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(CNN) -- A Maryland man believed to have shot and stabbed his wife and three young children to death before killing himself with a shotgun was having money problems and left a note saying he suffered from "psychological issues," authorities said. Five people, including three young children, were found dead in this house in Middletown, Maryland. Christopher Wood, 34, may have slashed at least some of his family members in the killings and used a small-caliber handgun on others, Frederick County Sheriff Charles Jenkins said. He was found dead of an apparently self-inflicted shotgun wound at the foot of the bed where the bodies of his wife and 2-year-old daughter lay, the sheriff said. Wood's sons were 5 and 4 years old, authorities said. His wife, Francie Billotti Wood, was 33. The boys were found in their beds in a single bedroom, the sheriff said. Authorities did not release the names of the children. "These are horrific incidents," said Jenkins, who said he couldn't remember another homicide in the past 20 years in Middletown, a one-stoplight town northwest of Baltimore. "No one should ever have to be exposed to this." Jenkins told CNN that at least five notes apparently handwritten by Wood were found inside the home. While the notes didn't immediately tell investigators what prompted the killings, they did provide some insight into possible problems. "There is some indication in at least one of the notes that there might have been some psychological issues with Mr. Wood," Jenkins said. There was "a mention of some medication" in that note, according to the sheriff. Jenkins said the sheriff's office had no record of domestic violence or other family disputes at the Wood's home. He said investigators also have learned of money problems for Wood, a salesman for CSX Railroad. "We are aware there were some, maybe, debt problems -- some financial problems," Jenkins said. Cpl. Jennifer Bailey said deputies went to the home shortly after 9 a.m. after Mrs. Wood's father called. Her family had not seen the Woods for about a day and her father forced his way into the locked home, finding the bodies, according to Jenkins. Authorities said a shotgun was found next to Christopher Wood's body and a .25-caliber handgun was found in a "container" in the kitchen. The sheriff said other weapons that could have been used to stab and cut the victims were found, but he did not say what those weapons were. Watch sheriff's department's statement » Francie Wood's family were longtime residents of the Middletown area. Her brother had recently retired from a career as a sheriff's deputy, Jenkins said. The family had moved to town from Florida about four months ago. "We're all in shock," said the Rev. Kevin Farmer, the family's minister at Holy Family Catholic Church. "This was a family, though they hadn't been with us very long, they are an integral part of our community." Watch views from the crime scene » He said the road the Woods lived on is a shortcut to the church and he would often see the children while riding a scooter he uses when the weather is good. "They would always stop and wave and get big eyes as the scooter came by," he said. "They were very happy kids." Jenkins said autopsies will be performed on the bodies over the next few days and that it could be weeks before the results are ready to be released. Jenkins told CNN that at least five notes apparently handwritten by Wood were found inside the home. While the notes didn't immediately tell investigators what prompted the killings, they did provide some insight into possible problems, the sheriff said. "There is some indication in at least one of the notes that there might have been some psychological issues with Mr. Wood," Jenkins said. Cpl. Jennifer Bailey said deputies went to the home shortly after 9 a.m. after Mrs. Wood's father

NEW: Note indicated father was having "psychological issues," sheriff says . NEW: Investigators say they've learned Christopher Wood also had money problems . Sheriff: Man apparently killed his wife and three young children, then shot himself . Slain mother's family were longtime residents of the Middletown, Maryland, area .

(CNN) -- A Navy training jet crashed in a north Georgia forest on Monday, killing at least three people aboard and setting more than 10 acres of woodland ablaze, local and federal authorities said. A fourth person aboard the jet was unaccounted for Monday night, said Harry White, spokesman for the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. The cause of the crash was under investigation. FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said the crash of the twin-engine T-39N trainer caused no injuries on the ground. It went down just north of Morganton, Georgia, about 80 miles north of Atlanta, Fannin County Sheriff's Maj. Keith Bosen said. "We got reports that it was flying pretty low," Bosen said. The plane had flown north-northeast over the nearby town of Blue Ridge before it went down about 4:40 p.m., he said. The mountainous area is ringed by national forest land, and the crash set the surrounding woods on fire. "We have about a 10- to 15-acre fire still working at this time," Bosen said. The T-39N took off from Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida, about 400 miles south of Morganton, Bergen said. The jet is a military version of Rockwell's twin-engine Saberliner executive aircraft. CNN's Nick Valencia, Devon Sayers and Larry Shaughnessy contributed to this report.

Crash of twin-engine T-39N trainer causes no injuries on the ground . Crash causes about 10 to 15 acres of forest to be set ablaze . Navy jet goes down just north of Morganton, about 80 miles north of Atlanta . T-39N took off from Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida .

(CNN) -- A Russian heavy missile cruiser stopped three pirate ships off the coast of Somalia, and detained 10 pirates, according to a statement released Friday by Russian Navy headquarters in Moscow. Russian missile cruiser "Peter the Great" moored in Cape Town, South Africa, last month. The cruiser, Peter the Great, halted two small high-speed motor boats and a mid-size, support vessel on Thursday, the Russians said. "Ten pirates have been detained. All of them are citizens of Somalia," the press release obtained by CNN stated. "Officials from the Northern Fleet's military prosecutor's office are currently questioning the detainees aboard the Peter the Great. Their future will be decided in coordination with the Russian Foreign and Justice ministries." The Russians said a Russian helicopter Ka-27, which took off from the cruiser, had located two small boats, which were moving toward an Iranian fishing vessel at high speed last Thursday. When those in the boats spotted the helicopter overhead, the boats began slowing down, then veered off toward their support vessel, which was adrift nearby. The helicopter crew could see pirates in the two motor boats throwing weapons into the sea, and kept chasing the boats until the Russian cruiser arrived in the area. "The three boats were (captured and) delivered to the Peter the Great, and ten Somalian pirates were taken aboard. "The detainees possessed weapons, including a G-3 rifle, an Ak-47, two AKMS machine-guns, two grenade-launchers and two anti-infantry grenades, and also had a GPS receiver, a ladder, 500 grams of drugs, a large amount of money, a bag of sugar and a bag of rice. The detained pirates were high on drugs," the press release said. Meanwhile, Somali pirates have released a Panamanian-flagged, Japanese-owned vessel that was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden in November, according to a non-governmental group that monitors piracy. The ship, named the MT Chemstar Venus, was released late Thursday, according to Ecoterra International. See an interactive map of 2009 pirate attacks off the Horn of Africa » The 18 Filipino and five South Korean crew members were reportedly unharmed. The International Maritime Board, a group that also monitors piracy, told CNN that the company had not confirmed the release of the ship, but said shipping companies sometimes wait a few days before going public to ensure the safety of the crew. The ship was hijacked on November 15. It was unclear whether the pirates were paid a ransom to release the ship. This incident comes a week after Somali pirates released a Ukrainian ship carrying tanks, ammunition and crew after receiving a ransom of $3.2 million. -- CNN's David McKenzie contributed to this report.

Russian cruiser halted two small high-speed motor boats and a support vessel . Russia: 10 pirates have been detained -- all of them are citizens of Somalia . MT Chemstar Venus released late Thursday, Ecoterra International says . Follows release of Ukrainian ship carrying tanks after a $3.2M ransom was paid .

(CNN) -- A Russian heavy missile cruiser stopped three pirate ships off the coast of Somalia, and detained 10 pirates, according to a statement released Friday by Russian Navy headquarters in Moscow. Russian missile cruiser "Peter the Great" moored in Cape Town, South Africa, last month. The cruiser, Peter the Great, halted two small high-speed motor boats and a mid-size, support vessel on Thursday, the Russians said. "Ten pirates have been detained. All of them are citizens of Somalia," the press release obtained by CNN stated. "Officials from the Northern Fleet's military prosecutor's office are currently questioning the detainees aboard the Peter the Great. Their future will be decided in coordination with the Russian Foreign and Justice ministries." The Russians said a Russian helicopter Ka-27, which took off from the cruiser, had located two small boats, which were moving toward an Iranian fishing vessel at high speed last Thursday. When those in the boats spotted the helicopter overhead, the boats began slowing down, then veered off toward their support vessel, which was adrift nearby. The helicopter crew could see pirates in the two motor boats throwing weapons into the sea, and kept chasing the boats until the Russian cruiser arrived in the area. "The three boats were (captured and) delivered to the Peter the Great, and ten Somalian pirates were taken aboard. "The detainees possessed weapons, including a G-3 rifle, an Ak-47, two AKMS machine-guns, two grenade-launchers and two anti-infantry grenades, and also had a GPS receiver, a ladder, 500 grams of drugs, a large amount of money, a bag of sugar and a bag of rice. The detained pirates were high on drugs," the press release said. Meanwhile, Somali pirates have released a Panamanian-flagged, Japanese-owned vessel that was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden in November, according to a non-governmental group that monitors piracy. The ship, named the MT Chemstar Venus, was released late Thursday, according to Ecoterra International. The 18 Filipino and five South Korean crew members were reportedly unharmed. The International Maritime Board, a group that also monitors piracy, told CNN that the company had not confirmed the release of the ship, but said shipping companies sometimes wait a few days before going public to ensure the safety of the crew. The ship was hijacked on November 15. It was unclear whether the pirates were paid a ransom to release the ship. This incident comes a week after Somali pirates released a Ukrainian ship carrying tanks, ammunition and crew after receiving a ransom of $3.2 million. -- CNN's David McKenzie contributed to this report.

Russian cruiser halted two small high-speed motor boats and a support vessel . Russia: 10 pirates have been detained -- all of them are citizens of Somalia . MT Chemstar Venus released late Thursday, Ecoterra International says . Follows release of Ukrainian ship carrying tanks after a $3.2M ransom was paid .

(CNN) -- A Southwest Airlines jet made an emergency landing in Charleston, West Virginia, on Monday after a football-sized hole in its fuselage caused the cabin to depressurize, an airline spokeswoman said. Southwest Flight 2294 made an emergency landing at Yeager Airport in Charleston, West Virginia, on Monday. There were no injuries aboard the Boeing 737, which was traveling at about 34,000 feet when the problem occurred, Southwest spokeswoman Marilee McInnis told CNN. The sudden drop in cabin pressure caused the jet's oxygen masks to deploy. Southwest Flight 2294 was en route from Nashville, Tennessee, to Baltimore, Maryland, with 126 passengers and a crew of five aboard, McInnis said. It landed at 5:10 p.m. after the crew reported a football-sized hole in the middle of the cabin near the top of the aircraft, McInnis said. What caused the damage to the jet had not been determined, she said. Both the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the incident, FAA spokeswoman Holly Baker said. "There is no responsible way to speculate as to a cause at this point," Southwest said in a statement Monday night. Watch as passenger describes watching the hole form » "We have safety procedures in place, and they were followed in this instance to get all passengers and crew safely on the ground," the airline said. "Reports we have are that our passengers were calm and that our pilots and flight attendants did a great job getting the aircraft on the ground safely." Southwest dispatched a replacement aircraft to take passengers on to Baltimore. See map of flight path » Charleston airport spokesman Brian Belcher said a local pizzeria provided food for the passengers as they waited. The damaged jet will remain on the ground there until federal inspectors can examine it, he said. In addition, all 181 of Southwest's 737-300s -- about a third of the airline's fleet -- will be inspected overnight after the emergency landing, McInnis said. Southwest does not expect the inspections to create delays, she said. CNN's Shawn Nottingham and Stephanie Gallman contributed to this report.

Southwest Airlines jet makes emergency landing in Charleston, West Virginia . Football-sized hole in fuselage causes cabin to depressurize, oxygen masks to drop . No injuries reported aboard Boeing 737; Flight 2294 was traveling at 34,000 feet . No determination of what caused the hole in middle of cabin near top of aircraft .

(CNN) -- A Swedish diplomat in Iran was arrested and accused of participating in Iranian protests during observances surrounding the Muslim holy day of Ashura, two semi-official news agencies reported Sunday, citing members of Iran's parliament. Sweden denies that the diplomat was involved in the protests. Swedish officials and the Mehr news agency reported that the diplomat was subsequently released. "Based on the law and international norms, diplomats cannot be detained or arrested," Alaedin Boroujerdi, a member of the Iranian parliamentary National Security Committee, told Mehr. "But since this person was among those who were disturbing the peace, he was initially arrested but then he was released when it was determined he was a diplomat." The Swedish Foreign Office confirmed the arrest, but said the diplomat -- who was not named -- was not taking part in demonstrations. "A Swedish diplomat was arrested in Tehran about two weeks ago and detained overnight for between 10 and 20 hours before being released," said Anders Jorle, spokesman for the Foreign Office. "He was arrested after he was found to not be carrying ID, which is not required but is recommended in Iran." "He was not taking part in a protest," Jorle said. "He was passing one of the places where a protest had taken place, but the protest was not ongoing at the time of the arrest. "In hindsight, we would say that he should have been carrying ID," Jorle said. "As far as we're concerned, the matter is closed and there is nothing further to say." The Fars news agency quoted Zohreh Elahian, a member of the security committee, as saying the Swedish chargé d'affaires was arrested on the day of Ashura, December 27. He was arrested by Iranian officials who considered his presence at the demonstration to be an interference in international affairs, Elahian told Fars. "According to witnesses and evidence, several foreign embassies in Tehran played a role behind the scenes and were represented [on the scene on that day] by their chargés d'affaires and other diplomats," Elahian said. Ashura is the major Shiite Muslim holy day. It marks the death of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, as a martyr. Shiites commemorate the death of Hussein each year, climaxing on Ashura, after a 40-day mourning period. Its observance in Iran was marked by anti-government protests. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad downplayed the reports, calling them "a theater play by the Zionists and the Americans," according to state media. An Iranian media blackout made it difficult to verify accounts of that weekend's violence, but videos that found their way west depicted bloodied and, in some cases, apparently dead protesters. CNN's Jonathan Wald contributed to this report.

Swedish Foreign Office: Diplot arrested in Iran during holy Muslim holiday . Two news reports said diplomat was participating in protests . Official: Arrest happened two weeks ago; diplomat held for 10 hours, then released .

(CNN) -- A Tennessee detective's keen eye may have nabbed a serial killer. Tennessee police say trucker Bruce Mendenhall implicated himself as a serial killer. A long-distance truck driver gave statements implicating himself in six slayings in four states after Detective Sgt. Pat Postiglione discovered what appeared to be blood inside the cab of his rig, police said. Bruce Mendenhall, 56, an independent truck driver from Albion, Illinois, is facing homicide charges in the shooting death of Sara Nicole Hulbert, 25. Her body was found June 26 in the parking lot of a Nashville, Tennessee, truck stop, authorities said. Mendenhall made his first court appearance Thursday via closed-circuit television. A judge declined to set bond. Heading to the crime scene Thursday, Postiglione saw a tractor-trailer rig on the road that matched the description of a truck sought in the investigation. The rig pulled into the truck stop and stopped. Watch police search Mendehall's truck » Postiglione knocked on its door. While talking with Mendenhall, Postiglione noticed what appeared to be blood on the inside of the driver's door. Mendenhall gave the detective permission to look inside the truck. Postiglione found "some more evidence that I considered incriminating," he said. Mendenhall was detained, police said, because he gave statements implicating himself in Hulbert's slaying. Knowing that the slaying was similar to other recent homicides in the South, Postiglione questioned Mendenhall about those as well, police said. Mendenhall implicated himself in the death of Symantha Winters, 48, of Nashville, who was found shot to death June 6 in a trash container at a Lebanon, Tennessee, truck stop, police said. He also implicated himself in a homicide in Alabama, one in Georgia and two in Indiana, the statement said. Those victims were not named. Nashville police said they are in contact with agencies in those states regarding statements from Mendenhall, who is being held without bail. The truck was impounded and was being processed by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. E-mail to a friend

Detective finds blood in truck that matched description of wanted vehicle . Also found was "more evidence" that detective considered incriminating . Police say driver gave statements implicating himself in 6 murders in 4 states . States are Alabama, Georgia, Indiana and Tennessee .

(CNN) -- A Texas agency is installing videocameras and hiring security officers at a state school for mentally handicapped adults after allegations emerged that workers there staged "fight club" battles among residents. Admissions to the Corpus Christi State School in Corpus Christi, Texas have been suspended. The Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services also announced Tuesday that it is suspending admissions to the Corpus Christi State School in Corpus Christi. A cell phone containing videos of the alleged abuse at the school was turned over to police last week, and authorities are expecting to file arrest warrants this week, Corpus Christi Police Capt. Tim Wilson said Tuesday. The incidents are believed to have taken place in a school dormitory, Wilson said, adding, "this has been going on for some time." Watch how the 'fight club' scandal unfolded » The school's workers "are charged with the care and custody of these clients, and they are exploiting [them]," he said. In addition to the videocameras, the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services said it is increasing supervision of night shifts at the school. It also said state school representatives would be making random, unannounced inspections during evening and overnight shifts. Seven school employees have been placed on paid leave by the agency, according to department spokeswoman Cecilia Fedorov. Those employees are barred from coming onto the campus but must sign in at the gate every day they are on leave, she said. State officials are awaiting the outcome of the investigation to determine whether they should take further action, she said. Some former workers also will be interviewed, authorities said. Fedorov said the Department of Aging and Disability Services was told Friday by the state Department of Family and Protective Services that it was opening an investigation into possible abuse or neglect after being alerted to the situation by police. Wilson said those involved are likely to face charges of injury of a disabled person, which can range up to a third-class felony, depending on the extent of a person's involvement. The actual charges, however, will be left up to the Nueces County district attorney, who is participating in the investigation along with the Texas Inspector General's Office, he said. Corpus Christi police received the cell phone a week ago, Wilson said, after someone found it and gave it to an officer working security at a hospital. The officer looked at several of the videos and then gave the phone to the police's forensic unit for analysis. More videos were found in the phone's memory. "It appears it was some sort of a fight club," Wilson said. Twenty videos were found on the phone, with dates going back about a year. All the videos featured the school's "clients," who are severely mentally handicapped, he said. On the videos, the clients "are not upset like they are being forced," Wilson said. "They are being more goaded into it. There's a lot of voices on there from workers ... saying, 'Look at that, ha ha' ... laughing, stuff like that." No clients are seen crying, upset or injured on the videos, he said, but none of the workers is seen stopping the fighting. "The fighting entails pushing, wrestling and some shoving," Wilson said. The Department of Aging and Disability Services said Tuesday that the residents in the images had been assessed and were found to be free of injuries. They are receiving additional counseling, the agency said. Wilson said that four or five clients had been identified, as well as at least five workers, possibly as many as 10. The clients are all adult males, ranging in age from their late teens into their 30s, he said, and as part of the investigation, the inspector general's office has interviewed some of them. Police believe, based on the videos, that the "fight club" was confined to one dormitory, Wilson said. CNN's Tracy Sabo and John Murgatroyd contributed to this report.

Texas authorities install cameras in school for mentally disabled . Admissions also suspended in wake of "fight club" scandal . Seven school employees placed on leave; arrest warrants are pending .

(CNN) -- A Texas couple who were burned to death in the Texas wildfires Thursday had been packing their truck to evacuate their home but were unable to escape fast-moving flames, a relative told CNN Friday. A house burns after wildfires raced through rural Montague County in Texas. "I think they underestimated how fast it was moving," said Carol Quinn, the daughter-in-law of victim Matt Quinn. "I think this was very fast and very hot. ... It is an awful story." Matt Quinn, 80, and his wife, Cathy, were two of the three confirmed fatalities in Thursday's fires. Matt Quinn was a former reporter for the Dallas-Fort Worth station WFAA-TV and had spent his life in journalism. The Quinns lived in rural Montague County. The couple's son Chris, 30, was hospitalized in fair condition with second- and third-degree burns and was expected to recover, Carol Quinn said. Chris had gone to look for his cat as the family prepared to leave in advance of the fires. "There were three of them. Chris went to get his cat and put the cat in the carrier," Carol Quinn, who lives in Orlando, Florida, told CNN. "When he came back, the truck was totally engulfed in flames. "The flames were closing in, and he didn't know if Matt and Cathy were in the truck, and he took off running." The family did not live in a mandatory evacuation area but faced gusty winds and a wall of flames 30 feet high, she said. She said they had called the sheriff's department shortly before their truck was engulfed. Another person was killed just west of Dallas and Fort Worth in what's being called the Cement Mountain fire, the Texas Fire Service reported Friday afternoon. Wildfires are also burning in Oklahoma. In Midwest City, one of the places hit hardest by the flames, fire officials said at least one of the fires appears to have been intentionally set -- although they stopped short of calling it arson. See where the fires are burning » "We'd like to make the distinction and understand that there's a difference between being intentional and having intent with malice," said city Fire Marshal Jerry Lojka. "So we haven't proved that there was malice, but we do know that the fire was intentionally set." Winds that at times reached hurricane-force levels blew through towns and neighborhoods, fueling fires that burned some homes while sparing others. Watch what is left of homes -- rubble » More than 101,000 acres in Texas were burned, destroying 32 buildings, according to Bill Beebee of the Texas Forest Service. About 140 structures in Oklahoma have been destroyed, most of them in south-central Oklahoma and Oklahoma County, according to the Department of Emergency Management. At least 49 people were injured. Health officials said that with two exceptions, injuries from the fires were moderate or minor. A motorist was severely injured after losing control of a vehicle on a smoky road. Also, a Lincoln County firefighter was in stable condition at the Integris Baptist Burn Center in Oklahoma City. The fires burned all the way into Oklahoma City, and by Friday afternoon, firefighters were once again battling blazes that had flared up again within the city limits. iReport.com: Are wildfires affecting you? Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry declared a state of emergency for 31 counties. The state also was hit with severe weather. Henry's order marks a first step toward seeking federal assistance, if necessary, by allowing state agencies to make emergency purchases. "We are doing everything we can to deliver resources to firefighters and first responders on the front lines. They have done an amazing job under very challenging conditions, and we owe them a great debt of gratitude. Their heroism has helped save lives and property," Henry said in a written statement. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the scores of families and individuals who lost homes or businesses," he said. Midwest City and the

NEW: One person killed in fire just west of Dallas and Fort Worth . NEW: Former television reporter, wife die in Texas wildfire while waiting for son . Number of injured in Oklahoma wildfires rises to at least 49 . Oklahoma governor declares emergency for 31 counties .

(CNN) -- A U.N. tribunal convicted two Serb cousins Monday of having burned alive more than 100 Muslims in what the presiding judge called a part of the "wretched history of man's inhumanity to man." Serb Milan Lukic has been found guilty of burning alive more than 100 Muslims. Milan Lukic and Sredoje Lukic were convicted of crimes dating back to the early 1990s, during the bitter ethnic conflict that ravaged the former Yugoslavia. Milan Lukic organized a group of local paramilitaries with ties to police and the military, sometimes referred to as the "White Eagles" or "Avengers," according to an indictment. Before and during the war, his cousin Sredoje Lukic worked as a policeman before joining the group. The crimes include two incidents in which Muslim men, women and children were forced into homes that were then set on fire -- and some who tried to escape were shot. Milan Lukic was found "guilty of persecutions, murder, extermination, cruel treatment and inhumane acts, as crimes against humanity and war crimes, in relation to six discrete incidents," the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at the Hague said. He was sentenced to life in prison. Sredoje Lukic was found guilty of "aiding and abetting the commission of the crime of persecutions inhumane acts, murder and cruel treatment." He was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Their crimes were committed during the 1990s. Bosnia-Herzegovina seceded from Yugoslavia in 1992 and Radovan Karadzic declared himself president of a Bosnian Serb republic. The Bosnian Serbs, backed by the Serb-dominated Yugoslav military and paramilitary forces, quickly seized control of most of the country and laid siege to Sarajevo, the capital. During the conflict that followed, the Serb forces launched what they called the "ethnic cleansing" of the territories under their control -- the forced displacement and killings of Muslims and Croats. The cousins' cases are a small part of the caseload the Tribunal has dealt with regarding violations of humanitarian law committed in the former Yugoslavia between 1991 and 2001. Since its creation the Tribunal has indicted 161 people on charges of serious violations of humanitarian law. The court found Milan Lukic responsible for the murder of 59 Muslim women, children and elderly men in a house in the town of Visegrad. "On 14 June 1992, the victims were locked into one room of the house which was then set on fire," the tribunal wrote. "Milan Lukic was found to have placed the explosive device into the room, which set the house ablaze. Milan Lukic shot at people trying to escape from the burning house." Sredoje Lukic "knew what would happen to the victims that he helped herd" into the home, the court wrote in its judgment. Milan Lukic was also found guilty of the murder of at least 60 Muslim civilians in another house in Visegrad later that same month. The court found that he and others "forced the civilians inside the house, blocked all exits and threw in several explosive devices and petrol, setting the house on fire." In all, the court found that Milan Lukic "personally killed at least 132 Muslim people." The defense for both men denied the accusations against them, but the evidence demonstrated their guilt, the court said in its judgment. "The perpetration by Milan Lukic and Sredoje Lukic of crimes in this case is characterized by a callous and vicious disregard for human life," presiding judge Patrick Robinson said. "In the all too long, sad and wretched history of man's inhumanity to man, the Pionirska street and Bikavac fires must rank high. "At the close of the twentieth century, a century marked by war and bloodshed on a colossal scale, these horrific events stand out for the viciousness of the incendiary attack, for the obvious premeditation and calculation that defined it, for the sheer callousness and brutality of herding, trapping and locking the victims in the two houses, thereby rendering them helpless in the ensuing inferno, and for the degree of pain and suffering inflicted on the victims as they were burnt alive."

U.N. tribunal convicts Serb cousins of burning alive more than 100 Muslims . Milan Lukic, Sredoje Lukic convicted of crimes dating back to the early 1990s . Muslim men, women and children forced into homes that were then set on fire .

(CNN) -- A Utah man trapped for more than 26 hours in a crevice of a popular cave tourist attraction died as rescuers struggled to save him, authorities said Thursday. John Edward Jones, 26, of Stansbury Park was stuck in the Nutty Putty Cave, which sits west of Utah Lake near Cedar Valley, according to the sheriff's office of Utah County. The cave is 55 to 60 miles south of Salt Lake City. Sheriff's officials said Jones entered the cave at around 6 p.m. Tuesday with a group of about 11 people and became stuck about 8:45 p.m. in a "tightly confined" feature inside Nutty Putty Cave called "Bob's Push." Utah County sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Spencer Cannon told CNN affiliate KSL that Jones was trapped upside down in a crevice that was about 18 inches wide and about 10 inches high. The crevice is about 150 feet below the surface and about 700 feet from the cave entrance, according to the sheriff's department. "They had him to a level spot where he wasn't heading downhill with his head below his feet," Cannon said. "During the course of that, they have a raising system to hold him in position, and one of the devices of that system failed, and Mr. Jones actually fell back to the area where he had been stuck for so long." Shortly before midnight on Wednesday, rescuers got close enough to Jones to conclude that he was not breathing and he had no pulse. Rescue officials were meeting Thursday to determine how to recover Jones' body. Rescuers had tried to reach Jones for more than 24 hours, but had problems navigating the treacherous terrain, Cannon said. "Getting people to him is very difficult," Cannon told KSL before Jones died. "It is a tightly confined space. When there is movement, it is literally millimeters at a time." There are narrow areas of the cave where visitors have to crawl on their bellies to get through, according to the attraction's Web site. Up to 5,000 people visit each year, the site said.

John Edward Jones was stuck in cave crevice outside Salt Lake City . He was trapped in a space that was 18 inches wide, 10 inches deep . One of the rescue tools failed while trying to free him and Jones fell back .

(CNN) -- A Utah man trapped for more than 26 hours in a crevice of a popular cave tourist attraction died as rescuers struggled to save him, authorities said Thursday. John Edward Jones, 26, of Stansbury Park was stuck in the Nutty Putty Cave, which sits west of Utah Lake near Cedar Valley, according to the sheriff's office of Utah County. The cave is 55 to 60 miles south of Salt Lake City. Sheriff's officials said Jones entered the cave at around 6 p.m. Tuesday with a group of about 11 people and became stuck about 8:45 p.m. in a "tightly confined" feature inside Nutty Putty Cave called "Bob's Push." Utah County sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Spencer Cannon told CNN affiliate KSL that Jones was trapped upside down in a crevice that was about 18 inches wide and about 10 inches high. The crevice is about 150 feet below the surface and about 700 feet from the cave entrance, according to the sheriff's department. "They had him to a level spot where he wasn't heading downhill with his head below his feet," Cannon said. "During the course of that, they have a raising system to hold him in position, and one of the devices of that system failed, and Mr. Jones actually fell back to the area where he had been stuck for so long." Shortly before midnight on Wednesday, rescuers got close enough to Jones to conclude that he was not breathing and he had no pulse. Rescue officials were meeting Thursday to determine how to recover Jones' body. Rescuers had tried to reach Jones for more than 24 hours, but had problems navigating the treacherous terrain, Cannon said. "Getting people to him is very difficult," Cannon told KSL before Jones died. "It is a tightly confined space. When there is movement, it is literally millimeters at a time." There are narrow areas of the cave where visitors have to crawl on their bellies to get through, according to the attraction's Web site. Up to 5,000 people visit each year, the site said.

John Edward Jones was stuck in cave crevice outside Salt Lake City . He was trapped in a space that was 18 inches wide, 10 inches deep . One of the rescue tools failed while trying to free him and Jones fell back .

