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(CNN) -- Ebola is not a death sentence. That is the lesson to the world from the release this week of Dr. Craig Spencer from a hospital in New York. Less than three weeks ago, Spencer was diagnosed with Ebola and admitted to Bellevue Hospital in New York. On Tuesday, he walked out, free of the virus. Spencer had been treating Ebola patients in Guinea. He knew he was risking his life. But he also knew that, given proper care, people can survive this disease. Indeed, eight of the nine people treated for Ebola in the United States have returned home safely to their families. That's the good news: Health care can make a difference. In, Africa, however, too many Ebola patients are dying from the disease, nearly 5,000 from the about 13,500 cases that have been reported. Yet we can dramatically reduce this rate and ensure the disease is not spread. The strategy for containing and ending the outbreak in West Africa, and for preventing worldwide spread, requires an army of courageous health care workers and community volunteers like Spencer to join those from within the affected countries, those who already are making a difference on the Ebola front lines throughout Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. When Spencer was admitted to Bellevue, the situation in these countries looked bleak. Today, there are reasons for optimism that the Ebola outbreak can and will be brought under control. While transmission continues to outpace the response, we are also seeing that, where people receive care, and where communities embrace safe burial and other practices that reduce infection, the rate of transmission may be slowing. As a result, we are potentially seeing the curve bending -- not everywhere, but in enough places to give us reason for hope. Over the past several weeks the international community across Africa and around the world has mobilized to provide assistance. From governments and aid organizations to foundations and the private sector, the world's leaders are stepping up. But much more is needed, especially medical personnel to work in Ebola treatment units and others to train West Africans who are volunteering to work in their own communities. Several governments and nongovernmental organizations from Africa and around the world have stepped up to provide skilled health care workers, but many more will need to join them to complete the task. The Global Ebola Response Coalition, coordinated by the United Nations, has a clear strategy: By December 1, isolating and treating 70% of all Ebola cases and providing safe and dignified burials to 70% of those who have died. By the end of the year, we aim to establish Ebola-free zones. The next goal will be zero cases of Ebola in Africa and everywhere. That is the only way to avoid a resurgence and prevent Ebola from spreading across borders. We will also need to provide sustained support to the affected countries. The outbreak has had a significant impact on health care, with people unable or afraid to access essential services such as maternal care, measles vaccinations and treatment for malaria. Many schools are closed, food prices have risen by nearly 25% and trade has suffered. We must work to ensure such an outbreak never happens again. That means investing in infrastructure, education and public health in developing countries, learning the lessons of Ebola and making sure communities are less susceptible and that global early warning and response systems for outbreaks are more robust. We must prepare for the worst so it never happens. Ebola has caused inestimable suffering and havoc in West Africa. But the story of Dr. Craig Spencer and the others who have been cured with adequate health care is that Ebola can be beaten. Let us celebrate the health care heroes in Africa and show global solidarity so the people of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone can return to the path of progress that they were on before the Ebola crisis. Thank you, Dr Spencer, for the care you gave. Thanks to those who have cared for you. And thanks to those who have cared for the thousands of others who have recovered. Thanks for what you have given and continue to give. We owe you all so much.

Almost 5,000 people have died in current Ebola outbreak, David Nabarro says . Case of Craig Spencer shows the virus isn't a death sentence, he says . Ebola has caused inestimable suffering and havoc in West Africa, Nabarro says .

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama has invited congressional leaders from both parties to join him in a meeting to discuss what to do in the waning days of the current Congress, vowing Thursday that it will "not be just a photo-op." "I want us to talk substantively about how to move the American people's agenda forward," Obama said. The meeting is set for November 18, Obama said, following elections Tuesday in which his Democratic Party lost control of the House of Representatives and saw its Senate majority reduced. Current members of Congress keep their jobs until the end of the year in what's known as the "lame-duck" session. Obama said he wants the meeting to discuss the future of the Bush-era tax cuts that are scheduled to expire at the end of the year. Republicans and Democrats disagree about how to extend them. The president calls for extending the lower tax rates for income up to $200,000 a year for individuals or $250,000 a year for families. Income above those levels would be taxed at rates from the 1990s, before the tax cuts were enacted in 2001 and 2003. Most Republicans oppose letting anyone's tax rates go up, including the 2 percent of the population that earns income greater than the thresholds proposed by Obama. "We have to act in order to assure that middle-class families don't see a big tax spike because of how the Bush tax cuts have been structured," Obama said. "It is very important that we extend those middle-class tax cuts." The president said businesses also needed "certainty" about the future concerning tax rates. Republicans argue that the income levels in Obama's proposal would hit too many small business owners and harm job creation. Potential compromises under discussion would raise the income level for the tax cut extensions to $1 million, or temporarily extend all the tax cuts with time limits for higher income levels. Obama conceded Wednesday that his party had taken a "shellacking" from the voters the day before, and the Republican leader in the Senate has signaled that he wants to roll back what Obama's administration and the Democratic-controlled Congress have done instead of working with them to seek compromises on major issues. "For the past two years, Democrat lawmakers chose to ignore the American people, so on Tuesday the American people chose new lawmakers," Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, said in a speech Thursday to the Heritage Foundation. "The White House has a choice: They can change course, or they can double down on a vision of government that the American people have roundly rejected," McConnell said. In response, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Thursday that any consensus reached in talks between Obama the congressional Republicans would not give everyone what they wanted. Gibbs also said he expected the November 18 meeting to be just the start of discussions, saying: "I anticipate that this is the first of many." Obama used his brief statement after a Cabinet meeting to highlight his legislative priorities. He urged the upcoming lame-duck Congress to approve an arms control agreement with Russia, saying it is neither a Republican nor a Democratic issue. The Senate must approve international treaties for them to take effect. "We have negotiated with the Russians significant reductions in our nuclear arms" in the new START treaty, Obama said. That has given the United States leverage in seeking increased pressure against Iran's controversial nuclear program, Obama argued, because "people have seen that we are serious about taking our responsibilities when it comes to non-proliferation." Obama is also planning to meet newly elected governors from both parties, he said. He's invited them to the White House on December 2. The meeting will be a "terrific opportunity to hear from them ... about what they're seeing, what ideas they think Washington needs to be paying attention to," Obama said. "They've got very practical problems that they've got to solve," he said, praising their "common-sense approach that the American people are looking for right now." CNN's Richard Allen Greene and Tom Cohen contributed to this story.

NEW: White House spokesman says he expects multiple meetings to occur . Obama wants the Senate to approve an arms control treaty with Russia . He'll meet leaders of the outgoing Congress in two weeks, he says . The Bush tax cuts will be on the agenda .

(CNN) -- Sal Dimiceli has spent decades helping people get back on their feet. Through a local newspaper column and his nonprofit, The Time Is Now To Help, Dimiceli assists about 500 people a year with food, rent, utilities and other necessities. He concentrates most of his work in the Wisconsin area where he lives. CNN asked Dimiceli for his thoughts on being chosen as one of the top 10 CNN Heroes of 2011. CNN: How does it feel to be selected as a top 10 CNN Hero? Sal Dimiceli: I'm ecstatic. I want to cry thinking that CNN and people recognize the poverty that is out there so we can help even more people. I hesitate to talk about myself. My heart is about giving, helping, not receiving. This is such a great, great honor. At the same time, the help I provide is from my desire, my heart, to ease the pain and suffering and fear of the poverty-stricken. I find myself in tears. For many years, I felt alone making money, giving it away helping the less fortunate, and now I'm being recognized for doing what I vowed to do. I'm in shock. I thank God and CNN for telling the world: "Yes, something can be done. Yes, together we can make a difference." CNN: What do you hope this recognition will mean to The Time Is Now to Help? Dimiceli: I hope it will bring an awareness of what's going on in our great country behind closed doors and show how more than 50 million Americans are desperately suffering the pains of poverty. By showing how we are coming together, networking with people to find solutions for helping them, I pray that other areas around the U.S. will come together with their local people to make a difference. My biggest prayer is that our government will put aside their differences and exercise the simple solutions that do exist for any problem they presently have. ... The one thing I keep trying to grasp is the fact that the global news media, CNN, is recognizing the philanthropy and love all over the world and the solutions we are presenting. CNN is my hero for taking all of us to the forefront, recognizing that we are making a big difference in the world around us. CNN: How will you use the $50,000 award that you receive for being selected as a top 10 CNN Hero? Dimiceli: I'm going to put that right into the charity (and) use that for immediate funding. That's why it's called The Time Is Now. I can never catch up with the requests for help financially. And with this recession right now, there are a lot of people in extreme desperate need. People who are homeless, we'll help them get shelter; people who are hungry, we're going to feed them; people who have utilities off, we're going to turn them on; people that need transportation, we'll help fix their cars. Every penny is going to help our fellow creations in dire need, and I'm going to do it as expeditiously as I can. We're going to utilize all of our several hundred volunteers to make sure we can end their pain and suffering and show them there are people that care. We want to give them hope and show them that we do have a love for all people. I can't wait. CNN: What do you want people to know most about your work? Dimiceli: Everything that I did to help others would not be possible if it wasn't for my mother. I grew up as a little boy watching her cry through our utilities being off, of us being evicted, of us having little food, and with her pride of not letting people know. It's because of all those tears I saw on and off for many years. If it wasn't for my dear mother, I wouldn't be doing this. I made a promise to God at 12 years old. I'm 60 now, and I'm going to keep that promise for as long as I can breathe. Read the full story on CNN Hero Sal Dimiceli: . A 'Dear Abby' for the down and out .

Sal Dimiceli was named one of the top 10 CNN Heroes of 2011 . Dimiceli gives financial assistance to the working poor near his home . People reach out to Dimiceli through a local newspaper column .

(CNN) -- Whether viewed as a show of force to Russia or a sign of reassurance to nervous allies, the recent deployment of U.S. Army forces to Poland and three Baltic states is steeped in matters strategic and diplomatic to American foreign policy. A contingent of 150 paratroopers arrived in Poland on Wednesday from their base in Italy to conduct joint training exercises with the Polish military as the situation in neighboring Ukraine shows no sign of easing. An additional deployment of 150 paratroopers to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, respectively, will take place over the coming months. With the announcement, the Obama administration is effectively sending a message that with all the talk of a "re-balance" in focus to the Asia-Pacific region, the exercises also show that the U.S. commitment to the NATO alliance is solid. "It's a very tangible representation of our commitment to our security obligations in Europe, and the message is to the people of those countries and to the alliance that we do take it seriously," Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said this week. With Russia massing an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 troops under the guise of military exercises along its border with Ukraine, anxiety is running high among some of the newer members of NATO, themselves former states within the Soviet Union, regarding Russia's possible designs on territorial expansion. Under the collective defense clause of the NATO charter, an attack on one member constitutes an attack on the entire alliance, thus obligating American involvement in any response to such an attack. The exercises are a manifestation of that obligation. "It sends a signal to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin his ambitions can't go as far as the NATO territory because we have this commitment to them," Nicholas Burns, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO, said in an interview with CNN on Wednesday. Ukraine is not a member of NATO. While the United States conducts exercises with the four countries on a routine basis, the Pentagon acknowledges the newest exercises are in part a response to the ongoing instability in Ukraine. "These exercises were conceived and added on to the -- added on to the exercise regimen as a result of what's going on in Ukraine," Kirby said. But are the exercises sending the right message to both Putin and U.S. allies in NATO? Senior Republican members of Congress say they are a good first step, but require the necessary follow through by the administration. "We should have them in Poland, Latvia, Estonia and make it clear this is not just a temporary measure," Rep. Peter King, a Republican of New York, told CNN in an interview. "One criticism I would have of the President is he's not up until now shown we're in this for the long haul." "Do I think we could do larger NATO exercises, U.S.-led in a place like Poland? I do," said Rep. Mike Rogers, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "This is a very good start and a very good sign to let Putin know that we won't tolerate, the United States won't tolerate any incursion into NATO states." While the Pentagon will not say how long the new exercises will last, NATO is still exploring additional responses and measures the alliance can take with regard to Ukraine. One former senior U.S. military officer told CNN that such exercises are important to maintaining the NATO alliance, but they will require more lift from European partners in the future. "For the NATO countries, if they want to be reassured, they need to help with this by putting some real money towards their defense budgets," Gen. Richard Myers (Ret.), the former Joint Chiefs Chairman, told CNN. "They've been underfunding defense for many, many years for lots of reasons. And if they're really serious about this, they've got to help. It can't just be the U.S. alone."

U.S. deploying paratroopers to Poland and other NATO states in show of support for Atlantic alliance . The military exercises are in response to Russia's troop presence on the border of Ukraine . Are the exercises sending the right message to Vladimir Putin and U.S. allies? Some members of Congress say the decision is a good first step .

(CNN) -- It should have been the proudest moment in his life -- instead Ahmed Abdul Zaher finds himself embroiled in controversy and his career in doubt after scoring the goal that helped his club win this year's African Champions League. The 28-year-old's first reaction -- prior to being wrestled to the floor by his Al Ahly teammates in celebration -- was to hold out four fingers in a gesture that has become synonymous with ousted Egyptian President Mohammed Morsy. Known as 'Rabaa', which means four, the salute is considered the symbol of defiance against military rule and refers to the Rabaa Al-Adawiya mosque where supporters of Morsy's Muslim Brotherhood clashed with the army in August, resulting in hundreds of deaths. Even though Zaher claims his actions had no political meaning, the tense political situation in Egypt was highlighted by the strength of the sanctions meted out to him by Al Ahly's board on Tuesday. The forward has not only been put up for sale but also barred from competing in next month's FIFA Club World Cup -- a tournament that carries special significance in Africa since it affords teams a rare chance to play with the world watching while testing themselves against some of the planet's best players. In a statement that explained the club's "firm rejection of mixing politics and sport", Al Ahly also revealed that Abdul Zaher will also miss out on any financial bonus gained from the club's continental triumph. Supporters of the stringent sanctions will argue that Abdul Zaher's actions could have had serious repercussions as Cairo hosted a major football match with fans in attendance for one of the few times since last year's stadium disaster in Port Said. The rampage in February 2012 left 74 people dead and 1,000 injured after the Port Said home team, al-Masry, defeated a visiting Al Ahly side. A majority of the victims in the stadium rampage were Al Ahly fans, with many believing they had been targeted after their role in the revolution had helped topple longstanding President Hosni Mubarak in 2011. "I did do the sign but did not intend any political incitement for any group or any fan," Abdul Zaher said in a statement. "I meant it in mourning for the Egyptians who died in Rabaa (al-Adawiya square), including citizens, soldiers and policemen." Zaher's comments come despite his status as one of the few football stars who participated in the Muslim Brotherhood's sit-in at Rabaa al-Adawiya Square. Zaher is not the first Egyptian sportsman to suffer because of his association with the gesture. Last month, an Egyptian kung fu champion who wore a T-shirt with the Rabaa sign was barred from representing his country and stripped of a medal he had won at a tournament in Russia. Zaher's agent said the controversial celebration had its roots in personal tragedy that stemmed from the August actions, when security forces stormed the pro-Morsy camp a month after the military had ousted the Islamist leader. "What he meant by the sign is that he was mourning one of his friends who died during the events surrounding the clearing of Rabaa al-Adawiya square in August," said Mohammed Sheiha. "Abdul Zaher wrote an apology to the Al Ahly club's board of directors and the Egyptian public for showing the Rabaa sign during the match between Ahly and Orlando Pirates." Zaher's goal in Cairo, which clinched an aggregate 3-1 victory over the South African side as Al Ahly landed a record eighth continental crown, sealed their place in the Club World Cup. Africa will stage the tournament for the first time when Morocco hosts an event that begins on 11 December, with Al Ahly playing Asian champions Guangzhou Evergrande three days later. Champions League winners Bayern Munich and South America's Copa Libertadores holders Atletico Mineiro, who boast Ronaldinho in their number, are among those contesting the seven-team event.

Al Ahly forward Ahmed Abdul Zaher indefinitely suspended after controversial gesture . Egyptian put up for sale by club and barred from playing in FIFA Club World Cup . Footballer celebrated African Champions League final goal with political salute .

(CNN) -- The world's chocolate makers may specialize in delivering a sweet taste but the government of the Ivory Coast is seeking to address what it sees as the bitter treatment of the farmers who grow the industry's raw materials. The West African nation was the world's biggest cocoa producer -- which is the main ingredient in chocolate -- between 2009 and 2010, rearing some 1.19 million tons of the crop according to the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO). Thanks to a mixture of price volatility, internal instability within the Ivory Coast and a lack of protection from speculators however, an ever smaller portion of the billions of dollars of annual revenue the industry creates finds its way back to the country's farmers. While this set up may benefit cocoa buyers and chocolate companies, non profits such as the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) have claimed that it forces farmers to pay low wages and encourages exploitative practices such as child labor. Bittersweet times for Ivory Coast's cocoa industry . But according to Sangafowa Coulibaly, the Ivory Coast's agriculture minister, central government efforts are now being made to make the cocoa production process fairer and more profitable for farmers. "The profits made from the sale of cocoa have unfortunately not been beneficial enough to the farmers because of poor governance," he says. Coulibaly highlights the fact that farmers receive around a 40% share in the price of the cocoa they grow. This, he claims, is not commensurate with the costs the process incurs and in the coming years he hopes to see this figure rise to 60%. He also blames the country's former president, Laurent Gbagbo -- who refused to concede defeat in elections in October 2010, leading to a six month long standoff before he was finally forced from power by military force -- for slowing reforms that will benefit the country's cocoa growers. Now that the political infighting is over and a new government in place however, Coulibaly says that changes will be made to ensure the long term viability of one of the country's most integral industries. "Things can only get better," he says. "The political crisis is behind us -- the armed conflict is behind us. Ivory Coast has become a country that aspires to be stable," he adds. With the Ivory Coast contributing to roughly 40% of global cocoa produce alone, such clear intentions of creating a durable and equitable production process should be good news for the world's chocolate companies, as well as the country's cocoa farmers. But while Coulibaly is adamant that the central government is genuine in its attempts to help farmers, his words are met with a wary skepticism by those at the sharp end of the debate. Toure Dramane is a farmer and owner of a cocoa co-op deep within the Ivory Coast's rural hinterland. He says that unless real changes are made to ensure farmers are paid a fair price for their produce they will be forced to employ children and pay low wages, which in turn will create a variety of long term social and humanitarian problems. The human cost of chocolate . "It's not our choice; it's imposed on us," he says of the price he receives for his cocoa produce. "We can't transform it. We produce it and we sell. We get the price that is imposed on us. We can't do it any other way." Dramane says that promises of reform to make cocoa farming fairer and more profitable have been made many times before. He cites a pledge made by the world's leading chocolate companies to help end child labor almost a decade ago. "[But] in ten years, nothing has been done at all" to address this issue he says, ensuring he remains suspicious about the new government's proclamations no matter how good they sound. With previous broken promises in mind, Dramane adds that he will reserve judgment about whether conditions will be any different or fairer for farmers until he sees the price he receives for his next harvest.

The Ivory Coast is the world's biggest cocoa producer . The country's agriculture minister says he wants to make cocoa production fairer for farmers . Cocoa farmers are skeptical about government talks of reform .

(CNN) -- The flu is hitting younger people harder this season than in years past, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday. People between the ages of 18 and 64 represent 61% of all influenza-related hospitalizations recorded during the current flu season -- a significant increase compared with previous years when this age group represented about 35% of cases. More flu deaths than usual have also occurred in people under 65. Adults between 25 and 64 account for more than half of flu deaths this season, according to the CDC, compared with less than a quarter last year. "Influenza can make anyone very sick, very fast and it can kill," said the CDC's director, Dr. Tom Frieden. "Vaccination every season is the single most important thing you can do to protect yourself." CDC experts estimate only a third of people 18 to 64 had been vaccinated by November. About 40% to 45% of Americans get vaccinated each year, Frieden said. Health officials continue to encourage vaccinations for everyone who is at least 6 months old. The CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report noted this year's flu vaccine reduces the chance of having to go to the doctor for treatment by about 60% across all age groups. In past years, the vaccine's effectiveness has ranged from 30% to 65%. The CDC has known for weeks that the dominant flu strain this season is the H1N1 virus, which first emerged in April 2009 and caused a pandemic. It's included in all flu shots and nasal vaccines this year, according to the MMWR. "We are committed to the development of better flu vaccines, but existing flu vaccines are the best preventive tool available now," Frieden said. Pregnant women are at particularly high risk of developing serious complications from the flu, such as pneumonia. Leslie Creekmore of Arkansas was 20 weeks' pregnant when she contracted the flu this month. Five days after checking into a hospital, she miscarried. Three weeks later, Creekmore died. She did not get the flu vaccine. Fifty pediatric flu-related deaths have been reported during the current flu season, according to the MMWR. Adult flu deaths are not reported on a national basis, but the CDC estimates that between 3,000 and 49,000 people die each year because of the flu and flu-related illness. When H1N1 first surfaced, California health officials decided to make reporting fatal influenza cases in all individuals under 65 mandatory. As of February 14, local health officials had reported 243 deaths. "The 405 reports of severe cases (i.e., fatal and ICU cases combined) were more than in any season since the 2009 pandemic," officials wrote in the MMWR. Influenza activity in the United States remained elevated through February 8, according to the CDC. Twenty-four states reported widespread flu activity that week. "Widespread" means that more than 50% of geographic regions in a state -- counties, for example -- are reporting flu activity. The designation addresses the spread of the flu, not its severity. Experts expect elevated flu activity in parts of the United States for several more weeks, especially in states where flu activity started later. "I want to remind you that the season is not over," said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. "There is still a lot of influenza circulating. If you haven't been vaccinated yet, it's not too late for you to benefit." In addition to getting the vaccine, washing your hands frequently and staying home when you're sick can help you and others get through the flu season. Doctors recommend using antivirals within the first two days of experiencing any flu-like symptoms. CNN's Jacque Wilson, Miriam Falco and Ashley Hayes contributed to this report.

People between 18 and 64 represent 61% of all flu-related hospitalizations, CDC says . Health officials continue to recommend flu vaccines, including for pregnant women . This year's flu vaccine reduces chances of having to see a doctor by 60%, report says .

(CNN) -- Several Western powers banded together Saturday in urging Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to do all he can to prevent bloodshed and speedily fulfill his promises of reform. The heads of England, France and Germany joined their counterpart in the United States on Saturday in calling on Egypt's leader to institute substantive policy changes in short order as well as new, open elections. "It is essential that the further political, economic and social reforms President Mubarak has promised are implemented fully and quickly, and meet the aspirations of the Egyptian people," said a joint statement issued by British Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "The Egyptian people have ... a longing for a just and better future," the statement continued. "We urge President Mubarak to embark on a process of transformation, which should be reflected in a board-based government and in free and fair elections." Acknowledging the "moderating role" played by Mubarak in the Middle East, the Western leaders urged him to "show the same moderation" in Egypt and allow people to demonstrate peacefully. They also called for "full respect for human rights and democratic freedoms, including freedom of expression and communication." Meanwhile, Washington continued Saturday to keep up pressure on the Egyptian leader, on the same day he announced a new deputy, among other Cabinet changes. U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley tweeted that the Egyptian government "can't reshuffle the deck and then stand pat." He added that Mubarak's "words pledging reform must be followed by action." "With protesters still on the streets" in Egypt, he wrote, "we remain concerned about the potential for violence and again urge restraint on all sides." The people of Egypt "no longer accept the status quo," Crowley added. "They are looking to their government for a meaningful process to foster real reform." President Barack Obama had said Friday that he had spoken with Mubarak after the Egyptian president made a televised speech. Mubarak, in his address, said he understands "these legitimate demands of the people and I truly understand the depth of their worries and burdens, and I will not part from them ever and I will work for them every day." Obama said he told Mubarak "he has a responsibility to give meaning to those words, to take concrete steps and actions that deliver on that promise." "Violence will not address the grievances of the Egyptian people," Obama said in a televised appearance Friday. "Suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away." Members of Obama's diplomatic and national security teams, including Vice President Joe Biden, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, National Security Advisor Tom Donilon and Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, held a two-hour discussion on Egypt Saturday morning, according to White House spokesman Tommy Vietor. Obama himself convened a similar meeting on the situation in the early afternoon. In an interview conducted Friday morning in Davos, Switzerland, British Prime Minister Cameron told CNN's Fareed Zakaria that "reform and progress in the greater strengthening of democracy and civil rights" is needed in Egypt. The interview will air at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Sunday on the "Fareed Zakaria GPS" program on CNN. Cameron said "just the act of holding an election isn't enough," urging a "more mature and thoughtful approach" to build a stronger democracy. He made a point that he didn't think the overthrow of Mubarak -- whom he called "a friend of Britain" -- was necessary. "What we support is evolution, reform, not revolution," the prime minister said. "We'd all be better off if there were more countries with more democratic institutions," he added. "But let's recognize those institutions need to be built from the bottom up, not always sort of dropped in from the top down."

NEW: In an interview to air Sunday, U.K. leader calls Mubarak a 'friend of Britain' NEW: Cameron says of Egypt: "We support ... reform, not revolution" The heads of Germany, France, U.K. call for reforms and respect for rights . A U.S. State Department official says Mubarak must not just "reshuffle the deck"

(CNN) -- Hunter S. Thompson's slim early novel -- written in 1959, when he was 22, but only published 40 years later -- gets a dream screen treatment courtesy of producer-star Johnny Depp and "Withnail and I" writer-director Bruce Robinson. By rights Depp -- who already played Thompson's alter-ego Raoul Duke in Terry Gilliam's grandly grotesque "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" -- should be too old to play the latest recruit on a failing American newspaper in San Juan, Puerto Rico. But even when he's hung over and wretched (which is often) he easily passes for 30, the age of the book's "Paul Kemp." Of course the fact that this engagingly left field movie has spent three years on the shelf helps. When Kemp washes up in San Juan, his greatest literary achievement is his resume. He's promptly put on the astrology desk. But he's hungry to make a name for himself, which gives him an edge over his pickled colleagues. It's enough to attract the patronage of local wheeler-dealer Sanderson (Aaron Eckhart), a property developer who has big plans for the island -- and his eye-catching girlfriend, Chenault (Amber Heard). It would be an exaggeration to call "The Rum Diary" a dry run for "Fear and Loathing" (and "dry" wasn't really in Thompson's vocabulary, though Kemp does make vain promises to cut back on the hard stuff from time to time). Still, in Depp and Robinson's hands you can't miss the roots of Gonzo. This is more than ever the portrait of the artist as a young man -- fermented, refined and distilled from the book. Compared to his cartoonish Raoul Duke (or his Jack Sparrow) Depp's agreeably deadpan performance is scaled back several notches, though it's hard to think of another movie heartthrob who uses his body to such clownish effect when the occasion arises. Frequently shuttered behind a slick pair of shades, Kemp is a stranger in paradise and not quite sure of his bearings yet. He's an avid observer trying to figure out where a real writer might fit between the stinking shantytowns and the shiny luxury beach houses. Robinson has no doubts about which side he's on in that fight, and smuggles in pertinent asides on the parlous state of today's heavily mortgaged newspaper business. Vibrantly photographed by Dariusz Wolski, the movie lays on the local color with gusto -- we get fighting cocks, voodoo and carnival - but we also see broken down plumbing, simmering racial tension, permanent flop sweat and killer lines like Sanderson's, after Kemp marvels at the beauty of the place: "It's God's idea of money." Admittedly Kemp's picaresque misadventures don't add up to much of a plot -- the wheels come off in a climax that slouches off miserably in search of some future happy ending -- but there's so much to enjoy along the way, the movie's delayed release is hard to fathom. Depp's easy rapport with Michael Rispoli, as photographer/sidekick Sala, is a low-key delight. I loved the way Aaron Eckhart's imperious uber-confidence slips where Chenault is concerned; and even anomalies like a jewel-encrusted tortoise... "I got the idea from a book," Sanderson explains -- as if it did. Bruce Robinson has never topped the riotous comic miserabilism of his first film, the cult classic "Withnail and I" -- he's never even come close -- but "The Rum Diary" might be considered hair of the dog after a 24-year-long career hangover. He's back in his debauched and debunking element, which is reason enough to celebrate.

Depp's agreeably deadpan performance is scaled back several notches . The movie lays on the local color with gusto . Depp's easy rapport with Michael Rispoli is a low-key delight .

(CNN) -- Remember "Bowling for Columbine"? The anti-gun documentary that attempted to politicize the tragic school shooting at Columbine, Colorado, was wildly successful, both critically and commercially, and even won its writer/director, Michael Moore, an Oscar. But while the film was certainly entertaining, and may have even got some folks thinking about gun violence, it did little to move the needle on its presumptive goal: curbing gun ownership and weakening the National Rifle Association. That's because gun owners and the powerful lobby that represents them don't care what Hollywood thinks of them, a lesson producer Harvey Weinstein will learn soon. Weinstein "reluctantly" told Howard Stern that he's planning a movie that will make the NRA "wish they weren't alive." On Friday night, in an exclusive interview pre-taped with Piers Morgan, he says that none other than Meryl Streep will star as an anti-gun senator. For so many reasons, Weinstein deserves a good, hard reality check. For one, there's the obvious and almost comical hypocrisy. Weinstein's profited immensely from portraying graphic gun violence in films such as "Kill Bill" and "Pulp Fiction." His sudden attack of social conscience is astounding and curiously timed. In the same Morgan interview, he says he'll stop making movies that glamorize guns. But according to Internet Movie Database, "Kill Bill Vol. 3" and "Sin City: A Dame to Kill For" are in the works. Maybe he means starting ... now. For another thing, overtly ideological films -- think "Rendition" and "Lions for Lambs" -- bomb at the box office. Theatergoers don't want to be lectured by Hollywood for two hours on what they think is wrong with the country. Opinion: When will America wake up to gun violence? If we're to assume Weinstein is motivated by a deep concern about gun violence (and not sheer arrogance), then it's also worth pointing out that he's got the wrong target. The NRA represents law-abiding gun owners, not criminals. A gangbanger in Chicago doesn't care about the NRA, isn't motivated or supported by the NRA, and may not even know what the NRA is. In vowing to take down this powerful organization supported by millions of law-abiding citizens, Weinstein will simply end up empowering and emboldening it. And lastly, the effort most certainly won't rid the country of guns (a goal he's admitted to having, unless there's another Holocaust in which case he very much wants a gun, or something.) Back to Michael Moore. The National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association for the U.S. firearms industry, calculates that from 2002, the year "Bowling for Columbine" came out, to 2011, there's been a 54.1% rise in the number of federal background checks, one way of measuring an increase in gun sales. And remember, that movie was actually successful. Proving the nation's gun owners not only don't care about Hollywood's dictates but Washington's either, in the year since the tragic Newtown, Connecticut, shooting -- and despite significant efforts from the Obama administration and other Democrats to push increased gun control, gun sales are up 8%. Weinstein may find this lamentable and even reprehensible. He's entitled to his opinion. And he's also entitled to spend Hollywood money on a movie in which Meryl Streep is paid to rail against a constitutionally protected right and a robust and defensive American community. But I promise, every penny he makes will be multiplied manyfold in NRA contributions. Good luck, Harvey. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of SE Cupp.

SE Cupp: "Bowling for Columbine" was successful film but didn't slow guns' spread . Harvey Weinstein is planning anti-NRA film, but she says mogul needs reality check . She says his films show plenty of gun violence and law-abiding NRA members wrongly target . Cupp: Films lecturing on guns don't work and gun ownership has surged since Moore film .

(CNN) -- Cindy Ann Yuille was a hospice nurse and everybody's friend. Steve M. Forsyth, a father of two, loved to coach youth sports teams and had an entrepreneurial spirit. Information on the two emerged after they were killed Tuesday in a shooting at a mall in Happy Valley, Oregon, a suburb of Portland. A wounded teenager remained in serious condition. "(Cindy) was a wonderful person who was very caring and put others first," the Yuille family said of the 54-year-old nurse who lived in northeast Portland. Yuille, a native of California, enjoyed hiking and cross-country skiing, loved ones told The Oregonian newspaper. She had a 23-year-old daughter and 13-year-old stepson, The Oregonian reported. Read more: Details, but no answers, in Oregon mall shooting . Her husband, Robert, told The Oregonian that his wife was "not a mall person" but had gone shopping Tuesday evening for a few things. Both Yuilles worked on Kaiser Permanente's hospice care team in the region. Cindy worked for the company for 16 years. "Cindy was a beloved caregiver for the kind and compassionate support she provided for patients and families at times of impending loss and need," Kaiser Permanente said. "Our hearts are with Cindy's husband and family as they absorb this tragedy and grieve." Counseling services were offered to Kaiser employees. Forsyth, 45, of West Linn, Oregon, had a marketing business and operated a company that produced customized wooden coasters and trivets. "He had a great sense of humor and a zest for life," Forsyth's family said. "He had a vision and belief in others that brought great joy and value to many lives. He will be sorely missed by all who knew him." Forsyth was "passionate" about "everyone," his friend and business partner Clayton Oswald said. "He put you ahead of himself -- he took the time, and he still got everything done." He was racing to a kiosk to sell coasters, turning a family hobby into a family-owned business, Oswald said. "The senseless act of someone taking Steve's life while he was doing nothing more than being happy and excited to do something is incomprehensible to me." Read more: Inside Clackamas Town Center Mall . Forsyth was full of energy and a role model, a longtime acquaintance told CNN affiliate KATU-TV in Portland. "He was a hero to a lot of people," said Damien Smith. "He was the kind of guy who if you went to his house, he never said anything bad about anybody." Kristina Shevchenko, 15, who also was shot, remained in stable but serious condition Wednesday afternoon at Oregon Health and Science University Hospital. She suffered bullet fragment injuries to a lung and her liver, trauma surgeon Laszlo Kiraly told reporters, indicating more surgery is needed. Kiraly said he is optimistic that Kristina will recover fully but added that she is at risk for complications, including infection. "She's a very brave young woman," he said, adding that she was awake Wednesday and talking to her family. The Shevchenkos thanked emergency responders and community supporters. "We would like to extend our sincere condolences to the families of the other shooting victims," the family said in a statement. "Our prayers are with them at this terrible time." According to a Facebook page created by her family, Kristina was walking home with a friend when the shooter, identified by authorities as Jacob Tyler Roberts, came out of Macy's and shot her. Kristina was a passenger in a van that was involved in a serious accident in August, the family said. The driver of the other vehicle was reportedly killed. Read more: Gunman lived 'one crazy life' CNN's Dorrine Mendoza contributed to this report.

NEW: Steven Forsyth was racing to a kiosk for his new business when he was killed . Cindy Yuille worked for Kaiser Permanente for 16 years . The nurse enjoyed cross-country skiing and was "not a mall person," her husband says . The outlook is good for wounded girl's eventual recovery, a surgeon says .

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton flew to Afghanistan early Saturday as part of a 13-day trip that will tackle some of the thorniest U.S. foreign policy issues. Clinton was in Kabul on a previously unannounced visit and will meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. During the trip, the top U.S. diplomat also will meet Israeli and Palestinian leaders, visit Egypt, where tensions are rife between military and civilian leaders, and attend a conference of leading Asia-Pacific nations, the region of increasing strategic focus for the United States. In Paris, the first stop of the trip, Clinton attended a meeting Friday of the Friends of Syria, a group of more than 60 countries that aims to find a solution to the Syrian crisis. Clinton lambasted Russia and China on Friday for blocking efforts to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has lost a key general to defection. Clinton will travel to Tokyo to attend a conference Sunday about providing future financial support for reconstruction and development in war-torn Afghanistan. NATO-led troops have been fighting against Islamic militants in Afghanistan for more than 10 years, and the country still has a strong dependency on foreign aid. Poverty and corruption are widespread in Afghanistan, which came in 172nd out of 187 countries in the United Nations' 2011 Human Development Index, which ranks nations based on life expectancy, education and living standards. The conference in Tokyo will address Afghanistan's likely financial needs for the period starting in 2015, the time troops from the United States and other coalition members are expected to have withdrawn from the country. At the start of next week, Clinton will make stops in Mongolia, a resource-rich but economically underdeveloped neighbor of China and Russia; and Vietnam, which is locked in territorial dispute with Beijing over parts of the South China Sea. She also will visit Laos, a small communist-ruled nation in Southeast Asia that has not been visited by a U.S. secretary of state in 57 years. She will then spend the second half of next week in Cambodia, where senior officials from countries like China, Indonesia and Myanmar are attending meetings organized by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. In Asia, the Obama administration has tried to find a balance between engaging with Beijing while seeking to contain its growing influence. Fostering stronger ties with China's neighbors is a crucial part of this approach. On July 14, Clinton will travel to Egypt to express support for the country's "democratic transition and economic development," said Nuland, the state department spokeswoman. But it's a transition that some in Egypt fear may last indefinitely. Mohamed Morsi was sworn in Saturday as Egypt's first democratically-elected president, taking the helm of a deeply divided nation that is economically strapped and lacks a working government. His inauguration was overseen by Egypt's military rulers, who have been in control of the country since Hosni Mubarak was ousted last year during a popular revolution. The generals dissolved the Egyptian parliament last month after a high court ruled that it was unconstitutional. They also named a defense council to oversee national security and foreign policies. Morsi has suggested that control of legislative powers should return to civilian hands, and some of his supporters are pushing for a confrontation with the military rulers. Clinton will wrap up her trip with a visit to Israel, where she will meet the country's leadership to talk about "peace efforts and a range of regional and bilateral issues of mutual concern." High among those matters is likely to be Iran and its controversial nuclear program. Western powers are concerned that Iran is developing nuclear weapons even though Tehran insists the program is for peaceful, civilian energy purposes. Israel has said it may attack Iran to halt the program. It has expressed skepticism that the mixture of sanctions and negotiations being pursued at the moment by the United States and European nations is deterring Tehran from pursuing nuclear weapons. CNN's Jethro Mullen contributed to this report.

NEW: Secretary of state arrives in Afghanistan . Clinton's 13-day trip will involve key Middle Eastern and Asian issues . She will visit Egypt, as well as meeting Israeli and Palestinian leaders . In Tokyo, she will attend a conference about Afghanistan's future .

(CNN) -- World No. 1 Novak Djokovic began his quest for a fourth title at the Dubai Tennis Championships with a straight forward victory over fellow Serbian Victor Troicki. The 25-year-old won three consecutive titles in Dubai between 2009 and 2011 before 17-time grand slam champion Roger Federer triumphed last year. Djokovic, who won the first major of the year at the Australian Open in January, is playing in his first ATP Tour event as he looks to maintain his unbeaten start to the season. His victory in Melbourne raised the prospect that Djokovic, who has won five of the last nine grand slam titles, could complete a clean sweep of the majors for the first time since Rod Laver in 1969. Asked whether he could go on another run like the one at the start of the 2011 season that saw him unbeaten for 43 matches he said in an on-court interview: "Yes I am definitely am (on a streak). "But I am not thinking about it or trying to better the one I had in 2011, because it's really hard to ask from myself something which may be impossible. "But knowing that I have done it gives me that mental edge and confidence I need in to approach every tournament with self-belief." Djokovic enjoys an impressive record over Troicki, losing just once in their last 13 encounters, and broke his opponent's first service game to set the tone for the match. Though the world No. 44 put up a better fight in the second set, Djokovic rarely looked in any danger as he wrapped up the match in just over an hour. "Because I have not played for a while I was extremely focused and committed to starting well," Djokovic added. "I played really, really well in the first set. I read his serve well, and I was aggressive in the court. So altogether I am satisfied with my performance and I hope I can continue." Elsewhere, the No. 4 seed Juan Martin del Potro was forced to save three match points during a hard fought 4-6 6-4 7-6 victory over Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis. The Argentinean, who won the 14th ATP title of his career in Rotterdam recently, came close to losing the contest at 4-5 in the deciding set but battled back to take it on a tiebreak. He's a great player," del Potro told the ATP Tour's official website. "He fights like me every point, and we had fantastic rallies. I'm so glad to beat him tonight in Dubai. "I played fantastic forehands to keep playing this match. Then in the end, of course, you need a little bit of luck to win these kinds of matches, and I think I played solid on important points in the third." Tomas Berdych, the No. 3 seed, had no such problems as he accounted for American wild card Rajeev Ram 6-1 6-3 in less than an hour. The 27-year-old was runner up to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at last week's Marseille Open, despite having a match point. He made the Dubai semis in 2011, losing to Djokovic. Nikolay Davydenko edged past the No. 6 seed, Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia. The Russian, who is retiring at the end of this year, triumphed 6-0 7-5. There were also victories on Thursday for Marcel Granollers, of Spain, Romania's Victor Hanescu, Tobias Kamke, from Germany and Russia's Dmitry Tursunov.

