 | FollowUp.cc is a simple and easy tool to help your Inbox be more productive. FollowUp.cc works on any email system and any device - No login and no special software 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. |
Minors 'cross U.S. border repeatedly'
8/5/2014 3:05:46 AM
- A Pew Center report looked at attempted illegal border crossings by Mexican minors
- The report counted 11,000 who tried to cross between October 1 and May 31
- Fifteen percent of those minors had been caught and deported at least six times
- Poverty and violence in Mexico are often reasons children leave home for the U.S.
(CNN) -- New research focusing on underage Mexican immigrants trying to cross the border illegally into the United States shows these minors don't put aside their American dream easily, even if caught multiple times by immigration authorities.
According to a new report published by the Pew Research Center, out of 11,000 Mexican minors who tried to cross the border illegally between last October 1 and May 31, "only 2,700 children (24% of all the apprehensions) reported being apprehended for the first time in their lives."
This means that more than three-quarters of the children have been caught trying to cross the border illegally more than once. According to the report, 15% of these would-be migrants had been detained by immigration authorities and deported at least six times.
Mark Hugo Lopez, Director of Hispanic Research at the Pew Research Center, said his team started analyzing the data with no preconceived notions.
"We had no sense of how many times young people from Mexico had tried to cross the border," Lopez said. "In conversations with officials at the Mexican embassy we found out they had very specific data about the minors apprehended by immigration authorities, information that they have been collecting."
The data from Mexican officials was then checked against data collected by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and researchers found there was correlation. U.S. immigration authorities notify Mexican consular officials of apprehensions per agreements between the two nations.
When it comes to reasons why these children are choosing to leave home, Lopez said poverty and increased violence are the two main factors.
"Most of these young children are coming from border states, particularly Tamaulipas (south of Texas) which accounts for more than one quarter (3,077) of all those apprehended," Lopez said. Other Mexican states with large number of migrant children are Sonora, which is south of Arizona, 1,160; Oaxaca, 884; Guerrero, 750: Guanajuato, 716; and Michoacán, 645.
Tamaulipas has been plagued by violence over the last few years as two rival Mexican criminal organizations battle for territory. Michoacán saw an increase in violence over the last year as groups of vigilantes took up arms to drive away a drug cartel.
Unlike Central American children, Mexican minors are deported almost immediately. A 2008 human trafficking law requires migrant children to be processed by the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). But the law doesn't apply to minors from the two U.S. neighbors to the north and south, Canada and Mexico.
Lopez said there are also demographic differences between Central Americans and Mexicans.
"Central Americans are traveling a long distance, so crossing a second time is not very easy. Another big difference is that most Mexican underage migrants are males in their late teens, whereas Central Americans come in all ages, some younger than 12, and the number of girls tends to be higher," he said.
Polygamist compound now a B&B
8/5/2014 5:25:41 AM
The compound built for polygamist Warren Jeffs has been transformed into a bed and breakfast. CNN affiliate KUTV reports.
If your browser has Adobe Flash Player installed, click above to play. Otherwise, click below.
Kurds battle Islamists for Iraqi town
8/5/2014 9:29:09 AM
- 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
Rosetta spacecrat closes in on comet
8/5/2014 9:28:55 AM
- 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.
Why women become suicide bombers
8/5/2014 10:35:09 AM
- Jane Harman: A series of attacks in Nigeria by female suicide bombers is alarming
- Harman: Increasingly, radicalism has a female face
- She asks: What drives women to take part in terrorism and extremist movements?
- Harman: Security issues are more and more intertwined with women's issues
Editor's note: Jane Harman is president and chief executive of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. A former U.S. representative from California, she was the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee from 2002 to 2006. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
(CNN) -- Recently, a young Nigerian girl—just 15 years old—approached a group of police officers and blew herself up. The attack failed; she claimed no lives but her own.
Boko Haram may have launched bloodier attacks, but I struggle to imagine a more heinous terror plot. That girl was just one of four Nigerian women to weaponize themselves this July in the populous northern city of Kano. The second attempt, targeting a shopping mall, likewise killed just the bomber. The third slaughtered three women lined up to buy oil for their cook-stoves. The fourth cut short the lives of six young people at Kano Polytechnic.
These attacks cast in sharp relief a trend that needs greater attention: the real and growing participation of women in extremist movements.
