 | Create a one of a kind personalized gift. It's fun and easy to design! 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. |
Nearly 100 dead in China 'terror attack'
8/3/2014 8:54:14 AM
- 37 civilians and 59 "terrorists" died in the attack, China says
- The strike was "organized and premeditated," China says
- Numerous terrorist attacks have taken place in the Xinjiang region
- Attacks are blamed on Muslim separatist group
(CNN) -- Nearly 100 people, most of them "terrorists," were killed in an attack last week in China, state media reported Sunday.
A total of 37 civilians were killed, and police "gunned down 59 terrorists," Xinhua reported, bringing the death toll to 96.
A gang wielding knives and axes attacked civilians, a police station and government offices and smashed vehicles in a restive region, according to Xinhua. Cars were vandalized, and some were set ablaze.
The "organized and premeditated" attack took place Monday in the northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. There have been numerous attacks in the region, where tensions are simmering between Uyghur Muslims, a Turkic people, and Chinese Han people.
A Muslim separatist group founded by militant Uyghurs has been blamed for terrorism in the region, the Council on Foreign Relations explains.
Xinhua said the "mastermind" behind the attack Monday "had close connections with the terrorist organization," known as the East Turkestan Islamic Movement.
In May, China launched a terrorism crackdown after a series of explosions in an open-air market killed dozens in Xinjiang. Many of the victims were elderly people, Xinhua reported.
"This is a despicable and outrageous act of violence against innocent civilians, and the United States resolutely opposes all forms of terrorism," White House spokesman Jay Carney said at the time
Some Uyghurs have expressed resentment toward China's Han majority in recent years over what they say is harsh treatment from Chinese security forces and Han people taking the lion's share of economic opportunities in Xinjiang.
Amnesty International said Uyghurs face widespread discrimination, including in employment, housing and educational opportunities, as well as curtailed religious freedom and political marginalization.
READ: China announces probe into former domestic security czar
World losing interest in Syria conflict?
8/4/2014 9:08:08 AM
- Syrian military defector shows graphic images of detainees to U.S. Congress
- Opposition spokesman fears Syrian killings are "the new normal"
- U.S. lawmakers say Syrian people will not be forgotten
(CNN) -- There are photos of bodies with limbs torn from their sockets and others showing people with their eyes gouged out -- even shots of people being crucified.
But with crises in the Middle East and eastern Ukraine, does the world still care about Syria, one of the deadliest conflicts in history?
The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported 1,600 deaths in just 10 days in July and more than 115,000 people killed since the beginning of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's regime in March 2011.
A spokesman for the United Nations secretary-general said officials have had issues getting reliable numbers but may have updated figures this month.
"The U.N. may stop crunching the numbers, but the people who are being killed still count," said Oubai Shahbandar, senior adviser to a Washington-based Syrian opposition coalition.
There are reports of militants crucifying people in public and images smuggled out of Syria that appear to show them raising their victims' severed heads on poles.
Those gut-wrenching photos come from a man known only as "Caesar," who testified before the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee on July 31.
Caesar described himself as a Syrian military defector tasked by al-Assad's regime with taking photos of killed detainees. He said he smuggled about 50,000 photos of those bodies out of the war-torn country.
The White House said the images of brutalized bodies were "suggestive of torture and killing on an industrial scale by the Assad regime."
Committee Chairman Rep. Ed Royce, R-California, and ranking Democrat Rep. Eliot Engel of New York said they were floored by the photos.
"We want to look away. But we must not," Engel said.
"We will never forget the Syrian people," Royce said.
But advocates argue that we've already forgotten.
Shahbandar said that if the international community doesn't pay attention to what is happening in Syria, it is letting both al-Assad's regime and the Islamic State -- formerly known as ISIS -- get away with crimes against humanity. The Islamic State has taken over several cities as it seeks to create an Islamic caliphate that encompasses parts of Iraq and Syria.
"There is a real concern that the daily slaughter being perpetuated by the Assad regime has suddenly become accepted by the international community as the new normal," Shahbandar said.
The conflict continues to spread throughout the country, threatening to spill over its borders.
On July 28, a fuel depot in Tripoli, the capitol of Libya, was set ablaze during fighting between two rebel groups. The fire continued to burn out of control aafter firefighters were forced to abandon attempts to extinguish the blaze as conflict over the nearby airport intensified.
Al Tompkins, The Poynter Institute
Sunday, at least eight Lebanese soldiers were killed and an additional 20 were wounded amid clashes with insurgents who crossed the border from Syria into Lebanon, according to Lebanon's official National News Agency.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said in July that Americans need to take the threat of the Islamic State seriously, voicing concerns that the group's impact could reach the West.
How did so many in the international community let the nearly 3½-year struggle in Syria slip from the front of their minds? Al Tompkins of the Poynter Institute journalism school says it could be because there's a lot going on in the world right now.
"There are half a dozen big international stories going at the same time," Tompkins said. "The biggest are what's going on with Hamas and Israel, then you've got airplanes being shot out of the sky in Ukraine. The Syria story has been going on and on and on."
But just because a story is forgotten does not mean it's less important, Tompkins argued.
This disappointed one of the U.N.'s own groups, an internal commission headed up by Paulo Pinheiro that has been looking into human rights violations in Syria.
"What we are insisting is that if accountability is not dealt in this conflict, this is disrespect for the victims, for the civilian population that are paying the brunt of this conflict," Pinheiro said.
In May, the U.N. Security Council vetoed a referral to the International Criminal Court, which could have been a first step in bringing those responsible for human rights violations in Syria to justice.
Attention is slowly starting to shift back to Syria.
After Pinheiro's group's testimony last week, the Security Council condemned getting oil from "terrorist groups" from Syria and Iraq and said it believed that money from these sales fueled the strengthening of the Islamic State.
The Security Council also authorized shipment of humanitarian aid into Syria without its government's approval.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced last week that the United States is giving an additional $378 million to help bolster aid for Syrians.
Tompkins said that seeing people like Caesar come forward with pictures to put a face on the suffering has helped bring the story back to life.
"A story without photographs is a story that gets lost," Tompkins said. "As long as there is an image to keep that narrative moving, you stay on the front page."
Five reasons the West should worry about Syria and Iraq
News overload pushes aside Libya, Syria, China, Nigeria
CNN's Paul Courson and Sophie Tatum contributed to this report.
U.S. spy plane evades Russian jet
8/3/2014 10:44:44 PM
- U.S. military official tells CNN the incident occurred on July 18
- RC-135 Rivet Joint was on electronic eavesdropping mission in international airspace
- Russians began tracking with ground radar, and sent at least one fighter to intercept
- U.S. plane evaded encounter by flying into Swedish airspace without permission
Washington (CNN) -- The Cold War aerial games of chicken portrayed in the movie "Top Gun" are happening in real life again nearly 30 years later.