(CNN) -- A Virginia Military Institute cadet has been charged with rape and sodomy after a female cadet reported she was the victim of sexual assault. Stephen J. Lloyd, 21, is being held in the Rockbridge Regional Jail in Lexington, Virginia, according to a spokesman for the Rockbridge County Sheriff's Office. The alleged assault took place over the weekend, VMI superintendent retired Gen. J.H. Binford Peay said in a statement, and Lloyd was arrested by VMI police on Tuesday. "After the female cadet made her report, the systems and procedures that are in place to address the safety of all cadets and to provide support were immediately placed into operation," Peay said in the statement. The case has been referred to the Virginia Commonwealth's Attorney and the state's criminal justice system, Peay said. Of VMI's 1,428 cadets, 111 are women, school spokesman Lt. Col. Stewart MacInnis told CNN affiliate WSLS-TV.

Accused cadet is being held in the Rockbridge Regional Jail in Lexington, Virginia . The alleged assault took place over the weekend . Case has been referred to the Virginia Commonwealth's Attorney .

(CNN) -- A bank that received $1.6 billion dollars of the government's bailout money sponsored what reports are calling a lavish series of events in Los Angeles, California, last weekend. Northern Trust sponsored a Professional Golf Association tournament and associated client events. Northern Trust, based in Chicago, Illinois, spent an undisclosed amount of money sponsoring a Professional Golf Association tournament and associated client events, including concerts, dinners and parties, according to celebrity Web site TMZ.com. The bank spent millions of dollars on the event, which included -- on top of the sponsorship costs of the Northern Trust Open tournament -- concerts by Sheryl Crow and Earth Wind & Fire, a private party at music venue House of Blues and gift bags from Tiffany & Co., the Web site said. Watch splashy concerts, parties » According to TMZ.com's report, employees and clients attending the tournament dined on seared salmon and petite Angus filet and stayed at some of Los Angeles' most elegant and expensive hotels. Doug Holt, senior vice president of communication for Northern Trust, confirmed to CNN that his bank sponsored the tournament and its events but, he said, not at taxpayer expense. Holt told CNN that as a "healthy" bank, Northern Trust did not seek the $1.6 billion it received from the government as part of the U.S. Treasury's Capital Purchase Program, but that it "agreed to the government's goal of gaining the participation of all major banks in the United States." "This is the second year Northern Trust is sponsoring the Open as part of a five-year contract," Holt said. The contract was signed in 2007, before the government's Capital Purchase Program to aid banks came into existence. Holt also said that the sponsorship is an "integral part of Northern Trust's global marketing activities," and as with all marketing, advertising, corporate sponsorship or charitable activities, no taxpayer money was used to fund the weekend events. But that assurance doesn't seem to be enough for some. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Massachusetts, the House Financial Services Committee chairman, is writing a letter to Northern Trust asking the bank to pay back the money it spent, according to Frank's spokesman. "We are asking Northern Trust to repay the government the equivalent of the funds they spent on the tournament and related events," Steve Adamske of Frank's staff told CNN. Northern Trust announced it was laying off 450 employees in December of last year, with the bank saying the move was part of a number of actions "to better position the company for improved profitability and continued global growth during these difficult economic conditions." Last year, Northern Trust earned an operating net income of $641 million. TMZ.com, like CNN, is owned by Time Warner.

Chicago-based Northern Trust received $1.6 billion from U.S. government . Web site TMZ.com says bank held lavish events in Los Angeles last weekend . Employees, clients dined on seared salmon and petite Angus filet, TMZ.com reports . U.S. Rep. Barney Frank says he wants bank to pay back money it spent on events .

(CNN) -- A commuter airliner that crashed Thursday in upstate New York, killing 50 people, underwent violent pitching and rolling seconds before impact, with passengers experiencing twice the normal force of gravity, a federal investigator said Sunday. Only a few pieces of the Continental Connection Dash 8 turboprop were recognizable after the crash. The plane's final 800-foot fall took five seconds, Steve Chealander of the National Transportation Safety Board said. The aircraft crashed into a home in Clarence Center, New York, near Buffalo, on Thursday night, killing all 49 people aboard. A 61-year-old man in the house died also, but his wife and daughter survived. Final motions of the aircraft were so drastic that the plane's autopilot automatically disengaged and warnings sounded, Chealander said, citing information from the plane's flight data and cockpit voice recorders. Also, a "stick-shaker" device, which noisily vibrates an airplane's controls to warn the pilot of imminent stall, kicked in, he said. The flight crew of Continental Connection Flight 3407, operated by Colgan Air, discussed "significant" ice buildup on the aircraft's windshield and wings before the crash, and icing has become a focus as a possible cause. Follow the plane's path » Chealander said the plane's de-icing system was turned on 11 minutes after the flight left Newark, New Jersey, for Buffalo, and remained on for the entire flight. He said the pilots were told before departure from Newark that there was "light to moderate icing" in the Buffalo area but that no other pilots had reported problems with their landings at the Buffalo airport. "It was really not a bad-weather day, and they chose to launch [from Newark]," Chealander said of the pilot and the first officer. The plane was on autopilot during its approach to the Buffalo airport, Chealander said. As to questions about whether the autopilot should have been turned off, Chealander said using it even in bad weather situations "is normal." Watch Chealander discuss autopilot options » "You're encouraged to use the autopilot to help you with the workloads of these high intense weather situations that we fly into all the time," he said. He said the NTSB in the past has recommended to the Federal Aviation Administration, which oversees civil aviation including commercial airlines, that in severe icing conditions, "it might be best to disconnect autopilot so that the pilot might have a better feel" for the aircraft's conditions. However, severe icing is "not what we saw here," Chealander said, adding that the FAA has no such disengagement rule in effect. "To say that they should not have been flying on autopilot is not correct," Chealander said. The pilots' recorded remarks about "significant" icing did not indicate "severe" icing, he said. The NTSB has said problems for the 74-seat Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 occurred when the pilots lowered the landing gear and tried to set the wing flaps to slow the aircraft for landing. Offering more details, Chealander said Sunday that the plane's nose pitched up 31 degrees, then down 45 degrees. The aircraft rolled left 46 degrees then right 105 degrees, or past the 90-degree vertical point, he said. Inside the cabin, he said, conditions went from lower than normal gravitational force to twice the normal force as the plane rocked through the sky. iReport.com: Send your photos, videos from the scene Chealander said the NTSB's investigation of the crash site indicated that the two propellers on the turboprop aircraft were in place when the crash occurred. "The airplane hadn't lost anything prior to impact. It came down intact," he said. Meanwhile, local authorities working to recover remains of the victims said Sunday that a federal team of more than 40 people using some $2.8 million worth of scientific equipment would begin on Monday to help establish positive identification of the victims. But because of the intensity of the crash and a subsequent fire, "whether we can identify everybody or not remains to

NTSB: People aboard experienced twice the normal gravitational force before crash . Plane rolled past the vertical point before it crashed into home, NTSB official says . Thursday's crash in upstate New York killed all 49 aboard plane, one in house . Plane's de-icing system was turned on 11 minutes after takeoff, NTSB says .

(CNN) -- A commuter airliner that crashed Thursday in upstate New York, killing 50 people, underwent violent pitching and rolling seconds before impact, with passengers experiencing twice the normal force of gravity, a federal investigator said Sunday. Only a few pieces of the Continental Connection Dash 8 turboprop were recognizable after the crash. The plane's final 800-foot fall took five seconds, Steve Chealander of the National Transportation Safety Board said. The aircraft crashed into a home in Clarence Center, New York, near Buffalo, on Thursday night, killing all 49 people aboard. A 61-year-old man in the house died also, but his wife and daughter survived. Final motions of the aircraft were so drastic that the plane's autopilot automatically disengaged and warnings sounded, Chealander said, citing information from the plane's flight data and cockpit voice recorders. Also, a "stick-shaker" device, which noisily vibrates an airplane's controls to warn the pilot of imminent stall, kicked in, he said. The flight crew of Continental Connection Flight 3407, operated by Colgan Air, discussed "significant" ice buildup on the aircraft's windshield and wings before the crash, and icing has become a focus as a possible cause. Follow the plane's path » Chealander said the plane's de-icing system was turned on 11 minutes after the flight left Newark, New Jersey, for Buffalo, and remained on for the entire flight. He said the pilots were told before departure from Newark that there was "light to moderate icing" in the Buffalo area but that no other pilots had reported problems with their landings at the Buffalo airport. "It was really not a bad-weather day, and they chose to launch [from Newark]," Chealander said of the pilot and the first officer. The plane was on autopilot during its approach to the Buffalo airport, Chealander said. As to questions about whether the autopilot should have been turned off, Chealander said using it even in bad weather situations "is normal." Watch Chealander discuss autopilot options » "You're encouraged to use the autopilot to help you with the workloads of these high intense weather situations that we fly into all the time," he said. He said the NTSB in the past has recommended to the Federal Aviation Administration, which oversees civil aviation including commercial airlines, that in severe icing conditions, "it might be best to disconnect autopilot so that the pilot might have a better feel" for the aircraft's conditions. However, severe icing is "not what we saw here," Chealander said, adding that the FAA has no such disengagement rule in effect. "To say that they should not have been flying on autopilot is not correct," Chealander said. The pilots' recorded remarks about "significant" icing did not indicate "severe" icing, he said. The NTSB has said problems for the 74-seat Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 occurred when the pilots lowered the landing gear and tried to set the wing flaps to slow the aircraft for landing. Offering more details, Chealander said Sunday that the plane's nose pitched up 31 degrees, then down 45 degrees. The aircraft rolled left 46 degrees then right 105 degrees, or past the 90-degree vertical point, he said. Inside the cabin, he said, conditions went from lower than normal gravitational force to twice the normal force as the plane rocked through the sky. iReport.com: Send your photos, videos from the scene Chealander said the NTSB's investigation of the crash site indicated that the two propellers on the turboprop aircraft were in place when the crash occurred. "The airplane hadn't lost anything prior to impact. It came down intact," he said. Meanwhile, local authorities working to recover remains of the victims said Sunday that a federal team of more than 40 people using some $2.8 million worth of scientific equipment would begin on Monday to help establish positive identification of the victims. But because of the intensity of the crash and a subsequent fire, "whether we can identify everybody or not remains to be seen

NTSB: People aboard experienced twice the normal gravitational force before crash . Plane rolled past the vertical point before it crashed into home, NTSB official says . Thursday's crash in upstate New York killed all 49 aboard plane, one in house . Plane's de-icing system was turned on 11 minutes after takeoff, NTSB says .

(CNN) -- A controversial Colombian senator who has obtained the release of 16 hostages held by Marxist guerrillas is the leading candidate to receive this year's Nobel Peace Prize, which will be announced Friday, said an independent research institute in Norway. Sen. Piedad Cordoba, right, of Colombia reportedly is one of three top contenders for the Nobel Peace Prize. Sen. Piedad Cordoba is the most likely recipient among three leading contenders, said the Oslo-based International Peace Research Institute. The others the institute named are Jordanian Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad, a philosophy professor in Islamic faith at Jordan University, and Afghan physician and human rights activist Sima Samar. Though the institute considers Cordoba the front-runner, no single candidate has emerged as the clear-cut favorite, as sometimes happens, said Kristian Berg Harpviken, director of the peace institute. "It really is quite open this year," Harpviken said. This year's peace prize nominees include 172 people and 33 organizations. The committee does not release the names of the nominees. The 50-year-old peace institute, which is often called PRIO, has no connection with the Nobel committee that awards the peace prize. Harpviken said he believes the prize will go to an individual or organization engaged in the resolution of a protracted armed conflict. "This is a [Nobel] committee that will perhaps be more proactive and will award somebody involved in a standing process rather than rewarding someone for past accomplishments," he said. Cordoba, 54, heads Colombians for Peace, a group trying to end to the 45-year-old war between the government and the guerrilla Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC. Since 2007, she has obtained the release of 16 hostages held by the FARC and has gotten commitments from the rebels for the release of several more. Colombian officials have said the guerrillas are holding about 700 captives. A government critic and longtime peace activist, Cordoba was kidnapped by a right-wing paramilitary group in 1999. She was released after several weeks and then fled to Canada with her family, where she stayed for 14 months before returning home. There have been at least two assassinations attempts against her. "While it is the hostage releases that have brought Cordoba and her organization the most attention, her role as a principal proponent of peace negotiations and of long-term reconciliation is probably more important to her candidacy for the Nobel Peace Prize," PRIO said in a release. Harpviken said he had received many complaints because of his prediction about Cordoba, whom critics accuse of being too close to the rebels. "I do realize that this created some debate in Colombia," he said. "That's not terribly surprising." Cordoba was nominated by Argentinean human rights activist Adolfo Perez Esquivel, winner of the 1980 Nobel Peace Prize. Harpviken said Muhammad, an Islamic scholar known for trying to bridge gaps with other faiths, also is a leading candidate. "Certainly, the purpose ... he stands for makes him very strong," Harpviken said. A member of the Jordanian royal family and educated at Princeton and Cambridge universities, where he received a doctorate, Muhammad, 42, "is playing an increasingly central role as an advocate of interfaith dialogue," PRIO said. In 2005, the prince brought together 170 Islamic scholars from 40 countries for the Amman Initiative to work out what they called a "theological counter-attack against terrorism." Two years later, Muhammad and other prominent Islamic scholars wrote a letter called "A Common Word Between Us and You" that urged mutual understanding and peace with Christians. The letter, PRIO said, was partly a response to Pope Benedict XVI's 2006 lecture that many saw as an attack on Islam. Backing his words with his deeds, Muhammad gave what was considered a broadly accommodating welcoming speech when the pope visited Jordan this year. "The importance of Prince Ghazi's initiatives to date lies first and foremost in the way he engages Islamic theology, institutions and leaders in a debate on the relationship between Islam and other faiths, thereby contributing a wider

Independent research institute cites three top contenders for Nobel Peace Prize . No candidate emerges as clear-cut favorite; winner to be announced Friday . Colombian senator, Jordanian prince, Afghan rights activist among contenders . Vietnamese Buddhist monk, Chinese dissidents also could be awarded prize .

(CNN) -- A federal jury Thursday found a 32-year-old Minnesota woman guilty of illegally downloading music from the Internet and fined her $80,000 each -- a total of $1.9 million -- for 24 songs. Illegal downloads of musical files will cost a Minnesota woman $1.9 million, a jury has decided. Jammie Thomas-Rasset's case was the first such copyright infringement case to go to trial in the United States, her attorney said. Attorney Joe Sibley said that his client was shocked at the fine, noting that the price tag on the songs she downloaded was 99 cents. She plans to appeal, he said. Cara Duckworth, a spokeswoman for the Recording Industry Association of America, said the association was "pleased that the jury agreed with the evidence and found the defendant liable." "We appreciate the jury's service and that they take this as seriously as we do," she said. Thomas-Rasset downloaded work by artists such as No Doubt, Linkin Park, Gloria Estefan and Sheryl Crow. This was the second trial for Thomas-Rasset. The judge ordered a retrial in 2007 after there was an error in the wording of jury instructions. The fines jumped considerably from the first trial, which granted just $220,000 to the recording companies. Thomas-Rasset is married with four children and works for an Indian tribe in Minnesota.

Federal jury finds Jammie Thomas-Rasset guilty of illegally downloading 24 songs . Minnesota wife, mom slapped with fine of $80,000 per song, for total of $1.9 million . Attorney says client shocked at fine, noting the songs costs 99 cents each . Spokeswoman for the Recording Industry Association of America lauds jury's finding .

(CNN) -- A fire that claimed the lives of 44 children at a day-care center in Hermosillo, Mexico, started Friday in an air-conditioning unit in an adjacent warehouse, the attorney general of Sonora said Monday. Maria Jesus Coronado Padilla mourns her daughter, Paulette Daniela Coronado Padilla, 2, on Sunday. Investigators have not determined whether the fire was caused by an overheated motor or deficiencies in its installation, said Abel Murrieta Gutierrez, according to the state-run news agency Notimex. However it started, there's no doubt it moved toward papers in bookshelves on the wall shared with the building housing ABC Day Care, where 141 children and day-care workers were, he said. The two buildings also shared a roof, which contained a false bottom made of polyurethane, which overheated, emitting highly toxic fumes, he said. He blamed all 44 of the deaths on the fumes. The general director of the Mexican Institute of Social Security vowed investigators will pursue the case wherever the evidence takes them. Daniel Karam Toumeh had said Sunday that the building had passed an inspection on May 26. "Here, I want to be very emphatic, in the sense that in Social Security we don't cover for anyone, don't defend anyone, we are the most interested in finding out what it was that happened," he said. As of Monday morning, 20 children ages 1-5 were hospitalized in Hermosillo, and 13 had been taken to other hospitals, including three to Sacramento Shriners Hospital in California, where pediatric burn treatment is a specialty. Watch parents gather at the site of the fire » Hermosillo, the capital of the state of Sonora, is about 200 miles (320 kilometers) south of the U.S. border in northwestern Mexico. On a radio show, a firefighter said Monday that many of the children were napping at the time of the fire and died in their sleep. Jose Jesus Diaz, the first firefighter to enter the day-care center, told Radio Los Cheros that he arrived to find some people ramming the building with their vehicles in an effort to reach the children. Inside, Diaz said, he saw children in sleeping positions on the floor. "They never knew what happened," Diaz told the radio station. The scene was one of people crying, calling out names and running with babies, he said. "There's an image that I will carry for the rest of my life: a shirtless man walking outside holding a young boy, yelling 'fireman, fireman, save my son,' but the boy was already dead," Diaz said. Watch a town in deep shock » Of the 20 children hospitalized in Hermosillo, 12 were in serious condition. The children taken to Children's Hospital in Sacramento are a 2-year-old boy in serious condition with burns over 20 percent of his body, a 3-year-old boy in critical condition with burns over 50 percent of his body, and a 3-year-old girl in critical condition with burns over 80 percent of her body, a hospital spokeswoman said. CNN's Mariano Castillo in Atlanta and CNN en Español's Rey Rodriguez in Hermosillo contributed to this story.

Deadly fire at Mexican day-care center began at nearby warehouse, state official says . 44 children killed in blaze; 30-plus kids hospitalized, some in serious condition . Official: Fire started with air conditioner; warehouse, day care shared wall . Firefighter found children in sleeping positions: "They never knew what happened"

(CNN) -- A former "enemy combatant" who was held in a South Carolina Naval brig for six years with no charges was sentenced Thursday to eight years and four months in prison, a Justice Department spokesman said. Ali al-Marri pleaded guilty in federal court in Illinois in May to conspiring to provide material support to a terrorist organization. He could have received a maximum of 15 years in prison. "This administration is committed to bringing terrorists to justice for their crimes," Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said. "Al-Marri, who has been in U.S. custody since December 2001, was dispatched by the highest levels of al Qaeda to carry out its terrorist objectives in America." A defense attorney for the Qatari citizen, who had been a student at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, when he was arrested, said the judge ruled on a lesser sentence to reflect the nearly six years al-Marri already spent at the Naval brig in Charleston, South Carolina. "We're pleased with the result," said the attorney, Larry Lustberg. "Mr. al-Marri is also very pleased." Al-Marri was transferred to a federal prison in Illinois in March after President Obama ordered a review of his case. The case was ultimately referred to the Justice Department, which filed charges. The Pentagon said he trained at a terror camp in Afghanistan, met al Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and "volunteered for a martyr mission," according to court documents filed earlier in the case. According to a copy of his plea agreement, al-Marri admitted that he "knowingly conspired and agreed with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed" to provide support to al Qaeda and to work under the organization's direction and control. "Between 1998 and 2001, the defendant attended various training camps because he wished to engage in jihad," the document said. While in the training camps and in al Qaeda safe houses in Pakistan, he was known by the name Abdul-Rahman al-Qatari, according to the plea agreement. Mohammed approached al-Marri in 2001 about his offer to assist al Qaeda, the plea agreement said. "The defendant was instructed by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to enter the United States no later than September 10, 2001, with an understanding that he was to remain in the United States for an undetermined length of time," the documents said. Al-Marri applied to Bradley using the same e-mail address he used to communicate with Mohammed, the plea agreement said. At Bradley, he "rarely attended classes and was in a failing status by the end of his first semester." On September 21, 2001, al-Marri traveled to another central Illinois university and created five e-mail accounts under different aliases, the documents said. "By this time, the defendant knew that al Qaeda was responsible for the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and fully understood why Khalid Sheikh Mohammed had directed him to be in the United States before that date." He used the new e-mail accounts to inform Mohammed of his whereabouts and activities, and also gave him his cell phone number in encoded format, according to the plea agreement. In addition, he conducted online research "related to various cyanide compounds. The defendant's focus was on various cyanide substances ... the defendant reviewed toxicity levels, the locations where these items could be purchased, and specific pricing of the compounds," the documents said. He also explored obtaining sulfuric acid. An almanac found at al-Marri's residence was bookmarked "at pages showing dams, waterways and tunnels in the United States," the plea agreement said. Al-Marri initially was arrested on credit card fraud charges in December 2001. But his continued confinement without charges mushroomed into a major legal case before federal prosecutors filed charges in February. The Supreme Court ruled on March 6 that al-Marri's case was rendered moot by a decision to indict him on federal conspiracy charges, and granted the Obama administration's request to dismiss his challenge

Ali al-Marri sentenced for charges of conspiring to provide support to terrorism . His lawyers wanted a lighter sentence because he was held without charges for six years . Al-Marri sentenced to eight years and four months; faced 15 years . Prosecutors say al-Marri volunteered for "martyr mission," met bin Laden .

(CNN) -- A former U.S. military contractor has pleaded guilty to federal charges in a kickback scheme involving Army contracting officials, the Department of Justice said. Terry Hall, 43, of Snellville, Georgia, pleaded guilty to bribery conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy in federal court in Birmingham, Alabama, on Wednesday, the department said in a release. Hall ran several companies that received $21 million as part of contracts with the Department of Defense, prosecutors said. "To obtain the contracting business and facilitate unlawful payments by other contractors, Hall admitted he made more than $3 million in unlawful payments and provided other valuable items and services to U.S. Army contracting officials" stationed at Camp Arifjan, an Army base in Kuwait, authorities said. The case against Hall stemmed from "a wide-ranging investigation of corruption at the Camp Arifjan contracting office," authorities said. Hall is the eighth person to enter a guilty plea in connection with the bribery scheme. Hall's companies, including Freedom Consulting and Catering Co. and Total Government Allegiance, provided goods and services to the Department of Defense in connection with the Iraq war, according to court documents. The companies received a "blanket purchase agreement" to deliver bottled water in Iraq and a contract to build a security fence in Kuwait, authorities said. Such an agreement is "an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract by which the DoD agrees to pay a contractor a specified price for a particular good or service," according to the Department of Justice. "Based on a (blanket purchase agreement), the DoD is permitted to order the supplies on an as-needed basis, and the contractor is bound by the price agreed upon in the (agreement)." Hall faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison on the money laundering conspiracy charge and a maximum of five years on the bribery conspiracy charge, plus a $250,000 fine on each charge. In addition, Hall agreed to forfeit some $15.7 million to the U.S. government. It was unclear when he is scheduled to be sentenced. Others who have pleaded guilty in the probe include former Maj. James Momon, who according to court documents arranged for Hall's companies to receive $6.4 million worth of orders for bottled water. As a result, Hall paid Momon more than $300,000, the Department of Justice said. Momon pleaded guilty in August 2008 to receiving bribes from contractors at the base and is awaiting sentencing. Another is former Maj. John Cockerham, who arranged for Hall's companies to receive $2.6 million in bottled water orders. Hall paid Cockerham about $800,000, authorities said. He was sentenced in December to more than 17 years in prison and ordered to pay $9.6 million in restitution. Hall was indicted in May along with Army Maj. Eddie Pressley and Pressley's wife, Eurica. The indictment against the Pressleys says they received more than $2.8 million in cash and other items from Hall "in exchange for Eddie Pressley's agreement to take official actions to benefit Hall," the Department of Justice said. Eurica Pressley allegedly arranged for a company named EGP Business Solutions Inc. to be incorporated, opened a bank account in the business' name in the United States, the United Arab Emirates and the Cayman Islands, according to the indictment.

Terry Hall pleaded guilty to bribery conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy . Hall received $21 million from contracts with Department of Defense, prosecutors say . Case stemmed from "wide-ranging investigation of corruption," authorities said . He is eighth person to enter guilty plea in connection with scheme .

(CNN) -- A former high school cheerleader who sued over injuries caused when a teammate failed to catch her during a routine, lost her appeal before the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday. The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Tuesday a cheerleader couldn't sue her teammate. The seven state justices unanimously concluded cheerleading is a "contact" sport, and therefore neither the male student cited nor the school district was liable for damages. The opinion also said the stunt in question did not create a "compelling danger" to students. It is the first legal decision of its kind, according to the National Cheer Safety Foundation, a group founded by parents. The case was closely watched by school districts and parents around the country concerned about whether they would have immunity from lawsuits involving unintentional injuries from certain extracurricular activities. Brittany Noffke was a varsity cheerleader at Holmen High School, about 14 miles from La Crosse, in western Wisconsin. Her team was practicing a "post to hands" stunt before a basketball game in 2004, and after being lifted up to stand on the shoulders of a fellow student, Noffke fell backward, striking her head on the floor. The 16-year-old male cheerleader who lifted her, and then was supposed to be a spotter, failed to catch her. The girl's family sued the boy and the school district, claiming the coach was negligent by not having a second spotter and not providing safety mats. State law does not specifically spell out which high school activities involve "contact," but they typically involve sports such as football or lacrosse in which opposing teams compete against each other. But the Wisconsin high court concluded that "cheerleading involves a significant amount of physical contact between cheerleaders that at times results in a forceful interaction between the participants." Justice Annette Ziegler cited the "spirit rules" of the National Federation of State High School Association's handbook, which contained pictures illustrating various cheerleading stunts. She said all but one photo showed at least two cheerleaders in contact with one another. Because the male cheerleader just made a mistake by being out of place when Noffke fell, the court found he did not act "recklessly," the only legal standard that would have permitted a lawsuit to proceed. Although it is not considered a sport at many high schools and colleges, cheerleading has grown increasingly popular over the years, and the stunts have become more complex and dangerous, sports injury experts say. A University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill study found cheerleading accounted for about two-thirds of some 93 "catastrophic" sports injuries -- including head and neck damage -- among high school girls in the past 26 years. But the study noted that other sports such as football produce far more devastating injuries, though fewer in number. Cheerleading advocates say the activity has become much safer in the past 15 years, following greater awareness of the risks and better coordination among state and national groups. The American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Administrators estimates about 4 million people are involved in the activity.

Justices rule cheerleading is "contact" sport, therefore teammates, school not liable . Brittany Noffke sued claiming negligence after she fell during a stunt . Opinion said stunt in question did not create a "compelling danger" Cheerleading group calls ruling the first legal decision of its kind .

(CNN) -- A history of childhood abuse and use of a provocative online identity increase the risk that girls will be victimized by someone they meet on the Internet, according to a study appearing in the June issue of Pediatrics. A study in Pediatrics sought to identify which risk factors are linked to Internet-initiated victimization of girls. While highlighting the dangers that exist for adolescent girls, the study's authors also offer a word to parents: You can lessen the risks to your children by monitoring their Internet use. The authors sought to identify risk factors connected to increased rates of Internet-initiated victimization of girls. They also wanted to find out whether abuse victims showed increased vulnerability to online victimization. They found that girls are more likely to experience online sexual advances or have offline encounters if they have previously been abused or have a provocative avatar, which is a digital image meant to represent the user online. Those two factors pose a greater risk to adolescents than perhaps more traditionally considered risks, such as Internet naivete and sexual innocence, the study says. The authors say many Internet-initiated sex crimes originate on social networking sites, which require users to create online identities. Some sites, such as Second Life, require users to create a character to represent them in the virtual world. The program presents users with hundreds of possibilities spanning all shapes and sizes; users can choose anything from a fully dressed persona to a scantily clad one. They also can select features such as hair color and figure. Other sites, such as MySpace and Facebook, allow self-descriptions and photographs. But even there, users can choose what to post, and those identities can shape behavior and interaction online, the study says. "The extent to which provocative self-presentations ... translate into increased online advances or offline encounters is unknown, but it is plausible that these types of presentations constitute an initial invitation for exploitation and a familiar avenue by which sexual advances are initiated," the study says. The study's lead author was Jennie G. Noll of the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in Ohio. The report appears in Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Noll and her co-authors cite the Proteus effect, or the idea that the presentation of oneself can affect the behavior of the presenter and the receiver. "Self-presentations can change the way Internet users interact in a manner that increases the risk for online sexual advances," they say. The study looked at 104 abused and 69 non-abused girls ages 14 to 17. Abused adolescents -- who had suffered neglect, physical abuse or sexual abuse -- were recruited from child protective agencies, the authors said. Of the girls studied, 54 percent were white and 46 percent were minorities, of which 82 percent were black and 18 percent were mixed-race, the authors say. The authors held a laboratory session in which they asked the girls to create avatars on a program designed to mimic a popular social networking site, which the authors did not name in the study. Girls could choose bust and hip size, clothing type, visible navel piercings and skin, eye and hair colors. Girls were given a range of choices that allowed for a more provocative or conservative avatar. Participants were also asked to rate how many times they had had online sexual advances, which were described as "explicit sexual chatting in virtual worlds," and how many times they had met someone in person after meeting first online. The authors say 40 percent of the girls reported experiencing sexual advances online, and 26 percent reported meeting someone offline after getting to know the person on the Internet. Abused girls were much more likely to have experienced both, the authors found. "Results indicated that abuse status was significantly related to online sexual advances, which were, in turn, related to offline, in-person encounters," the study says. The authors say there was no direct link between abuse and offline encounters, but that a history of abuse puts girls at greater risk. Looking at the girls

Study in June issue of Pediatrics identifies risk factors from Internet predators . Study finds childhood abuse, use of sexy images puts girls at increased risk . These factors more crucial than Internet naivete or sexual innocence, study indicates . Authors urge caregivers to carefully monitor how girls present themselves online .

