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NewsQA
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LONDON, England (CNN) -- The family of a British soldier serving in Afghanistan has been forced from their home after a poisonous spider hitched a ride back with him and apparently killed their pet dog.
The camel spider's bite is not deadly to humans but can kill small animals.
Lorraine Griffiths and her three children, aged 18, 16, and 4, moved out of their house in Colchester, southeast England, and are refusing to return until the spider is apprehended, the UK Press Association reported.
Griffiths told the East Anglian Daily Times that the spider appeared after her husband, Rodney, returned from a four-month tour of duty in Helmand province, the arid southern Afghan frontline in the fight against Taliban extremists.
"My son Ricky was in my bedroom looking for his underwear, and he went into the drawer under my bed, and something crawled across his hand," she told the paper.
She said their pet dog Cassie confronted the creature, which they identified on the Internet as a camel spider, but ran out whimpering when it hissed at her. Watch the family that has been terrorized by the spider »
"It seems too much of a coincidence that she died at the same time that we saw the spider," she said.
The desert-dwelling camel spider, actually an insect rather than an arachnid, can run up to 25 kilometers (15 miles) an hour and reach 15 centimeters (6 inches) in length. Its bite is not deadly to humans but can kill small animals.
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9f3fd36e078e4c3f844cc5b126d17e5d
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What forced an UK family from their home?
|
[
"poisonous spider"
] |
NewsQA
|
Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- A blast targeting a bus filled with Shiite religious observers in Karachi killed at least 12 people and another explosion in front of a hospital where attack victims were being treated killed six more Friday, a government official said.
Motorcycles were used in both assaults, police said, and they came during the Shiite observance of Arbaeen, a commemoration that takes place 40 days after the anniversary of Iman Hussein's death, which is also known as Ashura.
Sindh provincial health minister, Dr. Saghir Ahmed said that along with the 12 dead, 30 people were injured in the first blast.
The second blast happened in front of the emergency room at Jinnah Hospital, where doctors treated people from the first attack and people on stretchers were waiting to be taken in to the crowded facility. Along with the six slain, five people were wounded.
The last deadly blast in Karachi took place late December during Ashura, when more than 40 people were killed.
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ecde006839c144bfaea0fa8e94ae5e14
|
How many were killed in the bus?
|
[
"12"
] |
NewsQA
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(CNN) -- A U.S. Air Force B-1 bomber caught fire Friday after a landing at al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar, U.S. military officials said.
A sweep-wing B-1 bomber, similar to this one, caught fire after landing Friday in Qatar, the U.S. military says.
The crew evacuated safely, the officials said.
They said the fire began while the plane was taxiing after landing about 9:10 p.m. at al-Udeid, the headquarters of U.S. military air operations for the Middle East.
Officials said the fire on the bomber was contained. A military board of inquiry has been appointed to investigate the incident, they said.
The officials said initial reports said the plane crashed at the headquarters of the U.S. military's air operations for the Middle East.
The B-1B Lancer is widely used by the U.S. military to bomb targets over Iraq and Afghanistan. Learn more about B-1 bombers »
It carries a host of satellite and laser-guided bombs and is able to remain over targets for long periods of time to assist in close-air support for troops on the ground.
In December 2001, a B-1 crashed while returning from a bombing run over Afghanistan to a British base on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia.
Originally designed to speed nuclear bombs into Cold War Russia, the B-1 was retooled to become a long-range bomber able to carry more conventional bombs, allowing it to hit more targets over a wider area.
Al-Udeid, about 20 miles south of Qatar's capital of Doha, has the military's longest runway in the Middle East.
About 3,300 U.S. troops, mostly Army, are stationed at the base. E-mail to a friend
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dbba23edf7474af5a2bd7a4ce5dddb14
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Where did it land in Qatar?
|
[
"al-Udeid Air Base"
] |
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(CNN) -- The solution to ending an abusive relationship seems simple: Walk out the door.
But for an abused woman, leaving can be a confusing process, complex at every step, said a newly published article in an University of Illinois journal.
Co-author and graduate student Lyndal Khaw told CNN that abused women actually go through a five-step process of leaving that involves denial, contemplation, preparation, action and maintenance.
And the transition from one step to another is hardly seamless, Khaw said.
"Some women can skip stages, some repeat a cycle of going back and forth to other steps and others go through the motions -- going from one stage to another", she said.
In their study, Khaw and co-author Jennifer Hardesty, an assistant professor of human and community development, applied their model to 25 abused women. The report was published recently in the Journal of Family Theory and Review.
Khaw said that moving from step to step can put a strain on those who are being supportive to an abused woman because they can have a hard time understanding why she returns or refuses to leave.
Hardesty said that physically leaving a relationship entails more than a woman's decision to embrace change and prioritizing her own safety. The abuser can affect her decisions, as can children, who can motivate her to return to the relationship, Hardesty said.
Even though a woman may return to the abuser at some point, practitioners and women themselves need to understand that every time the woman disengages she gains additional resources and support, Hardesty said.
"So next time she is contemplating and preparing she'll be stronger and perhaps more likely to stay out of that relationship," she said.
Khaw said service providers, family members and other sources of support need to recognize the stages of what can be a lengthy -- and risky -- process.
"When trying to leave, abusers may get more violent," Khaw said.
Recognition of the five-step process can be helpful to abused women, Hardesty said.
"Not all women are ready to leave, but recognizing it's a process can be empowering," she said.
|
28e343c9aaf14758b936a8f111302fc4
|
What does Jennifer Hardesty say?
|
[
"that physically leaving a relationship entails more than a woman's decision to embrace change and prioritizing her own safety. The abuser can affect her decisions, as can children, who can motivate her to return to the relationship,"
] |
NewsQA
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(CNN) -- A seventh minute goal from Brazilian teenager Alexander Pato proved enough to give AC Milan a 1-0 home victory over Fiorentina in a match totally dominated by Manchester City's $150 million bid for playmaker Kaka this week.
Pato (right) and David Beckham celebrate Milan's only goal at the San Siro on Saturday evening.
The goal was created by David Beckham who beat two defenders to a loose ball. He poked it back to Marek Jankulovski who played in Pato inside the penalty area.
There still appeared no danger to the Fiorentina goal, but Pato hit a stunning strike from the left that went in off the far post.
Fiorentina should have equalized on 66 minutes when Juan Vargas got to the byline and crossed to Mario Santana but the Argentine put his shot too close to goalkeeper Christian Abbiati who managed to save.
The result leaves Milan in third place on 37 points, six points behind leaders and city rivals Inter, who have a game in hand. Jose Mourinho's side travel to Atalanta on Sunday.
Jankulovski collected a late red card for timewasting, but Milan held on to secure the three points.
Meanwhile, Milan supporters made their opposition to the Kaka bid, and his possible departure, perfectly clear throughout the match -- unveiling a host of banners and singing songs pleading with the Brazilian to stay at the San Siro.
Reggina remain deep in relegation trouble after suffering a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Siena. Mario Frick's goal 15 minutes from time was enough to give the Bianconeri three points which sees them leapfrog Sampdoria and move up to the relative comfort of 14th spot.
Siena in contrast, stay second from bottom and could slip to the foot of the Serie A standings if Chievo beat Napoli on Sunday.
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dc1284121cce4078bad7d43065291225
|
The win puts Milan within how many points of Serie A leaders and rival?
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[
"six"
] |
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(CNN) -- A car bomb attack in Algeria has killed three people and wounded 23, the Algerian Press Service reported.
An Algerian policeman stands in front of destroyed buildings in Thenia.
The attack occurred Tuesday near an office housing judicial police in the city of Thenia, about 50 km (31 miles) east of the capital of Algiers, the agency said.
The blast destroyed about 20 houses, and a commission has been appointed to look after the victims, the press agency said.
Islamic extremists in Algeria and other North African countries have struck several times in recent years.
An al Qaeda affiliate claimed responsibility last year for the deadliest attack in Algiers in 10 years, a bombing that destroyed the prime minister's headquarters and a police base, killing at least 24 people and wounding more than 220.
Al Qaeda also took responsibility for a January 2 bombing that killed four and wounded 20 at a building housing security forces in Naciria, a city about 50 km (31 miles) east of Algiers. E-mail to a friend
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afe499b2a1fd44418b8d4966ef79f50e
|
Where is the office?
|
[
"in the city of Thenia, about 50 km (31 miles) east of the capital of Algiers,"
] |
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(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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a51426dbe0004f598114047af55b2739
|
In what city did Wyeth die?
|
[
"Philadelphia,"
] |
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(CNN) -- Gian Piero Gasperini has paid the price for Inter Milan's poor start to the season, being sacked as coach following the 2010 European champions' 3-1 defeat by newly-promoted Novara on Tuesday.
The 53-year-old took charge in June, but under his guidance the 18-time Italian Serie A titleholders earned just one point from their opening three league matches to languish in 17th position in the table -- one place outside of the relegation zone.
Inter also lost to arch-rivals AC Milan in the Italian Super Cup in August and to Turkish outfit Trabzonspor in their opening European Champions League match.
"F.C. Internazionale announces that this morning's training session at the Centro Sportivo Angelo Moratti in Appiano Gentile was run by [assistant coaches] Daniele Bernazzani and Giuseppe Baresi," Inter's website reported on Wednesday.
"The club would like to thank Gian Piero Gasperini for the dedication he has shown in his work and regret having to end the relationship with the coach."
Inter slump to defeat against Novara
Inter president Massimo Moratti appeared to confirm that Gasperini faced the ax when questioned about the former Genoa boss on Wednesday before meeting with the coach.
Asked if Gasperini would remain with the Nerazzurri, Moratti replied: "I don't think so. We'll decide what to do today but he seems to be in a very difficult situation, whichever way you look at it."
On Tuesday's defeat, Inter's second in three league matches, Moratti said: "When you lose in such a way, there's nothing you like."
Gasperini replaced Brazilian coach Leonardo at Inter, having been sacked by Genoa in November 2010.
During a four-year spell with Genoa, Gasperini led the club to a fifth-place finish in Serie A in 2009 and qualification for the Europa League.
"Results are what decide everything, I'm very disappointed," he told journalists on Wednesday, AFP reported.
"I had a great relationship with the directors and it's a shame that it's had to come to an end. Everyone feels regret."
Inter, whose solitary point this season came from a 0-0 draw against Roma, face a trip to Bologna on Saturday before traveling to Russia to take on CSKA Moscow in the Champions League on Tuesday.
|
22adeb5c003f4d84aaf9164cacac400d
|
Who was defeated in the Italian Super Cup and Champions League?
|
[
"Inter Milan's"
] |
NewsQA
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Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (CNN) -- The death toll from flooding and mudslides in Brazil continued to climb Thursday, with official reports of at least 181 fatalities.
Thousands of people have been left homeless, said the government-run Agencia Brasil news service. The Rio de Janeiro mayor's office placed that figure at 5,000.
At least 161 people have been injured, the Rio de Janeiro state government said Thursday on its Web site.
A record 11.3 inches (287 millimeters) of rain fell in Rio within 24 hours Tuesday, Mayor Eduardo Paes said, according to the news service. The downpour continued Wednesday.
iReport: Share your photos, video, stories with CNN
More than 30 homes were destroyed in a mudslide Wednesday in metropolitan Rio, Agencia Brasil said.
About 200 people could be buried or trapped in the mud, emergency officials said.
The cities of Niteroi and Sao Goncalo are among the hardest hit, with more than 80 dead and dozens missing, the news service said.
CNN affiliate TV Record showed firefighters, military personnel and other rescuers using heavy machinery to dig for buried residents.
Brazil's minister of cities, Marcio Fortes, said that housing and sanitation problems are not new for Rio.
His department, which works directly with cities on urban development projects, said that before this week's flooding, the government already had set aside some $800 million to cities to help deal with flood waters and poor infrastructure.
Now, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has made available another $11 billion for drainage infrastructure across Brazil, Fortes said.
As for the project that sits before them, Fortes estimated that about 4,000 homes can be rebuilt, together with better roads, schools and health centers. These would provide a shift from the current structures in the slums of Rio, where housing is often improvised.
"You can't correct the past, but you can fix the future," Fortes said.
CNN's Marilia Brocchetto contributed to this report.
|
3a5c02bd87f5401cac2b45a05931d43b
|
How many people have died?
|
[
"at least 181"
] |
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(CNN) -- From anti-apartheid activist to climate change champion, Kumi Naidoo is a man born to make a change. He's the new International Executive Director of environmental action group Greenpeace, and he takes on his role on the eve of the critical climate talks in Copenhagen.
The 44 year-old grew up in Johannesburg and had an early introduction to the world of activism.
"I was defiantly the product of the society I was born in, which was apartheid South Africa...I do think that many of us who might have exceptional or out-of-the-ordinary backgrounds are not because we ourselves are exceptional people but because we were born in context of adversity and been able to somehow rise above that adversity," he told CNN.
Naidoo was arrested numerous times for civil disobedience against the apartheid regime during the 1980s. He eventually left for the UK in 1987 and earned a doctorate in political sociology at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar.
After Nelson Mandela was released in 1990, Kumi returned to South Africa and worked with and founded a number of civil society NGOs. Until last year Naidoo was for 10 years the General Secretary of CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation.
One of the first high profile campaigns Naidoo worked on was Make Poverty History in 2005 that gained widespread coverage and a number of celebrity supporters.
After several years in the anti-poverty movement, Naidoo has come to see that struggle against poverty and combating climate change are two-sides of same coin.
Since becoming head of Greenpeace in November, Naidoo is focused on using his skills as an activist to move issues from the fringes into the mainstream.
"[Another] feature of activism is being able to choose the right tools and tactics for the right moment... If you can win through dialogue and engagement then that's great but sadly those with power in both government and business do not have the propensity to do the right thing unless they are pushed and that's why you have to have tools like non-violent direct action," he told CNN.
Connecting individuals to ideas and in turn connecting those ideas to a greater audience is one of the things Naidoo is hoping to achieve in Copenhagen.
"I don't want history to judge us as sleepwalking into a crisis when all the scientific evidence is saying that we have to stop and take notice of the way that we are living on this planet.
"I feel that right now we are all at risk and being severely judged by future generation."
Watch Kumi Naidoo on CNN's African Voices on Saturday, December 12, 11.30 and 18.30 GMT and Sunday, December 13, 17.00 GMT
|
e1d873f2d70046f78008bb2fa839ef90
|
Who grew up in apartheid South Africa?
|
[
"Kumi Naidoo"
] |
NewsQA
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(CNN) -- Authorities are no longer able to watch a video of scenes at a Georgia nightclub in the case of Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger because a digital video recorder system recorded over it, an attorney said Thursday.
Roethlisberger, who has been the starting quarterback for the Steelers for six seasons, has been accused of sexually assaulting a 20-year-old woman at a Georgia nightspot this month. He has not been charged.
Roethlisberger's attorney has said, "The facts show that there was no criminal activity."
Police were hoping to use the recording to glean any details and insights about the sequence of events surrounding the alleged incident, which was said to have occurred in a restroom.
Carl Cansino, the attorney representing the Capital City nightclub, said police were able to see a small portion of the recording, and the club manager said he saw the entire video.
Cansino said the club manager said the club's dance floor and entrance were in the recording during the night of the alleged assault, but he couldn't discern anything out of the ordinary.
Police talked to Roethlisberger, 28, and the woman at the scene immediately after the incident was reported about 2:30 a.m. March 5 at the club in Milledgeville, Georgia, said Deputy Police Chief Richard Malone. The woman "alleged that he is the perpetrator," Malone told reporters.
Attorney Lee Parks said the woman said she is "fully cooperating with law enforcement." The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said the investigation is continuing and the file will be turned over to the local district attorney when it is over.
"There is a future interview scheduled at present, and she intends to keep that appointment," Parks said.
CNN's Carolina Sanchez contributed to this report.
|
dd1eb157f8434866af6387ddf4b13ba8
|
Who was accused of sexually assaulting a woman at a Georgia nightclub?
|
[
"Ben Roethlisberger"
] |
NewsQA
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(CNN) -- Three Americans rescued last week from captivity in the Colombian jungle left a medical center for their homes Saturday, hoping for some time out of the spotlight as they reconnect with loved ones.
Left to right, Thomas Howes, Keith Stansell and Marc Gonsalves address reporters before flying home Saturday.
Keith Stansell, Marc Gonsalves and Thomas Howes -- hostages of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia for more than five years -- left the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas.
"There's family members that are waiting for us, and just imagine if you hadn't seen your family in 5½ years," Stansell said, asking the media to allow the former captives some space. "Let us go home and be family men again."
"We're going to come out and we're going to talk, but right now, what we want to do is rest," Gonsalves said.
All three were headed home to Florida, and Stansell and Howes flashed their new Florida driver's licenses before they boarded a plane.
The three men had been undergoing a reintegration process at the medical center. FARC had held the three U.S. government contractors since February 2003 after their plane went down in a remote region of the South American country.
They and former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt were among 15 hostages rescued on July 2 in a Colombian military operation. The three Americans arrived at Brooke Army Medical Center later that day.
The three Americans urged the media not to forget the hundreds of other hostages still held by FARC.
"Don't forget the people that are still there," Stansell said. "There are fellow hostages that are still there. Some have 10 years [as a hostage]," he said. "Right this minute, they're in chains, looking for food, and they're on the run. And their families haven't seen them in 10 years."
It is estimated that FARC holds some 750 hostages.
The leftist rebel group took up arms in 1964 and grew from a rag-tag band of 48 fighters to a self-styled "people's army" of more than 21,000 combatants in 2001, according to Colombian government figures.
The government now estimates the FARC fighting force has dwindled to around 8,000 after a wave of desertions.
On Saturday, the rescued Americans talked of looking forward to spending time with their relatives.
"We're going to go home now. We're going to rest, we're going to unwind for about a month and a half," Gonsalves said.
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d3b3ba67f4094a088b2b133cd766f9b5
|
what ex farc hostages leave?
|
[
"Keith Stansell, Marc Gonsalves and Thomas Howes"
] |
NewsQA
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Washington (CNN) -- NFL player Samuel Hurd has been arrested and charged with conspiring to distribute cocaine, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced Thursday.
Agents say Hurd, 26, a wide receiver for the Chicago Bears, was arrested Wednesday night after a five-month investigation that began in Dallas, where Hurd once played for the Cowboys. Authorities say he was trying to set up a drug distribution network in Chicago.
The complaint states that Hurd met with an ICE undercover agent at a restaurant in Chicago on Wednesday night when, law enforcement officials say, Hurd introduced himself as the person communicating with a confidential informant.
Hurd stated that he was interested in purchasing 5 to 10 kilograms of cocaine, at $25,000 per kilogram, and 1,000 pounds of marijuana at $450 per pound per week for distribution in the Chicago area, according to ICE.
Hurd said that "he and another co-conspirator currently distribute about four kilograms of cocaine per week in Chicago but that his supplier couldn't supply him with enough quantity," Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said.
After they finished negotiating, according to the complaint, the undercover agent presented Hurd with a kilogram of cocaine that Hurd accepted.
"Hurd stated that he plays for the Chicago Bears and that he gets out of practice at about 5:30 p.m., after which he would make arrangements to pay for the kilogram of cocaine," ICE officials said in a news release, "Hurd left the restaurant with the bag of cocaine and was arrested shortly thereafter in the parking lot of the restaurant."
