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Oscar-win director 'committed suicide'
5/16/2014 3:13:14 AM
- Malik Bendjelloul struggled with depression and took his own life, his brother says
- "This is such an enormous loss that I have no words for it," he says
- Bendjelloul directed "Searching for Sugar Man," which won a best documentary Oscar
(CNN) -- Malik Bendjelloul, the Oscar-winning director of "Searching for Sugar Man," committed suicide, his brother said.
"My brother had been struggling with depression for a short period of time, and depression is something you can die from," Johar Bendjelloul said in a statement released to CNN by the radio show where he works. "This is such an enormous loss that I have no words for it. We ask that everyone kindly respect our family's privacy during this devastating time."
The Swedish director died Tuesday in Stockholm, police said. He was 36.
Bendjelloul won the 2013 best documentary Academy Award for his debut feature about an obscure American crooner who gained fame abroad but remained almost unknown at home.
"Searching for Sugar Man" is the story of Sixto Rodriguez, a singer from Detroit who became a legend in South Africa. With lyrics such as "The system's gonna fall soon, to an angry young tune," Rodriguez unwittingly became the voice of the anti-apartheid struggle in the 1970s, even as his records flopped in his own country.
The film gets its title from "Sugar Man," a 1970 Rodriguez song about a drug peddler.
"It was this lost masterpiece, like a Cinderella story, a fairy tale," Bendjelloul said of Rodriguez's life. "I never heard anything like that. A story that was so rich and true."
Bendjelloul had likened the Oscar to winning his native country's Nobel Prize. "This is the only one that is on the same level," he said.
People we've lost in 2014
CNN's Catherine E. Shoichet, Ray Sanchez and Nischelle Turner contributed to this report.
Ordinary objects tell 9/11 atrocity
5/15/2014 6:53:25 PM
- Ambitious 9/11 museum at ground zero opens Thursday
- The exhibition halls are filled with personal things as well as oral histories and photos
- Museum curator had the difficult task of deciding how much tragedy to show
- The museum is also about how people can be good to one another in times of crisis, curator says
(CNN) -- When does the ordinary -- letters, gloves, wallets -- become extraordinary?
When the objects tell a story: a stack of personal letters that fell to the ground after a hijacked plane plowed into the World Trade Center; leather gloves worn in the recovery effort; a red wallet belonging to a woman who worked for Cantor Fitzgerald.
Tragedy turns the mundane into memorial. Something as simple as a wallet can evoke the immense sadness of a day like September 11, 2001.
Objects big and small from the greatest terrorist attack on American soil now make up a museum dedicated to that tragedy and the 2,983 people who perished. It is one of America's largest and most ambitious memorial museums, almost entirely subterranean and erected in the graveyard of Osama bin Laden's victims.
A police officer found Genni Gambale's red wallet on the roof of a Marriott hotel, a few blocks south of the Trade Center, days after the attacks. In the wallet were a scorched American Express Corporate card, a $115 coupon for Lenscrafters, a Brooklyn Public Library card, pennies, nickels, dimes.
Now under thick Plexiglass, the wallet tells of a life cut short. Gambale was one of many trapped on the upper floors after American Airlines Flight 11 plowed into the North Tower at 8:46 a.m. She was 27.
The National September 11 Memorial Museum opens its doors Thursday for the 9/11 community -- survivors, families, rescuers. It will open next Wednesday to the general public.
The place in itself is an artifact, built in the bedrock of tragedy. Within it are 12,500 objects, 1,995 oral histories and 580 hours of film and video. "An airplane hangar full of largely bruised, contorted artifacts" formed the basis of the museum, says curator Jan Ramirez.
They are objects that cheated destruction. They survived the obliteration of the material world and assumed an otherworldly quality.
But they also could inflict pain again.
From the beginning, Ramirez and all those who worked under museum director Alice Greenwald faced a flurry of contradictions and dilemmas over what to show, how much to reveal.
Where the twin towers once soared are now two sunken granite pools, positioned in the footprints of the giant buildings that came crashing down that day. They are meant to be places of reflection and mourning.
What was the museum's intent? Was it to illustrate a narrative of what happened on September 11? Or would it be a repository for the study of an American tragedy?
If it were the latter, the museum would have to collect objects much more broadly.
"We decided to take that path. We decided to be ambitious and daring," Ramirez said.
But with that decision came new concerns and obstacles. How do you portray horror without overwhelming people who come to visit? How do you memorialize things that people might rather not remember?
The museum, said Ramirez, is sure to be emotionally overwhelming to anyone who survived September 11, to all New Yorkers, and perhaps even to the millions of people who watched the events of that day unfold on television.
She described the helmets of firefighters that were donated by their families. Some were so brutalized that it's not hard to imagine the severe trauma to the heads those helmets were meant to protect.
"We all had our different thresholds about what was the right thing to do," Ramirez said. "We want to remind people why 9/11 was unlike any other day the country has experienced. But we did not want to cross a threshold where a visitor's empathy shuts down. That would be a horrible misfire of our objectives."
So some things in the museum are clearly marked and separated in alcoves. In one section are images of people jumping to their deaths from the towering infernos.
"In the end we felt this was part of the morning's indelible horror," Ramirez said. "To edit that out might arouse suspicion about what else we edited out."
The museum collected items from survivors, families of the dead, first responders, cleanup workers and agencies that were part of the investigation.
Objects like Gambele's wallet were precious to families. In many cases, bodies were never recovered or identified. Objects were all the families got back.
Other objects mean something to survivors.
Hazem Gamal worked for OppenheimerFunds on the 34th floor of the South Tower. He stored personal letters in a filing cabinet in his office. In December 2001, a demolition consultant, Ray Coleman, discovered the letters amid the rubble. He was amazed by them.
Nothing else Coleman had seen was discernible. No chair, table, computer. Everything was pulverized or mangled beyond recognition. But these letters were intact, only slightly singed and waterlogged. The clip holding them together had rusted.
Coleman kept the letters for a year. He was afraid that if he called the owner, he might learn that he had died. Finally, in November 2002, he dialed Gamel's home. Then he returned the letters.
He included this note written in pencil on engineer's paper:
"I hope that you will cherish these papers, and cherish your family," he wrote. "If this project did anything for me, it has taught me to love every minute, love my family and friends, and take time to do the things that are really important."
Others donated personal property that helps viewers understand their loved ones better. Brian Sweeney's wife donated a handmade Viking helmet; he was so proud of his Viking heritage.
"It creates a sense of joy," Ramirez said. "They were enjoying life. It's the opposite of the ideology of ending life."
Sweeney, a former Navy pilot, was on United Airlines Flight 175. His last words to his wife were recorded in a voice mail shortly before the hijacked plane crashed into the South Tower:
"If things don't go well, and it's not looking good, I just want you to know I absolutely love you. I want you to do good, go have good times. Same to my parents and everybody, and I just totally love you, and I'll see you when you get there."
New York police officer David Brink donated a suitcase full of things to the museum, including a pair of gloves he picked up in a hospitality tent set up at ground zero.
Brink, like other recovery workers, used his hands to scour through a wasteland of debris. He had to change out his gloves frequently because they got so damaged. One day, he picked up a pair of leather gloves and didn't notice until later, when he was in the wreckage, that someone had taken a ballpoint pen to the palms of the gloves and written, "Thank you."
He didn't know where the gloves came from or who had written those words. The hospitality tents had equipment and supplies donated by people from all over America.
The gloves could have been from a firefighter in California or a school kid in Indiana or a housewife in Iowa, Brink thought. But the "Thank you" helped him get through trying days.
Over the years, some objects became symbols of 9/11.
One was the fire truck that belonged to the New York Fire Department's Ladder Company 3.
On September 11, Capt. Paddy Brown and Lt. Kevin Donnelly had rushed with their crew from Manhattan's East Village to the North Tower minutes after Flight 11 struck. The firefighters made their way up the skyscraper to find and evacuate victims. Some people later said the sight of the firefighters gave them a sense of calm in the midst of terror.
A short while later, 11 members of Ladder 3 were dead as the North Tower crumpled.
James Wind, a member of Ladder 3, was off that day. But he made his way to ground zero to help.
When he arrived on the scene, he saw his company's truck. The ladder was bent down to the bumper. The front of the truck was on fire but it was still running and the lights were on.
"That truck was battered around like a ping-pong ball," Wind said. "It was a beast, but there was a bigger beast that took it."
An officer always carries a list of his men and leaves a copy in the truck. Wind reached in and looked at the second list. He hoped beyond hope but knew: He was probably looking at names of the dead.
They were his friends, his brothers. He knew their wives, their lives. He'd seen them almost every day for years.
He wants visitors to see the mangled truck at the museum. "Live your life," he said, "but be aware. This can happen still."
Construction worker Frank Silecchia felt damaged from days of recovery efforts. He'd already worn through several pairs of boots -- the steel was so hot at the site that it melted the soles. He'd volunteered to help with the hope of finding a survivor. He found none.
On Day 3, he helped carry out three bodies from 6 World Trade Center and paused to look out at the destruction. A 17-foot-long crossbeam weighing at least two tons had landed at a perfect vertical angle. Silecchia saw a cross.
He dropped to his knees in tears.
He believed it was a sign from God. He found renewed strength to carry on.
"Evil destroyed that building," Silecchia said, "and faith rose out if it."
A few days later, he showed his discovery to a Franciscan priest named Father Jordan, who pushed to get the World Trade Center cross lifted out of the wreckage and preserved near the site.
Silecchia believes the museum will be like walking through a horror show for some visitors. He hopes that seeing the cross there will bring comfort, just as it did for him 13 years ago.
Ramirez, the museum's curator, said regardless of religious belief, people found inspiration in the cross and that is why it was included in the museum. She hopes the ordinary objects in the exhibit stand as testament to courage, kindness and human resiliency.
Ramirez considers herself and her colleagues at the September 11 museum third responders. They are the people who set evidence aside; the people whose job it was to give meaning to ordinary objects.
"It's a collective story about how people can be good to one another in times of crisis," she said. "We've put out our first draft of history."
9/11 Museum documentary stirs controversy on eve of opening
Follow CNN's Moni Basu on Twitter
India's Congress Party: Victory likely for opposition
5/16/2014 1:40:16 AM
- India begins counting votes after a five-week general election
- NEW: Congress party spokesman concedes it's likely to head to defeat
- Exiting PM, Manmohan Singh's two-term government hit by corruption scandals
- Exit polls predict victory for Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party and pro-business leader, Narendra Modi
New Delhi, India (CNN) -- After a decade in power, India's ruling Congress party concedes that it is headed to defeat as vote counting in the world's largest election was underway.