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic into the second round of the Dubai Tennis Championships . Djokovic defeats fellow Serbian Victor Troicki 6-1 6-4 in just over an hour . The 25-year-old won three consecutive titles in Dubai between 2009 and 2011 . Juan Martin del Potro saves three match points in victory over Marcos Baghdatis .

(CNN) -- This November, the Obama administration is expected to move forward with long overdue safeguards that would finally protect our families from mercury pollution. As the mother of four children, I can only say it's about time. The EPA was first charged with limiting toxic air pollutants such as mercury during the Bush administration -- the first Bush administration. I don't know how many children have been exposed to dangerous levels of this neurotoxin during the subsequent 20-plus years of foot-dragging, but I do know that my eldest daughter was one of them. When Sophie was 4 years old, we discovered that her mercury levels were elevated. We were already concerned because her learning had leveled off and in some notable ways even backslid. But it was only by chance that we realized she was being poisoned. Because we lived in an old house with lead paint, we had been following our pediatrician's advice to have our children tested regularly for lead and other heavy metals. Only because of this were we lucky enough to learn about our daughter's elevated mercury levels before it was too late. How does a healthy, well-nourished child get mercury poisoning in her own home? By far the most common exposure to mercury comes from eating contaminated fish. Sophie adored tuna fish sandwiches and ate one or two a week. That was a small amount but enough to cause her harm. When, on a doctor's advice, we took fish out of her diet, her mercury levels declined. We're thankful that our daughter suffered no permanent damage, but thousands of other parents are not so fortunate. Exposure to mercury in utero can contribute to birth defects, including neurological and developmental disorders, learning disabilities, delayed onset of walking and talking, and cerebral palsy. The EPA estimates that as many as one in 12 American women of child-bearing age have enough mercury in their bodies to put a baby at risk. That means that every year more than 300,000 babies could be born at risk of serious disabilities caused by mercury poisoning. Mercury is one of the most potent of the many toxic heavy metals that come from the emissions of coal-fired power plants. If just one-seventieth of a teaspoon enters a lake every year, it is enough to raise mercury levels in the fish. And yet the EPA reported in 2005 that coal-fired power plants, the largest domestic source of unregulated mercury emissions in the United States, pumped 48 tons of this toxin into the atmosphere each year. The technology to filter mercury and other toxic heavy metals from power-plant smokestacks is widely available and, in fact, some plants already have it in place. Under the EPA's proposed new protections, all plants would have to upgrade, and mercury emissions would be reduced by more than 90% (along with cancer-causing metals such as arsenic, chromium and nickel). It would prevent hundreds of thousands of illnesses and up to 17,000 premature deaths each year. Why has it taken more than 20 years to do something? Because corporate polluters don't want to pay up to clean up, even though thousands of Americans pay dearly every year as a consequence. Worse, their economic arguments are baseless. By cleaning up the coal plants, the new EPA protections will actually result in a net gain for the U.S. economy. Heart disease, learning disabilities and premature deaths are expensive, too. No parent should have to discover, as I did, that she is feeding her child poison in the sandwiches she packs in her lunchbox. After more than two decades, it's time to stop dumping poison into the atmosphere and pretending there are no consequences. The opinions in this commentary are solely those of Ayelet Waldman.

Ayelet Waldman: EPA was supposed to limit toxic pollutants like mercury 20 years ago . Waldman's daughter had high levels of mercury, a neurotoxin, in her blood . Waldman: Mercury contributes to birth defects, nerve disorders, learning disablilites . It's time to seriously limit mercury emissions that poison environment, she writes .

(CNN) -- Of the four to five billion injections given each year in India, at least 2.5 billion are unsafe, according to one study. In some cases, that means they are administered using unsterilized second-hand syringes that could be contaminated with a blood-borne disease such as hepatitis or HIV. A simple change to the way syringes are made could dramatically reduce those figures and save thousand of lives each year, according to David Swann of Huddersfield University, in England. His design for a new kind of syringe that changes color after it has been used was nominated for an INDEX: Award. "1.3 million people (globally) a year die from unsafe injection practices," Swann says, quoting WHO figures. "It accounts for over 30% of hepatitis A and B cases and 5% of HIV cases." He explained that in India it is common for scavengers to hunt through landfill sites looking for old syringes that they can clean up and sell to clinics. "When you compare a sterile syringe just out of its packaging with a syringe that's been washed, how do you determine the difference?" he said. "We conceived an intelligent ink that, if exposed to air by taking it out of the package or if the package is breached that would activate it and turn it red." Read this: Tiny computer takes prize at design awards . The ABC Syringe is impregnated with an ink that's sensitive to carbon dioxide and then sealed in a protective atmosphere so that it remains transparent until it is ready for use. After the seal is broken, the shell of the syringe starts to turn a dark red, alerting both doctors to the risk that the syringe may already have been used. Swann's intention is that the introduction of the ABC syringe should be accompanied by a public information campaign so that patients would also associate a red syringe with danger and would be able to insist on sterile equipment. "We had to be really quite clever in looking at technologies that cost next to nothing, and modified-air packaging is one of those technologies," Swann said. "It only adds 1% to the retail price, so on a two-and-a-half pence (four cents) syringe it becomes quite an interesting proposition." According to Swann's calculations, if the ABC syringe is used for 5% of injections administered in India, after five years it will have prevented more than 700,000 infections and saved $130 million in medical costs. Watch this: Life-saving device brings hope to India . Denis Maire, who works for the World Health Organization's health systems and innovation taskforce, said the ABC Syringe could help to make injections safer. "Anything that can contribute to decrease the reuse of syringes is worth considering and cost is certainly a major factor," he said. "The great advantage of this concept is that not only health care workers but also patients can have a visual appreciation on the safety status of the device. In my view this could be a good deterrent for practitioners to reuse." However, he noted that it would be possible for unscrupulous doctors to override the visual warning if their patients did not know the meaning of the color change. He also said that the one-minute delay before the syringe turned red may not be long enough. "How would you distinguish good and bad syringes if the injections are not practised inside this lap of time?" he said. "It could create confusion and render the concept ineffective." Ravi Naidoo, a member of the INDEX Award jury and the managing director of Design Indaba, an agency that aims to put creative ideas into practice, said that working with the international medical community would help to turn the prototype into a viable product. "This innovation speaks to the endless possibilities of design, creativity and innovation in addressing real-world issues," he said. "In addition to being cost-effective, which will ensure the accessibility of the solution, it also allows patients to take charge of a critical issue — great example of empowerment through smart design."

Scavengers in India clean old syringes from landfill sites and sell them to clinics . New syringe design changes color after use if it is contaminated . The 'intelligent ink' is projected to prevent more than 700,000 infections in five years .

OAKLAND, California (CNN) -- Richard Lee greets students, shopkeepers and tourists as he rolls his wheelchair down Broadway at the speed of a brisk jog, hailing them with, "Hi. How ya doin'?" Marijuana activist Richard Lee is a local celebrity in the small district of Oakland, California, called Oaksterdam. In this nine-block district of Oakland, California, called Oaksterdam, Lee is a celebrity. Oaksterdam is Lee's brainchild, a small pocket of urban renewal built on a thriving trade in medical marijuana. The district's name comes from a marriage of Oakland and Amsterdam, a city in the Netherlands renowned for its easy attitude toward sex and drugs. Lee is the founder of Oaksterdam University, which he describes as a trade school that specializes in all things marijuana: how to grow it, how to market it, how to consume it. The school, which has a curriculum, classes and teachers, claims 3,500 graduates. Lee also owns a medical marijuana dispensary, a coffee house, a large indoor marijuana plantation, and a museum/store devoted to the cause of legalizing marijuana. "I really see this as following the history of alcohol. The way prohibition was repealed there," Lee says, adding that he believes he is close to achieving his mission. Lee is organizing a petition drive to place a marijuana legalization measure on the ballot in 2010, and he thinks the measure stands a good chance of being approved by voters. A recent California Field Poll showed that more than half the people in the state, where marijuana for medical use was approved more than a decade ago, would approve of decriminalizing pot. The state's faltering economy is one reason why. If legalized, marijuana could become California's No. 1 cash crop. It could bring in an estimated $1 billion a year in state taxes. Democratic State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano is spearheading a cannabis legalization bill in the California Assembly. He believes the state's need to increase tax revenues will work in his bill's favor. "I think it's a seductive part of the equation," he says. Ammiano says there are a number of ways legalized pot could be marketed, "It could be a Walgreens, it could be a hospital, a medical marijuana facility, whatever could be convenient. Adequate enforcement of the rules. Nobody under 21. No driving under the influence." Even California's Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, says legalizing marijuana deserves serious consideration. "I think we ought to study very carefully what other countries are doing that have legalized marijuana," Schwarzenegger says. But Ammiano says selling a legalized marijuana bill to his fellow legislators remains a delicate matter. "If we held the vote in the hallway, we'd have it done," Ammiano says. "But people are necessarily cautious. They are up for re-election." And that is why Lee believes voters will approve a marijuana initiative long before the state Assembly acts. Sitting under grow lights in a warehouse filled with hundreds of marijuana plants, Lee sums it up this way: "For some people cannabis is like a religion. As passionate as some people are about their religions and freedom to think what they want and to worship as they want." But all of that is baloney to Paul Chabot. He is president of the Coalition for a Drug Free California. He says voters should not be fooled by promises of big bucks flowing to the state from marijuana taxes. "It's their way of sort of desensitizing our communities, our state and our nation to a drug problem that we clearly need to put our foot down on, and say, 'No more. Enough is enough.' " Chabot points out that California's medical marijuana law has been poorly regulated, and he expects more of the same if marijuana becomes legalized for everyone. But a substantial number of Californians seem to believe that no amount of enforcement is going to make pot go away -- and that it's time for the state to begin taking a cut of the action.

Oaksterdam University specializes in how to grow, market and consume marijuana . Founder Richard Lee is organizing a petition drive for marijuana legalization . Lee and others say legalizing marijuana could generate significant tax revenue . Opponents say revenue claims are misleading, encourage drug abuse .

London, England (CNN) -- British Airways passengers face the prospect of holiday season chaos after cabin crew voted to strike for almost two weeks over Christmas and New Year in protest over cost-cutting measures introduced by the airline. More than 12,500 BA employees, balloted by trade union Unite in November, voted by a 92.5 percent majority to walk out from December 22 for 12 days, Unite Deputy General Secretary Len McCluskey announced Monday. In a statement to customers on its Web site, BA said it was reworking its flight schedules for the strike period and would announce them as quickly as possible. It said it would inform affected customers by e-mail or text message. The strike ballot came after the airline introduced cost-cutting measures including a two-year pay freeze and reducing the numbers of cabin crew members on long-haul flights. BA says the changes, introduced in the wake of a record pre-tax loss of more than $485 million for the six months from April to September, will save the airline $665 million. McCluskey warned that the strike would inflict "catastrophic damage" to the airline if it went ahead and urged British Airways bosses to return to the negotiating table. He said union members had been pushed into a corner by BA Chief Executive Willie Walsh. "We've been saying to Mr. Walsh this seems crazy at a time when British Airways is suffering badly through an economic downturn that he should force us into a dispute that would have catastrophic effects on the economy of the company," McCluskey told CNN following a news conference at Sandown Racecourse, southern England. "That's why we're hoping that even at this late hour the strength of feeling of our members will get through to the company. We are available 24 hours a day to meet the company. If they are up for getting an agreement I'm confident we can get one." McCluskey said passengers, upset at having their holiday plans disrupted, should take their anger out on the airline. McCluskey said his members were not "mindless militants" but decent men and women who had been forced into a corner by British Airlines. But Walsh said strike action was "completely unjustified" and called on union chiefs to resume negotiations. He said the airline had agreed pay cuts with pilots and more efficient ways of working with engineers, while a third of managers had taken voluntary redundancy. BA cut 1,900 jobs over the summer through reduced overtime, increased part-time working, and voluntary redundancies. But it plans to eliminate 3,000 more jobs by March 2010, Walsh said last month. "My admiration for the professionalism and skills of British Airways cabin crew is second to none. They are an absolutely vital part of our airline, and a great asset," Walsh said. "But they have been disgracefully misled by Unite as to how our company-wide cost reduction program would affect them." CNN's Richard Quest said the impact of the potential strike would be devastating for BA and said the consequences would be disruption for BA passengers and higher prices for travelers booking on other airlines. "Their planes are heaving and they are now about to face a strike," Quest said. "They are going to have tens of thousands of passengers who are concerned, who are worried. I imagine anyone who is going away for Christmas is now thinking about shifting their booking if they can." A spokesperson for ABTA, which represents travel agencies and tour operators in the UK, said passengers booked onto BA flights should wait and see what contingency plans the airline puts in place and whether the strike goes ahead. "Hopefully the strike could be called off and if you cancel your flight now then you may not be able to claim a refund," she said. Unite has called on the High Court to rule on whether BA's cutbacks have breached its member's contracts but the case is not scheduled to be heard until February 2010.

BA cabin crew vote overwhelming for strike action over proposed cutbacks . Union plans to begin action from December 22 for 12 days . Union opposes cost-cutting measures including reduced crews on long-haul flights . Union boss urges BA to return to negotiating table to avoid "catastrophic damage"

(CNN) -- Maria Cole, the widow of singer Nat "King" Cole and mother of singer Natalie Cole, died Tuesday after a short battle with cancer, her family said. She was 89. "Our mom was in a class all by herself," her three children said in a statement Thursday. "She epitomized, class, elegance, and truly defined what it is to be a real lady. We are so blessed and privileged to have inherited the legacy that she leaves behind along with our father. She died how she lived -- with great strength, courage and dignity, surrounded by her loving family." Maria Cole, a jazz singer when she married Cole in 1948, was known for her strength as her husband's stardom rose and racial threats increased. "There were refusals at hotels, there were places we'd go he wouldn't let me get out of the car because they would go in first to see if we could get the rooms," Maria Cole told CNN in an interview last year. "He didn't want me embarrassed with him." She dealt with hatred from her neighbors when her family bought a home in Hancock Park, then an exclusive all-white neighborhood next to Hollywood, California, soon after her 1948 marriage. "There were no Jews or blacks there and they just almost had a stroke," she said. "And I didn't care if they did." Despite efforts to force the Cole family to move, "We stayed there and we gave them tit for tat," she said. Her husband, though, "was not an activist," she explained. "He didn't have an antagonistic bone in his body," she said. "He should have had a few, but my husband was not a fighter." "I loved him dearly, but we were exact opposites," she said. "I admired him for his strength and his talent. He was very proud. He didn't say a lot. He was criticized by some of his own people because of it, you know." Maria Cole was also at his side when Nat "King" Cole's groundbreaking television show, launched in 1957, folded after only a year because no national advertiser would risk a Southern boycott by sponsoring the first program hosted by an African-American. "Madison Avenue is afraid of the dark," Cole said after quitting the show, making reference to the street in New York on which many advertising firms were located. Cole's widow reflected on that comment in last year's interview. "Isn't that a wonderful line?" Maria Cole said. "Madison Avenue was afraid of the dark in so many ways. The fact that he was black, the fact that they just don't seem to know what's going on." The show drew a who's who of Hollywood stars -- entertainers who wanted to make the first national show with an African-American host a success. "Every one of them came on there saying, 'We'll do it, we'll show them,' " she said. "It was that feeling among all of them." Maria Cole was partial to the shows with the Mills Brothers and Ella Fitzgerald, who she said was "the greatest singer, as far as I'm concerned." The failure to get a national sponsor left her husband "very disappointed." "He really thought he could change things," Maria Cole said. "He just really thought the show was going to change things." After a year, Cole decided to quit, she said. "It was hard for him, very hard," Cole's widow said. "He said, 'No, I can't do it anymore. I won't do it.' " In her last interview with CNN, in February 2011, the 46th anniversary of her husband's death, Maria Cole said she wanted fans to remember her husband for his talent. "It was a very unusual talent," she said. "I remember reading where Sammy Davis Jr. said 'We ain't likely ever to see another one like him.' " CNN's Rachel Wells contributed to this report.

Maria Cole was known for her strength as husband's stardom rose, racial threats increased . "We gave them tit for tat," she said of her white Hollywood neighbors . "Our mom was in a class all by herself," her three children say . Maria Cole was a jazz singer when she married Nat "King" Cole in 1948 .

New York (CNN) -- When the New York Jets face the Cincinnati Bengals Sunday for what may be the final football game played at Giants Stadium, fans in attendance won't be able to drown their sorrows or toast a victory. The Jets have banned the sale of alcohol on Sunday at the stadium they've called home for 26 years. "With the late start of Sunday's game, coupled with this being the final regular season and final game at the stadium, we feel it is prudent not to serve alcohol," said Bruce Speight, a spokesman for the team. The Jets approach the decision of whether to serve alcohol on a game-by-game basis, Speight said. Fresh off a victory over the formerly undefeated Indianapolis Colts, the Jets are on the verge of their first play-off berth in three years -- and fans are riled up and ready to go. And Jets fans are known for rowdy behavior -- for example, a half-time "tradition" of women baring their breasts for men who loudly urge them to do so. In lieu of alcohol, the Jets said, they'll pass out green and white "rowdy towels" to the first 70,000 fans arriving at the stadium. But the ban has raised the ire of a New Jersey vodka distillery. Majorska Vodka, which calls itself "one of the largest liquor companies in the Garden State," is calling for a 24-hour boycott of Johnson & Johnson products because, according to company spokesman Jeff Scott, Jets owner Woody Johnson is the "heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune." Scott said Majorska plans to stop paying for three of their executive's seats at the Meadowlands and that the company is set to lose more than $100,000 in revenue from tailgate parties this weekend. The New York Jets officially declined to comment, but team spokesman Speight said that "negative fan reaction has been minimal at best" and pointed out that vodka is not sold anywhere in the stadium and the ban does not apply to tailgating. But Martin Silver, Majorska's president and CEO, said fans are shocked and outraged that the Jets are treating their supporters "like children." Silver, a life-long Jets backer with a Joe Namath jersey hanging in his office, is directing his frustration at the team's ownership because he feels they are "controlling the game completely." He said his company is distributing anti-Johnson & Johnson petitions Friday to 350 sports bars across New Jersey. "We're taking this on, right to the top, to Johnson," said Silver. Woody Johnson is the grandson of Johnson & Johnson founder Robert Wood Johnson, but is not currently connected to the company. William C. Weldon is the company's chairman and CEO. None of the Johnson family serves on the company's management team or board of directors. Johnson & Johnson spokesman Bill Price said that "officially we have no comment given that the Johnson family has had no managerial role with the company for decades." Giants Stadium, part of the Meadowlands Sports complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey, has been home to both the Jets and the New York Giants, who played their first game there on October 10, 1976. Early on during their tenancy at Giants Stadium, the Jets refered to the 82,000-seat arena simply as "the Meadowlands" although in recent years Jets tickets have used the facility's official name. The stadium, which has hosted popes, concerts and major league soccer as well as football, is to be demolished after this season. Both New York teams will move into a new stadium just a short distance away next season. That stadium will get its name from a corporate sponsor, yet to be named. CNN's Kristen Hamill contributed to this report.

Spokesman: Game's late start, fact that it's regular season's last game factored into decision . Decision does not affect tailgaters, negative fan reaction "minimal," spokesman says . CEO of New Jersey vodka distillery says company will stop paying for executive seats . Martin Silver says company set to lose more than $100,000 from tailgate parties this weekend .

(CNN) -- Bank of America CEO and Chairman Kenneth Lewis has been issued a subpoena by the New York State Attorney General's Office, which is investigating whether the bank violated state law by withholding information from investors, a source familiar with the investigation told CNN. Kenneth Lewis is the CEO and chairman of Bank of America, the nation's largest bank. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has been highly critical of Wall Street firms in general and Merrill Lynch in particular for the way they have conducted themselves in the midst of a financial crisis. Last week, he accused Merrill Lynch, which was acquired by Bank of America late last year, of secretly doling out big bonuses before reporting a huge quarterly loss. "Merrill Lynch's decision to secretly and prematurely award approximately $3.6 billion in bonuses, and Bank of America's apparent complicity in it, raise serious and disturbing questions," Cuomo wrote in a letter to Rep. Barney Frank, D-Massachusetts, chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services. In his letter to Frank, Cuomo said Merrill gave bonuses of at least $1 million each to 696 employees, with a combined $121 million going to the top four recipients. The next four recipients were awarded a total of $62 million, and the next six received $66 million, he said. In all, the bonuses for 2008 totaled $3.6 billion. "While more than 39,000 Merrill employees received bonuses from the pool, the vast majority of these funds were disproportionately distributed to a small number of individuals," Cuomo wrote. "Indeed, Merrill chose to make millionaires out of a select group of 700 employees." The attorney general said Merrill "awarded an even smaller group of top executives what can only be described as gigantic bonuses." Cuomo also claimed Merrill handed out the bonuses ahead of its federally funded acquisition by Bank of America, which was announced in mid-September and closed by year's end. It "appears that, instead of disclosing their bonus plans in a transparent way as requested by my office, Merrill Lynch secretly moved up the planned date to allocate bonuses and then richly rewarded their failed executives," Cuomo wrote. Bank of America has received $45 billion in federal bailout money, including $20 billion to support its takeover of Merrill. Bank of America reported a net loss of $1.79 billion for the fourth quarter. Merrill reported a net loss of $15.31 billion for the fourth quarter. Bank of America spokesman Scott Silvestri that Merrill was "an independent company" when the bonuses were awarded. "Bank of America did urge the bonuses be reduced, including those at the high end," Silvestri wrote. "Although we had a right of consultation, it was their ultimate decision to make." Silvestri said the top executives for Bank of America "took no incentive compensation for 2008," with an 80 percent reduction for the "next level" of executives. Top executives from Bank of America -- as well as Bank of New York Mellon, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, State Street and Wells Fargo -- appeared before the Financial Services Committee last week to explain how they spent the $165 billion they received from the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. In the testimony, Lewis said he received no bonus for 2008 and was paid a salary of $1.5 million. Bank of America's stock, which traded higher than $40 a share in the past year, closed at a fresh 52-week low of $3.93 a share Thursday. It's the largest bank in terms of assets in the United States and is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. CNNMoney.com contributed to this report.

New York State Attorney General's Office issues the subpoena . It's investigating whether Bank of America withheld information from investors . Bank purchased Merrill Lynch, which is accused of secretly doling out huge bonuses . Bank says Merrill was "independent company" when the bonuses were given .

GAZA-ISRAEL BORDER (CNN) -- From a distance, smoke rises over Gaza. It is about as close as most reporters can get to the battle zone. The world's media have been camped on the Israeli border with Gaza. Israel's media restrictions have prevented dozens of international journalists from entering Gaza, where the Jewish state is waging an operation against militant targets. International news media are forced to report on the more than two-week-old conflict from a hill near the Gaza-Israel border. CNN relies on a local journalist in Gaza, but cannot send other reporters into the Palestinian territory. In addition, Egypt is also not allowing journalists to cross its border into Gaza. "It's really frustrating, you can't be there, see there and feel it," said CNN's Nic Robertson. "And you see these pictures from the hospital, but what's happening behind the hospital? What's Hamas doing?" Israel has accused Hamas militants of exploiting the deaths of civilians to garner international sympathy through the media. Robertson pointed out that allowing reporters into Gaza would give the world a more thorough picture of Israel's military operation. "The questions we would ask that go beyond the immediacy of the civilian casualties that you want to know about, but the other stuff that really informs you," he said. It is a very different strategy from Israel's position during its 2006 war against Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. Then, reporters were allowed to broadcast from Israeli artillery positions. But this time, Israel has changed its tactics and is preventing international reporters from being embedded with the military to avoid interference in military operations, an Israeli government spokesman said. "There was too much exposure," Daniel Seaman said. "It had an effect on our ability to achieve strategic goals, so that's one of the lessons we learned from the war in Lebanon." Some Israeli journalists are embedded with the military in Gaza but are not allowed to report from elsewhere. The Tel Aviv-based Foreign Press Association -- of which CNN is a member -- is among several groups that have criticized the restrictions. "The unprecedented denial of access to Gaza for the world's media amounts to a severe violation of press freedom and puts the state of Israel in the company of a handful of regimes around the world which regularly keep journalists from doing their jobs," the association said in a January 6 statement. John Ging, the head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in Gaza, said the absence of journalists is preventing the truth from getting out. Herve Deguine, a spokesman for the Paris, France-based Reporters Without Borders, said the dangers of the current conflict do not override the need for media coverage. "Of course it's a dangerous place, of course journalists have to take the responsibilities and have to decide whether they want to go in or not and where they want to be," Deguine said. "But banning the press to enter Gaza is just unacceptable." Almost two weeks into the operation, Israel did allow a western camera crew across the border. But footage shot by the BBC crew was subject to clearance by Israeli military censors. Images from inside Gaza did filter out to the world from journalists based inside Gaza who work for news agencies such as Ramattan and broadcasters like Al-Jazeera. Inside Gaza, Hamas has controlled the images broadcast by the media, and pictures of suffering have been encouraged. But the outside world has seen very few images of Hamas fighters or their rockets being fired into Israel. Both the Israeli military and Hamas have launched pages on the Web site, YouTube. Israel Defense Forces says the shared video is "documentation of the IDF's humane action and operational success in Operation Cast Lead." Hamas' video shows graphic scenes from the fighting and also attacks its political rival, Fatah. In times of war, the line between winning and losing can come down to the public relations battle as much as the military offensive itself. But for journalists, it's about finding a balance in the story -- a difficult task when they are unable to cover all the angles.

Israel's media restrictions have prevented journalists from entering Gaza . Hamas accused by Israel of exploiting the deaths of civilians through media . Israel: Restrictions avoid interference in military operations . Inside Gaza Hamas has controlled the images broadcast by the media .

Washington (CNN) -- Rose Mary Sabo Brown spent just 30 days with her new husband, Army Spec. Leslie Sabo Jr., before he shipped out to fight in Vietnam. But from that month together in 1969 grew a lifetime of love. "We got married in September, he got to come home that weekend, and we spent the night together, and he had to go back to Georgia the next day," Rose told CNN. After that, Sabo was off to training before returning home for 30 days that fall. "We only had that one month together as a married couple," she told CNN. "He left for Vietnam, and I never saw him again." Obama awards Medal of Honor posthumously to Vietnam hero . About seven months after the wedding, two soldiers knocked on the door of her home in western Pennsylvania to say he was missing in action. "They came back to me five days later and told me that he was killed in action by enemy fire, and that was it. That's all I knew for 32 years." There was a lot more to know, and now the nation is honoring what he did those decades ago. On Wednesday President Barack Obama will award Spec. Leslie Sabo Jr. the Medal of Honor. The Medal of Honor: What is it? Brown said her husband was fun-loving. "The Leslie I knew was always goofing around, having fun. We had a ball together, my family adored him. Oh my gosh, my mother keeps saying, 'You couldn't have found anybody better than him to marry my daughter.'" The people he fought with in the 101st Airborne Division told Rose that he knew when to put aside the goofing and focus on fighting. "When he was over there, he wore a red bandanna," she said. "And (his fellow soldiers) said when he put that red bandanna around his forehead, he meant business. He was a soldier. And they have a picture of him with that red bandanna on, and the title of it is 'The Soldier.'" The Soldier's last stand, near the Se San River in Cambodia on May 10, 1970, is documented by the Department of Defense: . "Even though his platoon was ambushed from all sides by a large enemy force, Sabo charged the enemy position, killing several enemy Soldiers. He then assaulted an enemy flanking force, successfully drawing their fire away from friendly Soldiers and ultimately forcing the enemy to retreat. While securing a re-supply of ammunition, an enemy grenade landed nearby. Specialist Sabo picked it up, threw it, and shielded a wounded comrade with his own body -- absorbing the brunt of the blast and saving his comrade's life. "Although wounded by the grenade blast, Sabo continued to charge the enemy's bunker. After receiving several serious wounds from automatic weapons fire, he crawled toward the enemy emplacement and, when in position, threw a grenade into the bunker. The resulting explosion silenced the enemy fire, but also ended Specialist Sabo's life." Comments: Who deserves a Medal of Honor? When Obama presents Rose Mary Sabo Brown with the medal on the pale blue ribbon, it will complete a circle that began 42 years ago right after her husband's death. His unit had recommended him for the Medal of Honor, but somehow it didn't happen. A researcher discovered files about Sabo, and now the earlier oversight has been corrected. Transcript: Obama's remarks at Medal of Honor ceremony . For now, Brown is focused on her late husband and the medal he earned more than four decades ago. "I've never stopped thinking about him," she said. "My heart is filled with pride that you can't even imagine. It will be an honor to share this with anyone who wants to see it." Are you a veteran? Who was a hero in your unit, or what kind of heroic action have you witnessed? Please share in the comments below.

Spec. Leslie Sabo Jr. was married for one month before shipping out to Vietnam . His bride, Rose, says he "was always goofing around. ... We had a ball together" Sabo died in a firefight in which he shielded his mates from a grenade, took out a bunker . He will receive the Medal of Honor posthumously from the president on Wednesday .

(CNN) -- The message Saturday from fire officials to hundreds of people in the path of a wildfire burning in Idaho's Wood River Valley: Pack up your essential belongings, your pets and go. Resident Robert Cole didn't need any further encouraging to get out of the way of the blaze, dubbed the Beaver Creek Fire, that swelled significantly -- and dangerously -- over the course of the day. "I've seen enough disaster in my life... But never any fire that threatened my home," Cole said, looking toward a glowing ridge. Photos: 'Wall of fire' threatens homes . Somewhere in that area, he knew firefighters were working to save homes . "I hope like hell they are safe," Cole said. The fire grew from 64,000 acres on Friday to nearly 93,000 on Saturday, pushed in large part by strong winds, low humidity and dry brush, according to the U.S. multi-agency fire response website InciWeb. Firefighters have been unable to corral the blaze that was ignited by a lightning strike on August 7 northwest of the town of Hailey. It was just 9% contained by Saturday evening -- up slightly from the 6% containment it had been for most of the day -- said Meghan Stump of the fire information office. Mandatory evacuation orders grew from 1,600 homes to more than 2,200 homes by late Saturday afternoon. Those areas include parts of the towns of Hailey and Ketchum, as well as Greenhorn Gulch, Deer Creek, Golden Eagle and Timber Gulch. What to know about wildfires . "Out in Deer Creek and Green Horn, we got our butts kicked," the Blaine County Fire Chief Bart Lassman told 500 residents gathered Saturday afternoon at a community meeting in Hailey, according to CNN affiliate KTVB. Hot shot teams and fire engine crews were awakened at 2:30 a.m. local time to battle the fire making a run at homes, Tracy Weaver, a fire public information officer, told KTVB. "Firefighters are making a valiant stand," she said. The fire has destroyed at least one home and damaged several others, according to InciWeb. It also destroyed a bridge that had connected the Idaho communities of Ketchum and Fairfield, according to Stump. As of Saturday evening, there were no reports of injuries stemming from the blaze, she said. Still, the danger is real, which is why the Blaine County Sheriff's Office said Saturday afternoon there was a "high probability" of even more evacuations to come in West Ketchum. Residents of the cities of Ketchum and Sun Valley -- home to a well-known ski resort -- are under a pre-evacuation notice. "Begin preparations now so that you can leave immediately should conditions deteriorate," the sheriff's office warned. More than 1,000 personnel are involved in fighting the fire, which was sparked by lightning on August 7. Authorities said Highway 75 was intermittently closed due to fire, smoke and firefighting operations. The Idaho National Guard also has been called in to help, . Gov. Butch Otter has issued a disaster declaration and ordered the Idaho National Guard to provide support for firefighting efforts. The governor warned people to obey the evacuation orders. "Those folks' job is to fight fire, not rescue people, and evacuate them after they were told to do it, and refused to do it," Otter told KTVB. "I understand you want to protect your property. But, I will guarantee you that nobody is going to go out of their way to get you out of your house, if it isn't necessary." CNN's Chelsea J. Carter, Greg Botelho, Janet DiGiacomo, Travis Sattiewhite, John Branch and AnneClaire Stapleton contributed to this report.

NEW: Beaver Creek Fire is 9% contained, up from 6% earlier Saturday . Mandatory evacuations ordered for 2,200 homes, fire officials say . "Take your essential belongings and pets and go now," says sheriff's office . The towns of Hailey and Ketchum are among those affected .

Baghdad (CNN) -- Iraq's Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, who fled the country months ago, was sentenced to death Sunday, an official said. The verdict came on a day when a wave of violence across Iraq left at least 79 people dead and 270 wounded. Together, the death sentence and the violence raise questions about the stability of the country just nine months after U.S. troops were withdrawn. Al-Hashimi was sentenced to hang "because he was involved directly in killing a female lawyer and a general with the Iraqi army," said Abdul Sattar al-Berqdar, a spokesman for Iraq's Supreme Judicial Council. "There are many other charges against al-Hashimi, but this is one of the charges he was convicted of," al-Berqdar said. Al-Hashimi denies the charges, which include the accusation that he ran death squads. He called the accusations part of a "black comedy" in February. Attacks on Iraqi police, army kill dozens . "Everybody knows that my case is a political case, from beginning to end, and that the charges against me are fabricated and far from the truth," al-Hashimi said in May. The death sentence raises the stakes in the controversy around Iraq's top Sunni Muslim politician, who accuses the country's Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of pushing the country towards a religious divide. The arrest warrant for al-Hashimi was issued soon after his Iraqiya party announced it would boycott Parliament, saying al-Maliki was cutting it out of the decision-making process. His Sunni-majority party has since ended its boycott, though al-Hashimi remains a fugitive. One of his political allies said Sunday that he did not receive a fair trial because he was not in Baghdad for it. Nada al-Jabouri, a lawmaker in Iraqiya bloc, also criticized the timing of the sentence, as "Iraq is preparing for a big national reconciliation in the near future in order to achieve stability in this country." "This will not help," al-Jabouri said. Iraq's Central Criminal Court sentenced al-Hashimi's son-in-law Ahmed Qahtan to death alongside the politician. Qahtan is not in custody either. The death sentences are not final and can be appealed, Judicial Council spokesman al-Berqdar told CNN. Interpol issued a "red notice" for al-Hashimi in May, "on suspicion of guiding and financing terrorist attacks in the country." The notice calls on the 190 countries that belong to the international police organization to help locate and arrest him at the request of the Iraqi authorities. No apparent action has been taken to arrest him since the notice was issued four months ago. Al-Hashimi is now living in a Turkish government guest house in Istanbul. Before that, he lived in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region and also traveled to Saudi Arabia and Qatar at the invitation of those governments. In February, Iraq's top judicial committee accused al-Hashimi's security detail of carrying out 150 attacks against security forces and civilians from 2005 to 2011. Al-Hashimi said the nine-judge council was under the control of the Shiite-dominated central government and denied the charges. Charges against al-Hashimi appear to be based on the purported confessions of three men, identified as the vice president's security guards. Iraqi state television aired video of the confessions in December, but CNN has not been able to verify the men's identities independently. Among the confessions was one by a man who detailed roadside bombings and shootings that targeted government and security officials in 2009. The person speaking said orders at times came directly from al-Hashimi and at times through his son-in-law, Qahtan, who is also a senior member of his staff. Al-Hashimi did not immediately respond to the sentencing on Sunday.

NEW: More than 79 people were killed in violence across Iraq . Iraq's top Sunni politician is convicted over the killing of two people . He's accused of other crimes, including running a death squad . He says the charges are politically motivated .

(CNN) -- Last week, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released its latest "Middle East and North Africa Economic Outlook" report. The document aims to provide a detailed overview of the main political, economic and social trends facing the region. Alongside an economic analysis of the cost of the Syrian conflict, the report found that many countries are still struggling to stabilize three years after the Arab Spring. However growth in other countries may be helping the region turn a corner. CNN's John Defterios sat down with the IMF's Middle East and Central Asia Director, Masood Ahmed, to probe the report's findings further and ask how we can expect the countries featured to develop in the near to medium term. He started by asking about the reports findings on growth in the region. Masood Ahmed (MA): (Right now), many oil importing countries in the Middle East and North Africa are growing at between 2.5% and 3.5%. Many of these countries were (previously) growing at 6% and 7%. Egypt (and) Tunisia, if you go back to 2008 and 2009 were growing at those rates. How do we get back to those rates and how do we generate more jobs? First of all, create a degree of more certainty for the private sector. The private sector right now is still holding back because of the transitions. That will work its way through in the next year or so. Second, start embarking on some of the reforms that will improve the prospects for small and medium sized enterprises t come in. John Defterios (JD): People think, 'Oh 2 to 3% (a decent rate of growth for developed countries) and that's with instability'. What do you need to get these economies on a more stable track? MA: The kind of growth you need to get these economies on a stable path is kind of in the neighborhood of 5% and 6% rather than 2% or 3%. Why? Because that's the level of growth that will create the jobs that an accruing number of young people that are coming into the labor market need. JD: You mentioned youth unemployment, in most of these countries it's 25% or even more in Arab Spring transition countries. MA: Youth unemployment has been chronically high in our region. But over the past three years because growth rates have slowed down, the number of young people without jobs has actually increased by 1.5 to 2 million people. That in itself means those young people are impatient for a job. But their presence serves sometimes as a deterrent for undertaking the reforms that will generate jobs for them. It's easier to write checks, increase transfers or try to hire them on the public payroll but it's not sustainable. JD: The Syrian spillover effect, most people don't think of this in an economic context but you have. MA: Syria at the moment is obviously a tragedy for the Syrian people but more than that if you look at its neighbors, Lebanon, Jordan and then to a lesser extent Iraq and Turkey, they're all hosting Syrian refugees. In the case of Lebanon and Jordan, this is probably one percentage point or more of GDP in terms of impact already. Beyond that, there's regional trade that's been affected, there's tourism that's been affected and then there's the spread of uncertainty and conflict, sectarian tensions also spilling over across the borders. JD: In your report you underline the inflationary threat. Good news that Dubai landed the 2020 Expo, Qatar has the 2022 World Cup but it could push up prices. MA: You do see some signs of overheating in the short term in Qatar, you do see increases in property prices, particularly real estate in Dubai, and these are things to watch out for. (But) overall, inflation rates in the GCC (Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf), including in these two countries, remain quite manageable. These are, as you've quite rightly pointed out, areas where you need to keep a vigilant eye.

