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NewsQA
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Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- For the first time in more than 40 years, dawn in Libya rose on Friday without the dictator and his shadow.
Libyans awoke to empty Friday streets, typical for the holy day of the Muslim week, and engaged in somber reflection about Moammar Gadhafi's life and death. That solemnity followed a wave of unbridled joy Thursday as people exulted over the news of Gadhafi's death and fired their guns in celebration.
After Friday prayers at the Salahaddin Mosque in Tripoli, worshippers said their imam had given thanks during his sermon for Gadhafi's downfall.
"Today is a special day at the mosque," said Sala Mersal after prayers. "Since 42 years, we cannot say anything. ... Nobody could say anything inside the mosque. Today it is free, and anybody can say anything they want."
A small crowd gathered outside the mosque, with bullet casings littering the streets, and chanted "God is great" and "One, two, three ... Libya is free!"
Amid the smiles and victory signs, Hisham Boaishi conceded that he did not approve of the "un-Islamic way" that Gadhafi was killed.
"We would have liked to take him to court and have his judgment," said Boaishi, 33, an information technology specialist who sported a long beard. "But not this way. We are Muslims; we don't support this way."
Not all residents of Tripoli welcomed Gadhafi's bloody death.
One young man, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal from anti-Gadhafi forces, said he was "ashamed" at the way the former dictator died. He said his mother cried in front of the television Thursday night upon seeing images of the bleeding leader.
"He should have been taken to court," the man said.
"I'm not ashamed. I'm proud that we captured him ... no matter how many soldiers he hired," said Mohamed Saya, a member of the media committee for Libya's new governing National Transitional Council.
NTC officials insist shortly after his capture by rebel forces, the ousted leader was killed in a crossfire between pro- and anti-Gadhafi fighters.
With Gadhafi dead, Saya said Libya's de facto government was preparing to hold a "Liberation Day" celebration in the eastern city of Benghazi this weekend. Benghazi was the launching point of Libya's uprising in February.
In the meantime, some Libyans continued to hold their own smaller festivities.
On one Tripoli street, fighters and residents gathered beneath the tri-color banner of Libya's anti-Gadhafi flag next to a camel they planned to slaughter in honor of the dictator's death.
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e7ad7cc1e11e450d96e7bc6ce9cb0760
|
One man said who had died in an 'un-Islamic way'?
|
[
"Gadhafi"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- An outbreak of the deadly ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo has prompted neighboring Angola to close its border with that country, Angola's state news agency reported Tuesday.
Angolan Health Minister Jose Van-Dunem announced the "suspension of migratory movements" at the country's north-eastern border Sunday, the Angop news agency reported.
The World Health Organization reports 41 suspected cases of the deadly fever in Congo since November 27. Thirteen people have died, and 183 cases are under observation. Two people are being held in quarantine.
The handling of dead monkeys may be the source of the outbreak, the WHO suspects, according to Angop.
Diosdado Nsue-Micawg, the WHO representative in the Angolan capital of Luanda, said the health agency does not know the source of the virus, but fears that hunters and women who visit the forest might have been in contact with infected monkeys.
The outbreak is centered in the western Kassi province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has been reporting intermittent cases of the disease since 1976, according to Angop.
|
94d3da7ea2db451b904aad94f838b345
|
What did the Democratic Republic of Congo report?
|
[
"intermittent cases of the disease since 1976,"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- Authorities in Azerbaijan recently uncovered a radical Islamic terror plot against the U.S. Embassy in the capital, Baku, prompting the facility to close its doors to the public Monday, Azerbaijan and U.S. officials told CNN.
The Bibi Heybat Mosque, just outside the capital Baku.
As a precaution, Britain also shut its embassy in Baku to the public on Monday "following security concerns nearby," Britain's Foreign Office said.
The terror plot was unraveled after a weekend raid outside Baku that netted several suspected members of the radical group, two U.S. officials who asked not to be identified and a spokesman for Azerbaijan's National Security Ministry told CNN.
U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack stressed that the details "are still unfolding," and the threat "may or may not be" linked to the Saturday raid.
"There were some specific and credible threat information concerning the embassy and plans by militants to in some way do harm to individuals in and around the U.S. Embassy there," McCormack said, noting that no specific individuals were targeted.
Several days ago, an Azerbaijani army officer who had connections to a radical Islamic group seized four assault rifles, a machine gun and 20 hand grenades from his military unit and hid them in the outskirts of Baku, the ministry spokesman and U.S. officials said.
Government security forces tracked down the group and arrested several members during a sweep on Saturday in the village of Mastaga, about 20 miles (32 km) northeast of Baku, the spokesman said.
One suspected member of the militant group resisted arrest and was killed in the sweep, the spokesman said. Several others are still at large, he added.
He said the terror plot also targeted Azerbaijani government buildings.
The U.S. Embassy in Baku issued a warden message warning Americans in Azerbaijan to take precautions.
"While there is no information at this time that other American or Western interests in Azerbaijan are being targeted, the U.S. Embassy encourages Americans to maintain a high level of vigilance and take appropriate steps to bolster their own personal security," it said.
Azerbaijan is a former Soviet republic that borders the Caspian Sea, and lies just north of Iran.
McCormack said U.S. authorities are working closely with their counterparts in Baku and will determine when normal embassy operations will resume. He said he expects the embassy to limit its operations on Tuesday, as well. E-mail to a friend
CNN's Igor Malakhov in Moscow, Zain Verjee in Washington and Roger Clark in London contributed to this report
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69d3c85734a34483b41d11f820eb2760
|
what country reduced its embassy's?
|
[
"Britain"
] |
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(CNN) -- Nineteen political prisoners were released by the government of Myanmar over the weekend, the human rights group Amnesty International reported Tuesday.
Protesters demand democracy for Myanmar at a demonstration in New Delhi, India earlier this month.
Among those released was Ma Khin Khin Leh, who was serving a life sentence because her husband, a student activist, had helped plan a protest demonstration in Bago in July 1999, according to Amnesty International USA's Web blog
Authorities prevented the demonstration from taking place, but took the woman and her three-year-old daughter into custody after failing to find her husband, Amnesty International said.
The child was released after five days but her mom, a 33-year-old school teacher, was sentenced to life in prison.
"Even by the normally harsh standards of 'justice' meted out by Myanmar's military government, the life sentence given to Ma Khin Khin Leh was extreme," the human rights organization said.
She was designated one of Amnesty International USA's priority cases. She was released with 18 others "widely considered to be political prisoners," Amnesty International said.
Myanmar's military rulers have been widely condemned for their alleged human rights abuses.
Pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi has been confined in her home for 12 of the past 18 years. Her last house arrest began in 2003 and has been periodically renewed.
In October 2007, clashes erupted between pro-democracy demonstrators and government security forces. As many as 110 people are believed to have been killed in that crackdown, including 40 Buddhist monks.
The protests were sparked by a huge fuel price increase imposed by the military government, and quickly escalated. Myanmar's military junta said in mid-October that it had detained more than 2,900 people amid the clashes.
In September 2008, Amnesty International reported that Myanmar, also called Burma, had released seven dissidents, among them U Win Tin, a journalist and senior official in the opposition National League for Democracy who had been imprisoned for 19 years.
|
661195843f42496f8a89954807304e62
|
Why was Ma Khin Khin Leh jailed?
|
[
"because her husband, a student activist, had helped plan a protest demonstration in Bago in July 1999,"
] |
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(CNN) -- Former England cricket star Chris Lewis was remanded in custody by a British court Tuesday, charged with attempting to smuggle drugs through an airport.
Chris Lewis joined Surrey to play in Twenty20 matches for the 2008 season.
The 40-year-old all-rounder, who played 32 Tests and 53 one-day internationals for England in the 1990s, was arrested Monday when border officials at London's Gatwick Airport found cocaine hidden in luggage that had arrived on a flight from the Caribbean island of St. Lucia.
Four kilograms of cocaine with a street value of around $350,000 was seized by the UK Border Agency, the UK's Press Association said. The drugs were in a liquid form hidden in fruit tins, officials said.
Lewis and basketball player Chad Kirnon, 26, both from London, were held and questioned by Customs officials and later charged.
British Revenue & Customs spokesman Bob Gaiger told PA: "This was an excellent detection by UK Border Agency officers.
"HMRC, together with UKBA, play a vital role in the fight to prevent illegal drugs from entering the UK and in protecting our communities from the violence and corruption that always accompany this hideous trade."
The two men made a brief appearance at Crawley Magistrates' Court in West Sussex on Tuesday afternoon, where Lewis had a bail application refused, PA reported.
They were remanded in custody to appear via video link in court next Wednesday.
|
b971f90283b048dba2ec199d88432b67
|
How many kilos of cocaine were seized?
|
[
"Four"
] |
NewsQA
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NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- The chairman of India's fourth-largest software-services provider resigned Wednesday after confessing to inflating the company's profits for years with "fictitious" assets and non-existent cash.
Satyam Chairman B. Ramalinga Raju
The news sent stocks of the Hyderabad-based Satyam Computer Services into free fall. Stocks plummeted more than 70 percent within hours after the revelation.
The major stock index in India -- the BSE SENSEX -- fell 7.3 percent Wednesday.
Satyam employs 53,000 people, operates in 65 countries and serves almost 700 companies, including 185 Fortune 500 companies. More than half of its revenue comes from the United States.
Satyam Chairman B. Ramalinga Raju said the balance-sheet padding began several years ago to close "a marginal gap" between actual operating profit and one reflected in the company's accounting books. It continued through the years, he said.
"It was like riding a tiger, not knowing how to get off without being eaten," Raju said in a letter to the company's board of directors.
Raju said no board member was aware of what he was doing and he did not profit from the inflated accounts.
The deception came to light after Raju tried to plug the hole by getting Satyam to buy his son's construction companies. The acquisition was "the last attempt to fill the fictitious assets with real ones," he wrote in his letter.
The deal would have cost Satyam $1.6 billion -- but the company's board vetoed it.
Stocks fell following the botched deal. Soon afterward, Raju came clean, saying he was doing so "with deep regret, and tremendous burden that I am carrying on my conscience."
Analysts say Satyam is ripe for a takeover, and the government is expected to submit a formal report on the matter Thursday.
-- CNN's Bharati Naik contributed to this report.
|
2fd36eda283c4aeba215a6e51f536ee5
|
In how many countries does Satyam operates in?
|
[
"65"
] |
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|
(CNN) -- A Nigerian militant group released pictures Sunday of two Britons identified as captive oil workers, saying the men were "alive and well" and that more such Western workers would be taken hostage if the country does not stop exporting its oil wealth.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta released this image of two men it claims are British hostages.
The photos, sent in an e-mail by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), show the men, identified as Robin Barry Hughes and Matthew John Maguire, standing on a dirt path wearing dirty shorts and flip flops.
The pictures were "recent," MEND said in a written statement, but it is unclear when they were taken.
MEND, formed in 2005, has taken American and European oil workers hostages in the past. The group is calling for more of the African nation's oil wealth to be pumped into the region -- instead of going to foreign investors -- and the release of political prisoners.
The United States Agency for International Development says more than 70 percent of Nigeria lives on less than a dollar a day -- the population is among the 20 poorest in the world.
Nigeria's federal government and oil companies split oil profits roughly 60-40. The money is then supposed to make its way down to the local governments to fund various projects, but little money actually reaches its intended destination.
The country's anti-corruption agency estimates between $300 billion to $400 billion has been stolen or wasted over the last 50 years.
"Our policy on kidnapping high value oil workers from Western Europe and North America remains unchanged and will continue to form an integral part of our pressure strategy in the emancipation struggle in 2009," MEND said in its statement. Watch special correspondent Lisa Ling meet militant group in a secret location
A spokeswoman for the British Foreign Office said the government was aware of the pictures.
"We call for their immediate and unconditional release and will remain in close contact with their families," the spokeswoman said, though she declined to elaborate on whether the families had seen the photos. "Our thoughts are with them on this deeply distressful time."
Violence in oil-rich Nigeria has been limiting crude supplies out of the country. MEND has been attacking oil pipelines in retaliation against government forces, limiting the amount of crude oil that can be exported.
MEND also repeated its threat that the men would be held hostage until the Nigerian government releases one of the group's members, Henry Okah, who was taken into custody last year and, according to local reports, is charged with treason.
|
728b06c4e07646d091c38383c0f6671b
|
Who is holding officers captive?
|
[
"Nigerian militant group"
] |
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan is expected to ask the Obama administration for additional troops and equipment, according to a senior U.S. military official familiar with Gen. Stanley McChrystal's thinking.
Gen. Stanley McChrystal's report on the war's status will be delivered in August, the source says.
The request will be for troops and equipment for conducting intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, as well as more assets to deal with roadside bombs and explosives, said the official, who declined to be identified because McChrystal's request has not been formally transmitted to the Pentagon.
The request could be made in coming weeks after McChrystal completes a "troop-to-task review" to calculate whether there are enough U.S. troops in Afghanistan -- and the right mix of troops -- to carry out the military's war plan at an acceptable level of risk, the official said.
The review could also lead to a request for additional troops for either combat or training of Afghan forces, but the official emphasized McChrystal has not made a decision on that. The military already has tasked an additional 4,000 troops to train Afghan forces.
The official said McChrystal is likely to submit his recommendations to Defense Secretary Robert Gates as a series of options, with each option having a level of risk attached to it.
"This will start the discussion" within the highest levels of the administration about whether to send a significant number of additional troops, the official said.
Gates has signaled he would be open to sending more troops if it could be demonstrated they are needed. But he also has expressed caution that the United States not send so many troops that it has too heavy a footprint in the country.
The troop-to-task review will follow McChrystal's assessment of the war, due 60 days after he took command in mid-June. That report is expected to be sent to Gates and NATO's secretary general by August 14, the official said.
It will discuss a detailed strategy for success of the counterinsurgency mission, such as the need for U.S. and Afghan forces to conduct more integrated operations and the need to focus on population centers. It is also expected to call for an increase in the number of Afghan security forces.
"This will be a really frank and honest discussion of how things are, and what it takes to get the job done," the official said.
|
65a6f4338c824f74834e5c72ef2eca7e
|
What will help with roadside bombs and explosives?
|
[
"equipment for conducting intelligence, surveillance"
] |
NewsQA
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(CNN) -- A 20-year-old Wisconsin man accused of attacking the mayor of Milwaukee with a metal pipe has been arrested, police said Sunday.
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, seen in a file photo, was attacked Saturday night, police say.
Mayor Tom Barrett was in stable condition Sunday at a Milwaukee-area hospital after he was attacked the night before at the Wisconsin State Fair in nearby West Allis, police said.
Barrett was leaving the event with his family when he heard a woman crying for help, police said.
When Barrett began calling 911, the man who had been attacking the woman charged at him and began battering him with a metal pipe, police said.
"He not only risked serious injury but endured serious injury in order to defend somebody who was weaker than their assailant," Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn told CNN Radio.
Police arrested Anthony Peters in connection with the attack. Watch the mayor's brother talk about what happened »
West Allis Police Chief Michael Jungbluth said the attack on the woman stemmed from a domestic situation, when an intoxicated Peters wanted to see his 1-year-old daughter, and had threatened to shoot himself and others.
CNN's Chuck Johnston and CNN Radio's Shelby Erdman and Ninette Sosa contributed to this report.
|
74b0e012493a4af68f38fbb157be081a
|
Who was beat with a metal pipe at the state fair
|
[
"Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett,"
] |
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(CNN) -- Millions of people around the world have taken part in ceremonies marking the 100th anniversary of the Scouting movement.
Scouts renewed their promise to build a tolerant and peaceful society.
Dawn celebrations involving 28 million young people took place across the globe, from Ecuador to Bhutan.
In southern England, 40,000 young people from around the globe gathered to take part in the largest ever 12-day world Scout Jamboree.
The island where the movement was born, Brownsea Island off the coast of England, has been the focus of celebrations, with 300 scouts from more than 160 countries attending a commemorative camp.
It was on that site that Scouting founder Robert Baden-Powell held an experimental camp for 20 boys, following his experiences in the Army during the Boer War.
The movement requests its members, boys and girls from the age of six, to uphold values such as trustworthiness, loyalty and to "do their best".
Scouts from countries including the UK, Lebanon, Nepal, Rwanda, Serbia, Libya and Argentina, displayed their flags on the island, before taking part in a sunrise ceremony.
In Romania, scouts formed a human chain around the Parliament building in the capital Bucharest to express how young people will play a role in the country's future.
In Namibia, Africa, around 1,000 scouts cooked breakfast over a camp fire, and groups from Malawi camped at the top of Mulanje mountain.
The Taj Mahal in India, the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Sydney Opera House in Australia also witnessed sunrise ceremonies.
The small gathering at Brownsea Island led the rest of the globe in renewing their Scouting promise to build a tolerant and peaceful society.
A speech written by Baden-Powell during the first scout camp was also read out to the group.
It includes a call for peace, comradeship and cooperation over rivalry between "classes, creeds and countries which have done so much in the past to produce wars and unrest".
Alistair, 16, from Manchester, at the Brownsea Island ceremony, said: "It has made me think how one man has changed the world.
"It is one world, one promise. We are all here as peace ambassadors. We are the next generation. We are the ones bringing peace forward into the world," he told the Press Association.
Ana Mejia, 14, from Honduras, added: "It doesn't matter what our nationality, our religion, our color, we are a family and we have to support each other.
Baden-Powell's book "Scouting for Boys" is the fourth biggest selling book in the world after the Bible, the Koran and Mao's Little Red Book. E-mail to a friend
|
0fef1f930ab74a1eafdf0c50fd957a89
|
Who started the scouts?
|
[
"Robert Baden-Powell"
] |
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Below is an essay written by Steven Stanton's son Travis after he learned that his father was going to become a woman. The story of his father's transformation can be seen on "Her Name Was Steven" at 8 and 11 p.m. ET Saturday on CNN.
Throughout my whole life, I thought my dad was a really tough guy.
He went out with the cops and busted bad guys. He shot guns, fought fires, he was an aggressive driver, and he liked football and lots of sports.
Then, one day my thoughts changed about him when we had a family meeting and he told me how he felt about himself.
He said he felt like a woman on the inside and was going to change into one. He said he tried his best to be a manly guy, but he couldn't stop his feelings to become a girl.
I was very surprised to hear this.
At first, I thought I was in a dream.
It was very hard to believe such a thing. I thought he was a 100% manly man, like more manly than most guys. After a few days, I thought about it.
I knew he was making the right choice to become a girl.
Although I can't relate to his feelings, it must be really hard to hide something like that. It would be like having one million dollars and not being able to spend it. After just so long, your feelings would take over and spend it.
Now, though, I am very proud of my dad. Read Travis' response to some viewer questions about his father
After I saw him, and saw that inside he was the same dad as he always was: he still likes football, he still likes to be an aggressive driver. He is still the same person, but just different on the outside.
I am very happy for him now that he is who he wants to be.
I think that everyone should be who they are and not try to be the same as other people.
If you ask me, this has got to be the manliest thing he has done in his whole life.
It takes a real man to come out of your shell and say, "hey, I am who I am" and take the responsibility of doing that.
In conclusion, I thought my dad was a man, like, gender wise, but now he is who he is meant to be.
He is himself.
|
e2cad899857d4a159bc2b219f5edce8a
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What does Travis say?
|
[
"Now, though, I am very proud of my dad."
] |
NewsQA
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(CNN) -- An archeological team is set to break new ground in its excavation of an Egyptian temple where doomed lovers Cleopatra and Mark Antony may be buried.
An excavation of an Egyptian temple my reveal where doomed lovers Cleopatra and Mark Antony are buried.
A ground-penetrating, radar survey of the temple of Taposiris Magna and its surrounding area, west of Alexandria, was completed in March, following three years of digging, according to a statement from Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.
Taposiris Magna is one of the ancient towns located on Lake Mariut, which is today called Abusir.
According to the council, the radar revealed three possible spots of interest where a tomb might be located. Recently, the team discovered a large, previously unknown cemetery outside the temple enclosure.
"The discovery of this cemetery indicates that an important person, likely of royal status, could be buried inside the temple. It was common for officials and other high-status individuals in Egypt to construct their tombs close to those of their rulers throughout the Pharaonic period," according to the council.
The expedition has so far turned up 27 tombs, 20 of them shaped like vaulted sarcophagi, and seven simple burial chambers that are reached by staircases. Inside these chambers, the team found 10 mummies, two of them gilded.
Other discoveries include an alabaster bust of Cleopatra, and 22 coins bearing her "beautiful" image, according to council Secretary-General Zahi Hawass. The discovery contradicts some recent reports that describe her as unattractive, he said.
"Among the most interesting finds is a unique mask depicting a man with a cleft chin. The face bears some similarity to known portraits of Mark Antony himself," Hawass said.
The love story of Antony and Cleopatra has been a favorite theme for writers and filmmakers. The 1963 Oscar-winning movie of the couple starred Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, who themselves became star-crossed lovers.