The mammoth election appears likely to unseat Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's two-term Congress Party after a rash of high-profile corruption scandals, stubborn inflation and slowed economy.
The party's spokesman Randeep Surjewala told CNN, "Trends indicate a victory for the opposition alliance.
"We bow before the wishes of the people of India with all humility. We will continue to play the role assigned to us. We will try with greater vigor and determination to work with the large populace of this country."
Seen as father of India's economic reforms, the 81-year-old, Oxford-educated Singh has been prime minister for India's governing coalition led by his Indian National Congress party since May 2004. On Tuesday, he bade farewell to his staff, just three days ahead of the vote count.
The exit polls, released after the five-week general election, have portended a majority for the opposition alliance led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that has fielded a pro-business leader, Narendra Modi, as its candidate for the prime minister's post. Stocks markets surged to a record high Friday after initial suggestions of victory for the party.
By Friday afternoon, early celebrations broke out on the streets in Gujarat, the state where Modi has served as chief minister since 2001. He tweeted: "Good days are here to come."
India has won! भारत की विजय। अच्छे दिन आने वाले हैं।
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 16, 2014 The South Asian democracy, the world's largest, recorded a provisional turnout of 66.4% of its 814 million eligible voters in its nine-phased elections that began on April 7, said India's election commission spokesman Rajesh Malhotra.
The count from electronic voting-machines began 8 a.m. local time Friday. As is the norm, the Indian president will invite the party or the alliance with the largest number of elected lawmakers to stake claim to government formation.
In 2009, the Congress party, headed by Italian-born Sonia Gandhi, won 206 of 543 boroughs, its best performance in almost two decades that mostly saw coalition governments running the country.
Within a couple of years since assuming power for a second term, Singh's administration has had its popularity plummet over a spate of corruption allegations that sparked widespread street protests by anti-graft activists. High prices, slowing growth and what observers call policy-paralysis dented Singh's image as a reformist.
"The Underachiever — India needs a reboot," wrote the U.S.-based Time magazine in its Asia edition in 2012 that featured Singh on its cover. "Is Prime Minister Manmohan Singh up to the job?' the title posed.
"I have every reason to believe when history is written of the period, we will come out unscathed," Singh told a news conference in January as he announced he would not run for another term after the general elections.
He, however, defended his governance.
"This is not to say there were no irregularities. There were irregularities, but the dimensions of the problems have been overstated by the media, by the CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General), sometimes by other entities," he had said.
According to a damning report by India's national auditor, the CAG, the national treasury lost as much as $31 billion from the 2008 sale of the wireless frequencies.
The scandal rocked Singh's government during its second term, as it also struggled with accusations of large-scale fraud in the sports, real estate and coal sectors.
"We are deeply committed to the objective of combating corruption," Singh told reporters. "An array of historical legislations has been enacted to make the work of the government transparent and accountable."
CNN's Mallika Kapur and Madison Park contributed to this report.
Pirates 'looted likely Santa Maria'
5/14/2014 7:01:41 PM
- Explorer says ship he believes is Santa Maria has been partially looted
- Barry Clifford says he doesn't seek money, wants Haiti to protect what he's found
- Haiti prime minister: If wreck is Santa Maria, discovery would be of 'great importance' to nation
(CNN) -- An underwater explorer who says he's confident he's discovered the Santa Maria, Christopher Columbus' flagship, said Wednesday that there's evidence that the ship has been looted.
During a news conference, 68-year-old Barry Clifford said that the remains of the possible ship off the coast of Haiti probably hold "a great deal of cultural material" but that he and his team of divers can tell that thieves have disrupted the wreck and taken things.
When asked when the ship might have been looted, Clifford said he didn't know. "Something might have been done several months ago, maybe a couple years ago, I'm not sure," he said.
Clifford says he wants the Haitian government to act as soon as possible to help preserve the what he says is the ship's remains.
He also wants the Haitian government to give him permission to continue to study the wreckage. "I'm not looking for money," Clifford said. "I'm looking for the government (of Haiti) to protect this."
He said that whatever his team does next must be coordinated through the Haitian government.
A CNN team was in Haiti on Wednesday and asked the senior adviser to the country's prime minister about Clifford's claims.
Adviser Damian Merlo said in an e-mail that officials did not know whether the wreck was indeed the Santa Maria.
Merlo said Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe said that if Clifford's claims are correct, "it would be of great importance, not only for Haiti, but for world history."
"We need to ensure the site is handled properly to protect any archeological findings," Lamothe said, according to Merlo.
Clue from another wreck
Clifford is an experienced explorer, according to the History Channel website, which described him as "one of the world's premiere underwater archaeologists."
His assertion that he's probably found the Santa Maria is tied to a shipwreck he and his team investigated in 2003. A cannon was found as part of the first wreck. But, Clifford told CNN, archaeologists at the time "misdiagnosed" the cannon.
Two years ago, after having researched the type of cannon used in Columbus' time, "I woke up in the middle of the night and said, 'Oh, my God,' " Clifford said. He realized the 2003 find might have been the one.
A couple of weeks ago, he returned to the wreck with a group of experts. The team measured and photographed the ship. But some items, including the cannon, had been looted from the ship in the intervening years, Clifford said.
The ship "still has attributes that warrant an excavation to determine the site's identity," archaeologist Charles Beeker of Indiana University said Tuesday. "Barry may have finally discovered the 1492 Santa Maria."
The evidence, Beeker said, is "very compelling."
The ship was found in the exact area where Columbus said the Santa Maria ran aground more than 500 years ago, Clifford said. The wreck is stuck on a reef off Haiti's northern coast, 10 to 15 feet beneath the water's surface.
Did Phoenicians beat Columbus by 2,000 years?
After 125 years, ship rediscovered at bottom of San Francisco Bay
Wrecked in 1492
The Santa Maria was the flagship of Columbus' small fleet that set sail from Spain in August 1492 under the sponsorship of King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella I.
The voyage aimed to find a westward route to China, India and the gold and spice islands of the East. But the land the sailors set eyes on in October 1492 was an island in the Caribbean.
Among the islands on which Columbus set foot was Hispaniola, which is divided between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Columbus established a fort in Haiti.
That December, the Santa Maria accidentally ran aground off the island's coast. Some planks and provisions from the wrecked ship, which was about 117 feet (36 meters) long, were used by the garrison at the fort, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Columbus set off back to Spain with the two remaining ships, the Nina and the Pinta, in January 1493.
The Nina and Pinta were put back into service after their voyages and were not preserved, said historian Laurence Bergreen, author of "Columbus: The Four Voyages."
There have been reproductions of those ships, but they are based on vague assumptions. "We don't have very accurate records of what they looked like," he said.
What caused this Civil War submarine to sink?
Piece of ironclad brought to surface
Shipwreck found on Gulf floor while thousands watched
CNN's Danielle Dellorto, Ronni Berke and Miguel Marquez contributed to this report.
Missing radio icon seen in Washington
5/15/2014 10:20:46 AM
- NEW: Couple free to go where they want, sheriff's official says
- Washington deputies find Kasem in a home
- Kasem, 82, is suffering from Lewy body disease
- His daughters and his wife are in a feud over him
Los Angeles (CNN) -- Days after he left a nursing home, radio icon Casey Kasem was the subject of a welfare check at a residence in Washington state, officials said Thursday.
Kitsap County sheriff's deputies went to an address provided by California Adult Protective Services, Scott Wilson, a spokesman for the sheriff's office, told CNN.
Authorities on Tuesday afternoon found Casey Kasem and his wife, Jean, visiting longtime friends at the home. The couple was staying there on vacation, Wilson said.
After staying 40 minutes and determining that Kasem was alert, not in distress and was receiving appropriate care, the deputies left.
Kitsap County authorities would not release the address where they found Kasem, citing privacy reasons. The county is just west of Seattle.
"We are grateful to local authorities for finding my Dad. We are one step closer to bringing him home," daughter Kerri Kasem said in a statement Wednesday night.
The family still has "grave concerns about his medical care," the daughter's representative said in the statement.
"The Kasem family will do everything in their power to bring their father home," Danny Deraney said.
Family members, judge concerned
New guardianship
Kasem, 82, is suffering from Lewy body disease -- a common cause of dementia, a spokesman for his daughter told CNN on Tuesday.
On Monday, a judge named Kerri Kasem the temporary conservator until a June 20 hearing.
But she hadn't been able to take on the responsibility without knowing where he was. Kerri Kasem has said she feared her father may have been taken out of the country.
Kerri and her sister, Julie Kasem, told CNN they last visited their father a week ago in the California nursing home where he was staying.
When the daughters' attorney, Troy Martin, called the day after the visit to check up on Kasem, he was told by the nursing home that he had been removed overnight, Martin told CNN.
When asked whether there had been any wrongdoing in the Washington state visit, Wilson said: "They're free adults. They can travel where they want."
Daughters vs. wife
Julie Kasem and her husband, Dr. Jamil Aboulhosn, filed an earlier conservatorship petition claiming the retired radio host "has been isolated from his daughters, friends and other family" by his wife.
"We tried everything to get her to let us see him when she stopped bringing him over to the house," Kerri Kasem told CNN in December. "She had an assistant bring him over to the house so we could see him every weekend. She stopped. My sister went there, knocked on the door, and she was escorted off the property."
But the wife gave a very different take on the ordeal last November.
"These children single-handedly and irreparably shattered the lives of their father, his wife and youngest daughter, the calm of their home and their neighborhood by engaging in uncalled for public demonstrations and personal attacks in the media," she said in court papers, according to CNN affiliate KCBS.
"They are doing so with a professionally orchestrated media and legal campaign that has disgraced their father and vilified their stepmother."
Last year, a judge ruled that Kasem was being well cared for by his wife. The judge denied a request by Kasem's children that a temporary conservator be appointed.
Attempts to contact Jean Kasem's attorney this week have been unsuccessful.
Jean Kasem, 60 this year, was an actress with roles in "Ghostbusters" and "Cheers."
Decades of fame
Casey Kasem, who hosted radio music countdown shows "American Top 40" and "Casey's Top 40" for decades, retired in 2009.