IMF releases latest Middle East and North Africa Economic Outlook report . Middle East and Central Asia Director of IMF says many countries in region need to stoke growth . Fast growing economies in region need to be wary of inflation .

Monrovia, Liberia (CNN) -- About 10 days ago, Lusa Khanneh took ill, but not with Ebola. Her son, Saymon Kamara, says his mother was having violent convulsions. Those aren't a typical symptom of Ebola; they're a complication of high blood pressure, which Kanneh had suffered from for years. Kamara drove his mother to Redemption Hospital, near their home in the West Point slums of Monrovia. Doctors had given her treatment there before, and he hoped to get it again. But Redemption, like so many hospitals in Liberia, is closed or partially closed out of fear that Ebola patients will infect health care workers. It's a fear based in reality: In Liberia, more than 170 health care workers have contracted the disease and 83 have died of it. Next, Kamara drove to ELWA Hospital, but learned it only takes Ebola patients. Then he drove his mother to JFK Hospital, but it was overwhelmed and accepting only pregnant women, children and Ebola patients. Cooper Hospital was his last chance. Kamara and his mother waited outside. By now she was convulsing every 15 minutes, "as if someone had put a spell on her," he says. Her breathing was rapid and shallow. A doctor came out -- a tall man, Kamara remembers. He pointed to a small blood stain on his mother's shirt. He wanted to know what it was from. Kamara explained that during one of her seizures his mother had bit her tongue and bled a little. But he could tell the doctor was worried she had Ebola, because bleeding is one of the symptoms. He turned Kanneh away. Lusa Khanneh had run out of options. The only place her son could take her was home. Four days later, on September 19, she died. Saymon Kamara is angry. "If the hospitals were open, she wouldn't have died," he says. "This wasn't her time to go." No contact: Life inside the Ebola outbreak . There's no question that countless Liberians are dying because of Ebola even when they don't have it. There are few functioning hospitals or doctors' offices. Health care services, weak before Ebola, barely exist; vaccination rates, for example, have plummeted. "The primary care system here is basically shattered," says Sarah Crowe, a spokeswoman for UNICEF who is working in Liberia. "It's an outrage that children are dying of diseases, like measles, that are preventable and treatable." Even after death, Ebola -- a disease her son says she never had -- haunted Kanneh. Her family heard on the radio that no one should touch a cadaver, no matter what the cause of death. Call in, the announcer on the radio said, and a team from Dead Body Management will come for the body. It's simply impractical to test every cadaver for Ebola and sort out who died of what before burial. It would dangerously delay the burial to do so, and would take up too many resources. So the Kanneh family did as they were instructed. On Saturday, the day after her death, a team of five men in white suits, covered head to toe, sprayed Lusa Khanneh's body with chlorine and buried her. Kanneh didn't receive the burial she would have wanted as a devout Muslim. Her family didn't wash her body. They didn't carry her to the mosque and pray over her. They didn't bury her themselves. "These guys who buried her -- I don't know these guys," Kamara says, referring to the men in the white suits with the chlorine spray. "I expected my family to bury her, but now strangers have buried her." But he says he understands. "I have to accept this because this is the kind of country I live in and the kind of country my mother died in," he says. "I have to accept it with a heavy heart." CNN's John Bonifield, Orlando Ruiz, and Orlind Cooper contributed to this story.

Liberians with other ailments trapped by Ebola crisis . Hospitals are too busy fighting Ebola or closed because of fears of it . Woman with blood pressure problems dies without medical attention .

(CNN) -- Pakistan and India exchanged fire near the border in the disputed Kashmir region early Saturday, killing at least two people from each country. The Indian paramilitary border security force said Pakistani forces fired shots and mortar rounds near the border, killing a father and his 8-year-old son, and injuring four others, including a trooper. A spokesman for the security force called the action from the Pakistani side "unprovoked." The Pakistani military said an intermittent exchange of fire continues between the countries. It accused Indian troops of "unprovoked" opening fire on the working boundary near Sialkot, killing two civilians -- a woman and a 60-year-old man. The two nuclear-armed countries agreed to a bilateral ceasefire in November 2003. But while it has held well, it has suffered breaches since last year. The latest round of violence has triggered the dislocation of more than 1,000 border residents, an Indian official said. Kashmir has been in the throes of separatist violence since 1989; officials say it has claimed 42,000 lives, but rights groups and nongovernmental organizations put the number at twice that. Talks called off . The latest bloodshed comes amid recent diplomatic tensions. India called off talks planned for Monday with Islamabad after Pakistan's New Delhi-based high commissioner, Abdul Basit, invited Kashmiri separatist leaders for consultations ahead of the summit. The New Delhi foreign secretary told Basit "in clear and unambiguous terms, that Pakistan's continued efforts to interfere in India's internal affairs were unacceptable," India's External Affairs Ministry said in a statement. "The meetings with these so-called leaders of the Hurriyat undermines the constructive diplomatic engagement initiated by Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi in May on his very first day in office," the ministry said. But Pakistan said in a statement it is a "longstanding practice" to meet with Kashmiri leaders before India-Pakistani talks are held. "The Indian decision is a setback to the efforts by our leadership to promote good neighborly relations with India. The prime minister of Pakistan has clearly articulated the vision of peace for development," the statement said. "It seems a knee-jerk reaction," said Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq, a moderate Kashmiri separatist leader. "We have been meeting the Pakistani officials, including the country's New Delhi-based high commissioner, for the past 20 years. I don't know what happened today. It is a backward step." He said the move is short-sighted. "The decision lacks political maturity and cannot be termed as far-sighted," he said. 'Not a good development' Hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani described the decision as unfortunate, saying it proved that "New Delhi was never serious to resolve Kashmir peacefully." Even mainstream political parties have expressed dismay at the cancellation of the talks. "It is not a good development. The separatists have been meeting Pakistani officials. They even met the then-Pakistan president, Pervez Musharraf," said Ali Mohammad Sagar, a senior ruling National Conference leader and minister. During his visit to Indian-administered Kashmir this month, Modi condemned "the continued proxy war by neighboring Pakistan." Addressing army officers and soldiers in the frontier Ladakh region bordering China and Pakistan, Modi said that "the neighboring country has lost the strength to fight a conventional war but continues to engage in the proxy war of terrorism." Modi's criticism of Islamabad came against in the backdrop of reported ceasefire violations by Pakistani troops on the border and increased militant attacks in Kashmir. CNN's Sophia Saifi reported from Islamabad and Journalist Mukhtar Ahmad reported from Srinagar. CNN's Harmeet Shah Singh contributed to this report.

India says a father and son were killed; Pakistan says two civilians died . Kashmir has been in the throes of separatist violence for years . India's prime minister condemns what he calls "the continued proxy war by neighboring Pakistan"

(CNN) -- A south Georgia banker accused of embezzling millions by defrauding scores of investors was captured Tuesday after one and a half years on the run, authorities said. The FBI indicated online that 47-year-old Aubrey "Lee" Price -- whom it characterized as an investment adviser and former minister -- had been captured. That agency website didn't provide further details, including how Price was detained or what he has been doing since June 2012. Yet a Glynn County, Georgia, sheriff's office website showed that he was booked Tuesday and is being "held for federal authorities on a charge of giving a false name, address or birth date to a law enforcement officer." Officer Kay Jones said that Price was being held for federal marshals. His capture ends a law enforcement saga that started in the town of Ailey, a community of about 430 people, and stretched to include parts of Florida, Latin America and the vast waters that separate them. In late 2010, Price was being celebrated by his peers and written up in newspaper articles after a company that he controlled bought a controlling portion of the troubled Montgomery Bank & Trust in Ailey, which is located some 170 miles southeast of Atlanta. He was supposed to invest the bank's capital. Instead, prosecutors say, Price used a New York-based "clearing firm" -- a dummy company set up to hide money -- to cover up fraudulent wire transfers and investments. A complaint filed in federal court on July 2, 2012, claimed that Price and others "raised approximately $40 million from approximately 115 investors," mostly in Georgia and Florida, beginning in 2009, then committed fraud at the expense of those investors. "The complaint alleges that, instead of investing the money as promised, Price fraudulently wired the bank's funds to accounts that he personally controlled at other financial institutions and provided bank management with altered documents to make it appear as if he had invested the bank's money in (U.S.) Treasury securities," the U.S. attorney's office for eastern New York said then. In sum, the complaint alleges that Price hid the embezzlement by falsely stating that about $17 million had been deposited in the bank's name at a New York financial services firm. By the time these charges came out, Price had been missing for several weeks, having told friends he had lost "a large sum of money through his trading activities," according to the complaint. In the letter he'd purportedly written to acquaintances and business associates that June, Price indicated that he planned to kill himself by "jumping off a ferry boat" off Florida's coast, the complaint stated. He was spotted -- alive -- in Key West, Florida, in the middle of that month, and the U.S. Coast Guard's subsequent search for his body found nothing. By then, authorities hinted they believed Price was on the lam. He owns properties in Venezuela and Guatemala, and the FBI's wanted poster for him indicated that he also has a 17-foot boat. The federal agency offered a reward of up to $20,000 for information leading to his arrest; it wasn't immediately clear if anyone will recoup that reward, nor was it known how Price was taken into custody. A federal grand jury in New York indicted him on wire fraud and securities fraud charges earlier this year. A conviction on the wire fraud charge carries a maximum prison sentence of 30 years, with a 25-year maximum for the other charge. The bank Price took over -- which had been in operation for nearly 90 years -- was closed in summer 2012 by the state of Georgia, with the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation named as its receiver. Price's family members have been quiet publicly since news of the charges came out. And it was not immediately clear if he has legal representation following his detention. CNN's Nick Valencia contributed to this report.

Aubrey 'Lee' Price is captured in southern Georgia, authorities say . He'd been on the lam since 2012, charged with wire and securities fraud . Authorities say he defrauded scores of investors in a small Georgia bank . He purportedly told friends he would commit suicide, but feds were skeptical .

London, England (CNN) -- The largest collection of Smurf memorabilia, the longest dog tongue, and the most football management rejection letters could only be together in one place -- the annual list of Guinness World Records. All of them have made the 2011 edition, released Thursday. The Smurf collection involves 1,061 different items owned by Stephen Parkes, 44, of Nottingham, England. He said he began collecting them in 1976 when he was 10, and that today he will pay as much as 500 pounds ($780) for a rare item. "It's great to get in the book, although I think I'm going to get a fair amount of stick (criticism) from friends when they see the photos," Parkes said. Patrick Rielly of Scotland saw the bright side after setting a record for the most rejection letters -- 46 -- from professional football clubs across Britain. "I might have not got my dream job, but now I have a world record," he said. "Every cloud has a silver lining!" The 2011 book, published internationally Thursday, is the annual edition of a best-selling record book that has sold 115 million copies to date. This year's records include the longest-lasting lightning storm (on Saturn for eight months); the longest hair (18 feet, 5 inches); and the heaviest living woman to give birth (American Donna Simpson, at 531 pounds). Mario's Cafe Bar in Bolton, England, set a record that may whet a person's appetite -- or ruin it altogether. It has the largest commercially available English breakfast, a traditional filling and greasy meal. Mario's version includes six slices of bacon, six sausages, four eggs, six slices of bread, five black puddings, mushrooms, a can of beans, and tomatoes. It weighs 6 pounds, 7 ounces and costs 10.95 pounds ($17), but anyone who can eat it within 20 minutes gets it free. With a breakfast like that, diners may need a workout. For inspiration they can look to British man Stephen Buttler, who broke the record for the most push-ups with claps in one minute -- 73, or 1.2 push-ups per second. Animal records are always a feature, many of them even stranger than the world's smallest cow at 33 inches from hind to foot in West Yorkshire, England. A Pekingese dog from Texas named Puggy set the record for the longest dog tongue, measuring 4.5 inches, nearly the same length as his body. His owner said she adopted Puggy eight years ago after he was abandoned. "From being a stray dog, being dumped, to being a Guinness World Record holder is just phenomenal," owner Becky Stanford said. "I just can't believe it." A feisty Jack Russell terrier from California is in the book for popping 100 balloons in the fastest time by a dog -- just 44.49 seconds. The dog, Anastasia, showed her talent for the first time at a New Year's party, her owner said. "When Anastasia sees balloons in public, she starts with a small whine and builds to a squeal," said Doree Sitterly. "She'll then begin screaming like a banshee and is difficult to control. She is focused on popping balloons only and nothing else." Other animal records include the oldest gorilla in captivity, Colo, who lives in the United States and is now 53. The oldest sheep is an Australian named Lucky, who is 24, and the longest rabbit is Darius, who lives in Britain and is 4 feet, 3 inches. "Animal achievements are among the most popular records in our book, so for 2011, in addition to the usual chapter on record-breaking creatures in the wild, we've added an entire new chapter focusing on our favorite pets, zoos, and farm animals, said Craig Glenday, editor-in-chief of Guinness World Records.

The 2011 edition is out Thursday . The longest dog tongue and largest collection of Smurfs are among the records .

(CNN) -- Nearly nine months after it returned to the sky and its battery system was declared safe, new reports surfaced Tuesday of smoke aboard a Boeing 787 Dreamliner at Tokyo's Narita International Airport. The incident "appears to have involved the venting of a single battery cell," aboard a Japan Airlines 787, Boeing told CNN in a statement. A year ago, overheated batteries aboard two Dreamliners prompted aviation officials to ground all 50 of the planes worldwide. Tuesday's incident "occurred during scheduled maintenance activities with no passengers on board," the Boeing statement said. "The improvements made to the 787 battery system last year appear to have worked as designed." Boeing said it was working with Japan Airlines to return the plane to service. Japan Airlines and the government's Japanese Aviation Bureau told CNN Tuesday night that the battery unit was removed from the aircraft to be handed over to manufacturers Boeing/Yuasa for further investigation. The airline told Flightglobal that the plane sustained no damage. JAL is monitoring their other 787s as a precautionary measure, Flightglobal reported. Boeing's stake in the Dreamliner is huge. Hundreds of millions of dollars are riding on the success of the 787, which represents a new generation of lighter, more efficient money making planes. When it began service in 2011, the Dreamliner boasted a new battery system that used new, lighter lithium-ion batteries. After the planes were grounded, Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration collaborated on a new battery compartment. The compartment was designed to insulate the batteries in a ventilated armor-plated box to protect the rest of the plane in case of a fire caused by overheating batteries. The NTSB announced this month it plans to issue a final investigation report later this fall. Interactive diagram of the 787 . The National Transportation Safety Board said it was aware of Tuesday's battery incident in Japan. "By international treaty, aviation accidents and incidents are investigated by the investigative authority in the country in which the accident or incident occurred. "If the Japan Transport Safety Board opens an investigation into the battery smoke event, the NTSB stands ready to assist," the U.S. agency said in a statement. In July 2013, investigators blamed a fire aboard an empty Ethiopian Airlines 787 parked at London's Heathrow airport on a malfunctioning emergency beacon. Tuesday's incident comes nearly two months after Boeing warned airlines about another 787 concern: possible icing problems in its GE engines. The aircraft manufacturer alerted 787 operators after instances of "ice crystal icing that resulted in temporary diminished engine performance," Boeing said in a statement. Although it said only a small number of the engines have experienced the ice problems, Boeing advised pilots to keep planes at least 50 nautical miles from storms that may contain ice crystals until General Electric can make improvements to the "GEnx" engines. The Dreamliner's development was marked by production delays and other problems. Then, a year ago this month, batteries were blamed for two overheating instances on a Japan Airlines 787 in Boston and on an All Nippon Airways 787 in Japan. No one was hurt in either case, but concerns about the incidents spurred the FAA to ground all U.S. Dreamliners. Officials around the world followed suit. Experts say every airliner experiences "teething pains" during its first few years of service, as minor problems are shaken out. But the FAA's decision to ground the Dreamliner put it under intense scrutiny. United Airlines is the lone U.S. operator of Boeing 787s. In an apparent show of confidence in July, United announced it was ordering 20 new 787-10 models, which are a longer version of the plane.

NEW: Japan Airlines hands over 787 battery unit to Boeing for investigation . The NTSB says it's ready to assist Japanese officials in the probe . A smoking battery was reported aboard a Japan Airlines 787 Dreamliner Tuesday . Fears of overheating batteries prompted 787s to be grounded worldwide a year ago .

(CNN) -- Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is facing a local election this weekend, the biggest test of his popularity since becoming Prime Minister in 2003. The polls are seen as a referendum on his popularity before the country's first direct presidential election this summer, in which Erdogan is widely expected to run. But things don't seem to be going smoothly. Just months after the damaging Gezi Park protests in Istanbul, Erdogan's government is now facing a wide-ranging anti-corruption probe. And to add to the misery, Turkey's economy, once hailed as a miracle, is slowing down, its currency is hovering around record lows against the dollar, and some of its firms are facing huge foreign debts. How did it get into this mess? Many developed countries struggled with growth in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Not so Turkey, which grew substantially over the last decade. Erdogan's government was praised for its ability to attract foreign investors from Europe and emerging markets such as Russia and China. The rapid economic growth was largely fueled by cheap credit pouring into the country. As the crisis hit developed economies, investors turned to emerging markets which promised higher returns than depressed Western markets. For years, Turkey had enjoyed a foreign-funded construction boom. House prices had soared more than 50% since the end of 2009 and both the country's GDP and per capita income had increased threefold since 2003. But the party ended with the U.S. Federal Reserve announcing a scale-back in its stimulus program last summer. Suddenly, there was less cash available to invest. With more security in the U.S. economy, investors started pulling their money from the emerging markets. Turkey's growth slowed to just above 2% and inflation rose to 7.4% in 2013, well above the 5% target. The country's currency, the Lira, slumped further in January, which forced Turkey's central bank to adopt a radical approach and almost double interest rates from 7.7% to 12% -- a clear indication of the bank's determination to prevent foreign capital outflows. But for voters, this may not be good news. Higher interest rates are likely to slow down Turkey's economic growth. And as cash becomes less available and borrowing becomes more expensive, producers and business owners are likely to pass their increased costs to consumers, who will in turn see prices going up. Erdogan is aware of this and strongly opposed the bank's move to raise interest rates. He argued it would hurt Turkey's growth and blamed the Lira's recent tumble on the opposition and an "interest rates lobby," saying it was the result of a conspiracy against him and his government. And while Turkey's $800 billion economy remains among the 20 biggest in the world, the IMF has warned it is not built on a sustainable model and remains too vulnerable to dangers outside its borders. Add to this another grim statistic: the country's poverty. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), one in five Turks live below the relative poverty line -- meaning their income is less than half of the country's median. That is one of the highest figures among developed countries, with only Mexico and Israel lagging behind. Turkey's strategic position means the country is the bridge between Asia and Europe. Its membership of NATO and candidacy to join the European Union reflect its importance. But the current unrest and uncertainty has already cost the country millions -- its stock market lost a third of its value last year alone. Foreign investors have been watching Erdogan's steps closely and to them, the result of this weekend's local election could be an indication of where the country's economy moves next. Read more: Turkey's political crisis undermining democracy . Read more: Is instability the 'new normal' for Turkey? Turkey: From a bridge to an island in the Mideast . Read more: Worst is yet to come for Fragile Five .

Turkey's economy, once hailed as a miracle, is slowing down and its currency is talking a beating . The country's central bank doubled the interest rates to prevent foreign capital outflows . The IMF has warned Turkish economy is not sustainable and remains vulnerable to external dangers .

(CNN) -- Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has promised that the Italian Formula One team will not make major changes for 2011 despite this year's title disappointment, and he tipped Felipe Massa to return to form. Massa played very much a secondary role on his return to driving following his horror accident in July last year, and had to watch as new teammate Fernando Alonso was denied his third drivers' crown on the last day of the season. Ferrari were criticized for the tactical decision to have Alonso follow Red Bull's Mark Webber into the pits early on in Abu Dhabi, which consequently helped the Australian's teammate Sebastian Vettel claim the race victory and his first world title. However, Montezemolo backed Ferrari to bounce back next year with both drivers at the helm. "That is the strength of Ferrari, in that we never give up," he told the Ferrari website. "Having been in Formula One for such a long time, this was certainly not the first time I have lost a world championship at the final race. Ferrari 'astonished' by politician's rant . "Changes within the team? That is not our philosophy, because for years now we have adopted a policy based on dynamic stability: a few minor adjustments are possible, but no major upheaval. "Alonso was amazing, both on and off the track: determined and full of self-belief, a real driving force. I expect a lot from Felipe next year: I am sure he will return to being the man we saw in 2008." The Brazilian driver, who was denied the drivers' title by Lewis Hamilton at the final race two years ago, played down suggestions that he was battling for his future at Ferrari. "I don't think 2011 signifies a crucial year for me. Fundamentally, I have been in this situation often," he told the team's website. Massa impressed with new Pirelli tires . "I remember that at the start of 2006, many people said I would only last a year at Ferrari and then I won races that season and went on to stay for a long time more. "This year, there were many who said I would have a difficult year after my accident in Budapest: it turned out that way, but not for that reason. Over the years, the names of at least 10 drivers have been put forward as replacements for me at Ferrari, but I am still here!" Montezemolo also backed team principal Stefano Domenicali as the Scuderia seek to adapt to technical changes in 2011 and add to the marque's 15 drivers' titles and 16 constructors' crowns. "I am very happy with the work with which Stefano Domenicali is moving us forward, with great ability, spirit and a sense of balance," the 63-year-old said. "For 2011 there will be various technical changes, from the return of KERS to the arrival of Pirelli tires and an adjustable rear wing. "We are starting from a solid base. I'm thinking here of the fact that at the end of last year, our energy recovery system was very competitive. As for the rear wing, I hope we start the season with total clarity as regards the regulations. I am not worried about it, but our experience of 2009 still grates." Montezemolo revealed that 2011 will also be a big year for Ferrari both on and off the racetrack. "We are finalizing the details for our first showroom in India, we are strengthening our position in China and the United States. In Formula One terms, we have very clear targets," he said. "There is a great will to fight back and be ready for next season, when our aim is to have a car that, right from the start, is capable of winning so that we don't have to play catch-up."

Ferrari boss plans to keep Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa as the team's drivers . Massa's future was under scrutiny after the Brazilian struggled on his return to racing . President Luca di Montezemolo says no major changes are needed at Italian marque . He also backs team principal Stefano Domenicali as Ferrari seek to improve in 2011 .

London (CNN) -- Armed with a silky-smooth voice and an uncompromising spirit, Nigerian singer/songwriter Ola Onabulé has won admirers around the world. With a career spanning nearly two decades, the Nigerian singer has often been described as one of music's best-kept secrets. Onabulé says that although he can hear "the hidden compliment" in that phrase, he works hard to do even better. "It's not right that I should be a secret, I mean this isn't a profession in which to be kept a secret," he says. "You stand on a stage and put it out there because you want as many people as possible to hear your song or your idea or your message." His musical style blends his African roots with elements of jazz and soul, while his passionate singing moves between the heights and depths of emotion. In tune with his wide-ranging vocal skills, Onabulé's songs encompass a wide range of topics, from personal experiences to social-minded commentary. "I write songs about why in my dear continent we spend as much time as we do harking back to the things that were done to us in the past when, although they are incredibly valid these sentiments, there is also the argument for as much time to be put into finding our way out of this difficult situation," says Onabulé. Born in London to Nigerian parents, the velvet-voiced singer moved to Nigeria at an early age. The vivid memories of pounding African drums and spicy Nigerian food followed him back to the United Kingdom where he returned just before he turned 17. That transition wasn't without its challenges, says Onabulé, as he spent the first couple of years trying to figure out his place in the world while bridging his different cultures. "I spent a very long time working out where I fitted in the whole scheme of things," he says. "Subconsciously I think I very much wanted to be a Nigerian, wanted very much to be an African and I had to work out a way of negotiating how I could do that whilst knowing that for survival purposes also I had to assimilate as much as possible into where I found myself in amongst here." Initially set for a career in law, Onabulé abandoned his studies to follow his passion for music and pursue a rather more uncertain career as a singer. His talents didn't go unnoticed and in the early 1990s he was signed by record label Elektra. However, his encounter with the system of big record companies didn't last long. "I learned through bitter experience what I definitely, absolutely wanted and what I didn't," he says. "(There was) a lot of kind pre-described, focus group-type artist development where you'd bring a song in and people take their metaphorical scalpels out and shave bits -- 'the kids won't love that, the kids won't love that' -- take bits off." When the deal fell apart little more than a year later, Onabulé says he knew "without a shadow of a doubt that I wanted as much autonomy as possible and that would mean walking my own path independently." Onabulé's perseverance saw him eventually building his own studio and setting up his own label. He has seven albums under his belt so far, and his latest offering, "Seven Shades Darker," was released earlier in 2011. As in his previous works, Onabulé's African roots are evident in his latest album and influence the message he is trying to convey. He says: "I'm very keen for Africa to change its course, to find its way and really find a way of standing shoulder to shoulder with the league of nations. "If I switch on the news and I see another sad story about Africa, I wonder, I want to write a song that says how come we haven't managed to get across the fact that repeatedly on the United Nations' happiest countries lists the top 10 counties are almost always African? I mean how come we don't get that story across? How come it's always the representations of poverty and corruption, brutality?"

Ola Onabulé is an acclaimed Nigerian singer and songwriter . He blends Afro beats with jazz and soul while his lyrics often tackle tricky issues . He's blazed his own trail in a career that has produced seven albums .

(CNN) -- No advanced seat selection, no changes or refunds. Sound like Spirit Airlines? Nope. It's Delta Air Lines' new "Basic Economy" fare, part of the airline's new five-fare class of pricing starting March 1. No longer content to just offer first-class and coach-cabin seating, Delta is splitting its aircraft into five fare classes. Travelers who want more than "Basic Economy" will pay more -- Delta's not saying yet how much more -- although that's already the reality for many travelers. Passengers who are willing to pay to change their flights and check their bags -- so-called ancillary fees -- helped 26 passenger U.S. airlines turn a net profit of $12.7 billion in 2013, up from a profit of $98 million in 2012. Delta topped that list, collecting $1.67 billion last year: $840 million in reservation change/cancellation fees and $833 million in baggage fees. United Airlines came in second place with $1.38 billion in fees: $756 million in reservation cancellation/change fees and nearly $625 million in baggage fees. Delta hopes its new seating options will also be profitable. Note the options on the other end of the seating spectrum: The first-class cabin will be split into "First Class" for domestic routes and "Delta One" for long-haul international and certain cross-country domestic flights. The "First Class" fare includes "first to board" rights, preflight alcoholic drinks, snacks on flights longer than 250 miles and meals on flights longer than 900 miles. The "Delta One" elite first class fare includes access to Delta Sky Clubs, full flat-bed seats on widebody aircraft, in-flight bedding, chef-curated menus, noise-reduction headsets and more. In the main cabin, customers will have choice of the "Basic Economy" fare and two other fare classes. The "Basic Economy" bare-bones coach fares will be available on domestic routes, and they're already available in some areas where Delta competes with deep discounter Spirit Airlines. The "Main Cabin" coach fares on domestic and long-haul international flights will allow seat selection at time of purchase and flexibility for flight changes. On long-haul international flights, the fare will include alcoholic drinks, meal service and a sleep kit. The "Delta Comfort+" coach fare on all flights will include priority boarding and dedicated overhead bin space, alcoholic drinks, premium snacks, premium entertainment, up to 4 more inches of legroom and quilted seat covers. Travel enthusiasts are already debating the impact on the flying public. A three-way split in the coach question raises the question: "Will these new economy fares be lower than previously, because you're getting less?" asked George Hobica, founder of AirWatchdog.com. "Or will you get less for the same fare?" And who will guard that dedicated overhead bin space for "Delta Comfort+" travelers, Hobica asks. Already harried flight attendants trying to negotiate passengers in already crowded planes? Aviation journalist Jason Rabinowitz argues that not much will actually change at Delta. "The most interesting part of the (announcement) was a true definition of the new Basic Economy fare, which aims to directly compete with low-cost carrier Spirit," said Rabinowitz, Routehappy.com's data research manager. The routes the new fare is offered on are now clearly defined, but are still fairly limited." Travel blogger Christina Saull likes the simplified fare benefits chart but is troubled by that basic fare. "The lowest fare class doesn't allow advanced seat selection?" Saull asked. "For some people, that might not be a big deal, but for a frequent flier who studies seat maps to choose the best seat on the plane, that's a deal-breaker for me. That pricing structure seems Spirit-esque."

Delta's new fare structure will offer five in-flight experiences . The bare-bones economy fare doesn't include advance seat selection or allow changes . The fanciest first-class fare includes access to airline lounge and chef-curated menus . The plan takes effect March 1 .

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Dan Neumann was a 14-year-old struggling against cancer when he came across an unexpected ally in his battle. Cancer survivor Dan Neumann plays Re-Mission and is helping create the game's next edition. He was receiving treatment for leukemia at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University in 2004 when he saw a flyer inviting teenage cancer patients to test a new video game. A self-described gamer, Neumann says he was immediately drawn to the posting. He signed up to try it and was won over by the game, which simulated what goes on inside the bodies of cancer patients. "When you go through cancer treatment, chemotherapy becomes something you dread," Neumann, now 19, recalled. "But with the game you're actively playing something and shooting cells." That game eventually became Re-Mission, a video game that's helping teenagers around the world in their fight against cancer. Since its release in 2006, more than 145,000 free copies have been distributed, and now a new version of the game is in the works. See what it's like to play the game » . Pamela Omidyar, wife of eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, came up with the idea for the game. A former lab technician and avid video game player, she thought kids could learn a lot by experiencing the treatment process in a vivid way. That led her to launch HopeLab, a non-profit that took Re-Mission from the drawing board to an actual product. The organization, which focuses on using technology to create positive health outcomes in kids, was recently recognized by U.S. President Barack Obama for its innovative approach to tackling health challenges. Players control a tiny robot who travels through the human body to destroy harmful cancer cells. Along the way, she breaks down complex medical terminology and explains what's going on when the body undergoes treatment like chemotherapy. By making cancer a visible foe, Re-Mission gives kids a different mental view of who their enemy is, said Dr. Steve Cole, vice president of research at HopeLab. That's something that teenagers around the world can benefit from. Video games like Re-Mission transcend national boundaries and cultures, he told CNN. "Everybody wants to beat death." Re-Mission has been distributed to 81 countries, and patients anywhere in the world can download it for free online. According to Cole, providing an opportunity to experience the positive emotions that come from treatment can change the behavior of young patients and can make a real difference in their health. A study he conducted that was published in 2008 showed that patients who played Re-Mission took their medication more consistently and learned more about their disease than those who didn't. "What this game is really built to do is help teenagers be better participants in their own medical care enterprise," said Cole. "It gives them a real opportunity to affect their own health outcomes." Neumann says when he was in the hospital, doctors walked him through pamphlets describing the chemotherapy process. But it was the game that ultimately made him feel better about his treatment. "There's a lot of complex medical terminology, which is hard to digest at that age," he said. "Re-Mission encourages you to learn that your chemotherapy is doing something." Now in remission, Neumann is helping HopeLab develop the next edition of the game. In the early stages of development, the new product is expected to be released in 2012 at the earliest. He's been providing feedback on his experience as a cancer survivor and gamer to help developers understand what patients personally get out of playing Re-Mission. He wants other teenagers to experience the game, and says they shouldn't shy away even if they've never played video games before. "Re-Mission is an excellent game for any cancer patient, regardless of whether they're a gamer," he said. "It really makes you feel like you're engaging in your treatment."

Re-Mission video game helps patients visualize battle against cancer . Non-profit organization HopeLab is planning new version for 2012 . Cancer survivor says game helped change his attitude towards treatment . Teenagers around the world can benefit from game, HopeLab says .

(CNN) -- An unofficial watch group is forming in a central Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, neighborhood, residents say, in an effort to protect themselves against a serial strangler responsible for at least three homicides. The 12-member unit has been patrolling the city's rough-and-tumble Kensington district since Friday, two days after the partially clothed body of the latest victim, Casey Mahoney, was discovered. "We are warning residents to go out in pairs," said group organizer Tom Potts. "I've been talking to women in the area. Most are carrying pepper spray." One of women has been walking with an electric stun gun, he added. Police are also trying to determine whether three strangulation assaults that occurred in the same area are also linked to the suspected killer. The victims were all white females, police said. Potts said the neighborhood group walks up and down Kensington Avenue and nearby streets each night in the drugs- and prostitution-riddled neighborhood. Their actions come as police ask residents for information of those involved in the attacks, but also warn the public against taking matters into their own hands. "We are cautioning people to wait and get the person identified," said police spokesman Ray Evers. "We need the public to be our eyes," he said, warning against the potential dangers of vigilante action. Some residents are pairing up when walking at night. "I've never felt safe alone," said Arianna Hall-Reinhard. The 22-year-old Kensington resident says she carries pepper spray and joins friends when she heads home from work. "It's a whole new level of having to be aware," she said. Others have taken to social media, joining a Facebook page called "Catch the Kensington Strangler, before he catches someone you love." The page featured an incorrect sketch of the suspected killer, prompting police to contact the site, Evers said. Elaine Goldberg, 21, and Nicole Piacentini, 35, were both killed in November attacks. Mahoney had been sexually assaulted and strangled on December 15, said police spokeswoman Jillian Russell. DNA has linked the slayings of three women, and authorities are offering a $30,000 reward for information leading to arrests and convictions, said task force Capt. James Clark. "We now know that this predator is responsible for three murders in this area," he said. Authorities say they believe the attacker likely is still in the 10-block radius where the attacks occurred. "It's time to bring this offender to justice," Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey told reporters. "Help us stop this brutal violence from occurring in the future." But authorities say they lack corroborating DNA evidence linking the assaults to the homicides because too much time had elapsed between the initial two assaults in October and when the victims notified police. "The assault victims did not come forward until police began combing the Kensington (neighborhood) for suspects and potential victims following the November homicides," Evers said. Federal agents joined the investigation earlier this month, bringing in resources from the FBI's behavioral analysis unit, violent criminal apprehension program, and National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime. "The investigation appears to be limited to Philadelphia," said FBI spokesman J.J. Klaver. "This could change if there are any indications that the subject or subjects responsible for the crimes ... are linked to similar crimes elsewhere." The assault victims described the attacker as an African-American male in his early 20s, weighing between 160 and 170 pounds. Police said a third assault victim was pulled into an alley earlier this month. Despite being choked, punched and hit on the head with a brick, the 33-year-old woman escaped, and her assailant fled the scene, according to a police report. All victims were involved in prostitution and narcotics, police said.

A resident watch group is forming to protect a neighborhood from a serial killer . The 12-member unit has been patrolling Philadelphia's Kensington district since Friday . Philadelphia police are looking for a serial strangler responsible for at least 3 homicides . Police are investigating three recent assaults suspected to be linked to the killings .

(CNN) -- I have always been a fiercely independent woman. I learned from my grandmother -- the breadwinner in her marriage -- that there was nothing that a woman couldn't do as well as a man. I started working when I was 16 years old and, by all accounts, I had achieved a fairly high degree of success as a young journalist in my early 20s. A die-hard feminist, my desire for self-sufficiency didn't stem from a movement: It was personal. A child of divorced parents who always fought about money-related issues, and with my grandmother's words etched in my mind, I told myself at a young age that I would never rely on a man or anyone to take care of me. I became so defiant about being able to do things on my own that I would rarely even let people buy me meals. That still holds true today. Then, I met "Tom," who was much older and more successful than me. We started dating in my early 30s at a time when my career had me traveling all over the world to report stories. I was neither looking for a relationship nor cared to be in one. A lot of my friends, however, were beginning to settle down and I started to feel like something was wrong with me for not being able to even fathom doing the same. That's not to say I wasn't happy with where I was: I loved my work and I loved the woman I had become. Tom was a nice man who seemed to take a liking to me quite quickly. Like many men of similar ilk, Tom could be aggressive about acquiring things he wanted. Before I knew it, I was being sucked into his vortex. One week we'd be cruising the Mediterranean in a massive full-service yacht, the next we'd be on a shopping excursion in Rome. It all happened so fast and I was being exposed to a part of the world that -- despite being well-traveled -- I had never experienced. It started to become glaringly apparent that I was being seduced by a lifestyle. I was becoming a sugar baby. Or at least, that's how I felt. College 'sugar babies' date for cash . We all know what sugar daddies are: Wealthy older men have throughout history sought out much younger women -- "sugar babies" -- to date, even marry and take care of. Despite the women's liberation movement, our culture is always reminding us of gender roles. Today, websites like SeekingArrangement.com are making it that much easier for men and women to connect by waving the carrot of support and financial security to attract youth and beauty. SeekingArrangement.com CEO says love doesn't exist . While I think Tom liked me because of my independent spirit, I'm quite sure he hoped that the longer we were in a relationship together, the more likely it would be that I would eventually give up my career and let him support me. He was not at all a bad person, but increasingly, I was starting to feel owned and that I was losing myself. Now there's nothing wrong with being in a relationship in which one person financially supports the other. We all contribute to our relationships in different ways and in no way should any contribution be trivialized. I just knew that I was in mine for the wrong reasons and that I had compromised the woman I had worked so hard to become. I am now married and have a child with a man who is quite successful in his own right. I know that if I fall onto hard times, he'll support me, and I will do the same. Even though we're equal partners in our marriage, it's important for me to maintain my own identity, career and finances. "No matter what," my grandma always said, "have your own money." In a span of a lifetime, my relationship with Tom was a mere blip. But, it serves as a constant reminder of a time when I didn't recognize myself, and that didn't feel very good.

Lisa Ling describes herself as "fiercely independent" and "a die-hard feminist" While dating an older, richer man, she became "seduced by a lifestyle" Ling explores the world of "sugaring" in the premiere of her new CNN show . Watch "This is Life with Lisa Ling" Sundays at 10p .

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Stars and Stripes, the newspaper that receives U.S. military funding to help it cover and get distributed free to American forces in war zones, complained Tuesday of censorship by military authorities in Iraq. A soldier with the U.S. Army's 1st Cavalry Division patrols the streets of eastern Mosul, Iraq, on June 16. In a story on its Web site, the newspaper known as Stripes said the military violated a congressional mandate of editorial independence by rejecting a request to embed reporter Heath Druzin with the U.S. Army's 1st Cavalry Division, which is attempting to secure the city of Mosul. The military cited various problems in Druzin's reporting on previous embed assignments with units of the division, according to the story. One example noted by the military was a March 8 story that said many Mosul residents would like the American soldiers to leave and hand over security tasks to Iraqi forces, the Stripes Web site said. "Despite the opportunity to visit areas of the city where Iraqi Army leaders, soldiers, national police and Iraqi police displayed commitment to partnership, Mr. Druzin refused to highlight any of this news," Maj. Ramona Bellard, a public affairs officer, wrote in denying Druzin's embed request, according to the Stripes story. A military official in Iraq defended the move to turn down the reporter's request. "U.S. Army units in Iraq remain committed to the media embed program and appreciate objective media reporting," said Lt. Col. David H. Patterson Jr., a spokesman for Multi-National Corps-Iraq. "The relationship that Druzin established with the command during a previous embed did not facilitate being invited back." Patterson added that Druzin was welcome to embed in another unit and that the 1st Cavalry Division was open to having a reporter other than Druzin. "Accusations of censorship are without merit," Patterson said. Other allegations against Druzin by the military included that he used quotes out of context, behaved unprofessionally and persisted in asking Army officials for permission to use a computer to file a story during a communications blackout period, the Stripes story said. Terry Leonard, editorial director at Stars and Stripes, denied the Army's allegations, calling Druzin's previous reporting on the division accurate and fair. "To simply say 'you can't send him because we didn't like what he wrote' is unacceptable," Leonard said. He noted that Congress set up Stripes as an independent newspaper so that "no commander can decide what news troops in the field receive." Army officials have offered to allow a different Stripes reporter to embed with the division or to allow Druzin to embed with a different Army unit in Kirkuk, Leonard said. Stripes rejected those offers because the military has no right to deflect coverage from Mosul or decide which Stripes reporter covers its operations, Leonard said. "To deny Mr. Druzin an embed under the reasons stated by Maj. Bellard is a direct challenge to the editorial independence of this newspaper," Leonard wrote in his appeal to the decision, according to the Stripes story. "That independence is mandated by Congress. The denial of the embed constitutes an attempt at censorship and it is also an illegal prior restraint under federal law. ... The military cannot tell us what stories to write or not write." Stripes receives close to $10 million a year from the Department of Defense to help defray the costs of covering "contingency" operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, including the publishing and distribution of roughly 85,000 free newspapers a day, Leonard said. The newspaper receives additional government subsidies, with the total amounting to less than half of its budget, he said. Other revenue comes from ad sales and circulation at permanent U.S. military bases and elsewhere, Leonard said. CNN has been denied embed requests on occasion but never because of the past conduct of individual journalists. The reasons have almost always involved logistical details involving security and force coverage.

