The United States condemned the 2008 arrests of Baha’i leaders in Iran Saturday and asked the Islamic Republic to free them. Iran arrested Fariba Kamalabadi, Jamaloddin Khanjani, Afif Naeimi, Saeid Rezaie, Behrouz Tavakkoli, Vahid Tizfahm, and Mahvash Sabet. They were all convicted of espionage, insulting religious sanctities, and propaganda against the Islamic Republic. They were sentenced to 20 years in prison. A Plea for the Release of the Seven Imprisoned Iranian Baha’i Leaders from Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi https://t.co/a6H5Em77Kf #BahaiRights “We join the international community in condemning their continued imprisonment and calling upon the Islamic Republic of Iran to release them immediately, along with all other prisoners of conscience in Iran,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement issued on Saturday. “Furthermore, we call upon Iranian authorities to uphold their own laws and meet their international obligations that guarantee freedom of expression, religion, opinion, and assembly for all citizens,” the statement added. A news release from the U.S. Baha’is said that while the seven leaders were each sentenced to 20 years, their sentences have reportedly been dropped to 10 years. They said the seven have been in imprisoned since May 14, 2008 solely for their beliefs and have been “completely denied due process” and “denied equal treatment under the law.” In the past, Iran has said Baha’is are respected as citizens. But the group, which the government calls a sect, is regarded with suspicion. “We (as the state) offer a variety of services to the Baha’i sect in Iran and respect them as human beings, but not as insiders, spies, or a political grouplet supported by Britain and Israel to cause disturbance in Iran,” Iran’s former Prosecutor General Qorban-Ali Dorri-Najafabadi said in 2009, according to a report by Fars News Agency. Robert George, chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, and Katrina Lantos Swett, a USCIRF commissioner, co-wrote a column for the Religion News Service on Friday about the persecution of the group – a community numbering more than 300,000 members in Iran, that country’s largest non-Muslim religious minority. Iran’s government is intent on eradicating the group, they say. The group they represent, USCIRF, describes itself as an “independent, bipartisan U.S. federal government commission.” “While pursuit of that goal (eradication) remains, its intensity ebbs and flows in response to the level of world attention and outrage. Unfortunately, there are signs from this past year that persecution is on the upswing, calling for greater world outrage at Iran’s abuses of this peaceful religious community.” .@USCIRF Commissioners join call to #ReleaseBahai7Now: https://t.co/xO6L3h5aT5 via @RNS. #Bahai #Iran George and Swett said that since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, more than 200 Baha’i leaders have been killed and more than 10,000 have been let go from government and university positions. There have been arbitrary arrests over the years. “Baha’is effectively are prohibited from attending colleges, chartering their own worship centers or schools, serving in the military, and obtaining various kinds of jobs. Even Baha’i marriages are not recognized.” There are “ominous signs of a renewed government crackdown” in the past year, George and Swett wrote. The Iranian government cranks out propaganda dehumanizing the group and creates a climate of violence, they say. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a religious edict, or fatwa, in 2013 calling for Iranians to avoid “dealings” with Baha’is and labeled the group “deviant and misleading,” news reports said. The writers note that other minorities – Christians, Sunnis, Jews and Zoroastrians – also face discrimination in Shiite-dominated Iran. “But what distinguishes mistreatment of the Baha’is is the stark evidence that eradication is the goal. From laws that push Baha’is to the margins of society to government-sponsored propaganda that degrades and dehumanizes, from mass detention and imprisonment to the closing of businesses, from allowing societal violence against Baha’is to failure to prosecute perpetrators, all signs suggest that Iran’s government seeks religious cleansing of this community,” they wrote. George and Swett noted that Christian pastor Saeed Abedini was released from captivity in January by Iran and it is time that Iran “do likewise to all religious prisoners, including the Baha’i Seven and the imprisoned Baha’i educators, and other prisoners of conscience.” The Baha’i religion, founded during the 19th century in Iran and now with millions of adherents worldwide, is a monotheistic faith that focuses on the spiritual unity of humanity. The clerics who hold sway in Iran regard the Baha’i faith as blasphemous because its founder, Bahá’u’lláh, declared himself to be a prophet of God. Muslims believe the Prophet Mohammed was the last prophet of God.


On Monday, hotel workers pried the letters “T-R-U-M-P” off of the Panama City hotel known as the Trump Ocean Club International Hotel. It was the latest gambit in a high-profile squabble between the Trump organization and Orestes Fintiklis, a Miami-based investor who owns the majority of the units in the hotel. The fight has featured, among other things, Panamanian authorities storming the hotel and Fintiklis playing piano in the lobby as a way to declare victory. (Yes, it sounds like a soap opera.) For more on the fight – who and why – as well as where this all might end, I reached out to CNN’s Cristina Alesci. Our conversation, conducted via email and lightly edited for flow, is below. Cillizza: Let’s start simple. What’s the dispute here? And do we have any sense who is in the wrong? Alesci: Fintiklis owns a majority of the hotel – 202 of the 369 units – along with its amenities. He wants to ditch the Trump name and end a management contract with the President’s company. He claims the Trump Organization isn’t managing the property well and that the Trump brand is bad for business in Panama. The Trump Organization claims the matter should be settled in arbitration – after all, it says, the agreement between Fintiklis and Trump Organization requires arbitration to resolve differences. Instead of waiting for an arbitrator’s decision (or the end of a protracted legal fight), Fintiklis decided to take matters into his own hands. He tried to fire employees he thought were loyal to Trump. Meanwhile, the Trump Organization claimed it had sole authority to hire and fire employees. The standoff over who controlled employees set off a physical confrontation. The Panamanian government deployed armed officials to the property while Fintiklis and the Trump Organization engaged in schoolyard-like behavior. The President’s company claimed Fintiklis was using “thug-like” tactics. And Fintiklis reportedly sent a letter to minority owners, calling the Trumps “leeches.” I don’t want to speculate on who’s right or wrong here, because who knows! But Panamanian authorities seem to have sided with Fintiklis (at least for today) – granting him control of the employees and the property. But CNN is still waiting a “full legal decision issued by the country’s officials.” Cillizza: The sort of name-usage/branding agreement that Trump’s company has with this hotel. Is it unusual? Alesci: No – it’s not unusual. The Trump Organization is not a developer on most of its recent projects. The company usually licenses its name to developers and investors. In this case, however, Fintiklis wasn’t even part of the original deal. The entire project – a massive 70-story building in the shape of a sail that includes residential units, a casino, and residential and office space – has been mired in controversy and has been struggling for years, according to media reports. In 2017, Fintiklis’s investment company bought 202 of the 369 units along with the hotel’s amenities from lenders and the original developer, according to court documents. Trump’s management agreement, which was signed in 2008, remained in effect despite the change in ownership, according to a lawsuit. Cillizza: Over the weekend, the majority owner of the hotel suddenly appeared in the lobby.  What gives? Alesci: Fintiklis is definitely a character. Turns out, he marks every “victory” by playing piano and singing, which he did again Monday. I’m told it began as a way to show the outside world that he’s a real person – an attempt to shake the picture of a mobster that the Trump Organization was trying to paint. I’m told he played a Greek song: “The Accordion” by Manos Loizos, which appears to be an anti-fascist resistance song. Cillizza: The goal is to remove the Trump brand from the hotel entirely? Or is there more that the majority owner wants? Alesci: Fintiklis wants to remove the brand. He also seems unwilling (at least publicly) to pay a break fee for ending the contract early, adding insult to injury from the Trump Organization’s standpoint. Here’s the deal: two other Trump partners who had licensed the Trump name to hotels (one in Toronto and the other in New York City) broke ties with the Trump Organization since the election. But the owners of those projects paid the President’s company a break fee to end their agreements in what were billed as “buyouts.” (Side note: See a pattern here? Partners are fleeing the Trump Organization in places where the President’s policies are unpopular.) Cillizza: Finish this sentence: “The way this all ends is ___________.” Now, explain. Alesci: “Embarrassment for the Trump Organization and possibly financial pain for Fintiklis.” Although Fintiklis seems to have control of the property (at least for now), that’s just part of the story. The Trump Organization, however, might want to make it hurt for Fintiklis – after all, the President’s company doesn’t want to set a precedent that encourages partners to break contracts and walk away without paying them. The two sides will either hash out some sort of monetary settlement or the arbitrators will resolve the dispute for them.


This page includes the show Transcript Use the Transcript to help students with reading comprehension and vocabulary At the bottom of the page, comment for a chance to be mentioned on CNN Student News.  You must be a teacher or a student age 13 or older to request a mention on the CNN Student News Roll Call. May 7, 2015 A decimated city in northern Syria, Election Day in the United Kingdom, and a transportation job that involves rappelling and geology: These are three of the stories covered this Thursday on CNN Student News. Learning about an upcoming change for the Baltimore, Maryland police department, and watch surveillance video of an uninvited marsupial’s visit to an Australian hospital. On this page you will find today’s show Transcript and a place for you to request to be on the CNN Student News Roll Call. TRANSCRIPT Click here to access the transcript of today’s CNN Student News program. Please note that there may be a delay between the time when the video is available and when the transcript is published. CNN Student News is created by a team of journalists who consider the Common Core State Standards, national standards in different subject areas, and state standards when producing the show. ROLL CALL For a chance to be mentioned on the next CNN Student News, comment on the bottom of this page with your school name, mascot, city and state. We will be selecting schools from the comments of the previous show. You must be a teacher or a student age 13 or older to request a mention on the CNN Student News Roll Call! Thank you for using CNN Student News!