Besides the famed countdown shows, Kasem was also the voice of Shaggy in the cartoon "Scooby-Doo" and an announcer for NBC. He was a popular DJ and occasional actor before "American Top 40" began in 1970.
His case has drawn attention to Lewy body dementia -- the second most common type of progressive dementia after Alzheimer's, according to the Mayo Clinic.
The condition can be hard to diagnose because Parkinson's and Alzheimer's cause similar symptoms, according to the National Institutes of Health.
All-time great DJs
CNN's Stella Chan, Michael Martinez, Greg Morrison, Josh Levs and Alan Duke contributed to this report.
Hotel: Leaker of Jay Z video fired
5/15/2014 6:52:29 AM
- Video appears to show Solange Knowles having an altercation with Jay Z
- His wife, Beyonce Knowles, stands in the corner of the elevator and watches
- It's unclear what caused the fight
- Standard Hotel says it will turn over its information to authorities
(CNN) -- The hotel where Jay Z had an alleged altercation with Beyonce's sister says it has fired the person who leaked the tape to the media.
"The Standard has identified the individual responsible for breaching the security policies of the hotel and recording the confidential CCTV video released by TMZ," said Brian Phillips, a spokesman for the hotel.
"The Standard has already terminated the individual and will now be pursuing all available civil and criminal remedies."
In the statement, Phillips said the hotel will turn over its information to authorities.
TMZ says the surveillance video is from an elevator and was taken the night of the Met Gala this month in New York.
In the video, a woman who resembles Solange Knowles enters just before a man who appears to be the rapper. They appear to exchange words before the woman lunges forward and starts striking him. Another unidentified man grabs and holds her.
A woman who resembles Beyonce stands in the corner of the elevator during most of the altercation. Jay Z is Beyonce's husband and Solange's brother-in-law.
It's unclear what caused the fight.
Representatives for Solange, Jay Z and Beyonce have not responded to CNN requests for comment.
Shortly after the video was released, the hotel said it was "shocked and disappointed" by the breach of security.
"We are investigating with the utmost urgency the circumstances surrounding the situation and, as is our customary practice, will discipline and prosecute the individuals involved to our fullest capacity," it said this week.
Beyonce and Jay Z recently announced their "On the Run" tour, which is scheduled to take them to 16 cities this summer.
Did Solange fight Jay Z?
Inside the family feud
CNN's Joan Yeam contributed to this report.
S. Korea ferry captain charged
5/15/2014 4:43:29 PM
- Captain and three other crew members charged with murder, prosecutor says
- The four could face death penalty if convicted
- 11 other crew members also face charges of abandonment
Seoul, South Korea (CNN) -- The captain and three other crew members of the Sewol, the South Korean ferry that sank last month, have been charged with murder, chief prosecutor in the investigation Yang Joon-jin said Thursday.
The captain, Lee Joon-seok, along with the chief engineer, and the first and second mates, could face the death penalty if convicted of the charges. But it has been nearly two decades since the capital punishment was last carried out in South Korea.
The remaining 11 crew members have been indicted on charges of abandonment and violating a ship safety act.
The prosecutor's office said the captain and three crew members were charged with murder, because they didn't use the ship's facilities at their disposal -- such as life rafts, life vests and announcements to evacuate passengers.
Seven crew members were first to flee the ship, instead of carrying out their responsibility to save the hundreds that remained inside the ferry, the office said. Passengers were instructed not to move and to stay in place as the ferry listed.
The Sewol ferry sank en route to Jeju Island on April 16, killing 284 people and leaving 20 others still missing. Most of the passengers were students on a school field trip.
Obstacles in search efforts
South Korean officials have recovered 242 bodies found inside the ferry and 42 outside the ship.
The maritime police expects search efforts to become more difficult as the currents could strengthen over the next three days. Operations will be limited, Kim Seok-kyun, head of maritime police, said during a briefing Thursday.
The internal structure of the ship, which has been submerged for a month, is becoming weaker and more prone to collapse. Authorities are looking into the possibility of cutting into the exterior of the ship to make an entrance using the cranes situated at the accident site.
Conduct during sinking
On April 16, the order to evacuate ship was never given, prosecutors said. And none of the crew were prepared to deal with an emergency situation because they had never been trained for such a scenario.
A few days after the incident, Lee initially defended his actions, saying he had not evacuated passengers because the rescue boats had not arrived yet, and the tide was strong, and the water cold.
Footage of the captain in what looks like his underwear hopping into the arms of the rescuer, while hundreds of passengers remained inside the sinking ship, infuriated South Koreans.
Lee had not been at helm of the ferry when it started to sink.
The Sewol disaster caused widespread outrage in South Korea over lax safety standards and the failure to rescue more people as the ship foundered.
Investigators are looking at the overloading, the failure to secure cargo properly, the imbalance of weight on the ferry, and a sudden turn on the ferry as possible reasons for the Sewol's sinking.
More bodies recovered from ferry
Diver searching ferry dies
Journalist Jung-eun Kim and CNN's Paula Hancocks reported from Seoul; CNN's Madison Park wrote from Hong Kong
Justin Bieber: 'Don't believe rumors'
5/15/2014 12:16:29 PM
- Justin Bieber seems to have responded to allegations of an attempted robbery
- The pop star was accused of attempting to rob a woman of her cell phone on Monday
- He tweeted to his fans: "don't believe rumors"
(CNN) -- Justin Bieber is counting on "the truth" to set him free.
In a series of tweets lamenting all the "rumors" he's facing, the 20-year-old pop star seems to have responded to allegations that he attempted to rob a woman of her cell phone in Los Angeles earlier this week.
"It is hard to defend myself and my privacy every moment of the day ... The truth will set u free," he tweeted Wednesday, linking to a TMZ report that quotes an eyewitness saying Bieber never tried to rob his accuser.
News of an alleged attempted robbery began on Monday, when a woman reportedly accused Bieber of trying to take her phone while he was with friends at a batting cage on L.A.'s west side. The woman told TMZ that the singer didn't want her taking pictures of him, and demanded she give him her phone. She alleged that when she refused, Bieber reached into her purse to take it.
Bieber's rep declined to comment to CNN about the allegations, but a source close to Bieber downplayed the situation, saying "this is another example of someone making an issue where there isn't one."
"Justin was just enjoying hanging out with friends at the batting cage and playing mini-golf," the source told CNN. "This just wasn't a big deal."
Bieber echoed that sentiment on Twitter Wednesday, telling his 51 million followers, "don't believe rumors."
"My mom raised me to be kind to others. I get judged, harassed, and I try to take the high road," he said. "Sometimes it isn't easy. But we keep trying ... I will continue to be the man my mother raised. I love people and I will try to be kind even when things are not fair. ... I'm human. I feel. I hurt. But I got thick skin too. I can handle it."
Ed Payne, Michael Martinez, Jane Caffrey and Dave Alsup contributed to this report.
Turkish prime minister's aide kicks mine disaster protester
5/15/2014 7:36:56 PM
- NEW: Foreign Minister defends PM, says Erdogan "always feels the pain of the people"
- PM's aide seen kicking a protester tells Turkish media he regrets not staying calm
- Minister says 283 are confirmed dead after fire inside a mine in western Turkey
- Protesters lay symbolic coffins at government buildings, rail against PM Erdogan
Soma, Turkey (CNN) -- The image of an aide to Turkey's Prime Minister kicking a man protesting the mine disaster that has claimed nearly 300 lives has prompted outrage -- and has become a symbol of the anger felt against the government.
The incident occurred as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited the western city of Soma a day after the devastating mine fire.
The man, detained by special forces, can be seen lying on the ground as the suited adviser to Erdogan, identified as Yusuf Yerkel by Turkish media and CNN Turk, aims a kick at him.
The shocking image outraged many in Turkey, prompting an outpouring of anger on social media, and is seen as symbolizing the increasingly polarizing impact of Erdogan's authority on the country.
It's been nearly a year since anti-government protests first roiled Istanbul, prompting a response from authorities that was widely criticized as heavy-handed.
Yerkel was quoted by Turkey's semi-official Anadolu news agency as saying that he had been deeply saddened by Wednesday's events. "I am sad that I could not keep my calm in the face of all the provocation, insults, and attacks that I was subjected to that day," he reportedly said.
Besides the anger prompted by the photo, Erdogan's speech Wednesday to relatives of dead and injured miners was seen as insensitive and drew scathing criticism.
As public anger mounted through the evening, hundreds took to the streets in anti-government protests in Istanbul and Ankara, with police answering, in some cases, with water cannons and tear gas.
In Ankara, the nation's capital, some left black coffins in front of the Energy Ministry and the Labor and Social Security ministry buildings. Meanwhile, unions called for strikes across the country on Thursday.
At the mine, where what has become more of a recovery effort than a rescue continued, the mood was sullen, but there was little sign of the burning anger seen elsewhere over the accident.
Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said the number of coal miners confirmed dead had risen by one to 283, as of Thursday evening.
Three injured miners remain in the hospital, he said. The recovery operation is expected to continue overnight and into Friday.
A 'sorrow for the whole Turkish nation'
President Abdullah Gul offered words of comfort as he visited the western city, a day after his premier attracted public ire.
The mine fire is a "sorrow for the whole Turkish nation," Gul told reporters, and he offered his condolences to the victims' families.
Onlookers listened silently until a man interrupted Gul with shouts: "Please, President! Help us, please!"
An investigation into the disaster has begun, Gul said, adding that he was sure this would "shed light" on what regulations are needed. "Whatever is necessary will be done," he said.
He commended mining as a precious profession. "There's no doubt that mining and working ... to earn your bread underground perhaps is the most sacred" of undertakings, he told reporters.
Gul had entered the mine site with an entourage of many dozens of people -- mostly men in dark suits -- walking through a crowd of rescue workers who were standing behind loosely assembled police barricades.
Rescue and recovery workers retrieved more bodies Thursday from the still smoldering coal mine.
Resignation marked the workers' faces after they had stood and sat outside the mine for hours, idle and waiting. Some of them passed the time talking on cell phones, others smoking or taking off their hard hats and burying their faces in their hands.
With hope of finding survivors nearly gone, it appeared there was little they could do.
Funerals amid grief
Smoke and fumes are hindering efforts to reach more of those still missing below the surface and lessen the chances that any more will be found alive, even in special "safe" chambers equipped with oxygen and other supplies. Fourteen bodies were found in one such chamber.
