 | Find great prices for amazing hotels wherever your next destination may be. It's simple to search 100+ sites at once! From our sponsors |
| CNN.com - Top Stories |
| CNN.com delivers up-to-the-minute news and information on the latest top stories, weather, entertainment, politics and more. |
Did Boko Haram abduct official's wife?
7/27/2014 10:47:47 PM
- Gunman storm deputy prime minister's house at 5 a.m., residents and officials say
- They are thought to be Boko Haram Islamists
- Area chief and his family are also abducted
Kano, Nigeria (CNN) -- Gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram Islamists on Sunday abducted the wife of the Cameroonian deputy prime minister in a dawn attack on his home village of Kolofata, north of the area where they also kidnapped a local chief and his family, residents and security sources said.
Heavily armed gunmen stormed the house of Ahmadou Ali around 5 p.m. and engaged security guards in a gunbattle.
"The sounds of gunfire woke the whole village and we later learned that the (deputy) prime minister's wife was taken away by the abductors, who killed some policemen in the gunfight," said resident Idrissa Moussa
"The gunmen are believe to be from Boko Haram from our neighbor Nigeria," Moussa said.
The gunmen also attacked the home of the traditional chief of Kolofata, Seiny Boukar Lamine, and abducted him and his wife and children, said another resident.
Based on information from the chief's palace, his brother was shot dead in the attack.
A source told CNN six people, including two policemen, were killed in what he called "coordinated attacks."
"Fighter jets deployed in the area around the village this morning following the attack and carried out aerial bombings of some targets," said the source, who declined to give details.
Boko Haram, an Islamist group based in Nigeria, has increased raids into northern Cameroon. Military efforts to stop the group from stealing and killing have failed.
Two Cameroonian soldiers were killed on Thursday in the town of Balgaram in a Boko Haram attack that prompted the deployment of an elite Cameroonian force to the area to dislodge the Islamists.
Boko Haram established cells in several villages on the Cameroonian border with Nigeria after assaults on the insurgents by Nigerian troops in May 2013, locals said.
The group uses these hideouts to launch attacks on Nigeria, sacking entire villages and looting food supplies, a Nigerian security source said. He did not want to be identified.
Nigeria has expressed frustration with Cameroon for not doing enough to fight Boko Haram on its side of the border, a charge Cameroon has strongly denied.
Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon last week agreed to form a 700-person military unit to fight Boko Haram across their common borders.
In May, the four contiguous countries agreed to share intelligence and coordinate border security to tackle the Boko Haram threat.
READ: Nigerian police say they've arrested Boko Haram's "chief butcher"
Concordia reaches end of last voyage
7/27/2014 10:25:31 PM
- The rusting ship has docked at the Italian port of Genoa
- The delicate operation to get it in a dry dock was hampered by wind
- Searchers now will look for the remains of the last missing victim
- The process of dismantling the large vessel is expected to take two years
Rome (CNN) -- The crippled Costa Concordia cruise ship reached the end of its final voyage.
Refloated by salvage crews earlier this month, the rusting hulk docked at Voltri port in the Italian city of Genoa early Sunday.
The cruise ship, which ran aground in January 2012 off Giglio Island with more than 4,200 passengers aboard, was eased into a dry dock at the port for salvage.
It managed to make the four-day journey in a convoy of vessels from Giglio to Genoa without major incident, despite one night of storms.
According to civil protection chief Franco Gabrielli, strong winds hampered the delicate maneuvering needed to get the ship into the dry dock.
One person still missing
The ship will be searched for the remains of Russel Rebello, a 33-year-old waiter who is the only victim still missing in the tragedy. A total of 32 people were killed in the disaster.
Searches for Rebello are also underway in Giglio at the site where the ship had rested for the past 30 months.
'We'll die without that boat'
"Hopefully this will be the start of closure for the family," salvage master Nick Sloane said from on board the Concordia. "I hope they find Russel."
Environmental concerns prompted the decision to undertake the expensive and difficult process of refloating the Costa Concordia rather than taking it apart in the pristine Mediterranean waters where it ran aground.
It's the largest salvage operation ever attempted, and the most expensive, at a cost of $1.5 billion so far.
Dismantling to take 2 years
The lengthy process of dismantling the wrecked ship is expected to take two years.
How the ship was righted
The first items to be removed will be passengers' luggage and personal effects that are still stuck on board.
More than 80% of the Concordia will be recycled or reused, including copper wiring, plumbing pipes, kitchens and some of the plastic room fittings that can be repaired.
The remaining 50,000 tons of steel will be melted down and sold at the market price to be used to make construction girders, cars and even other ships.
Since the wreck in early 2012, 24 metric tons of debris -- including furniture, dishes, food, personal effects and ship parts -- have been recovered from the seabed.
Barbie Latza Nadeau reported from Rome and Jethro Mullen wrote from Hong Kong.
Source: Suicide blast kills 5 in Nigeria
7/27/2014 7:18:10 PM
- Weekend attacks in Nigeria's capital kill at least five, injure more than a dozen
- Three arrested after church bombing kills 5
- Female suicide bomber injures 5 Kano police officers
- Two arrested in foiled mosque attack
Jos, Nigeria (CNN) -- Nigerian authorities said they have five suspects in custody Sunday after a wave of attacks over the weekend in the city of Kano.