Indonesian man who has spent time in jail believed to be behind Jakarta attacks Suspect Bahrun Naim also ran a militant blog Bahrun Naim, the man authorities believe is the architect of Thursday’s deadly attack in Jakarta, is a member of ISIS and is living in the militant jihadist group’s de facto capital of Raqqa, Indonesian authorities believe. The man, from the Javanese city of Solo, also known as Surakarta, is looking to assert himself as a major regional player in ISIS’ planned “distant caliphate.” The former blogger has spent time in prison, and has a history with radical groups, they say, adding that they believe he plotted Thursday’s attack to assert himself among various figures competing to lead ISIS in Southeast Asia. Related video Is ISIS gaining a foothold in Indonesia? Others include Bahrum Syah, believed to be commander of Katibah Nusantara, a joint Indonesian-Malaysian fighting unit formed in late 2014. Another is Abu Jandal, a preacher from Malang to whom Naim had links, before his ambition outgrew the influence of the iman. Jakarta police chief Tito Karnavian told CNN that Naim went to Syria after he got out of prison. He was apprehended by Indonesian authorities in 2010 for illegal possession of ammunition and was brought to justice, the police chief said. Naim was sentenced to at least 2½ years behind bars. READ MORE: Is ISIS’ presence in South-East Asia overstated? Related video Terrorism expert: We were caught off guard by attacks The police chief did not provide additional details on Naim’s life, but Sidney Jones, director of the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, filled on some of the blanks in an email to CNN. Based on her account, Naim was born September 6, 1983 in Pekalongan, Indonesia. He grew up in Solo and studied computer technology in college. Naim was reportedly close to the son of Abu Bakar Bashir, the radical Indonesian cleric who founded Jemaah Islamiyah, the group that orchestrated the 2002 and 2005 Bali bombings. Maim is said to have joined Hizbut Tahrir, a conservative Islamic group, but then left the group. The ammunition that Naim was arrested for in 2010 was used by men involved in an attack on police in Central Java, according to Jones. Two years after his release he, and his secret wife, pharmacy student Siti Lestari, fled to Syria. He left behind an existing wife, and two children. From Syria, Naim financed an ultimately unsuccessful, inept attempt at a series of bomb attacks in Solo. He later sent money to would-be jihadists looking to travel to Syria. Police arrested several men, included a Uighur whom the Indonesians had persuaded to be a suicide bomber, but several remained at large. READ MORE: Jakarta attacks: Indonesians share defiant message of ‘We are not afraid’ Jones says that, while living in Solo, he developed a reputation as a radical teacher and maintained an active blog. Following Thursday’s attack, an Indonesian anti-terror source told CNN it was “highly possible” a particular blog is run by Naim himself or by people posting on his behalf. The blog, written entirely in Bahasa Indonesia, contains ISIS teachings, posts on how to conduct terror attacks, lessons learned from the Paris attacks, how to avoid intelligence surveillance, how to make homemade pistols and how to conduct guerrilla warfare in cities. Authorities in Indonesia have been monitoring the blog for two years, the anti-terror source said. CNN’s Ivan Watson and Judy Kwon contributed to this report.


When asked about military action, Trump responded: "I don't know. I mean, we'll see." Trump cast the launch as a direct snub of China President Donald Trump has refused to rule out the use of military force against North Korea, just hours after Pyongyang launched a missile test in defiance of international pressure. In an interview for CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Trump downplayed the significance of North Korea’s “small missile launch,” which occurred early Saturday. But when asked by host John Dickerson if he would consider military action in response to another nuclear test, Trump responded: “I don’t know. I mean, we’ll see.” Still, Trump expressed tepid admiration for North Korea’s leader. “People are saying, ‘Is he sane?’ I have no idea,” the President said, before noting Kim Jong Un’s rise to power at a young age. “So obviously, he’s a pretty smart cookie,” he said. “But we have a situation that we just cannot let – we cannot let what’s been going on for a long period of years continue.” Later, when asked at during a factory tour before a rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to mark his 100th day in office what his message on North Korea is, Trump told reporters: “You’ll soon find out, won’t you?” Pressed on whether that meant military action, Trump said, “You’ll soon find out.” The missile launched Saturday blew up over land in North Korean territory, said US Navy Cmdr. Dave Benham, a spokesman for the US Pacific Command. Trump cast the launch as a direct snub of China, one of North Korea’s only allies and a nation seen by the Trump administration as a potential US ally in efforts to stamp out Pyongyang’s nuclear program. “North Korea disrespected the wishes of China & its highly respected President when it launched, though unsuccessfully, a missile today. Bad!” Trump tweeted after the launch. North Korea disrespected the wishes of China & its highly respected President when it launched, though unsuccessfully, a missile today. Bad! Pyongyang’s show of defiance, at a time when its military ambition has reached its highest level in years, came just hours after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson addressed a special meeting at the United Nations and called for increased pressure on North Korea. “All options for responding to future provocations must remain on the table,” Tillerson said. “Diplomatic and financial leverage or power will be backed up by willingness to counteract North Korean aggression with military action, if necessary.” The launch was swiftly condemned by South Korean and Japanese leaders. South Korea’s foreign ministry called it a “provocative action,” saying it clearly violated UN Security Council resolutions and constituted a serious threat to peace and security. North Korea has filed a number of missiles this year, with mixed success. The most recent two – fired on April 16 and April 29 – both failed. Related video N. Korea learns with every 'failed' missile Each launch, however, gives North Korea information about way to improve, though the primary concern is if and when it will conduct a sixth nuclear test. North Korea is believed to be refining the technology to mount a nuclear warhead on an intercontinental missile which could potentially reach US targets. In a rare interview with CNN last week, a North Korean official said the country’s nuclear tests would “never stop.” “As long as America continues its hostile acts of aggression, we will never stop nuclear and missile tests,” said Sok Chol Won, director of North Korea’s Institute of Human Rights at the Academy of Social Sciences. North Korea on Saturday said it is developing nuclear weapons for self-defense and as a deterrent to the United States, according to an unofficial translation of a statement released by an official in Pyongyang’s mission to the UN. The statement, which came in response to CNN’s questions about the latest launch, did not acknowledge Saturday’s missile test. North Korea has urged an end to joint US-South Korea military exercises, which China also says should be halted in exchange for Pyongyang dismantling its weapons program. The US says that’s not going to happen, citing the need to be prepared.


Trump attended a bilateral meeting with Duterte He raised human rights concerns in the context of Duterte's war on drugs, Sanders said President Donald Trump and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who lavished pleasantries on each other during public appearances in Manila Monday, “briefly” discussed human rights and the Philippine’s bloody war on drugs during their closed-door conversation, the White House said. But a spokesman for the controversial Philippine President told reporters that “human rights did not arise” during the meeting. Trump has largely eschewed public talk of human rights issues on his trip through Asia, despite the United States harboring long-held grievances with how countries in the region have treated their citizens. In Manila, the two leaders ignored shouted questions from reporters on the issue. “The conversation focused on ISIS, illegal drugs and trade. Human rights briefly came up in the context of the Philippines’ fight against illegal drugs,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said. Related article Trump seeks to strike diplomatic balance with Philippines' Duterte Duterte’s spokesman Harry Roque told CNN, however, that the topic “was not brought up,” adding that Duterte brought up the “drug menace” in the Philippines and that Trump “appeared sympathetic and did not have any official position on the matter but was merely nodding his head.” White House officials did not respond when asked for clarity on what was discussed during the 40-minute during the meeting. When reporters began shouting questions during a photo spray at the beginning of the meeting, Duterte said: “We are not answering, this is not a press statement … We are in a bilateral meeting.” “We will be discussing matters that are of interest to both the Philippines and (the US) … with you around, guys, you are the spies,” Duterte joked, eliciting laughter from Trump. Duterte, as part of an effort to rid the Philippines of drug users, has publicly cheered on and inspired thousands of extrajudicial killings during his time in office, drawing scorn from human rights organizations. The Philippine President has embraced his image as a tough-on-crime leader, even bragging that he personally killed someone when he was younger. Trump’s public remarks in Manila, however, focused far more on the pomp and circumstance bestowed on him during his 5-country, 13-day trip through Asia. “It’s a red carpet like nobody, I think, has probably ever seen,” Trump said, standing alongside the Australian and Japanese prime ministers. “And that really is a sign of respect, perhaps for me a little bit, but really, for our country.” Though he has yet to make any major news on the trade front – a key policy focus of his trip – Trump teased he would make an announcement in a White House statement scheduled for Wednesday. Trump and Duterte spoke multiple times throughout the two-day ASEAN summit, including sharing a toast on Sunday night that was the front page of newspapers in Manila. Some 1,500 to 2,000 demonstrators also hit the streets on Monday, speaking out against Trump’s visit, according to a police estimate shared with CNN, many of whom appeared to be from the far-left. While the two spoke fondly of one another in public, Sanders noted Trump did raise human rights concerns in private, regarding Duterte’s war on drugs. Duterte’s controversial “drug war” – which has killed anywhere at least 6,000 people, according to police estimates – has drawn international scorn and was expected to test Trump’s penchant for diplomatic flattery. The primary reason for concern among human rights organizations is that Duterte has fully embraced Trump’s style, and Philippine officials, possibly in an attempt to woo the President, have said that the two leaders have a great deal in common. Roque told CNN before the visit that he sees Trump and Duterte as “very much alike in their thinking, their language and demeanor.” Phelim Kine, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division and an expert on Duterte’s extrajudicial campaign, told CNN that the incongruity helps is a win for the Philippine leaders, allowing his officials to spin the meeting as validation. “That gives Duterte’s craven spin-doctors wide latitude to deny that criticism even occurred,” Kine said. “What is unquestionable here is that the US President has passed on a golden opportunity to publicly show solidarity with the Philippine people by expressing concern about those thousands of deaths and to reproach Duterte’s utter trashing of the concept of rule of law,” he added. Trump had previously praised Duterte’s crackdowns. “I just wanted to congratulate you because I am hearing of the unbelievable job on the drug problem,” Trump told the Philippine President in their first call earlier this year, according to a leaked transcript obtained by The Washington Post. Trump did not raise human rights issues in the call. But a senior Trump administration official later tried to walk back Trump’s comment, saying he wasn’t condoning violence and human rights violations but was nodding to the United State’s drug issues. Even as the drug crackdown has led to sweeping violence and discord in the Philippines, Duterte has embraced his image, including by recently bragging that he has personally killed people. “When I was a teenager, I was in and out of jail. One fight there, another here,” he said this week in Vietnam ahead of the recent Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting. “At the age of 16, I killed someone.” A spokesman for the Philippine President said later that he thought the comment “was in jest.” Leaders in the Philippines view Trump’s visit, though, as a step forward in US-Philippine relations because former President Barack Obama’s relationship with Duterte at the end of his presidency was tense and frayed. Duterte made slamming Obama a key aspect of his interactions with the United States, including calling the former president a “son of a bitch” and stating that he could “go to hell.” Days before Trump’s visit, Duterte reportedly even told an audience in Vietnam that that Obama was “so black” and “arrogant.” This story has been updated.


