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San Diego (CNN) -- Gaming has become an important part of Comic-Con International, the annual gathering that brings 150,000 attendees to San Diego for a celebration of comics, movies, television and pop culture. Game publishers and developers are offering exclusive hands-on opportunities to fans, including the chance to demo upcoming games on next-generation consoles from Sony and Microsoft. Sony has a booth inside the mammoth San Diego Convention Center where gamers can play games like "Driveclub," "Knack" and "Octodad: Dadliest Catch" on its forthcoming PlayStation 4. Microsoft has set up shop inside the Hard Rock Hotel across the street, where Xbox One games like "Ryse: Son of Rome," "FORZA Motorsport 5" and "Project Spark" are on display. Perhaps the most interesting place to play a next-gen game here is on board the 1863 windjammer Star of India, which is docked behind the Convention Center at the Fifth Avenue Landing. Players can control the virtual Jackdaw pirate ship in Ubisoft's much-anticipated "Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag" game, which ships October 30. Game publishers also are setting up free arcades throughout the neighboring Gaslamp District for the hordes of fans who don't have a convention badge. Sega's Pop-Up Arcade is offering the first public hands-on with the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS game "Sonic Lost World," along with other titles. Inside PetCo Park, home to baseball's San Diego Padres, Nerd HQ has an arcade filled with old-school coin games like "Donkey Kong" and "Centipede" alongside the latest Xbox 360 games from Microsoft. It even has the new Kickstarter virtual reality setup, Virtuix Omni, with Oculus Rift 3D head-tracking goggles for a full immersive experience. Also inside the ballpark is the second variation of Ruckus Sports' "The Walking Dead Escape," which allows fans of the AMC TV show to experience the undead live. The spectator option includes The Walking Dead Fan Festival, featuring "The Walking Dead" video games from Telltale Studios, including the new PS Vita version of the game. Outside the stadium, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment is promoting its 2014 open-world combat game, "Mad Max," by offering fans photo ops with a replica of the Road Warrior's car. The game is being developed by Avalanche Studios and will serve as a standalone story in the movies' fictional universe. For attendees who do have those coveted badges, gaming also has been incorporated into convention panels. "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are in town to talk about their collaboration with developer Oblivion on the role-playing game "South Park: The Stick of Truth." And fans will learn what's next for the groundbreaking hit "Defiance" at a panel with creators and actors from the hit TV show plus game developers who have launched a massively multiplayer online (MMO) action game set in the same universe. Here are five promising games from San Diego Comic-Con. "Batman: Arkham Origins" (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment; October 25; Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, Wii U) With WB Games Montreal taking over this popular franchise, gamers will take control of the Dark Knight very early on in the Batman mythology. This prequel, which is set on Christmas Eve in a snow-swept Gotham City, has the Black Mask putting a hit on Batman. Gamers must use all of Bruce Wayne's resources as they contend with eight criminal masterminds, including the Penguin, Deathstroke, Deadshot and the Joker, along with their assorted thugs. This Batman is aggressive and athletic, and he has a few new toys like the Batwing and the remote claw, which allows him to target multiple enemies in one swoop. Players will also explore new areas from the comic book mythology like Amusement Mile, Old Gotham and the city's docks. Much like Christopher Nolan's films, the "Arkham" franchise has excelled at bringing a fresh take to the Caped Crusader, and this third game is shaping up as another crossover hit. "Dead Rising 3" (Capcom; November; Xbox One) It wouldn't be Comic-Con without zombies. This latest game from Capcom Vancouver may be set 10 years after the events of "Dead Rising 2," but everything about this next-generation horror game is different -- beginning with the horror. The humorous tone of previous iterations is taking a back seat to real scares in this open world game. These zombies are frightening and a lot tougher to deal with. The city of Los Perdidos offers plenty of challenges (it's so large, you can actually fit the first two game worlds inside it), since it's been overrun by the undead. It's a huge seamless playground that's completely destructible. Vehicles, including a hearse, are at your disposal as transportation and another weapon against zombies. Players take control of mechanic Nick Ramos, who has the ability to build some very cool customized weapons. The game also utilizes Kinect voice, allowing players to distract zombies with voice commands. And the Xbox SmartGlass opens up exclusive missions and second-screen functionality for what looks like a bloody good time. Share your mini-interviews from Comic-Con . "Octodad: Dadliest Catch" (Young Horses; 2014; PlayStation 4, PC) Sony has embraced independent developers with its PS4 console and invited them onstage during its E3 news conference last month. One of those featured games comes from the Chicago-based Young Horses, and it's unlike any next-generation game out there. Players take control of an orange octopus somehow passing as a human by wearing a blue suit. The challenge is in accomplishing mundane tasks like shopping at a grocery store or cooking on a grill while controlling your tentacles to walk and pick things up. Those suction cups quickly get in the way, however. The objective is to remain unnoticed by the humans (who don't seem to mind an octopus until he starts flinging plates across the room by accident). The challenges get progressively more difficult, as players must navigate a wedding ceremony without tripping on banana peels or knocking over the priceless vases that line the aisle. This game offers plenty to laugh at and requires a lot of skill to complete. "Total War: Rome II" (Sega/The Collective Assembly; September 3; PC) In this real-time strategy game, players must assume control of a powerful ruler from the earliest days of the Roman republic with the goal of conquering the world. This sequel to the popular PC game returns us to the rich history of ancient Rome and incorporates everything from epic battles featuring hundreds of soldiers, horses, catapults and African war elephants to the political intrigue of diplomacy and nation-building. Players can zoom in to the battles as soldiers slice and dice their way through enemy lines. The game also allows naval battles, meaning warships can destroy enemy vessels, and sailors can board and fight the survivors. Even novices can command huge battlefields, moving from skirmish to skirmish with the click of a mouse. If you have a higher-end PC, the developers have brought every detail, from the weapons to the landscapes, to life in high-definition glory. History has never been so much fun. "Watch Dogs" (Ubisoft; November 19; Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, Wii U, Xbox One, PlayStation 4) Ubisoft is introducing a massive open-world game that recreates the city of Chicago and allows players to control every camera, traffic light and El train within it. Playing as Aiden Pierce, a hacker with a smartphone that connects to Chicago's central operation system, players can access every element of the city's infrastructure and learn about every citizen who surrounds them. All of this power creates superhero-like capabilities through technology. Players must decide how to use this power and gauge their own morality level by choosing to help crime victims or aid the bad guys. Every action will have repercussions, as the police and even citizens will get involved. The game utilizes Xbox SmartGlass, allowing a second player to either help or hinder Pierce as he explores this world.

Developers are offering hands-on opportunities at San Diego Comic-Con . Sega is offering a public hands-on with the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS game "Sonic Lost World" Warner Bros. Interactive is promoting its 2014 open-world combat game, "Mad Max" Trey Parker and Matt Stone are promoting a role-playing game, "South Park: The Stick of Truth"

(CNN) -- On safari in Europe? Surely the place has been settled too long for that -- roads and real estate must have edged out the wild creatures that once roamed the continent. Not entirely. With an intrepid spirit -- and a dose of patience -- you'll find big game experiences from the Arctic Circle to the shores of the Mediterranean. Polar bear (Norway) Not many places in the world make you carry a gun when you're leaving town. Svalbard, Norway's frozen northernmost territory, does. Anyone leaving a settlement is required by law to carry a rifle in case they need to kill a polar bear in self-defense. The world's largest land carnivore, polar bears prey mainly on ringed seals, but without a bear-sized gun you could become a snack. Midway between Norway and the North Pole, Svalbard is an archipelago of black rock, snow and glaciers surrounded by ice floes. It's hard to believe that anything could live here, but these islands and the waters around them are home to about 3,000 polar bears. They spend much of their time at sea, so it's often best (and safest) to see them from a boat. Plenty of companies offer boat trips in small expedition vessels from Longyearbyen, Svalbard's main town, including Nordic Visitor and Spitsbergen Travel. Bear sightings are almost guaranteed, with basking walruses a bonus. When to go: midsummer, when 24 hours of daylight give you plenty of time to see bears and other wildlife. Rifle rental costs around $30 per day from adventure travel stores on Longyearbyen's main street. You need special permission from the Governor of Svalbard or a weapon license to carry a rifle. SAS and Norwegian fly to Longyearbyen from Oslo. More information from Visit Norway. Moose (Sweden) Sweden: moose capital of the world. The country has more of the creatures per square kilometer than anywhere else in the world. Despite the best efforts of Swedish hunters, around 250,000 moose (more often known as elk in Europe) roam the country's forests. In autumn, they sometimes wander into towns and villages, drunk on fermented apples. The rest of the time, moose can be hard to find, blending into their native habitat with surprising ease for such a large animal. One of the best places to see them is the Bergslagen forest (wolves and beaver also inhabit the forest), two hours' drive from Stockholm. From the Kolarbyn Eco Lodge (Skarsjon, 73992 Skinnskatteberg; +46 70 400 7053) -- billed in self-deprecating style as "Sweden's most primitive hotel" -- you can set off on a twilight moose-spotting walk with every chance of seeing groups of up to 20 of the magnificent beasts. When to go: August-September is the best time to see big bull with mighty antlers. Getting there: Skinskatteberg train station is two kilometers from the eco-lodge. Lynx (Spain) Fewer than 250 Iberian lynx survive in the wild -- most in the Mediterranean forests of the Sierra Morena, in Andalusia, and in the grasslands and pine woods of the Coto Donana, close to the mouth of the River Guadalquivir. You need to spend up to a week (and rise before dawn) in the Sierra de Andujar Natural Park or the Donana National Park to maximize your chances of seeing Europe's only big cat. If lynx fail to show up, you may see mouflon, red and fallow deer, wild boar and spectacular birds, including black vulture, griffon vulture, imperial eagle and -- in the coastal wetlands of the Coto Donana -- flamingos. When to go: all year. Sierra de Andujar Natural Park Visitor Center, Las Vinas de Penallana, kilometer 13, Highway A6177, approximately 100 kilometers east of Cordoba; +34 953 549 030 . Coto Donana National Park Visitor Center, La Rocina, approximately 130 kilometers southwest of Seville; +34 959 442 340 . Wild horses, wild cattle (Netherlands) It's a bizarre sight. In a feral enclave surrounded by the most artificial landscape in Europe -- those parts of the Netherlands reclaimed from the sea -- thousands of wild horses, red deer and Heck cattle roam. An expanse of almost 60 square kilometers of meadows and wetlands, Oostvardersplassen is the result of "rewilding" an area of land reclaimed from the sea that was originally zoned for industry. When the original plans remained undeveloped, Dutch scientists introduced deer, konik ("little ponies") from Poland and Heck cattle. The last are relics of a 20th-century German attempt to recreate the giant aurochs of northern Europe, extinct since the 17th century. Vast flocks of graylag geese add to the feeling that you're deep in the wilderness. In fact, you're just more than 60 kilometers from Amsterdam. When to go: all year, but best in spring and autumn. Oostvardersplassen Visitor Centre, Kitsweg 1, 8218 AA Lelystad; +31 320 254 585; visit by guided walking tour only. Getting there: Almere Oostvardes train station is two kilometers from the visitor center. Bison (Poland, Belarus) Straddling the border between northeast Poland and Belarus, the Bialowieza forest is Europe's last remaining expanse of primeval woodland. It's home to the only wild herd of European bison, also called wisent or, in Polish, zubr. About 450 of these huge, shaggy beasts live in Bialowieza National Park (+48 85 682 9700) on the Polish side of the border, where they plod through snow-covered meadows in winter and graze on bison grass in summer. The forest is also home to elk, red and roe deer, wild boar, wolf, beaver and lynx -- but the bison is the big ticket attraction. When to go: all year round, but best between May and September. Getting there: Bialowieza is about 260 kilometers (4 hours, 20 minutes' drive) east of Warsaw. By rail to Hajnowka, then bus to Bialowieza village. Mouflon (Corsica) Corsica's rugged, sparsely populated interior provides a refuge for one of Europe's most striking mountain mammals: the mouflon. Much of the island's fierce hinterland is contained within the Natural Regional Park of Corsica, where maquis scrub and high pine forests provide a refuge for the endemic wild sheep that's the island's emblem. Beneath the towering 2,710-meter summit of Mt. Cinio, the high alpine meadows of the Asco Valley are home to Corsica's biggest mouflon population. When to go: spring and autumn. Maison du Mouflon et de la Nature, Mairie d'Asco, Asco; +33 495 47 82 07; about 70 kilometers west of Bastia . Brown bear (Finland) The swathes of uninhabited taiga along Finland's border with Russia are the best place in Europe to see brown bear close up. In summer, you can hope to see as many as 20 bears in one night at the Martinselkosen Wilds Center (Pirttivaarantie 131, Ruhtinansalmi; +358 8736 160) -- wolf and wolverine are sometimes seen here, too. Females with cubs make their appearance in June, adolescents turn up throughout the summer, big males come and go. You'll be watching at night from a carefully camouflaged (and comfortable) hide. Bears are likely to be 10-30 meters away from you, but with luck -- and if you stay quiet and still -- they may come closer. When to go: May to mid-August. Getting there: flights and trains from Helsinki to Kajaani, 160 kilometers south of Pirttivaarantie.

Spotting polar bear in Norway's Svalbard, you have to carry a rifle by law . Bison roam Eastern Europe's last patch of primeval forest . Rare Iberian lynx reward the wait in Spain .

New Orleans (CNN) -- Waging war against historic flooding in eight Midwestern and Southern states, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened a spillway north of New Orleans on Monday in an effort to calm the rising Mississippi River. A crowd gathered near the entrance to the Bonnet Carre spillway to watch workers use cranes to slide open the gates to the flood control system. The spillway, like another that could be opened next week, is designed to divert floodwater away from New Orleans and slow the raging river to protect the low-lying city. Bonnet Carre is part of a system built after the devastating Mississippi River flood of 1927. While the river's highest levels may still be days away, a decision to open the second flood control structure -- the Morganza Spillway -- may not be, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said. People with property that would flood if the spillway is opened should not dally, Jindal warned: "My advice to our people is not to wait, to get prepared now." The Bonnet Carre spillway diverts water from the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico by way of Lake Pontchartrain. But opening the Morganza Spillway would flood populated areas and could put Morgan City, Louisiana, and other communities at risk. Col. Ed Fleming, the Corps of Engineers' district commander in New Orleans, said he has requested the authority to open the Morganza Spillway. Jindal said the Louisiana National Guard had asked for at least three days, but preferably five days, to evacuate those areas before the Corps opens the gates. Upstream in Memphis, Tennessee, residents and authorities had prepared all they could Monday as they waited for the Mississippi to crest at a near-record 14 feet above flood stage Tuesday morning. "It's sort of torturous," Memphis Mayor A.C. Wharton Jr. said. "We've been waiting so long. It's hard keeping people's attention. It's warning fatigue, if you will. But we're ready for it." The river level stood at 47.8 feet Monday evening and is expected to crest at 48 feet, said Ryan Husted, a forecaster for the National Weather Service in Memphis. President Barack Obama signed a disaster declaration for the state of Tennessee Monday, which will help direct federal aid toward recovery efforts in areas hit by severe storms, flooding and tornadoes since early April. The Mississippi is the highest it's been at Memphis since 1937, when it crested at 48.7 feet -- 14.7 feet above flood stage. That flood killed 500 people and inundated 20 million acres of land, said Col. Vernie Reichling, the Corps' Memphis District commander. The river covered the lowest parts of the city's historic Beale Street and had forced about 400 people from their homes Monday, Wharton said. Another 1,300 remained in low-lying areas, he said. Corps officials said levees protecting the area appeared to be holding up well, with only minor amounts of water seeping in from beneath or lapping over from above. "All of our levees were designed to withstand heights greater than what we're seeing today, although this height is significant," Cory Williams, chief of geotechnical engineering in the Memphis district with the Corps, told CNN affiliate WMC. "The levees have held up very well in this event." But local officials were taking no chances. "It's a very powerful river. It looks like it's running very slowly, but it has a very strong current," said Bob Nations, director of preparedness in Shelby County, Tennessee, which includes Memphis. "We still don't know (exactly what) the river might do." Nicholas Pegues, an East Memphis resident who lives near the Wolf River, said he's seen extensive flooding and homes left uninhabitable by the water as he's traveled through the region. "It's affecting daily life tremendously," said Pegues, a Shelby County elections' division employee who submitted photos of the flooding to CNN iReport. "It is pretty severe downtown. ... I know a lot of ... people have lost their homes." Wharton said the flooding had not yet caused major disruptions in the city, and he did not expect it to, even though National Weather Service meteorologist Bill Borghoff said it is possible the river won't fall below flood stage at Memphis until June. That's the problem in Missouri and southern Illinois, where flooding continues even though the Mississippi and Ohio river crests have moved south. In Murphysboro, Illinois, CNN iReporter Robert Icenogle said a swollen creek is inundating a church and bandshell while threatening to wash out telephone poles. "We cannot get to the park, which is underwater, or to other towns," he said. "Most of the roads are closed, plus the water sewage plant is getting sandbagged." If a nearby sewer plant is forced to shut down, "We won't have tap water to bathe in or drink," he added. Last week, the Corps intentionally breached a levee in Missouri as part of its effort to reduce the pressure on other levees, flooding 130,000 acres of agricultural land over the objection of state officials and some farmers. "I'm very sad. I look at that and I don't have a home," Marilynn Nally said, pointing to her flooded family farm. "I feel like we're having to suffer for somebody else." As the floodwaters worked their way south, the operator of a nuclear power plant in Port Gibson, Mississippi, expressed concerns that rising water could cut off an access road to the facility. However, there was no plan to shut down the Grand Gulf Nuclear Power Station and no immediate cause for concern, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Agency said Monday. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour told CNN's John King the greatest risk will likely be from flooding around the powerful river's tributaries, rather the Mississippi itself. "Pray for the best, but prepare for the worst," he said. In Louisiana, where the river's crest is not expected to begin arriving until next week, Jindal added bears to the list of things residents need to think about. He said flooding could force some of the state's ursine residents from their homes and into populated areas. So far, 21 parishes have issued emergency declarations ahead of expected flooding, Jindal said. He said 400 National Guard troops would be active by the end of the day Monday helping prepare for the flood. Even with a forecast for record or near-record crests into next week and weeks of high water to follow, Corps officials say they expect nothing like the widespread and devastating flooding that occurred along the southernmost stretch of the Mississippi River in 1927. That flood began near Memphis in the fall of 1926 and did not end until the following August, according to the National Weather Service. It devastated the levee system, and flooded 165 million acres of land, sweeping 600,000 people from their homes. It came at a cost of 246 lives and the equivalent of nearly $624 million in 2011 dollars. As a result of that flood, the report says, Congress passed the Flood Control Act of 1928, which led to a massive public works programs to build a system of levees and other structures designed to hold back the river more effectively. The latest flooding in the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys is largely the byproduct of torrential rains throughout the region. Over one two-week stretch, there was about 600% more precipitation than usual, Reichling said. The weather now appears to be working in the flood fighters' favor. Only minimal rain is expected over the coming days, with daytime temperatures forecast to be in the upper 80s and 90s through Thursday, at which point the water levels should begin to creep back down. Still, a spokesman for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency told HLN's Vinne Politan that people around the river and its tributaries need to be careful and should not wait until they see water to take action. "It's going to be a tragedy on many levels. So many people are going to be displaced. They're going to be displaced for a long time and they may not have much of anything to come back to," said Jeff Rent. CNN's Greg Botelho, Marlena Baldacci, Phil Gast and Ben Smith contributed to this report.

NEW: "It's going to be a tragedy on many levels," says Miss. emergency management spokesman . U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opens a spillway to protect New Orleans . There's been flooding around Memphis, though levees appear sound, officials say . The river near Memphis is expected to crest at a near-record 14 feet above flood stage .

(CNN) -- Arab League members Sunday called for a joint peacekeeping mission in Syria with the United Nations and urged members to support the Syrian opposition as it faces a bloody government crackdown. The moves are aimed at putting additional pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his government, which has unleashed its army on a popular revolt. The proposed peacekeeping mission would oversee the aftermath of a cease-fire, the Cairo-based Arab League announced Sunday. But Syria quickly said it was not on board with the idea. The Arab League suspended Syria's membership in January, and the Syrian government announced that any decision made without it "is not binding." The proposal reflects "the state of hysteria affecting some Arab governments, especially Qatar and Saudi Arabia, after Qatar's failure to pass a U.N. resolution that allows foreign intervention in Syria," according the Syrian government. The league, which suspended Syria in January, said its members have decided to end the previous monitoring mission, which had been in Syria in December and January, to request a joint U.N.- Arab League peacekeeping mission. A communiqué issued after Sunday's meeting called on members to "open channels of communication" with Syrian opposition groups and provide "political and financial support." It urged members to cut diplomatic and economic ties with Damascus "except for those that directly affect Syrian citizens." And it warned, "The use of violence against Syrian civilians with this extreme cruelty, including the targeting of women and children, lies under the jurisdiction of the international criminal law and requires the punishment of its perpetrators." The Local Coordination Committees of Syria, a network of opposition activists, praised the Arab League for "making the decision to improve its performance in its national and humanitarian duty to the Syrian people." "We therefore appeal to brotherly and friendly nations, international organizations and non-governmental organizations around the world to expedite development and relief programs to help Syrians in overcoming the daily oppression and injustice under which they live," the LCC said. "We also call on all Syrian political and activist entities to coordinate their efforts under a consolidated framework to ensure that relief supplies and other assistance are delivered immediately to those who need them." U.N. officials say about 6,000 have been killed since last March, when al-Assad began cracking down on peaceful protests against his government. Syria has consistently blamed "armed terrorist groups" for the violence, and its allies, Russia and China, vetoed a U.N. resolution February 4 that was aimed at bringing an end to the strife. The Arab League said Sunday it would ask the United Nations to consider its initiative "as soon as possible," although the timetable for any action is unknown. And earlier, Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby signaled that he'd had recent communications with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov indicating that Moscow may alter its positions. In a written statement, Elaraby quoted a letter he said was written by Lavrov, stating that an end to "any violence must be the main pillar for any proposal." "We are ready to support an expanded monitoring mission and folding it under the joint care of the Arab League and the United Nations on the basis of an agreement from all involved parties," Elaraby quoted Lavrov. There was no immediate comment from Russia's government about the reported communication or any significant shift in that nation's position. Also Sunday, former Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdul Ilah al-Khatib was named the league's envoy to Syria, Jordan's state news agency Petra reported. He will replace Lt. Gen. Mohammad Ahmad al-Dabi, of Sudan as head of the monitoring mission. Michael O'Hanlon: 3 military options in Syria . The latest maneuvering came as opposition activists reported another day of shelling by Syrian forces around the city of Homs. One opposition activist said government forces are using detained civilians as human shields, placing them on tanks to prevent the opposition Free Syrian Army from fighting back. Residents say shelling rained on the city's Baba Amr neighborhood once again Sunday, for at least the eighth straight day. "My house is dancing. I am almost dead because of the siege," said the opposition activist, named Omar. CNN cannot independently confirm details of the fighting in Syria because the government has severely limited the access of international journalists. But despite denials by Syria, virtually all reports from within the country indicate al-Assad's forces are slaughtering protesters and other civilians en masse. In Damascus, meanwhile, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported that al-Assad has received a copy of a new constitution -- a development it said shows Syria's serious moves toward reform. "When the new constitution is approved, Syria will have passed the most important stage of laying down the constitutional and legal structure ... to take the country to a new era of cooperation with all spectrums of the Syrian people to achieve what we all aspire for in terms of developing our country to draw a brilliant future for next generations," SANA quoted al-Assad. But the LCC said at least 30 more people died Sunday, including a woman and two children. The dead included five in Homs and nine in Daraa, it said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, another opposition activist group, reported different numbers, including 14 dead in Homs. That figure includes a child killed by a sniper in Daraa, three civilians killed in the Baba Amr shelling and a civilian shot dead near the town of Bab Houweid. The observatory also said a member of Syria's army was killed in Daraa and eight were killed in Hama, as were civilians in each city. Syria said Sunday, via SANA, that "martyrs" of two terrorist attacks in Aleppo were buried. How Syria differs from Libya . The situation continues to draw commentary and proposals from prominent figures worldwide.One was al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri who, in a video posted online Saturday, characterized al-Assad "the butcher son of a butcher" and praising the Syrian people for waging "jihad." A U.S. official said "it is not a surprise that Zawahiri would try to appear relevant by releasing this new video," noting that he also tried to do so during Egypt's recent revolution. The official added there is no sense that Syrian opposition leaders favor their nation moving toward "extremism," if al-Assad is ousted. Then on Sunday, from St. Peter's Square in the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI backed "legitimate aspirations" of the Syrian people and called on "everyone, and above all the political authorities in Syria, to favor the paths of dialogue, reconciliation and commitment to peace." The international community has repeatedly failed to convince al-Assad's regime to stop the massacre, so it's unclear what effect the Arab League proposal could have. Saudi Arabia is among the most outspoken nations, with Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal saying Sunday that "the Syrian leadership has chosen chaos." "It is killing its people and destroying the nation only to maintain its authority," he said. "What is happening in Syria leaves no doubt that it is not ethnic or sectarian war or urban warfare. It is a campaign of mass cleansing to punish the Syrian people and enforce the regime's authority without any humanitarian or ethical regards." The Saudis have brought forth a draft resolution that it expected to be considered Monday by U.N. diplomats. It will be submitted to the U.N. General Assembly, where vetoes are not allowed, but resolutions are not legally binding. Russia and China have vetoed previous U.N. Security Council attempts at passing a resolution condemning the Syrian regime. The latest, three-page draft "strongly condemns" the violations of human rights by Syrian authorities. It cites "the use of force against civilians, arbitrary executions, killing and persecution of protesters, human rights defenders and journalists, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, interference with access to medical treatment, torture, sexual violence and ill-treatment, including against children." The text was provided to CNN by a diplomatic source on the condition that it not be posted in full because it could be amended. U.N. officials estimate 6,000 people have died since protests seeking al-Assad's ouster began nearly a year ago. The LCC says the toll has far exceeded 7,000, with nearly 700 killed in the past week -- about two-thirds of them in Homs. CNN's Amir Ahmed, Ben Wedeman, Salma Abdelaziz, Ivan Watson, Joe Sterling, Richard Roth, Josh Levs, Barbara Starr and journalist Mohamed Fadel Fahmy contributed to this report.

NEW: Arab League names Jordanian diplomat as Syrian envoy, Petra reports . Opposition groups praise the Arab League call for support . Syria rejects Arab League, pointing to "hysteria affecting some Arab governments" Government troops keep up bombardment of Homs, activists say .

London (CNN) -- Tensions between police and marauding gangs continued into Tuesday in areas of Great Britain, after violence initially sparked by the shooting death of a 29-year-old man in London spread to other parts of the nation. The number of people arrested in London since the violence began has risen to 334, police said Tuesday. During the overnight hours, standoffs continued at several locations in London as police in riot gear warily watched roaming gangs often just yards away. A bus in Ealing, West London, a bus was vandalized and set on fire, while the driver was still on board. He escaped without injury. There was evidence of vandalism in central London, with visible damage to a number of shops. The developments come as reports flowed in from other parts of the country that outbreaks of violence and vandalism had occurred. In Bristol, in southwest England, police said several shops and vehicles were damaged Monday night and "a number of main roads have been closed to allow officers to take control of what is currently a volatile situation." "Officers are urging people to avoid the city centre at this time. People already in the city centre should leave the area and go home," Bristol police said in a statement early Tuesday. Street disturbances appeared to have spread to Birmingham, about 120 miles north of London, where police said "several premises" in the city center had been attacked "with some shop windows smashed and property stolen in various locations." A police statement issued early Tuesday said about 100 people had been arrested in Birmingham and added there were no reports of "major injuries of member of the public or police officers as a result of the disorder." Disturbances also were reported in the Liverpool area, about 180 miles northwest of London, with police there saying officers had responded to "reports of vehicles on fire and criminal damage" in south Liverpool. The office of British Prime Minister David Cameron announced that Cameron would return to London Monday night, cutting short a vacation in Italy, for meetings to discuss the violence. As disturbances and looting flared in various parts of London, an official from the London Fire Brigade told CNN: "We are too busy now to take any calls from the media." Police reported "fires burning at a number of premises including a very large blaze at a sofa factory" in the south London borough of Croydon. In the Hackney area of east London, gangs attacked a police car and shops. Video showed riot police involved in skirmishes, youths destroying a police car, smashing shop windows, a sporting goods shop being looted and the window of another shop being smashed. Police said in a statement that a crowd of between 250 and 300 people gathered, with those in the crowd throwing "petrol bombs" and setting cars ablaze. In Lewisham in south London, a car was set afire. "This is just thugs wanting to intimidate people," Councillor Michael Harris told the BBC. "We've had good community relations in Lewisham and it's simply not justified." He described the people carrying out the acts as young people whose faces were covered with masks. Several hundred people in the center of Peckham in South London threw projectiles -- stones, clay pots and bottles -- with one policeman saying, "they raided the bottle bank," CNN's Dan Rivers reported from the scene. Large numbers of them, many with faces covered by shirts and bandannas, rushed back and forth with police -- in far fewer numbers -- standing their ground at the entrances to roads, Rivers said. Police created a cordon around Clapham Junction, one of London's busiest train stations, with trains unable to go to or from the station. There was no obvious sign of violence at the station but a policewoman told CNN it was not safe for people to go near the station. The policewoman did not explain why. The violence started in the ethnically diverse, working-class suburb north of London's center whose residents are predominantly Afro-Caribbean. Saturday's riots occurred after the shooting death Thursday of Mark Duggan, a black man, as he was seated inside a cab. Officers from Operation Trident -- the Metropolitan Police unit that deals with gun crime in London's black communities -- stopped the cab during an attempted arrest and soon afterward shots were fired, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said. Duggan, a father of four, was fatally shot. Shooting deaths are rare in England. The commission divulged neither who shot Duggan nor why police had stopped the cab, with the incident still under investigation. Some reports suggested that Duggan was held down by police and shot in the head, but the IPCC has denied this. "Speculation that Mark Duggan was 'assassinated' in an execution style involving a number of shots to the head are categorically untrue," the IPCC said in a statement. A British police watchdog group said evidence from Thursday's shooting scene, including a nonpolice firearm, was to undergo forensic testing. The man's family and friends, who blamed police for the death, gathered Saturday night outside the Tottenham police station to protest. The protest began peacefully but soon devolved into riots as demonstrators -- whose numbers included whites and blacks -- tossed petrol bombs, looted stores and burned police cars. The unrest prompted Home Secretary Theresa May to cut short her summer vacation and return Monday afternoon to London. In all, 35 police officers have been injured since the violence broke out, Metropolitan Police said. On Monday morning, residents in the South London neighborhood of Brixton awoke to see the aftermath of Sunday night's sporadic shooting in the commercial center. A KFC's windows were smashed, a Foot Locker store was burned, and the main street was closed as police investigators combed through the area looking for evidence. Police said they were reviewing closed-circuit television footage in an attempt to identify looters. Looting also occurred in pockets of Enfield, next to Tottenham, in north London. "The scenes of violence and destruction over the weekend are utterly appalling," said London Mayor Boris Johnson, in a statement. "People have lost their homes, businesses and livelihoods through mindless violence. I understand the need for urgent answers into the shooting incident that resulted in the death of a young local man, and I've sought reassurances that the IPCC are doing exactly that. But let's be clear these acts of sheer criminality across London are nothing to do with this incident and must stop now." A representative of Johnson said Monday evening that he was cutting short his family holiday in North America to return to London. Police said the rioting and looting in other parts of the capital were "copycat" events conducted by opportunists and criminals. "This is not about the black community and the police, it's about young people and the police," said Shaun Bailey, a youth worker, in a statement circulated by the mayor's office. "And let's not beat around the bush and pretend this is some type of social justice protest -- it's sheer criminality." The specter that such violence could arise had been a concern to David Lammy long before the weekend. The Labour MP for Tottenham told a reporter in March that Tottenham could become a scene of violence as cuts to social-service programs for youths were implemented. "It's heartbreaking," he told the Tottenham & Wood Green Journal. "I'm really worried that the social experiment that we're seeing from the Tory-led coalition will lead to scenes akin to something that we see in some of the inner-city areas of America and that's why we need to bring this government down." But the leader of Enfield Council, Doug Taylor, was unmoved. "There can be no justification for the violence and the looting," the Labour Party member told a reporter. Deputy Prime Minister Nicholas Clegg called the rioters "opportunists -- cynical folks who are indulging in smash-and-grab criminality." Police say they have evidence that some of the rioting was coordinated using social media, including Twitter. Tottenham was the site of riots before. In 1985 Floyd Jarrett, who was of Afro-Caribbean origin, was stopped by police near the Broadwater Farm estate in Tottenham on suspicion of driving with a forged tax disc, a document all British vehicles must carry. A few hours later, officers raided the nearby home of his mother, who collapsed and died during the raid. Rioting erupted shortly afterwards. Like the current violence, a protest outside Tottenham Police Station sparked the 1985 conflict. CNN's Dan Rivers, Annabel Archer, Phil Black, David Wilkinson, Atika Shubert, Bryony Jones, Erin McLaughlin, Bharati Naik, Aliza Kassim and David Wilkinson contributed to this report.

NEW: Bristol police tell citizens to stay away from "a volatile situation" in the city . NEW: A bus is attacked and vandalized in Ealing, West London . Police report disturbances in the Liverpool area . Prime minister returns to London from holiday .

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- NATO aircraft launched more than a dozen strikes on the Libyan capital early Tuesday, and smoke could be seen rising from the area near Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's Bab-al-Azizia compound in Tripoli. The NATO attack, one of the heaviest against Tripoli since the NATO mission began just over two months ago, started at about 1 a.m. and lasted more than 20 minutes, with alliance jets circling overhead and Libyan loyalist forces responding with anti-aircraft fire. Moussa Ibrahim, a Libyan government spokesman, said the attack targeted a guard compound for pro-Gadhafi military volunteers that had been emptied in anticipation. At least three people were killed and 150 wounded, Ibrahim said, calling the attack an escalation by NATO. Reporters felt and heard explosions from the airstrike that rocked the hotel housing members of the international media. Outbursts of gunfire, as well as ambulance sirens, could be heard in the streets. A NATO statement said the attack targeted a "regime vehicle storage facility" adjacent to the Bab-al-Azizia compound using precision-guided weapons. The facility resupplies government forces that have been attacking Libyan civilians, according to the NATO statement. Gadhafi's forces "still represent a threat to civilians and we will continue to strike targets that carry out this violence," said Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard of Canada, who commands the Libya operation. Journalists later visited a hospital where they reported they saw the bodies of three men, at least two covered in dust, and a number of injured people. CNN did not go on the hospital visit because of safety concerns. On Monday, forces loyal to Gadhafi attacked a rebel-held border crossing into Tunisia in a battle that resulted in nine deaths, according to the rebels' military commander in Zintan, Hajj Osama. He said Gadhafi infantry who attacked rebels controlling the border post suffered eight fatalities; one rebel fighter was killed. Food and fuel are shipped into Libya and wounded rebels are taken out for medical treatment via the crossing, which is literally a lifeline to the rebels, the rebel commander said. Since they were driven from the border checkposts by rebels more than two weeks ago, Gadhafi's troops have been shelling the rebels' nearby mountaintop holdouts to try to regain control of this vital artery. In the towns of Yefren and Algalaa, southwest of Tripoli, only about 1,000 residents remained of the usual population of 22,000, said a local person who is in touch with rebels there. The military commander in Zintan, near the border with Tunisia, corroborated those numbers. They contrast with figures issued by the Libyan Committee for Humanitarian aid and Relief, which said 22,000 to 25,000 people remained trapped in the two towns, and that about 40,000 others had been displaced to other towns in the Nafusa Mountains, Tripoli and Tunisia. For the past two months, the towns' dwindling numbers of residents have been enduring spartan living conditions -- without electricity or fuel and with only limited access to water, since Gadhafi forces control the region's water wells and have contaminated some of them with oil, the committee said. Banks in Yefren and Algalaa have been closed since February 17, which has led to a widespread shortage of cash, it added. The cities' main water tank has been out of commission since it was damaged six weeks ago by missiles and no food supplies have entered the area since March 1, it said. Snipers loyal to Gadhafi control access to the hospital in Yefren and most doctors have fled, it added. In other NATO efforts against Gadhafi forces Monday, an airstrike hit a Libyan army position outside the rebel town of Jadu in the western mountains, rebels in Zintan told CNN. The attack took place around noon (6 a.m. ET), shortly after the Gadhafi forces at that position had launched Grad rockets into the rebel-held town, rebels said. NATO reported Monday that since its operation began on March 31, it has flown 7,870 sorties, including 3,025 strike sorties, which are intended to identify and engage targets, but do not necessarily deploy munitions. On Sunday, a command-and-control center was hit near Tripoli and a missile support facility was struck near Al Khums, NATO said in a news release. Near Sirte, an ammunition storage facility was struck and, near Brega, a command-and-control facility was targeted, it said. A spokesman for France's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said France plans to add attack helicopters to the country's arsenal in Libya, saying the aircraft would make "more precise" strikes possible. Media reports said Britain also plans to use attack helicopters. A spokesman for Britain's Ministry of Defense said only that, "As with any military campaign, we are constantly reviewing our options alongside allies to enhance the capabilities available to NATO." Nearly 600 migrants and wounded civilians arrived Monday afternoon in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi aboard a boat from the embattled city of Misrata, said the International Organization for Migration, which chartered the vessel. The boat's arrival marked the seventh such mission carried out by the group since mid-April. The boat's passengers included nearly 400 people from Niger as well as migrants from Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, Pakistan, Egypt, Bangladesh, Tunisia and seven Palestinians. The boat had arrived Saturday in Misrata carrying 280 tons of food aid and a field hospital. The developments came as the International Committee of the Red Cross appealed to donors for an additional $53 million "to help the organization meet the urgent needs of people affected by the fighting in Libya." "As long as the conflict in Libya continues, the outlook for the coming months is dire, and living conditions may further deteriorate for a large percentage of the population," said Boris Michel, ICRC head of operations for North and West Africa. The Council of the European Union reiterated its call Monday for the protection of civilians, a cease-fire and identifying Gadhafi as "a threat to the Libyan people." Catherine Ashton, the European Union's foreign policy chief, was to detail on Monday meetings with Libya's rebel leaders a day after opening an office in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi. Ashton was to brief the EU's foreign ministers about weekend meetings where she pledged support from the 27-nation union to the chairman of Libya's Transitional National Council. "I am here today to explain and be clear about the depth and breadth of our support in the European Union for the people of Libya," Ashton said in a statement Sunday by the EU shortly after her meeting with Mustafa Abdul Jalil, the transitional council chairman. During the meeting, Ashton said she and Jalil discussed security reform, border management, the economy and civil society. Arrest warrants have been issued by the International criminal Court for Gadhafi and two relatives, linking them to "widespread and systematic" attacks on civilians as they struggle to retain power in Libya. The court's chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, has said that the court in The Hague will investigate allegations of institutionalized rape in the war-torn country. A Libyan government official told CNN that Gadhafi's government welcomes the court's investigation but said that prosecutors "have not been to Libya to do an investigation." Siham Sergewa, a Libyan psychologist, has been collecting reports of women reportedly raped and beaten by Gadhafi'sforces that she says she is sharing with the criminal court. Sergewa told CNN's Sara Sidner that she began collecting the reports after receiving a call from the mother of a patient in Ajdabiya, a town in eastern Libya that was the scene of some of the earliest fighting between rebels and government forces. The mother told Sergewa that she had been abducted by three or four men and taken to the desert where she was raped. Since then, Sergewa told CNN she has collected surveys from more than 270 women at refugee camps along Libya's borders with Egypt and Tunisia who allege they were assaulted by Gadhafi forces. CNN's Nima Elbagir, Amir Ahmed, Nic Robertson and Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this report.

Compound for pro-Gadhafi volunteers was targeted . It is one of the heaviest NATO attacks on Tripoli so far . France to use attack helicopters, official says; reports say UK also plans to . The EU's foreign policy chief pledges support to Libyan rebel government .

(CNN) -- Gary Johnson says there are three keys to his campaign being successful: he needs you to know who he is, he needs to be on the ballot in as many states as possible and he needs other libertarians to support him. And for the next two months, Johnson, the Libertarian party candidate for president and acknowledged underdog, will be zig-zagging across the country to make those admittedly unique goals a reality. That is the thrust of his argument: Once you get to know me, I swear you'll like me. Johnson has fashioned himself the "clear alternative" to Republican candidate Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama in November's presidential election. The most recent CNN/ORC International poll shows that 3% of likely voters and 4% of registered voters say they'd vote for Johnson. But the fact he is even included in a poll is enough to get Johnson excited. "It is one thing if it gets reported that I am at 4% nationally," said Johnson, the former governor of New Mexico, "but I don't think I go down when people take a look at who I am and what I have done, I think it actually goes up." And in some ways, he has proof to back that up. Johnson first ran for governor of New Mexico -- a state with a majority of Democratic voters -- in 1994 as a Republican. He won in the Republican primary, defeating three other Republicans, and then defeated an incumbent Democratic governor by 10 points. After four years in office, Johnson ran again and won in 1998. Johnson's popularity remained consistently high through his time as governor, leading one paper to remark that he was "arguably the most popular governor of the decade." CNN Poll: Could Gary Johnson be spoiler? But he has his work cut out for him. The most notable third party presidential contenders are from the 1800s -- John Tyler, Andrew Johnson -- and even they were largely independents because their original parties disowned them. The last third-party presidential candidate to make a significant run at the White House was Ross Perot in 1992. He ultimately carried no states and earned 19,743,821 votes. In 2000, Green Party candidate Ralph Nader was labeled as a "spoiler" after getting nearly 100,000 votes in Florida. He was seen by some as siphoning votes away from Democratic candidate Al Gore, who ultimately lost to George W. Bush in the closest election in modern U.S. history. And Johnson, who first announced his candidacy as a Republican, only switched to Libertarian when his campaign failed to gain much traction during the primaries. He has huge burdens when it comes to fund-raising -- he had only $14,265 in cash on hand at the start of August -- and in organization, with a passionate but small collection of staff and volunteers in a handful of states. And then there's name recognition: Gary who? Still, Johnson believes he can defy the odds and make the unlikely climb. "I just need to catch a wave by the middle of October and awareness for me is a plus," Johnson told CNN. "I do think that I have a resume to back up everything that I am talking about." Johnson says he is more liberal than Obama on social issues and more conservative than Romney on fiscal issues. He says same-sex marriage is a constitutional issue and should be legal, he supports legalizing marijuana usage and he says he would abolish the Internal Revenue Service. The third-party candidate is optimistic and is devoting large sums of his own money to make this campaign possible -- much of which came from Big J Enterprises, his mechanical contracting business in New Mexico. But what Johnson's here-is-what-we-have-to-do optimism fails to clearly show is the daunting challenge in front of him. Johnson's ballot access gospel . Johnson is proud that he is likely going to be on the ballot in 47 states, even if that status is being challenged in three states -- Oklahoma, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Before being asked, Johnson brings the ballot access issue up to differentiate himself from other third-party candidates, like the Green Party's Jill Stein. "No other third party is going to come close to this 50 ballot access," Johnson says proudly. "I am a clear alternative to the other two and I want to point out that we are going to be on the ballot in all 50 states." Johnson sees the struggles to get on the ballots as a badge of honor. "We should take it as a compliment," he said, that the party establishment doesn't want him on the ballot. Compliment or not -- even if you are on the ballot, people have to know who you are. Hi, my name is Gary Johnson . Fighting for ballot access and libertarian support are all for naught, however, unless Johnson is able to introduce himself to the American people, his campaign admits. At the heart of this introduction are the three prime-time presidential debates. "The only way I am (going to be) president of the United States is if I am in the national debate between Obama and Romney," Johnson said. "If that takes place, then anything is possible." The last time a third-party candidate was included in the presidential debates was 1992, when Perot, an independent businessman, was running for president. And due to the fact that the three presidential debates have been announced without Johnson's inclusion, the candidate admits it isn't likely he will be included. "It is absolutely an uphill battle," Johnson said, "but that is the only scenario by which I could actually win." But Johnson isn't putting all his stock in being included in the debates. He is taking his message on the road, hitting 16 college towns around the country in the next few weeks. In the statement announcing the trip, Johnson touches upon the importance of the youth vote -- and in particular, the way young voters were inspired by another libertarian, Rep. Ron Paul. A Libertarian courting Libertarians . It is unusual that the Libertarian candidate for president is being forced to court other libertarians, but that's exactly what Johnson has to do with the unflinchingly loyal base of libertarians who support former Republican hopeful Ron Paul. According to Johnson, the Paul supporters are "absolutely pivotal" to his success. Johnson acts surprised that he has to do this, too. "Where does his support go?" the former governor asks. "To Mitt Romney? To Barack Obama? Or to me?" Libertarians are a unique set of voters. While they agree on some things -- individual freedoms, the right to do what you want without government coercion and a generally liberal social policy -- they also share a fierce independent streak. That independence, which largely stems from the desire to make their own decisions, makes the libertarian movement less of a cohesive group and more of a set of factions exchanging ideas. When making his pitch to Paul supporters, Johnson lists a litany of positions on which he and the former candidate agree. "I don't want to bomb Iran, I want to bring the troops home, I want to end the drug war," Johnson says quickly. "I want to end the Patriot Act, I want to balance the federal budget tomorrow and I want to abolish the IRS." But many Paul supporters don't see those issues as that black-and-white. Reaction to Johnson's candidacy has been tepid and varied. "He is ok. He is definitely very close," said Mike Salvi, a Ron Paul grassroots organizer. "Gary is very much in line with Dr. Paul on many issues," said Jordan Page, a performer who traveled with the Paul campaign. "(It's) the first time we have had a viable third party candidate." "I am not sure if I will vote for Gary Johnson," said Danny Panzella, another Paul grassroots organizer. "I don't see him as a principle Libertarian." Johnson endorsed Paul in 2008, when the Texas congressman was running for president, and when Johnson dropped out of the race as a Republican in 2012, he urged his supporters to vote for Paul in the Republican primaries. So far though, Paul has yet to give Johnson much support in 2012. "We don't have contact with the Ron Paul campaign," Johnson said bluntly. "I am not asking for his endorsement and I don't expect his endorsement." The tension between Paul and Johnson is evidence of a larger split among libertarians. Paul commanded such a loyal following, that with his political career dwindling, there is power vacuum in the movement right now. With Johnson as the party's candidate, he is trying to position himself as the group's heir apparent. "I am the Libertarian nominee for president," Johnson said. "I am now the spokesperson for the movement."

Johnson switched to the Libertarian Party when his campaign stalled in the primaries . The former New Mexico governor may be on the ballot in as many as 47 states . Still, name recognition is one of his biggest hurdles as a third-party candidate .

(CNN) -- I was 5 years old and my dad and I were on our way to the neighborhood bakery to buy a loaf of bread. It was early on the morning of January 1, 1959. A stranger stopped us on the deserted street right outside our second-floor apartment. CNN's Arthur Brice remembers his fear, uncertainty and excitement as a boy during the Cuban revolution. "Did you hear?" he asked. "Batista is gone." Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista had fled the country in the middle of the night. Fidel Castro would soon be in power. Not many people can remember details from when they were 5 years old. But not many people have lived through what I did in the late 1950s. Conversations with my parents have refreshed those memories. I remember a sense of surprise and excitement that morning, tinged with fear and uncertainty. My dad says I was tranquil and quiet. "Let's go back upstairs," he said after hearing the news. "Yes, let's go, Papi," my dad quoted me as saying. Back in our apartment, we tuned the radio to a local station, which confirmed the news. My mother insisted we stay inside, saying there would be trouble. Indeed, a short while later, we heard loud gunshots as rebels hunted down Batista officials and supporters door-to-door. That night, someone went up to our building's rooftop patio, looking for a Batista supporter. Two shots rang out. I cringed, squatting next to a wall. I remember the terror I felt. That was the day the revolution triumphed. In two short years, Fidel Castro and his ragtag band of rebels had done what many considered impossible. They would soon march triumphantly down the spine of Cuba from their rebel stronghold in Oriente Province on the eastern end of the island to Havana to assume power. Fifty years later, Castro, his younger brother Raul and other revolutionaries are still there -- but not so for the millions of Cubans who have fled to the United States and elsewhere. Twenty-one months after that morning when we heard the news, my family and I would be among those refugees. It is fair to say that few Cubans who lived through the revolution expected that outcome. Castro had been hugely popular and widely seen as a savior who would deliver Cuba from 50 years of dictatorships and unstable governments. He had promised free elections and a return to constitutional government. The highly unpopular and much-feared Batista had been a major player in Cuban politics since 1933, when he and a group of low-ranking army officials took control of the government. A power-broker, Batista effectively ruled behind the scenes until he was elected president in 1940. He held power until 1944, when he was defeated for re-election. Batista did not go away quietly. He was elected to the Senate in 1948 and was running for president in 1952 when he staged a coup after it looked like he wouldn't win. Ruthless and dictatorial, he ruled with a bloody iron fist. Fidel Castro, meanwhile, had been a student leader at the University of Havana in the late 1940s, heavily involved in the violent and passionate Cuban politics. On July 26, 1953, he and a group of about 100 followers attacked the military Moncada Barracks in the eastern city of Santiago. The attack failed miserably and about half of the insurgents were killed. Castro fled to the nearby Sierra Maestra mountains, but was captured a short while later. While on trial in late 1953, he gave his famous "History Will Absolve Me" speech in which he said, "Condemn me. It does not matter. History will absolve me." Pardoned under a general amnesty in 1955, Castro fled to Mexico, where he continued to plot against Batista. He formed the 26th of July Movement, named for the date of the Moncada Barracks attack, and gathered money and support. It was there that Castro met a man who would become a revolutionary legend, the Argentinean Ernesto "Che" Guevara. In late November 1956, the rebels set sail from Veracruz aboard an old yacht named "Granma." Castro and his group of less than 100 followers landed a week later in eastern Cuba, where most of them were caught or killed. Castro, his brother Raul and Guevara were among the handful who escaped into the Sierra Maestra mountains, where Castro had sought refuge after his disastrous Moncada attack three years earlier. The rebel leader won popular support among the peasants in his remote hideaway while urban dissidents sowed insurrection in the cities. Adopting guerrilla warfare tactics, Castro and his followers were able to inflict stinging defeats on Batista's army, which was mostly composed of young, untrained and unmotivated soldiers. My mother, father, new baby brother and I lived in Santiago during the revolution, near the Sierra Maestra. From a vantage point in the city, we could see Batista's planes bombing the rebel strongholds in the distance. We would see Batista's armed troop convoys leaving their garrisons in the morning, heading for the jungle of the mountains. There were whispered comments among Cubans that the ambulances full of dead and wounded soldiers were returning under cover of darkness in the middle of the night. What happened during the revolution registered strongly on a young boy who was robbed of a normal childhood, but who grew up witnessing history outside his front door. I remember my dad coming home from work one day with a bullet hole in his car from a stray shot. I remember heading to the beach one day along a country road outside Santiago and my dad unsuccessfully trying to push my head down in the back seat so I couldn't see the body lying next to the highway, barbed wire strung around the man's neck. I remember looking out the second-floor balcony of an apartment we previously lived in and seeing a car full of young men chasing a screaming woman down the middle of the street. The men's arms stretched out of the windows as they pointed weapons at the woman. The woman and the men disappeared from view, blocked by the corner of the building, so I never knew what happened to her. That day, a major shoot-out broke out in the plaza in front of our apartment and my mother and I hugged the floor for safety. She crawled into the kitchen and got me a small glass of wine, which she had me drink so I would fall asleep. When I woke, there was quiet -- but no peace. Another day, a car with four Batista secret police pulled up downstairs and the men got out, leaving the doors open and the engine running. They went into the business downstairs, searching for a Castro supporter. I don't know what happened there, either. I remember a few days after the announcement of Batista's defeat, Castro started his procession down from the mountains and along Cuba's central highway to the capital, Havana. My parents were thinking about going down to watch the triumphant parade, but I asked that we not. I was scared of what might happen. A few days later, I remember watching our console black-and-white TV as Castro gave his first speech before tens of thousands in Havana. I don't remember his words, but I do remember a white dove that perched on his shoulder as Camilo Cienfuegos, a major revolutionary leader and cohort, stood by his side. Every once in a while, Castro would stop and turn to Cienfuegos and ask him, "Voy bien, Camilo?" Am I doing OK, Camilo? And Cienfuegos would answer, "Vas bien, Fidel." Ten months later, Cienfuegos' plane disappeared over the ocean during a flight to Havana, and the whispering started. Although it is widely held that Cienfuegos perished in an accident, many Cubans started saying privately that Castro or his brother Raul had him taken out over political differences or because of a perceived threat from the charismatic revolutionary known for wearing a wide-brimmed hat. To this day, the Castros continue to pay homage to Cienfuegos. An official logo for the 50th anniversary of the revolution bears a drawing of Castro and Cienfuegos. And to this day, I remember the day 50 years ago that began with a journey for a loaf of bread that would change my life and that of so many others forever.

CNN's Arthur Brice in Santiago when Castro, other rebels rose up against Batista . Brice family witness to warplanes bombing rebel camps, heard shoot-outs . Boy's world included police raids, rebels going door- to-door, body by the road . 50 years ago, a stranger on a deserted street asks: "Did you hear? Batista is gone"

(CNN) -- While President Barack Obama has made promoting rights for gays and lesbians worldwide a key foreign policy goal, that is little comfort to Ali Asseri, a former Saudi diplomat who is gay. Asseri is fighting a years-long battle for asylum in the United States, convinced his life will be in danger if he is forced to return home. The case presents a dilemma for the Obama administration as the President travels to Saudi Arabia to meet with King Abdullah amid a time of strained relations between the close allies. Saudi Arabia's radical form of Islam mandates the death penalty for same-sex relations. "I come from the darkest place on earth," Asseri said in a phone interview from his home in West Hollywood. "We are brainwashed that we have the best system and sharia law comes from god. But they teach us to hate others. I came to America to clear my mind." Asseri grew up in a middle class conservative Saudi family, the middle child with three brothers and three sisters. His parents had little education and raised him and his brothers and sisters true to Saudi culture and religion. There was no music or TV. He didn't know for years that he was gay. By age 13, he realized he was different than other boys his age, he just had no idea what that difference was. "We don't have any education about sex. You don't know what gay means. You just know that you have feelings. You can't talk about it with anyone. According to the Koran they are a sin. I thought it would just go away. I just had feelings but you can't talk about it with any person." As a law student, he considered a career as an attorney and took a job as a clerk for a judge in the Saudi court. After a few months, he quit. In a petition seeking asylum to the United States obtained by CNN, he wrote that "unfair bias" in the treatment of cases in Saudi Arabia made it "morally impossible for me to continue." "I was frequently upset and saddened by the system in general and the punishments given to the accused," he wrote. Investigates sexuality . For another year he worked as a trainee in the Bureau of Investigation and Prosecution, where he would check on the prisoners to see whether they were receiving proper treatment. He was forced by his managers to witness prisoners being lashed, which gave him bad dreams. He quit his job once again, frustrated with the harsh punishments and his inability to do anything to stop them. At that time he started to investigate his faith, religion and sexuality. "Without these jobs I wouldn't be the same person now," he said. "I began to understand something isn't right about the way we practice religion. Something didn't feel good. I said to myself the only way you can have freedom is to be a diplomat and travel out of the country." He joined the Foreign Ministry as a diplomat and got married to a Saudi woman, all the time hiding his feelings and dreaming of the day he could leave the country and live his life as an openly gay man. When his wife gave birth to his son, Fahad, Asseri tried one last time to give his arrangement a chance. But he found he could not keep up the charade and they divorced in 2004. Asseri was transferred to the Saudi consulate in Los Angeles the next year. A double life . Here, he writes in his asylum petition, "I discovered the gay community, the gay culture and that I was in fact gay." For four years he led a double life. By day, he was a traditional diplomat. By night, he visited gay bars and told friends he was from Italy or any other country than his own. Asseri's two worlds collided in 2009 when he fell in love and moved into a West Hollywood apartment with his boyfriend. Finding happiness for the first time, he enjoyed an open social life in West Hollywood with his new friends. Soon his colleagues began to ask him about his life outside of work and started following him. When his passport expired and he submitted it for renewal, he received no reply. After several months, his office told him his time in the United States was up and he would have to return to Saudi Arabia. He began to fear he was found out. He called a friend in the foreign ministry in Riyadh, who told him indeed the Consul General sent a letter to the ministry stating he was gay and had information about his lifestyle. "This is when I became really scared and paranoid," he writes in his asylum petition. "I was so scared they would do something to me physically. I was even afraid to go to my car thinking there could be a bomb in it. When I came home I had to check every closet." He sent a letter to various news organizations saying he was being harassed by colleagues and he feared for his life. Fearing persecution . He applied for asylum as a gay person who would face persecution if sent home. In more than eight hours of questioning, immigration officers focused on his jobs in the Saudi courts and Bureau of investigation. His bid for asylum was no common occurrence. The last Saudi diplomat to seek asylum was in 1994, when Mohammed al-Khilewi, then first secretary for the Saudi mission to the United Nations, was granted asylum for publicly criticizing his country's human rights record and alleged support for terrorism. Fourteen months later in October 2011, the Department of Homeland Security denied Asseri's application. In the rejection letter, obtained by CNN, the government says "evidence indicates that you ordered, incited, assisted or otherwise participated in the persecution of others on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion." The case went to automatic appeal. "They interviewed him once and it took 14 months and it showed they were going for denial," says Ali Ahmed, a Saudi dissident and activist that has been helping Asseri with his case. "They used the reason that he worked for the courts to call him a human rights violator which is really bogus." Obama on gay rights . Two months later, Obama signed a Memorandum on International Initiatives to Advance the Human Rights of LGBT Persons. It included a program to protect gay refugees and asylum seekers, including "ensuring the federal government has the ability to identify and expedite resettlement of highly vulnerable persons with urgent protection needs." In the memo, Obama writes that the fight to end discrimination against LGBT people is "a global challenge" and "central to the United States' commitment to promoting human rights." "I am deeply concerned by the violence and discrimination targeting LGBT persons around the world — whether it is passing laws that criminalize LGBT status, beating citizens simply for joining peaceful LGBT pride celebrations, or killing men, women, and children for their perceived sexual orientation," Obama said. In its most recent human rights report, the State Department said under sharia law in the Saudi Arabia, "consensual same-sex conduct is punishable by death or flogging." Ongoing case . It wasn't until this past February that Asseri was finally granted a hearing date for his appeal. At the court, the immigration officer offered him a deal to remain in the country permanently without possibility of asylum or a green card. Additionally, he could never leave the country. When he rejected the offer, the immigration officer applied for another continuance, saying she needed to submit more documents in the two-year case. He is now looking at a new hearing date in 2015. Today, Asseri barely makes ends meet as a part-time security guard. He lives on couches at friends' apartments in West Hollywood. His family has shunned him and his ex-wife won't allow him to talk to his son. As unbearable as his life in limbo is, he says returning to Saudi Arabia would be a death sentence. "There is no question," he says. "If you go back and say I am gay and proud and I don't believe in religion anymore. Under sharia law this is death. You will be happy if they kill you right away. " Ahmed, the Saudi activist, says Asseri is a victim of U.S. desires not to upset the Saudi monarchy. Asseri had been convinced that Obama's stated commitment to gay rights would trump politics and keep him safe in the United States. "When President Obama ran in 2008 I supported him. I cried for him, I encouraged my American friends to vote for him. Now I can't stand to watch him on TV," he says. "I'm angry. He said he supports the rights of gay people, so why is this happening to me?" The Saudi embassy in Washington and consulate in Los Angeles did not return phone calls. The Department of Homeland Security declined comment, saying asylum cases were confidential.

Former Saudi diplomat fighting battle for asylum in the United States, fears return home . Case presents a dilemma for President Obama while in Saudi Arabia . Saudi form of Islam mandates the death penalty for same-sex relations . Obama has underscored efforts to end discrimination against LGBT people .

(CNN) -- They learned as children that the world is a scary place where strangers with hatred in their hearts steer planes into buildings, grown-ups cry for days and everything can change in an instant. They grew up with color-coded terror alerts and long lines at airport metal detectors. They saw the economy sputter. And still, the bad guys appeared to get away with it. Osama bin Laden was their bogeyman, the monster under the bed. Now the 9/11 generation has come of age. Children who were 8, 9 or 10 when the World Trade Center towers fell and the Pentagon burned are in college. So when the news came that bin Laden was dead, it was young people across the country -- from the campuses of Penn State to American University to Vanderbilt to Stanford --­ who filled the streets with a chorus of cheers, honking horns and fireworks that lasted well into the wee hours of Monday morning. Check out iReport's Open Story for world reaction . For the 9/11 generation ­-- the label experts give to a subgroup of the millennial generation or generation Net -- it was a celebration of America's renewed strength under a president they helped elect. To them, bin Laden wasn't so much a person as an embodiment of all things scary and evil, said Dr. Patricia Somers, an education professor who has studied college students affected by 9/11. "They were celebrating a symbol," she told CNN over the phone from her office at the University of Texas in Austin. The 9/11 generation, Somers said, actually is made up of two subgroups -- children who were in high school or college when the terror attacks occurred, and those who were in elementary school. The experience for the older children was less filtered; many watched live television reports of the attacks in their living rooms and classrooms. The elementary school children were more sheltered, a conscious decision by parents and educators to spare them from trauma. They experienced 9/11 in later installments, through memorials and anniversaries. The older group can remember a safe "before," Somers said. The younger ones, 10 years later, may not even recall a time when there was not a war on terror. Members of the 9/11 generation seem to have more in common with their grandparents than their parents; both experienced attacks from outsiders with a clearly identifiable evil frontman ­ -- Adolf Hitler during World War II and bin Laden during 9/11. Students who grew up near New York City feel the effects of 9/11 more deeply than others, ­no matter their age at the time. They are more likely to know someone who died that day. The attacks are part of the region's shared experience. At Rutgers University, 30 miles from New York, students in the communications department are compiling a narrative of the experiences of children who lost a parent at the World Trade Center. For many, it means profiling people from their hometowns in New Jersey. Those experiences appear to have shaped their reactions to bin Laden's death. When the news broke, Rutgers junior Megan Schuster immediately thought of the Hargrave sisters -- Corinne, Casey and Amy -- whom she interviewed for the 9/11 Project. The girls' father, T.J., a former soap star and executive at Cantor Fitzgerald, died as the twin towers fell. Read Megan Schuster's essay . Schuster was troubled by the exuberant reaction to bin Laden's death. "I don't like the concept of 'celebrating' death," she said. "Killing bin Laden does not bring back the lives of all those lost on 9/11. I think it teaches the encouragement of death. But death is not the answer." Senior Travis Fedschun was glued to the television for updates. He said he didn't feel like celebrating, even if capturing bin Laden seemed to be the first thing that had gone right for the United States in a long time. His thoughts turned to the teenager he interviewed for the Rutgers project, Kaila Starita, who lost her father, Anthony. He worked at Cantor Fitzgerald. "Families don't use the word closure. What's this going to do? It's not closure," Fedschun said. "It was something we could check off our to-do list. I didn't think it would be appropriate to go out and parade around." Read what Travis Fedschun has to say . Added a fellow student working on the project, senior David Seamon: "It's not for us to say whether or not bin Laden's death will help a fatherless teenager sleep better at night." Seamon interviewed a brother and sister from Colonia, New Jersey, and he is still rewriting their story. Read David Seamon's comments . Jennifer Lilonsky is 24, at least a couple years older than the other students working on the project, and knows her perspective is darker because she was "less sheltered" from the horror. "The truth is that it will never end. That is the goal of terrorism," she said. "This is not justice. There will never be justice. ... Even the end of his life alone brings fear." Read Jennifer Lilonsky's insights . Experts who have studied the 9/11 generation say its members are more patriotic, more politically aware, more socially conscious and more plugged in than previous generations. So yes, American flags were waved, not burned, on campuses Sunday night. Chants of "U-S-A! U-S-A!" thundered as if killing a terrorist was an Olympic event. "We were young at the time of the September 11 attacks, so we have grown up with this constantly in our minds," Chris McDonald, a student at Vanderbilt, told CNN's iReport. "To see justice delivered after such a long, hard wait is a feeling of unspeakable happiness." Noah Gray, an American University student who joined the celebrants in front of the White House, said a friend summed up how his generation feels in a tweet on Sunday night: "Osama was the first person I was ever taught to hate. I waited 10 years, but now it's done. Unreal." But not everyone of that generation felt unbridled joy. Betsy Mitchell, a 19-year-old student at East Carolina University, said she was ridiculed on Facebook for tempering her glee. "Celebrate our military, celebrate America for standing tall, don't celebrate the fall," she said. "I did not like it when the terrorists celebrated killing Americans, I don't like it when we do the same thing. Yes, bin Laden needed to die, but he is still a human being." Ohio State University student Robert Peterson told iReport that he had second thoughts as "people ran through the streets, blowing noisemakers and shouting in happiness" but he didn't judge the revelers. "I do not feel it is right to celebrate the death of a person, but what we are seeing here is the demise of terrorism. Thus, I am not so much enamored for the death of bin Laden as I am for progression toward a safer, less violent world." Belief blog: Partying made me cringe Belief blog: Making no apologies . Somers, the University of Texas education professor, led a widely quoted study of 9/11's impact on college students. She said bin Laden's death represents "the end of an era" for them. "But there will still be terrorism, and there will still be terrorist attacks. Everybody was celebrating Sunday night, but then a sobering realization comes to them. It's been 10 years, and it was a rough 10 years," she said. Somers based her study on what is known as Terror Management Theory. People who face their own mortality after acts of terrorism respond by seeking meaning and purpose in their lives, she explained. After 9/11, most Americans reacted with shock, disbelief, a need to huddle with friends and family and retreat from gatherings of large groups. Some bought guns or stocked up on duct tape and canned goods. Others searched for information. But among college students, Somers witnessed more lasting reactions. As the initial shock wore off, many students became intensely patriotic. Then, some questioned their patriotism, asking, "Do we have to accept everything the government does?" They grew interested in politics. Giving blood after the attacks fed a growing civic-mindedness, and they volunteered for charitable groups. Some even changed majors or signed up for military duty. "Right after 9/11, we had the new normal," Somers said. "Maybe this is the newest normal."

College campuses erupted in celebration at news of Osama bin Laden's death . Students were 8 to 12 at the time of the 9/11 terror attacks . Some believed strongly that they should not be celebrating a death . Terrorism affected their lives like no other American generation in history .

(CNN) -- The roar of the crowd was deafening on April 9, as 30,000 Indians cheered on their teams at one of Kolkata's most hotly anticipated sporting events -- except this crowd was not supporting record-breaking batsman Sachin Tendulkar or marveling at Harbhajan Singh's fast spin bowl. The event was the Kolkata Derby -- a fierce soccer rivalry between Mohun Bagan AC and Kingfisher East Bengal Football Club that has seen both teams clash 299 times over the last eight decades. The passion of the crowd was a sign of Kolkata's long romance with the "beautiful game," and indicative of a sport on the rise in India. Soccer's history on the subcontinent stretches back to the late 1800s when it was introduced by British colonial administrators and its subsequent growth means that today it boasts 83 million television viewers, according to the India-based TV ratings agency TAM Media Research. This figure is third only to India's de facto national sport and first love, cricket, which comes first with 122 million viewers, and wrestling which attracts 96 million. Furthermore, a data study conducted by TAM Media Research between 2005 and 2009 found that India's football audience increased by 60% within this five-year period. This trend was reinforced by a Nielsen survey in 2010 which found that 47% of India's 1.2 billion (2009 World Bank figures) population would describe themselves as football fans. The popularity of the English Premier League, which is broadcast on satellite channels such as ESPN, has also mushroomed among India's affluent middle class, who are increasingly passionate about a game traditionally perceived as working class. According to Manu Sawhney, managing director of ESPN STAR Sports, the channel broadcasts more than 230 English Premier League matches live every season and offers over 1500 hours of programming, thereby feeding the growth in demand. Jonathan Hill, the FA's group commercial director, said: "Together we have grown the popularity of English football in Asia and we look forward to continuing this strong relationship in the coming years." India's World Cup audience has also witnessed a marked increase in recent years. In 2006, the tournament was viewed by 50 million people in India through ESPN STAR Sports alone -- a 44% rise from the 2002 figure. Popularity paradox . The paradox of the recent boom in popularity is that -- unlike like other countries such as Japan, Australia and South Korea -- the growth in demand has not been led by the success of the national team. India last qualified for the World Cup in 1950 and currently places 146th in FIFA's global rankings thanks to a series of qualification failures for major tournaments -- albeit interspersed by victories in the Asian Games, the Asian Nations Cup, the South Asian Football Federation Cup and the AFC Challenge Cup. For Kalyan Chaubey, CEO of Mohun Bagan Football Academy, there are a number of factors that have contributed to the current state of affairs. "I think a lack of international matches [is] a problem and our neighboring countries Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan are not strong enough, so we are not getting competitive matches," Chaubey told CNN. "[But] the All India Football Federation (AIFF) has restructured their administration and recently money has been pouring into the game, so more windows of opportunity are opening up," he added. "I'm sure football has a viable market in a country with a population of 1.2 billion. There are many pockets across [India] where football is equally or more popular than cricket, such as Goa, Kolkata, Kerala, Bangalore, parts of Delhi and the whole northeast of India. The passion is really high -- we just need to achieve something internationally." The domestic dilemma . The national team is not the only area of untapped potential, according to many working in football in India; the domestic leagues and infrastructure could both be areas for development. Chaubey cites heavy competition for an insufficient number of stadiums prone to monsoon-inflicted damage as a notable obstacle stifling the potential of Indian football, which he says regularly attracts up to 500,000 spectators in the northeast of the country. "Every state has its own football league and there are at least five divisions," Chaubey said. "Each division has 15 to 20 teams, so getting grounds is an issue. "When there are 100 grounds in a city that has 500 football teams that practice regularly, [clubs] hardly have time to maintain those grounds." Building for the future . But it is at the grass roots where arguably the need is greatest and the most effort is being focused, according to Chaubey. "Lots of youths are keen to play football but we are lacking quality coaches and infrastructure. [Many] senior teams get the facilities but youths don't." Football coach Bill Adams, agrees with the sentiment and founded the Super Soccer Academy in New Delhi in 1998 as a way to combat what he saw as poor standards of youth coaching. "There was a big disconnect between what I'd been doing and the kind of things the schools were doing with my child," he told CNN. "The coaching was designed for adults not for seven-year-olds." Adams says the professional football he encountered when he relocated to India from Britain in the early 1990s was "amateurish" and held back by the government-controlled Sports Authority of India and the AIFF, which administers association football in India and controls the top-tier I-League. But due to funding from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), which has recently insisted on the AIFF employing professionals, Adams thinks the situation is improving. "The AFC have really worked hard to professionalize football in India," he said. "Ten years ago, there was nowhere near this level of professionalism. The AFC are insisting on a particular management structure and a particular academy structure, otherwise [clubs] will not be recognized and allowed in the national league." There are further moves from the AIFF to build on these foundations too, after the body announced in April plans to restart the AFC's Vision India program, which aims to increase the national association's efficiency, improve youth and grass roots football participation through programs and activities and develop national competitions for clubs and players. Meanwhile, FIFA has continued to make inroads in centralizing the administration of Indian football through its two Goal Projects and in improving footballing infrastructure. In 2007, FIFA launched the $8 million "Win in India" project to build a range of football grounds across the country. Construction of three turf pitches in Bangalore, Imphal and Shillong is due for completion in June 2011, while five further pitches are scheduled to be built across Kolkata, Mumbai, Goa and Pune. A FIFA spokesman told CNN: "FIFA is convinced of the huge potential of India in terms of football development. This is why FIFA devised the program Win in India, which is now being implemented. "FIFA has been working with the AIFF with the two Goal projects, helping in building the association's headquarters in New Delhi, as well as two technical centers in Karnataka and Sikkim." Untapped player potential . Infrastructure aside, India is increasingly seen as an area that could provide talent to the top clubs in Europe. In 2009, Britain's Liverpool FC joined forces with Indian educational institution Bharati Vidyapeeth and the English FA to launch the Abhijit Kadam Football Development Centre (AKFDC) in Pune. AKFDC is the first collaboration between an English Premier League club and an Indian college aimed at fostering Indian football excellence through a range of courses devised in partnership with leading UK educational institutes. Premier League giants Arsenal and Manchester United have targeted talented Indian youths for training in the UK, while Chelsea have expressed interest in establishing a football academy in India. A spokesperson for Chelsea told CNN: "It is clear that the game is growing in popularity on the subcontinent. Chelsea's "Search for an Asian Star" demonstrates beyond doubt that there is a huge passion for football within the Asian community as well as a considerable talent base. "May will see almost 400 young Asian players travel to our training ground battling it out to win a trial at our world famous academy. Already four previous winners have gone on to play at professional academies and we hope we have inspired many others to develop their game at a higher level."

India's 83 million football fans are a testament to a sport rapidly on the rise across the subcontinent . Despite such grassroots support however, India's national team ranks 146th globally . Experts blame poor international exposure and bad management for the state of Indian football . AFC and FIFA are trying to improve the game by injecting funding for infrastructure .

(CNN) -- From the Affordable Care Act to flesh-eating bacteria to celebrities and elected officials battling physical and mental illness, it's been a tumultuous year for all things health. Here is a look at the top 10 health stories of 2012, as chosen by the CNN Health staff. 1. Affordable Care Act upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court . In a 5-4 decision, the nation's highest court upheld the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, on June 28. Signed into law in March 2010, the sweeping law includes more than 90 specific changes to the nation's health care system. Some went into effect almost immediately, but the most dramatic changes won't take effect until 2014. What Obama's re-election means for health care . 2. Georgia woman's battle with flesh-eating bacteria . Aimee Copeland, a then-24-year-old University of West Georgia graduate student, was visiting the Little Tallapoosa River, about 50 miles west of Atlanta, with friends when the homemade zip line she was holding snapped. She fell and got a gash in her leg that required 22 staples to close. But Copeland's struggles were only beginning. Three days later, still in pain, she went to an emergency room. Doctors eventually determined she had necrotizing fasciitis, an infection caused by the flesh-eating bacteria Aeromonas hyrophila. Copeland spent two months in an Augusta, Georgia, hospital, and doctors amputated her hands, leg and foot. She returned home in August to a 1,956-foot wing specially built for her. Video: Bacteria survivor details recovery . 3. Multi-state meningitis oubreak linked to steroid injections . A 19-state outbreak of non-contagious fungal meningitis sickened 620 people and killed 39, according to the latest update from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The cases were linked to tainted steroid injections distributed by the Massachusetts-based New England Compounding Center. "Several patients suffered strokes that are believed to have resulted from their infections," the CDC said. "The investigation also includes other infections from injections in a peripheral joint, such as a knee, shoulder or ankle." The FDA said the compounding center was warned by its own environmental monitors of bacterial contamination of its facility months before the first cases were reported. The Massachusetts Board of Registration in Pharmacy voted to permanently revoke its license to operate in the state as well as the licenses of the company's three principal pharmacists. Owner of firm linked to deadly meningitis outbreak takes Fifth before Congress . 4. West Nile Virus outbreak . While the case count of West Nile Virus illnesses was the highest reported through August 2012, this year's outbreak wound up falling short of levels seen in 2003, the worst-ever year for the virus. The year's last update from the CDC showed a total of 5,387 cases of West Nile Virus and 243 deaths. Cases were reported in all lower 48 states, as well as the District of Columbia. In 2003, 9,862 illnesses and 264 deaths were reported. Texas was by far the hardest-hit state in 2012, with 954 cases and 76 deaths. Fast facts on West Nile Virus . 5. Robin Roberts' bone marrow transplant . "Good Morning America" host Robin Roberts, 51, revealed in June that after overcoming breast cancer, she was diagnosed with a rare blood disorder called myelodysplastic syndrome. Roberts found a bone marrow match in her sister, Sally-Ann. Twenty-one days after undergoing a bone marrow transplant, Roberts was discharged from the hospital in October. "I know it is your prayers and warm thoughts that have gotten me this far," she wrote in a post on "GMA's" website to her fans. "Each day I get stronger and stronger ... (E)ven in some dark moment, of which there are still a few, I now see that light at the end of the tunnel. This too really shall pass." Robin Roberts feels the love on 'new birthday' 6. Hantavirus at Yosemite . Warnings were sent to Yosemite National Park visitors from 39 other countries in September after a potentially deadly hantavirus sickened some visitors to the park. In all, eight people were infected and three died. Most became ill after staying at the park's popular Curry Village "tent cabins." The carriers of hantavirus are deer mice, cotton mice, rice rats and white-footed mice, according to the CDC. The virus can be present in the rodents' urine, droppings and saliva, and is spread to people when they breathe in air contaminated with the virus. The virus is not communicable from person to person. Another Yosemite camper dies in hantavirus outbreak . 7. Former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. and bipolar disorder . Jackson, a congressman from Illinois, look a leave of absence in June to be treated for what his office initially called a "mood disorder." In August, the Mayo Clinic said he was responding well to treatment for bipolar II disorder. The disorder, less severe than bipolar I, includes periods of depression alternated with hypomania, a mild form of mania that may include elevated mood and irritability. The depression periods usually last longer, the clinic said. Despite winning re-election, Jackson -- who has been the subject of several investigations -- resigned from office in November, citing health reasons. "For the past several months, as my health has deteriorated, my ability to serve the constituents of my district has continued to diminish," he wrote in his resignation letter. Video: Behind Jesse Jackson Jr.'s resignation . 8. Spike in autism cases . The number of children with autism nationwide continues to rise, the CDC announced in March. The agency released its most recent data from 2008, showing that 1 in 88 American children has some form of autism spectrum disorder -- a 78% increase compared to a decade ago. Boys with autism outnumber girls 5 to 1, according to the CDC, which estimates in 54 boys have autism. More children are being diagnoses with autism because of "better diagnosis, broader diagnosis, better awareness, and roughly 50% of 'we don't know,'" Mark Roithmayr of the advocacy group Autism Speaks said at the time. With autism, no longer invisible . 9. Actress Kathy Bates' double mastectomy . Actress Kathy Bates underwent a double mastectomy in September after being diagnosed with breast cancer in July, a publicist said. Bates, 64, was nominated for an Emmy for her lead role in the TV drama series "Harry's Law." She is best known for winning an Academy Award for Best Actress for the 1991 movie "Misery." She battled ovarian cancer eight years ago. "I don't miss my breasts as much as I miss Harry's Law. ;-) Thanks for all the sweet tweets. Y'all kept me going," Bates tweeted after her surgery. Why Kathy Bates kept her cancer private . 10. Ex-hospital worker accused in hepatitis C infections . A man who worked as a traveling medical technician on a contract basis for hospitals in Arizona, Georgia, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania was arrested in July and accused of spreading hepatitis C, sickening more than 30 people. Authorities allege David Kwiatkowsi, 33, injected himself with syringes of fentanyl, a powerful painkiller, that he stole from patients who were scheduled for surgery. He then filled the syringes with saline and replaced them for use in the medical procedure. "Instead of receiving the prescribed dose of fentanyl, patients instead received saline tained by Kwiatkowski's infected blood," federal prosecutors said. Kwiatkwoski was indicted last month by a federal grand jury in New Hampshire on fraud and product-tampering charges. Controversy surrounds health care contract workers . What do you think were the year's biggest health stories? Share your thoughts in the comments below. Like CNN Health on Facebook .

The Supreme Court's health care decision is chosen as the year's top health story . A Georgia woman triumphs in her battle with flesh-eating bacteria . Celebrities and a congressman also made health news in 2012 . Outbreaks of meningitis, West Nile Virus and hantavarus are seen .

