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Scenes from the ground in Gaza
7/27/2014 10:29:38 AM
- Gaza residents returned to their neighborhoods during a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas
- "We didn't expect this. Everything is destroyed," one resident says
- Some carry their belongings away in bed sheets or on their heads
(CNN) -- A temporary truce Saturday between Israel and Hamas provided a precious few hours for hundreds of people, who had fled the fighting, the opportunity to learn whether they had a home to return to in Gaza.
Some would use the time to collect belongings from their homes and the bodies of loved ones who were killed in the weeks-old conflict. For others, there was nothing to do except pick through rubble and debris.
During the 12-hour humanitarian cease-fire, a CNN crew traveled to two Gaza neighborhoods -- Shujaya and Beit Hanoun -- hit hard by the fighting.
Here, in their own words, is what they saw:
From Salma Abdelaziz: Losing a home
An elderly woman struggles to scale a mound of rubble and twisted metal.
"Did you see my house? What happened to it?" she asks a neighbor who crosses her path.
"It's all gone," he responds. "There is nothing left"
The two appear small standing amid the massive mounds of debris in Gaza's Beit Hanoun district, where they quietly and calmly converse about the destruction of home after home in their neighborhood.
"Are you sure? What about my niece's house?" the women asks.
"It's demolished. The whole area is demolished." the man says.
Around them, others assess the damage -- in whispered conversations. There is no wailing or screaming from anyone over what was lost.
This is the third conflict in six years for the people of this tiny coastal strip. The people in the neighborhood are calm, almost methodical, in their approach to war and its consequences.
From Ian Lee: Choosing what to save
A family of five stands next to their front door, the only piece of their home in Gaza's Shujaya neighborhood that remains intact.
The building's cinder blocks have been split in half. Shrapnel has peppered the building's exterior. The damage is just too extensive and is unlikely to be repaired.
But there is no time to mourn. The family is fighting against the cease-fire clock, with only a few hours to gather what belongings they can salvage from the rubble.
"We didn't expect this. Everything is destroyed," one family member told CNN. "We are looking for whatever we can carry before heading back to a UN-run shelter."
Despite the extensive damage to their home, they say they feel lucky compared to their neighbor. Just a few feet away, a massive crater marks the spot where their neighbor's home once stood.
There is nobody there to gather belongings left behind. Nothing is left.
From Karl Penhaul: Proof of a life
Wooden doors were blown off their hinges. Through the gap, I could pick out Mohammed Al-Zaneen tip-toeing through the debris of his three-story home in Gaza's Beit Hanoun neighborhood.
He gently plucked a framed photo from a wall. It was a picture of his grandfather Said Al-Zaneen, the patriarch of Al-Zaneen's sprawling family. The old man died long ago. But Al-Zaneen appears intent on rescuing his grandfather's memory.
Then the rubble gave up another treasure, a green plastic folder. As Mohammed sifted through it, he discovered the family's birth certificates and school diplomas.
For a people caught in the midst of a brutal war, Al-Zaneen, like so many other civilians in Gaza, is desperate to find any scrap of paper that proves he still exists.
From Joe Sheffer: Through the lens
Peering through my lens, I see the vista of the Gaza neighborhood of Beit Hanoun: the anarchy, the rubbish, the empty shell casings and the lingering smoke.
The scene is one of displaced families, and a strange sense of calm, as they collect whatever fragments of their lives they could salvage.
Then, through the lens, there appears an almost timeless scene -- three women clutching their few possessions, walking through the smoke that pours from gutted buildings.
They are followed down the rubble-strewn road by a man who is leading a horse. A foal apprehensively trails the procession, being lead to safety from the inferno.
Through the seemingly never-ending rubble, across the power lines that bisect the road and the stench of rot, this small quiet procession of will marches before me. The image seems almost biblical, if it wasn't so clearly a vignette of modern warfare.
From Abdelaziz: The rubbish of war
A young boy in a yellow shirt carries a plastic bag and walks indifferently through the ruins of Beit Hanoun neighborhood in a pair of dusty black flip-flops.
His relatives walk alongside, carrying a few possessions bundled in bed sheets and balanced on their heads.
He stops for a moment in front of me, stares me straight in the eyes, and -- without uttering a single word -- throws a handful of machine gun ammunition casings at my feet.
My eyes follow him as he walks away, almost begging him to speak.
But his message is clear to me: He has no room for the rubbish of this war.
Malaysian PM's 'quiet diplomacy'
7/27/2014 6:55:04 AM
- Malaysian prime minister worked contacts to start talks with rebel leader, source said
- On Tuesday, Najib Razak announced MH17 bodies, flight recorders would be returned
- Najib's step-grandmother was on flight shot down near Ukrainian-Russian border last week
- 298 people died in the disaster, the second for Malaysia Airlines in five months
(CNN) -- It was a moment of triumph amid a personal tragedy for Malaysian leader Najib Razak.
In the early hours of Tuesday morning, he could finally stand in front of his nation with news of a deal -- the breakthrough to release MH17's flight recorders from rebels' hands, and, as important, to bring home the remains of the victims.
Najib's own step-grandmother was on the flight, which was shot down near the Ukrainian-Russian border last Thursday. The second wife of his grandfather was flying to Malaysia to celebrate Hari Raya -- the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
As he comforted his own family, as well as others who had lost loved ones, the Malaysian leader was working to unlock a standoff that had generated a political firestorm, said a source close to the prime minister.
Where was the anger?
