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[
"(CNN) -- The story of Katie Goldman is one that young and (ahem) older \"girls\" all over the country can relate to.",
"Teased for bringing her \"Star Wars\" Thermos to school, the first-grader opted instead to shield her love of the series from public scrutiny and asked her mom for a pink Thermos instead.",
"At the tender age of 7, the boys in her class had a hard time accepting that she could like light sabers and Jedi knights just as much as they did.",
"It would be easier for Katie to be what people expected her to be, even if it meant hiding part of who she really was.",
"The more times change, the more sci-fi stereotypes stay the same.",
"Not just 'guys living in their basements' The evolution of science-fiction and fantasy started decades ago, but sad to say, as Katie's experience shows, it's still not there yet.",
"Part of the reason could be that many of us, um ... shall we say, \"older\" fans have also shielded our love of the great imaginative stories that sci-fi delivers from public view.",
"I admit that whenever I told anyone I work with at CNN that I really loved the \"Battlestar Galactica\" series on Syfy, I quickly followed with a \"Time magazine called it the best television series of 2005,\" as if the fact that I loved the show weren't enough.",
"\"Laugh if you want,\" wrote James Poniewozik, \"but this story of enemies within is dead serious, and seriously good.\"",
"Read more about \"Battlestar Galactica\" I (like many others, I suspect) thought that people simply couldn't take me seriously if they knew that part of me loved these fascinating tales of faraway places, worlds unexplored or the ever-present themes of beating the undefeatable, facing the ultimate challenge and overcoming evil.",
"The numbers show I'm clearly not alone.",
"Just take a look at who's watching the network solely devoted to science-fiction and fantasy programming.",
"\"It's always been very gender-balanced.",
"It has this misconception that it's about the guys living in their basements.",
"Our audience has been about 50-50,\" said Dave Howe, president of the newly rebranded Syfy network (formerly SciFi).",
"\"I think it's one of those urban myths that's existed for a very long time: They are the stereotypical sci-fi fan, and people ignore women and families ... dating back to when we were all at school.\"",
"So you think you know the sci-fi audience?",
"Did you know that some 67% of viewers who tune in to watch Buffy slay the evil vampires (in reruns, albeit) are women?",
"And they're not just tuning in to see the exciting possibilities vampires present.",
"Howe -- who is also president of a horror flick network called Chiller, which he says reaches about 40 million households -- says that about 53% of the \"Masters of Horror\" audience are female.",
"\"People think they're not into science-fiction, and then you look at who's going to see 'Harry Potter' or 'Spider-Man' or 'Twilight.'",
"... Science-fiction is the most mainstream genre, period.\"",
"Oh, yeah, did I mention that Howe says the average age of those Syfy-watching women is about 45?",
"One size does not fit all .",
"It's much better to be a \"Star Wars\" fan today than it was when I was kid.",
"Not because the story has changed but because the characters have.",
"In \"Star Wars' \" new animated life on Cartoon Network (which, like CNN, is owned by Time Warner) \"The Clone Wars\" features a girl who is a Jedi apprentice.",
"The character Ahsoka Tano is a strong-willed, determined and often sassy Jedi-in-training who at times comes to the rescue of her know-it-all master.",
"It's something not lost on actress Ashley Eckstein, the voice of Ahsoka Tano.",
"\"I have to give Lucasfilm credit for creating the character of Ahsoka,\" Eckstein said.",
"\"She is the first female Jedi who has been the focus of the series.",
"They have created a series with several female characters as lead characters, and sometimes the women carry the episodes.",
"They are making it OK for these women to be the leads.",
"Now, when the kids are playing 'Star Wars' on the playground, there is a Jedi for the little girls to be.",
"For the girls who don't want to be a princess, they can be a padawan.\"",
"Eckstein was so passionate about giving the girls permission to \"get their girl on\" that she negotiated rights with Lucasfilm to develop a line of clothing called Her Universe and other products aimed strictly at the female market.",
"\"I started working on 'The Clone Wars' almost five years ago, and I was always a 'Star Wars' fan and wanted to show it off, and so I went to the Web and to stores, and I realized it didn't really exist.",
"There were very few products, and on one site, under the women's section, they had men's shirts,\" said Eckstein, who is persuading executives at Disney to carry the line.",
"She also gives credit to another actress, Alyssa Milano, who started a clothing line called Touch for female sports fans.",
"\"I'm aware of her line because my husband plays baseball, and I've bought several of her pieces,\" said Eckstein, who spent close to three years convincing people there was a market for this.",
"\"We started at conventions and events and online and at San Diego Comic-Con, where the 'Star Wars' celebration and the support was overwhelming.",
"I don't want this to just be a merchandise line.",
"I want it to be a community for female fans.",
"One thing I found in my research is that girls were hiding the fact that they were sci-fi fans, and many women were afraid to say 'I'm a girl, and I like \"Star Wars\" or \"Star Trek.\"",
"' They didn't feel like they could be taken seriously.\"",
"And Eckstein has a message for 7-year-old Katie: \"We can show our pride and be a girl at the same time and be proud of it.",
"I'm a nerd and a geek, and I'm proud of it.",
"So show who you are and what you like, and if you're confident, people will leave you alone.\""
] | [
"Older geeky girls tend to hide their obsessions from public view .",
"Bucking common misperception, women make up half of Syfy's audience .",
"Science-fiction has become a mainstream genre .",
"Ashley Eckstein started a clothing line for female \"Star Wars\" fans ."
] | [
11,
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[
"(CNN) -- A Florida jury on Saturday found a millionaire guilty of murdering his wife in their upscale home.",
"Diane Ward was shot dead in 2009 in the house she shared with her husband, James \"Bob\" Ward, in the Orlando suburb of Windermere.",
"Two years later -- and following a week-long trial and deliberations that stretched into a second day -- he was convicted of second-degree murder.",
"Soon after entering the Orlando courtroom late Saturday morning, Ward went to a back row and sat between his two visibly distraught daughters, one of whom had testified that she detected no animosity between her parents.",
"He put one arm around both in order to comfort them for several minutes, before heading to his regular seat for the jury's verdict.",
"When the verdict was read, the 63-year-old Ward showed little evident emotion, though his daughters continued to cry.",
"According to an Orange County Sheriff's Office arrest affidavit, the victim was found in the master bedroom -- \"a large pool of blood at the top of her head\" and a .357 Magnum handgun on a nightstand next to the bed.",
"She was shot between her eyes. Ward told police the couple were the only ones in the house at the time, besides their four dogs.",
"After the verdict, prosecutor Robin Wilkinson said the jury's message, and beliefs, were clear.",
"\"It says that out of anger, out of frustration, Mr. Ward pulled a gun and shot his wife in the face,\" she said of the verdict.",
"Defense attorney Kirk Kirkconnell, meanwhile, said his client \"knows that we have good grounds to appeal (and) I think that he remains optimistic.\"",
"But the verdict still stings.",
"\"He's disappointed,\" Kirkconnell told reporters.",
"\"He hates leaving his family, obviously, as any man would.\"",
"During the trial, the defense contended that Ward loved his family, while prosecutors said the Florida millionaire's demeanor -- along with the evidence -- proves he murdered his 55-year-old wife.",
"The defense rested its case Thursday, a week after testimony started.",
"It asserted that Diane Ward died after a struggle over a loaded gun, not because of any ill intent of her husband.",
"The prosecution pointed out that Ward called 911 the night of the shooting and said, \"I just shot my wife,\" then offered shifting stories as the call progressed and later in his conversations with relatives and colleagues.",
"They said that his stories were inconsistent at best, while the evidence suggests that he pulled the trigger.",
"\"What I would like to do is appeal to one thing, and one thing only: your common sense,\" fellow prosecutor Ken Lewis told the jury during the rebuttal phase of closing arguments Thursday."
] | [
"NEW: The prosecutor says Ward killed his wife \"out of anger, out of frustration\"\nNEW: The defense says it will appeal, describing Ward as \"optimistic\" yet \"disappointed\"\nDiane Ward was shot dead in 2009 in the Florida home she shared with her husband ."
] | [
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[
"Perugia, Italy (CNN) -- An Italian state police forensic expert who carried out the initial DNA examination presented at Amanda Knox's trial defended the methods used in an appeal hearing Tuesday.",
"The questions put to Patrizia Stefanoni focused on a key piece of evidence -- a clasp on a bra belonging to murdered British student Meredith Kercher.",
"The defense team is seeking to demonstrate that DNA evidence used in Knox's original trial is not conclusive as she appeals her conviction and 26-year sentence for the 2007 murder of her housemate.",
"Two new forensic experts, professors Carla Vecchiotti and Stefano Conti, cast doubt this summer on the DNA evidence that played a role in the convictions of Knox and ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito in 2009.",
"Vecchiotti and Conti said the clasp from Kercher's bloodied bra, which allegedly contained Sollecito's DNA, was \"dirty\" and had been allowed to rust, making further testing futile.",
"The evidence, the two argued, should be \"inadmissible.\"",
"But Stefanoni defended the methods and equipment used in the investigation under questioning Tuesday in a Perugia court by prosecutor Manuela Comodi.",
"Stefanoni said the machine used for the DNA examination was clean -- and rejected suggestions the clasp had been contaminated.",
"She said it had been moved but not turned over or stepped on at the scene.",
"The hearing adjourned Tuesday after highly technical and heated debate as Adriano Tagliabracci, a forensic expert for Sollecito's defense team, testified in support of the findings of Vecchiotti and Conti.",
"More argument over the DNA evidence in the case is expected Wednesday.",
"But speaking outside court Tuesday, prosecutor Comodi said she considered that Stefanoni and a prosecution forensic expert, Giuseppe Novelli, had clearly proven the good work they had done.",
"She suggested the prosecution team could ask for another DNA examination to be carried out.",
"Francesco Maresca, an attorney for Kercher's family, echoed that message, saying the independent forensic team could have done more tests if they had doubts about the DNA evidence.",
"Earlier, forensic expert Francesca Torricelli, used by the Kercher family's attorney, questioned in her testimony why the independent experts had not tested the small amount of DNA material found on another key piece of evidence -- a knife from Sollecito's home that prosecutors in 2009 said had traces of Knox's genetic material on the handle and Kercher's in a tiny groove on the blade.",
"Vecchiotti testified in earlier hearings that the knife tested negative for blood and the amount of DNA said to be Kercher's was so low, it could not be examined again with any conclusions.",
"But Torricelli said Tuesday she had witnessed the work of Vecchiotti and Conti, and that the machinery they used during their investigation could check extremely low quantities of DNA.",
"Meanwhile, Novelli told the court that for him, and others, it was not a question of \"quantity of DNA, but rather quality\" to carry out a successful examination.",
"Vecchiotti and Conti have said records about the machine that did the DNA testing were missing, suggesting the testing process may have been unreliable.",
"On Monday, the prosecutor said the records had been found and asked the judge to admit them as evidence.",
"The defense argued they should not be admitted because they were not in the files originally given to the new experts.",
"Comodi said Vecchiotti and Conti could have had them if they had asked for them.",
"Knox's father, Curt, told reporters outside court Monday that he believed the independent experts \"have done a very good job in evaluating the information ... and I don't see it breaking down at this point.",
"I see that it has been good for Amanda.\"",
"CNN's Hada Messia contributed to this report."
] | [
"NEW: Experts from the police, defense and prosecution disagree over DNA evidence .",
"Appeal hearing is adjourned, with more DNA evidence expected Wednesday .",
"A prosecutor suggests that new DNA testing may be requested .",
"Amanda Knox was jailed in 2009 for murdering her housemate, Meredith Kercher, in Italy ."
] | [
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[
"The kidnapped father of Chelsea footballer John Obi Mikel has been released alive by his captors in the Nigerian city of Kano.",
"Michael Obi went missing from Jos -- the main city in Plateau State in central Nigeria -- on August 12 and had not been seen or heard of since.",
"Mikel was informed of the kidnap just hours before Chelsea's opening game of the English Premier League season at Stoke but decided to play.",
"He also played the full 90 minutes in Saturday's 2-1 victory over West Brom.",
"A statement released by Mikel's management company, Sport Entertainment & Media Group, confirmed the news.",
"\"SEM are delighted to confirm, that earlier today Michael Obi called his family to advise them that he had been released by his abductors.",
"\"SEM have waited until now to release this information, to ensure that Michael was safe.",
"\"John Obi Mikel would like to thank everyone in Nigeria, his family & friends, Chelsea FC & their fans & his agents for their total support during this terrible time.",
"\"A full statement of the situation will be released by SEM tomorrow (Tuesday) morning.\"",
"According to AFP, five men have been arrested in connection with Michael's kidnapping.",
"They quoted Michael explaining his abduction: \"I was taken right deep into the bush, in an isolated area in Jos (in central Nigeria).",
"I started begging them, yet they beat me mercilessly, kicking me with their boots.",
"\"There are five of them and they were dressed in military uniforms.",
"They pushed me into a vehicle painted in military colors and began to drive very fast.",
"I never knew a vehicle can fly like that.\"",
"Chelsea released their own statement on Monday, that read: \"All at Chelsea Football Club are delighted that John Mikel Obi's father, Michael, has been found safe in Nigeria.",
"\"Mikel has shown outstanding commitment and professionalism during this most difficult of times, and the club will continue to offer its full support to him and his family.\""
] | [
"Kidnapped father of Chelsea footballer John Obi Mikel has been released alive .",
"Michael Obi was taken hostage in city of Jos on August 12 .",
"Mikel has played in both of Chelsea's Premier League games this season .",
"Mikel's management company and Chelsea both confirm the news ."
] | [
0,
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[
"(CNN) -- Four years ago a shock defeat by France sent a rugby-mad nation into mourning, but New Zealand's All Blacks erased some of that hurt with a comprehensive 37-17 vanquishing of their longtime bogey team on Saturday.",
"Captain Richie McCaw looked a broken man after the 2007 World Cup quarterfinal defeat in Cardiff, but he was able to celebrate his 100th international appearance in style as the Kiwis lived up to their status as tournament favorites on home soil in Auckland and reached the quarterfinals.",
"\"We realized we had to take a step up this week,\" the flanker told the tournament website after victory against a nation who also ended New Zealand's 1999 World Cup hopes in the semifinals.",
"\"We had to absorb a fair bit early on and I was proud of the way the boys did that.",
"When we got the opportunity we put the points on the board.",
"The boys held their cool, and when we had a chance we took it.",
"I'm very happy with the way things went.\"",
"No. 8 Adam Thomson and wing Cory Jane scored inside the first 20 minutes, then fullback Israel Dagg dotted down either side of halftime to give New Zealand a 29-3 advantage.",
"France, losing semifinalists in 2007, showed some steel with tries to Maxime Mermoz and replacement Francois Trinh-Duc but NZ substitute Sonny Bill Williams crossed late to seal victory.",
"The bonus point gave the All Blacks a maximum 15 points from three Group A outings ahead of their final match against Canada on October 2.",
"France's Les Bleus still have a five-point advantage over third-placed Tonga, who they meet the previous day.",
"Marc Lievremont's team will likely play England in the last eight after Martin Johnson's men responded to stinging criticism from their coach to thrash Romania 67-3 earlier on Saturday and take control of Group B. Johnson, a World Cup winner as a player in 2003, was unhappy with unimpressive victories over Argentina and Georgia but this time his players delivered with 10 tries in Dunedin to seal a last-eight spot as one of the pool's top two teams.",
"Wingers Mark Cueto and Chris Ashton both scored three tries against the under-strength Romanians, who face East European rivals Georgia in their final match.",
"England close against \"Auld Enemy\" Scotland, who have struggled so far in the tournament and face a tough test against 2007 semifinalists Argentina on Sunday in a match that will have a big bearing on the group.",
"\"In some aspects of the game, we didn't really get tested,\" Johnson said.",
"\"Next week is going to be a different game.",
"This was what it was and we did a job. Next week it really starts, because it will be a scrap.\""
] | [
"New Zealand beat France 37-17 to reach Rugby World Cup quarterfinals .",
"All Blacks have maximimum points after three of four Group A matches .",
"Second-placed France likely to play England in the last eight of tournament .",
"England thrash Romania 67-3, scoring 10 tries, to move clear at top of Group B ."
] | [
0,
11
] |
[
"Paris (CNN) -- Dominique Strauss-Kahn arrived in Paris on Sunday morning, less than two weeks after a judge dismissed sexual assault charges against him in an international scandal that altered France's political landscape.",
"The former International Monetary Fund chief was greeted with applause at a Paris airport before leaving in a private car and coming home to his apartment.",
"He was accompanied by his wife, journalist Anne Sinclair.",
"On Saturday, Strauss-Kahn was mobbed by reporters in New York as he left the brownstone where he had been staying.",
"His homecoming marks the end of a four-month court battle involving a man who had been favored to be the next president of France.",
"Strauss-Kahn was pulled off a Paris-bound plane on May 14 in New York over accusations he sexually assaulted a Guinean maid in a luxury hotel suite in the city.",
"Days later, he resigned from the International Monetary Fund, spent a few days in jail and was put under house arrest.",
"His lawyers have maintained his innocence throughout the process.",
"\"There was an act in that room that was consensual, not forcible,\" Benjamin Brafman said.",
"Questions arose over the credibility of the accuser, Nafissatou Diallo, prompting prosecutors to back off.",
"In July, prosecutors said Strauss-Kahn is no longer under house arrest and dropped the charges on August 23, citing the accuser's credibility issues.",
"\"If we do not believe her beyond a reasonable doubt, we cannot ask a jury to do so,\" prosecutors said at the time.",
"Strauss-Kahn largely remained in New York even after a judge removed his house arrest restrictions.",
"The diplomat's return to Paris on Sunday marks his first since the scandal broke out.",
"Strauss-Kahn's arrest sent shock waves through France and redefined the landscape of the country's upcoming presidential race.",
"His homecoming raises the possibility of his return to politics or a prominent position in the government.",
"Strauss-Kahn still faces a civil suit from Diallo and an accusation of attempted rape by a French writer.",
"The diplomat and his wife have been one of France's power couples since they married in 1989.",
"CNN's Jim Bittermann contributed to this report ."
] | [
"NEW: The former International Monetary Fund chief arrives at his apartment .",
"His homecoming marks the end of four-month court struggle .",
"A judge dismissed sexual assault charges against him .",
"A New York hotel maid had accused him of assaulting her ."
] | [
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] |
[
"Near Kherbet Al-Jouz, Syria (CNN) -- As the Syrian military on Tuesday continued its relentless advance against protesters, citizens who had fled their homes for safety related \"horror story upon horror story\" to a reporter who managed to enter the country.",
"Despite the Syrian government's consistent refusal to give CNN and other international news organizations permission to enter the country, a CNN reporter crossed the Turkish border into northwestern Syria for a few hours Tuesday.",
"She spoke to people at a makeshift campsite near Kherbet al-Jouz, where tarpaulins strung between trees provided the only shelter from the elements for the hundreds of Syrians encamped there.",
"One family said they had spent an entire night standing rather than lie in the mud.",
"One man tried to protect himself from the rain with branches and a piece of tarpaulin.",
"Watch: Misery at refugee camp in Syria .",
"Families bathed in a muddy stream, where they also washed the few clothes they had brought with them.",
"Thousands of Syrians head to Turkey .",
"Illness has already begun to spread, said Mohammed Merri, a pharmacist who carried supplies with him as he fled, then set up something of a field hospital once he arrived at the camp.",
"\"My biggest problem is the children and people with heart disease,\" he said.",
"\"I don't have the medicine for that.\" Most of the refugees here are from the region that includes the nearby city of Jisr al-Shugur, which government forces entered Sunday.",
"A number of people said they had witnessed bombings around the city as they fled.",
"One man said soldiers shot at him, and a woman said she witnessed death.",
"\"They set our fields on fire, destroyed our homes,\" said a woman who added that she was planning to try to cross into Turkey for protection.",
"But others said they would remain in Syria, some hoping to find loved ones lost in the chaos, others hoping against hope to return to their homes.",
"Mousa, 26, said he tried to do just that a few days ago, but didn't succeed.",
"\"I was on my friend's motorcycle and suddenly I saw the military advancing through the olive groves,\" he said.",
"\"And they started shooting at me.\"",
"Jisr al-Shugur is not the only town in the area that was occupied by the military.",
"On Sunday, the army also entered Dair Alzour and set up a presence in four areas of the town, an activist said.",
"They arrived aboard tanks and pickup trucks carrying heavy weaponry, the activist said.",
"But protests were continuing in defiance of the military, the activist said.",
"Since such protests started in Dair Alzour a month ago, four people have been killed and about 200 wounded, some of them seriously, the activist said.",
"In addition, some 1,500 people have been arrested.",
"But on Tuesday, about 16 tanks were leaving Dair Alzour heading toward Albu Kamal, on the border with Iraq, the activist said.",
"Residents of the tribal area have strong connections with tribes in eastern Iraq.",
"As of Monday, 6,817 Syrian refugees had crossed into Turkey, said Metin Corabatir of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees office in Ankara.",
"Amnesty International said last week it believes more than 1,100 people -- including 82 children -- have been killed in Syria since the crackdown started in mid-March.",
"As a result of such reports and the distribution on social media platforms of chilling videos depicting violence, Syria's government has drawn international condemnation -- albeit no response from the U.N. Security Council.",
"\"The Security Council has failed, so far, to react on Syria, which I think is extraordinary and disappointing,\" said Carne Ross, a former U.N. diplomat.",
"The United States has imposed sanctions on President Bashar al-Assad and other senior Syrian officials because of human rights abuses, freezing any assets held in the country.",
"The four European members of the Security Council -- Britain, France, Germany and Portugal -- have said the council must act.",
"But ambassadors from China and Russia disagree, stating that U.N. action would risk further destabilizing the key Middle Eastern nation.",
"\"China and Russia are concerned that if the U.N. Security Council feels empowered to address the major human rights violations occurring around the world, eventually the Security Council will focus on issues within China and in the neighborhood of Russia,\" said Jamie Metzl, executive vice president of the Asia Society.",
"\"The failure of the U.N. Security Council to act is a tragedy,\" he said.",
"Some countries' reluctance to act may be traceable to the Security Council's resolution aimed at protecting civilians in Libya.",
"Russia and others quickly signed off on the resolution, but -- nearly three months later -- efforts by NATO forces appear caught in a stalemate.",
"As for Jisr al-Shugur, the Syrian military seized control of the town over the weekend, a network of human rights activists said Monday.",
"The Syrian government gave a similar assessment.",
"\"Army units on Monday restored security and tranquility to the city of Jisr al-Shugur,\" state-run news agency SANA reported.",
"The Syrian government insists it is stopping \"armed terrorist groups\" who carried out a \"massacre\" in the city; opposition activists say the government's claims are a ruse to justify a crackdown on demonstrators demanding government reform, in keeping with the wave of political protests across the Middle East and North Africa this year.",
"Throughout Syria's uprising, its government has described activist leaders as terrorists looking to destabilize the country.",
"This month, the government said 120 members of the security forces had been killed by \"armed groups\" in Jisr al-Shugur.",
"But Syrian refugees who have fled to Turkey said some Syrian soldiers rebelled after being ordered to fire on unarmed protesters and instead started fighting among themselves.",
"Syrian opposition members, including human rights activist Wissam Tarif, also said the deaths likely stemmed from a rift within security forces.",
"Because of the restrictions on journalists' entry into Syria, CNN has been unable to independently confirm the accounts.",
"CNN's Richard Roth, Salma Abdelaziz and Saad Abedine contributed to this report."
] | [
"NEW: \"They set our fields on fire, destroyed our homes,\" one woman says .",
"Trees provided the only shelter at a makeshift campsite in northwest Syria .",
"4 European countries say the U.N. Security Council should act; Russia and China disagree .",
"Rights groups and the government give conflicting accounts of violence ."
] | [
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[
"(CNN) -- A day after Saudi King Abdullah announced greater political participation for women in the future, some Saudis questioned just how big a change may really be on the horizon.",
"Some women's rights activists who were initially elated by Sunday's announcement said they were feeling disappointed because the changes do not kick in immediately.",
"\"We don't really think now that we've been promised a real right,\" said one.",
"But a member of Saudi Arabia's Consultative Council called one of the changes the king announced \"hugely important.\"",
"King Abdullah announced two changes Sunday, which would be historic for Saudi Arabia.",
"He said women will be allowed to serve as members of the Shura Council, the Consultative Council that advises the king.",
"Its 150 members are appointed.",
"The king also said women will be allowed to run as candidates and nominate candidates in the next set of municipal elections.",
"It is unknown when those may ultimately take place.",
"The changes do not apply to elections scheduled for this Thursday -- which will be only the second set of elections in the kingdom since 1963.",
"While the king did not use the word \"vote\" in his remarks, allowing women to take part in the nomination process would amount to voting within Saudi Arabia's system.",
"\"We don't really think now that we've been promised a real right because it's been postponed.\"",
"said Wajeha Al-Huwaider, a prominent Saudi women's rights activist.",
"\"The king could have said this is happening now because the next election is going to happen this Thursday -- it wouldn't have been a problem to postpone this election for a month and have women participate in this round.\"",
"\"For the Shura council it's another year and a half, for the municipal election it's another four years -- anything could happen during that time,\" she said.",
"\"Whatever can be given can be taken.\"",
"\"That will give time for extremists to reverse the decision,\" said Al-Huwaider.",
"\"The government thinks they will give time for people to adjust to the idea, but if you're against something, you'll never change your mind and if you're for it you'll never change your mind.",
"Why do they hesitate when it comes to women's issues?",
"The government always hesitates.\"",
"This Thursday's elections come after more than two years of delays, so any time frame for when future elections may take place is not seen as a solid plan.",
"Amnesty International said the announcement that women will be given the right to vote is \"no guarantee of rights.\"",
"\"It is a welcome, albeit limited, step along the long road towards gender equality in Saudi Arabia, and a testament to the long struggle of women's rights activists there,\" said Philip Luther, the human rights group's deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, in a statement.",
"\"It is, however, much overdue and does not go nearly far enough.\"",
"\"The whole system of women's subordination to men in Saudi Arabia needs to be dismantled,\" Luther said.",
"Saleh Al-Namla, one of the 150 members of the Consultative Council, expressed no doubts that women will join the council in 2013, and called it a very significant step.",
"\"I think it's hugely important,\" he said.",
"\"They will be full members of the Shura Council just like anybody else.",
"We have women advisers, but in the next round of Shura Council appointments, they will be full members of the committee just like any other member.\"",
"The U.S. State Department notes that there are 13 advisers on the council.",
"Al-Namla said the 13 advise the council, but are not among the 150 members.",
"The changes the king announced follow increasing pressure, from outside and inside Saudi Arabia, to give women the right to vote and greater political participation.",
"Earlier this year, Saudi women activists wrote the government requesting that women be allowed to vote and be candidates in the municipal elections, according to the U.S. Library of Congress.",
"Saudi Arabia's \"Minister of Municipality and Rural Affairs declared that Saudi women will not be able to either run or vote in this election,\" the Library of Congress reported on its blog.",
"\"According to news reports, the Minister stated that the ban on women's participation is due to the lack of segregated voting facilities.\"",
"When election centers opened in April for voters to register, some groups of women turned up and were turned away.",
"It was one of the first public acts of the \"Saudi Women Revolution,\" a movement set up to campaign for the end of Saudi Arabia's discriminatory laws.",
"In June, a number of Saudi women took to the streets -- in cars -- to demand the right for women to drive and travel freely in the country.",
"There are no specific traffic laws that make it illegal for women to drive in Saudi Arabia.",
"However, religious edicts are often interpreted as a prohibition of female drivers.",
"Such edicts also prevent women from opening bank accounts, obtaining passports or even going to school without the presence of a male guardian.",
"Authorities stopped Manal al Sharif, 32, for driving a car May 21 and detained her the next day.",
"She said she was forced to sign a form promising not to drive again and spent a week in jail.",
"Her case became a rallying cry for women activists.",
"The U.S. State Department's human rights report on Saudi Arabia, published in 2011, notes many challenges facing women in Saudi Arabia in 2010: .",
"\"By law a female rape victim is at fault for illegal 'mixing of genders' and is punished along with the perpetrator.\"",
"\"Women continued to face discrimination under the law and remained uninformed about their rights.",
"Although they may legally own property and are entitled to financial support from their guardian, women have few political or social rights, and society does not treat them as equal members.\"",
"\"The guardianship system requires that every woman have a close male relative as her 'guardian' with the authority to approve her travel .\"",
"\"Women risk arrest for riding in a vehicle driven by a male who is not an employee or a close male relative.\"",
"\"Women also faced discrimination in courts, where the testimony of one man equals that of two women.\"",
"\"The law requires a woman to obtain the permission of a male guardian to work if the type of business is not 'deemed appropriate for a woman.'\"",
"The report also noted some improvements.",
"\"Increased efforts to protect women and children against domestic violence through the National Family Safety Program, as well as the Human Rights Commission, reflected a significant human rights achievement,\" the report said.",
"It also noted that in 2010, \"women increasingly participated in political life, albeit with significantly less status than men.\"",
"CNN's Mohammed Jamjoom and Josh Levs contributed to this report."
] | [
"NEW: The system of women's subordination in Saudi Arabia \"needs to be dismantled,\" an Amnesty International official says .",
"\"We don't really think now that we've been promised a real right,\" a Saudi women's rights activist says .",
"A member of the Consultative Council says the future inclusion of women will be \"hugely important\"\nKing Abdullah announced two changes Sunday ."
] | [
3,
11,
12,
24
] |
[
"(CNN) -- Three siblings caught after allegedly firing at Colorado police during a high-speed chase appeared in court Monday, facing a ballooning list of charges against them.",
"Lee Grace Dougherty faces 29 charges, while her brothers Dylan Stanley Dougherty and Ryan Edward Dougherty face 23 and 24 charges respectively, according to complaints filed Monday in Huerfano County District Court in Walsenberg.",
"That includes five counts of attempted second-degree murder for 29-year-old Lee Grace Dougherty, for allegedly threatening five police officers with a gun on August 10.",
"She also faces eight first-degree assault charges and one count of aggravated motor vehicle theft, among others.",
"Her brothers face a similar laundry list of charges.",
"Both Ryan, 21, and Dylan, 26, for instance, are charged with five counts of attempted second-degree murder and five of first-degree assault, among others.",
"Following their court appearance Monday, the trio's next scheduled appearance is by \"telephone setting\" on Wednesday at 1:15 p.m., according to the Colorado court's website.",
"Besides charges in Huerfano County, in southern Colorado, the trio also have been indicted in Pueblo County.",
"There, Dylan Dougherty has been charged with attempted murder, while his siblings are each charged with assault.",
"They are also accused of crimes in Florida and Georgia.",
"Police arrested the three after they crashed their car along a rural Colorado highway.",
"Police say they were shooting at officers with an AK-47 during a chase at speeds up to 120 mph.",
"According to investigators' affidavits, Ryan Dougherty was driving Wednesday as Dylan Dougherty fired an AK-47 at pursuing officers.",
"\"We weren't trying to hurt anyone; we just wanted them to get back,\" Lee Dougherty told investigators after her arrest, according to one affidavit.",
"\"They were way back, and we could barely see them.",
"We were getting shot at, then we wrecked.\"",
"Lee Dougherty said she pointed a gun at Walsenburg Police Chief James Chamberlain, according to the affidavit.",
"But Chamberlain fired first, wounding her in the leg.",
"The trio is wanted in armed bank robbery in Georgia and the attempted murder of a Florida police officer on August 2.",
"They escaped from Florida with police in pursuit after they shot out a cruiser's tire, according to authorities.",
"Colorado authorities said the siblings spent the night before their capture in the San Isabel National Forest, about 10 to 12 miles west of Colorado City.",
"Earlier this month, in Huerfano County, bond was set for the three siblings at $1.5 million each.",
"And in Pueblo County, Dylan Dougherty has $1 million bail, while his siblings have been ordered held on $250,000 each."
] | [
"A sister and two brothers face 29, 24 and 23 charges respectively in a Colorado court .",
"They are also charged in another Colorado county and are wanted in Florida and Georgia .",
"Police say they shot at officers with an AK-47 during a high-speed chase this month ."
] | [
0,
1,
9,
11
] |
[
"Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- Three bomb blasts in northwest Pakistan killed four security personnel Tuesday and destroyed an oil tanker carrying fuel for NATO forces in Afghanistan, police told CNN.",
"One of the bombs was planted along a road and exploded as a military convoy drove by, said senior police official Muhammad Iftikhar Khan.",
"Two soldiers were killed in the explosion and four others were injured, Khan said.",
"The blast took place in a village in Bannu, a district adjacent to the Taliban strongholds of Pakistan's tribal region along the Afghan border.",
"About an hour north of Bannu, a roadside bomb in the outskirts of Peshawar killed two policemen and injured two others as they drove by in their police van, police official Amjad Khan told CNN.",
"A third planted bomb in the outskirts of Peshawar destroyed a parked oil tanker and damaged four others, Khan said.",
"All five tankers were carrying fuel for NATO troops in Afghanistan.",
"There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but militants in the region have frequently targeted Pakistani security forces and supply trucks headed for Afghanistan in an effort to undermine U.S. and NATO efforts there.",
"On Monday, armed militants in southwest Pakistan torched two other oil tankers, said Azam Shahwani, a senior government official in Baluchistan province.",
"No one was injured, but two of the oil tankers were destroyed, he said.",
"More than half of the supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan travels through Pakistan.",
"Journalist Nasir Habib contributed to this report."
] | [
"Three separate bombs exploded, 2 on the outskirts of Peshawar .",
"The tanker was carrying fuel bound for NATO forces in Afghanistan ."
] | [
5,
6,
10
] |
[
"MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Six members of one of Mexico's most active drug gangs, including someone accused of being the organization's bookkeeper, were arrested this week, federal authorities said Wednesday.",
"Federal policemen stand at a checkpoint in the state of Michoacan last week.",
"The arrests were the most recent in a string of high-level apprehensions targeting La Familia Michoacana; the cartel operates in its namesake state of Michoacan in southwest Mexico.",
"Armando Quintero Guerra, who federal police said was in charge of the cartel's expenses, was among six people arrested Tuesday, said Ramon Eduardo Pequeno, head of the anti-drug unit of the public security ministry.",
"Also arrested was Lourdes Medina Hernandez, who is in a relationship with La Familia's top boss, Servando Gomez, Pequeno said at a news conference.",
"The string of arrests followed the killing of 12 off-duty federal police officers whose bodies were found with signs of torture off a remote highway on July 14.",
"Hit men for La Familia Michoacana linked to the killings were arrested last week, authorities said.",
"Authorities more than tripled the number of federal police officers patrolling Michoacan in response to the killings.",
"The killings were among a series of reprisals by La Familia after federal police captured one of the group's top leaders, authorities said.",
"An unprecedented wave of violence has washed over Mexico since President Felipe Calderon declared war on the drug cartels shortly after coming into office in 2006.",
"More than 10,000 people have died in that time span, about 1,000 of them police.",
"CNN en Español's Rey Rodriguez contributed to this report."
] | [
"Arrests part of a string of high-level apprehensions targeting Mexican drug cartel .",
"La Familia Michoacana suspected in slayings of 12 federal police officers this month .",
"Man accused of being group's bookkeeper arrested Tuesday, authorities say ."
] | [
0,
2
] |
[
"New York (CNN) -- Lawyers for ex-International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit by his accuser in a now-dismissed sexual assault case Monday, arguing his job gave him immunity from civil cases.",
"As head of the IMF, Strauss-Kahn had the same protections as diplomats, his attorneys wrote in court papers.",
"U.S. courts recognize those protections as \"customary international law\" even though the United States has not signed the U.N. convention that specifically includes IMF officials, they wrote.",
"Though Strauss-Kahn resigned as IMF managing director after his arrest in May, his immunity continued while he was under house arrest in New York, they told a New York state judge in the Bronx, where the lawsuit was filed.",
"Manhattan prosecutors dropped sexual assault charges against him in August amid questions about the credibility of his accuser, Nafissatou Diallo, who sued Strauss-Kahn as prosecutors prepared to dismiss the case.",
"Prosecutors later disclosed that Diallo had made false statements \"in matters great and small,\" undercutting their case against the 62-year-old banker.",
"Diallo, a Guinean immigrant who worked as a maid at the Sofitel Hotel, accused Strauss-Kahn of sexually assaulting her in his hotel room and of smearing her reputation as he fought the charges against him.",
"Strauss-Kahn was considered a possible contender for the French presidency before his arrest.",
"In a television interview following his return to Paris, he confessed to a \"moral weakness\" and an \"inappropriate relationship\" with Diallo, but denied any violence or aggression.",
"In their filing Monday, his attorneys also asked a judge to bar other allegations of improper sexual acts if the lawsuit is allowed to stand.",
"French journalist Tristane Banon has filed a complaint against Strauss-Kahn in France, alleging he attempted to sexually assault her in 2003; he has filed a counter-suit alleging slander."
] | [
"Ex-IMF chief says he had immunity similar to diplomats .",
"His lawyers have asked a New York judge to dismiss his accuser's lawsuit .",
"Criminal charges against Strauss-Kahn were dropped in August ."
