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(CNN) -- Slavery may seem like a quaint notion in a 21st century world, but that distinction is lost on up to 40,000 Brazilians who find themselves toiling for no real wages and can't leave the distant work camps where they live. A Brazilian government official takes notes as he talks with workers about to be freed. Brazilian government officials and human rights activists call it slave labor, a condition they are aggressively trying to eradicate. A special government task force established in 1995 says it freed 4,634 workers last year in 133 raids on large farms and businesses that rely on workers driven to take these jobs by hunger and the empty promises of labor recruiters. "Slavery is the tail end of a lot of abuse of poor people and workers in Brazil," said Peter Hakim, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based policy center. "Bad treatment reaches over to abusive treatment to treatment that becomes virtual slavery." In Brazil, it often works this way: A recruiter known as a "gato," or cat, plumbs the slums and other poor areas of the vast country and gets people to agree to jobs in distant places. Once separated from home and family, workers are vulnerable to all sorts of abuses, such as being told they owe money for transportation, food, housing and other services. "This is known as debt bondage, which also fits official definitions of slavery," says Anti-slavery International, a lobbying group based in Great Britain. "A person is in debt bondage when their labor is demanded as the means of repayment for a loan or an advance. Once in debt they lose all control over their conditions of work and what, if anything they are paid ... often making it impossible to repay and trapping them in a cycle of debt." The United Nations International Labour Organization estimated there were between 25,000 and 40,000 Brazilians working under such conditions in 2003, the latest year for which it offered figures. Leonardo Sakamoto, the director of the human rights group Reporter Brasil, says he's certain there are still more than 25,000 slave laborers in Brazil. According to Anti-slavery International, the greatest number of slave laborers is employed in ranching (43 percent). That's followed by deforestation (28 percent), agriculture (24 percent), logging (4 percent) and charcoal (1 percent). Though those figures are from 2003, Sakamoto says they still apply, with cattle ranches and sugar cane plantations among the top employers. Anti-slavery International estimates there are 12.3 million people working under such conditions worldwide. "Forced labor exists in Sudan, Nepal, India, Mauritania as well as many wealthier countries (including the UK), where vulnerable people are trafficked into forced labor or sexual slavery," the group says. "A similar situation to the use of forced labor on estates in Brazil can be found in the Chaco region of both Paraguay and Bolivia." But what may set Brazil apart are the government's attempts to wipe out the practice. One of Brazil's chief tools is a "Special Mobile Inspection Group" that consists of labor inspectors, federal police and attorneys from the federal labor prosecution branch. The group often raids workplaces, looking for abuses and laborers held against their will. In 2007, the task force freed 5,999 workers, a record number. In 2003, the agency freed 5,223 laborers. Since the group's inception in 1995, it has freed 33,000 people. Labor Minister Carlos Lupi vowed in a recent interview with the state-run Brazilian news agency that efforts will be stepped up this year. "The Brazilian government is to be commended for rescuing more than 4,500 people from the nightmare of slavery during the past year," Aidan McQuade, director of Anti-Slavery International, said in a statement to CNN. "Their commitment to step up their efforts in 2009 is even more heartening. The vocal and effective leadership we are seeing from Brazil is rare. Even India, like Brazil a democracy and a G20 member, seems content to remain the country with the most slaves in the world." Poverty fuels slave labor, experts say . But everyone agrees it's going to take more than police efforts to seriously dent the practice. "Slave labor is not a disease," Sakamoto said. "It's like a fever. Fever is a symptom that something is wrong." That something is widespread poverty. Although the poverty rate dropped recently to its lowest levels in 25 years, nearly one of every four Brazilians still lives in poverty, according to a 2006 survey by the Getulio Vargas Foundation's Center for Social Policy Studies. The Web-based Index Mundi, which says it obtains its figures from the CIA World Factbook, estimates the poverty rate could be as high as one of every three Brazilians. With a population approaching 200 million people, that means at least 49 million Brazilians live under squalid economic conditions. "We have poverty. We have greed. And we have impunity," Sakamoto said. "We have to fight these three pieces at the same time. We have been fighting against impunity and we have been fighting against greed, but we are just starting to fight against poverty." The situation is made worse because of Brazil's vastness -- about the size of the United States. "Brazil is a big, huge country and there are lots of poor people," said Hakim of the Inter-American Dialogue. "The farther you get away from the populated, industrialized areas, you'll find large populations of people who do whatever they can to make a living." And slave labor seems to be spreading. "We are discovering new occurrences of slave labor in regions where we hadn't registered slave labor in Brazil," the Rev. Xavier Plassat of the Catholic Pastoral Land Commission told the independent Radioagencia NP. Opposition to laws . By most accounts, the administration of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who took office in 2003, has done much to reduce poverty and fight slave labor. But Brazil's agricultural, mining and manufacturing sectors are large and well-developed. And they are politically powerful. "We have a very, very strong agribusiness sector," Sakamoto said. "It is very, very difficult to get other measures to fight against slave labor." For example, he said, a proposed law for the government to confiscate land on which slave labor is used has languished in congress for years. "There's a group of very strong congressmen fighting against it," said Sakamoto, who is also a member Brazil's National Commission for the Eradication of Slave Labor. There are those who object to use of the word "slavery" or the phrase "slave labor," saying it mischaracterizes the situation. "The word has very heavy connotations regarding 19th century slavery," said Latin America scholar Robert Pastor, a former National Security adviser to President Jimmy Carter and now a professor of international relations at American University in Washington. "Modern-day practices are quite distinct from what we normally thought of as slavery." But Pastor agrees that no matter what you call it, what is happening in Brazil and elsewhere is "a phenomenon that is based on a simple intent to exploit individuals." Paulo Sotero, director of the Brazil Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, also believes that calling the practice slavery overstates the case. "To use the word 'slave labor' sometimes does not describe what it is," Sotero said from Washington. "It's more unfair, abusive labor conditions." He points out that Brazil's sugar cane industry employs 900,000 people but only 4,000 Brazilians were freed last year for being held as slave laborers. Many businesses, he said, are being smeared by the bad actions of a few. "One case of slave labor is one too many," Sotero said. "But at the same time, some of their considerations are valid. Claims of abuse tend to be exaggerated and more general than they are."

More than 12 million people worldwide estimated to be working under forced labor . Between 25,000-40,000 Brazilians may be slave laborers, U.N. estimates . Brazil task force has worked to eradicate slave labor . Poverty seen by experts as primary factor leading to slave labor .

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(CNN) -- What on Earth would drive a man to swim in Arctic waters wearing nothing but Speedos, goggles and a cap? Lewis Pugh braves the icy water off the arctic archipelogo of Svalbard. For Lewis Pugh, it was a love of the environment and a passionate desire to save the Arctic from global warming. His 1 km swim (0.62 of a mile) in 2007 made him the first person to complete a long-distance swim at the North Pole -- the purpose, to highlight the fact that it was possible to swim for a kilometer in a place that should be solid ice. Pugh, now aged 39, is a former maritime lawyer who abandoned his practice six years ago to become a full-time environmentalist and adventurer. Since then he has become the first person to complete long-distance swims in all five of the world's oceans and has become the world's leading cold water swimmer. Born in England and brought up in South Africa, Pugh sees himself in the mould of pioneering British adventurers like Sir Edmund Hillary, fearlessly braving waters no one else would dare swim. But rather than just aiming for a place in the history books, his motivation is to publicize the environmental damage he has witnessed on his swims. In 2006, to raise awareness about global warming and that year's drought in England, Pugh swam the entire length of the River Thames -- all except the first 26 miles, which had already dried up. He took a break from the 200-mile journey to call in at No. 10 Downing Street, where he discussed climate change with Tony Blair. The next year, Pugh became the first person to swim the 87 mile-width of the Maldives. The 10-day swim was Pugh's way of raising awareness of how climate change is threatening to submerge low-lying islands. But he is best known for his North Pole adventure. His Arctic swim lasted 19 minutes in temperatures of around minus 2 degrees Celsius. Were any normal person to fall into waters that cold they would be in serious trouble. Pugh's long-time coach Professor Tim Noakes told CNN, "People usually drown very quickly on exposure to cold water because they start to hyperventilate and when you hyperventilate you can't coordinate. They inhale water and they can't coordinate their swimming. Most people can't even go 20 meters if they are exposed to ice-cold water." But Pugh has developed a unique mechanism for overcoming freezing conditions. He is apparently able to increase his body temperature by will power alone. In a process that Noakes has dubbed "anticipatory thermogenesis", Pugh can raise his body temperature to a feverish 38.4 C, some 1.5 degrees above normal body temperature. Noakes first noted this extraordinary ability during a training session. Before entering the water, Pugh cast his mind back to a traumatic parachuting accident he witnessed when he was a soldier in the British army, reliving the event in detail. Noakes recorded an increase in Pugh's body temperature and over the next fortnight, as Pugh was exposed to more cold-water swims, he was able to increase his temperature even further, peaking at 38.4 C. These days, before Pugh braves sub-zero waters he listens to U.S.rapper Eminem, gets himself into an aggressive state of mind and drives up his internal temperature. Once he hits the water, it's all about mental strength. Noakes told CNN "The moment you dive into cold water your temperature drops and the brain sends a message to get out of the water. The first thing Pugh has to do is control that response. What happens is that I become his brain, so he says 'fine, as long as Dr Noakes allows me to swim, it's safe and I must just ignore what my brain is telling me.'" Achieving that level of willpower doesn't come easily. While Pugh does an hour of cold-water swimming a day, he devotes four hours a day to mind training. His technique is to visualize his swim from beginning to end. "I can taste salt water in my mouth. I can hear the sounds of the engines, of Tim Noakes screaming at me. I can feel ice burning my skin, I can smell the sea air. I absolutely live that moment. I have swum the North Pole hundreds of times in my mind," he told CNN. If the Arctic swim was intended to highlight shrinking polar ice caps, Pugh acknowledges that there's still plenty of work to do on that front and he now speaks on environmental issues all over the world. In 2008 Pugh founded the Polar Defense Project with the aim of protecting the Arctic and of encouraging world leaders to take action to stop climate change. As well the risk of polar melting, Pugh sees an Arctic treaty as essential to prevent the exploitation of the North Pole for oil and gas. As Pugh put it after completing his Arctic swim, "I'm relieved that it's over. Now the real work begins."

Lewis Pugh was the first man to complete a long-distance swim in the Arctic . "Most people can't go 20 meters in ice-cold water," says his coach . Pugh is able to increase his body temperature using will power alone . His extreme swims are intended to publicize the effects of global warming .

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MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Federal prosecutors on Wednesday filed murder charges against two men suspected in the deaths of a charter boat crew, authorities said. The Joe Cool charter boat was found abandoned last month in the Florida Straits. Kirby Archer, 34, and Guillermo Zarabozo, 19, are scheduled to appear in court Thursday afternoon. The men are being held without bail on suspicion of killing the four-member crew of the Joe Cool fishing boat last month. "Four individuals were killed in this case," Alex Acosta, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, told reporters Wednesday in announcing the charges. "Four families have been torn apart." Watch what led to the charges » . Archer and Zarabozo paid $4,000 in cash for a one-way trip to the Bahamas on the pleasure boat. The U.S. Coast Guard found the abandoned vessel about 160 miles south of the island of Bimini on September 23. It was unmanned, and its contents were in disarray. Zarabozo and Archer were found a few hours later on a life raft 10 miles from the boat. Missing are the boat's captain, Jake Branam; his wife, Kelly; and crew members Scott Gamble and Samuel Kairy. Zarabozo reportedly told a Coast Guard agent that three armed Cuban men hijacked the boat as it headed toward Bimini. Zarabozo, a licensed security guard, said the hijackers shot the crew members and forced him to throw their bodies overboard. But, according to court documents filed in the case, Zarabozo and Archer gave inconsistent stories during interviews with authorities regarding what occurred. Statements given by the pair were not consistent with physical evidence, according to an affidavit supporting the murder charges. Zarabozo, for instance, told federal authorities he did not own a gun, but an investigation showed he had bought a lock box for a gun he kept at his home. That lock box contained various documents, including a receipt for a February 2007 purchase of a Glock 9 mm magazine and four boxes of bullets. "Little of the defendants' story rings true," Acosta said. At a bond hearing last week, the Coast Guard agent said two bullet casings and suspected blood were discovered inside the Joe Cool's cabin. A third bullet casing was found outside the cabin, he said. All three casings were 9 mm. A fourth 9 mm casing was found on the boat later by family members, who turned it over to the FBI, a relative said. "Now you have four casings and four people [presumed] dead," said Jeffrey Branam, the uncle of the boat's captain. Archer is charged with unlawful flight on an Arkansas warrant, accused of stealing more than $90,000 in cash from a Wal-Mart where he once worked. Last week, a judge said he believes circumstantial evidence shows four homicides took place. "Your theory is [Archer and Zarabozo] killed the four?" the judge asked the assistant U.S. attorney at the bond hearing. "Yes, your honor," the prosecutor replied. The Coast Guard spent five days searching for the crew before giving up. Acosta said it is unlikely their bodies will ever be found. Jake Branam and his wife leave behind two small children, he said. "It's difficult," Jeffrey Branam said last week. "Some relatives still think the four are alive and are still searching for them." He said the name of the boat has been removed from the stern, and the name will be retired from the charter fishing business. The boat probably will be retired, too. Referring to Archer and Zarabozo, Branam said: "I'd like to use them as shark bait." E-mail to a friend .

Two defendants to make initial appearances in federal court Thursday . Four-person crew of the Joe Cool are missing and presumed dead . Men who hired boat reportedly say hijackers killed crew but let them go .

