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Rio Olympic preparations slammed
4/30/2014 12:19:55 AM
- Rio de Janeiro set to host 2016 Games
- IOC vice-president says situation on the ground is "critical"
- John Coates says state of preparation worse than Athens in 2004
- Brazil currently preparing to host 2014 World Cup
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(CNN) -- Brazil is waiting to welcome the world for the biggest football tournament on the planet -- but has it taken its eye off the greatest show on earth -- the Olympics?
The South American nation was shamed Tuesday after International Olympic Vice President John Coates claimed Rio de Janeiro's preparations for the 2016 Games was the "worst" he had ever witnessed.
Coates, who has been involved in the Olympics for nearly 40 years, has made six trips to Rio as part of the commission involved in ensuring the Brazilian city is ready to host the Games.
And while the World Cup, which starts on June 12 may take priority, Brazil's ability to juggle two huge events has been called into question.
"It's the worst that I've experienced," he said in a statement ahead of a press conference in Sydney, Australia, where he was being asked about preparations for 2016.
"We have become very concerned. They are not ready in many, many ways.
"We have to make it happen and that is the IOC approach. You can't walk away from this."
Coates revealed Tuesday that the IOC has taken "unprecedented" action by placing experts in the local organizing committee to ensure the Games go ahead.
But in a statement issued Tuesday, the Rio organizing committee insisted the city will host an "excellent Games that will be delivered absolutely within the agreed timelines and budget."
#Rio2016 response to "worst preps ever": Rio will host excellent Games, delivered absolutely within the agreed timelines and budgets
— Shasta Darlington (@ShastaCNN) April 29, 2014 The committee also cited the recent announcement of the budget for both infrastructure and legacy projects, as well as the tender process for Olympic Park venues, as signs of progress.
The statement added: "The time has now passed when general discussions about the progress of preparations contribute to the journey towards the Games.
"The work being undertaken in partnership with the three levels of government -- federal, state and city -- is delivering progress.
"The support of the International Olympic Committee is also crucial. We have a historic mission: to organize the first Olympic and Paralympic Games in Brazil and in South America. We are going to achieve this."
Ongoing concerns have prompted the IOC to agree to increase the frequency of visits -- led by Olympic Games executive director Gilbert Felli -- and establish dedicated task forces.
Rio organizers announced earlier this month that Brazil will spend 24.1 billion reais ($10.8 billion) on infrastructure projects to ensure the Games are delivered on time.
City mayor Eduardo Paes also stated that he was looking forward to Felli's visit saying that there was "no reason for concern" and that the "Olympic Park has nothing delayed."
But Coates says the delays in construction and the lack of information available means the current state in Rio is worse than that seen in Athens in 2004.
"The IOC has adopted a more hands-on role," said Coates.
"It is unprecedented for the IOC but there is no Plan B. We are going to Rio."
But in a statement sent to CNN late Tuesday, the IOC appeared to play down Coates' comments.
"Working together with our partners in Rio we have put in place a number of measures to support the Games," said the statement.
"Mr Felli has received a very positive response on the ground in the past few days, and a number of recent developments show that things are moving in the right direction.
"Now is a time to look forward to work together and to deliver great Games for Rio, Brazil and for the world, and not to engage in discussion of the past.
"We continue to believe that Rio is capable of providing outstanding Games."
Brazilian army occupies Rio shantytown ahead of World Cup
The lead up to the Athens Games 10 years ago was marred by construction delays and service delivery, but the venues and infrastructure were delivered on time.
Like Athens, Rio is experiencing similar problems.
The Games, which are being held in South America for the first time in its history, have been beset by delays, soaring costs and bad communication.
Coates has also voiced concerns that the IOC was unable to get the reassurances needed from the local organizing committee.
"No-one is able to give answers at the moment," he said.
"Can they use the car parks in the village for recovery centers? What will be the time to take from this venue to this venue?
"All of those things, they're being fobbed off."
Coates also claimed that only two people were working in Rio's test event department with tournaments scheduled to start this year.
WADA chief warns Brazil over Olympic construction delays
U.S. targets 'Iran missile middleman'
4/29/2014 3:22:05 PM
- U.S. authorities announce new sanctions and criminal charges
- They say Li Fangwei supplied Iran's military with parts for ballistic missiles, other equipment
- Li, his companies and associates are accused of money laundering, wire fraud
- The Chinese aren't expected to turn Li over to the U.S.