] | [
0
] |
[
"(CNN) -- Residents of the Atchafalaya Basin in south-central Louisiana are as diverse as the unique waterways that course through the heart of Cajun country.",
"Of African, European, Caribbean and Native American descent, for generations these Louisianans have made their living from the water and sea, chasing after shad and crawfish or working on and supplying oil rigs and refineries.",
"They're also a resilient lot.",
"A roster of hurricanes is a constant reminder of the dangers and damage wrought by nature: Betsy, Gustav, Ike, Rita and, of course, Katrina.",
"Now the danger comes from the north, instead of the Gulf of Mexico, in the form of a historic flood.",
"\"People are used to flooding,\" said Drake Pothier, president of the Houma-Terrebonne Chamber of Commerce.",
"\"But they are more used to it coming from the opposite direction.\"",
"Gov. Bobby Jindal on Tuesday predicted that as many as 3 million acres of his state could be affected by the flooding spawned by the Mississippi River.",
"Some 500 National Guard members have been mobilized to meet the challenge.",
"Twenty-one parishes issued emergency declarations and 16 hospitals are identified as being at high risk.",
"As has been the case upriver from Missouri south to Tennessee, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is predicting its system of levees and flood walls will hold, keeping the river from inundating most Louisiana towns and farms that line its banks.",
"The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the coming days is expected to decide whether to open the Morganza Spillway above Baton Rouge.",
"It hasn't been opened since 1973.",
"Such a move would spare Baton Rouge and New Orleans even more damage from the floods, but it would flood populated and rural areas in the swampy Atchafalaya Basin.",
"The basin is home to the Atchafalaya River and myriad tributaries.",
"There's plenty to worry about in communities such as Butte La Rose, Bayou Sorrel, Morgan City, Krotz Springs and Houma.",
"They have varying levels of flood defense.",
"Some residents are posting questions and fears on the Corps Facebook page.",
"\"I'm going to wait a little longer\" before deciding on evacuating, said Leanne Boudreaux, 33, of Krotz Springs, an Atchafalaya River community that doesn't feature a traffic signal.",
"It does have a levee. Boudreaux is too young to remember the landmark 1973 flood, but she knows what nature can dish out.",
"Gustav heavily damaged her residence in 2008 and, as the mother of two, she is paying attention to the latest developments.",
"She considers the river dangerous.",
"Despite the number of workers at an oil refinery in town, many people have to go to Baton Rouge, about 40 miles east, to work and shop, she said Tuesday.",
"Camping and fishing are popular in Butte La Rose, 20 miles south in St. Martin Parish.",
"Downstream, in Morgan City, teacher Julie Cortez McCarty, 42, is glad the oil town has a sea wall, but she is concerned about water backing in from Lake Palourde and other waterways.",
"\"We are surrounded by water,\" she said.",
"\"Morgan City is pretty much an island.\"",
"It's the waiting on the Corps' decision on the Morganza Spillway that's causing stress, McCarty told CNN.",
"\"They won't give us a definite yes or no if they will open it or not,\" she said.",
"Like others, McCarty's worried the water could remain for a couple of months and affect jobs.",
"She's also somewhat philosophical about the greater good when it comes to deciding on spillways and other efforts to channel water to less populated or less settled regions.",
"\"How do you decide whose life or property is more important?\"",
"McCarty asked.",
"Morgan City is one of several areas that could be affected by the opening of the Morganza Spillway.",
"Opening it would relieve pressure on the levee system and reduce the record-setting volume of water heading down the Mississippi.",
"If that spillway is opened, Jindal predicted that roughly 2,500 people and 2,000 structures would be at risk directly inside the floodway.",
"Another 22,500 people and 11,000 structures would be affected by backwater flooding, he said.",
"On Monday, officials began opening gates on another spillway, the Bonnet Carre in Reserve, Louisiana -- about 35 miles west of New Orleans.",
"Twenty-eight gates were opened on Monday and another 44 were opened Tuesday.",
"The Corps released maps outlining areas that could be flooded in the Atchafalaya Basin if the Morganza Spillway is opened.",
"\"They expect the height of the water to reach between 5 and upwards of 25 feet above ground elevation, causing flooding through many southern portions of our state,\" Jindal said.",
"\"We've been hearing about the possibility of flooding,\" Dan Gober, who lives in the town of Gibson, about 15 miles east of Morgan City, told CNN affiliate WWL.",
"\"We've not been hearing any specifics as to how high the water might get.\"",
"Gibson residents remember the last time the spillway was opened, saying it put 3 to 4 feet of water in their homes.",
"And it could be even worse this time, Terrebonne Parish President Michel Claudet said.",
"What was farmland in 1973 is now residential land, he said.",
"\"At that time, we were not as populated.\"",
"Terrebonne Parish has already declared a state of emergency, and its website was directing residents to sandbag distribution centers.",
"Measures aimed at minimizing flooding were being implemented, Claudet said.",
"Levees were being elevated and reinforced.",
"\"Generally speaking, people are very concerned,\" the Chamber's Pothier said.",
"The western part of the parish is expected to see the largest impact, he said, adding Houma is expected to come through the flooding in pretty good shape.",
"Terrebonne Parish has about 110,000 residents and has one of the strongest local economies in the state, with an emphasis on oil and gas, health care and seafood, Pothier said.",
"Unemployment is low and the parish has retained strong home values, he said.",
"In the Assumption Parish town of Belle Rose, Carol Vincent said she is \"going nuts\" and trying to hope for the best, but \"we're expecting the worst.\"",
"\"We're all on pins and needles,\" she said.",
"Her husband and some friends put sandbags around her property, and plan to take further action to protect it.",
"Her home flooded once before, she said, but only one room.",
"\"It ruined my carpet,\" she said.",
"In West Feliciana Parish, \"our biggest concern is Angola State Prison,\" said parish President Ken Dawson.",
"The prison, officially the Louisiana State Penitentiary, is protected by a levee system, he said.",
"\"A lot of those inmates have been moved out of the prison to other facilities, and that is going to continue until they get to a number they can house on higher ground with no problem.\"",
"Before 2005's Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans metropolitan area saw significant flooding in May 1995, when 24 inches of rain fell in some neighborhoods, said forecaster Phil Grigsby of the National Weather Service.",
"If the Morganza Spillway is not opened, Morgan City's high water will crest May 25 at about 9.5 feet, said Grigsby.",
"That level will be 12 to 13 feet if the waterway is opened.",
"Levels in Bayou Sorrel will be 7.5 feet higher if the spillway plan is put into place.",
"The increase will be more modest in Butte La Rose, Grigsby said.",
"Using sand baskets, National Guardsmen are raising a 5-mile stretch of earthen levees on the lake side of Morgan City, said planning and zoning director Carl Kraemer.",
"He expects the levees, which were fortified after the 1973 floods, to hold the water if the Morganza Spillway is opened.",
"Still, the city doesn't know exactly what to expect when the 140-mile long Atchafalaya River crests later this month.",
"\"We're positive and worried at the same time,\" Kraemer said."
] | [
"500 National Guard members mobilized .",
"Residents in low-lying areas have been put on alert .",
"There is concern about a plan to open the Morganza Spillway .",
"Spillway hasn't been opened since 1973 ."
] | [
8,
12
] |
[
"New York (CNN) -- A couple accused of kidnapping their eight children from foster care in New York last week have been apprehended.",
"Shanel Nadal and the biological father of the children were taken into custody in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on Monday evening, police said.",
"The pair awaits extradition to New York.",
"Harrisburg police would not release any information on the whereabouts of the children or their conditions.",
"Nadal, 28, fled with her seven sons and one daughter from a Queens facility after an authorized visit on September 19, police said.",
"The abducted boys are all named after their biological father, Nephra Payne, 34.",
"They are Nephra Payne, 11; Nephra Ceo Payne, 10; Nephra John Payne, 9; Nephra Shalee Payne, 6; Nephra Rahsul Payne, 6; Nephra Umeek Payne, 5; and Nephra Yahmen Payne, 4.",
"The lone girl was identified as Nefertiti Payne, 11 months.",
"A statement from the New York City's Administration for Children's Services at the time made no mention of how Nadal escaped or why the children had been placed in foster care.",
"CNN's Samuel Gardner III, Jason Kessler and Dominique Dodley contributed to this report."
] | [
"Police: Shanel Nadal, 28, flees with her seven sons and one daughter .",
"The abducted boys are all named after their biological father ."
] | [
4,
5
] |
[
"(CNN) -- Tens of thousands of Syrians marched Sunday in memory of anti-government protesters killed on Friday, calling them \"martyrs\" and chanting for freedom, demonstrators told CNN.",
"\"The area was so packed with thousands of people it was difficult to move,\" said human rights activist Wissam Tarif, calling it \"the biggest crowd I have ever seen since the unrest started.\"",
"After eight victims were buried, protesters shouted slogans including, \"The people demand the fall of the regime,\" Tarif said.",
"Other demonstrators chanted, \"With our blood, with our souls, we will sacrifice for you martyrs,\" at the Grand Mosque in the Damascus suburb of Douma, the site of Friday's protest, another eyewitness said.",
"National security forces left the marchers alone because the dead had been declared martyrs, the source said, requesting not to be named for safety reasons.",
"The government did not immediately confirm there had been a march or that security forces had steered clear.",
"The Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies said Sunday that 123 people have died since the start of the unrest in Syria last month.",
"Opposition leaders circulated a list of demands, saying that if the regime were to respond positively, they would not call for the government's collapse.",
"The demands include the immediate release of political prisoners, lifting of emergency and martial law, and withdrawal of intelligence forces from Syrian cities.",
"Syrian President Bashar al-Assad appointed a new prime minister earlier on Sunday.",
"Adel Safar, a former academic with a doctorate in biotechnology, was agriculture minister for eight years before being appointed to lead the government, the state news agency said.",
"The government resigned last week in the face of protests that have left at least dozens dead.",
"Al-Assad accepted their resignations on Tuesday, but made no further concessions in a widely anticipated speech to the nation on Wednesday.",
"At least 15 people were killed in Douma on Friday, Tarif said Sunday.",
"He based his tally on calls to hospitals and relatives of the victims, he said.",
"Eight people were buried Sunday, he added.",
"Another person was killed in Al Sanameen near Daraa, activists said earlier.",
"The anti-regime demonstrations pulsating across Syria resulted in a security hunt for armed snipers and a wave of arrests Saturday.",
"Syrian security forces were searching for members of an \"armed group\" that killed \"a number of citizens and security forces\" in Douma on Friday, the Syrian Arab News Agency reported on Saturday.",
"SANA reported that a girl was killed when the armed group opened fire on civilians in the city of Homs.",
"The agency cited an official source as saying that snipers from the group fired at citizens and security forces from rooftops.",
"\"Security forces are pursuing the members of the armed group that terrorized the citizens through firing randomly,\" SANA reported, citing the source without identifying the official or the alleged armed group.",
"Activists and witnesses dispute the government account, telling CNN that government snipers fired shots at unarmed protesters and government forces beat demonstrators.",
"The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said security forces in the volatile southern city of Daraa and in Homs arrested about 20 people on Saturday after demonstrations the day before.",
"Along with the protests in Douma, Daraa, Homs and Al Sanameen, people also took to the streets in Latakia, Baniyas and Kamishli on Friday, activists told CNN.",
"Before Friday's fighting, dozens of people were killed in the last two weeks across Syria, with many deaths reported in the southern city of Daraa, where popular demonstrations started, and the coastal city of Latakia, activists say.",
"The list of opposition demands circulated Sunday called for a decree guaranteeing the right to peaceful demonstrations and the \"termination of all threatening and intimidating acts against our sons and daughters in our schools whether by school staff or secret service agents in and around the schools and to refrain from obliging them to participate in demonstrations supporting the regime.\"",
"It called for an amended constitution accommodating \"a multi-party democracy\" and guaranteeing \"basic human rights,\" the establishment \"of a truly independent judiciary system,\" freedom of information and expression and an end to \"the existing corruption in Syria.\"",
"CNN's Salma Abdelaziz, Yousuf Basil and Caroline Faraj contributed to this report ."
] | [
"NEW: A rights group says 123 people have died in the violence .",
"Syrian opposition demands include release of political prisoners, freedom of expression .",
"It's the biggest crowd one activist has seen since protests started .",
"Syria's president appoints Adel Safar as prime minister ."
] | [
1,
6,
8,
9
] |
[
"(CNN) -- The big story of the GOP presidential race these days is how Gov.",
"Rick Perry has suddenly burst into the sky as a new star.",
"Whether he will continue to burn brightly or flame out is probably the most important question no one can answer.",
"Only a few weeks ago, the Republican field seemed both weak and settled.",
"Michele Bachmann introduced some uncertainty when she sparkled at the CNN debate in New Hampshire and won the straw poll in Iowa.",
"But she seemed unlikely to catch the front-runner, Mitt Romney.",
"Indeed, he was on cruise control, comfortably out front in polls and money.",
"Then, boom! Perry jumps in and turns the race upside down.",
"A CNN poll taken over the weekend showed Perry building a 12-point lead over Romney among Republican voters, 30-18 with Sarah Palin third and Ron Paul slipping to fourth.",
"Did last night's debate change the underlying dynamics?",
"Let's await the verdict of voters, but my sense is that Rick Perry walked out the same way he walked in: front-runner.",
"Mitt Romney has a better command of the facts and, at the CNN debate last night in Tampa, again won on points.",
"But Perry has \"command presence\" -- that ineffable quality people look for in leaders.",
"Especially in hard, uncertain times, people want someone strong and decisive up front, steering.",
"Romney looks more the manager, Perry the leader.",
"There is something muscular, tough, almost animalistic about Perry that seems to be resonating among Republicans -- at least for the moment.",
"It's partly the way he carries himself -- shoulders back, chest forward, a confident stride.",
"It's partly his smile as others beat up on him.",
"But it's mostly the way he talks -- simple, straight-to-the-point, colloquial, no qualifiers, cut the B.S.",
"Conservatism served straight up.",
"People are so tired of lying, pandering and political correctness that they enjoy the change: \"He didn't say Ponzi scheme, did he?",
"Wow!\" He may not be book smart, but he is street smart -- and wily.",
"His appeal may well be limited to tea partiers and the hard right.",
"Judging from Twitter traffic, many others who tuned in last night were horrified by what they saw.",
"\"Lock all those candidates up in the hall so they won't destroy the country,\" was a typical response from the left.",
"And there were groans as well that the evening was not only too right but too white.",
"We remain a splintered people, so that it may be exceedingly difficult for anyone to govern in the next few years.",
"What do you think of the GOP candidates?",
"Still, the tendency to write off Perry -- especially among the Eastern elite -- is a mistake.",
"Last week, after his debut in the Reagan Library debate where he called Social Security a failure and a Ponzi scheme, the word went out from the commentariat that Perry was toast.",
"Wrong! If anything, he went up among Republican voters, not down.",
"For anyone who was around 30 years ago, the comparisons to the Reagan campaign of 1980 are obvious: One of the most qualified men in history (George H.W.",
"Bush) versus an ex-Hollywood actor.",
"Both were good men, but there was a difference: While Bush knew his stuff, Reagan knew how to lead.",
"In uncertain times, voters in both the primaries and the general elections turned to the candidate who offered strength and decisiveness.",
"Gerald Seib has an excellent column in today's Wall Street Journal that explores in more depth.",
"Let's be clear: Perry could well flame out in coming weeks.",
"He could easily get into trouble for what he says.",
"His tendency to shoot from the lip brings back uncomfortable memories of George W. There are those who insist that he could also get into trouble for what he may have done.",
"His detractors in Texas are spreading the word that he plays on the edges and plays rough.",
"His rivals are starting to dig as are out-of-state press.",
"Will anything come of it?",
"No one knows. Some in Texas have stirred up trouble against him for years, and he keeps winning.",
"Ironically, if Perry does flame out, he will have done Mitt Romney an enormous favor.",
"Not only has Perry made Romney seem more mainstream as a candidate, but he has also lifted the quality of Romney's game -- Romney was much crisper and more animated last night than when he was on cruise control.",
"If Romney now beats Perry for the nomination, he will have much better chops for the general election.",
"Still, those in the White House who are hoping that Perry is their opponent next fall should take a second look.",
"As scary as he may seem to many, Perry could offer the tough, decisive leadership that a lot of people want in tough times.",
"The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of David Gergen."
] | [
"David Gergen: The big news in GOP contest is the sudden rise of Rick Perry .",
"He says Texas governor isn't winning debates on points .",
"Gergen says Perry projects a feeling of command and leadership .",
"Perry could still flame out, but he shouldn't be written off, says Gergen ."
] | [
10,
11,
28,
36,
37
] |
[
"RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (CNN) -- The death toll from historic floods in southern Brazil continued to creep upward Monday, with 112 reported dead, the state news agency said.",
"People make their way through floodwaters in the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina last week.",
"Officials say 19 people remain missing and nearly 79,000 residents have been left homeless, according to the state-run Agencia Brasil.",
"Many of the deaths have been caused by mudslides.",
"The city of Ilhota in the hard-hit state of Santa Catarina has recorded 37 fatalities, the most of any municipality, Agencia Brasil said.",
"In the city of Maximus in Luis Alves state, eight rescuers were injured over the weekend, one of them gravely, the news agency said.",
"Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Monday that Santa Catarina will be rebuilt and become just as strong as it was.",
"\"We cannot lose hope,\" Lula said.",
"\"We must be convinced that people will reconstruct the state of Santa Catarina.",
"There is a national solidarity never seen before in the history of the country.\"",
"Lula flew over some of the flooded areas last week and proclaimed the disaster one of the worst in the country's history.",
"\"I've never seen anything like this,\" Lula said Thursday.",
"He said last week he was releasing 1.97 billion Reals (US$854 million) in aid to the affected areas, especially Santa Catarina.",
"Officials have distributed 880 tons of food, nearly 1 million liters of water and 60 tons of clothing, toys and cleaning and personal hygiene material, Agencia Brasil said Monday.",
"Authorities also were warning residents in flooded areas to be careful with food and water they consume.",
"Food that has been under water or moist should not be eaten unless it's in a sealed plastic bag or a can, they said.",
"The health secretary for Santa Catarina also said residents who drink contaminated water run the risk of getting hepatitis A and diarrhea.",
"The disaster also is having an economic effect, with bridges, roads, houses and buildings destroyed.",
"The federation of industries said the closed port in Itajai is costing $33 million a day.",
"The port is the major terminal for frozen goods in Brazil and second in the transport of containers, Agencia Brasil said.",
"Port Superintendent Arnaldo Schmitt said last week part of the terminal could be back in operation in two weeks."
] | [
"NEW: Authorities warn about health risks of flood-contaminated water, food .",
"Floods in southern Brazil blamed for 112 deaths, state news agency says .",
"79,000 people homeless, 19 missing; landslides caused much of the damage .",
"Brazilian president releases almost $1 billion in aid to affected areas ."
] | [
0,
2,
3,
12,
16
] |
[
"NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) -- Three African armies launched a raid on a rebel camp in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the three armies announced on Monday.",
"Jospeh Kony, leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, in 2006 in southern Sudan.",
"Congo's national army joined Ugandan forces and southern Sudanese militia in a military operation Sunday meant to root out pockets of the Lord's Resistance Army -- which had been preparing to launch an assault on Uganda from camps in eastern Congo, a joint statement from the three said.",
"The operation comes amid stalled peace negotiations intended to disarm LRA leader Joseph Kony and end a rebellion that began in Uganda over two decades ago when President Yoweri Museveni came to power.",
"Targeting rebel hideouts in Garamba, the triumvirate force said it was trying to rescue hostages and hunt down LRA leaders, accused of fomenting recent attacks against civilians in the region, including DRC, southern Sudan, and Central African Republic.",
"LRA spokespeople could not be immediately reached for comment.",
"The Lord's Resistance Army -- led by Kony, who claims spiritual powers -- sought to overthrow its government, demanding the constitution be replaced with a version of the Ten Commandments.",
"The Ugandan government and the rebels agreed to a cessation of hostilities in August 2006, but there have been outbursts of fighting since.",
"The LRA, which the U.S. State Department describes as \"vicious and cult-like,\" has been known for its unpredictable behavior.",
"Local villagers and international human rights groups have accused the rebels of committing widespread abuses, including recruiting young boys and girls as soldiers and sex slaves.",
"In October 2005, the International Criminal Court unsealed arrest warrants for five LRA commanders, including Kony, who is alleged to have \"ordered LRA forces to begin a campaign of attacks against civilians in Uganda\" in 2002, according to the court.",
"The 33 counts against Kony included 21 counts of war crimes.",
"Charges also included sexual enslavement, rape, inducing rape, directing attacks against civilians and forced enlisting of children to fight, according to a news release from the court.",
"Eastern Congo has been riddled by another conflict -- warfare between rebels and government forces that has uprooted 250,000 people since summer and has claimed the lives of many.",
"That conflict is an offshoot of the Rwandan conflict dating back to the early 1990s, when hundreds of thousands of Rwandans were killed in ethnic battles between minority Tutsi and majority Hutu.",
"CNN's David McKenzie and Carolina Sanchez contributed to this report."
] | [
"Three African armies raid rebel camp in Democratic Republic of Congo .",
"Congo's national army joined Ugandan forces, Sudanese militia in operation .",
"Talks to end fighting in eastern Congo, find lasting peace have stalled .",
"Recent fighting has seen 250,000 people flee their homes ."
] | [
0,
2
] |
[
"London (CNN) -- The winners of this year's British Wildlife Photography Awards have been announced.",
"The competition, which was established in 2009, has produced another batch of stunning entries capturing the diversity and beauty of wildlife in the UK.",
"An image of a jellyfish taken by Richard Shucksmith in the waters off Sula Sgeir -- an uninhabited island 41 miles north of the isle of Lewis, Scotland -- was declared the overall winner.",
"Greg Armfield, photography and film manager at WWF -- one of the competition's several sponsors -- called it \"a truly beautiful shot,\" which \"perfectly captures its iridescent and magical qualities.\"",
"Shucksmith picked up £5,000 ($7,800) for the shot with category winners being awarded £1,000 ($1,555).",
"The Young British Wildlife Photographers prizes went to 16-year-old Oliver Wilks for his \"Fox Yawning\" image, while Walter Lovell (aged eight) captured an amazing image of a frog and its spawn.",
"Seventy of this year's best images will go on show at WildlifeXpo in London this October before heading off on a countrywide tour.",
"Next year's competition opens at the beginning of February 2012.",
"Submissions are welcome from all nationalities, but photos must be shot in the UK."
] | [
"Winners of the 2011 British Wildlife Photography Awards announced .",
"Image of jellyfish taken off a uninhabited Scottish island declared overall winner .",
"Competition open to photographers worldwide but photos must be taken in UK ."
] | [
0,
2,
8
] |
[
"Washington (CNN) -- Congress is launching a broad-ranging investigation into possible waste, misuse and corruption tied to billions of taxpayer dollars used to support private military contractors in Afghanistan.",
"Among the questions being raised is whether money provided in a nearly $2.2 billion trucking contract in the war-torn country went to pay off local warlords and the Taliban.",
"The investigation comes as the Obama administration begins deploying another 30,000 troops to Afghanistan.",
"The White House has requested more than $70 billion to fund the war in fiscal year 2010, according to a Senate subcommittee memo.",
"\"Serious allegations have been brought to [Congress'] attention that private security providers for U.S. transportation contractors in Afghanistan are regularly paying local warlords and the Taliban for security,\" said Rep. John Tierney, D-Massachusetts, who chairs the House National Security and Foreign Affairs Subcommittee.",
"\"After a preliminary inquiry, it has been determined these reports warrant a full-scale ... investigation.",
"If shown to be true, it would mean that the United States is unintentionally engaged in a vast protection racket and, as such, may be indirectly funding the very insurgents we are trying to fight.\"",
"Eight companies currently split the Afghan host nation trucking contract, which went into effect in May.",
"The contract, according to Tierney's subcommittee, provides ground transportation in Afghanistan for more than 90 percent of supplies for U.S. troops, including food, fuel and ammunition.",
"Most supplies are shipped overland via Pakistan to Bagram Airfield, the main U.S. base in Afghanistan.",
"They are then distributed to hundreds of other smaller airfields and bases.",
"In the Senate, an oversight subcommittee headed by Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, also is looking into how contractor money is being spent.",
"Federal auditors state that approximately $950 million in \"questioned and unsupported costs\" has been submitted by Pentagon contractors for work in Afghanistan, according to a report prepared for Congress.",
"That amount represents 16 percent of the total contract dollars examined so far.",
"The U.S. government has spent more than $23 billion on contracts in Afghanistan since 2002, the report states.",
"There are currently 104,000 Pentagon contractors in Afghanistan -- a figure that could rise to 160,000 to support President Obama's planned troop increase, according to the report.",
"Roughly 100,000 U.S. troops are slated to be in Afghanistan at the height of the coming surge."
] | [
"Among questions is whether $2.2 billion trucking contract went to pay warlords .",
"\"Serious allegations have been brought to [Congress'] attention,\" says congressman .",
"\"It has been determined these reports warrant a full-scale ... investigation,\" Rep. Tierney said ."
] | [
1,
5
] |
[
"Saint-Marc, Haiti (CNN) -- Patients arrive at the front gates of St. Nicholas Hospital hunched over and groaning, only to be greeted by chaos and confusion.",
"Getting inside isn't easy, but once in, aid organizations and local staff try to treat those most vulnerable to the ravages of cholera in an area of wooden benches grouped as a triage area.",
"Many here are still lying in the open air and are sprawled out on concrete with anxious relatives holding re-hydration fluid, hoping it will treat the cholera now stalking this rural area about 60 miles northwest of the capital of Haiti, Port-au-Prince.",
"Death toll passes 250 .",
"Those most at risk are the very old and the very young.",
"Dozens of infants who lay crying and uncomfortable on their mothers' laps, dehydrated and weak.",
"Haiti's health minister, Dr. Alex Larsen, told CNN in a telephone interview that he believes the cholera outbreak is stabilizing.",
"Larsen added that reports of the outbreak spreading are so far unsubstantiated.",
"BLOG: Cholera can be deadly within hours .",
"The United Nations confirmed to CNN on Saturday that there are five confirmed cases of cholera in the capital but those cases originated from the area in and around Saint-Marc.",
"CNN toured St. Nicholas Hospital with a team from the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention.",
"The team is here to support the government's efforts and advise on how to best mitigate and contain the outbreak.",
"\"It is encouraging that the mortality rate seems to be coming down.\"",
"says Dr. Eric Mintz, a scientist with the CDC who specializes in diarrheal diseases.",
"Mintz adds that while the outbreak is likely to spread, the fatality rates should continue to drop, and the water, sanitization and hygiene infrastructure in the country can be strengthened in time to avoid a full-scale disaster."
] | [
"St. Nicholas Hospital in Haiti is packed with cholera victims .",
"Aid organizations and local staff try to treat the most vulnerable .",
"A CDC doctor says mortality rates seem to be coming down .",
"Haiti's health minister says he believes the cholera outbreak is stabilizing ."
] | [
1,
6,
12
] |
[
"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Three suicide attackers shot their way onto the grounds of a five-star hotel in the northwest Pakistani city of Peshawar and set off a car bomb, killing at least seven people and wounding dozens, officials said.",
"Pakistani police gather at the five-star hotel destroyed by a car bomb.",
"Peshawar Police Chief Safwat Ghyour said about 40 people were wounded in the attack on the Pearl Continental Hotel, which is often frequented by foreigners and diplomats.",
"The blast inflicted severe damage on the building, which is surrounded by a security wall, and destroyed dozens of cars in the parking lot, police and witnesses said.",
"The information minister for Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, Mian Iftikhar Hussain, put the death toll at 11, with at least 50 wounded.",
"A local official, Sahib Zada Muhammad Anis Khan, said one of the dead was a Nigerian national who worked for the United Nations.",
"Qhazi Jamil, senior superintendent of Peshawar police, told CNN three gunmen in a pickup fired on security guards at the hotel's entrance gate and forced their way inside before setting off the bomb.",
"Hussain and the chief of Peshawar's bomb-disposal squad said the bomb contained about 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) of explosives.",
"Peshawar is the capital of North West Frontier Province, which has suffered a spate of bombings on civilian targets in the wake of the Pakistani military's ongoing military offensive against Taliban militants.",
"Sajjan Gohel, an international security analyst at the Asia-Pacific Foundation in Britain, said the blast appeared to be a response to the government's offensive.",
"\"It has been criticized very heavily in the tribal areas because of the fact that the Pakistani military has been using helicopter gunships against the Taliban, which has resulted in very high civilian casualties,\" Gohel said.",
"He said people in the region are sympathetic to the Taliban, the Islamic militia that ruled most of Afghanistan before the September 2001 attacks on New York and Washington by its al Qaeda allies.",
"\"This is where winning hearts and minds is so key and important, which the military are failing to do,\" he said.",
"However, hundreds of Pakistani villagers who have formed an anti-Taliban militia are currently fighting to remove the Islamic militants from their region of northwestern Pakistan, military spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas told CNN.",
"Abbas told CNN the Pakistani military is supporting the villagers, who turned against the Taliban after a suicide attack on a local mosque during Friday prayers left at least 40 dead.",
"The Pearl Continental is owned by the same group as the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, which was destroyed in a suicide truck bombing in September.",
"CNN's Ingrid Formanek and Reza Sayah contributed to this report ."
] | [
"NEW: Police officer says gunmen fired on security guards in Pakistan hotel attack .",
"Car bomb explodes at Pearl Continental Hotel in Peshawar, causing fatalities .",
"Exclusive hotel is favored by diplomats; it is near military base and police station .",
"Pakistan military is on the attack against Taliban in the region ."
] | [
2,
6
] |
[
"(CNN) -- English Premier League team Manchester City unveiled plans for a new training academy on Tuesday, as the club looks to build on its recent on-field success.",
"City were taken over by taken over by Abu Dhabi billionaire Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan in August 2008, and have invested heavily their playing squad since.",
"Manager Roberto Mancini guided City into the European Champions League for the first time in their history with a third-place finish in England's top division last term, as well as leading them to an FA Cup triumph -- the club's first trophy in 27 years.",
"Now the Etihad Stadium outfit are hoping to maintain their push for honors with the development of a brand new academy complex a mere stone's throw from their 47,000-seater home in east Manchester.",
"Man Utd's dominance a sign of EPL weakness .",
"A planning application for the project, which would boast 15 full-size and two half-size football pitches as well as accommodation for 40 youth-team players, was lodged by the two-time English champions on Tuesday.",
"\"Manchester City has entered a new phase in the long term strategy set out by the club's owner three years ago,\" read a statement on the club's official website.",
"\"Whilst the club already has a strong pedigree of nurturing young talent; the limits of what can be achieved with the existing facility have been achieved.\"",
"The site will also contain a 7,000-capacity stadium for youth team matches, a separate building for the first team and a bridge linking the Etihad Stadium to the area -- which will be known as the Etihad Campus.",
"\"The development and recruitment of youth talent is at the heart of our long term strategy of building a sustainable football club for the future,\" City's chief football operations office Brian Marwood said.",
"\"The opportunity to build a world class facility supported by a well researched youth development plan would be a significant step in the realization of that strategy.\"",
"Gavin Hamilton, editor of World Soccer magazine, told CNN that despite the City's financial investment in their youth set-up, only time will tell whether it will change their current strategy of signing big-name stars such as Argentina striker Sergio Aguero and Spain midfielder David Silva.",
"\"I'm always slightly suspicious when big clubs start investing in youth policies,\" said Hamilton.",
"\"Chelsea did it a few years ago and very few young players have come through the youth system there.\"",
"Hamilton also cast doubt on City's ability to match the set-up of European champions Barcelona, who have brought a number of first-team regulars through their famous La Masia academy.",
"\"I'm always suspicious as well when clubs say they're going to copy Barcelona, because they are the great team of the moment and it's very fashionable to copy what they're doing.",
"\"But what Barcelona have been doing goes back decades, you can't just buy it overnight.",
"Even if you're talking about a long-term development plan it's going to take decades.\"",
"Hamilton also said that the successful development of young players is not necessarily achieved through financial investment, but through adopting the correct attitude to nurturing emerging talent -- citing Dutch champions Ajax as a perfect example of the right approach.",
"\"The clubs that are successful with youth policies are the clubs that don't necessarily spend a lot of money, but believe in youngsters and believe in putting youngsters into the first team at an early age.",
"\"So a club like Ajax, which is famed for its youth academy, wouldn't spend a huge amount more than other clubs.",
"But what they do have is a commitment to putting youngsters out; blooding them at an early age and believing that if you're good enough you're old enough.\""
] | [
"Manchester City have unveiled plans for a new team academy complex .",
"The new development will be near the club's Etihad Stadium .",
"The academy will include a 7,000-seater stadium for youth matches .",
"It was also contain 15 football pitches ."
] | [
3,
8
] |
[
"(CNN) -- A day after Standard & Poor's rating agency downgraded the U.S. credit rating to AA+ from its top rank of AAA, there were more questions than answers Saturday about what effects the move will have on the economy and American consumers.",
"The move by S&P, one of the leading credit rating agencies, came just days after Congress approved a deal to deliver $2.1 trillion in savings over the next decade.",
"The deal followed heated debt-ceiling talks in Washington.",
"\"The downgrade reflects our opinion that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congress and the administration recently agreed to falls short of what, in our view, would be necessary to stabilize the government's medium-term debt dynamics,\" S&P said Friday shortly after markets closed.",
"While it was unclear what the short-term impact of the credit rating downgrade would be, some initial answers were expected Monday when the stock market reopened.",
"One area of concern is whether a downgrade would ward off investors from buying U.S. debt and increase the country's cost to borrow money, therefore increasing consumer interest rates on everything from mortgages to car loans to student loans.",
"\"Only time's going to tell how we're going to be affected,\" former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker told CNN.",
"\"Interest rates that affect the U.S. government ultimately can ripple throughout the economy, which is not good news given our weak economic condition already.\"",
"Rating agencies such as S&P, Moody's and Fitch analyze risk and give debt a grade that is supposed to reflect the borrower's ability to repay its loans.",
"The safest bets are stamped AAA.",
"That's where the U.S. debt has stood for years.",
"Moody's first assigned the United States a AAA rating in 1917.",
"Fitch and Moody's, the other two main credit ratings agencies, maintained the AAA rating for the United States after this week's debt deal, though Moody's lowered its outlook on U.S. debt to \"negative.\"",
"A negative outlook indicates the possibility that Moody's could downgrade the country's sovereign credit rating within a year or two.",
"John Chambers, the head of sovereign ratings at S&P, told CNN that the political brinkmanship over the debt ceiling proved to be a key issue, with \"the U.S. government getting to the last day before they had cash-management problems.\"",
"Few governments separate the budget process from the debt-authorization process as the United States does, he noted.",
"And, though the budget deal that finally was reached will deliver at least $2.1 trillion in savings over the next decade, that will not suffice, he said.",
"\"It's going to be difficult to get beyond that -- at least in the near term -- and you do need to get beyond that to get to a point where the debt-to-GDP ratio is going to stabilize,\" he said.",
"Asked who was to blame, Chambers said, \"This is a problem that's been a long time in the making -- well over this administration, the prior administration.\"",
"Congress should shoulder some of the blame, he said.",
"\"The first thing it could have done is to have raised the debt ceiling in a timely manner so that much of this debate had been avoided to begin with, as it had done 60 or 70 times since 1960 without that much debate.\"",
"Chambers added that his agency's decision is likely to have a long-term impact.",
"\"Once you lose your AAA, it doesn't usually bounce back,\" he said.",
"He pointed to the decision by Congress about whether to extend the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts as one crucial area.",
"\"If you let them lapse for the high-income earners, that could give you another $950 billion,\" he said.",
"U.S. Treasury officials received S&P's analysis Friday afternoon and alerted the agency to an error that inflated U.S. deficits by $2 trillion, said an administration official, who was not authorized to speak for attribution.",
"The agency acknowledged the mistake, but said it was sticking with its decision.",
"The administration official called it \"a facts-be-damned decision ... Their analysis was way off, but they wouldn't budge.\"",
"But Chambers defended his agency's move.",
"\"It doesn't make a material difference,\" he said.",
"\"It doesn't change the fact that your debt-to-GDP ratio, under most plausible assumptions, will continue to rise over the next decade.\"",
"Rumors of a possible downgrade surfaced shortly after Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi announced in Rome that finance ministers of the Group of Seven industrialized nations -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States-- may meet \"in a few days\" to discuss the sagging world economy.",
"The announcement came on a day when financial anxiety gripped the globe.",
"Stock markets worldwide saw intense volatility amid worries of a widening debt crisis in Europe and a stalled economic recovery in the United States.",
"American markets were dramatically up and down a day after having their worst day since the 2008 financial crisis.",
"Stock market values fell Friday across Europe and Asia, where reaction to news of the U.S. credit downgrade was mixed.",
"A scathing editorial in the Chinese state-run Xinhua News Agency criticized the United States for living outside its means.",
"\"China, the largest creditor of the world's sole superpower, has every right now to demand the United States to address its structural debt problems and ensure the safety of China's dollar assets,\" the editorial said.",
"\"To cure its addiction to debts, the United States has to re-establish the common sense principle that one should live within its means.\"",
"Other responses were more measured.",
"\"We will have to analyze it. It will require some time,\" said India's finance minister, Pranab Mukherjee.",
"\"(The) situation is grave and there is no gain in making off-the-cuff remarks.\"",
"In South Korea, which also holds a large amount of U.S. debt, the Yonhap news agency said government officials were closely monitoring financial developments in the United States.",
"\"The news is bad and Seoul plans to keep very close tabs on how the market reacts,\" Yoon Jong-won, head of the ministry's economic policy bureau, told Yonhap.",
"Concerns about debt issues in Europe appeared to battle with optimism that a positive U.S. jobs report indicated the American economy is not headed into a new recession -- the dreaded \"double-dip.\"",
"\"The crisis in Europe is quickly becoming on par with the financial crisis of 2008,\" David Levy, portfolio manager at Kenjol Capital Management, told CNN Money.",
"\"The jobs report shows that things aren't getting much worse in the U.S., but the focus is clearly on Europe at this point.\"",
"\"We are going to get through this,\" U.S. President Barack Obama said prior to the downgrade at the Washington Navy Yard, where he announced a jobs program for veterans.",
"\"Things will get better.",
"And we're going to get there together.\"",
"Obama, who spoke Friday afternoon with France's Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel about the crisis, noted that July marked the 17th consecutive month of private-sector job growth in the United States, but said much more work needs to be done.",
"Obama is urging Republicans and Democrats to come together in efforts to strenghten the American economy, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said in a statement Saturday.",
"\"The bipartisan compromise on deficit reduction was an important step in the right directionm\" Carney said.",
"\"Yet, the path to getting there took too long and was at times too divisive.",
"We must do better to make clear our nation's will, capacity and commitment to work together to tackle our major fiscal and economic challenges.\"",
"CNN's Ben Brumfield, Laura Smith-Spark, Mariano Castillo, Mike Pearson and Kendra Petersen contributed to this report."
