes in New York are largely cosmetic," said CNN legal analyst Paul Callan, who described state's existing regulations as "the toughest gun laws in the United States." Lawmakers in at least 10 other states are reviewing some form of new gun regulations in the new year. Mexico watching with interest . CNN's Carol Cratty, Jim Acosta, Paul Steinhauser, David Ariosto and Kevin Liptak contributed to this report, and Mark Morgenstein updated from Atlanta.

NEW: NRA president says "Second Amendment is going to survive" gun control efforts . A new CNN/Time/ORC poll shows majority support for stricter gun controls . The president signs 23 executive actions that don't need congressional approval . President Obama calls for background checks on all gun sales .

(CNN) -- Barclays CEO Bob Diamond and COO Jerry del Missier have resigned in the wake of the interest rate-fixing scandal that has rocked the bank. The resignations come less than a week after Barclays, one of the world's largest banks, was fined $450 million by British and U.S. regulators after admitting it purposely under-reported its interest rates as part of LIBOR (London interbank Offered Rate) -- an interest rate floor between big banks that is set in London each trading morning. CNN interviewed analyst Ralph Silva, a former investment banker with more than 20 years experience in the financial services sector, about Diamond's resignation and what it means for the future of banking culture. What does Diamond's resignation mean? Bob Diamond's resignation sets a precedent -- we have to realize that Barclays was the first of 15 banks that are under investigation for LIBOR manipulation. Let's say that even half of those banks come to the same conclusion and are fined by the regulators. Does this mean we're going to lose seven or eight of the most powerful bank CEOs in the world? If that's the case then this signals a complete and radical cultural change within the financial services industry, and the whole industry will change because of this. And that's why Barclays were so important to get this right. This was an unforgivable situation for one simple reason: this affects the public. When banks beat up on each other, who cares? When banks beat up on professional investors -- high net worth individuals, people who should know better -- who cares? But when you start messing with grandmothers' pensions, everyone cares, and that's why this is a game-changer. Explain how this scandal has affected the public? The LIBOR rates for different currencies are directly connected to 99% of all (commercial) banking products -- mortgages, credit cards, and payouts for things like pensions are all based on LIBOR rates. So if banks are manipulating LIBOR rates, what they're basically doing is taking money out of the public's pocket, because their mortgage rates change, because their interest rates change, their loans/credit cards change -- or their pension income changes. Various LIBOR rates are determined each day for different currencies (dollar, yen, euro) around the world, and these rates are the benchmark by which commercial banking operations around the world are conducted each day in those respective currencies. What side of the bank was most interested in LIBOR? This would be the investment bank, because they make money on LIBOR day in and day out. As head of the Barclays investment wing when LIBOR was being manipulated, isn't it hard to believe Bob Diamond didn't know it was going on? Actually it is believable, because it's about 15 people globally who handle LIBOR -- 15 people who pick up the phone and talk to their colleagues and say: "Let's make LIBOR this today," so he wouldn't know about these conversations, so we don't blame him or think what he did was criminal -- what we think was that he should've had more oversight at the bank. How will this actually be a culture change? Won't it be a slap on the wrist? The new management coming in is going to have to say "we have to look at every part of the bank that affects the public, and we have to have so many checks and balances that absolutely nothing can happen." Up to this point, if you're a banker and you screw the public, whatever -- the assumption was that the net benefit to the economy of your bank was greater than one or two individuals (in the public). What we're saying now is "no, if you screw one person, you're out of here -- you screw another bank, a professional investor, go ahead -- but if you screw a grandmother (out of money), you're out." The next Barclays boss will be from the same banking culture as Bob Diamond. What will be different? The change is very simple -- now they know they can get fired for those things. Before they thought they were untouchable. The problem with culture is the degrees of separation -- these guys know the price of a bottle of Dom Perignon, but you ask them the price of a pint of milk and they have absolutely no clue. The new management will come on and say, "I have to know the price of a pint of milk, I have to know what people pay on a mortgage, and I have to make sure that whatever I do at this bank isn't going to affect that." And that's a great change. It's something we need. What qualities will a bank boss in this "new culture" need? The next boss needs to be a general. Before a boss would only worry about money -- as long as at the end of the year the bottom line says you were profitable -- that's not enough anymore. You have to profitable, but you have to be moral as well. More morality in banking is exactly what we're talking about -- the culture has to be moral, what happened here isn't about money, it's a morality issue. Where has this push for "moral" banking come from? Banks are no longer on a pedestal. All of a sudden banks and grocery stores are at the same level -- we wouldn't accept a supermarket selling us spoiled bananas. Historically, whatever the banks said we would do, but now we won't accept that anymore. People are saying, 'hold on, you're a business like any other business, you make money off our backs, so do what I tell you to do.' I remember the days when banks opened at 10:00 a.m. and closed at 3:00 p.m. with an hour for lunch. So you had to change your entire life to deal with the banks. Those days are over. The change is that the public understands what banks are doing and all of a sudden we say there are alternatives -- I can put my money into Tesco, Tesco has a bank. Other supermarkets have banks. I can get a credit card at Starbucks. So all of a sudden the banks are realizing they need to start doing the right thing. How big is the LIBOR scandal going to get? This is a potential scandal for the 15 biggest banks in the world, because they're the only ones who play with LIBOR rates -- these are huge organizations, which also poses some risk. These are enormous organizations employing millions of people. The biggest problem with the Bob Diamond thing is people may believe that all bankers are evil. Fifteen guys cause LIBOR rates, and if the police have their say they're going to be in prison. But a million other people working for a bank get up and do an honest day's work for an honest living, they send their kids to school, they're honest people. We shouldn't paint everyone with the same brush. How many people determine LIBOR? Is the system going to change because of this scandal? It usually ends up being one person at each bank who determines LIBOR for the day. A bank determines what they want LIBOR to be for the day, and the LIBOR person calls up his equivalent and the other banks and they negotiate what the rate will be for that day. That number then pops up on every computer around that bank, and that's the rate. The system absolutely has to change -- we've been talking about changing the system for some time, but we just believe that in a period of such change because of the economic crisis, we should wait until everything settles down and then change it. If the Lehman Brothers-style bankruptcies that wrecked the global economy didn't bring real change, why will this scandal? The difference is that all of Lehman Brothers' customers were all filthy rich. Their customers were governments, municipalities, professionals in the financial services industries -- they knew what they were doing, there were risks that they all understood. But (Barclays) is retail banking: this is human-being-to-human-being, people who aren't expected to know anything about financial services, they're expected to be able to trust the banks. That's what makes this different. In fact, we give these banks a license on the agreement that they never put ordinary customers at risk, and that's what they did here. So Bob Diamond resigning is the start of a new era of commercial banking? It is, and the banks don't like to move fast, but the governments are going to insist on a culture change. Let's see how things go with the other banks (that may be implicated in LIBOR rate-manipulation) -- if I were any of the other banks, I'd want to stay real quiet now. I'd want to keep this thing in the courts for 10 years until everybody forgets about it. Any early favorites for the next Barclays CEO? Would you want that job? That's the problem -- I think anyone who probably should fit into that job is smart enough not to want it. Why would you do that? If you want to be in a bank right now, you want to be Number Two. You get just as much money as the top guy, but you're not in the press all the time -- so the next time a head has to roll, it's someone else's head. But this culture change won't transform the investment bank-related issues that brought down the global financial system in 2008, will it? That's fair, but we've been working on a solution to that problem for a few years now. So we're well under way to fixing that problem. If you look at the difference (since 2008), the banks are far better capitalized now, and they have all been moving in the right -- or "protect the banks" -- direction. What banks have not been doing is moving in the "protect the customer" direction, and this is going to be make them move that way now. CNN Wires contributed to this report.

Barclays CEO Bob Diamond resigns in wake of LIBOR rate-fixing scandal at bank . Silva: LIBOR rate fixing unforgivable because it affects public, not rich investors . Silva: Top bankers will now have to be more in touch with concerns of the public .

(CNN) -- More than 20,000 confidential Boy Scout documents will be released Thursday identifying more than 1,000 leaders and volunteers banned from the group after being accused of sexual or inappropriate conduct with boys. The public release of the Scouts' 1,247 "ineligible volunteer files" from 1965 to 1985 will not contain the identities of the boy victims and witnesses. The national files are being distributed with the approval of the Oregon Supreme Court by a law firm that won an $18.5 million judgment in 2010 against the Boy Scouts in a case where a Scoutmaster sexually abused a boy. Wayne Perry, president of Boy Scouts of America, said the group is deeply committed to youth protection, but he acknowledged that in some cases, the organization's response to allegations of abuse by volunteers "were plainly insufficient, inappropriate or wrong." "Where those involved in Scouting failed to protect, or worse, inflicted harm on children, we extend our deepest and sincere apologies to victims and their families," Perry said in a statement issued Wednesday evening. "While it is difficult to understand or explain individuals' actions from many decades ago, today Scouting is a leader among youth-serving organizations in preventing child abuse." Police: Couple hosted strip club, abused kids . The Boy Scouts opposed the release of the internal records and said their confidentiality has encouraged prompt reporting of questionable behavior and privacy for victimized boys and their families. "While we respect the court, we are still concerned that the release of two decades' worth of confidential files into public view, even with the redactions indicated, may still negatively impact victims' privacy and have a chilling effect on the reporting of abuse," the organization said. The Scouts also released a September report from a University of Virginia psychiatry professor, Janet Warren, who concluded that the system "has functioned well in keeping many unfit adults out of Scouting." But the attorneys representing victims in several lawsuits against the Scouts say the group hid evidence from the public and police and that the so-called "perversion files" offer insight into what they deem a serious problem in the organization. The secrecy protected more than 1,000 suspected child molesters, said the attorneys, who will publicly release the documents during a news conference in a downtown Portland hotel. The attorneys are also seeking the release of post-1985 files from the Boy Scouts. Victim to Sandusky: 'Because of you, I trust no one' The files will show that the expelled Scout leaders and volunteers -- all men -- "are sociopathic geniuses," said attorney Kelly Clark of Portland, who has reviewed the 20,000 pages and is among the attorneys releasing the papers Thursday. "They fool everybody," he said. "And then they are able to coerce, convince or threaten these kids to stay silent. And you see that play out over and over again in the files." Clark said he represents more than 100 men who as children were in the Boy Scouts, and he estimates that more than 50% of his clients have drug or alcohol problems. At least three of them have committed suicide, he said. Tim Kosnoff, an attorney in Seattle, said the abuse allegedly inflicted on the men as boys "has a corrosive effect" in which trust, relationship and sexuality issues develop with adulthood. One former Boy Scout represented by Kosnoff, Keith Early, joined the group at 12, recruited by an assistant Scoutmaster who was a married firefighter with three children and led Scout meetings in a church in Washington state. Early, now 18, was sexually abused by the Scout leader while helping build a Boy Scout camp on his 42-acre ranch, he said in an interview with CNN. The assistant Scoutmaster was convicted of abusing Early and another boy and is now serving a prison sentence of 10 years to life. "I felt like I was all alone," Early said. "Just thinking about it makes me angry ... because how could you do that to somebody? How could you bring yourself to do that to somebody who is so innocent and has done nothing wrong?" Ex-Peace Corps volunteer gets 15 years for abuse . The number of files started each year ranged from 25 to 75 at a time when about 5 million Scouts and volunteers were active, according to Warren's report. In most cases, "police, courts and public were aware of the information in the files," and 58% "included information known to the public." There were "a small number of files where an alleged offender was allowed back into Scouting after offending," often after psychiatric treatment, "those cases were extraordinarily rare," wrote Warren, who was an expert witness for the Boy Scouts during the court case. Tim Hale, a Santa Barbara, California, attorney who's representing allegedly abused Scouts who are now adults, said the released documents could provide information about possible pedophiles. "We're talking about hundreds, if not thousands, of unidentified men who should be registered sex offenders who are roaming free in society, free to volunteer with other youth organizations, to work at schools and that sort of thing," Hale said. The Boy Scouts disputes that characterization of their files. In a September 20 statement released by the Boy Scouts, Warren rebutted the characterization that the documents were "secret files of hidden abuse" by pedophiles. "The files show a significant amount of public knowledge of the offenders and their unlawful acts. For example, over 60% of the files being made available to the public include some kind of public information. These public domain sources included newspaper articles, police reports, criminal justice records, and records of civil litigation. The majority of men in the files were arrested at some point in their lives for a sex crime," Warren wrote. Scouts study says kids safer with them than at home . The files are also "very limited in their ability to answer important research questions about sexual abuse," she said. "While some have attempted to categorize these files as a 'treasure trove' of information about pedophiles and their actions, that simply is not the case," Warren said. "These files tell us precisely what researchers already knew, and have known for many years: some small number of men will use a position of trust and access to young people to pursue illegal sexual gratification. This is a sad reality that has been with us throughout human history." The Boy Scouts say they have improved their youth protection policies the past decade and have initiated such practices as third-party, computerized background checks on all new adult volunteers. Also, at least two adults are present at all scouting activities, the group said. The Scouts, founded by congressional charter in 1910, instituted character reference checks for Scoutmasters in 1911 and, by the 1920s, began using an ineligible volunteers list deemed not having "the moral, emotional or character values for membership," the group said. Opinion: What Scout abuse scandal teaches us . In June, the Oregon Supreme Court upheld a lower-court decision to release the documents as requested by media outlets. "The court had discretion to order, on good cause shown, the release of those documents subject to the redaction of names set out in the exhibits to protect victims of child sexual abuse and reporters of child sexual abuse from embarrassment, retaliation or other harm," the state Supreme Court said in its order. "The court in this case properly exercised that authority." The media companies seeking the release of the files were the Associated Press, The Oregonian newspaper in Portland, Oregon Public Broadcasting, KGW (a CNN affiliate), The New York Times and Courthouse News Service. Those media outlets intervened in a 2010 lawsuit in Oregon that resulted in the largest judgment against the Scouts in a molestation case. That year, an Oregon jury found the Boy Scouts liable for the sexual abuse of a 12-year-old boy more than 25 years earlier, returning a verdict of $18.5 million in punitive damages. Catholic bishop convicted of shielding abuser . The plaintiff, Kerry Lewis, then 38, allowed his name to be used publicly during the trial, according to his attorneys. He was among six men suing the Boy Scouts over allegations of sexual abuse. Lewis' attorney, Clark, produced documents during the six-week trial that he said were part of an archive of previously secret Boy Scout files chronicling decades of abuse of boys. Clark said that when his clients were boys during the 1980s, the Boy Scouts knew that at least one of them had been abused by a former assistant Scoutmaster. At the time of the 2010 trial, that former assistant Scoutmaster was a 53-year-old convicted sex offender released from prison in 2005 and paroled until 2013. Clark also alleged that though the Scout leader was removed, he was allowed to stay on as a volunteer and the abuse continued. In 1983, the assistant Scoutmaster told troop leaders he abused 17 Scouts, according to plaintiff's attorneys. In its verdict, the jury held the Boy Scouts of America 60% negligent; the Cascade Pacific Council, which oversees Scouting activities in the region, 15% negligent; and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 25% negligent. The church has sponsored a number of Boy Scout troops, including the one to which the plaintiff belonged. A lawyer representing the church said then that the verdict had no impact on the church, because it settled the case out of court more than a year earlier. Sandusky sentenced to 30 to 60 years . Late BBC presenter accused of abuse . CNN's Chuck Conder contributed to this report.

NEW: Boy Scouts president offers "deepest and sincere apologies" for victims . NEW: Most files contained public information such as police reports, professor says . Attorneys representing victims will release 1,247 Boy Scouts files on "ineligible volunteers" The files will show the names of Scoutmasters banned from the group for "perversion"

(CNN) -- "Cruising" -- the word conjures up images of overflowing buffets, arm-wrestling at the soft serve machine and death by deck quoits. But there's another side to this kind of travel that spits in the eye of the stereotypical deckchair-hogging cocktail sipper -- and that's adventure and expedition cruising. It's almost deceptive to call it "cruising." It's truly "adventure by ship" where the often exotic destination is as much part of the attraction as the way you get there. These floating adventures take the form of anything from five-star Champagne explorations to ambling along in a tramp steamer. 10. Island safari, Hawaii, United States . Extreme rating: 6/10 . No, not the land of nodding Elvis Presley dolls and plastic grass skirts. Over at Big Island, adventurous vacationers can get aboard the Safari Explorer with just 36 others and, in between kayaking, hiking among volcanoes and dolphin spotting, engage in a mesmerizing ballet with manta rays. The cruise visits islands such as Moloka'i, a kind of frangipani fortress housing the true Hawaiian "aloha" spirit, and Lana'i, where you can hunt and shoot and go horseriding. Un-Cruise Adventures, +1 888 862 8881, from $700 per person per night. More: Best places to see the Northern Lights . 9. Across the Northwest Passage, North America . Extreme rating: 6/10 . Until only a few years ago, the fabled Northwest Passage was just a theoretical shipping route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans across the top of Canada. For centuries, people died trying to get through and some of them are still there, buried in permafrost graves. Now, with changing climates, the passage can be completed with more confidence and your bragging rights enhanced without fear of death. While you're there, you can visit the Inuit communities who've lived on the ice for centuries. OneOcean Expeditions, from $600 per person per night. 8. Through ancient Kimberley, Australia . Extreme rating: 7/10 . The 16th-century Dutch explorers wouldn't have a bar of it. Australia's northwest is so inhospitable, it's even a challenge for the local Njikena and Punaba people who've lived there for thousands of years. But this remote and harshly beautiful part of Australia is the country's adventure cruise hotspot. Its season is from April through to September, when the torrential rains have eased and water cascades off the plateau. Infested with crocodiles and spotted with possibly the world's oldest rock art, the Kimberley is in danger due to unchecked oil and gas exploration -- you should go before it's spoiled. North Star Cruises Australia, from $1,000 per person per night. More: 8 of the world's cutest, coziest, wintriest scenes . 7. Pacaya Samiria National Reserve, the Amazon . Extreme rating: 7/10 . Sure, it's the world's largest river by volume but it's also a major sea lane. You reach the departure point for the Amazon's best cruising by flying to the city of Iquitos, Peru, and then making for the Pacaya Samiria National Reserve where the evocatively named Yanayacu (blackwater) and Ucayali (canoe breaker) rivers feed into the main body. Wildlife in the reserve include piranha, sloths, rare pink dolphins and lots of noisy monkeys. You can commune with the indigenous Ribereňos families who live along the banks before retiring to a luxury 24-passenger vessel to fry your piranha. Aqua Expeditions, from $700 per person per night. 6. 'Jungle Book' tour, India . Extreme Rating: 7/10 . The Brahmaputra River begins in the glaciers of Tibet before winding through India and emptying, 2,900 kilometers later, into the Bay of Bengal. While the cruise aboard the delightfully anachronistic 24-person Charaidew trundles along from Guwahati to Tezpur, you can sip local tea and enjoy mild Assamese curries onboard. A visit to the UNESCO-listed Kaziranga National Park, for elephant, rhino and (maybe) tiger spotting, is one of the diversions en route. Assam Bengal Navigation, from $400 per person per night. More: World's 12 best shopping cities . 5. Into wild West Africa . Extreme Rating: 8/10 . The once war-torn republics that form a patchwork across Africa are opening up to seaborne tourists. Countries such as Angola, Sierra Leone and Congo are starting to recover from their devastating conflicts, allowing visitors to explore the former slave ports, wildlife sanctuaries and voodoo markets. Ramshackle villages along the coastal cruise route provide plenty of opportunities for eating, drinking, singing and dancing. Now may be the time to go: Increasing piracy in the Gulf of Guinea is making marine insurers nervous. G Adventures, from $600 per person per night. 4. Following Scott, Amundsen et al, Antarctica . Extreme rating: 8.5/10 . When your neighbors come home from their heroic Antarctic cruise, chances are they've been on a doddle across to the continent's Peninsula. You can trump them by following in the wake of real explorers such as Scott, Amundsen and Mawson. Sail to the Ross Sea or Commonwealth Bay, where these blokes walked out into the white, and you'll find the huts they left behind, still crammed in some cases with frozen 100-year-old kit. Landing at Mawsons Hut can be tricky, though. If massive icebergs the size of small republics don't block your passage, the famed katabatic winds that blow up to 200mph threaten to push you back to Tasmania. Heritage Expeditions, from $600 per person per night. More: World's 12 worst tourist traps . 3. Island hopping in the Pacific . Extreme Rating: 8.5/10 . The ship looks like a prop from "Gilligan's Island," but the little 12-person Braveheart sets sail from Papeete for some of the most remote, uninhabited islands in the Pacific Ocean. Pelagic specks with names such as Vostok, Starbuck, Jarvis, Washington and Palmyra Islands are the objective for no other apparent reason than they exist. Finishing up in Western Samoa after 29 days, your objective is to have landed on 10 of these remote islands -- the company even offers a pro-rata refund if you don't. Wild Earth Travel, from $1,200 per person per night. 2. Ice-breaking to the North Pole . Extreme rating: 9.5/10 . It doesn't get much more extreme than this (although see below). Just 100 years ago voyagers to the North Pole received equivalent celebrity to the moon explorers Neil Armstrong and team in the 1960s. You could still choose to haul your sled over the treacherous crevasses, hummocks and sastrugi (ice obstacles) or instead get aboard the world's most powerful icebreaker, the Russian nuclear 50 лет Победы (50 Years of Victory). There's not a lot to see en route as 340MW turbines push 25,000 tons of steel through the icepack up to three meters thick on the way to 90 deg N. Leaving Murmansk, in Russia, you're back within two weeks. Quark Expeditions, from $2,000 per person per night. 1. Down to the Titanic wreck, Atlantic Ocean . Extreme Rating: 10/10 . If crazy Clive Palmer's vision comes to life, you'll be able to sail on a replica Titanic in 2016. But for a glimpse of life (and death) aboard the original 1912 vessel, you can get aboard a specialized submersible for an eight-hour joy ride down to the ship, 12,500 feet below the surface of the North Atlantic. Trips are intermittent depending on demand and various legal wrangles, but if the Titanic is off the menu, tours are also available to Bismarck (15,000 feet) or the Mid-Atlantic Hydrothermal Vents at a trifling 10,000 feet. Deep sea adventures are starting to compete with space travel as an extreme trip, with the likes of Sir Richard Branson considering ventures in this space too. Adventure Associates, from $5,000 per person per night (dive time approx eight hours) More: Thrill seeker's bucket list: 50 experiences to try before you die . For the best part of the last two decades, Roderick Eime has been scouring the farthest, coldest, windiest, driest, wettest and least visited parts of the planet while reporting for newspapers and magazines. Strange for a chap who's not so keen on discomfort. When not shivering, sweating or drying himself off, he is the editor of the Adventure Cruise Guide.

Cruising isn't all about sipping cocktails while floating serenely across the ocean . Aqua Expeditions allow passengers to commune with a local Amazon family before frying piranha on ship . Adventure Associates offer the most extreme adventure cruise experience .

(CNN) -- There's nothing like a beautiful winter scene to get you in the mood for Christmas, and the following sights are some of the most spectacular. Neuschwanstein Castle, Bavaria, Germany . If this beautiful castle looks familiar, don't be surprised, because Neuschwanstein inspired Disney Land's Sleeping Beauty castle. It's perched on a rocky outcrop high above the Bavarian village of Hohenschwangau and more than 60 million people have visited since it was opened to the public in 1886. King Ludvig used his personal fortune to build the castle to avoid spending public funds, and for two decades the construction site was the area's principle employer. "Surrounded by the majestic Alps and pristine Bavarian Forests, King Ludwig II's enchanting Neuschwanstein is the world's most picturesque castle, mesmerizing onlookers' minds and transporting them into a fairy tale dreamland," says photographer Sheri Vitullo, founder of sherivitullophotography.com. "It is, in the words of Ludwig II, 'a true blessing to the world.'" How to get there: The castle is a short walk from the center of Hohenschwangau village, which is 75 miles from Munich. More: 15 of the best European castle hotels . Diana's Baths, North Conway, New Hampshire, United States . Diana's Baths are a series of small waterfalls on the edge of Bartlett, a town in New Hampshire. This historic site is protected by the U.S. Forest Service and is located within the White Mountain National Forest. The pools are fed by Lucy Brook, which was named after the Lucy family who operated a sawmill next to the stream in 1892. "What I find so enchanting about Diana's Baths is the multi-layered nature of the cascading falls," explains photographer Shawn Brace. "Between the ledges, pools, and rock formations there's endless beauty for the curious mind and hungry eye." How to get there: Diana's Baths are located on the outskirts of the village of Barlett, 14 miles from the town of North Conway in New Hampshire. More: 10 things the U.S. does better than anywhere else . Jigokudani Yaen-koen, Japan . Jigokudani Yaen-koen has it all -- steaming hot springs, beautiful snow-covered landscapes and impossibly cute (and snow-covered) monkeys. The Joshinetsu-Kogen National Park is buried in snow for a third of the year, and although the clouds of steam rising from the springs, combined with the dramatic, steep cliffs, have led locals to nickname this area "hell valley," the Japanese macaques (known as snow monkeys) certainly love it here. "Winter time is when Jigokudani Yaen-koen becomes really special," says photographer Jasper Doest, founder of jasperdoest.com. "When the outside temperatures drop below freezing and thick layers of snow cover the mountains the hot springs attract many macaques who come here to enjoy an "onsen" in this surreal world of fog and snow." How to get there: The park lies to the north of the city of Nagano, which is a 90-minute train journey from Tokyo. More: Gratuitous photos of monkeys in hot springs . Aiguille du Midi, French Alps, France . Aiguille du Midi translates as "needle of noon." The mountain gets its name from its tapered shape but also from the fact that if you view it from Chamonix, it's approximately noon when the sun passes over the summit. For the best views, take the Téléphérique de l'Aiguille du Midi to the summit. This cable car was the world's highest when it was built in 1955. You'll ascend 9,186 feet (2,800 meters) in 20 minutes and from the top the views over the Swiss, French and Italian alps are incredible. On a clear day, it's possible to see the Matterhorn on the border between Switzerland and Italy. "The Aiguille du Midi is an amazing place," says photographer Colin Woods, founder of colinwoodsphotography.co.uk. "The real beauty of it is the fact that it is one of the few places where the non-climber can get an idea of the high altitude world that is normally only accessible to the alpinist. "At 12,476 feet above sea level, it's an airy summit on which the visitor is perched between two worlds. On one side, far below, is the comfortable world of Chamonix town. On the other is the beautiful but hostile world of eternal ice, of glaring sun and blinding wind driven snow, giant glaciers and granite spires." How to get there: Take the Aiguille du Midi cable car from the resort of Chamonix, which is 49 miles from the city of Geneva. More: Europe's best budget ski resorts . Tallinn, Estonia . With its narrow streets, medieval buildings and quaint Christmas markets, the city of Tallinn resembles a scene from a Christmas card. The Christmas market in the Town Hall Square is one of Europe's prettiest, and the city's old town area -- a UNESCO World Heritage Site often referred to as the "medieval pearl of Europe," is also worth checking out. The narrow streets are lined with old warehouses, churches and barns, many of which date back to the 11th century. "There is something about the light in Tallinn, says photographer Paul Adams, founder of padams.co.uk. "It's amazing, almost Mediterranean but not -- I can't quite put my finger on it. The blue skies in winter are such a deep blue -- nothing like you get in the UK." How to get there: Tallinn's Lennart Meri Tallinn Airport is well connected to most European cities, although visitors flying from the U.S. or Asia should expect a stopover in Moscow. More: 8 top Christmas markets in Europe . Northern Lights, northern Norway . NASA experts believe the current period of solar activity will reach its peak in December, making this month the best time to spot the Northern Lights. The lights can be seen from Alaska, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Canada, Russia and Scotland, but visitors who head to northern Norway stand the most chance of spotting them, thanks largely to the lack of light pollution and dry weather. The northern lights belt first hits the Lofoten Islands and follows the coast all the way up to the North Cape. "In a nutshell, I think that the Auroras are spectacular not just because of the fact that they are one of our planets' most amazing and awe-inspiring natural phenomena, but also because of the fact that they are ever changing," says Andy Keen from aurorahunters.org. "No one aurora is the the same as another, which makes them completely unique. Viewing the Northern Lights is somewhat like looking through a kaleidoscope -- they're captivating, mesmerizing and free-spirited." How to get there: The northern lights can be viewed from several countries, but this year, visitors to Reykjavik in Iceland, Kiruna in Sweden and Tromso in Norway stand the best chance of spotting them. Read more: Spotlight on best Northern Light spots . Yorkshire Dales, England . In winter, the remote Yorkshire Dales in northern England transform into a bleak yet somehow welcoming swathe of hills and fields, with church spires, cozy, glowing pubs and the occasional sheep jutting out of the blanket of snow. You might even catch a glimpse of the North Yorkshire Steam Railway, which runs from Pickering to Whitby. Wharfedale, with its picturesque hamlets and rock-strewn hills, is one of the most beautiful areas, and the limestone crags of Malhamdale are equally spectacular. "I have always felt a strong attraction to the unspoiled purity of the Yorkshire Dales," says photographer Chris Ceaser, founder of chrisceaser.com. "During winter months this feeling of peacefulness is compounded by the arrival of the snows which add a sense of isolation, making the photographer feel at one with his surroundings." How to get there: The Yorkshire Dales are located 243 miles from London, or 65 miles from Manchester. One of the area's largest towns is Richmond, which is well connected to most of the UK's cities by rail. More: Britain's oldest pub -- who deserves the crown? Big Mountain, Whitefish Mountain Resort, Montana, United States . One of the most popular spots at Whitefish Mountain Resort is the summit, which lies 7,000 feet (2,133 meters) above sea level. From here, the views of the jagged peaks of Glacier National Park are breathtaking. But it's the snow-covered trees -- known locally as snow ghosts -- that really stand out. When the weather's right, what's known as a cloud inversion can take place. The clouds below become locked within the valley and visitors on the summit can look down upon a sea of white. "Winter in Whitefish is so magical probably because the mountain weather is so dynamic and extreme," says Brian Schott at Whitefish, Montanta Visitors' Bureau. "Winter storms race in from the west coast and bump up along the continental divide, sitting over us for days dumping snow. When at last there is a clearing and you ride the chairlift to the summit, it's as if you have been transported to another world." How to get there: Whitefish resort is located 14 miles from Glacier Park International Airport. More: 7 swanky U.S. ski hotels .

Neuschwanstein was the inspiration behind Disney Land's Sleeping Beauty castle . Tallinn in Estonia often resembles a scene from a Christmas card . Snow-covered trees -- known locally as snow ghosts -- really stand out in Montana, United States .

(CNN) -- A funny thing happened to "Mad Men" on its way to its seventh season. It became just another TV show. The series about a 1960s ad agency that intersects with the American experience spent its sixth season wading through the shocks of 1968 -- the Tet Offensive, the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, the presidential race that culminated in the election of Richard Nixon. What the late '60s really looked like . But reviewers found the season flat and disconnected compared to previous seasons, with New York magazine's Matt Zoller Seitz declaring it "sluggish and lumpy and unfocused" and Slate's Hanna Rosin describing it as "a strange season in that it seemed to throw up intriguing plot possibilities and then grow quickly bored with them." Which is not to say that the show jumped the shark as viewers prepare for Season 7, the show's last, which begins Sunday on AMC. It was still a very good TV show, still rewarded with Emmy nominations and cultural cachet. Viewers and reviewers still parsed its every symbol, from the elevators in protagonist Don Draper's apartment building to the T-shirt worn by his wife, Megan (Jessica Pare). Viewers will want to know if some of the questions raised by Season 6 are answered. Will Don's marriage hold up? After an affair was discovered by his daughter Sally, can he repair the relationship with her? Don (Jon Hamm) also ended the season on the outs with Sterling Cooper -- the agency at the heart of the show -- where he was creative director. Indeed, a lot of figures at Sterling Cooper are coping with uncertainty: Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss), who spent Season 6 away from -- and then rejoining -- the agency; Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser), whose marriage hit the skids; and Roger Sterling (John Slattery), who keeps staring mortality in the face (and cracking jokes in its shadows). And then, of course, there's the mysterious Bob Benson (James Wolk), the eager salesman who turned out to be a pro at snowing his colleagues. How will he fare with that big General Motors account? For all that, "Mad Men" just wasn't the phenomenon it was during its first four years, when the very title "Mad Men" became synonymous with the idea of "Kennedy-era America." When "Mad Men" premiered in 2007, "there wasn't anything comparable in look," said style consultant and beauty expert Rachel Weingarten, whose book "Hello Gorgeous!" focuses in part on the "Mad Men" era. "Modern television and especially cable didn't have anything like it -- that stylized look, that way of speaking. Everyone felt sophisticated talking about it." It didn't hurt that the show addressed issues, such as sexism and image-making, through the prism of an era that seemed even more distant than it was, adds Jerald Podair, a history professor at Wisconsin's Lawrence University. The show quickly became a shorthand for a different kind of America -- one remembered for its hard-drinking men, subordinate women and cigarettes everywhere -- than the one we live in now. It was a different America than the one that existed in the late '60s, for that matter. "For us, 1962 is much more of a foreign country than 1968, because 1968 is basically who we are now, and 1962 is who we were," Podair said. Part of the language . Those early seasons of "Mad Men" managed to work themselves into the water-cooler conversation with surprising ease. Any journalist looking to compare our muddled times with the tie-clipped, flouncy-skirted early '60s invoked "Mad Men." Handsome, inscrutable types were "Don Drapers," after Jon Hamm's lead character, an ad agency creative director; upscale, quietly desperate housewives were "Betty Drapers," after his eventual ex-wife, played by January Jones. Single career women? Meet Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss). Banana Republic and Brooks Brothers introduced "Mad Men"-inspired fashion lines, the name "Betty" became popular again, and -- since imitation is the sincerest form of television, to borrow Fred Allen's old line -- the show's sleek era was suddenly all over the tube, featured on such programs as "Pan Am," "The Playboy Club" and "Magic City." Dressing like 'Mad Men' That period of "Mad Men" became part of the language. "It's time to do away with workplace policies that belong in a 'Mad Men' episode," said President Obama in his 2014 State of the Union address, and nobody had to ask what he meant. "It's rare that the name of the show becomes a shorthand for an era," said Podair, noting that "Mad Men" now represents the early '60s in the way that "Father Knows Best" or "Leave It to Beaver" represent the 1950s. Where to find "Mad Men's" classic cocktails . Indeed, for a show that's never enjoyed the mammoth ratings of AMC stablemate "The Walking Dead," it's had an impact well beyond its audience. "Mad Men" averaged less than a million viewers per episode in its first season. It wasn't until the fourth season that it topped 2 million, and last season's ratings, for the show's sixth season, averaged about 2.5 million. Compare that to "Walking Dead," which averaged 13.3 million for its most recent season -- and grabbed 15.7 million for its Season 4 finale. Even the broadcast networks would be thrilled with that. "Mad Men" grabbed this attention despite criticism that it had oversimplified a complex era -- and that, in turn, today's news media was doing the same. "From where I sit, claiming this exasperating show is even remotely representative of the times we lived through would be like trying to show 'Dynasty' on the History Channel!" exclaimed ad man and art director George Lois in a CNN opinion piece. " 'Mad Men' is nothing more than the fulfillment of every possible stereotype of the early 1960s bundled up nicely to convince consumers that the sort of morally repugnant behavior exhibited by its characters is glamorous and 'vintage.' " But that doesn't surprise Weingarten. After all, she points out, TV tends to be aspirational. "It isn't real life," she said. "It's very stylized." Paving the way . "Mad Men" creator Matt Weiner has tried to make a similar point. "I know this sounds like a joke," he told the Wrap last year, "but none of it is real." At the least, all the talk helped "Mad Men" make the world safe for the rule of basic cable. "For a long time it was just HBO," Kevin Rahm, who plays Draper's rival Ted Chaough, told CNN. "When this show came on the air on AMC, no one had heard of AMC other than (it being) American Movie Classics. I think the show led the way for Netflix having their own series, Amazon having their own series. I think it's paved that road." Even if "Mad Men" has lost its place in the zeitgeist -- the Banana Republic partnership is gone and "Game of Thrones" is the talked-about show of the moment (for now, anyway) -- it still has a loyal audience. AMC is counting on it. After the final season of "Breaking Bad" worked out so well by being split in two, the network announced the same practice would be put in place for "Mad Men." So Sunday's premiere introduces Season 7, Part 1. As in the past, Weiner and AMC are asking for a cone of silence to be placed around advance discussion of the premiere. Not even the year can be revealed, though -- based on the publicity photographs showcasing miniskirts and sideburns -- it's probably 1969 or 1970, both of which would present opportunities for the show's characters to intersect thematically with such historical events as the moon landing, the Manson murders, Woodstock, the Kent State shootings and the Miracle Mets. (Well, it is mainly set in New York.) Screenwriter Robert Towne of "Chinatown" fame was added to the writing staff, and Milton Glaser, the great graphic artist, was drafted to create this year's poster. If representing the more recognizable late '60s -- with its mixed-up, shook-up, psychedelic world -- means the show is less exotic to us, so be it. "It's a sign of the show's triumph and also its failure," said Podair. "When we remember the show, we're going to remember the 1962 portion and we're probably not going to remember the '67 and '68 portion because we've been there and we've done that." Weiner just wants it to be good. "I always feel pressure about entertaining the audience and keeping the show up to the level that we think it's at and not repeating ourselves," he told CNN. But "Mad Men" being "Mad Men" -- and still having half a season to shoot -- he can't help thinking of the past, as well. It's one thing to wonder about the ebb and flow of the 1960s, another to re-create its world. As the show heads into the sunset, he has visions of the beginning. "I have been thinking a little bit about sitting in a room, typing the title page and how this all happened," he said.

"Mad Men's" seventh and final season begins Sunday . Show has become shorthand for referring to the early '60s . It helped dictate fashion, even made names popular . Now it's just a TV show -- but still highly thought-of .

(CNN) -- Fashion Week in New York, London, Milan and Paris have ended in a flash of ruby-reds, turtlenecks and thigh-high boots. But what about Charleston, Nashville, Austin or Cleveland? Granted, these aren't cities where editors, buyers and bloggers from around the world flock to discover next season's trends. But, regardless of what the Onion thinks of Iowa's style sense, regional fashion weeks matter to the communities that host them -- and they're starting to catch the attention of big-city fashion folk, too. After all, "not all designers are born and bred in New York, Paris and Milan," said Fern Mallis, who's credited with creating New York Fashion Week as we currently know it. After her success there, she helped launch and guide fashion weeks in Sydney, Shanghai, Miami and Cleveland as senior vice president of IMG Fashion in the 2000s. Photos: New York Fashion Week . Each year seems to herald the launch of a fashion week in a smaller, regional U.S. city and, unlike their famous counterparts, runway shows aren't always the main event. Cleveland's schedule in May includes pop-up boutiques, wine and cheese parties and a screening of "Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel," a documentary about the influential fashion editor of Harper's Bazaar and editor-in-chief of Vogue. In April, Nashville Fashion Week will offer a day of industry panels and several nights of runway shows featuring a mix of hometown heroes and established brands such as Tracy Reese and Nonoo. Yes, in some cities, the weeks are basically glorified business-boosting happy hours where flavored vodka drinks and rose flow liberally from local boutiques. There's a bit of navel-gazing, to be sure. But, as Mallis put it, what's the harm in trying? "Regional fashion weeks are aspirational. I find something very refreshing and honest about them," Mallis said. "If the sidebar is that restaurants and hotels get a lot of business, even better. "The fashion industry is always looking for the next hot talent and you never know where you'll find it. It's a funny industry, where you need to be seen, and the best way for designers' work to be seen is on the runway, wherever it is." "Project Runway" Season 11 contestant Amanda Valentine credits her participation in Nashville Fashion Week for the boost she needed to make the cut on the reality TV show. She earns a living as a stylist in Music City's entertainment industry while still cultivating her brand from a studio in the basement of her Nashville home. But during fashion week, local organizers tend to provide models, hair and makeup services, saving designers like her thousands of dollars. Valentine auditioned for "Project Runway" in 2009 but didn't make the final cut. After participating in Nashville Fashion Week, she returned for auditions in 2012 with a portfolio of professional runway images and press clips lauding her work. "The exposure and press helps because it gives you an outside opinion that you can point to," Valentine said. "Having the professional images and the ability to say 'I participated in a show' also adds to your credibility." Designers to watch after New York Fashion Week . Usually, runway shows distinguish the boozy shopping parties from events with the potential to propel young designers. A show in Nashville, Tennessee, or Austin, Texas, can give designers a chance to shine or stumble -- without the intensely critical media eye that looms over London or Paris. It just takes some time for a regional fashion week to grow from one to the other. Charleston Fashion Week in South Carolina started out as a "chic party" in Marion Square and along King Street, where fashionistas hobnobbed over cocktails. In seven years, it has grown into an event that draws promising talent, industry heavyweights and thousands of attendees. Last year, the event's economic impact was $2.4 million, according to figures from the Charleston Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. The emerging designer competition is the event's centerpiece. The nightly showdown began Tuesday, whittling down a roster of 20 aspiring designers to five finalists, who sent their collections down the runway Saturday night in a bid for the grand prize. The winner takes home $5,000 in cash, $10,000 in online marketing and promotional services, a book of professional runway images of the winning collection, and a sewing machine. Prizes like that would certainly help semifinalist Afriyie Poku, who makes a living doing custom alterations on a secondhand sewing machine in his Atlanta apartment. He's also on call for tailoring jobs at a hotel he quit last month to free up time to work on his menswear collection. The tall-haired, Ghana-born Atlantan transformed the living room of his Midtown apartment into a workshop after being selected in December to participate in the contest. Portrait of a Man Repeller at NYFW . His design idol is Ralph Lauren, so naturally his collection is based on traditional menswear silhouettes with what he calls an "attention to detail that brings it into the modern era." Poku takes pride in his fashion-forward embellishments, such as high-waisted riding pants with reverse pleats, a side zipper or leather inseam patches, and a double-breasted morning coat lined to be warm enough on its own. The self-taught tailor says he has a character or archetype in mind for each piece -- the hunter, the gentleman -- but he acknowledges that he's designing for himself. That's how he learned to sew, by altering clothes to his liking, in a fitted, tailored style inspired by his uncles, businessmen in Ghana, even if his first creation was a pair of pants made from a bedsheet. "My view was, 'Everything you wear has to fit well,'" Poku said. "But when I went to Macy's, things were not made to fit as I wanted, so I'd buy clothes and made them to fit like I wanted them to fit." In the month before the competition, he stayed awake for days at a time to finish the collection. In the home he shares with his girlfriend, an aspiring opera singer, he pieced together 12 fall menswear runway looks -- eight for the semifinal and four more in case he advanced to Saturday night's final. Poku said he doesn't want to start his own label or become a "Project Runway"-style celeb just yet. For now, his goal is to find an apprenticeship with an established menswear designer or contract sewer. "I just want to give it a try and see what happens," he said in an interview last week in a home studio littered with spools of thread and bags of fabric. "Even if I don't win, I feel like just being there will help me find what I need to advance to the next level." In Charleston, he knew he'd have the eyes of an appreciative local community, as well as some established designers from the upper echelons of high fashion. Christian Siriano already has a foothold in the industry. Celebrities such as Sarah Jessica Parker, Rihanna and Heidi Klum wear his gowns on the red carpet. He has a flagship store in New York and an eponymous line sold in Neiman Marcus and boutiques around the world. Still, he had a full schedule this week in Charleston. "We look at it as a business opportunity to find new customers and form new relationships with retailers," said Siriano, the youngest designer to win "Project Runway" or land on Crain's 40 Under 40 list. "Who wants to alienate a customer who's ready to shop?" Siriano already showed his ballet-inspired Fall 2013 collection in New York and Paris, but he brought it to Charleston for a show Saturday. On Friday he participated in a trunk show hosted by a family-owned department store, Gwynn's of Mount Pleasant, where he would like to see his clothes sold, he said. He also judged the emerging designer competition, along with Mallis and other industry insiders and entertainers: singer-songwriter Ashanti, designers Brandon Sun and Antonio Azzuolo and Hannah Goff, winner of the 2012 Charleston emerging designer competition. Cynthia Rowley judged the emerging designer competition in 2009, when swimwear designer Marysia Reeves won. Since then, Reeves' swimwear has been featured in publications including Vogue and WWD, and her collections have been picked up by Barneys New York, Anthropologie and other high-end boutiques around the world. "Charleston has a sophisticated, fashion-savvy audience, so it's just a matter of making my products more accessible to them," said Rowley, who was in the city this week to visit her King Street store and promote her latest collection for Belk department stores. "It's also a great way for me to learn more about what's happening in fashion in that part of the country." The emerging designer competition final drew hundreds of people Saturday. The competition was tight, but ultimately the panel chose Poku as the winner, with Mallis describing his collection as "something special." He also won the audience favorite award, another $250 prize. Dozens of fans swarmed around him, making it hard for his sisters and girlfriend to reach him. As far as he was concerned, the win vindicated his efforts. "It's shown me I am meant for this," he said of his win. "This is my way in life. Any impact I'll be able to make on the human race will be in this field." Follow Emanuella Grinberg on Twitter . CNN's Stephanie Gallman contributed to this report.

Fashion weeks in smaller U.S. cities serve as training grounds for aspiring designers . Charleston Fashion Week draws thousands of attendees . Established designers attend Charleston Fashion Week to tap into new markets . "Not all designers are born and bred in New York, Paris," says Fern Mallis .

Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- Turn back time, more than 90 years, to a cold case that won't gather dust. It's a classic whodunit, starting with the rape and murder of a 13-year-old girl and ending in a lynching. It was grist for a prosecutor's political aspirations, a case that was appealed all the way to the country's highest court and a story hotly debated in the national press. At the center of it all was Leo Frank, a northern Jew who'd moved to Atlanta to supervise the National Pencil Company factory. When the body of Mary Phagan, a white child laborer, was found in the basement, law enforcement homed in on Frank. He was tried and convicted, based on what most historians say was the perjured testimony of a black man, and sentenced to death. But when the governor commuted his sentence in 1915, about 25 men abducted Frank, 31, from the state prison and hung him from a tree in Marietta, Georgia. Considered one of the most sensational trials of the early 20th century, the Frank case seemed to press every hot-button issue of the time: North vs. South, black vs. white, Jew vs. Christian, industrial vs. agrarian. In the years since, it has inspired numerous books and films, TV programs, plays, musicals and songs. It has fueled legal discussions, spawned a traveling exhibition and driven public forums. Who murdered Mary Phagan? What forces were behind the lynching of Frank? Why should we still care? Answers to these questions, or theories, keep coming. "Leo Frank was not a good ole Southern boy. He was different and not ashamed of being different," said Ben Loeterman, whose new documentary, "The People v. Leo Frank," will air Monday on PBS. "The test of us as a society is not necessarily how we treat the best among us but how we treat the most questionable." Mixed in with ongoing analysis of the Phagan-Frank story are the descendants of those involved, people who learned of their connections differently and carry these legacies forward in unique ways. The accused . "The story goes that no one in my family talked about it," said Cathee Smithline, a 62-year-old great-niece of Frank. Frank was the one who handed Mary Phagan her check when she stopped by the factory on April 26, 1913, Confederate Memorial Day. The night watchman, Newt Lee, would find the body and call police early the next day. Smithline, of Wyckoff, New Jersey, was 16 when she first heard about the case. Her mother sat her down, told her a story about what a man in the South had been through, said it was based on her uncle and handed over a book: "A Little Girl is Dead." It turns out Smithline's mother got the news in her teens, too, when her boyfriend turned to her after seeing "They Won't Forget," a 1937 Hollywood film. "You know that's about your uncle," he said. She'd grown up hearing Uncle Leo died of pneumonia, and after asking family about it, the truth was revealed, followed by the words, "We will never talk about this again," Smithline said. "I think it was a family embarrassment," she said. "My grandmother [who died when Smithline was 1] was very close to her brother. It cannot be easy to tell someone your brother was lynched and why." The first victim . Mary Phagan Kean was 13 when the story hit her. She was in a South Carolina classroom, and her name stopped short a teacher taking attendance. "Mary Phagan, you say?" she recalled the teacher asking, peering up from his list. He wanted to know if she was related to a girl with that name who died in 1913. Confidently, she told him she wasn't. But the boys on the playground taunted her anyway, telling her she was reincarnated from a dead girl. Traumatized, she asked her father about her name. "He turned whiter than white," she remembered. Mary Phagan had been her grandfather's little sister. He only wept when asked about her. When Mary Phagan Kean's family moved back to Marietta, questions about that name never stopped. "I went on a campaign," said Kean, 55, who sought out every article and piece of information she could find. "I did that for years and years and years." The consensus of historians is that the Frank case was a miscarriage of justice. Crime scene evidence was destroyed, they say. A bloody hand print was not analyzed. Transcripts from the trial vanished. Frank's conviction was based largely on the testimony of a janitor, Jim Conley, who most came to see as Phagan's killer. He'd written notes found with the body, but said they were dictated to him. The prosecutor, Hugh Dorsey, used race in his argument, saying a black man couldn't be smart enough to come up with such stories. Witnesses would come forward to say Conley was seen carrying the body and washing out a bloody shirt. Conley's own attorney, William Smith, came to believe in Frank's innocence, scrawling a note to that effect on his death bed nearly 35 years later. Conley, who appeared in the press for petty crimes over the years, eventually disappeared. Dorsey, the prosecutor, had political aspirations riding on this win. "A conviction of just another black guy wasn't going to do anything for his career," said Sandy Berman, the archivist at The William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum in Atlanta who created the traveling exhibit, "Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited." Two years after Frank's lynching, Dorsey was elected governor of Georgia. But the story was interpreted differently by Kean, who wrote "The Murder of Little Mary Phagan," and stands by this conclusion: "Leo Frank was guilty as sin. He was a sexual pervert." Kean often visits her namesake's grave in Marietta. She's not the only one. She says she's struck by the teddy bears people leave there. The governor . Elizabeth Slaton Wallace couldn't be prouder of her heritage. At 81, she's the great-niece of the late Georgia Gov. John M. Slaton, the man who commuted Frank's death sentence to a life sentence, believing Frank's innocence would be proved and, in doing so, ruined his political career. The Georgia National Guard was called out to protect the governor after his decision prompted a rabble-rousing newspaper publisher to call for the lynching of both Frank and Slaton. Frank had been moved to the state prison in Milledgeville, Georgia, where an inmate slashed his throat. He survived, but weeks later about two dozen Marietta men came into the prison, with no resistance from officials, and abducted Frank in the dark of night. By dawn, he was hanging from a tree in Marietta. Photographs of his dangling body and the crowds who gathered there adorned souvenir postcards. "Leo Frank was a Jew and a Yankee Jew at that. He was railroaded. Uncle Jack knew that," said Wallace, who lives in Atlanta. She can't explain why the story persists to this day. But throughout her life she's witnessed the kindness of the Jewish community, especially toward her father, who was named for the late governor. "The Jewish community could never do enough for my father," said Wallace, who recalled being in a Jewish-owned store with her parents in the 1980s. "They could have given us the shop." As grateful as they were to Slaton, Frank's lynching left Georgia's small Jewish community frightened. Many left the state; those who stayed kept a low profile. For decades, they only spoke of Frank in hushed tones. The lynching party . The lynching of a white man can hardly be compared to what happened in the black community in the South. But this case, the only lynching of a Jew on American soil, was the culmination of a state-sponsored conspiracy, historians say. While Georgia Jews remained quiet, so did those who were involved in Frank's killing, said Steve Oney of Los Angeles, California, who wrote the authoritative book "And the Dead Shall Rise: The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank." It would be about 80 years before members of the lynching party were publicly, and not just secretly, known. "They were not liquored-up yahoos," said Oney, a journalist, editor and Atlanta native who spent 17 years researching his book. "These were smart, deliberate people -- from good, prominent families." They included a former governor, a former mayor, a U.S. senator's son, a judge, lawyers, a state legislator and business owners. One of the 25 or so men was Cicero Dobbs, the grandfather-in-law of Roy Barnes, a Georgia lawyer and politician who is a former governor himself and will be running again in 2010. Barnes and his wife, Marie, never knew Dobbs, who owned a taxi company in Marietta and likely provided transportation to the prison where Frank was held. Oney broke the news about the family connection to them. "Marie's parents didn't know. It was never mentioned," Barnes said. "On death beds, people confessed. It was just that powerful." Barnes, who is featured in the new documentary, said it's important to keep the story alive and learn from it. "It's a terrible blot on our history," he said. "How we keep it from happening again is to never forget."

Mary Phagan's murder in 1913 spawned an Atlanta trial that's still talked about today . Leo Frank was convicted, later lynched by mob of respected community leaders . Case hit hot buttons: North vs. South; Jew vs. Christian; black vs. white . Story continues through new books, films and descendants from all sides .

(CNN) -- Was it a debate? A berating? A surreal televised "stunt"? No matter what you call radio host Alex Jones' appearance on "Piers Morgan Tonight," one thing is certain: It's generating a great deal of social media buzz. On Tuesday morning, Jones was a top-trending topic on Twitter as people read about the interview, watched clips online or shared their thoughts after watching Monday night's fiery exchange live. The man behind a petition to deport Morgan back to the UK for expressing his views on gun control went on the attack, calling the CNN host "a hatchet man of the new world order." "1776 will commence again if you try to take our firearms!" Jones yelled. "It doesn't matter how many lemmings (mindless followers) you get out on the street begging for them to have their guns taken! We will not relinquish them! Do you understand?" Morgan has pushed for stricter gun control regulations since a gunman killed 27 people before committing suicide last month in Newtown, Connecticut -- 26 of them in a mass shooting at an elementary school, including 20 children. "I'm in favor of a nationwide ban on military-style semiautomatic assault weapons and high-capacity magazines," he said as he opened his Monday night show, before introducing Jones. Alex Jones: "The Republic will rise again when you attempt to take our guns" Watch: 'Deport Piers Morgan' host's rant, Part 1 . Jones' petition, posted on the White House website, accuses Morgan of being "engaged in a hostile attack against the U.S. Constitution by targeting the Second Amendment." It has more than 100,000 signatures. Morgan prefaced his confrontation with Jones with a live report on Monday's testimony in a preliminary hearing for Aurora movie theater shooting suspect James Holmes and a live interview with relatives of two victims who died in a hail of bullets from a military-style rifle in that shooting in July. "I appreciate you having your First Amendment right. I am glad you are speaking out," said Dave Hoover, whose nephew died in the movie theater. The White House also made reference to First Amendment freedoms, in a statement Monday night. "The White House responds to all petitions that cross the threshold, and we will respond to this one," spokesman Jay Carney said, referring to petitions on whitehouse.gov that get at least 25,000 signatures. "In the meantime, it's worth remembering that freedom of expression is a bedrock principle in our democracy." Read more: Piers Morgan and guests react to various gun incidents . 'World tyranny' warning . Jones thanked Morgan for having him on the show, and then said he and others started the petition to point out that "we have all of these foreigners" and globalist forces, including "megabanks that control the planet," trying to take away American guns. "When they get our guns, they can have their world tyranny," he said. Morgan's attempt to interject questions ran up against Jones' heated chatter, leading up to a crescendo with Jones reciting a list of despotic world leaders who he said took away guns: Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Castro, Chavez. Live Blog: "Guns in America," a discussion . As Jones continued, Morgan looked on, tight-lipped and silent. After 2½ minutes, Jones rounded off his monologue with a friendly offer to take Morgan out shooting, so he could "become an American" and "join the Republic." He also offered to climb into a boxing ring with Morgan. At the end of the interview, he imitated the Briton's English accent, before declaring him a "Redcoat" who should go back to where he came from. Watch: 'Deport Piers Morgan' host's rant, Part 2 . Morgan asked: "Are you finished?" Jones said: "Yes." Then he began a tirade against makers of antidepressant drugs. Jones said he owns about 50 weapons. His radio show can be heard on 140 radio shows around the country, he said. Morgan: No better advertisement for gun control . Morgan says Jones' rant backfired, making Morgan's point for him. "I can't think of a better advertisement for gun control than Alex Jones' interview last night," he said Tuesday on CNN's "Newsroom." "It was startling, it was terrifying in parts. It was completely deluded. It was based on a premise of making Americans so fearful that they all rush out to buy even more guns." "I think silence was the best weapon against him because he just dug himself an ever bigger hole," Morgan said, adding that Jones "spouts dangerous nonsense." Jones, on his website infowars.com, had an image of Morgan dressed as a "Redcoat" next to Jones himself dressed as a "patriot." A summary of his plan for Tuesday's radio show said he would discuss "his effort to defend the Constitution and the Second Amendment from attack by the establishment media as the government prepares its latest gun-grabbing assault on law-abiding Americans." The description adds that through the interview, "we have put the globalists on notice." On the program, he said that 95% of people he has heard from "think that I just told it like it was" and "slammed them hard," delivering an important message. "I have been overworked," Jones added, describing a busy schedule. "But I did the best job I could and I'm proud of the job I did overall." Responding to Morgan's depiction of how the interview went, Jones asked whether that was because he is "a hillbilly that won't be your slave and knows history." He described Morgan as being like "a mannequin, a vampire." 'Piers Morgan can't understand being American' Though many found fault with Jones' performance, some found common ground with his arguments. "The tact with which Jones presented himself with was inexcusable. However; looking past that (I know... hard to do especially after that English accent he so offensively portrayed)... I have to say that his statistics were much more compelling than Piers's. I mean, ok, gun violence is higher here in America... but it has a lower violent crime rate than those countries with banned fire-arms?" PhilipCabibi wrote in the comments section of this article. "I see where Jones was trying to go, but unfortunately, he presented his facts in such a manner that it will turn most off to them. Which is unfortunate... because no matter how rude someone is, it doesn't change facts and it doesn't change history." 'Meltdown' or 'punching out?' Reactions on social media were blunt. New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen called the interview a "meltdown" and called Jones "revolting." James Poniewozik, TV columnist for Time -- which, like CNN, is part of Time Warner -- wrote, sarcastically: "Shocking: You reward a lunatic on TV for pulling a stunt," and he fails to "behave with civility." Facebook user Steve Spark made similar comments in a CNN discussion. "If you have a nutjob as a guest, you can't be surprised when they act like a nutjob," he wrote, adding, "Some might say it makes for good TV, but I think it's just embarrassing." The Huffington Post summarized the program this way: "Piers Morgan's pro-gun guest goes absolutely nuts at him." Jones retweeted a supportive note from Gerald Celente, who has 36,000 followers. "Bravo," the tweet said, praising Jones for "punching out CNN Presstitute Piers Morgan." CNN iReporter Jason Asselin posted a video saying he believes that Morgan has no right to debate gun control in America, and that only U.S. citizens should do so. Follow 'Piers Morgan Tonight' on Twitter . Piers Morgan: Sandy Hook must be a tipping point for change . Jones' appearance on "Piers Morgan Tonight" was followed by an interview with famed attorney and Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz. "We lawyers refer to people like that not as witnesses, but as exhibits," he said of Jones. "He was an exhibit, like a piece of evidence. You see him speaking and you say to yourself, 'I don't want that man to have a gun.'" Dershowitz said Americans who want even-handed gun policy should not leave the arguments up to gun advocates such as the National Rifle Association and Jones without speaking up themselves. "We have to fulfill what the real meaning of the Second Amendment is: reasonable access to guns for self-protection and for hunting. And there's no room in America for these semiautomatic, automatic and other kinds of weapons that are simply designed to cause mass havoc," Dershowitz said. In addition to the limitations on military-style rifles, Morgan wants gun show loopholes closed and demands that gun dealers be required to run background checks on purchasers at shows. He also advocates an increase in federal funding for mental health treatment to anyone who needs it. Morgan recently wrote a column in the Daily Mail saying that for every critic, he has had many Americans thank him for speaking up in favor of gun control. "If you don't change your gun laws to at least try to stop this relentless tidal wave of murderous carnage, then you don't have to worry about deporting me. "Although I love the country as a second home and one that has treated me incredibly well, I would, as a concerned parent first -- and latterly, of a one-year-old daughter who may attend an American elementary school like Sandy Hook in three years' time -- seriously consider deporting myself," he wrote. Post comments below, or join our discussion on Twitter. Watch Piers Morgan Live weeknights 9 p.m. ET. For the latest from Piers Morgan click here.

The White House emphasizes freedom of expression, "a bedrock principle in our democracy" Morgan says the interview became an advertisement for gun control . Jones declares himself a "patriot" against "Redcoat" Piers Morgan .

(CNN) -- In rural Boulder County, Colorado, Loretta Ford felt as if she were an epidemiologist, a sanitation department and a health inspector -- but in title, she was a nurse. She and colleagues carried everything, including the baby scales, as they set up temporary clinics in churches, schools and wherever else they could. In the 1940s and '50s, there was no one else taking care of these basic community needs except Ford and her fellow public health nurses. As she gained experience, Ford realized that more nurses should be able to have specialized training so they could make basic decisions on their own about the health status of patients. Ford, 90, the co-founder of the nurse practitioner movement, is being inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame on Saturday in Seneca Falls, New York. Thanks in large part to her efforts, there are more than 140,000 nurse practitioners working in the United States today. Many can prescribe and diagnose as doctors can, but their nursing background emphasizes health promotion and patient empowerment. "I'm pretty proud of them. I get a lot of credit for 140,000 nurses and I don't deserve it," Ford said in September. "They're the ones who fought the good fight. They took the heat and they stood it and they've done beautifully." Who are the nurse practitioners? Nurse practitioners are allowed to have independent practices in 16 states and the District of Columbia, and that number is growing -- two joined the list in 2011. In all states, they can prescribe most medications, although in some states they must collaborate with a physician for prescriptions (The Center to Champion Nursing in America has this map showing restrictions). There are 6 million visits to nurse practitioners every year, according to the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners. They are in high demand, because there is a shortage of primary care doctors in the United States, where a huge chunk of the population is approaching old age and high obesity rates are aggravating diabetes and heart disease levels. Although the training is different from medical school, nurse practitioners do invest a great deal of time in education: usually a bachelor's degree in nursing and then two to four more years getting a graduate-level degree, sometimes in a specialty area such as family practice. About 93% of nurse practitioners have graduate degrees, and there is currently a proposal by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing to require a doctorate-level degree to become a nurse practitioner by the year 2015. The nurse practitioner philosophy is a holistic approach to the health of the patient, Ford said. Nurse practitioners focus on health, functionality and daily living, and giving the patient feedback. "The end result, of course, is to empower the patient or the family or the person to advance to self-care and to be responsible for that," Ford said. Ford had wanted to be a teacher, but because of cost concerns she went to nursing school instead. During World War II, she worked as a nurse at various U.S. Army and Air Force bases. When the war ended, she attended the University of Colorado School of Nursing and earned bachelor's and master's degrees. Ford's journey . The 1960s were a time of social and political upheaval, and Ford saw that chaos as an opportunity to start something new. She collaborated with pediatrician Dr. Henry Silver to start the nation's first pediatric nurse practitioner program in 1965 at the University of Colorado's Schools of Medicine and Nursing. They were interested in expanding public health nurses' roles, emphasizing prevention and health promotion. "Here she is practicing in rural Colorado, she sees a need for a new profession, a better way of doing things, something that could really enhance health care and bring health care to more people, and so she created the whole profession," said Penny Kaye Jensen, president of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners. "That's just an inspiration to all of us." Her colleagues were concerned that she was working so closely with a doctor in this program, Ford remembers. They feared the model would become more about nurses being supervised by physicians rather than serving as colleagues and partners. There were also a lot of questions about whether state laws would permit what they were teaching: Could nurses use devices like stethoscopes? Could they make decisions about the health status of children? "There was great concern, I think, that the kind of direction that we were taking was much more medical than nursing," Ford said. "It's not easy when you have to buck some of the old prejudices and some of the demands of faculty that's set in its ways, so to speak." At the same time, professional organizations were calling for nurses to be specialists in clinical areas and more independent in making decisions, but also interdependent in a team relationship with doctors. "These are all things the profession was saying, but the rhetoric and reaction were quite different," Ford said. "It took a while before there was more acceptance of it in schools of nursing." Ford always thought nurse practitioners would be able to practice independently; it's only recently that autonomy has been legalized in several states, but there has always been a clear need, she said. "A lot of them were doing it anyway. Now this has legitimized it," Ford said. "We were the 'Lone Rangers.' We had to make decisions." Ford at Rochester . After the success of her program in Colorado, Ford became the founding dean of the University of Rochester School of Nursing in 1972. By the 1980s, nurse practitioner programs had started cropping up all over the country. Kathy Rideout said that when she joined the nursing school faculty at Rochester in 1985, a nurse practitioner practicing independently was still unheard of, and there was no national certification. Rideout had done her education at the University of Pittsburgh, but the Pittsburgh area didn't have many nurse practitioners. Rochester, on the other hand, was full of them, thanks in part to Ford. Rideout, now interim dean of the school of nursing, remembers Ford taking the time to interview her when she came to the school. The younger woman was anxious, but Ford immediately calmed her. Ford wanted to know what her dreams and passions were. "She has a quiet leadership style. She is a listener, she is a great thinker and she has the ability to really put you at ease," Rideout said. "That's really at the heart of who she is." Ford retired about a year later, but has remained involved with the University of Rochester School of Nursing through financial support, mentorship, fundraising and other activities. The school now has nine specialty nurse practitioner programs, including child psychiatry, which helps fill a need for mental health services in rural upstate New York, Rideout said. But the field seems to be getting broader, so nurse practitioners are trained in more general areas first with the option to specialize, she said. Nurse practitioners today . The four components of Ford's vision for nurse practitioners -- the ability to assess, diagnose, treat and evaluate -- have not changed since the early days, but the extent to which they do those things has evolved, and so has their independence, Rideout said. One of those nurse practitioners who operates with that relatively recent independence is Angie Golden, who has had her own primary care family practice near Flagstaff, Arizona, for eight years. What she does is similar to a family practice physician, but her nursing background has given her an emphasis on "the caring and the curing of health care," she said. About two years after Golden became a nurse practitioner, a patient came into her office who confirmed all the reasons she had wanted to go into the field. The patient had been struggling with chronic back pain and had seen various health care providers, but couldn't find the right combination of therapies that would allow her to resume her work as a jewelry sculptor. Golden worked with the patient to attack the problem from many angles: pain medicine, physical therapy, acupuncture and meditation. The alternative approaches helped the patient feel more in control of her pain, and she did go back to work. "When you get to work with a patient to help them find the therapies that are going to let them have the quality of life that they want, I just don't think it gets any better than that," said Golden, who is also the president-elect of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners. Julie Willardson, 36, who received her nurse practitioner doctorate degree in May, came into the field because she was frustrated that, as a home care nurse, she'd have to wait several days -- sometimes even a week -- to get a doctor's order to request laboratory work or other relatively simple procedures. Having practiced in multiple nursing specialties and attained this advanced education, Willardson doesn't regret having chosen nursing rather than medical school. "I've had patients tell me things they've never told anyone in their life. It's really been an honor," Willardson said. "I'm sure doctors love being a doctor, too, but I don't know if they get the full human side of medicine." In fact, a 2010 Gallup Poll found that Americans view nurses as the most honest and ethical professionals, rating them higher than medical doctors and police officers. As for Ford, who had wanted to go into public school teaching, she's glad her life took her the way of nursing before giving her teaching opportunities in higher education that have left behind a lasting legacy. Nursing, she said, has enhanced the quality of her and her families' lives, and given her the privilege of meeting and serving many interesting people. "It's amazing the strength these patients have, and stamina and optimism in the face of some very dire prognoses. They're admirable," she said. "I've been blessed."

Loretta Ford, 90, is being inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame on Saturday . She co-founded the first nurse practitioner education program in 1965 . Today, nurse practitioners can operate independently in 16 states and D.C. Nurse practitioners have the ability to assess, diagnose, treat and evaluate .

(CNN)When Americans ponder the world's most desolate places, they tend to conjure Antarctic outposts, Tibetan mountaintops, central Australian plateaus or Kardashian brain stems. Fact is, if you're in the States you don't have to travel halfway across the globe to separate yourself from civilization. You don't even have to leave the continental United States. Secluded swamps, forsaken tundra, vacuous canyons, yonder mountain ranges, deserted deserts -- despite all the development, the United States is still home to plenty of untamed hinterland. Here's the ultimate list of those destinations with suggested activities for each. The criteria are as simple as they are vague: maximum distance from other humans and any signs of their existence, including but not limited to roads, posted signs, smokestacks, government surveillance, electronic dance music, Snapchat and cronuts. (And, as is so often the case, Alaska and Hawaii not included.*) Camping . Rampart Mountain (Montana) In 2008, Backpacker magazine identified the most remote coordinates in the lower 48 United States: Yellowstone National Park's Two Ocean Plateau. But there's more to seclusion than geography -- chiefly, the absence not only of civilization, but civilians as well, and Yellowstone hosted 3.19 million of them last year. According to an ecologist couple dedicated to identifying the most remote spot in each U.S. state, that location is smack in the middle of Montana's Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex. It took the couple five days hiking in, during which they encountered grizzly bears and mountain goats, traversed white limestone and red sandstone streams and crossed the Great Divide en route to maximum peoplelessness. Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex, 10 Hungry Horse Drive, Hungry Horse, Montana; +1 406 387 3800 . Hiking . High Peaks Wilderness (New York) Admittedly, there are hikes in the United States more secluded than this section of Adirondack Park. Most of us without 10 days to throw at a nature walk, however, will find plenty of peace in the largest publicly protected area on the U.S. mainland. The terrain varies from low-lying swamplands to the highest point in New York state, the summit of Mount Marcy (5,344 feet). With its most isolated spot reaching nearly six miles from the nearest road, the High Peaks Wilderness Area still attract thousands of hikers a year. But there are plenty of unmarked trails, high-elevation lakes and untrammeled terrain -- especially in the Peaks' western zone -- on which to avoid them. High Peaks Wilderness Area, Eastern Adirondacks/Lake Champlain, New York; +1 518 897 1200 . Sun-tanning . Wildcat Beach (California) The 5.5-mile hike (or seven-mile bike ride) keeps the average beach-goer from reaching this vehicularly inaccessible notch of the popular Point Reyes National Seashore. But the lush vegetation, unrivaled Pacific views and downright alien beachside waterfall (aka, Alamere Falls) keep rewarding those who do. The falls are active year round, but peak in activity following the rainy season, from January to March. Strong currents make the ocean more of an aesthetic rather than recreational feature of the beach, but once the morning fog of the summer months burns off, Wildcat's 2.5 miles of expansive sands and encompassing cliff-side ramparts make for a sunny yet secluded beach adventure. Beaches of Point Reyes, Bear Valley Visitor Center, 1 Bear Valley Road, Point Reyes Station, California; +1 415 464 5100 . Game tracking . Wasatch Mountains (Utah) Outdoor Life calls it possibly the toughest hunt in North America. The goat are as abundant in Utah's high alpine areas as the treacherous peaks and cliff faces, making the Wasatch Mountains a destination of maximum risk and reward offering minimum human competition. According to Double C Guides & Outfitters, the Box Elder and Provo peaks see the fewest interlopers, owing to the difficulty of the terrain, which is rife with mountain goat. Other areas of the Wasatch Mountains support healthy deer, elk and moose -- but also hiker -- populations. While the altitudes are high and physical demands strenuous, if you're a hunter, the greatest challenge may be drawing a big game tag in the state's annual raffle. Wasatch Mountain State Park, Midway, Utah; +1 435 654 1791 . Canoeing . Wilderness Waterway (Florida) The nation's most famous paddleways are Minnesota's Boundary Waters -- explaining their absence here. Less frequented, especially come summer, is the labyrinth of mangrove forests, Gulf beaches and sawgrass marshes comprising Everglades National Park. Wilderness Waterway is the 99-mile corridor from Everglades City down to Flamingo, flanked by plenty of alternate routes that promise one of the most humanly deserted, biologically diverse wilds in the world; more than 360 species of bird, endangered panthers and the only known coexistence of alligators and crocodiles on earth. Mainland Florida's most remote spot can also be found within the 'Glades, 17 miles from the nearest road -- just one mile closer than Montana's farthest reach. Everglades National Park, main entrance at 40001 State Road, Homestead, Florida; +1 305 242 7700 . Waterfalls . Mooney Falls (Supai, Arizona) Deep within the Grand Canyon's western edge, this Havasupai tribal village is the most remote community in the continental United States, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Mail here is still delivered via mule and, aside from helicopter, that's the only transportation in or out. The 2,000-foot descent down Havasu Canyon Trail into Supai starts at Hualapai Hilltop. Eight miles later you'll find a general store, a Mormon church and the Supai Village Cafe, where fried bread is a staple. From there, Mooney Falls is just downstream. It's a nearly 200-feet tumble of incandescent blue-green waters for which the Havasupai are named. Contact the Havasupai Tribe for information and entry permits. Fishing . Angle Inlet (Minnesota) The highest point of latitude on the U.S. mainland is so remote the only way to reach it by land is through Canada. In fact, being the product of a surveying error in the Treaty of Paris, the Northwest Angle should by all rights be Canadian. Instead, it's one of few U.S. points of entry to the Lake of the Woods, a 1,700-square-mile freshwater Eden with a world-class walleye population in addition to pike, perch, muskie, bass, trout, sturgeon, crappie and sauger. Following a secessionist stunt in the late-1990s intended to raise awareness of neighboring Ontario's restrictive catch limits, visitors to the Angle are now able to keep their often trophy-size catches. Angle Inlet, Angle Township, Woods County, Minnesota . Driving . U.S. Route 50 (Nevada) What was once a warning to tourists became the slogan for a tourism board. A 1986 Life magazine article dubbed the Nevada stretch of this coast-to-coast highway "The Loneliest Road in America." An accompanying caveat from the American Automobile Association urged drivers to avoid U.S. 50 unless they were "confident of their survival skills." The state has since seized on the reputation of its lonesome road, extolling the virtues of its vacuity and points of interest, including bygone mining camps, ghost towns and nuclear test sites. The highway mimics the old Pony Express route, traversing sand dunes and snowy mountains as well as Great Basin National Park near its eastern terminus. The Loneliest Road in America, U.S. Route 50, Nevada . Russia Watching . Little Diomede Island (Alaska) *Despite that disclaimer above excluding the 49th state, we can't help making one exception to this list because, if we're being honest, just about the most remote everything in the United States is located in Alaska. It has the most land and lowest population density of any state, while offering some of the richest natural spoils on earth. But the tiny island of Little Diomede poses not only one of the most effective escapes from humanity, it also offers the kind of front-row vistas on Russia that once formed the putative centerpiece of Sarah Palin's foreign policy. In the middle of the 50-mile expanse separating the United States and its renewed rival is a population of approximately 40 people for whom it's a hardscrabble life -- but the views of Siberia are superb. For more information on Little Diomede check out the Communities of the Bering Strait website operated by the Kawerak nonprofit corporation. Jordan Burchette is a Los Angeles-based writer and editor who has written for numerous publications and websites including ESPN, Thrillist and Men's Fitness.

Despite development, the United States has plenty of untamed hinterland . Most remote coordinates in lower 48 states are in Yellowstone National Park . Mainland Florida's most remote spot is 17 miles from the nearest road . Nevada stretch of U.S. Route 50 dubbed "The Loneliest Road in America"

(CNN) -- Christina McHale, energy sapped and unable to train properly, knew something was wrong last year. Exercises she once did easily were becoming harder and getting through matches was proving difficult, too. It was a surprise, since the young American prospect was considered a player with good stamina and has already earned a reputation for wearing down her opponents, not vice versa. After a first-round victory at the French Open, McHale felt particularly exhausted. "I won 6-4 in the third set, but I remember saying to my coach that I feel like I've just been hit by a bus," the 21-year-old recalled. At first she thought it was a sinus infection. Then a couple of months later, following the Olympic tennis event at Wimbledon, McHale picked up a stomach bug and had to go to hospital. Her ordeal dragged on. "I kept going back to the doctors because I wasn't getting better," McHale said. "I was still feeling very low on energy and they were like, 'No, you should already be over the stomach virus.' So then they started doing more tests, and that's when they found out what it was." The diagnosis was mononucleosis, a viral illness that can linger for weeks, months or even years. It has earned the nickname of the "kissing disease" because it can get passed from one person to another through saliva. Fortunately for McHale, her bout was coming to an end. McHale, though, isn't the only tennis player in recent years to be afflicted with mono or the name it's also known by, glandular fever. Others on the list . Top men's players Roger Federer, Andy Roddick, Robin Soderling, Mario Ancic and John Isner have been struck down, while Heather Watson, like McHale a player with promise, revealed she had mono in April. Jarmila Gajdosova, another promising player on the women's tour, announced last week on Twitter that she had mono. Soderling and Ancic weren't as lucky as the likes of Federer, McHale and Watson, who hopes to return to action at the French Open, which starts this weekend. Indeed the severity of cases varies, as does an individual's capacity to fight off and cope with infections. Soderling, the French Open finalist in 2009 and 2010, hasn't played since 2011 and it is looking increasingly likely that he won't ever come back. The Swede with the massive forehand -- who handed Rafael Nadal his only defeat at Roland Garros -- started to feel unwell in the spring of 2011 and later said it was a mistake to compete at Wimbledon that year. Ancic, hailed as a potential winner at Wimbledon after reaching the semifinals in 2004, attempted to play through his flu-like symptoms during a Davis Cup series against Germany in 2007. He said he felt so dizzy in his singles opener he missed a ball completely, but he still contested the doubles a day later. He was ready to play the deciding fifth rubber if needed, although with Germany already clinching the tie he was replaced by a young Marin Cilic. "God saved me," Ancic, known for his work ethic and willingness to play through injuries, said in an interview in 2007. Ancic re-emerged on the tour but was never the same and a teary-eyed Croatian had to retire two years ago aged 26. Andy Murray, the current world No. 2, feared he had mono four years ago, and it's an illness he's still wary of, telling the Daily Telegraph in March: "You can get run down and end up missing two or three months of the year because of an illness. "Your immune system gets run down and then you lose weight. It's happened with a lot of guys with glandular fever the last few years so it's something everyone has to look into." Continuous travel, training . Former pro Justin Gimelstob isn't surprised that tennis players are susceptible. The players have to, at times, switch continents on a weekly basis, and they travel 10-11 months in a year. Unlike golf, cricket or Formula One, others sports that require continual global travel, the players also push themselves to the limit physically. The career of Gimelstob, who now commentates and serves as a player representative on the ATP World Tour's board of directors, was blighted by a back injury. "I think that's the thing people don't understand -- the heightened intensity does damage to your body, immune system, energy levels, on the fitness of your muscles, ligaments, tendons," Gimelstob said. "It's just a very tough sport. I truly believe that Nadal, Murray, (Novak) Djokovic and Federer, these guys aren't only the best tennis athletes in the world, they are some of the best athletes in the world. "There's a whole culture of being tough and strong and pushing through pain and being a warrior. "But I can tell you right now at 37 years old walking my dog, my body feels the brunt of probably doing a lot of things and pushing through barriers I probably shouldn't have. That's the product of an individual sport." At first Leslie Findley, a consultant neurologist in England who has treated marathon runners, footballers and tennis players with mono, said it was a "myth" that those involved in tennis are more vulnerable than other athletes. But he subsequently acknowledged that when factoring in their travel, the severity of the illness can intensify. "We know people with fatigue illnesses related to the effects of viruses travel badly," he said. "If you take someone with a chronic fatigue syndrome and stick them on an airplane at (London's) Heathrow to the United States they'll do an eight-hour flight. That can have a devastating effect on them for days afterwards." Preventing mono can be difficult, but Findley said it's important that players heed warnings. If they suddenly develop a cold, fever, sore throat or stomach issues, it's vital to rest instead of continuing to train and play matches. Stopping not easy . As Gimelstob pointed out and Findley knows through his own experience in working with sportsmen and women, that isn't always easy. "When you and I have the flu, we go to bed and within a week or two we'd be back to normal," Findley said. "Why these people get symptoms that go on for weeks, months and years is usually because -- and I'm now generalizing -- they don't stop when they have the first symptoms and tend to push through, and they're under stress." Diagnosing mono isn't simple, either, said Findley. He said there is a lack of specialists and that doing a battery of tests at the outset may not be efficient. He will usually spend nearly two hours talking to patients in a first consultation before making a clinical diagnosis. "Then there are a limited number of blood tests that need to be done to make sure there is nothing else contributing to it," Findley said. The women's tennis tour said in an email that player health and well being was a "priority." But the age of many of its pros is another reason why tennis players would appear to be at risk. "Mononucleosis most commonly occurs in people between the ages of 15 and 24, which is our athlete population," said Kathleen Stroia, senior vice president, sport sciences and medicine & transitions, with the WTA. The men's tour said in an email that mono "has not been of unusual concern for the players or the ATP Medical Services." "Professional athletes are not immune to illnesses which affect the general public in general," said Gary Windler, medical advisor to the ATP World Tour. "While we are concerned about and take all injuries and illness seriously, and although some high profile players have suffered from glandular fever in recent years, the incidence of this particular illness amongst our players in general has not been unusually high." McHale didn't think her tour needed to do more to help players. "I think we're probably more susceptible to getting it because our bodies are more run down from traveling so much," she said. "Also sometimes I take a water bottle -- they all look the same -- to the court and all of a sudden I'm like, 'This wasn't my water bottle.' Sometimes it gets transferred like that. "I know a lot of my friends have gotten it. They're not athletes. For them it wasn't a big issue. It's amplified when you're an athlete." Tough comeback for McHale . Her road back hasn't been smooth. McHale, like others before her, didn't stop playing for a while. But after losing five straight matches, she finally decided to sit out the remainder of 2012 and not contest the European indoor swing. The losing streak rose to eight by the time this January's Australian Open ended. As high as No. 24 in the world last summer, her health issues largely contributed to her ranking sliding to 55th. She has resumed training fully and played for nearly three hours against 2012 French Open finalist Sara Errani in Rome on Wednesday but knows she must be careful. "They did tell me there's a chance I could get a relapse, so I have to take it easy if I'm feeling extremely exhausted," she said. "But I think I'm past that point. I don't feel any side effects of what I had. I feel like I'm fully over it now. I was lucky my case wasn't extremely bad like some others."