(CNN) -- A huge water main burst under a road in the suburban Baltimore community of Dundalk, Maryland, Friday, sending muddy water erupting over neighborhood streets and down highway ramps, officials said. Muddy water envelops the community of Dundalk, Maryland, on Friday. Many were left without power. The 72-inch main was shut about two hours after it ruptured, Baltimore County Chief Executive Jim Smith told CNN. No injuries were reported, Smith said, but he urged residents to "shelter in place" and not to go into the knee- to chest-high water under any circumstances. "This is not a game," Smith warned. Authorities set up a command center near the site of the break and swift-water boat rescue teams were standing by, he added. See water main break damage » Resident David Johnson said he felt helpless as he stood outside his house and watched the dirty brown water creep up his lawn and approach his front door. It stopped inches away and his basement stayed dry. The worst part now, Johnson said, is the smell. "Like sewage," he said. Shannon Woerner was at home in nearby Essex, Maryland, when he heard the news about the water main break -- and the call for boats. He loaded his kayak in his truck and headed to the scene. "I just wanted to see if I could help," he said. Woerner said he assisted by ferrying car keys and other items across flooded streets to people who were cut off from their homes by the water. Standing at the corner of Court and McShane streets, Mike Pell, 34, watched the water slowly recede after the main was shut. Water covered the wheels of his pickup truck. "My basement's done," he said, pointing to his shoulder to show the height of the water inside, where he and his fiancée had their bedroom. "All of our clothes are ruined," he said. He managed to get his two children, ages 2 and 3, to a dry area on the first floor of the house. "Now I wonder who's going to pay for this. We don't have flood insurance -- this area doesn't flood," Pell said, shaking his head. Samantha Hansley, 21, could only watch from a dry hill and wonder if her truck would survive the deluge. It sat a block away in 2 feet of water. Hansley and her boyfriend had been driving out of the floodwaters when they stopped to try to help some stranded drivers. "Our truck just died," she said. A manager at the Box and Save grocery store not far from the break site said the entire parking lot was flooded. Cathy Geisler said customers were still in the store Friday afternoon when police came to tell everyone to evacuate, except for essential personnel. "We had customers, we were still doing business, then the electricity went out and we escorted everyone out of the store," Geisler said. She and another manager stayed behind in a building with no power. As she spoke on the phone with CNN, Geisler said police had come back to tell them to leave immediately and she abruptly hung up the phone. Aerial video from CNN affiliates WMAR and WBAL showed a collapsed roadway with massive amounts of water exploding over the area. Entire neighborhoods had flooded streets, and many residents were evacuated, authorities said. Eric Braughman, who lives on one of the flooded streets, told CNN he had "thought something was up" with the water Thursday when his faucets discharged brownish-orange water. "My wife didn't give the baby a bath because it didn't look safe," Braughman said. Nearly 1,000 customers were without power, according to Baltimore Gas and Electric Company's Web site. The main break is part of a larger issue with failing infrastructure in many U.S. cities, said Kurt Kocher, a spokesman for Baltimore's Department of Public Works. Kocher cited two other huge main breaks in the Maryland and Washington

NEW: Residents say water has damaged vehicles, homes and left sewage smell . 72-inch main shut down after about two hours, county official says . CNN affiliate video shows collapsed roadway, massive amounts of water . Nearly 1,000 were without power, according to Baltimore Gas and Electric .

(CNN) -- A human rights group urged Burundi to reverse a law that makes homosexuality illegal, saying it risks worsening the harsh treatment of gays in the eastern Africa nation. In March, people in Burundi demonstrate in favor of a measure banning homosexuality. It became law in April. The new law makes "sexual relations with persons of the same sex" illegal and punishable by up to two years in prison, Human Rights Watch said in a recently released report. It was enacted just as the gay, lesbian and transgender community had started to mobilize and call for equal treatment, according to the organization. "The government needs to listen to these voices to understand the harm it is doing to Burundians with its state-sanctioned discrimination," said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director for Human Rights Watch. "The government should rescind this law and instead work to promote equality and understanding." Before the law, which was passed in April, some gays and lesbians already faced significant discrimination in Burundi, according to the organization. Some had lost their jobs, others were beaten by parents and local youths, and others were evicted, according to the Human Rights Watch report, which cited accounts by the victims. Numerous attempts to reach government officials were unsuccessful. Homosexuality is illegal in most countries in the region, including in nearby Kenya and Uganda, where sodomy laws were introduced during colonialism. Most African nations have revised those laws to include consensual sex among gay and lesbian couples and made the punishments tougher, according to Human Rights Watch. "Half the world's countries that criminalize homosexual conduct do so because they cling to Victorian morality and colonial laws," said Scott Long, director of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights program for Human Rights Watch. "Getting rid of these unjust remnants of the British empire is long overdue." The role religion plays in Africa has a lot to do with the ban, others say. "It is wrong from a biblical standpoint, and most African countries are governed based on religious beliefs," said Olatunde Ogunyemi, a professor in Grambling, Louisiana. "Christianity and Islam are the dominant religions in the continent, and in some cases, constitutions are based on religion, which justifies making it illegal." South Africa's post-apartheid constitution bans discrimination against gays -- the first in Africa to prohibit discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation. Homosexuality is also illegal in other countries, including Ghana, Nigeria and Zimbabwe, according to Human Rights Watch.

Human Rights Watch fears new law risks worsening harsh treatment of gays . In eastern African nation, jail time for homosexual acts could be up to two years . Homosexuality is illegal in most countries in region, including Kenya and Uganda . South Africa's constitution bans discrimination based on sexual orientation .

(CNN) -- A judge has ruled in favor of two Florida school administrators who faced contempt charges for saying a prayer at a school luncheon, according to a group that helped represent them. Rep. Mike McIntyre is one of three members of the Congressional Prayer Caucus backing the school officials. U.S. District Judge M.C. Rodgers ruled Thursday in favor of Frank Lay, principal of Pace High School in Pace, Florida, and school athletic director Robert Freeman, the Liberty Counsel said. Lay and Freeman could have faced up to six months in prison and fines if convicted. They were accused of violating a consent decree banning county school employees from initiating prayers during school events. Ahead of the court proceedings, hundreds of supporters lined the streets outside the federal courthouse in Pensacola, Florida. Many of them carried signs and some sang songs. "It is ridiculous that these men even had to think twice about blessing a meal," Liberty Counsel founder Matthew Staver said in a written statement. "To criminalize the prayer conflicts with our nation's founding and guiding principles and goes directly against our constitutionally protected rights." But the American Civil Liberties Union, whose lawsuit led to the consent decree, has maintained students have a right to be free from administrators who foist their personal religious beliefs on them. Still, an ACLU representative has said the organization "never suggested" people should go to jail for violating the decree, and the organization was not involved in the criminal proceedings. The ACLU filed suit last year against the district on behalf of two Pace students who alleged that "school officials regularly promoted religion and led prayers at school events," according to an ACLU statement. Lay was a party in the initial lawsuit, and his attorney was among those approving the consent decree, according to the organization. In addition, the court required that all district employees receive a copy. But on January 28, "Lay asked Freeman to offer a prayer of blessing during a school-day luncheon for the dedication of a new field house at Pace High School," according to court documents. "Freeman complied with the request and offered the prayer at the event. It appears this was a school-sponsored event attended by students, faculty and community members." Attorneys from Liberty Counsel have said that attendees included booster club members and other adults who helped the field house project -- all "consenting adults." The case caught the attention of members of the Congressional Prayer Caucus, including the caucus' founder, Rep. J. Randy Forbes, R-Virginia. He and two other lawmakers, Rep. Mike McIntyre, D-North Carolina, and Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Florida, also members of the caucus, wrote a letter in support of the two school administrators, saying that "many of America's Founding Fathers were resolute in their faiths, and the impact of such is evident in the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and many of their writings." It added, "The tradition of offering prayer in America has become so interwoven into our nation's spiritual heritage that to charge someone criminally for engaging in such a practice would astonish the men who founded this country on religious liberty."

Two Florida school administrators accused of violating consent order on prayer . They faced possible sentence of up to six months in prison, fine . ACLU sued district on behalf of students who alleged prayer held at school events . Parties agreed to consent decree in January; ACLU not part of criminal proceedings .

(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.

Phillip Paul recaptured Sunday in Goldendale, Washington, authorities say . Paul duped someone into driving him 250 miles from escape site . Paul planned escape for at least several months, police say . Legally insane killer escaped Thursday during hospital field trip to fair .

(CNN) -- A man dressed as a priest caught at Amsterdam's airport with three kilos of cocaine under his vestments claimed to police that his packages contained "holy sand", Dutch police said. Security officials conducting a normal security check at Schiphol airport last year. Police stopped the man at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport as he was transiting on a flight from South America, Robert Van Aapel, a spokesman for the Dutch Royal Military Police told CNN by phone Saturday. "He refused to be searched saying that he was a religious person and it was not allowed," Van Aapel said. "However, this is normal procedure so our officers insisted. They asked him again and after the second time they carried out the search and discovered the man had packs strapped to his legs below his priest's clothes. He told us they contained holy sand," he said. He said the man, who is aged around 40 and a Bolivian national, was arrested Thursday after arriving in to the airport on a flight from Lima, Peru. He was attempting to transit on a flight to Milan when he was apprehended with the cocaine, worth around €105,000 ($155,000). The Bolivian appeared in court Friday on charges of drug smuggling, Van Aapel said. Dutch police are trying to establish if the man is a real priest after he claimed to be a senior member of the clergy in the Bolivian capital La Paz, he added. E-mail to a friend

Police: Man stopped at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport dressed as a priest . Initially refused to be searched, saying that he was a religious person . Found to have $155,000 worth of cocaine strapped to his legs under his vestments . Officers trying to establish whether the man, on flight from Peru, is a priest .

(CNN) -- A man suspected of killing five members of his family and wounding another on Thursday committed suicide after police surrounded him in a house, police in Cleveland, Ohio, said Friday. Police say Davon Crawford, 33, killed his new wife, her sister and three children. Acting on a tip, police surrounded the house and then entered it after seeing a man who matched the description of suspect Davon Crawford briefly step outside, police spokesman Lt. Thomas Stacho said. "They confronted the male hiding in a bathroom," Stacho said. "When he spotted the agents, then he took his own life." Cleveland police launched a manhunt Thursday for Crawford, 33, suspected of killing his new wife, Lechea Crawford, 30; her sister, Rose Stevens, 25; and three of Stevens' children, Destiny Woods, 5, and 2-year-old twins Dion and Davion Primm. A 7-year-old boy was shot and hospitalized, Julie Short, a spokeswoman for MetroHealth Medical Center, said Friday. The boy's grandfather told CNN affiliate WEWS that the boy was in stable condition and talking after having been shot in the shoulder. A fourth child, a 12-year-old boy, managed to escape, WKYC reported. The Cleveland Plain Dealer also reported that a 2-month-old girl, the daughter of Davon and Lechea Crawford, escaped the shooting unharmed and is being cared for. Police began searching for Crawford, 33, Thursday night after receiving a call around 8 p.m. to the upper floor of a duplex. "It looks like it was some type of domestic argument that sparked this tragedy," Police Chief Michael McGrath said Friday. The CNN Radio Network contributed to this story.

NEW: Davon Crawford shoots self after police find him in bathroom . Crawford was accused of shooting wife, her sister and her three children . 12-year-old escaped; 7-year-old in hospital after being shot . "Domestic argument" may have sparked shooting, police chief says .

(CNN) -- A man who rescued a co-worker from the jaws of a crocodile in northern Australia also accidentally shot him in the process, police said. A mature saltwater crocodile in the the murky waters of the Adelaide River, near Darwin in the Northern Territory. The two men were collecting crocodile eggs by a river bank in Australia's Northern Territory Tuesday when a crocodile grabbed Jason Grant by the lower right arm, a spokeswoman for the area police told CNN. The second man, Zac Fitzgerald, shot the crocodile, causing it to let go of Grant's arm. But a second shot that Fitzgerald fired struck Grant in the upper right arm, said Northern Territory police spokeswoman Katie Fowden. Grant, who is in his late 20s, was flown to a hospital for treatment of both the bullet and the crocodile wounds. His injuries were not life-threatening, Fowden said. The two men are workers at a crocodile farm in Darwin, the capital city of the Northern Territory. They were collecting the eggs legally, police said. E-mail to a friend CNN's Saeed Ahmed contributed to this report

Man rescues co-worker from jaws of crocodile in northern Australia . He shot crocodile, causing it to let go of man's arm, second shot hit man's arm . The two were collecting crocodile eggs by a river bank in the Northern Territory . Wounded man's injuries were not life-threatening .

(CNN) -- A mass grave unearthed Tuesday in downtown Montgomery, Alabama, is believed to contain bodies from an epidemic of yellow fever that swept the city in the 1870s, police said. Two buildings from the 1940s were torn down at the site, and maintenance workers grading the land in preparation for the construction of a new building uncovered the remains, said Montgomery police spokesman Maj. Huey Thornton. The site is adjacent to a cemetery, he said, and "based on the information we have from historical documents kept by the actual cemetery ... it does appear that it may be remains from a yellow fever epidemic in the 1870s." Officials from the Alabama Archaeological Society and the Alabama Historical Association were at the site and are expected to be able to confirm that, he said. It was not immediately known how many bodies might be buried at the site, Thornton said, but authorities are reassuring the public there is no cause for concern. The remains are clearly too old to suggest any recent activity, he said. According to an article posted online by the Mississippi Project of the American Local History Network, an extensive outbreak of yellow fever occurred in 1878, spreading across eight states but particularly affecting Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. Some 16,000 people died from the disease that year alone, according to the article.

The mass grave was unearthed Tuesday in downtown Montgomery, Alabama . Workers preparing land for construction of a new building uncovered the remains . Historical records indicate bodies could be from yellow fever outbreak . It was not immediately known how many bodies might be buried at the site .

(CNN) -- A massive search and rescue mission continued late Friday for nine people who may have plunged into chilly Pacific water off the Southern California coast after a Coast Guard plane and a Marine helicopter collided. "We're still in the search and rescue phase. We are not standing down from that at this point," Coast Guard Capt. Thomas Farris told reporters at a news conference. "We have every hope that we'll be able to find survivors." The search will continue, he said, "Until I stop." The Coast Guard plans to continue the search at least throughout Friday night and Saturday morning, Petty Officer Henry Dunphy of the San Diego Coast Guard told CNN. The Coast Guard C-130 plane and its seven crew members had been searching for a missing person when it collided Thursday with the Marine AH-1 Cobra helicopter, with a two-person crew, on a military training exercise, Farris said. None of the names of those on either aircraft has been released. A pilot reported seeing a fireball about 7:10 p.m. Thursday near the crash site. The crash occurred about 16 nautical miles (18 miles) off the coast, near San Clemente Island, said Cpl. Michael Stevens of U.S. Marine Air Station Miramar in San Diego. Helicopters, cutters and patrol boats, aided by the Navy, were scanning a 644-square-mile area for survivors, said Coast Guard Rear Adm. Joseph Castillo. Castillo earlier said an investigation "to determine what exactly happened" was beginning. The investigation will be done in "lockstep" with the Marine Corps, he said. A large debris field has been located, and debris has been collected, he said. "The debris is what you'd expect, I think, from a midair collision," he said. The two Marines on the Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton chopper were one of four helicopter crews involved in the training exercise, Stevens said. The Coast Guard plane had been on a search mission for a couple of days before Thursday's crash. "They were searching for a possible person in the water who was reported to have gotten in a dinghy and attempted to row to Catalina [Island]," Farris said. "We were searching in that area because of the drift that would have naturally occurred after that event." With water temperatures in the 60s, Farris earlier Friday estimated survivability could be up to 20 hours. The missing person the Coast Guard members were searching for prior to the collision is still missing, Farris said. CNN's Sonya Hamasaki and Larry Shaughnessy contributed to this report.

NEW: Coast Guard Capt. Thomas Farris: "We're still in the search and rescue phase" A Coast Guard plane and a Marine helicopter collided off cost of Southern California . Seven people were aboard C-130 Thursday, which was searching for a missing person . The Marine helicopter contained two crew members .

(CNN) -- A militant Islamist group associated with al Qaeda has for the first time threatened to attack Israel, far from its normal base of operations in Somalia. Al-Shabab, which is fighting to control the east African country, accused Israel of "starting to destroy" the Al Aqsa mosque, where standoffs have taken place recently between Israeli police and Palestinians. The mosque is part of the complex that Jews call the Temple Mount and Muslims call Haram al-Sharif. "The Jews started to destroy parts of the holy mosque of Al Aqsa and they routinely kill our Palestinian brothers, so we are committed to defend our Palestinian brothers," said Mukhtar Robow Abu Mansur, a prominent Al-Shabab commander. His threat was part of a series of fiery sermons delivered after Friday prayers in Baidoa in southwest Somalia. Al-Shabab controls the region, which is part of a country that has been without an effective national government for nearly 20 years. Other leaders of the group also threatened Israel, the first time the group is known to have done so. "We will transfer and expand our fighting in the Middle East so we can defend Al Aqsa mosque from the Israelis," Al-Shabab commander Abdifatah Aweys Abu Hamza said in Mogadishu, the Somali capital. He is apparently the leader of a new Al-Shabab armed group calling themselves "Mujahedin Al Aqsa," or "Al Aqsa Holy Warriors," which they said is assigned to attack Israel. It is not clear whether Al-Shabab has the capacity to carry out its threats against Israel. But Rashid Abdi of the International Crisis Group, speaking last week before al-Shabab issued its threats against Israel, warned that the group should be taken seriously. "We should not underestimate the capacity of Al-Shabab," he said. "This is a deadly organization, a formidable foe." Abdi said the group had been mutating from a nationalist group into a terrorist organization more like al Qaeda, which was behind the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. "If you look at the rhetoric and language and if you look at the Web sites, if you hear their preachers or their scholars speak, it is completely indistinguishable from al Qaeda leaders," Abdi said. The group has also become more vicious in Somalia, a local human rights expert said. "The most gruesome and gross violations of human rights are committed by Al-Shabab," activist Hassan Shire Sheikh said. "They have also instilled fear. They just shoot, they kill, they maim and they lash." The group also threatened African neighbors on Friday, including Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya, Eritrea, Ghana, Sudan and Uganda. They have in the past threatened African nations that provide peacekeeping troops to the war-torn country. The U.S. State Department Country Reports on Terrorism from April lists Al-Shabab as a terrorist organization and blames it for shootings and suicide bombings inside Somalia. It does not list the group as having carried out violence outside Somalia, but says some members of the group have trained and fought alongside al Qaeda in Afghanistan. Somalia has been mired in chaos since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and sparked brutal clan infighting. The transitional government has struggled to establish authority, challenged by Islamist groups like Al-Shabab that have seized control of Mogadishu and much of the south. CNN's David McKenzie in Nairobi, Kenya, contributed to this report.

Al-Shabab accuses Israel of "starting to destroy" the Al Aqsa mosque . "We are committed to defend our Palestinian brothers," Al-Shabab commander says . It is not clear whether Al-Shabab has the capacity to carry out its threats against Israel . Somalia has been mired in chaos since 1991, when warlords overthrew its dictator .

(CNN) -- A mine exploded Monday on a road in southern Somalia, killing four people -- three members of the medical humanitarian group Medecins Sans Frontieres and a journalist. Ongoing violence in Somalia has devastated the capital Mogadishu. The incident occurred Monday along a road in Kismayo, the group said. Victor Okumu, 51, a Kenyan doctor; Damien Lehalle, 27, a French logistician; and a Somali driver named Billan were the MSF workers who were killed. Another member of the team was slightly wounded, the group said in a posting on its Web site. "The exact circumstances of this fatal incident are not yet clear," the posting said. Also killed was journalist Hassan Kafi Hared, 36. The remote-controlled mine erupted as he was walking to a news conference in Siyad Village in northern Kismayu, said the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ). He was working for the government-run Somali National News Agency and a Somali Web site called gedonet.com. He is survived by a wife and three children. "This is a targeted attack and we declare that this brutal killing on the journalist and the aid workers is an attack on the society itself," said NUSOJ Secretary General Omar Faruk Osman, in a news release. "We demand that transitional government and the authorities in Kismayu to identify the culprits of this crime and bring them to justice" he said. The medical humanitarian organization said it was evacuating remaining international members of it staff from Kismayu. Hared is the second journalist to be killed this year, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. The first, 38-year-old Norwegian reporter Carsten Thomassen, died Jan. 15 in a suicide bomb attack in Kabul. In a written statement, a representative of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said he condemned the killings and "demands a thorough investigation by the authorities." E-mail to a friend

Journalist and two doctors were among those killed . Remote-controlled mine went off in southern Somalia . Somali driver also died in the attack . Journalist is the second to die in conflict situation this year .

(CNN) -- A month after announcing plans to expand offshore drilling, President Obama visited ground zero of the Gulf Coast oil disaster and warned that residents could be facing a "potentially unprecedented environmental disaster." "The oil that is still leaking from the well could seriously damage the economy and the environment of our Gulf states and it could extend for a long time. It could jeopardize the livelihoods of thousands of Americans who call this place home," Obama said Sunday in Venice, Louisiana. The president reiterated that oil company BP is responsible for the leak and will foot the cost of the cleanup. He pledged to "spare no effort to respond to this crisis for as long as it continues." Obama's remarks were a stark contrast from his late March proposal to open swaths of U.S. coastal waters in the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico to oil and natural gas drilling. Obama said then that the decision did not come lightly, but it was one that he approached with confidence. "The bottom line is this: Given our energy needs, in order to sustain economic growth and produce jobs, and keep our businesses competitive, we are going to need to harness traditional sources of fuel even as we ramp up production of new sources of renewable, homegrown energy," he said as he unveiled his plans. Obama said the federal government would begin the process of leasing some areas off the coasts of Virginia, Alaska and possibly Florida to oil companies for drilling. New offshore drilling in most U.S. waters has been banned since the early 1980s, when mounting public pressure pushed lawmakers into action. A disastrous oil spill off the California coast in 1969 sparked protests that grew into a broader environmental movement, which eventually forced a drilling moratorium. But as the environmental impact of the Gulf Coast spill comes ashore, the appetite for Obama's offshore drilling plan and the enthusiasm from administration officials appear to have subsided. CNNMoney: Oil spill may threaten offshore drilling plans "All he has said is that he's not going to continue the moratorium on drilling," White House senior adviser David Axelrod told ABC's "Good Morning America" on Friday. "No domestic drilling in new areas is going to go forward until there is an adequate review of what's happened here and of what is being proposed elsewhere." Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Sunday that moving ahead on offshore drilling is "going to require a balancing act." "That is a national security concern because we have to do better to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. But it has to be done safely. It can't be done at the risk of having to spend billions of dollars cleaning up these spills," she said on NBC's "Meet the Press." And Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Sunday that the Gulf Coast disaster "sends out the clarion call that we need to diversify our energy resources." "Our intention is to move forward thoughtfully, looking at how we can protect the resources of the United States and making thoughtful decisions," he said on CNN's "State of the Union," noting that deep-water drilling has been done thousands of times without incident. Time.com: Obama promises help, but containing spill is still talk Obama said Friday he still believes that domestic oil production is an important part of the strategy for energy security, but he added, "I've always said it must be done responsibly, for the safety of our workers and our environment." The president ordered Salazar to conduct a review of the oil spill and report back in 30 days on what precautions, if any, should be required to prevent future accidents. Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida has asked Obama to shelve his proposal, at least until the cause of the current spill is fully investigated. In a letter to the president, Nelson also said he would file legislation "that would, for the time being, prohibit the Interior Department from acting on your administration's plans to expand offshore drilling, including seismic testing and other exploratory operations." Florida

Obama says Gulf Coast oil spill is a "potentially unprecedented environmental disaster" In late March, Obama announced plans to expand offshore drilling . Administration officials insist priority is to get to the bottom of the current spill . Spokesman says Obama's announcement was the start, not the end, of longer process .

(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.

Crowd gathers at Labor Day festival in Hooper, Utah, awaiting candy drop . Man and his son operating motorized parachute lose control of aircraft . They descend rapidly toward crowd, which parts "like the Red Sea" Operators of parachute not hurt; 6 on ground, including children, are injured .

(CNN) -- A national campaign to inoculate tens of millions of Americans against H1N1 influenza began Monday, with health care workers in Indiana and Tennessee targeted as the first recipients, federal health authorities said. Health care workers in Indiana and Tennessee are among the first to receive the H1N1 vaccine Monday. "I think the world has watched history unfold," Dr. Judy Monroe, Indiana's state health commissioner, told reporters at Wishard Hospital in Indianapolis. Earlier Monday, the hospital received a shipment of 52 boxes -- each containing 100 pre-filled sprayers. "This first 5,200 doses that came to Marion County is really just the tip of the iceberg," Monroe said. Health Director Virginia Caine said the shipment will be split among the county's hospitals. A similar scene unfolded at LeBonheur Children's Medical Center in Memphis, Tennessee, where three children have died from H1N1, sometimes referred to as swine flu. Jennilyn Utkov, a spokeswoman for LeBonheur, said the hospital received about 100 doses. By noon, the supply had been depleted. The vaccines shipped to both sites and to a few other places around the nation are the first of some 195 million doses the U.S. government has purchased from five vaccine manufacturers, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Dr. Jay Butler told reporters at the Indianapolis event. That number includes both spray and injectable forms. Butler, who heads the agency's 2009 H1N1 Vaccine Task Force, has promised there will be enough for anyone who wants it. Butler said vaccine makers will ship 10 million to 20 million doses per week over the next couple of months. "Is that fast enough?" he asked. "No, but it's what's feasible. It's what can be done." Monroe predicted that an ample supply of the injectable form will be available by mid-October. Last week, the CDC said it had received reports of 60 deaths of children related to H1N1 flu since April; 11 of those deaths were reported last week alone. From August 30 until September 26, the agency tallied 16,174 hospitalizations nationwide and 1,379 deaths associated with influenza virus infection. iReport.com: How should H1N1 be handled? The 27 states reporting widespread flu activity are Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington and Wyoming. Track the H1N1 virus » Nearly all of the viruses identified so far are H1N1, the agency said in a posting on its Web site. "These viruses remain similar to the virus chosen for the 2009 H1N1 vaccine" and remain susceptible to antiviral drugs "with rare exception," it added. Those who are at the highest risk of getting seriously ill -- pregnant women, children, young adults and people with chronic lung disease, heart disease or diabetes -- should be among the first to get vaccinated against the H1N1 flu virus, health officials have said. Understanding the H1N1 virus » According to a CNN/Opinion Corp. poll in late August, two-thirds of Americans said they plan to be vaccinated against H1N1 flu. Health care workers may not necessarily be foremost among them. In the past, about 40 percent of health care workers have opted to be vaccinated against the flu, according to the CDC. Health officials also have recommended people reduce their chances of getting sick by washing their hands frequently, sneezing into a tissue or sleeve rather than into one's hand and staying home when sick. More than 340,000 laboratory-confirmed cases of H1N1 and more than 4,100 deaths have been reported to the World Health Organization. Many countries -- including the United States -- have stopped counting cases, particularly of milder illness, meaning that the true number is likely much higher.

NEW: Makers will ship 10 million to 20 million doses per week in next few months . Health care workers in Tennessee and Indiana are first recipients of H1N1 vaccine . U.S. government has purchased 195 million doses from manufacturers . Two-thirds of Americans plan to be vaccinated against H1N1 flu, survey says .

(CNN) -- A new smartphone application allows users to carry out a virtual dissection of a human body. The iPhone app, "Anatomy Lab," allows the user to move between 40 body layers to enable dissection. The iPhone app, called "Anatomy Lab," has been developed by researchers from the University of Utah and provides images of a real human cadaver. Utah professor Mark Nielsen told CNN that the application is aimed at medical and anatomy students who might not have the opportunity to dissect a real human body, but it's also proving a hit with medical practitioners. "A lot of medical professionals, especially in physical therapy and rehabilitative medicine, are using it to educate patients and show them the body parts they're discussing," Nielsen told CNN. "Anatomy Lab" lets the user move between 40 separate body layers, zoom in to view different structures and rotate them to get different view points. It started out as a computer program showing the dissection of a cadaver, beginning with the skin and moving on to subcutaneous tissue, nerves, veins, and muscles. See some of the best health monitoring apps » Nielsen said the iPhone's touch screen is perfect for the interactive nature of the application. "The program's so logically set up for the iPhone -- you can pinch the screen to rotate and enlarge, and tap on things to identify them," he said. Nielsen's son, Scott Nielsen, a physics major at the University of Utah, wrote the code for the iPhone version, which has so far sold more than 3,000 copies. The app also comes in a cheaper, scaled-down version called "My Body," aimed at the curious amateur. "Anatomy Lab" is the latest in a line of iPhone apps either aimed at medics, or with health benefits.