] | [
"NEW: Obama urges both parties to work together to strengthen the economy .",
"S&P downgrades the U.S. credit rating from a AAA to AA+ .",
"It is not immediately clear what effects the downgrade will have ."
] | [
0,
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] |
[
"Washington (CNN) -- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission told Congress on Thursday that the likelihood of a Fukushimi Daiichi-type event in the United States is \"very, very small.\"",
"However, it said an ongoing study of the Japanese disaster will probably lead to changes to increase safety at the nation's 104 commercial power plants.",
"The commission said, in a nutshell, it expects to require nuclear plants to be prepared for bigger natural disasters, to survive longer power outages and to consider the possibility of simultaneous disasters affecting multiple reactors, as happened in Japan.",
"Commissioner George Apostolakis said one of the lessons of Fukushima is \"humility.\"",
"\"I believe that, as a community of safety analysts, we were pretty confident that there would be no new surprises,\" Apostolakis said.",
"\"Fukushima has challenged that belief.\"",
"Commissioners said the commission's core safety concept, a belts-and-suspenders policy called \"Defense in Depth,\" is sound.",
"The policy requires power plant designers and operators to have multiple, redundant layers of defense to respond to failures so that no single layer of response is relied on.",
"They also endorsed support for regulations that require plants to be designed to withstand the strongest natural disasters on record for that location, with an added margin of safety.",
"But while voicing support for both concepts, some commissioners said \"Defense in Depth\" needs to be deeper and margins of safety wider.",
"Currently, emergency plans for most U.S. nuclear reactors envision one nuclear reactor being in danger.",
"At Fukushima, all four operating reactors were affected by the tsunami that followed an earthquake in March.",
"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission also requires plans to evacuate a 10-mile zone around power plants, but U.S. authorities recommended that U.S. citizens within 50 miles of Fukushima evacuate.",
"Japan to hand out radiation meters to children .",
"\"If there's an overall lesson we can learn from this, I think that is you can't ... predict everything that will happen in the future.",
"You can't predict every earthquake, every tsunami, but ... you have to be able to recover from whatever happens,\" Commissioner William Magwood IV said.",
"Currently, a Nuclear Regulatory Commission task force is midway through a 90-day review of the Fukushima incident, searching for lessons that can quickly be applied to U.S. plants.",
"The 90-day study, to be released July 19, will be followed by a lengthier study involving more long-term changes.",
"At a hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, commissioners discussed some of the lessons learned.",
"They include: . -- The commission needs to evaluate its \"station blackout\" rule concerning how power plants deal with the loss of electrical power, Commissioner William Ostendorff said.",
"\"I think that the commission will probably receive from the task force perhaps some recommendations in this area,\" he said.",
"-- Backup batteries used to power control room functions during blackouts are insufficient, Apostolakis said.",
"\"Clearly, the main message from Fukushima is that four hours, or sometimes eight, is not sufficient,\" he said.",
"\"Interestingly enough, when the requirement of four or longer hours was put in place, it was actually a conservative estimate.",
"(Regulators) looked at the time it took to recover AC power (during a blackout).",
"The average was about two hours, so to be conservative, they doubled it.",
"And now we have this accident that shows its very inadequate, so that's certainly something we have to look into.\"",
"-- The commission needs to consider the impact that spent-fuel pool problems can have during a larger event, Chairman Gregory Jaczko said.",
"\"I think we've had a singular focus, perhaps, on reactor safety in the event of accidents and not put enough attention into considering the impact of spent fuel pools (on the response),\" he said.",
"-- The commission needs to consider staging of emergency and back-up equipment.",
"After the September 11 terrorist attacks, the commission required plants to stage auxiliary diesel generators near nuclear plants, Magwood said.",
"\"We require those units to be just a very short distance away from, say, reactor buildings.",
"Clearly, if we had those procedures in place and had experienced a Fukushima-type event, that equipment would have been wiped out along with a lot of the other side equipment.",
"That was a significant revelation for me and something I think we have to address,\" he said.",
"-- The commission needs to review first-responder communication capabilities.",
"\"It's always very difficult to have communication in a crisis situation, and I think that's an area that we can always be exercising and improving,\" Commissioner Kristine Svinicki commission.",
"Commissioners also said the agency must study what led to the hydrogen explosions that plagued Fukushima but said not enough is known about the incident to recommend changes.",
"\"We've always asked ourselves the question, 'Are the plants still safe?",
"Is there anything we need to do today to address that?'",
"And the answer continues to be 'No,' \" Jaczko said.",
"\"We want to get good information, (and) we have time to do that.",
"\"The likelihood of something like this happening in the United States is still very, very small, because these are really very, very unlikely types of events,\" he said.",
"Jaczko said the current 90-day review \"may seem like a very long time, (but) to the people doing the review, it's going by in a millisecond.\"",
"\"But it's important that we get it right, and I think that so far, they are looking at all the right things,\" he said."
] | [
"Commissioners tell Congress of potential changes to power plants .",
"\"Humility\" among lessons of Japan's disaster, commissioner says .",
"They say the present core safety concept is sound ."
] | [
3,
6,
13
] |
[
"(CNN) -- Infectious disease detectives worldwide rushed Thursday to find the cause of an outbreak of a rare strain of E. coli that has spread to 10 countries and is blamed for at least 16 deaths and hundreds of illnesses.",
"Nine patients in Germany had died of a form of kidney failure called hemolytic uremic syndrome, or HUS, according to the World Health Organization, which cited Tuesday figures as its most recent.",
"Six had died of enterohemorrhagic E. coli, EHEC, a strain of E. coli that causes hemorrhaging in the intestines and can result in abdominal cramps and bloody diarrhea.",
"One person in Sweden has also died.",
"Across Europe, 499 cases of HUS and 1,115 cases of EHEC have been reported, WHO said on its website.",
"In addition to Germany and Sweden, cases have been identified in Austria, Denmark, France, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.",
"All but two of the cases occurred in people who had recently visited northern Germany or, in one case, had contact with a visitor from northern Germany, the organization said.",
"Scientists at the Beijing Genomic Institute said the outbreak of infection in Germany is caused by a new \"super-toxic\" E. coli strain, though the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the strain has been seen before.",
"\"We have very little experience with this particular strain, but it has been seen before,\" said Robert Tauxe, deputy director of the CDC's division of foodborne diseases.",
"The CDC said the strain is very rare and added that, while it is not aware of any cases ever having been reported in the United States, it is aware of a few previous reports of the strain in other countries.",
"Britain's Health Protection Agency has said that the strain suspected in the outbreak is \"rare\" and \"seldom seen in the UK.\"",
"Though WHO said it does not recommend any trade restrictions related to the outbreak, Russia announced a ban Thursday on fresh vegetable imports from the European Union.",
"Russia imposed the vegetable ban because \"no one wants to get sick.",
"It is a natural protective measure taken in response to events that are happening in Europe today,\" Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said Thursday.",
"Gennady Onishchenko, head of the Russian Federal Agency for Health and Consumer Rights, issued a statement saying the ban will remain in effect \"until we become convinced that this situation is resolved.\"",
"Customs officials have been instructed to prevent the produce from entering the country, according to Onishchenko, while supermarkets and food chains in Russia were told to withdraw European vegetables from their produce bins.",
"Frederic Vincent, the European Commission's health spokesman, called the move \"disproportionate.\"",
"\"The commission will be writing today to the Russian authorities, and we will be liaising and working with them in the coming days to try to find a solution,\" Vincent said.",
"The commission is the EU's executive body.",
"Yelena Skrynnik, Russia's agriculture minister, issued a statement assuring Russians that, despite the ban, \"the volume of home-grown vegetable production combined with exports (from other countries) is sufficient to fully meet Russia's domestic demand.\"",
"In 2010, the imports of tomatoes and cucumbers from the EU amounted to, respectively, 11% and 5% of all imports of those vegetables into Russia, the Russian Agriculture Ministry said.",
"The ban could potentially affect some larger cities in the European part of the country, where about 90% of vegetables are imported, said Sergey Shugayev, chairman of the Rural Russia Association.",
"China and Turkey are the two largest exporters of fresh vegetables into Russia, according to the Russian Greenhouses Association.",
"The European Food Safety Alert Network initially said EHEC was found in organic cucumbers originating from Spain, packaged in Germany and distributed to countries including Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg and Spain.",
"But authorities said Thursday the source had not been pinpointed.",
"Spain's Ministry of Health, Social Politics and Equality said Thursday that all samples of Spanish produce that it analyzed had proved negative.",
"Spain's ambassador to Britain, Carles Casajuana i Palet, told CNN that Spanish produce had been \"completely cleared\" and are \"safe for all consumers.\"",
"But, he added, the matter had damaged the country's growers \"and we are sure there will have to be compensations\" through the European Union.",
"Britain's Health Protection Agency on Thursday confirmed that there were four new cases in England suspected to be related to the outbreak, bringing the total number of cases in the country to seven.",
"The agency said that it was \"reminding people traveling to Germany to follow the advice of the authorities and avoid eating raw tomatoes, cucumbers and leafy salad including lettuce, especially in the north of the country, until further notice.",
"In addition, anyone returning from Germany with illness including bloody diarrhea should seek urgent medical attention and make sure they mention their recent travel history.\"",
"The ban on fresh vegetables from the European Union comes three days after Russia blocked the import of fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and salad greens from Germany and Spain.",
"On Wednesday, the United Arab Emirates imposed a temporary ban on cucumbers from Spain, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands.",
"CNN's Maxim Tkachenko contributed to this report."
] | [
"NEW: Spain's produce \"safe for all consumers,\" Spanish official says .",
"At least 16 people have died in the outbreak and hundreds have been infected .",
"The deadly strain has spread to at least 10 countries .",
"The strain is very rare, according to disease experts ."
] | [
0,
10,
26
] |
[
"(CNN) -- Indonesia began cloud-seeding operations over the island of Sumatra on Monday in an attempt to trigger rain to put out fires creating thick blankets of haze over parts of Sumatra and neighboring Singapore and Malaysia.",
"Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman for Indonesia's National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), said that three Spanish-built CASA 212-200 aircraft were deployed on Friday to Sumatra.",
"The rain-inducing operations will continue in three specific areas for the next 90 days, Sutopo told CNN.",
"According to the agency, the number of hot spots in South Sumatra in September has reached 1,241.",
"Hundreds more have been detected on the island of Kalimantan, which is Indonesia's side of Borneo island.",
"South Sumatra has the highest number of hot spots, or areas of high temperatures that could indicate peat or forest fires.",
"Sutopo says ground operations to extinguish the fires are also ongoing.",
"These include spraying, controlled burning, building trenches to limit the spread of the fire and sluices around the burning peat.",
"Haze from forest and peat fires has been a perennial problem for the region, particularly during the dry months.",
"Slash-and-burn techniques to clear land and droughts have been blamed for the fires in the past.",
"Using uncontrolled fires to clear land is illegal but enforcement has been an issue.",
"The worst incidence of fires and haze was in 1997 to 1998.",
"The World Wide Fund for Nature estimates nearly 10 million hectares was burned.",
"The Asian Development Bank put the damages and losses at about US $9 billion for Indonesia and its neighboring countries.",
"The fires also had significant impact on Indonesia's wildlife, including orangutans, tigers and elephants and protected national parks.",
"CNN's Kathy Quiano-Castro contributed to this report."
] | [
"An Indonesian agency says there are more than 1,200 \"hot spots\" in South Sumatra .",
"Fires have created thick blankets of haze over parts of Sumatra, and Singapore and Malaysia .",
"Aircraft are using cloud-seeding techniques in hopes rain will douse fires ."
] | [
0,
3,
6
] |
[
"(CNN) -- Colombian Minister of Defense Rodrigo Rivera resigned Wednesday amid growing concern in the country over increased activity by the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).",
"Rivera's departure marks the first resignation of a cabinet minister in the 13 months that Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has been in office.",
"Santos praised Rivera's service, and quickly appointed as his replacement Juan Carlos Pinzon, a former vice minister of defense who also has been Santos' chief of staff.",
"The FARC has been at war with the Colombian government since the 1960s.",
"While severely weakened in recent years, the leftist guerrilla group has continued to carry out kidnappings and attack security forces in the South American nation.",
"The United States and European Union consider the FARC a terrorist organization.",
"In the last months local authorities in various parts of Colombia have reported increased FARC activities, targeting mainly civilians and local communities.",
"As many as 40 soldiers and police officers have died this year in attacks attributed to FARC, mainly in the southern part of the country.",
"Before his departure, Rivera described his last months in office as decisive in the fight against FARC and said, \"We have bluntly hit the hardest blows to the organization's drug-trafficking structure in our history.\"",
"Pinzon, the new Colombian minister of defense, pledged to continue working with greater strength and decisiveness,and said he would demand from the armed forces an attitude of discipline and ethics.",
"Journalist Fernando Ramos in Bogota, Colombia, contributed to this report."
] | [
"Rodrigo Rivera had boasted success in the fight against leftist guerrillas .",
"The cabinet resignation is the first of President Santos' administration .",
"Ex-Vice Minister of Defense Juan Carlos Pinzon is named to replace Rivera .",
"FARC attacks, mainly on civilians, have been reported on the increase ."
] | [
0,
1
] |
[
"Las Vegas (CNN) -- Microsoft on Wednesday announced plans to redefine television as a medium that viewers can control by waving their hands and talking rather than clicking on remotes.",
"In a speech to open the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, company CEO Steve Ballmer also said he aims to make TV more social -- letting viewers chat with each other as avatars in virtual settings and place live bets on sporting events from the TV screen.",
"Perhaps it's time to say goodbye to the old-fashioned couch potato.",
"At the center of this new vision for the living room is the Xbox 360, Microsoft's internet-connected gaming system that, thanks to an add-on called Kinect, can read and interpret players' motions.",
"\"Your Xbox is becoming the hub of your living room,\" he said.",
"\"It is your gaming system.",
"It is your movies. It is your TV experience.\"",
"Ballmer announced an update to that system that lets Kinect's cameras read facial expressions and mouth movements in addition to what their arms and legs are doing.",
"Called \"Avatar Kinect,\" this new feature, which is due out in the spring, will allow friends to meet up as avatars -- or video-game likenesses of themselves -- in virtual settings.",
"A demo of this feature showed avatars chatting at a virtual-world tailgate while sitting in digital, plaid lawn chairs.",
"In another demo, female avatars got together on a neon set, as if they were collaborating on an online talk show.",
"Kinect's cameras watch the friends from the top of their TVs and translates their facial expressions into the digital hangout.",
"\"As you can see now Kinect can track features like your smile, your laugh and even the raise of your eyebrows,\" Ballmer said, offering a demo of himself as a bald avatar -- his digital eyebrows bouncing up and down.",
"Ballmer described these virtual meet-ups as a \"new way to socialize.\"",
"But, even during his speech, some Twitter users wrote they found that idea downright creepy.",
"\"This seems unhealthy,\" one Twitter user wrote.",
"\"Will it also track Eye Winks?",
"or false eyelashes?",
"What about coloured contact lens?\"",
"wrote another.",
"Others wrote that they're fine with non-Microsoft devices controlling their living room electronics experience.",
"\"Sorry Ballmer, my PS3 is the hub of my living room,\" one @cnntech Twitter follower wrote, referencing the Sony gaming system.",
"The Avatar Kinect feature is available only to people who pay a subscription fee for an Xbox Live membership, which costs about $60 per year.",
"Even without the avatars, TV is getting more social as it brings elements of the internet into the living room, Ballmer said.",
"Microsoft announced a partnership with ESPN, for instance, that lets people watch the BCS college football championship game over Xbox Live.",
"Viewers can chat with friends on the TV screen during the game and place non-monetary bets about who they think will win.",
"They can see how their predictions stack up against that of their friends and the Xbox Live community at large.",
"Football fans would be ranked according to success, allowing sports fans to \"earn their bragging rights,\" said Ron Forbes, from Microsoft's interactive entertainment division.",
"\"Now I can make my picks and trash talk as I'm watching the game,\" he said.",
"\"Not on e-mail, not over text -- right in my living room on the TV.\"",
"This trend of internet-enabled, or \"connected\" TV is set to be a major theme of this year's CES, where TV makers from Panasonic to Sony are announcing app stores and other features that are designed to bring social media and Web experiences to TV.",
"Some of these companies work internet features directly into the television instead of requiring a separate gadget, as is the case with Microsoft's Xbox.",
"Others, like the Yap.tv app for the Apple iPad, aim to let another device provide a social experience that can supplement live TV viewing.",
"The idea of internet TV has been tried many times before but has never gone fully mainstream.",
"But Microsoft's internet-TV system does do one thing other don't -- full-body motion control.",
"The company highlighted this point repeatedly, announcing partnerships, for instance, with Netflix and HuluPlus that let Xbox Kinect users control those video apps by waiving their hands and talking to the system to select and play movies.",
"It's a \"new world of controller-free entertainment that you cannot find anywhere else,\" Forbes said.",
"The company said it had sold 8 million Kinect sensors in 60 days, beating its goal of selling 5 million during that timeframe.",
"The keynote address also highlighted other Microsoft efforts, including Windows Phone 7 and the Windows PC operating system, which is in the process of being upgraded to work on a range of devices, including buzz-worthy tablet computers.",
"Microsoft is widely criticized as being behind the curve on developing an operating system for tablets.",
"The company promised an update to its mobile Windows Phone 7 operating system that will add copy-paste functionality and the ability to switch between apps more quickly.",
"Those features are already available from the two hottest smartphone ecosystems: the Apple iOS and Google Android.",
"Some bloggers and wrote that Microsoft hid its skeletons in the closet during the speech -- straying from tablets and smartphones, which are big topics with other companies.",
"But Ballmer said Microsoft is looking to the future -- and that will include all tech platforms, not just personal computers.",
"The company aims to \"redefine what is really possible\" with technology, he said."
] | [
"Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said he wants to make TV more social .",
"Kinect update lets its cameras read facial expressions and mouth movements .",
"Kinect will put facial expressions on digital avatars .",
"Some Twitter users wrote they found that idea downright creepy ."
] | [
7,
14
] |
[
"(CNN) -- More than 1,000 protesters clashed with security forces in Kuwait on Friday, demanding greater rights for longtime residents who are not citizens of the country.",
"The crowd -- initially 300 people before quickly growing -- was attacked with water cannons.",
"A Kuwaiti government spokesman later claimed that the security forces were trying to protect themselves after the protesters started hurling rocks.",
"The \"security forces on the ground talked to the protestors in a nice and civilized way,\" said Col. Adil Al-Hashash, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry.",
"Members of the crowd were told \"that they should go to the legal channels for their demands rather than protesting.\"",
"Al-Hashash said the demonstration was eventually dispersed and that several protesters were arrested and questioned by the security forces.",
"The protest took place in Al Jahra province north of Kuwait City, Al-Hashash noted.",
"Kuwait has been wrestling with the question of rights for non-citizen residents for decades.",
"The country is believed to have roughly 100,000 residents who are not citizens.",
"Journalist Saad Al-Enzi contributed to this report ."
] | [
"Roughly 1,000 protesters call for greater rights for non-citizen residents of Kuwait .",
"Security forces attack the protesters with water cannons .",
"Several protesters are detained and questioned ."
] | [
0
] |
[
"Aasta, Norway (CNN) -- Three rapid blasts echoed across the Norwegian countryside on Tuesday as police detonated explosives found at a farm owned by the suspect in last week's bloodbath in Oslo and the island of Utoya.",
"Anders Behring Breivik is accused of killing 76 people in the Friday attacks, most of them at a summer camp run by Norway's ruling Labour Party on Utoya.",
"Police carried out a controlled explosion at his farm in Aasta, about 100 kilometers (63 miles) north of Oslo, once some of the material was taken away as evidence, police spokeswoman Laila Sondrol told CNN.",
"The detonation was carried out alongside a riverbank on the property, leaving a plume of grey smoke hanging over the farm after the explosion.",
"Sondrol said investigators are continuing to search for other explosives at the farm.",
"Another police spokeswoman, Trine Dyngeland, would confirm neither the type or quantity of the material detonated Tuesday, nor when it was found.",
"Earlier, Breivik's lawyer told reporters his client was \"a little bit surprised\" that he was able to pull off the bombing and shooting rampage, for which authorities say he has claimed responsibility.",
"The attorney, Geir Lippestad, said Breivik was surprised that his plan \"succeeded -- succeeded in his mind.\"",
"Lippestad said Breivik didn't expect to reach Utoya, where he is accused of shooting 68 people dead.",
"Another eight died in a bombing outside government offices in Oslo earlier that day.",
"Breivik used drugs before the attacks that were designed to keep him strong and awake, Lippestad said.",
"While he said it was too early to say whether Breivik will plead insanity, Lippestad added, \"This whole case indicates that he's insane.\"",
"Lippestad said it was \"very difficult\" to describe Breivik's manner -- \"he is not like anyone.\"",
"Norwegian police released the first few names of victims of the attacks Tuesday afternoon.",
"Three of the four -- Tove Ashill Knutsen, 56; Hanna Orvik Endresen, 61; and Kai Hauge, 32 -- were killed in the Oslo bombing, while 23-year-old Gunnar Linaker died on Utoya.",
"Police said they would post an update at 6 p.m. every day until all the victims have been identified.",
"Their families will be notified first.",
"During a closed court hearing Monday, the 32-year-old suspect said the attacks were necessary to prevent the \"colonization\" of Norway by Muslims, the presiding judge, Kim Heger, said.",
"Breivik accused the Labour Party of \"treason\" for promoting multiculturalism, Heger said.",
"Lippestad said Breivik had told him he was in touch with two terror cells in Norway and in contact with other cells abroad, but that he acted alone in carrying out the attack on Utoya and the Oslo bombing.",
"\"He says there are several cells around the Western world -- where, I do not know,\" Lippestad said.",
"Breivik is cooperating with police inquiries, \"but he won't talk about the other cells,\" he said.",
"His client considers himself to be \"in a war,\" Lippestad said.",
"The police declined to say how many people are still missing, saying the number was still subject to change.",
"They have said in the past that they were searching for four or five people.",
"Forensic scientists are still searching Utoya for clues, and the island will remain closed to the public for at least two weeks, Norwegian Police Chief Sveinung Sponheim said.",
"Other countries are involved in the Norwegian investigation into last week's attacks, police said in response to a question about Breivik's claim to have been in contact with terror cells abroad.",
"They declined to name the other countries, saying, \"The investigation is in Norway.\"",
"They also declined to say where Breivik is being held.",
"Prosecutors are considering charging Breivik with crimes against humanity, according to police.",
"He is facing terror-related charges that carry a maximum 21-year sentence.",
"Geert Wilders, a Dutch politician whose Freedom Party is referenced in a manifesto apparently written by Breivik, condemned the suspect's alleged actions Tuesday.",
"Wilders said he was not \"responsible for a lone idiot who twisted the freedom-loving anti-Islamization ideals\" of his party.",
"Meanwhile, U.S. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden visited the Norwegian ambassador's residence in Washington Tuesday to \"offer condolences to the people of Norway after the tragic killings that occurred last week,\" according to a White House statement.",
"Earlier, Breivik's father said his son should have killed himself instead of allegedly going on the killing spree.",
"\"In my darkest moments, I think that rather than killing all those people, he should have taken his own life,\" Jens Breivik said in an interview with Norway's TV2.",
"He said he also believes his son has mental issues.",
"\"He must be. He must be,\" the father said in response to a reporter's question about whether he thought his son was mentally ill. \"There is no other way to explain it.",
"A normal person would never do such a thing.\"",
"Jens Breivik had a message for all the victims during his interview.",
"\"I would like to say that I feel an incredible grief and despair over what has happened.",
"I often think of how terrible it must be for those who are affected by this.",
"I wish I could do something for them, but here I am, powerless to do anything,\" he said.",
"Lippestad said Breivik does not know what his father said.",
"He said he does not know if any of Breivik's family members have asked to see him.",
"Jens Breivik, who was interviewed at his home in France, said he would not be visiting his son as the legal process continues.",
"\"No. I will never have more contact with him,\" he told TV2.",
"The suspect's father was one of many people searching for answers Tuesday after the mass killings that terrorized Norway last week.",
"At a news conference Tuesday, hotelier Petter Stordalen pledged to give 5 million kroner ($923,000) to rebuild Utoya Island.",
"He promised it would be \"a new Utoya, a Utoya for everyone.",
"It's been a summer camp for the Labour Party, now it's to be an island for everyone.\"",
"Eskil Peterson, a leader of the Labour Party's youth movement, the AUF, said the party had first been shocked and now was mourning those killed.",
"That sorrow will intensify when police release the identities of all those killed, he said.",
"\"When we see those names, it will be heartbreaking for everybody,\" he said.",
"According to Heger, Breivik said he worked with two cells to launch the attacks, the deadliest onslaught in Norway since World War II.",
"Police refused to comment on the claim, but a police official said Breivik appeared to be \"very calm\" during his hearing.",
"Almost 200,000 people participated in a memorial Monday in downtown Oslo to honor the victims, authorities said.",
"Breivik hates democracy and all who believe in it, his lawyer said Tuesday.",
"He added that his client felt the rest of the world didn't understand his point of view but that they would in 60 years' time.",
"He is undergoing a medical examination, Lippestad told reporters.",
"Breivik is now \"very tired\" because of his circumstances, he said, but he was not injured when he was taken into police custody.",
"Marit Andersen said she knew Breivik in high school and described him as an entertainer who had friends and was quite successful in school.",
"Andersen said she later saw Breivik's views change.",
"\"Later, it became more extreme, and I remember after we all got on Facebook, I became friends with him there,\" Andersen said.",
"\"He had some rather outrageous statements there.",
"I had commented on something he said. ...",
"I said you can't say stuff like that.",
"It's unacceptable.\" Breivik appears to have written a 1,500-page manifesto that rants against Muslims and lays out meticulous plans to prepare for the attacks.",
"In it, the author vilifies Stoltenberg and the Labour Party, accusing it of perpetuating \"cultural Marxist/multiculturalist ideals\" and indoctrinating youths with those ideals.",
"The author accuses the Labour Party of embracing those ideals and allowing the \"Islamification of Europe.\"",
"CNN has not independently confirmed that Breivik is the author of the manifesto, which bears his name and says it is intended to be circulated among sympathizers.",
"The writer rails against Muslims and their growing presence in Europe, and calls for a European civil war to overthrow governments, end multiculturalism and execute \"cultural Marxists.\"",
"It contains photographs of Breivik wearing what appears to be a military uniform that features an altered U.S. Marine Corps dress jacket with medals of the Knights Templar -- an order of Christian Crusaders who helped fight against Muslim rule of the Holy Land in the Middle Ages, but which was shut down 700 years ago.",
"Breivik asked to wear a uniform to the court hearing but was not allowed to, Heger said.",
"The judge said he ordered Breivik held in isolation for the next four weeks to ensure he has no opportunity to tamper with evidence, Heger said.",
"The suspect has access to his lawyer but to no one else, and not to letters or news, court officials said.",
"According to the Norwegian newspaper VG, which cited unidentified sources, Breivik told investigators during interviews that he belonged to a revived Knights Templar.",
"He described the organization as an armed Christian order, fighting to rid the West of Islamic suppression, the newspaper said.",
"CNN's Jonathan Wald, Nic Robertson, Antonia Mortensen, Laura Perez Maestro, Michael Holmes, Jennifer Deaton, Erin McLaughlin and Greg Botelho contributed to this report."
] | [
"NEW: Police detonate explosives at the massacre suspect's farm .",
"\"This whole case indicates that he's insane,\" the suspect's lawyer says .",
"Obama offers condolences to Norway's ambassador in Washington .",
"Police are talking to other countries as they examine Breivik's claims of terror cells ."
] | [
0,
11,
26,
33
] |
[
"(CNN) -- When it comes to reality competition shows, it seems less is not more.",
"\"Project Runway,\" which will feature 90-minute-long episodes when Season 8 kicks off tonight, is the latest series in its genre to adopt a longer run time.",
"It follows in the footsteps of other elimination shows like \"The Biggest Loser\" and \"The Celebrity Apprentice\" -- both of which switched from 60-minute to 120-minute episodes within the past two years.",
"So what is it about elimination shows that draws viewers to the tube for hours at a time, or, in the case of \"American Idol\" and \"So You Think You Can Dance,\" multiple times a week?",
"\"Because of the structure of competition reality shows, people have an incentive to stick around to the end to see who gets eliminated,\" said Andy Dehnart, the editor of Reality Blurred.",
"\"But that doesn't mean the preceding 90 or 120 minutes have been full of worthwhile content.\"",
"While a show like \"The Apprentice\" easily fills a two-hour time slot with complicated tasks, other competition shows struggle to keep viewers engaged, Dehnart says.",
"It's all about leaving viewers wanting more.",
"For example, he says, \"'Survivor' tribal councils last for 45 minutes or an hour in real life, but much more than 10 minutes on screen would probably be too much, since not all of that conversation is compelling or consequential.\"",
"Sara Rea, the executive producer of \"Project Runway,\" which follows aspiring fashion designers as they compete for a cash prize, agrees -- noting that 7 hour long shoots are often edited down to 20 or 30 minutes of footage.",
"\"120 minutes is a huge commitment,\" Rea said.",
"\"This [90 minutes] just felt more like a natural progression -- to give you more, but still leave you wanting more.\"",
"The extra time will allow viewers to get to know the characters better, Rea added.",
"\"More character development makes the show pop.\"",
"\"The real people aspect is a draw,\" said J.D.",
"Roth, executive producer and creator of \"The Biggest Loser.\"",
"\"I know what a scripted character is going to do, I don't know what a real person is going to do.\"",
"It's sometimes hard for viewers to identify with a scripted character, whereas they can watch a reality show and say, 'My mother is just that woman,' or 'My brother is like that guy,' Roth says.",
"The moral of the story: Longer episodes mean more time to explore each of the characters.",
"That's what viewers want, he said.",
"They want to see \"who these people are.\"",
"This isn't news to reality TV expert and author of \"Uberstar,\" Vaughn Alaine-Marshall, who says viewers can't help but stay tuned when they become attached to the contestants.",
"\"'American Idol,' 'Project Runway' -- the professions these people are tying to be a part of are quite prestigious,\" he said.",
"\"Very few people have the talent or the courage to actually become [musicians and clothing designers].",
"People want to see someone like them achieve these things.\"",
"And it's a win-win, Alaine-Marshall said.",
"The longer \"American Idol\" is on, the more ads they sell.",
"It's financially beneficial.",
"But, he said, it's only reality competition shows that this applies to.",
"\"The difference from these shows compared to 'The Real World,' 'The Hills' [and] 'Jersey Shore' is there's an extra tension in the drama -- someone like you could be humiliated in front of tens of millions of people. ...",
"There's a very fine line between someone you feel complete empathy for and someone you're willing to laugh at,\" Alaine-Marshall said.",
"\"Could you watch 'The Situation' for more than 40 minutes?",
"[No.] But for something like 'Project Runway,' with skill and endeavor, people want to look behind the curtain.\"",
"And while the elimination aspect might be reason enough to tune in for some viewers, Roth said the appeal of such shows is very much embedded in the format and the overall process.",
"\"If [people] have to watch too intently, you can only do that for an hour or so.\"",
"With reality competition shows, you can read the newspaper or leave the room for a minute, come back and still be able to follow along, he added, joking that, during the \"Lost\" finale, \"I had to sit there with a piece of paper ... to keep track of what was going on.\"",
"One viewer who couldn't wait for longer episodes of \"Project Runway\" is Laura Kluvo, who blogs about the show.",
"\"I love the challenges,\" Kluvo said.",
"\"I love to see the designers work their way through these challenges -- each with their own set of skills, talents and personalities.\"",
"Kluvo agreed with producer Rea that longer episodes mean more of an opportunity for fans to learn about the contestants.",
"\"You have your favorites that you root for, and usually somebody that you don't like,\" Kluvo laughed.",
"\"You watch waiting for them to get what they deserve.\"",
"But it's not just the contestants on reality competition shows like \"Project Runway,\" \"American Idol\" and \"Top Chef\" that keep Kluvo glued to the tube for hours.",
"\"Sometimes I watch a drama and I feel depressed ...",
"I have enough to deal with in life.",
"I don't want to feel unhappy or depressed after watching TV,\" she said.",
"\"I want to feel like I had an adventure.",
"I saw the problem, I saw the problem solved, I saw someone win.\"",
"Despite the seemingly foolproof format of reality competition shows, Dehnart of Reality Blurred says a scripted series could easily hold our attention for more than 44 minutes -- though they usually don't.",
"\"It just takes skillful storytelling and a strong arc,\" he said."
] | [
"\"Project Runway\" will feature 90-minute episodes when Season 8 kicks off Thursday .",
"\"The Biggest Loser,\" \"The Celebrity Apprentice\" switched to 120-minute episodes .",
"It's the structure of competition reality shows that keep people watching, expert says ."
] | [
1,
2,
28
] |
[
"(CNN) -- A Kosovar has admitted shooting dead two American servicemen and injuring two others in an attack on a U.S. Air Force bus in Germany, his lawyers said Wednesday.",
"Arid Uka, 21, appeared in court in Frankfurt where he faces murder charges over the March 2 shooting outside Frankfurt International Airport, in which Nicholas Alden and Zachary Ryan Cuddeback of the U.S. Air Force died.",
"Uka \"deeply regrets the crime he has committed,\" according to a statement provided by his lawyers, Michaela Roth and Jens Joerg Hoffman, and made a full confession to the court.",
"At the time of the incident he was \"under influence of extreme Islamistic propaganda,\" his lawyers said, but this was not the sole reason behind his actions.",
"On the eve of the shooting, Uka had watched an Internet video that he thought showed American soldiers severely mistreating a young Muslim woman, they said.",
"Believing the clip was real, he had reacted by shooting the servicemen in an attempt to prevent such abuse happening in Afghanistan, the lawyers said.",
"The court heard the video clip was in fact a scene from the U.S. anti-war film Redacted, German media reports say.",
"The Brian De Palma drama is based on the rape and murder of an Iraqi girl by American soldiers in Mahmoudiya in 2006.",
"\"He is now aware that he has been misguided by Islamistic propaganda,\" and that his deeds are not in accordance with his Islamic faith, Uka's lawyers said in their statement.",
"They added that Uka was keen to bring the case to an end as quickly as possible, for the sake of the survivors and families of the victims.",
"He is believed to have acted alone, German officials have said previously.",
"According to a complaint filed by the U.S Department of Justice in June, Uka shot Alden in the head before boarding the bus and shooting Cuddeback.",
"He then continued to fire, injuring two other servicemen while shouting \"God is great,\" the complaint said.",
"When his weapon jammed, Uka ran from the bus and was later arrested by German police, the complaint said.",
"Uka, a Muslim from Mitrovica in northern Kosovo, moved to Germany with his parents as a child."
] | [
"Arid Uka \"deeply regrets\" and fully confesses his crime, his lawyers say .",
"He is accused of shooting dead two U.S. servicemen and injuring two others .",
"He acted after seeing an Internet clip apparently showing U.S. soldiers raping a Muslim woman .",
"The footage was in reality a scene from an anti-war film, the court heard ."
] | [
0,
4,
6
] |
[
"(CNN) -- NATO says a new report by the United Nations that points to a spike in violence in Afghanistan differs from the alliance's tally because \"security incidents\" were defined differently.",
"\"The U.N. counts a number of additional event types that ISAF does not include in its definition of security incidents, such as cache finds, arrests, assassinations, intimidation, and others,\" according to a statement Thursday from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.",
"It says \"25% of the total U.N. security incidents are event types that ISAF does not include in its definition.\"",
"Another difference, ISAF says, is that U.N. figures include \"all incidents regardless of which entity initiates the activity,\" while NATO counted only \"attacks initiated by insurgent elements.\"",
"But the international force also said it recognizes that the country's eastern regions remain a \"challenging security situation.\"",
"Enemy-initiated attacks in June, July and August were 17% higher than the same period in 2010, according to the ISAF statement.",
"The U.N. report, from the office of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, says security incidents in 2011 are up 39% over the same period last year.",
"Most of the incidents involved armed clashes and improvised explosive devices.",
"There were just as many suicide attacks -- 12 per month -- as there were a year ago, the report says.",
"\"The south and southeast of the country, particularly around the city of Kandahar, continued to be the focus of military activity and accounted for approximately two-thirds of total security incidents,\" the report says.",
"But a rash of recent high-profile attacks and assassinations have raised questions about the country's overall level of security, particularly as coalition forces are drawn down."
] | [
"ISAF says 25% of the total U.N. security incidents are not on its list .",
"U.N. figures include \"all incidents regardless of which entity initiates the activity,\" ISAF says .",
"ISAF says Afghanistan's east remains a security challenge .",
"The U.N. report says monthly security incidents are up 39% in 2011 ."