Newspaper says military's rejection of embed request is censorship . Paper wanted reporter Heath Druzin to be embedded with Army division in Iraq . Army rejects request, cites Druzin's previous interactions with division . Army denies accusations, says different reporter may embed with division .

(CNN) -- Chelsea's onfield successes this year have led to the European soccer champions' first financial profit during the nine-year reign of owner Roman Abramovich. The Russian billionaire has bankrolled the English Premier League club since buying it for a nominal fee in 2003, posting big losses every year since then as he has sanctioned spending sprees to sign some of the sport's biggest players. Last year ended in a loss of £67.7 million ($108 million) but the figures up to June 30, 2012 reveal a profit of £1.4 million ($2.2 million). Chelsea also announced on Friday that it had made a record turnover of £255.7 million ($407 million) -- which it said is the fifth largest of any European club. That was a boost of £33 million ($52 million) from last year, driven by the club's first UEFA Champions League title and a profit on player sales of £28.8 million ($46 million). The latter figure came despite offloading players such as Didier Droga, Nicolas Anelka and Salomon Kalou on free transfers while spending big on Juan Mata and Romelu Lukaku in that period. In comparison, Premier League rival Arsenal -- which has a more prudent transfer policy -- made a profit of £30.6 million ($48 million) on turnover of £243 million ($386 million) in figures released in September. Another key element in Chelsea's finances is that £166.6 million ($265 million) of intergroup debt was capitalized into equity -- effectively personal loans to the club written off by Abramovich -- to leave the club debt free. Chelsea is one of the clubs under the financial spotlight following the implementation of UEFA's new financial fairplay rules, which require teams to be self sufficient and limit the amount that benefactors such as Abramovich can spend with no expectation of return. If they don't meet these targets, which are being phased in over a number of years, then clubs face expulsion from top European competitions. "The big challenge is always to have a successful team on the field that wins trophies and to make a profit at the same time," said Chelsea chief executive Ron Gourlay. "The objectives have been set across the whole business, from the Academy to Under-21s and all the way through to the first team. "Our club philosophy is built on success. We had that success on the field this year, as we were the first London team to win the UEFA Champions League, and we enjoyed it off the field as well and this helps us inject financial investment into the team." Chelsea has also sought to boost its income streams, signing a three-year global energy deal with Russian corporation Gazprom in July while also taking full control of its digital media operations. "We're in favor of Financial Fair Play," manager Roberto di Matteo told reporters on Friday ahead of this weekend's home clash with Liverpool. "We're doing everything in our power to comply with the new rules, and this is great news for the club. "For the first time, we've been able to achieve a profit -- also thanks to the success on field, but off field as well, with new sponsor deals and also the transfer market. "Going forward, I think that puts Chelsea in a strong position to remain competitive at domestic level but also international level." It has been a mixed season so far for Chelsea, with impressive onfield performances marred by racism controversies. Captain John Terry has just completed a four-match ban for abusing a black opponent a year ago, while the club has lodged a complaint against EPL referee Mark Clattenburg over alleged racist remarks made to Nigerian midfielder John Obi Mikel. A Chelsea fan has also been arrested for making an alleged monkey gesture towards a Manchester United player during last week's English League Cup match at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea announces profit of $2.2 million for the period ending June 30, 2012 . It is the first time the English club has been in black since Roman Abramovich took over . Russian has bankrolled Chelsea in recent years but new rules threaten to curb this . Club says it now has the fifth largest turnover of any team in Europe .

(CNN) -- You can't change Washington from the inside. President Obama was criticized for stating that simple truth during the campaign, but without Americans organizing in support of the issues they believe in, lobbyists and special interests will drive the agenda in Washington. At this crossroads for our economy, we can't afford business as usual. That's why we've formed Organizing for Action, to ensure that the voices of the majority of Americans who voted for policies that will strengthen the middle class will be heard. 'Obama for America' morphs into 'Organizing for Action' As we worked for change during the president's first term, we saw special interests spend unprecedented amounts in an attempt to persuade Congress to vote against policies the American people voted for. History is repeating itself. Gun manufacturers are well represented. The NRA is running advertisements to defeat common sense gun safety measures like universal background checks, which more than 90% of Americans support. Groups with unnamed backers are advocating against comprehensive immigration reform. We have no plans to shrug this off and tell those Americans organizing their communities to stand down. While the president delivered the State of the Union address, volunteers at more than 1,200 events were asking their friends and neighbors to join them in ensuring that agenda is enacted. Since Organizing for Action was established six weeks ago, volunteers have held more than 100 events in more than 80 congressional districts demanding a yes vote on the president's plan to curb gun violence. Whether it's participating in a social media campaign or hosting a press conference, 964,000 Americans have already mobilized through Organizing for Action -- and we've ensured they have the tools they need to get the attention they deserve. Push-back from some quarters has been fierce. Members of Congress who are used to just worrying about a few interest groups will face broader based opposition because of organizing efforts by Organizing for Action volunteers around the country. Those who previously had special access will no longer be unchallenged. There has been some confusion about what Organizing for Action is and is not. Organizing for Action is an issue advocacy group, not an electoral one. We'll mobilize to support the president's agenda, but we won't do so on behalf of political candidates. The president has always believed that special interests have undue influence over the policymaking process, and the mission of this organization is to rebalance the power structure. Obama supporters launch ad campaign to push gun proposals . While Organizing for Action is a nonprofit social welfare organization that faces a lower disclosure threshold than a political campaign, we believe in being open and transparent. That's why every donor who gives $250 or more to this organization will be disclosed on the website with the exact amount they give on a quarterly basis. We have now decided not to accept contributions from corporations, federal lobbyists or foreign donors. Supporters of Organizing for Action will dedicate their time to mobilize their friends and neighbors on behalf of the president's agenda. Whether you're a volunteer or a donor, we can't and we won't guarantee access to any government officials. But just as the president and administration officials deliver updates on the legislative process to Americans and organizations across the ideological spectrum, there may be occasions when members of Organizing for Action are included in those updates. These are not opportunities to lobby -- they are briefings on the positions the president has taken and the status of seeing them through. Special interests shouldn't have a stranglehold on the policymaking process. Too many Americans worked too hard over the past six years to ensure that the middle class gets a fair shot to stop now. For every lobbying group that puts a dollar on the air tearing down the president's agenda, an Organizing for Action volunteer will mobilize to counter it. Instead of coming from the highest paid lobbyists on K Street, change will come from Americans organizing across the nation. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Jim Messina .

Jim Messina: Post-election, a new organization aims to advance Obama's agenda . He says goal is to counter well-funded special interests that don't represent majority views . An example: Gun lobbyists fighting background checks 90% in U.S. support, he says . Messina: Group will shun funds from corporations, lobbyists, will represent Americans .

Rio de Janeiro (CNN) -- Women shake their hips seductively and children dance in flip-flops to booming electronic music while young men brandish pistols and the occasional assault rifle. It's just another funk party in one of the lawless favelas on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. Since 2008, when authorities launched a so-called "pacification" effort, police have stormed dozens of slums to squeeze out criminal gangs and make the city safer for residents as well as the hundreds of thousands of tourists expected for the World Cup, which starts next month, and the 2016 Olympic Games. Initially, police targeted shantytowns closest to tourist hot spots, the iconic favelas that cling to hills overlooking Copacabana and Ipanema. But far from the sunny beaches and pretty promenades that line the coast, drug gangs still reign supreme. Even during the day, the drug business is brisk and carried out in the open. Armed men, often just teenagers, stand watch at corners and communicate by radio as housewives, workers and children coming home from school walk by. Sales are made from a plastic table erected on a corner, piled with little baggies of marijuana, hashish, cocaine, crack, even an inhalant containing ether. Money is stuffed in plastic containers. The local dealers agree to talk while they carry on with their trade. "What we sell most is the famous white powder, the 20-real hits," says Jorge as he holds up little baggies of cocaine, worth about $8. A hit of crack costs about $2 and a baggie of marijuana about $4. They say most of their customers are locals, but they increasingly have more clients coming from Rio's wealthier neighborhoods because of the heavier police presence there. Jorge, 22 with bleached hair, wears board shorts and flip-flops and has an AR-15 slung over his shoulder. "I was born in the middle of trafficking. I didn't see any other alternative," he says. "If I could choose a profession, I would be a fireman or a doctor." For decades, Rio's favelas were neglected by authorities, considered no-go zones even by police. Rival drug gangs fought for control. They became judge, jury and executioner -- and a part of daily life. Jorge says: "If I told you I wasn't afraid of dying it would be a lie. If I told you I avoided death, it would be a lie. I wouldn't be here trafficking if it were true." But he says he thinks the greater police presence would make life worse for his community. Under the controversial pacification program, police have reduced crime and killings in the communities where they have seized control from drug gangs, but they have also come under fire for strong-arm tactics and excessive violence. In some cases they have been accused of murder. Police are investigating some allegations but say they are isolated incidents. In the hundreds of far-flung shantytowns that haven't yet been included in the program, feelings are mixed. A community organizer, who asked not to be named, said a police presence should just be the first step for greater participation in city life. "What we need here are opportunities for our young people, like job training and internships," he said. "The police just come in here wanting to break heads." But for Wagner, a former trafficker now interned at a drug rehabilitation shelter, pacification would be a way for his community to break free. "My community lives in a constant war zone. There are people who support the traffickers, but they always want something in exchange: They want your son or they want you to leave your door open so they can escape from the police. They always want something," he says. But most people seem to agree that the police first have to convince communities they won't just pack up and leave once the World Cup and Olympics are over.

Drug gangs still reign in Rio shantytowns that haven't seen pre-World Cup crackdowns . 'Pacification' is credited with reducing crime but accused of using heavy-handed tactics . Residents carry on their lives with drug deals on corners and teens carrying guns . One former trafficker says: "My community lives in a constant war zone"

(CNN) -- CNN marked a milestone Monday. Just before noon, the @cnnbrk account topped 10 million followers on Twitter. That puts our Twitter account in the company of Lady Gaga, President Barack Obama and Cristiano Ronaldo. To mark the occasion, it's worth reflecting how we got here. The first tweet on @cnnbrk wasn't news, and it wasn't written by an employee of CNN. "Testing" is what James Cox tweeted in January 2007. Cox said he started the account as a way to receive CNN's breaking news alerts on his phone. The account started to grow and gain attention. Journalist and fellow developer Brian Boyer posted this to his blog back in 2008: "@cnnbrk ain't CNN but with >30K followers, he owns the brand." Cox wrote a response to that post: "I've been in contact with CNN -- they won't sue, i'm fairly sure, however i'm constantly dealing with the problem of confusion -- users still think that @cnnbrk is an official feed, therefore making me a defacto CNN employee, which is a problem." We didn't sue, but we did work out a deal to get the handle. As we celebrate reaching the 10-million-follower mark, Cox is the first person we should thank. The second person to thank, naturally, is Ashton Kutcher. In 2009, he challenged CNN to a competition to see who could first reach 1 million followers. Kutcher won. At more than 13 million followers, @aplusk is still in the lead. And we're still coming after him. We have a simple approach to @cnnbrk, and we believe that's one of the keys to its success. Breaking news, from an organization that built its brand on breaking news. Straight up. Some of our most retweeted items include colorful observations from events such as last year's conventions, slightly offbeat news and old-fashioned big breaking news. This isn't to say we aren't still "testing." We haven't always been first. It's rare that we get it wrong, but when we do, we've tried to be transparent about it. We believe that's another key to our success. And we have a dash of fun on occasion. The CNN homepage team has managed @cnnbrk for the past three years, hand-crafting every tweet, 24-7, mostly from our home base in Atlanta. They deserve the bulk of the cake and Champagne for this latest accomplishment. That team is headed by Carl Lavin (@FromCarl), our lead homepage editor. Lila King (@lilacina), our senior director for social news, is a spirit guide over all of CNN's social media efforts. "B-R-K," in newsroom shorthand, isn't the only Twitter account at CNN. We have more than 100. Our second most popular account is @cnn, and it's no small fry with more than 7 million followers. What's the difference between @cnnbrk and @cnn? On @cnn, you'll find breaking news -- and lots more. Some of our biggest and brightest names and shows have active, highly followed accounts. Many of our sections and beats, such as @cnnopinion, have their own accounts. The news team at Twitter called @cnnbrk the "Lady Gaga" of news. Some of the staff is now suggesting that we wear meat dresses to work. Instead, we'll thank those who got us started, tweet a thank you to all 10 million of our followers, and press on to 11, 12, 13 million and beyond. Lila King and Carl Lavin contributed to this piece and deserve an extra slice of cake for their efforts.

@cnnbrk surpassed the 10-million-follower mark Monday . Managing Editor Meredith Artley says the CNN Twitter account started small . Ashton Kutcher challenged CNN to a competition to reach 1 million; he won . Artley: CNN thanks its many followers and @cnnbrk founder James Cox .

(CNN) -- There are many lessons to be learned from our experiences before and after 9/11. One lesson is that when you get a wake-up call...Wake Up! We received many wake-up calls from Osama bin Laden before 9/11. February 1993: The first World Trade Center attack by Ramzi Yousef, Omar Abdul Rahman (the blind Sheikh) and its financier, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad. Six people were killed and more than 1,000 were injured. June 1993: Rahman and others were charged in a plot to bomb New York landmarks including the Lincoln Tunnel, George Washington Bridge and the FBI's New York office. October 1993: Al Qaeda-trained followers kill 18 and wound 73 U.S. military officers in Mogadishu, Somalia, now known as "Black Hawk Down." August 1998: The bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania leave 12 Americans and hundreds of others dead. The FBI places bin Laden on its Ten Most Wanted list. October 2000: The bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen kills 17 sailors. September 11, 2001: The coordinated attack included four hijacked planes, two of which were flown into each World Trade Center tower and a third into the Pentagon. The fourth crashed in a Pennsylvania field when passengers heroically stormed the cockpit. In the summer of 2001, the declared priorities of the Department of Justice were guns and gangs. An FBI request for hundreds of additional agents, analysts and linguists for its counterterrorism program was rejected and returned on September 10. Since 9/11, we have spent trillions of dollars fighting two wars and reorganizing the federal law enforcement and intelligence community. Significant enhancements were made to existing agencies, and the Department of Homeland Security, including the TSA, was created. Are we safer today? I agree with experts who believe that a large sophisticated and coordinated attack such as 9/11 is extremely unlikely. The decimation of al Qaeda, the killing of bin Laden, the monitoring of the global financial network and international communications among terrorists, greater international sharing of information and public awareness make it nearly impossible to duplicate the scale and scope of the 9/11 plan. The United States has now received "specific, credible but unconfirmed" information that one or more vehicles containing explosives may be used for an attack in New York and/or Washington this weekend. This reporting makes no mention of a large scale attack using aircraft. It is considered credible because accurate information has been previously obtained from this source. However, it is unconfirmed because the terrorists have not been identified and the actual attack plan has not been verified. I offer a lesson from history to support my belief that smaller attacks will continue for decades. Although Hitler died in his Berlin bunker in April 1945, "Hitlerism" lives on: . In 1977, the National Socialist Party of America, a neo-Nazi group, held demonstrations in the Chicago area. "The Turner Diaries" by William Pierce was first published in 1978 and is considered the inspiration for the creation of numerous groups and the commission of many crimes. These include the 1984 murder of Jewish radio talk show host Alan Berg and the 1995 attack on the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. This year, on January 19, a bomb was placed on the Martin Luther King Day parade route in Spokane, Washington. A man with past ties to a neo-Nazi group, the National Alliance, has pleaded guilty. If these events still occur 66 years after Hitler's death, what can we expect during the next 66 years following bin Laden's death? The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Thomas V. Fuentes.

Thomas Fuentes: Lesson of 9/11 is to pay attention to threats . He says there were numerous warnings of al Qaeda's danger . Fuentes says likelihood of large-scale attacks like 9/11 are slim . He says smaller attacks could continue for decades .

(CNN) -- Fears over Ebola have made the jump from pundits to the playground. On Friday, a group of students attacked two of their peers at I.S. 318 in the Bronx while yelling "Ebola" at the brothers who had recently returned from Senegal, the boys' father told CNN Newsroom Tuesday. The New York Department of Education confirms the incident occurred, saying the boys were pushed and shoved. Ousmane Drame, the boys' father, said the boys felt so upset by their experience that they want to go back to Africa. Ebola outbreak: Get up to speed . "They were made fun of by the children (who) started yelling, 'Ebola. Ebola. Ebola. Africa. Africa," Drame said his sons told him. Charles Cooper of the African Advisory Council, a local advocacy group, said that during lunch, one of the boys was jumped by the students who had been calling him "Ebola." When his older brother intervened, the brother also was assaulted. Drame said classmates refused to play with his sons in gym. "We're done playing with you. You have Ebola," he said one of the bullies told his sons. "You sit down. ... They don't want to play with them. Nobody is close to them." "We will not tolerate intimidation or bullying of our students," NYC Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina said in a statement, "especially in this moment when New Yorkers need to come together." Who shouts 'Ebola'? 'The stigmatization of Ebola' Farina added that her office is investigating and that they've sent staff to "mediate the incident." Cooper said these young children are bearing "the stigmatization of Ebola and something needs to be done." The boys, according to the their father, were born in the United States. Senegal, the country they returned from, has had only one case of Ebola. On October 17, the World Health Organization declared that nation free of Ebola. "They want to go to school," their father said. "I need to find a new school." But perception isn't always fueled by fact. In the first week of October, the CDC received 800 calls from Americans concerned about Ebola. When a doctor in Manhattan became that New York City's first Ebola patient, everything he'd touched since he returned from Guinea came under scrutiny. A bowling alley he visited underwent decontamination as headlines asked whether Ebola could be transmitted via a bowling ball. Poll on Ebola attitudes . According to a new CNN poll, 81% of Americans polled think it's likely someone in the United States will be infected with Ebola in the next few weeks. But only about a quarter think that will happen in their community. A slight majority approve of the federal government's handling of the disease and fully 71% are confident the feds can prevent a nationwide outbreak. But the poll did show that three in 10 would like noncitizens traveling from West Africa to be prevented from entering, even in absence of any symptoms. "We cannot allow the Ebola epidemic to stigmatize a single population," said U.S. Rep Jose Serrano of New York. The congressman, who represents the part of the Bronx where the two boys were attacked, said in a statement: "Ebola is not a West African problem, or even an African problem, it is a global health concern. Instead of feeding into the fear and discriminating against others, we need to come together in solidarity as we grapple with this terrible disease." Or as Cooper with African Advisory Council put it to News 12: "We don't want to see any of our children being bullied in any school. They are there to learn and they're there to be kids." CNN's Sho Wills contributed to this report.

Two boys just returned from Senegal were beaten at a Bronx public school, their father says . The father said the attackers yelled "Ebola" at his sons . NYC schools chancellor said her office will investigate . CNN poll: 81% think somebody in U.S. will be infected with Ebola soon .

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Thousands of Kurds and their supporters poured into the streets of northern Iraqi cities on Thursday to protest the Turkish parliament's approval of cross-border raids into Iraq. Iraqi Kurdish youths wave their regional flag as they protest in Thursday in Irbil, Iraq. Some 10,000 demonstrators in Irbil, the capital of the Kurdish regional government, carried banners and signs and shouted "no to Turkey." Riot police were on hand, but there were no reports of disorderly conduct. In Duhuk, another mainly Kurdish city in northern Iraq, 5,000 demonstrators marched to the U.N. offices, according to The Associated Press. They presented a document asking the United Nations to stop Turkey from taking any military action in Iraq, the AP reported. Turkey's parliament on Wednesday voted to authorize cross-border actions by the country's military into Iraq to attack separatists from the Kurdistan Workers Party, known as the PKK. Watch a new generation of protesters politicized » . That group, which operates largely in southeastern Turkey, has attacked Turkey from northern Iraq, and Turkey is intent on stopping that activity. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said the parliamentary vote wouldn't necessarily trigger immediate military action, and many analysts doubt that a full-scale invasion would be launched. Iraq and the United States oppose such cross-border action and hope they can persuade the Turks to deal with the PKK problem by diplomacy. Meetings this week with Turkish leaders about border tensions "ended in good results," the office of an Iraqi vice president said Thursday. Tariq al-Hashimi, one of Iraq's two vice presidents, met with Turkish President Abdullah Gul, Erdogan and Foreign Minister Ali Babacan in Turkey's capital, Ankara. "Before leaving Ankara, his excellency appealed to the Turkish government for restraint and to consider some time for the political efforts to take place in order to resolve the current crisis in the best possible way," al-Hashimi's office said. Al-Hashimi said he hopes the meetings result in a timely "joint effort" between the Iraqi and Turkish governments "to stop the terrorist operations across the border." He said such an effort will be successful through proper coordination over policies by "the formation of joint committees to review the outstanding issues" and a follow-up of bilateral security agreements. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, visiting Paris for meetings with French leaders, called al-Hashimi's visit a success and said he does not "believe that there is an imminent Turkish attack into northern Iraq and I hope that it will not happen." "We hope that the wisdom of our friend, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is enough to prevent the Turkish military intervention," Talabani, who is Kurdish, said Wednesday. The Kurdistan regional government issued an appeal to "our friend and neighbor Turkey to refrain from military action in Iraq" and urged a political solution, rather than a military one, to the longstanding "problem of the PKK." "A Turkish military attack on the Kurdistan region of Iraq would make the situation worse, complicating the prospects for a political solution in Turkey and threatening the fragile progress that is being made in Iraq," according to a statement posted on the government's Web site Wednesday. "We do not interfere in the internal affairs of Turkey, and we expect the same in return," the statement said. The Kurdish region -- Duhuk, Irbil and Sulaimaniya provinces -- has had a close economic relationship with Turkey and said it considers good relations with Ankara a top priority. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Saad Abedine, Nic Robertson and Sarah Sultoon contributed to this report. Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

NEW: Kurdish regional government appeals for restraint by Turkey . Marchers in Iraq's Kurdish region protest against Turkish parliament vote . Vote authorized military action against Kurdish separatists based in Iraq . Iraqi official says meetings with Turkish leaders this week brought "good results"

Los Angeles (CNN) -- Camille Grammer accuses her ex-boyfriend of leaving her bruised and battered from a fight while she was recovering from cancer surgery. A judge granted the ex-wife of actor Kelsey Grammer a temporary restraining order Tuesday that says Dimitri Charalambopoulos must stay at least 100 yards away from her. CNN has been unable to reach Charalambopoulos for a response. Court documents filed by Grammer -- a former "Real Housewife of Beverly Hills" cast member -- describe in dramatic detail an early morning fight with Charalambopoulos in a Houston, Texas, hotel where she was recovering from surgery two weeks ago. "I wake up at least twice per night with visions of his face as he was attacking me," Grammer said in her filing. "I continue to fear for my safety and for the safety of my children, who had grown to trust Mr. Charalambopoulos during the course of my relationship with him." Grammer, 45, began dating Charalambopoulos, a 36-year-old fitness trainer from Texas, more than two years ago, according to court papers. Her divorce from Kelsey Grammer was finalized in February 2011. The argument began at 1:30 a.m. on October 16 when she was awakened by the vibration of Charalambopoulos' cell phone "with incoming text messages and phone calls from another woman," Grammer said. "Inquiry escalated to argument, and Mr. Charalambopoulos became verbally abusive to me, shouting expletives and insulting me with misogynic epithets," she said. "He grabbed me by the hair, twisted it around his hand, and repeatedly pulled my head into the bed and its headboard. In so doing, Mr. Charalambopoulos succeeded in pulling out swaths of my hair and gave me a large, painful contusion on the side of my head." When Grammer began screaming for help, "Charalambopoulos squeezed my nose between his fingers and pushed upward forcefully, meanwhile covering my mouth in an attempt to silence me and to prevent me from breathing," she said. "I experienced great pain in my nose and became afraid for my life as a consequence." The attack continued for another 40 minutes to an hour, she said. "I begged him to stop and threatened to call police," she said. "He wrestled me on the hotel bed, repeatedly slamming my head and face into the furniture, and eventually he succeeded in completely immobilizing me." Sitting on top of her -- with his knees "mere inches from the area that had been the object my invasive surgery only a few days before" -- Charalambopoulos put his fist in her face and told her, "I wanna smash your head in," and "I'll give you a reason to call the cops," Grammer said in her sworn statement. Before leaving her hotel room, he smashed her iPhone and unplugged and disassembled the hotel phones, she said. "He told me I was going to hell, and then, to make his escape, he said he would 'knock (me) out' if I moved from the bed while he left the hotel," Grammer said. Three minutes after he walked out, Grammer "hobbled down" four flights of stairs to the hotel lobby where an employee called police, she said. A Houston police spokesman said no charges have been filed, but the incident is still under investigation. He noted that "they broke each other's cell phones" and her injuries were minor. Grammer's request for the restraining order included photographs of bruises on her wrists and face, her broken cell phone and a clump of her hair. A hearing to decide whether the temporary order will be made permanent is set for November 19 at the Santa Monica branch of the Los Angeles County Superior Court. CNN's Oscar Merino and Jane Caffrey contributed to this report.

Fight started with "text messages and phone calls from another woman," Grammer says . "I wake up at least twice per night with visions of his face as he was attacking," she says . "He told me I was going to hell," Grammer says . No charges have been filed, but the investigation continues, police say .

(CNN) -- As the nation faces a looming retirement crisis, a member of Congress has proposed a terrible idea that would bash seniors. Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier of California asked the National Park Service to consider raising the price of the senior lifetime pass to help solve the parks' $153 million budget gap caused by the sequester cuts. Pause for a moment and consider that $153 million is a tiny portion of the federal budget. It is a little more than the value of Bill Gates' house and a fraction of the price of a B-2 bomber. People over 62 can buy a $10 lifetime pass to the more than 2000 federal recreational sites. For volunteers, the disabled and young children, it's free. With the exception of a few other cases, it's $80 for an annual pass to all the sites. If the park service doubled the cost of the senior lifetime pass, it would raise $5 million. That's such a tiny drop in the bucket it's laughable. This is not about the $5 million. Raising the lifetime park pass for seniors is not offered up to lower park admission prices for young people. In other words, there is no fixed pie. If grandma gets more, then baby Charlie gets less. No. Unlike reptiles, human societies do not arrange to eat their young. There is a sincere but mistaken belief out there that the old are taking advantage of the young. Societies that pay for the old can pay for the young, too. It's not a zero-sum game. My colleagues and I have analyzed the national budgets in more than 63 nations. When a society spends more money on the elderly, they also spend more money on education and other programs benefiting the young. For example, in the United States in the 1970s, education spending tripled, education attainment rates soared and Social Security and Medicare expanded. The park pass proposal comes across as another attempt to erode the financial situation of American seniors who are already facing threats in their coming old age. The various proposals floating around to cut Social Security are scary enough for older Americans. For example, one idea from the Simpson-Bowles Commission is to raise the age seniors can collect their full Social Security benefits from 67 to 70 and the eligibility age from 62 to 65. President Obama has proposed replacing the regular consumer price index, or CPI, to adjust Social Security benefits with the chained CPI -- often called the cat food CPI because the index assumes that when the price of human food rises, seniors can substitute cheaper food to get the same nutrition. A chained CPI would lower lifetime benefits to the oldest seniors by more than $25,000. With the U.S. economy growing at a sluggish pace, older Americans who are nearing retirement face more uncertainty. In 2012, a report from the Government Accountability Office found employers are reluctant to hire older workers, citing reasons such as outdated skills as one of the factors. Workers who are 55 years old and up who lose their jobs have it the hardest. They face the longest period of unemployment. Members of Congress who want generational fairness and balanced budgets won't get there by whacking the elderly with Social Security cuts or higher park pass prices. Why can't Congress be smarter about finding ways to revitalize the economy and create jobs? That is a rhetorical question. They are busy finding coins in the sofa cushions instead of creating a sustainable and stabilizing federal budget. Raising the price of park passes for the elderly won't make a real dent or help young people enjoy the trees more. With this budget process, fewer and fewer families or the elderly will be able to get to the park if they're busy scrambling to get by. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Teresa Ghilarducci.

A congresswoman proposes raising the price of the senior lifetime pass to national parks . Teresa Ghilarducci: Raising the price for the elderly won't make a real dent . She says the idea seems like another attempt to erode the financial situation of American seniors . Ghilarducci: There is no fixed pie; it's not as if seniors get more, then young people get less .

(CNN) -- Dubai police Monday identified 11 people suspected in the killing of a top Hamas official last month and vowed "to hunt them down." At the same time, police offered a chilling scenario of how Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a founding member of Hamas' military wing who had survived at least three other previous attempts on his life, was killed in his hotel room January 19 just hours after arriving in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The 11 suspects identified Monday include one woman and 10 men. All of them hold valid European passports -- one from France, three from Ireland, six from Britain, and one from Germany. None of the suspects has been arrested or charged in the killing. According to police, the suspects arrived in Dubai the day before the killing. Five of them carried out the crime while the remaining six served as lookouts, police said. Police identified a man from France as the logistical mastermind. Police allege the man stayed at a luxury hotel in Dubai, but also booked a room at the al Bustan Rotana hotel where al-Mabhouh was killed. The French suspect requested room 237 -- directly across from where al-Mabhouh was staying in room 230, police say, but the suspect apparently never stayed there. Instead, police say the rest of the group used the room to plot the killing and the alleged mastermind left the country before it was carried out. Footage on security cameras at Dubai International Airport show one of the suspects following al-Mabhouh after he landed, police said. Two others followed him once he arrived at the hotel, police said, taking the same elevator and ensuring al-Mabhouh was staying in room 230. Police said they believe the suspects entered al-Mabhouh's room about 8 p.m. after the hotel cleaning crew finished their rotation on the floor, using an electronic device to gain entry. Al-Mabhouh entered his room at 8:25 p.m., hotel security cameras and an electronic readout of his room key show. Police say the killing took no more than 10 minutes before the suspects left the room and headed immediately to the airport where they boarded flights to various cities in Europe and Asia, police said. Before leaving, police said, the group took great care to make sure the room looked orderly, removing anything that might indicate that al-Mabhouh resisted. The suspects also deliberately turned the safety lock on the room door from the inside in order to suggest the death was normal, police said. Police did not provide details about the nature of the killing in its statement Monday, but authorities have told al-Mabhouh's family that there were signs of five or six electric shocks on his legs, behind his ears, on his genitals and heart. Blood on a pillow led police to believe he was suffocated. Dubai police chief Dahi Khalfan said in a statement Monday that "The United Arab Emirates does not accept the notion that its land can be used as a battlefield for settling scores no matter what the causes or affiliations of these involved perpetrators can be." He warned that anyone who tries to "tamper with the country's security or the safety of any resident or visitor of its community will be subject to prosecution and accountability." At al-Mabhouh's funeral in January in Damascus, Syria, where he spent the last years of his life, mourners speculated that Israel's intelligence unit, Mossad, was behind the assassination. Al-Mabhouh was behind the kidnapping and killing of two Israeli soldiers in 1989, according to Hamas. Israeli security sources have told CNN that al-Mabhouh was a key link between Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas and he was involved in smuggling arms to Gaza. The same sources also point out an arms dealer could have many enemies, not just Israel. Israel has a stated policy on security matters of neither confirming nor denying involvement.

Senior Hamas official, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was killed in Dubai January 19 . The 11 suspects identified Monday include one woman and 10 men . His family believe Israel was behind the killing . Israel neither confirms nor denies any role in the death .

(CNN) -- For the makers of electronic cigarettes, today we are living in the Wild West -- a lawless frontier where they can say or do whatever they want, no matter what the consequences. They are free to make unsubstantiated therapeutic claims and include myriad chemicals and additives in e-cigarettes. Big Tobacco desperately needs new nicotine addicts and is up to its old tricks to make sure it gets them. E-cigarettes are being aggressively marketed to children with flavors like Bazooka Bubble Gum, Cap'n Crunch and Cotton Candy. Joe Camel was killed in the 1990s, but cartoon characters are back promoting e-cigarettes. Many e-cigarettes look like Marlboro or Camel cigarettes. Like their old-Hollywood counterparts, glamorous and attractive celebrities are appearing on TV promoting specific e-cigarette brands. Free samples are even being handed out on street corners. A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows the promotion of e-cigarettes is reaching our children with alarming success. In just one year, e-cigarette use doubled among high school and middle school students, and 1 in 10 high school students have used an e-cigarette. Altogether, 1.78 million middle and high school students nationwide use e-cigarettes. The three largest cigarette companies are all selling e-cigarettes. Because tobacco use kills more than 400,000 people each year and thousands more successfully quit, the industry needs to attract and addict thousands of children each day, as well as keep adults dependent to maintain its huge profits. Nicotine is a highly addictive substance, whether delivered in a conventional cigarette or their electronic counterparts. The potential harm from exposure to secondhand emissions from e-cigarettes is unknown. Two initial studies have found formaldehyde, benzene and tobacco-specific nitrosamines (a well-known carcinogen) coming from those secondhand emissions. We commend New York City recently for banning the use of e-cigarettes indoors. No e-cigarette has been approved by the FDA as a safe and effective product to help people quit smoking. Yet many companies are making claims that e-cigarettes help smokers quit. When smokers are ready to quit, they should call 1-800-QUIT NOW or talk with their doctors about using one of the seven FDA-approved medications proven to be safe and effective in helping smokers quit. According to one study, there are 250 different e-cigarette brands for sale in the U.S. today. With so many brands, there is likely to be wide variation in the chemicals -- intended and unintended -- that each contain. In 2009, lab tests conducted by the FDA found detectable levels of toxic cancer-causing chemicals -- including an ingredient used in anti-freeze -- in two leading brands of e-cigarettes and 18 various e-cigarette cartridges. There is no safe form of tobacco. Right now, the public health and medical community or consumers have no way of knowing what chemicals are contained in an e-cigarette or what the short and long term health implications might be. Commonsense regulation of e-cigarettes by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is urgently needed. In the absence of meaningful oversight, the tobacco industry has free rein to promote their products as "safe" without any proof. A proposal to regulate e-cigarettes and other tobacco products has been under review at the White House Office of Management and Budget since October 1, 2013. The Obama administration must move forward with these rules to protect the health of everyone, especially our children. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Harold P. Wimmer.

Harold Wimmer: New York City was right to ban the use of e-cigarettes indoors . Wimmer: Industry has free rein to promote e-cigarettes as "safe" without proof . Report shows that e-cigarettes are reaching our children with alarming success, he says . Wimmer: The FDA should regulate e-cigarettes and find out what chemicals they contain .

Los Angeles (CNN) -- Paris Jackson, the 14-year-old daughter of Michael Jackson, is being questioned Thursday about her father's last days as part of her family's wrongful death lawsuit against a concert promoter. In addition, Jackson lawyers told the judge in a court filing this week they were concerned that lawyers for AEG Live, the company accused of liability in Jackson's death, were "behaving aggressively and erratically" in their questioning of the Jackson children. AEG Live asked Los Angeles Superior Judge Yvette Palazuelos to order Blanket Jackson to appear for a deposition, but his doctor warned it would be "medically detrimental" to the 10-year-old boy, according to the court filing. When AEG Live lawyers deposed Prince Jackson, 16, earlier this month, they asked questions intended "to agitate the boy, creating serious concern among his guardians and attorneys," the document said. Prince "testified that he was intimately involved in his father's affairs," an AEG Live lawyer said in an e-mail defending the questioning. The wrongful death lawsuit is a high-stakes contest. Prince, Paris, Blanket and their grandmother, Katherine Jackson, are suing AEG Live for billions of dollars. The trial is set to begin in Los Angeles next month. Jackson lawyers complained that AEG Live lawyers engaged in "a concerted tactical effort made to harass and burden the Jackson family through these abusive discovery processes." While Blanket -- who was just 6 when his father died on June 25, 2009 -- will not be called as a witness in the trial, AEG Live has tried to force him to sit for a deposition, the filing said. Blanket's doctor provided a letter saying it would be "medically detrimental" to the boy. "Yet defendants still to this day say they may move to compel Blanket's deposition," the Jackson filing said. Jackson lawyers accused AEG Live lawyers of mistreating Prince when he was deposed on a recent Saturday. They "behaved in a manner designed to agitate the boy, creating serious concern among his guardians and attorneys," their filing said. "Defense counsel asked the boy completely irrelevant and repetitive personal questions about whether he sends text messages, whether he send text messages from his phone, and whether he 'tweets,'" they said. "Defense counsel also asked the boy about every place he had ever lived, every teacher he had ever had and about his current efforts to start a career in addition to being a full-time student -- none of which have anything to do with the case at hand." AEG Live lawyer Jessica Stebbins Bina, in an e-mail included in the court filing, defended her co-counsel Marvin Putnam's questioning of Prince. "My understanding is that the deposition proceeded with appropriate questioning, and that the questions were legitimate questions appropriate to a wrongful death suit," she said. The Jackson lawyers also complained about the questioning of family matriarch Katherine Jackson, who is 82. AEG Live lawyers deposed her for nine hours over three days and are asking for a fourth chance, they said. The questioning could have been easily done in two or three hours, they told the judge. The lawsuit contends that AEG Live is responsible for Jackson's death because it hired and supervised Dr. Conrad Murray, who was administering the surgical anesthetic propofol to Jackson each night for a month to induce sleep as he prepared for a series of concerts organized by AEG Live. AEG Live contends that Michael Jackson chose Murray as his personal physician. The promoter denies having hired or supervised Murray. A jury found Murray guilty of involuntary manslaughter after hearing testimony that he violated medical standards in his treatment of Jackson.

AEG Live also want to depose Blanket, 10, but doctor warns it would be "detrimental" Jackson lawyers complain that AEG Live lawyers were too aggressive with Prince, 16 . Questions asked of Prince were "legitimate" in a wrongful death suit, AEG lawyer says . Jackson family is suing AEG Live for billions in Michael Jackson's 2009 death .