Hundreds of bodies lay amid wreckage in an isolated field in what was described as "the world's biggest crime scene." They were being guarded by armed separatists who were refusing to give international monitors access to the site and material evidence.
Days after the crash, critics had started to question why the Malaysian leader had not made the same angry demands for answers heard from other world leaders.
The Boeing 777 shot down over Ukraine was the country's national carrier. It was carrying 298 people who trusted they'd reach their destination. It was the second catastrophic event to hit the airline in five months, following the unprecedented disappearance of flight MH370.
And, behind the Netherlands, Malaysia lost the greatest number of citizens on flight MH17: 43 people, including 15 crew. Where was the Malaysian leader's condemnation?
"It's really important that he did not start blaming anyone before getting what he needed," said Wan Saiful Wan Jan, a political commentator and CEO of the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs in Kuala Lumpur.
"If he had taken an aggressive stance right form the beginning we may not get the bodies and the black boxes," he said.
Strategy of 'quiet diplomacy'
From day one, according to the source, Najib had set his own diplomatic course; a strategy of quiet diplomacy.
Working with a small group -- less than a handful -- he set about making personal contact with the self-declared leader of the Donetsk separatists, Alexander Borodai.
Although Najib was in touch with the leaders of Russia, Europe, Ukraine and the United States, he was also using back channels to get to the man who controlled the crash site, the source said.
"He is a well-connected man. He was talking to people who could contact Borodai and eventually he came up with someone. And then he made personal contact," the source told CNN.
The first contact was made last Saturday, nearly two days after MH17 was downed. From then on, the two had "numerous" conversations, the source said, including some on Najib's personal mobile phone.
According to the source, Malaysia was regarded by the rebel leader as a non-aligned party in what had become a war of words between Russia and the West.
On top of that, the prime minister is seen by some as having a reputation as a deal-broker. He was instrumental in securing a peace deal between Islamic separatists in the southern Philippines and Manila.
Were claims over-stated?
However, Najib's claims to have brokered the deal with the pro-Russian rebel leader have been met with skepticism by some who say his role in the negotiations may be over-stated.
"I think he wanted to do the right thing there -- he calls it quiet diplomacy. He calls it a victory.... I don't think it can be called a success," said Gerhard Hoffstaedter from the University of Queensland, Australia.
Hoffstaedter said many of the bodies may have been handed over to authorities -- but not all of them. In addition, he said, the handover came much later than many Muslims would have hoped.
According to religious custom, bodies should be buried as soon as possible after death. The victims of MH17 had been left in a field in Ukraine for three days before their removal.
It's also unclear what Malaysia promised the rebels in order to secure the deal, Hoffstaedter added.
International pressure was growing on Borodai to co-operate with investigators, but Malaysian staff who were involved with the process believe the one-on-one contact was critical, and that a non-threatening Malaysia was the perfect negotiating partner.
Najib Razak, Malaysian prime minister
"This has been a huge success for Najib domestically. He is clearly more popular now, the opposition is siding with him, even his critics are praising him," Wan Saiful said.
Prime minister under pressure
After facing international criticism of the country's handling of the MH370 disaster, the prime minister was under pressure to prove he was able to act quickly and decisively in the case of MH17.
The relief that his diplomacy had paid off was palpable when Najib began to speak to the nation in a televised address.
As he announced the deal with Borodai, he also gave the first public hint of his strategy.
"In recent days, there were times I wanted to give greater voice to the anger and grief that the Malaysian people feel. And that I feel. But sometimes, we must work quietly in the service of a better outcome," he said.
However, Wan Saiful said the real test of Najib's leadership will come when it's time to speak out against the perpetrators.
"The government should be more aggressive when there's concrete evidence. When that happens, it's very important to work with the international community, and to form a coalition to call for the perpetrators to be punished and brought to justice.
"When that happens, it's not really a matter of whether the PM is willing to be aggressive or not. He has to, otherwise it shows weak leadership," he said.
Bodies en route to the Netherlands
Who are Ukraine's pro-Russia rebels?
Unanswered questions
Danny Lin contributed to this report.
Why we need Asian superheroes
7/27/2014 2:40:57 AM
- Marvel is creating an African-American Captain America and a female Thor
- Jeff Yang: It's great to see the comics make an effort at diversifying the halls of justice
- He asks when will there be an Asian-American superhero we can identify with?
- Yang: Green Turtle, an Asian-American hero created in 1940s, may be coming back to life
Editor's note: Jeff Yang is a columnist for The Wall Street Journal Online and can be heard frequently on radio as a contributor to shows such as PRI's "The Takeaway" and WNYC's "The Brian Lehrer Show." He is the author of "I Am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action" and editor of the graphic novel anthologies "Secret Identities" and "Shattered." The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
(CNN) -- Why did I fall in love with superheroes?
For me, it was all about the masks.
You see, growing up in the '70s, I learned early on that expecting to see someone who looked like me in a heroic role on TV or in the movies was like waiting for a unicorn to wander into our living room. When Asians did show up, it was usually in thankless, forgettable roles as nameless henchmen or comic relief: mules and donkeys, not unicorns.
Which is why I turned to the world of comics. The bigger-than-life icons who fought for truth, justice and the American way in comic books often donned cowls, helmets and hoods to hide their identities to protect their loved ones from the vengeance of their diabolical nemeses. But their masks also allowed me to imagine myself (or someone very like me) beneath the Lycra Spandex.