A U.S. Air Force spy plane evaded an encounter with the Russian military on July 18, just a day after Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was downed by a suspected surface-to-air missile that Ukraine and the West allege was fired by pro-Russia rebels in eastern Ukraine.
The RC-135 Rivet Joint fled into nearby Swedish airspace without that country's permission, a U.S. military official told CNN. The airplane may have gone through other countries' airspace as well, though it's not clear if it had permission to do so.
The U.S. plane had been flying in international airspace, conducting an electronic eavesdropping mission on the Russian military, when the Russians took the unusual action of beginning to track it with land-based radar.
The Russians then sent at least one fighter jet into the sky to intercept the aircraft, the U.S. official said Saturday.
The spy plane crew felt so concerned about the radar tracking that it wanted to get out of the area as quickly as possible, the official said. The quickest route away from the Russians took them into Swedish airspace. The U.S. official acknowledged that was done without Swedish military approval.
As a result of this incident, the United States is discussing the matter with Sweden and letting officials know there may be further occurrences where American jets have to divert so quickly they may not be able to wait for permission.
"We acknowledge a U.S. aircraft veered into Swedish airspace and will take active steps to ensure we have properly communicated with Swedish authorities in advance to prevent similar issues before they arise," the U.S. State Department said.
The incident was first reported by the Swedish news agency Svenska Dagbladet.
Russian officials did not provide any immediate reaction about the encounter.
This was at least the second potentially-dangerous encounter between a U.S. plane and Russia over the past few months. On April 23, a Russian Su-27 Flanker fighter jet buzzed within 100 feet of the nose of a U.S. Air Force RC-135U reconnaissance plane over the Sea of Okhotsk between Russia and Japan, a Defense Department official said.
Russian fighter jet nearly collided with U.S. military plane in April
Russian and U.S. aircraft often encounter each other, both in Northern Europe as well as the area between the Russian Far East and Alaska. But the official said the land radar activity by the Russians in this instance was unusual.
The ongoing civil unrest in Ukraine and the downing of MH 17 over eastern Ukraine on July 17, which killed all 298 people aboard, have heightened tensions between Washington and Moscow. Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was brought down by a suspected missile.
Pro-Russia rebels have denied allegations from Ukraine and the West that they shot down the Malaysian airliner, or that Russia supplied equipment used to shoot it down.
CNN's Jim Sciutto, Bill Mears and Mark Morgenstein contributed to this story
MH17 recovery teams find remains
8/3/2014 10:05:08 AM
- NEW: Recovery team finds human remains and personal belongings
- 70 experts get another day of unrestricted access to MH17 crash site
- Fighting between government and rebel forces continues away from crash site
- Russia accuses EU of lifting a ban on military supplies to Ukraine "on the quiet"
(CNN) -- Despite mortar fire echoing Saturday in the distance, the international team combing through the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in eastern Ukraine felt safe enough to carry out its recovery mission for a second consecutive day.
A respite from the fighting close to the July 17 crash site meant free reign for two cadaver dogs and 70 recovery team members. They scoured the debris field left by MH17, and they found human remains and personal belongings in and around a chicken farm near the village of Grabovo, Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg, head of the Dutch recovery mission, said in a statement.
"We would like to thank all parties that have once again facilitated our access to the crash site," Aalbersberg said. "This is of great importance to the international police officers, the experts and, especially, the victims' families."
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman had said government forces would try to maintain a halt in hostilities on the route to the crash site.
Because of the ongoing battles between pro-Russia rebels and the Ukrainian government, Saturday was only the third day that monitors and experts had unrestricted access to the site since Flight 17 was brought down by a suspected surface-to-air missile, killing all 298 people aboard.
July 25 was the only date before Friday that a "full visit had been possible," according to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which escorted the experts to the crash site.
The pro-Russia rebels have denied allegations from Ukraine and the West that they shot down the commercial airliner, or that Russia supplied equipment used to shoot it down.
High-level negotiations between Ukraine and the rebels have been necessary to allow the team of Dutch and Australian experts and their convoy of vehicles to cross and re-cross front lines in order to get to the crash site.
The team has set up a new base in the town of Soledar, to the northwest of the debris field, Aalbersberg said. But the recovery mission still has personnel in the cities of Kharkiv and Donetsk, the latter a rebel stronghold that has seen fighting this week.
Fighting continues away from crash site
Around noon on Saturday, the OSCE escorts at the crash site heard mortar fire, but they determined it was too far away to pose a threat to the recovery team, so the mission continued without delay, Aalbersberg said.
On Friday, 10 Ukrainian paratroopers were killed near Shakhtarsk, less than 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the crash area, when their convoy came under attack from rebel forces, according to the Facebook page of Ukraine's Counter-Terrorist Operation.
Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council spokesman Andriy Lysenko said at a briefing Friday that Russia was "actively preparing firing positions for shelling Ukrainian territory" and has positioned 17 Grad rocket systems in its Bryansk region, about three miles from the border with Ukraine, according to Ukraine's Ukrinform news agency.
Russia blasts EU for arms supply
Russia is accusing the European Union of lifting a ban on military supplies to Ukraine "on the quiet."
The Russian Foreign Ministry said the European Union is using a "double standard" in lifting the ban, which was imposed in February during pro-European demonstrations in Kiev.
"We urge our colleagues in the EU to follow common sense and not just listen to Washington's instructions," the statement said. "It is still not too late to renew the ban now."
On Friday, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden announced about $8 million in new assistance to the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service.
It includes "engineering equipment for improving infrastructure along Ukraine's borders, transport and patrol vehicles, surveillance equipment to extend the visual range of border security patrols, and small boats to conduct maritime patrol and interdiction operations."
READ: MH17 crash site: Dangers delay investigators; Ukraine warns of mines
READ: From guns to warships: Inside Europe's arms trade with Russia
READ: MH17 crash: Get up to speed
CNN's Pavel Drotenko and Radina Gigova contributed to this report.
California mudslides strand thousands
8/4/2014 6:46:35 AM
- NEW: Hundreds of children and adults are being evacuated from a church camp in Forest Falls
- One person is found dead after floodwater sweeps a car off the road and into a creek
- Thousands were stranded in Southern California town
Are you affected by the mudslides? Please share your perspective with CNN iReport if you can do so safely.
(CNN) -- As many as 500 children and adults are being safely evacuated Monday after torrential rain and mudslides trapped them at a Southern California church camp, a spokesman for the San Bernardino County Fire Department told CNN.
The Forest Home camp had been trapped behind a mudflow in Forest Falls -- some 80 miles east of Los Angeles -- stranding staff and middle and high school students.
"We've been able to punch through that last wall of mud so that people on the other side can start making their way out of town," fire department spokesman Ryan Beckers said.