Five people were killed and eight others injured when an explosive device was lobbed over a wall in Kano's predominantly Christian Sabon Gari district. The attack occurred as parishioners exited St. Charles Catholic Church following Sunday services, according to Nigerian police force spokesman Frank Mba.
Mba said three suspects have been arrested "for their complicity in the attacks."
A suicide attack occurred earlier in the day at another location in Kano. A woman detonated a bomb after police stopped her and sent for a policewoman to come perform a search, according to Mba. Five officers were injured in that attack, which killed the bomber.
Two suicide blasts kill 40 in Nigeria
In a third incident, authorities were tipped off to an explosive-laden car parked near the Isyaku Rabiu mosque in another section of the city Saturday evening. Kano police spokesman Magaji Musa Majia said the bomb squad was able to successfully defuse a remote-controlled improvised explosive device discovered in its trunk. Mba said two suspects have been arrested and were being interrogated Sunday night.
Hassan John reported from Jos; Aminu Abubakar reported from Kano. CNN's Nana Karikari-apau contributed to this report.
Carjackers runs over 3 siblings in U.S.
7/27/2014 9:37:40 PM
- Mother of three siblings remains in critical condition
- Two boys, 7 and 10, and their sister, 15 were killed as they raised money for church
- Two men stole a real estate agent's SUV and drove it into a fruit stand
- Police are offering a reward of $110,000
(CNN) -- Philadelphia police conducted an around-the-clock manhunt over the weekend for two suspects in a carjacking that left three children dead and their mother in critical condition.
Cops say two men -- one black, one Hispanic -- carjacked a real estate agent at gunpoint Friday morning and drove around the city at high speeds while holding the woman, whose name has not been released, in the backseat, Lt. John Stanford said.
The stolen SUV struck a family working at a street-corner fruit stand in north Philadelphia, killing 10-year-old Thomas Reed. Seven-year-old Terrence Moore and Keiearra Williams, 15, died at a hospital. They were the children of 34-year-old Keisha Williams, who is still in critical condition, according to Giselle Zayon of Temple University Hospital.
The SUV wrecked in a wooded area and the two men ran away.
The family worked at the fruit stand to raise money for their church, according to police.
"They were sweet," Ursula Jackson told CNN affiliate KYW. "They were beautiful, they were beautiful little kids."
The father of the 7-year-old boy urged the suspects to surrender to authorities.
"Taking innocent peoples' lives. That was my son," he told KYW. "You took him away from me. Turn yourself in."
A reward of $110,000 has been offered for information leading to their arrest.
Stanford said over the weekend the homicide unit was "following up on a number of tips and leads but (it had) nothing concrete at this time."
3-year-old critically wounded in Chicago shooting
Palin to launch her own TV channel
7/28/2014 11:35:28 AM
- Palin hopes to offer an alternative to mainstream media
- The new channel will cost $9.95 a month
(CNN) -- Sarah Palin is again going rogue -- this time to the digital world, with the creation of her own online news channel.
The former vice presidential candidate plans to offer viewers an alternative to the "politically correct filter" of mainstream media.
"Are you tired of the media filters? Well, I am," she says in a promotional video. "I want to talk directly to you on our channel on my terms, and no need to please the powers that be."
The new Sarah Palin Channel will cost viewers $9.95 a month, or $99.95 for a year. Active military personnel can subscribe free of charge.
Has Sarah Palin jumped the shark?
American to Palin: Enough!
CNN's Joe Sutton contributed to this report.
Yukos win delivers blow to Putin?
7/28/2014 1:06:48 PM
- A court decision awards $50 billion to now-defunct Russian oil giant Yukos' former shareholders
- The case has been rumbling for almost a decade, after Yukos assets were expropriate by the state
- The win is seen as a blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose relations with the West are strained
Editor's note: John Defterios is CNN's Emerging Markets Editor and anchor of Global Exchange, CNN's business show focused on the emerging and BRIC markets. Follow John on Twitter.
(CNN) -- The brand name Yukos no longer exists and its former founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky has left Russia after being freed from jail, but a landmark ruling in the Hague released Monday ensures their legacy will live on during a sensitive period of time for Vladimir Putin.
Yukos was one of Russia's oil giants through the 1990s and until the early 2000s, when its assets were expropriated by the state after a political battle with Khodorkovsky.
Now the Permanent Court of Arbitration, in what is considered a landmark judgment, has ordered payment of damages to its former shareholders, totaling $50 billion and including interest and fees for violation of a treaty covering Russia's energy assets.
This case goes back to 2005 and strikes at the heart of Putin's tactics to strip Yukos and Khordorkovsky under charges of tax evasion.
The three judge panel called the Federation's move "equivalent of expropriation of claimants' investments." Those claimants, representing Group Menatep Ltd. or GML, include former Yukos CEO Platon Lebedev and four others who were seeking damages of up to $114 billion.
The main asset of Yukos, known as Yuganskneftegaz, was auctioned in late 2004 for just $9.3 billion and purchased by state-run Rosneft, which is now run by Putin confidant Igor Sechin.
The Russian president has big plans for Rosneft to be one of the top energy players in the world. It now has an enterprise value of $115 billion, but that is just a start with agreements signed with Exxon-Mobil, ENI of Italy and its largest shareholder BP, which has a 20% stake in the group.
