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Far-right gains rock Europe
5/26/2014 5:10:53 PM

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

NEW: Vote shows the French "no longer want to be directed from the outside," Le Pen says
"The result is a shock, an earthquake," French Prime Minister Manuel Valls says
France's far-right National Front party poised to win a nationwide vote for the first time
Voters across Europe have been casting ballots for 751 seats from 28 countries

Editor's note: Explore Europe's main protest parties in the map above. Click on each country to find out more. Watch The Business View with Nina dos Santos, weekdays at 12pm CET, for more on the European elections. This interactive map may not work on all mobile devices.

(CNN) -- France's far-right National Front has won a nationwide election for the first time, as far-right parties across Europe caused a political "earthquake," with a string of victories in voting for the European Parliament.

The National Front, led by Marine Le Pen, notched up 24.95% of the vote in France, according to official estimates, well ahead of mainstream parties UMP and the Socialist Party. Le Pen said the win showed that people want to see change in Europe.

France's Socialist Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the result was "more than a warning. It is a shock, an earthquake."

Right-wing parties also gained ground in the UK, Denmark and Austria, according to projections posted on the European Parliament's official elections website.

Voters across Europe have been casting ballots for days in the parliamentary vote. There are 751 seats from 28 countries up for grabs.

With most of the ballots counted, provisional results indicate that left-center and right-center parties will still hold a majority of seats in the European Parliament, which plays a key role in shaping European laws and will weigh in on who the European Commission's next President should be.

But right-wing parties and other so-called Euroskeptic groups who oppose the European Union are gaining ground, said Simon Usherwood, an expert on European politics at the University of Surrey.

"I think what's really changed is you're seeing a lot more groups on the edges, particularly with the far right, who are going to be much more of a feature of the next five years of the parliament," he said.

So what does that mean?

"They don't have enough votes to stop legislation going through," Usherwood told CNN, "but what they will get, particularly on the far right, is the time for speaking in debates, the chairmanship of certain committees, which means that they're going to have much more of a platform on which they can sell their message to voters."

In France, which has 74 seats in the European Parliament, the National Front won 24.95% of votes, according to official estimates, coming in ahead of the center-right UMP, which scored 20.8%, and President Francois Hollande's Socialist Party, which came in third with 14%.

Even though the vote was for a regional legislative body, the potential impact on France's national political landscape was clear on Sunday. The results sparked stunned reactions from some French politicians and triumphant victory speeches from others.

PM Valls described the election as "a very serious moment for France and for Europe," noting that projections indicate that voters are skeptical of the European Union. "None of us can shirk their responsibilities," he said, according to a summary of his remarks posted on the French government's website.

Meanwhile, National Front leader Marine Le Pen said the results showed that French voters wanted more control.

"The sovereign people have proclaimed that they want to take back the reigns of their destiny into their hands. Our people demand one type of politics: politics of the French, for the French, with the French. They no longer want to be directed from outside," she said.

She said the vote shows that President Francois Hollande should dissolve France's parliament, where most lawmakers come from mainstream political parties.

Nearly 400 million Europeans were eligible to vote in the parliamentary elections. Turnout was just over 43%, slightly higher than it was during the last vote in 2009, Parliament spokesman Jaume Duch said.

"The clear message here is that people are unhappy with the way mainstream political parties have handled the economic crisis, and they're giving them a good kicking," said Petros Fassoulas, chairman of the pro-Europe European Movement.

Before the election, analysts predicted that protest parties were likely to triumph at the polls.

Those parties are demanding tighter border controls, nationalized decision-making and a dissolution of the currency union.

But they have little in common aside from a dislike of the Brussels bureaucracy, so it's difficult for them to find much common ground, Usherwood said.

"They can agree they don't like the EU," Usherwood said, "but they can't agree what they like and what the answer is."

CNN's Pierre Meilhan, Jim Bittermann, Ivana Kottasova, Jonathan Mann and Bryony Jones contributed to this report.

Wives of jailed politicians win votes
5/26/2014 11:09:42 PM

Patricia Gutierrez de Ceballos, the wife of jailed politician Daniel Ceballos, said that each ballot cast in her favor represented a sentence of justice and freedom and a blow against what she called the country's dictatorship.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

The local election victories are significant symbolic triumphs for Venezuela's opposition
Patricia Gutierrez de Ceballos says the votes were sentences of justice and freedom
Her husband was arrested after authorities said he failed to stop anti-government protests
"The people will remain peacefully in the streets," Rosa Brandonisio de Scarano says

San Cristobal, Venezuela (CNN) -- The wives of two jailed Venezuelan opposition politicians have won landslide election victories while their husbands remain behind bars.

The votes Sunday in the cities of San Cristobal and San Diego were symbolic triumphs for the South American country's opposition, which has argued that the cities' former mayors were politically persecuted when authorities arrested them in March.

Daniel Ceballos was accused of civil rebellion and conspiracy after the government said he failed to stop violent protests in San Cristobal. He was given a 12-month sentence. San Cristobal is in the southwestern part of the country, near the border with Colombia.

Enzo Scarano was jailed for 10 months after the government accused him of ignoring an order given by the Supreme Tribunal of Justice to stop protests in San Diego, a city near the coast and west of the capital of Caracas.

After winning more than 73% of votes in the mayoral election Sunday, Patricia Gutierrez de Ceballos said that each ballot cast in her favor represented a sentence of justice and freedom and a blow against what she called the country's dictatorship.

"They have converted me into mayor and ratified Daniel Ceballos as mayor. And today, San Cristobal has the privilege of having two mayors governing its city," the 30-year-old engineer said.