Sanaa, Yemen (CNN) A senior cleric for al Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen was killed along with three other people in a drone strike on their vehicle January 31 in Yemen, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula said Thursday. The cleric, Harith bin Ghazi al-Nadhari, was killed in Yemen's south-central Shabwa province, AQAP said. The strike would be a further indication that a U.S.-led drone strike program is continuing following a pause during political upheaval in the majority Sunni Muslim nation. The United States has long conducted drone strikes against AQAP targets under the Obama administration. But the New America Foundation, which tracks the strikes, says there was a nearly two-month pause in the strikes in late 2014 and early 2015 as Shiite Muslim Houthi rebels moved against Yemen's U.S.-backed government. That uprising culminated in the resignation of Yemeni government's top leaders in mid-January. A week later, the U.S. drone strikes resumed, with a strike east of the capital, Sanaa, three U.S. officials said at the time. Al-Nadhari made headlines in November when he inserted himself into a rivalry between al Qaeda and ISIS, or the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. ISIS has captured parts of Syria and Iraq for what it calls its Islamic caliphate. In mid-November, ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi issued an audiotape saying his Islamic State had expanded to Yemen and other Middle Eastern countries. Al-Nadhari responded harshly in a video a week later, saying al-Baghdadi's declaration of an Islamic caliphate was illegitimate. "Our brothers in the Islamic State ... surprised us with several steps, including their announcement of the caliphate (and) they announced the expansion of the caliphate in a number of countries which they have have no governance, and considered them to be provinces that belonged to them," al-Nadhari said, according to a translation by the SITE intelligence group. "The announcement of the caliphate for all Muslims by our brothers in the Islamic State did not meet the required conditions," al-Nashari argued, because other jihadi groups were not consulted. Al-Nadhari also criticized ISIS for "going too far in interpretations in terms of spilling inviolable blood under the excuse of expanding and spreading the power of the Islamic State." ISIS and al Qaeda's top leadership in Pakistan had a bitter falling out in 2014, and al Qaeda and ISIS fighters have been fighting each other in Syria, but AQAP until November had stayed above the fray, calling for both sides to reconcile and pool resources to strike the United States. Houthi militants dressed in government uniforms raided the main office of Yemen's daily Akhbar Al Youm newspaper Thursday, according to two officials in the Yemen Journalists Syndicate, an organization for reporters in the country. Eyewitnesses said the attackers damaged some equipment and forcefully locked some journalists inside a guard room at the office. Details about how long the journalists allegedly were detained weren't immediately available. Akhabar Al Youm is one of the oldest independent publications in Yemen, with print houses in Sanaa and Aden. Houthi officials did not confirm that Houthis were involved in Thursday's raid. However, Ahmed Al Bahri, a legal adviser for the Houthis, said the newspaper had "always been anti-Houthi" and is funded by those who oppose the minority group. "Many lies against the Houthis are published, which in return damages our reputation, and with no government censorship over its reporting," Al Bahri said. CNN's Hakim Almasmari reported from Sanaa. CNN's Jason Hanna and Margot Haddad reported and wrote from Atlanta. CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank contributed to this report.

Harith bin Ghazi al-Nadhari was senior cleric for al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula . He and three others were killed in Yemen's Shabwa province, AQAP says .

(CNN) -- Fighting flared in Yemen's volatile southern region Thursday, as security forces battled armed Islamic militants in one town and reports surfaced of arrests and deaths in two other cities. Fighting erupted for six hours Wednesday in Hawta, the capital of Lahj province, when armed Islamic militants attacked government compounds, according to a security official who asked not to be named because he's not authorized to speak to the media. Three people died and at least 12 people were wounded in the clashes Wednesday, the official said. The fierce fighting between security personnel and insurgents resumed Thursday, witnesses said. Yemeni state TV also reported unrest in the southern towns of Zinjibar and Aden. It said al Qaeda militants in Zinjibar killed two residents and injured another in a mortar attack, and it reported the arrests of 10 al Qaeda members and five other people for firing at civilians and ransacking stores in Aden's Mansoura area. The security official and witnesses provided more detail to CNN about the fighting in Hawta. Armed militants took over security offices and fired rocket-propelled grenades at the central bank branch office and the compound of the judiciary on Wednesday, the official said. Terrified eyewitnesses and residents said they were ordered by the militants to stay indoors, and shops were forced to shut down. "The gunmen were in control quickly and government forces did not fight back in most cases," said Abdul Sattar Ali, a store owner in the province. "The gunmen occupied the buildings quickly." Impoverished Yemen has been wracked with tension in recent months. Anti-government demonstrations have engulfed the country, and protesters are demanding that President Ali Abdullah Saleh leave office. Saleh was wounded nearly two weeks ago when the presidential compound was attacked, and he is recovering at a hospital in neighboring Saudi Arabia. Government forces have been locked in conflict with al Qaeda's Yemen wing, and authorities fear that the group, called al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, is exploiting the country's political instability. It has a strong presence in southern Yemen. AQAP has been labeled as a foreign terrorist organization by the United States. The growing unrest has affected U.S. training operations aimed at helping combat AQAP in Yemen, U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen told reporters Thursday. "I worry a great deal about its continuing to grow and become more violent over time," he said. "I certainly would say that (the unrest) has gotten in the way of the training. ... The Yemeni forces are very focused on their own country right now." On Thursday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton classified AQAP operative Othman al-Ghamdi as a "specially designated global terrorist" under an executive order that "targets terrorists and those providing support to terrorists or acts of terrorism." It is the department's seventh listing of an AQAP member. A senior administration official told CNN that Ghamdi was released from the Guantanamo detention facility in 2006 and had been one of well over 100 detainees the Bush administration sent to Saudi Arabia. Al-Ghamdi "has been involved in raising funds for the organization's operations and activities in Yemen" and has "worked with other AQAP members to plan and stockpile weapons for future attacks," the State Department said in a news release. He appeared in a video alongside Fahd al-Quso, an AQAP operative wanted for his role in the USS Cole bombing in October 2000, the department said. Ghamdi was identified publicly as AQAP's operational commander in the video, released in May 2010, . The State Department said a U.N. panel has taken similar action against al-Ghamdi. CNN's Jill Dougherty contributed to this report .

NEW: Adm. Mike Mullen says unrest in Yemen has affected U.S. training efforts there . State TV reports a deadly attack in Zinjibar and arrests in Aden . Fighting also occurs in the Lahj provincial capital . Militants attack government compounds in Hawta .

(CNN) -- Entrepreneur and media mogul Jimmy Lai is not afraid of a challenge. He took on Hong Kong media barons to set up his publishing company in 1981 and provoked the wrath of the Chinese government when he spoke out against the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown against pro-democracy protesters. On topics ranging from China to the economic crisis, Jimmy Lai opened up to CNN's Talk Asia. Despite taking on such formidable opponents, he continues to run a successful publishing company in Hong Kong and Taiwan and remains outspoken defender of a free press and freedom of speech. "I think when you are not free you don't have dignity. And to me it's not a political issue whether you have democracy or what, it's a moral issue," he told CNN from his offices in Hong Kong. These days the Chinese Government tend to turn a blind eye to Jimmy Lai, but his criticism of them post Tiananmen -- calling then prime minister Li Peng a "turtle's egg" (an unpleasant insult in China) in an editorial -- precipitated his downfall in the clothing business. After the controversy he had to sell his stake in Giordano, the clothing company he set up in 1975 or risk the closure of all his shops in mainland China. It cost him millions in lost business opportunities. He's suffered other business failures; a shopping web site set up during the first dot.com boom was one of a number of causalities when the bubble burst. Lai, however, remains philosophical about money. "I think I'm a bit different to other people because I'm actually from a very rich family so I had the riches, I had the sense of it. I was never insecure about money. I was very poor, but I never felt sorry." Hailing from southern China, Lai's family was wealthy but marginalized by the communist government. After working as a railway porter boy, Lai dabbled in the black market before being smuggled into Hong Kong when just 12 years old, taking a job as a child laborer and earning just over $1 a month. "You know I was free. I was full of hope. When I saw people in a Rolls Royce, in a Mercedes Benz, there was no envy, there was no jealousy, there was just hope that one day I was the one that will sit there," he told CNN. "You know the opportunity is there. You know that it is open for you. That was a wonderful society. You know that if you try hard, you will get it." Lai's can-do attitude and the heady free-market environment have proved to be a winning combination. However, Lai insists that freedom to make money is not the only thing that inspires him to run his publishing company. He remains politically aware and often an outspoken critic of China at a time when many try a more diplomatic policy of engagement. "It's the dictatorship that rubs me up the wrong way. It's the freedom that we, the Chinese people, are not allowed to flourish. I think when you are not free you don't have dignity. And to me it's not a political issue whether you have democracy or what, it's a moral issue," he said. Optimistic, determined, sometimes contrary, Lai is committed to pursuing his business interests in Hong Kong and Taiwan, as both value the freedom of press. He believes Taiwan will be a "very powerful catalyst that will change China". "In China you have a vacuum of moral infrastructure...It's just the free market and the government. So if the market fail and the government is dragging down with it, what is hold the whole society up?" he said. "I think if China has to make decisions to take measures which are so painful, without the mandate of the people they can't do it. That will be the beginning of a new China. China will have to go through a political restructuring."

Lai is a Hong Kong publishing tycoon and outspoken pro-democracy campaigner . Smuggled into Hong Kong, he worked in a factory before setting up clothing chain . Lai was forced to sell business after criticism of China's government . He set up publishing company in 1981, expanded business into Taiwan .

(CNN) -- The first time I saw Oscar Pistorius run, I was captivated. Witnessing him caused me to jump up and down. My 10-year-old son, an amputee since the first week of his life, calmly commented, "Mom, he's just a man!" I suppose that should have curbed my enthusiasm. But to see a man in motion without the use of feet was simply magical. I saw him as a future superhero for my son, who is missing part of his right forearm and hand. Completely inspired, I felt as though I had witnessed the Messiah. I was so captivated that I started posting his likeness all over my Facebook page. In short, I was caught up in "Oscar-mania." Even my church pastor had preached about Pistorius. The "Blade Runner," he said, represented Christian values. He embodied things that I wish for my son's life. Seeing Pistorius at the Olympic and Paralympic Games was amazing and did something very special to raise awareness of athletes with physical differences. However, in the hysteria, I lost sight of one simple thing that my son had been able to see: Pistorius is just a man. He has the ability to make the mistakes of mortals. He is not a god; he is a person, and I got caught up in the passion. In full: Pistorius' affidavit to court . We don't know what really happened. I would like to believe that Reeva Steenkamp's death was a horrible accident. Oscar Pistorius may or may not be guilty. But, whatever happened, there is a lesson: Too often in life, we put people on pedestals. We set them up to fail. The reality is that, despite their seemingly superhuman performances, they are just people with their own sets of challenges. The truth is, I wanted my son to have a role model. The first part of his life was filled with questions for me. I wanted someone to tell me that he would be OK. After he was born, the first couple of times that I saw someone with a limb difference, I would race up to them and start a conversation. In the beginning, this approach brought me comfort. One morning at the gym, I spotted a man with a limb difference like my son's. At the time, my baby was only 6 months old. I ran up to him and said hello. The guy turned and looked at me. In a thick French-Canadian accent, he responded, "Hello, my dear!" Completely embarrassed, I thrust my baby into his range of vision and stumbled to say, "He, he, he is like you!" Suddenly, his seductive voice changed to a matter-of-fact tone. In an instant, he said the words I have never forgotten: "This is your issue. Your son will never really see himself as different unless you let him." He continued, "He is young and you control how he perceives himself. So just relax and enjoy him." I was mortified and completely perplexed. But on another level, I was grateful for his words. All of this made my husband laugh. As a man who lacks hair, he remarked, "Honey, I don't run up to every bald guy! You should not expect to have a connection with every person whose limb difference is like our son's. After all, they are just people." So there, again, was my life lesson. We want to be reminded that ordinary people are capable of extraordinary things. But, despite whatever heroic and inspiring feats we accomplish, we are all potentially capable of doing great harm. I am grateful for Pistorius' flash of greatness, and I am sad if he has fallen from it. Have you ever learned an important lesson from your children? Share on CNN iReport or in the comments below. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Cynthia Falardeau.

Cynthia Falardeau's son, 10, lost part of his right arm as a newborn . Falardeau saw runner Oscar Pistorius as a role model for her son . Her son cautioned her, "Mom, he's just a man" Have a personal essay to share with the world? Submit at CNN iReport .

(CNN) -- For most of us, watching a fly mindlessly bouncing against a window in an effort to escape, is pretty annoying -- perhaps even infuriating. For a team of Swiss scientists, this stubborn maneuver could change the face of search-and-rescue missions forever. Introducing GimBall -- a spherical flying robot encased in a flexible cage, which allows it to happily smash into surfaces while navigating disaster sites. Bounce back . Unlike other rescue robots, where colliding with obstacles could easily spell the end of an expedition, GimBall is able to bounce back without losing its bearings or damaging its in-built camera. The futuristic floating ball is the brainchild of scientists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), and it's hoped that one day it will be used for everything from searching for survivors to measuring gas leaks in collapsed buildings. Watch: Flying robots perform amazing acrobatics . "We were wondering why insects were so capable of going inside any building -- yet had limited senses such as eyesight," explained co-creator Adrien Briod. "One capability that was completely overlooked was their ability to collide into surfaces. For insects this isn't a big deal -- but it is for robots." Flying to the rescue . Indeed, one of the first major search-and-rescue missions to use robots was in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks on New York's Twin Towers -- an area deemed too dangerous or inaccessible to humans. However, the ground-dwelling machines sometimes found it difficult to negotiate the collapsed World Trade Center, becoming stuck in the rubble. In the last decade, robotics has come a long way, with scientists increasingly looking at the benefits of flying machines in disaster zones. Watch: Flying robots inspired by birds . "A ground robot will very quickly be limited -- even a staircase is difficult. If you need to reach people on the fifth floor of a building, it won't be able to do it," said Briod. "Flying allows you to overcome large obstacles. And it provides an elevated point of view -- it's very useful to have an image of the scene from eye level, than from the floor." Clever design . So how does Gimball work? With a 37 centimeter diameter, the robot is a little larger than a basketball. Featuring a stable inner frame, and a rotating outer frame made of 90 flexible carbon rods, it is able to bounce off surfaces without damaging the machine. While other robots might need heavy sensors to help avoid collisions, GimBall keeps things light, weighing just 370 grams. Two propellers help it fly along at 5 kilometers per hour, with enough battery power to last five minutes. It can either be remote controlled, or fly autonomously, sending back footage to operators. Briod now hopes the pioneering design will be used in real lifesaving missions within the next year, and said we were on the brink of a new era in technology where drones were used in everyday life. "Up until now, the military had all the drones out there, but in the last few years there's been a huge development in civilian use," he said. "Technology is developing really fast in the field of remote control -- drones are used in rescue missions, fire, or inspecting unstable buildings, bridges, and boats." Sci-Fi future . The research team recently took GimBall for a spin in a Swiss woodland, watching it smash into trees, roll along uneven ground, and negotiate branches -- all without damaging its inner workings. It appeared like a rogue alien aircraft that had been left behind on a mission to Earth. So what is it about flying robots that continues to capture our imaginations in a way few other pieces of tech can? "It's not limited to 2D -- that's what fascinates people, this freedom to move in the third dimension," said Briod. "And seeing your creation flying is extremely satisfying."

Introducing GimBall, the flying robot that moves like a fly . The machine features a protective cage that lets it bounce off surfaces . Includes a small in-built camera . Swiss scientists hope it will be used in search and rescue missions in the future .

Moscow (CNN) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called on the ruling United Russia party Saturday to endorse Prime Minister Vladimir Putin for president in 2012. Putin in turn suggested that Medvedev should take over the role of prime minister if the party wins parliamentary elections in December, in what would be a straight swap of roles. Putin has already served two terms as the country's president from 2000 to 2008. It had not been clear until now whether Medvedev, his protege, would seek to run for a second term in presidential elections due to take place in March, fueling months of speculation. Addressing the party congress in Moscow, Medvedev said he wanted to answer the important question of who would be the party's presidential candidate -- and that he believed it should be Putin, the party's chairman. The ruling party's endorsement makes it highly likely that Putin will be returned to the country's top office, observers say. Medvedev's remarks were interrupted by applause as the crowd gave Putin a standing ovation. "This applause spares me the need to explain what experience and authority Vladimir Putin possesses," Medvedev said. He explained the long delay in making clear which of them would run for president next year as an issue of "political expediency," saying they had to play by the rules of politics. Medvedev, who said he accepted Putin's proposal that he stand for prime minister, said the government had succeeded in restoring a country that had been in "a deep decline, in a systemic crisis" a decade ago. "By our common efforts we've managed to preserve and restore our beloved fatherland, our Russia. And we will not give it back to anyone," he said. "We will not give it back to those who want to destroy it, to those who deceive people by giving them empty and unfeasible slogans and promises." In his own speech, Putin said it was a great honor to run for president and that his voice of command "is not lost." He said he wanted to see economic growth in Russia increase to 6-7% in the near future. In the next five years, Russia should be among the five most powerful economies in the world, he said. Putin also set out the task of fully rearming the Russian armed forces in the next five to 10 years. Putin said he was sure the United Russia party, whose election ticket will be headed by Medvedev, would win December's parliamentary elections. Medvedev would "be able to build a new, efficiently-functioning and young team of managers, and lead the government so as to continue modernization of all aspects of our lives," Putin added. For more than two years, Putin and Medvedev have repeatedly said they would decide together which of them would run for the Russian presidency in 2012, fanning the flames of intrigue. Even during his time as prime minister, Putin has been widely perceived as the senior member of the Russian "ruling tandem." Putin had stepped down in 2008 because the Russian constitution at that time limited a president to two consecutive four-year terms. Under amendments to the constitution that came into force on December 31, 2008, the presidential term was extended to six years. This means that if Putin is elected in March 2012 for six years, he would be eligible to run for another six-year term after that, potentially keeping him in charge until 2024. Under the same constitutional amendments the term for parliament members was extended from four to five years. Currently, the United Russia controls more than 300 seats in the 450-seat State Duma, the lower chamber of the Russian parliament. More than 10,000 people attended the party congress, held in Moscow's Luzhniki Sports Arena. CNN's Maxim Tkachenko and Alla Eshchenko contributed to this report.

NEW: Putin says Medvedev should be the next prime minister if the party is reelected . Putin sets out goals for Russia's economic growth . Putin previously served as president from 2000 to 2008 . Presidential elections will be held in March, after a parliamentary ballot in December .

(CNN)Phylicia Rashad says she was misquoted. She says she wasn't being dismissive of the women who've accused Bill Cosby of sexual assault when she came to the comedian's defense in an online interview. "I am a woman. I would never do that," she said on ABC's "World News Tonight With David Muir" on Wednesday. 'Forget these women' Rashad played Clair Huxtable, Bill Cosby's TV wife, on the groundbreaking NBC sitcom "The Cosby Show." Cosby's now been accused of harassing, drugging and sexually assaulting multiple women. And in an interview with Showbiz 411, Rashad said she never saw any indication of the behavior that the women have attributed to Cosby. "Forget these women," Rashad is quoted as telling the outlet. "What you're seeing is the destruction of a legacy. And I think it's orchestrated. I don't know why or who's doing it, but it's the legacy. And it's a legacy that is so important to the culture." Fast forward to Wednesday night. Rashad says the Showbiz 411 piece didn't accurately reflect what she said -- especially the "forget these women" part. "That was a misquote. That is not what I said," Rashad said. "What I said is, 'this is not about the women. This is about something else. This is about the obliteration of legacy.' " In a Wednesday post, Roger Friedman, the columnist who wrote the Showbiz 411 article, denied that he misquoted Rashad, but wrote that he understands how her words were taken out of context. "She didn't mean for it to be taken the way it was, and I should have punctuated. There was NEVER the meaning in 'Forget those women' that she was saying to actually forget or dismiss then." He continued, "She meant, 'those women aside' -- as in, she's not talking about that, she's talking about Cosby's legacy being destroyed. It was conversational. Somehow this got twisted. I am really sorry if the way I presented it made it seem like either one of us was forgetting anyone." Allred calls Rashad out . In coming to the defense of her TV husband, Rashad has now waded into a controversy that continues to dog Cosby. More than 20 women have come forward with claims, and a defamation lawsuit has been filed against Cosby. On Wednesday, attorney Gloria Allred brought out three more women -- Linda Kirkpatrick, Lynn Neal and a woman who chose to be identified only as Kacey -- who say they were sexually assaulted by the comedian after being drugged by him. While introducing the women, Allred addressed Rashad's statements to Showbiz 411. "Phylicia, you should be supporting these women rather than joining Cosby's paid 'attack dogs' who are trying to undermine them in any way that they can," Allred said. Cosby stays mum . And Cosby? He's maintaining his silence -- as he's done while his reputation suffers. He was in Kitchener, Ontario, on Wednesday night for a standup appearance. A few dozen protestors rallied outside, but the show went on without a hitch. Larger protests are planned for Thursday night's shows. After his set, Cosby released a statement thanking attendees. "I would like to personally thank you for giving me the opportunity to bring laughter back into your lives tonight," he said. Also, I would like to applaud all of you and give you a standing ovation for respecting yourselves, the theatre (Centre In The Square) and the event organizers that produced a spectacular show for the Kitchener Community." CNN's Eliott C. McLaughlin, Lisa Respers France and Todd Leopold contributed to this report from Atlanta, and Paula Newton from Ontario.

Writer says he did not misquote Phylicia Rashad but that her comment is misunderstood . She says she wasn't being dismissive of the women who've accused Bill Cosby of sexual assault . Cosby doesn't address the allegations during standup act .

(CNN) -- Apparently, Mother Nature's not a fan of Mother's Day, and she's letting some of us have it. At least one tornado touched down in Clay County, Nebraska, according to Loren Uden, emergency management coordinator for that county. He reported severe damage to the downtown business area in the town of Sutton. Roofs were torn off and windows were smashed. So far, just one injury has been reported there. A police officer in his cruiser on the edge of town suffered some minor cuts in his vehicle, Uden said. A farm in Sutton was reduced to rubble. "I guess it just lifted up the house and slammed it back down, because it's just in a pile of rubble right now," said McKenzie Gross, whose car was crushed by a tree in the severe weather. "This was my cousin's house. He and his wife lived there with their two kids. They weren't home. They got out in time. They went to my aunt's house a couple of miles away. It's freaky to see," she said. Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency Sunday as residents cleaned up from Saturday's tornado that ripped through the small town of Orrick, east of Kansas City. The storm brought heavy rain, strong winds and hail to many areas of the state, causing significant damage to homes, vehicles and schools, and taking down trees and power lines. The National Weather Service has given the tornado a preliminary rating of EF-2 and is surveying the damage. In a statement, the governor urged residents to monitor conditions and heed weather alerts as another round of potentially dangerous weather is forecast for later Sunday. Nixon asked Missourians to "stay alert, use caution and take shelter immediately" if severe weather is headed their way. An area of low pressure stretching from Texas north to the Great Lakes region threatens to produce severe thunderstorms for much of the country late Sunday, CNN meteorologists warn. The storms have the potential to produce tornadoes, hail and damaging winds of 60 mph or greater. There was a moderate risk for severe storms across the Central Plains, including parts of Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri. A tornado watch has also been issued for parts of central and eastern Iowa, including the counties of Appanoose, Davis, Putnam and Van Buren and the towns of Cedar Rapids, Davenport, Dubuque and Iowa City. Shortly after the watch was issued, a tornado warning was issued along Interstate 35, south of Des Moines. Behind the severe weather affecting the Plains, meteorologists are keeping a watchful eye on a snowstorm in the Rockies. Winter storm warnings and advisories have been issued for parts of Utah, Colorado, southern Wyoming and western Nebraska. Higher mountain elevations could see 1 to 2 feet of snow, with isolated pockets of up to 3 feet. Denver could see up to 5 to 10 inches of snow. Although snow might seem unusual this time of year, it's actually not record-setting for the Mile High City. Denver received an inch of snow on May 11, 2011, and even recorded snow as late as June 12 in 1974. The Southwest won't escape this wild weather either. Very strong, damaging winds will blow into parts of southern California, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico with gusts up to 50 to 60 mph. Dry conditions mixed with gusty winds could spell a fire threat. Red flag warnings have been issued as far east as the Texas Panhandle. The only areas of the contiguous United States to escape Mother Nature's wrath Sunday will be the Northeast and the West Coast. Most of the rest of the country will be dealing with some type of wind or storms. Maybe New York and Los Angeles remembered to send flowers? CNN's Matt Daniel, Todd Borek, Matthew Stucker and AnneClaire Stapleton contributed to this report.

NEW: A tornado touches down in Clay County, Nebraska . Missouri governor declares state of emergency after town is hit by EF-2 tornado . Risk of more tornadoes, severe storms across Central plains Sunday . Winter storm warnings and advisories issued for parts of the Rockies .

Tuscaloosa, Alabama (CNN) -- Leveled buildings, fallen trees and massive piles of rubble stretched across wide swaths of the South Thursday after destructive tornadoes and severe storms tore through the region. In all, the death toll from the wave of powerful storms that struck Wednesday and early Thursday was more than 280 people in six states. In Tuscaloosa alone, at least 36 people lost their lives. Officials scrambled to assess the damage. Doctors treated hundreds of injured. And dazed residents wandered the streets, telling harrowing tales of devastation and survival. Employees huddled in a windowless break room at a CVS drug store in Tuscaloosa as a tornado approached and a deafening roar filled the air, store manager Michael Zutell said. A mother cradling an infant sprinted inside just before the twister hit. "Glass is breaking. The woman with the baby is screaming. Part of the drop ceiling fell and boxes fly in," he said. No one inside the store was injured, Zutell said. "It's mind-boggling to think you walked away." Nurse Rachel Mulder said she and her husband rode out the storm in the bathtub of their second-floor apartment in Duncanville, Alabama. After the tornado passed, only their bathroom was standing. "My husband was walking around, looking for survivors and called me over and said...'Come here, someone is dying.' So I grabbed my first-aid kit and ran down the stairs to try and help her," she recalled. "I tried to stop her bleeding and save her, but she was taking her last breath." Bill Dutton found his mother-in-law's body hundreds of yards from the site of her Pleasant Grove, Alabama, home, which was swept away down to the foundation. "The last thing she said on the phone, she was taking shelter in a closet," he said. Reba Self frantically searched for her mother after a tornado pummelled their home in Ringgold, Georgia. "I'm screaming for her, 'Answer me, Mom -- please, Mom, answer me.' I didn't hear anything. It turns out she had gotten out of the house and walked around to the basement door, and she asked me if I was OK." Now, they're trying to make the best of the situation. "I'm laughing at her because she's in the house with a broom, sweeping. I told her, 'Mom, the house is gone, you can put the broom down,'" Self said. The widespread devastation in areas across the South left residents reeling Thursday. "It looks like an atomic bomb went off in a straight line," said Dr. Brian Wilhite, an internist at Druid City Hospital in Tuscaloosa who tended to the wounded. The facility was overrun with hundreds of people who suffered injuries, including head injuries or lacerations, he said. "It looked more like a Vietnam War site than a hospital," Wilhite said. "I know one physician who watched two people die right in front of him. There was nothing he could do." A video shot from the third floor of the University of Alabama's basketball coliseum shows a large mass sucking everything into forbidding dark clouds above. Christopher England, who recorded the video, said the tornado looked like a movie scene. "It was unreal to see something that violent and something that massive," he said. Tuscaloosa Mayor Walter Maddox estimated that the destruction spanned a length of five to seven miles, and was a mile wide in some areas. The challenges facing the city were daunting. The mayor said they were short on manpower, materials and equipment. The lifelong resident of Tuscaloosa said the damage was unlike anything he had seen before. "I don't know how anyone survived," he said. CNN's Wayne Drash, Reynolds Wolf, Mariano Castillo, Matt Cherry and Martin Savidge contributed to this report .

Survivors tell harrowing tales of the storm" Witness: "It looked like an atomic bomb went off in a straight line" Hundreds are killed across the South, and dozens are killed in Tuscaloosa, Alabama . "It's mind-boggling to think you walked away," one survivor says .

(CNN) -- "I was finding it hard to breathe, and I really thought that was it for me. I thought 'this is it - I'm not coming out of here,'" said earthquake survivor Anne Vos. She was speaking from her hospital bed in Christchurch, New Zealand, after being rescued from the rubble of a five-story building that collapsed during Tuesday's 6.3-magnitude earthquake. Vos had spoken to the media on her mobile phone while trapped under her desk in the Pyne Gould Corporation building, drawing international attention to her plight. In the 24 hours she spent under the rubble, Vos, 57, said she gave up hope, and accepted she would die. "I'm very lucky, I'm very, very lucky," she said. She said she remembered vividly the moment the quake struck. She had taken over at the reception desk to allow a colleague to go for lunch, and she was logging onto a computer when the "rumbling" started. "It happened so quickly. I heard the rumble and then stuff was falling from the ceiling and I thought it was best to go under the desk rather than try to get out. There wasn't any time to think, but I am lucky I didn't go to the stairs. There wouldn't have been time. I don't know what might have happened. "A lot of concrete pieces fell on me and the desk sort of bent completely around. My arm was trapped under a huge piece of concrete. It was starting to swell and I couldn't feel my hand. I couldn't get my feet out, and there was a lot of broken glass and electrical wires so I couldn't move at all. I was stuck there in a little cubby hole," she said. It was then, in severe pain and struggling to breathe, that Vos realized she may not survive. She began to call close friends and family on her mobile phone. "I was more or less saying goodbye. I just wanted to tell people that I loved them and to say goodbye." She was unable to reach her Melbourne-based son, Robert, and she left a goodbye message on his voicemail. Some time after those initial calls, Vos says she passed out. She was awakened by shaking, but she says she doesn't know whether it was an aftershock or the building further collapsing. Whatever it was, it changed her fortune. "When I came to, it (the piece of concrete on her) had moved and I was able to wriggle a bit. Once that came off and I could breathe again, I started to think maybe I could I make it. The whole time I was thinking about my family and my friends and I just wanted to make it out. I was hoping someone would rescue me soon." Vos' next few hours were remarkable. Her son, Robert, gave her number to a Melbourne radio station, and soon conversations with her were being broadcast internationally. She spoke to the media from underneath her crushed desk until her phone battery died. Listen to Anne Vos talking to the media . Vos was not rescued until early Wednesday afternoon. She was taken to hospital with cracked ribs, heavy bruising and multiple cuts. She said the feeling of relief was hard to describe, especially when she saw the state of the building. "While I was in there I didn't know what was going on. I was just trapped under my desk, you know. When I got out it was such a shock. The building wasn't there anymore. The job the search teams did was just fantastic." Vos says she now needs to assess the damage to her possessions, and after experiencing two major earthquakes and many aftershocks, she may decide to move away from the area. "I don't know if I'll stay. I am scared. I feel a bit like I have nothing keeping me here. I don't know if my place has survived." There are other anxieties too. "I am also a bit worried about where I could work. I think I would be too afraid to go into a tall building for a while," she said.

Anne Vos spent 24 hours trapped in the rubble of the Pyne Gould Corporation building . Vos's conversations with the media while hiding under her desk were broadcast internationally . Vos was rescued and taken to the hospital with cracked ribs and heavy bruises on Wednesday .

Washington (CNN) -- A Virginia mental health facility has dropped out of a plan to allow presidential assailant John Hinckley Jr. to participate in social group sessions, according to a government court motion issued Friday. Government prosecutors are calling on the federal judge overseeing Hinckley's case to reject a proposal by St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington to allow the man who shot President Ronald Reagan to have longer visits away from the government mental hospital. According to the court filing, St. Elizabeths sent an August 8 letter stating that Colonial Behavioral Health, People's Place facility in Williamsburg, Virginia, had withdrawn from the plan to participate in Hinckley's treatment. The letter has not been made public and prosecutors did not reveal why People's Place had bowed out. Prosecutors called the group sessions a "core feature" of the plan to allow Hinckley to spend more time living with his elderly mother in Williamsburg. "It now appears that the Hospital will need to begin anew in developing a plan for the expansion of (Hinckley's) current conditional release privileges," prosecutors wrote in their motion. The government wants the opportunity to have its mental health experts review any new plans St. Elizabeths may develop for Hinckley. U.S. District Court Judge Paul Friedman did not immediately respond to the government's motion. Hinckley currently spends 10 days a month visiting his widowed mother, who is in her late 80s. In July 2011, St. Elizabeths made a proposal to allow Hinckley two visits of 17 days duration followed by six stays lasting 24 days. After the proposed visits, St. Elizabeths requested the authority to decide whether Hinckley, 57, could be released on "convalescent leave," which would make him a permanent outpatient. Friedman presided over 13 days of testimony in late 2011 and early 2012 to consider the plan and has yet to issue a ruling. The government is opposed to the plan. Government experts testified that Hinckley has failed to make friends in Williamsburg and could become socially isolated. Hinckley's lawyers and St. Elizabeths said his participation in sessions at People's Place would help prevent that. One of the biggest controversies raised during the 13 days of hearings was that Hinckley did not always follow hospital-approved itineraries for how he would spend three hours of unaccompanied time allotted to him twice during each of his visits. \ . Witnesses testified that in July and September of 2011 Hinckley skipped movies he was permitted to attend and then lied about it. In addition, Secret Service agents who were watching Hinckley without his knowledge testified that in July and October last year, Hinckley went to bookstores and looked at shelves of history books, some of which dealt with presidential assassinations. Dr. Raymond Patterson, the former director of forensic psychiatry at St. Elizabeths, testified for the government. He said he interviewed Hinckley and specifically asked him about lying about going to the movies. According to Patterson, Hinckley said the doctor was "nitpicking." Patterson and a second government mental health expert said Hinckley should have kept to his itineraries to prove he could be trusted. Hinckley's defense lawyer Barry Levine said the key question is whether Hinckley is dangerous. "Not once during any one of these releases has Mr. Hinckley done anything dangerous or violent. Not once," Levine said during his closing argument in February. Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the March 1981 shooting of Reagan, press secretary James Brady, Secret Service Agent Timothy McCarthy and police officer Thomas Delahanty. Brady was shot in the head and permanently disabled.

The plan called for Hinckley to participate in group sessions in Williamsburg, Virginia . The Virginia facility has withdrawn from the plan for unknown reasons . Prosecutors say the D.C. hospital treating Hinckley needs to come up with a new plan . Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the 1981 shooting of President Reagan .

(CNN) -- Five people were arrested as tensions flared again in Ferguson, Missouri, with people threatening officers, shooting at them, throwing rocks and bottles, and one person tossing a Molotov cocktail at a parking structure, police say. Two officers were injured, one struck by a rock below the eye, Capt. Ron Johnson of the Missouri Highway Patrol said. And a business owner said looters tried to make off with his cash register. It was the third time the business had been broken into in the last six weeks, Johnson said. The St. Louis suburb has been in the national spotlight since August, when Officer Darren Wilson shot 18-year-old Michael Brown in the street. Protests carried on for weeks and, in the days just after the shooting, devolved into looting, vandalism and arrests. The tenor of the demonstrations eventually calmed, but on Tuesday, tensions flared again. Protesters said they were angry that one of three makeshift memorials at the site where Brown was shot burned earlier in the day. Across town, about 2 miles from the normal protest route, a museum and custard shop called the Whistle Stop was set on fire, and "gasoline appears to have been poured around that facility," Johnson said. Officers were able to douse the small fire with a garden hose, the trooper said. The St. Louis County Bomb and Arson Squad was called in to investigate, CNN affiliate KSDK reported. Complete coverage on Ferguson . Last month, the Whistle Stop's owner, Charles Stark, 26, spoke to CNN and described Ferguson as a place that bands together in tough times, "neighbor helping neighbor." Back on the protest route, police faced threats to their safety as violent people amid the protest made threatening remarks "about shooting police, about burning down the town," Johnson said. When some of the people making threats got too close to officers, "the decision was made to disperse the crowd," he said. One person was arrested for assault, inciting a riot and failure to disperse, Johnson said, adding that he couldn't remember why the other four were arrested, but he believed it was for failure to disperse. The cause of the fire at the memorial remains under investigation. In a statement, Police Chief Thomas Jackson said one of his sergeants responded to the fire and attempted to put it out with a portable fire extinguisher before alerting the Fire Department. "We're all saddened by the fire that was reported at one of the Michael Brown memorials this morning and are trying to obtain as much information as possible to determine what happened," the statement said. Some protesters, however, already had ideas about what happened. "We know it wasn't an accident. You know how many people live over there that seen it from the beginning? I mean it's just a big ol' flame. You could tell the way it was set," a protester told KSDK. Johnson bristled at the suggestion that police were responsible for or ambivalent about the fire, saying numerous residents "stood there for 11 minutes watching it burn." Some residents went door-to-door telling people that police were behind the blaze when they "could've put it out with a cup of water," he said. It was in that area, along Canfield Drive, that police in bulletproof vests saw muzzle flashes as people fired at them. "I was there. I took cover," Johnson said. Officers will continue to strive to protect public safety as well as the freedoms of speech and expression, Johnson said, but if certain violent elements among the protesters -- and he stressed that most of the demonstrators were, indeed, peaceful -- authorities will have no choice but to respond. "If that means officers will respond in riot gear, they will," he said. "We cannot have nights like last night. We can't have actions like last night that can result in injury or death. Those will not be tolerated."

Five people arrested, two officers injured, one hit in the face with a rock, police say . Ferguson has been in the national spotlight since Michael Brown was shot in August . Police: Someone apparently set a custard shop on fire after pouring gas around it . Protesters said they were angry that someone burned a Brown memorial earlier Tuesday .

SEATTLE, Washington (CNN) -- Predicting the path of a swine flu outbreak is next to impossible, public health officials say. But Dr. Ira Longini has spent more than three decades trying to do just that. Dr. Ira Longini studies simulations of hypothetical influenzas and how they would spread. And Longini says the apparent new strain of swine flu appears to be here to stay. "We are probably going to have to live with this virus for some time," he told CNN. Longini specializes in the mathematical and statistical theory of epidemics. He works at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Institute at the Hutchinson Research Center in Seattle, Washington. The researcher studies simulations of hypothetical influenzas and how they would spread across the United States. For the moment, he said, there is not enough information about the swine flu that has sickened hundreds in Mexico and about 50 people in the United States to accurately forecast how the disease will travel. But Longini's simulations of a fictional killer flu that were ordered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show the importance of steps health officials can take to prevent further spread of the virus. These measures include "social distancing," or encouraging those sickened with the flu to stay home or seek medical treatment; closing places where groups of people gather; and making anti-flu medications available to large portions of the population. In the simulations, Longini said, these forms of containment reduce the sickness by nearly two-thirds. "The name of the game is to slow transmission until a well-matched vaccine can be made and distributed. I am fairly optimistic we can do that," he said. Watch how computer models simulate an outbreak's spread » . So far, Longini said, it appears that everyone sickened by swine flu in the United States contracted the disease while traveling in Mexico, the apparent epicenter of the outbreak. But he cautioned: "That could change very fast. Obviously people in these communities could also get on airplanes and go other places or get on buses or cars or trucks and move around. The picture may change very rapidly. Basically, influenza is going to go where people go." Health officials agree that the worst may still be yet to come. "It is too soon for us to say what the spectrum is," Dr. Richard Besser, the acting director of the CDC, said Monday on Larry King Live. "We are going to see cases in this country that are more severe, individuals who are hospitalized, and I would not be surprised if we see deaths in this country." Longini said health officials are doing everything they can to mitigate how widely the swine flu spreads in the United States. Even if authorities examined everyone entering the country, Longini said, it would not solve the problem. "Through simulations and mathematical work we've shown that travel restrictions -- although potentially useful in slowing spread [of swine flu] -- they are not going to stop it," Longini said. "We can screen airline passengers, but there all those asymptomatic or incubating people we would miss. So you really have to deal with these outbreaks locally, everywhere they are occurring." Watch how countries are scanning travelers » . Longini said he hopes that as more data come in about the outbreak, it will help to answer questions researchers have about why the swine flu appears more deadly in the Mexico cases than the ones in the United States. Researchers also hope to find out why such a large percentage of fatalities in Mexico are young people whose healthy immune systems usually protect them from the flu. But there is good news, Longini said, at least temporarily, for populations in certain areas. In North America and Europe, summer will soon begin, ending the traditional flu season. Even outbreaks such as swine flu tend to follow standard flu season patterns, he said. Other parts of the world may not be so lucky. "Timing is terrible for people in the Southern Hemisphere -- places like New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, parts of South America, "Longini said. "They are just coming into their flu season."