"Anatomy Lab" iPhone app allows users to dissect a virtual cadaver . Researchers say app is aimed at medical and anatomy students . The app has so far sold more than 3,000 copies, and is a hit with doctors too .

(CNN) -- A new standoff was brewing in Honduras as the country's recently deposed president vowed to return, while the new provisional government said it would arrest him if he set foot back in the country. Ousted Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya appears Tuesday at the U.N. General Assembly. Political turmoil has swept this Central American nation of 8 million people following a military-led coup Sunday that ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya. Troops entered the president's residence and sent him out of the country in exile. A veteran legislator, Roberto Micheletti, was sworn in that same day as provisional president with the support of congress. Roberto Micheletti, the veteran legislator who was sworn in that same day as provisional president with the support of congress, was adamant that Zelaya would not return to power. "He already committed crimes against the constitution and the laws; he can't return to be president of the republic," Micheletti told reporters Tuesday. "He can no longer return to the presidency unless a president from another Latin American country comes and imposes him with arms." Micheletti added, "If there is an invasion against our country, we have seven-and-a-half million Hondurans ready to defend our territory and our laws and our homeland and our government." However, Zelaya still vows to defy the provisional government. "I am going to return on Thursday because they expelled me by force, and I am going to return as always: as a citizen and as president," Zelaya said at a U.N. news conference shortly after the world body unanimously adopted a resolution that he should be restored to power. Zelaya, speaking to the U.N. General Assembly, called the resolution historic. "Your servant has several accusations against him in Honduras," Zelaya said. "But nobody has given me a trial. Nobody has convened a tribunal." Meanwhile, Micheletti's provisional government said Zelaya would be arrested if he returned. "As soon as he arrives he will be captured, as we already have the arrest warrants ready," new Foreign Minister Enrique Ortez Colindres told CNN en Español. Zelaya would face charges of violating the constitution, corruption and drug trafficking, among others, Ortez said. The deposed president said he would travel to Washington to attend a meeting of the Organization of American States. He also is expected to meet Tuesday evening with Tom Shannon, the top U.S. official on Latin America. Even as Zelaya spoke at the United Nations, his opponents held a large and noisy rally in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. Crowd members waved blue and white Honduran flags and signs denouncing Zelaya. Roberto Micheletti, the new provisional president, briefly addressed the crowd Tuesday afternoon. He vowed that the next national elections, slated for November, will be held as planned, and that a new president will be sworn in as usual in January. Gen. Romeo Vasquez Velasquez, the top Honduran military commander who had butted heads with Zelaya, also spoke at the rally. By removing Zelaya, the armed forces were only complying with their constitutional duties, he said. Before he spoke, the crowd chanted in support, "Armed forces! Armed forces!" Zelaya supporters also were active Tuesday, with three major public-sector labor unions launching a general strike, a union official told CNN. About 100,000 workers joined the strike, said Oscar Garcia, vice president of the Honduran water workers union SANAA. That number could not be independently verified. "It will be an indefinite strike," Garcia said. "We don't recognize this new government imposed by the oligarchy, and we will mount our campaign of resistance until President Manuel Zelaya is restored to power." Also on Tuesday, the U.S. State Department said it was reviewing its aid to Honduras as it works with regional partners on a deal to restore Zelaya to power and quell political unrest in the country. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the U.S. was reviewing whether Zelaya's ouster met the legal definition of a "coup" before any decision was made. "Because of the

NEW: Provisional Honduran government says president faces arrest on return . Deposed President Jose Manuel Zelaya says he'll return home this week . U.N. passes resolution saying ousted president should be returned to power . Three labor unions in Honduras reportedly begin general strike to back Zelaya .

(CNN) -- A parade of world leaders took the lectern at the United Nations on Wednesday. But days before the speeches on a host of issues, the global body quietly undertook an issue that often flies under the radar: Women. The United Nations consolidated four agencies that tackle women's issues and created a new super agency. Last week, the United Nations consolidated four agencies that tackle women's issues and created a new super agency. Humanitarian workers around the world embraced the move. It was about time, they said, that the world got serious about how half its population lives. The 1945 charter on which the United Nations was founded mandates equal rights for men and women. Since then, the United Nations has added new agencies that focus specifically on children, the environment, refugees, health, education, atomic energy and Palestinians. All report directly to the secretary general, except the agencies pertaining to women. Women's advocates said the agencies were run by lower-ranking officials and lacked clout. In 2006, a high-level panel on U.N. reform described the women's agencies as "incoherent, under-resourced and fragmented." It recommended that the United Nations create a dynamic agency focused on gender equality and women's empowerment. And last year, a coalition of 300 private development agencies launched the European Campaign for Gender Equality Architecture Reform (GEAR), which pressured the United Nations to create a single organization to address what it described as consistent neglect of women's needs. Paula Donovan, co-director of AIDS-Free World, said a double standard persists, despite the image of the United Nations as a strong women's advocacy machine. The only thing the U.N. Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) has in common with the well-known U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) is a similar sounding name, Donovan said. UNIFEM had neither the high-level U.N. staff nor the money of UNICEF, said Donovan, who worked at UNICEF for 15 years. She said UNIFEM's entire global budget equaled the budget of the UNICEF operation in Ethiopia. Donovan hopes the new agency will "lift the ideals that are worded so eloquently in U.N. declarations and resolutions off of the inert pages they're written on and plant them in real women's lives." "Women who have been leading and achieving for decades without the help of the U.N. system will now enjoy the strengths and benefits that the U.N. can offer," she said. Development agencies shared high expectations for the new agency's promotion of women's rights in a world where a disproportionate number of the suffering and persecuted are female. "This is a great move," said Helene Gayle, president of CARE, an international humanitarian agency that focuses on empowering women and girls in developing nations. "Now, what's needed are resources, a clear mandate and strong leadership," she said. "But I think what we're looking for most is the accountability to make sure gender is integrated into all U.N. strategies. It's up to member states to move quickly, get this new agency off on the right foot and turn the plan into reality." Ahead of this week's U.N. meetings, UNIFEM issued a report on the progress of women's rights, part of a set of development goals that global agencies have committed to achieving by 2015. "Implementation still has a long way to go in translating commitments to women's rights into changes in women's lives," UNIFEM said. Roughly 60 percent of the world's population living in poverty are women and girls. According to UNIFEM: • Women are outnumbered four to one in legislatures around the world. • Over 60 percent of all unpaid family workers globally are women, and women still earn on average 17 percent less than men. • About one-third of women still suffer gender-based violence during their lives. • In some parts of the world, one in 10 women dies from pregnancy-related causes even though the means for preventing maternal mortality are cost-effective and well-known.

United Nations consolidates agencies, creates group focused on women's issues . Women's advocates say previous agencies lacked clout . Roughly 60 percent of the world's population living in poverty are women and girls .

(CNN) -- A passenger plane skidded off an airport runway and burst into flames in the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad on Friday, killing at least 17 people and injuring about 20, according to government-backed Press TV. Aryan Airlines Flight 1625 skidded off the runway and burst into flames Friday in Mashhad, Iran. There were 150 passengers on board Aryan Airlines Flight 1625, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency, or IRNA. There was no immediate information on the number of crew. An Iranian official said those aboard had been evacuated. Ghahraman Rashid, deputy governor-general of Khorasan province, said the plane had flown from Tehran, IRNA reported. "All those killed and injured and the rest of the passengers had been evacuated from the plane and the fire on board had been brought under control," IRNA quoted the official as saying. He said the plane was a Russian-made Ilyushin. Watch video of the plane » This is the second deadly plane crash in Iran this month. On July 15, a Caspian Airlines passenger plane carrying 168 people crashed in northwestern Iran, killing everyone on board, including 10 members of the country's youth judo team: eight athletes and two coaches.

Passenger plane skids off runway and catches fire in Mashhad . 150 passengers on board Aryan Airlines Flight 1625, according to news reports . Flight had originated in Tehran, official says . On July 15, a passenger plane crashed in northwest Iran, killing all 168 aboard .

(CNN) -- A pilot's sleep disorder and a string of early mornings helped cause the crew of a commuter jet to fall asleep during a flight over Hawaii in 2008, federal investigators reported Monday. The pilot and co-pilot of a Go! Airlines jet failed to respond to calls from air traffic controllers for 18 minutes during the February 2008 flight from Honolulu to Hilo and awoke to find they had overshot their destination by about 30 miles, the National Transportation Safety Board reported. The plane landed safely once the pilots awoke and resumed contact with controllers. The 53-year-old pilot was later diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea, which can cause daytime sleepiness. "This condition likely caused him to experience chronic daytime fatigue and contributed to his falling asleep during the incident flight," according to the NTSB's report on the probable cause of the incident. "In addition, the day of the incident was the third consecutive day that both pilots started duty at 0540 (5:40 a.m.)," the report continued. "This likely caused the pilots to receive less daily sleep than is needed to sustain optimal alertness and resulted in an accumulation of sleep debt and increased levels of daytime fatigue." Go! is a subsidiary of Phoenix, Arizona-based Mesa Air Group. The company had no immediate response to the findings. The Hawaii incident and a 2007 runway landing accident in Michigan that investigators blamed on pilot fatigue prompted a call by federal safety experts to scale back the maximum workday allowed for airline pilots and implement other "fatigue management" programs.

The crew of a commuter jet fell asleep during a flight over Hawaii in 2008 . Federal investigators cite sleep apnea, string of early mornings as causes . Pilot, co-pilot of a Go! Airlines jet awoke to find they overshot destination . Sleep apnea is a disorder that can cause chronic daytime fatigue .

(CNN) -- A pop star could have a quickie Vegas wedding tomorrow, to a man she meets tonight, if she so chooses. Scott Peterson, convicted of the murder of his pregnant wife and on death row, has an inalienable right to a prison wedding with a female pen pal if the mood strikes him. Indiana grandmother Linda Wolfe holds the Guinness World Records title for most marriages: 23. One lasted just 36 hours. She's on the lookout for No. 24, and when she finds him, no law can stop her from marrying him. The U.S. Supreme Court has held unanimously that "the freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men. Marriage is one of the basic civil rights of man." So basic, so important, so fundamental, in constitutional parlance, that no state can interfere with even the most reckless heterosexual nuptials. Yet in most states, my friends Wilbert and Carlos, "free men" together 16 years and lovingly raising a son, are shut out of the 1,100 federal and hundreds of state legal benefits that come with marriage. These include the right to visit a spouse in a hospital and make medical decisions; employer sick and bereavement leave; inheritance rights; the right to give unlimited gifts to a spouse without gift tax; disability, pension, and Social Security benefits; the right to bring a wrongful death case; the right to refuse to testify against a spouse; or the right to prevent the deportation of a foreign-born partner by marriage, among others. Perhaps most poignant, and often lost in this debate, are children in same-sex families: kids like my friends' son Dorian, growing up with the sting of knowing that his parents are second-class citizens in their own country. Study after study finds that something about marriage makes us live longer, healthier lives. Married folks have significantly better mental health, engage in fewer risky behaviors, eat healthier, have less illness and are just plain happier. And don't tell me that civil unions are exactly the same as marriage. If that's true, then let's let gays and lesbians pick first. If they pick marriage, and heterosexuals are relegated to civil unions, no problem, right, since they are exactly the same? The trial challenging Proposition 8, the law that bans same-sex marriage in California, started Monday in San Francisco. This will be the first federal trial in U.S. history in which testimony will be heard and recorded about the harm to gay and lesbian citizens caused by laws like Prop 8. iReport: Is Prop 8 constitutional? Share your view As a civil rights lawyer for 23 years, there is no question at all in my mind that as a matter of constitutional law, the federal court must strike down any law that creates a subclass of Americans, shutting them out of legal privileges and protections available to others, merely because they are gay. Demeaning and disrespecting gay people is a constitutional affront. Seven years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down Lawrence v. Texas, the gay community's Brown v. Board of Education, striking down state laws that criminalized private, consensual gay sex, saying: "The petitioners are entitled to respect for their private lives. The state cannot demean their existence or control their destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime." When all the testimony about legal rights, benefits and protections in the Prop 8 trial is said and done, Perry v. Schwarzenegger is ultimately about just that. Our gay and lesbian friends and neighbors are entitled to respect for their private lives, and the state cannot demean their existence, even by majority vote. Seven out of 10 Americans supported laws banning interracial marriage at the time our president's black father and white mother married. But the Supreme Court knew that our federal Constitution's guarantee of equal protection of the law was a bedrock American principle that sometimes requires the courts to lead, and so lead they did, striking down antimiscegenation laws

Lisa Bloom: Heterosexuals may marry in jail, after one-night stands, many times over . Yet, Bloom says, longtime same-sex couples with children can't marry . Bloom writes that the Constitution demands end to discriminatory Proposition 8 . She says Prop 8 violates the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection under the law .

(CNN) -- A recall has been issued for enoki mushrooms produced by Phillips Mushroom Farms in Pennsylvania. The recall covers 3.5-ounce packages of enoki mushrooms bearing UPC 33383 67540. The mushrooms were packed in clear plastic bags with blue or green graphics and sold from January 13 to 30. Enokis are long, thin white mushrooms, often used in Asian cuisines. Preliminary test results showed potential listeria contamination, but no illnesses have been reported, according to Phillips Mushroom Farms. Listeria can cause flu-like symptoms, including fever and muscle aches, and sometimes gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea or diarrhea, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It affects primarily the elderly, pregnant women, newborns and people with weakened immune systems. Retailers are asked to remove the mushrooms from their shelves, pending further instructions. Consumers are asked to return the mushrooms to the place of purchase for a full refund. Visit http://www.phillipsmushroomfarms.com/ or call 800-722-8818 for more information.

Recall covers 3.5-ounce packages of enoki mushrooms bearing UPC 33383 67540 . Mushrooms in clear bags with blue or green graphics; sold from January 13 to 30 . Early test results show potential listeria contamination; no illnesses reported . Listeria can cause flu-like symptoms and sometimes nausea or diarrhea .

(CNN) -- A single-engine plane crashed Saturday outside a bank in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, seriously injuring the five people on board, authorities said. A damaged airplane lies on the ground Saturday next to a busy road in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The pilot reported engine problems shortly after leaving the city's Wiley Post Airport, about a mile away from the crash site, at midmorning, said Lynn Lunsford, spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration. The plane hit two trees as it came down, and video showed the damaged Beechcraft Bonanza resting on the grass near a busy thoroughfare in the northwest section of the city. Fire Department Deputy Chief Cecil Clay said the two men and three women on the plane were taken to hospitals. Lunsford said they suffered multiple injuries. Watch footage of the plane at the crash site » The plane was headed to Enid, Oklahoma, about 100 miles north of Oklahoma City. The pilot tried to return to Wiley Post Airport after he recognized the engine trouble, Lunsford said. "I heard what I thought was a Dumpster being unloaded in the complex," said Shaddy Ahmad, who manages the U-Haul business across the street from the bank. He said emergency responders used special equipment to extricate the people from the plane, the top of which was peeled back. "They were very lucky because this is a high-traffic area," Ahmad said. "You have the expressway, the bank and stores in the area. They were blessed to land how they did."

Single-engine Beechcraft makes hard landing near busy road . Plane developed engine problems shortly after takeoff, FAA official says . Fliers were headed for Enid, Oklahoma, about 100 miles north .

(CNN) -- A study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics indicates about 1 percent of children ages 3 to 17 have autism or a related disorder, an increase over previous estimates. Children at the Marcus Autism Center in Atlanta, Georgia, receive instruction on March 5, 2009. "This is a significant issue that needs immediate attention," Dr. Ileana Arias, deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday. "A concerted effort and substantial national response is warranted." The study used data from the federal government's 2007 national survey of children's health. The survey of parents was conducted by the Health Resources and Services Administration, and by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The results are based on a national telephone survey of more than 78,000 parents of children ages 3 to 17.iReport.com: How has autism affected your family? In the study, parents were asked whether a health care provider had ever told them their child had an autism spectrum disorder. ASD is a group of brain disorders comprising autism and two less severe disorders: Asperger's disorder and pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified. Children with the disorder show impairment in social interaction and in their ability to communicate. They often display repetitive behavior. Watch families discuss autism » The investigators also asked a follow-up question: Were the children considered to have ASD now? Nearly 40 percent of the parents and guardians said no. That finding led the authors to question whether some of the children originally diagnosed as having ASD may have been improperly diagnosed, since the disorders are not considered curable. But Kogan said the two surveys cannot be compared because the earlier investigators did not ask the follow-up question about whether the children were still considered to have the disorder. Still, based on the findings, lead author Dr. Michael D. Kogan of HRSA's maternal and child health bureau estimated the prevalence of ASD among U.S. children ages 3 to 17 at 110 per 10,000 -- slightly more than 1 percent. Boys were four times as likely as girls to have ASD, and non-Hispanic black and multiracial children were less likely than non-Hispanic white children. He estimated that 673,000 children have ASD in the United States. Monday's findings of nearly 1 in 100 appear to indicate an increase from the average of 1 in 150 that was reported in 2003, the researchers said. The researchers urged caution in interpreting the change, noting that an increase in diagnoses does not necessarily mean that more children have the disorder. It could simply reflect a heightened awareness of the disorder. "We don't know whether the change in the number over time is a result of the change in the actual condition, in the actual number of conditions or in part due to the fact that the condition is being recognized differently," Arias said. She said that preliminary results from a separate, CDC-funded study she is working on also indicate that about 1 percent of children in the United States are affected by ASD. That study is to be published later this year, she said. "This is a behavioral diagnosis, and it's difficult to make, and it's difficult to make at young ages," said Dr. Peter van Dyck, HRSA's associate administrator for maternal and child health. Half of the cases were considered mild by their parents, the study reported. The results underscore the importance of creating policies that will result in early identification and intervention, the officials said. The reports raise "a lot of questions about how we are preparing in terms of housing, employment, social support -- all the issues that many of these people are going to need," said Dr. Tom Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health. "It also raises questions about how well we're prepared in the educational system to provide for the special needs of many of these kids." Insel said the federal government is beefing up the resources it is mobilizing to address autism and related disorders, with $85 million being appropriated by the National Institutes of Health and $48

Study indicates about 1% of children 3 to 17 have autism or related disorder . Results based on national telephone survey of more than 78,000 parents . CDC official: "This is a significant issue that needs immediate attention" Researchers saying finding could reflect heightened awareness of disorder .

(CNN) -- A suburban Philadelphia swim club has invited children from a largely minority day-care center to come back after a June reversal that fueled allegations of racism against the club, a spokeswoman said Sunday. Some kids from the Creative Steps Day Care center say club members made racial remarks. The development came during a hastily called Sunday afternoon meeting of the Valley Club in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania. Club members voted overwhelmingly to try to work things out with the day-care center, which accused some swim club members of making racist comments to black and Hispanic children contracted to use the pool, said Bernice Duesler, the club director's wife. Duesler said the club canceled its contract with the Creative Steps day-care because of safety, crowding and noise concerns, not racism. "As long as we can work out safety issues, we'd like to have them back," she told CNN. She said the club has been subpoenaed by the state Human Rights Commission, which has begun a fact-finding investigation, "and the legal advice was to try to get together with these camps, " Duesler added. Alethea Wright, Creative Steps' director, said, "They should have done that before." Wright has repeatedly lambasted the club for its tepid response to the charges and said the children in her care were "emotionally damaged" by the incident. "These children are scarred. How can I take those children back there?" she said. However, Wright's lawyer, Carolyn Nicholas, said the center will give the Valley Club's offer "due consideration" once it is received and looks forward to sitting down with the parties. "The children are our primary concern," Nicholas told CNN. Swimming privileges for about 65 children from Creative Steps were revoked after their first visit June 29. Some children said white members of the club made racist comments to the children, asking why "black children were there" and raising concerns that "they might steal from us." Days later, the day-care center's $1,950 check was returned, Wright said. Club director John Duesler told CNN that he had underestimated the amount of children who would participate, and the club was unable to supervise that many kids. He called his club "very diverse," and said it had offered to let day camps in the Philadelphia area use his facility after budget cuts forced some pools in the area to close. Wright has rejected the camp's contention that the swim club's pool was overcrowded. The club had accepted a 10-to-1 ratio of children to adults and was considering adding up to three lifeguards, according to e-mails obtained by CNN. But John Duesler said last week that the Valley Club also canceled contracts with two other day-care centers because of safety and overcrowding issues. The Pennsylvania Human Rights Commission launched an investigation last week after allegations of racism at the Valley Club. The commission said that as part of any investigation, the two sides eventually could be asked to sit down face-to-face with its investigators. "We always encourage opposing parties to communicate with one another if they feel they can resolve these issues amicably," Commission Chairman Stephen Glassman said. Bernice Duesler said she wasn't yet sure how the club will "reach out" to Creative Steps and the other two camps. And Wright said she still has concerns about the issue. "Are the members who made those comments still there?" she asked.

Suburban Philadelphia club invites kids at largely minority day care to come back . Lawyer for Creative Steps says the day care will give offer "due consideration" Some club members accused of making racist comments to black, Hispanic kids . Valley Club said it had revoked pool privileges out of crowding, safety concerns .

(CNN) -- A superb second half goal from substitute Zlatan Ibrahimovic gave Barcelona a 1-0 win over arch-rivals Real Madrid to go back to the top of the Spanish La Liga on Sunday. Both teams ended with 10 men after Barca's Sergio Busquets went just after the hour mark for a second yellow card, with Real losing Lassana Diarra in the dying moments for two yellows. Ibrahimovic's goal was truly worthy of settling 'El Clasico' as the Swedish striker met a Daniel Alves ball from the right on the volley to leave Iker Casillas with no chance. The 55th minute strike in the Camp Nou came shortly after he replaced the ineffective Thierry Henry and followed an opening half in which visitors Real were the more threatening. Real had gone into the game with a one point lead in the standings over the defending Spanish and European champions and showed their quality on the break. Cristiano Ronaldo, making his first start in two months, might have put the visitors ahead in the 20th minute but was denied by home keeper Victor Valdes, who knocked his shot wide with his legs. Barcelona central defender Carlos Puyol also came to their rescue with two last-ditch challenges on Marcelo and Gonzalo Higuain from similar Real attacks. But the Catalans made the breakthrough as Ibrahimovic went some of the way to justifying his massive transfer fee and soon afterwards midfielder Xavi came within a whisker of a second from long-range. Further chances fell to Eric Abidal, who shot wide, and Argentine ace Lionel Messi, who was superbly denied by Casillas from close range. A tiring Ronaldo was substituted and his replacement, Karim Benzema, fired over the top in the 80th minute as Real pressed in vain for an equalizer. "This was a very good test," Barca coach Pep Guardiola told gathered reporters. "It's always difficult against Madrid but even more so when you go in as favorite and them as a big underdog. That's when Madrid is most dangerous." The three points leave Barcelona on top with 30 points from 12 games, two ahead of Real on 28. Sevilla, who drew on Saturday, have 26. In other action on Sunday, Deportivo La Coruna had a hard-fought 1-0 win at Racing Santander to move level on points with fourth-placed Valencia. Albert Lopo struck in the 76th minute to give the Galicians their eighth league success in 12 matches.

Barcelona beat arch-rivals Real Madrid 1-0 in El Clasico on Sunday . Zlatan Ibrahimovic scores only goal of the game in the Camp Nou . Victory leaves Barcelona two points clear of Real in La Liga . Cristiano Ronaldo wastes best chance of the match for visitors .

(CNN) -- A three-day manhunt ended when officials caught a murder suspect who escaped from a southeastern Louisiana jail with three other inmates, a police news release said. Timothy Murray, 29, who is charged with murder, has been recaptured, authorities in Louisiana say. Police found Timothy Murray at about 1 a.m. Sunday in a wooded stretch in the Folsom area of St. Tammany Parish, the release said. Police returned Murray to the St. Tammany Parish Jail in Covington, north of New Orleans, Louisiana. Murray, 29, is charged with murder, said Capt. George Bonnett of the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office. Three other escapees were rearrested Friday, Bonnett said. Thursday night's escape by Murray and the three others prompted a massive search using dogs, three helicopters and more than 100 officers, Bonnett said. Bonnett said he could not speak to how long it took to plan the escape, but that "it clearly was a situation where there appeared to be a great amount of planning and forethought." The inmates captured Friday were Gary Slaydon, 27; Eric Buras, 30; and Jason Gainey, 27. Slaydon is charged with attempted murder, and Buras is a murder suspect. Gainey has been convicted of murder. They were found in a wooded area about a mile from the jail, Bonnett said. The men escaped about 9 p.m. Thursday, Bonnett said, and the escape was not discovered until a resident and Covington police reported seeing what appeared to be inmates in jail uniforms walking down a street. About the time those calls came in, jailers were doing a routine head count and found the four men missing, Bonnett said.

Escaped inmate captured in Louisiana after three-day manhunt, police say . Man, 29, is charged with murder, police say . Four men escaped from jail in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, last week . Three found earlier in area near jail north of New Orleans, official says .

(CNN) -- A top executive for the company which built the flight data recorder aboard Air France Flight 447 says he hopes his firm's 100 percent recovery record from air accidents will be maintained despite concerns the device may be lost at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. A Brazilian diver floats on wreckage of Flight 447 spotted Wednesday. Although some debris has been retrieved, air crash investigators remain in the dark about what caused the airliner to plunge into the sea off the coast of Brazil with 228 people onboard earlier this month. The wreckage is believed to be about 4,500 meters (15,000 feet) deep, amid underwater mountains and mixed in with tons of sea trash. A French nuclear submarine and other vessels are searching for the flight data recorder by attempting to trace its locator beacon, which sends acoustic pulses, or "pings," to searchers. The U.S. Navy has contributed two high-tech acoustic devices -- known as towed pinger locators -- which have been attached to French tug boats and can search to a maximum depth of 20,000 feet. Honeywell Aerospace's Paolo Carmassi -- the firm's president for Europe, the Middle East, Africa and India -- told CNN that retrieving the flight data could help solve the mystery of the plane's fate and said his company had never lost a black box involved in an accident. "We believe that our technology is well-positioned to, in this case, contribute to solve the big question around this particular accident," Carmassi said. "We have a 100 percent recovery rate of all the black boxes that we have installed that unfortunately may have been involved in accidents, so we hope that we will be able to maintain our record and be able to shed some light on what happened." Watch what clues investigators are looking at » But Carmassi acknowledged it was hard to estimate how much battery life the locator beacon had left. "There is a certain duration which depends on the particular environmental conditions, whether it's underwater or on land, whether it's at 10 meters or 4,000 meters. So, it's very difficult to pinpoint exactly the duration," he said. Yann Cochennec, an aviation expert with Air et Cosmos magazine, told CNN that a recorder had been retrieved from the seabed in 2004 after an Egyptian charter flight crashed into the Red Sea shortly after leaving Sharm el-Sheikh. But he said the depth of the Atlantic, strong currents and bad weather would make retrieving the recorder from the Air France wreckage far more difficult. The flight data recorder -- sometimes called a "black box" -- is actually an orange, metal cylinder weighing about 13 pounds. Inside is a stack of memory chips designed to survive high temperatures, strong impact and tons of pressure. The devices record virtually every detail about how an aircraft is working, including cabin pressure, speed and altitude, remaining fuel and whether that fuel is flowing properly. They have played a crucial part in air crash investigations since they were first fitted to commercial aircraft in the 1940s.

Maker of flight data recorder aboard AF447 has "100 percent" recovery rate . Top executive says finding flight data recorder could reveal cause of air crash . Plane wreckage believed to be on Atlantic seabed, around 4,500 meters deep . Device's underwater locator beacon has limited battery life .