(CNN)What if I hadn't worked so hard? What if . . . I had actually used . . . my position to be a role model for balance? Had I done so intentionally, who's to say that, besides having more time with my family, I wouldn't also have been even more focused at work? More creative? More productive? It took inoperable late stage brain cancer to get me to examine things from this angle. --Eugene O'Kelly, former CEO, KPMG . While working on "The Last Supper," Leonardo da Vinci regularly took off from painting for several hours at a time and seemed to be daydreaming aimlessly. Urged by his patron, the prior of Santa Maria delle Grazie, to work more continuously, da Vinci is reported to have replied, immodestly but accurately, "The greatest geniuses sometimes accomplish more when they work less." --Tony Schwartz, "Be Excellent at Anything" In his 1932 classic essay, "In Praise of Idleness," Bertrand Russell heralded a coming time when modern technology would bring shorter work hours and time for leisure to be enjoyed equally by everyone. Work and leisure both would be "delightful," and the world would be the better for it. "Every person possessed of scientific curiosity will be able to indulge it, and every painter will be able to paint without starving . . . Above all, there will be happiness and joy of life, instead of frayed nerves, weariness and dyspepsia." Russell, along with scholars like Josef Pieper, author of "Leisure, the Basis of Culture," thought that it is in moments of leisure that civilization gets created. Both were extraordinarily productive, despite their call for what may today be seen as slacking. But they argued that it is only when we take the time to lift our noses from the grindstone and are not busy with the getting, making and doing that ensures our survival, that flights of imagination, bursts of insight can lead to inventions like the wheel, art, philosophy, literature, scientific discoveries and innovation. At the turn of the 20th century, leisure time was the ultimate status symbol, a way not only of conspicuously showing off your wealth, but of your ability to enjoy the best that life had to offer. Even those without wealth in the labor movement sought a living wage and shorter work hours so they could, as a famous protest song of the time put it, not only have their bread, but the time to enjoy the roses, the fruits of their labor. Ironically, it was only when Henry Ford took the wildly controversial step of shuttering his automobile manufacturing factories on Saturday and cutting daily work hours from the then-standard 12 to 8 that workers began not only enjoying leisure time at home, but became more efficient and productive at work. Though his fellow captains of industry screamed in protest, Ford had based the decision on his own in-house research of how far he could push manual laborers before they became so exhausted or resentful that they'd begin making costly mistakes. Within a few years, the Ford way became the industry standard, and thus was born the 40-hour work week. Economists, too, began making rosy predictions of a coming age of abundant leisure. Keynes thought that by 2030, we'd be working a 15-hour work week, and all would have time to enjoy "the hour and the day virtuously and well." Others predicted a 22-hour work week, six-month work year or a standard retirement age of 38. If anything, thinkers at the time worried about what the masses would do to occupy themselves with so much free time on their hands. The predictions seem ludicrous now. In the United States, white-collar workers work longer and more extreme hours than their peers in just about any other advanced economy, save South Korea, where the Wall Street Journal has reported overworked Koreans are checking themselves into prison-like meditation retreats just to get away from it all, and Japan, where they've even coined a word for death from overwork: karoshi. (No one leaves until the boss leaves. And the boss never leaves.) Workers in the United States give up among the most vacation days. We are the only advanced economy with no national vacation policy ( see how we stack up in the chart below). And technology has enabled not just flexible work, but for work to seep into every corner, every hour and every minute of the day. The 40-hour work week of Ford's legacy can seem like a cruel dream -- the labor policy that later enshrined it, the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act, now perversely gives businesses incentive to work salaried workers to the point of burnout, and to keep hourly workers' hours artificially low to avoid paying benefits or overtime. Salaried workers have too little leisure time that they can choose and control, what leisure scholars say is the essence of pure leisure. And hourly workers, too much. Though without either choice or control, those blank, unfilled hours of insecurity and gnawing anxiety can hardly be called leisure. Just as with income inequality, our experience of work and leisure is increasingly diverging. As millions of Americans remained sidelined from the economy, working far less than they'd like, and for a minimum wage that in no major city in the country could cover the cost of a two-bedroom apartment, others wear long work hours like a badge of honor. Economists have found that our workplaces reward employees by how long they sit at their desks in the office, not for what they do. Leisure is seen as unproductive at best, and frivolous or a waste of time at worst. And that's not just stupid, it's dangerous. We need to build an economy that creates enough work at fair wages for everyone. And we need to recapture our lost leisure. Those two aspirations can work together. In a knowledge economy, our strength comes from the power of our ideas. And we are wired for those ideas and inspiration to hit in quiet moments of -- leisure. Psychologists John Kounios and Mark Beeman have mapped brain waves and found the "a-ha" moment comes in a calm, relaxed state, when we are doing anything BUT work -- like when physicist Richard Feynman idly watched students goofing off spinning plates in the cafeteria and began making calculations of the wobbles, "for the fun of it," which led to his developing the "Feynman diagrams" to explain quantum electrodynamics and ultimately resulted in his Nobel Prize. Neuroscience is finding that when we are idle, in leisure, our brains are most active, the Default Mode Network lights up, which, like airport hubs, connect parts of our brain that don't typically communicate. So a stray thought, a random memory, an image can combine in novel ways to produce novel ideas. Anders Ericsson studied elite musicians at the Berlin Academy of Music and is credited with the now wildly popular notion that it takes 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to master anything. But the key that separated the truly great from the good and the adequate was the way they spent those 10,000 hours: they practiced intensely, first thing in the morning when they were freshest, for no more than 60 to 90 minutes at a time, and they rested more. In other words, like brain waves, like heart beats, they worked in short bursts and recovered in leisure and became excellent at what they did. But perhaps the most compelling case for leisure is this: despite our overwork culture, we have a lot of butt-in-chair presenteeism, sick, unhappy, burned out and disengaged workers. We work long hours, but we do not necessarily work productive, efficient or creative hours. Some years, international comparisons of GDP per hours worked have found, workers in Norway, Ireland, Denmark and even France, with their 30 days of paid vacation every year, their café culture, their generous paid family leave policies, their short work hours mandated by law and their new directive forbidding some employers from expecting workers to check work-related texts and emails after hours, beat us by a mile. As we think about the next American economy, we need to consider policies, as well as cultural shifts, that respect that people need time, especially relaxed and personal time, every bit as much as they need money. By dialing down on overwork, by once again matching wages, which have been stagnating, to productivity, which has been rising, we might not only be able to create more work for those who need it, and work smarter, but foster the creativity and innovation that will lead to a more dynamic, productive economy, and a better life. After all, isn't the pursuit of happiness part of what defines us as Americans?

In the United States, white-collar workers work longer than peers in most advanced countries . Brigid Schulte: We need to recapture our lost leisure; more work doesn't raise productivity . She says companies reward workers for how long they sit at their desks, not for what they do .

Kiev, Ukraine (CNN) -- Sporadic heavy artillery barrages and machine gun fire could be heard early Sunday on the outskirts of the southeastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, raising questions about the viability of a ceasefire between the Ukrainian government and pro-Russian separatists. While the source of the weapons fire was not immediately clear, it came as the ceasefire appeared to be holding, a rare positive sign in a conflict that has ratcheted up tensions between Russia and the West. By late Saturday, however, bursts of heavy artillery and machine gun fire replaced the evident calm, a gas station was ablaze and cars carrying injured civilians could be seen on the roads. The warring factions blamed each other for violating the truce. The Russian news agency Itar-Tass late Saturday quoted rebel officials saying that Ukrainian forces continued to shell Donetsk and rebel positions near Mariupol. The RIA Novosti new agency reported that four Donetsk residents were killed in the shelling. Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council spokesman Col. Andriy Lysenko told reporters in Kiev on Saturday that the situation was calmer than before but that there had been a number of "provocations" by rebels. These include 10 instances of shelling in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, he said. But Lysenko said a prisoner exchange would begin soon without specifying a time and date. Amnesty International, meanwhile, accused Ukrainian militia and separatists of carrying out war crimes. It singled out Russia for a buildup of armor and artillery in eastern Ukraine. "All sides in this conflict have shown disregard for civilian lives and are blatantly violating their international obligations," said Salil Shetty, Amnesty International's secretary general, who will travel to Kiev and Moscow in the coming days. "Our evidence shows that Russia is fueling the conflict, both through direct interference and by supporting the separatists in the East," Shetty added. "Russia must stop the steady flow of weapons and other support to an insurgent force heavily implicated in gross human rights violations." Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian rebels have battled in eastern Ukraine since April, leaving more than 2,200 people dead, according to the United Nations. A truce deal signed Friday after talks in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, went into effect that evening. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko had a phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin after the signing of the deal in the Belarusian city of Minsk, Poroshenko's office said Saturday in a statement. The leaders agreed that the ceasefire in eastern Ukraine has been mostly upheld and they discussed further steps to make the truce last, the office said. After roughly five months of bitter fighting between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian rebel groups, the question is whether the ceasefire will last. Artillery fire and explosions were heard in the flashpoint city of Donetsk around the time the ceasefire went into effect, the city's website said. But there have been no subsequent reports of major incidents. A CNN team in southeastern Ukraine, where Ukrainian forces and the rebels have engaged in fierce fighting this week between the Ukrainian border town of Novoazovsk and Mariupol, said that artillery fire appeared to have stopped after the start of the truce. Despite the ceasefire deal, Putin remains under international pressure over Russia's actions in Ukraine. Hours after the guns stopped firing, EU leaders meeting in Brussels, Belgium, agreed on a new round of economic sanctions against Russian interests. They are due to be formally adopted on Monday. Russia's Foreign Ministry warned Saturday that if new EU sanctions are imposed, Russia "certainly will respond," Russian state-run news agency Itar-Tass reported. Obama expresses support for Ukraine . U.S. President Barack Obama said he was hopeful but skeptical that the ceasefire would hold, questioning whether pro-Russian rebels would adhere to it. Obama, speaking at the end of a NATO summit in Wales, added that NATO was "fully united in support of Ukraine's sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and ability to defend itself." Member nations would send nonlethal military aid and help modernize Ukraine's security forces, while the United States and European allies finalize measures "to deepen and broaden sanctions" against Russia, he said. The Ukrainian government and the West accuse Moscow of backing the rebels with arms and troops -- claims that Moscow has repeatedly denied. The conflict has sparked a humanitarian crisis in eastern Ukraine, where homes and infrastructure have been destroyed by shelling. Nationwide, more than a million people have been displaced from their homes by the fighting, most of them in the east. Luhansk city council said that Saturday was the first day in over a month with no shooting. The city office has started working on repairs to the power and water supply. Russia has contacted the International Committee of the Red Cross to express its readiness to deliver a second aid convoy to Ukraine, state news agency RIA Novosti reported Saturday, quoting Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov. "We are now discussing the practical details of this operation and expect it to be accomplished," Gatilov is quoted as saying. Gatilov said he could not discuss details but that this time humanitarian aid would be delivered by railroad. The last Russian aid convoy, which entered without Ukraine's permission, was sent by road. Ukraine ready for 'significant steps' Poroshenko said the ceasefire deal was based on his peace plan and an agreement reached in a phone call this week with Putin. "We are ready to provide significant steps, including the decentralization of power," he said, as well as greater economic freedoms for the Luhansk and Donetsk regions and guarantees that their culture and language be respected. Many people in eastern Ukraine are Russian speakers. Poroshenko said the exchange of "hostages," or prisoners, could begin as soon as Saturday. He said he hoped the ceasefire, based on a 12-point plan, would lead to more substantial talks on core issues and a lasting peace. The talks in Minsk brought together the leaders of the separatist groups with former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, as well as Russia's Ukrainian envoy. The ceasefire, however, does not mean the end of the self-styled Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic, separatist leaders said at a televised news conference after signing the deal. Poroshenko has asked his foreign minister and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which already has international observers in Ukraine, to monitor compliance with the ceasefire. A previous unilateral ceasefire declared by the Ukrainian government in June broke down after 10 days. New sanctions planned . Amid skepticism over Russia's intentions, the European Union agreed a fresh round of sanctions Friday against Russian interests, though they are not yet in force. The package includes "enhanced measures related to access to capital markets, defense, dual use goods, and sensitive technologies," an EU statement said. It also includes sanctions against the rebel leadership in eastern Ukraine, the government of Crimea, annexed by Russia in March, and Russian decision makers and oligarchs, it said. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton welcomed the ceasefire, adding that it must now be respected by all sides. "We hope that this will be a first step toward a sustainable political solution, based on respect for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity," she said. "Permanent monitoring of the Russian-Ukrainian border and withdrawal of illegal armed groups and forces illegally operating on Ukrainian territory should be integral parts of such a solution." British Prime Minister David Cameron, who hosted the NATO summit in Wales, said in his final remarks that what Putin was doing is "indefensible and wrong" and that Russia should face further economic costs. Western countries in July stepped up targeted sanctions against Russia, prompting a retaliatory ban by Moscow on certain imports. Putin has voiced sympathy for the separatists, many of whom are ethnic Russians. But he denies that Russia has armed and trained the rebels, or sent Russian troops over the border. NATO: An amusing show for Putin? NATO's moment of truth on Ukraine . CNN's Reza Sayah reported from Kiev, while Laura Smith-Spark wrote and reported from London and Jethro Mullen from Hong Kong. CNN's Matthew Chance, Mick Krever, Jo Shelley, Radina Gigova, Michael Martinez and Alla Eshchenko contributed to this report. Journalist Victoria Butenko also contributed from Kiev.

Sporadic heavy artillery barrages and machine gun fire heard near Mariupol . Poroshenko and Putin talk about ensuring truce lasts, Poroshenko's office says . Russia will respond if new EU sanctions are imposed, state media reports . EU nations agree on further sanctions against Russia, due to be adopted Monday .

(CNN) -- 10:20 Address ends with Obama calling on Americans to "seize this moment -- to start anew, to carry the dream forward and to strengthen our union once more" Click here to read in chronological order . 10:18 Obama acknowledges that his administration has had political setbacks; says "some of them were deserved." Obama says the "spirit of determination and optimism" is what keeps him fighting . 10:17 On discord in politics: "Democracy in a nation of 300 million people can be noisy and messy and complicated. And when you try to do big things and make big changes, it stirs passions and controversy" 10:13 Obama says he will work with Congress and the military to repeal "the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are" Obama calls for 'don't ask, don't tell' repeal . 10:08 Obama says the threat of nuclear weapons is "perhaps the greatest danger to the American people" 10:06 Obama details the challenges in Afghanistan: "There will be difficult days ahead. But I am confident we will succeed" 10:02 Obama mentions Massachusetts special election: "After last week, it is clear that campaign fever has come even earlier than usual. But we still need to govern." He calls out Republicans, saying, "just saying no to everything may be good short-term politics, but it's not leadership" 9:59 Obama calls on Congress to publish all earmark requests on a single Web site before there's a vote "so that the American people can see how their money is being spent" 9:57 Obama says Washington is facing a "deficit of trust," and calls for action on "both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue" to restore credibility . 9:54 Obama announces he will establish a bipartisan deficit reduction commission by executive order . 9:54 "We will not continue tax cuts for oil companies, investment fund managers and those making over $250,000 a year. We just can't afford it" 9:52 Obama proposes steps to "pay for the $1 trillion that it took to rescue the economy last year," including a partial freeze on some government programs. He says he will enforce the freeze by veto if he has to . Broad range of programs targeted by proposed spending freeze . Obama proposes almost doubling child care tax credit . 9:48 On health care, Obama urges Congress not to walk away. "Not now. Not when we are so close. Let us find a way to come together and finish the job for the American people" 9:45 Standing ovation after Obama acknowledges first lady Michelle Obama for her efforts to tackle childhood obesity. With all eyes on the first lady, Obama notes, "She gets embarrassed" as she motions for those in the chambers to sit down . 9:44 Obama gets more laughs: "By now it should be fairly obvious that I didn't take on health care because it was good politics" 9:41 CNN's Candy Crowley observes: A call for safe, clean nuclear power plans brings GOP to its feet . 9:37 Obama announces goal of doubling exports over the next five years, an increase that he says will support 2 million jobs in America. "To help meet this goal, we're launching a National Export Initiative that will help farmers and small businesses increase their exports, and reform export controls consistent with national security" 9:36 On climate change: "Even if you doubt the evidence, providing incentives for energy efficiency and clean energy are the right thing to do for our future -- because the nation that leads the clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the global economy. And America must be that nation" 9:34 On financial reform: "The lobbyists are already trying to kill it. Well, we cannot let them win this fight. And if the bill that ends up on my desk does not meet the test of real reform, I will send it back" 9:29 Obama urges the Senate follow the House's lead and pass a jobs bill, saying, "I want a jobs bill on my desk without delay" 9:28 Obama says workers in Tampa, Florida, will soon break ground on a new high-speed railroad funded by the Recovery Act . 9:27 On stimulating the economy: "I'm proposing that we take $30 billion of the money Wall Street banks have repaid and use it to help community banks give small businesses the credit they need to stay afloat. I am also proposing a new small business tax credit -- one that will go to over one million small businesses who hire new workers or raise wages. While we're at it, let's also eliminate all capital gains taxes on small business investment; and provide a tax incentive for all businesses, large and small, to invest in new plants and equipment." 9:23 Obama credits the creation of 2 million jobs with steps his administration has taken toward economic recovery, adding, "We are on track to add another one and a half million jobs to this total by the end of the year" 9:20 CNN's Candy Crowley observes: Always some good theater at these events. Obama talks about the taxes he has cut. No Republican stands to clap, and the president calls them out, "I thought I'd get some applause on that one" 9:18 Obama says the bank bailout "was about as popular as a root canal" 9:16 Obama draws first applause after he says he has "never been more hopeful about America's future" than tonight . 9:13 On the economy, Obama says "the worst of the storm has passed" 9:12 Obama says America is being tested, but said "we must answer history's call," conjuring up memories of such times of struggle as the Civil War Battle of Bull Run, the storming of Omaha Beach in World War II and the stock market crash of 1929 . 9:11 Obama begins his State of the Union address . 9:10 Vice President Joe Biden lets out a cheer as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi welcomes Obama . 9:08 Obama enters chamber, greets members of Congress, his Cabinet and Supreme Court justices . 9:05 Wilson Livingood, the House Sergeant of Arms, introduces Obama . 9:01 In holding room, Obama was talking with Sens. Lamar Alexander, John Cornyn and John Thune. He turned to the entire congressional welcoming committee and joked, "We just brokered a health care deal right here." 8:48 p.m. The president's speech is being written right up until the last moments, according to two White House aides, who say they have not seen a new draft since about noon today. An embargoed copy of the full speech was supposed to be released at 8:30 p.m., but there's no sign of it yet because of last-minute changes. 8:38 p.m. Obama en route to Capitol . 8 p.m. CNN's Ed Henry reports: . Senior officials said the president's broad goal was to seize back the mantle of change by talking about the need for a "new beginning" between Democrats and Republicans that can restore trust in Washington. Along these lines, the president was to make what officials described as a passing reference to the special election in Massachusetts but would not have a "chastened" tone like Bill Clinton after the 1994 election. Instead, officials said he would use the election defeat as a way to challenge Republicans to meet him halfway on the major issues facing the nation. Officials said he would note that with Republicans now having 41 votes in the Senate, they can't just block everything. The first test will come next week when the Senate is expected to begin debate on a jobs bill. The president was to specifically try to sprinkle the jobs bill with small business and corporate tax cuts to win over some Republican votes and call their bluff if they do not come on board. While jobs and the economy were to make up the bulk of the speech, officials said health care would also figure prominently. But they noted the president would not get too specific on the path forward because key lawmakers want to take a deep breath on the volatile issue while ramping up much more time on the jobs legislation. Beyond jobs and health care, officials said the second tier of the agenda would focus on three primary issues: . -- Financial regulatory reform, which would give the president another chance to press Wall Street to change the rules of the road to prevent another crisis. -- Climate change legislation, where the president would specifically cite the work of lawmakers in both parties trying to broker a compromise. -- Education reform, where the president would push for an increase of up to $4 billion despite lean times for other key parts of his budget. 7 p.m. Excerpts released . Complete coverage on the State of the Union address .

Obama gives his first State of the Union address . Read the transcript of the speech . Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell gives GOP response .

(CNN) -- It was madness. At Jalalabad Airfield, in eastern Afghanistan in the summer of 2006, a young intelligence analyst named Jacob Whittaker tried with great difficulty to understand exactly what he was hearing. The 10th Mountain Division of the United States Army wanted to do what? Whittaker had to choose his words carefully. He was just a low-ranking "specialist" with the Idaho National Guard, a very low man on a very tall totem pole. A round-faced 26-year-old, Whittaker had simple tastes — Boise State football, comic books — and a reputation for mulishness belied by his innocent appearance. Whittaker stared at his superior officer, 2nd Lt. Ryan Lockner, who was running this briefing for him and Sgt. Aaron Ives. Lockner headed intelligence for Task Force Talon, the Army's aviation component at Jalalabad Airfield, in Nangarhar Province, adjacent to the Pakistan border. Military leaders considered this area, officially designated Regional Command East, the most dangerous part of an increasingly dangerous country. Lockner had an assignment. Soldiers from the 10th Mountain — a light infantry division designed for quick deployment and fighting in harsh conditions — had recently come to this hot corner of Afghanistan and would soon be spreading throughout the region, setting up outposts and bases. More specifically, they would be establishing a camp in Nuristan Province. The members of the intelligence team led by Lockner didn't know much about Nuristan, as U.S. forces had generally been focusing their efforts on Kunar Province, which had become a haven for Taliban insurgents and foreign fighters sneaking in from Pakistan to oppose the American "infidels." During one operation in Kunar the previous summer, in 2005, 19 U.S. troops — Special Forces — had been killed by such insurgents, and since then, the United States had increased its presence there. Helicopters flying in and out of Kunar Province were fired upon at least twice a week, every week, with small arms and/or rocket-propelled grenades. Tapper on 'the bravest of the brave' Nuristan was farther north, a province so mythically untamed that one of the greatest writers of the English language, Rudyard Kipling, had chosen it as the setting for his 1888 novella "The Man Who Would Be King." One of Kipling's British adventurers, Daniel Dravot, describes Nuristan as a place where "no one has gone ... and they fight, and in any place where they fight a man who knows how to drill men can always be a king." "You'll be cut to pieces before you're 50 miles across the border," warns Kipling's narrator. "The people are utter brutes, and even if you reached them you couldn't do anything." The region's previous brigade commander, Col. Pat Donahue, hadn't thought Nuristan had much strategic value, so conventional forces hadn't been posted there, and no one had troubled to find out much about the native people, the Nuristanis, a distinct and outlying ethnic group within Afghanistan. In a departure from his predecessor's policy, Donahue's replacement — Col. John "Mick" Nicholson, the commander of the 10th Mountain Division's 3rd Brigade, known as the Spartan Brigade — ordered the establishment of small outposts throughout the area in the summer of 2006, in an attempt not only to stop the Taliban fighters who were streaming in from Pakistan, often with bushels of weapons, but also to win over the locals, who were predisposed to a suspicion of outsiders. Lockner had just returned from Forward Operating Base Naray, in Kunar Province, where he'd met with officers of the 10th Mountain Division's 3rd Squadron, 71st Cavalry Regiment, or "3‑71 Cav." They'd told him of their plan to set up an outpost in the Kamdesh District of Nuristan Province, for which he would be in charge of identifying suitable helicopter landing zones. The new base would sit adjacent to the Nuristan hamlet of Urmul. A small settlement missing from most maps, Urmul was home to fewer than 40 families of Nuristanis, or roughly 200 people, who lived in houses made of wood and rock and mud sealant. The residents were primarily subsistence farmers trying to eke out a living through both crops and livestock, but the U.S. Army knew little more than that about them. Coalition forces likewise had next to no intelligence about the enemy in Nuristan — its numbers, its location, its intentions, or, most important, its capabilities — which was one of the reasons the brass was pushing to build a base there. This was the essential difficulty of the task at hand: The higher-ups in the U.S. Army needed to know about the enemy in this unexplored province, so in order to learn as much as they could, they were going to stick a small group of troops in its midst. For all Lockner knew when he flew over Urmul to reconnoiter, the hamlet might have been Osama bin Laden's secret compound. Hero soldier to get medal of honor . "They're going to build another outpost," Lockner told Whittaker and Ives back at Jalalabad Airfield. "So I need you to take this terrain analysis I started, finish it, and make it pretty so I can brief it in the morning." Many troops were far more proficient in PowerPoint than they were with firearms, so Whittaker understood just what Lockner meant by "make it pretty": The slides for the presentation needed to look crisp and to make a compelling case. "Where are they going?" Whittaker asked. Lockner gestured at the topographical map. "Right over here, northwest of Naray," he said. "Where the Darreh ye Kushtaz and Landay-Sin Rivers meet." Whittaker looked at the spot, stunned. "Right there?" he asked. "Right there," confirmed Lockner. "Can you do it?" "I can do it; I have all night," Whittaker said. "But sir ... that is a really awful place for a base." This new camp in the Kamdesh District would, like the dangerous Korangal outpost that their pilots knew too well, be surrounded by higher ground. But whereas the base in the Korangal was situated about halfway up a mountainside, in a former lumberyard, the one in Kamdesh would sit in a cup within the valley's deepest cleft, ringed by three steep mountains that formed part of the 500-mile-long Hindu Kush mountain range. Blocked off on its northern, western, and southern sides by rivers and mountains, it would moreover be a mere 14 miles distant from the official Pakistan border — a porous boundary that meant little to the insurgents who regularly crossed it to kill Americans and Afghan government officials before taking refuge in caves or in the mountains or returning to their haven across the border. The camp would be one of the most remote outposts in this most remote part of a country that was itself cut off from much of the rest of the world, and the area all around it would be filled with people who wanted to kill those stationed there. Defending the indefensible . "So it's located at the base of a mountain peak?" Whittaker asked. It didn't take a Powell or a Schwarzkopf to know that as a matter of basic military strategy, it was better to be at the top of a hill than at the bottom of a valley. "Yes." "And it's flanked by a river on the west and another river to the north?" Whittaker continued. "And there's no good road to get to it — they're still building that," Lockner volunteered. The Army had been coordinating efforts to build up the vulnerable and narrow path from Naray to Kamdesh, but rain, steep cliffs, insurgent threats, and high turnover rates among local construction workers had led to frequent delays. The road, often running along the edge of a cliff that spilled into the Landay-Sin River, was a mere 13 feet wide at its widest, and in some spots only half that — narrower than many military vehicles. A soldier could be killed just driving on that road, without ever coming into contact with a single enemy fighter. "And it's an eternity away by helicopter if something goes wrong," Whittaker said. "Yup," agreed Lockner. "Sir, this is a really bad idea," said Whittaker. "A. Really. Bad. Idea. Anyone we drop off there is going to die."

CNN's Jake Tapper tells the story of Compound Outpost Keating in his book . Afghanistan's Compound Outpost Keating was brutally attacked in 2009 . The attack pitted 53 U.S. soldiers against 400 Taliban fighters .

(CNN) -- Albert Einstein is often quoted as saying, "In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity." Planning a road trip is hardly nuclear science, but perhaps the professor had learned that a well-chosen overnight stop can yield treasured memories. Here are four midway suggestions that may brighten a tedious road trip from one region of the nation to another. I-95 between Massachusetts and Florida: Follow Lincoln's footsteps . Like Abraham Lincoln in 1865, why not take a walking tour of the former capital of the Confederacy? "Very few people know that Lincoln visited Richmond with his son near the end of the Civil War," said Mike Andrus of the Richmond National Battlefield Park in Virginia. Map this trip and three others . Richmond remains a very walkable city in this area, from the James River to the Confederate White House to Capitol Square. Civilwartraveler.com offers free downloadable podcasts to guide you on a 90-minute walk in Lincoln's footsteps. Near the square is St. Paul's Episcopal Church, where Confederate President Jefferson Davis in 1865 learned the troubling news that his troops were no longer able to defend the city. During your walk, stop for lunch at one of the many restaurants in Shockoe Bottom, which once served as a market for slave traders. Near there, see Richmond's Slavery Reconciliation Statue, a 15-foot, half-ton sculpture unveiled in 2007 that remembers and offers regret for Virginia's role in the African slave trade. Looking for a special breakfast or lunch? Try the internationally recognized Perly's, where you can enjoy homemade biscuits, made with what longtime owner Gray Wyatt calls his secret ingredient. Located in the city's Monroe Ward district in a 1930s-era building, Perly's has a "real retro feel to it," said Wyatt. In addition to traditional breakfast fare, the lunch menu offers Brunswick stew, chicken salad and signature sandwiches. Customers include Gov. Tim Kaine, a former Richmond mayor who's quoted as saying more business gets conducted at Perly's than in most of the offices downtown. I-75 between Michigan and Florida: 'Paradise' and a murder scene . At the southern tail of the Appalachian Mountains, about 90 miles north of Atlanta, lies Chattooga County, Georgia -- home to a world renowned artist, an attorney who inspired a TV series, and what may be a haunted house. Almost every day, attorney Bobby Lee Cook can be found enjoying the food at The Brass Lantern in Summerville. Cook is said to be one of the inspirations behind 1980s TV defense lawyer Matlock, who was portrayed by Andy Griffith. "They had to pick somebody I guess, so they picked this country hooligan," joked Cook. The Brass Lantern offers American cuisine "with a little French twist," he said. "It reminds me of country restaurants in the South of France." Looking for a taste of Southern hospitality? Cook recommends Dillard's B&B as a fine place to hang your hat during your visit. Summerville also is the home of the late Howard Finster, a self-taught folk artist whose work was embraced in the 1980s by musicians such as REM and the Talking Heads. His home has been transformed into a fascinating and sometimes bizarre world he called Paradise Gardens. Finster's home celebrates a unique era of Appalachian culture that's quickly fading, said Tommy Littleton, chairman of the nonprofit group that owns the gardens. The fame that Finster gained in the '80s can be fleeting, he said, "but the niche he created and its influence now on two generations of artists means that the gardens really are a part of art history." For three decades Finster used the four-acre property as a canvas, painting sidewalks and buildings and using "found materials" to decorate walls and various objects throughout the grounds. He built "display houses" for all of his art, which included a huge collection of mosaics. Finster's work hangs in museums around the nation, including the Smithsonian and museums in San Francisco, California, and Baltimore, Maryland. Finster's gardens are open only from Thursday through Saturday, so check the Web site for times. More adventurous travelers might ask local residents to help them find the ruins of a destroyed country estate called Corpsewood Manor, where two men were murdered in 1982. A pair of killers was sentenced to life in prison for the notorious crime -- which spawned rumors about devil worship and satanic rituals that continue to echo on the Internet. I-84 between the Pacific Northwest and Utah: Opulence and flying fury . The area along the Oregon-Idaho border has a lot to offer travelers looking for a memorable experience between the Northwest and Utah. The amazing Geiser Grand Hotel in Baker City, Oregon, often attracts guests who are en route to regional ski resorts. Those who renovated the Geiser in 1997 aimed to restore it to the opulence it enjoyed when the German-Swiss Geiser family first built it in 1889 -- complete with ornate, decorative stained glass fittings, said owner Barbara Sidway. "Everything that could be preserved was preserved and everything that couldn't was lovingly replicated," she said. "It's like stepping back in time with its intimate feel and rare level of glamour and opulence." The cast of the 1969 film "Paint Your Wagon" -- including Hollywood tough guys Clint Eastwood and the late Lee Marvin -- were pampered guests at the Geiser. according to Sidway. Surrounding the hotel is Baker City's historic district, including more than 100 buildings listed in the National Register of Historic Places, said Sidway. Special holiday events held each Friday in December include rides on a horse-drawn sleigh to the nearby Powder River, where guests are invited to gather around a blazing bonfire and sip hot spiced cider. Inside the hotel, enjoy high tea amid the glow of a spectacular Christmas tree set in the center of the Palm Court dining area. About two hours down I-84, Nampa, Idaho, you'll find a pair of Hollywood stars you may have seen without realizing it. The Warhawk Air Museum is home to two rare Curtiss P40 World War II-era fighter planes, which appeared in 2001's "Pearl Harbor" and 2008's "Valkyrie," said museum co-founder Sue Paul. On the set of "Valkyrie," star Tom Cruise turned to Paul, took her hand, and told her, "'I want to thank you so much for the honor of using your beautifully preserved historical airplanes in this movie,'" recalled Paul. "Never before had anyone on any of the films we've worked on recognized the historical significance of these airplanes." For nightlife, drive 20 miles down I-84 and visit the pedestrian-friendly downtown district of Boise, Idaho, with its vibrant bars and eateries. For decades, locals have been enjoying the classic dishes at Angell's Bar & Grill, on 9th Street, and the central pedestrian area, where visitors can stroll and peruse local shops. I-80 between California and Utah: Basque food oasis . For generations Reno has been well-known as Nevada's "Biggest Little City in the World," but road-trippers with a taste for good food often talk about a tiny town about 2½ hours northeast along I-80. The Basque community that settled in Winnemucca's high desert in the mid-19th century is still going strong, offering a little taste of Europe at several of the town's restaurants and hotels. The fare at the century-old Martin Hotel is repeatedly praised by foodies on Chowhound.com. Chefs at the Martin serve tasty meals, including Basque lamb dishes and traditional pork loin solomo, say fans. Established as a rooming house for traffic along the nearby Southern Pacific Railroad, the hotel is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, according to the hotel Web site. "The lamb shanks as a main are awesome," wrote Chowhound.com poster nvcook in July. "I also like their halibut and their ribeyes." Another Chowhound poster extolled the lamb shanks served five blocks down Melarkey Street at Ormachea's Dinner House, which is another highly touted Basque eatery in Winnemucca.

Clint Eastwood, Lee Marvin stayed at century-old Geiser Grand Hotel in Oregon . Folk artist Howard Finster turned Georgia home into living museum of found objects . Follow in Lincoln's footsteps through historic downtown Richmond, Virginia . Basque-American cuisine offers succulent surprises in Winnemucca, Nevada .

Gaza City (CNN) -- After weeks of fighting and hundreds of deaths, some semblance of peace may be coming to the Middle East -- at least temporarily. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced Thursday that an unconditional humanitarian cease-fire will begin at 8 a.m. Friday in Gaza (1 a.m. ET). It will last 72 hours -- or three days -- "unless extended," the United Nations and United States said in a joint statement. "During this time, the forces on the ground will remain in place," the statement said. Israel has accepted the cease-fire, officials in its prime minister's office texted CNN. So, too, has Hamas, a spokesman for the militant fundamentalist Islamic organization texted. The cease-fire is meant to allow humanitarian aid to reach civilians in Gaza caught up in the violence, some of whom have seen their neighborhoods hit hard and loved ones killed, hurt or displaced. The aid will include food, care for the injured and burial of the dead. As all this is going on, Israeli and Palestinian officials should be meeting in Cairo to try to reach "a durable cease-fire," the U.N. and U.S. statement said. "The parties will be able to raise issues of concern in these negotiations." Will they be able to reach a breakthrough? The past doesn't suggest that is likely, at least anything that will lead to a solution to issues that Israelis and Palestinians have been grappling with for decades. And the animosity between Israel and Hamas, which controls Gaza, runs especially deep, with both sides accusing each other of putting each others civilians at risk. Kerry called the talks -- to be mediated by Egypt and to include a small American delegation -- "a lull of opportunity ... to try to find a way to ... obtain a sustainable cease-fire," while admitting there are "no guarantees." As Kerry noted, "Everyone knows it has not been easy to get to this point, and everyone knows it will not be easy to get beyond this point." Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat offered similar sentiments on the new talks, which he said will include "all Palestinian factions" -- not just Hamas. "It's a difficult road," said the longtime Palestinian official. "I am hoping against hope that we can (make) every possible effort, with the help of everyone out there, (to) reach a permanent cease-fire." U.N. official alludes to potential war crimes . The latest round of violence, which started earlier this summer, has been particularly bad. At least 1,452 people have been killed in Gaza, and 8,360 wounded, during the current conflict, Gaza Ministry of Health spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said. That's more than the 1,417 Palestinians that the Palestinian Center for Human Rights said died in the 22 days of Israel's Operation Cast Lead, which spanned 2008 and 2009. Those killed in the ongoing hostilities -- which are tied to the Israeli military's Operation Protective Edge -- include 327 children and 166 women, the Gaza health ministry reports. The bloodshed prompted the United Nations' top human rights official to warn that war crimes may have been committed, accusing Israel of "deliberate defiance of obligations (to) international law." U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay referred to the shelling of homes, schools, hospitals and U.N. "premises," while insisting, "We cannot allow this impunity, we cannot allow this lack of accountability to go on." "None of this appears, to me, to be accidental," Pillay said. The scale of the violence, as well as the international condemnation of it, could drive both sides to peace. But even if it does, some Palestinians -- like Samy Bahraqe, who is in a U.N. camp after her home was destroyed -- aren't looking forward to the future. "Life is meaningless," Bahraqe said. "... What dreams in life can we have now that everything is ruined?" More Israeli reservists called up . News of the cease-fire didn't stop the violence. Almost immediately afterward, warning sirens went off around Israel -- with its military announcing later it had intercepted one rocket from Gaza, while two others landed in the Mediterranean Sea. Israel has been protected very effectively from Hamas rockets by its Iron Dome defense system, though a few have hit land. That includes a rocket that struck a neighborhood Thursday in Qiryat Gat, about 20 miles from Gaza, seriously injuring a man and setting a car afire, Israeli spokesman Mikey Rosenfeld said. Three civilians have been killed in Israel since the conflict began, while many more have been forced to take shelter as rockets rained overhead. But the brunt of the conflict has been born by Israel's military, with 61 of its soldiers dying in recent weeks, with five of those deaths occurring Thursday evening. They will get help soon, with Israel Defense Forces announcing the call-up of 16,000 reservists. That will bring the total number of reservists activated since the start of the operation to 86,000, a military spokeswoman said. Israel has accused Hamas of hiding weapons, including rockets, in schools and launching attacks from near shelters -- a fact that, it says, has contributed to civilian deaths. Many outside Israel aren't convinced. Chile, Peru, Brazil and Ecuador have pulled their ambassadors out of Tel Aviv to protest the Israeli offensive. Even the United States -- an ally of Israel -- believes "the Israelis need to do more" to prevent civilian deaths, Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren told reporters. Still, such calls haven't stopped the United States from agreeing to Israel's request to resupply it with several types of ammunition, a U.S. defense official told CNN on condition of anonymity. It's not an emergency sale, the official said. The items being bought include tank rounds and illumination rounds, the Pentagon said. Nor will a cease-fire stop Israel's attempts to destroy Hamas' network of tunnels that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says is the first phase of the demilitarization of Gaza. While "neither side will advance ... Israel will be able to continue its defensive operations for those tunnels that are behind its lines," Kerry explained. 'We are tired, and we have had so much loss of life' Meanwhile, Gaza is reeling. More than 219,000 Palestinians are packed into 86 shelters across Gaza, the U.N. said. That works out to about 12% of all of Gaza's population. Clean water is inaccessible for most. And some 3,600 people have lost their homes. "We cannot supply electricity" for hospitals, sewage treatment or domestic use, said Fathi al-Sheikh Khalil, deputy chairman of the Palestinian Energy Natural Resources Authority in Gaza. "This is a disaster." Al-Qidra, the Gaza health spokesman, said health care workers are struggling to deal with the relentless stream of dead and wounded. "The hospitals in Gaza yesterday had a very difficult time. All the hospital morgues were flooding with dead bodies, and the injured were laying on hospital floors because of the lack of hospital beds," said al-Qidra. Count Sakher Joham among those Palestinians hoping, praying that the misery ends. The violence forced him to flee his home, with his five children and "just the clothes on my back." "We are tired, and we have had so much loss of life," Joham, 32, said of himself and fellow Palestinians. "We want to live with our children a life of dignity, like the rest of the world." Inside a Hamas tunnel . What is Hamas' endgame in Gaza? What is Israel's endgame in Gaza? Opinion: Gaza peace struggle drains me of hope . What You Need to Know About the Israel-Hamas Blame Game . CNN's Karl Penhaul reported from Gaza City; and Greg Botelho reported and wrote from Atlanta. CNN's Mariano Castillo, John Vause, Jethro Mullen, Steve Almasy, Tim Lister, Kareem Khadder, Samira Said, Tal Heinrich and Larry Register contributed to this report.

NEW: Official: 1,452 killed in Gaza, which is more than a group says died in 2008, 2009 . Israel and Hamas accept the 72-hour cease-fire, officials tell CNN . Palestinian official "hoping against hope" it will lead to a "permanent cease-fire" U.N. rights chief says Israeli shellings that killed civilians don't appear "to be accidental"

(CNN) -- KYRA PHILLIPS: The president said Ebola is a national security priority. How are you responding to that? GEN. DEMPSEY: Well, it is a national security priority. I'd be happy to explain why. But let me speak to how we're responding to it. We're responding to -- I actually held a roundtable months ago because I -- a very bright staff officer on the Joints staff came to me and said this is different. This outbreak is different. It's different because it's urbanized, it's different because it's a third strain of the disease. It's different before of the fragility of the infrastructure, of the governments in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. And so we brought in a panel of experts and we started talking about how this could evolve. And we did some parallel planning. That's what we do, right, we plan. So AFRICOM, General Dave Rodriguez began planning for what we could do to empower and enable civil authority. You know, this is not a mil -- it's not a military threat. But the military has some pretty unique capabilities to deal with all kinds of issues. We can provide command and control, that is to say, a central location with communications and computers and bandwidth that can help people see the situation. So command and control. Secondly is logistics. We've got the finest logistics infrastructure in the world. So we've got a command and control headquarters in Monrovia. We've got an -- an intermediate logistics staging base in -- in Dakar, Senegal. We're building a training center in Monrovia. Now, you might say, why are you building a training center? That's another thing we do very well, we run good boot camps. So we're going to run a boot camp for health care workers coming from all over the world, using the Medicine Sans Frontieres program of instruction, to give those health care workers confidence that they know what they're up against and how to follow the proper medical protocols when they're in the hot zone. We actually are not going to play soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, coast guardsmen in contact with patients, but we're putting an architecture around them that will allow the health care workers to do what they've got to do. Related: Get up to speed on the Ebola outbreak . PHILLIPS: So how are you going to protect the U.S. military troops that are there and prevent them from bringing this home? DEMPSEY: Yes, that's a great question. And we're going to -- first of all, we're not going to wait until they're there. So we also know how to train. And so we've got a -- we've got a system of training events prior to deployment, during deployment and during deployment, we tier them in terms of the -- the risk that they may be in contact with somebody with Ebola. So the logistician sitting in Senegal is highly unlikely to be in contact with anyone from -- from Sierra Leone, Guinea or Liberia. So they're in a lower risk category. And we manage them differently. Those in a high risk category, we manage them better. when they get ready to come back, there will be a period of observation before they come back. And then when they come back, there will be a 20 wait -- a 21 day period of observation when they're back here. Now, here's what sets us apart. Most everybody else self-monitors, right? There's nothing self-monitor about the way the military treats our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines, coast guards. We'll be -- we have a chain of command. There are some staff sergeants, some 32-year-old mean as a snake staff sergeant who every day is going to look his soldiers -- I'll use soldiers, but it's the other services, too -- in the eye and make sure that they're not in any way exhibiting symptoms related to Ebola. And so we will use the chain of command to monitor, supervise monitoring from the time they leave until the time they come back and beyond when they come back to make sure we're giving our -- our -- our young men and women the best possible chance to protect themselves and also avoid the -- to avoid but not eliminate entirely the possibility that they would bring something back. Related: U.S. troops assisting in Ebola response may be quarantined . PHILLIPS: Big picture, I'm just going to throw it out there. DEMPSEY: Yes? PHILLIPS: With this Ebola situation and -- and all the major gaps in the system that we've seen, even the CDC director said that the agency should have taken control of that Dallas hospital, what does that tell you about the US' -- the US' capability to respond to a bioterror attack? DEMPSEY: Well, we -- this won't surprise you, that we, through NORTHCOM, Northern Command, we have a command in the continental United States, it sits in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Its mission is to support the home -- well, it has a defensive mission to the homeland related to long-range aviation, to missiles and rockets and -- but it also has a very important mission to provide direct support to civil authority. And we have a contingency plan for managing pandemics, that is, things that would begin to exceed the capability of a particular community or a state even to deal with it. And we update it periodically. And this is one of those cases where we're -- we're dusting it off. We're very closely in contact with all -- National Institutes of Health, the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control, the U.S. Agency for International Development for the stuff going on overseas. We are in the planning business and we're deeply into it with regard to this. But it's very much a mission assigned to civil authority. PHILLIPS: So what do you say to all the Americans that are looking at this Ebola situation and are in absolute panic? DEMPSEY: Well, I say a couple of things. One, the -- Ebola is a, to use a sports metaphor, this needs to be an away game. And that's why the United States military is involved. We want to keep this -- we want to help international health organizations, service organizations and non-governmental organizations. We want to help them keep this in isolation inside of those three countries. But there is a risk that if we -- if we, collectively, the international community, failed to keep it isolated, that -- that it could become actually -- you've heard all the experts. I don't need to compete with them for, you know, to sound like I slept at a Holiday Inn Express last night. But I have studied this thing. And there is a risk that it -- that the -- the rate of reproduction, the -- the ability of one patient to affect first two and then four and then eight and then it becomes exponential. so we've -- we've really got to be aggressive about the isolation and treatment matters that we're taking up. Inside the homeland, again, we're in support of those. But I can promise you that the United States military will do its part, with civil authorities, to keep this thing from coming to our homeland. And then inside of the United States, we've got to count on the civil organizations that are responsible for health care. PHILLIPS: Are you, General Dempsey, worried about Ebola here in the U.S.? DEMPSEY: I've been worried about Ebola globally for about 90 days. And I have had some on my staff that were probably a little more worried than I was even a few weeks or months before that. PHILLIPS: Why? DEMPSEY: I'm worried about it because it -- because we know so little about it. You know, you'll hear different people describe whether it could become airborne. I mean if you bring two, you know, two, uh, doctors who happen to have that specialty into a room, one will say, no, there's no way it will ever become airborne, but it could mutate so it would be harder to discover. It actually disguises itself in the body, which is what makes it so dangerous and has that incubation period of about 21 days. Another doctor will say, well, if it continues to mutate at the rate it's mutating and if we go from 20,000 infected to 100,000, the population might allow it the opportunity to mutate and become airborne. And then it will be an extraordinarily serious problem. I don't know who's right. I don't want to take chance, so I'm taking it very seriously.

The Pentagon is updating it's plan for an emergency pandemic . The Pentagon is creating a training center and "boot camp" for international Ebola responders . It is preferable to deal with Ebola as an "away game," according to Dempsey .

Washington (CNN) -- Is this week's anti-American chaos in the Arab world going to be President Barack Obama's Jimmy Carter moment or Republican challenger Mitt Romney's John McCain moment? The unrest so far in Libya, Egypt and Yemen -- embassies attacked, an American ambassador killed, spreading protests -- evokes memories of another U.S. crisis more than 30 years ago. In 1979, Iranians celebrating their revolution invaded the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took 52 Americans hostage to launch a crisis that helped doom Carter's re-election bid a year later. Romney and some conservative backers seek to draw parallels between the Carter and Obama presidencies, hoping to weaken what has been a major advantage for Obama on foreign policy and cement in voters' minds that he doesn't deserve a second term. Romney: 'A strong America is essential to shape events' The question is whether the strategy at a vital moment in the November election campaign, following the two party conventions and heading into the debates, will end up raising or sinking Romney's hopes. Unable to catch up in the polls, the former Massachusetts governor launched immediate and initially inaccurate criticism of Obama's foreign policy on Tuesday night -- the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks -- after first reports of protesters breaching the U.S. Embassy in Egypt and of an attack that had killed an American at a U.S. diplomatic compound in Libya. "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," the Romney statement said in reference to a Cairo embassy statement that was released before protesters stormed the compound. When news emerged Wednesday that the Libya attack killed four people, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, Romney found himself criticized by Democrats and some Republicans and conservatives for what they depicted as a crass and non-presidential move. "Governor Romney seems to have a tendency to shoot first and aim later," Obama told CBS in an interview on Wednesday. "And as president, one of the things I've learned is you can't do that. It's important for you to make sure that the statements that you make are backed up by the facts and that you've thought through the ramifications before you make them." Obama: Romney overstepped on Libya, Egypt attacks . Daniel Larison, a contributing editor at The American Conservative, wrote on the group's website that Romney tried unsuccessfully to apply his campaign theme that Obama has been a weak leader to a situation that didn't fit. He called the mistake akin to McCain's unorthodox reaction to the unfolding financial crisis during the 2008 campaign, when the Arizona senator called for both candidates to suspend campaigning and insisted the fundamentals of the economy were sound in the face of collapse. A more reasoned response by Romney "wouldn't have fit his ready-made scheme of Obama-as-Carter, but it would have spared him of most of the ridicule he's receiving now," Larison wrote, adding: "Now instead of portraying Obama as Carter, he has presented himself as the bumbling McCain figure of 2012." Mark Salter, a former chief of staff and campaign adviser to McCain, also took issue with Romney's move, writing on the website realclearpolitics.com that "the rush by Republicans -- including Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin and scores of other conservative critics -- to condemn (Obama) for policies they claim helped precipitate the attacks is as tortured in its reasoning as it is unseemly in its timing." "I understand the Romney campaign is under pressure from some Republicans to toughen its attacks on the president," wrote Salter, comparing it to similar pressure on McCain four years earlier. " ... But this is hardly the issue or the moment to demonstrate a greater resolve to take the fight to the president." After his vigorous attacks on Obama on Tuesday night and Wednesday, Romney dropped some of the harshest rhetoric from remarks at a campaign event on Thursday in Virginia while continuing to label the president as a weak leader. "As we watch the world today, sometimes it seems we're at the mercy of events rather than shaping events," he said, later adding that "the world needs American leadership, the Middle East needs American leadership, and I intend to be a president that provides the leadership that America respects and will keep us admired throughout the world." For his part, Obama emphasized U.S. muscle on Thursday in promising a Nevada campaign event that "no act of terror will go unpunished." The president added that he instructed his administration to "do whatever is necessary to protect all Americans who are serving abroad." Opinion: Romney foreign policy attack was disgraceful . The back-and-forth on the issue reflects the competing efforts by the Obama and Romney campaigns to frame the election in terms favorable to their candidate. Obama seeks to make it a question of competing visions for the future, while Romney pushes for a referendum on Obama's presidency at a time of high unemployment, sluggish economic recovery and mounting federal deficits and debt. Romney previously has sought to tie Obama to the troubled, one-term Carter presidency, focusing on the economy -- considered the most important issue of the campaign. However, Romney trails Obama in the latest polling, particularly on foreign affairs. A recent CNN/ORC International poll showed Obama favored over Romney on foreign policy by 54%-42%. With less than eight weeks to the election, Romney appeared to leap at the chance to challenge Obama on foreign policy when first reports of attacks on U.S. compounds in Egypt and Libya emerged. He continued to sharply criticize the administration on Wednesday, saying it sent "mixed messages" on American values and policy to the rest of the world. "I think it is a terrible course for America to stand in apology for our values," Romney said of the statement issued by the embassy in Cairo that condemned the anti-Islam video that fomented protests outside the compound. "When our grounds are being attacked and being breached ... the first response of the United States must be outrage at the breach of the sovereignty of our nation. And apology for America's values is never the right course." Although Romney said the statement was released after the violence at the embassy, in fact it was released hours earlier. Arab Spring turmoil evokes political response . Democrats quickly fired back, with former presidential candidate John Kerry saying Romney's comments demonstrated "an insensitivity and a lack of judgment about what is happening right now." "I don't think he knows what he's talking about, frankly," the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman from Massachusetts told CNN. However, some Republicans including Romney's running mate in November, conservative Rep. Paul Ryan, quickly came to Romney's defense. "It's never too early to be in strong support of the American values to stand up for what we believe in and to condemn those people who are damaging our property," Ryan said in an interview with WLWT in Cincinnati. Conservative analyst Liz Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney and a former State Department official in the Bush administration, accused Obama of a litany of missteps that she said weakened U.S. influence abroad. "Apologizing for America, appeasing our enemies, abandoning our allies and slashing our military are the hallmarks of Mr. Obama's foreign policy," Cheney wrote in the Wall Street Journal, concluding that "an America already weakened by four years of an Obama presidency will be unrecognizable after eight." Republican strategist Alex Castellanos, a CNN contributor, agreed that Obama's foreign policy was "weak" and "vacillating," but he also acknowledged that Romney must win the foreign policy debate that the candidate himself launched to the forefront of the campaign. To Larison, the Romney gambit appeared to be a desperate move by a campaign that "knows it's losing." "When senior Republican foreign policy professionals start referring to this as his 'Lehman moment,' likening it to McCain's mid-September meltdown in response to the financial crisis, we can see that Romney's latest attempt to seize on an international event has done significant and possibly irreparable damage to his campaign," Larison wrote. "Most Americans may not sympathize with Romney's more aggressive foreign policy, but they might have been willing to believe him to be competent and have good judgment. This blunder undermines his claims to both of these." Ex-SEALs, online gaming maven among Benghazi dead . CNN's Rachel Streitfeld and Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.

Mitt Romney seeks to draw parallels between presidents Obama and Carter . Some Republicans say Romney blundered in his attack on Obama . Polls show voters favor Obama on foreign policy issues .

(CNN) -- For better or worse, Iraq and the United States have been attached at the hip for decades. From the 1991 Gulf War to the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein to subsequent years marred by violence and instability, there's no doubting the deep connection between the two nations. That's largely thanks to policies crafted out of Washington, be they intended to contain or eliminate Hussein or to stabilize and build up the fragile nation that remained in his wake. So it is no surprise that, with militants overrunning much of Iraq and threatening its capital, people are turning to the United States. What can it do? What will it do? Among Obama's options: . Option No. 1: Send in American troops . As of Monday, the Pentagon says it has only about 170 troops in Baghdad and 100 in undisclosed locations around the region. Their job is to protect the U.S. Embassy and other American interests, the Pentagon said. That's far from the troop levels of past Iraq engagements. U.S. troops didn't stay in Iraq for long after driving Hussein's military out of Kuwait in 1991, but they did hunker down 12 years later after toppling the Baathist regime. The responsibility that comes with rebuilding a country from over 6,000 miles away was one factor, but so was the continued violence. American troop levels in Iraq peaked at 166,300 in October 2007, according to the U.S. Defense Department. Critics derided the withdrawal of U.S. troops by the end of 2011. Among them was Sen. John McCain, who last week reiterated his disgust at that decision and called for the firing of Obama's national security team in part over what's happened in Iraq. "Could all this have been avoided?" the Arizona Republican said about the current state of Iraq, though he didn't outright call for fresh military action. "And the answer is: Absolutely yes." The biggest, simplest way to make an impact in Iraq: Send American troops back into the country. But it won't happen again. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told CNN on Thursday that no one is calling for "American troops into Iraq." And of all options now on the table, it's the only one that the Obama administration has explicitly nixed. "We are not contemplating ground troops," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said last week. "I want to be clear about that." Option No. 2: U.S. airstrikes . Still, while the U.S. military might not have a role fighting on the ground in Iraq, it could have a role over it. On Monday, Secretary of State John Kerry acknowledged to Yahoo! News that airstrikes on Iraqi targets are under consideration. The aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush and five other warships are now in the Persian Gulf. More than 500 Marines and dozens of helicopters are on standby. In the past, Iraqis have been very public about their desire to limit the involvement of the American military. Yet, a U.S. official said the Iraqi government had indicated a willingness for the U.S. military to conduct airstrikes targeting members of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and other militants. American air power has proven effective before in campaigns such as Kosovo or Libya. Yet it's not foolproof. Last week, Carney deflected a question about whether Obama might consult Congress before sending warplanes into Iraq -- saying it's too early to give an answer because the President hasn't decided the best course of action yet. Attacking sites from the air comes with a host of limitations and challenges -- the risk of U.S. casualties or capture should warplanes be shot down; the unlikelihood of wiping out an insurgency from above; the likelihood militants will blend into the civilian population and cause death and injury to the innocent. Option No. 3: Provide more military aid . Unlike the first two options, the U.S. government has already taken this course and has signaled it may do more. A Defense Department official says that about $15 billion in equipment, training and other services already have gone to Iraq. Carney reeled off some of the many items that have made their way east of late: millions of rounds of small arms fire, thousands of rounds of tank ammunition, hundreds of Hellfire missiles, grenades, assault rifles, helicopters and much more. And that tally doesn't include an additional $1 billion in arms -- including up to 200 Humvees -- that are now in a 30-day review period in Congress. But U.S. officials -- calling the current situation "extremely urgent" -- acknowledge that what's already in Iraq and what's coming may not be enough. Chief among those officials is Obama himself, who said last week: "Iraq is going to need more help from us, and it's going to need more help from the international community." At the same time, it's not like the billions of dollars worth of firepower proved all that effective against ISIS fighters in places like Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city. Witnesses reported seeing Iraqi security forces drop their weapons, even shed their uniforms, then run to safety. James Jeffrey, U.S. ambassador to Iraq from 2010 to 2012 and now a fellow with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, characterized Iraq's military as "ill-trained, badly led and not particularly competent." "They clearly cannot fire and maneuver," said Jeffrey, a U.S. Army veteran. And it's not just a matter of making sure that whatever resources sent to Iraq are used effectively and not wasted. Already, militants have been able to pick up weaponry, vehicles and other goods on its swift, vast sweep of Iraq -- some of it supplied by the United States. "We are not surprised," a defense official told CNN. "It was a question of when, not if, something like this would happen." Option No. 4: Effect change politically in Iraq . Beating back ISIS by retaking Mosul and other cities would be a huge victory for Iraq's government. But it wouldn't be a complete, conclusive win unless the country can get its house in order. And doing that, according to experts and U.S. officials, requires addressing what CNN's Nic Robertson has referred to as Iraq's "political dysfunction." One silver lining to the turmoil is Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government seems to be coordinating with the semiautonomous Kurdish government, American officials said. It appears Iraqi forces will team up with Kurdish fighters, known as the Peshmerga, to combat ISIS. Addressing the divisions between Shiites and Sunnis, the two dominant Muslim sects, in Iraq is another matter. Al-Maliki's government, as well as the military, is dominated by Shiites -- leaving Sunnis not only left out but also bitter, so much so that some of them may not see ISIS as a worse option. "Over the last several years, we have not seen the kind of trust and cooperation develop between moderate Sunni and Shia leaders inside of Iraq," Obama said. "That accounts in part for some of the weakness of the state, and that carries over into the military." Vice President Joe Biden has been talking regularly with al-Maliki to try to effect political change, including possibly through a new unity government that gives Sunnis a prominent, hands-on role. Still, words -- as opposed to, say, troops on the ground -- are sometimes only so effective. And it's not like al-Maliki has heeded U.S. officials' call for sectarian reconciliation and unity in the past. Yet Washington's misgivings about the Prime Minister don't change the fact that they support him, generally. The question is still how, exactly, they will support him. "There's more that Prime Minister Maliki should have done, could have done, over the course of time," said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki. "That's a message we've conveyed publicly and privately to him. "But the enemy here is (ISIS). We need to work together and present a united front." Interactive: Where is Iraq's oil? ISIS: The first terror group to build an Islamic state? The siege of Mosul: What's happening? Recording: ISIS promises more fighting in more Iraqi cities . CNN's Barbara Starr contributed to this report.

The U.S. has a long history in Iraq, including the 1991 Gulf War and 2003 invasion . As Iraq battles radical Islamist militants, U.S. officials have promised more help . Air strikes and additional weaponry and aid are among the options being mulled . But ground troops have been ruled out, according to a White House spokesman .

(CNN) -- International pressure is mounting on Israel and the Palestinians to halt violence in Gaza, with the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and other countries all calling for an immediate restoration of calm. Protesters knock down barriers near the Israeli Embassy during a demonstration in central London. Angry protests also took place in several cities around the world on Sunday against Israel after its air strikes in Gaza killed at least 270 people and wounded hundreds more. In London, hundreds of demonstrators battled riot police in an attempt to enter the Israeli Embassy, according to media reports. But neither side indicated they were ready to heed the calls for calm. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the operation in Gaza "is liable to continue for some time, perhaps more than can be foreseen at the present time." Hamas, too, showed no signs of backing down, saying Israel had violated an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire intended to stem violence in the region. "We will stand up, we will defend our own people, we will defend our land and we will not give up," senior spokesman Osama Hamdan said. For a second day, black plumes of smoke rose above Gaza City as makeshift ambulances screamed down rubble-strewn streets, taking wounded Palestinians to hospitals already crowded with hundreds of patients wounded this weekend. More than 110 Hamas rockets have been launched into Israel by Hamas militants since Saturday morning, an Israel Defense Forces spokesman said. An Israeli man died when a rocket slammed into a home Saturday, IDF said. The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Zalmay Khalilzad, supported Israel's contention that it was up to Hamas to stop the violence. "Israel has the right to self defense and nothing in this press statement should be read as anything but that," Khalilzad said. The United States has warned Israel, however, to avoid civilian casualties. Israeli leaders maintain they are attempting to do so. White House Spokesman Gordon Johndroe "Hamas' continued rocket attacks into Israel must cease if the violence is to stop. Hamas must end its terrorist activities if it wishes to play a role in the future of the Palestinian people. The United States urges Israel to avoid civilian casualties as it targets Hamas in Gaza." Israel's ambassador to the U.N., Gabriela Shalev, responded that her country was only defending itself from Hamas rocket attacks. "The last days were so bad that we had to say, and did say, 'Enough is enough,' " Shalev said. "The only party to blame is the Hamas." Saeb Erakat, adviser to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, urged Israeli and Hamas leaders to enact another cease-fire. "I believe this is the only way out. I don't think this problem can be solved through military means. Violence will breed more violence," he said Saturday. The power base for Abbas' Fatah party is in the West Bank. The party is locked in a power struggle with Hamas, which won parliamentary elections in January 2006 and wrested Gaza from Fatah in violent clashes last year. Abbas, a U.S. ally, wields little influence in Gaza. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's office issued a statement saying he was deeply alarmed by the violence and bloodshed in Gaza and in southern Israel. "While recognizing Israel's security concerns regarding the continued firing of rockets from Gaza, he firmly reiterates Israel's obligation to uphold international humanitarian and human rights law and condemns excessive use of force leading to the killing and injuring of civilians. He condemns the ongoing rocket attacks by Palestinian militants and is deeply distressed that repeated calls on Hamas for these attacks to end have gone unheeded," a spokesman said. The U.N. Security Council ended a four-hour emergency meeting Sunday with a call for an immediate halt to hostilities and a re-opening of border crossings to allow humanitarian supplies to reach Gaza. The Palestinians' U.N. envoy said if Israel does not halt attacks within 48 hours, Arab delegations will demand stronger action from the Security Council. UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband called on Sunday for an urgent ceasefire and immediate halt to all violence. "The deteriorating humanitarian situation is deeply disturbing. Prime Minister (Gordon Brown) has spoken to Prime Minister Olmert of Israel. As we made clear yesterday, Israel must abide by its humanitarian obligations. "The UK supports the prompt and sufficient delivery of food, fuel and medicine into the Gaza Strip. I have discussed this unfolding crisis with my counterparts in the region and beyond. iReport.com: Are you there? "I have discussed with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit his plans to convene a meeting of Arab League Foreign Ministers. This is an important opportunity for Arab leaders to make clear that the interests of the Palestinian people can only be secured through a viable Palestinian state existing alongside a secure Israel. We must renew our collective effort to achieve this goal in 2009." Russia also urged both sides to refrain from violence. "Moscow believes it is necessary to immediately stop a large-scale military operation against Gaza Strip, which has already led to numerous casualties and sufferings of peaceful Palestinians," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said. "At the same time, we are urging the leadership of Hamas to stop missile strikes upon Israeli territory. We are sure that what needs to be done without delay now is stop military confrontation, restore a cease-fire, and rid peaceful civilians on both sides of terror and pain." Jordan's King Abdullah II by contrast urged "Israeli aggression" that targets "innocent civilians including women and children" to end. "The establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the Palestinian national soil is a prerequisite to achieve security and stability," he said, adding that Israel will not get security and peace unless it ends what he called its "occupation." Iran's supreme leader has declared Monday a "day of mourning" for Palestinians in Gaza, blaming the violence on "the bloodthirsty nature of the Zionists." The state-run news agency IRNA said Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was urging all Muslim nations, as well as "freedom seekers," intellectuals and media "to fulfill their heavy duty in confronting the crimes of the 'Zionist vampires.'" Iran has long openly supported Hamas, supplying it with weapons and training. Like Hamas, Iran's government does not recognize the existence of Israel. Hamas, the party in control of Gaza, is considered a terrorist organization by the United States. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted by IRNA as saying Saturday night, "Zionists are at the end of the road both in theory and practice in all economic, political, military and cultural terms." Some Iranian students and members of parliament held a demonstration in front of a United Nations building in Tehran, accusing U.N. member nations of being silent in the face of "crimes" against Palestinians. Some demonstrators also condemned Egypt, which has tried to broker agreements between rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah, as well as between Palestinian leadership and Israel. The European Union called for an immediate halt to violence. A statement issued by current EU president France said the bloc "condemns the disproportionate use of force" from both sides. The statement urged the "reopening of all checkpoints and the immediate resumption of fuel and humanitarian aid deliveries." The statement said "there is no military solution in Gaza" and urged a lasting truce. France's President Nicolas Sarkozy, in a separate statement, expressed "great concern" about the escalating violence by Israelis and Palestinians. In London, Palestinian families and supporters protested outside the Israeli Embassy and chanted in unison: "Five, six, seven, eight -- Israel is a terror state," according to the Press Association. Similar demonstrations were held in Paris, Istanbul and other cities. Crush barriers were torn down and riot police were brought in to control the crowd of more than 500 people, PA reported. The crowds waved Palestinian flags and held placards, some of which read "holocaust in Gaza" and "no peace, no justice." One protester was Gamal Hamed, from Hammersmith, in west London, whose 23-year-old son lives in Gaza. The 68-year-old said: "Yesterday was the bloodiest day in my homeland's history. We will do what we can to make the world take notice." CNN's Shirzad Bozorgmehr contributed to this report.

International pressure grows on Israel and Palestinians to end violence in Gaza . U.S., U.N., EU and other countries call for immediate restoration of calm . Angry protests in several cities around the world on Sunday against Israel .

Atlanta (CNN) -- Everything about the rebooted Delta Flight Museum screams, "AIRPLANES!" Even outside its entrance, I'm greeted by aviation decorations. Lined up in a row like Roman columns are three struts of Boeing 757 landing gear embedded into the front of the building. Welcome to the Delta Flight Museum, home to some of the airline industry's historic jewels, including a first-of-its-kind aircraft that pioneered the sophisticated planes we fly on today. This could be the best aviation museum you've never heard of. I'm champing at the bit to see a few highlights, including: . • The cockpit from the first Convair 880-22, once the world's fastest airliner . • A nose-to-wing section of the first L-1011 TriStar that served as a Hollywood movie set . • The airline's beloved "Spirit of Delta," a huge 1980s-era Boeing 767 . • Arguably the world's most meticulously restored DC-3, among history's most important airliners . Yep, it's enough to make an aviation geek play hooky and get lost among all the sleek, metallic technology. But this place also appeals to nonaviation aficionados, thanks to its collection of stylish luggage and Delta uniforms. Then there's the museum's JFK airport rescue project. I'll tell you about that in a minute. For years access to the museum was limited to Delta employees and their friends. But last summer the airline closed it for a complete overhaul. In June, it opened to the public for the first time. Appropriately, the museum takes up two hangars on Delta's corporate headquarters, next to Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Once you step inside, you're met with an amazing 1940 DC-3 airliner called Ship 41. When sunlight pours through the hangar windows, it bounces off the aluminum surface of this twin-propeller tail-dragger. Beginning in the mid-1930s, more than 14,000 commercial and military versions of the plane came off the Douglas Aircraft production lines, popularizing airline travel across much of America. Each DC-3 seated from 21 to 24 passengers. Astonishingly, hundreds are still flying worldwide today thanks to an airframe that pilots describe as one of the toughest ever. The unbelievable airliner that just won't quit . Restoring this silver-skinned beauty was a triumph for a handful of retired Delta employees, who took it apart and rebuilt it in the 1990s, returning it to nearly as good as new. "No other DC-3 in the world has been restored with such attention to detail," says the museum website. Delta says Ship 41 is the first aircraft to earn an award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Take a video tour inside the meticulously refurbished airliner . Next, take a walk through a darkened, circular portal and emerge into another hangar. Suddenly, you're sharing a room with a quarter-million-pound, five-story-tall Delta Boeing 767-232. It's right there in front of you, fully accessible for avgeeks who can't help caressing its underbelly and nuzzling up to its twin General Electric CF6-80A engines. A few interesting facts about this plane: . • In a gesture of solidarity, Delta employees raised $30 million to purchase it for the airline during tough economic times in 1982. • With a capacity of 204 passengers and six crew members, the plane flew until 2006 before retiring to the museum. • When you get on board, you walk through a first class section that's frozen in time. The armrests include passenger phones and audio controls. The bulkheads are decorated with pinstripes. A video screen is mounted on the wall. The sound system uses speakers mounted in the overhead bins. In the rear, the plane becomes a mini-museum, with displays featuring items like airline uniforms and insignia pins. Just steps away sits the cockpit from the first Convair 880-22, serial number 01. The Convair 880 was an unsung airliner classic, flying for Delta from 1960 to 1973. It was good enough for the king of rock 'n' roll. Elvis bought one in 1975, naming it for his daughter, Lisa Marie, and painting on the letters "TCB." Just a little reminder that the plane was "Takin' care of business." The museum's Convair 880 cockpit was the nerve center for the very first 880 test plane. Later the aircraft joined the fleet at TWA. "Some of the other jets we'd compare to pickup trucks, but this was like a sports car -- like a Porsche," Capt. Frank Bottoms Sr., a retired Delta Convair 880 pilot, told me. Like a Porsche, the jet was a speed demon, with a cruising speed of 586 mph, according to the museum. In 1959, the 880 was known as the fastest airliner in the world, according to Popular Mechanics. Three years later, Delta set a commercial speed record with an 880, hitting 715 mph, according to the museum. That's fast even by today's standards. As Bottoms flew 880s in the '60s and '70s between Houston, New York, Chicago and Miami, the plane "was something you were proud to be in," he recalled, calling it "the cream-of-the-crop" airliner. "The passengers loved it, and we loved it." The museum also contains another piece of airline history you can't find anywhere else: a nose-to-wing section of the very first Lockheed L-1011 TriStar, serial number 1001. Oh, if this triple-engined jet could talk! It might tell stories about the test flights it flew for Lockheed in the 1970s. Or it might reveal tales about when it served as a movie set for 1992's "Passenger 57," starring Wesley Snipes, and Bill Murray's "Quick Change" from 1990. Pilots loved the L-1011 for its efficiency and reduced engine noise. For a while, it was sometimes called the Whisperliner. Bottoms, who also flew L-1011s, said both planes were so reliable they could almost land themselves under the right conditions. "They were such stable airplanes -- no wild gyrations of having to move the controls," he said. The museum offers several handy touchscreens with all kinds of cool data about the planes. But the best interactive exhibit is an actual flight deck simulator that was used to train Delta 737-200 pilots. If you're over age 16, a rare opportunity to "fly" the simulator for 45 minutes will cost you about $400. As you exit through the gift shop, notice another piece of history hanging above the doorway: a sign that reads simply, "Delta Air Lines." It doesn't mean much, until you know where it came from. It was a rescue. Delta saved the sign from the now-demolished Worldport, aka Terminal 3, at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. Built by Pan Am in 1960, the flying saucer-shaped building became a symbol of the excitement and glamor surrounding the early days of the Jet Age. Delta operated the terminal after Pan Am folded in 1991 until the airport tore it down in 2013 to create an aircraft parking lot. The sign was too important to leave behind. It's "iconic and seemed to beg to be preserved," said Delta's Ashley Black. Workers carefully took it apart and trucked it nearly a thousand miles to Atlanta, where Delta's Technical Ops Center refurbished it to like-new condition, rewiring it with LED lighting. It all adds up to a surprising number of one-of-a-kind exhibits for a small museum tucked between the airline's corporate offices. Even for folks who don't get all hot and bothered about airplanes, it's a spot worth visiting during a long airport layover.

Delta Flight Museum has recently opened near Atlanta's airport . Exhibits include prototypes of important airliners, the L-1011 and superfast Convair 880 . Museum offers an interesting tourist option during long layovers . Giant sign from iconic Worldport rescued from wrecking ball at JFK airport .

(CNN) -- Energy giant BP will hold a worldwide moment of silence Wednesday for the victims of last week's hostage crisis at an Algerian gas plant, with its CEO saying employees "fear the worst" for four colleagues still missing. Nearly a week after Islamic militants seized the In Amenas facility in the Sahara Desert, families and governments around the world were waiting for the Algerian government to provide a full accounting of the dead and missing. Algerian authorities say five workers are still missing after its special forces stormed the compound in a bloody weekend raid that left most of the terrorists and their remaining captives dead. Read more: Power struggle: The North African gas industry targeted by militants . The plant is run by Algeria's state oil company, in cooperation with foreign firms such as Norway's Statoil and Britain's BP. Tuesday night, BP CEO Bob Dudley said four of its 18 employees at the plant remain unaccounted for, and "It is with great sadness that I now have to say that we fear the worst for them all." The company said its offices worldwide will hold a minute of silence Wednesday "as a mark of respect for all of those who lost their lives at In Amenas." At least 37 hostages were killed in the four-day ordeal, which began December 16 and ended Saturday. "Many of us have friends and colleagues, both in BP and in other companies, who have worked at In Amenas or in similar facilities," Dudley said in a company statement. "We are all thinking of our missing colleagues, those who endured the ordeal and their loved ones." The plant employed about 790 people, including 134 foreign workers -- among them Victor Lovelady, one of three Americans known to have been killed. Family members said Lovelady, ever the family man, was excited about the job. He got 28 days off for every 28 days he put in, time he could spend with his wife and two children in Nederland, Texas. Yes, it was in a remote natural gas facility in Algeria, but Lovelady assured his family it was safe. And it was in Africa, a place the 57-year-old seemed to love. "He felt something there," his daughter, Erin, told reporters Tuesday. "He was so excited to go there. I don't really know why, but he just loved it." But 10 days after he returned to the complex from a visit home, terrorists sped in on pickups, overtook the compound and made hostages of its workers. "It's just unfair," Lovelady's brother, Mike Lovelady, said Tuesday. "My brother didn't deserve to die." In addition to Lovelady, Americans Gordon Lee Rowan and Frederick Buttaccio also died. Seven U.S. citizens survived the crisis, the State Department said. It did not elaborate, citing privacy concerns. Like Lovelady, Rowan, too, felt safe working there. He said "we're in a compound in the middle of nowhere, and we've got security, and I'll be fine," Rowan's former neighbor, Gwen Eckholm, told CNN affiliate KNXV-TV in Phoenix. "I guess you can't really be secure any place." Opinion: Algeria hostage crisis shows jihadists on rise . Meanwhile, Algerian authorities hailed as a hero the only one of their compatriots among the hostages who died in the attack. While few details about his contribution were available Tuesday, Algerian authorities said he had raised the alarm that allowed plant workers to shut down operations and go into hiding. Militants shot the man between the eyes just as he alerted plant workers of the attack, Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal said. Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the North African branch of the terrorist movement, has claimed responsibility for the attack. In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said that U.S. officials "don't have any reason to doubt" the group's involvement. Nuland said Washington has no reason to believe any Americans are among those still unaccounted for. Algeria said the attack was retaliation for its decision to let France to use its airspace for an offensive against Islamist militants in neighboring Mali. But regional analysts said that would appear to be unlikely; the operation was too sophisticated to have been planned in the few days between France's intervention in Mali and the attack on the gas plant less than a week later. The Algerian government has said the attackers came from Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Mali, Niger, Canada and Mauritania. U.S. and Algerian officials are still trying to confirm the identities of those involved, according to a federal law enforcement official -- and it was unclear whether the terrorist identified as a Canadian was carrying authentic or false identification. "The level of co-operation between two countries has been good," the official added. The FBI has additional investigators in Algeria, where there is an established legal attache office, but authorities declined to say how many agents are there or identify their location. KBMT: Family seeks answers after Nederland man killed in Algeria . Algerian officials said the attackers drew on the expertise of a driver from Niger who had once worked at the plant. One former hostage, Mohadmed Aziri, told state-run Chinese broadcaster CCTV about militants flooding into the compound, taking it over bit by bit, searching door to door for workers. He also described rescue efforts. "The experience was too terrible. I heard the sounds of gunshot, bullets hitting doors," he told CCTV. "I heard the governmental forces and terrorists fighting in the distance. Judging from the sounds of gunfire, the fighting was very intense." The Algerians initially moved in on Thursday after concluding the militants planned to blow up the gas installation and flee to Mali with the foreigners as hostages. The incursion succeeded in freeing some hostages -- but not all -- and several of them died. Lovelady survived Thursday's raid. And if his family knew him at all, he was likely biding his time, coolly trying to find a way to help himself and others out of the unthinkable predicament they found themselves in. 'We felt in our hearts that he was coming home' "He wouldn't be the person who is crying and screaming and begging," Erin Lovelady said. And after the initial exhilarating news, the family felt sure he would pull through. "We all believed, we felt in our hearts that he was coming home," his daughter said. But then, on Saturday, Algerian special forces backed by helicopter gunships raided the plant for a second time. They finished off the militants but were unable to save the remaining hostages. Militants may have executed them, Mike Lovelady said he'd been told. The news, Erin Lovelady said, was "devastating." Bloody Algeria hostage crisis ends after 'final' assault . Mike Lovelady said he's angry with the terrorists who took the compound his brother thought was safe, resulting in the deaths of people who had traveled there merely to make a better living for their families. But he said things maybe could have been different had Algeria allowed U.S. or British special operations forces to take over. Maybe, Mike Lovelady said, the U.S. Navy SEALs or Britain's Special Air Service commandos could have taken out the militants while sparing the hostages. "We all feel it could have been handled differently," he said. However, Algeria's Interior Ministry said security forces were compelled to intervene quickly "to avoid a bloody turning point of events in this extremely dangerous situation." Officials said Monday that had the terrorists succeeded in blowing up the plant, it would have caused death and destruction in a 5-kilometer (3.1 mile) radius. On Tuesday, U.S. officials reiterated their support for Algerian officials. "The blame for this tragedy rests with the terrorists who carried it out," White House spokesman Jay Carney said. Nations scramble to account for missing after Algeria hostage crisis . As the family awaits the return of Lovelady's body, and more answers about how he died, Mike Lovelady said he's determined not to let his brother's legacy die with him. He said he intends to press Congress to keep up the fight against terrorism. "I'll be angry for a long time," he said. CNN's Ben Brumfield, Susan Candiotti, Ross Levitt, Yoko Wakatsuki, Hamdi Alkhshali, Greg Botelho and Michael Pearson contributed to this report.

BP says four of its workers remain unaccounted for, and "we fear the worst" "I'll be angry for a long time," the brother of a Texas man killed in the raid says . A former plant worker aided militant attackers, Algeria says . The White House again backs the Algerian response .

(CNN) -- The civilian death toll mounted in Syria Wednesday as the U.N.-Arab League envoy for the country, Kofi Annan, considered a response from Syrian authorities to proposals laid out in weekend meetings, officials said. Annan "has questions and is seeking answers," said a statement by his spokesman. "But given the grave and tragic situation on the ground, everyone must realize that time is of the essence. As he said in the region, this crisis cannot be allowed to drag on." The opposition said 56 people died Wednesday across Syria, including 29 in the rebel stronghold of Idlib, where activists reported Syrian military forces had seized control following a four-day onslaught. Only pockets of the city were held by soldiers who have defected, the activists said. Annan met last weekend in Damascus with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in an attempt to of reach a diplomatic solution to the crisis, which began almost a year ago. Three U.S. administration officials said earlier that al-Assad doesn't recognize the former U.N. secretary-general as the Arab League's representative and had rejected Annan's efforts. Al-Assad also said he will not do anything until the opposition lays down its arms, the sources said. Annan will brief the U.N. Security Council on Friday, according to the United Kingdom's mission to the United Nations, which holds the Security Council presidency this month. World powers will continue to attempt to pressure al-Assad's regime and focus on getting humanitarian aid to Syrians, U.S. President Barack Obama said Wednesday at a news conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron. The Syrian regime is being isolated politically, diplomatically and economically, by tightening sanctions, Obama said, while the Syrian opposition is growing stronger and military defections are continuing. Cameron said his country wants "revolution rather than civil war" in Syria. Syrian state-run media Wednesday said security forces "have brought safety and security back to the city" of Idlib, "which witnessed terrorist acts by armed gangs." Al-Assad's regime routinely insists "armed terrorist groups" are behind the bloodshed in Syria. But the continuing carnage and a scathing report about torture at the hands of the regime suggest there's been no progress in Syria after almost a year of attacks on civilians. In Idlib, the Free Syrian Army, a group of fighters composed primarily of defectors from government forces, had fled the city for "tactical reasons," said Hamza abu al-Hassan, an activist with the opposition Binnish Coordination Committee. Binnish is a town located a few kilometers northeast of Idlib. Clashes had slowed compared with previous days, but shelling continued, he said. Shelling was ongoing on the southwest outskirts of Binnish, al-Hassan said. The shells appeared to have been launched from military barracks south of the town, he said. No casualties resulted, as the shells struck open areas in an apparent attempt to scare residents. Most women and children have fled Binnish, he said. The city has shortages of food and gasoline, as well as medicine, he said. Human Rights Watch, citing accounts from witnesses and activists, said Syria's bombardment of the city of Idlib had killed 114 civilians since March 10. "Five witnesses, including three foreign correspondents, gave separate accounts to Human Rights Watch that government forces used large-caliber machine guns, tanks, and mortars to fire indiscriminately at buildings and people in the street," the group said. "After they entered Idlib, government forces detained people in house-to-house searches, looted buildings, and burned down houses, the witnesses said." Government forces also used mortars during the attack on the city, an Idlib resident told Human Rights Watch. Government forces looted shops and apartments and burned down houses of suspected activists, the witnesses said. Throngs of security forces Wednesday infiltrated villages in the port city of Latakia, searching for activists and setting homes afire amid sporadic gunfire, according to the Local Coordination Committees of Syria, or LCC, an opposition activist network. "This comes under a complete cutoff (of) electricity and telecommunications in the area," the LCC said. CNN cannot independently confirm reports of casualties or attacks in Syria because the government has severely restricted the access of international journalists. But most reports from inside Syria indicate the regime is slaughtering civilians to wipe out dissidents seeking al-Assad's ouster. The al-Assad family has ruled Syria for more than four decades. More than 8,000 people have been killed in the conflict, including many women and children, the president of the U.N. General Assembly said this week. Opposition activists have put the toll at more than 9,000. Two Turkish journalists are missing in Syria, according to Milat newspaper. Adem Ozkose, a columnist and war reporter for Milat and the Middle East correspondent for Gercek Hayat magazine, and Hamit Coskun, a freelance cameraman, were covering events in Syria and shooting a documentary, according to Milat. They were last heard from Saturday, said Turgut Alp Boyraz, a member of the newspaper's foreign editorial board. Three members of the opposition Syrian National Council resigned Tuesday over disagreements with its leadership, Ausama Monajed, adviser to council head Burhan Ghalioun, said Wednesday. The three -- Haitham al-Maleh, Kamal al-Labwani and Catherine al-Telli -- "wanted radical change within the organization," Monajed said. However, the council -- an umbrella organization that represents the Syrian opposition abroad -- is not ready for radical change, he said. The three decided they would be more "effective working from the outside," he said. Also, Saudi Arabia and Italy on Wednesday became the latest countries to suspend embassy activities in Damascus and withdraw their staffs. Spain suspended its embassy activities earlier this month, and the United States and France previously closed their embassies. "We reiterate the firmest condemnation of the unacceptable violence perpetrated by the Syrian regime against its citizens," Italy's foreign office said in a statement. "Italy will continue to support the Syrian people and to work toward a peaceful solution to the crisis that ensures their fundamental rights and legitimate democratic aspirations." However, Venezuela's parliament on Tuesday passed "an agreement in solidarity with Syria in light of the imperial threat presented by the United States and its Arab allies," Venezuela's Interior Ministry said Wednesday in a statement. "The document exhorts the international community and peace lovers to undertake a massive campaign to reject intervention in that nation," the statement continued. According to an Amnesty International report released Wednesday, Syrians detained by the regime are subjected to torture, including electric shocks, beatings and sexual violence. Based on interviews with dozens of Syrians who have fled to Jordan, the report details "31 methods of torture or other ill treatment" by security forces, the Syrian army and pro-government armed gangs. An 18-year-old identified as Karim told researchers his interrogators used pincers to gouge flesh from his legs while he was held for 25 days in Daraa in December. Detainees also were forced to witness abuse and hear others -- sometimes relatives or friends -- being tortured and raped, the report said. "I heard the screams of those being tortured for 24 hours a day," a 29-year-old identified as Musleh told researchers. "While in the cell, we were busy praying for the safety of those who are being tortured." After reports this week of a massacre in Homs, where dozens of women and children were reportedly stabbed and burned to death, authorities "arrested a number of terrorists who perpetrated the terrifying massacre against the citizens of Karm al Zaitoun neighborhood," the news agency reported Wednesday. Both opposition groups and the government reported a massacre in Homs, but opposition activists accused regime forces of carrying out the attacks. Shelling continued Wednesday for a fifth consecutive day on Homs neighborhoods, killing five people and wounding almost 60, activists said. More than 70 rockets and tank shells hit central and eastern neighborhoods in the city; power blackouts were reported in some areas, the activists said. Over the past year, about 30,000 Syrians have fled to neighboring countries, said Panos Moumtzis, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees' coordinator for Syrian refugees. CNN's Kareem Khadder, Amir Ahmed, Mitra Mobasherat, Catherine Shoichet and Anna Ozbek contributed to this report.