Cleopatra ruled Egypt between 51 B.C. until her suicide in 30 B.C., following Mark Antony's naval defeat against Caesar's adopted son Octavian at Actium in the Mediterranean. Mark Antony, once a general in Caesar's army, killed himself before Cleopatra took her own life, after being falsely informed that Cleopatra already had died.
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5de1215ca4154f33aa1ff0dbb9f84f8b
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What are archaeologists searching for?
|
[
"Cleopatra and Mark Antony"
] |
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(CNN) -- A man coolly and calmly approached the screening area outside the Pentagon Thursday evening and opened fire, grazing two Pentagon police officers before they returned fire, critically wounding him, officials said.
The incident happened at 6:40 p.m., when the man wearing a coat -- with "no real emotion in his face" -- approached the officers outside the Pentagon Metro station, said Pentagon Police Chief Richard S. Keevill.
"As the officers started to ask him for his pass to get into the Pentagon, he drew a weapon from his pocket and started shooting immediately at the officers" from a few feet away, Keevill told reporters.
"He drew a gun and just started shooting immediately."
The two Pentagon Force Protection Agency officers returned fire with their semi-automatic Glock .40-caliber weapons and the suspect, thought to be a U.S. citizen, was critically wounded, Keevill said. He praised the police officers for acting "quickly and decisively to neutralize him as a threat" without hurting anyone else.
Asked how many shots were fired, he said, "Many."
Keevill would not identify the man.
The Pentagon Force Protection Agency is the Pentagon's police department.
Pentagon entrances were locked briefly but all were reopened with the exception of the Pentagon Metro entrance, the Pentagon said in a statement.
Lisa McDonald, a spokeswoman for George Washington Hospital, said three people were being treated there -- both officers and the suspect.
The Pentagon police department, the Arlington County Police Department, U.S. Secret Service and the FBI were all involved in the investigation, Keevill said.
The Pentagon is one of the largest office buildings in the world with three times the floor space of New York's Empire State Building, according to its official Web site.
Some 23,000 military and civilian employees work there.
Are you there? Send images, video
Though it contains 17.5 miles of corridors, a person can walk between any two points in the World War II-era building in no more than seven minutes.
CNN's Mike Ahlers, Larry Shaughnessy and Jeanne Meserve contributed to this story.
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fcdbc5b347e5489aab01cb87b38cf1b1
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Where did the shooting take place?
|
[
"screening area outside the Pentagon"
] |
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Thousands of Muslims gathered Friday on Capitol Hill for a day of prayer that organizers said was intended to inspire American Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
People traveled from all over the United States to attend the Capitol Hill event, organizer Abdul Malik said.
"America is not perfect," Abdul Malik, an organizer of the event called Islam on Capitol Hill, told the crowd.
"But I will say something it took me my whole adult life to come to: America is not perfect, but I want to tell the truth: It is one of the best places in the world to live."
Organizers had hoped that 50,000 people would show up for the Friday afternoon prayer session, which took place at the foot of the U.S. Capitol.
There were also anti-Muslim protesters near the event.
Earlier, Malik said, "This is not a protest, it is a day of prayer, of devotion, hoping that we can work ... for the betterment of the world community."
He added, "We can come together and work together for the common good."
He said that Muslims in the United States have a "unique responsibility" and that the event seeks to inspire Muslims and all Americans.
"America represents, still, a beacon of hope," he said.
Malik said conversations about the event began only a few months ago.
"It's amazing," he said. "The Web site has gotten more than 3 million hits already."
Friday's event was focused on a 1 p.m. prayer, and a reception and banquet were planned afterward.
Malik said attendees were traveling from all over the United States -- including Texas, Florida and Georgia -- as well as from other countries, such as Britain and Canada.
"The beautiful thing ... about this, is that we have a good representation of the uniqueness and beauty of what Islam stands for," he said.
Besides the protesters, the event drew other criticism. Malik said he had received some "very nasty e-mails."
And one Christian leader warned of a strategy to "Islamize" American society.
"It is important for Christians to understand that Friday's Muslim prayer initiative is part of a well-defined strategy to Islamize American society and replace the Bible with the Koran, the cross with the Islamic crescent and the church bells with the Athan [the Muslim call to prayer]," the Rev. Canon Julian Dobbs, leader of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America's Church and Islam Project, said in a written statement.
"The time has come for the American public to call Islam to account," he said.
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64250230cd4e4c18964e8b0295305f03
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What does the speaker call U.S.?
|
[
"not perfect,\""
] |
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(CNN) -- A suspected arms dealer accused of conspiring to sell weapons to Colombian guerrillas was extradited Friday from Spain to the United States, the U.S. Justice Department said.
Kassar is accused of conspiring to sell weapons to FARC rebels.
Monzer al Kassar had been wanted for decades before he was arrested in an undercover operation in Spain last year.
Justice Department officials say he has been a source of weapons and military equipment for armed combatants since the 1970s.
He left Spain aboard a private plane accompanied by U.S. Drug Enforcement Agents and arrived in New York at 11:30 a.m. local time Friday (1530 GMT), a DEA spokesman said.
He is expected to appear before a federal magistrate in Manhattan before the end of the day.
Kasser was arrested in Madrid a year ago by Spanish police working with undercover DEA officers posing as members of the FARC.
The U.S. accuses Kassar and two other men of conspiring to sell millions of dollars' worth of weapons to FARC, which the United States has designated a terrorist organization.
The weapons included surface-to-air missile systems, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, thousands of machine guns, and millions of rounds of ammunition, according to a federal indictment.
A Spanish court last week approved his extradition on four counts, including conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals.
The two co-defendants, Tareq Mousa Al Ghazi and Luis Felipe Moreno Godoy, were both previously extradited to New York from Romania to face the same terrorism charges.
All three could face life in prison.
Kassar had told journalists before he was arrested that he had retired from arms dealing, but the U.S. says he had been involved since the 1970s, providing weapons and military equipment to armed factions in Nicaragua, Cyprus, Bosnia, Croatia, Iran, Iraq, Somalia, and elsewhere.
CNN Justice Producer Terry Frieden contributed to this report
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a56cd69ca1ba46fd9ad2330565bd6e36
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When did Monzer al Kassar's arrest occur?
|
[
"in Spain last year."
] |
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Washington (CNN) -- In a change of policy, U.S. Marines are now allowed to wear bracelets in memory of fallen comrades.
The metal or rubber bracelets can honor "prisoners of war, missing in action, killed in action, and those who died of wounds or injuries sustained in a combat theater," the Marine Corps said in a statement Tuesday.
Some Marines had been wearing the bracelets -- which list names of those killed in Afghanistan, Iraq or other zones -- despite their not being permitted by regulations. There had been questions about enforcement of the policy.
The decision came out of a symposium last week at which the issue was discussed by the Marine commandant, Gen. James F. Amos, and his senior officers, the statement said.
"We are acknowledging the close personal nature of our 10 years at war and the strong bonds of fidelity that Marines have for one another, especially for those fellow Marines who we have lost," Amos said in the release.
Amos on Monday met Marines who had returned to the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms, California, from Afghanistan. He noticed bracelets and received "positive feedback" on the wearing of the them, said Maj. Stewart T. Upton, a Marine spokesman.
About 360 members of the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines, were welcomed home. They had five comrades killed during their seven-month deployment in Helmand Province, said center spokesman Capt. Nicholas Mannweiler.
"They are typically providing security," said Mannweiler. "They made a lot of improvements."
The captain said the policy decision on the bracelets signified "we get why you're wearing it and it's blessed."
Guidance on "standardization and uniformity" will be distributed to Marines by the end of next week, the Corps said.
Marines had been permitted to wear the long-familiar POW/MIA bracelets since 1972, during the Vietnam War, Upton said.
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9702df9a6be9470e8b9d3872c59395a8
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What do Corps permit?
|
[
"to wear the long-familiar POW/MIA bracelets"
] |
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BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Lebanon on Sunday to pledge U.S. support for the country and its push for free elections.
Lebanon President Michel Sleiman greets U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Sunday.
"The people of Lebanon must be able to choose their own representatives in open and fair elections, without the specter of violence or intimidation, and free of outside interference," Clinton said during an unannounced visit to Beirut.
It was Clinton's first time visiting the country since taking office.
Lebanon is preparing for legislative elections in June that analysts say could bring the militant group, Hezbollah, to power.
The Obama administration backs the unity government of Sleiman, while Syria is allied with Hezbollah.
"Both of us are committed to supporting President (Michel) Sleiman's efforts to build a peaceful, prosperous, sovereign and democratic Lebanon."
Clinton is expected to meet with Sleiman and lay a wreath at the tomb of former Lebanon Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was killed in a bomb attack in 2005.
Many Lebanese, as well as the United States, accused Syria of orchestrating the assassination of Hariri, an outspoken opponent of Syria. Damascus denied responsibility.
But massive popular protests after Hariri's death led to the pullout of thousands of troops that Syria maintained in Lebanon from the 1970s.
A senior state department official said Clinton's visit is intended to reassure Lebanon that the United States will not forgo its support of the country as it opens dialogues with Syria and Iran.
"Beyond the election, we will continue to support the voices of moderation in Lebanon, and the responsible institutions of the Lebanese state they are working hard to build," Clinton said.
CNN's Jill Dougherty contributed to this report.
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744d29ed69314343ab37bf7e3d6a41d6
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Clinton also reassures U.S. support of what country ?
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[
"Lebanon"
] |
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(CNN) -- Six-time boxing world champion Floyd Mayweather returns to the ring Saturday for the first time in more than a year, squaring off against Victor Ortiz.
Mayweather, 34, has won all 41 of his professional fights and is a six-time world champion at five different weights. He is hoping to add more laurels at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas -- specifically, the World Boxing Council welterweight championship that Ortiz won after beating Andre Berto in April.
The opponent for Mayweather, who has 25 knockouts over his professional career, is not the man many hoped he'd fight next: Eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao. But disagreements over drug testing and other issues have repeatedly derailed these talks.
Instead, Ortiz will be his opponent. The 24-year-old American has suffered two defeats and two draws in his 33 fights.
"I'm a world champion for a reason, and I am not going to let go of my title any time soon," Ortiz said soon after the match was announced. "This is going to be a great fight, but I will remain a world champion for many years to come."
In a teleconference last week to promote the fight, Mayweather said that -- despite concerns about rust and age -- he "still feel(s) strong when I get to the gym."
"I still think I'm very, very sharp ... and I think the reason why is, I don't think that I have been in any toe-to-toe wars," he said.
Recently, Mayweather has made headlines more for his legal run-ins outside the ring than his performance in it.
That includes his arrest last December on a misdemeanor battery charge, after he allegedly assaulted a security guard at his housing complex.
Also, his former girlfriend has also accused the boxer of domestic violence. A criminal trial is scheduled to start in January.
HBO -- like CNN, a division of Time Warner -- reports that Mayweather is the defendant in a total of six court cases, including one levied by Pacquiao alleging defamation.
CNN's Steve Almasy contributed to this report.
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c3084d8dc19549a4834dce0e6ee92319
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When will he fight Victor Ortiz?
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[
"Saturday"
] |
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Shortly before President Obama departs for a trip to the Middle East, a new national poll suggests that one in five Americans has a favorable view of Muslim countries.
President Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visit an Istanbul mosque in April.
That view compares with 46 percent of the people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey who say they have an unfavorable opinion of Muslim countries. That's up 5 percentage points from 2002, when 41 percent indicated that they had an unfavorable view.
Meanwhile, three in 10 say they have a neutral opinion of Muslim countries.
The poll also suggests that most Americans suspect people in Muslim countries don't think highly of the United States. Nearly eight in 10 questioned say people in Muslim countries have a unfavorable opinion of the United States, with 14 percent saying Muslims hold a favorable view. iReport.com: Your perspectives on the Muslim world
But the poll indicates Americans seem to be split on whether such negative opinions by Muslims matter. Fifty-three percent of those questioned say they think Muslim views of the United States matter greatly or moderately, with 47 percent saying that Muslim opinions of the United States don't matter very much or at all.
The poll's release comes hours before the president flies to Saudi Arabia for meetings with King Abdullah. Following the stop in Saudi Arabia, Obama will head to Egypt, where he'll deliver a long-awaited speech Thursday on relations between the United States and the Muslim world. Watch the challenges Obama faces with the speech »
At a town hall in Turkey earlier this year, the president declared that "the United States is not, and will never be, at war with Islam."
Many Americans seem to agree with the president: Sixty-two percent of those surveyed say they don't think the United States is at war with the Muslim world, with 36 percent indicating that the country is at war with Muslim countries. Those numbers have remained stable since CNN's 2002 poll.
But the poll suggests that six out of 10 think that the Muslim world considers itself at war with the United States.
"The feeling seems to be mutual. We distrust Muslims. They distrust Americans. Views of Americans have not changed very much over the past seven years. There are some indications that Muslims' views of Americans have improved a bit since Barack Obama took office, but they are still not positive," said Bill Schneider, CNN senior political analyst.
The CNN/Opinion Research poll was conducted May 14-17, with 1,010 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey's sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.
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ef45ec18828e434ba6ba862a33966d54
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where was the speech?
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[
"Egypt,"
] |
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(CNN) -- Mourners packed into a church in Illinois Monday to remember a woman whose death made headlines worldwide.
At the St. Rita of Cascia Shrine Chapel in Chicago, a funeral was held for Dawn Brancheau, a SeaWorld trainer who died last week after a killer whale dragged her underwater at Shamu Stadium in Orlando, Florida.
A memorial service for the 40-year-old will take place in Orlando, Florida, at a future date, according to the Blake Lamb Funeral Home.
Brancheau had wanted to be an animal trainer from the time she visited SeaWorld as a 9-year-old, her sister Diane Gross said last week.
"It was her dream job," Gross said. "She loved the animals like they were her own children. ... She loved what she did."
Brancheau was pulled underwater Wednesday at SeaWorld Orlando, when a 6-ton killer whale named Tilikum grabbed her ponytail. A source at SeaWorld said the whale dove deep underwater after seizing Brancheau. Trainers had to wrangle the animal into a smaller pool before they could retrieve her body about 40 minutes later.
The same whale was linked previously to two other human deaths.
Tilikum and two other whales were involved in the 1991 drowning of a trainer at a marine park in Victoria, British Columbia. The trainer fell into the whale tank at Sealand of the Pacific and was dragged underwater as park visitors watched.
In 1999, Tilikum was blamed for the death of a 27-year-old man whose body was found floating in a tank at SeaWorld, the apparent victim of the whale's "horseplay," authorities said then.
Labor Department spokesman Mike Wald said the safety and health agency is looking into whether Occupational Safety and Health Administration workplace standards were violated in Brancheau's death. The agency will complete a report within six months, he said.
If workplace infractions are found, OSHA will propose financial penalties, Wald said. If that happens, the company could accept the penalties and make needed workplace changes or appeal the penalties before an OSHA review commission.
Inspectors also are looking into the incident from an animal-welfare perspective, said David Sacks, an Agriculture Department spokesman.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service wants to know whether federal standards were violated in the exhibiting of warm-blooded mammals.
SeaWorld shows with killer whales resumed on Saturday.
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8bfe696192104c43b3f3a8be8354b733
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What did the animal trainer die of?
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[
"killer whale dragged her underwater"
] |
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LAGOS, Nigeria (Reuters) -- Nigeria's television survival show has been suspended after a contestant drowned in preparation for the program, said Dutch brewer Heineken's local unit which is sponsoring the show.
Anthony Ogadje, 25, and nine other contestants had gone to Shere Hills Lake in Nigeria's hilly Plateau State to prepare for the "Gulder Ultimate Search," which sets a variety of physical challenges for participants.
A statement from Nigerian Breweries on Monday said Ogadje died suddenly and he was thought to have drowned.
"All attempts to revive him by the attendant medical team and the lifeguards, including his fellow contestants, failed," said Nigerian Breweries, which is majority-owned by the Dutch giant. Broadcasting had been due to start on Thursday.
In the show, the weakest contestants are evicted one by one until a winner emerges. The prize money is a big attraction in a country where most people live in extreme poverty and benefit little from Nigeria's oil wealth.
The winner was to get 5 million naira (about $39,000) in cash, a four-wheel drive jeep and another 500,000 naira (about $3,900) to buy clothes. The winner could also have expected to become an instant celebrity, attracting sponsorship deals.
The Ultimate Search, which started in 2004, gets high ratings. E-mail to a friend
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196e03ef509440e486d2d9b7e535196f
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WHAT WAS HE PREPARING FOR?
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[
"\"Gulder Ultimate Search,\""
] |
NewsQA
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(CNN) -- Officials with the Iowa Lottery are seeking the winner of a $10.75 million Hot Lotto jackpot who has until 4 p.m. Thursday to claim it.
"Someone legitimately won this money and we want them to take it home," lottery CEO Terry Rich said in a news release. "But you must present the winning ticket to the lottery in order to claim the prize."
The ticket, which was bought December 29, 2010, at a QuikTrip in Des Moines, must be redeemed by 4 p.m. Thursday. The ticket matched all six numbers: 3-12-16-26-33 and Hot Ball 11.
Few financial advisers would consider the $1 spent on the ticket to have been a wise investment. The buyer overcame 1 in 10.9 million odds to win, said Mary Neubauer, a spokeswoman for the state lottery. If the ticket is redeemed, the winner would owe 25% in federal taxes and 5% in state taxes, she said.
But the possibility of taxes and the absence of a ticket haven't deterred the hopeful from lining up -- just in case. "We've been getting calls from the public all day long today," Neubauer said Wednesday night. "The closer that the deadline gets, the more people seem to be calling."
Huge-money ticket in Georgia goes unclaimed
Some of the calls are from people who say they may have lost the ticket, or put it through a washing machine, she said. They are walked through a series of questions to determine whether they may indeed be the winner. So far, no luck.
Other calls, she said, are from people who believe in the power of their own creativity. Once told they could not have been the winner, they call back again -- and again, each time with a different story, she said.
"That's why we keep emphasizing that it comes down to -- you have to have the winning ticket," she said.
If the prize goes unclaimed, the money would return to the 15 lotteries that offer the game -- in proportion to the percentage of sales that came from each state. "Iowa would get back about $1.3 million if this prize were to go unclaimed," Rich said.
States differ on how they would use the money. In Iowa, the money would go into the prize pools for future games.
Though a $77 million jackpot went unclaimed this week in Georgia, such cases are exceedingly rare, said Neubauer.
|
255603f0c9d24ec6a4771ada3c716f62
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When does the jackpot expire?
|
[
"4 p.m. Thursday"
] |
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Jerusalem (CNN) -- Israeli authorities discovered and disarmed an explosive barrel Wednesday, the third to wash up on an Israeli beach this week, the Israel Defense Forces said.
The barrel was found Wednesday afternoon at Palmachim beach south of Tel Aviv.
On Monday, Islamic Jihad, the Fatah Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and the Nasser Salah A din Brigades issued a leaflet in Gaza claiming responsibility for sending three explosive devices to the coastal cities Ashkelon and Ashdod.
The other two barrels packed with explosives -- one found at Ashkelon and one at Ashdod -- were discovered Monday and disposed of.
In response, the IDF said, the Israeli Air Force attacked "two Hamas terrorist targets" in southern Gaza.
"One of the targets was a terror tunnel, used for the infiltration of terrorists into Israel, while the other was used for smuggling of weapons. Direct hits were identified," the IDF said.
Hamas, the movement controlling Gaza, has been vowing retaliation against Israel since one of the founding members of its military wing, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, died last week in Dubai.
Al-Mabhouh's brother, Fayek al-Mabhouh, said that preliminary results of Hamas' investigation of the death showed his brother was killed by electrocution and strangulation with a piece of cloth.
Hamas officials accused Israel of assassinating Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Israeli officials have not responded to that allegation.
|
5dda8c318f8146bb8b948bf1f23abc86
|
who sent the devices
|
[
"Islamic Jihad, the Fatah Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and the Nasser Salah A din Brigades"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- A 20-year-old Wisconsin man accused of attacking the mayor of Milwaukee with a metal pipe has been arrested, police said Sunday.
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, seen in a file photo, was attacked Saturday night, police say.
Mayor Tom Barrett was in stable condition Sunday at a Milwaukee-area hospital after he was attacked the night before at the Wisconsin State Fair in nearby West Allis, police said.
Barrett was leaving the event with his family when he heard a woman crying for help, police said.
When Barrett began calling 911, the man who had been attacking the woman charged at him and began battering him with a metal pipe, police said.
"He not only risked serious injury but endured serious injury in order to defend somebody who was weaker than their assailant," Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn told CNN Radio.
Police arrested Anthony Peters in connection with the attack. Watch the mayor's brother talk about what happened »
West Allis Police Chief Michael Jungbluth said the attack on the woman stemmed from a domestic situation, when an intoxicated Peters wanted to see his 1-year-old daughter, and had threatened to shoot himself and others.
CNN's Chuck Johnston and CNN Radio's Shelby Erdman and Ninette Sosa contributed to this report.
|
b9489330ccfc4214869aad1c3c7bc0b4
|
What did Barrett hear?
|
[
"a woman crying for help,"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- Sean Penn could have been walking the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival. Instead, he was under the Capitol Dome in Washington on Wednesday to testify about Haiti.