If convicted, Hurd faces a maximum penalty of 40 years in prison and a $2 million fine for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine. CNN's efforts to contact Hurd's lawyers were unsuccessful Thursday afternoon.
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a54bcde64095479a81bcbe2881f10a85
|
What is he alleged to have accepted from an undercover agent?
|
[
"kilogram of cocaine"
] |
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NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Indian authorities Tuesday filed a police complaint against Continental Airlines for frisking a former president of the country as he was to travel to New York in April.
Former president APJ Abdul Kalam was exempt from body checks, officials said.
Civil aviation officials in New Delhi accused Continental of gross violation of Indian security rules that prohibit pre-embarkation body checks on certain dignitaries like a former president.
The police complaint followed a probe that had established that APJ Abdul Kalam was subject to frisking before he boarded a flight from New Delhi to New York on April 21, the Indian civil aviation ministry said in a statement.
The ministry also alleged the airline did not respond to its show-cause notice in connection with Kalam's body checks.
In its police complaint, Indian civil aviation authorities accused the airline staff of "willful violation" of their directions on exemptions from pre-embarkation frisking.
Continental, however, insisted it followed standard American air-safety procedures.
"TSA (Transportation Security Administration) requirements impose a final security check in the aerobridge just before boarding the aircraft.
"This procedure is followed by all carriers flying to the U.S. from most of the countries in the world and there is no exemption to this rule," it said in a statement.
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402f98bc24184986a09209782a61ff44
|
who followed standard U.S. air-safety procedures?
|
[
"Continental,"
] |
NewsQA
|
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer and defense contractor BAE announced Thursday an "amicable" end to their dispute.
Meyer filed a lawsuit in Texas in June claiming BAE, his former employer, had punished him for objecting to a weapons sale to Pakistan, and had prevented him from finding other work by portraying him as unstable and a problem drinker. The lawsuit against the company and his former supervisor has been dropped.
"BAE Systems OASYS and I have settled our differences amicably," Meyer said in a joint statement issued by the company, referring to the company by its full name. Meyer praised the defense firm's support for veterans and generosity to the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation.
There were no details of any possible monetary settlement.
"During my time there I became concerned about the possible sale of advanced thermal scopes to Pakistan. I expressed my concerns directly and respectfully," Meyer said. "I am gratified to learn that BAE Systems OASYS did not ultimately sell and does not intend to sell advanced thermal scopes to Pakistan."
The company faced the difficult task of a potentially drawn-out legal battle against an American hero.
"We are pleased that we reached closure in this matter," the company said in its part of the joint statement. "BAE Systems has the highest respect for Sgt. Dakota Meyer, who exemplifies the qualities that make the men and women of our armed services the best in the world," the company said. "We owe him and the many thousands of others who have served and sacrificed for our country our deepest thanks."
According to the lawsuit, Meyer had objected to the sale of high-tech equipment to Pakistan, which he characterized as "giving to guys who are known to stab us in the back" and "the same people who are killing our guys."
Meyer was working on thermal optic equipment for snipers and detection of roadside bombs. In his lawsuit he claimed that on-the-job bullying and intimidation began after his criticism of potential sales to Pakistan.
President Barack Obama presented the Medal of Honor to Meyer, a former Marine Corps sergeant, in September. He was 21 and a corporal at the time of his heroic acts in Afghanistan in 2009.
"The story of what Dakota did next will be told for generations," Obama said, describing how Meyer returned again and again to the killing ground of a Taliban ambush, rescuing American and Afghan troops and retrieving the bodies of fallen comrades.
"You did your duty, above and beyond, and you kept the faith with the highest traditions of the Marine Corps that you love," the president said.
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e6216c15cded4091993187b990ef00c8
|
Who did Meyer sue?
|
[
"BAE,"
] |
NewsQA
|
NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- The death toll from a powerful cyclone that hit India and Bangladesh this week has climbed to at least 180, officials said Wednesday.
Cyclone Aila struck eastern India, causing an estimated $8 million damage in one district alone.
In Bangladesh, some 111 people have died and more than 6,600 others have been injured in the storm, said Sultanul Islam Chowdhury from the country's food and disaster management ministry.
Cyclone Aila, which made landfall on Monday, has swept away nearly 180,000 homes and affected the lives of more than 3.3 million people, he said.
In India, the number of storm-related deaths climbed to 69 Wednesday, according to an emergency official.
About a quarter of the total, 20 people, died in landslides triggered by Aila on Tuesday in a hilly region of West Bengal, said Debabrata Pal, a joint-secretary with the state's disaster management department.
CNN's Harmeet Shah Singh contributed to this story.
|
e37fa06c4ccd43518fe93289bf282799
|
how many people died?
|
[
"111"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- American tourists heading to Mexico's Baja California state in the future can expect more police protection from a new task force, according to Mexican authorities.
Mexican officials want to make sure the tourist traffic continues to flow into Tijuana.
Officials from the Baja California cities of Tijuana, Ensenada and Rosarito gathered earlier this week to announce the creation of the task force, which will be made up of bilingual officers and which will be designed primarily to serve Americans.
The initial plan, according to Ensenada Secretary of Public Safety Cesar Santiesteban, is to create a force that patrols a 50-mile tourist corridor from Tijuana through Las Playas Rosarito to Ensenada in Baja California, which is Mexico's northernmost and westernmost state.
There were no immediate details as to when the task force would go into operation or how many officers would be in the unit.
City officials in San Diego, California, said the city's police force would extend help in ways that Mexican officials deemed necessary in getting the task force up and running, including training the officers.
"We've always prided ourselves in our working relationship with our friends to the south," San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, said. "When you look at it, we're really one community."
For a region whose reputation has been tarnished by ongoing drug-fueled violence, plans for task force couldn't come soon enough. Policing the drug war has proven complicated for Mexican authorities, including the military, and also hindered the tourism industry in Mexico.
American travelers, who represented 80 percent of the country's booming $13 billion travel industry last year, are a critical part of Mexico's economy. In 2008, more than 18 million Americans visited the country, according to the Mexico Tourism Board.
In some areas, hotels and local businesses are struggling to recover from low visitor numbers, according to the Mexico Tourism Board.
Tijuana Mayor Jorge Ramos said tourism in Baja California in the past two years has remained steady, and the task force was set up to create a stronger police presence for tourists.
"We're here on this side of the border to invite you to our city and to [show you] we're making a lot of things ... better, and to make some progress in our city," Ramos said in a news conference in San Diego Monday.
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3d626064e6214f5585814fb21a7545c1
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What will the task force be made up of?
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[
"bilingual officers"
] |
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Brazilian coach Zico is leaving Turkish club Fenerbahce, after failing to reach an agreement over a new contract.
Zico guided Fenerbahce to a league and Super Cup double intheir centenary year
Fenerbahce recently suspended negotiations over a fresh deal with Zico because of reportedly high demands by the Brazilian.
The Anatolia press agency published a club statement which said: "The contract of Arthur Antunes Coimbra (Zico) has now come to an end.
" We would like to thank him for the successful work he has done with the club, and wish him all the best for the future."
Last season Zico led Fenerbahce to the quarterfinals of the Champions League where they were defeated by Chelsea.
Reports claimed that after that achievement Zico sought a new annual salary of $4.9 million. He has been earning $2.9million..
Zico, 55, joined the club in July 2006 on a two-year deal and he guided them to a league and Turkish Super Cup double in 2007, their centenary year.
Spanish media reports have said that Fenerbahce have lined up current Spain coach Luis Aragones as a replacement.
Aragones has led Spain to the semifinals of the Euro 2008 finals
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53de1582f77d4ad1941e2b6bb532e6b0
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who will replace him?
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[
"Luis Aragones"
] |
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(CNN) -- The civil warfare and social instability in Somalia have prompted the flight of more than 50,000 refugees to neighboring Kenya this year alone, the U.N. refugee agency said Friday.
The Dadaab refugee complex is the largest of its kind in the world.
Somalis are arriving at an average rate of 6,400 a month, and their presence has placed pressure on northern Kenya's Dadaab refugee complex -- bursting at the seams with three times the population it was built to hold.
There are more than 281,000 Somali refugees there, and the UNHCR fears that heavy rains in Kenya will lead to flooding at the complex and pose "considerable health risks to the refugees."
The International Organization of Migration has been working with the UNHCR, Kenyan authorities and non-governmental organizations to relocate refugees from Dadaab to the Kakuma camp in the northwestern part of the country.
Somalia has been in turmoil for years. Clashes have raged between pro-government forces and rebel groups such as Al-Shabaab, the Islamist militia with ties to al Qaeda. And this fighting has prompted widespread displacement in the war-wracked nation.
Al-Shabaab has been targeting the most prominent Western-linked entity in the capital, Mogadishu -- the African Union peacekeeping mission, the de facto military force of the weak, transitional Somali government.
Fighting has forced about 250,000 Somalis out of their homes in Mogadishu since May and many of the displaced have sought refuge west of the capital in the Afgooye corridor, the U.N. agency said.
Also, many Somalis have chosen to flee the country by traveling across the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea to Yemen or the Mediterranean Sea to Europe. Many have drowned or have gone missing in their journey.
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71bac8adf7e24c12a3c9134e0b1eeeb4
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how many refugees are arriving every month on Kenya's Dabaab camp
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[
"6,400"
] |
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(CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton headed to Luanda, Angola, on Sunday on the third leg of a journey that is taking her to seven African nations in 11 days.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton poses with residents of South Africa on Saturday during her 11-day trip to Africa.
The State Department has described Angola as a nation with "enormous economic potential."
The African country is one of the largest energy producers south of the Sahara Desert and is a major supplier of petroleum and liquefied natural gas to the U.S. market.
Clinton flew to Angola after a two-day stop in South Africa, where she met with the country's new leader, President Jacob Zuma, and the foreign minister.
She ended the South African trip Saturday with a visit to a housing project on the outskirts of Cape Town, where she and daughter, Chelsea, laid the first bricks 12 years ago.
Clinton opened her Africa trip in Kenya. She will also travel to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Liberia and Cape Verde.
"In each nation, she will emphasize Africa as a place of opportunity, built on an ethic of responsibility," said Ian Kelly, state department spokesman.
"She will underline America's commitment to partner with governments, the private sector, nongovernmental organizations and private citizens to build societies where each individual can realize their potential."
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ef07ec91ec3e49cc85c14fcfa691eb02
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Who will visit seven African nations in 11 days?
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[
"Secretary of State Hillary Clinton"
] |
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The State Department called the expulsion of the second U.S. diplomat from Ecuador in just over a week "unjustified," rejecting charges the diplomats meddled in Ecuador's internal affairs.
First Secretary Mark Sullivan has been given 48 hours to leave the U.S. embassy in Quito, Ecuador.
On Wednesday, the Ecuadorian government expelled First Secretary Mark Sullivan, whom it accused of meddling in the government's internal police policies, giving him 48 hours to leave the country.
On February 7, the government expelled Armando Astorga, an attaché with the Department of Homeland Security working in the U.S. Embassy.
Acting Deputy Spokesman Gordon Duguid said the expulsions stem from the fact that certain Ecuadorian police were banned from taking part in U.S. counternarcotics training programs, but rejected "any suggestion of wrongdoing by embassy staff."
"Despite the government of Ecuador's unjustified actions, we remain committed to working collaboratively with Ecuador to confront narcotics trafficking," Duguid said.
Asked whether the State Department would reciprocate the expulsions by kicking out Ecuadorian diplomats from the United States, Duguid would say only, "We will respond as appropriate."
A senior State Department official suggested the police in Ecuador police did not meet the criteria to take part in the training, noting, "The United States does have procedures that require it to vet candidates for U.S.-funded training."
The official added, "In some countries this is seen as onerous. However, it is part of the legal accountability measures we must follow."
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560ff090b80446f5a36b9f48b27b4bde
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How much time was Mark Sullivan given to leave the country?
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[
"48 hours"
] |
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LONDON, England (CNN) -- The global economy is in the doldrums but the market for merchandise featuring the world's new mega-star shows no sign of tailing off.
Obama T-shirts and merchandise are flying off the shelves at the moment.
At the inauguration ceremony for U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington on Tuesday, thousands wore T-shirts, caps and watches featuring his image and even popping bottles of Barack bubbly.
Pens, pin badges and $5 cookies emblazoned with Obama's image are hugely popular in the U.S. while the Internet is helping to satisfy demand for other items around the world. Here are some pieces of merchandise available online:
Barack Obama action figure: 15-centimeter (6-inch) tall, electroplated statue in a gold suit could be yours for $39. However, the seller says that due to high demand the action figure is sold out.
Barack Obama thimble: If you're curious, then these are made out of porcelain so would be unsuitable for conventional sewing.
Obama face masks: These flew off the shelves when they first hit the markets in Japan in December and could be a hit at a fancy dress party.
Barack Obama earrings: To symbolize Barack Obama's African heritage, these earrings have a photograph of the president on a tiny map of the continent made from wood.
Replica inauguration tickets: The government printed 250,000 tickets for the inauguration in Washington, but some were reportedly sold online for $40,000. Pick up a framed replica then for just a few dollars. Have you purchased any Obama merchandise? Share your stories with us
Obama campaign poster: A set of six Obama campaign posters are on sale for $3,000.
New York Times inauguration newspaper could be yours for $10.50, plus $12.80 to post it from the U.S. of course.
"RUN DC" T-shirt: Was Obama in the 1980s hip-hop band? He certainly looks like it when dressed in geeky glasses, trilby hat and chain.
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f3bedaa4c4044c4ca52a4144b8461e74
|
what are the popular items
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[
"Obama face masks:"
] |
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SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- From TVs to handsets, LG Electronics is on a mission -- to become a top three player in the global electronics industry.
Yong Nam, CEO of LG Electronics
Leading the campaign is CEO Yong Nam who took on the top job in January.
CNN's Andrew Stevens met him at the LG headquarters in Seoul, where he showed off the latest Viewty camera phone. While Nam hopes this gadget will boost market share, he's also on a bigger quest to shake up the South Korean company's corporate culture.
Yong Nam: I try to empower, rather than make decisions. I think frontline people that know customers better can make better decisions. I just try to keep pushing authority downwards instead of upwards.
Andrew Stevens: You have been 30 years, more or less, with LG Electronics, what are the most important business lessons you have learnt during that time?
Yong Nam: Earlier in my career I was deeply engaged in selling of electronic products in the U.S. market, where I was able to put myself in customers' shoes rather than manufactures' shoes. And that was a great experience for me to understand the frontline and customers.
And secondly I spent more than 10 years in the chairman's office, so that gave me a great opportunity to learn top management perspective, as well as problem solving capabilities.
Andrew Stevens: You've pledged to make LG Electronics a more inspirational place to work. Now with 82,000 employees what do you mean by that and how do you do it?
Yong Nam: In a very hierarchical, bureaucratic and big company culture and working environment, people try to hide issues and problems instead of raising and solving them. I try to get people engaged -- I call it waste elimination activities.
If it is solved it can turn into a treasure, so there are so many treasures in the process of doing every day work among our people, and I try to encourage them to be engaged in finding out that waste.
Andrew Stevens: Obviously you are a fluent English speaker, how important is it for a business leader to have a second language, to have those language skills?
Yong Nam: Just Korean talent itself is not sufficient enough, so I have to attract a best in class global talent into our organization, so that they can feel comfortable working in this environment.
This means that English has to be a common language in our company going forward. So me speaking English is very, very important to encourage people to speak out with bad English instead of good Korean. E-mail to a friend
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512b1d2050364736bf7738e0e4026006
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Who is Andrew Stevens talking to ?
|
[
"Yong Nam"
] |
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LONDON, England (CNN) -- Britain's Prince William has helped the U.S. Coast Guard bust a drug smuggling boat carrying cocaine worth a minimum of $80 million.
Prince William has helped bust a speed boat smuggling $80 million worth of cocaine.
William, who is serving in the Royal Navy, helped make the bust last weekend when he spotted a speedboat found to be carrying nearly a ton of cocaine in the Atlantic Ocean, Britain's Ministry of Defense said Wednesday.
William, 26, was one of the crew members aboard a helicopter attached to the frigate HMS Iron Duke who spotted the ocean-going speedboat hundreds of miles northeast of Barbados, the defense ministry said
The 50-foot-long power boat raised suspicions because it was a small vessel far out to sea and resembled a "go-fast" boat commonly used for drug smuggling, the ministry said. The boat's location suggested it was en route to Europe or North Africa, it said.
The chopper's crew informed the ship's captain about the boat, and U.S. Coast Guard personnel who were on the frigate then boarded the boat. They found 45 bales of cocaine weighing a total of 900 kilograms (just under a ton), the defense ministry said.
The cocaine has a minimum street value of $80 million, the ministry said.
The bust went smoothly with no violence, defense officials said. Navy crew detained the five men on the boat, which was in poor condition and later sank.
William is in the middle of a two-month attachment with the Royal Navy as part of his continued experience with various branches of the military. The prince, who is called sub lieutenant Wales in the navy, is also expected to spend time aboard a mine hunter and submarine during his attachment, which ends August 1.
William's vessel, the Iron Duke, is a patrol boat which supports overseas British territories in the event of a hurricane and carries out counter-narcotic operations.
William completed a four-month attachment with the Royal Air Force earlier this year and received his pilot's wings on graduation in April. He learned to fly three different aircraft during the attachment and is known as Flying Officer Wales within the RAF.
William is already a second lieutenant in the British Army, where he serves in the Blues and Royals regiment of the Household Cavalry.
The attachments are designed to give the prince, who as king will be the head of the armed forces, experience with the military.
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589c33880fa9488f9d7e98625026bd9d
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Where was the boat?
|
[
"hundreds of miles northeast of Barbados,"
] |
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CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- A clerk's quick flip of a switch foiled a robbery Friday at an Office Depot store in downtown Chicago.
Police said a man wearing a light blue button-down shirt and dark slacks entered the store carrying a gun concealed in a folded newspaper.
He approached one of the store's cash registers and demanded the contents of the safe, police said. The clerk refused but immediately turned on the public address system so that other customers could hear what was going on.
Hearing his threat broadcast throughout the store, the man fled.
He ended up robbing a nearby Fannie May candy store at gunpoint, police said, and fled that store in a white taxi. Authorities said the robber, a man between ages 30 and 40, was still at large.
No injuries were reported in either robbery.
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5f6c30ab306744ea9dde7a22bef3fe2f
|
Authorities say the robber, a man between ages 30 and 40, is?
|
[
"still at large."
] |
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ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- An angry, naked man commandeered a school bus full of teenage students Thursday in Atlanta, police said.
The man drove the bus for less than a mile before a student confronted him and the bus crashed into a wall off the road, according to police.
The incident started Thursday afternoon when the bus stopped to let students out, said Atlanta police officer James Polite.
Arris Pitmon, 23, darted toward the bus and hoisted himself in through an open window, Polite said.
Pitmon took control of the bus as the frightened driver ran to the back of it, the officer said. While the bus was moving, the man abandoned the steering wheel and walked toward the back of the bus, Polite added.
A student then ran toward the steering wheel, prompting the man to fight the student. The unmanned bus continued until it left the roadway and crashed.
Students fled the bus, many using the back door emergency exit, and onlookers subdued the man until police arrived.
Some students were taken to area hospitals. Their conditions weren't available Thursday night.
Chiquita Rogers told CNN affiliate WXIA that the man had tried to hit some of the students, including her 16-year-old, Donte.