Rosneft holds the position that it did not participate in the arbitrations and therefore is not bound by the rulings. In a statement it said, "Rosneft believes that all of its purchases of former Yukos assets, and all other actions taken by it with respect to Yukos were entirely lawful and proper applicable law."
The response from Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during a press conference Monday was equally unforgiving about the actions taken.
"The process is not over; appellations are allowed," Lavrov said. "The Russian side, as well as agencies representing Russia in this trial will use all available legal possibilities to defend their stance."
This ruling comes as Moscow faces intense scrutiny for its support of the ongoing fight by pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine. Another round of European Union economic sanctions are pending after Washington proceeded to tighten the noose earlier this month.
Khodorkovsky was not part of this case, but an attorney who represented the former oligarch during his trial on charges by the Russian state said the ruling serves as a partial vindication for his former client.
According to Robert Amsterdam, "this is a very important decision to be read by all those who lose assets to autocrats." The arbitrators, he said, had "very heroically" cut through "mistruths" to find in favor of the claimants.
This ruling could not only influence Western-led sanctions on Moscow, but could potentially strain talks to find common ground between Russia, Ukraine and the European Union over future gas supplies into Europe.
READ MORE: Khodorkovsky speaks out
READ MORE: Sanctions: Top 10 Russian targets
U.S. student hid cameras in bathrooms
7/28/2014 8:13:17 AM
- A University of Delaware student allegedly hid cameras in restrooms around campus
- Police say they think Javier Mendiola-Soto, 38, hid cameras for more than two years
- An investigation has revealed 1,500 video files, with some 40 victims so far identified
- Police are contacting victims, and the university is offering counseling to anyone affected
(CNN) -- University of Delaware students are being offered counseling after a doctoral student allegedly hid video cameras in restrooms around the university's Newark campus over a two-year period.
Police were alerted after a hidden camera was discovered in a women's restroom on June 27, the university said.
An investigation led to the arrest of 38-year-old Javier Mendiola-Soto, a doctoral student from Mexico. Mendiola-Soto has been charged with 21 counts of violation of privacy. His visa has been revoked, and he is in custody.
Police searching Mendiola-Soto's home found approximately 1,500 computer video files.
"The analysis concluded that the suspect hid video cameras in other restrooms both on and off campus over a more than two-year period from 2012 until his arrest this month," the university said in a statement.
"The scope of the recordings continues to be a focus of the investigation, and the police are attempting conclusively to identify all potential recorded locations."
Recordings have been traced to two restrooms at the Delaware Biotechnology Institute -- where Mendiola-Soto worked -- a unisex bathroom in the building housing the education department, and women's restrooms in a library, memorial hall and laboratory, the university said.
The investigation has so far identified approximately 40 potential victims. Police are contacting victims, and the university is offering counseling to anyone who requests it in connection with the case.
"It is extremely disturbing that this crime was perpetrated against our community invading the privacy of so many women on and around this campus," university President Patrick Harker said.
"We have implemented several actions already, including security sweeps of all restrooms and changing rooms on all campuses, randomly timed examinations of all restrooms by custodial staff and increased police patrols throughout buildings," he said.
The university's head of campus and public safety, Skip Homiak, said new technology had increased the risk of such crimes.
"Invasions of privacy crimes are becoming an increasing concern on college campuses and in public areas given the ready access to small and sophisticated spying devices," he said.
The university said the investigation was being conducted "under strict guidelines and protocols designed to protect the privacy of any individual whose image may have been captured on video." The video evidence is being securely stored and will be destroyed after criminal proceedings end, it said.
Police say they don't think the images have been uploaded to the Internet or shared.
People who think they may have been recorded should contact the University Police Department hotline at 302-831-4800.
How Gaza cease-fire never happened
7/28/2014 7:29:34 PM
- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says progress made on cease-fire
- Israel, Palestinians to agree on one thing: Washington botched the process.
- United States comes out looking bad, bloodshed continues
Jerusalem (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry looked weary and despondent at his much-delayed Cairo news conference Friday evening. Five days of shuttling through the region and endless phone calls to multiple parties had come to nothing. Having begun the year with a vision for a lasting Middle East peace, Kerry had been unable to push through a weeklong cease-fire in Gaza.
Progress had been made, he insisted; a concept was in place. But the terminology, and especially the sequence of any steps toward a lasting cease-fire, were not there.
Kerry did at least get Israel and the Palestinians to agree on one thing: that Washington had botched the process.
The Palestinians were furious they were not even invited to follow-up talks in Paris on Saturday. No talks could "bypass the PLO as the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people," the Palestinian Authority declared. Israeli officials were angry that various drafts of the cease-fire ageeement were short on guarantees for Israel's security. Even as Kerry made last-gasp efforts in Cairo, Israel's Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz was on CNN dismissing the plan, and saying, "Hamas and Qatar want a cease-fire that legitimizes terrorism."
Qatar? The wealthy Gulf emirate has thrust itself (and partner Turkey) into an ever muddier process by becoming the intermediary with Hamas. This annoys the Egyptians and the Palestinians as much as it does the Israelis, and speaks to a deeper rift in the Arab world.