While I never quite felt authentic pretending to be James Bond, agent 007, or Steve Austin, the Six Million Dollar Man, a few tiny tweaks were all it took to become Batman or Spider-Man. All I had to do was re-envision Bruce Wayne as Bruce Wang, Peter Parker as Peter Park. The rest of their stories readily fell in line: Child of a doctor? Check. Nerdy science student? Check.
Masks made the magic possible.
When the masks came off, however, the fantasy ended. Batman was revealed as a billionaire WASP playboy, and Spider-Man a working-class Irish-American from Forest Hills, both with sparkling blue eyes.
And that's why I'm holding off on getting too excited over Marvel's recent announcements that Captain America will pass his shield and red, white and blue tights on to his African-American friend and partner Sam Wilson, and Thor, God of Thunder, will turn his winged helmet, his mighty hammer Mjolnir and his divine powers over to an as-yet-unnamed woman. Costumes are just clothes. In the world of comics, they get passed around like the sniffles at a kindergarten.
Don't get me wrong. It's great to see the comics make an effort at diversifying the halls of justice. A look at any toy aisle or movie marquee is all you need to see the degree to which superheroes have moved to the very center of our pop culture.
Maybe that's because, as celebrated graphic novelist Gene Luen Yang says, "Superheroes are quintessentially American. They were created in America, they're most popular in America, and in many ways, they embody American ideals. That's why we want diverse heroes: because we want to affirm that anyone can be an American."
But just swapping costumes doesn't quite do that — not in a permanent way, anyway. "The problem with nonwhite characters taking over the legacies of established white characters is that the changes never seem to stick," says Yang. "The Asian-American Atom got a sword in his belly. The African-American Goliath got lightning-bolted through the heart. The Asian-American Wasp got eaten by a supervillain. And the African-American Green Lantern simply receded to the background when it came time to make a major motion picture. The costume almost always reverts back to the original wearer."
And when the costumes go away, the secret identities beneath them remain. Cartoonist Vishavjit Singh saw this firsthand when he decided to go out in public in a Captain America costume, modified to accommodate his Sikh turban and beard, testing Yang's premise that "anyone can be American."
"The transformation of how people saw and responded to me was startling," says Singh. "Americans and tourists alike were turning heads, breaking out into smiles, offering high fives and warm words of support. But as soon as I got out of the costume, I encountered stereotypical epithets about my turban and beard."
The fact is, the only way to really make the superhero universe look like America (and by extension, the world) is to create fresh, new heroes who represent us in all our vibrant diversity, with origin stories that are authentic to their identities.
In the graphic novel collections, "Secret Identities" and "Shattered," my co-editors and I challenged Asian-American comic creators to pen original tales of Asian-American superheroes who were Asian-American from the very beginning. This was just a small step in the right direction.
Because when you create new heroes, they don't have the weight of history behind them. Superman boosted spirits in the wake of the Great Depression and fought Nazis in World War II. He's woven into our nation's fabric. It takes the passage of time for a hero to achieve cultural capital, something that will take decades for modern heroes-come-lately.
Fortunately, it turns out an Asian-American superhero of Golden Age vintage actually exists. Back in the early 1940s, one of the few Asian-Americans working in comics was Chu F. Hing, who invented the Green Turtle — a character he reportedly conceived of as Chinese-American. However, with "yellow peril" fears rampant in the years after World War II, Chu was forbidden by his editors to reveal that the Turtle was Asian. In defiance, Chu never drew his Turtle out of costume, and the character quickly fell into obscurity.
Now, the Turtle is back. Gene Yang and collaborator Sonny Liew, in a new graphic novel called "The Shadow Hero," are giving him a fresh origin story that shows his rise from Chinatown grocery store stock boy to invincible Chinese-American crime buster — under the watchful tutelage of his cranky uncle and overprotective mom.
In doing so, they've brought this original Asian-American superhero to the attention of a new era. This means that for my kids and future generations, there might finally be a masked marvel they can legitimately call their own — one whose origins are deeply rooted in our nation's past, yet whose features reflect the ones they see when they look in the mirror.
To me, that would be super.
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Rice ruling: What is NFL thinking?
7/27/2014 7:17:44 PM
- Baltimore running back suspended for two games after domestic violence incident
- Carol Costello: I thought men didn't attack women they loved, until it happened to me
- Costello: In my case, as in others, the woman victim wound up getting blamed
- Fathers have to teach their children that violence against women isn't OK, she says
Editor's note: Carol Costello anchors the 9 a.m. 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) -- My dad told me real men don't hit women.
He believed that because men were physically stronger and mentally tougher, men had the obligation to shield women from harm.
I didn't buy the mentally tougher part, but I did embrace the idea that men were born with a kind of wonderful genetic code that made it impossible for them to pummel any woman, least of all a woman they cherished.
I believed this all the way through grade school and high school. I believed it until my college boyfriend, in a jealous rage, threw me against the wall and knocked me out.
It only happened once, but I remember how it felt. I always thought I was a physically strong woman, but I could not defend myself against a man who outweighed me by 70 pounds.
Which brings me to star running back Ray Rice.
When video emerged of the Baltimore Ravens player dragging his unconscious fiancée from an elevator, I thought the whole world would be horrified. I thought the National Football League would come down hard on Rice.
Rice indicted on assault charge
I was wrong.
Rice will sit out two games and pay a fine. It reportedly will cost the multimillionaire athlete $529,411.24.