We take for granted that young girls don't strap on suicide vests, and yet they sometimes do. Women and girls have scant rights under the medieval control of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, or ISIS. Our instincts say they would never join in its abusive rule over other women, and yet they have. We're used to thinking that men have a monopoly on violent extremism -- except they don't. We need a better understanding of what drives women to take part in, and even give their lives for, violent movements that insist on their inferiority. We can't counter radical narratives if we don't understand the motives of the radicalized.
The Atlantic's Kathy Gilsinan recently highlighted the surprising efforts of the al-Khansaa Brigade of ISIS. Wandering the streets of Raqqa, they wave firearms and enforce the jihadist code of conduct -- and they do it all while fully veiled, because the brigade is entirely female. That grim vision of women's participation challenges our less-than-nuanced understanding of radical movements.
Why do women contribute to groups like Boko Haram and ISIS that demand their submission? Sometimes, no doubt, they are coerced into compliance; sometimes, women participate in these extreme ideologies with enthusiasm. I wonder if some don't strap on a bomb as a merciful escape from miserable circumstances. But the important point is that we don't really know why women join terror groups that would deny them equality and opportunity.
We also don't understand the full extent of women's involvement. We don't know if Boko Haram's female bombers were a fluke or the first of many. We don't know if the al-Khansaa Brigade is a one-off experiment or a model for future ISIS governance. We have seen, though, that jihadists use women to exploit incomplete understandings of terrorism. Women pass unsuspected where men don't; that makes them valuable fighters. We can't thwart every attack while watching just half the pieces on the board.
Though women's involvement in terror seems to be on the rise, the tactic is old. Gillo Pontecorvo's 1966 film "The Battle of Algiers" lingered on the image of female militants applying French cosmetics—equal parts war paint and camouflage—while preparing to bomb French milk bars in support of Algeria's independence struggle.
Sri Lanka's Tamil insurgency made extensive use of female suicide bombers; between 1987 and 2008, women were better represented among their Black Tiger suicide commandos than they now are in either house of the United States Congress.
Today, social media is rife with female supporters of ISIS -- some of them Western citizens who have traveled to Syria to wed and support jihadists. It's time to wake up to the growing role of women. Terror groups clearly believe that jihad is a women's issue. The recruitment of women and girls is an important element of the modern threat landscape.
In the pursuit of women's equality at home and abroad, we still struggle to complete what former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton referred to as "the great unfinished business of the 21st century." If the United States is to offer a narrative of opportunity to the world—and strategically it must—then that narrative must include women and girls.
Terror groups will run out of female fighters when girls are protected from domineering violence, sex trafficking and child marriage, and given every opportunity to pursue a better path. Some critics of Clinton's tenure at the State Department have belittled her focus on women and girls -- as if the fate of half the world's population weren't an important subject for U.S. foreign policy.
That indifference can't last. Increasingly, radicalism has a female face. Security issues are women's issues; women's issues, sure enough, are security issues.
Join us on Facebook.com/CNNOpinion.
Follow us on Twitter @CNNOpinion.
Read CNNOpinion's new Flipboard magazine
China quake relief fund nearly $100M
8/5/2014 7:05:00 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.
Africa and U.S.: Invest in human rights
8/5/2014 7:00:22 PM
- President Obama holds first-ever U.S.-Africa summit in Washington this week
- Nicholas Opiyo: African leaders often give lip service to human rights, but abuse them
- Opiyo: Uganda, other countries still torment gay people, jail protesters and opponents
- Opiyo: U.S. and African leaders must work together toward human rights in Africa
Editor's note: Nicholas Opiyo is the executive director of Chapter Four Uganda, a nonprofit human rights organization based in Kampala, Uganda. He was a lead attorney on the legal team challenging the constitutionality of Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Act.
(CNN) -- Last Friday, I was in Uganda's Constitutional Court as a member of the legal team that persuaded its judges to overturn our country's inhumane anti-homosexuality law. Today, I am in Washington for the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit "Investing in the Next Generation" with a message: Invest in human rights in Africa.
It's hard to believe that African leaders and some development experts still debate whether human rights is a "Western concept" and whether countries can grow without human rights. African leaders have been too eager to advance their own economic and security agendas without consideration of the rights of their citizens.