When protests erupted against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government earlier this year, San Cristobal, capital of the border state of Tachira, quickly became a flashpoint, and Daniel Ceballos was an outspoken critic of Maduro.

Clashes between anti-government protesters and security forces have left more than 40 people dead and around 800 injured across the country since February, according to officials.

Maduro has said protesters are "fascists and extreme-right thugs" who are trying to destabilize the government to promote a coup. Protesters call Maduro a dictator who has ruined the Venezuelan economy with failed socialist policies.

Rosa Brandonisio de Scarano, formerly a City Council member in San Diego, won nearly 88% of votes in the mayoral election there Sunday, officials said.

After casting her ballot, she said her vote was a protest against the government's sentence of her husband.

"The people will remain peacefully in the streets, making people listen, so that it echoes throughout the world that Venezuela right now is going through a very difficult time, economically, socially, morally and politically," she told reporters.

One official from the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela praised the San Diego election results.

Carabobo state Gov. Francisco Ameliach said the results signal that the government's election authority is impartial, the state-run AVN news agency reported.

Earlier this month, a State Department official pointed to the arrests of Ceballos and Scarano as signs that Maduro's government "continues to persecute political opponents."

"While dismantling the independent media and jailing local officials who dare to dissent, the Maduro government is simultaneously empowering armed civilian thugs, or 'colectivos' to intimidate and kill those Venezuelans who continue to march," Tom Malinowski, assistant secretary of the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, said in a statement prepared for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

CNN team denied permission to cover Venezuelan local elections

Opinion: The Venezuelan nightmare

Journalist Osmary Hernandez reported from San Cristobal, Venezuela. CNN's Elwyn Lopez and Catherine E. Shoichet reported from Atlanta. CNN's Claudia Dominguez also contributed to this report.

Egypt elections: 5 things to know
5/27/2014 6:47:13 AM

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

There are just two candidates in Egypt's presidential election, with polling due on May 26, 27
Ex-general Abdel Fattah el-Sisi faces left-leaning politician Hamdeen Sabahi
The election follows last year's ouster of Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Morsy
CNN's Reza Sayah says both candidates have generally remained vague on policy details

Editor's note: For full coverage of the Egyptian election in Arabic, visit CNN Arabic.

Cairo, Egypt (CNN) -- Egyptians head to the polls to vote for their next president on Monday and Tuesday.

There will be just two candidates, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Hamdeen Sabahi.

Egypt had an election recently. So why are they having another one?

Egyptians are voting again because Mohamed Morsy -- Egypt's first freely elected president -- was removed from power last year in a popular military coup.

Morsy's ouster last July was the culmination of a months-long petition campaign to remove him from office and days of mass demonstrations against the former Muslim Brotherhood leader.

Critics accused Morsy of hijacking the 2011 revolution, pushing aside moderate and liberal voices, and botching Egypt's already ailing economy.

Morsy rejected the allegations and accused Egypt's military backed establishment and Mubarak-era loyalist of undermining his presidency.

In a remarkable reversal of fortune the man who removed Morsy from power - then army chief Abdel Fattah el-Sisi - is now heavily favored to win the presidential election.

Morsy and scores of fellow members of the Muslim Brotherhood are in prison facing a variety of charges.

How will Muslim Brotherhood supporters vote?

The Muslim Brotherhood is not represented in the election, which is due in large part to an aggressive campaign by Egyptian authorities to eliminate the movement from Egypt's political landscape.

Despite initial promises of an inclusive transition to a democratically elected government, Egypt's military backed interim government banned the Muslim Brotherhood last year and declared it a terrorist organization.

Today most of the group's leadership is either in jail, in hiding, or taking refuge outside Egypt.

Both candidates - Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Hamdeen Sabahi - have promised to keep the Brotherhood out of Egyptian politics if elected president.

The Strong Egypt Party - led by former Muslim Brotherhood leader Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh - has decided to boycott the vote.

The ultra-conservative Salafist Nour Party supported the 2012 election of Mohamed Morsy but is now drawing criticism from Islamist groups for supporting candidate el-Sisi.

What are the policies of each candidate?

Both candidates have generally remained vague on policy details, choosing instead to make populist promises that play well in television interviews.

And, both promise to fix Egypt's failing economy, though neither has detailed how they plan to create jobs, generate revenue, and cut costly food and fuel subsidies -- a move many fear will anger Egypt's poor.

El-Sisi vows to keep Egypt safe by continuing the "war on terrorism," a reference to the recent rise in low-level insurgent attacks against security forces.

Critics fear el-Sisi will exploit that narrative to stifle free speech and continue a crackdown against dissent that has been sharply criticized by international rights groups.

Sabahi promises to release what rights groups describe as thousands of political prisoners and ban a controversial protest law, which says groups of ten or more cannot gather in public without prior government permission.

Who is likely to win? And will the winner finally bring stability to the country?

El-Sisi is heavily favored to win due in large part to widespread support from Egypt's powerful establishment, which includes the military, the private and state media apparatus, and Egypt's political and financial elite.

El-Sisi also has popular support from Egyptians who see him as the man who saved Egypt from a Morsy presidency that was perceived by many to be pursing an Islamist agenda.

Less certain, however, is whether the next president can bring stability to Egypt, and lure back millions of tourists who have stayed away due to more than three years of political unrest.

To establish stability Egypt's next president must make tangible improvements to the economy, improve security, and address mounting criticism from rights groups and pro-democracy activists who fear a return to a Mubarak-era style police state.

How will the election result affect the region and the rest of the world?

The outcome of the vote will likely bolster Egypt's relations with key allies Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and United Arab Emirates -- Gulf states that poured in billions of dollars in funding to support the Egyptian government after the ouster of former President Morsy.