Washington (CNN) -- U.S. authorities announced new sanctions and criminal charges against a Chinese businessman who the U.S. says supplied the Iranian military with parts for ballistic missiles and other equipment.
Prosecutors in the Manhattan U.S. attorney's office on Tuesday unsealed an indictment against Li Fangwei, also known as Karl Lee, accusing him, his companies and associates of money laundering and wire fraud, and of being part of a ring that evades sanctions to supply Iran's missile program. The Treasury, Commerce and State departments also announced new sanctions against Li and his companies.
The State Department also announced a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest, and the U.S. has sought an Interpol red notice to seek his detention. Chinese authorities aren't expected to turn over Li to face charges, so the actions by the U.S. for now are only likely to make it difficult for him to travel outside China without fear of arrest.
Li was indicted in 2009 by a grand jury on charges brought by the Manhattan district attorney, accusing him of using false names to process payments of sales to Iran through New York banks.
Treasury officials also sanctioned him in 2006, seeking to cut him off from the U.S. financial system.
Despite those sanctions, U.S. authorities say, Li's companies and their Iranian partners used new shell companies and other ways to continue to do business. He told Reuters in 2013 that his companies did only legitimate business with Iran, selling steel and other metals.
Apartheid remark hits pro-Israel nerve
4/29/2014 11:50:08 PM
- Sec. Kerry takes heat for saying what some Israeli leaders have expressed
- Critics call Kerry's remarks "undiplomatic," "ill-advised"
- The backlash reflects U.S. election-year politics and the volatile Middle East conflict
- State Department: Kerry used the wrong word to make his point
Washington (CNN) -- John Kerry wasn't the first to use the A-word -- apartheid -- when talking about Israel, and he likely won't be the last.
Even some Israeli leaders have mentioned the word that basically means "separate" in describing the eventual result if a Jewish state had a Palestinian majority in some areas, such as currently exists in the West Bank.
However, the U.S. secretary of state touched a diplomatic live wire last week when he predicted an apartheid situation if Israel and the Palestinians fail to agree on a two-state solution for their decades-long conflict.
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, a tea party favorite and possible presidential candidate, called for Kerry's resignation, while pro-Israel groups accused America's top diplomat of inappropriate language and insensitivity.
The backlash reflected both the hyper-partisanship of a U.S. election year and the high stakes of Middle East peace talks pushed by Kerry that have effectively broken down in the latest episode of a dispute that seems to define the word intractable.
"Unwise, ill-timed and ill-advised"
"This was unwise, ill-timed and ill-advised for sure, but it's not going to make much of a difference frankly in the overall arc of the process that's promising only diminishing returns," said Aaron David Miller, a former U.S. negotiator on the Israel-Palestinian issue.
Kerry issued a statement on Monday acknowledging he used the wrong word in comments to a closed-door meeting of the Trilateral Commission of private sector leaders from North America, Europe and Asia.
At the same time, he vigorously defended his long-held support for Israel and commitment to finding a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict.
"I will not allow my commitment to Israel to be questioned by anyone, particularly for partisan, political purposes, so I want to be crystal clear about what I believe and what I don't believe," he said.
"I have been around long enough to also know the power of words to create a mis-impression, even when unintentional, and if I could rewind the tape, I would have chosen a different word to describe my firm belief that the only way in the long term to have a Jewish state and two nations and two peoples living side by side in peace and security is through a two-state solution," he added.
Apartheid was the reviled system of racial segregation implemented by the white-minority government in South Africa for decades before the country transitioned to a multiparty democracy that was first led by Nelson Mandela.
A series of laws determined where black South Africans could live, work and go to school, who they could marry, and even which beaches they could use. The intent was to maintain power for the white minority while stripping blacks of all rights of citizenship.
In the rhetoric of the Middle East dispute, Palestinian nationalists and others have accused Israel of apartheid-like policies, an accusation vehemently denied by Israeli authorities.
Palestinians with citizenship rights comprise a minority of Israel's population, but non-citizen Palestinians in the West Bank and other territories face severe security restrictions that limit their movement and other basic freedoms.
Palestinians in Israel
Some Israeli officials have acknowledged that failure to reach a peace agreement that creates a Palestinian state alongside the Jewish state would result in non-Israeli Palestinians living in Israel without the same rights as Israeli citizens, including the right to vote.
"As long as in this territory west of the Jordan River there is only one political entity called Israel, it is going to be either non-Jewish or non-democratic," former Prime Minister Ehud Barak said in 2010 when he was defense minister. "If this bloc of millions of Palestinians cannot vote, that will be an apartheid state."