Let's take the record of my country, Uganda, and its Anti-Homosexuality Act. This law codified rampant discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, who were targeted by police and arrested, detained for prolonged periods, extorted and blackmailed by those who should have been guaranteeing their rights under our constitution. The law stipulated punishments of up to life in prison for gay people engaging in sex and long sentences for "attempted homosexuality" or even promotion of it.
Although the Constitutional Court invalidated the anti-homosexuality law, it did so on a procedural point, not on the grounds of human rights. And a law that criminalizes sex acts "against the order of nature" dating back to colonial times is still on the books.
We do not know if the Ugandan parliament will vote on this law again in a way that would pass scrutiny by the Constitutional Court. The fight might not be over. But if supporters of this law reintroduce it, or if it is appealed, we will fight it every step of the way again.
The Ugandan government's intolerance of homosexuality created an atmosphere of fear and intimidation for nonprofit Ugandan organizations as well. It recently ordered the well-respected Refugee Law Project at Makerere University to suspend its work over the ridiculous allegation that it was promoting homosexuality and lesbianism.
Even health and development projects funded by the United States have not been spared. In April, the Ugandan police raided and closed the Walter Reed Research Clinic in Kampala because it works in partnership with the LGBT community to combat HIV-AIDS and was "training youths in homosexuality."
Sadly, human rights violations in Uganda are not limited to the government's prejudicial and irrational treatment of LGBT people.
For instance, our constitution, like the U.S. Constitution, guarantees freedom of assembly—but in practice, the Ugandan government restricts this right. In recent years, my country's police have used violence more and more frequently against opposition protesters, going as far as breaking up public meetings and arresting and intimidating pro-democracy activists.
This trend is only likely to increase with the enactment of the new Public Order Management Act. This law grants even more power to the Ugandan police to regulate—and in practice, to stifle—public assemblies and demonstrations, with no legal recourse for the protesters.
I love my country, Uganda, and don't mean to focus on it unfairly. One need only look to recent excesses in Nigeria and Zimbabwe to gain a broader view. Our leaders in Africa selectively demonstrate their support for human rights, often when the continent is reminded of its obligations under international and regional human rights treaties. This limited conception of human rights so often means that unpopular people and ideas find themselves attacked and abused.
In Uganda and across the continent, civil society organizations are looking to African leaders and the United States to join us in making history. The summit's website accurately describes Africa as "one of the world's most dynamic and fastest growing regions." We are all proud of that, and understand that the summit must address crucial issues of economic development.
But to make this summit truly historic, the United States and African nations must work together to promote democracies rooted in national constitutions and human rights, committed to protecting the dignity of all their citizens.
Read CNNOpinion's new Flipboard magazine
Follow us on Twitter @CNNOpinion.
Join us on Facebook.com/CNNOpinion.
U.S. general killed, others hurt in Afghanistan shooting
8/5/2014 7:13:26 PM
- NEW: Dempsey: "Where we serve we are often at risk"
- Army chief of staff confirms death of Maj. Gen. Harold Greene
- Afghan soldier believed to be shooter, says Pentagon spokesman
- Analyst: "It creates a crisis of confidence for the Afghans and for us"
Washington (CNN) -- It was a brazen attack killing the most senior U.S. officer since 9/11, and authorities say they think an Afghan soldier was the gunman.
Maj. Gen. Harold Greene -- a longtime officer who was leading efforts to train soldiers in Afghanistan -- was killed Tuesday at a military training facility in Kabul.
Pentagon officials went out of their way to say the shooting would not change the relationship between U.S. and Afghan forces.
"I've seen no indication that there's a degradation of trust between coalition members and their Afghan counterparts," Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby told reporters Tuesday.
But the deadly ambush at a premier training facility for Afghan military officers raises questions about the vetting process for Afghan soldiers and also the upcoming handover of security to Afghan forces.
"When something like this happens, in the least it creates a crisis of confidence for Afghans and for us," said Vali Nasr, dean of the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.
So far the Taliban has acknowledged the general's killing, but hasn't claimed responsibility for it.
The Pentagon isn't commenting on the possibility of Taliban involvement, saying the Afghan military and international forces are in the early stages of an investigation.
Nasr told CNN's "The Situation Room" that the attack raises serious concerns as the United States prepares to withdraw forces from Afghanistan and hand over security to Afghan forces.