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(CNN) -- From songs to poems to sayings on the side of coffee cups, everyone tries to define love in words. Liz Kelly donated her kidney to her fiance after he was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. But often, it's the extraordinary actions we take in the name of love that really define it. Liz Kelly's fiance, Matt House, needed a kidney after he was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. In order to get him to the top of the donor list, Kelly signed up to donate hers. At first, she never dreamed she would actually be a match, but it turned out she was. The Springfield, Massachusetts, couple (he's 31, she's 29) spoke with CNN's Nicole Lapin about whether Kelly thought fate played a hand in finding him a donor match. The following is an edited transcript of the interview: . Nicole Lapin: Liz, I didn't know about the donor process, until we started talking to you guys. The donor process works whereby a friend or a family member can donate a kidney to get Matt higher on the list, so you decided that you were going to do that. Why did you decide to do that? Watch Nicole Lapin's interview with Liz Kelly and Matt House » . Liz Kelly: It was pretty much a no-brainer, I think. His sister was actually going to donate at first. But she didn't work out for health reasons. It's obviously better to have, you know, a family member donate a kidney, too. But since that wasn't going to work out, his stepfather stepped in because they were the same blood type. And that ended up not working out either. He had some heart issues and some other health issues. So, I said, you know what, I'll just donate to the list. And that's what I was intending on doing. And then I found out that we were actually a match, and it was amazing. Lapin: It was amazing, I'm sure, to get that phone call, because you did it just so that you could get higher on the list. A lot of people on our Web site are fascinated by your story, guys. [A viewer] has a question for you right now, Liz: Have you ever had any surgeries before this one? If not, how did your prepare yourself for this? Kelly: No. This was my first surgery, so that definitely made me very nervous. That was the definitely scariest part for me, just not knowing what to expect. But, Matt has been through several surgeries before. So I know I had him in my corner. And I looked up a lot online. I found out a lot of great information online. So that's definitely how I prepared. Lapin: And [another viewer] has a question in for Matt, actually: Were you scared that perhaps your body might reject Liz's kidney or were you always confident that the surgery would be a success? Matt House: I think I was pretty confident with her being the same blood type or us matching is pretty phenomenal, so I didn't expect it to reject it anyway. Maybe after the surgery if I would have a little pain down there or something like that, I would get a little nervous and think that it was going to reject, that there's something wrong. But that would just pass. It was me just being a little overanxious, I guess, but not really, no. I was pretty confident everything would go well overall. We're both pretty healthy for the most part. And being the same blood type was just you know really great, so it worked out good. So, I wasn't really worried at all. Lapin: Fate, some may say? House: Yeah, yeah, definitely. Lapin: Yours is a lot bigger. You're a little girl, but you happen to have a kidney that is perfect for Matt. Do you think it was meant to be? Kelly: I do. I definitely do. People tell me that all the time. When they told us that we were a match, I was very surprised at first, but then I thought about it a little more. Of course we were a match. How could we not be a match?

Liz Kelly offered to donate kidney to move her ill fiance higher on donor list . Matt House had been diagnosed with congestive heart failure . House's family members were unable to donate because of health reasons . After recuperation is over, the Massachusetts couple plans to marry by summer .

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(CNN) -- Passengers on the US Airways flight that crash-landed into the Hudson River Thursday afternoon praised the actions and courage of the pilot, a safety consultant with 40 years of experience in the aviation industry. Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger, a former Air Force fighter pilot, has been with US Airways since 1980. Sources tell CNN that Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger was piloting US Airways flight 1549 from New York's LaGuardia airport to Charlotte, North Carolina, when at least one of the plane's engines failed. Passenger Jeff Kolodjay offered "kudos" to Sullenberger for a landing that minimized damage to the aircraft and its 155 passengers and crew. "All of a sudden the captain came on and he told us to brace ourselves and probably brace ourselves pretty hard. But he did an amazing job -- kudos to him on that landing," said Kolodjay, who was sitting in seat 22A. Sullenberger's wife told CNN that she was stunned to hear the news from her husband after it was all over. "I hadn't been watching the news. I've heard Sully say to people, 'It's rare for an airline pilot to have an incident in their career,' " said Lori Sullenberger of Danville, California. "When he called me he said, 'There's been an accident.' At first I thought it was something minor, but then he told me the circumstances and my body started shaking and I rushed to get our daughters out of school." US Airways said all 155 passengers and crew are alive and safely off the plane. The crash-landing has also earned the former fighter pilot and private safety consultant accolades from state and government officials. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg commended the pilot for not leaving the plane without checking to make sure every passenger had been evacuated. "It would appear that the pilot did a masterful job of landing the plane in the river and then making sure that everybody got out," Bloomberg said at a press conference Thursday. "I had a long conversation with the pilot. He walked the plane twice after everybody else was off and tried to verify that there was nobody else on board -- and assures us there was not." Sullenberger apparently was forced to make an emergency landing after geese were sucked into one or both of the jet's engines. An eyewitness working on the west side of Manhattan said the belly of the plane touched the water first. An official who heard tape recordings of the radio traffic from Flight 1549 reported the pilot was extraordinarily calm during the event. "There was no panic, no hysterics," the official said. "It was professional, it was calm, it was methodical. It was everything you hoped it could be." The pilot and air traffic controller discussed options, including landing at Teterboro airport in New Jersey, the official said. Then there was a "period of time where there was no communications back, and I'm assuming he was concentrating on more important things." Sullenberger's background in aviation appeared to have prepared him for such a situation. He has been a pilot with US Airways since 1980, following seven years in the U.S. Air Force. His resume -- posted on the Web site for his safety consulting firm, Safety Reliability Methods, Inc. -- lists piloting procedures, technical safety strategies, emergency management and operations improvement, as areas of industry expertise. He served as an instructor and Air Line Pilots Association safety chairman, accident investigator and national technical committee member, according to a biography on the site. He participated in several USAF and National Transportation Safety Board accident investigations, and worked with NASA scientists on a paper on error and aviation, his site says. For the passengers on flight 1549, Sullenberger's skill and expertise were apparent. iReport.com: Did you see the crash-landing? Send images . "I've flown in a lot of planes and that was a phenomenal landing," said passenger Fred Berretta said. Berretta was sitting in seat 16A right over one of the engines when it failed and the pilot turned the plane to align it with the Hudson River. He described silence in the plane as the passengers waited to hear from the crew. A few moments later, the direction to brace for landing came. "It was an amazing piece of airmanship," said Peter Goelz, a former NTSB managing director.

NEW: Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger has been a pilot with US Airways since 1980 . NEW: Former Air Force fighter pilot has worked with NASA as safety consultant NYC mayor says pilot checked plane twice for passengers before leaving "I've flown in a lot of planes and that was a phenomenal landing," passenger said .

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(CNN) -- By many eyewitness accounts, when US Airways flight 1549 crashed into the Hudson River, it looked like a completely normal landing -- except it was in the water. iReporters captured the plane's crash-landing and rescue operations . "It looked like a perfectly smooth landing, nothing out of the ordinary," said Lou Romansky, who was stuck in traffic and saw the plane go down. "No unusual noises, no flames, no nothing. It was very graceful; [I] saw the nose go up." Josefina Echevarria happened to be standing near the window of her Manhattan office, and reports seeing a similar scene. "I saw an airplane landing in the middle of the water, but very calm," she said. "It wasn't a nose dive," added Joe Harrington, who also saw the crash out his window. "It looked like it was a landing." The plane, which carried more than 150 passengers and was bound for Charlotte, North Carolina, went down Thursday afternoon shortly after taking off from LaGuardia Airport. Officials say everyone on board apparently got off the plane alive. Some passengers were being treated for hypothermia and other minor injuries. And according to many iReporters, who described the situation to CNN as it unfolded, the rescue operation looked as smooth as the landing -- but, of course, just as scary. They say ferries arrived first on the scene, followed quickly by emergency boats and helicopters. "Immediately there were ferries on the scene," said Harrington. "Almost instantaneous. I watch these ferries all day -- they don't normally go this fast." Police boats and helicopters arrived shortly after, he said. Julie Pukelis also saw the ferries arrive. "It seemed very quick. ... Ferry boats out there within minutes," she said. "I think it was a great team effort." iReport.com: "We watched the plane drifting slowly down the water" "[The rescue] looked pretty well-organized from what I could see," said Jim Davidson, who lives two blocks from the Hudson River. "It wasn't chaos -- a lot of times when things like this happen, people are running around or yelling." iReport.com: A panorama of the rescue . Daniel Leal described the scene as the rescue operation continued into the evening. "I'm seeing flashing lights on the water from the many rescue vehicles -- tug boats, ferries, helicopters. ...There seems to be even more emergency crews in the water and hovering above than an hour ago," he said. iReport.com: Watching the rescue . iReporters said the plane began to sink shortly after landing until workers used ropes to secure it. "A few minutes [after the crash] it started sinking in the water," said Echevarria. "Five minutes later the airplane was completely sunk. You can only see the tail of the plane." Lisa Speransky, who also watched the situation from her office window, says workers appeared to tether the plane to boats to prevent it sinking. Watch how iReporters helped cover the story » . "They must have gotten a rope around the plane at some point, because they were turning it around and dragging it towards New Jersey," she wrote in an email. After passengers were evacuated, workers eventually tethered the plane to a pier on the Hudson River. iReport.com: "You could see people standing on the wing" The crash brought up memories of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks for several iReporters as they saw the crash and its aftermath. Officials emphasize the crash had absolutely no terrorist connection and say it was likely a bird strike. "I really thought it was a terrorist attack," said Romansky. He lives in New Jersey but was in Manhattan when the plane went down, and said his first thought after seeing the plane go down was to get back home, thinking that the state's border might be closed in case of terrorism. iReport.com: "I saw the plane coming down" Matt Moore, who says he saw about 40 boats surrounding the plane in the water, had similar unnerving thoughts. "What's peculiar is I look to my left and there's where the World Trade Center used to be and I look to my right and there's a plane in the water," he said. iReport.com: Saw the rescue out the window . Harrington was also shaken up by the situation. "It was surreal to see that happen," he said. "I fly pretty much every week for work."

Eyewitnesses say the water landing looked like a regular plane landing . Rescue operation "looked pretty well-organized," says iReporter Jim Davidson . iReporter Joe Harrington: Ferries and rescue boats arrived "almost instantaneously" iReport.com: Did you see the crash landing, or were you on the plane?

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(CNN) -- Nadya Suleman, the single mother of newborn octuplets, is using the Internet to help support her family of 14 children. She's started a Web site seeking donations. Nadya Suleman, a single mother of 14 children, has set up a Web site asking for donations. The Web site features pictures of a rainbow, child's blocks and all eight of Suleman's newborns. Also prominently displayed on the Web site is a prompt for visitors to make a donation, noting that the "proud mother of 14" accepts Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover and PayPal. Suleman, 33, had the octuplets through fertility treatments, despite already having six young children and no clear source of income. In recent television interviews, Suleman has rejected suggestions that she might not be able to care adequately for all 14 of her children. "I'm providing myself to my children," Nadya Suleman told NBC in her first interview. "I'm loving them unconditionally, accepting them unconditionally, everything I do. I'll stop my life for them and be present with them and hold them and be with them. And how many parents do that?" Watch report on who is paying the bills for the octuplets » . Suleman said she plans to go back to college to pursue a degree in counseling, NBC reported. She also said all 14 children have the same biological father, a sperm donor whom she described as a friend. Joann Killeen, a spokeswoman for Suleman, has told CNN that she is being deluged with media offers, but disputed any suggestions that Suleman may have had a monetary incentive for having so many children. Killeen, told CNN's "Larry King Live" that Suleman "has no plans on being a welfare mom and really wants to look at every opportunity that she can to make sure she can provide financially for the 14 children she's responsible for now." Suleman's publicist did say that Suleman gets $490 every month in food stamps.

Nadya Suleman has created Web site to solicit donations to help support 14 kids . Suleman, a mother of six, recently had octuplets . Suleman has rejected notions that she would not be able to care for children .

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(CNN) -- When the stirring speeches, heavyweight debates and fevered campaigning of the U.S. elections are long forgotten, a handful of far less noble incidents are likely to be our enduring memories of the 2008 White House race. "Hey America, I'm Paris Hilton and I'm a celebrity too." While the candidates would like us to view their bids for the top job as an honorable battle of wits, policies, values and big issues, the sad truth is that it's more likely to boil down to a list of gaffes, embarrassments and sideshows. Both Democratic and Republican PR machines have been working hard to keep their campaigns on-script, but with a cast list of John McCain, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Sarah Palin and the Clintons, they had their work cut out. Alaskan "hockey mom" Palin's late arrival undoubtedly stirred things up, adding a dash of vigor as the race lumbered into its final straight, but even before she began stealing the show, there was no shortage of scrapbook moments. Sound off: Which do you think are the most memorable moments from the 2008 election? In no particular order, here is a selection of some of the best: . 1. Crying game: Back in January's New Hampshire primaries, Hillary Clinton welled up with emotion, almost crying into her coffee cup during a chat with voters. This unexpected exposure of her human side was credited with winning back some women supporters. Read more . 2. McCain bombs: John McCain displayed rather off-key singing and diplomacy skills when asked if there was a plan to attack Iran back in April 2007. Changing the words to the classic Beach Boys' song "Barbara Ann," the Arizona senator responded: "Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran." Read more . 3. Pastor disaster: Proving once again that religion and politics don't mix, Barack Obama was forced to distance himself from his former pastor and mentor Jeremiah Wright, after a series of pulpit fulminations in which he made racially-charged criticisms of Hillary Clinton and said of the 9/11 terror attacks: "American's chickens are coming home to roost." Read more . 4. Ramblin' man: Garrulous "gaffe machine" Joe Biden got the last word in a primary debate about his tendency to speak his mind and not shut up. Asked if he could hold his tongue enough to "reassure your voters in this country that you have the discipline you would need on the world stage," Biden replied succinctly: "Yes." Read more . 5. The pig issue: Obama may have been hoping to generate oinks of outrage when he commented in September that McCain's policies were like "lipstick on a pig," after the Arizona senator named Sarah Palin as running mate. The Democratic candidate refused to apologize for what Republicans said was a misogynistic response to Palin's own claim to be a pitbull in lipstick. You couldn't make it up. Read more . 6. Miss-firing: Hillary Clinton had her campaign guns blazing in March when she described the drama of a visit to Bosnia 12 years earlier. "I remember landing under sniper fire," she said. Clinton was later forced to admit "misspeaking" after video footage of the event showed her strolling leisurely from the aircraft. Read more . 7. Ordinary Joe: First there was Joe Biden, then there was Palin's mythical beer swiller Joe Sixpack and finally there was Joe the Plumber -- just a regular guy worried about his business going down the drain. Despite not actually being a licensed plumber, and not even being called Joe, he has been seized on by McCain as an everyman hero. This endorsement sprung more leaks when Joe failed to appear on cue to a recent McCain event. Read more . 8. Bad business: Neither presidential candidate makes claim to being psychic, but McCain might have done better consulting his tea leaves rather than the advisors who led him to say "the fundamentals of our economy are strong" on the eve of America's worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Read more . 9. Palintology: Her political skills aside, moose-shooting Sarah Palin has been an unfortunately prolific headline generator for the Republican campaign, whether eyeing Russia from her Alaskan home, shopping for suits, stumbling over questions from Katie Couric or introducing her pregnant teenage daughter. Read more . 10. Barack=Britney: Celebrity endorsements are one thing, but McCain's campaign ad comparing his rival to pop star Britney Spears and heiress Paris Hilton was seen by at least one person as taking things a little too far. A swimsuit-clad Hilton responded by launching her own campaign for the presidency: "Hey America, I'm Paris Hilton and I'm a celebrity too. Only I'm not from the olden days and I'm not promising change like that other guy. I'm just hot!" Read more .