"He pushed my son, and that's when my son hit him. I guess everybody started swinging, and everybody just started out the back door, jumping. I'm just grateful that my son is still alive, because it could have been worse."
Onlooker Corey Turner told WXIA, "Children were jumping out the emergency door ... jumping off the bus. ... They were saying, 'Help, help, help! ... Somebody hijacked the bus.'"
|
bea7e6aa997b497d8394d69cab18e668
|
Where were some students taken?
|
[
"area hospitals."
] |
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|
BRUSSELS, Belgium (CNN) -- European leaders agreed Friday to send an 1,800-strong security force to maintain stability in Kosovo, although they stopped short of backing independence for the province.
French soldiers at the NATO-led peacekeeping mission in Kosovo last month.
Kosovo is expected to declare independence from Serbia early in the new year.
Serbia, however, insists the region should remain autonomous within its borders.
Speaking at the end of a one-day summit of European heads in Brussels, Jose Socrates, the Portuguese prime minister currently holding the European Union presidency, said that sending the security mission was a "political decision."
The police and security force is expected to be deployed to the Balkan state ahead of an announcement of independence.
"This is the clearest signal that the EU could possibly give that it intends to lead on the whole issue of Kosovo's future, its status and its role in the region," Socrates said.
According to CNN's Robin Oakley in Brussels, European leaders are trying to balance an obvious readiness to back Kosovan independence with incentives to Serbia, which is seeking membership of the EU.
EU leaders are deeply conscious of their failure in the early 1990s to move early enough to prevent the bloodletting in the Balkans over the break-up of the former Yugoslavia, he said.
Although most EU leaders support Serbia becoming a member state to boost stability in the Balkans, French President Nicholas Sarkozy said that Serbia's membership is dependent on it recognizing Kosovo's independence and handing over war criminals.
Socrates confirmed to CNN that any fast-tracking of Serbia into the EU could only be considered if it agreed to hand over Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb general wanted at the The Hague for suspected war crimes.
Two years of negotiations on the future status of Kosovo ended in failure earlier this week, when talks mediated by Europe, the United States and Russia ended without an agreement.
The disputed province is dear to the Serbs, Orthodox Christians who regard it as Serbian territory. But it is equally coveted by Kosovo's ethnic Albanians, Muslims who have a 90 percent majority.
Since 1999 the United Nations has been running the province with NATO peacekeepers, who still number 16,000.
Oakley said the EU mission to Kosovo would help to ease the handover from the U.N. to local authorities. E-mail to a friend
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12f183fa83e348ec868893cc7268bd6f
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What is Serbia insisting?
|
[
"the region should remain autonomous within its borders."
] |
NewsQA
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(CNN) -- An Illinois sheriff filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against the owners of craigslist, accusing the popular national classified-ad Web site of knowingly promoting prostitution.
"Craigslist is the single largest source of prostitution in the nation," says Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart.
Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart wants craigslist to eliminate its Erotic Services section.
"Craigslist is the single largest source of prostitution in the nation," Dart said. "Missing children, runaways, abused women and women trafficked in from foreign countries are routinely forced to have sex with strangers because they're being pimped on craigslist."
The FBI found more than 2,800 child prostitution ads posted on craigslist, with Chicago, Illinois, in the top 10 cities for juvenile prostitution, Dart said.
The sheriff also noted instances of what he said was child neglect while parents were engaged in activity solicited on the Web site.
In an e-mailed statement, craigslist told CNN it had not seen Dart's complaint but that "craigslist is an extremely unwise choice for those intent on committing crimes, since criminals inevitably leave an electronic trail to themselves that law enforcement officers will follow."
"On a daily basis, we are being of direct assistance to police departments and federal authorities nationwide," spokeswoman Susan McTavish said.
"Misuse of craigslist to facilitate criminal activity is unacceptable, and we continue to work diligently to prevent it," she said. "Misuse of the site is exceptionally rare compared to how much the site is used for legal purposes. Regardless, any misuse of the site is not tolerated on craigslist."
But Dart said that the Web site for two years has ignored his written requests to shut down the Erotic Services section and failed to take action or adequately monitor the section despite hundreds of arrests.
"Pimps are preying on the most vulnerable members of our society and taking advantage of our struggling economy," he said. "The worst part is craigslist's owners know their Web site is still being used for illegal purposes and they're doing nothing to stop it."
Craigslist entered into an agreement with 43 states' attorneys general in November to enact measures that impose restrictions on its Erotic Services section. The agreement called for the Web site to implement a phone verification system for listings that required ad posters to provide a real telephone number that would be called before the ad went public.
Craigslist also imposed listing fees, requiring a credit card, for ads in the section. The proceeds were to be donated to charity.
Dart called the fees "dirty money" and said the move was a "publicity stunt" that had little practical effect because pimps use stolen credit cards or post ads in free sections.
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330d1251fc2a464a8fae75c9ae740bd1
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What does Dart want craigslist to cut?
|
[
"its Erotic Services section."
] |
NewsQA
|
LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Investigators are looking into whether employees at the Los Angeles County coroner's office illegally leaked information about Michael Jackson's death probe to the news media, according to a sheriff's spokesman.
Police stand outside the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office when Michael Jackson's body was there in June.
Vivid descriptions of Jackson's corpse, which was in the coroner's custody for an autopsy, were published by tabloid newspapers in the days after his death.
The Los Angeles County Supervisors office on Friday asked the sheriff to conduct a "preliminary inquiry," which will determine whether there is enough evidence to launch a full investigation, said Steve Whitmore, a sheriff's spokesman.
Whitmore did not provide details on what prompted the request.
The Los Angeles Times quoted Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas as saying his office called the sheriff's department after reports that coroner's employees not involved in the Jackson death probe had viewed his death certificate in the office database.
Ridley-Thomas has not responded to CNN requests for comment.
The coroner's office is investigating the cause of Jackson's June 25 death. It has been waiting on toxicology lab results, but a final autopsy report is expected as soon as next week, a coroner's spokesman has said.
Los Angeles police are also investigating the death. Detectives traveled to Houston, Texas, this week to search the medical office of Dr. Conrad Murray, Jackson's personal doctor.
CNN's Sonya Hamasaki contributed to this report
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8235fd8c5a694e768620262545aa23f4
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Who is investigating the cause of death?
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[
"coroner's office"
] |
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(CNN) -- The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is asking parents to immediately stop using a series of inflatable floats for babies in swimming pools, announcing a voluntary recall of about 4 million floats Thursday.
The Squirtin' Tootin' Tugboat is among the floats covered by the recall.
The items -- which inflate to seat babies and toddlers as they float on water -- are manufactured by Massachusetts-based Aqua Leisure Industries.
The company has voluntarily recalled 14 models because the leg straps in the seat of the float can tear, causing children to slip into the water, posing a drowning risk, the commission said in a statement.
There have been 31 reports of float seats tearing, though no injuries have been reported, the commission said.
The floats were sold from December 2002 through June 2009 at retailers nationwide, including Target, Toys "R" Us, Wal-Mart, Dollar General, Kmart, Walgreens, Ace Hardware and Bed, Bath & Beyond.
The commission is asking consumers to stop using the floats and to send them back to the company.
Aqua Leisure officials could not be immediately reached for comment, but the company's Web site has posted the commission's recall advisory.
CNN's Gerri Willis contributed to this report.
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3b665a5fc21a44b8a4d81704b09a0eb2
|
How many models were recalled?
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[
"14"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- Two men died Saturday morning when their pickup collided head-on with one of Trace Adkins' tour buses north of Shreveport, Louisiana.
Adkins was not on the bus, but five members of his band and crew suffered minor injuries, the country music singer's Web site said.
The bus was en route to Bossier City for a show at the CenturyTel Center. Adkins had already arrived at the venue when he heard the news, according to his Web site.
"This is a real tragedy," Adkins said in a statement. "Two people have been killed and I don't even know their names. So out of respect for their families, I prefer not to comment too much at this time."
Adkins said he would perform a scaled-down acoustic set at Saturday's show, which also featured singer Martina McBride. He will sit out a show in Pensacola, Florida, on Sunday.
Adkins began his music career more than a decade ago with a platinum-selling debut, and has released nine albums since then.
In 2008, he appeared on NBC's "The Celebrity Apprentice," and last year, ventured into the world of comic books with the launch of the four-part "Luke McBain," based on his likeness and persona.
He is also the author of a book, "A Personal Stand: Observations and Opinions from a Freethinking Roughneck."
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340b138cc30e47b4be028c3f844d7723
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how many injured
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[
"five"
] |
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(CNN) -- Four people, including a 12-year-old, died when an Amtrak train hit their car in Hardeeville, South Carolina, an official said Tuesday.
The accident occurred Monday night near the South Carolina-Georgia state line, not far from the intersection of South Carolina 46 and U.S. 17.
"It appears that the vehicle tried to go around the gate arms ... to beat the train across the tracks," said Ted Felder, Hardeeville's interim city manager.
The Jasper County, South Carolina, coroner has not released the names of the dead.
The car became wedged onto the front of the southbound train, which pushed it for a mile down the track, Felder said. The Hardeeville Fire Department received a call shortly before 9 p.m. ET Monday, but teams from various agencies reportedly were unable to detach the car until about midnight.
Felder said no one on the train was injured, and once the car was detached, a bus took passengers to the Amtrak station in Savannah, Georgia.
The train was en route from Charleston, South Carolina, to Savannah when the crash occurred.
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35301d13af084447b543b3ff382d3c6a
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What hit the car?
|
[
"Amtrak train"
] |
NewsQA
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(CNN) -- David Lance Arneson, who helped trigger the global phenomenon of role-playing games as co-inventor of "Dungeons & Dragons," has died at the age of 61.
A statement on the game's official Web site, wizards.com, said Arneson died Tuesday evening "after waging one final battle against cancer."
Arneson "developed many of the fundamental ideas of role playing: that each player controls just one hero, that heroes gain power through adventures, and that personality is as important as combat prowess," the statement said.
The game's co-creator, Gary Gygax, died last year.
In 1974, Arneson and Gygax created "Dungeons & Dragons," which allowed players to assume roles in a magical world. They could be fighters or wizards, elves or dwarfs.
"As characters journey through various lands, they search for hidden treasures while battling menacing monsters with their own brains and brawn," a description on wizards.com says.
Some games would last days or weeks -- or even longer. "Game campaigns are as limitless as the player's imaginations," wizards.com says.
What began as a hand-assembled print run of 1,000 games quickly sold out. Young people all over the world started buying up the game. By 1982, sales broke the $20 million mark.
Arneson filed a series of lawsuits against Gygax insisting he was not being given credit or proper royalties for his work creating the game. The suits were settled.
"Dungeons and Dragons" spawned video games, novels, a cartoon, and a movie. The franchise saw a surge this decade after "The Lord of the Rings" and "Harry Potter" movies took off.
|
57ffe90edc0748769df718f269508bfa
|
What he helped on?
|
[
"trigger the global phenomenon of role-playing games"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- A man described as a former employee shot and killed two people and seriously wounded another at a Baton Rouge, Louisiana, construction company before workers wrestled him to the ground, sheriff's officials said.
Dianna Tullier, 44, of Walker, Louisiana, and Cheryl D. Boykin, 55, of Denham Springs, Louisiana were pronounced dead at the scene, officials said. They were both clerical workers in the construction office.
The suspect, identified as Richard Matthews, 53, of Slaughter, Louisiana, parked outside Grady Crawford Construction Co. shortly before 2 p.m. and entered a building, where he shot a female dispatcher, said Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office Public Information Officer Casey Rayborn Hicks.
Hicks said Matthews then went into a second company building and killed two people inside.
Matthews left the second building to reload his weapon, Hicks said. He re-entered that building, shot at and missed a fourth person, Hicks said.
Four people then wrestled Matthews to the ground. One of them, a foreman at the construction company, put his finger between Matthews' finger and the trigger guard of Matthews' gun, stopping the gunman from shooting, Hicks said.
The four people held Matthews down until police arrived.
Matthews was transported to the sheriff's office in downtown Baton Rouge, Hicks said, and was being questioned.
Hicks said police are uncertain if Matthews has prior arrests, mental health or substance abuse issues.
Matthews will be booked on two counts of first degree murder and two counts of attempted murder, Hicks said.
As he was escorted in for questioning, in response to a reporter's question about the shooting, the Matthews replied numerous times: "I couldn't get my unemployment, they wouldn't give me my unemployment."
CNN's Shawn Nottingham contributed to this report.
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fa1f2859f36a4beeaf8144853c0ae61a
|
What did the official say?
|
[
"Dianna Tullier, 44, of Walker, Louisiana, and Cheryl D. Boykin, 55, of Denham Springs, Louisiana were pronounced dead at the scene,"
] |
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NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Tibetan exile leaders, meeting in northern India to debate a potential new approach to Tibet's decades-long struggle for autonomy, have voted to stay with the Dalai Lama's current "middle way approach," according to a spokesman for the spiritual leader.
Some have sought Tibet's independence from China, but the Dalai Lama has sought autonomy.
"The majority of the people have spoken and have requested his holiness the Dalai Lama to continue with his middle way approach," said spokesman Tenzin Taklha.
The meeting was called after the Dalai Lama acknowledged he had failed in his efforts to convince China to restore the territory's autonomy. He did not attend the week-long conference in Dharamsala, a town in the hills of north India where he lives in exile. He called the meeting, he said, to offer the exiles an opportunity to discuss "the best possible future course of action" for Tibet.
Takhla said the Tibetans demonstrated that the Dalai Lama was their undisputed leader, and they hoped China would recognize him as such and negotiations toward a realistic solution could be held.
There was a small minority who said they wanted to demand Tibet's independence, Takhla said.
The "middle way" approach with Beijing is one in which Tibetans want a level of autonomy that will allow them to protect and preserve their culture, religion and national identity. In exchange, China could continue to claim Tibet as part of its territory.
Some in Tibet have advocated independence from China, but the Dalai Lama has long called for genuine autonomy.
Tibet is technically autonomous from the central Chinese government, but the Dalai Lama and others have said they favor real autonomy and resent the slow erosion of their culture amid an influx of Han Chinese, the largest ethnic group in China. Learn about Tibet's history of conflict »
The resentment spilled over in March, when Buddhist monks initiated peaceful anti-Chinese protests in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa. The demonstrations began March 14, the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Beijing's rule that sent the Dalai Lama into exile.
The protests soon turned violent, with demonstrators burning vehicles and shops. Some protesters advocated independence from China, while others demonstrated against the growing influence of the Han Chinese in Tibet and other regions of China with ethnic Tibetan populations. The subsequent crackdown left 18 civilians and one police officer dead, according to the Chinese government. Tibet's self-proclaimed government-in-exile put the death toll from the protests at 140.
China blamed the Dalai Lama and his followers for the March riots -- a charge he has consistently denied.
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dc46cc8818b74087bc3d4c89b46b9da2
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What to Tibetan exile leaders support?
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[
"\"middle way approach,\""
] |
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(Entertainment Weekly) -- In "Marley & Me," it doesn't take long to learn why Marley, an incorrigibly frisky golden Labrador retriever adopted by Florida newspaper writers John and Jenny Grogan (Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston), is the "world's worst dog."
In "Marley & Me," Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston's characters welcome a dog into their lives.
He's friendly and lovable, but he devours everything in sight -- drywall, socks, big chunks of furniture (no, he doesn't just chew on them, he eats them).
As a dog owner, I can testify that "Marley & Me," based on the real John Grogan's smash 2005 memoir, is the single most endearing and authentic movie about the human-canine connection in decades. As directed by David Frankel ("The Devil Wears Prada"), though, it's also something more: a disarmingly enjoyable, wholehearted comic vision of the happy messiness of family life.
John and Jenny share an existence that, from the standpoint of our current economic times, already looks like paradise. He's a reporter who gets refashioned, by his testy editor (Alan Arkin), into a lifestyle columnist (only to keep complaining about it -- poor guy!). She's a feature writer who becomes a stay-at-home mom.
As the kids come along (three of them), the Grogans move into bigger and bigger houses, yet they have thwarted ambitions, fights that go on for days, and a general attitude of wistful loss toward all the freedoms they have given up to become parents.
"Marley & Me" celebrates two ordinary people as they try to fit love, work, children, and one volcanically misbehaved pooch into a single space. Marley may be the dog from hell, but we're meant to see that the Grogans, in their hearts, wouldn't have it any other way. Marley stands in for all the unruliness that can never be domesticated out of life.
You can domesticate Owen Wilson, but the shock is how good the role of beleaguered breadwinner looks on him. He and Aniston forge a nimble connection (they even get mad in style), and Wilson has a scene near the end with Marley that's the most wrenchingly tender acting of his career.
Using his scratchy, lackadaisical warmth to voice a testament to family, and to where dogs fit into it, he makes you feel like it's a wonderful life indeed.
EW Grade: A-
CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly
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b576b252c2d6446cb79f8f78696408a0
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what is marley and me about
|
[
"frisky golden Labrador retriever"
] |
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Editor's note: We asked readers to weigh in on CNN.com Live producer Jarrett Bellini's vacation destination, and you chose South Africa. Check back for updates on his trip.
CNN.com's Jarrett Bellini tours vineyards outside Cape Town, South Africa.
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (CNN) -- I'm not a wine drinker.
Before today's excursion, in fact, I could only tell you that on the face of the planet there existed three types of wine: red, white and Carlo Rossi. The reds are good with meat. The whites go with fish. And, according to what I learned from my dad, Carlo Rossi goes with a glass of ice.
So, exploring South Africa's wine country, just a short drive from Cape Town, seemed like a perfect educational way for me to spend my day. I mean, it was that or go to a museum.
Our guide, Jack, was amazingly knowledgeable about the subject, but without being a pretentious jerk. Really, as far as he is concerned, the best wine in the world is whatever wine you enjoy. I didn't ask, but was curious if that applied to Boone's Farm?
Throughout the day, we hit four wineries, tasting 23 bottles in all. I know because I kept hash marks on my hand. I'm pretty classy.
Now, despite the outstanding info we received from our guide as we sipped and swirled and spat, I can't say that I'm any better at understanding the finer points of wine than I was this morning when I woke up. However, I did manage to get a solid buzz. And that should be worth something.
Even without the wine, a visit to South Africa's vineyards is a great addition to a traveler's to-do list. It's not far from the city and the scenery is beautiful. If you need an added incentive, there are even a few cheese farms in the area where you can really crank the whole experience up to 11.
I personally thanked one of the goats for his contribution. He didn't seem to care. He also didn't seem physically capable of producing anything that might actually turn into cheese. But I thanked him anyway.
What can I say? I'm not a wine drinker.
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d3b96a0cfad2416da09d4fef0a00a397
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What is that readers are able to chose and suggest
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[
"vacation destination,"
] |
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(PEOPLE.com) -- Liv Tyler highly approves of her rock-star father Steven's choices -- both in love and career.
Asked about the "American Idol" judge's recent engagement to Clear Channel executive Erin Brady, Liv tells PEOPLE that she's an enthusiastic supporter of it, explaining that the two have been together "for a long, long time" and adding, "I like her very much."
Speaking to PEOPLE at the Sundance Film Festival, where she's promoting her new movie "Robot and Frank," the actress, 34, also revealed that she's finally following in her father's footsteps -- into the music business.
"I got to record a cover of INXS's 'I Need You Tonight' for a Givenchy commercial," says the model, who has a longstanding beauty contract with the European cosmetics company. "It was fun and terrifying and wonderful," she says of recording the song, which is due out soon.