Some of tennis' biggest names, including Roger Federer, have been felled by mono . Extensive training, matches and traveling may make players more vulnerable . Diagnosing the illness can be difficult, says an expert who has worked with athletes with mono . The men's tennis tour says cases of mono haven't been unusually high .

(CNN) -- Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who drew heavy criticism from Republicans over her statements after the September attacks on a U.S. diplomatic mission, withdrew her name from consideration for secretary of state on Thursday. In a letter to President Barack Obama, she said "the confirmation process would be lengthy, disruptive, and costly -- to you and to our most pressing national and international priorities. That trade-off is simply not worth it to our country." Obama acknowledged her letter in a statement that described her as "an extraordinarily capable, patriotic, and passionate public servant." He will meet with Rice Friday at the White House, National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said. Read Rice's letter to the President . She was thought to be a frontrunner for the post, which Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she would vacate as soon as a successor is confirmed. Democrat 'extremely upset' with Rice's withdrawal . But Rice drew criticism for her description of the September 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, which killed four including the U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens. On several television programs several days after the attack, she described a protest of an anti-Islam video outside the mission buildings. She said her comments were based on declassified talking points, and sources within the intelligence community said the talking points were not modified by any other body, such as the White House. She further explained her decision to withdraw and defended herself Thursday in a piece for the Washington Post, writing: "I have never sought in any way, shape or form to mislead the American people. ... Even before I was nominated for any new position, a steady drip of manufactured charges painted a wholly false picture of me." Obama had defended her, describing the criticism from several key Republicans as "outrageous." "If Senator (John) McCain and Senator (Lindsey) Graham and others want to go after someone, they should go after me," Obama said at a White House news conference in late November. "When they go after the U.N. ambassador, apparently because they think she's an easy target, then they've got a problem with me." She visited Capitol Hill in an attempt to answer what the legislators called "unanswered questions," but her visit there appeared to backfire. Senators who sat in on the meetings said her appearances raised more questions than they answered. 5 questions on Susan Rice . Her closed-door meetings "really hurt her," one knowledgeable Democratic source said. "She probably underestimated the club." The longer Rice went un-nominated, the source said, the worse her prospects appeared. It was "better to get out now" so that Obama could begin announcing a national security slate as early as next week. In a statement, Clinton called Rice "an indispensable partner over the past four years." "From the National Security Council to the State Department to the United Nations, Susan has worked tirelessly to advance our nation's interests and values. I am confident that she will continue to represent the United States with strength and skill," Clinton said. After Rice's Thursday announcement, Graham said in a statement: "I respect Ambassador Rice's decision. President Obama has many talented people to choose from to serve as our next secretary of state." Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid described Republican opposition to Rice's possible nomination as "shameful." "Ambassador Rice is eminently qualified to serve as Secretary of State and she could have been confirmed by the Senate. The politically motivated attacks on her character from some of my Republican colleagues were shameful," the Nevada Democrat said in a statement. "Their behavior was a disgrace to the Senate's tradition of bipartisan cooperation on national security issues and beneath the stature of senators with otherwise distinguished records on national security." Rice's decision to not seek the post now leaves Sen. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, as the presumed frontrunner for the spot. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and other high-ranking officials are also expected to depart soon. Kerry praised Rice as "an extraordinarily capable and dedicated public servant" in a statement after her announcement. "I've known and worked closely with Susan Rice not just at the U.N., but in my own campaign for president. I've defended her publicly and wouldn't hesitate to do so again because I know her character and I know her commitment," he wrote. "We should all be grateful that she will continue to serve and contribute at the highest level. As someone who has weathered my share of political attacks and understands on a personal level just how difficult politics can be, I've felt for her throughout these last difficult weeks, but I also know that she will continue to serve with great passion and distinction." Kerry's road to the State Department, should he be nominated, would appear to be smoother than Rice's. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said after Rice's announcement that Kerry would be a "popular choice with the Senate." Obama's cabinet: Who's in, who's out? Another Senate Republican, Rob Portman of Ohio, named Kerry as one of Obama's "better choices" for the spot, according to The New York Times. But despite his lauded role assisting Obama in preparing for the presidential debates this fall, Kerry is understood to be less of an Obama confidante than Rice. Kerry is a decorated veteran who served two tours of duty in Vietnam before his career as a lawyer and then in the U.S. Senate. His assignments there include the chairmanship of the Foreign Relations Committee. Should Kerry step down before his term ends in 2014, Gov. Deval Patrick, a Democrat, would appoint a temporary replacement to hold the seat until a special election could be held. The special election race would likely include Sen. Scott Brown, who won in a special election three years ago but lost his bid for a full term, as well as Democratic Rep. Ed Markey, who is seriously considering a bid should Kerry's seat open, a Democratic source said. On Thursday, Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-New Hampshire said she had "respect" for Rice's decision, "however, my concerns regarding the terrorist attack in Benghazi go beyond any one individual. I remain deeply troubled by the continued lack of information from the White House and the State Department. With four of our public servants murdered, it is critical that we get to the bottom of what happened." Ayotte told CNN after the late November meeting with Rice, Graham, and McCain, "Certainly she misled the American public." Opinion: A lucky day for Susan Rice . Former CIA Director David Petraeus, who resigned last month after admitting to an extramarital affair, returned to Capitol Hill to testify on the attacks, and Clinton is scheduled to testify next week. Sen. Susan Collins, the moderate Republican from Maine, said through a spokesman that the Senate Homeland Security Committee, where she serves as ranking member, would continue its investigation into the Benghazi attack. She had raised her own questions about Rice's potential nomination after a private meeting with the ambassador. The Thursday decision was Rice's own; she was not asked to step aside in the consideration process, a former administration official who had knowledge of her decision said. "She has got a lot of honor, a lot of dignity, a lot of patriotism. This was a completely manufactured distraction, and she was determined to put her country first," the former official said. "No nominee for secretary of state has been subjected to such a sustained campaign of politicization and slander. And it is really troubling." Madeleine Albright, who was the first woman to serve as secretary of state and has known Rice for decades, said Rice is "brilliant" and described her withdrawal from consideration as "sad." "I think it is genuinely, genuinely sad because she is one of the smartest people that I know and completely dedicated to serving the United States," Albright told CNN. Rice "put the country and the president ahead of her own ambition. It just shows what a tremendously thoughtful and good and responsible person she is." In her letter to Obama, Rice wrote "the position of secretary of state should never be politicized." "As someone who grew up in an era of comparative bipartisanship and as a sitting U.S. national security official who has served in two U.S. administrations, I am saddened that we have reached this point, even before you have decided whom to nominate," she wrote. "We can not afford such an irresponsible distraction from the most pressing issues facing the American people." Rice served in President Bill Clinton's administration on the National Security Council, eventually leading African affairs for the council and serving as a special assistant to the president. She was confirmed by the Senate as the top diplomat to the U.N. in January 2009. If Rice had been nominated, she would have faced criticism from religious leaders about her role in the Clinton administration's handling of the Rwandan genocide in the 1990s. U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said on CNN that Rice's decision was "probably for the best." "I think Ambassador Rice was facing an uphill battle in the senate for any confirmation she may have received," he said. Asked in an interview Thursday on NBC whether she wanted the top diplomatic post, Rice replied that she "would have been very honored to serve in that job." She added, "But yeah, sure. How can you not want to -- in my field -- serve at the highest possible level?" Opinion: An unfair portrait of Susan Rice . CNN's Jessica Yellin, Jim Acosta, Dana Bash, Gloria Borger, Elise Labott, Jamie Crawford, Paul Steinhauser and Gregory Wallace contributed to this report .

NEW: Sen. Harry Reid: Republican attacks on Rice's character were "shameful" Susan Rice withdraws from consideration as secretary of state . Nomination would be "be lengthy, disruptive, and costly," she says in letter to president . Republican critics "respect" Rice's decision, vow to continue Benghazi inquiry .

(CNN) -- It started with the denial of a growing health crisis. Nearly 40% of Georgia's children are overweight or obese -- the second-highest rate in the nation -- yet 50% of Georgians don't consider child obesity a problem. What's more, 75% of parents of obese children don't think they have a problem on their hands, according to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, the state's largest pediatric health care system. In response, Children's Healthcare crafted an ad campaign intended to highlight the roles of parents and caregivers in the widening epidemic. The posters and TV spots of obese children with doleful eyes were as stark as their accompanying messages: "Being fat takes the fun out of being a kid," and "It's hard to be a little girl if you're not," to name a few. "We felt that because there was so much denial that we needed to make people aware that this is a medical crisis," Chief Administrative Officer Linda Matzigkeit said. "We knew flowery ads don't get people's attention. We wanted to come up with something arresting and hard-hitting to grab people." The buzz began almost as soon as the ads started appearing in September on billboards, buses and train platforms around Atlanta. Critics felt images from the Strong4Life campaign were too negative and perpetuated weight-based stereotypes without providing concrete solutions. "There seems to be this perception that it's OK to shame children and families struggling with obesity because that will provide an incentive to lose weight," said Rebecca Puhl, director of research and weight stigma initiatives at the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at Yale University. "However, research in weight bias shows that when individuals feel shamed or stigmatized because of weight they're actually more likely to engage in behaviors that reinforce obesity: unhealthy eating, avoidance of physical activity, increased caloric intake." The TV spots stopped airing in Georgia in October and most of the billboards have come down. But conversations around the campaign continued online and in media coverage worldwide, raising debate over what makes an ad effective when it comes to combating obesity. Mommy bloggers take on anti-obesity ads . As far as Children's Healthcare is concerned, the fact that the ads sparked debate means they achieved their goal, regardless of the reaction. "Our intention was to get people talking about childhood obesity and we did that. We can't do this alone; it's going to take a whole community of physicians, parents and caregivers to solve the problem," Matzigkeit said. "If parents continue to be in denial we're not going to get past this crisis." It's a crisis that has been fostered by a culture of convenience: fast food, calorie-dense meals and car-centric cities slowly building up to national obesity rates of 33.8% among adults and 17% in children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Stormy Bradley realizes now that she was one of those parents who didn't recognize her daughter had a real problem. "It's just a phase; she'll grow out of it," she told herself. "I think I should've been more proactive earlier on," the Atlanta mother said. "I just didn't want to have a conversation that would upset her or put a rift between us, also because I knew that would mean me having to face my own issues with weight." Then, Bradley saw an ad on Facebook in February 2011 looking for overweight children. She asked her 13-year-old daughter, Maya Walters, if she was interested and at the audition, the two learned about the substance of the ads. They also heard about the potential backlash they could face if she accepted the part. "I was a little bit hesitant but then when I thought about it, I was like well it'll be a good message to other kids like me," Maya said. What's the message? "Being overweight is a problem, but you're not the only one dealing with it," she said. Feedback from her peers has been positive, she said -- most were surprised to see her on TV and billboards. She also became involved in the media blitz defending the ads, appearing on local news and the Today Show. Through the experience, Maya and her mother were offered the chance to utilize the hospital's Health4Life clinic, where she developed small changes to her daily routine through consultations with doctors, psychologists, nutritionists and exercise physiologists. And, she's sticking with it, she and mother attested. Fruits are surprisingly filling, she said. She can't remember the last time she drank soda after giving up sugary beverages for water and the occasional packet of sugar-free drink mix. She typically exercises at least 30 minutes a day, either by walking the dog with her mom or going to the park or playing on the Wii her younger brother. By the time school began last fall, she was ready to try out for the cheerleading squad and made it, which means two training sessions a week along with two to three games. "The smaller things definitely make a change," she said in a phone interview Sunday as she and her mother drove to a "Black Girls Run" event in Lithonia, Georgia. "It's very hilly in my neighborhood but now when I walk the dog I don't get as tired. With cheerleading, we have to run a mile at least. And before I couldn't do the whole thing but now I can." Maya came to the campaign as a paid model, but the hospital considers her an example of how Strong4Life helps children set goals for a healthy lifestyle, complete with videos documenting their journeys. She's not the only one, according to the hospital. The Health4Life Clinic had 350 patient visits in 2010 and nearly 600 patient visits in 2011, with physicians treating more than 100 children with fatty liver disease and/or cirrhosis, conditions that are rarely seen among children who are not overweight. The multi-disciplinary approach is widely regarded as an effective tool in helping families make small changes in their daily routine. But among critics, those tools were buried far too deep within the initial ad campaign. "The stark settings, their forlorn looks and body language convey an image of kids who are alone and don't have the support of the community. They teach us that we should feel sorry for fat kids and that it's normal to tease and abuse them," said Amy Farrell, author of "Fat Shame: Stigma and the Fat Body in American Culture." "The approach should be to try to change those ideas with positive messages that encourage kids, parents and the community to get involved in encouraging kids to be active and eat well," said Farrell, a professor of American studies and Women's & Gender Studies at Dickinson College. In recent weeks, critics of Strong4Life's ads have compared them to a new campaign encouraging New Yorkers to cut their portion sizes. The Health Department's posters also employ austere black-and-white scenes of obese people, but the messaging is more direct. One poster shows a man with his leg amputated below his knee, crutches leaning against the wall, with the message "Portions Have Grown: So Has Type 2 Diabetes, Which Can Lead to Amputations." Still, the poster is generating controversy for a different reason, after the New York Times revealed that the image had been digitally altered to remove the man's leg. "This issue isn't about one actor, but rather the 700,000 New Yorkers who struggle with diabetes, which kills 1,700 people a year and causes amputations in another 3,000," Health Department spokesman John Kelly said in a statement to the paper. "Advertising to warn the public about health concerns saves lives, and we will continue our efforts to warn New Yorkers about diabetes." The hard-hitting tone of Children's Healthcare's ads were inspired by Georgia METH Project's "Not Even Once" campaign, along with other state-led campaigns against smoking and drug abuse, which tend to pair a minimalist aesthetic with brutal, straightforward wording. With smoking and drug abuse, the main targets of public health initiatives are users. But campaigns to combat obesity, especially childhood obesity, set their sights on those struggling with their weight, caregivers and the community -- essentially, society at large. "The target is everyone, whether they're fat or not, that somehow we should all be taking responsibility for what's perceived as an epidemic," said Farrell. "The stigma itself needs to be addressed itself because until we do that, why would a fat child want to go out on the playground and be teased? We want to create an environment where people are not treated so poorly because of their bodies that they'll want go out and enjoy physical movement." It's a sentiment that representatives from Children's Healthcare agree with, one that they say moves the discussion beyond an ad campaign to a movement that fosters healthier lifestyles. That means training pediatricians and health care providers on how to talk about obesity with families; it means giving families the tools to start making steps toward positive change. "If you look at steps it takes to initiate long-term change, the first thing you need is to be aware that there's a problem and then you need the intent to change," said Dr. Mark Wulkan, the hospital's chief surgeon and professor-in-chief of pediatric surgery at Emory Hospital in Atlanta. "The first phase of the ad campaign was about raising awareness and generating the intent to change. Now, it's becoming a movement, where we move on to changing the culture that has created this epidemic."

Ads meant to raise awareness among parents of child obesity epidemic, hospital says . Strong4Life ads being phased out but debate lingers over whether they did more harm than good . Critics say they reinforced negative stereotypes, failed to provide solutions . Hospital wants focus to shift from ads to steps that will change culture .

(CNN) -- In his State of the Union address, President Obama reaffirmed that the country's war in Afghanistan would be over by the end of 2014. He also laid out more specifics. Of the approximately 66,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan now, more than half -- 34,000 -- will come home in the next year, Obama said. At the same time, Afghan troops will assume most of the responsibility for combat missions. "This spring, our forces will move into a support role, while Afghan security forces take the lead," Obama said. It was previously expected that Afghan forces would take the lead in combat missions by the middle of this year. But a U.S. official told CNN that the military transition has accelerated and that Afghans will lead all security operations by March. What does this news mean for Afghanistan and America's longest war? Here are some key questions that will be asked in the coming months: . 1. Are the Afghan troops up to the task? There are certainly doubts. A Pentagon review in December claimed that only one of 23 Afghan army brigades was capable of functioning on its own. Meanwhile, literacy rates are low, desertion rates are high, and many deserters have joined the insurgency. There also have been a troubling number of "green-on-blue" attacks: Afghan troops attacking their American comrades. But Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has spoken positively about the progress Afghans have made in growing their army, reducing violence and becoming more self-sufficient. Afghan forces now lead nearly 90% of operations across the country. "We're on the right path to give (Afghanistan) the opportunity to govern itself," Panetta said earlier this month. Afghan President Hamid Karzai said he welcomes the U.S. troop withdrawal and insists his army can defend the country against the Taliban. "It is exactly our job to deal with it, and we are capable of dealing with it," Karzai said during an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour. What the army needs now, Karzai says, is more equipment and firepower. He came to the Pentagon last month with a wish list asking for more helicopters, drones and other hardware, according to a senior defense official. "We need an air force. We need air mobility," Karzai told Amanpour. "We need proper mechanized forces. We need, you know, armored vehicles and tanks and all that." 2. What presence will the U.S. have after 2014? The plan is to withdraw all combat troops but keep a residual force in the country to help train Afghans and carry out counterterrorism operations when needed. The size of that force is still being discussed. Gen. John Allen, the former commander of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, recommended between 6,000 and 15,000 troops. But that figure was lowered to a range between 2,500 and 9,000, according to a defense official. There might not be any U.S. troops at all if the United States cannot come to an agreement over immunity with Afghanistan. There was no American presence in Iraq at the end of that war because the Iraqi government refused to extend legal protections to U.S. troops. Karzai, who's in favor of a residual force, said he would put the immunity decision in the hands of Afghan elders, and he expressed confidence that he could persuade the elders to see things his way. Leaving no U.S. troops at all would be a major misstep, said Peter Bergen, CNN's national security analyst. He said the U.S. has abandoned Afghanistan already, in 1989, and the decision left America with little understanding of the power vacuum that led to the Taliban's rise in the first place. "The current public discussion of zero U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan ... will encourage those hardliner elements of the Taliban who have no interest in a negotiated settlement and believe they can simply wait the Americans out," Bergen wrote in an op-ed for CNN.com. "It also discourages the many millions of Afghans who see a longtime U.S. presence as the best guarantor that the Taliban won't come back in any meaningful way." 3. What's at stake? The main fear among the Afghan people is that the country could revert to another civil war once the United States withdraws its combat troops. The Taliban are still "resilient and determined," according to a recent Pentagon report, and insurgents continue to carry out attacks and pose a major security threat. "Some people we've spoken to sort of take it for granted that there's going to be a civil war when the United States leaves," said CNN's Erin Burnett on a recent trip to Afghanistan. "It happened before when the Soviet Union left (in 1989)." For all the violence Afghanistan has seen in the past decade, it has also seen major advancements in human rights and quality of life. "During the Taliban, basically there were thousands of girls going to school in Afghanistan. Now you have millions of girls going to school," Burnett said. "So there's been real progress on women's rights. Obviously there remain a lot of problems -- honor killings, forced marriages, domestic violence -- but there has been real progress." Retired Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, once America's top commander in Afghanistan, said the Afghan people are "terrified." "They're terrified because they think they have something to lose," McChrystal said. "There has been progress made. There is a better life. There are girls in school. There are things that are better than they were and opportunities potentially ahead. "But they're afraid that if we completely abandon them in 2014, as they perceive we did in 1989, (things) would all go back." And in Washington, there are worries that the wrong move could put the United States right back where it started, with nothing to show for a bloody conflict that started in 2001. Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Buck McKeon, R-California, expressed concern last week that a hasty withdrawal could be "needlessly fraught with risk." "Since the president took the commendable step of deploying a surge to Afghanistan in 2009, we have known that our hard-fought gains are fragile and reversible," McKeon said. "That isn't my assessment, but the consistent opinion of experts both military and civilian." 4. Who will lead after Karzai? Afghanistan's only president of this century won't be in charge for much longer. Elections are scheduled for April 2014, and Karzai has reached the term limit set by his country's constitution. He told Amanpour it's "absolutely time to go." "A new president will come to this country. A new government will come to this country. And I'll be a happily retired civil servant," he said. So while Afghanistan oversees a major military transition, it also will have to make a political transition. Who will lead the country during this critical moment in its history? Will the vote go smoothly, without violence and without controversy? There were reports of ballot tampering and other violations in the last one. The answers might be just as important to Afghanistan's security as the readiness of its troops. "The single biggest challenge for us is the political transition, the elections of 2014," said Saad Mohseni, the media mogul behind Afghanistan's Tolo Television. "(If) we have credible elections, I think we'll be OK for the next five, six years. (If) we don't, there is a real danger that we'll see instability, especially in 2014 as the U.S. troops withdraw." 5. What part will the Taliban play? Despite the ongoing insurgency, Karzai seems eager to resume stalled peace talks with the Taliban and include them in the political process. The Taliban pulled out of talks last year, but Karzai said last month they "are very much conveying to us that they want to have peace talks. They're also people. They're also families. They also suffer, like the rest of Afghans are suffering." Javid Ahmad, a Kabul native now with the Asia Program of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, believes revitalized peace talks are essential to Afghanistan's future and to the legacy of America's war. "If withdrawing responsibly in 2014 is indeed high on President Obama's agenda, then he has little choice but to prioritize and accelerate the peace talks, negotiate a cease-fire between all sides, and reach a settlement that ensures that the Taliban lay down their weapons," Ahmad wrote in a recent column. But will the Taliban be willing to cooperate? And if they enter negotiations, how much of an influence would they have on an Afghan society that has seen so many changes in the past decade? "There have to be some red lines," said Jawed Ludin, Afghanistan's deputy foreign minister for political affairs. "Some of the achievements that we've had in the last 10 years can't be negotiated." Karzai sounded confident that most of the Taliban would acknowledge this. "I think there is now a critical mass in Afghanistan of the educated, of the Afghan people who want a future of progress and stability," he said. "And I think also that the Taliban recognize that this corner has been turned, the majority of them. Some may be there among them who would not -- who would remain, you know, in the darkest of the mindset possible. But those are a few." CNN's Chris Lawrence, Mike Mount and Jake Tapper contributed to this report.

President Obama has revealed new details about the troop withdrawal in Afghanistan . But there are several key issues that still must be resolved in the coming months . The Afghan military has its critics, but the U.S. has praised its progress . There are fears that Afghanistan's advancements might be at risk after 2014 .

(CNN) -- A young black man runs with the ball at his feet, living out his dream of playing on the world stage. Around him, amidst an intimidating, vicious atmosphere, the noises begin. First, the boos, then the monkey noises. The incessant chanting, the vitriolic abuse, the gestures and then, the indignity of receiving punishment for having the temerity to stand your ground. Welcome to Serbia 2012, or should that be Bristol 1909? Racism row shines light on Serbian football . At first glance, Walter Tull, an officer in the British Army during the First World War and England Under-21 footballer Danny Rose appear to have little in common. Rose is a successful Premier League footballer, at the start of a promising career, which he hopes will see him become a full international. Before he was killed in the Great War, Tull was a pioneering black footballer, who blazed a trail for black stars of the future such as Brendan Batson, Laurie Cunningham, Viv Anderson and Cyril Regis. One man is on our television screen with pictures being sent around the world, the other has no grave, only an inscription on the memorial wall at the Fauborg-Amiens war cemetery and memorial at Arras. Black pioneer . But Tull's story, recorded some 93 years ago, could not be more apt given what Rose was forced to endure in Krusevac. While most were left stunned by Rose being sent off for his reaction to being targeted by racist chanting, the tale is all too familiar for those who know their history. Tull became the first black outfield player to to compete in the top-flight of the English league after signing for Tottenham Hotspur in 1909. Like Rose, he too suffered racial abuse from the stands with his career almost disappearing from history and public consciousness. Lazio hit by UEFA racism fine . That it didn't is largely thanks to two men, writer and producer Phil Vasili and director David Thacker, who are taking Tull's story to the stage and eventually the big screen. While the film surrounding Tull's life is scheduled to coincide with 2014's 100th anniversary of the Great War, the play will open in February in Bolton. "I think the play will be very topical," said Vasili, author of the biography Walter Tull, 1888-1918: Officer, Footballer. "It's quite poignant that the play should start so soon given what happened to Rose in Serbia. "What happened to Rose, happened to Walter around 93 years previously and both were victimized twice. "Rose was racially abused and then sent off, Walter was also abused before being dropped by Tottenham and eventually sold. "Both men were punished twice. It's funny how something which happened nearly a century ago could be so relevant." Terry decides against appealing FA racism verdict . If it wasn't for Vasili's work the story of the man who changed the face of football for black Britons could have been confined to the scrapheap of history. Although Arthur Wharton, a goalkeeper from Ghana, was the first professional black player to have competed at the top level in England, it is Tull who is credited with being a pioneer as he was the first black outfield player. Giant strides . Initially Vasili's attempts to get publishers or media outlets interested in Tull's story appeared to hit a dead end. "I first came across him in 1993 and there was nothing contemporary about him, he had almost become forgotten," Vasili recalled. "In the first years, I couldn't get anyone interested in it. Over time, the interest has grown and he's now got publicity. "With the play and the film, we're hoping to show people that whatever obstacles you face, you can achieve the things you strive for. "On a political level, things are never simplistic. Britain may have been a different place for black people at that time and there was prejudice. "But at the same time, there were a number of progressive institutions and people who helped the black community and Walter on their way. Cameron hosts talks on football racism . "Symbolically, Britain has been a multicultural place for a long time. Tull had a black father and a white mother and if you look at the number of mixed-race footballers, he led the way for them." But what would Tull have made of the recent events in Serbia? And what would he have though of the John Terry racism saga that has proved so divisive for English footall over the last year? "I think he would have been very sad," said Vasili. "Britain is a different place today than it was when Walter was alive and there have been giant strides. "He was the only black outfield player in the top division at one time and now that isn't the case. He was a great role model and led the way for those that play today." Football pioneer: Andrew Watson - the first black international . Tull, who was born in Folkestone, Kent, on April 28, 1888, endured a difficult childhood with illness, death and poverty plaguing the family. The grandson of slaves in Barbados, his father arrived in England in 1876 following abolition some 43 years earlier. Walter's mother, Alice, died when he was just seven before his father passed away two years later. With all six children surviving their parents' death, the demands on their stepmother, Clara, were too much to bear and Tull along with his brother Edward were taken to live in a Methodist orphanage in Bethnal Green, east London. When Edward was adopted two years later by a couple from Glasgow and went on to become the first black dentist in the city, Walter turned to football to help with his solitude. It was here, while training to be a printer, Walter caught the eye with his football skills and soon won a trial with amateur side Clapton F.C. Vitriolic racism . His success, which helped the club win the Amateur Cup, London Senior Cup and London County Amateur Cup in the 1908-1909 season, secured him a dream move to Tottenham Hotspur. The transfer made Walter just the second black professional player in the English top division and the first outfield player. After making his debut at the age of 21, Walter enjoyed success at Tottenham until a vitriolic episode of racism at Bristol City in October 1909. Crime and punishment in sport: Laying down the law? "The game at Bristol was the first time I came across racism being mentioned in a match report," said Vasili. "In previous reports, writers would use coded language such as 'Tull took unwarranted abuse' but there was no hiding it in this Bristol game." The Football Star described the Bristol City fans racist chants as "lower than Billingsgate", while another newspaper labeled it as "a cowardly attack". One reporter vented his fury by writing, "Let me tell those Bristol hooligans that Tull is so clean in his mind and method as to be a model for all white men who play football." The episode appeared to embarrass Tottenham, which promptly dropped Tull from the team and sold him to Northampton Town. Under Herbert Chapman, the future manager of Arsenal, Walter enjoyed great success, making 110 appearances and attracting the interest of Scottish giants Glasgow Rangers. The First World War broke out in 1914, with Tull signing up to the 17th Service Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment, which was nicknamed, "The Diehards". Cole apologizes for outburst over Terry racism case . He was involved in combat at the end of the Battle of the Somme between October and November 1916, before being sent back to England suffering from trench foot and shell shock. After making a full recovery, Walter was ordered to go up to Scotland to the Officer Training Corps, despite military regulations forbidding those who were not of "pure European descent" from becoming officers. Military bravery . In May 1917, he was appointed an officer, despite it being technically illegal. "I guess he never received the medal because the rules at the time prohibited it," added Vasili. "Perhaps those on the ground didn't realize and some civil servant or bureaucrat must have pointed it out. "They couldn't have given an award to a black soldier and not a white soldier at the time." Walter's military success continued as he became the first black officer in the British Army to lead troops into battle. In Italy, he led his men at the Battle of Piave and was commended for his outstanding leadership abilities by his peers. Walter's efforts did not go unnoticed and he was recommended for the Military Cross, but never received it. Chelsea defender Cole charged with misconduct after abusive tweet . After finishing in Italy, Walter was transferred to the Somme Valley in France. It was on March 25, 1918 while trying to escape a German advance at Favreuil, that he was fatally injured by machine gun fire. "Such was Walter's bond with his men that even with the machine guns firing, his men still tried to recover his body," said Vasili. "They risked their lives to try and bring him back because he was a person who they all looked up to and respected. He was a very humble character, who wanted to be judged by his actions and deeds. "I think that his Methodist background gave him a code to live by and helped guide him through life." Tull, the play, is at the Octagon Theatre in Bolton from February 21 and March 16.

Walter Tull was the first professional black outfield player in the English top division . Tull signed for Tottenham Hotspur after glittering amateur season with Clapton . Joined the Footballer's Batallion at outbreak of World War One and was made an officer . Was gunned down just a month before his 30th birthday during fierce fighting in France .

Washington (CNN) -- Republican leaders will propose cutting more spending to balance the amount of additional disaster relief money in a short-term government spending measure defeated earlier by the House, two Republican sources told CNN on Thursday. The additional spending cut, called an offset, would be roughly $100 million from a Department of Energy loan program linked to the solar panel firm Solyndra, which recently collapsed, said the sources -- a GOP aide and a Republican member of Congress -- who spoke on condition of not being identified. The plan, which faces sharp Democratic opposition, could pave the way for a partial government shutdown when the current fiscal year ends on September 30 if it is not resolved. Debate on the measure began late Thursday night, with a vote set for that night or early on Friday morning. The Democratic-controlled Senate won't take action until at least Friday, having already adjourned for the day. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid blasted it as "not an honest effort at compromise," criticizing its Republicans supporters of moving "even further towards the tea party (and insisting) on holding out on Americans who have suffered devastating losses." "It fails to provide the relief that our fellow Americans need as they struggle to rebuild their lives in the wake of floods, wildfires and hurricanes, and it will be rejected by the Senate," said the Nevada Democrat, warning the Federal Emergency Management Agency could "run out of money as soon as Monday." The move was intended to persuade the 48 Republicans who voted against the GOP measure Wednesday night to change their minds, according to the GOP aide. Language in a proposed amendment to the Senate bill, for instance, would rescind "the unobligated balances remaining" for the energy loan program. Democrats in the House and Senate said Thursday they oppose any offsets to counter the emergency spending for natural disasters, and the Republican strategy sets up a another budget showdown in Congress -- this time over the short-term spending measure that would fund the government for the first seven weeks of the new fiscal year, which begins October 1. On Thursday night, senior Senate Democratic leadership aide said the party's caucus is united against Republican-tailored versions of the measure. "We are looking for a real attempt to compromise, not just an attempt to appease their own people," the aide said. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, earlier insisted to reporters that an agreement would be reached and the spending measure passed to prevent a possible partial government shutdown. "There is no threat of a government shutdown. Let's just get this out there," Boehner said. In addition to the disagreement over offsets, the Democratic-controlled Senate differs with the House on how much emergency money the measure would provide for disaster relief in the wake of Hurricane Irene, Tropical Storm Lee, wildfires and tornadoes this year. Failure by Congress to pass the measure would mean a partial government shutdown at midnight next Friday. However, the political fallout of such an impasse with a public already angered by congressional stalemate as an election year approaches makes a shutdown unlikely. "What we've been trying to avoid are these constant scrums we have over government functioning the way it should," Reid, D-Nevada, told reporters earlier Thursday. Speaking before news of the additional offset provision added by House Republicans, Reid proclaimed himself "cautiously optimistic" an agreement would be reached. With Congress scheduled to begin a week-long recess on Friday that would run through the end of the fiscal year, leaders began considering the possible necessity of delaying the break to complete work on the short-term spending measure. Reid said the Senate is "ready to stay in Washington next week." And in a message to House members, Cantor's office said "members are advised that a weekend session is now possible." Asked about the possibility of a weekend session, Boehner said Thursday: "I surely hope not." The House vote Wednesday was 195 "yea" and 230 "nay," with 48 Republicans joining all but a handful of minority Democrats in opposing the short-term spending plan. Most of Republicans who voted "no" were conservatives who believed the overall spending level in the measure is too high. The failed vote was a second rebuke of Boehner and the House Republican leadership by members elected to Congress last year with the support of the conservative tea party movement to give the GOP majority control. During the debt ceiling debate in July, Boehner had to withdraw his own plan for deficit reduction at one point when it became clear he lacked sufficient support within his caucus to get it passed. This time, the speaker threatened members with pulling them from committee assignments if they failed to support the continuing resolution on Wednesday, according to a Republican source who attended the GOP conference meeting. The source, speaking on condition of not being identified, said Boehner "cracked the whip" at the Wednesday morning meeting and told Republicans bluntly they needed to back the measure or he'd go to the steering committee and start pulling committee assignments for members who didn't vote for it. The Republican steering committee approves member committee assignments. On Thursday, Boehner shrugged off the defeat as the price of trying to get legislation through the democratic process. "I have no fear in allowing the House to work its will," he said, adding: "Does it make my life a little more difficult? Yes it does." Rep. Bill Huizenga of Michigan, a conservative freshman Republican who opposed the resolution, said removing the offset provision -- as Democrats want -- would be "more problematic for me and probably for more of the caucus." Asked if he was concerned about Boehner's threat to take away committee posts, Huizenga said: "It's far less of a concern than going back home and not being able to explain my vote." The Republican-based amendments relate to a federal loan program meant to promote alternate energy and also boost the economy. It is the same program that funded Solyndra, which declared bankruptcy late last month despite receiving a $535 million federal guarantee in 2009. The energy department is facing a September 30 deadline to give 14 companies final approval for loan guarantees totaling more than $9 billion. The continuing resolution, which would fund government agencies through November 18, would allocate fewer resources to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers for disaster response than approved by the Senate last week. Additional funds are needed because the string of disasters this year has depleted the FEMA and Army Corps of Engineers coffers supporting recovery and rebuilding efforts. The House measure included a total of $3.6 billion in disaster relief money -- $1 billion in emergency funds available when the bill is enacted and another $2.6 billion to be budgeted for those federal response agencies for the 2012 fiscal year that begins October 1. In addition, House Republican leaders insist that the $1 billion in immediate disaster funding be offset with $1.5 billion in cuts to a loan program that helps automakers retool their operations to make more fuel-efficient cars. Earlier this month, President Barack Obama asked Congress for a total of $5.1 billion in additional disaster aid, $500 million of which was for immediate relief. Last week, the Senate passed a measure with bipartisan support that would provide $6.9 billion for FEMA and other federal agencies, to be used both for immediate disaster relief as well as in the new fiscal year. The Senate version required no spending offsets. Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 House Democrat, said his party would support the House measure if the offset provision were removed, as did Rep. Norm Dicks of Washington, the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee. On the Senate side, Reid indicated possible acceptance of the House proposal minus the offset, known as "pay-for" in legislative parlance. Asked if the amount of disaster funding in the House version is sufficient, Reid said: "The answer is no, it's not sufficient, but if they get rid of pay-for, we'll take a look at that." During floor debate on the measure, Hoyer and other Democrats complained that any kind of offset would be unprecedented for emergency funding to help Americans in need. "Even if they had the best offset in the world, I still think it's wrong" to require equivalent spending cuts when getting money to disaster victims, said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California. Conservative Republicans argued that the nation's expanding deficits require as much spending restraint as possible. "We're trying to effect change in a way that we spend taxpayer dollars. That's what this whole thing is about," Cantor, R-Virginia, said Wednesday night. "No one is denying anyone disaster aid if they need it, and we're trying to be responsible and to do the right thing." However, the inability of Cantor and the rest of the Republican leadership to push through the resolution showed the unstable politics at play. Democrats were nearly united in opposing the plan, meaning the Republicans couldn't afford the 48 defections from their ranks. For Boehner, voting against the Republican resolution amounted, in essence, to "voting to spend more money" in the end, he said Thursday. To Hoyer, the defeat of the GOP measure in the House "says that we are continuing to struggle to do things in a bipartisan fashion." If House Republicans "expect our votes, they have to work with us," he said. "They can't just give us something and say ... their way or the highway." "They've shown that they can't govern," Rep. Steve Israel, D-New York, said of the House Republicans. "We could work this out with them in the spirit of bipartisanship, but they cannot work it out with themselves." CNN's Tom Cohen and Ted Barrett contributed to this report.

NEW: Majority Leader Reid says the GOP-backed bill "will be rejected by the Senate" NEW: The Senate is "ready to stay in Washington next week," he adds . A Democratic aide says Senate Democrats are united against an offset to the bill . The added offset would cut a federal loan fund linked to a bankrupt solar energy firm .

(CNN)It was FIFA's handling of the report into bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups that convinced Luis Figo it was time to take a stand. The 42-year-old, a man of formidable football pedigree, confirmed to CNN in an exclusive interview on Wednesday he wants to replace Sepp Blatter as president of world soccer's governing body. After growing weary at FIFA's increasingly tarnished reputation, he's asked supporters the world over to follow his crusade to rehabilitate an organization he says has become a byword for scandal. The tipping point came towards the end of 2014, when FIFA opted not to publish a report by U.S. lawyer Michael Garcia into allegations of corruption during the race to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, releasing its own summary of his findings instead. "I think that was the moment of change and the moment I thought something had to be done," Figo told CNN anchor Alex Thomas. "If you are transparent and if you ask for an investigation, a report, which you have nothing to hide, why don't you make public that report? If you have nothing to hide about that, you have to do it." Having decided to run, and with a trophy-laden career to bolster his credibility, Figo now must convince the majority of FIFA's 209 member associations that he means business. The former Portugal captain has made transparency a key plank of his pitch for soccer's top job, underlining that a change in leadership and governance is the only way to revitalize FIFA's reputation. He also vowed to release more of FIFA's vast financial reserves to its federations in the hope of boosting the sport at grass roots level. And he gave short shrift to any suggestion that his candidacy was a publicity stunt, an accusation leveled at former France international David Ginola who recently launched his bid alongside a bookmaker and confirmed he was being paid for his involvement. "I don't need to be a candidate to get publicity. I had a fantastic career and I'm very proud of so many years playing at a high level," explained Figo. "I'm not getting paid. Fortunately I have a situation that allows me to pay for my candidature, and I'm lucky that I can pay my travels and support my expenses. "I think the organization is right now not a football organization-- it is more a political organization," he added referring to FIFA. "We have to care about the future of football, try to restore the leadership, the governance and big transparency and solidarity with the federations." Figo does not want for style or substance, but his decision to take aim at Blatter is a gamble. The 78-year-old has been ensconced in FIFA's corridors of power since 1998 and still enjoys firm support among its member associations despite the increasingly beleaguered nature of his rein. Many commentators see May's election as a forgone conclusion, but even if Figo is the only candidate to make his way onto the ballot paper it will still represent progress from 2011's ballot. Back then, Qatar's former FIFA member Mohamed Bin Hammam withdrew from the race after he was suspended on bribery charges, leaving Blatter to run unopposed. Figo joins a list of presidential hopefuls that includes Ginola, independent candidate Jerome Champagne, Asian Football Confederation vice-president Prince Ali and Michael van Praag, the head of Dutch football. Of those names, it is arguably only Figo who has the potential to loosen Blatter's stranglehold on FIFA's top job. "I can say I'm a real candidate after today and I'm looking forward to opening the debate and trying to get the support of many federations to have the chance to be the president," added Figo. "I think to [take] this step you have to be prepared. Of course I did my homework but I have a lot of things that I have to learn, to improve, but if your mind is open I think it's much more easy. "I have my ideas about what is football and what is good for improving FIFA but I think my experience of my career is a positive thing that allows me to understand a lot of the game. My first priority is to know from the federations what they need. "I think one important thing is to increase the solidarity payments to the federations, because right now FIFA has so many financial reserves that belong to the federations." Figo: A modern footballing great . Figo's glittering, and at times controversial, career began with Sporting Lisbon in Portugal before he moved to Spanish giants Barcelona in 1995, quickly establishing himself as one of its best players. Alongside an all-star cast that included Brazilian pair Rivaldo and Ronaldo, as well as Dutch striker Patrick Kluivert, Figo was part of the Barca team that won back-to-back La Liga titles in 1998 and 1999. He also won five cup competitions in Catalonia, including the UEFA Cup Winners Cup and the UEFA Super Cup in 1997. By this time Figo had established himself as one of the finest players in the world and one who was adored by the club's fans. So when it was announced he was leaving to join Barca's biggest rival, Real Madrid, it was seen as not just a betrayal of the club but the whole region. Then Barcelona president Joan Gaspart reacted to news that Real had activated Figo's £37.5 million ($56m) buyout clause by vowing: "I won't forget this. Someone who does this to me will pay for it." Figo was denounced as a "money-grabber" and was afforded a vitriolic reception on his first visit to Barcelona's Nou Camp stadium with his new club, though it would intensify in the 2003 season as coins, bottles and even a pig's head was thrown at him by a rancorous home support. But his defection to the Bernabeu helped Real re-establish themselves as Spain's pre-eminent force as they won the La Liga title in 2001, going on to secure a prized European Champions League crown the following season. His signing kick-started Real's "Galacticos" brand with stellar names such as Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo and David Beckham also acquired. By the time Figo left for Inter Milan in 2005 he had collected seven trophies -- the same amount he won at Barca. In Italy, Figo won four successive Serie A titles, one Italian Cup and three Italian Super Cups before retiring in 2009. Figo also represented his national team with distinction, becoming the country's most capped player with 127 appearances. Portugal made the semifinals of Euro 2000 and went out of the 2002 World Cup at the group stage before suffering a heart-breaking, shock defeat to Greece in the final of Euro 2004, which it hosted. He retired from international football at the 2006 World Cup, after he captained his side to the semifinals, where it was beaten by France. The race to become president . Figo's declaration means there are now five potential challengers to Blatter's throne, but two important hurdles must be overcome before any of them can officially join the race. First, they need to prove "an active role in association football for two of the five years preceding his proposed candidature," then demonstrate they've got the backing of five of FIFA's 209 member associations. Jerome Champagne, an independent French candidate, was the first to declare his bid back in September, but revealed earlier this month he was struggling to attract five nominations. Prince Ali, who has been the president of Jordanian football since 1999, announced his intention to stand on January 6 but has said very little publicly about his campaign. It remains to be seen whether he can muster five backers, but Blatter's stranglehold on power was underlined when the Asian Football Confederation confirmed its intention to support him instead of Prince Ali, who is its vice-president. Ginola, a former player with French champions Paris Saint-Germain and English Premier League sides Tottenham and Newcastle, launched his bid in London on January 16 saying it was time to "reboot football." But his charge was immediately undermined by the revelation that his bid was being backed by bookmaker Paddy Power, who has a self-confessed penchant for mischief, and that he was being paid £250,000 ($375,000) for his involvement. Ginola's prospective bid is reliant on crowdfunding to help him through to May's elections but so far it has only raised £6,300 ($9,500). Doubts also remain as to whether he'll be able to find five associations to support him. Van Praag, who has been head of Dutch football since 2008, entered the fray earlier this week, vowing to "normalize and modernize" FIFA. The 66-year-old was critical of Blatter when the Swiss backtracked on his decision to stand down after his current term as president ended, and is confident he has already secured five nominations. As part of his candidature, Van Praag is reportedly ready to offer Blatter an advisory role if the Dutchman is elected FIFA president. The deadline for applications was on Thursday but it might be next week before FIFA announces who has made their way onto the ballot paper for the election, held in Zurich on May 29.

Luis Figo exclusively reveals to CNN he wants to become FIFA president . Figo says FIFA's handling of the Garcia report in WC bidding convinced him to stand . Soccer's governing body only published its own summary of lawyer's findings . Figo says FIFA is more of a political organization than a football one .

(CNN) -- The feds call industrial hemp a controlled substance -- the same as pot, heroin, LSD -- but advocates say a sober analysis reveals a harmless, renewable cash crop with thousands of applications that are good for the environment. Industrial hemp, left, looks a lot like its cousin in the cannabis family, marijuana. Two North Dakota farmers are taking that argument to federal court, where a November 14 hearing is scheduled in a lawsuit to determine if the Drug Enforcement Administration is stifling the farmers' efforts to grow industrial hemp. The DEA says it's merely enforcing the law. Marijuana and industrial hemp are members of the Cannabis sativa L. species and have similar characteristics. One major difference: Hemp won't get you high. Hemp contains only traces of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the compound that gets pot smokers stoned. However, the Controlled Substances Act makes little distinction, banning the species almost outright. Marijuana, which has only recreational and limited medical uses, is the shiftless counterpart to the go-getter hemp, which has a centuries-old history of handiness. The February 1938 issue of Popular Mechanics magazine heralded hemp as the "new billion-dollar crop," saying it had 25,000 uses. Today, it is a base element for textiles, paper, construction materials, car parts, food and body care products. It's not a panacea for health and environmental problems, advocates concede, but it's not the menace the Controlled Substances Act makes it out to be. Watch why a North Dakota official thinks the U.S. should be in the hemp business » . "This is actually an anti-drug. It's a healthy food," explained Adam Eidinger of the Washington advocacy group Vote Hemp. "We're not using this as a statement to end the drug war." Rather, Eidinger said, Vote Hemp wants to vindicate a plant that has been falsely accused because of its mischievous cousin. North Dakota farmers Wayne Hauge and Dave Monson say comparing industrial hemp to marijuana is like comparing pop guns and M-16s. They've successfully petitioned the state Legislature -- of which Monson is a member -- to authorize the farming of industrial hemp. They've applied for federal permits and submitted a collective $5,733 in nonrefundable fees, to no avail, so they're suing the DEA. North Dakota is one of seven states to OK hemp production or research. California would have made eight until Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last week vetoed the California Industrial Hemp Farming Act, citing the burden on law enforcement which would have to inspect hemp fields to make sure they were marijuana-free. Administration skeptical of initiatives . The DEA claims the farmers' lawsuit is misguided because the agency is obligated to enforce the Controlled Substances Act. "Hemp comes from cannabis. It's kind of a Catch 22 there," said DEA spokesman Michael Sanders. "Until Congress does something, we have to enforce the laws." The difference between marijuana, industrial hemp » . Asked if the DEA opposes the stalled House Resolution 1009, which would nix industrial hemp from the definition of marijuana, Sanders said the Justice Department and President Bush would make that call. "When it comes to laws, we don't have a dog in that fight," he said. The Justice Department has no position yet on the resolution, said spokesman Erik Ablin. The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, however, is skeptical because of the burden hemp would place on law enforcement resources. Also, hemp advocates are regularly backed -- sometimes surreptitiously -- by the pro-marijuana movement, the office alleges. "ONDCP cautions that, historically, the hemp movement has been almost entirely funded by the well-organized and well-funded marijuana legalization lobby," said spokesman Tom Riley. "All we do is ask people not to be naive about what's really going on here." Often, the hemp movement -- like hemp legislation -- is inextricably tied to marijuana. Pot advocates like actor Woody Harrelson and activist Jack Herer have double or ulterior agendas when they expound the virtues of hemp. Not so with Monson, 57. The assistant GOP leader in the state House, who returned to the family farm where he was reared in 1975, said he became interested in hemp in 1993 when scab, or Fusarium head blight, devastated his wheat and barley crops. Monson grows canola, too, but wants another crop in his rotation. Soybeans are too finicky for the weather and rocky soil. Monson also tried pinto beans, fava beans and buckwheat with no luck. "None of them seemed to really be a surefire thing," he said. "We were looking for anything that was potentially able to make us some money." Hemp, said the lifelong farmer, seemed an apt fit. It likes the climate, its deep roots irrigate soil, it doesn't need herbicides because it grows tall quickly and it breaks the disease cycles in other crops, Monson said. States follow Canada's lead . About 20 miles north of Monson's Osnabrock farm lies the Canadian border, the hemp dividing line. Just over the border in Manitoba, farmers have been reaping the benefits of hemp since 1998, when Health Canada reversed a longtime ban. In a Vote Hemp video, Shaun Crew, president of Hemp Oil Canada Inc., a processing company in Sainte-Agathe, praised Canada's foresight in differentiating between hemp and marijuana. While marijuana THC levels can range between 3 and 20 percent, Canada demands its hemp contain no more than 0.3 percent. In some hemp, the THC levels can sink as low as one part per million, Crew said. "There's probably more arsenic in your red wine, there's more mercury in your water and there's definitely more opiates in the poppy seed bagel you ate this morning," Crew said on the video. The North Dakota Legislature is convinced, as are the general assemblies in Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Montana and West Virginia. With his state's blessing, North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson is backing the farmers and has proposed modeling North Dakota's hemp laws after Canada's strict regulations. "We weren't just going to tell the DEA to take a hike," Johnson said. "We're serious about this, and we want to do it in concert with the DEA." In a March 27 letter to Johnson, Joseph Rannazzisi of the DEA's Office of Diversion Control, said the permits were denied because the state hadn't satisfied the agency's security and logistical requirements. Security aspects require careful evaluation because "the substance at issue is marijuana -- the most widely abused controlled substance in the United States," Rannazzisi wrote. "We've been terribly brainwashed" Hemp wasn't always banned in the U.S. Jamestown Colony required farmers to grow it in 1619. Even after Congress cracked down on marijuana in 1937, farmers were encouraged to grow the crop for rope, sails and parachutes during World War II's "Hemp for Victory" campaign. Jake Graves, 81, heeded the call. Graves, whose father grew hemp in both world wars and whose grandfather grew it during the Civil War, was a teen when his father died in 1942. At the time, Graves' family was growing hemp for the Army. The Graveses continued growing hemp on their 500-acre Kentucky farm until 1945, when the market dried up after the advent of synthetic fabrics and the post-war reinvigoration of international trade. But Graves stands by the crop and its versatility and says that by lumping hemp in with marijuana, lawmakers "threw the baby out with the wash." "We've been terribly brainwashed as a society," Graves said. "Man didn't use it for all those hundreds and hundreds of years without knowing what they were doing." In the U.S., tapping hemp's versatility relies on imports. The DEA clamped down on most hemp imports in 1999 and 2001, but relented after a Canadian company sued, saying the ban violated its rights under the North American Free Trade Agreement. Though advocates considered it a victory, Johnson said hemp won't be fully utilized until it can be grown and researched stateside. "For us to grow it isn't enough. You have to build that infrastructure," Johnson said. "None of those uses is really going to develop to any great degree until we're able to grow this commodity." Johnson said the farmers' Vote Hemp-funded lawsuit has no hidden agenda. It's aimed solely at allowing farmers to grow hemp -- without going to jail because federal law says hemp and marijuana are the same. "I've got a state Legislature saying they aren't and the entire world saying they aren't. This is about a crop that is a legitimate crop every place else in the world," Johnson said. "It's not a crusade thing. It's a crop. Let farmers grow it. We don't want anyone to be growing drugs." E-mail to a friend .

Fast-growing hemp used for food, paper, textiles and car parts . Hemp and marijuana have tetrahydrocannabinol, but the level in hemp is lower . North Dakota is one of seven states that have OK'd production or research . The DEA will not approve permits for two farmers in that state .

(CNN) -- It's well known that the secret to Apple's meteoric success in the world of consumer technology was the vision, leadership and creativity of Steve Jobs, the company's celebrity founder. "Steve built a company and culture that is unlike any other in the world and we are going to stay true to that -- it is in our DNA," Tim Cook, Jobs' successor, wrote in a staff memo after Jobs resigned from his post as Apple's CEO in August. What's less talked about is what drove Jobs, who died Wednesday at 56. As with anyone, Jobs' values were shaped by his upbringing and life experiences. He was born in 1955 in San Francisco and grew up amid the rise of hippie counterculture. Bob Dylan and the Beatles were his two favorite musical acts, and he shared their political leanings, antiestablishment views and, reportedly, youthful experimentation with psychedelic drug usage. The name of Jobs' company is said to be inspired by the Beatles' Apple Corps, which repeatedly sued the electronics maker for trademark infringement until signing an exclusive digital distribution deal with iTunes. Like the Beatles, Jobs took a spiritual retreat to India and regularly walked around his neighborhood and the office barefoot. Traversing India sparked Jobs' conversion to Buddhism. Kobun Chino, a monk, presided over his wedding to Laurene Powell, a Stanford University MBA. 'Life is an intelligent thing' Rebirth is a precept of Buddhism, and Apple experienced rebirth of sorts when Jobs returned, after he was fired, to remake a company that had fallen the verge of bankruptcy. "I believe life is an intelligent thing, that things aren't random," Jobs said in a 1997 interview with Time, providing a glimpse into his complicated belief system that extends well beyond the Buddhist teachings. Karma is another principle of the religion, but it didn't appear to be a system Jobs lived by. If he feared karma coming back to bite him, the sentiment wasn't evident in his public statements about competitors and former colleagues, calling them "bozos" lacking taste. Those who worked for Jobs described him as a tyrant they feared meeting in an elevator. "You'd be surprised how hard people work around here," Jobs said in a 2004 interview with Businessweek. "They work nights and weekends, sometimes not seeing their families for a while. Sometimes people work through Christmas to make sure the tooling is just right at some factory in some corner of the world so our product comes out the best it can be." Some engineers who worked tirelessly on the original Mac emerged from the project estranged from their spouses and children. Jobs' relentless work ethic may have been shaped by some of his dysfunctional family affairs as well. 'I've done things I'm not proud of' Jobs was adopted by Clara and Paul Jobs, who promised his birth mother, Joanne Simpson (whom Jobs later tracked down with the help of a private investigator), that they would send him to a university. He dropped out of Reed College after one semester, and he reportedly never was willing to talk to his birth father. Jobs had a daughter, Lisa, out of wedlock with Chrisann Brennan. He denied paternity for many years, swearing in a court document that he was sterile. Later, he had three more kids with Laurene Powell. "I've done a lot of things I'm not proud of, such as getting my girlfriend pregnant when I was 23 and the way I handled that," Jobs said in a statement in 2011 to promote his authorized biography. That youthful indiscretion came before Jobs turned to Buddhism and karma. 'The core values are the same' The Buddhist scriptures, according to tradition, were transmitted in secret, as were many of Apple's business dealings and Jobs' personal struggles. Like the paranoid secrecy that surrounded product development at Apple, Jobs spurned most reporters' interview requests, misled them in statements he did give, refused to disclose details of his cancer to investors until undergoing an operation and became shrouded in a scandal involving backdating stock options. By all accounts, he played by his own rules. Those who disclosed his secrets or whispered about his company were punished or threatened. Apple sued, and eventually settled with, the anonymous young blogger behind Think Secret, which accurately reported on Apple rumors in the early 2000s. And then there's the story of a lost iPhone 4 prototype, which was purchased and publicized by the blog Gizmodo. "When this whole thing with Gizmodo happened, I got a lot of advice from people that said, 'You've got to just let it slide,' " Jobs said onstage at a technology convention in 2010. "I thought deeply about this, and I ended up concluding that the worst thing that could possibly happen as we get big and we get a little more influence in the world is if we change our core values and start letting it slide. I can't do that. I'd rather quit." That stance was repeated this year, with Jobs still as CEO though on medical leave, when another employee left a prototype iPhone 5 in a bar. Apple enlisted the help of San Francisco police to investigate. "We have the same values now as we had then," Jobs said at the AllThingsD conference. "We're a little more experienced, certainly beat-up, but the core values are the same." 'We're here to put a dent in the universe' Perhaps the most salient of those values is, simply, to make an outsize impact on society. Or, as Jobs put it, "We're here to put a dent in the universe." However, Apple and Jobs didn't make much of a dent with philanthropy. "We do things where we feel we can make a significant contribution," Jobs told Businessweek in 2004. "And our primary goal here is ... not to be the biggest or the richest." To achieve that goal, Jobs was an obsessive micromanager. Part of the reason Jobs' DNA is so ingrained in Apple is because he forced his hand onto so many parts of it. He personally fielded some customer-service requests sent to him via e-mail; he was active in product design, co-authoring more than 300 patents; and he had a hand in the marketing efforts, including the famous Think Different and Mac vs. PC campaigns. "What is Apple, after all?" Jobs mused to Time. "Apple is about people who think 'outside the box,' people who want to use computers to help them change the world, to help them create things that make a difference, and not just to get a job done." 'Focus and simplicity' Jobs famously lured John Sculley, the PepsiCo president, to run Apple by saying: "Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water, or do you want a chance to change the world?" (They had a permanent falling out when Jobs was booted from Apple.) "What makes Steve's methodology different from everyone else's is that he always believed the most important decisions you make are not the things you do, but the things you decide not to do," Sculley said in a 2010 interview with Businessweek. "He's a minimalist. I remember going into Steve's house, and he had almost no furniture in it. He just had a picture of Einstein, whom he admired greatly, and he had a Tiffany lamp and a chair and a bed. He just didn't believe in having lots of things around, but he was incredibly careful in what he selected." Restraint, at least in gadget design and interior decorating, was a primary principle for Jobs. Shortly after his return to Apple, he shuttered several divisions and turned his attention to a few key initiatives. Even today, Apple's product lines and revenue are zeroed in on just a few industries in which the company can dominate. "That's been one of my mantras: focus and simplicity," Jobs told Businessweek in 1998. "Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains." He elaborated in the interview with the publication six years later: "It comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don't get on the wrong track or try to do too much. We're always thinking about new markets we could enter, but it's only by saying no that you can concentrate on the things that are really important." 'Stay hungry. Stay foolish.' Apple's management team members have each adopted parts of this code. Jonathan Ive, the industrial-design executive, echoes Jobs' simplicity ethic. Scott Forstall, the mobile software lead, has apparently inherited some of Jobs' enthusiasm and showmanship. And Cook, the former operations chief and, by some accounts, current workaholic micromanager, runs the company like he manages his private life: shrouded in secrecy. However, Cook comes out of his shell in order to impart the ethical standards onto new recruits. He, along with other execs, teaches at Apple University. Apple University ensures that employees are thoroughly educated on the company's principles and that Jobs' ideals live on. Jobs believed people never stop learning and should voraciously open their minds to new ideas. Put another way, like in his closing statement to Stanford's graduating class in 2005, "Stay hungry. Stay foolish."

Steve Jobs' values were shaped by his upbringing and life experiences . "That's been one of my mantras: focus and simplicity," Jobs said in 1998 . Traversing India sparked Apple co-founder's conversion to Buddhism . Jobs on his goals: "We're here to put a dent in the universe"

(CNN)In just two years, Bonita went from full-time work to a part of the new underclass of unemployed. The longer it's been since she was forced to leave her job with the Boston Housing Authority, the harder it gets to return to the ranks of the employed. Even though the 46-year-old mother of five has an accounting certificate and a mind for numbers, prospective employers "don't so much as look at me because of my age or because of my work gap," she says, referring to the period of time she's been unemployed. "It's always like, 'OK, thank you, we'll call you within two weeks.' Then three weeks go by. And when you call them, they say, 'Oh, didn't you get a letter? We've found a more suitable candidate.'" Two years after his release from prison, Travis was still struggling to find full-time, stable employment. He put out applications, but his phone didn't ring. The odd jobs, like cleaning cooking equipment for restaurants, helped, but after months of relying on his family for support with little to contribute in return, he felt like a bum. "I wanted to be one of the people who get up and go to work every day without breaking the law and have a quality of life," he told Monica Potts in a story she wrote for the American Prospect. Yet with no other options in sight, he turned for a time to what he knew to be a reliable source of income -- selling drugs in his West Baltimore neighborhood—before finding help. The stories of Bonita and Travis stories aren't outliers -- more and more Americans are finding themselves relegated to the margins of the economy, despite their best efforts to escape that fate. It breeds hardship and hopelessness, and it also violates a basic tenet of our social contract when temporary setbacks become permanent obstacles. The numbers reflect the extent of that permanence; the longer you've been out of work, the harder it is to find it again. That's a troubling reality because for most Americans, the path to success isn't straightforward; it's punctuated with obstacles and pitfalls. To the immigrant in search of a fresh start, the entrepreneur in pursuit of a new business venture, or the countless families striving for a better tomorrow, it's the promise of a second chance that animates the American Dream. Many of the Sooners, forty-niners and other pioneers who built our country were running from failures back east. On Tuesday, President Obama will give his State of the Union address. One key issue he should address is the problem of long-term unemployment. While the unemployment rate has improved, there are many Americans who have fallen off the radar. To restore an economy capable of reaching its potential and renew our claim to be a nation that encourages its citizens to pursue their aspirations, we have to stop defining people by their failures. We need to rebuild the "second-chance" economy. As Bonita found out, in today's economy being unemployed now often makes you unemployable. One-third of the 10.5 million people who are currently jobless qualify as "long-term unemployed," meaning they have been out of work for longer than six months. And in most parts of the country, discrimination against them is perfectly legal: just take a look at the map below. With three unemployed workers for every job opening, employers can be selective. In startling research, Rand Ghayad, a labor economist at Northeastern University, found that prospective employers consistently threw out resumes of applicants with a recent stint of unemployment in favor of applicants with consistent work histories -- even applicants with less education or no relevant work experience. It should be unsurprising, then, that Brookings estimates that in any given month, only 11% of the long-term unemployed will have attained steady, full-time employment a year later. And being consigned to the "long-term unemployed" category is more likely to result from bad timing than lack of talent. The single-greatest factor determining whether someone will bear the mark of "long-term unemployed" is what the unemployment rate was when he lost his job. Workers may invest years in their education and acquiring the skills that make them successful at their jobs -- only to be rejected because of factors beyond their control. Not only can this create a scarring effect that can permanently diminish their earning potential, it also results in a tremendous loss of human capital at a time when the economy is still struggling to recover. While discrimination against the long-term unemployed is permissible under the law, for individuals with a criminal conviction, it's often mandatory. A groundbreaking report by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers recently documented over 45,000 legal barriers faced by those with a criminal record -- in employment, housing, student financial aid, access to a business license or a driver's license, or even the right to vote. Though targeted restrictions in the interest of public safety are needed, many others -- such as New York state's prohibition against employment as a bingo caller -- are simply arbitrary and punitive. The impact of these barriers is massive and disproportionately affects communities of color (that's partly because, as you can see below, communities of color have a much higher chance of going to prison than their white counterparts). Since 1980, the number of incarcerated Americans has more than tripled -- reaching the highest rate in the world -- and one out of every 34 Americans is either behind bars, on probation, or on parole, many for non-violent drug offenses. The striking breakdown between the types of crimes is below. In all, according to the National Employment Law Project, at least 65 million Americans, totaling more than one in four adults, have a criminal record, that subjects them to these mandatory "collateral consequences" (such as being unable to get a driver's license or to qualify for student financial assistance) on top of their formal sentence. These policies keep ex-offenders on the outside of their families and communities, as well as of the economy and democracy. And, in the era of big data, the past doesn't stay there. Instead, past missteps and misfortunes will linger in permanent and public view. With the click of a button, information from employment histories and civil and criminal records to credit reports and foreclosures can be summoned and used to deny access to employment, housing, or the public assistance needed just to put food on the table. This data -- often full of inaccuracies -- will leave scars on millions of people, in many cases inflicted by automated processes that another human being never touches. What can be done? To start delivering on the promise of a second-chance economy, policy efforts must focus on four key principles: . -- Employers must stop discriminating against applicants without a job . That means removing employment status as a requirement in job postings and making sure human resources representatives aren't discarding the resumes of unemployed applicants on sight. Some states have passed laws prohibiting discrimination against the unemployed. And in December 2013, a House bill was introduced that offered tax incentives to employers of the long-term unemployed. Though the bill was ultimately unsuccessful, laws alone aren't the answer because they're so difficult to enforce and monitor. Beyond legislation, the government could fund programs that build partnerships between corporations, local community colleges or workforce development organizations to align training of the currently unemployed with the jobs most needed within the company. It could also prioritize the long term unemployed in its own hiring practices. -- Entering the criminal justice system shouldn't be a one-way street out of the economy . Through "ban the box" laws (in other words, prohibiting the use of boxes applicants must check to indicate they're unemployed), states and cities across the country are already limiting the impact of past incarceration on employment prospects. States could strengthen these efforts by both reducing first-time incarceration and taking a more holistic approach to reentry that connects ex-offenders with the basic tools they need to get jobs and manage money. For starters, states should provide each individual leaving a correctional facility with a state-issued ID—a prerequisite to employment, opening a bank account, and accessing a range of other services and opportunities. -- Give people who have encountered adversity the financial tools they need to start over . Everyone needs a safe, affordable place to store and transfer money. New York is working with major financial service providers to remove barriers to bank accounts imposed by ChexSystems, a database that banks use to estimate risk posed by potential customers. The city's Department of Consumer Affairs estimates that this and similar databases have prevented more than 825,000 residents in New York City alone from opening an account, often as a result of isolated mistakes, like overdrafts, rather than the fraud it was intended to detect. -- Big Data shouldn't be a tool for economic exclusion . In an era of increasingly automated decision-making, we need to both ensure the privacy of those interacting with data systems, and strengthen the integrity of those systems. We can start by following this set of guidelines laid out by a high-profile coalition of civil rights groups. Among them -- give individuals control over how a corporation can gather data from them; allow people to ensure that the data used to make decisions about them is accurate. We've all heard about the "right to be forgotten" ruling in Europe. Although it raises important concerns about the freedom of information, the response to that ruling shows that all of us -- and particularly those with blemishes on their record -- need a chance to make a fresh start. These are just a few examples of how we can begin to replace our policies and practices that double down on disadvantage with ones that restore second chances. A real second-chance economy will not only benefit those who are shut out of economic citizenship, but will also restore the dynamism and growth to our economy that will create jobs for everyone who wants to work.

In President Obama's State of the Union address, he should look at solutions for the jobless . The longer people have been out of work, the harder it is to find a job . We must have policy that stops discrimination against the long-term unemployed .

(CNN) -- French legend Julien Absalon took his status to new heights when he became the first rider to defend the men's mountain bike Olympic title. Sabine Spitz of Germany celebrates her victory in the women's mountain bike on Saturday. Absalon kept the gold in French hands for the third Olympics in a row -- following Miguel Martinez's victory at Sydney in 2000 -- thanks to a commanding display early in the 36km race which left his rivals trailing. "The Olympic Games is a massive motivation for every athlete and four years passes quickly, as it has from Athens to Beijing," said Absalon, who finished well ahead of compatriot Jean-Christophe Peraud with Nino Schurter pipping world champion and Swiss compatriot Christoph Sauser to the bronze medal. A highly-fancied Swiss trio failed to match Absalon's early pace after he had begun to steadily grind out a lead by the second of the eight scheduled laps. "It's great to do the double. It feels totally different (from 2004), but this just confirms what I achieved in Athens," added Absalon, who denied that he had made his victory look easy. "I had as tough a race as everyone else. When I saw the chance to make the break I went for it. After that I really gave it everything I had." In the women's 27km mountain bike race, defending champion Gunn-Rita Dahle from Norway was one of several contenders to fall victim to a course that was finally mastered by Germany's Sabine Spitz. The 36-year-old, who only began racing at the relatively late age of 22, was determined to improve on her bronze medal in Athens. She started fast and was soon racing on her own to gold ahead of Poland's Maja Wloszczowska, who finished with the silver ahead of Russian Irina Kalentieva. "I feel pure joy at what I have finally achieved after so many years of hard work," said Spitz. "Winning the gold medal at the Olympic Games is the crowning glory." The first boxing medals were decided on Saturday with Felix Diaz of the Dominican Republic winning his country's first ever Olympic boxing title after beating Thailand's Manus Boonjumnong to take the light-welterweight gold. But Thailand made amends in the flyweight final when Somjit Jongjohor comfortably out-pointing Cuban Andris Laffita 8-2 to claim his first Olympic gold. Vasyl Lomachenko of Ukraine won the featherweight gold medal, capping a spectacular run through the tournament with a first-round stoppage of France's Khedafi Djelkhir. James Degale of Britain won the middleweight gold medal, upsetting Cuba's Emilio Correa in a sloppy bout, while Correa failed to emulate his father's gold medal performance for Cuba in 1972. Rakhim Chakhkiev of Russia gained revenge on Italy's world champion Clemente Russo by claiming heavyweight gold. Chakhkiev was beaten by Russo in the final of the world championships. China's Ma Lin won gold in the men's singles table tennis tournament, defeating teammate Wang Hao to secure a clean sweep of all gold medals on offer to the host nation. World number two Ma fought off world number one Wang in a scorching final strewn with fast and furious rallies to win 4-1 and cement China's status as the superpower of the sport. The victory hands China a clean sweep of all six medals in the singles competition, after teammate Wang Liqin removed the last obstacle to the Chinese Wall -- defeating Sweden's veteran Jorgen Persson for the bronze medal. A goal from Christopher Zeller in the 16th minute gave Germany the men's field hockey gold medal by defeating Spain 1-0 in the final. Australia took the bronze with a 6-2 win over the Netherlands in the play-off between the losing semifinalists. Australian Matthew Mitcham won the men's 10m platform diving title to spoil China's bid for a sweep of all eight diving gold medals. China's Zhou Luxin settled for silver, while Russia's Gleb Galperin claimed the bronze medal. Elsewhere, on the penultimate day of competition, Russia won the team event and swept both gold medals in synchronized swimming for the third consecutive Olympics. Russia finished with a combined 99.500 points after Saturday's free routine. Spain took the silver with 98.251 points and China claimed the bronze with 97.334. Anastasia Ermakova and Anastasia Davydova already won gold in the duet on Wednesday and were also part of Russia's eight-woman squad for the team event. Norway's women's handball team won their first Olympic gold medal, beating Russia 34-27 in the final. Norway rushed to an 8-1 lead after just eight minutes and remained well ahead for the rest of Saturday's match. Neither Norway nor Russia has ever won a gold medal in women's handball. Brazil won their first women's volleyball gold medal after defeating the United States 25-15 18-25 25-13 25-21 in a hard-fought final. Saturday also saw the remaining six disciplines decided in the canoeing, with Ken Wallace of Australia winning the gold medal in the men's 500-meter kayak singles. The first-time Olympian won in one minute, 37.252 seconds from Adam van Koeverden of Canada. Briton Tim Brabants took the bronze medal to add to the gold he won in the 1,000m race. Inna Osypenko-Radomska of Ukraine won gold in the women's 500-meter kayak singles, just nipping Italy in a tight finish. Osypenko-Radomska's time of 1:50.673 seconds was enough to just pip Josefa Idem of Italy, with Germany's Katrin Wagner-Augustin taking bronze. Saul Craviotto and Carlos Perez of Spain won gold medal in the men's 500-meter kayak doubles, slipping past the defending Olympic champions for victory. Craviotto and Perez clocked 1:28.736 seconds to edge Ronald Rauhe and Tim Wieskotter into silver in a major shock as the German pair have been world champions since 2001. Raman Piatrushenka and Vadzim Makhneu of Belarus took bronze. Katalin Kovacs and Natasa Janic of Hungary won the gold medal in the women's 500-meter kayak doubles, successfully defending their Olympic triumph in Athens. The two-time world champions saw off Beata Mikolajczyk and Aneta Konieczna of Poland with the French tandem of Marie Delattre and Anne-Laure Viard taking bronze. Maxim Opalev of Russia took gold medal in the men's 500-meter canoe singles, giving him his third medal in the last three Olympics and first gold. Opalev took bronze four years ago in the Athens Games and silver in Sydney. David Cal of Spain won his second silver medal in two days, after also finishing second in the 1,000m. Iurii Cheban of Ukraine took the bronze medal. Meng Guanliang and Yang Wenjun of China took gold in the men's 500-meter canoe doubles, successfully defending their Olympic triumph in Athens. Sergey Ulegin and Alexander Kostoglod of Russia won silver while the German pair of Christian Gille and Thomasz Wylenzek took bronze. Mexico's Maria del Rosario Espinoza won the gold medal in the women's 67kg taekwondo category. Espinoza, the 2007 world champion, easily defeated Norway's Nina Solheim on points after going ahead in the first round and never falling behind. Winning bronze were Britain's Sarah Stevenson, who defeated Egypt's Noha Abd Rabo, and Brazil's Natalia Falavigna, who outscored Sweden's Karolina Kedzierska. Russia's Evgeniya Kanaeva won gold in the rhythmic gymnastics individual all-around competition, posting the highest score in all four rotations of the event. Her final total of 75.500 points was enough to beat Inna Zhukova of Belarus, who gained 71.925 points for the silver. Anna Bessonova of the Ukraine had 71.875 points for her second straight bronze. In women's basketball, Lisa Leslie of the United States capped off her illustrious Olympic career with a fourth straight gold medal, scoring 14 points in a 92-65 victory over Australia. She joined former teammate Teresa Edwards as the only basketball players ever to win four Olympic gold medals. "It's a blessing for me to be out on this floor, now participating in my fourth Olympics and walking away with a fourth gold medal," Leslie told the Associated Press. Russia took the bronze, beating hosts China 94-81 as Becky Hammon scored 22 points. The Australians have now lost to the Americans in the gold medal game in the past three Olympics with all three defeats coming by double-digit margins.

Julien Absalon becomes the first rider to defend the men's mountain bike title . 36-year-old German Sabine Spitz claims victory in the women's mountain bike . China complete a table tennis clean sweep with the gold medal won by Ma Lin . Australian Matthew Mitcham denies China clean sweep of diving golds .

(CNN) -- Brian Sanderholm thinks Justin Thurber deserves to die for raping and killing his 19-year-old daughter. A Kansas jury sentenced Jodi Sanderholm's killer, Justin Thurber, to death in February. "I believe in an eye for an eye. If you do the crime, you need to have justice," he said. "In the end, it's up to the jury, but all that matters is that he can't hurt anyone again." But amid a time of economic turmoil some legislators in Kansas and elsewhere say the price of justice is too high. They have introduced legislation to take the death penalty off the books over financial concerns. Jodi Sanderholm was last seen alive on January 5, 2007, at dance practice at Cowley College in Arkansas City, Kansas, where she was a student and member of the Cowley College Tigerettes Danceline. Her bruised and battered body was found four days later in a pile of brush, bearing signs of a violent and prolonged death that prosecutors likened to torture. A jury sentenced Thurber to death on February 18. A Kansas court will decide whether to uphold the jury's verdict in a hearing scheduled for March 20. If Kansas Senate Bill 208 passes as written, it won't take effect until July 1, so it is unlikely to affect Thurber's sentence. But future savings could be substantial. "Because of the downturn in the national economy, we are facing one of the largest budget deficits in our history," state Sen. Carolyn McGinn, a Republican, said in an opinion piece posted on TheKansan.com Friday. "What is certain is we are all going to have to look at new and creative ways to fund state and community programs and services." The state would save more than $500,000 per case by not seeking the death penalty, McGinn wrote, money that could be used for "prevention programs, community corrections and other programs to decrease future crimes against society." Fiscal concerns are just a part of McGinn's argument. She has also cited the disproportionate rate of minorities that are sentenced to death. Kansas reintroduced the death penalty in 1994 but has not executed a condemned inmate since 1965. Anti-death-penalty groups say longer jury selection, extra expert witnesses, jury consultants and an extended penalty phase tend to make death penalty trials more costly than non-death-penalty cases. Extra safeguards in place to ensure a fair verdict, including additional investigators and defense attorneys certified to handle death cases, who spend more time researching and litigating the case, also drive up costs. See a chart comparing the costs of two murder trials » . A 2008 study by the Urban Institute, an economic and social policy research group based in Maryland, found that an average capital murder trial in the state resulting in a death sentence costs about $3 million, or $1.9 million more than a case where the death penalty is not sought. A similar 2008 study by the ACLU in Northern California found that a death- penalty trial costs about $1.1 million more than a non-death-penalty trial in California. McGinn's bill faces opposition from various sides, including victims' rights groups and the state's top prosecutor, who says there are no hard numbers related to the cost of the death penalty. New Mexico, which also has a bill before the Legislature to abolish the death penalty, has already seen a case where costs dictated the outcome. See which states have bills to get rid of the death penalty » . Last year, the New Mexico attorney general's office agreed to drop the death penalty for two inmates involved in the stabbing death of a guard, Ralph Garcia, during a 1999 riot at the Guadalupe County Correctional Facility. The change came after the state Legislature failed to provide additional funding for defense attorneys contracted to handle the case by the public defender's office. In court documents filed at the time, Attorney General Gary King said his office could not "in good faith under these circumstances" pursue the death penalty against Robert Young and Reis Lopez. Even Garcia's wife lent her voice to the case, writing a letter to then-Assistant Attorney General Michael Fox explaining why she did not support the death penalty. "I would rather see the death penalty be abolished and reparation be made to the victims, wives or husbands and to their children. I know how hard it is to go look for a job when my job was staying home and taking care of the home and kids and my husband was the breadwinner," Rachel Garcia wrote in a letter dated February 28, 2005. "My husband would [have] wanted something like this as much as I do because he so much loved his family." Her sentiments became part a bill to abolish the death penalty that was introduced in 2007 and died on the Senate floor in New Mexico. Its supporters are hopeful it has a better chance this year -- so far, it has passed the House of Representatives and is awaiting action in the Senate. "I think it helps the debate from being less emotional than it has the potential to be," Democratic Rep. Gail Chasey said. "People will say we can't put a price on justice, but in fact, we do put a price on justice when we are not able to give our district attorneys, our police departments, our attorney general the funding they need." In Colorado, House Bill 1274 proposes to put the anticipated savings from abolishing the death penalty toward the Colorado Bureau of Investigation's cold case homicide team. Guy Morton's family thought he was missing for 12 years until they learned his remains had been misidentified. The state has about 1,430 unsolved homicides dating back to 1970, according to Howard Morton, founder of the Families of Homicide Victims and Missing Persons, an advocacy group pushing for the bill. For Morton, whose son, Guy, disappeared in 1975, the issue goes beyond the misuse of tax dollars. Guy was considered a missing person for 12 years until forensic examination revealed that his remains had been misidentified. His killer was never found. "As bad as it is to think that our son's killer is still on the streets or in our neighborhoods, there's nothing worse than feeling like he's been forgotten, just another file in a basement," he said. "Once you've had a loved one murdered, there can be no closure, but there can be resolution, the feeling like, oh well, at least justice was done." Kansas, New Mexico and Colorado, among the states where legislators are seeking to get rid of the death penalty, have carried out few or no executions since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976. On the other hand, Texas, Georgia and Virginia, which consistently lead the nation in executions each year, show no signs of changing course. Earlier this month, Virginia legislators voted to expand capital punishment to include those who assist in a murder, and those who kill an auxiliary police officer or on-duty fire marshal. A bill to abolish the death penalty is also before the Texas legislature, but Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos intends to proceed with 194 pending death penalty cases she has on the books. "We will spare no expense. We will go after them. Justice has no price tag," Lykos said. "We want to be as cost-effective as possible without compromising the administration of justice and public safety." Nonetheless, budget concerns in those states still hamper some efforts to seek the death penalty. In Georgia, where Gov. Sonny Perdue has ordered all government agencies to trim their budgets by 6 percent, Jamie Ryan Weis, on trial for murder, has been sitting in a jail without a lawyer for more than a year. The Georgia Public Defender Standards Council appointed two private attorneys in 2006 to represent Weis, who is charged with the murder of Catherine King. They were pulled from the case a year later because of a lack of funds, court documents indicate, and the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council has yet to replace them. "The state basically says we want to have the death penalty and we don't want to pay for it. It's like the state says it's going to the grocery store to buy the most expensive food and it's not going to pay for it," said attorney Don Samuel, one of three attorneys attempting to obtain a lawyer for Weis. Griffin Judicial Circuit District Attorney Scott Ballard said he plans to seek the death penalty against Weis, no matter how long it takes or how much it costs. "I think that if you start deciding it's too expensive to pursue the death penalty, then you're encouraging the defense to make it too expensive, and our duty to the public is too great to succumb to that," Ballard said. Back in Kansas, Brian Sanderholm says the state has a duty to victims, too. He opposes efforts to abolish the death penalty because he says families should be able to weigh in on an appropriate punishment, and juries should render the final outcome. In fact, if Thurber had admitted sooner to having killed his daughter, the father says he would have accepted a life sentence for him. But by the time Thurber decided to admit his role and seek a plea deal with prosecutors, his family had already been through too much, Sanderholm says. "It was too late," Sanderholm said. "We'd struggled so much, but after struggling for two years, we decided we're just going to go on with it." CNN's Brett Roegiers contributed to this report.