Sudden rainfall Sunday had rendered most roads "impassable due to mudflows" in Forest Falls, San Bernardino Fire Capt. Kyle Hauducoeur said earlier. Thousands were stranded. Even a local fire station had to be evacuated.
So far, there have been no reports of injuries or missing residents in Forest Falls, population 2,000. Hauducoeur said the damage to homes due to flooding has not been severe.
But elsewhere in San Bernardino County, one person was found dead inside a vehicle that was swept off the road and into a creek by floodwater, county fire department spokesman Chris Prater said.
And 1,500 people in the nearby community of Glen Oak were stranded due to flash flooding, said Dennis Mathisen of Cal Fire.
The downpour combined with the terrain made conditions especially daunting.
"Try to imagine the bands of rains from a hurricane -- that's what we're getting," Hauducoeur said. "The difference (is) it's hitting mountains. What was a dry riverbed could become a river 6 feet deep, 20 feet wide."
He said some roads are now covered with 6 to 8 feet of rock, and "we have a lot of mud to deal with."
Officials are asking residents to stay inside their homes and to call 911 if they need to be rescued. Hauducoeur said two swift-water rescue crews are in the area.
Hauducoeur said firefighters expect to be working the Forest Falls area for the next three to four days. But with ongoing wildfires in Northern California, resources will already be stretched thin.
The deluge in San Bernadino County came during one of the worst droughts in California history.
Much the state is grappling with "exceptional drought," according to U.S. Drought Monitor. San Bernardino County has been dealing with "severe" or "extreme" drought.
Last month, California officials enacted statewide water restrictions involving lawn watering, car washing and ornamental fountains.
The dearth has been so bad that some thieves have resorted to stealing water.
West's drought leads to rising prices, shrinking lakes
Substantial damage at UCLA after water pipe break
Statewide water restrictions during drought
CNN's Joe Sutton and Paul Vercammen contributed to this report.
Israel, Hamas agree to 72-hour truce
8/4/2014 8:21:51 PM
- NEW: Cease-fire begins Tuesday at 8 a.m. local time, an Israeli spokesman says
- "We will cease all our activities," an Israeli government spokesman says
- The operation to destroy Hamas' tunnels "is winding up," the spokesman says
- Israel accepts an 72-hour cease-fire negotiated by Egypt, spokesman says
Gaza City (CNN) -- Will it, or won't it, hold?
That's the question following word late Monday that Israel and Palestinian factions, including Hamas, agreed to a 72-hour humanitarian cease-fire proposed by Egypt.
Even as they agreed to the cease-fire, set to take effect Tuesday morning, both sides appeared suspicious of one another.
"The onus is on Hamas," Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said shortly after announcing on CNN's "The Lead with Jake Tapper" that Israel had accepted the Egyptian proposal. Under the agreement, the cease-fire will begin at 8 a.m. local time, he said.
"We are entering this with our eyes open. ...We have been burnt more than once."
The sentiment was similar from Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan, who told CNN as long as Israel honors the agreement, so will the Palestinians.
"We hope they can take it and be committed to a cease-fire," he said.
While Egypt has not released details of the cease-fire agreement, Regev said it was the same agreement that Israel accepted and Hamas rejected three weeks ago.
News of the cease-fire comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Monday to finish the military operation to destroy Hamas' network of tunnels.
That operation appeared to be close to an end, with Regev saying Israel will "cease all our ... military activities, all our offensive operations against terrorist taregets in the Gaza Strip."
When asked about the tunnels, he said the issue is solving itself. "It's winding up anyway," Regev said.
Earlier in the day, the Israel Defense Forces said there were possibly between one and three tunnels left.
Mounting death toll
Both sides have been under fire for a mounting death toll in the conflict, now in its fourth week.
More than 1,800 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The United Nations has said of those casualties, civilians account for 70% to 80%.
Israeli officials have said 64 Israeli soldiers and three civilians in Israel have died.
On Monday, during a short humanitarian "pause" in the fighting called by Israel, residents in Gaza flooded the streets to pick up supplies and check on their abandoned homes.
Al Saha, the largest open-air market in Gaza City, was bustling with vendors. One man hung clothes for sale from the burned-out carcass of a bus hit a few days ago by Israeli fire power.
Cars jammed Gaza's main thoroughfare, but the atmosphere appeared relaxed, and children played in the street.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said at least 18 people were killed in Gaza during the cease-fire, including an 8-year-old in a strike on a house in a refugee camp in Gaza City.
That strike also injured 30 people, Palestinian health officials said, and happened after Israel had started the cease-fire.
Israel said that strike did not violate the cease-fire because it happened just two minutes into it and the operation had already been in progress.
Hamas had not agreed to the Israeli-declared cease-fire, and at least 53 rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel on Monday, according to the IDF.
Daniel Mansour, a senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative in charge of intelligence-gathering in northern Gaza, was targeted and killed before the cease-fire Monday, the IDF said. He had participated in directing rocket attacks toward Israel, the IDF said.
Two attacks in Jerusalem
Police in Jerusalem said they foiled what they described as a terror attack when they shot and killed the driver of an earthmover after it overturned a passenger bus.
Police said one pedestrian was also killed and the bus driver was injured. There were no passengers on the bus at the time, police said.
The driver of the earthmover was identified as 20-year-old Mohammed Jaabis, a Palestinian from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabal alMukaber.
Footage broadcast by Israel's Channel 10 showed the earthmover still moving as security forces approached. The video appeared to show shots being fired.
The incident happened in the Sheikh Jarrah area of central Jerusalem, near the entrance to a Jewish orthodox neighborhood.
Hamas praised the attack and said it was "a natural reaction to the Israeli crimes against civilians" in Gaza.
In another incident, a man on a motorbike opened fire at an Israeli soldier near Hebrew University, Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. Rescue workers said the Israeli was severely wounded.
An eyewitness on Israel Channel 10 said he heard a gunshot and saw "a soldier holding his chest. He walked a few steps backwards and collapsed."
International condemnation of Israel and Hamas
France is the latest country to condemn the Gaza operation and strikes on U.N.-run shelters in Gaza.
"How many deaths will it take to stop what has to be called the carnage in Gaza?" French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius asked in a statement. He said while Israel has a right to total security, "this right does not justify the killing of children and the slaughter of civilians." He also said Hamas carries an overwhelming responsibility in this "macabre gearing which particularly serves extremism."
On Sunday, the United States and the United Nations used the strongest language yet in condemning the strike on a U.N.-run shelter in Gaza, with Washington calling the attack "disgraceful."
At least nine people at the school, which was being used as a shelter for about 3,000 people, were killed in the shelling.
Israel said it is carefully reviewing the attack.
The IDF said it targeted three Palestinian Islamic Jihad members riding a motorcycle in the vicinity of the school, but didn't say if the suspected militants were hit.