] | [
2,
3,
6
] |
[
"Paris (CNN) -- France is to open an office in North Korea in the coming days to build cultural ties and help with aid efforts, the French Foreign Ministry said Thursday.",
"The creation of this office responds to \"a decision made by French authorities that takes into consideration identified cultural and humanitarian needs,\" a statement from the minister of foreign affairs' office said.",
"The Office of French Cooperation in Pyongyang will be directed by diplomat and cultural cooperation expert Olivier Vaysset, the statement said.",
"\"His goal will be to help the North Korean people, who are hit hard by many different kinds of restrictions, and to continue our cooperation activities in the domains of language, education and culture,\" it said.",
"U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon met with Pak Gil Yon, vice foreign minister for North Korea, on Wednesday, his office said.",
"The pair discussed food shortages and related humanitarian problems in the North Korea, particularly since recent floods, the statement said.",
"Ban said more international aid was needed and urged North Korea to improve its cooperation with U.N. agencies to help that happen.",
"He also urged continued dialogue on the issue of North Korea's nuclear ambitions.",
"CNN's Winnie Andrews contributed to this report."
] | [
"The office will help meet cultural and humanitarian needs, France says .",
"It will open in the coming days in Pyongyang, the French Foreign Ministry says ."
] | [
0
] |
[
"(CNN) -- The Iranian attorney for two American hikers released last week said Thursday he was briefly detained by security forces following a raid on his home.",
"Masoud Shafiee told CNN that security forces searched his apartment on Tuesday and took him to Evin Prison in Tehran for questioning.",
"It was the same prison where his clients, Americans Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer, were held for two years.",
"He said security forces seized his files, including those regarding the case of Fattal and Bauer, and his computer's hard drive.",
"\"I do not know what they were looking for,\" Shafiee said.",
"Fattal, Bauer and Bauer's now-fiancee, Sarah Shourd, were arrested after straying across the unmarked border between Iraqi Kurdistan and Iran in July 2009.",
"Shourd was released in 2010, but Bauer and Fattal were freed last week after 781 days in captivity and a trial for espionage that Bauer said was based on \"ridiculous lies.\"",
"Shortly after their release, Fattal and Bauer thanked numerous people who helped secure their freedom, including their attorney.",
"Shafiee \"was never allowed to represent us properly, but he never gave up,\" Fattal said.",
"Security forces questioned Shafiee about the two Americans, he said.",
"\"They were very polite and respectful.",
"But the very act of taking a lawyer to prison and searching his home just because he had done his duty seems excessive and reflects negatively on Iran's judiciary,\" Shafiee said.",
"Before he was released, Shafiee said he was asked to write a letter guaranteeing that he would appear in court whenever he was requested to do so.",
"It was not immediately clear what, if any, allegations Shafiee may face.",
"Journalist Shirzad Bozorgmehr contributed to this report ."
] | [
"Iranian security forces seize files relating to the case of two American hikers, an attorney says .",
"\"I do not know what they were looking for,\" he says .",
"Masoud Shafiee represented Americans Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer .",
"The two Americans have been released after two years in an Iranian prison ."
] | [
0,
2,
4
] |
[
"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Muhammad Saad Iqbal is a free man after serving more than six years at the U.S. military's detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba -- without any charge.",
"A guard talks to a Guantanamo detainee, inside the open yard at Camp 4 detention center, this week.",
"Now, Iqbal is considering suing the U.S. government for unlawful detention.",
"\"I am angry in my heart,\" Iqbal said in a recent interview.",
"\"It's easy for the U.S. government to say, 'There are no charges found and he's free.'",
"\"But who will be responsible for seven years of my life?\"",
"His attorney in Washington, Richard Cys, said he is considering a lawsuit against the U.S. government, on behalf of Iqbal, but the details of the suit have not been worked out.",
"Cys said he is waiting for the outcome of a habeas corpus petition, which \"could be a vehicle for future lawsuit.\"",
"\"We may well have claims arising from our habeas action, but we're still not sure what path we're going to pursue,\" he said.",
"It would not be the first lawsuit brought against the U.S. government by a former Guantanamo detainee.",
"President Obama signed an executive order Thursday to close the camp within a year.",
"The move could lead to an increase in the number of lawsuits brought by former detainees who -- like Iqbal -- say they were held for no reason.",
"A former Gitmo detainee talks about his experiences » .",
"The Pakistani citizen was taken into U.S. custody in January 2002 while visiting family in Indonesia.",
"He reportedly was arrested after talking about making a shoe bomb, something he denies.",
"\"I never [made] that statement,\" Iqbal said.",
"\"But they have [said] a lot of things, like I went to Afghanistan, but they have no proof.\"",
"Iqbal says while in U.S. custody, he was taken to Egypt, then to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.",
"In March 2003, he arrived at Guantanamo's military prison, which became a lightning rod for critics who charged that the Bush administration had used torture on terror detainees.",
"Iqbal accuses his handlers in Guantanamo of beating him during his six-month hunger strike and withholding medical treatment until he agreed to cooperate.",
"\"Even when they take me to hospital, I can't even walk but they put me in 4-by-4 [cell], my hands tied with handcuffs and my legs also had leg shackles,\" he said.",
"The CIA and Pentagon repeatedly have denied allegations of mistreatment and torture, saying all interrogation was lawfully done.",
"In response to Iqbal's allegations, CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano told The New York Times this month, \"I have no idea what he's talking about.\"",
"Six months after he was admitted to Guantanamo, Iqbal said he tried to kill himself.",
"While no one watched, Iqbal said he and several inmates tried to hang themselves with bedsheets.",
"Four of the prisoners died, according to Iqbal.",
"But his survival continued what he calls the theft of his freedom by the U.S. government.",
"Former President Bush and other senior officials have repeatedly denied that the U.S. government used torture to extract intelligence from terror suspects.",
"Obama issued three executive orders Thursday designed to show a clean break from the Bush administration on the war on terror.",
"One ordered the closure of the Guantanamo Bay facility within a year.",
"A second executive order formally banned torture by requiring the Army Field Manual be used as the guide for terror interrogations, essentially ending the Bush administration's CIA program of enhanced interrogation methods.",
"The third establishes an inter-agency task force to lead a systematic review of detention policies and procedures and a review of all individual cases.",
"Iqbal was among nearly 800 inmates who came through Guantanamo Bay, classified by Washington as suspected terrorists.",
"Most were never charged with a crime.",
"With the help of a U.S.-based lawyer, Iqbal was released in September without ever being charged.",
"He returned to Pakistan, walking with the help of a cane, complaining of back pain, a bad leg and a torn eardrum -- all the result, he says, of his time in custody.",
"Not once during those nearly seven years in custody did anyone tell him why he was being held.",
"All they told him, according to Iqbal, was that they were sent \"by the U.S. government [in] Washington, D.C., by [the] CIA, to interrogate you if you have any information about terrorists or terrorism.\"",
"Despite his anger and his physical ailments, Iqbal says he \"was born again and given a new life from God\" after his release.",
"He is demanding justice for what he says was his unlawful detention -- but not through violent means.",
"\"We have to convey that Islam is a peace[ful] religion and we [do] not hate anybody,\" he said.",
"CNN's Ed Henry and Barbara Starr contributed to this report."
] | [
"Pakistani citizen was taken into U.S. custody in January 2002 .",
"Muhammad Saad Iqbal accuses handlers at Guantanamo Bay of beating him .",
"Iqbal reportedly arrested after talking about making a shoe bomb .",
"U.S. attorney says lawsuit is under consideration ."
] | [
0,
13,
14
] |
[
"Beijing (CNN) -- China's first space laboratory module launched Thursday, according to state-run media, an important milestone in China's plan to build a space station.",
"China's Xinhua news agency showed a picture of President Hu Jintao watching the launch of Tiangong-1 at Beijing Aerospace Control Center along with Communist Party officials.",
"Tiangong means \"heavenly palace\" in Chinese.",
"It lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in Gansu Province, northwest China.",
"The module was on a carrier rocket, called the Long March 2F T1.",
"The 8.5-ton lab module is part of an experiment to test space rendezvous and docking capabilities, essential for the operation of a manned space platform.",
"Opinion: Make China our new partner in space .",
"Wu Ping, spokesperson for the China Manned Space Engineering Project, told a press conference before the launch that the effective volume of the experiment module is about 15 cubic meters, which could potentially accommodate three astronauts.",
"Tiangong-1 was originally scheduled to launch at the end of August but was postponed after the failure of another satellite launch.",
"When the module successfully enters its low Earth orbit, an unmanned spacecraft -- Shenzhou-8 -- will be sent into space to dock with it.",
"The two spacecraft will fly for about 12 days after the first docking, before conducting another docking test at an appropriate time in flight, Xinhua reported.",
"After the two tests, the Shenzhou-8 will return to Earth and the Tiangong-1 will rise to its original orbit to wait for the next docking test.",
"China sent its first astronaut into space in 2003, the first stage in a \"three-step\" strategy to develop its manned engineering project.",
"The launch of Tiangong-1 is the second step.",
"If successful, it will be followed by the last phase: to build a permanent space lab that will allow astronauts to conduct long-term space experiments.",
"\"It is of great significance for the realization of the three-step Strategy of China Manned Space Engineering Project and the promotion of sustainable development of manned space flight.\"",
"said Wu. According to Xinhua, Beijing hopes to build a space station by around 2020.",
"China is not part of the project that maintains the International Space Station (ISS), which currently orbits the Earth conducting experiments in a range of fields, from physics to astronomy.",
"The ISS is a joint venture between NASA, Russia's RKA space agency, Japan's Aerospace Exploration Agency, the European Space Agency and the Canadian CSA."
] | [
"NEW: China launches the space lab module Tiangong-1, which means \"heavenly palace\" in Chinese .",
"The 8.5-ton module is part of an experiment to test space rendezvous and docking capabilities .",
"China sent its first astronaut into space in 2003, part of a \"three-step\" strategy to develop a space station ."
] | [
2,
5,
12
] |
[
"(CNN) -- The Tampa Bay Rays and St. Louis Cardinals won wild card berths in the Major League Baseball (MLB) playoffs after dramatic victories Wednesday.",
"Trailing 7-0 to the American League (AL) East champion New York Yankees in St. Petersburg, Florida, the Rays launched an astonishing comeback to win in the 12th-inning.",
"Despite their comeback success, the Rays still needed the Baltimore Orioles to defeat the Boston Red Sox in Maryland to clinch the berth on the regular season's final night.",
"The O's obliged by notching a 4-3 win in the bottom of the ninth in a game delayed by rain for an hour and a half.",
"There was similar drama in the National League (NL), as the Cardinals capitalized on the Atlanta Braves' 4-3 loss to National League East champion Philadelphia.",
"The Cardinals beat Houston 8-0 to earn the other wild card spot.",
"Major League Baseball introduced the wild card system in 1994.",
"It rewards the two best-performing second-place teams with a spot in the playoffs -- with one team coming from each league.",
"The Rays' victory capped a remarkable turnaround, with the Florida-based team having been nine games behind the Red Sox on September 3.",
"Third baseman Evan Longoria hit the game-winning home run in the 12th-inning, and told the Rays' website it was like something \"meant for some kind of book.\"",
"\"If you could have drawn it up any better, it would be completely fake,\" he said.",
"The Cardinals completed an equally impressive comeback, having trailed the Braves by 10 games on August 25.",
"\"Once we got within hailing distance, the game of baseball is what it is,\" Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said on the team's website.",
"\"We kept doing things that gave us a chance.\"",
"\"A winning record against winning clubs.",
"We just kept cranking out extra wins, and it made the thing look better and better.\"",
"After Wednesday's events, the line-up for the 2011 MLB playoffs has now been decided.",
"The Rays' reward for their heroics is a series against the AL West champion Texas Rangers, while the Yankees will go up against the AL Central-winning Detroit Tigers.",
"In the National League, the Cardinals will take on the Phillies, with the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Milwaukee Brewers meeting in the other National League Division Series.",
"CNN's Matt Cherry contributed to this report ."
] | [
"The Tampa Bay Rays and St. Louis Cardinals have clinched MLB wild card berths .",
"The Rays came back from 7-0 down to win in the 12th-inning .",
"The Cardinals beat Houston 8-0 to earn their playoff berth .",
"Boston Red Sox and Atlanta Braves suffer late-season collapses to miss out ."
] | [
0,
2,
5
] |
[
"(CNN) -- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad defied expectations and dashed widespread hopes during an anticipated nationally televised speech Wednesday when he made no mention of lifting a state of emergency.",
"In his rambling 45-minute speech to the National Assembly, he acknowledged that Syrians want reform and that the government has not met their needs.",
"Making several references to an anti-Syria \"conspiracy\" and threats to \"stability,\" al-Assad said strife cannot win out over future reforms.",
"\"Although President al-Assad did acknowledge the need for reform, his failure to address head-on the lifting of the state of emergency smacks of procrastination,\" said Philip Luther, Amnesty International's deputy director for the Middle East and Africa.",
"\"He could declare this tomorrow if he wanted.",
"\"He should have immediately ordered his security forces to stop using unwarranted force and announced steps towards implementing key human rights reforms.\"",
"U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner said \"the speech fell short of the type of reforms the Syrian people demanded\" and lacked substance.",
"Al-Assad made few concrete promises after weeks of anti-government demonstrations that have left at least 61 people dead, according to Human Rights Watch.",
"The address \"failed to commit to a specific reform agenda that would safeguard public freedoms and judicial independence and prohibit the Syrian government from encroaching on human rights,\" the group said.",
"Reem Haddad, a spokeswoman for the Syrian Information Ministry, told CNN the emergency law \"will be lifted,\" but she said procedures must be worked out.",
"\"The president presented his own vision\" on an announced package of reforms, Haddad said.",
"Details will come in a \"limited time frame,\" she added.",
"Asked if Syrians received enough information, Haddad said, \"I wouldn't say the people expected more.\"",
"At least 16 people were killed after the speech in clashes in the city of Latakia, which has been a center of unrest and the site of ongoing protests for the past few days, an eyewitness and an activist told CNN.",
"They said the deaths happened during clashes between anti-government demonstrators and security and army forces.",
"Haddad denied any deaths in the city.",
"The eyewitness, who did not want to be named for security reasons, said protesters started gathering in central Latakia's Qitar Square after the speech and chanted, \"No to sectarianism, we want freedom\" and \"We stand by Daraa,\" the southern city that has seen the most violence since anti-government protests started almost two weeks ago.",
"As the crowd reached several thousand by the afternoon, they said, army personnel and security officers began shooting at the demonstrators.",
"\"Latakia is tense and quiet tonight following the evening's events,\" the eyewitness said.",
"\"We are fearful because we have received today's violence as a message from the regime coinciding with the president's speech.\"",
"Another eyewitness said protests erupted in the city of Jasem, northwest of Daraa, with thousands of demonstrators in the town square.",
"He said he also heard about demonstrations in other nearby towns.",
"Toner said the Syrians should not interfere with planned Friday demonstrations.",
"Al-Assad spoke a day after the Syrian cabinet resigned amid an unusual wave of unrest across the nation.",
"Also Wednesday, the Reuters news agency reported two of its journalists are missing in Syria.",
"Reuters quoted diplomatic sources as saying correspondent Suleiman al-Khalidi, a Jordanian national based in Amman, had been detained by the Syrian authorities in Damascus on Tuesday.",
"The agency said photographer Khaled al-Hariri, a Syrian based in Damascus, has not been in contact with colleagues since Monday.",
"A Syrian official said authorities were working to establish what had happened to the two men, Reuters reported, adding the agency is \"deeply concerned\" about their whereabouts.",
"Two other Reuters journalists were detained by Syrian authorities over the weekend.",
"Television producer Ayat Basma and cameraman Ezzat Baltaji, both Lebanese, were expelled to Lebanon, Reuters reported.",
"Syria is the latest in a string of Arabic-speaking nations beset with discontent over economic and human rights issues.",
"In his speech, al-Assad said Syria's government will not fall like a domino in a string of Arab revolutions, saying that instead, Syria had kicked the dominoes of the \"conspirators\" and that they had fallen instead.",
"Al-Assad also blamed unrest in his country on \"enemies ... working daily and scientifically to undermine the stability of Syria.\"",
"He said they were \"stupid in choosing to target Syria.\"",
"\"In principle, we support reform and meeting people's needs,\" the president said.",
"\"This is the duty of the state.",
"But we cannot be for sedition.\" He referred obliquely to the anti-government demonstrations, calling them \"a test of our unity.\"",
"Al-Assad said, however, \"we can't say that everybody who went out was part of the conspiracy.",
"That wouldn't be accurate. \"Syria is not isolated from what is happening in the Arab world.",
"We are part of this region,\" al-Assad said.",
"\"We influence and are influenced by it, but at the same time we are not a copy of other countries.\"",
"Legislators in the People's Assembly cheered the president when he arrived to begin the speech.",
"The state-run SANA news agency had reported that al-Assad's speech would \"tackle the internal affairs and the latest events in Syria\" and \"reassure the Syrian people.\"",
"Al-Assad did make a passing reference to the emergency law, in place for almost 50 years.",
"\"Sometimes we can postpone a certain suffering that may be caused by the emergency law or any other law or necessary measures that the citizen endures, but we cannot postpone the suffering of a child whose father cannot treat him because he doesn't have the money for his medication or when the state does not have this drug or this treatment,\" he said.",
"The law allows the government to make preventive arrests and override constitutional and penal code statutes.",
"In effect since 1963, it also bars detainees who haven't been charged from filing court complaints or from having a lawyer present during interrogations.",
"Ihssan Zouabi, a protester in Daraa, called the president's speech a disappointment because he didn't address demands, including lifting the emergency law.",
"\"We were hopeful prior to the speech but after, everyone was shocked.",
"We were expecting much, much more,\" he said.",
"A Syrian rights activist who goes by the alias Malath Aumran for security reasons said he and other Syrians were disappointed.",
"He said people are dying for freedom but the \"martyrs\" weren't mentioned.",
"\"For me now, at this time ... actually he said nothing, he did nothing for us,\" Aumran said.",
"\"All of what he said was that we are traitors, that we are working for foreign conspiracies against our country, ... that the United States is behind this, what is going on in Syria.\"",
"Amnesty's Luther said the group is \"disturbed by reports that security forces could already be shooting on demonstrators in Latakia who have been protesting against his speech.\"",
"Human Rights Watch called on al-Assad to lift the state of emergency, amend a law that allows forces to punish people for peaceful expression, investigate security services and allow the registration of new political parties.",
"CNN's Yousuf Basil, Katy Byron, Rima Maktabi, Tracy Doueiry, Erin McLaughlin and Amir Ahmed contributed to this report ."
] | [
"NEW: 16 people are killed in clashes in Latakia .",
"NEW: A government spokeswoman denies any deaths there .",
"NEW: Two Reuters journalists are reported missing .",
"Al-Assad makes a speech without delivering on the emergency law ."
] | [
15,
24,
43
] |
[
"(CNN) -- A group of 20 doctors who were detained during this year's protests in Bahrain have been convicted of attempting to overthrow the government and hit with lengthy prison sentences, authorities and a human rights group said Thursday.",
"Thirteen of the physicians were sentenced to 15 years in prison, two for 10 years and five for five years, said military prosecutor, Col. Yussef Rashid Flaifel.",
"Charges against the doctors included possession of unlicensed weapons, inciting the overthrow of the government, provoking sectarian hatred and forceful occupation of a public building, officials said.",
"Prosecutors have alleged that, at the height of the protests earlier this year, the accused medical personnel refused to help patients at Salmaniya Medical Complex, the main hospital in the Bahraini capital, Manama.",
"\"The Salmaniya Hospital was used as a coordination center for three weeks for protests calling for the overthrow of the government.",
"Those doctors who have been found guilty were charged with abusing the hospital for political purposes,\" a government spokesman said.",
"\"Nobody is above the law.\"",
"This month, the doctors were released on bail after reports that several of them had gone on hunger strikes.",
"At the time, human rights activists hoped that their release was good sign, though the charges against the doctors still stood.",
"But Thursday, Amnesty International issued a statement, decrying the court's decision.",
"\"These are simply ludicrous charges against civilian professionals who were working to save lives amid very trying circumstances,\" said Philip Luther, deputy director of Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa program.",
"\"It appears that the real reason for targeting these health workers was the fact that they denounced the government crackdown on protesters in interviews to international media.\"",
"\"We've repeatedly said that Bahraini authorities should never have used military courts to prosecute ordinary civilians, including doctors, teachers and human rights activists,\" he added.",
"An attorney for the doctors said the group will appeal the verdict next month in a Bahraini civilian appellate court.",
"Protests have lingered in Bahrain for months despite a crackdown by the kingdom's Sunni monarchy, backed by troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.",
"More than 30 people have been killed during the demonstrations, in which activists say Bahraini security forces used live ammunition against protesters.",
"Opposition groups say more than 1,000 people -- mainly Shiites -- have been detained and more than 2,000 have lost their jobs for allegedly taking part in the protests."
] | [
"The doctors are accused of trying to overthrow the Bahraini government .",
"Most of the doctors were sentenced to 15 years in prison .",
"Their lawyer says they will appeal the convictions in October .",
"The charges \"are simply ludicrous,\" an Amnesty International official says ."
] | [
3,
10,
13
] |
[
"Berlin (CNN) -- German police arrested two men in Berlin on suspicion of plotting a bomb attack, police said Thursday.",
"A 24-year-old German of Lebanese descent and a 28-year-old man from Gaza had tried to obtain chemicals that can be used to make a bomb, Berlin Police press officer Martin Otter told CNN.",
"Police do not believe the suspects had a specific target, he said, and they are not thought to have any links to international terrorist organizations.",
"Otter said the police operation in Berlin was over as of Thursday afternoon.",
"Officers earlier searched an Islamic cultural association and two other addresses in Berlin in connection with the arrests.",
"Law enforcement had been monitoring the men for months, police spokesman Thomas Neuendorf told CNN.",
"He said the pair came under suspicion after they sought to acquire a large amount of cooling agent.",
"The arrests were made in the Kreuzberg and Neukoelln districts of Berlin, Neuendorf told reporters outside the Islamic center.",
"The center was searched because police believed the suspects might have stored some chemical material there as it had a lot of space, he added.",
"Neuendorf said many papers had been found but no explosives.",
"The public prosecutor's office for Berlin is investigating the case, he added.",
"A German intelligence official, who did not want to be named because he was not specifically authorized to talk to the media, told CNN the suspected plot was thought to be Islamist.",
"Berlin's Al Rahman mosque was visited by investigators as well as the Islamic center, the intelligence official said.",
"There has been increased concern in recent years over homegrown, al Qaeda-inspired terrorism in Germany, he said.",
"German counter-terrorism officials are especially concerned by the spreading influence of the English-language AQAP (al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula) Inspire online magazine in Germany, which gives instructions on how to carry out an attack, he added.",
"Berlin resident Annette Suessmuth, 25, told CNN she was concerned for the safety of her two young children after the arrests.",
"\"I am shocked. Normally I go here very often for shopping.",
"I don't feel safe any more,\" she said.",
"The federal chairman of the German police union, Bernhard Witthaut, said the arrest of two suspects after months of shadowing was a \"huge success\" for Berlin's police.",
"He urged all Germans to remain vigilant, saying: \"It is better to call the police one time too often than to stay passive.\"",
"With the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the United States only three days away, many security services around the world are on a heightened state of alert.",
"CNN's Rick Noack and Stephanie Halazs and CNN security analyst Paul Cruickshank contributed to this report."
] | [
"NEW: The suspects did not have links to international terrorist groups, police say .",
"The two men in their 20s had obtained chemicals that can be used to make a bomb, police say .",
"It is not clear if they had a specific target, they say .",
"Police searched an Islamic cultural center in case chemicals were stored there ."
] | [
2,
4,
8
] |
[
"(CNN) -- Seven-times world champion Michael Schumacher has laughed off rumors that he is planning to quit Formula One at the end of the season, confirming he is still totally committed to driving for Mercedes GP.",
"The 42-year-old German's future has come under scrutiny in recent weeks after a series of disappointing drives, with reports that Mercedes are planning to replace him for the 2012 campaign.",
"In 2010, Schumacher was overshadowed by younger team-mate Nico Rosberg, and although he has closed the gap this season, Rosberg continues to out-score his more illustrious team-mate.",
"Latest F1 standings after Hungarian GP .",
"However, in an interview with the official Mercedes website, Schumacher said: \"Despite some funny rumours and stupid untruthful stories, I keep repeating myself that you will see me in 2012, whether you like it or don't like it.\"",
"Schumacher added: \"The good thing is that I have a lot of support from all around me.",
"\"I have support from the company and the team -- they all want me to be here and I want to be here, so I am looking forward to next season.\"",
"Schumacher's Mercedes car has struggled to keep pace with the Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari cars this season.",
"His best result came in June's Canadian Grand Prix, when he turned back the clock to finish in an impressive fourth place."
] | [
"Michael Schumacher denies reports he is planning to retire from Formula One .",
"The seven-times world champion has struggled in his Mercedes car this year .",
"But the 42-year-old has confirmed he will be driving for the German team in 2012 ."
] | [
0,
1
] |
[
"London (CNN) -- A funeral took place in London Friday for Mark Duggan, the father of four whose death after his cab was stopped by armed police led to protests that expanded into four days of rioting.",
"A horse-drawn cortege processed through the streets from his parents' home in the north London neighborhood of Tottenham to the church in nearby Wood Green where the ceremony was held, with many mourners on hand.",
"Duggan, 29, died on August 4 from a gunshot to the chest after a police unit that deals with gun crime stopped the cab that was carrying him.",
"The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is still investigating the circumstances around his death and said Thursday that it \"is far from reaching any conclusions.\"",
"A peaceful protest in Tottenham two days after his death turned violent and rioting spread to other parts of London and other English cities over the following days.",
"Michael Jarrett, 47, from Tottenham was among hundreds who turned out to pay their respects to Duggan and his family.",
"In 1985, Jarrett's mother, Cynthia, died after four police officers searched her home in Tottenham's Broadwater Farm housing project.",
"Anger over her death sparked the Broadwater Farm riots, in which a policeman died.",
"The area's reputation was tainted for years.",
"Speaking outside the church where Duggan's funeral was held, Jarrett told CNN little had changed in the decades since then.",
"\"The ethnic minorities are still being mistreated,\" he said.",
"\"I don't think a lot changed, the mood in the area is one of regret and sorrow.",
"But there is still a lot of mistrust where the police are concerned.\"",
"He said politicians who blamed people who \"just want to loot, steal and riot\" for the unrest that broke out last month need to look at the underlying problems behind such behavior.",
"\"I actually condemn the looting and the burning of buildings,\" he said, \"but I understand the situation behind and the frustration and anger behind it.",
"That I do understand. Fully.\" Yvonne Collail, 47, from Tottenham told CNN she was concerned that the recent trouble in Tottenham had made everyone less safe and meant the police would have to carry guns, which is unusual in Britain.",
"London's Metropolitan Police said in a statement beforehand that a senior officer had \"met with the parents and family of Mark Duggan and discussed the policing arrangements\" for the funeral.",
"\"In line with the family's wishes, the policing will reflect the family's desire for a local, peaceful and dignified funeral,\" the statement said.",
"Questions remain unanswered about the circumstances of Duggan's death.",
"Prime Minister David Cameron said last month that Duggan had been shot by police but the IPCC has yet to reach a formal conclusion.",
"In a letter to the Times of London published Thursday, the IPCC said the newspaper's headline indicating that an officer had been cleared of shooting Duggan was incorrect and \"irresponsible.\"",
"The IPCC said it is continuing to follow numerous leads as it investigates Duggan's death, including examining security camera footage, conducting forensic tests and talking to witnesses.",
"The commission acknowledged that \"people want answers,\" but urged them \"not to rush to judgment until they see and hear the evidence for themselves.\"",
"A Metropolitan Police statement Thursday said: \"The firearms officer involved in the shooting of Mark Duggan is not about to return to operational firearms duties.\"",
"Initial reports that Duggan shot at police were ruled out by ballistic tests, which found that a bullet that lodged in one officer's radio was of a type issued to police.",
"The IPCC also said there had been no exchange of fire.",
"A handgun that was not police issue was found at the scene, the IPCC said, but there was no evidence it had been fired during the incident.",
"CNN's France Costrel and Laura Smith-Spark contributed to this report."
] | [
"NEW: Hundreds of mourners attend the funeral in north London .",
"NEW: The son of a woman whose death sparked a 1985 riot says people mistrust the police .",
"Duggan died after an incident involving armed police in north London .",
"A peaceful protest over his death two days later turned violent, sparking riots ."
] | [
0,
4,
7
] |
[
"(CNN) -- Defending champion Roger Federer and world number two Rafael Nadal were sent crashing from the Masters 1000 event in Cincinnati Friday.",
"Federer, unbeaten at the hard court tournament since 2008, went down tamely to eighth seed Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, losing 6-2 7-6 in just over 90 minutes.",
"Earlier, in-form Mardy Fish thrashed Nadal 6-3 6-4 to march into the semifinals in Ohio.",
"Victory earned the seventh-seeded American a clash against fourth-ranked Andy Murray of Britain, who he beat in the corresponding tournament last year.",
"The seventh seed, who pushed world number one Novak Djokovic all the way in the Montreal Masters final last week, continued that superb form against a listless Nadal.",
"Fish claimed the early break against Nadal, who had been involved in a marathon tussle with fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco the previous evening, and never looked back.",
"He wrapped up the first set in 43 minutes and broke through in the fifth game of the second as Nadal sent a forehand wide on break point against him.",
"Fish, who was serving magnificently, never looked like surrendering the advantage and carved out three match points before winning it with a forehand passing shot after one hour 43 minutes.",
"It was his first victory in seven attempts against the indominatable Nadal as he acknowledged in his post-match interview.",
"\"He's kicked my butt six times and it feels pretty good to have turned it around,\" he told Sky Sports.",
"\"I'm so much more confident right now and if I was to choose a surface and a court I would choose this one,\" he added.",
"Murray, who crashed out in ignominious fashion in his opener in Montreal last week, has been showing much improved form and saw off France's Gilles Simon 6-3 6-3 in an early morning encounter.",
"\"It is good when you win to get it out of the way,\" Murray told Sky Sports.",
"\"I managed to get through and look forward to the next one.\"",
"But it was the defeat of Federer that proved the main talking point as the former world number one looked out of sorts from the start against the big-hitting Berdych.",
"He was broken twice in the opening set and could not fashion a single break point.",
"The second set was closer, but Berdych, who beat the Swiss star in the semifinals of Wimbledon last year, easily won the tiebreak 7-3 to progresss.",
"He will play world number one Novak Djokovic, who was also given a scare before beating Gael Monfils in the night match.",
"The French sixth seed took the first set, but his Serbian opponent recovered to win 3-6 6-4 6-3 in two and a half hours.",
"\"It was a very physical match, but I hung in there and it was a good win,\" Djokovic told AFP.",
"The win takes Djokovic to 56-1 for the year with his only defeat to Federer in the semifinals of the French Open."
] | [
"NEW: Novak Djokovic survives scare to beat Gael Monfils in Cincinnati .",
"Champion Roger Federer beaten by Tomas Berdych quarterfinals .",
"Mardy Fish also shocks second seed Rafael Nadal in straight sets .",
"He will play Britain's Andy Murray who beat Gilles Simon in straight sets ."
] | [
0,
3,
17
] |
[
"Srinagar, India (CNN) -- At least 20 bus passengers were killed and a dozen others injured in a traffic accident Tuesday in Indian-administered Kashmir.",
"A senior police officer said the bus rolled into a deep gorge beside the Jammu-Srinagar highway after it skidded off the road when the driver lost control.",
"\"The bus hurtled down several hundred meters from the serpentine mountainous road ... killing 18 passengers on the spot while 14 injured were evacuated to hospital,\" Dilbagh Singh, inspector general of police in the Jammu zone, told CNN.",
"\"We pressed into service army choppers to ferry the injured to hospital for specialized treatment.",
"Two injured persons succumbed in hospital, taking the toll to 20,\" he added.",
"He said some of the injured were in serious condition.",
"The government quickly announced it will provide compensation payments to the families of the dead and to the injured.",
"Highway accidents are common in the area because of bad road conditions, overloading and speeding."
] | [
"The bus skidded off the Jammu-Srinagar highway .",
"Army helicopters are used to take the injured to hospitals, police say .",
"Poor road conditions, overloading and speeding make accidents common in the region ."
] | [
1,
7
] |
[
"(CNN) -- Hours of TV each day.",
"The internet. Increased travel and mobility.",
"All these factors expose us to culture and voices on a national rather than local scale.",
"But if you think all this exposure is homogenizing our language, think again.",
"Regional accents are going strong around the United States, bringing with them all kinds of cultural flavor.",
"If you're one of the many that assume all this media exposure must be homogenizing the American accent, you're not alone.",
"It sounds like a logical hypothesis: The accents heard in the media are far-reaching and pervasive, so local accents must be on the decline as the population is exposed to all this \"standardized\" speech.",
"But experts say it's a common misconception that has no basis in fact.",
"\"There is zero evidence for television or the other popular media disseminating or influencing sound changes or grammatical innovations,\" wrote linguist J.K.",
"Chambers in a 2006 essay for PBS.",
"And experts agree that regional accents around the United States are alive and well.",
"But what effect are these regional accents having on American culture?",
"As part of the CNN iReport cultural census, which examines some of the more intangible characteristics that define the American population, we asked people around the country to read a standard passage aloud so we could evaluate their regional accent.",
"We also asked them to tell us a little about their speech: how they feel about their accent, who influenced it, and how they think others view it.",
"Some of the strongest opinions came from iReporters with \"country\" accents: Southern or Western.",
"These accents are among the most stigmatized in the United States, and people who possess them have a wide range of views, from pride to annoyance.",
"\"I hope that when others hear me speak, they hear me, not my western twang,\" writes iReporter Sarah Beth Boynton, who was raised in Salt Lake City.",
"Boynton grew up singing with her family and got sick of hearing that she should only sing country music because of her accent.",
"\"I have made a concerted effort to speak with as little 'western twang' in my accent as possible,\" she revealed.",
"Meghann Holmes also tries to modulate her accent, but for professional reasons.",
"A native of Kentucky, she says she's proud of her accent and has \"great appreciation for regional accents and dialects.\"",
"But she thinks this pride may not be appropriate for her workplace.",
"\"Because I work in public relations, and because I am aware that some employ a negative image of people with strong 'hillbilly' accents, I tend to modify my speech when I am conducting business,\" says Holmes, who lives in London, Kentucky.",
"According to law professor Mari Matsuda, concerns like Holmes' are well-founded.",
"Matsuda, who teaches and writes at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, penned a frequently cited paper called \"Voices of America: Accent, Antidiscrimination Law, and a Jurisprudence for the Last Reconstruction\" for the Yale Law Journal.",
"\"Sociolinguists have shown that in the area of speech evaluation, we are particularly susceptible to the cultural stereotypes we have absorbed,\" she writes.",
"\"Low-status accents will sound foreign and unintelligible.",
"High-status accents will sound clear and competent.\"",
"Or, to put it simply, \"there is significant discrimination against regional accents,\" she said via e-mail.",
"Matsuda argues that discrimination against both foreign and domestic accents, intentional or unintentional, can hurt people with a \"low-status\" accent when they're looking for a job.",
"A University of Chicago psychology study from 2010 backs her up: The study found that people who spoke with a foreign accent were seen as less credible than those who spoke with a \"standard\" American accent.",
"Still, some Americans wouldn't give up their regional accent for anything.",
"Just ask Sonya Tricie of New Orleans.",
"\"I always hated my accent growing up, often trying to over-enunciate words to prevent sounding like the people around me,\" she remembers.",
"But her tune changed, literally, when she went through the hellish experience of Hurricane Katrina.",
"\"After Hurricane Katrina, I was horrified when I realized this very cultural and unique thing might be gone forever,\" Tricie explains.",
"\"I moved back home and there is almost no way to describe how happy it makes me when one of my kids says something so local in our accent!\"",
"\"I love my accent.",
"It is a part of me,\" agrees Kenyotta Elijah of Lufkin, Texas.",
"She, too, tried to change her accent for professional reasons when she was younger, and says she's gotten her fair share of jokes from people who have \"preconceived notions about southerners, particularly Texans.\"",
"But now, it's a point of pride.",
"\"I love it when others, especially northerners, hear me talk,\" she says.",
"\"Most of the time, they find my accent cute.\""
] | [
"Regional accents are alive and well in the United States .",
"We asked iReporters to tell us about their accents .",
"Some feel having a local accent hurts them professionally .",
"Others say they take pride in their accent ."