At least nine states have bills seeking to abolish or repeal the death penalty . Elsewhere, state budget cuts are delaying or halting death penalty trials . Colorado bill seeks to use capital case funds for cold case investigations . Harris County, Texas, DA Pat Lykos vows to continue seeking death penalty .

(CNN) -- What if you could change history? Would you go back and kill Hitler before the Holocaust? Arrest Oswald before JFK was assassinated? Stop Bin Laden before the 9/11 attacks? Of course you would. But what if you had to stand by and let those events unfold in order to achieve a more perfect future? That's the premise posed in "The Revisionists," a new time-travel thriller from award-winning author, Thomas Mullen. In the future, there's no hunger, no war, no crime. At least, that's what we're led to believe. It's Zed's job to keep it that way. He's been sent back in time, to something similar to our present, to protect the integrity of the future timeline. To do that, Zed has to make sure that an imminent disaster of epic proportions, called "The Great Conflagration" happens just as history says it will, or does, or did. In his mission, Zed faces off with other time travelers, enemy agents called Hags, short for historical agitators, who want to prevent this apocalypse. Along the way, Zed crosses paths with an eclectic cast of characters, including a young Washington lawyer seeking answers about her brother, a soldier killed in Iraq; a disgraced former CIA agent; and a young Indonesian woman trapped as an indentured servant to a North Korean diplomat. Soon cracks start to appear in the timeline and Zed starts to doubt his mission. Don't let the description of the plot mislead you, this is not your typical sci-fi novel. Mullen is less concerned with the intricacies of time travel, focusing more on the nature of history and how it's shaped. As the saying goes, "History is written by the victors" -- but what if there were no winners in this scenario? In "The Revisionists," Mullen presents a compelling and complex page-turner, a paranoid thriller for the post-9/11 age. CNN recently sat down with Mullen to talk about his new book; the following is an edited transcript: . CNN: What was the spark that led to this book? Mullen: There were a lot of sparks. It's a book that involves different narratives. I'd had the idea of this guy who comes back from the future and has to prevent bad things from happening. He's justifying his bad means because there's going to be a perfect end. I just thought that was an intriguing moral angle. I thought it was fun and I thought it had interesting interplay with the idea of intelligence agencies occasionally doing bad things but saying, oh it's for a good cause. I'd heard a story about this issue of domestic servants basically being kept as slaves in these really nice houses in D.C. because their bosses are diplomats who can hide behind diplomatic immunity, and I thought that was a really interesting idea but I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it. I was also interested in the idea of intelligence agents, either governmental or private, following peace activists, because that was happening. It's not legal, it's not supposed to happen, but you hear stories about police officers, mysterious agents, agent provocateurs with a group of peace activists, trying to get them all amped up so they would do something wrong so they could get arrested. You'd like to think these things don't happen, but you keep hearing about things like that happening. I thought that would be an intriguing story. So, I was kind of juggling these different ideas, then I put it aside, but I still, every now and then, would work on it. There were a lot of false starts with this. It took me a while to get some of these threads together in a way that I liked them. There were these different stories that I liked that I wanted to figure out and I asked myself, is this one book? Do these things go together; do I need to cut some of them out? I did end up cutting out some of the activist stuff, but I wanted to find a way to thread these different narratives together and see if it could all come together. It may have been a little messy but I hope in the end it worked. CNN: You really play with the idea of "history" in your book. Mullen: As somebody who has previously written two historical novels, in a lot of ways this book is a departure for me. At the same time this book is sort of about history, how it's formed and how we are products of our own history. The question comes up in the book; do we control our own fate? Can we make our own history or are we just pawns? That taps into this conspiracist view of the world that created a lot of great fiction and film in the 1970 like "All the President's Men" and "The Conversation." There's this sense that there's this vast conspiracy of forces controlling us, that the government is listening to everything we do and there's nothing we can do about it. It's easy to think that way, especially now, but at the same time we also believe we're a country where a skinny interracial kid ... can become president. You never really know what's going to happen; you never know what's going to be historically important. There's the butterfly effect where one little thing here could change the world for someone else. So I was thinking about that a lot and the struggle that we all feel; how much control do I have over my fate, the country, my community? Do I really believe in a perfect future? Some of us would like to think we're creating a better future, especially if we're in politics or public service. We're trying to take a bad situation and make it better. But how much better can we make it? Are we just pushing a rock up a hill and it's going to come down and crush us again? Do we really believe in a perfect society and the idea that America is a noble experiment and we're still working on it to try and get it right? Can anything really be perfect and does that road lead to these totalitarian regimes? The desire to create a better world is a noble goal and we all have it but it can be taken in scary directions. When you have these totalitarian nations, these communist nations that say they're creating a perfect society when really most of us would say they've done the opposite. Trying to control history, or the lack of control, that's something the book deals with. CNN: How did you handle the idea of time travel in your novel? Mullen: I didn't want to write a book with some guy zipping in and out of various situations; I wanted it to be set in the here and now. I liked the idea of a time traveler not just for the moral dilemma but I think he has a great perspective on how he sees our world now, all the tensions in our society, the issues of race and ethnicity. To him he's coming from many, many generations later. I was influenced by this Time magazine cover story, the face of the future and there was this computer program that melded thousands of faces, many generations later after all the races have mixed, this is what people will look like. If I want to be realistic about the idea of a time traveler coming from the future, he's not going to look like us, he's not going to be a white guy, he's not going to be a black guy, he's going to be kind of this amalgam. In any book, it's not a new idea in a time travel story to have everybody say, wait a minute are you just pulling one over on us, are you crazy, are you a reliable narrator? That was fun to work in. CNN: "The Revisionists" includes a lot of great detail about U.S. intelligence agencies. Tell me how you researched all of this? Mullen: As with a lot of fiction, some of it was smoke and mirrors and the rest of it was basically just doing a lot of reading. I wasn't a spy and I don't have any friends who were spies, as far as I know. The book changed a lot; I went in different directions because the more I learned I would find a more believable way to advance the story. I think the initial idea I had wouldn't have worked as well and I don't think it would have made you think, "Wow, this guy knows what he's talking about." I learned as I went and I was able to tell a more realistic story as a result. But I didn't go on any drive-bys with any spies, although that would have been cool. CNN: What's next for you? Mullen: I've actually written a lot of my next book already, it's historical again. I'm from Boston, Rhode Island actually, but I'm a Red Sox fan. It's loosely based on a real story, that I found out about in an offhand mention, about FBI involvement in Boston sports, it's a legacy that dates back to 1945 when the FBI was following a group of communists who wanted to racially integrate baseball. I thought, Wow! What's that story? So it's sort of a spy novel, it's also got a bit of romance, and even comedy. I've got an FBI agent, I've also got a female communist sports writer and I've got a baseball star of the Negro League back from World War II. I said I wasn't going to keep writing in a historical vein but sometimes I see an idea and I think that's just too cool. It's been fun to write. Read an excerpt from "The Revisionists" on Mullen's Facebook page.

"The Revisionists" is a new time-travel thriller from author Thomas Mullen . The main character, Zed, has been sent back in time to protect the the future . Mullen says his focus is on the nature of history and how it's shaped than the science of time travel .

ST. PAUL, Minnesota (CNN) -- John McCain vowed Thursday to "shake up Washington" and said he's prepared to reach across the aisle to get the country "back on the road to prosperity and peace." "We need to change the way government does almost everything," he told the Republican National Convention. "Fight with me. Fight for what's right for our country. Fight for the ideals and character of a free people." He said his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, is "just the right partner" to help lead the change. "She's tackled tough problems like energy independence and corruption," he said. "She stands up for what's right and she doesn't let anyone tell her to sit down." Watch "We're going to win this election" » . He added, "Let me offer an advance warning to the old, big-spending, do-nothing, me-first, country-second Washington crowd: Change is coming." Change is a centerpiece of Democratic rival Barack Obama's campaign. iReport.com: "McCain sealed the deal" McCain contrasted himself with Obama on a couple occasions, while offering a bipartisan tone. "There are big differences between us. But you have my respect and admiration. Despite our differences, much more unites us than divides us. We are fellow Americans," said McCain, a senator from Arizona. He said there would be Democrats and independents in a McCain presidential administration. Watch a Democrat call McCain's speech 'underwhelming' » . "Let's use the best ideas from both sides. Instead of fighting over who gets the credit, let's try sharing it," he said. He also scolded the Republican Party, saying some members "gave in to the temptations of corruption. We lost their trust when rather than reform government, both parties made it bigger." See photos of McCain center stage at the GOP » . McCain touched on a number of issues that would appeal to the GOP's conservative base, saying, "we believe in a strong defense, work, faith, service, a culture of life, personal responsibility, the rule of law and judges who dispense justice impartially and don't legislate from the bench." Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton blasted McCain, saying he "talked about bipartisanship, but didn't mention that he's been a Bush partisan 90 percent of the time, that he's run a Karl Rove campaign, and that he wants to continue this president's disastrous economic and foreign policies for another four years." "With John McCain, it's more of the same," Burton said. In a speech before a giant screen showing an American flag waving against a blue background, McCain talked about the economy and education and promised to put the people first. "I understand who I work for. I don't work for a party. I don't work for a special interest. I don't work for myself. I work for you," he said, to cheers from the crowd. McCain portrayed himself as a fighter, saying he tackled corruption and big spenders, regardless of which party they came from. Watch "change is coming" » . "I've fought to get million-dollar checks out of our elections. I've fought lobbyists who stole from Indian tribes. I fought crooked deals in the Pentagon. I fought tobacco companies and trial lawyers, drug companies and union bosses." McCain vowed to embark on the "most ambitious national project in decades" through a bold energy plan that would produce more energy within the United States. "We are going to stop sending $700 billion a year to countries that don't like us very much," he said, drawing some of the loudest cheers of the night. He contrasted his aims with those of his opponent, who, he said, would raise taxes and institute a health care system that would force "small businesses to cut jobs, reduce wages and force families into a government run health care system where a bureaucrat stands between you and your doctor." McCain referred to the 5½ years he spent as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, explaining that the experience changed his life. "I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else's," he said. "I wasn't my own man anymore. I was my country's." His remarks on Iraq were brief, reminding delegates that he fought for the "right strategy and more troops ... when it wasn't a popular thing to do." Obama has said he would have U.S. combat troops out of Iraq by 2010. McCain was interrupted at least once by protesters from the anti-war group Code Pink, who were shouted down by delegates chanting "USA." The protesters were removed from the hall. Watch protester disrupt speech » . The nominee weighed in, telling the crowd not to be distracted "by the static. ... Americans want us to stop yelling at each other." If he defeats Obama in November, McCain, 72, will become the oldest person ever to be elected to a first term in the White House. During his speech, McCain hailed President Bush "for leading us in those dark days following the worst attack on American soil in our history, and keeping us safe from another attack many thought was inevitable." Delegates gave the speech rave reviews. "He is the only man that can lead this country in the time that we're in now," said Will Barfoot of Montgomery, Alabama. Karen Bonadio of California added, "I'm so fired up." McCain was preceded by his wife, Cindy, who described her husband as a leader with a "sense of history and a clear view of the future." "I was taught Americans can look at the world and ask either, what do other countries think of us? Or we can look at ourselves and ask, what would our forefathers make of us, and what will our children say of us?" she said. iReport.com: Share your reaction to the convention speeches . "That's a big challenge. In living up to it, we know the security and prosperity of our nation is about a lot more than just politics." She then said McCain has "shown the value of self-sacrifice by daily example." "His courageous service to America in war and peace leaves no doubt what our forefathers would make of him." As she spoke, delegates held up "We Love Cindy" signs. "You can trust his hand at the wheel. But you know what, I've always thought it's a good idea to have a woman's hand on the wheel as well," she said to loud cheers. "So, how about Gov. Sarah Palin!" Republicans nominated the Alaska governor Thursday to be their vice presidential candidate, making her the first woman to run for the office as a Republican. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham praised McCain's character, saying he is leading the nation to victory in Iraq by his unflinching support for the surge. Watch Graham say the surge is working » . "We know the surge has worked," Graham said. "The only people who deny it are Barack Obama and his buddies at MoveOn.org. Why won't they admit it? "Because Barack Obama's campaign is built around us losing in Iraq." Graham said it was McCain's insistence on the surge, when thousands more U.S. combat troops were deployed in Iraq in January 2007, that "stopped Congress from losing this war." "Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying Barack Obama doesn't care. I'm just saying he doesn't get it," he said, echoing Obama's dig at McCain during Obama's acceptance speech last week. "The surge was a test for Barack Obama. He failed miserably. Our troops deserve a commander in chief who acknowledges their success, has walked in their shoes, speaks their language, shares their sufferings and will lead them to victory in a war we cannot afford to lose. "That person is my dear friend John McCain." Watch Graham on Obama: "He doesn't get it" » . Graham is one of McCain's closest friends in Congress. Another close friend, former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, said McCain has "unique qualifications for the presidency." "I speak to you about a warrior who has sometimes stood alone ... and always shown the way," he said. Palin was nominated earlier Thursday on a voice vote that Sen. Mitch McConnell recognized as unanimous approval, prompting chants of "Sarah! Sarah!" As governor of Alaska, Palin has won praise for backing tough ethical standards for politicians. During the first legislative session after her election, her administration passed a state ethics law overhaul. Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman said in nominating Palin that she had the leadership skills "born out of experience, hardship, disappointment and success." "She's a hockey mom -- a hunter, a hard-hitting reformer -- and quite frankly, she's not afraid to raise a little hell amidst the Washington elite. Which is just what America needs!" Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty then took the stage and warmed up the crowd for the GOP presidential nominee. He said McCain "understands the concerns of everyday Americans like you and me." "John McCain connects with Sam's Club voters. He gets it," Pawlenty said. Overnight, crews transformed the stage at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, so delegates would surround McCain while he addressed the convention. The change was done to make the speech feel more like the town hall-style meetings the Republican presidential nominee is known for, aides said. CNN's Dana Bash contributed to this report.

McCain: "We need to change the way government does almost everything" McCain says he and Sarah Palin will "shake up Washington" Cindy McCain says her husband has "shown the value of self-sacrifice" Lindsey Graham says Barack Obama is bent on "losing in Iraq"

(CNN) -- Growing up in New York City, there are a few things I never imagined myself doing, like driving a car, living in a house or attending big high school games like the ones I'd seen on TV. Yet in the years since leaving the isolated enclave of Manhattan, I've taken pleasure in expanding my horizon and checking off all-American rites of passage, most recently, the baseball spring training road trip. By now, it's a familiar tradition: as spring approaches, Major League Baseball teams head for camps in Florida and Arizona to work off the winter flab and get ready for the regular season. It's become a big tourist draw, with 2012 game attendee numbers in Florida expected to surpass 1.5 million as the spring training season winds down this week. A new era of enhanced training facilities and stadiums have all the 21st-century bells and whistles, but in some respects, spring training is still a throwback to a more casual, pastoral brand of baseball. My initiation was an abbreviated tour, three games in three stadiums, with a beach condo in Indian Shores as home base. I'm not a huge baseball fan, though I have found that appearing tolerant of sports generally makes you more likeable. But I consider myself a loyal girlfriend to a Braves fan who starts counting down on January 1 to the day pitchers and catchers report, who brought me to a Montgomery Biscuits game early in our relationship. Plus, we would be staying on the beach, so I welcomed the opportunity to familiarize myself with one of the nation's most cherished pastimes. Friends and colleagues had briefed me on themes to look out for, including the corporatization of spring training, "snowbirds" and interstate billboards warning against abortion on one side and promoting strip clubs on the other. I encountered nearly all of them, but what made the most profound impression was experiencing baseball stripped of its major corporate trappings: stadiums where puny chain-link fences separate fans from idols and beer is cheaper than in the majors (though it'll still set you back at least $5); no Home Depot-sponsored tool races or incessantly loud Jumbotron ads. It's a magic formula that has drawn fans to Florida for decades, though people only really began coming in droves in the last two decades, said Nick Gandy with Florida Sports, a sports promotion and tourist development organization. The advent of live remote broadcasts, which showed stadiums lined with palm trees and players with rolled-up shirtsleeves, started pulling in visitors from snow-covered states, he said. When players' salaries began to rise in the 1980s, teams turned to spring training to expand the franchise, i.e., revenue. A similar pattern emerged in Arizona, home to the 15 teams of the Cactus League, the Western version of Florida's Grapefruit League. With 2011 game attendance surpassing 1.5 million visitors in 14 Florida stadiums, devotees worry that spring training's popularity is diluting its homegrown appeal. A hotel room near a stadium for less than $100 was hard to come by, and had we waited until game day to buy tickets we would've been shut out of two of three games. "That's the biggest difference right there," said Gandy. "Walking up and buying a ticket on game day (used to be) easy -- lucky if you can do that anymore." The movement of teams from old stadiums into major complexes turned spring training into big business for the teams and the communities that host them, Gandy said, bringing in roughly $753 million a year in Florida. "You have the Atlanta Braves in 1998 going from West Palm Beach to Disney World, of all places," he said. "You know if Disney's getting involved in it there's some big business there." Big business indeed. "It's so Disney," one man lamented as we walked out of a Braves game at ESPN's Wide World of Sports. Champion Stadium, preseason home of the Braves, is located behind Disney World's arch, and many consider the team's presence near the Magic Kingdom antithetical to the spirit of spring training. Ticketmaster runs some of the box offices flanking the ESPN Club House, where the selection of Braves gear pales in comparison to the array of apparel festooned with Disney characters. Inside the flawless cream-colored stadium, "cast members" served food in baskets bearing Mickey ears and the tagline "where dreams come true." Donald Duck escorted a local sports anchor onto the field to throw the first pitch. When the game gets boring, you can seek a reprieve in the PlayStation Pavilion, equipped with 17 PS3 consoles, at $5 for 30 minutes. Near the field, however, the mood in the air was more akin to a county fair than a professional baseball game. In a section of designated lawn seating, clusters of families and friends stretched out on blankets and children ran amok among stumbling drunks while couples canoodled. Plus, I can vouch for the pulled pork sandwich. It was heartwarming stuff, the "real America" that I'd grown up seeing on TV and in movies, a place where baseball is a microcosm of the community, the underdogs win and the guy gets the girl. But, make no mistake, real America requires a car and a license, or a boyfriend with both. And patience, because traffic's a bitch, especially in places like Clearwater, spring training home of the Philadelphia Phillies and the Clearwater Threshers (that's a shark!) the rest of the year. Located, ironically enough, on a former Home Depot site on U.S. 19, the Phillies' Bright House Stadium represents the partnerships among local government and the franchises that have nurtured spring training. It seems to be a win-win for folks in Clearwater and tourists from up North, where the Gulf Coast is promoted year-round as a vacation destination, and not just for spring training, Gandy said. The day we saw the Braves play the Phillies, I also learned that the beauty of preseason play is that it creates a home away from home for fans from afar. Concession stands offered Philly Cheese Steaks, knishes and P-shaped pretzels. At the bar, strangers swapped profanity-laced travel tips. In "tiki bar" outfield seating, fans sat on bar stools behind long tables, raising bottles of Coors Light in the direction of players passing by. Others of a more inebriated nature demanded that Antonio Bastardo sign a beer bucket or have his "ass kicked" and needled sports anchor Gregg Murphy with taunting, prolonged cries of "MURPH!" Fans rooted for the home team and made fun of the Braves. In the grassy parking lot, a leathery old man hawked collectors' cards a few feet from Girl Scouts selling cookies. A man and a child tossed a ball around while we naively sat in our car for an hour waiting to reach the interstate. We didn't have that problem leaving Disney World. Many teams enjoy longstanding relationships with host cities, including the Phillies, who've trained in Clearwater for more than 60 years, confirming their place within the community. But smaller host cities like Bradenton enjoy a special air of nostalgia, thanks to an old stadium recently renovated to retain a look reminiscent of scenes from "A League of their Own," the only baseball movie I ever enjoyed. McKechnie Field, preseason home of the Pittsburgh Pirates for more than 40 years, is in downtown Bradenton in between a smaller baseball diamond, a Domino's Pizza and the Boys and Girls Club of Manatee, where parking is available for $7. That may seem like a lot, but to my boyfriend, who pays $10 to park at the IBEW lot near Turner Field and then walk another 10 minutes, it was money well spent, especially for a short walk. Outside the stadium, fans tailgated on the lawn of the public works building and a Land O' Lakes truck offered free grilled-cheese sandwiches. Inside the home of the Bradenton Marauders, vendors sold Iron City Beer next to county-fair-style stalls offering kettle corn, funnel cakes and turkey legs. In the stands before the game, sun-scorched retirees vacationing as ushers chastised fans for leaning over the dugout for autographs. But they didn't actually stop them from tossing balls and baseball caps to Tampa Bay's Sean Rodriguez, who patiently smiled and signed. What our plastic stadium bench seats lacked in shade was made for up in proximity to the Pirates' warmup area, separated from the fans by a low wall and a chain-link fence. Fans of Tampa Bay filled the stands, their black shirts eclipsing the Pirates' St. Paddy's Day green. In front of us, a man complained to his neighbor of the difficulty of getting tickets for the Yankees at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa. "Those New Yorkers," he muttered. Meanwhile, his wife gave instructions to their granddaughters via cell phone on where to stand to get Sean Rodriguez's autograph. I was reminded of something my boyfriend said the day before, as we walked along the beach and listed all the license plates we'd seen so far: New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Florida, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick (Indian Shores is near Dunedin, home of the Toronto Blue Jays since 1977): . "I like the idea that all these people are on vacation to see baseball," he said. Check that off the list!

Florida spring training baseball expected to draw more than 1.5 million people this year . Some fans worry plain that spring training has become too corporate and expensive . In three games, a visitor finds signs of more casual, pastoral brand of baseball .

(CNN) -- Patrick Vieira knows what it takes to win football's greatest prize -- and the former France star believes Africa is close to claiming a historic first World Cup title. Only three teams from the continent have ever reached the quarterfinal stage of the tournament -- Cameroon in 1990, Senegal in 2002 and Ghana in 2010 -- yet none have made it to the last four. Despite high expectations, first sparked by Pele's prediction in 1977 that "an African nation will win the World Cup before the year 2000," there have been a series of disappointments. Undoubted talent has often fallen foul to ill-discipline on the pitch, arguments off it, ego problems, administrative issues and sheer bad luck. Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Algeria will all be hoping to overcome these hurdles in Brazil this time and perhaps go even further than their predecessors. And Vieira, who helped France to World Cup glory on home soil in 1998 -- coming on as a substitute to set up Emmanuel Petit's goal in the shock 3-0 final win over Brazil -- is convinced it will not be too long before an African champion is crowned. "I believe (they can) and I really hope they will win the World Cup in the near future because I think that will help African football to develop even better, even more," says Vieira, who was born in Senegal but moved to France as an eight-year-old. "And when you look at how many big names African football has produced in the last few years, it's unbelievable," he told CNN. Those big names include the likes of Samuel Eto'o, Didier Drogba and Yaya Toure, who would all love nothing more than to add a World Cup winners' medal to their lengthy list of honors in Brazil. But while Cameroon and Ivory Coast have such world-beaters among their ranks, Vieira feels they will need to be at the top of their game to avoid past disappointments. Quality . Ivory Coast has earned the nickname "the chokers" -- cruel given the quality of opposition the nation has faced -- after a talented set of individuals struggled to perform when it counted most, failing to make it out of the group stage in both the 2006 and 2010 World Cups. "You need quality. When you look at the African national teams individually, they are really talented so they've got talent," Vieira says. "But I think to be in the World Cup, you need your talented players to be at their best because the quality will make you win, the quality will make the difference. "Quality will make the player make the difference at the right time when your team needs you. You may just go on to create one chance and you need to score the chance to go to the next round." Vieira, though, believes that for talented players to flourish they must be in a team that has togetherness and unity. Cameroon lacked in that department during its disastrous 2010 campaign, where the "Indomitable Lions" had been expected to do well in the first World Cup held on African soil. Eto'o threatened to snub the competition after being criticized by compatriot Roger Milla, himself a former World Cup star for Cameroon. And when he did turn up, the four-time African player of the year -- who had just won the European Champions League for the third time, on this occasion with Inter Milan -- struggled in South Africa after not being used in his customary striker's role. Arsenal's Alex Song, meanwhile, found himself on the bench and coach Paul Le Guen was forced to quit after the team failed to register a point for the first time in six appearances at the finals. "I would say togetherness (is important), and I think if you want to do well in the championship, in the World Cup, the team has to be together," Vieira says. "It has to fight for the same objective and I believe that togetherness will make them go to the end." Unity . Togetherness certainly played a role in France's 1998 win. Aime Jacquet's squad was seen as representing a new France, with Vieira born in Senegal, Marcel Desailly from Ghana, Lilian Thuram from Guadeloupe, Zinedine Zidane's family hailing from Algeria, while others were of Polish and Armenian descent. "We had the players from all around the world and I think we showed the diversity of the French national team, we showed what the diversity of the French people are," Vieira says. "We showed to the French nation what France is really." If an African side's unity can ever be questioned then it could be argued that it has been a result of African football's structural failings. The Federation Camerounaise de Football temporarily suspended Eto'o from playing for the national team in 2011 for instigating the boycott of a friendly in Algeria over unpaid bonuses. Emmanuel Adebayor, meanwhile, has criticized the Togo Federation in the past for its poor organizational skills, blaming the governing body for his late return to English club Tottenham following the 2013 African Cup of Nations. "The only problem in Africa is our leaders, who do not respect us," Eto'o told the Confederation of African Football's (CAF) official website. "Until we are respected, other (continents) will never have any consideration for us." Vieira adds: "I think what African football needs is better organization, better structure, and I think after that we'll help the players to be more professional when they're coming to play for their national team ... I think the structure around these players is not strong enough and I think if we don't have that, it will take time (for an African nation) to win the World Cup." The man in charge of African football -- CAF president Issa Hayatou -- however, feels the structures put in place by his confederation and its member associations should allow for a nation or two to go far in Brazil. "I do not see why Africa cannot have one or two of our representatives reach the semifinals or even the final," he told CAF's official website. Discipline . Two representatives from Africa reaching the semifinals or final would make for huge progress, given that there has never been more than one at a time to reach the knockout stages. That statistic could well have been banished in 1998 had Cameroon's players kept their heads when it mattered most. The Indomitable Lions picked up three red cards in just three games, including two in the final group clash against Chile -- a match they drew, when victory would have been enough for a place in the second round alongside Nigeria. "I would talk about discipline (as being vital if an African team wants to win the World Cup)," Vieira says. "Discipline and sacrifice, so that means you have to concentrate on your objective, you have to concentrate on what you have to do for the months to get at your best, and be at the peak of your game." Focus . Hand-in-hand with discipline often comes focus -- something Nigeria lost for a split-second in 1994, denying the team a quarterfinal spot, long before Senegal and Ghana's heroics. The Super Eagles were just two minutes away from becoming only the second African team to reach the last eight at their debut World Cup, but let a 1-0 lead slip against Italy before conceding again in extra-time. "(You must) focus on your objective because when you are in the World Cup, you can get your head a little bit all over the place," Vieira says. "And I think it's important for you to get focused on your objective, focused on what you want to achieve as a team." Luck . Having all these ingredients is no guarantee for success, however, as at a major international tournament the winning team often needs a little luck along the way. Ghana found this out the hard way after a run to the last eight of the 2010 World Cup that captured the imagination of much of Africa -- but was brought to an end in the most controversial of circumstances. With the Black Stars' quarterfinal clash against Uruguay destined for penalties with the scores tied at 1-1 and just seconds remaining, Dominic Adiyiah saw his goal-bound header cleared off the line by Luis Suarez's hand. Suarez was sent off for his actions -- and widely condemned by the world of football afterwards -- but the damage had already been done as Asamoah Gyan missed the resulting spot-kick, before Uruguay went on to win the ensuing penalty shootout. Luck was not on the side of Algeria in 1982, either. With the Desert Warriors having already played their final group game, West Germany knew that a one- or two-goal win over Austria would take the neighboring nations through to the second round at the expense of the debutant team. After 10 minutes, West Germany took the lead, before the two teams proceeded to kick the ball around aimlessly for the rest of the match. "You need luck, because you will not win the best competition if you do not have luck. But the luck, you have to provoke it to make it happen," says Vieira. "I think when you look at all the African teams who are playing in the World Cup, they lack one of the five ingredients (quality, togetherness, discipline, focus or luck). "So hopefully they will have built it all up in the last few weeks so they will get to the first game where the togetherness, the quality of the players, the focus, and of course the luck at the end (is all there), because luck is very important."

Patrick Vieira believes an African nation will one day win the World Cup . An African nation has never advanced past the quarterfinal stage . Vieira, born in Senegal, won the World Cup with France in 1998 .

Rome (CNN) -- In front of rapt crowds, Pope Benedict XVI spoke of moments of struggle as well as joy Wednesday during his final public address from a stage set up in St. Peter's Square. In an unusually personal message, he said there had been "many days of sunshine" but also "times when the water was rough ... and the Lord seemed to sleep." Interactive: Where does the pope live? But even as the church passes through stormy seas, God will "not let her sink," he added, in what was his final general audience before he steps down Thursday evening. Those words will be seen by many as a comment on the series of child sex abuse scandals and corruption claims that have rocked the Roman Catholic Church in the course of his pontificate. Benedict recounted how when he was asked to be pope eight years ago, he had prayed for God's guidance and had felt his presence "every day" since. "It was a part of the journey of the church that has had moments of joy and light, but also moments that were not easy," he said. Vatican reveals Pope Benedict's new title . 'Tough choices' Dressed all in white and looking serene, the pope used his last general audience to call for a renewal of faith and speak of his own spiritual journey through eight years as leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics. Benedict thanked the cardinals, the clergy in Rome, Vatican officials and priests worldwide for their work, as well as their congregations, saying "the heart of a pope extends to the whole world." Knowing his strength was fading, he had taken the step of resignation well aware of its gravity and novelty, but also "with a deep peace of mind," he said. "Loving the church also means having the courage to make tough choices," he said, as he called on the faithful to pray for him and the new pope. Benedict gave an insight into the life of the pontiff, describing it as without any kind of privacy, with his time devoted entirely to the church -- perhaps particularly difficult for a man known for his love of scholarship. His life in retirement will be "simply a return to the private place. My decision is to forgo the exercise of active ministry, not revoke it. In order to return to private life, not to a life of travel, meetings, receptions, conferences and so on," he said. As he finished, cheers erupted from the tens of thousands gathered in the square -- acknowledged by Benedict with an open-armed embrace. 'Support and love' Vatican officials said 50,000 tickets had been handed out for Benedict's last general audience -- but authorities said they had prepared for as many as 200,000 people to show up to witness the historic moment in person. The pope in retirement: What to expect . Benedict, who spoke first in Italian, also gave greetings in French, German and English, among other languages, reflecting the church's global reach. CNN iReporter Joel Camaya, a priest from the Philippines who is studying in Rome, said it was very moving to be among those gathered in the huge plaza. Waves of applause rose up to meet Benedict, especially when he addressed the pilgrims in different languages. "I really felt all the support and all the love, the prayers, from those who were present," he said. After the pope left, people's mood was festive, with many chatting or singing, Camaya said, but at the same time nostalgic because it's the last time they will hear Benedict speak. "Especially for people who have got used coming here for the audience and for the (Sunday) Angelus, it's something to be missed," he said. Those lucky enough to have tickets for the final audience listened from seats in front of St. Peter's Basilica. Among them were many of the Roman Catholic Church's senior clergy. Others packed around the edges of the square and surrounding side streets, hoping to catch a glimpse of the pontiff. Among the crowds were groups of pilgrims who had traveled to Rome for the special occasion, as well as local residents and curious visitors keen to share in the moment. Opinion: Benedict a pope aware of his flaws . Benedict arrived and left in his Popemobile, allowing him to pass close by many people in St. Peter's Square. Standing in the glass-topped vehicle, flanked by security, he waved as he slowly made his way along pathways through the crowds. Some waved flags and banners as they stood under cold but clear skies. Normally in winter, the pope would give his weekly Wednesday general audience inside a hall within Vatican City, but the event was moved outside because of the anticipated huge crowds. Pontiff emeritus . The pope didn't give the usual brief personal greetings to people afterward, but was to meet with delegations of heads of state in Vatican City. Benedict, who stunned the world's Catholics when he announced his resignation just over two weeks ago, will leave office at 8 p.m. local time Thursday. At that point, a transition period will begin, as around 115 cardinals gather in Rome to pick a successor in a secretive election known as a conclave. The Vatican has been rewriting the rules to cope with an almost unprecedented situation -- Benedict is the first pope to resign in nearly 600 years. He will meet with the cardinals Wednesday and Thursday, before being flown by helicopter to the papal summer residence at Castel Gandolfo. Pope to resign: Your thoughts . There, from a balcony, he will greet crowds one last time before his resignation takes effect and the Swiss Guards, who by tradition protect the pope, ceremonially leave the residence's gate. More details were given Tuesday of how the 85-year-old's life in retirement will play out. He will keep the papal title Benedict XVI, rather than reverting to the name Joseph Ratzinger, and will be referred to as "his holiness," said the Rev. Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman. He will also go by the title his holiness "pontiff emeritus" or "pope emeritus." Interference fears . Living out of the public eye in a small monastery within Vatican City, Benedict will wear a simple white robe, without the papal red cape, and will swap his red shoes for brown ones. He is expected to devote his time to prayer and study. Catholic author Michael Walsh told CNN he was unsurprised by Benedict's desire for more privacy. "He's a rather private man. He wants to get back to his books and his cats, he wants to get back to prayer," he said. "He's obviously coming towards the end of his life -- he's 85 -- so I understand that." But, Walsh added, "what I don't understand is that he says he wants to be part of it all, which could be disastrous if you take it at face value," referring to Benedict's promise not to abandon the church. "The notion that you have two people that claim to be pope, in a sense, is really going to be very confusing," Walsh said. Vatican officials have said they don't anticipate any interference from Benedict as a new pope takes office. However, his influence will be felt in as much as he appointed 67 of the cardinals who will enter the conclave. Whoever his successor may be will have plenty on his plate, from allegations swirling in the Italian media that gay clergy may have made themselves vulnerable to blackmail by male prostitutes -- a claim forcefully denied by the Vatican -- to the festering issue of the church's handling of child abuse by priests. Scandal flared again over the weekend, as Scotland's Roman Catholic archbishop was accused in a UK newspaper report of "inappropriate behavior" with priests. Cardinal Keith O'Brien, who contests the allegations, resigned Monday and said he would not attend the conclave. The Most Rev. Philip Tartaglia, archbishop of Glasgow, will take his place until a new archbishop is appointed, the Vatican said Wednesday. "These are painful and distressing times," Tartaglia is quoted as saying. The Vatican said Monday that a report by three cardinals into leaks of secret Vatican documents, ordered by Benedict last year and seen only by him, would be passed on to the new pontiff. Opinion: How next pope must tackle child sex abuse . Cardinals' conclave . Meanwhile, the cardinals who must elect the new pope are already gathering in Rome, Lombardi said. The dean cardinal will on Friday summon the cardinals to a general congregation, Lombardi said. That could come as soon as Monday, although the date is not yet fixed. The cardinal-electors will then decide exactly when to hold the conclave, during which they will select a peer via paper ballot. The voting process will end when only when one cardinal gains two-thirds support. After his resignation, Benedict, who cited the frailty of age as the reason he resigned, will no longer use the Fisherman's Ring, the symbol of the pope, Lombardi said. The ring will be destroyed, along with Benedict's papal seal, after his departure from office. Smoke signals: How is a new pope elected? CNN's Barbie Latza Nadeau reported from Rome and Laura Smith-Spark wrote and reported from London. Vatican correspondent John Allen and Sarah Brown contributed to this report.

Benedict XVI says there were "times when the Lord seemed to sleep" in past 8 years . Benedict: The Roman Catholic Church has been through stormy waters, but God won't let it sink" I really felt all the support and all the love, the prayers," says a priest in the crowd . He is to leave office at 8 p.m. Thursday for a life of seclusion and prayer .

(CNN) -- The long-awaited remake of the 1970s cult classic "Sparkle" is finally seeing the light of day as it opens in theaters across North America this weekend. The film stars season six "American Idol" winner Jordin Sparks and the late pop icon Whitney Houston. It's set in Detroit during the 1960s and chronicles the rise and perils of an all-girl R&B group -- a la Diana Ross and the Supremes and the glitzy 1981 Broadway show "Dreamgirls" and its 2006 movie adaptation. The project has been a labor of love for producer Debra Martin Chase for more than a decade. She and Houston, her film producing partner, scored with "The Princess Diaries" films and the made-for-TV movie, "Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella." As longtime fans of the original 1976 flick (written by an upstart Joel Schumacher), the duo yearned to bring it to a new audience. "Just thinking back to why this movie was important to me as a teenager and I know why it was important to Whitney; it was really the first time we saw the fabulous women of color on the screen, who were glamorous, the men were gorgeous, the clothes were gorgeous," Martin Chase told CNN this week. "In and of itself, it was inspirational." The TriStar Pictures film, which has been virtually kept under lock and key from media for months, had showings this week in Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, New York and Los Angeles. It also stars Carmen Ejogo, Tika Sumpter, Mike Epps, Derek Luke and Omari Hardwick, with appearances by Cee Lo Green, Michael Beach, Kem, Terrence Jenkins and Tamela J. Mann. "It's surreal. It's hard to believe that it's finally coming into fruition," Martin Chase said. "It's like a lot of life lessons about believing in what you believe in and just sticking with your guns and just keep pushing forward to make it happen." The road to post-production wasn't an easy one for this new "Sparkle." In the late 1990s, Warner Bros. Pictures struck a three-picture deal with then-rising R&B star Aaliyah. One of the star-making vehicles was to be "Sparkle," to which the studio owned the rights. Under their BrownHouse Productions shingle, Martin Chase and Houston were tapped to help bring the remake to life. But shortly after Aaliyah's second film, "Queen of the Damned," wrapped, tragedy struck when the singer died in a plane crash. The project languished for years. "I took the idea to other studios and got a bunch of nos," Martin Chase said. "I never gave up on it." The names of singer/actresses such as Raven-Symone and Ashanti were bandied about at one time or another, but nothing materialized. During a dinner a few years ago at Sony Pictures Chairman Michael Lynton's home, the idea of "Sparkle" once again came up. Unbeknown to Martin Chase, it was a "passion project" for the studio chief, too. From there, the remake received the green light. On the heels of the success of their 2010 feature film debut, "Jumping the Broom," husband-and-wife creative team Salim and Mara Brock Akil -- already established forces in the television industry -- were tapped to direct and write the new movie. Redefining what it means to 'Sparkle' Salim Akil had his trepidation about taking on such a storied work. The original -- which featured a timeless score and soundtrack by Curtis Mayfield -- made stars out of Irene Cara, Philip Michael Thomas, Dorian Harewood and Lonette McKee. The legend of "Sparkle," which predated the fabled musical "Dreamgirls," would be a prized staple in black movie lovers' collections for years to come. "I think with having conversations with my wife, Mara, and riffing on 'Well what if I did do it?' and 'I would do this, I would do that,' I felt like it's an opportunity to take us back to a time that was a little bit more innocent in terms of the way that we approached life back then," Akil said. "I thought 1968 was an interesting year for America, and so I thought we could do something and present something that a younger generation could appreciate it." Outside of the relatively small $15 million production budget (period movies usually start at around $50 million) and a marathon 30-day shooting schedule, casting was one of the biggest challenges for the new "Sparkle." Akil said he knew off the cuff he wanted to work with Epps, a renowned comedian, again after "Jumping the Broom." And as far as the leading role, Sparks -- who starred in Broadway's "In the Heights" in 2010 -- was a born natural. "Jordin just has this quality about her that lends itself to innocence, and I needed that for 'Sparkle,' " he said. "I needed someone who, in this day and age, there was some innocence left. I wanted someone who was sort of (a) mystery to the public and who can sing her ass off, and she could definitely could do that." However, the role of Sparkle's eldest, wilder sibling, Sister, proved less obvious once Paula Patton, also in the Akils' "Jumping the Broom," couldn't do it because of a previous commitment. The director said he saw just about everybody in Hollywood to portray, what is arguably, the strongest role in the movie. And then a screen test of Ejogo, in full character, came his way. "She had taped herself and it just blew everyone away, and I remember when I saw it, I sent a text to everyone that said: 'This is Sister. She is Sister' and in a lot of ways, you get what you need through blessings like that. I think she knocked it out of the park." As far as the creative process, Akil left his wife to her own devices. "I gave her five points that I would like to see and then I left her alone. Mara is a competent writer. I wanted her to write the movie because I knew she would do a great script," he said. "And even though she wanted me to read the script before she was finished, I wouldn't because I didn't want to interfere with her process." Some central plot points are different from the original film, but it is a remake in every sense of the term, according to Martin Chase. "We've made some changes. And with approaching a remake, you want to preserve that which is most beloved about the original and you want to adapt it to a modern audience," she said. "But at its heart, it's very much a remake. We've stayed true to the essence and basic plot of the original movie." Outside the usual marketing push, the movie is making an impact in two other arenas: publishing and music. On August 7, Simon & Schuster released a novelization of "Sparkle" by best-selling author and journalist Denene Milner. "It's a traditional triumph story and we knew that it would resonate with the audience similar to the movie," book editor Todd Hunter said. "It had all the properties of love and lost. The product is a tremendous story, and in terms of publishing, that's what we're all about." Last month, RCA Records released the original motion picture soundtrack featuring music from the movie produced by R. Kelly, Harvey Mason Jr. and the Underdogs and featuring what is believed to be Houston's final recordings. Early buzz on the movie has been good, and seeing Houston, whose role of the matriarch was originated by veteran actress Mary Alice, in her final movie role is expected to draw her fans. "I'm excited, I'm not nervous," Salim Akil said. "I think when I feel like I've done my job and I've respected the audience and respected the material, there's no reason to be nervous. I don't read reviews so I don't go down that road. So I'm just excited. I'm excited for all of the actors. I'm excited for people to see Whitney. I want them to see her, how beautiful she is and what a wonderful actress she is. This is the closest I think I'll come to giving birth." '"Sparkle" will be shown on more than 2,600 screens, Martin Chase said, which is considered a wide release. Most films catering to African-American audiences average between 1,500 and 2,000 theaters. "We still live in an age where we don't have enough stories really dealing with African-American women, and dealing with their tensions and their conflicts," said black film historian and author Donald Bogle, who chronicled the original "Sparkle" and many other films in his seminal tome "Brown Sugar: Over 100 Years of America's Black Female Superstars." "We still need movies about African-American women and not just movies like 'The Help,' where it's all about how they relate, basically, to white people. We need stories that are looking at African-American women and their particular conflicts and not just their romantic tensions but also their professional dilemmas," he said. "I think with this new version of 'Sparkle,' I think people are going to show up. They've been waiting to see something like this."

Producer says she's excited to see the film come to light after more than 10 years . Director talks about casting choices and other challenges in remaking beloved cult classic . Film historian: "We don't have enough stories really dealing with African-American women"

(CNN) -- It's one of the smallest countries in Africa, and one of the poorest in the world, but Burundi is showing the way in the development of tennis on the continent. Ravaged by civil war since gaining independence in the 1960s, its relative recent political stability has helped it embrace a sport that is battling to maintain its foothold in the planet's second-largest land space. Africa has not produced a grand slam singles finalist since Kevin Curren at the 1985 Wimbledon Championships, while Wayne Ferreira reached the semis of the Australian Open for the second time in 2003 and former world No. 3 Amanda Coetzer was similarly successful in '96-97. Kevin Anderson is currently the continent's top-ranked player at No. 35, and yet another South African -- Chanelle Scheepers -- is its top woman at 92nd. But the future may lie in a country which is rebuilding itself after conflicts which saw more than half a million people killed and mass migrations of its fleeing population. Burundi will soon open Africa's third high-performance tennis center, after Pretoria and Senegal's Dakar, plus host a series of top age-group tournaments and an international event. "We would like every country in Africa to replicate the experience of Burundi," the International Tennis Federation's development projects administrator Frank Couraud told CNN. "They are not rich, but they really wanted to have this center. I met everyone from the government -- the vice-president, the minister of sport, the Olympic committee. They value tennis very much." It's not an attitude that's prevalent in Africa, where tennis ranks below sports such as football and athletics when it comes to government funding. The ITF has three development officers across the continent and supports national tennis federations with equipment and skills programs aimed particularly at young children, but its resources are limited. "It's very difficult to fight against football -- it's the sport in Africa and they are doing so well," Couraud said. "In a country like Kenya, if you speak to the Olympic committee for funding for coaches, they say our priorities are track and field because this is where we get the medals. "We need more funding. We would love to see the governments being more committed to developing the game. If you look at our budget ($4.3 million each year) it's what (soccer's ruling body) FIFA gives to maybe one or two nations. There's a huge discrepancy." Burundi has also produced a potential future star in Hassan Ndayishimiye. The 17-year-old was included in the ITF's grand slam team for Wimbledon this year and surprisingly made it to the second round of the boys' singles. Ranked only 112th in the juniors, he received a wildcard into the qualifying draw and beat three players well above him to progress into the main section. It's a small step, but has earned him a place in the team to tour North America ahead of September's U.S. Open along with Madagascar's Zarah Razafimahatratra -- who's in her second year with the program. With Tunisia's Ons Jabeur winning the 2011 French Open junior girls' title, having been runner-up in Paris last year, there are signs that the ITF's development work in Africa is producing results. "We have to focus on these players who have got through the systems, who are very talented, who have big hearts," Couraud said. "When you see Hassan or Zarah on the court they give 200%, they work very hard. We give them the right opportunity now so one day they become professional tennis players -- and then suddenly other African kids will relate to these players. "When Yannick Noah won the French Open in 1983, in Cameroon and many countries kids identified and wanted to play tennis because they saw Yannick winning. Even to have players in the top 100 on the professional circuit, I'm sure this is going to have a positive effect." But it's a huge step from being a good junior to a successful professional, especially in a place where travel and equipment are more expensive than the U.S. or Europe. "If you want to buy equipment in Africa, sometimes a city doesn't even have a sports shop that sells rackets. If they do, it's three times the price in Europe," Couraud said. The Frenchman estimated that a top-20 junior might have only a 50% chance of making it -- and it could take at least four years to crack the top 100 in the seniors. It can cost $70-80,000 a year to fund top coaching and tournament travel, so the best option for African players -- for those who have adequate schooling -- has traditionally been to win a college scholarship in the United States. That was Anderson's route, following the likes of compatriot Liezel Huber and Zimbabwe's Black siblings Byron and Wayne -- who won grand slam titles in doubles events, as has their sister Cara. "It's a very good option. One of the problems of being in South Africa is we're pretty far from the tennis scene. The amount of flying you're going to be doing, the expense of that is pretty high," Anderson told CNN. "Recently a lot of juniors have ended up going to college in the States. There are a lot of tournaments there, you can play a lot of matches in the spring and during the summer you can actually go and play in the professional tournaments." The 25-year-old, now based in Chicago, won his first ATP Tour title in February at his home SA Open, which returned to the men's circuit in 2009 after a 13-year absence. He said the tournament has provided much-needed visibility for tennis in South Africa, where rugby, cricket, soccer and golf are dominant. "The toughest thing is a lack of quality exposure. A lot of South African players are pretty sheltered when they go out there for the first time," Anderson said. "For myself it took me quite a few years to feel completely comfortable, regardless of who I was playing. You don't always know the person and it's easy to build them up in your eyes. You've got to play some guy who's got two coaches and an administrator, and you're there by yourself -- sometimes it's pretty daunting." While Anderson believes Africa needs more high-profile singles players like Curren, Ferreira and Coetzer to grow the game, his former compatriot Huber is not so sure that it will change the status quo. Born in Durban, she went to the Van der Meer academy in Hilton Head, South Carolina, at the age of 15 in 1992 after being frustrated by her lack of opportunities back home. "I was already playing an age group up and winning those tournaments, and the federation didn't have any more money to send us anywhere," the U.S. citizen said. "It was an unfortunate time, it was around when apartheid ended, and if anything it should have been a time when South Africa got the boom, but really it was society trying to figure it out -- where do we stand, where do we fit in. "It was a confusing time. A lot of people were let go of their jobs and other people were hired and tennis in South Africa went through a dip there." Huber was able to take up the academy place only after its owner Dennis van der Meer offered her a cut-price rate of $150 a week -- and even then her father had to beg the air fare from a local businessman. "In South Africa I don't think they are looking at it as a business. That's kind of what hurts the most," said the 34-year-old, who has won six grand slam doubles titles and been ranked No. 1 in the discipline. "When Wes Moodie and I won Wimbledon doubles titles in 2005, I actually thought it would change tennis in South Africa. Nothing changed. Maybe there's more important things to spend money on, maybe tennis is not important. "Maybe it's more important for the government to build schools. I'm not there so I'm not sure why tennis is not getting funding. But it shows." Her disappointment with the tennis authorities in her former homeland grew when they refused to pay for her plane ticket for an important Fed Cup teams match. "We had the opportunity to get back in the World Group -- and they didn't pay my ticket," said Huber, who has since represented the U.S. at the Olympics and in Fed Cup. "We had Amanda Coetzer in the top-10 at the time, but having a good singles player didn't raise the profile. I don't know what it will take." Huber has sponsored an under-15 girls' tournament in South Africa for almost a decade, and has offered to train players for free at the tennis ranch she runs in Texas with her husband Tony, but has been disappointed with the response from South African Tennis. "In four years we've had three kids over. We were there (South Africa) in March and did a clinic for kids -- it was a big disappointment. We thought we might see the next Ferreira or Coetzer, but the talent wasn't there," she said. "I thought it would be a huge event, wanting to give something back, but the organization just wasn't there. I ended up using some of the balls I brought back from Australia. The facilities are the same as when I grew up. It's an eye-opener that it hasn't changed."

African tennis is struggling to produce top-level professional players . Aspiring stars face big obstacles if they are to establish themselves on tour . One of the best ways is to win a college scholarship in the United States . Otherwise African players are not exposed to top-level competition while they are young .

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- The company name flashed and swirled around the darkened convention hall as the music began to pump. Before squeezing into Body Magic, a before-and-after volunteer is measured by Monica Bennett. "Money money money money, money! Money money money money, money!" A man dressed in designer duds strutted across the stage to the tune of The O'Jays' 1970s hit, now the theme song for "The Apprentice." "If you want to get paid, you've got to get up on your feet," he called out. "They say money doesn't grow on trees. Well, I've got a money tree in my backyard, and Ardyss planted it there!" With that the faithful rose and hollered, the applause crescendoed, and the smiles - and dreams - spread wide. See how the sales pitch works » . Few issues pique public interest more than opportunities to make money and achieve beauty. The estimated 3,000 people from around the country who streamed into the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta in early August were a testament to that. They came to rally around Ardyss International, a Las Vegas, Nevada-based direct sales company that makes a fortune off undergarments. Body Magic, the company's flagship girdle-and-corset combo, which retails for $140 plus tax and shipping, can "bring your butt back to high school fine," the man on stage announced. You can wear it and get thin, the claims go, or you can sell it and get rich. The company's other products include the Angel Bra, Panty Reshaper, undergarments for men, nutritional supplements and skin-care items. Think Mary Kay cosmetics. That's the kind of multilevel or network marketing model on which Ardyss is based. Distributors can make money through sales. But they can make even more from profit cuts and bonuses that float to the top if they recruit other distributors, who in turn recruit other distributors, and so on and so on. "I've only been involved for two months, and I have a check with a comma in it," said Robbyn Washington of Snellville, Georgia. While many such companies are legitimate, others smack of pyramid schemes, prompting legal disputes and investigations by consumer protection agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC has no complaints about Ardyss International on file. But the Better Business Bureau, with which Ardyss is not accredited, has given the company an F rating, saying 16 complaints over the past 36 months have gone unanswered. An Ardyss executive and spokesman, Mike Potillo, told CNN the company wasn't aware of these complaints and would be in touch with the BBB to clear this up. As is the case with all multilevel marketing ventures, no matter what they're selling, experts say consumers and prospective distributors should proceed with caution. 'Say whatever you want' The Body Magic motto is emblazoned on T-shirts, pins and bumper stickers: "Drop 3 sizes in 10 minutes." Proponents say it can create hourglass curves, shaving off inches and weight permanently. "Every eight seconds a woman looks in the mirror and wants to be smaller," said Dorothy Cook, who's often credited for making the business, founded in Mexico, a multilevel marketing hit in the United States. "Once you wear it and take it off, you lose inches. Every woman must have one." Sonja King, 38, did not attend the convention but said she's worn her Body Magic about four days a week for the past two months. The Atlanta-area woman said she has seen results but wonders whether it's because she can barely eat when she wears it. "It's not comfortable," she said with a laugh. "But I had to go to a formal affair recently, and that Body Magic came in handy. I was slammin' in that dress!" Beyond looking good, distributors raved about improved posture, a claim that left chiropractor Robert Hayden uneasy. The Griffin, Georgia, man, who hadn't examined the garment, said he's seen the atrophied muscles of those who've relied too much on simple lumbar support belts. "The muscles that hold you erect will have no need to work," if worn with regularity, he said. "They'll go to mush." More striking, however, were the medical claims distributors made about Ardyss garments and Le' Vive, the company's top-selling nutritional product. They ascribed restored bladder control and diverted surgeries to Body Magic. One distributor lifted her blouse to reveal not only the über-girdle but also her Angel Bra, which she said can protect a woman from breast cancer. Many thanked Body Magic for putting their organs "back in place." The stories passed around of those saved by Le' Vive, a drink said to be rich in antioxidants, included tales about warding off diabetes and arthritis. But distributors also said a woman was cured of Bell's palsy. Another, they said, had Lupus, was given six months to live and is now in remission. And then there was the unnamed blind man who distributors claimed began to see. "Someone said that to you?" asked an audibly stunned Potillo, the Ardyss executive who oversees the American market. In a written response sent later, Potillo said the company "makes no health claims, medical claims or any type of claims on any of our products in any way. ... If someone has made a claim on one of our products, we have internal policies and procedures in place to deal with that." The issue of distributors saying what they shouldn't is one of the biggest challenges in multilevel or network marketing operations, said Peter Mingils, president of the Distributor Rights Association, a Texas-based nonprofit that works on behalf of multilevel marketers. "Even though you're an independent contractor, it doesn't mean you can say whatever you want," he said. It's this enthusiasm, however, that drives the company's success, said Clark Howard, the HLN money expert. "If people really believe in it themselves, and they go out and convince others, then that is in itself a legitimate multilevel" marketing business, he said. "If people are making false promises about a product or service, then that comes out in the wash." The hope, the dream . Antonio Díaz de León, the Ardyss founder and president, walked into the convention center where he and his family were treated like rock stars, eliciting gasps as cell phone cameras came out. In the past six months the business has grown by 600 percent and 100,000 active distributors, Díaz de León, a native of Mexico, said through a translator. "We've changed many lives," he said. "Families are getting financial freedom." In times of recession, interest in these kinds of business opportunities spikes, Howard, the HLN money expert, said. "It doesn't matter what the product is, what the service is, you always have the same thing: People talking about the hope, the dream and the money," he said. Dorothy Cook, draped in jewelry, wouldn't say how much she earns. At last count, though, she claimed she had nearly 80,000 distributors in her downline. Another "platinum president," the highest level that can be achieved in this business where everyone has a title, said thanks to her downline of 15,000 distributors, she is bringing home more than $55,000 a month. One can only only assume Cook, nicknamed "The Godmother," makes more. "All you have to do is get here, and God will do the rest," she told a group at the convention. But Potillo, of Ardyss, which includes about 140,000 active distributors, said it's not that easy and called Cook's earnings "an extraordinary experience, not the norm." Tempered with reality . To become a distributor, people are encouraged to buy a starter kit for $299. "If you have to borrow the money, do what it takes," Donna Bingham told a group that gathered recently in an Alpharetta, Georgia, home. "The only way [the business] doesn't work is if you don't work." That line of encouragement made law professor Stephen Calkins wary. "Anytime you're asked to part with hard-earned money in order to ask other people to part with hard-earned money, you should be very nervous," said Calkins of Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. He served for several years as the general counsel for the FTC during the Clinton Administration. Calkins suggested any prospective multilevel distributor consult tip sheets to analyze the credibility of a company first. The FTC has a consumer alert, as does the Direct Selling Association. Excitement about these opportunities needs to be tempered with reality, Howard said. While the "pep rally" may make people think they're all in line to make $20,000 a month, he said that's not how these businesses play out. "There will always be a small number of people who hit grand slam homeruns virtually every day. But most everybody else will make little or nothing, and usually many will actually lose," he said. "Don't believe it's paved in gold. There are a lot of speed bumps and a lot of dead ends."

Company behind Body Magic booms amid claims of big money, smaller waistlines . Multilevel marketing businesses draw interest and spur hope during recession . Staying cautious and realistic is important for prospective distributors . HLN money expert Clark Howard: "Don't believe it's paved in gold"

(CNN) -- The question has dipped in and out of the national conversation for decades: What should the United States do about marijuana? Everyone has heard the arguments in the legalization debate about health and social problems, potential tax revenue, public safety concerns and alleviating an overburdened prison system -- but there isn't much new to say. The nation has moved from the abstract matter of "if" to the more tangible debate over "how," said Beau Kilmer, co-director of the RAND Drug Policy Research Center and co-author of "Marijuana Legalization: What Everyone Needs to Know." Changing attitudes about weed are part of a larger shift in the country's collective thoughts on federal drug policy. Just this week, on the heels of CNN's Sanjay Gupta reversal of his stance on medical marijuana, Attorney General Eric Holder announced an initiative to curb mandatory minimum drug sentences and a federal judge called New York City's stop-and-frisk policy unconstitutional. "Between Attorney General Holder's announcement, the decision made on stop-and-frisk and Dr. Gupta coming out with his documentary, it was a big week for drug policy," Kilmer said. Peruse the Marijuana Majority website and you'll see decrying pot prohibition is no longer confined to the convictions of Cheech and Chong. Today's debate involves an unlikely alliance that unites conservatives Pat Robertson and Sarah Palin with rapper Snoop Lion (aka Snoop Dogg), blogger Arianna Huffington and Jon Stewart of "The Daily Show." In June, the U.S. Conference of Mayors cited organized crime, a national change in attitude, the efficacy of medical marijuana and exorbitant costs to local governments in its resolution supporting "states setting their own marijuana policies," a stance similar to the one endorsed by the National Lawyers Guild and the Red Cross. "I'm surprised by the long-term increase in support for marijuana legalization in the last six or seven years. It's unprecedented. It doesn't look like a blip," said Peter Reuter, a University of Maryland public policy professor with 30 years experience researching drug policy. Reuter, who co-wrote the book "Cannabis Policy: Moving Beyond Stalemate," said he believes two factors are spurring the shift in national opinion: Medical marijuana has reduced the stigma associated with the drug, making it "less devilish," and the number of Americans who have tried the drug continues to rise. Resistance fading . When Washington and Colorado legalized pot -- with strict controls by established state agencies and a coherent tax structure -- opponents weren't able to raise the money to fight the initiatives, which Reuter considers an "important signal that the country is no longer willing to fight this battle." As important as the lack of resistance, Reuter said, is the subsequent response. Though he doesn't see federal legalization on the horizon, he noted that the White House could easily shut Washington and Colorado down, either via a Justice Department crackdown or an IRS prohibition on tax deductions for the purchase of marijuana, which Reuter said would be a "killer for the industry." Instead, this week saw Holder make his mandatory minimum announcement without so much as a word about what's happening in the states. Likewise, Congress has been reticent, Reuter said. "It may be that everyone's waiting to see what happens," he said. "I take their silence to be some form of assent." In 1969, a Gallup poll showed 12% of Americans supported pot legalization, and it estimated that same year that four in 100 Americans had taken a toke. Last week, Gallup reported that number had spiked to almost four in 10. Gallup, Pew and CNN/Opinion Research Corp. polls conducted in the past three years indicate a nation evenly divided, and Gupta's documentary plants him among a loud chorus that has sung the drug's praises since California approved medical marijuana in 1996. Since then, 20 other states and the District of Columbia have passed similar laws, while Colorado and Washington state have legalized it for recreational use -- a move Alaska, California, Nevada and Oregon each twice rejected between 1972 and 2010, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Sixteen states have decriminalized possession of personal amounts of marijuana since 1973, including Colorado, which approved decriminalization 37 years before voters legalized cannabis in 2012, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. Mark Kleiman, a UCLA public policy professor who has been tapped to mold Washington's legal pot industry, noted that even in states where recent ballot initiatives were shot down, there are telling results. Perennial red state Arkansas' medical marijuana vote in November, for example, was a squeaker, failing 51% to 49%. "When 49% of voters in Arkansas are voting for legal pot, we aren't in Kansas anymore," said Kleiman, who co-wrote "Marijuana Legalization" with Kilmer. A savvier debate . The tone of the debate is also a sign that the country is nearing a tipping point at which public opinion effects political change. Rather than engaging in a simple yes-vs.-no debate about legalization, proponents are asking more nuanced questions: Should "grows" be large or small? What should the tax structure look like? Should potency be limited? Will the model involve for-profit companies? How will weed be distributed? "The discussion over time -- and I think it's for the better -- the discussion is starting to focus more on the details," Kilmer said. "Before, nobody has ever really had to confront those decisions. ... Those decisions are really going to shape the cost and benefits of policy change." President Barack Obama's drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske, said in 2010 that marijuana legalization was a "nonstarter," an assertion the Office of National Drug Control Policy says holds true today. The office emphasizes that the administration's 2013 drug policy takes a new tack with the realization that America can't arrest its way out of its longtime drug epidemic. The White House policy, announced in April, favors prevention over incarceration, science over dogma and diversion for nonviolent offenders, the office says. Arguments for marijuana legalization, however, run counter to public health and safety concerns, the Office of National Drug Control Policy says. The federal government may have a difficult time maintaining its stance, experts predict. John Kane, a federal judge in Colorado, said in December he sees marijuana following the same path as alcohol in the 1930s. Toward the end of Prohibition, Kane explained, judges routinely dismissed violations or levied fines so trivial that prosecutors quit filing cases. "The law is simply going to die before it's repealed. It will just go into disuse," Kane said. "It's a cultural force, and you simply cannot legislate against a cultural force." Kleiman, who is also chairman of the board for BOTEC Analysis Corp., a think tank applying public policy analysis techniques to the issues of crime and drug abuse, said the federal government may have tripped itself up in the 1970s by classifying marijuana as a Schedule I drug with no medicinal use and a high potential for abuse. If the government had made it Schedule II, the classification for cocaine and oxycodone, 43 years ago, it would be easier today to justify a recreational ban, he said. States to take lead . Kleiman said the infrastructure he is helping establish in Washington could provide a model for other states, but ideally, he'd prefer a model that involved federal legalization and permitted users to either grow their own marijuana or patronize co-ops. "All the stuff I want to do you can't do as long as it's federally illegal," Kleiman said. "By the time we get it legalized federally, there will be systems in place in each state," which will make uniform controls at a national level tricky. The push for legalization has gained momentum, though, he said, and he doesn't foresee it moving backward. In 10 years, proponents might even move politics at a national level, he said, though predictions are problematic so long as pot prohibition endures. "It's sustained right now. Whether it's going to be sustained is another question," he said. In the meantime, states are expected to continue to lead the charge. Alaska could put a legalization ballot before voters next year, while Maine, Rhode Island, California and Oregon may give it a shot in 2016, when the presidential election promises to bring younger voters to the polls. "I think a lot's going to depend on how legalization plays out in Colorado and Washington -- also, how the federal government responds," Kilmer said. "We still haven't heard how they're going to address commercial production facilities in those states." The next White House administration could easily reverse course, just as it could on mandatory minimums, Kilmer said, but while pot's future is nebulous, the nation's change in attitude -- not only since the 1960s, but even since a decade ago -- is clear. That makes proponents hopeful, if reluctant to make predictions. "I didn't see this (shift in opinion) coming, and I think that's true of my collaborators," Reuter said. "So much for experts."

In legalization debate, nation has moved from "if" to "how," drug policy expert says . White House calls legalization a "nonstarter;" new policy favors prevention over incarceration . Shift in opinion in last 6-7 years "doesn't feel like a blip," public policy professor says . Poll says in 4 in 10 Americans have tried marijuana, up from 4 in 100 in 1969 .

(CNN) -- The message sent by the military council that rules Egypt was simple: "Don't mess with Egypt's armed forces." The message received by the activists who flooded Tahrir Square 18 months ago: "Egypt's revolution, which began with a bang, is ending with a whimper." With several decrees, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces -- a body of 20 generals - moved to neuter civilian authority and give itself unprecedented powers. It got some help from the Supreme Constitutional Court. The timing was hardly coincidental. The candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood was running strongly in the final round of the presidential election against a former Egyptian Air Force general. [Read more about the candidates] . What many observers are calling a "constitutional coup" has serious implications not only for the prospect of democracy in Egypt, but also for the future of the Arab world and for the close relationship between Washington and Cairo. Conflicting reports about whether Mubarak has died . The drama began Thursday, when the Court ruled to expel one-third of the parliament entrusted with drafting a new constitution. The court held that the entire parliament, in which the Muslim Brotherhood and allies have a majority, had to be disbanded. The court's ruling was "absurd, destructive and essentially voids Egypt's last year of politics of meaning," Marc Lynch wrote in Foreign Policy. The director of the Institute for Middle East Studies said the country was going through the "stupidest transition in history." "With Egypt looking ahead to no parliament, no constitution and a deeply divisive new president, it's fair to say the experiment in military-led transition has come to its disappointing end," Lynch wrote. While Egypt dealt with upheaval, its justice ministry (part of the government appointed by the ruling military council) extended the powers of military police and intelligence agents, allowing them to arrest civilians for a wide range of offenses, including protesting. Late Sunday, Egyptians had still gone ahead and voted in the presidential election. The United States Embassy in Cairo tweeted Monday: "We congratulate Egypt on this presidential race. It's a historic event 4 democracy in Egypt." Hours later, the view from the U.S. State Department seemed different. "We are particularly concerned by decisions that appear to prolong the military's hold on power," said spokeswoman Victoria Nuland. Meanwhile, the Supreme Council announced that an appointed assembly would draft the constitution, replacing the assembly chosen by the elected parliament. The Supreme Council also announced it would "decide all matters related to military affairs," including the country's defense budget. There would be no civilian oversight, they said. Egyptians already appeared to be losing faith in politics, with a low turnout in voting between the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate, Mohammed al-Morsi, and Ahmed Shafik, who was Mubarak's last prime minister. Now, whoever wins could discover the office of the president has much lesser authority than it did before. Nobel Laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, himself once a presidential contender, tweeted: "Electing president in the absence of constitution and parliament is electing an 'emperor' with more powers than deposed dictator. A travesty." ElBaradei was once considered a sell-out by disappointed leaderless revolutionaries for not participating in this year's presidential race. Whatever their ultimate goal, Egypt's traditional institutions are reasserting themselves in the face of an unpredictable political landscape. The Supreme Constitutional Court is afraid the Muslim Brotherhood plans to reform the judicial system, said Steve Cook, a senior fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. Nathan Brown, a political science professor at George Washington University, agrees. "The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and the Court have a similar outlook, regarding themselves as guardians of the Egyptian state -- with responsibilities above politics," he said. "Both felt threatened by the prospect of a Muslim Brotherhood-dominated system. The Egyptian military has now become a state within a state, with oversight of the political system and the constitutional process," Brown said. All four Egyptian presidents over the past 60 years have been former military men. The military and retired generals, like their counterparts in Pakistan, run important state enterprises, overseeing everything from food manufacturing to running hotel resorts. But what's new and unusual in Egypt is that the military had put itself beyond civilian control. It is "the locus of power, authority and legitimacy in the system, without having to run the country on a day-to-day basis," Cook said. Debate rages over whether this power grab was the military's plan all along, or whether it has reacted to events. Michael Hanna, an analyst at the Century Foundation, thinks it was the latter. "Over the past several months, they saw that the political climate had shifted in their favor and consequently regained their confidence," he said. "They knew the revolutionaries had lost support on the streets and were viewed negatively, so they seized the opportunity." Many Egyptians still feel the military is something to be proud of, a sentiment shared especially among the poor who are more concerned that Egypt becomes stable and they can provide for their families. In the Upper Egyptian rural governorate of Asyut, home to many young people who have served in the military, factory worker Mohammed Nour, 23, praised the military. "The military and the people are still one hand," he said. "The military alone can save Egypt and make us one of the greatest countries in the world." Meanwhile, secular pro-democracy activists who took to Tahrir Square last year are wringing their hands. The very democratic structure they dreamed of appears to have withered in part because they developed no unifying ideology. They appeared to have no plan for a post-Mubarak Egypt. They failed to get solidly behind a single presidential candidate, not least because several possible contenders were disqualified. Mahmoud Salem, a popular blogger who has journaled the revolution and goes by the name Sandmonkey, said the pro-democracy movement has itself to blame. "You successfully dethrone a tyrant, and you have neither plan nor vision on what to do afterwards, and no real understanding of the regime itself," he posted. But he also criticized reformers who voted for the Muslim Brotherhood's presidential candidate simply because he was not the "counter-revolutionary." "Our revolution called for a civil state: nonreligious, nonmilitary, and this guy will try to form a religious military state," Salem wrote about Morsi. Cook said he believes that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces won't be swayed by reaction from the United States. The United States gives $1.3 billion in annual aid to Egypt, an amount second only to aid the United States provides to Israel. "The question is, Does anyone in Cairo care?" he said. "The answer is yes and no. It is clear that the [top military commander and de facto leader of Egypt] Field Marshal [Mohamad ] Tantawi and his colleagues are giving far more weight to their domestic interests than the potential consequences with the United States." But a note from U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to Tantawi to "ensure a full and peaceful transition to democracy" appears to have fallen on deaf ears. Cook wrote the recent book, "The Struggle for Egypt: From Nasser to Tahrir Square," chronicling the influence of the military in Egyptian national politics. Cook said the level of aid has been static since the early 1980s. "Historically, the military aid program was intended to help secure peace between Egypt and Israel, establish an ally that could be an asset for military contingencies in the Gulf and be a partner to prevent Soviet penetration of the region," he said. "Now, we are basically paying for access to airspace and transit through the Suez Canal." "Now isn't the time to publicly threaten to end U.S. aid, in the midst of an extremely volatile and fluid situation," Lynch said. "But it is the time to forcefully convey to the SCAF privately that the transfer to civilian rule really does matter to the U.S." Shadi Hamid, research director at the Brookings Doha Center, disagreed. "The U.S. has to show that it's on the side of Egyptian democracy and willing to stand up for it publicly," he said. "Frankly it has to undo damage. Obama's policy toward the Arab Spring has been completely reactive. We wait until something disastrous happens when we should have anticipated it months ago." The political chaos and an ever worsening economy appears to have induced a sense of resignation among Egyptians. The turnout in Sunday's run-off vote and the prospect of the Muslim Brotherhood joining forces with secular activists in defense of democracy seems remote. Some secularists even take solace from the dissolution of the parliament, thinking they may do better in fresh elections. But that shouldn't be confused with stability, warns Lynch. If Shafik is declared the victor, "he will preside over a country in economic collapse, with little prospect of restoring investor confidence any time soon." Mahmoud Salem, aka Sandmoney, said the pro-democracy movement must start over. "Do something except running around from demonstration to march to sit-in," he wrote. "Real street work means that the street you live in knows you and trusts you, and will move with you, because you help them and care for them, not because you want to achieve some lofty notions you read about in a book." But with a people more exhausted than incensed by 18 months of uncertainty, finding the determination for another uprising won't come easily. Fast facts on the life of Hosni Mubarak . CNN's Ashley Fantz contributed to this report.

Experts: The "constitutional coup" in Egypt has serious implications for democracy there . Generals neutered civilian authority, gave themselves unprecedented power . The move called into question whether Tahrir Square uprising really made Egypt more open .

Washington (CNN) -- When the race is done, the balloons have wilted, and the confetti has been swept up, Campaign 2012 may be marked more by its failures than its triumphs. But here's the starkest failure in these final days before the vote: Neither candidate has made a convincing enough argument for his presidency to break free of the margin of error in the polls. No matter who is elected, close to as many Americans will have voted against him as for him. Sure, Barack Obama has generally stayed a point or two ahead of his rival in most battlegrounds, but despite his mighty pushes and the advantage of the bully pulpit he has rarely done any better. And Mitt Romney, while he has managed to relentlessly nip at the president's heels like a dog chasing a car (as opposed to one riding on top), he has never been able to decisively bridge the gap from "also ran" to "front runner." Mad dash in final bid for votes . The most recent CNN Poll of Polls -- an average of 10 national polls -- has Obama just one point ahead of Romney, 48%-47%. The latest CNN/ORC survey in the battleground state of Ohio has Obama up 50%-47%, and in Florida by just one point, 50%-49%. Both results are well within the polls' margin of error of plus or minus 3.5%. And if both parties are not haunted by the ever-growing mob of voters calling themselves independents, they ought to be. At least Dr. Rita Kirk at Southern Methodist University thinks so. She is director of the Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility. "Independent isn't a party," she says. "It just means 'none of the above.' People are not really satisfied with either party." Romney's difficulties in breaking through the margin of error have been well documented: a slow start that allowed the White House to paint his strongest positive, his business experience, as a negative; a clumsy trip overseas; and more than one stumble that helped build the caricature of an out-of-touch fat cat. Note to future campaigners: Working class folks have a little trouble relating to a guy who proposes $10,000 bets. Being pulled from the right . But perhaps a deeper part of Romney's trouble dates back to Obama's single biggest humiliation since taking office. Two years ago this month, Republicans ripped control of the House of Representatives from the Democrats, seized new ground in the Senate, and captured 10 extra governorships in what appeared to be a resounding rejection of the White House agenda. A subdued Obama called it a "shellacking," admitting in a masterpiece of understatement, "Some election nights are more fun than others." If Romney wins... Romney: My vision for America . The Republican charge up Capitol Hill, however, was not led by party purists. The flags of the tea party waved high over the Democratic trouncing, and created a whole new road for GOP presidential hopefuls such as Romney. The uncompromising tea partiers made it clear they would get behind only someone who paid the toll of a hard and unmistakable turn to the right, especially on fiscal matters. And as Kirk puts it, "A candidate (who makes that turn) stands very little chance of getting back to the center in time for the general election." Was he ever 'severely conservative' enough? Romney was always an awkward fit. He had a hard time embracing the far right with enthusiasm, and the right felt the same about him. That is one reason why the nomination process dragged on so long, as the faithful tried to make it work with Rick Perry, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum. But Romney was not just wrestling with philosophical differences. "Something else that pulls candidates away from the middle is money," says assistant professor Georgia Kernell at Northwestern University's Department of Political Science, where she is a fellow in The Institute for Policy Research. She notes that Romney's now infamous "47 percent" comment was almost certainly spurred by the need to appeal to right-wing donors at that fundraiser. "He didn't have to say it," Kernell says, "but it certainly made (his message) more powerful." The same might be said about candidate Barack Obama's similar stumble four years ago when he privately told donors that rural voters "cling to their guns or religion." Kernell believes the Republican nominee, all things considered, has walked the tightrope well. "I actually think Romney did a great job using the first debate to position himself back in the middle." It all came at a price. His vacillation between the right and center has allowed Team Obama to pelt him with accusations of flip-flopping and a schizophrenic candidacy, leaving Romney unable to crawl out of the margin-of-error trench. Crowley: It's the losing campaigns I remember most . A president marginalized . Obama did not have to tack nearly as far left as he would have if he were fighting other Democrats for the nomination this year, and undeniably he had some accomplishments to carry into the election. Health care reform was upheld by the Supreme Court. The war in Iraq was concluded and Afghanistan is winding down. As Vice President Joe Biden loves to say, because of Barack Obama, "Osama Bin Laden is dead, and General Motors is alive." Despite all that, the president, too, has spent the campaign in a marginal spot, right alongside Romney. His enemy is the economy, or as Kernell puts it, "Unemployment hasn't gone down;" at least not down to the 5% range Obama himself promised early in his term when he was touting the stimulus. Most voters have been willing to blame the legacy of the Bush years, and the president has encouraged that thinking at every juncture, reminding anyone who will listen that he inherited the worst recession since the Great Depression. An unwilling participant in his own reelection . But his reelection team clearly knew "It could be worse" was not much of a campaign slogan, so over the summer they steadily shifted to a divide-and-conquer strategy. Gone is "No Drama Obama" -- the apparently easygoing man who went into the White House promising to bring warring political parties to the table of peace and prosperity. In his place is a much tougher talking candidate who misses no chance to savage the Republicans, to ridicule Romney as a "bull****er," and like his opponent, to bend the truth until it breaks. "They're ignoring the fact checkers," Kirk says of both Obama and Romney. If Obama wins... Obama: My vision for America . The president, clearly much happier preaching Hope and Change in 2008, has seemed at times an unwilling participant in his own reelection. At the Democratic Convention, critics widely saw Bill Clinton's speech as superior, Joe Biden's as more passionate, and the president's as acceptable at best. The first debate with Romney brought even more concern for Democrats. President Obama sat looking down much of the time and seemed alternately angry, bored, or disengaged. His showing was so lackluster even faithful fans wondered whether he really wanted the White House anymore. Perhaps that is why he too, aside from one brief surge in August, has been unable to establish a commanding lead. Despite his consistently strong personal popularity, he's had to cling for his political life to every vote he can scrape up within the margin of error. Opinion: What's really at stake in election 2012 . More money, less unity . Neither candidate can say his deadlocked fate in the polls is because people have not heard his message. No other election has ever seen so much money raised and spent to win the White House -- latest estimates have the 2012 campaign costing, all in, as much as $6 billion. All those ads, all those TV interviews with the candidates and their surrogates, all the debates and bus trips. They've each had their chances to break out over and over again. Yet neither has been able to get the job done. They may have, however, accomplished another task. Although they each gave lip service to the idea of us all being in this together, the divisiveness of the race itself seems to have hardened opinions even more in red and blue America. In the end, it remains to be seen if there will be a president of the United States. With trust at a low, paranoia grows . Sure, someone will win the office, but arguably both campaigns have done all they can to make sure the country will be anything but united. If Obama wins, the stalwarts of red America may hunker down in their "bitterness," simply enduring the next four years while awaiting the next chance to storm the castle. If Romney wins, the faithful of blue America may feed on their fury and do to the other party's president exactly what they accuse Republicans of doing to theirs; obstructing his every plan. Kernell likes to think not. She believes the very political partisans who've helped lead the country to this point may lead it back to more conciliatory days, if only for cynical reasons. "The economy is going to turn around," she says, "and they're all going to want to claim some responsibility." Kirk, however, believes those better days may be a longer time coming. "I think leadership will emerge. I just don't think it has yet." Maybe, she suggests, the candidates once had ideas of a great, unifying moment -- of a nation coming together to confront its common issues in this campaign, but along the way those dreams were lost in the margins.