Qatar is important because its checkbook keeps Hamas afloat, paying the salaries of government workers and investing in Gaza's rehabilitation. But it has little presence on the ground in Gaza and is deeply distrusted by both Egypt and Israel for its promotion of the Muslim Brotherhood. Its involvement in the process further deters Israel from signing on.
Hospital hit; Israel, Hamas trade blame
The United States recognizes that Qatar's involvement alienates other parties, but reluctantly accepted Qatari mediation as the only way to restrain Hamas. It saw Hamas and Israel hurtling toward an ever more dangerous conflict. Qatar helped put the brakes on Hamas; it's providing some $20 million to the Hamas treasury to pay salaries every month. "As a result of that they have some influence," said a senior U.S. official.
As Kerry headed home Saturday, State Department officials went into damage limitation mode. "There was no Kerry plan," said one. "There was a concept based on Egypt cease-fire plans that Israel had signed off on."
That's not how it was seen in Jerusalem. Relations between the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the administration of President Barack Obama have rarely been cordial. Three years ago, Obama was overheard talking about the Netanyahu with then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
"You're tired of him; what about me? I have to deal with him every day," Obama said.
If the commentary in the Israeli media and the shift in language out of the White House are any guide, relations between the two allies are very strained. From left and right in Israel, a tirade of abuse has been aimed at Kerry.
"If this failed diplomatic attempt leads Israel to escalate its operation in Gaza, the American secretary of state will be one of those responsible for every additional drop of blood that is spilled," wrote Barak Ravid in the left-leaning Haaretz.
And in the Times of Israel, under a headline "John Kerry: The Betrayal," David Horowitz complained essentially that the Obama administration had abandoned an ally. "Here was the top U.S. diplomat appearing to accommodate a vicious terrorist organization bent on Israel's destruction, with a formula that would leave Hamas better equipped to achieve that goal," he wrote.
In a conference call on Sunday, a senior U.S. official berated Israeli journalists for "extremely offensive" criticism of Kerry, according to one participant. A terse statement from the White House later in the day said that in a call with Netanyahu, "the President made clear the strategic imperative of instituting an immediate, unconditional humanitarian cease-fire that ends hostilities now and leads to a permanent cessation of hostilities."
Intelligence Minister Steinitz tried to smooth ruffled feathers Monday, describing the United States as "our best friend and ally" with whom a close dialogue would continue.
But Israeli officials tell CNN that there is "no international mechanism" for reviving talks on a durable cease-fire. Instead Israel is building on a relationship with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Egypt and involving the Palestinian Authority. One Israeli official said his government and Egypt were moving in the same direction, at the same pace to the same destination. Neither seems ready to offer Hamas any hope that border crossings will be reopened - its chief demand - as part of an initial truce.
To the Israelis that's fine: They say they need more time to eliminate Hamas' tunnel network. Steinitz said Monday that some 30 "attack" tunnels had been discovered, and half had been destroyed. But he acknowledged that "maybe we will discover some more." Hours later, another attempted infiltration by Hamas fighters near the kibbutz of Nahal Oz showed that Israeli border communities remain vulnerable.
Nor is there much domestic pressure on Netanyahu to call it a day. In a poll for Israel Channel 10 on Sunday, 87% of Jewish Israelis supported current military operations and 69% the destruction of Hamas, despite the deaths of nearly 50 Israeli soldiers in Operation Protective Edge.
For a while Monday there was an undeclared lull in Gaza. Rocket fire was reduced (just 12 as of late afternoon), fewer sirens sounded across southern Israel, and Israeli officials spoke of an unlimited cease-fire, saying there would be only limited action against specific targets identified as the source of fire. It didn't last long. As rocket fire persisted, the Israeli air force launched wider strikes against Hamas targets, and Netanyahu told the Israeli people that they must "be prepared for a lengthy campaign."
His statement came just 48 hours after a senior State Department official asserted optimistically: "You have a way now to staunch the bleeding."
Kerry returned to the theme Monday in Washington, insisting that "the momentum generated by a humanitarian cease-fire is the best way to begin to negotiate and find out if you can put in place a sustainable cease-fire."
In the space of a few hours Monday, that momentum was halted, both sides returned to the battlefield and the bleeding continued.
Botched executions can't be norm
7/28/2014 1:31:40 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.
Callan: Are death penalty delays 'cruel and unusual'?
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.
Read CNNOpinion's new Flipboard magazine.
Follow us on Twitter @CNNOpinion.
Join us on Facebook.com/CNNOpinion.
Israel protests turn anti-Semitic
7/28/2014 9:53:21 PM
Fears of violence and anti-Semitism at major protest marches across Europe and the around the world. Max Foster reports
If your browser has Adobe Flash Player installed, click above to play. Otherwise, click below.
Sewol ferry students 'told to stay put'
7/28/2014 7:57:13 AM
- At least 294 people died when the Sewol ferry capsized off South Korea's coast on April 16
- Many of the victims were high school students from the town of Ansan on a field trip
- The Sewol's captain and three crew members are on trial on murder charges, which they deny
- Students began testifying in the trial at a hearing in their hometown Monday
Ansan, South Korea (CNN) -- Students aboard the stricken Sewol ferry had to use rising water levels to float out of their cabins after the ship listed, survivors told a South Korean court Monday.
At least 294 people died -- including hundreds of high school students on a field trip -- when the Sewol capsized off South Korea's southwestern coast April 16.