(CNN) -- A tugboat on Saturday reached a disabled freighter carrying 22 people, hours after the ship rode out Hurricane Ike without power, Coast Guard spokesman Mike O'Berry said. O'Berry said the tugboat Rotterdam arrived shortly before 2 p.m. (3 p.m. ET). Repairs will be made aboard the Antalina, which has a broken fuel pump, while at sea, O'Berry said. The tugboat will then tow the ship to Port Arthur, Texas, where it will undergo additional repairs and eventually offload more of its cargo -- petroleum coke, a petroleum byproduct -- O'Berry said. The crew members aboard the Antalina, a Cypriot-flagged freighter, are all in good health, said Coast Guard Cmdr. Ron Labrec. The freighter suffered no major damage from the storm, said Darrell Wilson, a spokesman for the company that manages the ship. Aircraft from the Coast Guard and Air Force were sent Friday afternoon to try to rescue the crew of the freighter, which is loaded with petroleum coke, a petroleum byproduct. But high winds forced the military to abort the rescue, O'Berry said. The Coast Guard then instructed the freighter to contact it each hour. It also told told the crew to turn on the ship's emergency radio beacon so its position could be monitored, O'Berry said. Watch the Coast Guard conduct a rescue operation » Onshore as well, rescuers found it too dangerous to respond to calls for help. In Liverpool, Texas, south of Houston, a family called for help around 1 a.m. Saturday when a tree crashed into their house, but authorities concluded that strong winds made it too dangerous to respond, said Doc Adams, Brazoria County's emergency management coordinator. "You want to take care of people, and when you can't, it's tough," Adams said. "Unfortunately, someone has to make the decision about whether the risk is worth the benefit. Are you willing to risk three or four lives to save one? It's not easy." Adams said he didn't know if anyone in the house was hurt. "As far as I know, they're still there in the house with a tree over it," he said at about 3:40 a.m. The stranded freighter had been headed south through the Gulf of Mexico from Port Arthur, Texas, but "lost main propulsion 90 miles southeast of Galveston" and was unable to steer, the Coast Guard said. The Coast Guard received a distress call from the vessel at 4 a.m. Friday. The Antalina was "basically adrift, at the mercy of the wind and sea currents," Coast Guard Petty Officer Tom Atkeson said at the time. "We are in hell," one of the men aboard the freighter told CNN on Friday before the rescue was called off. The man said the winds around the ship were strong but that the freighter still had power. On Friday before the storm hit, authorities picked up more than 120 people stranded by rising seas along the southeast Texas coast. Most of the rescues occurred in Galveston County, where rising water and other effects of the storm began hours before landfall early Saturday. Stranded residents were airlifted from Crystal Beach, Bolivar Peninsula and other communities in the Galveston area. Many of those rescued were motorists stranded on flooded roads. In Surfside Beach, police waded through chest-high rushing water to rescue five people trapped in their homes. One man refused to leave, said Surfside Beach police Chief Randy Smith. "Some of them took convincing, some of them didn't," Smith said. Police also rescued five other people who waded out to meet the officers. About half of those rescues were done by helicopters out of bases along the coast, said Coast Guard Petty Officer David Schulein. Three HH-65C helicopters from Coast Guard Air Station Houston rescued more than 20 people and continued to fly rescue missions until weather grounded them Friday evening, said Petty Officer Renee Aiello, a station spokeswoman. Some 37,000 people may need to be rescued in the aftermath of the hurricane, a U.S. military official

NEW: Tugboat reaches stranded freighter . Ship's crew of 22 endures night without power in Gulf of Mexico . Coast Guard, Air Force had to abandon rescue because of poor conditions . Authorities onshore find it too dangerous to respond to calls for help .

(CNN) -- A wheel from the main landing gear of a Colgan Airlines passenger plane fell off and rolled away as the aircraft was landing in Buffalo, New York, earlier this week. A wheel fell off the landing gear of Q400 Bombardier upon landing on Colgan Flight 3268 earlier this week. On Thursday night, The Toronto Sun posted a video of the incident shot by a passenger on the Q400 Bombardier -- the same type of plane involved in a fatal Colgan Airlines crash three months ago, also on approach to Buffalo Niagara International Airport. The video shows the wheel touch down on the ground and then roll away, followed by metal parts that are meant to keep the wheels in place. The plane was towed to the gate, where everyone on board "deplaned normally," said Joe Williams, a spokesman for Pinnacle Airlines, Colgan's parent company. "At no time was any passenger or crew member at risk, nor were any injuries reported," Williams said of the Tuesday incident. "The aircraft was properly maintained in accordance with the manufacturer and Federal Aviation Administration procedures." Williams said the incident "appears to have been caused by the failure of the outer wheel bearing ... the bearing was relatively new, having been on the aircraft for five weeks." Colgan Flight 3268 originated in Newark, New Jersey. "I was scared, and the other passengers looked worried, too," one passenger told the Toronto newspaper. "For a moment, I thought the worst in that we may not make it." Three months ago, Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashed in nearby Clarence Center, New York, killing all 49 passengers and crew members aboard. One person was killed on the ground. Hearings about the cause of that accident have been held in Washington this week. Investigators have focused on pilot fatigue as a possible cause of the crash.

Wheel from main landing gear fell off as aircraft was landing earlier this week . Colgan Airlines spokesman says no one on Flight 3268 was injured . One person on flight: "I was scared, and the other passengers looked worried, too" Three months ago, Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashed, killing all 49 people aboard .

(CNN) -- A wildfire continued its rampage through the San Bernardino National Forest in Southern California on Monday, but the U.S. Forest Service said fire crews were gaining ground. The Sheep Fire in Southern California has burned thousands of acres and left this bus a charred ruin. "Firefighters have made very good progress against the Sheep Fire. It's currently at approximately 7,500 acres with 20 percent containment," U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Robin Prince said Monday. The fire, which was reported Saturday afternoon in the Lytle Creek area, quickly grew to 3,500 acres by early Sunday and forced about 4,000 people in the community of Wrightwood from their homes. "People are going to have to hold off on getting back to their homes until we get a little better containment lines on the fire, but things are looking really good," according to Prince. More than 1,200 firefighters were battling the blaze, and numerous firefighting aircraft have dropped water and retardant on the wildfire. Back fires have been set to protect homes at the eastern edge of Wrightwood, authorities said. The weather was cooperating Monday, unlike over the weekend when a high-wind warning remained in effect and gusty winds helped fan the flames. "There's very little smoke. There's a few flare ups here and there, but if the winds pick up, we could still have some problems. So that's why we're holding off on letting people go back into the mandatory evacuated area," said Prince. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in San Bernardino County on Sunday so the state can mobilize agencies and equipment to help fight the fire.

Sheep Fire is about 7,500 acres with 20 percent containment, Forest Service says . About 4,000 people in San Bernardino County forced from their homes . Despite more cooperative weather, people not let back into homes yet .

(CNN) -- A woman who said she had a mother-daughter relationship with slain model Jasmine Fiore told CNN's Larry King on Thursday night that Fiore never informed her that she had been married. An arrest warrant has been issued for Ryan Alexander Jenkins, wanted in the death of ex-wife Jasmine Fiore. Gwendolyn Beauregard said Fiore was a close friend of her two sons, and she met the future model when Fiore was just 11. Despite the close ties -- "she called me mommy and she was my daughter" -- Beauregard was in the dark about Fiore's marriage to Ryan Jenkins. The marriage reportedly was annulled a few weeks after their Las Vegas, Nevada, wedding. An arrest warrant for murder has been issued for Jenkins, a reality TV contestant. Authorities believe he's fled to Canada. Fiore's body was found Saturday, stuffed into a suitcase and left in a Dumpster in Buena Park, just outside Anaheim in Orange County, California. Interviewed from San Francisco, California, Beauregard told King all she knew about Jenkins was his initial meeting with Fiore. "She didn't tell me that she married him. She told me [about] the day that they met, which was St. Patrick's Day," Beauregard said. "She called me the day after and she said: 'Mommy, I met the most perfect guy in the world and -- and his name is Ryan.' And she just went on and on and on about Ryan and how perfect he was. And that was all I knew." Beauregard told King she's never met Ryan Jenkins. Mike Fleeman, the West Coast editor of People.com, described more details of Fiore's whirlwind courtship with Jenkins to King. "They met in Las Vegas. Two days later [in March], they got married at the Little White Wedding Chapel. That's, of course, where Britney Spears got married," Fleeman told King. "It was a quickie wedding. We today talked to somebody who was at the wedding. One of the witnesses was an employee of the chapel. A lot of people were shocked that both of them were married. They kept it under wraps. And the marriage had a lot of problems almost from the very beginning," Fleeman said. Fleeman told King that Jenkins was arrested and charged with domestic assault against Fiore in Nevada in June and that Jenkins was supposed to go to trial in December. Beauregard told King that Fiore, who was 28 when she died, started modeling in her early 20s. Despite their deep bond, Beauregard said Fiore had ties with her biological mother, Lisa Lepore. "She was close to her mother, as well, but it was a different type of closeness." Adding to the horror of the slaying was that Fiore's teeth had been extracted and her fingers removed. Criminal profiler Pat Brown told Larry King that act provided key crucial evidence early in the investigation. "It was very clear from the very beginning, when they found her body in a piece of luggage, that we weren't dealing with a serial killer. I knew it was somebody who knew her and [that her killer] wanted to make sure that she was not identified," Brown said. "This is why he [the suspect[ ended up cutting off her fingers ... taking out her teeth. He even got smart. He watched too many crime shows and thought he would get rid of all ID, took away her clothes, put her in the luggage, probably because it's one way to get her of an apartment. And throw it a Dumpster and hope that time will take care of it, she'll decompose, they'll never be able to identify her," Brown said. Jenkins has appeared on VH1 shows "Megan Wants a Millionaire" and "I Love Money 3." "This is a very arrogant man," Brown said. "Megan said it right on the show. She said he's a manipulator. He is. He has evidence of psychopathy there

Gwendolyn Beauregard says she had mother-daughter relationship with slain model . Beauregard says Jasmine Fiore kept her in dark about marriage to Ryan Jenkins . Jenkins, Fiore got annulment; he's the suspect in her gruesome slaying . Criminal profiler says slaying's details showed this was not act of serial killer .

(CNN) -- Accused enemy combatant Ali al-Marri was served with an arrest warrant Tuesday and transferred out of U.S. military custody for the first time since 2003, according to the U.S. Justice Department. Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri was a student at Bradley University in Illinois when he was arrested in 2001. Al-Marri's initial court appearance is scheduled for Tuesday. Defense Secretary Robert Gates released the Qatari man to the U.S. Marshals Service in preparation for the hearing. On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court granted the Obama administration's request to dismiss al-Marri's challenge of the president's unilateral authority to detain him indefinitely and without charges. The high court ruled that al-Marri's case was rendered moot by a decision to indict him on federal conspiracy charges. The court's ruling means there is no resolution of the larger constitutional issue of the president's power to detain people accused of terrorism and other crimes in the United States. The decision by the Obama administration to criminally charge al-Marri after he spent seven years in custody -- more than five years in virtual isolation in a Navy brig in Charleston, South Carolina -- is the latest twist in the ongoing legal saga of the only remaining "enemy combatant" held in the United States. Al-Marri had been accused of being an al Qaeda "sleeper agent," but until the indictment had never been charged with a criminal or terrorism-related offense. The 43-year-old man will be sent at some point to Peoria, Illinois, to face a criminal trial. President Obama last month ordered a prompt and thorough review of the "factual and legal basis" for the continued detention of al-Marri. He subsequently issued a presidential memorandum ordering Gates to facilitate al-Marri's transfer, saying it was "in the interest of the United States." Since his initial arrest on credit card fraud charges in December 2001, al-Marri -- a legal resident of the United States -- had remained in "virtual isolation in the brig," his attorneys said. They were suing the government to improve his jail conditions and were challenging the constitutionality of his detention. The Pentagon asserts al-Marri had trained at a terror camp in Afghanistan, met al Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and "volunteered for a martyr mission," according to a government filing with the Supreme Court.

Ali al-Marri due to appear in court on Tuesday; he's charged with conspiracy . Last week Supreme Court dismissed al-Marri's challenge of presidential authority . Al-Marri, a U.S. resident originally from Qatar, has been in custody for 7 years . He's accused of being a "sleeper agent" for al Qaeda who trained at terror camp .

(CNN) -- Actress Natasha Richardson was hospitalized after she fell on a ski slope at a Quebec resort, a resort spokeswoman said in a statement Tuesday. Actress Natasha Richardson was transferred Tuesday to an undisclosed location in the United States. Richardson was taken to a hospital near Station Mont Tremblant before she was transferred to Hopital du Sacre-Coeur in Montreal following her fall on Monday, according to the statement. However, she was transferred Tuesday to an undisclosed location in the United States, according to Michelle Simard, spokeswoman for Hopital du Sacre-Coeur. Simard said she had no further details. Richardson fell on a beginners' trail Monday during a ski lesson at Station Mont Tremblant, said the statement from the resort, located about 80 miles northwest of Montreal. She was not wearing a helmet, the resort said. At the time, Richardson was accompanied by a veteran female ski instructor, who called the ski patrol, the statement said. The ski patrol members examined her and found no visible sign of injury, according to the statement. "As standard protocol, the ski patrol insisted that Ms. Richardson be transported to the base of the hill in a rescue toboggan," the resort statement said. Once at the base of the hill, staffers advised Richardson to seek additional medical attention, but she declined. Accompanied by the instructor, Richardson went to her hotel, where she was again advised to see a doctor, the resort said. As a precautionary measure, the instructor stayed with her, the statement said. The statement offered no details on Richardson's condition or injuries, but said resort staffers and police were providing support to Richardson's family and friends. Richardson, 45, has appeared in many television, film and stage roles, including the movies "Nell" and "The Parent Trap." She won a Tony award in 1998 for her performance as Sally Bowles in "Cabaret." She is married to actor Liam Neeson and is the daughter of actress Vanessa Redgrave. The Montreal Gazette reported that Richardson's two sons with Neeson were skiing with her at the time of her fall, and that Neeson flew to Montreal from a Toronto film set to be with her at the hospital.

Actress Natasha Richardson fell on a beginners' trail in Quebec, Canada . Actress had no "visible signs of injury," resort spokeswoman said . Ambulance was called after Richardson was "not feeling good" an hour after fall .

(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.

Lead singer Steven Tyler fell off stage during South Dakota show last week . He broke his shoulder and received stitches to his head; doctors advise rest . Fall was second mishap for Tyler during Aerosmith's tour with ZZ Top . Band says refunds will be issued for all canceled shows .

(CNN) -- After deliberating for only 45 minutes, a jury convicted an Alabama man Thursday of throwing his four children off a Gulf Coast bridge in January 2008, according to prosecutors. Lam Luong, 38, admitted throwing the children, who ranged in age from 3 years to 4 months, off the Dauphin Island bridge south of Mobile, according to CNN affiliate WKRG. Charged with five counts of capital murder, he changed his plea to guilty last week. However, Alabama law requires that all capital cases go before a judge and jury, WKRG said. The sentencing phase of Luong's trial will begin Friday, the Mobile County District Attorney's office told CNN. Jurors will decide whether he should receive the death penalty or life in prison without parole. A judge is not bound by the jury's decision, however, and Alabama law requires an automatic appeal in capital cases. Luong and his wife were having marital difficulties, prosecutors said. WKRG reported that during opening arguments in the trial, prosecutors told jurors Luong threw the kids off the bridge so he could see the look on his wife's face. Luong was on crack at the time, and he told investigators they could charge him if they found the children's bodies before breaking into laughter, jurors were told. The defense called no witnesses, but told jurors Luong was intoxicated at the time and was incapable of forming the necessary intent to be convicted of a capital offense, asking them to convict him of manslaughter, WKRG said. During the trial, jurors heard about the search for the children's bodies and saw graphic video of the bodies floating in the water, the station reported. A commercial fisherman recording rough weather off the coast of Venice, Louisiana, found one body, while two duck hunters and a Mississippi marine officer found the other three, according to WKRG. Luong looked down, away from the overhead screens, when the photographs of the children's bodies were shown. CNN's Divina Mims contributed to this report.

Lam Luong, 38, admitted throwing the children off the Dauphin Island bridge . Prosecutors said Luong threw the kids so he could see the look on wife's face . The four children ranged in age from 3 years to 4 months . The sentencing phase of Luong's trial will begin Friday .

(CNN) -- After nearly 150 years in business, the Rocky Mountain News published its final edition Friday, the victim of a bad economy and the Internet generation. The Rocky Mountain News in Denver, Colorado, published its last edition Friday after 150 years. The final front-page headline simply says: "Goodbye, Colorado." "It is with great sadness that we say goodbye to you today. Our time chronicling the life of Denver and Colorado, the nation and the world, is over." The Rocky Mountain News' owner, E.W. Scripps Co., made the announcement to the newsroom at noon Thursday, ending three months of speculation and drama over its fate. The News had been put up for sale in December. The Rocky Mountain News was the latest victim in an era of shutdowns, layoffs and cutbacks plaguing the newspaper industry. "It's in a free fall and nobody knows where the bottom is. It's kind of like water in the toilet swirling around and nobody knows what's left when you're done flushing," media critic Eric Alterman said. Watch how the economy and Internet are taking a toll on the industry » Newspapers across the country are under pressure as readership declines, along with advertising revenue, while more and more Americans get their information online. "All newspapers are under great pressure. They'll survive, but they'll survive in different forms, their costs base will have to be dramatically lowered," said Mort Zuckerman, publisher of the New York Daily News, which has the seventh highest circulation in the country. The dramatic decline in advertising dollars in a brutal economy has forced newspapers to cut costs by firing cartoonists, columnists and others, leaving them searching for jobs in a struggling industry. Pia Catton lost her job as arts editor of the New York Sun five months ago, when the newspaper closed. She has taken a short-term job editing a book, but she thinks she may need to look at different careers soon. "There will always be a market for news, you will always need to know immediately what's happening. Will there be a market for newspapers? That's another question," she said. The Rocky Mountain News had more than 200 editorial employees, according to the Columbia Journalism Review's Web site. Rich Boehne, chief executive officer of Scripps, told employees the newspaper was the victim of a terrible economy, an upheaval in the newspaper industry and multimillion-dollar annual losses. "Denver can't support two newspapers any longer," Boehne said. "It's certainly not good news for you, and it's certainly not good news for Denver." The News has been in a joint operating agreement with The Denver Post since 2001, which combined the papers' business operations in an effort to save money, but left the editorial departments separate. The News' closure leaves Denver with one major newspaper, like most American cities. "We've been, sort of, hanging on the edge for so long," said Mel Pompanio, a presentation editor for the paper. "What a huge loss for Colorado today." This week, the San Francisco Chronicle announced it was in danger of being sold or closed if it doesn't stop losing millions. Officials from the Hearst Corp., owners of the Chronicle, said the paper lost $50 million in 2008 and is on pace to lose more this year. "It's difficult. It's hard," Lynn Bartels, a political reporter and 26-year employee for Scripps, said of the News' closing. "I haven't returned any phone calls yet, because I don't need to be reporting and crying at the same time. I've done that enough." Long faces dominated the newsroom in video posted on the paper's Web site. A few sobs could be heard, too, as the announcement of the closing began to sink in among employees. "I could say stupid things like 'I know how you feel.' I don't," Boehne said

NEW: "It's in a free fall and nobody knows where the bottom is," media critic says . NEW: As readers shift to online news, newspapers get by with layoffs, cutbacks . Rocky Mountain News' closure leaves Denver with one major paper, The Denver Post . Scripps exec tells newsroom the economy, industry turmoil sealed paper's fate .

(CNN) -- Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden will address the West in a new message, according to a banner ad from the group's production wing posted on Islamist Web sites known to carry messages from al Qaeda and bin Laden. This image accompanied a message from Osama bin Laden in November. "To the western nations, soon, God willing, A new speech by the Lion of Islam Sheikh Osama Bin laden, The reasons of the struggle in the 60th anniversary of the Israeli Occupation," the banner reads. It was not known whether the message would be audio or video or when it might be posted. In the past, messages were available from an hour to two days after the initial posting. Bin Laden's last message came March 20, when in an audiotape he called Iraq "the perfect base to set up the jihad to liberate Palestine." In an audiotape released the previous day, bin Laden condemned European countries for siding with the United States in Afghanistan and for allowing the publication of cartoons considered insulting to Islam's prophet, Mohammed.

Banner ad on Islamist Web sites says al Qaeda leader will release message soon . It is not known exactly when the message will come . Bin Laden's last communication was an audiotape released March 20 .

(CNN) -- Almost 33,000 acres of the Everglades National Park were burning Sunday, fire officials said, the latest in a series of wildfires that have scorched parts of Florida in May. Smoke obscures the flames Sunday in the Everglades National Park. The smoke cast a haze over parts of South Florida, including Miami, prompting a dense smoke advisory from the National Weather Service. The fire, which threatened private property as well as an endangered bird, started Friday, the Southern Area InterAgency Management Blue Team said. By Sunday morning it was 20 percent contained, and fire crews were working to restrict it to the park while protecting the Cape Sable seaside sparrow, a federally protected species whose only habitat is in the Everglades. Watch the Everglades fire spread » Windy conditions Sunday morning pushed the fire into the corner of the park closest to Miami, fire officials said. About 200 personnel battled the blaze in southern Florida Saturday night, but more crews were expected to join them Sunday. It is the latest wildfire to scorch Florida. More than 12,000 acres burned in the "Brevard Complex" fire near Palm Bay, on Florida's Atlantic Coast just south of Daytona Beach. That series of fires is about 75 percent contained and is expected to be fully contained on Tuesday, the National Interagency Fire Center said Sunday. Learn how wildfires spread » Last week, Florida authorities charged a suspect, Brian Crowder, with arson in connection with some of the fires in Palm Bay. Watch the suspect's 'perp walk' » The Brevard County fires have destroyed about 22 homes and structures, and damaged another 160 homes. Damage totals more than $9 million, officials said. A 19,000-acre fire near Clewiston, Florida, on the south end of Lake Okeechobee, is about 50 percent contained, the fire center said Sunday. And a 1,300-acre fire north of Apalachicola in the Florida Panhandle was 80 percent contained by Sunday, it said. Last week, U.S. Navy officials said a Navy jet sparked a 257-acre forest fire in the Ocala National Forest in the north-central part of the state. The jet had missed a target on a practice bombing run, the officials said.

Fire threatens the Cape Sable seaside sparrow, which only lives in Everglades . Dense smoke advisory from the National Weather Service issued for South Florida . Brian Crowder, 31, accused of setting several wildfires .

(CNN) -- American Lindsey Vonn suffered a pre-Olympic scare after taking a crashing fall in the World Cup giant slalom in Lienz on Monday. Vonn, who is a medal favorite in several disciplines for February's Winter Games in Vancouver, damaged her left arm after sliding out on the first run, losing her balance on a bump after a sharp left turn before thumping into a gate. She received lengthy medical treatment on the slope with initial fears that she had broken the arm. But scans at a local hospital showed only severe bruising and the 25-year-old may even compete in Tuesday's slalom at the same venue, U.S. team medical director Richard Quincy told reporters. Vonn's arm has been placed in a splint to speed recovery and she was said to have been in considerable pain. "Hurting my arm is way better than hurting one of my legs," Vonn was quoted on her personal Web site www.lindseyvonn.com. Her crash overshadowed a fine victory for Kathrin Hoelzl of Germany, who led after the first run and posted a combined time of two minutes, 16.61 seconds with Manuela Moelgg of Italy just 0.05 seconds back in second. Taina Barioz of France occupied the final podium position. Vonn retains her lead in the overall standings with 581 points ahead of second-placed Maria Reisch, who appeared distracted by her friend's crash and also skied out first time down. The German is 50 points adrift as Vonn looks to defend her overall crown. Vonn suffered an unusual injury setback at the world championships in Val d'Isere, France earlier this year. Celebrating a medal success, she sliced her thumb open on a champagne bottle and competed for the rest of the season with heavy strapping. Vonn's appearance in Vancouver is being heavily plugged by sponsors and television rights holders, but she is still seeking her first Olympic medal after missing out in Salt Lake City and Turin. Austria's Kathrin Zettel, who led the GS standings going into the race but was overtaken by Hoelzl, was 0.95 seconds behind the German after skiing off-course in her first run and finished fifth. Hoelzl takes the lead in the giant slalom discipline standings, leapfrogging Kathrin Zettel of Austria, who finished fifth.

World Cup overall leader Lindsey Vonn crashes out of giant slalom in Lienz . Vonn severely bruises her left arm as MRI scan reveals no break . She retains lead in the overall World Cup standings as nearest rival Maria Riesch also went out .

(CNN) -- Americans were asked to stop whatever they were doing at 3 p.m. local time Monday to share a minute on Memorial Day and honor those who have died in the cause of freedom. Americans were asked to take one minute at 3 p.m. Monday to pause and reflect on those who died in battle. "The time 3 p.m. was chosen because it is the time when most Americans are enjoying their freedoms on the national holiday," according to the White House Commission on Remembrance. Congress established the National Moment of Remembrance. "The Moment does not replace traditional Memorial Day events; rather it is an act of national unity in which all Americans, alone or with family and friends, honor those who died for our freedom," the Commission on Remembrance said on its Web site. "It will help to reclaim Memorial Day as the sacred and noble holiday it was meant to be. In this shared remembrance, we connect as Americans." Observances included an interruption of Major League Baseball games, the pausing of the National Memorial Day Parade in Washington and the National Grocers Association and Food Marketing Institute asking shoppers to pause in stores nationwide to remember the fallen. "We want our citizens to contemplate the ties that bind us and take a moment to put 'Memorial' back into Memorial Day," said Carmella LaSpada, executive director of the Commission on Remembrance. Children touring Washington inspired the idea when LaSpada asked them what Memorial Day meant and they said that's when the swimming pool opens, according to the commission's Web site.

Commission on Remembrance asks Americans to pause, reflect at 3 p.m. Monday . Group hopes act will reclaim Memorial Day as "sacred and noble holiday" Observances include interruption of Major League Baseball games . Shoppers in grocery stores asked to take a minute to remember our fallen .

(CNN) -- An American convicted of being an al Qaeda operative was resentenced to life in prison Monday in a Virginia courtroom after an appeals court ruled his 30-year prison sentence was too lenient. Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, seated far left, appears in an artist's rendering of a March 2005 court hearing. Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, a native of Falls Church, Virginia, was convicted in November 2005 of conspiring with al Qaeda and involvement in a possible plot to assassinate then-President George W. Bush. A federal appeals court, however, ruled the lower court did not sentence Abu Ali harshly enough and that its deviance from federal sentencing guidelines was unjustified. "The defendant sought to destabilize our government and to shake it to its core," according to the 2008 ruling. "To this day, he wishes he had succeeded. ... It is not too much to ask that a sentencing proceeding not lose sight of the immensity and scale of wanton harm that was and remains Abu Ali's plain and clear intention." Abu Ali was resentenced to life in prison, federal prosecutors told CNN on Monday. In June 2003, Saudi Arabian authorities detained Abu Ali in Medina, where he was participating in religious studies. During his 20-month detention in Saudi Arabia, he confessed to being a member of al Qaeda and to discussing the execution of a number of terrorist plots, including one to assassinate Bush. Prosecutors offered no evidence that those discussions morphed into a specific plan. However, they maintained that Abu Ali discussed boarding a U.S.-bound plane from Australia or England and flying it into targets on the U.S. East Coast. Abu Ali's attorneys argued that his confessions were false and obtained through torture in Saudi Arabia before he was transported to the United States in February 2005. At his 2006 sentencing, Abu Ali faced a sentence of 20 years to life, and prosecutors maintained that "only a life sentence will protect the citizens of the United States from the defendant attacking again." But U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee rejected that claim, saying there was no evidence Abu Ali took any steps within the United States to further the conspiracies. In sentencing Abu Ali, Lee quoted extensively from letters he received from his friends, family and others endorsing Abu Ali's character. But the appeals court said it was unmoved. "What person of 'good character' aims to destroy thousands of fellow human beings beings who are innocent of any transgressions against him? This is not good character as we understand it, and to allow letters of this sort to provide the basis for such a substantial variance would be to deprive 'good character' of all its content." Abu Ali's 30-year sentence was to be followed by 30 years of supervised release. CNN's Justine Redman contributed to this report.

An American convicted of being an al Qaeda operative gets life sentence . Ahmed Omar Abu Ali convicted in 2005 in possible plot against President Bush . Federal appeals court ruled man's original 30-year prison sentence was too lenient . Defense argued confessions were false, obtained through torture in Saudi Arabia .

(CNN) -- An Illinois woman and her boyfriend, already charged with aiding in the abduction of the woman's 6-year-old grandson, face new charges of tampering with a witness in the case, officials said Tuesday. Ricky Chekevdia, 6, allegedly was hidden with his mother in a secret room in his grandmother's house. Diane Dobbs and Robert Sandefur, both 51, are in jail pending the filing of formal charges in the case, said Beth Sandusky, victim services coordinator for the state attorney's office in Franklin County, Illinois. The two were charged previously with aiding and abetting child abduction, a felony, according to Sandusky and court records. They were released from jail on bond Monday, but were back in custody within hours, according to ABC News and CNN affiliate WSIL. Last week, authorities found Ricky Chekevdia, Dobbs' grandson, at her home. The boy was hiding along with his mother, Shannon Wilfong, in a secret room built to hide them -- an area about 5 feet by 12 feet, with a 4-foot ceiling, according to WSIL. Police say the boy had been hidden for nearly two years. Wilfong, 30, is jailed on felony child abduction charges and made her first court appearance Tuesday, Sandusky said. "We let him out of the car and he ran around like he'd never seen the outdoors," Master Sgt. Stan Diggs with the Illinois State Police told WSIL. "It was actually very sad." In an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America" on Monday, before she was arrested, Dobbs disputed the accusation that Ricky was hidden in the small room, saying that in two years he spent "maybe five minutes" there. "My grandson had the run of the house," she said. "When we were outside, we would go fishing, we would do weenie roasts. We've done fireworks on the Fourth of July. He's helped me plant my flower garden in the back." She said she would not plead guilty to the charges. "We were on our own and we had to do what we had to do and that was make sure our grandson was safe," Dobbs said. Sandusky would not comment on the pending charges against Dobbs and Sandefur or identify the witness. However, a woman told WSIL she called police after Dobbs and Sandefur came onto her property and threatened her son's life. Diggs told WSIL that Ricky is "in very good spirits for someone who's been isolated in that house. ... He's a very, very social, very polite, very talkative little boy." Wilfong and Ricky's father, Michael Chekevdia, had battled over custody since Ricky was born in 2002, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. They initially had joint custody, Chekevdia told the newspaper, but Wilfong would often fail to bring the boy for weekends or scheduled meetings, then in 2007 failed to show up for visitation hearings. A judge granted Chekevdia temporary custody, but by then Wilfong and the boy had disappeared. They were reported missing in November, and in December, prosecutors charged Wilfong with felony child abduction. Wilfong and Dobbs had accused Chekevdia of sexually abusing the boy, but authorities have said those allegations are unfounded, the Post-Dispatch said. Leaving court Tuesday, a tearful Wilfong denied any wrongdoing to reporters, and accused Chekevdia of making lewd comments about the child. She added that the boy feared returning to his father. But Chekevdia told WSIL that Wilfong and her family are "accusing me unjustly." "I was the best father I could be given the time that I had with him," he said. Ricky was taken into Illinois Department of Children and Family Services custody, and is staying with his father's family under child welfare supervision, WSIL said. The department declined comment. Chekevdia told the station he got to see his son smile for the first time at a Labor Day parade. "It was just a wonderful feeling to see a little boy that's been in that situation

NEW: Boy's parents had battled over his custody since his birth in 2002 . Grandmother and her boyfriend are in jail pending formal charges . Mother, Shannon Wilfong, tearfully denies any wrongdoing . Boy is staying with father's family under child welfare supervision, station reports .