Penn's newest film, spy thriller "Fair Game," will debut Thursday at Cannes, but the day before, the Oscar-winning actor was seated before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as witness to an emergency.
"I come here today in the hope that we will address with bold clarity the razor's edge upon which Haiti lies," he said.
He called on lawmakers to demand transparency as the island nation moves forward in recovering from the massive earthquake that struck January 12.
"In an emergency, donors offer money and expect it to be spent helping people," Penn said. "I hope we are here today to encourage just that."
Penn, who founded the J/P Haitian Relief Organization, has been living in a tent in Port-au-Prince, helping manage one of the devastated capital's largest camps for the displaced.
The actor turned aid worker testified with experts and policymakers before a committee headed by Democratic Sen. John Kerry, co-sponsor of a bill that would authorize $3.5 billion to help rebuild Haiti over the next five years.
About $10 billion in aid was pledged for Haiti over the next 10 years at a donors conference in March. Kerry said donor nations "must now follow through and deliver the funds they have promised in a coordinated manner, and Haiti must work to improve its capacity to absorb the aid it receives."
Former USAID Administrator Andrew Natsios offered a scathing assessment of the challenges that lie ahead in rebuilding what he called a failed state.
He compared Haiti's devastation and massive death toll of more than 200,000 to that of Chile, which suffered a stronger quake in late February but was not as badly affected.
Natsios warned that programs must help end Haiti's dysfunctional cycle by improving governance and fostering economic growth.
"I think the worst thing we can do is be nice about this and live in a Disney World assessment of what we are dealing with," Natsios said. "We are dealing with one of the worst-governed countries in the world."
|
a5e6a22c8a864579abc24d0818eb1741
|
What is the name of the aid agency that actor Sean Penn founded in Haiti?
|
[
"J/P Haitian Relief Organization,"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- After the gloom of December's postal strikes, Britain's Royal Mail has started the new year in the right tune with the launch of 10 stamps which feature iconic album covers.
And who better than guitar shaman Jimmy Page to give it the official stamp of approval? The Led Zeppelin guitarist launched the new set of stamps in London which went on sale Thursday.
The special New Year stamps feature classic album sleeves from the last four decades.
One of the 10 selected albums was Led Zeppelin's 32 million-selling album, "IV," which Page helped design. It shows a painting of an unknown faggot-bearing man which is said to have been found by Robert Plant in a Reading junk shop. It is not known who the painter was.
"Almost 40 years after the album came out, nobody knows the old man who featured on the cover, nor the artist who painted him," said Page in a media statement released by Royal Mail.
"That sort of sums up what we wanted to achieve with the album cover, which has remained both anonymous and enigmatic at the same time," he added.
It was after extensive research into lists and polls and trawling through thousands of album covers that the final list of 10 was agreed upon, the Royal Mail said.
They added that key factors in choosing the covers were the art and album design and not necessarily the music.
"For decades, the album sleeve has been the canvas for some of the most imaginative graphic artists in the world, and this issue celebrates this unique art form and some of its greatest examples," said Juliette Edgar, Head of Special Stamps at Royal Mail in the statement.
Other chosen album covers include The Rolling Stones' 1969 album "Let It Bleed," which features a cake on the cover baked by a then unknown Delia Smith, Pennie Smith's photography for The Clash's "London Calling" and a bent chrome pipe on the cover of Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells."
|
9799f5d6e2024762ad84fa75d645492a
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how many iconoc album covers were launched
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[
"10"
] |
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LONDON, England (CNN) -- The concept may be radical, but it might just have to be if the worst predictions of climate change are realized.
The Lilypad as imagined by architect Vincent Callebaut moored off the coast of Monaco.
The Lilypad, a floating ecopolis for climatic refugees, is the creation of Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut.
"It is" he says, "a true amphibian, half aquatic and half terrestrial city, able to accommodate 50,000 inhabitants and inviting biodiversity".
Callebaut imagines his structure at 250 times the scale of a lilypad, with a skin made of polyester fibres coated in titanium dioxide which would react with ultraviolet light and absorb atmospheric pollution.
The Lilypad comprises of three marinas and three mountain regions with streets and structures strewn with foliage. "The goal is to create a harmonious coexistence of humans and nature," said Callebaut.
With a central fresh water lagoon acting as ballast, the whole construction would be carbon neutral utilizing solar, thermal, wind, hydraulic, tidal and osmotic energies.
With high density populations living in low-lying areas -- The Netherlands, Polynesia, Bangladesh -- the ecopolis, its creator believes, could be the answer to mass human displacement that global warming is predicted to cause.
In its most recent 2007 report the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted sea levels will rise by 60-90 cm during this century. Some climate scientists like James Hansen think that if greenhouse gas emissions aren't checked then those figures might be much, much worse.
In practice, Callebaut envisages the Lilypad sailing the seas, following currents like a futuristic cruise ship. He also thinks that it could "widen sustainability in offshore territories of the most developed countries such as Monaco".
You can't help thinking that the well-heeled residents of the Principality might have a thing or two to say about 50,000 climatic refugees bobbing around in the harbour, but you cannot fault Callebaut's ambition.
His previous creations -- showcased on his website -- reveal an imagination working at full throttle with sustainable design lying at its heart.
Anti-Smog -- a prototype of depolluting architecture and Ecomic -- an ecotower rising up from the foundations of Aztec ruins are two further examples of his eco design credentials. The Perfumed Jungle, Fields in Fields and The Fractured Monolith may sound like titles for various genres of novel but are, in fact, names for sustainable projects in Callebaut's growing portfolio.
Now all he needs is to find someone brave enough to build on the vision he has created.
|
ee804b0af5bc47a99201760bdd2e6cff
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The structure would support how many inhabitants?
|
[
"50,000"
] |
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(CNN) -- A militia killed a ranger in a Democratic Republic of Congo park where authorities are trying to protect endangered gorillas threatened by civil war, the park said.
Safari Kakule, a ranger at Virunga National Park, was killed Thursday in an attack by a militia, the park says.
A Mai Mai militia attacked a ranger station in the Virunga National Park on Thursday night and killed ranger Safari Kakule, according to a news release from the park. Another ranger was wounded in the attack, and one of the rebels was captured, the statement said.
The Mai Mai are community-based militias without specific political objectives, often involved in banditry and looting, the park statement said.
"It is not clear why the group attacked [the ranger station] but the attack went on for several hours during Thursday night and the rangers were heavily outnumbered," the statement said.
Seven rangers were at the station when the attack happened, according to the statement.
That area of the park is home to an isolated population of 18 endangered Eastern Lowland gorillas. The park also is home to about 200 of the world's estimated 700 mountain gorillas, the park has said.
The Virunga park's Web site said 15 additional rangers have been sent to the park, where they will be "strengthening the position, which we cannot abandon."
"Because of the arrest that the rangers were able to make, we have several leads on the perpetrators of the attack, who will be brought to justice," a statement on the Web site said.
More than 100 rangers returned to the park's gorilla sector late last year after hundreds of rangers fled the area in 2007 because of fighting involving ethnic Tutsi rebels, the Congolese army and militias.
Rangers and scientists were out of contact with the park's endangered gorillas for more than a year until rangers returned late last year, the park said.
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7a5a109f0f0645678b15f33731051c42
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Who are the rangers trying to protect?
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[
"endangered gorillas"
] |
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(CNN) -- Olafur Ragnar Grimsson is currently enjoying a third term as President of the Republic of Iceland. Since first being elected in 1996, Grimsson has been a passionate advocate of international cooperation in combating climate change.
Olafur Ragnar Grimsson
Whilst Iceland still imports oil for its transport, electricity is generated from hydroelectric power. And heating is provided by geothermal power -- an abundant source in energy due to Iceland's geographical position sitting above two continental plates.
Iceland is also pioneering the use of hydrogen power with several projects testing the viability of this renewable energy.
In his youth, Grimsson studied Economics and Political Science at Manchester University, gaining a B.A. and a Ph.D before returning to Iceland to take up a post as a professor of Political Science at the University of Iceland.
He entered Althingi, the Icelandic parliament in 1978, served as minister of finance between 1988 and 1991 and was leader of the Peoples' Alliance from 1987 to 1995.
Grimsson promotes the intelligent use of renewable energy resources and is providing world leaders with an invaluable insight into how their own economies might make the switch to more renewable sources of energy.
|
c26f126aaa244bf9a3e1fd545cc83d99
|
When did Grimsson become president?
|
[
"1996,"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- South Africa strengthened their grip on the Tri-Nations with a 29-17 victory over Australia in Cape Town on Saturday.
The Springboks charge forward in their 29-17 victory over Australia at Newlands.
It was the third straight win for the world champions, who were indebted to the boot of Morne Steyn as he totaled 24 points with seven penalties and a drop goal at Newlands.
The Wallabies took a surprise lead in the second minute as Ashley Cooper barged over for a try with Matt Giteau converting, but the home side slowly took command.
Steyne kicked three penalties in the space of six minutes to put them ahead and added a fourth after Berrick Barnes had restored Australia's lead with a drop goal.
Steyne then sent over a drop goal of his own and South Africa moved further ahead as Victor Matfield went over for their only try of the match.
With the Wallabies reduced to 13 men as Giteau and Richard Brown were sin-binned, Steyn took advantage with another penalty to put them 23-10 ahead at the half.
Steyn added his sixth penalty shortly after the break, but Giteau charged through for a try and converted his score to give them hope at 26-17.
Steyn's final penalty with two minutes remaining wrapped up the victory.
South Africa, who have played all their three matches at home, lead the standings with 12 points, with New Zealand on four and Australia, who have played a game less, with a solitary point.
Victory continues a fine run of form for the Springboks, who beat the British and Irish Lions 2-1 in a thrilling series which preceded the annual Tri-Nations tournament.
|
800c1cf17e9341528f931aff25bee8c4
|
What country won the match?
|
[
"South Africa"
] |
NewsQA
|
Havana, Cuba (CNN) -- Richard Waltzer has a pitch for Cuba: Miller beer and Häagen-Dazs ice cream.
If he has his way, those products soon will be available at supermarkets and beach resorts on the communist island.
"This is one of the things people are going to pay premium for," Waltzer said, "especially the tourists that have the dollars. It's going to be a phenomenal product."
This week, dozens of Americans are in Havana, peddling their wares at an international trade fair: apples, pears, grapes, raisins, nuts out of California.
U.S.-Cuba relations appear to be thawing.
In Havana, billboards depicting the U.S. president as Adolf Hitler have disappeared. In Washington, President Obama has lifted restrictions on Cuban-American travel and money transfers.
The new political climate has prompted companies such as Chicago Foods to come to Havana's trade fair for the first time. They're hoping to break into the little-known market and go home with a contract.
Despite a trade embargo imposed against Cuba in 1962, the United States is the No. 1 supplier of food to that country and has been for more than five years. A law passed in 2000 allows the United States to export agricultural products and medicine.
But this year, the global economic crisis is taking its toll.
"Cuba has not been an exception," said Rodrigo Malmierca Diaz, minister of foreign trade and investment. "At the end of the third quarter in 2009, our trade fell by 36 percent."
The country is slashing imports of U.S. food by one-third, which means some vendors will go home empty-handed.
But vendors are betting U.S.-Cuba relations will only get better. They said they're also hoping the next step could be bills in the U.S. Congress that would eliminate restrictions on all Americans traveling to Cuba.
"We're in this for the long haul as well," said Paul Johnson of Chicago Foods. "Like I said before, we're thinking about today as well as tomorrow."
A tomorrow that would have U.S. tourists sipping American beer on Cuban beaches.
|
ec4e601a113342388c9271c9cd7912be
|
How much is Cuba slashing imports by?
|
[
"one-third,"
] |
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|
Khartoum, Sudan (CNN) -- A major Darfur rebel leader and some of his top commanders have been killed, a Sudanese army spokesman announced on state-run radio Sunday.
"Our armed forces were able to destroy the renegade Khalil Ibrahim, who died along with members of (his group's) leadership that was with him," said Alswarmi Khalid, the army's spokesperson.
Khalid said Ibrahim and members of his group were surrounded and killed in the Wad Banda area -- along the border between North Darfur state and North Kordofan state -- as they attempted to escape to South Sudan.
Fighting between Darfur rebels and the Sudanese army broke out days ago in North Kordofan, as rebels announced an assault on Khartoum.
Ibrahim was the leader of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), considered the most powerful Darfur rebel group. The JEM had refused to join the Doha Darfur peace document, signed between the Sudanese government and another rebel group, the Liberation and Justice Movement, this year.
A statement posted on JEM's website confirmed Ibrahim's death, but told a different narrative of events.
"JEM announces the martyrdom of its chair and head of its armed forces and offers its condolences to all Sudanese people," the statement read.
The JEM said Ibrahim was attacked from air by an unknown plane that hit with "with accuracy unusual for the regime's army's fighters which led to his martyrdom ... which points to the involvement of and a conspiracy by some in the regional and international circles with Khartoum's genocidal regime."
The rebel group reconfirmed its commitment to remove the government from power.
|
a09fecde3e4146ec9286f413c34905c2
|
who was killed?
|
[
"A major Darfur rebel leader and some of his top commanders"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- Andrew Wyeth, the American painter perhaps best known for his painting of a young woman in a field, "Christina's World," has died, according to an official with the Brandywine River Museum in Pennsylvania.
Andrew Wyeth received the National Medal of Arts from President Bush in November 2007.
Wyeth, 91, died in his sleep Thursday night at his home near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, according to Lora Englehart, public relations coordinator for the museum.
The acclaimed artist painted landscapes and figure subjects and worked mostly in tempera and watercolor.
He was widely celebrated inside and outside of the art world.
Wyeth received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963, and President Nixon sponsored an exhibition of Wyeth's paintings at the White House.
In 2007, President Bush awarded Wyeth the National Medal of Arts in recognition of his lifetime achievement and contribution to American arts and culture.
Two years earlier, Wyeth and his wife, Betsy, presented to the White House his painting "Jupiter," which is displayed in the residence's family sitting room.
Bush issued a statement Friday saying that he and first lady Laura Bush "deeply mourn" the death of Wyatt.
"Mr. Wyeth captured America in his paintings of his native Pennsylvania and Maine," Bush said. "On behalf of the American people, Laura and I offer our sincere condolences to Betsy and the Wyeth family."
Wyeth, who lived in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, and Maine, "has been enormously popular and critically acclaimed since his first one-man show in 1937," according to a biography in InfoPlease.
His main subjects were the places and people of Chadds Ford and Cushing, Maine.
"Christina's World," painted in 1948, shows a disabled Maine neighbor who drags herself through a field toward her house in the distance. The painting, displayed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, has been regarded as Wyeth's most popular.
"His 'Helga' pictures, a large group of intimate portraits of a neighbor, painted over many years, were first shown publicly in 1986," the InfoPlease biography says. Those were painted in Pennsylvania.
Wyeth, the youngest child of painter N.C. Wyeth, formally studied art with his father as a teen, "drawing in charcoal and painting in oils, the media of choice for N.C. Wyeth. It was during the family's annual summer vacations in Port Clyde, Maine, that Andrew was able to experiment with other media to find his own artistic voice," according to a biography in the Farnsworth Art Museum in Maine.
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57ac3ad0d7fb4abfae31bd8279415fef
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When were his "Helga" portraits first shown?
|
[
"publicly in 1986,\""
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- The recent snowstorm in China, which has stranded hundreds of thousands of people across the country and killed dozens, is related to the La Nina phenomenon, according to a Chinese weather expert
Suzhou, China, is blanketed by the most snow the city has had in 25 years, according to I-Reporter Susan Arthur.
La Nina is the opposite of El Nino, which follows El Nino and occurs every few years. During La Nina, sea temperatures over eastern equatorial Pacific are lower than normal.
La Nina enhances Arctic weather systems and causes a cold winter in Asia, including in China.
As warm and moisture air from the south meets cold air in the north under freezing temperatures, snow forms.
"The warm air is very active this year," said Li Weijing, deputy director-general of the National Climate Center of China.
As a result, persistent snowstorms occur in central and western China, paralyzing the transport and electricity systems.
The current storm, which hit just ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday -- China's busiest shopping season -- has shut much of the nation down. China's transportation system and power grid have been paralyzed this week.
The storm also has cost the nation's economy $4.5 billion, according to figures released Wednesday by the Civil Affairs Ministry. Watch how Nanjing is coping with the unusual weather »
The winter precipitation had caused at least 49 deaths due to collapsed roofs and treacherous travel conditions, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and local officials said.
More than 177 million Chinese were expected to travel by train, and 22 million more by plane, for the February 7 Chinese Lunar New Year, also known as the Spring Festival.
China uses a color system for its snowstorm warning:
The current once-in-50-years snowstorm calls for the red warning, the first time such a warning has been issued since the system launches. E-mail to a friend
CNN's Clarence Fong contributed to this report.
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2e32f00b2529443e8f30ec6717948f5e
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Was anyone killed?
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[
"dozens,"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- A superb second half goal from substitute Zlatan Ibrahimovic gave Barcelona a 1-0 win over arch-rivals Real Madrid to go back to the top of the Spanish La Liga on Sunday.
Both teams ended with 10 men after Barca's Sergio Busquets went just after the hour mark for a second yellow card, with Real losing Lassana Diarra in the dying moments for two yellows.
Ibrahimovic's goal was truly worthy of settling 'El Clasico' as the Swedish striker met a Daniel Alves ball from the right on the volley to leave Iker Casillas with no chance.
The 55th minute strike in the Camp Nou came shortly after he replaced the ineffective Thierry Henry and followed an opening half in which visitors Real were the more threatening.
Real had gone into the game with a one point lead in the standings over the defending Spanish and European champions and showed their quality on the break.
Cristiano Ronaldo, making his first start in two months, might have put the visitors ahead in the 20th minute but was denied by home keeper Victor Valdes, who knocked his shot wide with his legs.
Barcelona central defender Carlos Puyol also came to their rescue with two last-ditch challenges on Marcelo and Gonzalo Higuain from similar Real attacks.
But the Catalans made the breakthrough as Ibrahimovic went some of the way to justifying his massive transfer fee and soon afterwards midfielder Xavi came within a whisker of a second from long-range.
Further chances fell to Eric Abidal, who shot wide, and Argentine ace Lionel Messi, who was superbly denied by Casillas from close range.
A tiring Ronaldo was substituted and his replacement, Karim Benzema, fired over the top in the 80th minute as Real pressed in vain for an equalizer.
"This was a very good test," Barca coach Pep Guardiola told gathered reporters.
"It's always difficult against Madrid but even more so when you go in as favorite and them as a big underdog. That's when Madrid is most dangerous."
The three points leave Barcelona on top with 30 points from 12 games, two ahead of Real on 28. Sevilla, who drew on Saturday, have 26.
In other action on Sunday, Deportivo La Coruna had a hard-fought 1-0 win at Racing Santander to move level on points with fourth-placed Valencia.
Albert Lopo struck in the 76th minute to give the Galicians their eighth league success in 12 matches.
|
5ff6859acc8b450c929967dea9b5bb72
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Who beat arch-rivals Real Madrid 1-0 in El Clasico on Sunday?
|
[
"Barcelona"
] |
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|
NEW YORK (CNN) -- The mother of a 17-year-old girl who disappeared while on spring break in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, has identified her daughter on grainy hotel surveillance video.
Brittanee Marie Drexel's mother on Friday confirmed it was her daughter seen in a hotel surveillance video.
"When I saw her profile it was confirmed," Dawn Drexel said Friday on "Nancy Grace."
Drexel's daughter, Brittanee, was last seen on Saturday, several days after she traveled to Myrtle Beach against her mother's wishes.
In the video, a girl wearing shorts and flip-flops walks in and later out of the doors of a hotel on Saturday evening. Brittanee Drexel supposedly was on her way to meet friends at another hotel nearby. Watch her mom talk about spotting her »
Meanwhile, Myrtle Beach Police reportedly have shifted some search efforts about 40 miles to Georgetown County, based on tips. But there is still no sign of the high school junior from Rochester, New York.
Dawn Drexel said she had forbidden her daughter to go to Myrtle Beach, a popular destination for high school and college spring break. But Brittanee and her friends apparently drove the 850 miles to the coastal city anyway. Drexel said her daughter had about $100 with her.
Although they stayed in touch by phone and spoke on Saturday, Drexel said she believed the girl was calling from Rochester when she was actually in Myrtle Beach.
Drexel has now gone to the city where her daughter was last seen, helping in the search for Brittanee.
"We're going to all of the businesses and restaurants on Ocean Boulevard," Drexel said, but she admitted that she is concerned something may have happened to her daughter.
"I just have a gut feeling that because the stories don't match, things aren't making sense to me," Drexel said, referring to reported contradictions in the information Brittanee's friends have given police.
Authorities have not named any suspects or persons of interest in the case.
|
5e8ae092ee864858af16f8a403fc7554
|
what does mom confirm
|
[
"it was her daughter seen in a hotel surveillance video."