The ship had been carrying 476 passengers and crew, and divers are still searching for 10 people.
The ferry's captain, Lee Joon-seok, is on trial, accused of murder, along with three of his crew. They deny the charges.
Twelve other members of the crew have been indicted on charges of abandonment and violating a ship safety act.
It has been alleged that the crew did not use available resources, such as life rafts, life vests and announcements, to evacuate passengers. Instead, passengers were told to stay where they were, according to officials.
Six student survivors testified Monday at a court in their hometown of Ansan. Their identities cannot be published.
The second student to testify said she heard an announcement asking those on board to put on life jackets and remain on the ferry.
The student told the court that she did not hear any announcement from the ship or coast guards telling passengers to leave the ship.
She said the ferry listed to the extent that the windows were on the ground and the door was on the ceiling in her cabin.
As water came in, their class leader suggested that because they were in life jackets they could float to the door. They eventually were able to escape, walking on the hallway.
The fifth student said that she considered trying to escape once the ferry began listing, but did not because she heard the announcement asking passengers to stay put.
She said the lights then went out and she saw that the window was completely covered in water. She escaped when the water rose and she was able to float to the door. Students already in the hallway dragged her outside.
Another student described the scene in the hallway as she lined up to exit. She said a strong current was in the water and about half the students with her were swept away.
The student said she could see coast guards near the emergency exit, but she never saw them enter the ship.
After the students' testimony, the court heard from another survivor, who was in a wheelchair and wearing a hospital gown.
He described how he had managed to get himself near the information desk when the ferry had started to tilt.
The man said the students had been panicking and a female crew member announced that "everyone should stay put, the ferry is in danger, and that the rescue will be there soon." He said he thought she was trying to calm the students.
The man said that he had asked the crew member to contact the captain, but that the captain had not responded when she tried to reach him on a walkie-talkie
The female crew member announced again that everyone should stay put and that help would arrive soon, he said, and later told students to put on their life jackets
The man broke down crying as he described watching people slide as the boat tilted about 40 or 50 degrees.
Tense trial opening in June
The students arrived at the Ansan courthouse under a heavy police presence Monday, with lines of officers surrounding the building.
At the trial's opening June 10 in Gwangju, victims' relatives yelled and screamed at those on trial upon seeing them for the first time.
Investigators have said a vast amount of cargo -- more than double the ferry's limit -- and the failure to tie it down properly were partly responsible for the Sewol's capsizing.
At the trial's opening, the prosecution accused the ferry's owner, Chonghaejin Shipping Co., of putting profit above all else by overloading the Sewol.
It said the cargo was badly secured, meaning the crew was also culpable.
Prosecutors said the crew members could have carried out a far more effective rescue operation.
In June, Lee's attorney told the court that the captain had been helming the ship for only six days, he was the last rescued of all the crew members and he wasn't in charge of loading cargo.
If convicted of murder, Lee and his fellow accused could face the death penalty, although it has been nearly two decades since capital punishment was carried out in South Korea.
Read: Angry families scream at South Korean ferry captain
Read: Ferry fugitive's cause of death unknown
Read: Sewol ferry search helicopter crash kills 5 in South Korea
Report: Ferry operators prioritized profits over safety
CNN's K.J. Kwon and Susannah Cullinane contributed to this report.
Why Gaza cease-fire never happened
7/29/2014 2:57:12 AM
- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says progress made on cease-fire
- Israel, Palestinians to agree on one thing: Washington botched the process.
- United States comes out looking bad, bloodshed continues
Jerusalem (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry looked weary and despondent at his much-delayed Cairo news conference Friday evening. Five days of shuttling through the region and endless phone calls to multiple parties had come to nothing. Having begun the year with a vision for a lasting Middle East peace, Kerry had been unable to push through a weeklong cease-fire in Gaza.
Progress had been made, he insisted; a concept was in place. But the terminology, and especially the sequence of any steps toward a lasting cease-fire, were not there.
Kerry did at least get Israel and the Palestinians to agree on one thing: that Washington had botched the process.
The Palestinians were furious they were not even invited to follow-up talks in Paris on Saturday. No talks could "bypass the PLO as the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people," the Palestinian Authority declared. Israeli officials were angry that various drafts of the cease-fire ageeement were short on guarantees for Israel's security. Even as Kerry made last-gasp efforts in Cairo, Israel's Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz was on CNN dismissing the plan, and saying, "Hamas and Qatar want a cease-fire that legitimizes terrorism."
Qatar? The wealthy Gulf emirate has thrust itself (and partner Turkey) into an ever muddier process by becoming the intermediary with Hamas. This annoys the Egyptians and the Palestinians as much as it does the Israelis, and speaks to a deeper rift in the Arab world.
Qatar is important because its checkbook keeps Hamas afloat, paying the salaries of government workers and investing in Gaza's rehabilitation. But it has little presence on the ground in Gaza and is deeply distrusted by both Egypt and Israel for its promotion of the Muslim Brotherhood. Its involvement in the process further deters Israel from signing on.
Hospital hit; Israel, Hamas trade blame
The United States recognizes that Qatar's involvement alienates other parties, but reluctantly accepted Qatari mediation as the only way to restrain Hamas. It saw Hamas and Israel hurtling toward an ever more dangerous conflict. Qatar helped put the brakes on Hamas; it's providing some $20 million to the Hamas treasury to pay salaries every month. "As a result of that they have some influence," said a senior U.S. official.