ANALYSIS: Both Romney and Obama have been unable to break through to unite voters . Romney has been trying to recover from being pulled from the right early in the campaign . Obama has seemed like an unwilling participant in his own re-election .

(CNN) -- Nasty allegations have been haunting one of America's most iconic comedians, a man with a reputation for moral wholesomeness. For nine years, Bill Cosby has been accused of sexual assault by women who say they were the victims. Cosby has repeatedly said that the allegations are untrue. And he has never been prosecuted. But since 2005, a handful of women have made the claim. This year, those accusations resurfaced, and on Monday, a seemingly harmless post to Cosby's confirmed Twitter account turned them into a social media storm. In its wake, one of his accusers, Barbara Bowman, turned to the public once more with an article in the Washington Post. She also spoke to CNN's Don Lemon. Bowman claims she was drugged then raped, though she said she never saw drugs. "I woke up out of a very confused state not in my clothes." She said she knew her body had been touched without her permission. This occurred several times in the course of their contact, she said. She said to CNN that Cosby told her she had been drunk. Bowman was 17 and an aspiring actress when she met Cosby in 1985. She considered him to be her mentor. She spent time in his home, which included dinners with the star. She said the abuse began after she turned 18. Despite what she said was happening to her, she kept coming back. And Cosby and her agent financed her apartment in addition to supporting her acting ambitions, she said. She was afraid to talk to her agent about her concerns, and she felt Cosby's influence over her was too powerful. "I was terrified of him," she said. "As a teenager, I tried to convince myself I had imagined it. I even tried to rationalize it: Bill Cosby was going to make me a star and this was part of the deal," she wrote in her Washington Post article. In a Friday morning interview on CNN's "New Day," Bowman said she went to a lawyer in 1989 to discuss legal action against Cosby but "he laughed me right out of the office." After that, Bowman said, she "just gave up" and moved on with her life. When another woman took legal action against Cosby years later, Bowman decided to lend her support, she said. "I believe her because it happened to me," she said Friday. CNN reached out to Cosby's representative for comment on this article but has not yet heard back. When asked about the allegations Saturday during an interview on NPR, Cosby did not respond -- instead shaking his head "no," according to the interviewer, Scott Simon. "There are people who love you who might like to hear from you about this. I want to give you the chance," Simon said, to silence from Cosby. "All right." The Tweet . On Monday, the comedian -- or whoever was in charge of his social media -- put out a challenge with a jovial picture of Cosby in a cap: "Go ahead. Meme me! #cosbymeme." The Internet immediately reacted, but probably not in the way Cosby expected. "Claire, have you seen my ... nevermind, found my raping hat!" tweeted Trill Withers over the cap picture. "My two favorite things (--) Jell-O pudding & rape," tweeted E.J. Coughlin over a photo of Cosby smiling. By nightfall, Cosby's original tweet had been pulled from the Web. But in the social media age, the rape allegations have stubbornly remained in the open. In late October, comedian Hannibal Buress bluntly attacked what he perceived as Cosby's "smuggest old black man public persona" by saying, "Yeah, but you rape women, Bill Cosby, so turn the crazy down a couple notches. 'I don't curse onstage.' Well, yeah, you're (a) rapist, so I'll take you saying lots of m*****f*****s on 'Bill Cosby: Himself' if you weren't a rapist." A couple weeks later, Cosby was booked on Queen Latifah's talk show, but the allegations reportedly gave the staff "cold feet," according to TMZ. Cosby's booking was "postponed at his request," the website reported in an addendum. (Cosby did do interviews with Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon without incident.) For years, Cosby has denied the rape allegations. In February, after Newsweek ran an interview with one of the purported victims, Tamara Green, Cosby's representative said, "This is a 10-year-old, discredited accusation that proved to be nothing at the time, and is still nothing." Nine years ago, when Green was interviewed by Matt Lauer on the "Today" show, his lawyer issued a statement: "Miss Green's allegations are absolutely false. Mr. Cosby does not know the name Tamara Green or (maiden name) Tamara Lucier and the incident she describes did not happen. The fact that she may have repeated this story to others is not corroboration." In the case of Andrea Constand, who sued Cosby in 2005 over an incident the year before, Cosby says the sex was consensual. Lawsuit airs allegations . At the time of Constand's lawsuit, Cosby had been in the news for a sexual affair once before. In 1997, a woman named Autumn Jackson claimed to be Cosby's love child. Cosby admitted to a relationship with Jackson's mother but denied paternity. Jackson was later convicted of extortion. However, it wasn't until Constand's lawsuit in 2005 that the comedian was accused of rape. Constand, a staffer for Temple University's women's basketball team, said in her suit that Cosby -- a Temple alum -- had become a mentor to her in the months since they met in 2002. In early 2004, he invited her to his house in suburban Philadelphia. Constand told Cosby she was feeling stressed and Cosby gave her three blue pills, which he described as "herbal medication," according to her suit, which was posted on The Smoking Gun. Then, her "knees began to shake, her limbs felt immobile, she felt dizzy and weak, and she began to feel only barely conscious," the suit continued. Cosby then gave her another drug, she said, and led her to the sofa, where she says she was sexually molested. "When Plaintiff awoke, her clothes and undergarments were in disarray," the suit said. Constand later returned to her native Canada, where she reported the incident to police. Authorities in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, followed up with an investigation, but that February declined to press criminal charges due to a lack of evidence. Cosby's lawyer, Walter M. Phillips Jr., told CNN the allegations were "utterly preposterous" and "plainly bizarre." Cosby appeared surprised by the allegations. "Looking back on it, I realize that words and actions can be misinterpreted by another person, and unless you're a supreme being, you can't predict what another individual will do," he told the National Enquirer in March 2005. Constand filed a civil suit in March 2005. Constand's lawyers said they found 13 Jane Doe witnesses with similar stories. However, Constand's suit was settled in November 2006, and the witnesses were never called. Terms have not been disclosed. The influence of Bill Cosby . Tarnished reputation . As Mark Whitaker's recent Cosby biography makes clear, the man has his demons. He had affairs while on the road and there have been bumps in his long marriage to his wife, Camille. But Whitaker, a former CNN managing editor, told CNN that he didn't feel comfortable airing the rape allegations. "Basically, I knew that I was going to have to be very careful in what I said about his private life. I felt that way as a journalist and also for legal reasons," he said in an interview about the biography. "In the case of these other allegations, basically because there were no definitive court findings, no independent witnesses, it didn't meet my standard for what I was going to put in the book." "I also was very aware that if I just did a she said-he said, and I printed allegations and denials without my own independent reporting, first of all it's not really in the spirit in the book, but also every person who then reviewed or reported on the book would be free to repeat those unconfirmed allegations just because they were in my book. And I just didn't feel comfortable being responsible for that." Still, the rape allegations are always just a mouse click away. Not long after Constand's accusations hit the media, Tamara Green went public with her claims on "Today." A few months later, another Jane Doe, Beth Ferrier, also spoke out. Bowman came forward in 2006. Green and Bowman both gave interviews to Newsweek in early 2014. How all the controversy has affected Cosby personally is unknown. He's still scheduled to star in an NBC sitcom next year, and his skills as a comedian appear undiminished. Last year's concert movie, "Far From Finished," earned mostly positive reviews, and his recent comedy tour has also received praise. But his once-sterling reputation has taken a hit. The Washington Post, Salon and The New York Times have all mentioned the rape allegations in stories, criticizing Cosby to varying degrees.

NEW: Cosby doesn't respond when asked about claims in an NPR interview . Woman says lawyer she approached in 1989 "laughed me right out of the office" Many people referred to allegations of rape toward the comedian . Cosby has repeatedly denied the allegations .

(CNN) -- Women spend every day juggling bosses and birthday parties, dates and diapers, but when was the last time you had a day to do what you want to do, obligation-free? How about four? Enter Campowerment, a retreat for women to, as they put it, "escape, unwind and reignite your flame; to renew and re-energize, however you choose to do it." Translation: Me time. Big-time. It was founded by Tammi Fuller, an Emmy award-winning TV producer, who calls camp her "happy place" and dreams of being a camp director full time. Campowerment offers a variety of activities for body, mind and spirit. "We go out of our way not to make it spiritual," Fuller says, "because there are so many retreats like that. It's all there, but it happens naturally. We say it's a life-changing weekend for some people, but what that is is different for everyone. Some people don't even know what they need when they get there. "That's what we hear, 'I didn't even know how badly I needed it.'" The camps are held in Malibu, California, and Ocala, Florida, with an upcoming session being planned in New York next year. The four-day weekend costs $975 for all lodging, meals, snacks, alcohol and activities. Let me get a few things out of the way: I didn't pay to attend. I was at camp as reporter invited by the organizer. Although I loved summer camp as a kid, these days I'm not what you'd call a joiner. My emotions run deep, but I don't typically share them with just anybody. And I fantasize about chucking my life and living like a hippie, but for now I enjoy both privacy and luxury of all varieties. My approach to the weekend was to think of it as a very cool work assignment, and the limited cell reception would give me an excuse not to check e-mail. I didn't expect to love it and I certainly didn't expect to be changed by it. But then the alchemy of being in nature with a group of amazing women kicks in. I met women who loved summer camp as a kid, and wanted to relive the days of youth; moms who celebrated a milestone birthday away from the stress of daily life and others who just wanted a getaway. Our days were filled with yoga and fitness, parenting and relationship workshops, life coaching, healthy cooking demonstrations, energy healing, journaling, astrology and palm reading, fashion and style advice, as well as sing-alongs, s'more roasting, a sex toy party and happy hour featuring vodka-soaked gummy worms. You're participating in activities (or not -- everything is optional) that push you out of your comfort zone physically and emotionally, and supporting one another in the process. Before I knew it, all of my defenses melted and gave way to deep bonding. In fact, I was so present that, with apologies to my editor, I kinda forgot I was there to write. "It was so nice to just be with other women and share our stories," says Selena Long, 40, a stay-at-home mother of two from of Scottsdale, Arizona. "It made me a happier person. I felt renewed and like I am not alone." "It was amazing to see strong friendships form after only three days," says Jill Brody Sundahl, 45, an entertainment marketing consultant from Studio City, California. "I was more open with sharing feelings than I thought I might be with complete strangers." The idea for Campowerment started in 2001 when Fuller's friend invited her over for wine and chocolate with four other women, none of whom knew anyone but the hostess. "Apparently we were all bitching and moaning to her about the same things," Fuller recalls. "We were working too hard, we were not working out enough, we were all making more money than our men, we were giving our kids too much and not taking anything for ourselves, we were taking care of our aging parents, we were trying to figure out 'What's this spiritual thing?' and if there's really a god and everything happens for a reason, why the hell am I so miserable? "Because we didn't know each other, it was the theory of sitting next to the stranger on an airplane: We started to talk about things like guilt and relationships and sex and stuff that is normally off-limits in your world. It was a place to share common experiences; to go and dump in a safe space. There was unconditional acceptance and no judgment at all." The group's meetings eventually grew longer, and their lives more intertwined. The gatherings were so therapeutic, the women decided to share their stories in the hope that it would have the same effect on others. They also organized retreats, originally dubbed Camp Bombshell. Fuller refined the program over the years. The April Campowerment session I attended was the 19th camp she's produced, and every camp lineup is different. At ours, a reading led by Mary Ann Zoellner, co-author of "Sh*tty Mom: The Parenting Guide for the Rest of Us," found a roomful of mothers laughing for an hour straight in both recognition and relief as they shared stories of their own so-called s--tty parenting. One woman sometimes keeps her kids up past their bedtime so she can sleep late, one lies about dead batteries -- even on toys that don't run on them -- when she doesn't feel like dealing. Another accidentally left her sleeping infant upstairs when she and her husband went to a movie for the first time after the baby was born. "It made me realize there are so many moms out there like me and we aren't s--tty, but truly great moms who aren't perfect," Sundahl says. "It was highly amusing and it felt good to laugh from the belly," says Tina Ryder, 42, a daycare business owner, from Scottsdale, Arizona. The centerpiece of the Campowerment experience is the ropes course, which involves traversing an elevated balance beam and swinging off Tarzan-style when you reach the other side, or climbing a 35-foot telephone poll and jumping off onto a trapeze, AKA the "leap of faith." "I loved the 'leap of faith,'" Long says. "It was scary, emotional and invigorating. So freeing." "We've got these hot coaches offering encouragement," Fuller says. "You don't realize you're about to be transformed because you just think, I just have to get across that beam or to the top of that pole. But when you get to the top, all of a sudden, you're raw. You're standing looking at the ocean. You're so proud of yourself and can't believe you did it." That's when the coaches start asking you questions: What do you love about your life? What do you want to leave behind? What's not working for you? What are you afraid of? "Who thinks about that?!" Fuller says. "Now you're standing on the top of the world with people on the ground cheering for you. There's something magical that happens from the unconditional support you're getting from people that 48 hours before you never even knew that bonds everybody instantly. Everybody is so happy for each other." Before Campowerment, I was perfectly content for my thrills with poles to take place at sea level. See, I mistook the "leap of faith" for a physical adventure that I wasn't particularly interested in, but would be mad at myself for skipping. Instead, it was an unexpected confrontation with -- and then triumph over -- my limiting beliefs. My brain tried every excuse to keep me from reaching the top, all of which basically boiled down to: What if you try and you fail? It's a recurring negative thought that has prevented me from taking other risks in my life. Through sheer force of will that this time be different, and the encouragement from the women below, I reached the top with a new outlook on life: The view is breathtaking, and you're supported even if you fail. "I did the swing and it was fun and all, but the ladies who did the pole brought me to tears every time," Ryder says. "I felt like I was going through all their emotions with them -- with my feet firmly on the ground -- and fighting for them to overcome whatever challenge they were struggling through." "The leap of faith was a game changer for me," says Alison Manzardo, a 40-year-old mother of two. "I have never done anything like that before. It was a raw fear that I pushed through. I felt supported and found a courage that I didn't know existed." Of course, Fuller did. "We didn't just pull the experts off the street," she says. "I spent months building this team. They're well-heeled in what they do, but more importantly, I've been helped personally by them and I just want to share with people the stuff that's helped me. "I'm a 53-year-old single mother, workaholic, camp-obsessed person," she says. "I'm every woman. I'm 10 pounds overweight, I'm struggling to juggle my life, I want more in the way of money, I want more love, I want to be able to share and have joy every day, I want to have children who contribute to the planet, I want more out of my life." Now, at least for one weekend at a time, we can.

Campowerment retreat draws women to a grown-up version of summer camp . Activities include archery, yoga and the "leap of faith," a jump from a 35-foot pole . Also: s'more roasting, happy hour sing-alongs, a sex toy party . Camper: "It was so nice to just be with other women and share our stories"

McDONOUGH, Georgia (CNN) -- Huddling in a dark parking lot outside a budget motel near Camp Shelby, Mississippi, the Callaway family held on to the two things they value most in this world: their faith and each other. Ryan Callaway, left, Jared, center, and Seth enjoy a moment before shipping out to Afghanistan in June. Crying, Mark and Karmen Callaway and their daughter Anna Katheryn clutched the family's three soldier sons before the trio shipped off to serve in Afghanistan. Karmen wasn't thinking about how rare it is for three brothers to go off to war together. She was thinking about Ryan, 25, Jared, 23, and 20-year-old Seth all returning home unharmed. "I know people lose their children every day," Karmen said a week later as she sat in her kitchen in McDonough, Georgia. Watch the Callaway family on how they cope » . "A fear that I have is that something might happen to all three of them. But at the same time, I have an assurance that I will see them again." Mark Callaway, describing the farewell, said he was trying to ignore a group of curious beer-drinking construction workers gathered around a nearby truck watching the tearful scene play out. "These construction workers saw three boys crying and Karmen and Anna Katheryn crying, and I'm sure they were wondering what's going on, because the boys were still in their civilian clothes," Mark said with a smirk. "It was just rough leaving the three of them." Anna Katheryn, at age 18 the family's youngest child, seemed confident about her brothers' safety with U.S. and other NATO forces fighting Taliban and al Qaeda some 7,400 miles away. "They're Callaways," she said with a smile. "They're going to be all right. Sometimes, it does worry me, but you have to give it to Jesus and know that he's going to take care of them." Family sacrifice . All three brothers are serving in Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 121st Infantry Regiment of the 48th Brigade, Georgia Army National Guard. The Pentagon says it's unusual for three siblings to serve in the same Army company, which consists of about 100 to 125 soldiers. But it's not unheard of. Siblings who enlist in the National Guard in the same state are more likely to serve together because Guard forces are state-based units, military officials said. Enlistees in regular armed forces could be deployed in units based across the nation. For example, Nevada's Army National Guard counts nine sets of brothers among its ranks deploying for Afghanistan this summer, according to a spokesman. There are no regulations banning siblings from serving together, but for obvious reasons, commanders don't send siblings on the same missions. Carol and Michael Ewens of Gig Harbor, Washington, know the worry of having multiple sons in battle and the pain of losing a child to war. In 2006, an Afghan roadside bomber killed their 25-year-old son, Army Lt. Forrest Ewens. Now, three more of their sons will be serving in the region. Lt. Oaken Ewens, 28, and Staff Sgt. Elisha Ewens, 26, are in the Army's 10th Mountain Division. Just six weeks after his brother's death, their youngest son Stephen Ewens, now 24, announced he had enlisted in the Army's 2nd Infantry Division -- eventually deploying with a Stryker brigade. "I threatened to shoot him in the foot," his mother joked. "I felt almost like doing something to make him ineligible to go because I didn't want to have a third son there. But no matter how much I begged and cried, it didn't count." Fighting in the same war that took his brother's life "was something he felt like he had to do," Carol Ewens said. "It was part of his expression of honoring Forrest and grieving for Forrest and wanting to carry on what Forrest was doing." She said she relies on God to pull her through. "My faith has been the only thing that has given me peace with Forrest's death, so I have to prepare myself and trust that God has a greater plan," she said. "When one of my children is taken away from me, I have to believe that it's good." God and country . Reminders of God and country dot the Callaways' rural Georgia neighborhood about 40 miles southeast of Atlanta. "God bless our troops," said a roadside sign outside a church along a two-lane roadway in Henry County. Afghanistan is the second war that Ryan and Jared Callaway have fought for their country. From 2005 to 2006, they also served in Iraq. But Afghanistan will be the first war for Seth, whom Karmen Callaway calls her "baby boy." "I just know that he is going to do something very important over there," she said. Karmen and her husband recall how the brothers as kids would pretend to be soldiers in the woods behind their house. "They were always out there playing army and making bike trails," said Mark. "They're still playing war, too, but they're playing it for real this time." Sitting at the kitchen table at the family home, Karmen is surrounded by three sparkling ornamental stars hanging from a shelf on the wall -- reminders of her sons. Karmen said she'll be comforted by the thought that her boys will be relatively close to each other. "They might see each other some, but it won't be like they're together all the time," Karmen said. For most parents, protecting young sons or daughters who aren't serving in a war zone can be stressful enough. Karmen bears the added burden of preparing herself for an unspeakable possibility -- something she learned to deal with when the oldest two were in Iraq. When describing each of her sons, Karmen briefly began to cry. After quickly pulling herself together, she held out three rocks -- all smaller than her palm -- marked with the words, "count your blessings," "pray," and "laugh." Each of her sons, Karmen explained, carries a rock with a special word describing their personalities. Ryan's rock is imprinted with "accomplish." Jared's bears "courage." Seth's says "strength." The stones represent her assurance that she will see her sons again, she said. They're meant to ease her worries during the yearlong deployment. Family of educators . The Callaways are a family of educators. Karmen, who teaches an after-school program at a nearby elementary school, will pursue a teaching degree this summer, before returning to help students in the fall. Daughter-in-law Louie just wrapped up her first year as a teacher -- after eloping with husband Ryan. "We met in November and got married in January, so it's just been crazy," said Louie, her family's nickname for Louise. "The most stressful part was taking a week off work and going to Mississippi ... so I have my students to think about -- getting them prepared for eighth grade -- and my husband's leaving for Afghanistan. So that was a bit overwhelming, I would say." Louie and Ryan have almost daily contact, thanks to the Internet, as do Jared and his wife, Heather. Sometimes, when Ryan and Louie chat by phone, Louie feels the need to be upbeat and "try to have something good to tell him." "He doesn't want to hear my play-by-play about the students, and I don't want to hear about the danger he's in," she said, looking at Karmen across the kitchen. The Callaway home is decorated with scores of family photos in every room. A large, round, old-fashioned analog clock hangs above the family room fireplace, as if the Callaways need to be reminded of the passage of time. The Callaways' 'miracle' In a room off the foyer, Anna Katheryn sometimes plays the family's baby grand piano, a talent that -- in retrospect -- seems more like a miracle to Karmen and Mark. On a rainy night in 2001, Anna Katheryn and Jared nearly lost their lives when their vehicle hydroplaned and Jared lost control of the car. The Honda flipped off the road and into a fence post, leaving Jared shaken and Anna Katheryn in a coma for seven days, Karmen recalled. Doctors told the family that Anna Katheryn probably had suffered brain damage and that they should "be prepared for a different child." With support from their church and after multiple surgeries and rehabilitation, AK-47, as she's nicknamed, made a full recovery, graduating from high school with honors this year, her mother said. The real-life nightmare provided Karmen with a valuable lesson in faith that she plans to lean on during the coming months. "What I learned during that time is that if something were to happen to one of my children, God could sustain me and I could go on," she said. She turned to look at the kitchen shelf and the hanging trio of ornamental stars -- gifts from an Army family support group. "I got three because I have three soldiers, and we decided to put them up and keep them up until the boys return," Karmen said quietly. "That will help us when we're in the kitchen and when they're not around. We will feel that they're near us."

It's unusual: Three brothers serve in same Georgia National Guard company . Another three brothers from Washington state also serve in Afghan war . Two mothers open up about the stress of having three sons in harm's way . Nevada Army National Guard unit has nine sets of brothers serving in Afghanistan .

(CNN) -- Singing folk songs and strumming the guitar at his campaign rallies, Hugo Chavez shows no sign that he's facing the strongest challenge to his 13-year rule in Venezuela. He has dismissed his much younger challenger, Henrique Capriles Radonski, as a "fly" not worth chasing, when challenged to a debate earlier this year. Chavez's opponents are confident that this Sunday, Capriles will unseat the long-ruling leftist leader, a refrain previously heard before eventual defeats. Yet the incumbent is a political survivor and remains popular at home. But there are signals, observers say, that this time Chavez really is on the ropes. Chavez's influence over Latin America's left-leaning governments has often rankled the United States, Venezuela's largest trading partner. Venezuela is the fourth-largest exporter of oil to the United States. Despite that tight economic relationship, the two countries are not exactly close allies: Chavez often rails against the U.S. and its allies as "imperialists." Chavez on U.S. election . Further complicating the U.S.-Venezuela relationship, Chavez is allied with Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he defended former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and he has even offered his support for Syria's leader Bashar al-Assad. At stake for Venezuelans is the ideological trajectory of their country. Chavez, 58, has had more than a decade to implement his vision of 21st century socialism, a view that emphasizes use of state oil windfalls to fund social programs. Observers say Capriles, 40, represents a moderate alternative. He has vowed not end the social programs that Chavez has set up, and he promises to fight corruption that has grown in the public sector. The candidates offer two distinct paths to solve the problems that are on Venezuelans minds: decaying infrastructure, high crime rates and political polarization. Candidates hold dueling rallies . A close race? As expected, both sides claim they will be victorious -- and both sides have polls to back up those claims. Several polls gave Chavez a double-digit lead, while at least one gave Capriles a narrow lead. Chavez supporters say the majority of polls were clear. Those supporting Capriles say people were afraid to voice their real opinions. "The information we get from the polls is, at best, confusing," said Federico Welsch, a political analyst and retired professor at Universidad Simon Bolivar. Part of the problem is "an inherent bias in polling companies," according to Inaki Sagarzazu, a Venezuelan professor of politics at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, who has taken a closer look at the pollsters. Capriles, he noted, also must believe it is a close race, as evidenced by a speech this summer in which he spoke directly to the military, assuring them and other institutions that things will be OK if he wins. That address was significant because questions exist about whether the military, whose leadership ranks is stacked with Chavez loyalists, will accept a defeat. 2 killed as Venezuelan campaign turns violent . Controlling for biases, there are two conclusions that Sagarzazu has drawn from the polls: That Chavez is "stuck" with support near -- but not quite at -- 50%, and that Capriles is closing the gap. "We're looking at a long night on October 7 because things look closer than polls or the government make it seem," he said. Chavez, cool and hip . New campaign posters for Chavez have featured him popping a wheelie on a motorcycle, playing basketball and even performing as a rap artist. It's a sharp contrast with the image of a sick man who was diagnosed with cancer last year and underwent two surgeries, in addition to multiple rounds of chemotherapy and radiation treatments. The image makeover is part of an effort to capture support for Chavez among Venezuela's undecided voters -- mostly young people -- who make up 23% of the electorate and could play a pivotal role in Sunday's election. Neither Chavez nor anyone in his government have publicly discussed what kind of cancer he has. He recently objected to a reporter's question about his health. "Here I am, and every day, I feel in better physical condition," the president said. " And I firmly believe, that that expression about physical limitations that you used, it's not going to be a factor in this campaign." Crafting a youthful image is also important because Chavez is 18 years older than his political rival, who turned 40 over the summer. "Venezuelans are looking for a new way," Capriles has told his supporters. "It's been 14 years of the same government. This government has already completed its cycle and has nothing more to offer. They're only recycling promises." Chavez, presumably because of his health, has not held as many rallies or traveled as often as he has in previous campaigns. His re-election effort has been mostly through presidential addresses that state-run television stations are mandated to carry. Chavez would have been unable to run for re-election this year because of constitutional limits. But his United Socialist Party of Venezuela pushed for a referendum in 2009 in which voters eliminated term limits. Winning another term in office next month would allow Chavez to rule Venezuela until 2019, the 20th anniversary of his rise to power. Whatever his health condition, Chavez remains a force in Venezuelan politics. His likeness is everywhere -- on television, on huge banners and the radio. His popularity remains high among Venezuelans, and his supporters remain as ardent as ever. However, Capriles has been constantly on the road, and his supporters say the momentum is shifting. "We see it everyday, people are opening up their doors and inviting us in," said Tomas Guanipa, secretary-general of Capriles' Justice First party. With high stakes, accusations fly . The campaign has heated up in the final stretch, with accusations of improprieties flying back and forth. In the past month, the Capriles' campaign has accused Chavez of using a televised presidential address to bump an opposition campaign event from the airwaves. And the Chavez campaign released hidden-camera footage that purportedly showed one of Capriles' campaign leaders accepting a bribe. "There are definitely moments of tension," said Welsch, the retired professor at Universidad Simon Bolivar. That tension has also erupted into violence at several campaign rallies. On Saturday, gunmen reportedly killed three pro-Capriles activists in the western Venezuelan state of Barinas. Earlier this month, in the port city of Puerto Cabello, a group of people identified as Chavez supporters -- also known as "Chavistas" -- threw rocks as Capriles made his way to a campaign rally. Several people were injured in an ensuing clash between the two sides. Capriles' Justice First party has accused the ruling party of harassment during the campaign, particularly when the Chavez campaign released a hidden-camera video showing a lawmaker working on Capriles' campaign accepting cash from a businessman. Chavez's campaign said the money purportedly was a bribe for his opponents campaign and accused the Capriles camp of financing itself in this way. Capriles responded to the video by firing the lawmaker and joining in the government's call for an investigation. "It's a very difficult environment we are campaigning in," said Guanipa of Capriles' Justice First party. He characterized the harassment of the opposition campaign as acts of desperation from the ruling party. "It's the agenda of someone who is defeated," he said. Representatives from Chavez's campaign declined to comment, but Chavez told reporters last week that a Capriles victory was impossible, citing polls. "We are ready for the will of the people to be respected and for no one to come and disrespect the Venezuelan will," Chavez said. Meanwhile, a former minister and vice president under Chavez, Jose Vicente Rangel, accused the opposition of being capable of a coup or economic sabotage, if they lose. The back-and-forth accusations can only mean one thing, according to analyst Sagarzazu: "All the shenanigans that have been happening point in the direction that the government knows that things are close." The biggest question mark for observers abroad is whether the election will bring instability to Venezuela no matter who wins. Former U.S. ambassador to Venezuela, Patrick Duddy, said unrest is not inevitable, but in an analysis for the Council of Foreign Affairs, laid out several scenarios of concern, beginning with the fact that "Chavez and several of his most senior associates have asserted that there will be instability and violence if he is not re-elected." Violence could break out if it appears Chavez is going to lose, if he dies unexpectedly or if he wins with the appearance of cheating, Duddy wrote. "Although Chavez has indicated he will respect the results of the election, most plausible scenarios for instability and conflict in Venezuela derive from the premise that the Chavistas will not willingly surrender power and would be willing to provoke violence, orchestrate civil unrest or engage in various forms of armed resistance to avoid doing so," Duddy said. Chavez opponent wants to be a uniter . Journalist Osmary Hernandez and CNN's Rafael Romo contributed to this report.

On Sunday, Venezuelans will vote for president . Longtime leader Hugo Chavez is vying for a fourth term . His challenger is 40-year-old Henrique Capriles Radonski . Observers have expressed concern about post-election instability .

(CNN) -- Hours before 22 U.S. embassies and consulates were to close for a day, President Barack Obama met with top security leaders Saturday to review the situation that led to the unprecedented move. A U.S. global travel alert remained in place amid fears that al Qaeda may launch attacks in the Middle East, North Africa and beyond in coming weeks. The threat prompted the United States to announce that 22 facilities would be closed on Sunday, including in Yemen, which was a focus of concern. Obama met Saturday with his White House chief of staff, Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, as well as the heads of Homeland Security, the National Security Agency, the FBI and CIA, the United Nations and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. On Saturday, the security around the U.S. embassy in Yemen was even tighter than last year when the embassy was raided by protesters. At least 12 tanks were stationed within 500 meters of the building. Hundreds of additional security forces were deployed, and roads leading to the embassy were closed. Checkpoints were set up at a distance from the embassy, and trucks weren't allowed to pass anywhere near the main embassy road. Yemen's special forces, the most elite, were seen in small numbers near the embassy, as well. Meanwhile, Britain, France and Germany have said they, too, will close their embassies in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, on Sunday and Monday for security reasons. No other embassies are affected, they said. Neither Italy nor Spain -- which has no embassy in Yemen -- planned to close any of their embassies. The U.S. embassies closed on Sunday -- a day they would normally be open -- stretch across a swath of North Africa and the Middle East, from Mauritania to Oman. Bangladesh and Afghanistan, both majority Muslim nations, also are affected. The U.S. government's actions are in response to growing intelligence that shows a potential for attacks in Yemen and elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa, said U.S. officials who spoke to CNN on condition of not being identified. Official: Security tightened in Yemen . "The threat appears to be much worse than it has (been) in a long time," said a senior national security official in Yemen, where the government is "on high alert against possible attacks in the days to come." Various Western targets -- not just those tied to the United States -- are under threat, two U.S. officials said. Three sources said the United States has information that members of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula are in the final stages of planning for an unspecified attack. One of the sources said such preparations appeared to have increased in recent days with the approaching end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Sunday is Laylet al-Qadr, or the Night of Power, one of the holiest moments on the Muslim calendar. Said one U.S. official: "It all leads us to believe something could happen in the near future." What's behind timing of terror threat . Christopher Hill, a former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, told CNN he had never seen embassy closures ordered across such a broad area. "There have been incidents where they've closed down a number of embassies in the Middle East because the information is not specific enough to say that 'embassy X' got to be closed as opposed to other embassies," said Hill, who joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1977. "But I think this, closing all of these embassies in the Middle East to North Africa, is in fact unprecedented. At least, I didn't see this during my career." 'Leave Yemen now' U.S. officials said that, based on intelligence, they were particularly concerned about the U.S. Embassy in Yemen between Saturday and Tuesday. President Barack Obama, amid regular updates on the situation, has directed officials to take all appropriate steps to protect Americans. A White House official said the president was updated Saturday morning by Lisa Monaco, his assistant for homeland security and counterterrorism. Obama, who departed for Joint Base Andrews to play golf, is being updated through the weekend, the official said. He praised Yemeni President Abdo Rabu Mansour Hadi for his country's efforts following a meeting Thursday at the White House. The UK Foreign Office has also warned its citizens against travel to Yemen, and urged British nationals to leave as soon as possible. "If you don't leave the country now while commercial carriers are still flying it is extremely unlikely that the British government will be able to evacuate you or provide consular assistance," it said. Photos: Attacks on U.S. diplomatic sites . It was unclear whether the apparent plot targets that Arabian nation or one elsewhere -- which is why the travel alert applies so broadly, and why embassies from Bangladesh to Libya are being closed. Nor is the expected time of an attack known, which explains why the U.S. travel alert extends through August. "Terrorists may elect to use a variety of means and weapons and target both official and private interests," the alert states. "U.S. citizens are reminded of the potential for terrorists to attack public transportation systems and other tourist infrastructure." New York Rep. Peter King, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, called the information "the most specific I've seen." While the principal attention is on the Arabian Peninsula, he stressed to CNN's Wolf Blitzer that "we can't rule anything out." "We are focused on the Middle East, but it's a potential series of attacks that really could be almost anyplace," King said. 22 embassies, consulates ordered closed . The State Department listed the 22 embassies and consulates that are closed Sunday, which is normally the start of the work week in the countries affected. The 17 affected U.S. embassies are in Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Mauritania, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan and Yemen. The U.S. Embassy in Israel will be closed as normal Sunday. See the whole list . Consulates in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are also being shut for the day. Embassies and consulates in the region typically close or operate with minimal staff on Fridays and Saturdays. The shutdowns could extend beyond Sunday, a senior State Department official said. Retired Gen. James Mattis -- who until earlier this year was head of U.S. Central Command, responsible for a 20-country area that includes the Middle East -- said the decision to close the embassies underscores the reality of the threat and the wisdom of U.S. policymakers. U.S. embassies have been targeted before in places such as Yemen, Turkey and Tanzania, he pointed out. Moreover, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is one of the terrorist network's most active and most destructive branches. "We have to remember that we're up against an enemy who kills indiscriminately -- whether it be women, children, diplomats -- and our embassies ... have been one of the targets," Mattis told CNN on Friday. Referring to the move by U.S. officials, he said, "They are showing some proactive discretion here, making certain that we don't give the enemy an opportunity that we can deny them." Meanwhile, Canada shuttered for one day its diplomatic mission in Bangladesh on Saturday. Questions, concerns after Benghazi . House leaders have been briefed, Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi told reporters, adding that the travel alert and embassy closings provided "some understanding of the seriousness of the threat." King, who has also heard such briefings, applauded the government's decision to close its diplomatic missions. "I give them credit," the Republican said of the Obama administration. "I think the government is doing exactly the right thing here." Such bipartisan agreement in Washington comes at a time when politicians are still scrutinizing the September 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. consular compound in Benghazi, Libya, which killed four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens. Since then, Republicans have been pressing Obama's administration for answers, with some accusing officials of covering up what happened in Benghazi and not doing enough to track down the attackers. Eight GOP lawmakers are asking that incoming FBI Director James Comey brief Congress within 30 days about the investigation. They say the administration's inquiry to date has been "simply unacceptable," according to a draft letter obtained by CNN. Earlier this week, Vice President Joe Biden and senior State Department officials went to Congress to discuss embassy security. Biden also briefed congressional leadership, key committee chairmen and ranking members about the latest threat concerns, a source who attended the meeting said. Another official said the recent intelligence might not have warranted such a response before the Benghazi attack, which created a political firestorm for the administration. On Thursday, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said the agency was taking the steps out of an abundance of caution. CNN found embassy attack suspect before FBI . CNN's Greg Botelho, Michael Martinez, Jill Dougherty, Dana Bash, Evan Perez, Gloria Borger, Jim Acosta, Elise Labott, Mohammed Jamjoon, NuNu Japaridze, Bharati Naik, Karen Smith, Laura Smith-Spark and Hakim Almasmari contributed to this report, which was written by Tom Cohen in Washington.

NEW: 22 U.S. embassies, consulates are closed . NEW: President Obama meets with committee of security heads to review the situation . The State Department issues a global travel alert on possible al Qaeda attacks . Sources say al Qaeda is in final planning stages of unspecified plot .

United Nations (CNN) -- The U.N. Security Council's sanctions committee has approved a U.S. request to unfreeze $1.5 billion in Libyan assets to be used for humanitarian and civilian needs. "We felt the need was urgent; that the (National Transitional Council) had to start paying its bills and to start establishing a track record as a clean, democratic organization," a senior administration official said. The money will start flowing "in a few days," the official said. The money will be allocated in three equal amounts, the U.S. State Department said in a statement. Up to $500 million will be transferred to international humanitarian organizations; up to $500 million will be transferred to suppliers for fuel and other goods intended for civilian use; and up to $500 million will be transferred to a temporary finanical mechanism established to assist the Libyan people's food and other humanitarian needs. South Africa had held up the release, expressing concern that no individual body should yet be declared the sole legitimate authority in Libya. The administration compromised by replacing references to the National Transitional Council with "relevant Libyan authorities," the official said. "This money will go toward meeting the needs of the people of Libya," said U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in a prepared statement. "We urge other nations to take similar measures. Many are already doing so." She called for the National Transitional Council to move quickly toward building a democracy "that protects the universal human rights of all its citizens." She added, "There can be no place in the new Libya for revenge attacks and reprisals." The U.S. military is looking at options for delivering humanitarian assistance to Libya and helping with the return of refugees. A senior U.S. military official with direct knowledge of the effort said there had been no requests for assistance, but the military was doing "prudent planning" to be prepared if asked. U.S. President Barack Obama's policy of ruling out any U.S. troops on the ground remains in effect, he said, but military officials have indicated military aircraft and ships might deliver aid to airfields and ports. The NTC, which is expected to function as an interim government, was offering few details about its needs, the official said. Any U.S. assistance would likely take place within a broader post-conflict NATO effort under a United Nations umbrella, a senior NATO official told CNN. NATO military officials have begun planning efforts to be ready if they are asked for help, the senior official said. That would include planning for humanitarian aid, air and maritime security, and the possibility of training Libyan military forces at locations outside the country, the senior official said. Arab allies such as Qatar, Jordan and perhaps others are expected to join in any post-conflict effort in order to keep it from looking like NATO nations are running the show, the senior official said. Meanwhile, the Libya Contact Group -- an alliance of countries -- met Thursday in Istanbul to discuss how to help rebuild Libya's infrastructure. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey Feltman, on the sidelines of the meeting, said the Arab League was expected to officially "seat" the transitional council at league headquarters in Cairo on Saturday. Feltman said part of the proposed $1.5 billion in assets, once unfrozen, will help pay oil bills to keep the electricity on in Libya. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said participants were looking forward to a high-level meeting of allies in Paris next week. Italy will unfreeze about $505 million in Libyan assets that have been held in Italian banks, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Thursday. The rebels have already gotten some support. Mustafa Abdul Jalil, chairman of the transitional council, revealed that Turkey had sent $300 million to the rebels since July. The expected release of financing for humanitarian aid came as a few signs appeared on the streets of the capital that indicated a lessening of tensions in some neighborhoods. For the first time in days, a few stores opened and more residents were out on the streets. But fighting continued in pockets as the rebels hustled to consolidate power and much of the city remained a no-go zone. Weapons littered the streets in some areas. Around one intersection, a dozen bodies lay on the ground, their hands bound behind them. Rebels said they had been executed by Gadhafi's men, but that was not clear. The victims were black Africans, who composed a large part of Gadhafi's army, raising the specter of the revenge killings that Clinton has cautioned against. The opposition has posted a $1.4 million bounty for Gadhafi's capture or death. Though he hasn't been reported seen since rebel forces began advancing last weekend into the Libyan capital, he appeared to have issued another audio message in which he exhorted his followers to fight for control of the capital. "Tripoli is for you, men and women," the speaker said. "Go out, go out and free Tripoli. Destroy them wherever they are, fight them. Let the crowds from everywhere march to Tripoli." The speaker added, "Libya is for you" and not for France or its president, Nicolas Sarkozy. France is a leader in the NATO mission in Libya. "Do not leave Tripoli for the rats, do not leave them. Fight them, destroy them. You are the overwhelming majority, you have marched in millions. March with the same millions but fight this time. Fill the streets and the fields," the speaker said. Gadhafi has previously described his adversaries as rats. "Do not be afraid of bombing, you will not be hit. Do not be afraid at all. They are just stun grenades to scare you. Do not be afraid at all, do not surrender Tripoli." CNN cannot independently confirm who was speaking in the recording. Special forces from Britain, France, Jordan and Qatar -- on the ground in Libya -- have stepped up operations in support of the rebels in Tripoli and other cities. But a senior opposition official said much of the capital's southern neighborhoods remained dangerous. "We have 80% of Tripoli liberated," said Hisham Abu Hajer, the coordinator of the rebels' brigades in Tripoli. "The two suburbs of Abu Salim and Al Hadba al Khadra remain contested and fierce fighting with Gadhafi forces continues." Witnesses told CNN that fighting between rebels and Gadhafi loyalists erupted Thursday at the embattled leader's compound, the scene of a number of clashes in recent days. A giant plume of smoke rose from the compound in Bab al-Aziziya two days after it was seized by rebels. Rebels controlled Tripoli's international airport, but were struggling to secure an area east of it. Gadhafi loyalists destroyed an empty Libyan airline passenger plane parked at the airport Thursday -- the third plane destroyed in 24 hours. "The Tripoli airport is under the control of the rebels, but it is still being shelled by Gadhafi forces with Grad missiles," Abu Hajer said. NATO is trying to learn how many surface-to-air missiles and launchers may still be operational inside Libya and who controls them, a NATO official told CNN Thursday. Several months ago, the U.S. military estimated Libya had an arsenal of 20,000 SAMs, but it was not clear how many may have been destroyed during the conflict and who has control of the remaining missiles. The State Department's Nuland also said the 10 tons of mustard gas stored at the Waddan Ammunition Reservation in Libya are secure "inside massive steel containers within heavy bunkers." But Nuland also referred to discussions with the transitional council about taking over external security of the facility, raising the question about who is now watching over them. A U.S. official said the same Libyan government unit that had been guarding the mustard gas stockpile is still doing so, an indication that Gadhafi security forces were still present. But the official said monitoring of the facility has determined "they have neither abandoned their posts, nor tried to gain access to the materials." The materials "are secure, guarded and not disturbed," said the official. At hospitals across Tripoli, overwhelmed doctors and nurses attempt to care for the wounded. Robin Waudo, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, said two surgical teams were en route from Europe with the first scheduled to arrive Friday. In Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte, the NTC said it was negotiating with the longtime ruler's tribal leaders for their surrender without bloodshed. Abu Hajer said the process of moving government ministries from the opposition base in Benghazi to the capital has inched forward, with about four or five ministerial level officials of the NTC already in Tripoli. In the oil-rich city of al-Brega, several crude oil storage tanks continued burning more than six days after they were set ablaze by retreating Gadhafi troops, said Ramadan Shalash, the refinery fire chief. CNN's Joe Vaccarello, Richard Roth, Jack Maddox, Dan Rivers, Sara Sidner, Arwa Damon, Raja Razek, Jomana Karadsheh, Hada Messia, Kareem Khadder, Richard Allen Greene, Barbara Starr, Pam Benson, Moni Basu, Tom Cohen and Salma Abdelaziz contributed to this report.

$1.5 billion expected to be released soon for humanitarian aid . U.N. sanctions committee worked out language to mollify South Africa . Fighting is still fierce in some areas of south Tripoli, a Gadhafi stronghold . Purported Gadhafi message to followers: "Do not leave Tripoli for the rats"

Donetsk, Ukraine (CNN) -- A battle between pro-Russia separatists and government forces at Donetsk airport in eastern Ukraine has claimed 40 lives, authorities said Tuesday, in what is the deadliest outbreak of violence yet in the flashpoint city. An additional 31 people have been injured, including four civilians, according to the website of the Donetsk mayor, Alexander Lukyanchenko. Two of the fatalities are civilians. The conflict at Donetsk International Airport broke out only hours after newly elected Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said he'd potentially like to negotiate a way out of the crisis. After Ukrainian forces moved in against the militants Monday, the deadly assault continued overnight. The airport remained closed Tuesday despite an easing in the gunfire, as conflicting accounts emerged of how many had lost their lives. The Donetsk mayor's website didn't specify how many of the 40 killed in the airport standoff were separatists. But a spokeswoman for the separatist self-declared "Donetsk People's Republic" (DNR) told CNN that 35 separatists had been killed and about 60 injured in Monday's fighting. Although the separatists earlier claimed they controlled the airport, it became clear as Tuesday wore on that the Ukrainian military had taken charge. The official website of Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said late Tuesday the "Airport in Donetsk is fully under our control." The occasional exchange of gunfire and blasts could be heard from the airport but it was not clear if the shots were fired by military as they maintained a perimeter or whether separatist forces were still present within its territory. Two blown-out trucks nearby appeared to have been hit by heavy weapons. Human remains were still visible, suggesting this may have been the cause of some of the casualties Monday. The separatist movement in Donetsk believed it was offered a three-hour 'truce' Tuesday to leave the city of Donetsk, according to a spokeswoman for the DNR who asked not to be identified to avoid possible arrest. The truce was offered between 1 and 4 p.m. local time (6 a.m. and 9 a.m. ET), she said. The DPR learned of this truce online, the spokeswoman told CNN, adding that Ukrainian armed forces were threatening to bomb separatist strongholds in the city if they failed to leave. The Ukrainian government denied offering rebels any such truce. The Ukraine Government's Anti-Terror Operation (ATO) told CNN there is a longstanding offer of amnesty to any separatist who turns himself in and gives up his weapons, unless he (or she) is guilty of murder. Morgue piled with bodies . A CNN team at a morgue in Donetsk saw a large pile of separatist militant bodies, many of which had been torn apart by shrapnel and explosions. Doctors there said 31 bodies had been brought in with different types of injuries, from bullet wounds to those caused by heavy weapons and explosions. The remains included the body of a woman civilian. Doctors also said some locals had arrived during the morning to identify and collect their relatives from among the dead. The airport clashes marked the worst violence that this key population center in eastern Ukraine has seen since the start of the crisis. A statement posted on the mayor's website Monday advised residents to stay in their homes as sounds of gunfire and explosions cracked through the air. Elsewhere in the Donetsk region, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said it has had no contact with one of its Donetsk-based teams since around 6 p.m. (11 a.m. ET) Monday . The team of four -- of Swiss, Turkish, Estonian and Danish nationality -- was on a routine patrol east of Donetsk when it was last heard from. The OSCE says it is using contacts on the ground to try to determine where the monitors are. The last time an OSCE team went missing in Donetsk, its members turned up in the hands of militant separatists in the flashpoint town of Slovyansk. They were freed just over a week later. In another development, NATO has observed Russian troop movement near the Russia-Ukraine border recently, a NATO officer told CNN. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the officer said this included signs of Russian equipment and supplies being packed or prepared for movement, and that the activity could signal a slow or staged withdrawal of forces. Turning point? The Ukrainian security forces' muscular airport assault may signal a shift in approach as the new president takes charge in Kiev. A senior Ukrainian official told CNN's Jim Sciutto in Kiev that it is "now or never" in the fight against militants in the East. "We have been patient for far too long," he said, indicating that with the election over, the new government believes it has a mandate to put the insurgency to rest. U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoff Pyatt told CNN that the crisis is now entering its "most kinetic phase." At the same time, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday urged an immediate halt to the operation against separatist militants in Ukraine's south and east, the Kremlin said. Putin also spoke by phone with Italy's Prime Minister Matteo Renzi of the need for the leadership in Kiev to start a peaceful dialogue with representatives of Ukraine's regions, it said. Kiev and the West have accused Moscow of backing Ukraine's separatists. But Russia has denied having direct influence over the pro-Russia militants and says the unrest is due to the actions of far-right ultranationalists. At a news conference Monday in Kiev, Poroshenko, the newly elected president, said that Russia needed to participate in bringing peace to eastern Ukraine. He also reiterated that European integration would be his priority. In addition to the unrest roiling the east, Poroshenko, a candy tycoon known as the "Chocolate King," faces the challenge posed by Ukraine's ailing economy and a looming crisis over Russia's supply of natural gas to Ukraine. Russia's energy giant Gazprom says Ukraine owes it $3.5 billion for gas already supplied and has threatened to turn off the taps if no payment is made. But Ukraine's interim government has said that the price must be renegotiated after Russia hiked it up this spring. Prime Minister Arensiy Yatsenyuk said on his website Tuesday that Ukraine would take the issue to an international court if Russia's Gazprom and his own country's Naftogaz do not sign an agreement by May 29. Anti-aircraft weapons . Government air and ground forces attacked the pro-Russia militants after they seized a terminal at the airport early Monday. The troops moved in after the separatists ignored a government ultimatum to vacate the premises, said the country's anti-terror office spokesman, Vladislav Seleznev. After a Ukrainian military plane "made a preliminary shot," paratroopers landed and began clearing the airport, Ukrinform reported. In the fighting, a separatist anti-aircraft gun was destroyed, the news agency said. Although the gunfire had largely halted by Tuesday morning, the airport is not expected to reopen for the moment. The preliminary evaluation is that the airport suffered minor damage in the fighting, Seleznev said. Experts are working to establish whether all the navigation and other systems are working, he said. In any case, it is not judged safe for airplanes to fly because the separatists have weapons capable of shooting at aircraft and seem willing to use them. Seleznev also warned in a Facebook post Tuesday that if the rebels do not surrender, "terrorist" targets in Donetsk will be hit by "special high-precision weapons." Government officials had been optimistic that flights would resume by 9 a.m. (2 a.m. ET) Tuesday, but given the situation, it remains unclear when the airport will reopen. Ukraine's acting Interior Minister Arsen Avakov posted on his Facebook page Tuesday that an airstrike had destroyed a training camp in Yasenakh, in the Luhansk region. Separatist unrest over recent weeks has centered in the country's Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Internal reconciliation . U.S. President Barack Obama congratulated Ukrainians for casting their ballots Sunday and criticized Russia-backed separatists, whom he accused of trying to block voting. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in a phone call with Poroshenko, hailed the vote as "a clear commitment of the Ukrainian people to unity and democracy as well as a peaceful solution to the current conflict," Merkel's spokesman said in a statement. She said Germany would continue to support Ukraine on its democratic path, the spokesman said, adding that the two leaders agreed on the need to pursue internal reconciliation through national dialogue and constitutional reform. At a news conference Monday, OSCE Parliamentary President Joao Soares said the presidential election was fair and represented the will of the Ukrainian people, despite major problems in Donetsk and Luhansk. Leading in Ukraine election, billionaire Petro Poroshenko declares victory . Opinion: Will Ukraine's 'Candy Man' deliver the goods? Swedish FM: Russia must respect Ukrainian choice . CNN's Nick Paton Walsh reported from Donetsk and Laura Smith-Spark wrote from London. Journalist Victoria Butenko contributed from Kiev and CNN's Andrew Carey from Donetsk. CNN's Stephanie Halasz and Phil Black also contributed.

OSCE loses touch with team of four international monitors in Donetsk . Donetsk morgue contains bodies torn apart by bullets, shrapnel, explosions . 40 people killed, two of them civilians, in airport gun battle, Donetsk mayor's website says . 35 militants killed and about 60 injured in Monday's fighting, separatists say .

Washington (CNN) -- With his budget approved by the House, Paul Ryan is turning his attention to Iowa to headline a high-profile Republican event that will only fuel speculation he's laying the groundwork for a potential presidential run in 2016. Lawmakers approved the Wisconsin Republican's 2015 spending plan on Thursday. But there were notable conservative defections, making his appearance at Friday's Lincoln Dinner in Cedar Rapids more interesting. The question that confronts Ryan is whether his budget, dubbed the "path to prosperity," will help pave a path for him to compete in the early contest state in two years. Or will it prove a political liability when Republicans choose their next White House nominee? Ryan's role as the chief fiscal expert in the GOP is the main reason he was tapped as Mitt Romney's running mate in 2012, and remains his main calling card in a potential national campaign. Since Republicans took control of the House in 2010, top GOP leaders have deferred to the Budget Committee chairman to construct the party's blueprint to address the growing national debt. He has shepherded four budgets through the House and brokered a deal with Democrats last fall to avoid another government shutdown and possible default on the nation's credit limit. Ryan budget details . Some say not aggressive enough . But that resume has not won over some tea party groups who believe Ryan isn't' being aggressive enough about slashing the size of the federal government. The group of fiscal conservatives in the House introduced an alternative budget that balances the federal budget in four years, instead of the 10 years in Ryan's plan. Former 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who previously backed Ryan's budgets, called this version "a joke." In all, a dozen Republicans voted against his bill, a mix of conservatives who wanted the swifter cuts and moderates in competitive seats who may be worried about political fallout. "I don't think it helps him at all," Tammy Kobza, Iowa State director for the Eagle Forum, a conservative group, told CNN when asked if Ryan's record crafting GOP budgets could be a basis for 2016 presidential campaign in Iowa. Kobza isn't ready to endorse any GOP candidate in the next presidential race yet, but she says there are other activists who will attend Friday's dinner who share her view that Ryan isn't conservative enough to win the party's nomination. "Paul Ryan seems like a very nice man, someone I'd love to have like a next door neighbor," Kobza said, but she grouped him in with "Washington Republicans" who she said "have no clue what's going on in real world America." Jim Carley, President of Save Our American Republic (SOAR), a conservative grassroots group in Iowa, said he supported most of what Ryan had in previous proposals, but he admitted he hasn't focused on the details of Ryan's latest plan. Ryan's dilemma . Iowa conservatives . He told CNN that conservatives in Iowa are determined to get the federal budget in balance, and although he understands it may take some time, "you're going to have some people that are never happy." Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, who has been making his own trips to Iowa to drum up interest in a likely presidential campaign, told CNN he is "a fan" of Ryan's. But he said voters in Iowa would have to decide about the political consequences of his budget. When pressed on whether he backs Ryan budget blueprint, Cruz declined to answer, saying his focus was on the Senate. But some Iowa Republicans say Ryan's willingness to tackle tough issues appeals to conservatives there who are especially concerned about the nation's debt. Iowans hold the lowest credit card debt in the country, according to Transunion. "There is a tremendous amount of affection among Republicans I talk to, especially with the small business and donor community," former Iowa GOP Chair Matt Strawn, who is not affiliated with any potential 2016 candidate, said of Ryan in a phone interview. "They appreciate he isn't just saying no, he's attempting to demonstrate that he's a solution oriented conservative." Ryan's Poverty push . Other issues energize voters . Republican activists and strategists say right now Iowa voters are energized about issues other than cutting federal spending. The backlash to the National Security Agency's surveillance program is pulling people toward Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul, who has seized on the issue, and is tapping into his father Ron Paul's infrastructure in the state. And the base's continued zeal to roll back Obamacare is something that Cruz has highlighted during his visits to the state. But these same Republicans also say the kitchen table issues that Ryan's budget addresses will generates enthusiasm among caucus goers when the election comes around in 2016. "Iowa Republicans like somebody who is put forward serious proposals." Tim Albrecht, a former aide to GOP Gov. Terry Branstad, told CNN. He believes Ryan's budget will be an asset and shows "he's a thoughtful, smart leader, unafraid to make tough decisions and put together tough proposals that don't necessarily endear him to the east coast elite." Albrecht suggests that it's time though for Ryan to move beyond the spreadsheets and the numbers in the budget plans and demonstrate how his proposals will work in people's lives. "If he can explain to Joe Citizen how it helps them help their pocketbook then he'll be successful." Ryan well known . Veteran Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley told CNN that he expects Ryan to have a "good following" when he visits the state. He pointed out that some "economic conservatives and libertarians" within the Iowa GOP may not be exactly on the same page with Ryan's approach, but said these groups "don't necessarily disagree with him but it's a matter of emphasis for them." Republicans agree that Ryan is well known in the state from the 2012 campaign and it helps that he comes from neighboring Wisconsin, and shares Iowans love of the outdoors. But Friday's visit is only Ryan's second to the state since the 2012 presidential campaign,. Paul, Cruz, former senator and 2012 GOP candidate Rick Santorum have been to the state more often, and GOP strategists say if serious about running for president Ryan needs to start spending more time cultivating support there. Democrats aren't waiting until 2016 to put Ryan's budget proposal front and center in the November midterms. While congressional Republicans insist the fallout from Obamacare will help them regain control of the Senate and increase their majority in the House, Democrats believe Ryan's budget is key to their election prospects this fall. They say its proposed spending cuts and changes to entitlement programs are issues that will energize their base which has been deflated because of the series of problems with the health care law. Dems to highlight Ryan budget . Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer has called the focus on the Ryan budget this spring "a turning point" and a "gift" to Democrats. In Iowa Democratic Rep. Bruce Braley, who is running to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, told CNN the Ryan budget will be a major focus as he talks to voters. "No matter who my opponent is going to be they've all been out at public meetings talking about where they stand on these issues - and where they stand on these issues is not very different from what's contained in the Paul Ryan budget. They're going to have to own up to whether they stand behind this philosophy of governing," Braley said. Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana may be one of the most vulnerable candidates seeking re-election this fall, and points out that her likely opponent, GOP Rep Bill Cassidy, has repeatedly voted for Ryan's budgets. "I most certainly plan to point out how my opponent has advocated to raise the retirement age to 70. I most certainly plan to point out how some of the proposals in that budget undercut the support for the middle class in Louisiana so I think there are just any number of things," Landrieu told CNN. Another Senate Democrat facing a tough race, Alaska Sen. Mark Begich, said "elements" of the Ryan budget will play prominently in his race. He told CNN that those Republican candidates vying to defeat him have already linked themselves to the "pretty draconian cuts" to education and entitlement programs that he believes will alarm voters in his state. Dems to focus on Ryan budget . Could attacks strengthen Ryan? But Iowa Republicans believe that attacks from Democrats could strengthen Ryan going into 2016. "If anything the howls coming from Democrats are an asset," Strawn told CNN, adding, "even those conservatives who would want to see more cuts, quicker, when they see Ryan being attacked, those Republicans and conservatives will rally." While three House Republicans competing for the GOP nomination for a Senate seat in Georgia opposed the Ryan bill, seeking to show conservative primary voters they wanted deeper cuts, GOP Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, who is battling his own tough re-election campaign in Kentucky, said earlier this week he supported it. "My personal view is - I think the Ryan budget is a step in the right direction," McConnell said Tuesday. He also indicated that most Senate Republicans backed the plan. Grassley maintains that it's too early to tell which potential GOP candidate has an edge with potential 2016 Iowa caucus-goers, and he said based on discussions with Republicans "of all stripes" in the state Ryan is on equal footing with others in the field. But referring to some of the other potential Republican candidates who have executive rather than congressional experience, Grassley said right now there is an "anti-Washington feeling which I think gives some edge to governors."

Ryan headed to Lincoln Day dinner in Iowa . Ryan's budget, "path to prosperity, or path to presidency?" Sarah Palin calls new Ryan budget "a joke."

(CNN) -- In today's publishing market, "Going Rogue" is a fat book at 432 pages, at a high price point of $28.99, with a massive (rumored 1.5 million) first printing, launched on the book world's version of a Royal Tour, where Oprah is Queen of the Universe and Barbara Walters is Duchess of the D.C.-Manhattan cognoscenti. In today's political market, well before it was officially released, "Going Rogue" was reduced to a pinprick-sized, petty insiders squabble. How do we square these disparate perspectives? As a person with alternating publisher and political hats, who knows the players but wasn't inside the John McCain campaign, who cares deeply about the current conservative movement and the future of the country (which are inextricably intertwined), may I offer a few thoughts to the friends on CNN.com's site? The publishing "frenzy" Full disclosure: Threshold Editions, an imprint of Simon and Schuster, (for which I serve as editor-in-chief, a misnomer of a title, since my editing is confined to reading; for you political types, think, "operative/organizer") would have loved to acquire Sarah Palin's book. She didn't really shop it and it's not certain we would have paid what she was reputed to have commanded, but upon notice she was considering writing, we, like the rest of the book world, were in a frenzy at the prospect of publishing it. Many were prepared to offer Palin's lawyer, Bob Barnett, their first-born male child for it. We are now all watching very closely how it plays out (and more precisely, "earns-out") in a book market that's unpredictable and fickle always, but in major transition today. The pre-orders immediately kicked it onto the best-seller lists, but a dirty little secret of publishing (where spin is as prevalent as in politics) is not all best-sellers earn out (i.e., the publisher sells enough books to cover an author's advance, which is the threshold for making a profit). "Going Rogue" will now be a "comp" (or baseline) for assessing the value of and advances for political "big books," so all you big book writers of the future better hope it sells big -- or your future advances won't be. "The Political Palin" On to politics. While having your own title is now de rigueur for politicians and policy makers, and the upshot is usually no harm-no foul, the goals of the publishing and political worlds are not always in tandem. Though there is much, much more in Palin's book that fleshes out her inner core, her grounding in faith and family, as well as her policy achievements and forward-thinking philosophical framework of common sense conservatism, so far the coverage of it has constrained her in a defensive backward-focused box, re-litigating the darkest days of the campaign and reliving difficult family moments. Though all the breathless chatter about 2012 is premature, the way Palin lays out her world view throughout the book and especially in the eloquent closing pages is sure to attract conservatives yearning for an unapologetic articulation of first principles. But because of the inordinate mainstream media focus on the political insiders' tiff, the Political Palin is getting sucked down and mucked up by the Published Palin. Listening to her on Rush Limbaugh as I write, she is digging out of the box her detractors would like to bury her in for once and all and needs to keep on it: Get off their message and onto her own. Now, for a point of personal privilege. I have been and will continue to be an advocate of Sarah Palin and her principles. Had I been asked about how to use her publishing opportunity to maximum political benefit, I would have proffered to Palin the received wisdom of the unlikely duet of my mother and Lee Atwater: Never burn bridges. As campaign memoirs go, "Going Rogue" napalms bridges, incinerates detractors, hoses gas on what were smoldering embers. It is without refutation anywhere, even among rabid Palin haters, that she received political hazing of a magnitude previously unimaginable. More mother wisdom: Two wrongs don't make a right (to which my Obama-loving daughter always replies, "Yes, but three rights make a left"). There was a way to defend her honor, make her case, pivot to the future while showcasing her moral foundation by doing unto others as she wished they had done unto her, so to speak. Campaign pressure cooker . Anyone who has ever been in the Defcon One pressure cooker of a national campaign knows that "mistakes are made," feelings are hurt, tempers are short, bitching is background noise. There is no such thing as Emily Post for political campaigns. Except for maybe Poppy Bush, good manners do not exist on any campaign planet. For good reason: They take time. Time is the most valuable commodity on a campaign and you just can't waste it thinking about how to choose your words carefully or get your job done more diplomatically. If someone isn't in tears every day, that day wasn't all it could be advancing the campaign. I once witnessed an experienced (big) man slap a professional female colleague across the face over an ad buy... and no one thought anything of it, starting with the woman. In fact, she would have been insulted if anyone told her she should have been insulted. Though the two primary Palin antagonists, McCain campaign senior strategists Steve Schmidt and Nicolle Wallace, have said little about the Molotov cocktails thrown at them in "Going Rogue" (other than a true Schmidt, aka, "The Bullet," retort, "Why are the bald guys always the villains?"), both have made it clear the accounts of their actions in "Going Rogue" are "fiction." And while I wasn't there, I have worked with and adore them both. They are uniquely talented, cool under fire, cutting-edge creative professionals, admired and respected by their peers of all political persuasions and their many high-level bosses. And ironically, however it ended, the relationship began as a match made in heaven. Both Steve and Nicolle were ecstatic with Palin's selection as vice presidential nominee; and both were appalled at the outrageous, unspeakable, unparalleled media treatment heaped on Palin and her family. Steve, normally the toughest guy in the room, called me at home on multiple occasions, just flabbergasted and flummoxed about how to protect Palin and her family and, of course keep the campaign on track. He was in genuine pain for her -- not a good state of mind or use of energy for the campaign guru, which he knew -- but he devoted much concentration to the astounding set of circumstances. Ditto for Nicolle. That Palin recalls her experience with them so negatively and ugly incidents so vividly does not make her a liar, as people with neither her nor the party's best interests in mind have charged. The operating principle of campaigns, perception is reality, works inside as well as outside. Once her perception of reality locked in negatively, particularly on Schmidt and Wallace, there was only one prism through which all their actions flowed. And it wasn't pretty. I have seen this phenomenon on countless campaigns and in the White House. It is unavoidable in any operation that is always under stress, where clearing-the-air sessions aren't possible given time or physical constraints. That campaign people tend to be uncommonly focused, which can come off as insensitive, might exaggerate the perception, but it is just an occupational hazard. The plight of the number two . Another common source of campaign discomfort is the role of the VPOTUS (that's vice president of the United States) candidate. It is always secondary to the POTUS in every respect. His/her operation is always subservient to the principal one. They do not set strategy or adjust message; they are assigned to B markets. They are an echo chamber. They do not give unique speeches unless they are given a specific and pointed attack, which might appear unseemly coming from the principal. Granted, Palin was a unique nominee, with uncommon charisma and fire-power, but number two is number two. It was ever thus and will ever be. Adjusting to being number two, after being number one (as a governor) is a process. Even if you were never number one, it is a trial -- witness Joe Biden, in perpetual adjustment mode. Bottom line: The book is a good read, an unusually detailed front-row seat view to how strained campaigns always are, and a compelling insight into Palin's perspective. Its long-term publishing and political impact are unknown for now, though as Palin moves out of the mainstream media monster publicity machine and into more hospitable, relevant political terrain, the prospects for success on both fronts improve exponentially. But its impact on personal and professional relationships is a sad one indeed and one I hope conservatives don't let it divide us just when we are marching toward a promising midterm, which reflects an ascendant common-sense conservatism and requires all the good guys in the foxhole together. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Mary Matalin.

Palin's book is a publishing blockbuster and "a good read," says Mary Matalin . She says in the political world, the Palin book is being reduced to an insider spat . She says her advice would have been to focus the book on the future, not the past . Campaigns are rough, and there's no time for diplomacy, Matalin says .

(CNN) -- Lewis Hamilton has always been driven by his emotions -- for better or for worse -- but has he found a new level of maturity with Mercedes? The double world champion has been schooled in the harsh lessons that Formula One can mete out since he joined McLaren's junior program when just 13 years old. But, despite this careful education by one of the most straight laced teams in F1, the British boy racer cannot help wearing his heart on his sleeve. There have been some heady highs and mesmerizing meltdowns in his eight-year career at the highest level of motorsport. Fizzing with energy, he bounded into the sport in 2007 and refused to lie down when faced with Fernando Alonso, a double world champion, as his feisty McLaren teammate. With Alonso gone after a single acrimonious season, Hamilton drove the McLaren to the 2008 title with "my heart in my mouth." At just 23 years old, he had sensationally clinched the championship at the last corner, of the last lap, of the last race to deny Ferrari's Felipe Massa -- and a seething crowd of home fans -- in Brazil. If 2008 was the young gun's giddy zenith, the 2011 campaign was his gut-wrenching nadir. His long-distance relationship with American pop star Nicole Scherzinger was more off than on and he had ditched his dad Anthony as manager in favor of a high-profile agency. Hamilton teetered on the edge of controversy and despair. The torch paper was lit at the Monaco Grand Prix when he was penalized by the race stewards. "It's an absolute frickin' joke," he exclaimed. "Maybe it's because I'm black. That's what Ali G says." When Hamilton made a surprise switch to Mercedes in 2013, the team would have been well aware that while his impulses propelled him on track, off it they could do more harm than good. "He is an emotionally driven individual," Hamilton's biographer Mark Hughes tells CNN. "You are never going to change that. "His emotions were all over the place in 2007 and 2008, and in 2011 he was having big mood swings because of problems off track." Locked in another intense title fight in 2014, the unpredictably passionate Hamilton had to sink or swim in the cauldron of competition. But, despite the swirling emotions of fighting mano a mano with his Mercedes teammate and close teenage friend Nico Rosberg, Hamilton impressively kept his head above water to win a second world title with some style. So, what's changed? "He is essentially the same guy [as in 2008] but he definitely seemed more in control of himself at the crucial pressure points on race days," Hughes adds. "He does seem to be in a calm place now and I'd say he's slightly more mature." Hamilton's inner calm held out despite an F1 season filled with flashpoints that threatened to derail his peace of mind. The Mercedes rivals tested each other's limits in Bahrain, where Hamilton had cut across Rosberg to retake the lead. In Monaco -- where the pair happen to live in the same apartment block -- Rosberg was accused and cleared of blocking Hamilton during qualifying. In Hungary, the Briton then refused to cede to team orders to let Rosberg pass. But the season's big bust-up bloomed in Belgium. Rosberg was forced to apologize to Hamilton after he collided with the rear of his Mercedes in an attempt to retake the lead, effectively putting his rival out of the race. "Lewis has won the 2014 title in an entirely different set of circumstances to 2008," former McLaren F1 driver John Watson tells CNN. "He and Nico have been battling it out all season. "Lewis has evolved to be able to deal with the stress. His destiny was in his own hands and he had the maturity to deal with it. "Lewis always had the racing skill, the racing brain, the seat of the pants raw talent but he has matured into a driver that has come to a new level in terms of his own self-belief and self-confidence." If Hamilton, who reconciled with Scherzinger at the start of the year, has discovered a Zen-like mental state, an instinctive impulse inside the cockpit has also been key to winning a second world title. When it came to unlocking the pure pace from the Mercedes car in qualifying, Rosberg had the edge. The German out-qualified Hamilton 12-9, taking 11 pole positions to Hamilton's seven over the course of the year. "Nico is clearly very good at unleashing the big lap at just the crucial moment," explains Hughes. "That induces Lewis to over-strive sometimes and that happened on three or four occasions in qualifying this year." But when the points were handed out on Sundays, it was the Briton's racing nous that paid dividends as he racked up 11 victories compared to Rosberg's five. "Even when Nico out-qualifies him, we see Lewis is faster in the race because the tires wear, the track temperature changes, the fuel load changes, the car is never perfection," Hughes adds. "Lewis is a very improvisational driver, he is someone who can just head into the race and improvise his way around anything the car does." Yet even Hamilton would probably have struggled to improvise his way around the loss of engine power at the season finale in Abu Dhabi, where Rosberg's title hopes ultimately ended. Falling backwards through the field from second to 14th was an agonizing way to lose the title but the 29-year-old was generously gracious in defeat. This may not have been a world title winning season for the son of 1982 winner Keke Rosberg but it has been a year of growth for the driver who was unflatteringly dubbed "Britney" -- for his pop star good looks -- by his peers. "To be up against Lewis, the level was incredibly high and so I also had to find and deliver the next level," Rosberg reflected in Abu Dhabi. Hughes, who has also followed Rosberg's career closely since he made his F1 debut with Williams in 2006, agrees. "Nico's definitely stepped up," the Grand Prix Editor for Motor Sport Magazine adds. "I'd say he has discovered a core of steel within himself and his composure is very impressive. "Even though he has been trounced by Lewis he has pulled himself back together and gone straight back out and given him a hard time all over again. "Lewis' level has lent Nico a credibility that is greater than it would have been without Lewis." Mercedes is expected to be the dominant force in F1 when the new season rolls into Melbourne, Australia for the opening race next March. Red Bull -- the only other team to win races in 2014 -- will be hot on the champion's heels while a resurgent Williams -- the only team to deny Mercedes pole position -- is out to go one better on race day next season. But given the hybrid Mercedes engine's power advantage over the rest of the field, Hamilton and Rosberg are set fair for another internal team tussle for the victory laurels. The question is, can Rosberg dig deep over the winter and reach another level to prevent Hamilton winning a third world title? "Nico has peaked," argues Watson. "This year he used every element of his driving skill and his mental capacity to take the championship to Lewis. He's not going to get any better. "The feeling is that Lewis has won this championship as a man in development. This win has been so important because he will take from this and be a better driver in my opinion. "Be prepared to see more domination." The quicksilver combination of Hamilton and Mercedes now has the chance to emulate Red Bull's four-year era of dominance that was snuffed out by 2014's major rule change, which focused on engine technology. "This is a golden opportunity for Lewis," says Hughes. "And it's probably one he's never going to get again. "He's the favorite in 2015 because the Mercedes gap to the others is so big that even if it's reduced next year, it's probably still going to be there. "It was looking for a time that Sebastian Vettel winning all those championships with Red Bull meant Lewis' was going to be the great career that never was. "Now he's in a position to make it a great career and if he keeps winning titles he will be recognized as one of the giants." Watson, who raced to F1 victories in the late 70s and early 80s, is even tipping Hamilton to succeed a very special member of the Silver Arrows stable. "Juan Manuel Fangio is my idol as the greatest Grand Prix driver ever," says Watson. "He won the titles for Mercedes in 1954 and 1955. "Lewis can go on and match that. If he does, his career will be held in great regard and respect. "What marks you out as a great driver is moving forward and winning multiple world championships. "But what is more critical is winning titles in different cars with different teams. Fangio has done that and now so has Lewis Hamilton."

Lewis Hamilton added a second world title to his 2008 crown with victory for Mercedes in 2014 . "Hamilton is more mature," says the British racer's biographer Mark Hughes . Teammate and title rival Nico Rosberg has raised credibility with his 2014 performance . Hamilton can match Juan Manuel Fangio's two world titles for Mercedes in 2015, says former racer John Watson .

Philadelphia (CNN) -- Darryl Williams and Benjamin Kline were shivering before the speech even started, their black umbrella no match for the steady rain and brisk Philadelphia wind. Even as water hit their faces, though, they were smiling, excited at the thought of seeing Ron Paul. Williams and Kline are true believers. They are two men who in spite of political reality and weather still come out to support their "ideal candidate." They don't care that many have crowned Mitt Romney the presumptive nominee or that it is now mathematically impossible for Paul to win the Republican nomination before the convention. They just know who they support. "We believe he is the best candidate," Williams said. Not everyone agrees, though, and the electoral math is against the 12-term congressman from Texas. On Tuesday, Romney swept Paul in all five states that voted. And even if Paul were to win every single delegate from now until the convention he wouldn't be able to win the nomination, according to analysis by CNN Political Research Director Rob Yoon. CNN Election Center: Ron Paul's vote totals . To Paul's most passionate followers, though, it doesn't matter that Paul has earned only an estimated 76 delegates (although his supporters challenge that number), compared with Romney's 841. It doesn't matter that Paul has yet to win a single state. It doesn't matter, said Kline, "with or without [Paul], the movement is going to carry on." Kline and Williams are just two of the hundreds of thousands of Ron Paul supporters across the country -- hairstylists, chiropractors, sailors and students -- who have been energized by the congressman from Texas' third run for the White House. Now, as his chances have all but evaporated -- he is still hoping to challenge the presumptive nominee Romney at the GOP convention in Tampa this summer, but party rules may not even allow his name on the ballot -- a core of fans continue to turn out at rallies, flood internet comment boards and gather in big cities and small towns, to keep the movement alive. They still believe. Paul has already announced that he is retiring from the House this year. If he fails to win the presidency, his political career, a career that started in the late 70s, is over. That has left his followers grappling with their unabashed support for the 76-year old doctor and their commitment to the movement. Once a Democrat, now a Paul fan . Standing under an awning at the Philadelphia rally is Kathy Cahalan, a woman from Clearwater, Florida who for 33 years voted as a Democrat but was so moved by Paul that she re-registered as a Republican so she could vote for him this year. Though she voted for then-candidate Barack Obama in 2008, she said she regrets it now. Cahalan one of a few people who follows the Paul campaign around the country, going to different events in different primary states. Dave Wilcox, a 22-year veteran of the Navy, had met Cahalan earlier in the campaign. As they talk, a young group of supporters walk by chanting "End the Fed," a slogan that has become a staple at a Paul event. To Wilcox and Cahalan, Paul has become the conduit for a message. Do they respect and admire him? Absolutely. But both say that the movement is bigger than him and will continue when he bows out of politics. "We are trying to educate the GOP. That is the main message. Once we get back to the Constitution, it doesn't matter who the banner carrier is," Wilcox said, gesturing to the chanting students. "It could be anybody, as long as they hear this message." Borderline hero worshipers . That attitude contrasts with the eager exuberance of Anastasios Hatzakos, a chiropractor from Easton, Penn. Listening to Hatzakos talk about where he agrees with Paul is like listening to the candidate's greatest hits album. Ending the Fed, cutting the deficit, no foreign entanglements, repealing the National Defense Authorization Act -- Hatzakos mentioned all of them. He went on to say there is not one policy that he disagrees with Paul on. Should he not make the ballot, Hatzakos said, "I would write him in. I would never vote for anyone else, because they are all the same." While Paul's base is a wide spectrum of support, there are a number of people who would fall into the category of hero worshipers. In an interview with CNN, Paul says that sort of support makes him uncomfortable. "I think they over-praise me at times," Paul said. "I keep saying maybe they have been over starved because I don't see my qualifications quite the way they do. They over-praise. It makes me uncomfortable, but obviously it pleases me." Though many see Paul as the figurehead attached to the movement, Paul says he sees his role in a lesser light. "I am sort of like a spokesman for them," Paul said. "I don't call them followers. I call them partners in this because they understand the same thing that I understand." The 'movement' will go on . And Paul believes it is a good thing that the future of the movement is open ended. He says that while he may have truly awakened the movement in 2008, it has been stirred decades ago. "I don't think anyone knows where it is going and it is good that I don't know that," Paul said. He added that while the movement's future may be unknown, he feels validated by the fact that he draws large, politically diverse crowds in most places he goes. "It verifies what I believe in, and I am convinced of, that freedom brings people together," Paul said. "How we use our freedom, your personal lifestyle may be different, but freedom brings us together." Like other presidential candidates who have sparked intense passions before him -- Ross Perot, Ralph Nader, Barry Goldwater -- Paul supporters often take what he says as gospel. Walking around a Paul campaign event is somewhat like a lesson in American political constituencies. Though Paul is a Republican with Libertarian ideals, many of his followers do not fit that mold. There are common Republicans and Democrats who find Paul engaging and of course you find Independents and Libertarians. But you also find a large group of people who identify as members of the Constitution Party, the Green Party and many with no party affiliation. He has appealed to actor Vince Vaughn -- "his principles are based in fact and logic which is rooted in the foundation of America," said Vaughn -- and singer Kelly Clarkson -- "I love Ron Paul," tweeted Clarkson. Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, an independent, said, "I want somebody that will shock the status quo, and Ron Paul will do that." As the primary season rolls on and Paul is still looking for his first contest win, the odds of a Paul presidency look bleak. Paul is also up against an RNC rule, Rule 40, that states a candidate must have received a plurality of votes in five states in order to even be considered at the convention. Paul has yet to receive a plurality in one state. If not Ron Paul, then who? Last time around, on June 12, 2008, Paul dropped out of the 2008 presidential race, leaving his supporters to find another candidate. Though Paul went on to support the Rev. Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party, his followers dispersed -- some voting for Obama, some for McCain and some not at all. Looking to the general election, Paul's supporters are skeptical of whom to vote for if Paul doesn't win the nomination. "If tomorrow Ron Paul says, 'I changed my mind and let's go with Mitt Romney,' I will not do that," said David Chen, a hairstylist from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. "I really can't say right now," said Daniel Osoreo, a graduate student at New York University. "It is a very difficult choice because I am very loyal to Dr. Paul." Back near the stage, Williams and Kline are even more soaked than they were before. When asked about the political diversity in a Paul crowd -- his campaign enthusiastically estimated about 4,300 people were at the Philadelphia rally, but on the scene, it appeared the real number was about half that -- Williams says that is the point of Paul's appeal. "We are too focused on dividing ourselves into little pockets," Williams said. "We are all hyphenated Americans rather than being just Americans. We focus too much on what makes us different." In George Washington's farewell address, the first president touched upon a trend he was observing in American politics -- the formation of political parties. He saw America dividing into factions, so he warned against it. "The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissention, which in different ages & countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism," Washington said. In the eyes of his supporters, Paul is now playing that role of checking the domination by one party over another. "I think the fire he has ignited is still going to keep burning in the hearts of people who love liberty and this country and are really tired of both sides of the political spectrum behaving in such an extreme fashion," Williams concluded. Even though the odds are long, the rain is hard and the nomination process is becoming a slog, Paul supporters have their candidate. They may vote for someone else if he drops out, but while Paul remains a presidential hopeful, hope will spring eternal.