The Ravens' head coach, John Harbaugh, summed it up this way on ESPN:
"It's not a big deal. It's just part of the process. We said from the beginning that the circumstances would determine the consequences. There are consequences when you make a mistake like that. I stand behind Ray. He's a heck of a guy. He's done everything right since. He makes a mistake. He's going to have to pay a consequence." (In May, Rice pleaded not guilty to one count of third-degree aggravated assault and was accepted into a pretrial program for first offenders.)
Plus, come on! The guy went to counseling and married his victim, for goodness sake.
Say what?
In a wonderfully headlined post, "The NFL Thinks Smoking Weed Is Eight Times Worse Than Beating a Woman Unconscious," the website sports.mic contrasted Rice's situation with that of Josh Gordon, a wide receiver for the Cleveland Browns, who "is facing a 16-game suspension ... for testing positive for marijuana ..."
Actually this strange kind of "justice" meted out by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell doesn't bother me as much as what the Ravens posted on their Twitter feed. According to whoever tweets for the Ravens, Janay Rice herself "deeply regrets the role she played the night of the incident."
Perhaps the new Mrs. Rice really does feel that way, but the Ravens' "helpful" tweet is as tone deaf as John Harbaugh's Rice "made a mistake/he's a heck of a guy" comment.
Ayonna Johnson, director of legal services for the Women's Resource Center to End Domestic Violence, says, "When it comes to ... professional sports, unfortunately we're still in a male-dominant society." A girlfriend or a wife, she says, "has to bend themselves down, bend herself lower, and make her partner and her love interest shine a little brighter."
Even when her manly, wealthy, successful husband is clearly wrong.
Put more bluntly, take the blame, Honey, you probably deserved it.
I don't say that lightly. After my boyfriend knocked me out, I expected my friends to rally around me. Most did not. "He's such a nice guy," they told me in disbelief. "You must have made him really mad. You say some mean stuff. He really loves you."
ESPN's Stephen Smith played the role of my callous former friends on his show, "First Take." He assured his audience that, PERSONALLY, "as a man raised by women," he knows full well there's never an "excuse to put your hands on a woman," except, that is, when you must.
Smith blathered, "We also have to make sure that we learn as much as we can about elements of provocation."
In other words, Ladies, don't provoke your man or he'll deck you.
Smith's colleague -- and my new hero -- Michelle Beadle tweeted, "I'm thinking about wearing a miniskirt this weekend ... I'd hate to think what I'd be asking for by doing so."
Smith tried to apologize, but the damage was done. Perhaps the NFL will try to apologize too, but again, the damage is done.
So, Mr. Goodell, a few facts for you to ponder for the future: According to safehorizon.org, one in four women will experience domestic violence during her lifetime. One-third of female homicide victims are killed by their current or former partner.
According to the Coalition Against Domestic Violence, boys who witness domestic abuse are twice as likely to abuse their own partners and children when they become adults.
It's why I thank God every day I married a man whose father was as old-fashioned as mine. Gordon Snyder taught his sons a slightly different version, though. Gordy said, "A man who hits a woman never hits a man."
Are you listening, Mr. Goodell?
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How North Korea gets its power
7/27/2014 6:29:31 PM
- North Korea had fired artillery shells into the sea near the border with South Korea
- Frida Ghitis: North Korea is simultaneously threatening, bizarre and brutal
- She says it's tempting to ignore North Korea's antics as bluster, as empty threats
- Ghitis: But by firing missiles, threatening neighbors, it is volatile and dangerous
Editor's note: Frida Ghitis is a world affairs columnist for the Miami Herald and World Politics Review. A former CNN producer and correspondent, she is the author of "The End of Revolution: A Changing World in the Age of Live Television." Follow her on Twitter @FridaGhitis. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) -- The last bit of news I heard before boarding a plane to Seoul a few days ago was that North Korea had just fired 100 artillery shells into the sea near the border with South Korea.
Disturbing news from North Korea comes just as often as stories that make us laugh in disbelief. The many quirky, mystifying, baffling developments in Pyongyang make its young ruler, Kim Jung Un, an irresistible target for comedians.
It was hard to suppress a laugh, for example, when North Korea severely declared that an upcoming satirical Hollywood movie constituted "an act of war" and filed an official complaint with the United Nations.
Those are two sides of North Korea -- deliberately frightening and inadvertently comical. Then there's a third side -- the part that makes us gasp in horror.
A yearlong investigation conducted by the United Nations found that North Korea is a country whose depth of brutality "does not have any parallel in the contemporary world."
According to the report, North Korea engages in murder, torture, slavery and mass starvation to terrorize the population into submission. Stories from refugees who have escaped from North Korea are a chilling reminder that the regime is not just a military threat, it is causing a terrible humanitarian crisis.
North Korea is a Riddle Kingdom that is simultaneously threatening, bizarre and brutal. The regime's unpredictability is one of the factors that allow a small, impoverished state, unable to feed its own people, to stand toe to toe with much more powerful rivals.
It is those random, capricious, frequently dangerous behaviors that allow fragile, brittle, bankrupt North Korea to force its dazzlingly successful neighbor, South Korea, to maintain a constant state of alert, to wonder if its capital city can survive an attack across a border that lies just 35 miles away.
With its conventional and nuclear arsenals, North Korea manages to keep the international community, including the United States, scrambling for an approach that might neutralize the danger and send a lifeline to the victims of the cruel regime.