] | [
10,
13
] |
[
"(CNN) -- First Sgt.",
"Brian Vasquez smiled as he stumbled upon an old letter that had been missing since he was a young soldier in Desert Storm.",
"\"You are so kind to remember me with a very nice letter,\" Vasquez read from the weathered pages.",
"\"The cards and letters I receive from you are very dear to me.\"",
"The letter contained words of encouragement written by Dorothy Landgraf, a stranger at the time, but eventually a friend.",
"Hundreds of soldiers who got her letters came to know her as Granny Dot.",
"Granny Dot was a regular one-woman USO.",
"From 1991 to 2003, she wrote more than 100 letters a month to deployed soldiers.",
"Initially, she addressed the letters to \"Any Service Person,\" hoping that someone without family support could have some contact back in the United States.",
"\"I would do anything for that woman,\" said Vasquez.",
"\"She always had an uplifting message for anyone who didn't have family, or who felt afraid.\"",
"After finding her letter, Vasquez put in a phone call to thank his \"granny\" for her encouragement.",
"\"It just set my heart alive that he would remember me,\" Granny Dot said.",
"\"My heart aches for soldiers -- it always did when I was a little girl at 8 or 9 years old.",
"I thought the soldiers were so important.",
"I've just always been real patriotic.",
"I teach my kids to be that way.\"",
"Supporting the troops was a family affair in the Landgraf household.",
"Granny Dot would come home from work, cook dinner, and her husband, Kenneth Landgraf, would wash the dishes so she could begin writing.",
"Her real-life grandchildren pitched in during the holidays.",
"Granny Dot's support didn't stop with the letters.",
"She ensured her soldiers were well taken care of by mailing them cookies, toys, games, Big Red chewing gum, films and magazines.",
"\"One box I sent out had makeup in it and ended up in a company that had no females,\" Granny Dot said.",
"\"The men made a point to write me back telling me how much they enjoyed dressing a couple of the guys up and joking around.\"",
"The soldiers meant the world to Granny Dot.",
"She said corresponding with them and learning about their lives was incredibly rewarding.",
"Each time a different soldier responded to one of her letters, Granny Dot proudly tied a bright yellow ribbon to her dogwood tree in New Albany, Indiana.",
"There were 147 ribbons in all.",
"Eventually, Granny Dot's worsening health required that she put away her typewriter.",
"Once she stopped writing, most of the soldiers followed suit.",
"Many things have changed since Granny Dot churned out letters and sent gifts regularly.",
"Next week, Granny Dot will celebrate her 59th wedding anniversary.",
"She said that some details of her vast friendships with soldiers have slipped from her memory, but she is happy the soldiers have kept her on their minds.",
"\"It was my life for those 12 years,\" Granny Dot said.",
"The words in Granny Dot's letter to Vasquez have faded with age, but the message is as clear as the late summer day on which it was written: .",
"\"I hope this letter finds you well and in a safe place, if there is such a thing in this world.",
"... You are a delight to my life and my heart.",
"You are the future and I feel that you will make a better world.\""
] | [
"Soldier remembers kind stranger who wrote him letters of encouragement .",
"Army 1st Sgt.",
"Brian Vasquez says he would do anything for Granny Dot .",
"Dorothy Landgraf wrote hundreds of letters every month from 1991 to 2003 .",
"She says the soldiers are important and she is patriotic ."
] | [
0,
4,
5,
7,
9,
18
] |
[
"(CNN) -- University of Miami football coach Al Golden says his team is moving forward, despite allegations by an imprisoned former booster who claims to have spent millions on improper gifts, entertainment and travel for Hurricanes athletes.",
"\"I think, if anything, it's going to bring us closer together,\" he said of the current team, which he said has nothing to do with the allegations.",
"Golden, who was hired in December, said that despite the scrutiny of the program, his team had its best practice yet Wednesday.",
"The Hurricanes open their season at Maryland on September 5.",
"Inside the football program, \"we are moving forward,\" he said.",
"The allegations were leveled by Nevin Shapiro, a onetime Miami businessman now serving a 20-year federal prison term for fraud.",
"Shapiro told Yahoo!",
"Sports that he showered dozens of Miami players with cash and jewelry, paid restaurant and nightclub tabs and supplied prostitutes over an eight-year period -- and that several coaches were aware of the activity.",
"Shapiro was arrested in 2010 on charges of overseeing a Ponzi scheme that prosecutors determined had totaled $930 million.",
"He pleaded guilty to securities fraud and money laundering in September, and his accusations against Miami were part of his agreement to cooperate with prosecutors, his lawyer told CNN's \"Newsroom\" Wednesday.",
"Golden said that he is cooperating with the NCAA investigation and that part of that entails getting the \"young people\" to cooperate, too.",
"\"We want to get to the truth,\" he said.",
"The coach declined to elaborate further, citing the ongoing investigations.",
"Once the NCAA concludes its investigation, Golden said, the school and his program will \"act accordingly.\"",
"Miami Athletic Director Shawn Eichorst said in a statement Thursday that \"these are not times for pity and reflection.\"",
"\"There are tough times ahead, challenges to overcome and serious decisions to be made, but we will be left standing and we will be stronger as a result,\" he said.",
"\"I understand there are unanswered questions, concerns and frustration by many but this athletic department will be defined now and in the future, by our core values, our integrity and our commitment to excellence, and by nothing else.\"",
"Charles Robinson, who interviewed Shapiro for Yahoo!",
"Sports, called Shapiro \"a mixed bag as a human being,\" but documents and former players have backed up some of his allegations.",
"The NCAA, which regulates college sports, said it has been investigating Shapiro's claims for five months.",
"NCAA President Mark Emmert said in a written statement that if true, the allegations show the need for \"serious and fundamental change\" in college sports, especially regarding the conduct of boosters and agents."
] | [
"NEW: Athletic director says this is not time for \"pity and reflection\"\nFormer booster says he spent millions on gifts for athletes .",
"Coach Al Golden says his current players have nothing to do with the allegations .",
"The NCAA says it has been investigating the allegations for five months ."
] | [
0,
1,
14,
19
] |
[
"(CNN) -- As debt-ridden Greece braces for strikes while its prime minister attempts to reassure Europe that his country will pay its bills, the 17 eurozone countries are in various stages of deciding whether to approve the expansion of Europe's bailout fund.",
"The proposed enhancements to the European Financial Stability Facility would allow the fund to increase its lending capacity from €250 billion to €440 billion and buy sovereign bonds in capital markets -- a strategy designed to prop up debt prices and help struggling eurozone countries fund themselves.",
"Europe's leaders originally hoped that the EFSF would never have to be used; now they are hoping the fund's new powers will be enough to prevent the collapse of the eurozone.",
"First they will have to pass the measures.",
"Here's a rundown of where the countries stand and the dates their governments approved (or are expected to approve) EFSF expansion.",
"YET TO APPROVE .",
"Estonia -- September 29 .",
"The Estonian parliament passed one of two necessary resolutions to ratify EFSF expansion earlier this week, despite attempts by the country's main opposition party to block the changes on the grounds that one of the eurozone's poorer states simply cannot afford to help bailout failing eurozone economies.",
"Final approval is expected on Thursday.",
"Malta -- October 3-7 .",
"Malta joined Finland in its demand that Greece put up collateral in exchange for any additional bailout money that Malta would pay into the EFSF.",
"But it is unclear whether Malta will join the Finns in dropping that requirement before passing EFSF enhancement.",
"Either way, approval and ratification of any proposed plan cannot happen until lawmakers return from recess on October 3.",
"Netherlands -- October 3-7 .",
"Once opposed to expanding the rescue fund, the Dutch are now expected to approve enhanced EFSF measures with a parliamentary vote by the end of the first week of October -- although hardliners in the government continue to call for the private sector to take on more of the debt burden.",
"Cyprus -- October 3-7 .",
"The Cypriot cabinet has approved the measures and parliament is expected to ratify the EFSF expansion sometime during the first week of October.",
"Slovakia -- Mid to late October .",
"One of the eurozone's poorest countries is also the biggest obstacle to enhancing the EFSF -- and members of the governing coalition's refusal to approve the plan means a parliamentary vote may not happen until mid-October.",
"Portugal -- End of October .",
"While Portugal hasn't officially approved EFSF expansion, it is expected to within weeks -- the cash-strapped country is, after all, receiving financial assistance from the bailout fund.",
"ALREADY APPROVED .",
"Germany -- September 29 .",
"The German Bundestag approved the expansion of the EFSF by a vote of 523-85 -- a huge majority and an important victory for Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has led calls for the bailout fund to be enhanced.",
"Approval of EFSF expansion measures by Europe's largest economy -- and largest holder of Greek debt -- was seen as necessary for the bailout fund's future success.",
"Finland -- September 28 .",
"One of the most vocal opponents of EFSF enhancement in the early going, Finland has now dropped its demand that Greece put up some cash collateral in return for its approval -- a requirement that threatened to derail the bailout fund expansion and further destabilize global markets.",
"By a vote of 103-66, the Finnish Parliament approved the measures Wednesday, despite the absence of any agreement over its demand for collateral.",
"Slovenia -- September 27 .",
"Despite a no-confidence vote that brought down Slovenia's government last week, the parliament approved the expansion of the bailout fund on Tuesday.",
"Greece -- September 27 .",
"Easily the least surprising 'yes' vote on this list, Greece officially ratified EFSF expansion yesterday -- a vital step towards the bankrupt nation receiving a second bailout worth over 100 billion euros out of the bailout fund in the coming months and years.",
"Austria -- September 27 .",
"Just weeks after opposition parties blocked the government's attempt to fast-track the EFSF bill, lawmakers approved EFSF enhancements that are expected to be officially ratified on September 30.",
"Ireland -- September 22 .",
"Another of the obvious 'yes' votes on the list, Ireland -- which received an 85 billion euro bailout last year -- was never going to object to EFSF expansion.",
"Italy -- September 15 .",
"Ratification of the expansion of EFSF powers was included in Italy's passage of highly contentious austerity measures aimed at balancing Europe's third largest economy by 2013.",
"Spain -- September 15 .",
"Spain, known along with Italy as the two at-risk eurozone countries that are \"too big to bail out,\" passed EFSF expansion several weeks ago.",
"Luxembourg -- September 15 .",
"As expected, Luxembourg approved EFSF enhancement, but Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker reportedly ruled out any proposed increases to the amount of money at the fund's disposal.",
"Belgium -- September 14 .",
"The Belgian parliament approved the EFSF expansion by a large majority.",
"France -- September 8 .",
"Europe's second largest economy was the first country to approve EFSF enhancement.",
"French banks are among the most exposed to risk due to a potential Greek default."
] | [
"Germany's approval of EFSF expansion is seen as necessary for the fund's success .",
"Once opposed to EFSF enhancement, the Netherlands are expected to approve in early October .",
"Members of Slovakia's coalition government steadfastly refuse to approve EFSF expansion ."
] | [
13,
14,
22,
24,
45
] |
[
"Perugia, Italy (CNN) -- Amanda Knox and former boyfriend Rafael Sollecito are killers and the evidence proves it, a prosecutor insisted Friday in wrapping up her statement in the duo's appeal of their 2009 murder convictions.",
"Knox and Sollecito were convicted of killing Knox's former roommate, Meredith Kercher, in a bloody crime that left the victim half-naked with her throat slashed.",
"Knox's attorneys argued in their closing arguments Thursday that police had made numerous mistakes investigating the crime and that evidence didn't support the convictions.",
"But prosecutor Manuela Comodi said the evidence is clear, from bloody footprints with particular characteristics that match the two to the very spot where Knox's DNA was found on a kitchen knife believed by investigators to be the murder weapon.",
"\"They are young, but so was Meredith.",
"They've murdered. And they have killed for nothing.",
"And for this they must be condemned to the maximum sentence,\" Comodi said.",
"The hearing was expected to continue Friday with an attorney for Kercher's family addressing the court.",
"No ruling is expected until Monday, when Knox and Sollecito are expected to give final statements, according to the judge.",
"At Friday's hearing, prosecutor Giuliano Mignini said Knox and Sollecito tried to blame the killing on another co-defendant, Rudy Guede, because Guede is black.",
"Guede was also convicted in the case and is already serving a 16-year sentence.",
"Comodi, showed jurors a photograph of a bloody footprint found in the bathroom of the home were Kercher was killed.",
"There was no way the footprint was Guede's as defense attorneys had contended, Comodi argued.",
"Comodi said experts have concluded that the footprint was not Guede's and probably was Sollecito.",
"She also told the court that just because the footprint was found \"not usable\" for positive identification, it doesn't mean that they are \"non usable'\" when you can do a process of elimination.",
"Comodi also used her microphone to demonstrate the how the location where Knox's DNA was found on the presumed murder weapon -- at the junction between the blade and the handle -- suggests a stabbing motion, rather than a cutting motion.",
"On Thursday, Knox's attorneys gave their final arguments to counter prosecutors' portrayal of her as a cunning \"femme fatale.\"",
"Lawyer Carlo Dalla Vedova told the jury \"that the only possible decision to take is that of absolving Amanda Knox,\" as he wrapped up his closing argument.",
"He said the court had seen no trace of Amanda Knox in the room where the murder took place.",
"Another one of Knox's lawyers, Luciano Ghirga, said she was \"very afraid but her heart is full of hope\" that she will be freed.",
"Her \"image was massacred\" by the media and the attacks on her character started before the trial, he said, adding that he considered her as a daughter.",
"Concluding an emotional appearance, he appealed to the jury to put themselves in the shoes of Knox's family -- a counterpoise to the words of appeals court prosecutor Giancarlo Costagliola, who asked the jury to put themselves in the shoes of Kercher's family at the start of the closing arguments a week ago.",
"The \"clan Knox\" -- as Knox's family have been referred to -- are not part of some rumored U.S. conspiracy to put pressure on the Italian courts to release her, Ghirga said.",
"Rather, \"they are parents and they deserve respect.\"",
"The lawyer also praised the court's work, saying he felt Knox's rights had finally been respected.",
"Urging the jury not to let innocent people stay in jail, Vedova earlier detailed what he called many \"mistakes\" made in the investigation into Kercher's death.",
"When Knox was arrested and interrogated, she was not allowed a translator and was discouraged from getting a lawyer, Vedova said.",
"\"'That night Amanda Knox's right to defend herself was denied,\" he said.",
"\"She was just a young girl, first time out of the country.",
"She didn't speak Italian.\"",
"Vedova argued that some of the DNA evidence presented by the prosecution should be thrown out.",
"He said some material was contaminated as a result of poor practice by police, including supposed traces of mixed blood in the bathroom sink shared by the two girls.",
"The prosecution's use of alleged bloody footprints in their case was also wrong, he said.",
"As for the knife used to kill Kercher, a key piece of evidence, Vedova told the court there was a \"concentration of nothingness, a fantasy\" in the prosecution's arguments.",
"He ridiculed a theory that Sollecito had not disposed of the knife because he was concerned his landlady would notice it was missing, asking: \"What kind of a killer would think about this after committing a murder?\"",
"Knox and Sollecito were convicted in 2009.",
"Knox was sentenced to 26 years in prison, while Sollecito got 25.",
"CNN's Hada Messia contributed to this report."
] | [
"NEW: Amada Knox and her former boyfriend \"killed for nothing,\" a prosecutor in their appeal says .",
"Knox and Sollecito were convicted in 2009 of killing Briton Meredith Kercher .",
"Their attorneys argue police made mistakes and evidence does not support their convictions .",
"Amanda Knox is scheduled to speak on Monday ."
] | [
0,
1,
5
] |
[
"(CNN) -- How do you get someone to buy a ticket for a cancer show?",
"Pretend it's a comedy of course.",
"Hey, it worked with \"The Bucket List!\"",
"Anyhow that seems to be the marketing strategy for \"50/50,\" a sympathetic and yes, sometimes, humorous drama about a young man diagnosed with a rare form of the disease that's nowhere near as crass as the trailer would have you believe.",
"Of course the combination of crass and Seth Rogen is a proven winner, so you can't blame them for trying.",
"He plays the crude, beer-swilling, girlfriend-hating best buddy supporting role, but even this off-the-peg character has more going for him than usual.",
"He may be boorish, especially around women, but Kyle genuinely wants what's best for Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt).",
"Learning that his pal's chances of coming through this are 50/50, he immediately takes heart: \"If you were a casino game you'd have the best odds.\"",
"A more resourceful actor than he used to be, Rogen shows us someone who is actively trying to grow up even if he's not too sure what that might entail.",
"It's a delicate portrait of a clumsy man.",
"As you would expect, most of the dramatic heavy lifting falls on Gordon-Levitt, and he responds smartly by underplaying, muting his responses, looking for stillness and calm -- or what his trainee therapist (Anna Kendrick) recognizes as numb denial.",
"When that composure does break, Gordon-Levitt hits you hard with Adam's anger and fear.",
"Admittedly the movie doesn't have the stomach for the gaunt physical enfeeblement you see in most serious cancer cases -- and occasionally in rare, brave films like \"One True Thing.\"",
"Adam shaves his head and admits to some weariness, but that's about as far down that depressing road director Jonathan Levine wants to take us.",
"Few audiences will complain.",
"It's a movie, not a documentary.",
"Based on an autobiographical screenplay by Will Reiser (a friend of Seth Rogen who apparently went through the same diagnosis), \"50/50\" generally avoids the terminal whimsy that swamps Gus Van Sant's current arty atrocity, \"Restless\" in favor of practical real-life concerns like getting to and from the hospital, eating and allowing your loved ones their share of the suffering (Anjelica Huston more or less steals the movie with a knockout turn as a difficult and overbearing but still caring mom).",
"On this evidence, hanging out for chemo with the guys is almost like poker night -- until one player cashes in his chips for good.",
"But the mordant camaraderie Adam strikes up with his much older fellow patients (Philip Baker Hall and Matt Frewer) rings true, actually.",
"Anna Kendrick (from \"Up in the Air\") works hard to make her novice psychologist believable -- a tall order in the circumstances but she carries it off well enough -- while Bryce Dallas Howard bravely follows \"The Help\" with another chilly narcissist, Adam's girlfriend Rachel.",
"The plotting isn't exactly unpredictable, but when it comes to juggling comedy and pathos, \"50/50\" gets the balance just about right.",
"It's no cure for cancer, but when we're dealing with such a painful topic it sure doesn't hurt to laugh -- or cry -- and know you're in good company."
] | [
"Seth Rogen shows us someone who is actively trying to grow up .",
"Joseph Gordon-Levitt hits you hard with Adam's anger and fear .",
"\"50/50\" generally avoids the terminal whimsy that swamps \"Restless\""
] | [
8,
11
] |
[
"Bamenda, Cameroon (CNN) -- Cameroon's longtime president, Paul Biya, has officially declared his candidacy for the October 9 presidential polls despite calls for him to step down after nearly 30 years in power.",
"Biya's party, the ruling Cameroon's People Democratic Movement party (CPDM), sent a high-profile delegation Sunday to the headquarters of ELECAM, the country's electoral commission, to cast his name on the list along with at least 50 other presidential candidates, including three women.",
"The move by the 78-year-old president to seek another seven-year term in office has drawn sharp criticism from the opposition Social Democratic Front, whose leader, John Fru Ndi, is also running for president.",
"In the opposition-held stronghold of Bamenda, the capital of the country's Northwest region, thousands of government troops from the Rapid Intervention Battalion were stationed in strategic locations to keep order after Biya's announcement.",
"In 2008, Biya erased term limits from the constitution.",
"That move -- coupled with rocketing food prices -- fueled anti-government riots that human rights groups, cited by the U.S. State Department, say killed approximately 100 people.",
"The government of Cameroon put the number of deaths at 40.",
"\"We are worried about the fate of the youths in Cameroon.",
"We do not have jobs and the cost for basic necessities like food, health and even water remain record-high.",
"Cameroon is not to be ruled only by French-speaking citizens.",
"We have English citizens as well,\" Bamenda resident Peter Ambe told CNN.",
"As many as 80% of young people in Cameroon are unemployed, according to opposition figures, while the government says unemployment is at 76%.",
"Ambe accuses Biya and his administration of corruption and embezzlement of state funds.",
"As the political unrest simmered, many politicians voiced concerns that the so-called \"Arab Spring\" -- in which authoritarian governments in the Middle East and North Africa were being pushed out by popular uprisings -- was inching its way to sub-Saharan Africa, starting with Cameroon.",
"In June, the opposition SDF called for a boycott of voter registration and disruption of the polls, denouncing the country's elections commission due to its makeup of all Biya appointees.",
"Two months later, the SDF backed off of its threatened disruptions after the government agreed to revise the composition to the elections commission and create better conditions for free and fair elections.",
"But critics charge that Biya has consistently bypassed the constitution and doctored poll results in his favor, still putting ELECAM under his control.",
"The European Union recently provided funding to increase voter awareness in Cameroon, as well as to train journalists and observers for the October 9 election.",
"Supporters of the ruling CPDM party told CNN that criticisms against the president should be measured against his accomplishments, and noted that the country enjoys relative peace and stability.",
"\"Mr. Biya is the people's choice,\" Prof. Elvis Ngolle Ngolle, a senior cabinet minister, told CNN."
] | [
"President Paul Biya has been in power since 1982 .",
"Dozens of candidates are registered for the election .",
"The opposition has criticized the country's election board for alleged cronyism ."
] | [
14
] |
[
"(CNN) -- If anyone knows how to win the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, it's trainer Christiane Head.",
"The 62-year-old explained to CNN how she did it in only her first full season as a trainer.",
"Chantilly is the heart of the French horseracing industry.",
"At 6.45am on a hazy September morning the sun is threatening to rise over Les Aigles, a 500 acre warren of trails and tracks that serves as a training ground for the 1,800 racehorses that are exercised here daily.",
"A woman -- in her 60's, bespectacled, unassuming -- peers into the soupy mist.",
"She waits. Suddenly the silence is broken by the sound of hooves.",
"A pair of horses, followed by another pair, and another, canters into view, emerging as if from behind a curtain of fog.",
"As the parade of thoroughbreds passes by, snorting steam from their nostrils in the morning air, the woman calmly appraises each one, looking at their legs, theirs heads, occasionally throwing a question to the rider bobbing atop the prancing animal.",
"If an unspoken sense of deference hangs in the air, that's because this woman is no ordinary racehorse trainer.",
"She is Christiane Head, scion of France's most famous racing dynasty; the first female racehorse trainer in France and the first woman to win the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, France's most prestigious race.",
"\"I'm the fourth generation of my family to train,\" explains Head.",
"\"Ever since I was very small I wanted to be a trainer but my dad [Alec Head, a successful trainer and breeder in his own right] said, 'No, there are no female trainers in France.",
"\"'Maybe you can marry a trainer but you won't be able to train yourself.'",
"So I started working with him as his assistant.",
"It took a little time but eventually I applied for my license and in the end they gave it to me.",
"That was more than 30 years ago and I've been training ever since.\"",
"Head, whose family trace their roots back to England, has trained for some of the biggest owners both inside and outside France and has won more than 100 Group races, including the Arc, which she captured in her first full season as a trainer.",
"Indeed, the 1979 Arc was something of a Head family affair: the winner, Three Troikas, was trained by Head, owned by her mother Ghislaine and ridden by her brother Freddy; then a top jockey, now a trainer himself.",
"\"I see the race as if it was yesterday.",
"Freddy was in the middle of the pack going very easily.",
"Before he got into the straight and I said to my mother, 'We've won the race.'",
"She just turned to me and she was furious!",
"She said 'Never say that!'",
"But she was traveling so easily, the filly, that when Freddy pulled her out she just went.",
"He never asked her to do anything, she just went.",
"It's something that I'll never forget.\"",
"The victory was all the more unusual because Three Troikas was only the 10th female horse to win the race, beating older males.",
"\"That filly was so good, but she had to beat the best,\" recalls Head.",
"\"That year there was the winner of the French Derby and the winner of the English Derby [in the race].",
"For a filly she was very strong.",
"She looked more like a male than a female.",
"And, like all good fillies, she had a lot of character.\"",
"Although there has not been a female winner of the Arc since Zarkava in 2008, this year's field features a strong filly contingent, including the favorite Sarafina and the fancied Galikova -- trained, appropriately, by one Freddy Head.",
"The life of a trainer is one of early starts, late nights, dashed hopes and disappointments; for every Arc winner, there are hundreds of horses who will never make the grade.",
"Not a life, in short, for anyone who is anything less than 100% committed to the cause.",
"But despite being in her fourth decade as a trainer, Head is showing no signs of slowing down.",
"\"I'll keep going as long as I can because it's very difficult to stop.",
"Every year you receive new two-year-olds and yearlings and you want to see how they turn out.",
"I get up at 5 o'clock every day and I'll be here until half past 12, 1 o'clock.",
"And that's every day the same: Saturday, Sunday, there's no weekend, nothing.",
"But you know, it's also never the same.",
"You never get bored.\"",
"With the next generation of Heads already coming through, there is no indication that this family's domination of the French racing industry is set to come to an end any time soon.",
"\"Freddy's got a son who works with him and I've got a daughter who's married to a trainer.",
"It's in our blood. Sometimes I think we have more horse blood than human blood.\""
] | [
"Christiane Head is in charge of one France's most famous racing dynasties .",
"Head trained Three Troikas to the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in her first season .",
"The 62-year-old's brother rode Three Troikas and is now a trainer himself ."
] | [
9,
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[
"London (CNN) -- Rupert Murdoch's News International, which is embroiled in a scandal over illegal eavesdropping and police bribery, is selling its flagship building in London's Wapping district, the company announced Monday.",
"The move follows the closure of the best-selling News of the World newspaper, which is at the heart of the scandal.",
"Staff of its other publications, the Sun, the Times and the Sunday Times, will move to another east London site already owned by the company at Thomas More Square, the company said.",
"The new site \"provides the company with excellent facilities and flexibility.",
"As a result, and in light of current market conditions, News International has decided not to proceed with re-modelling the Wapping site.\"",
"Murdoch moved his publications out of London's historic Fleet Street district decades ago, a key step in the exodus of newspaper offices from central London."
] | [
"The move comes amid a scandal around the defunct News of the World .",
"Staff of the Sun, Times and Sunday Times will move to another east London site ."
] | [
1,
2
] |
[
"(CNN) -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton designated an India-based militant group as a foreign terrorist organization Thursday.",
"It is the Indian Mujahideen, which has \"close ties to other U.S.- designated terrorist entities.\"",
"They include Pakistan-based Lashkar e-Tayyiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Harakat ul-Jihad-i-Islami.",
"The State Department said in a statement the group's goal \"is to carry out terrorist actions against non-Muslims in furtherance of its ultimate objective -- an Islamic Caliphate across South Asia. \"",
"In 2008, the group \"was responsible for 16 synchronized bomb blasts in crowded urban centers and a local hospital that killed 38 and injured more than 100 in Ahmedabad,\" the State Department said.",
"It \"played a facilitative role\" in the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 163 people.",
"It also carried out the 2010 bombing of a bakery in Pune, India, killing 17 people.",
"U.S. entities and people are prohibited from \"providing material support or resources to, or engaging in other transactions\" with the group.",
"Another result of the designation is the \"freezing of all property and interests in property of the organization that are in the United States, or come within the United States, or the control of U.S. persons.\""
] | [
"The Indian Mujahideen has close links to Pakistani militant groups .",
"The group has carried out a flurry of attacks in recent years ."
] | [
1,
6
] |
[
"(CNN) -- All 21 people aboard a military plane that went missing off Chile's Pacific coast, near the Juan Fernandez islands, are dead, Defense Minister Andres Allamand said Saturday.",
"According to preliminary information, the passengers died instantly on impact, according to Allamand.",
"At least four bodies were found earlier Saturday, one day after the plane went missing.",
"Two of the bodies recovered were female and two were male, government spokesman Andres Chadwick told reporters.",
"The four bodies were flown to the capital, Santiago, where authorities identified the victims.",
"An emergency beacon originally believed to be from the plane was also found Saturday, but is now thought to have belonged to a fishing boat, CNN Chile reported.",
"Gen. Maximiliano Larraechea, secretary general of the air force, earlier told Chile's state-run broadcaster TVN that one of the plane's locator devices had been found.",
"TVN quoted him as saying he was almost certain the plane had crashed because of the number of items recovered.",
"The plane tried to land twice before losing contact, Allamand told reporters Friday.",
"Chile's TVN Executive Director Mauro Valdes said five of the passengers were employees of the television station, including Felipe Camiroaga, a well-known and popular TV personality.",
"The country's president, Sebastian Pinera, vowed to investigate the circumstances of the crash.",
"\"This is a tough blow to our country, but it is precisely these moments of anguish and uncertainty that require the unity and solidarity of all Chileans,\" CNN Chile reported the president said Friday.",
"CNN's Mariano Castillo and Umaro Djau contributed to this report."
] | [
"NEW: Four bodies -- two male and two female -- are identified in Santiago, an official says .",
"The passengers likely died instantly on impact, the defense minister says .",
"The plane disappeared near the Juan Fernandez islands Friday .",
"Felipe Camiroaga, a popular TV personality, was among the passengers ."
] | [
0,
1,
3,
4,
9
] |
[
"(CNN) -- Manchester United has announced a record operating profit of £110.9 million ($176 million) for last season, cementing its position as the world's richest football club.",
"The English Premier League champions also reported that its turnover for the year had increased by almost $73 million to $536 million, as it considers a plan to raise a further $1 billion on the Singapore Stock Exchange to reduce its considerable debt burden.",
"United's net debt stands at $498.7 million, in part due to the money the U.S.-based Glazer family had to raise to buy the club for $1.2 billion in 2005.",
"The deal effectively left the club with a huge mortgage and crippling interest payments -- believed to be around $72 million a year, according to British media reports.",
"Blog: Football's financial folly .",
"But a hugely successful year on and off the pitch has helped to alleviate the pressure.",
"On the pitch, they won their 19th Premier League title -- another record -- and were beaten finalists in the lucrative Champions League, Europe's top club competition.",
"The club also scored off the pitch with a series of high-profile commercial deals, including the first year of their $129 million shirt sponsorship agreement with the Aon Corporation and a $64 million deal with logistics company DHL to sponsor their training kit.",
"United top Forbes' football rich list .",
"However, the club's financial strategy is increasingly focused on Asia, where it has an estimated 190 million supporters -- helped in no small part by the proliferation of English Premier League broadcast rights across the region in recent years.",
"As a result, United's owners favor Singapore for the initial public offering (IPO) to cash in on this enormous fan base, though Britain's Guardian newspaper reported that they will pursue a dual-share structure, whereby investors will have to purchase one \"non-voting\" share for every voting share.",
"This will allow the Glazers to raise funds while retaining control of the club they de-listed from the London Stock Exchange six years ago.",
"Earlier this month, the club announced a three-year partnership with a Vietnamese mobile telecoms company.",
"According to United's official website, Beeline will distribute a range of content, from on the pitch action, to news and interviews, to the club's estimated 16 million fans in Vietnam.",
"\"Everyone knows about the passion of our fans in that part of the world and this deal makes it a lot easier for us to keep in touch with them,\" said United manager Alex Ferguson."
] | [
"Manchester United's turnover increases by almost $73 million to $536 million .",
"EPL club considering plan to raise $1 billion on the Singapore Stock Exchange .",
"United's net debt stands at $498.7 million despite recent commercial successes .",
"They won the Premier League last year and were finalists in the Champions League ."
] | [
1,
2
] |
[
"(CNN) -- The Egyptian cabinet is scheduled to meet Tuesday to discuss an agreement between political groups and the ruling military council on election policies, the status of the country's unpopular emergency law and other issues.",
"Some activists said the agreement doesn't go far enough to meet the demands of the popular uprising that led to the end of country's longstanding regime, while other political groups said the agreement represented progress.",
"The agreement, reached Saturday, includes promises to open more Egyptian parliament seats to political parties and consider canceling the country's emergency law.",
"The agreement also includes a promise to consider abolishing military tribunals and to consider adopting a 1952 law that opposition groups hope would prevent former President Hosni Mubarak's National Democratic Party from having a role in national politics for up to 10 years.",
"Also included are plans to draft a document to guide the creation of a new constitution and a call for presidential elections following a national referendum on adopting the new ruling document.",
"The coalition of parties had also sought an agreement to hold presidential elections immediately after parliamentary voting scheduled for November, as well as a promise to hand control to a civilian government next year.",
"The deal failed to go far enough, said Mona Seif, a founding member of the No to Military Tribunals movement, who called the decision by a majority of party representatives little more than \"treachery.\"",
"\"These parties were fooled if they think they accomplished something,\" said Seif, who called for renewed protests against the military council.",
"The agreement comes amid rising dissatisfaction with the council, which took control in February after widespread popular demonstrations forced Mubarak to step aside.",
"Following an attack on the Israeli embassy in Giza this month, the council reinstated the widely unpopular emergency law that many in the opposition felt was used by Mubarak to suppress dissent.",
"Despite the concerns, the agreement is a \"positive step toward true democracy,\" said Esam El Erian, the spokesman for the Freedom and Justice Party and a leading figure in the Muslim Brotherhood.",
"\"Yes, abolishing the emergency law was a main demand of the January 25th revolution and the council promised to abolish it, but the reality on the ground is that there are many forces debating including former members of the regime that come in different faces.\"",
"El Erian said.",
"Military leaders plan more meetings with political parties to iron out more differences, said Major Alaa Iraqi, a spokesman for the Supreme Council.",
"\"Pleasing everyone is impossible,\" Iraqi said."
] | [
"An agreement between military council and parties doesn't go far enough, one critic says .",
"Another party official says it is a \"positive step toward true democracy\"\nThe agreement opens more Egyptian parliament seats to parties .",
"It also includes a promise to consider dropping the unpopular emergency law ."
] | [
0,
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10
] |
[
"(CNN) -- Outsider Danedream won Europe's most prestigious horse race the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp Sunday in a record time.",
"Danedream gave Germany only their second win in the race to lead an unusual one-two-three for fillies for the first time since 1983.",
"The 27-1 shot came home five lengths clear of Shareta, whose stablemate and favorite Sarafina never threatened, with Epsom and Irish Oaks winner Snow Fairy in third.",
"Danedream's time of two minutes 24.49 seconds for the 2,400m underlined the fast ground at the course in Paris, breaking a record held by Peintre Celebre since 1997.",
"Her owner breeder Japanese Teruya Yoshida brought the horse for just 9,000 euros ($12,000) as a two-year-old, a remarkably small sum for a future Group One winner.",
"Christiane is Head of the field .",
"\"I don't believe it, she's the best horse I've ever trained,\" Danedream's trainer Peter Schiergen told AFP.",
"He added: \"She is a small filly with a big, big heart and there's no better race to win.",
"This is a really big day for German racing.\"",
"Jockey Andrasch Starke said: \"I was just dreaming in the last two furlongs, that was a great performance.\"",
"She is now set to go to the Breeders Cup in the United States to see if the performance can be repeated.",
"Last year's winner Workforce was never in the reckoning, appearing not to relish the fast ground and was 12th of the 16-runner field while last year's runner-up Nakayama Festa was 11th."
] | [
"German outsider Danedream wins Prx de l' Arc de Triomphe at Longchamps .",
"Danedream sets record time for 2,400m race under jockey Andrasch Starke .",
"Trainer Peter Schiergen targets Breeders Cup for three-year-old filly .",
"Danedream cost owner only $12,000 when brought as two-year-old ."
] | [
0,
4
] |
[
"(CNN) -- An ultralight aircraft became entangled in a Ferris wheel, but neither its two occupants nor two frightened children on the ride were injured, Australian authorities said Saturday.",
"CNN affiliate Nine News showed footage of the bizarre scene -- a Cheetah S200 dangling nearly 40 feet from the ground at a fair in Old Bar, on the seaside in New South Wales.",
"New South Wales Police said investigators are looking into the mishap.",
"The pilot, 53, and his passenger, 32, were retrieved by crews using a crane, as were a boy, 9, and girl, 13.",
"The children were trapped on the ride for more than an hour, police said.",
"The two men had to wait a little longer.",
"Resident Gary Jones told Nine News his 9-year-old twin boys got off the Ferris wheel just seconds before the plane hit."
] | [
"Four people are rescued in New South Wales, Australia .",
"Pilot, passenger and two riders were stuck on the ride until rescue .",
"Investigators are looking into the incident ."
] | [
2,
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] |
[
"(CNN) -- Basketball superstar Kobe Bryant is in talks with Virtus Bologna over a move to the Italian team as the NBA lockout continues.",
"Los Angeles Lakers' shooting guard Bryant, a five-time NBA champion, would be a massive draw if he opted to play for Bologna, who issued a joint statement Monday to confirm the negotiations.",
"\"Virtus Bologna and the management of Mr. Bryant are working very intensely to try and create this important deal,\" read the statement on the website of the 15-time Italian champions.",
"\"Reaching such a complex deal requires both sides' maximum attention for every little detail.",
"\"Everyone wants a positive outcome to the deal, the goal of which is Kobe Bryant's presence in Italy, economic interests for the 17 clubs in Serie A and more attention for all of Italian basketball.\"",
"Bryant, named the NBA's most valuable player in 2008, spent seven years in Italy as a child, when his father Joe Bryant played in the country's Lega Basket Serie A between 1984 and 1991.",
"The NBA has been in a state of lockout since July, as a dispute between the players association and the teams over the league's collective bargaining agreement rumbles on.",
"The collective bargaining agreement is a contract between players and franchises which outlines how NBA stars should be paid.",
"The current dispute is over the average salary which should be earned by players over the term of their contracts.",
"Talks were held over the weekend in an attempt to resolve the ongoing disagreement, but after little progress was made discussions were extended into Monday.",
"NBA training camps were also due to begin Monday, but they have been canceled as talks over a new labor agreement continue."
] | [
"Kobe Bryant in talks over a move to Italian team Virtus Bologna .",
"The NBA has been in a state of lockout since July .",
"The lockout is over the collective bargaining agreement between the teams and players .",
"Bryant's father Joe played in Italy for seven years ."