More than a day has passed since anyone was pulled out alive.
Rescuers saved at least 88 miners in the frantic moments after a power transformer blew up Tuesday during a shift change at the mine, sparking a choking fire deep inside.
Since then, the bodies of nearly 200 miners who were trapped in the burning shaft nearly a mile underground have been returned to their families.
"Enough, for the life for me!" yelled one woman -- her arms flailing, tears running down her cheeks. "Let this mine take my life, too!"
Funerals took place Thursday in a community stricken with grief.
Autopsies on dozens of bodies revealed the miners died of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Erdogan said Wednesday that as many as 120 more were trapped inside the mine, though that was before rescue crews grimly hurried a series of stretchers -- at least some clearly carrying corpses -- past the waiting crowd.
In his much-criticized speech to the relatives of the dead and injured, the Prime Minister glossed over the issue of mine safety, describing the carnage they had suffered as par for the course in their dangerous business.
Apparently on the defensive, he rattled off a string of horrible past accidents, even going back to an example from 19th-century Britain.
As he took a stroll through the city, onlookers showered him with deafening jeers as well as chants of "Resign, Prime Minister!"
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu defended the government's response and Erdogan during an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Thursday.
"All the efforts will be done to check what was wrong, if there was anything wrong during this disaster or before," he said, stressing the country's standards are "quite high."
About Erdogan, Davutoglu said: "He was feeling all these pains in his heart. Everybody knows that our Prime Minister is always with the people, and always feels the pain of the people. Otherwise, he wouldn't get such a high support in eight elections in (the) last 10 years."
Scathing engineers' accusations
A group of engineers investigating the cause of the inferno made a scandalous accusation.
"WHAT HAPPENED IN SOMA IS NOT FATE, IT IS MURDER," a local branch of the Chamber of Electrical Engineers wrote in all capital letters at the top of its official statement Wednesday.
Although the group is not known for any party affiliation and comprises serious experts, such barbs have become common in a country riven with political division, where street protests and water cannons have become a familiar sight.
The statement also reflects the anguish that has shaken Turkey after what looks to be the deadliest mine disaster in its history.
1942 Honkeiko Colliery, China: 1549 dead
1906 Courrières, France: 1,099 dead
1914 Hojo Colliery, Japan: 687 dead
1960 Laobaidong Colliery, China: 682 dead
1963 Mitsui Miike, Japan: 458 dead
The latest death toll already tops a mining accident in the 1990s that took 260 lives.
The chamber of electricians also contradicted the official version of how the fire started, saying: "The fire was not caused by an electrical situation as presented to the public in the first statements."
The assessment from inspectors from the chamber's local branch in Izmir on what happened suggests negligence may have played a part.
"The inspection revealed that the systems to sense poisonous and explosive gases in the mine and the systems to manage the air systems were insufficient and old," they said.
The blaze started as a "coal fire" at 700 meters deep, and then air fans pushed the flames and smoke farther through the mine, the chamber concluded. The ventilation was not corrected until "much later."
The miners were trapped and inundated with smoke and fire.
Soma's public prosecutor's office has started an investigation of its own into the fire, Turkey's semiofficial Anadolu news agency reported.
Political bonfire
The chamber's accusations land on top of those already heaped on Erdogan's government by his political opponents.
Opposition politician Ozgur Ozel from the Manisa region, which includes Soma, filed a proposal in late April to investigate Turkish mines after repeated deadly accidents.
He has said that he is sick of going to funerals for miners in his district.
Several dozen members of opposition parties signed on to his proposal, but Erdogan's conservative government overturned it. Some of its members publicly lampooned it, an opposition spokesman said.
The mine, owned by SOMA Komur Isletmeleri A.S., underwent regular inspections in the past three years, two of them this March, Turkey's government said. Inspectors reported no violation of health and safety laws.
Waiting on dead friends
For Veysel Sengul, a miner waiting by the mine's entrance for more of his friends to emerge, the mourning may go on much longer than the three days of official grieving ordered by Erdogan.
After what's happened, he said, he'll never work in a mine again.
Rescuers haven't given up hope that some miners reached emergency chambers stocked with gas masks and air and could still be alive.
But Yildiz, the energy minister, said "hopes are diminishing" of rescuing anyone yet inside the mine.
Sengul has already given up. The miner knows that at least four of his friends are dead.
Despair, anger, dwindling hope after Turkey coal mine fire
Diana Magnay, Ivan Watson and Gul Tuysuz reported from western Turkey; Ben Brumfield reported and wrote from Atlanta and Laura Smith-Spark from London. CNN's Michael Pearson, Greg Botelho and Talia Kayali contributed to this report.
Global study: 1 in 4 anti-Semitic
5/14/2014 7:01:56 PM
- Survey finds 26% of the world's adults are "deeply infected" with anti-Semitism, the ADL says
- Nearly half have never heard of the Holocaust
- In the U.S., 9% believed the majority of negative stereotypes
- Three in four adults have never met a Jewish person
(CNN) -- One in four adults worldwide are "deeply infected with anti-Semitic attitudes," the Anti-Defamation League announced, in releasing results of an unprecedented global survey.
Nearly half have never heard of the Holocaust, and only a third believe historical descriptions are accurate, the survey found.
Carried out by First International Resources and commissioned by the Anti-Defamation League, the survey included 53,100 adults in 102 countries representing 88% of the world's adult population.
In native languages, it asked people whether certain traditionally anti-Semitic statements are probably true or false, including that Jews have too much power over international markets, global media, and the U.S. government; that they "don't care about what happens to anyone but their own kind," and that "Jews are responsible for most of the world's wars."
The survey then calculated how many believed that at least six of the 11 stereotypes were probably true. In the Middle East and North Africa, 74% did. In Eastern Europe, one in three did, and in Western Europe and sub-Saharan Africa, nearly one in four believed most of the stereotypes.
Overall, 26% believed at least six of the stereotypes -- a figure representing an estimated 1.1 billion people.
The most widely believed stereotype was that Jews are more loyal to Israel than to the countries in which they live.
"For the first time we have a real sense of how pervasive and persistent anti-Semitism is today around the world," ADL National Director Abraham Foxman said in a statement.
"The data from the Global 100 Index enables us to look beyond anti-Semitic incidents and rhetoric and quantify the prevalence of anti-Semitic attitudes across the globe. We can now identify hotspots, as well as countries and regions of the world where hatred of Jews is essentially nonexistent."
In Laos, only 0.2% of the adult population holds anti-Semitic views, the survey found. Also at the bottom of the list were the Philippines, Sweden and the Netherlands.
In the United States, 9% of respondents believed the majority of the stereotypes.
The highest levels were found in the Palestinian territories at 93% and Iraq at 92%. Yemen, Algeria, Libya and Tunisia were next.
In Asia, less than a quarter of respondents had heard of the Holocaust and believed historical accounts are accurate. In sub-Saharan Africa, that figured dropped to 12%; in the Middle East and North Africa, 8%.
Three quarters of the people surveyed said they've never met a Jewish person. That figure includes most of the people who believe a majority of the anti-Semitic stereotypes are probably true.
Former NYPD officer charged with hate crimes in anti-Semitic vandalism
Opinion: Why do racists and anti-Semites kill?
Child labor in tobacco fields slammed
5/14/2014 10:39:58 AM
- Human Rights Watch releases report on child labor in tobacco fields
- The workers are too young to smoke, but they work in the fields
- Many suffer the negative effects of nicotine exposure
(CNN) -- Children can't light up, but there are some who suffer the effects of nicotine exposure as they labor in U.S. tobacco fields.
There is not an exact figure for how many children work in America's tobacco fields, but Human Rights Watch interviewed nearly 150 for a new report on the dangers these workers face.
"I would barely eat anything because I wouldn't get hungry," one child worker, Elena G., 13, told the human rights group. "Sometimes I felt like I needed to throw up. ... I felt like I was going to faint. I would stop and just hold myself up with the tobacco plant."
Nearly 75% of the children interviewed reported similar symptoms -- nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, headaches, dizziness, irritation and difficulty breathing. These are symptoms of acute nicotine poisoning, Human Rights Watch said.
And nicotine is not the only danger.
Exposure to pesticides from adjacent fields and accidents with sharp tools are also common, the report said.
"Once they sprayed where we were working. We were cutting the flower and the spray was right next to us in the part of the fields we had just finished working in. I couldn't breathe," Jocelyn R., 17, told HRW. "I started sneezing a lot. The chemicals would come over to us."
Altria, one of the biggest cigarette makers, does not employ its own farmers but maintains strict standards on the contractors it buys tobacco from, company spokesman Jeff Caldwell said.
His company's view is not that the HRW report is critical of the tobacco industry, but that it asks for cooperation with various interests to protect the safety of workers, especially minors, he said.
"Our tobacco companies do not condone the unlawful employment or exploitation of farm workers, especially those under the age of 18," Caldwell said.
Altria requires that its growers follow certain guidelines that specifically include best practices for labor management when it comes to harvesting tobacco. Issues such as avoiding acute nicotine poisoning and heat stress are addressed in the guidelines, he said.
U.S. tobacco companies intend to work together to further discuss the topics in the report, he said.
The study focused on four tobacco-growing states: North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia.
Children can legally work in the tobacco fields, and some as young as 11 and 12 years old do. These children primarily work during the summer to help support their families. The majority of them were Hispanic children of immigrants who lived in nearby towns, the report said.
"As the school year ends, children are heading into the tobacco fields, where they can't avoid being exposed to dangerous nicotine, without smoking a single cigarette," Margaret Wurth, a co-author of the report, said in a news release. "It's no surprise the children exposed to poisons in the tobacco fields are getting sick."
Many of the children the group spoke with reported working long hours without overtime pay or enough breaks, HRW said.
One of the recommendations of the report is that no one under 18 be allowed to work in tobacco fields, due to the risks that such exposure can bring.
Photos: The tobacco farm -- where America's story started
In 2009: Child tobacco farmers 'exposed to toxic levels of nicotine'
Dutch killer to marry in Peru jail
5/14/2014 7:10:35 PM
- Joran van der Sloot plans to marry in a Peruvian prison
- Convicted killer will be a father later this year
- He's a suspect in the 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway in Aruba
(CNN) -- He's serving a 28-year sentence for killing a Peruvian woman. He's also the main suspect in the disappearance of an American teenage girl. But these days, Joran van der Sloot is more focused on his wedding plans than his legal situation.