Researcher studies how a potential flu outbreak could spread . Authorities taking vital steps to keep outbreak from spreading, he explains . Still, worst of swine flu outbreak may be yet to come, health officials warn . Researcher hopes data will show why outbreak so much deadlier in Mexico .

(CNN) -- A magnitude 7.9 earthquake struck off the coast of central Peru on Wednesday evening, killing 15 people and leaving 70 hurt, President Alan Garcia said on national television. Pedestrians try to make calls on their cell phones in Lima, Peru, after a strong earthquake Wednesday. Peru's Panamericana TV put the death toll at 17. It showed footage of traffic lights in the capital, Lima, swaying with the quake. After everything stopped shaking, medics were seen tending to a woman. The video also showed chunks of plaster that had fallen from buildings. Some Lima residents were sobbing after the temblor, while others appeared to be praying. "This has been the most terrifying experience we've had," Gladys Tarnawiecki told CNN from her home in Lima. "It was extremely long ... never in my life had I experienced this long an earthquake," she said. See the Lima resident describe how people were 'shouting and praying' » . Many people were outside in the streets, she said, as the radio warned them that aftershocks could follow the quake. Tarnawiecki said she was waiting in her car, afraid to go back inside. "It was chaos," said Fernando Calderon, an American visiting Peru. "Everybody started crying -- kids, everybody. Everybody started running toward any empty space. Everybody was afraid the buildings were going to collapse." "It's an awful experience, because there's no warning," he said. The quake shook inland towns, as well as cities near the coast and the mountains. There were power outages in Lima, Reuters reported, and people ran into the streets in panic as the tremor shook office buildings. Many stayed outside, afraid to go back indoors after the warnings of possible aftershocks. Meanwhile, tsunami warnings and watches issued after the quake for several Central and South American countries were canceled Wednesday night, as was a tsunami advisory for Hawaii. Peru, and most of the South American Pacific Coast, are on border of two tectonic plates: The South American plate, which includes most of the continent, and the Nazca plate, which extends across the Pacific along most of the coast. See a map of where the quake struck » . The quake was felt for two minutes, according to Peruvian media. Broken windows were reported in Lima, and mobile phone service was interrupted. The coastal town of Pisco, about 160 miles (257 kilometers) south of Lima, appears to be the hardest-hit, and electricity was out in the town, Gen. Luis Palomino, head of Peru's national civil defense institute, told CNN International. He said he could not confirm any deaths. The quake struck at 6:41 p.m. (7:41 p.m. ET) and was centered 25 miles (61 kilometers) west-northwest of Chincha Alta, Peru, and 90 miles (161 kilometers) south-southeast of Lima, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The epicenter was 25 miles (47 kilometers) below the Earth's surface. More tremors followed. A magnitude 5.8 quake occurred at 7:02 p.m. (8:02 p.m. ET). It was farther inland, centered 70 miles (113 kilometers) northeast of Chincha Alta and 111 miles (179 kilometers) east-southeast of Lima. And at 7:19 p.m., another smaller quake of 5.9 magnitude occurred, centered 30 miles (48 kilometers) south-southwest of Ica, Peru, and 180 miles (290 kilometers) south-southeast of Lima. E-mail to a friend . Reuters contributed to this report.

NEW: Tsunami warnings and watches canceled, as is Hawaii's advisory . At least 15 people killed, 70 injured in quake . Quake was felt for two minutes; people ran out of office buildings in panic . Broken windows, power outages reported in Lima, Peru's capital .

(CNN) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel could accept a peace agreement with a "demilitarized Palestinian state" as its neighbor. Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu said he would agree to peace with Palestinians. In his first speech accepting the concept of a two-state solution for the Middle East conflict, Netanyahu set rigid conditions for moving forward. Among them: unequivocal Palestinian recognition of Israel as the Jewish national state with Jerusalem as its capital, and full demilitarization for a Palestinian state -- no army, no rockets or missiles, no control of airspace. "I say this in a clear voice -- if we receive a guarantee of this demilitarized unit, we will be prepared to reach agreement to a demilitarized Palestine side by side with the Jewish state," Netanyahu said, according to a direct translation of his speech at Bar-Ilan University's Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies in Ramat Gan, Israel. Initial Palestinian reaction was negative, with Palestinian legislator Mustafa Barghouti saying Netanyahu was calling for creation of a ghetto state. "He is proving there is no partner for peace in Israel," Barghouti told CNN. Chief Palestinian Negotiator Saeb Erakat said Netanyahu "left us with nothing to negotiate as he systematically took nearly every permanent status issue off the table." "He announced a series of conditions and qualifications that render a viable, independent and sovereign Palestinian state impossible," Erakat said. "This speech fell far short of every single one of the benchmarks required of Israel in line with international law and existing agreements," he said, including the 2003 Roadmap for Peace. Netanyahu's speech, billed as a major statement on the peace process, follows President Obama's recent high-profile speech to the Muslim world and a visit to the region by Obama's Middle East envoy, former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell. Obama welcomed Netanyahu's speech as "an important step forward" and said the president remained committed to a two-state solution that would ensure Israel's security and provide the Palestinians "a viable state," according to a White House statement. Obama pledged to continue working with all parties "to see that they fulfill their obligations and responsibilities," the statement said. Netanyahu, of the center-right Likud party, previously refused to endorse a two-state solution. Netanyahu sounded themes popular with his conservative followers, repeatedly referring to Israel as the Jewish national homeland and demanding recognition of that by all Arab foes, including the Palestinians, for any chance at a peace agreement. He prompted applause with his statement that "the land of Israel is homeland to the Jewish people, and that is the basis of our right to it." "The Palestinian leadership must rise up and say in a very straight way that we are tired of this conflict, we will recognize the right of the Jewish people to have a national homeland in this part of the world," Netanyahu said, according to the direct translation. He said Jerusalem would remain the capital of Israel -- refusing to yield on a sensitive issue for Palestinians -- and that a Palestinian state would have to be fully demilitarized to ensure the safety of Israel. Obama, in his June 4 speech in Cairo, Egypt, endorsed a two-state solution and urged compromise between "two peoples with legitimate aspirations." He repeated his call for both Israel and the Palestinians to fulfill all obligations under the 2003 Roadmap for Peace, including a halt to any expansion of West Bank settlements by Israel. Obama called America's bond with Israel "unbreakable" but said Palestinians have suffered in pursuit of a homeland. He also called for an end to Palestinian incitement against Israel and greater security in Palestinian territories. On Sunday, Netanyahu acknowledged the suffering on both sides from the continuing Middle East conflict, but insisted the roots of the conflict came from the Arab world's refusal to accept Israel's right to exist.

NEW: President Obama calls Benjamin Netanyahu's speech "important step forward" Palestinian legislator accuses Netanyahu of calling for creation of ghetto state . Demilitarized state could not have army or control its airspace, he says . Before Sunday, Netanyahu had not endorsed a two-state solution .

LA PAZ, Bolivia (CNN) -- An air of anxiety clutches Bolivia this weekend amid high-stakes talks designed to end bloodshed and keep the country whole. Bolivian President Evo Morales says opposition leaders are trying to overthrow the government. The central government of leftist President Evo Morales, Bolivia's first leader from an Indian majority centered in the western highlands, is conducting talks with governors of largely white provinces in the east who want autonomy. Tension between the two sides erupted into violence that killed at least 30 people in September. In addition, differences about the country's future have threatened to split the country. Julian Torrico, a peasant leader, said he and other Morales supporters will storm the eastern city of Santa Cruz if the talks, which started Thursday, do not yield progress. "We will go into Santa Cruz and respond with force because they have (marginalized) us and massacred us, so we will massacre them and we will take their land away from them," he said. Watch protesters march in Santa Cruz » . "The fight here is between poor and rich. The government of Evo Morales took power by a majority and now these opposition governors don't want to let him govern," Torrico said. Anyelo Cespedes, president of the Santa Cruz Youth Union, which opposes Morales, said they don't want a dictatorship or a communist regime. "We have our way of life and we don't want that changed," he said. The central government and eastern governors are discussing topics that include the distribution of natural-gas revenues, autonomy for several eastern provinces and the president's plan for a new constitution. Those negotiations may offer one of the final chances to reverse Bolivia's slide toward violent instability, according to Gonzalo Chavez, an analyst. "This is probably one of the few opportunities that we're going to have to solve the problems of the country," he said. Four of nine provinces in Bolivia have declared autonomy from the central government in referendums this year. Morales, an ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and former Cuban President Fidel Castro, said the moves could cause Bolivia to disintegrate. The eastern opposition leaders have long opposed a decision of the Morales government to divert some revenue from oil and gas produced in the region to pay for government programs for the elderly. They have also opposed his plans to revise the constitution to give greater rights to the indigenous majority. The differences flared into violence with opposition protesters occupying government buildings and energy installations. Morales has said the opposition leaders are trying to overthrow the government. He expelled U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia Philip Goldberg on the grounds that he urged anti-government protesters to get violent, an assertion the United States has denied. "This is a coup in the past few days by the leaders of some provinces, with the takeover of some institutions, the sacking and robbery of some government institutions and attempts to assault the national police and the armed forces," Morales has said. Opposition leaders said they merely want their demands met. Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza of the Organization of American States arrived in Bolivia on Friday to encourage dialogue. He expressed optimism based on the "preliminary results" from the talks. Representatives of the Organization of American States and the 12-nation Union of South American Countries are among a group of international observers that has come to Bolivia for the negotiations. Ivan Canelas, a government spokesman, said the talks provide a critical opportunity to break an impasse that has split the country for months. "We understand that making peace requires the suspension of all forms of pressure," he said. Gov. Mario Cossio of the eastern Tarija state said he and other opposition leaders hope to reach a final agreement. He said they hope "to build a national agreement that Bolivia needs, that the Bolivians want." He said the goal is to "give peace back to our country and give certainty to Bolivia." CNN's Karl Penhaul and Gloria Carrasco contributed to this story.

Bolivian leaders plan to hold talks designed to bring peace to country . Four provinces in Bolivia have declared autonomy from the central government . At least 30 people have died in September .

(CNN) -- Concussions and the link to CTE have captured the headlines once again, with Junior Seau's family filing a lawsuit against the NFL. They believe the brain damage Seau suffered during his 20 years in the league led to his suicide. Then, in a recent interview with "New Republic" magazine, President Barack Obama tackled the culture of violence in football and the impact the game takes on its players. Obama stated, as much of a fan he is of football, "If I had a son, I would have to think long and hard before I let him play football." And yet, the most captivating and exciting news for me is the recent early findings based on the studies out of UCLA. For the first time, researchers used a brain imaging tool to identify abnormalities in the brains of a handful of living former NFL athletes. Previously, these abnormalities could only be studied after a player died. This is a possible breakthrough that could revolutionize how we view and treat concussion injuries on all levels of contact sports. It could save lives and provide families of athletes a degree of emotional stability, since symptoms of CTE may appear within months or many decades after the trauma. I knew Seau personally, and I was also a colleague of Dave Duerson at Voice America Sports. The most unsettling thing about the deaths of Seau and Duerson was not that these men tragically took their own lives, but that on the outside the people closest to them could not see that they were suffering -- and the next day they were no longer here. A tale of two former NFL players . I always wonder, "Does it really happen that fast, and will I one day not be able to see it myself?" These questions can haunt a father of a 5-year-old boy, especially when I think about his future if he should decide to emulate his father with career on the gridiron. The possibility of early detection of CTE and any possible prevention of him suffering from CTE is an extremely exciting prospect. My journey through the process of sending in my paperwork was not only an emotional decision, but also one which had to be handled in a very calculated manner. So begins the battle of the logic versus emotion for anyone in the position to make such a huge decision with an unknown future. The process of committing yourself to such a study is one that you do not take alone. Commitment to this study requires my signature along with the signature of a family member who may not fully understand the reasoning behind the decision. This can make you overthink your decision. Family members, because of the publicity around CTE and suicide, may assume that you are not mentally stable and are on the verge of taking drastic measures. Each family dynamic is different, but what I learned in this process is that like every other important issue, when it comes to someone you deeply care about, communication is key. That communication has to happen, whether it is a spouse, sibling, parent or in my case, my grandmother, who is the true matriarch of the Campbell family. I had this discussion face-to-face with my grandmother, who felt blindsided and concerned for my safety when she first read the papers. I explained to her that this decision was not just about me, but that donating my brain was my way of giving back to my brothers on the field. I reminded my grandmother that a passion for giving back is something she instilled in me at a young age, and that's what influenced my decision to sign the paperwork and have it sent to Boston University School of Medicine. Once she understood my thought process, she signed the papers, too. This new UCLA study can be a turning point, not just for NFL athletes, but all male and female athletes who play contact sports. It gives us hope that tragic losses associated with CTE can be prevented. It gives us hope that treatment might be implemented at an early stage for current and future athletes. The time has passed for casting blame on what precautions were or were not taken to prevent concussions and CTE. It's time to start the process of making sure that the building blocks of preventive measures take place to guarantee that concussions will never just be looked at as just another consequence of the game.

Lamar Campbell knew Junior Seau and worked with Dave Duerson . He is intrigued by recent findings out of UCLA on brain disease . Campbell says the decision to donate his brain was not to be taken lightly .

(CNN) -- "Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine" (Relic Entertainment, THQ) deftly takes the popular tabletop miniatures game and puts it into a video game with gun-blazing, sword-swinging action and a story that flows well. Players control Titus, a captain of the Ultramarines, as they and their comrades attempt to battle orks, demons and the forces of Chaos. There are plenty of weapons to satisfy your melee or missile tendencies in battle. All the action takes place in the third-person point of view, so the field of battle is easily kept in sight at all times. Minor enemies attack en masse and in waves, while tougher enemies usually show up to scrap all alone. Boss battles are demanding, and pulling off multiple attacks is almost required to conquer the last foe. Players often are accompanied by two other space marines who contribute to the wholesale slaughter of lesser opponents but seem to have little effect on boss battles. Hand-to-hand weapons can be knives, swords, axes and hammers while long-distance weapons start with pistols and go all the way to cannons. Ammunition and grenades can be found strewn around the battlefield to supply whatever weapons you have in your possession. Modes of combat are interchangeable and offer plenty of ways to wipe out enemies. Trigger buttons control the long-range weapons while controller buttons activate hand-to-hand abilities such as stun and execution. Performing an execution on a stunned enemy also rewards the player with points for good health. Hack-and-slash action makes for an enjoyable fight and really enhances the game. But it is more than just blood and gore (which, incidentally, gets splashed all over your character during battle, then magically disappears afterward) that make "Space Marine" worthy. The characters seem like they are ripped right from the British navy, with accents that sound like they come from the streets of London. Each character has his own feel and motivations, giving personality to even the lowliest speaking ones. The game's three main space marines all have their own quirks and idiosyncrasies. They are outfitted in colorful armor that probably would feel right at home in a "World of Warcraft" setting but with nods to symbols and icons of ancient civilizations. I found myself listening a little more intently than normal as characters spoke about their trials and tribulations. Small bits of soldiers' lives were revealed, helping make the entire experience more immersive. The story -- one of honor, courage and sacrifice -- could have readily been ignored or glossed over to focus more on the combat. However, developers were able to knit together a tale that also includes loss and betrayal while giving the player a feeling of omnipotence that makes it unique for shooters. But the single-player campaign game felt like it didn't last long enough, and the maps, while beautiful, were linear -- not allowing for exploration. The panoramic views and immense weaponry teased with the prospect of a wide world to be explored and liberated, only to be stifled by rubble and downed machinery at every turn. The ending, a cliffhanger of sorts, really was a jaw dropper. It's a testament to the writers for crafting an interesting (but short) story as well as the developers for making me feel so invested in my characters. I have never played "Warhammer 40,000" on the tabletop (mainly because I didn't have the funds to lay out for the miniature figures that are required), but "Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine" on the console is well worth the investment. "Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine" is available for the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It is rated M for mature due to blood and gore and intense violence. This review was done playing the single-player campaign on the Xbox 360.

In "Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine," players control Titus, a captain of the Ultramarines . All the action takes place in the third-person point of view . Hand-to-hand weapons can be knives, swords, axes and hammers .

(CNN)Hope Solo, the soccer star who makes headlines whether she's winning Olympic gold or having domestic violence accusations dropped against her, did it again Wednesday when she was suspended from the U.S. Women's National Team for 30 days. The team said the suspension stemmed from "an incident that occurred during the current WNT training camp being held in Carson, California." Solo's husband, former pro football player Jerramy Stevens, was charged with driving under the influence during the early morning hours Monday in Manhattan Beach, California, about 12 miles from Carson. The Los Angeles Times reported that Solo was in the passenger seat. "I accept and respect the Federation's decision, and more importantly, I apologize for disappointing my teammates, coaches and the Federation who have always supported me," Solo said in a statement posted on her Facebook page. "I think it's best for me to take a break, decompress from the stress of the last several months, and come back mentally and physically ready to positively contribute to the team." The suspension means Solo, a goalkeeper, will miss the U.S. team's matches in France and England in February. She can apply for reinstatement when the suspension ends. "During our current National Team camp, Hope made a poor decision that has resulted in a negative impact on U.S. Soccer and her teammates," said U.S. Women's National Team head coach Jill Ellis said in a statement. "We feel at this time it is best for her to step away from the team." Solo is perhaps the United States' best-known female soccer player, winning Olympic gold medals twice and playing on World Cup teams in 2007 and 2011. Sometimes she draws attention for off-the-field activities. Earlier this month, domestic assault charges against Solo were dismissed by a judge in Washington state. CNN affiliate KOMO reported that attorney Todd Maybrown successfully argued in court that he couldn't depose witnesses for the prosecution because they refused to be questioned despite a court order. Police had said Solo, 33, assaulted two relatives in June at a home in the Seattle area. Officers responded to a 911 call in which a man reported that a woman would not stop "hitting people" or leave the house, a police statement said. At the home, officers heard a disturbance. Inside, Solo appeared "intoxicated and upset," according to police. Police said Solo's nephew and sister had visible injuries. Police believed that Solo was the "primary aggressor and had instigated the assault," the statement said. She appeared on ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" in 2011. She was eliminated from the show following a run on the show marred by frequent disputes with pro partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy and the judging panel. In 2012, Solo sent out a harsh tweet criticizing Olympic soccer commentator Brandi Chastain for her negative commentary during the 2012 London games. During the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup, Solo openly criticized U.S. women's soccer coach Greg Ryan after she was benched and the U.S. lost its next match by four goals. In an interview with CNN two years ago, Solo spoke about her public image. "I have a bad rap," she said. "People look at me as selfish, outspoken. But I know who I am." The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency in 2012 publicly warned Solo after she tested positive for a banned diuretic -- a substance she claimed she didn't know was in premenstrual medication prescribed by her physician. The agency accepted Solo's explanation, and she competed in the 2012 Olympics. "I don't expect any of the media to be positive," Solo told CNN in 2012. "But I know that I'm doing wonderful things for the sport of soccer, and I know I'm doing amazing things for female athletes. So I can take it."

U.S. Soccer team suspends star goalkeeper Hope Solo for 30 days . Solo apologizes on Facebook page and says, "I think it's best for me to take a break"

(CNN) -- The international Fashion Week crowd has packed up its tents and menagerie of models in New York and moved on to London. After that, it's Milan and finally, Paris. Meanwhile those unfamiliar to the Lincoln Center Fashion Week tents, where runway shows and designer presentations take over the city twice a year, are left wondering in a dust of sequins and a lingering cloud of Chanel No. 5: Why all the fashionable fuss? How does Fashion Week impact me and what I wear daily? "On a strictly business level, it's a $350 million a year business," said Steven Kolb, the CEO of the Council of Fashion Designers of America. "It's the second largest industry in New York City after finance. It isn't just these design jobs, it's the retail jobs, it's the truckers who drive the deliveries around to stores, it's the editors. It's a big, big business." Particularly in New York, Fashion Week is more for the benefit of the buyers, or the people who decide what items to stock in department stores or boutiques for the upcoming season. From there, Fashion Week designs will eventually trickle down into mass market retail. Garments that debuted on the runway this week may not be hanging from the racks of your local T.J.Maxx anytime soon, but you'll see their influence in the shades, patterns and cuts of mass produced items. If the nearly 200 designers who showcased their lines during Fashion Week are any indication, by spring, the masses will be wearing skirt suits, sheer overlays, blush tones, edgy prints, sexy cutouts and head scarves. Tamara Albu, an associate professor of fashion design at Parsons The New School of Design, said even for consumers who are "just not that into it," -- it being fashion -- the industry's influence is unavoidable. "Whether we like it or not, whether we want it or not, we are constantly bombarded by information, which, of course, includes fashion," she said. "The manufacturers may translate those specific details to more affordable versions that may be trickled down to mass production garments soon after the shows are over. Being totally oblivious about fashion elements would not exclude the fashion from an uninterested person's wardrobe," she said. Insiders assert the pomp, circumstance and air kisses of Fashion Week don't just matter to the economy and your closet; they encourage creativity just like events that celebrate any other medium, such as music or fine art. "It's not just frivolous. It's an entire industry of ideas and marrying the art of commerce with it," said Anne Kwon Keane, fashion director for Lucky magazine. And while most runway looks, like the pink feathered Badgley Mischka gown or Tracy Reese's sequined pants, may seem a little extravagant for the business casual set, Keane, Kolb and Albu agree, there's still a takeaway: silhouettes, textures, colors, tailoring details and ideas on how to accessorize. "It's a presentation of ideas and when thoughtfully put forward the impact can be really wide-reaching," Keane said. "It can be whatever it needs to be to a consumer no matter the price point and that person's personality," Kolb said. Others, like New York-based photographer Mike Mellia, remain skeptical. On Thursday, Mellia will open his latest exhibition, "The Death of Fashion," which questions whether Fashion Week "has become an anonymous repeating stereotype." Still Mellia acknowledges fashion's power. "Fashion's goal is to place itself on an aspirational pedestal because it seeks to transform art into commerce. As a result, the social reach of fashion is often greater than that of traditional art in today's society," Mellia said. Are you a fashionista, or do you find the fashion industry irrelevant? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Fashion Week brings together clothing buyers, designers and insiders . What happens there affects the everyday consumer in subtle ways . Style, cut, color and pattern can jump from the runway into your closet . Fashion Week events, say insiders, encourage creativity in addition to commerce .

(CNN) -- I wear the burqa for the simple reason that I am a Muslim and the Koran says that I must wear the full veil in order to be modest. I am proud of my Muslim faith and my modesty. I am proud to follow God's law. Nobody ever forced me to wear the full veil and I have been wearing it for around 10 years now. In fact, very few of my friends actually wear one. There are, of course, situations in which some men force their wives or daughters to wear the burqa but, believe me, these cases are a very, very small minority. For those of us who are believers, we just want to do God's will and live by the sacred text, so what any man says has nothing to do with that. I am testament to that as I don't have a husband and I practice my religion freely, that's why I'm always shocked when people say it's the husband who forces his wife to wear a burqa. It is actually the case that a lot of men in France do not wish their wives to wear the full veil because when they go out, they are insulted or attacked and their husbands don't want them to be put in that situation. I first started wearing the full veil when I was a teenager but I stopped for a while because when you're young, you don't want to be set apart, you want to look like everyone else. But later after seeing what was happening with terrorist attacks involving Muslims all over the world, I decided to become more conscious and find out more about my faith. In the process, I found myself becoming more spiritual and decided to start wearing the burqa. Now, my liberty is being threatened with this law proposed by the French government. If this law is passed, it will be a great injustice. It is very unfair that they are even considering this law. Perhaps the French authorities are terrified that women will start dressing like this, despite evidence to the contrary. Why am I, as a Muslim woman, targeted unfairly, when there are less than 2,000 of us in France who wear the burqa? Where is my freedom of clothing or expression? France prides itself as a country that upholds the rights of man but where are my rights? Why am I not free to wear what I want? Many cite security reasons because they can't tell who is under the veil. But myself and a lot of women who wear the burqa are always happy to identify ourselves when asked. In the past, I have taken off my veil when it is asked of me -- as long as it's a woman who does it. My religion demands that I cover my face in front of any man who is not either my brother, father or husband. I have been wearing the veil in France for years and it has never been a problem, I use public transport like everyone else and I've never had any problems. Although, it can be quite strange when I'm on a bus for example and people say to me: 'You poor thing, we feel sorry for you.' And I wonder exactly why they feel sorry for me. I'm very happy wearing the veil and it makes me spiritually fulfilled as I'm practicing my religion, so I don't really see it as anything to pity me for. I really believe that France is scared of Muslims, which is the motivation for this law, but people shouldn't generalize as not all Muslims are the same. Yes, some have done terrible things, but it is done in the name of man, never in the name of God. I, as a French Muslim woman, have nothing but love in my heart towards all people. And whatever the outcome, if France succeeds in banning the veil on its streets, I will never take mine off. My freedom means a lot to me and if this law is passed, I would rather move to another country where I can worship in peace. I obey the laws of God not the laws of man. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Oumkheyr.

French Muslim Oumkheyr speaks to CNN about why she chooses to wear the burqa . Has worn the veil for 10 years and never been forced to wear it, she says . A French parliament report has called for a ban on the burqa in schools, hospitals . Oumkheyr: "I really believe that France is scared of Muslims"

(CNN) -- Chris Pavlak stands behind the coffee bar at a car dealership in Roswell, Georgia, ready to whip up specialty lattes for waiting customers. As a 21-year-old college sophomore, working as a barista at Café Blends is his first job. "It's a nice environment and everything, and the other employees are pretty nice too," he says. Pinned to his black apron is a blue puzzle piece, a symbol representing autism awareness. It's also a symbol of the café's mission -- "blending autism into the workplace." Pavlak and his two co-workers are all young adults on the autism spectrum. The café began when Nalley Lexus Roswell general manager Chris Dastou heard about a similar program at a company meeting. "I decided it was definitely something I was interested in," he says. "Giving them a chance to work and to have an opportunity to grow as a person." His team partnered with Nobis Works, a nonprofit organization that provides job training and placement for people with barriers to employment, to launch the café at the Roswell dealership. Since its opening in December, the response from both employees and customers has been encouraging, Dastou says. Karen Carlisle, vice president of corporate communications and development at Nobis Works, says it is common to hear such positive feedback from employers. "They say, 'These are the best employees I have because they want to work.' They come in on time. They don't call in sick, and they have such a positive attitude that it's contagious to other employees," she says. Mike Pavlak, Chris Pavlak's father, says his son has always had a positive attitude, but expressing it has not always been easy for him. "His problems have largely been social and social interactions. He still kind of struggles with that. He's shy, especially initially," he says. He admits being nervous when his son first took the customer service position but says the improvement he has seen in his son's communication skills since then has been remarkable. "Within two to three weeks he was back there dancing behind the counters," he says. "I know it's easy to brag because he's my kid, but what he's accomplished is just awesome." With an emphasis on early detection and treatment, much of autism research and support focuses on children, but Café Blends is just one of a number of new programs aimed at serving the needs of young adults. "I think ten years ago it was all about children, but now those children are growing up, and there has been a real recognition that autism is a lifespan disorder," says Alison Singer, president of the Autism Science Foundation. Whatever a person's age or abilities, Singer says autism should never be viewed as a barrier to self-fulfillment. "It's just a matter of making opportunities," she says. "We have people with very strong skills who can have very productive careers. Some might not be able to, but that's also OK. We can still find productive ways for them to contribute to society." For Mike Pavlak, the opportunity his son found at Café Blends has encouraged him to think more broadly about his future. "I think my hopes now are the same thing that Chris wants. I'd like to see him finish his degree. I would like to see him continue work. I would like to see him get out, get an apartment, get a home, do something on his own," he says. "It's gone from a hope to an expectation." Chris Pavlak recognizes that autism is a reality for him, but he refuses to see it as a limitation. "I know that you can overcome it," he says. "As you can see, I have this job and am mostly doing it like any normal person would. So we can be just like anyone else." And like anyone else, he sees his first job not as a destination, but as a beginning. "It's something I wanted to do to make my own way in the world eventually. Just one of those steps to doing that, I suppose."

Chris Pavlak is one of three young adults on the autism spectrum working at cafe . His father has seen a remarkable improvement in his son's social skills . Café Blends program targets the needs of young adults with autism .

(CNN) -- Middle-Eastern investment is continuing apace in the English Premier League despite the tough economic climate, with Dubai-based Sulaiman Al Fahim completing his long-awaited takeover of Portsmouth. Sulaiman Al Fahim has continued his interest in English football with a buyout of Portsmouth. Al Fahim, a board member of the Abu Dhabi United Group which bought out Manchester City a year ago, has been named chairman of the cash-strapped club after passing the EPL's "fit and proper" ownership test. He replaces Alexandre Gaydamak, who became co-owner of the south-coast club in January 2006 and took over full control six months later. Gaydamak initially invested a lot of money in Portsmouth, but with the economic downturn taking its toll, he announced last December he could no longer devote enough time to the club. Al Fahim, who spearheaded the City takeover before Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan emerged as the main backer, struck a deal with Gaydamak in late May before undergoing legal and financial due diligence. The subsequent uncertainty at Fratton Park saw full-back Glen Johnson join Liverpool in a $28 million deal, while England team-mate Peter Crouch has been allowed to talk to other clubs after voicing his unhappiness. "This appointment brings stability to the club and is excellent news for Pompey supporters," chief executive Peter Storrie, who will retain his position, told Portsmouth's official Web site on Tuesday. "I have every reason to believe that together with the new chairman we will be able to take the club forward to further achievements, building on the successes of the past three years." Portsmouth won the prestigious FA Cup two years ago and qualified for the UEFA Cup, but the club's momentum was derailed when manager Harry Redknapp left to take over at EPL rivals Tottenham then his replacement Tony Adams was sacked after a poor run of results. Paul Hart was brought in as caretaker manager in February and saved Pompey from relegation -- and Al Fahim made his first job as chairman to reward the former Nottingham Forest boss with a two-year contract. "Paul did a great job keeping the team in the Premier League last season, and having previously worked as director of youth operations he knows the club inside out," Al Fahim said. "He has immense experience and a great knowledge of the game, and commands the respect of the players. I'm looking forward to working with him." Born in 1977, Al Fahim started his own business at the age of 18 and moved to the United States after his parents and brother died in a road accident when he was 21. A keen chess player, he is chairman of the United Arab Emirates Chess Association, while he is the host of business-themed reality television show Hydra Executives. Hydra has sports sponsorship interests in Dubai, Costa Rica and Germany's Bundesliga. Meanwhile, Sunderland manager Steve Bruce has given up on signing Crouch following talks with the 28-year-old. The Black Cats had agreed a fee for the gangly former Liverpool frontman, but he now appears set to return to his native London with either Fulham or Tottenham. "Naturally this is hugely disappointing for us as Peter was one of our primary targets," Bruce told his club's official Web site. "I know he was impressed with the set up here when he came for talks, but it's simply a matter of geographical location and that's not something we can affect. "What's pleasing however is that it shows the intent of the club going forward that we are trying to bring in players of his caliber, and we will continue to pursue other targets. "We have a number of irons in the fire at present and we will be looking to make several additions to our squad in the coming weeks."

Dubai-based billionaire Sulaiman Al Fahim completes takeover of Portsmouth . Al Fahim becomes chairman, replacing former owner Alexandre Gaydamak . He rewards caretaker manager Paul Hart with two-year deal as permanent boss . England striker Peter Crouch decides against a move north to Sunderland .

(CNN) -- Transit officials in San Francisco reopened all downtown subway stations Monday evening after successively opening and closing them to stem the threat of spreading protests. "All BART Stations are Now Open, Trains Running On Time," said a release from Bay Area Rapid Transit. The situation was fluid most of the evening, with officials trying to thwart demonstrators, closing and reopening the Civic Center and Montgomery stations, closing the Powell station, then at least partially reopening Powell to allow riders to disembark. Police officers in response gear stood at the Civic Center station, with one officer on a megaphone telling people, "This is your final warning, the station is closed." On the streets, small groups of protesters could be seen gathering to criticize BART after several shootings involving its police officers -- the latest coming last month and resulting in the death of 45-year-old Charles Hill. Meanwhile, an official with the system stood by the decision to shut off cell phone service ahead of a protest last week. The decision Thursday to "temporarily interrupt ... service at select BART stations as one of many tactics to ensure the safety of everyone on the platform" drew widespread criticism and stirred the well-known hacking group Anonymous to stage an "operation" Sunday. The group urged those supporting its cause to attend a "peaceful protest" at 5 p.m. Monday at the system's Civic Center stop. "What we're going to do is take the appropriate steps within the Constitution," he said. "There are more constitutional rights than just free speech. There is the right to be safe." Last week's protest never materialized. But the decision to cut cell service elicited fresh condemnations from civil liberty organizations, the San Francisco Chronicle's editorial page and others. "All over the world people are using mobile devices to organize protests against repressive regimes, and we rightly criticize governments that respond by shutting down cell service, calling their actions anti-democratic and a violation of the rights to free expression and assembly," Rebecca Farmer from the ACLU's northern California office wrote on the advocacy group's website. "Are we really willing to tolerate the same silencing of protest here in the United States?" Online messages attributed to Anonymous took credit for the apparent hacking Sunday of myBART.org, a link off BART's website that showed a page featuring, among other items, the hacking group's logo -- a smirking mask above two crossed swords, all on a black background. In addition, Twitter traffic related to Anonymous boasted that hackers had been able to get into BART's internal network. Several related items and documents were posted, including one claiming to be "the User Info Database of MyBart.gov." This had e-mails and, in some cases, phone numbers and addresses of hundreds of people. "By (cutting cell service), you have not only threatened your citizens' safety, you have also performed an act of censorship," a seemingly computer-generated voice -- speaking over dramatic music and images -- said in a video posted online Sunday afternoon. "By doing this, you have angered Anonymous." The Federal Communications Commission is collecting information on the matter, with agency spokesman Neil Grace saying Monday by e-mail that "any time communications services are interrupted, we seek to assess the situation." "We ... will be taking steps to hear from stakeholders about the important issues those actions raised, including protecting public safety and ensuring the availability of communications networks," said Grace. Yet on Monday, Johnson emphatically stood by BART's move, made on the same day British Prime Minister David Cameron proposed a crackdown on social media to quell riots. "We made a gut-wrenching decision that was forced upon us by the protesters," Johnson said. "They made us choose between people's ability to use their mobile phones (and) their constitutional right to get from point A to point B." CNN's Greg Botelho contributed to this report.

NEW: Trains are now running normally, BART says . A BART official says the system was "forced" to act to protect passengers' safety . Citing "important issues," a spokesman says the FCC is probing cutting cell service . The Bay Area Rapid Transit system's action last week drew criticism, stirred an online attack .

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- House Democrats told the president Monday he won't be getting money to close the military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, until he has a "concrete program" for shutting it down and moving its prisoners. A guard talks to a detainee at Guantanamo earlier this year. The $80 million will be dropped from President Obama's supplemental request for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rep. David Obey told reporters. "So far as we can tell, there is yet no concrete program for that," said Obey, D-Wisconsin. "And while I don't mind defending a concrete program, I'm not much interested in wasting my energy defending a theoretical program. So when they have a plan, they're welcome to come back and talk to us about it." The administration requested $50 million for the Defense Department and $30 million for the Justice Department to close the prison, Democratic aides said. Republicans have been pounding Obama and the Democrats over the proposed closure, saying that closing the facility could push detainees into facilities in the United States, making the country less safe. Sen. John McCain, Obama's Republican rival for the presidency last year, supports closing the facility, and argued for moving the prisoners to the military prison at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. A Democratic leadership aide insisted there is "no distance" between Democrats and the White House on closing Guantanamo. Anticipating the loss of some Democratic votes on the supplemental request, Democratic leaders hoped to gain some Republican support by removing the Guantanamo funding, the aide said. Brendan Daly, spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, said the move does not change plans to close the prison. "We will work with President Obama to achieve our goal of closing Guantanamo Bay," he said. Last week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters the Justice Department was reviewing each of the detainees at Guantanamo to determine what to do with them. "Those discussions have just gotten started," he said. "There clearly will be a specific plan that comes out of this, but what we've had to await is the determination, roughly speaking, of about how big a group of people we will be talking about." Gates said the $50 million for his department was intended "as a hedge that would allow us to get started if some construction is needed to be able to accommodate those detainees." The Justice Department portion, he said, is to pay for "the process of going through these determinations." About 240 prisoners remain at the detention facility. The $94.2 billion supplemental request will be the last, because Obama has put the wars on the budget going forward. Democrats added to Obama's requests for addressing the H1N1 flu virus as well as funding to fight the war in Afghanistan and assist Pakistan's government. Obey said he was "very doubtful" that Obama's policies in those two countries would succeed, "but there's a consensus in the Congress to try it." Some anti-war Democrats were pushing to include benchmarks or some strings for money for Afghanistan and Pakistan, but the bill does not put conditions on any of the money, he said. Instead it requires that the president report to Congress in a year and address five "standards of performance" outlined in the bill. "I would hope it would be a fish or cut bait report," Obey said. Pressed on whether Congress would cut off money for operations in the region if signs of progress aren't demonstrated, the Wisconsin Democrat said it is up to individual members of Congress, but added, "If it becomes a fool's errand, I would hope so." Democrats also added $400 million to the administration's request for Mexico for the drug war and surveillance helicopters. The House Appropriations committee will vote on the bill Thursday, and the House is expected to vote on it next week. CNN's Dana Bash and Deirdre Walsh contributed to this report.

Obama administration had requested $80 million to close the prison . House Democrat: President won't get money until "concrete plan" is made . Committee chairman: "When they have a plan, they're welcome to ... talk to us" Justice Department examining what to do with detainees, defense secretary has said .