It's tempting to ignore North Korea's antics as bluster, as empty threats. But Pyongyang has launched deadly attacks. For example, in 2010, it bombed a South Korean island about 70 miles from Seoul, killing four people. It may also have launched a torpedo that same year which sank a South Korean navy ship, killing 46. In 2013, the North detonated a nuclear device and brazenly threatened to launch a "pre-emptive nuclear attack" against the U.S. A fourth nuclear test could be imminent.
After the most recent escalation, South Korean President Park Geun-hye spoke to military leaders and told them to prepare to retaliate. She described Pyongyang as so erratic that you cannot see "even an inch ahead."
The news from North Korea can be so disconcerting that spoofs and rumors regularly make it into the news and social media as if they were fact. Ahead of the World Cup finals a satirical video purportedly showing a North Korean newscast declaring the North's team a finalist for the World Cup went viral, repeated as if it were true, as just another amusing moment from Pyongyang.
And, why not? Truth and fiction are hard to tell apart.
Pyongyang has created its own version of the world for domestic consumption. North Korean government researchers announced their country is the second happiest in the world -- second only to China. The late ruler, Kim Jung Il, was reported to have bowled a perfect game the first time he set foot on a bowling alley. He was also supposedly the world's best golfer.
The official biography of the country's rulers has looked like something out of a Marvel Comics book story. No official biography of the current Kim has been released, other than an account that says he was "born in heaven." That would fit with his father, Kim Jong Il's official story, which claims he was born under a double rainbow with the seasons spontaneously changing and a new star appearing in the sky for the occasion.
The three generations of Kim men who have ruled the North are painted as supernatural to the local population. Abroad, they are cartoonish figures, whose behavior can leave diplomats and strategists scratching their heads.
Just a few months ago, the government published a gasp-inducing racist tirade against President Barack Obama, calling him a "clown" who "does not even have the basic appearance of a human being." It suggested he live with monkeys in a zoo. Racism, a myth of racial superiority, is a striking feature of the culture promoted by the regime.
The authorities have created their own reality, brainwashed the population to keep the state functioning and the regime secure. To anyone who commits what the government deems an infraction, the punishment is inconceivably harsh.
It's all part of the riddle that keeps the world guessing, off-balance and nervous. By firing missiles, threatening neighbors and acting erratically, North Korea portrays itself as mysterious and volatile, and even that perception magnifies its ability to create fear, adding to its power and helping keep the despotic regime in control.
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This won't be AIDS-free generation
7/27/2014 6:21:34 PM
- Globally, 5 million young people between the ages of 15 and 24 are living with HIV
- Only one in five American high school students has been tested
- Survey shows teens don't worry about becoming infected, may not be using protection
(CNN) -- He was just 18 years old when he got the news. It was the summer before his senior year in high school.
"I had a fever of 103," Bryan Seth Johnson said. "My body was hurting; I wasn't eating, couldn't hold down food. I just felt weak all the time."
He went to the hospital, told them he was having difficulty swallowing and was treated for tonsillitis. But he didn't have tonsillitis.
Johnson had the human immunodeficiency virus, better known as HIV.
"I was basically in shock, because the guy I got HIV from works in the HIV-prevention field," Johnson recalled. "He deleted me from Facebook and basically cut all communication out."
At the time, Johnson was getting tested for sexually transmitted diseases every three months at SMYAL, an organization dedicated to supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and questioning youth in Washington. Johnson says he generally practiced safe sex, but once, when he was under the influence, he had unprotected sex.
Still, "I was in denial at the time. I thought it might be a false test."
So he got retested. He remembers the date: September 16. The result was the same.
"The bus ride home was so quiet. Even though there was a whole bunch of noise around me, I blocked everything out."
At home, he could not tell his mother; her baby brother had died of AIDS complications two years before Johnson was born.
One in a million
At the 20th International AIDS Conference in Melbourne, Australia, this week, young people from over 50 countries gathered to make sure the issues of their generation were heard.
The numbers are quite startling.
Globally, 5 million young people between the ages of 15 and 24 are living with HIV. They represent 41% of all new infections. About 2,500 young people become infected every day, according to Advocates for Youth, an organization that works here and in developing countries.
In the United States, 26% of all new HIV infections are among young people ages 13 to 24, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most new infections are among young gay and bisexual males.
Yet only one in five high school students who has had sex has been tested for HIV, according to a new CDC report (PDF) on sexual risk behaviors. Although the majority of sexually active teens report using condoms, those numbers are decreasing, said Dr. Stephanie Zaza, director of the CDC's Division of Adolescent and School Health.
"Teens are unaware of their risk of HIV and how to protect themselves," Zaza said. "As parents and health professionals, and as educators, we need to take responsibility to help them learn about HIV."
Adam Tanner, executive director of Metro TeenAIDS
'We know what works'
A staggering 60% of youths with HIV in the United States don't know that they are infected, which leads us to an even more troubling statistic: In 2011, about 3,000 young people in this country were diagnosed with AIDS, an increase of 29% since 2008.
"That makes me sick to my stomach," said Adam Tanner, executive director of Metro TeenAIDS in Washington. "I'm horrified. I think we're in a moment now where there is more complacency around HIV."
Metro TeenAIDS is a community health organization working with young people to end HIV/AIDS. It's where Johnson went to be retested, and after his diagnosis, he began volunteering with the group. Tanner says two-thirds of Metro TeenAIDS' clients who come in for testing have had unprotected sex in the past year.