Relations with Qatar and Turkey -- staunch supporters of Morsy and the Muslim Brotherhood --- will remain tense.

The United States and Western powers will likely continue to voice concern about Egypt's alleged human rights violations but will continue relations as long as Egypt honors its peace treaty with Israel and isn't viewed as a disruptive force in an already volatile region.

An el-Sisi presidency would be a potential blow to pro-democracy movements in other Arab states who hoped the 2011 Arab Spring would mark the end of regimes led military strongmen.

READ: Opinion: Egypt's youth needs more than tinkering at the edges

READ: Egypt's el-Sisi vows to finish off the Muslim Brotherhood if elected

READ: Can Egypt's presidential candidates transform economic fortunes?

Rapper Wiz Khalifa's jail selfie
5/26/2014 11:09:22 PM

Wiz Khalifa and his wife Amber Rose on the red carpet of the 2014 Billboard Music Awards.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

The rapper was reportedly detained in Texas
He tweeted a pic with the caption "Jail selfie"
Fans started hashtag "Free Trap Wiz"

(CNN) -- Allow us to take a moment to recognize Wiz Khalifa as the new king of #selfies.

According to TMZ, the rapper -- who has a well-documented penchant for toking -- was arrested early Sunday morning at a Texas airport after a "green leafy substance" was found during a security check.

But it looked like Wiz, who was born Cameron Jibril Thomaz, wasn't too stressed about the situation as he tweeted a pic of himself in jail with the caption "Jail selfie."

Jail selfie. pic.twitter.com/l01qB8oLrm
— We Dem Boyz (@wizkhalifa) May 25, 2014

Talk about making lemonade out of lemons.

He also tweeted a picture of the barred jail door saying "Free Trap Wiz." That cry was quickly picked up by fans on social media who turned it into a hashtag, naturally.

Free Trap Wiz. pic.twitter.com/E39UYWTG8d
— We Dem Boyz (@wizkhalifa) May 25, 2014

MTV reported that he was released after a few hours and charged with being in possession of 0.5 grams of marijuana. He has been cited for simple possession of marijuana in the past, including in 2012 before one of his concerts in North Carolina.

The rapper's new project is titled "28 Grams" and is expected to be released soon.

World's most unlikely political union?
5/27/2014 6:48:57 AM

German web tycoon Kim Dotcom and Maori nationalist Hone Harawira have been labeled a political odd couple.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Kim Dotcom's political party has formed an alliance with a Maori nationalist's party
The alliance is seen in New Zealand as an unlikely political marriage of convenience
The move will give both parties a better chance of winning seats in elections in September
The U.S. is seeking to extradite German-born Dotcom on criminal digital piracy charges

(CNN) -- The New Zealand political party founded by German Internet tycoon Kim Dotcom has joined forces with a firebrand Maori activist, in what is being described as one of the world's most unlikely political marriages of convenience.

"It's a very unusual alliance... It's like Mark Zuckerberg getting into alliance with Fidel Castro," political scientist Bryce Edwards, of the University of Otago, told CNN. "The individuals involved are larger than life and dynamic people, but their ideological backgrounds are pretty disparate."

The Internet-Mana Party alliance between Dotcom's recently-formed Internet Party and the left-wing, indigenous-focused Mana Party was announced Thursday by Mana's leader, the controversial Maori nationalist MP Hone Harawira.

"It's completely new ground, but politics is about the art of the possible and I'm looking forward to what we can achieve," Harawira, seated next to the Internet Party's chief executive Vikram Kumar, told reporters.

Dotcom, the controversial founder of the shuttered file-sharing site Megaupload, was not at the press conference.

Dotcom cannot personally run for office as he is not a citizen of his adopted home of New Zealand. The wealthy Web entrepreneur, who is battling extradition to the U.S. on criminal digital piracy charges, launched his party in January, with a pledge to focus on Internet privacy and government surveillance, and to make politics exciting.

It's like Mark Zuckerberg getting into alliance with Fidel Castro
Bryce Edwards, political scientist

Critics, including New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, have described Dotcom's political activities as part of an attempt to protect himself against U.S. extradition efforts.

But Harawira said the issue of whether Mana would support Dotcom's efforts to remain in New Zealand had "not even come up once" in discussions. "It's not a matter on the table at all."

'Gaming the system'

Bryce said the alliance represented an attempt by the two political minnows "to game the electoral system and help each other get their politicians into parliament" at the general elections in September.

Under New Zealand's proportional voting system, a party must win either an electorate seat or at least 5% of the nationwide vote to get into parliament -- a situation that hindered new parties, said Edwards, because potential supporters feared their vote would be wasted.

But if Harawira retained his electorate seat, it would remove the need for the party to cross the 5% threshold, and both parties could expect their share of the national vote to count towards a representative share of seats in the 120-member parliament.

Individually, both parties are currently polling at about 1%, said Edwards, but he tipped the buzz around the new alliance would see it fare better in the September vote, where it could stand to win in the order of six seats. "New Zealanders like to see outsiders having a go," he said. "The sum of the whole is going to be greater than the two parts."

Odd couple

It's completely new ground, but politics is about the art of the possible
Mana Party leader Hone Harawira

The two parties make strange bedfellows, apparently sharing little common ground beyond their opposition to the current center-right National government.

"On the two issues these parties are principally known for, Internet freedom and Maori nationalism, there doesn't seem to be any crossover whatsoever," said Edwards. "They're quite different versions of anti-establishment. One's an urban, middle-class, tech version, the other's more traditional left-wing, almost anti-capitalist."

Harawira, the son of a veteran Maori radical, has a long history of strident Maori activism and is seen as a figure of the far-left.