Ninalee Craig appears in iconic photo "An American Girl in Italy" She says the photo represents independence, not harassment People tend to wonder if the iconic photo of Ninalee Craig was staged. It’s the question she hears most often. To some, the scene in the black and white photo from another era is almost too perfect. Craig, 23 at the time, breezes past clusters of men on a sidewalk in Florence, Italy, head held high as if impervious to their ogling as she grasps her shawl and handbag. Now 89, Craig insists the answer is no, still no. “It’s the real McCoy.” The next most frequent question is one Craig has been trying to move past for as long as the photo has been in the public eye: Was she afraid? Was she upset that she could not walk down the street in peace? Again, the answer is no. “I was thrilled. I was having the time of my life,” Craig says. “I was Beatrice walking through the streets of Florence. I felt that at any moment I might be discovered by Dante himself.” For all its controversy, photographer Ruth Orkin’s “An American Girl in Italy” has long been a fixture in women’s dorm rooms and homes, an instant conversation starter about feminism and street harassment long before the term came into use. Craig and Orkin’s daughter Mary Engel, who represents the deceased American photographer’s estate, say the photo is more relevant now than ever for what it truly represents: independence, freedom and self-determination. After all, that was the point of the photo to begin with. Craig met Orkin in Florence in 1951, a time when it was unusual to find Americans in Europe, especially women traveling solo. Craig had saved up money from a teaching job in New York. Taking her mother’s advice, she planned to travel Europe until the money ran out. She had visited France, Spain and England before settling in Florence to take art classes. Orkin had just wrapped up a shoot in Israel for Life magazine. The two met at the American Express office, the place for sending letters and telegrams, making phone calls and exchanging money before the era of mass telecommunications. The women reveled in meeting each other, especially when they discovered they were staying in the same hotel for $1 a night (meals included). As they bonded over their shared passion for travel, Orkin proposed a photo shoot portraying their adventures. “Ruth said, ‘Hey, you know what, I could probably make a bit of money if we horse around and show what it’s like to be a woman alone,’” Craig recalls. The two hit the streets of Florence the next morning around 10 a.m. The shot of Craig passing by the men was one of the first Orkin snapped. She followed it up with another shot from a different angle before the two continued on to capture familiar scenes from Italy: cafes, statues, piazzas, cobblestone streets. The shoot took about two hours and the pair went their separate ways, though not for long. As those rare Americans in Europe, they bumped into each other again in Paris and Venice and took more photos for Orkin’s series. The photos ran in Cosmopolitan magazine in 1952 in a photo essay, “When You Travel Alone…”, offering tips on “money, men and morals to see you through a gay trip and a safe one.” The article encourages readers to buy ship and train tickets ahead of time. It reminds them to bring their birth certificate and check in with the State Department. The caption on the photo of Craig walking down the street reflects cultural mores of the era. “Public admiration … shouldn’t fluster you. Ogling the ladies is a popular, harmless and flattering pastime you’ll run into in many foreign countries. The gentlemen are usually louder and more demonstrative than American men, but they mean no harm.” It’s a far cry from what we tell women these days, but for its time the mere notion of encouraging women to travel alone was progressive. That’s what made the photos so special, Craig says. They offered a rare glimpse of two women – behind and in front of the camera – challenging the era’s gender roles and loving every minute of it. “I look at it and I’m taken right back and it was wonderful,” she says. “I was an art student. I was  carefree. I was 23 and the world was my oyster.” For most of the 20th century, Craig was known by a nickname, Jinx Allen. Then, in the 1980s, the photo was featured in “Life” magazine and her identity was revealed. In the interim she’d lived what she calls multiple lives, first as a countess in Italy through marrying an Italian, then as the wife of a Canadian steel company executive. After her second husband died she was drawn to Toronto’s emerging arts scene and found her home there. Forty years on, she jokingly calls herself “the Canadian girl” instead of the American. She delights in talking about her six months in Europe and meeting Orkin, a kindred soul whose photos of her capture the spirit of the era – especially that iconic photo. The two eventually reunited in the United States and became lifelong friends, until Orkin’s death in 1985. “She was an amazing woman,” Craig says of Orkin. “We had a grand time.”

Ruth Orkin's photograph "An American Girl in Italy"


Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in 2013. Seoul-born Japanese architect Toyo Ito wins highest prize for architecture Ito oversaw reconstruction projects in Japan following the 2011 tsunami His firm is currently working on projects in Taiwan, Singapore and Japan Seoul-born, 71-year-old Japanese architect Toyo Ito is this year’s recipient of the industry’s most coveted prize. On Monday, the architect was announced the 2013 Pritzker Architecture Prize winner, joining past Pritzker Laureates that include Frank Gehry, Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. “As I did not expect it, I felt really grateful and honored to be awarded the prize,” Ito told CNN. In addition to his abstract, beautiful buildings, the Tokyo-based architect is also known for his extensive work on communal centers as part of the reconstruction in Japan following the 2011 tsunami. Ito, whose family ran a miso (bean paste) factory following his father’s early death when Ito was 12, has said he wasn’t interested in architecture as a youth. He began taking an interest while attending the University of Tokyo. Throughout his career, Ito’s designs have been unusual, vivid and minimalistic – from the aluminum house he designed for his sister to the Sendai Mediatheque in Miyagi, Japan, which he describes as his professional highlight. The Pritzker committee jury raved about his lifework of defying standard distinctions. It will officially bestow its award at a ceremony in Boston on May 29. Together with the 40 employees of his namesake firm, Toyo Ito & Associates, the architect is currently working on projects in Taiwan, Singapore and Japan. “I travel 50 to 60 times per year for work,” says Ito. “I love any place where I work.” At Princeton in 2009, he lectured on the development of the grid system in architecture, pointing out that while the system allows for rapid construction, “it also made the world’s cities homogenous” and that “it made the people living and working there homogenous, too.” His design aesthetic is “modifying the grid slightly” so buildings can have closer relationships to their environment. “Not fixing my style, I keep extending the possibilities of architecture,” he told CNN. “In other words, I would like to unbridle architecture from various restrictions and give it more freedom.” The photo gallery above illustrates how Ito is changing and influencing landscapes of cities around the world. 1. Sendai Mediatheque, 2-1 Kasugamachi, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan; +82 22 713 3171; open daily 9 a.m.-10 p.m., closed every fourth Thursday; www.smt.jp 3. Matsumoto Performing Arts Centre, Fukashi, Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, Japan; +81 263 33 3800; www.mpac.jp 7. Tama Art University Library (Hachioji campus), 2-1723 Yarimizu,Hachioji,Tokyo; +81 42 676 8611; open daily 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; www.tamabi.ac.jp 8. Za-Koenji Public Theatre, 2-1-2 Koenji-Kita, Suginami-ku, Tokyo; +81 3 3223 7300; za-koenji.jp 9. Main Stadium for 2009 World Games, No. 100, Shìyùn Blvd, Zuoying District, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan;+886 7 582 9000; open daily 8:30 a.m.-6 p.m.; www.nssac.gov.tw 10. Toyo Ito Museum of Architecture, 2418 Urado, Omishima-machi, Imabari, Ehime, Japan; +81 897 74 7220; open Tuesday-Friday 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; www.tima-imabari.jp


President Donald Trump insisted that a 2016 meeting in Trump Tower was about adoption policy – after knowledge of the confab became public – even though it was likely that reporters had evidence it was set to obtain dirt on Hillary Clinton, a new book on his presidency says. The book by Michael Wolff has come under fire by the White House, which has dismissed it as “complete fantasy,” and quotes in the book attributed to former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon have led to Trump unloading on the former top aide. CNN obtained a copy of the book, and in one section, Wolff writes that Trump insisted on an incorrect narrative of what happened in a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower in New York that Donald Trump Jr., then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, had with a Russian lawyer and several others. Wolff writes, “The President insisted that the meeting in Trump Tower was purely and simply about Russian adoption policy. That’s what was discussed, period. Period. Even though it was likely, if not certain, that the Times had the incriminating email chain – in fact, it was quite possible that Jared and Ivanka and the lawyers knew the Times had this email chain – the president ordered that no one should let on to the more problematic discussion about Hillary Clinton.” CNN has not independently confirmed Wolff’s assertions. The New York Times reported on the meeting last year, and the initial statement from Trump Jr. was misleading, saying the meeting was simply about Russian adoption policy – an issue tied to a US law hitting Russia. Shortly after the initial statement, the Times reported Trump Jr. was “promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton before agreeing to meet with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer.” Trump Jr. then issued a new statement saying the Russian lawyer had “no meaningful information.” After that, Trump Jr. published what he said was the entire email exchange that had led up to the meeting, which the Times had obtained prior to his publication. The exchange showed a publicist offered Trump Jr. potentially incriminating information on Clinton as “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.” “If it’s what you say I love it,” Trump Jr. said in the chain. Jay Sekulow, one of President Trump’s attorneys, said the President was not involved in drafting the statement. But The Washington Post reported later last year that President Trump had dictated the initial misleading statement for his son while flying back to Washington from the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, aboard Air Force One. After that, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump “weighed in as any father would, based on the limited information that he had.” CORRECTION: This story has been corrected to state that Paul Manafort was present at the Trump Tower meeting, not Steve Bannon. CNN’s Emma Lacey-Bordeaux contributed to this report.