It's a logical step for a woman whose roots are in music.
"I always thought when I was a little girl that I'd be a singer," she says. "My mom [Bebe Buell] was always in bands. My dad. And my stepfather, Todd Rundgren, is an incredible musician."
As for her dad's dicey performance of The Star-Spangled Banner on Sunday? Liv hadn't seen it yet. "Somebody told me my dad just sang the national anthem," she said. "I've got to go Google it."
Or, you know, maybe not.
See the full article at PEOPLE.com.
© 2011 People and Time Inc. All rights reserved.
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685c1f7f8c5a42fcb7f61c35896b631c
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What person said she is a supporter of her father
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[
"Liv Tyler"
] |
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|
SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- Nearly 3 million gallons of sewage spilled into San Francisco Bay when a pump failed at a waste treatment facility, the Marin County Sheriff's Department told CNN on Friday.
Attempts are being made to contain Thursday night's 2.7 million-gallon sewage spill.
The 2.7 million-gallon spill occurred Thursday night.
A pump failed at the South Marin Sanitation District's waste treatment facility in the town of Mill Valley, said Lt. Doug Pittman.
The waste was released into Richardson Bay, an inlet of the large bay on the east shore of Marin County, he said. See the spill from the air »
The sewage and storm water was partially treated, according to Greg Renick of the California Office of Emergency Services.
In addition to the pump failure, he said, an alarm that would have alerted workers at the facility to the spill also failed.
The accidental release occurred between 5:30 and 8:30 p.m. Thursday, according to a statement from Marin County's emergency operations center. But the Sewerage Agency of Southern Marin didn't report it to the state until 11:16 p.m., Renick said. The state Office of Emergency Services notified local offices in the bay area within an hour of receiving the report, he said.
The Marin County Department of Environmental Health was conducting tests Friday to determine how far the contamination had spread, Pittman said. Boaters were being warned to avoid the Richardson Bay area, and residents were told to avoid contact with the water.
The California Department of Fish and Game has had a boat and personnel on the water since early Friday, and has found no sign of sick or distressed wildlife resulting from the spill, agency spokesman Steve Martarano said.
Marin County is just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. E-mail to a friend
CNN's Chuck Afflerbach contributed to this report
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7ef3bcae2c73416aa8a2f590d5285762
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Where are boaters advised to avoid?
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[
"the Richardson Bay area,"
] |
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(CNN) -- An angry Phil Mickelson hinted at legal action for being accused of "cheating" by fellow PGA Tour professional Scott McCarron.
The world number two carded a two-under 70 to be four shots behind third round leader Ryuji Imada at the Farmers Insurance Open, but for the second day in a row his post-round press conference centered on his use of a 20-year-old wedge with square grooves.
McCarron was quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle on Friday, saying that Mickelson and others who had opted to play with the Ping-Eye 2 wedge were exploiting a loophole in PGA Tour rules.
"It's cheating, and I'm appalled Phil has put it in play," he said.
New rules introduced this year only allow for irons with V-shaped grooves, but because of a lawsuit filed by manufacturers Ping an exception has been made for wedges, with square grooves, which were made before April 1, 1990.
Mickelson is using one of those wedges at Torrey Pines this week and on Friday he was grilled about his use and McCarron reported comments.
Mickelson declined then to get into what he called "name calling" but mounted a stout defense of his use of the club, saying it was within the rules.
But after his fine third round on the South Course, Mickelson appeared to up the ante.
"We all have our opinions on the matter, but a line was crossed and I just was publicly slandered," Mickelson told the official PGA Tour Web site.
"And because of that, I'll have to let other people handle that."
Asked he was mounting a lawsuit, Mickelson said, "I'm not going into specifics what that meant."
Meanwhile, the PGA Tour has issued a statement to explain why the controversial Ping-Eye 2 wedges were approved for play, appearing to criticize McCarron for his comments.
"Because the use of pre-1990 Ping Eye 2 irons is permitted for play, public comments or criticisms characterizing their use as a violation of the Rules of Golf as promulgated by the USGA are inappropriate at best," read the final paragraph of the statement.
Mickelson said that it was "cool if they put that out there."
On the course, Imada shot a two-under 70 for a 13-under 203 and had a two-shot lead over Ben Crane (69) and Michael Sim of Australia.
U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover carded a 68 and was three shots behind with Mickelson a further stroke behind on his season-debut on the PGA Tour.
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db1fdb3ef4fd4c4e81b73dedffff2c7f
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Who says they have been publicly slandered?
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[
"Phil Mickelson"
] |
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(CNN) -- British-based mining giant Rio Tinto announced plans to cut 14,000 jobs on Wednesday, just weeks after a planned buyout by rival BHP Billiton collapsed.
Rio Tinto has nearly $39 billion in corporate debt.
Rio Tinto made the announcement as part of a plan to cut its nearly $39 billion in corporate debt by an estimated $10 billion by the end of 2009. The company issued a gloomy forecast in October.
"Since that time, demand conditions have worsened further, and as a result the group's priorities have reoriented around conserving cash flow and reducing near-term borrowings," it said in a statement announcing the cuts.
The layoffs would include 5,500 direct employees and 8,500 contract jobs, the elimination of which would save about $1.2 billion a year, the company said. The layoffs would cost $400 million in severance packages, however.
BHP withdrew from its planned buyout in late November, citing a high level of debt the combined company would be required to service in "difficult" economic conditions and concerns about whether it would be able to sell off units Rio Tinto already had targeted for divestment.
Rio Tinto said it would consider selling off other elements of the company in an effort to raise more cash, but disclosed no details.
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bd9e4f3c29ae476d9d074907ffaea500
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What did BHP do?
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[
"withdrew from its planned buyout in late November,"
] |
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San Francisco, California (CNN) -- Repair work on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge will continue nonstop into the weekend and the bridge may reopen Monday, but officials were making no promises Friday.
"Commuters are going to need to check back with us over the weekend," said Bart Ney, a spokesman for the California Department of Transportation. "We're going to do everything we can to get the bridge open for the Monday morning commute, but safety is the priority for us right now."
Repair work has not stopped since it began Tuesday night when two steel rods and a steel crossbeam plummeted from the bridge, landing on the roadway and forcing the span's closure. The same section had been the site of repairs over Labor Day weekend, when crews fixed a crack.
On Friday, workers were grinding the areas where there was the potential for steel-on-steel connection, Ney said. "We want them to be very smooth."
The rods' alignment has not been completed to the point where workers could begin stressing them, he said.
Once that work is complete, a third-party group will look at how the system handles vibrations, he said, adding, "There is still a lot of work to be done."
Transportation officials had said Thursday night that repairs of the bridge, which carried about 280,000 vehicles per day, would be complete by late Friday morning, but Ney said contractors were still working on custom-fitting steel for the structure.
Crews worked Friday to replace four steel rods. One of those had failed and caused the problems, Dale Bonner, California's secretary of business, transportation and housing told reporters Thursday. Engineers also will make sure the rods are centered and will strengthen the welds to ensure stability, Bonner said.
Vibrations in the rods, affected by strong winds, caused the break, officials said.
In the wake of the bridge's closing, commuters flocked to the Bay Area's rail system.
On Thursday, Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) said, the system carried the most passengers ever, breaking a record set the day before.
About 442,000 people took BART, 24 percent more than on an average Thursday, the agency said in a news release.
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5057fb3e4c96447b9b96c4c4e5265879
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What spans SF Bay and carries 280000 vehicles daily?
|
[
"San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge"
] |
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(CNN) -- Australian hurdler Jana Rawlinson has had her breast implants removed to boost her chances of winning a medal for her country at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
The 27-year-old Rawlinson, whose private life has often made headlines in Australia, said she enjoyed having larger breasts but did not want to "short-change Australia".
"I absolutely loved having bigger boobs, but finally I've grown up enough to know myself -- to be honest about who I am when I look in the mirror," Rawlinson told the Woman's Day magazine.
"I don't want to short-change Australia either -- I want to feel the most athletic I can, to know that I'm standing on the track in London the fittest I can be."
The double 400 meter hurdles world champion, who reportedly plans to remarry her estranged British husband and fellow-athlete Chris Rawlinson, told the magazine she had the implants because she was unhappy with her athletic figure.
"When I looked in the mirror I just saw muscled arms, broad shoulders and big, strong legs," she said. "These are assets I need to run well, but they didn't make me feel like an attractive woman.
"There are a couple of girls -- who I won't name -- in world athletics who are Olympic champions, but they look like men and I don't want to be like that."
Rawlinson won the 400m hurdles at the 2003 Paris world championships and four years later in Osaka, Japan.
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10400f2416284614b321e9453879b95a
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Who has had her breast implants removed?
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[
"Jana Rawlinson"
] |
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NEW DELHI (CNN) -- India's Tata Motors Monday announced it would begin delivery of the Nano, billed as the world's "cheapest car", in July.
Tata Motors expects to begin delivery of the Nano, billed as the world's cheapest car, in July.
The four-door Nano is currently being built in "limited numbers" at a company plant in the north Indian hill state of Uttrakhand.
Tata Motors, however, aims to make 350,000 Nanos a year from 2010 at another unit elsewhere in the country, a company statement said.
"It is to the credit of the team at Tata Motors that a car once thought impossible by the world is now a reality. I hope it will provide safe, affordable, four-wheel transportation to families who till now have not been able to own a car. We are delighted in presenting the Tata Nano to India and the world," company chief Ratan Tata told a news conference in Mumbai to announce the "commercial launch" of the $2,000 car. Watch more on the Nano »
Tata Motors said the Nano would initially be available through bookings or reservations filed on a request form priced around $6, or Rs 300. Tata will accept the bookings from April 9 to April 25.
Within 60 days of the closure of bookings, Tata Motors will process and announce the allotment of 100,000 cars in the first phase of deliveries, through a computerized random selection procedure, it added.
"Deliveries will commence from July 2009," said the company statement.
|
880d29a4aa9a407f92fb36801b3624d5
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Who makes Nanos?
|
[
"Tata Motors"
] |
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|
(CNN) -- American driver Robby Gordon won the fourth stage of the Dakar Rally by just one second from Stephane Peterhansel, who extended his overall lead to more than seven minutes in South America on Tuesday.
NASCAR star Gordon claimed his first victory of this year's race, and his third overall, as he snatched the quickest time on the shortened 163 kilometer stage from Fiambala in Argentina to Copiapo in Chile. It was cut by 40km as some competitors arrived late following Monday's leg.
He clocked one hour, 40 minutes and 21 seconds in his Hummer to head off BMW's Peterhansel, who has won three car titles and six on bikes.
The Frenchman now leads Carlos Sainz by seven minutes and 36 seconds, with the former world rally champion finishing fourth behind Qatar's Nasser Al-Attiyah.
Defending champion Giniel De Villiers gave Volkswagen with three drivers in the top five, but is still way back in 20th due to his problems on Monday.
Gordon was left eight overall, more than an hour off the pace, while his compatriot Mark Miller is fourth in another Volkswagen after placing sixth on Tuesday.
"Today's special stage was perfect for us with a lot of camel grass. It's on this type of terrain that the Hummer is doing great," Gordon told the race's official Web site.
"I am glad we managed to recover from yesterday. I got stuck twice yesterday and the engine overheated. We lost one hour. It's sad but the race is still long. We've only had four days of raid so far. A stage victory means nothing to us. It's the final victory we are in for."
In the bikes, defending champion Marc Coma bounced back from losing moer than 40 minutes over the last two days to win the stage.
The Spaniard was left in sixth overall, 38 minutes and 50 seconds behind Frenchman Cyril Depres, who was third on the stage also riding a 690cc KTM machine.
His compatriot David Casteu, riding a smaller 450cc Sherco machine, was runner-up to retain second overall -- almost nine minutes behind with 10 stages left.
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de062cbc351c42c1b0e88ae69bb656a7
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Who is second-placed?
|
[
"Stephane Peterhansel,"
] |
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|
(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.
|
04f35aaedef84b09921e4362a9fc487e
|
What is Wyeth's most famous painting?
|
[
"\"Christina's World,\""
] |
NewsQA
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DULUTH, Georgia (CNN) -- Neither the on-the-field fame nor the off-the-field notoriety of former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick was enough to spark a bidding war for his suburban Atlanta mansion Tuesday.
No one submitted the minimum $3.2 million bid for former Falcon Michael Vick's Atlanta-area mansion.
The multimillion-dollar home in Duluth was on the auction block Tuesday, but just three real estate agents showed up -- and one of them, Lance Hempen of Funari Realty, was a listing agent who had no clients interested in the property.
No one offered a bid, so the auction ended before it began.
The auction required a minimum bid of $3.2 million, with a deposit of $160,000.
Vick, 28, is serving a 23-month sentence after pleading guilty in August 2007 to a federal conspiracy charge of bankrolling a dogfighting operation at a home he owned in Virginia. He is expected to be released early, possibly in May, and to serve the final two months or so of his sentence under home confinement, most likely in Virginia.
No dogfights occurred in Duluth, 40 miles northeast of Atlanta.
The home, in the upscale Sugarloaf Country Club community, has been on the market for more than a year. It has eight bedrooms, 11 bathrooms, a four-car garage and a movie theater, among other deluxe features.
Narender Reddy of Metro Brokers/GMAC Real Estate said his client offered $3.2 million for the home two months ago, but the auction organizers said they wanted to see whether someone would offer more. Reddy said his client withdrew the bid but remains interested.
"Why would I let them use my offer as a benchmark?" Reddy asked. "I wanted to see who was going to bid and what were they going to offer."
He will advise his client to offer less money now, Reddy said.
Seema Jain of Virtual Properties Realty also was on hand. She said that she has interested buyers but that they didn't want to bid if there was no competition.
The next step is to be determined by the bankruptcy judge in Virginia who ordered the sale.
Reddy said the price is too high for today's economy.
"It is the economy that is dictating the price of the houses, and I'm sure most of the people still think $3.2 million ... is higher than what the market can fetch," he said.
Jain said no one seems turned off by Vick's reputation.
"Nobody cares about who owns it. It's just the product and the location," she said.
Reddy said the home is "well-built, has a lake view and an excellent floor plan."
CNN's Amanda Moyer and Deb Krajnak contributed to this report.
|
600ae2464e434470b0ee1240dea3bcb5
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Where is Michael Vick?
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[
"serving a 23-month sentence"
] |
NewsQA
|
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A string of bombings around Iraq's capital has killed eight people, including three Iraqi soldiers who died when their weapons truck was hit, and wounded at least 32, the country's Interior Ministry said.
Blood stains the ground following the explosion of an IED on Kahramana Square in Baghdad on January 12.
The soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in the Yarmouk district of western Baghdad about 10:15 a.m. (0715 GMT) on Monday. The blast also set off small arms ammunition loaded on the truck.
Four civilians were wounded in the attack.
Separately, three civilians died when a car bomb went off outside a bakery in the eastern district of New Baghdad, followed shortly by another car bomb. Ten people were wounded, an Interior Ministry official told CNN.
In central Baghdad, two civilians died in roadside bomb attacks -- one near Kahramana Square and the other targeting a police patrol in the Sheikh-Omar commercial area. A total of seven people, including three police officers, were wounded in those incidents.
Two other roadside bombs went off near police patrols in neighborhoods on opposite sides of the city -- the Ghazaliya neighborhood in western Baghdad and the Zayuna district on the city's east side. There were no fatalities in either attack, but 11 people -- including one police officer in Ghazaliya and three in Zayuna -- were wounded.
The attacks came as U.S. Vice President-elect Joe Biden on Monday met with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani in Baghdad.
Biden -- who had been the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee -- has been on a foreign visit that included stops in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Barack Obama, the incoming U.S. president, is planning to shift the military focus in the region to fighting militants in Afghanistan, while withdrawing all but a residual force of troops from Iraq.
The U.S. military said two of its troops died as a result of non-combat-related injuries on Sunday. One soldier died in northern Iraq and a U.S. Marine in western Iraq.
Five U.S. troops have died in Iraq this month, and 4,225 since the war started.
CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.
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6e1bee34c11441d0b7e43b7d8851b944
|
how many civilians died for car bomb?
|
[
"three"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- Somalia's president on Wednesday declared three days of national mourning for the victims of a suicide truck bomb that killed more than 70 people in Mogadishu, the nation's capital.
According to the Health Ministry, 72 were killed Tuesday and 103 remained injured, 38 of those in serious condition. A majority of the victims were students and their parents who were registering for an education program at a government complex.
Al-Shabaab, an Islamist movement that has links to al Qaeda, claimed responsibility.
President Sharif Ahmed visited the scene and some of the hospitals where the victims were, the government said in a statement. Some of the injured who cannot be treated in Somalia will be flown to other countries.
"At this time, when the country is in the midst of a worsening humanitarian crisis, the terrorists could not have attacked the Somali people at a worse time," said Abdulkadir Hussein Mohamed, the country's minister of information.
According to the government, Tuesday's bombing was the second Al-Shabaab attack in two years that specifically targeted students. In December 2009, a suicide bomber attacked a university graduation ceremony in Mogadishu, killing more than 20 people.
Al-Shabaab is a group in Somalia that was designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the United States government in March 2008. It is waging a war against Somalia's government to implement a stricter form of Islamic law, or Sharia.
Federal and African Union forces in the impoverished and chaotic nation have battled the group for years. Many analysts believe that Al-Shabaab has been severely weakened by the African Union Mission in Somalia, targeted strikes against foreign members and the weakening of al Qaeda.
|
f347ebdc9b664300be8cbc7388334fcd
|
A suicide truck killed how many people?
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[
"72"
] |
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|
(CNN) -- Sevilla have sacked coach Manolo Jimenez after their disappointing home draw to bottom-club Xerez on Tuesday extended the club's winless run to seven games.
Despite lying fifth in the Spanish Primera Liga table, Sevilla were knocked out of the lucrative European Champions League by Russian side CSKA Moscow last week.
Jimenez had also secured a Copa del Rey final against Atletico Madrid but it wasn't enough to save the 46-year-old's job.
The club's sporting director Ramon Rodriguez admitted the decision had been difficult but said he had "done what I had to."
He told the club's official Web site: "It was an unavoidable situation and we had to find a solution, and the pain that it brings.
"Tuesday was the end of the story but the decision comes from the image and dynamics of the team. Without doubt we are grateful to Manolo. He is an excellent professional, he has made all this possible and impossible. However it is obvious that he could not get a response out of the team.
"Fortunately we believe that there is time. The growth and the ambition of the club is shown in the change of the manager. We are fighting for important things."
Xerez's injury-time equaliser on Tuesday meant Sevilla's last league success was against Real Mallorca back in February.
Ironically, it is Mallorca who occupy the much-coveted fourth spot in the table that guarantees Champions League football next season.
Jimenez took charge in October 2007 when former coach Juande Ramos left to take over at English Premier League team Tottenham.
In that season he led Sevilla to a fifth-place finish, while in 2009 they came third in the league behind Real Madrid and Barcelona.
Rodriguez said a new manager would be in place for Sunday's game with Villarreal. "The matter will be resolved as soon as possible and he [the new manager] will be sitting on the bench for Sundays match," he added.
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94961e768d5740b6bf54a7ccd3f83bae
|
When was the draw with Xerez?
|
[
"Tuesday"
] |
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MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Miami police issued a plea for information Saturday after at least one person with an assault rifle opened fire on a crowd of people on a streetcorner Friday night, killing two teens and wounding seven other people.