He has been a polarizing presence in parliament since he was elected in a seat reserved for Maori voters in 2005, criticized for remarks perceived as racist against white New Zealanders, and for calling for an opposition leader to be shot.

He eventually split with the Maori Party in 2011 over their support of the government. His new party, Mana, was established primarily as a vehicle to represent the interests of indigenous New Zealanders but also attracted support from non-Maori left-wing activists.

Dotcom's political tendencies are less well-known. He has previously made a NZ$50,000 ($42,792) donation to a right-wing New Zealand politician at the opposite end of the political spectrum to Mana, but the yet-to-be announced leader of the Internet Party, who will be named on Thursday, is somebody Harawira says he can work with.

Internet Party chief executive Kumar said the two parties would retain their separate policies, and acknowledged his party was providing the bulk of the financial backing to the alliance.

'Big mistake'

Sucking up to a German millionaire is not in my future
Departing Mana member Sue Bradford

Harawira's decision to team with Dotcom's party has already drawn criticism.

One of the Mana Party's founding members, the left-wing activist and former lawmaker Sue Bradford, quit the party over the move, which she labeled a "big mistake."

"Sucking up to a German millionaire is not in my future," she told reporters. "There's no way I can continue to be in a party where we are all really just the political plaything of a millionaire Internet mogul."

Harawira's former party has also attacked the move, with Maori Party co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell telling CNN affiliate TVNZ that "utilizing Maori seats to drag in somebody who is questionable about their knowledge about things Maori... it's not on."

See also: Gas fields could unite Cyprus

In shooter's world, victims get blame
5/28/2014 1:34:50 AM

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Emily Lindin: Elliot Rodger is part of a culture that says nice guys are entitled to sex with women
Lindin: Extremely misogynistic sites promote view that women are prizes, not actual people
Lindin: Facebook page created by proponents was called "Elliot Rodger Is an American Hero"
She says we need to eradicate this hate by openly talking about it to children, communities

Editor's note: Emily Lindin is a graduate student at University of California, Santa Barbara, and the founder of The UnSlut Project, which works against sexual bullying and "slut shaming." She is the creator of the upcoming "Slut: A Documentary Film." Follow her project on Twitter and Facebook. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

(CNN) -- A powerful reaction to women-hater Elliot Rodger's killing rampage Friday night has been the Twitter hashtag #YesAllWomen, where women point out how misogyny and sexism damage them and restrict their lives. It emerged in response to the common, misguided argument that "not all men" are like that.

Of course not all men are like Elliot Rodger. But he is the product of a culture that condones and in many cases endorses the belief that if you are a "nice guy" -- or a "supreme gentleman" as Rodger described himself -- you are somehow entitled to sex with women.

Gun control, campus safety and mental illness are all issues raised by the massacre, but hatred of women concerns me most. I am the founder of The UnSlut Project, which fights "slut shaming" and sexual bullying in our schools and communities. I'm also a graduate student at University of California, Santa Barbara, where the rampage took place.

Emily Lindin

Rodger and others like him believe that sex is a reward to be earned, not a consensual activity between adults who respect each other, and that women are prizes to be won, not actual people with the agency to make decisions about their own bodies.

Nowhere is this mindset more obvious than in the reactions of some men who actually sympathize with Rodger. Many of these men are self-described Pick-Up Artists, or PUAs, who employ a series of strict rules in order to manipulate women into having sex with them, referring to those women as their "targets."

Rodger allegedly participated in forums on the site PUAHate, which criticizes Pick-Up Artists not because of their obviously misogynist tactics, but because those tactics didn't work for him and other PUAHate members. The site shut down Saturday morning with the message: "PUAHate is about to get a massive amount of press," according to the watchdog Southern Poverty Law Center.

After the killings, the extent of misogyny in this community was revealed in the creation of a Facebook page called "Elliot Rodger Is an American Hero," with the advice for everyone to "share your thoughts and pay your respects to Elliot Rodger here. Also, view this final message from our beloved hero," which links to his videotaped rant, with commenters expressing solidarity with his desire for revenge against women. The page has since been taken down.

The creator of the popular PUA site "Return of Kings" -- where "women and homosexuals are prohibited from commenting" -- claimed, "More people will die unless you give men sexual options." "Manosphere" sites like Return of Kings admire "alpha males," disparage "beta males," and promote hypermasculinity.

But again, most men are not members of these hate communities and not all men hold similar beliefs. That's not the point. These views are just extreme versions of very common, socially acceptable ideas about women and sex. Rodger was undoubtedly mentally unstable, but some of the sexist ideas in his manifesto are, unfortunately, not the invention of a madman. They're the norm.

This is the first time I have publicly identified myself as a graduate student at UCSB. I founded The UnSlut Project by blogging my own middle school diary, so I use a pen name and guard my identity in order to protect people I mentioned in those diary entries.

But in the wake of this crisis, I want to speak out. The university has responded in an admirable way: setting up a 24-hour call center and extensive counseling options to help students cope, establishing the U.C .Santa Barbara Community Fund to honor the victims, and organizing campuswide memorial events.

As the details of Rodger's history and the crime itself continue to emerge, we will have a better idea of the institutional steps that could have been taken to prevent it. We will write letters to our representatives and use our votes to speak up about what we believe should be done to prevent future tragedies. But in the meantime, on a personal level, we need to take responsibility for our own reactions to this story.

We teach our children from a young age that a girl's value as a human being is inextricably linked to her sexual behavior. Her virginity is something to be "given up" or even "lost." Sex with her is a prize to be won -- and she herself is equated with that "prize."