Defense Ministry says installations are mainly for self defense "Beijing is serious about defense of its artificial islands," think tank says New satellite imagery indicates that China has installed weapon systems on all seven artificial islands it has built in the contested waters of the South China Sea. It’s a move that’s likely to alarm the country’s neighbors and further unsettle ties with the United States, where President-elect Donald Trump has shown himself increasingly willing to confront and challenge Beijing. The images, released by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, show anti-aircraft guns plus other weapons systems that would guard against cruise missiles sitting in hexagonal structures on the islands. China has already built military-length airstrips on three of these artificial islands, previous analysis by the AMTI, part of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), has shown. China’s Defense Ministry said the military installations were proper and lawful, and mainly for self-defense. “If others are flexing their military muscles at your doorstep, are you not even supposed to have a slingshot in hand just in case?” a statement said. The organization’s findings come despite a pledge from China’s leadership that it has no intention of militarizing the islands. Showdown in the South China Sea: How we got here Since winning the presidency, Trump has seemingly rewritten US foreign policy on the fly. He took a phone call from Taiwan’s president, upending decades of diplomatic protocol and questioned the long-standing US position that the Taiwan is part of “one China.” “All the indications we’ve seen since the election imply that he will be a more hawkish president vis-a-vis China,” said Ashley Townshend, a research fellow at United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. “We don’t know yet entirely what his South China Sea policy will be but many of his advisers have been critical of the Obama’s administration for being too weak,” he added. The think tank said that the weapon emplacements showed that “Beijing is serious about defense of its artificial islands in case of an armed contingency in the South China Sea.” “Among other things, they would be the last line of defense against cruise missiles launched by the United States or others against these soon-to-be-operational air bases,” it added. Geng Shuang, a spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the islands were part of “China’s inherent territories” and it was quite normal to deploy “defense facilities” there. AMTI said the weapons systems observed on the three largest islands – Fiery Cross, Mischief and Subi reefs  – that China has built in the Spratlys were an evolution of smaller fortifications it had observed on the four other reefs China has reclaimed land at – Gaven, Hughes, Johnson, and Cuarteron reefs. “It gives every impression of being a land-based attempt to put close-in weapons systems, that you would normally find on a naval ship, on a concrete superstructure on these features to provide some sort of close-in, last-ditch…. rapid-firing weapons system to try and defeat approaching cruise missiles,” retired US Adm. Michael McDevitt of the Center for Naval Analyses told AMTI in a podcast. Some have called the islands China’s “unsinkable aircraft carriers.” China has already deployed surface-to-air missiles on Woody Island, part of the Paracel island chain – to the west of the Spratlys in the hotly disputed sea. According to the US, China has reclaimed more than 3,000 acres in the Spratly Islands since the beginning of 2014. Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan have also reclaimed land in the South China Sea, but their land grab – the US says approximately 100 acres over 45 years – is dwarfed by China’s massive, recent buildup. The Philippines, which lies geographically closest to the Spratlys, has troops stationed in the area, as do other claimants. The US takes no position on the territorial dispute in the South China Sea but its warships have conducted “freedom of navigation” operations near the reclaimed islands, eliciting warnings from Beijing. US Adm. Harry Harris, commander of US Pacific Command, said Wednesday that the US stood ready to confront Beijing over the contested waters. “I’ve also been loud and clear that we will not allow the shared domains to be closed down unilaterally - no matter how many bases are built on artificial features in the South China Sea,” he said in a speech in Sydney. “I say this often but it’s worth repeating – we will cooperate where we can and be ready to confront where we must.” CNN’s Tim Schwarz and Steven Jiang contributed to this report.


Minnesota is often associated with snow, lakes and Prince. Somalis and camel burgers? Not so much. Most people aren’t aware that Minneapolis is home to the largest Somali community in the United States. In 2015, the Minnesota State Demographic Center reported that 57,000 Minnesotans claimed Somali ancestry, while 31,000 were born in Somalia. Refugees fleeing the civil war in the early ’90s account for the first waves, with the majority settling in the Twin Cities. Despite the state’s unforgiving winters, new arrivals were drawn by an existing network of previously settled Somalis and nonprofit resettlement agencies. Job opportunities and the lower cost of living factored in as well. The result is a vibrant, growing community where one can find two Somali malls, stores and restaurants. Many of these exist in an area that’s become known as Little Mogadishu. Among the Somali transplants is Sade Hashi, the successful owner of Safari Express, a popular spot for Somali cuisine in Midtown Global Market. To the uninitiated, food from this East African nation is actually a blend of African, Indian, Middle Eastern and even Italian dishes. The diversity is a result of ancient trade routes and Italian colonial rule. At Safari Express, customers can find items such as sambusa, which is similar to an Indian samosa except with a thinner dough that’s filled with ground beef, cilantro and cumin. But the camel burger is the real star. Wearing a T-shirt that proclaims, “Keep calm and eat camel,” Hashi cautions, “Camel doesn’t taste anything close to chicken.” Instead, he compares its lean, gamey meat to bison. The one-humped dromedary is a staple of Somalian cooking. The camel meat is imported from Australia, where large herds roam free; their large numbers have taxed the local ecosystem. Since it was added to the menu, the camel burger has become a popular item among Somalis and non-Somalis alike. In fact, aside from the pineapple topping, it could almost pass for a regular hamburger. But it’s not the only Somali specialty worth consuming. One of Hashi’s favorite dishes is the Chicken Fantastic. It was invented at Safari Express, but it is also served at Afro Deli, a casual St. Paul eatery. The grilled chicken is plated over basmati rice and covered in a creamy coconut sauce. You can also get sambusas as the perfect side. Another favorite is Barwaaqo Juice & Coffee Shop for the Somalian version of chai, which is made with cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, milk and loose tea leaves. Hashi enjoys it so much he stops by up to three times a day. “The food, the culture, it adds a lot of dynamic value in this town,” says Hashi. “It’s richer because of it.” Meredith Rosenberg is a New Jersey-based travel writer for the Travel Channel, Conde Nast Traveler and more.


Iraq stages an offensive against ISIS in Tikrit ISIS has generally controlled Tikrit since 2014 Iraqi forces are doubling down efforts to retake the city of Tikrit from ISIS, even uniting Sunni and Shiite fighters in the mission. The Iraqi army, along with Sunni and Shiite militiamen, attacked ISIS strongholds in the area Monday, the state-run Iraqiya TV reported. Iraqi warplanes and helicopters are also striking targets in and around Tikrit. It’s part of a wide-scale offensive ordered by Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Sunday. Tikrit fell to ISIS in June of 2014, after the group’s capture of Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul. Tikrit is best known to Westerners as the birthplace of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. ISIS, the radical Sunni militant group, has been on a murderous campaign to establish a caliphate across swaths of Iraq and Syria. Related video Key battlegrounds in fight against ISIS Iraqi forces approached Tikrit from several fronts, Iraqiya TV reported, engaging with ISIS north of the city at al-Alam and south of the city at al-Dour. The element of surprise probably was not a factor, as reports of Iraqi troops amassing near Tikrit were widely shared. What awaits the Iraqi army is most likely a long, hard slog and not a quick rout. Tikrit is a big city, and the army and its associated militias have had problems recapturing much smaller towns from ISIS. There have been several failed attempts to recapture Tikrit since the second half of 2014. While Iraqi forces have gained some territory in the area, it has generally been under ISIS control for the last eight months or so. The joint Iraqi forces fighting to retake Tikrit include Iraqi troops, members of the Shia al-Hashed al-Shaabi militia, members of the Sunni Sons of Salahuddin brigades, and other Sunni tribal fighters. The offensive involves around 30,000 fighters in all. Al-Abadi, who is also commander in chief of the armed forces, said on Twitter that he will “oversee the operation to liberate Tikrit” from ISIS. In short, this is the biggest test for an army trying to claw back territory that fell to ISIS last summer after a string of dramatic defeats. Last June, Tikrit was the scene of the bloodiest massacre ever perpetrated by ISIS militants. They captured more than a thousand Iraqi soldiers, who laid down their arms and donned civilian clothing in an attempt to flee a base once used by U.S. forces. ISIS subsequently executed as many as 1,700 soldiers, and posted the video of the killing online. There is concern that Iraqi forces, eager for revenge, may kill combatants and civilians alike. The U.N.’s envoy to Iraq, Nickolay Mladenov, urged all armed forces in Tikrit to do their utmost to spare civilians. U.S. and other coalition troops have been conducting a crash course to retrain and upgrade the Iraqi army, and several thousand Iraqi troops have passed through the course. This offensive will tell whether that training has made a difference. The offensive also highlights the role played by neighboring Iran in the fight against ISIS. The semiofficial Iranian FARS news agency reports that Qassim Sulaimani, the commander of the elite Iranian Al-Quds Brigade, is helping oversee the operation to retake Tikrit. Iran has provided advisers, weapons and ammunition to the Iraqi government. If the offensive succeeds, it means that retaking Mosul, a city 10 times bigger, is possible. But Tikrit is almost 200 kilometers (124 miles) south of Mosul, and much of the territory in between is under ISIS control. Al-Abadi has said the immediate goal is to liberate Salah ad-Din province, of which Tikrit is the capital, and then focus on adjacent Al-Anbar province, a similarly Sunni-dominated province. After that, retaking Mosul is an option. If, however, the Tikrit offensive fails, it could spell disaster for Baghdad. There will be political recriminations, the already fragile morale of the Iraqi army could collapse, the Kurdish autonomous region could decide to break from Iraq, and it would provide ISIS with a victory it hasn’t seen since last summer. Ben Wedeman reported from Irbil, and Mariano Castillo reported from Atlanta. CNN’s Yousuf Basil, Holly Yan, Kareem Khadder, Hamdi Alkhshali and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.