(CNN) -- The moderator for Thursday night's vice presidential debate is Martha Raddatz, senior foreign affairs correspondent for ABC News since 2008. According to her ABCNews.go.com biography, Raddatz was ABC's White House correspondent during the George W. Bush administration, after serving as senior national security correspondent and State Department correspondent. She has traveled widely, including 21 trips to Iraq and multiple visits to Pakistan and Afghanistan. She has flown in an F-15 fighter jet over Afghanistan twice. Before joining ABC, Raddatz was NPR's Pentagon correspondent for five years, during which time she made numerous trips to Europe covering the war in the former Yugoslavia. Complete coverage: Presidential debates . In a separate profile on the site, Raddatz said moderating a debate may be scarier than going into a combat zone, "because you don't wear body armor" at a debate. Raddatz has won four Emmy awards, the 2012 First Amendment Award from the Radio Television Digital News Foundation, the 2007 International Urbino Press Award, the 2005 Daniel Pearl Award from the Chicago Journalists Association, and an Overseas Press Club Award for coverage of the 1995 assassination of Israeli statesman Yitzhak Rabin. The White House Correspondents' Association gave Raddatz an award in 2007 for excellence in presidential news coverage under deadline pressure. What would you have asked? Raddatz's 2007 book, "The Long Road Home -- a Story of War and Family," was a New York Times and Washington Post best-seller. You can follow Raddatz, 59, (@martharaddatz) on Twitter. She was raised by her mother in Salt Lake City after her father died when Raddatz was 2 years old, she told an interviewer from Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, site of Thursday's debate. According to the website NNDB, she never completed college. The conservative blog Daily Caller raised a flag on Raddatz on Wednesday, saying President Obama, while still a student at Harvard Law, attended her wedding to Obama classmate Julius Genachowski, whom Obama later appointed to lead the Federal Communications Commission, according to Politico. The Drudge Report and other conservative outlets subsequently raised doubts about Raddatz's objectivity. Photos: The Vice Presidential Debate . "This is absurd," an ABC News spokesperson told Politico. "Martha Raddatz is known for her tough, fair reporting, which is why it was no surprise to her colleagues inside and outside ABC News that she was chosen by the Commission on Presidential Debates for this assignment. "Barack Obama was a law school classmate of Raddatz's ex-husband Julius Genachowski at Harvard. At the time Barack Obama was a student and president of the Law Review. He attended their wedding over two decades ago along with nearly the entire Law Review, many of whom went on to successful careers including some in the Bush administration. Raddatz and Mr. Genachowski divorced in 1997 and both are now remarried." Where they stand: The candidates and issues . According to Contemporary Authors Online, Raddatz was born in Idaho and has also been married to Boston journalist Ben Bradlee Jr., the son of the famous Washington Post managing editor. She had one child each with Bradlee and Genachowski. She currently is married to award-winning NPR correspondent Tom Gjelten. Raddatz broke up a White House press briefing in January 2007 when her cell phone suddenly started ringing loudly to the tune of "Ridin'" by Chamillionaire. White House spokesman Tony Snow's reaction -- "Does Martha have a hip-hop ringtone?" -- prompted raucous laughter from her fellow journalists while she scrambled to silence the phone. "Play that funky music, white girl," Snow cracked. Ryan's debate prep as meticulous as he is . Moderator Lehrer knows the debate game .

Martha Raddatz is ABC's senior foreign affairs correspondent . She's visited Iraq 21 times and flown in an F-15 over Afghanistan . Conservatives question her neutrality; Obama is a friend of her ex .

New York (CNN) -- A young concert-goer is seen in a video rubbing white power on his gums. He starts sweating profusely before plunging into crazed drug trip that ends with him alone under the glare flashing lights. The words "Don't miss the moment" appear across a black background: "Be present. Avoid the risks." That's the message of an anti-drug public service announcement that concert-goers at New York City's annual Electric Zoo music festival will be required to watch in order to gain entry to the event later this month. Last summer's Electric Zoo festival gained national attention when several people were sickened and two people died after overdosing on the drug MDMA, either in ecstasy pills or its "pure" powder or crystal form, also known as "molly." The popular festival was cut short as a result of the deaths. "Our message to concertgoers is simple: The Electric Zoo experience is exceptional and worth being present for," Made Event founders Laura De Palma and Mike Bindra said in a joint statement. "Molly can cause you to not only miss the moment, alienate your friends and have an overall adverse and unpleasant experience ... but can also make you sick and can even be fatal. Fans will experience how great it is to 'Come To Life' at one of our concerts from lights, sounds and crowds." Federal authorities last month arrested an upstate New York man on drug charges in connection with the sale of molly to concert-goers -- including one who died -- at the festival on Randall's Island last August. MDMA is believed to have caused both of the deaths at the music festival, which was attended by more than 130,000 people, in late August 2013. Police identified the two victims as Jeffrey Russ, 23, and Olivia Rotondo, 20. There's something (potentially dangerous) about molly . On August 30, 2013, near the end of a concert at Electric Zoo, Russ told his friends he wasn't feeling well, according to court documents. He collapsed and suffered a seizure. When Russ arrived at Harlem Hospital Center, his heart was beating rapidly and his temperature was about 108 degrees Fahrenheit, court papers said. Russ was pronounced dead at 3:21 a.m. on August 31. The pills found on Russ contained MDMA and methylone, according to court documents. The medical examiner ruled that Russ died from "acute intoxication by the combined effects of [MDMA] and methylone with hyperthermia." Ticket buyers at this year's festival on Randalls Island Aug. 29-31 will be required to to watch a two-minute video about MDMA this year. "Fans will experience how great it is to 'Come To Life' at one of our concerts from lights, sounds and crowds," De Palma and Bindra said in the statement. The two-minute film "The Molly" was created, written and produced by "Dexter" creator/writer James Manos, Jr., and his daughter Ellie Manos, 19. On social media, the reaction to the video has been mixed. Culture and music website Flavorwire.com tweeted: "Electric Zoo's 'The Molly' PSA Won't Stop Drug Use at EDM Festivals -- But It's Still Better Than 'Just Say No.'" One commenter on Electric Zoo's Facebook page said: "You guys had the chance to provide some real information that could have actually saved lives but instead shoved some DARE drivel down everyone's throat. Congrats." Another commenter, referring to the young man in the video, said, "That guy is tweakin so hard lmaoooo." New York man arrested for supplying drug in Electric Zoo festival death . Dozens hospitalized during Avicii concert in Boston . Teen raped on lawn at Keith Urban concert, police say .

Electric Zoo concert-goers will be required to watch anti-drug video at this month's event . Last year, deaths of two Electric Zoo attendees believed to be linked to MDMA . Electric Zoo promoters agreed to city's recommendation that the festival be canceled last summer .

(CNN) -- Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Sunday he was heading to Iran to join nuclear talks in Tehran involving Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The meeting in Tehran sought to reach a breakthrough in the showdown over Iran's nuclear program, according to Erdogan. The last-minute trip followed a "signal" from the talks, which are intended to resolve the dispute over Iran's nuclear energy program, Erdogan told reporters before departing. Erdogan indicated the signal involved Iran's agreement to swap its low-enriched uranium for nuclear fuel, CNN Turk reported. Erdogan said he hoped an agreement in Tehran would stop the U.N. Security Council from its negotiations on tougher sanctions on Iran. "The Security Council was contemplating a step in the direction of sanctions as of yesterday," Erdogan said. "As a part of our talks, this has been postponed. Now with this step we are going to take, I hope that we will have the opportunity to overcome these problems." Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency made no mention of the nuclear issue in reporting earlier that Lula was sitting down with Ahmadinejad. But French President Nicolas Sarkozy and President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia both have said they back Lula's efforts to resolve the long-running, high-stakes stalemate. "This could be the last chance before the U.N. Security Council makes the already known decisions," Medvedev said, referring to the U.N. decision on imposing sanctions against Iran. Sarkozy said earlier that he had spoken with Lula by phone to assure him that Paris supports his efforts to resolve the impasse. The United States and many other countries believe that Iran intends to develop nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. On Saturday, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu left for Tehran to join the Iran-Brazil talks. Erdogan said Sunday the anticipated signal from Iran was received and he was changing his schedule to travel to Tehran, postponing a planned visit to Azerbaijan. Erdogan's statement indicated an agreement in which Iran would send most of its low-enriched uranium to be turned into fuel rods suitable for Turkey's nuclear power reactor that makes medical isotopes. "After our high-level meeting in Tehran, I believe we will have the opportunity to start the process regarding the swap," Erdogan said. "We said that we will go to Tehran if the swap takes place in Turkey, and we received news that the text includes a reference to this. That's why we are going. Otherwise we wouldn't have gone." Turkey and Brazil have been working on a joint offer based on the nuclear swap deal offered previously to Tehran. Both countries are temporary members of the U.N. Security Council and have been working toward a diplomatic solution that does not involve sanctions. Lula is in Iran ahead of the Group of 15 developing nations meeting in Tehran. The group actually has 17 members -- Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jamaica, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Venezuela and Zimbabwe. Lula also met separately with Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on his trip, according to Iranian media reports. State-run Press TV reported Khameini emphasized to Lula the need for relations between independent states such as Brazil and Iran in order to reduce the influence of superpowers such as the United States. "The only way to change the oppressive relations in the world today is through the formation of closer ties between independent states," Khameini said, according to Press TV. "Superpowers have defined vertical relations in the world which places a superpower at the top. These relations must be changed and their change is possible."

NEW: Tayyip Erdogan says deal possible on nuclear fuel swap with Iran . Russian President Medvedev says talks are "last chance" to resolve nuclear issue . U.N. Security Council decision imminent on possible sanctions against Iran . Lula in Iran ahead of Group of 15 developing nations meeting in Tehran .

(CNN) -- The mother of a missing 7-year-old Oregon boy pleaded for her son's safe return Tuesday, imploring him to "never give up hope." "Our goals are to expand the search for Kyron and to bring him home as quickly as possible," said Desiree Young, the mother of missing Kyron Horman, who was last seen June 4. Young, standing alongside Kyron's father, Kaine Horman, gave the statement during a press conference intended to provide an update on the investigation. However, few details were given by Multnomah County Sheriff's Office authorities, who declined to elaborate on what they called "significant progress" in the case. "Authorities remain determined to reach a successful solution," Capt. Monte Reiser said. "We believe that Kyron's disappearance involved criminal behavior because his parents have been deprived of their son for 53 days," he added. Young expressed confidence in the investigation saying it "continues to be on track and is progressing toward finding Kyron." She concluded her statement by speaking directly to her son. "We love you Kyron," she said, her voice breaking with emotion. "Never give up hope. We are all coming to get you to bring you home." Neither authorities nor Young took questions from reporters. Meanwhile, Multnomah County Chief Deputy Tim Moore announced that a $25,000 reward for information leading to Kyron has been increased to $50,000, courtesy of an anonymous donor. Police have not named a suspect in the case, but intense scrutiny has been placed on Kyron's stepmother, Terri Horman. Terri Horman told investigators that she last saw Kyron the morning of June 4 as he walked down the hall toward his second-grade classroom at Skyline Elementary School. On Monday, a woman who has been in close contact with Terri Horman was subpoenaed to meet with the grand jury investigating the disappearance. DeDe Spicher is a friend of Terri Horman's who stayed with her after Kaine Horman filed for divorce shortly after his son's disappearance and moved out of the family home. In divorce filings, Kaine Horman has said he believes that Terri Horman "is involved in the disappearance of my son Kyron." Court documents also allege that Terri Horman hired a man to kill her husband. Spicher appeared before an investigative grand jury in Portland on Monday, according to her attorney, Chad Stavley. Stavley, who told HLN that he was retained Friday, said Spicher was not asked any questions by the prosecutor but was ordered to return at a future date. A statement released Friday by Kaine Horman and Young described Spicher as someone who "has been in close communication with Terri [and] has been providing Terri with support and advice that is not in the best interests of our son." The statement also described Spicher as uncooperative in the investigation and "going as far as to suggest to others that may have information regarding Kyron's disappearance not to cooperate as well." Stavley disputed those comments Monday, saying Spicher has been "extremely cooperative" with police as they executed search warrants on her home and car. He said she also met with the lead investigator in the case last week for more than three hours. He added that Spicher is not speaking to Terri Horman. The Oregonian reported that detectives have asked Spicher about her whereabouts June 4. According to the newspaper, Spicher was doing gardening work for a Portland homeowner when she "abruptly left about 11:30 a.m." The homeowner tried reaching Spicher on her cell phone, the newspaper reported, but got no answer. Spicher returned to the house about 90 minutes later, the newspaper reported, citing detectives. Stavley declined to comment Monday on what Spicher was doing during those 90 minutes. HLN's Natisha Lance and CNN's Gabriel Falcon contributed to this report.

"Never give up hope," mother tells missing son . Kyron Horman was last seen June 4 . His mother, Desiree Young, appeared before a news conference Tuesday . The reward in the case has been increased to $50,000 .

(CNN) -- Advancing Sudanese troops have prompted a massive evacuation by inhabitants of the oil-rich city of Abyei, a humanitarian medical group said Monday. The organization, Doctors Without Borders, said many of the evacuees have fled 40 kilometers (24 miles) south to Agok. That includes 42 people wounded in violent clashes over the weekend who are being treated at the aid group's hospital there. "This morning, the entire population of Abyei town fled the city, which is now almost empty," the organization said in a statement. Meanwhile, a spokesman for the military wing of the movement that governs Southern Sudan confirmed Sunday that Sudan's military had taken control of the oil-rich region. "Abyei has been under attack by the Sudanese armed forces from air and ground," said Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) spokesman Philip Aguer. Southern Sudan in January voted to split from the north, and is expected to officially become an independent nation in July. However, the fate of the oil-rich Abyei region remains a flash point. The Sudanese armed forces said the military in Southern Sudan was behind the attack, but the SPLA denied responsibility. A statement from U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's press office noted that the U.N. compound was shelled by mortar rounds, leaving two peacekeepers injured. The release, from Ban, also asked for "justice" following earlier attacks May 19 on a U.N.-escorted convoy and on U.N. troops May 10 in Goli. At least 22 people were killed in the more recent attack, which was on Sudanese armed forces and U.N. peacekeepers, according to Sudanese army sources. "The Secretary-General remains deeply concerned for the safety of the civilian population of the area, the vast majority of whom (have) been forcibly displaced due to the fighting," the U.N. statement said Sunday. "The Secretary-General calls on both parties to immediately cease their military operations, withdraw all forces and armed elements from Abyei and desist from further acts of antagonism." The Commission of the African Union responded to the latest developments in Abyei "with very grave concern," according to a prepared statement released Sunday. "The AU Commission would like to urge all the parties to immediately withdraw all the unauthorized forces from the area ... and to restrain from any provocative actions," the statement read. "The AU Commission calls on the parties to resume the dialogue towards a political settlement on Abyei by returning to the negotiating table." Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir issued a decree Saturday dissolving Abyei's administration. The area had been governed by representatives from the north and south. The United Nations said this month that violence in the Abyei region will jeopardize relations between the two sides as they gear up for a permanent separation July 9. Its peacekeeping mission in Sudan issued a statement Saturday urging "all parties in Abyei to resume dialogue towards reaching a lasting political settlement." British Foreign Secretary William Hague condemned the recent spike in violence. "I call on all sides to cease hostilities immediately. All unauthorized forces should be withdrawn from the entire area of Abyei in accordance with past agreements by the parties," he said in a statement Sunday. In a statement Saturday, the White House called on the Sudanese Armed Forces to stop its offensive in Abyei and withdraw forces. "Failure to do so could set back the process of normalizing relations between Sudan and the United States and inhibit the international community's ability to move forward on issues critical to Sudan's future," the statement said. A U.N. Security Council delegation had arrived in Khartoum, Sudan, on Saturday to discuss the ongoing peace process with government officials. Journalist Ismail Kushkush contributed to this report.

At least 42 people are wounded in violent clashes in Abyei, aid group says . The U.N. condemns the violence, saying 2 peacekeepers were hurt by mortar fire . Southern Sudan voted in January to split from the north, but Abyei remains a flash point . Britain's foreign secretary urges all sides to "cease hostilities"

(CNN) -- Disney and Universal will soon have competition on the film-inspired theme park front. Twentieth Century Fox has just unveiled plans to join the thrill ride party. Named "Twentieth Century Fox World," the brand's first theme park is set to open 2016 as part of Malaysia's Resorts World Genting, a leisure and entertainment complex about an hour outside of Kuala Lumpur. According to the plans, the 25-acre park will feature more than 25 rides and attractions based on Fox films such as "Ice Age," "Rio," "Alien vs. Predator," "Planet of the Apes" and "Night at the Museum." Some will be geared towards kids, others for thrill seekers. We can't confirm our suspicions, but it's likely the "Alien vs. Predator" ride will not be ideal for three-year-olds. "The opening of the first Twentieth Century Fox theme park at Resorts World Genting takes our rich history of storytelling to a whole new level and will provide an exceptional entertainment experience," said Jeffrey Godsick, president of Twentieth Century Fox Consumer Products, in a statement. "People from around the world will gather here in Malaysia to become part of the story and to experience the magic and adventure of their favorite Fox properties." Twentieth Century Fox has teamed up with with leisure and hospitality corporation Genting Malaysia to build the park. Genting Malaysia CEO Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay said they're investing $300 million in Twentieth Century Fox World and expect most visitors to come from Malaysia with international arrivals coming mainly from China and Southeast Asia. More: Asia's first Legoland opens in Malaysia . Greg Lombardo, vice president of location-based entertainment for Fox Consumer Products, told CNN that other Twentieth Century Fox World theme parks are in the works as well. "We are creating a unique and exciting destination brand with a true global appeal," he said. "In the coming months you will be hearing much more." South East Asia's theme park boom . Twentieth Century Fox's decision to build its first theme park in Malaysia will be a disappointment for U.S. movie fans, though it's not surprising given the success of other big brand parks in the region, fueled by a growing middle class. "Malaysia has a booming tourism economy and it is a very important growing market for our films and television properties," said Lombard. "The consumer has a growing appetite for new and engaging entertainment experiences. It was a natural place to for Fox to create our first theme park and marks an important milestone in our global location based entertainment strategy." Asia's first Legoland opened in Malaysia in 2012. Just a quick drive from Singapore, the $243 million, 30-hectare theme park dedicated to the colorful kids' bricks is made up of 40 rides, shows and attractions. In October of this year, it added a Legoland Waterpark -- the brand's largest to date. A Legoland hotel, the final phase of the resort, will open in early 2014, said officials. South of the border, Singapore has its own theme park behemoth, Universal Studios, which opened in 2010 as part of Resorts World Sentosa. In Thailand, Cartoon Network Amazone water park is expected to open near the resort city of Pattaya in mid 2014. (This is an Amazon Falls Co. Ltd project, developed under license from Turner Broadcasting System Asia Pacific Ltd. Both Cartoon Network and CNN International are operated by Turner Broadcasting System International, a Time Warner company.) More: Legoland Hotel Malaysia set for 2014 launch . CNN Travel's series often carries sponsorship originating from the countries and regions we profile. However, CNN retains full editorial control over all of its reports. Read the policy.

Twentieth Century Fox World due to open in Malaysia in 2016 . Theme park will feature 25 rides and attractions based on Fox films including "Ice Age," "Rio," "Alien vs. Predator," "Planet of the Apes" and "Night at the Museum" Southeast Asia already home to theme park brands Legoland and Universal Studios .

(CNN) -- The commander of Libya's rebel army was killed in Benghazi along with two senior officers on Thursday, rebel leaders announced just hours after claiming big successes on the battlefield. The death of Gen. Abdul Fattah Younis came after the rebels' Transitional National Council sought Younis for questioning about military matters and alleged ongoing ties to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, according to what Younis' supporters told journalist James Hider of the Times of London. Supporters also shot at a Benghazi hotel and smashed its windows. Journalists had been gathered at the hotel for a press conference held by the rebel's civilian leader who announced Younis was summoned back to Benghazi and was killed along with his two aides under unclear circumstances, Hider told CNN. CNN's Ivan Watson analyzes the situation in Libya . Hider described the events surrounding Younis' death as "extremely murky," but he said the rebel army appeared to be on the brink of a rift. Younis had served as interior minister in Gadhafi's government until February, when he defected to the Benghazi-based rebel movement. He was killed along with a colonel and a lieutenant colonel, the rebels' Transitional National Council said in a statement aired on their television network late Thursday. No further details were immediately released. Younis, a onetime general in Gadhafi's army, told CNN in February that he switched sides after Gadhafi told him he planned to have Benghazi bombed -- a move Younis said would have killed thousands. Rebel forces have been battling to oust Gadhafi since then, aided by a NATO bombing campaign that has targeted government troops under a U.N. mandate to protect civilians. More explosions rocked Tripoli shortly before midnight Thursday (5 p.m. ET), indicating fresh airstrikes were under way in the Libyan capital. Earlier Thursday, the rebels said their forces had captured five towns and surrounded a sixth in the plains below the Nafusa mountain range, which borders Tunisia. Hundreds of rebels moved from their mountain positions at dawn. With heavier weapons leading the way with lighter armed fighters following, they initially encountered fierce resistance from Gadhafi's loyalists. Col. Jumma Ibrahim, spokesman for the Military Council for the western mountain region, said several major battles had taken place before the towns were secured. He named the captured towns as al-Ruwais, Takout, al-Jawsh, Bader and al-Ghazzaya, and the surrounded town as Umm al-Far. Ibrahim said rebels were now negotiating with Gadhafi troops inside Umm al-Far. He said four rebels had been killed in the fighting and at least 20 were wounded, while 20 Gadhafi fighters had been captured. The claimed successes come after one of the biggest rebel offensives in recent weeks and, if true, puts the fighters closer to capturing a significant supply route used by Gadhafi forces. Ibrahim said that on the eastern side of the mountains, Gadhafi forces had been shelling rebel-held positions near Beir al-Ghanam and also near Qawalish. Rebel fighters last month suffered heavy casualties in a failed attempt to wrest control of al-Ghazzaya from forces loyal to Gadhafi. Last week, rebel fighters manning hilltops in the western mountains overlooking al-Ghazzaya told CNN that they had been watching the government forces reinforcing their weapon stocks with heavy military machinery and rocket launchers. The United Kingdom on Wednesday recognized the Benghazi-based rebels as Libya's legitimate government, and the United States recently recognized the council as the country's "legitimate governing authority." British Foreign Secretary William Hague on Wednesday reiterated his stance that Gadhafi could remain in Libya if he leaves power, but added that the best thing would be for him to face justice at the International Criminal Court, which is seeking his arrest. CNN's Michael Martinez contributed to this report.

"There's now a power vacuum within the army," reporter says . The rebel military chief is killed in Benghazi . Rebels claim battlefield successes in western Libya .

(CNN) -- Oil companies could soon be using an innovative new technique involving nanotechnology and magnets to help clean up offshore oil spills. Oil spills from container ships or offshore platforms are a frequent hazard to marine and coastal ecosystems and an expensive one to clean up. BP expects the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010 -- the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history -- to cost it $40 billion. However, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) say they have found a method of recovering oil after a spill using magnets, potentially saving companies like BP money in clean up bills. On it's own, oil is not magnetic, but MIT researchers say that when mixed with water-repellent nanoparticles that contain iron, the oil can be magnetically separated from the water. The nanoparticles can later be removed to enable the re-use of the oil. "I had known about other scientists using magnetic fluids to separate oil but it had never worked out practically and that was something I felt I could do something about," says co-researcher Markus Zahn. The recovery process would be conducted out at sea after the oil spill, explains Zahn. Seawater polluted with oil would be pumped onto a boat treatment facility. Once onboard, the magnetic nanoparticles would be added and attach themselves to the oil. See also: A robot that detects oil spills . The liquid would then be filtered with the magnets to separate the oil and water, with the water returned to the sea and the oil carried back to shore to an oil refinery. "I think in the world we are in, there are always going to be spillages which affect the wildlife and livelihoods of people and this can help tackle that," says Zahn. Since the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, there has been a rise in interest from oil companies and government departments in funding new techniques for reducing the environmental impact and cost of future oil spills. Until now the two main methods have been using chemical dispersants, which break up the oil, and skimming, a technique whereby the oil is pulled off the surface of the water. Although there are drawbacks to both -- chemical dispersants can have negative impacts on marine life and skimming can be hampered by bad weather -- magnetic techniques may still find it difficult to gain acceptance. Zahn admits that one oil company has already turned down the opportunity of funding the research but is confident that other companies will support the project. The use of tiny nanoparticles is seen by some as controversial. As well as being complex and difficult to use on a large-scale, there are concerns they could damage marine life, if accidentally released. See also: Robotic sailboats built to clean up oil spills . While their impact on the environment is still largely unknown, scientists such as David Andrews from the U.S.-based Environmental Working Group (EWG), say their use should be limited. Others suggest the magnetic technique would be better suited to small-scale use and that existing alternatives such as skimming are still better suited for tackling large-scale offshore oil spills. "On a small-scale it (the magnetic technique) may be an excellent system but I don't think it will work at sea in such a challenging environment," says Dr Susan Shaw, founder of the Marine Environmental Research Institute. "I think ultimately, it may be a better way of recovering oil once it is brought ashore rather than out at sea." For Shaw, a newly developed skimmer from an Illinois company Team Elastic offers a better method for cleaning up oil spills. It can recover about 4,700 gallons per minute, so assuming the skimmer could be deployed 24 hours a day, it would take 30 days to pick up the entire 200 million gallons of oil spilled during the Gulf of Mexico disaster. "In my opinion, the new skimmers are the most hopeful and best method for cleaning up an oil spill and protecting health and the environment. They should be part of the safety equipment required by permit for every offshore drilling rig," says Shaw.

MIT researchers develop new technique for recovering oil using magnets . Could save oil companies money and reduce costs of clean up . Some experts question whether technique can work in sea conditions . Skimming technique may be better suited to offshore spills .

(CNN) -- Anyone can turn on a TV, scan their newsfeeds or fire up a laptop to quickly get a sense of the important topics being discussed at the Republican National Convention. This is not about those. This is for those other moments -- the ones that make us SMH or LOL or unfollow certain people on Twitter. These are the moments that prompt us to show our phones to the person next to us, eyes wide with disbelief and mischief. It's not news. 1. Strange looks . Men and women had plenty to say about Condoleezza Rice's lipstick malfunction on Twitter and Instagram during her Wednesday speech. "I don't care what their beliefs are I will always feel completely awful for any woman who has lipstick on their teeth in public," wrote Twitter user @Morgan Murphy. Others were not so kind. "A good friend would have told Condi she had lipstick on her teeth. Where's Ann? Dropping the ball, that's where," wrote @mkusek01060 . At least no one created a Twitter account for Condi's Lipstick. The distraction theme continued as Paul Ryan and his widow's peak took the stage. "Paul Ryan. The charisma of Edward Kennedy. The widow's peak of Edward Munster," wrote @SteveintheKT . "All you listen to Ryan for his powerful speech, I just stare at his widow's peak," wrote @bey_guy87 . On Facebook David Atherton attributed the following to Wikipedia, "In political polling, widow's peaks are considered to be a facial attribute for candidates that is a clear positive ... associated with being seen as more competent and with greater integrity." 2. Making faces . Continuing on the distraction theme were these tweets from co-creator of "The Daily Show," Liz Winstead. "McCain is doing his blinky thing! The one where he blinks a bunch when he doesn't believe what he is saying," she posted. "Blab all you want abt Ann Romney's speech- nothing will help if Mitt doesn't lose that 'I have a weird thing on my tongue' face." This guy thinks he and Paul Ryan look alike. And in one of the fantastically creepy trends to emerge from the convention delegates snapped photos of themselves wearing paper masks of Paul Ryan and then posted them to Instagram. 3. Bringing sexy back . But before Paul Ryan even opened his mouth Wednesday night, Twitter was already reflecting on Paul Ryan's sex appeal. @chrissyadeleke Pretty ballsy speech by Paul Ryan. Not gonna lie. I liked it. He makes politics sexy. Because he is sexy. @cMMoore6 Paul Ryan is sexy. #simple . @sarahcgoldstein Paul Ryan has the most handsome blue eyes. Very sexy. @Lynzeebug22 Paul Ryan is kinda hot... Sexy vice president. Im down . You get the idea. 4. Elevator music musings . Step into the nearest elevator and what do you hear? Probably the Village Voice furiously typing this tweet after Ryan made a reference to the generation gap between him and Romney based on their music preferences: . @villagevoice Paul Ryan fails to realize that classic rock is pretty much the new elevator music http://bit.ly/NExCe8 . Comedian @robfee quipped, " 'Haha Paul Ryan has dumb music on his iPod!' - Joe Biden as he duct tapes a Ray Stevens cd to his walkman" 5. Give Santorum a hand? How many times did Santorum mention #hands during his Tuesday night speech? We stopped counting at 20. Huffington Post senior editor Craig Kanalley said, "Rick Santorum said #hands 24 times,#Romney 3 times in that speech." See for yourself in this uncut replay on YouTube. What were your favorite OMG moments of the RNC? Tell us in the comments.

There are convention moments that make us SMH, LOL or unfollow certain people . Condoleezza's Rice's lipstick malfunction got as much buzz as her speech . Paul Ryan's widow's peak drew comparisons to Eddie Munster . Ryan might be handsome, but Santorum's speech was hand-somer .

Los Angeles (CNN) -- Before Prince William and his wife, Catherine, left Los Angeles to return to London on Sunday, they got their hands dirty with paint and putty at a children's art center and shook hands with military veterans looking for work. "On behalf of us both, how grateful we are to have been welcomed so warmly in the Golden State and City of Angels," Prince William said at the last stop of the royal couple's three-day Southern California visit. A giant Union Jack flag and an equally large American flag served as the backdrop inside Sony Studios' sound stage 15 as Prince William addressed 1,500 military veterans, their spouses and recruiters from 150 companies Sunday afternoon. The cavernous building is where scenes for the "Wizard of Oz," "Spider Man" and many other movies were filmed. William called the ServiceNation job fair "one of the seriously most important" of the many events during their 12-day North American tour. "This is because it's about men and women, who with their own free will, choose to put their life on the line for their country," William said. "They are on the front line of a remarkable relationship between the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada, which has safeguarded our freedom for a century." The problem of unemployment among former military families will "be raised monumentally by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge being here," said U.S. Chamber of Commerce Vice President Kevin Schmiegel, one of the job fair organizers. "Prince William is the most recognizable military officer in the world," Schmiegel said. "So, I think if they look at the portfolio of things that they're interested in raising awareness about, it makes sense that he is interested in this." William said the job fair's mission is "very immediate and personal to us. Catherine and I both have friends back in Britain who could benefit from an initiative like this." Earlier Sunday, William and Catherine spent an hour in Los Angeles' low-income Skid Row neighborhood with children at the Inner-City Arts Center. Each got their hands dirty creating their own art. "What the hell is that?" William asked Catherine as he looked at her artwork. His wife was painting a snail as she sat among a group of fifth-graders. "That's amazing," Catherine said to children as she admired their work in a ceramics class. The royal newlyweds left a lasting impression at the center, literally. They each put their hands onto a board of putty, leaving ceramic imprints for future visitors to see. Their whirlwind weekend in Southern California was designed to be a combination of commerce and charity missions for the royal couple. Weekend events included the prince's participation in a polo competition in Carpinteria, California, on Saturday afternoon. Prince William and his team won the match after he scored four goals in the final game. His reward? A sterling silver and gold trophy along with a kiss by his wife. Proceeds from the match go to a foundation supported by the prince and his brother, Harry, that helps disadvantaged youth, sustainable development and military families. The royal couple has had a busy stay, which included a meeting with thespians and Hollywood's elite during an event by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts on Saturday night. While Beverly Hills is the land of the famous, the visit by the recently married couple has caused a major stir. Spago, Wolfgang Puck's restaurant, offered a British menu for the duration, including dishes served during the royal wedding festivities. The Beverly Hills eatery added Yorkshire pudding to its menu for the weekend. Not to be outdone, the city's famously aggressive paparazzi tried to pursue the newlyweds at a private party at the British consul general's Hollywood home. Neighbors near the residence, where the royals also spent the night, gave police permission to arrest photographers caught on private property. The California visit ends the 10-day North American tour that began in Canada. CNN's Michael Martinez contributed to this report.

NEW: William tells California "how grateful we are" for the warm welcome . "That's amazing," Catherine tells young artists on Skid Row . They met with military veterans at a job fair Sunday afternoon . California visit was a mixture of commerce and charity .

(CNN) -- A California Republican group censured one of its own Thursday, saying her words and actions since sending an e-mail last month depicting President Barack Obama as a chimpanzee have been potentially offensive, damaging and insincere. Capping a meeting Thursday, the Orange County Republican Party's executive committee voted 12-2 Thursday to issue an ethics censure against Marilyn Davenport. GOP official sorry for racist e-mail . "The Republican Party of Orange County condemns racism in any form, and this censure is consistent with that position," the group said in a statement. A phone call Thursday night to Davenport, for her comment on the censure, was not immediately returned. Last month, she found herself in a storm of controversy after forwarding an e-mail she says she received from a friend. It contained a doctored photo styled like a family portrait, showing two adult chimpanzees and a baby. The younger chimpanzee had a photo of Obama's face superimposed over the animal's face. The caption that ran with the photo read, "Now you know why no birth certificate." Davenport, who is a Tea Party activist and an elected member of the central committee of the Republican Party of Orange County, said she felt the e-mail was a joke, CNN affiliate KTLA reported. It referred to debate over whether or not Obama was born in the United States. Soon after it came out, the county's GOP chairman, Scott Baugh, called for Davenport's resignation in a Twitter message posted on the group's website. California's Democratic Party has also demanded that Davenport step down. In an apology that included two Bible passages, Davenport initially said she would not repeat her error. "I am an imperfect Christian lady who tries her best to live a Christ-like honoring life," the statement said. "I would never do anything to intentionally harm or berate others regardless of ethnicity. So I ask for your forgiveness, for I am truly sorry." Later, on April 20, she told reporters she wanted to "humbly apologize and ask for your forgiveness for my unwise behavior." Davenport admitted that, "unintentionally, I have offended many" -- though she insisted that she was not racist. She has refused to resign, citing what she called an overwhelming number of appeals she has gotten from her constituency asking her not to do so. She represents the state's 72nd Assembly District for the Republican Central Committee. In its statement Thursday, the Orange County Republican committee called out Davenport and said that she was aware the e-mail "could be viewed as offensive." "Then instead of owning up to her mistake and putting an end to the story, Mrs. Davenport immediately sought to blame others and downplay the matter as a joke," the GOP committee said, calling the first apology she'd made in a statement "not contrite" and "conditional." The committee viewed her second apology as more sincere, while noting that the "three-day delay in issuing that apology resulted in a torrential barrage of unnecessary media attention." "Finally, the committee found that much of the good that was accomplished by Mrs. Davenport's second apology was undone by going on a media tour that continued to blame others for her actions," the statement said. During her press conference, Davenport referred to the e-mail as "political satire" -- insisting she had no intention of doing anything that would be racist. Obama and his staff produced copies of his birth certificate indicating he was born in Hawaii when he was running for president in 2008. On April 27, after months of further speculation amid claims he was born in another country, he released the long-form of the same certificate in hopes of finally quelling the controversy. "We do not have time for this kind of silliness. We've got better stuff to do," the president said afterward.

An Orange County's Republican committee censures Marilyn Davenport . The committee member had sent an e-mail depicting Obama as a chimp . She apologized twice, while insisting it was "political satire" and not racist . The GOP group called her apologies insincere, saying she blamed others .

WILMINGTON, Delaware (CNN) -- Sen. Joe Biden was always in charge when he was a boy, his younger sister said. Not because he bullied the other kids, but because he appealed to their "better angels." Joe Biden greets supporters at a rally in Battle Creek, Michigan, on August 31. "He was always the guy who led the pack, and it wasn't because he stood up and pounded his chest and said, 'C'mon and follow me,'" his sister, Valerie Biden Owens, said. "The kids just naturally followed him." Owens, who is three years younger than the 65-year-old vice presidential candidate, said she was her brother's sidekick when the two grew up in their Scranton, Pennsylvania, neighborhood with their brother and sister. "I opened my eyes, and he was there," she said. "He always taught that I could stretch. He encouraged me to achieve and try things that I would never have tried before," she said. Biden "was the kid who brought all the kids into the pack" and was a boy "who did the right thing, and did the right thing by other kids," Owens said. Watch Biden revealed in documentary » . "He was always the fearless leader ... and he's always, you know, [saying], 'It's your turn. Now, you. Try it again. You can do it. Go ahead,'" she said. Owens said her older brother always tried to make kids feel part of the group because he knew what it felt like to feel excluded. One kid in high school called him "Dash Biden" because he stuttered and it took him a long time to pronounce his name, Owens said. "A fierce determination that he was not going to allow an imperfection to hold him back," drove him to overcome the stuttering, she said. "There are not excuses so he had to figure out a way to overcome it," Owens said. "He practiced, and he used to take verses from Emerson and Yeats and he would memorize them." Watch how Biden overcame his stutter » . Stuttering would not be the last -- or even the greatest -- challenge Biden would face in his life. Shortly after he was elected to the Senate in 1972 at age 29, Biden's first wife, Nealia, and a daughter, Naomi, were killed in a car accident. His sons, Beau and Hunter, survived the crash, and Biden took the Amtrak train from Washington to Wilmington, Delaware, daily to take care of them. After the accident, Biden was "devastated -- his world was gone," Owens said. But Biden "put one foot in front of the other" and made sure he took care of his children, she said. "I think that's why he connects with people," she said. "As my dad said, 'It's not how you get knocked down, it's how quickly you get back up.'" Follow a timeline of Biden's career » . In 1977, Biden married his second wife, Jill, who Owens said "put my brother's life back together." "She not only married my brother, she married the state of Delaware. She married the Biden family," Owens said. "And the whole time [she] has kept her perspective and her feet grounded. She's a remarkable woman." Now, Owens said, Biden's ability to unite people and appeal "to the better instinct in human nature" -- the same traits he showed when he was a boy in Scranton -- are why he is a good running mate for Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee. "He never would have signed on and agreed to run with Sen. Obama unless he thought he could make a difference, unless he believed in Sen. Obama and where he wanted to lead the country," she said. "They share the same values. They share the same vision."

In childhood, other kids followed Biden, VP nominee's sister recalls . Big brother encouraged her to achieve and try new things, she says . Stutter gave Joe Biden empathy for the excluded, sister says . Biden and Obama 'share the same vision,' Valerie Biden Owens says .

Washington (CNN) -- It's a highly secured, sophisticated research lab studying deadly diseases such as bird flu, monkeypox, tuberculosis and rabies. It's in a facility called Building 18, which cost taxpayers $214 million. And now, the Biosafety Level 3 lab at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta is also the subject of a congressional investigation after a potentially dangerous airflow leak at that lab, CNN has learned. The leak occurred on February 16, when air flowed the wrong way out of a germ lab into a clean-air corridor, rather than through the powerful HEPA filter that cleans the air, congressional sources and CDC officials said. Visitors touring the facility were in the clean corridor when they observed a puff of air being pushed out from the lab through a slot in a door window. CNN recommends: Deadly bird flu could become airborne . If experiments had been under way at the time of that air leak, experts say, unprotected visitors could have been exposed to deadly germs, although an epidemic would have been unlikely. According to U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess, a Texas Republican and a medical doctor, the House Energy and Commerce Committee has asked the CDC for documents about that incident. The request came in the wake of a report on internal CDC e-mails about the incident, first reported by USA Today last week. "The biggest concern was that there was a contingent of visitors who were walking through the building," Burgess said. "And had one of those people been stricken or made ill or worse, obviously that would have been devastating." The lab handles small mammals such as rats, ferrets and mice as part of its experiments with pathogens, according to CDC officials. They say animals were in the lab at the time of the air leak, but they were secured in filtered cages. CDC officials say the lab was clean, was not active at the time, and no one got infected. "At no time during recent incidents featured in the media were CDC workers or the public in harm's way," agency spokesman Tom Skinner said. "This unique facility features multiple security layers specifically designed to protect workers and the public in the event of an incident." In a statement released to CNN, Burgess' committee said, "We will actively work to find out if there are additional concerns or incidents associated with Building 18. Any anomaly or breach is of concern, and we will work to ensure the integrity of the facility is maintained and that our scientists are safe." There has been at least one other safety-related incident in that same building where February's air leak occurred. In 2008, it was discovered that a high-containment lab door was sealed with duct tape. That incident was first reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and confirmed to CNN by Skinner. Robert Hawley, former safety chief at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, said the CDC has many safety layers in place at its labs. Hawley says researchers at the Biosafety Level 3 lab work in biosafety "cabinets" within the lab itself. "Nothing is handled outside that cabinet," Hawley said. "So they're working with minute amounts of material, and the chances of aerosol are negligible." But there are questions about a possible cover-up. In an internal e-mail, reported by USA Today, CDC biologist Kismet Scarborough said the centers "... will do anything ... to hide the fact that we have serious problems with the airflow and containment in this whole building." CNN has not been able to independently verify that e-mail. But in response, Skinner said, "CDC will continue to take an open, transparent and inclusive approach to address any safety challenge in a manner that will ensure the safety of our workforce and the public." Skinner said the agency "intends to cooperate fully with Rep. Burgess and the committee to address any questions they may have about Building 18 at CDC." CNN's Miriam Falco contributed to this report.