] |
NewsQA
|
Washington (CNN) -- International arms dealer Viktor Bout has been indicted by federal authorities on a series of new charges, including counts of illegally purchasing U.S. cargo planes to ferry weapons to warring parties and regimes in Africa and the Middle East.
The new indictment, announced in New York and Washington Wednesday, comes as the United States steps up efforts to extradite Bout to New York from Thailand, where he has been jailed since 2008.
The indictment charges Bout, a Russian native, and his alleged American co-conspirator, Richard Chichakli, with the illegal purchase of a Boeing 727 and a Boeing 737 and with money laundering and wire fraud. Chichakli remains at large, authorities said.
The Justice Department said Bout has been an international weapons trafficker since the 1990s, carrying out a massive weapons trafficking business by assembling a fleet of cargo planes to transport weapons to parts of Africa, the Middle East and South America.
"The arms that Bout has sold or brokered have fueled conflicts and supported regimes in Afghanistan, Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Sudan," the Justice Department said.
Bout "allegedly made a career of arming bloody conflicts and supporting rogue regimes across multiple continents, even using the U.S. banking system to secretly finance a private fleet of aircraft," said U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.
The superseding indictments were returned by a grand jury in the Southern District of New York. The previous indictment of Bout centered on his alleged efforts to send millions of dollars worth of weapons to arm guerrilla fighters in Colombia.
Thai courts to date have balked at extraditing Bout to the United States on the basis of the original charges.
"The United States has apprised Thai authorities of the new charges against Bout ... and will continue to work closely with them on this matter," the Justice Department statement said. "The United States is also coordinating with Interpol to locate and arrest Chichakli."
Tuesday, a Thai court rejected a request by Bout to be released on bond.
|
905a40a041f844c5bd3518be5ab3742f
|
where is bout from?
|
[
"a Russian native,"
] |
NewsQA
|
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Nearly two decades after the first Gulf war and six years after Saddam Hussein was removed from power, Iraq still is subject to 73 United Nations resolutions.
A March 1991 photo shows burning oil wells in Kuwait damaged by Iraq military forces.
Now Iraq's foreign minister says his country "will not regain full sovereignty and independence without getting rid of these resolutions."
Speaking to reporters in Washington, Hoshyar Zebari said Monday that Iraq has paid "billions" of dollars under Chapter 7 of the U.N. sanctions placed on Iraq as a result of the 1990 Iraq invasion of Kuwait and subsequent war.
The U.N. Security Council is reviewing the sanctions, and Zebari said he had "intensive discussions" in New York with members of the Security Council. He said "I think the outcome is positive."
"We felt a great deal of good will that, really, time has come for Iraq to get rid of all these restrictions and to regain its international standing and position as a normal country."
The Iraqi foreign minister said bringing Iraq out of Chapter 7 is an "American commitment also" since Iraq signed the status of forces agreement with the United States, which governs the presence of U.S. forces in Iraq, based on its understanding that the U.S. would help Iraq to come out of Chapter 7.
Foreign Minister Zebari said the sanctions impose a heavy burden on Iraq -- it continues to pay 5 percent of its oil revenues to Kuwait, down from the initial 30 percent.
Iraq's security forces, he told reporters, have "proven they are capable of defending themselves and the country." In the next six months, however, he said, the country faces some risks.
"What can be seen as problems could become crises unless this administration keeps its focus and support to push the situation forward; otherwise this overall strategy of responsible redeployment could be undermined."
If that happens, Zebari said, it "will impact what the U.S. is doing in the Middle East, in the Arab peace process, with Iran, even in Afghanistan because Iraq is such a crucial player in the region."
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10fb221138be4e77846c5160280084ce
|
What won't be fully independent until U.N. sanctions end?
|
[
"Iraq"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- Roger Federer takes on Robin Soderling, who knocked out tournament favorite Rafael Nadal in a fourth-round stunner, in the men's final of the French Open on Sunday.
Roger Federer screams in joy after beating Juan Martin del Potro to reach the French Open final.
A victory in Roland Garros would give Federer 14 Grand Slams, tying his career wins to American Pete Sampras.
The second-seed Federer lagged at first, but beat Argentine Juan Martin del Potro on Friday to make the final. Soderling advanced over Chilean Fernando Gonzalez.
Federer, 27, has a 9-0 record over the 24-year-old Swede going into the final.
The Swiss star has suffered emotional defeats recently.
At England's Wimbledon last year, he lost to Rafael Nadal after a five-year reign. The game, which ran about seven hours with a few rain breaks, was the longest-ever Wimbledon men's final.
Nadal also beat Federer in the Australian Open earlier this year.
Soderling stunned the top-seed Nadal by handing him a loss in the fourth round of the French Open.
The 23rd-seed Soderling was a rank outsider against the world number one who had never lost a match on the clay at Roland Garros and was a short-priced favorite to win a record fifth straight title.
In women's tennis, number one Dinara Safina was beaten Saturday in straight sets by fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova in the final of the French Open at Roland Garros.
Safina, who has reached the top of the world rankings despite not having a major title to her name, looked completely out-of-sorts against her compatriot, who secured a comfortable 6-4, 6-2 victory in just over an hour.
The defeat was a crushing blow to Safina, 23, who has long had to contend with the accusations that she is not a worthy world number one -- and this third grand slam final defeat will do nothing to silence the doubters.
It was the second straight year she has lost in the final here, after going down in straight sets to Ana Ivanovic of Serbia last year.
It was also her second successive grand slam final defeat, having lost to Serena Williams in the Australian Open in Melbourne earlier this year.
|
104015a487ed48788181ccd11c72b5d7
|
who will give you 14 Grand Slams at the French Open
|
[
"Federer"
] |
NewsQA
|
Tokyo, Japan (CNN) -- Four American teenagers, all children of U.S. military personnel, have been arrested on charges of attempted murder after a woman was knocked off her motorbike with rope strung across two poles, Japanese police said.
The four suspects -- two 15-year-old boys, a 17-year-old girl and an 18-year-old man -- were taken into custody on Saturday, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department said.
They are accused of causing a severe head injury to a 23-year-old restaurant employee by stringing a rope between poles across a road.
U.S. Forces Japan was informed of the August incident in late October, a public information officer said. There was no clear explanation for the delay in the handover of the suspects to police, other than it involved rules between Washington and Tokyo covering U.S. forces and their dependents in Japan.
The U.S. military presence and its impact on Japanese residents have been a thorny issue over the years.
Most recently, residents of the Japanese island of Okinawa, where the U.S. maintains a large military presence, have blamed American troops for crime and noise.
In 2008, a 14-year-old Okinawa girl alleged that a Marine had raped her. The prosecutor released the Marine after the girl decided not to pursue charges. In 1995, a 12-year-old girl was gang-raped by three servicemen. A Japanese court convicted all three men.
Both incidents caused a furor in Japan. Then-Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda called the 2008 incident "unforgivable ... It has happened over and over again in the past and I take it as a grave case."
It is unclear what, if any, role the military can take in the case. The 1960 Status of Forces Agreement between the United States and Japan gives Japan jurisdiction over "the members of the United States armed forces, the civilian component, and their dependents" in cases of offenses committed in Japan and punishable under Japanese law.
The agreement also says the United States must cooperate in investigating such offenses.
CNN's Kyung Lah and Yoko Wakatsuki contributed to this report.
|
312ec8aeb2a14ad69dc9edc682d0e598
|
What are they accused of?
|
[
"of causing a severe head injury to a 23-year-old restaurant employee by stringing a rope between poles across a road."
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- A body found Monday beside a North Carolina road is that of 5-year-old Shaniya Davis, who was reported missing a week ago, police said Tuesday.
The official cause of death was undetermined as of Tuesday afternoon, Fayetteville police said in written statement. An announced afternoon media briefing was rescheduled for Wednesday morning.
Earlier Tuesday, police said additional charges are expected in connection with the case and any charges will be made public as soon as they are filed.
Shaniya's mother, Antoinette Nicole Davis, has been charged with human trafficking and other offenses. Davis was "prostituting her child," police spokeswoman Teresa Chance said after Davis' arrest over the weekend.
Another suspect, Mario Andrette McNeill, has been charged with kidnapping in the case.
Shaniya's father, Bradley Lockhart, made a tearful appeal before reporters Tuesday afternoon, asking that "everybody makes it a point not to ignore, to look past a situation where a person, a child, or anybody might be in danger ... so that we don't have another tragedy like Shaniya."
He said authorities have given him limited information, but he was to meet with them later.
"It's not the result I wanted, it's not the result any father or family would want for their children," he said. "But God has a greater calling for all of us."
Shaniya's mother reported her missing from their Fayetteville home in a mobile home park on November 10. According to police, surveillance video taken that day from a hotel in Sanford shows Shaniya in the company of McNeill.
"The investigation at this point indicates that Shaniya Davis was alive at the time she left the Sanford hotel," police said in the statement Tuesday.
The road where the body was found is near Sanford, which is about 30 miles northwest of Fayetteville.
Shaniya's half-sister, Cheyenne Lockhart, said on HLN's "Nancy Grace" Monday that she found it difficult to believe Davis had treated her daughter so poorly.
"She seemed like the sweetest woman. She didn't come from much, but ... she had the sweetest voice, she had the sweetest personality, and especially toward me. I would never think that she would do anything like that," said Lockhart, who shared a father with Shaniya.
Their father said Shaniya went to her mother's home on October 9.
CNN's Gabriel Falcon contributed to this report.
|
fb14b0c2b6984a1189489161648b182d
|
Is there any missing persona for last week?
|
[
"5-year-old Shaniya Davis,"
] |
NewsQA
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JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Terrorism groups are using Facebook and other social networking sites to recruit Israeli citizens as spies, the Israeli government warned Monday.
Israel says its citizens have been targeted by terrorist groups seeking to recruit spies on Facebook.
Shin Bet, Israel's security agency, issued a statement warning Israelis about the dangers of trading confidential information for money.
"The Shin Bet has gotten many reports about cases where terrorist elements are using the Internet to get in touch with Israelis with proposals to enlist in terror activity or to pass classified information in exchange for payment," the statement said.
Not only could the leaked information hurt Israeli security, citizens traveling to other countries to exchange the information for money "might lead to them being kidnapped by terror organizations," Shin Bet said.
The government did not reveal any examples of Israelis becoming spies through Facebook, but it did describe one attempt.
"Lately, an Israeli citizen contacted the Shin Bet and complained about a request in Facebook from a person that presented himself as a Lebanese merchant, who asked him to give him classified information for money," the statement said.
Shin Bet said this was just one example "among many incidents that were identified by the security services."
"It is initiated contacts, concrete and direct to Israeli citizens, with emphasis on the social networks, that offers them to enlist to terror activity or to pass classified information in exchange for payment," it said.
Shin Bet said terror groups are combing Facebook and other networks "for business or personal matters like names, addresses, Internet addresses and phone numbers that are being used to find and contact Israeli citizens in Israel and also abroad."
CNN's Michal Zippori and Kevin Flower contributed to this report.
|
9384a31c187e4357b08e72bd69e69797
|
Who uses social networking sites to recruit spies?
|
[
"Terrorism groups"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- When news breaks, D.L. Hughley will be ready to mock it.
D.L. Hughley starred in "The Hughleys" and "The Original Kings of Comedy."
CNN announced Wednesday that it will premiere a new, "unconventional" weekend show hosted by comedian D.L. Hughley. "D.L. Hughley Breaks the News," as the show is currently titled, will feature Hughley's humorous take on the week's events.
It will also include interviews with newsmakers and reporters, according to the network. "D.L. Hughley Breaks the News" is scheduled to debut Saturday, October 25.
"I am very excited for the opportunity to work with the network that I have watched for a very long time, and that to a large extent, has shaped my comedic view," Hughley said in a press release. "CNN offers the perfect blend of news and information on a local, national and international level. What more can a comedian ask for?"
"D.L. is a news junkie who is bursting with things to say about what is going on in the world -- most of them funny, all of them thoughtful, none of them predictable," said Jon Klein, president of CNN/U.S. "When you watch as much news as our audience does, there comes a time you just want to stop and laugh -- and that time will be Saturday nights at 10 on CNN."
The show will resemble the late-night talk shows of Jay Leno and David Letterman more than Jon Stewart's "Daily Show," according to Hughley.
Hughley is known for his acting and his standup performances. The comedian spent four seasons on his own sitcom, "The Hughleys," and was one of the stars of Aaron "West Wing" Sorkin's series, "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip."
The performer was also one of the "Original Kings of Comedy," along with Bernie Mac, Steve Harvey and Cedric the Entertainer.
CNN and CNN.com are units of Time Warner.
|
659aafd3429a4e85b2466cfe2852061c
|
Who is known for "The Hughleys"?
|
[
"D.L. Hughley"
] |
NewsQA
|
LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Thirty-eight years ago, Joseph McGinty Nichol was a boy in Kalamazoo, Michigan, playing with toy robots.
Many of the robots in "Terminator Salvation" are real machines, which increased realism, the cast says.
Today "McG," as he is better known, builds and blows up real robots.
The prominent filmmaker is the driving force behind one of the season's summer blockbusters, "Terminator Salvation," which is filled with very expensive and very explosive robots. The choice to use real robots when possible, instead of CGI (computer generated images), was deliberate, McG said.
According to the director and the film's stars, the decision to use real machines was a testament to the growing sophistication of the moviegoing public, whom they believe can "feel" the difference between actors standing in front of a green screen versus actors interacting with the real thing.
It was also done in honor of the legendary special effects supervisor, four-time Oscar winner Stan Winston ("Jurassic Park," the other "Terminator" films), who passed away during filming last year. Watch the robots in action »
The director and three of his cast members -- Christian Bale, Bryce Dallas Howard and Anton Yelchin -- took a time out with CNN to explain why gravity and singed eyebrows both played a role in "Terminator Salvation."
Bryce Dallas Howard: That was something that was really important to McG ... when an audience member sees this film, that they can actually feel what's occurring.
I think that audiences are very savvy now. We can feel when something is CGI and that's no disrespect to CGI -- we couldn't do this movie without it -- but, whenever possible, in the tradition of Sam Winston, he wanted to build the robots. So a lot of what you see is real.
McG: And if you drop something, we've spent our whole lives watching physics in play, and if you say, just have the CGI do that, people can tell something's off, and it releases you from being involved in the picture. So, we built all the robots, we built all the sets, we blew them up for real, a great many of us lost our eyebrows!
Christian Bale: It was kind of comical at times because something that's meant to be so intimidating was actually surrounded by five guys with these kind of puppet rods I had to blank out or I would start laughing. But, the end result is something really formidable and you know, really iconic in movie history.
Anton Yelchin: Now I'm obsessed with the robots! I'm so [annoyed] that this guy or whoever it is that's in charge of it wouldn't let me have one!
|
59295b6f9ce243c68aff437aff419c52
|
Who's the director of Terminator Salvation?
|
[
"Joseph McGinty Nichol"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- Software giant Microsoft is offering a $250,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of hackers behind a powerful computer virus that could lead to millions of PCs being hijacked.
Experts say a single infected laptop could expose an entire network to the worm.
Experts have so far been baffled by the true purpose of the Conficker or Downadup virus, but have described its spread as one of the most serious infections ever seen.
The worm exploits a bug in Microsoft Windows to infect mainly corporate networks, then -- although it has yet to cause any harm -- it opens a link back to its point of origin, meaning it can receive further orders to wreak havoc.
Microsoft has issued a patch to fix the bug, however if a single machine is infected in a large network, it will spread unchecked -- often reinfecting machines that have been disinfected.
The threat from the virus prompted Microsoft in collaboration with other technology industry names to this week announce a $250,000 reward for information to track down those behind Conficker.
"As part of Microsoft's ongoing security efforts, we constantly look for ways to use a diverse set of tools and develop methodologies to protect our customers," said George Stathakopoulos, of Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing Group.
Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at anti-virus firm F-Secure says the true scope of the virus is not known, but in the past 24 hours his company monitored Conficker signals from two million Internet protocol addresses.
"That's a lot," he told CNN. "And one IP address here does not mean one infected computer, it means at least one infected computer.
"Many of those IP addresses are obviously company proxies or firewalls, hiding hundreds of more infections behind it. Unfortunately this also makes it impossible to estimate the total count of infected systems.
"So it's still big. Very big."
Microsoft has previously paid out similar rewards to informants who helped identify the creator of Sasser, another notorious worm let loose in 2004. The perpetrator was tracked to Germany, where he was sentenced a year later.
|
45da5c3266d24b2aa05bb0bbd8b47e9f
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How much does Microsoft offer on the bounty?
|
[
"$250,000"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- Somalia's transitional government has the right to request military help from its neighbors against armed militants, the African Union said Monday, but Kenya was quick to reject the idea of sending troops and suggested the AU should spearhead such a move.
Islamist insurgents patrol part of Mogadishu during clashes with government forces.
Somali parliament speaker Sheikh Adan Madowe on Saturday called on Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Yemen to send in their military forces to help government troops stop hardline Islamist militants from taking over.
"Militants are wrestling the power from the government and so we call for military help from neighboring countries," the speaker said at a news conference in Mogadishu. "Please send your military to help in 24 hours' time."
But Alfred Mutua, spokesman for the Kenyan government, told CNN that "Kenya doesn't engage in military support to our neighbors." He said that any such support would be under the umbrella of the African Union.
However, he did say that "different types of support can be given, not just military, and Kenya's options are open." He said that the government should announce by Wednesday how it will move forward.
Jean Ping, chairman of the African Union Commission, said in a communique issued Sunday that the transitional government, as Somalia's legitimate government, "has the right to seek support from AU Member States and the larger international community."
Ping also said that the AU would "continue to do its utmost to assist the Somali people and its authorities in their lasting quest for peace and reconciliation."
Somalia's call for help came hours after a third top politician was killed in ongoing fighting in the capital.
Mohamed Hussein Adow, a powerful member of parliament who was leading the fight against the Islamists, was slain Friday in the north of the city.
His death came two days after Islamists killed Internal Security Minister Omar Hashi Adan in a suicide attack in central Somalia. The nation's former ambassador to Ethiopia, Abdikarin Farah Laqanyo, was also killed, along with at least 11 others, government officials said.
Madowe said a Pakistani militant who is a high-ranking official in al Qaeda is leading the fighting in Somalia against the government.
He warned that militants will spread fighting into the rest of the region if they topple the government in Somalia.
Mohammed Amiin Adow contributed to this report for CNN
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bc8580a011ac4c35875ea7b6a5edcf39
|
Where did the speaker ask the tropps come from?
|
[
"Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- In 1979, Jarreth Merz, then a young boy in Ghana, saw the dramatic results of a military coup. Watching on an old black and white television set, he and a group of his friends witnessed one of the nation's generals being blindfolded and shot to death by a firing squad. Shortly afterward, his family fled the instability of Ghana and returned to his native Switzerland.
But Africa stayed with Merz, who told his story at the TED Global conference in Edinburgh, UK, in July. He grew up to become an actor and found that he was increasingly being cast as a violent African or a terrorist. "How many terrorists could I possibly play before turning into one myself?"
"I had become ashamed of the other, the African in me."
After 28 years, Merz returned to Ghana to film the nation's 2008 presidential election and, as it turned out, to learn more about himself. "I realized that, when I'd left the country, free and fair elections in a democratic environment were a dream. And now that I'd returned, that dream had become reality, though a fragile reality."
In the first round of voting in Ghana, no candidate attained the 50% of the vote needed to gain the presidency, and an inconclusive runoff was held. People began questioning whether the elections were being manipulated. Merz said there was gunfire and he saw discouraging signs of a possible breakdown in civil order. "And my heart sank, because I thought, here we are again. Here is another proof that the African is not capable of governing himself. And not only that, I am documenting it -- documenting my own cultural shortcomings."
But rather than erupt in violence, the crowd started chanting "We want peace," and eventually, after new voting, a winner was certified and power was transferred peacefully, Merz said. "Ghana taught me to look at people differently and to look at myself differently. And yes, we Africans can."
In his film, "An African Election," Merz told CNN in an interview, "The political system, the democratic system, is tested to the utmost."
The lesson: "You don't have to rebel. You have the freedom to choose, and with that choice comes a responsibility."
|
b05802d3a1b343e189580c133009e22d
|
what did Merz witness as a boy?
|
[
"one of the nation's generals being blindfolded and shot to death by a firing squad."
] |
NewsQA
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(CNN) -- The cat that vanished in baggage claim at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and whose plight became an online sensation has been found after being missing for two months.
"American Airlines is happy to announce that Jack the Cat has been found safe and well at JFK airport," the carrier wrote in a post on the "Jack the Cat is Lost in AA Baggage at JFK" Facebook page Tuesday evening.
"Jack was found in the customs room and was immediately taken by team members to a local veterinarian. The vet has advised that Jack is doing well at present."
The airline plans to fly the cat to California to be reunited with his owner, Karen Pascoe.
The saga started on August 25, when Pascoe was flying from New York to San Francisco with Jack and a second cat as part of a job relocation. But Jack escaped his kennel and was last seen at JFK's inbound baggage claim.
(A Department of Transportation Pet Incident Report released earlier this month explains how it happened: A clerk placed one kennel on top of another on a baggage cart and the kennel on top fell. The impact "caused the kennel to separate," allowing the cat to escape.)