Wednesday's death toll is at 56, including 29 in Idlib . Two Turkish journalists are missing in Syria . Annan will brief the U.N. Security Council on Friday . Three resign from the opposition Syrian National Council .

(CNN) -- The United States has adopted numerous measures to make itself safer since al Qaeda slammed planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Hundreds of billions of dollars spent to improve security and strengthen intelligence capabilities. More security for travelers. After nearly a decade, al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is dead, killed early Monday in Pakistan by U.S. special forces, officials said. But is the United States any safer today than it was on September 10, 2001? Experts mostly believe -- some strongly, some tentatively -- it is. But, they caution, by no means is it time for the nation to relax its guard. "I think it's a mixed bag," said Amy Zegart, an associate professor at UCLA's School of Public Affairs who served on the National Security Council under President Bill Clinton in 1993. "... We're never safe. The question is, are we moving in the right direction? The answer is yes, but we have a long way to go." "There's no question about that -- much safer," said Thomas Kean, former New Jersey governor and chair of the 9/11 commission, which investigated the attack and issued recommendations. "But not safe enough. We've still got some work to do. There are new threats. We need to adjust to those threats." There has not been a large-scale terror attack on the United States since 9/11. There have, however, been some foiled attacks -- the attempted bombing in Times Square last year, for instance, or the attempted Christmas Day 2009 bombing on a flight from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to Detroit. There also have been successful attacks, such as the November 2009 shootings at Fort Hood, Texas, in which 13 people were killed and dozens of others wounded. Two U.S. senators found that FBI and Army officials repeatedly ignored multiple warning signs, including the suspect's "radicalization to violent Islamist extremism" and his reported communications with a suspected terrorist, according to a February report. The alleged gunman, Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan, reportedly communicated via e-mail with radical Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. "I think we're safer in terms of al Qaeda central," said Tom Fuentes, a CNN contributor and former FBI assistant director. U.S. military actions in Afghanistan forced al Qaeda to go further underground, he said, and reduced both bin Laden's and al Qaeda's effectiveness in carrying out "the big attacks." "You've had instead the splinter groups start doing the other types of attacks," he said, eventually getting to the point where "they'll do anything they can do" -- attacks like the Times Square plot, for instance, which aim to kill one to 100 people rather than thousands. But, he said, Americans are vulnerable to those smaller attacks. "You're always going to have the lone wolf, the psychopath, whether it be al Qaeda or others," Fuentes said. Faisal Shahzad, the would-be Times Square bomber, was linked to the Pakistani Taliban. But John Brennan, assistant to the president for counterterrorism and homeland security, said at the time of Shahzad's arrest that group, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban, or TTP -- is "closely allied with al Qaeda." While the United States has made strides in preventing a would-be terrorist from coming into the country, homegrown terrorism remains one of the biggest threats the nation faces, Kean said. "We have to have a mechanism to deal with that," he said. "I think we're absolutely safer, but it's more than just the killing of bin Laden, " said Frances Fragos Townsend, CNN national security contributor and homeland security advisor under President George W. Bush. While "nothing is perfect," the United States has closed many of its vulnerabilities, she said. Even something as simple as buying large amounts of fertilizer now raises red flags, making it much more difficult for would-be terrorists. In addition, law enforcement and surveillance authorities are more aggressive and able to uncover plots much earlier, she said. Without question, the nation's security and intelligence capabilities are much stronger than they were before the 9/11 attacks, and have effectively prevented such an attack from happening again, said Peter Bergen, CNN national security analyst. The 9/11 conspirators, he pointed out, would never be able to conduct the same kinds of actions today as they did pre-9/11 -- getting into the United States, taking flight lessons, wiring money overseas -- without catching authorities' attention. Their command and control centers -- in Germany, where a cell in Hamburg is believed to have planned the 9/11 attacks, as well as Afghanistan and Pakistan -- either no longer exist or have been severely crippled. "Their ability to do that kind of attack is close to zero," Bergen said. "... These groups retain some capability, but they're under tremendous pressure." At the time of the 9/11 attacks, 16 people were on the U.S. no-fly list, Bergen said. That number is now in the thousands. Air travelers face increased security and scrutiny at airport checkpoints, and must remove their shoes at the checkpoints because of another failed bombing attempt, in December 2001. Before 9/11, the FBI and CIA didn't share information regularly, and the United States did not focus on overseas intelligence cooperation as it does today, Bergen said. The CIA's budget has doubled, Townsend said, and the number of case officers increased. The United States' intelligence relationship with Saudi Arabia, for instance, is "as productive and as strong as our relationship with the British, which was not the case 10 years ago," Townsend said. Those countries understand our enemies better than we do, culturally and operationally, as they live in the same neighborhood, she added. Kean said, "We're talking to each other now much more." The nation's 17 intelligence agencies were "silos" before 9/11, he said. "Our targets are certainly harder than they were before," Zegart said. "Intelligence is better coordinated." But, she points out, that bar was low before 9/11. "We were caught flat-footed. ... We had nowhere to go but up." One of the most dangerous issues still facing the United States is the fact that a common radio frequency has not been set up for first responders, Kean said. On 9/11, as the World Trade Center towers began collapsing while New York firefighters were inside trying to save people, police had no way to warn them, he said. The same thing was seen during Hurricane Katrina, when "people in the boats couldn't talk to people in the helicopters." He said it's hard for him to believe that, nearly a decade after 9/11, a communications spectrum for first responders does not exist. In a sense, al Qaeda has also contributed to its own downfall, Fuentes said. "Between 80 and 90% of the people who have been killed by al Qaeda are Muslims. That's really caused them to lose a lot of support in Muslim countries themselves." In addition, nations like Saudi Arabia and Yemen have lost any tolerance they may have had for al Qaeda and are not offering them anything resembling a safe haven, he said. The to-do list for the United States remains long, Zegart said. On it are tasks such as defining the role -- and the power -- of the director of national intelligence, as well as those of the so-called "fusion centers," aimed at coordinating federal, state and local law enforcement. "We've got to carry the ball forward. We cannot think that the threat is gone." "I think this is a critical juncture," she said. "It was before Osama bin Laden's death and even more so today." Figures like al-Awlaki continue to pose a threat, she said. Also, there is still no proper oversight of intelligence agencies, Kean said. Some 80 congressional committees oversee the Department of Homeland Security, he said, and "instead of protecting us, (officials are) always testifying." "The killing of bin Laden, yes, it makes us safer," Townsend said. "We've denied our enemy the inspirational leadership, the architect of the doctorate of al Qaeda. ... Does it mean the war's over? No. Does it mean there's still a threat? Absolutely. But it's a crippling blow."

Experts believe the U.S. is safer today than before September 11, 2001 . But they say the nation still faces threats that are very real . Much remains to be done, says a former National Security Council member .

(CNN) -- On a warm summer afternoon in Buenos Aires last February, an Argentinian friend dropped me off in the charming historic neighborhood of San Telmo on her way to work. "You should go see a murga tonight!" she said. My only association with murga was a love song by one of my favorite musicians, Uruguayan singer Jorge Drexler, called "Murga Reggae": "Con mi amor yo quiero bailar/Murga Reggae." My Spanish wasn't good enough to understand the entire song, but the lyrics I did get seemed pleasant: Something about summertime, a shower of stars, the end of carnival and how he wanted to dance with his love. Did I want to see a murga? Claro! Hearing the drums of the murga . So as the sun set over the Río de la Plata, I wandered away from the tourists sipping cappuccinos and mates as they watched tango dancers in Plaza Dorrego, one of the city's historic squares. Several blocks later, the tourists had vanished and the smoke of a sidewalk asado, a huge Argentinian-style barbecue, filled the air as lanky men in tank tops demonstrated their grilling prowess. In the distance, I heard the drums of the murga. Murga, it turned out, is far from a slow, romantic dance. It's a lively form of street theater that became a prominent part of carnival celebrations in Uruguay and Argentina at the turn of the 20th century. If you happen to be in this part of the world during carnival, which generally begins in late January or early February, it's also a great way to experience regional culture and history. Murga originally came from Càdiz, Spain, but transformed in the Río de la Plata region into a unique cultural expression also rooted in other European and African traditions of music and dance. It first flourished in working-class, immigrant neighborhoods of Argentina and Uruguay, drawing on sounds of daily life: calls of street vendors, melodies of popular songs and, fundamentally, African drumming. African rhythm pulses through the music . During the 18th and early 19th century Spanish colonial era, enslaved Africans in the region developed elaborate drumming rhythms called candombe, which became a way of preserving their cultures and stories. Today it continues to thrive, particularly in predominantly Afro-Uruguayan neighborhoods in Montevideo. This is the pulse of murga. But murga also has distinct differences in each country. In Argentina, murga corsos are parades in which performers from a given neighborhood, many dressed in satin frock coats and top hats, drum and dance through the streets until reaching a staging area. There the musicians sing and play nasally horns while agile dancers swirl and kick and jump to the rhythm of the bombo, tambor and cymbals in a blur of sequins and feathers. In Uruguay, carnival lasts 40 days (it's the longest in the world). This year it started January 25 and will continue until early March. Murga performances here are much more regimented and elaborate. They incorporate a greater variety of musical instruments, powerful choral song and costumes that recall commedia dell'arte-like characters with painted faces, colorful capes and plumed hats or other outrageous headgear. Filled with parody and political satire . Murga competitions are televised, and groups practice exhaustively for months to develop and perfect their routines in secret -- serious prize money is at stake. The groups perform in theaters and tablados, outdoor staging areas constructed all over Montevideo, and may travel to several venues in one night. Murgas in both countries incorporate social and political criticism. But Uruguayan murga places more explicit emphasis on parody and political satire, often achieved by playing with the lyrics of well-known songs and even advertising jingles to construct clever, humorous critiques of everything from presidents to soccer teams to social issues. In a country where people often feel overshadowed by neighboring Argentina, these distinctions count. "Murga is one of the only things that a lot of Uruguayans feel is only theirs. So it's viewed with a lot of pride," said Natalie Kirschstein, a professor of world music at Regis University in Denver who studies Uruguayan murga. Despite the differences, the tradition remains, in both countries, by and for the community. Murguistas are not professional singers and dancers, but working people -- bakers, vendors, mechanics and factory workers. They achieve a certain celebrity status during carnival, but they derive their material from the joys and struggles of family and neighbors, placing everyday life in a larger sociopolitical context. Repressive regimes banned the murga . Murga's association with working-class neighborhoods, unions and political satire made it a target of the countries' right-wing dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s, when thousands of people deemed threatening to the regime were forcibly disappeared. During this period, murgas tended to align with leftist ideals, in opposition to the repressive regimes, said Kirschstein. Officials responded by barring murga performances in public streets and censoring lyrics. Political messages became more subtle as murguistas found new metaphors to circumvent the restrictions. "During dictatorship it became a place where people could in a coded way talk about what was going on," said Kirschstein. "(Murguistas) were saying what people want to say and what they couldn't say. There are a lot of metaphors especially from that period around light, home, spring...that was the role that the murga played during the dictatorship -- giving hope." Today murga is undergoing a renaissance. Popular musicians are integrating the traditional rhythms of candombe and other characteristic murga elements into rock, jazz and other genres. Dedicated murguista masters have introduced it to young people through neighborhood workshops, now with government support. And while many younger murguistas have abandoned some of the hard-edged political rhetoric that developed in response to dictatorship, murgas remain a venue for clever social and political commentary. Buenos Aires, Argentina . Carnival in Argentina is February 2-24. Look for performances in the following neighborhoods, which offer among the most authentic murga experiences. And word to the wise: Don't dress up for murga. More than likely you'll be caught in the crossfire of a popular carnival street fight involving water bombs, shaving cream and children who take no prisoners. Trust me on that. Barracas: High-end housing and restaurants are transforming this neighborhood of old factories and barracks near the city's port area. But it retains vestiges of its working-class roots, even as it has begun to blossom as a center for art and community cultural events. La Boca: This immigrant neighborhood maintains a rough-and-tumble reputation, but today it also has a well-established tourism industry. Sit at a sidewalk cafe with a glass of wine against a backdrop of quaint, brightly painted houses known as coventillos before taking your place to watch the local murguistas. San Telmo: One of the oldest neighborhoods of Buenos Aires, San Telmo will meet every romantic's expectations: cobblestone streets, wrought iron balconies, antique markets and tango. The outskirts of San Telmo, away from the throngs of tourists, is a staging area for murga. Montevideo, Uruguay . It's well worth spending a couple of days in Montevideo -- a three-hour ferry journey from Buenos Aires across the Río de la Plata. Carnival here is under way and continues into early March. Teatro de Verano: It's one of the most important venues for official murga competitions, but smaller open-air tablados also host cheap murga performances throughout the carnival season. It's best to buy tickets well in advance, especially if you're planning to see the top acts compete in the finals. Barrio Sur and Palermo: Candombe drumming performances and llamadas, a call-and-response procession or parade, occur in these traditional Afro-Uruguayan neighborhoods. Like murga, they are central features of carnival, but you generally don't need a ticket. Museo del Carnaval is a great place to learn more about the history of murga and other carnival traditions. The museum can also recommend venues for murga, candombe and llamadas.

Both Uruguay and Argentina have rich traditions honoring murga . Murga is a lively form of street theater . Working people practice for months to star in televised competitions and street celebrations . Murga has its roots in Spain but was transformed by the drumming of enslaved Africans .

(CNN) -- It's not often that the White House holds a news conference late on a Sunday night. Especially an unscheduled one. So when it was announced, around 9:45 p.m. ET on May 1, that President Obama would be addressing the nation within the hour, you knew it had to be important. Had there been a major development in Libya? Things had been heating up since NATO started intervening against Moammar Gadhafi's forces. Were U.S. troops going into another part of the Arab world? Had there been another terrorist attack? Or was it the news that many Americans had been waiting on for nearly a decade: that Osama bin Laden, leader of al Qaeda, had finally been brought to justice for the tragic events of September 11? The White House announcement provided no details, so it was up to everyone else to fill in the blank. Speculation was rampant, especially online and on social media. What was so important that it couldn't wait until morning? By the time Obama finally spoke at 11:30 p.m., the world already knew the news: "The United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda and a terrorist who's responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women and children." The president never had a chance to avoid the mother of all spoilers -- not with how fast news travels today. An hour before his speech, the cat was out of the bag, thanks to Keith Urbahn, chief of staff for former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. "So I'm told by a reputable person they have killed Osama Bin Laden. Hot damn," Urbahn tweeted. It didn't take long after that for major news organizations to confirm that the news was indeed true: the most-wanted terrorist in the world was dead, eight years to the day after President Bush delivered his "Mission Accomplished" speech. "It was an incredibly symbolic event," said William Keylor, a professor of history and international relations at Boston University. "It was closure to 9/11. ... Al Qaeda had been pretty much degraded, but (bin Laden) was still on the run." As confirmation quickly spread of bin Laden's death, emotional celebrations began taking place across the country. Many were caught on camera. People in the nation's capital flocked to the White House, carrying American flags, singing the national anthem and cheering the news in front of television cameras. At a baseball game in Philadelphia, fans of both teams stopped to chant "U-S-A, U-S-A!" Celebrations also were held at New York's ground zero, the site of the former World Trade Center. "I never thought this night would come, where we would actually capture or kill bin Laden. And, thank the Lord, he's been eliminated, to put it politely," said Bob Gibson, a retired New York City police officer. "A lot of us ... gave up. But it did come, and a lot of us are overjoyed that it happened." 'The most intense 38 minutes of my life' By the next morning, the national conversation had started to change. The emotional impact of the announcement was subsiding, and the public wanted more detail, more explanation. How did the United States find bin Laden? Why was he killed and not captured? Who exactly killed him? It was soon learned that an elite team of Navy SEALs had flown two helicopters into Abbottabad, Pakistan, where bin Laden was living in a three-story compound with approximately two dozen people, including his relatives and one of his most trusted couriers. The United States had been tracking the courier for years, and the CIA informed the president in September 2010 that bin Laden might be living at the compound, a $1 million home surrounded by large privacy walls topped with barbed wire. On April 29, 2011, after several meetings with his National Security Council, Obama authorized an attack on the compound. In an operation that lasted nearly 40 minutes, the SEALs breached the compound's walls and methodically went through the house, floor by floor. Bin Laden and his wife were found on the third floor, White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a news conference. Carney said a SEAL fatally shot bin Laden when bin Laden made a threatening move. An iconic photo, released by the White House, shows Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and other officials in the White House Situation Room, following developments as the raid went down. Clinton later called it "the most intense 38 minutes of my life." Today, there have already been several books written about the raid, and a movie is said to be in the works. "I think the fact that it was such a tremendous success was the reason that the administration decided to publicize it: 'We're going to put out all the facts and let the chips fall where they may,' " Keylor said. "And, of course, the downside of that was that it really antagonized the Pakistanis." The United States and Pakistan had been working together for years trying to track down bin Laden and fight extremists near the Afghanistan border. But the United States, fearing that a leak could jeopardize its mission and tip off bin Laden, kept its raid a complete secret from Pakistan. The Pakistanis were outraged and humiliated by the blatant violation of their national sovereignty. U.S. officials questioned their ally's motivations, as bin Laden was "hiding in plain sight." The CIA director at the time, Leon Panetta, told U.S. lawmakers in a closed-door session that Pakistani officials were either "involved or incompetent," adding that "neither is a good place to be." Photo debate continues . From the raid, U.S. forces retrieved 10 hard drives, five computers and more than 100 storage devices containing intelligence from bin Laden's compound, according to a senior U.S. official. They also found some homemade videos, including one that shows a graying bin Laden, wrapped in a blanket, watching himself on a small television. "The fact that they killed (bin Laden) was significant, but they also demythologized him," said Thomas Mockaitis, author of "Osama bin Laden: A Biography." "They revealed him to be a megalomaniac, in many ways kind of a petty individual. Instead of this kind of great, powerful figure ... he looks like a bit of a narcissist. I think that, in some ways, was as important as actually killing him. It brought him down quite a bit it terms of his stature." But perhaps the most talked about pieces of evidence from last year's raid have yet to see the light of day: photos of a dead bin Laden. The administration decided to keep the photos classified, saying the graphic nature of the images would only incite further violence or be used for propaganda purposes. "We don't trot this stuff out as trophies," Obama told CBS News. "We don't need to spike the football." However, many Americans, including prominent lawmakers, believe they have a right to see the images. And some people have another concern: How do they know bin Laden is dead if they can't see proof? That isn't a concern of Sen. John McCain, one of several U.S. Congress members allowed to view the photos. The Arizona Republican, Obama's opponent in the 2008 presidential election, said there was no doubt that bin Laden is dead. But the debate over the photos continues one year later. On Friday, a federal judge turned down a request for release of the photos, saying there were legitimate national security interests to deny disclosure. The war on terror also continues. Bin Laden's death might have underlined the weakened state of al Qaeda, but affiliate groups, including the Taliban, al-Shabaab and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, "remain committed to the group's ideology," said a U.S. intelligence report released in January. "Lone wolf" terrorists are a threat as well, as we've seen recently in Norway and France. More: Is the core of al Qaeda on its last legs? The threats, however, should be no surprise to Obama, who warned that there was still work to be done when he announced bin Laden's death a year ago. Bin Laden's death "does not mark the end of our effort," he said in his speech. "There's no doubt that al Qaeda will continue to pursue attacks against us. "We must -- and we will -- remain vigilant at home and abroad."

It has been one year since Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces in Pakistan . The news of bin Laden's death spread like wildfire online and on social media . Several books have already been written about the raid on bin Laden's compound . Controversy remains over whether photos of bin Laden should be released .

(CNN) -- A bungled break-in, Deep Throat, a defiant President Richard Nixon declaring, "I am not a crook." These are what often come to mind when people hear the word Watergate. But another legacy of the infamous scandal has re-emerged in this year's presidential race. Many Americans may not remember, but public outrage over Watergate led to the enactment of a series of campaign finance reforms designed to restore the country's faith in government. While the nation marks the 40th anniversary of the Watergate break-in later this year, some observers say our political leaders have already forgotten a key lesson of Watergate: that anonymous money corrupts political campaigns. Opinion: It took a scandal to get real campaign finance reform . "Watergate was basically a campaign finance scandal," says Chris Dolan, a political science professor at Lebanon Valley College in Pennsylvania. Dolan and others say this historical amnesia can be seen in the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision, which allows corporations and unions to give unlimited campaign donations to so-called super PACs as long as those political action committees are not coordinated with a candidate's campaign. Super PACs can quickly pull in huge amounts of money. They have the option of disclosing their donors and donations either semiannually or quarterly in a nonelection year, and quarterly or monthly in an election year. Critics say super PACs are dangerous because they can delay disclosing details of donations until after elections take place, and they can easily work around restrictions against coordinating with a candidate's campaign. "Citizens United will lead to a future that will make Watergate look tame," Dolan says. "There will be more elections with fewer controls, more spending and great secrecy. The post-Watergate regulations are, in effect, dead." Others say the Watergate reforms actually hurt the election process and that the damage can be seen in this year's presidential race. The post-Watergate restrictions on campaign fundraising inspired savvy political operators to devise more backdoor ways than ever to steer big money to candidates, says political scientist David Schaefer. Campaign operators usually stay ahead of campaign reformers, says Schaefer, a professor at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts. He points to the 2002 McCain-Feingold law as an example. The law set strict limits on contributions to candidates and parties. The result: the rise of "independent" PACs that can receive up to $5,000 from an individual or a national party committee in a calendar year. PACs often make it easier for a candidate's supporters to attack their opponents, Schaefer says. "The candidates cannot be held accountable or responsible for anything PACs say on their behalf, even if there are scurrilous charges that amount to pure mudslinging," he says. A slush fund . From the very beginning of Watergate, campaign contributions were intertwined with the scandal. It began on June 17, 1972, when a security guard called Washington police after discovering white masking tape plastered over a door in a sprawling apartment and office complex known as the Watergate. Five men in business suits were arrested for breaking into the offices of the Democratic National Committee. Investigators later discovered that one of the burglars had a $25,000 check from President Nixon's Committee for the Re-election of the President (known as CRP, or CREEP) deposited in his bank account. Nixon aides had dispatched the burglars to the Democratic headquarters to gather intelligence on his political opponents. To cover up the break-in, the president would take the nation on a two-year series of events that came to be known as Watergate. Before resigning in disgrace in 1974, Nixon would order wiretaps for reporters, misuse the Internal Revenue Service, FBI and CIA for political purposes, and prompt a showdown with the Supreme Court. At the end, 30 government officials were convicted, and a disgusted nation began to lose faith in government. Keeping illegal donations hidden was a prime concern of the Nixon White House after the arrests, says Barry Sussman, a former Washington Post editor who helped lead coverage into the scandal. Nixon didn't just cover up a burglary. His re-election campaign chiefs had asked for and received millions in illegal, secret contributions from major American companies. "They went around with a very heavy hand, telling corporations that we're going to win and you better get on board. You don't want to be against us," says Sussman, author of "The Great Coverup: Nixon and the Scandal of Watergate. "That's called extortion." So much secret money was pouring into the Nixon White House that there were reports of bags of money being delivered to Nixon's re-election campaign, says Gerry Keim, chairman of the management department at Arizona State University's business school. "There was a slush fund," Keim says. "They were extorting money from corporate interests with the threat of using the IRS to audit them if they didn't comply." Corporations expected something in return, and Nixon delivered. His administration intervened in an antitrust action against one corporation that had given it money and relaxed regulations for a milk company that had done the same. Congressional investigators who discovered Nixon's shakedown of corporations decided that the campaign finance system needed to be reformed, says Cornell law professor Robert Hockett. "There was a widespread public perception that the political process had been thoroughly corrupted," Hockett says. "Public policy seemed to be up for sale to the highest bidder." Why reforms faltered . Congress attempted to change that perception by passing laws that created a system of public financing for political campaigns. Disclosure laws were enacted to root out secret donors. Limits were placed on campaign donations and private expenditures. (A candidate, for example, can't use campaign money for noncampaign spending.) A bipartisan Federal Election Commission would monitor compliance with the reforms. Yet those reforms were challenged almost as soon as they were enacted. In 1976, a divided Supreme Court in Buckley v. Valeo stuck down campaign expenditure limits, equating money with free speech. Two decades before the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the judiciary was already gutting Watergate's electoral reforms, Hockett says. "Thanks to Buckley and its progeny, including Citizens United, the post-Watergate electoral reforms have been all but eviscerated," Hockett says. "We basically have little if anything left in the way of meaningful, democracy-protecting campaign finance regulations." Maybe that's just as well, some political scientists say -- that the post-Watergate campaign finance reforms, and others like it, were never destined to last because the flow of money in politics can never be stopped. Big money and secrecy corrupts? The best solution for fighting the potentially corrupting influence of big money in politics, they say, is sunlight. "The real remedy is publicity," says Schaefer, the Holy Cross professor. "It should be illegal to donate to any political candidate beyond a certain figure -- let's say $1,000 -- or even a political action committee without immediately disclosing it on the Internet." Transparency, though, isn't enough when big-money donors are treated like ordinary voters, says former editor Sussman. "That's not 'one man, one vote,' " he says. "Corporations can give all they want. Some speech is overwhelming other forms of speech. That's not democracy." Sussman says many people have forgotten one of the most important lessons of Watergate: that big money and secrecy corrupts. The amount of secret money in this year's presidential race will dwarf the amount Nixon extorted, he says. "Nobody would have predicted that these enormous outlays of secret money would now become legal," he says. But political scientist Peter Hanson says money is such a dominant force in politics that trying to prevent big-money interests from getting involved is like trying to fight nature. Attempted reforms of the campaign finance system date further back than Watergate to the Progressive-era reforms of the early 20th century, says Hanson, an assistant professor at the University of Denver. Demanding transparency in campaign donations may be the most realistic reform possible because it gives voters the information needed to hold candidates accountable, he says. "Money in politics is like the Mississippi River flowing into the ocean," Hanson says. "You're not going to stop the river. You have to direct it in the ways that will best protect public integrity."

Americans may have forgotten a key legacy of Watergate, professors say . Outrage over illegal campaign fundraising led to Watergate reforms . Scholars say these reforms have been erased in this year's election . Editor of Watergate coverage: Big money and secrecy corrupts .

(CNN) -- Close to a dozen countries, including the United States, announced Tuesday they were expelling Syrian diplomats in a coordinated move reflecting the international outrage about a massacre in the town of Houla. A U.N. official said it's "clear" that Syrian government forces were involved in the massacre, which left more than 100 people dead, nearly half of them children. A "fairly small number appear to have been killed by shelling, artillery and tank fire which took place over a period of more than 12 hours," said Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the U.N. human rights office. Should the U.S. 'airdrop' millions of phones into Syria? The majority appear to have died as a result of "summary executions" by "armed men going into houses and killing men, women and children inside," he said. "What is clear is government forces were involved. They were shelling, using tanks and artillery. And it appears to be Shabiha militia (a government militia group), entering houses and slaughtering people in what is really an abominable crime that took place throughout the day on Friday." Syria has denied being behind the killings, insisting that "terrorists" carried them out. Syrian officials said the government would investigate. The bloodshed continued Tuesday, when at least 72 people were killed across the country, including nine children and two women, the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria said. Syria said 21 "army and law enforcement martyrs" were buried. Children shot, knifed, axed to death in Syria's Houla massacre, reports say . The Netherlands, the United States, Australia, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Bulgaria and Canada all announced Tuesday that they were expelling some Syrian diplomats. In some cases, it was just the ambassadors; in others, numerous diplomats were expelled. The U.S. State Department decided to expel the Syrian charge d'affaires, two State Department officials told CNN. Zouheir Jabbour was called to the department Tuesday morning and told he and his family had 72 hours to leave. He has been the top Syrian envoy in the United States since the ambassador, Imad Moustapha, was called back to Syria in October in a response move after the United States said it was pulling its ambassador out of Syria. "We hold the Syrian government responsible for this slaughter of innocent lives," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a statement Tuesday. "This massacre is the most unambiguous indictment to date of the Syrian government's flagrant violations of its U.N. Security Council obligations ... along with the regime's ongoing threat to peace and security." White House spokesman Jay Carney was even more emphatic. "This weekend's massacre is a horrifying testament to this regime's depravity. The international community is united in its revulsion at the regime's actions through both its military and its thug forces, and we are ratcheting up the pressure on and isolation of this murderous regime," he said. Sen. Bob Carr, Australia's minister for foreign affairs, said in a statement, "The Syrian government can expect no further official engagement with Australia until it abides by the U.N. cease-fire and takes active steps to implement the peace plan agreed with Joint Special Envoy Kofi Annan." The Spanish Foreign Ministry said it was declaring the ambassador persona non grata and expelling four other diplomats "for the unacceptable repression carried out by the Syrian regime on its population." But Annan, envoy for the United Nations and the Arab League, took a markedly different tone after meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. While he said he "conveyed in frank terms the grave concern of the international community about the violence in Syria, including the recent shocking events in Houla," he also said that Syria's vow to organize its own investigations "is very encouraging." He also said he "expressed appreciation for the cooperation of the Syrian government, which enabled the U.N. to deploy an observer mission to Syria, quickly." "We are at a tipping point. The Syrian people do not want the future to be one of bloodshed and division. Yet the killings continue and the abuses are still with us today," Annan said, according to a statement released by his office. He said he appealed to al-Assad "for bold steps now -- not tomorrow, now -- to create momentum for the implementation of the plan." "I also appeal to the armed opposition to cease acts of violence," he added. Talking to reporters in Damascus, Annan was asked what he thought would happen in Syria if the peace plan was not implemented. "If the plan is not implemented, I would worry for the future of Syria. I would worry about stability in the country. ... If we do not (implement the plan), may God help us," he said. "Words are wonderful, but action is better. What is important is demonstrate through action a real commitment to the plan and this is what the international community is asking for now: action, not words," he said. Al-Assad told Annan that "terrorist groups" have escalated operations, including killings and kidnappings, in recent days, and he stressed the urgency of getting countries that are "financing and harboring terrorist groups" to commit to Annan's plan, Syrian state-run TV reported. Residents in Houla say Syrian regime forces terrorized the town, a suburb of the anti-government bastion of Homs. An 11-year-old survivor recalled his experience. "They were talking to my mom. I'm not sure what happened but they shot her five times. They shot her in the head. Then he turned and shot my sister, Rasha, in the head. Then he shot my brother, Nader, in the neck and back," the boy said. 'SNN,' YouTube help amplify voices in Syria . Months of diplomatic efforts and economic sanctions have yet to quash the violence, and anger over perceived inaction by world leaders boiled over after the Houla massacre, which the United Nations said left 108 people dead. Opinion: Only Russia, China can stop carnage in Syria . Horrific images of dozens of mutilated children's corpses in Houla prompted a rare moment of unity Sunday from the U.N. Security Council. Even Russia, the staunchest defender of the Syrian regime on the council, signed on to a statement that condemned the Syrian government for its "outrageous use of force against (the) civilian population." Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in a conversation with Annan, "expressed grave concern about the tragedy in Houla and emphasized that all sides in Syria must give up violence in order to avoid similar incidents in the future," according to a statement from the ministry. "An objective and independent investigation of all circumstances of the tragedy must be done under the U.N. Mission in Syria," the statement said. Yet few Middle East watchers predict the Houla massacre will break the diplomatic deadlock that has cemented itself around Syria for a year. Timeline: Syria -- How a year of horror unfolded . Unlike in Libya, where NATO-led airstrikes contributed to deposing longtime ruler Moammar Gadhafi, al-Assad has powerful regional allies in his corner: Iran, Russia and, to an extent, China. Syria also has "five times more sophisticated air defense systems than existed in Libya, covering one-fifth of the terrain," Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey testified before Congress in March. But a former Syrian general said the country's capabilities were exaggerated. "It is good to face civilians or light armed freedom fighters ... but when it faces a superior power it will collapse right away. I'm saying that with all sadness because this is the army I served like for 27 years, but this is not the army of the people anymore ... It's the army of the regime itself," Akil Hashem told CNN's Christiane Amanpour. U.N. officials say more than 9,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed and tens of thousands more have been uprooted since the crisis began in March 2011. Opposition groups report a death toll of more than 11,000 people. CNN cannot confirm death tolls and reports of violence from Syria, as the Syrian government limits access by foreign journalists. CNN's Ivan Watson, Yasmin Amer, Arwa Damon, Anderson Cooper and Holly Yan contributed to this report.

NEW: A former Syrian general says the army is no longer "of the people," but a tool of the regime . NEW: Bulgaria, the Netherlands join the United States and others in expelling diplomats . If the peace plan fails, "may God help us," says Joint Special Envoy Kofi Annan . 72 people were killed Tuesday, an opposition group says .

(CNN)As Bobbi Kristina Brown remains in a medically induced coma fighting for her life, little information about the incident at her Atlanta-area home or her condition has slipped from police or family. If the investigation into what happened to the 21-year-old only child of Whitney Houston has revealed much, no one is talking publicly about it. We do know this: Brown was discovered facedown in a bathtub at her Roswell, Georgia, home over the weekend, and she was reportedly found by the man she has called her husband, and a friend. Here's what we know about the players involved in the story. Bobbi Kristina Brown . She is the daughter of two singers who were pop music icons of 1980s and 1990s. She was born on March 4, 1993, less than a year after parents, Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston, wed. At the time, her mother was enjoying critical acclaim for her first acting role in "The Bodyguard" and for the accompanying soundtrack, which featured Houston belting out a rendition of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You." It appears Bobbi Kristina wanted to follow in her parents' footsteps. As a youngster, she appeared on stage with her mother on numerous occasions. She told Oprah Winfrey during a 2012 interview that her plan for life included the "singing thing ... some acting, some dancing." She also spoke to Winfrey about how much she missed her mother, who died February 11, 2012. Days before Bobbi Kristina Brown's hospitalization, her Twitter timeline seemed to indicate her mother and her own singing career were quite on her mind. On January 26 at 4:14 a.m., about two weeks before the anniversary of her mother's death, Bobbi Kristina Brown tweeted, "Littlelady&yourgrowing young man @nickdgordon miss you mommy ..:') SOmuch.. loving you more every sec. #Anniversary!" About an hour earlier, she tweeted, "Hiworld :)(: yes I am a night owl, this is when my creative side come's out. ALLTHETIME! I need2be in the studio RITENOW! #SOONverySOON!" She was found Saturday unresponsive in her Roswell townhome. Nobody knows what caused Brown's unresponsiveness, Roswell police spokeswoman Lisa Holland said, but police have said they consider it a medical incident. Investigators had found nothing to indicate it was drug- or alcohol-related. The incident report referenced a drowning. Police had been to Brown's residence recently. Somebody reported a fight there on January 23, but nobody answered the door and officers found no evidence of an altercation, Holland said. Nick Gordon . Bobbi Kristina Brown called him her husband, but her father's attorney released a statement saying the two were never married. Bobbi Kristina Brown reportedly got engaged to Gordon, and in January 2014, she tweeted out a picture of wedding rings, along with the words, "#HappilyMarried• SO#Inlove." Gordon, 25, faced criticism following the tweet from those who questioned how he could marry a woman he considered his sister. Gordon had lived with Houston and her daughter since he was 12 years old. He once told the show "Extra" that Houston treated him like a son and "made me promise several times to look after Krissy ... and, Mom, I will never, ever, ever break that promise." Gordon was one of the two people who reportedly found Bobbi Kristina Brown unresponsive in the tub. Max Lomas . Lomas, 24, was the other. In response to several media outlets reporting Lomas' lengthy rap sheet, attorney Philip Holloway issued a statement Tuesday saying his client is a cooperative witness and Lomas' most recent arrest in January has nothing to do with Brown's hospitalization. Holloway told CNN on Wednesday that his client was the one who actually found Brown and called 911. Holloway's comments came after he met with Roswell police for two hours; his client was not at the meeting, he said. On January 15, Lomas was booked on charges of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, possession of alprazolam (aka Xanax, an anti-anxiety drug), and possession of a firearm or knife during the commission of or the attempt to commit a felony, according to Fulton County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Tracy Flanagan. CNN has learned from Fulton and Dawson County authorities that Lomas was arrested at least three times in 2011 and 2012 and charged with a host of crimes, including battery and alcohol, weapons, drug and probation violations. Holloway did not mention the previous arrests in his statement. "Mr. Lomas' widely reported recent arrest is completely unrelated to the incidents that occurred at Ms. Brown's residence and there is absolutely no relationship between the events. He has pleaded not guilty to those charges," Holloway said. "Mr. Lomas has not been accused of anything in connection with Bobbi Kristina Brown's injuries." Bobby Brown . Bobbi Kristina Brown's father is as much known for his shenanigans as he is for his music, if not more. He shot to fame in 1984 on the back of the hits, "Mr. Telephone Man" and "Cool it Now," by his band, New Edition. The band would eventually splinter into three relatively successful solo acts and the R&B trio, Bell Biv Devoe. Upon leaving New Edition (it's debatable what precipitated his departure as competing narratives suggest he either left voluntarily or was voted out by fellow band members), he embarked on a solo career that stuttered at first but eventually spawned numerous hits, including "Don't Be Cruel," "Every Little Step" and "My Prerogative," before fizzling in the 1990s. He married Houston in 1992, and the story line surrounding Brown would quickly become one of cocaine, booze, rehab, arrests and alleged violence against Houston, who filed for divorce in 2006. The marriage ended in 2007. Brown, who turned 46 on Thursday, reportedly got sober after splitting from Houston, but he has been arrested for DUI, entered rehab and has been jailed since their split. Whitney Houston . A songstress with a golden voice and the cousin of Dionne Warwick, Houston's albums have sold tens of millions of copies worldwide. The soundtrack to "The Bodyguard" went platinum 17 times in the United States, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, and reportedly sold 45 million copies worldwide. Her first No. 1 hit would come in 1985 with "Saving All My Love For You," and a string of No. 1 hits followed, as did a marginally successful acting career. However, she would not enjoy the spoils of, say, a Michael Jackson because she didn't write and produce her own songs. In an interview in 2002 with ABC's Diane Sawyer, Houston admitted to using drugs but denied the use of crack. She told Sawyer: "The biggest devil is me. I'm either my best friend or my worst enemy." Houston bounced in and out of drug rehab twice, declaring herself drug-free during a 2009 interview with Oprah Winfrey. When she drowned in a hotel bathtub almost three years before Bobbi Kristina Brown was found in a similar state (cocaine and heart disease were cited as factors in her death), Houston, 48, had an estate worth an estimated $12 million to $20 million. According to her will, which she signed about a month before Bobbi Kristina Brown's 1993 birth, her daughter was the sole heir to her estate. If she had no children, the will said, the money was to be split among her mother, father (now deceased), two brothers and Bobby Brown. She filed an amendment to the will in 2000 but only changed the executor and one of the trustees. The heirs remained the same. It was widely reported that when Bobbi Kristina Brown turned 21 in March 2014, she received the first installment from her trust, one-tenth of her mother's estate. Bobbi Kristina Brown is scheduled to receive one-sixth of the estate in 2018 and the remaining balance in 2023. CNN's Ralph Ellis, Greg Botelho, John Newsome, Carolyn Sung, Lisa Respers France and Nick Valencia contributed to this report.

Bobbi Kristina Brown has said she wanted to be singer like her mother . Her father has said that his daughter is not married to Nick Gordon . Whitney Houston left estate to daughter; it was to be doled out over years .

(CNN) -- More than a month and a half into the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, the murmurs are growing louder. What if the Boeing 777 that disappeared over the southern Indian Ocean is never found? It was a dismissible thought at first. After all, how could a jetliner carrying 239 passengers and crew simply disappear without a trace? But so much time is passing with no debris, no oil slick and no bodies. What if? 1. It will go down as one of the world's most enduring mysteries . The disappearance of Flight 370 would rank right up there with Amelia Earhart. This story has intrigued folks for generations. The swashbuckling aviatrix and pioneering woman embarked on the first around-the-world flight at the Equator in June 1937. After completing about two-thirds of the flight, she and navigator Frederick Noonan disappeared. A search never found any trace of her, Noonan or their plane. Some believe they ran out of fuel and crashed into the sea -- similar to one theory of what happened to the Malaysia Airlines plane. Then there's the Bermuda triangle. Many ships, planes and people have disappeared in this section of the Atlantic Ocean -- a "triangle" marked by the points of Bermuda, Miami and San Juan, Puerto Rico. U.S. officials cite hurricanes, sudden storms, the powerful Gulf Stream and shallow Caribbean waters as reasonable explanations for the lost vessels. But so far, there's been no explanation for Flight 370's disappearance. Of course, not all mysteries last forever. It took two years for search parties to recover the black box from Air France Flight 447, which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on June 1, 2009, en route to Paris from Rio with 228 people aboard. Sometimes even when you know just about where something is, it's hard to find. There was no GPS and sea charts in 1912 when the RMS Titanic went down on its maiden voyage in the North Atlantic. It wasn't until 1985 that the British luxury liner was found. Seventy-three years is a long time to wait, but some answers take time. 2. Families never get the closure a tragedy deserves . If you want to see agony, look into the faces of the relatives of the 153 Chinese nationals who flew aboard the ill-fated flight. They're guests of Malaysia Airlines in a Beijing hotel while the search continues. They don't expect miracles, but they do want information. "As time goes on we know that the odds of my son and the other relatives on the plane having survived becomes smaller and smaller," a grey-haired man named Wen said recently, scarcely keeping his composure. A Malaysian diplomat listened intently. "To know that somebody is alive, you need to see them. To know that somebody is dead, you need to see the body. That's all I ask of you," Wen concluded, sobbing uncontrollably into a microphone. It's been a roller coaster of emotions for the families. A dearth of information from Malaysia officials and repeated delays has provoked outright anger. "Live up to commitments! No more delays! No more lies!" fist -waving family members said. Heartbreak compounded by disappointment will do that. Grieving also gets tougher when there's no body to bury. How do you let go if you can't say goodbye? Yet, hope still burns in the heart of Prahlad Shirsath, whose wife was on the plane. "I can not let go of that idea, because still we have hope. And deeply I am really convinced in my heart ... that she will come back," he said. "She has to come back, because so far we have not found any reason to lose that hope." 3. False sightings will raise and dash hopes . Every few months or years, someone will come up with a new theory about how the plane disappeared -- or someone will spot what they think is debris. The fleeting moments of hope will give way to fresh anguish. Madeleine McCann's parents know this all too well. The 3-year-old vanished in June 2007 while on a family vacation in the Portuguese resort town of Praia da Luz. Her disappearance prompted headlines worldwide -- and remains a mystery 7 years later. There have been unconfirmed sightings of McCann ever since she was abducted. They bring with them varying degrees of promise. But Madeleine remains missing. "In the beginning, it all consumes you. Everything in your life takes second place, goes on the back burner," Dave Holloway, the father of Natalee Holloway, told CNN last year. The Alabama teen went missing on a trip to Aruba in 2005, and her body's never been found. The Holloway case captivated the country, and even now from time to time, a new lead in the case will make headlines. "I feel for those families who are totally clueless," Halloway said. "At least we know who is responsible for our daughter's disappearance. They have no idea. At least we know." 4. There will be big insurance payouts . There's no tally yet on just how much Malaysia Airlines will owe the relatives of the flight's victims, but it'll be a substantial figure. Some attorneys, citing their past work on plane crashes, say the total for each passenger could vary from $400,000 to $10 million. The industry norm for insurance that airliners carry on their planes totals between $2 billion and $2.5 billion per aircraft, according to aviation attorney Dan Rose of Kreindler & Kreindler. That breaks down to about $10 million per passenger. There were 239 people on flight. The numbers can add up quickly. Under an international treaty known as the Montreal Convention, the airline must pay relatives of each deceased passenger an initial sum of around $150,000 to $175,000, but that's just a starting point. Relatives of victims can also sue for further damages. The plane's manufacturer, Boeing, could be another target of lawsuits. But until the jetliner is recovered, families won't have much of a case. It's like trying to prove a murder without a body. 5. There will be changes in policy . Every disaster brings changes in policy. But when you don't even know the cause, where do you begin? U.S. regulators have already approved a new 90-day standard for pingers attached to flight recorders, so search teams have a better chance of finding them under difficult circumstances. The two-year hunt to find Air France Flight 447 was the impetus, not MH370. Locator beacons that transmit for 90 days should greatly increase the odds of finding a lost jetliner even in deep water. Flight 370 had 30-day batteries in its beacons. They were about out of juice by the time aquatic listening devices picked up their signals for a short time. Another 60 days would have helped their cause. By 2015, the Federal Aviation Administration will require all new planes to come with the 90-day capability. All older planes must have it by 2020, the FAA says. Malaysia has sent its preliminary report on Flight 370 to the International Civil Aviation Organization, the U.N. body for global aviation. But it hasn't released it publicly. "It just adds fuel to the fire -- which is like a furnace now -- of disbelief, particularly in China, as to what is going on," said Geoffrey Thomas, managing director of AirlineRatings.com. There are so many questions. Are there better ways to track commercial aircraft? Can planes be followed better by using satellites to track their movements with transmitters that can't be shut down? Every phone has GPS. Can't we keep closer tabs on aircraft worth hundreds of millions of dollars? The U.N. aviation agency did tell CNN about a safety recommendation in the report: Malaysia said the aviation world needs to look at real-time tracking of commercial aircraft. It's the same recommendation that was made after the Air France disaster. But "nothing seems to have happened," CNN aviation correspondent Richard Quest. For now, though, the focus of determined search crews and anguished families remain on finding the Malaysian jetliner that disappeared without a trace. CNN's Michael Martinez and Gergory Wallace contributed to this report .

Amelia Earhart and Bermuda triangle are other lingering mysteries . It will be difficult for families to get closure if no bodies are found . Billions in insurance claims will likely be paid out . Technology and policies will change as a result of MH370 .

Washington (CNN) -- As the Senate cleared the way for consideration of gun control measures for the first time in nearly 20 years, the path ahead for any gun control measure in the Republican-led House of Representatives is rocky and uncertain. Senate overcomes filibuster, clearing the way for debate on gun bill . Family members of those killed in the tragic shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, spent three days shuffling from meeting to meeting with senators urging swift action. But across the Capitol, there is no sense of urgency as most rank and file House GOP members are taking a wait and see approach to moving any gun bill, while a bloc of Republicans members are solidly against considering new gun restrictions. Manchin to Sandy Hook parents: 'I can do something' House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio repeated his long held position that the House would review whatever emerged from the Senate. He was noncommittal about bringing gun legislation to the House floor for a vote. King, Thompson to introduce background checks in House . "I fully expect that the House will act in some way, shape or form but to make a blanket commitment without knowing what the underlying bill is I think would be irresponsible on my part," Boehner told reporters on Thursday. Unlike senators, many of whom represent diverse states that include urban and suburban constituencies pressing for new gun restrictions, House districts are more narrowly drawn along partisan lines, and the current House is dominated by members in reliably Republican seats who feel less pressure to act. In many cases, these members are getting lobbied from constituents to hold the line against anything they think could curb access to guns. Sen. Rand Paul: The government wants your gun rights . "You have a lot of members here who are still scared of the NRA," Democratic Rep Carolyn McCarthy of New York, a gun control advocate, said on Wednesday. Gun control advocates are hopeful the Senate deal struck by pro-gun Sens. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, and Pat Toomey, R-Pennsylvania, a key conservative, on expanding background checks will help provide cover for Republicans in the House who might be worried about backlash for supporting it. While it appears Toomey's top billing is helping, so far most rank and file House Republicans say they want proof the Senate can actually pass something. Meanwhile, they continue to call for the Obama administration to enforce current gun laws, and emphasize there is bipartisan support to address mental health issues over measures dealing with access to guns. Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, who hails from Manchin's home state and is running for an open Senate seat there in 2014, said the Senate proposal "has got problems. It's very unpopular in the state." Capito said her office is already getting a lot of calls from voters in her district who oppose it, and estimated the current breakdown of the calls is roughly nine callers against gun control legislation for every one caller who says Congress needs to pass something. But Capito said she still wants to see the fine print of the Senate plan. A bipartisan duo in the House -- Rep. Peter King, R-New York, and Democratic Rep. Mike Thompson, D-California -- plan to introduce a House version of the background check bill early this week. King said there would likely be fewer than 10 House Republicans supporting it at first, but he said many GOP colleagues want to wait to see what happens in the Senate. King said it was too early to gauge the chances for the background check bill in the House, but stressed, "the biggest swing factor will be if a number of 'Pat Toomey- like' Republicans support it in the Senate and it just creates a wave." Thompson argued the national polls showing a public outcry for action mean Boehner and other House GOP leaders can't ignore the issue for long. CNN Poll: Popular background checks also cause worry . CNN Poll: Importance of guns soars, as do gun owner concerns . Gun rights activist: 'Your polls are hokum' "I cannot imagine how the majority in the House could even think of not taking this bill up for a vote, especially after you've seen this breakthrough bipartisan support in the Senate. This isn't about the leadership of the majority party throttling Congress. This is about the American people wanting a vote, wanting background checks." Why is this so hard? The disconnect on background checks and guns . Would background checks have stopped recent mass shootings? How do background checks work? Moderate GOP Rep. Charlie Dent, who represents one of a few swing districts in Pennsylvania, noted that the NRA backed a similar measure adopted by his home state in the 1990s requiring background checks for pistols. Toomey called Dent and other House Republicans earlier this week seeking their support before he unveiled his plan. Dent called the Senate compromise "a proposal really worthy of serious consideration" and while he hasn't fully endorsed it, he is on record pushing for enhanced background check legislation. NRA: Senate compromise 'will not prevent the next shooting' Asked if Toomey helps attract support from his GOP colleagues, Dent said, "I suspect the answer to that question will largely depend on where you live. I suspect those who are from states like Pennsylvania, also the northeast, mid-Atlantic area might bring some measure of comfort to House members knowing that Sen. Toomey supports this." Others agreed Toomey's top billing helps with House conservatives, but only to a degree. "What it does do is it forces you to look at it seriously, as it should. I don't think on issues like this, however, it will impact how people will vote in one way or another," said Rep. Mario Diaz Balart, R-Florida. Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Patrick Meehan, a former federal prosecutor who represents a suburban area outside Philadelphia, said he's already on board with the Senate plan. He said the background check piece along with other provisions "could be a promising package (in the House) and something that could be sold." Thompson said Thursday he and King are in discussions with seven to eight additional House Republicans about signing on to that bill. In recent high-profile legislative debates, such as the fiscal cliff, Boehner has passed final measures with a majority of his own members opposing them. But Texas Republican Rep. Steve Stockman, an ardent gun rights advocate, is circulating a letter to Boehner warning him not to allow a vote on any gun bill unless a majority of House Republicans are on board. The letter, signed by 46 House Republicans so far, argues the background check measure violates the Second Amendment and wouldn't be an effective crime-fighting tool. It concludes "under the precedents and traditions of the House, we would ask that no gun legislation be brought to the floor of the House unless it has the support of a majority of our caucus." Asked if he'll adhere to the test of only allowing a vote on a bill if it has the support of the majority of his own members, Boehner left some room on Thursday: "Certainly my prerogative or my intention is to always pass bills with strong Republican support." Senior House GOP aides caution that while the Senate may pass a bill soon, that doesn't necessarily mean the House will take up the proposal. They note that the process in the Senate took several months. House Republicans do expect President Barack Obama to ramp up political pressure and keep the issue out front to try to force action, but one of these senior House Republican sources suggested the White House refrain from any attempt to squeeze members. "If the president really wants to get something done it is not the best strategy to try and jam the House. That hasn't proven to be effective in the past," this aide told CNN. In gun debate, Biden cites paranoia, Ferraris . But McCarthy insisted this time around the pro-gun control effort is just getting started and is more organized to turn the pressure on House members after the Senate acts. Pointing to public opinion polls showing overwhelming support among women for gun legislation, McCarthy pledged, "We're showing our power and that power is not going to go away. I think it's going to be more difficult for them when they go home and haven't voted for something to save lives." Michelle Obama makes emotional entrance into gun debate . Opinion: A mother's journey to bearing arms . Capito said the shooting in Newtown that left 20 children and six educators dead was a "wake-up call" and believes the House will ultimately vote on some package. But she stressed because the issue was politically sensitive it should go through "regular order," meaning committees will hold hearings and spend time going through proposals. That means it will be many weeks, and likely months, before the House moves anything.

There is no sense of urgency in the House about moving a gun control bill . West Virginia Republican: The Senate proposal "has got problems" Pennsylvania GOP Sen. Pat Toomey has been calling GOP House members from his state . NEW: A bipartisan duo in the House plans to introduce a background check bill next week .

Washington (CNN) -- Ted Cruz says he wasn't elected to the Senate to stay quiet. And his refusal upon entering Congress to observe its protocol to sit back and learn like a freshman, as expected, rubbed some of his more senior colleagues the wrong way. And while he has angered much of his party over his crusade against President Barack Obama's health care law and the government shutdown it could cause, Cruz says he's standing for the same principles that got him elected. On Tuesday, he took that edict to the Senate floor in support of his plan to defund Obamacare, saying he would speak "until I am no longer able to stand." And on Wednesday morning, he was still talking. As the hours dragged on, Cruz addressed his daughters, apologized for not being home to read them a book, and read to them from the Senate floor. After reading Dr. Seuss' "Green Eggs and Ham," he said it was applicable to Obamacare. "President Obama and Senate Democrats told the American people just try Obamacare. Just try it," he said. Cruz will have to stop talking soon. His marathon appearance is not an official filibuster. It will not do anything to block Obamacare funding because a key procedural vote on the issue was already scheduled for Wednesday. His efforts will have to awkwardly come to an end when the vote he is fighting against is called. A senator -- usually a freshman is tasked with the duty -- always has to be presiding over the Senate during session. And a displeased Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Connecticut, tweeted his annoyance after walking into the Senate chamber for his midnight two-hour shift. "Walking into Capitol to take 11-1 shift presiding over the Senate for this pointless fairy tale non-filibuster," he tweeted. Critics are questioning Cruz's motives: Is this about his principles or about presidential aspirations? CNN political analyst Gloria Borger said his Republican detractors think Cruz is putting his political career above all else. "While many others have, no doubt, come to the Senate in the past as a springboard to the presidency, it's hard to recall someone who has created as much controversy within his own party," she said. Cruz has been in Washington for less than a year, but his short stint has been an effective lesson in partisan politics. Only history will tell, however, if his tactics will be worth repeating. The Texas Republican's counterparts in the House of Representatives have tried 42 times to roll back Obamacare, but their efforts have gone nowhere in the Democratic-controlled Senate. Cruz has upped the ante. His latest battle to disrupt Obamacare is tied to funding the government in the new fiscal year that starts on October 1. The House passed the measure last week. But Senate Democrats are not about to allow the health care bill to be unraveled, therefore putting at risk a government shutdown. Cruz's refusal to give up the fight has rankled many of his fellow Republicans, widening divisions in a splintered party. Democrats, meanwhile, are sitting back and watching the intraparty fight. Who is this guy? His effectiveness at political debate has landed Cruz in many successful places. He was elected to the Senate in 2012, after rebuking the Republican establishment and winning the Republican primary, paving the way to a general election victory. Previously, he was the youngest solicitor general of Texas and has argued multiple cases before the Supreme Court. He got his start at Princeton as head of the debate team and then honed his skill at Harvard Law School. What's his fight? Cruz did not take his Senate responsibilities lightly. As a freshman, he refused to stand on the sidelines until he gained a measure of seniority, a common tradition in Washington. Instead, he was loud and opinionated. "I find it amusing that those in Washington are puzzled when someone actually does what they said they would do," Cruz told CNN in February. "At the end of the day, I was elected to represent 26 million Texans and to speak the truth. You know, I think a lot of Americans are tired of politicians in Washington in both parties who play games. Cruz was elected, promising to shrink government, especially the new health care law. That battle has been embraced by most Republicans in Congress, but his latest tactic has frustrated many. Political novice? New York Rep. Peter King has been an outspoken critic of Cruz's latest crusade — at one point calling him a "fraud." "Whether it's Custer, whether it's kamikaze, or whether it's Gallipoli or whatever, we are going to lose this," the New York Republican said on CNN's "The Situation Room" last week. And Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee tweeted that he "didn't go to Harvard or Princeton" but that he "can count" that Democrats outnumber Republicans in the Senate. But Cruz said to let his critics talk. "If you get outside of Washington, D.C., there is a frustration with Washington that is palpable. When you ask your constituents what are the problems you're facing, over and over again, the answer that comes back is Obamacare is killing jobs, is taking away my health insurance, is driving up my premiums, is causing small businesses to shrink, to go out of business. If we listen to the American people, that should be our priorities," he told CNN this week. Still, Republicans are frustrated by his insistence on fighting a divisive, losing battle. 'Don't break filibuster' "We are giving Obama the escape out," Republican strategist Ana Navarro said on CNN's "AC360." "Instead of now focusing on the problems with Obamacare, everybody's focused on the civil war in the Republican Party." Navarro also noted the numerous polls, including CNN's latest poll, that said while citizens are concerned about Obamacare, they don't support shutting down the government over it. "If you want to fix Obamacare or repeal it or fix it or change it, the best way to do it is to elect more Republicans. And the political cost of a government shutdown is really going to affect any -- any possibility of electing more Republicans," Navarro added. Or political genius? While Cruz is ruffling the feathers of his colleagues in Washington, he is mobilizing the grass roots outside the Beltway. Conservative groups are praising him. "Senator Cruz came to Washington to advance conservative policies, not play by the same old rules that have relegated conservatives, and their ideas, to the back bench," Michael Needham, president of Heritage Action, recently said about Cruz. His group helps activate grass-roots Republicans for conservative candidates and political causes. And Republican candidates running against Republican incumbents in the primaries are using Cruz's crusade in their races. Matt Bevin, who is running for Senate to replace top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell, said in a statement that he would support "conservatives like Sen. Ted Cruz in his fight to defund Obamacare." Obamacare: Can it be stopped? Bevin bashed McConnell for coming out against Cruz's effort to shut down the government in order to stop Obamacare. Like so many other crucial fights, Mitch McConnell has caved to (Senate Majority Leader) Harry Reid on Obamacare and is refusing to fight to defund this disastrous legislation." And longtime Sen. Mike Enzi of Wyoming came out in support of Cruz. He is facing Liz Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, in a contentious primary. Will Cruz be scarred or be a star? Cruz could alienate his colleagues to a point where he becomes marginalized and completely ineffective in Washington. He has also hinted at a possible presidential run in 2016. If he has no Republican Party support, he risks being cut off from its financing and other resources. On the other hand, Cruz's principled stand could help to grow a movement of disenchanted conservative voters. If a groundswell of conservative grass-roots activists grows between now and 2016 -- and their financial support grows, too -- Cruz could have carved out a path to the Republican nomination. "I think what Senator Cruz understands is that he has more to gain from adhering to his principles, staying in touch with the grass roots here and around the country, than he does being friends with other senators," said Brendan Steinhauser, a leading Texas tea party activist who worked to get Cruz elected. Cruz calls for backup plan .

Ted Cruz doesn't follow Senate rules, irritating traditionalists on both sides of the aisle . Unapologetic, Cruz says he was elected to do a job that includes shrinking government . Cruz ups ante in battle to derail Obamacare, but will he chart new course or stumble? Latest crusade that threatens shutdown frustrates many, including some in his own party .

(CNN) -- After the year he's had, no one could blame Justin Bieber if he really does want to retire. The 19-year-old has spent the past 12 months stuck in a public storm of negative press, bad decisions, ailments and misfires, all while trying to scrub off the sheen of his tween popularity. With a barely there 'stache lingering on his upper lip, the pop star has spent 2013 attempting to assert his manhood and find a bridge over to the adult side of the pop world -- all without completely disregarding the persona or the young fans that helped him become a star in the first place. It's a delicate and practically impossible balance, a tightrope that Bieber, his ex-girlfriend Selena Gomez, and some cohorts like Miley Cyrus and Ariana Grande have all walked this year to varying degrees of success. Gomez, now 21, has long shed the role that made her famous with younger crowds, that of Alex Russo on the Disney Channel's "Wizards of Waverly Place." Even as she grew more recognizable thanks to Disney's marketing prowess, Gomez was never solely definable by the series -- there were departures for albums with her band, Selena Gomez & the Scene, and movies like 2011's "Monte Carlo." But even with those efforts, Gomez began 2013 with a still-intact image as a young adult star. Although she's in the same age group as her BFF Taylor Swift, Gomez didn't enjoy the same broad demographic appeal. Then March brought Harmony Korine's "Spring Breakers," a sly project aimed directly at the nexus of emerging womanhood. Alongside one actress who's already come out on the other side of the teen star transition, Vanessa Hudgens, and one who stands on the cusp, Ashley Benson of "Pretty Little Liars," Gomez put on a string bikini and struck the requisite provocative poses. It was the kind of risque territory that legions of adolescent stars before her have eagerly walked into, because it always sends a crystal clear message: I'm not a kid anymore, and it's time you started treating me like an adult artist. "The transition's weird and it's awkward," Gomez told CNN of trying to mature in the spotlight with projects like "Spring Breakers." "You don't really know what the right and wrong thing to do is when you do it, but you can just do projects that you're really passionate about and this was something that I was definitely excited to be a part of." Go back roughly 10 years and you would have heard something similar from a then 21-year-old Britney Spears, who caused her own uproar when she kissed Madonna at the MTV Video Music Awards. "Honestly, it's about me just performing and expressing myself," she told CNN of the backlash to her "adult" behavior, which at the time left some, including this network, questioning how the change in the former Mouseketeer's image would affect her young fans. Although Spears herself perhaps put it best when she said, "I'm not a girl; not yet a woman," she wasn't the only one struggling. Around the same time, Christina Aguilera was "Dirrtying" up her reputation with chaps and explicit lyrics, and Spears' ex-boyfriend, Justin Timberlake, was in the midst of reforming himself from a boy band member to bonafide pop star by promising to have his love interest "naked by the end of this song." He took his freshly cultivated sex appeal a step too far at the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show, when he assisted in Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction." But if there's any comfort to be had for today's young celebrities, it's that each of those singers has been able to move past that "weird and awkward" phase Gomez described. Bieber especially is probably relieved to see that Timberlake survived that enormous scandal to dominate the charts years later with "The 20/20 Experience." In Bieber's case, he can end the year satisfied that he has stretched himself enough artistically to gain positive attention for an older sound, even if the world isn't quite ready to accept the adult artist he's becoming. Bieber never had to contend with being a part of what's referred to as the "Disney machine," but he did become very famous very quickly at a very young age. Chances are it's still difficult for the average adult older than 21 to name a Bieber hit that isn't "Baby" or "One Less Lonely Girl," two songs that helped launch his career when he was 15. So when he says he plans to retire -- which he's done repeatedly in the weeks leading up to the end of the year in what may or may not be an extended prank that his rep won't comment on -- perhaps it's more likely that he doesn't want to quit singing but just wants to retire that old, floppy-haired image. In some ways he's done that, even if it was inadvertently, with the constant topless photos he's shared, his altercations with paparazzi, and the salacious rumors that dogged the South American stretch of his tour this year. The music he's created -- sultry songs about love, heartbreak and pillow talk, with a suggestive video to match -- have only further shown his willingness to leave the kids' table. One of his tour companions, Ariana Grande, has shown the same desire in a much more subtle way. At 20, Grande is best known to the under-18s as Nickelodeon's Cat Valentine on the network's "Victorious" and "Sam & Cat." But with the release of her debut album, "Yours Truly," in August, Grande proved she's ready and capable to handle an older audience. She did that not with the usual scandals but with a No. 1 album that gained her entrée to larger platforms, such as a performance at the 2013 American Music Awards that earned praise from the likes of Lady Gaga and Kelly Clarkson. The Disney Channel says it's aware of the rocky terrain that lies ahead for kids who want a career beyond the network's family-friendly realm. According to Patti McTeague, the senior vice president of Kids Communications for Disney ABC Television Group, the Disney Channel doesn't try to "control or dictate an actor's image" while they're working with the company, although they do offer a "Talent 101" orientation to help the budding star prepare for what's ahead. Outside that guidance, though, McTeague said in a statement that "the talent has the control over their career; we want them to be obligated to the art of their craft not obligated to us. We recognize we are working with young people at a transition in their personal development -- aka, teenagers -- and we trust parents of employed minors to support and guide their kids." And, when the time comes that said talent wants to move on from Disney, "we don't try to slow the hands of time," she continued. "Hopefully, these young actors continue to follow their dreams, explore roles that make sense for them and take their career to the next level." For at least one former Disney name, Miley Cyrus, making that leap to a new level meant burning down that Mouse House image altogether. The 21-year-old has been trying to liberate herself from her "Hannah Montana" past for years, but it wasn't until 2013 when she was fully able to, in her own words, kill off the character who made her famous. With a new aesthetic, a discovered fondness for suggestive photography, an unfiltered Twitter account and a bold approach to stealing the limelight at each and every awards show that had her on the bill, Cyrus cheerfully let her prior kid-friendly image go up in flames. Although the public stood by and watched like a collective set of exasperated parents, Cyrus is entering 2014 with her mission accomplished. The shock value of seeing a singer and actress who was once the idol of nearly every 9-year-old in America swing naked from a wrecking ball has sunk in; there's little, if anything else, she needs to do to assert her adult independence. The transition, for Cyrus at least, is complete.

This year, a number of teen stars tried to transition to adult fame . Selena Gomez did a risque movie, Miley Cyrus did risque everything . Justin Bieber weathered 12 months of rough seas before joking that he's "retiring" Ariana Grande managed to gain adult acclaim without much scandal .

London (CNN) -- She didn't even know she had produced one of the most dramatic goals in U.S. women's football history until the crowd and her teammates went crazy. With the match between the United States and Canada just seconds from going to penalty kicks, American Alex Morgan outleaped a Canadian defender and headed a Heather O'Reilly cross over goalkeeper Erin McLeod to give the U.S. a thrilling 4-3 extra time victory on Monday. "I didn't even see it go in," Morgan said. "I just try and be in the right position." Three times, the Canadians took a one-goal lead, as their star Christine Sinclair scored in the 22nd, 67th and 73rd minutes. But Megan Rapinoe of the U.S. netted twice and Abby Wambach scored a penalty kick after a disputed call to send the match into extra time. "We are unwilling to give up and that says a lot about who we are as a team, what our goals are," Wambach said. "Even when Canada scored their third goal there was something in me that knew that we had more, that we could give more. I know that this team has belief in itself, even when the going gets tough." The Canadian players said the referee helped the U.S. win. "She actually giggled (when awarding the penalty) and said nothing," Sinclair said. "Classy! In an important match it's a disappointment that the referee had such an impact on it. We feel cheated." The U.S. will meet World Cup winners Japan in Thursday's final at Wembley Stadium, a rematch of last year's Cup final in which Japan won the penalty-kick shootout 3-1. The Americans have won three of the four previous gold medal matches. At Beijing, the U.S. beat Brazil 1-0 on an extra time goal. The U.S. men's basketball team pulled away from Argentina in the third quarter and won 126-97 to set up a quarterfinal match against Australia, which finished fourth in its group. Kevin Durant led the Americans with 28 points. LeBron James had 18, including the first seven U.S. points of the third quarter. The Americans only led 60-59 at halftime, but outscored the Argentines 42-17 in the third period. While the Olympics continue for Team USA and the American women, a legend's career has come to an end. Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian in history, said Monday that he really means it when he says he is retiring. "I'm done. I don't know if people really believe me, but I am actually finished. I'm retiring," he told CNN's Becky Anderson. "D-O-N-E. Done," she pressed. "Yes -- I'm done," he insisted. Phelps, the U.S. swimmer, not only shattered the record for the most medals ever won by a single person at the Olympics -- with 22, including 18 golds -- but also made history as the first swimmer to win gold in two different events in three consecutive Olympics. On Monday, he also defended the gold medal-winning swimmer Ye Shiwen, who has been suspected -- without proof -- of doping after her remarkable victories. "It's kind of sad that people have a great swim and that's the first thing they say," Phelps said of the Chinese 16-year-old. "People who work hard -- it shows. There are people who just jump to that conclusion sometimes, and it's not right." American gold medal gymnast Gabby Douglas was back in action Monday on the uneven bars, but turned in a disappointing performance and came eighth. "It was an amazing finals with so many great competitors," she said. "Coming into bar finals was a big challenge for me, and I made a little mistake. Even if I would have hit a solid routine, I know I have a lower start value than the other competitors." Hometown favorite Beth Tweddle took bronze in the event, behind Russia's Aliya Mustafina, who claimed gold, and Kexin He of China, who earned silver. "I'm very happy that I'm following on with the Russian traditions," Mustafina said. "When I won the bronze medal (in the all around), I became more confident that I could overcome my (2011 ACL) injury and do better." At Olympic Stadium, site of track and field events, Jennifer Suhr of the United States cleared 4.75 meters (15 feet, 7 inches) to win the women's pole vault. Silver medalist Yarisley Silva of Cuba cleared the same height but had more misses in the competition than Suhr. Two-time champion Elena Isinbaeva of Russia was third. "It's something that's so emotional I can't even describe it," Suhr said. "To work so hard for four years, to have injuries. My husband (and coach) and I got through this. To have faith and to have it all come together and to achieve what we dreamed of, it's amazing." Kirani James of Grenada won the men's 400 meters and gave Grenada, which competed in its first Olympics in 1984, its first medal ever. The 19-year-old thanked God, his coach and his family. Of his family he said: "They're probably having a street party; everyone's having a good time." In the 400-meter hurdles, Felix Sanchez of the Dominican Republic, with a picture of his late grandmother underneath his name bib, won the gold medal, fulfilling a promise he made after he learned she had died while he was racing at the 2008 Olympics. "When I got on the podium it was raining and it was as if my grandmother was crying tears of happiness, crying for all the sacrifices I have made," he said. Pavlos Kontides earned the first medal for Cyprus ever -- a silver -- in the Laser class sailing competition. "It is really amazing. For me and my country, it is a historic day," he said. "I suspect my name will be written in golden letters in Cyprus." It was another tense final shot, and another awful one for American Matt Emmons but he still managed to finally get a medal in the men's 50-meter rifle three positions. Going into the last round, Emmons sat in second. He had to be thinking about the previous two Games when he was in gold-medal position with one shot to go. But each time before he had blown it, once shooting at the wrong target and once his rifle went off before he had lined it up with the target. Those times he not only lost gold, he lost any medal. This time, he scored 7.6 on his final shot, his worst score of the day, but it was enough to stay ahead of Cyril Graff of France for a bronze. "Any time you stand on an Olympic podium is not a loss, it is a pretty cool thing," Emmons said. His wife, a shooter whom he met after his disappointment in Athens, said her husband was extremely nervous before the final shot. "He couldn't hold still, so he just took the shot as best he could," Katy Emmons said. "This time the luck was on his side." It was a sixth medal for the family -- Katy has three for the Czech Republic and Matt has previously won a gold and a silver medal in the 50-meter prone event. A gold medalist found himself at the center of another controversy Monday as Kenyan police confirmed that steeplechase winner Ezekiel Kemboi was under investigation on suspicion of trying to stab a woman on a date before he left for the Games. Olympics Infographic: The numbers behind London 2012 . The woman accused Kemboi of making sexual advances, said deputy police spokesman Charles Owino, without naming the alleged victim. Kemboi is a police officer himself, according to Owino. Kemboi said that he was the victim of attempted extortion and that police had not given him a fair hearing, Owino said. And the International Olympic Committee announced that it disqualified American judoka Nicholas Delpopolo from the men's 73-kg judo event for a doping violation. It stripped the 23-year-old of his seventh-place finish after he tested positive for a cannabis byproduct. CNN's Jo Shelley and Bharati Naik contributed to this report.

NEW: Team USA routs Argentina in men's basketball to set up quarterfinal game against Australia . NEW: Grenada, Cyprus get first medals ever . Alex Morgan scores game-winning goal for the U.S. football team . American gymnast Gabby Douglas gets a disappointing result on the uneven bars .

(CNN) -- When she was America's top diplomat, Hillary Clinton acknowledged that negotiating with the Taliban for Bowe Bergdahl's release "would be hard to swallow for many Americans," according to a copy of her upcoming book, "Hard Choices," which was obtained by CBS News. In other foreign policy matters, Clinton writes how she pushed for arming Syrian rebels and also highlights her differences with President Barack Obama on the high-stakes issue. She also said that she regretted her 2002 vote in support of U.S. military action in Iraq. Also in her book, set to hit bookshelves on Tuesday, Clinton dishes on the 2008 campaign against Obama, her feelings about Sarah Palin, and her role in planning her daughter's 2010 wedding. Clinton was skeptical of Bergdahl release . On Bergdahl, the former secretary of state writes that the Taliban's "top concern seemed to be the fate of its fighters being held at Guantanamo Bay and other prisons." "In every discussion about prisoners, we demanded the release of Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who had been captured in 2009. There would not be any agreement about prisoners without the sergeant coming home," she writes, according to the excerpts. "I acknowledged, as I had many times before, that opening the door to negotiations with the Taliban would be hard to swallow for many Americans after so many years of war," she added. Former officials told CNN earlier this week that Clinton was skeptical of early plans to trade Taliban prisoners, which the Obama administration ultimately did to win Bergdahl's release last week. A measured defense of release . On Monday, Clinton was asked whether she would have approved the same deal for five Taliban commanders who had been held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. She did not directly answer the question and offered a measured defense of the Obama administration. "We do have a tradition and I ascribe to it," Clinton said. "We try not to leave any of our soldiers on the field. We try to make sure, insofar as possible, you know, we bring them home." Republicans have been blasting the Obama administration for the prisoner exchange, saying the President set a dangerous precedent by negotiating with terrorists. Clinton left the State Department at the start of last year and is weighing another bid for the White House. 'I still got it wrong' on Iraq . On the Iraq War, Clinton writes she wish she hadn't voted to authorize the use of military force in Iraq in 2002. "As the war dragged on, with every letter I sent to a family in New York who had lost a son or daughter, a father or mother, my mistake become (sic) more painful," she writes, according to excerpts posted online by CBS. "I thought I had acted in good faith and made the best decision I could with the information I had. And I wasn't alone in getting it wrong. But I still got it wrong. Plain and simple," she said. It's not the first time she's expressed regret, but it's some of the strongest language she's used on the issue. Clinton's vote became a key topic in her marathon 2008 battle with Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination. The issue, more than the economy, dominated the early parts of the campaign, with Obama criticizing Clinton over the vote. Clinton at first refused to term it a mistake, but later said during the campaign that she would not have voted the same way. Obama, who was a major opponent of the war, never had to vote on whether to authorize military action against Saddam Hussein, as he was not elected to the Senate until 2004. Clinton rarely talks about her vote on Iraq and in the last few months, as she has crisscrossed the country speaking to a wide array of audiences, she has not been asked about it. Conflict in Syria . In the book, Clinton describes the bloody three-year long civil war in Syria as "a wicked problem." Clinton goes on to say that's "a term used by planning experts to describe particularly complex challenges that confound standard solutions and approaches. Wicked problems rarely have a right answer; in fact, part of what makes them wicked is that every option appears worse than the next. Increasingly that's how Syria appeared." On whether to arm the Syrian rebels, a contentious issue, Clinton writes that "I returned to Washington reasonably confident that if we decided to begin arming and training moderate Syrian rebels, we could put in place effective coordination with our regional partners." Clinton says there was no good policy action for the United States, and she highlights were she and Obama disagreed on the conflict. "[T]he risks of both action and inaction were high. Both choices would bring unintended consequences. The President's inclination was to stay the present course and not take the significant further step of arming rebels. "No one likes to lose a debate, including me. But this was the President's call and I respected his deliberations and decision. From the beginning of our partnership, he had promised me that would always get a fair hearing. And I always did. In this case, my position didn't prevail," Clinton writes. Although as Clinton backed Obama's Syria policy as secretary of state - including negotiating with the international community on the civil war and criticizing countries like Russia and China, which stood in the way of toppling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Clinton's writings now show the level with which she split with Obama on arming the rebels. When asked about Syria at events during her time on the paid speaking circuit, Clinton has used identically language to describe the conflict. At an April event in Boston, Clinton told an audience of women leaders that the conflict was a "wicked problem" that "really requires a broad base of knowledge." "It doesn't mean you're not incensed, heartsick, angry," Clinton told the audience at Simmons College. "But then you need to stop and say 'well, what can we do about it? How can we intervene in a way that helps, not hurts?'" Obama, Sarah Palin, and Chelsea . Clinton also takes readers into her private meeting with Obama prior to the 2008 Democratic convention, which gave the former rivals an opportunity "to clear the air," Clinton writes. "We stared at each other like two teenagers on an awkward first date, taking a few sips of Chardonnay," she writes of the meeting. "One silver lining of defeat was that I came out of the experience realizing I no longer cared so much about what the critics said about me," she said. Clinton also dishes on the Obama campaign's reaction to then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's selection as Sen. John McCain's running mate, and why she declined to follow the Obama campaign's playbook on slamming the pick. While the campaign issued a "dismissive statement" and urged Clinton to do the same, the then-senator from New York writes that she declined. "I wouldn't. I was not going to attack Palin just for being a woman appealing for support from other women," Clinton writes. "I didn't think it made political sense, and it didn't feel right. So I said no." Hitting a lighter note, Clinton's memoir also discusses the "urgent business" she had to address during her tenure as secretary of state - her daughter's wedding. Flying back from Vietnam in the summer of 2010, Clinton had to shift her attention from rising tensions in the South China Sea to "one of the most important events of my life." "This time it wasn't a high-level summit or a diplomatic crisis. It was my daughter's wedding, a day I had been looking forward to for thirty years," Clinton writes. "I felt lucky that my day job had prepared me for the elaborate diplomacy required to help plan a big wedding." Clinton writes that she was happy to help in any way she could and her responsibilities ranged from "reviewing photographs of flower arrangements" and heading home for tastings and dress selections. As for the former president? "Bill was as emotional as I was, maybe even more so, and I was just glad he made it down the aisle in one piece," Clinton writes. As Chelsea Clinton and her father danced to "The Way You Look Tonight," Hillary Clinton's head swirled with thoughts. "It was one of the happiest and proudest moments of my life," Clinton writes. "Our family had been through a lot together, good times and hard times, and now here we were, celebrating the best of times." CNN's Ashley Killough, Jeremy Diamond, Dan Merica and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this story.