Other Israelis who have warned about a future apartheid state include former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, the government's chief negotiator.
Kerry's statement cited such comments, saying that "in the long term, a unitary, binational state cannot be the democratic Jewish state that Israel deserves or the prosperous state with full rights that the Palestinian people deserve."
Like Kerry, Israeli officials also have warned of potential increased violence from a growing Palestinian independence movement without a two-state agreement, as well as possible increased international condemnation for the situation on the ground.
Tuesday was the nine-month deadline Kerry set last year for coming up with some form of agreement in the talks. Despite Kerry's repeated trips to the region to try to push the negotiations forward, the process hit a road block last week when the Palestinians announced they would combine rival movements Fatah and Hamas to form a unity government.
Israel's Security Cabinet subsequently announced the country won't hold talks with a Palestinian government that includes Hamas, which the United States considers a terrorist organization.
International pressure
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat issued a statement Tuesday that blamed Israel for the breakdown in the talks and said "we believe that the international community must now do what is needed, in order to make clear to Israel that choosing settlements and apartheid over peace has a political, legal and economic cost."
Kerry's controversial comments were reported Sunday by the Daily Beast, based on a secret recording of his remarks. Before his statement Monday that served as confirmation of the Daily Beast report, critics attacked.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee called the apartheid remark "deeply troubling," while Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, issued a statement calling reports that Kerry used such language "startling and deeply disappointing."
"Even if he used the repugnant language of Israel's adversaries and accusers to express concern for Israel's future, it was undiplomatic, unwise and unfair," Foxman said. "Such references are not seen as expressions of friendship and support."
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a Virginia Republican who is the highest-ranking Jewish member of Congress, said the word apartheid "has routinely been dismissed as both offensive and inaccurate, and Secretary Kerry's use of it makes peace even harder to achieve."
Cruz said Kerry should step down because "there is no place for this word in the context of the state of Israel."
On Tuesday, other Republicans also weighed in.
"The secretary of state of the United States -- his words or her words -- carry great weight," GOP Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming told MSNBC. "And I think what the secretary said was hurtful and harmful and he should have apologized."
U.S. politics at play
Some Democrats also criticized Kerry. Alaska Sen. Mark Begich chided him for improperly expressing his frustration over the foundering peace talks.
Begich faces a tough re-election race in November in his traditionally Republican state. Support for Israel is an essential policy for candidates seeking to win votes from the political right and center.
Meanwhile, some pro-Israel voices backed Kerry's analysis of the situation.
In a statement on its website, the U.S. group J Street said "Israel today is not an apartheid state, and that's not what Secretary of State Kerry said."
"For over a year now, Kerry has argued that, without a two-state solution, Israel is risking its future and its values as it moves toward permanent rule over millions of Palestinians without equal rights," said the J Street statement. "Former Prime Ministers Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert have used the 'apartheid' term as well to describe this possible future. Instead of putting energy into attacking Secretary Kerry, those who are upset with the secretary's use of the term should put their energy into opposing and changing the policies that are leading Israel down this road."
At the State Department on Tuesday, spokeswoman Jen Psaki made a similar point when reporters grilled her about whether Kerry's statement the night before amounted to an apology.
"He still believes that, as many Israeli officials have stated, there would be challenges to a unitary state," Psaki said.
Former President Jimmy Carter came under similar criticism when he published a book on the Middle East conflict titled "Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid" in 2006.
"Most of the criticisms of the book have been the one word in the title, 'apartheid,' " Carter said in 2007, adding that the "mandatory separation" inside the Palestinian territories and "terrible persecution and oppression of the Palestinians by the Israelis" was "a basic issue that has got to be corrected before Israel can have peace."
READ: Israeli PM Netanyahu: No peace talks if Abbas is backed by Hamas
CNN's Laura Koran and Dana Davidsen contributed to this report.
Class bullying clue to girl's death
4/30/2014 11:58:45 AM
- Two of Cofreces' alleged attackers were her classmates, officials say
- The 17-year-old student went home after attack, was taken to hospital the next day
- A friend said one of the alleged attackers told the victim she had a snobby face
(CNN) -- Authorities are investigating whether it was an extreme case of bullying that led to the death of a 17-year-old student in Argentina, after she was attacked by two women and another girl last week.
Naira Cofreces died Sunday of multiple injuries, including bruising to the left side of her brain, officials said.