Ron Paul's supporters are avid, even though his chances now are practically zero now . Paul has yet to win a state contest and has amassed only an estimated 76 delegates . Still, supporters believe in the principles and movement he represents .

(CNN) -- Nearly 12 years after Congress debated and subsequently voted for American military action in Iraq, another debate over that Middle Eastern country is roiling Washington. This debate is not taking place on the floors of the House or Senate; it is taking place in the media. Members of Congress and even the former vice president who helped plan the U.S. invasion of Iraq more than a decade ago took to the Sunday political talk shows to voice their positions. As militants, which President Barack Obama said Sunday on CBS News' "Face the Nation" poses a "medium and long-term threat." continue to gain ground in Iraq, we'll get you up to speed on what top officials in Washington said in the Sunday political shows. Lacking intelligence . Now that Obama has announced his plans for Iraq, which includes sending up to 300 military "advisers" to the country, the blame game on how Iraq dissolved into chaos continues. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California and chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the intelligence community was not fully aware of the scope of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. She said intelligence did "know about" ISIS in Syria, but it did not adequately account for the possibility that the group could overtake a third of Iraq so quickly. "This is a difficult culture," Feinstein said on CNN's "State of the Union." "It is very difficult to pierce." She added that U.S. intelligence has holes in places other than Iraq, including North Africa and Yemen. "The world is a big place," she said, "and this is extraordinarily difficult to do." Her counterpart in the House, Chairman Mike Rogers, disagreed, insisting intelligence gathering did not fail. In Iraq, militants press on toward Baghdad . View from Baghdad: Answering your questions about Iraq crisis . The blame game . Everyone points fingers. And they're all pointed in a different direction. It "was a policy failure," Rogers said on CBS News' "Face the Nation." Rogers said Obama's inaction is what led to the quick rise of ISIS in Iraq, insisting that not "dealing with" ISIS earlier "has got us a bigger problem." "We didn't do anything in Syria; we didn't do anything when they took Falluja; we didn't do anything when they took Mosul; they got into Tikrit and said, 'Hey this is a problem,' " he said. 4 western Iraqi towns fall to advancing ISIS militants . That's a sentiment expressed by former Vice President Dick Cheney. After writing a scathing op-ed slamming Obama for "being "so wrong about so much," Cheney came out swinging again, this time on ABC's "This Week." "I think he's dead wrong in terms of the course he's taken this nation, and I think we're in for big trouble in the years ahead because of his refusal to recognize reality and because of his continual emphasis upon getting the U.S. basically to withdraw from that part of the world," Cheney said. During the G.W. Bush administration, Cheney played a key role in urging the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 to search for weapons of mass destruction, a hunt that ultimately proved fruitless. Cheney has remained a supporter of the war in Iraq. He said Obama "left a big vacuum" by not agreeing to a deal with the Iraqi government to leave American troops behind after the war ended. Like Cheney, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul also said the U.S. has "created a vacuum." But that's where their agreement ends. Paul said, "I do blame the Iraq War on the chaos that is in the Middle East. I also blame those who are for the Iraq War for emboldening Iran." He said Iran has benefited from Sunni and Shiite conflict in the region. "What's going on now, I don't blame on President Obama," he added on NBC's "Meet the Press." Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-California, who was one of 23 senators who voted against going to war with Iraq in 2002, said on CBS News' "Face the Nation" that Cheney's vocal input is "a nightmare come back to haunt me." "The fact is what you're seeing now is an outgrowth of that bad policy the neocons got us in -- that crowd on false pretense that said, 'Go in there.' " As ISIS advances toward Baghdad, a call for fighting volunteers is answered . The role of Syria . As ISIS gained strength and clout by fighting in Syria's civil war against President Bashar al-Assad, Boxer dismissed argument made by many in the Republican Party that a hands-off approach in Syria is what emboldened ISIS. "The hawks are saying the President knew that ISIS was in Syria and didn't want them to get control of the weapons," Boxer said. But Paul said the limited U.S. role in Syria was too much and that's what emboldened ISIS. He said the minimal weapons, vehicles and communications equipment the U.S. sent to ISIS gave them greater capability. "Here's the anomaly. We're with ISIS in Syria. We're on the same side of the war. So, those who want to get involved to stop ISIS in Iraq are allied with ISIS in Syria. That is the real contradiction to this whole policy," Paul said on CNN's "State of the Union." Iraq history facts . Middle East borders will never be the same . American action . Obama has received a mixed response from those in Congress as well as outside observers for his measured response to the crisis, including sending military advisers who "will be prepared to take targeted and precise military action if and when we determine that the situation on the ground requires it." He also sent Secretary of State John Kerry to Europe and the Middle East to engage allies and interested parties in the crisis. Emphasizing Kerry's diplomatic trip, Obama said in a portion of an interview aired Sunday that the U.S. is not going to deal with Iraq unilaterally. He also said the U.S. has to have a "more focused, more targeted strategy" as extremist groups are active throughout the Middle East and North Africa. "[What] we can't do is think that we're just going to play Whac-a-Mole and send U.S. troops occupying various countries wherever these organizations pop up," Obama said on CBS News' "Face the Nation," echoing remarks he made in a news conference Thursday. Cheney, however, wants troops -- and more of them. "When we're arguing over 300 advisers when the request had been for 20,000 in order to do the job right, I'm not sure we've really addressed the problem," he said on "This Week." And Cheney said if it were up to him, he would assist the Iraqi army with training and provide Shiites with weapons "to be able to do a more effective job." Rogers criticized the President's overall philosophy on the region. "And it's not Whac-a-Mole, this is in our national security interest. Bumper sticker phrases aren't gonna win this thing," Rogers said. "We've gotta be dug in for the long haul because they're dug in for the long haul." Opinion: Obama's sensible Iraq plan is likely doomed . Opinion: Can Obama avoid mission creep? Obama, however, has his supporters. "I think the President is doing the right thing," Feinstein said. "He's being a bit circumspect. He's being thoughtful." Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said the President's actions are "a little late," but he added, "I do think they're on the right track now in terms of this dual strategy." Boxer said she agrees with the President. "We're not going to go back into that war again, ever," she said on CBS News' "Face the Nation." Paul, who doesn't believe ISIS is an immediate threat to the United States, said he'd be cautious about any further action, wanting to see whether the Shiites are going to stand up and fight. "[Am] I willing to send my son to retake back a city, Mosul, that they weren't willing to defend themselves? I'm not willing to send my son into that mess," Paul said on "State of the Union." Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a member of the Intelligence and Foreign Relations committees but also a potential contender for the 2016 presidential race, differentiated himself from Paul, a possible presidential challenger. He said on "Face the Nation" that he hopes Obama's plan is "not simply a symbolic measure" but "the first step in a multistep process." Rubio advocated for a plan similar to Cheney's that included airstrikes to cut off ISIS's supply lines from Syria and to "potentially" hit ISIS's command structure. "The reason that al Qaeda was able to carry out the 9/11 attacks is because they had a safe operating space in Afghanistan that the Taliban had given them. And now history is trying to repeat itself here," Rubio said. Obama said ISIS fighting "could spill over into some of our, you know, allies like Jordan." Rogers was more direct: "It's not that they may have designs on Jordan, they do have designs on Jordan." Kerry: U.S. would communicate with Iran, not work with it, against ISIS .

Sen. Dianne Feinstein said intelligence wasn't fully aware of the swift capabilities of ISIS. Rep. Mike Rogers said intelligence isn't to blame, policy is. Former VP Dick Cheney said Obama is "dead wrong" on Iraq . Sen. Rand Paul blamed the Iraq War for creating chaos in the region .

Giglio, Italy (CNN) -- The nautical blue paint spelling out "Costa Concordia" has almost all bubbled and chipped off the bow of the once luxurious cruise liner after 20 months under salt water off the Italian island of Giglio. One can get glimpse of just what it's like in and under the Concordia by the vast array of mesmerizing underwater videos released by Italy's coast guard and the Titan Micoperi salvage team tasked with removing the rusting hulk. The seabed is still littered with sun deck chairs that floated from the ship's balconies and upper deck when it finally came to a rest in January 2012. Fish swim around the sunbed legs and seaweed has grown through some of the mesh seating. The beds are spread out in a surreal scene that looks like a set from an underwater science fiction film. Shoes, mattresses, dinner plates and thousands of pieces of cutlery shimmer in the divers' lights on a bed of sea grass. INTERACTIVE: How the 952-foot wreck will be raised . Divers have not been deep inside the massive ship for nearly a year. The salvage divers only work on the outside of the ship and do not have authority to enter the vessel, with the exception of a work area they have created with a false floor on the upper port side deck, unless accompanied by Coast Guard divers. Not only is the Concordia still chock full of passengers' possessions the Costa Cruises company hopes to return, but the ship is still considered a crime scene. Thirty-two people died in the accident and the ship's erstwhile captain, Francesco Schettino, is facing charges of multiple manslaughter and causing the shipwreck after piloting the 290-meter ship into the rocks on Giglio last year. The last divers to comb through the Concordia's sunken bowels were there to search in vain for the last two victims, still believed to be trapped somewhere under the ship or buried in a watery grave at the bottom of the hollow hull. The salvage crew believe they know about where the bodies might be found, but there is no guarantee until the ship is lifted whether they will be found at all. In the weeks after the accident, the divers called the inside of the ship a "toxic stew" of spilled oil, rotting food and floating tableware. There were five massive restaurants on the ship -- each one in operation when the ship crashed at 9:42 p.m. on January 13, 2013, spilling tables of buffet food into the water. More than a dozen kitchens and freezers had enough food to feed the 4,200 passengers and crew for a week, plus extra supplies that all cruise ships carry in case of emergencies and delays. Many of the freezers burst and their contents were gobbled up by sea life and the colony of sea gulls that has multiplied on the island since the disaster. Fishermen off Giglio say that the fish have changed, too. They are much larger and harder to catch after gorging on the ship's offerings. The freezers that have not burst under the water pressure are still locked with their rotting thawed contents sealed inside. Fridges too, filled with milk, cheese, eggs and vegetables, have been closed tight since the disaster. One has to only imagine leaving a home freezer -- a fraction of the size of the industrial freezers used by cruise ships -- unplugged for 20 months to get an idea of the type of rancid mess trapped inside. Rodolfo Raiteri, head of the Coast Guard dive team, told CNN that his divers had to confront an array of deep-sea threats, from floating knives to lethal bed sheets and flowing curtains that could have easily become entangled in the divers' safety cords. There were also floating chairs and large chunks of marble and crystal chandeliers that constantly detached and fell from the sideways ship's ceilings every time the ship creaked and shifted as it settled onto two underwater rocky mountain peaks. All that debris, along with thousands of dinner plates, can be seen stacked against the underwater windows in some of the salvage video. The ship has compressed three full meters in the 20 months since it crashed, and each time it groans and twists, windows break as their frames adjust and once-attached items are lodged free. On cruise ships, dining room tables are all affixed to the floors to keep passengers from chasing sliding tables in rough seas. Raiteri described the bizarre scene his divers faced swimming among the sideways tables, sometimes encountering plates of food and floating champagne bottles in their search for victims. Senior cabin service director Manrico Giampedroni, one of the last survivors to be pulled out of the wreckage alive, became trapped half submerged in the ship's dining room when his leg got caught among fallen furniture. He survived for 36 hours on floating food and stayed awake by drinking caffeinated beverages until rescuers found him. If he had fallen asleep, he would have drowned. Incidentally, Giampedroni was later convicted of involuntary manslaughter in a plea bargain for his role in the deaths for not being at his duty station to help evacuate the ship. In addition to the general rule of thumb that you don't blow up ships where there are still unrecovered victims, one of the main reasons the Concordia is being refloated rather than blown up or dismantled on site is because of the toxins and personal effects still trapped in the ship's 1,500 staterooms. The ship's engines are still thick with lubricants and the kitchens are still filled with cooking oils and non-soluble materials that would pollute the sea. Giglio, which lies within the Pelagos Sanctuary, the largest protected marine wildlife park in the Mediterranean, is flush with exotic sea life and coral reefs. The putrid stew inside the ship's 17 deck-structure will eventually have to be purified or pumped out before the ship is refloated sometime next year, and the personal effects are another matter. All that was in the Concordia the moment it wrecked is presumably still there, save the ship's bell, which mysteriously disappeared two months after the wreck based on surveillance video taken by authorized divers. An investigation into who could have stolen the bell has caused some concern that other items, especially high price items from the ship's gift shops, could have also been pilfered. Everything inside the ship is expected to be recovered and returned to its original owners, no matter how water-logged it may be, but that could be months from now when the ship is eventually towed and dry docked for dismantling. Each of the cabins has a locked safe, presumably still filled with passengers' valuables including cash and jewelry. There are also countless cameras, laptops, iPads and cellphones that passengers left behind, not to mention luggage. The ship had only been at sail for three hours, so many passengers likely didn't take time to unpack, but instead headed to the nearest dining room or bar to relax as the ship set sail. One suitcase floated to the nearby island of Elba and its soggy contents were delivered to the owner nine months after the disaster. Many more suitcases have been spotted by divers at the bottom of the sea. Nick Sloane, the head of the salvage operation for Titan Micoperi, the joint American-Italian venture to rescue the Concordia,, says that if explosives were used, the ship's smaller contents would become dangerous projectiles. "Mattresses and passports would scatter the sea," he says. But the real danger would be flying cutlery, cooking knives, bottles and broken glass. If the "parbuckling" goes well and the giant 114,000-ton vessel is tipped upright sometime in the next week, much more than the 65 percent of the ship that is under water now will be submerged. The platforms that will provide a base on which the Concordia will rest are some 30 meters below the sea level, meaning many of the staterooms that were dry until now will sink underwater. Some of the toxic water will be displaced and pushed out of the upper cabins. Some freezers that are still sealed could burst under new water pressure. And almost every window on the ship's outer cabins is expected to break as the ship's frame twists. Sloane says the noise will be deafening as metal twists and windows pop. The ship has been rigged with cameras and microphones to help the salvage crew monitor the ship's structure as it is lifted. As Sloane says, ships this size were never meant to lie on their sides, and they are not built to be lifted. The salvage team says they will be able to contain any spillage of toxins with oil booms now in place around the work site. The broken glass and new debris will join what is already at the bottom of the sea. There will never be the scale of environmental disaster that was already averted by removing the ship's 2,400 tons of fuel shortly after the ship crashed, but there are still major risks involved with salvaging the Concordia. If the parbuckling fails and the ship breaks apart as it is rotated, the rotten contents -- moldy mattresses, passports, toxic stew and all -- will spill into the once-pristine sea. And even if it succeeds, this part of the Mediterranean will never be quite the same again.

Costa Concordia ran aground off Giglio in January 2012, killing 32 people . Bodies of two victims may still be inside the rotting 952-foot wreck . Divers call inside of ship a "toxic stew" of spilled oil, rotting food and floating tableware .

(CNN) -- It's December 1991 and France is on the verge of making tennis history. The scene is set for Guy Forget to lead the nation to Davis Cup victory for the first time in 59 years. Standing in his way is a U.S. team defending its title -- and more specifically, Pete Sampras. Some 40 games and many more points later, the Frenchman produces an irresistible serve-and-volley combination that leaves his young opponent -- who would later become one of the greatest tennis players -- failing desperately to return. The home crowd in the Gerland Sports Palace in Lyon erupts; Forget falls to his feet. Six decades of waiting is finally over. With a crocodile logo sitting atop of his pounding heart, the match-winner was lofted onto his teammates' shoulders with tears in his eyes, bursting with pride, taking in this historic moment. If Forget was emotional, so too was an 87-year-old man who had helped France to its first Davis Cup success back in 1927 -- also against the United States -- and had now finally seen the famous trophy return to his homeland. The pride for that man, Rene Lacoste, was twofold. Not only had he played a role in Forget's development, he was also responsible for that distinctive reptile perching on the chest of the history-maker's shirt. "I remember all the letters we got and all the phone calls (from Lacoste) when we won the Davis Cup in 1991," Forget told CNN's Open Court. "Beating the United States was very special for us, but for Rene as well." So tenacious was Lacoste's style of play on court, building his game from the baseline and keeping his opponents on the move with an array of precise groundstrokes, he earned the nickname "Le Crocodile" -- the symbol that would later define his fashion empire. "He fought like a real crocodile ... and never gave up on his prey," American journalist George Carens wrote in 1923. Forget adds: "One of his traits on the court was that he'd never give up, he'd return every ball back. He was unbeatable and that's how that name came. It's great to identify someone with an animal." Lacoste's major breakthrough came in 1925, when he won the French Open at the age of 20, before adding the Wimbledon title a month later. Within just four years, he had claimed a total of seven major singles championships on top of three doubles titles, while he was ranked No. 1 in the world in both 1926 and 1927. Lacoste was also a member of two Davis Cup-winning teams in an era when the competition took on the same prestige as a modern-day soccer World Cup. Between the two world wars, France dominated tennis. With compatriots Jacques Brugnon, Jean Borotra, and Henri Cochet, Lacoste helped make up the "Four Musketeers" -- a group of national icons idolized in their homeland. "He was very inspirational, not only to me but to a lot of French players," Forget says of Lacoste. So inspirational were the efforts of Lacoste and his peers to their people that the Stade Roland Garros was built specially in Paris to host France's maiden defense of the Davis Cup in 1928. Each of the stadium's four main spectator grandstands were named after one of the quartet, while the winner of today's French Open men's singles championship is still presented with the "Coupe des Mousquetaires" trophy. "We built Roland Garros for them, they were the reason the stadium was built, so it shows that at that time they were huge stars," French tennis journalist Philippe Bouin told CNN. "Maybe because they were the first French team to have success." Yet as sport has a cruel way of doing so, a career with its best years still lying ahead, and one that still offered so much more promise, was soon brought to an abrupt end. In 1929, and at the age of just 24, Lacoste was forced to hang up his racket due to a respiratory disease. The Parisian would have been forgiven for walking away from the game at this point, but his unrelenting passion for tennis, and perhaps the heartache suffered from his premature retirement, drove him on to leave a more far-reaching legacy than just a collection of trophies. "He said, 'Tennis couldn't be the future for me, I have to do other things, I have to work.' In fact for him it wasn't work, it was amusement," former France Davis Cup captain Jean-Paul Loth told CNN. An innovator during his playing days, Lacoste had covered the handles of his rackets with surgical tape to make them easier to use, while also designing and creating a tennis ball-pitching machine to help him train. As of 1930, post-retirement, he started mass-producing his invention for the benefit of others, and the "Lacoste Machine" would soon play a part in training players for generations to come. "He was all these different persons at once," Forget says. "He was an engineer, he was a great champion, he was a visionary man, he always had ways of talking about the future, whether it was rackets, balls, materials, the game." And materials would become Lacoste's next pet project. Fed up with the heavy, long-sleeved shirts that had long been part of the tennis player's attire, he designed a more practical, cotton version, with revolutionary short sleeves. Joining forces with Andre Gillier, the founder of one of the oldest and biggest hosiery businesses in Troyes, in 1933 he launched the state-of-the-art polo shirt, complete with a crocodile logo embroidered on it, and so the "Lacoste" brand was born. He had been sporting the reptile on his tennis whites since a friend, Robert George, designed the logo for him the previous decade. "He wanted to find something that was lighter, more comfortable, that you could breathe more freely with it, that's what he did with the shirt," Forget says. "He was always trying to find new ways of improving everything. "As long as it worked he didn't care about breaking the boundaries of what was conventional." The polo shirt proved a hit, and with it the "Lacoste" brand, as subsequent generations of leading players all donned the cotton number on court. He formed a fashion house with his wife Simone, who like their daughter Catherine was a top amateur golfer -- another sport into which the Lacoste logo spread. Aged 57, Lacoste was still refusing to rest on his laurels, and had another trick up his sleeve. In 1961, he unveiled the metal tennis racket -- an idea he had been working on for 30 years. By using metal instead of wood, the racket would be more resilient, and just as importantly, the ball could be hit with far more power. Pierre Darmon, France's No. 1 player at the time, agreed to try out the racket and debuted it at Wimbledon in 1963. By 1978, the T2000, as it was known, had helped win 46 grand slam titles and was used by some of the most famous names in the world, including Jimmy Connors and Billie Jean King. But Lacoste wasn't just an inventor extraordinaire. Having been a tennis player, too, he took time out to show a great interest in those who handled his creations. "Rene always had a gentle look on the players who were using his rackets or wearing the shirts," Forget said. "He'd always give you advice and invite you to his house, if he had an idea like a tennis racket." Lacoste's next brainchild was the "Equijet." A racket using the latest in cutting-edge technology, it combined the advantages of small and large beams, while looking rather like a violin or guitar. He introduced it to the up-and-coming Forget in 1988, and it would play no small part in his future successes. "He was always trying to find new ways of improving the game and having the edge on other players, especially the French players being able to use them," Forget says. In many ways, that historic evening in Lyon could be seen as the culmination of his life's work. Lacoste died in 1996, aged 92, having struggled with health problems -- and France won the Davis Cup again. "He would have been proud of what became of tennis in France, because tennis has grown in the last 50 years," Bouin says. This weekend the French team will seek to reach the Davis Cup final for the first time since losing the 2010 title match, taking on two-time defending champion the Czech Republic at Roland Garros. The current crop of players, led by Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Gael Monfils and Richard Gasquet, are known as "The New Musketeers" -- though they have a long way to go to match the exploits of "Le Crocodile." They might not all wear his clothes, but the legacy lives on.

Rene Lacoste has left a lasting legacy in tennis and fashion . He helped France to its maiden Davis Cup win in 1927 and was a top singles player . After retirement he created the "Lacoste" brand, introducing polo shirts and new rackets . France will play in the semifinals of the Davis Cup team competition this weekend .

(CNN) -- Early Sunday, as the sun ascended to the winter sky, the very last American convoy made its way down the main highway that connects Iraq and Kuwait. The military called it its final "tactical road march." A series of 110 heavily armored, hulking trucks and Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles carrying about 500 soldiers streamed slowly but steadily out of the combat zone. A few minutes before 8 a.m., the metal gate behind the last MRAP closed. With it came to an end a deadly and divisive war that lasted almost nine years, its enormous cost calculated in blood and billions. Some rushed to touch the gate, forever a symbol now of an emotional, landmark day. Some cheered with the Army's ultimate expression of affirmation: "Hooah!" "It's hard to put words to it right now," said Lt. Col. Jack Vantress. "It's a feeling of elation," he said, "to see what we've accomplished in the last eight-and-a-half years and then to be part of the last movement out of Iraq." Once, when hundreds of thousands of Americans were in Iraq, the main highway was better known as Main Supply Route Tampa and soldiers trekked north towards Baghdad and beyond, never knowing what danger lurked on their path. Analysts: Questions remain as U.S. troops leave . On this monumental day, the Texas-based 3rd Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division's main concern was how to avoid a traffic jam on their final journey in Iraq. Staff Sgt. Daniel Gaumer, 37, was on this road in August 2003. It was his first time at war. He was frightened. There was not a lot of traffic at that time, he recalled. He remembered a lot of cheering by Iraqis, even though the situation was tense. Sunday morning, the air was decidedly different. "It's pretty historic," he said about the drive south, hoping he will not ever have to come back through this unforgiving terrain again. Once there were bases sprinkled in the desolate desert between Nasiriya and Basra, American soldiers hidden from view behind walls of giant mesh Hesco bags filled with dirt and sand to stave off incoming fire. On this day, the roads, the bases were in Iraqi hands, the sands in the bags returned to the earth. Once, almost nine years ago in March 2003, U.S. tanks and armored personnel carriers had thundered north, with the drive and determination needed to decapitate a dictator. Timeline: Key dates in the war . On this day, heading south towards Khabari border crossing, the soldiers took stock of their sacrifice. In another war, there had been little joy or even emotion as final jet transports lifted Americans from Vietnamese soil. Sunday saw the end of the largest troop drawdown for the United States since Vietnam. Those men and women who fought in Iraq may not feel they are leaving behind an unfinished war or returning home to a nation as deeply scarred as it was after years of Vietnam. But many crossed the border harboring mixed feelings and doubt about the future of Iraq. "The biggest thing about going home is just that it's home," Gaumer said. "It's civilization as I know it -- the Western world, not sand and dust and the occasional rain here and there." A month ago, Adder, the last U.S. base before the five-hour drive to the Kuwaiti border, housed 12,000 people. By Thursday, the day the United States formally ended its mission in Iraq with a flag-casing ceremony in Baghdad, under 1,000 people remained there. The 3rd Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division officially transferred control of Camp Adder to the Iraqis on Friday, though it did not really change hands until the last American departed early Sunday morning. Group seeks to help returning vets find jobs . At its height, Adder housed thousands of troops and had a large PX, fast-food outlets, coffee shops and even an Italian restaurant. Now a ghost town, the United States gave 110,000 items left at Adder to the Iraqis, a loot worth $76 million, according to the military. In her last days working in a guard tower in Iraq, Sgt. Ashley Vorhees, 29, dreamed of seeing her three children and eating crispy chicken tacos at Rosa's Mexican restaurant in Killeen, Texas. She also looked forward to not having to carry her gun with her to the bathroom. Vorhees, a combat medic, spent her first tour of Iraq with her husband, also a soldier. "When Osama bin Laden was captured and killed, my mom was like 'Does that mean that everybody is coming home now?'" Vorhees said. "We actually had it a lot better than the people did who did the initial invasion," she said. "We're just thankful that we're not getting attacked every day." When the war was at its worst in 2006, America had 239,000 men and women in uniform stationed in more than 500 bases sprinkled throughout Iraq. Another 135,000 contractors were working in Iraq. The United States will still maintain a presence in Iraq: hundreds of nonmilitary personnel, including 1,700 diplomats, law enforcement officers, and economic, agricultural and other experts, according to the State Department. In addition, 5,000 security contractors will protect Americans and another 4,500 contractors will serve in other roles. The quiet U.S. exit, shrouded in secrecy until it occurred, closes a war that was contentious from the start and cost the nation more than $800 billion. President Barack Obama, who had made a campaign promise to bring home American troops, reflected on a greater cost as Sunday's exit made good on his word. According to the defense department, 4,487 service members were killed in the war. More than 30,000 were wounded. In all, 1.5 million Americans served their nation at war. "All of them -- our troops, veterans, and their families -- will always have the thanks of a grateful nation," Obama said in his weekly radio address Saturday. It's impossible to know with certainty the number of Iraqis who have died in Iraq since 2003. But the independent public database Iraq Body Count has compiled reports of more than 150,000 between the invasion and October 2010, with four out of five dead being civilians. And the question of how Iraq will fare in the months ahead, without U.S. troops, is also impossible to answer. Even before the last soldiers had left, political crisis was erupting in Baghdad. The powerful political bloc Iraqiya said it was suspending its participation in parliament, which would threaten Iraq's fragile power-sharing arrangement. Iraqiya accuses Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of amassing power. The withdrawal of U.S. troops stirred conflicting emotions on the streets of Baghdad. In the predominately Sunni neighborhood of Adhamiya, where Saddam Hussein made his final public appearance in 2003, a man said residents were afraid, tense and worried about Iran's influence. He refused to appear on camera or give his name because of what he said was the sensitive nature of the situation. In a Shia neighborhood on the other side of the city, one man said he supported the toppling of Hussein's regime, but felt too much blood was shed afterward. "The U.S.A. went through and they ruined this country, (bringing) with them many troubles. And now they're going, and ... more trouble's coming," said the man, who asked to be called Abu Ali for security reasons. But for the last U.S. troops out, the message was clear . Col. Doug Crissman, their commander, spent the past few weeks speaking to the soldiers in each of his companies. He told them he was proud of his troops and they should be proud of what they had accomplished. And, he wanted his soldiers to take care of themselves back home as much as they did in Iraq. In the months before the brigade deployed in February, it lost 13 soldiers to accidents, some because of driving under the influence of alcohol. At least one death was a suicide. "Quite frankly we lost more soldiers in peacetime in the nine or 10 months before this brigade deployed due to accidents and risky behavior ... than we lost here in combat," Crissman said. "We want every soldier that survived this combat deployment to survive redeployment and reintegration." Capt. Mark Askew, 28, said he was worried about the well-being of his soldiers, many of whom have done multiple tours of Iraq and felt the stress and sting of war. Was the loss, the grief, worth it? For Askew, it will all depend on how Iraq's future unfolds -- whether democracy and human rights will take root, whether Iraq will be a steadfast U.S. ally. It will depend, he said, on how Iraq shapes its own destiny. CNN's Ingrid Formanek reported from the Iraq-Kuwait border, Jomana Karadsheh and Arwa Damon from Baghdad and Moni Basu from Atlanta.

NEW: The withdrawal of U.S. troops stirs conflicting emotions on the streets of Baghdad . About 500 U.S. soldiers cross into Kuwait, ending almost nine years of war in Iraq . They are the last U.S. troops in the largest drawdown since the Vietnam War . They make the journey south from Camp Adder, the U.S. base closest to Kuwaiti border .

(CNN) -- More than 160,000 people flocked to the tenth Coachella music festival in April, signaling the start of the annual summer music festival season worldwide. Bestival, on the Isle of Wight, was voted last year's "Best Lineup" in the UK. The equivalent of a small city materialized for three days amid the searing heat and palm tree lined fields in east California, featuring performances from Paul McCartney, Leonard Cohen, and TV on the Radio. From silent disco parties at Bonnaroo in Tennessee to all-night raves at Serbia's Exit festival, our guide prepares music fans worldwide for another year of summer music festivals in the sun. BONNAROO, Tennessee, U.S. June 11-14 ($235) The word "bonnaroo" is New Orleans slang for "the best on the streets," and the Bonnaroo festival has grown into that name over the past eight years, winning Rolling Stone magazine's "Best Festival" award in 2008. In addition to promoting mainstream and independent rock, hip-hop, and electronic groups, Bonnaroo also features a stand-up comedians' tent and a "silent disco" tent -- where everyone gets a pair of headphones that sync up with the music for late night dancing without the noise complaints. Over 80,000 people will head to the festival outside of Nashville to see headliners including Bruce Springsteen, Phish, and Snoop Dogg. GLASTONBURY, Somerset, England June 24-28 ($255) Glastonbury has been around since dairy farmer Michael Eavis first held a free-two day festival on his farm in 1970, and it's long been the festival in England for seeing the biggest and best bands in the world. It also may be the muddiest -- heavy rain in several years, most notably 1997, turned Glastonbury into a muddy bog. Everyone from Radiohead to Jay-Z has headlined the festival, and with over 700 acts each year, there is something for everybody, and some of the proceeds from the festival go to Oxfam and Greenpeace. This year's headliners include Franz Ferdinand, Blur, and Bruce Springsteen. ROCK AL PARQUE, Bogota, Colombia June 27-29 (free) The Rock al Parque festival, launched in 1995, has become South America's biggest rockfest in recent years -- some 320,000 people traveled to Simon Bolivar Park in 2006 for a weekend of Colombia's biggest rock bands and renowned international headliners. Funded by Colombia's culture secretary, the free festival has included some of rock's biggest names, including Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Manu Chao, and Bloc Party. In the days leading up to Rock al Parque, the festival organizers host a series of panel discussions on music production, management, and the recording industry. ROSKILDE, Denmark July 2-5 ($220) Since 1971, the rock festival in Roskilde has hosted the biggest names in music, from Bob Marley to Bob Dylan. It is the biggest summer festival in northern Europe, and the "Arena" stage boasts a 17,000-capacity tent, the largest in Europe. The festival boasts a daily newspaper and a 24-hour live radio station, and is also home to the annual "Naked Run," where the first naked person to cross the finish line receives a free ticket for next year's festival. Some 80,000 will travel to Roskilde to see headliners including Coldplay, Oasis and Nine Inch Nails. EXIT, Novi Sad, Serbia July 9-12 ($105) Created in 2000 by three university students as a protest against former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic, the electro-focused festival in the heart of Serbia was named Europe's best festival in 2007. Over 200,000 people attended Exit last year, dancing at all night raves in the gorgeous surroundings of Petrovaradin Fortress, an eighteenth century castle near the Danube River. Some of techno's biggest names will be on hand to celebrate Exit's 10-year anniversary, including Moby, Kraftwerk, and The Prodigy. THISDAY, Abuja/Lagos, Nigeria Dates tbc . The THISDAY festival in Nigeria, launched in 2006 by the editor-in-chief of Thisday newspaper, Nduka Obaigbena, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the end of slavery, is the biggest music and fashion festival in Africa. According to Obaigbena, the festival is meant to highlight the positive progress being made in Africa, and find sustainable solutions for the continent's problems. The theme of last year's festival was "Africa Rising," and it showcased some of the world's biggest artists including Jay-Z, Rihanna, and Usher. Stay tuned for this year's lineup. FUJI ROCK, Naeba, Japan July 24-26 ($410) Japan's biggest outdoor festival takes its name from Mt. Fuji, the site of the first festival in 1997. Fuji Rock has been set amongst the cool forested mountains of the Naeba ski resort for the past ten years -- gondolas and hilly trails transport people from stage to stage, and the streams and forests between them are the reason why Fuji Rock has been called the most beautiful festival in the world. It's not just about the scenery, though -- over 100,000 people will trek through the mountains to see headliners Franz Ferdinand, The Killers, and Weezer. LOLLAPALOOZA, Chicago, U.S. August 7-9 ($190) Rocker Perry Farrell began Lollapalooza in 1991 as a farewell tour for his band, Jane's Addiction. The biggest grunge rock festival during the nineties disappeared for awhile around the turn of the century, but it was revived in 2005 as a more traditional "big weekend" destination festival in Chicago. The past few years at Grant Park have been marked by hot summers, huge crowds, and even bigger bands. The anticipated crowd of nearly 200,000 is staggering, as are this year's headliners: Kings of Leon, Tool, Depeche Mode, and Beastie Boys, just to name a few. BESTIVAL, Isle of Wight, England September 11-13 ($205) The trendy Bestival, the original boutique weekend festival on the Isle of Wight, is the best way to end the summer festival season in Europe. Bestival boasts a yearly fancy dress competition -- last year was "30,000 freaks under the sea," and 2009 is the year of "Outer Space," so make sure to dress accordingly. Thousands of Bestival-goers will witness an eclectic lineup including Lily Allen, Massive Attack, and MGMT in the picturesque surroundings of Robin Hill Park. For family fun, look no further than Camp Bestival, a three day family festival at a castle by the sea in July. PARKLIFE, Australia Late September-Early October . The Parklife one-day music festivals kick off the summer festival season across Australia. The dance-focused fests have featured heavyweights Justice, MIA, and Muscles over the past two years. The day-long festivals are followed by an official "After Life" party that runs until the early hours of the morning, so be prepared for a long one if you're one of the estimated 100,000 people attending a Parklife gig in one of capital cities across Australia at the end of September. WOODSTOCK, Cape Town, South Africa Late Fall 2009 When people think of Woodstock, Cape Town isn't necessarily what comes to mind. But for the past decade, the South African festival has been the biggest youth music event in the country, hosting a variety of both well-known and upcoming mainstream and hip-hop acts -- not to mention a variety of extreme sports stunt acts, paintballing, and flea-market stalls. Woodstock may not have the star power of the legendary American festival -- but with the wide range of music and outdoor activities it presents, its promoters aren't lying when they say that boredom simply isn't an option. SUNBURN, Goa, India December 2009 . Sunburn Festival launched in December 2007 as south Asia's first electronic music festival, and featured heavyweights like Carl Cox and John '00' Fleming. Located seaside in Goa, on India's west coast, the festival has its roots in "Goa Trance," a type of pulsing, transcendental electro music that became popular in the early 1990s. Sunburn again treated over 5,000 electro revelers to a three-day party by the beach in December 2008. The festival's founder has said Sunburn will always be free to attend, and it is not to be missed if you happen to be in India in December.

CNN has put together a list of some of the best music festivals in the world . You can dress to kill at England's Bestival's fancy dress competition . Enjoy the music, comedians and silent disco at Bonnaroo, Tennessee . Dance all weekend in the shadows of a 300 year old Serbian castle .

St. John, Indiana (CNN) -- With just his dream, determination and hard work, Bill Keith started a solar fan business nearly a decade ago out of his garage in northwest Indiana. The one-time roofer simply wanted to make enough money to care for his family and to create a ripple effect for other workers, particularly in this economically depressed area outside Chicago. Keith vowed to create his solar attic fans entirely out of parts made in the United States. Using only the sun's energy, the fan pumps hot air out of the attic -- lowering cooling bills -- and doesn't have to be in direct sunlight to work. His first year, Keith said he barely made enough to scrape by -- about $39,000 in sales. "It wasn't enough to cover expenses," Keith recalled. But he stuck with it and his promise to buy American parts. Keith's company, SunRise Solar, steadily grew to the point that he couldn't keep up with the influx of orders. He looked around for companies that could help him manufacture the fans, concentrating his search in his own backyard. He eventually found a company that could help and needed the extra work about 90 miles away in Warsaw, Indiana. He bought molded plastic in Indiana as well as fasteners, nuts, bolts and steel. Wire for the fans came from workers in New Jersey, while the motors were from Pennsylvania and Chicago. Even his cardboard boxes were manufactured in nearby South Bend. Keith had achieved his own small part of the American dream: He became a self-made small-business owner. And in 2008, his success attracted the attention of the soon-to-be next president of the United States, Barack Obama. That year, he got an unexpected call from a representative of the new administration. "He said he was with the Obama transition team looking for small companies," Keith recalled. He later met with the man who told Keith, "we want to interview you, vet you." "Guy sat right there talking with me, said 'I really love your story and I'm going to push it up the rank,'" Keith said. And that's exactly what happened. Shortly after he was inaugurated, Obama held a town hall meeting in the economically devastated city of Elkhart, Indiana. Keith and his wife were asked to come and -- prodded by his wife -- he stood up and told the president about his solar business. He asked Obama what he planned to do to encourage small business owners like himself. The question turned Keith into a White House solar superstar. ABC, CNBC and other media came calling to tell the story of the roofer who built a solar company out of his garage -- and he did so without a government handout. "Move over Joe the Plumber," one blog headline declared after his Elkhart appearance. "There's a new poster child for hard-working Americans -- and he's green." Keith's success story provided good publicity for the White House which called again and again, using Keith to underscore the Obama administration's goal of pushing America towards new sources of clean energy. "'Can you come to Washington? Can you come to Philly? Biden doing this,'" Keith said of the numerous requests he received from the administration. There's the photo of him with the president and Vice President Joe Biden in Kokomo, another Indiana city hard hit by the recession, as well as an appearance with Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio and many others. Keith's story resonated with groups of all political stripes. Republicans got in on the act when Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar named him "an energy patriot" and the GOP-leaning U.S. Chamber of Commerce cited his work. Environmentalists also contacted him, and featured him in one appearance after another. Strange bedfellows, perhaps, but it was a feelgood story of what one American could do in a time when the recession was strangling so many. "They were continually inviting me to these things called 'advocacy days' where they wanted me to meet with senators and congressmen," Keith said, noting that he attended many with his wife. At these events, lawmakers talked about "how I created a solar product, how it's good for the environment, for business," he said. "(I) won't say they were putting words in my mouth but they had a lot of talking points," Keith said. "I was happy to do it from that point of view. It is friendly to the environment; it is creating jobs." It also was good advertising for Keith, who could never have afforded the publicity these appearances offered. Orders for the fans, which retail at about $500, came pouring in from places as far away as Hawaii. "It grew to where our peak was $2 million (in revenues)," he said, referring to sales in 2009. SunRise Solar started exporting fans all over the world. While his home-based business employs only about 21 direct and indirect employees, it brought a much-needed economic boost to an area of the country hard hit by the recession. Today, Keith's solar star appears to be on a collision course with another Obama policy that may put him out of business. The irony is not lost on Keith: A man whose profile and company soared because of the administration's energy policy is now falling apart because of a new Obama anti-dumping policy involving China. While 95 percent of Keith's fans are American-made, he has yet to find a U.S. company that can make the small customized solar panels that make his fans run. It's not that he hasn't tried. He initially used a company in Michigan but they stopped manufacturing the kind of panels he needed. Then Keith turned to a New York company but the quality was so bad that he was replacing the defective parts faster than he could sell the fans. Over the years he begged environmental groups as well as the Commerce Department for help in finding an American company that could make the key solar component. Reluctantly, he agreed to purchase them from a major company in the United States, which bought their panels from another country and then had them customized in Hong Kong. Eventually that manufacturer told Keith to deal with the Hong Kong customizer directly. Keith said the U.S. Customs Department has accused him of using Chinese-made solar panels, in violation of a tough import policy adopted in May at the behest of major U.S. solar companies. The policy is intended to thwart China from undercutting prices and flooding the U.S. market with cheaper solar panels. The U.S. Department of Commerce is currently reviewing the policy, and is scheduled to make a determination in the fall. Keith denies that any of part of his solar fans are produced in China, but he admits he can't totally prove it. According to Keith, the owner of the Hong Kong company that customizes his solar cells has stated in an affadavit that it buys the cells from the United States, Taiwan and Germany. But Keith worries that testimony won't be good enough. "The solar panel tariff is a broad-reaching tariff. In my estimation it shouldn't be geared toward small niche markets like mine," Keith said. Unless he can show specific manufacturing documentation by August 29, Keith said he could be fined as much as 250 percent on his solar panels -- an effective rate of $270,000. If that anti-dumping fine is levied, Keith said he will have to shutter his business. "These guys are going to put me out of business," Keith said. "I don't have any help. I've been trying to get help, no one can help me." Keith said he has never received government financial assistance and is taxed in the 40 percent bracket. He said he has sat by and watched companies like the now bankrupt Solyndra run through taxpayers' money and not return on the government's investment. He said he doesn't want a handout -- just a helping hand. So he went back to the well one more time, pleading with Greg Nelson, deputy director of the White House Office of Public Engagement who Keith said had been his contact with the Obama administration. Under the subject line his e-mail to Nelson, Keith wrote, "Hanging on for life here." "Can you help me before I have to close my doors and let everyone go?" Keith asked in the e-mail. "Please ... I'm pleading with you." Nelson responded, "Thanks for bringing it to my attention. I don't know what is possible, but let me talk to a few folks asap. Will circle back soon." That was nearly a month ago and Keith is still waiting. CNN sent three e-mails to the White House asking about Keith's situation, and received a reply from a spokesman late Wednesday afternoon. The spokesman stated that the tariff "highlights the degree to which solar panel manufacturers have faced unfair competition from countries like China" and the president's move to impose a tax on Chinese-made goods is a way to establish "a level playing field with China for American businesses and workers." The reply did not address Keith's situation. "When Obama came in office, there were a lot of small business owners who said, 'Hey maybe he'll help break barriers and help owners' or he says he will, but it never trickles down that far to help us," Keith said. "Maybe it's because we don't have big budgets to donate to campaigns. I don't know. I'm just trying to run my company." Romney sets goal of energy independence by 2020 . CNN's Sara Anwar contributed to this story. Watch Anderson Cooper 360° weeknights 10pm ET. For the latest from AC360° click here.

Roofer Bill Keith started a solar fan business nearly a decade ago . He aimed to make the fans using all American parts and labor . His success attracted the attention of the Obama administration . Now, a new trade policy could put him out of business .

Ferguson, Missouri (CNN) -- Hours after federal civil rights investigators and the FBI opened an inquiry into the death of a teenager shot by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, violence flared again in the St. Louis suburb. Police Chief Thomas Jackson told CNN shots were fired Monday night in Ferguson, and police fired tear gas to disperse a crowd that had gathered in an area where looting occurred Sunday. "Officers were brought in to quell the hostilities," he said. "Tear gas was deployed." The Saturday-night shooting, which left 18-year-old Michael Brown dead, has fueled rising tensions in the town of 21,000 and sparked national debate. One side says the African-American teenager was surrendering, his hands in the air to show he was unarmed, when the officer opened fire. Authorities counter that Brown had attacked the officer in his car and tried to take his gun. After a vigil for the teen devolved into chaos Sunday when violence and looting broke out among some protesters, NAACP President Cornell William Brooks called Monday for people protesting Brown's death to do so nonviolently. "We have seen young people giving in to violence and frustration and rage. It may be inexcusable. It is not unexpected," Brooks told reporters. "But I say to my young brothers and sisters, note the young man whose rage is your heart, note that he was nonviolent. He never got into a fight. If you want to honor his memory, honor his memory by seeking justice nonviolently." Witnesses to Brown's shooting say he was unarmed and had his hands in the air when the police officer shot him. Authorities tell a different story. St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar says the officer tried to get out of his vehicle just before the shooting, but Brown pushed him back into his car. Brown "physically assaulted" the officer, Belmar said, and the teen tried to get the officer's weapon. Brown was shot about 35 feet from the vehicle, the chief said, declining to provide more details. The officer's name has not been released by authorities. "The genesis of this was a physical confrontation," Belmar said, adding that his department has been called in to conduct an independent investigation. The Ferguson Police Department said its cars are not equipped with dashboard cameras. Shell casings collected at the scene were from the officer's weapon, Belmar said. Monday, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said the shooting "deserves a fulsome review" by federal investigators. "At every step, we will work with the local investigators, who should be prepared to complete a thorough, fair investigation in their own right. I will continue to receive regular updates on this matter in the coming days," Holder said in a statement. "Aggressively pursuing investigations such as this is critical for preserving trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve." Mother: 'No violence, just justice' The lawyer representing Brown's parents called Monday for a swift investigation. "We want this investigation to be done fairly, and we make a demand to the Justice Department to come in and help restore trust and confidence in the process of equal justice. ... This family is very distrustful. This community is very distrustful," attorney Benjamin Crump told reporters, calling for witnesses to come forward. Brown's parents urged people to remain calm. "No violence, just justice," the teen's mother, Lesley McSpadden, told reporters. McSpadden said her son recently graduated from high school and was supposed to start college Monday. "We can't even celebrate," she said. "We've got to plan a funeral." Standing beside the teen's family, Brooks said the NAACP is committed to determining what happened. "We are committed to this family, committed to seeking justice, committed to being a presence, day-in and day-out," he told reporters. Mayor calls for calm . "Obviously, the events of last night are not indicative of who we are," Ferguson Mayor James Knowles said on CNN on Monday morning, adding that Sunday night's chaos was "not constructive" and was only "bringing down the community." St. Louis County Police said 32 people were arrested and shots were fired at police. Monday, St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch said charges had been filed against about 10 people in connection with burglaries of several businesses. "What occurred last night, the mob action, we know certainly is not representative of what's going on and what the people in the neighborhood necessarily think," he said. Flanked by several from the community Sunday, McSpadden was McSpadden was emotional as she shouted into a television reporter's microphone. "You took my son away from me! You know how hard it was for me to get him to stay in school and graduate? You know how many black men graduate? Not many!" she said. "Because you bring them down to this type of level where they feel they don't got nothing to live for anyway! (They feel) they gonna try to take me out anyway!" Others who gathered shouted at police. "We will stay out here as long as you are!" they screamed at officers. Many of the officers appeared stoic, watching young men kneel before them and raise their hands up to symbolize surrender, but one officer can be heard on video yelling back, calling protesters "animals." Some in Ferguson are demanding that the name of the officer who shot the teenager be released. Monday afternoon, Jackson -- the police chief -- said he plans to release the name in the next 24 hours. Authorities want to make sure the officer is in a safe location, he said. 'Lost control' "Last night, everything lost control," Knowles said Monday. He was asked about the officer who called protesters "animals." "The officers did their best. They're only human," Knowles responded, adding that not every police officer present was from the Ferguson department. Sunday's gathering became more intense as some people broke windows at a store and began taking things from it. They threw rocks and bottles. Gunshots rang out. Antonio French, an alderman in St. Louis, said a QuikTrip gas station was looted and an ATM dragged out. "This QuikTrip is where things started (Saturday) with this case, based on various accounts," French said. The slain teenager and a friend were "accused of stealing gum from the store or some sort of cigarettes," the alderman said. "People have a lot of anger and are frustrated," French said. "They don't have recourse in the system, and it happens often in this country, and it has boiled over. I think people are angry and looking for a reason to let it out tonight." Knowles said he wants to let the independent investigation into Brown's death take its course. He plans to meet with Brown's parents soon and will meet with clergy in Ferguson and African-American leadership in the town. Whatever the investigation's findings, "we will deal with that," he said. Multiple gunshots . An autopsy will determine how many times Brown was shot. The medical examiner for St. Louis County, Mary Case, said Monday afternoon the autopsy is complete, but she would not give details and said St. Louis County police will release the information. Toxicology results on Brown's body are pending. On the number of times Brown might have been shot, Belmar has said, "It was more than just a couple." "We don't know what happened, and there are lots of conflicting stories," Knowles said. "Unfortunately, there will have to be some time taken to understand what happened. Hopefully, we will get to an understanding, and justice will be served." The officer who shot Brown is on paid administrative leave during the investigation and will be available to talk to county homicide detectives. He has been with the force for six years and will be required to undergo two psychological evaluations before returning to duty, Belmar said. Crump, who also handled the case of Trayvon Martin in Florida, said Monday that Brown's family is "devastated" and doesn't believe that the teenager got into a physical confrontation with police. Martin, 17, was killed in 2012 by a Florida neighborhood watch organizer who was acquitted last year of murder charges. The high-profile case sparked a heated nationwide discussion of race as well as debate over Florida's "stand your ground" law. Monday, Crump said Brown's shooting once again highlights "the senseless death of a young boy of color at the hands of people who are supposed to protect and serve them." "Their son was doing all the right things," Crump said. "Graduating from high school, never been in trouble. And for this to happen, for him to be killed in broad daylight ... they want answers just like everybody else in the community." Trayvon Martin case fast facts . Opinion: How many unarmed people have to die? CNN's Ashley Fantz and Catherine E. Shoichet wrote in Atlanta, and George Howell reported from Missouri. CNN's Devon Sayers, Shawn Nottingham, Eliott C. McLaughlin, Shimon Prokupecz, Julian Cummings, Jason Carroll, Dave Mattingly, Dave Alsup, Melanie Whitley, Joe Sutton, Faith Karimi, Mayra Cuevas, Shirley Henry, Julian Cummings and Tristan Smith contributed to this report.

NEW: Police chief: Shots were fired and "tear gas was deployed" amid new violence . Michael Brown was shot by police, sparking outrage in Ferguson, Missouri . U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder says civil rights investigators have launched an inquiry . NAACP president: "Honor his memory by seeking justice nonviolently"

(CNN)Abror Habibov, 30, operated kiosks at malls along the East Coast. He sold kitchenware and repaired mobile phones, according to a complaint unsealed Wednesday in federal court in Brooklyn, New York. Last fall, Habibov hired Akhror Saidakhmetov, 19, to work at kiosks in Savannah, Georgia; Philadelphia and Chesapeake, Virginia. Abdurasul Juraboev, 24, a Uzbekistan native and legal permanent U.S. resident, worked at the Gyro King restaurant in Brooklyn. He asked his boss whether he could leave this weekend because he was traveling. Until their arrests Wednesday in connection with an alleged failed attempt to join ISIS in Syria, Saidakhmetov and Juraboev appeared to live the mundane lives of ordinary Brooklyn immigrants. They also appeared careless in planning their alleged plot. One man, for instance, showed up at U.S. Homeland Security offices to apply for a travel document, authorities said. They sometimes communicated online because they believed it would be harder for authorities to trace. Juraboev allegedly discussed assassinating President Barack Obama, according to the complaint. But he told an FBI agent that he "currently does not have the means or an imminent plan to do so." Juraboev and Saidakhmetov, authorities said, planned to embark on the journey to Turkey on Wednesday. Read the criminal complaint against trio . One of them discussed the possibility of hijacking a commercial flight to Turkey and diverting it "to the Islamic State, so that the Islamic State would gain a plane," the complaint said. They also talked about joining the U.S. military in order to attack soldiers. Juraboev and Saidakhmetov were arrested in New York; Habibov in Florida. They face charges that include attempting and conspiring to provide material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organization, the complaint said. "This is real," New York Police Commissioner William Bratton told reporters. "This is the concern about the lone wolf inspired to act without ever going to the Middle East or the concern of once they get to the Mideast, acquire fighting skills, capabilities and then attempting to return to the country." Saidakhmetov was arrested Wednesday at John F. Kennedy International Airport attempting to catch a flight to Turkey, authorities said. Juraboev, who was to catch a later flight, was arrested at his home in Brooklyn. Habibov, who Bratton said "helped organize and finance" the operation, was in Jacksonville, Florida, when he was picked up. In addition to threats against Obama, the suspects allegedly talked of killing U.S. law enforcement officers. Juraboev allegedly mentioned planting a bomb at Coney Island if ordered to do so by ISIS. An FBI intelligence bulletin to state and local law enforcement urged officers to be vigilant for not only recruits, but people who may want to carry out attacks. "These individuals highlight the continued interest among U.S.-based violent extremist to support designated terrorist organizations," the bulletin said. Outside federal court in Brooklyn, attorney Adam Perlmutter, who represents Saidakhmetov, said his client will plead not guilty if indicted. "This case really makes us question the federal government's approach ... to young Muslim men in America," he told reporters. "They are very ham-fisted tactics. There is no attempt to intervene, to speak, to explore, to understand. There's just the rush to prosecution, to arrest, and to conviction." The arrests come at the same time that a federal jury in Brooklyn hears testimony in the trial against a Pakistani man allegedly involved in a separate al Qaeda conspiracy to carry out attacks in New York and Europe. In the case against the three Brooklyn men, court documents said two of them posted parts of their plans on an Uzbek-language website, believing that the communications would be harder to trace. Saidakhmetov is from Kazakhstan and a legal permanent U.S. resident. Habibov, who is from Uzbekistan, was in the U.S. legally but overstayed his visa, police said. Authorities began trailing them in August 2014. The three men lived in Brooklyn. Saidakhmetov and Juraboev were to appear in Brooklyn federal court later Wednesday; Habibov in federal court in Jacksonville. The names of lawyers for Habibov and Juraboev were not immediately available. In a conversation recorded by authorities, Saidakhmetov said that if he was unable to get travel documents to Syria, "I will just go out and buy a machine gun, AK-47, go out and shoot all police," according to the complaint. Saidakhmetov told an informant that carrying a gun in the United States was legal. "We will go and purchase one handgun ... then go and shoot one police officer," he is quoted as saying, according to the complaint. "Boom ...Then, we will take his gun, bullets and a bulletproof vest ... then, we will do the same with a couple of others." He said, "Then we will go to the FBI headquarters, kill the FBI people." In a written statement in the Uzbek language, Juraboev allegedly speaks of killing Obama for "Allah" but notes he doesn't have the means to do it. "I also want to fight and sincerely become a martyr under the Islamic Caliphate," he states, using another name for ISIS. On his journey, Saidakhmetov allegedly "proposed finding an excuse to gain access to the pilot's cabin and diverting the plane to the Islamic State, so that the Islamic State would gain a plane," the complaint said. In November, Juraboev and Saidakhmetov also expressed interest in joining the U.S. military in order to pass information to ISIS about American airstrikes against the terror group, the complaint said. When Juraboev said he was skeptical that Saidakhmetov "could stay calm and avoid trouble in the military, (Saidakhmetov) responded that he could always open fire on American soldiers and kill as many of them as possible." In another conversation, Juraboev allegedly criticized Saidakhmetov's plan to join the military, saying that "leaving for Syria would be the most feasible choice." In intercepted online communication, Juraboev said his parents were in Uzbekistan. "Sometimes they worship and practice Islam, sometimes they do idolatry," he said, according to the complaint. "My sisters are uncovered, lack knowledge of a religion. I wish they knew at least how to cover themselves up." At one point, Juraboev called Obama "an enemy Of Allah," and says, "I will execute Obama." On February 21, Juraboev sent his employer a text message: "Brother I want to leave my country next weekend. Because I have some problem. Is it possible or not? Sorry!" Saidakhmetov allegedly told a confidential informant that he intended to wage jihad in Syria but that his mother -- fearful that he would do so -- took his passport. The suspect then said he would try to get his passport back by telling his mother that he was traveling to Uzbekistan to visit relatives. On February 2, Saidakhmetov brazenly appeared at the Department of Homeland Security offices in Manhattan and filled out an application for a travel document and had his photograph and fingerprints taken, the complaint said. Saidakhmetov and a confidential informant at one time watched videos of ISIS training camps in Syria, the complaint said, adding that Saidakhmetov said he was going to "become a Mujahid on the path of Allah" in war-torn Mideast country. The complaint said Saidakhmetov on February 19 purchased a round-trip ticket for $571 to travel from New York to Istanbul, Turkey, on Wednesday. He was to return on March 31. In Brooklyn, the travel agent who sold him the ticket on February 19 said Saidakhmetov picked the cheaper flight with a connection in Kiev, Ukraine, rather than paying $900 for a direct flight to Turkey. "There was nothing out the ordinary about the transaction or him," said the travel agent, who asked not to be identified. Saidakhmetov purchased the ticket using a New York State ID. His flight on Ukraine International Airlines was to depart at 12:30 a.m. Wednesday. Saidakhmetov had earlier told the informant -- who he believed was traveling with him -- that if detected at the airport he would "kill a police officer and use the officer's gun to shoot other law enforcement officers." Young people are featured in the ISIS propaganda, including a recent video showing boys in camouflage and ISIS bandanas learning hand-to-hand combat. The militants have repeatedly promoted videos using high-level production techniques to celebrate their brutality. A short mash-up clip in September played like a trailer for an action movie, with slow-motion explosions and flames engulfing American troops. "There's no question what we're combating with ISIL's (U.S. government acronym for ISIS) propaganda machine is something we have not seen before," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told CNN. "It's something we need to do a lot more work on. We are seeing 90,000, I think, tweets a day that we're combating." CNN's Yon Pomrenze, Jason Caroll, Connor Ryan, Shimon Prokupecz and Evan Perez reported from New York, and Ray Sanchez reported and wrote from New York.

FBI foils alleged plot by two men to join ISIS; a third allegedly helped finance the journey . Suspects talked about carrying out attacks in the United States, complaint says .

(CNN) -- To my mind, gambling is the son of avarice and the father of despair. I have never got in over my head where gaming is concerned but I have witnessed some horror stories that have made the front page of the national press and, away from the blackjack table, I have experienced the sharp decline of the floor beneath my feet when I have invested more than I could afford to lose. In one walk of life, you are a victim of the times and, therefore, a blight on acceptable living. And a candidate for somebody like Harvard to throw shit loads of money into some groundbreaking research so that they can determine whether or not you have similar brain activity to that seen in cocaine addicts. Which would mean you can be categorized as suffering from "impulse control disorder" and which would ultimately mean that you can pay for and be treated acceptably. In another life, a merchant bank will throw serious money at you, start you off on utilities and call you "a trader". I tend only to bet on the things that are easy to get caught up in. That said, I never really get a buzz from betting, even if I win, which isn't often. Having grown up on Mike Tyson knocking the heads off anyone who was stupid enough to get in a ring with him, I found myself getting carried away with the pre-fight bravado just like everybody else -- to the point that I wagered £200 on "Iron Mike" to beat Lennox Lewis in 2002. Tyson wasn't the only man down and out when Lewis connected with a big right hand towards the end of the eighth round and, if the truth were told, William Hill (the English bookmaker), was never in any danger where my bet was concerned. And in that brief remembrance of fights past can be found my saving grace where would-be gambling addiction is concerned. When it comes to staking my life on the outcome of any given sporting event, I haven't got a f***ing clue what I'm doing. I recognize that fact and I am not ashamed to admit it. Whether confessing that important piece of information to either my colleagues urging me to join in a game of high-stakes poker or to my father in a best-of-three pool match down the pub, I can honestly say that I have saved both a fair amount of embarrassment and incalculable amounts of money by putting my cards on the table at the outset. Despite that, it is probably fair to say that I have been exposed to gambling and its downfalls slightly more often than the average person. When you are trapped on a coach or in a plane or in sunny climes with 20 millionaires, one of two things will happen: the conversation turns to women -- and, by extension, wives -- or, as if by magic, somebody produces a pack of cards. Either way, somebody always takes a pasting. From that moment on, anything can happen. And in my time as a footballer, I have seen it all -- from players losing tens of thousands of pounds on the turn of a card, and their families staging interventions, to their more fortunate contemporaries winning $250,000 in a Las Vegas casino after popping down to the lobby to buy a phonecard. "Card schools" are not as prolific among professional football ranks as you might think. In fact, I'd go so far to say that, with each crop of new players which comes through, another few card schools fall by the wayside. These days, it seems there are more important vices to spend one's money on, like prostitutes and fast cars. But I did play at one Premier League club which had developed a fairly serious card school. I judge the level of seriousness by the fact that, as the team bus pulled in to our London opposition's stadium, several of the team were missing from the pre-match walk on the pitch -- historically used to check what stud is needed for the turf but, instead, is now used as a chance to upload pictures of empty stadiums on to Twitter. Those players had remained on the bus, wrapping up their last hand and making sure that the bus driver didn't clear anything away. We went into that match very confident and I am convinced we would have won, save for two individuals who produced less than average performances. Back on the bus, the card school reassembled while I made the rest of the players' cups of coffee. Walking back and forth along the bus, delivering their caffeine fix for the long journey home, I began to notice that the two players who had played so badly were also the two players who had between them lost tens of thousands of pounds since we had set off from home the day before. The running total was being kept by another player and he flashed me a sheet of paper as I walked past, only because he wanted to show me he was significantly up. I resented having to give the coffees out, let alone my wages. The experience gave me an added incentive not to get involved; it was clear a player could not function on the pitch with such a heavy financial burden hanging over him. But it didn't stop there. With no money left to gamble one of the players threw an expensive piece of jewelery onto the table. The bet was several thousand, all in. The other players looked at him and, without the expertise of a certified gemologist, it was decided a second piece should also be thrown in. He lost the lot. Around six weeks later, the defeated player still hadn't paid his debt. Worse, his car was spotted every day outside a betting shop that was close to our training ground. One day, a member of the same card school came in looking a little shell shocked and proceeded to tell the players assembled for breakfast in the canteen what he had witnessed at the same betting shop after training the previous day. I'll let him tell the story because I can remember it almost word for word, it has become a bit of a cult tale in football circles (I have changed all the names, including any business names etc): . "We finished training and thought we'd get a takeaway. "'Nobby' said: "Let's just stop in at the betting shop and see what's on'. So he put on an accumulator. He picks five horses and we go to get the food. We come back and three of the horses have won so we hang about. "Then the next one wins and the other one wins. Nobby cleaned up, thousands and thousands! So I say: 'Nobby, class, mate. You can pay off the lads, get your stuff back and give that money to your missus'. She'd been badgering him about a new runaround, as I recall. But he says: 'Na, mate. I'm on a roll, ain't I?' "So he puts a bit on the next one. Doesn't win. And the next one. Doesn't win again. I can't get him out of the place, so I drive to his house and tell his missus what's happening. She grabs the kids and makes me drive her back. By the time we get there, he doesn't have anything left, mate. Not a f***ing thing." It's worth bringing this story up because a lot of people don't know when to stop. The trick is in never getting started. Yet that last sentence is easy for me to type from the comfort of my office and with the kids safely tucked up in bed. I have never experienced a gambling addiction ... but I know a man who has. On a pre-season tour, I once roomed with a guy who had a genuine gambling addiction. We had never spoken to each other in the whole time I had been at the club, simply because we were very different people, and that wasn't about to change off the back of one trip in the sun, despite the manager's best efforts. We were away for a week and, I promise you, the only thing we said to each other was: "Have you got the room key?" But there was another reason as to why we couldn't strike up a meaningful conversation. He had an extraordinary inability to detach himself from one of two laptop screens, which were open on two separate online bookmakers' sites, or -- if we were coming back from training -- his iPhone, on which he had the mobile app versions running continuously. One night, I woke up to go to the bathroom and saw him feverishly placing bets on college basketball. It must have been about 3am and quite what he knew about college basketball is anyone's guess. I have thought many times as to whether I should have said something but I have concluded anything I could had said would have fallen on deaf ears. Shortly after our return, his family stepped in and he began to go to meetings for his gambling problems. As far as I know, he has never relapsed. I have thought about him a lot in the intervening years because, for a long time, I didn't have much sympathy for those who frittered away their money at the "bookies". I couldn't understand how a person could continue on the path to ruin while their kids needed food, clothes and education. But one man's gambling is another man's harmless flutter and the level of the stakes are, of course, extremely circumstantial. Betting on a game is against the rules for professional footballers, even when they are betting on their own team to win. Anyway, a football team can't legislate for somebody being sent off or an opposing striker having the game of his life or a freak spate of injuries in the first 10 minutes -- unless they take action to account for such things and I have certainly never seen how that could be the case. That said, I do know players have manipulated the system to their advantage.

In his latest piece, The Secret Footballer tells CNN about gambling in the EPL . Former Arsenal captain Tony Adams has established the Sporting Chance Clinic . Adams struggled with addiction throughout his career and now helps fellow sports stars . EPL players such as Dietmar Hamann and Paul Merson have battled gambling addiction .

(CNN) -- One of the world's best urban sunsets nearly happened in New York on May 29, 2014. Unfortunately, cloud cover spoiled the first "Manhattanhenge" event of the year, the term coined by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson to describe when the sun sets in perfect alignment with the city's street grid. He created the term based on Stone Henge in the UK, the ancient landmark that highlights the sun in similar fashion during the winter and summer solstices. Luckily, Manhattanhenge is happening again on May 30 and July 11-12. And if clouds spoil all all those chances to snap pics of a slowly setting sun beside the Empire State Building, console yourself with these other amazing sunset pics, taken around the world. We'd love to hear about your own favorite sunset spots too. Tell us about them in the comments section below. 1. U Bein Bridge, Mandalay, Myanmar . When sun sets on the world's longest teak bridge, one of the world's most picturesque sunset views begins. U Bein Bridge, named after former mayor U Bein, is a 1.2-kilometer wooden bridge across Taungthaman Lake. The bridge, busy by day with Buddhist monks and locals, seems to relax when the sun goes down. Daily flights connect Mandalay with other major cities in Myanmar. MORE: An insider's tour of Myanmar . 2. Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya . The word "magnificent" could have been invented in Maasai Mara. At dusk, the expanse of savannah appears to be stained red; bewitching sunsets complement the land perfectly. The best time to come is July to October, when the annual migration of zebra, Thomson's gazelle and wildebeest come to the Mara from the Serengeti. Lodges, camps and balloon safaris are available inside the reserve. It takes 45 minutes to fly to Maasai Mara from Nairobi and two hours from Mombasa, Diani Beach or Malindi. For more info, visit Massai Mara National Reserve's website. MORE: 10 things you probably didn't know you can do in Kenya . 3. Uluru and Kata Tjuta, Northern Territory, Australia . The domed Uluru (aka Ayers Rock) rises 348 meters above the desert plain, extends five kilometers beneath it and has a circumference of 9.4 kilometers. Kata Tjuta (aka The Olgas) is a range of 36 variously sized rock domes 36 kilometers to the west of Uluru. Dominated by these giant wonders, the national park is a UNESCO World Heritage area. The Uluru rock appears to change colors as the sun beams over the desert landscape, hitting Kata Tjuta in the background. Daily flights to the Northern Territory are available from major cities in Australia. MORE: How to survive in the wilds of Australia . 4. Aci Trezza, Catania, Italy . Aci Trezza is a fishing village on the east coast of Sicily. It's the town where Giovanni Verga set his 1881 novel "I Malavoglia" ("The House by the Medlar Tree"). The Islands of the Cyclops -- three column-shaped basalt rocks -- are the main attraction for visitors. According to legend, these rocks were thrown by Polyphemus at Ulysses. The Mediterranean here sparkles with golden sunlight at dusk. Aci Trezza is about 10 kilometers from Catania. Daily shuttle buses and trains from Catania to Aci Trezza are available. MORE: 10 things Italy does better than anywhere else . 5. Grand Canyon, Arizona . "I believe in evolution. But I also believe, when I hike the Grand Canyon and see it at sunset, that the hand of God is there also," said U.S. senator John McCain, ever the politician. No matter their religious beliefs, millions of people visit the the 445-kilometer long, 29-kilometer-wide Grand Canyon each year to catch a sunset. Hopi Point, where you can see layers of rock, is one of the best places to photograph it. Daily flights, buses and trains to Grand Canyon National Park run from Phoenix, Flagstaff and Las Vegas. MORE: Yellowstone geyser puts on surprise show . 6. Dubai, U.A.E. There's nothing like experiencing a desert sunset atop a camel in Dubai. Sand dunes, lolloping gait and distant Dubai skyline create a classic Arabian sunset. Failing that, you can consider a view from the thousand-meter-long Jumeirah Beach, a white sandy stretch along the Arabian Gulf with private beaches and top-notch facilities belonging to luxury hotels like The Ritz-Carlton -- it's open to the public for a small fee. MORE: Never before seen photos of Dubai's stunning skyline . 7. West Lake, Hangzhou, China . West Lake boasts an exquisite sunset scene, with Leifeng Pagoda illuminated by the final rays of the day. The pagoda became famous with the spread of the legend of Madam White Snake, said to have been jailed in the pagoda for decades. The original Leifeng Pagoda was built in the year 975 to celebrate the birth of the Wu Kingdom's prince. It collapsed in 1924. The five-sided, eight-floor pagoda was rebuilt in its original lake-side location in 2002. Daily flights and trains to Hangzhou are available from major cities in China . MORE: The oddest-looking hotel you'll see this year . 8. Guanshan, Kenting, Taiwan . A Guanshan sunset is one of the great attractions of southern Taiwan. Guanshan is a 152-meter-high mountain inside Kenting National Park -- it offers the best viewpoint from which to see the Hengchun Peninsula, a popular tourist spot in the south of the island. The peninsula has no train or highway, making it a natural paradise. What it has is beautiful hot springs and forests. The pavilion adjacent to Fude Temple (Gaoshanyen) on Guanshan Trail offers the best viewing point for sunsets. Daily flights and trains to Kenting are available from major cities in Taiwan. Kenting National Park is open 11 a.m.-7 p.m. daily. MORE: Insider Guide -- best of Taipei . 9. Oia, Santorini, Greece . The hilltop town of Oia is a well-known sunset destination. The porous volcanic rock and white and blue houses, backed by a crystal Aegean Sea, make for one of the travel world's most photographed scenes. People flow into every restaurant, nook and cranny along the cliffs in the afternoon to wait for the majestic sunsets. Daily flights to Santorini are available from Athens. MORE: Greek islands consider segregated tourist zones . 10. Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Chile . About 3,700 kilometers off the Chilean coast in the Pacific Ocean, on the easternmost Polynesian island, the enigmatic stone statues of the Rapa Nui culture have for centuries been seeing off the sun with ancient stoicism (their backs are turned to the sea). Though the moai (as the statues are called) haven't been around forever -- they were erected between AD 1400 and 1600 -- taking in a sunset with them sure feels like an eternal experience. It's an event -- and photograph -- cherished by every visitor to the island. MORE: 5 luxury vacations in Chile . 11. Phnom Bakheng, Angkor, Cambodia . Known for its "sunset on the hill," Phnom Bakheng is a popular place for a Cambodian-style sunset. The Hindu temple built at the end of ninth century is on top of a hill, giving great views of its more famous sibling, Angkor Wat. Take an elephant ride and you can avoid climbing those steep steps yourself. It's best to arrive early to get a good spot. The temple closes at 6.30 p.m. Phnom Bakheng is 1.5 kilometers from Angkor Wat. Daily flights to Angkor Wat, Siem Reap are available from major cities, including Bangkok, Shanghai and Singapore. MORE: Inside Cambodia's stunning new temple discoveries . 12. Maui, Hawaii . You actually thought we were going to leave out Hawaii? Just about any spot along the coast of America's 50th state makes for a poster-worthy evening photo, but the long, white sand beach, crashing waves and prominent cinder cone of Pu'u Ola'i keep sunset lovers coming back to Makena State Park on Maui. Even if you don't catch one of the islands' famed "green flash" sunsets (Ever seen one? Leave a comment below), it's hard to feel anything but deep satisfaction when the sun sets over Maui and the tiki bars start getting crowded. Raemin Zhang is an editorial intern for CNN. Story originally published August 2013, updated May 2014.

At dusk, Maasai Mara's savannah appears to be stained red . Millions visit the the Grand Canyon each year to catch a sunset . Guanshan offers the best viewpoint to see the Hengchun Peninsula in southern Taiwan .

(CNN) -- We all have our favorites for the big honors at Hollywood's top awards show, but over its 80-year history there have been some classic films, performers and people behind the scenes that have been criminally overlooked by Oscar. Peter Sellers in "Dr. Strangelove," just one of Kubrick's classics beaten to the prize by a glitzy musical . From acting turns that kept us glued to the screen, to directors that were passed over by the Academy time and time again, these are the statues we would have given out if we'd been in charge. Don't agree? Think we've missed one or robbed an actual winner of its top-spot? Share your views by using the Sound Off box below and we'll publish the best. 1. Stanley Kubrick's double snub 1968/1964 . In two equally baffling instances, the last true auteur's work was denied the prize. Cold War classic "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" lost out to George Cukor's "My Fair Lady" while his genre-defining sci-fi epic "2001: A Space Odyssey" was beaten by Carol Reed's threadbare "Oliver!" Glossy Hollywood musicals hailed above two of the most influential movies ever made: are you serious? Truly, this is Oscar's greatest travesty. 2. "Citizen Kane," denied best picture 1941 . It has been topping critics' lists since its release over 60 years ago, but this work of cinematic genius left the 1941 Oscars almost empty handed. Nominated for nine, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor, "Citizen Kane" was beaten to the prize by "How Green Was My Valley," a sentimental epic about Welsh miners. 3. Martin Scorsese, ever the bridesmaid 1976/1980/1990 . Finally recognized last year for his work on "The Departed," for years it looked like Scorsese would always play bridesmaid to some distinctly mediocre brides. The three biggest Oscar crimes against Marty: "Taxi Driver," "Raging Bull" and "Goodfellas." For the latter, he was beaten by Kevin Costner for "Dances With Wolves." Fair enough, it's the only Costner-helmed film that isn't utterly abysmal, but better than Scorsese's best? We don't think so. 4. James Dean: Rebel without an Oscar 1955/1956 . The only actor to receive more than one posthumous nomination, Dean still failed to secure the statue, despite turning in three amazing performances in one year. Nominated for his roles in "East of Eden" and "Giant," and overlooked for the iconic "Rebel Without a Cause," three performances that put him into Hollywood folklore as an acting great, he lost out second time round to Yul Brynner in "The King and I." Is it us or are the sentimental musicals trumping the all-time classics? 5. Alfred Hitchcock's Academy curse 1958 . One of the greatest directors of all time, Hitchcock never won the best director award. Nominated just four times, he was only beaten by the finest directors of the day, including Billy Wilder and Elia Kazan. But how could the nomination committee overlook "Vertigo"? Today it's considered one of his true masterpieces. No nomination for Hitchcock, and instead the academy hand the award to Vincente Minnelli, the director of "Gigi" -- another tooth-gratingly glitzy musical. 6. "Pulp Fiction" and Morgan Freeman get Gump-ed 1994 . Whether you like "Forrest Gump" or not, it's hard to defend the decision that saw Tom Hanks take his second acting Oscar ahead of the definitive performance of one of Hollywood's elder statesmen, Morgan Freeman, in Frank Darabont's "Shawshank Redemption." And as for the Academy passing over "Pulp Fiction" or its director, Quentin Tarantino in favor of a comfortable family flick? That left us speechless. Where's the Academy's court of appeal? 7. Robert Duvall steals the show, but is robbed of the award 1979 . It's hard to stand out in a cast that has Marlon Brando, Martin Sheen and Dennis Hopper in it, let alone when the project's directed with powerful skill by Francis Ford Coppola, but the wild ravings of Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore stand out as the highlight in the excellent and affecting "Apocalypse Now." We hate the smell of Oscar injustice in the morning. 8. "LA Confidential" is sunk by a blockbuster 1997 . Ok, it was an impressive venture, and the technical frills were unrivalled at the time, but "Titanic" just wasn't the best film of the year. A flimsy script, plus performances far from the actors' best, failed to deter voters: the movie picked up a record 11 awards. Versus "LA Confidential," or even the impressive "Good Will Hunting," it simply doesn't float. 9. Al Pacino's best apparently not good enough 1976 . Pacino may have descended into a constant stream of shouting in his later roles (something that can be seen in abundance in "Any Given Sunday" or "Devil's Advocate"), but his magnetic performance as sensitive Michael Corleone in "The Godfather" sees him at his compelling best. Joel Grey's performance in "Cabaret" (more musicals! Argh!) is nothing if not annoying, and certainly not a patch on Pacino's finest hour. 10. "Brokeback Mountain" wins everything but an Oscar 2005 . In the approach to the Academy Awards it had been winning major prizes, scooping the best picture BAFTA and Golden Globe and earning director Ang Lee a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, but when it came to the Oscars, the movie mysteriously missed out. "Crash," the actual winner, is not a bad film, but it pales in comparison to the sensitive and highly emotional "Brokeback Mountain." .................................... Don't agree? Think we've missed one? Read others' comments and share your views by using the Sound Off box below. ....................... And the day before the Oscars are given out, the 28th Annual Razzie Awards will be announced for the year's worst film offerings. Here are five of the biggest Razzie winners ... Sly and the family Stallone "win" big . With 30 nominations and 10 awards, including worst actor of the century, Sly is the biggest "winner" in Razzie history. Most notably, in 1985 he and his family cleaned up, as he took worst actor, director and screenplay awards, his wife Brigitte Nielsen scooped worst supporting actress and worst new star, and Sly's brother Frank received worst original song for "Peace in Our Time" from "Rambo II." Their parents must be so proud. Madonna fails to get the hint . She's not known for her acting, but Madge just won't let it go. With fewer than 20 full-length feature roles under her belt, the queen of pop has picked up 15 Razzie nominations and nine awards for her weak performances. In 2002 she cleaned up, taking Worst Actress, Worst Supporting Actress and half of the Worst Couple. You really can't fault her consistency. "Showgirls" breaks Razzie records . This record-breaking clunker was nominated for 13 awards in 1995: admirable, since there were only 10 categories that year. It also claimed the most wins, taking home a well-deserved seven awards, including Worst Director and Worst Picture, which were collected in person by director Paul Verhoeven, the first winner to attend the show to collect Razzies. Respect. Eddie Murphy: man of 2008 . This year's show sees the comedian who was up for an Oscar last year pick up a record five nominations for one person in a year, for his work in Worst Picture nominee "Norbit." Having played multiple characters, Murphy is up for Worst Actor, Worst Supporting Actor, Worst Supporting Actress, Worst Couple (nominated with himself) and Worst Screenplay. A truly impressive haul: good work, Eddie. Battlefield Earth "succeeds" in every category . John Travolta's Scientology/sci-fi movie was nominated for a meager eight awards, but brought home the bacon as it took seven of those awards on the night. Only Forrest Whitaker failed to convert his nomination, pipped to the post by co-star Barry Pepper. If it makes them feel any better, we think they deserved all eight. .................................... Don't agree? Think we've missed one? Read others' comments and share your views by using the Sound Off box below. E-mail to a friend .

Stanley Kubrick and Alfred Hitchcock never won a best director Oscar . Perennial critics' favorite "Citizen Kane" was almost entirely passed over . Blockbusters "Forrest Gump" and "Titanic" prevented great movies taking honors . Razzies "honor" poor cinema, big winners are Sylvester Stallone and Madonna .