Clinton raised the issue of negotiating for Bergdahl in new book, 'Hard Choices' Decision to get Army sergeant back from Taliban captivity has generated sharp controversy . She said "opening the door" to Taliban for Bergdahl "would be hard to swallow for many Americans"

(CNN) -- High flier Karen Zuckerman has a secret weapon for avoiding the air terminal blues: treating herself to a facial or massage while waiting to board her plane. No, Zuckerman doesn't travel with a beauty entourage. She's just one of many travelers taking advantage of the proliferation of airport spas around the world. President of Maryland-based marketing and advertising agency HZDG, Zuckerman often visits high-end beauty temples like the Mandarin Oriental, Four Seasons and Canyon Ranch. While none of these luxurious spas have opened airport outposts (yet), plenty of other brands are helping make flying a whole lot more Zen these days. Executive Travel: America's best spring drives . "An airport spa gives me the ability to multitask and do a little something for myself," explains Zuckerman, who travels about 30 times per year for work within the U.S. and Europe. Depending on what's available, she'll book a facial, massage or quick mani-pedi at whatever terminal she finds herself in. "When I'm really stressed and can sneak in a 20-minute neck or back massage, that's a huge bonus," she says. Can the 'game-changer' still live up to its name? Sunny Kortz of OraOxygen -- whose spas in the Calgary International and Detroit airports attract travelers, airport employees and the odd civilian (the Calgary branch is located pre-security) -- reports that many clients come for combined oxygen/massage treatments. "The oxygen refreshes your body and mind after a long plane trip," she says. "When used together with a massage treatment, people can go energized to that business meeting or trip with the kids." World's best airport hotels . Whether you're stuck in transit, quailing at the prospect of boarding a long-haul flight or just whiling away the hours between check-in and takeoff, there are now countless ways to relieve the tension, stress and ennui of traveling before you've even taken off. Check out our list of terminally fabulous airport spas, from Calgary to Dubai, and prepare to give travel-induced stress a send-off. Timeless Spa . Dubai International Airport . Emirates -- the first carrier to offer in-flight showers to first-class passengers -- has also brought luxury pampering to its terrestrial hub in Dubai. Three Timeless Spas are located at the airport's Terminal 3: one in the Emirates First Class Lounge, a second in the Business Lounge and a third at the Dubai International Airport Hotel. Both lounge spas offer express services like half-back massages, mini-manicures, reflexology and basic hairstyling (including blow-dry, trimming and beard-shaving) at no cost; for those with more time to spare, the Timeless Spa at the Airport Hotel offers full-body massages, body wraps and anti-aging facial treatments. Executive Travel: Best new carry-on luggage . Absolute Spa . Fairmont Vancouver Airport Hotel . The airport outpost of Canada's most luxurious hotel chain has a spa offering an array of jet set-friendly treatments -- among them a Pink Grapefruit Jet Lag recovery body wrap and a special massage to reduce foot and leg swelling. All guests (including day visitors) also have access to the spa's mechanized lap pool, sauna and fitness center -- and can indulge in longer, more luxurious treatments, like a Moor Mud bath, Academy Award face and body spray-tan application or Lomi-Lomi massage to soothe away those travel-induced kinks. World's 100 best beaches . d_parture Spa . Newark International Airport . Set in Terminal C of Newark Liberty International Airport, d_parture Spa has been created with green principles in mind, using sustainable materials like reclaimed glass, bamboo flooring and eco-friendly products. On the menu are signature treatments designed to quickly lull travelers into a state of serenity, like the pressure point-focused Scalp and Eye Massage that helps relieve sinuses, the Altitude Protection Facial that hydrates and protects skin from air-pressure changes and the half-hour Fly Away Mini Facial. Elemis Travel Spa . London Heathrow Airport . First and Club World British Airways travelers can partake in quick -- and complimentary -- treatments at the Elemis Travel Spas located in Heathrow's Terminals 3 and 5. The spas, designed to provide intensive, targeted treatments in a short amount of time, offer a menu of 15-minute prescriptions for passengers, including facials that target concerns like dehydration and skin clogging, the Musclease Leg and Foot Workout and a Stress-Away shoulder and scalp massage. Executive Travel: World's most scenic train trips . Back to Life Spa . Amsterdam Schiphol Airport . This airport spa provides travelers with what will surely be their only in-transit opportunity to have a full-body aqua massage (while remaining fully clothed). The Back to Life Aqua treatment invites clients to recline in a space age-inspired, podlike contraption, where 36 pulsating water jets -- separated from their clients' bodies by a microfiber film -- simulate traditional hands-on massage. The spa also offers more mainstream stress-busters, like 20-minute chair massages, reflexology foot massages and an oxygen bar that combines 15-minute-long O2 boosts with aromatherapy. Qantas First Lounge . Sydney and Melbourne international airports . Qantas's much-ballyhooed Marc Newson-designed lounges at the Sydney and Melbourne airports are havens of tranquility for the airline's business and first class customers -- but their spas are where the magic really happens. These oases of Nordic-inspired serenity, which feature flowering vertical gardens, blonde wood furnishings and shower suites stocked with Kevin Murphy products, also offer 20-, 30- and 50-minute complimentary services that range from eye-firming treatments to full-body massages and intensive hydrating facials. OM Spa . Hong Kong International Airport, Regal Airport Hotel . Catering to both overnight hotel guests and travelers with time to kill, this full-service spa employs a soothing décor of bamboo screens, Thai silk cushions and fresh flowers all of which feel a world away from the bustle of Hong Kong's airport. The menu of services here includes everything from tamarind body scrubs (ideal for dry skin) to Sabai hot stone massages to jasmine milk baths. For $20, nonguests can have access to the hotel's gym, steam room and 72-foot outdoor pool, surrounded by massage cabanas. XpresSpa . John F. Kennedy International Airport . Part of a rapidly growing chain (which includes branches at several U.S. airports and Amsterdam's Schiphol), this spa has six separate locations at New York's main international air hub. As well as offering manicures, facials and massages in layover-friendly sessions, several of the spas dole out longer treatments like hour-long, deep-moisturizing seaweed facials and 90-minute full-body massages. Frequent spa fliers can get a Rewards Club card for discounted services at all XpresSpa locations. OraOxygen . Calgary International Airport and Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport . To combat the particular malaise that comes from breathing pressurized, recycled cabin air, OraOxygen's two spas (there are plans to open more in the U.S., Canada and Asia) offer refreshing boosts of oxygen alongside their menu of facials, nail services and massage treatments. The most popular treatment at both of the modern, light-filled spas is the 60-minute full-body massage combined with a 15-minute oxygen session—truly a breath of fresh air. ora-oxygen.com . The Ultimate Transit Haven . Singapore Changi Airport . A sanctuary within a sanctuary, this spacious spa in Terminal 2 of Singapore's spotlessly clean, user-friendly airport offers quick fixes for tired travelers (like showers and half-hour foot reflexology sessions). It also, however, provides an exotic menu of longer, full-body treatments, including Tui Na, and Balinese and Javanese massage. © 2012 American Express Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.

Airport spas offer a range of short and longer treatments . Emirates first class passengers may also opt for complimentary basic hair styling . The Fairmont Vancouver Airport Hotel has a lap pool and sauna .

Atlanta (CNN) -- Call it a crisis of faith. A co-worker and I walked into the office break room Wednesday, national Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day, to find a dozen or so foil-wrapped sandwiches beckoning us from the counter. This being Atlanta, home of Chick-fil-A, we recognized them immediately, and a closer look at the puck-sized packages bearing the iconic scribbled red logo confirmed our suspicions -- and deepened our paranoia. "Is this a trick?" my co-worker asked as he stood frozen in front of the counter. "Will someone judge me if they see me eating one?" We had no idea where they had come from and still don't, but our break room is often the dumping ground of leftovers from business meetings where food is served. I also froze in silence because I knew that the answer was yes, some would judge him, at least for the time being, while the company's stance on same-sex marriage is in the spotlight, sparking impassioned op-eds and fiery debate on cable news networks and Facebook Walls across the country. Supporters on both sides of the debate have staged demonstrations, starting with Wednesday's appreciation day and Friday's same-sex "kiss day" at Chick-fil-A restaurants across the country. Are you going to "kiss day" at Chick-fil-A? Share your story with CNN iReport . Ever since Truett Cathy opened the first Chick-fil-A Restaurant at a mall in suburban Atlanta in 1967, the company has made no secret of its dedication to Christian values. Its corporate purpose is to "glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us" and "to have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A." All of its locations are closed on Sunday. Chick-fil-A controversy shines light on company's charitable giving . Within this context, many Americans -- including residents of Atlanta, the ninth "gayest" American city in 2012, according The Advocate magazine -- have chosen either to enjoy Chick-fil-A's sandwich variations or to not patronize the restaurant because of its values. Or, you might be like one of my gay friends, who would ask others to stand in line for his Chick-fil-A lunch, lest his boyfriend find out. But for many, COO Dan Cathy's recent comment that he supports the "biblical definition of the family unit" has forced their hands, compelling them to publicly choose a side and politicize their eating habits. Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day was proposed by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in an effort to show support for the company's viewpoint. Those who chose to support Chick-fil-A on Wednesday led to record-breaking sales, the company said, though it did not provide specific sales numbers. "Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day was not a company promotion; it was initiated by others," said Steve Robinson, executive vice president for marketing, in a statement Thursday. "The Chick-fil-A culture and service tradition in our restaurants is to treat every person with honor, dignity and respect, regardless of their belief, race, creed, sexual orientation or gender." Time will tell whether Chick-fil-A suffers any actual fallout from the controversy or if it's just another "media-driven controversy," as some have suggested. After all, Ben & Jerry's is still going strong despite coming out in support of same-sex marriage with flavors like Apple-y Ever After and Chubby Hubby. Californians still swear by In-N-Out Burger regardless of whether their burger comes with a large drink and a citation from a Bible passage. In the meantime, both sides have fanned the flames with high-profile demonstrations and heated rhetoric. Others are left somewhere in the middle, still craving an original chicken sandwich but reluctant to subject themselves to the scrutiny of friends and colleagues, like my co-worker. Heather Roberts of Sugar Land, Texas, made a point of patronizing at Chick-fil-A on Wednesday while visiting Atlanta for a conference. "We wanted to eat here today, especially to show support not just for Christian values but for his right to express his beliefs," Roberts said shortly after finishing a chicken sandwich and waffle fries from a Chick-fil-A stand in the CNN Center food court. She said she shared Cathy's position on same-sex marriage, acknowledging that if the controversy centered around his support for it, she wouldn't have participated in appreciation day. Normally, though, she eats at her local Chick-fil-A at least once a week because she appreciates the food and the customer service -- not because of its Christian values. "I'm allowed to eat where I want," she said. "We need to be appreciative that we live in a country where we can say what we want and eat where we want." Even some people who oppose Cathy's views didn't feel the need to boycott the restaurant, especially if those views don't lead to discrimination against customers or employees. "I don't agree with the owners' beliefs, but they publicly state that they will serve all who enter the door," CNN commenter Doug Barger said. "I believe in religious freedom," the Greenwood, Ohio, resident wrote in an e-mail. "Because the owner's personal opinions differ from mine points to a healthy society." For many, Cathy's views are secondary to his right express them, even among members of the LGBT community. "Mr. Cathy has been unfairly attacked for his statement that he doesn't support same-sex marriage," said Matt Zieminski, a 20-year-old iReporter from California. "As a gay man, I say, let him not support gays. When the gay community and gay activist groups push on anti-gay people and organizations to change their minds and opinions via bullying or forced involvement, I fear it would make whatever accomplishments taste cheap like a greasy coin. Ultimately, the acceptance of the gay community and the right of gays to marry will not be achieved through violent means, physical and verbal, but through peaceful and honest negotiations." How the Chick-fil-A same-sex marriage controversy has evolved . Predictably, Cathy's stance on same-sex marriage kept others away Wednesday. "I think the (COO) has made eating at Chick-fil-A a political statement. I wouldn't (have) had a problem eating there before, but now that the restaurant has turned into a campaign to bash the rights of the LGBT community, I realize I can put my money somewhere else," CNN commenter Wade Pierson said. "As a born-again gay Christian, it saddens me to see Christians feeding into politics. Politics just divides people and stirs up a lot of anger." As counterprotests in the form of "kiss-ins" take shape Friday, some would just as soon stay away from Chick-fil-A this week to avoid making the act of eating chicken political. "Both sides have very good points, but both sides are also wrong, and they're both making this into something far bigger than it needs to be," said an Atlanta-based CNN commenter who preferred not to be named. "Both sides just quite honestly need to grow up and stop acting like 2-year-olds just because somebody said something they didn't like." The Atlanta resident says she does not plan to boycott the chain altogether because she agrees with both sides. And she likes the food. Plus, if you start boycotting Chick-fil-A because you disagree with the COO's views, how far will you take your principles? "I'm very impressed with people that try to avoid right-wing companies from profiting off of them. Trying to avoid Koch products would be really hard. I mean, they even make asphalt!" a friend said in response to my Facebook question, "are you conflicted over buying Chick-fil-A?" "It's not a political issue for me. I think it's more of a way for people to define themselves in front of their friends," she said. "It reminds me a lot of KONY, people getting riled up over something as a way to define themselves." As for my co-worker, he quickly gobbled down his sandwich in the break room while we speculated over where they might have come from. He finished it before others entered the room, tsking as they pulled out their smartphones to take pictures. Two hours later, the rest of the sandwiches were gone. Complete coverage: Chick-fil-A debate . CNN's Nicole Saidi contributed to this report.

In wake of Chick-fil-A COO's comment, Americans choose sides and politicize eating habits . Others prefer to avoid controversy or quietly agonize over whether to patronize chain . Many say views are secondary to the right to express them, even within LGBT community .

(CNN) -- Notre Dame star linebacker Manti Te'o acknowledged to ABC's Katie Couric that he maintained the illusion of his dead girlfriend in the weeks after he received a call claiming that Lennay Kekua and her death were hoaxes. It wasn't that teo was lying, said spokesman Mathew Hiltzik, who also reportedly represents Couric. Rather, he was still trying to determine exactly what had happened after learning a woman he thought was his girlfriend may never have existed. Opinion: Te'o story, big fail for sportswriters . During the interview, set to air on Couric's syndicated show Thursday, the Heisman Trophy runner-up said he mentioned Kekua and her death to reporters after receiving a December 6 phone call from someone he thought was Kekua, saying she was not dead. "Katie, put yourself in my situation. I, my whole world told me that she died on September 12. Everybody knew that. This girl, who I committed myself to, died on September 12," Te'o said, according to clips released on the ABC News website. Te'o has said he believed Kekua, whom he thought was his girlfriend despite never meeting her face to face, had died of leukemia on September 12 after a car accident left her hospitalized. "Now I get a phone call on December 6, saying that she's alive and then I'm going be put on national TV two days later. And to ask me about the same question. You know, what would you do?" Te'o said, according to clips of the interview. Opinion: Why we fell for Manti Te'o story . On December 8, ahead of the Heisman Trophy presentation, Te'o said he "lost both my grandparents and my girlfriend to cancer." In a New York Post interview published more than three weeks later, Te'o said memories of his grandfather helped him cope with the losses of his grandmother and girlfriend, whom he'd previously said died on the same day. "So when I lost my grandmother and Lennay, I thought of him. He was my strength," Te'o told the Post, according to a December 30 article. It was true that his grandmother had died, but Te'o conceded that he mentioned Kekua again even after -- as Couric put it -- he "knew that something was amiss," according to the interview clips. While he said he didn't know whether the now-debunked storyline helped him place second in Heisman Trophy voting, he insisted his emotions surrounding Kekua's loss were authentic. "What I went through was real. You know, the feelings, the pain, the sorrow -- that was all real, and that's something that I can't fake," he said. Who's who on the Internet? Who knows . Couric said she believes Te'o sincerely thought he was having a relationship with Kekua. Couric said she heard voice mail messages on Te'o's phone, allegedly from Kekua, and even saw his phone bill. "There were multiple calls to this number, where he would stay on the phone for hours," Couric told ABC's "World News with Diane Sawyer" on Wednesday. Te'o denied reveling in the attention he received for playing so outstandingly on the gridiron after suffering such devastating personal losses. "I think, for me, the only thing that I basked in was that I had an impact on people; that people turned to me for inspiration. And I think that was the only thing I focused on," the Hawaii-born Mormon said. "My story, I felt, was a guy who in times of hardship and in times of trial, held strong to his faith, held strong to his family, and I felt that was my story." Te'o's parents, Brian and Ottilia Te'o, were on hand for the interview. Couric said she believes they were as stunned as their son when they found out Kekua didn't exist. Te'o's mother talked to the woman many times on the phone, and his father texted biblical passages to the woman and discussed them with her, Couric said. Te'o's father was quoted in an October article in the South Bend Tribune, saying his son and Kekua had met at a football game in Palo Alto, California, and exchanged numbers. Their love affair ensued from there, the paper reported. Manti Te'o: A linebacker, a made-up girlfriend and a national hoax . Last week, Te'o said, however, that he had lied to his dad because he was embarrassed to admit he was in love with a woman he'd never laid eyes on. "I knew that -- I even knew that it was crazy that I was with somebody that I didn't meet," he told ESPN. "And that alone, people find out that this girl who died I was so invested in, and I didn't meet her as well." Asked his response to those who say his son is a liar who "manipulated the truth, really for personal gain," Te'o's father gave a tearful reply, according to ABC. "People can speculate about what they think he is. I've known him 21 years of his life, and he's not a liar. He's a kid," Te'o's father told Couric. Questions have also been raised about Te'o telling Sports Illustrated in October that Kekua had attended one of his games, when he issued a statement last week saying he'd never met her. Because ABC News has made public only snippets of the interview, it's not clear which parts of the hoax Te'o will address, but the Notre Dame standout has said he's sure he'll be vindicated. Read a timeline of events in the Te'o hoax . "When (people) hear the facts, they'll know," Te'o told ESPN last week. "They'll know that there is no way that I could be part of this." Nine days after the Alabama Crimson Tide dismantled the Fighting Irish in the college football national championship, Deadspin broke the story that Kekua didn't exist. The oft-irreverent sports news website has reported that a man named Ronaiah Tuiasosopo is involved in the scam and that he created a fake Twitter account for Kekua. Deadspin's Timothy Burke, co-author of the story, said friends and relatives of Tuiasosopo's said he was "doing the Lennay Kekua fake online profile for several years and that he's caught other people in his trap, but that they caught on way earlier than Manti Te'o did." Diane O'Meara, whose photo was used for the fake account, told NBC's "Today" show that she'd never spoken to Te'o but that Tuiasosopo called her to apologize. "Ronaiah has called and not only confessed, but he has also apologized, but I don't think there's anything you could say to me that would fix this," she said. Watch a clip of O'Meara's interview . Te'o, likewise, told ESPN that Tuiasosopo tweeted him after the Deadspin story broke, saying he was behind the hoax. He apologized, Te'o said. "Two guys and a girl are responsible for the whole thing," Te'o said, according to ESPN. An anonymous Notre Dame source told CNN the university's investigation yielded the same conclusion -- that two men and a woman perpetrated the hoax. At least one of Tuiasosopo's relatives has defended him, though. His uncle told CNN, "It definitely takes two to tango," and, "This is not just a matter of blaming it all on Ronaiah." Tuiasosopo's father had no comment. Burke said he isn't buying the notion that Te'o is innocent and emphasizes that Te'o and Tuiasosopo knew each other. "How dense would Manti Te'o have to be to not realize this was his friend who was behind the account the entire time?" he asked. "I don't believe Manti Te'o could be that dumb." CNN's Steve Almasy, Lateef Mungin, Greg Botelho and Paul Vercammen contributed to this report.

NEW: Publicist says Manti Te'o was simply trying to learn truth after learning of hoax . Katie Couric says Te'o's phone bill shows long phone calls to Kekua's alleged number . Te'o insists during interview that his "feelings, the pain, the sorrow -- that was all real" Father breaks into tears, says despite speculation, his son is "not a liar. He's a kid."

(CNN)Even at the age of 7, Lotte Hershfield knew her world was crumbling. She avoided the benches with the sign: No dogs or Jews allowed. She couldn't attend public schools. And the Nazis and their growling German shepherds raided her family's house, throwing their books into a fire. As a child, "we were very aware," said Hershfield, now 84. Jews weren't welcome in their own home. Growing increasingly fearful, her parents and her older brother left their hometown of Breslau, Germany, in 1938 and journeyed to an unlikely new home -- the Philippines. About 1,200 European Jews fled to the Philippines from 1937 to 1941, escaping the throes of the Nazis only to face another bloody war under Japanese occupation. Many of the Jews came from Austria and Germany, as the anti-Semitic policies including the Nuremberg race laws intensified. Unable to immigrate to countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States, thousands of Jews escaped to places such as Shanghai in China, Sousa in the Dominican Republic and Manila. Those who arrived in Manila didn't realize that they had escaped the Holocaust only to be caught in the war in the Eastern Front, where the Philippines came under attack. "We were going from the frying pan to the fire," Hershfield said. "We went from Nazi persecutors to the Japanese." The Philippines capital was liberated after a grueling, monthlong campaign in the Battle of Manila, one of the bloodiest battles of World War II, which now marks its 70th anniversary. This little known chapter of history about Jewish refugees in the Philippines has inspired two documentaries and talk of a possible movie. "We know about stories like Anne Frank, 'Schindler's List' -- the things that grab popular imagination," said Michelle Ephraim, whose father, Frank Ephraim escaped to the Philippines after Kristallnacht in 1938. "Once you bring an Asia element, it becomes so complicated, interesting and surprising." About 40 of the Philippines refugees are alive today, according to documentary filmmakers. They were children when they arrived in the Philippines over 70 years ago. "That was like a rebirth," said Noel Izon, the filmmaker of the documentary, "An Open Door: Jewish Rescue in the Philippines," in which he interviewed several Jewish refugees. "They went from certain death to this life." Among them was Frank Ephraim, who arrived in Manila at the age of eight. He recounted his experience in his biography, "Escape to Manila: From Nazi Tyranny to Japanese Terror." "My father got a lot of positive attention, coming from a place where Jews were exiled and treated so poorly," said his daughter, of his escape from Europe. Frank Ephraim died in 2006. "The Filipinos were incredibly kind and treated him extremely well. There was an element of something so redemptive." Manuel Quezon, the first president of the Philippine Commonwealth, and a group of Americans that included future U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Freiders, the Jewish-American brothers, became increasingly concerned about the treatment of Jews in Europe during the late 1930s. "They had a shared view of the world, they were men who understood what was happening in Europe," said Russ Hodge, co-producer of the documentary "Rescue in the Philippines." That documentary was screened in the Philippines with the country's president, Benigno Aquino in attendance last year. Over poker, the men devised a strategy to bring Jewish refugees to the Philippines. The Philippines Commonwealth remained under U.S. supervision so it could not accept people who would need public assistance. The refuge committee sought highly skilled professionals such as doctors, mechanics and accountants. By 1938, a stream of refugees arrived including a rabbi, doctors, chemists and even a conductor, Herbert Zipper, who survived Dachau concentration camp and later became the founder of the Manila Symphony. Quezon's ambitions to settle 10,000 Jews in the southern island of Mindanao were dashed as the the war arrived to the shores of the Philippines. For the European Jews who arrived in the Philippines, "it was a cultural shock," said Hershfield. "We didn't know the language. We had never seen any other than white people before." The humidity was thick, the heat overpowering and the mosquitoes gigantic. But the young Jewish refugees saw the Philippines as a new adventure. Children climbed mango trees, swam in the bay and learned Filipino songs. Hershfield became friends with local neighbors, played sipa (a local kicking game) and relished tropical fruit such as papaya and guava. Life in Manila was running around in sandals and summer clothes. The experience differed for her parents. "It was very difficult for my parents," she said. "They never really learned Tagalog. They had been westernized and they stayed mostly within their circle of other immigrants." Many of them lived in crowded community housing where fights would break out. They had gone from being wealthy in Germany to having nothing. "It wasn't what they'd known before in Germany," Izon said. "At the same time, "they were able to practice their religion, able to intermingle and have businesses." Hershfield's idyllic days of playing under the Manila sun came to an abrupt end as the war came ashore to the Philippines. Starting in 1941, the Japanese occupied the Philippines. In some respects, the Jewish refugees were treated considerably better than Filipinos. What ironically protected the Jews was their German passports with the swastikas -- they were viewed as allies. "It occurred to me later, that's what kept us from being interned," said Ursula Miodowski, who was 7 years old at the time. The Japanese interned British and American residents in camps. Filipinos and American soldiers were forced to march 65 miles in the infamous Bataan Death March in which an estimated 10,000 prisoners died. Japanese officers confiscated residents' homes and also hoarded crops for its military. The local economy shriveled and food became scarce. Life under the Japanese was hard and brutal, surviving refugees said. When Allied forces began taking back the Philippines, bombs fell daily. Families hid in bomb shelters, not knowing where the next one would fall. Frank Ephraim spent days hiding in a ditch, shaking with a mattress covering his head. One of Hershfield's friends died after stepping on a mine. "Fires were going on all the time," said Hershfield. "You could see the black clouds, smell of bodies, lying there and decaying." As the Japanese were losing Manila, the imperial troops launched a brutal urban campaign. Rapes, torture, beheadings and bayoneting of civilians were widely reported, so much so that a Japanese general Tomoyuki Yamashita was later executed for having failed to control his troops. "The Japanese decided to destroy Manila. They were going to give them a dead city, they set about doing that," said Miodowski. "They burned, they killed." But war time in the Philippines was "preferable to being in a concentration camp," she said. The monthlong urban street fighting for Manila left the capital in ashes, decimating its economy and infrastructure. The Philippines suffered nearly a million civilian deaths during the war. Despite the trauma of facing both fronts of the war, Hershfield remains grateful. "We would not be alive today if not for the Philippines. We would've been destroyed in the crematorium." In 2009, a monument honoring the Philippines was erected at the Holocaust Memorial Park in the Israeli city of Rishon Lezion. The monument, shaped like three open doors, thanks the Filipino people and its president for taking in Jewish refugees during the Holocaust. Many of the descendants of the Jewish refugees who fled to the Philippines have not forgotten their family's place of refuge. When Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines in November 2013, the disaster brought in relief workers from the American Jewish Distribution Committee. Danny Pins, who is related to Hershfield and is the son of a Jewish refugee to the Philippines, headed its assessment team. "For me it was like coming full circle and I couldn't help but think of what it must have been like when my grandparents and mother arrived 76 years ago," he said. "My going to the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan was very special. I was repaying a debt to the country that saved my family."

Philippines welcomed Jewish refugees during Holocaust while other countries closed doors . About 1,200 European Jews moved there before 1941 . While they escaped the Holocaust, they were confronted with the Asian front of the war as Japan invaded .

(CNN) -- Newly elected Egyptian ministers held their first parliamentary session this week, almost a year to the day after the start of historic protests in the capital led to the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak. But for all the bravery and resilience the demonstrators showed by withstanding a brutal crackdown as they sang, waved flags and held candlelight vigils for 18 days, the movement began many years before. "Being in the square, just feeling that energy, was one of the greatest experiences of my life," said Ashraf Khalil, an Egyptian-American journalist who was standing among the protesters when news broke February 11 that Mubarak had decided to resign. "It felt like a roar but also a kind of relief, an enormous release of years of frustration and struggle." In his new book, "Liberation Square: Inside the Egyptian Revolution and the Rebirth of a Nation," Khalil explains some of the events that quietly laid the foundation for the uprising. He also predicts what may be ahead for Egypt in 2012 as unprecedented elections take place, likely prompting more protests and violence. "There's one camp that's throwing up their hands and saying, 'Oh, the revolution hasn't brought us anything,' " Khalil said. Are you there? Share your thoughts on the anniversary of the uprising. But many Egyptians, particularly older, experienced activists who lived through decades of oppression under Mubarak's rule, are far more optimistic. "They argue that this process, as messy as it may be, is a victory in itself," he said. "This is a generation that believes this is democracy in progress." Khalil's parents emigrated from Egypt in the late 1960s to get their doctorate degrees in the United States. In their home in suburban Chicago, his parents spoke Arabic, but Khalil picked up almost none of it. But as he got older and considered becoming a journalist, he yearned to know more about his family's background and more about Egypt. While studying at Indiana University, he went to Cairo for a year on a study-abroad program. "I got the place in my blood and always thought about coming back," he recalled. After graduation and a few years at a newspaper in Indiana, Khalil moved to Cairo in 1997 to work as a freelance reporter. He had barely unpacked his bags and settled in when a terrorist attack turned the world's focus on Egypt. Fifty-eight foreign tourists were killed when Islamist gunmen invaded a poorly guarded temple across the River Nile from Luxor. The Luxor massacre, Khalil writes, was an important first stone in the path to January 2011. It crippled whatever sympathy some Egyptians might have had toward Islamic militant groups, and it launched the career of Habib al-Adly, who became interior minister under Mubarak. Photos: Looking back at Egypt's uprising . At the time of the Luxor massacre, Egyptian police were given a blank check to go after Islamist groups. But the force also became something much darker, an "unchecked and unchallenged" authority that bullied Egyptians of all backgrounds. The police spied on and intimidated newspaper editors, business leaders, university professors and judges. "You heard anger boiling up about the police from every corner of Egyptian life, but it was hushed because there was such intense fear," Khalil said. Al-Adly is believed to be Mubarak's right-hand man in the security forces' violent actions against protesters. Despite being beaten, tear-gassed and shot at, demonstrators rallied, specifically demanding al-Adly's dismissal. In February, just weeks after Mubarak was ousted, Egypt froze al-Adly's bank accounts, banned him from traveling and arrested him. He was sentenced in May to 12 years in prison for money laundering and abuse of office. Mubarak, meanwhile, is on trial in Egypt, accused of corruption and ordering the deaths of protesters. The former president suddenly fell ill after his resignation. Watching him get wheeled into the courtroom on a stretcher, Khalil is reminded of the Mubarak of 1999, who ran an over-the-top campaign to remain in office. It was a joke, the journalist said, because Mubarak was the only candidate on the ticket. "I was witness to so many fake elections, but (this election) was like Stanlinist level of worship, like something you'd see in North Korea. All the billboards and the newspapers were filled with (photos and editorials) venerating this guy," Khalil said. "It didn't reflect the way people really felt." The propaganda was all the more fascinating because it served as a backdrop for small protests against the regime that popped up throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s. Several took place on Cairo University's campus. The demonstrations focused on foreign policy issues involving Israel, and government security quickly disbanded them. Those moments of protest never caught on in other parts of the country, or gelled much with anyone outside the university, because the demonstrators failed to agree on a unified message, Khalil writes. Some wanted to call out Mubarak by name, while others profoundly feared doing that. Islamist protesters wanted the focus to remain entirely on Israel, leaving the president out of it. 2011's uprising was successful, many observers agreed, because demonstrators were on the same page about what they wanted and how to get it. "Liberation Square" delves into a forgotten but highly significant footnote in the protests in Egypt. On the night that the United States led the invasion of Iraq in 2003, a crowd gathered in Tahrir Square to rally against Mubarak's allowing U.S. ships to take position in the Suez Canal. Against the odds, the demonstrators overwhelmed security forces sent to disperse them and tore down a huge poster of Mubarak outside an office of his National Democratic Party. Wael Khalil, a longtime Egyptian activist who helped fuel 2011's movement, was at that rally. He remembers the night in "Liberation Square." "The tone of anti-Mubarak sentiment and the focus on the question of democracy really started then," Wael Khalil said. "It started with 'Down with America' and turned to 'Down with Mubarak.' " For the rest of the decade, there were more fits and starts of protests and crackdowns while dissident expression took root in the arts and pop culture. Disgust with the regime's enforcement of sexual purity was mocked by a farcical movie that became an underground hit about young people going around Cairo trying to find a secret place to watch a porno. A novel that mocked Egypt's class system became a best-seller and was made into a film. But the tipping point for 2011's revolution came just as it had in the preceding Tunisian revolution: with the death of a young person pushed to extraordinary action. Khaled Said, a 28-year-old computer wiz, was arrested in June 2010 by Egyptian police while he sat at an Internet café in Alexandria. Witnesses said police beat him to death. A postmortem picture of his mangled face was posted on the Web and went viral. "Liberation Square" includes intimate interviews with Said's close friends, activists inspired by his death, witnesses to the night Said died and bloggers who repeatedly posted a picture of a living, handsome Said next to his morgue photo. In October, two Egyptian police officers were found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to seven years for Said's death. The pictures of Said are still fresh in most Egyptians' memory. "I think a lot of Egyptians are just exhausted. They are weary. They are realizing this is the first year mark of a 10-year process," Khalil said. "But what they did, and what they want to do, is still clear." Khalil says elections in 2012 will almost certainly inspire more protests and clashes between authorities and the people, seen most vividly in November and December. Economically, Egyptians will continue to struggle as tourism and foreign investment wanes. "There shouldn't be a rush to decide what will happen in Egypt," he said. "I'm confident, and I think Tahrir showed us, that Egyptians have an incredible determination to get it right."

One year ago January 25, protesters began gathering in Tahrir Square . Egyptian-American reporter says that many events over years led to uprising . Ashraf Khalil: Many in Egypt say current struggle is "victory in itself"

Washington (CNN) -- On the walls of Barbara Mikulski's Capitol hideaway are some of her most prized possessions -- portraits taken every two years of all the women in the Senate. The first picture from 1988 is Mikulski, a Democrat, and one other female senator, Republican Nancy Kassebaum of Kansas. "The hemline's a little different, the hair color," Mikulski mused, staring at the photograph. "That's when there were two." The two forged a bond across party lines. The most recent picture, taken last year, features 17 female senators -- five Republicans and 12 Democrats. Mikulski remarks that there are more women in that photograph than had served in the Senate in all of American history when she arrived some three decades ago. The Maryland senator knows a lot about the history of female lawmakers, and she should. She has made a lot of it herself: the first Democratic woman ever elected to the Senate in her own right; the first woman in the Senate Democratic leadership; and in late 2010 she became the longest-serving woman ever in the Senate. On Saturday she will top that, becoming the longest-serving woman ever in the history of the U.S. Congress, surpassing Rep. Edith Norse Rogers of Massachusetts, who represented Massachusetts from 1925 to 1960. To mark the milestone, she invited three other women senators who span parties and generations, to talk about what Senate women call their "zone of civility." Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Republicans Olympia Snowe of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joined Mikulski to sit at a table that came from her childhood home and explained how hard the women of the Senate work to maintain a lost dynamic in Congress these days: comity. Ironically, it is a relic of the old boys network that doesn't really exist anymore in today's era of partisanship: Get to know each other personally, so they can work better together professionally. Regular dinners across party lines . It starts with regular dinners organized by Mikulski, whom some call the "Dean," others call "Coach Barb." "When the day's over, let's kick back and put our lipstick on and have a glass of wine, and keep the institution and America going," Mikulski said. Though the dinners are strictly off the record, the senators spilled a few details. "We talk about our families, our concerns in our lives. Sometimes we talk about what we are working on but it's a very collegial setting where we are trying to cultivate friendship first and foremost," said Gillibrand, who jokes they "rarely get nights off anyway, so that's our big night out." Snowe, a moderate Republican who recently made a surprise announcement that she is retiring because she is fed up with the polarization in Congress, said, "We made the commitment to do it on a monthly basis, and to get together because it's critical, and we naturally bond, and we have an opportunity to let our hair down." Murkowski said when her husband sees one of the Senate women dinners on the calendar, he knows it's non-negotiable. "He doesn't say, 'My gosh, why are you at work so late tonight?' He knows that that is a time that I value because I derive so much from the conversation, from the camaraderie that we have in the hour and a half at the end of a very long day, so I make it a priority when the dinners are scheduled to be there and enjoy that conversation with friends," Murkowski said. Mikulski notes that the Senate can be a "lonely place," so the dinners are a refuge with "no agenda, nothing to prove [except] finding common ground where we're going to talk about what we're going to work on in other committees or circumstances." "I think it's a place that gives us energy, gives us a sense of our own community and we all really do know we can count on each other if something comes up we would be the first there," Mikulski said. A bipartisan sisterhood . But does this bipartisan sisterhood translate into bipartisan legislative action? Murkowski replied that just this past week she was able to work out differences in the highway bill with Barbara Boxer, the Democrat overseeing it, primarily because of their personal friendship. Gillibrand recalled getting tremendous help from Snowe and Murkowski on the 9/11 first responders legislation. "I remember when I was trying to so hard to pass the 9/11 health bill, both Lisa and Olympia were encouraging me. They said we're not going to be name sponsors in the bill for instance, but we believe in what you are doing, and I think that if you approach it a, b and c, you'll be more effective," Gillbrand remembered. "I think we're just natural allies and we trust each other. It's almost instinctive," Snowe said, turning to Gillibrand, "I can remember the conversations that we had. She was eliciting ideas about how to advance the bill, and so we trust another to give solid advice and to take that advice." "We are all a team as women. We may not agree on every issue but that's not the point," Snowe continued. "We know how to work together in the give and take of it and achieve results." Murkowski offered another explanation for what makes Senate women different from the men: ego. "I don't think that we have as much ego attached with who's getting the credit," said Murkowski, who noted that oftentimes with the men, it's "my way or the highway." "We're all pretty competitive or we wouldn't have gotten here in the first place, but in order to achieve the results that we are looking for, I think there is less personal ego on the line," she said. There is also another female trait that factors in here. They all say they instinctively know how to listen. "I think it is how we communicate the message and how we listen to what is being communicated. And I think that the listening part of it is an important part of how we get the results," Murkowski said. Four generally agree on women's issues . Though they differ on everything from taxes to energy policy, they generally agree on women's issues. But Lisa Murkowski recently voted with fellow Republicans against free access to contraception. Women back home in Alaska got upset, and she said she regretted her vote. Asked if any of her female colleagues went to her and urged her not to side with her party on this one, Murkowski made clear the answer was no. "I wish that we had had that discussion, I can honestly tell you that," she said, and then ripped into the GOP on the issue. "I think that my party is in an unfortunate place right now as viewed by many women in this country who are feeling very anxious about what they believe to be attacks on women's health," she said. In a bitterly partisan era, Senate women cherish this cross-party sisterhood. Columnist Margaret Carlson wrote recently in the Daily Beast that Senate men complain they no longer have time to forge such relationships. She joked that Senate women somehow do it, and it's certainly not like they get more time in the day from their extra X chromosome. "If anything, these women have more demands upon them," said Mikulski, who notes Gillibrand has two young sons and Murkowski is the mother of teenagers. "I had to make school lunch this morning," Gillibrand chimed in, laughing. They talk surrounded by Mikulski's female-oriented memorabilia adorning her walls: a poster of Geraldine Ferraro, the first female vice presidential candidate; a photograph with Madeleine Albright before she was appointed the first female secretary of state; even a picture of the Girl Scouts. Mikulski's female colleagues credit her with cultivating and maintaining these relationships, and say she starts by mentoring new Senate arrivals. "I remember when I first got appointed, she was one of the first to ask me to visit her, gave me guidance on how things work, how to pass legislation," Gillibrand recalled. After 12,858 days of service, that makes her the longest-serving woman in congressional history, it's abundantly clear that creating a collegial oasis for women inside the intensely partisan atmosphere is one of her proudest accomplishments. "I won't always be here, but I hope the legacy of civility, that I've worked with the other women to create will remain," she said. CNN producers Laurie Ure and Ted Barrett contributed to this report .

Mikulski will become the longest-serving female member of Congress on Saturday . Women senators say they try to maintain their "zone of civility" Mikulski credited with cultivating relationships among women in Congress . She is proud of creating a collegial oasis inside a partisan atmosphere .

Washington (CNN) -- While 39 House Democrats voted with Republicans on a proposed fix to canceled insurance policies under Obamacare on Friday, sources on both sides said more would have defected without President Barack Obama's mea culpa over the mess. As it is, the vote is an embarrassment for the President, but it could have been worse. Another 18 defectors could have given Republicans a veto-proof majority and ammunition to really pressure the Democratic-controlled Senate to take up the measure. But senior Democratic aides said that might have been possible before Thursday. That's when Obama took action on his own, met with reporters to talk about it, and dispatched his Chief of Staff, Denis McDonough, to Captiol Hill to meet with Democratic lawmakers. One senior Democratic House aide described the mood of the caucus between Wednesday and Thursday as "night and day." Other aides echoed that sentiment. In addition to announcing his plan to try to repair the damage done under Obamacare, the President's Q&A was as much about trying to provide political cover for Democrats in tough reelection bids next year. Some have been targeted by the Republican Party's campaign machine. Almost all of the Democratic defectors fall into that category. Freshman Democratic Rep. Pete Gallego of Texas tried to play down his vote as a rebuke of the President. "For me personally, it was an issue of giving some people some time to transition to do things in an orderly way. There's clearly some issues that we'd like to fix and make better," he said. Rep. Ron Barber, another Democrat who faces a tough campaign next year in Arizona, also rejected the notion that a vote for the Republican bill would help undermine the entire Obamacare law. "I think any fix that we can make, particularly when a problem arises, is good for the people back home. And look, the truth of the matter is: I'm accountable to the people who sent me here," Barber said. "I respect our leadership on both sides of the aisle, but the leadership didn't elect me; my constituents did. And I'm going to make sure I listen to them, and do what I can to support them when they have problems and concerns, and that's what I'm doing in this case," he added. Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia told CNN on Thursday he was undecided on how he would vote but ultimately decided to vote against the GOP plan after he was briefed on the President's fix. "The Upton bill did nothing to address the situation in which some individuals have had their coverage canceled by their insurance provider," Connolly said. "We cannot allow Americans to be subjected to capricious cancellations, lifetime limits on their coverage, no coverage or unaffordable coverage because of pre-existing conditions and higher premiums based on gender for the same basic coverage." The legislation proposed by Rep. Fred Upton would extend for a year those policies that were set to be canceled, and would allow anyone to purchase them. They are for the most part cheaper but they don't meet coverage demands spelled out under the Affordable Care Act. The fix: Obama tries to dig out of his big Obamacare hole . Obama . After the President's news conference on Thursday during which he said he "fumbled" the Affordable Care Act's launch, he immediately resumed his public relations tour touting the measure -- his signature domestic policy achievement. "We're not going to gut the law. We're going to fix what needs to be fixed," Obama said in Cleveland. After fix, Obama vows not to 'gut' health care reform . Friday, he was back at the White House working to keep his promise to address its shortcomings as the Republican-led House took its own action to reverse the insurance policy cancellations. Obama met with insurance company CEOs whose help he needs to carry out freshly announced rules that would allow those receiving health policy cancellations due to Obamacare to keep their plans for another year. The discussion with the CEOs, who represented the country's major insurance carriers, revolved around the best paths for consumers to enroll in coverage. "The discussion was productive -- the insurance CEOs and administration officials discussed the next steps in working with states and state insurance commissioners to use the new flexibility the administration announced to address cancellation notices going to consumers," the White House said in a statement. Everyone attending the meeting "stressed the importance of working together to minimize disruption for consumers as well as the need to continue to reach consumers with clear information about their options and choices." The White House did not detail the meeting nor did it disclose what, if any, potential solutions were offered. John King: For Obama, a bad turn or a tipping point? Senate Democrat alternative parked -- for the time being . Despite Obama's apology and efforts to make amends for saying previously that Americans wouldn't lose coverage under the law he championed, a couple of moderate Democrats in the Senate said they would still push for a legislative fix that goes a little further than the administrative steps outlined by the President on Thursday. "I feel deeply responsible for making it harder for them," Obama said on Thursday about Democrats who supported his bill and now face tougher reelection bids because of the law's difficult beginning. Vice President Joe Biden joined one of those Senators, Kay Hagan of North Carolina, at a campaign event on Friday. But Democrats who lead the Senate have indicated, however, that they will not bring up new Obamacare legislation for a vote for the moment, wanting to first see how the President's approach works. Republicans: We told you so . Republicans have spent much of the past three years attempting to defund and dismantle Obamacare as unworkable and an illegitimate law since it was rammed through by a Democratic Congress without their backing and then signed by a Democratic president. They have held hearings and investigations and the House has had dozens of votes to weaken or repeal it. Now, GOP lawmakers are seizing the moment with the law under fire to effectively say "we told you so." House Speaker John Boehner recently called Obamacare "a failure" and Democrats risk supporting it further at their political peril. Insurance companies . The White House did not mandate the changes on policy cancellations but asked insurance companies to take the lead and offer extensions. Health insurers, as represented by the America's Health Insurance Plans trade group, warned that last-minute changes in the law could "destabilize the market and result in higher premiums." The individual policy contracts that are most affected comprise about 5% of the overall insurance market. White House, insurers locked in unhappy marriage . At least one major insurer, Aetna, said it would allow for extensions, but put the burden on state insurance commissioners to approve the changes. These entities regulate industry and usually look out for consumer interests. They determine coverage standards and benefits. Insurers met with Obama at the White House on Friday where he said they would "brainstorm" on the best approach for carrying out his rule changes. State insurance commissions . Although they are ultimately responsible for allowing the extensions, an insurance commission source said state commissioners were "not consulted" prior to the President's announced administrative fix. 3 hurdles Obamacare must overcome . The reason for many cancellations was that affected plans didn't meet new federal standards for minimum coverage requirements under Obamacare. This includes preventative care, maternity care and mental health care. Washington State indicated that it would not allow a year extension, saying that it is too complicated and disruptive at this late date. More than canceled insurance plans . Canceled policies is not the only headache for Obama. The federally run website where consumers can purchase insurance, HealthCare.gov., barely functioned on its launch October 1. While improvements have been made, problems continue, making it difficult for people to enroll and browse plans offered by private companies. Including similar online exchanges offered through 36 states, overall Obamacare enrollment numbers for the first month underperformed with only 106,000 signing up for coverage. That's far from the seven million over time that experts anticipate will be needed to ensure that Obamacare works economically. It relies heavily on younger, healthier participants to help cover the cost of insuring older people who need more health care services. A bright spot, however, is the enrollment of Medicaid, which has been expanded in 25 states under the new law. Nearly half a million people have signed up for benefits under the federal health insurance program for the poor. CNN's Deirdre Walsh, Dana Bash, Ted Barrett and Kevin Liptak contributed to this story .

NEW: Obama and CEOs discuss steps to address policy cancellations, White House says . The House votes on a bill to address canceled insurance plans . Biden campaigns in NC with Sen. Hagan, who has pushed for changes to Obamacare . Thirty-nine Democrats vote for GOP House bill aiming to reverse canceled policies .

(CNN) -- Pakistan said Saturday it will reassess its relationship with the United States, NATO and the International Security Assistance Force in the wake of a deadly attack by NATO forces on two military checkpoints inside Pakistani territory, marking a major setback in worsening U.S.-Pakistan relations. "The prime minister will take the Parliament into confidence on the whole range of measures regarding matters relating to Pakistan's future cooperation with US/NATO/ISAF, in the near future," Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's office said in a statement. The attack by NATO helicopters killed 24 soldiers and wounded 13 others in Mohmand Agency, one of seven districts in the volatile region bordering Afghanistan, the Pakistani foreign ministry and military said in a statement. "It's a huge incident," Syed Masood Kausar, governor of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, told reporters in Islamabad. Many of the wounded were in critical condition, military officials said. The officials did not want to be identified because they are not allowed to talk to the news media. A spokesman for the NATO-led ISAF, Gen. Carsten Jacobson, said close air support had been called in during an operation with Afghan national security forces and ISAF in the rugged border area in the east of Pakistan, where the border is not always clear. "A technical situation developed on the ground that caused the force to call for close air support and it is this close air support that highly likely caused the soldiers that perished on the Pakistani side," he told CNN. He said he could not discuss casualty numbers, since "they can only come at the moment from the Pakistani side." "This incident has my highest personal attention and my commitment to thoroughly investigate it to determine the facts," U.S. Marine Gen. John R. Allen, NATO's commander in Afghanistan, said Saturday. He also offered his "sincere and personal heartfelt condolences" to the families of any Pakistan Security Forces members killed or injured. In a joint statement, the U.S. State and Defense departments said they are monitoring the reports and issued their condolences. The departments' secretaries, Hillary Clinton and Leon Panetta respectively, said they support NATO's plan to investigate. "In their contacts, these U.S. diplomatic and military leaders each stressed -- in addition to their sympathies and a commitment to review the circumstances of the incident -- the importance of the U.S.-Pakistani partnership, which serves the mutual interests of our people," the statement said. Panetta shares Allen's regret for any loss of life, said Pentagon spokesman Capt. John Kirby. The spokesman for the Pakistan military, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, condemned the strike. "There is absolutely no justification for this unprovoked and indiscriminate attack," Abbas told CNN. "There is no confusion about the locations of these check posts. They are well inside the border, they are clearly marked and NATO has their location on their maps." Abbas rejected any NATO claim that NATO aircraft were pursuing insurgents who were crossing into Pakistan. "There are no more safe havens in Mohmand. We have cleared them. They would have nowhere to hide," he said. He told CNN there had been "no militant activity, to the best of our knowledge," in the area at the time, and that the border posts targeted were old and marked, and were supposed to be identified on the maps of NATO pilots operating near the border. Two of the dead were officers, he said. "Let's wait for an investigation," he said. "Only then, the real truth will come out. But, on the face of it, we have lost 24 of our soldiers and officers, which is highly tragic and is not acceptable." He cited similar incidents in the past for having resulted in "a great resentment" toward the NATO forces. After a meeting Saturday of the Defense Committee of the Cabinet, the prime minister's office released a statement condemning the attack and saying it had "gravely dented the fundamental basis of Pakistan's cooperation with NATO/ISAF against militancy and terror." The committee added that it decided to ask the United States to vacate the Shamsi Airbase within 15 days. The base, in southwest Pakistan, is reportedly used for CIA drone strikes. A similar demand was made in June, when Pakistan's defense minister called for the United States to leave the airbase used to launch drone attacks against Taliban and al Qaeda targets on the border with Afghanistan, the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan reported then. "We have told them (the U.S. officials) to leave the airbase," Defense Minister Ahmed Mukhtar told reporters about Shamsi Airbase in Balochistan, APP reported. Mukhtar added that trust between the United States and Pakistan had eroded in the aftermath of the May 2 killing of Osama bin Laden by U.S. special forces acting inside the town of Abbottabad, Pakistan, without Islamabad's knowledge or permission. But the Americans never left, according to embassy sources in Islamabad and Pakistani military officials. In a statement, Gilani said he "strongly condemned the NATO/ISAF attack on the Pakistani" checkpoint. The matter is being taken up by the Foreign Ministry "in the strongest possible terms" with NATO and the United States, the statement from his office said. U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan, Cameron Munter, said: "I regret the loss of life of any Pakistani servicemen, and pledge that the United States will work closely with Pakistan to investigate this incident." In response to the attack, Pakistan closed NATO's two supply routes into Afghanistan, Pakistani military and intelligence officials said. NATO trucks have used the routes, in Khyber Agency and Balochistan, to supply U.S. and international forces fighting in Afghanistan. About 50 containers and trucks carrying supplies for NATO were stopped at the town of Jamrud in Khyber Agency on Saturday morning, said Jamil Khan, a senior government official in Khyber Agency, bordering Afghanistan. They were ordered to turn back toward Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, he said. A second route from Pakistan into Afghanistan, the Chaman border crossing in Balochistan province, had been open to NATO supply trucks earlier Saturday but was shut in the afternoon, the military and intelligence officials said. Roughly 40% of nonlethal NATO supplies and fuel go through Pakistan, with hundreds of supply trucks using the two routes into Afghanistan. In addition, the spokesman for the government of Balochistan, Kamran Asad, said the provincial government had banned the entry of NATO supplies. About 130,000 troops are deployed in Afghanistan with ISAF, 90,000 of them American, according to NATO figures. Pakistani politicians responded angrily to the incident in Mohmand. "This is the time to be united as a nation and to punch NATO with a fist," said Ahmed Khan Bahadur, a provincial lawmaker from the Awami National Party, the ruling party of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. "NATO could never dare if we were united." Former international cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, who heads the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, said it was time for Pakistan to pull out of the U.S.-led "war on terror." The incident could be the deadliest for Pakistani soldiers involving NATO since a U.S. airstrike in June 2008, which Pakistan said killed 11 of its forces who were cooperating with the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan. That airstrike, also in Mohmand Agency, prompted the government in Islamabad to summon the U.S. ambassador and lodge an official protest. NATO's Allen had met Thursday with the Pakistani Chief of Army Staff Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the Pakistani military said. "The visiting dignitary remained with him for some time and discussed measures concerning coordination, communication and procedures between Pakistan army, ISAF and Afghan army, aimed at enhancing border control on both sides," a Pakistani military statement said. U.S. Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke with Kayani on Saturday to express his condolences, according to Pentagon spokesman Col. Dave Lapan. "He noted the immediate investigation by ISAF to determine what happened," Lapan said. CNN's Barbara Starr, Reza Sayah and Nasir Habib in Islamabad contributed to this report.

NEW: The U.S. State and Defense departments say they are monitoring the reports . ISAF spokesman says it is "highly likely" close air support caused the deaths . Pakistan's prime minister calls an emergency meeting of services chiefs . Pakistan closes NATO supply routes across the border to Afghanistan .

(CNN) -- England coach Fabio Capello has been forced to go back on his previously iron-clad rules in selecting his preliminary squad for the World Cup in South Africa. The Italian has always said he would not pick players who are injured or out of form, but has brought Liverpool's Jamie Carragher out of international retirement to bolster his defensive options as cover with injury-prone captain Rio Ferdinand and Ledley King also in the 30-man line-up. Neither Carragher nor versatile Tottenham star King have yet played for Capello, who retained his midfield mainstay Gareth Barry despite the Manchester City player being in doubt for the June 12 opener against the United States due to injury. Carragher made himself unavailable in 2007 after not being often used by previous managers Sven-Goran Eriksson and Steve McClaren despite being regularly named in squads. Blog: Will "the Force" be with Capello at World Cup? Capello also asked Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes to become available again following his own international retirement in 2004, but the 35-year-old turned down the opportunity. "He said no, he preferred to stay with the family. But I tried," Capello told the UK Press Association. Liverpool fullback Glen Johnson was named despite being sidelined with injury, while striker Emile Heskey retained his place although he has not been a first-choice selection for his club Aston Villa. Key forward Wayne Rooney was named despite his niggling groin problem, with Tottenham's Jermain Defoe and Peter Crouch taking the other striking spots along with Sunderland's 25-goal Darren Bent. Winger Aaron Lennon was included after only recently returning with Tottenham after a long-term absence, as was fellow right-sided player Shaun Wright-Phillips despite his failure to win a regular place at Manchester City, who also have 22-year-old Adam Johnson in the squad. Midfielder Joe Cole also got the nod, having last played for England in 2008, after a strong end to a season that saw him on the fringe of league champions Chelsea's first team. Italy's 2006 World Cup-winning coach Marcelo Lippi has stuck with the players who qualified for South Africa in his 30-man squad, resisting suggestions that he should bring in-form Roma striker Francesco Totti out of international retirement. Totti's on-loan teammate Luca Toni also missed out along with veteran Juventus forward Alessandro Del Piero, with Villarreal's Giuseppe Rossi one of seven strikers named. Inter Milan's controversial Italy under-21 forward Mario Balotelli missed out as Fabio Quagliarella (Napoli), Vincenzo Iaquinta (Juventus), Antonio Di Natale (Udinese), Marco Borriello (Milan), Alberto Gilardino (Fiorentina) and Giampaolo Pazzini (Sampdoria) were picked. Lippi omitted his former Juventus player Nicola Legrottaglie despite the defender being included in a recent 29-man training squad. France coach Raymond Domenech left out young Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema in his 30-man selection, while the omission of veteran midfielder Patrick Vieira means Thierry Henry is the only survivor from the 1998 World Cup-winning squad. Arsenal midfielder Samir Nasri also missed out, but four of his clubmates in England -- Gael Clichy, William Gallas, Abou Diaby and Bacary Sagna -- were included. However, defender Gallas has been warned by Domenech that he must prove his fitness, having been sidelined since March with a leg injury. Veteran Netherlands striker Ruud Van Nistelrooy has missed out on a place in coach Bert van Marwijk's 30-man, potentially signaling the end of the 33-year-old's international career. Van Nistelrooy left Real Madrid to join German club Hamburg to revive his hopes following a serious knee injury, but Van Marwijk said the player had not returned to a high enough level to be selected. "I told him that we have followed him closely and admire his commitment and dedication to get to the World Cup," Van Marwijk told AD Sportwereld. "I believe that Ruud is fit, but after his lengthy knee injury he does not have time to get back to his old level." Dutch champions Twente have only two players in the squad, which features 14 overseas-based names. Feyenoord defender Giovanni van Bronckhorst, 35, has announced he will retire after the month-long tournament. Portugal coach Carlos Queiroz named a 24-man squad due to doubts over a couple of players including Real Madrid defender Pepe, who has only just returned to training after being sidelined since December. Goalkeepers Beto and Daniel Fernandes were named as deputies to Braga's Eduardo despite not playing in any of the qualifiers, but there were no other surprises for the 2006 semifinalists, who will be led by Real superstar Cristiano Ronaldo. Spain coach Vicente del Bosque is giving injured stars Andreas Iniesta, Fernando Torres and Cesc Fabregas every chance to be fit, naming the key trio in a 30-man squad including five goalkeepers. Uncapped Barcelona No. 1 Victor Valdes and Atletico Madrid's 19-year-old David De Gea were selected along with Real Madrid's Iker Casillas, Liverpool's Jose Reina and Diego Lopez of Villarreal. Barcelona winger Pedro Rodriguez, Osasuna defender Cesar Azpilicueta and Athletic Bilbao midfielder Javi Martinez were named despite having won only under-21 caps. Barca 19-year-old Bojan Krkic, who missed Spain's Euro 2008 success at his own request due to fatigue, has again been omitted. Slovakia defender Martin Skrtel, Filip Holosko and fellow striker Robert Vittek were named in a 29-man squad by coach Vladimir Weiss despite their recent injury problems. Liverpool's Skrtel has not played for three months since breaking a bone in his foot, while Holosko is struggling to get over a broken leg suffered last year and Vittek -- who is also based in Turkey -- has had a knee problem. Weiss also selected his 20-year-old son and namesake Vladimir of English club Manchester City, who as loaned to Bolton this season. Serbia coach Radomir Antic named just five home-based players in his 30-man squad, with six from English Premier League clubs including key defender Nemanja Vidic of Manchester United. Slovenia boss Matjaz Kek kept faith with the players who helped the small East European nation qualify for the second time when he named his 30-man squad. Denmark coach Morten Olsen picked Thomas Sorensen in his 26-man squad despite the goalkeeper suffered a dislocated elbow on duty with English club Stoke last month. Olsen, who won more than 100 caps as a player and took Denmark to the 2002 World Cup, gave defender Patrick Mtiliga his first call-up since his debut in November 2008. Greece coach Otto Rehhagel has picked Christos Patsatzoglou and Giorgos Seitaridis despite the duo's struggles with injuries this season. The German selected nine overseas-based players including qualifying campaign top scorer Theofanis Gekas of Hertha Berlin, Celtic striker Georgios Samaras and Liverpool defender Sotiris Kyrgiakos. Switzerland coach Ottmar Hitzfeld named an experienced 23-man squad for the finals, with seven players in reserve. The German has stuck with the likes of Blaise Nkufo of Dutch champions Twente, fellow striker Alexander Frei and midfielder Hakin Yakin, who are all 30 and above. Defender Philippe Senderos was included despite his lack of action with English club Arsenal, while Sampdoria midfielder Marco Padalino and Kosovo-born Swiss under-21 international Xherdan Shaqiri were also included.

England coach Fabio Capello brings Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher out of retirement . Italian names 30-man provisional World Cup squad featuring several injured players . Italy coach Marcelo Lippi omits veterans Francesco Totti, Luca Toni and Alessandro Del Piero . Spain name injured stars Andreas Iniesta, Fernando Torres and Cesc Fabregas .

Washington (CNN) -- Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan has cooperated properly with congressional investigators looking into the prostitution scandal in Colombia last month before President Barack Obama's visit, influential House members said Wednesday. Rep. Peter King, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said Sullivan provided answers to 50 questions from his panel about the controversy in Cartagena that embarrassed the nearly 150-year-old agency and raised concerns of a possible security breach. "I got the answers back last night, and I would say the answers were very detailed," King said on CNN's "Starting Point with Soledad O'Brien." In addition, King said, Sullivan notified the Homeland Security Department's inspector general when the scandal became public in mid-April, "which showed that he wanted a real investigation." Also Wednesday, the House Oversight Committee's leading members said Sullivan provided a "detailed response" to their separate list of questions about the incident. "Director Sullivan's cooperation with our oversight efforts underscores his commitment to understand the extent of the problem and ensure that this unacceptable conduct does not occur again," said a statement by the panel's chairman, Darrel Issa, R-California, and ranking Democrat, Elijah Cummings of Maryland. Even Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, a frequent critic of government resistance to congressional oversight, praised Sullivan's response to his request for details of any possible involvement of White House advance team staff in the scandal. Grassley is demanding that the White House turn over all details of an internal review that found no wrongdoing by advance staff members, and he renewed his call Wednesday after receiving Sullivan's response that the Secret Service inquiry didn't involve White House records. "Since the Secret Service did not request the records of the White House personnel, an open and transparent response from the president's counsel is even more imperative," Grassley said in a statement. "Unfortunately, more than a week after my inquiry, I've yet to hear from anybody at the White House. I appreciate the Secret Service's transparency in response to Congress, even with sensitive information." King said Tuesday night that Sullivan's answers to his committee's questions disclosed that three of the 12 Secret Service agents involved in the scandal had refused to cooperate with authorities and submit to a polygraph test. The three agents were among the first forced out of the service when news of the scandal in Cartagena broke, King said. The nine remaining agents took polygraph tests, and although none of them failed, some responses led to the loss of several jobs, he added. On Wednesday morning, King said that no security breach occurred from the Secret Service agents consorting with foreign prostitutes in their hotel rooms shortly before Obama's arrival in Cartagena for last month's Summit of the Americas. "We know that it appears that no material was obtained by any of the prostitutes. Nothing is missing. All the BlackBerrys are accounted for. There was no president's schedule available," King said. "It does not appear that any of the 12 women had any involvement other than prostitution," King added. "They were not working for any narco-terrorist organization, and I think in a way the Secret Service has ducked a bullet." Still, King said, the incident "goes against all the principles of the Secret Service." "Because it was disclosed and there was no long-term security matter here, it gives the Secret Service the opportunity to clear up what has happened, do all it can to make sure it never happens again or at least minimizes it to make it very, very difficult for it to ever happen again," he said. While King did not provide CNN copies of the responses -- which he said are marked "law enforcement sensitive" -- he highlighted several details Tuesday night. Among other things, one agent said in the polygraph test that he was "actively engaged" with one of the prostitutes when she wanted to get paid, King said. In response, the agent threw her out of his room. The agent told U.S. officials he didn't realize the woman was a prostitute, and he has not been fired. U.S. officials have interviewed 10 of the 12 women involved in the scandal, King noted. The Secret Service and Colombian authorities are trying to track down the remaining two. King said there weren't many surprises in the responses to his questionnaire. "Sullivan was giving us good information all along," he said. The top legislators on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee said Tuesday that they've also sent a letter to Sullivan asking for information on the incident. A total of nine agents have resigned or are in the process of being forced out, while three other Secret Service agents were cleared of serious misconduct. A source familiar with the investigation told CNN on Wednesday that money changed hands between nine Secret Service members and nine prostitutes. The military is investigating the alleged involvement of 12 of its service members. Issa and Cummings also have asked Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to provide details of the military investigation by May 8. Two other congressional committees are looking into the scandal, as well as the Homeland Security inspector general, while the Secret Service and the White House have conducted internal reviews. On Monday, Homeland Security acting Inspector General Charles Edwards announced his investigation of the incident, saying the "field work is beginning immediately." The Senate Judiciary Committee questioned Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano about the controversy at a hearing last week. On Tuesday, Sen. Joe Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut who chairs the Senate Homeland Security Committee, and ranking Republican Sen. Susan Collins said they sent Sullivan a letter Monday that also sought answers about what happened. "We wish to determine whether those events were indicative of a pattern of behavior by agents or officers of the Secret Service and need to be addressed systemically or if they instead constituted an isolated incident warranting action only with respect to the individuals involved," said the letter from Lieberman and Collins. The U.S. Southern Command expects to finish questioning the 12 military personnel implicated in possible wrongdoing this week before forwarding its findings to military lawyers for review and then to Gen. Douglas Fraser, commanding general of the U.S. Southern Command, a Defense Department official said Monday. Last week, the Secret Service distributed new rules for its agents on assignment intended to prevent a repeat of such alleged misconduct, according to two government sources familiar with the resulting investigation. Enhanced Standards of Conduct, the new guidelines given to all Secret Service personnel, make clear that standards of behavior required in the United States apply on missions abroad, the sources said. Effective immediately, the new standards require detailed briefings before each trip that will include safety precautions and any necessary designations of establishments and areas that are "off-limits" for Secret Service personnel, the sources said. Also in the new standards, foreigners are banned from Secret Service hotel rooms at all times, except for hotel staff and host nation law enforcement and government officials on official business, according to the officials, and all Secret Service personnel are prohibited from going to a "nonreputable establishment." The new standards specify that U.S. laws apply to Secret Service personnel when traveling, rendering invalid the excuse that specific activity is legal in the foreign country, the officials said. In addition, the new guidelines allow moderate alcohol consumption when off duty but prohibit alcohol consumption within 10 hours of reporting for duty or at any time when at the hotel where the protected official is staying, the officials explained. An additional supervisor from the Office of Professional Responsibility will now accompany the "jump teams" that bring vehicles for motorcades and other transportation, the officials said. Agents involved in the Colombia incident were part of such a jump team. Allegations of further transgressions by agents have emerged after the initial reports of heavy drinking and consorting with prostitutes last month before Obama arrived in Cartagena. Recent claims include an account from El Salvador described by CNN Seattle affiliate KIRO as very similar to the Colombia scandal, involving members of the Secret Service and other government agencies. However, Panetta said last week that his department is not investigating any of its troops over the reported incident in El Salvador, while State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland said Embassy staff in El Salvador were being questioned about the allegations. The Drug Enforcement Administration also is prepared to look into, "in an appropriate manner and immediately," allegations that it deems "credible" regarding its agents in El Salvador, spokesman Rusty Payne said. But he added that, while the DEA had seen news reports, "we are unaware of any allegations of misconduct." CNN's Tom Cohen, Dana Bash, Richard Allen Greene, Carol Cratty, Ed Payne, Ted Barrett and John King contributed to this report.

Grassley renews his call for the White House to release full records . Rep. Peter King says no security breach occurred . Twenty-four people are linked to the prostitution scandal . The incident happened before a presidential trip to the Summit of the Americas in Colombia .

(CNN) -- French peacekeepers in war-torn Ivory Coast were in control of the airport in the main city of Abidjan, the French Ministry of Defense said Sunday, as a battle for the city seemed to be looming. An additional 350 French troops joined the United Nations peacekeeping mission overnight, the ministry added. There were about 7,500 troops already in the country under the U.N. mandate. United Nations helicopters and French forces patrolled the skies over the city, as a tense calm reigned Sunday morning, a local resident told CNN. The uneasy peace came in the wake of claims of a massacre as fighters backing internationally recognized President Alassane Ouattara battle forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo, who refuses to leave office. Foreign journalists reported being targeted and scrutinized. A group of journalists from the French TV channel France 2 were fired on by Gbagbo's forces when they tried to leave the Novotel hotel in Abidjan, according to the channel and two journalists who, to protect their security, did not want their names used. Since then, Gbagbo forces have been patrolling the hotel premises, preventing foreign journalists staying there from leaving, the sources said. One resident, whom CNN is not naming to protect his safety, said he had been to church as usual, where another parishioner said he had seen dead bodies by the road on his way to the congregation. A journalist in the city said many people were afraid to leave their homes, but were being forced to venture out to get water. Seyi Rhodes, who is staying at a hotel in Abidjan, said people were risking being shot in order to get to a water pump near the hotel. He saw French journalists come under fire, as they drove through the city, he said. Much of the city has no electricity, he added, calling it "a really crude tactic to get people out on the streets." The United Nations moved about 200 personnel within the country for their own safety, as the situation got worse, spokesman Nick Birnback said Sunday. "Peacekeepers and staff have been attacked over the last few days, we've taken some casualties, and we are doing everything we can do to guarantee security as best as possible. The situation is deteriorating and is getting worse," he said. CNN iReport: Displaced victims of fighting in Duekoue, Ivory Coast U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton demanded Sunday that Gbagbo step aside immediately. "Gbagbo is pushing Cote d'Ivoire into lawlessness," she said, using the French name for the country. "He must leave now so the conflict may end." She also called "on the forces of President Ouattara to respect the rules of war and stop attacks on civilians." British Foreign Secretary William Hague on Sunday said Britain renewed "our call for Gbagbo to get out, which would stop this violence," and raised the possibility of International Criminal Court prosecutions stemming from the conflict. French President Nicolas Sarkozy met with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and requested the full implementation of a Security Council resolution, adopted last week, that calls on Gbagbo to step aside immediately, Sarkozy's office said. A French plane evacuated about 170 foreigners from Abidjan to Dakar, Senegal, according to Col. Thierry Burkhard of the French Ministry of Defense. The International Crisis Group called for an immediate cease-fire on both sides and more international intervention, calling the situation in Ivory Coast as "urgent as any facing the international community right now. The unthinkable is unfolding before our eyes." A key aide to Gbagbo on Sunday criticized the foreign forces in the country as an "army of occupation" and said they are not authorized to occupy the airport. "The U.S. and France are not entitled to determine, to decide on who is able to conduct the destiny of Ivory Coast," Toussaint Alain told Reuters in Paris. "The U.S. and France have only contributed toward worsening the tensions since the end of the second round of the presidential election -- two leading powers who are behaving without responsibility in Ivory Coast." Alain said the U.N. mandate does not authorize the French forces to be in control of the Abidjan airport. The resolution does, however, allow the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Ivory Coast to use "all necessary means" to protect civilians who are under "imminent threat of physical violence" -- and it calls upon member nations to enable the peacekeepers, and the French forces who support them to carry out that mission. The International Committee of the Red Cross said Friday that 800 people had been shot to death in the western cocoa-producing town of Duekoue. A United Nations official put the death toll so far at 330 on Friday. The massacre occurred between Monday and Wednesday as Ouattara's Republican Forces led an offensive through the country to Abidjan, said Guillaume Ngefa, the deputy human rights director at the U.N. mission in Ivory Coast. He blamed 220 deaths on forces loyal to Ouattara. Ngefa said pro-Gbagbo forces killed 100 people. "We have evidence, we have pictures. This was retaliation," he said, referring to Ouattara's forces. The Ouattara camp said it "firmly rejects such accusations and denies any involvement by the Republican Forces of Cote d'Ivoire in possible abuses." "The government wishes to establish that the situation is quite the opposite," it said. "Forces loyal to former President Laurent Gbagbo and its affiliated mercenaries and militias that have engaged in countless atrocities in western Cote d'Ivoire during their flight before the advance of Republican Forces of Cote d'Ivoire." Ouattara denied to U.N. secretary-general that his forces were responsible, but said he had launched an investigation and that he would welcome an international inquiry, according to the world body. Ngefa said so far, 320 bodies have been identified and the actual number could be much higher. He said the dead included civilians as well as mercenaries. Before the Duekoue killings, human rights monitors documented 462 deaths in the Ivory Coast conflict, which would make the Duekoue massacre the single bloodiest incident yet. The International Committee of the Red Cross sent a team to Duekoue on Thursday and found most of the victims were civilians, said spokesman Kelnor Panglungtshang in Abidjan. "They saw the bodies on the streets," he told CNN. "There were so many." Ngefa said a contingent of U.N. peacekeepers is stationed in Duekoue and is patrolling the town. The massacre illustrated the bloody nature of Ivory Coast's conflict, now in its fifth month. The violence erupted after a disputed November election led both Gbagbo and Ouattara to claim the presidency. The international community recognized Ouattara as the legitimate winner, but Gbagbo refused to cede power, and violence engulfed the nation, escalating this week with a major offensive launched by Ouattara's forces. A spokesman for Ouattara said Saturday the other side has committed atrocities, is losing its top generals to defections and is looking for "cannon fodder" for its last stand. The claims by Ouattara spokesman Patrick Achi could not be independently verified by CNN. Fierce fighting has erupted for control of Abidjan, Ivory Coast's largest city. Gbagbo's forces were thought to be on the brink of defeat but regained key areas Saturday. They said they retook control of Ivory Coast's all-powerful state-run television network that has been the embattled president's voice in his standoff with Ouattara. Ouattara's side denied Gbagbo was in control of state television, claiming he was actually broadcasting from a satellite truck. Gbagbo's whereabouts were unknown. He has not recently appeared in public, and the French ambassador said his residence was empty. The violence has also displaced one million of Abidjan's four million people. CNN's Aliza Kassim, Niki Cook, David Wilkinson, Claudia Dominguez, Carey Bodenheimer, Elise Labott, Karen Smith and Moni Basu contributed to this report .

The United Nations relocates staff after attacks, saying the situation is getting worse . People in Abidjan are forced to go out for water despite the danger, a journalist says . U.S. Secretary of State Clinton demands that Laurent Gbagbo step down immediately . Gbagbo and Alassane Ouattara are fighting for control of the cocoa-producing country .

(CNN) -- Did waterboarding and other coercive interrogation techniques that were used on al Qaeda detainees in CIA custody eventually lead to the Navy SEAL operation that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan early in the morning of May 2, 2011? The Senate Intelligence Committee report released Tuesday has a simple answer to that: Hell, no! According to the Senate report, the critical pieces of information that led to discovering the identity of the bin Laden courier, Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, (Ahmed the Kuwaiti) whose activities eventually pointed the CIA to bin Laden's hiding place in Pakistan, were provided by an al-Qaeda detainee before he was subjected to CIA coercive interrogation, and was based also upon information that was provided by detainees that were held in the custody of foreign governments. (The report is silent on the interesting question of whether any of these unnamed foreign governments obtained any of their information by using torture.) Further critical information about the Kuwaiti was also provided by conventional intelligence techniques and was not elicited by the interrogations of any of the CIA detainees, according to the report. Even worse for the CIA -- which has consistently defended the supposed utility of the interrogation program, including in the hunt for bin Laden -- a number of CIA prisoners who were subjected to coercive interrogations consistently provided misleading information designed to wave away CIA interrogators from the bin Laden courier who would eventually prove to be the key to finding al Qaeda's leader. The Senate report provides the fullest accounting so far of the exact sequence of intelligence breaks that led the CIA to determine that the courier, the Kuwaiti, was likely to be living with bin Laden in Pakistan. This reads more like a careful Agatha Christie detective story than a story about the efficacy of coercive interrogations, which some have characterized as torture. The report points out that the courier was in touch with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the operational commander of the 9/11 attacks, and that it was SIGINT (signals intelligence) from phones and email traffic that made this link first in 2002, well before any CIA detainees made such a connection. Indeed, in a fascinating footnote, the report makes the case that it was "voice cuts" of the courier that were first collected in 2002 that were matched eight years later to the Kuwaiti and were "geolocated" to an area of Pakistan in 2010 where he was traveling around. This was a crucial lead that helped prompt the CIA to examine the mysterious compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where bin Laden was hiding. In 2002, reports from four different detainees held by foreign governments provided important information about the courier's age, physical appearance and family, information that was also acquired prior to any information about the courier being obtained from CIA detainees. Detainees held by foreign governments also said that the courier was close to bin Laden. It was Hassan Ghul, an al Qaeda operative captured in Iraqi Kurdistan, who provided the most detailed account of bin Laden's courier and his relationship to bin Laden in January 2004, before he entered CIA custody. According to a CIA official cited in the report, Ghul, who was in Kurdish custody, "sang like a tweetie bird. He opened up right away and was cooperative from the outset." Ghul described the courier as bin Laden's "closest assistant" and "one of three individuals likely to be with" al Qaeda's leader. And he correctly surmised that bin Laden would have minimal security and "likely lived in a house with a family somewhere in Pakistan." If there was good intelligence coming from sources that were not in CIA custody, the Senate report demonstrates that the detainees who were in CIA custody and were subjected to coercive interrogations made every effort to hide the significance of bin Laden's courier. Five of the most senior al-Qaeda detainees in CIA custody, all of whom were subjected to some of the most intensive coercive interrogation techniques, variously said that the courier worked only with low level members of al Qaeda; that he was not a courier for bin Laden; that he wasn't close to al Qaeda's leader, and that he was focused only on his family following his marriage in 2002. None of this, of course, was true. The CIA, of course, is not happy about the portrayal of its work in the Senate report, and in a rebuttal on its website on Tuesday the agency pushed back, saying that detainees "in combination with other streams of intelligence" played a role in finding bin Laden. In particular the CIA cites a detainee, Ammar al-Baluchi, who was coercively interrogated and provided what it terms the first information indicating that the Kuwaiti was indeed bin Laden's courier, rather than just someone who was an ordinary member of al Qaeda. The CIA rebuttal is not, however as persuasive as the very detailed history laid out in the Senate report, which is buttressed by copious source notes. And, in any event, were interrogations of al Qaeda detainees really the key to how bin Laden ultimately was found? After all, it still took almost a decade after the first identification of the courier to find bin Laden. Indeed, there were a number of key breaks that had little to do with the interrogations of al Qaeda detainees, which I discovered in the course of reporting my book "Manhunt." A large break, according to U.S. counterterrorism officials, came in 2007, when a foreign intelligence service that they won't identify told the CIA that the Kuwaiti's real name was Ibrahim Saeed Ahmed. It would still take three more years for the CIA to find Ibrahim Saeed Ahmed in Pakistan, a country with a population of 180 million. This involved painstaking work going through reams of phone conversations to try to locate him through his family and circle of associates. In June 2010, the Kuwaiti and his brother both made changes in the way they communicated on cell phone, which suddenly opened up the possibility of the "geolocation" of both their phones, according to U.S. counterterrorism officials. Finally, sometime in the late summer of 2010, the Kuwaiti received a call from an old friend in the Persian Gulf, a man whom U.S. intelligence officials were monitoring. "We've missed you. Where have you been?" asked the friend. The Kuwaiti responded elliptically. "I'm back with the people I was with before." There was a tense pause in the conversation as the friend mulled over that response. Likely realizing that the Kuwaiti was back in bin Laden's inner circle, the caller replied after some hesitation, "May God facilitate." The CIA took this call as a confirmation that the Kuwaiti was still working with al Qaeda, a matter that officials were still not entirely sure about. The National Security Agency was listening to this exchange and through geolocation technologies was able to zero in on the Kuwaiti's cell phone in northwestern Pakistan. But the Kuwaiti practiced rigorous operational security and was always careful to insert the battery in his phone and turn it on only when he was at least an hour's drive away from the Abbottabad compound where he and bin Laden were living. To find out where the Kuwaiti lived by monitoring his cell phone would only go so far. In August 2010, a Pakistani "asset" working for the CIA tracked the Kuwaiti to the crowded city of Peshawar, where bin Laden had founded al Qaeda more than two decades earlier. In the years when bin Laden was residing in the Abbottabad compound, the Kuwaiti would regularly transit though Peshawar, as it is the gateway to the Pakistani tribal regions where al Qaeda had regrouped in the years after 9/11. Once the CIA asset had identified the Kuwaiti's distinctive white Suzuki SUV with a spare tire on its back in Peshawar, the CIA was able to follow him as he drove home to Abbottabad, more than two hours' drive to the east. The large compound where the Kuwaiti finally alighted immediately drew interest at the agency because it didn't have phone or Internet service, which implied its owners wanted to stay off the grid. Soon, some CIA officials would come to believe that bin Laden himself was living there. They were, of course, right.

Did coercive interrogation yield evidence pointing to bin Laden? Peter Bergen says the Senate torture report finds that other forms of investigation were key . Coercive interrogation actually yielded incorrect information, the report says .