In stark contrast, boys are taught that their virginity is something to be ashamed of. Their masculinity depends on sexual prowess and physical dominance. It is from this understanding that the PUA movement arises, populated by boys and men who feel worthless because they don't have sex. Their anger is directed at the women -- the "prizes" -- who refuse to "give" them what they feel they deserve.

So where do we go from here? Although it brought to light the various struggles of women across the country, #YesAllWomen is, ultimately, just a hashtag. It will stop trending. When it does, let's continue the conversation outside the realm of social media.

Tuesday afternoon, I will join the rest of the UCSB community at a memorial service for Rodger's victims. As we mourn Katherine Cooper, Christopher Martinez, Veronika Weiss, Weihan Wang, George Chen, and Cheng Yuan Hong, conversations will focus on their lives, personalities, and accomplishments. But as we move forward and try to make sense of what happened, it's our responsibility to start productive, respectful conversations about the misogyny behind Rodger's actions.

Instead of avoiding talking about sex, let's start age-appropriate conversations with our children about consent and respect. Let's speak up when a man in our group of friends speaks disrespectfully about a woman he's had sex with. And most important, let's analyze our own assumptions about what sex means with regard to different genders. Most men are not killers like Elliot Rodger. Most men don't sympathize with his motives. But all of us, regardless of gender, can contribute to changing the misogynist culture that inspired him.

Follow us on Twitter @CNNOpinion.

Join us on Facebook/CNNOpinion.

India, Pakistan leaders meet
5/27/2014 5:50:14 AM

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

NEW: Pakistan's Nawaz Sharif says meeting with India's Narendra Modi was warm, constructive
NEW: The two prime ministers will try to overcome mistrust and work together, says Sharif
NEW: Sharif: "We agreed our meeting should be a historic opportunity for both our countries"
The leaders shook hands on Monday at Modi's inauguration

(CNN) -- Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif hailed his first one-on-one meeting Tuesday with India's newly elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a "historic opportunity" for the two nations.

A firm but simple handshake had sent a message to the world on Monday that the heads of India and Pakistan were ready to talk.

And talk they did on Tuesday, in a meeting at Hyderabad House, a former palace in New Delhi, that lasted almost 50 minutes.

Briefing reporters after the encounter, Sharif described the meeting as "good and constructive" and "held in warm and cordial atmosphere."

Sharif said both countries should work to overcome their mutual mistrust, and that regional peace and stability were key to achieving their common goals of development.

Sharif said he intended "pick up the threads" of the Lahore Declaration, referring to a pledge both countries made in 1999 to cooperate more closely to ease tensions.

The Pakistani premier also said that accusations and counter-accusations are not productive -- a comment on the regular political back-and-forth between their two nations.

"We agreed that our meeting should be a historic opportunity for both our countries," he said.

He added that he was "very pleased" to be in New Delhi at Modi's invitation, having flown in for his counterpart's inauguration on Monday.

Sharif was part of the biggest gathering of South Asian leaders ever assembled for an Indian prime minister's swearing-in.

Emotional response

In a series of tweets posted after Monday's inauguration ceremony, Modi revealed the two had exchanged remarks.

$The image said to have moved Sharif\'s mother: Modi\'s mother feeding him sweets on May 16, 2014.$

The image said to have moved Sharif's mother: Modi's mother feeding him sweets on May 16, 2014.

Sharif "shared some very emotional things," Modi said, before recounting a rather strange story Sharif told him about how his mother became emotional while watching television images of Modi's own mother offering him sweets.

In an interview with Indian television station NDTV, Sharif was reported to have described his attendance at Modi's inauguration as a "great opportunity, a great moment."

"He said that this strong mandate frees up leaders on both sides ... to actually turn a new page in the history of India and Pakistan," NDTV's Barkha Dutt said.

The visuals touched both Nawaz Sharif ji & his Mother. He told me that after seeing the visuals his Mother got very emotional.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 26, 2014

Long dispute

Relations have been strained between the two countries since 1947, the year the Asian subcontinent partitioned into Islamic Pakistan and Hindu-majority India as it gained independence from British rule.

In the decades since, they have fought a number of wars and clashed over Kashmir, an 86,000 square-mile region to the north.

Efforts to agree a peace deal took a major step back in 2008 when Pakistani militants attacked the Indian city of Mumbai, killing more than 160 people in a series of co-ordinated assaults.

In 2011, the two countries agreed to return to the negotiating table and since then relations have continued to thaw.

In 2012, former President Asif Ali Zardari became the first Pakistani leader to visit India in seven years.

He held talks with then Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who emerged from the 30-minute meeting saying both nations were willing to find "practical and pragmatic" solutions to their differences. Zardari described the talks as "fruitful."

Sharif is said to have expressed the same optimism for the countries' relationship in his interview with NDTV on Monday.

"Both governments have a strong mandate. This could help in turning a new page in our relations," Sharif told NDTV. "We should remove fears, mistrust and misgivings about each other. Both countries should rid the region of instability and security that has plagued us for decades."

Modi's meeting with Sharif is one of a series of bilateral meetings scheduled with regional leaders on his first day as India's 15th prime minister.

In shooter's world, victims get blame
5/27/2014 7:36:27 PM

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Emily Lindin: Elliot Rodger is part of a culture that says nice guys are entitled to sex with women
Lindin: Extremely misogynistic sites promote view that women are prizes, not actual people
Lindin: Facebook page created by proponents was called "Elliot Rodger Is an American Hero"
She says we need to eradicate this hate by openly talking about it to children, communities

Emily Lindin

Follow us on Twitter @CNNOpinion.

Join us on Facebook/CNNOpinion.