(CNN) -- Simply put, Margaret Moth made an impression. Given her jet-black hair, thick black eyeliner, black clothes and combat boots (which she often slept in while on assignment), people didn't always know what to think upon meeting her. She was quirky, the sort who excused herself from a social gathering by saying she had to wash her socks. And she was fearless, the kind of woman who not only kept the camera rolling while under fire, but zoomed in on a soldier who was shooting at her. Colleagues learned quickly to appreciate all that this CNN camerawoman was. Beyond her rich personality, which included deep optimism and kindness, she brought to her profession top-notch technical abilities, unmatched dedication and an approach to work that inspired others to push themselves. CNN colleagues honor Moth . Moth sought out, even demanded, assignments in conflict zones. She barely survived being shot in the face in Sarajevo in 1992, only to go back as soon as she was physically able. The multiple reconstructive surgeries that followed, as well as the hepatitis C she contracted from a consequent blood transfusion, were mere obstacles she moved around. But more than three years after being diagnosed with colon cancer, her tremendous life journey has come to an end. Moth, known for her gutsiness, striking appearance, distinctive humor and sense of fun, died early Sunday in Rochester, Minnesota. She was 59. "Dying of cancer, I would have liked to think I'd have gone out with a bit more flair," she said with a laugh last spring during an interview with a CNN documentary crew that had traveled to Texas, where she was visiting friends. "The important thing is to know that you've lived your life to the fullest," she said then, before tubing down a river in Austin, Texas; taking jaunts to Cape Cod and the Canadian Rockies; and piloting a houseboat up the Mississippi River -- replete with beer and Cuban cigars. "I don't know anyone who's enjoyed life more." Born Margaret Wilson in Gisborne, New Zealand, to a homemaker and a man who made swimming pools, she got her first camera at age 8. She later changed her name to Margaret Gipsy Moth, a nod to the airplane, which was appropriate for a woman who had a penchant for jumping out of planes, barefoot. She said she never aspired to be a photojournalist. Rather her path, she explained, was mostly driven by a love of history and her desire to see it unfold firsthand. Whether she was amid rioters after Indira Gandhi's assassination or covering a long menu of wars spanning continents, Moth felt she and her colleagues were the lucky ones. "You could be a billionaire, and you couldn't pay to do the things we've done," said Moth, who had most recently called Istanbul, Turkey, home. Reported to be New Zealand's first camerawoman, she came to the U.S. and worked for KHOU in Houston, Texas, for about seven years before moving to CNN in 1990. When other photojournalists dived behind cars as militiamen opened fire on protesters in Tbilisi, Georgia, she stood her ground and kept her camera running. As a band of medical professionals defied Israeli tanks and armored vehicles, marching into then-Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat's compound in the West Bank, she got in the middle of the group, joined them and helped nab an exclusive interview. When many around her slept in Sarajevo, she set to work in a destroyed hotel room, filming with a night scope through holes blown out by artillery fire, hiding herself and camera from the eyes of snipers. The Serbian sniper bullet that did hit Moth while she was traveling along "sniper alley" in Sarajevo shattered her jaw, blew out her teeth and destroyed a portion of her tongue -- which left her forever sounding like she was drunk, she said. Others got angry, as the van she traveled in was clearly marked as a press vehicle, but she refused to go there. " 'We came into their war. Fair's fair,' " former CNN correspondent Stefano Kotsonis, who was with her when she was shot, remembered her saying. " 'I don't blame anyone for firing at me. They're in a war, and I stepped into it.' " Her attitude made other colleagues, many of whom were interviewed for the documentary "Fearless: The Margaret Moth Story," strive to be better at what they did. Sound techs and correspondents would often follow her lead, whether they felt ready or not. She was known to outrun her own security. Photojournalists viewed her as a bar-setter. Another of CNN's international camerawomen remembers Moth . Christiane Amanpour, CNN's chief international correspondent, who'd been away from Sarajevo when her friend was shot, was sitting at Moth's hospital bedside when an assignment editor from the international desk called. He wanted to know if Amanpour was ready to return to the conflict zone, she recalled for the documentary about Moth. "I said I'd go back, and I know to this day that if I hadn't said yes then, I probably never would have gone back, and I never would have done this career. But I said yes because I couldn't say no," Amanpour remembered, fighting back tears. "We did the work for her. We did it because she was our champion, and we wanted to be her champion." Sure enough, as soon as Moth could carry a camera again, six months later, she went straight back to Sarajevo to join her CNN colleagues. She joked that she was there to find her teeth. Moth maintained her humor amid madness and helped others smile and unwind when the surroundings could make levity seem impossible. She enlisted a producer to go rollerblading with her on the marble floors of a Baghdad, Iraq, hotel lobby. She forced colleagues to tell her who they'd rather sleep with, while giving them horrifying choices. She liked to kick back with fine cigars and could drink others under the table. Despite her tough exterior, there was insecurity, a vanity to her. No matter where she was, Moth rose early to do her eye makeup and hair. Forever worried about her weight, she picked at a block of cheese in Bosnia for about six weeks and got by on mango juice during a stretch in the West Bank. She admitted that after being shot, she was more afraid of what she'd look like than she was of dying. Enveloped in bandages, she slipped her dear friend Joe Duran a note asking him if she looked like a monster. But she often worried about others more than herself. Moth enjoyed working with seasoned correspondents but also looked out for those who were new. In Pakistan, she taught Patty Sabga to sleep behind couches and talked her through everything she was shooting to help Sabga build her stories. And in Afghanistan, she carefully led the former CNN correspondent through rubble that probably hid land mines. "She took such incredible care of me and taught me so much," Sabga said. "I can honestly say that the work I did with Margaret Moth is still the very best work of my career." Moth repeatedly visited the doctor who saved her life. And she boosted the spirits and changed the attitude of another CNN photojournalist, David Allbritton, when he was seriously injured by a bomb in Sarajevo in 1995. "She made me realize that I was going to get through this," he said. "She set an example by overcoming everything that's happened to her. ... I took that example, and I'm shooting today. I'm not sure that I would be doing what I'm doing today if it had not been for Margaret Moth." Her chosen lifestyle didn't leave room for children of her own, but she bonded with them across the globe. And her love of animals was so deep that she refused to ride in a horse-pulled wagon, preferring to run with heavy equipment in the desert heat while on assignment in Petra, Jordan. In fact, when it became clear that the advanced cancer would end her life, the concern that drove her to tears was her cats -- the more than 25 strays she looked after in Istanbul. "She was more upset about them than she was about dying," said Duran, who rushed to her side after she'd been medevaced out of Sarajevo. But when Duran, also a CNN cameraman, moved into her home in Turkey with the promise that he'd care for the cats, he said Moth told him, " 'Now I can die happy.' " Duran was by Moth's side when she died. He said he will be taking her ashes back to Istanbul, where he will place them in her garden, beside a photograph of her. There, as she wanted, she'll be able to hang out with her cats. There were a few things Moth wished she had done. She would have liked to have seen the Krak des Chevaliers, a medieval fortress in Syria, and the Burundi drummers. But regrets? She had none. She "led the complete life," Amanpour said. "I don't think Margaret could ever look back and say, 'What if?' She did it to the max, and she did it brilliantly. And she did it on her terms." CNN colleagues and friends of Margaret Moth contributed to this report.

Her guts, skill and humor made Margaret Moth one to remember . The longtime CNN photojournalist dies of cancer at 59, after surviving wars . Shot in Sarajevo, she lived and went back to conflict zone as soon as she could . Christiane Amanpour and others remember her for life she lived "to the max"

(CNN) -- Connie Cox avoided bariatric surgery for years. The registered dietician knew how to lose weight -- she had done it time and again, dropping more than 75 pounds before gaining it all back. "The difficulty was in maintaining that loss," she says. "I'd pretty much given up because it was just so heart-breaking." Cox realized she couldn't do it with diet and exercise alone. She was 5-foot-3 and 293 pounds, and she saw her weight as a professional embarrassment. She decided to undergo a gastric bypass procedure. Within a week after surgery, Cox no longer had to take insulin for her type 2 diabetes. In a month, she was off her blood pressure medication. Over the next several years Cox lost half her body weight, eventually settling at a comfortable 160 pounds. "Bariatric surgery carries risk, just like any surgical procedure," Cox says. "But I decided for me, the risk of staying at 293 pounds was also very high." Once feared by patients and denounced by primary care physicians, bariatric surgery has become more accepted as research shows it's not only helping people lose weight, but also reducing their risk for cardiovascular disease and reversing type 2 diabetes. Severely obese adults who undergo gastric bypass lose, on average, 90 pounds in the three years after surgery -- or 31% of their initial weight, according to a study published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Those who have the adjustable gastric band, or LAP-BAND, procedure lose about 44 pounds. Previous research suggests some of these patients will gain back a portion of the weight over time, but the overall health benefits of bariatric surgery are appealing to many struggling with excess weight. "People lose sight of the fact that the patients aren't just obese, but they're sick," bariatric surgeon Dr. Alan Wittgrove says. "It's not as easy as just losing weight." No longer a risky business . Twenty years ago, Wittgrove performed the first laparoscopic gastric bypass procedure. It was 1993, and up until that point bariatric surgery had been done through a large incision in the patient's abdomen. Doctors had to cut through a thick wall of fat, Wittgrove says, creating an unstable wound that often led to infections, hernias and sometimes death. "It was big surgery on big patients," says Dr. Jaime Ponce, president of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. "It really put on a stigma at that time." Wittgrove's ground-breaking operation changed all that. More than 90% of bariatric procedures are now minimally invasive, and in-hospital mortality rates have dropped to 0.10%, according to a 2011 study published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. Ponce says laparoscopic bariatric surgery is now as safe as or safer than gallbladder removal, one of the most routine surgical procedures in America. Fewer risks means less fear for obese patients, Ponce says. In the early 1990s, approximately 16,000 people a year were undergoing bariatric surgery. By 2004, that number had jumped to 135,985 cases per year, according to the 2011 ACS study. Since then, surgeons have seen a steady number of patients, Ponce says, although early numbers for 2013 suggest another uptick. Physicians are also jumping on board as they see that bariatric surgery is about more than weight loss, Wittgrove says. "We're seeing more primary care doctors that truly understand the power of these operations," he says. "I think society in general understands that this is the best treatment for metabolic syndrome." How bariatric surgery works . Bariatric surgery works in two ways: by limiting the amount of food patients can consume and/or by preventing patients' digestive systems from absorbing some nutrients. The procedures also affect the body's metabolic hormones, such as ghrelin, which stimulate appetite. Most people have heard of the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass procedure, which was developed in the 1960s. With gastric bypass, doctors create a smaller stomach pouch that can hold only an ounce of food and connect it to a new section of the small intestine, bypassing part of that digestive organ. Learning to eat again: Man drops 130 pounds . Also popular is the adjustable gastric banding procedure, more commonly referred to as the LAP-BAND. Doctors place the LAP-BAND around a portion of the patient's stomach to create a smaller pouch, similar to the gastric bypass procedure. This band can then be tightened or loosened via a port below the skin of the patient's abdomen. Unlike the gastric bypass procedure, the LAP-BAND is reversible. Two other bariatric procedures are also performed in the United States. During a sleeve gastrectomy procedure, doctors remove 75% of the patient's stomach, creating a slim tube, or sleeve, that foods travels through. With a biliopancreatic diversion, a portion of the stomach is removed and the remaining tissue is connected to the lower portion of the small intestine. Learn more about the different kinds of bariatric surgery . Doctors have discovered that gastric bypass procedures have a nearly immediate effect on patients with type 2 diabetes. The bypass reroutes the intestine, Ponce explains, allowing food to hit a portion of the bowel that stimulates the pancreas, which then produces more insulin. "Sometimes patients walk out of the hospital without medications," he says. There is also data showing the sleeve, diversion and band can improve or put diabetes into remission, with varying degrees of success. Treating a disease . Earlier this year, the American Medical Association officially labeled obesity as a disease. Many saw the AMA's decision as a step toward getting health insurance companies to accept bariatric surgery as a viable treatment for metabolic disorders like diabetes. Although stigma around bariatric surgery has been reduced, it still exists, Cox says. "There's still that feeling that it's drastic, that it's dangerous," she says. "Some people call it the easy way out. And there's nothing easy about having your insides rerouted." Wittgrove wonders if we'd have such a negative view of bariatric surgery if obesity wasn't viewed as a lazy person's disease. We would never judge someone going into surgery to have cancer removed, he says, so why do we judge those trying to reverse their diabetes or heart disease? "The reality is the 10-year survival rate for some individuals with metabolic disease is less than if they have some cancers," he says. "I don't think (bariatric surgery) is a radical treatment. I think it's shown to be the best treatment." If anything shows how perception is changing, Ponce says, it's the name of his professional organization. In 2007, the American Society for Bariatric Surgery became the American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery, acknowledging the impact bariatric surgery can have on metabolic disorders. Researchers around the globe are following bariatric patients to see if the effects of surgery stick. Scientists in Sweden have collected data on 2,000 patients for more than a decade. Nearly 72% of their bariatric patients were in remission for type 2 diabetes two years after surgery, compared to just 16.4% of non-surgical weight loss patients. But 15 years later, only 31% of the surgical patients were still in remission. While the researchers noted that this was still higher than the remission rate for those who hadn't had surgery, their results illustrate an important point: . "Bariatric surgery is not a 'one size fits all' approach to weight loss," says Dr. Anita Courcoulas, lead author of the new JAMA study. Courcoulas and her colleagues found their results varied widely between patients. More than 70 needed additional bariatric surgery after their first procedure; three died in the month following a gastric bypass. More research is needed to determine which patients will be the most likely to benefit from bariatric surgery, the scientists say. "It's not as predictable as we'd like it to be," Wittgrove says. "It works well in some patients, doesn't in others. We don't really know who's going to be a successful candidate." All Cox knows is that she made the right choice for her. She's been able to keep the weight off successfully for 10 years. "I was looking at a very shortened lifespan," she says. "I have no doubt that I'm going to live 10, 15 years longer because I've undergone this procedure." Father, son lose 260 pounds after weight loss surgery .

20 years ago, Dr. Alan Wittgrove performed the first laparoscopic gastric bypass procedure . Now 90% of bariatric surgeries are minimally invasive, making them safer for patients . Approximately 135,000 people each year undergo bariatric surgery . Results for these patients vary widely, and doctors aren't sure who will have success .

(CNN) -- In sweeping discipline that one analyst called "historic," New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton was suspended without pay for the entire 2012 season and former Saints defensive coach Gregg Williams was suspended indefinitely in a series of NFL punishments Wednesday for the team's bounty program targeting opponents. Under the bounties, the team paid bonuses for knocking opposing players out of a game, the NFL said. Saints General Manager Mickey Loomis was suspended without pay for the first eight regular-season games of the 2012 season, the NFL said. Assistant Head Coach Joe Vitt was suspended without pay for the first six regular-season games, the league said. The team was also fined $500,000 and will forfeit its second-round draft picks in 2012 and 2013, the National Football League said. The club issued a statement apologizing and taking full responsibility for "these serious violations." "We recognize our fans' concerns and we regret the uncertainty this episode has created for them," the Saints' statement said. "We are humbled by the support our organization has received from our fans today in the wake of this announcement, and we ask them to continue to stand with us, as they have done in the past, when both our team and our city have overcome greater adversities. "There is no place for bounties in our league and we reiterate our pledge that this will never happen again," the team said. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will review the status of Williams, now with the St. Louis Rams, at the end of the season and decide whether to reinstate him, the league said. Williams apologized "wholeheartedly" in a statement and said his leadership role in the bounty program was "not a true reflection of my values as a father or coach." "I highly value the 23 years that I've spent in the NFL. I will continue to cooperate fully with the league and its investigation and I will focus my energies on serving as an advocate for both player safety and sportsmanship," Williams said. "I will do everything possible to re-earn the respect of my colleagues, the NFL and its players in hopes of returning to coaching in the future." In issuing the punishments, Goodell described the Saints' violations of league rules "particularly unusual and egregious." He added that "a strong and lasting message must be sent." Goodell said he is reviewing with the NFL Players Association discipline for players involved in the bounty program and will address the matter later. One sports analyst, Jim Trotter of Sports Illustrated, said the discipline is "historic." "One of the reasons they could be so strong against the Saints was that there was a paper trail," Trotter said, referring to e-mails. "I don't think other teams would be dumb enough to put it in writing," Trotter said of the bounty system. "I definitely believe they are trying to make an example of them." The NFL already is facing class-action lawsuits from former players of various teams who claimed that league play led to concussions, head trauma and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a dementia-like brain disease. "The league has to be concerned about lawsuits," Trotter said. The NFL investigation found the Saints had an "active bounty program" during the 2009, 2010 and 2011 seasons in which "bounty" payments were given for "knock-outs" and "cart-offs": plays in which an opposing player had to leave the game, the league said in a statement. The bounties even identified specific players as targets, the league said. The investigation found that the Saints showed "a deliberate effort to conceal the program's existence from league investigators, and a clear determination to maintain the program despite express direction from Saints ownership that it stop as well as ongoing inquiries from the league office," the NFL said. The Saints won the Super Bowl in 2010, in the midst of the bounty program. Goodell said the "pay-for-performance" program "undermined the integrity of the game." The league found that Payton, as head coach, failed to supervise players and coaches, didn't inquire into the facts of the bounty program though he was aware of the league's inquiries, and encouraged "the false denials by instructing assistants to 'make sure our ducks are in a row,' " the NFL statement said. Goodell added: "When there is targeting of players for injury and cash rewards over a three-year period, the involvement of the coaching staff, and three years of denials and willful disrespect of the rules, a strong and lasting message must be sent that such conduct is totally unacceptable and has no place in the game. "Beyond the clear and continuing violations of league rules, and lying to investigators, the bounty program is squarely contrary to the league's most important initiatives -- enhancing player health and safety and protecting the integrity of the game," the commissioner continued. "Let me be clear. There is no place in the NFL for deliberately seeking to injure another player, let alone offering a reward for doing so," Goodell said. On his Twitter account, Saints quarterback Drew Brees wrote: "I am speechless. Sean Payton is a great man, coach, and mentor. The best there is. I need to hear an explanation for this punishment." Saints starting linebacker Jo-Lonn Dunbar also tweeted: "Can we all say #excessive." At a news conference Wednesday afternoon, St. Louis Rams Head Coach Jeff Fisher said that the indefinite suspension of his defensive coordinator, Williams, didn't come as "a complete surprise." But he said Williams was "surprised and shocked." Fisher said the Rams had no idea when they hired Williams "that this would happen." "He made a mistake, and he admitted to that mistake, and he's remorseful, and he regrets the decision he has made, and he has accepted the consequences," Fisher said of Williams. On Wednesday, the NFL laid out a narrative of the Saints' bounty program. Players regularly made cash "donations" to a pool and were "fined" for mental errors, loafing and penalties, the NFL investigation found. At least one assistant coach, Williams, also occasionally contributed to the pool, but the NFL found no evidence that any team money went to the fund. Payments were made for plays in which opposing players were injured and for interceptions and fumble recoveries, the NFL said. "The investigation showed bounties being placed on four quarterbacks of opposing teams -- (Minnesota's) Brett Favre, (Carolina's) Cam Newton, (Green Bay's) Aaron Rodgers, and (Arizona's) Kurt Warner," the NFL said. Favre and Warner have since retired. Several players pledged money for bounties on specific opponents, "with defensive captain Jonathan Vilma offering $10,000 to any player who knocked Brett Favre out of the NFC Championship Game in 2010," the NFL said. In the three seasons of the bounty program, the Saints were among the top five teams in roughing-the-passer penalties and ranked in the top six teams for unnecessary roughing penalties, the NFL said. After a January 2010 playoff game, Saints defensive players were fined $15,000 for fouls against the Arizona Cardinals, and after the NFC Championship against the Minnesota Vikings, the Saints defense was fined a total of $30,000 for four illegal hits, several of which were directed against Favre, the NFL said. Assistant head coach Vitt acknowledged to investigators that the team's "defensive meeting preceding the 2010 NFC Championship Game may have 'got out of hand' with respect to Brett Favre," the NFL said. A document written after a preseason game stated "1 Cart-off -- Crank up the John Deer (sic) Tractor" in reference to a hit on an opponent, the NFL said. "Similar statements are reflected in prepared documents or slides in connection with other games in multiple seasons. A review of the game films confirms that opposing players were injured on the plays identified in the documents," the NFL said. Last year, before the opener, head coach Payton "received an e-mail from a close associate that stated in part, 'PS Greg Williams put me down for $5000 on Rogers (sic),'" the NFL said. Payton told investigators that the e-mail referred to a "bounty" on Green Bay's Rodgers, the NFL said. Williams "acknowledged that he designed and implemented the (bounty) program with the assistance of certain defensive players" after being told by Payton to make the defense "nasty," the NFL found. Williams kept records, determined the amount and recipients of the payouts, and distributed the "envelopes with cash to players who 'earned' rewards," the NFL said. But Williams was first questioned about the bounty program in early 2010, "he intentionally misled NFL investigators and made no effort to stop the program after he became aware of the league's investigation," the NFL said. CNN's Tim Clark and Ed Lavandera contributed to this report.

NEW: "This will never happen again," the apologetic Saints team says . NEW: Former defense coach Gregg Williams apologizes "wholeheartedly" Bounties were put on QBs Brett Favre, Cam Newton, Aaron Rodgers, Kurt Warner . Saints head coach must sit out a season; Williams, now at Rams, is suspended indefinitely .

(CNN) -- Who takes the cake: New York or L.A.? As part of our Destination USA project pitting rival cities against each other, New York beat Los Angeles in our completely unscientific poll, gaining 52% of the approximately 7,000 votes cast, compared with L.A.'s 48%. But Angelenos walloped New York in enthusiastic support for their city, sharing our Los Angeles lover's column on L.A.'s virtues more than 30,000 times on Facebook, compared with 1,400 endorsements for our transplanted New Yorker's love letter to NYC. And that robust participation from the City of Angels translated into more than 500 reader comments on the Los Angeles story, compared with 150 on the New York installment of the smackdown. We asked iReporters and commenters to share the very best things about their respective cities and why they like them better than any other. Some felt the need to add a little trash talk. You decide if they're right. Talking a little smack . New York inspires people to accomplish great things they could not imagine anywhere else, according to iReporter Mandana Armand of Gramercy Park, in Manhattan. "That greatness is just around the corner, always in New York. You never know what kind of fortuitous kindling this city will throw at you." New York is the center of the modern world, claims iReporter Craig Clemens, a former Los Angeles resident. "Finance, real estate, publishing -- it's almost too much for an Angeleno to take in. I should know because I used to be one." Not so, claims L.A. defender cornholio5. "L.A. intimidates people because they're afraid to admit it's better than where they're from. In L.A., we order bagels from people that don't yell at us. We don't care if your pizza is better. We like ours, but we like yours, too. We legally smoke weed, we surf, we go to work in flip-flops and we drive Priuses. We work hard, we're laid back, we eat avocados and we do yoga. We respect N.Y., and don't even expect it back. That's how we roll." Residents of Los Angeles rave about the good weather, and more. "Los Angeles has the better weather, the better technology, the car capital of the world, better jobs, better food and better people," writes another commenter. "New York City: You pay outrageous rent, and who wants to pay $1,000/month just to park your car?" Let's go out and play in New York . We admit it, both cities have great places to play, whether you're splurging or traveling on a budget. New York offers full price theater tickets to "The Book of Mormon" and discount theater tickets at the TKTS booth. Make reservations to Per Se or Eleven Madison Park for fine dining or grab an affordable (and incredible) burger and cheese fries at Shake Shack in Madison Square Park or "chicken fried chicken" at Cowgirl in the West Village. iReporter Beth Barret, who grew up on Manhattan's Upper East Side and lives in Riverdale in the Bronx, offers you her walking tour route, free of charge. "One of my favorite things to do with friends who visit me is to start walking from the bottom of Manhattan," she writes. "We start at the Statue of Liberty, walk north through Battery Park, Wall Street, the South Street Seaport, Chinatown, Little Italy, Tribeca, Soho, Greenwich Village & Chelsea. And that is only day one!" "Every nook and cranny of the city exudes its own pleasures, flavors and personality," claims Barret. "I honestly don't think you can ever see it all. From the Edgar Allen Poe cottage in the Bronx to the site of the ... World's Fair in Queens, there is always something to see that will wow you!" Head to One World Trade Center, says Charlottesville, Virginia, resident and iReporter Joanne Ciccone, who visits New York regularly to see her son. "One World Trade Center is at the heart of what this country is about. Like the Phoenix rising from its ashes, NYC is building up from the horrors of 9/11. This rebuilding of structure and attitude makes NYC the greatest city on Earth. It will not be destroyed in building or beliefs." Let's play in L.A. Los Angeles offers everything from swimming and surfing at the beach to skiing in the mountains and camping in the desert. A short drive (traffic permitting) will get you to some of the most beautiful outdoor spots in the world. "The feeling is laid back while you cruise down Sunset Blvd. and dig on the celebrities," writes iReporter Allen Mealey. "Los Angeles is the entertainment capital of the world, from the Hollywood film industry to all of the great concerts and clubs, we beat Manhattan hands down! And those Hollywood nights, those Hollywood hills." (With thanks to Bob Seger.) DigitalGypsy, who lives in Culver City but also loves Venice, Santa Monica, West Hollywood and Silverlake, never wears anything heavier than a hoodie because the weather is so fabulous. "It's definitely the spot to be in for surfing, skateboarding and snowboarding. Life is a little more laid back and you get to enjoy the beauty of nature that surrounds you." Standouts to commenter Jon: Griffith Observatory, summer movies at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, monthly downtown Art Walk, the Venice Art Walk, The Perch (or any of the downtown rooftop bars), driving around actual film studios, ChaCha Lounge (hipster bar in Silver Lake), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, MOCA (contemporary museum), Villain's Tavern and "hiking up to the Hollywood sign or any of the hundreds of amazing hiking trails all throughout the hills and mountains of the city." Let's eat some good food . There's no shortage of advice online or in print on the best cuisine in Los Angeles or New York. Both towns have food critics who have their preferences for high-end, low-end and everything in between -- although only Los Angeles can claim the first winner of a Pulitzer Prize for food criticism in Jonathan Gold, now at the "Los Angeles Times. " If you're craving a particular cuisine or need to eat in a particular part of town, plenty of foodie websites can help you out. If you're talking to residents, make sure they really like food -- because there's plenty of bad food to be had in both cities. Manhattan resident Mandana Armand loves the 21 Club for the feel of old New York, drinks at the Gansevoort Hotel and the chocolate waterfall brunch at the Waldorf Astoria. For vegetarians and vegans, Armand recommends Pure Food and Wine restaurant. "It's a raw food restaurant that delivers the most exquisite flavors imaginable. You will not believe it is raw food." Former Los Angeles resident and iReporter Anne McCarney has many favorite restaurants and bars to recommend: "Homegirl Cafe (near downtown), OB's Pub & Grill (Manhattan Beach), Mama D's Italian (Hermosa or Manhattan Beach), Cafe Boogaloo (Hermosa Beach), Shark's Cove (Manhattan Beach), Empress Pavilion (Chinatown), Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles, In-N-Out, Lotus frozen yogurt (Hermosa Beach), Sweet Lady Jane's bakery (Melrose)." And yes, Mexican food can be found almost anywhere in Los Angeles. However, commenter VikoG suggests visitors move beyond the assumption of Mexican food as beans, rice, tacos, burritos and enchiladas. "Angelenos know better (and) we take advantage of all the delicious non-Americanized cuisine, especially mariscos, Poblano cusine, Oaxacan cusine and so many more," he writes. Pitting one city against the other is pointless, say some, like comparing an SUV to a sports car. "If you want a house with a big yard, pool and palm trees, NYC is not the place for you," writes commenter Chris Allen, who was raised in Los Angeles and visits New York. "If you want to live in a high-rise building in a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood where you can take the subway to work, your lifestyle options in L.A. will be rather limited. Both are cool places." Todra Payne is married to New York City, but it's not exclusive. "NYC is home for me, but L.A. is my secret lover," she writes. "Can't beat the way you can walk Manhattan and meet people along the way, meander in and out of shops, restaurants, etc. You just can't do that in L.A. But the sunshine, beaches and palm trees and the laid back vibe in L.A. are golden. If there was a way to combine the two, it would be paradise." Both cities, it seems, are willing to share the people they love with the city on the opposite coast. Next on our smackdown list: Charlotte, North Carolina, home to the 2012 Democratic National Convention, versus Tampa, Florida, home to the 2012 Republican National Convention. How will you vote? Share your photos and suggestions on iReport.com.

New York City came out on top in our unscientific poll . Los Angeles blew New York away in social media support . The weather in L.A. and the energy in New York are frequently cited assets .

Atlanta (CNN) -- International travelers, rejoice! The world's busiest airport is debuting a billion-dollar solution to the much-griped-about entry procedure for Atlanta-bound passengers. The screening hoops international travelers have long faced to escape the confines of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport have led veteran traveler Nancy Megehee to avoid bringing anything more than a carry-on along on long-haul trips. Arriving back in Atlanta was just too much trouble. "If you're going to walk the concourse, you have to clear your luggage to walk through. Typically, what I'm doing is carry-on, but I still have to go pick my bag up and have my bag re-examined by the TSA," Megehee said. That was one of the annoying quirks of an airport that handled nearly 10 million international passengers last year. Before May 16, even international travelers whose final destination was Atlanta had to pass through Transportation Security Administration checkpoints and recheck checked bags after clearing U.S. Customs and Border Protection to leave the airport. That's because there was no way to exit the international security zone to the outside world without crossing through the secure domestic terminal. All that duty-free fine wine had to get stuffed back into a traveler's luggage to avoid violating the TSA's 3-ounce rule. Then add a trip to the baggage claim to pick up checked bags before exiting. With Wednesday's opening of the Maynard H. Jackson International Terminal, six years later than planned and at a higher-than-expected cost of $1.4 billion, there will be much beyond the new ease of exiting to admire and celebrate: the natural light-filled structure, lovely views of airplanes taking off to foreign lands and taxiing to the new terminal gates, new retail and restaurant choices, art installations, a swanky new Delta Sky Club and technology charging areas that recognize the ubiquitous use of smartphones, laptops and other electronic devices. The logistics of getting to and from the terminal might present the biggest challenge. The new terminal is accessed via a different highway than the rest of the airport, and the city's rail service connects to the original terminal but not to the new international gateway. Shuttle buses will run around the clock to connect the old and new facilities. While we wait for international travelers to test Atlanta's newest terminal, we asked noted architects, airport operations executives and other travel industry experts to share what they look for in a world-class airport's design and features. An airport must nail down the basics: security, federal processing, technology, retail and restrooms, said Bill Fife, an airport consultant who has worked in positions with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, including a role as deputy general manager of John F. Kennedy International Airport. Make security obvious and easy . Whether travelers are taking off from a home airport or landing in a foreign land for the first time without speaking the language, travelers want airports to make the process clear. Do they have time to get snacks before security, or will the security lines be too long and stressful? If they're landing for the first time in a foreign country and don't speak the language, do they know where to get their bags, clear customs and get to their hotel? "People want to know where they're at, every step of the way," says Jason Clampet, senior online editor at Frommers.com. After Clampet flew into the Copenhagen Airport last fall, he noticed a big clock above security that showed how many minutes it would take to get people through the process. "It said one minute, and I didn't believe them, but I was through security in 52 seconds," Clampet said. "Whatever they said it was going to be, it was good to know. " When airport architect Mark Leininger landed at Incheon International Airport in Seoul, South Korea, and went through security, he watched a video showing the procedure of showing one's passport to security, getting a picture taken and other details of the process. "You want to make security seem like it's effective and people understand what they're doing, not just being treated like rats in rat maze," said Leininger, associate director of the architecture firm of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, who has worked on Boston Logan International Airport and the current redesign for Delta's terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. Reducing the stress of flying . Cramped security spaces, lack of light and too much noise can contribute to an already-stressful flying experience, where travelers often have to remove much of their clothing in public before being allowed to head to their respective gates. "You're often in an absolutely lightless space with low ceilings, and usually the occupancy rates are in excess of what the building's mechanical systems would allow," said architect Simon Smithson, who worked on Madrid Barajas Airport's Terminal 4 project. The use of natural light, enormous windows to show people where they're heading (to the plane or to customs) and acoustics to dampen the sound of thousands of travelers and workers can contribute to a nicer flying experience, said Smithson, project architect on the Madrid airport and a partner at the architecture firm of Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners in London. "We designed a nice, generous space with some sort of natural light so people would see how the process is working," Smithson said. "We also used light to let people inside the building know the time of day outside." That helps fliers landing in a different time zone to reorient their body clocks. Get me something to eat . Many travelers heading to foreign ports are too squeezed for time to pack their own snacks, and some want more than the usual fast food options that will just sit in their stomachs on a 10-hour flight. Careful placement of restaurants with seating and to-go options along the walk to a traveler's gate can minimize the stress that hunger will cause. Some winners: Fife applauds the design at the JetBlue terminal at Kennedy Airport, noting that customers can pick from many options and pay at the same registers. Frequent traveler Charles Kunz loves the local restaurant options at the San Francisco airport's international terminal. Let me use my technology . With the proliferation of smartphones, laptops and iPads for work and pleasure, customers are using technology to check into their flights, check on gate locations and flight delays, and play or work while waiting for their flights. That puts more pressure on airports to supply outlets for people to keep charging their devices. "It's clear that connectivity is just a huge issue," said Chris Oswald, Airport Council International-North America's vice president of operations. "If you have to go plug into an outlet outside the bathroom down the hall, that's not the level of service you want." Some airports have added outlet trees placed in seating areas, while others have added power strips in the seats themselves, he said. "It's absolutely something you have to have." Connect to public transportation . Many frequent international travelers appreciate airports that are easily accessed by public transportation. Architect Anthony Mosellie loves flying out of Hong Kong International Airport. Mosellie, a principal at Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates and head of its airport practice, simply boards a train in central Hong Kong that takes him directly to the airport. "The train doors open, and I walk 10 or 15 yards, and I'm right in the airport terminal." Clampet has a similar experience landing in Vancouver. "The train just zips right downtown," he said. "You know you're being taken care of all the way as opposed to being on the edge of town and taking a taxi and not knowing if you're being ripped off." A change in attitude . Kunz, who runs an independent car rental company in Durham, North Carolina, wants U.S Customs and Border Protection to make people coming home or visiting the United States feel welcome. He echoed the complaints of many U.S. travelers: They say they often feel presumed guilty upon arrival back home in the United States. It's an attitude they say they don't get when arriving in other airports around the world. "You know you have nothing in your bags, and yet you feel guilty," said Kunz, who took part in a recent simulation to test the systems at Atlanta's new terminal. "I know they see a million people a day, but I only see one (of them) that day. It's fun to come back home. If they could just say 'welcome back,' that would help add a human touch." And it's not just about manners. International tourist arrivals to the United States are projected to grow 36% between 2010 and 2020, according to the U.S. Travel Association, and those visits contribute to the U.S. economy. The association advocates fully staffing customs desks to match international arrival schedules and expanding the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Global Entry Trusted Traveler Network to include more trusted international travelers. (Currently, U.S. residents and citizens of a few test countries are eligible to apply for membership.) "People are coming here and spending thousands of dollars and leaving with a better impression of the United States than when they came in," said Cathy Keefe, USTA spokeswoman. "How are they treated when they arrive in the United States?" she asked. "It's their first impression when they come into the United States. We can have a standard welcome message and still maintain security." Which international airports have you flown through? What do you like or dislike about them? Tell us in the comments section below.

New international terminal opens Wednesday in Atlanta . The facility will eliminate the need for arriving travelers to recheck bags . Architects and industry experts share their top priorities for successful operations .

(CNN) -- Investigators have pinpointed two men as "possible suspects" who were seen in images near the finish line of this week's Boston Marathon -- moments before twin bombs there exploded, killing three and injuring about 180 others -- a law enforcement official said. A circular sent out Wednesday to federal and state agencies features the photos "in an attempt to identify the individuals," who were described as being of "high interest" to investigators. One of the men is seen carrying a black backpack. An FBI official earlier said that authorities believe the bombs were placed inside a black nylon backpack or bag. The source said that authorities had not yet identified the two men by name and that the photographs were not being released to the public for fear of impeding the investigation. Earlier Wednesday, two official sources with knowledge of the investigation identified a man -- who also hasn't been named -- as a possible suspect in the attack. Seen on a video, this man wore a white baseball cap. One of the sources added that the cap was on backwards and the man was also wearing a light-colored hooded sweatshirt and a black jacket. It was not immediately known if this man is one of those alluded to in the photographs distributed to law enforcement officials. This movement in the investigation came two days after the horrific blast shook the city, during what is traditionally one of its biggest and most beloved events each year. By Wednesday, authorities had made "significant progress" in the case but no arrests, a federal law enforcement source told CNN's John King. Sources previously told CNN that a suspect was in custody, but both Boston police and the FBI denied that any arrests had been made. A Boston law enforcement source told CNN, "We got him," but wouldn't clarify whether that meant a suspect has been identified or arrested. Some federal sources said it was even too early to say investigators had identified the suspect, but several sources in Boston told CNN that they have a clear identification. Speaking on CNN's The Situation Room, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said investigators were closer to cracking the case "every hour." But he urged patience with the probe. "What I would say and I would ask of everyone is we give law enforcement the space to do their work," Patrick said. "When they are ready with a complete picture, they will tell us what that picture is." He added, "I wish they had nailed the perpetrator within minutes of this catastrophe, but I understand from experience it's going to take some time." Earlier Wednesday, investigators revealed more details about the makeup of the bombs, which exploded 12 seconds apart. One had been housed in a pressure cooker hidden inside a backpack, the FBI said in a joint intelligence bulletin. The device also had fragments that may have included nails, BBs and ball bearings, the agency said. The lid of a pressure cooker thought to be used in the device was found on a rooftop at the scene, a federal law enforcement official with firsthand knowledge of the investigation told CNN. The second bomb was also housed in a metal container, but it was not clear whether it too was in a pressure cooker, the FBI said. The U.S. government has warned federal agencies in the past that terrorists could turn pressure cookers into bombs by packing them with explosives and shrapnel and detonating them with blasting caps. The bombs . Photos obtained by CNN show the remains of a pressure cooker found at the scene, along with a shredded black backpack and what appear to be metal pellets or ball bearings. Scraps of at least one pressure cooker, nails and nylon bags found at the scene were sent to the FBI's national laboratory in Virginia, where technicians will try to reconstruct the devices, the agent leading the investigation said Tuesday. The pieces suggest each of the devices was 6 liters (about 1.6 gallons) in volume, a Boston law enforcement source said. The recovered parts include part of a circuit board, which might have been used to detonate a device. A law enforcement official said Monday's bombs were probably detonated by timers. But the FBI said details of the detonating system were unknown. While the clues moved the investigation forward, they did not make it immediately apparent whether the attack was an act of domestic or foreign terrorism. "If your experience and your expertise is Middle East terrorism, it has the hallmarks of al Qaeda or a Middle East group," former FBI Assistant Director Tom Fuentes said. "If your experience is domestic groups and bombings that have occurred here, it has the hallmarks of a domestic terrorist like Eric Rudolph in the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics bombings." Things we know . Fuentes said he has investigated both types of terrorism -- from Iraq to the United States -- and finds the Boston attack has elements of both. "It has the hallmarks of both domestic and international (attacks), and you can see either side of that." Opinion: Why is this so rare? Third victim identified . Boston University identified graduate student Lingzi Lu as the third person who died in Monday's bombings. Previously identified were Krystle Campbell, 29, of Arlington, Massachusetts, and Martin Richard, 8, of Dorchester, Massachusetts. "She was the best," Campbell's distraught mother, Patty, told reporters Tuesday. "You couldn't ask for a better daughter." Martin "was a bright, energetic young boy who had big dreams and high hopes for his future," his school said in a statement. "We are heartbroken by this loss." The hunt for the attacker . The attack left Boston police with "the most complex crime scene that we've dealt with in the history of our department," Commissioner Ed Davis said Tuesday. Authorities sifted through thousands of pieces of evidence and a mass of digital photos and video clips. They have pleaded for the public's help in providing additional leads and images. "Someone knows who did this," said Rick DesLauriers, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Boston office, said. "The community will play a crucial role in this investigation." Medical personnel treating the wounded found evidence suggesting the bomb maker or bomb makers sought to maximize the suffering. Dr. George Velmahos, head of trauma care at Massachusetts General Hospital, said his team found "numerous" metal pellets and nails inside patients' bodies. "There are people who have 10, 20, 30, 40 of them in their body, or more," Velmahos said. 'Human spirit' still alive . Dr. Ron Walls also said one patient had more than 12 carpenter-type nails. "There is no question some of these objects were implanted in the device for the purpose of being exploded forward," he said. Victims continue recovery . As investigators continued to search for a suspect, those wounded in the incident continued to recover. Boston-area hospitals had released at least 112 of the 178 people injured in the attack, according to CNN's tally late Wednesday. Of the 66 people who were still hospitalized, 13 were in critical condition. Boston Medical Center has two patients in critical condition, down from 11 just after the bombings, Dr. Peter Burke, chief of trauma care, told reporters Wednesday. Ten patients are in serious condition and seven are in fair condition, he said. Spectator Steve Byrne was standing with a group of friends near a mailbox when the second blast went off. Now his face is scarred with shrapnel wounds. A BB pellet remains lodged in his neck. Doctors said they couldn't remove it because was too close to nerves that control his vision, but he was out of the hospital on Wednesday. Compared to how his friends are suffering, he told CNN's AC360 that he feels lucky. Four out of the five friends he was watching the marathon with have lost limbs, he said. One friend had 70 nails in his leg. He remembers the explosion in vivid detail: the blast that was so strong that it burned his clothes off; the carnage around him; and the haunting, slow-motion daze of searching for his friends. "We were having a great day and waiting to see our friend cross the finish line," he said, "and then all of the sudden it turned in a flash." He told CNN he's worried about the financial burdens his friends could face as a result of the explosion. One friend is a carpenter and "both his hands are incinerated. He can't go to work, and the bills keep coming in." "It's not just the hospitals. It's everyday life that doesn't stop. ... We're just hoping the mayor, the governor, President Obama don't let us as citizens down." Beyond those seriously wounded, the incident affected thousands, including Candace Rispoli, who was cheering on a friend when the festive atmosphere turned into a "terrifying hell." She suffered minor injuries. "I personally will never participate in an event of this nature in a city in fear that something like this could happen again," she said. "I keep replaying the moments of terror over and over in my head and am just still in utter shock. Always seeing terrible things of this nature happen all over the world on TV, my heart would always go out to those directly affected. But I never imagined in a million years I would be a spectator at the Boston Marathon running for my life." CNN's Susan Candiotti, Fran Townsend, Matt Smith, Dave Alsup, Henry Hanks, Rande Iaboni, Gloria Borger and John King contributed to this report.

NEW: Authorities ask federal and state agents to help identify two men seen in photos . NEW: The men are of "high interest" in the probe into the Boston Marathon blasts . NEW: One of the men is seen in photos carrying a black backpack, an official says . 3 people were killed and about 180 injured when 2 bombs went off near the finish line .

United Nations (CNN) -- Syria's ambassador to the United Nations rejected Tuesday a call for an independent investigation into the killings of hundreds of demonstrators by government forces. "Syria has a government, has a state," Bashar Jaafari told reporters at the world body. "We can undertake any investigation by our own selves, with full transparency. We have nothing to hide. We regret what is going on, but you should also acknowledge that this unrest and riots, in some of their aspects, have hidden agendas." Jaafari called President Bashar al-Assad a reformer who has been working to effect change by issuing decrees that, among other things, lifted the decades-old emergency law and allowed peaceful demonstrations. "If you demonstrate peacefully, you are protected by the government," he said. "If you resort to violence, then any government in the world -- in order to maintain peace and order -- would utilize its forces to stop violence and vandalism and aggression against buildings as well as against innocent civilians." Syria's own National Investigation Commission has already undertaken an investigation into the violence against civilians and the military, and will issue its findings at a later date, he said. "So we are doing our homework; we don't need help from anybody." He urged the Security Council to rely on official reports, not on media reports. Jaafari's remarks came on the same day that the Syrian Human Rights Information Link reported that more than 400 people have died since March 18 in incidents linked to the government crackdown on protesters seeking reform. While the vast majority are apparently civilians, the group's list describes a few of the dead as members of the army or police. The United Nations has said it has information that 76 people were killed last week on Friday alone, apparently during peaceful marches, and that the death toll from that day could be much higher. CNN cannot independently confirm death tolls and witness accounts of the bloody crackdown. The Syrian government has not granted CNN access to the country. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice called the violence wielded by the government of Syria "abhorrent and deplorable," adding, "The outrageous use of violence to quell protests must come to an end, and now." The Syrian government's repeal of its emergency law and allowance for peaceful demonstrations "were clearly not serious, given the continued violent repression against protesters," she said. The United States is pursuing "a range of possible policy options," Rice said, including the imposition of additional sanctions. "The Syrian people's call for freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly and the ability to choose their leaders freely must be heard," she said. Rice accused al-Assad of "disingenuously blaming outsiders while, at the same time, seeking Iranian assistance in repressing Syria's citizens through the same brutal tactics that have been used by the Iranian regime." U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who called for the investigation, briefed the Security Council on the situation Tuesday. "I condemn utterly the continuing violence against the peaceful demonstrators," Ban told reporters. "Most particularly, the use of tanks and live fire." Ban said the Security Council would be briefed more fully on the matter on Wednesday, when it meets in private session. He added that he had discussed the matter "at least" twice with al-Assad. "It goes without saying that Syrian authorities have an obligation to protect civilians and respect international human rights," Ban told reporters. "That includes the right to free expression and peaceful assembly." Human Rights Watch's U.N. director, Philippe Bolopion, called on the Security Council to "condemn abuses by the Syrian government, support an international investigation and sanction those ordering the shooting and torture of protesters." He called Syria's campaign for a seat on the Human Rights Council "a slap in the face to the victims of the current crackdown, and an embarrassment to those who have supported its candidacy." In state-run media, al-Assad's regime has described the protesters as "armed criminal groups" and said its soldiers and police were working to stop them. The government has discussed the burials of "martyrs" killed by those groups. Anti-government protests or marches occurred Tuesday in Banyas, al-Tal, Amuoda and Zabwani. After witnesses told CNN Monday about thousands of troops and police entering the city of Daraa and firing indiscriminately, killing people in the streets, the Syrian government insisted that the citizens of Daraa had asked for the troops to stop "terrorist" groups. At least 35 tanks were in or around the city, said two witnesses who did not want to divulge their names for security reasons in an interview carried out by satellite phone. Water, electricity, telephone and Internet service were not working, they said. Sniper fire has sent a wave of fear through the community and led many to stay inside, leading to a shortage of footstuffs in households, they said. They cited that same fear as the reason that a number of the bodies of sniper victims remained uncollected from the streets where they fell. A doctor who told CNN that 21 people died Monday in the city said army forces had surrounded the hospital, where there was a shortage of medicine. Patients were being treated instead at undisclosed locations. He said he was using his car battery to charge his satellite phone. The doctor said tanks fired Monday into residential areas. Army and security personnel were looting stores in a commercial district, he said. On Tuesday, a witness in the western Syrian city of Jableh said security forces had set up checkpoints and were inspecting identification papers and arresting people. Businesses and schools in Jableh were closed Tuesday, the witness said. The witness said the bodies of 13 people who died Sunday were discreetly taken to their resting places because people were afraid to walk in the town. Another human rights group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, has said at least 13 civilians were shot dead Sunday in Jableh by security forces. In the Damascus suburb of Douma, one witness compared the city to a "prison." Witnesses said security forces were arresting people, including three hospital doctors. A witness in Douma said Tuesday that security forces had set up sandbag barricades around and inside the city. Checkpoints around the city were being manned with heavy machine guns, while those inside the city are manned by lighter weapons, the witness said. He said shops were closed and parents were afraid to send their children to school. A Douma resident who asked to be referred to as Rawwad said that, over the past four days, security personnel had been arresting people they recognized as members of the protest movement. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Tuesday "the situation in Syria is unacceptable." He added that -- as has been the case for the Ivory Coast and Libya -- "nothing will happen without a resolution from the Security Council." British Foreign Secretary William Hague condemned "any violence and killings perpetuated by Syrian security forces." "This violent repression must stop," Hague said in a statement. "President Assad should order his authorities to show restraint and to respond to the legitimate demands of his people with immediate and genuine reform, not with brutal repression." Fawaz Gerges, an analyst on the region with the London School of Economics, said Tuesday the response of the international community "is very important in terms of the legitimacy, in terms of the isolation of the Syrian regime. But the reality is events in Syria will determine what will happen and the end results. Syrians will determine whether the regime stays or goes. "Obviously the regime has decided to crush the protesters, to silence the opposition," Gerges added. Al-Assad is "using now massive force in order to break the will of the protesters. But even if he wins the first round, the situation is far from over ... The reality is President Assad will emerge as a much weakened president after his particular confrontation because he has lost much legitimacy and authority inside Syria." The Syrian protests -- part of a wave of uprisings in the Arab world -- began in Daraa last month following a crackdown by security forces on peaceful demonstrators protesting the arrests of youths who scribbled anti-government graffiti. Protesters have asked for freedom and regime reform, and public discontent with al-Assad's government has mounted. Activists also want the easing of the ruling Baath Party's power and a law that would permit the establishment of independent political parties. A new Treasury Department executive order targeting senior officials accused of human rights abuses would involve an asset freeze and travel ban, as well as prohibiting them from doing business in the United States. "The Syrian people's call for freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly and the ability to freely choose their leaders must be heard," Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council, said in a statement Monday. The U.S. State Department also issued a statement Monday urging U.S. citizens to defer any travel to Syria. "U.S. citizens in Syria are advised to depart while commercial transportation is readily available," the statement said. The department also ordered all eligible family members of U.S. government employees as well as certain nonemergency personnel to leave Syria. CNN's Richard Roth, Nata Husseini, Amir Ahmed, Arwa Damon, Rima Maktabi, Elise Labott, Amir Ahmed and Raja Razek contributed to this report.

NEW: At least 35 tanks in and around Daraa, witnesses say . "We can undertake an investigation by our own selves," Jaafari says . Rights group lists names of more than 400 people killed . Sarkozy says no action will be taken without a U.N. Security Council resolution .

(CNN) -- She's really very stealthy. Nina Katchadourian has been creating unusual works of art from her airplane seat -- and occasionally the lavatory -- since 2010, and during the 101 flights since she started flying in a "furiously alert and creative" state, only three people have ever asked about her in-flight activities. Those activities include photographing disaster scenarios, seat-buckle seatmate portraits, snack sculptures and more with her iPhone for a body of work called "Seat Assignment." Katchadourian's years-long project was born on a 2010 flight from New York to Atlanta when she decided that instead of trying to make the time go away or to pretend she wasn't trapped in a metal tube, she'd create things within the spacial and material limitations of an airplane. World's 100 best beaches . "It's an ongoing experiment with the interesting tension between freedom and constraint," she said. "What can you do with very little? And when you're forced to think that way I think you start becoming inventive and you have to think expansively and quite freely for anything to happen." That free thinking led the Brooklyn-based artist to a series of self-portraits in the airplane lavatory where strategically placed toilet seat covers and paper towels provide the flavor of 15th-century Flemish portraiture. That segment of the project is complete -- thanks to several bathroom photo shoots during a 14-hour flight to New Zealand. The trip was particularly productive for Katchadourian, who was on her way to become an artist in residence in Dunedin in 2011. She created an entire exhibit for the Dunedin Public Art Gallery on the way to her post. But she's not always so busy on planes -- sometimes she takes a nap or watches a movie like the rest of us. CNN spoke with Katchadourian recently about her unique approach to air travel. The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity: . CNN: Do you talk to your seatmates? It's very interesting. I feel like years ago, there was a very different attitude around that kind of social situation with who you were sitting next to, and I can remember getting on planes and being even a little bit sort of excited and curious about who I'd be sitting next to. You know, there would inevitably be a little bit of conversation about "How are you doing?" and "Where are you headed?" and I feel like that has sort of stopped in recent years. It really rarely happens anymore. So it seems to be more common that people sit in their seat, and they want to just stay in their zone, and you've kind of purchased your tiny piece of space on the plane and you're trying not to trespass. And so no, there has been very little conversation. And on 101 flights, I've had exactly three people, ever, ask me questions about what I was up to. And I think in part that's because I'm fairly stealthy about what I'm doing. I mean, I think that ... the camera phone is important because I essentially kind of look like a bored person trying to pass the time. I'm just kind of taking these random-looking snapshots of things in front of me. And I really don't want it to look like I'm making art. I want it to look like, in fact, I do sort of want it to look like I'm a bored person. So the very thing I'm trying not to be sort of becomes my alibi in a strange way. Probably the funniest question that's come my way was on a flight ... heading back from London to New York. I'd been busy making a little stop-action animation on my tray table using a postcard I'd bought from the National Gallery and some sugar that I had poured on the postcard, and I was poking with one finger while I took pictures with the other hand. And I was sort of making this sugar shape swirl around on top of this image, and I finished that and I started working on something else, also using the sugar, and the guy next to me said, "I think the previous one was turning out better," and I thought, "Uh oh, I've had an audience and I haven't even known that." Camping: Horror or bliss? CNN: When did you start the portraits in the lavatory? So the first one of those happened on a domestic flight, I guess about six months before the New Zealand trip. And it was also a very spontaneous moment. I had just been in the bathroom and before I walked out, I took one of those tissue paper seat covers and put it on my head and thought "Huh, that's odd. I remind myself a little bit of a Flemish painting." And you know, "Why did I just make that?" I didn't really know. But in the spirit of the project, you kind of try everything, and I try not to talk myself out of anything. So if something comes to mind, I give it a shot. And then I kept thinking about that one photograph, and I thought I'd really like to make a few more of those. And on a 14-hour leg from San Francisco to Auckland I was pretty sure that there would be long stretches of time when people would be asleep and when the bathrooms wouldn't be occupied. And so I kind of banked on that and got an aisle seat so that I would be able to get in and out of my seat easily without disturbing anyone. And sure enough there was never a line, people were asleep for hours upon hours of that long flight and I had plenty of opportunity to go back there and make a few more of these portraits. Can the 'game-changer' still live up to its name? CNN: What's a shooting stretch in the lavatory? How long does that take? Well, my very first foray back there was probably a few minutes because I was very, I don't know, I just thought, "I have to hurry up. I have to do this fast. What if there's someone waiting to get in here?" But there never was. I maybe made five or six forays to the bathroom and I think by the end I was spending 15 minutes in there comfortably without worrying about it so much. And that series, that happened on that one flight. That series is complete. I have not added to it. It's done. I consider that kind of a finished project. CNN: These photos are kind of fun and optimistic. Do you think that sets you apart from other travelers? Well, they actually aren't all fun and optimistic. I think it's also important to see a whole category of pictures that have been part of this project as a reflection on the anxiety that I also feel when I travel. There's a whole huge category called "Disasters" where I'm crumbling up pretzels and making landslides or taking sweater lint off my sweater and making smoking plumes that come out of airplane jets and all these kind of imagined things that can go wrong. There's also a way to see "Seat Assignment" as a project that helps me cope with the low grade, for me low-grade, stress of travel. You know when you fly, you're inside this metal tube full of a couple hundred people you don't know and you're hurtling through space. And on one hand, this has become very mundane and it feels a little like getting on a bus, but on the other hand, there are moments when I think, "this is completely crazy," and it's very anxiety provoking to imagine things going wrong. I think that for me, "Seat Assignment" is such an absorbing and distracting project that when I'm really dug into making something, I'm very content. I'm really happy, I'm really absorbed, I'm really in the moment, I guess you could say, and I don't sit there worrying or feeling kind of squashed in my seat or anxious or uncomfortable if it gets turbulent or any of those kinds of things. So the project really has -- there are many temperaments within it. CNN: Do you have the same process when you're traveling with someone? I'd say 90% of them are work trips, and as a result I'm usually traveling alone. So when there is someone I know next to me, of course then I don't ever have to wonder, "What is the person next to me thinking?" because they know. That's part of the challenge too, is how far am I willing to go. ... I really don't ever want the project to become intrusive. ... Gum, for example. I've done a few things with chewing gum, but ... I really don't ever do things with chewing gum if there's someone next to me who I don't know because I feel like it's just a little too impolite. CNN: Will this series have an end? I don't know. For the moment it's ongoing and I keep adding to it, and I really feel like it hasn't played out yet. So as long as I feel that way, it's gonna keep going. Some of Katchadourian's "Seat Assignment" work is on view through September 15 in an exhibition at Turner Contemporary in Margate, England, called "Curiosity: Art and the Pleasures of Knowing." Starting in June, a show at the Saatchi Gallery in London will feature some of her work as well.

Artist Nina Katchadourian has been using her camera phone to make art on flights since 2010 . Lavatory portraits using toilet seat covers raise questions about what goes on in there . The limitations of space and materials present challenges that push the artist forward . There's "tension between freedom and constraint," she says .

Washington (CNN) -- Congressional Democrats and Republicans escalated their rhetorical war Thursday over a pending federal rule requiring religiously affiliated employers to provide full contraception coverage to women -- one day after hints emerged of a possible compromise between the White House and conservative religious critics. Numerous rank-and-file Democrats urged the White House not to back away from its support for the rule, while Republicans demanded a full retreat. "It is time for the extreme right wing to stop playing football with women's health," said Rep. Nita Lowey, D-New York. "My colleagues and I stand in solidarity with American women who have waited decades for equity in contraceptive coverage. We have fought for too long." "I woke up this morning in the 21st century, not in the Middle Ages," said. Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colorado. "Family planning and birth control (are) an essential part of women's health." But Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum said the issue is about the rights of churches, not women. "This has to do with the right of a church not to spend their moral resources in a way that's inconsistent with their faith," the former Pennsylvania senator, a staunch conservative Catholic, told CNN's "John King USA." "We're not talking about denying women the access to contraception," he added. "They can go and get it. But we're talking about having a church of which they happen to choose to work for, and they know their position in working for them. You're now forcing them as a condition of employing people to pay for something that again is a grievous moral wrong." And Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-North Carolina, called the proposed rule "an attack by the federal government on religious freedom for everyone in our country and our rights of conscience." "It must not stand, and it will not stand, if we are going to keep the freedoms that we love and cherish in this country," Foxx said. Stephen Prothero says the nation's "culture wars" are back . The question of whether institutions with religious ties should be required to offer insurance plans covering birth control and the so-called morning after pill, among other things, hits a number of political hot buttons. Liberal groups defend the requirement on grounds of gender equality in health care; conservatives consider it a violation of the First Amendment and an infringement on religious liberty. Republican leaders have repeatedly blasted the administration's decision, raising the issue's profile on both Capitol Hill and the presidential campaign trail. Speaking on a Cincinnati radio show Thursday, Vice President Joe Biden said the Obama administration hopes to find a middle ground that would allow women to get insurance coverage for contraception while allowing an institution like the Roman Catholic Church, which opposes birth control, "to be consistent with its teachings." "What I'm making a commitment is there's going to be a significant attempt to work this out, and there's time to do that," Biden said. "And as a practicing Catholic, you know, I am of the view that this can be worked out and should be worked out." Biden told radio station WLW that there has been "a lot of misunderstanding" about the rule. "There's not enough focus on the fact that we've decided that there's a year to work this out so we can accommodate it," he said. While churches themselves are exempt from the rule, hospitals and schools with religious affiliations would have to comply. The new policy is set to go into effect on August 1, though religious groups would have a yearlong extension to implement the rule. Published polls show a slight majority of U.S. Catholics actually favor the requirement. But the Catholic media network EWTN sued the federal government Thursday, seeking to stop the mandate's implementation and get it ruled unconstitutional. "We had no other option but to take this to the courts," EWTN President Michael Warsaw said. "We are taking this action to defend not only ourselves but also to protect other institutions -- Catholic and non-Catholic, religious and secular -- from having this mandate imposed upon them." Two other lawsuits have also been filed seeking to block the mandate. All three lawsuits are backed by the Becket Fund, a conservative religious legal organization. Some political analysts think the controversy will cost President Barack Obama votes in politically critical states like Pennsylvania and Ohio in November, while others insist it will ultimately hurt Republicans with suburban women. Bloomberg reported Wednesday that there was a deep internal administration split on the matter, with Biden and former White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley warning Obama about the possibility of negative political repercussions in swing states, But several female aides -- including Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius -- urged the president to move forward with the rule, Bloomberg said. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney denied the report, though he declined to offer any details. Several high-profile Democrats -- including Pennsylvania Sen. Robert Casey, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, Connecticut Rep. John Larson and former Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine -- pushed the White House on Wednesday to reconsider its position and expand the exemption for religious employers. Manchin joined Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, in introducing legislation Thursday that would immediately repeal the mandate. The reproductive health group Planned Parenthood condemned the bill, arguing it would let any business lift birth-control coverage for its employees "on the basis of personal religious belief or moral conviction." "It should not be left up to a boss's personal beliefs whether his employees should be allowed birth control coverage," Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards said in a written statement. "Birth control is basic health care and women should have access to birth control, no matter where they work. That's why a majority of Americans, including Catholics, support the Obama administration's birth control benefit." But Sen. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, suggested the White House change its stance. "What I am urging is a compromise that respects the substantive goal of making sure that women have access and that no person is without the care, but at the same time that finds a way to respect issues of conscience and matters of religious belief. I think there is a balance," Kerry told reporters. "I do know the president is sensitive to this," Kerry said. Policymakers are examining laws in 28 states that have similar coverage requirements, senior administration sources said. Two sources have told CNN that the administration is particularly interested in the Hawaii model, in which female employees of religious institutions can purchase contraceptive coverage directly from the insurer at the same price offered to employees of all other employers. Another possible solution, one source said, would be legislation allowing women employed by religiously affiliated employers to get contraceptive insurance from the exchanges created under Obama's sweeping health care reform rather than from their employer's insurer. Sources familiar with White House thinking said the administration is is convinced approval from conservative Catholics is out of reach and is trying to win over progressive Catholics. New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan, head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said Thursday that the decision to require full contraception coverage was a "terribly misguided judgment." "We can't compromise on principle. That's almost rewarding bad behavior," Dolan told "CBS This Morning." On Wednesday, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, called the policy an "unambiguous attack on religious freedom" and announced his chamber would pursue legislative action to prevent the rule from going into effect. And on the presidential campaign trail, GOP front-runner Mitt Romney has pledged to eliminate the rule on his first day in office. Both the White House and Romney's Republican opponents, however, have noted a Massachusetts law in effect, while Romney was governor that required hospitals -- including Catholic ones -- to provide emergency contraception to rape victims. It's ironic for Romney to criticize "the president for pursuing a policy that is virtually identical to the one that was in place when he was governor of Massachusetts," Carney said Wednesday. Romney, in turn, said Carney needs to "check his history." In 2005 then-Gov. Romney vetoed a bill that would have required all hospitals -- including Catholic hospitals -- to provide emergency contraception. The heavily Democratic state legislature overrode his veto. According to news reports at the time, Romney initially said his administration would not enforce the law at Catholic hospitals. But he later reversed course, saying all hospitals would have to supply the morning-after pill. Romney was quoted at the time as saying, "My personal view in my heart of hearts is that people who are subject to rape should have the option of having emergency contraception or emergency contraception information." "I worked very hard to get the legislature to remove all of the mandated coverages, including contraception," Romney told reporters Wednesday. This "was a provision that got there before I did, and it was one that I fought to remove." Romney's campaign released a statement from former U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican Mary Ann Glendon on Thursday defending Romney's past stance on the issue. "The charge that Mitt Romney has not stood tall to defend freedom of religion is preposterous," Glendon said. "He has shown backbone on every critical issue at every juncture when it counted." CNN's Dan Gilgoff, Eric Marrapodi, Jessica Yellin, Brianna Keilar, Paul Courson, Ted Barrett, and Dana Bash contributed to this report .

NEW: "This can be worked out," Biden says . Santorum says it's not about women, it's about churches' rights . Planned Parenthood says access to contraception is "basic health care" The pending rule says religiously affiliated employers must provide full contraception coverage .

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama and congressional leaders will discuss the looming fiscal cliff impasse Friday at the White House, aiming for a last-minute deal to stave off automatic tax increases and spending cuts. The 3 p.m. meeting -- which will include Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, House Speaker John Boehner, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell -- will come days before the deadline to reach a deal, and after another day of Republicans and Democrats blaming each other for the stalemate. White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage confirmed the meeting, but did not elaborate. Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck and McConnell spokesman Don Stewart both tried to put the onus on their rival political party -- in the former case urging the Democratic-led Senate to pass a bill approved by the GOP majority in the House, and in the latter asking for a detailed proposal from Obama. Earlier Thursday, McConnell said his side won't "write a blank check for anything Senate Democrats put forward just because we find ourselves at the edge of the cliff." While a Senate Democratic leadership member said such details would be forthcoming, two White House officials said Obama will not send a fiscal cliff measure to Congress. Reid, the Nevada Democrat, argued that Republicans undermined a potentially major agreement over the past two years by refusing to compromise on their opposition to higher tax rates for the wealthy. Hours before Friday's meeting was announced, he was doubtful there would be a deal by January 1. "I don't know, time-wise, how it can happen now," Reid said. Democrats, GOP challenge each other to act first . The Consumer Confidence Index sank Thursday amid growing fears the sides won't come together. If they don't, economists have warned it could cause another recession. Fiscal cliff fears jolt consumer confidence . At the least, hopes for an imminent so-called grand bargain that would address chronic federal deficits and debt appeared dashed right now, leaving it to the White House and legislators to work out a less ambitious agreement. The principal dispute continues to be over taxes, specifically the demand by Obama and Democrats to extend most of the tax cuts passed under President George W. Bush while allowing higher rates of the 1990s to return on top income brackets. Obama campaigned for re-election on keeping the current lower tax rates on family income up to $250,000, which he argues would protect 98% of Americans and 97% of small businesses from rates that increase on income above that level. Republicans oppose any kind of increase in tax rates, and Boehner suffered the political indignity last week of offering a compromise -- a $1 million threshold for the higher rates to kick in -- that his GOP colleagues refused to support because it raised taxes and had no chance of passing the Senate. Fiscal cliff a self-inflicted problem . Last Friday, the president proposed the scaled-back agreement that included his call for extending tax cuts on households with incomes under $250,000, as well as an extension of unemployment insurance. McConnell told Obama in a telephone conversation Wednesday that he must see details of a proposal before he can figure out how to proceed on a Senate vote. However, a senior Democratic Senate source said Thursday that McConnell must first work things out with House Speaker John Boehner before Democrats divulge more. Such squabbling has left many doubtful there will be a deal before the fiscal cliff takes effect. Reid criticized Boehner's insistence the Senate act on House measures, saying Democrats and Republicans have to agree on something together. "We are in the same situation we've been in for a long time," Reid said. "We can't negotiate with ourselves." Both sides play the 'blame game' Reid said Boehner wants to wait until after the new House re-elects him as speaker early next month before proceeding with a compromise -- one that will need support from both Democrats and Republicans to pass. Boehner is "more concerned about his speakership than putting the country on firm financial footing," Reid claimed. In response, Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said Reid should stop talking and instead take up legislation passed by the House to avert the fiscal cliff. This comes a day after Boehner's leadership team issued a statement saying the Senate must go first -- either by passing or amending the House-passed proposal -- and only then will they act, an assertion Buck repeated Thursday evening. Reid and Democrats reject the GOP proposals, which would extend all tax cuts passed under former President George W. Bush and revamp the spending cuts of the fiscal cliff. They've called them insufficient, shifting too much deficit reduction burden on the middle class. Instead, Reid called on Boehner to allow a vote on a Senate-passed measure to implement Obama's plan to extend tax cuts to the $250,000 threshold. However, McConnell rejected that possibility Thursday, as he sought to focus the debate on revising House-passed measures. One possibility is the fiscal cliff takes effect and taxes go up in January, then Congress steps in to bring tax rates back down for at least some people -- allowing them to say they're lowering taxes, even if taxes for some wealthy people are higher in 2013 than they were in 2012. But retiring Republican Rep. Steve LaTourette of Ohio calls that scenario little more than a political game. "Nobody is willing to pull the trigger (because) everybody wants to play the blame game," LaTourette said. "This blame game is about to put us over the edge." Opinion: Art that calls the fiscal cliff's bluff . Polls show most back Obama . Obama and Democrats have leverage, based on the president's re-election last month and Democratic gains in the House and Senate in the new Congress. In addition, polls consistently show majority support for Obama's position on taxes. The Gallup daily tracking poll released Wednesday showed 54% of respondents support Obama's handling of the fiscal cliff talks, compared with 26% who approve of Boehner's performance. "We believe very strongly a reasonable package can get majorities in both (chambers)," a senior White House official said. "The only thing that would prevent it is if Sen. McConnell and Speaker Boehner don't cooperate." Americans less optimistic of fiscal cliff deal . Anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist has vowed to back primary challenges against Republicans who violate his widely signed pledge not to raise taxes. Even if a deal is reached, he predicts budget showdowns will continue -- every time the government needs more money to operate. "There the Republicans have a lot of clout because they can say we'll let you run the government for the next month, but you've got to make these reforms," he said this week. On Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told Congress the government would reach its borrowing limit at year's end, but could take steps to create what he called "headroom" for two months or so. However, Geithner said uncertainty about the fiscal cliff and deficit negotiations make it hard to predict precisely how long government measures to address the situation will last. Crisis two years in the making . 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 changes to government programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. The two sides seemingly had made progress early last 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. Obama'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 had a new formula for the consumer price index -- called chained CPI -- that wraps in new assumptions on consumer habits in response to rising prices, such as seeking cheaper alternatives, and would result in smaller benefit increases. 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 have openly challenged the plan, calling it a betrayal of senior citizens who contributed all their lives for their benefits. Boehner appeared to move on increased tax revenue, including higher rates on top income brackets and eliminating deductions and loopholes. But his inability to rally all House Republicans behind his plan last week raised questions about his role and what comes next. Reid and other Senate Democrats say House Republicans must accept that an agreement will require support from legislators in both parties, rather than the GOP majority in the House pushing through a measure on its own. Some House Republicans have said they would join Democrats and support the president's plan in hopes of moving past the volatile issue to focus on spending cuts and entitlement reforms they seek. Will fiscal cliff hurt the economy? CNNMoney's Jose Pagliery and CNN's Adam Aigner-Treworgy, Brianna Keilar, Jessica Yellin, Deirdre Walsh, Ted Barrett, Greg Botelho and Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.

NEW: McConnell's spokesman says Obama should give details of his proposal . Boehner, Reid, Pelosi and McConnell will meet at the White House on Friday . The Senate returns to work; the House will be back in session Sunday . Without a deal, taxes go up and spending gets slashed in the new year .

(CNN) -- The snow-covered mountains tower above the sub-tropical beach, a stunning vista by any standards -- but what sets Sochi apart from other seaside resorts is its sheer scale of concrete and steel. It's a grand project that Vladimir Putin hopes will transform an ailing region of Russia and make a bold statement of intent, using sport as the fulcrum -- much in the way that China did with its Olympics in 2008 and Qatar hopes to do with soccer's World Cup in 2020. At a reported $50 billion and rising, Russia's first Winter Olympics will be the most expensive in history -- topping the eye-watering $40 billion Beijing Summer Games. "I've heard it's the world's largest construction site right now, and I can see that," says U.S. Olympic Committee official Patrick Sandusky. One of the six new stadiums will be used solely for the opening and closing ceremonies. "This is quite a national project, not a regional one," says Sandusky, who was part of a U.S. delegation to Sochi last November. "You can sense that this is very much on the happening agenda for President Putin and the federal government beyond just the organizing committee and the regional area of Sochi. This is a big project for Russia." Spiraling costs . With a year to go before the 2014 Winter Games, much of the Black Sea city is still a mass of scaffolding. "The noise of construction is everywhere," reports CNN's Phil Black from Sochi, which he describes as "a rundown Soviet-era resort town crippled by terrible traffic." Costs have spiraled since Russia was awarded the Games in 2007, and the stakes are high as the Kremlin makes an ambitious flexing of financial muscle that will also include hosting soccer's World Cup in 2018. On Thursday, Putin visited Sochi to see how construction was progressing and unhappy with ballooning costs and that the ski jump facility is two years behind schedule and is still unfinished, reportedly promptly sacked vice-president of Russia's Olympic Committee Akhmed Bilalov. "Part of the investment that Russia has made is not only what the world will see in Russia, but also they're building a winter paradise that they hope to showcase through the Olympic broadcast and attract tourism in the future," says 2010 Vancouver champion Bill Demong, who competed at a Nordic combined skiing test event in Sochi last weekend. "They have not only connected to Sochi to the mountains by rail, but also Sochi to the rest of Western Europe." Vladimir Putin's spokesman admitted the enormity of the task ahead. "It's a huge challenge, especially for President Putin because he uses this Olympics as a good opportunity for boosting the economy and developing this region of Sochi," Dmitry Peskov told CNN. It is opening up a resort city where temperatures reach 40C in summer, and will be as warm as 10-15C by the sea when the Olympics take place from February 7-23 next year -- with organizers already stockpiling snow due to sporadic falls, Black says. Much of the expense is due to the lack of existing infrastructure at the resort, which is an hour and a half's flight south-west of Moscow near the border with Georgia and the disputed territory of Abkhazia. Unlike the last Winter Games in Vancouver, which was integrated within the city, Sochi has had to start from scratch -- new roads, rail, hotels, as well as an improved power grid. "I was impressed with the scale of the project and what they are doing there," says Sandusky. "Uniquely it's a summer resort town in Russia traditionally, not a winter destination, although they have had skiing there a while. The juxtaposition of the Black Sea with the mountains behind is quite stunning in its beauty." The Olympic events will be split between the mountain resort of Krasnaya Polyana and a purpose-built Olympic Park in the city, connected by a 45-minute high-speed train line. Criticisms . As with any major project, there have been problems. Human Rights Watch put out a report the day before the "year to go" milestone claiming that workers have been exploited by the construction companies. CNN contacted organizers for comment but has not received a response. Last year's high-profile alpine skiing test event -- the Winter Olympics' glamor sport -- was marred by criticisms of the course. "They're pretty inexperienced there, they never held the World Cup so it was really rough and really hard," three-time Olympic silver medalist Ivica Kostelic told CNN's Alpine Edge show. "We had huge jumps and after three days of training, I went for a slalom combined run and I'm skiing down and I feel like something popped in my knee like 'crack' and I didn't feel any pain so I just carried on skiing, but later I found out that my meniscus was broken." Despite such concerns, most skiers have come out in favor of the venue, designed by former skiing great Bernhard Russi. "The hill itself is amazing but the way they set the course last year was not ideal," says U.S. Olympic hopeful Travis Ganong. "I think they learned a lot from that World Cup and I think they'll open up the course a little bit and make it more like a downhill. It was very turny and a lot of guys didn't like that. "They didn't ask for feedback but they heard a lot of it from racers and the coaches, and I think they're listening, so hopefully we'll have a more open, faster downhill set for the Olympics." Ganong says North American skiers might find Sochi more familiar than their European counterparts. "In the Alps they don't get the same kind of snow. Sochi has the mountains like you get in the Alps but the snow that you get in the U.S. and Canada -- it's pretty amazing," he says. "The downhill course is very challenging and it demands the best skier in the world to perform on that day to win. I don't think you'll see some unknown people doing well, at least in the downhill. It'll take solid skiing from a very good skier to win." Sports mad president . Winning medals is also among the top goals for Russia's sports-mad president, who attended a figure skating test event in Sochi in December. "It was exciting," says American skater Charlie White, who won the Sochi Grand Prix Final with his dance partner Meryl Davis. "We had heard reports all week that he was there, not there, so in our five-minute warm-up we heard loud applause and we were able to glance up at the videotron at the top and saw that the video was on him. "It's a big deal to be able to perform for such an important figure. It's great that he cares to come and watch. I can't imagine how nervous I'd be in front of President Obama." White and Davis won silver at Vancouver, and the 2011 world champions are coached by Russian Marina Zueva. "A lot of successful coaches here in the States have come out of Russia and what they have been able to create in the past six or seven years has been really impressive," added White. "For us it's exciting because at the Olympics there's going to be even more buzz. They have had teams who have been able to set a new standard for ice dance, they've had multiple teams like that." Collaboration . While Russia has a rich pedigree in skating, it is still catching up when it comes to alpine skiing. So much so the Russians have are working with the U.S. -- despite the countries' long years of Cold War opposition. "We actually have a partnership with the Russian team where we train with them a little bit and share training space and hill space," says Ganong. "Their team is definitely building and gaining momentum. I'm not sure where they'll stack up for the Olympics but they're definitely getting stronger." The Sochi complex is geared towards spectators, according to Demong, whose Nordic combined event will start and finish at the same stadium -- which will be adapted between the staging of the jumping and cross-country skiing disciplines. "The cross-country course is fairly short, 2.5 km, and will loop through the jump stadium twice -- about half the course is visible from the stands," says Demong, adding that a lack of snow was promptly dealt with by event organizers, who had it trucked in. "It's a very modern setup, it's a very competition-oriented venue. It's going to be great for an Olympic venue and for international event-hosting for years to come." While Americans flocked across the border to Canada four years ago, numbers traveling to Russia will no doubt be lower -- but the intrigue is building, Demong says. "I think this will be a new defining moment for, say, the American public who don't travel here often or never have -- it will be a window into Russia that will define Americans' perspectives for years to come," he says. "I think that perspective has been acknowledged by the organizing committee, and they're taking it very seriously, not only in the choice of venues but also in what they're tackling right now -- it's probably one of the most massive construction projects in history."

Russia will host the Winter Olympics for the first time next February . It will spend more than $50 billion on the most expensive Games in history . Test events have been held in recent months despite large amount of work to be done . U.S. athletes impressed by the facilities in mountain venues and seaside stadiums .