Evidence markers dot the Miami street where nine people were gunned down with an AK-47 Friday night.
"We need the community to come together, someone come forward and give us a tip," Miami Police Officer Kenia Alfonso told CNN.
"There are a lot of people in that area. Someone must have seen something, someone must know who could've done this horrific crime."
Alfonso said two teens, ages 16 and 18, died in the attack, which broke up a game of craps in front of a grocery store about 9:50 p.m. Friday in the city's Liberty City neighborhood.
Five of the shooting victims were still in the hospital Saturday night, according to CNN affiliate WSVN.
Others told WSVN that a masked man with an AK-47 burst onto the scene and ordered everyone to the ground.
"Boy came round the corner; he was like, 'Get down,' and he just started shooting," 16-year-old victim Andrew Jackson told WSVN. Watch as resident describes scene as "war zone" »
Six of the nine shot were current or former Northwestern Senior High School students, Alfonso said.
"It was like a war zone," resident Joan Rutherford told WSVN. "I witnessed this guy laying there with his face, looked like it was completely tore off. His eyes was all I could see, and he had a grip on some money and gasping and trying to lift his head up to say something."
Police Chief John Timoney said that at least one man with an AK-47 "discharged numerous rounds, then ran around the corner. There were some more rounds discharged there from an AK-47 and another weapon."
One of those wounded was in critical condition Saturday and undergoing surgery, Timoney said.
"We are convinced that because of the amount of people out here last night that there is somebody that knows the individuals or individual involved, and we need them to come forward," Timoney said, according to WSVN.
"These are weapons of war, and they don't belong on the streets of Miami or any other street in America," Mayor Manuel Diaz said. Watch Miami residents call for stricter laws »
Alfonso said police did not know the motive for the shooting and had no suspects.
CNN's Patty Lane contributed to this report.
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cbc575960f20472f8e580cfcc3a605f1
|
What is "WSVN"?
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[
"CNN affiliate"
] |
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New York (CNN) -- Dennis deLeon, former New York City human rights commissioner and long-time AIDS activist, has died, according to the organization he helped launch. He was 61.
The Latino Commission on AIDS issued a news release Monday, saying that deLeon was a "pioneer" and a "visionary," as well as a "tireless advocate for social justice and one of the first openly HIV-positive Latino leaders in the country."
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg praised deLeon on Monday, saying in a statement that the activist "demonstrated a lifelong commitment to public service."
After being appointed as the director of the mayor's Commission on Latino Concerns in 1986, deLeon went on to serve in other civic roles, including being selected by then-Mayor David Dinkins in 1990 to head the New York City Commission on Human Rights.
In 1994, he returned to the private sector and helped found the Latino Commission on AIDS, where he served as its president for 15 years.
According to its Web site, "The Latino Commission on AIDS is a nonprofit membership organization dedicated to fighting the spread of HIV/AIDS in the Latino community."
"It will be a challenge to pick up the mantle Dennis has left for us at the Commission. Dennis was a friend, a mentor and an example of what a national leader should be. ... His work and his dedication to our community will not be forgotten," said Guillermo Chacon, current Latino Commission on AIDS president, in the release.
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ff835ca9e49c4c46929cf45047e46921
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What did the New York mayor do?
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[
"praised deLeon"
] |
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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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e92c23241f5a42ef9453f88b72f78046
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is anyone injured?
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[
"wounded"
] |
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(CNET) -- Amazon plans to unveil a thinner Kindle with a sharper picture in August, according to a Bloomberg News report on Saturday citing anonymous sources.
Two people familiar with the online retailer's plans told Bloomberg the next-generation e-book reader will not have a touch screen or color, but the display will be sharper and more responsive.
Earlier this week at Amazon's annual shareholder meeting in Seattle, CEO Jeff Bezos said a Kindle with a color reflective screen is still a ways off.
A story in The Wall Street Journal on the meeting quoted Bezos as saying he had "seen several things in the laboratory, but they are not quite ready for production."
The New York Times reported in February that Amazon had bought Touchco, a New York start-up developing flexible multitouch panels. That led to speculation that the e-tailer was planning an answer to the iPad, Apple's tablet device.
Bezos said Tuesday that Amazon intends to keep the Kindle focused on what it has always been -- a reading device.
CNET e-mailed Amazon on Saturday afternoon seeking a comment on the Bloomberg report. Bloomberg said a call to an Amazon representative was not returned.
On Thursday, Sony announced it is releasing its Reader -- which launched in the U.S. in 2006 -- in several new countries this year, including Japan, China, and Australia.
Also on Thursday, Marvell said it's teaming up with the One Laptop Per Child foundation to create an inexpensive tablet, which they plan to show off at CES next year.
© 2010 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. CNET, CNET.com and the CNET logo are registered trademarks of CBS Interactive Inc. Used by permission.
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632cf21b4f2f4b54929ee33a844f03b3
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What is rumored to not have a touch screen?
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[
"the next-generation e-book reader"
] |
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(CNN) -- Researchers with a Malaysian university said they have uncovered evidence of an iron industry that dates to the 3rd Century, A.D., and proves that ancient civilizations in Southeast Asia were more advanced than once thought.
The archaeologists from the Universiti Sains Malaysia found the remains of an iron smelting site, tools to pump oxygen into the iron smelting process, rooftops of buildings, beads and pots, said Mokhtar Saidan, a professor and leader of the team.
The discovery was made after a month of excavation at Lembah Bujang, a historical site in Malaysia.
"This is the first discovery of the earliest iron industry in Lembah Bujang and has been dated conclusively. This date also adds on to the facts and data on the early history of Southeast Asia," he said.
He said coal from the site was sent to a laboratory in Florida that said elements in the coal dated to the 3rd Century.
The professor said the discovery confirms that human civilization in the area was more advanced than thought and the site probably was a place for exporting iron in the 3rd Century.
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b7fccfd35e9f4b2681583b7fb50379e8
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What does the discovery prove?
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[
"ancient civilizations in Southeast Asia were more advanced than once thought."
] |
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LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The man police say was driving drunk when he ran a red light and struck a car, killing a Major League Baseball pitcher and two others has been charged with murder.
Fans gather around a memorial for Los Angeles Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart on Friday.
Andrew Thomas Gallo, 22, was charged with three counts of murder, driving under the influence and leaving the scene of a crime, the Orange County district attorney's office announced Friday.
Los Angeles Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart was among those killed in the crash in Fullerton, California, early Thursday morning. Adenhart was beginning his first full season in the majors and had pitched his fourth Major League game hours earlier.
Gallo, whose blood-alcohol level was three times the legal limit, according to police, faces up to life in prison if convicted on all charges.
According to the DA's office, Gallo was driving a minivan 65 mph in a 35 mph zone at about 12:35 a.m. Thursday. He was on probation and his license had been suspended after a previous drunk-driving charge. Watch Adenhart's agent describe his friend »
Authorities say he ran a red light and hit the car Adenhart was in, killing the pitcher, 20-year-old California State University student Courtney Stewart and law student Henry Pearson, 25.
A fourth victim, 24-year-old John Wilhite, a former baseball player at California State, remained in critical condition Friday. A driver in a third car suffered minor injuries.
Adenhart died at UC Irvine Medical Center, where he underwent surgery, according to spokesman John Murray.
The Angels' game Thursday night with the Oakland A's was postponed at the direction of MLB Commissioner Bud Selig.
"Major League Baseball is in mourning today upon the news of this tragedy that has taken Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart and two others," Selig said in a statement that accompanied the announcement. "Nick was just 22 years of age, with a wonderful life and career ahead of him."
After the wreck, Gallo fled the scene, according to the district attorney. He was captured about 30 minutes later.
Adenhart pitched in a game against the Oakland A's Wednesday night in Anaheim, California, making what was characterized as a "brilliant effort" despite the Angels' 6-4 loss, according to Major League Baseball's Web site, MLB.com.
In his fourth major league start, Adenhart pitched a scoreless six innings, allowing seven hits, three walks and five strikeouts.
"The Angels family has suffered a tremendous loss today," Tony Reagins, the team's general manager, said in a written statement. "We are deeply saddened and shocked by this tragic loss. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Nick's family, friends, loved ones and fans."
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7d8ec45184c1416d9cb6f140b0fa72d5
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Is it the driver faces any charges?
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[
"charged with three counts of murder, driving under the influence and leaving the scene of a crime,"
] |
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The Iraqi government says it has banned all organized visits to Saddam Hussein's grave amid concern over support for the late dictator's former party.
An Iraqi poet, left, gives a recital while children carry pictures of Saddam Hussein over his grave.
A Cabinet statement on Monday said it had directed authorities in Salaheddin province and the Education Ministry to "take all necessary measures" to prevent such outings.
The former dictator, along with his two sons and other relatives, is buried in his hometown of al-Ouja near Tikrit in Salaheddin north of Baghdad. And, Hussein supporters and schoolchildren have made visits there on the late dictator's birthday and hanging date.
There have been videos on sites such as YouTube of people at the site.
One video shows schoolchildren at the grave in December; they carried banners at Hussein's grave that said "We won't forget you father" and they read pro-Hussein poetry.
The government move was made after a recent visit by schoolchildren to the grave, but no reason was given for the decision.
However, the move reflects the concern of Iraq's government over the presence of the Baath Party in Iraq, Saddam Hussein's political movement.
The party and its symbols have been banned in Iraq.
On Saturday, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told reporters that while there can be government reconciliation with individual Baathists who have not committed crimes such as killing Iraqis, there can never be national reconciliation with the party itself.
Salaheddin Gov. Mutasher Hussein Alaiwi, said he had not received any official directives yet, but said he would implement Cabinet orders when he receives them.
The governor said that would apply to organized group visits, but they would not stop individual ones.
A resident of al-Ouja told CNN the government had no right to stop visitors from going to their former president's tomb.
"Even if they put police and army outside the door, they will not stop us from visiting our president, our leader and our father," said Mohammed al- Nasiri.
Hussein was executed in 2006 after an Iraqi court sentenced him to death for crimes against humanity.
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577553805618496dae18b014667c32c9
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What is the Baath party?
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[
"Saddam Hussein's political movement."
] |
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NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- A dilapidated building collapsed in Mumbai, India, on Wednesday, killing at least 16 people who had defied orders to vacate the structure, a police spokesman told CNN.
Rescue workers clear away debris after a building collapsed Wednesday in Mumbai, India.
Another 26 people were injured and hospitalized, the spokesman said. Mumbai city officials had told residents living in the old building to leave it because of structural concerns.
The chief minister of Maharashtra state, Vilasrao Deshmukh, visited the building hours after the collapse to pay his respects to the victims.
Last July, another building collapse in Mumbai -- formerly Bombay -- killed 26 people.
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d17d0d96d5f84decac2be76eb6c6d5f3
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How many people are injured?
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[
"26"
] |
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MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- A cult member who spent several months holed up in a cave with dozens of other people anticipating the end of the world claimed Wednesday that two women died and were buried inside.
An above-ground kitchen used by the doomsday cult in the Penza region during the summer.
The former cave-dweller, Vitaly Nedogon, relayed his claims to Russian TV journalists, according to Anton Sharonov, a spokesman for the administration of Penza, a region southeast of Moscow.
The official said Nedogon did not report the information to police or authorities. Once the rest of the apocalyptic sect leaves the cave, investigators will move in to try to confirm Nedogon's report, Sharonov said.
Nedogon and others left the cave, said to be near the village of Nikolskoye, about 700 kilometers (435 miles) from the Russian capital, about a week ago, after part of its ceiling collapsed.
He claimed two women died at different times during the cult's seclusion, which began in November 2007. One woman died of cancer and the other from excessive fasting, he told the media.
"However," Sharonov told the Russian news agency Interfax, "the Penza regional administration is of the view that these deaths must be proven legally, which is possible only if all the people leave the cave so that investigative officials can examine it."
Sharonov said those who remain in the cave told Penza officials during negotiations that they would come out by the Russian Orthodox Easter, on April 27. He said officials believe 11 people are left in the cave, but only nine will be alive if Nedogon's report is true.
According to Interfax, Penza Deputy Governor Oleg Melnichenko, who is leading the local effort to resolve the situation, said he was unaware of any deaths in the cave.
The cave ordeal began when Kuznetsov, the group's leader, told his followers to hide themselves to await the end of the world, which he predicted would take place in May.
They had threatened to commit mass suicide if authorities tried to intervene.
Thirty-five sect members are believed to have entered the cave initially, Interfax said. E-mail to a friend
From CNN's Maxim Tkachenko in Moscow.
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c54188aaa9c34014a8d4d8328c007d92
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Who claimed that a woman died from cancer?
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[
"Vitaly Nedogon,"
] |
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LONDON, England (CNN) -- Up to 1,000 human rights campaigners demonstrated Saturday in front of No. 10 Downing Street, the official residence of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, calling on the British government to demand that full democracy be restored in Pakistan.
Jemima Khan, center, ex-wife for former Pakistani cricket star Imran Khan, joins protesters in London.
Protesters waved placards and chanted in support of the resignation of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, a week after he imposed a state of emergency in the country.
The crowd of demonstrators massed behind barriers and included Jemima Khan, the ex-wife of former Pakistani cricket star turned politician Imran Khan.
The demonstrators carried placards saying "Free the innocent" and "End Musharraf's Regime" and waved Pakistani flags.
Imran Khan, who heads the the Movement for Justice Party, has been under house arrest since the emergency declaration.
His ex-wife delivered a petition to a doorman at Downing Street, calling on Britain to use its influence to ensure that all institutions are in place well in advance of Pakistani elections originally scheduled for early next year. The petition also demands that Pakistan restore democracy and the judiciary and calls on Musharraf to release all political prisoners, including lawyers, journalists and opposition politicians. E-mail to a friend
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0424383aad7b4deda904810fbdc2c6d4
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Who demonstrated in fron of No. 10 Downing Street?
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[
"Up to 1,000 human rights campaigners"
] |
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BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- Germany's richest woman has said a former lover has threatened to release pictures of them together if she does not pay him millions of euros (dollars), according to her spokesman.
Susanne Klatten holds a 12.5-percent stake in BMW.
Susanne Klatten's spokesman Joerg Appelhans told CNN Tuesday that the BMW heiress alerted police in January this year that she was the victim of fraud and blackmail by a man he identified as Mr. S.
Appelhans said the man had been threatening since autumn 2007 to release pictures of their "meetings" together.
Klatten "came to the conclusion that the relationship with Mr. S. was of a solely criminal nature," Appelhans said. Some German media reports say Klatten is one of four rich German women who have been preyed on by the same gang.
"His goal was from the beginning to con her and to blackmail her into giving him money. She rigorously notified authorities even in light of the uncomfortable public repercussions this would have for her. The ensuing criminal investigation led to the arrest of the perpetrator," Appelhans added.
"The blackmailing with pictures of the meetings they had began in the fall of 2007. First, the blackmailer demanded a loan of several million euros. Later, he attempted to solicit a much larger sum."
Anton Winkler, from the Munich state prosecutor's office, confirmed that an investigation has been opened and that a man called Helg Scarbi was arrested in January and is in custody in Munich. He declined to give further details.
Rome daily La Repubblica, quoting documents German investigators sent to Italian prosecutors, has reported that the suspect allegedly tried to obtain €40 million ($51 million) from Klatten, according to The Associated Press.
Klatten, the daughter of the late BMW chief Herbert Quandt, holds a 12.5-percent stake in the German carmaker and a 51.1-percent share of chemical company Altana.
In 2007 Forbes magazine listed her as the world's 68th richest person, with a personal fortune of $9.6 billion.
CNN's Frederik Pleitgen contributed to this report.
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cbf82c11602b496ab5c5922466f51387
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When was the blackmailer arrested?
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[
"January"
] |
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(CNN) -- An explosion caused by a chemical reaction at a University of Maryland-College Park chemistry lab caused minor injuries to two students and forced authorities to evacuate the four-story building, according to the Prince George's Fire Department.
Initial reports described an explosion and fire inside the building, but fire department spokesman Mark Brady said in a post to the department's Twitter account that there was no fire. The department's hazardous materials team was preparing to go into the building, he said.
Two students were being treated at the scene for first-degree chemical burns and superficial cuts, Brady said on the social networking service.
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ac7e138f50c54cb59a8900977327ef5e
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where was the incident?
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[
"University of Maryland-College Park chemistry"
] |
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WHEATON, Illinois (AP) -- A gunman who took a dozen hostages in a suburban Chicago bank after wresting a gun from a police officer Friday died after shooting himself in the head, police said.
Hostages were released Friday after a gunman killed himself in suburban Chicago, police say.
The standoff began around 1:30 p.m., after a Wheaton police officer responded to a call of a hit-and-run accident near the bank.
When the officer arrived, the suspect grabbed the officer from behind, held a knife to his throat and demanded his gun, Deputy Chief Thomas Meloni said.
During an ensuing struggle, the officer was cut on a forearm and the suspect was able to take the gun and run the lobby of the Wheaton Bank & Trust, where he ordered everyone to the floor, Meloni said.
Police in Wheaton, about 20 miles west of Chicago, did not immediately release the gunman's identity.
As officers evacuated nearby businesses and homes and shut down streets and rail service, hostage negotiators talked to the gunman by phone. They were able to persuade him to release 10 hostages, leaving two behind, Meloni said.
"At one point the suspect began to close the blinds from inside the bank and he disconnected the phone contact with the hostage negotiators," Meloni said.
Shortly afterward, about 4:15 p.m., officers heard a single gunshot and they rushed in, Meloni said. He said the man was dead of a single gunshot wound to the head.
A spokeswoman for Central DuPage Hospital, Amy Steinbruecker, said the hospital treated and released the police officer who scuffled with the suspect for minor injuries.
Television footage showed dozens of people running from the four-story bank building, which includes other businesses, with their hands above their heads.
"We locked our office door, turned off the lights, drew the blinds," said Donna Price, 52, of McHenry, who works in the office building. "Then we heard a knock on the door and it was a SWAT guy. He told us to get out right now.
"I said, 'Let me get my purse.' He said, 'No, now."'
Price said police held people in a stairwell of the building before ordering them out.
"We all had to put our hands up on the back of our heads and run," Price said from a convenience store across the street where more than 100 people were crowded.
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2b96be450459491b864417d71ac6a1fd
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Who shot the suspect?
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[
"shooting himself in the head,"
] |
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Washington (CNN) -- Nearly two years into the recession, opinion about which political party is responsible for the severe economic downturn is shifting, according to a new national poll.
A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Friday morning indicates that 38 percent of the public blames Republicans for the country's current economic problems. In May, 53 percent blamed the GOP.
According to the poll, 27 percent now blame the Democrats for the recession, up 6 points from May, and 27 percent now say both parties are responsible.
"The bad news for the Democrats is that the number of Americans who hold the GOP exclusively responsible for the recession has been steadily falling by about two to three points per month," said Keating Holland, CNN polling director. "At that rate, only a handful of voters will blame the economy on the Republicans by the time next year's midterm elections roll around.."
Thirty-six percent of people questioned said that President Obama's policies have improved economic conditions, with 28 percent feeling that the president's programs have made things worse, and 35 percent saying what he's done has had no effect on the economy.
One reason for that, Holland said, may be the growing federal budget deficit: Two-thirds say that the government should balance the budget even in a time of war and recession.
The survey indicates that only 18 percent said the economic conditions in the country today are good, down 3 points from August. Eighty-two percent said economic conditions are poor.