Most memorable election moments likely to include gaffes and embarrassments . Biden, Obama, McCain and Clinton all hit headlines for wrong reasons . Palin generated many headlines for wrong reasons in last weeks of campaign .

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BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie has asked Thailand to permit greater freedom for thousands of refugees stuck in camps after fleeing neighboring Myanmar, according to a U.N. statement released Friday. Angellina Jolie and Brad Pitt visited refugees in northern Thailand on Wednesday. Jolie and actor Brad Pitt traveled to a refugee camp in northern Thailand on Wednesday in effort to draw international attention to what the U.N. has called "restricted" movement of roughly 111,000 refugees housed in nine camps along the Thai-Myanmar border, the statement said. Jolie has spent several years as a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. She said her passion for helping refugees, whom she calls "the most vulnerable people in the world," was sparked in 2001 during visits to Cambodia." The U.N. estimates more than 5,000 people have fled to northern Thailand's Mae Hong Son province between 2006 and 2007. A recent CNN investigation found evidence of the Thai army towing an apparent boatload of 190 Rohingya refugees -- a Muslim minority group from Myanmar -- out to sea, prompting Thai authorities to launch an investigation. CNN's Dan Rivers and Kocha Olarn contributed to this report.

Angelina Jolie calls on Thai leaders to grant more freedom to refugees . Thousands of refugees are stuck in camps after fleeing Myanmar . Jolie is currently goodwill ambassador for U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees .

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(CNN) -- The surgeon who operated Wednesday on cyclist Lance Armstrong after he fractured his collarbone declared the procedure a success, but one that will require two to three months of healing. Lance Armstrong's doctor says he used a plate and 12 inch-long screws to stabilize the fractured bone. "Surgery was tough, but went well," said Dr. Douglas Elenz, an orthopedic surgeon in Austin, Texas, who performed the three-hour procedure two days after Armstrong fractured his collarbone into four pieces during a race in Spain. The multiple breaks "made treatment more challenging, but we're confident that the treatment performed today is going to be successful," he said. Elenz said he used a 4- to 5-inch plate that he attached with 12 inch-long screws to stabilize the fractured bone. Armstrong, 37, was to be released later in the day. On a scale of one to 10 rating the difficulty of the operation, Elenz said he would pin it down at eight. Elenz was noncommittal regarding when Armstrong can return to racing. Watch more about the crash » . "We are just taking it day by day, week by week, month by month. Every fracture is unique. Each time I go to treat one, something is different." During the next week, Armstrong "will need to take it easy" to ensure the wound does not become infected, the doctor said. After his wound has healed, Armstrong will begin using an exercise bike to train his lower body, "but we won't let him do a whole lot with his upper extremities," Elenz said. "After several weeks, we can take his training to the street, but we will need to take that day by day and week by week." Over the longer term, Elenz will be looking for evidence that Armstrong is laying down new bone, that the plate is stable, that the athlete's arm is strong and that his motion is fluid, he said. "His pain will give us insight on how well he is healing," the sports specialist said. "It will take eight to 12 weeks to heal completely. But we are going to have to push the envelope a bit to have him train before he is completely healed." Armstrong was riding for Team Astana when he crashed about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the end of the first stage of the five-day Vuelta Ciclista a Castilla y Leon race. Watch how Armstrong 'tweets' about his crash » . He has never before broken a collarbone in his 17 years as a professional. The crash took down several riders, but only Armstrong was hurt. As they came within a few miles of the finish, Armstrong said, racers started picking up speed and jockeying for position. "It happens quick when it happens," he said. "It could have been worse." Armstrong announced last year that he was returning to competitive biking and would use the Spanish race as a warm-up for the Tour de France, which he won seven times before announcing his retirement in 2005. He also had planned to race May 9-31 in the Giro d'Italia, one of Europe's most prestigious and grueling stage races. This would have been the second comeback of his career. His first came in 1998, two years after he was diagnosed with advanced testicular cancer that had spread to his lungs and brain. Doctors gave him a less than 50 percent chance of survival. CNN's Danielle Dellorto contributed to this story.

Multiple breaks in collarbone "made treatment more challenging," doctor says . After wound heals, Armstrong will use exercise bike to train lower body . Doctor noncommittal on when Armstrong can return to racing . Armstrong fractures collarbone in crash at race that was to mark second comeback .

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BROOKLYN CENTER, Minnesota (CNN) -- Thousands of Liberians living in the United States face deportation March 31 when a federal immigration status created for humanitarian purposes expires. Corvah Akoiwala is worried about what will happen to his children, born in the U.S., when he is sent to Liberia. In the 1990s, a bloody civil war raged through the West African nation, killing 250,000 people and displacing more than a million, according to a U.N. report. The United States extended "temporary protection status" to all Liberians who could get to America, and 14,000 of them took advantage of that humanitarian offer. Temporary protection status is an immigration status somewhere between political asylum and refugee status. Administered by the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, it is extended to nationals of countries facing civil unrest or natural disaster. For years, the temporary protection status for Liberians was extended as the situation there worsened under dictator Charles Taylor. But Taylor was ousted in 2003 and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was elected Liberia's first female president in 2006. In 2007, citing the progress in Liberia, President George W. Bush signed an order of "delayed enforced departure" for Liberians who had been under temporary protection status, giving them 18 months to return to Liberia. Watch more on the uncertainty of Liberians living in U.S. » . Corvah Akoiwala, a Liberian national who was fresh out of college when civil war broke out, remembers how it used to be there. "They dragged us from our homes, they were shooting all around us. They said they were going to have us killed," he said . "On Tupero Road they had a killing field. Like every day they took someone to this field and they would just shoot them in front of everybody. It was just terrible," he said. He came to the United States in 1992 and settled in Rhode Island. A civil engineer by education, Akoiwala married and had three children, all of whom are American citizens. For the past 17 years he's worked, paid his taxes and contributed to his community. He and his wife were granted temporary protection status but now both face deportation. On March 31 they will go from being legal residents to illegal aliens. "My fear is, who am I going to leave my kids with?" he said. "Who am I going to leave them with? I want to stay here and see them grow up to be responsible citizens and then I can go back." The Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services said approximately 3,600 Liberian nationals are facing delayed enforced departure, but Liberian community leaders think the number may be twice that because, they said, many Liberians went underground and did not reregister with immigration services, knowing the delayed enforced departure status meant leaving the country. Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, about an hour north of Minneapolis, has a thriving Liberian community. Many now worry about losing their jobs, homes and businesses. Seyondi Roberts, a hairdresser, said 65 percent of her customers are Liberians facing delayed enforced departure. "We're praying that they don't send them back. But if they do, it will have a serious effect on the business. I do mainly African hair, so it's going to have a real big, big impact on the business," she said. Aba Hamilton Dolo also lives in the Brooklyn Center area and is slated for departure. She said she has nightmares and panic attacks at the prospect of being separated from her two young American-born children. "Please consider what would happen to our families if we were sent home," she begs. Dolo: 'I have nightmares' » . "Many of these Liberians have become important parts of the communities where they live in the United States," said Sen. Jack Reed, D-Rhode Island. There is a large Liberian community in his home state. "They have children who are citizens of the U.S.," he noted. "How do you leave children behind who are eligible to stay? They've worked very hard, they've played by the rules, and they've paid their taxes. They're here legally. I think that should be considered at least to let them stay." Reed has been one of the driving forces for extension of the temporary protection status in previous years and is pushing hard again this year for another extension. In addition, he wants a change in the rule that prohibits those on the temporary protection status classification from applying for citizenship. "They should have the right to become American citizens," he said. "They should be part of immigration reform. We shouldn't pick and choose different immigrant groups." Critics say Liberians should go back to Liberia when their status runs out. "It is time for people to go back and rebuild their country," said Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Stein underlines the temporary in "temporary protected status." He said for Liberians to stay when their country is at peace would be an abuse of U.S. hospitality. "It makes a mockery of the concept of short-term temporary humanitarian protection." Department of Homeland Security deputy spokesman Sean Smith said its Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency is "consulting with the White House and the State Department to determine the most appropriate course of action" in regard to the Liberians. CNN's Jeanne Meserve contributed to this report.

14,000 Liberians took advantage of U.S. temporary status during civil war . Liberians have to return home when status exemption expires March 31 . Corvah Akoiwala: "My fear is, who am I going to leave my kids with?" Sen. Jack Reed pushing for extension to allow Liberians to stay .

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(CNN) -- European Union peacekeepers in Bosnia on Tuesday raided homes belonging to family members of Ratko Mladic, the highest-ranking figure still at large from the Balkan conflict in the mid 1990s, Serbian media reported. Portuguese peacekeepers stand guard outside a home raided on Tuesday. The force raided houses belonging to Mladic's sister, Milica Avram, and sister-in-law, Radinka Mladic, in East Sarajevo, an area of the city inside the Bosnian Serb-controlled Republika Srpska, a seperate political entity to the Muslim-Croat-controlled Bosnia-Croat Federation. The raids were a part of a broader operation targeting locations and people who are believed to be helping Mladic evade trial, the reports said. Serbian authorities recently put up "wanted" posters for Mladic at police stations across Serbia, reminding people of the 1 million euro ($1.3 million) reward for any information leading to Mladic's capture. Mladic, who commanded the Bosnian Serb military during the 1992-95 war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, has been the Balkans' most wanted since former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic was arrested in Belgrade last July. The 66-year-old is wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for allegedly overseeing the killings of almost 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in the town of Srebrenica in July 1995. Mladic is charged with genocide, crimes against humanity, and violations of the laws of war. He has been on the run for 13 years, ever since the ICTY issued the indictments against him. The ICTY has accused Serbia of knowing Mladic's whereabouts and letting him slip through their hands. Serbia's status as a candidate for European Union membership also remains conditional on Mladic being handed over to the ICTY. Serbian leaders have denied protecting Mladic.

EU troops in Bosnia raid homes belonging to family members of Ratko Mladic . Former Bosnian Serb general is highest ranking accused war criminal at large . Mladic accused of orchestrating Srebrenica massacre in 1995 . Raids part of operation targeting those believed to be helping Mladic evade trial .

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LONDON, England (CNN) -- From four leaf clovers to a severed rabbit's foot, when it comes to lucky mascots reason and taste often go out of the window. David Beckham's teammates give his bottom a squeeze after scoring his first goal for AC Milan in their 4-1 defeat of Bologna. No more so than at AC Milan where one charm is being held responsible for the team's recent upturn in fortunes on the pitch: David Beckham's bottom. Since Beckham's arrival at the San Siro, the England midfielder has started every game and scored his first goal in last weekend's demolition of Bologna. But as he walked away after celebrating the goal, Clarence Seedorf and Andrea Pirlo both stroked his left bum cheek. This was apparently because they believe Beckham's posterior has as much to do with Milan's revival as his sweet right foot. "Italy is a superstitious country, people touch things for luck," an AC Milan spokesperson told UK newspaper "The Sun." "Now the players are doing the same thing with Becks' bottom. He is seen as lucky." Have your say: what are the strangest footballing superstitions that you have seen? One English newspaper has even taken to calling him "Goldenbuns", a play on "Goldenballs", the pet name his wife Victoria uses and for which he is still good naturedly mocked when it emerged in the press. Football has a long history of superstitions. Below are some of the strangest rituals: . Kissing Fabien Barthez's head Barthez's big shiny pate became something of a totem for the French during the 1998 World Cup. The ritual was always the same. Veteran defender Laurent Blanc would approach his eccentric goalkeeper before planting a kiss on the top of his head. The team insisted that Blanc maintained the tradition as Les Bleus reached the finals. The French ended up beating Brazil 3-0. Goalmouth: Beckham "dreams" of Milan move. Beanie the Horse watches the action With his blond hair, steely grimace and piercing stare, Stuart Pearce was known on the pitch for his hard tackling, no-nonsense ways. Off it he's, well, a bit of a softy. Whilst in charge of Manchester City the former England defender started bringing a rather bizarre charm, placing it near the dug out so it could observe the action: Beanie, a cuddly woolen horse. It didn't do him much good. He was fired later that season. Blessing from a juju man "Juju" men used to be a regular fixture at African football matches. These self-appointed holy men would bless or curse teams for money. Even government ministers were seduced by them. When the Ivory Coast won the African Cup of Nations in 1992, the government claimed it was because the sports minister paid a "juju" man to bless the team. But he angered them by refusing to pay up. The result? A hex that saw the team endure a miserable ten year losing streak. Tired of defeat, the government begged the juju men for forgiveness, coughing up the $2000. Ivory Coast promptly qualified for the 2006 World Cup. Invoking the power of the Virgin Mary Take a look at Newcastle United's goalkeeper Shay Given before a match. If you look carefully you'll notice him dropping a bottle into the back of the goal. No, not a bottle full of Gatorade but rather a small vial of Holy Water from Lourdes, France. It was there that it is claimed the Virgin Mary appeared in 1858. It has since become a place of pilgrimage for the sick, drawn to the allegedly healing waters. "I carry it in my kit bag and it goes everywhere with me," Given said back in 2002. At the time of writing, Given is still injury free. If all else fails, urinate... When Barry Fry, then Birmingham City's boss, watched his team lose another game, enough was enough. For years the club had suffered from dismal form at their St Andrews ground in Birmingham, England, and had not won anything of note for decades. The reason, fans and club officials feared, was a gypsy curse spat out at the club's owners when they evicted a band of travelers to make way for their new stadium. Managers had tried and failed to lift the curse -- one even placed crucifixes in the floodlights, but it was Barry Fry who had the most ingenious method. He urinated in each corner of the ground. Birmingham City haven't won anything of note since. Employing an Ecuadorian warlock Tzamarenda Naychapi played a pivotal role in Ecuador's 2006 World Cup campaign. The UK's Guardian newspaper described how Naychapi - a warlock who was described as a "witch doctor-cum-shaman-cum-priest-type-fella" - traveled to Germany before the World Cup to cast spells on all 12 stadiums, not to mention the pitch and the goals, in a bid to turn the gods in Ecuador's favor. The South American minnows went on to shock both Costa Rica and Poland, qualifying for the second round for the first time in their history before losing to England 1-0. But then again England had their own magical good luck charm to call upon. David Beckham scored the only goal.