Maximo Altez, van der Sloot's Peruvian defense attorney, told CNN the 26-year-old Dutch national is getting married "in late May or early June" to a Peruvian woman he befriended in the prison in which he's being held in Lima, the capital.
"They met when she was visiting a relative in prison. They became friends and spent a lot of time together in his cell," Altez said. "Unlike The United States, here in Peru loved ones or relatives can see inmates inside their jails."
Leydi Carol Figueroa Uceda, 23, the bride-to-be, is expecting a baby boy fathered by van der Sloot, according to Altez. She's five months' pregnant. The accountant has a 2-year-old boy from a previous relationship.
"He's very happy about getting married. Since his girlfriend is pregnant, he wants his child to be born to a married couple and he's anxiously awaiting the day he can get married," Altez said.
According to the defense attorney, the small, private wedding will be held in the prison's chapel.
Van der Sloot is being held in the Piedras Gordas prison, located in Lima's Ancon district. In January 2013, he was sentenced to 28 years behind bars after being convicted of murdering Stephany Flores in 2010.
Flores was 21 when van der Sloot strangled and beat her to death in his hotel room only days after meeting her in Lima, according to prosecutors. They said during the trial he was upset because Flores had asked him about his alleged involvement in Natalee Holloway's disappearance.
Holloway declared legally dead
Van der Sloot is scheduled to be released on June 10, 2038; but his attorney says the 28-year sentence can be reduced considerably "for good behavior."
The inmate has long been considered the prime suspect in the disappearance of Holloway, an 18-year-old from Alabama. She was last seen in the early hours of May 30, 2005, leaving a nightclub on the Caribbean island of Aruba with van der Sloot and two other men.
Van der Sloot was arrested twice in Aruba in connection with Holloway's disappearance, but was never charged. He has denied responsibility for her disappearance. Holloway's body hasn't been found.
Flores' murder happened exactly five years to the day Holloway disappeared.
Peruvian media have raised the possibility that van der Sloot is getting married to avoid extradition to the United States.
In June 2010, a federal grand jury in Alabama indicted him on charges of allegedly attempting to extort $250,000 from Holloway's mother, Beth Holloway. Van der Sloot offered to provide what turned out to be bogus information about the whereabouts of Holloway's remains in exchange for the money, according to the indictment.
He was allegedly given $25,000, which authorities say he used to travel to Peru for a poker tournament.
But Altez, his defense attorney, dismissed the suggestion that the wedding is a legal maneuver to avoid extradition, saying the wedding shouldn't be "a big deal."
"He's getting married because he's in love and is having a child. There are no hidden agendas," Altez said. The inmate will be able to meet the baby after delivery.
In compliance with Peruvian law, van der Sloot's attorney is publishing his client's intent to marry in newspapers across Peru on Thursday.
Altez said his client is studying international business at Universidad Alas Peruanas through a prison program and is preparing for tests. Van der Sloot is teaching English to inmates.
Peru agrees to extradite van der Sloot to U.S. ... in 24 years
CNN's Mayra Cuevas contributed to this report.
Priest accused of sex abuse
5/14/2014 7:01:47 PM
A Puerto Rican priest has been arrested and accused of sexually abusing an altar boy. CNN's Rafael Romo reports.
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Can you be pro-life, pro-death penalty?
5/15/2014 3:11:09 AM
- Carol Costello: Can you be pro-life and pro-death penalty at the same time?
- She says one Oklahoma state representative is OK with executions but strongly pro-life
- Catholic Church has "consistent ethic of life," opposing abortion and the death penalty
- Costello: Only a small minority of Americans are consistent on the two issues
Editor's note: Carol Costello anchors the 9 to 11 a.m. ET edition of CNN's "Newsroom" each weekday. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
(CNN) -- Can you be pro-life and pro-death penalty?
It's a question more than one person I know is asking after Oklahoma's botched execution of Clayton Lockett. Not necessarily because of the way Oklahoma tortuously executed the convicted killer, but because of the hard-core way some reacted to Lockett's execution.
Like Mike Christian. The pro-life Oklahoma state representative told The Associated Press, "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
He also threatened to impeach judges who dared delay executions for any reason.
This is from a man who is so strongly pro-life he voted for eight bills in four years to prevent women in Oklahoma from terminating their pregnancies, or, as many who oppose abortion say, "killing babies."
Color me confused. So, Rep. Christian says it's OK to kill, unless you're a woman who wants to end her pregnancy?
As I told my friends during a heated debate last weekend, that smacks of hypocrisy.
The only nonhypocritical viewpoint, I argued, exists in the Catholic Church.
Catholics believe in the "Consistent Ethic of Life." As Georgetown's Father Thomas Reese puts it, "we are concerned about a person from womb to tomb."
"Life is something that comes from God and shouldn't be taken away by man," Reese told me.
Put simply, the Catholic Church opposes abortion and the death penalty. Period. Except nothing in life is that simple. Especially our collective views on the death penalty and abortion.
If you ask a Southern Baptist, he or she will likely tell you the Catholic Church is wrong.
"There is no contradiction here," R. Albert Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, told me, referring to Rep. Christian's underlying position.
Christian's words were "careless," and don't "reflect any Biblical ... defense of the death penalty," he says, but it does not defy logic if Christian is pro-life and pro-death penalty.
"It's not an eye-for-an-eye kind of thing," explained Mohler. "Retribution is not the same as a demand for justice. In Genesis 9, God speaks to Noah after the flood. When someone takes human life, they forfeit their own life."
So, I asked, "Should a woman who's had an abortion forfeit her own life?"
Mohler emphatically answered, "no."
Lockett deserved to die, he said, because the act of murder "was taken in wanton disregard of the life taken and given the nature of the crime, this individual has forfeited his right to live." (Lockett not only raped and shot his victim, but ordered his accomplice to bury her alive.)
Don't get me wrong; pro-lifers could argue that pro-choice, anti-death penalty believers are inconsistent, too. How can you choose to end life, but adamantly oppose the death penalty?
Apparently, consistency is not America's strong suit. According to a 2010 study, only about 8% of Americans oppose abortion and the death penalty under all circumstances.
James Unnever, professor of criminology at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee, co-authored the study. He expected his test results to show a consistent belief system in all kinds of premeditated death. In other words, if you believe in the sanctity of life, you would be opposed to euthanasia, the death penalty and abortion.
Turned out, that was not remotely true.
"From a religious position, the Catholic faith is the most consistent life ethic," Unnever says. "Religion is only one factor that affects using the death penalty." The other factor, he says, is politics. "When you get people who are against abortion and for the death penalty, that's not as much a religious effect as a politics effect. Politics trumps any religion."
Jacinta Gau, professor of criminal justice at the University of Central Florida, co-authored two studies on attitudes about abortion and capital punishment. She was also surprised by the inconsistency many showed toward life issues.
Of those who strongly oppose abortion, yet strongly approve of the death penalty, Gau says: "What seems to link those two attitudes together is related to fundamentalism, a literal interpretation of the Bible, and an inflexible way of viewing society in general," Gau says. "I'm not sure they really view it as a contradiction. There's a punitive attitude toward this -- kind of like if you don't want a child, don't engage in risky sexual behavior; if you kill someone, you deserve death."
And Gau says pro-choice, anti-death penalty believers also don't see a contradiction. Those who are pro-choice don't "see abortion as ending a life," she says. "The death penalty becomes completely separate for the pro-choice people, because it's about a woman's right to choose."
Truth told, the "Consistent Ethic of Life," is relatively new to the Catholic Church. For centuries, the church supported capital punishment.
But passionate pro-life and death penalty foes, such as Sister Helen Prejean, convinced the church that "helping to kill a defenseless person" in any circumstance is wrong.
"What's more innocent than an unborn baby?" Prejean told me. "It's easy to be against that." Then Prejean went for the jugular. The people who commit terrible crimes, "Could you kill them? If there's a part of you who can't say yes to that, then you can't say yes to the death penalty."
I must admit I was humbled by Prejean's question. Couple that with the fact we can now lock up violent criminals for life and I, again, find myself arguing for the "Consistent Ethic of Life."
As for Mohler, the Southern Baptist leader, he offered me this final thought: "If I had the opportunity to trade the death penalty for the affirmation of protection of the life of the unborn, I'd take it in a second."
Let the debate rage on.
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Why only talks can #BringBackOurGirls
5/15/2014 3:10:53 AM
- Global media paid Boko Haram little attention until 200 girls were abducted, says Shehu Sani
- Boko Haram became more violent after its founder was killed in 2009, he says
- At talks in 2011, the group blamed government action for their militancy, Sani says
- He says the use of force to free hostages can be deadly and negotiations must be held
Editor's note: Shehu Sani is a Nigerian civil rights activist, playwright and author. He is president of the Civil Rights Congress of Nigeria and has negotiated with Boko Haram in the past. Follow @shehusani on Twitter. The views expressed in this commentary are solely the author's.
(CNN) -- Until the abduction of more than 200 girls at the Government Girls Secondary School in rural Chibok, Nigeria's Boko Haram insurgency received scant attention in the global media, which gave it brief airtime when the insurgents exploded their bombs or torched a school.
However, the mass abduction has brought the world's attention to the callous and unceasing violence that has become routine in northern Nigeria over the last three years.
The area has suffered more than three decades of religious violence between Muslims and Christians.
But since Boko Haram founder Mohammed Yusuf was killed in a 2009 security crackdown -- along with hundreds of his followers -- the militant Islamist group has stepped up its attacks.
Boko Haram militants have killed clerics, bombed churches and mosques and assassinated politicians and government officials.
When the militants attack churches, their aim is to start a sectarian war that will engulf the country; when they attack mosques, their aim is to exterminate Muslims they consider collaborators.
Shehu Sani
In the last three years, the Nigerian Government has opted for the use of force to exterminate the insurgents, rather than diminish the activities of the group -- and it has become more daring and audacious in its attacks.
Despite the allocation of 25% of the annual budget to defense and security, the government has been unable to crush and contain the insurgency. The group has taken on and demoralized the rank and file of the Nigerian army and police.
Boko Haram has launched deadly raids on military garrisons and police and secret intelligence offices to free their detained members. The use of force against the group has only led to allegations of a chain of rights abuses with the justification that it is a war on terror.
Nigeria's Human Rights Commission last year accused the military of arbitrary killings, torture and rape in its campaign, while the military has described reports of civilian casualties as "grossly exaggerated."