] | [
0,
6
] |
[
"Istanbul, Turkey (CNN) -- Turkish companies are reeling from a recent Syrian government decision to ban the import of products that have a customs tax of more than 5%.",
"Meanwhile, the Turkish government is considering whether or not to slap punitive policies, such as possible economic sanctions, against its eastern neighbor and former close political ally.",
"The Syrian government announced on September 22 that it would suspend imports of high-tariff goods.",
"Last week, Syria's minister of economy and trade described the partial import ban as \"temporary and precautionary.\"",
"According to the Syrian state news agency SANA, Mohammad Nidal al-Shaar said the ban was aimed at preserving dwindling foreign currency reserves.",
"According to a list published by the Turkish Ministry of Economy, the products Syria has banned include mobile phones, contact lens fluid, and vehicles ranging from passenger buses and vans to ambulances and trucks used for construction.",
"Turkish businessmen fear the move could dramatically affect trade between the two neighbors.",
"According to Turkish government statistics, bilateral trade between Turkey and Syria more than tripled between 2006 and 2010, as Damascus and Ankara signed a free trade agreement and removed visa requirements for each others' citizens.",
"\"There is fear,\" said Ibrahim Eminoglu, an official involved in foreign trade at the Chamber of Commerce in Antakya, a Turkish province bordering Syria.",
"\"Companies are calling us and asking about it.",
"... For example, we have a client who was going to sell car batteries [in Syria]; now he is not sure if he should go ahead and make the deal.\"",
"\"There will be some impact on cosmetics, construction, packing sectors and refined petroleum products,\" said Murat Akyuz, chairman of the Mining and Metals Exporters' Association in Istanbul.",
"\"We will try to compensate [the loss] with other markets.\"",
"The anti-government uprising that erupted in Syria last March, and the subsequent brutal government crackdown that has resulted in the deaths of more than 2,700 people, severely damaged close political ties between the Syrian and Turkish governments.",
"Turkish government officials have repeatedly criticized bloody Syrian military operations against opposition protesters.",
"In recent months, Turkey has hosted meetings for political groups opposed to the Syrian government.",
"The Turks have also been feeding more than 10,000 Syrian refugees, who have been housed in tent cities after they fled across the border to escape Syrian security forces.",
"On Sunday, a Turkish government official told CNN that Ankara was weighing possible further steps against the Damascus regime.",
"\"We are considering taking some steps, but we're not there yet,\" the Turkish official said, on condition of anonymity.",
"For days, the Turkish media has been writing about the possible imposition of punitive economic sanctions against Syria, including the freezing of government assets.",
"So far, no sanctions have been adopted.",
"Some Turkish industrial leaders fear further deterioration of political relations could hamper Turkey's access to lucrative Middle Eastern markets.",
"\"Syria is the only door in land transportation to the rest of the Middle East for transit trade to other countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Dubai,\" said Eminoglu, of the Antakya Chamber of Commerce.",
"\"We have been looking into alternative routes in case there is a need for it, such as sending containers by ship.\"",
"Meanwhile, there are signs the import ban is unpopular within the Syrian business community, which experts say has largely avoided picking sides throughout the six-month-long uprising.",
"In an article published in Gulf News last week, Syrian journalist Sami Moubayed warned the import ban would \"drive a permanent wedge between the Syrian government and the business community.\"",
"Moubayed wrote that many Syrian companies are already struggling because of U.S. and European sanctions that curtail trade and banking transactions.",
"\"The present legislation will drive many heavyweights out of business who made fortunes lately through importing foreign consumer products,\" Moubayed wrote.",
"\"Now they feel that the regime is no longer on their side.\""
] | [
"Turkish government considering economic sanctions against neighbor Syria .",
"Last month, Syria banned imports that have high tariffs .",
"Turkish businessmen fear the move could harm trade .",
"Syria protests and government crackdown have damaged political ties with Turkey ."
] | [
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13
] |
[
"Jerusalem (CNN) -- Police stepped up security in northern Israel Monday after a fire at a mosque overnight in an apparent revenge attack.",
"Suspects set the mosque in the village of Tuba-Zangariyye on fire and left graffiti on its walls, police said.",
"The smell of smoke filled the area in the morning hours, said Sheik Fuad Shehade, the mosque's imam.",
"He arrived to find the building burned, with charred copies of the Koran inside.",
"After the overnight attack, around 200 residents from the village gathered on the outskirts and started marching towards the neighboring Israeli town of Rosh Pina, an Israeli police spokesman said.",
"Residents blocked the road, hurled rocks at police and burned tires, police said.",
"The police responded by firing tear gas.",
"Words written on the mosque's walls said \"price tag,\" \"revenge\" and \"Palmer.\"",
"Asher Palmer and his year-old son were killed 10 days ago when rocks thrown at their car near the city of Hebron caused it to turn over and crash, authorities said.",
"\"Price tag\" attack is a term frequently used by radical Israeli settlers to denote reprisal attacks against Palestinians in response to moves by the Israeli government to evacuate illegal West Bank outposts.",
"Lately \"price tag\" attacks have also targeted Israeli military forces and police stationed in the West Bank.",
"It is rare for them to carry out attacks inside Israel.",
"Kamal Khatib of the Islamic Movement in northern Israel said the mosque attack showed the extremist atmosphere in the country.",
"The burning of the mosque and the graffiti indicate that \"Jewish hands\" were behind the attack, he said.",
"Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office condemned the attack.",
"\"The prime minister was furious when he saw the pictures and said that the attack contradicts the values of the state of Israel.",
"Freedom of religion and freedom of worship are supreme values,\" said a statement released by the office.",
"Netanyahu said \"the pictures are shocking and have no place in Israel,\" according to the statement.",
"Israeli parliamentarian Ahmed Tibi urged both sides not to get drawn into violence, which is what extremists want.",
"\"The answer at the moment is to rebuild the mosque,\" he said.",
"Israeli police have set up an investigation team and collected evidence in the area, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said."
] | [
"The mosque's imam says he arrived to find the building burned .",
"Attackers left graffiti on the wall, including the word \"revenge\"\nIsraeli prime minister says the atack contradicts Israel's values .",
"Residents and police clash after the attack ."
] | [
3,
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[
"(CNN) -- The Orange County, Florida, Sheriff's Office spent $293,123.77 on detective work in the disappearance of 2-year-old Caylee Anthony in 2008, according to authorities, and it wants to be reimbursed.",
"The sheriff's office is among three law agencies asking a county judge in Orlando to order the girl's mother, Casey, to pay their investigative costs.",
"A court hearing on that request was set to take place Thursday, but it was rescheduled to September 2, court spokeswoman Karen Levey said Wednesday.",
"Anthony has been in seclusion since her July acquittal on murder charges in the 2008 death of her 2-year-old daughter and her subsequent release from jail.",
"But in the same case, a Florida jury convicted her on four misdemeanor counts of providing false information to law enforcement officers.",
"Prosecutors cite those misdemeanor convictions as the legal basis for their request that Anthony pay for the police costs involved in her daughter's disappearance.",
"Caylee Anthony's skeletonized remains were found in December 2008 in woods less than a mile from her grandparents' Florida home.",
"Lt. Paul Zambouros of the Orange County Sheriff's Office said the investigative costs of $293,123.77 are based largely on the criminal investigation division's work between July 15, 2008, and December 11, 2008.",
"If other deputies' work were included, \"the reimbursement for cost of investigation would certainly be larger,\" Zambouros said in an internal July 28 memo.",
"Prosecutors are also seeking reimbursement for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's investigative expenses of $71,939.56 and the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation's expenses of $10,645.38, according to court records.",
"Anthony's attorney didn't return calls for a comment."
] | [
"NEW: A court hearing on whether to bill Casey Anthony is rescheduled to September 2 .",
"The sheriff's office spent $293,123 investigating Caylee Anthony's disappearance .",
"That figure counts only detective work; the cost of other deputies' work isn't included .",
"Prosecutors want Casey Anthony to pay the cost and those of other law agencies ."
] | [
0,
1,
8
] |
[
"(Financial Times) -- The global manufacturing sector is in the worst shape since the summer of 2009 as slowing economic growth and the deepening eurozone crisis take their toll on the world's factories.",
"Purchasing managers' index surveys released on Monday indicated global manufacturing activity weakened slightly last month to the lowest level since June 2009, when the world economy was emerging from recession.",
"However, the fortunes of manufacturers diverged depending on their location: conditions deteriorated in Asia and the eurozone but picked up slightly in the US and UK.",
"The JP Morgan PMI of global manufacturing fell slightly from 50.2 in August to 49.9 in September.",
"Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit, which compiles the PMI surveys, said: \"Generally, the conditions in global manufacturing are getting worse, with the eurozone seeing the steepest deterioration [and] increasing signs of weakness in Asia\".",
"The surveys come as politicians and central bankers race to resolve the eurozone sovereign debt crisis amid fears that uncertainty about the region's fate is hampering the global economic recovery.",
"Manufacturing activity in the US rose slightly faster than economists expected, according to the Institute for Supply Management survey, lifting hopes that the world's biggest economy can avoid slipping back into recession.",
"Carmakers in the US reported strong sales for September, as consumers replaced old vehicles, credit conditions eased and the supply of Japanese vehicles recovered.",
"Activity also rose slightly in the UK, confounding economists' expectations that the sector would shrink.",
"In both the US and the UK, rising production coincided with a drop in backlogs of work, which economists said suggested the pace of expansion might not be sustainable.",
"In the eurozone, the manufacturing sector shrank for the second month in a row, with new orders falling at their fastest pace since June 2009.",
"Economists at Barclays Capital said this was \"consistent with a deepening industrial recession\".",
"German manufacturers were the strongest in the region while those in Greece, Spain and Ireland suffered most.",
"PMI surveys in Asia showed a fourth successive monthly fall in activity in Taiwan, while manufacturing in India slowed to its weakest level for two and a half years.",
"Conditions also worsened in Japan.",
"Official PMI figures for China, published at the weekend by the National Bureau of Statistics, showed a slight improvement in activity.",
"Manufacturers continued to hire more people in the US, Germany, Japan and several other countries, while there were job losses in China, the UK and India, among others.",
"© The Financial Times Limited 2011 ."
] | [
"The global manufacturing sector is in the worst shape since summer 2009 .",
"This is due to slowing economic growth and the deepening eurozone crisis .",
"Conditions deteriorated in Asia and the eurozone but picked up slightly in the US and UK ."
] | [
0,
2
] |
[
"Between Bani Walid And Misrata, Libya (CNN) -- Ousted Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has been surrounded and has no way of leaving the area, Anees al-Sharif, a spokesman for the Tripoli Military Council, told CNN on Wednesday.",
"He said that he could not comment on where Gadhafi is, but that rebel fighters were closing in.",
"The Tripoli council is part of the rebel coalition known as the National Transitional Council.",
"Abdallah Kenshil, chief negotiator for the NTC, said he could confirm that two of Gadhafi's sons, Saif al-Islam and Mutassim, had been seen in Bani Walid.",
"U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Tuesday that officials believe Gadhafi is on the run.",
"\"I don't have any information as to exactly where he's located,\" he said.",
"Pro-Gadhafi and Syria-based al-Rai TV aired a message purportedly from Gadhafi.",
"\"NATO will be defeated by force because its financial ability is not enough to proceed with the shelling,\" said the speaker, insisting he is in Libya and will not leave.",
"\"They claimed I left to Niger so they can weaken you and destroy your morale,\" the man said, adding such reports were \"lies.\"",
"Two Libyan convoys passed through Niger this week, officials in that country said.",
"The U.S. State Department said it viewed the two sets of vehicles as parts of a single convoy -- and that Gadhafi is not believed to be on it.",
"Kenshil told CNN on Wednesday that the rebel fighters had started advancing on Bani Walid, one of the last Gadhafi loyalist strongholds, Wednesday night but did not give further information.",
"Earlier Wednesday, trucks armed with anti-aircraft guns and rocket launchers pulled into a forward operating base 30 kilometers (18½ miles) southwest of the Libyan coastal city of Misrata.",
"The fighting force known as the Victory Unit was back from its patrol of the desert landscape separating the Gadhafi stronghold of Bani Walid and rebel city of Misrata.",
"The 70-kilometer (43½-mile) buffer zone has been quiet for the past two weeks as a cease-fire was declared while tribal leaders from Bani Walid and representatives from the National Transitional Council negotiate the city's surrender.",
"\"We don't want more bloodshed,\" said Antar Al Birra, the commander of the Victory Unit.",
"\"Too many people have died, so we hope the negotiations will be successful.\"",
"Al Birra's forces are battle-hardened from months of heavy fighting, and with Gadhafi's forces against the ropes, he says the battle to take the city will be short.",
"\"If we are ordered to take the city, it won't take us long, maybe two or three hours,\" Al Birra said.",
"Many soldiers on the front hope for a peaceful solution.",
"But as Saturday's deadline looms, many are anxious as hope begins to fade that one will be reached.",
"\"Negotiations have completely failed,\" said Shamsaddin Ben Ali, a spokesman for the NTC.",
"\"We won't agree to their demands.\"",
"These demands include rebel forces entering the city unarmed, rebels refraining from searching houses and, the most contentious, a full pardon for the people of Bani Walid.",
"\"We won't grant amnesty because there are people with blood on their hands, and we want them to face a trial,\" Ben Ali said.",
"\"I predict fighting to resume on Saturday.\"",
"If rebel forces are given the green light to attack, the assault from the east will be led by Cmdr.",
"Khalil Al Shibly.",
"Al Shibly waits for the order from the NTC to attack Bani Walid but, like his soldiers, he hopes for a negotiated settlement.",
"He says three other towns between Misrata and Sirte have laid down their weapons through negotiations and welcomed revolutionary forces.",
"He believes Bani Walid will eventually do the same but says those who agree to a settlement in the city face retaliation by hard-core Gadhafi loyalists.",
"One such town -- Waddan, 400 kilometers (249 miles) south of Misrata, which also controls Sirte's last link to the outside world -- also tried to join the revolution but is now facing resistance.",
"\"Waddan is currently being shelled by Gadhafi's forces,\" Al Shibly said.",
"\"The town rose up and joined the revolution but is now under attack from the nearby city of Hun.\"",
"CNN can't independently verify these claims.",
"Al Shibly has another concern for when Bani Walid is taken, either peacefully or by force.",
"He is afraid that some Gadhafi loyalists will stage a resistance, and if those fighters are killed in an ensuing battle, their tribes will try to seek revenge, leading to a tribal war.",
"To avoid a potential tribal war, Al Shibly says the negotiators from the NTC have tribal links to the cities they are dealing with, but adds they still must proceed with caution.",
"\"It is really important that we find a peaceful solution to the remaining towns,\" Al Shibly said.",
"\"If they don't, I'm afraid the country could see some form of tribal war.\"",
"CNN's Kareem Khadder contributed to this report."
] | [
"NEW: Message attributed to Gadhafi says NATO will be defeated .",
"Tripoli Military Council spokesman won't say where Gadhafi is .",
"NTC negotiator says two Gadhafi sons have been seen in Bani Walid .",
"Rebel fighters moving toward loyalist city, negotiator says ."
] | [
1,
3,
22,
30
] |
[
"(CNN) -- The defense is expected to lay out its case Wednesday in the trial of Joshua Komisarjevsky, who is accused in the July 2007 home invasion, sexual assault and murders of three members of a Connecticut family.",
"If convicted, Komisarjevsky, 31, could face the death penalty.",
"Prosecutors say Komisarjevsky is one of two men who broke into the home of Dr. William Petit and raped and killed Petit's wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48, and her two daughters, Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11, before setting fire to the home.",
"Komisarjevsky, faces 17 charges in connection with the brutal home invasion.",
"The first defendant to stand trial in the case, Steven Hayes, was sentenced to death in December 2010 after being convicted on 16 of the 17 charges filed against him.",
"Earlier in the Komisarjevsky trial, Dr. Petit, the lone survivor of the attack, testified that he was awakened after being hit by a baseball bat.",
"He said his hands and feet were tied, and a cloth was thrown over his head.",
"He was then tied to a pole in the family's basement, but could hear \"loud thuds\" and \"moaning,\" likely from his wife.",
"Shortly before hearing his wife, Petit was told by one of the intruders, \"Don't worry.",
"It'll all be over in a few minutes.\" Petit said that's when he knew \"I had to get out.\"",
"Petit managed to escape but could not summon help in time to save his family.",
"The two daughters, who were both tied to their beds, died of smoke inhalation.",
"Hawke-Petit died of strangulation.",
"In his opening statement defense attorney Walter Bansley told jurors that his client never intended to kill anyone and that his sole purpose in breaking into the Petit home was to steal.",
"Bansley said Komisarjevsky did not have a weapon.",
"He told jurors that in order to convict his client of capital murder, they must determine he intended to kill someone.",
"It was Hayes, Bansley said, who raped and strangled Hawke-Petit, poured gasoline in the house and lit a match.",
"Komisarjevsky was a willing participant in the break-in and theft but not the murders, according to Bansley.",
"Hayes thought that the Petits needed to be killed, Bansley claimed, but Komisarjevsky refused to kill anyone.",
"In Session's Sunny Hostin and CNN's Deborah Feyerick contributed to this report."
] | [
"The defense for Joshua Komisarjevsky is set to begin its case .",
"If convicted, Komisarjevsky could face the death penalty .",
"Three members of the Petit family were killed in Connecticut in July 2007 .",
"Komisarjevsky's alleged partner in crime, Steven Hayes, was sentenced to death in December 2010 ."
] | [
0,
1,
4
] |
[
"(CNN) -- Pakistan needs to do more to implement safeguards that would control a fertilizer that is being used in explosive devices in Afghanistan, according to an American lawmaker who recently visited the country.",
"\"Basically what we're waiting for is for the Pakistani government to implement the strategy that they've said they're going to implement when we were in Pakistan in August, meeting with all the highest-level officials,\" said Sen. Robert Casey, D-Pennsylvania.",
"\"Unfortunately we're into October now, and I haven't seen any action in the month of September.\"",
"He said the strategy should include restricting who has access to the fertilizer; tracking it, perhaps with the use of dye; and interdicting it at the border with Afghanistan.",
"According to the U.S. military's Joint IED Defeat Organization, 84% of improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan are made from fertilizer produced in Pakistan, and IEDs are the No.1 killer of American forces in Afghanistan, responsible for more than 400 deaths in the past two years.",
"But a Pakistani official disputed Casey's criticism, saying authorities are moving as fast as they can on the problem, and that it has to be a joint effort on both sides of the border.",
"The official, who declined to be identified, also said that out of the tons of the fertilizer produced, it is difficult to track down the small amounts placed into IEDs.",
"The fertilizer, calcium ammonium nitrate, is processed into small off-white pellets and is shipped in huge sacks.",
"The same ingredient was used by Timothy McVeigh in the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995.",
"While it has been banned in Afghanistan since 2009, it is legally produced in Pakistan and is widely used there for farming.",
"Calcium ammonium nitrate is \"suitable for all crops, all seasons, soils and locations,\" according to manufacturer PakArab, whose website says they are the only firm in Pakistan that produces it.",
"A year ago, Afghan Border Police said they stopped a convoy in which three of the trucks were smuggling 50 tons of the fertilizer -- enough to make more than 2,100 IEDs, they said.",
"\"It's an extremely porous border,\" said Seth Jones at the RAND Corp., who was in Afghanistan last month.",
"\"There's not enough time in a day, with a long line of vehicles, to stop every single vehicle and check it.\"",
"Jones said militants in Afghanistan are managing to smuggle IED ingredients up the Helmand River Valley to make roadside bombs targeting U.S. Marines operating in southern Afghanistan, as well as through areas like the Khyber Pass to target U.S. Army forces in the east.",
"The American pressure on Pakistan to act comes at a time when cooperation between the two countries is already under heavy strain -- most recently, after the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, said the militant Haqqani network \"acts as a veritable arm of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency.\"",
"Pakistani officials have vigorously denied the accusation.",
"But Casey said that he would not be put off, as long as American soldiers are being injured and killed.",
"\"Go to Walter Reed, and see those 19-year-old kids with half of their leg blown off -- or in many instances, having died this way,\" he said.",
"\"That's just inexcusable, when we have the resources, the technology, and the know-how, to slow this down or to stop it in some way.\""
] | [
"Pakistan needs to put safeguards in place, says U.S. Sen. Robert Casey .",
"U.S. military: 84% of Afghan IEDs are made from fertilizer made in Pakistan .",
"Pakistani official says joint effort on both sides of the border is needed .",
"\"It's an extremely porous border,\" says RAND Corp. official ."
] | [
4,
5,
12
] |
[
"(CNN) -- During the recent Republican presidential debate, the issue of vaccinating girls against human papillomavirus, or HPV, came up several times, and some statements have been made that may concern parents of children scheduled to receive the vaccine.",
"The statements questioned the safety of HPV vaccines and the rationale for the recommendations for their use from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians.",
"HPV vaccines have the promise of improving the lives of both women and men.",
"The recommendations for use of the vaccine are based on scientific data, including safety studies, which indicate that the benefits of HPV vaccines far outweigh any of the known risks.",
"The safety record of these vaccines is excellent.",
"After five years and more than 35 million doses of HPV vaccines given, all of the available scientific evidence shows that HPV vaccines are safe and effective, and that the current recommendations will result in the best opportunity to prevent HPV infection and its consequences.",
"HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection.",
"Studies show that 50% to 70% of women will develop an HPV infection during their sexually active lives and that infection occurs soon after they become sexually active.",
"Although most infections resolve over six to 24 months, some persist and can lead to cancer.",
"Certain types of HPV are responsible for almost all cases of cervical cancer, other cancers of the anal and genital areas and a significant percentage of oropharyngeal cancers in men and women.",
"Other HPV types cause genital warts.",
"In the United States, each year about 12,000 cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed, and nearly 4,000 women die of complications of cervical cancer.",
"HPV vaccines are an important scientific breakthrough.",
"They prevent infection with the HPV types most commonly associated with the development of cancer and therefore are expected to reduce significantly the number of cases of HPV-related cancer in women and men.",
"Two HPV vaccines are available in the United States.",
"The first, Gardasil, was licensed by the Food and Drug Administration in 2006 for girls 9 through 26 years of age to prevent cervical cancer and genital warts.",
"In 2009, the license was extended to include boys 9 through 26.",
"More recent data show Gardasil also prevents other genital cancers in women and anal cancer in both women and men.",
"The second HPV vaccine, Cervarix, licensed in 2009 for women 10 through 25 years of age, targets the prevention of cervical and related genital cancers.",
"Both vaccines were studied extensively before the FDA licensed them.",
"The rationale for the recommendation to immunize at 11 through 12 is that the vaccine will be most effective if given before a person becomes sexually active.",
"Protection is expected to last for many years.",
"\"Catch-up\" vaccinations to age 26 are also important.",
"Even though some persons in this age group already will have been infected with one or more of the HPV types in the vaccine, the vaccine will protect them against the HPV types in the vaccine to which they remain susceptible.",
"By the time the FDA licenses a vaccine, common side effects are known; evaluation for adverse health effects is an important requirement of the clinical trials that lead to licensure.",
"No serious safety concerns were detected during the clinical trials of either of the two HPV vaccines.",
"After a vaccine is licensed, a number of systems are in place in the United States to monitor vaccine safety.",
"These include the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, a passive reporting system that can detect early-warning signals about possible new vaccine adverse effects, and the CDC's Vaccine Safety Datalink project, which provides a database for planned immunization safety studies of possible adverse effects arising from review of those reporting system reports and medical literature.",
"But investigation of reports to VAERS since both HPV vaccines were licensed has suggested that rare serious allergic reactions (including anaphylaxis) and fainting spells, which can occur after any immunization, can also occur after HPV vaccine.",
"Vaccine providers, particularly when vaccinating adolescents, should consider observing patients (with patients seated or lying down) for 15 minutes after vaccination to decrease the risk for injury should they faint.",
"A recent study was conducted in CDC's Vaccine Safety Datalink among females 9-26 years of age who received HPV vaccine (Gardasil).",
"The study found no statistically significant increased risk for any of outcomes studied after vaccination.",
"Studies on HPV vaccine safety will continue and reports of any rare event occurring after receipt of HPV vaccine will be reviewed.)",
"And the Institute of Medicine, part of the United States National Academy of Sciences, recently reviewed reported vaccine-related, adverse events and did not find that data supported a causal relationship of HPV vaccine to any neurologic condition.",
"Parents have a great opportunity today to reduce the risk of HPV-related cancers in their children.",
"Parents who have concerns about HPV vaccine and some of the statements made about safety should ask their children's doctors for information.",
"The CDC has a website that provides accurate, up-to-date information about the safety and effectiveness of HPV vaccines.",
"Parents would do well to use trusted and reliable resources when making the important decision to protect their children from HPV infection and HPV-related cancers.",
"The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Joseph Bocchini."
] | [
"Joseph Bocchini notes issue of HPV vaccine safety coming up in recent GOP debates .",
"He says CDC, others say vaccine helps prevent HPV, which can lead to cancers .",
"He says vaccine has been widely tested and is safe with side effects rare .",
"Bocchini: Parents should listen to reliable information in deciding to vaccinate their kids ."
] | [
23,
36,
37
] |
[
"Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- A stay of execution for a man scheduled to die by lethal injection Wednesday evening in Georgia has been upheld by the state's Supreme Court.",
"On Tuesday, a lower court delayed the execution of Marcus Ray Johnson, 46, after new evidence in the case surfaced.",
"Johnson's lawyers had filed an emergency motion requesting a new trial and time to conduct DNA testing after evidence was recently produced by police in Albany, Georgia.",
"Dougherty County Superior Court Judge Willie Lockette granted the stay, and set a hearing scheduled for February 1, 2012, on Johnson's motion for additional testing.",
"The Georgia Supreme Court agreed with the lower court in an unanimous ruling.",
"Johnson was convicted and sentenced to death for the March 1994 rape and murder of Angela Sizemore in Albany, Georgia.",
"Human rights group Amnesty International praised the stay, based on doubt raised about Johnson's guilt and the emergence of evidence that had not yet been analyzed.",
"\"Amnesty International hopes that this is a sign that there is greater concern in Georgia about the fallibility of the death penalty, especially on the heels of the outrageous and unnecessary execution of Troy Davis.\"",
"Georgia inmate Troy Davis died by lethal injection two weeks ago in a contentious case that traveled up to the U.S. Supreme Court.",
"Davis' supporters argued that his conviction for the 1989 murder of Mark MacPhail, an off-duty Savannah police officer, was based on the testimony of numerous witnesses who had recanted, including a jailhouse informer who claimed Davis had confessed.",
"CNN's Vivian Kuo contributed to this report."
] | [
"Marcus Ray Johnson had been scheduled for execution in Georgia Wednesday evening .",
"A judge issued a stay of execution on Tuesday based on new evidence .",
"The Georgia Supreme Court upheld the stay, and Johnson will have a hearing in February ."
] | [
0,
1
] |
[
"(CNN) -- Prince Harry -- Capt.",
"Harry Wales, to his mates -- is coming to the U.S. Southwest this week to begin a two-month series of training exercises for British attack helicopter pilots.",
"The Apache crews will train at Naval Air Facility El Centro in California, about 90 miles east of San Diego, officials said.",
"The prince, 27, also will be training at the Gila Bend Air Force Auxiliary Field in southern Arizona.",
"It's part of a two-month series of maneuvers dubbed Exercise Crimson Eagle, in which British fliers will practice with the Apaches in terrain similar to southern Afghanistan, where some British troops are currently based.",
"Officials stress that Harry is coming as a serviceman, not as a potential heir to the throne.",
"\"We are treating him like any other O3 (junior grade officer),\" said Kristopher Haugh, deputy public affairs officer at the El Centro facility.",
"Still, it's possible that the prince, like others who train in the area, may frequent area clubs, restaurants, theaters or bowling alleys.",
"The El Centro Chamber of Commerce has asked businesses and restaurants to treat Harry with respect and safeguard his privacy.",
"The prince may also be drawn to outdoor diversions.",
"According to Cathy Kennerson, chief executive officer of the Chamber, the area is known for off-roading, hiking, birdwatching and the Salton Sea, also in the agriculture-rich Imperial Valley.",
"Residents of the city of 42,000 will take the visit in stride, Kennerson said.",
"\"They just want to put their best foot forward.\"",
"Harry is the younger son of Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, and the late Princess Diana.",
"He served on the front line in Afghanistan as a forward air controller and saw combat, but was withdrawn in February 2008 after news of his deployment broke.",
"Harry's brother, Prince William, is also an army officer.",
"But as second in line for the throne, he is specifically barred from combat.",
"According to the Telegraph in London, Harry intends to return to Afghanistan next year after he completes his training.",
"He has been told by flying instructors he has a \"natural flair\" for flying, the newspaper reported this summer."
] | [
"Prince Harry joins British military exercises in California and Arizona .",
"As \"Captain Wales,\" he is flying Apache helicopter gunships .",
"He saw combat in Afghanistan in late 2007 and early 2008 ."
] | [
13,
14
] |
[
"(CNN) -- A federal judge determined Monday that the man accused of killing six in an Arizona shooting rampage is \"getting better,\" further ruling that the suspect should continue to take anti-psychotic medications as his appeal works its way through the courts.",
"U.S. District Court Judge Larry Burns said in a motion issued Monday that there was a \"substantial probability\" that Jared Lee Loughner will be restored to competency and be able to stand trial for his role in a mass shooting in January outside a Tucson supermarket.",
"He refused to alter Loughner's current mental health treatment plan, pointing to his observations that the suspect has improved in recent months.",
"\"There is overwhelming evidence that the defendant is getting better, not the least of which is the noticeable improvement in his appearance, demeanor and behavior since he was last in court,\" the judge said in his six-page order.",
"Burns is based in Southern California, but is overseeing the case in part because one of the shooter's victims was Arizona-based federal Judge John Roll.",
"Loughner, 23, may face the death penalty if convicted in a shooting that also left 13 wounded, among them his purported target, U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.",
"She has been undergoing intensive rehabilitation in Arizona and Texas since being shot in the head.",
"The suspect has been diagnosed as schizophrenic and has spent time on suicide watch while in custody and undergoing treatment at a federal hospital in Springfield, Missouri.",
"In May, a federal appeals court cleared the way for him to be forcibly medicated, over the objections of Loughner and his attorney.",
"A hearing five days ago addressed those objections.",
"During it, both the judge and mental health experts noted that Loughner was able to sit calmly during the hours-long proceeding, court sources said.",
"He had been removed from a courtroom in May after an outburst, reported CNN affiliate KGUN.",
"Prosecutors have written in court documents that Loughner has expressed \"regret for the circumstances that led to his arrest.\"",
"When he was asked whether he thought about harming himself, he said, \"I want to die.",
"Give me the injection.",
"Kill me now,\" the documents said.",
"The defense team argues the state has failed to prove Loughner's condition will improve enough for him to stand trial.",
"Several mental health experts testified at last Wednesday's hearing, including Loughner's \"daily, treating psychologist\" Dr. Christina Pietz and an outside expert psychiatrist, Dr. James Ballenger.",
"Based in large part on their assessment of the suspect's improvement under his current medical regimen -- including the prescribed medications -- Burns decided it was best not to change Loughner's treatment.",
"\"The testimony of (Pietz and Ballenger) established the likelihood and substantial probability that the defendant will continue to get better and can be restored to competency to stand trial in four months time,\" the judge wrote."
] | [
"Federal Judge Larry Burns says Jared Lee Loughner is \"getting better\"\nThe suspect in an Arizona mass shooting was forced to take anti-psychotic drugs .",
"His lawyers argued that doing so was unconstitutional .",
"The judge rules Loughner's treatment will continue, saying it's likely he can stand trial ."
] | [
0,
1
] |
[
"Washington (CNN) -- The man named one month ago to head the troubled Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives announced Wednesday he is dramatically shaking up the agency, which he readily acknowledged has been damaged by a controversial gun-trafficking operation.",
"Acting Director Todd Jones said after 30 days of studying ATF issues and staff he is instigating a major shuffle of ATF personnel but is not yet firing anyone.",
"Jones vowed a thorough internal review of \"all investigative processes.\"",
"Jones announced 11 high-level changes, including naming as his deputy Thomas Brandon who has overseen the Phoenix office for the past six months following bitter internal controversy over a gun operation there.",
"\"These have been difficult times for everyone in ATF because of a case in a division,\" Jones told reporters.",
"He then quickly confirmed he was talking about the controversial \"Operation Fast and Furious\" in ATF's Phoenix Division, which featured ATF agents allowing illegally purchased firearms to \"walk\" from Arizona gun stores across the Mexican border and into the hands of drug cartels.",
"The plan was to trail the weapons to the cartels, but thousands of firearms were lost in the process.",
"Jones also said he understood trust has been damaged within ATF and said it would take time to heal.",
"\"We're going to have to rebuild trust,\" he said, referring to the reputation of ATF from its own agents and from other law enforcement agencies.",
"The issue blew up in December 2010, when Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was murdered, and two guns at the crime scene were part of the \"Fast and Furious\" operation.\"",
"The continuing debate over who approved the operation and how soon top Justice Department officials knew of it is fueled in part by partisan politics.",
"Some Republicans are clamoring for a special counsel to investigate whether Attorney General Eric Holder or any of his top political aides knew of the operation early on, and could have stopped it.",
"Read up on Holder's alleged role in the operation .",
"Some Democrats, meanwhile, point to a similar \"gun-walking\" operation run out of the Phoenix Division's sub-office in Tucson that began in 2006 under the Bush administration called Operation Wide Receiver.",
"Some of the defendants in that case are still being prosecuted.",
"Jones said he was confident there were no other operations which involved cases of \"guns walking.\"",
"Jones sought to stay above the political fray.",
"\"I'm a political appointee, but I'm not a politician,\" Jones told a dozen reporters at ATF headquarters in Washington.",
"Jones insisted he had no view on the Republican-led congressional investigation.",
"He lumped the two Arizona cases together and said the ATF now has a \"heightened awareness of the tactic allowing gun-walking.\"",
"Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa and the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, released a statement after Jones' announcement saying, \"The reassignments are positive, especially in the case of Tom Brandon who I hope can help lead this agency out of its troubles.",
"\"But, I caution that rearranging the chairs on the deck, won't make Fast and Furious go away.\"",
"Grassley said he also questioned the timing of the announcement.",
"\"There is a lot of effort at the Justice Department to spin the fact that the Attorney General was less than candid before the House Judiciary Committee, and what better way to make that go away than a bureaucratic shuffle,\" Grassley said in the statement .",
"Jones was named to the position by Holder 30 days ago, when former Acting Director Ken Melson, under fire, was ousted and given a job as an adviser at the Justice Department.",
"Jones said he plans to continue to wear two hats.",
"He heads the ATF while also serving as U.S. attorney for Minnesota.",
"He expressed confidence he can manage his time to serve in both capacities.",
"The acting director sidestepped political issues but was clear in his caution to Congress not to slash the ATF budget because of the current controversy.",
"\"I hope that does not happen.",
"We'll be smart about what we ask for,\" he said.",
"Jones said he intended to refocus the ATF on its core mission of fighting violent crime and protecting the American public.",
"He repeatedly said he would await the outcome of the ongoing congressional investigation of \"Fast and Furious,\" as well as the inspector general's investigation before deciding whom to hold accountable.",
"\"What went wrong?",
"I don't know what went wrong,\" Jones said.",
"\"We'll have to wait for those reports.\""
] | [
"ATF is laboring under the cloud of \"Operation Fast and Furious\"\nFirearms from the U.S. wound up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels .",
"The acting director concedes \"these have been difficult times for everyone in ATF\"\nHe announces a major shake-up, with 11 high-level changes ."