(CNN)How are Quebecois chefs putting their unique spin on traditional French cuisine? Who are the language police, and what do they really do? Inhabitants of Quebec, Canada's largest French-speaking province, pride themselves on being different from their neighbors, and that sentiment extends from the language they speak to the food on their plates, and beyond. If there's anything that unites all Quebecers, it's their joie de vivre: Quebec is a place where fun is taken seriously. Consider these truths for a better understanding of the province: . 1. This is French soil, with a language police . This tiny francophone enclave has some of the strictest language laws in the world. French must be the predominant language on signs, retail or food service employees always greet customers in French, and there are even laws dictating whether parents can send their children to English or French school. O Canada! Our home and delicious land . About 80% of the province's nearly 8 million inhabitants have French as a mother tongue, and outside of multicultural metropolis Montreal, most people only speak French. Time.com: Quebec's war on English . There's an entity called the OQLF (Office quebecois de la langue francaise), otherwise known as the language police. They enforce the rules by doling out fines to noncompliant businesses, and are usually plain clothed and covert. Recently, language tensions have risen among locals, and OQLF overzealousness was the main culprit. 2. There are Catholic churches for sale . Given that Quebec's most popular curse words ("tabarnak" and "ostie") are derived from church terms, it's not surprising the Catholic church once played a big role here, but today many of the parishes are empty and have fallen into disrepair. Many of the buildings are for sale, and buyers have been difficult to come by. Some are being demolished, while others have been converted for non-religious purposes. Montreal band Arcade Fire recorded their Grammy Award-winning album The Suburbs in a church in rural Farnham, Quebec, but they recently put up their "Petite église" (little church) for sale, citing a damaged roof. 3. Quebec has its own national holiday . Canada Day is on July 1, and while Quebecers still get that day off, those celebrations are muted compared to those of St. Jean Baptiste Day -- known as Fête Nationale -- held a week earlier on June 24. Because it falls right at the start of summer, the festivities are held outdoors. Quebec has a robust francophone music industry, with its own stars, and St. Jean Baptiste Day is the perfect time to check out the folk revival scene live. There's a strong nationalistic component to the holiday -- especially for the current minority who believe Quebec should be its own country. Just be sure to wear blue and keep all Maple Leaf-related paraphernalia at home. 4. Quebec loves small town hockey . The Montreal Canadiens are the only Quebec-based team in the NHL, but outside of Montreal, the storied Habs aren't unanimously adored. The province has its own junior hockey league for players aged 16-20, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, with teams hailing primarily from smaller towns (including a few outside of Quebec). It's the league where NHL Hall of Famers Mario Lemieux and Patrick Roy cut their teeth. There's also the rock 'em sock 'em minor-pro North American Hockey League, more famous for fights than goals. While Quebecers don't participate in hockey en masse the way they used to, it's still the most popular sport there, and in the winter, towns will erect their own free, outdoor rinks. 5. Many Quebecers speak joual . The language of Molière has evolved considerably in the former French colony. Each region has its own linguistic quirks (they're not all called joual, but the term has become a catch-all), and visitors from other French speaking places are often taken aback by the unique contractions and "anglicisms" that have crept into the daily vernacular. The most creative and colorful joual from the Montreal region usually entails combining multiple words into one, lopping off extraneous syllables or casually dropping English terms with French pronunciation. For instance, most people simply say "weekend" instead of "fin de semaine." Sentences often end with "tsé," which means "tu sais," or "you know"? Joual is considered a working-class dialect, so while it's celebrated for being homegrown, people of a certain stature aspire to speak a more refined French. 6. Montreal and Quebec City have their own haute cuisine scenes . With almost no outside interference, Montreal has forged its own strange culinary identity, bringing formal French education and homegrown ingredients to rich, meat-heavy Quebec staples. Expect a lot of foie gras (duck liver), Princess scallops, Matane shrimp, organic vegetables, cheese and high-quality pork. For those interested in game, venison and caribou appear on some menus. In Quebec City, where the cooking scene is more youthful, there's a fierce commitment to using only made-in-Quebec ingredients. Quebec is by far the world's largest producer of maple syrup, and during the spring thaw in March, sugar shacks (cabanes à sucre) offer the tasty treat, poured over snow or with a full meal of pancakes, beans, pork and more. Because cooking school is subsidized by the provincial government, trained chefs in Quebec tend to come from more diverse backgrounds. 7. Even the poutine is being reinvented . The cat is out of the bag concerning Quebec's slimiest treat. The famous dish -- consisting of fries, sauce brune (gravy) and cheese curds -- is being copied in the rest of Canada, and has even made its way down to New York. In Montreal specifically, some chefs have expanded upon the traditional poutine by adding fancier toppings like foie gras and duck confit. The greasy spoon (or casse-croûte) favorite is no longer just for famished drunks. A few towns in Quebec claim to have invented poutine, but the loudest and proudest of those is Drummondville, an hour east of Montreal. 8. Quebec's biggest party is also when it's coldest . Carnaval du Quebec is held every February in Quebec City, the provincial capital, and the success and sheer size of the event is a testament to Quebecers' defiance toward the cold. There are myriad outdoor activities to partake in over the two-week-long, tourist-friendly festival, but the biggest draws are the massive, illuminated ice palace and the ice sculpture contest. The ice palace is meant to be the home of Bonhomme, the festival's smiling mascot. The big guy's reach extends far beyond Carnaval though: he's one of Quebec's most recognizable faces. 9. Bear the cold: Quebec's best activities are done outdoors . Ice fishing and snowshoeing -- two activities that were long ago done for necessity -- have evolved into beloved pastimes. Wherever there's a frozen lake in Quebec, expect to see a handful of temporary huts over it. Renting the necessary gear during the season -- which goes from December to February -- is a painless process. Snowshoe technology has modernized dramatically. Snowshoes don't look like oversized tennis rackets anymore: they're made with lightweight synthetic materials, and there are different types, depending on whether you're walking in the deep snow for leisure or sport. In the summer, there's the Route Verte: a network of bicycle paths that stretches across the province from West to East. 10. Expo 67 modernized Montreal, and there are still remnants of it . Montrealers can be shameless braggarts when it comes to civic pride, and the World's Fair the city hosted in 1967, known simply as Expo 67, is considered by many natives to be a high-water mark for the city. Much of the infrastructure built for the Fair remains. The city's underground public transportation system, the Metro, opened a year before the Expo, and the dirt that was excavated was used to create the artificial island Île Notre-Dame, which is where the Formula One racetrack and casino (formerly the French Pavilion) are located. There's also Habitat 67, a gravity defying housing development originally conceptualized using Lego pieces (and it shows), and the Biosphere, a geodesic dome that was originally the American Pavilion. Another international Pavilion that survived the test of time? Jamaica's -- it's used for private events now. 11. The roads are in bad shape . Blame the weather, the materials used or government ineptitude, but Quebec roads don't seem to hold up as well as those of their American or Ontarian neighbors. In addition to mammoth potholes and cracks, road surface markings seem to fade quickly. Road conditions are especially bad during spring, when the snow melts and temperatures rise. And that's to say nothing of Montreal's crumbling interchanges and overpasses, which probably look worse than they really are. Be prepared to be redirected a fair bit during the summer, because that's when most construction work is done.

The "language police" enforce strict rules aimed at preserving French in Quebec . A minority of the population would like to be independent of Canada . Chefs bring formal French education to rich, meat-heavy Quebec staples .

(CNN) -- One million lives uprooted. One million desperate souls trying to start anew with nothing, far away from home. The number of Syrians who have fled their country since the civil war began almost two years ago reached 1 million Wednesday, the U.N. refugee agency said. An average of almost 1,400 refugees spill across the border daily. The 1 million figure represents about 5% of Syria's total population. That's akin to the entire population of Prague, Czech Republic, walking away. "With a million people in flight, millions more displaced internally, and thousands of people continuing to cross the border every day, Syria is spiraling towards full-scale disaster," U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said. The pace of the exodus has spiked dramatically in recent months. Opinion: Refugee crisis 'spiraling out of control' More than 400,000 have fled since the beginning of this year to countries such as Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt. About half the refugees are children. The news coincides almost exactly with the second anniversary of the Syrian civil war. And a day doesn't go by without a death toll. More than 60 people have been killed in the fighting Wednesday, and the United Nations and Syrian rebels are in a standoff over U.N. peacekeepers who've been detained amid the fighting. Here's where the refugee crisis stands now: . Many Syrians flee to other countries with few or no belongings, traumatized by the horrors of war and the pain of lost relatives. "It was a very difficult decision to leave my home. I never wanted to -- ever," one refugee in Lebanon told Save the Children. But the missiles and cluster bombs left her no choice, she said. CNN special coverage: Syrian refugees . The scene at the Jordanian-Syrian border this week highlights the desperation. Elderly women, wounded men and entire families scampered across the border under the cover of night. A baby, wounded in the head by shrapnel, cried as the sound of shelling echoed in the distance. "There are men left, but the families have fled in very large numbers in all of Daraa," one refugee said. "You can now count the people left on your fingers. Syria is emptying." While host families have taken in some refugees, others have endured frigid weather in tent camps or struggle to pay for shelter. A local administration office in Lebanon said it was running out of makeshift homes and heating fuel for refugees. Some must live in places where the only source of heat is a small outdoor fire for cooking. Read more: Syrians find calm after carnage . In Jordan, it's illegal for refugees to work, so some families have gone into deep debt to keep their children alive, Save the Children said. A 46-year-old refugee in Lebanon described the plight of his family, who has spent the past year living in an old sheep shed. "I cry in my heart. I feel depressed. It's unjust. Is there a worse way to live than this?" the refugee, identified as Ahmed, told the aid group. "Our situation is terrible to the maximum. We didn't expect there were humans who could live the way we are living." Host countries: Resources pushed to the limit . The endless flood of refugees has drained resources in neighboring countries in unpredictable ways. Lebanon's population has increased up to 10% because of Syrian refugees, the U.N. agency said. Syria's 'urban refugees' struggle for survival . Jordan's energy, water, health and education services have been severely strained. Turkey has spent more than $600 million setting up 17 refugee camps, with more under construction. And Iraq, already grappling with 1 million internally displaced citizens, has taken in more than 100,000 Syrian refugees in the past year. "We are doing everything we can to help, but the international humanitarian response capacity is dangerously stretched," said Guterres, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees. "This tragedy has to be stopped." Dozens of countries and groups around the world pledged more than $1.5 billion in humanitarian assistance for Syrians in January. But only $200 million had been received by the end of February, the United Nations said. The war: Shifting but endless . While the end of the war seems nowhere in sight, the opposition has made notable strides against government forces. This week, opposition fighters said they captured the major northern city of Raqqa -- the first time rebels have seized a provincial capital. State-run media responded by saying government forces were battling suspected members of the radical Islamist group al-Nusra Front in Raqqa. But footage from the city painted a different picture. Children climbed atop a fallen statue of former President Hafez al-Assad -- the current president's father -- and beat the cracked figure with a bat and shoes. Teen refugee: Prince Charming is dead . Some attribute the rebels' recent gains to shipments of arms from other countries. But rebels are still fighting to wrest the largest city, Aleppo, from government hands. They recently took over a military base near the city, but full control of Syria's economic hub remains elusive. While Damascus remains a regime stronghold, rebel and regime forces are battling very close to the city -- threatening to take the fight to the seat of President Bashar al-Assad's power. Rebels detain U.N. peacekeepers . Tension brewed Wednesday between the United Nations and rebels after about 30 rebels detained 20 U.N. peacekeepers and refused to let them go. The rebels say the peacekeepers entered a Syrian village near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, an area where peacekeepers should not be and where intense fighting has been raging for days between rebels and government forces. The rebels say they suspect the peacekeepers were trying to aid their enemy, which is defending the al-Assad regime. The United Nations confirmed the peacekeepers' detention and said they were on a "regular supply mission." The United Nations offered no further details of that mission but said it is "dispatching a team to assess the situation and attempt a resolution." Intervention: Global attempts and failures . So far, international attempts to stymie the bloodshed have failed. Trouble brewed from the beginning, when the U.N. Security Council couldn't unify on an action plan for Syria. Western countries wanted tougher sanctions against the Syrian government, but Russia and China said they didn't want to meddle in another country's internal affairs. Syrian refugees on run: 'I want people to feel our pain' The United Nations and the Arab League sent two seasoned diplomats -- Kofi Annan and Lakhdar Brahimi -- to try to broker cease-fires in Syria, but negotiations never ended the violence. But the western Syrian town of Tal Kalakh may be a microcosm of hope. There, Syrian forces and rebels have agreed to a cease-fire, brokered in part by a parliamentarian and a sheikh. Residents in other parts of the country, though, aren't so fortunate. The death toll: Relentless carnage . The United Nations estimates more than 70,000 Syrians -- mostly civilians -- have been killed in the past two years. At least 10,000 people have died since early January, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Wednesday. "That means more people have died in the first two months of this year than in the whole of the first year of the conflict," he said in remarks published online. Though there is "no sign that the Assad regime currently intends to enter into a genuine political process," Hague said, securing "a diplomatic breakthrough remains of course our objective." On Wednesday, at least 62 people were killed in the conflict, according to the Local Coordination Committees of Syria, an opposition group. But it's almost impossible to verify and keep up with the latest death figures. The Syrian government has severely restricted access by international journalists. Dissidents say many of the civilians killed were caught in aerial attacks from warplanes -- unable to predict when the next bomb will strike. U.N. Syria envoy: 'I am not a quitter' The war started when al-Assad's forces cracked down on civilians demanding more freedoms and government reform. The president's family has ruled Syria for almost 43 years. The violence led to an armed uprising and escalated into a civil war, with al-Assad trying to defend his rule against rebels demanding his ouster. Throughout the war, a lingering quandary has prevented any progress between the government and dissidents. Al-Assad has said he will not deal with "terrorists," a term the government often uses to describe the opposition. Similarly, opposition members have said they will not work directly with al-Assad's "criminal" government, nor will they accept any plan that doesn't involve al-Assad's departure. With neither rebels nor government troops backing down, it's unclear how many more thousands of civilians may die. CNN's Hamdi Alkhshali, Richard Roth, Nick Paton Walsh and Saad Abedine contributed to this report.

"Syria is spiraling towards full-scale disaster," a U.N. official says . More than 400,000 refugees have fled since the beginning of this year . Rebels detain 20 U.N. personnel, demand withdrawal of al-Assad forces from village . U.N. says it's "dispatching a team to assess the situation and attempt a resolution"

(CNN) -- It began with a ride home from school on Tuesday, October 9. Gunmen halted the van ferrying Malala Yousafzai through her native Swat Valley, one of the most conservative regions in Pakistan. They demanded that other girls in the vehicle identify her. Malala had faced frequent death threats in the past. Some of the girls pointed her out. At least one gunman opened fire, wounding three girls. Two suffered non-life-threatening injuries, but bullets struck Malala in the head and neck. The bus driver hit the gas. The assailants got away. Malala was left in critical condition. An uncle described her as having excruciating pain and being unable to stop moving her arms and legs. Doctors fought to save her life, then her condition took a dip. They operated to remove a bullet from her neck. After surgery, she was unresponsive for three days. Photos: Malala on the road to recovery . Now, it is nothing short of a miracle that the teen blogger, who fights for the right of girls to get an education, is still alive and even more astounding that she suffered no major brain or nerve damage. In hardly more than four weeks, she went from an intensive care unit in Pakistan, showing no signs of consciousness, to walking, writing, reading -- and smiling -- again in a hospital in the United Kingdom. Less than three months after being gunned down, she was discharged from the hospital to continue her rehabilitation at her family's temporary home. Her father is now employed at the Pakistani Consulate in Great Britain. On Wednesday, doctors announced that she is expected to undergo groundbreaking surgery in Birmingham, England to repair her skull. And beyond her hospital room, a world sympathetic with her ordeal has transformed her into a global symbol for the fight to allow girls everywhere access to an education. The United Nations even declared November 10, Malala Day as a day of action to focus on "Malala and the 32 million girls like Malala not at school." Ex-UK PM Brown supports Malala's call for girls' education in Pakistan . The Pakistani Taliban shot Malala . Malala has encouraged girls and their families to resist the Pakistani Taliban, which pushed girls from classrooms, since she was 11. In January 2009, the militants issued an edict ordering that no school should educate girls. Malala wrote in her online diary about intimidation tactics the Taliban used in the Swat Valley in northwest Pakistan to coerce girls into not going school. They included house raids to search for books, and Malala had to hide hers under her bed. The extremists took issue with her writings and threatened to kill her. "I was scared of being beheaded by the Taliban because of my passion for education," she told CNN last year. Right after her shooting, her family kept a low profile, for fear they could be next. The militants vowed that if Malala survived, they'd go after her again. "We will certainly kill her," a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban said. Read about the Pakistani Taliban and the faction that went after Malala . Global outpouring of support . The bloodletting sparked outrage inside Pakistan against the radical Islamist group, which continues to wield influence in parts of the country. Around the world, the young blogger has become a poster child for a widespread need to permit girls to get an education. Initially, supporters in Pakistan gathered for small vigils to pray for Malala's recovery. Government officials in Peshawar, the main city in the northwestern region where Malala is from, observed a minute of silence in her honor. Public support snowballed, and thousands of people in Pakistan and elsewhere attended rallies honoring her courage. Protesters in Karachi carried posters and banners reading: "Malala, our prayers are with you" and "Shame on you, Taliban." The airwaves filled with leaders and commentators who publicly got behind her, and journalists closely followed her story, drawing death threats from the Taliban for their coverage. Army Chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani took a stand from Malala's hospital, declaring: "We refuse to bow before terror." Pakistan's first female foreign minister, Hina Rabbani Khar, decried the attempted assassination as "a wake-up call (to) a clear and present danger." Interior Minister Rehman Malik dubbed Malala "the pride of Pakistan" and announced that her local school would be renamed for her, changing from "Khushal Public School" to "Malala Public High School." Authorities in Swat renamed a college after her. Malala later requested that schools not be named for her, to prevent them from becoming prominent targets for the Pakistani Taliban. The United Nations launched a campaign for girls' education named "I am Malala." Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attack and praised Malala's cause. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton commended the blogger's bravery; Actress Angelina Jolie donated $50,000 to a charity in Malala's name. And singer Madonna shouted her name from a stage, dedicating a song to her. Malik proclaimed that the two other girls injured in the attack on Malala -- Kainat Riaz Ahmed and Shazia Ramzan -- will be honored with the third-highest military award, the Star of Courage. It is not normally given to civilians. Pakistan to honor girls injured in Malala attack . Gordon Brown and Malala galvanize action . "Pakistan has a new heroine and a new cause -- a girl's right to education," former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown wrote in an opinion piece published by CNN. Brown, who heads up the "I am Malala" campaign in his role as United Nations special envoy on global education, toured Pakistan to boost education with international funding and local initiatives. It was his office that declared Malala Day. After her shooting, Brown visited schools, including hers. He talked education for three days with Pakistan's president, Cabinet ministers, educational nongovernmental organizations, donors and a covey of U.N. charities. iReport: Girls + Education . Malala's path from near mortal wound to recovery . In addition to removing the bullet, doctors extracted a piece of skull to relieve pressure on Malala's brain because of swelling. Malala was taken by helicopter from one military hospital in Pakistan to another, where doctors placed her in a medically induced coma, so an air ambulance could fly her to Great Britain for treatment. "She is lucky to be alive," Dr. Dave Rosser, the medical director of University Hospitals in Birmingham, UK, told reporters after her arrival. Then came the light at the end of the tunnel. Examinations revealed that Malala suffered no major neurological damage. More than a week after being shot a world away, Malala got back on her feet again, able to stand when leaning on a nurse's arm at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. Eager to communicate, she wrote sentences on paper -- she couldn't talk at first because of a tracheotomy. "Malala is a strong young woman and has worked hard with the people caring for her to make excellent progress in her recovery," Rosser said on her release. She has returned to her family and continues therapies as an outpatient at the hospital where she will undergo further surgery on her skull. Chasing the perpetrators . Malik, the Pakistani interior minister, quickly placed a $1 million bounty on the head of Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan, after he claimed responsibility for Malala's attack on behalf of the group. Police immediately took the van driver and the school guard into custody for questioning and rounded up dozens in the course of the investigation. Arrests made in shooting of Pakistani schoolgirl Malala . They have identified the shooters as two boys, but their main suspect is an adult, who the police say drove the youths to the scene -- Atta Ullah Khan, 23. All three were at large. In an interview with CNN, Khan's sister apologized to Malala for his alleged involvement. "What he did was intolerable," Rehana Haleem said. "I don't consider Atta Ullah my brother anymore." She called Malala her sister. What's next for Malala? After regaining strength, Malala is now set to endure more surgery. Doctors at Queen Elizabeth hospital will replace the piece of skull extracted in Pakistan. Her lead doctor, Dr. Rosser, "does not envisage any difficulties" in a pair of operations to repair her skull or fix the hearing in her left ear, he said Wednesday. Malala is no stranger to recognition, and her ordeal has boosted it to global proportions. Pakistan's Malala: Global symbol, but still just a kid . She has penned her online diary in cooperation with the BBC in the past, and has spoken to other media, including CNN. At home, her writings led to her being awarded Pakistan's first National Peace Prize in late 2011. From her hospital room in the UK, Malala asked early on for her school books, so she could study for exams she wants to take when she arrives back home in Pakistan. She is all about education. CNN's Reza Sayah, Nasir Habib, Shaan Khan and journalist Saima Mohsin contributed to this report.

NEW: Malala Yousafzai will return to hospital in Birmingham, England for more surgery . Taliban gunmen stopped a van carrying Malala and shot her . The extremists wanted to kill her for promoting education for girls . There was a global outpouring of sympathy for Malala, as she fought for her life .

Washington (CNN) -- Reliability -- that was the watchword for President George W. Bush when it came to legacy-making choices for the Supreme Court. Reliability in both the person he wanted for the high court, and in the selection process itself. The former president's new memoir reveals a measure of success and uncertainty along the way during six crucial months in 2005. In "Decision Points," Bush offers a behind-the scenes look of his successful nominations of John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the high court. Both men have lived up to White House expectations after five years on the bench, becoming influential conservatives. But there is bitterness, too, over how his pick of close aide and friend Harriet Miers failed so spectacularly, which he blamed not so much on himself, but on those from the left and right. "While I know Harriet would have made a fine justice, I didn't think enough about how the selection would be perceived by others," the former president writes. "I put my friend in an impossible situation. If I had to do it over again, I would not have thrown Harriet to the wolves of Washington." I covered the Bush judicial nominations, and much of what Bush reveals now was what I had learned at the time from my sources. I knew that early in his presidency he had laid out a simple set of criteria for who he wanted for the federal bench, creating a disciplined, thorough vetting process to assure "reliable" conservatives would be chosen. Bush wanted a short list of high-court candidates ready to go. That list would include "women, minorities, and people with no political litmus test," Bush wrote. "The only tests in my mind were personal integrity, intellectual ability, and judicial restraint." While there was some diversity, most of those eventually tapped for the courts were white males, including the two Supreme Court justices. The president most of all sought someone who would stay conservative for perhaps decades on the court-- no "surprises" as Bush's father had learned. "I knew how proud Dad was to have appointed [Justice] Clarence Thomas, a wise, principled, humane man. I also knew he was disappointed that his other nominee, [Justice] David Souter had evolved into a different kind of judge than he had expected," Bush writes, referring to his father, former President George H.W. Bush. The moderate-liberal Souter retired in 2009. As far back as the Reagan years, right-leaning legal activists had sought to transform the courts away from what they called the "excesses" of a liberal legacy championed by former Chief Justice Earl Warren. From watershed rulings on abortion, criminal rights, and church-state disputes, frustrated conservatives knew the impact life-tenured federal judges would have on hot-button social issues. Republican insiders were always seeking to identify bright, young, up-and-coming lawyers to hopefully one day transform the courts.. One such person was John Roberts, who had served in the Reagan and senior Bush administrations. He was a well-paid Washington appellate attorney when he played a low-key but crucial role defending the younger Bush in court during the 2000 Florida ballot recount. The White House remembered, and groomed him for a potential seat on the high court by first naming him in 2003 to a prestigious federal appeals court. Washington was abuzz in the early summer of 2005, anticipating a high court vacancy after 11 years of stability. Then-President Bush and others assumed Chief Justice William Rehnquist -- suffering from thyroid cancer -- would step down, but Bush reveals in his book that Miers, then the White House counsel, had called him the morning of July 1 with a surprise. "It's [Sandra Day] O'Connor," Bush writes that Miers told him. The pioneering first woman on the Supreme Court was leaving after nearly a quarter-century. Roberts was one of five finalists -- all federal appeals-court judges -- personally interviewed by Bush in subsequent weeks, but he was not the unanimous choice of the president's top-level staff. Miers liked Samuel Alito. Vice President Dick Cheney and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales wanted Texan Michael Luttig. But political adviser Karl Rove and Chief of Staff Andrew Card preferred Roberts. The 50-year-old Indiana native impressed the president. "His command of the law was obvious, as was his character," writes Bush, "a gentle man with a gentle soul." Based on what my administration sources were telling me, and what I knew of Roberts, I had predicted Bush would ultimately choose him. Bush revealed now what my sources back then had said would be a key criteria, beyond the resume and conservative credentials: "I wanted to read the person," face-to-face, he writes. "I went into the interviews hoping one person would stand apart." His gut told Bush that Roberts would be a reliable conservative judge -- and more. "The tie breaker question," writes Bush was which man would be the most effective leader on the court." Note that Bush wrote "man," and while one woman was among the finalists, Judge Edith Brown Clement was never seriously considered, my administration sources told me. In retrospect, the decision was not a hard one. The difficult part for the president was at the prime-time announcement ceremony, where Roberts, his wife, and two young children gathered at the White House. Young Jack Roberts started dancing around the East Room -- he was imitating Spider Man, it was later revealed -- while Bush was speaking. "I saw him out of the corner of my eye, and it took all my concentration to continue my remarks," Bush writes. Barely six weeks later, high drama. Rehnquist suddenly died during the Labor Day weekend, and now there were two immediate Supreme Court vacancies. Roberts' confirmation hearings were about to start, and the Bush team acted fast. A day after the chief justice's funeral, they tapped Roberts for the top spot, and now had to refill the O'Connor seat. This time, Bush said he was determined to change course -- name a woman and perhaps someone with no judicial experience. "I didn't like the idea of the Supreme Court having only one woman, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg," he says in his book. His wife Laura "agreed -- and shared her views with the press." Miers fit the bill, but was "shocked" when the president asked her to be his nominee. One new tidbit revealed in the memoir was that the other top candidate besides Miers -- Priscilla Owen, like Bush a Texas native whom he had named early in his presidency to a federal appeals court seat. Bush now admits strong, discreet pushback to Miers from his own staff. Some "argued that it was too risky to pick someone with no established record on the bench, or that we would be accused of cronyism. Several told me bluntly that she was not the right choice." The president again went with his gut, but claiming none of his advisers "told me to expect the firestorm of criticism we received from our supporters." That hostile reaction from the right clearly irks the president to this day. He writes about the "unspoken" elitist arguments against Miers, also a fellow Texan who had not gone to an Ivy League law school. "She is not glib. She is not fancy," writes Bush of Miers, singling out traits he seemed to appreciate. My sources at the time said Bush was not looking for outspoken, abrasive, or egotistical judges. Low-key, friendly, loyal were qualities he zeroed in on, along with a fierce intellect and proven conservative credentials. He found that in the personalities and paper trails of Roberts, Miers to a limited extent, and later Alito. "I had to get the next pick," writes Bush. "While the idea of selecting a woman appealed to me, I could not find any as qualified as Sam Alito," the candidate Miers herself had earlier championed. The former president recalls his initial July meeting with Alito, in which the New Jersey native "seemed ill at ease." Bush says he broke the ice by talking about a shared passion -- baseball. Alito is a huge Philadelphia Phillies fan. He is also, as Bush writes, "as reserved as they come." Alito survived a tough Senate confirmation, which Bush labels as "nasty... I was disgusted by the demagoguery." At the January 2006 White House swearing-in, the former president writes, "I had a moment alone with Sam. I thanked him for enduring the hearings and wished him well on the court. Then I said,' Sam, you ought to thank Harriet Miers for making this possible.' He replied, 'Mr. President, you're exactly right.'" Despite the still puzzling Miers misstep, Bush clearly believes he hit home runs with Roberts and Alito. For those nominees, the disciplined vetting process went exactly as the White House hoped, and the two have certainly re-energized the conservative majority on the court to this day. One final note: Bush's memoir reveals little about his thoughts on the 2000 post-election fight, and the high court's crucial role in stopping the recount, in essence handing him the presidency. He defends his strategic decision to have the justices ultimately decide whether the vote-counting should continue in contested Florida precincts. "I was prepared to accept my fate" with the high court, Bush writes, "The country needed closure, one way or the other."

Former President Bush writes about his Supreme Court picks in his memoir . He writes about his successful nominations of John Roberts and Samuel Alito . There is bitterness over the treatment of close aide and friend Harriet Miers . "If I had to do it over again, I would not have thrown Harriet to the wolves of Washington"

Washington (CNN) -- Most of us go about our daily business never thinking about the U.S. Supreme Court or the cases it decides. But sometimes, it gets a case so big -- and could affect your life so much -- you simply have to take notice. This week is one of those times. The highest court in the land is preparing to tackle perhaps the most important appeals to reach it in more than a decade: the massive health care reform legislation championed by President Barack Obama. The court will soon hear six hours of oral arguments over three days on the law's constitutionality -- and your health and your finances could be on the line. Their eventual rulings in an election year will not only guide how every American receives medical care but would also establish precedent-setting boundaries of government regulation over a range of social areas. "The implications in the health care litigation are impossible to overstate," said Thomas Goldstein, a prominent Washington attorney and publisher of SCOTUSblog.com. "It has tremendous consequences for President Obama's re-election because it's a signature achievement. But in terms of law, this case is really going to decide how much power Congress has to regulate spheres that we've often thought of as the jobs of the states or of just individuals." A century of federal efforts to offer universal health care culminated with the 2010 passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. After months of bare-knuckled fights over politics and policy, the legislation signed by Obama reached 2,700 pages, nine major sections and 450 some provisions. The U.S. Supreme Court: How it works . The partisan debate around such a sweeping piece of legislation has encompassed traditional hot-button topics: abortion and contraception funding, state and individual rights, federal deficits, end-of-life-care and the overall economy. The high court now gets the final word. "These issues are really central to whether the federal government can regulate anything it wants to, or whether there are some things that only the state governments can regulate," said Paul Clement, the attorney who will argue against the law, on behalf of a coalition of 26 states. On the other side are progressives who back the Obama administration and its congressional supporters. "Congress thought it necessary to regulate the nearly 20% of our nation's economy that makes up the health care industry and to make sure insurance companies did not discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions, for example," said Elizabeth Wydra, chief counsel at the Constitutional Accountability Center. "That is squarely within Congress' authority." Your guide to the arguments . Debate comes down to four key issues . Despite its complexity, the high court has narrowed its focus to just four key issues: . One: Constitutionality of the individual mandate (also known as the "minimum coverage" requirement), the key funding provision. Two: Whether the individual mandate is a "tax," thereby limiting authority of the courts to immediately decide the mandate question. Three: Whether other parts of the law can survive if the mandate is struck down. Four: Federal vs. state conflict over expansion of the cooperative Medicaid program. It is the "individual mandate" that has sparked the most controversy. It requires nearly every American to purchase some level of insurance or face a tax penalty of up to about $700 a year. Typical of the ideological divide, the opposing sides do not even agree on what the individual mandate was designed to accomplish. Supporters see it a way of spreading health care costs to a larger pool of individuals, ensuring affordable, quality medical care. They say regulating commerce and the economy has long been a federal prerogative. Health law supporter: 'It really is going to help the American public' The Justice Department will tell the high court that since every American will need medical care at some point in their lives, individuals do not "choose" to participate in the health care market. Federal officials cite 2008 figures of $43 billion in uncompensated costs from the millions of uninsured people who receive health services, costs that are shifted to insurance companies and passed on to consumers. Health law opponent: 'Congress made a bad situation worse' But opponents see a fundamental constitutional violation, an intrusion into citizens' personal lives, forcing Americans to purchase a commercial product they might not want or need. The states equate such a requirement to a burdensome regulation of "inactivity." One federal appeals court has found the act unconstitutional. Two others have has said it is a proper exercise of congressional mandate. A third court has ruled against the states on technical grounds, saying local officials lack authority to even go into to court and argue the individual mandate issue. Twenty-eight states and countless individuals and groups have sued the administration. What the reform is designed to do . Health care reform, a top Democratic priority since the Truman administration, was passed by the previous Congress in a series of close party-line votes. Obama signed the act into law in March 2010. Among other things, the measure was designed to help millions of uninsured and underinsured Americans receive adequate and affordable health care through a series of government-imposed mandates and subsidies. The federal government will tell the court that 45 million Americans last year lacked health insurance, roughly 15% of the country's population. Critics have equated the measure to socialized medicine, fearing that a bloated government bureaucracy will result in higher taxes and diminished health care services. Opponents derisively labeled the measure "Obamacare." Republican leaders, who captured the House of Representatives in the 2010 midterm elections, have vowed to overturn or severely trim the law. All the major GOP candidates for president have echoed similar calls, especially in their TV campaign ads. That has concerned some liberal legal analysts. "It seems what the conservative state attorneys general and the governors were trying to do was seek a do-over of the act in the courts, to achieve what they couldn't in the legislature. And it really has become a bit of political theater," says Wydra. "If the Supreme Court and especially some of the conservative justices uphold the mandate, and deliver the message to the tea party that their constitutional vision is fundamentally flawed, that makes it much harder for tea party candidates and their supporters to have their constitutional theories taken seriously by the American people." Supreme Court and election-year blockbusters . But the states worry how far the federal government would go in the future, all in the name of regulating "commerce," if the high court found the law constitutional. "I think about just a couple of years ago when the automobile industry was suffering, and Congress said: we're going to give people incentives to buy new cars," said Clement. "Well, it would have been even more effective and even better for the car industry if Congress had just said: if you make more than $100,000, you need to buy a new car. They haven't done that, maybe it's self-restraint, maybe it's because the [sweeping] power really doesn't exist. That's really what the court is going to decide." How the justices could rule . The entire court of nine justices will hear the case, despite separate calls for Clarence Thomas and Elena Kagan to recuse. They will have several options before them when issuing opinions in these cases. They could separately strike down or uphold the individual mandate and Medicaid provisions and rule whether the entire law must be scrapped. Or they could declare a legal "time-out"-- concluding the constitutional questions must be postponed until the major provisions go into effect in 2014, when any real "harm" from the financial mandates would presumably be felt. Two families, two viewpoints on health reform . The opportunity to rule on a landmark case brings with it precedent-setting opportunities to either expand or deflate not only the power of Congress and the executive but also the judiciary's own prestige and authority. In some ways, it is a perilous path, since the courts have increasingly become a political football. "We're in a little bit of a political death spiral for the Supreme Court, as ideologues on the left and right attack justices with whom they disagree, maybe decreasing the public's confidence in the Supreme Court," said Scotusblog.com's Goldstein. "And as they take up health care, abortion cases, immigration -- all of those issues -- there are going to be more excuses to attack the justices." So expect nine unelected judges and the tricky issues such as health care they confront to be major talking points in this year's state and federal elections. Their votes could ultimately decide whom Americans choose on Election Day 2012. "Our job on the court is to decide -- and control our stress," Justice Stephen Breyer told CNN a couple of years ago while discussing how to manage -- personally and professionally -- the biggest, most politically explosive Supreme Court appeals. "Keep yourself under control. And do your best on the decision." That's wellness advice that could serve the nine-member bench -- and anyone passionately folllowing the case -- in the days to come. Read more about the rulings for yourself . The cases are Dept. of Health and Human Services v. Florida (11-398); National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius (11-393); and Florida v. Dept. of HHS (11-400). Rulings are expected in June.

Court prepares to tackle perhaps the most important appeals to reach it in more than a decade . Rulings could establish precedents in regulation over a range of social areas . SCOTUSblog editor: "The implications ... are impossible to overstate" Constitutionality of the reform's individual mandate is a key point of the case .

(CNN)Unless you've been stuck in a mine shaft or visiting a distant planet for the past few decades, chances are you've heard of Bob Marley and Usain Bolt and can identify both as the most famous sons of Jamaican soil. Beyond reggae and track icons, however, there are many fascinating things less widely known about "Jamrock" that make this island of just 3 million people stand out. Here are eight things to know for starters: . James Bond's birthplace . Ian Fleming conjured up and penned the thrilling international spy novels known the world over by their larger-than-life, women- and evildoer-conquering protagonist, James Bond, in Oracabessa, a sleepy village in the parish of St. Mary on Jamaica's north coast. Fleming named his rustic property Goldeneye after a World War II operation in which he'd taken part as an intelligence officer. An avid birder, Fleming took 007's name from the American author of "Birds of the West Indies." Travel photos we wish we'd taken . The first James Bond film, "Dr. No," was filmed in Jamaica, where the villain's lair, actually a bauxite storage facility owned by Noranda, is hard to miss in Discovery Bay. And later in the film, Ursula Andress walked out of the surf and into movie history at one of Jamaica's most spectacular beaches, Laughing Waters, located just west of Ocho Rios, where cool river water cascades directly into the warm Caribbean sea. After Fleming's death, his Goldeneye property was sold to Island Records founder Chris Blackwell, who has transformed it into Jamaica's most exclusive boutique hotel and villa resort. 10 things you didn't know about Las Vegas . Roots of banana trade and Caribbean tourism . Jamaica gave birth to the global banana trade and Caribbean tourism. In the late 1800s, steamships began plying routes between the Northeast United States and the parishes of St. Thomas, Portland and St. Mary in northeast Jamaica. When these steamships began carrying passengers seeking relief from the New England winter on the southbound journey, Caribbean tourism was born. Steamship captain Lorenzo Dow Baker was a pioneer in the banana trade and served as president of the Boston Fruit Company, which later became United Fruit Company through a merger and more recently became Chiquita Brands International. The banana industry waned in Jamaica in the face of crop disease and larger, more competitive plantations established in Central America. Today the island's largest banana grower is Jamaica Producers, a locally held company that targets domestic and international markets with a range of agricultural products. Delicious coffee . Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee is among the most prized, and expensive, in the world, fetching upwards of U.S.$30 a pound. High elevation cloud forests make for an ideal long growing season and slow maturation period for coffee berries, ultimately yielding beans with a strong, full-bodied flavor void of the bitterness typical of coffee grown in other regions. Japanese coffee connoisseurs are the leading buyers of Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee, which is a registered international trademark like Champagne, and regulated by Jamaica's Coffee Industry Board. One of the best ways to learn about and taste Jamaica's coffee is with a farm or factory tour. The Twyman family's Old Tavern Estate is an excellent option, offering visitors a trip back in time to the days of small-scale cottage industry production. The Sharp family operates the neighboring Clifton Mount coffee farm with a slightly larger scale, more industrialized business. Mavis Bank Coffee Factory also offers tours. The buzzing factory buys its beans from thousands of farmers and is the largest industrial coffee processing and roasting operation in the Blue Mountains that opens its doors to visitors. 10 things to know before visiting Sicily . Few Rastafarians . While locked hair might be the most famous "do" associated with the island, Jamaican adherents to the Rastafarian movement make up less than 2% of the population, actually just 1.1%, according to the CIA World Factbook. The iconic natural hairstyles associated with Rastafarians are anything but the norm on the island, where instead, chemically treated straightened hair, extensions, weaves and wigs are the norm for women, and most men rock short-cropped coifs. A refuge for exiled Jews and religious diversity . Jamaica became a refuge for exiled Jews fleeing the Spanish Inquisition. The Spanish crown, which ruled the island between 1492 and 1655, took a more relaxed stance on religious freedom, or at least a "don't ask, don't tell" approach. Kingston's active synagogue attests to the island's small, yet prominent, Jewish community today. Today Jamaica has more churches per capita than any other country. The Anglican Church played a significant role during the slave period in maintaining order on the island and quelling discontent, while the Baptist Church, on the other hand, fueled slave uprisings ultimately leading to emancipation in 1834. It would be difficult to find a religion not represented in Jamaica, and where a church structure doesn't exist, Jamaicans are inclined to erect a tent for pop-up service. Pentecostals, Moravians, Catholics, Methodists, Seventh Day Adventists, Revivalists, Muslims, Hindus, Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses are all well represented, among numerous other faiths and denominations. Marijuana is illegal in Jamaica . Despite the ubiquitous posters of Bob Marley and Peter Tosh with burning joints dangling from their mouths, marijuana is still illegal in Jamaica. But its legal status is slowly evolving. This year legislation was introduced to decriminalize marijuana use and develop a regulated medical and recreational marijuana industry following similar U.S. initiatives in Colorado and Washington State. The movement to decriminalize has been led in the political sphere by Minister of Justice Mark Golding, who announced in June that people carrying up to 2 ounces of pot will only be hit with a small fine, rather than be charged, and the infraction wouldn't result in a police record. Jamaicans with police records attributable to marijuana use charges will have their names cleared, enabling them to seek formal employment and travel visas. Jamaica is more than sun and sand . The original name Xaymaca, bestowed by its original Taino inhabitants, means "land of wood and water," fitting for a mountainous island endowed with several distinct climatic zones, from arid near-desert conditions complete with sand dunes along the south coast to tropical rain forest in the northeast to high elevation alpine areas where nighttime temperatures fall below freezing in the Blue and John Crow Mountains. This climatic diversity and abundant fresh water from subterranean springs and rivers crisscrossing every parish, affords the relatively small island excellent conditions for growing a wide range of crops. A hike up to Blue Mountain Peak is a great way to take a break from the beach and get a bit of a workout. On a clear day, the summit affords spectacular views of Kingston and the coastline of several parishes meeting the Caribbean sea to the East, North and South. The Blue Mountains also provide bird watchers an opportunity to spot many of the island's 280 species, 30 of which are endemic. Jamaican food is reason enough to visit the island . While the country may be known for its jerk seasoning, which features local agricultural products like pimento (allspice) and hot Scotch bonnet peppers, Jamaican cuisine has much more to offer and the island's lively foodie culture may be the best representation of its national motto, "Out of Many, One People." The influence of Indian cuisine is hard to miss, and curried goat, shrimp, lobster or vegetables are staples. Of course the seafood is hard to beat, with escovitch snapper borrowing elements from Spanish cuisine, while the accompaniment of fried bammy, made from cassava root, couldn't be more local, as it was a staple starch for the original Taino inhabitants. The abundant fresh produce and quality of the ingredients on the island make it a natural manufacturing center for entrepreneurs concocting a wide array of sauces and preserves for the local market and export. Pickapeppa may be the most widely known condiment produced in Jamaica, but other more recent products on the scene, from Walkerswood to Belcour Preserves, are every bit as good. To get a taste of Jamaica's best flavors, stop by Belcour in Maryland district in the Blue Mountains to sample mouthwatering chutneys, pepper sauces and preserves and walk among citrus orchards, orchid gardens and the apiary, or spend a few nights on the town in Kingston to sample the island's best restaurants. Jakes boutique resort in Treasure Beach holds regular farm-to-table dinners that are lively affairs featuring a rotating cast of guest chefs. Oliver Hill is a financial news editor and author of a leading travel guide, Moon Jamaica (www.moonjamaica.com). The print edition of the guide is published by Avalon Travel, a division of Perseus Books. Oliver can be reached at [email protected].

Ian Fleming created James Bond in Jamaica . Rastafarians make up less than 2% of the population . Marijuana is illegal, but the government is moving toward decriminalizing it .

(CNN) -- Jana Pittman was the woman to beat in track and field's 400-meter hurdles for nearly a decade, only to suffer crushing disappointment as a string of injuries wrecked her chances of Olympic gold. It must have been tempting to step out of the sporting limelight -- but Pittman did exactly the opposite. Instead she took up the white knuckle sport of bobsleigh, and is making Olympic history in Sochi by becoming the first Australian woman to compete in both the Summer and now Winter Games. Less than 18 months after her first "terrifying" run on an ice course, Pittman says she is "extraordinarily lucky" to be part of a team in the two-woman event with experienced driver Astrid Radjenovic. Despite being hampered by a lack of funding, and having to replicate the all-important start in bobsleigh by pushing a converted supermarket trolley around her local running track, Pittman is relishing the new challenge after the end of her athletics career. "I wasn't quite sure what sport, so I pretty much tried everything," she tells CNN's Human to Hero series. "I tried rowing, I tried boxing and then I got a wonderful call from Astrid to say would I be interested in trying to do bobsled, and pretty much it went from there." A world champion on the track in 2003 and 2007, Pittman carried the hopes of all Australia going into the Athens and Beijing Olympics the following years -- only for her dreams to be shattered. The final blow came during 2012 when injury again scuppered her chances of competing in the London Olympics. The 31-year-old went into this month's Sochi Winter Games with a realistic view of her chances, free from the previous pressure of expectation. "I think I want to stop and smell the roses. To actually feel what the spirit of the Games is like," she says. "Other times it sped past with huge expectations on results. This time I got to share it with my friend Astrid and to be part of a small but successful Australian team. "It has been wonderful. Better than expected, I think this time around I get to really take it in and appreciate the moment." Not that the competitive fire which spurred on Pittman as she dominated her discipline on the track was ever extinguished. She put herself through a rigorous training regime and bulked up, adding over 10 kg in weight from her hurdling days. "In an ideal world in bobsled, you want two massive women. This is the sport where everybody gets happy if you've put on a kilo, rather than "Oooh I've lost a bit of weight!" she explains. "It's all about power and speed. You have to run 15 meters, 20, sometimes 30 meters, jump in the sled, and the start really sets you up for the whole run down to the bottom. "So coming from a track and field background meant I'd lifted weights since I was 15 and I had a very natural running technique behind the sled." But despite her physical advantages, Pittman also had to adapt her mindset to cope with the fear factor of racing down a icy course at over 140 kph (85 mph), tucked in as brakeman behind her driver Radjenovic. "You might be a great athlete, you might be able to do this, but you never know if you're actually going to be able to overcome that fear and terror at the top of the hill," she admits. "Really, it just feels like a giant washing machine. It's incredibly fast. I started at one of the hardest tracks in the world so it was pretty much the rollercoaster ride of your life." That initial training run at Altenburg in Germany was a case of being thrown in at the deep end, but she quickly adapted. "Astrid was very clever in the fact that she made sure I had to do three runs on my first day because I got out of the first sled and was like, 'I'm going home! This is horrible!' but by the time I went down on the third go, I was absolutely hooked." The pair had immediate success and took seventh place in a World Cup event on the same track, the best on record by an Australian team. They were 14th after Tuesday's opening heats in Sochi, and maintained that placing in Wednesday's final two. Radjenovic has been to the Turin, Vancouver and now Sochi Games, competing in the sport for 11 years, but coming from nation like Australia, with little history in bobsleigh, the lack of funding has been a challenge. "Bobsleigh is like Formula One and it costs a lot of money to have fast equipment," Radjenovic, also 31, tells CNN. "So like a Formula One team, if you don't have a lot of money to invest in it, it is hard to do well, which has made it hard for us." The addition of Pittman has helped raise funds, reaching a target of $A20,000 ($18,000) to help buy a new sled. Sponsors were invited to support the "Icebirds" -- which is the nickname the team adopted for branding and publicity purposes. "Astrid advertised on our Facebook page," Pittman says. "A little competition on names and then people voted. It gave us an identity a team name, so certainly helped with our support." Pittman said they had also resorted to some unusual training methods in the quest for success. "We push shopping trolleys in our backyard, we train at a normal athletics track because we don't have snow and we don't have ice, so for Australians to make the Olympics in bobsled is pretty much a 'Cool Runnings' all over again," she says. That Hollywood film about the Jamaican bobsleigh team in the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary may well act as an inspiration, but during her storied career in track and field, Pittman was rarely the underdog. Already a world youth champion, she went to her first Olympics on home soil in Sydney in 2000 and won Commonwealth Games gold two years later in Manchester. Then came world championship success in Paris but in the buildup to Athens she picked up a knee injury that required surgery just before the Games. Despite the disadvantage, she still managed a creditable fifth place in the final, although that was little consolation at the time. Further Commonwealth Games success in Melbourne in 2006 was tempered during the course of the year by a very public row with 4x400m relay teammate Tamsyn Lewis, which led to adverse publicity for both athletes. Pittman was reportedly ready to leave Australia and by then she was married to Britain's former champion hurdler Chris Rawlinson, giving birth to their son Cornelis Levi later that year. Relenting on the threat -- "I've always been a very proud Australian" -- and coached by Rawlinson, Pittman dominated the 400m hurdles in 2007 and won her second world title in Osaka. However, injuries again took their toll on her Olympic hopes, and her relationship with Rawlinson also soured. After a brief reconciliation they have separated again, leaving Pittman to face life as a working mother. "I'm studying medicine full-time and I have a little boy who is seven, but for me, having him in my life is so grounding and I feel like I have a very full, loved life so I will certainly not go to my grave with any fears or regrets," she says. That also extends to her track and field career, despite missing out on her ultimate goals. "I've been very lucky that I've been to two Olympic Games and won two senior world titles, so it's certainly been a wonderful career and I'm very grateful for the opportunity." Pittman also has no intention of fading quietly into retirement post-Sochi, and wants to maintain her partnership with Radjenovic on the World Cup bobsleigh circuit. "I know that Astrid wants to retire but I'm still trying to get her to go another year," she says. "I've really found something that I love in bobsleigh. It is a great sport, the people in this sport, even from other countries, are really together, they really help you on every possible angle and I think I'd love to stay in this sport if possible." Failing that, Pittman has also hinted at a return to track and field -- although she would have to shed the extra muscle that is such an asset in bobsleigh to be competitive in running events. That would appear not to offer much of an obstacle for a young woman who is renowned for being singleminded with athletic excellence in mind. In 2010 she caused a stir by revealing that she had undergone surgery to remove breast implants, feeling they were affecting her performance on the track. "Every time I raced I panicked about whether I was letting my country down, all for my own vanity," she was quoted as saying at the time. "I don't want to short-change Australia either." After her heroic efforts to reach the Olympics in an entirely new sport, that's certainly not something Pittman could ever be accused of. "It was lovely to have the support of the public, they helped get us our new sled and really got behind us all year," she says with pride.

Jana Pittman is former two-time world 400m hurdles champion . Competed in two Olympic Games in track and field . Turned to bobsledding to partner Astrid Radjenovic . First Australian woman to compete in Summer and Winter Games .

Washington (CNN) -- Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday rejected a GOP call to resign, telling a heated Senate hearing that Republicans were trying to score political points instead of addressing significant issues. Under attack from the outset by Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Holder rejected accusations he was stonewalling congressional investigators on the botched "Fast and Furious" gunrunning sting operation and failing to investigate recent leaks of classified information properly. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, leveled the harshest criticism, accusing Holder of misleading Congress over what he and other top Justice Department officials knew about the Fast and Furious program and refusing to appoint a special counsel to investigate leaked national security details in recent media reports. Holder rested his head on one hand as Cornyn recited a litany of allegations involving the attorney general's performance. "I'm afraid we've come to an impasse," Cornyn said, adding that Holder "violated the public trust" in his view. "With regret, you've left me with no choice but to join those who call for you to resign your office." Holder responded by calling Cornyn's list of allegations "almost breathtaking in its inaccuracy" and said: "I don't have any intention of resigning." White House spokesman Jay Carney said Monday that President Barack Obama maintains "absolute confidence" in the attorney general, which Holder noted Tuesday. Regarding congressional demands for Fast and Furious documents, including a House committee that plans to take up a contempt measure against Holder next week, the attorney general said good-faith efforts to work with the House panel have failed to reach a deal. "The desire here is not for accommodation but for political point-making," Holder said, calling such behavior "the thing that turns people off about Washington." In what appeared to be a coordinated move, Republicans, led by Sen. John McCain of Arizona, introduced a resolution Tuesday supporting the appointment of a special counsel to investigate the classified leaks. McCain: Obama responsible for leaks . At the Judiciary Committee hearing, Republican senators said Holder's decision to appoint two U.S. attorneys to investigate, rather than a special counsel, failed to address the seriousness of the violations and represented a Democratic double standard. The issue sparked angry exchanges between senators, with Chairman Pat Leahy of Vermont and Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, both Democrats, taking issue with arguments by Cornyn and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, that Holder was acting improperly. In response to Democratic support for Holder on the classified leaks investigation, Graham shot back: "If the shoe was on the other foot, you and everyone else on the other side would be crying to high heaven to appoint a special prosecutor that all of us could buy into." Graham noted that as senators, Obama and Vice President Joe Biden had called for the appointment of a special counsel in past situations that involved Republican transgressions, such as White House leaks in the Valerie Plame case that revealed the identity of the CIA operative. Senate breaks filibuster of Obama court pick . The current leaks were more serious, Graham argued, and Holder should do now what Obama and Biden had called for then. However, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee and is a member of the judiciary panel, repeated her past contention that a special counsel's investigation would take too long to deal with the immediate threat from classified leaks. She said she would oppose the McCain resolution, adding that Holder took the right step in naming two U.S. attorneys to investigate in addition to the FBI probe already under way. Holder told the committee that both he and FBI Director Robert Mueller had been interviewed "because we were people who had knowledge of these matters, and we wanted to make sure that with regard to the investigation, that it began with us." Describing his experience as "a serious interview that was done by some serious FBI agents," Holder said he believed about 100 interviews had been conducted so far. Holder earlier offered to negotiate with congressional leaders on turning over documents involving Fast and Furious to avoid what he said could become a constitutional crisis. He later modified his characterization of the problem to a possible constitutional conflict. "I am prepared to make compromises with regard to the documents to be made available," Holder said. At the same time, Holder said congressional Republicans must be open to working out an agreement. "I've got to have a willing partner," Holder said. "I've extended my hand, and I'm waiting to hear back." The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will consider the contempt measure against Holder on June 20, a panel statement said Monday. A vote by the panel could occur that day, and the measure would then require approval from the full chamber. Monday's announcement escalated a high-stakes, election-year face-off over what Republicans said is Holder's failure to respond to a subpoena for Justice Department documents on the botched operation. Could Congress go from bad to worse? The department has acknowledged the program, which allowed illegally purchased guns to "walk" across the border into Mexico, was badly flawed. Such sting operations have now been prohibited. The department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which lost track of more than 1,000 firearms after they crossed the border, found itself under fire when two of the lost weapons turned up at the scene of the killing of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in December 2010. Terry's family has been among critics of the Justice Department's handling of the case. On Tuesday, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, raised the matter in his opening statement and again in direct questioning of Holder, noting that questions remain almost a year after three whistle-blowers testified before the House Oversight and Goverment Reform Committee about gunrunning. "Here we are, one year later, and the Terry family is still waiting for answers. They're still waiting for justice," Grassley said, noting assertions by House Republicans that sealed requests for wiretaps under the Fast and Furious program showed top Justice Department officials knew about the questionable operation long before so far acknowledged. Holder repeated what he told a House committee last week -- that he read the affidavits and summaries and found no incriminating information. "You reach conclusions on the basis of hindsight," Holder said. "I try to put myself in the place of people actually looking at the material at the time." Holder has testified at eight congressional hearings on Operation Fast and Furious, and he has consistently maintained that he knew nothing about the flawed tactics until early last year. The chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-California, said Monday that the panel wants documents that explain why Holder and the Justice Department decided months later to retract a February 4, 2011, letter to Congress that denied any knowledge by senior officials of improper tactics in the gunrunning sting. The Justice Department slammed the House committee's Monday announcement, calling it "unfortunate and unwarranted." "From the beginning, Chairman Issa has distorted the facts, ignored testimony and flung inaccurate accusations at the attorney general and others, and this latest move fits within that tired political playbook that has so many Americans disillusioned with Washington," said spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler. Both Issa and the Justice Department statement said a resolution still could be reached to avoid the contempt measure. Last week, Holder assigned Ronald C. Machen Jr., U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia and a Democratic appointee, and Rod J. Rosenstein, U.S. attorney for the District of Maryland and a holdover GOP appointee, to lead the investigations into the alleged leaks. McCain and other Republicans are insisting on a special counsel, contending that investigators within the system would face a conflict of interest in pursuing top government officials. A recent report in The New York Times provided classified details of what it described as a U.S cyberattack targeting Iran's nuclear centrifuge program sparked the bipartisan outrage. Other recent possible leaks of classified information included details on the administration's efforts to expand its drone program and Obama's involvement in "kill lists" against militants in Yemen and Pakistan. The public airing of details surrounding a recently disrupted bomb plot in Yemen by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula also angered intelligence and national security officials. Republicans noted that some articles cited sources who took part in White House meetings, which they said showed that leaks were coming from administration officials. Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Arizona, repeatedly asked Holder how two U.S. attorneys could effectively investigate top national security issues involved in White House meetings cited. Holder insisted the attorneys he named were dogged prosecutors who would follow any lead, no matter where it took them. Obama has strongly rejected claims that his White House has deliberately leaked secrets to the media, saying the idea was "offensive" and would put Americans at risk. Graham, however, said Tuesday that the pattern of the administration was to be uncooperative on issues that might embarrass it -- such as Fast and Furious and now the classified leaks. Holder responded the administration has prosecuted classified leaks more than any previous administration. CNN's Ted Barrett and Carol Cratty contributed to this report.

NEW: GOP Sen. John Cornyn calls for Attorney General Eric Holder to resign or be replaced . NEW: Holder tells Senate panel he won't resign . A House committee says it will consider a contempt measure against Holder . Republicans criticize Holder over 'Fast and Furious' program, probe of classified leaks .

Washington (CNN) -- The justices on the Supreme Court know very well their rulings can send immediate political shock waves, and those just intensify in a presidential election year. So there is an unusual internal dynamic at work of what cases the court hears and when. Unlike the other parts of the judiciary, the Supreme Court is a discretionary body. They stingily pick which cases go on the docket and when. In fact, only about 1% of appeals are accepted and fully reviewed. But certain legal fights are so important and time-sensitive, this court of last resort is often powerless to refuse or delay. That is true of the current challenges to the health care reform law, which will be argued Monday through Wednesday. An expected June ruling in an election year will put the court front and center for voters come November. The justices by nature are loathe to get involved in such highly partisan disputes. But sometimes often have no choice. Preview: 'The implications ... are impossible to overstate' The 2000 Bush v. Gore case ultimately settled the fight over counting Florida's ballots, giving George W. Bush the presidency. Several justices have since said they were not eager to decide the matter and place themselves as competing political saviors or demons. Read a transcript of Monday's health-care arguments . Here are some landmark, presidential election-year legal disputes -- judicial blockbusters if you will -- handled by the Supreme Court: . -- 1824 / Gibbons v. Ogden, striking down a New York law granting a monopoly to a Hudson River ferry company. The court under Chief Justice John Marshall clarified the Commerce Clause, concluding state law conflicted with overriding congressional power to regulate interstate commerce. It is interpretation of that clause that is central to the current legal fight over health care expansion. -- 1856 / Dred Scott v. Sandford, declaring Congress could not ban slavery in the territories and that blacks were barred from citizenship. The appeal was argued February 1856, and a ruling came two days after President James Buchanan's inauguration in March 1857. The new president in fact had asked the court to time its decision until after the election but before being sworn into office. He hoped that would defuse the slavery issue by putting it beyond political debate. And like others, the Democrat hoped the court's ruling would carry legitimacy among citizens in the North and South, an ultimately naive view. Two families, two views on health care law . Historians also note the president-elect had quietly persuaded Northern Justice Robert Grier to change his vote and join the Southern majority in the Scott case, to give the impression the decision was not made along regional lines. This ruling is widely viewed as the court's darkest moment, a sentiment expressed by most current members of the high court. -- 1896 / Plessy v. Ferguson, blessing the "separate but equal" state doctrine of racial segregation. By an 8 to 1 margin, the court upheld a Louisiana law requiring federal rail cars to provide different facilities for white and black passengers. The justices said that did not violate federal authority over interstate commerce, nor the 13th and 14th amendments. That precedent was overturned dramatically in the 1954 Brown v. Board series of appeals. -- 1908 / Muller v. Oregon, allowing a state law limiting the working hours of women. Attorney for the state Louis Brandeis -- soon to join the court -- successfully argued that long, unregulated hours on the job affected the health and morals of employees, especially those in factories. A landmark decision affirming government control over the workplace. -- 1972 / Furman v. Georgia, invalidating all existing capital punishment laws. The 5-4 court said the death penalty was being applied unconstitutionally. States responded by revising their laws, leading the court four years later, in another presidential election year, to end its moratorium and allow states to resume executions. -- 1972 / Roe v. Wade, legalizing abortion as a fundamental right of a woman's "privacy" under the 14th Amendment and concluding a fetus was not a "person" with constitutionally protected rights. The court tried to strike a balance between that individual right and states' duty in limited regulation, for the sake of prenatal life and a woman's health, a governmental interest that grows stronger as the pregnancy develops over time. The companion cases first came to the court in 1970, and arguments were scheduled for 1971, then postponed until spring 1972, then reargued October 1972, a month before the presidential elections. The landmark ruling came out January 1973, just days after President Richard Nixon's inauguration. -- 2000 / Bush v. Gore, ruling manual recounts of presidential ballots in Florida could not move ahead because of inconsistent evaluation standards in different counties. The court's conservative majority cited the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution for its reasoning. Stopping the tally meant Republican George W. Bush, who was then narrowly leading in the decisive state, would become president, defeating Vice President Al Gore. -- 2008 / District of Columbia v. Heller, tossing out the District's strict ban on private handgun ownership. The conservative majority said citizens have a basic "individual" right to possess and keep guns in the home for self-defense. The court reaffirmed its holding two years later in a challenge to a similarly restrictive law from Chicago. A CNN guide to frequently asked questions . Sometimes the high court itself becomes the story. Here are some presidential election years where the Supreme Court as an institution or the justices became a major campaign issue: . -- 1800: Jeffersonian Republicans aimed criticism at the Federalist-dominated high court over how much power the central government should hold. The tight election race -- called by some the "Revolution of 1800" -- ushered in an era of Democratic-Republican party executive rule. New President Thomas Jefferson had campaigned on remaking the federal courts as well, but it was Chief Justice John Marshall, taking office two months before Jefferson, who succeeded on that front. Through his 35-year leadership on the bench, his federalist leanings helped strengthen the power of the U.S. government in the face of state authority. -- 1860: The infamous Dred Scott decision shaped the debate of this election, indirectly helped put Abraham Lincoln in the White House and carried the nation into its seemingly inevitable path to the Civil War. Lincoln had sharply criticized the Scott ruling in his stump speeches, and the new Republican Party's convention platform officially condemned it. -- 1876: The 2000 election was not our first disputed one. In 1876, Democrat Samuel Tilden won the popular vote in the presidential race, with Republican Rutherford B. Hayes also trailing in the initial electoral vote. Republicans protested, and to resolve the dispute, Congress created a bipartisan commission that included five Supreme Court justices. It was Justice Joseph Bradley who proved the swing vote, siding with Hayes and giving the Republican a 185-184 electoral vote win. An insider's guide: How the Supreme Court works . -- 1896: The high court a year earlier had invalidated a nationwide federal income tax. Liberals made that and other decisions considered "pro-business" a political rallying point. Democrats campaigned against court "usurpation" of congressional reform efforts, a divisive political issue that would carry in into the 1930s. -- 1924: The question here was a proposal by Progressive Party candidate Sen. Robert LaFollete's (who served Wisconsin as a Republican) for a "one-up" constitutional amendment. It would give Congress the power to overturn Supreme Court decisions that overturned acts of Congress. Incumbent President Calvin Coolidge defended the federal courts, then dominated by conservative, as protectors of "our fundamental law." -- 1936: The fight between the courts and the other branches reached their zenith with the re-election efforts of President Franklin Roosevelt. He charged that the courts were undermining his sweeping economic reform programs during a national emergency, the Depression. FDR was privately maneuvering for ways to go around the judiciary, including his audacious "court-packing plan" to expand the number of justices. That would allow the president to immediately name new, presumably more sympathetic, members to the court. The plan unveiled in 1937 ultimately failed, but the Democrat's 12-plus years in office did give him a chance to eventually appoint a record number of justices to that bench. -- 1968: Republican candidate Richard Nixon made the court's 15-year record of "liberal" decisions under Chief Justice Earl Warren a big "law and order" campaign theme. Nixon said those rulings were "seriously hamstringing the peace forces in our society and strengthening the criminal forces." Warren retired a year later, and Nixon eventually named four justices to the high court. The subsequent appointments of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush also helped move the federal judiciary to the right for decades.

Some Supreme Court decisions make a huge election-year splashes . 1856: Dred Scott ruling barring blacks from citizenship called court's darkest moment . 1972: Two huge cases on capital punishment and abortion rock the nation . 2000: So who's your president -- Bush or Gore? The high court has to decide .

Washington (CNN)Mitt Romney is eyeing another shot at the White House, but many Republicans, including those who admire and respect the party's most recent nominee, are wondering exactly what rationale he has for mounting another campaign in 2016. After all, in 2012 Romney lost all but one of the battleground states, trailed President Barack Obama 332-206 in electoral votes and Republicans panned his gaffe-prone campaign, chaotic convention and creaky tech operation. One working theory behind Romney 3.0 -- he thinks he got it right on the big issues that decided the last election and that voters have got buyers remorse. "He is been proven right on so many of the issues, certainly domestic policy but (also) foreign policy. He almost looked prophetic there talking about Russia and talking about the war on terror," said Utah Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday. Aides have told reporters, including CNN's Gloria Borger, that Romney sees vindication in a world tipping into chaos and an economic recovery that left the middle class behind. At the GOP's winter meeting in San Diego on Friday, Romney said he has given "serious consideration" to a new run for the presidency, and his lacerating criticism of Obama suggested he believes he has earned his chance. So how do Romney's critiques and promises stand up as he yet again sets foot on the road to the White House? Foreign policy . Romney's best case for proving he was right may lie overseas. Not even the most committed Obama supporter could convincingly argue that the world is more stable than in 2012. It's only two years since the President brandished his own first term record of ending wars and killing Osama bin Laden to pound Romney as heir to a disastrous Republican foreign policy legacy. But assumptions underpinning Obama's statesmanship have started to fray. The rise of ISIS has raised questions about his decision to pull all troops out of Iraq and his reluctance to plunge into Syria's civil war. The standoff with Vladimir Putin has left his "reset" of relations with Russia looking naive. "The results of the Hillary Clinton/Barack Obama foreign policy have been devastating," Romney said Friday, arguing that terrorist attacks in places like France and Nigeria proved "the world is not safer." As he watched crises consume Obama's foreign policy last year, Romney penned an 'I told you so' op-ed in the Wall Street Journal entitled "The Price of Failed Leadership." "Able leaders anticipate events, prepare for them, and act in time to shape them," Romney wrote. "Some simply cannot envision the future and are thus unpleasantly surprised when it arrives. Some simply hope for the best. Others succumb to analysis paralysis, weighing trends and forecasts and choices beyond the time of opportunity." Many Romney aides believe Russia proves his point. In the 2012 campaign, long before Putin annexed Crimea, the Republican said that Russia "is without question our No. 1 geopolitical foe." Obama reacted with derision. "The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because the Cold War's been over for 20 years," he crowed in the third presidential debate. But time hasn't been kind to that zinger. While there is a debate whether Washington and Russia are really locked in a true Cold War, the Kremlin is doing a passable imitation of the Soviet Union. Russian aircraft are buzzing NATO planes in Europe and Russia stands accused of incursions in Ukraine. Moscow rewrote the borders of Europe by biting off Crimea and Putin warns the West wants to "chain" the Russian bear. While Romney predicted Moscow's belligerence, it's impossible to know whether tougher U.S. rhetoric would have changed Putin's calculations -- or antagonized him even more. And the administration argues that far from being the actions of a geopolitical foe, Putin's nationalism represents the thrashings of a weakened and desperate regime, that hardly poses a threat to the United States. And Obama might have adopted a tougher approach to Russia himself, had he not had to coax along European nations who were more reluctant than Washington to impose sanctions. Some of Romney's other 2012 foreign policy bets are yet to play out. He said that Iran's nuclear program is potentially the longest term threat to the United States. "If we re-elect Barack Obama, Iran will have a nuclear weapon," he said in a Republican debate in 2011. So far, Iran has not gone nuclear. Obama says an interim deal has frozen Tehran's atomic advances and a final pact is being sought to stop the Islamic Republic short of the bomb. On Iraq, Romney hammered Obama in 2012 for not reaching a deal with Baghdad to leave a residual force behind after the war. Obama pounced, saying that meant his opponent wanted to keep U.S. troops in the country. Two years on the tables have turned and Obama has dispatched up to 3,000 troops to train Iraqi forces to take on ISIS -- though the administration insists that they will not be doing any fighting. Romney was also spot on when he warned the next few years would bring more "chaos and tumult" in the Middle East and that "jihadists" would continue to spread. But given the region's agonized history, it hardly takes a strategic genius to make such a prediction. The economy . Romney argued in 2012 that Obama's economic policy led to an anemic recovery from the worst recession in 70 years. He complained Obama broke his promise to cut the budget deficit in half and cited Congressional Budget Office (CBO) figures projecting trillion dollar deficits for four years following 2014. While Romney was wrong about that, the latest CBO estimates do offer some support to his wider point. The nonpartisan body expects the deficit to only be around $500 billion in 2015 but sees a rising trend with trillion dollar deficits in 2022 through 2024 owing to higher health care costs and rising interest payments on federal debt. Romney's critique of the uneven economic recovery is also accurate. "If you are elected president, we will continue to see a middle class squeeze with wages going down," he said in the first debate. He warned that if Obama got four more years in the White House, the national debt would approach $20 trillion. The figure is now $18 trillion. But Romney's claim the U.S. economy is on "the road to Greece" was always hyperbole. Romney also underestimated the pace of the recovery. "You're going to get a repeat of the last four years," he said at the second presidential debate. He promised to get unemployment under 6% or lower in his first term. Consider that promise beaten -- by Obama. In December, the jobless number was 5.6%. Romney also promised to create 12 million jobs. In the first two years of Obama's second term the economy has pumped out 5.2 million jobs and could approach Romney's target before he leaves office. Last year was America's top year of job growth since 1999. But Republicans still call this the slowest economic recovery on record. Health care . Nowhere was the 2012 debate more intense or more dripping with spin and falsehoods than Obamacare -- on both sides. In almost every campaign rally, Romney claimed the average American family would see health costs rise by $2,500 annually because of the president's reforms. Statistics don't yet offer a full picture of Obamacare's impact on costs -- and the law has so upended the health care industry it is difficult to draw firm conclusions. But a Kaiser Foundation survey found that health care costs for family coverage in employer-sponsored plans rose 3% in 2014, well below Romney's figure. In the wider marketplace, the picture is complicated because some people who did not have health care before can now get it under Obamacare. Others have chosen better plans now available which may cost more. And some patients who bought Obamacare are now paying less for health care. Total spending for health care in the nation rose 3.6% in 2013, slower than the 4.1% rise the year before, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Growth in private health insurance premiums meanwhile grew at 2.8% in 2013 compared to 4.0% the year before. But Republicans point to extra costs -- claiming for instance that many people now face higher deductables. Romney was correct to say however that millions of Americans would lose their insurance policies under Obamacare, rejecting the president's health care whopper "If you like your health plan you can keep your health plan." But that's only half the story. While many people lost plans -- some because they did not reach quality thresholds set by Obamacare -- the White House says millions also signed up to new policies. Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention bear out that claim, finding that in the first half of 2014, 12.2% of Americans had no health insurance, compared to 17.3% the year before.

Romney feels vindication over 2012 campaign . Warned Russia was a threat and of chaos in the Middle East . But Romney underestimated the pace of economy recovery .

Cap Haitien, Haiti (CNN) -- Haiti's government appeared Tuesday to have lost control of Cap Haitien, where demonstrators angry over what they see as the United Nations' role in starting the ongoing cholera epidemic controlled many of the streets for a second consecutive day. At the airport in the country's second-largest city, commercial flights were suspended Tuesday. Police were not wearing uniforms in an apparent attempt to elude the wrath of Haitians, who had torched at least one police station on Monday. The only way to get from the airport into town was by motorcycle. Barricades composed of burning tires and vehicles blocked cars from traveling on many of the roads. As the sun set, smoke from the many fires mixed with tear gas fired by peacekeepers, and hovered over the city. The office of Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive had said early in the day that it was sending a delegation of government ministers by helicopter from the capital city of Port-au-Prince to Cap Haitien in an attempt to orchestrate a return to order, but by nightfall they were not visible. In Cap Haitien, at least one demonstrator was killed in riots Monday by a U.N. peacekeeper. At a hotel, guests were hunkered down, unwilling to brave the chaos of the streets. The focus of the the Haitians' ire centers on their contention that the cholera outbreak blamed for more than 1,000 deaths was started when untreated sewage from a Nepalese contingent of peacekeepers entered the water supply. That assertion has been denied by the United Nations. Protesters have demanded that the U.N. forces pull out of Haiti. Cap Haitien is in Haiti's North Department, which has had the nation's highest rate of cholera deaths. Of the 1,578 people hospitalized in the department from cholera, 119 have died. The 7.5 percent death rate is the nation's highest, according to figures released Tuesday by the Ministry of Public Health. The U.N. stabilization mission in Haiti charged that the riots may be politically motivated in advance of elections set for November 28. "The way in which the events unfolded leads to the belief that the incidents had a political motivation, aimed at creating a climate of insecurity on the eve of the elections," the U.N. mission, known by the acronym MINUSTAH, said in a statement Tuesday. "MINUSTAH calls on the population to remain vigilant and not let itself be manipulated by the enemies of stability and democracy in the country," the statement said. Imogen Wall, a spokeswoman for the United Nations, said at least one U.N. warehouse has been looted and that a flight that was to have carried cholera supplies intended for Cap Haitien was suspended. "Cap Haitien is very serious for cholera right now," she said. "You can't run cholera response in this atmosphere." In the town of Hinche, northeast of the capital, about 400 demonstrators protested the peacekeepers, six of whom were injured, said Vincenzo Pugliese, a spokesman for MINUSTAH. "This is a situation that began with a child who was in agony with cholera," said Lesley Voltaire, a former minister of education and presidential candidate who was campaigning for the upcoming elections. "They were calling ambulances and MINUSTAH but nobody came. The kid died in front of many people and made the people furious." Voltaire insisted the protests were spontaneous. "The Nepalese [peacekeepers] are their target," added Voltaire, who said he was stranded at a local hotel overnight after the riots erupted on Monday and the airport shut. "People believe the cholera came from Nepal." In Quartier Morin, a municipality in the Cap Haitien arrondissement, a protester was killed after he was hit by a peacekeeper who fired in self defense, the U.N. said. An investigation is underway. The cholera outbreak, which was confirmed last month in northwest Haiti, has killed 1,034 of the 16,799 people who had been hospitalized with the disease, the Ministry of Public Health reported. It has been confirmed in seven of the country's 10 departments. So far, the government has been keeping track of the outcome only for those patients who have sought treatment in hospitals. "We are now trying to ramp up the collection of data from the communities so that we can get a more realistic figure," Deputy Special Representative and Humanitarian Coordinator Nigel Fisher told reporters Monday at the United Nations in a teleconference call from Port-au-Prince. "We expect to have, once that data comes in, a significant increase in recorded cases." But counting the deaths that occur in the community will be difficult, said Pan American Health Organization spokesman Dan Epstein. He noted that care is being provided by "tons of NGOs," each with their own hospitals and health centers. "We're trying to integrate everything so we have one main source of information for Haiti, and that's a real challenge." The government was trying to halt the spread of rumors and to educate the populace via radio and television programs about how to stem the spread of the disease, which experts say is relatively easy to treat through oral-rehydration therapy, and to prevent, through good hygiene. Both are often in short supply in much of Haiti, the hemisphere's poorest country. Its already fragile infrastructure was worsened during last January's earthquake, which killed more than 200,000 people. Since then, more than 1 million people have been living in makeshift camps in and around the capital. Still, many of the camps are equipped with latrines and most people in the camps are getting clean, chlorinated water, Fisher said. "Our concern has been, I must say, less for the camps than it has been for the slums," he added, citing the Cite Soleil slum in the capital as an example. It has neither latrines nor access to clean water, ripe conditions for the spread of the disease. "It is moving more rapidly in the slums than in the camps," he said. Despite the dire conditions and the mounting death count, he said, "the government strategy, which we support at the moment, is to look at ways in which the (November 28) elections can go ahead -- even with the situation of cholera." Planning has begun on how to disinfect polling booths between voters, he said. The situation has gone far beyond one of health or sanitation, he said. "It's an issue, obviously, of national security." Efforts are under way to get 10,000 to 12,000 more "cholera beds" in place, and plans are being put in place to transport the sickest people to treatment centers, which some residents don't want, he said. "One of the demonstrations in Port-au-Prince was against the transport of sick people from a triage center to a cholera treatment center," he said. The government has asked Haiti's mayors to handle the disposition of bodies, but city authorities need help on how to do that, he said. The team leader in Haiti for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's anti-cholera effort said the agency determined that the strain of the bacteria is found not only in South Asia but elsewhere. "This is not an uncommon strain," Dr. Jordan Tappero told CNN in a telephone interview from Port-au-Prince. "It's around the world." He described the bacteria, orginally found in the Artibonite River in the country's northern region, as "like a hitchhiker," having arrived in Haiti through contaminated food, water, or in an infected individual who may have had no symptoms. "Trying to figure out who did it and what country they came from, I think, is extremely challenging to do, probably not possible," Tappero said. "What we should focus on, as we have been, is preventing deaths." Those prevention efforts include training health care workers, few of whom have experience treating patients who may be losing up to a liter of water per hour. "It requires some training" to manage them well, he said. The goal, he added, is to get mortality to less than 1 percent, "and we're not there yet." Indeed, as of Tuesday, the death rate among hospitalized patients with cholera was 3.9 percent nationwide, according to the Ministry of Public Health. The United Nations, which has appealed to international donors for $164 million in aid, said it anticipates as many as 200,000 Haitians will be sickened with cholera over the next six to 12 months. Symptoms of the acute, bacterial illness, which is caused by drinking tainted water, can be mild or even nonexistent. But sometimes they can be severe: leg cramps, profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting, which can cause rapid loss of body fluids and lead to dehydration, shock and death. CNN's Tom Watkins contributed to this story.

NEW: Haiti's government appears to have lost control of Cap Haitien . NEW: Haitians blame the Nepalese contingent of peacekeepers . NEW: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it's likely impossible to pinpoint the source . MINUSTAH charges the riots may be intended to spread unrest ahead of the elections .

Cairo (CNN) -- The United States said it was taking measures to protect its citizens worldwide after protesters angry about an online film considered offensive to Islam attacked U.S. diplomatic compounds in Libya and Egypt on Tuesday, killing an American. In Cairo, several men scaled the walls of the U.S. Embassy and tore down its American flag, according to CNN producer Mohamed Fadel Fahmy, who was on the scene. In Libya, witnesses say members of a radical Islamist group called Ansar al-Sharia protested near the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, where NATO jets established no-fly zones last year to blunt ground attacks from then Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi. The group then clashed with security forces in the city, blocking roads leading to the consulate, witnesses said. A U.S. State Department officer was killed in the violence in Benghazi, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement late Tuesday. "We are heartbroken by this terrible loss," Clinton said. "Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and those who have suffered in this attack." Clinton said that she condemned the attack on the U.S. facilities "in the strongest terms" and that following Tuesday's events, the U.S. government was "working with partner countries around the world to protect our personnel, our missions and American citizens worldwide." Libya's General National Congress also condemned the attack, saying it "led to the regrettable injury and death of a number of individuals." Lawmakers said in a statement Tuesday night that they were investigating. It was unclear whether the two attacks were coordinated, CNN national security contributor Fran Townsend said Tuesday night. "One such breach of an embassy or consulate's walls or security on any given day would be tremendous news. ... The fact that two of them happened on the same day that is the 9/11 anniversary where Americans are remembering those that we lost, you have to ask yourself, what are American officials trying to understand about this and whether or not these two are related?" she asked. In Egypt, police and army personnel formed defensive lines around the U.S. Embassy in an effort to prevent demonstrators from advancing, but not before the protesters affixed a black flag atop a ladder in the American compound. The black flag, which hangs in full view from inside the complex, is adorned with white characters that read, "There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his messenger," an emblem often used by Islamic radicals. A volley of warning shots were fired, as a large crowd gathered around the compound, although it is not clear who fired the shots. Are you there? Share your images and videos. Egyptian groups point to U.S. websites, including YouTube, that have scenes from the film. Some anti-Muslim blogs also have flagged the movie. In a series of disjointed scenes, the film depicts Prophet Mohammed as a child molester, womanizer and ruthless killer. The movie was made by Sam Bacile, an Israeli-American real-estate developer, according to the Wall Street Journal. Bacile -- who wrote, directed and produced the film -- said he wanted to showcase his view of Islam as a hateful religion, the Journal reported, citing a telephone interview with him. Bacile, 52, told the newspaper that to make the film, he had raised $5 million from about 100 Jewish donors, who he declined to identify. He said he made the two-hour movie over a three-month period last year in California, using about 60 actors and 45 crew members, the Journal reported. Most of the Muslim world considers depictions of Mohammed to be blasphemous and deeply offensive. "Some have sought to justify this vicious behavior as a response to inflammatory material posted on the Internet," Clinton said. "The United States deplores any intentional effort to denigrate the religious beliefs of others. Our commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the very beginning of our nation." But she stressed that "there is never any justification for violent acts of this kind." Embassy officials issued a warning to Americans in Egypt, telling them to avoid the demonstrations which "may gather in front of the U.S. Embassy, or Egyptian government buildings such as the People's Assembly and Ministry of Interior." "It is unclear if large numbers will take to the streets, but clashes may occur should two opposing groups come into contact with one another," the U.S. Embassy said in a statement. "Large gatherings and non-essential travel in and around downtown and Garden City should be avoided this afternoon." Frenzied protesters could been seen Tuesday afternoon holding up bits of a shredded American flag to television camera crews while chanting anti-U.S. slogans. An embassy phone operator told CNN that the compound had been cleared of diplomatic personnel earlier in the day ahead of the apparent threat, while Egyptian riot police and the army were called in. "This is an expression of a feeling that is thought to be an insult," said Nizih El Naggary, a spokesman for the Egyptian Foreign Ministry. "But events like this are extremely deplorable. And we have to work to get things under control." The Foreign Ministry issued a statement Tuesday, pledging to protect embassies and warning of the protests' potentially debilitating effects on the Egyptian economy. "There are police forces at the demonstrations," El Naggary said. "They should be protecting the embassy and asking people to leave." Several individuals claimed responsibility for organizing the demonstrations Tuesday, including Salafist leader Wesam Abdel-Wareth, who is president of Egypt's conservative Hekma television channel. Mohamed al-Zawahiri -- the brother of al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri -- added, "We called for the peaceful protest joined by different Islamic factions including the Islamicc Jihad (and the) Hazem Abu Ismael movement." "We were surprised to see the big numbers show up, including the soccer Ultra fans," he said. "I just want to say, how would the Americans feel if films insulting leading Christian figures like the pope or historical figures like Abraham Lincoln were produced?" He added that "the film portrays the prophet in a very ugly manner, alluding to topics like sex, which is not acceptable." The U.S. Embassy in Cairo announced that it had canceled visa services for Wednesday. It also said in a statement that it "condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims -- as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions." "Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy," the statement said. "We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others." The embassy statement set off a political spat back in the United States after the Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, criticized its message and linked it to his opponent for the White House. "It's disgraceful that the Obama Administration's first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks," Romney said in a statement released late Tuesday. He said he was "outraged" by the attacks in Libya and Egypt. The Obama campaign quickly responded to Romney's comments. "We are shocked that, at a time when the United States of America is confronting the tragic death of one of our diplomatic officers in Libya, Governor Romney would choose to launch a political attack," Ben LaBolt, an Obama campaign spokesman said in an email. Demonstrations elicited a mixture of reactions from the Egyptian street, where last year tens of thousands turned out in opposition to former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. This summer, Egypt's first Islamist president, Mohamed Morsy, was sworn into power at Tahrir Square, the scene of the nation's revolution in 2011. Though Tuesday's embassy protests are the first that Morsy has dealt with, Egypt recently produced similar scenarios when protesters attacked the Israeli and Syrian embassies in unrelated episodes. "These protests are a bad image for Egypt," said a Cairo street vendor named Ahmed. "Of course I'm against insulting Islam, but it's the undereducated, poor people who are out here causing problems." "All I want for Egypt is security and stability," he said. "And as you can see this isn't it." The incident occurred on the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks as crowds gathered across the United States in somber remembrance of a day that left nearly 3,000 people dead. Tuesday's focus on the controversial film also drew comparisons to outcry generated from a 2008 movie produced by an anti-Muslim Dutch lawmaker to portray Islam as a violent religion. Geert Wilders' film "Fitna," which he released online, featured images of terrorist acts superimposed over verses from the Quran. Report: Egypt's ex-PM Ahmed Shafik faces arrest, extradition order . Egypt kills militants, seizes weapons in Sinai offensive . U.S. companies eye Egypt for investment . CNN's Ian Lee in Cairo, Jomana Karadsheh, Matt Smith, Brian Walker, Elise Labott, Paul Cruickshank and Tracy Doueiry contributed to this report .