NEW: Abducted US aid worker has 29 years' experience working in Niger, group says Assailants stormed the aid worker's home in Abalak, Niger's interior ministry says Armed assailants abducted a US aid worker from his home Friday night in the West African nation of Niger, killing a police officer and a guard before fleeing west toward neighboring Mali, Niger’s interior ministry said. Witnesses in Abalak described the abductors forcing the aid worker to strip down to his undergarments before putting him in their four-wheel drive vehicle, a government source told CNN on condition of anonymity. The source said removing clothes from hostages was a usual practice of terrorist groups trying to avoid being tracked. Authorities are taking all necessary measures to locate the American and his abductors, including imposing a heavy military presence between Abalak and the border with Mali, said the source, who was not authorized to speak publicly. The assailants stormed the aid worker’s home, the interior ministry said. The slain guard was the aid worker’s bodyguard, according to the source. The American had been working with the locally based aid organization JEMED, said a spokesman for Youth With a Mission, which is affiliated with the group. The aid worker has 29 years’ experience in Niger, spokesman Pete Thompson told CNN. “It is not known where he has been taken and no group has yet claimed responsibility for his abduction. His family have been informed and the US government is tracking the situation. Out of respect for his family no name is being released at this stage,” he said. The kidnapping marked the first time a foreigner had been abducted in the area, the government source said. There has been no claim of responsibility so far. The US State Department said it was aware of reports of the kidnapping. “The safety and security of US citizens overseas is among our highest priorities. We have no further information to offer at this time,” a department representative said. The State Department warns against travel to Niger due to the threat from terrorist groups in the region. “Terrorist groups have called for and executed attacks against countries that supported the intervention against terrorist groups in northern Mali, including Niger,” its advisory says. Boko Haram is active in the country, and there is also a threat from al Qaeda, it says. “The terrorist organization Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has kidnapped Europeans in the region and continues to threaten to kidnap Westerners, including US citizens, in Niger,” the State Department warns. CNN’s Susannah Cullinane contributed to this report.


Editor’s Note: CNN.com is showcasing the work of Mosaic, a digital publication that explores the science of life. It’s produced by the Wellcome Trust, a global charitable foundation that supports research in biology, medicine and the medical humanities, with the goal of improving human and animal health. The content is produced solely by Mosaic, and we will be posting some of its most thought-provoking work. The regions of the brain involved with language are not straightforward Different words have been shown to trigger different regions of the brain The human brain can grow when people learn new languages If you read a sentence (such as this one) about kicking a ball, neurons related to the motor function of your leg and foot will be activated in your brain. Similarly, if you talk about cooking garlic, neurons associated with smelling will fire up. Since it is almost impossible to do or think about anything without using language – whether this entails an internal talk-through by your inner voice or following a set of written instructions – language pervades our brains and our lives like no other skill. For more than a century, it’s been established that our capacity to use language is usually located in the left hemisphere of the brain, specifically in two areas: Broca’s area (associated with speech production and articulation) and Wernicke’s area (associated with comprehension). Damage to either of these, caused by a stroke or other injury, can lead to language and speech problems or aphasia, a loss of language. In the past decade, however, neurologists have discovered it’s not that simple: language is not restricted to two areas of the brain or even just to one side, and the brain itself can grow when we learn new languages. More recent findings show that words are associated with different regions of the brain according to their subject or meaning. Neurologists aiming to make a three-dimensional atlas of words in the brain scanned the brains of people while they listened to several hours of radio. Different words triggered different parts of the brain, and the results show a broad agreement on which brain regions are associated with which word meanings – although just a handful of people were scanned for the study. Those taking part were all native English speakers listening to English. The next step will be to see where meaning is located for people listening in other languages – previous research suggests words of the same meaning in different languages cluster together in the same region – and for bilinguals. Related article Raising bilingual children has its benefits and doubters Bilingual people seem to have different neural pathways for their two languages, and both are active when either language is used. As a result, bilinguals are continuously suppressing one of their languages – subconsciously – in order to focus and process the relevant one. The first evidence for this came out of an experiment in 1999, in which English–Russian bilinguals were asked to manipulate objects on a table. In Russian, they were told to “put the stamp below the cross”. But the Russian word for stamp is “marka”, which sounds similar to “marker”, and eye-tracking revealed that the bilinguals looked back and forth between the marker pen and the stamp on the table before selecting the stamp. And it seems the different neural patterns of a language are imprinted in our brains for ever, even if we don’t speak it after we’ve learned it. Scans of Canadian children who had been adopted from China as preverbal babies showed neural recognition of Chinese vowels years later, even though they didn’t speak a word of Chinese. See the latest news and share your comments with CNN Health on Facebook and Twitter. So whether we “lose” a language through not speaking it or through aphasia, it may still be there in our minds, which raises the prospect of using technology to untangle the brain’s intimate nests of words, thoughts and ideas, even in people who can’t physically speak. Neurologists are already having some success: one device can eavesdrop on your inner voice as you read in your head, another lets you control a cursor with your mind, while another even allows for remote control of another person’s movements through brain-to-brain contact over the internet, bypassing the need for language altogether. For some people, such as those with locked-in syndrome or motor neurone disease, bypassing speech problems to access and retrieve their mind’s language directly would be truly transformative. This article first appeared on Mosaic and stems from the longer feature: Why being bilingual helps keep your brain fit.


In 1984, Bill Gadoury joined the U.S. Embassy in Laos with the task of finding U.S. airmen who are missing in action His team has identified the remains of 271 airmen, but 302 are still unaccounted for For 45 years, Bill Gadoury has been looking for answers. During the Vietnam War, Gadoury served for a year in Thailand and then moved to Laos to help brief commanders about pilots and crew members who never returned from their missions. In 1984, he joined the U.S. Embassy in Laos with the task of finding U.S. airmen who are missing in action. On Monday, he was recognized by Secretary of State John Kerry, also a Vietnam War veteran, for dedicating his life to searching for the remains of U.S. servicemen who were never recovered. Today he leads three teams, 58 people all, looking for remains – a much smaller contingent than is looking for those MIA in Vietnam. It is painstaking work excavating wartime crash sites, often in dangerous terrain, before identifying and repatriating remains back to the U.S. Gadoury last saw Kerry 24 years ago when he testified before the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs, which Kerry used to co-chair along with Arizona Sen. John McCain, who was himself a prisoner of war during Vietnam. The panel was convened under President George H.W. Bush to investigate the fate of U.S. service personnel listed as missing in action. “He was our link to possibilities and to realities,” Kerry said of Gadoury when the two men met again Monday in a hotel in Laos. Kerry and Gadoury reminisced about their time flying over Laos in 1992 looking for remains during Kerry’s first fact finding trip to the Southeast Asian nation. Related video An airman left behind for 45 years, but not forgotten READ: Family’s anguish in 45-year search for MIA pilot “You remember flying around in that Russian helicopter, holding your breath every second in the air,” Kerry recalled. He recollected that landing on a rice paddy was “beautiful and haunting. You could sort of feel a firefight around the corner.” Gadoury said that environment “gives you the sense of the terrain that we had to deal with back during the war, and what we were up against.” And he noted, “It’s the same terrain that we’re still up against now as we’re going back to try to locate and recover people.” A few seconds of quiet passed, with neither man saying a word, before they talked about the ongoing efforts and what work remained. Having identified the remains of 271 airmen, Gadoury said his team has 302 still unaccounted for, with solid leads on about half of those cases. He has 75 cases identified for excavation. With the easier sites in Laos examined, his teams have now moved into the mountains, where the terrain and weather make their job even more difficult. Gadoury hopes that within the next 10 to 15 years he can complete the mission and account for all of those lost. “Like World War II, I think in the end there’s going to be those cases that we just aren’t able to locate. There are no witnesses,” Gadoury acknowledged. “But we’ll do our best, like we’ve been trying so hard to do over the years.” Kerry called the effort the “largest, most comprehensive, most enduring examination of what happened to people in war in the history of warfare.” “I’m as proud of this as anything I’ve been engaged in,” Kerry said. “No country has ever done what we did. I don’t know of any other nation in the world that goes to the lengths we go in active duty, military people digging at active sites, pulling up the remains of a C-130, or helicopter, or something, in order to complete the mission.” Kerry’s visit to Laos, only the second by a U.S. secretary of state since John Foster Dulles in 1955, is part of an effort by the Obama administration to normalize relations with the nation after decades of postwar estrangement and mistrust. READ: Obama to push to clear leftover Vietnam-era bombs In addition to programs in health education and energy, the U.S. has been steadily increasing its funding to help Laos eliminate an estimated 75 million unexploded cluster bombs remaining from the U.S. bombing campaign during the Vietnam war. Ahead of his landmark visit to Laos this fall for the ASEAN summit, President Barack Obama is preparing to launch a major initiative to help Laos solve the unexploded ordnance problem once and for all, senior administration officials told CNN. The budding relationship between the U.S. and Laos and the growing U.S. investment in the country seems to be paying off. Gadoury said Monday that the Laotian government has become increasingly more cooperative on the MIA issue, asking U.S. officials to visit local sites like schools and clinics where remains are through to be located. “The people in those areas understand that we’re helping them and in return we hope that they will help us,” Gadoury said. At a separate session with embassy employees and their families, Kerry singled out the work of Gadoury and his team as “heroic.” “I would say that probably 99% of Americans don’t know that they’re here doing what they’re doing, but for a lot of Americans, this is one of the most important missions in the world because they’re still missing their loved ones and they don’t have closure,” Kerry said. “And people deserve and want closure. War has terrible, lingering scars, and where you have an ability to be able to address them, we should.”