READ: CNN exclusive: Inside the mind of Hamas' political leader
READ: Gaza conflict: Can economic isolation ever be reversed?
READ: Life in Gaza: Misery heightened by war
CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Tal Heinrich, Saima Mohsin and Ali Younes contributed to this story
Why Africa leaders' summit matters
8/5/2014 7:29:24 AM
- Majority of African leaders convene in Washington for first-ever African leaders summit
- Ebola outbreak on the continent sure to distract from talks on trade
- U.S. hopes to be a player on the African continent and blunt China's influence
Washington (CNN) -- By any measure it's historic: The vast majority of Africa's leaders flying to Washington at the invite of the President, whose father was born on the continent, to mark what the White House hopes is a new era of cooperation.
While plans for the first African Leaders Summit this week in the nation's capital are ambitious, the reality is the United States still has strides to make on the kind of political and economic relationships in Africa that can benefit both sides.
Other nations, namely China, have turned their focus to the continent as a trade partner. Terrorist networks have expanded their reach in some countries, most notably in Nigeria, where hundreds of schoolgirls remain at large after being kidnapped earlier this year. And while U.S.-backed efforts have helped slow the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa, countries there rate among the lowest in life expectancy and infant mortality.
"The importance of this for America needs to be understood," President Barack Obama said on Friday about the summit.
He added later that Africa "happens to be one of the continents where America is most popular and people feel a real affinity for our way of life."
Here are five reasons that the U.S.-Africa Leader's Summit, which kicked off on Monday, is important:
1. Health scare: The health problems in Africa were underscored this week when an Ebola outbreak prompted leaders of two nations to cancel their trips to Washington.
Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, and Ernest Bai Koroma, the leader of Sierra Leone, both said they would remain in their countries.
Ebola has killed more than 700 people in three nations: Guinea, Liberia and Sierra.
Summit leaders, and even Obama, have stressed there is no risk to Washingtonians from those arriving from Africa this week.
Obama said anyone who might have been exposed to the virus would be screened both in their home countries and upon arrival in the United States.
But worry over the worsening outbreak only highlighted challenges Africa faces in combating disease and poverty, despite the billions in U.S. aid over the years.
"This is an uphill challenge for them," said Gayle Smith, Obama's senior director for development and Democracy, noting both Liberia and Sierra Leone had recently emerged from periods of civil war.
Obama hopes to move past the traditional elements of humanitarian aid to Africa, focusing instead on potential trade.
But promoting commercial ties with countries engulfed in Ebola outbreaks could prove to be difficult. The State Department warned against non-essential travel to Sierra Leone and Libera last week, and some schools and businesses have closed.
"The timing is very unfortunate, and no one would have wished for this," said Howard French, an associate professor of international affairs at Columbia University. "Having high-level discussions between the U.S. and Africa on business and investment are infrequent. So to the extent that this distracts from that I think will be regretted all around."
2. Security challenges: Another potential barrier to U.S. investment in Africa: Growing extremism on the continent, which has overwhelmed certain governments.
The most flagrant example came earlier this summer, when the group Boko Haram kidnapped more than 200 school girls in Nigeria. The incident prompted international outrage and so far, a U.S.-backed team has not located them.
Nigeria-based Boko Haram opposes western-style education, and there are fears the group's influence could be crossing borders.
Last month, armed gunman suspected to be Boko Haram militants abducted the wife of Cameroon's deputy prime minister.
Intra-country sniping has followed. Nigeria has expressed frustration with Cameroon for not doing enough to fight Boko Haram on its side of the border, a charge Cameroon has denied.
The unrest has inflicted damage on African economies, including Nigeria's, the largest on the continent. Other African nations combating violent extremism, like Mali, Kenya and Somalia, are also tough sells for U.S. investment.
Many of those nations want more U.S. assistance to counter militants, sentiments likely to be expressed at this week's summit.
"We are concerned about efforts by terrorist groups to gain a foothold in Africa," said Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser.
He pointed to U.S. counterterror efforts that aim to partner with nations in stemming unrest.
"We're looking at how do we get at the broader issue of countering violent extremism in Africa so that these groups, like Boko Haram, like al-Shabaab, like al-Qaeda, are not able to prey on young people with disinformation and intimidation," he said.
3. Countering China: The United States has some catching up to do in Africa when it comes to trade and investment.
China's imports of African oil and natural minerals have skyrocketed over the past two decades. Alongside have come massive Chinese investments in African infrastructure and construction projects, manned by waves of Chinese workers who ended up remaining in Africa. More than a million Chinese citizens now live there.
"Africa is in a very particular moment, economically speaking," said French during an interview with CNNI from Nairobi. "The continent has been growing very fast. Demographically, there's a bulge in terms of it's youth population. And Africa needs partnerships."
Obama wants to make sure the United States is one of those partners, and a more attractive one than China.
"My advice to African leaders is to make sure that if, in fact, China is putting in roads and bridges, number one, that they're hiring African workers; number two, that the roads don't just lead from the mine to the port to Shanghai, but that there's an ability for the African governments to shape how this infrastructure is going to benefit them in the long term," Obama told The Economist last week.
4. Cementing legacy: Obama's two predecessors both secured legacy achievements in Africa -- Bill Clinton through his African Growth and Opportunity Act, and George W. Bush through his program combating HIV/AIDS.
Obama similarly hopes for a way to leave his mark on the continent after he leaves office, though his status as the first president of African descent has already made history.
That fact led some Africans to regard Obama with outsized expectations when he took office in 2009, leading to some disappointment that he hasn't focused more on shoring up U.S.-Africa ties.
During his time in office, Obama has focused on terrorism, uprisings in the Arab world, Russian provocations, and the much-awaited pivot to Asia.
Obama made his first presidential trip to sub-Saharan Africa in 2009 when he visited Ghana. He didn't return again until 2013 with tour of Senegal, Tanzania and South Africa.
He's embarked upon an initiative that aims to bring electricity to more Africans, and a program supporting young leaders working toward Democratic governments.
Both are elements to a legacy designed to shore up conditions for individuals on the continent.
And the summit itself, while not expected to produce any large-scale trade agreements, is meant to signal a shift from purely humanitarian assistance to a two-way partnership.
"We believe it can be a game-changer in the U.S.-Africa relationship," Rhodes said of the summit.
5. Not invited: While the bulk of Africa's leaders will be in Washington, the continent's most reviled leaders won't be attending. They include Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and Sudan's Omar al-Bashir.
They weren't invited because of their alleged human rights abuses.
Other controversial leaders -- like Kenya's Uhuru Kenyatta, accused of crimes at the International Criminal Court -- will attend.
Like any major diplomatic gathering, the Africa Leaders Summit has been an exercise in protocol and careful planning.