NEW: The film causing the furor is made by an Israeli-American, the WSJ reports . Romney and Obama campaigns argue over response to the violence . A State Department officer is killed in Libya, the U.S. says . Clinton says the U.S. is working to protect its citizens worldwide .

Slaviansk, Ukraine (CNN) -- Do a series of photos of gun-toting men wearing green uniforms prove Russian forces are operating in eastern Ukraine? Ukrainian officials point to the pictures in a dossier obtained Monday by CNN, arguing that the images show Russian "sabotage-reconnaissance groups" acting in Ukrainian towns. The images, Ukrainian officials say, prove organized Russian activity in the region. CNN cannot independently confirm the photographs, some of which were first published in The New York Times. The dossier shows what Ukrainian officials say are images of well-equipped gunmen in eastern Ukraine who look similar to photographs of Russian forces taken in Crimea, Russia and during Russia's 2008 invasion of Georgia. Last week, Ukrainian security officials told CNN they had arrested a Russian military officer and a woman Ukrainian officials said is a Russian intelligence agent. Moscow has disavowed involvement in the takeover of government buildings in eastern Ukraine or other acts by often-masked pro-Russian gunmen. But the photos, accepted as genuine by the Obama administration, appeared to lend credence to allegations by Ukrainian officials that Russian forces have been dispatched in eastern Ukraine to provoke a military confrontation. If genuine, the photos also back up Western leaders who have claimed Russia's involvement. Last week, NATO commander Gen. Philip Breedlove wrote on the alliance's blog that what pro-Russian groups have described as an organic uprising is in reality a "well-planned and organized" military operation orchestrated by Moscow. "There has been broad unity in the international community about the connection between Russia and some of the armed militants in eastern Ukraine, and the photos presented by the Ukrainians last week only further confirm this, which is why U.S. officials have continued to make that case," State Department spokesman Jen Psaki told CNN on Monday. The question of whether Russia is involved in the unrest roiling eastern Ukraine is crucial as European observers try to enforce an agreement reached last week to lower tensions in the region by organizing the withdrawal of forces from government buildings and other facilities. Officials who brokered the deal in Geneva said they hoped it would ease tensions. But there were some signs Monday that tensions are mounting. Residents told CNN that armed militants seized the police station in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, late Monday. The police station had been stormed on April 12 before being handed back to local officials two days later. Amateur video from the scene shows masked, armed men escorting the local police chief to a car after seizing the building. The video, in addition to the photos released by Ukrainian officials, seemed to show that at least some forces in Ukraine show no sign of backing down. Ukraine provided the photos to those observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, according to the briefing dossier obtained by CNN's Elise Labott. One image shows a gunman with a long beard during an assault on a police station in Kramatorsk who appears similar to a Russian special forces member photographed during the Russian invasion of Georgia. Another shows gunmen photographed occupying administrative buildings in Slaviansk who appear similar to men pictured in what Ukrainian officials described as a "family photo" of a Russian sabotage and reconnaissance unit. Natacha Rajakovic, deputy spokeswoman for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, declined to comment on the images and referred questions to Ukrainian authorities. Ukrainians maintain that Russian involvement in the east is widespread. CNN has heard Russian accents among the "men in green," as they are known, well armed and uniformed groups who have appeared in towns like Slaviansk and Kramatorsk. One told CNN he had come up from Crimea. But CNN has not seen any evidence that these men are operating under orders from the Kremlin. Russia's Foreign Minister scoffed at the accusations, saying that Kiev and its patrons, the United States and the European Union, are trying to blame his country for everything. Slaviansk's self-declared mayor, a former military man himself, says the explanation is simple: He put out an appeal to his old comrades. "When I called on my friends, practically all of whom are ex military, they came to our rescue, not only from Russia but also from Belarus, Kazakhstan and Moldova," he said. But on Monday, he insisted there are no active duty Russian soldiers in his town. Diplomatic efforts . The government of acting Ukrainian President Oleksandr Turchynov has talked tough but done little to curb pro-Russian activities in the east, possibly afraid that a crackdown could send Russian forces across the border. The occupation of buildings continued in about a dozen towns and cities across eastern Ukraine. International monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe met Monday with pro-Russian leaders in Slaviansk, but no breakthroughs were reported. The monitors were called for in the agreement among Russia, the United States and the European Union last week that was meant to reduce tensions in the region, which while part of Ukraine has long looked toward Russia for cultural and economic ties. In three towns, pro-Russian protesters and militants have made it clear to CNN they have no intention of moving until the "illegal" government in Kiev also moves out of official buildings. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov echoed those sentiments Monday, saying that Ukrainian officials were not implementing the agreement negotiated in Geneva, Switzerland. "On the contrary, not a single step has been taken by those who have seized power in Kiev to eliminate the reasons of this deep crisis inside Ukraine," he said. Russia has said before that it holds no sway over pro-Russian protesters and militants. Geoffrey Pyatt, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, told CNN's Candy Crowley on Sunday that he has seen progress. He had just met with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsia and the ambassador who heads the OSCE's special monitoring mission, along with his European Union and Russian counterparts. "I think we all reaffirmed today in this setting our collective commitment to trying to make the Geneva framework a success," he said on CNN's "State of the Union." "There are obviously some real challenges at this point," including the violence in Slaviansk. "But we also believe that there has been some progress. I'm seeing reports this morning that at least one of these (occupied) government buildings now has a Ukrainian flag flying over it," he said. "And the OSCE has monitors on the ground who are reaching out, engaging with local political elites, seeing if there's a way to de-escalate the crisis." There is "no military solution" to the crisis, Pyatt said. "It has to be solved through diplomacy." Biden visits Kiev . Meanwhile, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden arrived Monday in Kiev to discuss the situation in eastern Ukraine and deliver a new aid package aimed at shoring up the Ukrainian government. The bundle includes new economic and energy aid as well as governance assistance, a senior administration official told reporters in a background briefing Monday. It's likely to sit well with Ukrainian leaders struggling to keep their country going amid widespread financial problems and a growing showdown with Russia over that country's annexation of Crimea and troubles in Ukraine's pro-Russian east. On the streets of Kiev, ordinary citizens said they know there's only so much the United States can do. Some said they'd like to see the U.S. send troops. "Our army is very bad. Maybe the U.S. can give us some military help," one Ukrainian said. But others say that's too much, even with pro-Russian forces occupying government buildings in the east and thousands of Russian troops massed along the Ukrainian border. "I think we want consultations, but no American troops," another Ukrainian citizen told CNN. U.S. officials have ruled out the possibility of deploying U.S. forces to Ukraine. But some U.S. lawmakers have argued that the United States should send weapons. That wouldn't help the situation and might make it worse, U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes told CNN's "The Lead with Jake Tapper" on Monday. It won't take sending weapons, Rhodes said, to send a message to Russia. "We've signaled how we can escalate our sanctions," he said. "In the long run, if Russia runs this play, they're going to lose a lot." Speaking to CNN from Kiev on Monday, Rep. Ed Royce said the United States needs to do more to reduce Ukraine's reliance on natural gas and oil from Russia by exporting fuel there from the United States. "What has put Putin in the driver's seat over here is the fact that he controls oil and gas. He's got a monopoly on it," the California Republican said. "And that would be something we could upset." Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said last week that the United States, however, will continue its beefed-up presence in Poland because of the crisis. Among fellow members of NATO, Poland has expressed particular concern about Russian plans in Ukraine. The Defense Department is also sending some nonlethal aid to Ukrainian security forces, including medical supplies, helmets, shelters and water purification equipment. CNN's Frederik Pleitgen, Tim Lister, Elena Sandyrev, Phil Black, Alla Eshchenko, Elaine Ly and Lena Kashkarova contributed to this report.

NEW: Residents say armed militants seized the police station in Kramatorsk, Ukraine . Ukraine claims photographs show Russian troops in eastern Ukraine . Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says Geneva pact not being implemented . Vice President Joe Biden delivers aid package in visit to Kiev .

(CNN) -- Amid all the furor about the seemingly omnipotent military in Egypt, the disbanded Islamist-dominated parliament and the debate over whether the Muslim Brotherhood will ban beer and bikinis, it's tempting to mutter, "It's the economy, stupid." In 18 months of upheaval, all Egypt's economic indicators have headed south. Growth is a projected 1.5% this fiscal year, far too feeble to provide a young and rapidly growing population with jobs (80% of Egypt's population is under age 30). Unemployment, one of the engines of the revolution, is estimated to be as high as 25% among the young. Tourism revenues have fallen sharply, and foreign reserves have dwindled to $15 billion. According to the United Nations, some 40% of Egyptians live below the poverty line; 14 million people subsist on less than $1 a day. Institutions are chronically weak and corruption is endemic. President-elect Mohamed Morsi has his hands full. Many critics say the military has handed Morsi a neutered presidency doomed to fail. But economists who have dealt with the Muslim Brotherhood's economic team describe the team as pragmatic, well-prepared and favorable to the free market. Hernando de Soto, a noted economist who has helped his native Peru empower millions, has consulted with the Muslim Brotherhood. He says that when he met millionaire Khairat el-Shater, the Brotherhood's first presidential candidate who was disqualified for legal matters, el-Shater described himself as "businessman" on his card. "They want to create a market economy for the poor, to bring them into the mainstream," de Soto says. The Muslim Brotherhood has pledged to reach a rapid accord with the International Monetary Fund to cool Egypt's borrowing costs and protect the value of its pound. The interim military government raised money by selling bonds to Egyptian investors -- but at rising interest rates, with the yield on the one-year bill reaching a dizzying 16%. The new government will have to repay or roll over some $4 billion in short-term borrowing over the next six months. There have been several rounds of negotiations between the Finance Ministry and the IMF for a $3.2 billion loan, but they have yet to yield an agreement. That amount may now be inadequate. Masood Ahmed, one of the IMF's senior officials for the Middle East, summed up the challenge last month: "How can we help Egypt now come up with an economic program that would restore confidence, protect poor people and vulnerable households -- and do so in a way that restores confidence during uncertainty?" Hafez Ghanem, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who was recently in Egypt, says the immediate priority is to devise a "bold, credible program to reduce the outflow of reserves, encourage investment and bring in other donors" through an agreement with the IMF. He advises the new government to focus on two or three priorities. The first is tackling corruption, which resonates with every Egyptian. "Real progress on corruption will have to involve a partnership between the government, the private sector and NGOs," he says. He looks at the example of Indonesia. After the fall of President Suharto, the new government embarked on decentralization, partnering with nongovernmental organizations and civil society. Results were not immediate, but the perception of change was. The second priority, Ghanem says, must be the subsidies that consume such a large part of the national budget. The country's growing deficit could be cut significantly if fuel subsidies were removed. But that's not going to happen. The Brotherhood is anxious to protect the poor Egyptians who propelled it to power, even though 90% of the subsidy benefits the wealthiest 20% of Egyptians. Fuel and bread subsidies have long been an essential insurance against civil unrest in Egypt. The challenge for Morsi and his government is to better direct them at those most in need. Ghanem says that over two or three years, the subsidy program can be refashioned as income support for the poorest, similar to the "bolsa familia" in Brazil that has lifted millions into the middle class. Gasoline stamps, graduated electricity tariffs and a shift in subsidies toward healthier foods -- away from bread and sugar -- all have a role to play, he says. Ghanem says the issue of youth unemployment can only be addressed if the public debt is tackled, something that could have been done already with support from the IMF. But the interim government's refusal to consider foreign financing squeezed liquidity out of the domestic credit market. Gehad el-Haddad, a senior member of the executive committee of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, says he knows it faces a tall order. "We are warding off the immediate devaluation of the pound and working to regain the trust of investors in the market, to assure them that stability will come under this presidency," he says. One of their primary challenges, he stressed, is wiping away remnants of the Mubarak regime's hallmark bureaucracy and patronage networks: "The economy is our first, second and third priority." Some still aren't convinced. "I'm not sure I want to be investing my money when I know the Brotherhood, with little experience in this realm, is at the helm," says a senior member of losing presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq's campaign. "It doesn't give me and many other liberals much incentive to invest in a civil state that might be compromised by Islamists with unclear motives." Ahmed El Alfi, chairman of Flat6Labs, a start-up incubator based in Cairo that provides money and support to young entrepreneurs, says fostering entrepreneurship in Egypt is an oft-forgotten component of getting the economy on track. "Really, this government should just get out of the way and let people work," he says. "The revolution gave people a sense of empowerment. Instead of calling up your dad to call up his friends to get you a government job, now Egyptians are thinking outside of the box, they want to make a difference. We have to nurture this talent, support creativity and harness the power as an economic solution." But El Alfi worries that continued instability may prompt a brain drain among Egypt's brightest prospects. He notes that most of the budding entrepreneurs that seek Flat6Labs' mentoring are public school educated and from a lower economic bracket. "These are the people who can't just pack up and move to the West if things get bad," he says. "And they can't be neglected." Shadi Hamid, director of research at the Brookings Doha Center, says the Brotherhood knows this. "Put simply, if they can't deliver on the economy, then they'll hemorrhage popularity," Hamid says. "They know they can't fail, and they're committed to delivering with a detailed free-market economic program that also focuses on social welfare." De Soto says the key to Egypt's long-term prosperity is to find a way to liberate its anarchic "extra-legal" economy: the shopkeepers, craftsmen and traders who work below the radar to avoid corruption, taxes and the inertia of the bureaucracy. That would require the streamlining of some 300 laws, he says, and the creation of one organization that could bestow property rights and provide the "extra-legal" with a path to a more productive role -- unlocking the vast sums sloshing about in the informal economy. It would be a huge transformation, de Soto says, and it will require promotion and smart messaging. "But there is a window of opportunity," he says. "That's what revolutions provide." The same happened in Japan immediately after World War II, unleashing an economy that had been in many ways feudal until then. De Soto's consultancy, the Institute for Liberty and Democracy, was commissioned by the Mubarak government eight years ago to study Egypt's informal economy and concluded it was worth 55 times all the foreign direct investment Egypt had received since the Napoleonic era. But none of his recommendations was implemented. De Soto reflects: "If you're going to change things, your enemy is the status quo." Marwa Metwally, 23, is the sort of young talent that de Soto wants to see empowered. She's a razor-sharp unemployed college graduate who makes a four-hour commute every day from the Nile Delta governorate of Sharqiya to a nonprofit organization called Education for Employment in Cairo. She says the status quo simply can't continue. "Though I didn't vote for Morsi in the first round, he can bring the change we need," she says. "The Brotherhood is from the poor, they understand. ... They were oppressed along with all us Egyptians the past 80 years, they have a plan and they know that we can't go on like this. We're dying. It's the breaking point." But the short-term political uncertainties -- no parliament, a military perhaps committed to that very status quo and a ministerial team yet to gel -- will complicate decision-making. And given the speed with which Egypt's economy has deteriorated, time is a luxury the new government doesn't have.

Egypt's economy is badly suffering after a year and a half of unrest . It's now up to Mohamed Morsi and the new government to turn things around . Obstacles include widespread corruption, growing national deficit .

(CNN) -- In 1993, Romeo Dallaire was full of hope for the future of Rwanda. Romeo Dallaire, now a Canadian senator, says that in Rwanda, he "shook hands with the devil." The Canadian lieutenant general and son of a soldier was about to take up the biggest command of his career -- leading United Nations peacekeepers in the central African nation. A year later he left Rwanda a broken man, having watched helplessly as more than 800,000 people perished in Rwanda's genocide despite his pleas for more troops to stop the massacre. "We could have actually saved hundreds of thousands," Dallaire told CNN's Christiane Amanpour for "Scream Bloody Murder." "Nobody was interested." Dallaire's mission was to monitor a peace deal between two warring ethnic groups, the Hutus and the Tutsis. But the agreement was just a façade. Hutu extremists within the government were stockpiling weapons, and Tutsi refugees had formed a rebel army. Watch Dallaire describe how he could have stopped the genocide » . The Tutsis were a minority in Rwanda, and their plight was personal for Dallaire. His Dutch mother had watched friends die in the Holocaust, and he had been raised on stories of heroic Canadian soldiers who brought hope to war-torn Europe. A French Canadian raised in Montreal, Dallaire had experienced discrimination first-hand and was determined to protect the Tutsi minority. But he soon found his was a lone voice. On January 20, 1994, Dallaire made a chilling discovery: An informant warned him that Hutu government agents were planning bloodshed. "They were going to conduct an outright slaughter and elimination of the opposition," Dallaire said. Dallaire cabled his bosses in New York, warning that his informant "has been ordered to register all Tutsi in Kigali. He suspects it is for their extermination." The informant described a major weapons cache, which Dallaire said he planned to raid in the next 36 hours. Watch Dallaire describe the warnings from the informant » . Kofi Annan, then head of the U.N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations, was concerned about the safety of Dallaire's limited U.N. force. Annan's office told Dallaire: "We cannot agree to the operation contemplated ... as it clearly goes beyond the mandate." Dallaire tried to change Annan's mind, repeatedly exchanging faxes with New York through the rest of January and into February. "Ultimately I got authority. It took two months, and by then it was far too late," Dallaire said. In an interview with CNN, Annan explained his reasoning: . "When you're operating in that sort of context with limited troops and facilities, you have to be careful what sort of risks they take, where everybody may even have to leave, and place a people at greater risk. And in a way, this is what happened," Annan said. "Dallaire as a soldier, he's a very good man, he's a friend, and I respect his professional acumen. One had to take all these factors into consideration before you take a decision. Do the troops take this risk? Do they have the mandate? Do they have the resources? "Dallaire himself said, 'If I had had a brigade, which is 5,000, I could have done a lot.' He had a fraction that number." Asked why a brigade wasn't sent, Annan said: "The brigade was not available. The [Security] Council did not augment the troops. In fact, they went the other way. "We would have liked to see a larger force in. I had had situations where I called 82 member states together, trying to get troops. I got zilch." On April 6, 1994, a plane carrying the presidents of Rwanda and neighboring Burundi was shot down. It was the moment the Hutu plotters had been waiting for -- the spark that ignited the genocide. Watch as Dallaire describes how the genocide began » . Col. Theoneste Bagosora, a Hutu extremist, immediately declared the army was in charge. Within hours, government troops and civilian death squads began slaughtering Tutsis. "We saw the extremists, the presidential guard and militias, going to specific houses ... and killing people or hauling people off," Dallaire said. He described the horror of getting phone calls from people he knew while they were under attack. "As they were busting down the door and opening fire," he said, "we would literally hear people dying at the end of the phone as they were trying to get through to us and we had literally nothing to send them." Dallaire also heard the Hutu government-run radio tell listeners that Tutsis were "nothing but cockroaches," broadcasting names of people to be murdered and instructions on how to mutilate and kill them. Watch Dallaire describe the radio instructions on mutilation and murder » . It was an echo of past genocides. In Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge called their victims "worms." To the Nazis, Jews were "vermin." Dallaire says he and his troops moved through entire villages of dead, sometimes clearing paths through corpses with their bare hands. "With my own hands I carried them," he said. "We carried them in our arms, we carried kids in our arms, and adults. We were picking the bodies and moving them aside. ...There would be piles of bodies." Dallaire's troops were also targets: 10 were killed in the first days of the genocide. He was desperate for help, on the phone with New York several times a day, asking when reinforcements were coming. Five days into the killing, some U.S. officials began to fear the worst. A top Pentagon official wrote about the potential for "hundreds of thousands of deaths." A day later, a State Department memo warned of "a bloodbath." But instead of reinforcements, the United States joined a chorus of countries calling for withdrawal. Washington's taste for foreign intervention had soured. Just months earlier in Somalia, two dozen Pakistani peacekeepers had been murdered. United States commandos on the hunt for the killers had their Black Hawk helicopter shot down. Eighteen U.S. soldiers were killed. Americans were anxious to extricate themselves from Africa -- just as they had been in Southeast Asia decades before. "The U.S. troops had been killed and dragged through the streets and humiliated," Annan said. "The governments were not prepared to take another risk and go into Rwanda." After two weeks of debate, Washington compromised and agreed to a token U.N. presence. The result: The U.N. Security Council voted to reduce Dallaire's already small force by 90 percent. "In essence, they voted to allow the killers to continue," said Michael Barnett, a professor who was on a fellowship at the U.N. at the time and studied its response to the genocide. "The moment that the U.N. votes to withdraw, that's when we see a real spike in the violence," Barnett said. "Because at that point it's clear to the Rwandans ... that there will not be any cavalry over the horizon." In the fourth week of the killing, then U.N. Secretary General Boutros-Boutros Gali concluded that the mission was hopeless. He ordered a pullout of all U.N. troops. Dallaire refused. "I refused a legal order," Dallaire said. "But it was immoral." Dallaire and his few hundred peacekeepers could do little except help humanitarian efforts and protect a small number of people, while he repeatedly and futilely attempted to negotiate a cease-fire. As the United States and the United Nations stood by, the rebel Tutsi army fought back against the Hutu government. In mid-July, 100 days of hell came to an end when Tutsi forces declared victory. Weeks later, Dallaire asked to be relieved of his command. The horrors of the genocide had taken its toll. He was guilt-ridden, believing he should have done more to prevent the genocide. In his book, "Shake Hands With The Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda," Dallaire wrote: "Death became a desired option. I hoped I would hit a mine or run into an ambush and just end it all. I think some part of me wanted to join the legions of the dead, whom I had failed." Those thoughts of suicide followed him home to Canada. Watch Dallaire describe how he dealt with thoughts of suicide » . In the preface of his book, Dallaire summed up his Rwanda experience, writing, "I know there is a God because in Rwanda I shook hands with the devil. I have seen him, I have smelled him and I have touched him. I know the devil exists, and therefore I know there is a God." Today Dallaire is a senator in the Canadian parliament and dedicates much of his time to an initiative to eradicate the use of child soldiers.

In 1994, Romeo Dallaire was leading a U.N. peacekeeping force in Rwanda . The Canadian lieutenant general warned his bosses that a slaughter was imminent . Instead of sending reinforcements, the U.N. eventually ordered Dallaire to withdraw . He refused what he calls an "immoral" order and ultimately left Africa a broken man .

(CNN) -- When riots broke out in London on August 6, Charmaine Scott watched as a diverse group of people took hold of her hometown, smashing glass windows and setting buildings and automobiles ablaze. Amid the chaos, she noticed that talk about a racial backlash surged. The widespread discontent was being painted black by the media, even though it involved people of various races and ethnicities. "The depiction of rioters has been disproportionately black and surprisingly female as well," said Scott, 31, as she described large-scale photos appearing in newspapers. "There has been a pernicious representation of black women even in the riots, and an overall depriving image of black people in general." The images and conversation that followed the three-day looting spree still remind Scott, a black woman of Caribbean descent, of the constant battle the black community faces in the UK: negative stereotypes brought on by inaccurate representation in the media. And she is not alone in believing that unfair depictions and constant scrutiny plague black women especially, belittling them in the public eye and forcing them into subordinate social positions. "We can't talk about Jim Crow or apartheid. But like blacks globally, we are both visible and invisible," said Heidi Mirza, a professor at the University of London who teaches equalities studies in education. "We are let into desegregated spaces and constantly watched. We remain totally ignored and excluded." Stereotypes and pressures to 'act white' Mirza said she believes social barriers, discrimination and sexism keep some black women from succeeding. "Minorities aspire and have bought into the American ideal that if you work hard, you can reach the top. But in Britain, it doesn't always work that way," said Mirza, author of "Young, Female and Black." With few black leaders in Parliament, the lack of representation in the social sphere is becoming more of a concern among black British females who consider themselves future mothers and the cornerstones of their society. "In many of the places where I have worked, I was one of the few women of color, and I felt like I needed to play a certain role in order to fit in," said Kehinde Olarinmoye, 37, a former music industry professional of Nigerian descent. "It was the only way to survive." Zena Tuitt, a 37-year-old British Caribbean, said that for some, the black British experience is tainted by stereotypes that inhibit black women from being their true selves. "The British stereotype of black women is that we are the loud ones and we are overly sexualized or eroticized," Tuitt said. "We don't want to be seen as that, so in Britain we have a tendency to try to fit in and not stand out. In quite a conservative society, in order to get on, you need to fit in and to keep your head down." Mirza said there is a strong social need "to act white" to be accepted. "To some extent you have to put on a mask," she said. "With the added dimension of gender and sexualization, black British women are seen as exotic and not as clever. If we 'act white,' we make the majority comfortable, and it becomes one of the few avenues to progress socially." Black women's need to mold into the Eurocentric ideals of society, Tuitt said, stems from not having many positive black images or leaders to look up to in her country. "Growing up, I was looking at people like Oprah Winfrey and women on 'The Cosby Show,' " she said. "Those examples of American women that I saw were all aspirational but were quite removed from my experience. Trying to role model these women created another struggle for me, because that type of woman wasn't recognizable in the UK." This lack of public representation has been slowly coming to surface. Hannah Pool, a columnist in the UK, has heavily criticized the European beauty industry for its ignorance toward black women. "Black women spend up to six times more on hair and makeup than their white counterparts, yet much of the industry still ignores us," Pool said in the 2010 issue of Grazia magazine. "Many brands still don't have (foundation) bases suitable for anything darker than a light honey." A 2009 Mintel report revealed that while 12% of the UK's population is nonwhite, ethnic beauty products represent just 1% of all new hair care, skin care and makeup launches. "The ethnic market has a long way to go to be brought in line with the demographic makeup of the UK population," the report said. Mirza suggests the media is partially to blame. "We are bombarded by white images here in the UK, and only Eurocentric forms of blackness are acceptable," she said. "The UK has a Neolithic view of beauty that marginalizes the rest of black women, leaving them feeling unwanted on a shelf. "Not only does it make you question your worth as a black British woman, but it also makes you wonder if that Old World theory of the British empire still holds true: to divide and conquer." A champion for change . Simone Bresi-Ando, a black British woman of Ghanaian descent, has worked in the public relations field for nearly 20 years. Throughout her life, the 39-year-old said she has been aware of black women's minimal recognition in social arenas. "We have had situations in our history where we've seen conducts that have been based on race or on unequal treatment of people from other races -- unfair health policies or lack of access to education," Bresi-Ando said. "Some people don't like to use the word (racism); they like to call it something else. But in my eyes, it is what it is." Bresi-Ando created the "I'm Possible" group in 2009 as a platform to help push black British women's voices into the public domain and highlight achievements for women of color in Britain. In June, Bresi-Ando hosted an event -- sponsored by Mizani cosmetics -- in which leading black figures in British society, including Bonnie Greer and Angie Le Mar, gathered for candid discussion of issues that affect black females. "As black women, we are also partially responsible for what image is portrayed," said Desiree Banugo, a member of "I'm Possible." "We have the opportunity to share and educate others about our culture and experience so they can see it for what it really is -- rather than from the voices of people who don't know, or from the media, which distorts what we're saying, thinking and how we live. "The important thing in terms of diversity is to engage in the conversation on race. We are a long way off from being in a place where the issues are tackled head on." African-American history, Bresi-Ando said, has had a strong impact on black British women in helping them realize the inner strength to band together in social movements and fight for racial and gender equality. When she created "I'm Possible," she was inspired by two American enterprises -- "Oprah's Legend Luncheon" and "Black Girls Rock" -- that seek to recognize achievements made by minority women. "I admire the black experience in the States because of the sense of community and ability to sing together from the same song sheet on important political issues," Bresi-Ando said. "We lack those networks here, and we don't know how to connect in a positive way because we don't want to openly address the issue." Social invisibility is a struggle that African-American women deal with as well. In a 2010 study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, researchers found that African-American women are more likely than black men, white men and white women to go unnoticed by others in a group or social situation. But it is African-American women's ability to alter and push toward change that gives hope and inspires black British women, said Olarinmoye, the ex-music industry professional. "I think the struggle is similar and different," Olarinmoye said, speaking of black America's history of social change from Harriet Tubman to the election of President Barack Obama. "America has experienced racism a lot longer than we have. And (American) women have a platform set for women of color, and that's what we are trying to create. "We've had to dig deep in order to find our history, and we've had to look up to African-Americans to see what models we can replicate here and give a British identity." Bresi-Ando's project, the University of London's Mirza said, is one example of how black women can reclaim their image in Britain: by getting out there and talking about it. "We have high rates of mental health issues amongst black women in Britain. We are underrepresented and underfunded. But it stems from a nonspoken history that lives in our communities past and present," Mirza said. "We need to talk about this skeletal past, the racism, the misrepresentation. We need to build networks that will reinforce and promote social ideals. We need to invest the knowledge into our daughters to make sure the lessons we learn do not vanish as we move ahead." Bresi-Ando agrees. "It may take time and may be difficult," she said. "But my American sisters have shown me that it can be done."

Some black women feel like they are seen, but not heard in UK society . They say they're underrepresented in the workplace, social arenas . The media is partially to blame, one expert says . Some British women view African-American women as a model for change .

(CNN) -- This year marks the 20th anniversary of the opening of the Channel Tunnel linking France with the United Kingdom, and the 50th anniversary of the deal which led to its creation. To mark the occasion, we're taking a look at some of the world's greatest tunnels. Channel Tunnel (UK and France) Connecting the United Kingdom with continental Europe (it has entrances/exits in Folkestone, Kent, and Pas-de-Calais in northern France), the tunnel has the world's longest undersea section -- 37.9 kilometers (23.5 miles). Though a marvel of the modern age, it wasn't a new idea when it was built. French engineer Albert Mathieu proposed a tunnel under the English Channel in 1802, although his plans included an artificial island mid-channel where horse-drawn carriages could make maintenance stops. "This tunnel defined the term 'mega project,'" says Matt Sykes, tunnel expert and director at engineering company Arup. "It fundamentally changed the geography of Europe and helped to reinforce high speed rail as a viable alternative to short-haul flights." Length: 50 kilometers (31 miles) Fast fact: Though both the English and French put in work to build the Channel Tunnel, the English side tunneled a greater distance. More info: Euro Tunnel . Laerdal Tunnel (Aurland, Norway) The Laerdal Tunnel in West Norway is the world's longest road tunnel and cost $153 million to build, which works out at $6,250 per meter. The length of the tunnel prompted engineers to include various features designed to alleviate claustrophobia and tiredness. "The sheer length of tunnel -- which takes 20 minutes to drive through -- led to innovation in the use of behavioral science and driver psychology in the design to reduce driver fatigue and improve safety," says Sykes. "This resulted in large, colorfully lit caverns every six kilometers, providing points of interest and a unique driver experience." Length: 24.5 kilometers (15.2 miles) Fast fact: Engineers separated the tunnel into different sections to give the illusion that drivers are traveling through a number of smaller tunnels. In these smaller sections drivers can take breaks, or even have a wedding ceremony, as one adventurous couple has previously done. More info: The Fjords . Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line (Tokyo) It's easy to mistake this tunnel for a bridge because part of the structure comprises a 4.4-kilometer span as well as a 9.6-kilometer subsea conduit. The Aqua Line crosses Tokyo Bay and connects the cities of Kawasaki and Kisarazu. It reduced the journey time between the two from 90 to 15 minutes. "This project required the world's largest undersea tunnel boring machines and set the precedent for constructing two-lane road tunnels," points out Matt Sykes at Arup. "The resilience of the construction was demonstrated during the 2011 Tohoku-Pacific Ocean earthquake, which caused severe damage to Tokyo Bay." Length: 14 kilometers total (8.7 miles) Fast fact: Constructed atop the Tokyo Bay Aqua Line is an island that functions as a rest area and mall. The man-made island, called Umi-Hotaru, is a popular scenic point with an observation deck that gives a great view of Tokyo Bay. More info: Nippon Civil Consulting Engineers . Eisenhower Tunnel (Colorado) Colorado's Eisenhower road tunnel is one of the world's highest, located 3,401 meters (11,158 feet) above sea level, at the highest point on the U.S. interstate highway system. It played a significant role in the women's rights movement when Janet Bonnema was hired as a construction worker in 1972. Her supervisor misread her name as James, but realized his mistake and reassigned her to administrative duties after workers -- many of whom were former miners -- cited the common superstition that a woman's presence can bring bad luck to a mine. Bonnema sued and was allowed to return to the tunnel. A new equal rights law was subsequently passed. Length: 2.72 kilometers (1.7 miles) Fast fact: Prior to the tunnel's official opening in 1972, a drunk driver believed he should be the first person to take a vehicle through and was arrested for trespassing. Charges were subsequently dropped because the signs prohibiting traffic were considered inadequate. More info: Colorado Department of Transportation . Spiralen Tunnel (Drammen, Norway) The dramatic Spiralen road tunnel, built in 1961 and comprising six spirals covering 1,649 meters (5,413 feet), leads to one of the most spectacular viewpoints in the industrial town of Drammen. "Despite being an expensive country, Norway builds some of the cheapest tunnels," says Alun Thomas, head of tunnels at engineering consultancy Ramboll. "This is because the engineers strip the design down to the bare essentials required for the flow of traffic in the tunnels. Maximum benefit for minimum effort -- that's good engineering." Length: 1.65 kilometers (1.02 miles) Fast fact: The tunnel opens out to a dramatic view of Drammen Valley and has a beer garden, restaurants and open-air museum. Guoliang Tunnel (Henan Province, China) Before the construction of this impressive tunnel, the only way to access the village of Guoliang was via a narrow path carved into the side of the Taihang Mountains. In 1972, a group of 13 villagers decided to construct a tunnel, which they dug by hand. Three died during the construction process but the tunnel transformed the village and became a tourist attraction in its own right. "This tunnel is beautiful and a tribute the tenacity of the villagers who built it," says Thomas at Ramboll. "For me it emphasizes how tunnel construction can enhance the environment as well as bringing huge benefits for society. At the same time, one should remember the cost and the fact that several villagers were killed during construction." Length: 1.2 kilometers (0.74 miles) Fast fact: The tunnel was built jagged and steep due to the village's primitive tools, earning it the nickname: "The road that does not tolerate any mistakes." SMART (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) "SMART is a combined road and flood relief tunnel," explains Thomas at Ramboll. "It can be completely flooded to get rid of storm water and turned back into a road in a few hours." The tunnel, the longest in Malaysia, was built to solve the problem of flash flooding in Kuala Lumpur. SMART can operate in three ways. When there's no flooding, it serves purely as a road tunnel. When there are floods, rainwater can be diverted into a lower channel, and the upper level will remain open to traffic. When exceptionally heavy floods occur, the tunnel closes to all traffic and watertight gates open to allow floodwater to flow through. Length: 9.7 kilometers (6.02 miles) Fast fact: The tunnel is expected to prevent billions of dollars of possible flood damage and costs from traffic congestion. Since it opened in 2007, flood-prone areas such as Masjid Jamek, Dataran Merdeka, Leboh Ampang and Jalan Melaka have been spared inundation. More info: SMART Motorway Tunnel . Bund Sightseeing Tunnel (Shanghai) This underwater Chinese tunnel is short and sweet, but spectacular and slightly strange. It spans the Huangpu River and connects Shanghai's Bund to Lujiazui, location of the Pearl TV tower. Passengers were originally going to be ferried from one side to the other on a moving walkway, but automated cars were installed instead. Length: 646.7 meters (2,122 feet) Fast fact: A company that had worked with Disney was originally supposed to help design the tunnel, but was deemed too expensive. Instead a Shanghai-based company created the tunnel's psychedelic lights and trippy audio-visual effects. The ride is apparently meant to represent a journey to the core of the earth, and the tunnel currently ranks as one of Shanghai's top five tourist attractions. Seikan Tunnel (Japan) The Seikan is a railway tunnel in Japan, but what makes it unique is the fact that a 23-kilometer (14.2 miles) stretch of the tunnel is 140 meters (460 feet) below sea level. It's the longest and deepest rail tunnel in the world, and spans the Tsugaru Strait, connecting Aomori Prefecture on the island of Honshu to the island of Hokkaido. Work on the tunnel started in 1964 and was completed in 1988. Length: 53 kilometers (32.9 miles) Fast fact: In 1976, construction workers hit a patch of soft rock and water gushed into the tunnel at a rate of 80 tons per minute. The leak took two months to fix. More info: JR-Hokkaido Hakadote Branch .

2014 marks the 20th anniversary of the opening of the Channel Tunnel . The 24.5-kilometer Laerdal Tunnel in West Norway is the world's longest road tunnel . At 460 feet below sea level the Seikan Tunnel is the longest and deepest rail tunnel in the world .

(CNN) -- Dan Bucatinsky is a gay dad in real life, and he also plays one on TV. The 47-year-old actor, producer and author recently won the Outstanding Actor in a Guest Role Emmy award for his work on ABC's mega-hit "Scandal." Along with Lisa Kudrow, Bucatinsky co-produces the TLC show "Who Do You Think You Are?" in which celebrities trace their family roots. Off-screen, he and his husband, writer and director Don Roos are parents to two young children, Eliza and Jonah. Bucatinsky wrote about their road to becoming a family in his memoir, "Does This Baby Make Me Look Straight?: Confessions of a Gay Dad." CNN spoke with Bucatinsky about the challenges and commonalities same-sex parents find in a world where the definition of "family" is evolving. An edited transcript is below. CNN: When you were growing up and coming to terms with being gay, did it ever cross your mind that you might someday be a father? Dan Bucatinsky: It wasn't something that I dared to aspire to. I lived a lot of years in denial. I spent a lot of my teen years promising myself that if it turned out to be true, that I would kill myself. I'm really glad that I didn't fulfill that promise. Even early in my 20s when I came out of the closet, I wasn't really thinking about marriage. I focused on my career, and I didn't have a clear picture of my future as being in a relationship, having kids and having a domestic life. By 27, I was settling down, and it became clearer to me that it was something I was subconsciously craving. I was so envious of the gay men I'd meet who wore wedding rings. I remember feeling some kind of pang in my mid-to-late 20s. Maybe it was too painful to really picture. I felt like it wasn't in my cards. I met Don when I was 27, and we didn't have kids until I was 40. For 12 years we talked about it, but not seriously, until the last five years. I didn't believe it was possible, so now, when I think about it, it's just surreal. CNN: When you talk to young, gay men about parenthood now, do their expectations differ from that? Bucatinsky: It's amazing how different it is now to talk to someone who is exactly my age when I met Don -- a 27-year-old out, gay man (who has probably been out since he was 15). It's a foregone conclusion that if they want it, marriage and kids could be in their future. Parents used to say, "I love you just the same that you're gay, but it's such a sad, lonely life," but that can't be said anymore. CNN: When parenthood was finally happening for you and your husband, did you worry about not having a blueprint for it? Bucatinsky: While we were expecting Eliza, I was in such shock and denial that it was really happening. It didn't occur to me what would happen when we took that baby home. I didn't really think it through. Nor did my spouse and I have long enough discussions about our parenting styles. We have subsequently discovered our differences, which hopefully leads to a little yin and yang with the kids. There were parents that to me were just the ideal. Many of them were straight moms who have just been great, supporting, warm, funny and tough, at least in my perception of them. I'm sure they all had their own bouts of self-doubt. They became my role models, and I hoped I could be as good as them; their kids turned out so great. CNN: Is motherhood necessarily tied to femininity? Dan Bucatinsky: It's not. What I discovered inside me that I didn't realize was there, was mommyness. But by definition of the fact that I'm not a mommy, if I'm finding qualities that I'm describing as "mommyness" then why do I have to attach a gender to them? Why can't we move to a time where "parent" is an umbrella term that encapsulates a lot of things: discipline, nurturing, sustenance, support and boundaries? When you're a gay dad, you get the question, "Which one of you is the mom?" I used to get offended by it, but now I just answer: I am. If you're asking me in the way that I'm using the term "mom" loosely, then yes, I have fallen into those more mommyish kinds of roles. Don has fallen more into the daddyish roles, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't do bath time. But straight parents, too, any modern dad now is doing the same kinds of things. It doesn't really have to do with gay or straight anymore. CNN: There's a line in the book: "We have the added challenge or privilege to expand who we are with our kids." What is it like to not have these distinct boundaries? Bucatinsky: While there's a certain freedom, it's scary because you have to figure it out and navigate it and negotiate it with the other parent in a way that a lot of my straight friends don't really have to. For them, it's a given: dad just being a dad, and mom acting the way all the moms act. Our roles bounce back and forth a lot. We cover all the bases in a way that might be in a more traditional family: mom does this, dad does that. When you're two men, things are going to be different. Someone naturally falls into the role of the cook, cleaner and Band-Aid putter-oner. Those things were discoveries for us and sometimes challenges, because we both want to make decisions and have to negotiate. CNN: How do you frame "family" to your children? Bucatinsky: We refer to a lot of our closest friends as "aunt" and "uncle," which is an honor that is usually based on bloodlines. It may be symptomatic of living in a big city where you surround yourself with disenfranchised people who become your chosen family. Straight couples face this; people expect you to have kids and how do you call yourself a family if you don't? Don and I became a family the minute we made a home together. We've introduced two kids into it, but we were a family before that. There were friends in our lives who were just like family, if not closer. Then there's the notion of calling ourselves the "fathers" of our children. We're not their biological fathers, but does that make me any less their father? If you can adopt children and be nonbiological parents, you can be nonbiological aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers and sisters. As time goes on and we redefine marriage and commitment and parenthood, we're opening up the ability to define words differently, and I think it's a good thing. CNN: There weren't really portrayals of same-sex parents on TV when you were growing up. How does it feel to be a role model for gay men growing up now? Dan Bucatinsky: You can only imagine how blessed and shocked I feel that I'm not only living the life of a gay father, but also get to play one on television and also portray the struggle between career, family and marriage. Portrayal of same-sex parents have been few and far between, but it's really important that in ("Scandal" creator) Shonda Rhimes' writing, she does the "just happens to be" story about the act of being a parent, which is something that's completely universal. The parents just happen to be both men, both women or single. I grew up watching the same shows everyone else did, "The Brady Bunch," "The Waltons." There were so many portrayals of the perfect mom and dad on TV, you would think each person would grow up with the idea that this was the kind of mom or dad they wanted to become. There were no portrayals of gay parents. It wasn't an option, which in a way is one of the most liberating things. You can emerge and forge your own path and not feel like you have to live in the footsteps of any media portrayal. CNN: What do you want your kids to look back and remember about how they were parented? Bucatinsky: There's a reasonableness I aspire to. I don't want to be extreme in any way. I hope that when my kids are older and think back to their upbringing that though they may or may not feel some sense of having missed out on something like having a mom, which they would have every right to feel and explore, they don't feel like they were in want of any love or support. I hope they understand as they grow older that we love them unconditionally, and they derive a sense of self esteem of having lived this way and had fun. Follow Kat Kinsman and keep up with CNN Parents on Twitter. Are you a same-sex parent who has faced interesting challenges or found creative ways to address your parental role? We'd love to hear all about it in the comments below.

Actor Dan Bucatinsky grew up never thinking he'd have a chance to be a dad . Parenting has its own unique set of challenges as two dads figure out roles . Bucatinsky, who is gay, was surprised and thrilled to find his "mommyness" Playing gay father on "Scandal" gives him a chance to be role model for new generation .

(CNN) -- When Josep Maria Bartomeu became the 40th president of FC Barcelona at the start of this year, he was paraded at the Camp Nou stadium in front of the waiting press, just as his predecessors before him had. The president of Barcelona, after all, has an exalted status. Usually they are voted for by the club's socios, or members, the president sets the tone of the club and the scope of its ambition. They are held to account, too, for their behavior off the pitch and results on it. A picture was taken of the 51-year-old engineer and entrepreneur, with the club's famous motto visible in the stadium seats behind him, to his left. Mes Que Un Club. More Than A Club. It is an invocation that sums up how Barcelona's fans and players believe that their club transcends soccer. How it represents a progressive Catalan political and social identity. The shirt was deemed so sacred that, for over a century, no sponsor was allowed to sully its famous stripes. But, in the same picture, to his right, the words "Qatar Airways" loom even larger. The same company now graces the front of Barcelona's shirts too. Crossroads . Bartomeu has taken charge of a club standing on the crossroads, not to mention at the end of one of the darkest periods in Barcelona's recent history. In little over a year the club has lost its position as Europe's most feared team, changed its manager, seen another beloved former coach die of cancer, seen Lionel Messi embroiled in an embarrassing tax case and been accused of complicity, at least, in tax avoidance surrounding the transfer deal that brought Brazil star Neymar to Spain. It was that final scandal that saw Bartomeu's predecessor Sandro Rosell resign in disgrace. Bartomeu was his deputy and took over, leaving many Barca fans unhappy they weren't allowed their traditional vote. Factor in the recent signing of Luis Suarez, a player still banned from all soccer related activity after biting a player at the World Cup finals, the third time he has bitten a player in a game during his short career, and the phrase "Mes Que Un Club," for many, seems to be describing a time passed. Now Bartomeu has been charged with steadying the ship and making sure that isn't the case. "Things have been very difficult for us," admits Bartomeu in an exclusive, wide-ranging CNN interview. "Not only sporting. I mean we also had a lot of things not sporting that has been ... well, developing the club in another way that we were not planning. But everything [that] comes we try to solve." Season ahead . Given what's on Bartomeu's plate, his immediate focus is the season ahead. After a barren year, and the resignation of former coach Tata Martino, the club has put its faith in former player Luis Enrique, returning to a time when coaches were nurtured and promoted from within. "I learned very, very much from Pep Guardiola. He is a genius," Bartomeu said of Barcelona's former coach who, like Enrique, cut his teeth coaching the Barcelona B team. "Then after Pep, Tito Vilanova, which was the natural continuation of this project but Tito had very bad medical problems. And (then) came Tata Martino. Tata Martino is a ... well, a coach from Argentina with another way of looking at football." It was agreed that Martino, after a tough transitional season, would stand down. According to Bartomeu, there was only one choice. "(Director of football) Zubizarreta told us: 'Luis Enrique is our man. Luis Enrique is our coach,' " he recalls. "He has been preparing himself in the last few years for this so we took him." The Messi factor . There has been a changing of the guard on the pitch as much as off it. The biggest loss has been Carles Puyol, who took over as club captain from Enrique almost a decade ago but has now retired after struggling with injuries. All eyes will be on Lionel Messi, the team's focal point and the embodiment of the club's fortunes. "It's unlimited," Bartomeu replies when asked how much Messi was worth to Barcelona now. "Leo Messi came to our club when he was 13 years old. This year he will be 27 ... He has been growing within our club. He is one of us. "Leo Messi represents something more than his goals or the titles he won. Leo Messi represents, a little bit, this spirit of a young player that comes to our Masia, to our youth academy, and learns." Bartomeu says he is not worried about the tax case, based on offshore payments for image rights, that has dogged Messi since last year. "That is something that belongs to his personal life, of course," Bartomeu says. "He has our support, our help and, well, he's managing with his advisers, with his lawyers and of course anything he needs Barca is there to help him." The Neymar deal . But it is another potential court case that has proved even more damaging to Barcelona's reputation. When details of the Neymar transfer deal was made public, with an alleged $10 million shortfall in what was paid and what was declared to the Spanish authorities, it caused a wave of outrage. Bartomeu, however, believes that the club didn't do anything wrong. "This transfer is being investigated by a judge in Spain and we have different interpretations," he says. "What we did, of course, being prudent as much as possible, we pay taxes in Brazil and also we pay the same taxes in Spain. So we paid twice just to avoid any misunderstandings for the judge. When the truth comes out then Barca will benefit from this truth." This season Barcelona will try to accommodate three of the finest attacking talents in the world game: Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez, even if the club will have to wait for the Uruguayan to serve his four-month ban for biting. "When we approached Suarez, it was before the World Cup," Bartomeu says. "We told him that he had the right age. He had the experience. Playing at Liverpool give him incredible performance also. And it was the right time for him to come to our club, to Barcelona. "We knew from a lot of lot of years ago that Luis Suarez likes our club, likes our city. And we have the advantage. His agent is Pep Guardiola's brother ... He's from Barca in his heart, also, so everything was perfect and created the perfect atmosphere that Luis Suarez accepted. And we know that he had better offers than our offer but he came to Barcelona." Suarez ban . Suarez's bite on Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini became, for many, one of the defining images of the World Cup. But the incident didn't give Bartomeu any second thoughts. "No, no. We didn't rethink this decision and we told Luis after the bite. He knows he did wrong," Bartomeu says. "He apologized. That's very important for us. That means he knows that he did not do things properly -- and of course, coming to our city, coming to our club, there's going to be a way of managing Luis Suarez, because at Liverpool he was a perfect player. Liverpool fans can tell it, supporters can tell it." On question remains: How would Barcelona react if he bit someone again? "This is now a question," Bartomeu admits. "This is a question that a lot of people now ask us. We cannot talk about something that could happen or not. We don't know. What we know is that we accept this responsibility and he also wants this responsibility of bringing Luis Suarez to the family of football." So confident is Barcelona that Suarez will not err again, Bartomeu has not insisted on a "no biting" clause in the contract. "No, there is no clause," he confirms. "If the clause did exist we wouldn't say it, but it doesn't exist." Guardiola's return? As the season approaches -- La Liga kicks off on August 23 -- many question marks remain over where Barcelona is headed and whether it is really "more than a club" or susceptible to the same shenanigans as any other team in the modern game. Luis Enrique will have to hit the ground running, but Bartomeu believes that the club's special ethos is such that few can resist its gravitational pull, even former coaches like Pep Guardiola. "Oh I'm sure," Bartomeu says when asked whether Guardiola would ever return to Barcelona. "I'm sure that all the people that are from Barca, they have Barca in their heart, they go back to Barcelona and help the club. It's something that has happened in the past and will continue in the future. "I always say to a lot of people that I see a future of Barca. I hope that after 2022 ... with a lot of players that are right now playing or players that are training other teams, coming back to our team as coaches, as a sport director, as members or as presidents of the club. "Because at the end, we are like a family." Read Is Barcelona becoming 'Less of a Club'?

Barcelona president admits past year has been "very difficult" Josep Maria Bartomeu took over as club as been rocked by controversy . Bartomeu believes Pep Guardiola will one day return to the club . He says Luis Suarez does not have a "no biting" clause .

New York (CNN) -- A mandatory 21-day quarantine imposed by New York and New Jersey on health care workers returning from West Africa after treating Ebola patients caught local and federal officials by surprise and spurred a heated debate on handling the spread of the virus. The policy of isolating medical personnel and others arriving from Ebola-affected countries zones was abruptly implemented Friday by the governors of New York and New Jersey, Andrew Cuomo and Chris Christie. The announcement came one day after a New York doctor who treated patients in Guinea became the first Ebola case diagnosed in the city and the fourth in the United States. The mandate came as a surprise to the federal Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention in Atlanta, according to a federal official familiar with the situation. "They're not happy," the official said of the CDC. "These two governors said, 'Take this, federal government.' They're very worried we won't be able to get physicians or nurses to go (to countries affected by the Ebola outbreak)." Should health care workers be quarantined? A New York City official called more stringent screening "a real stunner." "They did this without consulting the city, and that's not a good thing," the official said of Cuomo and Christie. "They didn't let anyone know in advance." Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity. Illinois will require "high-risk individuals who have had direct contact with an individual infected with the Ebola virus while in Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea" to undergo a mandatory 21-day home quarantine, according to a press release from Governor Pat Quinn's office released on Friday. On Saturday, the CDC said that it sets the baseline recommended standards, but state and local officials have the prerogative to set tighter policies. "When it comes to the federal standards set by the CDC, we will consider any measures that we believe have the potential to make the American people safer," the CDC said in a statement. Nurse worried about mandatory quarantines . The two-state policy was implemented the same day that nurse Kaci Hickox landed at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey after working with Doctors Without Borders in treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone. Hickox, in an Op-Ed piece in The Dallas Morning News, wrote that she was ordered placed in quarantine at a hospital, where she tested negative in a preliminary test for Ebola. Still, hospital officials told her she must remain under mandatory quarantine for 21 days. Hickox wrote that she was held at the airport and questioned by various health workers after her flight landed about 1 p.m. At first, her temperature -- taken with forehead scanner -- was 98 degrees. Hours later, her cheeks flushed with anger over being held without explanation, another scanner check recorded her temperature as 101 degrees, she wrote. Hickox eventually got a police escort, sirens blaring, to a hospital, when her temperature was again checked in an outdoor tent. On the oral thermometer, her temperature was recorded as 98.6. And she tested negative for Ebola, she wrote in the Dallas newspaper. A second test by the CDC confirmed the finding. In a statement released Saturday, Doctors Without Borders, or Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), said there was a "notable lack of clarity" about the guidelines released by New York and New Jersey. "We are attempting to clarify the details of the protocols with each state's departments of health to gain a full understanding of their requirements and implications," MSF said. "While measures to protect public health are of paramount importance, they must be balanced against the rights of health workers returning from fighting the Ebola outbreak in West Africa to fair and reasonable treatment and the full disclosure of information to them, along with information about intended courses of action from local and state health authorities." New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett is concerned that the mandatory quarantine will discourage doctors and nurses from volunteering to take care of Ebola patients in West Africa, according to her spokeswoman. "We just want to make sure we don't inadvertently discourage volunteers who are going to West Africa to help control this epidemic,"said health department spokeswoman Jean Weinberg. The new airport screening procedures require anyone who had direct contact with Ebola patients to remain in quarantine for up to three weeks. In addition, people with a travel history to the affected regions but with no direct contact with Ebola patients will be "actively monitored ... and, if necessary, quarantined," according to the new policy. "This is not the time to take chances," Cuomo said Friday. "This adjustment in increasing the screening procedures is necessary. ... I think public safety and public health have to be balanced and I think this policy does that." New federal policy starts Monday . The new guidelines add to the federal policy requiring all travelers coming to the United States from Ebola-affected areas to be actively monitored for 21 days, starting Monday. Already, such travelers landing at five U.S. airports -- New York's Kennedy, Dulles International, New Jersey's Newark Liberty International, Chicago's O'Hare International and Hartsfield-Jackson International in Atlanta -- must go through enhanced screening. Ebola has killed nearly 5,000 people, mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, in what health officials call the worst outbreak of the disease in history. On Friday, the National Institutes of Health said Nina Pham, a Dallas nurse, had been declared free of the Ebola virus. Public health experts say there's plenty of scientific evidence indicating that there's very little chance that a random person will get Ebola, unless he or she is in very close contact -- close enough to share bodily fluids -- with someone who has it. How the Ebola virus spreads . New York Ebola patient's fiancee cleared . On Thursday, a New York doctor who had traveled on a humanitarian mission to Guinea, where he had treated Ebola patients, developed symptoms and has been hospitalized in Manhattan. Dr. Craig Spencer, 33, is in isolation at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. He arrived back from Guinea on October 17 and had limited his public interactions but did not eliminate them, according to officials. On the same day Cuomo and Christie announced the new guidelines, Ebola survivor Nancy Writebol donated plasma to Spencer, said the charity SIM. Writebol was one of the first two Americans diagnosed with the Ebola virus. She was successfully treated at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta in August. Spencer's fiancee, Morgan Dixon, had been under quarantine at Bellevue, but was cleared and has no symptoms, according to Jean Weinberg, a city health department spokeswoman. On Saturday night, Dixon returned home to the hazmat-cleaned apartment she shares with Spencer in Manhattan. Dixon's family members have not been in physical contact with her or Spencer since his return from West Africa, according to a family statement. Two friends of Spencer are under quarantine outside the hospital and are being monitored, though they feel healthy. Dr. Jay Varma, deputy commissioner for disease control at the city health department, held a news conference outside said the woman would be under quarantine for 21 days and that she is healthy. She is not allowed visitors and groceries will be delivered to her apartment. Spencer's activities, which include riding in subways and cabs, have sparked a sharp public debate about how to deal with people who have traveled to West African countries ravaged by the disease. On Saturday, one of the places visited by the Spencer, The Gutter bowling alley in Brooklyn, reopened after extensive decontamination work. And New York Mayor Bill de Blasio dined on meatballs at a Manhattan restaurant visited by the doctor. Should the focus of American policy be to do everything to prevent anyone who has visited the most ravaged regions from entering the United States, even if it discourages health care workers from going there? Some U.S. lawmakers, such as Rep. Andy Harris, favor a strict three-week quarantine. (That duration is significant because it takes anywhere from two to 21 days from the time a person is exposed to Ebola to when he or she shows symptoms of it; if more time than that passes without symptoms, a person is considered Ebola-free.) "In return from being allowed to come back into the country from a place where a deadly disease is endemic, you'd have to enter a quarantine facility and be supervised for 21 days," the Maryland Republican told CNN. But other officials say while that policy could prevent some cases of Ebola in the United States over the short term, it could backfire if highly trained American doctors have less incentive to travel to Africa to fight the disease. "These individuals who are going there to serve are the people who will end this crisis," de Blasio said. "We can't have the illusion that we can turn away from it and some day it may end. If we took that attitude, this would be a truly devastating global crisis." Complete coverage on Ebola . CNN's Joshua Berlinger, Joe Sutton, Daniel Burke, Greg Botelho, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Poppy Harlow, Haimy Assefa, Kristina Sgueglia and David Shortell contributed to this report.

NEW: Ebola survivor donates plasma to Dr. Craig Spencer . Doctors Without Borders says there is a ''notable lack of clarity'' in new guidelines . Health care worker arrived at Newark Liberty International Airport on Friday . Officials said she developed high temperature after arrival, result from Ebola test came back negative .

(CNN) -- Your days at the beach with a bucket and shovel making castles in the sand were child's play compared to what you'll see at sand sculpting events. There, the massive, inventive, intricate works of art go so far beyond "sand castles." You'll never look at sand and water the same way again. (Keep reminding yourself—it is just sand and water.) On Day One of a contest, a solo sculptor or "carver" is presented with a 10-ton pyramid of sand (two-person teams in doubles competition work with 20 to 25 tons). Then, through a rigorous process of shoveling, packing, stacking and carving, a sculpture takes shape. Spectators can watch it all -- from the first day "pound up" in which the sand is compressed, to the hours of carving with manual tools such as trowels, butter knives, tablespoons and drinking straws, plus some that the sculptors devise for themselves. (Dutch sculptor Wilfred Stijger's patented Willysphere -- inspired by the base of a wine glass -- makes perfect sand spheres.) "The first question anyone asks us is what happens when it rains, but wind and sun are worse than rain when you're sculpting sand," says Rusty Croft, who with Kirk Rademaker is co-owner of Sand Guys International and co-hosted the Travel Channel series "Sand Masters." "We wet down the sculptures as we work. The surface tension of the water holds the sand together." Finished sculptures may be sprayed with a solution of water and school glue to preserve them for long-term viewing. Nevertheless, many sand sculpture events are held under tents or temporary shelters safe from the elements, and quite a few take place off the beach in parks and open spaces where sand is brought in especially for the event. America's best little beach towns . "The sand is always different," Croft notes. "Sand dug out of the ground has sharp edges that lock together. Beach sand is rounded because it's been washed by the waves. You have to listen to the sand. It tells you what to build. Sand sculpture is a brilliant mix between engineering and artwork." Here are some of the masters' top picks for sand sculpting events around the globe. No bucket required. July 19-21, 2013 . National Sand Sculpting Festival, Revere Beach, Revere, Massachusetts . "There's a wonderful festival atmosphere here and the sand is definitely some of the best stuff out there -- you can make crazy vertical sculptures," says Sue McGrew, a Tacoma-based professional sand sculptor and a member of the "Sand Masters" team. "They finish the event off with a bang ... fireworks. And there's easy access from Boston by public transportation." August 10-September 8, 2013 . International Sand Sculpture Festival, Rorschach, Switzerland . "You're sculpting in a park on the Bodensee and you have the Alps behind you; the whole event has a great elegant feel," says Kirk Rademaker, who will pair with Wilfred Stijgers of the Netherlands in this year's doubles competition. With a full week to complete their pieces, the doubles carvers create spectacular things. Biggest, baddest roller coasters for summer . August 30-September 2, 2013 . U.S. Sand Sculpting Challenge, San Diego . On the water, but not on the beach, this four-day competition takes place on the B Street cruise ship terminal pier in downtown San Diego. Croft calls it one of the more progressive events on the sand sculpting calendar, giving carvers four days to work. There's also a head-to-head team competition and a chance for visitors to vote for this year's People's Choice sand sculpture. 5 spectacular and storied beach trips . September 27-October 6, 2013 . International Sandsculpting Championship, Virginia Beach, Virginia . A significant cash prize for the winners ensures that the field of competitors is top-notch. Carvers love this event and so do spectators. Look for lots of international representation here, including Fergus Mulvany from Ireland, Benjamin Probanza from Mexico, Edith Van Wetering of the Netherlands, and Canadian master carvers Guy-Olivier Deveau, David Ducharme, Karen Fralich and Abe Waterman. October 15-20, 2013 . Carve San Francisco, San Francisco . Croft and Rademaker are consulting on and participating in this event, which will be held for the first time this year. Through October 27 . International Sandsculpture Festival, Søndervig, Denmark . Each June, a team of international artists is invited to work together on an enormous sculpture of sand in this beach area of western Denmark. Done by 38 sculptors, this year's carving is complete; the sculpture will remain intact and on view until October 27. November 15-18, 2013 . Crystal Classic Master Sand Sculpting Competition, Siesta Key Beach, Sarasota, Florida . "Some of the most beautiful beach sand in the world," McGrew says. "I think this is a great little spot for anyone looking for super-clean, white sugar beaches and beautiful warm weather in November." Events include amateur competitions for kids and parents, head-to-head speed-carving events and a demonstration by Amazin Walter. Expect crowds—some 70,000 people attend over four days. Part of the proceeds supports sea turtle conservation projects at Mote Marine Laboratory. November 21-24, 2013 . Sanding Ovations Master Cup Sand Sculpting Competition, Treasure Island, Florida . Now in its fifth year, this event takes place beside the Bilmar Beach Resort on Florida's Gulf Coast. The competition is serious, but the atmosphere is laid-back, unpretentious and beachy. November 22-December 1, 2013 . American Sand Sculpting Championship, Fort Myers Beach, Florida . More than 1,000 tons of sand plus 30 master sculptors in singles and doubles competition add up to what's billed as the largest sand sculpting event in Florida. Now in its 27th year, it's also one of the oldest. In addition to the pros, amateurs and kids compete for prizes and acclaim—and everyone attempts to avoid structural collapse. "When you work with beach sand, you have to be flexible," Croft notes, "but it helps retain that 'sand castle' essence." December 26, 2013-January 26, 2014 . Hawkesbury International Sand Sculpting Championship, Howe Park, Windsor, NSW, Australia . Now in its third year, this competition is held in a park about an hour's drive from Sydney. Solo and team carvers work from December 26 to January 3 and the sculptures remain for People's Choice voting until January 26. (Summer in Australia, remember!) "The event is in a great location on the Hawkesbury River with sculptures nestled in between trees and park benches," McGrew says. April 11-13, 2014 . Texas SandFest, Port Aransas, Texas . When planning the annual Texas SandFest, organizers consult the tide charts to determine the dates of lowest tide, so while the chosen week varies from year to year, the event is always in early spring. That used to be before summer tourist season, yet after 18 years of successful festivals, tourists now arrive early—because of Texas SandFest. With events for both amateurs and pros, "it is a great community event with a good vibe," Rademaker says. June 2014 . Summer Signs Annual Sand Sculpture Festival, Jelgava, Latvia . "My favorite competition abroad," McGrew says. "In a beautiful park, a dozen or so international sculptors come together for a five-day event with practically no time limit. ... You can practically work 'til you drop, if you were so inclined." June 2014 . Master Sand Sculpting Competition, Hampton Beach, New Hampshire . This year's competition just ended, but pencil it in for next year—an annual event that brings in 200-plus tons of imported sand and a dozen or so master carvers to shape it into something beautiful, plus lessons and clinics for the public. June 2014 (likely) World Championship of Sand Sculpting, Atlantic City, New Jersey . This year's competition also just ended and dates haven't been posted for next year yet. Retired Atlantic City fireman and master sand sculptor John Gowdy helped bring this event to what is arguably sand sculpting's U.S. birthplace, where sand sculptors entertained crowds with art on the Boardwalk from the late 19th century until the 1940s. Look for Gowdy and fan favorite "Amazin Walter" McDonald from South Padre Island, Texas, among the competitors.

Sand sculpture events are serious business; this ain't your childhood sand castle building . It starts when a "carver" is presented with a 10-ton pyramid of sand to work with . Many events are not held at beaches, rather under tents or in parks and open spaces . Event venues include Florida and California, surprising places like Latvia and Denmark .

Tehran, Iran (CNN) -- Many in the West would like to see Iran punished for its nuclear ambitions. Tehran's residents would like those people to take a glimpse into their lives. The European Union announced Monday it is banning the import of Iranian crude oil and blocking trade in gold, diamonds, and precious metals, among other steps, adding to sanctions already imposed by the United States and the United Nations. The measures take a big toll on Iran's lifeblood oil revenues. The lives of ordinary Iranians have been deeply touched in recent weeks by the Western sanctions. Several spoke to CNN about how they are coping with staggering inflation and a plunging national currency, although none felt comfortable being fully identified, fearful of the Islamic Republic's long reach into private lives. Farhad, 47, was once comfortable, but things began sliding downhill when sanctions came and the foreign oil firm that employed him packed up and left. As a taxi driver, he works hard but saves little money. With the latest round of U.S. sanctions imposed on Iran's Central Bank last month, he has seen staggering inflation; the price of meat and milk have skyrocketed by as much as 50 percent. He and his wife have stopped having guests at their home or going out to eat. They can't remember when they bought new clothes and no longer send their suits to the cleaners. "I feel bad for the cleaners," he says. "They must be suffering as a result of people like me not using their services." Farhad has a savings account that is shrinking fast as he dips into it to make ends meet. His 21-year-old son works two part-time jobs while he earns a degree in computer science. Farhad feels bad that he can't afford to buy him the computer equipment he needs. "I wait and pray for something to spark the economy and get it going, but I am not holding my breath," he says. "Life must go on. We can only wait and see what the future has in store for us." In the meantime, he says, the only way for his sons to live a decent life is to fall in with influential people or make shady business deals like trading foreign currency on the black market. The United States and other Western powers argue sanctions that target Iran's central bank, oil exports and foreign trade are designed to push Iran to cooperate at the nuclear negotiating table. They believe the Islamic Republic is developing nuclear weapons, although Tehran insists its program is reserved strictly for civilian energy purposes. Prospects for talks have been dimmed by recent bellicose talk and actions aimed at destabilizing the Tehran government. It's doubtful, most analysts say, that punitive measures will bring Iran to its knees. Doubtful, too, is that Tehran residents will suffer the same fate as their Baghdad counterparts, who for years, under international sanctions against Saddam Hussein's regime, faced dire shortages of basic goods. But as Iranian-American scholar Haleh Esfandiari put it, the latest sanctions have been back-breaking, not just for the less affluent but also for the middle class. "People are buying less because the prices have gone up," she said. "That affects the shopkeepers. It's a vicious cycle." For many people, monthly government subsidies of $40 or $50 are no longer enough to get by, Esfandiari said. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told parliament recently that the most recent sanctions -- imposed after an International Atomic Energy Agency report that said Tehran appeared to have worked on developing a nuclear bomb -- were "the most extensive ... sanctions ever." Ahmadinejad called the sanctions "the heaviest economic onslaught on a nation in history ... every day, all our banking and trade activities and our agreements are being monitored and blocked." With the punitive measures came the downward spiral of the Iranian currency, the rial, severely devalued in the past few months against the U.S. dollar. That plunge, said CNN's Fareed Zakaria, is a key indication of Iran's instability. "When Barack Obama became president, you could buy 9,700 rials with one dollar," he wrote in a column. "Since then, the dollar has appreciated 60 percent against the rial, meaning you can buy 15,600 rials. Tehran's reaction to the prospect of sanctions that affect its oil exports shows its desperation." The higher dollar, of course, has made imported goods unaffordable for most Iranians. Farhad says he eyed a refrigerator several months ago. It was made in Iran and affordable. But when he returned to buy it, the price had gone up 20 percent. The salesman informed him that parts of the fridge were made in South Korea. The soaring prices and declining currency values come at a time when Iran is already facing "huge challenges" created partly by government mismanagement and failures in foreign policy, said one economist in Iran. "I think the situation will be aggravated in the coming months," he told CNN. "We will witness higher inflation and unemployment rates with less economic growth." Those who study the impact of sanctions argue that they must hurt in order to be effective, but not to the point where they break the economy, like they did in Iraq. That does not bode well for Iranians trying to make ends meet. Yaqoub, 59, fancies himself a retired tea man. That is, financial losses forced the office where he worked to close three years ago. He now does odd jobs. He manages to make about $200 a month and receives another $135 from the government. The youngest of his three daughters is not married yet and still lives with her parents. He says the family gave up eating fruit -- it's too pricey and now is just a treat when guests come over. Red meat went up from about $6 a kilogram to $9. Dinner at his house means vegetarian rice and beans. "When I ask the shopkeepers why the prices keep going up, (they) say the government sets the prices and they have to do as they are told," he says. "People are hungry and this is why crime has gone up." He says his son-in-law's motorcycle was stolen in front of his house. Theft was not something he worried about before. It's not just the price of food and consumer goods that are hurting Iranians. Services like electricity and water are costing more, too. Yaqoub's monthly utility bill has almost doubled to $19 a month. Add it all up, he says, and it's tough to make it on his income. His wife tells him to stop worrying or he'll have a heart attack. "I guess if we get really stuck for our daily expenses, I would have to move to a cheaper apartment or, in the worst case scenario, there will be no choice but to go to the north and live with my wife's parents. At least I won't have to worry about the rent there," he says. Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian-American Council, says sanctions are putting far more pressure on Iran's citizenry than on the regime they are intend to punish. "The government always has the ability to circumvent sanctions and shift the burden onto the population," Parsi says. Davood, 39, says he and his wife both have college degrees, but he earns money doing chores at an office -- making lunch, running errands, even cleaning. He worries for Assal, his 5-year-old daughter. Perhaps a day will come when he has to move to a less expensive city in order to pay for her education. "I see no chance for me to ever find a job where I can use my university degree," he says. "I am almost 40 now and as time goes by and I get older, no one will hire me. As it is, I am always worried that I may lose my job." Some Tehran residents are stocking up on things while they can afford it, and while they are still on the shelves. Rose, a retired nurse who survives solely on her government pension, bought a supply of grains and canned foods, just in case. She also feels lucky to own her apartment, so she doesn't have to worry about making rent. She says a friend recently was hospitalized for two weeks. It cost her more than $11,000. "Of course you cannot blame the doctors and hospitals because they have to pay for high-priced foods, materials and equipment," the nurse says. "Everything is related. High prices of food affect everything." Analysts say the government ought to be fearful of too much discontent. Unemployment and stagflation helped fuel the 2009 mass demonstrations that at times appeared on the brink of bringing change to Iran's authoritarian rule. Farhad says he understands he is caught up in global politics. "I don't know what must be done to correct the economic condition, but I don't blame the Americans and their sanctions," he says. Washington has to watch out for its own interests. And Iran, he says, must do what it can to safeguard its own. CNN's Shirzad Bozorgmehr reported from Tehran, Iran, and Moni Basu from Atlanta. CNN's Josh Levs contributed from Atlanta.

Some Tehran residents say they have cut back on what they buy, eat . Prices are soaring and the Iranian rial has been severely devalued . The latest round of sanctions came after a report on Iran's nuclear program . The European Union is considering an oil embargo Monday .

(CNN) -- Peter J. Goutiere was just shy of 30 years old when he piloted a Douglas C-47, the military designation of the venerable commercial DC-3, from Miami to Kolkata, India. The C-47 was the 100th to be delivered to the China National Aviation Corporation, or CNAC. It was 1944. The United States had been at war since December 7, 1941. CNAC had been at war long before that. The Japanese invaded China in 1937. Like airlines all over the globe would do as World War II unfolded, CNAC, based in Hong Kong, shifted its operations to military service as the Japanese closed in on Shanghai and southern China. Young pilot 'too old' for service . For a young Goutiere, of Katonah, New York, the delivery flight of this C-47, Douglas Serial Number 20806/Line Number 4193, would be his own entry into the war zone. He'd been rejected by the U.S. Army Air Corps when he volunteered after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor; he was too old, having missed the 26-and-a-half age cutoff. Rebuffed, he joined Pan American Air Ferries, a subsidiary of the storied airline set up to ferry all types of airplanes to the U.S. armed forces and allies. Goutiere ferried planes from the United States to Africa after joining Pan Am, but Ship 100 would take him to India, the jumping-off point to combat areas. The ferry flight of Ship 100 -- a short-range, twin-engine aircraft, designed to seat 21 passengers -- took 90 flight hours over 14 days. Goutiere flew via South America, Ascension Island in the mid-Atlantic, through Africa and on to India. In December 1942, Goutiere began flying for CNAC from India over the Himalayas to China, a dangerous routing call "the Hump," ferrying supplies for Chinese and U.S. troops and the U.S. Army Air Corps, for the rest of the war. A round trip took about seven hours. "There were three enemies," Goutiere told CNN. "Mountains, Japanese and the weather. Weather is what did the most damage." Goutiere flew Ship 100 on some of his 680 missions through September 1945, when Japan surrendered. Flying through history . The last time Goutiere saw Ship 100 was in 1945 -- until 69 years later, when on September 4 he arrived in Everett, Washington, at the Historic Flight Foundation (HFF) in the shadow of Boeing's giant wide-body plant at Paine Field. HFF acquired Ship 100 in 2006 and was preparing to fly the airplane to the annual CNAC reunion in San Francisco. After doing a walk-around inspection of the plane, Goutiere, family members and a small entourage piled into the historic aircraft for the flight to San Francisco, which took just less than five hours. The flight underscored advances in aviation technology. A flight leaving the Seattle area in a modern jetliner, for instance, would travel well past Chicago in five hours. The flight started off at 2,500 feet outside of Everett and over the Cascade Mountains in Northwest Oregon before hitting turbulence. Cruising at about 160 knots (roughly 185 mph) with no auto-pilot and using only visual flight rules, passengers felt their ears popping due to no pressurization in the cabin. After diverting around wildfires in the Mount Shasta area of northern California, the aircraft climbed to 13,800 feet to avoid restricted air space reserved for aerial tankers. American, Chinese WWII pilots embrace at historic reunion . Upon arrival at San Francisco International Airport, the plane was met by legendary CNAC C-47 pilot Moon Chin, who set a record during the war for evacuating 71 people fleeing the Japanese. One of the 71 was a U.S. Army Air Corps colonel named Jimmy Doolittle, who was making his way back to Allied lines after America's first offensive mission against Japan following the attack on Pearl Harbor -- the famous air raid on Tokyo in April 1942. Chin and Goutiere embraced and exchanged smiles and warm words in advance of celebrating the CNAC with scores of relatives of CNAC employees and families and others on hand to honor the men and women who took part in this theater of World War II. Goutiere and Chin are the sole remaining pilots who flew for the CNAC during World War II. Goutiere, who still resides in Katonah, will be 100 this month. Chin, now 102, lives in Hillsborough, California. Extreme hazards . While flying during the war, C-47s were unarmed. Goutiere carried only a .45 caliber pistol. He never was shot at and only iced up once, with four tons, forcing him from 18,000 feet to 12,000 feet. The dependable C-47 carried him to safety. The flying wasn't a cakewalk, however, and the Hump is littered with wreckage of airplanes that were brought down by weather or flying into the mountains. Ironically, good weather wasn't a good omen, either. "A clear day was dangerous," Goutiere recalled. "Japanese Zeros would come out, so we began flying at night. We did 15 to 18 trips a month. As we began to understand the weather, CNAC lost one aircraft a month " The planes had to thread their way through dangerous mountain passes. They were usually overloaded with supplies or fuel. Goutiere, along with his fellow pilots, delivered gasoline to American Boeing B-29 air bases, staging areas for bombing raids over Japan. Sometimes, under the demands of war, pilots took to the skies alone, Goutiere among them. The conga line of airplanes worked hand-in-hand with the American Volunteer Group (AVG), more commonly known as the Flying Tigers. CNAC was a principal source of fuel for the Tigers. Turbulent history for C-47 . When the war ended, Ship 100 was converted to passenger configuration and entered CNAC's peacetime service. But the civil war between the Chinese Nationalists under Chiang Kai-Shek and the Communists under Mao Tse-tung, which began before World War II and only moderated during the fight against the Japanese, resumed. CNAC helped evacuate Chiang's family to Taiwan (then called Formosa) when it became clear Mao and the Communists would soon claim victory. CNAC's fleet evacuated from China to Hong Kong during the closing days of the civil war. Lawsuits were filed over ownership and the fleet was tied up in courts for two years. A few airplanes remained airworthy during the limbo, including Ship 100. Saboteurs placed small bombs on these to prevent them from being flown into Communist China. Some failed to go off -- but one on Ship 100 did, damaging the fairing behind the right engine. Legal ownership was eventually resolved and Ship 100 was sold to Johnson & Johnson, the U.S. consumer goods company. The airplane was modified, adding landing gear doors to streamline aerodynamics and an elongated nose to accommodate radar. Historic Flight Foundation locates plane . By 2006, the aircraft had changed hands several more times and was owned by an aircraft broker in New York. John Sessions, founder of the Historic Flight Foundation, was looking for a DC-3 to add to the HFF collection of airworthy aircraft. HFF focuses on the 1937-1957 era of significant military and civil advances in aviation. Sessions wanted aircraft that weren't only from this era, but aircraft with a history. Ship 100 filled the bill. Sessions had the gear doors removed and replaced the "Pinocchio" nose with a standard DC-3 nose fabricated from scratch. The airliner was painted in Pan Am colors (his late wife worked for Pan Am); Pan Am owned 45% of CNAC until after WWII. HFF takes the DC-3 to air shows and offers rides. But the CNAC reunion became a special occasion, and Ship 100's flight from Everett to San Francisco became its longest in years at just less than five hours. For Goutiere, the reunion with Ship 100 was as important as the CNAC reunion in San Francisco. "I was home," an emotional Goutiere told the reunion. "I was homesick." You can fly on a combat-scarred Vietnam icon . Who is Pfc. Clarence Merriott and why was his Purple Heart for sale? Scott Hamilton is an aviation author and consultant based in the Seattle area.

WWII U.S. pilot Peter Goutiere flies in his old Douglas C-47 aircraft from Seattle area to San Francisco . Flight part of reunion of the famed China National Aviation Corp. The plane is owned by the Historic Flight Foundation of Everett, Washington . Moon Chin, 102, the CNAC's only other living wartime pilot, greeted Goutiere upon arrival in San Francisco .