As Kerry headed home Saturday, State Department officials went into damage limitation mode. "There was no Kerry plan," said one. "There was a concept based on Egypt cease-fire plans that Israel had signed off on."
That's not how it was seen in Jerusalem. Relations between the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the administration of President Barack Obama have rarely been cordial. Three years ago, Obama was overheard talking about the Netanyahu with then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
"You're tired of him; what about me? I have to deal with him every day," Obama said.
If the commentary in the Israeli media and the shift in language out of the White House are any guide, relations between the two allies are very strained. From left and right in Israel, a tirade of abuse has been aimed at Kerry.
"If this failed diplomatic attempt leads Israel to escalate its operation in Gaza, the American secretary of state will be one of those responsible for every additional drop of blood that is spilled," wrote Barak Ravid in the left-leaning Haaretz.
And in the Times of Israel, under a headline "John Kerry: The Betrayal," David Horowitz complained essentially that the Obama administration had abandoned an ally. "Here was the top U.S. diplomat appearing to accommodate a vicious terrorist organization bent on Israel's destruction, with a formula that would leave Hamas better equipped to achieve that goal," he wrote.
In a conference call on Sunday, a senior U.S. official berated Israeli journalists for "extremely offensive" criticism of Kerry, according to one participant. A terse statement from the White House later in the day said that in a call with Netanyahu, "the President made clear the strategic imperative of instituting an immediate, unconditional humanitarian cease-fire that ends hostilities now and leads to a permanent cessation of hostilities."
Intelligence Minister Steinitz tried to smooth ruffled feathers Monday, describing the United States as "our best friend and ally" with whom a close dialogue would continue.
But Israeli officials tell CNN that there is "no international mechanism" for reviving talks on a durable cease-fire. Instead Israel is building on a relationship with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Egypt and involving the Palestinian Authority. One Israeli official said his government and Egypt were moving in the same direction, at the same pace to the same destination. Neither seems ready to offer Hamas any hope that border crossings will be reopened - its chief demand - as part of an initial truce.
To the Israelis that's fine: They say they need more time to eliminate Hamas' tunnel network. Steinitz said Monday that some 30 "attack" tunnels had been discovered, and half had been destroyed. But he acknowledged that "maybe we will discover some more." Hours later, another attempted infiltration by Hamas fighters near the kibbutz of Nahal Oz showed that Israeli border communities remain vulnerable.
Nor is there much domestic pressure on Netanyahu to call it a day. In a poll for Israel Channel 10 on Sunday, 87% of Jewish Israelis supported current military operations and 69% the destruction of Hamas, despite the deaths of nearly 50 Israeli soldiers in Operation Protective Edge.
For a while Monday there was an undeclared lull in Gaza. Rocket fire was reduced (just 12 as of late afternoon), fewer sirens sounded across southern Israel, and Israeli officials spoke of an unlimited cease-fire, saying there would be only limited action against specific targets identified as the source of fire. It didn't last long. As rocket fire persisted, the Israeli air force launched wider strikes against Hamas targets, and Netanyahu told the Israeli people that they must "be prepared for a lengthy campaign."
His statement came just 48 hours after a senior State Department official asserted optimistically: "You have a way now to staunch the bleeding."
Kerry returned to the theme Monday in Washington, insisting that "the momentum generated by a humanitarian cease-fire is the best way to begin to negotiate and find out if you can put in place a sustainable cease-fire."
In the space of a few hours Monday, that momentum was halted, both sides returned to the battlefield and the bleeding continued.
How WWI gave us drones
7/29/2014 2:57:04 AM
- Priya Satia: Unleashing of air power in World War I resonates in drone use today
- Remote killing, surveillance used throughout war theater, but mostly by British in Middle East
- Air power gave British access to remote lands; they'd later use it for colonial policing
- Satia: Today's drones are a new chapter in West's efforts to dominate Middle East
Editor's note: Priya Satia is an associate professor of history at Stanford University and the author of "Spies in Arabia: The Great War and the Cultural Foundations of Britain's Covert Empire in the Middle East." Her expanded study of drone warfare's roots in World War I, "Drones: A History from the British Middle East," appeared earlier this year in Humanity
(CNN) -- Drones are our latest Frankenstein's monster. But our preoccupation with their novelty -- with the ethical hazards of remote killing and the possible violation, through surveillance, of life and privacy at home -- has obscured their roots in the deadly history of Western aerial control of the Middle East that began in World War I, exactly a century ago.
As we recall the myriad ways in which that epochal war remade our world, it is time also to reckon with its unleashing of air power in the Middle East.
Air power harks back to Civil War-era hot air balloons and was used all over the theaters of World War I for reconnaissance, bombardment, and aerial combat. However, its potential was most rigorously tested and developed in the British campaign against the Ottoman Empire during that war.
The first World War began August 4, 1914, in the wake of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary on June 28 of that year. In the next two months, CNN.com/Opinion will feature articles on the weapons of war, its language, the role of women, battlefield injuries and the rise of aerial surveillance.