Our constitutional freedom has been formally suppressed by the authorities on the grounds of national emergency. The strategy of collective punishment, arbitrary arrests, prolonged detention and killing raids by the security forces has alienated the civil populace and turned them into victims. In the war against Boko Haram, civilians have become victims of both the military and the militants.
Meeting with Boko Haram
I mooted the idea of dialogue with the insurgents as a new option towards ending the insurgency and restoring peace to my bewildered and beleaguered nation. In September 2011, I facilitated talks with the insurgents and the former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo -- then chairman of Nigeria's ruling party.
READ MORE: Swap prisoners for kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls, ex-negotiator says
The first surprise in the encounter was that the representatives of the terror group spoke fluent English. The bigger surprise was when some of the insurgents revealed that they had university degrees. It is a prerequisite for new Boko Haram members to burn their university certificates or any paper identification that links them secular schools.
In the meeting, they justified their violence on the grounds that it was the Nigerian Government that had forced them to take up arms. They said that before they trod the path of violence, they first tried to take the path of peace.
They even showed us copies of a petition they wrote to the government complaining about the harassment and intimidation of their sect members by security forces before they picked up arms.
They showed us photographs of followers and relatives they said had been killed by the police in cold blood, even before the insurgency began and threatened more attacks until they "avenge the injustices done to them."
They expressed anger at the way people criticized and condemned them when they launched attacks but kept mute when Boko Haram members were killed, their homes demolished and their wives and children arrested by the security forces.
We took their grievances to the government and advised the government to follow through, but hawks within the corridors of power discouraged the president from taking our advice.
The second effort at dialogue involved a northern Islamic cleric and head of the Nigeria sharia council. The talks were facilitated by a freelance journalist who was later threatened by those opposed to dialogue.
This second round of dialogue took place in the last quarter of 2012.
Boko Haram accused the government of leaking the details of the talks to the media for political reasons. One of the group's conditions for talks had been that only their outcome be made public.
We were close to achieving a ceasefire but again hawks, security and defense contractors in the corridors of power sabotaged our efforts.
I have never met the Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau but I declined to meet him on two occasions when I got his invitation to interview him. I declined because I realized that the government was not interested in my approach.
'Preventable and avoidable'
The abduction of the girls in Chibok is one of many abductions over the last three years.
If the Nigerian authorities took lessons from earlier attacks on schools by the insurgents, the Chibok abductions couldn't have happened. The Chibok abduction was a preventable and avoidable tragedy.
When the militants abduct boys, they use them as conscripts and girls as cooks and hostages. I cannot confirm if they used abducted girls as sex slaves -- the leadership of the group denied such reports when we asked them, but abducted women who were later freed give credence to such claims.
Each day the Chibok girls spend in captivity keeps the moral flag of my country at half mast.
The #BringBackOurGirls protest and the interest shown by President Obama and other world leaders and celebrities like Alicia Keys and Angelina Jolie has kept the spirits of Chibok mothers high and the Nigerian Government on its toes.
When we were children, we used to forecast that one day the Sambisa forest in Borno state would become a game reserve which would attract foreign tourists and foreign currencies. Today it is attracting foreign interest for negative reasons.
The Chibok girls must be freed but not by the use of force except when other options fail. The schoolgirls are now innocent hostages in the hands of soulless gunmen.
We don't want the body of the girls to be brought back home, we want them back home alive.
Political future
The use of force could turn out to be tragic. Experience has shown that attempts in the past to free hostages from the insurgents through the use of force has deadly consequences.
French hostages were freed in Nigeria through negotiations but a British and Italian hostage were killed in Sokoto when UK forces went to free them.
We can get the Chibok girls back home and we must.
I was delighted to learn that the special team sent by the U.S. and UK also included experts in hostage negotiation. I strongly believe that Islamic clerics in northern Nigeria and some of the top ranking insurgents currently in detention can be used to open a channel of communication with the leadership of the sect in order to secure the release of the Chibok girls.
There are those who say that the option of negotiating to free the hostages will embolden the terrorists, I have never been a hostage but I have been a political prisoner who spent many years in prison during our struggle against military dictatorship in Nigeria in the 1990s.
Those who experience captivity appreciate freedom the most.
The situation we find ourselves in is a tough moment in our history, but I believe we shall overcome it.
Many Nigerians believe that the way the Chibok issue is resolved will determine the political future of Nigeria.
Opinion: Nigerians right to be wary of U.S. intentions
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Shehu Sani.
Spying abroad: What NSA must do
5/15/2014 3:08:32 AM
- Author Glenn Greenwald's new book shows that NSA spies on many embassies
- Bruce Schneier: Spying on foreign governments is what the NSA is supposed to do
- He says what is dangerous is the NSA spying on entire populations
- Schneier: We must separate espionage, a military mission, from broad surveillance
Editor's note: Bruce Schneier is a security technologist and the chief technology officer of Co3 Systems, a start-up focused on streamlining security and privacy incident responses. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
(CNN) -- According to NSA documents published in Glenn Greenwald's new book "No Place to Hide," we now know that the NSA spies on embassies and missions all over the world, including those of Brazil, Bulgaria, Colombia, the European Union, France, Georgia, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Venezuela and Vietnam.
This will certainly strain international relations, as happened when it was revealed that the United States is eavesdropping on German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cell phone -- but is anyone really surprised? Spying on foreign governments is what the NSA is supposed to do. Much more problematic, and dangerous, is that the NSA spies on entire populations. It's a mistake to have the same laws and organizations involved with both activities, and it's time we separated the two.
The former is espionage: the traditional mission of the NSA. It's an important military mission, both in peacetime and wartime, and something that's not going to go away. It's targeted. It's focused. Decisions of whom to target are decisions of foreign policy. And secrecy is paramount.
The latter is very different. Terrorists are a different type of enemy; they're individual actors instead of state governments. We know who foreign government officials are and where they're located: in government offices in their home countries, and embassies abroad. Terrorists could be anyone, anywhere in the world. To find them, the NSA has to look for individual bad actors swimming in a sea of innocent people. This is why the NSA turned to broad surveillance of populations, both in the United States and internationally.
If you think about it, this is much more of a law enforcement sort of activity than a military activity. Both involve security, but just as the NSA's traditional focus was governments, the FBI's traditional focus was individuals. Before and after 9/11, both the NSA and the FBI were involved in counterterrorism. The FBI did work in the United States and abroad. After 9/11, the primary mission of counterterrorist surveillance was given to the NSA because it had existing capabilities, but the decision could have gone the other way.
Because the NSA got the mission, both the military norms and the legal framework from the espionage world carried over. Our surveillance efforts against entire populations were kept as secret as our espionage efforts against governments. And we modified our laws accordingly. The 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that regulated NSA surveillance required targets to be "agents of a foreign power." When the law was amended in 2008 under the FISA Amendments Act, a target could be any foreigner anywhere.
Government-on-government espionage is as old as governments themselves, and is the proper purview of the military. So let the commander in chief make the determination on whose cell phones to eavesdrop on, and let the NSA carry those orders out.
Surveillance is a large-scale activity, potentially affecting billions of people, and different rules have to apply -- the rules of the police. Any organization doing such surveillance should apply the police norms of probable cause, due process and oversight to population surveillance activities. It should make its activities much less secret and more transparent. It should be accountable in open courts. This is how we and the rest of the world regain the trust in the actions of the United States.
In January, President Obama gave a speech on the NSA where he said two very important things. He said that the NSA would no longer spy on Angela Merkel's cell phone. And while he didn't extend that courtesy to the other 82 million citizens of Germany, he did say that he would extend some U.S. constitutional protections against warrantless surveillance to the rest of the world.
Separating espionage from surveillance, and putting the latter under a law enforcement regime instead of a military regime, is a step toward achieving that.
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Pistorius to undergo psychiatric tests
5/15/2014 3:05:01 AM
- Judge Thokozile Masipa does not want Pistorius stuck in a hospital during tests
- Experts will submit a report to the court once testing is done
- Pistorius could end up committed against his will
- Pistorius killed Reeva Steenkamp but says he mistook his girlfriend for an intruder
Pretoria, South Africa (CNN) -- Oscar Pistorius, the onetime Olympic athlete turned murder suspect, must undergo a month of psychiatric testing before his trial can continue, the judge in the case ruled Wednesday.
The move puts his trial on ice indefinitely.
It was triggered by the testimony of a psychiatrist who testified that the sprinter has suffered from generalized anxiety disorder since he was an infant, stemming partly from the amputation of both of his lower legs because of a genetic defect.
Pistorius is accused of murdering his girlfriend, the model Reeva Steenkamp, in his home last year.
Pistorius, 27, does not claim he was insane or mentally incapacitated when he shot her, but when the defense put the psychiatrist on the stand, it raised the question of the athlete's mental health, the judge said Wednesday.
"A doubt has been created" that Pistorius may have a psychiatric issue that would affect the court's verdict, so she must order the testing, Judge Thokozile Masipa said Wednesday.
"The accused may not have raised the issue that he was not criminally responsible at the time of the incident in so many words, but evidence raised on his behalf cannot be ignored," she said of testimony by Dr. Merryll Vorster.
She acknowledged that her order would mean a long delay in the trial, but said that was not the most important consideration.
"This is not about anyone's convenience, but about whether justice has been served," she said.
"The aim of the referral is not to punish the accused twice," Masipa said, saying that Pistorius should be examined as an outpatient rather than committed to an institution if possible.
Expert report
Court will reconvene on Tuesday for her to issue her order formally, she said.
At that point, Pistorius will learn when and where he will be tested.
The prosecutor had argued in favor of psychological evaluation, while the defense argued against it.
The testing will be done by a panel of experts who will then submit a mental health report to the court, CNN legal analyst Kelly Phelps said.
At one extreme, they could find that Pistorius was mentally incapacitated at the time he killed Steenkamp, which would end the trial immediately in a verdict of not guilty by reason of mental illness, she said.
But it would also mean Pistorius needs to be committed to a mental health institution against his will until he is found not to be a danger, she said.
Another option is that they could find he had "diminished responsibility" at the time he killed Steenkamp. In that case, the trial would continue and his mental health would be taken into consideration during sentencing if he is found guilty, said Phelps, a criminologist and law lecturer at the University of Cape Town.
The third possibility is that the experts could disagree with the defense psychiatrist and say that Pistorius' mental health is not an issue at all. If that happens, Vorster's testimony will be disregarded, Phelps said.