(CNN) -- The deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi underscores the gaping power vacuum across Libya since the toppling of Moammar Gadhafi's regime last year. Fighting groups that battled Gadhafi have stepped in to maintain law and order after the fall of the regime, an expert on post-Gadhafi Libya told CNN. Most of the groups are simply neighborhood watch entities. But some include hard-line Muslim Salafis and have "a very Islamist orientation," said Frederic Wehrey, a senior associate in the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The group accused of being behind the consulate assault, the Imprisoned Omar Abdul Rahman Brigades, is said to be pro-al Qaeda. Ex-SEALs, online gaming maven among Benghazi dead . "The problem is that the Libyan army and the Libya police forces effectively disintegrated," Wehrey said. "These groups are basically running the show" throughout much of Libya. Another analyst, Andrew Lebovich, a Washington-based researcher focused on security issues in North Africa and the Sahel, said the militias, criminal groups, and hard-line Islamist groups in Libya make up a "somewhat diffuse" environment. "Some groups, such as the Ansar al-Sharia Brigades in Benghazi and Derna and the Imprisoned Omar Abdel Rahman Brigades have been involved in increasing shows of force and outright attacks against Western and other targets in Libya in recent months," he said. Wehrey, in speaking to CNN, cited two of his recent essays about security in Libya. One was in Foreign Affairs in July and the other appeared Wednesday on the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace website. He said the fledgling government is in a bind. Officials are trying to demobilize and reintegrate the militias and bring these groups into the government security forces, he said. But the militia members across Libya remain loyal to their groups and distrust the new government's authority, in part because of the "taint" of a link to the Gadhafi regime, Wehrey said. The government has used militia commanders to quell tribal fighting, subcontracted border control and defense of oil installations to small brigades, and used armed groups to provide security during elections. In Benghazi, he said, ballots for an election were stored and counted at the headquarters of the city's strongest militia. Six things to know about the attack . "The strategy of trying to dismantle the regional militias while simultaneously making use of them as hired guns might be sowing the seeds for the country's descent into warlordism," he warned. "It has also given local brigades and their political patrons leverage over the central government. Emboldened by the writ of state authority, brigade commanders have been free to carry out vendettas against rival towns and tribes, particularly those favored by ... Gadhafi," Wehrey said. Violence between warring militias and attacks against Western and moderate Sufi Muslim targets erupted in recent months, Wehrey said. In Benghazi, there was a "rapid deterioration" of security before the U.S. Consulate attack. Pro-al Qaeda group seen behind deadly Benghazi attack . A strike on a British consulate vehicle in Benghazi in June wounded a diplomat. The International Committee of the Red Cross said its workers endured attacks at least five times in less than three month in Benghazi and Misrata. The group announced the suspension of its activities in August. The Imprisoned Omar Abdul Rahman Brigades, in fact, first surfaced in May when it claimed responsibility for an attack on the ICRC office in Benghazi. The next month it claimed responsibility for detonating a blast outside the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. It also released a video of the attack. Sufi mosques and tombs were among the sites targeted. Sufism is considered a more moderate form of Islam. Libyan Interior Minister Fawzi Abdel A'al was quoted by Human Rights Watch as calling the attackers "groups that have a strict Islamic ideology where they believe that graves and shrines must be desecrated." That comment, Human Rights Watch said, refers to Salafists, the name for those Muslims who want a "return to Islam as they believe it was practiced in the days of the Prophet Mohammed." Salafists have increasingly asserted themselves in eastern Libya. In June, hundreds of fighters wielding AK-47s and black Islamist banners converged on Benghazi to call for the imposition of sharia law. This spring, an associate of al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri addressed a large gathering in the town square of Derna, in eastern Libya. An online video of his address has been seen by CNN. "Salafi militias have reportedly carried out assassinations of Gadhafi-era officials, taken over radio stations and shut down beauty parlors," Wehrey said. Derna has for years been a recruiting ground for al Qaeda. A 2008 diplomatic cable from Christopher Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya who was slain in the consulate attack, described the area as "a wellspring of Libyan foreign fighters" for al Qaeda in Iraq. In some cases, Wehrey said, the revolutionary brigades have become "very sophisticated." They have checkpoints, security headquarters, ID cards, and their own payroll. Some militia coalitions have made handshake deals to police areas. Yemen police, demonstrators hurt in U.S. Embassy . "These are militias that operate openly," and operate blogs and Facebook pages. With that Salafi foothold in eastern Libya, Wehrey said, it wouldn't be hard for armed militia members to "converge on a target" in Benghazi with an hour's notice. Was al Qaeda involved? Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the al Qaeda branch that operates in Africa, would have connections in the country's far south, if it indeed has any network in Libya, Wehrey said. And Lebovich said he's seen no evidence of "overt" al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb involvement in Libyan violence, despite reports of arrests, smuggling and weapons purchases linked to the group. As for other militia groups, he said, "There is little public evidence linking their actions to al Qaeda, even if some of these groups' leaders have extensive militant pasts and ties with the group." "However," he added, "we know very little about the exact compositions of Libya's hard-line militias beyond the top public leadership, making it impossible to say definitively whether or not links or relationships with other jihadist organizations like al Qaeda, or members of these organizations, are playing a role in militia-led violence in Libya." Regarding the consulate attack, Wehrey said he thinks the strike "was a much more local affair" than one that involved al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. He called it "the latest in a series of attacks by the country's increasingly active Salafis." "Libyans' public reaction to such strong-arm tactics has been vociferous and damning," Wehrey said. "Tribes, women's groups, and civil society -- as well as the country's increasingly active social media community -- have all mobilized to condemn the recent attacks on Sufis, while mounting demonstrations of their own against the Salafis' shows of force." Wehrey said that "much of the violence suggests a movement in search of a cause." Salafis "are now grasping at foreign causes they believe will excite Libyans' emotions," such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Syria, and anti-Americanism, he said. Meanwhile, the country's provisional government has had to deputize revolutionary brigades for security work. "Invariably, these poorly trained bodies contain a number of Salafi militias who have used their warrant from the government to enforce draconian social mores, conduct vendettas against Gadhafi-era intelligence officers, and attack Sufis," Wehrey said. Citizens have voiced outrage over Salafi shows of force and have mobilized against their "strong-arm tactics against, for example, the Sufis." "For the citizens of Tripoli, Benghazi and other cities, all this is a stark and tragic reminder of the perennial problems of poor governance and the security vacuum," Wehrey said. Protests near U.S. Embassy in Cairo .

Sufi shrines and Western entities have been targeted in Libya . Militia groups are trying to maintain law and order . The government uses militants "as hired guns," emboldening them, an analyst says .

(CNN) -- Sensible immigration reform will strengthen American society and economy. But it must also respect the rights of U.S. citizens and those aspiring to join them. Buried in the comprehensive immigration reform legislation before the Senate are obscure provisions that impose on Americans expansive national identification systems, tied to electronic verification schemes. Under the guise of "reform," these trample fundamental rights and freedoms. Requirements in Senate Bill 744 for mandatory worker IDs and electronic verification remove the right of citizens to take employment and "give" it back as a privilege only when proper proof is presented and the government agrees. Such systems are inimical to a free society and are costly to the economy and treasury. Any citizen wanting to take a job would face the regulation that his or her digitized high-resolution passport or driver's license photo be collected and stored centrally in a Department of Homeland Security Citizenship and Immigration Services database. The pictures in the national database would then need to be matched against the job applicant's government-issued "enhanced" ID card, using a Homeland Security-mandated facial-recognition "photo tool." Only when those systems worked perfectly could the new hire take the job. Immigrant employees would probably have to get biometric (based on body measurements like fingerprint scans and digital images) worker ID cards. Social Security cards may soon become biometric as well. Any citizen or immigrant whose digital image in the Homeland Security databank did not match the one embedded in their government-issued ID would be without a job and benefits. Yet, citizens have a constitutional right to take employment. Since the Butchers Union Co. decision in 1884, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that "the right to follow any of the common occupations of life is an inalienable right ... under the phrase 'pursuit of happiness.' " This right is a large ingredient in the civil liberties of each citizen. The digital ID requirements in S. 744 eliminate that fundamental right to take employment and transform it into a privilege. This constitutional guarantee could in effect be taken away by bureaucratic rules or deleted by a database mistake. As philosopher John Locke, whose phrase "consent of the governed" animates the Declaration of Independence, once said, everybody "has a property in his own person." Who is a citizen is today determined by his or her American personhood. Under S. 744, that would no longer be true. Instead, the determination of whether someone has a right to take a job would be made by two computer files: one in a Department of Homeland Security database and the other on a government-issued ID card. Identity and IDs become "property of the U.S. government." Moreover, S. 744 undermines constitutional federalism by resurrecting ID provisions that most states have rejected. Not only does S. 744 mandate "E-Verify" as a national electronic verification system for employment for the 33 states that have not joined it (Illinois actually outlawed its use), the bill also revives the moribund "Real ID" requirement for sharing of driver's license photos among the states and federal government, which 25 states opposed by law or resolution. Only 13 states joined as of last year. In short, S. 744 gets around states' repeated rejections of national identification systems by lumping E-Verify and Real ID into overly comprehensive national identification (rather than immigration) "reform." S. 744's provisions also mandate collection of the details about almost every American, an enumeration task the Constitution authorizes only to the census every 10 years, and then only under a 72-year guarantee of confidentiality. Moreover, though the search for religious freedom created this country and begins the Bill of Rights, S. 744 removes the religious accommodations that 20 states offer in the form of driver's licenses without photographs for reasons of religious faith. These follow the Supreme Court's upholding of a Nebraska woman of Christian faith's observance of the Second Commandment prohibition against images (other religions may also qualify). If mandatory digital photos and biometric IDs are forced on religious believers, many are convinced that they will face eternal condemnation. E-Verify essentially equates all Americans with "illegal immigrants." Instead of naturalization freeing legal immigrants from carrying mandatory "green cards," universal E-Verify would impose IDs on American citizens. E-Verify effectively creates a "no-work" list for the unverifiable. Uses of worker IDs will proliferate like Social Security numbers -- once intended "not for identification purposes" -- and driver's licenses -- once simply proving driving skill. Worker IDs could become "travel licenses" for "official purposes," as defined by the secretary of Homeland Security, like entering government buildings, flying (still possible now without ID) or taking public transit. These undermine the rights to petition government and to travel. Even though the bill says it does not authorize a national ID, its provisions do. Digital photos in the Homeland Security databank can be used to match anyone anywhere using facial recognition surveillance technology. Because the standards are cross-national and the U.S. exchanges information with other governments and global organizations, the digital photos will probably be shared with foreign and international intelligence and police agencies. Moreover, the recent revelations of IRS and National Security Agency excesses raise the question of universal E-Verify as the foundation for a central surveillance system of storing and tracking job, tax, communication and biometric information on individuals. This shifts too much power to the government and away from citizens. Worker ID systems will burden individuals and businesses with large expenses. Many Americans without driver's licenses will lose work time traveling to vital records offices for birth or marriage certificates or to motor vehicle agencies for state IDs to become eligible to be E-Verified. The large costs some people pay will include the inability to work because they cannot get proper documentation. A comprehensive worker ID system will cost taxpayers and businesses, big and small, billions for the time and "photo tool" equipment needed to implement such a system to E-Verify the entire labor force. Universal E-Verify might also push employers and employees toward the black market, encouraging the hiring of workers off the books. It could cost employers and employees more than $6 billion and reduce tax revenues by $17 billion a decade. As one immigration-policy expert was quoted saying in the Wall Street Journal, a biometric E-Verify system is "not only a gross violation of individual privacy, it's an enormously high-cost policy that will have an incredibly low to negligible benefit." Even sponsors of the bill have noted that biometric tracking systems are inordinately expensive and "have experienced problems in test runs." If E-Verifying costs $150 per employee, only a third (37%) of Americans say in polls that they would support using the system. The existing E-Verify is infamous for database errors that kept tens of thousands of citizens out of work and in limbo. Nationwide E-Verify could raise that number many-fold. A 1% error rate for a labor force of more than 150 million workers, with the vast majority being American citizens, leaves 1.5 million unemployed. These ID provisions divert attention and resources from effective and comprehensive policy measures to legalize more immigrants, workers and workplaces. Together, good public policy combinations can let people enter and leave by the "front door" and jointly reduce the pressures for overemphasis on border security and the excuses for invasive and unconstitutional ID and verification systems. Moreover, these complement simpler and less invasive alternatives to E-Verify, such as longstanding provisions for citizen attestation of their rights. And others can "answer questions about previous addresses or other details." These can be implemented inexpensively on forms kept at the workplace. Protecting the constitutional right to employment of a diversity of citizens helps everyone who wants to contribute to prosperity and to become American by maintaining citizenship as the bedrock of freedoms. Our citizenship must remain the gold standard, rather than a tarnished dream, for both current Americans and those seeking to enter here. Our leaders have to hear that E-Verify, digital IDs and databanks, and biometric worker cards need to be dropped fast. Increased legal immigration, reasonable legalization, fair work standards enforcement and viable guest worker options can sustain citizenship and employment rights fairly and without exorbitant costs. And we do not want biometric worker IDs or digital "Big Brother" verification schemes that trample on the basic rights of American citizens and those working to join us. The opinions expressed in this commentary are those of Richard Sobel.

Richard Sobel: Comprehensive immigration reform is a good thing for the U.S. But he says provisions in the Senate bill would impose intrusive ID systems . Many workers could be denied the right to work because of faulty systems, he says . Sobel: ID proposals are costly and endanger constitutionally protected freedoms .

Boston (CNN) -- As the seven-week-long parade that was the trial of Boston mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger passed by, jurors, courtroom spectators and the public watched and listened as former bookies, former drug dealers, extortion victims, gangsters, convicted killers, families of murder victims, and former FBI agents made their appearances. Everyone in that parade had one thing in common: their lives were forever altered by the 83-year-old man who now sat day after day after day at the defense table. In courtroom give-and-take, there was profanity, there was violence echoing in the testimony of some witnesses as they described killings in gruesome detail, there was pain etched into the court record by the words of relatives as they remembered loved ones lost to Bulger's wrath. In the end, the jury came back with a guilty verdict on 31 of 32 counts against Bulger, including involvement in 11 murders, extortion, money laundering and weapons possession. But for those who became part of the Whitey Bulger parade -- and who still walk through their days with its many impacts -- the verdict wasn't really the end. Bulger linked to 11 murders . "I said 'rat-tat-tat-tat' as Whitey was being led out of the court room, because it was reference to the comment he had ... about killing my father," Cheryl Connors said after court Monday. The jury found that Bulger was involved in killing "Eddie" Connors, a Dorchester bartender who was lured to a phone booth in 1975 and murdered with a machine gun. Bulger was the shooter, according to witness testimony. During the trial the jury heard a recorded conversation with Bulger describing the murder of Connors and imitating the sound of a machine gun. "Eddie Connors ... the guy in the phone booth ... pa-pa-pa-pa pow," Bulger said in the recorded chat with relatives. So Cheryl Connors made her own machine-gun sounds Monday. "I yelled that as he was going out, knowing that he would know what I was talking about," she said. That recorded phone conversation was one of the few moments the jury heard Bulger's voice, except for a few expletives he let loose from time to time to describe witnesses or testimony not to his liking. In the early days of the trial, it was like a meeting of old friends, Bulger listening carefully -- laughing heartily at one point -- to colorful recollections of former Boston bookie Richard O'Brien, who ran a successful bookmaking operation that he inherited from his father. Bulger guilty in killings, racketeering . But this was no remember-when reunion between two elderly men. The 84-year-old O'Brien, who lives in Florida and uses a wheel chair, described a meeting between Bulger and a man who owed him money. When the man balked at paying, Bulger replied, "We have a business besides bookmaking." "What's that?" the man asked. "Killing (expletive) like you." Bulger, who had shown little emotion up during the trial until then, threw his head back and let out a laugh. Hitman, convicted killer, and former partner John Martorano also took the stand and implicated Bulger in 13 murders. Martorano alluded to Bulger as "Judas," a term that he described as "a person like an informant, a rat, a no-good guy. I was brought up that that was the worst thing in the world." Although Bulger's lawyers tried to highlight inconsistencies in Martorano's testimony, he didn't waiver, declaring he hadn't lied to prosecutors since cutting a deal that guaranteed his testimony in exchange for a 14-year sentence. Martorano admitted to over 20 murders and served just 12 years on good behavior before becoming a free man in 2007. Prosecutors revealed a 700-page file that showed Bulger was on the FBI books as an informant for nearly 20 years, at the same time he was committing acts of murder, extortion, and money-laundering. In a trial that exposed deep-seated corruption in the FBI and government during Bulger's heyday, jurors heard from a disgraced FBI supervisor who admitted to tipping off Bulger's rogue informant handler that one of Bulger's associates had turned and had become an informant. Disgraced John Morris apologized in court to the family of Michael Donahue, one of the victims determined by the jury to have died when he was caught in the crossfire of an attempted hit on another man. Morris said he was sorry for leaking sensitive information that eventually made its way to the reputed South Boston crime boss and cost Donahue his life. "I don't ask for your forgiveness, but I do want to express my sincere apology for things I may have done and things I didn't do," Morris said to the Donahue family. Michael Donahue's three sons and widow, Patricia, sat front row in the reserved section in the Boston courtroom. Bulger uttered under his breath "You're a f---ing liar," as Morris, who admitted to accepting thousands of dollars in payoffs, testified that there was "no question" the Irish gangster doubled as an informant for FBI in Boston. That was not the only time expletives flew in federal court. Bulger's former mob enforcer, Kevin Weeks, described as a "surrogate son," to Bulger, said in court "We killed people that were rats, and I had the two biggest rats right next to me ..." At that, Bulger turned and hissed, "You suck." "F--- you, OK," snapped Weeks from the witness stand. "F--- you, too," shouted Bulger from his chair at the defense table as the jury watched and listened. "What do you want to do?" said Weeks, his eyes locked on Bulger, who was flushed and staring right back. Weeks testified he was there the night Edward "Brian" Halloran was killed. He placed the murder weapon squarely in Bulger's hands. "Bulger just kept shooting," said Weeks describing Halloran's writhing, bullet-ridden body as "bouncing off the ground." Bulger was convicted in connection with Halloran's death. Prosecutors offered up extortion victim after extortion victim to show Bulger conspired to collect "rent" from operating criminals in South Boston. William Lindholm barely survived a life-or-death Russian-roulette-style drama after Bulger tried to extort $1 million. According to Lindholm, Bulger ordered one of his associates to shoot past Lindholm's head with a gun equipped with a silencer -- proving the gun worked -- before ordering his associate to reload the weapon with a single bullet. "A bullet was put in the chamber, it was spun and pointed at my head," said Lindholm. "The trigger was pulled and it didn't go off." Prosecutors wrapped up 30 days of testimony by placing 30 guns and nearly $822,000 in cash on a table -- items seized from Bulger's Santa Monica, California, apartment when he was arrested in 2011 after spending 16 years as a fugitive. Bulger's defense wrapped its case with witnesses in five days, calling former FBI agents whotestified to the corrupt nature of Boston FBI in the '70s and '80s. The defense put 20 photos on the public docket unveiling Bulger's softer side, leading people to speculate that the gangster might testify. In the end, he did not. "My thing is...I didn't get a fair trial. This is a sham. Do what ya's want with me," the defendant told the judge before the case went to the jury. His voice shaking, Bulger insisted he had a deal with the late Jeremiah O'Sullivan, head of the Justice Department's New England Organized Crime Strike Force who later became U.S. attorney in Boston during the height of Bulger's alleged gangland reign. "In return, he promised to give me immunity. As far as I'm concerned I didn't get a fair trial," Bulger said. CNN's Kristina Sgueglia and Deborah Feyerick reported from Boston, and Monte Plott wrote from Atlanta.

The trial was a parade of witnesses, characters, victims . Memories were relived, murders were recalled . In the end, the jury believed the stream of testimony, evidence against Bulger . In the end, Bulger's assessment: "This is a sham. Do what ya's want with me"

London (CNN) -- Why did Lee Rigby have to die? That's what people around Britain -- its officials, its authorities, its citizens -- asked themselves Thursday, a day after the soldier was hit with a car, then hacked to death on a London street in broad daylight. There's been no indication that the 25-year-old machine gunner, drummer and father of a 2-year-old boy knew the men who attacked him with meat cleavers. One of them who approached a man filming the gory scene in southeast London's Woolwich neighborhood suggested Rigby had been targeted only "because Muslims are dying daily" at the hands of British troops like him. Soldier slain in London was a machine gunner, Royal Palaces drummer, father . That man and another who suffered gunshot wounds in a confrontation with police minutes after Rigby's killing spent Thursday in stable condition at separate South London hospitals. Even with those two suspected attackers under guard, authorities pressed for answers -- and to determine if others might have been somehow involved and, if so, why. Six residences have been searched, and two people -- a man and a woman, both of them age 29 -- were arrested Thursday on "suspicion of conspiracy to murder," London's Metropolitan Police said. "This is a large, complex and fast-moving investigation which continues to develop," added police. The attack, which Prime Minister David Cameron and others called an act of terror, stirred anxiety and alerts in Britain not seen since the summer of 2005, when coordinated bomb attacks struck London's public transport network. An additional 1,200 police are now on London's streets to reassure the public, Assistant Commissioner for Specialist Crime and Operations Mark Rowley said, with extra patrols at key locations such as religious institutions and transport hubs. Steps were also taken to further protect military installations and personnel, he added. Abu Barra blamed Wednesday's attack not on his friend Michael Adebolajo -- who he says is the bloody, cleaver-wielding man shown talking in the video aired by CNN affiliate ITN -- but on the British government and predicted there may be more attacks. "As long as (British) foreign policy is engaging in violence, they're only inviting violence in retaliation," Barra told CNN. By sharp contrast, Cameron said "the fault lies solely with sickening individuals who carried out this attack," adding that "nothing in Islam ... justifies this truly dreadful act." "This was not just an attack on Britain and on the British way of life; it was also a betrayal of Islam and of the Muslim communities who give so much to our country." London attack: Terrorists targeting soldiers at home again? Suspect knew British Muslim radical leader . It is understood that the two individuals suspected of carrying out the knife attack were known to Britain's domestic security service. They had featured in previous investigations into other individuals, but were not themselves under surveillance. Friends, acquaintances and British media identified the 28-year-old Adebolajo as the suspect seen on the ITN video. The identities of the other man, 22, and the two people arrested Thursday aren't known. A British national of Nigerian descent, Adebolajo converted to Islam and became passionate about his faith, said Barra. British Muslim radical leader Anjem Choudary told CNN on Thursday that he knew Adebolajo, noting that the suspect attended demonstrations and a few lectures organized by Choudary's group Al-Muhajiroun. In fact, an ITN video from April 2007 shows Adebolajo standing behind Choudary at a rally protesting the arrest of men who allegedly made inflammatory speeches inside a mosque. Barra described his friend as a "very caring" man who "just wanted to help everybody." He was also "very vocal" about his feelings that Muslims were being oppressed, injustices he pinned, in part, on the British government. "I wasn't surprised that it happened," Barra said of Wednesday's attack. "... Britain is only responsible, the government. And I believe all of us, as a public, we are responsible. We should condemn ourselves, why we did not do enough to stop these wars going on in Iraq and Afghanistan." The Woolwich bloodshed spurred concerns not only about violence by Islamic extremists but also about attacks targeting Muslims by people angry about Rigby's killing. "People can only take so much. And people will break," said Victor Easdown, a construction worker who heard shots ring out in Woolwich as police took on Rigby's attackers. London attack mirrors plot to behead Muslim soldier . In Kent, police arrested a man on suspicion of "racially aggravated criminal damage" at a religious building. And Wednesday night in Essex, a man with two knives was arrested after throwing a smoke grenade at the Al Falah Braintree Islamic Center and demanding someone come outside to answer to the Woolwich slaying, the mosque's secretary Sikander Sleemy said. Members of the far-right English Defence League clashed with police late Wednesday, with a tweet from its official account touting that "it's fair to say that finally the country is waking up!:-) NO SURRENDER!" "Don't listen to the Government cover ups, The lies about Islam being peaceful," read another EDL tweet Thursday. Political and social commentator Mohammed Ansar appealed for "a sense of calm (and) perspective" after what he called "a really, really heinous act of, I would say, criminality, ... not terrorism." "What we don't need are knee-jerk reactions ... to really ratchet up tensions and really stoke and inflame anxieties within communities," he told CNN. Watch: Terrorism analyst on soldier killing . Paper: Woman says she talked to attacker . The attack may have wide-ranging repercussions in Britain, including possibly enflaming sectarian tensions and leading to more violence. But it's already have an impact on people who live and work in Woolwich -- the working-class, multicultural neighborhood where the mutilation took place -- and witnessed the carnage firsthand. A man who identified himself as James told London's LBC 97.3 radio station that he saw two men standing by the victim, who was on the ground. At first, James thought they were trying to help the man. But then he saw two meat cleavers, like a butcher would have. "They were hacking at this poor guy, literally," he told the radio station. "These two guys were crazed. They were just not there. They were just animals." Witness: Attackers 'were just animals' Amid the horror, an individual story of courage emerged Thursday in the person of a Cub Scout leader named Ingrid Loyau-Kennett. Loyau-Kennett told Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper that she had jumped off a bus to try to revive a man -- later determined to be Rigby -- she thought had been hurt accidentally. She swiftly realized the man was dead, and it was no accident. "When I went up, there was this black guy with a revolver and a kitchen knife. He had what looked like butcher's tools, and he had a little ax, to cut the bones, and two large knives, and he said, 'Move off the body,' " she told the newspaper. "So I thought, 'OK, I don't know what is going on here,' and he was covered with blood. I thought I had better start talking to him before he starts attacking somebody else." Unarmed police -- like most in Britain -- arrived at 2:29 p.m. Wednesday, nine minutes after the first call came in police. Armed officers were on site five minutes later. Witnesses recounted the suspects then ran at the police, who responded with gunshots. Recalling the incident later on ITV, Loyau-Kennett said she wasn't scared when she talked to one of those suspects -- who then had a revolver, knife and cleaver in his bloody hands -- minutes before those shots rang out. "Better me than a child," she said. CNN's Laura Smith-Spark reported and wrote from London, and CNN's Greg Botelho did the same from Atlanta. CNN's Dan Rivers, Jonathan Wald, Carol Jordan, Atika Shubert, Erin McLaughlin, Richard Allen Greene, Ed Payne and Nic Robertson contributed to this report.

NEW: A woman who talked to a suspect said she felt, "Better me than a child" That suspect is one of 2 shot, then arrested after allegedly killing a soldier . The victim is Lee Rigby, a machine gunner and father, the UK defense ministry says . Two others, both 29, were arrested Thursday as part of the probe .

(CNN) -- As a swimmer, his countless hours of training paid off handsomely -- earning him a record 18 Olympic gold medals. As a golfer, Michael Phelps is wondering what he's got himself into. "It's one of the most humbling games I've tried to do in my entire life," the American tells CNN. "I could always pick things up fairly easily, but I don't get how hitting a little object -- a little white ball, that isn't moving -- is so hard. "Why can't I just hit this in a straight line? Or hook it, or draw it, or fade it -- I can't do it. I'm finally learning how to be able to do all that stuff and do it consistently. But I still do have some pretty bad shots." Have a quick look online and you'll find Phelps hurling his driver away in disgust after embarrassingly topping his tee shot at the home of golf, St. Andrews in Scotland. "Throwing clubs, using profanity -- everything comes out," Phelps says. But there are some moments of magic, such as when -- as a 26 handicapper -- he sank a monster 150-foot putt at the Dunhill Links pro-am in Scotland last October. However, golf requires both power and precision -- which Phelps, who was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder as a child, is slowly learning to combine. "He's one of those players that people would look at and say, 'He has a lot of potential.' What that technically means is that the player is very long and very wild," says Tiger Woods' former coach Hank Haney, who has been tutoring Phelps in the latest series of his television show The Haney Project. "They never look at someone who hits it a very short distance and say, 'Oh you've got a lot of potential.' They always comment on the potential someone has as based solely on the distance of their hitting." Haney has some history in shaping unpredictable talents, having previously worked with former basketballer Charles Barkley and boxer Sugar Ray Leonard among his celebrity TV clients. "Michael is 6'4 but he has a 6'8 wingspan, so his arms are very long. Because of that he has a pretty long, loose swing," Haney tells CNN. "It's capable of generating a lot of power ... That's been the biggest challenge, to get his swing better so he can control it a bit." Haney says Phelps is "definitely getting better" after carding true hackers' scores of between 97 and 117 in six rounds immediately after the London 2012 Olympics -- where he took his career tally to a record 22 medals. "His No. 1 goal after the Olympics was to learn how to play golf and be decent at it," Haney says. "I think he's passionate about it. It's nice to have someone like Michael Phelps interested in the game, it's great for golf." "Baltimore Bullet" Golf is not only giving the 27-year-old Phelps a new hobby (if not quite a new career) -- it is also extending his commercial sell-by date. While he's not in the $250 million league that Nike reportedly paid to sign up golf's new star Rory McIlroy, the "Baltimore Bullet" has already landed a club deal with Ping. "Ping is a well-established global brand that should be able to deliver Phelps with huge international exposure," says British sports business expert Simon Chadwick. "Phelps, meanwhile, provides Ping with a brand association that has a strong track-record of success at the very highest level. "That said, this is a somewhat strange alliance that would be appear to be fraught with difficulty. It doesn't make instant sense, and quite what the tangible returns will be to both parties isn't necessarily obvious. "If there is no expectation that Phelps will become a professional golfer, the Ping deal tends rather to imply that this is short-term opportunism -- unless, of course, the relaunch and rebranding of Phelps as a global sport or leisure brand starts here. "If the Phelps brand in golf is to have any sustainable future, he needs to start delivering the kind of performances that fans and consumers will be looking for." Chinese 12 year-old to make history . Haney doubts that Phelps will be able to make it as a pro golfer, citing the very few examples of sports stars who've been able to switch to the game -- and most of those have been on the seniors circuit. "The possibility is there, but golf seems to take more time than any other sport -- there's so much to learn and so much to practice. You have to dedicate full-time to golf to get there," Haney says. "It's a big difference between being a scratch golfer or two handicap and being a professional golfer. It's a whole other world," Haney adds when asked about the golfing prospects of retired tennis star Andy Roddick, who like Phelps has been hitting the celebrity pro-am circuit. New adventure . And Phelps sounds like he's enjoying his retirement too much to dedicate himself to the same punishing routine that saw him not miss a 6.30 a.m training session for six years -- as Haney was informed by his protege's former swim coach. "I've been saying a lot more recently about how great it is to be retired," says Phelps. "I can wake up at 10 in the morning, grab a cup of coffee, read the newspaper. "If I feel like hitting a couple of golf balls, I hit some golf balls. I really just hang out, and it's awesome. "At this point I'm really just trying to enjoy the sport, learn the sport, and be able to beat all of my friends who I go out and play with." However, Haney is in no doubt that Phelps is committed to his new adventure. "The crossover is the work ethic that he has -- he knows what it takes to be great in sports," the 57-year-old coach says. "He's used to being coached, that makes it easier for me. In golf you have to be coached, no-one just knows how to do it. In order for that to happen, you like to have someone that's used to taking coaching." For someone who has coached 14-time major winner Woods, the goals of a novice like Phelps ("He's thinking pro-ams and playing amateur golf. He'd love to win a club championship one day") bring Haney back full circle in his career. "Tiger was my last student and I had determined that when I started with Tiger, I said he's going to be the last touring pro that I have," says Haney, who wrote a book detailing his six years working with the biggest name in modern golf. "I taught touring pros for 32 years and I enjoyed it. It was incredible, a lot of great experiences, but 32 years was enough for me -- I taught over 200 touring pros. It was time for me to do something different. And where do you go from Tiger Woods?" Twitter tips . Apart from his TV show, Haney is now focused on his corporate work, his International Junior Golf Academy based at Hilton Head, South Carolina -- and taking the game to the people. "Golf's been awful good to me, I have no problems doing that, I'm very thankful to the game of golf," says Haney, who is an active presence on Twitter, giving away tips to anyone who contacts him -- much to the chagrin of some of his peers. "Last year I did clinics for over 15,000 people, so I feel like through Twitter and doing the clinics I'm much more able to reach a larger audience and giving back to the game a little bit. "I enjoy being a top instructor who is willing and able to do those things." He says his junior academy, which has almost 150 students from 22 countries, is not necessarily seeking to unearth the next Tiger Woods. "I'm really proud of the fact that the kids don't just learn golf but they have a great education. Every kid from our academy last year went to college, 94% of them got scholarships. I really enjoy seeing how much they grow as people from being in our academy."

Record-breaking Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps is trying to become a golfer . He was tutored by Tiger Woods' former coach Hank Haney for a TV series . Haney says the 27-year-old's golf game is "very long and very wild" Phelps admits his frustrations at learning "the most humbling" of sports .

Los Angeles (CNN) -- NASA announced Tuesday the new retirement homes for the four remaining space shuttles -- three historic orbiters and the program's test vehicle. The space shuttle Atlantis will be displayed at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida; the Endeavour, at the California Science Center in Los Angeles; the Discovery, at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia; and the test shuttle, Enterprise, at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York, NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr. said during a ceremony at the Kennedy Center. The announcement was made on the 30th anniversary of the space shuttle program's first flight, made by the subsequently ill-fated Columbia orbiter, and the 50th anniversary of Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becoming the first human in space. More than 20 locations around the country sought one of the orbiters because of the potential tourist draw. The drama mirrored the bidding to host an Olympic games. Supporters of sites that were rejected expressed disappointment. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said the Johnson Space Center in Houston should have been one of the retirement homes for an orbiter, "but it is clear political favors trumped common sense and fairness in the selection of the final locations for the orbiter fleet," he said in a statement. He noted that Houston "played a critical role throughout the life of the space shuttle." "Like many Texans, I am disappointed with NASA's decision to slight the Johnson Space Center as a permanent home for one of the space shuttle orbiters," Cornyn said. "There is no question Houston should have been selected as a final home for one of the orbiters -- even Administrator Bolden stated as much. Today's announcement is an affront to the thousands of dedicated men and women at Johnson Space Center, the greater Houston community and the state of Texas, and I'm deeply disappointed with the administration's misguided decision," Cornyn said. In Los Angeles, shortly after NASA's announcement, California Science Center President Jeffrey Rudolph told reporters that the Endeavour would boost the center's annual 1.4 million visitors to about 2 million people a year. The center plans to use the orbiter as the centerpiece to a new air and space gallery, which would cost $200 million and is part of the center's 25-year master plan, Rudolph said. That price tag includes the $28.8 million that the center must pay NASA to prepare and relocate the orbiter to Los Angeles, he said. The center hasn't hired an architect yet to design the new facility and is now planning a fundraiser, he said. "Obviously, we were thrilled. We got the word this morning, shortly before the announcement," Rudolph said of his reaction to winning one of the shuttles. "The fact that the shuttle was created here in California had a lot to do with giving us a leg up" over the competition, Rudolph said. "It's a fitting place for this national treasure." The center, which also features a Los Angeles charter school, is the most attended museum in southern California and one of the most attended in the country, Rudolph said. The Los Angeles center's existing air and space gallery is now home to the Mercury-Redstone 2 capsule that carried Ham, a chimpanzee, on a suborbital flight, and the Gemini 11 capsule flown by astronauts Pete Conrad and Dick Gordon on an orbital flight. U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer said she and Sen. Dianne Feinstein -- both California Democrats -- wrote to NASA's Bolden last year asking that California become home to one of the shuttles because the state has a long history with the shuttle program. Beginning in 1972, all five space shuttle orbiters were fabricated in Downey, California, and assembled in Palmdale, California, Boxer said in a statement. All of the space shuttles were tested at Edwards Air Force Base just outside of Palmdale, where 53 of NASA's 133 shuttle missions landed, she said. The Endeavour will take its final flight on April 29, and prior to this launch, it will have been used on 24 missions, orbited the earth 4,429 times and traveled 103,149,636 miles, Boxer said. "California has a long history of supporting the shuttle program and we are proud to welcome this inspiring symbol of American scientific achievement and ingenuity to the Golden State," Boxer said in a statement. Audience members at the Kennedy Space Center cheered when Bolden announced the Atlantis would be assigned to that launch facility. Many people in the gallery were center workers, some of whom are likely to lose their jobs when the shuttle program ends. Because the announcement was being made at Kennedy, expectations were high that the visitor center would be awarded one of the shuttles. The Museum of Flight in Seattle also wanted one. In fact, one wall of a new space gallery where a shuttle would be housed was already erected in anticipation. Prior to Tuesday's announcement, the museum's president, Doug King, said museum officials didn't have any inside information. "I think that confident may be too strong a word. I think that hopeful is probably a better one," he said. But on Tuesday, Washington state Gov. Chris Gregoire also said he was disappointed that the NASA didn't select the Seattle museum for one of the retired shuttles. "The Museum of Flight put a tremendous amount of effort into landing a retired shuttle in the Pacific Northwest. As the home of modern day air travel and the 747, which has gracefully transported shuttles for the last 30 years, Seattle would have been a perfect fit," Gregoire said in a statement. "However, the full fuselage trainer, that every astronaut including Bonnie Dunbar has been trained on, will soon call the Museum of Flight home," the governor said. "The largest of the trainers, this addition will allow visitors to actually climb aboard the trainer and experience the hands-on training that astronauts get. Visitors will not be allowed in the other shuttles and this trainer is a true win for our dynamic museum." Facilities in Chicago, New York, Dayton, Ohio, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, also put in requests for an orbiter, with hopes that such a historic artifact would inspire countless children in those areas to explore careers in science and engineering. Becoming home to an orbiter promises to be a boon for a community. The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex estimates a shuttle will bring in 200,000 more guests every year. The economic impact to the area is estimated at about $15 million. At New York's Intrepid Museum, Executive Director Susan Marenoff told CNN, "Figure over 300,000 people additional (due) to the Intrepid, to New York City. Couple that with $106 million in economic benefit. We think that's a pretty good deal." Each winning location has to fork over $28.8 million to NASA for delivery of the vehicles. They also must guarantee a climate-controlled building will be constructed to house their shuttle. That's still a bargain, officials at the bidding locations said, because of the return on investment they expect. One of the orbiters -- Discovery, the oldest -- was largely regarded as being Smithsonian-bound. That was confirmed by Tuesday's announcement. The Enterprise, a test shuttle that never flew in space, is there now. It was be reassigned, at a discounted price, to one of the locations that didn't get either Endeavour or Atlantis. That location turned out to be the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York. Only two more shuttle flights are scheduled: Endeavour on April 29 and Atlantis on June 28, wrapping up a program in which the vehicles launched satellites, built a space station, and launched and repaired an orbiting telescope. After that, they become museum pieces. Two other shuttles were destroyed in flight accidents. The Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff on January 28, 1986, and the Columbia disintegrated during re-entry on February 1, 2003. CNN's Stan Wilson, Ed Lavandera and Irving Last contributed to this report.

The shuttles Discovery, Endeavour and Atlantis carry historic and economic value . The fourth, the Enterprise, was a test shuttle that never flew into space . Communities housing the shuttles are expected to enjoy a tourist boom . April 12 is the 50th anniversary of the first human space flight and 30th of the first shuttle flight .

(CNN) -- Apple Store employees, dressed in matching blue T-shirts, clapped and sang and made intermittent "woo!" cheers, as they walked past John H., who was waiting in line to buy the iPhone 5 in Atlanta last month. The 29-year-old, who had never before waited in one of Apple's I-need-the-product-immediately-so-I'm-willing-to-stand-here-for-hours lines, didn't look amused. About the time the sun was coming up, John leaned against a railing at Lenox Square mall and pretty much scowled at all the hoopla. "I didn't have anything better to do," he said of his decision to come to the mall and wait in line to buy the newest Apple smartphone. John, who asked that his last name not be used, had just come off of an overnight shift with an airline. "My girlfriend's out of town," he added. "I'm just hanging out." One year after the death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, that kind of indifference seems almost sacrilege when set against the history of Apple fanboy-dom that surrounds the company's product launches. And while it's true that that a woman in New York waited in line for eight days, braving rain, police, wrecks and everything else that would be horrible about sleeping outside in Manhattan for a week, the excitement for the iPhone 5 seemed less palpable than in the past, at least among the masses. The cause? That's anyone's guess. Maybe it's that this phone seems less exciting than its predecessors. Maybe it's harder for fans to drum up enthusiasm for Apple now that the once-scrappy underdog has become the world's richest and most powerful tech company. Or, more troubling for Apple loyalists, maybe some of the company's sparkle is fading with consumers now that Jobs, the design perfectionist, is no longer signing off on new products. #WhatSteveJobsTaughtMe: Share your thoughts on his life and career . Obviously, there's no lack of luster in Apple's stock price, which is reaching such heights -- it recently flirted with $700 a share -- that it's been accused of swaying trends for entire markets. And Apple sold 5 million iPhone 5s in the first weekend, although that number was less than analysts had expected given the attendant hype and pent-up demand for the device. A shift, however, seemed evident at the launch of the new phone, at least with the random sampling of consumers who spoke with CNN that morning. It's not that Apple isn't popular. It's that perhaps the fans aren't as hyped up as they used to be. For starters, no one would claim Apple as a hero of the counterculture these days. That was evident in the fact that some of the line-standers in Atlanta talked about the phone not as some life-altering blessing from on high (the iPhone has been dubbed the "Jesus phone," let's remember) but in consumer-y and practical terms. One man, 31-year-old Nick Loner, wanted a better camera before he went on a family vacation. Ed Veillette, 45, was in line to buy the phone for his teenage son, who wanted to be able to show it off to friends in the school lunchroom. "It could be a rock," Veillette said. "If everybody had a rock, he'd want it." Opinion: Apple seems to have gotten a little bit lost . The vibe shift was apparent to die-hard Apple fans as well. "The excitement has settled," said Justin Henderson, 32, who has waited in line for the new Apple smartphone every year since the iPhone launched. "The biggest line I've seen in the last five years was for the iPhone 4. That line was ridiculous." This line? Less so. "I think people know what they're getting, and they're just wanting to upgrade, versus getting the phone for the first time" and being super-thrilled about it, he said. In a YouTube video of the recent opening of an Apple store in Stockholm, some customers looked nonplussed, if not downright perturbed, by Apple's clapping, chanting mob of blue-shirted employees. The company is having trouble controlling the tech pundits, too. In a post titled "Confessions of a former Apple fanboy," blogger Roy Choi writes that he is losing faith in Apple's ability to gin up the same level of fanaticism in the post-Steve-Jobs era. "I'm not saying this iPhone iteration is an awful device, but I question whether Apple has the ability to maintain industry-leading innovation," Choi writes on the site TechnoBuffalo. "Apple has historically been known for creative design and disruptive technology, signature features that are surprisingly missing this time around. It is uncharacteristic of Apple to deliver an average product. My thoughts are that these specs can be found on nearly every other mid-to-high-end smartphone on the market." Apple loyalist John Gruber, author of the influential blog Daring Fireball, wrote favorably about Amazon's unveiling of its newest iPad competitor. "Om Malik argues that (Amazon CEO Jeff) Bezos is the inheritor to Steve Jobs's crown. I agree. Not because Bezos has copied anything Jobs did, but because he has not. What he's done that is Jobs-like is doggedly pursue, year after year, iteration after iteration, a vision unlike that of any other company -- all in the name of making customers happy." Forbes points out that the iPhone 5 was supposed to cement Jobs' legacy. "Reports around Steve Jobs' passing talked about how he was focused on the iPhone 5 during his last days and predicted that it would be his 'legacy device,' " contributor Chunka Mui writes. "That seemed plausible, given Jobs' reputation and the incremental nature of the iPhone 4S that came out around the same time, and helped to heighten the anticipation for this week's iPhone 5 launch. "The new iPhone does not meet those lofty 'legacy' aspirations, however. The iPhone 5 is bigger, faster, thinner, etc. -- definitely a creditable offering that reiterates Apple's design, engineering and marketing chops. While it does nothing to detract from Jobs' design genius reputation, it does nothing to enhance it, either." Apple has come under fire for its new error-filled maps application, which replaces Google Maps on iPhone 5s and in iOS 6, the company's new mobile operating system. In a rare public letter, Apple CEO Tim Cook apologized for the quality of the maps last week. Frustrated iPhone 5 users have also complained about a bug that causes their phones to suck cellular data even when connected to a Wi-Fi network. Of course, there's always a counter-argument. Here's one from Kris Abarilla, who responded to my question about the changing state of Apple fanboydom on Google+: "Fanboydom certainly hasn't changed much since Jobs. The people are loyal to the brand, not to the person who ran it. "Even after people realize how bad the Maps App is in the new iOS 6, those very same users are touting the greatness of Apple." It's clear Apple employees (check out this gallery; hilarious) and the company's fanboy and fangirl loyalists will continue not just to buy Apple products but to love them, and the company behind them. The question is: What about everyone else? "Though Apple will remain a highly profitable company for years to come, I would be surprised if it ever gives us another product as transformative as the (original) iPhone or the iPad," writes Joe Nocera in the New York Times' opinion section. "Part of the reason is obvious: Jobs isn't there anymore," he wrote. "It is rare that a company is so completely an extension of one man's brain as Apple was an extension of Jobs. While he was alive, that was a strength; now it's a weakness. Apple's current executive team is no doubt trying to maintain the same demanding, innovative culture, but it's just not the same without the man himself looking over everybody's shoulder." Good or bad, what lessons did you learn from Jobs? Share your responses in the comments below, or join the conversation on Twitter using #stevejobstaughtme.

Some Apple consumers seem less enthused about the company these days . Maybe that's because of the death of Steve Jobs; maybe it's iPhone 5 glitches . "The excitement has settled," one Apple fan in Atlanta says . Still, the company's stock is near an all-time high, and the iPhone 5 is selling well .

Cairo (CNN) -- Egyptian security forces arrested Mohamed Badie, the Muslim Brotherhood's spiritual leader, at a residential apartment in Cairo on Tuesday, state-run Nile TV reported. He was arrested in the Nasr City section of the capital without any resistance, Nile TV said, citing Gen. Abdel Fattah Othman, an Interior Ministry spokesman. Badie, whose title is supreme guide, is accused of inciting violence, according to Nile TV. The Brotherhood picked a Badie deputy to temporarily replace him, its political wing said Tuesday. He is Mahmoud Ezzat. Badie's detention came one day after 25 soldiers were killed in a Sinai ambush and onetime ruler Hosni Mubarak won acquittal on a corruption charge. Suspected militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades struck two buses carrying security forces and killed the soldiers in the city of Rafah, on the border between Egypt and Gaza, Nile TV reported. Interim President Adly Mansour declared three days of national mourning following the attack, Nile TV said. The Sinai Peninsula is a lawless area that was the site of frequent attacks even before Egypt's latest round of turmoil. In May, for example, seven Egyptian solders were kidnapped and held for six days there, a spokesman for Egypt's armed forces said. But the attack adds to the persistent tension across the country since the military ousted democratically elected President Mohamed Morsy in a coup. Over the past week, about 900 people -- security personnel as well as citizens -- have been killed. Deaths occurred when the military used force to clear two pro-Morsy sit-in sites in Cairo on Wednesday and violence raged after pro-Morsy supporters staged demonstrations Friday. Billions in aid on the line: What will the U.S. do about Egypt? On Sunday, at least 37 jailed members of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist movement, were reportedly killed in what the Interior Ministry called an attempted jailbreak. Egypt's state-run EGYNews agency reported that the prisoners died from tear-gas suffocation and from trampling over each other, and Egypt's Prosecutor General Office ordered the arrest Monday of two police officers for their involvement in the incident. The prosecutor general also ordered that three police officers hospitalized for injuries sustained in the incident be held while the investigation continues. As for the Sinai ambush, the Brotherhood condemned the attack on Egyptian soldiers. "Our peaceful protests (are) stronger than any weapon, and we don't accept any violence," said Murad Mohamad Ali, media adviser to the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party. Morsy supporters, many of whom are members of the Muslim Brotherhood, and those aligned with the military-backed interim government blame each other for stoking the violence. Morsy has been in detention since his overthrow. Egyptian prosecutors have extended the detention for 15 days, pending investigations. Prosecutors have charged him with participating in the detention, torture, murder and attempted murder of Egyptian citizens; broadcasting false news to influence judicial authorities in their inquiries; and inciting thugs to use force and terrorize citizens. Questions about aid . The crackdown also spurred a call from a leading U.S. senator, John McCain, to cut off its $1.3 billion in aid to Egypt. He said the United States has failed to follow its own rule requiring suspending aid to states overtaken by a military coup -- though the United States has not officially described the recent regime change in Egypt as a coup. "We have no credibility. We do have influence, but when you don't use that influence, then you do not have that influence," McCain said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union." U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said President Obama noted that "every aspect" of the U.S.-Egypt relationship is under review. U.S.-Egypt relations: 'Damned if you do, damned if you don't' He said the U.S. message to Egyptian officials has been consistent: The interim government should "get back to an inclusive approach to reconciliation in Egypt. Will the regime get the message? The U.S. ability to influence events in Egypt is "limited," Hagel said, but it's not "without influence." Speaking at a Pentagon briefing with his counterpart from China, Hagel said the United States has a longstanding relationship with Egypt. "We have interests clearly in the Middle East -- interests that include hopefully a development of some progress toward an Israeli -Palestinian settlement. So we continue to work with the Egyptian interim government as well as the Egyptian military," he said. Hagel also said protection of Americans in Egypt is of the "highest priority." But Saudi Arabia's foreign minister assured Egyptians that Arab nations will support Egypt if any international aid to the country is cut, the Saudi Press Agency reported Monday. "The Arab and Islamic nation is rich when it comes to the support of its sons and its potentials and will not shy away from providing a helping hand to Egypt," Saud Al-Faisal said. International response called weak, ineffective . The carnage has spurred a call from leading human rights group Amnesty International for a "full, impartial and effective investigation in the shocking loss of life." "The interim government has already stained its human rights record -- first by breaking its promises to use nonlethal weapons to disperse pro-Morsi sit-ins and allow for the safe exit of wounded, and then by justifying their actions despite the tragic loss of lives," said Salil Shetty, secretary-general of Amnesty International, in a news release. "The response of the international community has been weak and ineffective, even as everyone leaps to condemn the horrific loss of life. The international community must act decisively to send a message that no government can behave this way and retain any credibility." Egyptian demonstrator: Why we are willing to die . The group documented a rise in civil strife since the July 3 coup and cited "a string of serious human rights abuses, culminating in the wholesale attack by the security forces" on pro-Morsy sit-ins last week. "These abuses have included an alarming and unprecedented rise in sectarian violence against Coptic Christians across the country, "seemingly in retaliation for their support" for Morsy's ouster. It cited abuses by pro-Morsy protesters "including beatings, torture and killings. "In recent days, the scale of violence by some Morsy supporters have manifestly increased, as some attacked government buildings and police stations and personnel. Some protesters have also fired live ammunition on local residents," Amnesty said. Mubarak in court . As the upheaval persists in Egypt, Mubarak's court cases grind on. In Cairo, a criminal court acquitted the former president in a corruption case, Egyptian state TV reported Monday. The case stemmed from accusations of squandering public money allocated for renovating presidential palaces. He also faces at least one other outstanding corruption claim. Separately, Mubarak is also facing a more serious accusation: that he was involved in the killing of protesters during the 2011 uprising. A Cairo court on Saturday adjourned a retrial in that case to this coming Sunday. Mubarak ruled Egypt, the most populous Arab country, for three decades until demonstrators opposing his rule forced his ouster in 2011. He was convicted in 2012 in the deaths of numerous protesters, but was later granted a retrial. After a lengthy trial, he and his former interior minister, Habib al-Adly, were found guilty and sentenced to life in prison last year on charges that they were complicit in the protesters' killings. After appealing their convictions, they were granted a new trial early this year. Mubarak has been held since his guilty verdict last year. After months spent in a military hospital, a public prosecutor sent him back to prison in April. The ousted autocratic leader's health has been a bone of contention during his trial and incarceration. He suffered a heart attack after relinquishing power and had said that he was physically unfit to stand trial. CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq, Ali Younes, Schams Elwazer, Ian Lee, Saad Abedine and Holly Yan contributed to this report.

Mohamed Badie is arrested at an apartment in the Nasr City section of Cairo . 25 soldiers die in an attack in the Sinai Peninsula; 3-day mourning period declared . At least 37 Muslim Brotherhood prisoners reportedly killed in jailbreak attempt . Former President Hosni Mubarak is acquitted in one of many cases against him .

(CNN) -- There was a time that Pamela Hobbs believed justice had been served for her young son's murder. But 16 years after the mutilations and killings of three 8-year-old Cub Scouts, including her son, she has more doubts than ever. Tear-stricken and angry, Pamela Hobbs sat through the original trial of the three accused teens -- Damien Echols, 18; Jessie Misskelley Jr., 17, and Jason Baldwin, 16. They were convicted of murdering her son, Stevie Branch, and two other neighborhood boys, Michael Moore and Christopher Byers. The second-graders' bodies were found bruised and mutilated in a West Memphis, Arkansas, ditch; their arms and legs were bound by shoe laces. The killers became dubbed the West Memphis 3. When interviewed by media and documentary crews after the trial, Hobbs believed justice had been served. Misskelley and Baldwin had life sentences. Echols was on death row. But recent developments -- including new eyewitness statements and DNA evidence from the defense -- have uprooted her faith in those prosecutions. Once a staunch believer that the teens were guilty, now she says the teens accused of killing her son in the West Memphis 3 deserve a new trial. "I wanted to believe in our justice system," said Hobbs, now 45. She moved to Blytheville, Arkansas, shortly after the 1993 trial. "But time heals all wounds, and you start looking at things differently." Her public change of heart has been supported by new evidence presented by the defense over the past few years. In 2007, DNA and forensic evidence tests revealed no physical evidence at the crime scene that linked the three teens to murders. The evidence was presented to the state. Furthermore, DNA that might belong to two other men was found in the knot used to tie Christopher. One of the men is Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of Stevie, the defense says. In 1993, such advanced DNA testing had not been available, attorneys said. The defense continues to argue the results of the DNA evidence. In September, the Arkansas Supreme Court received an appeal from Echols, requesting a new trial after the lower courts denied his request to submit new DNA evidence. This month, an Arkansas Law Review article stated Echols should be granted a new trial based on the 2007 DNA evidence. The Arkansas Supreme Court will likely hear oral arguments for a new trial for Echols in February, say officials representing him. Three eye witnesses, who resided next to one of the victims, filed affidavits in October with the Arkansas Supreme Court. The witnesses said they saw the second-graders with Terry Hobbs the night before the bodies were found by police. The statement from the witnesses contradicted Hobbs' statements to police and in court that he never saw his stepson, Stevie, on the day of the murder. "They [authorities] never really did any investigation," said Dennis Riordan, Echols' defense attorney out of San Francisco, California. "They never interviewed Hobbs. The fact that the witnesses saw him, and they realized for the first time, it was very significant." Pamela Hobbs was divorced from Terry Hobbs in 2004 because of marital problems stemming from the pain that followed her son's death, she said. She declined to comment on whether she thought her ex-husband saw the 8-year-old boys. Hobbs has adamantly rejected the defense's allegations that he saw his stepson that day. Hobbs, 51, who still lives in West Memphis, said the defense is attempting to make him the target because Echols is on death row. There is no execution date set. He raises the question many skeptics of the three men's innocence have echoed: Why would the eyewitness evidence surface 16 years later? Why didn't the witnesses come forward sooner? To this day, Terry Hobbs says he believes the rightful killers are in prison. The State's Attorneys Office and prosecutors won't comment about the defense's claims. Mike Walden, prosecuting attorney for Craighead County, where the original trial took place, said the affidavits are weak. "I think most people will tell you these affidavits are insufficient to justify filing charges against someone else," Walden said about the three new eyewitnesses presented by the defense. "They don't contain enough evidence to enable a prosecuting attorney to make a charging position." Critics of the defense attorneys say there has been too much finger-pointing over the past 16 years. The defense "can't get their story straight," said Tracy Ripple, who started a Web site criticizing supporters of the West Memphis 3. West Memphis Police Department declined to comment. An officer said they were told by the state's Attorney General's office not to comment on the West Memphis 3 case. During the original trial in 1993, prosecutors argued the three teens were part of a satanic cult when they murdered the three children. They said punctures and cut marks on the victims were argued to be to be part of a sadistic ritual. After the trial, some forensic examiners argued those marks were animal bite marks. The prosecution relied on the confession of Misskelley, a 17-year-old with learning disabilities and an IQ of 70. He confessed after an untaped, three-hour interrogation by police without his parents or an attorney present. Misskelley later recanted his confession. The teens, now men serving time in the Arkansas penitentiary system, have maintained their innocence. They have tried appealing, arguing that they weren't adequately represented in the original trial. Echols remains on death row, and no execution date has been set. Pamela Hobbs hasn't been the only parent of the victims to shift to the side of the West Memphis 3 supporters. Mark Byers, the father of Christopher, lives in Millington, Tennessee. He said he began to think the three men might be innocent, particularly after the 2007 DNA tests results were released. His wife, Melissa, passed away in 1996. After the murders, Byers announced to the media fervently that he believed the West Memphis 3 were guilty. But by 2005, he began to question the original trial. He said parts of Misskelley's confession did not match up with actual crime. For example, the confession talks about committing the crime in the woods, but medical examiners found few traces of blood in the woods. "The worst part about it is the three real victims that deserve justice, the three 8-year-old children have not been given justice," Byers said. "They got a hack job for a police investigation. It was a rush to find someone who they said did this." Todd and Diana Moore, parents of Michael, say the West Memphis 3 are guilty. Todd Moore, now divorced from Diana Moore, says he can't believe the eyewitness affidavits because they are based on memories from 16 years ago. His ex-wife declined to comment. "They [witnesses] may have seen something," said Moore, who now lives in Marion, Arkansas. "But May 5, 1993, wasn't the day." The murders of the three boys remain etched into the community even years after the trial ended. The case inspired two HBO documentaries, "Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills" and "Paradise Lost 2." As years passed, the West Memphis 3 continued to live in the media spotlight. The case gained notoriety among celebrities such as the Dixie Chicks and actress Winona Ryder, who have publicly said the three men should have a new trial. Over the years, the parents of the three boys have watched the headlines return. Some hope for a new trial for the three men, who have languished behind bars for their young adult years behind bars. And other parents pray the men will stay locked up for good. "I want someone to put a stop to this," said Terry Hobbs. He fondly recalls the memories with his stepson -- the two of them swimming in the backyard pool. "I'm tired of this stuff. No one understands or cares what this does to us as parents over and over again."

New eyewitness statements emerge in West Memphis 3 case . Case centers on 1993 mutilations and murders of three 8-year-old Cub Scouts . "Time heals all wounds and you start looking at things differently," one mom says . DNA tests in 2007 revealed no physical evidence linking the convicted killers to crime scene .

Washington (CNN) -- Before anyone ever heard of the Tea Party movement, there was a grass-roots conservative group from out West that shook up the political status quo. It happened in Canada more than 20 years ago, and the rebel Reform Party's rapid rise and eventual amalgamation into the political mainstream might offer some perspective on what is happening today on the U.S. political right. In particular, the Reform Party's rise split the so-called conservative vote in Canada, helping the Liberal Party win three straight elections to stay in power for 13 years. Only when Canada's conservatives came together under one banner, as the Conservative Party of Canada, did they wield the coast-to-coast clout to win enough seats in Parliament to take over the prime minister's office. "It's hard to reconcile them all," Reform Party founder Preston Manning told CNN in a telephone interview. "The argument we used is that you all need each other. You do agree on a whole bunch of other things." Canada's parliamentary system differs from the U.S. system, with the party that holds the most seats in the House of Commons forming the government. Political labels such as conservative and liberal don't always mean exactly the same thing in the two countries. Still, a look at the Reform Party's history and influence on the Canadian political system reveals some parallels with the relatively new Tea Party movement south of the border. In the United States, the Tea Party movement has shaken up politics-as-usual with its anti-Washington sentiment that helped topple some Republican incumbents in primaries for the November congressional midterm election. The latest could be Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who trailed her Tea Party-backed but little-known opponent, Joe Miller, in the Republican primary held Tuesday. Miller led by a hairsbreadth when polls closed, but there are thousands of absentee ballots left to be counted, and the race might not be decided until next week. The success of far-right candidates such as Miller, Rand Paul in Kentucky and Sharron Angle in Nevada fostered hopes in the self-described grass-roots uprising that it could win power with its small-government, anti-deficit ideology. "I'm very proud of my association with the Tea Party," said Marco Rubio, a former Florida state representative who won Tuesday's Republican Senate primary vote. "But people misunderstand what the Tea Party movement is in America. It is not a centralized organization or a political party. It's the sentiment of everyday Americans who think that Washington has it wrong -- they're taking our country in the wrong direction. And they are looking for voices in American politics that will stand up to that and offer a clear alternative." However, an inherent social conservatism in the Tea Party movement has exposed rifts with more moderate Republicans, much to the delight of Democrats. A main Tea Party spokesman, Mark Williams, was ousted last month after a controversial blog post about the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Abraham Lincoln, and the emancipation of the slaves. He resigned, but defended his remarks as satire. Tea Party protesters outside the U.S. Capitol were accused of using racist and anti-gay epithets against African-American and gay Democrats in March, and spitting on an African-American congressman. Republican House leaders criticized the alleged incident but said it was an isolated case, and Andrew Langer, one of the organizers of the protest over health care reform, said his "Institute for Liberty roundly condemns the isolated incidents of intolerance that occurred. ... As a core value, the Tea Party movement believes in the precept upon which our independence was declared and this nation was founded: that all men are created equal." In Nevada, Angle's candidacy revived what was thought to be a deeply troubled re-election bid by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Now Reid and Angle are in a tight race, due in part to concerns over some of Angle's policies and comments, such as a call to do away with the federal Department of Education. Even while Alaskans waited for a final result in the state's Senate Republican primary, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee derided Miller as "an extremist who intends to transition-out Social Security, phase-out Medicare, and end unemployment benefits for all Alaskan families." In Canada, Manning's Reform Party faced similar challenges in the 1990s as he tried to unite it with the Progressive Conservative Party, the traditional home of fiscal conservatives. Led by Manning, a politician's son known as a shrewd pragmatist, the Canadian reformers emerged from the Western provinces in the 1980s as a protest movement against the federal government back east in Ottawa, Ontario. In particular, they were angry at what they perceived as Ottawa's reliance on oil revenues from Alberta, a Western province, to appease Quebecers threatening a separatist movement in the nation's only francophone province. Manning built on the Western anger, attracting support by calling for stronger provincial powers and a smaller federal government and emphasizing the needs of rural communities. The Reform Party formed in 1987 and used the strength of its Western roots to win more seats than the Progressive Conservatives when the Liberal Party came to power in 1993. However, Manning's efforts to expand the party's support were stymied by a diversity of interests and agendas within its base that ranged from political moderation to extremist vitriol. In particular, issues such as gay rights and immigration caused public rifts among Reform Party members of Parliament. In one of the most memorable, two Reform lawmakers were suspended for disparaging comments about homosexuals and immigrants, and two others who criticized them for the comments ended up quitting the party over the dispute. James Harold Farney argued in his 2009 doctoral thesis at the University of Toronto that the rise of the Reform Party gave Canadian social conservatives their first political home. "It was only when the Reform Party upset both the institutions and ideology of Canadian conservatism that social conservatives began to gain prominence in Canadian politics," Farney wrote. In the 1997 election, the Reform Party finished second overall to become the official opposition party in Parliament, but failed to grow beyond its Western roots. Manning realized it would never win control of Parliament, and therefore the prime minister's office, without gaining support in Eastern provinces, particularly populous Ontario. He launched an ambitious campaign to merge with the Progressive Conservatives, in a process that took years and left him on the sidelines when it finally occurred. The effort led to creation of the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance in 2000, with Manning defeated by Alberta provincial official Stockwell Day for the group's leadership. Day's fundamentalist Christian beliefs and lack of national political experience proved costly, and the Alliance -- caught off guard by a snap election called by the Liberals -- gained only six more seats in the next national election. Only when a formal merger of the Progressive Conservatives and the Canadian Alliance occurred -- creating the Conservative Party of Canada -- did it achieve Manning's goal of gaining significant support in the East. The new Conservative Party forced the Liberals to form a minority government in 2004, and then defeated the Liberals to form its own minority government in 2006. Stephen Harper, a one-time Reform legislator who left the party in 1997, became prime minister. Looking back, Manning said he stressed democratic principles within the Reform Party to try to achieve unity among its divided supporters. That meant getting fiscal conservatives, social conservatives and what he called democratic conservatives -- dedicated to grassroots democracy -- to accept a single platform. "I argued they were not philosophically incompatible," Manning said. At caucus meetings and other party gatherings, he stressed open debate to ensure everyone had a voice. "Whatever your position is, you can get up and say it," Manning explained. "When everyone has a say, you vote," and the result stands. The idea was to use the democratic process "to get people to disagree civilly," he said. "If we can't apply democracy to reconcile these differences within the party," he used to argue, "then why should the public believe we can do this on a larger scale?" Could a similar process occur in the United States, driven by the Tea Party movement? Manning sounded skeptical. "These people are trying to build a coalition in a political culture that tends to favor polarization," he said. "That does make it difficult, because people want to go to their corners rather than come together in the center of the ring."

Western protest movement in Canada grew into a political party . Efforts to merge with Eastern conservative party proved difficult . Reform Party founder doubts the Tea Party can unite the U.S. political right .

(CNN) -- The Canadian woman who was rescued after being stranded and alone for 49 days in a Nevada wilderness left behind handwritten notes about her ordeal, officials said Monday. The notes were found in the van where Rita Chretien was found on Friday, said Owyhee County (Idaho) Sheriff Daryl Crandall. The van was in remote territory near where Oregon, Idaho and Nevada meet. "Please help. Stuck" is the way one note begins. The call for help has a date written below it that simply reads "since Mar 19/11." According to officials, the date marks the last time anyone had seen Chretien or her husband. The next line continues with "No food. No gas. Dead bat. (battery) Lost my way!" Then the writing gets smaller as the space on the paper begins to run out, the note now reads, "Al went to get help. Find Mountain City. Did not return!" And finally, the last words on the page written in red read, "Maybe died along the way?" Written in smaller spaces on the paper in a different ink is the couple's name, where they are from, and their phone number. The note also gives name and number of the couple's son, and the date the couple is expected back in home. A second note starts with detailed GPS readings on it, and then outlines the couples inability to get cell service in the rugged mountainous area. Scribbled on the side of the second note is a message that started "We're headed to Vegas" and ended "Got lost." Pictures of these notes were taken by the Owyhee County Sheriff's Department amid the weekend search for Albert Chretien, who remained missing three days after his wife's rescue. He left his wife to get help three days after their minivan got stranded off-road in the cold, untamed wilderness. That left Rita alone without much beyond some hard candy, a bag of trail mix, some books and the clothes she'd packed for her trip to Las Vegas. Plus, according to her son Raymond Chretien, she always had faith. Scores of men and women had searched for the Chretiens since the Penticton, British Columbia, residents were last seen March 19 leaving a Shell gas station convenience store in Baker City, Oregon. On Friday, more than a month later, hunters wandered into the area where the van was sitting. Rita Chretien shot up from her spot in the 2000 Chevrolet Astro's backseat when she heard them outside, mustered her lingering strength to open the door and step out shoeless. She waved. Three days later, she was in fair condition, resting comfortably in an Idaho hospital, spending time with her children. "Right now, we're just celebrating," said her son, Raymond, on Sunday, Mother's Day. Even the doctor who oversaw Chretien's care at St. Luke's Magic Valley Medical Center in Twin Falls, Idaho, acknowledged it was not easy to explain how a 56-year-old woman could have such a positive prognosis and demeanor given what she'd gone through. "In this case, for a person with suboptimal nutrition to survive so long -- let's just say that it is understandable to call it a miracle," Dr. James Westberry told reporters Sunday. While rainy and overcast weather forced authorities to call off the first day's air search for Albert Chretien, Cpl. Dan Moskaluk of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Saturday that a search dog and about 20 people, riding six to eight all-terrain and four-wheel drive vehicles were on the case. A K-9 unit was also brought in by the Owyhee County Sheriff's Department to help search for the missing man on Saturday. Paula McCollum and her dog Viva covered about four miles in each direction looking for any sign of Chretien. But after the daylight started to fade and weather took a turn for the worse, search efforts came to halt. McCollum said she was shocked that Rita Chretien was able to survive the cold, mountainous region alone, and she wished her husband had remained at her side. "People keep going," McCollum said as she recounted her efforts to locate Albert Chretien, "they don't turn-around." But by backtracking the Chretiens may have found their way back to a road, she said. Sheriff Crandall agreed. He said the couple's van was found five to eight miles from a ranch where they could have gotten help. Pictures released by the sheriff's department show the van in a extremely remote area with no visible roads. The van was stuck in caked mud, ,a shovel pictured near the back of the van, indicating that someone had been trying to free the vehicle from the mud. While the odds are dwindling that Albert Chretien will be found alive, authorities certainly are not ruling it out, said the police spokesman. "Neither family nor investigators would have thought that we'd be reporting, after seven weeks, of actually finding somebody alive," Moskaluk said. "Until we know exactly what happened to Al, it remains a mystery." Rita and Albert Chretien's stop in Baker City was recorded on the store's surveillance tape. They were en route to a trade show convention in Las Vegas. But they later turned off the highway onto a forest service road that led into Nevada, intending to enjoy the "scenic route," said her son, who'd heard the full story from his ailing mother. The couple took some wrong turns and had thought, based on their map, that their road was better than it was. Then, about 20 miles from the highway, "apparently the road conditions ... degraded quite drastically," said Moskaluk, the police spokesman. By the time darkness fell, the minivan had succumbed to the combination of snow and mud, and was unable to move. On March 22, Albert Chretien left the van, setting off to get help. His wife, who Raymond Chretien said is "not an outdoorsy type of person," remained behind. Rita Chretien rationed the little food available -- a beef jerky, some trail mix, fish oil pills, and one piece of hard candy per day. She'd go outside for a walk once a day, using the sunlight to melt snow for drinking water and going to a nearby stream. In the meantime, she had plenty of time to read a few books (some several times) and the Bible, and record her thoughts in a journal. "She did it because she didn't know the outcome of this," her son said, adding that he had not yet read the journal. "It was intended to sort of tell the story what happened over (those) days." All the while, Rita Chretien got weaker, losing 20 to 30 pounds, according to Moskaluk. Her son said that, in her last few days in the wild, she'd come to peace with the sense that her time was dwindling. She penciled May 6 as a critical day in her mind: -- either she'd be rescued or she'd die. "She definitely had hope. But of course, just like us, every day goes by, you start preparing yourself for both options," her son said. "So she was prepared for either." After her discovery, Rita Chretien was airlifted to the Idaho hospital. There, doctors worked first to address her starvation and dehydration, then to build up her ability to eat meals again and gain strength. By Sunday, Westberry said he still hadn't seen her walk, but he said there were no indications of long-term problems and her prognosis was good. Her spirits and evident desire to live, the doctor said, were even better. "It is unusual for us to see someone in this type of situation to actually not only survive, but to be doing so well at this time," Westberry said. "She obviously had the mindset of survival, and that must have been something that helped her go as long as she did." For her son, the best thing was how little his mother had changed after her ordeal. She laughed just the same, and was just as warm, genuine and caring as she'd always been, he said. "I would have hardly known anything had happened to her," he said. "It was just beyond belief. It's just her. It's amazing." CNN's Antoinette Campbell, Greg Botelho, Rick Martin contributed to this report.

NEW: Stranded woman leaves handwritten notes detailing ordeal . "Right now, we're just celebrating," Rita Chretien's son says of his mom's recovery . She was stuck in a remote mountain area, largely living off candy and melted snow . The search continues for her husband, who left March 22 seeking help .

(CNN) -- The United States will not accept North Korea as a "nuclear state," Secretary of State John Kerry warned on Tuesday, just hours after Pyongyang announced plans to restart a nuclear reactor it shut down five years ago. North Korea's decision comes as tensions on the Korean peninsula escalate over Kim Jong Un's threats to wage war against the United States and South Korea. "The bottom line is simply that what Kim Jong Un is choosing to do is provocative. It is dangerous, reckless. The United States will not accept the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) as a nuclear state," Kerry said during a joint briefing in Washington with South Korea Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se. "And I reiterate again the United States will do what is necessary to defend ourselves and defend our allies, Korea and Japan. We are fully prepared and capable of doing so, and I think the DPRK understands that." North Korea's declaration that it would reopen the reactor demonstrates Kim's commitment to the country's nuclear weapons program that the international community has tried to persuade it to abandon. The North's state-run Korean Central News Agency, KCNA, reported that the reclusive state's atomic energy department intends to "readjust and restart all the nuclear facilities" at its main nuclear complex, in Yongbyon. Those facilities include a uranium enrichment facility and a reactor that was "mothballed and disabled" under an agreement reached in October 2007 during talks among North Korea, the United States and four other nations, KCNA said. The announcement was followed by a plea for calm from U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is South Korean. North Korean defectors return rhetorical fire . "The current crisis has already gone too far," he said in a statement from Andorra. "Nuclear threats are not a game. Aggressive rhetoric and military posturing only result in counteractions, and fuel fear and instability. "Things must begin to calm down, as this situation, made worse by the lack of communication, could lead down a path that nobody should want to follow." Ban said dialogue and negotiations are "the only way to resolve the current crisis." The tensions on the Korean Peninsula have led Pyongyang to sever a key military hot line with Seoul and declare void the 1953 armistice that stopped the Korean War. The United States has made a show of its military strength amid annual training exercises with South Korea, flying B-2 stealth bombers capable of carrying conventional or nuclear weapons, Cold War-era B-52s and F-22 Raptor stealth fighters over South Korea. On Tuesday, the United States positioned a second destroyer -- the USS Decatur -- near the Korean peninsula, a defense official said on condition of anonymity. The official was not authorized to release details to the media. A day earlier, the U.S Navy moved a warship and a sea-based radar platform closer to the North Korean coast in order to monitor that country's military moves, including possible new missile launches, the Defense Department said Monday. North Korea on Wednesday also blocked more than 480 South Korean workers from entering the jointly run Kaesong Industrial Complex, which sits on the North Korea side of the border, according to the South Korean Unification Ministry. "North Korea said today that it is only approving people to go back to South Korea and not approving entrance" to the complex, said Kim Hyung-seok, a spokesman for the ministry. He urged the North to resume letting workers enter. There are 861 South Koreans inside Kaesong at the moment, the ministry said, and 446 have registered to leave. The symbol of an era of better relations between Seoul and Pyongyang, Kaesong is a joint economic cooperation zone between the two Koreas where scores of South Korean companies operate. It also is an important source of hard currency for the North. The move comes after threats in recent days by Pyongyang to shut down the industrial complex. Seoul, meanwhile, on Monday warned that any provocative moves from North Korea would trigger a strong response "without any political considerations." U.S. moves warship, sea-based radar to watch North Korea . Murky motivation . The motivation behind the North's announcement Tuesday on the nuclear facilities was unclear, said Ramesh Thakur, director of the Center for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament at Australian National University in Canberra, suggesting that it was unlikely to make a big difference militarily for the country, which is already believed to have four to 10 nuclear weapons. The North Koreans may be hoping to use the move as a bargaining chip in any future talks, he said, or it could be an attempt by the country's young leader to shore up support domestically. "It's just a very murky situation," Thakur said. "The danger is that we can misread one another and end up with a conflict that no one wants." China, a key North Korean ally, expressed regret over Pyongyang's announcement about the reactor. "China has consistently advocated denuclearization on the peninsula and maintaining peace and stability in the region," Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hong Lei said Tuesday at a regular news briefing. Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the move would need to be dealt with in a serious manner, noting that it breached the North's previous commitments. On Tuesday, Kerry refused to speculate about North Korea's intentions or what its strategy may be with regard to its plans to reopen its reactor. "We've heard an extraordinary amount of unacceptable rhetoric from the North Korean government in the last days. So let me be perfectly clear here today: The United States will defend and protect ourselves, and our treaty ally, the Republic of Korea," he said. Kerry reiterated the U.S. policy with regard to North Korea, saying the United States believes there is "a very simple way" for Pyongyang to end the sanctions by ending its nuclear ambitions. Kerry was scheduled to visit Seoul next week, while South Korea's president was due in Washington for talks with President Barack Obama. South Korea warns North of 'strong response' to any attack . A torrent of threats . The North's latest declaration comes after a stream of verbal attacks against South Korea and the United States in recent weeks, including the threat of a nuclear strike. Pyongyang's angry words appear to have been fueled by the recent joint military exercises by the United States and South Korea in the region, as well as tougher U.N. sanctions in response to North Korea's latest nuclear test in February. Much of the bellicose rhetoric, analysts say, isn't matched by the country's military capabilities. Nuclear weapons: Who has what? The North's announcement Tuesday follows a new strategic line "on simultaneously pushing forward economic construction and the building of the nuclear armed force." It was announced Sunday during a meeting of a key committee of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea headed by Kim Jong Un. The work of adapting and restarting the nuclear facilities "will be put into practice without delay," KCNA said. The measures would help solve "the acute shortage of electricity," as well as improving the "quality and quantity" of the country's nuclear arsenal, it said. Threats of annihilation normal for South Koreans . Yongbyon's back story . In June 2008, the usually secretive North Korean government made a public show of destroying the cooling tower of the Yongbyon reactor to demonstrate its compliance with a deal to disable its nuclear facilities. But two months later, as its then-leader, Kim Jong Il, balked at U.S. demands for close inspections of its nuclear facilities, the North started to express second thoughts. It said it was suspending the disabling of its nuclear facilities and considering steps to restore the facilities at Yongbyon "to their original state." In November 2009, it announced it was reprocessing nuclear fuel rods as part of measures to resume activities at Yongbyon. It noted success in turning the plutonium it had extracted into weapons-grade material. OPINION: Why Kim Jong Un is not crazy . CNN's K.J. Kwon in Seoul, Tim Schwarz in Hong Kong, Dayu Zhang in Beijing, Yoko Wakatsuki in Tokyo and Barbara Starr and Elise Labott in Washington contributed to this report.

NEW: North Korea blocks South Korean workers from jointly run industrial complex . The U.S. is ''fully prepared" to defend itself, Kerry says . U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "deeply troubled" about North Korea's statements . The North says it is adapting and restarting facilities at its main nuclear complex .

Los Angeles (CNN) -- Firefighters in Southern California seemed Saturday to be winning the fight against the half dozen wildfires still burning. Santa Ana winds diminished significantly Friday, aiding first responders in their progress toward containment of the fires. Winds have shifted across much of Southern California, bringing cooler temperatures and higher humidity. Despite the reduction in winds, most of San Diego County continues to experience hot temperatures which, combined with dry conditions, allowed for at least one new wildfire to ignite. According to Cal Fire, a new 30-acre blaze began burning Saturday in Sycamore Canyon, inland from San Diego. Firefighters were able to stop it from spreading farther and no structures were threatened. On and around the Marine Corps' Camp Pendleton, six large wildfires remain active, having burned over 25,000 acres total. Since January 1, Cal Fire has responded to over 1,500 wildfires -- well above the average yearly number of approximately 800. This week's rash of wildfires is a reminder of just how dry conditions in California are. The agency is urging all Californians to ensure they are prepared by visiting ReadyForWildfire.org. At least four wildfires were completely contained early Saturday. Two more were nearly contained, and four others were steadily shrinking. But early Saturday, thousands of acres were still in flames that were driving walls of smoke skyward. The fire has scorched more than 31 square miles so far. The blazes in the state so far this year are "unprecedented," Cal Fire Director Ken Pimlott has said. Flames have swallowed up dozens of homes and businesses. And the wildfire season has only just begun. Erica Bene was running errands at Camp Pendleton with her two children when she spotted a huge plume of smoke behind a school. A wildfire was coming her way despite progress made by an army of firefighters in San Diego County in quelling a spate of blazes this week. Bene, the wife of a U.S. Marine deployed to Afghanistan, headed home to pack up some important items and evacuate. "I said 'let's go get the pets, and let's get out of here," she said. On the drive back home, orange flames raged. Shortly thereafter, the Marine Corps put out an evacuation order. The order spooked her 5-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter, but she explained that it didn't mean their house would burn down. The order just gave firefighters room to combat the blaze without having to worry about danger to residents. Her children are used to feeling uneasy because of their dad's dangerous deployment, Bene said. She took her children and the pets to a friend's home in nearby Temecula, where they plan to stay the night. By late Friday, the evacuation order had been lifted. If it remains lifted, she planned to go home Saturday. Arson arrests . Investigators have filed an arson charge against a man in one small fire in the county. At a news conference, the prosecutor identified him as Alberto Serrato, who's accused of adding brush onto an existing fire, District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis said. Serrato could face up to seven years in prison if convicted, Dumanis said Friday. Neither Serrato nor his attorney were immediately available for comment. Meanwhile, the prosecutor is weighing whether to press charges against a 19-year-old man and 17-year-old juvenile, both of Escondido, who were arrested Thursday in connection with a small fire that was extinguished, Dumanis said. Thousands on the move . Thousands of firefighters used air tankers, specially equipped DC-10s and military helicopters to douse the flames this week. Bene was just one of tens of thousands of residents to evacuate. In all, 176,000 notices of evacuation were sent throughout San Diego County via cell phone calls, e-mails, text messages and calls to homes and businesses, county Supervisor Dianne Jacob said. When Elisha Exon saw towers of smoke looming over her San Marcos, California, home, she knew it was time to go. The only problem: All the nearby places she'd normally take her family in an emergency were threatened by fire, too. "You kind of feel like your only safety would be to hop town, completely," she said. Ash and smoke filled the air in many places, making breathing difficult. So far, injuries have been few: Authorities found a charred body in Carlsbad, but it was unknown whether the person died because of the fire. A Camp Pendleton firefighter suffered heat exhaustion. Homes in the crosshairs . Thousands of homes across the county are still in jeopardy. "I've been doing this for 20 years," San Diego County Supervisor Bill Horn said. "This is the worst I've seen." Images from the fires were jarring. The night sky glowed orange from towering flames that consumed homes. Whirling columns of flame -- dubbed "firenadoes" or "fire whirls" -- spun across the landscape, in one case nearly devouring a hilltop home. Firenadoes can spit out winds as powerful as an EF-2 tornado. In video shot by Jeb Durgin and Byron Bowman, a helicopter wheeled over homes, dumping fire retardant just yards from a burning canyon choked with flames. Smoke obscured the road the two were driving on. Evolution of a disaster . The wave of wildfires started Tuesday with the Bernardo Fire in San Diego County. The next day, new blazes popped up -- each one separate from the others, each posing its own dangers. Here's where some of the major California fires stood late Friday, according to the agencies responsible for tracking them. The fires are listed by the names they have been given. The list begins with still active fires and ends with contained fires. Also included is a list of damage to structures: . Lead agency: Cal Fire . Bernardo Fire, San Diego County: 1,548 acres, 95% contained (all evacuations have been lifted) Cocos Fire, San Diego County: 2,520 acres, 70% contained (evacuations in effect) Poinsettia Fire, San Diego County: 600 acres, 90% contained . Lead agency: Marine Corps Camp Pendleton . Pulgas Fire, San Diego County: 15,000 acres, 40% contained . San Mateo Fire, San Diego County: 800 acres, 25% contained . Tomahawk Fire, San Diego County: 5,400 acres, 79% contained . Contained Fires . Aurora/Lakeside Fire: 17 acres, 100% contained . Freeway Fire, Naval Weapons Station in Fallbrook: 56 acres, 100% contained . Highway Fire, Deer Springs: 380 acres, 100% contained . Miguelito Fire, Santa Barbara County: 632 acres, 100% contained . River Fire, Oceanside: 105 acres, 100% contained . Initial damage assessment for San Diego County . City of Carlsbad has advised of the following damage and losses: . - 8 single family homes were destroyed or incurred substantial damage . - 3 single family homes sustained minor damage . - 1 multifamily 18-unit apartment building was destroyed . - 1 multifamily 18-unit apartment building incurred considerable damage . - 2 commercial buildings destroyed/substantially damaged . - 1 modular building was destroyed . City of San Marcos: reported the loss of one single family home . Cocos Fire: 11 single family homes were destroyed. In addition, 25 structures were destroyed at the Harmony Grove Spiritualist Association. Bone dry + brutal heat + gusty winds = unseasonably early wildfires . What to know about wildfires . Are you there? If you're in a safe place, please share your photos and videos. CNN's Chelsea J. Carter, Ben Brumfield, Carma Hassn and Kisa Mlela Santiago reported from Atlanta. Michael Matinez and Artemis Moshtaghian reported from Los Angeles.