Outing could end a covert career
5/27/2014 3:27:18 PM

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

NEW: "To me, it's unforgivable and the message has to be sent," Rep. King tells CNN
CIA chief of station in Afghanistan accidentally named in White House media report
If forced to leave Afghanistan, the official's absence could hurt the U.S. mission
Analyst: "They are going to have to pull him out"

Washington (CNN) -- A clerical misstep? Failure to double-check a routine process? Whatever the cause, the seemingly accidental outing of the CIA's top intelligence official in Afghanistan could put the life of the spy and any family members in danger.

It also raised the question of whether the official can continue working in Afghanistan after the revelation in a White House media report sent to about 6,000 journalists.

"I think they are going to have to pull him out, now that he's been identified publicly," said CNN National Security Analyst Robert Baer, noting the Taliban would likely attempt to assassinate the official. "It will affect his career over the long term, too."

Josh Rogin, who covers national security issues for The Daily Beast, told CNN on Tuesday the mistake was "catastrophic" for the official's career and "potential future as a covert operator, both in Afghanistan or anywhere else."

The official "was in the middle of a very dangerous mission, which was to govern the transition of CIA forces in Afghanistan," Rogin noted.

If forced to leave now due to danger over being exposed, the official's absence could hurt the mission, according to Rogin.

Given the potentially dangerous nature of the situation, CNN has not broadcast or published online the name of the official.

Administration officials expressed alarm over the mistake.

Deputy National Security Adviser Antony Blinken told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that steps are being taken.

"It shouldn't have happened. We're trying to figure out why it happened. In fact, chief of staff Denis McDonough asked the White House counsel to look into it, to figure out what happened and to make sure it won't happen again," Blinken said.

Asked whether the official will have to leave Afghanistan, Blinken added, "You'll understand that I can't comment on the details, but you can rest assured that the security of this person is foremost in our minds and will be taken care of."

The official's name was included on a list of people attending a military briefing for President Barack Obama during his surprise visit to Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan on Sunday.

It's common for such lists to be given to the media, but names of intelligence officials are rarely provided. In this case, the individual's name was listed next to the title, "Chief of Station."

The common practice is for the print pool reporter -- a journalist representing the wider media contingent who relays information about an event to other reporters -- to copy and paste the list provided by the White House into what is called a media pool report.

It then gets distributed to a large list of media outlets by the White House, which does not edit the list.

In this case, the print pool reporter that day -- Scott Wilson, the White House bureau chief for the Washington Post -- noticed the unusual entry after the White House distributed the list.

Wilson checked it out with officials, and the White House later distributed a shorter list from a different reporter that did not include the station chief's name.

In his account to CNN, Wilson said that when the media pool accompanying Obama arrived in Afghanistan, he asked White House officials for a list of who would be briefing the President.

That e-mail was forwarded to Wilson, and he proceeded to copy and paste it for the pool report. Wilson then sent it to the White House official, who sent the report to the distribution list that reaches some 6,000 journalists.

After the initial report was issued, Wilson noticed that the chief of station had been identified in the list. He flagged the White House official, who checked with the military and then said: "This is a problem."

The White House official asked if Wilson would write another pool report that would advise journalists to disregard the previous report, which contained the chief of station's name.

Wilson said he was open to the request and sent the White House a new report, but he was unsure if it got distributed.

According to Wilson, another pool report from a different reporter that was distributed later included details from Obama's speech to the troops, as well as the shorter list of names that excluded the CIA official and a note saying, "This is the correct list of participants."

Rep. Peter King, R-New York, called the accidental outing "unpardonable."

"This is something that they had a chance to look at and look at again, and they still allowed it to be out," he told CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront" Tuesday night.

"To me, it's unforgivable and the message has to be sent that this type of incompetence -- six years into an administration -- is just inexcusable."

A station chief heads the CIA's office in a foreign country, establishing a relationship with its host intelligence service and overseeing agency activities. The identity of station chiefs, like most CIA officers, are rarely disclosed to protect them and their ability to operate secretly.

In the most recent case of a spy being outed, the Bush administration infamously leaked the name of former CIA officer Valerie Plame to a journalist in 2003. Plame, who resigned from the CIA after the incident, tweeted on Monday that the White House's mistake this past weekend was "astonishing."

No one was punished for leaking Plame's CIA role to the media. Scooter Libby, the chief of staff to then-Vice President Dick Cheney, was convicted of perjury, obstruction and lying to the FBI about the Plame leak. President George W. Bush later commuted Libby's 30-month prison sentence.

Top U.S. spy pulled from Pakistan after terror threats

CNN's Jim Acosta, Ashley Killough and Matt Hoye contributed to this report.

Why did Pope Francis pray at wall?
5/27/2014 7:12:31 PM

Pope Francis touches the wall that divides Israel from the West Bank, on his way to celebrate a mass in Manger Square next to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Jay Parini: On Bethlehem trip, Pope makes significant gesture by praying at separation wall
He says Bethlehem hugely powerful for Christians, a place of pilgrimage for Palestinians
Bethlehem a long disputed site among Palestinians, Israel. Pope's move symbolic, he says
Parini: In stopping to pray there, Pope Francis implicitly cries: Tear down this wall!

Editor's note: Jay Parini, a poet and novelist, teaches at Middlebury College. He has just published "Jesus: the Human Face of God," a biography of Jesus. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

(CNN) -- "Something there is that doesn't love a wall," wrote Robert Frost. This something is someone now: Pope Francis.

In a strong, apparently unscripted move on his recent visit to Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, on Sunday the pontiff suddenly waved to the driver of his Popemobile, asking to get out. Surrounded by guards and by children waving Palestinian flags, he got out, walked over to the wall that separates Israel from its Palestinian neighbors, and he did something remarkably simple but with astonishing power: He prayed.