] | [
4,
5
] |
[
"Los Angeles (CNN) -- Coroner's investigator Elissa Fleak returned to the stand in the eighth day of the trial of Michael Jackson's doctor Thursday morning to continue her testimony about what she found in searches of the pop icon's bedroom.",
"The pathologist who conducted the autopsy on Michael Jackson and ruled his death a homicide could testify later Thursday or Friday in the involuntary manslaughter trial of Dr. Conrad Murray.",
"Jurors should also soon hear the two-hour interview Murray gave to police two days after Jackson's June 25, 2009, death of what the coroner concluded was the result of \"acute propofol intoxication\" in combination with sedatives.",
"Los Angeles Police Det.",
"Orlando Martinez, who questioned Murray, is expected to testify Thursday or Friday that Murray told him he had been administering propofol to Jackson regularly for two months to help him sleep.",
"Deputy District Attorney David Walgren covered a table with drug vials and medical paraphernalia taken in Fleak's searches, a visual display of Murray's in-home treatment of Jackson.",
"Fleak identified a saline bag that was cut open and an empty 100 milliliter propofol bottle inside.",
"The prosecution alleges Murray used it as a makeshift IV drip to administer propofol to Jackson.",
"The defense contends Murray gave Jackson just 25 milliliters of the surgical anesthetic and used a syringe to push it in.",
"Twelve bottles of propofol were found in the bedroom during her first search the day Jackson died, including an empty vial found on the floor next to the bed, Fleak said.",
"Seven bottles of medications were on a nightstand next to the bed, including one with lorazepam pills prescribed by Murray to Jackson.",
"Murray's defense lawyers say Jackson caused his own death by swallowing eight lorazepam pills and orally ingesting propofol while Murray was out of the room.",
"Although crucial to prove that Murray is criminally responsible for the pop icon's death, Thursday's forensic testimony is not likely to match Wednesday's emotional drama when jurors heard Jackson's slurred voice telling his doctor \"I hurt, you know, I hurt.\"",
"A photograph of Jackson lying dead on a hospital gurney was later projected onto a large screen in the courtroom, a vivid reminder to jurors of why they will listen to a least a month of testimony.",
"While the court camera feed focused on the disturbing image for just five seconds -- the result of an earlier decision to minimize public exposure to such shocking images -- it was displayed on a large screen in front of the jury for about two minutes.",
"Forensic computer expert Stephen Marx, who found the Jackson audio file on Murray's iPhone, said it was recorded on May 10, 2009, when Jackson was preparing for his \"This Is It\" concerts set for London two months later.",
"Prosecutors, who played a clip of the stunning audio in their opening statement last week, let the jury hear the entire recording in Murray's involuntary manslaughter trial Wednesday.",
"\"Elvis didn't do it. Beatles didn't do it. We have to be phenomenal,\" Jackson said.",
"\"When people leave this show, when people leave my show, I want them to say, 'I've never seen nothing like this in my life.",
"Go. Go. I've never seen nothing like this.",
"Go. It's amazing. He's the greatest entertainer in the world.'",
"I'm taking that money, a million children, children's hospital, the biggest in the world, Michael Jackson Children's Hospital.",
"Going to have a movie theater, game room.\"",
"In the portion never before heard in court, Jackson talked about his life and concern for children: .",
"\"Children are depressed.",
"The -- in those hospitals, no game room, no movie theater.",
"They're sick because they're depressed.",
"Their mind is depressing them.",
"I want to give them that. I care about them, them angels.",
"God wants me to do it. God wants me to do it. I'm going to do it, Conrad.\"",
"Another voice, which the prosecutor said was Murray's, is heard saying, \"I know you would.\"",
"\"Don't have enough hope, no more hope,\" Jackson said.",
"\"That's the next generation that's going to save our planet, starting with -- we'll talk about it.",
"United States, Europe, Prague, my babies.",
"They walk around with no mother.",
"They drop them off, they leave -- a psychological degradation of that.",
"They reach out to me: 'Please take me with you.'\"",
"At the end, Jackson said he was \"going to do that for them.\"",
"\"That will be remembered more than my performances.",
"My performances will be up there helping my children and always be my dream.",
"I love them. I love them because I didn't have a childhood.",
"I had no childhood. I feel their pain. I feel their hurt. I can deal with it. 'Heal the World,' 'We Are the World,' 'Will You Be There,' 'The Lost Children.'",
"These are the songs I've written because I hurt, you know, I hurt.\"",
"At the end, Jackson told the doctor, \"I am asleep.\"",
"His brother Jermaine Jackson wiped tears from his eyes as he listened in court.",
"Prosecutor Walgren said in his opening statement that Jackson was \"highly under the influences of unknown agents\" when Murray recorded Jackson.",
"Another recording found on Murray's phone and played in court Wednesday was a voice mail from Frank Dileo, who was Jackson's last manager.",
"Dileo's message to Murray, left five days before Jackson's death, suggested that he \"get a blood test\" from Jackson because \"we've got to see what he's doing.\"",
"He referred to \"an episode\" Jackson had at a rehearsal the night before.",
"\"He's sick,\" Dileo said.",
"Concert producer Kenny Ortega testified about Jackson's illness in the first day of the trial, which he wrote about in an e-mail sent about the same time Dileo was leaving his phone message.",
"\"He appeared quite week (sic) and fatigued this evening,\" Ortega wrote.",
"\"He had a terrible case of the chills, was trembling, rambling and obsessing.",
"Everything in me says he should be psychologically evaluated.\"",
"Murray's iPhone also contained e-mail attachments that appeared to be Jackson's medical records sent by Murray's office assistant to the doctor, who was gathering them for a British insurance agent who was arranging cancellation insurance for Jackson's London concerts.",
"The insurers were concerned about news reports that Jackson was seen \"at various times using a wheelchair\" and that he suffered a back injury, lupus, emphysema and cancer, according to an e-mail from the agent to the doctor.",
"Jackson refused to authorize the release of his medical records to the insurance company, Murray wrote back, but he added concerning the news reports of illnesses, \"let me say they're all fallicious (sic) to the best of my knowledge.\"",
"One record shown in court, kept under the alias \"Omar Arnold,\" indicated that in September 2008, Murray diagnosed Jackson with insomnia and anxiety.",
"It showed he treated him with valium and Xanax.",
"Files from the phone suggest Murray was dealing with the insurance agent's request around the same time he said he was struggling to help Jackson go to sleep with sedatives.",
"The prosecution wants to show jurors that Murray was distracted by a long list of phone calls and e-mails, causing him to neglect Jackson, who stopped breathing and died.",
"Prosecutors argue that Murray, who was Jackson's personal doctor as he prepared for planned comeback concerts, is criminally responsible for the singer's death because of medical negligence and his reckless use of the propofol to help Jackson sleep.",
"If convicted of involuntary manslaughter, Murray could spend four years in a California prison and lose his medical license."
] | [
"Dr. Conrad Murray's police interview to be played in court .",
"The doctor who did Jackson's autopsy should testify soon .",
"Jurors hear Jackson's voice telling doctor, \"I hurt\"\n\"I didn't have a childhood,\" Jackson says in drugged recording ."
] | [
1,
3,
12,
40,
46,
53
] |
[
"(CNN) -- If Pakistan prosecutes one of the men who helped the CIA hunt down Osama bin Laden, what does it say about the state of relations between Washington and Islamabad?",
"Nothing good, according to national security experts contacted by CNN.",
"New questions are being raised about strained ties between the United States and Pakistan in the wake of a Pakistani commission's recommendation of treason charges this week against a Pakistani doctor who helped U.S. intelligence officials track bin Laden to a compound in Abbottabad.",
"Abbottabad is a largely military community on the outskirts of Islamabad.",
"\"A case of conspiracy against the state of Pakistan and high treason is made\" against Dr. Shakeel Afridi, the information ministry declared, summarizing the commission's investigation into the death of the al Qaeda leader.",
"The recommendation is nonbinding.",
"It remains to be seen whether the government will act on it.",
"Afridi allegedly helped the CIA use a vaccination campaign to try to collect DNA samples from people who lived in bin Laden's compound.",
"The goal of the effort was to acquire DNA evidence from bin Laden family members, according to The Guardian, a British newspaper.",
"The vaccination campaign, a senior U.S. official told CNN, occurred shortly before U.S. forces raided the compound and killed bin Laden on May 2.",
"Pakistani officials insist they were unaware of bin Laden's location, and have expressed anger over President Barack Obama's decision to move ahead with the raid without consulting them.",
"Incidents such as the bin Laden raid and continued U.S. drone strikes within Pakistan's borders have also raised questions of U.S. violations of Pakistani sovereignty.",
"Several analysts also have noted lingering Pakistani anger over the case of Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor and U.S. citizen charged with killing two men in January in Pakistan.",
"Davis was released in March after compensation was paid to the victims' families.",
"For their part, U.S. officials have expressed concern over the alleged infiltration of Pakistan's intelligence services by Islamic extremists, as well as growing anti-American sentiment in Pakistan, among other things.",
"They've also expressed concern about Afridi being jailed without charges.",
"\"This was one small piece of a very large intelligence effort,\" the U.S. official said.",
"\"People need to put this into some perspective.\"",
"The recommendation is \"a short-sighted move to gain leverage by the Pakistanis in a troubled U.S.-Pakistan relationship,\" said Fran Townsend, a former national security official in George W. Bush's administration.",
"\"They're obviously angry at the U.S. for the bin Laden raid, and this is just another way they can express their anger.\"",
"\"Each time one side does something to insult the other ... it undermines the ability to rebuild trust between the two sides,\" Townsend said.",
"\"Every public move (such as the recommended treason charge) makes the private ability to negotiate a path forward harder.\"",
"Michael Rubin, a national security analyst at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, called the continuing uproar over the bin Laden raid the latest \"in a long line of reasons for Pakistan being angry at the United States.\"",
"\"Never have we had an ally with whom we've agreed on so little over such a long period of time,\" Rubin told CNN, noting U.S.-Pakistani ties dating back to the Eisenhower era.",
"\"The bin Laden raid was simply the icing on the cake.\"",
"But \"any doubt Pakistan wasn't knee deep in the bin Laden mess has now been put to rest,\" Rubin argued.",
"\"The fact that they're prosecuting the doctor shows that given a choice between the United States and al Qaeda, Pakistan would rather be an ally with the latter,\" he said.",
"Some analysts, however, draw parallels between Pakistan's possible decision to prosecute Afridi for treason and an earlier U.S. decision to prosecute former U.S. Navy intelligence official Jonathan Pollard on the same charge.",
"Pollard was caught spying for Israel -- a close U.S. ally -- in 1985.",
"He was ultimately sentenced to life imprisonment.",
"\"Pakistan has a pretty legitimate\" case, said Peter Bergen, a national security expert and director of the New America Foundation, a non-partisan Washington think tank.",
"\"It doesn't really matter how valid the goal is.",
"That doesn't change the fact that you're spying for a foreign intelligence service.\"",
"Why, Bergen asked, \"should Pakistan somehow not play by the same rules that a lot of countries play by?\"",
"Bergen called the recent Davis case \"seismically important\" in Pakistan.",
"It \"seemed to confirm a widely held view in Pakistan that a bunch of people working for CIA are wandering around their country.\"",
"\"That's the context in which (the recommendation of treason charges) is happening,\" he said.",
"Is there anything the U.S. government can do to help Afridi?",
"\"The U.S. finds itself with very little leverage\" in this case because Afridi is a Pakistani national, Townsend said, drawing a contrast to Davis' situation.",
"A solution can be found, she argued, but \"I expect the Pakistanis will exact some price for this.\"",
"It's possible, Bergen said, that Afridi \"may just become a bargaining chip at some point.\"",
"Regardless of the circumstances, U.S. policymakers have an obligation to do what they can to help Afridi, Rubin asserted.",
"\"It's not just about this man. It's about signaling we'll protect anyone who comes forward to assist our fight against terrorism,\" Rubin said.",
"\"Bin Laden is dead, but there's always going to be a new bin Laden out there.",
"We'll always need help like this doctor provided.\"",
"CNN's Pam Benson and Reza Sayah and journalists Nasir Habib and Shaan A. Khan contributed to this report ."
] | [
"Pakistan may charge a doctor with treason for helping U.S. officials find Osama bin Laden .",
"Case creates new strains in already troubled U.S.-Pakistan relationship, analysts say .",
"The United States may have little ability to help the doctor ."
] | [
2,
9,
34,
44
] |
[
"Washington (CNN) -- As anti-Wall Street protests continued across the country, several hundred people gathered Thursday in the nation's capital in a scheduled anti-war demonstration that also adopted new overtones in decrying economic disparities.",
"Demonstrators first congregated in the shadow of Congress, at its height filling about half of Washington's Freedom Plaza, which is about the size of a city block.",
"Many carried placards and listened to speeches from activists railing against inequality, corporate greed, as well as the American-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.",
"The protest came a day before America marks the 10th anniversary of the start of the Afghanistan conflict, and a day after the release of a Pew Research Center survey in which American veterans expressed ambivalence about both wars.",
"Half of the 712 who have served since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks said they felt the Afghanistan war was worth it, while 44% made the same assessment about the Iraq conflict.",
"This aspect of the poll had a margin of error of 5.7 percentage points.",
"Yet military conflict was just one of the topics addressed Thursday.",
"Others focused on economics, in the same spirit of demonstrations that have cropped up in more than a dozen U.S. cities.",
"The hub of the \"Occupy Wall Street\" movement fittingly has been in New York City, with many rallying and camping out there and elsewhere to protest on a wide range of mostly economic issues.",
"The Washington protesters, for one, spelled out the number \"99\" with a human chain that seemed to loop around Freedom Plaza.",
"It is a reference to the group's claim that 99% of Americans are underrepresented in the country's current political and financial systems, while the other 1% of the population wields too much influence.",
"By late afternoon, part of the group broke off and headed toward the U.S. Chamber of Commerce building.",
"There, in front of a two-story banner in front of the building that reads \"JOBS: Brought to you by American free enterprise,\" the demonstrators chanted, \"Where are the jobs?\"",
"Speaking at a news conference earlier Thursday, President Barack Obama said demonstrators -- in Washington, as well as those in New York and other cities nationwide -- \"are giving voice to a more broad-based frustration about how our financial system works.\"",
"But Obama also defended the country's financial sector, saying, \"We have to have a strong, effective financial sector in order for us to grow.\"",
"Thursday's demonstration is not the first in Washington about economic matters.",
"A day earlier, several hundred union and progressive activists sought to capitalize on the growing \"Occupy Wall Street\" protests with a Capitol Hill rally demanding new public spending on job creation and an end to federal budget cuts.",
"The event, led by former White House clean energy adviser Van Jones, highlighted growing liberal frustration with a public policy agenda increasingly dominated by deficit reduction efforts and difficulty in implementing more traditional economic stimulus measures as well as revenue increases.",
"CNN's Eric Fiegel and Lesa Jansen contributed to this report."
] | [
"Demonstrators in Freedom Plaza protest against U.S.-led wars .",
"Protesters also blame Wall Street for economic inequality .",
"Some rally in front of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce building ."
] | [
1,
2,
11
] |
[
"New York (CNN) -- A federal judge has ordered that an official monitor be put in place to prevent discrimination in the hiring of New York City firefighters.",
"U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis said the city needs \"to comprehensively reassess its policies and practices, to analyze the evidence showing the effect of those policies and practices, and to rationally consider how they can be changed to achieve a firefighter hiring process that is -- in actual practice and effect -- fair and open to all.\"",
"The order requires the city to take remedial steps to fix discriminatory hiring practices and puts the court monitor in place for at least the next 10 years to make sure those steps are taken.",
"Garaufis cited \"the clear evidence of disparate impact that Mayor (Michael) Bloomberg and his senior leadership chose to ignore was obvious to anyone else who looked.\"",
"\"Instead of facing hard facts and asking hard questions about the City's abysmal track record of hiring black and Hispanic firefighters, the Bloomberg Administration dug in and fought back,\" the judge said in his ruling.",
"Mark LaVorgna, a spokesman for the mayor, said the city intends to appeal the decision.",
"Litigation against the city's firefighter hiring practices began in 2007, when the U.S. Department of Justice filed a complaint alleging the Fire Department of New York's hiring exams negatively affected black and Hispanic applicants.",
"\"Four years of litigation and two adverse liability rulings later, the City still doesn't get it,\" Garaufis said.",
"\"The City's senior leaders have routinely denied that they are responsible or doing anything to remedy nearly forty years of discrimination.\"",
"Bloomberg strongly disagreed with the decision.",
"\"I think it's fair to say no previous administration has done more or been as successful in attracting the diversity to the FDNY than we have,\" the mayor told reporters Wednesday, \"and I couldn't feel more strongly about it.\"",
"Bloomberg said 61,000 people, more than half of them minorities, applied to the fire department in the last recruiting campaign, \"shattering any previous record for minority applicants.\"",
"Garaufis acknowledged that the city has improved its minority recruiting, but he said the subsequent hiring processes and \"discriminatory testing procedures\" have kept many of these minorities from actually being hired.",
"Paul Washington, a representative of the Vulcan Society, one of the plaintiffs in the case, praised the decision.",
"\"We're very pleased to see this order and it's certainly long overdue,\" Washington said.",
"\"We're glad to see the judge properly addressing this issue.\"",
"Details of the court-appointed monitoring, as well as logistics for a future fairness hearing in which third parties will be able to express their opinions, is scheduled for October 20, said Darius Charney, an attorney for the plaintiffs."
] | [
"Official monitor will oversee FDNY hiring practices, federal judge rules .",
"Monitoring will be in place for at least 10 years, Judge Nicholas Garaufis says .",
"Mayor Michael Bloomberg defends his record for improving minority recruiting .",
"However, Garaufis says testing and hiring procedures are discriminatory ."
] | [
0,
2,
3
] |
[
"(CNN) -- For most designers, good design is neither just a well-functioning object nor a good-looking object, but rather both.",
"I say both, as the simultaneity is crucial so that function and appearance support each other and, when done well, in a sense become indistinguishable.",
"In designing products, we consider these two attributes -- along with other factors such as budget, material capability and consumer response -- and add them to the mixture that constitutes design.",
"What Steve Jobs did was to add yet another element: innovative marketing.",
"Have you ever been in an Apple Store that isn't packed with people \"just browsing?\"",
"They are there to soak up whatever Apple is and does.",
"Who would ever have thought that bulky, wooden Parsons tables would be enough?",
"But you can bet on one thing: Jobs did not go to market research groups to find the answer.",
"He knew that all each store would need, beyond its terrific merchandise, were bare essentials.",
"Think about it: He didn't need flashing neon, he didn't need hip tunes blaring so that you couldn't hear each other, he didn't need wild colors or expensive materials.",
"He simply needed a clean space with a sales force of people, each wearing an Apple T-shirt.",
"I gasp whenever I see, in a newspaper or magazine, a new restaurant where the designer has opted for outrage in his or her need to be the next cutting-edge idea, forgetting that the customer might just want a good place to eat with friends.",
"I imagine that Jobs would not have had a hand in that type of scenario.",
"He might simply have said, \"It's not that difficult.",
"After all, it's just about dinner.\" Share your memories of Steve Jobs .",
"Designers often neglect the essence of innovation when they are overwhelmed with the requirements of the product they are designing.",
"The Apple Store design, the product design, the hardware design and software design all come down to innovation -- something not tried before.",
"I am reminded of an apocryphal story about Pablo Picasso.",
"Two frumpy ladies were standing in front of a cubist portrait of Gertrude Stein, or at least the label said \"Gertrude Stein.\"",
"One woman turned to her friend and said, \"It doesn't look like Gertrude Stein.\"",
"Whereupon Picasso, who happened to be standing behind them, said in a prophetic tone, \"It will.\"",
"In a commencement address to Stanford University graduates that's been widely televised since his death, Jobs revealed something about himself that I, too, have felt intensely since I suffered paralysis.",
"Of course, being aware that his illness would limit his time, he said that he wanted every day to be spent making a contribution.",
"One imagines that Jobs, given how much he loved doing what he did, wanted to leave this world exhausted from his passion for his life's work, for that's all that would give him rest.",
"The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Michael Graves."
] | [
"Designer Michael Graves says Steve Jobs added innovation to the designer's tool kit .",
"He says Jobs recognized clean, well-staffed stores were all that was needed to show products .",
"Jobs was aware illness would limit his time, wanted each day to make a contribution, he says .",
"Graves: Jobs wanted to leave this world exhausted from his passion for his life's work ."
] | [
3,
22,
23
] |
[
"(CNN) -- The battle over the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would stretch 1,700 miles through six states, from Alberta, Canada, across the U.S. heartland, and into Texas to Gulf Coast refineries, is intensifying.",
"The final congressional hearing on the $7 billion project is scheduled for October 7 in Washington.",
"And the State Department, which has to sign off on the deal because of the international scope of the project, has said a decision is expected before the end of the year.",
"Environmental groups are furious about the pipeline, which would carry at least 700,000 barrels of tar sands oil a day to U.S. refineries, and the plan to run it through sensitive environmental areas.",
"During a two-week protest in front of the White House more than 1,200 people were arrested, including actress Daryl Hannah and leading NASA climate scientist James Hansen.",
"Veteran activist Bill McKibben, with the group Tar Sands Action, was the main organizer of the civil disobedience campaign or sit-in, which ended this weekend.",
"The group wanted to send a message to President Barack Obama because the project also needs a presidential permit to move ahead.",
"\"There are two basic problems here.",
"One they want to run a 1,700-mile pipe and they're going to run it through some of the most sensitive land in this country: The Ogallala Aquifer (which provides drinking water for 20 million people) in the middle of the country,\" McKibben said.",
"McKibben thinks the second problem may be the bigger issue.",
"\"Even if you can get all that oil to Texas without spilling it, what you've done is open up a huge pipeline into the second-largest pool of carbon on Earth, after the Saudi oil fields.\"",
"He quotes leading scientists as saying if oil companies tap this huge pool of tar sands in a big way, \"it is essentially game over for the climate.\"",
"The oil industry disputes this.",
"And the State Department concluded in a final environmental review on August 26 that the pipeline would have no significant impact.",
"\"There would be no significant impacts to most resources along the proposed pipeline corridor,\" Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs Assistant Secretary Kerri-Ann Jones told reporters on August 27.",
"A spokeswoman for the American Petroleum Institute, Sabrina Fang, says TransCanada is going to develop the pipeline, whether the U.S. is involved or not and that China is poised to get involved in exporting the oil if the U.S. doesn't.",
"Fang says she thinks the protesters are really protesting against jobs.",
"She points to the flat Labor Department jobs report for August and the nation's 9.1% unemployment rate last month.",
"\"This pipeline can create 20,000 jobs, almost immediately.",
"So we are very much for this pipeline.",
"We think it's great for the American economy 'cause it will create jobs and it's also good for energy security.\"",
"Later this month McKibben says more civil disobedience actions are planned in Canada on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.",
"He also says they're planning another big protest in Washington on October 7, the day of the final hearing.",
"The pipeline would draw from oil sands deposits in Canada and pass through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas, with construction on an existing pipeline in Kansas.",
"It is estimated to cost $7 billion."
] | [
"Environmental groups say dangerous pipeline would go through sensitive land .",
"It would bring oil from Canada's tar sands to Texas .",
"2-week sit-in in front of White House ended this weekend .",
"State Department says it will decide by end of the year ."
] | [
3,
5,
23
] |
[
"(CNN) -- Kenyan police have detained a suspect in connection with the killing of a British tourist and the kidnapping of his wife, police spokesman Charles Owino told CNN Tuesday.",
"The attack happened at a remote safari lodge on the coast, near the border with Somalia.",
"About 12:30 a.m. Sunday, bandits attacked the couple, who were staying at Kiwayu Safari Village, a tourist resort on Kiwayu Island in Kiyunga division of Lamu west district on the coast, Kenyan police said.",
"During the attack, David Tebbut was shot dead and his wife, Judith Tebbut, was abducted, police said.",
"The couple had arrived at the hotel Saturday afternoon after spending a week in the Masai Mara game reserve in southwestern Kenya.",
"They were the sole guests in the hotel, which has cloth doors.",
"\"From what we can be able to gather, he resisted, and that's why he was shot dead,\" Kenyan Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere said Sunday.",
"\"Maybe they wanted to take the two, but he resisted and that's why he was shot dead.\"",
"Iteere said the motive was not known.",
"\"We are treating it just as a bandit attack,\" he said.",
"A travel website lists rates at the 18-cottage resort as beginning at $400 per night.",
"A maritime security source aware of the situation said Sunday that Islamic militants probably took Judith Tebbut by boat toward Ras Kamboni in Somalia.",
"From CNN's Divina Mims ."
] | [
"Police say a suspect linked to the killing of a British tourist was detained .",
"The dead man's wife was kidnapped .",
"The attack happened Sunday at a remote safari lodge ."
] | [
0,
1
] |
[
"Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The U.S.-led war in Afghanistan marked its 10th year Friday having passed two major milestones: The Taliban has been forced out of power and Osama bin Laden is dead.",
"But there was little observance by U.S. troops in Afghanistan, where a month earlier many participated in commemorations to mark the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.",
"\"We really celebrated the 10th anniversary of 9/11, and we were out here in Afghanistan,\" Marine Corps Maj. Gen. John Toolan Jr., commanding general of ISAF troops in southern Afghanistan, told reporters during a briefing on Thursday.",
"\"I think that to us it was a far more significant date than 10 years of fighting in Afghanistan because, really, when you look at the 10 years, you're looking at different levels of forces, different levels of attention given to Afghanistan.\"",
"The U.S.-led war in Afghanistan began October 7, 2011, with an air campaign that was followed within weeks by a ground invasion.",
"President Barack Obama has called it \"the longest-running war in the nation's history\".",
"The aim was to oust the Taliban and dismantle al Qaeda's leadership, though the leaders of both groups -- Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden -- managed to escape capture.",
"Bin Laden was killed in May during a raid by U.S. commandos on his hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan.",
"The whereabouts of Mullah Omar is unknown, and he has not been seen in public in years.",
"As the United States turned its attention toward Iraq, insurgent violence in Afghanistan flared against Afghan civilians and security forces as well as the U.S. and its coalition partners.",
"More than 2,700 troops from the United States and its partners have died during the 10 years of war, according to a CNN count.",
"Of those, 1,780 were American, 382 were British and 157 were Canadian.",
"Since the conflict began, the number of casualties has risen by the year, with a significant jump from 2008 to 2009.",
"At least 296 coalition troops died in 2008.",
"It nearly doubled in 2009 when 517 coalition troops were killed.",
"That year, President Barack Obama authorized a surge of 33,000 U.S. forces to Afghanistan to combat the violence.",
"Two years later, the United States outlined its plan to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan, beginning with pulling the 33,000 surge troops by the end of 2012 and the remaining 68,000 by the end of 2014.",
"The move was followed by withdrawal announcements by most of the NATO nations.",
"On Thursday, defense ministers from the 49 nations that make up the International Security Assistance Force pledged their support to Afghanistan even as they make plans to withdraw troops by 2014.",
"\"Let there be no mistake: transition is not departure.",
"We will not take our leave when the Afghans take the lead,\" NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told reporters Thursday in Brussels, Belgium.",
"The ministers are scheduled to meet again in May in Chicago where Rasmussen said they will \"need to decide what more we will do.\"",
"While NATO has insisted that the transition of security for the country to Afghan forces is conditions-based rather than calendar-driven, the clock is ticking on the withdrawal deadline.",
"The planned withdrawal has raised a number of questions about the stability of Afghanistan, which has been hit by a wave of high-profile attacks in recent months that have jeopardized the peace negotiations.",
"Last month's turban bomb assassination of former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani, revered by many as a father of the Mujahideen movement that ousted the Soviets in the 1980s, appears to have dealt the biggest blow to the peace process.",
"Rabbani was the chairman of President Hamid Karzai's High Council for Peace, which has been trying for a year to foster dialogue with the Taliban -- a strategy that Karzai publicly abandoned following Rabbani's killing.",
"The war in Afghanistan, once viewed by a majority of Americans as a must, has become widely unpopular as concerns have shifted to the economy and job losses.",
"In a new Pew Research Center report on war and sacrifice released this week, half of post-9/11 veterans said the Afghanistan war has been worth fighting.",
"Only 44% felt that way about Iraq, and one-third said both wars were worth the costs.",
"Robert Messel is among those veterans who question the war.",
"Messel, who was a freshman in college and a ROTC student on September 11, 2001, said he remembers thinking that the war in Afghanistan would be over before he joined the Army.",
"But as the war continued, Messel said he began to have mixed feelings.",
"\"I joined to defend the country, and I feel that a lot of the things we were doing were not exactly that,\" he said in a CNN iReport.",
"\"In my opinion, it basically should have been limited to what we initially were going in to do: Hunt down bin Laden and the architects of the attacks.\"",
"Messel said it is very difficult to look back objectively on the experience.",
"\"You lost friends and made sacrifices.",
"You don't want to ever think that everything that happened was in vain,\" he said.",
"But Asmatullah Kohistani has a different perspective on the war, which he says gave his family back their home and their livelihoods.",
"He was 13 when he and his family fled their home in Afghanistan's Kapisa province amid a civil war that would see the Taliban take control of the country.",
"Driven out by bombardments and fighting, his family crossed into Pakistan, making their home in Islamabad.",
"Kohistani, 28, said \"everything changed\" after the Taliban were forced from power.",
"Kohistani, who worked for a U.S. business for two years upon his return to Afghanistan, founded media startup Afghan123.com last year.",
"\"(E)veryone can have a job and go to school (now), and I can have my business,\" he said in a CNN iReport."
] | [
"The U.S.-led war in Afghanistan began October 7, 2001, with an air campaign .",
"More than 2,700 NATO troops have died during the war, according to a CNN count .",
"Of those killed, 1,780 are American, 382 are British and 157 are Canadian, according to the count .",
"The U.S. and most NATO nations have announced plans to withdraw troops from Afghanistan by 2014 ."
] | [
4,
10,
11
] |
[
"(CNN) -- Reigning world and Olympic champion Usain Bolt has eased his way through the 100m heats on the first day of the IAAF World Championships in Daegu, South Korea.",
"The Jamaican sprinter, who broke his own 100m world record at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin with a time of 9.58 seconds, won his heat in 10.10 seconds to advance to Sunday's semifinals.",
"\"I feel great.",
"I did well. People are going to say what they want but I'll focus on what I want.",
"Nobody has broken my world record,\" Bolt said, AFP reported.",
"\"I've worked during the season.",
"I've worked it out so that's why it looked so easy -- focus and exercise.",
"I was really happy because I worked hard all season.",
"I finally got it right,\" Bolt added, AFP reported.",
"Bolt's compatriots Nesta Carter, Michael Frater and Yohan Blake are also safely through to the semifinals as are the United States trio of Justin Gatlin, Trell Kimmons and Walter Dix.",
"Meanwhile, Kenya's female distance runners had a day to savour as they scooped all six medals on offer on the opening day of the championships.",
"Edna Kiplagat took gold in the marathon with a time of two hours 28 minutes 43 seconds beating compatriots Priscah Jeptoo and Sharon Cherop who finished second and third respectively.",
"Vivian Cheruiyot claimed Kenya's second gold of the day in the 10,000m winning in a time of 30 minutes 48.98 seconds.",
"Fellow countrywoman Sally Kipyego crossed the line in second, while 2009 champion Linet Masai came in third to cap a memorable day.",
"\"It's absolutely fantastic.",
"It's a wonderful day for Kenyans and for the entire country.",
"Cheruiyot said, AFP reported.",
"But it was a day of despair for reigning Olympic champions Australia's Steve Hooker and Britain's Christine Ohuruogu.",
"Defending pole vault champion, Hooker failed to register a single vault in three attempts at the modest height of 5.50 meters, while Ohuruogu was disqualified during the heats for the 400m after making a false start.",
"\"People false start all the time.",
"It's sad. I've worked really hard so I just feel wasted,\" the 27-year-old Briton said, AFP reported.",
"Saturday also saw the start of the decathlon with America's Ashton Eaton and Trey Hardee leading the way.",
"Eaton's first day total of 4,441 points puts him 48 points of reigning world champion Hardee with five disciplines -- 110m hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and the 1500m -- to complete on Sunday."
] | [
"World and Olympic champion cruises through 100m heat with a winning time of 10.10 seconds .",
"Kenya's women sweep the board with all six medals in marathon and 10,000m .",
"Despair for champion Steve Hooker in the pole vault and Britain's Christine Ohuruogu in 400m .",
"America's Ashton Eaton and Trey Hardee lead way in decathlon after five events ."
] | [
1,
17,
21
] |
[
"Perugia, Italy (CNN) -- Murder victim Meredith Kercher's family cannot forgive anyone until they know the truth about her killing, Kercher's sister said Tuesday as Amanda Knox flew out of Italy, a free woman after four years.",
"Knox and her Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were dramatically cleared of the murder Monday, in a jury ruling that left Knox sobbing and almost unable to walk out of the court unaided.",
"The decision stunned the Kercher family, who were visibly downcast Tuesday morning.",
"It sends them \"back to square one,\" Kercher's brother Lyle said.",
"Stephanie Kercher, the victim's sister, demurred when asked if the family is ready to forgive Meredith's killer or killers.",
"\"Until the truth comes out, we can't forgive anyone,\" she said.",
"Analysis: Truth about student's slaying remains elusive .",
"She said the family looked forward to reading the judge's explanation of how the jury reached its decision, which by law must be published within 90 days.",
"Not knowing why one jury two years ago convicted Knox and Sollecito of murder, sexual assault and other crimes related to Kercher's killing, while another said Monday they are innocent is \"the greatest disappointment,\" Stephanie Kercher said.",
"Kercher's mother, meanwhile, did not speak ill of Knox, even when asked what she thought of the American's assertion that her life had been destroyed by the ordeal.",
"\"That's probably true in a way,\" Arline Kercher said.",
"In an interview with CNN, Lyle Kercher said the family accepts the decision, as it accepted the decision in the original trial.",
"\"We have the utmost respect, obviously, for the decision and the integrity of the court,\" he said, adding, \"We will abide by that.\"",
"No end to Knox as pop culture obsession .",
"Knox, who arrived in Seattle to cheers just after 8 p.m.",
"ET, thanked her supporters and those who helped her family in emotional remarks at a brief news conference.",
"\"I'm really overwhelmed right now,\" she said.",
"\"I was looking down from the airplane and it seemed like everything wasn't real.\"",
"She told her supporters, \"Thank you for being there for me.\"",
"Knox spent Monday night with her mother before leaving Italy, her lawyer Carlo Dalla Vedova told CNN.",
"Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini said Tuesday that he will appeal the ruling to Italy's High Court.",
"When the appeal reaches the High Court, the hearing will be very short and dependent on key technical issues and arguments, not a review of the actual trial itself, according to Luiss University law professor Nicola Di Mario.",
"Kercher's family said it would support such an appeal, but added it was the state's decision.",
"If Italy's highest court overturns the lower court's decision, it effectively revalidates the trial court's sentence, which means 26 years in prison for Knox.",
"Italy would then have to put in a request to U.S. authorities for extradition, and it would remain to be seen if that would be granted.",
"If the court does not overturn the appeals ruling, Knox could not be tried again for the same crime under the \"double jeopardy\" rule.",
"How 4-year saga unfolded .",
"Knox and Kercher were students at Perugia's university for foreign students when Kercher's partly clothed body was found stabbed and with her throat slashed in the house they shared.",
"Monday's ruling prompted a wave of euphoria by Knox, her family and supporters, as well as howls of disapproval outside the courtroom.",
"\"Perugia is a quiet town.",
"The fact that people came and cry out loud 'shame' on the ruling means something,\" Mignini said.",
"After the ruling, Knox broke down sobbing and was escorted out of the courtroom by two people.",
"KIRO: Seattle reacts to Knox's release .",
"\"We're thankful that Amanda's nightmare is over,\" Knox's sister, Deanna, said on the courthouse steps.",
"\"She suffered for four years for a crime she did not commit.\"",
"Co-defendant Sollecito: 'My nightmare' Knox and Sollecito were convicted in 2009 of murder, sexual assault, possession of a weapon, interfering with a crime and theft.",
"The jury cleared Knox and Sollecito of those charges, freeing them from their respective 26- and 25-year sentences.",
"But the jury Monday upheld Knox's conviction on the charge of defamation against Patrick Lumumba, an early suspect in the case whom Knox accused of killing Kercher.",
"Lumumba was arrested, but released after his alibi checked out.",
"He later sued Knox, winning 40,000 euros ($54,000) in damages.",
"Knox was sentenced Monday to three years on the defamation charge, but received credit for the years she has already spent behind bars, her attorney said.",
"A third person, drifter Rudy Guede, was convicted separately of involvement in the killing and is serving 16 years.",
"Defense teams for Knox and Sollecito have suggested Guede could have been the sole killer.",
"The jury evidently believed Knox's impassioned final statement to the court, delivered in a voice trembling with emotion.",
"\"I am not what they say I am -- perverse, violent. ...",
"I haven't murdered. I haven't raped. I haven't stolen,\" Knox said in the most important speech of her life.",
"Sollecito put his claim simply in his own closing statement.",
"\"I have never hurt anybody,\" he said.",
"As he concluded, he dramatically removed his plastic \"Free Amanda and Raffaele\" bracelet, saying: \"I have never taken it off since it was given to me. ...",
"I think now is the moment to take it off.\"",
"Following the rulings, Knox returned briefly to the prison and was greeted by cheers and shouts of \"well done,\" said Rocco Girlanda, a member of the Italian parliament who became an advocate for the 24-year-old American.",
"\"Her first desire is to lie down on a green field,\" he said .",
"CNN's Hada Messia, Antonia Mortensen, Matthew Chance, Paula Newton and Peter Wilkinson and journalist Livia Borghese contributed to this report."
] | [
"NEW: Knox is emotional, \"overwhelmed\" after arriving in Seattle .",
"The exoneration of Knox and her ex-boyfriend sends the victim's family \"back to square one\"\nThe Kercher family cannot forgive anyone \"until the truth is known,\" the victim's sister says .",
"Knox and Raffaele Sollecito successfully appealed their convictions of murder ."
] | [
0,
1,
3
] |
[
"Seoul, South Korea (CNN) -- North Korean and South Korean military units exchanged gunfire near their border Friday, South Korean authorities said.",
"No casualties were reported.",
"The exchange happened after North Korean forces fired two rounds from a 14.5 millimeter machine gun at a South Korean military guard post near the border town of Chorwon, South Korea, about 73 miles (118 km) northeast of Seoul, according to an official at the Joint Chiefs of Staff.",
"The South Korean unit responded with three \"warning shots\" from a .50-caliber machine gun and warned the North Korean guard post by loudspeaker to desist, the official said.",
"The demilitarized zone at the location of the shooting is 1.3 kilometers (0.8 miles) wide.",
"Chorwon was the scene of heavy fighting during the 1950-53 Korean War.",
"North Korea on Friday threatened to retaliate against its neighbor for shunning bilateral military talks.",
"The gunfire exchange apparently won't cancel reunions of families separated by the Korean War, which ended in a truce but no formal peace treaty.",
"The weeklong reunions begin Saturday at Mount Kumgang, the two countries' joint mountain resort in the North.",
"North Korea has requested record shipments of rice and fertilizer in exchange for concessions on the reunions, the South Korean Yonhap news agency reported earlier this week.",
"While there are occasional shooting incidents across the demilitarized zones, the tensest flash point on the peninsula in recent years has been the disputed maritime border in the Yellow Sea.",
"There were fatal naval clashes there in 1999 and 2002.",
"In March this year, the sinking of a South Korean vessel killed 26 in what a South Korean and international investigation team concluded was a North Korean torpedo attack.",
"North Korea continues to deny involvement.",
"The prickly relationship between the countries since the Korean War has had periodic conciliatory moves and flare-ups.",
"Friday's incident occurred two weeks before the G-20 summit in Seoul.",
"The G-20 includes industrialized nations and developing economies, which focus on economic issues and economic policy coordination.",
"Authorities said a total of 50,000 police and riot police will be deployed during the summit on November 11 and 12, according to Yonhap.",
"Journalist Andrew Salmon contributed to this report."
] | [
"The incident was at the border of North Korea, South Korea .",
"Incident reportedly occurred at a guard post .",
"The demilitarized zone at the location is not very wide ."