NEW: Diminishing Santa Ana winds aid firefighters . NEW: Over 1,500 wildfires already this year -- well above average . Charge of arson is filed against one man for a small fire in Oceanside . A 19-year-old man and a 17-year-old juvenile, both of Escondido, are arrested in fire probe .

London (CNN) -- British Foreign Secretary William Hague pledged Thursday to help Libya improve human rights and boost stability, as rights groups and analysts warned that urgent action is needed to tackle the problem of lawless militia groups. Libya has achieved much in the year since the start of the popular uprisings that helped bring Moammar Gadhafi's 42-year rule to an end, Hague said in a statement, but challenges remain. Chief among them is how to deal with the many armed groups that took part in the uprising and now continue to exercise power, analysts say. Rights group Amnesty International said in a report Thursday that armed militias are committing human rights abuses with impunity, threatening to destabilize the country and hindering its efforts to rebuild. Detainees at 10 facilities used by militia in central and western Libya told representatives from Amnesty International this year that they had been tortured or abused, and at least 12 detainees held by militias have died after being tortured since September, the human rights group said. The Libyan authorities have not effectively investigated the torture allegations, it added. Hague said Britain would host a conference in the spring to look at ways the government "can take urgent steps to implement commitments made on upholding human rights and ensure reports of detainee abuse are being addressed." It will also provide "practical expertise to promote the rule of law," he said, with British experts offering advice to the interior ministry, Libyan police and lawyers. Britain will also fund a six-month program to engage young people in civic society, Hague said. "The work to rebuild Libya is just beginning and there are undoubtedly challenges ahead. But it is important to remember what has been achieved," he said. However, the armed groups -- mostly made up of young men without regular jobs -- are showing little inclination to give up their weapons, analysts say. Jane Kinninmont, an analyst for the London-based think tank Chatham House, said the militias were one of the main challenges the National Transitional Council, the country's transitional government, now faces as it tries to extend its authority. "They are far more important than alleged remnants of pro-Gadhafi forces -- there are more of them, they can legitimately claim that they helped in the revolution, and indeed they can argue that they did more to remove Gadhafi in practical terms than the lawyers and academics that are running the NTC," she told CNN via e-mail. Kinninmont said militia members now need jobs if they are to be integrated into civic society. "Most of those jobs will probably have to come from the public sector in the first instance, as Libya is an extremely state-dominated economy," she said, adding that an estimated 70% of the workforce is employed by the state at present. "Of course, westerners are advising Libya to focus on diversifying the economy away from oil and reduce dependence on the public sector, but realistically the experience of other oil exporters in the region suggests this will take a long time," she said. However, the government has made faster progress than many expected in terms of restoring the functioning of the economy, she said, and oil money could help with the reintegration of former fighters. Noman Benotman, a senior analyst at the Quilliam Foundation and a former leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which aimed to overthrow Gadhafi, said everything he has heard suggests the militia groups have no real intention of laying down their arms. The thousands of militia members countrywide do not view the NTC as being a legitimate political entity, he said. As a result, they argue that they need their weapons to ensure the future security of Libya. Meanwhile, the transitional government has done too little to speak to the Libyan people and instill confidence in the mostly good work it is doing to establish a functioning state, Benotman said. Some militias are forming powerful coalition blocs, making it even harder for the defense and interior ministries to deal with them and enforce the rule of law, he said. David Pollock, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and former senior adviser on the Middle East at the U.S. State Department, agrees that some of the competing regional militias have more power than the government itself. They are using that power "for extortion, for settling scores, tribal or personal, or otherwise generally for asserting their control over parts of the country," he said. He believes the Libyan government needs to strengthen the centralized military, while at the same time devolving some civic power to the tribal and regional groups and spending oil money to aid development outside the capital. This would help to defuse the long-standing tensions that exist between Tripoli and regional power bases, he said. The authorities' efforts to integrate militia members into a regular national army were a good step, he said, but much harder to achieve in practice than in theory. Pollock also points out that while any abuse is unwelcome, the large-scale atrocities committed under the Gadhafi regime were far worse than what is now being reported. Shashank Joshi, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a U.K.-based think tank, argues that the transitional government had few options when it assumed power. It lacked the military capability or the cohesion to take on the militias after the fall of Gadhafi's regime, he told CNN, and still lacks the capacity to force them to disband. "It's obviously a major problem that we have abuses committed on this scale... but at the same time there's nothing Libyans can really do," he said. "All they can really do at the moment is take on some of the most egregious violations, some of the people who have committed abuses on the biggest scale." A form of post-conflict justice is also needed, so that those militia members who have committed major abuses do not end up in positions of power, he said. The dangers of allowing armed leaders to assume power in a new government can be seen in the experiences of Iraq and Afghanistan, Joshi said. "Libya shouldn't allow these people to have a free pass," he said. "Even if they can't be taken on or disarmed, they can at least be disempowered." The European Union, United States and other international bodies could aid the Libyan authorities by imposing financial and travel sanctions on those who commit abuses, he added. The international community is guilty of taking its eye off the ball in Libya, Pollock said, and must ensure it backs up the struggling NTC or risk watching Libya "tip toward more violence instead of getting gradually better." A spokesman for the Tripoli Military Council told CNN Wednesday that civilian leaders in Libya must do more to assert their authority, holding accountable militia members who perpetrate abuses. "If the Libyan state is being built, these guys who committed this need to be brought to justice, whether they are revolutionary fighters or not, otherwise the whole world will ask, 'What changed in Libya?' The same systemic abuse and torture is continuing, and this is dangerous for the new Libya," council spokesman Anes Alsharif said. "The only solution is for the government to take over. You cannot let these guys keep holding the prisoners." Civilian authorities have been slow to step in, Alsharif said, even though some prisoners have been held for months without facing official charges. "When you talk to the government they say, 'keep them, we don't have time yet,' and this is wrong," he said. A process for government takeovers of prisons has begun, Libya's interim prime minister said in a televised address last month. Libya's ambassador to the United Nations, Mohammed Shalgham, told the world body last month that Libya does not approve of any abuse of detainees and was working to stop any such practices. Libyan Interior Minister Fawzy Abdilal told CNN this month that the country's interim government had not yet succeeded in integrating militias from different cities into a national security force. Other organizations have also raised concerns about the militias. The medical charity Doctors Without Borders said last month it was halting its work in detention centers in Misrata because detainees were tortured and were denied urgent medical care. Human Rights Watch said earlier this month that the torture and killing of detainees is an ongoing practice among Libyan militias and will continue unless the militias are held to account. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh contrbuted to this report.

NEW: Foreign Secretary William Hague offers Libya help to tackle human rights abuses . Armed militias are one of the biggest challenges for Libya's government, an analyst says . Rights group: Militias torture detainees, target migrants and displace communities . Officials have said they are working to stop abuse and integrate militias into a national force .

(CNN) -- Looking like a tourist can cost you money and pride. Looking like a local can open you up to even greater harassment. Read our survivor's guide, split the difference and come away with your upper lip intact. 1. Getting around . Travel around the UK is relatively simple. Yes, they drive on the left, but don't be daunted. Most roads are so narrow that it doesn't make any difference which side you're on. Be prepared when driving distances of more than 20 miles. These can be epic undertakings on Britain's congested highways, but the misery of gridlocked traffic will be more than compensated for by road signs pointing to places with names like Ramsbottom, Throcking and Goole. Britain has an extensive and efficient rail network, which only ever grinds to a halt when the weather turns hot, cold, wet or dry. Tickets are expensive but you can find cheap fares by booking eight or nine years in advance of travel. Try: The Night Riviera sleeper train from London to Penzance then a drive or hike around the spectacular Cornish Coast. More: 10 of London's oldest, greatest pubs . 2. Climate . There are warm days in the UK, but you know you're in a damp country when the merest hint of sunshine is front page news. Britain has four seasons, and while the transitions between them can be pleasant, each is typically as wet, gray and cold as the last. All are considered by Brits to be "ice cream weather." Whatever the climate throws at you, be prepared for endless conversations about it. These needn't be dull since, like Eskimos with snow, Brits have a impressive lexicon for rain. If you hear the word "mizzle," it probably means a light shower. Or maybe a low quality Snoop Dogg track. Try: The Royal Botanic Gardens. Dazzling spring and fall displays, but enough hot houses to ward off the worst of the weather (Kew, Richmond, London; +44 20 8332 5655). More: The world's best city is ... 3. Royalty . Don't be duped by Downton Abbey. Britain has come a long way since the days when ordinary folk were awestruck by aristocracy. This is a modern country where all are born equal and social rewards are based on merit. This is why few British people bothered turning up when a blue-blooded chap married his sweetheart in 2011. It's why barely anyone noticed when she gave birth a couple of years later. And it's also why no one batted an eyelid when his flame-haired brother got naked in Vegas. OK, none of that is true. British people are as in thrall to their royal family as you are. And they're willing to sell you a Wills 'n' Kate souvenir tea towel with matching oven mitts to prove it. Try: Windsor Castle. Sprawling royal residence west of London where Queen Elizabeth II can occasionally be spotted in her natural habitat (Windsor, +44 20 7766 7304). More: Photos: Prince George's christening . 4. History . Britain has so many ancient attractions, it's hard to know where to start. And if you do manage to visit all the sites of historical interest, archeologists will simply dig up the bones of another 15th-century king from under a parking lot, just to annoy you. But since some Brits are only aware of two key dates -- a French invasion in 1066 and an England soccer World Cup victory 900 years later -- you don't need to try too hard to catch up. Try visiting the northern city of York, where you can wallow in 2,000 years of British history in one location. Or Bath, where you can do the same and also wallow in a nice thermal bath (Hot Bath Street, Bath; +44 844 888 0844). Try: York Castle Museum. Compelling and sometimes gruesome stroll down Britain's memory lane (York Castle Museum, York; +44 19 0468 7687) More: 5 travel relationship killers . 5. Tea . There may be coffee shops on every UK street corner, but Britain is resolutely a tea-drinking nation. Vast lakes of insipid infusions are consumed on a daily basis. Visitors will note the almost mandatory provision of a miniscule electric jug, or kettle, in every hotel room. It will take four hours to boil half a cup, but for many Brits this is an essential lifeline. There isn't any crisis they believe can't be solved with a nice cup of tea, and perhaps a biscuit. When preparing tea, there are rituals to be observed. Use boiling water and, if you must resort to tea bags, always add the milk last. Failure to do so will result in such distress that it may take another cup of tea to calm everyone down again. Try: For posh tea, try Fortum & Masons (181 Piccadilly, London; +44 84 5602 5694). For normal, head to the Regency Café (17-19 Regency St., London; +44 20 7821 6596). 6. Language . Even if you're fluent in English, you may experience linguistic difficulties in the UK. Regional dialects vary extensively in the space of a few miles, resulting in bafflement even among locals. If you can't understand what a British person is saying, it's fairly safe to assume it's either a). something about the weather (see climate above), or b). an apology. British people love apologizing: they're sorry to trouble you, sorry they can't be more helpful, sorry about the rain and sorry about invading your country in 1762, or whenever it was. They also love apologizing when it's not even their fault: they're sorry that you bumped into them, sorry you knocked them to the floor and sorry that you are repeatedly thwacking them over the head and telling them to stop apologizing. Be warned though, it's contagious. Try: Glasgow. Scotland's second city is reputedly the UK's politest. Perhaps it's the impenetrable accents. Or the awful weather. More: Want better sex? Travel more . 7. Cuisine . Britain's bland national diet has been revolutionized by South Asian migrants whose spicy concoctions are now firm favorites sold on every high street. Meanwhile, pubs that once nourished customers with despondent sandwiches are now studded with Michelin stars. But don't be fooled. They might pretend to love fine dining, but when on the hoof, many Brits still prefer to fill their faces with offal and saturated fat. Few journeys are made within the United Kingdom that aren't catered with sausage rolls, Cornish pasties and Scotch eggs. Visitors troubled by the sight of greasy meat should also be warned of three words that will strike fear -- if not full-blown cardiovascular seizures -- into their hearts: Full. English. Breakfast. Try: Offally good food: St. John Bar and Restaurant (St. John Street, London; +44 20 7251 0848). Offally average: Any branch of Greggs bakery. 8. Television . Be sure to take time out from your travels to sample a few hours of British television, but seek not the polished period dramas that are easily exported to other countries. Where British TV excels is in its celebration of the lives of ordinary, dare we say boring, citizens. The UK's three most popular soaps focus not on the beautiful or the damned, but on normal folk engaged in humdrum tasks like buying cheese, arguing about pottery or tending to their farms. Talking of farms, every spring since 2010 British television has dedicated numerous prime time hours to some of the best reality TV ever conceived: live coverage of the annual lambing season. Keep up with that, Kardashians! Try: Tour locations from the UK's sheep-heavy "Emmerdale" soap: dull plots, stunning scenery (Brit Movie Tours; +44 84 4247 1007)

Tedious road journeys are offset with entertaining place names like Ramsbottom, Throcking and Goole . Prepare for endless conversations about weather -- probably identical whatever season it is . Coffee shops everywhere, but Britain is a tea-drinking nation. Vast lakes of insipid infusions are consumed daily .

(CNN) -- Although women the world over have been doing it for centuries, we can't really blame a guy for being a guy. And this is especially true now that we know that the male and female brains have some profound differences. Our brains are mostly alike. We are the same species, after all. But the differences can sometimes make it seem like we are worlds apart. The "defend your turf" area -- dorsal premammillary nucleus -- is larger in the male brain and contains special circuits to detect territorial challenges by other males. And his amygdala, the alarm system for threats, fear and danger is also larger in men. These brain differences make men more alert than women to potential turf threats. Meanwhile, the "I feel what you feel" part of the brain -- mirror-neuron system -- is larger and more active in the female brain. So women can naturally get in sync with others' emotions by reading facial expressions, interpreting tone of voice and other nonverbal emotional cues. Perhaps the biggest difference between the male and female brain is that men have a sexual pursuit area that is 2.5 times larger than the one in the female brain. Not only that, but beginning in their teens, they produce 20 to 25-fold more testosterone than they did during pre-adolescence. If testosterone were beer, a 9-year-old boy would be getting the equivalent of a cup a day. But a 15-year-old would be getting the equivalent of nearly two gallons a day. This fuels their sexual engines and makes it impossible for them to stop thinking about female body parts and sex. And so begins the 'Man Trance' All that testosterone drives the "Man Trance"-- that glazed-eye look a man gets when he sees breasts. As a woman who was among the ranks of the early feminists, I wish I could say that men can stop themselves from entering this trance. But the truth is, they can't. Their visual brain circuits are always on the lookout for fertile mates. Whether or not they intend to pursue a visual enticement, they have to check out the goods. To a man, this is the most natural response in the world, so he's dismayed by how betrayed his wife or girlfriend feels when she sees him eyeing another woman. Men look at attractive women the way we look at pretty butterflies. They catch the male brain's attention for a second, but then they flit out of his mind. Five minutes later, while we're still fuming, he's deciding whether he wants ribs or chicken for dinner. He asks us, "What's wrong?" We say, "Nothing." He shrugs and turns on the TV. We smolder and fear that he'll leave us for another woman. Not surprisingly, the different objectives that men and women have in mating games put us on opposing teams -- at least at first. The female brain is driven to seek security and reliability in a potential mate before she has sex. But a male brain is fueled to mate and mate again. Until, that is, he mates for life. Despite stereotypes to the contrary, the male brain can fall in love just as hard and fast as the female brain, and maybe more so. When he meets and sets his sights on capturing "the one," mating with her becomes his prime directive. And when he succeeds, his brain makes an indelible imprint of her. Lust and love collide and he's hooked. The 'Doting Daddy Brain' A man in hot pursuit of a mate doesn't even remotely resemble a devoted, doting daddy. But that's what his future holds. When his mate becomes pregnant, she'll emit pheromones that will waft into his nostrils, stimulating his brain to make more of a hormone called prolactin. Her pheromones will also cause his testosterone production to drop by 30 percent. These hormonal changes make him more likely to help with the baby. They also change his perceptual circuitry, increasing his ability to hear a baby cry, something many men can't do very well before their wives are pregnant. And a word to the wise for all the young mothers who are reluctant to let your husbands hold and care for your newborn. The more hands-on care a father gives his infant, the more his brain aligns with the role of fatherhood. So, hand over the baby. His emotions run deep . Although men have earned the reputation for being more stoic than women, they actually have stronger emotional reactions than we do. They just don't show it very often. Studies of men's faces show that the male brain's initial emotional reaction can be stronger than the female brain's. But within 2.5 seconds, he changes his face to hide the emotion, or even reverse it. The repeated practice of hiding his emotions gives men the classic poker face. It's his poker face and his analytical response to personal problems that can put him in the doghouse. She's crying as she talks about what's wrong with the relationship, and instead of hugging her, his mind is racing to find a way to resolve the problem as soon as possible. With practice and because of the way their brains are wired, men use their analytical brain structures, not their emotional ones, to find a solution. They enjoy this advantage, but women often take affront to it. When you're telling your husband your problem and he tries to solve it instead of hearing you out, you may think he's being insensitive. But that's not what's going on in his brain. He's working to solve the problem so he can relieve your pain as quickly as possible. Not because he doesn't care or doesn't want to listen, but because he loves you. 'Lovable Grandpas' and 'Grumpy Old Men' As men age, the male brain hormones change and the male brain and body goes into the stage of life called andropause. The king of male hormones -- testosterone -- goes down and the queen of female hormones -- estrogen -- goes up. Whether Grandpa is your kids' hero or the grouch they hate to visit depends a lot on how he handles these hormonal changes. For example, if his testosterone levels drop to an abnormally low level, he can feel tired, irritable and even depressed. Some men in this condition seek hormone replacement therapy and others find relief in exercise, more frequent sex, and spending more time with other people. The grandpa that kids can't wait to see is the one who's feeling the effects of the hormone oxytocin, often called the "cuddle hormone." He's fun and playful and likes to hear what his grandchildren have to say. He's much more patient with your children than he was with you, when you were growing up. The love circuits of the mature male brain can be hijacked by his grandkids, even more than they were by his own children. The 'Lonely Hearts Club' Not only is the mature male brain more receptive to closer bonds, but it's also more sensitive to loneliness. Nobody thrives when they're lonely, but it seems to take a major toll on older men. Sixty percent of divorces in couples over the age of 50 are initiated by women, leaving their husbands shell-shocked and devastated. Once his wife leaves, unless he makes a point of socializing more with other people, his brain stops getting the social workout it needs to make him feel good about himself. If he becomes a loner, his social-approval circuits don't get activated. In brain scan studies of older males researchers have found that the brain's pleasure and reward areas, the VTA and the NAc, remain more active in men who are social. So don't begrudge the divorcee or the new widower some socializing and seeking female companionship. The bottom line . The human brain is the best learning machine on the planet and human beings are capable of making major changes in our lives. But there are some things that the male brain and female brain are not likely to change anytime soon. And it makes more sense to deal with these brain realities, than to argue with them or ignoring them. The best advice I have for women is make peace with the male brain. Let men be men. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Louann Brizendine.

Louann Brizendine: Male and female brains mostly alike, but some profound differences exist . Men's sexual pursuit area 2.5 times larger than the one in the female brain, she writes . She says testosterone drives the "Man Trance"-- or a glazed-eye stare at breasts . Brizendine: A wife's pheromones cause "Daddy Brain." Later, "Lovable Grandpa" or "Grumpy Old Man"?

(CNN) -- It was the first house she looked at upon arriving in the small town in central Italy that would be her home for a semester abroad. But Amanda Knox immediately knew it was the one for her. The University of Washington student had been in Perugia for just a few hours on a hot summer day in 2007 with her younger sister, Deanna, who saw a poster that included the word "appartamento." They followed the girl who had posted the ad to a charming, four-bedroom villa near the University for Foreigners of Perugia overlooking a small valley where figs grew. The sisters chatted for hours in the kitchen with the two friendly Italian girls who lived there and made plans with them to tour the town the next day. To the wanderlust-driven young American, who had been hitting the books hard and working multiple jobs since high school so she could study abroad, it was a dream come true. "She didn't need to see any other place, she didn't need to see any other listings, she was set," says her sister. British exchange student Meredith Kercher moved into the house shortly after Knox settled in. The two foreigners became fast friends, Knox's friends and family say, as they explored Perugia together. None of them had any way of knowing that just weeks later, the home would be the scene of a grisly stabbing that would leave Kercher dead and Knox branded her cold-blooded killer. Prosecutors in Perugia said Knox directed then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito and another man infatuated with her, Rudy Guede, to hold Kercher down as Knox played with a knife before slashing Kercher's throat. Knox and Sollecito were convicted in 2009. Knox was sentenced to 26 years in prison and Sollecito is serving a 25-year sentence. Guede, a drifter originally from the Ivory Coast, was tried separately and is serving a 16-year sentence. Knox and Sollecito are awaiting a ruling on their appeal against conviction. Media paints two portraits of Knox . The sordid saga has played out in worldwide media long enough to have broken into dual narratives. Some journalists have portrayed Knox as an overly trusting college student who some believe was railroaded by the Italian justice system. Other media paint her as a licentious, manipulative young American still trying to get away with murder, despite an alleged confession, which she quickly recanted, and a conviction. To Knox's friends and family, it's a no-brainer. They grimace at the description prosecutors painted of Knox as a resentful American so angry with Kercher that she exacted revenge during a twisted sexual misadventure. Nothing in her past indicated she had the desire or capacity to kill anyone, let alone a friend, they say. One friend told CNN she was the kind of person who would pick up a spider and take it outside rather than kill it. More than anything, they say, her life had been all about immersing herself in new experiences and creating opportunities to travel abroad. Easy daughter . Growing up in Seattle, Washington, Knox was an easy daughter from the start, says Edda Mellas, Knox's mother. She was a child who never had to be told to do her homework or go to bed on time. She maintained a balance between a life indoors, where she studied regularly and read for pleasure, and a passion for outdoor activities and sports, in particular gymnastics and soccer. Knox's desire to study foreign languages and experience different cultures also became apparent early on, Mellas says. She took Latin in middle school and began expressing a desire to travel abroad. Even though her parents told her they couldn't afford a private high school, she applied on her own and was accepted with a substantial scholarship. She learned Japanese in high school and spent time in Japan as part of her studies, her mother says. "She loved learning languages. She thought about being an interpreter. She really wanted to be a writer and I said, 'Maybe you need to get a day job while you're trying to make money being a writer.' And then she thought about being an interpreter. Languages were definitely her kind of gift." In 2004, her mother took her daughters to Europe. They visited family in Austria and spent Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany. "They just loved seeing the history and the culture and differences in people. And it was a great experience," Mellas said. Knox eventually turned her sights to studying abroad in college. She rejected soccer scholarships from several schools because she knew she would have to commit to the sports program. So again, she set her sights on a longshot: the highly competitive University of Washington. She got in and made a positive first impression on practically everyone she met, says friend Andrew Seliber, who testified at her trial as a character witness. "I think it was her just open personality to, you know, see the good things in people and have always a positive attitude about everybody and everything in the world. And it was really refreshing coming to school and meeting people like that, especially like her, who were, you know, so willing to see everybody's perspectives about, you know, anything." Seliber adds she worked hard to keep up her GPA, making the dean's list almost every quarter, so she could travel her junior year. "I think (studying abroad) was kind of an extension of that personality where she always wanted to meet people and -- and just get their perspectives on the world, because there's really no better way of opening yourself up than to travel the world," Seliber says. She considered Germany, Austria and Scotland, her mother says, before deciding on Italy, a place she'd never been and where the people spoke a language she hadn't studied. "She wanted to try something different," Mellas says. "Once she decided on Italy, she thought about going to the really typical places: Florence or Rome. But she really thought that to her seemed more touristy. And she wanted just everyday, small-town, regular Italians and not where there would be hundreds of English-speaking people. She wanted to immerse herself in a smaller town and -- she looked around and Perugia had a program." Mellas worried about her but took comfort in the fact that she would be close to relatives in Europe. "You worry if you send your kids that far away. But it was also a dream of hers that you know, nobody was going to squash. I worried that she was too trusting. I worried that she didn't have enough self-preservation kind of instincts." European adventure . Knox worked in two coffee shops and an art gallery, living frugally to save the $10,000 she would need for the trip. Finally, the time arrived for her to begin her adventure in August 2007. She and her sister went to Europe to visit relatives before catching a train to Perugia. From the start, it was an adventure, her sister says. "We showed up in Perugia on the train and just thought we could find our way to her hotel, and realized that we had no idea where we were going. So we ended up hiking with our backpacks like, five miles right off the train station to even find a bus that would take us to our hotel," Deanna Knox says. As soon as they arrived, Knox made her way to the University for Foreigners of Perugia to get the lay of the land. "The city was really beautiful. You could really tell on Amanda's face and how she was acting that she was instantly in love." After school began, Knox sent enthusiastic e-mails to her family nearly every day. She described attending a chocolate festival and a book fair with Kercher. A few weeks into her stay, she wrote in various e-mails that she had met a handsome computer engineering student who looked like Harry Potter at a classical music concert. Knox had been a "late bloomer" in terms of dating, so news that she had met Raffaele Sollecito made her sister happy. "She was just infatuated with the whole idea of him. First of all, he was a foreign guy, he was sweet, he was really kind, he was smart. ... He was exactly my sister's type." Deanna Knox says. "It was pretty exciting. I wanted to learn more about him, and it just happened that they were only dating for two weeks before everything happened. I wish -- I really wish that they could've gotten to know each other a lot better." CNN's Mallory Simon and Todd Schwarzschild contributed to this report.

Friends, family: Nothing about Amanda Knox's past suggests she's a killer . Knox is serving a 26-year Italian prison sentence for killing Meredith Kercher . Friends grimace at description prosecutors painted of Knox as resentful American .

(CNN) -- Dion Almaer's career revolves around experimentation. As a software engineer, he's always trying out different approaches to get the best outcomes and running tests to confirm hypotheses. Last year, he decided to optimize the operation of a different kind of machinery: his own body. Almaer, 37, is about to become a father for the third time, and he wants to be around for grandchildren further down the line. That's partly why he decided last year to get his weight, and health in general, under control. In September 2012, the 5-foot-11 British-born man weighed 300 pounds. Today, he's 185 pounds. He didn't follow any one pre-established regimen to get there. A variety of books and lectures taught him about possible methods, and he tried different approaches until he found what worked for him. What he did specifically isn't necessarily the best method for everyone. "Try to set up an experiment where you give yourself some time, and kind of hold yourself to it," he advises. "If you screw up one day, that's in the past. Just pick yourself up and try again." Sitting, the American way . Growing up in London, Almaer was very active. He played soccer and cricket in his youth. But when he went to college at the University of Minnesota, he got hooked on computers. He rebuilt the university's student registration system and worked for a start-up company while still in school. The price of technology was slothfulness. "I started to move a lot less, and sit at a computer a lot more, and just ate crap all day long," he said. "It kind of escalated from there." Without fully realizing it, his diet turned to virtually all carbohydrates; he never ate vegetables. At the start-up company, he helped rig the soda machine so Mountain Dew would pour out even more concentrated. Being overweight seemed to bring down his immunity. He developed skin conditions. When he'd get a cough, it wouldn't go away for months. Over time, his weight ebbed and flowed. He got a little healthier while working in Boulder, Colorado. He lost a significant amount of weight when he and his wife moved to London, because he walked around the city and ate better. But when they relocated back to the United States, moving several more times, Almaer's weight swung upward again. Almaer boasts that he has lived in every time zone in the continental United States -- and most of them helped him gain weight. Target 1: Diet . Family members had been bugging Almaer for a long time about getting healthy. His father, a personal trainer and gym owner, was always in the back of Almaer's mind. But it was Gary Taubes, author of "Why We Get Fat," who ultimately inspired him. Taubes taught Almaer that not all calories are alike -- it matters what you eat -- and that carbohydrates in particular are bad because they stimulate insulin, a hormone that increases fat storage. Controversy still surrounds the idea that a low-carb diet is healthier than a high-carb one (Robert Atkins' famous diet, for instance, is still hotly contested), but Almaer decided to try it. Almaer cut way back on his carbohydrates, then started adding some foods back into the diet to see how he did. He stayed away from processed foods. He also started paying more attention to his body's signals, only eating when he was hungry. Another technique he found useful at the beginning of this journey was taking a photo of food that he was about to consume, making him feel more "in the moment" during the act of eating. In conducting his personal experiments, Almaer didn't want to start with more than one variable at a time, so he didn't add in exercise until he felt he had a good handle on diet. With diet changes alone, he lost 20 pounds in two weeks. He created a mobile Web app called 16:8 to track the time between his meals, because he had read about the idea of intermittent fasting. He would simply hit a button when he started and stopped eating, so he could monitor how energetic he felt in connection with how much time had passed since eating. For instance, he has discovered that he feels great when he runs in the morning even if he's been fasting since the night before. Target 2: Exercise . When he felt his diet was under control, Almaer decided to try running, which he had never enjoyed. The first time, he could barely get to the end of the block. He paced himself by taking long walks, then got into a routine of "run, walk, run." The key here was to commit ahead of time to running every single day, and letting that habit form, he says. He didn't have to make a decision every day about whether to exercise -- he had already made that choice. Soon he was able to run three miles at a time. Then five. At first, he would listen to podcasts while running. But reading a book about meditative running -- "Running with the Mind of Meditation" by Sakyong Mipham -- changed his mindset. When he challenged himself to run without technology, he ran at least eight miles, and felt better than during any other run. He also got into meditation itself, which he found even harder than exercise because of the need to stay focused. Although exercise has brought him noticeable physical and mental health benefits, he calculates that from a pure weight loss perspective, 80% of his loss has been due to his food intake. What he eats . Today, Almaer continues to focus on minimizing carbohydrates and sugars, focusing instead on protein and vegetables. Typically, for breakfast, he'll have a veggie bacon omelet, with water to drink. Lunch could be a salad with meat on top, or even a burger without the bun. Dinner might be quinoa with chicken, with more salad. Almonds make a good snack. He'll have a cup or two of coffee in the morning to help boost his metabolism and take some of the hunger away. Sticking to his diet isn't always easy. He remembers breaking down at a child's birthday party and eating more cake. The family still often eats pizza on Friday nights, but these days Almaer only has one slice instead of four. He's also determined that having a "cheat day" isn't as effective as he thought; at first he enjoyed being able to indulge on his cheat day. But the day after would always be full of cravings. Now he keeps his "cheat" treats small, such as dark chocolate. How it feels . Living with 115 pounds less than last year, Almaer says he has much more energy throughout the day. He used to be a night owl; now he doesn't even need an alarm to wake up in the morning. The tiredness he used to feel after lunch is gone. His lung and skin problems have cleared up. And his mood is "much more positive." Weight loss has provided him with tangible evidence that he was able to make modifications to better himself, boosting his self confidence. It makes him think, "Huh, I actually made a change, and it's actually working. What else do I want to do with my life?" He's intent on staying healthy, not just for himself, but for his family. He wants to live long for them as a good role model. "I can tell my kid a million times, eat your broccoli," he said. "But if I'm there eating a pizza, it's just not going to work." Almaer was brought to tears when, about eight months ago, his eldest son was at a friend's house and told his hosts he didn't want soda. He asked for water instead, "because that's what Dad drinks," Almaer recalls. "This is having a bigger effect than anything else that I can be doing," Almaer said. "What are the things I can model, especially as a father, to a son? And it keeps kind of escalating from there." When old photos of Almaer show up on the family's digital photo stream, his 4-year-old son Josh will shout "There's Fat Daddy!" or even, "I never got to meet Fat Daddy." The truth is, of course, Josh did meet Almaer when he was "Fat Daddy." He just doesn't remember when his father looked like that, only a year ago. The weight has been stored on the hard drive of the past. Have you lost weight? Submit your story to iReport .

Dion Almaer lost 115 pounds over the last year . He experimented with a variety of approaches to diet and exercise . He feels healthier and has more energy .

Washington (CNN) -- First the attackers blew up bombs outside a Pakistani prison. Then they scared off people in the area and used loudspeakers to call out specific inmates they were trying to release. Shiite prisoners left inside were killed. "It was a well-planned assault," noted CNN National Security Analyst Peter Bergen, who provided details Monday of the July 30 prison break in northwest Pakistan. Other similar operations in the past two weeks in Iraq and Libya successfully freed hundreds of convicted or suspected Islamic terrorists, a known strategy of al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. Bergen and other analysts cited the prison breaks as one of several reasons the United States has dramatically heightened its security stance by issuing a worldwide travel alert and closing almost two dozen embassies and consulates on Sunday, with 19 of them remaining shut for the rest of the week. The State Department said the substantial security steps reflect an "abundance of caution" over intelligence information that indicated final planning by al Qaeda in Yemen for possible terrorist attacks on Western targets to coincide with the end of Ramadan this week. 'Do something' An intercepted message among senior al Qaeda operatives in the last several days further intensified concerns already heightened by increased terrorist chatter detected by intelligence agencies, as well as the prison breaks. A message from al-Zawahiri to his second in command in Yemen told him to "do something," CNN has learned. U.S. and Yemeni officials had already spent weeks watching a rising stream of intelligence about the possibility of a major terrorist attack in Yemen, so the message caused them to fear imminent terrorist action. CNN had the information over the weekend and decided not to report the details about al-Zawahiri's involvement based on U.S. government concerns about the sensitivity of the information. Now that it has been widely reported in other media, including the New York Times and McClatchy, CNN has now decided to report it as well. And U.S. officials cautioned that there may be multiple sources of intelligence, including intercepts of electronic information from phone calls and web postings and the interrogation of couriers or other operatives. Opinion: What's behind timing of terror threat . Asked Monday about the prison breaks, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf called them "a concern for the international community" that is "separate and apart" from the U.S. concern about the latest specific terrorist threat. Bergen, however, noted that al Qaeda "actually announced a year ago that they were going to do this campaign of releasing prisoners from prison and they conducted something like seven prison assaults -- a couple of which have been quite successful." Prison breaks . A senior official with Iraq's interior ministry told CNN on condition of not being identified that top officials of al Qaeda in Iraq, including Adnan Ismail Najim Abdullah al-Dulaimi, escaped from Abu Graib prison during the jailbreak there last month and remains at large. Bergen noted that a 2006 prison break in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, led to the creation of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, one of the terrorist organization's most virulent affiliates. Although the prison breaks are not the main reason for the raised terror threat, said CNN Terrorism Analyst Paul Cruickshank, "it is part of the background music." Prison breaks can often strengthen terrorist groups because "some of these guys are likely to be seasoned operatives," he added. To CNN National Security Contributor Frances Fragos Townsend, the timing of the prison breaks and increased intelligence chatter building up to the end of Ramadan signaled heightened al Qaeda activity that required precautionary steps in response. She noted that in the run-up to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, "the government failed to connect dots." "These seem like dots that ought to be connected," said Townsend, a former homeland security and anti-terrorism adviser to the Bush administration. "You can figure out later whether or not you were right." Is rash of brazen prison breaks related? Interpol wants to know . Another dot she cited was that al-Zawahiri recently appointed Nasir al Wuhayshi, the Yemeni leader of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, to be the new general manager of the global al Qaeda network. CNN has learned al-Zawahiri's message for action was sent to Wuhayshi. A high-profile attack orchestrated by Wuhayshi would cement the Yemeni's new position in the al Qaeda hierarchy, Townsend said. Yemen is an area of particular concern. Three sources said the United States has information that members of the Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) are in the final stages of planning for an unspecified attack. According to a U.S. official with access to the latest intelligence, Wuhayshi's appointment as a top global al Qaeda figure would almost certainly have required back-and-forth communication between AQAP and al Qaeda central. At the White House, spokesman Jay Carney told reporters Monday that while U.S. anti-terrorism efforts had decimated al Qaeda's global leadership and greatly diminished its core in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, the threat still posed "has shifted to some of these affiliates, in particular AQAP." Over the weekend, Interpol warned that al Qaeda has been tied to the prison breaks on July 23 in Iraq, on July 26 in Libya and four days later in Pakistan. End of Ramadan . Another factor prompting the embassy and consulate closures is the end of Ramadan. Depending on when a new crescent moon is seen, the Muslim holy month could end Wednesday or Thursday. Ramadan's end is celebrated with the Eid al-Fitr festivities -- a three-day holiday in most Muslim countries. The State Department, in announcing its closures, alluded to this, saying that "a number of our embassies and consulates were going to be closed in accordance with local custom and practice for the bulk of the week for the Eid celebration at the end of Ramadan." Britain also announced its embassy in Yemen will remain closed through the end of Eid "due to continuing security concerns." Strategic reason . Townsend said there could be a strategic reason for shutting down the diplomatic offices. "Once you take targets away, it buys you additional time to try and disrupt, to identify the cell, the operators in country and the region, and work with your partners in the region to try and ... get them in custody or disrupt the plot," she said. "So, some of this operationally is about buying time." List of closures . A total of 19 U.S. embassies and consulates will be closed Monday through Saturday. The following 15 were part of the original list: . U.S. Embassy Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates . U.S. Embassy Amman, Jordan . U.S. Embassy Cairo, Egypt . U.S. Consulate Dhahran, Saudi Arabia . U.S. Embassy Djibouti, Djibouti . U.S. Embassy Doha, Qatar . U.S. Consulate Dubai, United Arab Emirates . U.S. Consulate Jeddah, Saudi Arabia . U.S. Embassy Khartoum, Sudan . U.S. Embassy Kuwait City, Kuwait . U.S. Embassy Manama, Bahrain . U.S. Embassy Muscat, Oman . U.S. Embassy Riyadh, Saudi Arabia . U.S. Embassy Sanaa, Yemen . U.S. Embassy Tripoli, Libya . The following four embassies have been added: . U.S. Embassy Antananarivo, Madagascar . U.S. Embassy Bujumbura, Burundi . U.S. Embassy Kigali, Rwanda . U.S. Embassy Port Louis, Mauritius . CNN's Jill Dougherty, Dana Bash, Hamdi Alkhshali, Chris Lawrence, Evan Perez, Gloria Borger, Jim Acosta, Elise Labott, Mohammed Jamjoom, NuNu Japaridze, Bharati Naik, Karen Smith and Hakim Almasmari contributed to this report.

NEW: Zawahiri message No. 2: 'Do something' "These seem like dots that ought to be connected," a CNN analyst says . 19 U.S. diplomatic posts around the world will be closed through Saturday . Intelligence intercepts, the end of Ramadan and prison breaks contribute to the alert .

(CNN) -- He was the football star who came to symbolize one of the reasons why many argued Qatar shouldn't be allowed the right to stage the 2022 World Cup. On Friday, a year to the day since he returned to Paris following his painstaking exit from Qatar, Zahir Belounis will take a moment to remember the scarring experience of being trapped inside his Doha apartment for months on end. "I cannot forget what happened...my head is still in that place," former French-Algerian football player Belounis told CNN. "I never did anything wrong but my life was ruined and for what? "Perhaps I don't understand the seriousness of what I achieved in getting out and being able to tell my story. "It's not just about me -- it's about all the people like me who have also suffered." Last year, on November 28, Belounis was reunited with his mother and family after returning to France along with his wife Johanna and two small daughters. Belounis had become the face of the struggle against "kafala" -- the system which ties employees to a specific employer within Qatar. Fiercely criticized by pressure groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, "kafala" has been labeled as facilitating modern day slavery, though recently Qatar said it had been making progress in reforming the system. Stranded in Qatar following a 18-month pay dispute with football club El Jaish, Belounis was finally allowed to leave the Gulf State after a lengthy campaign by human rights groups and those on social media. Belounis, who had plied his trade in the lower divisions of French and Swiss football, moved to Qatar in 2007 and initially enjoyed success. In 2010, he was offered a new five-year contract and signed the deal with the ambition of taking El Jaish into the nation's top division, which he achieved the following year. But once El Jaish was promoted, Belounis was sidelined and told he would not play again. There started the problem with his contract -- the club paying him only a small amount of what he was owed until the money stopped completely. For 18 months he struggled to feed his family, desperately contacting the French government and President Francois Hollande for help while he also sent an open letter to Pep Guardiola and Zinedine Zidane, two of the most famous men in football. The Qatari Football Association denied Belounis' allegations, stating that it had helped him recover unpaid wages from a previous club in the country and said the player had not lodged a complaint against El Jaish. In telephone conversations with CNN before he left Qatar, the footballer confessed he had been driven to drink and suicidal thoughts. Even now, some 12 months later, it remains a difficult subject, both for him and his family. "As a mother, there is nothing worse on earth than seeing your son screaming for help, crying on the phone, hearing him on TV, on radio," Zahir's mother Fouzia told CNN. "Of course I was aware that he wasn't held by some sort of terrorist group, but I felt like that every day. "The worst was the article saying he was suicidal, but I want to forget that day, it is haunting me until today." A photograph of Belounis emerging from the arrivals zone at Charles de Gaulle airport and moving almost immediately into the arms of his mother went viral online as the two embraced while cameras flashed and popped. "I remember that night," said Belounis. "I was alone in the bathroom and just remember thinking, 'I've had to come back to my mum's house like a kid.' "I had my wife and children and here I was, back at home. It wasn't right. "I was a grown man forced to crawl back to my mum -- it was embarrassing." Belounis suffered from anxiety as he struggled to adjust to his new found freedom. "When he arrived in Paris, he was like a traumatized animal, scared of everything," his brother Mahdi told CNN. "It was almost impossible to make him smile or laugh." Unable to settle in Paris, Belounis moved to Malaga in southern Spain where he found work at his friend's restaurant -- as a waiter. "In life you have to work," he said. "My friend wanted to help me and I am so grateful towards him. "At first it was difficult because I was used to the good life, being a professional football player. "But now I have learned the trade and I respect the job of a waiter. I've learned about the restaurant and I am grateful, although I never expected to finish my career like this." Last week, Qatar was back in the headlines after winning the right to host the 2019 World Athletics Championship. The decision was met with criticism by human rights groups who are unhappy at the Gulf State's treatment of migrant workers. In a statement, the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs insisted the country is making progress and expects labor reforms to be implemented over the coming months. "A new sponsorship law, currently under review, that will replace the outdated "kafala" system will be announced by next year," said the statement. "We are also working on laws to cover domestic workers. "As in every country in the world, change does not happen overnight. Significant changes such as these take more time to implement that some may wish, but we intend to effect meaningful and lasting change for the benefit of all those who live and work in Qatar. "Our plans are going through a legislative process and we expect to make announcements about new legislation by early next year." While Belounis says he is encouraged by these developments, he is anxious to witness greater progress. According to a report by DLA Piper and confirmed by the government, 964 workers from Bangladesh, India and Nepal died while living and working in the country in 2012 and 2013. The International Trade Union Confederation has estimated that 4,000 workers could die while working on projects by the time the 2022 World Cup begins. According to the Qatari government, there are over 1.4 million foreign workers currently plying their trade in the country. "Qatar's system is not a human system," Belounis said. "I think they have no choice but to make changes now. "The last time I heard the Emir speak, he said lots of good things but we want to see some action. We have to do something other than talk. "I am a victim of the 'kafala' system and the rules need to be changed so it will never happen again." Belounis is still awaiting news from the French justice ministry in his claim for unpaid wages against Qatari club El Jaish, though he insists his is a struggle that isn't just about money. "This is about human rights. I hope one day I will see justice and that the Qataris will come out in public and admit they made a mistake. "I want an apology. It's the only thing which will finish this episode." Both his mother and brother are desperate for Belounis to put his time in Qatar behind him. "Zahir is ready to fight even if we have to go to the European Court," said Mahdi. "This isn't just about Zahir, it is about hundreds and thousands of people who are in the exact same position that he was once in. "He is the symbol of this human disaster." Meanwhile, Zahir's mother is very much aware of the emotional torment her son has experienced. "I can see it in his eyes, because I know my son. And I felt he was internally destroyed and fragile. "I lost the kid full of joy I knew from before. It will take time, but I will get him back, I am sure. As for Zahir he still has flashbacks -- the nights of sleeping on the floor in his Qatari home, crying while he held his daughters, remain fresh in the mind. Even now, the picture of his two young girls asking, "What's wrong daddy?" haunts him. The depression which led him to ponder suicide might have lifted but the memories haven't. "I know that it will be a year since I came back but I just want to be alone," he said. "I remember telling my little girls that 'Daddy doesn't have any strength to fight anymore' but here I am. "I am proud of what has happened to me and to be the first to highlight this problem. "Perhaps I haven't fully realized what I've done...but I will sit tomorrow night and I will remember."

Zahir Belounis was a French-Algerian footballer . Belounis was stranded in Qatar following pay dispute . Arrived back in France on November 28 2013 . Belounis still awaiting payment from Qatari football club .

Abuja, Nigeria (CNN) -- Boko Haram launched a grisly attack on a Nigerian village in an area that troops had been using as a base in the search for hundreds of schoolgirls abducted by the militant group, witnesses told CNN on Wednesday. The hourslong assault on Gamboru Ngala that left at least 150 people dead, some of whom were burned alive, is the latest in a series of brazen attacks and abductions by Boko Haram, raising concern about whether the Nigerian government can retake control of the region from the entrenched terror group. Word of the attack follows news that President Goodluck Jonathan, who has been under fire for his handling of the mass abduction, accepted U.S., British and Chinese offers of assistance to find the schoolgirls, officials with those governments said. It's unclear what impact the latest attack could have on the international response to Nigeria's fight with Boko Haram, which so far has concentrated on helping the government rescue 276 schoolgirls abducted on April 14. The assault on the village came after military troops deployed to the area were called to the border area near Chad, where reports -- later determined to be false -- surfaced that the schoolgirls had been found with Boko Haram militants, witnesses and local officials said. CNN cannot independently confirm the report, and attempts Wednesday to contact Nigeria's military for comment were unsuccessful. Indiscriminate killing . Witnesses described a well-coordinated attack that began shortly after 1:30 p.m. local time Monday at a busy outdoor market in Gamboru Ngala. Wearing military uniforms, the militants arrived with three armored personnel carriers, they said. They shouted "Allahu Akbar" -- "God is great" -- and opened up on the market, firing rocket-propelled grenades and tossing improvised explosive devices, witnesses said. Some marketgoers tried to take shelter in shops only to be burned alive when the gunmen set fire to a number of the businesses, the witnesses said. A few Nigerian soldiers who had been left behind at the village could not hold off the assault and were forced to flee, they said. Many sought safe haven in nearby Cameroon, they said. The fighters also attacked the police station during the 12-hour assault, initially facing stiff resistance. They eventually used explosives to blow the roof off the building, witnesses said. Fourteen police officers were found dead inside, they said. The final death toll could be closer to 300, Nigerian Sen. Ahmed Zanna told CNN. Monday's bloody attack by Boko Haram militants, some of whom U.S. officials say have been trained by al Qaeda, follows a pattern of seeking revenge against anybody who is perceived to have provided aid to the Nigerian government. International aid taking shape . News of the attack came as U.S. officials pressed ahead with plans to provide Nigeria with law enforcement assistance and military consultations, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. "Obviously, this is in the interest of the Nigerian government to accept every aspect of our assistance," she told reporters during a briefing Wednesday. "They conveyed that they were willing to do that yesterday and it continues to be in their interest to be as cooperative as possible." U.S. officials will establish a joint coordination cell at the U.S. Embassy in Abuja where the goal will be to provide intelligence, investigations and hostage negotiation expertise, Psaki said. The cell will include U.S. military personnel, who are expected to arrive in Nigeria in the coming days, she said. The Pentagon has started planning for how it can help Nigeria, a senior U.S. military official told CNN. It's unlikely at this point that U.S. troops would be involved in operations, the officials said. Britain is sending a small team of experts to complement the U.S. team, a spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron said Wednesday. The spokesman didn't specify the nature of the team's expertise. On behalf of China, Premier Li Keqiang offered satellite and intelligence services to aid in the search. Meanwhile, Nigerian authorities offered a reward of about $310,000 on Wednesday for information leading to the rescue of the girls. "While calling on the general public to be part of the solution to the present security challenge, the Police High Command also reassures all citizens that any information given would be treated anonymously and with utmost confidentiality," the Nigeria Police Force said in a statement. According to accounts, armed members of Boko Haram overpowered security guards at an all-girls school in Chibok, yanked the girls out of bed and forced them into trucks. The convoy of trucks then disappeared into the dense forest bordering Cameroon. The reward offer comes amid international outcry over the mass kidnapping in mid-April. The #BringBackOurGirls campaign initially began on Twitter. It quickly spread, with demonstrators taking to the streets over the weekend in major cities around the world to demand action. Defending the response . Nigeria's President has been under enormous international pressure to step up efforts to rescue the girls after come after waiting three weeks to publicly acknowledge the kidnappings. His administration, however, is defending its response -- even as details emerged this about a second mass kidnapping. At least eight girls between the ages of 12 and 15 were snatched Sunday night from the village of Warabe by Boko Haram, villagers said. "The President and the government (are) not taking this as easy as people all over the world think," presidential spokesman Doyin Okupe said, adding that helicopters and airplanes have searched for the girls in 250 locations. More troops, he said, are on the way. Despite the flurry of activity, the father of two of the schoolgirls taken by Boko Haram scoffed at the Nigerian government's response. "We have never seen any military man there," said the father, who is not being identified for fear of reprisals by the government or Boko Haram. "Had it been military men who went into the bush to rescue our daughters, we would have seen them." Members of the U.S. Congress called for action, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called the abductions "abominable" and Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani children's rights activist shot in the head by the Taliban, spoke out, too. "The girls in Nigeria are my sisters and it is my responsibility that I speak up for my sisters," Yousafzai told CNN's "Amanpour." The U.S. first lady, Michelle Obama, was among the latest high-profile figures to take to Twitter about the girls' plight, tweeting a photo of herself holding a sign that read: #BringBackOurGirls. "Our prayers are with the missing Nigerian girls and their families," she said in the post. Boko Haram: A bloody insurgency, a growing challenge . 'I abducted your girls' Boko Haram translates to "Western education is sin" in the local Hausa language, and the group has said its aim is to impose a stricter enforcement of Sharia law across Africa's most populous nation, which is split between a majority Muslim north and a mostly Christian south. The United States has branded Boko Haram a terror organization and has put a $7 million bounty on the group's elusive leader, Abubakar Shekau. A man claiming to be Shekau appeared in a video announcing he would sell his victims. The video was first obtained Monday by Agence-France Presse. "I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market, by Allah," he said. "There is a market for selling humans. Allah says I should sell. He commands me to sell. I will sell women. I sell women." More than 450,000 people, including celebrities and lawmakers, to date have signed a change.org petition that calls upon the world to act to save the girls. The petition calls on Jonathan and the government "to ensure all schools are safe places to learn, protected from attack." CNN Freedom Project: Ending Modern-Day Slavery . Isha Sesay and Vladimir Duthiers reported from Abuja; Chelsea J. Carter reported and wrote from Atlanta. Journalist Aminu Abubaker contributed from Kano, Nigeria. Journalist Aminu Abubakar and CNN's Michael Pearson and Nana Karikari-apau contributed to this report.

NEW: China offers satellite and intelligence assistance in the search for girls . Boko Haram militants attacked Gamboru Ngala, killing at least 150 people . United States and Britain are sending teams to help Nigerian forces . Nigerian authorities offer a reward for information leading to the girls' rescue .

(CNN) -- Few things are worse for the traveler than nasty surprises. Yet we keep traveling. Not simply because we like to travel or because we must travel, but because we accept that the world is an imperfect place and the travel industry an imperfect business that likes, when possible, to get by on the bare minimum. Nevertheless, there are some fixes that could be implemented quickly and cheaply that would make travel much more pleasant for everyone. We seek neither the impractical (first-class leather seats in coach), the implausible (teleportation), nor the unrealistic (airport concourses that demand less walking than a breast cancer fund-raiser). Even better, none of the brainstorms below are protected by patents, licenses or other legal restrictions, so Big Travel can feel free to scoop them up and begin making our lives better right away. 1. Update hotel check-in times . In 1946, the Tote'm convenience-store chain extended its hours from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., announcing its groundbreaking move by changing its name to 7-Eleven. In 1974, the company now known as ACCEL/Exchange booted up the world's first 24-hour ATM network. In 2005, England and Wales ushered in the era of never-ending beer drinking by granting licenses allowing pubs to serve liquor round-the-clock. Yet as nonstop commerce has created a sleepless planet, hotels remain mired in conventions of the 1800s, when the steam train rolled in and out of town once each afternoon and again the following morning. With airlines cleaving away from the hub-and-spoke system -- which once rigidly controlled arrival and departure times -- in favor of more or less continuous schedules and red-eye flights, the hotel industry needs to restructure its own arrival and departure policies to reflect modern traffic flow. Few miseries compare to landing in a city at 6 a.m. only to while away the morning in traveler's purgatory awaiting an "early" 1 p.m. check-in that you had to grovel to get. The major hotel chain that figures out a way to implement "anytime check-in" on a mass scale will become the new Hilton. Unless, of course, Hilton gets to it first. 2. Invent a universal plug socket . A few years ago, tech-connected people lived in an era of many too gadgets and not enough laptop sockets, wondering why the hell devices couldn't just share the same plug-ins. Then someone invented the USB. The travel industry is suffering from a similar connection problem. Two thin pins in the United States; two round pins in Europe; three chunky pins in the United Kingdom; three even chunkier pins in India, with some smaller three-pins occasionally used for really old lamps. There are attempts to paper over this dilemma. But what if you're not lucky enough to be in a business hotel with a full 3x2 foot panel dedicated to a dozen types of plug shapes? What if you don't want to carry around three different personal plug adaptors that might work, if you're lucky? China has started to try to solve this problem, with some hotels employing single, all-purpose wall sockets able to accept various shapes and numbers of pins. Isn't it time everyone started doing the same? 3. Bring us the check . Introducing the future of good service -- the coffeecheck. Nothing spoils a meal like being held hostage to an uppity or lackadaisical waiter's notion of when you'll be allowed to leave the restaurant. Checks should be delivered with the final course, at least for businesses lunches. 4. Abolish institutionalized taxi extortion . One of the enduring mysteries of travel is the shocking percentage of municipalities that allow the first impression of their cities to be an extortionate US$65 cab ride from the airport to downtown. Does the Mafia run every taxi company in the world? Is it too much to ask that visitors to major cities be spared from getting fleeced as if they've concluded a losing transaction with a neighborhood bookie as soon as they get to town? Affordable rides into the city would eliminate a significant amount of the stress and hassle endured by visitors coming to a place for the first time. If private enterprise can't responsibly accommodate tourists, local legislation should be employed to force them into it. 5. Offer upgrades whenever possible . Airline upgrades are the Bigfoot of the travel world. People talk of them in hushed tones, with shrugged shoulders, their faces darkened in some corner of a rural tavern as they exchange secrets on how and where you might be able to score one. Surely this is ridiculous. We understand the consumer psychology behind premium-level status -- you start giving away your exclusive product and suddenly it's no longer exclusive. But while most consumer-facing industries like to improve customer experiences whenever possible, the airline industry seems to go out of its way to keep its passengers grumpy and miserable. The hotel industry is a little better. Taj Hotels has a policy of upgrading to the next level of room or suite if available when you check in. But for the most part hotels avoid upgrading, too, and we suggest at some cost. Wouldn't the word-of-mouth and social media praise be worth it from customers grateful for surprise upgrades if they occurred more often? 6. Retire the beverage cart on short flights . Responsible for more mashed toes and dislocated elbows than the UFC, these 300-pound chariots of doom present passengers in aisle seats with a constant danger, cost airlines millions and keep us from hitting the head at precisely the moment we most need to. To shave expenses, airlines have already done away with most food. The next logical step is ending the tiresome drink service that creates more trouble than it's worth. For flights of two hours or less, hand out bottles of water and sell beer, wine and drinks in the departure lounge. This will save the airlines money and labor and, for customers, eliminate the risk of being sideswiped every five minutes by the polyestered haunch of an exhausted flight attendant horsing a Sisyphun weight up and down the aisle taking drink requests and barking orders -- "Keep your feet in!" "Watch your knees!" -- with all the élan of the guy who sits in the booth and weighs you in at the dump. 7. Just stop talking, please . The first port of call for most vacations -- the airport -- is invariably an unending and un-ignorable procession of barely decipherable Tannoy announcements, most of which are entirely superfluous. Noise equals stress, so airports should be minimizing it wherever possible, not adding to it. We know by now to keep our luggage with us at all times, that airports are non-smoking areas and if you have had to call Mrs. Bawdwallah nine times to "proceed immediately to gate number 12," it's safe to say she doesn't care or she isn't able. And while you're at it, how about upgrading those 1930s-quality public address systems in airports and on planes? 8. Eliminate the paper trail . Why do we need a tissue-thin napkin every time someone on an airplane hands us four ounces of water in a urine-sample cup? Former American Airlines chairman Robert Crandall once famously saved his company US$40,000 a year by eliminating the olive from salads the airline once served onboard. A small redwood forest could be recycled from the napkins airlines plow through each year. 9. Make booking more transparent . You think you've found the deal of a lifetime, till you click "checkout" and the price suddenly doubles due to the airport tax. Or you spot an airline ad for "US$10 deals" to the other side of the world, but you have to book on exactly the right day and on the right flight to take advantage and they don't mention when that is. A little transparency from the start would go a long way to making the booking process far better. 10. Give us our phones back . If you can get a 300-ton hunk of iron and aluminum into the sky, surely you can figure out a way for us to use our iPads without it causing a disaster?

Listen up, Big Travel! These fixes would make travel more pleasant for us and maybe save you money. Do we really need a napkin every time someone hands us a drink? Let us check into a hotel any time of day. Upgrade the quality of public address systems in airports and on planes.

(CNN) -- Upgrading to the new Windows 8 operating system is not nearly as complicated as it looks, despite Microsoft's sometimes muddled marketing. Getting used to using it is a different story. At midnight Thursday, Microsoft's newest operating system is finally on sale. With more than a billion users, Microsoft's Windows is the dominant PC platform in the world. This launch is a big moment for the company, which is trying to keep those users from leaving for more mobile friendly competitors. CNNMoney: Windows 8 -- Microsoft's biggest gamble . Here are the basics for regular, non-techy Windows users curious about getting started with Windows 8. What is Windows 8? Windows 8 is Microsoft's latest operating system. It features touchscreen capabilities and a drastically different interface, and runs on tablets as well as PCs. It can be controlled entirely by touch (on compatible devices), with a mouse and keyboard, or by any combination of your preferred input options. The operating system is a daring effort by Microsoft to stay relevant as PCs are being overtaken by mobile devices. Apple's iOS and Google's Android operating systems are dominating the tablet and smartphone market, and Microsoft is attempting something big, different and risky to catch up. This is Microsoft's first operating system since the well-received Windows 7 was released three years ago. It is a complete reimagining of the desktop computer interface, but it is built on the same base as Windows 7, so all your old applications should continue to work just fine. (Except on devices running Windows RT. More on that later.) What's different in this operating system? The biggest change in Windows 8 is a system-wide shift in attitude. Apple products have the reputation for being fun and creative, Windows PCs for being dull but hardworking. One brand screams "Angry Birds," the other Excel spreadsheets. Microsoft wants Windows to be hip and enjoyable to use, so it has come up with its own tablet-style interface and tried to make it work on tablets as well as PCs. At its best, the result adds some much needed life to an all-work-and-no-play operating system. At its worst, Windows 8 feels like two creatures hastily thrown together, à la CatDog. One interface feels better with a touchscreen and gestures, the other with a keyboard and mouse or touchpad. The familiar desktop view has been pushed to the background to make room for a colorful, touchable, swipeable Start Screen, which acts as your home base. When you start the computer, you'll be greeted with a jazzy array of square and rectangle tiles representing applications, arranged into groups. The tiles can show live information such as your latest e-mail, breaking news, photos, the weather or calendar reminders. This side of Windows 8 runs apps developed for and sold in the Windows Store. But you can also click on a traditional Windows application and it will open it in the desktop view. Windows 8 review: A big, beautiful, slightly shaky step forward . Back on the old desktop view, the most visible change is that the Start button is gone. All your old applications look and feel the same in this retro world, though tapping on buttons designed for a mouse can be tricky. If you get confused, and you will in the beginning, one swipe from the right side of the Start Screen brings up a search tool to help you track down files or applications. Some Windows users will scoff at the attempts to liven up the old system as pandering to more casual computer users, or as somehow making the system less capable of serious work. But there are also many subtle, under-the-hood changes, including performance improvements. Most notably, the startup time is greatly improved over Windows 7. There also is a new feature called Storage Spaces that makes it easy to manage your various storage and backup options. Who should update to Windows 8? The first version of a new operating system is bound to have bugs and issues. Individual Windows users, especially those with just one machine who depend on it for work or school, should not rush right out for that upgrade. Wait until a more stable version comes along that irons out early problems. If you have an non-touchscreen computer, the switch may not be worth it unless you need the under-the-hood improvements. The operating system works on regular computers that don't have touchscreens, but they miss the best parts of the experience. The Start Screen and new tiled interface aren't nearly as satisfying when you can only click on them with a mouse (a touchpad is slightly better). If you are a diehard Windows fan, or just a tech-savvy computer user familiar with the perils of being an early adopter, you'll just need to make sure your current computer meets the system requirements. If you want to buy a new computer, there are already a large number of touchscreen options pre-loaded with Windows 8 from major manufacturers, including Samsung, Sony, Dell and Toshiba. There are ultrabooks, tablets, hybrids and desktops at all prices. There is plenty of hardware available at launch, but the Windows Store software selection is still a bit sparse. Corporate users are usually slower to upgrade their workforces to a new operating system, and without a compelling reason to switch to Windows 8, that will likely be the case this time as well. A recent report from technology research firm Gartner predicts 90% of enterprises will wait to upgrade to Windows 8 until 2015. Companies that depend heavily on mobile devices might be the exception. Which version of Windows should I get? There are four versions of the new Windows operating system: Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro, and Windows RT and Windows 8 Enterprise. While that may seem like a lot, it's actually fewer versions than Windows has offered for its operating systems in the past. Luckily, the decision of which to buy is pretty much made for you. If you are an individual upgrading an existing computer, your only option at the moment is Windows 8 Pro. The basic consumer version of Windows 8 will not be available for standalone purchase until February 2, 2013. For now, Windows RT and the basic version of Windows 8 are only available pre-installed on new computers. The differences between Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro are minor. The big decision you'll have to make when buying a new system is if you want a Windows 8 or Windows RT device. Windows RT is a different version created for devices with ARM processers. These processers, typically found in phones and tablets, use less power, which means longer battery life. At the moment, Windows RT is only available pre-installed on Microsoft's new Surface tablet and a handful of other devices. CNNMoney: In Windows 8, the iPad has its first real challenger . Windows RT and Windows 8 look the same, but there's one key difference: Windows RT will not run your old Windows applications, only applications available through the Windows Store. That means no downloading any third-party apps from the Internet. The Windows Store has 5,000 apps in stock, but that number should grow over time. This closed approach is similar to the iPad and iPhone, which can only run applications sold through Apple's App Store. Finally, are you a large company planning on buying a large number of licenses? If yes, check out Windows 8 Enterprise. Is Windows 8 difficult to learn? Windows 8 presents a completely new approach to using a Windows computer, and as with anything radically new, it takes some getting used to. Do not upgrade unless you can spare some time to familiarize yourself with the layout and settings. The new look borrows heavily from the iOS and Android mobile operating systems, but isn't nearly as intuitive. Before you get scared off, know that it's not that hard to figure out the new system. It just takes a bit of effort and time, like learning any new program would. Microsoft took a big leap and created something new. Getting acclimatized is just a natural part of the process. Some stores selling the Windows 8 products are offering classes. Staples, for example, will have free personalized training on the new system, as well as help moving old data over to a new computer. How much does it cost? Microsoft is dropping the $200 price of Windows 8 Pro for its big debut. Existing WIndows 7, WIndows Vista and WIndows XP (with SP3) users can upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for $40 online. If you'd prefer a physical copy shipped to you in a nice box, the price goes up to $70. The deal is good through the end of January.

The new Windows 8 operating system is available after midnight Thursday . It can be downloaded online, shipped or you can buy a new computer with it pre-installed . The new interface, which is for tablets and PCs, is fun but takes some getting used to . Existing Windows users can upgrade for $40 online .

Abidjan, Ivory Coast (CNN) -- The European Union announced a recovery package of 180 million euros for the Ivory Coast on Tuesday as residents of the African nation attempted to adjust to life with a clear leader and relative stability after months of bloodshed. Forces arrested former President Laurent Gbagbo after storming his residence on Monday. Gbagbo defied calls to step down after an electoral commission declared he lost a presidential election in November to Alassane Ouattara. Ouattara has been recognized internationally as the legitimate winner. A violent power struggle followed the standoff, with supporters loyal to both sides taking to the streets in protests since December. Hundreds have been killed, according to the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross. Andris Piebalgs, EU commissioner for development, announced the recovery package on Tuesday. "We will stand by Ivory Coast and its people by immediately starting to work with the government of President Ouattara to support him in getting the country on the right track towards reconciliation, democracy, economic recovery and sustainable development," he said. The funding will provide support to ensure basic needs for citizens such as health, water, sanitation and to support the agricultural sector, Piebalgs said in a statement. It also will clear the Ivory Coast's debt accumulated through the European Investment Bank. Top military brass pledged their support to Ouattara in a ceremony Tuesday at a hotel in Abdijan. Gen. Phillipe Mangou, Gbagbo's former army chief of staff, said on state television that the generals were received by Ouattara and given orders to take measures to restore order in the country. All security personnel should rejoin their posts Wednesday morning, Mangou said, to help the country return to normal. He also appealed to citizens who participated in the unrest to lay down their weapons and return to work, saying that those who fail to do so will be considered outlaws. The United Nations' World Food Programme said it was planning airlifts in the coming days "to provide life-saving food assistance to tens of thousands of internally displaced people" in Ivory Coast, as well as Ivorian refugees in neighboring Liberia. "We need to open up a humanitarian lifeline to the many Ivorians who are now the victims of alarming shortages of food, water and other basic needs," said Josette Sheeran, World Food Programme executive director. The organization will airlift food from Niger and Mali into western Ivory Coast and Monrovia, Liberia, as part of a plan to transport 15,000 metric tons of cereals, vegetable oil and other items, it said in a statement. U.S. President Barack Obama called Ouattara on Tuesday "to congratulate him on assuming his duties as the democratically elected president," the White House said in a statement. Obama offered Ouattara support in his efforts to unite the nation, restore security and the economy and reform the security forces, the statement said. In addition, "the two leaders ... reiterated the importance of ensuring that alleged atrocities are investigated and that perpetrators -- regardless of which side they supported -- are held accountable for their actions" in Ivory Coast, the White House said. The two also committed to support the United Nations commission of inquiry and the International Criminal Court in investigating abuses. Gbagbo rejected an offer to teach at an American university and have supporters in Ouattara's cabinet, as well as immunity from International Criminal Court prosecution, an African diplomat with knowledge of the situation told CNN Tuesday. Gbagbo had only 200 troops left and no way to restock the basement refuge of the presidential palace when he was captured, the source said, declining to be named discussing sensitive details. The Ivorian forces who stormed Gbagbo's residence could simply have thrown a grenade into the basement, but Ouattara had given specific instructions that he was not to be killed, the source said. "Finally, we have reached the dawn of a new era of hope," Ouattara said in a televised address Monday. "We had hoped this transfer had been different, but we have to focus on today." Ouattara said he would set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate allegations of human rights violations. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed Ouattara's plan for the commission, according to a statement from his spokesperson. In a phone call with Ouattara on Monday, Ban underlined the expectation that any further bloodshed will be avoided now that Gbagbo is in the hands of Ouattara's forces. "The Secretary-General calls on all parties to work together to put an end to this tragic chapter, which could have been avoided had Mr. Gbagbo respected the will of the people at a far earlier stage," according to the statement. Ouattara urged his countrymen to lay down their weapons and said he has asked the justice minister to start legal proceedings against Gbagbo, his wife and his colleagues. Gbagbo was being held at the Golf Hotel, which has served as Ouattara's headquarters during the turmoil. Ouattara's government remains responsible for Gbagbo's physical safety, according to the U.N. statement. Gbagbo asked for and is receiving U.N. protection, according to Alain Le Roy, under-secretary-general of the U.N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations. Le Roy said forces are also ensuring the security of the former leader's wife. "I understand from President Ouattara that he wants President Gbagbo to go on trial in Ivory Coast," said the U.N. official. Fighting largely ended soon after Gbagbo's arrest, Le Roy said. "To my knowledge, most of the fighting has stopped," he said, adding that "there are pockets of resistance here and there." Le Roy -- along with the Ivory Coast's ambassador to the United Nations, Youssoufou Bamba, and the French Embassy -- said forces loyal to Ouattara made the arrest. Authorities are trying to move carefully and follow legal procedures to bring Gbagbo to trial, said a senior U.S. official with knowledge of the events. The official declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the situation. The arrest is a "step in the right direction to return Ivory Coast to normality," the source said, adding that the city of Abidjan is a wreck, with "death squads, militias roaming (and) burning bodies on the streets, which is posing a major humanitarian challenge." The fighting left Abidjan with sporadic power and sanitation, and residents said dead bodies were left on the streets. Even after Gbagbo's arrest, Abidjan looked like a ghost city, with few venturing outside after all the violence. Parts of the city were still grappling with food and water shortages on Tuesday, but some signs of normalcy surfaced as traffic flowed on the streets. Speaking from inside the Golf Hotel, Gbagbo told his supporters to stop fighting. "I hope that people lay down their weapons and return to a normal state of civil rule so that the crisis can conclude as quickly as possible," he said. Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who served as the African Union's main negotiator in Ivory Coast, said he hopes Ouattara will be merciful as president. "Gbagbo's capture should be a lesson to African leaders to respect the will of the people as expressed in the ballot," he said. "I urge President Ouattara to be magnanimous in victory and grant him and his people amnesty." Ouattara should also exercise inclusivity in the formation of his government, Odinga said. At least tens of thousands of people have fled into neighboring Liberia to escape the fighting, according to Oxfam, an international aid organization. The International Committee of the Red Cross said that 800 people had been shot dead in the western cocoa-producing town of Duekoue during the conflict. A U.N. official put the death toll at 330. Ban predicted last week that the outcome of the crisis in Ivory Coast would set the tone for other nations in Africa. "What happens in Cote d'Ivoire has huge implications for the continent that will have 16 presidential elections this year," he said, using the French name for the country. CNN's Dan Rivers, Jack Maddox, Sarita Harilela, Carol Jordan, Mariano Castillo, Niki Cook, Matthew Hoye, Alan Silverleib and Zain Verjee contributed to this report .

NEW: Obama calls President Alassane Ouattara . EU announces recovery package for Ivory Coast . Military leaders pledge support for Ouattara . Laurent Gbagbo rejected immunity, influence and a university position, a source says .

(CNN) -- U.S. officials are claiming that the terrorist group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, is "now a credible alternative to al Qaeda." But what does that really mean in terms of ISIS' potential threat to the United States? After all, al Qaeda hasn't pulled off a successful attack in the States since 9/11, or indeed anywhere in the West since the London transportation bombings in 2005. This month, Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, criticized the airstrikes in Iraq ordered by President Barack Obama directed at ISIS as too limited, telling CNN's Candy Crowley, "That is simply a very narrow and focused approach to a problem which is metastasizing as we speak. Candy, there was a guy a month ago that was in Syria, went back to the United States, came back and blew himself up. We're tracking 100 Americans who are over there now fighting for ISIS. ISIS is attracting extreme elements from all over the world, much less the Arab world. And what have we done?" The case McCain alluded to was that of Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha, who grew up in Vero Beach, Florida, and who conducted a suicide bombing in Syria in May on behalf of the Nusra Front, al Qaeda's Syrian affiliate. According to The New York Times, Abu-Salha had returned to the United States after being trained by Nusra and then went back to Syria to conduct the suicide operation in which he died. McCain asserted on CNN that 100 Americans were fighting with ISIS. In fact, according to U.S. officials, 100 is the total number of Americans believed to have fought or attempted to have fought with any of the many Syrian insurgent groups, some of which are more militant than others, and some of which are even aligned with the United States. According to a count by the New America Foundation, eight people from the United States have been indicted with crimes related to trying to join ISIS or the Nusra Front. (By contrast, some 240 U.S. citizens and residents have been indicted or charged with some kind of jihadist terrorist crime since 9/11.) Some of the Nusra Front cases are far from threatening. On April 19, 2013, Abdella Tounisi, an 18-year-old American citizen from Aurora, Illinois, was arrested and charged with attempting to provide material support to Nusra. However, he was caught in a sting operation and described his fighting skills thusly: "Concerning my fighting skills, to be honest, I do not have any." Tounisi pleaded not guilty and awaits trial. Other cases appear more serious. In December, Sinh Vinh Ngo Nguyen, a U.S. citizen from Southern California, pleaded guilty to a charge of attempting to provide material support to al Qaeda. Between December 2012 and April 2013, Nguyen had traveled to Syria, where, he stated, he fought alongside the Nusra Front. On his return, Nguyen discussed with an informant his intent to participate further in jihad. In August 2013, Gufran Mohammed, a naturalized American citizen living in Saudi Arabia, was charged with attempting to provide material support to the Nusra Front in Syria, by facilitating the recruitment of experienced fighters from al Qaeda's Somali affiliate to Syria. He pleaded guilty last month. Opinion: How Iraq's black market in oil funds ISIS . Yet so far no U.S. citizen involved in fighting or supporting the Nusra Front or ISIS has been charged with plotting to conduct an attack inside the United States despite the fact the war in Syria is now in its fourth year and the war in Iraq is in its 11th year. Indeed, some Americans who have traveled to Syria have ended up dead apparently because they have no combat experience to speak of; for instance, Nicole Mansfield from Flint, Michigan, was killed in Syria last year by forces loyal to the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. Further, ISIS' predecessor, al Qaeda in Iraq, never tried to conduct an attack on the American homeland, although it did bomb three American hotels in Jordan in 2005. And it's also worth noting that in none of the successful terrorist attacks in the States since 9/11, such as the Boston Marathon bombings last year or Maj. Nidal Hasan's massacre at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009, did any of the convicted or alleged perpetrators receive training overseas. Returning foreign fighters from the Syrian conflict pose a far greater threat to Europe, which has contributed a much larger number of foreign fighters to the conflict than the United States, including an estimated 700 from France, 450 from the United Kingdom and 270 from Germany. Unlike in the United States, European countries have reported specific terrorist plots tied to returning Syrian fighters. Mehdi Nemmouche, a suspect in the May 24 shootings at a Jewish museum in Brussels, Belgium, that killed four people, spent about a year with jihadist fighters in Syria, according to the Paris prosecutor in the case. But Nemmouche's case is the only instance of lethal violence by a returning Syrian fighter in the West. Still, the United States must consider European foreign fighters returning from Syria as more than a European problem because many of those returning are from countries that participate in the U.S. visa waiver program and can enter the States without a visa. Moreover, experienced al Qaeda operators are present in Syria. As one senior U.S. intelligence official put it to us, these are veteran members "with strong resumes and full Rolodexes." The wars in Syria and Iraq allow such longtime fighters to interact with members of other al Qaeda affiliates. For example, in July, the United States adopted enhanced security measures at airports based on intelligence that bomb-makers from al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula were sharing their expertise in making bombs capable of evading airport security with members of the Syrian Nusra Front. Despite these dangers, however, the threat to the United States from foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq remains only a potential threat. The administration's airstrikes in Iraq are properly focused upon the more imminent threats to U.S. government employees and American citizens in the Kurdish city of Irbil who are threatened by ISIS advances and the humanitarian catastrophe befalling the Yazidi population in areas controlled by the militant forces. The last time there was a similar exodus of American citizens and residents to an overseas holy war was to Somalia following the U.S.-backed invasion of Somalia by Ethiopian forces in 2006. More than 40 Americans subsequently went to Somalia to fight with Al-Shabaab, an al Qaeda-affiliated group. Opinion: ISIS beheading -- what should U.S. do? Just as is the case today in Syria, for a good number of the Americans who went to fight in Somalia it was a one-way ticket because 15 of the 40 or so American volunteers died there either as suicide attackers or on the battlefield. In 2011, Rep. Peter King, R-New York, then-chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, warned of Americans fighting in Somalia. "With a large group of Muslim-Americans willing to die as 'martyrs' and a strong operational partnership with al Qaeda leaders in Pakistan and in Yemen, al-Shabaab now has more capability than ever to strike the U.S. homeland." As it turned out, those Americans who returned from the Somali jihad did not attempt or carry out any kind of terrorist attack in the States. Now King is back at it again, telling NBC last week, "ISIS is a direct threat to the United States of America. ... They are more powerful now than al Qaeda was on 9/11." ISIS is surely a major problem for Iraq, and its tactics and strategy are abhorrent, as demonstrated by the beheading of American journalist James Foley, its use of crucifixions and its genocidal attacks on the small Yazidi minority. But that doesn't mean it is a serious threat to the American homeland.

U.S. officials now see ISIS as a credible threat, on a par with al Qaeda . Peter Bergen: Some lawmakers have exaggerated the current threat to U.S. from ISIS . He says the problem is a potential issue, but few have been charged so far . Bergen: Clearly ISIS is a potent force that must be countered in Middle East .