David Beckham's bottom becomes AC Milan's lucky charm . Teammates pinch the England player's posterior during match . AC Milan have yet to lose since Beckham signed on loan from LA Galaxy . CNN looks at other odd footballing superstitions .

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Canada geese got into both engines of US Airways Flight 1549 and forced the plane to ditch into the Hudson River last month, the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday. Surveillance video shows passengers of US Airways Flight 1549 hurrying onto the plane's wings. The flight crew of the Airbus A320 put the plane down gently on the river, which separates New York from New Jersey, after the bird ingestion caused both engines to lose power on January 15. All 155 people aboard survived. Adult Canada geese weigh between 5.8 and 10.7 pounds, although birds from resident populations rather than migratory populations can be heavier. The plane's CFM56-5B/P turbofan engines were certified in 1996 as being able to withstand bird ingestion of 4 pounds. The NTSB said last week that both engines contained the remains of birds, confirming the pilots' report that the engines shut down after colliding with birds less than two minutes after taking off from from New York's LaGuardia Airport. Material from both engines was sent to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington for identification of the bird species. Investigators have not yet determined how many birds hit the jet's engines. The plane's flight data recorder "revealed no anomalies or malfunctions in either engine up to the point where the captain reported a bird strike, after which there was an uncommanded loss of thrust in both engines," the NTSB said last week.

Investigators have yet to determine how many birds hit the plane's engines . Canada geese caused engines to lose power, NTSB says . Bird ingestion forced US Airways Flight 1549 to land in Hudson River last month . All 155 passengers and crew members on board survived the landing .

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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan announced a 10-day cease-fire on Sunday in Pakistan's Swat Valley, a volatile region in North West Frontier Province that is largely controlled by the Taliban. The Taliban says it has agreed a 10-day cease-fire with Pakistani forces in the Swat Valley. The Taliban are holding talks with the North West Frontier Province's government in the town of Timagera in the province's Lower Dir district, he said. Taliban leader Sufi Mohammad is heading negotiations for the militants. There was no immediate confirmation of the cease-fire from the Pakistani government. Swat Valley was once Pakistan's biggest tourist destination until it was overrun by militants led by radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah. The valley boasted the country's only ski resort and was once a draw for trout-fishing enthusiasts. It is believed to be the deepest advance by militants into Pakistan's settled areas -- meaning areas outside its tribal region along the border with Afghanistan. The negotiations are the latest attempt by Pakistan's civilian government -- which took power last year -- to achieve peace through diplomacy in areas where Taliban and al Qaeda leaders are believed to have free rein. Swat has been overrun by forces loyal to Maulana Fazlullah's banned hardline Islamic group, Tehreek Nifaz-e-Shariat Mohammadi (TNSM) which has allied itself with Taliban fighters. TNSM was once led by Sufi Mohammed, Fazlullah's father-in-law who is leading the latest negotiations. Sufi Mohammed was released from jail last year by Pakistani authorities after he agreed to cooperate with the government. He had been jailed in 2002 after recruiting thousands of fighters to battle U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Fazlullah took over TNSM during Sufi Mohammed's jail stint and vowed to continue his fight to impose fundamentalist Islamic law in the region. Last May, Pakistan's government announced it reached a peace deal with militants in Swat Valley. Analysts as well as critics within the establishment have described those talks as a failure that gave the Taliban time to regroup and gain more ground. The Taliban have recently targeted local politicians, including the head of the Awami National Party -- which represents the region -- who was forced to flee to Islamabad. Pakistan is under enormous pressure to control the militants within its borders, blamed for launching attacks in neighboring Afghanistan where U.S. and NATO forces are fighting militants. Pakistan's military operation in the region is unpopular among Pakistanis, but efforts to deal diplomatically with militants have not worked in the past. Pakistan's previous military ruler, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, reached a cease-fire deal with militants in South Waziristan in 2006 which was widely blamed for giving al Qaeda and Taliban a stronger foothold in the region. CNN's Zein Basravi contributed to this report.

Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan announces a 10-day cease-fire in Swat Valley . Taliban are holding talks with the North West Frontier Province's government . No immediate confirmation of the cease-fire from the Pakistani government .

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(CNN) -- Be bold! Think big! Barack Obama wants to do just that. An $800 billion economic stimulus plan. Three million jobs. Health care reform. A restructured automobile industry. Obama's popularity with voters will win him influence with political opponents. Obama won the biggest Democratic majority for president in 44 years. His party made big gains in Congress. Democrats now have a majority of nearly 60 percent in both the House and Senate. President Obama's got a mandate. And a majority. What's to stop him? Just this: the U.S. system of government. It is set up to make it difficult to get things done. The Constitution was written 222 years ago by men who didn't trust government. They had just waged a revolution against a king. To the founders of the American republic, strong government meant despotism. So they set up a system with an elaborate separation of powers. The idea was to ensure weak government. The dirty little secret of American government is that it was designed not to work very well. As president after president has discovered, there are innumerable ways opponents can stop measures from getting passed, even if the president's party holds a majority in Congress. The Senate has its own rule that's not in the Constitution requiring a super-majority of 60 Senate votes to control the agenda. A minority of 41 senators can "filibuster'' a measure and prevent it from coming up for a vote. How many votes will Republicans have in the Senate? 41 or 42, depending on the outcome in Minnesota where ballots are still being counted. Presidents often have problems holding their own party together. That's because members of Congress are elected by local constituencies and they are expected to represent local interests. American politicians are independent political entrepreneurs. They are not foot-soldiers of a party. When Bill Clinton first became president, he had a solid Democratic majority in Congress. But he could not get his health care reform plan passed. After an intense advertising campaign by opponents, many Americans were worried that the Clintons were planning a government takeover of the health care system. The Clinton plan failed, and within two years, Democrats lost their majority in Congress. One-party control didn't work any better for George W. Bush. Bush had trouble getting what he wanted -- notably, immigration reform -- from a Republican Congress. Republicans lost their majority in Congress in 2006. But here's another dirty little secret of American government: it often does work. Very well in fact. Under the right conditions, barriers fall away and things get done, sometimes with amazing speed and efficiency. What are the right conditions? An overwhelming sense of public urgency. That sense of urgency certainly existed after 9/11, when Congress quickly passed the Patriot Act. Getting anything big done in American government requires a sense of crisis. That's why politicians in the U.S. are always declaring crises -- a drug crisis, an education crisis, an environmental crisis. Or they're trying to rally the country to fight a war on something -- a war on poverty, a war on crime. If the public urgency is not authentic, however, opponents won't have much trouble stopping things from happening. Obama certainly takes office at a time of crisis, just as Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt did. Like them, he has the opportunity to transform American government. Members of Congress who try to block President Obama's program may find themselves in political trouble. Because there is yet another dirty little secret of American government: the United States is the most populist democracy in the world. Here, the people rule. When the people want something, they will get it, whether it's the death penalty or gun rights or lower taxes. Why doesn't the United States have a metric system or dollar coins like other countries? Because the people won't use them. Obama's popularity is soaring right now. When a president is popular, he has clout. Everyone wants to be on his side, even members of the opposition party. They're in business for themselves, and supporting a popular president is good for business. Standing in his way could drive them out of business. American government is not an efficient, well-oiled machine. It was never designed to be. It has to be lubricated by public pressure. If the people are shouting "Do something!'' -- as they are right now -- then something will happen. Even if it means a lot more spending and a lot more government. The people reserve one key right: they will let the government know, rather quickly, whether or not it's working.

Three secrets behind the way U.S. government works . It was designed to ensure weak government . In times of crisis usual barriers fall away . If voters want something done, it will get done somehow .

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(CNN) -- Scabby the Rat may not have a word to say, but the large rodent-shaped balloon helped a labor union earn a free-speech victory Thursday before New Jersey's highest court. Big Sky Balloons, based in Chicago, Illinois, rents out "union rats" like Scabby and other inflatables. The seven justices ruled unanimously that the local union had a right to display its 10-foot-tall, black, rat-shaped balloon at a rally held outside a fitness center. At issue was whether a township could enforce a ban on inflatable or portable signs and banners on public property. Lawrence Township police had levied a $100 fine against an official from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers because of Scabby. The court concluded that while townships have a right to maintain an "aesthetic environment" and ensure public safety, its restrictions on expressive displays "do not justify a content-based restriction of non-commercial speech." "There is no evidence to suggest that a rat balloon is significantly more harmful to aesthetics or safety than a similar item being displayed as an advertisement or commercial logo," wrote Justice John Wallace Jr. The balloon and others like it, nicknamed Scabby by the Chicago-based company that made them, have been used by labor unions as street theater since 1990 to protest anti-union activities. IBEW members were marching on the sidewalk outside Gold's Gym in Lawrence Township in April 2005 in response to a dispute with a contractor working at the business. A police officer had ordered the balloon deflated, but returned an hour later to find it blown back up. The labor official in charge admitted he ordered the rat reinflated, and he was given a summons. Lower state courts had ruled the township's ordinance was content-neutral and did not suppress the union's ability to spread its message, since members still could chant and distribute handbills to the public. About 200 Scabby balloons are used by labor unions nationwide, according to Big Sky Balloons. They come in three colors, each showing pink eyes, front claws extended, and two big front incisors.

Court: Towns have right to enforce aesthetics, but not curb speech . Scabby the Rat balloon displayed at union rallies in New Jersey . Township banned display of inflatables, including 10-foot rat balloon .

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(CNN) -- A dispatcher who took a 911 call regarding a domestic argument at a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-area home knew that there were weapons in the home but did not notify responding officers, three of whom were fatally shot, an official said Tuesday. Eric Kelly, from left, Paul Sciullo III and Stephen Mayhle were shot to death responding to a 911 call. The officers died Saturday in a gunbattle as they were responding to the call, authorities have said. "It was pure human error and a terrible thing that occurred," Bob Full, chief of emergency services for Allegheny County, told CNN affiliate WTAE. "In this particular case, our call-taker did not follow through with the appropriate training that she had received and [make] the appropriate notation that there were weapons in the house." The bodies of the Pittsburgh police officers -- Stephen Mayhle, Paul Sciullo III and Eric Kelly -- are scheduled to lie in repose at Pittsburgh's city-county building Wednesday before a public memorial is held Thursday. Richard Poplawski, 22, is in custody in connection with the shootings. He was hospitalized over the weekend after being shot in the leg during the gunbattle and standoff with police that lasted four hours. Police have not disclosed where he is being held. They said he would be charged with three counts of homicide, aggravated assault and other charges. Poplawski's mother, Margaret, called 911 about 7 a.m. Saturday to report that her son was "giving her a hard time," according to a criminal complaint filed in the case. She told police she awoke to discover that "the dog had urinated on the floor" and awakened her son "to confront him about it," and the two argued. Margaret Poplawski told her son that she was calling police to remove him from the home, the complaint said. During that call, according to WTAE, the dispatcher asked Margaret Poplawski, "does he have any weapons or anything?" referring to her son. The woman replied, "Yes." She paused and then said, "they're all legal." "OK, but he's not threatening you with anything?" the dispatcher asked. WTAE reported that Margaret Poplawski did not answer directly but said, "look, I'm just waking up from a sleep, and I want him gone." Full pointed out that the call was a "casual conversation" and that although "there's no excuse for it whatsoever ... gathering from the casual nature of the call, the call-taker took an inference that [the caller] was not threatened and that guns or weapons were not involved. And it never was relayed to the police officers." Authorities said the responding officers, Mayhle and Sciullo, were shot as they arrived at the home. Kelly was shot later as he arrived to help them. Police believe that Poplawski, wearing a bulletproof vest, fired more than 100 rounds at officers with an AK-47, another rifle and a pistol, authorities said Saturday. The dispatcher has been placed on paid administrative leave, Full said. "You can only imagine how fragile this individual is. This young lady came to work that day ... she had no intentions on ever letting this go." The woman is being assisted through the county's employee assistance program, he said. Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said in a statement that, although he has commended the county 911 center many times, Saturday's events "revealed a flaw in the 911 system." "We now know that the 911 dispatcher was made aware that guns were present ... and that this information was not communicated to the officers," Ravenstahl said, according to WTAE. "Before responding to the call, the officers should have had the benefit of knowing that the actor owned firearms. We will never know if Saturday's events would have gone differently had the officers known." Ravenstahl said he has asked the center's management to develop a plan of action "to address flaws in the system and to ensure that this type of incident never happens again," WTAE reported.

Eric Kelly, Stephen Mayhle and Paul Sciullo III were shot to death Saturday . 911 dispatcher failed to tell officers about guns in Pittsburgh home . Official says dispatcher may have believed guns weren't involved in dispute . Dispatcher is on paid administrative leave .