A February air leak at a high-security CDC lab draws congressional scrutiny . The CDC says "at no time" were workers or the public in danger . A House panel wants to know whether there are "additional concerns or incidents"

(CNN) -- Emerging from victory, Park Geun-hye who will become the next president of South Korea -- the first woman for the Asian nation -- pledged to "take care of our people one-by-one." In a speech made at the headquarters of her Saenuri political party Thursday morning, she invoked a phrase coined by her father, Park Chung-hee, who also served as president in an era when he was encouraging people to pull South Korea out of poverty. "I would like to re-create the miracle of 'let's live well' so people can worry less about their livelihood and young people can happily go to work," said Park. Park, 60, will assume office in February, in a country grappling with income inequality, angst over education and employment prospects for its youth, and strained relations with North Korea. South Korea is also a strategic Western ally and the fourth-largest economy in Asia. Park won 52% of the vote, compared with 48% for her rival, Moon Jae-in of the Democratic United Party, according to the country's National Election Commission. Both the president-elect and Moon, the liberal candidate, had similarly moderate plans, addressing income inequality, reigning in the power of family-owned conglomerates and improving relations with North Korea. "This wasn't the knockdown, drag out, left-against-right type of campaign," said David Kang, professor of international relations and business at the University of Southern California. "There's a surprising consensus about taking a more moderate stance." "I think Park won by acting to the center. Her claims are that she's going to moderate many of the policies of the previous administration." Park acknowledged Moon and his supporters Thursday. "I believe there is common ground between myself and Moon Jae-in," she said. "We are both willing to work for the country and for the people of South Korea. "Whether you were for or against me, I want to hear your opinions. I will try to stop the separation and conflict that has been going on for the last half century through reconciliation and harmony." Park of the Saenuri party, won the highest office in a conservative Asian nation with traditional gender values. Read more: South Korea's election paradox . Just because a woman has won the presidency, it doesn't mean South Korea has achieved everything it needs in terms of gender equality, said Kang, who is also director of Korean Studies Institute at USC. "That a woman could be elected in South Korea is historic and important. At the same time, what you basically have to do is be political royalty. So I think gender roles are changing in South Korea. It's a step forward, but let's also remember how unique she is as a person." Park is the daughter of former President Park Chung-hee, whose legacy left the Korean public divided. Some claim he was a dictator who ignored human rights and cracked down on dissent, while others credit him with bringing economic development to South Korea. Her father was assassinated in 1979. On Thursday, she paid her respects to her parents by visiting their graves at the National Cemetery in Seoul. As in many other elections around the world, the economy reigned as the No. 1 issue for South Korean voters. Park has made ambitious promises to address those anxieties. "I will create a society in which no one is left behind and everyone can share the fruits of economic development," she said. "I believe that only this can bring unity, economic democratization and happiness for people. She also mentioned North Korea describing its recent rocket launch as a "serious security situation." Park received congratulatory messages from Korea's outgoing President Lee Myung-bak as well as one from U.S. President Barack Obama. Read more: Pocket, not rocket, worries Koreans . The United States and South Korea enjoy "stable relations," Kang said. "Park is going to have to weigh U.S. as its main security ally and China as its main economic partner. That balancing act - keeping both with good relations - at some point, may become difficult," he said.

Park Geun-hye will become next president of South Korea . She pledged to take care of citizens in a time of economic anxiety . South Korea is a strategic Western ally and Asia's fourth-largest economy .

Jerusalem (CNN) -- At least four rockets slammed into Israel Wednesday, injuring one man and prompting retaliatory Israeli airstrikes that wounded two Palestinian militants, one critically, sources said. The strikes and counterstrikes mark the latest phase in an unusually intense round of violence between Israelis and Palestinians. At least 10 Palestinians have been killed since Saturday, including two children, and though both sides say they do not want the violence to escalate, Wednesday's attacks show it does not seem to be abating. The Israeli man hurt Wednesday was injured in one of two rocket strikes on Beer Sheva, an Israeli army spokeswoman said. The Israel Defense Forces struck back at a rocket launching site in northern Gaza associated with one of the other attacks Wednesday. Two militants were injured, one critically, Palestinian medical officials and Hamas sources said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country would "protect our citizens rigorously and determinedly. No country would put up with continuing rocket fire on its cities and civilians, and of course Israel will not put up with that." "We are very determined to hit the terrorists and prevent them from harming our citizens," he added. The violence comes after four Palestinian militants were killed Tuesday evening in an Israeli airstrike in the Zeitoun neighborhood east of Gaza City. Islamic Jihad said all four militants were field commanders for Islamic Jihad. An Israeli army spokeswoman said that an Israeli military aircraft fired toward the group after identifying a group of militants who were preparing to launch a rocket into Israel. In an earlier incident Tuesday, two adults and two children were killed in the Al-Shajaieh neighborhood east of Gaza City when shells from Israeli tanks hit a house there, the sources said. The children, 11-year-old Mohammed Jihad Al-Hilo and 16-year-old Yasser Ahed Al-Hilo, were playing soccer outside their house when the shells hit, the sources said. Yasser Hamed Al-Hilo, 50, and Mohamad Saber Harara, 20, were also killed, according to the sources. Eight others were wounded, three of them critically, they said. The IDF said the mortar attack was carried out in response to the launch from Gaza of four military-use projectiles into the Shaar Hanegev regional council area. "It appears that uninvolved civilians were injured as a result," the IDF said. The incident was under investigation by the IDF. "The IDF does not want an escalation of violence in the South," an IDF spokesman said. In a statement, Netanyahu expressed regret over the deaths and injuries of Gaza civilians in Tuesday's Israeli military action and said the strikes were carried out in response to Hamas attacks on Israeli citizens. "It's unfortunate that Hamas continues to intentionally rain down dozens of rockets on Israeli civilians using its own civilians as shields," he said. "Israel has no intention of bringing about a deterioration of the situation, but at the same time the IDF will continue to act decisively to protect Israeli citizens." Hamas condemned the killings east of Gaza City. "The massacre in Al-Shajaieh neighborhood is a war crime and the Israeli occupation bears full responsibility," it said in a statement. Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad also condemned what he called "the Israeli aggression against the civilians" and asked for international protection of civilians. He called the military shelling of residential neighborhoods a "dangerous escalation that should be ended." Since Saturday, 10 Palestinians have been killed and at least 37 others wounded in a series of incidents in Gaza, Palestinian medical sources said. Also since Saturday, 61 mortars and rockets have been fired into southern Israel, the IDF said. CNN's Michal Zippori, Kareem Khadder and Talal Abu Rahma contributed to this report.

NEW: Netanyahu says no country would put up with rocket attacks on its citizens . The rocket attacks and counterstrike come amid heightened violence in the past week . Four Palestinian militants were killed Tuesday evening . Israel says mortars and rockets have been fired from Gaza into southern Israel .

(CNN) -- Military brass at Fort Hood, Texas, on Tuesday announced tightened security procedures and the availability of a range of mental health services in the wake of the November 5 shooting spree that killed 13 people on the post. Steps have been taken to tighten restrictions on who gets onto the post, to position armed guards in key locations including behavioral health facilities, and to carry out random inspections of containers, said Col. Bill Hill, garrison commander. "Relaxed entry will cease," he told post personnel in a televised town hall meeting. All vehicles entering the post will be required to display a Department of Defense sticker or a secure pass, and some buildings will require badge access, he said. Security at both the fort's airfields also will be tightened, with guards and patrols on site, he said. Soldiers assigned to Fort Hood will have to register their personal firearms with the director of emergency services, he added. Fort Hood is home to some 50,000 active-duty soldiers and 18,000 of the soldiers' family members. The suspect in the shootings, Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, has been charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder. Hasan, who was wounded by two civilian officers, is being treated at a hospital. Additional charges are under consideration, Col. Jeff Harris said. Many of the security changes have already been implemented, including additional searches at the gates and greater restrictions on who can get onto the post, said Lt. Gen. Bob Cone, Fort Hood's commanding general. But, Cone said, had the changes been in place on November 5, they might not have been enough. "I don't think necessarily they would have had an effect on this event," he said. Among Fort Hood's resources for treating mental health problems -- including post-traumatic stress disorder -- are a 12-bed inpatient psychiatric ward, an outpatient clinic, a combat stress reset program, social services and substance abuse treatment, said Dr. Steve Braverman, commander of Fort Hood's Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center. After the attack, the post's mental health staff was augmented by 75 to 80 mental health workers, though some have gone back to other assignments, he said. Soldiers affected by the attack were screened for mental health problems afterward and will be rescreened 90 days after the event "to ensure that any previously unidentified issues are addressed," Braverman said. A 24-hour "behavioral health hot line" is available, and a surveillance program "to identify and monitor areas of concern" will be started soon, he said. "These findings may lead to targeted interventions for certain populations as we address these issues," Braverman said. Plans call for construction of an 82,000-square-foot facility in which behavioral health facilities would be consolidated, Braverman said. Soldiers in need of care can also make appointments with their primary care providers, he said. The objective, Braverman said, is "to restore trust and confidence in Army medicine." Despite the availability of resources, many soldiers have expressed reluctance to seek mental health care, fearing that doing so would adversely affect their careers. "There is a perception of stigma," Cone said. But Braverman said treatment need not hinder anyone's career. "If you are seen in our system, while there's information in the medical records, that's not allowed to be used for any determination of security levels or future assignments," he said. "This is really all about us regaining the trust in our community, in our soldiers, in our security, in our installation," Cone said. "That was taken from us, and what we have to do is take it back, and that is done one person at a time." He added: "If there is someone out there who is hurting, I assure you there are resources in place and we can take care of them."

Fort Hood tightens restrictions on who is allowed onto post . "Relaxed entry will cease," garrison commander Col. Bill Hill says . Armed guards positioned in key locations, including behavioral health facilities . Moves come after November 5 shooting that killed 13 people .

(CNN) -- A storm system that produced a number of tornadoes in the Midwest was blamed for at least seven deaths in two states, officials said Wednesday. At least three people were killed when a tornado touched down in Harrisburg, Illinois, early Wednesday, the Saline County Sheriff's Office said. About 100 others were injured. The number of fatalities in Harrisburg could rise, the city's mayor said, in the wake of the twister that appeared to have been on the ground for several miles, said the city's mayor, Eric Gregg. The path of destruction was about three or four football fields wide, he said. The scene in the southern part of Harrisburg, where the tornado struck, was one of debris and collapsed houses. Commercial and residential buildings were crushed. A tractor-trailer could be seen laying on its side, off the highway. Crews were searching "piece by piece" for survivors, Gregg said. It was "a path of destruction that is absolutely devastating," he said. "It's a very difficult day for a very good community in southern Illinois." At least five people were killed in Harrisburg because of the storm, he said. According to the sheriff's office, some 100 people were injured and between 250 and 300 houses were damaged or destroyed. Some 25 businesses were also damaged or destroyed, the sheriff's office said. Crews were also examining some structural damage to the Harrisburg Medical Center, to judge whether any patients must be moved, Gregg said. "It's like nothing I've ever seen, and something I don't care to see again," he said. Earlier, two deaths were reported in Missouri as a result of the storms. A woman was killed overnight in Dallas County, Missouri, the coroner there said, without giving further details. An apparent tornado near Cassville, Missouri, left another person dead, the Barry County Sheriff's Office said. That person was thrown out of a mobile home, the sheriff's office said. Tornado in Kansas captured on video . The pounding rain and swirling, destructive winds raking several Plains states injured others in Kansas, as well. That state was socked Tuesday night and Gov. Sam Brownback declared a state of emergency for a small town hit badly by the severe weather. The National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center issued tornado watches through noon for parts of Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Arkansas, Illinois and Missouri. Along with tornadoes, the center warned of the possibility of golf-ball-sized hail, winds up to 75 miles per hour and "dangerous lightning." The state of emergency was declared for the tiny Kansas town of Harveyville, about 20 miles southwest of Topeka. Emergency teams combed the community to assess damage. Authorities said they believe a tornado hit the town Tuesday night. Some homes and a church were damaged, and there were numerous reports of trees and power lines down throughout the area, according to the Kansas Adjutant General's Department. At least one person was critically injured and transported to a hospital in Topeka while four others were briefly trapped in a structure. "It is quite hectic," said Bill Beasley of the American Medical Response for Shawnee and Wabaunsee counties, who said nine ambulances were dispatched to the scene. The American Red Cross is assisting and officials have set up a shelter at a local high school. There were also reports of a tornado touchdown in Kansas' Reno County, near Hutchinson, and another in central Nebraska. The same powerful winter storm system spawned the severe weather in Dallas County, Missouri, and along the Missouri-Arkansas border. A path of destruction cut six to seven miles through Taney County, Missouri, damaging homes and businesses, according to Sheriff Jim Russell, who said there were "some injuries," but no reports of fatalities. The resort community of Branson is in the county. Russell said he had no specific information about damage in the town. CNN's Samuel Gardner, Scott Thompson and Alta Spells contributed to this report.

NEW: A total of seven deaths have been reported . NEW: Five are killed in Illinois when a tornado strikes . NEW: The tornado was "absolutely devastating," mayor says .

(CNN) -- Farrah Fawcett, whose public battle with anal cancer has brought new attention to a rarely discussed disease, has not been given a timetable from her doctor about how much time she has left, according to her friend Alana Stewart. Farrah Fawcett, seen here in 2006, has waged a very public battle with anal cancer. "No one has said to her you have two months to live," Stewart said Monday. "So I'm looking at that as a really good sign." Stewart talked with Lara Spencer, host of "The Insider," who discussed her interview with Fawcett's close friend on CNN's "Larry King Live" Monday night. Spencer said Fawcett, her family and friends are clinging to hope for a recovery. "She [Alana Stewart] doesn't want to throw out a number. And neither does Farrah. ... They're still hoping for that miracle," Spencer said. "Farrah's Story," a documentary-style program that has followed the course of her illness and showed her grueling treatment in graphic detail, aired on NBC Friday and was viewed by almost 9 million people. Fawcett and partner Ryan O'Neal watched the show together, Spencer confirmed. "Alana said it was the ultimate in bittersweet," Spencer said. "You know, they're reliving two years of hell that they've endured together." King asked Spencer whether Fawcett, who made her name a household word on the hit '70s TV series "Charlie's Angels," and O'Neal might marry. "He said you never know. He was cagey about it," Spencer said. "And, you know, I think he would in a second. He's so madly in love with her." King also had a panel of medical experts on his show to discuss Fawcett's cancer. Dr. Thomas Vogl, who at one time treated the actress in Germany, called her medical condition "very, very serious." Dr. Allyson Ocean, a medical oncologist in New York, said only about 5,000 cases of anal cancer are diagnosed in the United States yearly. Unlike Fawcett's case, it usually doesn't spread, and only about 10 to 15 percent of cases are advanced, Ocean said. Fawcett's cancer, however, is in Stage 4 and has spread to her liver. Ocean said there are various causes of anal cancer. "One of the causes is a virus called the human papilloma virus, which is a sexually transmitted virus. It seems to be more common in women, in general, outside of any viral infections. Smoking is actually a risk factor," she said. King asked Dr. Paul Song, a radiation oncologist, if he had seen Stage 4 cancer cured. "Not with anal cancer. I have seen it with other GI malignancies such as rectal cancer," Song said. "But anal cancer is a little bit more difficult to treat." Despite the bleak outlook, Song had praise for Fawcett and her documentary. "I think one of the most powerful things that Miss Fawcett did in this documentary was give patients a sense of hope and to just show how she's handled this with such courage and dignity," Song said. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta told King that doctors have to strike a delicate balance when they are caring for patients such as Fawcett. "You have to be absolutely honest with patients, but, you know, you don't want to strip away their hope and optimism, either. There are people, Larry, as you know, who beat the odds," Gupta said. Vogl told King he developed a close relationship with Fawcett during the time he treated her in Germany and expressed admiration for his one-time patient. "From a lot of treatments and contact and communication, I think she is extremely special, an extremely brave person," he said.

"Insider" host Lara Spencer says friends, family holding out for a miracle . Farrah Fawcett has been fighting Stage 4 anal cancer, which has spread . Doctor who once treated her calls condition "very, very serious" Another doctor said actress has handled illness with "courage and dignity"

(CNN) -- To say that "Real Housewives of New York City" star Ramona Singer is busy would be an understatement. Between her different businesses -- wine, jewelry and skin-care products -- and the time she spends filming the Bravo reality show, Singer is hardly ever in the same location for very long. But Singer's passion remains with New York City, where she still manages to spend most of her time. A busy lifestyle doing what she loves suits Singer just fine, and New York is the best place for her. The buzz of the city is what Singer loves most. "You can be all by yourself and you walk out on the street and then you're not alone, but surrounded by tons of people. It just has such great energy." Here, Singer shares some of her favorite locations in New York City. Where to eat . T-Bar Steak & Lounge 1278 Third Avenue . A swanky spot on the Upper East Side, T-Bar is known for its flair and of course, its steaks. Grabbing a cocktail here is an easy way for Singer to unwind. "I love this restaurant and it's in my neighborhood. It's a place I can go by myself and get a bite to eat. I can go with girlfriends, I can go with my husband, they have a great area where you can just hang out and have drinks and appetizers or a whole meal. It just has a nice vibe, a nice local place." The Standard Grill 848 Washington Street . With a wide variety of menus from breakfast to "late night," The Standard Grill offers items from a $1 "good pickle" to the $95 porterhouse steak for two. The restaurant is at the bottom of the trendy Standard Hotel, under the High Line Park. Singer makes tracks to the hotel's 18th floor, where the Top of the Standard lounge (also known as the Boom Boom Room) offers a fun mix of decadence and hip 70s throwback atmosphere. "I can go on top and have drinks at the Boom Boom Room -- very art deco, chic, a must-see place. The view is floor-to-ceiling glass, absolutely beautiful. It's breathtaking." Where to shop . Bergdorf Goodman Fifth Avenue . A store with history and designer finds unlike any other, Bergdorf Goodman is like a one-stop shop for Singer, who has little time for shopping. The variety and helpful sales staff makes this one of her top places in New York. "They have great sales and a great selection. And unlike something you buy in one of the boutiques, you can return it -- because once in a blue moon, I do make a mistake. I love the Sixth floor, they have all of the contemporary designers, like Milly, Rebecca Taylor, Theory. "I'm always on the go: traveling, running, doing, multi-tasking. I need a place I feel really comfortable, where I get great service and has a great selection." Michael Kors 790 Madison Avenue . A jewelry designer, Singer can appreciate affordable, fantastic fashion. Michael Kors' new line of accessories is a favorite of Singer and her daughter, with a wide range of watches for about $250. "I'm in love with their watches, they're oh-so-unbelievable. People ask me and I tell them, 'It's not a Rolex, it's a Michael Kors.' They also have great shoes and handbags." Favorite spot in Central Park . The Central Park Boathouse East 60th Street . When Singer needs an escape, she visits the Boathouse for its relaxing scenery, good eats and recreation. "It's the best-kept secret in New York, beyond stunning and gorgeous. It's on the water, so you can have lunch or dinner outside along the waterfront. You can also ride bikes there or grab a bite from a concession stand."

Ramona Singer doesn't always have time to shop, but she loves Bergdorf Goodman . The Central Park Boathouse provides relaxing scenery for the ever-busy Singer . The Standard Grill and T-Bar are fun, swanky dinner spots in New York City .

SEATTLE, Washington (CNN) -- A pathologist hired by the family of one of two women whose mysterious deaths in Thailand drew worldwide attention says her "lungs were 100 percent congested," Jill St. Onge's fiancee and brother said. Jill St. Onge died while vacationing with her fiance at a Thailand resort. "He said her lung tissue was gone," said her brother, Robert St. Onge. The pathologist has not determined what caused her lungs to fail, he said, and a final report on her May 2 death may still be weeks away. But members of St. Onge's family said they feel the pathologist's findings, though preliminary, are enough to contradict public statements made by Thai investigators that St. Onge was the victim of food poisoning. "I am 99.9 percent sure she did not die of food poisoning," said Ryan Kells, St. Onge's fiancee, who was with her when she died. "She suffocated to death. I am not a doctor, but I know when someone can't breathe." Kells and St. Onge, both artists from Seattle, were on a three-month vacation through Southeast Asia when they arrived on Thailand's Phi Phi Island. They had gotten engaged while on the trip and were keeping friends and family up to date with their adventures. "Having a blast," Jill St. Onge, 27, wrote about the surroundings in a blog dedicated to the couple's travels. "Food, drink, sun and warm waters ... what else do ya need?" The couple's vacation ended tragically when Kells found his fiancee in their hotel room vomiting and unable to breathe. He rushed her to a hospital where she died. St. Onge was healthy and there was no obvious explanation for her sudden death, her brother said. Just hours after St. Onge fell ill, Julie Bergheim, a Norwegian tourist who was staying in a room next to St. Onge's at the Laleena Guesthouse, came down with similar symptoms. She also died. According to Thai media reports, police there are focusing on food poisoning as the cause of the women's deaths. On Monday, the Phuket Gazette quoted a police commander as saying blood samples from both women indicated possible food poisoning from seafood. Still, the commander said, those results were only preliminary. "I don't know when the official results will be released," Maj. Gen. Pasin Nokasul told the newspaper. "The lab work [is being] expedited because the embassies of the two tourists want to know the cause of death as soon as possible." Kells response to Nokasul's statement was harsh. "That she died of food poisoning is a ridiculous statement to make," he said, adding it is unlikely they would have been "the only ones affected." Dr. William Hurley, medical director for the Washington Poison Center, is also skeptical that food poisoning could have been responsible. In food poisoning cases, he said, "usually what kills you is the dehydration, not the toxin." He added, "Food poisoning is not something that typically kills someone this quickly. It takes days." Ingestion of a variety of chemicals could have caused Onge and Bergheim's sudden deaths, Hurley said, and could be consistent with the condition of Onge's lungs. But without further information, he said, it is impossible to say what killed the two women. Kells said he thinks something in the hotel where they were where staying made Jill sick. He remembers a "chemical smell" in the room and thinks he avoided becoming ill because he spent less time in the room. On Saturday, the Phuket Wan newspaper reported that investigators visited the Laleena Guesthouse, taking samples and removing filters from the air conditioning units in the rooms where both victims had stayed. Rat Chuped, the owner of the hotel, told the newspaper her property was not to blame. "There is no problem with my guesthouse," she said.

Seattle woman is one of 2 tourists who died of unknown causes . Family says pathologist says her "lungs were 100 percent congested" Thai officials have been focusing on food poisoning as cause of death .

(CNN) -- It seemed innocent enough: two famous men running into each other at a public event by coincidence, exchanging pleasantries and small talk, and posing for a selfie later posted on Twitter. But the meeting between "House of Cards" actor Kevin Spacey and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto this month in Cancún is at the center of a political controversy in Mexico that caught both the Hollywood star and Mexican government by surprise. Spacey, who plays a president on the Netflix series, posted the selfie with the Mexican leader on May 7. "1 President is real. W/Pres Nieto in #Mexico. Good meeting a man also making progress in 1st year in office. @EPN" was the caption on Twitter. The selfie was taken at Tianguis Turistico, an international tourism conference held in the beach resort of Cancún. Tour operators and tourism entrepreneurs and companies from around the world as well as Mexican officials and celebrities attend the event organized by the Mexican government. The Mexican President also posted a picture with Spacey on his Twitter account, although it was a more formal, sit-down meeting, with the two men talking and looking at each other. "It was nice to be with actor @KevinSpacey, special guest of #TianguisTuristico, last night in Cancun," Peña Nieto wrote on his Twitter account May 7. "To fans of @HouseofCards, I'm sorry, I can't give away details of the third season," the President jokingly wrote later. He also retweeted Spacey's selfie. Controversy erupted May 12 after Mexican columnist Salvador García Soto wrote in the 24 Horas newspaper that Spacey had been paid $8 million by the Mexican federal government. Political analysts immediately started questioning whether the meeting had truly been "a coincidence" or a shameless, self-promotional ploy by the President, paid for by Mexican taxpayers. Spacey was the first to react to the storm of criticism in Mexico. "Story about Mex Gov paying 8m or any amount for selfie not true! Was In Mex for Tourist Board event. Meeting President not planned at all," Spacey tweeted May 16. He had earlier tweeted that his endorsement of Peña Nieto was not necessarily personal. "I guess nobody got the joke. I was in character as Francis Underwood in House of Cards, not myself! I don't know jack about Mexican politics," Spacey said. CNN reached out to Mexican officials for comment. In an e-mail, Rodolfo López Negrete, chief executive officer of the Mexico Tourism Board, said that Spacey was paid to appear at the tourism event but not to pose with the President. "Kevin Spacey's participation at the Tianguis Turistico was part of the event's general program. The Tianguis is self-financed through the sale of booths and entry fees. We also have sponsors through which tourism service providers finance some costs," López Negrete wrote. López Negrete didn't specify the amount Spacey was paid for his appearance but said the entire event had a cost of between 40 million and 45 million pesos (almost $3.1 million to $3.5 million). This and other explanations have done little to silence criticism in Mexico. A reader of 24 Horas, the newspaper that originally reported the payment, cynically asked his fellow Mexicans to pay their taxes. "Let's not stop in complying with our fiscal obligations," the reader wrote, "so that Peña the Clown can keep on paying his favorite actors. Imbecile. So many children on the streets and families without a job and he's spending Mexico's money in his (expletive) hobbies."

Kevin Spacey meets Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto at tourism conference in Cancún . Spacey's selfie creates uproar after paper reports Mexican government paid actor $8 million . Mexican Tourism Board official denies Spacey paid to pose for picture with Peña Nieto . "House of Cards" star admits: "I don't know jack about Mexican politics"

(CNN) -- An American cruise line has said it "deeply regrets" the deaths of two Panamanian fishermen amid claims that one of its cruise ships failed to help their stranded boat. Princess Cruises said passengers on the Star Princess apparently alerted a crew member to the disabled fishing boat in March, but initial indications are that the captain was never told. Later that month, the Ecuadorian navy rescued the only survivor of what was meant to be an overnight fishing trip, 18-year-old Adrian Vasquez, after 28 days adrift. Since then, pressure has grown on the cruise line from local and international media to explain why it failed to help. Broadcaster NPR first reported the claim by three passengers, all bird-watchers, that they had spotted the castaways and told cruise ship staff but had seen no action taken. A reporter with the Panama-Guide.com website confirmed with Vasquez that he and his two friends, who at that point were still alive, had tried to attract the attention of the passing cruise ship. Princess Cruises "deeply regrets that two Panamanian men perished at sea," its statement Thursday said. "The preliminary results of our investigation have shown that there appeared to be a breakdown in communication in relaying the passenger's concern. Neither Captain Edward Perrin nor the officer of the watch were notified," it said. "Understandably, Captain Perrin is devastated that he is being accused of knowingly turning his back on people in distress." If Perrin had received the information, he would have been able to respond appropriately, the company said. "We all understand that it is our responsibility and also the law of the sea to provide assistance to any vessel in distress, and it is not an uncommon occurrence for our ships to be involved in a rescue at sea," it said. Its ships have been involved in more than 30 rescues in the past decade, Princess Cruises added. The story of Vasquez's miraculous survival gained international coverage when he was picked up north of the Galápagos Islands. The alert was first raised by Vasquez's parents after he and his two friends, Oropeces Betancourt, 24, and Fernando Osorio, 16, failed to return as expected to the town of Rio Hato, Panama. Local fishermen and then the Panamanian navy joined the search, sending ships and airplanes to look for the trio, to no avail. For nearly a month, their fate remained a mystery. But on March 21, fishermen spotted the boat, named the Fifty Cents, adrift nearly 600 miles from where it had launched. After being alerted by the fishermen, the Ecuadorian navy rescued Vazquez. Rear Adm. Freddy Garcia Calle said Vasquez showed "severe signs of dehydration and lack of nutrition" when he was found. He said the survivor had thrown his friends' bodies into the ocean "because they had become badly decomposed." Vasquez's mother, Nilsa de la Cruz, told CNN last month that she was overjoyed to have her son back. "After 28 days of anguish, after praying to God that he be found alive ... this is indeed a miracle," de la Cruz said. She said her son told her the February 24 fishing trip had started out well. The three caught plenty of fish. But the boat's engine died without warning and, with no tools and scant navigational experience, there was little the trio could do, de la Cruz told CNN. Soon, currents had swept their boat out into the Pacific, far from the coast. De la Cruz said the three ate raw fish and drank rainwater. They had already been adrift for two weeks when passengers on the Star Princess apparently spotted their tiny boat as the fishermen waved for help. CNN's Rafael Romo contributed to this report.

Princess Cruises is investigating what happened after passengers raised the alert . One of its cruise ships is accused of failing to come to the aid of the stricken vessel . Cruise line: A communication breakdown meant the captain wasn't told of the boat . A sole survivor, Adrian Vasquez, 18, was eventually rescued after 28 days adrift .

(CNN)Liverpool must prepare for life without one its greatest ever players after captain Steven Gerrard confirmed he will leave the club at the end of the 2014-2015 season. "This has been the toughest decision of my life and one which both me and my family have agonized over for a good deal of time," Gerrard, who has played 695 times for Liverpool, told the club's website. "I am making the announcement now so that the manager and the team are not distracted by stories or speculation about my future." Gerrard will continue playing football -- but not in the English Premier League -- and Italian journalist Gianluca di Marzio has reported that U.S. club LA Galaxy are interested in signing the Liverpool midfielder. "I'm going to carry on playing and although I can't confirm at this stage where that will be, I can say it will be somewhere that means I won't be playing for a competing club and will not therefore be lining up against Liverpool -- that is something I could never contemplate." Tributes from fellow professionals have poured in. Liverpool teammate Kolo Toure told CNN: "It has been an honor and it is still an honor for me to play with this amazing man. He is a top professional and a true legend." Former teammates for both club and country also took to Twitter to praise the midfielder. Michael Owen said: "Hard for the Steven Gerrard news to sink in. Amazing servant to Liverpool, arguably the best of all time," while Jamie Carragher tweeted: "Sad day for Lfc & English football with the Gerrard news. I think its the right decision all things considered." The 34-year-old made his first-team debut for the Reds in November 1998 and has scored 180 goals to date in all competitions. Gerrard, who also represented England 114 times before retiring in July, won eight trophies with the club including two FA Cups, three League Cups and the UEFA Cup in 2001. His greatest achievement came in 2005 when he captained Liverpool to victory in the Champions League final against AC Milan in Istanbul. Gerrard won the Man of the Match award as Rafa Benitez's side overturned a three-goal deficit to eventually win a dramatic match in a penalty shoot-out. It was Gerrard's looping headed goal early in the second half that sparked Liverpool's remarkable recovery. However, his long-cherished desire to win the Premier League never materialized -- Liverpool came close in 2009 finishing second to Manchester United and last season Brendan Rodgers' side were pipped to the post by Manchester City. Even more distressingly Gerrard's mistake in the 2-0 home defeat by Chelsea near the end of the season gifted the visitors their first goal -- an error opposition supporters continue to remind the Liverpool captain about in a song during games. A 19th League title in his final season, and a first for the club in a quarter of century, looks improbable -- the Merseysiders are currently in eighth place in the table, 17 points off top spot. Gerrard reasserted his commitment to the team for the rest of the season and hasn't ruled out a return to Anfield in the future. "It is a very special place to be part of. It is my sincere hope and wish that one day I can return to serve Liverpool again, in whatever capacity best helps the club," he said. Gerrard also paid tribute to Rodgers, the owners, his teammates and backroom staff, but reserved his most heartfelt thanks to the club's loyal supporters. "My final message is for the people who make Liverpool Football Club the greatest in the world -- the supporters. "It has been a privilege to represent you, as a player and as captain. I have cherished every second of it and it is my sincere wish to finish this season and my Liverpool career on a high."

Steven Gerrard to leave Liverpool at end of 2014-2015 season . Gerrard has played nearly 700 times for Liverpool . Midfielder will continue playing football -- but not in English Premier League .

(CNN) -- When Ahmed Ahmed, an Egyptian-American stand-up comic, started doing comedy tours of the Middle East his friends in the U.S. assumed he was performing at military bases. "They were surprised to learn that I was performing for Arabs, that they understood English and that people actually laughed," said Ahmed. His frustration at the response from his fellow Americans prompted Ahmed to make a documentary film called "Just Like Us" about comedy in the Middle East. Ahmed, 40, said he wanted to challenge the American misconception that Arabs have no sense of humor. The film follows Ahmed and fellow comedians on a tour taking in Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. It charts the rapidly growing popularity of stand-up comedy in the Middle East. "There's always been comedy in the Middle East, but in the form of story-telling or one-man shows, not stand-up in the contemporary American sense," said Ahmed. "Stand-up comedy is relatively new but evolving quickly and is now happening in most Middle Eastern countries." Ahmed, who was born in Egypt but moved to California as a baby, began doing comedy shows in the Middle East in 2005, but started with small, private functions. Although he had regularly visited Egypt as a child, the 2005 tour was the first time in 20 years he had returned to his country of birth. It was while taking part in the "Axis of Evil Comedy Tour" in 2007 that he first saw large audiences. The shows filmed for "Just Like Us" had audiences totaling 20,000 people, he said. The theme of the film is that Arab sense of humor is just like that of Americans, although there were some differences in the expectations of audiences. Ahmed said: "My material in the Middle East is pretty similar to that in the U.S. except for deleting religious or sexually explicit content. The exception is Lebanon where pretty much anything goes. "We used to be told not to touch Arab politics either, but that's changed since the Arab Spring and people are now keen to hear about politics." "Just Like Us" was filmed last year before the start of the Arab Spring, but Ahmed said the seeds for political change were visible. "The film was at the cutting edge before the revolution and was pre-emptive of it," he said. "A lot of people who attended our shows were the same people who were marching in the streets." Ahmed also observed differences between audiences in each of the countries he visited. "Every Middle East country I've visited had a big sense of humor. It was refreshing and enlightening," he said. "We had the biggest laughs in Saudi Arabia because they have the least amount of entertainment. Because they are so entertainment deprived, they are very ready to laugh at anything." Ahmed added: "I love performing in Egypt because it feels like a homecoming. It's my planet. "Lebanon is another favorite because it's so open and free. You can say whatever you like." CNN reported in 2010 that stand-up comedy was doing serious business in the Middle East and that home-grown talent had taken off alongside tours by Western comics. Jamil Abu-Wardeh, a television producer who moved from London to Dubai and helped launch the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour did a TED talk in July 2010 in which he spoke of the "rise and rise of stand-up comedy in the Middle East." "Just Like Us" premiered at the Doha Tribeca Film Festival last year and is currently touring the United States. It won a best documentary award at the Tallahassee Film Festival 2011 and a special mention at Santa Cruz Film Festival 2011, as well as a host of film official selections. It will be shown in Dallas, Texas on June 24 and in Boston, Massachusetts, and Royal Oak, Michigan, on July 8. Tickets can be booked here.

"Just Like Us" follows a comedy tour of Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Dubai . Comedian Ahmed Ahmed said he wanted to show Americans how similar Arab humor is to their own . Stand-up comedy is relatively new and fast-growing in the Middle East, said Ahmed .

(CNN) -- If it seems like nearly everyone you see these days, from kids to seniors, has some kind of tech gadget handy, it's not just your imagination. According to a new report from the Pew Internet and American Life project, nearly 90% of Americans now own a cell phone, computer, MP3 player, game console, e-book reader or tablet computer. In Generations and Their Gadgets, Pew explores how age groups in the U.S. tend to use their tech devices. It defines six generations ranging from age 18 to 75-plus. A few highlights about how Americans of different ages use mobile devices: . Cell phones . Eighty-five percent of Americans currently own cell phones, making it the single most popular type of tech gadget. Slightly more Americans use their cell phones to take pictures (76%) than to send or receive text messages (72%) -- but across all age groups, those two non-voice call activities are the most popular. Among the 15% of Americans who do not own a cell phone, one-third live in a household with at least one working cell phone. So, overall, "90% of all adults (including 62% of those age 75 and older) live in a household with at least one working cell phone," the survey finds. Also, Pew notes that as of June, about a quarter of all U.S. households had gone mobile-only, ditching their traditional "landline" phone connections. This includes more than half of all adults ages 25 to 29, and it indicates how crucial it is to update the U.S. 911 emergency calling system to be more friendly to cell phones, as well as to accommodate more types of communication than voice calls. Even though more people are getting smartphones (30 percent of U.S. cell phone owners, by most estimates), only Americans ages 18 to 34 are especially likely to use their phones for several purposes: internet access, e-mail, games, getting or playing music, sending or receiving photos, recording video, etc. The only widely popular activities across all age groups are taking pictures and text messaging, which may explain why 70% of Americans still rely on non-smart "feature phones," which have fewer bells and whistles. MP3 players . As tech gadgets go, MP3 players are relatively limited devices. So it's a bit surprising that the youngest and most tech-savvy age group Pew studied is by far the most likely to own an MP3 player. Three-quarters of Americans ages 18 to 34 own an MP3 player, but only 56% of the next oldest group (35 to 46) do. Tablets . As of September, 5% of U.S. adults owned tablet computers such as the iPad or Galaxy Tab, up from 3% in May. (Apple's popular iPad hit U.S. stores in April.) With the launch of several Android-based iPad competitors, expect this kind of device to become much more popular in the next year. It'll be interesting to see whether tablet ownership starts to displace some ownership of laptop computers. E-readers . Currently, 5% of Americans own e-reader devices such as the Kindle or Nook, but this vastly underestimates the total number of people who read e-books. Many people read e-books on their smartphones, tablets, and desktop or laptop computers. E-reader devices are most popular among Americans ages 47 to 56. I suspect that in the next year, tablets will shake up all kinds of patterns of mobile device ownership and use in the U.S. If tablet prices start to drop and more options for size and connectivity emerge (especially likely for Android models), it's possible that that many people who rely primarily on feature phones might choose to invest in a Wi-Fi-enabled tablet (a one-time expense) rather than upgrading to a full smartphone (with higher monthly bills and often unexpected charges). The opinions expressed in this story are solely those of Amy Gahran.

Eighty-five percent of Americans currently own cell phones . About a quarter of all U.S. households have gone mobile phone-only . Five percent of Americans own e-reader devices such as the Kindle or Nook .