When a search failed to turn up Jack after a few days, Pascoe became frustrated with American Airlines and started the Facebook page "to help us put pressure on AA to step up their efforts." She also urged fliers to "do whatever they can do to keep their animals out of cargo."
The page now has more than 16,000 followers.
In its post, the airline said the search efforts included "many employees at the airport who have remained vigilant in their search and committed to finding Jack."
While the cat was missing, workers placed food and water around the airport and set up humane traps. American even hired a pet detective and issued a pet Amber alert in hopes of locating the feline.
We "share everyone's relief that he has been found," the carrier said.
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2d9e0388d5e745099a25a38beb58b2b9
|
who was found?
|
[
"Jack the Cat"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- A close aide to Pakistan's Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud said he is breaking ties with him and confirmed reports that Mehsud was behind the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in December 2007 at a campaign rally.
Qari Turkestan Bhitaini, a self-proclaimed right-hand man of Mehsud, said Mehsud was behind the December 27, 2007, assassination of Bhutto, Pakistan's Express TV reported.
Bhitaini said he is breaking ties with Mehsud because he blames the Taliban chief for killing scores of innocent Muslims in recent attacks in Lahore.
The Pakistani government and CIA officials have said in the past that Mehsud was responsible for Bhutto's death.
Bhutto, 54, was heading the opposition to then-President Pervez Musharraf when she was assassinated during a campaign rally in Rawalpindi ahead of parliamentary elections.
The Pakistani government, who has struggled to control terrorism, is waging a military offensive against the Taliban in the country's North West Frontier Province.
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3e73f59ca47647bc8046cac825f00c5f
|
Who was assassinated in December 2007 at campaign rally?
|
[
"Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto"
] |
NewsQA
|
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A U.S. soldier convicted of rape and murder two decades ago will be executed December 10 in the nation's first military execution since 1961, the Army said Thursday.
Pvt. Ronald Gray has been on the military's death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, since 1988. A court-martial panel sitting at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, unanimously convicted him of committing two murders and other crimes in the Fayetteville, North Carolina, area, and sentenced him to death.
Gray's execution by injection will be carried out by Fort Leavenworth soldiers at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, the Army said in a news release.
Gray was convicted of raping and killing a female Army private and a civilian near his post at Fort Bragg. He was also convicted of the rape and attempted murder of another fellow soldier in her barracks at the post.
Both military and civilian courts found Gray responsible for the crimes, which were committed between April 1986 and January 1987. Gray pleaded guilty to two murders and five rapes in a civilian court and was sentenced to three consecutive and five concurrent life terms.
The general court-martial at Fort Bragg then tried him and in April 1988 convicted him of two murders, an attempted murder and three rapes.
In July, President George W. Bush approved the Army's request to execute Gray.
"The president took action following completion of a full appellate process, which upheld the conviction and sentence to death," the Army said in the news release. "Two petitions to the U.S. Supreme Court were denied during the appellate processing of Pvt. Gray's case."
Members of the U.S. military have been executed throughout history, but just 10 have been executed with presidential approval since 1951 under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the military's modern-day legal system.
The Army also sought Bush's authorization to execute another condemned soldier, Pvt. Dwight Loving, who was convicted of robbing and killing two cab drivers in 1988.
The last U.S. military execution was in 1961, when Army Pvt. John Bennett was hanged for raping and attempting to kill an 11-year-old Austrian girl. Bennett was sentenced in 1955.
The U.S. military hasn't actively pursued an execution for a military prisoner since President John F. Kennedy commuted a death sentence in 1962. Nine men are on military death row.
CNN's Mike Mount contributed to this report.
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9b2f92b2cd1c49809cac25aa11a912ba
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Who is Army Pvt. John Bennett?
|
[
"U.S. soldier"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and other top Democrats are heading back to school Tuesday, in hopes of convincing first-time voters from the 2008 election to vote again in 2010.
The president is scheduled to headline a Democratic party rally at the University of Wisconsin in Madison while the vice president is the main attraction at a similar event at Pennsylvania State University in State College, Pennsylvania.
The idea is to fire up "surge" voters and motivate them to go to the polls again in this November's midterm elections. According to national exit polls from 2008, 11 percent of people who cast ballots in the presidential contest said they were first time voters, and seven out of 10 of those new voters said they backed Obama in the election. Many of those people were young voters, and exit polls indicated that two-thirds of people age 18-29 voted for Obama.
In advance to Tuesday's rallies, the president held a conference call with college and university journalists.
"You can't sit it out. You can't suddenly just check in once every 10 years or so, on an exciting presidential election, and then not pay attention during big mid-term elections where we've got a real big choice between Democrats and Republicans," Obama said.
There's no mistake in the locations for the Obama and Biden rallies. In Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, the Democrats face tough odds in holding onto open Senate seats and governorships. Polls also indicate that Republicans have a good chance of grabbing back a bunch of House seats.
Also on the road Tuesday: Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine, at a rally at the University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware; Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius at the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland; Labor Secretary Hilda Solis at California State University in Los Angeles; and United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk at North Carolina Central University in Durham, North Carolina.
Obama's speech at the University of Wisconsin is the first in what Democratic Party officials say will be a series of "Moving America Forward" events by the president over the next couple of weeks.
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a3727184d67b4ebd90676ea4a14d7f20
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where will obama headline a rally
|
[
"University of Wisconsin in Madison"
] |
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JENA, Louisiana (CNN) -- Charges against Bryant Purvis, one of the six black students accused of being involved in beating a white student, were reduced to second degree aggravated battery during his arraignment Wednesday morning.
Bryant Purvis says he is focusing on his studies and practicing basketball.
Purvis, who was facing charges of second-degree attempted murder and conspiracy, entered a not guilty plea to the reduced charges in the LaSalle Parish Courthouse in Jena.
Charges have now been reduced against at least five of the students in the racially charged "Jena 6" case. Charges against Jesse Ray Beard, who was 14 at the time of the alleged crime, are unavailable because he's a juvenile.
Civil rights leaders Martin Luther King III and Al Sharpton led more than 15,000 marchers to Jena -- a town of about 3,000 -- in September to protest how authorities handled the cases against Purvis and five other teens accused of the December 2006 beating of fellow student Justin Barker.
After the arraignment, Purvis said he has moved to another town to complete high school. He said he is focusing on his studies and practicing basketball, which he hopes to play in college.
Mychal Bell, 17, is the only one of the "Jena 6" teens still in jail. Although he was released in September after his adult criminal conviction for the beating was overturned, he was ordered two weeks later to spend 18 months in a juvenile facility for a probation violation relating to an earlier juvenile conviction.
A district judge tossed out Bell's conviction for conspiracy to commit second-degree battery, saying the matter should have been handled in juvenile court. The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal in Lake Charles, Louisiana, did the same with Bell's battery conviction in mid-September.
Prosecutors originally charged all six black students accused of being involved in beating Barker with second-degree attempted murder and conspiracy. E-mail to a friend
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9d7965c0d4b54aa2900ee2472ae796b6
|
What charges did Purvis face?
|
[
"second-degree attempted murder and conspiracy,"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- The National Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday that both engines of the US Airways flight that ditched last month into the Hudson River contained bird remains.
The feather found inside one of the engines of the plane that crashed into the Hudson River.
The engines from US Airways Flight 1549 were sent to the manufacturer in Cincinnati, Ohio, where the NTSB directed the analysis, it said in a news release.
The plane's flight data recorder "revealed no anomalies or malfunctions in either engine up to the point where the captain reported a bird strike, after which there was an uncommanded loss of thrust in both engines," the NTSB said.
The NTSB also said that an "engine surge event" in the right engine on January 13, two days before the accident, was caused by a faulty temperature sensor, which had been replaced.
Investigators said last month they found a single feather and evidence of "soft-body impact damage" on the aircraft. The find reinforces the pilot's report that the plane was brought down by a flock of birds.
Pilot Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger, 58, told investigators his aircraft struck birds, disabling both engines, about 90 seconds after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport in New York.
The feather, found on a flap track on the wing, was also sent to identification experts at the Smithsonian Institution last month.
The pilot ditched the Airbus A320 in the Hudson River and passengers tried to flee the aircraft almost immediately after it settled in the water and began to float along the river current.
All 155 crew members and passengers on the plane survived the incident, which New York Gov. David Paterson dubbed a "miracle on the Hudson."
|
db5e1a8dcb0d4b538e814e9be9f58a34
|
did they land in water?
|
[
"crashed into the Hudson River."
] |
NewsQA
|
Paris, France (CNN) -- French investigators said they are looking into problems encountered by an Air France jet last month in nearly the same spot over the Atlantic where another Air France jet mysteriously crashed in June.
Air France flight 445 was flying from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Paris, France, the night of Nov. 29 when it encountered the problems, the French accident investigation agency, BEA, said in a news release this week.
It is the same route taken by Air France flight 447 when it went down in the Atlantic Ocean in stormy weather June 1, killing all 228 people aboard. The investigation agency has not established the cause of the crash, and large parts of the plane -- including both flight recorders -- have never been found.
"The analysis of what happened could lead to complementary explanations about the accident of flight AF 447," the investigation agency said.
Flight 445 encountered "severe turbulence" about four hours after takeoff on Nov. 29, forcing the pilots to descend, Air France said in a statement after the flight.
The crew sent out an emergency radio message to indicate it had left its flight level, Air France said.
The flight, with 215 people aboard, "continued normally" after half an hour of moderate to severe turbulence, the airline said.
Air France declined to comment on the investigation agency's statement this week.
The BEA said the November flight was an Airbus A330-203, the same model involved in the June crash, but Air France said the November incident involved an Airbus A330-200.
While French authorities have not yet determined what caused the June crash, tests have brought into question the performance of pitot tubes, which are used to measure the pressure exerted on the plane as it flies through the air, and are part of a system used to determine air speed.
Flight 447 sent out 24 automated error messages before it crashed that suggested the plane may have been flying too fast or too slow through the thunderstorms, officials have said.
The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) issued a directive in late August requiring airlines to replace pitot tubes manufactured by Thales Avionics on Airbus A330s and A340s. It said airlines should replace them with other Thales tubes and those manufactured by Goodrich.
-- CNN's Luc Lacroix contributed to this report
|
9bbc6a8ea8704a86b7e71e291402bb26
|
what were the problems
|
[
"\"severe turbulence\""
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- Two-time Masters champion Bernhard Langer has withdrawn from this year's tournament after undergoing surgery on his left thumb.
The operation to repair ligament damage sustained in a cycling accident will keep Langer out of action for up to eight weeks, bringing to an end an unbroken chain of 27 appearances at the Augusta National Golf Club.
"I'm obviously disappointed that the injury occurred, but especially disappointed with such an important part of my schedule coming up, including the Masters," Langer said in a statement, PGATour.com reported.
"I do, however, appreciate the fine care of Dr. Weiland and his team, and will work hard to recover to allow me to resume play on the Champions Tour this summer."
His thumb will be in a splint for five weeks but his doctors expect him to make a full recovery.
Langer won his first Green Jacket in 1985 -- becoming only the second European player to win the tournament after Seve Ballesteros -- before going on to claim a second title in 1993.
The 53-year-old, who turned professional in 1976, has enjoyed a sparkling career winning 42 times on the European Tour.
He was also an integral part of Europe Ryder Cup team during their resurgence during the 1980s and 1990s, making a total of ten appearances as a player and one as captain in 2004 when Europe won by their biggest margin in the competition's history.
In 2007, Langer joined the PGA Champions Tour and has become one of it's most successful players winning a total of 14 titles. The most recent of these came at the ACE Group Classic in February.
Last December, Langer was crowned Champions Tour Player of the Year after claiming five titles during the 2010 season.
This year's Masters tournament gets underway on April 7.
|
9c143fd6504c4ad6bb970680642f4cc6
|
For how long Bernard will be out because of his injury?
|
[
"up to eight weeks,"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- China is continuing to speak out against a multibillion-dollar U.S. arms sale to Taiwan, with the Chinese foreign minister telling U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Monday that the Obama administration should reconsider the deal.
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi met with Clinton in New York, where the United Nations General Assembly is in session, according to a senior State Department official who spoke on background.
Yang "was making very serious representations to Secretary Clinton, asked the Obama administration to reconsider this decision and indicated that it would harm the trust and confidence that was established between the two sides," the official said.
Chinese officials "have indicated that they're going to suspend or to cancel or postpone a series of ... military-to-military engagements," the official said.
Clinton "responded very clearly" that the United States has a strategic interest in stability in the region, and that the Taiwan Relations Act "provides for a strong rationale for the provision of defensive capabilities and weapons to Taiwan as part of a larger context to preserve that peace and stability," the official said.
Clinton also told Yang that the United States supports improved relations between mainland China and Taiwan.
The $5.3 billion arms package includes upgrades to Taiwan's F-16 fighter fleet, a five-year extension of F-16 pilot training at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona and spare parts for the upkeep of three different planes currently in use by the Taiwanese, according to the State Department. The deal is part of the U.S. Foreign Military Sales program.
China voiced strong opposition to the deal when it was announced last week, with the state-run Xinhua news agency quoting China's vice foreign minister, Zhang Zhijun, as saying, "The wrongdoing by the U.S. side will inevitably undermine bilateral relations as well as exchanges and cooperation in military and security areas."
China regards Taiwan as a renegade province. Taiwan began as the remnant of the government that ruled over mainland China, until a Communist uprising proved victorious in 1949.
The Taiwan Strait separates the mainland from the island.
In 1979, the United States carried out its "one China" policy by switching diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing. But the Taiwan Relations Act obligates the United States to help defend the island if needed. The United States also is Taiwan's main arms supplier.
Beijing broke off military contacts with Washington last year to protest another arms sale to Taiwan. The sale included more than $6 billion in Patriot missiles, Black Hawk helicopters and communications equipment, which Taiwan said it needed for self-defense.
|
756c856f56a3418b9bdd5c997f9050b2
|
Who met with Clinton in New York?
|
[
"Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- Nobel laureate Norman E. Borlaug, an agricultural scientist who helped develop disease-resistant wheat used to fight famine in poor countries, died Saturday. He was 95.
Norman Borlaug received a Congressional Gold Medal from then President George W. Bush on July 17, 2007.
Borlaug died from cancer complications in Dallas, Texas, a spokeswoman for Texas A&M University said.
A 1970 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, Borlaug was a distinguished professor of international agriculture at the university.
Borlaug started at Texas A&M in 1984, after working as a scientist in a program that introduced scientific techniques for preventing famine in Mexico, according to the university.
Until recently, he traveled worldwide working for improvements in agricultural science and food policy, said Kathleen Phillips, a university spokeswoman.
Borlaug was known as a champion of high-yield crop varieties, and other science and agricultural innovations to help fight hunger in developing nations. iReport.com: Tour Borlaug's boyhood farm
"We all eat at least three times a day in privileged nations, and yet we take food for granted," Borlaug said recently in an interview posted on the university's Web site.
"There has been great progress, and food is more equitably distributed. But hunger is a commonplace, and famine appears all too often."
He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977, and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2006, according to the university's Web site.
The agriculture institute at the university was named after him in 2006.
Borlaug also created the World Food Prize, which recognized the work of scientists and humanitarians who have helped fight world hunger through advanced agriculture, the university said.
A memorial service will be held at the university at a later date.
|
440917961fa24f4aa735f1f54d3a6e3b
|
What appears too often?
|
[
"famine"
] |
NewsQA
|
NEW YORK (CNN) -- New York police have made an arrest in the case of an Ecuadorian immigrant beaten to death in an apparent anti-Latino and antigay hate crime in December, New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly announced Wednesday.
Jose Sucuzhanay was beaten after leaving a party at a church.
Police arrested Hakim Scott, 25, on Tuesday and charged him with second degree murder as a hate crime. Police are still looking for a second suspect.
On December 7, 2008, police say Jose Sucuzhanay and his brother Romel had left a party at a church and were embracing each other to keep warm in the cold when Scott and another man approached them in a car in Brooklyn's Bushwick section, about a block from the brothers' home. Police say the two assailants shouted antigay and anti-Latino vulgarities and attacked the brothers.
Scott first assaulted Jose with a beer bottle before chasing after Romel, police said. The second assailant proceeded to "savagely beat Jose about his ribs, shoulders," head and back with an aluminum bat, according to Kelly.
Jose Sucuzhanay, 31, died of his injuries in December hours before his mother arrived in New York from Ecuador. Romel Sucuzhanay, 34, suffered minor scrapes.
Police were able to identify two suspects after inferring that they had crossed the Triborough Bridge in the course of their flight from the crime scene. They interviewed bridge toll booth employees and combed through videotape of cars passing through cash-only lanes on the bridge.
Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes said the incident should send a message that antigay violence endangers straights and gays alike.
"If there was ever a message to the people of this city or anywhere as to why heterosexuals have to stand up and not permit this type of violence ... it is this case," Hynes said.
|
aecd43927fec4415ac0abb6c7859dc27
|
for which crimeHakim Scott is charged with?
|
[
"second degree murder"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- Tropical Storm Claudette was gaining strength Sunday as it churned in the Gulf of Mexico toward the Florida Panhandle, the National Hurricane Center said.
A satellite image from 2 p.m. ET Sunday shows a tropical storm nearing the Florida Panhandle.
At 2 p.m. ET, Claudette's winds had picked up to near 50 mph, based on observations by an Air Force reconnaissance plane. The center of the storm was about 40 miles south of Apalachicola, Florida, and about 160 miles from Pensacola, the center said. It was moving at about 14 mph, putting it on course to hit land by Sunday evening.
A tropical storm warning was in effect from the Alabama-Florida border east to the Suwannee River. A tropical storm warning means that weather conditions will likely deteriorate in the next 24 hours.
The storm could bring 3 to 5 inches of rain, with isolated amounts up to 10 inches, and storm surges across portions of North Florida.
Meanwhile, two other tropical storms were in the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday. Tropical Storm Ana was moving west but losing strength, forecasters said, while Tropical Storm Bill was gaining strength as it followed behind Ana.
Ana was about 240 miles (385 kilometers) east of Dominica at 2 p.m. ET Sunday. It was expected to arrive at the Leeward Islands by late Sunday or early Monday, the center said. It was moving about 25 mph, and its maximum sustained winds were close to 40 mph, the center said.
Tropical storm watches were in effect for Dominica, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the British Virgin Islands, Montserrat, Antigua, Barbuda, St. Kitts, Nevis, Anguilla, St. Maarten, Saba, St. Eustatius, Guadeloupe, St. Martin, and St. Barthelemey.
Tropical Storm Bill -- which could become a hurricane on Monday -- should be watched closely as it heads west-northwest in the Atlantic, possibly toward Florida, CNN meteorologist Reynolds Wolf said. The storm was 1,555 miles east of the Lesser Antilles at 11 a.m. ET Sunday.
Bill may reach Category 3 status as it bears down on the Leeward Islands Wednesday or Thursday, he said.
|
0d8791a6476a4d47b15ef920c844117a
|
Which is expected to hit land by Sunday evening?
|
[
"Tropical"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- A motel owner in New Zealand -- fed up with one too many incidents of rowdy behavior -- has banned an entire town from checking in as guests.
Steve Donnelly, an Australian, has been accused of racism following his decision.
Steve Donnelly, the owner of the Supreme Motor Lodge in the town of Palmerston North, said he decided to yank the welcome mat for the 16,000 residents of Wainuiomata because "each time they visited, our life became less exciting."
"I'm not Santa Claus. I can't figure out who's naughty and who's nice," he said. "So we went ahead and banned all of them."
Wainuiomata, near the capital, Wellington, is about two hours' drive from Palmerston North.
Donnelly said he banned the town after three groups of people from Wainuiomata checked in on separate occasions over a six-month period, riling other guests at the 51-room hotel.
"We have moms and dads who come here with two or three kids to relax," he said. "They don't want some loudmouth spitting on the pavement, flirting with girls and swearing."
The "no vacancy" extends to the members of parliament, as Wainuiomata lawmaker Trevor Mallard found out when he came to test the ban.
"He's barging in here with a TV camera, trying to book a room to prove a point," Donnelly said. "We just stood at the front door and said, 'You're not welcome here. Go away.'"
By "we," Donnelly is referring to himself and his general manager, Malcolm Glen -- a Scotsman known in the community as "Basil Fawlty" after the iconic and paranoid John Cleese character in the British sitcom "Fawlty Towers."
News of the ban sent some former guests complaining, and others accusing Donnelly, an Australian, of racism. Many wanted to know whether he was violating the Human Rights Act, which prohibits hotel owners from discriminating based on race.
"Some people are making it out to be about the big Aussie brother giving his poor little Kiwi cousin a hard time," Donnelly said. "They were flabbergasted that there wasn't a law that stopped me. But it's like having a pub. You don't have to have a reason why you won't serve alcohol to any group of people."
Donnelly, who's owned the 25-year-old motel for the past two and a half years, said he might annul the ban in the future -- if Wainuiomata adjusts its behavior.
|
b5063d5d5af4486b9d39f71da947ba76
|
Who has been banned?
|
[
"an entire town"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- North Korea has begun reprocessing fuel rods, its Foreign Ministry said Saturday, according to state-run media.