] | [
2,
4
] |
[
"(CNN) -- Russian law enforcement officers raided the Russian offices of oil giant BP, the company said Wednesday, blasting what it called \"illegal\" interference in its work.",
"The company issued a statement about the raid, saying there were \"no legitimate grounds for such a raid,\" and that the court decision it was based on should not be allowed to stand.",
"The raid is related to a long-running battle between BP and Russian partner, TNK-BP, over oil exploration in the Russian Arctic.",
"It comes a day after ExxonMobil signed a deal with Russian oil company Rosneft that includes Arctic exploration, a blow to BP.",
"BP said the raid targeted a part of the company that was not involved in the dispute with TNK.",
"It was ordered by a Russian court in the city of Tyumen, BP said.",
"\"If the Tyumen Court decision is allowed to stand, it means any party can raid a company's premises at will and examine all its documents,\" BP said.",
"The Russian Federal Court Bailiff Service, which reportedly conducted the raid, did not immediately answer CNN requests for comment or issue a statement.",
"CNN's Kendra Petersen and Maxim Tkachenko contributed to this report."
] | [
"NEW: It comes after ExxonMobil signs a deal with Russian company Rosneft, a blow to BP .",
"BP blasts what it calls Russia's \"illegal\" interference in its work .",
"The raid is related to a long-running battle over oil exploration in the Russian Arctic ."
] | [
2,
3
] |
[
"(CNN) -- The top security official in the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon was found shot dead and burned inside a truck in the city of Monterrey, the state-run Notimex news agency reported, citing state officials.",
"The governor's office confirmed the death of Homero Guillermo Salcido Trevino, head of the control, command and communications operations for the state police.",
"He suffered five bullet wounds, and his body was set on fire inside his official truck, officials said.",
"Officials found the body Sunday night.",
"Eighteen people were killed Monday in Padilla in the neighboring state of Tamaulipas, prosecutors said in a statement.",
"Five Padilla residents were among those killed, the statement said, along with six people traveling in the city.",
"Another seven bodies were dumped in the town square, the prosecutors said.",
"Additionally, unspecified damage was done to Padilla's municipal palace, the lower judiciary court and the city police command.",
"Tamaulipas is in the central northeast of Mexico, bordering Texas and the Gulf of Mexico.",
"Padilla is about 200 miles from the U.S. border.",
"The state prosecutors said state and local authorities were working the case and pledged cooperation with federal authorities as well.",
"Northern Mexico has been plagued by a steady stream of violence fueled by the lucrative drug trade in Mexico.",
"According to the government, there have been more than 34,600 drug-related deaths since President Felipe Calderon began a crackdown on the cartels in December 2006.",
"Alejandro Poire, Mexico's national security spokesman, told CNN's Rafael Romo last week that half the more than 15,000 drug-related deaths last year occured in just three of the country's 32 states -- Chihuahua, Sinaloa and Tamaulipas.",
"Thirty percent of the total is in Chihuahua alone, with most of those in Ciudad Juarez across the border from El Paso, Texas.",
"\"We can get ahold of this violence,\" Poire said.",
"\"We have shown it in other parts of the country, and we will do it because we have a comprehensive strategy to address crime and violence.\"",
"Monday's violence followed several incidents last week in the region that left another 18 people dead.",
"On February 6, the remains of five men discarded along the highway between Monterrey and Reynosa in Tamaulipas were found, Notimex reported.",
"The state news agency said the bodies were naked, except for plastic bags.",
"A day earlier, gunmen clashed with soldiers in three separate incidents in Tamaulipas, leaving 13 people dead, the agency reported.",
"CNN's Nick Valencia contributed to this report ."
] | [
"NEW: 18 people killed Monday in the state of Tamaulipas, prosecutors say .",
"Homero Salcido was found dead inside a burning car Sunday in Monterrey .",
"He was shot five times, officials say ."
] | [
0,
4
] |
[
"(CNN) -- More than 230 civilians have died in fighting over the past two weeks between Somali transitional government forces and Al-Shabaab militants in Somalia's capital of Mogadishu, the U.N. refugee agency said on Tuesday.",
"At least 400 people have been wounded and 23,000 displaced in the latest violence, the agency reported.",
"So far this year, more than 200,000 civilians are believed to have fled their homes in the capital, it said.",
"\"People who have been able to reach northern Somalia and neighbouring countries are mostly arriving on foot and by small buses and traveling without shelter.",
"They tell our staff that the streets of Mogadishu are completely deserted and that people are too afraid to leave their houses.",
"In these dangerous and difficult conditions, aid distributions are becoming rare and those who venture out are risking their lives,\" the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said.",
"The agency said people are leaving the capital for other parts of Somalia, such as Puntland, or to the neighboring countries of Ethiopia and Kenya, and across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen.",
"Somalia generates the largest number of refugees in the world after Afghanistan and Iraq, the agency said.",
"At the end of August, there were more than 614,000 Somali refugees and over 1.4 million people displaced within the country.",
"\"The collapse of the state, spiraling violence and anarchy, compounded by poverty, has led to one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world and unacceptable suffering of the civilian population,\" the agency said.",
"African Union troops from other countries have been helping the transitional government fight the Islamist insurgents, who are trying to topple the government.",
"In fact, Uganda recently said it is deploying an additional 750 peacekeeping troops to Mogadishu.",
"The increase is a fulfillment of the commitment pledged by the government of Uganda at the African Union Summit in July.",
"The African Union agreed to send an additional 2,000 troops total to Mogadishu.",
"Djibouti and Guinea are also expected to send their battalions.",
"When all parties fully deploy the pledged troops, the number of AU troops will increase up to 7,000, said Fred Opolot, Ugandan government spokesman.",
"\"The increase in the troops comes as a response from the government of Uganda and AU to the recent attacks in Kampala carried out by Al-Shabaab,\" said Opolot, referring to the bomb attacks on World Cup fans in Uganda in July, which left as many as 79 people dead."
] | [
"Troops and militants have been fighting in Mogadishu .",
"The unrest has displaced tens of thousands of people .",
"Somalis are going to Puntland, Kenya, Ethiopia and Yemen to escape the violence ."
] | [
1,
6
] |
[
"(CNN) -- A report in South Korean media is fueling the ongoing speculation about the deteriorating health of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.",
"Kim Jong Il, seen in an undated state-issued photo, has made only two public appearances since August.",
"YTN News, citing unidentified intelligence sources in South Korea and China, reported Monday that the 67-year-old leader has pancreatic cancer.",
"South Korea's Unification Ministry flatly denied the report, which comes a week after a frail-looking Kim appeared in public for the first time in months.",
"Doctors told South Korea's state-run Yonhap News Agency that it is impossible to tell the status of Kim's health from the recent video of the reclusive leader.",
"Kim appeared at a July 8 ceremony to commemorate the 15th anniversary of his father's death.",
"He seemed frail and gaunt as he walked into the service flanked by senior party and military officials.",
"North Korea's official KCNA news agency has routinely criticized the Western media for erroneously exaggerating the status of Kim's health.",
"Last week's appearance was his second since he was widely reported to have suffered a stroke in August.",
"Kim was seen in April when he was reappointed as chairman of North Korea's military board.",
"His recent health problems and long absence from public functions have prompted speculation on whether he was ready to groom an heir.",
"The rules governing transfer of power in the secretive communist nation are unclear, but it is widely believed that Kim's youngest son, Kim Jong Un, will succeed him.",
"Facts about North Korea » .",
"In April, the North Korean leader named Kim Jong Un and brother-in-law Chang Sung Taek to the country's powerful National Defense Commission.",
"Chang, who is married to Kim Jong Il's sister, has effectively run the country in the wake of the leader's health problems, according to TIME Magazine.",
"Chang is \"the bridge from Kim Jong Il to Kim Jong Un,\" according to Baek Seung Joo, who watches North Korea at the Korea Institute for Defense Analysis, who spoke to TIME Magazine last month."
] | [
"Media reports, citing unconfirmed sources, say Kim Jong Il has cancer .",
"South Korea's Unification Ministry denies claims of illness .",
"Transfer of power rules unclear, but youngest son expected to be next at helm ."
] | [
2,
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14
] |
[
"(CNN) -- U.N. military helicopters Sunday pounded heavy weapons positions of fighters loyal to self-declared Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo, United Nations officials said.",
"Choi Young-jin, head of the U.N. mission in the country, said pro-Gbagbo forces were shelling the Golf Hotel in Abidjan, where the country's internationally recognized president Alassane Ouattara is staying, and \"today they began to shell our quarters\" -- the section of the hotel in which the U.N. forces are headquartered -- as well.",
"\"So we decided we cannot pass this moment without action,\" Choi said.",
"Together with the French military, U.N. forces targeted key positions.",
"Choi said there were \"several camps\" belonging to the Gbagbo loyalists.",
"\"We are taking them out.\" U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he ordered the military operation Sunday \"to prevent the use of heavy weapons which threaten the civilian population of Abidjan and our peacekeepers.\"",
"The U.N. mission does not extend to extracting Gbagbo from his residence, Choi said.",
"It would be up to pro-Ouattara forces to oust Gbagbo, he said.",
"Ban renewed his call for Gbagbo \"to step aside immediately.\"",
"\"Civilians are bearing the brunt of the violence,\" the secretary-general said.",
"\"The fighting must stop.",
"Mr. Gbagbo needs to step aside immediately.\"",
"Gbagbo's forces had attacked the Golf Hotel Saturday as well.",
"U.N. forces fired back at the time, said Hamadoun Toure, spokesman for the U.N. mission in Ivory Coast.",
"\"We stand ready to protect the Golf Hotel, as we have a mandate,\" he told CNN.",
"Toure added that Gbagbo loyalists continue to control three main areas -- the presidential palace, Gbagbo's residence and the state television station, RTI.",
"He said the French military and U.N. forces are in charge of the Abidjan port.",
"Violence erupted after Ivory Coast's disputed presidential election in November and escalated into all-out war when Ouattara's forces launched an offensive that brought them into Abidjan.",
"As Gbagbo has refused to cede power, the political stalemate has plunged the West African nation into crisis.",
"The U.N. human rights office said Friday that its investigators found more than 100 bodies over 24 hours in three Côte d'Ivoire towns.",
"Gbagbo's forces used a lull in fighting last week as a \"trick\" to reinforce their positions around the Abidjan, according to Alain Le Roy, the head of United Nations peacekeeping operations.",
"They said Tuesday they wanted a peaceful solution to the months-long fighting, but soon resumed shelling both the U.N. headquarters and the civilian population, Le Roy told reporters at the United Nations.",
"Since then, they have regained control of two central areas of Abidjan and fighting is continuing, Le Roy said Friday, after briefing the U.N. Security Council on developments in the cocoa-producing nation.",
"\"They have clearly used the lull of Tuesday as a trick to reinforce their position,\" he said.",
"Mark Toner, acting deputy spokesman for the U.S. State Department, released a statement Saturday echoing that idea.",
"\"It is clear that Gbagbo's attempts at negotiation this week were nothing more than a ruse to regroup and rearm.",
"Gbagbo's continued attempt to force a result that he could not obtain at the ballot box reveals his callous disregard for the welfare of the Ivoirian people, who will again suffer amid renewed heavy fighting in Abidjan,\" he said.",
"Most areas of the capital, however, are now under U.N. or French military control, journalist Seyi Rhodes reported from the French military base in Port Bouet.",
"The French military has been working to reconnect the disrupted water and electricity supply in what is the country's main city.",
"CNN's Aliza Kassim contributed to this report ."
] | [
"The U.N. secretary-general ordered an attack to protect civilians, peacekeepers .",
"Gbagbo loyalists were endangering civilians, a U.N. official says .",
"\"We are taking out\" several positions, the official says .",
"The U.N. found more than 100 bodies over 24 hours ."
] | [
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] |
[
"(CNN) -- NATO agreed Thursday to take command of enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya and was considering taking control of the full U.N.-backed military mission, Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told CNN.",
"Rasmussen's announcement fell short of what U.S. President Barack Obama has sought, and it was unclear if concerns by Turkey and some other NATO allies over coalition airstrikes on Libyan ground forces would prevent NATO from agreeing to expand its command over the entire mission.",
"\"What we have decided today is that NATO will enforce the no-fly zone,\" Rasmussen said in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer.",
"\"We are considering whether NATO should take on overall responsibility.",
"That decision has not been made yet.\"",
"Rasmussen said he expected NATO to take over full control of the no-fly-zone enforcement in a few days, and to decide on the issue of broader responsibility \"within the coming days.\"",
"However, a senior administration official said that in fact, NATO reached an understanding that it will control the rest of the mission, with details on the extent of the mission still being worked out.",
"The administration official, who spoke to reporters on condition of not being identified by name, said NATO ambassadors actually made two decisions Thursday.",
"One was to take over command of the no-fly zone, and the other was a political decision to take responsibility for enforcing the full U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing the military mission.",
"\"That latter part, we are still completing the operational planning and expect to be completed by this weekend,\" the administration official said.",
"The U.N. resolution authorizes a no-fly zone, enforcement of an arms ban, and other steps as necessary to protect Libyan civilians.",
"So far, the U.S.-led coalition has interpreted that to include airstrikes on Libyan ground forces threatening the rebel stronghold of Benghazi and in other areas.",
"Thursday's agreement was reached in a conference call between U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her counterparts from Britain, France and Turkey, according to the senior administration official and diplomatic officials who spoke on condition of not being identified by name.",
"At NATO headquarters later, the meeting of ambassadors extended long past its expected conclusion.",
"NATO sources said a major sticking point involved the rules of engagement for coalition forces enforcing the U.N. resolution, with Turkey raising concerns over details.",
"When Rasmussen finally emerged to announce an agreement, it was clear that questions over the rules of engagement remained unresolved.",
"Asked if the announcement revealed a split in NATO over the mission, Rasmussen said no.",
"However, he also acknowledged that if unaltered, the agreement would mean the overall Libyan mission would have two parts, with NATO enforcing the no-fly zone and arms blockade, and the U.S.-led coalition that launched the mission handling other necessary civilian protection.",
"Rasmussen said NATO would use the mission's already established chain of command for enforcing the no-fly zone.",
"The NATO supreme commander, an American, would be in charge, but the mission would be under NATO control, Rasmussen noted.",
"In addition, non-NATO partners including Arab countries would participate, Rasmussen said.",
"After Rasmussen's announcement, Clinton told reporters that all 28 NATO allies authorized military authorities to develop a plan for NATO to take on the broader mission of civilian protection under U.N. Security Council Resolution 1973.",
"\"NATO is well-suited to coordinating this international effort and ensuring that all participating nations are working effectively together toward our shared goals,\" said Clinton, who took no questions.",
"\"This coalition includes countries beyond NATO, including Arab partners, and we expect all of them to be providing important political guidance going forward.",
"We have always said that Arab leadership and participation is crucial.\"",
"Clinton also said she will travel to London on Tuesday to attend an international meeting on Libya that will include NATO allies and Arab partners in the Libya mission.",
"NATO sources told CNN that the shift in command for enforcing a no-fly zone was expected by Sunday night.",
"According to the sources, NATO has sent a directive to NATO's military chain of command asking for a plan on how to execute an expanded role for enforcement of U.N.",
"Resolution 1973.",
"Under the expanded role, called \"no-fly plus\" by some officials, NATO might be given more robust rules of engagement to ensure that civilians are protected, the sources said.",
"One proposal for \"no-fly plus\" would allow some coalition forces to withdraw from certain missions, the sources said.",
"So far, U.S. forces have taken on the bulk of the Libyan mission, according to figures provided by the Pentagon.",
"Of a total of 175 Tomahawk missiles fired, 168 were from the United States and seven from Great Britain, the only two countries to possess them, while U.S. planes have flown almost two-thirds of the sorties and U.S. ships comprise more than two-thirds of the total involved.",
"The U.S. aerial involvement will ease once NATO assumes full operational control of the no-fly zone, officials say.",
"It was unclear whether the number of U.S. Navy ships taking part also would decrease, as well as what role U.S. forces would play in the civilian protection part of the mission.",
"Obama has repeatedly said that the United States will turn over control of the Libya mission to allies within \"days, not weeks.\"",
"While he specified that would mean no U.S. planes in the air over Libya, Obama left open the possibility of U.S. naval vessels playing a role in blockading Libya against arms shipments.",
"CNN's Jennifer Rizzo, Larry Shaughnessy, Tom Watkins and Tom Cohen contributed to this story."
] | [
"NEW: U.S. official says NATO agrees take on broader command, but details pending .",
"The deal means NATO will assume command of one part of the military mission .",
"NATO is still considering whether to also take command of the rest of the mission .",
"The agreement followed talks involving Britain, France, Turkey and the United States ."
] | [
3,
6,
8
] |
[
"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday that Iran and China are making \"quite disturbing\" gains in Central and South America.",
"Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the U.S. mustn't \"turn our backs on countries in our own hemisphere.\"",
"In wide-ranging comments on the region, she also said the Obama administration will work to improve relations among even its harshest critics in the Western Hemisphere, including Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, and is looking to the Castro brothers in Cuba for some reciprocal action in response to the president's easing of travel and other restrictions.",
"Efforts by the Bush administration to isolate certain Latin American leaders had failed, she said, and the United States now must work to counter efforts by China, Iran and Russia to gain influence there.",
"\"What we are doing hasn't worked very well and in fact, if you look at the gains, particularly in Latin American, that Iran is making and China is making, it is quite disturbing,\" Clinton said at a town hall meeting at the State Department with senior Foreign Service Officers.",
"\"They are building very strong economic and political connections with a lot these leaders.",
"I don't think that is in our interests,\" she said.",
"\"We have no guarantees here that we can create a better relationship with someone who has a different view of politics, the economy and so much else.",
"But we think it is worth trying to just explore this and see what comes of it,\" Clinton said.",
"\"I have to say that I don't think -- in today's world that is a multipolar world where we are competing for attention and relationships with at least the Russians, the Chinese, the Iranians -- that it is in our interests to turn our backs on countries in our own hemisphere.\"",
"She pointed to a large Iranian presence in the Nicaraguan capital, Managua, as an example of what other countries are doing in Central and South America.",
"\"We are looking at how to deal with [Nicaraguan President Daniel] Ortega,\" she said.",
"\"The Iranians are building a huge embassy in Managua.",
"You can only imagine what it's for.\" Clinton's voice was hoarse, she coughed occasionally and seemed to be nursing a cold, but she made no mention of her health.",
"On Cuba, Clinton said the United States is awaiting a response from Cuban leaders Raúl and Fidel Castro.",
"\"We would like to see some reciprocity from the Castros on political prisoners, human rights and other matters,\" she said.",
"\"So we are looking at a number of different relationships and trying to figure out whether we can be more productive.",
"My bottom line is what's best for America, how do we try to influence behavior that is more in our interest than not.\"",
"Later, Clinton appeared to be fighting back tears when she spoke at a ceremony to honor Foreign Service officers who had been killed in the line of duty.",
"She spoke about 25-year-old Brian Adkins, who was just beginning his State Department career when he was murdered this year in Ethiopia.",
"\"Please know how grateful we are for his selflessness and service to his country,\" Clinton said.",
"Adkins' name and those of three other Foreign Service officers were added to a plaque in the State Department entrance."
] | [
"Hillary Clinton: Obama administration trying to improve ties with even harshest critics .",
"U.S. having to counter efforts by China, Russia and Iran in region, Clinton says .",
"Secretary of state says President Bush's efforts to isolate certain leaders failed .",
"Clinton says U.S. awaiting response from Castro brothers in Cuba ."
] | [
0,
2,
3
] |
[
"(CNN) -- An estimated 13,000 Congolese civilians threatened by fierce fighting and gruesome attacks have fled to neighboring Uganda over the past two days and more are expected, the United Nations' refugee agency said in a news release Thursday.",
"Congolese Anosiate Nyirahabineza holds her son Jeremiah in Kampala, Uganda, in June.",
"The agency said the people fled from villages in the besieged province of North Kivu, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where fighting between rebels and government troops has prompted the displacement of 250,000 people since August.",
"The staff of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in the southwestern Uganda town of Ishasha said the people crossed into Uganda from Congo's Rutshuru district.",
"Since August, about 27,000 civilians have escaped to Uganda, which now hosts more than 150,000 refugees from countries in the region.",
"The U.N. agency said the latest refugees are reporting many attacks and atrocities.",
"It quoted a 25-year-old named Daudi, who said, \"The assailants killed everybody in my village.",
"They took the young boys with them and killed all the rest of the population.",
"It's a miracle that my wife and I managed to escape.\"",
"He said one of his two children was separated from the family and it is not known where he is.",
"Another villager said rebels who attacked his village \"killed all the women, even pregnant women,\" the U.N. agency said."
] | [
"13,000 Congolese have fled into Uganda in past two days, U.N. says .",
"Refugees report massacres, atrocities in their villages by rebels .",
"Neighboring Uganda now hosts some 150,000 refugees from countries in the region ."
] | [
0,
4,
5
] |
[
"Jakarta, Indonesia (CNN) -- The Mount Merapi volcano in Indonesia erupted at least three times Tuesday, forcing thousands of nearby residents to flee.",
"Indonesian media reported that 15 people were killed, including some journalists who were staying in a guesthouse to get close to the volcano.",
"CNN could not independently verify those reports.",
"Mount Merapi, which looms on the horizon north of the major city of Yogyakarta, is one of Indonesia's most active volcanoes and lies in one of the world's most densely populated areas.",
"The volcano has a summit elevation of nearly 10,000 feet (3,000 meters).",
"Christian Awui, a rescuer at the scene, told CNN that the first thing that residents heard were sirens from an early warning system announcing the coming eruptions.",
"\"There was panic,\" he said.",
"\"You could hear the rumbles of the volcano.\"",
"People ran to a refugee camp about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) away.",
"Because it was still dark, it was hard to tell how the eruptions compared with previous ones, Awui said.",
"Some nongovernmental relief agencies were poised to offer immediate help.",
"One of them was World Vision Indonesia, a Christian relief and development agency.",
"\"Right now, our biggest concern is the children,\" said Fadli Usman, World Vision Indonesia's rapid assessment team leader.",
"\"Children are always forgotten in the early moments of a disaster like this.",
"My first task will be to assess the needs of the children and their families in the evacuation centers so our team can begin to help them.\"",
"Usman said about 1,500 people -- mostly women and children -- had found refuge at a four-building shelter about 7 miles (12 kilometers) from the volcano.",
"The evacuees, he said, are worried about the men who stayed behind to guard their homes and fields on the mountain.",
"A dusting of ash covered motorbikes and cars at the shelter parking lot, the relief worker said.",
"The heavy ash fallout also obscured any view of the mountain from his location, he said.",
"Usman had reported earlier that traffic was heavy as people left the region near the mountain.",
"The traffic was not chaotic, he said, and the road was open and under control.",
"CNN's Brian Walker contributed to this report."
] | [
"About 1,500 people were receiving aid at a shelter, a relief worker said .",
"Relief focus is on the children, a nongovernmental agency says .",
"Mount Merapi is one of Indonesia's most active volcanoes .",
"It is in a densely populated area, near the city of Yogyakarta ."
] | [
3,
10,
17
] |
[
"Los Angeles, California (CNN) -- A group of 13 Salvadoran immigrants missing in southern California amid fears that they planned a cult-like mass suicide have been found alive, unhurt and upset to find they were the subjects of an extensive search.",
"Authorities had been scouring the Palmdale area of northern Los Angeles County on horseback and by helicopter Sunday in search of the group, which included eight children between the ages of 3 and 17, said Steve Whitmore, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.",
"A resident spotted one of the vehicles identified in the lookout at a park and notified the sheriff's department, he said.",
"One woman in the group told CNN they were \"perfectly OK\" and were shocked and angry to learn that such an extensive search was under way.",
"The woman, who would not give her name, said they had been praying all night in the park, that they had done this routinely and that their husbands were aware of the practice.",
"The search began Saturday afternoon, when the husbands of two women in the group reported them missing, the Sheriff's Department said.",
"One of the men said their wives were part of a \"cult-like group\" and had been \"brainwashed\" by its leader, and Whitmore said the wife left a purse with her husband and asked her \"to pray over\" it.",
"When the husband opened the purse, he found money, mobile phones and notes that \"talked about meeting Jesus, talked about deceased relatives soon to meet up,\" Whitmore told CNN earlier Sunday.",
"That raised concerns that the group members planned to take their own lives, he said.",
"The husbands told investigators that the group had broken away from a Christian church in the Los Angeles area \"and formed a separate group that included both traditional and non-traditional practices and beliefs,\" the Sheriff's Department said Saturday.",
"Its leader, whom investigators identified as Reyna Marisol Chicas, had taken her followers on a similar outing six months ago \"in the apparent belief that there was going to be a major earthquake.\"",
"Several members of the group spoke with investigators, and Chicas was held for questioning after giving deputies a false name, Whitmore said.",
"Though no crime had been committed and the group appeared to be praying for 'honest and well-meaning things,\" he said deputies had to investigate once their husbands filed missing persons reports.",
"\"The letters themselves could be interpreted in many ways,\" Whitmore said.",
"\"Now, some of the language in it could be interpreted as saying goodbye as relatives, but that's an interpretation.\"",
"But given the husbands' concerns, \"It is better to overreact than underreact,\" he said.",
"CNN Correspondent Thelma Gutierrez contributed to this report."
] | [
"NEW: Letters \"could be interpreted in many ways,\" sheriff's spokesman says .",
"The missing group has been found alive and unhurt .",
"A member told CNN that the group is shocked to find out about the search .",
"Two husbands had reported their fears to sheriff's deputies on Saturday ."
] | [
0,
5,
13
] |
[
"(CNN) -- The number of confirmed H1N1 flu cases worldwide surpassed 10,000, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.",
"In the United States, at least 5,469 cases of swine flu have been reported.",
"Commonly known as swine flu, the outbreak has sickened 10,176 people and caused at least 80 deaths, mostly in Mexico, the organization said.",
"The actual number of people affected may be higher, as it takes time for national governments to confirm cases and report them to the global body.",
"In the United States, at least 5,469 cases of swine flu have been reported, according to the latest figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.",
"The CDC has linked six deaths to the outbreak; health officials in New York have connected a seventh death -- a school official -- to the disease.",
"Concern about the disease deepened Tuesday, even as authorities have said the outbreak may prove to be less severe than first suspected.",
"A 44-year-old man died Tuesday in suburban St. Louis, Missouri, according to John Shelton of the St. Louis County Health Department.",
"The man, whose name was not released, had been hospitalized for the past few weeks.",
"He had visited Mexico and tests showed he had swine flu, Shelton said.",
"However, the county medical examiner will determine the cause of the man's death.",
"In New York, medical investigators determined that the death of a 16-month-old boy in Queens was not linked to the flu.",
"The boy had a fever when his mother brought him to a hospital Monday and he died less than an hour later, drawing attention from investigators.",
"That death came a day after an assistant principal from New York died after contracting the H1N1 virus.",
"That man -- Mitchell Wiener -- had an underlying health condition, said Dr. Thomas Frieden, New York City's health commissioner and President Barack Obama's pick to lead the CDC.",
"Wiener died Sunday of complications of the H1N1 virus, hospital and state officials said.",
"If confirmed by the CDC, Wiener's death would be the seventh linked to swine flu in the United States.",
"The CDC has confirmed three in Texas, two in Arizona and one in Washington state.",
"Wiener's school is among a handful in New York that temporarily closed at the recommendation of the city's Health Department.",
"Frieden said Sunday that \"with the virus spreading widely,\" closing affected schools \"will make little difference in transmission throughout New York City, but we hope will help slow transmission within the individual school communities.\"",
"The flu strain, which originated in Mexico, killed dozens of people there, causing U.S. officials to worry that it could take a similar toll north of the border.",
"So far, however, it has acted similar to typical seasonal influenza, which usually can be treated successfully but can be deadly among the very old, very young and people with pre-existing health problems.",
"CNN's Kara Devlin and Mary Snow contributed to this report."
] | [
"H1N1 flu has caused at least 80 deaths, mostly in Mexico .",
"Man in St. Louis, Missouri, may be latest to die of flu in United States .",
"Officials say flu is behaving similar to typical seasonal influenza ."
] | [
2,
4,
7
] |
[
"(CNN) -- At first glance, it looks like the real thing.",
"It's white, with a brown filter.",
"When the tip glows red, a smoke-like puff follows.",
"But this is not a typical cigarette -- it's an \"e-cig.\"",
"A what? An electronic cigarette.",
"When an e-cigarette user inhales, a battery inside warms liquid nicotine stored in a plastic filter.",
"Makers of e-cigs tout their product as the first healthy cigarette, free of harmful chemicals and tar typically found in tobacco products.",
"The only ingredient: pure liquid nicotine.",
"\"Our product is comparable to the nicotine patch except people still get the oral fixation, which they love,\" explained Elicko Taieb, CEO of Smoking Everywhere, one of the largest distributors of electronic cigarettes.",
"But the U.S. Food and Drug Administration considers e-cigs an unapproved new drug because of a lack of scientific proof that they're safe or effective.",
"The FDA is trying to halt importation of e-cigs, but isn't seizing products already being sold in the United States.",
"\"The FDA has been detaining and refusing importations since at least last summer of these so-called 'electronic cigarettes,' \" FDA spokesperson Rita Chappelle told CNN in a written statement.",
"Watch Sanjay Gupta's take on e-cigarette » .",
"Smoking Everywhere is \"pretty sure\" the product is safe, based on laboratory testing in Europe, Taieb said.",
"The company declined a CNN request to review safety reports.",
"\"There are no ingredients in our e-cigs that can cause cancer.",
"However, it is a pretty new product, so we are not 100 percent sure of the side effects at this point,\" Taieb said.",
"\"But we haven't heard of any negative side effects yet, but we are pretty sure they are safe.\"",
"Electronic cigarettes run on a battery.",
"A person inhales an e-cig as he or she would a typical cigarette.",
"When inhaled, the battery warms liquid nicotine stored in a plastic filter.",
"The combination of heat and liquid creates the vapor or \"smoke\" puff when exhaled.",
"Health experts say the idea of an electronic cigarette is a great alternative to tobacco smoke but more evidence is needed.",
"\"Nicotine is not the thing in tobacco smoke that causes cancer, but inhaling pure nicotine may be dangerous,\" said Dr. Steven Schroeder, physician and smoking cessation expert at the University of California-San Francisco Medical Center.",
"\"We have no clue what the health effects could be.\"",
"Nicotine replacement therapies -- the patch or gum -- are safe and highly successful to help quit smoking.",
"Tobacco smoke causes nearly 90 percent of lung cancer deaths, according to the American Cancer Society.",
"\"If it is a choice between smoking tobacco product or a nicotine replacement -- of course, keep taking the nicotine,\" Schroeder said.",
"\"It is a heck of a lot healthier than tobacco smoking.\"",
"Developers of e-cigs echo the thought.",
"\"We aren't claiming electronic cigarettes help you quit altogether, but I promise our product won't cause cancer.",
"So no matter what way you look at it, it's the healthier option,\" Taieb said.",
"Smoking Everywhere sells thousands of electronic cigarettes a day in the United States, the company said.",
"Most are sold online or in 100 mall kiosks across the states.",
"The company, which gave samples of e-cigs to celebrities at this year's Grammy and Oscar awards, said it expects that \"big-name\" actors will soon promote the product.",
"U.S. sales are expected to double in 2009.",
"Sales of e-cigs have been on the rise in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Sweden and Brazil for several years.",
"The trend prompted the World Health Organization to issue a statement in 2008 calling for more safety testing.",
"\"If the marketers of the electronic cigarette want to help smokers quit, then they need to conduct clinical studies and toxicity analyses,\" the statement said.",
"The idea that that e-cigs may be a good tobacco smoke alternative in the future could hold true, the FDA and WHO acknowledged, but proof of the product's safety must come first."
] | [
"Electronic cigarettes don't contain tar, other chemicals; only liquid nicotine .",
"CEO \"pretty sure\" e-cigarettes are safe .",
"FDA says safety not proved, has been refusing importations .",
"WHO called for more safety testing in 2008 ."
] | [
5,
11,
13,
37
] |
[
"Lima, Peru (CNN) -- A 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck northern Peru on Wednesday, authorities said.",
"The quake's epicenter was about 350 miles (570 kilometers) northeast of the country's capital, Lima, and 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Pucallpa, Peru, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.",
"Authorities at the Geophysics Institute of Peru said no victims or significant damage had been reported.",
"At least one aftershock had been recorded, the institute said.",
"Lima residents felt a brief, but strong, tremor.",
"The quake struck around 12:45 p.m. near Peru's border with Brazil at a depth of about 90 miles (145 kilometers).",
"CNN's Gabriela Matute and journalist Maria Elena Belaunde contributed to this report."
] | [
"NEW: Officials say there was at least one aftershock after the 7.0 quake .",
"Authorities have not reported victims or significant damage .",
"An earthquake strikes near Peru's border with Brazil .",
"The earthquake is felt in Lima, about 350 miles away ."
] | [
0,
2,
3,
5
] |
[
"(CNN) -- A grocer has told a court in Italy that an American woman accused of murdering British student Meredith Kercher was in his shop the morning after the death, contradicting the timeline she had previously given.",
"Both Raffaele Sollecito (left) and Amanda Knox deny charges of murder and sexual assault.",
"Amanda Knox, 21, has said she was at the home of her former boyfriend and co-accused Raffaele Sollecito, 24, until 10 a.m. on the day after Knox's roommate, Meredith Kercher, was stabbed to death.",
"She said she then left for her house to take a shower.",
"But on Saturday, witness Marco Quintavalle said a young woman he identified as Knox came into his supermarket near Sollecito's house in Perugia at 7:45 a.m. on November 2.",
"He said the woman was waiting for him to open up, and that he exchanged glances with her when she entered.",
"\"It really struck me, she had a very pale face and these light eyes,\" Quintavalle said.",
"\"I can still see the image in my head.\"",
"Asked by the presiding judge Giancarlo Massei if that woman was in the courtroom, Quintavalle said he was sure it was Knox.",
"\"It's her, I'm sure of it,\" he said, looking at her, according to the Daily Telegraph.",
"Knox did not appear to react.",
"After the death police found a receipt at Sollecito's house for cleaning products from the shop where Knox was allegedly spotted, the paper said.",
"Officers say bleach and cloths found in the house were used to clean the knife used in the murder and the murder scene itself.",
"Knox and Sollecito are charged with murder and sexual assault in the November 2007 killing of Kercher, who died in what prosecutors called a \"drug-fueled sex game\" with the couple and a third person, Rude Guede.",
"Guede was convicted of murder in October and sentenced to 30 years in prison.",
"He is expected to be one of about 100 witnesses in the case.",
"Kercher was found dead in her bed, half-naked, with a knife wound to her neck.",
"In court papers, prosecutors state that Sollecito held Kercher by her wrists while Knox poked at her with a knife and Guede sexually assaulted her.",
"Prosecutors say they have physical evidence placing the defendants at the scene, and that they gave investigators confusing and contradictory statements about their whereabouts the night Kercher died.",
"Knox first said she was at the house she shared with Kercher, then changed her story, according to court records.",
"Sollecito, meanwhile, said he was never at the house, but was at his apartment, watching a movie on his computer with Knox.",
"Later, he told investigators he did not remember whether Knox was with him the entire night.",
"Defense lawyers are expecteed to argue that the physical evidence was tainted by sloppy police work.",
"The trial, which is expected to take months, has drawn more than 140 journalists from 86 news outlets to the courthouse in Perugia, a university town about 185 km (115 miles) north of Rome."
] | [
"Grocer contradicts timeline of woman accused of murdering Meredith Kercher .",
"Says Amanda Knox in his shop after death, at time Knox said she was in bed .",
"Knox and former boyfriend charged with murder, sexual assault .",
"British student Meredith Kercher was found dead in a villa in November 2007 ."
] | [
0,
2,
13
] |
[
"Rome, Italy (CNN) -- The Italian government said it would halt the construction of a controversial landfill near Naples, but the assurance was not enough for protesters who clashed with police Saturday night, injuring six police officers.",
"Residents were protesting not only the building of a new landfill, but the conditions of an existing landfill, which they said pose an environmental and health hazard.",
"Guido Bertolaso, the chief of Italy's civil protection agency, was named by the government to deal with the issue.",
"He told reporters that the government would put the second landfill on hold and the current landfill will be analyzed for any dangers to people or natural resources.",
"But protesters were wary of the government's word, and continued their demonstration.",
"Some 500 protesters were blocking the road that leads to the landfill, though police estimated that only 20 or 30 people were involved in the clashes with police.",
"Some speculated that those involved were not even involved in the protest, but were hooligans looking to start trouble.",
"Protesters hurled rocks, firecrackers and Molotov cocktails at police.",
"Bertolaso met Sunday with the mayors of the towns in the landfill area in Naples to restate the governments position.",
"But the mayors have not agreed to Bertolaso's proposed compromise.",
"Another meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday.",
"\"We are going to continue these battles and I believe that we'll obtain what we want,\" said Domenico Auricchio, mayor of Terzigno.",
"\"I only ask my citizens to have faith in the local institutions.",
"We'll continue to battle to the end, but now I ask that these acts of vandalism stop because they don't bring any thing good to any one.\"",
"Another nearby mayor, Gennaro Langella of Boscoreale, said, \"Our citizens have asked for a bigger guarantee that a second landfill would not be open.",
"It has not been possible to obtain that and therefore we don't think we can sign the document.\"",
"Despite the lack of agreement, Bertolaso said the government will move forward unilaterally with its proposals.",
"He also said that garbage in Naples, which has been piling up on streets, will be cleared within four days.",
"Last week, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi promised that \"within 10 days, the situation should be brought to normality.\"",
"He said the current landfill poses no risk to the residents."
] | [
"The Italian government promised to halt a second landfill near Naples .",
"It also said it would analyze any hazards from a current landfill .",
"Protesters continued their demonstrations .",
"Six police officers were injured ."
] | [
0,
4,
19
] |
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