"The Taliban have proven today they can infiltrate this force at will," he said. "The discipline we are seeking or that we are claiming is not there, and I think it is very difficult for the administration to say that everything is going according to plan, as if this is just an isolated incident and we can just leave."
But it's still unclear whether the gunman had Taliban ties and whether he slipped through the military's screening process, said Philip Mudd, a CNN counterterrorism analyst and a former CIA official.
"I don't think we should look and make judgments about the vetting process too quickly," he said. "You would think on the surface that maybe he was recruited by the Taliban. That's not necessarily the case."
Witnessing the horrors of war sometimes inspires soldiers to turn against their onetime allies, he said.
"He might have seen something in the last months or years...and sometimes there is an emotional switch that turns on after their recruitment, after their vetting, that leads them to say, 'I want to do something about this. I'm going to kill someone in the U.S. military,'" Mudd said.
'Routine visit' turns deadly
The attack occurred during a routine visit to the Marshal Fahim National Defense University in Kabul to look at improvements made at the school, Kirby said.
The shooter was wearing an Afghan military uniform and is believed to be someone who had served for some time in a unit of the Afghan armed forces, Kirby said.
"A person that we believe was an Afghan soldier opened fire and hit many with his weapon," he said.
In addition to the general's slaying, up to 15 coalition troops were wounded in the shooting rampage, Kirby told reporters.
He said some of them sustained serious, but not life-threatening, injuries.
The Afghan Defense Ministry described the shooter as a "terrorist" and said Afghan soldiers shot him dead.
General helped lead training
Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno released a condolence statement confirming Greene's death.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with Maj. Gen. Harold J. Greene's family, and the families of our soldiers who were injured today in the tragic events that took place in Afghanistan," Odierno said in the statement, referring to other officers who were hurt.
"These soldiers were professionals, committed to the mission. It is their service and sacrifice that define us as an Army. "
Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, described the general as a very experienced officer who was a leader in the training command in Afghanistan. He was an expert in infrastructure and logistics, Kirby said.
Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, expressed condolences on his official Facebook page Tuesday night.
"We serve, and where we serve we are often at risk," he said. "God bless those wounded and killed in Afghanistan yesterday and their families."
Insider attacks: 'A threat you can't completely eliminate'
This isn't the first time people dressed in Afghan security forces uniforms have attacked coalition forces who have worked to thwart such violence.
"The insider threat is one that we've been focused on for quite some time. ... It is a threat you can't completely eliminate," Kirby told CNN.
But it's a threat that can be mitigated, he said. And officials stress that statistics show that the numbers of such attacks have decreased.
In 2012, so-called "green on blue" insider attacks took the lives of dozens of coalition troops, and the U.S. command in Kabul halted some joint operations with Afghan security forces, CNN has previously reported.
Two attackers wearing Afghan military uniforms killed two U.S. service members in February in Afghanistan, the military publication Stars and Stripes reported.
In October 2013, a man in an Afghan soldier's uniform shot and killed an ISAF member in eastern Afghanistan, CNN reported.
According to an April 2013 Pentagon report, insider attacks against ISAF forces declined from 48 attacks in 2012 to 15 attacks in 2013. In the first quarter of 2014, there were two insider attacks against ISAF.
"Despite this sharp decline, these attacks may still have strategic effects on the campaign and could jeopardize the relationship between coalition and ANSF [Afghan National Security Forces] personnel," the report reads.
Kirby called insider attacks "a pernicious threat" that are "difficult to always ascertain, to come to grips with... anywhere, particularly in a place like Afghanistan."
"Afghanistan is still a war zone," he said.
Numerous security protocols were instituted a few years ago to help ensure military personnel are safe, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. The United States will "review" the circumstances of Tuesday's shooting to see if any changes should be made.
White House: Attack is 'painful reminder' of troops' sacrifice
President Obama was briefed about the shooting and called Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, to get more information, Earnest said.
"While we have made tremendous progress in disrupting, dismantling and defeating al Qaeda operations and leadership in Afghanistan and progress in winding down U.S. involvement in that conflict, this shooting, of course is a painful reminder of the service and sacrifice that our men and women in uniform make every day for this country," Earnest said.
In February the Obama administration announced for the first time that it had begun planning for the possible withdrawal of all U.S. troops by the end of 2014 if Afghanistan did not sign a security agreement pertaining to rights of U.S. troops operating there.