A satellite view of the nuclear facility at Yongbyon.
"The reprocessing of spent fuel rods from the pilot atomic power plant began as declared in the Foreign Ministry statement dated April 14," a ministry spokesman said.
"This will contribute to bolstering the nuclear deterrence for self-defense in every way to cope with the increasing military threats from the hostile forces."
North Korea, angered by the United Nations Security Council's unanimous condemnation of a rocket launch, has threatened to walk away from the six-party talks aimed at disarming the country of nuclear weapons. It has said it will restore its disabled nuclear reactor.
The six-party talks -- involving China, Japan, North Korea, Russia, South Korea and the United States -- have been aimed at persuading North Korea to scrap its nuclear program.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, during an unannounced visit to Baghdad, Iraq, said the United States and its partners are working to resume the discussions.
A U.N. panel Friday targeted three North Korean companies to have their assets frozen in response to Pyongyang's April 5 rocket launch.
The companies that made the list were Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation (KOMID), Korea Ryonbong General Corporation and Tanchon Commercial Bank. U.N. member nations that have dealings with those companies must now freeze their assets.
A presidential statement from the Security Council on April 13 authorized the sanctions panel to update a 2006 resolution barring North Korea from launching ballistic missiles after Pyongyang launched what it said was a communications satellite after weeks of warnings from the West not to do so.
North Korea declared the launch successful, but U.S. officials said the missile's payload fell into the Pacific Ocean shortly after the launch.
Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom had sought a new resolution imposing new sanctions on North Korea, but China and Russia -- permanent members of the Security Council with veto privileges -- blocked the way.
|
f37abf21d2c04562a4aba7cc0ff70e3c
|
What will the countries talk about?
|
[
"nuclear weapons."
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- More than 2,000 students in Southern California laid 65 miles of pennies on a speedway track Thursday in an attempt to set a world record and help schools in the area.
Mason Gonzalez is ready with pennies. Dodgers tickets were prizes for collecting the most pennies.
THINK (Teaching, Helping, Inspiring & Nurturing Kids) Together didn't meet its original goal of laying out 100 miles of pennies at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, but group spokeswoman Nadia Flores said the group is happy with the results.
"We raised twice what we were able to lay down," she said. "I think the energy and the vibe from having so many kids and volunteers present made it really fun."
Flores said the group ran out of time in its attempt to get all 100 miles laid out, but she added that they're confident they have the record anyway.
Guinness World Records, which would certify the record, said Thursday it had not yet received documentation from the group. The current record for pennies laid out is 40 miles.
The money -- about $84,500 -- will go to the nonprofit program that provides free after-school care for students at more than 200 elementary and middle schools in at-risk communities in four California counties -- Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino.
Flores said the idea for "Miles of Change" came after group members saw students at a school in Kansas make a 40-mile chain of pennies in July 2008 to set the world record.
Flores said her group, based in Santa Ana, California, wanted a program that would unite the counties involved -- and set a record.
The pennies were collected by 35,000 students in the after-school program and were laid in loops around the two-mile track in Fontana, California.
Flores said every penny must be touching the next penny in order to qualify for the Guinness world record. Documentation will include aerial photos, she said.
Each student took home tubes to collect the pennies. Students who collected the most got tickets to future Los Angeles Dodgers games, Flores said.
The effort also is meant to honor Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday and the 100th anniversary of the introduction of the Lincoln penny.
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c2750dbb199f4ae295231a21e8856845
|
What does the program provide?
|
[
"free after-school care for students at more than 200 elementary and middle schools in at-risk communities in four California counties"
] |
NewsQA
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Beirut, Lebanon (CNN) -- The leaders of Lebanon and Syria vowed to improve cooperation between their two countries Sunday, tying up a meeting aimed at thawing frozen relations.
"We want to open new horizons between the two states," Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri said at a news conference at the end of the two-day meeting, which happened in Damascus, Syria.
"We had good and excellent discussions based on mutual clarity and honesty," he added. "We are betting on a better future for both countries and peoples, in economy, trade as well as all other levels."
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was not at the news conference. Official Syrian news agency SANA reported that both al-Assad and Hariri "saw the visit as a starting point to restore cooperation between the governments of Syria and Lebanon."
"Both sides agreed that the institutions and ministries in both countries directly coordinate and communicate to remove all obstacles to the cooperation on all levels," SANA reported.
Hariri has previously blamed Syria for the 2005 assassination of his father, Rafik Hariri, a former Lebanese leader who was a prominent figure opposing Syria's continuing presence inside Lebanon.
A United Nations investigation found indications of Syrian involvement, but Syria denies responsibility. A U.N.-backed tribunal has been created to investigate the killing.
The two leaders did not discuss that issue or the assassinations of other anti-Syrian figures in Lebanon, Hariri said Sunday. They also did not discuss requests by a Syrian court to question Lebanese officials.
Asked whether any guarantees were exchanged regarding the Lebanese-Syrian relationship, Hariri responded, "I don't want to go into details." He added that the meeting proves "a relationship is being built in both countries' interest and in the benefit of future openness."
A popular uprising after the elder Hariri's killing in 2005 helped lead to the withdrawal of Syrian forces after almost 30 years of military and political domination of Lebanon.
Under international pressure, Syria opened an embassy in Beirut almost a year ago, and a Lebanese ambassador arrived in Damascus a short while later. It was the first time the two foes established diplomatic ties since their independence more than six decades ago.
The United States, which also accused Syria of involvement in Rafik Hariri's assassination, withdrew its ambassador four years ago. President Obama decided to make an effort toward reconciliation and announced earlier this year that he was returning a U.S. diplomat to Damascus.
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c92d324d044c4d22b95cfb38f4fc05a5
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WHat is the name of the Lebanese prime minister?
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[
"Saad Hariri"
] |
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LONDON, England (CNN) -- DJ and pop star Boy George has been denied a visa to enter the United States, his Web site said Tuesday.
In 2007, George spent five days cleaning the streets of New York to fulfill a community service sentence.
U.S. immigration authorities denied the visa because George, 48, faces trial in November in London on charges of false imprisonment relating to an April 2007 incident, according to a statement from Boy George's management, posted on his site.
"George is astounded at the decision and is having his lawyers here in the States look at it in the hope that someone will change their mind," the statement read.
Boy George, whose real name is George O'Dowd, was charged in London last November with false imprisonment following a complaint from a 28-year-old man, police said. The incident happened in East London the previous April, police said.
George is free on unconditional bail and is not barred from traveling as he awaits trial, his management said. His upcoming schedule includes a series of U.S. club dates in July and August.
George is best known as the singer of '80s pop group Culture Club, with hits including "Karma Chameleon" and "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?" He quit the band in 1987 and embarked on a short solo career before reinventing himself as a club DJ and launching a fashion label, B-Rude.
In August 2007, George spent five days cleaning the streets of Manhattan to fulfill a community service sentence for falsely reporting a break-in at his New York home. George's management said the denial of his U.S. visa had nothing to do with that case.
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f7b47bfd2bac4913bdf842f28ed1b714
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What was he charged with?
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[
"false imprisonment"
] |
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(EW.com) -- After months of speculation about who would play the villain in the next James Bond installment, we finally have an answer, friendo: Javier Bardem.
During an interview with Christiane Amanpour on Nightline, in which the Spanish actor talked about his involvement with a charity to help west Saharan refugees, Bardem confirmed that he would be playing the bad guy in "Bond 23."
"I am very excited. My parents took me to watch the movies and I saw all of them. So to play that is going to be fun," Bardem said about his joining the 00-franchise. "They chose me to play this man, but I cannot give you many details."
See the full article at EW.com.
CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly
© 2011 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.
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23630711c78444c5b557fec13605197b
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What did the actor say?
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[
"\"I am very excited. My parents took me to watch the movies and I saw all of them. So to play that is going to be fun,\""
] |
NewsQA
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KAMPALA, Uganda (CNN) -- Police in Uganda have arrested and extradited a man who is among the most wanted suspects from the Rwandan genocide.
The 100-day killing rampage led to the loss of an estimated 10 percent of Rwanda's population.
IIdephonse Nizeyimana was picked up at a hotel in Rubaga, a suburb of the capital, Kampala, by the National Central Bureau of Interpol, according to a news release from the U.N.-sponsored International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on Tuesday.
He was transferred Tuesday to a U.N. detention facility in Arusha, Tanzania, where the tribunal is based. Top officials who allegedly took part in the genocide, such as army generals and politicians, are tried by the tribunal.
"Nizeyimana is one of the four top accused who are earmarked by the prosecutor to be tried by the tribunal in Arusha after their arrest as part of the ICTR completion strategy," the tribunal's news release said. Of a list of 13 fugitives, he is the second to be arrested in less than two months, it said.
In the attacks that started in April 1994, Hutu militias and members of the general population sought out Tutsis and moderate Hutus, and went on a 100-day killing rampage. Civilians and children got incentives to take part in the atrocities, including promises of land belonging to their Tutsi neighbors.
It was one of the most brutal genocides in modern history. Some figures put the number of dead at 1 million -- 10 percent of the population of the central African nation. Millions more were raped and disfigured. A whole generation of children lost their parents.
Nizeyimana was a captain the Rwanda Armed Forces, the tribunal said. He is accused of exercising authority over soldiers and personnel through a chain of command, and allegedly sent a section of soldiers to execute of Rosalie Gicanda, a former queen of Rwanda who was a "symbolic figure for all Tutsis," it said.
The tribunal noted this marks the second time Uganda has cooperated with it to make an arrest. "The tribunal has commended the Interpol and the Ugandan authorities for their close cooperation," the news release said.
Samson Ntale contributed to this report for CNN.
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c29918ceee5c4a699ac7ea7c309c663d
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Where is the tribunal based?
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[
"Arusha, Tanzania,"
] |
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(CNN) -- At least 14 people were killed and 60 others wounded Thursday when a bomb ripped through a crowd waiting to see Algeria's president in Batna, east of the capital of Algiers, the Algerie Presse Service reported.
A wounded person gets first aid shortly after Thursday's attack in Batna, Algeria.
The explosion occurred at 5 p.m. about 20 meters (65 feet) from a mosque in Batna, a town about 450 kilometers (280 miles) east of Algiers, security officials in Batna told the state-run news agency.
The bomb went off 15 minutes before the expected arrival of President Abdel-Aziz Bouteflika.
It wasn't clear if the bomb was caused by a suicide bomber or if it was planted, the officials said.
Later Thursday, Algeria's Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni said "a suspect person who was among the crowd attempted to go beyond the security cordon," but the person escaped "immediately after the bomb exploded," the press service reported.
Bouteflika made his visit to Batna as planned, adding a stop at a hospital to visit the wounded before he returned to the capital.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing.
Algeria faces a continuing Islamic insurgency, according to the CIA.
In July, 33 people were killed in apparent suicide bombings in Algiers that were claimed by an al Qaeda-affiliated group.
Bouteflika said terrorist acts have nothing in common with the noble values of Islam, the press service reported. E-mail to a friend
CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.
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7d597903acdf4105b7b0ff9212bd58e4
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What were bomb victims waiting for?
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[
"Algeria's president"
] |
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An Air Force F-22A fighter jet crashed Wednesday near Edwards Air Force Base in California, killing the test pilot, the Air Force said.
An F-22A fighter jet similar to this one crashed Wednesday during a test mission in California.
The single-seater crashed about 10:30 a.m. (1:30 p.m. ET) for unknown reasons, Air Force officials said.
Lockheed Martin said the test pilot, David Cooley, 49, of Palmdale, California, joined the company in 2003 and was a 21-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force.
The fighter was on a test mission when it crashed about 35 miles northeast of Edwards AFB, where it was stationed, the Air Force said in a news release.
At $150 million apiece, the F-22A is the most expensive Air Force fighter.
In 2004, an F-22 Raptor crashed on a training mission in the Nevada desert. The pilot ejected and was not hurt, though the jet was destroyed.
The plane was designed in the 1980s to provide a stealthy method to enter Soviet air space and strike Soviet bombers if the USSR attempted a nuclear strike.
Once the Cold War ended, the Air Force found a new mission for the F-22 as a long-range fighter with a sophisticated stealth design and state-of-the-art equipment that no other plane could rival.
However, the rising cost of the plane and numerous design and software problems threatened the program, which was almost eliminated by Congress.
In the end, the aircraft survived, and most of the problems were fixed -- except for the price tag, which forced the Air Force to buy fewer aircraft.
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0ad98191825e4eacab41bd44cf29b42c
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When did the plane crash?
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[
"Wednesday"
] |
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LONDON, England (CNN) -- For almost a century, the old dog has traversed landscapes across the United States, with weary, budget-conscious travelers peeking out of its windows.
Greyhound bus services will run from London to cities such as Portsmouth and Southampton.
Now, the iconic Greyhound is taking to the road in Britain. The company will run hourly bus services from London to select cities, starting Monday.
In contrast to its U.S. services, however, the buses are glitzier and more luxurious.
"The UK service will have wireless Internet, spacious leather seats, more leg room and free newspapers," said Alex Warner, managing director of Greyhound UK. "Obviously, we wanted our services to reflect the nature of UK passengers."
For inaugural Greyhound service in Britain, the company aimed to start with the best the United States has to offer, Warner added.
In North America, the same services are available from New York and Washington to select cities such as Boston and Toronto, Canada.
"There are plans to expand that. Americans should watch closely. We will introduce more of these services based on how well they are received in the UK," Warner said.
Despite the added benefits, fares will still target the budget-conscious traveler in Britain, according to Warner.
The service starts with a few cities -- from London to Portsmouth and Southampton, he said. The approximately 120-kilometer (80-mile) trip will cost £1 ($1.60) if a ticket is bought in advance, Warner said. Prices will go up to £4 or £5, depending on time of purchase.
"We are planning to keep the prices within that range," Warner said.
Greyhound Lines is owned by British transport company FirstGroup, which bought it from its U.S. parent in 2007. It was founded in 1914, and has services in Mexico and Canada, according to its Web site.
In a nod to its cameos in American movies and songs, such as the 1969 film "Midnight Cowboy" and Simon and Garfunkel's 1972 hit "America," Greyhound plans to keep at least one tie to its U.S. origins. Buses in Britain will be named after classic American songs.
The names include "Sweet Caroline" and "Good Golly Miss Molly," Warner said.
CNN's Faith Karimi contributed to this report.
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52278f3ac3e442b4b09827ca638e81d6
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Who owns Greyhound Lines?
|
[
"FirstGroup,"
] |
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KUALA LAMPUR, Malaysia (CNN) -- Malaysia will swear in a new prime minister Friday -- one tasked with reuniting a multi-racial nation and shoring up an economy in dire straits.
Outgoing Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, facing, hugs his successor, Najib Razak last week.
Until now, Najib Razak had served as the Southeast Asian country's deputy prime minister. He succeeds Abdullah Badawi who turned in his resignation after five years as leader.
Both are part of Malaysia's ruling party, the National Front Coalition, which has ruled the country since it gained independence from Britain in 1957.
But last year, a loose coalition of opposition parties won 82 of 222 parliamentary seats in elections. It was only the second time in the country's history that the ruling party failed to gain the two-thirds majority needed to amend the constitution.
The election upset led to calls for Abdullah to step down. Various challenges await Najib:
In recent months, the country has seen riots with the country's ethnic Chinese and Indian communities who accuse the government of passing laws that favor the Malay majority.
Najib has said he will do more to address their concerns.
The country, like other nations around the world, has been severely affected by the global economic downturn. Critics are demanding Malaysia diversify its technology-heavy economy.
Last month, Najib unveiled a multi-billion dollar stimulus plan for new spending, according to published reports.
Najib also brings with him a whiff of controversy. Two former bodyguards are facing charges in connection the murder of a Mongolian model. He has denied all links to the killing.
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1fd72f4e4cc54450b6b8a0594eca5917
|
what party is razak in?
|
[
"National Front Coalition,"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- David Beckham believes the furore that followed his return to the LA Galaxy from his loan spell with AC Milan earlier this year has galvanized the team.
The Galaxy won the MLS Western Conference Championship with a 2-0 win at home to Houston Dynamo on Friday night, Beckham setting up Gregg Berhalter's 102nd-minute opener.
They will face Real Salt Lake, who upset the favored Chicago Fire 5-4 in a penalty shootout to win the Eastern Conference title on Saturday to reach the MLS Cup final in Seattle next Sunday.
Beckham had been subjected to abuse by his own fans after missing the start of the MLS season when he was in Italy, while Galaxy captain Landon Donovan questioned his commitment to the LA franchise.
However, the England midfielder -- who missed Saturday's 1-0 friendly defeat by Brazil in Qatar to play for his club -- thinks the situation helped bring the team together.
"There's nothing wrong with a bit of controversy in a club, it brings players and teams together and it's done that," Beckham told ESPN in a post-match interview.
"I don't have to say anything about myself, I leave that down to other people to decide.
"I love playing soccer. I work hard for my teammates, myself, my manager, the fans and I hope that's enough for people."
Beckham joined the Galaxy from Real Madrid in 2007 but they struggled to make an impact during the Englishman's time with the team until the arrival of former USA national team coach Bruce Arena.
Beckham, who returns to Milan in January as he bids to win a place in England's World Cup squad, believes this season's achievements have already gone some way for making up for the previous two seasons.
"We want to win next week but reaching it is the biggest thing," he told the UK Press Association.
"We've done that, done the hard work and this team deserves it."
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4f598fb43100469eb3a8a2e69a0a9438
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Who do LA Galaxy face in Seattle next weekend?
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[
"Real Salt Lake,"
] |
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(CNN) -- The world's top pound-for-pound fighter, Manny Pacquiao, will attempt to win a world title in a fourth division by taking on three-time world champion Miguel Cotto in his next bout.
Manny Pacquiao will take on Miguel Cotto in his next fight scheduled for Novermber 18.
The Filipino boxer will fight the 28-year-old Puerto Rican for the WBO welterweight title at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, America on November 14 it has been confirmed.
Promoter Bob Arum, who represents both fighters, announced that although contracts still need to be signed, verbal agreements have been given: "I'm very excited about this because it's a good fight for boxing [and] it wasn't difficult to do, because they both wanted the fight," Arum told the Los Angeles Times.
Pacquiao is a national hero in the Philippines but has seen his popularity grow around the world since his comprehensive victory over British fighter Ricky Hatton in Las Vegas.
The man dubbed the "National Fist" is currently rated by The Ring, the sport's most respected trade magazine, as the best boxer in the world. His career earnings stand at an estimated $50M and he stands to bank further millions with the Cotto fee, however, Arum has yet to announce how the purse will be split.
Pacquiao has been in devastating form in recent times, racking up a string of victories in four different weight divisions.
Mexico's super-featherweight Juan Manuel Marquez was dispatched by the "Pac Man" before the 30-year-old secured further wins against America's David Diaz (lightweight) and Oscar de la Hoya (welterweight) before a devastating show of force against British light-welterweight Ricky Hatton.
Cotto survived a recent split decision result against Ghana's Joshua Clottey despite suffering a bad cut over one of his eyes during the bout and has only lost once in his career thus far to 31-year-old Mexican Antonio Margarito.
Arum said a press tour with the fighters will start Sept. 9 in Los Angeles.
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47ce310e6316401781089cd26785a7e5
|
What title is on the line?
|
[
"the WBO welterweight"
] |
NewsQA
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(CNN) -- At least 14 people were dead and four missing in the Philippines a day after Typhoon Mirinae roared through the heart of the country, the National Disaster Coordinating Council said Sunday.
Mirinae was the fourth typhoon to affect the archipelago of more than 7,000 islands in a month. It quickly dissipated after Saturday's landfall, becoming a tropical storm. Mirinae was forecast to weaken further before hitting Vietnam on Monday, forecasters said.
The hardest hit areas were the Southern Luzon and Bicol regions, the Philippines News Agency reported. Civil Defense administrator Glenn Rabonza said more than 13,000 people were affected by the storm.
The storm brought at least 85 millimeters (3.3 inches) of rain to Manila. The city of Daet, on the eastern coast, received 149 millimeters (5.8 inches) of rain, and Virac, which sits on an island that juts into the Pacific, received 72 millimeters (2.8 inches) of rain.
The first of the four typhoons to threaten the Philippines happened in late September, when Ketsana drenched the island nation with its heaviest rainfall in 40 years. Eighty percent of Manila flooded and more than 420 people died.
Are you there? Share photos, video of the weather
Flooding from Ketsana has lasted well into October and tens of thousands of people are still in evacuation centers, according to the disaster coordinating council.
Typhoon Parma made landfall on October 3 in a rural region of fishermen and farmers in Luzon, the largest of the Philippine islands. It destroyed 55,000 houses and killed more than 430 people.
Last week, a third typhoon, Lupit, narrowly missed making landfall, but brought lots of rain to the Philippines.
|
2c095878a59e4bfaa550f4be8cc19331
|
What is the name of the latest Typhoon to hit the region?
|
[
"Mirinae"
] |
NewsQA
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Miami (CNN) -- Rapper Rick Ross suffered medical emergencies aboard two separate flights, forcing both back to the ground, officials said Friday.