"First there was a verbal altercation and then she was kicked, punched and Naira's head was smashed against a wall," Judge Maria Laura Durante told Telam, the Argentine state news agency. The judge also said this is a case of "aggravated homicide because there might've been premeditation."
Officials say the teen was attacked last Wednesday at about 10 p.m., after leaving the night school she attended in the city of Junín, about 260 kilometers (161 miles) west of Buenos Aires. Her attackers, ages 17, 22 and 29, were waiting for her after school. The two younger ones were her classmates. All three have been arrested and charged with aggravated homicide, authorities said.
"There's no clear motive. We have testimony that suggests the motive could've been another girl or because they (the victim and her friends) acted as if they were more beautiful than the rest and dressed better than them," Durante told Telam.
A close friend of Cofreces told CNN affiliate Channel 9 the dispute started over differences that the victim and her alleged attackers had over looks and demeanor.
"She (one of the attackers) would tell her that she had a snobby face, an old woman's face, that she thought she was more beautiful than her and that she walked as if she were a model. That's how the whole problem started," said the friend, who was not identified because she's a minor.
Cofreces went home after the attack, but was taken to Agudos General Hospital the following morning. "She came the day after she was beaten up, we did a tomography and discovered a big hematoma on the left side of her brain, so we decided to operate," Dr. Carlos Garbe told Telam.
A new tomography revealed more bruising of the brain. leading to a second surgery. "After the second surgery, she continued to show complications which worsened until she died," Garbe said.
Cofreces was pronounced dead Sunday night, four days after the attack.
The incident has caused a public outcry in Argentina. Nestor Ribet, education undersecretary for the Buenos Aires Province, says he has sent counselors to Junín to work with students and their families at the school where the attack took place.
"We're talking about the death of a 17-year-old child. Nobody can explain why this happened," Ribet told Telam. "There is really nothing that can explain this."
Gun rampage at FedEx wounds 6
4/30/2014 8:05:12 AM
- NEW: Shooter has been identified as 19-year-old Geddy L. Kramer of Acworth
- Kramer died "from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound," police spokesman says
- Six people are taken to Wellstar Kennestone Hospital
Atlanta (CNN) -- A FedEx package handler went on a shooting rampage early Tuesday at his workplace in suburban Atlanta, wounding six people before turning the gun on himself, officials said.
"That individual is deceased here at the scene," Cobb County Police Sgt. Dana Pierce told reporters. Police were sweeping the area with search dogs to ensure no secondary devices had been planted.
Authorities identified 19-year-old Geddy L. Kramer of Acworth as the shooter. His body was found near a shotgun, Pierce said.
"That was the only weapon that he had at that time," Pierce said.
The warehouse is located in Kennesaw, Georgia, about 21 miles northwest of downtown Atlanta.
"Numerous" 911 calls from inside the half-million-square-foot package and delivery facility alerted police to the shooting at 5:54 a.m., Pierce said.
The victims were taken to WellStar Kennestone Hospital, where an emergency room doctor involved in the response said three were in critical condition.
EMS officials warned the hospital at 6:26 a.m. to prepare for the victims' arrival, Dr. Michael Nitzken said. By 7 a.m., the six patients -- all of whom had suffered multiple gunshot wounds -- had arrived.
Without naming them, Nitzken identified them as:
-- a 28-year-old man in critical condition after undergoing surgery;
-- a 52-year-old woman in stable condition after undergoing surgery;
-- a 22-year-old man in stable condition;
-- a 38-year-old man in stable condition;
-- a 42-year-old woman who was treated and released;
-- a 19-year-old man who was treated and was to be released.
Two of the patients -- the 28-year-old man and the 52-year-old woman -- suffered life-threatening injuries and the man was placed on mechanical ventilation, he said. "They appeared to be shotgun blast effects, with multiple, small projectiles," Nitzken said.
Their arrival at the level-two trauma center coincided with a shift change. "That proved to be to our benefit," the doctor said, because the staff was double what it typically would be. "We're trying to make the best of a bad outcome."
FedEx spokesman Scott Fielder told CNN that the situation had stabilized "and we are focused on the needs of our team members and cooperating with the law enforcement investigation of this tragedy."
CNN's Kevin Conlon, Paul Caron, Jason Hanna, John Branch and Shawn Nottingham contributed to this report.
Has firm found MH370 wreckage?
4/30/2014 8:03:42 AM
New images are raising questions about whether Flight 370 could really be thousands of miles away from the search zone.
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