"Some economic indicators may suggest that the economy has turned the corner -- but try telling that to the American people," Holland said.
The number of Americans who said the economy is in good shape -- a number that grew steadily through the spring and summer -- has now stalled, with fewer than one in five expressing a positive view of current conditions. More than eight in 10 say that economic conditions are in poor shape, with 43 percent calling them very poor.
The CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll was conducted November 13-15, with 1,014 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.
CNN Deputy Political Director Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
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776a1c6ccc8945a39d1e30323f32e933
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What percentage blame Democrats?
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[
"27 percent"
] |
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(CNN) -- Sin Hwa Dee began operations in the 1970s as a cottage industry in the former soya sauce-producing enclave of Kim Chuan Road, in the Paya Lebar area of Singapore.
Mr. and Mrs. Chng Kee started out producing soya and oyster sauces, bean paste and plum paste in the 1970s.
It was founded by the late Mr. Chng Kee, a former soya salesman, who ran the business with his wife, a soya production operator.
Together they sold mainly soya and oyster sauces, bean paste and plum paste in bulk under the Sin Hwa Dee label to the restaurant, hotel and catering industries.
In 1990, the company began producing the preserved fruits and vegetables used to make the traditional Lunar New Year dish of Yu Sheng.
One of Sin Hwa Dee's factories is dedicated exclusively to the production of Yu Sheng products, while another factory produces noodles for the restaurant and catering industries.
Mr. Chng's daughter Jocelyn first decided to introduce the company's products to the foreign market when she attended the SIAL exhibition in Paris in 1992, noting that there was a clear interest in Asian food.
Sin Hwa Dee's first premix, the Laksa Paste, was launched into the food services market under the CHNG Kee's label in 1994, followed by the Kung Bo Sauce, the Black Pepper Sauce and their famous chicken rice mix.
In 1996, the company invested heavily in equipment and technology to produce sauces and premixes in bottles for the retail market under the CHNG Kee's label.
In 2005, Sin Hwa Dee moved into their own building, CHNG Kee's Foodlink, located in Senoko South Road, north of Singapore, with a production team of over 75 employees producing more than 20 tons of sauces per day.
Today, their clientele includes Singapore Airlines, Pizza Hut, KFC, Burger King, hotels such as the Ritz Carlton, Conrad International Centenniel, Raffles Hotel, Hilton Hotel, Marriott Hotel, and restaurants such as Lei Garden and Crystal Jade.
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e4149f5d8f6f416aa17f24e42c3439d0
|
What is dedicated exclusively to Yu Sheng products?
|
[
"One of Sin Hwa Dee's factories"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- Aerosmith announced the cancellation of the remainder of its summer tour Thursday, more than a week after the band's lead singer tumbled off stage in South Dakota.
Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler fell off stage August 5 while dancing to "Love in an Elevator."
"Due to injuries Steven Tyler sustained last week when he fell from the stage during a concert in Sturgis, South Dakota, doctors have advised the lead singer to take the time to properly recuperate from the accident that resulted in a broken shoulder and stitches to his head," the band said in a statement.
The accident happened August 5 during a concert at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in western South Dakota.
Tyler was dancing during "Love in an Elevator" when he fell. He was airlifted to a local hospital for initial treatment before returning to Boston, Massachusetts, for treatment with his own doctors.
"Words can't express the sadness I feel for having to cancel this tour," said guitarist Joe Perry. "We hope we can get the Aerosmith machine up and running again as soon as possible."
"We never anticipated this tour coming to such a swift and unfortunate ending," guitarist Brad Whitford said. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to Steven for a speedy recovery and return to good health."
Tyler's fall was the second mishap for the lead singer during their tour with ZZ Top. Five shows were postponed in July after Tyler sprained his leg.
The band said refunds will be issued for all canceled shows.
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b80f818d4adc4e6ea2e6c7aac00443db
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What is the name of the lead singer?
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[
"Steven Tyler"
] |
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ROME, Italy (CNN) -- Police made a string of arrests across Europe Tuesday, detaining 20 people suspected of involvement in the recruitment of suicide bombers, Italian police said.
Eleven of the arrests were in Italy, in the northern cities of Milan, Reggio Emilia, Bergamo, and San Remo, said. Lt. Col. Sandro Sandulli, the head of the Carabinieri special forces. One was already in custody, so authorities served him with a new arrest warrant which included new charges against him, Sandulli said.
Three arrests were in Britain, one in France, and one in Portugal, Sandulli said. The remaining arrests happened in European countries but Sandulli did not specify which ones.
Those arrested are suspected of forming Salafi Jihad terrorist cells which were recruiting suicide bombers and sending them to Iraq and Afghanistan, said Col. Mario Parente, deputy commander of the Carabinieri special forces unit.
Parente said that during the arrests, police found al Qaeda manuals for the production of explosives, detonation devices, and various poisons. He said the manuals also included details of guerrilla-style war operations.
Salafi is an extreme school of Islamic thought which developed in Egypt and began to have prominence with militant groups there in the late 1960s and has since been adopted by terrorist groups in North Africa, the Middle East, and Europe, said Sajjan Gohel, director of international security at the Asia Pacific Foundation in London.
"It's become the ideology of choice for transnational terrorism, including al Qaeda," Gohel said. "It's emerging as a very dangerous ideology."
The Madrid train bombers and various terrorist cells in Italy were part of the Salafi school of thought, he added.
Italian police said Tuesday's arrests were the result of an investigation, started in 2003, into some Salafi cells which were organized by Tunisians and Algerians. The main suspect in the operation is a Tunisian who was arrested in 2002 during a separate antiterrorism operation, police said.
The main terrorist cell was based in the northern Italian region of Lombardy and involved what investigators called a "long-term" jihadist program which provided military and ideological training.
Another cell, based in Reggio Emilia, had the goal of creating a grand Islamic "empire" stretching from Morocco to China, police said.
Parente said those arrested are also accused of producing false documents, facilitating illegal immigration, and covering up other individuals wanted for terrorism-related crimes. E-mail to a friend
CNN's Flavia Taggiasco in Rome contributed to this report
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24d5b65ca53e4929979541ae3460cffd
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Where were they all caught?
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[
"Europe"
] |
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama will place tariffs on imports of some Chinese tires for three years in an effort to curb a surge in exports that has rocked the U.S. tire industry.
The White House announced plans to impose tariffs on some tires entering the United States from China.
The new tariffs will be on passenger car and light truck tires, the White House said in a statement Friday night.
"The president decided to remedy the clear disruption to the U.S. tire industry based on the facts and the law in this case," the statement said.
The tariffs will start at 35 percent in the first year, then would decline to 30 percent in the second year and 25 percent in the third.
Chinese leaders have in the past expressed displeasure about a possible tire tariff.
"We hope the U.S. government will refrain from taking action, for the long-term healthy and stable development of U.S.-Chinese relations," Fu Ziying, China's vice commerce minister, told local media in August.
"The case is neither supported by facts nor does it have valid legal grounds," he added.
|
90978a207796400e841f4409e0f76c92
|
what is U.S. to impose tariffs on?
|
[
"imports of some Chinese tires"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- Two international staffers supporting the peacekeeping mission in the volatile Sudanese region of Darfur were kidnapped Saturday morning, a spokesman for the peacekeeping force told CNN.
Soldiers with the United Nations Assistance Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) pictured in June.
The man and the woman, whose identities and nationalities were withheld, worked for UNAMID, a U.N. and African Union force designated to keep peace in Darfur.
"Our people have been able to establish contact with the people responsible for the abduction," said UNAMID spokesman Noureddine Mezni, but he declined to identify the abductors.
The organization is "asking for their immediate release," Mezni added.
The peacekeeping force began operations in Darfur in December 2007 and is expected to remain there until July 2010, according to UNAMID's Web site.
As of July 31 its force is comprised of more than 13,000 troops from 39 countries. As of June 30, 999 international civilian personnel were on staff, according to the site.
The United Nations estimates that 300,000 people have been killed in the conflict in Darfur, and 2.5 million have been forced to flee their homes. Sudan denies the death toll is that high.
The violence in Darfur erupted in 2003 after rebels began an uprising against the Sudanese government.
To counter the rebels, Arab militias with ties to the Sudanese government went from village to village in Darfur, killing, torturing and raping residents there, according to the United Nations, Western governments and human rights organizations. The militias targeted civilian members of tribes from which the rebels drew strength.
CNN's Ben Brumfield contributed to this report
|
115bcbe542334dc2ab81e21e924f209a
|
What erupted in 2003?
|
[
"The violence in Darfur"
] |
NewsQA
|
(Mashable) -- The AP Stylebook has released its new social media guidelines, including the official change from"Web site" to "website" (a move first reported back in April) and 41 other definitions, use cases and rules that journalists should follow.
Among the more interesting changes -- at least from a grammar and style standpoint -- are separating out "smart phone" as two words, hyphenating "e-reader," and allowing fan, friend and follow to be used both as nouns and verbs.
Beyond that, the AP has also defined a number of acronyms that are commonly used in texting and instant messaging. While most of them should be fairly well-known to regular web and mobile phone users (ROFL, BRB and G2G are among the definitions) one actually was new to me: POS.
According to the AP, this stands for "parent over shoulder" (I've used POS to refer to something else occasionally, but I digress), and is used by "teens and children to indicate, in an IM conversation, that a parent is approaching." Elsewhere, other terms making the cut include "trending," "retweet" and "unfriend" ("defriend" is also acceptable, though the AP concludes it's less common).
Finally, the AP also offers some basic rules of thumb for how social media should and shouldn't be used by journalists, with a focus on making sure they continue to confirm sources and information they find on blogs, tweets and other forms of social media.
The full 2010 AP Stylebook, which includes the new social media guidelines, was released today and is available on the AP's Web site.
© 2010 MASHABLE.com. All rights reserved.
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f291294737bb47e78427cbbf029b8dbc
|
What has also defined a number of acronyms?
|
[
"the AP"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- A shadowy figure in the back seat of an SUV in surveillance photos is a second "person of interest" in the slaying of the University of North Carolina student body president, police said Monday.
Investigators say a second male appears in the back seat in this ATM photo, which has been colorized.
Police on Saturday released photos taken by an ATM camera that show a young man driving a sport utility vehicle possibly using one of student Eve Carson's ATM cards in the Chapel Hill area.
A large, shadowy form appears in the back seat of the vehicle, which police say may have been Carson's.
Carson, 22, was found shot to death early Wednesday in a suburban neighborhood near the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus. Her Toyota Highlander was found the next day in another neighborhood to the west, close to where she lived with roommates.
"We do believe there is a second unidentified male seated in the rear seat," the Chapel Hill Police Department said in a statement. "We have been exploring ways to enhance the quality of this photo in an effort to learn more about this person."
Police have not identified the pictured driver, who was wearing a hooded sweatshirt and a vintage Houston Astros baseball cap.
Chapel Hill Police Chief Brian Curran said Saturday that Carson's killing "feels like a random crime."
The medical examiner told police that there were no injuries to Carson's body besides gunshot wounds and no signs of sexual assault, Curran said.
On Sunday, more than 1,000 people crowded the First United Methodist Church in Carson's hometown of Athens, Georgia, for her funeral, the Athens Banner-Herald reported.
The University of North Carolina will hold a memorial service for Carson after students return from this week's spring break, Chancellor James Moeser said in a statement on the school's Web site.
On Saturday, the school's top-ranked men's basketball team wore reminders of the popular student president on their jerseys as they took on Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Watch as students remember the slain campus leader »
The North Carolina players wore patches on the jerseys that simply read "Eve," and many of Duke's fans donned small light-blue ribbons as a show of support.
A moment of silence for Carson also was held before tipoff.
The UNC-Chapel Hill board of trustees has pledged $25,000 to the Crime Stoppers program in the area for information leading to the arrest of anyone responsible in Carson's slaying. Carson was a student member of the board. E-mail to a friend
|
ea7783a162f8450da855458c13f71945
|
what was he using
|
[
"Eve Carson's ATM cards"
] |
NewsQA
|
DENDERMONDE, Belgium (CNN) -- Authorities have charged a 20-year-old man with murder and attempted murder in a stabbing rampage at a Belgian nursery school that left two children and a staff member dead and a dozen others wounded.
A family pays tribute Friday evening outside the nursery school in Dendermonde, Belgium.
The regional prosecutor's office identified the man, who has been in custody since Friday, as Kim D., and would not release his last name. They said he lives alone in Sinaai, a city about 20 kilometers (12 miles) outside of Dendermonde.
He has no police record and is unemployed, the office said.
Authorities allege the man, whose face was painted white with black rings around his eyes, entered the Fabeltjesland (Fable Land) nursery school midmorning Friday and began stabbing those inside.
He entered the building through a side door, typically only used by parents who are late in arriving to pick up their children from the school, authorities said. Once inside, he went through several rooms in the center.
The dead included the head of the nursery, a woman in her 60s who was well known in the town, residents said. The other victims were young; the nursery cared for children up to the age of three. Watch report on attack »
Authorities caught up with him about an hour-and-a-half later after the attack ended, the ministry said. At the time of his arrest, he had on him a knife, an ax and a fake pistol. He was wearing a bullet-proof vest, authorities said.
Two other knives were found at the nursery school, but it has not been confirmed whether they were used in the attack.
Kim D. has said nothing to authorities regarding the attack, the prosecutor's office said.
Authorities have searched his home, but they did not release any information from the search. Watch description of what happened »
The suspect, who is being held in jail, is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday morning. The judge has assigned three doctors to monitor him, authorities said. Earlier, authorities said he was not registered with any psychiatric institution.
Dendermonde, about 16 miles northwest of Brussels, is a tight-knit community of about 40,000 people, residents said. Fabeltjesland lies off a park and is not easy to find from the road.
On Saturday, the nursery stood quiet and boarded up, with tributes of flowers, cuddly toys and cards left outside.
|
697a22cae0d64ba68d156c0b5d368da7
|
Is the town near Brussels?
|
[
"16 miles northwest of"
] |
NewsQA
|
Muscat, Oman (CNN) -- Cyclone Phet weakened as it churned along coastal Oman Friday, dumping up to 25 centimeters (10 inches) of rain on the region.
Phet, once a powerful Category 4 storm, has been downgraded to Category 1 with winds of about 140 km/hr (86 mph), according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center.
Yet Phet brought massive flooding to Muscat and whipped the capital with winds gusting above 200 km/hr (125 mph) at the height of the storm.
The storm is forecast to reenter the Arabian Sea late Friday or early Saturday before making a projected landfall near Karachi, Pakistan, Sunday.
In Pakistan, authorities dispatched Navy helicopters to alert fishermen near Karachi and parts of Balochistan to the expected arrival of Cyclone Phet and to urge them to return to shore, the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan reported Thursday.
Navy units were on high alert should they be needed in the aftermath of the cyclone.
Fourteen families marooned Thursday by high tides were evacuated by helicopter to higher ground, said Pakistani Chief of Naval Staff Adm. Nauman Bashir.
Civilians along Pakistan's coast will receive priority in the relief effort, dubbed "Operation Madad," should it be needed, he said.
The Pakistan navy secured its ships near the threatened areas, Deputy Chief of Naval Staff (Operations) Vice Adm. Abass Raza told reporters in Islamabad.
"All the assets of Pakistan navy are safe and necessary precautionary measures have been taken to ensure their safety in case cyclone Phet hits the coastal areas of country," he said.
|
7313531216a142228f430f677be92230
|
what has dumped heavy rain
|
[
"Cyclone Phet"
] |
NewsQA
|
Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud is alive and remains in hiding, a spokesman for the group told CNN Thursday.
"Hakimullah Mehsud is alive and he is our chief," said spokesman Azim Tariq. "All the reports regarding his death are propaganda."
Tariq said Mehsud remains in hiding because he is being targeted by U.S. drone attacks but "is still in command of the mujahedeen."
Authorities have been looking into reports that Mehsud died after being wounded last month in a drone attack.
One news report, citing local sources and a correspondent, said he died and was buried. But Pakistani and U.S. officials said they have not been able to confirm Mehsud's status.
|
ae3cb7eae4e845d698b5ba72e993b679
|
Who was previously reported dead and buried?
|
[
"Hakimullah Mehsud"
] |
NewsQA
|
LONDON, England (CNN) -- Vladimir Putin spent the Russian New Year boogying to the hits of ABBA after spending $30,000 to fly a tribute band to a lake town north of Moscow.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin flew an ABBA tribute band to Russia for a private concert.
According to Bjorn Again founder, Rod Stephen, Putin disco pointed to the ABBA classics "Super Trouper" and "Mamma Mia" at a gathering of only eight guests.
Stephen said he received a phone call from the Kremlin prior to Christmas.
"It was pretty mad. It was the type of phone call everyone gets everyday from Moscow. I thought someone was taking the piss."
Stephen said an agent in Moscow then set the gig up, and he was told it was for Russia's "number two."
He said the band were flown to Moscow and then had a nine-hour bus trip to Lake Valdai -- where Putin has held high-level meetings in the past -- on January 22 (the traditional date of Russian New Year's eve).
"The band and crew were searched at checkpoints by people with appropriately sized weapons," Stephen said.
He said the band played behind a heavy gauze curtain, which made it hard for them to see the audience.
However, the could make out Putin's profile and that of the other seven guests.
Stephen said it was initially "roaring" at the venue.
"When the band started people were sitting on sofas. But then Putin was up and dancing to Super Trouper and Mamma Mia, pointing fingers up and down."
The band played for an hour before being shown out as the guests went to watch a fireworks display.
Stephen said they were paid $30,000 and their expenses covered.
He described it as the "weirdest" gig the band had done.
"I've had phone calls from the agency saying 'don't talk to anyone else we are getting grief from the Kremlin,' but there was no non-disclosure contract."
|
b8281570ab3f4a8c86b6a9c35aef8ebc
|
Who gave a private concert?
|
[
"ABBA tribute band"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- A legally insane killer who escaped in Washington state during a field trip to a fair was recaptured Sunday, the Spokane County Sheriff's Department said.
Authorities combed Washington state for Phillip Paul, a killer who escaped Thursday during a field trip.
Phillip Paul, who was on the run for three days, had been planning the break for "at least the last several months," Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich said at a news conference.
Paul was recaptured at about 4 p.m. PT in Goldendale, Washington, sheriff's Sgt. Dave Reagan said. Goldendale is about 250 miles from the site of Paul's escape from a county fair in Spokane County, Washington.
Police received a tip Saturday afternoon that Paul was dropped off by a person he managed to dupe into giving him a ride to Goldendale, Knezovich said. Police spotted him hiding in a wooded area about 100 yards from the drop-off point Sunday and eventually arrested him while he was trying to hitch another ride, Knezovich said.
Sheriff's officials told CNN affiliate KREM-TV that Paul also escaped briefly in 1991 and assaulted a law enforcement officer. That same officer was involved in arresting Paul on Sunday, Reagan said.
Paul, 47, escaped at around noon Thursday.
Though Paul had been confined in a mental institution because of a murder confession, he was allowed to go on the trip to the county fair.
Paul had packed all his personal belongings in a large backpack before leaving on the trip, which the sheriff said should have been a sign that Paul was "about ready to do something this drastic."
Paul was committed to Eastern State Hospital after admitting he strangled and slit the throat of community activist Ruth Motley in 1987, KREM-TV reported. According to court documents obtained by KREM, Paul believed Motley was a witch and killed her in response to voices in his head.