(CNN) -- Apple's fingerprint sensor, Touch ID, is the flagship feature on the iPhone 5S. But it doesn't always work the way it should. Since the sensor's introduction in September, a growing number of issues have surfaced — including everything from phones that don't recognize when a finger is present to those that don't approve fingerprints they're supposed to approve. What's going on here? While faulty software or hardware could be to blame in a few cases, the problem might also be you. Determining the real culprit requires a closer look at how Apple's sensor technology really works. Touch ID is composed of an 8 x 8 millimeter, 170-micron-thick capacitive sensor located just beneath the home button on the 5s. This is used to capture a 500-pixel-per-inch (ppi) resolution image of your fingerprint. The sensor can read pores, ridges, and valleys. It can identify arches, loops, and whorls. It can even recognize fingerprints oriented in any direction. When you place your finger or thumb on the sensor, it looks at the fingerprint pattern on the conductive sub-dermis layer of skin located underneath the dermis layer. It also measures the differences in conductivity between the tops of the ridges and the bottoms of the valleys in your prints in this layer. This is more accurate than looking at the dead surface of the skin alone, which is constantly changing and isn't conductive. 13 of the Year's Best Infographics . This capacitive sensor is made of raw silicon. As such, it tends to be very fragile and susceptible to performance problems caused by dust, moisture, and electrostatic discharge, or ESD. To protect and insulate the sensor, Apple layered laser-cut sapphire crystal on top of the silicon. It chose sapphire for a few reasons. The material is very clear, and it acts as a lens for your fingerprint. It's also hard (it scores a 9 on the Mohs scale of hardness), which means it's difficult to scratch. If the home button does get scraped or scuffed, the images sent to the Touch ID sensor will be flawed and it will cease to work properly. What's more, a stainless steel ring encircles the button and acts as a capacitive touch switch, turning the actual touch sensor on and off when a finger is present so it doesn't eat up your iPhone's battery life. Which Should You Buy: Xbox One or PlayStation 4? After you register your fingerprint — a process known as enrolling — an encrypted mathematical representation of that information is stored on the device's A7 processor in what's called the "secure enclave." When the sensor captures an image, software algorithms determine whether the print is a match with the stored information or not. A match allows access to the homescreen. A non-match won't. There are obviously a few possible points of failure in this process, but it all hinges on first getting that robust fingerprint data. "Any good biometric has to start with a high-quality image," Integrated Biometrics' CEO Steve Thies told Wired. His company makes a variety of compact fingerprint sensors that use a different method from Apple's Touch ID (electroluminescence and a thin film transistor) to read fingerprints. Basically, the larger the sensor, the easier it is to pick up a more accurate representation of your full fingerprint because it's working with more data. This makes it easier for recognition algorithms to confirm that your fingerprint actually belongs to you. But a larger sensor also introduces two problems: cost, in the case of a capacitive scanner like Apple's, and thickness, in the case of another popular fingerprint technology, optical sensing. (You've probably used the latter at the DMV or gym.) The 13 Best Movies You Didn't See in 2013 . Based on what we've seen from Apple's patent applications, it's highly likely the company considered other implementations of a touch sensor. But ultimately, it opted for a smaller version that could more easily fit inside the home button. Apple partially gets around the small sensor issue using the enrollment process, which includes rolling your finger around to try to capture every microscopic nook and cranny on your finger. Then, at least, it has a large source to pull from, even if it's only scanning a section of that each time you tap your finger. Still, the less data you have from a fingerprint to process, the harder it is to get a match. Precise Biometrics COO Patrik Lindeberg offers a good analogy: If you have a picture of a face and you see only a small part of that picture — the eyes, or part of one eye — it will be hard to recognize if it is a friend, or someone you don't know. If you have the full face, it's easy to process. Seeing only a portion of a fingerprint sets higher and higher requirements on software algorithms, Lindeberg says. Indeed, the more sensitive the algorithm (to get a more exact match), the more false-negatives (failed when it should have passed) are produced, which may frustrate a valid user, according to Kevin Luowitz, CTO of biometric identity service startup CLEAR. 16 Gifts Every Music Freak Will Love . "The challenge is then to find that happy balance of acceptable false-negatives and false-positives and user experience," Luowitz says. For security's sake, you would want the algorithm to veer towards false-negatives rather than false-positives. Apple's Touch ID algorithm is designed to learn and improve over time — with each scan, it checks if it is a better reading than what is stored, and can update the master data for your print this way. This algorithm could certainly be changed or improved through iOS updates, as well. User error, and a lack of knowledge about biometrics and how they work, could also be causing some people's issues with Touch ID. "A lot of us in the industry, we are very impressed by the job Apple has done with Touch ID," Lindeberg said. "But on the consumer side, a lot of people have never used biometrics at all." Twitter Founder Reveals Secret Formula for Getting Rich Online . There are a variety of small things that could be going on to interrupt a successful Touch ID experience. First, for it to work properly, your finger needs to make contact not just with the sapphire of the home button, but also the stainless steel ring surrounding it. Next, the sensor itself works by measuring electrical differences between the ridges and valleys of your fingerprints. If your hands are too dry, it's going to be difficult for your print to be recognized (this could be a growing problem in the dry winter months ahead). Conversely, if your fingers are too moist or oily, recognition can also fail, as those valleys get filled. If the button gets dirty, as it likely will over time, you'll also want to clean it to keep Touch ID working properly. Apple suggests using a clean, lint-free cloth. But what about that touch sensor itself? Some have worried that, like traditional capacitive-based fingerprint sensors, it will degrade over time. Thies of Integrated Biometrics thinks that as long as the sapphire crystal and metal ring are not damaged and are properly sealed, the sensor should last the life of the phone. Capacitive sensors in the past were unprotected, or covered in a very thin layer of carbon, and thus were very fragile. The Best Map Ever Made of America's Racial Segregation . For those experiencing Touch ID issues that cause their phone to freeze, or to not work as well over time, restarting the phone or recalibrating the sensor are your best bets. And if you're new to Touch ID or having trouble, Apple also has a guide you can reference for help. Fingerprint sensors may not be a new technology. But Touch ID is certainly a new implementation of it. It's bound to experience some bumps as Apple tweaks its algorithms, and as users get accustomed to using biometrics on a daily basis. At the very least, by understanding how it works and the inherent pitfalls of fingerprint sensors, we can help minimize those issues ourselves. Subscribe to WIRED magazine for less than $1 an issue and get a FREE GIFT! Click here! Copyright 2011 Wired.com.

Apple's fingerprint sensor on the iPhone 5S doesn't always work the way it should . Some iPhones don't approve fingerprints they're supposed to approve . Sensor is susceptible to problems caused by dust, moisture, and electrostatic discharge, . User error could also be causing some people's issues with the Touch ID system .

(CNN) -- Pop superstar Whitney Houston was seen ordering and consuming considerable quantities of alcohol at The Beverly Hilton two mornings last week, said a source briefed on her behavior and activity in the days before her death Saturday. The source told CNN's Don Lemon that Houston ordered the drinks before 10 a.m. last Wednesday and Thursday from the bars in the lobby and pool area. Guests both days overheard Houston loudly complaining about her drinks, accusing bartenders of "watering down" or "putting too much ice" in them, the source said Wednesday. Houston's funeral will be broadcast Saturday . The source said other guests expressed concern about Houston's erratic behavior. Her disheveled appearance, including mismatched clothing, suggested to them that she was intoxicated, the source said. The source said Houston was seen jumping in and out of the pool and doing somersaults in the pool area. The source added that Houston was alone for some of the time, but was also seen at the pool drinking with her entourage and a male companion on both days. Saturday, the day she died, Houston was seen drinking at the pool in the morning, although the source noted witnesses said her behavior did not appear erratic. A singer who participated in an impromptu duet with Houston at a party Thursday night said Houston was not behaving erratically, but did have champagne. "I didn't see someone who was high," Kelly Price told CNN's "Starting Point" on Monday. During the party, Houston took the stage unexpectedly and sang a hoarse rendition of "Jesus Loves Me" with Price. Authorities are trying to determine the source of Houston's prescription medication found in the hotel room where she died, officials said Wednesday. The Los Angeles County Coroner's office has issued subpoenas seeking Houston's medical records and her prescriptions, Ed Winter, assistant chief coroner, said Wednesday. Investigators are also contacting pharmacies where the prescriptions were filled, he said. Houston, 48, was found dead in the bathtub of her suite at the Beverly Hilton on Saturday, hours before she was to attend a pre-Grammys bash at the Beverly Hills, California, hotel. Houston's death certificate, filed Wednesday, listed her cause of death as "deferred," meaning it was delayed pending more information. Speculation has grown while authorities await the outcome of toxicology tests that could take weeks. See PDF file of the death certificate . Winter has said that while medication was found in the room, the amount was less than that usually present in overdose deaths. "I know there are reports that she maybe was drowned or did she overdose, but we won't make a final determination until all the tests are in," Winter said earlier. He ruled out foul play and said there were no injuries to Houston's body. The prescriptions found in the room were in Houston's name, Winter told Lemon. By contacting the doctors, investigators are attempting to verify the prescriptions and find out if there were any more. Several doctors have been contacted in California and other states, along with pharmacies, he said. All were cooperating. "The doctors I've contacted so far have been helpful," he said, and nothing out of the ordinary was found as long as Houston was taking the medication as prescribed. Some additional information has been gained, he said, and investigators are waiting to see Houston's medical records. It does not appear that she was "doctor shopping," he said, but officials are attempting to contact as many doctors as possible to rule that out, along with determining whether Houston was filling multiple prescriptions. "Everything is above board," Winter said. "So far, nothing looks criminal." But it was too soon to say whether Houston had any prescriptions she should not have or used an alias, he said. Although subpoenas have been issued -- a fairly unusual step in a death investigation -- Winter said the federal Drug Enforcement Administration has not been asked to assist. As part of the investigation following the death of singer Michael Jackson in 2009, bags and bottles of prescription drugs were found at Jackson's home. Local and state authorities spent months tracking the pharmacies that filled the prescriptions. One of those pharmacies was the Mickey Fine Pharmacy and Grill in Beverly Hills. One of the prescriptions found in Houston's suite was also from the Mickey Fine pharmacy, Winter said, but "the prescription that came from Mickey Fine is not something that would kill her." Investigators want a history of all prescriptions Houston may have filled there and at other pharmacies, and wants to make sure all of the pharmacies that filled Houston's prescriptions are accounted for. Generally, "you go to a doctor and get a prescription, then you go to the dentist and get another prescription," he said. Houston visited a Beverly Hills ear, nose and throat specialist four days before she died, a source familiar with her visit said Wednesday. Dr. Shawn Nasseri has treated Houston for throat and vocal problems for several years, said the source, who asked not to be identified because they are not authorized to speak publicly about it. Nasseri treats many well-known singers who have vocal problems, and has served as the doctor for "American Idol" contestants for several years. Houston's battles with drug addiction had cast a shadow in recent years over her impressive singing voice and her talent. However, a close family friend told CNN on Tuesday that Houston had not used "hard drugs" for several years, although she was taking medication for a throat infection and Xanax or a similar drug for anxiety and to help her sleep. The friend said Houston was also known to have a drink if she went out. The coroner's office said toxicology tests could take six to eight weeks, though Beverly Hills police Lt. Mark Rosen said that the coroner's report is expected to be finished sooner -- in two to three weeks. Winter said Wednesday his office has asked that Houston's toxicology results be expedited, saying he's hoping for a tournaround of four to six weeks, possibly sooner. "With respect to Ms. Houston, we have an average of 50 cases a day," he said. "We've got 49 other cases and families looking for results too." A private, invitation-only funeral is planned for Houston on Saturday at New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey, where she honed her vocal skills as a child. The services are expected to be made available for television and web streaming, Houston's publicist said. Singer Aretha Franklin, Houston's godmother who is known as the "Queen of Soul," has been asked to perform at the funeral service, Franklin's spokeswoman said. And Houston's cousin, singer Dionne Warwick, was in New Jersey helping the family with funeral arrangements, Warwick's publicist said. Gospel singer and pastor Marvin L. Winans will give the eulogy at the funeral at the request of Houston's mother, said New Hope Pastor Joe Carter. Winans officiated Houston's 1992 marriage to R&B singer Bobby Brown, said Carter. The two divorced in 2007. Asked why no public memorial service was planned, Winans told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Wednesday night the family didn't "want to have a parade." "I don't think, knowing Cissy (Houston's mother) and the Houston family ... it was a matter of public or private as it was this is my daughter, this is my sister, this is my mother, this is my friend and we want to do this with dignity." Although the family is not commenting on Houston's burial location, her death certificate filed Wednesday in Los Angeles lists it as Fairview Cemetery in Westfield, New Jersey. A message left by CNN with the cemetery office was not immediately returned. Meanwhile, Bobby Brown said in a statement Wednesday his 18-year-old daughter with Houston, Bobbi Kristina, is "doing much better." The teenager was twice taken to Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai Medical Center to be treated for stress and anxiety in the day following her mother's death. A close family friend said Tuesday that Bobbi Kristina was in the care of her grandmother, Cissy Houston, and her father. "We continue to provide love and support to Bobbi Kristina," Bobby Brown's statement said Wednesday. "She is dealing with the tragedy of her mother's death and would prefer to do it outside of the public eye. I ask again that our privacy be respected." CNN's Stan Wilson, Alan Duke, Denise Quan and Deb Feyerick contributed to this report.

Houston ordered considerable quantities of alcohol in days before death, source says . Death certificate says Houston will be buried in Westfield, New Jersey . The coroner's office has issued subpoenas for Houston's medical records, prescriptions . It does not appear Houston was "doctor shopping," assistant chief coroner says .

(CNN) -- Could a massive passenger jet slip past radar, cross international borders and land undetected? That's a key question investigators are weighing as they continue the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which vanished March 8 on a flight between Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Beijing. Radar does have some blind spots, and it's possible to fly at lower altitudes to avoid being spotted, analysts told CNN. But experts are divided over whether that could be what happened to the missing Boeing 777. Jeffrey Beatty, a security consultant and former FBI special agent, says someone could have planned a route that avoided radar detection. "It certainly is possible to fly through the mountains in that part of the world and not be visible on radar. Also, an experienced pilot, anyone who wanted to go in that direction, could certainly plot out all the known radar locations, and you can easily determine, where are the radar blind spots?" he said. "It's the type of things the Americans did when they went into Pakistan to go after Osama bin Laden." On Monday, the Malaysian newspaper New Straits Times reported that the plane may have flown low to the ground -- 5,000 feet or less -- and used mountainous terrain as cover to evade radar detection. The newspaper cited unnamed sources for its reporting, which CNN could not immediately confirm. And a senior Indian military official told CNN on Monday that military radar near the Andaman and Nicobar Islands isn't as closely watched as other radar systems. That leaves open the possibility that Indian radar systems may not have picked up the airplane at the time of its last known Malaysian radar contact, near the tiny island of Palau Perak in the Strait of Malacca. U.S. officials have said they don't think it's likely the plane flew north over land as it veered off course. If it had, they've said, radar somewhere would have detected it. Landing the plane somewhere also seems unlikely, since that would require a large runway, refueling capability and the ability to fix the plane, the officials have said. Malaysian officials said Monday that they were not aware of the Malaysian newspaper's report. "It does not come from us," said Malaysia Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya. Analysts interviewed by CNN said that it would be extremely difficult to fly such a large aircraft so close to the ground over a long period of time, and that it's not even clear that doing so would keep the plane off radar scopes. "Five-thousand isn't really low enough to evade the radar, and that's kind of where general aviation flies all the time anyway, and we're visible to radar," said Mary Schiavo, a CNN aviation analyst and former inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation. "It just seems really highly improbable, unless we've been overestimating a lot of other countries' radar system capabilities," said Daniel Rose, an aviation and maritime attorney. Buck Sexton, a former CIA officer who's now national security editor for TheBlaze.com, said radar would have detected the plane if it flew over land. "This is a bus in the sky. It's a lot harder to get under the radar with this kind of thing than I think most people realize," he said. "So really, while the search I know has extended to this vast area stretching up into (the nations and central or south Asia), clearly there really should be much more of a search over open water, because this is not getting past people's radars." It wouldn't be easy to avoid radar detection, experts say, but it could be done. "Anything like this is possible," radar expert Greg Charvat told CNN's Piers Morgan Live. "But to do it, you'd have to have very detailed information of the type of radars, their disposition, their heights and their waveforms to pull that off." Different countries would likely be using different radar systems, he said, but it's unclear how advanced the technology is in many countries. "It took a great deal of skill to do this," CNN aviation analyst Jim Tilmon said. "I think somebody was at the controls who understood the value of altitude control to eliminate the possibility of being spotted and tracked on radar." Whoever was in control in the cockpit, he said, "really had the ability to map out a route that was given the very best chance of not being detected." One other possibility, he said: the plane could have shadowed another plane so closely that it slipped by radar detection. Other analysts say that would require so much skill that it would be nearly impossible to pull off without getting caught. There's another possible wrinkle, experts say. Some countries may be hesitant to reveal what they've seen on radar. "They want to protect their own capabilities," Beatty said. "Their intelligence services are not going to want to publicize exactly what their capabilities are." Here are other developments in the search and investigation, as search crews from 26 nations continue scouring vast swaths of ocean and land for any trace of the airliner: . Timeline clarification . Ahmad Jauhari said Monday that it wasn't clear whether the final words from the cockpit came before or after the plane's data-reporting system was shut down. Earlier, Malaysian authorities had said the message "All right, good night" came after the system had been disabled. The voice message came from the plane's copilot at 1:19 a.m. Saturday, March 8, Ahmad Jauhari said. The data system sent its last transmission at 1:07 a.m. and was shut down sometime between then and 1:37 a.m. that day, Ahmad Jauhari said. Grief counselor: Families holding on to hope . As authorities keep searching for the plane, the loved ones of the 239 passengers and crew members who were on board are left in limbo. Helping them has been difficult, grief counselor Paul Yin told CNN's "AC360." "Grief counseling, or any kind of recovery from this, has to have a starting point. And the starting point is having a verdict of what happened," he said. "Without a starting point, every day people's emotions go up and down, from hope to despair." He heard some family members cheer when they learned that hijacking was possibly what caused the plane's disappearance. "Because that means they could still be alive," he said. "They're trying to hold onto any little bit of hope." Chinese response . China said Monday that it had deployed 10 ships, 21 satellites and multiple aircraft to aid in the search. Premier Li Keqiang spoke with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak to ask for more information to help speed the search along, according to a statement posted on the Chinese government website. A top Malaysian official denied the allegation that his country had held back information about the missing flight. "Our priority has always been to find the aircraft. We would not withhold any information that could help," Acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Haishammuddin Tun Hussein told reporters. "But we also have a responsibility not to release information until it has been verified by the international investigations team." U.S. Navy pulls out destroyer . The USS Kidd and its helicopters have stopped combing the Andaman Sea and are no longer part of search efforts for the missing plane, the Navy said. The move is partially because Australians are taking over the majority of the searching in that area, U.S. officials said. A U.S. P-8 aircraft will move to Perth, Australia, to be based there for searching. Fewer U.S. assets will be involved in the search for the missing plane, but U.S. officials said the P-8 will be able to cover a wider range of ocean more quickly than the ship could. "This is actually much more effective for the overall search," Cmdr. William Marks of the U.S. 7th Fleet told CNN's Wolf Blitzer Monday. "The real challenge is this huge expanse of water. I keep saying, if you superimposed a map of the U.S. on here, it'd be like trying to find someone anywhere between New York and California. so that's the challenge here," he said. "We have amazing, dedicated air crews. it's just a matter of how much area we can search." CNN's Barbara Starr, Brooke Baldwin, Wolf Blitzer and Elizabeth Joseph contributed to this report.

NEW: Grief counselor: Families are trying "to hold onto any little bit of hope" Experts are divided over whether plane could have slipped past radar . Analyst: Radar blind spots could be determined "easily" USS Kidd pulls out of the search for the missing plane .

(CNN) -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday called on President-elect Barack Obama to govern from the middle, as her party sat poised to gain its widest House majority in 15 years. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, celebrates election victories Tuesday night in Washington. According to projections, Democrats in the House were on track Wednesday to increase their majority by at least 18 seats, a margin that would give Obama a formidable tool to push his legislative agenda after his January 20 inauguration. Democrats took at least 22 seats from Republicans in Tuesday's election, with the GOP taking four seats from the Democrats, according to CNN projections. With winners yet to be called for eight of the House's 435 seats, Democrats were projected to win 254 seats, with Republicans having 173. "I don't know what the final number will be," Pelosi said during a Wednesday afternoon news conference on Capitol Hill. "But it will be well over 250. It's a signal of the change that the American people want." Pelosi, D-California, said she hoped Obama would "bring people together to reach consensus" on issues that concern Americans. "A new president must govern from the middle," she said. Topping her agenda, she said, would be "growing the economy, expanding health care, ending dependence on foreign oil and ending the war in Iraq." When he woke up Wednesday morning, Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan said, he felt like the boy who stubbed his toe, the character in a quote from President Lincoln, who said: "It hurts too bad to laugh, and I'm too big to cry." Duncan also called on the president-elect to govern from the center and warned that if Democrats moved too far to the left, Republicans could take back seats in the 2010 midterm elections. "The last two times Democrats controlled the House, Senate and the presidency, they choked on the bone of responsibility," he said. "They lurched far to the left and introduced the country to President Ronald Reagan and Speaker Newt Gingrich." Among Tuesday's GOP casualties was longtime Rep. Chris Shays of Connecticut, whose reputation for occasionally bucking his party couldn't keep him from losing to Democrat Jim Himes. Shays' defeat leaves New England without any Republicans in the House. Shays was seeking his 11th full term. Watch Pelosi say Americans voted for change » . Heading into Election Day, the Democrats had a 235-199 House majority. The Democrats' gains come two years after they took control of the House -- with a gain of 30 seats -- after 12 years in the minority. Here are highlights of other races from Tuesday with projected winners: . Democrats gained at least two seats in Ohio, including that of Rep. Steve Chabot, who was seeking an eighth term in a Cincinnati-area district that normally votes about evenly for GOP and Democratic presidential candidates. CNN projects that Chabot lost to Democrat Steve Driehaus. Just two years earlier, Chabot was re-elected with 52 percent of the vote despite an anti-Republican tide that helped Democrats capture Ohio's governorship and take a U.S. Senate seat. Democrats also gained a seat left open by retiring Rep. Ralph Regula. Democrat John Boccieri defeated the GOP's Kirk Schuring in the northeastern Ohio contest. • In New York, Democrats won three Republican seats, including two left open by incumbents not seeking re-election. In one of the open races, Democrat Mike McMahon won the last GOP-held seat in New York City, defeating the GOP's Robert Straniere. Democrat Dan Maffei defeated Republican Dale Sweetland, who was trying to win a seat vacated by 10-term GOP Rep. Jim Walsh. In a rematch of a 2006 race, former naval officer Eric Massa beat GOP Rep. Randy Kuhl in a western New York district that generally votes Republican. • Freshman Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minnesota, was projected to survive a race that tightened after she accused Obama of having "anti-American views." She was leading Democratic challenger Elwyn Tinklenberg 47 percent to 43 percent with 86 percent of precincts reporting. Bachmann set off a storm of criticism in October when she said Obama's connection to 1960s radical William Ayers made her concerned that Obama may have anti-American views. Bachmann's comments prompted a flood of fundraising for Tinklenberg. • In Florida, Democrats captured from Republicans two of the four seats that analysts thought they could win. Democrat Suzanne Kosmas defeated Rep. Tom Fenney, and Democrat Alan Grayson defeated Rep. Ric Keller. However, brothers and Republicans Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Mario Diaz-Balart, who represent districts in southern Florida, held off their Democratic challengers. Lincoln Diaz-Balart won a ninth term, defeating former Hialeah Mayor Raul Martinez. • Democratic incumbents weren't invulnerable in Florida. Rep. Tim Mahoney -- a south-central Florida Democrat elected to replace scandal-plagued GOP Rep. Mark Foley in 2006 -- lost to his Republican challenger, Tom Rooney. Mahoney already was going to have a tough race in his Republican-leaning district. But the race became tougher in mid-October with allegations that Mahoney had an affair with one of his aides and paid her thousands of dollars in hush money. Mahoney admitted to causing "pain" in his marriage, but he denied paying the aide to keep quiet. • Republican incumbents in two California districts maintained their House seats -- Rep. Ken Calvert defeated Democrat Bill Hedrick, a former teacher, and Brian Bilbray defeated Democrat Nicholas "Nick" Alexander Leibham, an attorney. In June 2006, Bilbray narrowly won a special election to fill the vacant San Diego seat that once was occupied by disgraced former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham. • In Pennsylvania, Rep. John Murtha handily defeated Republican challenger William Russell. Republicans had hoped to defeat Murtha after he called his western Pennsylvania district "a racist area" and "redneck." • The House's third-ranking Republican, Rep. Adam Putnam of central Florida, was re-elected but wrote to his colleagues Tuesday night that he wouldn't run again for a leadership post, saying he wanted to return his focus "to crafting public policy solutions for America's generational challenges." He is currently the GOP conference chairman. • In a heavily Republican district near Houston, Texas, Democratic Rep. Nick Lampson lost his re-election bid against Pete Olson. Lampson won the seat in 2006 after Republican and former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay resigned to fight state money laundering charges. • In Ohio's 11th District, Democrats easily took a seat that was vacant since the death of Democratic Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones. Democrat Marcia Fudge defeated Republican Thomas Pekarek. Tubbs Jones, who represented the district that covers parts of Cleveland and its suburbs, died in August after brain hemorrhaging caused by an aneurysm. • The House's first two Muslim members, Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota and Rep. Andre Carson of Indiana, won their contests Tuesday. Carson has won his first full term; he had succeeded his grandmother, the late Rep. Julia Carson, in a March special election. • There was a party change in the race to represent New Jersey in the House. Democrat John Adler, 48, defeated Republican Chris Myers, 42, a Navy combat veteran. Adler, an attorney, sponsored New Jersey's 2006 law prohibiting smoking in indoor public places and workplaces. He was also the sponsor of a law toughening car emission standards in the state. • Democrats took power from Republicans in Idaho, too. Walt Minnick beat Republican William Sali in a race for the House. Minnick has an MBA and law degree from Harvard University and served as a Nixon White House staffer in the early 1970s before starting a 21-year career at a wood-products maker. Not all 435 seats will be decided immediately. Two Louisiana districts used Election Day for primary runoffs; the general election for those seats will be December 6.

RNC chairman warns Dems against choking "on the bone of responsibility" "A new president must govern from the middle," says House speaker . Dem victories signal "change the American people want," says Pelosi . Projections: House Dems take 22 GOP seats; Republicans snatch four .

(CNN) -- Eight women and four men convened regularly over 13 months. They heard from dozens of witnesses, considered 30,000 pieces of evidence. All of it with one question in mind: Who killed 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey? On October 13, 1999 -- nearly three years after the diminutive Colorado pageant queen's body was found in her home -- the 12 grand jurors went back to their own homes, sworn to silence and with nothing apparently to show for their effort. "We do not have sufficient evidence to warrant the filing of charges," then-Boulder County District Attorney Alex Hunter said. The presumption was that the grand jury hadn't voted to indict anyone. That included failing to take action against JonBenet's parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, whom Boulder police had said were under "an umbrella of suspicion" in the girl's death. Yet the Boulder Daily Camera, the newspaper in that Colorado city, now says there was more to the story. Citing several unidentified jurors as well as an assistant district attorney in Hunter's office, the paper reports that the grand jury did, in fact, vote to indict the Ramsey parents on charges of child abuse resulting in death. "We didn't know who did what," one juror told the Camera, "but we felt the adults in the house may have done something that they certainly could have prevented, or they could have helped her, and they didn't." "Or saying that they as a grand jury did not know what happened," retorted Lin Wood, an Atlanta attorney who has represented the Ramseys over the years. His comments came on CNN Tuesday after being asked to respond to what the anonymous juror told the paper. Wood said the grand jury was "likely confused." Hunter, the man who presented the case to them, didn't sign the indictment, however, the Daily Camera reports. Paper: Panel voted in '99 to indict parents of JonBenet Ramsey, DA didn't sign on . It's a decision that Bill Wise, a former prosecutor who wasn't directly involved in the grand jury proceedings, confirmed to the paper and said makes sense. "The state of the evidence in that case was simply inadequate to file a charge, in my opinion, and that obviously was Hunter's opinion, too," Wise said. "Whether it's against one or two people, you just didn't have the evidence." Wood called Alex Hunter a "hero." "Jon and Patsy Ramsey had been told back in '99 by their attorneys they should expect to be indicted," he said. "You have to go back 15, 16 years to remember there was a media frenzy of false accusations against this family. There was an incompetent and prejudiced Boulder Police Department investigation, the investigation that focused on day one on the Ramsey family and refused to follow the evidence that would have led to the killer of this child. "They (the Ramseys) expected that they would be indicted and they expected they would have their names cleared in front of a judge or a jury," Wood said. The attorney pointed to the 2008 findings from then-District Attorney Mary Lacy that DNA tests ruled out any Ramsey family member's involvement in the girl's death. "The DNA tests performed after the time of the Boulder grand jury not only prove the Ramsey family to be innocent and the grand jury wrong, they also make former District Attorney Alex Hunter a hero who wisely avoided a gross miscarriage of justice," Wood told CNN in an interview Monday. Those now in the Boulder County District Attorney's Office aren't commenting on the report in the Daily Camera, spokeswoman Catherine Olguin said Monday. Mom: 'There's a killer on the loose' It was December 26, 1996 -- a day after JonBenet got a bicycle as a Christmas gift -- when Patsy Ramsey said she discovered a three-page ransom note in her Boulder home. Police came and, later that day, found JonBenet's beaten and strangled body in the family's basement. Days after burying the girl in suburban Atlanta, where they had previously lived, the Ramseys appeared on CNN. "There's a killer on the loose," Patsy Ramsey said January 1, 1997, in an interview that brought an intense national spotlight on the case. "I don't know who it is. I don't know if it's a she or a he, but if I were a resident of Boulder, I would tell my friends to keep your babies close to you. There's someone out there." The parents insisted an intruder committed the crime, but no one was caught and no description was given. In time, the focus turned on the parents: Could they have done it? Investigators didn't find any sign of forced entry. A paintbrush from her mother's hobby kit was used to tighten the rope that choked JonBenet. And the alleged ransom note was written from paper inside the house and referenced little-known details about the family's past and its finances. Despite the suspicions, the Ramseys were never named as suspects. But they were a focus of the grand jury, which first convened in September 1998. On Monday, CNN talked with one juror and another's spouse, both of whom indicated that -- at the behest of the district attorney's office -- they would not discuss the case. Messages left by CNN with several other jurors were not immediately answered. But according to Wise and several jurors who talked with the Daily Camera, the decision was eventually made to indict John and Patsy Ramsey. This was even though the jurors weren't sure who, exactly, had killed young JonBenet. 16 years later, still no arrests or charges . According to Wise, who worked as a prosecutor for 28 years before retiring, there was disagreement among the eight or so involved in the prosecution about what to do after the grand jury voted to indict. He told the Daily Camera that he thinks his former boss did the right thing not pressing forward with the case, arguing that the evidence didn't show whether Patsy or John Ramsey may have been more directly responsible. "If I were on a jury, I would not convict either of them," said Wise. As is, while there have been many twists and turns since the grand jury was discharged in 1999, there's been no closure. The Ramseys were busy in March 2000, releasing their book "The Death of Innocence," filing multimillion-dollar lawsuits against media organizations who they say libeled their son (who was 9 at the time of JonBenet's death) and settling a lawsuit with a tabloid newspaper. That May, the Ramseys returned to CNN to face off with Steve Thomas, a former Boulder police detective who'd released a book of his own. Thomas claimed the girl died after "an explosive encounter" over a bed-wetting incident, something the Ramseys fiercely denied. The district attorney's office, then led by Lacy, took over the case from Boulder police in 2002. Four years later, there was an apparent breakthrough with the arrest of 41-year-old teacher John Mark Karr in Bangkok, Thailand. This came after he freely -- and repeatedly -- said he was with JonBenet the night she died, although he insisted her death was an accident and that he "loved" her. But soon after his arrest and return to Colorado, prosecutors announced DNA evidence proved Karr had nothing to do with JonBenet's death. That same year, 2006, Patsy Ramsey died at the age of 49 following a fight with ovarian cancer. Then came Lacy's 2008 letter to John Ramsey, exonerating him and the rest of his family after tests of DNA evidence found in the girl's underwear and beneath her fingernails. "To the extent that we may have contributed in any way to the public perception that you might have been involved in this crime, I am deeply sorry," Lacy wrote. Since then, authorities have said they'd continued to try to find answers. But despite their work, the case remains as cold as it was on that late December day, 16 years ago.

Atlanta lawyer Lin Wood: Comments given to Boulder paper show grand jury didn't know truth . He called DA a "hero" for not indicting John and Patsy Ramsey for the 1996 death of JonBenet . The little girl was found beaten and strangled in the basement of her Colorado home .

(CNN) -- They carry a bag for a living but these men can bring home six-figure incomes. They often spend more time with their bosses than their wives, and their working "marriages" can end in a messy divorce. Welcome to the world of a caddy -- the golf world's unsung heroes. At the top of the pile is Steve Williams, arguably the one superstar caddy in global golf, a bag man who has earned well in excess of most professionals thanks predominantly to his past partnership with Tiger Woods. His wealth is estimated at $20 million and he was once New Zealand's highest-paid sportsman. It has been enough to pursue his other, admittedly expensive, sporting passion of saloon-car racing with his own team, appropriately titled Caddyshack. He also founded his own racing series, which he funds, and does about 25 events a year. But how has he merited such big bucks? Well, 36 years into his career he has overseen 150 tournament wins -- more than any other caddy in golf history. Now working for defending Masters champion Adam Scott, Williams argues that key to his job is the ability to understand people. "You can teach someone to do the yardage and read the course but being a good caddy, it's not easy to explain," says the 50-year-old, who previously worked for major champions Greg Norman and Ray Floyd. "It's almost like you have to stand in a player's shoes, see what they're seeing and feel what they're feeling, to be them." Before Williams, caddies were very much behind the scenes -- but no longer. When with Woods, he described his arch rival Phil Mickelson as a "pr***" and he was castigated for a racist barb against his former employer some time after the 14-time major champion had fired him. And then there was his over-the-top celebration and interview when Scott won the pair's first tournament together. Other caddies have been the subject of controversy too. En route to Matt Every's victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational last weekend -- where Scott and Williams blew a winning position on the final day -- the American's caddy Derek Mason was caught on camera shouting "f***ing lay-up" after a particular shot. Williams clams up when asked about his relationship with Woods but he will always be known for his time with the world No. 1 -- hardly surprising given the American won 13 of his 14 major wins with the Kiwi in tow. "You almost have to teach yourself the psychology side of things," explains Williams, who is extremely affable in conversation. "I think I'm a good reader of people -- you have to be able to observe people over a long period of time. "You need to see how they cope under pressure and you have to see them at both their best and worst to see how they tick." In caddying terms, Williams is something of an anomaly. Most admit to stumbling into the job, but for Williams it was different. While friends at his stunning local course -- Paraparaumu Beach Golf Club -- dreamed of being the next Peter Thompson, the five-time British Open winner from Australia, the teenage Williams merely wanted to caddy for him ... and got his chance, the first time he ever carried the bag. Now, with potential retirement looming, Williams plans to either give up altogether at the end of this season or else do the job part-time so he can spend more time with his eight-year-old son in New Zealand. "You have to keep your enthusiasm and find ways to keep refreshed. You can get that by changing jobs or in one job by changing your goals," he says. "I've been lucky that I've caddied for players that haven't played loads of tournaments in each year. "And it's been interesting working with different players. I think it takes six to 12 months to adapt properly to a player, to learn their idiosyncrasies. "It just doesn't happen overnight but, if you do it properly, that's when you can help best when the chips are down. And the other trick is that you're always trying to improve." Terry Mundy may not have enjoyed the riches of Williams as a caddy but, having worked for former women's world No.1 Laura Davies and with his current partnership with 2012 European Ryder Cup hero Ian Poulter, he has enjoyed the job's trappings. He has also experienced the lot of many caddies scraping around to make ends meet on the global circuit. "I remember it used to be four of us to a room sometimes sharing two towels or whatever," he says. "It's tough. You go to those flyaway tournaments and you're easily spending $1,000 on a flight and then there's the hotel. If your player misses the cut, you're out of pocket for that week. That can be tough but I'm lucky with Ian." The Briton's foray into the role was somewhat fortuitous. Drinking in his local pub by Woburn golf course one day, he was asked to stand in for a sick caddy. The round went well and he was invited back. Not long afterwards he was offered voluntary redundancy in his printing industry job and he took the plunge to become a caddy full-time. "It's a lot better but it's still not quite where it should be," says Mundy. "At many of the American courses you get treated fantastically well but at others it's a case of 'what are you doing here?' and you're made to feel like you're getting in the way. "It's odd as you'll get some caddies turning up in $80,000 to $100,000 cars and yet they're treated like idiots." As for the trick to be a good caddy, Mundy argues he has to play many different roles. "A caddy's a little bit of everything: you can be a coach, a psychologist, you're there to keep the good rounds going and to turn the bad ones around, you're there to offer advice, be a friend, a bit of everything. But at the end of the day I can't make him play." One key piece of caddy advice is not to fall out with your boss, which is understandable given Mundy says "we spend more time together than we do with our wives probably." Chris Harmston is slightly lower down the caddying rung than Williams and Mundy in the relative infancy of his bag career, which began when his once promising playing days were curtailed by back and wrist injuries. He caddies for Englishman Ross Fisher, for whom he was the best man at his wedding. It is a fledgling partnership in its second full season that is clearly working, the pair having celebrated victory at the European Tour's Tshwane Open in South Africa this month. "After Ross' win the other day, I heard him say that 'no one knows my game better than Chris,' and he's probably right as we've played for so long together," says Harmston. "As friends, it makes it even more special to win together. "With Ross, I like to take a step back and think what's the worst can happen in a situation and, if I have something to say, Ross will listen. "He knows at the end of the day I'm there to help and he's in charge so, if he doesn't like the decision, he won't listen to it. "But there's the balance of knowing when to shut up and also knowing when to take a player's mind off things -- just to talk about anything, really, as you're going around. There's an element of being an amateur psychologist to it." Caddies are, in essence, the ultimate multitaskers -- but with a shelf life, very much at the whim of the players they work for. "Often if a player is in a slump, they think the answer is to switch caddies," says Mundy. "That's not usually the answer. "You look at a lot of the top guys, like Phil Mickelson with his caddy Bones. Those players are pretty honest guys and they stick with their caddies, and usually see the benefits. "The best players tend to have the longer caddy relationships." It's those guys that are worth their weight in gold.

Steve Williams, former caddy of Tiger Woods, reveals secrets of being a great golfing bag man . Williams has helped win 150 tournaments, but retirement looms this year . Ian Poulter's bag man Terry Mundy only became a caddy after a conversation in a pub . Mundy says caddies can still sometimes be treated like second-class citizens at events .

(CNN) -- Before super yachts, luxury sailboats and passenger ferries, the preferred method of water travel was by steamboat. Until the first steamboat was built in the late 1700s, boats were powered by wind and sail. Since steamboats didn't depend as much on wind direction and currents, they offered more control. Steam engines function similarly to a tea kettle on a stove, says Matthew Schulte, executive director of the Steamship Historical Society of America. Water is heated to a boil, creating steam that's controlled under pressure. The steam is then released, mechanically powering the vessel and getting the engine moving. By the mid-19th century, steamboats became a popular mode of transportation in America, Schulte said. "The rivers, lakes and oceans could serve as a network of transportation long before trails, railroads and highways could accommodate the masses," said Schulte. While steam and sail boats operated simultaneously into the early 1900s, steamboats remained dominant into the mid-20th century, when ships powered by diesel engines started to become mainstream. Because of their immense size and weight, and the large crew necessary to operate them, steamboats were much more expensive to operate than ships powered by smaller, lighter, modern diesel engines. With steamboats, "You can see, smell and hear what's happening, and then understand why they work just from going on one," Schulte said. "The Belle of Louisville turns 100 this year, which offers a great opportunity for people to participate." Here are seven steamboats -- including the Belle -- that visitors can still enjoy in the United States. Some are old, some are new and one offers more fun beyond sightseeing. 31 can't-miss U.S. beaches . Belle of Louisville, Kentucky . Celebrating its 100th birthday in October, Kentucky's Belle of Louisville,located in the town for which it was named, is one of the oldest operating steamboats in the world. The boat still has its original steam engines, and no modern navigation equipment. It's propelled by paddle wheel, operating as it did 100 years ago. When the boat was built in Pittsburgh, it was designed as a ferry and freight vessel but outfitted for passengers for its later use as an excursion boat. During its lifetime, seven million people have traveled on the 200-foot-long Belle. It was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1989. Celebrate at the Centennial Festival of Riverboats in Louisville from October 14-19. The festival will include six days of festivities on the water and on land, with a showcase of food and beverages, children's educational areas, concerts and fireworks. Katahdin, Maine . In the 1800s, steamboats were abundant on Moosehead Lake in Greenville, Maine. But by the 1930's, the Katahdin was the only one left on the lake. Built in 1914, Katahdin is another steamboat celebrating its 100th birthday this year. In the 1920s, Northern Maine was a popular vacation spot for visitors from Philadelphia, New York and Boston desperate to escape the summer heat and pollution. With the stock market crash in 1929, the leisure travel industry declined, as did lake transportation on Moosehead. A decade later, Katahdin's new purpose was hauling logs along the river. It was used that way until 1975, when it participated in the nation's last log drive. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places three years later. The Moosehead Marine Museum acquired Katahdin several years after the museum's founding in 1976. In 2010, the museum raised more than $1 million to restore the Katahdin and rebuild its wharf. In the summer and fall of 2013, more than 7,000 passengers cruised the lake on the Katahdin, enjoying a ride on a piece of maritime history. 50 states, 50 spots: natural wonders . Minnehaha, Minnesota . The steamboat Minnehaha was launched in 1906 to ferry residents from across Lake Minnetonka to the town of the same name, where streetcars sat waiting as land transportation. The Minnehaha was also used by people wanting a tour of the lake, and it remained a popular means of transportation for both groups until the late 1920s, when steamboats began to fade away. Although it cruises the same water today, the Minnehaha spent decades on the bottom of the lake. The steamboat sank in 1926 and wasn't raised until 1980. Ten years after Minnehaha was brought to the surface, the restoration began and was completed in 1996. The wood hull was rebuilt because of damage caused by spending a decade on land, and the original boiler that burned coal was converted to a model that burns fuel. While the ship's engine isn't the original one, it dates back to the late 1930s. African Queen, Florida . Perhaps the most famous steamboat still in operation, Florida's African Queen starred alongside Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn in the 1951 film of the same name. The boat was built in 1912 in Lytham, England, for use by the East Africa British Railways Company. It originally carried cargo, hunting parties and missionaries along the Victoria Nile and Lake Albert, on the border of Congo and Uganda. The boat continued to operate in Africa until 1968 when it was brought to the United States, working in San Francisco, Oregon and finally in Florida. The African Queen has been in Key Largo since 1982, providing cruises for visitors wanting a ride on the famous boat. Sabino, Connecticut . Mystic, Connecticut's Sabino is believed to be the oldest wooden, coal-fired steamboat still operating in the United States. Built in 1908 in East Boothbay, Maine, the Sabino was originally named the Tourist, carrying freight and passengers in Maine's waters. After a private restoration, the Sabino was purchased in 1974 for use as a working exhibit at the Mystic Seaport museum. The Sabino still has the two-cylinder steam engine that was installed in 1908, carrying passengers on daily cruises along the Mystic River. The Sabino is a "bell boat," with control of the engine handled directly by the engineer who receives orders from the captain via bell. One ring means forward, two mean reverse. 10 stunning waterfalls across the U.S. American Empress, Washington . The youngest steamboat on the list, Washington's American Empress was launched this past April. The ship was actually built in 2003, cruising Alaska as the Empress of the North for five years. The boat remained out of service until it was purchased and renamed by the American Queen Steamboat Company in 2013. Ports and excursions on the multi-day cruises along the Columbia and Snake Rivers include Sacajawea State Park, the Walla Walla wine trail, Mount St. Helens and numerous stops in Oregon. Cruises often feature a "riverlorian" to share the history and culture of the region with curious visitors. Miss Belterra Riverboat Casino, Indiana . If it's a roll of the dice or slots you seek rather than just sightseeing, Florence, Indiana's Miss Belterra might be the boat for you. Opened in 2000, Las Vegas casino-inspired and design and décor elements grace the interior, with the exterior resembling classic riverboats of the 1800s. Miss Belterra is 370 feet long and features 38,000 square feet of game tables and slots on two of its decks. The boat holds about 3,000 people and offers the sounds and atmosphere of a land-locked casino. Although gambling laws no longer require Miss Belterra to leave port, guests can still enjoy the historic feel and thrill of gambling on the water. 10 wilderness spots turning 50 .

Once a popular form of transportation, few steamboats cruise the waters today . Kentucky's Belle of Louisville and Maine's Katahdin celebrate big birthdays this year . There are newer steamboats, including the American Empress and Miss Belterra .

(CNN)News that a jury has ordered Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams to fork out $7.4 million in damages and profits for allegedly drawing on Marvin Gaye's 1977 hit "Got to Give It Up" in their song "Blurred Lines" has thrust the issue of music copyright into the headlines. But it's by no means the first time. Recently, it was reported that Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne would be given songwriting credits for Sam Smith's hit song "Stay With Me." But the really interesting part was that this only happened after Petty's team noticed a likeness between Smith's song and Petty's 1989 hit "I Won't Back Down." Astonishingly, this means Smith, and somehow every single person at every stage of the production process of "Stay With Me," were all -- to a person -- apparently not familiar with the 1989 Petty/Lynne tune. It makes this old-timer think: Wait, how did anyone release that song and not think it sounded like Petty's "Won't Back Down"? I assumed it was a collaboration! The only plausible explanation is that every executive, every studio employee and every human involved in that decision was under 30 and had never heard of Tom Petty. Or MTV. Or iTunes. Or the music industry. "Won't Back Down" doesn't get a lot of play time now, but in 1989, you could not have avoided this song. MTV played videos pretty much nonstop back then, and this one accounted for about 20% of the content on MTV -- or at least it felt that way. To this author, and amateur music infringement sleuth, the songs are almost identical. But, it turns out music -- and music similarity -- is almost entirely in the eye of the beholder (or "be-hearer"). Other songs that have 'Blurred Lines' In a music plagiarism case, one musician claims that another composer has "stolen" his pre-existing song. The plaintiff has the burden of proving that the challenged composition (1) is substantially similar, and, further, (2) that this similarity is due to copying. The challenge is that even if the plaintiff can prove song similarity, the plaintiff usually has no evidence that the accused composer actually heard the song in advance. So, music infringement presents a tricky question: Should a court find that the defendant infringed the plaintiff's song just upon a showing that the songs are similar or identical -- despite the plaintiff's inability to show that the defendant ever actually heard the song? Instead, plaintiffs generally prove this element by showing that the person who composed the defendant's work had "access." Examples of "access" are where a plaintiff's song has been widely disseminated, either by public broadcasts, widespread distribution and even the publication of sheet music. If a composer and his work are not famous, naturally it's harder to prove access to a musical composition that has largely been distributed no further than a dog-eared notebook in mom's basement. It's hard to hold a defendant liable for infringement solely because the piece is similar, and courts are reluctant to do so. At the same time, "access" today is much easier to prove than it was before the Internet. If someone has five fans on his aspiring-rapper Facebook page, and he posts songs recorded right onto his MacBook, can it be said that a Sam Smith had "access" to that music when he records a nearly identical tune? After all, technically, it was only a click away on the Internet, just not a click that anyone was likely to make. The advent of the Internet means artists now have "access" to everything, at any time. Surprisingly, courts have held that in cases of the unknown, un-famous plaintiff, the "access" may be inferred where the plaintiff proves the similarity between the songs is both substantial and striking, and also that the similarities could only have come from copying, and not coincidence. So, in an era where every song ever composed is online, at our fingertips, it all boils down to a collective smell test. And if you have ever seen Vanilla Ice defend his accused theft in "Ice Ice Baby" of David Bowie and Queen's classic sound in "Pressure," you know that there really is not much difference between "Da-Da-Da Da-Da Da-Da" and "Da-DA Da-Da Da-Da-Da Da." (Here's the link to that piece of tape, for no other reason than it's a fantastic example of self-delusion.) The fascinating thing is that the music business is full of these alleged song robberies. Since music is so personal, whether the listener hears the old song in the new depends heavily on the individual's music preferences and knowledge. If you are proficient in the art of blues or rock chord progression, for example, you may recognize that the famous Baroque canon by Pachelbel, is almost identical chord-wise to Blues Traveler's '90s hit "Hook." This, even though no one would confuse the feel or genre of "Hook" with Pachelbel's wedding classic. On the other hand, if (like my Grandpa Vito) you think all rap music sounds like "pots and pans clanging together," then you may not have the palate for differentiating between rap, hip-hop, house or trance. The point is, music theory may be a hard science, but music appreciation is anything but. As a result, music comparison is all over the map. For example, in 1971, former Beatle George Harrison was sued for supposedly pilfering the Chiffons song "He's So Fine" for his hit song "My Sweet Lord." YouTube "He's So Fine" right now and listen. Now YouTube "My Sweet Lord." Identical or different? The chords are substantially similar in both verse and chorus. The fact that the songs are from different "eras" is either a minor distinction to you, or dispositive of any claims. The reality is that once you start playing these songs for different people, you find that because we all perceive music differently, there may be no objective way ultimately to determine if any song ever infringes another. After all, isn't all music inspired by something that came before it? Sure, each side can call experts in music theory at trial to testify about the circle of fifths, and tonal harmony this and arpeggio that. But those experts would still be explaining it to a lay judge, jury and even lawyers. These laypeople are all individuals, all experiencing music differently. And in the case of the Chiffons' song and Harrison's "My Sweet Lord"? The court ultimately determined that Harrison's use of parts of the Chiffons' song, in the same order, sequence and harmonies, meant Harrison subconsciously misappropriated "He's So Fine." Is that how you would have called it? Play it for your spouse or kids and see what they say. You may find they disagree with you. This kind of dispute appears whimsical, but it actually has serious economic implications. Music is protected by copyright, which, along with trademarks and patents comprise an area of law known as intellectual property. A copyright is just an expression of an idea in a fixed, tangible medium, which means a song, a painting and even software code is entitled to copyright protection. The most paradoxical thing about intellectual property law is that it incentivizes creativity and invention by rewarding creators with a limited monopoly ... and nothing destroys ingenuity more than monopoly. The line must be carefully drawn, because the loser in a copyright case may be out some major damages in the form of royalties. In the case of Sam Smith's use of the Tom Petty work, to Smith's credit, his team reportedly listened to the two songs and acknowledged the similarity. And in a rare moment in music infringement history the parties actually settled the matter amicably. Of course, for me, the key lesson in all this is that knowing Petty's music now seems to mean that I am officially old. Which means it's time to retire my acid-wash jean jacket with the Whitesnake patch. Even worse, though -- if potential litigants such as Smith and Petty are going to start resolving disputes without hiring us lawyers, then I might have to retire my law license along with the denim jackets.

Jury has found that 'Blurred Lines' drew on Marvin Gaye's 'Got to Give It Up' Danny Cevallos : Music infringement presents a tricky question .

(CNN) -- Few of us can imagine living the opulent "Downton Abbey" lives of the fictional Crawley family at the turn of the 20th century. There were servants to address one's every material need, dinner in white tie and lavish gowns, and rules designed to keep the upper crust on top and the lower classes in their place. You almost have to see the sprawling estate to believe that the lifestyle existed, yet the trip to visit Highclere Castle, the estate used by the television show in rural England, may cost more than the less well-to-do American can afford. There's no need to cross the pond to get a taste of that life. Although the United States did not have lords or ladies living on grand estates, there were American millionaires who made their fortunes by harnessing the resources of a new country. With an eye to the style of their European counterparts, they built mansions on extensive grounds to show off their power and wealth. So if you're entering a period of "Downton" withdrawal, consider a peek into America's historic high life. The places where masterpieces are born . "These homes represented the creation of immense wealth at the turn of the century in the United States, the kind of wealth acquired through fundamental commodities like water, gold, oil and food," said Katherine Malone-France, the National Trust for Historic Preservation's historic sites director of outreach, education and support. "These estates represented the taste and sophistication of their owners, as well as the skills and labors of those who built them and worked in them. These places were icons then and now, and they make for great television and fantastic places to visit as historic sites, because they contain all of those complex, compelling and interwoven stories." The new American wealthy didn't have hundreds of years to build their fancy homes and reputations, yet the Vanderbilts, Rockefellers and other wealthy families built houses to last for generations. These are just a handful of the homes where they were living large around the same time as the "Downton Abbey" story lines. Downton Abbey creates tourism boom . The Rockefellers: Hudson Valley, New York . With the economic engine that is New York nearby, it makes sense that the country's new wealthy would build their homes and country homes in the city's suburbs and nearby Hudson Valley. The Vanderbilts, Roosevelts and Goulds all had homes in the area. Completed in 1913, Kykuit was the home of Standard Oil founder and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and the next three generations of his family. The six-story home, now a National Trust for Historic Preservation property operated by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, is open to the public for tours. Make sure to tour the gardens to see New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller's 20th-century sculpture collection, including the works of Alexander Calder, Henry Moore and Pablo Picasso. Kykuit's elaborate gardens also feature classical sculpture, pavilions, fountains and Hudson River views. The Douglas family: Cedar Rapids, Iowa . Like the fictional Crawleys, the Douglas family was touched by the sinking of the Titanic. Although the Brucemore estate was built for wealthy widow Caroline Sinclair and her six children in 1886, the Sinclair family lived there just 20 years. The George and Irene Douglas family and its descendants, known for Douglas & Co. and Quaker Oats, lived there from 1906 to 1981. It was George's brother Walter who perished on the Titanic. Reports say his wife, Mahala, asked him to join her on a lifeboat. He replied, "No, I must be a gentleman" and went to join a group of men waiting for later lifeboats. His body was recovered later and identified by his monogrammed shirt. Visitors can tour the 21-room Queen Anne style mansion and grounds. The Booths: Bloomfield Hills, Michigan . The Canadian-born owner of an ironworks company, George Booth settled in Detroit when he married Ellen Warren Scripps, the daughter of the founder of the Detroit News. The Booths purchased a rundown farm in Bloomfield Hills to turn into their summer home and eventually built a new year-round home, Cranbrook House, which was completed in 1908. George Booth became a leading patron of the American Arts and Crafts movement in the early 20th century, and it showed in the designs he chose for his home and the art he collected. The couple also started six education and arts institutions on their property, including the famous Cranbrook Academy of Art. While still alive, they deeded the house, much of its contents and the surrounding property to the Cranbrook Foundation they created, living the rest of their lives not as owners but under a life trust at Cranbrook House. It is the oldest surviving manor home in the metro Detroit area. The Vanderbilts: Asheville, North Carolina . George Vanderbilt didn't care for the city life as much as the rest of his family. So it was no surprise that after he visited the mountains of North Carolina, he eventually built his 250-room estate in Asheville. The Biltmore was completed in 1895, when he was still single. Vanderbilt married Edith Stuyvesant Dresser in Paris in 1898, and the couple raised their only child at Biltmore. Descendants of the Vanderbilts still own and operate the estate as a for-profit company, and the home is now open to the public for tours. There's a 10,000-volume library, a bowling alley, a banquet hall featuring a 70-foot ceiling, an indoor pool and the artwork of Pierre Auguste Renoir and John Singer Sargent, among others. Architect Richard Morris Hunt modeled the house after three 16th-century French chateaux. With more than 30 bedrooms, it's still shy of the 50 plus bedrooms at Downton's Highclere Castle. Still, Biltmore seems more than adequate for a house party. Don't miss the butler's tour if you want to see how the other half lived on the estate. Modern guests can stay at an inn built in 2001 or a historic cottage that once served as the gardener's house. The Bourns: Woodside, California . Filoli was completed in 1917 as the country estate for Mr. and Mrs. William Bowers Bourn, San Franciscans whose money came from water and gold. Filoli is just 30 miles outside San Francisco. The European influence can be found all over the property: Tuscan columns in the portico, art from the Bourns' travels to Europe and even some of the house's walls. (The house library was copied from the library at Denham Place, a 1690s home in England.) The expansive formal gardens were designed and constructed between 1917 and 1929. The next owners lived in the house until 1975, when the house and formal gardens were donated to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The Berwinds: Newport, Rhode Island . Downton fans might remember that the mother of American-born Cora, the countess of Grantham, had a home in Newport. That's where rich Americans summered, and it's where visitors can tour several grand homes at a time. Mr. and Mrs. Edward Julius Berwind, who made their money in coal mining, built the Elms as their summer residence in Newport. Now one of the famous Newport Mansions and a National Historic Landmark, the Elms was finished in 1901. Unlike some residents of fictional Downton, who grudgingly adapted to modern conveniences like telephones and electricity, the Berwinds had the Elms outfitted with the latest modern conveniences. The house was among the first in Newport to be fully electrified with no gas backup. There was even an early ice maker. The couple's art collection featured 18th-century Venetian and French paintings and Renaissance ceramics. To get a good sense of life among the servants, the Preservation Society of Newport County, which owns and operates 10 historic properties in Newport, added an Elms servant life tour last year.

Wealthy Americans at the turn of the 20th century built elaborate homes to show off their status . Many of these estates required servants to support the homes and grounds . Inspired by their European counterparts, rich Americans collected European art .

(CNN) -- It may not be "High Noon," but the Red Bull team are facing a Shanghai showdown when their two drivers resume rivalries at this weekend's Chinese Grand Prix. Sebastian Vettel has been vilified for ignoring team orders and passing his Red Bull teammate Mark Webber in Malaysia to whisk the win from under the Australian's nose. Directly behind the dueling Red Bulls, the opposite scenario was playing out as Nico Rosberg reluctantly obeyed team orders not to overtake his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton for third place, even though the German appeared to have a quicker car. The controversial issue of team orders in Formula 1 has once again tested respect between teammates -- and ahead of Sunday's race Vettel said he would probably do it again given he felt Webber had not supported him in the past -- and raised question marks over the purity of the sport's racing. The willingness to accept team orders often relies on a tacit understanding between the drivers, on their status within the team and how the race will be run. Former Honda, Brawn and Williams driver Rubens Barrichello -- who spent six years as Michael Schumacher's deputy at Ferrari -- explained: "In the team meeting before the race you have to talk about various situations. "Obviously there is an interest in doing the best for the team," Barrichello told CNN. "All the team wants to see is if one driver has a problem he will not make it difficult for his teammate. "If it was agreed before by both drivers that they needed to go lower on revs -- and if that is a code for no overtaking -- then that is what they had agreed." Webber was told to turn down his engine revs after taking the lead in Malaysia. He understood that instruction meant -- as Barrichello suggested -- he would not be passed by his teammate. But the fact that Vettel chose to ignore this instruction and run his own race has left serious, unanswered questions over his respect for Webber. Taking the low road . "I don't think there's the same respect now for other drivers," British racing legend Stirling Moss told CNN. During his F1 career between 1951-60, Moss would only sign contracts that named him as the team's number one driver. In his era of racing, that meant if there was a problem with his speed machine, he could simply call in his teammate and take over his car. There was, however, one exception to Moss' rule when, in 1955, he signed for Mercedes alongside Argentine great Juan Manuel Fangio. The pair shared a mutual respect on and off track, says Moss, even though it was "El Maestro" who would capture his third world title at the end of the season. "When I was at Mercedes with Fangio there were no pit orders at all until we had a 30-second lead over the rest of the field," Moss recalled. "When a team had the lead, the number one driver would hold position and not pass him, says Moss. "I respected Fangio so much that I was just as happy to be number two. I was quite happy to sit right behind him. It didn't worry me," he said. "We were known as the train because I was only about two yards behind him the whole race!" It's all different now though, says Moss. "Because (Red Bull) had specifically said to (Vettel) let Webber have it, that made him a naughty boy but he felt, 'well dammit, why shouldn't I win?' I don't think he'll ever repair that damage because he probably thinks 'well, that's the way I race.'" Career-defining moments . On the other side of the garage, the Malaysia team orders drama may have more emotional, career-defining consequences for Webber, whose Red Bull contract expires at the end of the season. Barrichello can empathize with Webber's position as he considers his perpetual role as Red Bull's "number two" driver. The Brazilian was famously forced to cede first place to Schumacher by Ferrari in the controversial 2002 Austrian Grand Prix. It was the start of a long period of reflection for Barrichello. "In my case in Austria there were eight laps of conversation because they told me that I should do something that was not agreed," he explained. Because of what happened in Austria, people think there was something that was written in his contract. But there wasn't, says Barrichello. "The year before in Austria I had let Michael by when I was second and he was third and I had that conversation with the team afterwards when I said: 'Listen, what would happen if I was first?' And they said: 'We would never ask you that if you were first,'" he explains. "And then it was exactly the case the following year in 2002. I refused to do it until the penultimate corner because it was not agreed. "It was very hard, it was absolutely very, very hard. I really tried to give my very best to see if the team would ultimately change the philosophy." It was the reason why the Brazilian quit his Ferrari contract one year early in 2005. "I saw that there was no winning scenario, the case was lost," he said. That career-defining moment for Barrichello also led to a decision by the sport's governing body, the FIA, to ban team orders that directly affected the outcome of a race. Ironically, it was another infamous incident between two Ferrari drivers in 2010 -- when Felipe Massa was told to surrender the lead to teammate Fernando Alonso -- that led to a ban on team orders being stripped from the rulebook in 2011. There was simply no point trying to police something that has always been an intrinsic part of the sport. Teams before drivers . Team orders have always existed in F1 because, in simple terms, teams also want to be happy -- and that often means making money. It is, after all, the teams who finance the drivers' fun and it is their brand and sponsors who they are protecting. When the top teams are spending $1m a day it makes business sense to protect that investment by not allowing drivers to race freely if there is a danger that in the heat of the moment both cars could take each other out of the race. "The team has always been the most important thing," said Moss. "I drove for teams like Mercedes and Maserati and at one time I drove my own car which meant I could do what the hell I liked!" he said. "But once you're with a company you really have to do what they tell you to. It's a professional business with very big money, which it wasn't (when I drove). Drivers are being paid like film stars now." This constant clamor of commercial team interests means the men at the wheel of the world's fastest cars often have to suppress their racing instincts. That is exactly what Rosberg did in Malaysia and exactly what Vettel chose not to do. Do F1 drivers simply have to accept that when it comes to racing it is the team who ultimately decides how a race is run? "I don't think drivers accept that," says Barrichello. "There are racetracks when one driver can do better than another and there should be freedom for them to decide that. They should be allowed to fight." Moss, meanwhile, understands Vettel's racing instincts. "I suppose he was a naughty boy," Moss says, "but he is a racing driver who's paid to go fast. "I'm glad I raced when I did and not now because the pleasure was so much more then and the racing certainly was purer." Few of F1's global television audience of half-a-billion fans would disagree with Moss. Who wants to watch races that have been massaged and manipulated by team orders? But the furore across global media outlets and social media sites following the Malaysian GP also proved F1 fans balked at the unsporting flavor of Vettel's victory --- even if he was doing what a triple world champion is supposed to do, race. There appears to be a thin divide between team orders that protect a worthy longtime leader and instructions that see him denied the taste of champagne from the top step of the podium. Vettel, Webber and Red Bull will begin to find out how much crossing that line in Malaysia has hurt them when they reunite in Shanghai.

Team orders in Formula 1 are a hot topic once again following events in Malaysia . Red Bull teammates at odds after Sebastian Vettel overtakes Mark Webber against team orders . Rubens Barrichello, a deputy to Michael Schumacher at Ferrari, empathizes with Webber . F1 legend Stirling Moss believes there is less respect between drivers in modern racing .

Romulus, Michigan (CNN) -- Part of an explosive device that failed to take down a plane last week was sewn into the underwear of the Nigerian man accused of igniting it, a law enforcement official told CNN Monday. Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab is being held for allegedly trying to blow up a flight carrying 300 passengers on Christmas Day. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility Monday for the attack, saying it was in retaliation for alleged U.S. strikes on Yemeni soil. In a message written in Arabic, dated Saturday and published Monday on radical Islamist Web sites, the group hailed the "brother" who carried out the "heroic attack." The group said it tested "new kind of explosives" in the attack and hailed the fact that the explosives "passed through security." "There was a technical problem that resulted in a non-complete explosion," the message said. A preliminary FBI analysis found that the device AbdulMutallab is said to have carried aboard the flight from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to Detroit, Michigan, contained pentaerythritol tetranitrate, an explosive also known as PETN. The amount of explosive was sufficient to blow a hole in the aircraft, a source with knowledge of the investigation told CNN Sunday. In his first public comment since the Christmas Day incident, President Obama said he directed his national security team to "keep up the pressure on those who would attack our country." "We do not yet have all the answers about this latest attempt, but those who would slaughter innocent men, women and children must know that the United States will do more than simply strengthen our defenses," Obama told reporters in a break from his Christmas holiday in Hawaii. U.S. investigators have not determined whether the al Qaeda claim of responsibility was true, but one U.S. counterterrorism official told CNN on Monday that the group might have some involvement. CNN National Security Analyst Peter Bergen said that if al Qaeda operatives in Yemen were behind the Christmas plot, that would represent a significant advance for the group. "Most of the attacks we have seen in the past have been in Yemen or Saudi Arabia, and the [al Qaeda] affiliate there has not been able to do out-of-the-area operation," Bergen said. A federal security bulletin obtained by CNN said AbdulMutallab claimed the explosive device used Friday "was acquired in Yemen along with instructions as to when it should be used." Yemen's government launched airstrikes and other raids against al Qaeda operatives on its territory over the past two weeks, and Monday's statement by al Qaeda accused the United States of assisting with cruise missile attacks launched from offshore. U.S. officials privately acknowledge they have provided secret intelligence on several al Qaeda targets to Yemen's government but won't say whether U.S. aircraft or drones took part in the strikes. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula threatened further attacks in its statement, saying, "We have prepared men who love to die." "By God's permission, we will come to you with more things that you have never seen before," it said. Yemen's Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned Friday's attempted attack in a statement released Monday. "Yemen has long suffered from terrorism and condemns such criminal acts that kill innocent civilians. Yemen is and remains an active partner of the international community in the war against terrorism. Efforts of Yemeni security agencies to continue ongoing operations and prosecutions against terrorist operatives from al Qaeda will not falter," it said. Mohammed Albasha, spokesman for the Yemen Embassy in Washington, confirmed to CNN Monday that AbdulMutallab was in Yemen between August and December. According to the ministry's statement, AbdulMutallab had obtained a visa to study Arabic at a language institute in Yemen where he had previously studied. Relatives of the suspect said Monday that they told authorities weeks ago about AbdulMutallab's "out of character" behavior and hoped authorities would intervene. AbdulMutallab, 23, was studying abroad when he "disappeared" and stopped communicating with his relatives, they said in a statement. His father, Umaru AbdulMutallab, contacted Nigerian security agencies two months ago and foreign security agencies six weeks ago, the statement said. A senior U.S. administration official said one of those agencies contacted was the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria. The embassy, which has law enforcement, security and intelligence representatives on staff, reported the father's concern to other agencies, the official said. "We were hopeful that they would find and return him home," the family said. "It was while we were waiting for the outcome of their investigation that we arose to the shocking news of that day." AbdulMutallab, a Nigerian who had a multiple-entry visa to the United States, had been added to a watch list of 550,000 potential terrorist threats after the information provided by his father was forwarded to the National Counter-Terrorism Center, a senior administration official said. But "the info on him was not deemed specific enough to pull his visa or put him on a no-fly list," the official said. Obama said Monday he has "ordered a thorough review, not only of how information related to the subject was handled, but of the overall watch-list system and how it can be strengthened." Do you feel safe in the skies? The father of the suspect contacted the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria with concerns his son had "become radicalized" and was planning something, a senior U.S. administration official said. "After his father contacted the embassy recently, we coded his visa file so that, had he attempted to renew his visa months from now, it would have triggered an in-depth review of his application," a U.S. official said. Passengers on the Christmas Day flight described a chaotic scene that began with a popping sound as the plane was making its final approach, followed by flames erupting at AbdulMutallab's seat. The suspect was moved Sunday from a hospital, where he was treated for his burns, to an undisclosed location in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service. He is charged with attempting to destroy the plane and placing a destructive device on the aircraft. Authorities have focused their investigation on how AbdulMutallab, 23, allegedly smuggled the explosives aboard the flight and who might have helped him. "We're ascertaining why it was that he was not flagged in a more specific way when he purchased his ticket, given the information that we think was available, allegedly was available," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told CNN's "American Morning" Monday. Meanwhile, tighter security measures in the wake of the incident triggered long lines at security checkpoints at airports in the United States and abroad. Airlines and their crews have been given discretion over implementation of a "one-hour rule," which prohibits passengers from leaving their seats during the last hour of flight, sources said. The Transportation Security Administration invoked the rule for international U.S.-bound flights after the botched attack. Airline security will be the focus of hearings by the Senate committees on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and Commerce, Science and Transportation; the House Committee on Homeland Security is also slated to hold a hearing on the incident. AbdulMutallab's trip originated in Lagos, Nigeria. There, he did not check in a bag as he flew on a KLM flight to Amsterdam, said Harold Demuren, director-general of Nigeria's Civil Aviation Authority. Demuren said the suspect underwent regular screening -- walking through a metal detector and having his shoulder bag scanned through an X-ray machine. He then underwent secondary screening at the boarding gate for the KLM flight, according to officials of the Dutch airline. After arriving in Amsterdam, AbdulMutallab boarded the Northwest Airlines flight to the United States. The Netherlands' national coordinator for counterterrorism told CNN that AbdulMutallab had gone through "normal security procedures" in Amsterdam before boarding the flight to Detroit. CNN's Elise Labott, Jeanne Meserve, Carol Cratty, Richard Quest, Nic Robertson, Christian Purefoy, Tom Cohen, Mike Ahlers, Alona Rivord, Mohammed Jamjoom, Miguel Susana and Barbara Starr contributed to this report.

Al Qaeda blames "non-complete explosion" on "technical problem" President Obama vows to use "every element" in U.S. arsenal to combat terror . Part of explosive device was sewn into suspect's underwear, official says . Al Qaeda says it tested new explosive that got through security; threatens more attacks .

(CNN)Rita McCann still remembers the day when her joy at the prospect of giving birth to her first child turned into sheer terror. It was December 15th, 1957 when she went into labor at a hospital in Dublin, Ireland. As she floated in and out of consciousness, she remembers being taken into a room with a single bed. "I was pulled to the bottom of the bed. My legs were strapped into stirrups. I was nine months pregnant, flat on my back," she says. "I was helpless and I did not know what was going to happen." "[Then] I got a local anesthetic and the torture began." As a room full of medical students and doctors looked on, McCann says she could feel the pressure of a scalpel cutting into her. From then on, it was "just agony, literally agony," she recalls. "I got a cramp down my left side and I could not move at all to get myself any relief." McCann, struggling against the searing pain, couldn't see what the surgeon was doing to her. She assumed he was performing a Caesarian section, but he wasn't. He was slicing into her pelvis to make way for her baby. McCann, now 88, was undergoing a symphysiotomy -- a procedure seldom used by other industrialized nations by the mid-20th century as Caesarian sections became safer. Symphysiotomy is a surgical procedure whereby the pubic symphysis -- the joint that holds the pelvis together -- is cut in order to widen the birth canal during labor. Roughly 1,500 women in Ireland were subjected to symphysiotomy between the 1940s and 1984, according to the government. The procedure can cause chronic pain and "rupturing of the bladder," which can lead to incontinence, according to Irish physiotherapist Jessica O'Dowd. In cases where the pubic symphysis is completely severed, patients may get "earlier onset arthritis and joint degeneration," O'Dowd says. "The mechanics of your whole lower half of your body are changed because of that joint." McCann says she never consented to the procedure, which she says has left a permanent gap in her pelvis. The operation amounts to torture, according to survivors who have demanded an official apology from the Irish government and an independent inquiry. "Above all, women want the truth about these operations. They have been denied the truth for 40, 50, 60 years," says Marie O'Connor, the chairwoman of Survivors of Symphysiotomy (SoS). A brief filed by the survivors' group to the U.N. Human Rights Committee recounted some of the mothers' horrifying experiences under the knife. "I just remember being brought into a theatre and the place was packed with people. I wasn't told what was happening ... I was screaming and being restrained," recalled Philomena, a pubiotomy patient and SoS member who recalled the birth of her third child in 1959, at the same hospital where Rita McCann had given birth two years before. "I couldn't see much except for them sawing. It was excruciating pain," she said. "I was just 27 and I was butchered." Cora, another SoS member, says she was just 17 when doctors performed a pubiotomy (a procedure related to symphysiotomy) on her during the birth of her first child in 1972. "I was screaming. It's not working, [the anesthetic] I said, I can feel everything ... I seen him go and take out a proper hacksaw, like a wood saw ... a half-circle with a straight blade and a handle," she said. "The blood shot up to the ceiling, up onto his glasses, all over the nurses... Then he goes to the table, and gets something like a solder iron and puts it on me, and stopped the bleeding. ... They told me to push her out. She must have been out before they burnt me. He put the two bones together, there was a burning pain, I knew I was going to die." Campaigners have accused the doctors, who worked primarily in Catholic hospitals, of putting their religious beliefs before the well-being of patients. "The surgery was an abuse of power, a pre-emptive surgical strike against the practice of birth control by obstetricians who disliked Caesarean section, on account of its association with what Archbishop [of Dublin Charles] McQuaid termed the 'crime of birth-prevention," O'Connor wrote in 2012. McQuaid was Archbishop of Dublin until 1972 and died the next year. CNN reached out to Ireland's Department of Health for comment and was referred to the government-commissioned inquiry from 2013. That report acknowledged the influence of religion on obstetricians in a Catholic country where birth control was illegal from 1935 to 1980. It notes that Alexander Spain and Arthur Barry -- the doctors who championed the procedures at Dublin's National Maternity Hospital in the 1940s and 50s - were "devout Catholics, serving a predominantly Catholic patient population, and they made no secret of their willing conformity to religious precepts in the treatment of patients." But the report also acknowledged the legal limits on medical practitioners at the time. "Whatever their personal inclinations or beliefs, doctors practising in Ireland were confined by key legislative limits in relation to family planning and advice," the report noted. The U.N. Human Rights Committee last summer asked Ireland to conduct a "prompt, independent and thorough" inquiry into symphiosotomy. In July, as a result of the government-commissioned inquiry, Ireland launched an "ex-gratia" scheme -- one that allowed for payment without admission of liability -- to compensate victims with payments ranging from 50,000 to 150,000 euros, depending on the severity of the case. But Marie O'Connor says the government's offer doesn't do nearly enough for women who were physically and emotionally crippled by the procedures at state hospitals for decades. "That is a sum of money that anybody would get here if they broke a leg at work," she says. "It seems to us that what the state is trying to do is buy off survivors at the lowest possible cost," she says. "The payment scheme is an ex-gratia scheme, which does not meet international human rights standards because it is based on no admission of wrongdoing." She says some women are pursuing legal action. Rita McCann, one of the roughly 300 victims who is still alive, is not among those looking to the courts. And although she didn't find out about what had happened to her for decades, she says she has felt the effects of her symphysiotomy since the day it happened. When McCann left the hospital, she says she could barely walk for the first six months, and she had to move back home to Monaghan in north Ireland so her parents could help raise the baby. "To walk or to lift the baby, my back would just go into a spasm, and my legs wouldn't work," she says. "Basically you were crawling around holding on ... and that lasted for a long, long time." As bad as the pain was, McCann claims that she wasn't told about the procedure, and says that "secrecy" hurt even worse. "He was obviously sawing me in half," she says. "Why they couldn't come and tell me?" "It left me feeling guilt and it left me wondering on what effect it would have on my baby later in life. It was having a very bad effect on me so it was bound to have some effect on the baby." "It never dawned on me that there was an alternative," she says. "But I think I would have taken the Caesarian." Before McCann lost consciousness on that terrifying night at the hospital more than 57 years ago, she recalled the surgeon telling a student, "When she has a fine baby boy or girl in the morning, she will forget all about it." But she says she can't erase the devastating impact of her symphysiotomy. "It has been a lifetime," she says. "It's been a life sentence."

1,500 women in Ireland were subjected to symphysiotomy operations from the 1940s to 80s . Victims say the procedure, administered during childbirth, left them with broken pelvises and lifelong injuries . Some women were never consulted or told about the procedure; campaigners want an official apology .

(CNN) -- Soaring down highway 307 from the Cancun airport to the Riviera Maya is like peeling away stress palm tree by palm tree. Because I couldn't decide between paying homage to the Wind God at Tulum's circa-1200 AD Maya ruins or sinking into a Jacuzzi with a view of the Caribbean, I decided to have it all: I toured -- and ranked the pros and cons of -- eight of the region's all-inclusive resorts, each offering its own unique south-of-the-border vacation. The minimalist resort: Bel Air Collection . Spanning 14 very green acres, this resort is a buffet-free, a la carte-only zone in the low season. Only nine villas were built on the property, adding to the secluded, boutique-resort feel. Snorkeling, kayaking and biking are free here, as is doing absolutely nothing: a white hammock hangs from each room's terrace. With five cenotes onsite, you can have a romantic dinner right in the middle of a green cenote for a fee of $75 and up. Pro: Each room has a double Jacuzzi, and rustic shell patterns crafted from pebbles pop up every few feet on the stone floors. Con: The beach is small and rocky, but the resort provides a shuttle that brings you to a beach five minutes away, where drinks and light bites like ceviche await. (belairxpuha.com, from $75 per person per night) Budget Travel: 9 most colorful beaches in the world . The party resort: Riu Mexico . You know you're in for a raucous time when there are "liquor drips" (free tequila!) affixed to your hotel room's wall. The razzle-dazzle quotient is high here, from the opulent lobby to the cocktails at Bar Cubano. Reserve a table at Krystal fusion restaurant for the excellent tuna tataki. Pro: Beach access at this resort is vast and beautiful. Con: The evening entertainment is extremely loud if your room is toward the front of the resort. Even with the sliding doors closed, you could be subjected to an ear-splitting Mamma Mia! revue. (riu.com, from $99 per person per night) Budget Travel: 10 great budget destinations for 2014 . The romantic resort: Ocean Maya Royale . Sherbet-orange and raspberry-hued villas dot this lush adults-only property, a popular destination for weddings and honeymoons. The brand-new Fresco Bar, housed in a palapa, mixes up tropical juices with fruits and veggies like mango, papaya, kiwi and cactus. On weekends, guests can attend candle-lit pool parties. Pro: The "Romance Suite" includes a bottle of wine, a terrace or balcony, Jacuzzi and concierge service at the resort's spa and restaurants. Con: You have to pay extra for top-shelf liquor and access to a private beach area. (hoteloceanmaya.net/en, from $79 per person per night) 7 deluxe ways to embrace winter . The megaresort: Iberostar Paraiso Beach . Bring the kids here, one of Iberostar's five sprawling resorts with multiple pools. Swans and flamingos roam the property and small children will go especially nuts for riding the resort's working old-fashioned carousel, faux boulders, a lazy river and elaborate outdoor kids' play areas. By night, grownups can sip adult beverages and dance in the downright bizarre Star Wars-themed Galaxy Nightclub. Pro: A chain resort of this magnitude probably won't throw you any curveballs. If a quintessential tourist vacation appeals to you, this is your spot. Con: Some upscale restaurants and several pool areas aren't accessible to guests staying in the less expensive Iberostar hotels, including this one. It can be difficult to discern which areas are off-limits. (iberostar.com, from $95 per person per night) 8 elegant U.S. mansion hotels . The modern resort: Oasis Tulum . An infinity pool and a swim-up sushi bar add to the sleek feel of this resort's recently renovated exterior. Even the buffet offers gorgeous sea views through full-length plate glass windows. Two resorts exist here: the Oasis Tulum and the slightly more expensive Grand Oasis Tulum. The higher-end restaurants and bars (including a new wine bar), some of the pools, and a VIP roof bar with panoramic ocean views and private outdoor Jacuzzi tubs are reserved for Grand Oasis guests. An upgrade will run you about $5 more per person per day. Pro: Each room has either a terrace or a balcony. If you'd like to tool around town on your own, you can rent a SmartCar, insurance included, for $45 per day. Con: The buffet food isn't anything special, nor are the rooms, which have chintzy red bedspreads and dated bathrooms. (oasistulumresort.com, from $71 per person per night) The spa resort: Grand Sirenis Riviera Maya . To say the Spa Grand Sirenis is tech-forward is an understatement. Innovative services such as chromo-therapy, saltwater flotariums that mimic the density of the Dead Sea, aromatherapy showers and cocoa-and-caffeine wraps can be purchased individually -- or buy a Spa Pass ($25) to use the blue-tiled hot and cold hydro-therapy pools. Then sip complimentary orange, pineapple, grapefruit and green juices. Pro: Three vast beaches rim the property, and three adults-only pools ensure a slice of tranquility. Ask about perks like the free yoga classes and an hour of free snorkeling and kayaking each day. Con: There are roped-off areas for VIP "premium travelers." (sirenishotels.com, from $84 per person per night) 7 secret Caribbean islands . The family-friendly resort: Sandos Playacar . Quirky American perks like a cupcake shop, a creperie, a bagel shop right on the beach that offers 20-plus varieties and a teens club with a ping-pong table, pool table and foosball make the large Sandos Playacar resort a good option for both kids and adults who want a large-resort feel with the comforts of home. The adults-only Select Club section, on one side of the resort, is separate from the families on the other. Pro: Like other Sandos resorts, this one is eco conscious: The trash is sorted and the organic matter composted. Con: Aside from the expansive beach, the resort can feel like it's in the States rather than Mexico. (sandos.com, from $94 per person per night) Budget Travel: The ultimate (affordable!) tropical vacation . The eco resort: Sandos Caracol . Swim in a cenote -- or just do yoga next to it -- at a resort that prides itself on environment-focused features like a windmill; animal habitats for deer, donkeys and monkeys; gluten-free menu options; and trails you can bike for free. Tours point out flora and fauna including rubber trees, mangroves, peacocks and macaques -- and you'll take a dramatic walk across the resort's suspension bridge! Kid-friendly activities include an indoor jungle gym and a kids' nightclub. (Adults-only facilities are ideal for couples.) Order excellent fajitas and chilaquiles a la carte from La Jungla restaurant. Pro: The 80-minute massage incorporates props like giant mollusk seashells, cinnamon cream and long feathers. Con: Rooms are spare, but each has its own whirlpool tub and modern bathroom. (sandos.com, from $75 per person per night) Get the best travel deals and tips emailed to you FREE - CLICK HERE! Copyright © 2011 Newsweek Budget Travel, Inc., all rights reserved.

Soak up Mexico's Riviera Maya for less than $100 per person a night . The Riu Mexico has a party atmosphere with "liquor drips" in the rooms . Iberostar Paraiso Beach has plenty of kid-friendly attractions .