Aerial photography and signaling, the airlift, the aerial trap (bombardment of the head and tail of a column retreating through a canyon) -- all were developed in WWI's Mesopotamia and Palestine campaigns, fought in the area of present-day Iraq and the Arabian Peninsula, north through Syria.
Opinion: How a century-old war affects you
The British fought these campaigns to safeguard the all-important land, air, and sea routes to British India and oil assets in the Persian Gulf. Aircraft were used in bombardments that wrecked trains and in irregular warfare, where they, for example, helped Arab guerrillas fighting the British-backed revolt against the Ottomans communicate and conduct reconnaissance. They were also used in deception strategies, such as in providing air cover to conceal troop movements before the surprise British attack at Megiddo.
Most significantly, for the history of drones, their uses in colonial policing were discovered there and would echo through the century. When the tribes the British had "liberated" from Turkish rule in the war "got out of hand," aerial bombardment became an instrument of everyday colonial discipline, inspiring "terror in the Arabs," official memos noted approvingly.
Opinion: When chemical weapons killed 90,000
Aircraft seemed a panacea for what the British categorized as "tribal" situations. Thus did the postwar British Cabinet declare that it was in the Middle East that "the war ... proved that the air has capabilities of its own." We may have forgotten this past, but in the region, memory of it shapes the response to American drones and airstrikes today.
All this came about because of World War I-era British notions of the particular suitability of air power to the Middle East. Officials who guided the military effort in the region saw it as a land of mystery impervious to ordinary observation. Surveillance aircraft seemed to promise vision beyond the mirages, sandstorms, and distances that made it unmappable in their estimation. Commanders relied on them for "obtaining ... accurate information'' in a land where ''little can be trusted that is seen."
And they provided access to forbidden sites. Conceiving the region as uniformly flat (despite its marshes, mountains and cities), British Arabists assumed it afforded no cover.
In fact, there were real limits to using aircraft even in the desert, but the idea of "knights of the air" providing panoramic surveillance of an inscrutable antique land proved irresistible. So too did the image of aircraft turning Mesopotamia into a hub of modern transportation and thus restoring its status as the cradle of civilization, in some measure redeeming the material and human losses of the war.
Opinion: Should nations pay the price for their leaders' misdeeds?
British officials made much of the "natural fellow-feeling between ... nomad arabs and the Air Force ... both ... in conflict with the vast elemental forces of nature." Arabs could uniquely endure the violence of bombardment, Britons thought: In a biblical land, tragedy was a "normal way of life" and bombardment understood as an "act of God."
These wartime experiments with aerial bombardment and surveillance produced the postwar "aerial control" regime in the region, a discreet and cheap mechanism for colonial rule in an increasingly anti-imperial world. Because the British thought of the Middle East as a region where all information was suspect and deception was everywhere, they saw casualty counts and accountability for errors -- like bombardment of the wrong town or tribe -- as superfluous.
Opinion: How World War I gave us 'cooties'
After the war, the British Royal Flying Corps survived as an independent military service, rechristened the Royal Air Force, because of this role in the Middle East.
The British used the RAF to police the new British territories in the Middle East with aerial surveillance and bombardment. This technique, known as "aerial control," spread to Palestine, Somalia, Yemen, and what we call "AfPak" -- precisely where drones reign today. It was in Iraq and Afghanistan that British airmen in World War I and the interwar period -- including Arthur Harris, zealous head of Bomber Command in World War II -- acquired the experience they applied in the next world war.
Opinion: The mighty women of World War I
The British state propagated a myth of successful air control in the Middle East, but the technique never really worked. The British presence provoked insurgency and undermined local governments until the Iraqi revolution of 1958, when the United States began its interventions in the region.
Those who live under drones see them as the latest chapter in a long history of Western efforts to dominate the region with air power. The "Reaper" dropping "Hellfire" missiles again styles bombardment as a biblical fate. Today, too, casualties are not published and all the dead in a strike zone are presumed to be militants.
Opinion: The 'bionic men' of World War I
We would do well to recall this aerial history of the very region where drones found their initial justification. Remote piloting was always an objective of aerial warfare; drones follow rocket warfare and cruise missiles.
Aerial warfare was always about minimizing casualties on one side and pursuing empire discreetly. Drones may be more precise than earlier aircraft, but the principle of cowing a population with ubiquitous surveillance and exemplary violence, without arousing the ire of a democratic public at home, remains their underlying principle. So, too, do notions of the Middle East's particular suitability to aerial control.
In our shock at the new, we have overlooked these Great War roots. In their recovery lies crucial insight into why an aerial strategy will fail in the Middle East, piloted remotely or on the spot.
Photo blog: WWI: The Golden Age of postcards
Read CNNOpinion's new Flipboard magazine.
Follow us on Twitter @CNNOpinion.
Join us on Facebook.com/CNNOpinion.
Why Gaza cease-fire never happened
7/29/2014 6:28:27 AM
- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says progress made on cease-fire
- Israel, Palestinians to agree on one thing: Washington botched the process.
- United States comes out looking bad, bloodshed continues
Jerusalem (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry looked weary and despondent at his much-delayed Cairo news conference Friday evening. Five days of shuttling through the region and endless phone calls to multiple parties had come to nothing. Having begun the year with a vision for a lasting Middle East peace, Kerry had been unable to push through a weeklong cease-fire in Gaza.