Jay Parini

This symbolic gesture occurred at a well-known portion of the wall, a segment covered with graffiti. Somebody had spray-painted a message in black: "Pope we need some 1 to speak about justice Bethlehem look like Warsaw ghetto." In bold red letters the Pope could read: "Free Palestine." While Israeli guards looked anxiously down from a nearby tower, wondering what on Earth was going on, Francis touched the wall with his right hand, bent his head, and prayed for several minutes. Afterward, he kissed the wall, then walked slowly back to his vehicle.

I've myself experienced several times the haunting power of Bethlehem for Christians. My father was a Baptist minister, and once -- in 1989 -- I took him to the Church of the Nativity, the spot where (by tradition) Jesus was thought to have been born.

This is a place of pilgrimage for those devoted to the Christian path, and it's also an important city on the West Bank for Palestinians (among them a mix of Muslims and Christians, with Muslims the vast majority).

This holy city, described in the Hebrew scriptures as the City of David, was under Ottoman and Egyptian rule for centuries. The British controlled much of Palestine from 1920-1948 during the period known as the Mandate. The United Nations partitioned Palestine after the war, but Jordan took possession of Bethlehem after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It became a refuge for Palestinians at this time, largely under the control of Jordan until the Six Day War in 1967.

The Israelis kept control until 1995, when an agreement was reached with the Palestinian National Authority, although it has been a place of unease, especially during the 2000-2005 era known as the Second Intifada, when for a period (in 2002) the Church of the Nativity itself became a battle zone for 39 days.

Some 150 people then (mostly Palestinian civilians, with numerous Catholic and Orthodox monks and nuns) took refuge in the Church of the Nativity from an Israeli siege known as Operation Defensive Shield. A tense stalemate occurred, with the Franciscan Order asking the Israeli government to let everyone inside the church go free on the 10th day. There was no response, although an Armenian monk was shot and wounded that day.

Ultimately, Israeli snipers shot dead eight people in or around the church; they wounded at least 22, all of them designated as terrorists by the Israeli army.

Against this history, this pope exercised his unerring sense of symbolism. It's not for nothing that he took the name of Francis of Assisi, in memory of a saint who, in the 12th century, was regarded as the person who most embodied the life and teachings of Jesus. Although born into a rich merchant family, he humbled himself, trying his best to conform to the pattern of life established by Jesus, with a dedication to peace, to bringing down barriers, to expressing love in whatever ways he could.

Pope Francis invites Israeli, Palestinian leaders to Vatican peace talks

Francis of Assisi lived without pretense. He understood symbolic gestures like Jesus himself, who washed the feet of those around him, who sought out those -- such as prostitutes, lepers and beggars -- on the margins of society.

Through the Middle Ages, that earlier Francis was commonly known as alter Christus -- "the second Christ." One could say that Pope Francis, in turn, follows him as a man who lives without pretense, who understands symbolic gestures.

In stopping to pray by this wall of separation, he implicitly cries: Tear down this wall! He has pointedly asked Mahmoud Abbas and Shimon Peres -- the Palestinian and Israeli presidents -- to join him for a time of prayer and reconciliation in Rome. He has called the conflict in Israel "increasingly unacceptable," which is a marvel of understatement. (In a gesture of reconciliation, the pope did — on Monday — accede to an Israeli request to pray before a memorial to Israeli victims of the conflict as well. As ever, he understands that it will be necessary to listen carefully to both sides in this tragic dispute.)

As the pope's unexpected pause by the wall near Bethlehem makes terribly clear, this ugly partition that weaves through the West Bank has become a potent symbol of the Israeli occupation, and it's an affront to all reasonable Christians, Muslims, and Jews. Good fences do not, in this case, make good neighbors. It's time to pull down this barrier to freedom.

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Should you climb Everest?
5/27/2014 7:12:18 PM

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Cleonice Pacheco Weidlich refuses to abandon her Everest climb after 16 killed in mountain tragedy
Disaster prompted concerns over conditions on mountain and calls for an early end to climbing season
Some Sherpas complained over pay and a lack of respect for their traditions and towards those who died
Weidlich says her solo attempt on Lhotse peak had the backing of Sherpas who she says treated her well

(CNN) -- At Camp 3 of Mount Everest at an altitude of 7,200 meters, an American woman, 50-year-old Cleonice Pacheco Weidlich, sits in a solitary tent.

Outside, fierce winds of more than 50 knots are raging.

She waits.

Soon blizzard-bearing monsoon clouds will gather around Everest and bring an end to the climbing season on the high Himalayas.

It will also draw a shroud over one of the single deadliest tragedies the world's highest mountain has ever witnessed.

Before she can make begin her ascent, Weidlich must not only find a gap in the weather and a way over the avalanche, but also face down the growing controversies that erupted around continued activity on Everest in the wake of the disaster.

More than 300 international climbers abandoned their goal of reaching the mountain's summit after an April 18 avalanche in the mountain's treacherous Khumbu Icefall killed 16 Nepalese Sherpa mountaineers.

The immediate aftermath of the disaster brought confusion and anger to the mountain as arguments raged over whether climbing should continue, the money paid to Sherpas and compensation for the sacrifices made.

After avalanche, Nepal opens up unclimbed peaks

Domino effect

Some Sherpas called an unofficial moratorium on further climbs, with one group even reportedly sabotaging equipment.

With safety in doubt, many international climbing companies decided to pull the plug, leading to a domino effect that also swept up the independent climbers who rely on shared resources.

"If 30% of your workforce walks away, it compromises your operational capabilities, given the difficulties of finding new porters, cooks, and guides in short time in the Khumbu," said one guide from a leading operator.