(CNN) -- An Ohio sheriff had harsh words for ice fishermen who had to be rescued Saturday after high winds and rising temperatures caused an ice floe to break away and strand about 150 of them on Lake Erie. People were stuck when an 8-mile-long chunk of Lake Erie ice broke away near Toledo, Ohio. The incident, in which one person was pronounced dead after being transported to the hospital, came after the National Weather Service issued a warning that ice floes could break away from the main ice area in the western section of the lake. At least some of those rescued were fishermen. "This just cost the taxpayers a ton of money," Ottawa County, Ohio, Sheriff Bob Bratton said. "We lost a life out there today. ... I'm sorry a man lost his life out there today. These people should have known better." Bratton said those rescued should never have been on Lake Erie in the first place because weather conditions made it risky, and "if there was a section in the code about common sense, we would have had 150 arrests out there today." Watch sheriff express frustration » A spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard said the person who died fell in the water when the ice floe broke away from land. View ice safety tips » "We have rescued more than 150 people, and unfortunately there were two people in the water," Chief Petty Officer Robert Lanier said. "One of the people was recovered and brought to shore," but the other man was pronounced dead after being taken to a hospital. "This was wrong. These people endangered the life of volunteer firemen, [and] the United States Coast Guard," Bratton said, estimating the cost of the sheriff's office response at $25,000. "I'm sure that's going to climb." Bratton told the Cleveland Plain Dealer that the fishermen displayed poor judgment in building a makeshift bridge to get from one section of the ice to the other. "I have no problem with people ice fishing, but these idiots should realize that when you see open water, you should not build a bridge and cross it," he said. "It's a shame you can't arrest people for stupidity." Among the hundreds of people who went fishing Saturday were Gary and David Vaughn of Conneaut Lake, Pennsylvania. They told the Plain Dealer that they set up a shanty about 7 a.m. and didn't come back out until 11 a.m., when they saw a crowd gathered at the edge of the ice. It was then that they knew they were in trouble. "When we were over there waiting to be rescued, we feared the ice would just break up under us," Gary Vaughn, 47, told the newspaper. "I feared for my life." The sheriff told the Toledo Blade that the people who went out on the ice did not take proper precautions. "Where is the common sense when they know the ice is broken?" Bratton said. "The experienced fishermen, I guarantee, are not out there," he told the newspaper. "They're not reading the weather. If the ice is broke, you don't build a little bridge to get from here to there." "Ice fishing and recreation on the ice is a culture in the Great Lakes. It's something we've become used to," Lanier said. iReport.com: Were you there? Share your photos, story The sheriff said there were a host of factors that the fishermen should have been aware of, which caused them to risk their lives unnecessarily. "The weather changed; the temperature went up; the wind was coming out of the south. These are all things that are indicators [that an ice floe break could occur]." Asked whether there are signs or other notification systems to discourage fishermen from going out on the ice under risky conditions, Bratton said there are only Web sites fishermen can check. "We will go back and look at that," he

NEW: Frustrated sheriff asks, "Where is the common sense?" One person dead, 150 people rescued after ice floe breaks away . National Weather Service warned that floes could separate .

(CNN) -- An SUV carrying almost two dozen undocumented immigrants crashed in Arizona over the weekend, killing 10 people and injuring several others, state police reported Sunday. This Ford Excursion was packed with 22 passengers inside when it crashed in Arizona late Saturday night. The Ford Excursion crashed at about 11:55 p.m. Saturday in a remote area about 30 miles north of the Mexican border, ejecting almost all the 22 passengers inside, police said in a statement. In addition to the dead, 12 people were hospitalized. The identity of the driver, passengers and owner of the Excursion were not released.

SUV is packed with almost two dozen undocumented immigrants . Ford Excursion crashes about 30 miles north of Mexican border in remote area . Almost all of the 22 people jammed inside are ejected from vehicle . In addition to 10 dead, 12 people are hospitalized .

(CNN) -- An apparent natural gas explosion in downtown Bozeman, Montana, leveled three businesses Thursday morning, according to city and state officials. An explosion rocks downtown Bozeman, Montana, on Thursday in a photo from iReporter Sean Gallik. "When we say gone, we mean gone. These three businesses are gone," said Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who added that the state is providing help for clean up, and to businesses and residents who are affected. One person remained unaccounted for Thursday evening, Bozeman Assistant City Manager Chuck Winn said. "The situation remains unsafe for anyone to enter," Winn said. "So in terms of a search -- we are unable to do so at this time." Winn said city crews are making progress cleaning up the area, but the damage is great. He said a meeting was planned Friday morning to give business owners and residents information about when they can return. "It literally looks like a bomb went off in downtown Bozeman," he said. iReport.com: Photos from the scene "Roofing material, construction material is scattered for three or four blocks," he said. "It was a very violent explosion." Schweitzer added that the situation would "not be over in 24 hours." The blast occurred about 8:15 a.m. on the town's Main Street, Fire Chief Jason Shrauger told CNN. The city government declared a local emergency after the blast. Initially, 11 people were reported missing, but 10 were later accounted for, Winn said. It was not clear what triggered the blast. Bozeman is in south-central Montana, about 100 miles southeast of the state capital, Helena.

One person unaccounted for . Three businesses destroyed in downtown Bozeman, Montana . Eleven people initially reported missing after natural gas explosion . It was not clear what triggered the blast .

(CNN) -- An e-mail from one of the crewmen aboard the Maersk Alabama tells a gripping tale of sailors fighting back against pirates who had taken over their ship. Crewman Matt Fisher hopes other ships can learn lessons from the Maersk Alabama takeover and recapture. It also contains some of the lessons they learned and hope to pass on to others who could face the same danger. Crewman Matt Fisher sent the e-mail to a fellow sailor aboard another Maersk ship. The U.S.-flagged Alabama was already heading to Kenya when he sent it, but it was before the U.S. Navy rescued the cargo ship's captain, who was held hostage on a lifeboat by the four pirates. "The pirates got up to the bridge very quickly once they were onboard," Fisher wrote. "We had a locked cage door over the ladder well from main deck, but it only took a second for them to shoot it off. They then got to the bridge up the outside ladders." Fisher said that Capt. Richard Phillips and three other sailors were on the bridge when the pirates arrived, adding that he didn't know why they stayed. The rest of the crew, Fisher said, headed below and took positions in the engine and steering areas. One sailor kept watch in the engine control room, he said, while another "was out on deck tracking the pirates' movement." "We kept swinging the rudder side to side," Fisher wrote. "The pirates' boat capsized, though I'm not sure exactly when or what caused it. After about 20 minutes, the engine was killed, I don't know by whom." After the engine was killed, the sailors shut off the power to the ship as well as the fuel line to the ship's emergency diesel generator. "I think this was critical," Fisher wrote. "The pirates were very reluctant to go into the dark." Fisher said the sailors were safe where they were, since the pirates had no grenades and would never have been able break through with only firearms. The only problem, he said, was the heat and a shortage of water. "In the future, we will store food and water in various spots for emergency usage," he said. "I think we will also run a fresh water line into the steering gear." Fisher said the sailors were able to sneak up to the engine room water fountain and filled some bottles, and the sailor who'd been on deck tracking the pirates dropped fruit and sodas from the ship's galley through a standpipe to the hidden sailors. At one point, Fisher wrote, the pirates sent one of the four sailors who had remained on the bridge to hunt for the other crew members -- unescorted. He escaped and joined his comrades. Later, one of the pirates escorted another sailor into the engine room, again searching for the missing crew members, but one of the sailors "was able to jump him in the dark and we took him prisoner." "No one else came down into the E/R (engine room)," he said. "As the day went on, the pirates became desperate to get out of there." Phillips finally talked the pirates into taking a small boat used for rescuing a sailor who falls overboard. The three remaining pirates and the captain went down into the boat, and the sailors, now in control of their ship again, dropped food, water and fuel to them. But the small boat wouldn't start. The sailors on board the ship dropped the lifeboat into the water and took it -- and their prisoner -- to the stranded boat with the pirates and the captain, intending to trade boats and prisoners. "We were supposed to exchange their guy for the Captain, but they ended up keeping him," Fisher wrote. "They motored off in the lifeboat. They had no way of getting back aboard, so we followed them." A few hours later, the USS Bainbridge arrived on the scene.

Matt Fisher, crewman on Alabama, sent e-mail to sailor on another Maersk ship . Fisher tells how crew hid from the pirates and eventually overtook them . Key lesson: "Have a well-fortified location with food and water supply"

(CNN) -- An early-morning hazardous material spill has been contained, but officials in Morehead City, North Carolina have closed its port and recommended evacuation of its downtown area after nine containers of high-explosive materials were punctured. The incident occurred when a forklift unloading a vessel punctured a large container and the drums inside it that contained the explosive compound PETN, said Morehead City Police spokeswoman Amy Thompson. PETN was allegedly one of the components of the bomb concealed by Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, accused of trying to set off an explosion aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 as it approached Detroit, Michigan, on December 25. PETN is a highly explosive organic compound belonging to the same chemical family as nitroglycerin. Thompson quoted Morehead City Fire Chief Wes Lail as saying the entire cleanup is a five-step process, and only the first step had been completed. There have been no injuries or any environmental damage, according to Carteret County officials. Some residents and business workers left the area, but Tompson said she didn't know how many. "Right now our advice to everybody is if they're uncomfortable staying in downtown Morehead, to evacuate further west. And if they choose to stay home, stay away from windows and doors," Mayor Jerry Jones told CNN. "Don't get out and sightsee and meander around. It is dangerous, and we need to ensure the safety of our public. As the day goes on and we feel like we have more information, we will pass that information on." He said that emergency management officials "feel that everything is contained." But at the early stages in the cleanup, they advised keeping people from getting closed to the port. Carteret County officials said U.S. 70 will be closed from 4th Street in Morehead City to the Morehead-Beaufort high-rise bridge for most of the day. The Coast Guard has barred traffic to and from the zone. The Coast Guard captain of the port ordered the facility closed and a 300-yard safety zone has been established to exclude any vessels operating any closer. Jones said the port called the city before 4:45 a.m. ET to say that a product spilled out of drums on the port property. "We immediately identified it was a hazardous material, assessed that it was contained on the port and not (going) to go into our neighboring waters, into the waterway," he said. Police, fire and explosive ordnance crews from nearby Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point arrived at the scene, and an incident command center was set up nearby. Jones confirmed that the material in the containers is PETN, allegedly one of the components of the bomb concealed by Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, accused of trying to bomb Northwest Airlines Flight 253 in Amsterdam on December 25. PETN is a high explosive organic compound belonging to the same chemical family as nitroglycerin. Jones said PETN is a crystal packaged in water for stability. He said the people who transport "any highly flammable explosive devices" have to and did notify the port and local emergency and police officials. Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Chris O'Neil said the substance has industrial and medical uses. "Being an international port, we handle highly flammable explosive material all the time. Jet fuel comes through here all the time, gasoline, propane. So it's not unusual to have explosive material coming through Morehead City," he said. Also responding were the U.S. Customs and the Salvation Army.

NEW: Cleanup is a five-step process, and only the first step is completed, authorities say . Hazardous spill contained at N.C. port, but police recommend evacuations . Nine containers of PETN were punctured at Morehead City port . Mayor says residents who choose to stay should keep clear of doors, windows .

(CNN) -- An era in American broadcast television will end Friday as the nation finishes its delayed transition to digital TV. Without a converter box, satellite service or cable hook-up, analog TVs will deliver only static now. By 12:01 a.m. Saturday, broadcasters must have shut down their outdated analog transmitters, leaving static to watch for those who are not ready. Stations all over the country will be making the historic switch all day Friday, Federal Communications Commission officials said. American TV viewers were given four extra months to get ready for the switch, when Congress voted early this year to delay the digital TV transition. At that time, an estimated 6.5 million homes -- including many elderly, poor and disabled Americans -- weren't prepared for a February 17 switch to digital, supporters argued. "In any change this big, there are going to be disruptions," said Michael Copps, the Federal Communications Commission acting chairman. "We are trying our best to provide people, especially those who are most at-risk, with the help they need to make the switch as smoothly as possible. And we're going to keep offering it after June 12, so people should call us at 1-888-CALL-FCC." People who pay for cable or satellite TV service are unaffected by the change. Republicans opposed the delay, saying the government had given people years to prepare. The end of analog television frees up that part of the broadcast spectrum for other uses. The federal government raked in $20 billion in auctions by selling licenses for the frequencies vacated by local television stations for other commercial uses. Some of the frequencies also have been reserved for emergency agencies to use for communications. Stations have been broadcasting in digital and analog for the past several years, but the switch puts an end to the transition and a form of broadcasting that's existed since the first regularly scheduled television service began in the United States in 1928.

By 12:01 a.m. Saturday, broadcasters must have shut down outdated transmitters . Congress voted early this year to delay the digital TV transition by four months . Haven't converted yet? Call 1-888-CALL-FCC for help . End of analog frees up that part of the broadcast spectrum for other uses .

(CNN) -- An extradition hearing is expected in Spain this week for one of two pilots arrested recently on charges they participated in "death flights" in which more than 1,000 prisoners were thrown out of planes during Argentina's "dirty war" in the 1970s and 1980s, officials said. Hebe de Bonafini, left, and members of Madres de Plaza de Mayo hold a demonstration in 2006. Former Navy Lt. Julio Alberto Poch, who has been held in Spain without bail since his arrest in Valencia in late September, will have a hearing before a high court in Madrid, a judge in Valencia ruled. An Argentine judge has asked that Poch be sent back to face long-standing charges from the 1976-83 right-wing dictatorship. In Argentina, police arrested former Navy Capt. Emir Sisul Hess last week in the town of Bariloche, near the border with Chile. An initial hearing for Sisul Hess was held Friday, federal court official Cecilia Brizzio told CNN. Poch and Sisul Hess are accused of piloting aircraft from which drugged and blindfolded prisoners were hurled to their deaths in the Atlantic Ocean or the Rio Plata. The prisoners included students, labor leaders, intellectuals and leftists who had run afoul of the dictatorship because of their political views. Most were dragged off the street or otherwise summarily arrested and held without trial in secret prisons where many were tortured. Sisul Hess, accused in more than 900 deaths, has denied the allegations, said Argentina's government-run Telam news agency. According to Telam, both men were arrested after they told colleagues or friends about their alleged involvement. Up to 30,000 people disappeared or were held in secret jails and torture centers during the dictatorship. Argentine human rights activist Hebe de Bonafini, who lost two sons and a daughter-in-law in the "dirty war," said Monday she found no joy in the arrests. "You can never take back the horror," she said. "In no way am I happy." Bonafini is president of the Association of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, a group of mothers whose children disappeared during the war. She urged the government to continue looking for war crime suspects. Speaking of the pilots, she said, "There are several. They are not the only ones." Poch, a commercial pilot for the Dutch airline Transavia.com, was arrested September 23 when his flight made a stopover in Valencia, Telam said. He was wanted on an international arrest warrant. Poch had been a navy pilot from 1976 until late 1980, Telam said. Upon leaving the navy, he moved to Holland and had been living there ever since. Argentine federal Judge Sergio Gabriel Torres is pursuing the extradition of Poch and handling the arrest of Sisul Hess. Torres traveled to Holland to question Poch's colleagues and others, Telam said. An aviator told Torres that Poch had said at a restaurant in Indonesia in December 2003 that there were occasions in which people were thrown out of helicopters and airplanes because the armed forces were dealing with "terrorists," Telam said. The aviator, identified as Tim Eisso Weert, told the judge that Poch said it was a humane way to execute people because they were drugged, the government news agency reported. A co-pilot told the judge that Poch had said they "should have killed all" the subversives, Telam reported, and that he admitted "some responsibility" because "when you fly persons on board the responsibility lies with the pilot." Sisul Hess is similarly said to have implicated himself, telling friends that the prisoners "did not suffer because they were drugged, falling like little ants," Telam said. Sisul Hess served as a helicopter pilot in 1976-77 and retired as a captain in 1991, the news agency said. He was arrested September 29 and transferred to Buenos Aires, Argentina's capital. Judge Torres was not available Monday to take three phone calls from CNN, aides said. Nor were any documents on the cases available, the aides said. CNN's

Former Navy Lt. Julio Alberto Poch faces charges from the 1976-83 dictatorship . In Argentina, police arrested former Navy Capt. Emir Sisul Hess last week . Pair accused of piloting aircraft from which prisoners were thrown to their deaths . Prisoners include those who had run afoul of the dictatorship over political views .

(CNN) -- An international peace conference in Johannesburg has been cancelled after South Africa refused the Dalai Lama a visa to attend the event. Archbishop Desmond Tutu said Monday he would boycott the conference. Announcing the postponement at a news conference Tuesday, Irvin Khosa, chairman of the South African football league, did not offer an explanation. A presidential spokesman, Thabo Masebe, said little. "South Africa has made this decision," he said. "We stand by the decision." The peace conference had been scheduled to start Friday. Officials said they would like to have a conference in the future, but they did not offer a specific date. The conference had been organized by South African soccer officials, led by Khosa, and was billed as an opportunity to showcase South Africa's role as a human-rights champion ahead of the 2010 World Cup -- the global soccer championship the nation will host next year. The presidential spokesman had said earlier that the Dalai Lama -- Tibet's spiritual leader and a Nobel Laureate -- did not receive a visa because it was not in South Africa's interest for him to attend. Masebe said South Africa thinks that, if the Dalai Lama attended the conference, the focus would shift away from the World Cup. "We cannot allow focus to shift to China and Tibet," he said. He added that South Africa has gained much from its trading relationship with China. Khosa made the announcement at a news conference also attended by Chief Mandla Mandela, grandson of former South African President Nelson Mandela. Mandla Mandela said it was a sad day for the country's democracy and the African continent that the South African government had denied the Dalai Lama a visa. South Africa should not succumb to international pressure, Mandela said. A representative of the Dalai Lama said he was not surprised by the visa refusal. The Tibetan government in exile thinks that China has pressured many countries to refuse a visit by the Dalai Lama, according to Chhime Chhoekyapa, an aide in Dharamsala, India. The Dalai Lama fled China in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule. The peace conference was to bring together Nobel laureates and top soccer officials. Archbishop Desmond Tutu; former President F.W. De Klerk; laureates Nelson Mandela and Martti Ahtisaar; Seff Blatter, president of soccer's international governing body; and actress Charlize Theron were among those invited. The event had the blessing of the Nobel Committee. A presidential spokesman had said earlier that the Dalai Lama -- Tibet's spiritual leader and a Nobel Laureate -- did not receive a visa because it was not in South Africa's interest for him to attend.

South Africa refused the Dalai Lama a visa to attend the event . Spokesman: Not in South Africa's interest for him to attend . Grandson of Nelson Mandela said it was a sad day for country's democracy .

(CNN) -- An organization of Christian physicians argued Wednesday against an impending rollback of a federal rule allowing health care workers to refuse to provide certain reproductive services, saying it's discriminatory. The rule protects the rights of health care providers who refuse to participate in certain procedures. The Bush White House proposed the rule in August, and it was enacted January 20, the day President Obama took office. It expanded on a 30-year-old law establishing a "conscience clause" for health care professionals who don't want to perform abortions. Under the rule, workers in health care settings -- from doctors to janitors -- can refuse to provide services, information or advice to patients on subjects such as contraception, family planning, blood transfusions and even vaccine counseling if they are morally against it. The Obama administration is expected to reverse the rule shortly, touching off a new wave of heated debate over what remains one of the most sensitive and emotional hot-button issues in American politics. " 'Right of conscience' is under attack, and that is dangerous for our country, our health care system and our patients," said Dr. David Stevens, head of the 15,000-member Christian Medical Association. "When the state demands that we surrender our conscience, it becomes totalitarian and dangerous. Do we want our professional schools to ethically neuter doctors of all moral convictions that are not approved by the government?" Watch CNN's Sanjay Gupta discuss the 'conscience clause' » Stevens was speaking on behalf of Freedom to Care, an umbrella organization of 36 groups working to prevent a rollback of the rule. Watch why one pharmacist says the "conscience clause" is needed » Many health care organizations, including the American Medical Association, believe that health care providers have an obligation to their patients to advise them of the options despite their own beliefs. And critics of the current rule argue that there are laws on the books protecting health-care professionals when it comes to refusing care for personal reasons. "We don't make God-like decisions. ... That's not what it's about for us. It's about helping the patient make their own decision. ... No one appointed us to be the ultimate person to pass judgment," said Mary Jean Schumann, a member of the American Nurses Association. Dr. Suzanne T. Poppema, board chairwoman of Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health, praised Obama "for placing good health care above ideological demands." "Physicians across the country were outraged when the Bush administration, in its final days, limited women's access to reproductive health care," she said. "Hundreds of doctors protested these midnight regulations and urged President Obama to repeal them quickly. We are thrilled that President Obama [is taking steps] to ensure that our patients' health is once again protected." Stevens argued that there is "a well-funded and increasingly successful effort to discriminate against health care professionals based upon their deeply held religious and moral beliefs." Rescinding the rule will send "a clear message," he said: "It's open season on health care professionals of conscience. Discriminate at will. If anyone should understand the ugliness of discrimination, it is our first African-American president." Stevens predicted that a large number of specialists in obstetrics and gynecology would leave the medical profession if the rule is repealed. A final announcement from the Obama administration is expected with the conclusion of a 30-day public comment period on the proposed rule change. "We do not want to impose new limitations on services that would allow providers to refuse to provide to women and their families services like family planning and contraception that would actually help prevent the need for an abortion in the first place," a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services official said in February. CNN's Saundra Young contributed to this report.

Christian doctors group says impending rollback of conscience rule is discriminatory . Rule lets health care providers refuse to provide services they're morally against . " 'Right of conscience' is under attack," one doctor says . Supporter says Obama is putting "good health care above ideological demands"

(CNN) -- An outbreak of the deadly ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo has prompted neighboring Angola to close its border with that country, Angola's state news agency reported Tuesday. Angolan Health Minister Jose Van-Dunem announced the "suspension of migratory movements" at the country's north-eastern border Sunday, the Angop news agency reported. The World Health Organization reports 41 suspected cases of the deadly fever in Congo since November 27. Thirteen people have died, and 183 cases are under observation. Two people are being held in quarantine. The handling of dead monkeys may be the source of the outbreak, the WHO suspects, according to Angop. Diosdado Nsue-Micawg, the WHO representative in the Angolan capital of Luanda, said the health agency does not know the source of the virus, but fears that hunters and women who visit the forest might have been in contact with infected monkeys. The outbreak is centered in the western Kassi province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has been reporting intermittent cases of the disease since 1976, according to Angop.

Democratic Republic of Congo has reported intermittent cases of ebola since 1976 . World Health Organization reports 41 suspected cases, 13 deaths, since Nov. 27 . As a result of the outbreak, neighboring Angola has closed its northeastern border .

(CNN) -- Another body was found in the same 92-acre parcel west of Albuquerque, New Mexico, where the remains of 10 other people have been discovered, police said Thursday. An Albuquerque, New Mexico, police forensics team member digs at the burial site. The latest discovery was made Tuesday, and the remains were recovered Wednesday, Albuquerque police spokesman John Walsh said. Like the others, it was sent to the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator, he said. A woman walking her dog found the first bodies earlier this month on the property, which had been graded in preparation for development. The graves are on about 10 acres, police spokeswoman Nadine Hamby said earlier, but that area keeps expanding. So far, 11 bodies have been found, including those of a first-trimester fetus with those of a pregnant woman. Police believe the bodies were buried sometime in the earlier part of the decade, Walsh said Thursday. Authorities have identified two of the remains, Walsh said. Body No. 8 belongs to Gina Valdez, who was born in 1982, he said. Valdez was pregnant, and the remains of her fetus were with her. Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz told reporters that Valdez had a prior criminal history that included arrests for prostitution and drug charges, according to CNN affiliate KRQE-TV. Earlier, police had identified another set of remains as belonging to Victoria Chavez, a prostitute and drug user who was last seen in 2003 and reported missing in 2004. Authorities are investigating how the two women's paths may have crossed, Walsh said. Valdez's father, Dan Valdez, told KRQE she was 22 when he reported her missing four years ago. Despite her rough lifestyle, he said, "she was my daughter and didn't deserve to be buried in the desert." Hamby said earlier there is housing south and east of the vacant land. After rain caused flooding, surrounding neighbors complained to the developer, who made culverts to divert the water, apparently bringing the first remains to the surface.

NEW: Eleventh body found at site west of Albuquerque, New Mexico . One body found earlier has been identified as a prostitute reported missing in 2004 . First bodies were discovered two weeks ago by a woman walking her dog .

(CNN) -- Archaeologists believe they have unearthed only a small fraction of Egypt's ancient ruins, but they're making new discoveries with help from high-tech allies -- satellites that peer into the past from the distance of space. The enclosure wall of the Great Aten temple in Egypt, as seen from the QuickBird satellite. "Everyone's becoming more aware of this technology and what it can do," said Sarah Parcak, an archaeologist who heads the Laboratory for Global Health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. "There is so much to learn." Images from space have been around for decades. Yet only in the past decade or so has the resolution of images from commercial satellites sharpened enough to be of much use to archaeologists. Today, scientists can use them to locate ruins -- some no bigger than a small living room -- in some of the most remote and forbidding places on the planet. In this field, Parcak is a pioneer. Her work in Egypt has yielded hundreds of finds in regions of the Middle Egypt and the eastern Nile River Delta. Parcak conducted surveys and expeditions in the eastern Nile Delta and Middle Egypt in 2003 and 2004 that confirmed 132 sites that were initially suggested by satellite images. Eighty-three of those sites had never been visited or recorded. In the past two years, she has found hundreds more, she said, leading her to amend an earlier conclusion that Egyptologists have found only the tip of the iceberg. "My estimate of 1/100th of 1 percent of all sites found is on the high side," Parcak said. These discoveries are of no small significance to the Egyptian government, which has devoted itself anew to protecting archaeological sites from plunder and encroachment. The Supreme Council of Antiquities has restricted excavation in the most sensitive areas along the Nile -- from the Great Pyramids at Giza on the outskirts of Cairo to the carvings of Ramses II in the remote south. Antiquities officials hope the move will encourage more surveys in the eastern Nile Delta in northern Egypt, Parcak said, where encroaching development in the burgeoning nation of 82 million poses the greatest threat to the sites. Old and modern methods Parcak's process weds modern tools with old-fashioned grunt work. The archaeologist studies satellite images stored on a NASA database and plugs in global positioning coordinates for suspected sites, then tramps out to see them. Telltale signs such as raised elevations and pot shards can confirm the images. As a result, the big picture comes into view. "We can see patterns in settlements that correspond to the [historical] texts," Parcak said, "such as if foreign invasions affected the occupation of ancient sites. "We can see where the Romans built over what the Egyptians had built, and where the Coptic Christians built over what the Romans had built. "It's an incredible continuity of occupation and reuse." The flooding and meanders of the Nile over the millennia dictated where and how ancient Egyptians lived, and the profusion of new data has built a more precise picture of how that worked. "Surveys give us information about broader ancient settlement patterns, such as patterns of city growth and collapse over time, that excavations do not," said Parcak, author of a forthcoming book titled "Satellite Remote Sensing and Archaeology." The vagaries of climate in the region make satellite technology advantageous, too. "Certain plants that may indicate sites grow during certain times of the year," Parcak said, "while sites may only appear during a wet or dry season. This is different everywhere in the world." Archaeologists working in much more verdant climates, such as Cambodia and Guatemala, also have used the technology to divine locations of undiscovered ruins. They have been able to see similarities between the vegetation at known sites and suspected sites that showed up in fine infrared and ultraviolet images covering wide areas of forbidding terrain. "For the work I do [in Egypt], I need wet season images as wet soil does a better job at detecting sites with the satellite imagery data I

Sharper resolutions allowing scientists to use satellites to locate ruins sites . Pictures from commercial satellites have been sharp enough only for past decade . Images have helped archaeologist Sarah Parcak find hundreds of Egyptian sites . Colorado company's new, advanced imaging satellite to be launched in 2009 .