Instead of meeting with leaders separately, Obama has been scheduled for larger group discussions, to the disappointment of some who wanted to talk to him one-on-one.
"We just wouldn't be able to do bilats with everybody, and so the simplest thing is for the President to devote his time to engaging broadly with all the leaders. That way we're not singling out individuals at the expense of the other leaders," Rhodes said.
He noted Obama would speak with each leader individually during a dinner at the White House on Tuesday.
That event has taken on state dinner-type proportions, with a large tent constructed on the South Lawn. Organizers have the added stress of accommodating leaders of 50 nations, all with varied religious and cultural sensitivities that must be respected.
For example, servers must know who drinks alcohol and who abstains for religious reasons.
It's a reflection of just how diverse Africa is, and how high the stakes are for Obama as he forges new relationships there.
Why ex-prisoners need health care
8/4/2014 6:39:07 AM
- Emily Wang tells of trying to treat inmate who had been in solitary confinement
- Inmates are unused to care and may have been abused in prison, she says
- Few medical professionals have training needed for dealing with incarcerated, she says
- Wang: Doctors must be trained to get past stereotypes; patients must learn to deal with doctors
Editor's note: Emily Wang is an assistant professor of medicine at Yale University and co-founder of the Transitions Clinic Network. She is a Public Voices Fellow with The Op-Ed Project. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
(CNN) -- I knew immediately that James wasn't like most of my patients. The first thing I noticed was that he had rearranged the exam room so that he was not sitting with his back to the door. He was twitchy and seemed paranoid. He said he'd felt sick just stepping out of his apartment to come to his appointment. When I tried to examine him, he jumped and batted my hand away. My stethoscope flew off my shoulder.
I was startled, though not particularly surprised. James had just been released from 10 years of solitary confinement, and it was the first time in a decade that he'd been touched by another person. If some other provider had seen him, this visit might have ended differently: with frustration, aggression or even a call to the clinic security. But because I was trained to care for patients with a history of incarceration, I gathered my composure and continued on.
Close to 13 million patients return home from correctional facilities in the U.S. each year, often having been exposed to extreme conditions or even, as was reported in a recent New York Times article about Rikers Island, allegations of abuse at the hands of correctional officers. But rarely if ever are these patients seen by a provider trained to care for their special needs. Only 22 primary care residency programs in the U.S. train physicians in how to care for prisoners or people who have been through the correctional system.
The ignorance of medical professionals has serious consequences for these men and women and the health care system at large, especially as many of these patients stand to gain access to health care through the Affordable Care Act. Whether they use it is a particularly significant issue for the mentally ill, who are overrepresented in the prison population, many of them urgently needing treatment once they're released and must also manage medications.
Most health care providers don't know how common incarceration is (one in every 31 adults is in the prison system, according to the Pew Center on the States). They don't know that being released from a correctional facility puts a person at high risk for being hospitalized or dying, or that prisons even operate their own health care systems.
They don't know that many of our most powerless patients have their first exposure to health care as adults in prison, that patients in correctional facilities do not inject their own insulin or manage their own medications, may have to get permission from a correctional officer to see a health care provider and can even be punished with solitary confinement for not taking their medications.
Training medical professionals about the correctional health care system alerts them to the unique health risks of prison and how they might help patients prevent future incarcerations. But perhaps even more important, it creates a space to acknowledge that even physicians have a hard time avoiding the prevalent stereotype of criminals -- black, dangerous and deserving of incarceration -- and this can affect who they treat and how.
As someone who sees only former prisoners in her primary care practice, I know that hearing that someone has a criminal record can bring out our base fears and fantasies of prison life and of those who commits crimes, prejudices often fueled by the media and politicians. As doctors, we like to think we are objective, but we're just as susceptible to these fantasies as anyone else.
Discrimination based on criminal record is pervasive for people trying to get a job, find housing and secure social services, so why wouldn't it affect the delivery of health care as well?
This year, my colleagues and I published a study in Health and Justice that found that 42% of individuals released from prison felt discriminated against by individuals working in the health field, based on their criminal record. Some commented that the mere mention of their distant incarceration history in the electronic health record has led to doctors "not wanting to prescribe them prescription pain medications."
How can we counteract this? Medical providers can start by visiting a prison and by bringing their trainees. For instance, medical residency programs like the University of California, San Francisco's offer training about the health risks of incarceration, how to ask about a patient's incarceration history and even help trainees identify their own biases and develop strategies to confront them.
We also must teach patients who have been imprisoned how to talk about their incarceration, to be aware of providers' biases and to learn how to mention that they've been in prison without getting into the specifics of why. Without this, some patients may inadvertently offer details about past criminal activity that their physicians may not be able to overlook or forget.
If we fail to address these issues, the consequences can both affect the people needing treatment and burden an already stretched health care system. Past evidence shows that the experience of discrimination among any population deters patients from seeking primary care when they need it and leads them instead to end up in the emergency department when it is far more expensive to get the treatment they need, and often too late.
For patients released from correctional facilities, it's not hard to see how a similar outcome might take shape. Our lack of awareness of our own biases as doctors and of the specific needs of the prison population may lead to patients avoiding primary care, mental health treatment or substance abuse treatment and ending up in the emergency departments or, if these issues remain untreated, back in prison.
Read CNNOpinion's new Flipboard magazine.
Follow us on Twitter @CNNOpinion.
Join us on Facebook.com/CNNOpinion.
Rosetta closing in on comet
8/4/2014 1:54:19 PM
- If successful, the Rosetta mission will be the first to orbit and land on a comet
- Scientists hope to learn more about the composition of comets
- The robotic lander Philae is due to touch down in November
- Could comets have brought water to the Earth? Rosetta may help answer the question
London (CNN) -- After a 10-year chase taking it billions of miles across the solar system, the Rosetta spacecraft is homing in on its close encounter with a comet.
Pictures of the oddly-shaped rock have already been returned but on Wednesday scientists at the European Space Agency, which is leading the project, say they hope to see images from within about 75 miles as the probe carries out the last of its braking maneuvers.
If successful, the mission will notch up a series of firsts. Rosetta will be the first spacecraft to orbit a comet on its journey around the sun, and in November mission controllers aim to place the robotic lander Philae on the surface -- something that has never been done before.
Previous missions have performed comet fly-bys but Rosetta is different. This probe will follow the comet for more than a year, mapping and measuring how it changes as it is blasted by the sun's energy.
Mission controllers had to use the gravity of Earth and Mars to give the probe a slingshot acceleration to meet its target on the right trajectory. Rosetta also had to be put into hibernation for more than two years to conserve power before being woken up successfully in January this year.
Interactive: See how Rosetta chases the comet across the solar system
Scientists hope to learn more about the composition of comets and perhaps whether they brought water to the Earth or even the chemicals that make up the building blocks of life.