U.S. efforts to recover missing in action (MIA) airmen in Laos


Russian President Vladimir Putin presides this week over the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, continuing a charm offensive that aims to revive Brand Russia. This year’s forum features high-profile guests: French President Emmanuel Macron is scheduled to participate, as are Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan and Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund. It’s the biggest international lineup for the St. Petersburg forum since before 2014, when Russia was hit with US and European economic sanctions over its annexation of the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea and support of a separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine. Related article Nerve agent treatment and recovery 'extremely painful,' poisoned Russian woman says Back then, Putin was snubbed by international leaders: At a G20 summit in November 2014, he got a cold shoulder from his counterparts, and cut short his visit. Putin and his inner circle went on to experience further friction with the West over interference in the 2016 US election, the Kremlin’s support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the poisoning of a Russian former spy and his daughter in the United Kingdom. Today, Putin is at the center of a whirl of geopolitical activity. Last week, he hosted German Chancellor Angela Merkel for talks on the situation in Ukraine and the Middle East. And on Monday, ahead of the St. Petersburg gathering, Putin hosted India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Kremlin’s message is clear: Russia is open for business, regardless of sanctions. In an interview with CNN’s John Defterios, Kirill Dmitriev – the chief executive of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, a sovereign wealth fund created by the Russian government – said “doomsday scenarios” of Russian economic collapse have not borne out, despite the current political confrontation with the US. “The Russian economy has 2% growth this year, the oil price is very stable and yes of course we have obvious difficulties in the relationship with the US, but we have great partners in Asia, great partners in the Middle East, President Macron and Prime Minister Abe are here visiting the St. Petersburg economic forum, so the forecasts that Russia is going to be isolated … have proven to be wrong,” he said. Dmitriev said that “pragmatic business dialogue” could help bridge some of the massive political gaps between Russia and the West. And that’s a message, interestingly, that resonates with what Jon Huntsman, the US ambassador to Moscow, recently said. Huntsman recently explained his participation in the forum, saying that business ties were a positive step toward improved relations with Russia. “Unfortunately, some commentators would have you believe that any US-Russian dialogue right now is somehow suspect,” he said. “I disagree.” While Huntsman said there were “a lot of questions regarding Russian behavior that Americans deserve answers to,” he added: “The fact is that dialogue represents the way forward, while mutual isolation will only drive us further apart. That’s why I’m going to SPIEF.” Talk of improved dialogue and high-profile visits at Putin’s economic forum doesn’t mean Russia is out of the woods, economically speaking. Russia is emerging from an economic slump brought on by sanctions and weak international prices for oil, its main revenue earner. The World Bank predicts modest gross domestic product growth for Russia of between 1.5% and 1.8% over the next three years. Related article 2016 Presidential Election Investigation Fast Facts And Russian entrepreneurs are not optimistic, particularly given the lack of systemic economic reform. In a recent survey released by state pollster VTsIOM, Russian entrepreneurs said their businesses were being adversely affected by Russia’s battered economy. According to the poll, around 63% of the executives surveyed said their company’s situation has deteriorated because of the current economic situation. And that, in turn, may explain why Russia has been measured in its response to new US sanctions. Russia’s parliament has advanced legislation to introduce countermeasures against countries that impose sanctions on Russia. Putin weighed in on the matter last week in his meeting with Merkel, signaling that such legislation need not drive away foreign investment. “It has to be balanced; it should not harm our own economy and those of our partners, who work honestly in Russia,” he said. “I am sure this will be the case.”


Princeton identifies man as Chinese-born Xiyue Wang, an American citizen and graduate student in history He was arrested and put on trial for "gathering information," Iranian news service says An American researcher has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after being convicted of spying, according to Iran. Princeton University identified the man as Chinese-born Xiyue Wang, an American citizen and graduate student in history. Wang was arrested in Iran last summer while doing scholarly research in connection with his Ph.D. dissertation, a university statement said. Earlier Sunday, the semi-official news agency Fars News, citing a video statement from Iranian judicial spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejheie, initially identified the convicted man’s nationality as Iranian-American. Later, Fars News, again citing Mohseni-Ejheie, said he was a citizen of the United States and a country other than Iran. The dates of Wang’s trial have not been disclosed. He was arrested and put on trial for “gathering information,” and the sentence can be appealed, said Mohseni-Ejheie, speaking in the Fars News video statement. According to Iranian law, a convicted person has 20 days to appeal a sentence. Since Wang’s arrest, Princeton officials said they have worked with his family, private counsel and others to aid his release. “We were very distressed by the charges brought against him in connection with his scholarly activities, and by his subsequent conviction and sentence,” Daniel Day, university spokesman said. “His family and the university are … hopeful that he will be released after his case is heard by the appellate authorities in Tehran.” A US State Department official told CNN they “are aware of reports regarding” Wang. Citing privacy reasons, the official declined to go into detail about specific consular cases. The State Department is calling for the immediate release of all citizens held unjustly in Iran, the official said. “The Iranian regime continues to detain US citizens and other foreigners on fabricated national-security-related changes,” the official said. “The safety and security of US citizens remains a top priority. All US citizens, especially dual nationals considering travel to Iran, should carefully read our latest travel warning.” Wang was born and raised in Beijing, he said in a talk he gave to a study abroad agency, and didn’t move abroad until he was 19. According to his biography on the Princeton University website, he earned a bachelor’s degree in South Asian studies from the University of Washington and studied Russian and Eurasian studies at Harvard University, where he did a fellowship from 2008 to 2009. After working at an accounting firm in Hong Kong for a year, Wang chose to move to Afghanistan to become a Pashto translator for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), according to Chinese-language tweets posted by ICRC in 2010. Princeton said Wang’s current field of study is late 19th and 20th century Eurasian history. His biography on the university website shows a man with a dry wit, a love for cooking Chinese dishes and traveling. “For better or worse, (Wang) still can’t tell you what exactly he has been studying in the many years that have passed,” the biography said. “What he does know is that his dream is to walk the ancient Silk Road from Xi’an to Rome one day.” He also loves learning languages, the biography said. Other Americans have been held in Iran on spying charges and convictions. In October 2016, San Diego resident Reza “Robin” Shahini was sentenced to 18 years in prison for spying. The US-Iranian citizen was visiting family in Gorgan, Iran. He was released on bail in April to await his appeal, The Center For Human Rights in Iran said. Fast Facts: Americans Detained in Other Countries Also in October 2016, Iran sentenced Iranian-Americans Baquer Namazi and his son Siamik to 10 years in prison and fined them $4.8 million for “collaborating with a foreign government,” according to Iran’s official news channel IRINN. Siamak Namazi had been arrested almost a year before. He was the first US citizen held since the Iranian nuclear program agreement. Four US prisoners were released last year by Iran as part of a prisoner swap granting clemency to seven Iranians indicted or imprisoned in the United States. In the same announcement Sunday, the Iranian judicial spokesman said the brother of President Hassan Rouhani was arrested on charges of “financial irregularities.” Hossein Ferydoon has been under investigation along with others, Mohseni- Ejheie said. It is unclear how long the investigation has been ongoing. Ferydoon can be released on bail as the investigation continues, Mohseni-Ejheie said. The amount of the bail wasn’t disclosed. CNN’s Steven Jiang, Serenitie Wang, Sarah Sirgany, Lauren Meier, Carma Hassan and Julie In contributed to this report.