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Most of the Supreme Court justices piled up a lot frequent flyer miles in 2007, jetting to such exotic locales as Austria, India and Hawaii, according to financial disclosure reports released Friday. The U.S. Supreme Court justices at a shoot for their 2006 "class photo." And they generally have a good bit of spending money for their travels, based on reported investment income. The records, which were released Friday by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, confirm what has been known for some time: that most of the justices are relatively well-off financially. The eight associate justices make $208,100 in annual wages plus income from a variety of resources. Federal judges are not required to publicly release exact income figures, just a general range. The wealthiest justice may be David Souter, with a wise investment he made years ago in a Vermont bank paying off handsomely. His assets in Chittenden Corp. are valued from $5 million to $25 million. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's asset totals are boosted by the fact that her husband, Martin, is a respected private tax attorney in Washington. Justices Stephen Breyer, John Paul Stevens and Antonin Scalia are also millionaires. Justice Samuel Alito, the newest member of the high court, also reported income ranging from $700,000 to $2 million. In the area of reported gifts, Alito cited about $500 in "Italian food and wine" given to him by a friend, about whom the justice helpfully noted it "is not likely that he will appear before this court." The latest financial records continue to show Justices Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas reporting assets under $1 million, not including homes and judicial salaries. Thomas received a one-time boost to his income when his best-selling memoir was released in October. He received the remaining half of a reported million-dollar book advance and traveled extensively on a book promotion and signing tour. Scalia also received an advance for his book on how to be a better appellate lawyer. The amount was relatively paltry compared to his colleague's: $33,000. The annual records show that Breyer, Ginsburg, Kennedy and Scalia were the busiest travelers. Each made multiple visits overseas to teach, give speeches or attend judicial seminars. Airfare, lodging and meals were generally paid for by the organizations that invited the justices, but under federal law, they must report it. Europe was a favorite destination for several justices. Breyer reported 21 out-of-town trips for which he was reimbursed, including to Paris, France; Rome, Italy; New Delhi, India; and Palm Springs, California. Ginsburg went overseas to France, Belgium, Ireland and Canada and made at least nine other domestic trips. In the same week in July, Kennedy and Chief Justice Roberts were in France and Austria, respectively. But the Most Traveled Award goes to Scalia, who made 33 expense-paid trips, including eight overseas, and visited at least 17 states. Only Souter and Stevens reported no trips for which they were reimbursed by sponsoring groups. Souter also reported no outside teaching gigs, trustee or board memberships, or any gifts received. The 68-year-old bachelor generally spends his extended time away from the high court at his isolated farm in rural New Hampshire. Chief Justice John Roberts may have the most diverse investment portfolio. He recorded 63 investments and trusts, including stock in Time Warner (parent company of CNN), Citicorp, Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard. The estimated value is from about $2.4 million to more than $6 million. Before becoming a federal judge, Roberts was a high-paid Washington lawyer. His judicial salary is $217,400. Roberts, 53, continued to sell off small amounts of common stock, including in Cisco and Citigroup. When he took over as chief justice in 2005, he was forced to sell stock in several companies. A bill passed two years ago in Congress allows federal judges to defer paying capital gains taxes on securities they sell to avoid conflicts of interest. High-level executive branch employees had enjoyed that privilege for years. The issue of judges holding such diverse investment portfolios has resulted in several conflicts of interest, prompting calls for reform. The high court last month refused to accept an appeal from a group of South Africans seeking to sue U.S. and foreign firms for allegedly helping keep the white-led apartheid government of their country in power for decades. Four members of the high court were forced to remove themselves from consideration of the cases. No reason was given for their recusal, but financial disclosure reports showed that Roberts, along with Breyer and Alito, owns stock in several of the companies being sued. Kennedy's son Gregory is a top manager in one, investment bank Credit Suisse. Under federal rules, at least six justices must hear a case that is accepted for review. With four of the nine recused, the high court had no choice but to uphold the lower court ruling, tossing out the lawsuit. Some reform advocates say that judges should be allowed to own only mutual funds instead of individual stocks. Mutual funds involve a range of investments whose identities are disclosed to the fund's shareholders several times each year. Federal law allows judges to own mutual funds without having to recuse themselves from a particular appeal.

Reports show David Souter may be the wealthiest member of Supreme Court . Samuel Alito, the busiest traveler, made 33 expense-paid trips in 2007 . Chief Justice John Roberts recorded 63 investments and trusts .

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(CNN) -- It was the best of times in 2004, when attorney Dave Dineen graduated from Boston University School of Law and landed a job at a top Massachusetts corporate firm, Foley Hoag LLP. Attorney Dave Dineen at his new job at Greater Boston Legal Services. By 2007, the National Association for Law Placement was reporting the most promising year in two decades. Nearly 92 percent of graduating attorneys were employed, and the median starting salary at private practices had increased by $13,000 --to a total of $108,500 a year. But times have changed. In the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the legal industry is taking an unprecedented beating from the sputtering economy and housing meltdown. Dineen, 37, lost his job as layoffs and salary freezes have spiked at law firms across the country during the past three months. See the law firm layoffs for the past year » . Rather than just hand out a severance package with the pink slip, Foley Hoag gave Dineen an option. He could work for Greater Boston Legal Services, a legal aid group serving people living in poverty. The firm agreed to pay Dineen about a quarter of his former salary for a year. Dineen, who needed to support his wife and a newborn daughter, accepted. "This gave me a chance to do something different with my legal career, and help out people who generally don't have access to public service," said Dineen, who now works on foreclosure cases helping victims of predatory lending. Foley Hoag is among many megafirms across the country using the economic slump as an ideal time to lend a hand to cash-strapped public interest and legal aid firms. The massive corporate layoffs and program cuts could redirect thousands of young graduates and experienced attorneys from corporate firms into the public sector, legal experts say. Once insulated, law firms are shedding young and mid-career associates at extraordinary rates. This is especially true at large corporate firms that overestimated their growth and extended too many offers to associates last fall. White & Case LLP, a leading global firm with headquartes in New York, made a second round of cuts last week. In addition to about 70 associates laid off in November, the firm last week let go of another 400 people, including 200 attorneys. Other well-known firms such as Heller Ehrman LLP and Thelen Reid & Priest LLP on the West Coast have gone bankrupt in recent months. At least 2,149 attorneys have been laid off in 2009, bringing the total to 3,045 since January of last year, according to Lawshucks.com, an industry Web site tracking the slump. Hundreds more associates set to start jobs this fall are bracing themselves for rescinded offers and deferred start dates. Some students are finding their summers wide open as law firms like Luce Forward, based in California, have canceled internship programs. Amid all this dark news, there might be a silver lining. It could transform the legal profession. "There is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity coming out of a difficult situation," said Esther Lardent, president of the Pro Bono Institute in Washington, who began discussions this month with at least 15 corporate firms nationwide about placing unemployed attorneys in public interest firms. The project will get under way in a few months, she said. Other firms have already encouraged attorneys to go into the public sector. Just last week, one of the largest firms in the country -- Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania -- announced it will pay deferred associates graduating in 2009 a $5,000 monthly stipend for one year if they secure a job in the public interest field. International law giants Latham & Watkins LLP and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP offered incoming associates who defer employement until October 2010 a $75,000 compensation package. While working in public service isn't mandatory for Latham & Watkins associates, the firm said there was a "sincere hope" the deferred associates would "use the intervening period to pursue a community service or other public advocacy projects of their choosing." Such deferral plans can save the companies about $100,000 per associate, and law experts expect the list of firms enacting deferral programs to grow geometrically as the economy worsens. "Firms are doing this to be flexible and regulate their labor force because there just isn't as much work anymore," said James G. Leipold, executive director of the National Association for Law Placement. Corporate giants are also scrambling to find work for mid-level attorneys in the public sector. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, a major New York-based law firm, introduced a yearlong public service fellowship program this year that would pay current attorneys $60,000 a year to work in areas such as social service, community development or academia. The company hopes the program will alleviate "significant budgetary constraints." "You aren't just throwing somebody out there," said American Bar Association President Tommy Wells, who requested funding in President Obama's stimulus package to help pay attorneys to work in the public sector. (The proposal was rejected.) "You're meeting a real need in these tough times where you have more of a legal need and fewer resources," Wells said. Encouraging laid-off and deferred attorneys to go into public service is filling a desperate need at public interest firms. Public interest and legal aid firms serving the underprivileged have long been under-funded and overwhelmed with cases even in a good economy. Tightened state budgets and a decline in donations have further stretched resources for the public interest firms, forcing them to make staff cuts at a time when demand for their services is greater than ever before. At Greater Boston Legal Services, the public interest firm where Dineen arrived in January, the effects of a sick economy are apparent. Robert Sable, the public interest firm's executive director, has already reduced staff. The agency, which handles 15,000 matters a year, expects to make more staff reductions in the coming months because of a $2 million funding shortfall. "We're burning through our reserves right now, so it's nice to have extra help," said Sable, who is talking to another local corporate firm this week about taking in subsidized attorneys. Some attorneys and law students worry that paying corporate attorneys to work in public interest firms may displace those who actually wanted to work in the public sector in the first place. Jocelyn E. Getgen, who works with students at Cornell Law School, said strained legal aid organizations and nonprofits will want to take in the "free" labor. Nevertheless, there is little doubt that the economic free-fall is changing the ways current attorneys -- and a new generation of young attorneys -- view the field. Traditionally, law students have equated best jobs with highest-paying jobs, career counselors say. Students saddled with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt find themselves pressured to work at large firms that will pay enough to cover the bills, said Tricia McGrath, a director at Lateral Link Group LLC, a job placement agency for lawyers. Many times, going into the public sector isn't even an option, she said. "Everyone has to rethink all the old models that we believed in, the model where you go to school and then a big firm," said McGrath, who graduated from Fordham University School of Law in 1998, a time when law jobs were abundant. iReport.com: Cutting back with brown-bag lunches? Show us on video . Even students at top law schools are finding that their offers have been rescinded. At Harvard Law School, Mark Weber, assistant dean for career services, said he has been working with a handful of students whose job offers have been deferred. "It can be a tremendous opportunity for the student to take that year and try something entirely different," Weber said. "Hopefully within a year, the economic picture will do better." After not receiving a corporate firm job offer in the downtrodden industry, Scott Greenwood, set to graduate this spring from the University of Southern California's Gould School of Law, will instead work for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. "I can see what it's like to work for a regulatory agency, and that's a different expertise that attorneys don't always get to have," said Greenwood, who will begin working in Washington in August. "I've been thinking about it as a blessing in disguise."

At least 2,149 attorneys have been laid off in 2009, according to Lawshucks.com . Private firms are trying to place unemployed attorneys in public interest firms . One firm will pay deferred associates $60,000 a year to work in the public sector . Harvard Law School assistant dean: Tough times can be "tremendous opportunity"

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(CNN) -- A 27-year-old woman from eastern China has died of bird flu, Chinese authorities said, making her the second person to die this year from the deadly virus. Human-to-human transmission of avian flu is rare, but in some cases, the virus has passed from poultry to humans. The woman fell ill on January 5 in Shandong province on the country's east coast and died on Saturday, the Ministry of Health said in a statement. Two tests on the woman were positive for H5N1 avian influenza, said the ministry, which did not say how she might have contracted the virus. On Saturday, the World Health Organization said a 2-year-old girl in northern China had tested positive for bird flu -- now the country's third confirmed case of the virus this month. The girl fell ill on January 7 in central Hunan province and was taken to her home province of Shanxi in northern China, the state-run news agency Xinhua said. The report did not say how she became infected. On January 5, a 19-year-old Beijing woman died of bird flu after handling poultry, officials said. Xinhua said the woman bought nine ducks at a market in Beijing's neighboring Hebei province and cleaned their organs before falling ill. Since the end of 2003, the H5N1 virus has infected numerous species of birds in more than 60 countries in Asia, Europe and Africa. It has not been found in birds in North or South America or the Caribbean, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Human-to-human transmission of avian flu is rare, but in some cases the virus has passed from poultry to humans. It has killed more than 200 people since 2003. China reported its first human-to-human infection case in 2005. So far, 30 cases have been confirmed. Twenty of them have been fatal, according to Xinhua. On Friday, China announced it was setting up a nationwide network to test for the virus.

NEW: The woman became ill on January 5 and died on Saturday . NEW: Two tests on the woman are positive for H5N1 avian influenza, officials say . A 2-year-old girl in northern China is in critical condition with bird flu . China reported its first human infection in 2005; 30 cases confirmed so far .

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LONDON, England (CNN) -- The worst snowstorm to hit Britain in 18 years forced the cancellation of more than 650 flights at London's Heathrow airport Monday and shut down the city's bus network, partially paralyzing the British capital. A group of men push a giant snowball across Kensington Gardens, west London Monday. Heathrow, one of the busiest transport hubs in the world, closed both its runways for more than two hours Monday morning and operated with just one for the rest of the morning, according to BAA, the company which runs it. London City airport is also closed, while the British capital's other two airports, Stansted and Gatwick, were operating with severe delays, BAA said. British Airways canceled all flights out of Heathrow until 5 p.m. except for Edinburgh and Lisbon routes. Send your iReport videos, stories . One of the city's largest cab companies was in such high demand it stopped taking cash and credit card bookings, serving only customers with accounts, it said. Dial-a-Cab, which has a fleet of over 2,500 vehicles, served mainly blue-chip companies trying to get employees into work, said Keith Cain a Control Room manager for the company. Customers waited up to an hour and a half for a cab early in the morning, he said. See gallery of UK under snow » . Jochen Jaeger, 36, found himself stranded at Heathrow, unable to fly home to Zurich or to get back into the apartment he rented in London. "I will stay here at the airport," he told CNN. "There is no other option. I may have to spend the night here." American businessman Ken Plunkett, 60, from St. Paul, Minnesota, was trying to fly out from Heathrow Airport but found himself caught in the weather chaos. "I know England does not have the infrastructure to remove snow like we do in Minnesota," he said. Watch passenger stranded by snow » . Jenny Leslie, a shop worker at Heathrow's Terminal 2, said it was so quiet at the airport "you can hear a pin drop." Southampton Airport, southwest of London, was also closed for several hours Monday morning, but re-opened by 1200 GMT. But many people in the city were delighted by the unusual weather. "Londoners of all ages are childishly happy to be making snowmen and having snowball fights. Bankers of all ages are throwing snowballs in the middle of the residential streets," Monica Majumdar told CNN in an iReport. She lived in New York before moving to London four years ago, and was surprised by how little snow it took to bring the British capital to a standstill. "I have seen snow like this. But somehow, it's more beautiful here. It's partly due to the fact that even Londoners are amazed by the snow -- so there is a general air of surrealism," she said via e-mail. " I do feel like I'm in a Christmas snowglobe, with all the iconic London monuments blanketed by the powdered snow." London's famous red buses were pulled off the roads on Sunday night as the snow got deeper. It was the first time "in living memory" that all city bus service had been suspended, including when London was being bombed during World War II, a spokesman for the city's transit agency, Transport for London, said. "Bus services were suspended throughout London last night on the grounds of passenger safety due to the unsafe road conditions resulting in a large number of traffic incidents across London," the agency said in a statement Monday morning. Watch London grind to a halt » . About six million people ride London buses each day, said the spokesman, who asked not to be named. Some bus service had been restored by lunchtime on Monday. London Mayor Boris Johnson suspended the £8 ($11.30) daily congestion charge drivers normally pay to enter central London, the city transport authority said. Some bus service had been restored by lunchtime on Monday. The city's subway system was also experiencing severe delays, leaving normally bustling central London something of a ghost town. On a regular weekday, London's transit system handles more than three million passenger journeys. The Federation of Small Businesses estimated that at least one in five workers nationwide -- about 6.4 million employees -- failed to make it into work Monday morning. But the figure was estimated to be far higher -- around two in five -- in London and southeast England, which is home to around a fifth of all British businesses. Monday's disruptions are likely to cost businesses £1.2 billion ($1.7 billion), FSB spokesman Stephen Alambritis told CNN. Britain's national weather service, the Met Office, issued severe weather warnings for all of England and much of Scotland and Wales for both Monday and Tuesday. It reported 20cm of snow in Balham, south London, and 15cm at Canary Wharf in east London. The last time such widespread snowfall affected Britain was in February 1991, the Met Office said. Watch iReport on snowy Stonehenge. The snow meant a break from school for the region's children as classes gave way to snowball fights. In the southern English seaside resort of Brighton there was a carnival atmosphere as dozens of people who were unable to get to work threw snowballs and built snowmen on the beach. Mother-of-three Fiona Robbins, 45, added: "Everyone is very excited to be able to show their children proper snow for the first time." Tuesday's forecast is expected to bring some relief, with the snow expected to stop and temperatures to rise above freezing. Two climbers were found dead Monday morning on Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales, after being reported missing Sunday night, North Wales Police said. It was not clear if their deaths were related to the storm. CNN Business Assignment Editor Alysen Miller, Laura Perez Maestro, Simon Hooper and Olivia Feld in London contributed to this report.