He subsequently burned a deer carcass as a sacrifice, according to the documents.
Paul's escape Thursday prompted a massive manhunt and brought criticism from many, including state government officials and police.
"There was an extreme amount of anger throughout the law enforcement community that this event even took place," Knezovich said. "This is a situation, in my opinion, that should have never happened."
Knezovich also complained that hospital officials had not reported Paul's escape for two hours, which he said also hindered the investigation.
A review of the policy that allows patients to take trips has been launched, said Susan Dreyfus, secretary of the Washington's Department of Social and Health Services. Dreyfus said she was concerned about Paul's escape and another recent brief escape by a patient at a different local mental facility.
|
75baeef2c5e54299ac945c21c498942a
|
When did authorities recapture him?
|
[
"Sunday,"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- This week's shooting death and subsequent dragging of a black man in South Carolina are being investigated as a possible hate crime, the Newberry County Sheriff's Office said Friday.
Sheriff Lee Foster said the body of 30-year-old Anthony Hill was found early Wednesday on a road near an elementary school in the town of Pomaria, 35 miles west-northwest of Columbia.
Hill had a single gun shot wound to the head, his body was nearly nude and a rope was around his neck and upper torso, Foster said.
Foster said Hill's body -- which carried no identification -- was found around 4:30 a.m. Wednesday by a motorist, who called 911. Officers followed a trail of blood and human tissue nine miles to the trailer park where Hill's co-worker Gregory Collins lives, surrounded his trailer for nearly four hours and finally resorted to tear gas, Foster said. "He came outside and gave himself up," Foster added.
Collins, 19, who is white, is charged with murder. Both men worked in Newberry at the Louis Rich turkey processing plant, said Foster.
"They did know each other; they worked in the same industry, on the same shift but different divisions," said Foster. "Neighbors told us the two spent most of the day together Tuesday. They were seen on a porch drinking together."
Hill, an Army veteran who lived in the neighboring county of Fairfield, was estranged from his wife and had two children, Foster said.
Investigators have not concluded that the killing is a hate crime, but are looking at it as one, according to Foster. "We called the FBI out of an abundance of caution," he said. "We have no motive whatsoever as to why these two gentlemen would have been together, then one shoots the other in the head and drags him down the road. It's a horrific act of violence."
Collins, who is being held in the Newberry County Detention Center, has been assigned a public defender.
Funeral arrangements are pending.
|
c558428d40334b20b737986672d9b88d
|
where the man worked
|
[
"Louis Rich turkey processing plant,"
] |
NewsQA
|
NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- India's child-rights watchdog has sought a report from police investigating allegations by a tabloid that the father of a "Slumdog Millionaire" child star tried to sell her to an undercover reporter, the watchdog's leader told CNN.
Rubina Ali has backed her father over newspaper allegations he offered her to an undercover reporter.
"We have sought a report from them and will take a decision after seeing it," said Shantha Sinha, who heads the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights.
Meanwhile, authorities in Mumbai have recorded the statements of Rafiq Qureshi; his "Slumdog" daughter, Rubina Ali; and his former wife, Khurshida Begum, senior police inspector Prakash Salunke told CNN.
Qureshi has denied allegations made in Britain's News of the World that he tried to sell 9-year-old Rubina for £200,000 ($290,000), Salunke said.
In her statement, the child-actor favored her father, according to the police.
Qureshi's former wife, whom he divorced several years ago, endorsed the allegations leveled against him by the British newspaper.
Police are investigating, Salunke said.
"Slumdog Millionaire" won eight Oscars this year, including best picture.
Director Danny Boyle's rags-to-riches movie tells the story of a tea-boy at a Mumbai call center who earns a spot in the Indian version of the quiz show "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?" He raises the suspicion of the show's host when, despite the lack of a formal education, he begins to answer the increasingly difficult questions with ease.
The movie is set largely among the poverty-stricken districts of Mumbai, which is home to Rubina and other "Slumdog" child stars in real life.
|
fb292b614a524af0a7e1ba49808f9aed
|
What is the father of Rubina Ali being accused of?
|
[
"tried to sell her to an undercover reporter,"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- France has been chosen to host the 2016 European Football Championship.
France beat off the challenge of Italy and Turkey to win the decision, which was made by the 13 members of the UEFA executive committee.
UEFA president Michel Platini unveiled the name of France in a ceremony at its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland on Friday.
It will be the third time the country has hosted the tournament, having previously staged it in 1960 and 1984.
France won the competition in 1984, captained by Platini, and again in 2000.
"This is a beautiful day for us," French Football Federation president Jean-Pierre Escalettes told the official UEFA Web site.
France also hosted the World Cup in 1938 and 1998.
The bid was strongly supported by French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who spoke in the final round of bid presentations to the UEFA officials earlier in the day.
Turkish president Abdullah Gul was in Geneva to back his country's bid, while Italy were represented by sports minister Rocco Crimi.
The final decision was tight, with UEFA revealing that France beaten Turkey seven votes to six in the second round of voting after Italy had been eliminated.
France will follow Ukraine and Poland, the co-hosts of Euro 2012, which is the last championship under the current format of 16 nations.
The 2016 event will comprise 24 teams in the finals and will be extended by a further week to accommodate the extra matches.
The French bid included 12 stadiums, four of which will be new, in 11 cities.
The Stade de France where France beat Brazil in the 1998 World Cup final, Paris Saint Germain's Parc des Princes, Lens, Lille, Bordeaux, Nice, Toulouse, Marseille, Lyon, Strasbourg, Saint Etienne and Nancy are the proposed venues.
|
d6f0e51e88914724a2f1bb46d396b308
|
What did France win the right to do?
|
[
"host the 2016 European Football Championship."
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- The Israel Defense Forces called off a raid after one of its combat soldiers posted information about the operation, including the time and place, on Facebook, the IDF said Wednesday.
"On Wednesday, we are cleaning up (the village). Today - arrest. On Thursday, God willing, we will be home," the soldier, who was not identified, posted on the social networking site, according to IDF.
The post was removed after other soldiers in the company saw it online and reported it to their commanders, IDF said.
"The division commander decided to cancel the operation out of concern that the information had reached hostile groups and would harm IDF forces," it said.
The soldier was sentenced to 10 days imprisonment and was removed from his battalion and all combat postings, IDF said. His combat certificate also was revoked.
IDF soldiers are prohibited from posting classified information online, including photographs of military interests.
|
bd4ea79bd16b4d1889835e2d649486c5
|
What punishment did the soldier receive?
|
[
"10 days imprisonment and was removed from his battalion and all combat postings,"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- The Bangladeshi military has revised the number of army officers missing after last week's bloody uprising, from 72 down to six.
Bangladeshi soldiers carry a coffin during a funeral Monday for victims of last week's mutiny.
The earlier number was based on "assumptions," said Lt. Gen. Sina Ibn Jamali, the army chief of general staff.
"The numbers we are giving now are grounded in facts," Jamali told reporters Sunday night.
Authorities said confusion arose because no one knew for sure how many officers were inside the Bangladesh Rifles headquarters when paramilitary troops, or jawans, staged a bloody revolt and took dozens of them hostage Wednesday.
Search crews have recovered 73 bodies from a river, sewers and three mass graves inside the Rifles compound in the Pilkhana area of the capital, Dhaka.
Of those bodies, 53 were confirmed as those of army officers.
Meanwhile, an army investigation into the 35-hour rebellion began Monday.
The police have filed murder charges against more than 1,000 Rifles, and soldiers were out in full force throughout Bangladesh looking for them.
The 65,000-strong Rifles is a border security force -- distinct from the army, but whose commanders are career army officers.
The jawans had complained for years that their army superiors dismissed their appeals for more pay, subsidized food and the opportunity to participate in U.N. peacekeeping operations, which pay far more than what they make at home.
The two-day standoff ended after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina promised the jawans amnesty if they laid down their arms.
She has backtracked since, saying the government will not show mercy to those who killed, looted or committed arson.
|
d2ae3cb44d5e4434bc39c103fb83781e
|
How many are missing after the mutiny?
|
[
"six."
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- Nearly eight years later, Connie Chung still remembers being surprised.
"Stonewalling is what gets politicians in trouble, when they ... try to cover up," Connie Chung says.
It was one of those television moments that linger in the national consciousness, like Barbara Walters sitting down with Monica Lewinsky, Dan Rather with Saddam Hussein, or Jay Leno asking Hugh Grant what the hell he had been thinking.
Chung was with ABC then, and she got the "get" -- the first interview with Gary Condit, the California congressman at the center of the Chandra Levy media frenzy.
The former Washington intern, you'll recall, had been found murdered in Rock Creek Park, and law enforcement sources let it be known that the married Condit had been having an affair with her.
In an interview airing Sunday on "Reliable Sources" (10 a.m. ET, during CNN's "State of the Union with John King"), Chung says she was surprised when Condit refused to acknowledge the romantic relationship.
"Stonewalling is what gets politicians in trouble, when they stonewall or they try to cover up," she says.
"I think that the general public and the news media wanted him to be honest, and if he could be honest about that part of the story, then he could be -- then he would be believed when he was answering other questions as to whether or not he had anything to do with her disappearance."
I often focus on media excess and media mistakes on the program, but we also try to highlight good journalism. The segment includes two Washington Post reporters, Sari Horwitz and Scott Higham, who cracked the Levy mystery in a 13-part series last year. They did what the D.C. police could not: They identified Ingmar Guandique, an illegal Salvadoran immigrant, as Levy's likely killer. Authorities issued an arrest warrant for the imprisoned suspect this week.
But Horwitz and Higham talk about how they were roundly criticized for resurrecting the case and accused of sensationalizing it. It's clear that Levy's case became a huge deal in 2001 because of the Condit connection.
At the same time, Chung says, "The news media had changed. This was the gradual evolution of what the news media was doing. There was flavor of the week, the story du jour."
The Levy frenzy became the precursor for the missing-women TV melodramas that followed: Laci Peterson, Stacy Peterson, Natalee Holloway. The stories of women who were not celebrities, whom no one had heard of before, became national soap operas because they drove cable and morning show ratings.
At least, in Levy's case, the soap opera appears to be drawing to a close.
|
a0fc01b759394654a66b5494295bf624
|
what wouldn't congressman admit?
|
[
"had been having an affair"
] |
NewsQA
|
MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Any attempt to pardon Mikhail Khodorkovsky -- once Russia's richest man, now its most famous inmate -- must follow standard procedure, including an admission of guilt, the nation's president said Sunday.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man, is imprisoned in a work camp 4,000 miles from Moscow.
"Concerning the possibility of a pardon for someone, Khodorkovsky or anyone else, the procedure has to be carried out in accordance with our country's rules," President Dmitry Medvedev said in a transcript on his Web site. "In other words, a person must appeal to the president, plead guilty to having committed a crime and seek the appropriate resolution."
The president dismissed talks of a pardon, saying, "at this point, there is nothing to discuss."
Khodorkovsky once headed the Yukos oil company, once Russia's largest oil producer. He is serving a nine-year sentence for fraud and tax evasion.
Medvedev described corruption as a "very serious Russian disease" and emphasized the need to fight it.
"To this end, we have enacted a number of measures, including new legislation on corruption and special arrangements relating to government officials, their disclosures, declarations of income and so on," he said. "We are determined to continue this work, because we believe it is extremely important."
The former oil magnate is incarcerated in a work camp near the town of Krasnokamensk, 4,000 miles (6,500 kilometers) from his native Moscow. He has been imprisoned since his arrest in 2003.
Khodorkovsky had expressed a desire to run for office at the time and funded opposition political parties. He said the trial was part of a Kremlin campaign to destroy him and take the company he built from privatization deals of the 1990s. The Kremlin denied any role in his downfall.
Yukos, which has since been crushed by a $27.5 billion back-tax bill, has been the object of a lengthy campaign by prosecutors and tax authorities.
The court also ordered Khodorkovsky and his partner to pay about $600 million in back taxes.
|
18fb96ab3bea410898a852f74dc85119
|
was he pardoned?
|
[
"The president dismissed talks of a pardon,"
] |
NewsQA
|
(EW.com) -- "Joyful Noise," a squeaky-clean pop-gospel fairy tale featuring Dolly Parton and Queen Latifah in canned catfights, reflects the inspiration of "Glee" and God, in that order.
The "Glee" side, at least in my book, doesn't exactly amount to a recommendation, but it does mean that the movie's musical numbers are catchy and rollicking and, in their bright sunshiny way, rather soulful. In the small town of Pacashau, Georgia, times are hard -- every other storefront is empty -- but the Divinity Church choir has lifted local spirits by rising to become a semifinalist in the National Joyful Noise Competition. Can these spunky vocalists go the distance?
Not until they learn to work together in harmony. Which means that Vi Rose Hill (Latifah), the choir's new director, has to stop feuding with G.G. Sparrow (Parton), widow of the former choir leader, over the direction of the group's music. Vi Rose, feisty and smart-mouthed, favors tradition, while G.G., whose grandson Randy (Jeremy Jordan) is the new songbird on the block, is out to shake things up.
Parton now looks like a "Spitting Image" puppet (the film makes plastic-surgery jokes about her so that we don't have to), but she still has a way with lines like ''I'd call you stubborn, but that'd be an insult to mules!''
"Joyful Noise" also finds room for a teenager with Asperger's syndrome (Dexter Darden) who loves one-hit-wonder songs (but can he learn to love himself?), as well as a romance between Randy and Vi Rose's daughter Olivia (Keke Palmer). These two are pretty -- and as bland as balsa wood.
But each time the innocuousness starts to get to you, you're woken up by Randy and Olivia's swooning ''Maybe I'm Amazed'' duet, or a kid-choir rendition of Billy Preston's ''That's the Way God Planned It,'' or the final ''I Want to Take You Higher'' blowout. These numbers create a deep river of feeling, even when stuck in the shallow banks of a movie like this one. B-
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.
|
36f12195db7848afb41b09cc7f91d0de
|
What does "Joyful Noise" also find room for?
|
[
"a teenager with Asperger's syndrome"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- At least 30 people died and 70 were wounded in shelling on a marketplace in the Somali capital of Mogadishu Thursday, according to journalists and emergency services.
Members of Islamist militia Al-Shaabab patrol Bakara Market in Mogadishu, Somalia, earlier this month.
A local journalist called the rocket fire on Bakara market "unprecedented."
"This was the most brutal shelling," according to an ambulance service representative who said they had picked up 61 wounded, but expect the number to climb. Other victims were being brought to hospitals by family and friends.
The source of the shelling could not immediately be determined.
Journalists saw shell fire coming from AMISOM -- the African Union Mission in Somalia -- strongholds in a fortified district of the capital and from near the airport. AMISOM is the only force in the area believed to have the firepower capable of such an intense attack. However, AMISOM denied any involvement in the incident.
The African Union has a 3,400-member peacekeeping force in Somalia, made up of troops from Burundi and Uganda. It operates under a U.N. mandate to support Somalia's transitional federal government.
The peacekeeping force is charged with protecting key government and strategic installations in Mogadishu, including the port, airport and presidential palace. It is the de facto military force of the weak, transitional Somali government.
African Union forces have been battling an al Qaeda-linked Islamist militia in Somalia called Al-Shaabab.
The United States is supporting the Somali government's fight against the insurgents, including providing weapons to government forces. Al-Shaabab is on the U.S. list of terror organizations because of its ties to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.
The United States is concerned that Somalia's weak government could fall to the Islamist insurgency, as it did in 2006 before Ethiopian forces ousted the militants from power in early 2007. Ethiopia invaded Somalia with the support of Somalia's weak transitional government.
Journalist Mohamed Amiin Adow contributed to this report.
|
58d63e5cf3384b888647dc48f6919787
|
How many people were killed?
|
[
"least 30"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- A motorized parachute crashed into a crowd at a Labor Day festival in Hooper, Utah, injuring at least six people, including children, authorities said.
Spectators scatter as a motorized parachute plummets Monday in Hooper, Utah.
The parachute was operated by a man and his son who were on the aircraft, but neither was injured when it dropped to the ground amid spectators.
Scores of people had gathered Monday for what was to have been a candy drop from the motorized parachute, according to Lt. Lonnie Eskelson of the Weber County, Utah, Sheriff's Department. Video from the incident showed the small craft in the air, approaching the crowd, when it quickly lost altitude and came down as spectators ran for safety.
Spectator Damon Martin said the crowd was waiting for the scheduled candy drop when the wind picked up. Watch vehicle slam into crowd »
The motorized parachute "gets just over the field, they start dropping the candy and all of a sudden he starts to descend real quick. He guns it to get it back up and goes straight down into the crowd," said Martin, who shot video of the incident.
The crowd parted "like the Red Sea, but they just couldn't move fast enough," he said.
Six people were taken to area hospitals, including two sisters, 4 and 5 years old, authorities said.
The 5-year-old was being treated Monday night at Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, for a leg fracture, Eskelson said, while her sister was treated and released. A 3-year-old also was being treated at the center Monday night.
The other injured spectators were treated and released, Eskelson said.
CNN's Amanda O'Donnell contributed to this report.
|
c851e64b2f144ee38205b61596ebd6a7
|
How many people were injured?
|
[
"six"
] |
NewsQA
|
NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama will undergo a routine medical examination at a hospital in the Indian capital on Tuesday, his spokesman Tenzin Taklha told CNN Sunday.
The Dalai Lama with French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy on a recent visit to France.
The check-up in New Delhi is likely to take several hours, but the Dalai Lama will not be admitted to the hospital, the spokesman said.
The Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in the north Indian hill town of Dharamsala, will travel to the Indian capital on Monday.
The 73-year-old Tibetan leader was hospitalized in Mumbai in August for abdominal discomfort.
Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama will undergo a routine medical examination at a hospital in the Indian capital on Tuesday.
|
7642d639ff6641c08de3733d580ba4f6
|
What tests did Dalai Lama receive?
|
[
"a routine medical examination"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- Four British soldiers have been killed in one day in separate attacks in Afghanistan, the British Ministry of Defense announced Friday.
A British marine with an opium haul in Helmand province, where the four soldiers were killed.
The deaths happened in three incidents in the southern Helmand province, the ministry said.
Two soldiers were killed in a suicide bombing that happened Thursday afternoon during a patrol in Gereshk, the ministry said. One was a member of the Royal Gurkha Rifles and the other served with the Royal Military Police.
"With heavy heart we report another extremely sad situation, where lives of our courageous soldiers have been sacrificed for the greater good of the Afghan people," said Lieutenant Colonel Nick Richardson, a spokesman for Task Force Helmand. "Our deepest and heartfelt sympathies go to their families and loved ones and we offer our thoughts and prayers to them all at this most painful and distressing time."
Thursday evening, another soldier was killed by an explosion as he traveled in a Jackal 4x4 patrol vehicle, the ministry said. He served in the 2nd Battalion The Rifles. Watch Afghanistan's president talk on U.S. troops withdrawals »
Earlier in the day, a soldier from The Black Watch, 3rd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland was killed by a gunshot wound, the ministry said. He had been on patrol with the Afghan National Army in the vicinity of Woqab, close to Musa Qala.
|
0bec37ab21ae45709c0f5905dfc1b871
|
how many incidents
|
[
"three"
] |
NewsQA
|
Fine wine, fashion, long lunches and secular laws -- the answer to what France is all about depends on who you ask.