The experts might not all agree with each other, and lawyers on either side could disagree with the experts' report, leading to any number of possible outcomes.
If there is any dispute, the final decision about what to do with the experts' report lies with Judge Masipa.
Mistake or murder?
Pistorius admits shooting Steenkamp but says he thought there was an intruder in his house. He has pleaded not guilty.
The athlete's defense team is trying to show that Pistorius made a genuine mistake and responded reasonably on the night he shot Steenkamp, 29, a model and law school graduate.
If the trial continues after the psychiatric evaluation, Judge Masipa must decide whether Pistorius genuinely made a mistake or whether he murdered Steenkamp intentionally.
If she does not believe the athlete thought there was an intruder, she will find him guilty of murder and sentence him to at least 15 years in prison, and possibly life.
South Africa does not have the death penalty.
If Masipa accepts that Pistorius did not know Steenkamp was the person he was shooting at, she could find him guilty of culpable homicide, a lesser charge than murder, or acquit him, according to CNN legal analyst Kelly Phelps.
A verdict of culpable homicide would leave the sentence at Masipa's discretion.
The prosecution rejects the sprinter's defense that he mistakenly thought he was defending himself and his girlfriend from an intruder.
The state contends that Pistorius argued with Steenkamp before killing her.
The defense team is seeking to cast doubt on the state's case and needs to show only that there is a reasonable doubt that Pistorius meant to kill Steenkamp.
There is no dispute that Pistorius fired four bullets through a door at Steenkamp in his home early on the morning of Valentine's Day 2013. Three hit her, causing devastating wounds. The final shot struck her head and probably killed her almost instantly, a pathologist testified in March.
The trial has seen Pistorius break down repeatedly, crying, wailing and sometimes throwing up as the court sees and hears evidence about Steenkamp's death.
Vorster said the athlete's physical distress was real.
Live blog: Pistorius on trial
Oscar Pistorius trial enters new phase after blistering cross-examination
Gerrie Nel: 'Bulldog' prosecutor sinks teeth into Oscar Pistorius at murder trial
Bucket-list teen dies raising $5.4m
5/14/2014 2:43:02 PM
- Stephen Sutton, who was first diagnosed with cancer in 2010, has died at age 19
- He created a "bucket list" of things to do and ended up raising huge sums for charity
- His courage and fundraising efforts won him wide admiration in Britain
- Loss of her "courageous, selfless, inspirational son" breaks her heart, mother says
(CNN) -- A teenager with cancer who touched the hearts of many in the United Kingdom with his tireless fundraising efforts died Wednesday at age 19, his mother said via Facebook.
It is news that will sadden many supporters won over by Stephen Sutton's mix of determination, generosity and good humor in the face of his terminal illness.
While he lost the battle to stay alive, he achieved a remarkable feat: Having set himself the challenge of raising some $17,000 for a teenage cancer charity, he ultimately inspired over $5.4 million in donations.
On his website, Stephen's Story, he tells how he was first diagnosed with cancer in 2010, at age 15.
"In a weird way, I see my first cancer diagnosis as a good thing. It was a huge kick up the backside. It gave me a lot of motivation for life."
He created a "bucket list" on Facebook of 46 things he wanted to do before he ran out of time.
"Some things on my bucket list include sky diving. Crowd surfing in a rubber dinghy. Playing drums in front of a huge crowd. I ended up doing it live at Wembley. Hug an animal bigger than me."
But, he says, as he checked off each item, something else happened.
"Since starting the bucket list, I've had people come up to me and offer to raise funds for me. To go on holiday or tick off a new item on my bucket list. But I've actually refused. And decided to give the money to charity instead."
That decision led to a stupendous fundraising effort that won him the backing of celebrities and the general public, despite doctors telling him in November 2012 that his illness was terminal.
On the Facebook page he set up to run that effort, Stephen's Story, he describes himself as a "teenager with incurable cancer just trying to enjoy life as much as possible, while raising funds for charity to help others."
And when his condition took a turn for the worse this spring, the news made national headlines.
After rallying briefly, he was readmitted to a hospital Sunday with breathing difficulties.
With typical fortitude, the last post he wrote said, "Fingers crossed the issue will be resolved and that I'll be out of hospital soon, I'll keep you all updated with how I'm getting on."
On Tuesday, a message on his Facebook page from his family said that his breathing trouble was caused by the regrowth of tumors blocking his airways and that he was no longer able to communicate.
A day later, his mother posted: "My heart is bursting with pride but breaking with pain for my courageous, selfless, inspirational son who passed away peacefully in his sleep in the early hours of this morning, Wednesday 14th May.
"The ongoing support and outpouring of love for Stephen will help greatly at this difficult time, in the same way as it helped Stephen throughout his journey. We all know he will never be forgotten, his spirit will live on, in all that he achieved and shared with so many."
Since his death was announced, donations have poured in.
The money Stephen raised went to the Teenage Cancer Trust, the charity that helped him through each surgery and each round of radiation and chemotherapy he underwent during nearly four years battling the disease.
CNN's Carol Jordan contributed to this report.
Can Ukraine ballots reach east?
5/15/2014 10:28:03 AM
Erin McLaughlin reports that ballots for May Ukrainian elections are being printed, but can they get them to the east?
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Who cares about rising oceans?
5/15/2014 12:52:28 PM
- Scientists say Antarctic's ice land melting 'appears unstoppable'
- Carl Safina: Who cares if sea level rises and wipes out coastal cities?
- He says either we have a moral responsibility to others or we don't
- Safina: But given our track record, we might as well hit the snooze button
Editor's note: Carl Safina is an award-winning scientist and author, founding president of Blue Ocean Institute at Stony Brook University and host of the PBS television series "Saving the Ocean with Carl Safina." The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
(CNN) -- Have you heard the news? Because Antarctic ice sheets are melting, the sea level is likely to rise "unstoppably" by at least 10 feet, dooming many coastal towns and displacing millions of people. And it's all going to happen—within several centuries.
Well.
Who.
Cares.
This is news you can snooze. So go ahead and hit that snooze button.
Could we plan for what will happen centuries from now if we wanted to? Should we plan for what will happen? Will there even be people centuries from now? If there are, do we owe them anything? The next 200, 500 years, are not for us to worry about.
The future isn't what it once was, but their business isn't our business. Unimaginable technology has always come to the rescue and always will. Like, we will invent giant, cost-effective floats for New York City and all the other cities and towns on the world's coasts, or something.
The announcements about the collapsing ice sheets came from two teams of scientists with different approaches, focused on different parts of the Antarctic. "A large sector of the West Antarctic ice sheet has gone into irreversible retreat," according to Eric Rignot, a glaciologist at the University of California, Irvine, who led one of the teams. "It has passed the point of no return." His team measured shrinkages of 10 to 35 kilometers in several retreating glaciers since the early 1990s. Those glaciers are also thinning.
Warming air is intensifying the winds that sweep round the Antarctic, but it's not warming air that is melting the glaciers there. Those winds are drawing warm waters to the surface. The warm waters are eroding the ice.
Causes? Seems to be mainly the warming caused by the greenhouse effects of increasing carbon dioxide from burning gas, oil, and coal. But the ozone hole, also human-caused but having nothing to do with greenhouse gases or fossil fuels, might also be intensifying the winds.
So far, sea level rise worldwide has been caused mainly by the heat-caused expansion of seawater, much more than melting ice. But melting land ice will have a big effect on sea level rise.
Ian Joughin, leader of the other research team, said that nothing can stop the collapse of the ice sheet, adding, "There's no stabilization mechanism."
But, again, it will be slow. Centuries. John H. Mercer of the Ohio State University was first to predict this way back in 1978. He died without seeing the Antarctic glaciers break up. And so will we all.
So, back to bed. People 200 years from now? Not our problemo.
The only wrinkle in that thought is that centuries ago, about 225 years ago to be more precise, some people wrote a Constitution and Bill of Rights that affect our lives every day and that we refer to daily to guide us legally and morally. Those people could have said, "Screw it, let's make money." I think about my debt to them for wanting to be better than that. I often wish we wanted to be as good.
Closer to home, closer to now, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that in this century, sea levels could rise as much as 3 feet.
And that is our problem. Some of us will be alive then. Many of us will have children who will live to this century's finish line. Between then and now, there will likely be more devastating Sandy-like hurricanes as winds intensified by warmer waters devastate shores.
While reading about the Antarctic ice melt, I noticed three side articles, and clicked.
One talked about flooding-related displacement already affecting people in low-lying areas around the world, from the natives of Kiribati to the people of Florida. Another speaks of misery caused in Bangladesh by rising seas, where 18 million people will be displaced in the next 40 years by rising seawater or having their well-water and farms ruined by salt.
The third article talked about our dysfunctional Congress's new defeat of yet another energy bill. Voice of America says, "A bill with strong bipartisan support to make the United States more energy efficient has been blocked in the Senate." Efficiency is bad; we need wastefulness. Thank you, senators.
Either we have a moral responsibility to others or we don't. It doesn't matter whether they live around the block or in the next state or in the future. Morally there's not much difference between a person flooded out by Superstorm Sandy and a person flooded out 200 years from now by our collective, willful inaction.
But some days, I'm not even sure how willful it is. When I was in high school in the 1970s, I learned that we were too dependent on other countries for energy, and that oil and coal are non-renewable and polluting, and that we needed to begin a shift to harnessing clean renewable energy sources. The shift to petroleum-based economy had taken a century. The shift to clean renewables would be my generation's most important task.
A lot has happened but, bottom line, there's been very little progress.
Technology advanced, but it hasn't been embraced. It's been outmaneuvered by denial and inertia backed by entrenched big-energy lobbying and campaign money. Globally, we're not exactly coming together to stabilize climate and institutionalize clean energy.
I think we could do what's needed. But collectively we simply aren't. Sometimes I don't see humanity as being capable of fixing the problems we're creating. We'd have to agree to fix them. Before that, we'd have to care. We're not doing enough of any of those things. Too often, we're in denial. And we feel fine. Our main solution is that snooze button.
So, let's not worry about the people of Bangladesh, Kiribati, New York and Miami, or the 23rd century. Pleasant dreams.
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Do fast food workers deserve $15?