(CNN) -- Arizona reported its fourth death from the H1N1 virus, commonly known as swine flu, health officials said Wednesday. The H1N1 strain is relatively mild, but it's being closely watched for mutations that might become severe. The victim was the second child in the Pima County area to die of flu complications, health officials said. The age of child who died Wednesday was not released, but the patient's health was "medically compromised." Earlier, officials in Cook County, Illinois, recorded their second death from H1N1. The latest victim, from suburban Chicago, died within the past couple of days and had "significant underlying medical conditions," said spokeswoman Kelly Jakubek. The first fatality occurred in a Chicago resident over the weekend. That victim also had underlying medical conditions, Jakubek said. Citing family privacy, she would not reveal the victims' ages or genders. By late Wednesday, the most-recent deaths in Arizona and Illinois had not been included in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's official tally of 11 U.S. deaths from the disease. They are in Arizona (three), Missouri (one), New York (two), Texas (three), Utah (one) and Washington (one). Nor did the CDC's count include two more deaths reported by the New York City Department of Health and Hygiene. The World Health Organization has counted 14,557 cases of H1N1 -- 96 of them fatal -- in 48 countries. Seasonal flu typically kills 36,000 Americans in any given year, though such cases usually have tapered off by this time of year, according to the CDC. Though the H1N1 strain is considered relatively mild, public health officials have been scrutinizing its spread since it was first identified in April in Mexico because they are concerned it could mutate and become more severe.

Arizona reports its fourth death linked to H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu . Officials in Cook County, Illinois, report their second flu death . Latest two deaths not in CDC's official tally of 11 swine-flu deaths in U.S. World Health Organization has counted 14,557 cases of H1N1 -- 96 of them fatal .

(CNN) -- Arjen Robben proved the difference for the second time in four days as Bayern Munich came from behind to beat Freiburg 2-1 to leapfrog Schalke at the top of the Bundesliga. The brilliant Dutchman put the Bavarian giants into the quarterfinals of the Champions League with his stunning strike against Fiorentina on Tuesday and worked his magic again at the Allianz Arena. Cedric Makiadi had put struggling Freiburg ahead in the 31st minute, but Robben equalized in the 76th and then converted a 83rd-minute penalty to give Bayern an invaluable three points. It leaves them two points clear of Schalke, who went temporarily top after a 2-1 lead against Stuttgart. Makiada's fine strike left Hans Joerg-Butt with no chance and a shock looked on the cards as Louis van Gaal's men appeared jaded after their midweek heroics. But Robben cropped up to drill home his ninth of the season and his 10th came after Thomas Mueller was fouled to win a penalty. Earlier on Saturday, Borussia Dortmund moved up to fourth spot with a 4-1 win at Bochum with Argentina star Lucas Barrios scoring twice in three minutes in the second half to seal victory. Defending champions VfL Wolfsburg picked up their fourth-straight Bundesliga win under caretaker coach Lorenz-Guenther Koestner as they beat Borussia Moenchengladbach 4-0 to move up to eighth. But basement side Hertha Berlin look certain for the drop after a 2-1 home defeat to fellow strugglers Nuremberg, who followed up their shock win 3-2 at Bayer Leverkusen with another fine victory. It lifts them to 15th. Third-placed Leverkusen play Hamburg on Sunday in a bid to get their title challenge back on track after Nuremberg ended their record unbeaten run. In other action around Europe on Saturday, on-loan Robbie Keane scored a hat-trick as Celtic won 3-0 at Kilmarnock to reach the semifinals of the Scottish Cup, their last realistic hope of silverware this season. In the French League, Lyon struggled after their midweek heroics against Real Madrid and were held to a 1-1 draw at home to local rivals St. Etienne. A first half goal from Emmanuel Riviere put struggling St. Etienne ahead with Lyon getting an 80th minute equalizer from Argentinian Lisandro Lopez. With leaders Bordeaux held to a goalless draw at Monaco and fellow challengers Montpellier and Auxerre playing out a 1-1 draw, Lyon's draw was a missed opportunity. Bordeaux are top with 53 points from 27 games, with a game in hand on Montpellier, who also have 53, with Auxerre just a point behind in third. Lyon are fourth with 50 points after 28 games.

Arjen Robben hits a second half double to give Bayern Munich 2-1 win over Freiburg . Victory lifts them two points clear of Schalke at the top of the Bundesliga . Nuremberg boost their battle against relegation with 2-1 win at Hertha Berlin . Celtic reach semifinals of Scottish Cup as Robbie Keane scores hat-trick . Lyon follow midweek heroics with 1-1 home draw against St.Etienne in France .

(CNN) -- Arsenal and Hull City were charged with failing to control their players by the English Football Association (FA) on Wednesday after their fiery Premier League match on December 19. The match at the Emirates Stadium, won 3-0 by title-chasing Arsenal, became heated just before halftime when Arsenal's Samir Nasri clashed with Hull's Richard Garcia. Stephen Hunt then had a confrontation with Nasri and a mass brawl ensued, with home goalkeeper Manuel Almunia running the length of the field to get involved. Referee Steve Bennett had to battle to get things under control and then showed yellow cards to both Hunt and Nasri. The clubs have until January 13 to launch any appeal. In other Premier League news on Wednesday, Liverpool could give Italian midfielder Alberto Aquilani his full debut for the crucial Boxing Day clash with Wolves. Aquilani, a big summer signing from AS Roma, has yet to start a league game for Liverpool, having battled to recovery from an ankle injury. Manager Rafael Benitez has been criticized for his reluctance to play Aquilani, but with the player recovering from a calf injury which kept him out of last weekend's match all the indicators are that he will take his place at Anfield. Premier League champions Manchester United have been clearance to play Senegal striker Mame Biram Diouf after he was granted a work permit. United signed Diouf from Molde in July before loaning him back to the Norwegian club. He scored 16 goals in 29 games in Norway and with Senegal failing to qualify for the African Cup of Nations, United have pressed to get him the proper clearances.

Arsenal and Hull City face FA charge of failing to control their players in December 19 match . Mass brawl marred clash at the Emirates which Arsenal won 3-0 . Manchester United get work permit clearance for Senegal striker Mame Biram Diouf .

(CNN) -- Arsenal will face Celtic in a mouthwatering all-British tie later this month to decide who reaches the Champions League group stages. Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger will see his side face an early-season test against Celtic. Scottish side Celtic went into the final qualifying round with a superb 2-0 away win over Dinamo Moscow earlier this week, overturning a 1-0 deficit from the first leg. Arsenal, who reached the semifinals of the Champions League last season where they lost to Manchester United, will be favorites to go through, but according to their former striker Charlie Nicholas, who also played for the Celtic, they will not be relishing the task. "They would have wanted to avoid each other," he told Sky Sports News. "For Arsenal, the concern is the lack of players they've brought in and injuries. I think it will be very tight." The first leg matches will be played on August 18 and 19, the same week as the start of the English Premier League season, the return matches are on August 25 or 26. A total of 10 pairings were drawn with the prize for the winners a place in the lucrative group stages of the world's most prestigious club competition. The losers will drop down to play in the Europa League, formerly the UEFA Cup. Five of the pairings feature match-ups between the champions of lower-rated leagues such as Latvia and Cyprus. European governing body UEFA effectively ring fenced five places in the group stages for these sides by separating them in the draw from teams from stronger leagues such as England, Italy and Spain. It has led to a series of intriguing clashes with Panathinaikos of Greece facing Spanish side Atletico Madrid. Portugal's Sporting Lisbon take on Fiorentina of Italy, deposed French champions Lyon play Anderlecht of Belgium and Romainian side Timisoara face Stuttgart of Germany. Timisoara surprisingly beat Shakhtar Donetsk of the Ukraine in the previous qualifying round. Shakhtar won the UEFA Cup last season and will now be able to defend their title under the guise of the revamped Europa League. They were paired against Turkish side Sivasspor when the draw for the competition was also made at UEFA's headquaters in Nyon on Friday. Champions League play-off draw: Champions group: Sheriff (Mol) v Olympiakos (Gre) Salzburg (Aut) v Maccabi Haifa (Isr) Ventspils (Lat) v Zurich (Swi) Copenhagen (Den) v Apoel Nicosia (Cyp) Levski Sofia (Bul) v Debrecen (Hun) Non-champions group: Lyon (Fr) v Anderlecht (Bel) Celtic (Sco) v Arsenal (Eng) Timisoara (Rom) v VfB Stuttgart (Ger) Sporting Lisbon (Por) v Fiorentina (Ita) Panathinaikos (Gre) v Atletico Madrid (Sp)

Arsenal draw Celtic in all-British tie in final Champions League qualifying round . Other ties see Lyon face Anderlecht and Sporting Lisbon taking on Fiorentina . Holders Shakhtar Donetsk to take on Turkish side Sivasspor in Europa League .

(CNN) -- Arturo Gatti, who was found dead in a Brazilian hotel room in suspicious circumstances, is revered by boxing fans for his trilogy of thrilling and brutal fights with Micky "Irish" Ward. Arturo Gatti fought to the limit of his endurance in many epic bouts. The Italian-born Canadian captured world titles at super featherweight and junior welterweight during his 16-year-professional career and also fought and lost to legends Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather Jr. in big money matches. But his 2002 and 2003 bouts with Ward will always be remembered, and two of them won the "Fight of the Year" award given out by the prestigious Ring Magazine. The first two fights were over 10 rounds, with Gatti losing the first and gaining revenge in a classic second bout. The third and deciding fight took place in June 2003, and Gatti broke his right hand in the fourth round. Almost unbelievably, he fought on and despite being floored in the sixth dominated the rest of the fight to win on a unanimous decision. Despite Gatti's winning the WBC junior welterweight crown the following year by beating Gianluca Branco of Italy to the vacant title, his storied wins over Ward proved to be the high point of Gatti's career. He made two successful defenses of the title against lightly-regarded opponents until running into Mayweather in June 2005. It proved a big fight too many, as he was slowed by body shots and cut a sorry figure as he was stopped in the sixth round. Moving up to welterweight, Gatti won a warm-up fight before losing to Carlos Baldomir in a world title bout. His comeback fight, with old rival Micky Ward by then his trainer, also ended in defeat to Alfonso Gomez in July 2007, and he promptly announced his retirement. It ended a 49-fight career with 31 knockout and nine defeats. His first world title had come with victory over Tracy Harris Patterson, the adopted son of heavyweight great Floyd Patterson, to claim the IBF super featherweight crown. As his fame spread and with countless nominations for Ring's Fight of the Year, Gatti, nicknamed "Thunder," gained a large and devoted following among boxing fans. But his life outside the ring proved contentious and in March this year the Canadian Press reported that Gatti was charged with assaulting his then girlfriend Amanda Rodriguez and spent two nights in jail after failing to turn up for a court appearance. Gatti later married Rodriguez, and they have a one-year-old son. She has been arrested in connection with his death.

Arturo Gatti was one of the most popular fighters of his generation . Italian-born Canadian fought epic trilogy of bouts with Micky Ward . Gatti also won world titles at two different weights in 16-year pro career .

(CNN) -- As a musician and social justice activist, online social media has helped Maria Isa sell more CDs and mobilize the growing number of Latinos in her home city of Minneapolis. Isa wasn't surprised that a study published this summer said Hispanics are among the most active social media users. "Social media is about accessibility for me," Isa said. "I can send information to my audience with the push of a button on my cell. I'm able to expand my message of social justice in the Latino community and also my work and the works of others who network with me." There's a growing online audience of people of color. Latinos and African Americans are more than twice as likely to use Twitter as white non-Hispanics, according to the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project. Much of the reason? Cell phones. Nearly 90% of English speaking Hispanics use mobile devices. But New York Daily News columnist and author Juan Gonzalez said it's an extension of Latino culture. "I think there's always been a tradition in the Latino culture, a tradition of word spreading news and information, gossip, word of mouth spreading, from family members to friends, neighbors of the same town or whatever," Gonzalez said. The growing number of Latinos using social media is a reflection of broader demographic change in the United States. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that America's young people will become "minority white" in 2023, and by 2042, the same will be true for adults. "The youth population in America already looks like America will look in a few years. The youth have a stronger identity in their role and purpose," Gonzalez said. "They're already acting out their new role in the country, even before they get to be adults. They're already creating the new America through their involvement in social media." Map how the United States is changing Gonzalez, who wrote about the Latino immigrant experience in "Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America," said the success Latinas have online reflects their immigrant experiences. "Generally speaking, Latina women tend to be more into sharing experiences, and good communicators," Gonzalez said. "I think this is representative of social media and what it represents. It's basically a community talking to each other, spreading bits of information here and there." Isa was born to Puerto Rican parents in Minneapolis. In her home, it was never a matter of if she was going to college, but where she would go. She chose Columbia College in Chicago, where she focused on social justice and groomed the message she wanted to convey as a musician. Eventually, she took her message online, using Twitter to promote her upcoming shows and projects. She noticed more people at her shows, sold more CDs and generated more traffic to her MySpace music page. In 2010, she was honored by the National Hispana Leadership Institute and a local Univision affiliate. But things really took off when she discovered Latism -- Latinos in Social Media -- a group of like-minded "gente" online. With Latism, she found a whole new community of people who wouldn't otherwise notice her work, she said. She was able to educate a larger audience online about what it means to be a Puerto Rican living in the Midwest. The online discussion helped prepare her to better educate her real-life community. Latism was founded in 2009 by Ana Roca-Castro, the chief executive of Premier Social Media. The group started with a simple tweet: "Where are all my Latinos?" More than 300 people responded. Now, the organization has grown to more than 140,000 members. "What happened before, when all these online and social media things started, many people in our community felt like they were sending their thoughts into thin air," said Elianne Ramos, the head of communications for the Washington-based organization. "Through Latism, we give people a place to voice their opinions and talk about the

Study: Latino and black people more likely to use Twitter than non-Hispanic whites . Latism are harnessing the power of the large Latino social networking community . Latina rapper and activist: "I can send information to my audience with the push of a button"

(CNN) -- As the National Tea Party Convention concluded this weekend, it's clear that the Tea Partiers are propelled by two competing claims -- a principled commitment to fiscal conservatism and a serious case of Obama Derangement Syndrome. The first group remains true to the roots of the movement as it emerged almost one year ago amid bailout backlash. They feel like modern Paul Reveres, warning their fellow citizens about the unsustainable nature of our government's deficit spending and unprecedented debt. They still have an important civic role to play in our national debate. The second group reflects the overheated, hyperpartisanship that emerged over the August town halls and the 9/12 march on Washington. Oddly enough, this group embraced the tactics of Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals and applied them to the conservative cause, with angry confrontation and street theater protests. They ascribe to Obama every sinister characteristic imaginable -- often a secret plot to undermine our constitutional republic and put in a socialist, one-world government in its place. This is the crowd that carries the signs comparing Obama to Hitler and communists, while proclaiming themselves patriots. Their extremism will ultimately lead the movement to self-destruct unless it is clearly repudiated. The weekend's controversial and much-covered Tea Party ended up being more of a conference than a convention. It offered speeches and seminars to a relatively small group of attendees. While Tax Day 2009 Tea Parties attracted some 300,000 people nationwide, this convention accommodated just 600 people, who paid nearly $500 each for the privilege of attending the populist conference. While the crowds at 2009's protests were generally angrier than the speakers who climbed up onto platforms at last weekend's conference, the dynamic was reversed. The crowd was generally more civil than the selected speakers. Former congressman Tom Tancredo accused the president of being a "committed socialist ideologue" and proposed a civic literacy test for voting. WorldNet Daily founder Joseph Farah used his post-dinner speech, covered by C-Span, to repeat inane "Birther" claims. Alabama gubernatorial candidate and former state Supreme Court chief justice Roy Moore said Obama had "ignored our history and our heritage, arrogantly declaring to the world that we are no longer a Christian nation." He also compared Obama to King George III by quoting the Declaration of Independence: "A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people." Sarah Palin was the most cautious by far, saying simply "America is ready for another revolution." Where will the Tea Party movement go from here? The for-profit conference organizers declared that "we absolutely do not support a third party" and instead announced the creation of a new corporation and concurrent PAC to support conservative candidates, primarily in the South. This is still very much a leaderless movement with divergent tributaries. There's no shortage of anger at the GOP for starting the path of deficit spending last decade and then backing the first round of Wall Street bailouts under Bush. There is a rejection of politics as usual, the feeling that both parties are captive of their respective special interests -- big business and big government. What's your take? Share your thoughts on the Tea Party movement For the Tea Party momentum to continue in a constructive way, it will need to take at least two further steps: First, repudiate the unhinged Obama-haters and then focus its anger at fiscal irresponsibility into policy proposals instead of bumper-sticker platitudes. With a growing number of conspiracy entrepreneurs trying to profit off populist anger in a recession, it's also worth keeping the conservative virtue of healthy skepticism in mind. Remember what the author Eric Hoffer warned in his book "The True Believer:" "Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business and eventually degenerates into a racket."

Some in Tea Party movement have an Obama blind spot, John Avlon observers . If Tea Party movement is to last, Avlon says the Obama bashers must be repudiated . Sarah Palin was the most cautious speaker at Nashville convention, he says . Avlon: Movement must focus its anger at fiscal irresponsibility into policy proposals .

(CNN) -- Astounding. Risky. Quitter. And that's what fellow conservatives had to say Sunday about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her decision to step down with 18 months left in her term. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin announced Friday that she will step down this month. Democrats left it to Republican and conservative voices to assess what Friday's unexpected announcement by Palin means for her and a possible run for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination. For example, Vice President Joe Biden called it a personal decision, offering no analysis of why she did it. By contrast, those on the political right acknowledged that they didn't know what to make of it. Karl Rove, the "architect" of George W. Bush's successful presidential campaigns, said the resignation left many of Palin's fellow Republicans "a little perplexed." "It's a risky strategy," Rove told "Fox News Sunday." "Astounding," was the pronouncement by Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, and conservative columnist George Will said Palin was declaring herself a quitter. Palin, who was Sen. John McCain's vice presidential candidate in the 2008 election, said she already knew she would not seek a second term and decided against being a lame duck governor for the next 18 months. She also complained that too much time and too many taxpayer dollars were going toward fighting ethics investigations and that the mainstream media were continuing with unfair attacks on her and her family. Some analysts believe that Palin will seek the 2012 Republican presidential nomination and that her resignation is intended to free her to prepare. Rove, whom Bush dubbed "the Architect" for managing his successful presidential campaigns in 2000 and 2004, said stepping down now won't lessen the media spotlight on Palin. In fact, he said, leaving the governor's office takes away her platform for controlling her agenda and message. "The media, if she wants to run for president, is going to be following her for the next 3½ years," said Rove, who called the move unclear and therefore a potentially harmful strategy for a politician. "Effective strategies in politics are ones that are so clear and obvious that people can grasp. ... It's not clear what she's doing and why." iReport.com: Share thoughts on Palin stepping down Grassley told the CBS program "Face the Nation" that he had "no insight into why she did it." "I would think, if you want to run for president -- and I'm not sure that's got anything to do with what she's doing -- that the forum of a governorship would be a better forum than just being a private citizen," the veteran senator said. Will told the ABC program "This Week" that he had "no idea why she did this." "The one that rings most hollow is, she doesn't want to put Alaska through the terror of [her] being a lame-duck governor," Will said. "If she is just weary of it, one can understand that. Still, she made a contract with [voters] to serve out her term. And she said, in her own words, she now is a quitter." Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska criticized Palin's decision as abandoning the state's voters. Palin defeated Murkowski's father the gubernatorial election in 2006. But Alaska Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell, also on the Fox program, said Sunday that Murkowski's statement disappointed him because it failed to recognize all that Palin has accomplished in her 2½ years in office. "She doesn't need a title to effect change and bring some hope to people who need it," said Parnell, a Republican who stands to become governor when Palin steps down this month. iReport.com: Conservative says Palin decision "not a smart move" Palin had no public appearances Sunday, but she encouraged her followers via Twitter to ignore the pundits. "Critics are spinning, so hang in there as they feed false info on the right decision made as I enter last yr in office to

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's fellow conservatives question decision to resign . Columnist George Will says Palin is declaring herself a quitter . Some analysts believe move intended to free her to prepare for presidential run . Palin: Once I decided not to run for another term, I didn't want to be lame duck .

(CNN) -- At least 1 million people marked the passing of another year at the iconic ball drop in New York's Times Square, despite an early morning dusting of snow and late-night freezing rain. With the help of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and students from 12 city high schools, the dazzling crystal ball began its descent Thursday at 11:59 p.m. ET. Revelers counted down the final seconds of the decade. The New Year got under way with blasting horns and fireworks shot from the Sky Tower as revelers partied Friday morning in Auckland, New Zealand. Similar celebrations were moving like a wave from east to west as midnight struck across the globe, starting at the International Date Line in the mid-Pacific Ocean. Throngs danced to pounding rock 'n' roll music and cheered a spectacular 12-minute fireworks display over the picturesque Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia. A giant bell rang before a huge crowd in Seoul, South Korea. Crowds across Europe braved near-freezing temperatures to ring in 2010. In London, England, people gathered along the banks of the River Thames to hear Big Ben strike midnight and watch a fireworks display at the London Eye. A multicolored light show at The Eiffel Tower dazzled crowds in Paris, France. In New York, security was tight for Thursday night's iconic ball drop. After the Christmas Day attempt to blow up a Northwest Airlines plane over Detroit, Michigan, security forces are on high alert. "We want people to have a happy experience. But we are also concerned about a terrorist event. We have to do that after 9/11," New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said. Celebrating? Share your photos and videos New York police estimated a million people had already filled the square by early Thursday evening. Weighing 11,875 pounds, the sparkling sphere features 2,668 crystals woven into a triangular pattern and is powered by 32,256 LED lights. It is capable of producing a kaleidoscopic array of 16 million vibrant colors and billions of patterns, according to the event's official Web site. This New Year's ball is also be greener, consuming 10 to 20 percent less energy than last year's ball and 78 percent less energy than the 2007 ball. It uses the equivalent amount of energy per hour as two traditional home ovens. The 2010 numerals are also more energy efficient, as Duracell Batteries set up a lab in which visitors ride stationary bikes to provide the power to light the numbers on the ball. Key stories in 2009: You rank them Times Square has served as one of the most popular sites of New Year's festivities since 1904, though the New Year's Eve ball made its inaugural drop down the flagpole at One Times Square in 1907. That first ball, built with iron and wood, featured a hundred 25-watt light bulbs and was designed by Jacob Starr, a young immigrant metalworker. The New Year's Eve ball has beamed every year since with the exceptions of 1942 and 1943, when America was embroiled in World War II and New York City observed a city-wide "dimout" to cut energy costs. As in previous years, security is tight. Police are searching garages and subway tunnels for bombs, trash cans are being removed, and mailboxes and manhole covers are being sealed. Detectives were asking hotel and restaurant personnel if they had noticed any suspicious people or activity. See images from Times Square Law enforcement officials have a number of tools at their disposal to help combat potential crime and terrorism, including sniper teams, bomb-sniffing dogs, infrared radar-equipped helicopters, and radiation detectors on New York's waterways, Kelly said. In the years before terrorism was a concern inside the United States, the Times Square celebration was a rowdy affair, fueled by copious amounts of alcohol, often transported via backpack. Today, alcohol and backpacks are banned from the area on New Year's Eve, and revelers are herded into 2,500-person pens, but the mood is festive nonetheless. New Yorker Julio Ortiz-Teissonniere, a CNN iReporter, said he's too jaded to take part in the spectacle,

In Times Square, huge crowds welcomes 2010 with famous ball drop . Crowds in London gather to hear Big Ben strike midnight, watch the London Eye fireworks . Horns blare in Auckland, New Zealand .

(CNN) -- At least 10 people were killed, and an unknown number remained missing Wednesday, after a boat authorities believe was used for human smuggling capsized off the coast of Florida. The Coast Guard said it rescued 26 people from a capsized boat off the coast of Florida. Almost all of the victims are believed to be from Haiti and the Bahamas, according to the U.S. Coast Guard -- which said a dangerous number of people was packed onto a small pleasure cruiser. The Coast Guard said it rescued 26 people from the boat, and searchers didn't know how many more people had been on the boat. "You don't put 26 people on a small boat. It was way overloaded, completely unsafe," said Capt. Jim Fitton, the Coast Guard's sector commander in Miami, Florida. "With smugglers, you have the potential for this because smugglers aren't interested in people's welfare. They're interested in making money." The boat capsized about 15 miles east of Boynton Beach, Florida, some time around 2 a.m. Wednesday, the Coast Guard said. The agency was notified more than nine hours later by someone who saw the boat. There were women and children on the boat, Fitton said. A pregnant woman was taken to a hospital, while most of the victims remained onboard a Coast Guard cutter that was being used in the continuing rescue efforts, he said. Only eight of the people rescued by Wednesday afternoon were wearing life jackets. The Rev. Luke Harrigan, a Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, pastor to members of the Haitian community who is working with the Coast Guard, said he is contacting family members of the victims who were killed. "Most of them now didn't even know they were coming to the United States," he said. "Sometimes the person organizing the trip doesn't even tell them where they are going." He said it's not uncommon for smugglers to charge people from the impoverished island nation as much as $4,000 for passage into the United States. Coast Guard rescuers were continuing to search the area of the crash Wednesday evening.

Coast Guard rescues 26; searchers unsure how many others missing . Almost all of the victims are believed to be from Haiti and the Bahamas . Boat capsized about 15 miles east of Boynton Beach, Florida .

(CNN) -- At least 14 people were dead and four missing in the Philippines a day after Typhoon Mirinae roared through the heart of the country, the National Disaster Coordinating Council said Sunday. Mirinae was the fourth typhoon to affect the archipelago of more than 7,000 islands in a month. It quickly dissipated after Saturday's landfall, becoming a tropical storm. Mirinae was forecast to weaken further before hitting Vietnam on Monday, forecasters said. The hardest hit areas were the Southern Luzon and Bicol regions, the Philippines News Agency reported. Civil Defense administrator Glenn Rabonza said more than 13,000 people were affected by the storm. The storm brought at least 85 millimeters (3.3 inches) of rain to Manila. The city of Daet, on the eastern coast, received 149 millimeters (5.8 inches) of rain, and Virac, which sits on an island that juts into the Pacific, received 72 millimeters (2.8 inches) of rain. The first of the four typhoons to threaten the Philippines happened in late September, when Ketsana drenched the island nation with its heaviest rainfall in 40 years. Eighty percent of Manila flooded and more than 420 people died. Are you there? Share photos, video of the weather Flooding from Ketsana has lasted well into October and tens of thousands of people are still in evacuation centers, according to the disaster coordinating council. Typhoon Parma made landfall on October 3 in a rural region of fishermen and farmers in Luzon, the largest of the Philippine islands. It destroyed 55,000 houses and killed more than 430 people. Last week, a third typhoon, Lupit, narrowly missed making landfall, but brought lots of rain to the Philippines.

Typhoon Mirinae leaves at least 14 dead, four missing . Mirinae is latest in rash of storms to hit region . Forecasters say weakened storm will hit Vietnam on Monday .

(CNN) -- At least 23 people died Saturday when a protest rally turned violent outside Madagascar's Presidential Palace, a fire official at the main hospital said. People duck to avoid gunfire Saturday in Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar. The official said 83 people were injured during the demonstration in the capital city of Antananarivo, according to journalist Dregoire Pourtier, who passed the information to CNN. The International Committee of the Red Cross helped at least 18 injured people, press officer Mbola Ramamanana said. Brittany Martin, an American who is a Harvard Fellow and lives near the palace, said she could hear the crowd cheering amid intermittent gunshots and noises that may have been tear gas canisters. iReport.com: Are you there? "From the window I can see military cars and ambulances driving by," Martin said. "Nothing is up in smoke. We know there have been people killed from French and Malagasy news reports. "We can see the back of the president's palace. This morning was totally peaceful. We knew that Andry [Rajoelina] was unveiling his new government at the May 13th Plaza, which was peaceful," she said, citing a friend who was there. Madagascar's government is in flux. President Marc Ravalomanana fired Rajoelina as mayor of Antananarivo and put someone else in the job, but Rajoelina is still technically mayor and claims to head a transitional national government. Martin said she heard gunshots starting about 2 p.m., after the protesters marched from the plaza to the palace. She said it was unclear where the shots were coming from. Some media reports blamed foreign mercenaries for the shootings; others said army guards were responsible or that the army was firing at the mercenaries to protect the crowd. Violence in Madagascar began January 26, when protesters stormed state-run television and radio stations in Antananarivo. Hours earlier, the government had shut down a radio station owned by Rajoelina and, weeks before, had similarly shut down Rajoelina's television station after it aired an interview with ex-President Didier Ratsiraka. Ravalomanana took power in 2001 after ousting Ratsiraka in a tense, hotly contested election. Ratsiraka fled to France afterward. Loyalists blame Ratsiraka's family members for inciting the recent trouble. There is also anger in Madagascar -- where the World Bank says the average person earns about $320 a year -- over reports that Ravalomanana recently bought a $60 million airplane. Last Saturday, Rajoelina took to the streets, declaring himself the nation's leader after a week of violence and looting that killed at least 80 people and wounded more than 300. Rajoelina urged supporters to demand the resignation of Ravalomanana and said he planned to take charge until a transition government can be established in the island nation off Africa's southeastern coast. Map » "What we've been pushing for is dialogue the whole time," said Rodney Ford, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy. He said he received reports that palace guards used tear gas and shot into the air to try to disperse the crowd. "I don't think anyone wanted violence." According to the U.S. State Department, Madagascar has about 20 million people with ethnic origins in Africa and Asia. It was administered by the British Empire during much of the 19th century until it came under the control of France, from which it gained independence in 1960.