Two years ago, a Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that 64% of 15- to 24-year-olds in the United States don't get tested because they think they're not at risk. More than 40% said they didn't get tested because their doctors never suggested it.
"We know what works to end the epidemic," Tanner said. "We have better medications than we've ever had before. We need to arm young people with basic education about how HIV is transmitted. ... All the data suggest that by fourth grade, we should be starting those conversations about sex."
The United States is one of 10 countries that make up 61% of HIV cases, says Cornelius Baker, acting director of the HIV/AIDS division at the nonprofit group FHI 360.
"We have the tools to protect our young people through education, quality health care and family and community support," Baker said. "If we continue to fail them, our hopes of an AIDS-free generation will be lost."
Safe sex or no sex
Brennan Stewart, 22, understands the importance of educating young people. He was diagnosed with HIV at age 16. Stewart had just had a routine physical and blood work done. His mother delivered the news.
"My first thought was death. I was going to die," Stewart recalled. "I felt like, oh, my God, I'm just this dirty person. ... I've contracted something that's going to mess up my life."
He's not sure how he got it. He says he practiced safe sex but not all the time. He never got sick, never had any symptoms of the disease.
A few months after the diagnosis, he started taking medication. Today, he takes one pill a day and has no side effects. He says his viral load is undetectable.
Metro TeenAIDS has kept him on track, making sure he does what he needs to do to stay healthy. He wants other teens to know what he learned the "extremely" hard way.
"If you think it can't happen to you, it can," he said emphatically. "You have to get tested, because if you don't, you can put your life in danger, as well as somebody else's life."
Oh, "and wrap it up," he said. "Either safe sex or no sex."
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ISIS Militants destroy Jonah's tomb
7/26/2014 8:34:58 AM
- Tomb is said to be the burial place of the prophet Jonah in Mosul, Iraq
- A video shows tomb's destruction
- ISIS has blown up Sunni holy sites in Iraqi city
Editor's note: Read a version of this story in Arabic.
(CNN) -- If you blink during the video, you might miss the moment an explosion destroys what is said to have been the tomb of Jonah, a key figure in Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
The first few frames show the revered shrine towering over its landscape. Then comes a sudden burst of dust, fire and smoke.
Then, nothing.
Militants with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, planted explosives around the tomb and detonated them remotely Thursday, civil defense officials there told CNN.
The holy site is said to be the burial place of the prophet Jonah, who was swallowed by a whale or great fish in the Islamic and Judeo-Christian traditions.
CNN could not immediately confirm the authenticity of the video, which was posted to YouTube.
The tomb was inside a Sunni mosque called the Mosque of the Prophet Yunus, which is Arabic for Jonah.
ISIS is waging war against the Iraqi government and has taken over several cities. It is seeking to create an Islamic caliphate that encompasses parts of Iraq and Syria and has begun imposing Sharia law in the towns it controls.
ISIS is part of a puritanical strain of Islam that considers all religious shrines -- Islamic, Christian, Jewish, etc. -- idolatrous.
Biblical scholars are divided on whether the tomb in Mosul actually belonged to Jonah. In the Jewish tradition, he returns to his hometown of Gath-Hepher after his mission to Nineveh. And some modern scholars say the Jonah story is more myth than history.
Still, the story of Jonah is told often in the Christian tradition and has special resonance for that faith, scholars Joel S. Baden and Candida Moss write in a piece on CNN's Belief Blog.
"In Christian tradition, the story of Jonah is an important one," they say. "Jonah's descent into the depths in the belly of the great fish and subsequent triumphant prophetic mission to Nineveh is seen as a reference to and prototype of the death and resurrection of Jesus."
Baden is professor of Hebrew Bible at Yale Divinity School. Moss is a professor of New Testament and early Christianity at the University of Notre Dame.
They refer to the destruction of Jonah's tomb as "an attack on both those Christians living in Iraq today and on the rich, if little-known, Christian heritage of the region."
The book of Jonah tells the story of him balking at first when God tells him to go to Nineveh to preach. Instead, Jonah sails in another direction, where he encounters a great storm and winds up being swallowed by a great fish. He spends a few days in the belly of the fish before emerging alive to follow God's instruction to go to Nineveh.
Mosul, the second-largest city in Iraq, is near Nineveh, once a powerful city of the ancient world.
Christian families fled Mosul this month after the al Qaeda splinter group issued an ultimatum to Iraqi Christians living there: Convert to Islam, pay a fine or face "death by the sword."
ISIS has blown up several Sunni holy sites in the last few weeks in Mosul.
Last month, it destroyed seven Shiite places of worship in the predominantly Shiite Turkmen city of Tal Afar, about 31 miles (50 kilometers) west of Mosul, Human Rights Watch has reported, citing local sources.
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CNN's Hamdi Alkhshali contributed to this report.
Botched executions can't be norm
7/27/2014 8:28:10 PM
- Four men have been subjected to botched executions this year, authors say
- In Arizona, it took Joseph Wood two hours to die
- Authors say states veil their procedures in secrecy, contributing to the problem
- States must disclose much more information and courts should review process, they say
Editor's note: Megan McCracken and Jennifer Moreno are attorneys with the Death Penalty Clinic, Lethal Injection Project, at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the authors. CNN's original series "Death Row Stories" explores America's capital punishment system at 10 p.m. ET/PT Sundays. Join the conversation about the death penalty at facebook.com/cnn or Twitter @CNNOrigSeries using #DeathRowStories.