As part of CNN's special iList coverage of France, anchor Hala Gorani is hosting a panel on national identity in Paris as part of iList, CNN's series looking at France.
Hala will speak to some of the country's leading minds about the future of France, the strength of French business, what makes the country competitive and which way its culture is headed.
The high-profile panelists include Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, CEO of Air France and KLM, Dominique Senequier, CEO of AXA Private Equity, Claudie Haignere, a former astronaut and former Minister for European Affairs, and Ahmed el Kheiy, a journalist and TV presenter.
Watch the panel discuss these issues on Saturday 20 February: 1930 GMT| 2030 CET|1430 ET
The guests tackle the topics of diversity, tolerance and the role France should play in Europe.
Some believe that France weathered the financial crisis better than any of its Continental neighbors, while others said that inefficient tax laws and rigidity in labor markets were holding the world's fifth largest economy back.
Has President Sarkozy put the country on a better track? Are France's socialist roots being dug up? Are the French ready to elect their own Obama?
And what about cheese, bread and art? Can France culturally maintain its pre-eminence?
|
8b591c4353ad462db65385ded94bbf84
|
What country are they talking about?
|
[
"France"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- Personal computer maker Lenovo, expecting to report a loss for the third fiscal quarter ending December 31, announced it would cut 2,500 jobs as part of a restructuring expected to save $300 million.
A woman walks past a Lenovo advertisement at a computer shop in Hong Kong.
The cuts comprise about 11 percent of the Chinese computer manufacturer's global workforce.
"Although the integration of the IBM PC business for the past three years was a success, our last quarter's performance did not meet our expectations," Yang Yuanqing, Lenovo's chairman of the board, said in a statement. "We are taking these actions now to ensure that in an uncertain economy, our business operates as efficiently and effectively as possible, and continues to grow in the future."
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index suspended trading of Lenovo shares Wednesday, anticipating the announcement. The trading is to resume Thursday.
The job cuts, to occur during the first quarter, will include management and executive positions and also affect finance, human resources and marketing divisions, the company said.
In addition, the "resource redeployment plan" included executive compensation reductions of 30 percent to 50 percent, including bonuses, and the consolidation of its China and Asia-Pacific organizations into a single business unit to be called Asia Pacific and Russia .
The company, ranked as the world's fourth-largest PC maker, anticipated taking a pre-tax restructuring charge of approximately $150 million.
As part of its restructuring, the company said it was relocating call center operations from Toronto, Canada, to Morrisville, North Carolina, the company's North America headquarters in order to "better leverage its investment in real estate and facilities."
|
6e71b7133eff4bc095247c45bda7d3e1
|
What jobs will Lenovo cut?
|
[
"11 percent of the Chinese computer manufacturer's global workforce."
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- Serie A champions Inter Milan have confirmed the dismissal of coach Roberto Mancini, opening the way for former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho to replace him.
Mancini guided Inter Milan to the Italian league title for three successive seasons.
Ironically, the 43-year-old Mancini, who guided Inter to three successive Italian league titles, is now the favorite to take Mourinho's former job at Stamford Bridge.
Inter -- who won the first of their three titles in 2006 because those above them were demoted or deducted points over the matchfixing scandal -- released a statement about the sacking.
"Inter Milan have informed Roberto Mancini that he has been relieved of his role as coach, especially because of his comments that he was not going to stay after the end of the season following the Champions League tie against Liverpool on March 11," read their statement.
Mancini, however, rescinded those comments the following day declaring that he had made them in the heat of the moment following Inter's elimination from the competition, losing 3-0 on aggregate.
Inter's reasons for sacking Mancini appear less credible after club president Massimo Moratti announced that the coach had changed his mind about leaving at the end of the season.
"I've had a talk with Mancini, who confirmed to me that he wanted to stay at Inter next year to see out his contract. He wants to win the Champions League for us next season," Moratti said on March 12. "Mancini's words surprised me, I didn't expect it and even less so I believe the people close to him."
Mourinho, nicknamed 'The Special One' for guiding Porto to the Champions League in 2004 and then Chelsea to two Premier League titles, would not come cheap, but the exit of Mancini has cost Inter dear too as his contract, which runs till 2012, will leave him 24 million euros richer as compensation.
However, Mancini was unable to make Inter into viable Champions League contenders despite the three Serie A titles.
Mancini is the ninth coaching casualty under Moratti, following Ottavio Bianchi, Roy Hodgson, Luigi Simoni, Mircea Lucescu, Marcello Lippi, Marco Tardelli, Hector Cuper and Alberto Zaccheroni.
|
2ed5e929c65b4e4dad19c5a4ea5237cd
|
Who was fired after making comments?
|
[
"Roberto Mancini,"
] |
NewsQA
|
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- He's already served the time, but lawyers Thursday argued to clear his name as onetime U.S. Army Sgt. Michael Smith appeals a conviction for the torture of detainees once held at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
Abu Ghraib prison was taken over by the Iraqi government after claims of abuse by U.S. troops.
Disturbing snapshots and video portraying sexual humiliation and physical intimidation against the detainees tarnished the image of the United States as it fought to stabilize Iraq after the American overthrow of Saddam Hussein.
A military panel found Smith guilty in March 2006 on allegations that he used his military working dog to illegally "terrorize and frighten" detainees as part of interrogation techniques at the U.S.-managed facility in Baghdad.
But his lawyer, U.S. Army Lt. Col. Jonathan Potter, told a military appeals court Thursday that the conviction was based on faulty instructions to the jury.
"Nowhere in this case did the government establish that the use of the dog was illegal," the defense counsel said, noting that Smith "was not trained in interrogation techniques."
The military's prosecutor, U.S. Army Maj. Karen Borgerding, argued that Smith "would know it's unlawful" to use his unmuzzled dog to snarl within inches of a detained prisoner's face.
Smith was originally sentenced to 179 days confinement and received a bad conduct discharge.
Smith was not in the courtroom for the proceedings. Potter told CNN that he was not authorized to disclose his whereabouts but confirmed that his client remains on "appeal release" status after completing a three-month sentence.
If the appeal fails, the discharge stands. If the appeals court overturns the conviction, Smith could return to the military and may receive back pay, pension and other benefits. The judges did not indicate when they may rule after each side presented oral arguments Thursday.
At the 2006 court-martial, the jury found Smith guilty of charges that he used his military dog, Marco, to terrify prisoners, allegedly for amusement and in competition with other soldiers.
Smith also was found guilty of an indecent act involving his dog.
A female soldier testified on the first day of the court-martial that she had allowed Smith's dog to lick peanut butter she had placed on her bare chest as part of a dare from another soldier, who videotaped the stunt.
"It was foolish, stupid and juvenile," Smith said of the incident, reading from a statement. "There's nothing I can do to take it back. If I could, I would."
Smith did not specifically express regret for the wrongdoing involving detainees.
|
e15dfd0b914f48f5a73e7cfed7f2a75a
|
What could happen to Smith if the conviction is overturned?
|
[
"return"
] |
NewsQA
|
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Navy is investigating how thousands of dollars went missing in the rescue of the captain of the Maersk Alabama in April, a Pentagon source told CNN.
The USS Bainbridge tows the lifeboat in which Capt. Robert Phillips was held for days.
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service opened an investigation into how $30,000 disappeared after special forces snipers shot and killed three pirates, ending the multi-day siege and freeing the captain, who had been held hostage.
Investigators are talking to anyone who may have had contact with the money or knowledge about what happened to it, the source said, including military personnel on the warship, Navy SEALs who rescued Capt. Richard Phillips, and the crew of the Maersk Alabama.
The NCIS and the Maersk Line Ltd., which owns the Maersk Alabama, have not responded to CNN's request for comment.
In a criminal complaint filed against the one surviving alleged pirate, Abduwali Muse, the government contends the alleged pirate demanded money from the ship's captain and led him by gun point to the ship's safe. Watch CNN's Chris Lawrence on the investigation »
"The captain opened the safe and took out approximately $30,000 in cash. Muse and two other pirates then took the cash," the criminal complaint contends. It goes on to allege that Muse distributed some of the money to the other pirates who retreated to a lifeboat where they were holding the captain as a captive. See timeline of events that led to piracy case »
All three of the other pirates were killed by U.S. Special Forces snipers during the rescue but the complaint does not list any money recovered from the boat after the rescue. It only lists rifles, a hand gun, artillery, cell phones and handheld radios.
|
37c130bf203741da88279c7a7ab06834
|
How much money disappeared during the captain's rescue ?
|
[
"$30,000"
] |
NewsQA
|
SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- Steroid test results and notes and calendars from his then-trainer are among the evidence federal prosecutors have amassed in their perjury case against baseball home-run king Barry Bonds, according to documents unsealed Wednesday.
Barry Bonds, shown at his most recent court appearance, is accused of lying to a grand jury.
The 223-page stack of documents unsealed by a federal judge represents much of the government's case against Bonds, who is accused of obstructing justice and lying to a grand jury investigating the use of steroids in professional sports. Prosecutors say the test results show Bonds was using performance-enhancing substances -- including a then-undetectable designer drug -- at a time he denied knowingly using any.
Bonds' attorneys are seeking to keep much of that evidence out of court. The 44-year-old former San Francisco Giants slugger holds Major League Baseball's single-season and all-time home-run titles, but his achievements have been shadowed by allegations he used performance-enhancing drugs.
Bonds pleaded not guilty to the perjury and obstruction of justice charges and has been free on $500,000 bond. A hearing in the case is scheduled for Thursday.
The charges stem from his 2003 appearance before a federal grand jury probing the distribution of steroids by the San Francisco-area Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative, or BALCO. Bonds told the grand jury that his former personal trainer, Greg Anderson, gave him a cream that he said was flaxseed oil to use on his arm in 2003.
Anderson spent three months in prison after admitting distributing steroids and was later jailed for refusing to cooperate with prosecutors. The case against Bonds will include calendars kept by Anderson that prosecutors say were used to keep Bonds and other athletes on a doping regimen -- an assertion expected to be bolstered by the testimony of other athletes, they said.
Evidence will include a recording of a phone conversation with an associate in which Anderson "describes injecting the defendant, having the ability to obtain and utilize inside information about MLB's random drug testing to the defendant's benefit and the undetectable nature of what Anderson had been doing," according to documents.
Bonds won seven National League MVP titles during his 22-year career, 15 years of which was spent with the Giants. The team released him after the 2007 season, just weeks after he broke Hank Aaron's career home-run record.
|
a348876f90e64d8196d986d8c142cc7f
|
who are seeking to keep documents?
|
[
"Bonds' attorneys"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- Striker Carlos Vela has signed a new long-term contract with Arsenal, the English Premier League club have announced on their official Web site.
The Mexican international signed for Arsenal after coming through the youth ranks at Guadalajara and has subsequently had loan spells at Spanish sides Celta Vigo, Salamanca and Osasuna.
The 20-year-old made his Arsenal debut last season, bursting onto the scene with a Carling Cup hat-trick against Sheffield United in September 2008.
Manager Arsene Wenger told the Web site: "We're delighted that Carlos Vela has signed a new long-term contract with the club. Carlos is a fantastic talent and we have already seen glimpses of this during his performances."
The Frenchman continued: "Let's remember, he is still only 20-years-old, so there is still a huge amount to come from this boy.
"We have invested a lot of time in Carlos, as we put him in Spain for two years to get some good experience.
"Now he's back with us, we're working hard with him every day and he is a very exciting player.
"We're looking forward to seeing Carlos score many goals in an Arsenal shirt for a long time to come."
Vela said: "I'm very happy to sign a new contract and I'm very excited to be spending more years with Arsenal Football Club.
"I just want to work hard and help this great club win trophies. I want to stay here for a long time and it's a great responsibility. I will keep working hard to show the boss and all the fans why I'm here."
Vela played against Olympiacos in the Champions League on Wednesday but he was one of the biggest culprits as Arsenal squandered a number of chances.
He is the 11th first-team player to commit his long-term future to Arsenal since the end of last season.
Vela, Eduardo, Sanchez Watt, Alex Song, Nicklas Bendtner, Denilson, Robin van Persie, Theo Walcott, Lukasz Fabianski, Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilshere have all recently signed new long-term extensions with the club.
|
20471bf112d2403c96b3843517c62c8e
|
What position does Vela play?
|
[
"Striker"
] |
NewsQA
|
(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.
|
ff81c4ebdbb8458aa69f75d997aa02ac
|
Who claimed responsibility?
|
[
"by an al Qaeda-affiliated group."
] |
NewsQA
|
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- FBI agents temporarily deployed to Iraq received an average of about $45,000 in excessive overtime because they billed the government for 16 hours a day throughout their 90-day assignments, according to a Justice Department audit.
Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine released the audit on Thursday.
The audit, released Thursday by Inspector General Glenn Fine, found the agents routinely submitted the overtime with the blessing of their managers from 2003 through 2007. The report says the excessive overtime totaled $7.8 million.
"The FBI inappropriately permitted employees to regularly claim overtime for activities that are not compensable as work, such as time spent eating meals, exercising more than 3 hours per week, and socializing," the report said. The socializing included going to movies and cocktail parties.
The FBI promptly responded to the report, acknowledging the overtime policy was designed to encourage FBI employees to volunteer for Iraq duty, but should not have been used and has now been corrected.
The 88-page report documenting the overtime issues found the FBI had initially approved the policy of paying for 16-hour days because conditions were harsh, there were few recreational opportunities and employees were always "on call."
But the audit said that violates federal pay guidelines.
The FBI admitted that "a flawed system was allowed to develop and remain in place too long," but it also sought to explain how the practice started.
"Early in the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq FBI managers traveled to those war zones and saw first hand the challenges of a 24/7 threat environment. FBI employees lived with sniper attacks, mortar fire, and roadside bombs as part of their daily work environment. They attempted to adapt a long established domestic pay system for domestic law enforcement to unprecedented wartime assignments for FBI personnel."
FBI agents in Iraq perform a variety of duties, according to the bureau's Web site. Agents interview suspected terrorists captured by the military; gather intelligence; collect evidence from crime scenes like car bombs or mass graves; and investigate crimes committed by Americans against Iraqis, as well as those that Iraqis commit against their fellow citizens.
The inspector general's report said overtime pay was less excessive for FBI personnel in Afghanistan. The report also found that somewhat less excessive overtime was paid to agents from other Justice Department agencies who were sent to Iraq, including deputy marshals, and ATF and DEA agents.
|
40cc9ab234cc4e08b5eea7dd377fc19c
|
Payment that FBI agents in Iraq receive in overtime?
|
[
"average of about $45,000"
] |
NewsQA
|
(CNN) -- NASA said Friday it had discovered water on the moon, opening "a new chapter" that could allow for the development of a lunar space station.
The discovery was announced by project scientist Anthony Colaprete at a midday news conference.
"I'm here today to tell you that indeed, yes, we found water. And we didn't find just a little bit; we found a significant amount" -- about a dozen, two-gallon bucketfuls, he said, holding up several white plastic containers.
The find is based on preliminary data collected when the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, intentionally crashed October 9 into the permanently shadowed region of Cabeus crater near the moon's south pole.
After the satellite struck, a rocket flew through the debris cloud, measuring the amount of water and providing a host of other data, Colaprete said.
The project team concentrated on data from the satellite's spectrometers, which provide the best information about the presence of water, Colaprete said. A spectrometer helps identify the composition of materials by examining light they emit or absorb.
Although the goal of the $79 million mission was to determine whether there is water on the moon, discoveries in other areas are expected as studies progress, Colaprete and other scientists said at the briefing at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field near San Francisco, California.
"The discovery opens a new chapter in our understanding of the moon," the space agency said in a written statement shortly after the briefing began.
Michael Wargo, chief lunar scientist at NASA headquarters in Washington, said the latest discovery also could unlock the mysteries of the solar system.
He listed several options as sources for the water, including solar winds, comets, giant molecular clouds or even the moon itself through some kind of internal activity. The Earth also may have a role, Wargo said.
"If the water that was formed or deposited is billions of years old, these polar cold traps could hold a key to the history and evolution of the solar system, much as an ice core sample taken on Earth reveals ancient data," NASA said in its statement.
"In addition, water and other compounds represent potential resources that could sustain future lunar exploration."
|
b499824e0546427e92dbf0994ad0963f
|
What did nasa say?
|
[
"it had discovered water on the moon,"
] |
NewsQA
|
(PEOPLE.com) -- It's another "Bachelor" break-up: Vienna Girardi and Kasey Kahl have called it quits.
"Yes vienna and I have split. It's been 5 weeks now. I can't fake it anymore. I will always love, be there for her, and wish her the best," Kahl, 27, posted to Twitter on Sunday.
"@KaseyRKahl will always be my best friend, but yes we have split. No idea what the future holds for us but we will always remain friends," Girardi, 25, posted to her account.
Girardi won Jake Pavelka's season of "The Bachelor" but the engagement didn't last long and the couple split in an ugly and highly publicized break-up.
Kahl wooed Ali Fedotowsky on "The Bachelorette" with song, and his catch phrase, "guard and protect your heart," ended up tattooed on his wrist. Fedotowsky was unimpressed.
Girardi and Kahl didn't give up on love or on reality TV. On "Bachelor Pad," Kahl and Girardi quickly became the power couple to beat, though they lost the competition to on-again-off-again couple Holly Durst and Michael Stagliano in the show's finale.
See the full article at PEOPLE.com.
© 2011 People and Time Inc. All rights reserved.
|
ebc839aeb86f4a8dbdf15528d564d579
|
What did kasey kahl say on twitter?
|
[
"\"Yes vienna and I have split. It's been 5 weeks now. I can't fake it anymore. I will always love, be there for her, and wish her the best,\""
] |
NewsQA
|
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- After heated arguments, the Iraqi parliament turned down the first draft of a bill Saturday that would have allowed foreign troops, including British forces, to remain in Iraq after the U.N. mandate expires on December 31.
A British soldier attends an Iraqi army training session Thursday in Iraq's Basra province.
Kurdish legislator Mahmoud Othman said the measure was sent back to Iraqi Cabinet members for reworking before resubmitting it to lawmakers. There is no parliamentary deadline for the measure to pass.
The bill does not apply to U.S. troops because the United States last month reached a Status of Forces Agreement with the Iraqi government that calls for American troops to leave Iraqi cities by June 2009, and to be out of Iraq by the end of 2011.
But after December 31 other foreign troops would not be authorized to remain in Iraq. This could cause a problem for Britain, which has the second-largest number of troops in Iraq after the United States.
Britain was the leading U.S. ally during the invasion of Iraq and still has about 4,000 troops based outside the southern city of Basra. Five other nations -- Albania, Australia, El Salvador, Estonia and Romania -- have a total of fewer than 2,000 troops Iraq, according to the Multi-National Force-Iraq Web site.
British troops will begin leaving Iraq in May 2009, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in a joint statement with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki during a visit to Iraq on Wednesday. Watch the planning to withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq »
Othman said some legislators argued that the bill had not been assigned to committees, as is the custom before a measure's first reading. The session became so contentious that the speaker threatened to resign, lawmakers said.
Lawmakers will take a holiday break for Christmas and New Year but could be called back into session by the parliament speaker, Othman said. Watch Britain's PM talk on withdrawing UK troops »
Wrangling over the bill on non-U.S. troops began Wednesday when the first reading took place.
CNN's Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this report.
|
ffa465559d1a4ce794c4a50e08b4d6ca
|
What was sent back to Iraqi Cabinet members for reworking?
|
[
"the measure"
] |
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