Ross was taken to a Florida hospital after he suffered an unidentified medical emergency on a Delta flight to Memphis a law enforcement source with direct knowledge of the situation told CNN.
A Broward County Sheriff's Office fire rescue team met Delta Flight 1310 at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, said the source, who was not authorized to speak to the media.
"Ross was breathing and conscious and alert when we reached the passenger on the plane," said the source. "He was conscious on transport. He was assessed and transported to Broward General Medical Center."
The rapper later wrote on his Twitter account that he was headed to Memphis and posted a video with him on a plane, getting ready to take off.
His flight, however, was diverted to Birmingham, Alabama, according to CNN Memphis affiliate WMC.
The station reported that Ross had suffered a seizure and was hospitalized.
The University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital confirmed that it had an emergency room patient under the name of William Leonard Roberts.
Ross, born William Leonard Roberts II, is famous for songs such as "9 Piece."
He was scheduled to perform Friday night in Memphis, at the FedExForum, for the "Memphis Madness" event. The rapper missed that appearance, according to WMC.
CNN's Joe Sutton contributed to this report.
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ccef7bd3221241db9422a20fcb2fd1f4
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What did the source tell cnn
|
[
"Ross was taken to a Florida hospital after he suffered an unidentified medical emergency"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- Twenty-eight suspected pirates were taken into custody Friday by the European Union Naval Force after a handful of failed attacks on fishing vessels in the Indian Ocean, the EU mission said.
In the first incident, the mission intercepted a mother ship and two skiffs early Friday in the southern Indian Ocean between the Seycelles and Mombasa, Kenya. The mission said the suspected pirates were in an area where an earlier attack had occurred.
A helicopter from the French warship FS Nivose then tracked the vessels and saw the suspects throwing things overboard, the mission said.
When a French team arrived at the scene, it found 11 suspected pirates and "pirate paraphernalia" in the skiffs: a rocket launcher, grappling hooks and several fuel barrels.
The forces destroyed the pirate ship and a skiff and took the suspected pirates into custody. The fate of the second skiff was not immediately known.
Soon after, pirates tried to attack a French fishing vessel near two other fishing boats, said Cmdr. John Harbour, spokesman for the EU Naval Force.
The French fishing vessel collided with the suspected pirates' vessel and sank it, Harbour said. Six suspected pirates were picked out of the water by the EU force, he said. It was not immediately clear if they had been transported to the FS Nivose, although that had been planned, he said.
Later, pirates tried to attack a Spanish fishing vessel, Harbour said. The boat alerted the EU Naval Force, and air and naval units intervened, he said.
Eleven suspected pirates were taken into custody and were on board the Nivose, Harbour said.
Harbour said an increase in pirate attacks was likely over the next few weeks as the monsoon season was ending and the ocean was becoming calmer, he said.
"The pirates have been preparing for it. ... We are prepared as well," he said.
On Thursday, pirates on two skiffs in the Indian Ocean attacked the Spanish fishing vessel Albacan, the EU Naval Force said. The pirates fired a rocket-propelled grenade, which exploded on the Albacan's deck and burst into flames, force said.
Armed guards on the Albacan fired shots at the skiffs and repelled the attack, it said. No crew members were injured, and the small fire was extinguished.
The EU mission tries to deter and stop piracy off Somalia, which has been mired in chaos since the early 1990s. It escorts vessels in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean carrying World Food Program humanitarian aid to displaced people in Somalia.
It also seeks to protect "vulnerable vessels" in the Gulf of Aden and off the Somali coast, according to the mission's Web site.
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47c5cb31ac394073840d2ca62b4a3e05
|
Who attacked fishing vessels?
|
[
"Twenty-eight"
] |
NewsQA
|
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Florida (CNN) -- A bat that apparently had trouble flying instead tried to hitch a ride on the space shuttle Discovery, NASA officials said.
The free tail bat was last seen clinging to the space shuttle Discovery's external fuel tank just before launch.
The animal was last seen clinging on the foam of the external tank of the space shuttle moments before the Discovery launched, officials said.
NASA officials had hoped the bat would fly away on its own, but admitted the bat probably died quickly during Discovery's climb into orbit.
Discovery's seven-member crew, which lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on Sunday, is on a 14-day mission to deliver supplies needed to expand the International Space Station.
NASA officials noticed the bat before shuttle's liftoff and brought in a wildlife expert to look at video images of it. The expert said it appeared to be a free-tailed bat that probably had a broken left wing and an injured right shoulder or wrist.
The launch pads at the space center are near the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, so NASA has sirens to scare away animals that get near the shuttles.
The bat isn't the first to try hitching a ride into space. NASA officials said they noticed one of the creatures on a tank of a shuttle in 1998. That bat flew away as the shuttle's massive engines ignited.
The crew of the Discovery safely docked at the International Space Station on Tuesday. It was unclear whether its stowaway was still clinging to the shuttle.
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2653dbf866e64998b5a75e160f7a3398
|
How long is the mission?
|
[
"14-day"
] |
NewsQA
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CARACAS, Venezuela (CNN) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called Friday for Europe to remove from its list of terrorist organizations two Colombian groups -- including FARC, the group that freed two hostages Thursday in a mission Chavez organized.
During his televised State of the Union speech, Chavez -- an outspoken enemy of the Bush administration -- insisted Europe includes the two groups on its terror list only because of "pressure" from the United States, which also names them on its list of foreign terrorist organizations.
"I request from the governments of the continent that they will remove the FARC and the ELN," Chavez said.
FARC, the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, has been blamed for numerous attacks and holds about 750 hostages, according to Colombian government estimates.
ELN, the National Liberation Army, the second-largest rebel group in Colombia, also is blamed for killings, kidnappings, and other attacks. This week the Colombian government announced the capture of Carlos Marin Guarin, known by the alias "Pablito," alleged to have commanded roughly half the ELN force.
Both FARC and ELN are on the European Union's list of groups and individuals believed linked to terrorism.
"I will ask Europe to remove the ELN and the FARC from the list of terrorist groups in the world, because that only has one source: the pressure of the United States," Chavez said.
He argued, "I say this even though somebody might be bothered by it: the FARC and the ELN are not terrorist groups. They are armies, real armies ... that occupy a space in Colombia."
He added that the two groups' "insurgent forces" have a goal, "a project," that is "Bolivarian" and that "we respect."
Chavez said his nation is committed to bringing about peace in Colombia, a task that means "we must continue to work at the various levels" with FARC and ELN.
"No one should be bothered by it. It is absolutely essential to do so. Who can think of the possibility of a peace accord when there is no contact with the parties involved," he asked. E-mail to a friend
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141e6e803c38478db30c8e8d25f30de5
|
who was released
|
[
"two hostages"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- American Wayne Odesnik has accepted "a voluntary provisional suspension" from tennis after pleading guilty to importing human growth hormone into Australia.
Odesnik, currently ranked 111th in the world, was heading for the Brisbane International tournament in January when he was stopped by customs officers.
The 24-year-old pleaded guilty to taking eight vials of human growth hormone into the country at Brisbane Magistrates Court and was hit with an $8,000 fine.
Odesnik has agreed to a temporary suspension, though he can decide return to the game at any time, and must wait to hear the findings of an independent tribunal after the Tennis Anti-Doping Programme has concluded its investigation of the case.
A statement on the International Tennis Federation Web site said: "Wayne Odesnik has accepted a voluntary provisional suspension from all events covered under the Tennis Anti-Doping Programme, including Grand Slam tournaments, ATP-sanctioned events and ITF-sanctioned tournaments.
"In accordance with normal policy, the ITF does not intend to make further comment on this matter until its resolution."
|
b960886465b34d8ea2fe181186e7ada8
|
Wayne Odesnik is what age?
|
[
"24-year-old"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- The pilot who made a treacherous crash-landing on New York's Hudson River look like a routine maneuver got a hero's welcome Saturday in his California hometown.
Chesley B. Sullenberger was honored Saturday with a celebration in his hometown of Danville, California.
Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger put his US Airways jetliner down on the Hudson minutes after both engines failed, then walked the length of the drifting Airbus A320 twice to make certain that all 155 people on board got off safely.
He was greeted by several thousand cheering people gathered around the town square in Danville, California, for a celebration in his honor.
Mayor Newell Arnerich presented Sullenberger with a ceremonial key to the city, an upscale suburb near San Francisco. Sullenberger, who has avoided public comment since the January 15 incident, made very brief remarks.
He thanked the crowd for an "incredible outpouring of support."
"Circumstance determined that it was this experienced crew that was scheduled to fly on that particular flight on that particular day," Sullenberger said. "But I know I can speak for the entire crew when I tell you we were simply doing the jobs we were trained to do. Thank you." Watch Sullenberger address the crowd »
Sullenberger's wife, Lorrie, fought back tears as she spoke of her husband.
"I have always known him to be an exemplary pilot. I knew what the outcome would be that day, because I knew my husband," she said.
"Mostly for me, he's the man that makes my cup of tea every morning."
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board continue to piece together details from the double engine failure that hit the plane after it took off from New York's LaGuardia Airport for Charlotte, North Carolina.
The jet's left engine, which apparently tore away from the plane on landing impact, was raised from the bottom of the Hudson on Friday.
Sullenberger reported to air controllers that his plane had hit birds shortly before both engines shut down.
On Saturday, the NTSB said a preliminary examination of the left engine found evidence of "soft body impact damage," the same kind of damage reported on the right engine.
An NTSB spokesman said that there was no evidence of organic material such as a dead bird in the left engine but that was not surprising because the engine had been under water for a week.
Although the NTSB has not officially confirmed reports of a bird strike, the agency's findings and statements have not done anything to discount the bird-strike reports.
Both engines will be shipped to the manufacturer in Ohio, where NTSB investigators will tear them down completely for examination.
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c35eb8b0ca0542609f89df8389cf6249
|
What was the investigators trying to do?
|
[
"piece together details from the double engine failure that hit the plane after it took off"
] |
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NEW YORK (CNN) -- A $15.5 million payout made by oil giant Shell to settle a lawsuit brought against it by relations of executed Nigerian writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and other activists will allow the families of the victims to move on with their lives, Saro-Wiwa's son has told CNN.
Saro-Wiwa said the settlement would allow the families of the victims to draw a line under the past.
The New York lawsuit -- brought to court by the Center for Constitutional Rights on behalf of Saro-Wiwa's family and others in 1996 -- accused Shell's Nigerian subsidiary of complicity in the writer's 1995 hanging and the killings or persecution of other environmental activists in the Niger Delta.
Nigeria's Ogoni people have complained for years that Shell was allowed to pollute its land without consequences.
Saro-Wiwa's death sparked a worldwide outcry, and his movement ultimately forced Shell out of the oil- and gas-rich Ogoniland region.
"It enables us to draw a line under the past and actually face the future with something tangible, some hope that this is the beginning of a better engagement between all the stakeholders in this issue," Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr. told CNN.
Shell said it "had no part in the violence that took place" but called the settlement "a humanitarian gesture to set up a trust fund to benefit the Ogoni people."
Shell fought the lawsuit until last week, when a federal appellate court ruled that the plaintiffs could sue the company's Nigerian subsidiary in American courts, overturning a March decision in the company's favor.
Saro-Wiwa said the case set a precedent for oil companies operating in regions such as West Africa by demonstrating that they could "be brought to trial in America for human rights violations in Africa." Watch Saro-Wiwa discuss how he hopes the case will set a precedent »
"Justice is always hard won... It took 13 years to go through the legal process but clearly before we started this corporations throught they could almost operate with impunity but now the legal landscape has changed," he said.
Roughly half of the settlement will go into a trust fund to help the people of Nigeria's Ogoni region, according to court papers.
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8e6270b9fbed4b549a1d7d9d3dfdfee8
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What does Ken Saro-Wiwa's son say?
|
[
"\"It enables us to draw a line under the past and actually face"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- Launch of the space shuttle Discovery has been delayed at least a week, NASA has announced.
Discovery moves atop the crawler transporter in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on January 14.
The shuttle will now lift off no earlier than February 19 because of concern over a valve in the main engine. A decision on the launch date will be made February 12, after more analysis and testing of the part.
NASA said Tuesday night: "The valve is one of three that channels gaseous hydrogen from the engines to the external fuel tank. One of these valves in shuttle Endeavour was found to be damaged after its mission in November. As a precaution, Discovery's valves were removed, inspected and reinstalled."
This will be the shuttle's 28th mission to the international space station.
The mission will deliver the final set of solar arrays needed to complete the station's complement of electricity-generating solar panels. They will help support the station's expanded crew of six in 2009.
"More crew means that we'll have to run more life support equipment, more crew support equipment -- toilet facilities, water processing equipment and all of that stuff," Kwatsi Alibaruho, the lead space station flight director for the mission, said on NASA's Web site. "We'll have to run more of all of that, so we need additional power."
The expanded capacity will mean more hands to perform science experiments. The mission also will include four spacewalks.
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a3a2ecfa3ef845acbd217b7123ba899a
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What is NASA worried about?
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[
"a valve in the main engine."
] |
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(CNN) -- Authorities have issued sketches of three people sought in connection with the spate of eastern Texas church fires.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives released the drawings Friday at a news conference in Tyler, Texas.
We have a serial arsonist out there," said Robert Champion, special agent in charge of ATF's Dallas, Texas, office. "We need help from the public."
There have been a total of 11 church fires so far this year, 10 of them found to be deliberately set.
There is no clear theme linking the fires, which have struck churches of different denominations, including Baptist, Methodist and Church of Christ Scientist, on different days of the week and at different times of the day.
While the churches are located in small towns, not all of them are in remote locations.
Police patrols have been stepped up near churches, and in some cases church members are staying at their churches to protect them or patrolling around the churches themselves.
"I think maybe I would characterize the mood of our people as perplexed," Randy Daniels, mayor of Athens, Texas, told CNN earlier this week. Athens, a town of about 12,000 people, has had three of its church set on fire.
In Tyler, Texas, the Tyland Baptist Church was among those set ablaze. Pastor David Mahfood told CNN on Wednesday there was nothing left from the January 16 fire -- "not a Bible, not a hymnal. We've got some bricks. That's it."
At another destroyed church, Russell United Methodist Church in Wills Point, Texas, members are trying to salvage what they can from the ashes.
A large brass cross that hung over the church's choir loft was recently found, church member Kay Crosby told CNN. "It was kind of twisted, but we're going to have it restored," she said.
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869c387c2ce445fd872a3798944a1bff
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How many sketches did the ATF release?
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[
"three"
] |
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(CNN) -- A Maryland funeral home has lost its license after investigators found about 40 bodies stacked on top of each other, leaking fluid, in a garage, a state official said.
The state Board of Morticians and Funeral Directors revoked the license of Chambers Funeral Home & Crematorium in Riverdale, Maryland after an April 26 visit to the site.
Hari Close, president of the the state funeral board, told CNN Tuesday that some of the bodies were cadavers who had been donated to a local university for research. Other bodies came from other funeral homes, Close said.
The bodies were supposed to be cremated, but investigators were alarmed at how they were stored in the garage while they awaited cremation.
"Even somebody who donates their body to science, they still should be treated with dignity," said Close. "Not to mention the health and safety issues with the body fluids flowing out."
William Chambers, co-owner of the funeral home, told CNN-affiliate WJLA said that he hopes to work with the state to resolve the alleged violations.
When investigators inspected the funeral home they were warned by an employee, who told them, "Don't get upset about all the bodies in there," according to documents released by the state funeral board.
Inside the room was a "large pile, approximately 12 by 12 feet, of body bags containing human remains strewn on the floor of the garage in front of a removal van. There was visible leakage from the body bags as well as a pungent odor," the documents said.
"The investigator also observed writing on some of the body bags," they said. "However, fluid leakage from the body bags caused the writing to smear and become illegible. As a result, it was not immediately possible to determine the identity of the remains."
There will be a hearing at the end of the month to determine whether the funeral home will get its license back, Close said.
CNN's Patty Lane contributed to this report.
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c7278484ac6f49819575255d9b5e7653
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How many bodies were found?
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[
"40"
] |
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(CNN) -- Americans were asked to stop whatever they were doing at 3 p.m. local time Monday to share a minute on Memorial Day and honor those who have died in the cause of freedom.
Americans were asked to take one minute at 3 p.m. Monday to pause and reflect on those who died in battle.
"The time 3 p.m. was chosen because it is the time when most Americans are enjoying their freedoms on the national holiday," according to the White House Commission on Remembrance. Congress established the National Moment of Remembrance.
"The Moment does not replace traditional Memorial Day events; rather it is an act of national unity in which all Americans, alone or with family and friends, honor those who died for our freedom," the Commission on Remembrance said on its Web site.
"It will help to reclaim Memorial Day as the sacred and noble holiday it was meant to be. In this shared remembrance, we connect as Americans."
Observances included an interruption of Major League Baseball games, the pausing of the National Memorial Day Parade in Washington and the National Grocers Association and Food Marketing Institute asking shoppers to pause in stores nationwide to remember the fallen.
"We want our citizens to contemplate the ties that bind us and take a moment to put 'Memorial' back into Memorial Day," said Carmella LaSpada, executive director of the Commission on Remembrance.
Children touring Washington inspired the idea when LaSpada asked them what Memorial Day meant and they said that's when the swimming pool opens, according to the commission's Web site.
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06d19551b24d493d81d4c38449052f9e
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When are Americans asked to pause and reflect?
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[
"3 p.m. Monday"
] |
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MUGELLO, Italy -- Italian Valentino Rossi's resurgence continued on Saturday, as the five-time MotoGP champion took pole position at his home race in Mugello.
Rossi gives the thumbs up after taking his first pole position of the season at his home race in Mugello.
The 29-year-old has struggled since winning his last title in 2005 but is back at the head of the field this season on his Fiat Yamaha and has won the last two races.
A lap of one minute 48.130 seconds was enough to see him take his first pole position of the season ahead of Dani Pedrosa in second and fellow-Italian Loris Capirossi in third -- the 50th pole of his career and 40th in MotoGP.
"For sure we will try to keep this winning streak going. I was quite worried after practice because we had some problems but the team modified the bike and it is faster now," said Rossi.
"My last pole position was a long, long time ago -- I can't even remember when it was, so I am very happy. Loris is behind me and with two Italians on the front row the crowd will be very special here."
Rossi is three points ahead of Repsol Honda rider Pedrosa and his team-mate Jorge Lorenzo going into Sunday's race with reigning champion Casey Stoner a further 28 points back on his Marlboro Ducati.
Rossi's time bettered the previous record pole time by Spaniard Sete Gibernau by more than 0.8 seconds, and that marker was posted two years ago on a more powerful bike.
In fact, the top seven finishers all beat Gibernau's lap, achieved on a 990cc bike as opposed to the 800cc versions of today.
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207de39fd9b3427899ae5a1e60047121
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What was his time?
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[
"one minute 48.130 seconds"
] |
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(CNN) -- Emergency crews called off a search in Texas for the wreckage of a C-17 transport plane after reports Monday of a possible crash proved unfounded.
Callers to the Olney Police Department said they saw a low-flying plane, and a spokesman for Sheppard AFB initially reported a crash, but then retracted the report.
Air Force officials said an Air Force C-17 had been flying at low altitude near Olney, but the plane returned safely to Altus Air Force Base in southwest Oklahoma.
CNN's Mike Mount and Adam Levine contributed to this story.
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3aefa2d2d39546568142b8c4733b7bbc
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What type of plane is missing?
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[
"C-17 transport"
] |
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(CNN) -- A Saudi court that sentenced a journalist to 60 lashes for her work on a controversial television show has summoned a second woman affiliated with the TV station.
The Saudi information ministry said Sunday that a Jeddah court has asked the second journalist to appear because of her work as a coordinator with the Lebanese Broadcasting Corp.
The woman was set to appear on Monday, but the hearing has been postponed because she is ill, said a ministry official, who could not be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media.
The show in question, "A Thick Red Line," explores social taboos.
In one episode, a Saudi man, Mazen Abdul Jawad, bragged about his sex life. Saudi authorities put him on trial and sentenced him to five years in prison and 1,000 lashes.
Soon afterward, the court sentenced journalist Rosanna Al-Yami who worked as a coordinator and guest-booker for the show. In addition to the 60 lashes, Al-Yami is banned for two years from traveling outside Saudi Arabia.
While the charges against her include involvement in preparing the program, she was not involved in setting up the episode in which Abdul Jawad appeared, said his lawyer Suleiman Al-Jumeii.
Al-Jumeii said that Al-Yami has opted not to appeal the court's verdict.
Al-Jumeii doesn't represent the journalist, but said he is keeping tabs on cases dealing with "A Thick Red Line."
The lawyer is attempting to pursue an appeal for his client and get his case heard in a special court that only deals with media matters.
CNN has attempted to get comments from Al-Yami and her attorney.
Abdul Jawad, 32, an airline employee and divorced father of four, spoke openly on the show about his sexual escapades, his love of sex and losing his virginity at age 14.