Gunfire heard near presidential palace, site of anti-government rally . President and fired mayor of capital city are locked in a power struggle . Rally started peacefully, American in capital says .

(CNN) -- At least 23 people died Saturday when a protest rally turned violent outside Madagascar's Presidential Palace, a fire official at the main hospital said. People duck to avoid gunfire Saturday in Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar. The official said 83 people were injured during the demonstration in the capital city of Antananarivo, according to journalist Dregoire Pourtier, who passed the information to CNN. The International Committee of the Red Cross helped at least 18 injured people, press officer Mbola Ramamanana said. Brittany Martin, an American who is a Harvard Fellow and lives near the palace, said she could hear the crowd cheering amid intermittent gunshots and noises that may have been tear gas canisters. iReport.com: Are you there? "From the window I can see military cars and ambulances driving by," Martin said. "Nothing is up in smoke. We know there have been people killed from French and Malagasy news reports. "We can see the back of the president's palace. This morning was totally peaceful. We knew that Andry [Rajoelina] was unveiling his new government at the May 13th Plaza, which was peaceful," she said, citing a friend who was there. Madagascar's government is in flux. President Marc Ravalomanana fired Rajoelina as mayor of Antananarivo and put someone else in the job, but Rajoelina is still technically mayor and claims to head a transitional national government. Martin said she heard gunshots starting about 2 p.m., after the protesters marched from the plaza to the palace. She said it was unclear where the shots were coming from. Some media reports blamed foreign mercenaries for the shootings; others said army guards were responsible or that the army was firing at the mercenaries to protect the crowd. Violence in Madagascar began January 26, when protesters stormed state-run television and radio stations in Antananarivo. Hours earlier, the government had shut down a radio station owned by Rajoelina and, weeks before, had similarly shut down Rajoelina's television station after it aired an interview with ex-President Didier Ratsiraka. Ravalomanana took power in 2001 after ousting Ratsiraka in a tense, hotly contested election. Ratsiraka fled to France afterward. Loyalists blame Ratsiraka's family members for inciting the recent trouble. There is also anger in Madagascar -- where the World Bank says the average person earns about $320 a year -- over reports that Ravalomanana recently bought a $60 million airplane. Last Saturday, Rajoelina took to the streets, declaring himself the nation's leader after a week of violence and looting that killed at least 80 people and wounded more than 300. Rajoelina urged supporters to demand the resignation of Ravalomanana and said he planned to take charge until a transition government can be established in the island nation off Africa's southeastern coast. Map » "What we've been pushing for is dialogue the whole time," said Rodney Ford, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy. He said he received reports that palace guards used tear gas and shot into the air to try to disperse the crowd. "I don't think anyone wanted violence." According to the U.S. State Department, Madagascar has about 20 million people with ethnic origins in Africa and Asia. It was administered by the British Empire during much of the 19th century until it came under the control of France, from which it gained independence in 1960.

Gunfire heard near presidential palace, site of anti-government rally . President and fired mayor of capital city are locked in a power struggle . Rally started peacefully, American in capital says .

(CNN) -- At least 510 people were killed in Caracas, Venezuela, in December, giving support to a recent report that called the city the murder capital of the world. A chalk message reads No More Murders as a student protests killings in Caracas in this file photo. It's against that backdrop that the country's minister for Interior Relations and Justice announced efforts this week to combat crime in 2009. Minister Tareck El Aissami said Monday he will form 50 community police units in Caracas and take other measures so that "we can have in a short time a culture of peace, tranquility and calm for all the Venezuelan public." By all accounts, it will be a tall order. Foreign Policy magazine said in September that Caracas tops the list of five murder capitals of the world, with an official tally of 130 homicides per 100,000 residents. The city, which is Venezuela's capital, has about 4 million inhabitants. Foreign Policy is owned by The Washington Post Co. and published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The United States made the magazine's top five, too, with New Orleans, Louisiana coming in at No. 3. Its murder rate is estimated as 67 per 100,000 by its police department and 95 per 100,000 by the FBI. Still, the rate in Caracas comes in far ahead of the following four murderous capitals. "Caracas has become far more dangerous in recent years than any South American city, even beating out the once notorious Bogota, [Colombia]," Foreign Policy said. "What's worse, the city's official homicide statistics likely fall short of the mark because they omit prison-related murders as well as deaths that the state never gets around to properly 'categorizing.' "The numbers also don't count those who died while 'resisting arrest,' suggesting that Caracas' cops -- already known for their brutality against student protesters -- might be cooking the books," the magazine said. CNN affiliate Globovision TV reported this week that officials reported 510 killings in Caracas this month, capping a particularly brutal year. "It's shocking," said Jennifer McCoy, director of The Americas Program at the Carter Center in Atlanta. "It's the biggest concern of the population -- crime and security." Federico Welsch, a political science professor at La Universidad de Simon Bolivar in Caracas for 25 years, has seen that crime up close. "Violence is the major problem for Venezuelans, according to any source you use," Welsch told CNN on Tuesday. "It's doubly sad because, primarily, the deaths occur almost exclusively in the poor sectors, and, secondarily, it's among youth under 30 years old." McCoy points out that the killings are "basically poor on poor." From the 1970s to the 1990s, the poverty rate nearly tripled, from 25 percent to 65 percent, McCoy said. Even though the poverty rate declined during the oil boom that started in the 1990s, she said, the rate remains high. "It's a combination of economic-driven crime ... with other types of gangs, to police abuse," McCoy said. "The police are not properly trained and not properly equipped." Anti-crime efforts in Caracas also suffered, she said, when the national government took over the city's police force in 2002. "There has been trouble getting the police force back to par," she said. Welsch said he doubts the anti-crime measures El Aissami announced Monday will work. "You can't resolve this problem with police," Welsch said. "The government is co-responsible for there being so many firearms. There is no good gun control, there are no permits and there is no good control over the militias." The problem, Welsch and McCoy said, transcends the drug trade and gang battles. "You don't have the guerrilla problems," McCoy said. "You don't have drug cartels. You don't have a large mafia." Welsch lays

Foreign Policy magazine names Caracas, Venezuela, the murder capital of the world . Venezuela to step up efforts to fight crime in Caracas in 2009 . Violence is gang- and police-related, and often poor on poor . New Orleans, Louisiana, comes in third on magazine's list of top five .

(CNN) -- At least nine people were killed in Somalia's war-torn capital Mogadishu when mortars slammed into a home for disabled veterans, according to journalists and witnesses. Al Shabaab fighters display two bodies of Somali police officers during a battle August 12 in Mogadishu. At least 27 people were wounded in the Friday night incident, when Muslim militants fired mortars toward Mogadishu's port and struck a residential area. The mortars hit a home for former national army officers who were disabled in a late-1970s war with Ethiopia, the sources said. Insurgents from the Al-Shabaab militant group have been fighting to topple Somalia's government. Its fighters have frequently shelled the city's airport and seaport, which are controlled by the African Union and government forces. The United States is supporting the Somali government's fight against the insurgents, including providing weapons to government forces. Al Shabaab 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 later that year.

Sources: Militants fired mortars toward Mogadishu's port, struck residential area . Mortars hit home for disabled national army officers . At least 9 dead, 27 wounded in attack in war-torn capital .

(CNN) -- Attackers firebombed three churches in the southeast Asian nation of Malaysia overnight, assaults that come amid widespread Muslim ire over a court ruling that allowed Christians to use the word Allah as a term for God. Malaysian news reports said no casualties have been reported, and police have promised to step up security for churches and other places of worship. But the acts stirred unease in the diverse society -- where 60 percent of the people are Muslim, 19 percent are Buddhist, 9 percent are Christian and 6 percent are Hindu. "We regret the irresponsible actions of certain extremist elements for the recent spate of firebombs thrown into church premises. These actions display their immaturity and intolerance toward others within a multi-racial society," the National Evangelical Christian Fellowship of Malaysia said in a statement. The violence comes as Muslims protest a recent court ruling that allowed a Catholic newspaper to use the word "Allah" for God. Muslims believe Allah, an Arabic word, should only be used by Muslims. A stay has been placed on the order on the grounds of national interest. Muslims took to the streets Friday to protest the use of the word by non-Muslims, and authorities such as Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak called for the matter to be resolved in court amicably and expressed hope the protests don't deteriorate. "We should not raise the tension level in this country," he said Thursday, as quoted by Bernama, the Malaysian National News Agency. Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin, Malaysia's head of state, on Friday called for calm and the spirit of unity, according to a Bernama report. The three churches attacked were in the Kuala Lumpur region. They are the Metro Tabernacle Church, the Assumption Church and the Life Chapel. The attacks occurred late Thursday night and early Friday. "It's incumbent upon the Malaysian government to investigate the church bombings and to prosecute the perpetrators of this religiously motivated violence," said Leonard Leo, chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent federal agency that makes recommendations to Congress and the president regarding how to handle violations of religious freedom around the world. "There are many parts of the world where Christians do use the world 'Allah' in their translations of the Bible," he told CNN in a telephone interview. "So the Malaysian Supreme Court ruling that overturns the government's ban on the use of the word is not inconsistent with what the practice would be elsewhere around the world. The Malaysian ban is what's unusual, not the court's ruling."

Muslims oppose recent court ruling allowing a Catholic newspaper to use the word "Allah" for God . 60 percent of the people in Malaysia are Muslim, while 9 percent are Christian . The three churches attacked were in the Kuala Lumpur region of the country .

(CNN) -- Austrian investigators Monday released more details about the elaborate underground cellar where Josef Fritzl kept his daughter imprisoned for 24 years, along with three of their children. Josef Fritzl admitted to authorities he raped his daughter and fathered her children. Investigators believe Fritzl planned to build the cellar as early as 1978, shortly after, according to his daughter, he began raping her at age 11 or 12, said police spokesman Franz Polzer. The 73-year-old Austrian began building the dungeon as part of an addition to his home that year, and simply added the hidden space -- which was not recorded in any building plans -- Polzer said. It took Fritzl until 1983 to finish the addition, Polzer said. Investigators recently discovered another door to the dungeon prison, which was blocked by a 500-kilogram (1,100-pound) steel and concrete door that Fritzl probably stopped using when he later constructed an electronic door for a second entrance, Polzer said. Fritzl, who police believe was the only one with access to the cellar, had to travel through an elaborate maze to get to the prison. "You would have to open up a total of eight doors, and ... (for the) last door which would go into this space (where the family was imprisoned), you would also have to use electronic opening apparatus," Polzer said. "We will have to find out perhaps later from now if perhaps there are other spaces we haven't discovered yet, and perhaps maybe there is something else interesting." Fritzl was recently arrested and confessed to holding his daughter, Elisabeth, captive in the dungeon under the Fritzl home for decades, repeatedly raping her and fathering seven children -- six of whom survived. Three of the children were adopted by Josef Fritzl and his wife after he concocted the ruse that Elisabeth had left the babies on their doorstep. The story of the family's imprisonment began to unravel more than two weeks ago, when one of the children still in the dungeon, 19-year-old Kerstin Fritzl, fell seriously ill with convulsions. The father agreed to take her to a hospital, the first time she was allowed out of the prison where she had spent her entire life with her mother and two brothers. Dr. Albert Reiter, who is treating Kerstin, said Monday that while her condition is still "grave," it "has improved somewhat." "She has become more stable, but despite that we have to continue to keep her under sedation and give her respiratory help," Reiter said, noting it is not clear how long she will be kept under sedation. Elisabeth and her two sons were reunited with her mother, Rosemarie, who police say knew nothing about the basement prison. They were also reunited with the three children that Josef had taken from Elisabeth. The reunited family is living in secluded quarters at a psychiatric clinic, where they are finding a daily routine and adjusting to sunlight -- something the two boys had never seen -- according to the clinic's chief doctor. "The mother and the smallest child have, in just the last couple of days, increased their sensitivity to light," Dr. Berthold Kepplinger said. "So we have been able to equip them with protective sunglasses." Five-year-old Felix is "getting more and more lively," Kepplinger said. "He's fascinated by everything that he sees around him -- the fresh air, the light, and the food -- all of these things are helping them," he said. "Slowly the color of their skin is changing back to a more normal (shade)." He also said the family members are still getting to know each other and live together as a family. Kepplinger praised Elisabeth for having provided a daily living routine for her children during their captivity. He said the family is getting into a new routine in which the mother and the grandmother make breakfast for the family, and the children make their beds. However, he said there is a noticeable difference between the pace of life of the children held in captivity and that of

NEW: Hospitalized incest daughter's condition is grave but stable, police say . Fritzl imprisoned and raped daughter, also fathered her children, police say . Wife of Josef Fritzl was too scared to question him, her sister says . Fritzl's wife focused on keeping family healthy, according to her sister .

(CNN) -- Author Frank McCourt, whose tragic childhood became creative grist for his first book, the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Angela's Ashes," died Sunday, according to the Web site of his publisher, Simon & Shuster. He was 78. Frank McCourt won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award for "Angela's Ashes." McCourt taught creative writing to high school students in New York City for 30 years before achieving literary acclaim with the 1996 biography. "Angela's Ashes," named after his mother, also won the National Book Critics Circle Award. It was translated and sold throughout the world. In the book, McCourt described a desperate childhood marked by severe poverty, malnutrition, neglect, infectious disease and loss. "When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I survived at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood," he wrote. EW: A tribute to Frank McCourt McCourt wrote the two other memoirs, "Tis" and "Teacher Man," as sequels to "Angela's Ashes," and penned the children's book "Angela and the Baby Jesus." The author was born to Angela and Malachy McCourt on August 19, 1930, in Brooklyn, New York, to Irish immigrants. The family fled to Limerick, Ireland, four years later, during the Great Depression era, only to become mired in even more gut-wrenching poverty. Three of the couple's seven children died. Malachy McCourt, an alcoholic who managed to keep jobs only a few weeks at a time, left the family scrounging to survive. Yet, he also brought joy to his children, as the younger McCourt wrote in "Angela's Ashes": "Before bed we sit around the fire and if we say, 'Dad, tell us a story,' he makes up one about someone in the lane and the story will take us all over the world, up in the air, under the sea and back to the lane. Everyone in the story is a different colour and everything is upside down and backward. Motor cars and planes go underwater and submarines fly through the air. Sharks sit in trees and giant salmon sport with kangaroos on the moon. Polar bears wrestle with elephants in Australia and penguins teach Zulus how to play bagpipes." In October 2006, McCourt told the BBC that he saw his family's struggles as part of the human experience, without casting his father as a villain. He also expressed sorrow about his mother. "First of all, I feel so sorry that I didn't understand more about her life and her misery and the deaths of three children," McCourt said. "I had one daughter and if she had a cold, I was up all night. If she had the sniffles, I was running to her little crib or her bed. ... When I was growing up and as I grew to manhood, I really didn't understand my mother's pain." Asked about his Irish-American identity, McCourt told the BBC: "I'm actually a New Yorker, because that's what I feel passionately about. ... New York is the place that gets me all excited." He returned to the United States at 19 and spent decades coming to grips with his youth. "I dealt with my past, and my future and my present by writing about it. And it's really, it's a gift. I wish everybody had it, because it eases all kinds of distress," he told the BBC. McCourt is survived by his wife, Ellen, and other family members, including brother Malachy McCourt, who is an actor and writer.

Publisher Simon & Shuster says the Pulitzer Prize-winning author has dead . McCourt left the literary world riveted with his novel of growing up in poverty in Ireland . Before literary fame, he taught creative writing to high school students in New York . Despite upbringing in Ireland, he said he felt like a New Yorker .

(CNN) -- Authorities are asking for the public's help in finding an eighth suspect accused of being a member of a North Carolina group that allegedly plotted "violent jihad" overseas. Authorities are searching for North Carolina resident Jude Kenan Mohammed. "The Raleigh Joint Terrorism Task Force is seeking any information the public may have regarding the whereabouts of Jude Kenan Mohammad," the FBI said in a statement. Federal authorities had said earlier that they believed Mohammad, 20, was in Pakistan. Seven other suspects are in custody. All eight are accused of plotting "violent jihad" overseas, according to the indictment, and are charged with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and conspiracy to murder, kidnap, maim and injure people. The indictment identifies Mohammad as a U.S. citizen and a North Carolina resident. It says he traveled to Pakistan in October 2008 to "engage in violent jihad." No further details are offered. A federal judge denied bail last week for six of the men, but expressed skepticism about the charges against them. Magistrate Judge William Webb said the defendants had made a number of statements espousing holy war, and said the statements could be interpreted in isolation as braggadocio. But because some group members had amassed a large arsenal and ammunition and had engaged in firearms training, Webb found there was reason to believe that they harbored criminal intent and presented a flight risk or a possible danger to the community. Bail was denied for the seventh man, Anes Subasic, on Monday, CNN affiliate WTVD reported. Five surreptitiously recorded audiotapes were played in a court hearing last week, along with a cell phone video showing someone firing an AK-47. On a tape made in May 2009, one of the suspects, Daniel Patrick Boyd, talks about getting the money needed to wage jihad and hitting Wells Fargo trucks and banks. He makes reference to how he had robbed a bank in Pakistan. Boyd's sons, Dylan Boyd, 22, also known as "Mohammed," and Zakariya Boyd, 20, also are among the eight charged. Federal agents discovered in the Boyd house, among other items: several weapons, thousands of rounds of ammunition, $13,000 cash, gas masks, and a document described as a fatwa (Muslim religious edict) of jihad (holy war), the FBI said. They also found a trench under the deck of the house, which a witness told the FBI was a bunker to store and conceal weapons, and a plywood plank placed in a tree so that someone sitting there could see anyone approaching the house, FBI special agent Michael Sutton said. Sabrina Boyd -- the wife of Daniel Patrick Boyd and the mother of the two younger Boyds -- has said the allegations against her family are false.

Authorities looking for whereabouts of 20-year old Jude Kenan Mohammad . Mohammad accused of being a member of group that allegedly plotted "violent jihad" Federal authorities said earlier they believed Mohammad was in Pakistan . Seven others in custody facing conspiracy to commit terrorism, murder charges .

(CNN) -- Authorities at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island nuclear plant were investigating what caused a weekend radiation leak that resulted in 150 workers being sent home, officials said Sunday. An airborne radiological contamination alarm sounded about 4 p.m. Saturday in the Unit 1 containment building, according to a statement from Exelon Nuclear, which operates the Three Mile Island plant near Middletown, Pennsylvania. The unit had been shut down since October 26 for refueling, maintenance and steam generator replacement, the company said. "A monitor at the temporary opening cut into the containment building wall to allow the new steam generators to be moved inside showed a slight increase in a reading and then returned to normal," the company said. "Two other monitors displayed normal readings." Three Mile Island was the scene of the worst U.S. nuclear accident, a partial meltdown in 1979 that resulted in the plant's second reactor being shut down permanently. Tests showed the contamination in Saturday's incident was confined to the building itself, and none was found outside, Exelon said. There was no threat to public health and safety, but the workers were sent home because they could not continue until the area was cleaned, Bill Noll, Exelon vice president, said in the Saturday statement. One worker was found to have received 16 millirem of exposure, and others received lower levels of contamination. The annual occupational dose limit for workers at Exelon plants is 2,000 millirem, the statement said. Radiation exposure from a chest X-ray is about 6 millirem, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Although Noll said it was hoped work would resume at Unit 1 on Sunday, Exelon spokeswoman Beth Archer told CNN on Sunday it had not resumed, as the cause of the leak was still under investigation. Two radiation specialists from the NRC were scheduled to investigate Sunday. "Numerous work activities were going on in the building at the time the alarm sounded, and Exelon engineers are working to determine the cause of the incident," the statement said. The March 1979 accident at Three Mile Island brought the nuclear industry to a standstill. The partial meltdown of Unit 2's nuclear core resulted in no injuries to plant workers or nearby community members, but it triggered changes in nuclear power plant operations and emergency planning and led to tighter oversight of the industry by the NRC. The Unit 2 reactor is permanently shut down and defueled, the NRC said. In 2001, FirstEnergy acquired it and contracted its monitoring to Exelon, which owns Unit 1. The companies plan to keep Unit 2 in "long-term, monitored storage" until the Unit 1 operating license expires, at which time both plants will be decommissioned, the NRC said. A new generation of nuclear reactors is being considered in the United States as environmental concerns have intensified about coal-fired power plants. CNN's Janet DiGiacomo contributed to this report.

Airborne radiological contamination alarm sounded at 4 p.m. Saturday . Radiation was confined to a single building and no one was in danger, company says . In 1979, Three Mile Island was the scene of the worst U.S. nuclear accident .

(CNN) -- Authorities have charged two teenagers and an adult in connection with the beating of a 76-year-old African-American man early Tuesday in Baltimore, Maryland, in an incident police say had a racial connection. From left, Emmanuel Miller, 16, and Zachary Watson, 17 are charged as adults in the alleged beating. Emmanuel Miller, 16, and Zachary Watson, 17 are charged as adults, police said. They and Calvin Lockner, 28, face numerous charges in the alleged beating of James Privott, including attempted murder, assault and harassing a person because of race or religion, according to court documents. Lockner is a white supremacist with the nickname "Hitler," Baltimore police spokesman Anthony Gugliemi told CNN. Baltimore Police Commissioner Fred Bealefeld told reporters some of Lockner's tattoos seem to indicate his affiliation with racist groups such as the Aryan Brotherhood, according to audio comments posted on the Web site of CNN affiliate WBAL. There is no evidence the teenagers were affiliated with any white supremacist groups, Gugliemi said, but the two knew Lockner. Police responding to a report of an armed carjacking about 3:25 a.m. Tuesday found Privott with a head injury, according to probable cause statements accompanying charges, filed in the District Court of Maryland for Baltimore City. Privott told police he was loading his Chevy Tahoe after fishing in the nearby Patapsco River when three or four white males approached him and began to kick and punch him, knocking him to the ground while using racial epithets, according to the statements. One of the men struck him with a baseball bat, Privott said. While he was on the ground, the men stole his wallet, which contained $19, as well as the keys to his vehicle, he told police. The men left in the Tahoe, the statements said. Privott was taken to a hospital and later was transferred to the University of Maryland Hospital's shock trauma center because of his head injuries. Doctors told police he had a possible fractured eye orbital bone and had sustained serious head trauma, according to the court documents. Privott remained in critical condition, but was making progress, a Baltimore police spokeswoman said Thursday "What has happened is an unfortunate thing," Privott's wife, Ethel, told WBAL. "I think we're living in a prison world because we can't -- we're not safe here. We go and try to have clean fun and this is what happens." The Chevy Tahoe's tracking system helped police locate the vehicle, which eventually crashed and overturned, the court documents said. An anonymous witness led officers to Lockner after seeing him running from the accident scene. As he was being arrested, Lockner told police, "I'm sorry for what I did," according to the probable cause statements. Lockner told police he was involved in the beating, but said another man -- later identified by police as Watson -- was the one who assaulted Privott and took his wallet. Both Miller and Watson, however, told police it was Lockner who assaulted Privott, according to the court documents. Watson claimed Lockner used a sledgehammer and Miller used a bat. Both youth said Lockner forced them into the Tahoe after the assault, according to the statements. Watson said the three then smoked marijuana, police said. Bealefeld told reporters that while authorities have received conflicting information from the three, "I think the consensus is that Mr. Lockner played a leading role in a lot of this." Miller said, according to the probable cause statements, that he, Lockner and Watson were at Fort Armistead Park near the river when they saw Privott and a woman fishing. Miller said the three asked the man and woman if they had any water or cigarettes, but they said no. Lockner grew angry at their refusal, Miller told police, and used a racial epithet as they were walking away, the documents said. Miller said the three waited for the woman with Privott to leave and then Lockner assaulted him, hitting him about 10 times, according to the probable cause statements. Ethel Privott told WBAL the two

James Privott, 76, says white males kicked, punched him, used racial epithets . Suspect Calvin Lockner is white supremacist with the nickname "Hitler," police say . Two teen suspects charged as adults . Privott in critical condition but making progress .

(CNN) -- Authorities have seized $1 billion worth of marijuana plants and have arrested 82 Mexican nationals with ties to drug cartels in the first week and half of an effort to eradicate marijuana fields from California's Fresno County, the county sheriff's office said Wednesday. The 82 suspects arrested so far have links to Mexican drug cartels. Operation Save Our Sierra began July 13 and involves local, state and federal agencies working together to remove marijuana growing operations, investigate and arrest drug traffickers, and remove infrastructure on public lands in Fresno County, a news release said. "This is a high-intensity drug trafficking area," U.S. Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske said in a phone interview. "I think what should be highlighted here is the local authorities' work to reclaim the land from the drug traffickers." The 82 suspects arrested so far have links to Mexican drug cartels, local authorities said, though they did not release further details. Eastern Fresno County, where the seizures have been made, is mountainous and sparsely populated. Growers exploit the area's streams, rivers and lakes to create elaborate drip lines for their plants. A mature plant can be worth $4,000, said Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims. "Fresno County is roughly the size of Connecticut, and the drug traffickers target these areas because they know there is not that significant of a law-enforcement presence," Mims said. "The chances of getting caught are slim." "The bottom line is our public lands are being destroyed by foreign drug trafficking and heavily armed Mexican cartels," George Anderson of the U.S. Department of Justice said Wednesday at a news conference highlighting the seizures. The operation is the largest in Fresno County history and one of the largest in California, Mims said. "What makes this operation unique is the approach: prevention, enforcement, eradication and reclamation," she said. Intelligence gathered for the operation began in February, with community presentations about prevention. The effort is now focused on shutting down the at least 70 marijuana farms identified by local authorities. The operation is expected to continue into November, when colder weather makes marijuana growing more difficult. At least 330,000 marijuana plants have been seized, Mims said. "This shows what can be accomplished at the local level when agencies work together," Kerlikowske said. Kerlikowske, who flew to Fresno County on Wednesday and toured a marijuana farm, said his office is one of the primary sponsors of the operation.

The U.S. drug czar says it is a high-intensity drug trafficking area . Suspects have links to Mexican drug cartels, authorities says . At least 330,000 marijuana plants have been seized . Operation is expected to continue into November .

(CNN) -- Authorities searched a church near where an 8-year-old California girl was found dead Monday in the hopes of finding clues that would lead to her killer. Mourners leave condolences for Sandra Cantu, who was found dead on April 6 in Tracy, California. The body of Sandra Cantu of Tracy, California, was found stuffed into a suitcase in a dairy-farm pond. Cantu had been missing since March 27. Tracy police Sgt. Tony Sheneman told CNN's Nancy Grace he would not elaborate on what evidence led them to Clover Road Baptist Church. He would say only that detectives developed probable cause that persuaded a judge to sign a search warrant. Lane Lawless, the church's pastor, told CNN affiliate KCRA he was questioned for about three hours by police, adding that he had nothing to do with Cantu's disappearance or death. "We have fully cooperated with the police," Lawless told KCRA. "We have answered all their questions." Authorities also searched the mobile home park Tuesday where the girl lived. Watch report on murder investigation » "Investigators are looking at additional information they received since yesterday (Monday) and, hopefully, that will lead us to Sandra's killers," Sheneman said. Asked if his use of the plural meant police were looking for more than one person, Sheneman responded, "We have no specific suspects." Watch Sheneman say there has not been an arrest in the case » Sheneman also implied the killer likely was familiar with the location where the body was found. He said he himself was unfamiliar with the location where the girl's body was found, despite having lived in the community for nearly 12 years. "Someone would have to be familiar with that area to know to go there," he said. Watch how the suitcase was found » Sheneman said police had no one in custody, despite having interviewed hundreds of people regarding the case. "Everyone that we speak to right now is being considered a person of interest," he said. "We're not eliminating anyone." The autopsy was being conducted Tuesday, but it was not clear when the report would be available. "It's going to be some time before we hear from the coroner," Sheneman said. "I can't tell you when that's going to be." More than 10 search warrants have been executed as part of the investigation and "a lot" of evidence has been recovered, Sheneman said. The day Cantu was last reported seen, she returned home from school, kissed her mother and left to play with a friend who lives nearby. A short time later, wearing a pink Hello Kitty T-shirt and black leggings, she left to go to another friend's home, according to a family spokeswoman. Police said Monday the girl's clothing helped them identify the body.

NEW: Police search church near mobile park home where Sandra Cantu lived . Police would not say what evidence led to search of church . Cantu was found in suitcase in a pond near her California home . Cantu had been missing since March 27 .