Matt Taylor, Rosetta project scientist
"It really is such a step forward to anything that has come before," project scientist Matt Taylor told CNN.
Rosetta will soon begin mapping the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and find out more about its gravitational pull. This will help to find a suitable landing site for Philae and allow engineers to keep Rosetta in the right orbit.
As comets approach the sun, any ice melts and is turned into an ionized gas tail. The dust produces a separate, curving tail. It's these processes that Rosetta scientists hope to be able to study from close proximity.
Taylor explained that the survey will show the team what the comet nucleus looks like now and when it gets closer to the sun.
"We'll be able to make a comparison to now, when its relatively inert, to when it's highly active ... making this measurement over a year when we're riding alongside at walking pace and observing how a comet works and interacts with the sun," he said.
"We are there for over a year to see this compete development to the extent that you may even be able to measure the decrease in the volume of the nucleus ... see how much material has left the comet."
Rosetta's target comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is known as a short-period comet. It reappears every six years as its orbit brings it close to the sun. Halley's comet has a period of about 76 years and is not due to return close enough to Earth to be visible until 2061. Others only return after thousands of years.
Matt Taylor says it is unlikely that you will be able to see comet 67P with the naked eye but you can follow the progress of the mission on Rosetta's blog and find out more with CNN's interactive coverage.
Israel, Hamas to hold 72-hour truce
8/4/2014 10:56:44 PM
- NEW: The United States calls on both sides to honor the cease-fire agreement
- Cease-fire begins Tuesday at 8 a.m. local time, an Israeli spokesman says
- "We will cease all our activities," an Israeli government spokesman says
- The operation to destroy Hamas' tunnels "is winding up," the spokesman says
Gaza City (CNN) -- Will it, or won't it, hold?
That's the question following word late Monday that Israel and Palestinian factions, including Hamas, agreed to a 72-hour humanitarian cease-fire proposed by Egypt.
Even as they agreed to the cease-fire, set to take effect Tuesday morning, both sides appeared suspicious of one another.
"The onus is on Hamas," Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said shortly after announcing on CNN's "The Lead with Jake Tapper" that Israel had accepted the Egyptian proposal. Under the agreement, the cease-fire will begin at 8 a.m. local time, he said.
"We are entering this with our eyes open. ...We have been burnt more than once."
The sentiment was similar from Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan, who told CNN as long as Israel honors the agreement, so will the Palestinians.
"We hope they can take it and be committed to a cease-fire," he said.
While Egypt has not released details of the cease-fire agreement, Regev said it was the same agreement that Israel accepted and Hamas rejected three weeks ago.
News of the cease-fire comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Monday to finish the military operation to destroy Hamas' network of tunnels.
That operation appeared to be close to an end, with Regev saying Israel will "cease all our ... military activities, all our offensive operations against terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip."
When asked about the tunnels, he said the issue is solving itself. "It's winding up anyway," Regev said.
Earlier in the day, the Israel Defense Forces said there were possibly between one and three tunnels left.
Mounting death toll
Both sides have been under fire for a mounting death toll in the conflict, now in its fourth week.
More than 1,800 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The United Nations has said of those casualties, civilians account for 70% to 80%.
Israeli officials have said 64 Israeli soldiers and three civilians in Israel have died.
The United States urged both sides to honor the cease-fire agreement.
"The United States has been steadfast in our insistence on an end to rocket and tunnel attacks against Israel and an end to the suffering of the people of Gaza," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
On Monday, during a short humanitarian "pause" in the fighting called by Israel, residents in Gaza flooded the streets to pick up supplies and check on their abandoned homes.
Al Saha, the largest open-air market in Gaza City, was bustling with vendors. One man hung clothes for sale from the burned-out carcass of a bus hit a few days ago by Israeli fire power.
Cars jammed Gaza's main thoroughfare, but the atmosphere appeared relaxed, and children played in the street.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said at least 18 people were killed in Gaza during the cease-fire, including an 8-year-old in a strike on a house in a refugee camp in Gaza City.
That strike also injured 30 people, Palestinian health officials said, and happened after Israel had started the cease-fire.
Israel said that strike did not violate the cease-fire because it happened just two minutes into it and the operation had already been in progress.
Hamas had not agreed to the Israeli-declared cease-fire, and at least 53 rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel on Monday, according to the IDF.
Daniel Mansour, a senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative in charge of intelligence-gathering in northern Gaza, was targeted and killed before the cease-fire Monday, the IDF said. He had participated in directing rocket attacks toward Israel, the IDF said.
Two attacks in Jerusalem
Police in Jerusalem said they foiled what they described as a terror attack when they shot and killed the driver of an earthmover after it overturned a passenger bus.
Police said one pedestrian was also killed and the bus driver was injured. There were no passengers on the bus at the time, police said.
The driver of the earthmover was identified as 20-year-old Mohammed Jaabis, a Palestinian from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabal alMukaber.
Footage broadcast by Israel's Channel 10 showed the earthmover still moving as security forces approached. The video appeared to show shots being fired.
The incident happened in the Sheikh Jarrah area of central Jerusalem, near the entrance to a Jewish orthodox neighborhood.
Hamas praised the attack and said it was "a natural reaction to the Israeli crimes against civilians" in Gaza.
In another incident, a man on a motorbike opened fire at an Israeli soldier near Hebrew University, Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. Rescue workers said the Israeli was severely wounded.
An eyewitness on Israel Channel 10 said he heard a gunshot and saw "a soldier holding his chest. He walked a few steps backwards and collapsed."
International condemnation of Israel and Hamas
France is the latest country to condemn the Gaza operation and strikes on U.N.-run shelters in Gaza.
"How many deaths will it take to stop what has to be called the carnage in Gaza?" French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius asked in a statement. He said while Israel has a right to total security, "this right does not justify the killing of children and the slaughter of civilians." He also said Hamas carries an overwhelming responsibility in this "macabre gearing which particularly serves extremism."
On Sunday, the United States and the United Nations used the strongest language yet in condemning the strike on a U.N.-run shelter in Gaza, with Washington calling the attack "disgraceful."
At least nine people at the school, which was being used as a shelter for about 3,000 people, were killed in the shelling.
Israel said it is carefully reviewing the attack.
The IDF said it targeted three Palestinian Islamic Jihad members riding a motorcycle in the vicinity of the school, but didn't say if the suspected militants were hit.
READ: CNN exclusive: Inside the mind of Hamas' political leader
READ: Gaza conflict: Can economic isolation ever be reversed?