That episode caused an uproar in deeply conservative Saudi Arabia, where sharia, or Islamic law, is practiced. Pre-marital sex is illegal, and unrelated men and women are not permitted to mingle.
Saudi authorities shut down LBC offices in Jeddah and Riyadh after the interview aired a few months ago.
Abdul Jawad was arrested shortly after the program aired and charged with violating Saudi Arabia's crime of publicizing vice.
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5d80c15acdec4b4fa51e7859ad6f566e
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What was Al-Yami's sentence?
|
[
"Saudi Arabia."
] |
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(CNN) -- Americans' clicking fingers must be sore.
Analysts have begun providing their final tallies for Cyber Monday sales, which found that people piled more in their virtual shopping carts than ever before.
Monday was the highest-grossing online shopping day in U.S. history, with spending reaching $1.25 billion, according to market research firm comScore. That's up 22% from the previous record, which was last year's Cyber Monday.
Online shopping for the month of November has hit $15 billion, a 15% increase compared to last year, comScore says.
Discounting efforts by some online retailers, including Amazon.com and Apple, in the hopes of bringing some of the mall's Black Friday magic to the Web appear to have paid off. With a 26% jump over last year, the day after Thanksgiving saw the highest increase in spending compared to 2010 than any other period in November, according to comScore. However, online spending on Cyber Monday still outpaced Black Friday by a healthy margin, the research says.
Even without significantly slashing prices, some retailers saw a jump in customers coming to their websites on Monday. For example, Sony saw a dramatic increase in traffic and sales on Monday. Sony Electronics President Phil Molyneux said many Americans may have overcome some concerns about the struggling economy.
"There's a pent-up demand from consumers," Molyneux told a roomful of reporters in San Francisco on Tuesday. "There's a demand, and consumers need to feel that they can spend again."
They seem to be feeling it, and their digital wallets are feeling lighter.
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b05fdc6783b6415faea9bdbca64d47c7
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What was the biggest online shopping day ever?
|
[
"Cyber Monday"
] |
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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistani authorities have arrested two top leaders of the Islamic militant group India blames for the November massacre in Mumbai, Pakistan's prime minister confirmed Wednesday.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said Pakistani security forces had rounded up a number of militant figures.
The top military officer in the U.S. on Wednesday said he is "encouraged" by Pakistan's recent arrests of "significant players" in the Mumbai attacks.
U.S. Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen said the arrests amount to "first steps" toward determining who plotted the three day siege last month that killed 160 people in Mumbai, India's financial capital.
"There are more steps to follow," he noted.
He also thanked India for showing restraint against Pakistan, which it has accused of harboring the terrorist groups behind the November massacre.
Zarar Shah, a top operational commander of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, and Zakir Rehman Lakhvi, whose arrest had been reported Tuesday, were among the militant figures rounded up in recent days, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told reporters.
Gilani would not confirm the detention of Masood Azhar, the leader of another militant group, Jaish-e-Muhammad. But he said his government has launched its own investigation into India's allegations that the gunmen who killed more than 160 people in Mumbai had links to Pakistan.
The acknowledgment came three days after Pakistani security forces raided an LeT camp near Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, in the first sign of government action against Lashkar-e-Tayyiba since the three-day siege of India's financial capital.
Both LeT and Jaish-e-Muhammad were formed to battle Indian rule in the divided Himalayan territory of Kashmir, and both were banned after a 2001 attack on the Indian parliament that brought the South Asian nuclear rivals to the brink of war.
The United States has listed LeT as a terrorist group with ties to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. According to the U.S. government, Lakhvi, 47, has directed LeT's military operations in southeast Asia, Chechnya, Bosnia and Iraq.
Pakistan's Defense Minister Choudhry Mukhtar Ahmed told CNN's sister network in India, CNN-IBN, that Lakhvi and Azhar had been arrested on Monday. Azhar has been in Pakistan since 1999, when he was released from an Indian prison in exchange for hostages aboard a hijacked Indian airliner.
Indian authorities say the sole surviving gunman in the Mumbai attacks told investigators that he was trained at an LeT camp near Muzaffarabad, along with the nine other attackers who were killed in the three-day siege. A Pakistani security official said the terror raids on banned militant groups are ongoing and have resulted in at least 15 arrests.
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be27826d59e141bdb4343436606ee3f7
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What was the group formed to oppose?
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[
"battle Indian rule"
] |
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(CNN) -- A new national poll suggests Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich could be on the top of Santa's naughty list.
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich tops new CNN poll of which politician has been the naughtiest of 2008.
Fifty-six percent of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Wednesday said Blagojevich, who has been arrested on corruption charges, was the naughtiest politician in 2008.
Blagojevich, accused of attempting to sell President-elect Barack Obama's former Senate seat, has said he has done nothing wrong and plans to fight the allegations.
The poll also found 23 percent believed former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer should get the nod, followed by 19 percent for former presidential candidate John Edwards.
Spitzer resigned in March after it was revealed he was Client No. 9 in a high-end prostitution ring. In November, prosecutors announced they would not be bringing criminal charges against Spitzer.
Edwards, who had been considered a major contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, admitted in August to having an extramarital affair with former campaign staffer Rielle Hunter. The former North Carolina senator also denied he was the father of Hunter's then-newborn baby.
CNN polling director Keating Holland said while Blagojevich's top spot in the survey may be due to his arrest occurring more recently than the transgressions of the others, there may be another reason. iReport.com: Do you trust your political leaders?
"Americans typically take a much dimmer view of corruption than of sex scandals, since the former is a violation of the public trust and the latter is usually considered more of a private matter," he said.
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cecefaa866ed49e4a30b26968cd10308
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What was accused for Illionis governor?
|
[
"attempting to sell President-elect Barack Obama's former Senate seat,"
] |
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(CNN) -- A mining company has found what may be the largest gold deposit ever found in the British Isles, the company's chairman said Tuesday.
The price of gold is at historic highs, making new prospects very valuable.
Drill samples indicate more than 1 million ounces of gold may lie below what is now rolling Irish countryside, said Richard Conroy, the chairman of Dublin, Ireland-based Conroy Diamonds and Gold.
With the price of gold near historic highs, the find could be worth as much as $300 million on the market, Conroy told CNN.
The company has been working for 10 years to find gold in a 1,500-square kilometer (600-square-mile) area spanning the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, he said. The site where the company found the gold is near Clontibret, a village in the northern part of Ireland, he said.
"I think it's a major development in Ireland that we now have a significant gold resource," Conroy said. "It's the largest amount of gold, the largest number of ounces, that's ever been reported in Ireland, or indeed in either Britain or Ireland."
The price of gold is currently around $900 an ounce on global commodities markets. Factoring in costs for mine construction and operation, Conroy said, the gold near Clontibret could fetch roughly $300 million.
The company now plans to do more drilling at the site and conduct feasibility studies before moving ahead, he said.
An analyst cautioned, however, that the reported amount of gold is still only an estimate.
"Until you've actually mined the stuff, there's always a moderate level of uncertainty," said William Tankard, a senior analyst at metals consultancy GFMS in London.
One million ounces, if confirmed, would be significant for both Conroy and Ireland, Tankard said. Ireland has small precious metal deposits but nothing as large as Conroy's reported find, Tankard said.
Conroy said only one gold mine is currently active in Ireland.
"By no means is it world-leading, but a million ounces is certainly worth thinking about," Tankard said.
Tankard added that the quality of the gold -- including grade and how concentrated it is -- will also affect its value.
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f081caaf7a274232a8abf0aaa1610d9e
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what will it be worth
|
[
"as much as $300 million"
] |
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Khartoum, Sudan (CNN) -- A major Darfur rebel leader and some of his top commanders have been killed, a Sudanese army spokesman announced on state-run radio Sunday.
"Our armed forces were able to destroy the renegade Khalil Ibrahim, who died along with members of (his group's) leadership that was with him," said Alswarmi Khalid, the army's spokesperson.
Khalid said Ibrahim and members of his group were surrounded and killed in the Wad Banda area -- along the border between North Darfur state and North Kordofan state -- as they attempted to escape to South Sudan.
Fighting between Darfur rebels and the Sudanese army broke out days ago in North Kordofan, as rebels announced an assault on Khartoum.
Ibrahim was the leader of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), considered the most powerful Darfur rebel group. The JEM had refused to join the Doha Darfur peace document, signed between the Sudanese government and another rebel group, the Liberation and Justice Movement, this year.
A statement posted on JEM's website confirmed Ibrahim's death, but told a different narrative of events.
"JEM announces the martyrdom of its chair and head of its armed forces and offers its condolences to all Sudanese people," the statement read.
The JEM said Ibrahim was attacked from air by an unknown plane that hit with "with accuracy unusual for the regime's army's fighters which led to his martyrdom ... which points to the involvement of and a conspiracy by some in the regional and international circles with Khartoum's genocidal regime."
The rebel group reconfirmed its commitment to remove the government from power.
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f0a956d16517479ab466b5e5b4e5093e
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who was the leader of the JEM
|
[
"Ibrahim"
] |
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Tenino, Washington (CNN) -- Authorities in Alaska are examining two wolves to see if they are the animals that killed a jogger last week, said a wildlife biologist investigating the attack.
The two gray wolves were tracked down Monday and shot to death from a helicopter near the town of Chignik Lake, Alaska, said wildlife biologist Lem Butler.
The wolves are suspected of killing special-education teacher Candice Berner last week. Berner, 32, was attacked while jogging near the town, authorities said.
"We had a systematic search," he said. "These were the only two wolves we could find tracks for."
The wolves appeared to be the same ones that left tracks at the scene of the attack, and they matched witnesses' descriptions of the animals seen near Berner's body, Butler said.
Officials will conduct tests on the wolves' carcasses to determine whether they killed Berner, Butler said.
The carcasses will also be examined to see whether the animals were rabid or starving, or suffering from some condition that led them to attack a human, he said.
The rare wolf attack shook Chignik Lake, population 105.
"We see wolves a lot," said Johnny Lind, president of the Village Council. "But we've never had anything like this happen."
The killing is thought to be only the second fatal wolf attack in North America in more than a century. In 2005, a wolf pack killed a geology student in Saskatchewan, Canada.
Wolves typically avoid human contact and do not threaten people, said John Blankenship, executive director of Wolf Haven.
"They are not human predators. It's healthy to have awareness of them, for sure. But to be afraid of them is too strong an emotion," he said.
Wolf Haven in Tenino educates the public about wolves and serves as a haven for about 50 rescued wolves, many of them once kept as pets.
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989240b90f1f4a888953bba1ae46d5fc
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Who was killed by wolves while jogging?
|
[
"Candice Berner"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- A fourth man was charged Tuesday with murder in the shooting death of University of Memphis football player Taylor Bradford, Memphis police said.
Devin Jefferson, 21, planned the armed robbery of Bradford because he thought the football player was carrying a large amount of cash, police said.
"He was the brain trust on this one, he was the one that got the information that Taylor had cash," Sgt. Vince Higgins said. "Taylor and Jefferson knew each other. They had a girlfriend in common so there was some history there."
Police investigating a car crash on September 30 found Bradford, 21, fatally wounded near the campus residence hall area.
He had apparently gotten into his car after he was shot and drove a short distance before crashing into a tree.
The 5-foot-11, 300-pound defensive lineman from Nashville was taken to Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
DaeShawn Tate, 21, Victor Trezevant, 21, and Courtney Washington, 22, have been charged with murder in perpetration of attempted aggravated robbery, Memphis Police Department Director Larry Godwin said Monday.
Homicide investigators developed their case with the help of a citizen's tip and from Crimestoppers, Godwin said.
"It was an attempted robbery, aggravated robbery," he said. "He [Bradford] was targeted because of some information that was out there and the fact that they believed he had some cash, or he had something that they wanted."
Officials at the 21,000-student school said Bradford, a marketing major who lived on campus, was popular with the football team and on the campus. He had transferred from Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, and was 36 credit hours short of graduation. E-mail to a friend
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f05ef987be6f4bbc9df8afc5ef1cd9fd
|
Who was murdered?
|
[
"Taylor Bradford,"
] |
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|
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- Juan Roman Riquelme scored twice as Argentina beat Bolivia 3-0 to notch a third successive victory in the South American qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup on Saturday.
Juan Roman Riquelme celebrates after scoring his first goal in Argentina's win against Bolivia.
The midfielder followed up his brace of spectacular free-kicks in the opening 2-0 victory against Chile to help put his country five points clear of second-placed Brazil, who play Peru in Lima on Sunday.
Riquelme again shrugged off his lack of club action with Villarreal, where he has fallen out with the Spanish side's management, to net twice in the second spell after Sergio Aguero gave the home side a first-half lead.
The 19-year-old scored his first goal at international level five minutes before the interval after starting in a three-man attack with Carlos Tevez and Lionel Messi.
He headed home after Martin Demichelis nodded a cross from Manchester United striker Tevez back across goal.
Riquelme added the second 11 minutes after the break with a dipping free-kick which beat Carlos Arias from 25 yards, having been superbly denied by the keeper's one-handed effort shortly beforehand.
And he finished off the scoring in the 73rd minute with a cool sidefoot finish after being set up by Messi to cap off a match in which captain Javier Zanetti made a record-breaking 116th appearance for Argentina.
Argentina next travel to Colombia on Tuesday, when winless Bolivia have an away clash with Venezuela.
In other South American qualifiers, Colombia beat Venezuela 1-0, and Paraguay routed Ecuador 5-1.
Ecuador coach Luis Fernando Suarez, a Colombian, quit after his team's loss saying: "I have taken the irrevocable decision to resign." E-mail to a friend
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72410d40528e45b283dfba4f22a96686
|
When did Luis Fernando Suarez quit coaching Ecuador?
|
[
"after his team's loss"
] |
NewsQA
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MADRID, Spain -- David Nalbandian battled back to stun world No. 1 Roger Federer with a 1-6 6-3 6-3 victory in the final of the Madrid Masters on Sunday.
David Nalbandian celebrates after upsetting Roger Federer in the Madrid Masters final.
The Argentine, ranked 25th in the world, repeated his 2005 upset win over the Swiss star in that year's season-ending Masters Cup -- also an indoor event.
Defending champion Federer, playing in his first tournament since winning the U.S. Open six weeks ago, made 38 unforced errors.
Nalbandian became only the third player -- and the second this year after Novak Djokovic in Montreal in August -- to beat the world's top-three players en route to winning a title.
German legend Boris Becker was the first to perform the feat 13 years ago.
Nalbandian ousted second-ranked Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals and then Serbian Djokovic in Saturday's semis.
The 25-year-old, who lost in the Madrid final in 2004, claimed his first triumph on the ATP Tour since May, 2006, on clay in Portugal.
He spent a year without a coach, but has revived his career since teaming up with Hernan Gumy.
"I'm extremely contented to beat the world number one," Nalbandian said. "Roger and I have a long history and I think that influenced the match.
"It was an extremely hard first set. But I tightened the teeth and I began to play more strongly. Things came out fine, I played incredible, and that of course that helps."
Federer added: "He served well, I was quite surprised with how well he served. "He came back strong and played well in the end.
"He was a better player all in all. I was struggling after the first set to play aggressively, for some reason. He played tough and didn't miss any more. I couldn't play way I wanted to. It was a pity, he played a great tournament." E-mail to a friend
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bc42fe8bc64f4027b85d7f9c61166eef
|
What was the score against the Swiss?
|
[
"1-6 6-3 6-3"
] |
NewsQA
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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan has arrested a suspected al Qaeda militant who intelligence officials say is tied to the London subway bombings in 2005, authorities there said Thursday.
The double-decker bus damaged by a bomb in central London on July 7, 2005.
Zabih al-Taifi was arrested in a village near Peshawar on Wednesday as part of ongoing security operations in the area, police and intelligence officials told CNN. Six others, both Afghans and Pakistanis, were also arrested.
The Metropolitan Police Service in London, also known as Scotland Yard, issued a statement refusing to comment on the arrest.
"Speculation around this reported arrest with alleged links to an ongoing terrorist trial is unhelpful and may be prejudicial to current criminal proceedings," it said.
The London blasts killed 52 people and wounded at least 900 others when bombs went off on three subway trains and a bus on July 7, 2005.
Security analysts say the village where al-Taifi was arrested in the North West Frontier Province has been the site of recent clashes between Pakistani security forces and militants.
CNN's Zein Basravi contributed to this report.
|
b30f69e0d668423ba3e18e7fb4a0812f
|
Who did Officials arrest?
|
[
"Zabih al-Taifi"
] |
NewsQA
|
Washington (CNN) -- The Supreme Court has again indefinitely blocked plans to disseminate video of an important federal court case involving same-sex marriage in California.
The justices in an unsigned order Wednesday prevented any distribution of the live video stream outside the San Francisco, California, courthouse where the case is being heard, and any real-time or delayed posting on the Internet.
In a trial that began Monday, a federal judge in San Francisco will decide whether the state's Proposition 8 banning same-sex marriage is constitutional. California voters approved the measure in November 2008, prompting an appeal by several homosexual couples.
As part of a pilot program, the judge had agreed to allow video of the trial to be sent live to other rooms within the courthouse and to five other federal courthouses, and to be posted several hours later on the popular video site YouTube.com.
Opponents of same-sex marriage had asked the Supreme Court to intervene, saying witness testimony could be affected if cameras were present. It is extremely rare for a federal trial to be televised to the broader public.
The Supreme Court's latest order allows distribution only to designated "overflow" rooms in the San Francisco courthouse, where people who want to view the trial but are unable to fit into the courtroom can watch the proceedings on closed-circuit television.
A majority of Supreme Court justices concluded expanded broadcast should not permitted because, they wrote, "It appears the courts below did not follow the appropriate procedures set forth in federal law before changing their rules to allow such broadcasting."
There has been much internal debate in federal courts around the country about the televised experiment, with several judges and administrators privately expressing concern that it could eventually lead to the entire judiciary being televised, including the Supreme Court.
In dissent to the ruling, Justice Stephen Breyer and three liberal colleagues complained the public would be deprived of watching "a nonjury civil case of great public interest to five other federal courthouses located in Seattle [Washington], Pasadena [California], Portland [Oregon], San Francisco [California], and Brooklyn [New York]." He was supported by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, John Paul Stevens and Sonia Sotomayor.
Breyer said the Supreme Court traditionally has stayed out of what he called another court's administrative discretion on such matters, saying, "I believe this court should adhere to its institutional competence, its historical practice, and its governing precedent -- all of which counsel against the issuance of this stay."
The case is Hollingsworth v. Perry (09A648).
|
00054bde1f4a42089c1a385dd1e55a58
|
What has lower court allowed ?
|
[
"allow video of the trial"
] |
NewsQA
|
Washington (CNN) -- Investigators are reviewing the flight data recorder from American Airlines Flight 331, the plane that overran a runway this week near Kingston, Jamaica, and crashed into a fence.
A National Transportation Safety Board spokesman said Thursday that the recorder arrived in the agency's Washington laboratory overnight. Crews continue to look for the cockpit voice recorder.
The flight originated from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, and landed in Miami, Florida, before heading to Jamaica, the airline said.
It had been raining Tuesday when the plane failed to stop and ran into a fence past the end of the runway, Radio Jamaica reporter Kirk Abraham said.
Ninety-one people were taken to three area hospitals, where most were evaluated and released, an American Airlines spokesman said. Ten were admitted, he said, and five remain hospitalized Thursday afternoon.
The flight was carrying 148 passengers and six crew members when it landed in Kingston, the airline said.
CNN's Jim Barnett contributed to this report.
|
8734298b96384a5a879bf96bdc905687
|
What was the flight number of the American Airlines plane that overran the runway and crashed into a fence near Kingston, Jamaica?
|
[
"331,"
] |
NewsQA
|
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Coast Guard planes and ships were searching Friday for a Japanese balloonist who disappeared off the Alaska coast while flying from Japan to the west coast United States.
Missing Japanese balloonist Michio Kanda (R) with Naoki Ishikawa.
Friends of balloonist Michio Kanda, who was on a solo flight, last heard from him via satellite phone at 9 a.m. Alaska time (6 p.m. GMT) Thursday, said USCG Petty Officer Levi Read.
When he missed three subsequent scheduled calls over the next six hours, they called the Coast Guard, Read said.
Read said two Coast Guard C130 Hercules planes conducted searches Thursday 435 miles south of Adak, Alaska, the balloonist's last known position. The searches continued Friday and are ongoing, Read said.
Two Coast Guard cutters are also headed for the area, but both are at least a day away, he said.
Read said the balloonist, who was heading for Portland, Oregon, is equipped with provisions and a survival suit.
Kanda holds the world record for the longest-duration balloon flight, with a time of 50 hours and 38 minutes, according to the World Air Sports Federation.
In that January 1997 flight, he and Hirosuke Takezawa flew from the Canadian provionce of Alberta to the U.S. state of Montana, according to the federation. E-mail to a friend
|
f269c79a9c084f0a8edb8cd4ef284d46
|
Where is the U.S. Coast Guard searching?
|
[
"435 miles south of Adak, Alaska,"
] |
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