UK business spokesman: Disruptions would likely cost $1.7 billion . Meteorologists said snow is worst in southeastern England in 18 years . Major international airports including Heathrow, Gatwick badly affected . UK weather service issues severe weather warnings for Monday, Tuesday .

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(CNN) -- Two former presidents reflected on their greatest regrets in office Monday, each looking back to issues that continue to plague the nation years later. Former presidents and political rivals Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush now share philanthropic efforts. Former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton appeared together at a question-and-answer forum before the National Automobile Dealers Association in New Orleans, Louisiana. Asked his biggest regret after leaving office, Bush said he now wonders whether he should have tried to get Saddam Hussein to leave office at the end of the first Gulf War in 1991. He told the gathering, "I've thought a lot about it, but at the end of Desert Storm, the question was should we have kind of kept going on that road to death and all this slaughter until Saddam Hussein showed up and laid his sword on the table, surrendered. And the common wisdom was he wouldn't do that." But he said a conversation with an FBI agent who interrogated Saddam after he was captured has made him reconsider. Bush recalled their talk, "I said, 'What if we just say he has to come to surrender, would he have done it?' And this guy said, 'I'm absolutely convinced he would have.' My experts tell me he wouldn't have." Bush said, "We ended it the way we said we would" as a military success, but noted a cleaner ending "would have been perfect." He added, "If we had tried to get Saddam Hussein to come and literally surrender and put his sword on the table, I think it might have been avoided some of the problems that we did have in the future from him." On a day that President Barack Obama dispatched George Mitchell to the Middle East as the latest U.S. envoy, Clinton discussed the failure to achieve peace between Israelis and Palestinians. "My No. 1 regret is that I was not able to persuade Yasser Arafat to accept the peace plan I offered at the end of my presidency that the Israelis accepted. "If he had done that ... we had had seven years of progress toward peace. We had one year in 1998, the only year in the history of Israel where not a single soul was killed in a terrorist act. The Palestinians had more control over West Bank then than they do today," Clinton said. "And if he had taken that deal, we would have a Palestinian state and we would have had, I think now, normal peaceful relations with Israel and all of its Arab neighbors." Clinton said a deal would have helped the U.S. handle other issues in the region, saying, "We'd be much better positioned to deal with the problem of Iran, and we would have taken away about half the arguments of terrorists around the world by giving the Palestinians their state and creating a cooperative, positive interdependence in the Middle East, not a negative one. And so, I think that would have done more good to save more lives and help more people, and I wish I had been able to do that. " Clinton also said he regretted not doing more to "stop the Rwandan genocide," and succeeding on a new health care plan. He said "presidents should share freely ... the mistakes they made" with historians, because it teaches lessons. He said he shared problems during the lunch with Obama and the four living presidents, saying, "You want each new president to make new mistakes, not the same ones." Clinton added, "all of us know if you make enough decisions, you're going to make a few of them aren't right."

Middle East leaves George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton with some regrets . Bush wonders whether he should have pressed harder for Saddam's surrender . Clinton looks back at Palestinian-Israeli peace process with some remorse . Presidents should share their mistakes as a learning tool, Clinton says .

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NEW DELHI (CNN) -- Suraj Suroj uses his motorcycle for all of his family's transportation needs. In his case, that means transporting himself, his wife and his two sons to and from work and school. Typically, all four of them squeeze onto the motorbike together on the crowded streets of Delhi, India. Suraj Suroj and his two sons weave through the streets of Delhi on his motorcycle. "We need more space," Suroj says with one of his sons sitting in front of him and the other clinging to his back. "We can only travel about 20 kilometers or 25 kilometers, after that we get tired traveling on the scooter." Never mind the fact that it's a very dangerous way to travel. The traffic is chaotic, constant, and congested and neither of Suroj's sons have helmets. Millions of people travel this way in India because helmet laws are not enforced and a two wheeler is the best they can afford. Not any more. Monday, Tata Motors finally released what has become known as the "world's cheapest car." With the basic model going for about $2,000, the Tata Nano is being touted as an alternative to motorbikes and scooters. In dramatic fashion, three versions of the Nano were driven onto a dark stage with headlights flashing and invited guests clapping in Mumbai, India. Tata Motors says the Nano will be available for purchase on April 9 but won't be delivered to customers until July. Watch as Nano is unveiled » . The vehicle has received international attention since it was first revealed in January 2008 at an Auto Expo in Delhi. Tata promised it at an incredibly low price. As the economy began to falter last year and the cost of materials started to rise, analysts began to doubt whether Tata could pull it off. Chairman of Tata group, Ratan Tata, answered those critics at the launch. "We made a promise and we've kept the promise. We hope this day we will usher in a new form of transport," Tata said. But the launch of the Nano is months behind schedule. The company ran into trouble when a land dispute sparked angry protests over the building of the Nano plant in the communist stronghold state of West Bengal. Farmers said the land belonged to them. In the end, Ratan Tata decided to stop operations and move to another state which caused a delay and cost Tata Motors millions. But the Nano has finally arrived. Industry experts say the base model is really basic but looks modern, is surprisingly spacious and handles well. "I think it will live up to what has been promised but it will not live up to what some people may imagine," auto analyst Murad Baig said. "If some people may imagine that this is going to be a golden chariot, no it won't. But it will be an economical, safe, practical, economical to buy, economical to run and a very cute little car, I must say." At only three meters long, the Nano fits four adults relatively comfortably. Critics point out that the cheapest version of the vehicle comes without air conditioning, airbags or power windows and it only has one side-view mirror. The Nano's speeds top out at 105 kilometers (65 miles) per hour. Tata says the Nano, which meets Indian environmental standards, has the lowest emissions among cars in its class. But environmentalists are not cheering its arrival. They are worried the Nano will simply add to the number of vehicles already choking the roads. "We are not saying no to Nano. We are saying no to all cars," said Amanita Roychowdry, a representative of India's Center for Science and Environment. "What is happening right now is that already when car numbers are exploding in Indian cities what cheap motorization is going to do is going to give that extra push. And that is what worries us. Anything that increases the number of cars on our roads is a bad news." No one knows, however, if the Nano will increase numbers or simply replace other cars in its class. For now, the Nano sounds like a fantastic alternative for those families in India who are trying to navigate crowded streets while crammed together on a motorcycle. "We will definitely be able travel farther with a Nano," motorcycle driver Suraj Suroj said. "Why not? We will be able travel comfortably. There will also be more safety."

Tata Motors to begin delivery of the Nano in July . Industry experts say motor is surprisingly good, environmentalists disagree . Car is billed as the world's cheapest, costing $2,000 .

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- CIA vs. DNI -- the clash of the titans. Dennis Blair, left, was picked to be director of national intelligence and Leon Panetta to head the CIA. In the old world, the CIA director ruled. He not only ran the spy agency, but he wore a second hat as director of Central Intelligence. The DCI was ostensibly responsible for coordinating the activities of all 16 agencies and departments which make up the intelligence community. Then came along the DNI (Director of National Intelligence) in 2005 -- a product of intelligence reform following the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Those intelligence failures were proof that you needed one person to focus exclusively on guiding the community. Running the CIA in itself was a full-time job. The DNI would oversee the entire intelligence community while the CIA director concentrated on running the spy agency. But there's a problem with this setup. Although the DNI was given more input into budgets and personnel than the DCI had, the DNI's powers are limited and somewhat vague. The intelligence chief has a say in lots of things, but there's no real muscle behind his decisions. It's not like the defense secretary, who has absolute authority over all department components. Outgoing CIA Director Mike Hayden recently told reporters there is natural tension between the CIA and DNI, but it's "not a bad structure." He did suggest, however, that the DNI's office was getting a bit bloated. "Americans being Americans, they're going to fill up their day trying to doing something impactful," he said, "which means between the two of us there's going to be a trench line ... out there." And how did departing DNI Mike McConnell respond to Hayden's quip? "Anytime you have organizations that have similar interests, you're going to have disputes," he said. "And particularly if the two leaders aren't working together and having a partnership and so on, the warfare at the trench level gets to be pretty much a raging battle." McConnell said he had a good professional relationship with Hayden, so they made it work. But he added, "we don't have a department of intelligence. If this were the Department of Defense, there wouldn't be any question, but it isn't." CIA nominee Leon Panetta got into the middle of the dispute during his confirmation hearing. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Michigan, wanted to know Panetta's understanding of the relationship between the CIA and the DNI. Would he be under the supervision of the DNI? Initially, Panetta said he reported to the DNI and performed the tasks assigned to him by the DNI, but then he added: "we are an operational arm, just like the [National Security Agency], just like the [National Reconnaissance Office], and I believe the role of the DNI is to coordinate all our activities..." Well, the NSA and the NRO are part of the Defense Department and report directly to the Defense Secretary, not the DNI. The CIA is the only intelligence agency that is not part of another department. A bit baffled by Panetta's response, Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, asked him point blank, "Is the DNI your boss or not?" Panetta's answer, "The DNI is my boss." It makes you wonder how Panetta and the other new guy -- DNI Dennis Blair -- will play in the sand box.

DNI oversees entire intelligence community; CIA director concentrates on spy agency . Director of national intelligence role arose partly from reforms after 9/11 . Ex-DNI and ex-CIA director both cite tensions between the organizations . Panetta was pressed on who's in charge at his confirmation hearing .

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(CNN) -- A former mayor of a city in southeast Wisconsin pleaded innocent Tuesday to charges of child pornography, solicitation of a minor and related counts, a prosecutor said. Gary Becker, former mayor of Racine, Wisconsin, is charged with soliciting someone he believed was a girl. Former Racine Mayor Gary Becker, who was arraigned Tuesday, could face a sentence of up to 164 years if convicted on all counts, District Attorney Michael Nieskes told CNN. He was still in office when he was arrested last month at a shopping mall in Brookfield, Wisconsin. He allegedly tried to meet with a person he thought was a 14-year-old girl after chatting with that person online, said Bill Kosh, a spokesman for the Wisconsin attorney general's office. An officer posed online as the underage girl, according to authorities. Becker's attorney did not immediately return calls for comment. Authorities first launched an investigation after Becker brought his personal computer into the mayor's office for repair. The computer technician hired by his office discovered six pornographic images of girls "possibly under the age of 18 years," according to Wisconsin criminal complaint. The technician reported his findings to local law enforcement officers, and they turned the case over to the state's child Internet crimes task force. Members of the task force swapped out the computer's hard drive so they could investigate without alerting Becker, Nieskes said. Their search uncovered further pornographic images of underage girls and more than 1,800 online chats containing "sexually explicit comments," some of them directed at underage girls, the complaint says. Authorities then set up an online profile for the fictitious 14-year-old girl -- using the name "Hopeyoulikeme14" -- and engaged the mayor in a chat that lasted more than two hours, the complaint says. During the chat, the former mayor agreed to meet the girl at a shopping mall, the document says. Becker, who resigned from office after his arrest, faces six criminal counts: child enticement, possession of child pornography, exposing a child to harmful materials, attempted second-degree sexual assault of a child, use of a computer to facilitate a child sex crime and misconduct in public office, according to a January statement from the Wisconsin Department of Justice.

NEW: A former mayor of Racine, Wisconsin, arraigned Tuesday . NEW: District attorney: Gary Becker could face 164 years in prison if convicted . Becker is charged with sex crimes, including possession of child porn . Prosecutors say he used online chat to solicit what he thought was underage girl .

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NEW YORK (CNN) -- She survived a bloodbath at a Lane Bryant store in Tinley Park, Illinois, by playing dead. The only survivor, she gave police a detailed description of the gunman. The Illinois State police worked closely with the survivor to come up with a composite of the gunman. Police aren't identifying their witness to protect her safety. Five other women lost their lives at Lane Bryant on February 2, 2008. The gunman is still at large. The crime began to unfold shortly after 10 a.m. when a man posing as a delivery man walked into the store. He chatted briefly with two customers and two employees. Then, police said, he pulled out a gun and announced a holdup. He forced the four women into the back room, police said. He bound them with duct tape and placed them face down on the floor. Two more women who later entered the store also were taken to the back room, tied and placed next to the others. Watch an update on the case » . Store manager Rhoda McFarland managed to call 911 from her cell phone at 10:44 a.m., just before she was shot to death. She got to her phone while the gunman was distracted, even though she was bound by the duct tape. On the call, posted on the Tinley Park police Web site, a man can be heard saying, "I'm losing it." The six women were shot execution style. Five of them were dead by the time police arrived, a few minutes after McFarland's call. A sixth woman survived. She, too, had been shot and left for dead, but tricked the killer by pretending to be dead. The killer was not wearing a mask or disguise, so she was able to describe him in detail. She told police he was a 6 foot African-American male, average weight, medium to dark skin tone, with braided hair and cornrows, husky build, and between 25 and 35 years old. His hair was pulled back, but one braid hung along his right cheek with light-green beads at the end of it, she told police. Police have released a composite sketch based on the witness' description. Besides store manager McFarland, the other women slain were Jennifer Bishop, Connie Woolfolk, Carrie Hudek Chiuso and Sarah Szafranski. The investigation remains open and active, and all theories are still being investigated, police say. The investigation has included a thorough vetting of the victims' backgrounds to determine whether any of them had any enemies. "None of the victimology so far has led to any suspects yet," said Commander Pat McCain of the Tinley Park Police Department. Police aren't ruling out any theories, including robbery. The gunman took a few hundred dollars, police said. "Certainly, the surviving witness didn't seem to recognize the killer, but maybe one of the dead victims knew him. We don't know," McCain said. The weapon used was a .40-caliber Glock. Bullet casings were left at the scene and the killer took the weapon with him. More than a year later, forensics from the crime scene are still being processed, police said. Investigators won't comment on whether the gunman left any fingerprints, hair or other trace evidence. Police say they have received more than 5,000 tips and feel this case will be solved. But at this point, they have not named a person of interest or a suspect. Investigators are asking for the public's help. There is a $100,000 reward for the arrest of the person or persons responsible for the Lane Bryant shootings. Have information? Please call the Tinley Park Police tip line at (708) 444-5394 or go to the tip line on the department's Web site.