(CNN) -- Some travelers never stray from giant hotel chains, preferring familiarity and the reassuring presence of a pants press. For those willing to throw their loyalty points to the wind and spend a few extra dollars, there's the world of boutique hotels. The "boutique" concept has become overused in recent years. Some hoteliers think funky wallpaper, scatter cushions and an in-room iPod dock are enough to justify the label. Europe's latest crop of high end boutiques are a far cry from this, bridging historical architecture with cutting-edge design to create destinations that are as much an attraction as the surrounding landmarks. These are hotels that exude so much style, their customers won't care where the pants press is. Here are some of the best celebrating their first summer: . Chiltern Firehouse (London) The 26-room Chiltern, which opened in spring, is the first property outside the United States for Andre Balazs, the man behind L.A.'s Chateau Marmont and The Mercer in New York. Located in a former fire station in London's Marylebone district, the hotel's Firehouse's restaurant attracts celebs like Robert Pattinson and Lindsay Lohan. It also attracts an occasional crowd of paparazzi photographers outside. The kitchen is equally star-studded, with Nuno Mendes of Portugal's Michelin-starred Viajante supplying the dishes. Good for visiting: The clothing boutiques in nearby Marylebone High Street frequented by the same Hollywood stars staying at the hotel. Chiltern Firehouse, 1 Chiltern St., Marylebone, London; +44 20 7073 7676 . Miss Clara Hotel (Stockholm) With 92 rooms decked out in neutral hues, along with arched windows, marble baths and parquet floors, Miss Clara breathes life into a former girls' school while retaining the building's art nouveau features. Open since spring, the hotel has a brasserie-style restaurant that combines Nordic cuisine with plates such as pulled Moroccan lamb with harissa yogurt. Good for visiting: The city's new Abba museum, on the island of Djurgarden. Miss Clara Hotel, Sveavagen 48, Stockholm; +46 8 440 67 00 . Hotel Vernet (Paris) It's hard to stand out in Paris, but the sleek modern design features of the 50-room Hotel Vernet in the city's 8th arrondissement does its best to make a statement. There are walls of woven copper thread and abstract-patterned carpets, all under a classic French glass roof. The hotel features a resident DJ, but the real attraction are bathrooms fitted with Carrrara-marble basins, brass taps and glass mosaics. Good for visiting: The ritzy shops of the Champs Elysees, just a champagne bottle's throw away. Hotel Vernet, 25 Rue Vernet, Paris; +33 1 44 31 98 00 . Cromlix House Hotel (Dunblane, Scotland) Scottish tennis player Andy Murray is behind this extensive renovation near his hometown, which opened in April to almost as much applause as his long-overdue 2013 Wimbledon victory. The 34-acre grounds include tennis courts (of course) and host activities such as archery and a mini Highland games. There's also a farm-to-table restaurant, conservatory, chapel and loch. The 15-bedroom Victorian Perthshire mansion is packed with Scottish antiques. Good for visiting: Leighton Library -- Scotland's oldest private book collection open to the public. Cromlix House, Kinbuck, Near Dunblane; +44 1786 822 125 . OD Port Portals (Mallorca, Spain) Whitewashed rooms, a 1960s glam ambiance and an inviting pool area welcome guests at OD Port Portals, a 77-room hotel opened in April in Puerto Portals, western Mallorca. Junior suite guests receive either a Smart Cabriolet car (for use during their stay) or a driver, making it easy to trail the jet-set crowd in this affluent port town. Food in the restaurant is eclectic and health conscious. Good for visiting: Costa d'en Blanes beach or the nine-hole Bendinat Royal Golf course. OD Port Portals, Calle Tomas Blanes Tolosa, 4, Mallorca, Spain; +34 971 675 956 . Praia Verde Boutique Hotel (Castro Marim, Portugal) Opened in April, this low-slung 40-suite hotel surrounded by pine forest on Portugal's eastern Algarve coastline is set up for long stays. Guests bunk in cozy rooms but each suite has its own kitchenette with fridge and stove, plus a balcony to soak in the view of salt flats and white-sand beaches. Artisan groceries are available on site from a grocery store linked to the hotel's family-style A Terra restaurant. Good for visiting: The National Forest and the traditional Portuguese town of Cacela Velha. Praia Verde Boutique, Castro Marim, Portugal; +351 281 530 600 . Hotel Son Ametler (Mallorca, Spain) Another new venture on the Balearic island of Mallorca, this hotel is located away from the main tourist towns, in the foothills of the Tramuntana mountains. Surrounded by olive, fig and lemon trees, there's a farmhouse feel to Son Amelter, but accommodations in the eight-room restored manor is far from rustic. There's an outdoor pool with sweeping views of the countryside, Mallorquin stone in the rooms and Italian stucco walls in the bathrooms. Dinner is served al fresco three nights each week. Good for visiting: Posh restaurants and beaches can be reached by car in a matter of minutes. Hotel Son Ametler, Cami Son Riera Sin Numero, Moscari, Mallorca, Spain; +34 687 934 435 . 25hours Hotel Bikini (Berlin) This laid back 149-room concept hotel is the sixth property for 25hours, a luxury chain that's established itself in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The Bikini rifs on its artsy, big city surroundings, with cocktails and skyline views on a rooftop terrace. Catering to younger travelers, it has a DJ, on-site bakery and free bicycle loans -- but the biggest surprise is a hammock in the lobby. Meals in the glass-walled Neni restaurant are inspired by Austrian and Russian cuisine. Good for visiting: The Zoological Garden is so close it's possible to hear the lions roar. Europe's largest department store, Kaufhaus des Westens, and the Theater des Westens opera house are also at hand. 25Hours Hotel Bikini, Budapester St. 40, Berlin; +49 30 1202 210 . Lake Geneva Hotel (Versoix, Switzerland) It may only have three stars, but the Lake Geneva Hotel substitutes internal luxury for external dazzle. The 103 rooms are stylish enough, with muted hues highlighted by a pop of orange color. Then there's the views. Stellar vistas across the lake and Swiss Alps can be enjoyed from window seats in many of the rooms and suites, or from the terrace of the hotel's O'Five Mediterranean restaurant. Good for visiting: Near the Versoix railway station, the hotel is a handy weekend escape from Zurich and is close to beaches, equestrian centers and the Favarger chocolate factory. Lake Geneva Hotel, Route de Suisse 77, Versoix, Switzlerand; +41 22 907 81 11 . Based in America's heartland, Kristine Hansen covers wine, food and travel for a variety of publications.

Europe's newest boutique hotels are located in some of the continent's most popular destinations . A former girl's school in Stockholm and a converted fire station in London among best on offer . Spanish island of Mallorca is home to a '60s-style hotel and a tiny rural retreat .

Washington (CNN) -- The Supreme Court can seem a distant, dusty place, far removed from what young people, especially, see as relevant in their lives. It's an institution closed to cameras, with justices issuing dense written opinions while working mostly from their private chambers. So how do you get high schoolers interested in the important judicial stakes that affect everyone? Attorney Josh Blackman has found a way, using digital technology to give students the power to pick high court winners and losers through an interactive hands-on nationwide competition. Through his FantasyScotus.org website, Blackman created a nationwide teaching tool involving 200 classes around the country, and growing. Using a fantasy league concept popular with sporting events, Blackman organized a web-based game where students analyze current high-profile cases, then predict the outcomes. Points are awarded, and winners get bragging rights, badges of honor and Internet recognition. "It's not dry history, these cases are live, they're new," Blackman told CNN. "The big thing is they haven't been decided. High school students in the past have been told to accept the law, but here they can participate and have a stake in the outcome, by making predictions." The 26-year-old Staten Island, New York, native created the lesson plans in his spare time, with the help of a few friends. He works as a law clerk for a federal judge in western Pennsylvania and hopes to be a law professor one day. The year-old project is an offshoot of a larger fantasy league he also created, targeted at adult court aficionados. Blackman explains he did all this initially as a hobby -- "almost as a joke" -- after a colleague dared him to test his skills at picking the winning side in several big Supreme Court cases in 2009. "People around the world play it and seemed to like the original version, but then teachers started calling me, saying they were using it as an educational tool. They said it was too hard to navigate," said Blackman. "So we modified things, making it easier to operate, using basic English and a simple points system." Through his nonprofit Harlan Institute -- named after the first Justice John Marshall Harlan -- Blackman also gathered a teacher advisory network, having volunteer lawyers appear via Skype to various classrooms. A recent "Teach-A-Thon" found him and other attorneys advising students on court prediction strategy in seven schools -- from Iowa, Michigan, Virginia and elsewhere, even Canada. Among the Supreme Court cases the students are predicting: whether states can ban "violent" video games from being sold to minors and the free speech rights of an angry anti-gay church group that protests loudly at the private funerals of military personnel killed in wars overseas. Rulings in those appeals are expected next spring. One attractive feature for cash-strapped schools is that the FantasyScotus project is free. Funding comes from private donations, combined with the relatively inexpensive operating costs. Technology also allows volunteer lawyers to advise students without having to leave their offices, through computer video linkups. In addition to enlisting teachers and lawyers, the project is working with iCivics, the education resource founded by retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. "It's been blast, seeing young people connect with the law in a way I never had the opportunity to when I was a kid," Blackman said. "They're looking at the Constitution now not as this dead document, but something they can participate in, where they can try and make a difference." Technology is music to Scalia's ears . "It's a brave new world." So says Justice Antonin Scalia on the technological changes occurring in his court and in his own life. The 74-year-old jurist revealed his heavy use of an iPod media player and iPad portable tablet computer, for both work and pleasure. Speaking at a recent black-tie dinner sponsored by the conservative Federalist Society, Scalia said his musical tastes tend to opera and classical works, which he proudly noted he downloads himself. Many of his fellow benchmates shun technology, preferring to handwrite the first drafts of their opinions and communicate through formal hand-delivered paper messages. But the senior associate justice says he relies on his computer so much, he "can hardly write in longhand any more." And his iPad is filled with the reams of legal briefs he needs to read up on pending and current cases. He can now take his caseload anywhere he says, and does not have to "schlep the [written] briefs around." But Scalia told the audience another powerful communication device will not soon invade his courtroom: television. As he has said many times before, the justice worries that greater public access to the open sessions where the court conducts oral arguments would not necessarily be a good thing. "Familiarity breeds contempt," he said. "The fact that the court is somewhat removed is a good thing." C-SPAN and other broadcasters have long pushed to televise the court arguments, with support from several lawmakers. Only audio of the sessions is available, but those recordings are released days after they happen. The public, of course, can attend in person, but seating is limited and requires waiting in line. Scalia admits most of the cases are fairly boring, about such areas of law as bankruptcy and utility taxes. What he worries about are the hot-button cases like abortion and gay rights, where isolated comments by the justices aired by the media could be taken out of context. And one televised event you are not likely to see Scalia attend is the State of the Union, which he compared to "cheerleading sessions." As judges, the justices are not supposed to show any favoritism, so they sit there politely in their black robes. "I don't know at what point that happened, but it has happened, and now you go and sit there like bumps on a log while applause lines cause one half of the Congress to leap up while [the other] causes the other half to leap up," he said. "It is a juvenile spectacle. And I resent being called upon to give it dignity." Sitting in the Federalist Society event at a local Washington hotel was Scalia's conservative colleague Justice Samuel Alito. He came under some criticism after January's State of the Union for mouthing the words "not true" when President Obama slammed the court's ruling in a controversial campaign finance case. Alito later said he felt "like the proverbial potted plant" at such occasions and would not be attending in the near future. Scalia was more blunt: "You just sit there, looking stupid." For the generally verbose and animated jurist, sitting still for an hour or more at such a gathering may be an exercise he would just as soon avoid. And he does. Shooting with friends . So what does Scalia do in his free time? Take a field trip with the newest justice. He and Elena Kagan, both native New Yorkers, were seen recently at a suburban Washington gun range, according to legal sources. Scalia had invited Kagan, 50, for an afternoon of target practice soon after she joined the high court. The ideological opposites were spotted skeet shooting, with the more experienced Scalia offering tips on holding the shotgun for the apparent novice. Skeet involves firing at clay targets propelled into the air from various angles. Scalia is a member of the Fairfax Rod and Gun Club, but neither the company nor the court would comment officially on the excursion. Sources close to both justices say Scalia and Kagan have gotten along famously in their first few months together on the bench. The conservative Scalia, those sources say, has warmly embraced his new liberal colleague and fellow Harvard Law School alum. Scalia has been a longtime gun owner and hunter. As a high school student, he was a rifle team member. As he once recalled, "I used to travel on the subway from Queens to Manhattan with a rifle. Can you imagine doing that now in New York? I mean, 'There's a man with a gun!' " On a more serious note, Scalia drew criticism after going shotgun hunting in Louisiana with then Vice President Dick Cheney at a time when the court was considering an appeal over access to Cheney's internal records. Critics called it a conflict of interest and asked him to step down from the case, but he refused. To make things worse for the 2004 private trip, the hunting party didn't get many ducks.

Attorney getting students interested in important cases that affect everyone . FantasyScotus.org is a teaching tool involving 200 classes around the country . In the game, students analyze current high-profile cases, then predict the outcomes . Among cases students are predicting: video game ban, anti-gay church group at funerals .

(CNN) -- She's a veteran reality television star, not to mention an author, entrepreneur, wife and mother. Kendra Wilkinson's life in the limelight demands that she travel by plane about five times a month. She can handle fame, but flying terrifies her. "I cannot stand it," she says. When she flies, Wilkinson, whose reality show, "Kendra on Top," debuted this month on WE tv, turns to her fellow passengers to help her cope. "Every time I fly, I grab on to the person next to me," she says. "People pray with me." The airline staff members she encounters are especially empathetic. "The flight attendants give me ice packs." Millions share Wilkinson's anxiety, and the fear can be debilitating. Many turn to professional therapy. Others try to resolve their fears themselves; some have more success than others. Experts caution that it's hard to pin down a precise number of people who suffer from a fear of flying, without a recent comprehensive survey. Also, many are reluctant to share details of their phobia -- or how disruptive it can be. Wilkinson, who rose to fame as one of Hugh Hefner's girlfriends on the reality show "The Girls Next Door," turns to the cocktail cart to calm her nerves. "I do try to have a glass of wine. Wine helps me cool down a little bit," she says. "Or two glasses of wine." Pinot grigio aside, she also tries to picture calming images. "I try my hardest to close my eyes and picture my son," she says. "I think of my happiest moments." Wilkinson, who hasn't received formal treatment, aspires to fly with her 2½-year-old son without scaring him with her unconcealed fear. Reason doesn't always conquer fear . John DiScala was terrified to fly. From his late teens until his early 20s, he rarely left his home in Connecticut. Now, he visits more than 20 countries a year -- by plane -- and runs the travel blog JohnnyJet.com. But his runway toward recovery was a long one. His terror set in when he was 17. Waiting with his parents to board a flight from New York, bound for Australia, he had an anxiety attack at the airport. "I felt this tingling all over my body," he says. "I felt like I was not in control." The year before, his doctor had diagnosed him with asthma. He had also suggested that the cabin pressure on the flight could give him respiratory problems. "It kept running through my head what the doctor said," DiScala remembers: " 'You will have trouble breathing.' " He missed that trip to Perth, where he would have visited his sisters -- and didn't travel again for more than three years. "I was basically afraid to leave the house," he says. "I was full of fear." This unchecked terror arises despite statistics that show how safe flying is. Less than 1% of total transportation fatalities in the U.S. were the result of air accidents in the most recent figures from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. But numbers don't necessarily calm nerves. And a fear of air travel isn't always rational. "It doesn't have to do with how safe flying is," says Tom Bunn, the president and founder of the SOAR program. He counsels fearful fliers with a mix of one-on-one therapy and education about how airplanes work. He says his clients, who hail from a wide range of backgrounds and professions, try to talk themselves out of their fear but fail. "Oftentimes, they struggle tremendously on their own to fix it, and find they can't," he says. Many turn to therapy when their fear starts to disrupt their lives as well as their livelihoods. Phobia interferes with work . Patty McLoughlin, 53, is a sales representative in the gift industry. She needs to travel to meetings at least twice a year. Based in Columbus, Ohio, she would regularly drive 12 hours just to avoid a flight. She hadn't flown in 16 years. "For pleasure, I could work around it," she says. "Not with business." But when a West Coast meeting came up at a new job, she realized she had to conquer her fear. "It was difficult to drive to California," she says. It was impractical as well. She realized that her fear was getting in the way, and flying to meetings would help her make the most of her new job. "If I wanted to grow within the company, I knew I'd have to overcome it," she says. And she did, with the help of a SOAR course. There are people who buy plane tickets but are too scared to use them. "We hear from people who want to go someplace special, and they can't go," says Alies Muskin, executive director of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. "They just don't do it." Karina Slota of Maryland, 39, was supposed to be maid of honor at her sister's wedding in Bermuda 10 years ago. Her entire family traveled to the event, including her 80-year-old grandmother, who had flown over from Germany. Slota boarded the flight from Maryland to Bermuda but didn't make it to takeoff. "If I stay on this plane, I am going to die," she thought. While the plane was still at the gate, flight attendants had to open the plane door to let Slota off. She calls the experience humiliating. "I was crying," she says. "I felt like I was being judged." She missed the wedding, and for 10 years, she didn't fly. Finally, Slota took a course with SOAR. Although she still gets anxious ahead of a trip, she says she manages to stay calm on the flight itself. She uses the mental exercises she learned from the program's videos, such as focusing on her surroundings, to stay calm and now flies about once a year. More treatment available . Some travelers are afraid to travel by plane without letting that fear interfere with their lives. They might grip their armrests tightly during takeoff, say a prayer before they board or take anti-anxiety medication. And when a flight gets bumpy, almost anyone can get scared, even frequent fliers. "I really don't like turbulence," says Liz Borod Wright, editor of the travel blog Travelogged. But she doesn't let that stop her from traveling overseas. Driving isn't a realistic option when holiday plans include Europe. "I'm not going to let my fear of flying prevent me from flying." Fear of flying "doesn't discriminate," says Josh Spitalnick, director of Research and Clinical Services at the Virtually Better clinic in Atlanta. He says some of his clinic's clients became wary after unpleasant flights, sometimes involving severe turbulence. Others just anticipate a rocky ride. "Through treatment, we teach people relaxation skills to better allow them to cope," Spitalnick says. His clinic uses virtual reality technology to simulate a flight. It also uses data and statistics to teach nervous fliers that thousands of flights take off successfully every day. A wide range of treatments are available for people with flying fears. So whether a person hasn't flown in decades or just gets anxious during turbulent flights, he or she should be able to find the right remedy. "Over the last 30 years, there have been a lot of treatments that have been developed, and refined," Muskin says. "Thirty years ago, there were no treatments at all." Every person's anxiety takes a different form, so their solutions do, too. "No two individuals are treated the same way," she says. With the range of remedies, people with flying phobias have a higher chance of curing their fears. "People have a lot of success," she says. "We know that they can get better." Conquering a fear of flying comes at a cost: Sessions can cost hundreds of dollars, and most patients need more than one. But for many, the cost of living with the phobia and missing important personal and professional obligations can be higher than the price of curing it. For DiScala, the thrill of traveling helped him overcome his fear. "I almost think travel is a drug," he says. "I love to explore new places." Are you afraid to fly? Have you overcome a fear a flying? How did you do it? Share your experiences below.

Kendra Wilkinson travels by plane five times a month and hates to fly . Wilkinson tries to calm her fear with visualization, a glass of wine . Various therapies have helped others conquer the fear .

Washington (CNN) -- Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers' life is like a well-conducted orchestra: Everything happens on cue in precisely the right note. That's on most days. But other days she readily admits things don't always happen so smoothly. "There aren't enough hours in the day. You always want more time," McMorris Rodgers says. "That's the continual challenge." McMorris Rodgers is one of 76 women in the House of Representatives. She's the only woman in the House Republican leadership and has been mentioned as a possible running mate for Mitt Romney. Elected in 2004 to represent the 5th Congressional District in eastern Washington state, McMorris Rodgers has climbed the ranks in Congress, serving on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and as vice chair of the House Republican Conference. But like many, her work is only part of what defines her. Central in her life are her husband, Brian Rodgers, and their two children, 18-month-old Grace and Cole, 5. McMorris Rodgers holds the distinction of being the only member of Congress to give birth twice while in office. One Friday morning, she invited CNN into her home as the family was getting ready for the day. Like many working moms, she juggles the responsibility of a demanding career and duties of home life. Her husband scrambles eggs on the family's kitchen island countertop, while the congresswoman sits down next to her daughter. "Do you want some help? You want some help today," she asks Grace, taking the spoon. "There you go. Is that good? How about a little egg?" she asks. On the other side of the kitchen table sits Cole. In front of him is a piece of paper with alphabet letters. He carefully reproduces the letters as his mom helps him sound them out. "He's doing well. He's learned his letters. He knows the sounds to the letters and he knows all the uppercase. We're working on the lowercase, and he's starting to read, which is really exciting," she says. Early years . Voters in Washington state have been able to follow the personal life of Cathy McMorris. She worked on her family's orchard near Kettle Falls, Washington. She's the first in her family to graduate from college, working her way through Pensacola Christian College in Florida. In 1994, at age 25, she was elected to the Washington Statehouse. A decade later, she arrived in the nation's capital to serve in the U.S. House. "I was first elected to Congress in 2004 and I was still single. I wondered maybe I would be single for the rest of my life," McMorris Rodgers said. "And then I met Brian. We got married a year later, and soon after that I was pregnant. Cole was born in 2007, and Grace was born in 2010." Husband Brian is a retired Navy commander, serving 26 years in the service. His father was mayor of Spokane in the early 1970s. Family challenges . When the couple found out they were expecting, they were both thrilled to be first-time parents. "It was exciting to know I was going to become a mom. There's so much involved in becoming a mom, and it's such a special time, " McMorris Rodgers said. Her pregnancy was uneventful until her eighth month when doctors said an ultrasound had revealed a blockage in her baby's small intestine. "They told us, Brian and me, you should know that one out of three babies with this condition is born with Down syndrome." They didn't have much time to process the news. The next day McMorris Rodgers went into premature labor. "It was certainly on the forefront of our minds all during labor. It was OK, does my little baby have Down syndrome? " Cole was born at five pounds, nine ounces. It wasn't immediately apparent if he was born with Trisomy 21, the extra chromosome associated with Down syndrome. Three days later the family received confirmation. "Boy, that's tough news to receive. It's not what you dream. It's not what you expect. Yes, you're very excited to be a mom, and yet you're faced with a lot of the unknown. I think it's the fear of the unknown that is overwhelming at that point in your life," McMorris Rodgers said. Personal cause . Since receiving the news, she has received a lot of support from her constituents and people in the disability community. "I believe my eyes have been open. I just view life from a totally different perspective. I was welcomed by the disability community, and they see the best in what every person has to offer." Her initial fear has been replaced with resolve. In 2008, she co-founded the bipartisan Congressional Down Syndrome Caucus. She has taken up a leading cause of the disability community, co-sponsoring a bill called the Achieving a Better Life Experience Act. It would modify the Internal Revenue Service code to allow parents of children with disabilities to set aside money in tax-free accounts for future education, housing and transportation needs. The accounts would be modeled after current 401(k) retirement and 529 college plans. "We have hopes and dreams for Cole, and we want him to be all that he can be, and we want to give him the strong foundation so that he can pursue a job and hopefully independent life," McMorris Rodgers said. Brian Rodgers added, "Like any parent, you want them to reach their highest potential." Life as mom . "Cole, do you like music? Can you put music on," McMorris Rodgers asks. Cole reaches for a CD. "Oh, oh," she says, glancing at her husband. "He has Bruce Srpingsteen. He loves Springsteen. It's just a little loud for the morning." Cole starts rocking out on the couch, his blond hair shaking to the music, while his sister bounces nearby. The family made the decision to enroll Cole in a public charter school in Washington. On normal days the kids wake up early around 6:30 a.m. "They're a nice alarm clock. They kind of take turns getting up," she says smiling at her two children. She and Brian both pitch in helping get the children dressed and ready for the day. Brian leaves to take Cole to school, which starts at 8:45 a.m., and the congresswoman has some one-on-one time with her daughter. When Brian returns, she heads off to her Capitol Hill office. He stays home with the kids. "I spent 26 years in the Navy. So this is a lot like the Navy," he jokes. "It's dynamic, it's interesting and there's a purpose to it." The congresswoman shuttles back to her district in Spokane on weekends. Sometimes she takes the kids with her. Her mother lives there and is happy to see the grandchildren. Finding time to get it all done isn't easy. But the couple try. "Thursday night is date night. So when I'm in town and don't have votes, we have date night. ... That's our night," McMorris Rodgers said. Life may get even more topsy-turvy for McMorris Rodgers. Her name comes up repeatedly as a possible vice presidential pick for Romney, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee. The family deals with it by trying to be as flexible as possible. "The schedule is always changing, fluid. We try to schedule things as much as possible in advance. But there's always things coming up. Fortunately, they've been pretty good travelers. They don't know any differently." Revving up for another campaign season, McMorris Rodgers says she's ready. "This will be the first campaign season for Grace." And Cole -- expect to see him charming the crowds. "He loves parades. He loves to be in a parade and wave and dance to music. He's a natural." Lisa Sylvester is a CNN correspondent. She's on Twitter @LSylvesterCNN. Bethany Swain is a CNN Photojournalist and an adjunct University of Maryland professor. She's on Twitter @BethanySwainCNN.

Cathy McMorris Rodgers is a four-term congresswoman from eastern Washington state . Her name comes up as a possible running mate for Mitt Romney . She and her husband have two children, including a son with Down syndrome . McMorris Rodgers has taken up leading causes in the disability community .

Washington (CNN) -- Republicans led by presidential challenger Mitt Romney served up a heaping helping of political red meat on Friday, launching a salvo of attacks on President Barack Obama that called him a liar and a failed leader. Romney told an interview broadcast on ABC that his biggest concern about the three upcoming presidential debates is that Obama will be untruthful. "The president tends to, how shall I say it, to say things that aren't true," Romney said, contemplating whether he would spend debate time "correcting things that aren't quite accurate" or "talking about the things I want to talk about." In an already nasty and bitter campaign, Romney's pre-emptive strike less than three weeks before the first debate on Oct. 3 signaled more personal attacks to come as the election campaign gallops toward the November vote. Obama appears to have maintained a narrow edge in most polls, with a new CBS News/New York Times survey released Friday giving him a slight 49%-46% advantage over the former Massachusetts governor. While the president's margin was within the survey's sampling error, making the result statistically even, the new survey continued a trend reflected in other polls of Romney failing to gain ground on the president after the recent political conventions. With less than eight weeks until the election, the Romney campaign and GOP political machine have raised the urgency of their efforts. This week, Romney took on one of Obama's perceived strengths -- his foreign policy record after ending the war in Iraq and ordering the mission that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden -- by saying a lack of U.S. leadership has weakened the nation's influence throughout the world. In particular, Republican politicians and conservative commentators have cited the killing of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans amid anti-American protests in Libya this week as an example of the nation's weakened stature around the world. At a ceremony Friday to bring home the remains of the slain Americans, Obama acknowledged the unrest in Libya and other Arab Spring nations, saying "these are difficult days." "The United States of America will never retreat from the world," Obama declared, vowing that the killers will face justice. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also sought to project American strength and determination, labeling as "senseless" and totally unacceptable" the anti-American unrest she blamed on an "awful" anti-Islam video on the Internet. "The people of Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Tunisia did not trade the tyranny of a dictator for the tyranny of a mob," Clinton told the somber ceremony. "Reasonable people and responsible leaders in these countries need to do everything they can to restore security and hold accountable those behind these violent acts. And we will, under the president's leadership, keep taking steps to protect our personnel around the world." Both Romney and his running mate -- Rep. Paul Ryan -- mentioned the four slain Americans at separate campaign events later Friday, asking for a moment of silence after reciting the names of the dead. Earlier, Ryan kept up the attacks on Obama's foreign policy at a Values Voters summit in Washington hosted by social conservative groups. Referring to the anti-American protests in the Arab world, Ryan complained that Obama has failed to assert U.S. influence and values that could have brought a different result. "The slaughter of brave dissidents in Syria. Mobs storming American embassies and consulates. Iran four years closer to gaining a nuclear weapon. Israel, our best ally in the region, treated with indifference bordering on contempt by the Obama administration," Ryan said. "Amid all these threats and dangers, what we do not see is steady, consistent American leadership." Calling for "moral clarity and firmness of purpose" in U.S. foreign policy, he added that "only by the confident exercise of American influence are evil and violence overcome." As he spoke, three protesters shouting about HIV/AIDS funding and corporate money were escorted out as the crowd chanted "USA." The protesters were from the "Take the Money Out Of Politics Campaign" group opposed to the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling that permitted unlimited private funding of election campaigns. The Obama campaign responded to Ryan's speech with a statement that called it "a series of over-the-top, dishonest attacks" that showed the 42-year-old congressman was "just not ready for prime time." Meanwhile, an array of other speakers at the conservative summit accused Obama of weakening the country. "It is my belief and my opinion that Barack Obama has been the most dangerous president we have ever had on American foreign policy," said GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, a tea party favorite who ran unsuccessfully for the party's presidential nomination. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Virginia, told the gathering that the upcoming election "is going to determine whether or not the very moral fabric of our country will be upheld or whether it will be torn apart." Also Friday, a top foreign policy adviser to Romney's campaign stood by his argument that this week's attacks on U.S. diplomatic posts in Libya and Egypt could have been averted if Romney were president. Richard Williamson, a former assistant secretary of state in the Ronald Reagan administration, said Romney's policies would have led to a better standing for the United States in the Arab Spring countries of recent years. "A Romney administration would be there, would be more active trying to work with civil society, with reformer movements, so we would be partners in this evolution, not running behind," Williamson said on CNN's "Starting Point." Regarding Egypt, Williamson cited what he called a lack of U.S. involvement after the Egyptian protests of 2011, which ultimately led to the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak. In Libya, Williamson argued, the United States should have been more active in "reconciliation and reconstruction" after a multi-country coalition took military action against Libyan forces with American help. Romney drew criticism for blasting the Obama administration on Tuesday night -- the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States -- for a statement by the U.S. Embassy in Cairo that condemned the anti-Islam video. However, Romney's statement inaccurately said the embassy statement -- which came out before protesters invaded the compound -- was in response to the demonstration. Romney has since toned down his sharpest rhetoric on the matter but kept up the main theme, telling a New York fundraiser on Friday that "there have been, over the years, confusing messages sent by the president of the United States to the world." In particular, Romney argued that Obama "had nothing to say that sent a message to the world" during the 2009 anti-government protests in Iran, adding the president should have given direct assistance to the demonstrators. At the time, several months into his presidency, Obama condemned violence against the Iranian protesters but not did lead or call for U.S. involvement in Iran's post-election unrest. Foreign policy was not the only GOP focus on Friday. Ryan maintained the Romney campaign's criticism of Obama's record on economic issues as part of an effort to frame the November vote as a referendum on the president's performance. "After four years of economic stewardship under these self-proclaimed advocates of the poor, and what do they have to show for it? More people in poverty, and less upward mobility wherever you look," said the conservative House Budget Committee chairman from Wisconsin. "After four years of dividing people up with the bogus rhetoric of class warfare, just about every segment of society is worse off." In the ABC interview, Romney conceded a rare shared stance with Obama, saying the two would draw the same "red line" on nuclear weapons in Iran. "My red line is Iran may not have a nuclear weapon. It is inappropriate for them to have the capacity to terrorize the world," Romney said. "Iran as a nuclear nation is unacceptable to the United States of America." Obama has used almost identical language to describe the situation in Iran, and Romney said "yes" when asked in the interview if the two candidates would have the same "red line" going forward. CNN's Peter Hamby, Ashley Killough, Rachel Streitfeld and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.

NEW: "These are difficult days," President Obama says of anti-American unrest . Mitt Romney says Obama will be untruthful in the debates . Paul Ryan blames Obama for anti-American unrest in Arab nations . The Obama campaign calls Ryan's criticism "over-the-top" and dishonest .

(CNN) -- Emergency rooms around the United States are preparing for the people who may have Ebola and for the people who just think they have Ebola. "I have seen several people who had acute illnesses worried that they may have Ebola," said Dr. Mark Reiter. He works as an emergency room doctor in Tennessee. He's also president of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine. Reiter says these patients are unlikely candidates, not having been to West Africa, nor having had any contact with a symptomatic Ebola patient. "But it has gotten a tremendous amount of media coverage and some people are especially concerned about it, even if it is highly unlikely," Reiter said. Emergency rooms typically see a small uptick in traffic after a disease has been in the news a lot. A 2010 study that looked at emergency room traffic when swine flu was in the news saw a 7% increase in emergency room visits. Parents must also have been worried about their children catching it as pediatric visits increased 19.7%. A recent Pew study showed 21% of respondents are somewhat worried about Ebola and their personal health. Dr. Abdul Memon, the chief medical officer for disaster and emergency preparedness at Jackson Health System in Miami, said officials have not seen a significant patient increase with the Ebola scare. They do, however, get cases from time to time where people think they may have it. The hospital is careful, he said to rule it out. "Our health department and the media does a really reasonable job of educating the community about how people get it," Memon said. "I think people are listening and we have not seen this rush of people." "If someone has had contact with someone who has Ebola symptoms or they have been in one of these countries, we want them to come in if they feel sick, and we are ready for it. We will pay close attention" Memon said. The number of deaths attributed to the current Ebola outbreak has topped 4,000, the World Health Organization reported Friday. The latest count brings the total number of confirmed, probable, or suspected cases to 8,399 and the total deaths to 4,033. The numbers were reported from Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Spain and the United States. Complete coverage on Ebola . But along with news of the rising death toll, some suspected Ebola cases around the world -- as fears spread across four continents -- have turned out to be false. Concerns about protective measures, especially for those caring for the infected, remain high. A total of 416 health care workers are among those believed to have contracted Ebola. Of those, 233 of have died, the WHO says. 'We just don't really know' An American aid worker who contracted Ebola in Liberia and overcame the virus was said to have become infected while treating Ebola patients there, but she told CNN on Friday that there is no way to be sure. Nancy Writebol was working with Samaritan's Purse in Liberia, caring for Ebola patients, when she became ill and was eventually transferred to an Atlanta hospital, where she recovered. The belief has been that she contracted Ebola while working in a clinic with infected patients, but the survivor said that isn't necessarily the point of infection. "Well, it's very possible that I contracted Ebola outside of the (medical) unit, not within," Writebol said. "Of course, I came in contact with people outside of our hospital, and I remember knowing and being with a gentleman one time that later died of Ebola. And it's possible that there was, you know, some contact there. We just don't really know." Writebol was released from Emory University Hospital on August 19, once doctors determined she posed "no public health threat." Her recovery has been gradual, Writebol said, but she is gaining strength each day. How the Ebola virus spreads . The lack of clarity about where she became infected is significant as questions are raised worldwide about safety precautions at hospitals and communities as the outbreak stokes fears. The sole person to be diagnosed with the virus on American soil, Thomas Eric Duncan, died this week, as new details of his hospitalization were revealed. He had traveled from Liberia last month. Duncan first went to the hospital on September 25, but the hospital said he only had a "low grade fever and abdominal pain," and was released with some antibiotics and a pain reliever. On Friday, Duncan's nephew Josephus Weeks told CNN that Duncan in fact had a 103-degree fever when he left the hospital, according to the discharge papers. Talking to CNN's Erin Burnett on Friday night, Weeks alleged that the fact Duncan was black, poor and didn't have insurance affected his care. "Had that been another or another color, he probably would be living today, he would have survived it," Weeks said. "And that's what's hurting me the most: ... They treated him the way they did because of the color of his skin... You stand a chance if you're white, but you don't if you're back." While it hasn't responded to these latest allegations, Dallas' Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital did issue a statement Thursday explaining and defending its treatment of Duncan. Why wasn't he immediately given an experimental drug? Because one wasn't available, the hospital explained. Why didn't he get a blood transfusion, like other Ebola patients in the United States? Because "his blood type was not compatible with the serum donors." And as to whether Duncan got inferior treatment because of his nationality or wealth, Texas Health Presbyterian said more than 50 people cared for him and a 24-bed intensive care unit was devoted to his care. "Our care team provided Mr. Duncan with the same high level of attention and are that would be given any patient, regardless of nationality or ability to pay for care," the hospital said. "... We have a long history of treating a multicultural community in this area." Suspected case comes back negative . On Thursday, a test to see whether a Dallas sheriff's deputy had Ebola came back negative, state health officials said. Word of the test result was welcome news a day after the death of Duncan. The deputy had reported being inside the Dallas apartment where Duncan had been staying and having "some contact" with Duncan's family members, Frisco Fire Chief Mark Piland told reporters. Ebola spreads through infected bodily fluids. The deputy, Michael Monnig, on Friday spoke about awaking after having been on duty at Duncan's apartment "feeling like a truck had hit me." He identified them as flu-like symptoms, but following the guidance of the county doctor, he went to the clinic, and explained that he had been in the apartment. "At that point, I knew all the bells and whistles would start up, but at that point, it was out of my control because I had answered yes to the question," he said. He broke down crying when he learned he didn't have Ebola, Monnig said. CDC director on Ebola: 'Only thing like this has been AIDS' Spain creates a committee . In Spain, where a nurse's assistant was confirmed to have Ebola, authorities are taking measures to tackle the crisis. The Spanish government will create a special committee to examine the issue, Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria told reporters in Madrid. The committee, which will include representatives from government and health care, will coordinate national efforts to control the virus and establish protocols to deal with it, she said. The nurse's assistant, Teresa Romero, is the first person to contract Ebola outside of West Africa. A nurses' union spokesman told CNN that "some nurses and other workers from the Carlos III Hospital (where Romero is being treated) are taking leave for psychological reasons." To cover those jobs, the Spanish health service is "making short term contracts hiring nurses that might be unemployed." Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy visited Carlos III Hospital. "The situation isn't a normal situation," he said. "It is difficult, but I'm absolutely convinced that everything necessary will be done, especially from the professionals, to overcome this in the future." CNN's Al Goodman, Elwyn Lopez, Jason Hanna, Catherine E. Shoichet, Greg Botelho and Ashley Fantz contributed to this report.

NEW: Nephew: Hospital gave Duncan inferior treatment because he was black . Emergency rooms in the United States are preparing for possible cases . Doctor: Some people are already coming into hospitals worrying they have Ebola . Spain's government sets up committee to probe the Ebola crisis there .

(CNN) -- In January, Bashar al-Assad sat down for a long interview with the Wall Street Journal. That was noteworthy in itself; the Syrian leader doesn't spend much time with the Western media. He was in confident mood -- saying that Syria would not succumb to the unrest then spreading in Tunisia and Egypt. That same month Vogue ran an effusive feature on Syria's first lady, Asma al-Assad, describing her as a "rose in the desert." But in his interview, al-Assad also recognized "anger and desperation" in the region and the need for reform in Syria, to "open up the society," as he put it. Change was needed, he said, but "if you do it just because of what happened in Tunisia and Egypt, then it is going to be a reaction, not an action; and as long as what you are doing is a reaction you are going to fail." Now, after 10 days of deadly protests in Syria, that "reaction" is well and truly under way. The government has responded with a mixture of aggression and appeasement. It has announced a substantial rise in wages for public employees, and has proposed ending the decades-long state of emergency and opening up Syria's cramped political space to other parties. The current Syrian constitution enshrines the leadership of the Baath Party, which both al-Assad and his father, Hafez al-Assad, who died in 2000, have led. At the same time, security forces have swamped Daraa and other towns in the south; witnesses speak of a mysterious group of men dressed in black patrolling the streets of Latakia. Amnesty International reports widespread arrests of political activists. But the protests have continued, and one Facebook page following the unrest -- SyrianRevolution -- now has nearly 100,000 followers. The regime's carrot-and-stick approach may work in the short term but the widely respected International Crisis Group says President Assad has two starkly different options. "One involves an immediate and inevitably risky political initiative that might convince the Syrian people that the regime is willing to undertake dramatic change. The other entails escalating repression, which has every chance of leading to a bloody and ignominious end. " While it has tinkered with reform over the past 10 years, al-Assad's government is hamstrung by internal disagreement, endemic corruption and competing goals at home and in the region. That at least is the picture that emerges from analyzing the U.S. diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks. The cables acknowledge that al-Assad has allowed greater media freedom since he became president 11 years ago "with Al Jazeera, the local favorite, and al-Arabiya readily available via satellite." Local journalists spoke of shifting red lines, adding wryly that "it was much simpler under Hafez al-Assad; we always knew where the red lines were." Caution has been the watchword in other spheres, including a tentative "reset" of Syria's frosty relationship with the United States since President Barack Obama took office and a gradual reassertion of Syria's role in Lebanon. The younger al-Assad has blamed a rough neighborhood for slow progress at home. "We are not the only captain," he told the Wall Street Journal. "We were affected by the situation in Iraq or in Lebanon. There are many things that we wanted to do in 2005 we are planning to do in 2012." The cables shed light on how Syria has been run -- with powerful and often competing cliques dominating economic and political life, and intrigue trumping open debate. Part of the diplomatic traffic is devoted to the power of "regime financiers" like telecom magnate Rami Makhluf, al-Assad's cousin. A U.S. contact is quoted in a cable as saying "most Syrians viewed Rami in a negative light and his strong-arm business tactics had earned him many enemies." The same cable says corruption "was rife in Syrian government and society and had undermined the president's credibility with the Syrian people." There is also evidence of serious rifts within the security apparatus, with one cable from 2008 reporting that "Syrian Military Intelligence and General Intelligence Directorate officials are currently engaged in an internecine struggle to blame each other for the breach of security" that occurred in Damascus when Hezbollah's military commander, Imad Mughniyah, was killed by a car bomb. Several months later, a top adviser to al-Assad -- Gen. Mohammed Suleiman -- was shot dead at his vacation home on the Syrian coast. His killers have never been identified, although the Syrians blame Israel. Syria's long-term alliance with Iran and its sponsorship of the Hezbollah militia in neighboring Lebanon are also sensitive issues at home. Some reports from Daraa say protesters have raised their voices against both. Syrian officials quoted in U.S. cables say Hezbollah is a legitimate resistance movement and part of the overall Middle East peace process. In other words -- Syria's (and Iran's) insurance card against Israel. In 2009, the top U.S. diplomat in Damascus sharply criticized Syria's alleged delivery of ballistic missiles to Hezbollah. "Syria's actions have created a situation in which miscalculation or provocative behavior by Hezbollah could prove disastrous for Syria and the broader region," he wrote. Other cables suggest constant juggling by al-Assad as he tries to keep the alliance with Iran intact while not closing the door to negotiations with Israel. Fawaz Gerges at the London School of Economics says Syria is a critical regional player. "Instability in Syria means there will be instability in Lebanon, which is a divided country along sectarian lines." Iran, too, would be affected were Assad to go, he said: "Syria is a critical player that supports a non-Arab state. The West has tried to wean Syria off Iran but has failed." Barak Seener, a research fellow with the Royal United Services Institute in London, agrees that events in Syria could alter the Middle East landscape. "A liberal democratic Syria would be more susceptible to peace with Israel, irrespective of the status of the Golan Heights," he said. "In light of the opposition that removed Mubarak, it is questionable whether peace can be made with autocratic leaders that can be removed and not with liberal societies." Seener says the violence so far does not threaten the regime's existence but "will embolden the majority-Sunni population and Kurdish minority, who deeply resent the political dominance of the Alawi minority, to protest." Al-Assad is an Alawite. But so far, none of Syria's major cities has seen the sort of unrest witnessed in Daraa. Some Syria-watchers say al-Assad may even turn the crisis to his advantage by pushing through reform despite the hardliners and bureaucratic inertia. He may also benefit from a fractured opposition. Syrian analyst Murhaf Jouejati at George Washington University says that civil society has been stifled by decades of emergency rule. "The protesters are not organized. The opposition is fragmented," he said. "Civil society is not developed enough to be a counterweight to the state" even if intellectuals leading the opposition enjoy a certain amount of moral authority. Other analysts say the sudden announcement of extensive concessions smacks of panic, and that endemic corruption and high unemployment are beyond the government's capacity to fix. In addition, as the International Crisis Group notes, "as a result of events elsewhere in the region, a new awareness and audacity have materialized over the past several weeks in myriad forms of rebelliousness." Fear, if not gone, is no longer so pervasive. The International Crisis Group says much hinges on al-Assad, who is due to address the nation in the next couple of days. "He alone can prove that change is possible and already in the making, restore some sense of clarity and direction to a bewildered power apparatus and put forward a detailed framework for structural change," it says. As al-Assad also told the Wall Street Journal in January: "This is the Middle East, where every week you have something new."

Despite concern, al-Assad forced to react to opposition . The regime's carrot-and-stick approach may work in the short term . In the long term, there is risk in any strategy, the International Crisis Group says . WikiLeaks cables show a government hamstrung by internal disagreement .

Bayonne, New Jersey (CNN) -- If you don't know Chuck Wepner's claim to fame, you will in a hurry after you enter his small apartment in this gritty North Jersey city on the Hudson River. Maybe you'll see the framed poster of the most famous boxer of all time in his office, the one autographed, "To Chuck and Linda: Good luck to my dear friends, from Muhammad Ali. After me, there will be no other. P.S. Stay off my foot!" (We'll explain that in a minute). Or maybe he'll hand you a business card for his job as a liquor salesman. Flip it over, and you'll find a photo of a young Wepner, boxing trunks pulled over his navel, standing over a fallen Ali in the ring. Or maybe he'll sit down in his recliner and tell you one of his favorite stories, like the night he came back to his hotel room after he survived 15 rounds with Ali in a stunning 1975 fight. "The day before the (Ali) fight, I took my wife out shopping and bought her a powder-blue negligée, because I told her, 'You need to look right when you sleep with the heavyweight champion of the world,'" he said. "The night I lost, my (ex-)wife is sitting on the edge of the bed in the negligée and she asks, 'So, am I going to Ali's room or what?'" But you don't have to meet Wepner to know why he's famous -- and why he's about to become even more well-known in the coming months. You've seen the movies, all six of them, in the theaters or a few dozen times on cable TV. Sylvester Stallone played Rocky in the famous film series. Wepner is Rocky, the man who went almost the full 15 rounds (the fight was stopped in the 15th) with Ali in 1975 to inspire the Oscar-winning movie. But his real-life story is actually more fascinating, more layered and compelling, than the one that has raked in more than $1 billion. That's why ESPN is making a documentary about his life, and why Hollywood is making another movie about the man who inspired Rocky. But Wepner is clear on one point. "This is not another Rocky movie," he said recently. "It's a movie about the real Rocky." The changing face of women's boxing . The real Rocky is one of boxing's true characters, a burly former Marine nicknamed the Bayonne Bleeder who went from fighting in smoky New Jersey clubs to knocking down (but not out) the mighty Ali. He's also a man who spent three years in prison for cocaine possession but rebounded to find the love of his life. He has a story about the night he asked Linda, his wife, on a date. "I used to drink vodka all the time, but I remember that the beer cooler was on the other side of the bar and you had to bend over to get into it," he said. "So she bent over and got one and I said, 'You wanna go out!' I picked her up after work that day. That's a true story." They're all true stories. Or, at least mostly true. Again, with 72-year-old Wepner, it's always best to let him explain. "There's one scene in (the movie), I'm in a hotel room with a couple of my go-go girls," he said. "I'm pouring champagne all over their bodies and drinking the champagne. "I said (to the writer), 'You got me laying in the bed with three go-go girls pouring champagne over them. It was only two!' And he said, 'Chuck, three, four, five girls, people will believe anything about you!'" Liev Schreiber is set to portray him in "The Bleeder," which is scheduled to hit theaters in 2012, while Christina Hendricks will play Linda and Naomi Watts will play his first wife. The project has been in the works for more than seven years, and Wepner is convinced it can shock the world the way Stallone's fictional version did 35 years ago. But first, sports fans will revisit Wepner's career with an hourlong ESPN documentary, set to air on October 25, called "The Real Rocky." Mike Tollin, who has produced sports movies like "Coach Carter" and documentaries like "The Bronx is Burning," is producing both projects. "With Chuck Wepner," Tollin said in a phone interview, "you have a guy who outside of certain parts of New Jersey can be treated almost like a fictional character, but you have this fascinating chapter of boxing lore and all these real-life characters to draw from." None of this would have happened if Wepner's mother didn't interrupt him during an episode of "Kojak" in 1975 and tell him to pick up that day's newspaper. Promoter Don King had chosen Wepner to fight Ali, but no one had bothered to tell him. Q&A: USA Boxing Coach Gloria Peek . It was supposed to be an easy fight for Ali, who had just stunned George Foreman in Zaire to regain the heavyweight championship. Ali was 45-2, at the peak of his fame. Wepner? He was no slouch, but not in the same league. Larry Merchant, the longtime boxing writer for The New York Post, called it "a fight between a house painter and an artist." But Wepner spent seven weeks "laying off the booze and women," he said, training for his moment. And it lasted more than a moment. On March 24, 1975, Wepner went 15 rounds with Ali, briefly knocking him to the canvas in the ninth round. (Wepner insists he hit the champ with a shot just below his heart; Ali has long contended that his opponent stepped on his foot.) Watch Wepner knock down Ali . The fight made him famous, but the movies changed his life. Stallone was watching in Los Angeles, and two years later, Wepner was sitting in a Manhattan theater thinking, "I hope this movie's decent." "It was amazing!" Wepner said. "I had no idea. It was amazing. After the knockdown of Apollo, the crowd started jeering him and started cheering for me. People are coming up to me and hugging me, 'CHUCK! Great movie!'" But the movie is only one twist in Wepner's life. He retired from boxing and wrestled "Andre the Giant" at Shea Stadium, the massive pro wrestler spun him in the air before tossing him out of the ring. He also partied. A lot. Watch Wepner fight "Andre the Giant" "You know what it was? The late '70s and early '80s, it was all parties," Wepner said. "Everywhere you went there was cocaine. I've got to be honest with you, it was a great, great time in my life, other than getting in trouble. I managed to get through that and everything is great now. It was one party after another. I used to be out from Thursday to Sunday. It was so much fun. You might say the good times were very addictive." The trouble: Wepner was arrested in 1985 for cocaine possession. He spent nearly three years in prison, but he re-emerged clean and, with Linda, happy. Plus, in 2006 scored his biggest victory outside the ring: He settled a lawsuit with Stallone for using him as his inspiration for the Rocky series. (Details of the settlement have not been revealed.) Now, he'll have a documentary and a movie on his life and career, which is more fascinating than anything a screenwriter could dream up. But for the real Rocky, this is no case of sudden fame. "Somebody said to me, 'Wow, you're finally getting some recognition.'" Wepner said. "For 36 years, I've been the champ."

Former heavyweight boxer Chuck Wepner fought Muhammad Ali in 1975 . The match, and Wepner's life story, inspired Sylvester Stallone's "Rocky" movies . Wepner was arrested for cocaine possession in 1985; spent time in prison . ESPN will air "The Real Rocky," a new documentary about Wepner, in October .

(CNN) -- Damn those extreme Republicans. President Obama and White House press secretary Jay Carney have found Republicans guilty of extortion and blackmail. Joe Biden, per a report in Politico, once christened Republicans as terrorists. Liberals have led a media assault, calling the GOP anarchists, jihadists, "gun to head" hostage takers, and the political equivalent of the Taliban. White House advisor Dan Pfeiffer has likened Republicans to suicide bombers "with a bomb strapped to their chest." What could be more extreme? The Democratic Party. True, the Ted Cruz wing in the House of Representatives is relentless, uncompromising and unmoved by practicality. As we all know, there are perhaps 40 or so "bullet-proof Republicans" in the House, in safe GOP districts, invulnerable except to Kryptonite. They fear a fellow Republican getting to their right in a primary more than a long-shot Democratic opponent who would paint their district blue in a general election. No doubt, the GOP is a party divided, but there are a lot of Democrats in safe districts, too. Why don't they fear a fellow Democrat getting to their left in a primary? Why aren't the Democrats a party divided between a centrist mainstream and a more extreme, radicalized left? Let us count the reasons: Barack Obama has taken the Democratic Party left of Clinton. He left blue-dog, centrist Democrats to be punished for his sins and they were wiped out in the GOP's 2010 Congressional landslide. All the while, the Internet has empowered and organized the party's remaining and most extreme elements. The Democratic Party can't go left. It is left, in entirety. They already occupy America's left fringe. Bill Clinton's New Democrats are dead. This is not Hillary Clinton's Democratic Party. Today's Democratic Party belongs to Elizabeth Warren. It is the party that just nominated a Sandinista trainee who returned from Nicaragua with "a vision of unfettered leftist government" for mayor of New York City, according to the New York Times. And today's Democrats think this is a good thing. They dream audaciously, as Ruy Teixeira wrote in the Atlantic, of a new "Emerging Democratic Majority." As Peter Beinart noted in a Daily Beast piece, "The Rise of the New New Left," "Bill de Blasio's win in New York's Democratic primary isn't a local story. It's part of a vast shift that could upend three decades of American political thinking." The Democratic Party is now animated by the "mobilized left," Beinart writes, emboldened by Internet activism. Their cause was galvanized by President Obama's seemingly impossible re-election. Once, Obama may have campaigned as a centrist, but that was long ago. He has since governed as an old school economic liberal from the '60s. As Fred Thompson has noted, Barack Obama has been "George McGovern without the experience." Obama's answer to every economic challenge has been top-down. Our governing class knows best, he believes, especially since Washington's elite now includes him. If the world has changed in eight decades, our President hasn't noticed. His view of government is cast from the bronze of Franklin Roosevelt and the '30s. He puts our big, dumb, inflexible public sector at the top of American life, to mandate redistribution and prosperity. At every opportunity, he has grown the public sector's archaic program-and-policy factory. This empty presidency tries only to cure too much old government with even more of it. Though little of what he has tried has worked, it has not seemed to deter his party. It hasn't deterred him. His government doesn't govern education: The U.S. educational system barely edges out nations such as Slovakia, in international rankings. His government doesn't govern retirement: Our public-sector retirement system is akin to an unsustainable Ponzi scheme. His government doesn't govern health care: The Affordable Care Act is making health care more unaffordable for many seniors. His old government doesn't govern our economy: A record high 89 million Americans don't participate in the workforce and 300,000 more dropped out this August. Barack Obama is building the largest public sector since World War II and, yet, our government governs nothing. Still, an intellectually exhausted Democratic Party proposes nothing new. If at first you don't succeed, keep trying until you are $20 trillion in debt and failure litters your streets. The rollout of the Obamacare website is but another symptom of an old, hierarchical bureaucracy incapable of keeping pace with the complexities of a modern, adaptive America. Healthcare.gov is the best old Washington can do, not the worst. While our world transforms itself through revolutions in energy, technology and communication, the ideologists of the left stagnate. Barack Obama's Democratic Party is intellectually exhausted. Their old Democratic Party has nothing up its sleeves but more of the same. How our young President could only offer such dated ideas will be studied for decades. For now, we can mark candidate Obama's transformation from agent of hope and change to defender of liberal calcification as one of the great sleight-of-hand tricks in political history. With any luck, he will be the last President who tried to teach our dinosauric public sector to dance to the music of a new and adaptive era. Others, beyond Obama, will not expand but instead transform what we now pretend "governs" us. As for his legacy, today's tweeters and texters will remember Barack Obama as the last President of the Industrial Age and once he is gone, there will be no cover for his party's intellectual barrenness. Obama will leave a Democratic Party epitomized by ancient ideas, radically positioned left of our political center. The political trouble Barack Obama inherited from George W. Bush is nothing compared to what Obama has teed up for a future contender such as Hillary Clinton. Our former secretary of state has had no choice but to campaign for president earlier than she would have chosen. Clinton can see that this radicalized Democratic Party could easily leave her behind and find another champion. It did so before, to her distress, in 2008. No other member of the old Democratic elite can possibly hold its left-sliding legions together, yet Hillary Clinton has only one credential that appeals to her party: She could be our first female president. Elizabeth Warren's growing followers, more in tune with today's radicalized, populist Democrats, are likely to find that distinction unimpressive. If Clinton's rationale begins to fray, all hands on deck: The Democratic Party's 2016 nomination process is going to look like the casting call for "One-Flew-Over-The Cuckoo's Nest." Howard Dean may have screamed his way past the Democratic nomination in 2004, but the revolution he started has borne fruit. The 2016 nomination battle may be a fight between Elizabeth Warren, Governors Martin O'Malley and Deval Patrick, an unpolished pack of ideological duds and even a reinvigorated Dean, all vying to out-crazy each other and take the Democratic Party over a precipice. They'll make the troupe that sought the 2012 GOP nomination look like the committee awarding the Nobel Prize for Physics. Which party is more extreme? A Republican Party divided between 180 mainstream House members and 40 Ted Cruz mini-me's? Or a Democratic Party united to preserve our fossilized, ineffective public sector? A Republican Party advocating a path to fresh, natural, economic growth? Or a Democratic Party offering young voters the outdated economics of conformity, artificially imposed by Washington's elites? A Republican Party being driven to offer change? Or a Democratic Party united against it? Entrepreneurs, start printing tie-died shirts now. They will be hot sellers at the next Democratic Convention. Both sides are in for an interesting ride, but for Democrats, it's going to be an extreme 2016. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Alex Castellanos.

Alex Castellanos: While everyone focuses on GOP's right, the Democrats are being ignored . He argues that Democrats as a party have moved much further, in this case, to the left . Democrats are celebrating the shift to a more liberal view of role of government, he says . Castellanos: Elizabeth Warren wing of party could make life difficult for Hillary Clinton in 2016 .

(CNN) -- "You can hear the horse hold its breath over the jump." Dennis Baxter has been listening to sounds for so long, he even listens to their absence. Baxter is not only a sound man, but "The Sound Man." His engineering helped form the beating, surround-sound heart of the revolution in televised sports coverage. "If you listen carefully," he continues, narrating, "you can hear the rider talking to the animal. "Maybe a few choice words." Baxter is best-known for his work at the Olympic Games, tackling the timbre of dozens of disciplines to captivate global audiences, winning multiple Emmy Awards. He is the man who first gave you the sound of arrows fizzing through the air in archery, thanks to his brainwave of microphones between the archer and the target. More recently, his was the idea to place microphones beneath the wooden velodrome surface, to intercept the rumbling of Olympic track cyclists in action. Baxter's job is to find the defining sounds of a given sport, and bring them to your TV in the finest detail. He believes that while most people think they are watching TV, how they listen defines their experience. "The details really bring people in," he explains. "TV is consumed in a casual way. Rarely do you sit with full focus on the screen -- you're usually there with your family, or your friends, and you're talking. "It's the sound that brings you back into the show. The detail pulls the audience back in. "The thing I like most about equestrian is that detail in the coverage. The little, bitty micro-sounds of the horses and the riders. "You can close your eyes and hear the image of a horse. There is so much there." Ask most people for the sound they most readily associate with equestrian sport, and the chances are it will be the hollow clang of a jump clattering to the floor. To capture that sound, Baxter uses an array of small, wireless microphones attached to the jumps on the course. Alongside those, sets of microphones normally used to record singers are placed around the edges of the arena to sample the hubbub of the crowd. (But never close enough to record your conversation.) Back in the broadcast truck, a sound mixer then has the job of seamlessly threading between these dozens of microphones to create the finished TV experience. "The jumps are interesting because when they fall to the ground, it's never a flat fall," says Baxter, as though describing an artwork hanging in a gallery, or a fine wine. "There's a nice, resonant sound with an echoing tone. The camera may not be on that moment but, when you hear that sound, you know exactly what has happened. "But then -- and I've thought about this recently -- you have to decide if you want to have a constant barrage of sound or a coming-and-going. We give the sound a chance to breathe between the jumps. The more you listen, the more natural it sounds." Like the horse holding its breath, Baxter is a fan of quiet as much as he admires sound. That extends to voices. "Music today is so compressed that it never really breathes, and I hate to see television get that way," he complains. "It does bother me that everything is driven by the narrator. You need to tell the commentator to shut up, and let's just listen." The commentator, as it happens, concurs. "I totally agree," says Steven Wilde, one of the world's leading showjumping commentators. "I listen to a lot of different sports -- including our own sport and how it's presented in different countries -- and it's definitely possible to talk too much. You don't have to talk over every inch of it." Yet if you are watching at home, Wilde's voice is as much a part of the soundtrack as Baxter's breath-holding horse. "I grew up helping out at some shows. I used to be the man on the public address system. 'Please keep your dogs on a leash,' etc. Then somebody asked why didn't I try commentating," Wilde recalls. "I was naturally a very shy person, it was the last thing I expected ever to be doing. But you take on a persona, I suppose." Wilde now travels the globe, talking about horses for a living at the sport's biggest events. "One of the main challenges is keeping it fresh," he admits. "If you're seeing the same top riders all the time, you want to keep up to speed on them. News changes so fast now, so you're reading the internet all the time, looking at Twitter. "That side generally takes a lot more time than people think. Today, for example, I've been at the show (in Los Angeles) chatting to everyone and getting more depth on how the horse is going, what they're doing socially. "That gives me more color than picking up a piece of paper that simply says what they won at the Olympics. "The hard part is not talking, it's preparing." You now have Baxter's carefully crafted natural sound of the event, dozens of microphones mixed into a delicate blend, lapping softly below Wilde's narrative. There is at least one more element, though: music. Not a feature in jumping, music is a required component in sister sport dressage. The freestyle routine, widely regarded as the climax of any major dressage event, demands that rider and horse move in precise harmony around an arena, executing precision maneuvers to a soundtrack of their choosing. Once, comparatively little thought was given to the music used. Now, dressage composition is an industry in its own right. Tom Hunt composed the freestyle score to which Britain's Charlotte Dujardin won Olympic dressage gold at the London 2012 Olympics. "The Olympics was the culmination of a lot of things, but making it was quite stressful," says Hunt of his patriotic theme, featuring "Land of Hope and Glory." "At the Olympics, we had to do that -- and it was quite regimented, in a way. "I had the most fun with the last freestyle I did with Charlotte (for this season). We could try some different styles of music." Composing the music requires a degree of precision you might not expect. Hunt uses video analysis to fine-tune the rhythm and tempo of his composition, ensuring it precisely matches the expected movement of the horse at each stage. Sometimes, he will never meet the rider or horse for whom he is composing, working purely from video. "For a rider like Charlotte Dujardin," he adds, "I'll go down and watch Charlotte ride around, I'll take several videos, and I'll go back again to go through the music with her. "It takes a few visits to see the horse, get the footage, take it away and work with it. "Sometimes, the riders give me free rein with the music. The top riders often have a clearer idea of what they want, and that can help the process but it can also hinder it." Hunt got started when he finished his music degree and found himself watching dressage on TV. ("When I saw it, it didn't seem like the music was fitting," he remembers.) Now, he is excited for the future. "There's a lot going on in freestyle at the minute," he says. "It's really developing and I want to see how it progresses over the next five to 10 years. "People are getting better music and I think the judging will probably change, so it'll be quite an interesting thing to be involved with. "It's getting to be a big part of the sport -- it's getting the crowds, and people acknowledge the music more. It makes the sport more accessible." Baxter, too, is looking ahead. "Wireless microphones on anything that moves, in any competition whatsoever, is the future," he declares. He sounds only half-joking when he adds: "We're the ones paying for this. We're the ones who've got to put our foot down to these spoiled athletes and say, 'You know what? You've got to make it a show, you've got to earn your money.' "We've been asking to put microphones onto the athletes, and the horses. We've not been successful yet, but I think, pretty soon, we will be." On the horses? "Absolutely. Absolutely."

Sound engineer Dennis Baxter helped revolutionize TV sports coverage . Baxter uses dozens of microphones to capture detail of equestrian sport . He prefers commentators to keep quiet -- and commentators often agree . Dressage riders get music custom-made using video analysis .

Los Angeles (CNN)Barbara Boxer's announcement that she would step down from her U.S. Senate seat is the golden opportunity that many of California's Democratic stars have waited years for, and it's touching off one of the most unpredictable and expensive scrambles for federal office in the Golden State in years. With California's two Senate seats locked down for more than two decades by Boxer and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Boxer's announcement Thursday -- via a video with her grandson -- set up a key test of the state's top-two primary system. Given the shallow Republican bench in California, many political observers predicted a fierce runoff in November 2016 between two of the state's top Democrats, depending on who emerges from the June primary. Top Democratic contenders weigh California Senate run . "There's an entire generation of Democratic politicians who have been waiting for an opportunity like this one," said Dan Schnur, executive director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California. "That's a lot of pent up energy and ambition." Three of the strongest potential Democratic contenders for the seat — Attorney General Kamala Harris, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer — have been coy about their plans, praising Boxer's long tenure as a champion for progressive causes, but staying mum on their own ambitions. Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa released a statement Saturday expressing his interest: "Too many Californians are struggling to make ends meet, pay the bills, and send their kids to college. They are looking for progressive leaders in Washington who will fight for them, like Senator Boxer has done for over 20 years," the former Los Angeles mayor said in a statement. "The urgency of the needs of the people of this great state have convinced me to seriously consider looking at running for California's open Senate seat." Steyer is expected to make a decision within days. For the others, there was a political chess match underway behind the scenes. Boxer's vacancy could be just the first of three statewide openings in California in the next few years. The Governor's office will be vacant in 2018 and that's when Feinstein's current term expires. She could step down, though the 81-year-old senator has given no indication that she will retire. Pelosi on Boxer retirement: 'What?' Harris, Newsom and Villaraigosa have all expressed interest to confidantes in running both for Senate and Governor's race over the years. Harris and Newsom share the same California-based strategists, including Ace Smith, raising the possibility they could strike a pact where Harris runs for Boxer's seat and Newsom waits to run for Governor after his two terms as lieutenant governor. (Smith, who also advised Villaraigosa before the former Los Angeles Mayor returned to the private sector, is often mentioned as potential top strategist for Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign). The two Northern California politicians have an amicable, if not close, relationship. If pitted against one another, they could split that region of the state between them -- clearing a path for a strong Southern California candidate like Villaraigosa, who has won prior races with strong support from Latinos. Increasing speculation about a deal this week, Harris and Newsom sent a message of unity on Monday when Newsom chose the Attorney General to administer his oath of office at his swearing in for his second term as lieutenant governor. Another wild card are the future plans of Gov. Jerry Brown, who faces term limits in 2018 after his fourth term as governor. Newsom, who has had a fraught relationship with Brown over the years, withdrew from his first bid for governor in 2009 after struggling to raise money with the specter of Brown entering the race. Brown, who barely campaigned in his re-election race last year and won overwhelmingly, has said little about what he would do after the Governor's office. Beyond those big names -- which rose to the top because of their strong fundraising potential in California, and Steyer's ability to self-fund -- the list of potential candidates seemed almost endless Thursday. More than a half-dozen members of Congress are weighing whether to jump into the race, as well as a number of state lawmakers and treasurer John Chiang, who is widely talked about as an underestimated candidate. But federal limits on fundraising are far more restrictive than state limits—setting up steep challenges for any of the contenders. Further complicating matters for Democrats, many well funded labor groups who have played an active role in other state races will be wary of choosing sides between high profile Democrats. While Republican Kevin McCarthy would be the most formidable candidate on the GOP side, he is unlikely to leave his post as House Majority Leader. Boxer's opponent in 2010, former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, now resides in Virginia and is weighing a run for President. "I don't think there's an obvious (Republican) contender," said longtime Republican Strategist Kenneth Khachigian, who advised Fiorina in her run against Boxer in 2010. "California has become a very, very difficult state. It's going to be somewhat easier not to have to run against an incumbent, but 2016 will be a presidential year -- so the result is that there will be a lot heavier Democratic turnout, which makes it an even bigger hill to climb for a Republican." Other Republicans who could throw their hat in the ring include Neel Kashkari, who ran unsuccessfully for governor against Brown last year, as well as Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin. But few GOP aspirants are thought to have a chance against the top tier Democratic contenders. "This race is going to cost $20 million just to get to the starting gate," said longtime California political analyst Tony Quinn. "There is nobody who would be likely to run as a Republican who could come up with that kind of money." (Boxer, in conjunction with party committees raised more than $35 million for her 2010 re-election bid). Rep. Darrell Issa, who could have funded his own campaign, withdrew his name from consideration. Democrat Eric Garcetti was among the first to step aside, saying he was focused on his new job as Los Angeles Mayor. Boxer, who is 74 and was elected with Feinstein in the so-called "year of the woman" in 1992, did not reveal her leanings toward a potential successor during a call with reporters Thursday afternoon. If faced with a competitive Democratic race for her seat, she could very well opt not to endorse given how many people underestimated her in her own Senate race in 1992. When she ran in that cycle against two formidable Democrats, then-Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy and Rep. Mel Levine, Boxer was pressured to drop out, but pulled off a surprise victory: "I was an asterisk," she mused Thursday. She said discussions of an endorsement were premature: "I don't know if one person will come forward or if 15 will come forward," Boxer told reporters on a call Thursday. She said she made her decision over the holidays to be fair to the contenders. "I am doing it this early," Boxer said, "because I think it's important for the field -- give them plenty of time to look at this; don't give any one person the advantage, and just send the message out loud and clear." Feinstein similarly did not tip her hand on who she would favor in the race, but she noted that the candidates would need to get off to a fast start given the enormous expense of running a statewide campaign in California. "Most candidates don't realize, until they've run, how big the state is and how you have to reach people," Feinstein said during a press gaggle on Capitol Hill Thursday. "You have to figure: 'How many hands can I shake in two years. 100,000? 200,000?' (You've) got 38 million people. So it really comes down to media, unfortunately." CNN's Alexandra Jaffe, Ted Barrett and Deirdre Walsh contributed to this report .

Antonio Villaraigosa says he'll 'seriously consider' a run . Barbara Boxer's retirement creates potential for wild race . Villaraigosa, Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsom among strongest candidates . California's top-two primary could lead to fierce Democratic race in Nov. 2016 .

(CNN) -- "MasterChef" runner-up Joshua Marks was in "the battle of his life fighting mental illness" when he killed himself Friday, his family said Sunday. His family blames the lack of mental health treatment facilities and the easy access to guns as factors in his tragic death. "It is overwhelming to think that with proper, intensive treatment, Joshua may still be with us," his lawyer, Lisa Butler, said Sunday. "He was a jewel with so much talent to offer this world. But, in his state of mind, he turned to the streets for a gun and easily got it." Marks, 26, died from a gunshot wound to his head. His death has been ruled a suicide, a spokesman for the Cook County, Illinois, medical examiner said Sunday. He was charged with aggravated battery in July after scuffling with police officers who were called to the scene after he suffered serious facial wounds from a self-inflicted gunshot, according to his lawyer. His mother believed that incident was a call for help, not a suicide attempt, Butler said. But getting Marks help was not easy because of the lack of full-time mental health facilities in Illinois that would accept his insurance, she said. Marks' mother, Paulette Mitchell, found him dead in an alley on Chicago's south side Friday evening after a neighbor called to say he was walking around with a gun, Butler said. His family is now hoping to help others suffering from mental illness by talking about what happened to Marks in the three months since his arrest, she said. 'The battle of his life' Marks -- who, at 7 feet 2 inches tall, was known by friends as a "gentle giant" -- was diagnosed with bipolar disorder a year ago, the same month he lost to to winner Christine Ha in the final round of the Fox reality cooking competition's third season. A doctor diagnosed Marks with schizophrenia just last week, Butler said. "Joshua was so kind, so gentle," his mother told CNN Sunday. "He loved life. He loved people. He would never hurt anyone; never. He was just a gentle, sweet soul; but he hurt himself. That breaks my heart, that he hurt himself." "But, behind that huge smile, Josh was in the battle of his life fighting mental illness," a family statement said. "It was extremely tough, but Josh was always positive, focused on his faith in God and determined to win; pushing forward through his illness to follow his passion for cooking and dream of being a renowned chef." That battle apparently began just as Marks was achieving celebrity status on television. "I hadn't noticed any signs of anything wrong or any mental illness until after Josh completed filming 'MasterChef,'" his mother said. "The time he was away filming was extremely stressful on him." Marks' stepfather Gabriel Mitchell, in a statement to CNN, described "the toll that being on a reality show puts on people." "Josh had a following of fans and was put on a 'celebrity' type pedestal, with the expectation from others that there was money and fame; but, his personal reality was that he was struggling mentally and financially," he said. "I think people expect that you come away from a reality show and have it made. That's not necessarily the case." Marks spoke about his mental illness in a public service video he recorded in February for the Make a Sound Project, a nonprofit suicide awareness project. The project promotes "how to use music as an alternative to the crazy thoughts you may have going in your mind," Marks said in the video. "Me, personally, I have bipolar disorder, so, you know, I'll get a little anxious sometimes. And how I cool out is, I listen to music and just listen to the words and just relax and, you know, find my melody. I wish we had some music going on in here right now." 'A mental break' But last summer Marks suffered "a mental break" that led to his arrest on July 29, his lawyer said. Marks told police he had been possessed by "MasterChef" judge Gordon Ramsay, who turned him into God, the Chicago Tribune reported. "What people don't know is that on the night Josh was arrested in July, he had just shot himself and had called police for help from the emergency phone," his mother said. "He wasn't himself, he was in a manic state, calling the police to help him after having shot himself." When police arrived, a scuffle ensued. "They said that Josh lunged at them and attempted to disarm an officer," his other said. "In addition to his gunshot wound to the face, Josh suffered a fractured jaw and injury to his face and head." He was treated at a hospital for the facial and ear wounds caused by a bullet that he fired and then transferred to the Cook County Jail, where he was placed in the general population, his lawyer said. He got no mental health treatment and no medications while in jail, Butler said. "I think people look at mental illness as if it is a crime instead of treating the illness," Gabriel Mitchell said. "They knew of his mental illness, yet they throw him in jail with no treatment?" His mother, a Chicago public elementary school teacher, bailed him out after more than a week. She desperately sought a full-time mental health program for Marks, but she could not find a one with an available bed, Butler said. "After this, Josh was determined to get well," his mother said. Mitchell "continually ran into roadblocks" as she put her focus into finding help for her son, Butler said. "Access to long-term, in-patient mental health care is extremely limited. How can you appropriately treat your loved one's mental health challenges if access to necessary care is virtually non-existent?" She "felt as if her hands were tied" but "she was doing everything she could to get him in treatment," Butler said. Mitchell enrolled her son in an outpatient program that was "the best available through insurance," she said. A new diagnosis: Schizophrenia . That program concluded Thursday, with a doctor informing Marks that he believed he was suffering from schizophrenia. The new diagnosis upset him, Butler said. "That's not what I am, that's not what I am," he told his mother, the lawyer said. "He was very distraught by this new diagnosis," his mother said. "He was just coming to terms with having been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, but he just couldn't handle this new diagnosis." Mitchell stayed home from her teaching job Friday to be with her son. "I was concerned about him; he just wasn't himself, so I stayed with him at my dad's home Thursday night after we left the hospital and all day on Friday," she said. "I only left for a couple of hours to pick up my daughter from school Friday afternoon." She was stuck in Chicago's rush-hour traffic when she got a call from her brother saying that a neighbor saw her son walking around an alley with a gun. "I rushed back to the south side to get to the neighborhood, and just started driving through the alleys near my dad's house looking for him," Mitchell said. "All I could think was I have to get to him in time." She frantically drove through alleys searching. "I saw Joshua laying there in the second alley that I turned down," his mother said. "I screamed for help and held him. I just didn't get to my boy on time. I didn't get to my boy." Mitchell is determined to set up a foundation in her son's memory to help people with mental illness to address the same issues as Marks. "I am not done, this is not over," she said. "I am going to make sure that Josh's voice and dream live on by fighting for mental healthcare treatment." While police work to trace how Marks got the handgun he used to kill himself, his family is also seeking answers. "We live in a country where anyone can buy a gun on the streets at will," Butler said. "We know that Josh paid little or no money for that gun, because he just didn't have it; he was unemployed and in treatment full time. So with no money, how did he get this gun?" For help please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline or call 1-800-273-8255 and they will put you in touch with someone in your area. People we've lost in 2013 . CNN's KJ Matthews contributed to this report.

NEW: Family blames the lack of mental health facilities, easy access to guns as factors . His mother struggled to get Josh Marks mental health treatment, lawyer says . Marks' family hopes talking about his suicide will help others suffering from mental illness . He was diagnosed with schizophrenia a day before his death .

(CNN) -- Around 4:30 a.m. the first beams of summer sunlight finish crossing the Bay of Fundy and arrive at West Quoddy Head in Lubec, Maine, the easternmost point of the continental United States. It takes about seven minutes for the same rays to travel about 65 miles as the crow flies down the rocky coast and start flickering on Mount Desert Island's pink granite at Acadia National Park. Visitors have to be dedicated to make it out in time to see the early sunrise at Acadia, says park ranger Charlie Jacobi. But it's worth it. The new day's light slowly envelops the landscape, creating a kaleidoscope of colors that is perfectly reminiscent of a desert Southwest sunset. "The first five to 10 minutes of the sun coming up, that granite is just phenomenal," he says. "It'll blow from pink to gold." The Wabanaki people lived on Maine's coast for 5,000 years prior to the arrival of Europeans sometime during in the 16th century. Originally colonized by the French, the federal government established it as Lafayette National Park in 1919. Katmai: See Alaska's brown bears . The park was renamed Acadia in 1929 and kept alive during the Depression through the help of the Civilian Conservation Corps. Today, it is celebrated as the first national park east of the Mississippi and is the easternmost National Park in the continental United States. Park stats: Nearly 2.5 million people visited Acadia National Park last year, making it the ninth most-visited national park. The location: Acadia National Park encompasses more than 47,000 acres starting on the Schoodic Peninsula south of Maine State Route 186 and spreading out over parts of 19 islands. Only five of the islands have public access -- Mount Desert Island, Isle au Haut, Bar Island, Baker Island and Little Cranberry Island, which is home to the one-acre Isleford Historical Museum. The other 14 islands can be observed by boat tours. Many of them are unsafe for landing or are reserved for nesting birds. Many islands have private land and park rangers request visitors respect those boundaries. Click here to view a park map and ways to access islands. The park is about an hour's drive from Bangor and a five-hour drive from Boston. Flights are available to Bangor International Airport and from Boston to Hancock County-Bar Airport, about 10 miles from the park. Dig in: Top sand sculpture events . If you go: Visitors to Acadia must pay an entrance fee from May 1 through October 31. A private vehicle pass (15 people or fewer) is $20. Motorcycle passes (one person) are $5, and individual passes (including cyclists and hikers) are $5. Entrance fees are reduced when the Island Explorer system doesn't run between May 1 through June 22 and between the day after Columbus Day and October 31. The Island Explorers are seasonal propane-powered buses that are free of charge and offer access across Mount Desert Island. They also connect to neighboring villages, restaurants, campgrounds and hotels. Annual passes are available for $40 and all other passes are valid for seven days. Seniors 62 and older can purchase a lifetime pass for $10. Admission is free from November 1 through April 30, when there are limited services due to decreased access to certain areas of the park. Camping at Acadia is available year-round, but be sure to check the website before planning a trip as some campgrounds are closed from November through April. Click here for a full list of outdoor activities offered at Acadia. Go prepared for changing weather as summer temperatures can range from 45 to 90 degrees. Fog is common during the spring. Isle Royale: An isolated paradise . Meet our ranger: Charlie Jacobi is the natural resource and visitor use specialist at Acadia. He was born and raised in Connecticut, but wasn't exposed to nature until a post-college summer road trip with friends to 16 national parks. "It wasn't like my family was a gigantic group of hiking and outdoors people," says Jacobi, 59. Jacobi developed an interest in hiking and canoeing and worked as an outfitter and guide before entering grad school at Virginia Tech. After graduation, he worked seven years as a seasonal employee for the park service before getting a full-time gig at Acadia in 1984. He has been in his current position since 1992. Acadia still lives up to the reason it was made a national park -- spectacular beauty made up of diverse geographical vistas and wildlife habitats, he says. "Acadia is a day hiker's paradise. The trails meander and amble seemingly aimlessly, constantly changing directions. You could spend a lifetime exploring." For a day trip, don't miss: Park Loop Road's 27-mile drive. The loop starts at the Hulls Cove Visitor Center on Mount Desert Island. It will take you past Acadia's major sites: Thunder Hole, Sand Beach, Jordan Pond and Cadillac Mountain. Portions of Park Loop Road close every year from December 1 through April 15. Favorite less-traveled spot: A series of trails that complete a 4.5- to 5-mile loop that connects Penobscot Mountain and Sargent Mountain. Start at the Jordan Pond House and take Spring Trail to Jordan Cliffs Trail to the Sargent East Cliffs Trail to the Sargent South Ridge Trail to the Penobscot Mountain Trail, which will reconnect with Spring Trail. Sargent Mountain is Acadia's second tallest peak and the hike offers panoramic views of granite domes on mountains to the east, Jacobi says. "I find myself going there a lot," he says. "If you pick your times and days, you can avoid the crowd." Favorite spot to view wildlife: Sieur de Monts Spring and Isle au Haut. While the park is home to deer, otters, bald eagles, coyotes, lynx, foxes and fisher, Jacobi says Acadia is really a bird-watcher's paradise. He recommends Sieur de Monts Spring for listening to singing birds, and Isle au Haut for watching migrating flocks in the fall. Most magical moment in the park: the dozen times each spring when a combination of heavy rain and snow-melt create unseen waterfalls. Jacobi discovered this in 1988 while hiking with a friend during a storm. "It's another little secret," he says." There are a dozen waterfalls at Tarn after a heavy rain. It only lasts a couple of hours but it's really neat." Oddest moment at the park: Watching a helicopter take off from a yacht in Bar Harbor and land on top of different Acadia mountains so the owner could pick blueberries. While Acadia's blueberries are fair game to all, landing a helicopter on national park land isn't. "They didn't bother to give him a ticket," he says. "You can pick them (blueberries) for personal consumption," A ranger's request: Always keep your dog on a leash. Click here for a list of Acadia's pet-restricted areas. "It not only protects wildlife, but it also protects your dog from getting porcupined," he says. Another park he'd like to visit: Chiricahua National Monument in Cochise County, Arizona. Tucked along Arizona's southeastern border with New Mexico, the Chiricahua Mountains were a stronghold during the 19th century for Apache tribes who were wedged between the U.S. Army in the north and east and Mexico to the south. Parts of the park flood every year during summer monsoons and the best times to visit are in the fall or spring. "I went there once and found it to be positively charming," says Jacobi. "I thought the trails were wonderful." What national park would you like to visit? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Acadia was the first national park east of the Mississippi River . Its 47,000 acres spread from the Schoodic Peninsula to many islands . Cadillac Mountain is the tallest peak on the Atlantic Coast . More than 300 bird species can be seen at Acadia National Park .