In May, Obama said that if the Afghan government signs a security agreement, virtually all U.S. forces would be out of the country by the end of 2016, shortly before his presidency ends.
He called for 9,800 U.S. troops to stay in Afghanistan after the end of 2014, along with some allied forces. The number would get cut roughly in half by the end of 2015, and a year later the U.S. military presence would scale down to what officials described as a "normal" embassy security contingent.
Kirby told reporters Tuesday that Afghan National Security Forces "continue to perform at a very strong level of competence and confidence, and warfare capability."
The U.S. military feels that the Afghan military "grows stronger by the week" and noted that they are already "in the lead in combat missions" throughout the country, he said.
"They'll be completely in the lead for military operations by the end of the year," Kirby said. "We see no change in that."
2 U.S. soldiers killed in Afghanistan
CNN's Jim Sciutto reported from Washington, and Ashley Fantz and Catherine E. Shoichet reported and wrote from Atlanta. CNN's Barbara Starr, Brian Todd, Anna-Maja Rappard, Shawn Nottingham and Greg Seaby also contributed to this report.
RAF jet scrambled to escort plane
8/5/2014 9:51:02 AM
- NEW: Police say one man has been arrested on suspicion of making a hoax bomb threat
- Passenger films fighter escort through plane window, says armed police responded
- Pilot received information that a "possible suspicious device" was on board, police say
- An RAF jet is deployed to escort the passenger plane into Manchester Airport
London (CNN) -- A fighter jet was scrambled Tuesday to escort a passenger plane into Britain's Manchester Airport after the pilot received information that a "possible suspicious device" was on board, police said.
The plane landed safely after being escorted by the Royal Air Force jet and the airport said the threat was now over.
Greater Manchester Police said via Twitter that one man on board the plane had been arrested on suspicion of making a hoax bomb threat.
The other passengers are now being allowed off the aircraft, the force said.
Manchester Airport's press office said flights have resumed after being suspended for a 25-minute period.
Qatar Airways confirmed that flight QR23 from Doha to Manchester, an Airbus A330-300, had landed safely with 269 passengers and 13 crew on board.
"The crew onboard had received a threat about a possible device on board and Qatar Airways immediately took all the necessary precautions to alert British authorities," the airline said.
"The crew is now fully assisting police at the airport with their inquiries."
Earlier, Chief Superintendent John O'Hare of Greater Manchester Police said police did not know how genuine the threat was but that it was vital police dealt with the situation "as a full emergency."
He urged people not to be alarmed by the presence of police and other agencies at the airport and on the airfield.
"Our response will be as comprehensive as it is proportionate, with the safety of those on board and in and around the airport our paramount concern," he said.
A passenger on the plane, Josh Hartley, posted a video to Instagram showing a fighter jet flying alongside the aircraft, filmed through the plane window.
Posting on Twitter, he said that emergency services were on the landing strip and that armed police were outside the plane.
Manchester Airport is an international airport serving the north of England and handling more than 20 million passengers a year.
CNN's Elaine Ly, Carol Jordan, Sweelin Ong and Zahra Ullah contributed to this report.
China: Did couple steal state secrets?
8/5/2014 12:18:38 AM
- Canadian nationals Kevin and Julia Garratt are suspected of stealing state secrets
- The couple run a coffee shop near China's border with North Korea
- The pair's whereabouts are unclear
- Canadian Embassy in Beijing says it's ready to offer assistance
Hong Kong (CNN) -- A Canadian couple living in a city close to China's border with North Korea are under investigation for the suspected theft of state secrets, state media said Tuesday.
Kevin and Julia Garratt, who run a cafe in the northeastern city of Dandong, are suspected of stealing information about China's "military and national defense research," according to a brief report released by China's official news agency Xinhua.
It is not clear whether the pair have been detained. Calls to their café, Peter's Coffee House, were not answered on Tuesday morning.
Xinhua said that the State Security Bureau in Dandong was investigating the case.
Officials at the Ministry of Public Security in Dandong, when contacted by CNN, said they were not aware of the situation.
The couple had been living in China since 1984 and had been running the coffeehouse, named after their youngest son, since 2008, according to Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper.
Peter Garrett, who still lives in China, told Canadian broadcaster CBC that he was taken in for questioning by authorities on Tuesday.
He called his parents' arrest "ridiculous," and, alluding to suspicions that the action taken against his parents might have been motivated by their religious convictions, played down their evangelism.