Trump's remarks came after meeting with Republican congressional leaders and some members of his Cabinet at Camp David. His response comes after an explosive report in The New York Times published Thursday President Donald Trump told reporters at Camp David on Saturday that he still stands with Attorney General Jeff Sessions. “Yes, I do,” he responded when asked about Sessions by a reporter after meeting with Republican congressional leaders and some members of his Cabinet at Camp David. Trump’s response Saturday comes after an explosive report in The New York Times that special counsel Robert Mueller is aware of an unsuccessful attempt by Trump to lobby Sessions not to recuse himself from the Justice Department’s Russia probe. The Times, citing two people with knowledge of the episode, said Trump had ordered White House counsel Don McGahn last March to stop Sessions from recusing himself from oversight of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. A source close to Sessions confirmed to CNN on Friday that McGahn reached out to the attorney general in an attempt to dissuade him. Related article Others involved in effort to pressure Sessions to not recuse “The story by the way in the Times is way off, or at least off, but everything that I’ve done is 100% proper,” Trump said about the Times story. “That’s what I do, is I do things proper. The collusion now is dead because everyone found that after a year of study there’s been absolutely no collusion.” Sessions, whom the President once called “beleaguered,” did not attend the meeting Saturday at Camp David. White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said the Camp David retreat was focused on bringing congressional leadership together to discuss this year’s legislative agenda. “Therefore, the majority of the Cabinet is not attending,” she said. According to a list released by the White House, other Cabinet members also did not attend. Several Republican congressmen are calling for Sessions to resign following the report, criticizing Sessions’ handling of the department’s investigation into any possible role of Trump campaign aides in Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Utah Rep. Chris Stewart, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, was the latest to join the growing list of Republicans calling for Sessions’ resignation. “This is hard for me, it really is, because I think Jeff Sessions is one of the most honorable men in Washington, DC,” Stewart told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Friday afternoon. “But we have been weakened in our investigation into very important concerns at the Department of Justice and the FBI. Jeff Sessions is not able to take the reins and direct that investigation.” “We need the director there who can take the reins and be assertive in that,” Steward added. “He can’t do that when he is recused. I believe it may be time for him to step aside.”


"We've made that clear over and over," Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes said Netanyahu said Israelis are worried about a UN resolution recognizing a Palestinian state The Obama administration would veto any UN resolution that dictated a peace solution or recognized a Palestinian state, Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes said Wednesday. Rhodes was speaking hours after Secretary of State John Kerry strongly criticized Israel’s decision to build settlements in the West Bank, saying it was ruining the prospect of a Palestinian state. “So just to be clear here, when (Kerry) says, ‘These are not the choices we will make,’ which is kind of vague, is he saying that the US would veto any resolution in the UN which might dictate a peace solution or might recognize a Palestinian state?” CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Rhodes on “The Lead.” Ben Rhodes: The US would veto UN resolutions recognizing a Palestinian state https://t.co/xyotKBQXgq https://t.co/t6C986GsbG “Yes,” Rhodes responded. “We’ve made that clear over and over, Jake.” Rhodes continued, “We are focused on this one because the current trends on the ground, particularly the current Israeli settlement activity, is making a two-state solution potentially impossible and creating a reality where essentially what you have is a one-state solution where the West Bank is repeatedly occupied by Israeli settlements.” Earlier on Wednesday, Kerry warned that a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict is “now in serious jeopardy.” He also defended the US decision last week to abstain from a vote on a UN resolution condemning Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israelis are worried about a UN resolution recognizing a Palestinian state or codifying a peace process that the US would allow. He’s also said the US was behind last week’s UN resolution, an accusation Rhodes called a “distraction” on Wednesday. “Was there any prior contact between White House officials or State Department officials and either senior Egyptian or senior Palestinian officials separately regarding the resolution that the Egyptians put forward at the Security Council last week?” Tapper asked Rhodes. “I think it’s absurd that we are even talking about a report in an Egyptian tabloid of a meeting that never took place,” Rhodes responded. “What I can tell you with certainty is that we did not draft the resolution and put this resolution forward. This was something the Palestinians and Egyptians were working on for some time now.” He continued, “We own the fact that we abstained from this resolution because we believe that was the right thing … I think it is the Israeli government that is trying to have this distraction from the real debate.”


President Donald Trump erupted aboard Air Force One last week when he learned of the Justice Department’s efforts to quash the release of a classified memo alleging abuses by FBI and Justice Department officials, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to CNN. As he made his way to Davos, Switzerland, Trump fumed to aides about Associate Attorney General Stephen Boyd’s warning that the release of the memo – written by Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee – would be “extraordinarily reckless,” the source said. Bloomberg was first to report the incident. Related article Source: Trump inclined to allow Nunes memo to be released The White House has not explicitly called for the memo’s release, but White House officials have made clear that Trump will not stand in the way if the House Intelligence Committee votes to release it. Behind the scenes, White House officials made several calls to the Justice Department to tamp down the agency’s opposition to the release of the memo, which has been described as including damaging information about FBI and Justice Department officials, particularly as it pertains to the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Last week, White House chief of staff John Kelly spoke directly to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, making clear the President’s displeasure with the Justice Department’s opposition to the memo’s release. The incident aboard Air Force One is just the latest reported instance of Trump lashing out privately at Justice Department officials over matters concerning the special counsel’s investigation. Trump has repeatedly fumed about Sessions’ recusal from the investigation, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Andrew McCabe, the deputy FBI director who resigned Monday. The House Intelligence Committee is poised to vote on the memo’s release as early as Monday evening.


HIMARS is a truck-mounted system which can fire missiles as far as 300 kilometers It had been previously used to strike ISIS targets from positions in Turkey and Jordan The US military has moved its High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) from Jordan into southern Syria for the first time, positioning it near the US-Coalition training base at At Tanf, three US defense officials confirmed to CNN Tuesday. HIMARS, a truck-mounted system which can fire missiles as far as 300 kilometers, represents a major boost to US combat power near At Tanf, a location that has come under the spotlight following a series of recent coalition strikes against pro-regime forces operating in the area. While this is the first HIMARS deployment to southern Syria, a US official told CNN that this was not the first time HIMARS has been used in the country, with the system being deployed to the north to help the Syrian Democratic Forces in their offensives against ISIS. US Marines have also used M777 howitzers in support of SDF units fighting ISIS in northern Syria. HIMARS had been previously used to strike ISIS targets from firing positions in Turkey and Jordan. The system has also been deployed in Iraq to hit ISIS positions there. Related article US officials credit Russia for calming tense situation in Southern Syria The area around At Tanf has become a flashpoint in recent weeks between pro-regime forces and coalition troops advising local forces battling ISIS. Last week, a US F-15E jet shot down an Iranian-made pro-regime Shahed 129 drone that had dropped a “dud” munition near coalition forces patrolling near At Tanf, according to US officials. There were two additional US airstrikes against militia positions and vehicles inside the de-confliction zone around the base, plus another airstrike in May. Following the first strike against pro-regime forces in May, a spokesman for the military coalition fighting ISIS said that the military was reinforcing its position there. “We have increased our combat power in that area,” US Col. Ryan Dillon told reporters at the Pentagon earlier this month. Related article US-led coalition strikes pro-Syrian regime forces “We have increased our presence and our footprint and prepared for any threat that is presented by the pro-regime forces,” Dillon added. One defense official said that the HIMARS move was a response to actions by pro-regime forces, who have been deploying their own artillery near the perimeter of the 55-kilometer “de-confliction zone” surrounding At Tanf. While the pro-regime artillery could not reach the base, it could reach a smaller combat outpost used by coalition advisers and their local allies. A second official, however, said it was not clear whether the HIMARS deployment was in direct response to threatening action by the pro-regime forces. Related article Russia: US strikes on pro-regime forces in Syria 'totally unacceptable' CNN has previously reported that pro-regime forces had established a number of outposts and checkpoints in the area near the de-confliction zone. US officials have told CNN they believe pro-regime militias backed by Iran are setting up a series of checkpoints as part of an effort to establish a strategic overland route from Iran to the Mediterranean coast. Privately, US military officials say they are hopeful matters will remain calm and no more US military action will be required. And publicly, senior officials have insisted that the clashes with pro-regime fighters are purely in self-defense and that the US and the coalition will remain focused on battling ISIS. “Those are self-defense strikes and the commander on the ground has the authority to take whatever action necessary and I support that,” Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis told the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday.