Many were resigned to the sudden end to the season.

"I feel very sad about the Sherpas," said Ake Lindstrom, an adventure operator from Tanzania.

"Everybody knows each other; it is a small community and their loss is very tangible. It takes a small amount of empathy to let go of one's frustration."

Weidlich, however, stayed.

Later she was joined by Wang Jing, a 41-year-old Chinese woman also determined to press ahead with an attempt on the summit.

Despite their determination in the face of calls for a halt to climbing, many Sherpas CNN Travel spoke to were not unhappy with their plans.

Instead, they voiced other concerns, including the disparity they perceive between local and international guide salaries, overcrowding on the mountain, a lack of respect to their mountain god and those who died.

There was also anger towards the Nepalese government over its response to the tragedy.

Among the Everest climbing community questions were raised about the safety prior to the deaths.

Some Sherpas said there had been too many on the mountain on the day of the disaster, with long lines forming as people traversed the ladders over crevasses.

Mourning in an Everest Sherpa village

'One mistake and you are done'

"It was so packed that for some, there was no place to hide when the ice started to fall," one said. "We never saw so many people on the icefall on one day."

One expert expressed strong concerns about renewed climbing.

The Pyramid high-altitude research center.

"The mountains are in constant movement, which is what makes the icefall dangerous," said Gian Piero Verza, of the Pyramid high-altitude research center, located at 5,050 meters on Everest.

"You have to consider that in two months of expeditions, some Sherpas spend an average of three hours daily on the icefall to carry their load. For some that is 200 hours in a very dangerous place."

Veteran expedition leader Jamie McGuinness, however, said he was surprised that more did not defy the exodus to take advantage of conditions similar to those when Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay first summited in 1953.

"Hard-core mountaineers would jump at the chance to have Everest and Lhotse all for themselves during the best climbing season," he says.

"But being there without backup is like being back in epic Hillary's time: one mistake and you are done."

Back at Camp 3, in her gale-battered tent, Weidlich is convinced she is doing the right thing by continuing with her plan to summit Lhotse, a peak connected to Everest's South Col.

She says she knows the family of one of the victims and when she visited them after the disaster was not met with hostility and was invited to stay for the funeral.

"I asked them if they felt it would be disrespectful if I continued with my climbing plan," she says. "They were concerned about my safety, but they never brought up the issue of respect."

Weidlich, who is on a personal mission to climb all 14 of the world's mountains over 8,000 meters, says the problem lies with assisted climbing.

"High mountains are dangerous, and climbing is all about the experience. You have to evaluate the risks. But Everest has become a completely different place: it is a showtime place. People come here to make silly records.

American climber recounts how Sherpa saved his life

Climbing in isolation

Weidlich eventually had to abandon her summit attempt.

"This is not real mountaineering. To me, if you cannot free climb a mountain and you need someone else to help you up or down, you don't belong on it."

Weidlich hits out at claims that Sherpas had forced people to abandon the mountain saying they had treated her well.

She also speaks of the excitement of climbing in isolation.

"I am very much looking forward to experiencing the mountain for what it is, without the crowds. It will be rewarding to be in contact with nature -- to hear the cracking of the ice and not the generators."

When at last the gales ease, it is finally time for Weidlich to face the mountain, but she is ultimately unable to reach her goal.

Because of the dangers on the Icefall, both Weidlich and Wang bypass it using helicopters -- a highly controversial move that could invalidate any claim to a successful climb.

Wang reaches the summit of Everest on May 23 along with five Sherpas.

Weidlich, however, decides to abandon her attempt on Lhotse because "that would be like claiming a whole mountain when I would only have climbed half of it."

Shortly afterward, the monsoon closes in for good, leaving Everest to brood alone over another season of triumphs for some and tragedies for others.

Andrea Oschetti is a Hong Kong-based freelance travel writer currently traveling through Bhutan and Nepal.

In shooter's world, victims get blame
5/27/2014 10:02:31 PM

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Emily Lindin: Elliot Rodger is part of a culture that says nice guys are entitled to sex with women
Lindin: Extremely misogynistic sites promote view that women are prizes, not actual people
Lindin: Facebook page created by proponents was called "Elliot Rodger Is an American Hero"
She says we need to eradicate this hate by openly talking about it to children, communities

Emily Lindin

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Why did Pope Francis pray at the wall?
5/27/2014 7:20:13 AM

Pope Francis touches the wall that divides Israel from the West Bank, on his way to celebrate a mass in Manger Square next to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Jay Parini: On Bethlehem trip, Pope makes significant gesture by praying at separation wall
He says Bethlehem hugely powerful for Christians, a place of pilgrimage for Palestinians
Bethlehem a long disputed site among Palestinians, Israel. Pope's move symbolic, he says
Parini: In stopping to pray there, Pope Francis implicitly cries: Tear down this wall!

(CNN) -- "Something there is that doesn't love a wall," wrote Robert Frost. This something is someone now: Pope Francis.

Jay Parini

Ultimately, Israeli snipers shot dead eight people in or around the church; they wounded at least 22, all of them designated as terrorists by the Israeli army.

Pope Francis invites Israeli, Palestinian leaders to Vatican peace talks

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Join us on Facebook/CNNOpinion.

Everest empty: But should you climb?
5/27/2014 6:48:18 AM

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Cleonice Pacheco Weidlich refuses to abandon her Everest climb after 16 killed in mountain tragedy
Disaster prompted concerns over conditions on mountain and calls for an early end to climbing season
Some Sherpas complained over pay and a lack of respect for their traditions and towards those who died
Weidlich says her solo attempt on Lhotse peak had the backing of Sherpas who she says treated her well