(CNN) -- On Wednesday, July 23, the State of Arizona executed Joseph Rudolph Wood in the fourth visibly bungled execution this year. The execution began at 1:52 p.m. According to eyewitness Michael Kiefer, "Wood was unconscious by 1:57 p.m. At about 2:05, he started gasping." He continued to gasp for over 90 minutes.
Afterward, eyewitness Troy Hayden reported, "Joe Wood is dead, but it took him two hours to die. To watch a man lay there for an hour and 40 minutes gulping air, I can liken it to, if you catch a fish and throw it on the shore, the way the fish opens and closes its mouth."
Kiefer counted more than 640 gasps.
Arizona engaged in a failed experiment. Its new execution protocol called for administration of two drugs, midazolam and hydromorphone. The only other time this drug combination had been used was the prolonged and similarly disturbing Ohio execution of Dennis McGuire, who took 24 minutes to die and struggled for air for 10 to 13 minutes.
Eyewitness Alan Johnson reported that McGuire "gasped deeply. It was kind of a rattling, guttural sound. There was kind of a snorting through his nose. A couple of times, he definitely appeared to be choking."
Faced with these well-documented problems, Arizona adopted Ohio's procedure but increased the amount of each drug (from 10 milligrams to 50 milligrams for midazolam and from 40mg to 50mg for hydromorphone). The state refused to reveal, however, its process for selecting the new doses or whether it conducted due diligence to determine that its protocol would be more effective. Notwithstanding the changes Arizona made to the drug formula, Wood's execution went even worse than McGuire's.
Despite requests from Wood's lawyers, Arizona also refused to reveal the source of its drugs -- including the manufacturer, lot number and expiration date -- and the qualifications of its execution team members.
Nothing about this information would compromise the identity of those participating in executions, but it would allow the courts and the public to analyze whether the execution procedures will work as intended and bring about death in a way that meets the requirements of the Eighth Amendment.
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Four men -- Michael Wilson, McGuire, Clayton Lockett and Wood -- have been subjected to bungled executions this year. Although the drugs, doses and other details of the procedures differed in each execution, the commonality between them is that the departments of corrections used experimental drug combinations and shielded crucial aspects of their practices in secrecy.
Even in the aftermath of the executions, the lack of transparency continues. While governors in both Oklahoma and Arizona have called for reviews of the problematic executions, no outside authorities have been brought in to conduct the investigations.
Internal investigations are insufficient to the task. Departments of corrections cannot be allowed to provide pat explanations that leave central questions unanswered, minimize errors and hide relevant information about what went wrong.
Instead, there must be independent investigations of each execution that goes awry and thorough, public reporting of the results. Without truly independent investigations, it will be impossible to make meaningful conclusions about what went wrong or to determine if changes can be made to ensure that the same errors do not happen again.
Chemical mix and human error lead to controversial executions
The botched executions in Arizona, Ohio and Oklahoma show us that when states are allowed to devise novel, untested execution protocols without judicial scrutiny or public oversight, the resulting procedures are unreliable. And when the unreliable procedures are implemented, the consequences are gruesome and horrific.
States cannot be allowed to continue carrying out death sentences without judicial review of their execution procedures. The courts must require departments of corrections to disclose key aspects of these procedures, particularly with respect to the provenance of the drugs used and the qualifications of the execution personnel.
Without this oversight, botched executions will become the new norm. No additional executions should proceed until the states act with transparency, and the courts scrutinize execution procedures to ensure that they comport with the U.S. Constitution.
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Second Air Algerie 'black box' found
7/26/2014 9:34:28 AM
- French President Hollande declares three days of mourning for victims
- The second flight data recorder has been found, a U.N. spokeswoman says
- Air Algerie Flight 5017 crashed early Thursday, less than an hour after takeoff
- More than 100 people were on board; none survived the crash
(CNN) -- France has declared a three-day mourning period to commemorate the victims of the Air Algerie Flight 5017 crash, French President Francois Hollande declared on Saturday.
Following a meeting with families of the victims, Hollande said flags will fly at half-staff on government buildings from Monday through Wednesday.
Fifty-four of the 118 victims were French nationals.
The second flight data recorder from has been found in Mali, a U.N. official said Saturday.
A team from the U.N. mission to Mali, known as MINUSMA, is assisting the Malian authorities, at the request of that country's government, spokeswoman Radhia Achouri said.
There were no survivors on the flight, which took off Thursday from Burkina Faso bound for Algeria.
Accounts of the number of people on board continue to differ. Air Algerie says 117 passengers and six crew were on the plane, but France says there were 118 victims in total. The Algerian government said there were 116 passengers and six crew.
The wreckage was found in what Hollande said was a "disintegrated state" in Mali's Gossi region, not far from the border with Burkina Faso.
The first data recorder, or black box, was found at the crash site on Friday. The cause of the crash is not yet confirmed, but weather may have been a factor.
Less than an hour into the flight, the aircraft, an MD-83, disappeared from radar after changing its flight path because of bad weather, officials said.
The U.N. mission's support includes logistics, transportation, technical and scientific expertise, as well as help securing the crash site, which is in a remote and inaccessible location.
"Our experts assists the Malians and the French in the search of the site, collecting bodies, providing body bags and in securing the site aiming to speed up the work," said Achouri.
As part of French efforts to assist, 33 French forensic experts arrived at the crash site Saturday.
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Is Obama a lame duck president?