US military deployment of HIMARS in southern Syria


Watch the first Democratic presidential debate Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. ET live on CNN and CNNgo; join the conversation at #DemDebate. On Tuesday night, the rivals will be side by side on stage, drawing contrasts between their differing personalities and experience The two Democrats have been carefully finessing their political positions in relation to one another and their party's wide coalition The shadow boxing that Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have played at for months – they’ve barely mentioned each other on the campaign trail – will give way to more direct jabs Tuesday night. That’s when the two rivals line up on stage at the first Democratic debate of the 2016 campaign, sponsored by CNN and Facebook. The encounter will provide a crucial  opportunity for Clinton and Sanders – the leading Democratic contenders – to contrast their personalities, experience and approach to the key issues in the campaign. Though Clinton and Sanders have rarely mentioned each other’s names, they are clearly reacting to each other and their rival’s potential weaknesses. Sanders took aim at Clinton’s Wall Street record and Iraq vote over the weekend; she put him on the defensive on guns and his poor standing with minority voters. Until now, they have each had good reason for avoiding full contact with the other. Clinton hasn’t wanted to elevate Sanders and his surprisingly strong poll numbers, while Sanders has wanted to maintain his untraditional, above-the-fray image. On Tuesday, that calculus will change. And the distinctions they’ve subtly staked out on a range of issues are only likely to grow sharper. Complete coverage on the #DemDebate In the weeks leading up to the debate in Las Vegas, the two Democrats have been carefully finessing their political positions in relation to each other and their party’s wide coalition, offering clues about how they will spar Tuesday night. Sanders has been signaling he will try to strike a contrast with Clinton on reining in Wall Street and on her record of support for military interventions overseas. The former secretary of state, meanwhile, is under pressure to prove to progressives who have flocked to Sanders that she genuinely cares about the middle class. She’s expected to highlight her differences with her rival on gun control and to demonstrate the broad support she has among minority voters – a key sector of the Democratic coalition where Sanders is struggling. As he limbered up for their clash, Sanders threw down the gauntlet on the Iraq War – a thrust that Clinton has struggled to counter in the past – hinting that she has hawkish views that are out of step with the majority of Democratic voters. His campaign issued a statement reminding voters that he, then a member of the House of Representatives, voted against authorizing the Iraq war in late 2002. At the time he argued that the conflict would destabilize the Middle East, kill large numbers of Americans and Iraqi civilians and hamper the war on terror against al Qaeda. Related gallery Hillary Clinton's career in the spotlight The statement did not once mention Clinton – but it did not have to. The then-New York senator did vote to authorize the Iraq war, and that vote was one of her greatest vulnerabilities in the 2008 Democratic campaign against Obama, who also opposed the war. Behind the scenes of the #DemDebate The Sanders statement raised the possibility that Clinton’s vote could haunt her for a second presidential campaign. “Democrats are no more fond of the Iraq war now than they were back then. That could be a problem,” Peter Beinart, a foreign policy expert and CNN contributor, said Monday. He added that another Democratic candidate, former Virginia senator and Vietnam war veteran Jim Webb, who was also against the war, could double-team with Sanders to cause trouble for Clinton on the issue. Sanders has also been staking out territory to Clinton’s left on Syria. The former secretary of state recently distanced herself from Obama’s much-criticized policy on the vicious civil war by calling for a no-fly zone to be set up to shield refugees. Sanders issued a statement earlier this month pointing out that he opposes such an idea, warning that it could “get us more deeply involved in that horrible civil war and lead to a never ending entanglement in that region.” The statement appeared to be a clear appeal to Democrats who share Obama’s antipathy toward getting the United States entangled in another Middle Eastern conflict and who are wary of Clinton’s more activist instincts on foreign policy. The very different debating styles of Clinton and Sanders Sanders is not alone in seeing Clinton’s foreign policy record as a vulnerability. Another Democratic candidate, former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, also picked up on her Syria position Sunday – saying on CNN’s “State of the Union” that a no-fly zone was not advisable and warning that the former secretary of state was “always quick for the military intervention,” apparently referring to her previous support for military action in nations such as Iraq and Libya. Another area where Sanders seems more in tune with the progressive Democratic base is on Wall Street, especially since he has raised most of his money from small donors – unlike the former secretary of state, who has been relying on big budget fund-raising events with rich contributors. Even with his small-donor focus, Sanders is nearly neck-and-neck in the fund-raising race with Clinton. Clinton has made strenuous attempts to connect with what her campaign has called “regular” Americans, stressing the need to raise up the middle class to feel the benefits of the economic recovery. But Sanders has said that she hasn’t done enough, an argument he may expand upon on the debate stage. “People will have to contrast my consistency and my willingness to stand up to Wall Street and corporations with the secretary,” Sanders said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. Related gallery Bernie Sanders' political career The Vermont senator also will likely draw an implied contrast with Clinton on two other issues – the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact the United States and 11 other nations reached this month and the Keystone XL pipeline designed to carry oil from Canada’s tar sands across the United States. Top Instagrammers capture debate setup Clinton now says she is a ‘no’ on both issues, but she took months to get there – despite fervent opposition to both projects from the left flank of the Democratic Party. “I am glad that she has reached that conclusion,” said Sanders in Washington last week when asked about Clinton’s opposition to a trade agreement she championed repeatedly as secretary of state. “This is a conclusion that I reached from day one.” Yet Sanders is not alone in curating the battlefield for the Democratic debate. Clinton, while getting in line with progressive Democratic positions on big issues, has also been preparing to strike key contrasts with Sanders. 6 things to watch at the debate Guns are one policy issue where Sanders is not completely in sync with the Democratic base, so Clinton is likely to exploit it on Tuesday night. She has been promising a forthright effort to enact new gun control laws after a string of recent mass shootings. It partly seems to be an attempt to focus attention her rival’s record on guns, which recently saw him express his openness to reforms that would hold gun manufacturers liable for crimes committed with their weapons. Clinton has also spent the runup to the debate cementing her links to key voting blocs of the Democratic coalition – especially in sectors of the party where Sanders is weak. She can point to broad appeal in the party, which could be key to eventually blunting the challenge from Sanders after early-voting contests in the less diverse states of Iowa and New Hampshire where he is strong. Clinton’s challengers Sanders, O’Malley set the stage with fight night preview In recent weeks, Clinton has met representatives of the Black Lives Matter movement and has even criticized Obama for not going far enough in changing immigration laws. “Hillary has done a lot of work leading up to this debate that has pretty much gone unnoticed,” Patti Solis Doyle, Clinton’s 2008 campaign manager, said on CNN on Monday. “She’s rolled out Latinos for Hillary, she has rolled out Women for Hillary, she has met with the leadership of Black Lives Matter, she has checked a lot of boxes walking into this debate,” she noted. “I think she is going to display tomorrow night (Tuesday) her vast support among this coalition.” The challenge that Sanders faces reaching out to minority voters, who are a vital part of the Democratic Party voting bloc, was underscored by a new CNN poll Monday finding that only 1% of nonwhite voters in the important early voting state of South Carolina favor him. That is a showing that Sanders must improve on if he is to come from behind and beat Clinton for the nomination. Everything to know about the #DemDebate

Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders


NEW: Saudi officials say they will not comment on the Houthi claim of a jet shot down Images on social media purport to show parts of a downed jet, but skepticism is abundant One image being shared online shows a chunk of metal bearing words, "Royal Saudi Air Force" Rebels are claiming to have shot down a Saudi Arabian fighter jet on the outskirts of Sanaa, Yemen, a Houthi military official said, but the Yemeni Embassy in Washington denied the claim as the Saudis remained silent. The Houthi official said the downed jet was an F-16, and several images published online – including on the Yemen Post’s Twitter and Facebook feeds – showed a purported image of the jet ablaze along with a photo of a piece of metal with the words, “Royal Saudi Air Force.” Houthi rebels seized two unexploded missiles from the site, and the pilot remains missing, the Yemen Post tweeted. One of the photos that the paper posted appeared to show an intact missile. The news service later reported, citing the Yemen Defense Ministry, that the plane was an F-15, not an F-16. CNN could find no record of the Saudi military possessing F-16s, but it does have many F-15s. In response to an inquiry from CNN, a Saudi official said the government would not comment on the claim. CNN cannot confirm the authenticity of the still images and video footage shared online. Mohammed Albasha, spokesman for the Yemeni Embassy in Washington, tweeted at first that the report couldn’t be confirmed before tweeting 10 hours later on Sunday that “reports of a downed F16/F15 in Yemen are false.” Those skeptical of the reports note that the images of the wreckage don’t show the plane’s body, only a missile and auxiliary fuel tank, both of which can be dropped by a pilot. This is not the first time the Houthis have said they downed a foreign fighter jet, nor would it be the first time such a report was denied. Earlier this month, they claimed to have shot down a Moroccan F-16 that was part of Saudi-led strikes in Yemen, but a Saudi military spokesman said the plane crashed, Reuters reported. In late March, Houthis claimed they shot down a Sudanese jet, capturing the pilot. They distributed photos of the pilot and wreckage to back up the claim. The Saudi-led coalition of nine countries conducted 94 airstrikes in the Yemeni capital Sunday, targeting six military bases, two Yemen Defense Ministry officials told CNN. The strikes on Sanaa remained ongoing into at least the early evening, but no casualties were reported. On Saturday, according to the defense ministry officials, Saudi-led strikes hit several Houthi-held positions in the capital, including a military depot. In the suburb of Sanhan, the hometown of ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a key Houthi ally, strikes targeted residences and military depots, the officials said. Strikes also hit a military base in the Sanaa suburb of Khulan; a police training center in Dhamar, 100 kilometers south of the capital; several locations in Hajjah Governorate in the country’s northwest corner; and a training facility in al-Hudaydah on Yemen’s west coast. Casualties, including civilians, were reported in the Dhamar and Hajjah offensives, the officials said. Related video What is happening in Yemen? Houthi rebels also reportedly clashed with resistance forces in Abyan, Taiz, Mareb, Jawf and briefly in Aden, the officials said. The death toll hit 1,037 civilians Friday, according to the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. The death toll includes 234 children. Also, the office reported, at least 2,453 civilians have been injured in clashes. Prisons and rehabilitation facilities have been hit in strikes as well, OHCHR spokesperson Cécile Pouilly said in a news release. “Many such facilities have been affected by airstrikes or by armed clashes. More than 4,000 inmates have fled while several have been killed or injured,” she said. Also plaguing the already-impoverished country as a result of the strikes are fuel and food shortages, as well as a lack of access to electricity, clean water and proper sanitation. There have also been reports of outbreaks of diseases such as scabies, caused by mites, and mycosis, caused by fungus, the U.N. office reported. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged all sides to extend a humanitarian pause that ended last weekend and asked the parties involved to engage in upcoming talks in Geneva, set to begin Thursday. In what some media outlets are billing as a “snub,” President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi sent a letter to U.N. Envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, apologizing that he will not be able to attend the Geneva talks, according to two aides accompanying Hadi in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. CNN’s Hakim Almasmari and Christine Theodorou contributed to this report.