"My parents are Christians, yes, and they don't hide that," the 21-year-old told CBC's "As it happens" radio show. "But they're not doing anything against the Chinese government or trying to proselytize or anything like that."
The couple's other son, Simeon, lives in Canada. He told Hong Kong's South China Morning Post that the accusation of "stealing state secrets on China's military and national defense research", was "wildly absurd" and "crazy."
He described his parents as "openly Christian" and said that they were involved in sending food aid to North Korea. He told the newspaper that the accusations "(sound) like something somebody made up," he said. "I really don't know why. It's just so absurd."
The Canadian Embassy in Beijing said it was aware of the reports and consular officials stood ready to provide assistance if required, it added.
"We are gathering information and monitoring developments closely," a spokesperson said in an email.
The cafe's website says it's "only meters from the border of North Korea and Dandong's Friendship Bridge" and a "perfect stop off while en route or returning from the Hermit Kingdom."
The cafe also held a weekly "English corner" to helps locals wanting to practice their language skills.
The investigation comes at a time of strained ties between Beijing and Ottawa after the Canadian government last week publicly blamed China for hacking government computers, the Globe and Mail reported.
Report: Chinese journalist detained for allegedly leaking state secrets
CNN's Zhang Dayu in Beijing and Euan McKirdy in Hong Kong contributed to this report.
F1 boss to walk after paying $100M
8/5/2014 3:59:31 PM
- German court orders Bernie Ecclestone to pay $100 million
- Sum is a settlement to end F1 supremo's trial on bribery charges
- Ecclestone has been given a week to pay the fine
- The 83-year-old had been facing up to 10 years in jail if found guiltuy
Follow us at @WorldSportCNN and like us on Facebook
(CNN) -- The head of Formula One has avoided possible conviction on bribery charges after agreeing to pay $100 million.
A German court ruled Tuesday that it would accept an offer from Bernie Ecclestone to bring an early end to proceedings, which had already lasted three months.
Presiding judge Peter Noll gave the 83-year-old British businessman a week to make payments of $99 million to the Bavarian state treasury and $1 million to a local charity which looks after terminally ill children.
Ecclestone, who has always denied any wrongdoing, was accused of bribing a German banker eight years go over the sale of a controlling interest in the company that runs the elite division of motorsport.
Under German law there is a provision to halt criminal proceedings to avoid long and costly court cases where a conviction might be difficult to achieve and after a negotiation between prosecutors and the defense.
"While charges could have been pursued against the accused, the court took into consideration the age of the accused, his health and the considerable burden of attending court in a foreign country with all the language difficulties that entails and the public attention," Noll said in his summing up.
Ecclestone, whose fortune is valued by Forbes at over $4 billion, was asked by Noll if he could make the payment. "Yes" came the reply.
Ecclestone's defense lawyer Sven Thomas added: "That's do-able."
It brought down the curtain on proceedings in Munich that could have ended in a jail sentence of up to 10 years and the loss of his position at the helm of F1.
Outside the court, Thomas told reporters: "This is not about a conviction, but a cessation of the trial with no admission of guilt.
"There will be no guilty verdict whatsoever and that clearly changes the situation in terms of the evidence and legal position, otherwise the talks between the prosecution and defense would not have been possible."
The controversy dates back to 2006, when the German regional bank BayernLB sold its 47.2% stake in F1 to the current majority shareholder, CVC Capital Partners -- a private equity firm.
The prosecution claimed Ecclestone paid Gerhard Gribkowsky, formerly the chief risk officer of BayernLB, a sweetener of $44 million to steer the sale to CVC, so he could remain in charge of F1.
Ecclestone admitted the payment to Gribhowsky, but only after the banker threatened to make damaging claims about his tax status to Britain's HM Revenue and Customs.
The case revealed that he had avoided a £1.2 billion ($2 billion) bill through a legal tax avoidance scheme, and had settled with British tax authorities by paying £10 million.
He has been attending court, mostly accompanied by his wife Fabiana Flos, for two days per week while still running F1 -- a job he has held for over 40 years.
Ecclestone had been warned by CVC that a guilty verdict would have resulted him being losing that coveted role, having won a civil case in Britain in February after being accused of undervaluing F1 in the sale.
Read: Ferrari 'has veto over Ecclestone successor'
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