Police release detailed composite of Lane Bryant shooting suspect . Store manager called 911 before being shot to death . On call, man can be heard saying, "I'm losing it" $100,000 reward offered. Information? Call tip line at (708) 444-5394 .

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SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNET) -- The fact that you now can explore the ocean through Google Earth isn't going to make Google much money directly. But the move is nonetheless smart. The new Google Earth 5.0 software allows users to explore the ocean depths from their computers. Google generated early-stage goodwill from being the best answer to the online search problem. But the company is large and getting larger, especially as it shows a better ability to withstand the recession than rivals, and that goodwill won't last forever. Google Earth, though, gives the company a new way to bring its brand to the world, notably with students for whom the software will help supplant atlases and encyclopedias. And in the long run, as Google Earth and Maps -- either as standalone software or used through a browser -- will likely become a widely used virtual window on the real world. Google will control the technology and commercialization of that portal. Will the visibility of the ocean depths on Google Earth make money directly? Not likely. But it adds incrementally to the overall utility of the software, which in the long run keeps it relevant. "The near-term opportunity is in local search," for example people looking for restaurants or hotels, said John Hanke, director of Google Earth and Maps, in an interview. Google has begun experimenting with advertisements on Google Maps and Google Earth, added Peter Birch, product manager of Google Earth, at the launch event. Since people often need to discover information about a place before going there, Google Earth and Maps could prove a lucrative endeavor. It may take years to get there, and it'll cost Google dearly in server hardware and network bandwidth, but Google has shown patience in subsidizing long-term projects. Though Hanke wouldn't reveal the expense of Google's geographic services, some of the economics are in the company's favor. Just as Google's search engine takes advantage of innumerable information that others put on the Internet, Google Earth is a platform that houses information supplied by outsiders that Google doesn't have to pay. It's the Internet's user-generated content story, but this time it's data that can be overlaid on a map of the Earth. And in the case of the ocean work, there are prestigious users generating high-quality content. Many ocean researchers gathered at the Google Earth 5.0 launch, and several showed there's pent-up demand for a way to conveniently display their data somewhere. And it's not just to share sea surface temperature data with fellow Ph.D.s, but also to try to educate the public. Ken Peterson, communications director for the Monterey Bay Aquarium, was excited about his layer in Google Earth that shows the location of various types of fish -- along with ratings for people about whether they should eat those varieties or substitute others. Barbara Block of Stanford University and Patrick Halpin of Duke University were eager to show the tracks of shark travels recorded by radio transmission to satellites. Ross Swick of the University of Colorado-Boulder showed a Google Earth animation of the gradually shrinking Arctic ice cap over the last 29 years. And Philip Renaud of the Living Oceans Foundation has supplied underwater video of the Red Sea as part of the foundation's mission to chronicle the state of coral reefs. Hanke envisions much broader information, though, including consumer-oriented material such as the best dive spots and kite-surfing areas. Ultimately, he wants "every single location" on Earth, land or sea, to have information. "We're trying to encourage our users to annotate all the places in the world. Part of what we're doing is seeding that ecosystem of spatial information," Hanke said. "That creates an opportunity for Google to provide location services on phones, mobile devices, in cars in the future, to guide people to the best places. Being a valued guide, the go-to source of information about the best places to go -- that will be a powerful and valuable thing for Google." Think of it as a second Internet in a way, only instead of using abstract names to locate information, you can use actual locations to locate information. Some refer to the idea as the "geographic Web." The clearest illustration of the indirect benefits Google Earth can bring is the fact that the company could persuade former Vice President Al Gore, whose climate change documentary won him an Oscar and a Nobel Peace Prize, to bear the Google Earth standard. In effect, he provided an eco-halo that can offset the more down-to-earth capitalistic realities of Google's operation. Google seems to share the altruistic, educational motivations of many researchers. But it's also got business in mind with Google Earth. "We try to create products people love to use," Birch said. "We create value, then think of appropriate ways of monetization." © 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. CNET, CNET.com and the CNET logo are registered trademarks of CBS Interactive Inc. Used by permission.

Imaging the ocean depths via the new Google Earth 5.0 is a smart move for Google . It adds to the overall utility of the software, which in the long run keeps it relevant . Ocean researchers attended Google's launch and are eager to display their data . Eventually, Google wants to provide data on "every single location" on Earth .

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The FBI has hit a dead end in its search for a missing 3-year-old Arkansas boy and is asking the public for help. The FBI is hoping the public can help find 3-year-old Dominick Wesley Arceneaux. Dominick Wesley Arceneaux was last seen by an aunt Tuesday afternoon in the front yard of a mobile home in Chidester, in south-central Arkansas, authorities said. In a missing-person alert, the FBI described Dominick as 3 feet tall, weighing 38 pounds, with brown hair and eyes. Kimberly Brunell, a special agent with the FBI in Little Rock, said authorities have made "an exhaustive search" of White Oak Lake, close to where the boy was last seen. National Guardsmen have also done a grid search covering a one-mile radius around the home, she said, and are currently expanding it to a two-mile radius. Investigators also have looked at registered sex offenders in the area, Brunell said. They have also found Dominick's father, who lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. "We have not ruled anyone out at this point," she said. The investigation has included looking at patrons of a bar next to the mobile home where Dominick has lived with his mother since December, she said. "There is not the normal traffic of just neighbors." Brunell said investigators have run down every lead and are looking for new ones, including "suspicious vehicles, suspicious persons ... anyone who might have a nugget that might lead us on our way to finding out what happened to him." Anyone with more information is asked to call an FBI hot line, 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324).

Dominick Arceneaux last seen by an aunt Tuesday in Chidester, Arkansas . FBI says it has made an "exhaustive search" of nearby White Oak Lake . Investigators looking at sex offenders in area and have found boy's father . Special agent: "We have not ruled anyone out at this point"

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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (CNN -- Military officials in Sri Lanka said they shot down a Tamil Tiger aircraft near the Colombo International Airport on Friday, in an air engagement with rebels that killed two people and left about 50 wounded. An injured survivor of a suicide attack in northeast Sri Lanka on February 9 . Sri Lankan officials claimed both planes were shot down by the Sri Lankan Air Force, SLAF, refuting the Tiger's claim they were conducting suicide missions in the country's capital. A spokesperson for the Sri Lankan Military said the body of a Tamil Tiger guerrilla was found by the plane's wreckage after it was shot down near the Colombo International Airport. The other plane, which entered the capital of Colombo, dropped a bomb but crashed into the offices of the Department of Inland Revenue, two blocks away from Air Force Headquarters, a military spokesman said. According to the Sri Lanka's Lankapuvath news agency, the country's air defense was activated at 9:30 p.m.( 11 a.m. ET) Friday after receiving information that two of the rebels light aircrafts were circulating over Colombo. "Both aircrafts were brought down by air force firing," Lankapuvath reported. "The dead body of the LTTE pilot was also found strewn about." The news agency said 50 people were admitted to Colombo General Hospital due to injuries from the crash. Two died from their wounds. According to the pro-Tamil Tiger Web site Tamil.net.com, two Black Air Tiger Pilots -- the group's elite squadron --died after carrying out diving missions into Sri Lanka's air force headquarters in Colombo and an air force base in Katunayaka. CNN could not independently verify the claims made by the rebels or the government. In a report released on Thursday, Human Rights Watch criticized the Sri Lankan government for its "indiscriminate" killings of civilian as it attempts to fight the rebel movement. As the rebel stronghold continues to shrink, civilians are trapped in the cross-fire, HRW said. "Sri Lankan forces are shelling hospitals and so-called safe zones and slaughtering the civilians there," James Ross, legal and policy director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. HRW also condemned the Tamil Tigers for its treatment of civilians. The organization's 45-page study said 2,000 civilians have been killed and another 5,000 have been wounded. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) -- commonly known as the Tamil Tigers -- have fought for an independent homeland for the country's ethnic Tamil minority since 1983. The civil war has left more than 70,000 people dead.

NEW: Officials claim air force shot down rebel planes . Two dead, 50 wounded in capital, Colombo . Both sides to blame for rise in civilian casualties, Human Rights Watch says . Up to 250,000 civilians trapped in Sri Lanka conflict zone, aid groups say .

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LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The latest 3-D animated movie involves the possible extinction of the human race and features a mad scientist with the head of a cockroach, a prehistoric half-ape/half-fish, a 50-foot-tall woman (OK, 49-foot-11), and a blue brainless blob named B.O.B. The Missing Link, Ginormica, the blue blob B.O.B. and Insectosaurus dominate "Monsters vs. Aliens." And they're the good guys. Reese Witherspoon leads the cast of "Monsters vs. Aliens," providing the voice of Susan, who is hit by a glowing meteorite on her wedding day. Before long she's grown into the biggest thing around. The short-statured Oscar winner relished the chance to play not only a giant, but also a role model. "I was walking with my son and my daughter the other day, and I was like 'Who's your favorite superhero?' " Witherspoon said. "And my son was like ... 'Batman, Superman, Spiderman,' and he could name 20 guy superheroes. "And so I said to my daughter, 'Who's your favorite superhero?' And she goes 'I don't know, the girl in the back of the Justice League? I can't remember her name.' " So the idea of showcasing a female superhero, Witherspoon said, has the actress "really excited." Kiefer Sutherland, who plays General W.R. Monger, sees the film as helping kids embrace their diversity. "I love the idea that they were gonna make a film that was going to tell young people that it's all right to be different," Sutherland said. His military veteran character captures Susan, renames her "Ginormica," and locks her up with the other "monsters" he's collected over half a century. "And not only is it all right to be different, that one thing that may make you feel awkward about being different might be your greatest asset." Those assets become apparent when an alien invader (voiced by Rainn Wilson of "The Office") decides he wants Earth, and the monsters -- Ginormica, Dr. Cockroach ("House" star Hugh Laurie), The Missing Link (Will Arnett), and the gelatinous B.O.B. (Seth Rogen) -- are called upon to save the planet. The film, which also features the voices of Stephen Colbert and Paul Rudd, opens Friday. Most of the cast had previous experience in animation voiceover -- last year, Rogen was featured in "Kung Fu Panda," and he and Arnett were heard in "Horton Hears A Who!" -- but it was the first time for Wilson. "They called me and they said 'They're interested in you for this, playing an evil alien warlord,' and I was like 'Where do I sign?' " he said with a chuckle. It was a welcome change of pace for Sutherland, who recorded his voice tracks for "Monsters" while he was filming the uber-intense "24." "So, for five days a week I'm very serious in the '24' world, and then for five hours on the weekend I got to be 5 years old and just play a cartoon character" -- a character he says he saw as a combination of R. Lee Ermey's intense gunnery sergeant in "Full Metal Jacket" and that 'toon terror, Yosemite Sam. "We combined these voices and the producers laughed, which is generally a pretty good sign," Sutherland said. Sutherland may have been inspired by the classics, but the 3-D aspect of "Monsters" is as modern as movie technology gets. Under the command of DreamWorks Animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg (whom Witherspoon and Sutherland respectfully called "Mr. Katzenberg"), the film was conceived from the beginning as a 3-D project. One early scene uses the process to bounce a paddleball out at the audience, but for the most part, the effect is used immersively, to bring viewers into the "Monsters" world. "You really feel like you're there, like you're a part of this thing," said Arnett, "not in a way that's gratuitous and to just sort of show off, but really so that the viewer can be an active participant in the movie." While film technology continues to advance, some things never change. As Susan is still trying to get used to her new size and powers, she finds herself simultaneously battling an alien robot and trying to save dozens of people trapped in their cars on the Golden Gate Bridge while her male cohorts mostly just stand around. One tries to encourage her by calling "You're doing it!" to which Susan snaps back, "I'm doing everything!" "The quintessential cry!" Witherspoon said. "The female war cry! That's one of my favorite lines." iReport.com: Does 3-D make you more likely to see a movie? Of course, it's hardly a spoiler to reveal that -- eventually -- Susan not only bonds with the rest of her motley crew, but also gains the self-confidence to see the positives in her accidental enormousness. As Wilson, the film's villain, noted, "It's a coming-of-age tale -- for the monster inside of each one of us." And, perhaps, it will give some little girls a superhero to look up to.

"Monsters vs. Aliens" is about motley group of misfits who team up to defeat alien . Monsters are led by almost 50-foot woman, voiced by Reese Witherspoon . Witherspoon says she hopes character can be role model for girls . Other actors lending talents: Seth Rogen, Kiefer Sutherland, Will Arnett .

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(CNN) -- Staffers at a federal prison in central Florida fired shots to break up a large-scale fight that sent eight inmates to hospital emergency rooms Sunday afternoon, officials said. Eight inmates were injured Sunday in a fight at Coleman Federal Correctional Complex in Florida, officials said. Authorities did not say what led to the fight at the Coleman Federal Correctional Complex in Sumter County. A statement from the prison said one inmate suffered a gunshot wound, but did not say whether the person was struck by a prison staff member's bullet. The other seven were "stabbing/shooting victims," said a spokesman for Orlando Regional Medical Center, where the inmates were taken. The hospital did not elaborate. No prison staffers were seriously hurt in the incident, which the FBI is investigating, said Charles Ratledge, spokesman for the prison. The fight broke out in the recreation yard of the United States Penitentiary No. 2, a high-security facility, about 2:20 p.m. The Coleman complex consists of four institutions. The other three facilities -- another U.S. penitentiary, a medium-security and a low-security facility -- were not affected, said Bureau of Prison spokeswoman Traci Billingsley. "The inmates ignored staff orders to stop their assaultive behavior, and shots were fired by institution staff to prevent possible loss of life," Ratledge said. Five medical evacuation helicopters -- three from the hospital -- landed at the prison and transported the injured inmates on the 15- to 20-minute flight to Orlando Regional, hospital spokesman Joe Brown said. The prison complex is in near Coleman in Sumter County, about 50 miles northwest of Orlando, Florida. The community was never endangered by the fight, U.S. Justice Department spokeswoman Laura Sweeney said. CNN's Nick Valencia, Susan Candiotti and Terry Frieden contributed to this report.