Progress had been made, he insisted; a concept was in place. But the terminology, and especially the sequence of any steps toward a lasting cease-fire, were not there.
Kerry did at least get Israel and the Palestinians to agree on one thing: that Washington had botched the process.
The Palestinians were furious they were not even invited to follow-up talks in Paris on Saturday. No talks could "bypass the PLO as the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people," the Palestinian Authority declared. Israeli officials were angry that various drafts of the cease-fire ageeement were short on guarantees for Israel's security. Even as Kerry made last-gasp efforts in Cairo, Israel's Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz was on CNN dismissing the plan, and saying, "Hamas and Qatar want a cease-fire that legitimizes terrorism."
Qatar? The wealthy Gulf emirate has thrust itself (and partner Turkey) into an ever muddier process by becoming the intermediary with Hamas. This annoys the Egyptians and the Palestinians as much as it does the Israelis, and speaks to a deeper rift in the Arab world.
Qatar is important because its checkbook keeps Hamas afloat, paying the salaries of government workers and investing in Gaza's rehabilitation. But it has little presence on the ground in Gaza and is deeply distrusted by both Egypt and Israel for its promotion of the Muslim Brotherhood. Its involvement in the process further deters Israel from signing on.
Hospital hit; Israel, Hamas trade blame
The United States recognizes that Qatar's involvement alienates other parties, but reluctantly accepted Qatari mediation as the only way to restrain Hamas. It saw Hamas and Israel hurtling toward an ever more dangerous conflict. Qatar helped put the brakes on Hamas; it's providing some $20 million to the Hamas treasury to pay salaries every month. "As a result of that they have some influence," said a senior U.S. official.
As Kerry headed home Saturday, State Department officials went into damage limitation mode. "There was no Kerry plan," said one. "There was a concept based on Egypt cease-fire plans that Israel had signed off on."
That's not how it was seen in Jerusalem. Relations between the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the administration of President Barack Obama have rarely been cordial. Three years ago, Obama was overheard talking about the Netanyahu with then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
"You're tired of him; what about me? I have to deal with him every day," Obama said.
If the commentary in the Israeli media and the shift in language out of the White House are any guide, relations between the two allies are very strained. From left and right in Israel, a tirade of abuse has been aimed at Kerry.
"If this failed diplomatic attempt leads Israel to escalate its operation in Gaza, the American secretary of state will be one of those responsible for every additional drop of blood that is spilled," wrote Barak Ravid in the left-leaning Haaretz.
And in the Times of Israel, under a headline "John Kerry: The Betrayal," David Horowitz complained essentially that the Obama administration had abandoned an ally. "Here was the top U.S. diplomat appearing to accommodate a vicious terrorist organization bent on Israel's destruction, with a formula that would leave Hamas better equipped to achieve that goal," he wrote.
In a conference call on Sunday, a senior U.S. official berated Israeli journalists for "extremely offensive" criticism of Kerry, according to one participant. A terse statement from the White House later in the day said that in a call with Netanyahu, "the President made clear the strategic imperative of instituting an immediate, unconditional humanitarian cease-fire that ends hostilities now and leads to a permanent cessation of hostilities."
Intelligence Minister Steinitz tried to smooth ruffled feathers Monday, describing the United States as "our best friend and ally" with whom a close dialogue would continue.
But Israeli officials tell CNN that there is "no international mechanism" for reviving talks on a durable cease-fire. Instead Israel is building on a relationship with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Egypt and involving the Palestinian Authority. One Israeli official said his government and Egypt were moving in the same direction, at the same pace to the same destination. Neither seems ready to offer Hamas any hope that border crossings will be reopened - its chief demand - as part of an initial truce.
To the Israelis that's fine: They say they need more time to eliminate Hamas' tunnel network. Steinitz said Monday that some 30 "attack" tunnels had been discovered, and half had been destroyed. But he acknowledged that "maybe we will discover some more." Hours later, another attempted infiltration by Hamas fighters near the kibbutz of Nahal Oz showed that Israeli border communities remain vulnerable.
Nor is there much domestic pressure on Netanyahu to call it a day. In a poll for Israel Channel 10 on Sunday, 87% of Jewish Israelis supported current military operations and 69% the destruction of Hamas, despite the deaths of nearly 50 Israeli soldiers in Operation Protective Edge.
For a while Monday there was an undeclared lull in Gaza. Rocket fire was reduced (just 12 as of late afternoon), fewer sirens sounded across southern Israel, and Israeli officials spoke of an unlimited cease-fire, saying there would be only limited action against specific targets identified as the source of fire. It didn't last long. As rocket fire persisted, the Israeli air force launched wider strikes against Hamas targets, and Netanyahu told the Israeli people that they must "be prepared for a lengthy campaign."
His statement came just 48 hours after a senior State Department official asserted optimistically: "You have a way now to staunch the bleeding."
Kerry returned to the theme Monday in Washington, insisting that "the momentum generated by a humanitarian cease-fire is the best way to begin to negotiate and find out if you can put in place a sustainable cease-fire."
In the space of a few hours Monday, that momentum was halted, both sides returned to the battlefield and the bleeding continued.
Opinion: How do we get a cease-fire to end the bloodshed in Gaza?
You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at feedmyinbox.com
If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions
No comments:
Post a Comment