5/15/2014 11:26:34 AM
- Fast food employees' problems have been growing for years, Ron Oswald says
- He says today's fast food employee are no longer only students working their first job
- Many experience poverty pay, inconvenience or zero hour contracts, and stress, he writes
- Workers around the world are now striking for a $15 minimum wage, better conditions
Editor's note: Ron Oswald is general secretary of The International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF). The IUF is an international trade union federation composed of 396 trade unions in 120 countries, representing around 10 million workers. It is based in Geneva, Switzerland. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
(CNN) -- More than 80 people from 26 countries met in New York on May 5 and 6, under the banner of the global trade union IUF, in the world's first international gathering of fast food workers.
Meetings like this are normally not news, but the next day participants gathered for a lively demonstration outside a Manhattan McDonald's restaurant, and announced a U.S. nationwide fast food strike for May 15. They were throwing their support behind the demand to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
That was news and generated considerable media interest, not least from the business press. But worker protest at fast food chains and union support for the protests have been building in recent years -- the May 15 strike call didn't come from nowhere.
Fast food continues to add jobs at a time of sluggish global growth, but the demographics of the industry have changed considerably.
Ron Oswald
Fast food is no longer where students and young people get a first job and move on. Today's fast food employee is older and better educated than earlier generations, often has family responsibilities, and is essentially stuck in the system with little hope of relief from poverty wages and limited or no benefits.
Inside the outlets there are few chances for advancement. According to the U.S. National Employment Law Project, managerial, professional and technical occupations make up nearly a third of all U.S. jobs, but only 2.2% of fast food employment.
Employers benefit from the generous reserves of easily trainable labor on offer, while by contrast higher value employment is being pared back in large parts of the world.
Employing workers at less than full-time hours often allows employers to provide no benefits. And the franchise system gives corporate headquarters plausible deniability for conditions in the restaurants which wear their brands.
The handful of global chains which dominate the industry are hugely profitable -- executive compensation and share buybacks have followed the same swollen rising curve as in other sectors of the economy. At a time of austerity, public subsidies to fast food workers have grown with the expansion of the chains.
According to researchers at the University of California, the cost of public assistance programs to fast food workers who cannot support their families totals $7 billion annually.
No one should be surprised, then, that "McJobs" now have a central role in the growing debate on inequality and that the "Fight for 15" has resonated.
Or that industry workers, stuck in their jobs, have become more vocal and more active. Or that unions now view organizing fast food as essential to reversing the rampant inequality which blights our societies.
So while protests by fast food workers are not new, they have gained enormously in symbolic and political importance.
Unions have never had an easy time in the fast food sector, but there are pockets of successful union organization around the world. In general, unions have succeeded best where systems of national collective bargaining facilitate an organized union presence -- in the Nordic countries, or in Argentina and Italy, for example.
But they've also taken on the task elsewhere.
The "SuperSize My Pay" campaign initiated by the New Zealand union Unite in 2005 has recruited thousands of workers, won collective agreements with significant improvements in wages and conditions and shaped a national debate on inequality and low pay.
Equally important, they've made unions relevant to a younger generation of service workers. Last year in Brazil our affiliate Contratuh forced McDonald's to abandon its practice of consigning workers to unpaid hours until the boss determined that a sufficient number of customers were present for hours to be counted.
Fast food workers around the world face similar issues -- be it poverty pay, inconvenient or insufficient hours, zero hour contracts, stress or employer hostility to union organization. Participants in our meeting had no problem finding a common language.
In 2013 McDonald's workers from over 30 countries joined the International Day of Action to protest against the poor working conditions of numerous migrant workers at the franchised giant's restaurant in Pennsylvania. This year, international support for the May 15 action will involve even more IUF members in more countries.
Is May 15 labor's big bang at Big Mac? We see it as one step in a protracted, difficult but necessary struggle. Unions are engaged for the long haul.
Watch more: America's skills gap
Watch more: IMF chief warns of inequality danger
Read more: Clinton groups touts inequality record
Read more: Financial Fair Play - fair or farce?
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the Ron Oswald
'Only talks' can #BringBackOurGirls
5/15/2014 9:32:53 AM
- Global media paid Boko Haram little attention until 200 girls were abducted, says Shehu Sani
- Boko Haram became more violent after its founder was killed in 2009, he says
- At talks in 2011, the group blamed government action for their militancy, Sani says
- He says the use of force to free hostages can be deadly and negotiations must be held
Editor's note: Shehu Sani is a Nigerian civil rights activist, playwright and author. He is president of the Civil Rights Congress of Nigeria and has negotiated with Boko Haram in the past. Follow @shehusani on Twitter. The views expressed in this commentary are solely the author's.
(CNN) -- Until the abduction of more than 200 girls at the Government Girls Secondary School in rural Chibok, Nigeria's Boko Haram insurgency received scant attention in the global media, which gave it brief airtime when the insurgents exploded their bombs or torched a school.
However, the mass abduction has brought the world's attention to the callous and unceasing violence that has become routine in northern Nigeria over the last three years.
The area has suffered more than three decades of religious violence between Muslims and Christians.
But since Boko Haram founder Mohammed Yusuf was killed in a 2009 security crackdown -- along with hundreds of his followers -- the militant Islamist group has stepped up its attacks.
Boko Haram militants have killed clerics, bombed churches and mosques and assassinated politicians and government officials.
When the militants attack churches, their aim is to start a sectarian war that will engulf the country; when they attack mosques, their aim is to exterminate Muslims they consider collaborators.
Shehu Sani
In the last three years, the Nigerian Government has opted for the use of force to exterminate the insurgents, rather than diminish the activities of the group -- and it has become more daring and audacious in its attacks.
Despite the allocation of 25% of the annual budget to defense and security, the government has been unable to crush and contain the insurgency. The group has taken on and demoralized the rank and file of the Nigerian army and police.
Boko Haram has launched deadly raids on military garrisons and police and secret intelligence offices to free their detained members. The use of force against the group has only led to allegations of a chain of rights abuses with the justification that it is a war on terror.
Nigeria's Human Rights Commission last year accused the military of arbitrary killings, torture and rape in its campaign, while the military has described reports of civilian casualties as "grossly exaggerated."
Our constitutional freedom has been formally suppressed by the authorities on the grounds of national emergency. The strategy of collective punishment, arbitrary arrests, prolonged detention and killing raids by the security forces has alienated the civil populace and turned them into victims. In the war against Boko Haram, civilians have become victims of both the military and the militants.
Meeting with Boko Haram
I mooted the idea of dialogue with the insurgents as a new option towards ending the insurgency and restoring peace to my bewildered and beleaguered nation. In September 2011, I facilitated talks with the insurgents and the former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo -- then chairman of Nigeria's ruling party.
READ MORE: Swap prisoners for kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls, ex-negotiator says
The first surprise in the encounter was that the representatives of the terror group spoke fluent English. The bigger surprise was when some of the insurgents revealed that they had university degrees. It is a prerequisite for new Boko Haram members to burn their university certificates or any paper identification that links them secular schools.
In the meeting, they justified their violence on the grounds that it was the Nigerian Government that had forced them to take up arms. They said that before they trod the path of violence, they first tried to take the path of peace.
They even showed us copies of a petition they wrote to the government complaining about the harassment and intimidation of their sect members by security forces before they picked up arms.
They showed us photographs of followers and relatives they said had been killed by the police in cold blood, even before the insurgency began and threatened more attacks until they "avenge the injustices done to them."
They expressed anger at the way people criticized and condemned them when they launched attacks but kept mute when Boko Haram members were killed, their homes demolished and their wives and children arrested by the security forces.
We took their grievances to the government and advised the government to follow through, but hawks within the corridors of power discouraged the president from taking our advice.
The second effort at dialogue involved a northern Islamic cleric and head of the Nigeria sharia council. The talks were facilitated by a freelance journalist who was later threatened by those opposed to dialogue.
This second round of dialogue took place in the last quarter of 2012.
Boko Haram accused the government of leaking the details of the talks to the media for political reasons. One of the group's conditions for talks had been that only their outcome be made public.
We were close to achieving a ceasefire but again hawks, security and defense contractors in the corridors of power sabotaged our efforts.
I have never met the Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau but I declined to meet him on two occasions when I got his invitation to interview him. I declined because I realized that the government was not interested in my approach.
'Preventable and avoidable'
The abduction of the girls in Chibok is one of many abductions over the last three years.
If the Nigerian authorities took lessons from earlier attacks on schools by the insurgents, the Chibok abductions couldn't have happened. The Chibok abduction was a preventable and avoidable tragedy.
When the militants abduct boys, they use them as conscripts and girls as cooks and hostages. I cannot confirm if they used abducted girls as sex slaves -- the leadership of the group denied such reports when we asked them, but abducted women who were later freed give credence to such claims.
Each day the Chibok girls spend in captivity keeps the moral flag of my country at half mast.
The #BringBackOurGirls protest and the interest shown by President Obama and other world leaders and celebrities like Alicia Keys and Angelina Jolie has kept the spirits of Chibok mothers high and the Nigerian Government on its toes.
When we were children, we used to forecast that one day the Sambisa forest in Borno state would become a game reserve which would attract foreign tourists and foreign currencies. Today it is attracting foreign interest for negative reasons.
The Chibok girls must be freed but not by the use of force except when other options fail. The schoolgirls are now innocent hostages in the hands of soulless gunmen.
We don't want the body of the girls to be brought back home, we want them back home alive.
Political future
The use of force could turn out to be tragic. Experience has shown that attempts in the past to free hostages from the insurgents through the use of force has deadly consequences.
French hostages were freed in Nigeria through negotiations but a British and Italian hostage were killed in Sokoto when UK forces went to free them.
We can get the Chibok girls back home and we must.
I was delighted to learn that the special team sent by the U.S. and UK also included experts in hostage negotiation. I strongly believe that Islamic clerics in northern Nigeria and some of the top ranking insurgents currently in detention can be used to open a channel of communication with the leadership of the sect in order to secure the release of the Chibok girls.
There are those who say that the option of negotiating to free the hostages will embolden the terrorists, I have never been a hostage but I have been a political prisoner who spent many years in prison during our struggle against military dictatorship in Nigeria in the 1990s.
Those who experience captivity appreciate freedom the most.
The situation we find ourselves in is a tough moment in our history, but I believe we shall overcome it.
Many Nigerians believe that the way the Chibok issue is resolved will determine the political future of Nigeria.
Opinion: Nigerians right to be wary of U.S. intentions
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Shehu Sani.
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