READ: Life in Gaza: Misery heightened by war
CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Tal Heinrich, Saima Mohsin and Ali Younes contributed to this story
China's quake relief fund nearly $100M
8/4/2014 8:28:30 PM
- At least 398 dead in quake, Chinese state-run TV says; 1,801 people injured
- Tens of thousands of homes damaged or destroyed
- China Earthquake Networks Center says the magnitude was 6.5
(CNN) -- Troops joined rescue operations in Yunnan province, southwestern China Monday following a 6.1-magnitude earthquake but the search for survivors was hampered by rainfall and aftershocks.
At least 398 people have been killed, and 1,801 injured by the quake that struck on Sunday afternoon, state-run media has reported.
The quake struck at 4.30 p.m. local time (4.30 a.m. ET). The majority of the casualties occurred in the city of Zhaotong, Ludian County.
The epicenter of the quake was recorded in Longtoushan Township, 23 kilometers (14 miles) southwest of Zhaotong, and tremors were felt almost 200 miles away. Hundreds of aftershocks have been recorded following the initial tremor.
Beijing has allocated 600 million yuan ($97 million) for relief efforts, Xinhua reported Monday.
It is a fairly remote, partly mountainous area. Many live in low-rise houses made of wood and bricks or plaster, which make them prone to collapse.
Poor housing
The quality of the housing, along with the higher-than-average population density in the area and the relatively shallow epicenter of the quake, was said to be a contributing factor to the death toll.
"Most rural houses in the county were made of brick or wood, were not designed to be resistant to quakes, and many of them were outdated," the China Earthquake Administration said in a statement.
Lu Xuefeng, head of Zhaotong City's communications department, told reporters Monday that an estimated 210,000 households and almost a million residents had been affected by the earthquake.
He said local authorities had dispatched 6,000 troops to join the disaster relief operation, according to state media. They are joined by specially-trained functionaries, medical teams and thousands of volunteers. Civil authorities have distributed tents, folding beds, blankets and clothing.
"I was working ... when my family called and told me our home was destroyed," Mao Quan, a resident of Longquan village, Longtoushan Township, told CNN.
"They told me nearly all houses at the village have been destroyed in the earthquake. There's no shelter, not enough to eat and the roads are cut off so it's hard for aid to go in. I've been walking back to the village since 7 a.m. I tried to hitchhike but it's hard. I'll probably be back home in another two hours."
Some 12,000 homes were destroyed and 30,000 others damaged in Sunday's quake, according to CCTV. Tens of thousands have been relocated from structurally unsafe houses. Some roads have been destroyed and some villages remain cut off.
Power outages
Ten towns and townships faced power outages overnight. Power was restored to around 19,000 homes Monday morning, but communications remain spotty.
President Xi Jinping called for "all-out efforts" in relief operations late Sunday night, with top priority given to saving lives, minimizing casualties and providing adequate shelter for displaced victims of the disaster.
Two commercial planes from carrier China Eastern Airlines have been used to fly rescue and medical teams close to the epicenter.
Premier Li Keqiang, who visited stricken areas on Monday morning, also called for a swift response, urging local authorities to focus attention on search and rescue and also on providing adequate supplies and medical attention for residents affected by the disaster.
Walking for several miles on foot to reach the worst-hit areas, he called on eight government ministries, including civil affairs, health, transport and housing, to send teams to take part in rescue and rehabilitation work.
The scope of the disaster meant that medical facilities were in danger of being overwhelmed.
Officials from Zhaotong urged people to give blood in order to make up a significant shortfall.
Video of the site from CCTV shows rescue workers digging with their hands under several feet of rubble that included dirt, rebar and concrete blocks.
Footage also showed injured adults and children being rushed to hospitals in ambulances.
Power and telephone outages were complicating assessment of the damage, rescuers said. Rain is expected in the next few days, which authorities fear could impact rescue efforts.
Condolences
The White House sent its condolences Sunday, and offered assistance.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those that lost their lives, those injured or displaced, and all the people of China on this difficult day," National Security Council Deputy Spokesperson Bernadette Meehan said in a statement.
"U.S. disaster response officials are in contact with their Chinese counterparts. The United States stands ready to assist."
The United Nations echoed the sentiment.
"(The Secretary General) offers his condolences to the Chinese Government and the families of those killed, and his deepest sympathies to those who were injured or otherwise affected in this disaster," Secretary General Ban Kee Moon's spokesperson said in a statement, adding that the organization was ready to "respond to humanitarian needs" and to "mobilize international support" as needed.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a magnitude of 6.1, while the China Earthquake Networks Center reported it as a 6.5-magnitude event.
The area is a mountainous region, known for its natural scenery and ethnic diversity, but is also prone to natural disasters and lies on a major earthquake fault.
Yunnan's neighboring province, Sichuan, witnessed a magnitude 7.9 earthquake in 2008 where at least 87,000 people died.
Measuring the magnitude of earthquakes
What to know about earthquakes
CNN's Jaime FlorCruz and Dayu Zhang in Beijing contributed to this report.
Kurds battle to retake Iraqi town
8/4/2014 3:28:06 PM
- NEW: Dam is in the hands of Kurdish forces, not the Islamic State, an official says
- There has been fierce fighting in the Iraqi town of Sinjar, close to Syria, a source says
- Kurdish fighters are engaged in house-to-house battle with Islamic State, source says
- Sinjar fell to ISIS fighters over weekend, police say
(CNN) -- The director of Iraq's largest hydroelectric dam shot down reports Monday that it had been seized by the radical Islamic State, saying Kurdish forces fended off an assault.
Fighters with the Islamic State, formerly the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, were pushed back after gaining access to a housing compound for employees who work at the dam just north of Iraq's second largest city, Mosul, Abdul Khaliq al-Dabbagh, the director of the Mosul Dam, said.
Conflicting reports about who was in control of the dam on the Tigris River began Sunday amid news of fierce fighting between Islamic State fighters and Kurdish forces, known as Peshmerga.
A Kurdish commander told CNN on Sunday that ISIS had taken control of it, though employees remained at the dam. But al-Dabbagh said the Peshmerga held their positions until reinforcements arrived early Monday morning.
ISIS -- known for killing dozens of people at a time and carrying out public executions, crucifixions and other acts -- has taken over large swaths of northern and western Iraq as it seeks to create an Islamic state that stretches from Syria into Iraq.
The United Nations in Iraq warned that 200,000 civilians were trapped in dire circumstances after the Islamic State and associated armed groups "seized control of nearly all of Sinjar and Tal Afar districts" in the northern Ninevah province, including several small oil fields that border Iraq's Kurdish region.
Most of the people who fled districts are minority Kurdish Yezidis, an ancient religious sect with ties to Islam, Christianity and Judaism. A large number have taken refuge in the Jabal Sinjar mountains, the United Nations said.
Kurdish fighters battled ISIS in an attempt top retake Sinjar -- a small town inhabited by the Yezidi sect -- on Monday and have been engaged in house-to-house battles in some of the fiercest fighting since the fall of Mosul to the Islamic militant group in June, a Kurdish commander said.