7/28/2014 7:34:23 AM
- Popular image is that lame duck presidents are powerless, just serving out their term
- Julian Zelizer: Lame ducks actually can accomplish things, by responding to crises
- Don't write off the chance of Mideast breakthrough by President Obama, he says
- Zelizer: Circumstances can create powerful opportunities for change
Editor's note: Julian Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. He is the author of "Jimmy Carter" and "Governing America." The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
(CNN) -- According to the conventional wisdom, lame duck presidents can't do very much. The popular image is that they are killing time, maybe grabbing a beer with the locals, until the new guy or gal comes to town.
There are many reasons why the lame duck period is so daunting. Presidents can't scare their opponents with the threat of what they will do in or after the next election, while opponents are prepared to double down in their obstruction to destroy the legacy of the White House and prevent a departing president from making gains that will benefit his party.
For voters, gone is the thrill of the original election. Now they are well aware of all the president's flaws and failures. At the same time, members of the president's party in Congress are reluctant to take any more big risks for their leader given that he will soon be gone—and hopefully they will not.
But the truth is that a lot can happen in the final years of a presidency. The notion that this is dead political time doesn't hold water. While all the obstacles facing presidents in the lame duck period are very real, there are a number of factors that can allow a president to make significant progress at this key moment.
A crisis is the most important factor. Stuff happens in politics, and sometimes a crisis creates a window of opportunity for presidential action even when Congress has been gridlocked for long periods. When major crises occur—whether economic, humanitarian, natural or national security--presidents can find that public pressure is so great for government action they can twist and turn Congress into action.
This has happened many times. Most recently, President George W. Bush was able to implement the surge in Iraq when his policies in 2007 seemed to be failing. Even though the public had turned against him and Congress came under Democratic control in 2006, the Iraqi civil war created room for action. When the bottom fell out of financial markets in fall 2008, Bush was also able to push through the TARP program that bailed out the banks and restored some stability to financial markets.
On the surface President Obama faces a crisis in the Middle East and Eastern Europe that will further drag him down. This weekend he reached out to Israeli Prime Minister Benajmin Netanyahu to try to encourage efforts for peace in the Middle East. Many people are skeptical that the president will have much luck achieving any kind of breakthrough.
But if Secretary of State John Kerry can manage to broker a cease-fire, combined with some broader accord that stabilizes the situation in the Middle East, this could be considered one of the President's greatest triumphs.
And if Obama can bring international pressure to bear on Russia and its allied rebels to a point that President Vladimir Putin backs off from his aggressive path, this too could prove to be a credit to the President's record.
On domestic policy the multiple court decisions that continue to raise questions about the Affordable Care Act could create an opportunity for President Obama to go back to Congress to fix and strengthen the legislation.
International diplomatic pressure is a force that can operate outside the normal political cycle. Sometimes actions by foreign leaders can emerge to provide huge opportunities for effective leadership.
This was certainly the case with Mikhail Gorbachev, who pushed hard to complete negotiations over the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 1987 even as President Ronald Reagan faced intense push-back from the right. The result was that Reagan regained his standing after the disastrous impact of the Iran Contra scandal and in 1987 signed an agreement that is considered one of his most important achievements. Today, with world events so chaotic, President Obama would be eager and receptive to any new voice that emerges from the tumult to help achieve peace.
Midterms can also push elected officials toward agreements. Voters can shift the political winds in Washington. If Republicans do extremely well in 2014, as conservatives hope, the results could embolden the GOP and perhaps frighten Democrats into deals on issues like border control.
If Democrats do better than expected, holding back the traditional losses that usually take place, they could end up causing fear among Republicans that they need to make some deals or they will do even worse in the 2016 election. President Obama could use that kind of leverage to push through the immigration reform plan that has eluded him.
When the GOP only scored meager gains in the 1998 midterm elections, which came at the height of the effort to impeach President Bill Clinton, Republicans came out fearful that they had gone too far and were losing ground as the party of extremism. In Clinton's final years he was able to reach some deals with the Republican Congress on deficit reduction that bolstered his own standing.
Finally, part of how the lame duck period unfolds will depend on how much political risk President Obama is willing to take to get things done, either through executive action or the legislative process. It is possible that in these final years a president can lose some of the inhibitions that shaped his time in office to take a chance on bold moves that upset his own party.
In 1968, when President Lyndon Johnson was trying to get a 10% tax surcharge through Congress that would help finance the Great Society even while continuing the war in Vietnam, congressional conservatives insisted on steep spending cuts that were intolerable to liberals.
After announcing in March 1968 that he would not run for re-election, Johnson agreed to the cuts and obtained the revenue he needed. In 1980, after having lost to Ronald Reagan, Senate Democrats agreed to a series of compromises on legislation to protect 100 million acres of land in the Alaska wilderness, realizing they would get a much worse deal after Reagan was in the White House, to pass a bill that became a landmark of environmental protection.
As his second term begins to wind down, President Obama could, for instance, continue to move aggressively by using executive orders to achieve more progress on climate change. He could also return to discussion of some kind of deal on Social Security and Medicare that he has been talking about for years, even though it would certainly anger the base of his party. He could tackle some issues, like urban poverty or campaign finance reform, that he has mostly put aside since taking office.
So watch out for the lame duck period: President Obama's supporters should be a little more optimistic about what can happen in the next few years; while his opponents shouldn't be so confident that they will rule the roost.
History shows that the next few years could be a highly creative and significant period in Obama's presidency. Just when things seem most desperate, presidents have sometimes found the space they need in the closing months of their term to make gains.
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