Both sides are using heavy weaponry, the source said. Fighting has also been reported in the border town of Rabia, with Syria-based Kurds joining the battle against Islamic State militants.
Meanwhile, the head of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Massoud Barzani, told a group of Yezidi sect leaders that his government would liberate Sinjar, according to a report on the government's website.
Barzani said the Kurds had been fighting without any help from the Iraqi government or the international community.
The State Department said Sunday that it was "actively monitoring the situation" in Sinjar and Tal Afar, and said that the United States is supporting both Iraqi security forces and Peshmerga forces in the fight against the Islamic State.
"The assault over the past 48 hours on territories along the border of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region and focusing on towns and villages populated by vulnerable minorities, demonstrates once again that this terrorist organization is a dire threat to all Iraqis, the entire region and the international community," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement.
Islamic State takes control of Iraq's largest dam
U.S. agrees to send 5,000 more Hellfire missiles to Iraq
U.S. tap water ban lifted
8/4/2014 3:28:14 PM
- NEW: "The families can return to normal life," Toledo mayor says of water ban
- Tests showed high levels of toxins in two Toledo neighborhoods
- Microcystin, a toxin caused by algae blooms, found in the water system
Were you in the affected area? Please go to CNN iReport to share your perspective.
(CNN) -- A tap water ban affecting hundreds of thousands of people in Ohio was lifted Monday after tests in affected neighborhoods returned "nondetectable" levels of a algae-related toxin, Toledo Mayor D. Michael Collins said.
"Our water is safe," Collins said. "The families can return to normal life."
Residents and businesses that did not use their water at all -- not even for showering or washing hands, both of which were allowed under the ban -- will need to run their water first to help flush their systems, Collins said, but "if you've been using water all along, just go on with life."
Collins said the city would provide details later Monday about flushing systems.
Residents of Ohio's fourth-largest city were told to avoid using their tap water all weekend after the state and federal Environmental Protection Agency showed high toxin levels in the East Toledo and Point Place neighborhoods, Collins said earlier Monday.
Instead of isolating the two neighborhoods, Collins kept the ban on drinking or using tap water in the entire city until additional retests were completed. He declined to provide specifics on the names of neighborhoods in question and how high the toxin levels were.
As many as 400,000 people were told not to consume, cook with or boil the tap water after a toxin called microcystin was found Friday in the water supply.
Toledo's drinking water comes from Lake Erie, where a harmful algae bloom that causes microcystin has been growing.
The city set up distribution centers for potable water, where members of the Ohio National Guard, fire officials and other first responders were giving out safe water.
About 350 Ohio National Guardsmen were activated by Ohio Gov. John Kasich, according to a U.S. Defense Department official, adding that they set up three reverse osmosis water purification unit sites at two high schools and a police facility. The guardsmen also delivered ready-to-eat meals, the official said.
Lining up for water
About two-thirds of the Toledo area was affected by the water warning. Kasich issued a state of emergency for Fulton, Lucas and Wood counties. The potential contamination also affected four municipalities in Michigan, CNN affiliate WXYZ-TV in Detroit reported.
There were no reports of anyone getting sick from the water, officials said.
When certain conditions are present, such as high nutrient or light levels, algae can reproduce rapidly, forming a dense population known as a "bloom," according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Testing was crucial because NOAA says it can't determine just from images whether blooms are toxic.
Ingestion of the toxin can affect the liver and cause nausea, diarrhea, vomiting and acute liver failure, according to NOAA. But the Ohio Emergency Management Agency said it was safe for adults to shower and for everyone to wash their hands.
CNN's Eliott C. McLaughlin, David Shortell, Ryan Sloane, Barbara Starr, Marisa Marcellino, Donovan Long and Kristina Sgueglia contributed to this report.
Brady made people talk about guns
8/5/2014 12:55:00 AM
- Carolyn McCarthy: Like James Brady, her life had "before" and "after" a shooting tragedy
- She lost her husband, and son injured; Brady was gravely wounded by would-be assassin
- She says Jim and Sarah Brady's anti-gun violence efforts have made huge mark in U.S.
- McCarthy: Brady funny, brave, supportive. His legacy is Brady Law, which has saved lives
Editor's note: Carolyn McCarthy is a U.S congresswoman from New York's 4th District
(CNN) -- Like former White House Press Secretary James Brady, my life has a "before" and an "after." For Jim Brady, who died Monday at 73, the "before" was the time leading up to March 30, 1981, when he was gravely wounded by an assassin aiming for President Ronald Reagan, who was also seriously wounded.
For me, "before" was my life as a nurse, wife, and mother leading up to December 7, 1993, when a mentally disturbed gunman shot and killed my husband, Dennis, and severely wounded my son Kevin during a mass shooting on the Long Island Railroad. The "after" for Jim and for me has been a life colored by sadness and loss, but also driven by a cause bigger than both of us: ending violence caused by guns in this country.
Jim Brady did not choose to be a leading advocate to prevent gun violence, but he embraced that role with courage and grace. Jim and his wonderfully steely wife, Sarah, founded the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and went to work to ensure that other individuals and families would not have to endure what they suffered after the 1981 shooting.
Jim and Sarah have been leaders in the anti-gun violence effort for over 30 years and they have always handled their roles in a way that has earned them admirers across this country and around the world. Jim and Sarah have led the discussion on the role guns play in our society.
I first met Jim Brady in late 1993 after the Long Island Railroad shooting. He and Sarah were very kind and provided me with hope for life after my shooting tragedy. Even while recovering from his severe head wound, he moved forward into his own new life of prodding America into addressing gun violence in a commonsense manner.
Jim Brady had a great sense of humor and he used that humor to put people at ease when they met him. He never played the martyr. Jim and I were once discussing my son's recovery from his gunshot wounds and I told Jim that Kevin wanted to go skydiving. I had my doubts, but Jim thought it was a great goal. He said, on behalf of all shooting victims, "We want to show people that we are still the person we were and we do things that people think we can't." On his next birthday, Kevin went skydiving.
James Brady's lasting legacy is, of course, the law that bears his name. The Brady Law, providing for background checks and a waiting period for gun purchases, has been in effect for more than 20 years. It has blocked more than 2 million gun sales to felons, fugitives and those suffering from mental illness.
While the tragedies of Columbine, Virginia Tech, Newtown, and unfortunately many others demonstrate that we have more to do toward ending gun violence in America, Jim Brady leaves us with a law that has undoubtedly saved many lives. The Brady law continues to protect Americans, and the life of James Brady will continue to inspire all those faced with challenge and tragedy. My friend, Jim Brady, will be greatly missed.
Read CNNOpinion's new Flipboard magazine
Follow us on Twitter @CNNOpinion.
Join us on Facebook.com/CNNOpinion.
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