NEW: Staffers had to fire shots to break up large-scale fight, officials say . Eight inmates wounded, one by gunshot, at prison complex in Florida, officials say . Officials: Fight happened at Coleman Federal Correctional Complex's recreation yard . No staff members were hurt during the brawl, spokeswoman says .

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In his final public address from the White House, a reflective President Bush on Thursday recalled the ups and downs of his eight-year tenure and said he was willing to make the tough decisions. President Bush touts what he considers his foreign policy achievements Thursday at the State Department. "I have followed my conscience and done what I thought was right. You may not agree with some tough decisions I have made. But I hope you can agree that I was willing to make the tough decisions." Bush, who as president has become known for adamantly sticking to positions even when they've come under criticism, acknowledged setbacks and said he would have done some things differently. "Like all who have held this office before me, I have experienced setbacks," Bush said. "There are things I would do differently if given the chance. Yet I have always acted with the best interests of our country in mind. Watch Bush's final address » . Bush also said he is "filled with gratitude," and characterized Obama's inauguration as a "moment of hope and pride for our whole nation." Bush predicted a bright future. "We have faced danger and trial and there is more ahead," Bush said. "But with the courage of our people and confidence in our ideals, this great nation will never tire, never falter and never fail." Recalling the defining moment of his presidency, Bush said the September 11, 2001, attacks forever altered the way he approached his job. "As the years passed, most Americans were able to return to life much as it had been before 9/11," Bush said. "But I never did." iReport.com: Share your thoughts on Bush's farewell . "Every morning, I received a briefing on the threats to our nation. And I vowed to do everything in my power to keep us safe," he said. He cited the creation of the Department of Homeland Security and changes in the military and intelligence communities as part of the reason the United States has not seen another significant terrorist attack since 2001. "There is legitimate debate about many of these decisions," he said, an allusion that could refer to constitutional challenges to the administration-backed U.S. Patriot Act, controversy over the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo, Cuba, and the decision to invade Iraq before Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda had been vanquished in Afghanistan. View iconic moments in Bush's presidency » . "But there can be little debate about the results -- America has gone more than seven years without another terrorist attack on our soil." He warned that America's "enemies are patient, and determined to strike again" and urged against isolationism and protectionism in the face of economic and other challenges from abroad. Watch Bush's exit interview with King » . As he exits the world stage, Bush's approval rating, battered by a tanking economy and an unpopular, lingering war in Iraq, hovers just above all-time lows. A USA Today/Gallup poll released Wednesday indicates that, even with a 5-point "lame duck bounce" from last month, only 34 percent of Americans approve of the job he's doing as president. View key moments in Bush's presidency » . The roughly 13-minute address was delivered in front of about 40 people "with stories to tell" invited by the White House. Bush mentioned several -- from the principal who opened a New Orleans, Louisiana, charter school in the wake of Hurricane Katrina to a Marine sergeant decorated for charging into an ambush to rescue three of his comrades. The presidential farewell address is a tradition dating to George Washington's departure from office in 1797. Presidents Eisenhower, Reagan, Carter and Clinton -- among others -- all delivered farewell speeches.

Bush says he has always acted with country's "best interests" in mind . "There are things I would do differently if given the chance," Bush says . President Bush delivers speech before invited audience in White House East Room . Tradition of farewell presidential address dates to George Washington .

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(CNN) -- CNN's Larry King talked with former President Bill Clinton on Tuesday night at the William Jefferson Clinton Center in Little Rock, Arkansas. Bill Clinton talked politics and more with CNN's Larry King on Tuesday night. In a wide-ranging interview, King talked with Clinton about the stimulus bill, the auto bailout, President Barack Obama's BlackBerry, Chelsea Clinton's future, Sarah Palin and more. The following transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity: . Larry King: The stimulus bill passed today [Tuesday]. The president signed it in Denver. Is it going to work? Bill Clinton: I think it will do what it's designed to do. And I think it's important that the American people understand what it's designed to do. It's supposed to do three things. Number one, put money in people's pockets who are in trouble now -- extended unemployment benefits, the modest tax cuts, increase in food stamps. That will help grocery stores and other businesses and keep Americans who are good, honest, hardworking people afloat. Watch Larry King's interview with Bill Clinton » . The second thing it's supposed to do is give a chunk of money to state and local governments, primarily for education and health. That is designed to make sure that they don't have to either have big tax increases or lay a million people off. Either one, in this economy, would be bad. The third thing it will do is to create jobs through existing road and bridge contracts, through rail improvements, through modernization and especially through clean energy and energy efficiency. So I think that given how fast it had to be done and the compromises that had to be made, it's quite a good bill. And I think it will do what it's designed to do. King: John McCain and others on the other side of the ledger are saying that he didn't come forward enough to the Republicans, he didn't make them part of this Easter basket. Clinton: Well, I disagree with that. I think the only way he could have gotten a lot of them to vote for him would be to accept their economic theory. Their economic theory is why we're in this mess in the first place. King: Do you resent it when the Bush people say that this problem started with you, it started in your administration? Clinton: Well, they don't have much evidence for that. I always answer, does anyone seriously believe if the team I had in place had been in place for the last eight years that this would have happened? And the answer to that is no. We had a much more vigorous regulatory environment with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We were watching these derivatives. I do think we should have done more on derivatives. King: Before we move on to other things, should taxpayers be bailing out the automakers? Clinton: We don't owe it to them. We should only do it if it's in our interests. I believe it's in our interests ... King: We keep hearing about Obama's BlackBerry -- he's got a special BlackBerry now that doesn't have to be recorded into the White House. Do you have the number? Clinton: No. No. King: Would you like the number? Clinton: I know that in the world that exists today, if you're hyper-busy, you need them. Hillary lives on hers. King: Do you have one? Clinton: I don't. I like being able to concentrate on what I'm doing one thing at a time, you know. And I think if I had one, I'm so hyper and always trying to do three things at once, I'd be worse than he is or worse than she is. So I don't have one. King: What's Chelsea going to be? Is she interested in government? Clinton: Yes, she's interested in government. She cares about public health. She thinks that America has still got a ways to go to develop an affordable, high quality health care system. And I think she wants to be a part of it. King: Sarah Palin, net plus, net gain? Clinton: I think she was a net plus before the failure of Lehman Brothers and the collapse of the stock market, because she gave (McCain) credibility on the Republican right. Through no fault of her own, she became a negative on September 15th, because nobody on their team had any economic experience, and the burden against the Republicans was overwhelming. King: What do you make of President Obama? I mean, for a while I know that you were down and dirty tough when Hillary was running. And that was a pretty rough campaign, a very close campaign. What do you make of him now? Clinton: Well, I always had a great respect for his abilities. Those have been confirmed by the way he's conducted himself in the transition and in these early weeks. I think he is very smart. And I think he wants right things for America. And I think he's made good people decisions and good policy decisions. King: Can he try to live like a normal person -- going home to Chicago, kids go to school, he helps take them to school, plays basketball, goes out to public restaurants? Can you keep that up? Clinton: I think so. I did quite a bit of it and I wish I had done even more. King: What would you recommend or say or advise George W. Bush about being a former president? There aren't many of you. Clinton: Well, first I would advise him to make his own decisions with Laura about how they want to spend both the next five years and then the rest of his life. You have to assume he'll live 20 to 25 more years, and he seems to be in very good health. And I think he should just look at this as a whole new phase of his life. King: You opened the second Clinton Global Initiative University conference this past weekend and also a thousand students attended. How do you see the younger generation responding the global challenges, especially in these economic times? Clinton: There is a very large number of them who are doing astonishing things. For example, one young woman decided that she's going to go around and collect all the kitchen grease from all the dining halls and then nearby eateries and then use it to make biodiesels, to run cars and lawn mowers and generators. King: For all the years we've known each other, it never gets dull. Clinton: Thank you.

Bill Clinton talks in wide-ranging interview with CNN's Larry King . Republican economic theories created current economic crisis, Clinton says . Clinton on Obama: 'I always had a great respect for his abilities' No, Clinton doesn't have access to Obama's BlackBerry .

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SAN MIGUEL DEL MONTE, Argentina (CNN) -- In a small farming town 105 kilometers (65 miles) southwest of Buenos Aires, farmers are struggling to nourish their crops and feed their animals. The worst drought in half a century has turned Argentina's once-fertile soil to dust and pushed the country into a state of emergency. Argentine farmers profited in years past from selling beef to the world, but some now struggle to feed their cattle. Cow carcasses litter the prairie fields and sun-scorched soy plants wither under the South American summer sun. Farmers are concerned about their livelihoods. "I'm losing money. I can't afford to lose money all the time," said Juan Cahen D'Anvers, whose family has been farming in Argentina since the late 1700s. He owns 700 hectares (1,730 acres) in San Miguel del Monte, where he grows sunflowers and barley. He says this year is one of the hardest he's ever had. Watch farmer explain how hard he's been hit » . "Production is going to go down a minimum of 50 percent, maybe more. I don't know yet," he said. Argentina is one of the world's breadbaskets, providing commodities such as soy, wheat, corn and beef to countries around the globe. In recent years, record-high prices for these products reaped millions of dollars for Argentine farmers, but since the global economic crisis hit, demand and profits have dropped. Now the drought is making matters even worse. Cesar Gioia, another San Miguel del Monte farmer, said time is growing short. "If it doesn't rain in the next 10 days, I will have to wipe out my entire corn crop, 90 hectares (220 acres)," he said. "The best I can do with it is feed it to my cows." Facing pressure from farmers, Argentina President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner announced emergency measures this week that will exempt the worst-hit farmers from paying most taxes for one year. "This is a big boost of patriotism, and a sign of support from all Argentines," Kirchner said on January 26. "All other sectors of the economy will continue to contribute, so we can help the farmers who have been affected by this drought." Kirchner has had a contentious relationship with farmers, who staged noisy protests and strikes last year over an increase in export taxes. Those taxes eventually were reduced, but farming leaders still contend that the government is out of touch with their needs. They say the measures announced this week fall short, and are demanding a cohesive, long-term plan for dealing with emergencies such as the current drought. If not, they say, they may strike again. Watch how farmers reacted to Kirchner's move » . "Sure, this plan is approved now, and it helps, but we need money to feed cows, to go back to planting crops, because this drought is impacting life in every sector of society," said Eduardo Buzzi of the Argentine Agrarian Federation. As she yanks dead soy plant vines from a dusty field in San Miguel del Monte, Lorena del Rios of the Argentina Rural Society says she expects the drought to affect both Argentine and overseas consumers, especially when it comes to Argentina's world-famous beef. "We will see less meat available, which means rising prices," she said. "There is even the possibility that in a few years Argentina will have to import beef, which is almost unthinkable for people here."

Worst drought in 50 years is hitting Argentina . Farmers say they are losing 50 percent or more of crops . Cow carcasses litter the landscape while plants wither in the summer sun .

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LONDON, England (CNN) -- Identifying the world's finest airports is easy. Hong Kong International Airport, Singapore's Changi and Seoul's Incheon have topped the ranks of airport awards for the last decade. Sitting comfortably? Not at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport, ranked by some as one of the worst. These 21st-century airports boast the best shopping, classiest restaurants, as well as features such as indoor pools, orchid gardens, and free wireless Internet. See world's best airports . The world's worst airports, however, are harder to pin down. It's a crowded field to choose from and the choice depends on what you class as bad. See our pick of the world's worst airports » . If it's for danger, then Baghdad International Airport, in the middle of a war zone, should rank pretty high. Lukla airstrip -- gateway to the Mount Everest region in Nepal -- is also a strong contender. Landing involves a hair-raising plummet onto an uphill airstrip cut into the side of a mountain. On takeoff, the airstrip comes to an abrupt end at the edge of a mountain cliff. What do you think is the world's worst airport? Sound off below . Watch CNN's Ayesha Durgahee examine what it takes to become Airport of the year in Hong Kong. » . In 2007, TripAdvisor asked travelers to rank airports according to how easy they are to navigate, the cleanliness of the lavatories and parking facilities. Based on these factors, the 2,500 respondents classed London Heathrow and Chicago O'Hare as the world's most hated. Yet neither of these major hubs appeared in Foreign Policy magazine's review of the five worst airports, published in 2007. The list here included the likes of Mineralnye Vody airport in Russia for its feral cats and daggers on sale in the departure lounge. Charles de Gaulle also gains little affection from those that pass through its interminable terminals. As Foreign Policy says, "visitors to Paris should expect more than the grimy terminals, rude staff, confusing layout, and overpriced food." Where was your worst airport experience in 2008? Which airport do you think is the most dangerous, uncomfortable or aggravating? Sound Off below . We're also looking for photos and video of your worst airport experiences. Send them to the Business Traveller page on CNN iReport . Here's your chance to grumble.

Travelers rank Hong Kong, Singapore and Seoul airports as the world's best . Which airports are the worst? Send your photos, videos to iReport . Crowded terminals? Terrifying airstrips? Rude staff? Sound off below .

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(CNN) -- The controversial pitch at the new Wembley stadium is to be dug up immediately. Wembley's pitch has come in for plenty of criticism since the stadium weas reopened in 2007. Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger branded the surface 'a disaster' after the FA Cup semifinal defeat by Chelsea last Saturday, while Sir Alex Ferguson called it 'dead' in the aftermath of Manchester United's penalty shoot-out defeat to Everton 24 hours later. In the wake of such criticism, stadium officials decided to launch a thorough review of the pitch and have concluded the rye grass surface should be replaced with immediate effect. The new pitch will be a different composition to the current one, which it is hoped will be better suited to the stadium design. Although the FA had confirmed there would be a new 'sand-soil' pitch installed, it was not anticipated the work would be done until after next month's FA Cup final. There have been problems with the new stadium's pitch since it first opened just over two years ago. Due to the number of non-footballing events, including pop concerts, which are required at Wembley to make the rebuilding project viable, it was felt the rye-grass option was more likely to withstand the extra punishment. However, it has proved not to be the case, with Wenger claiming the surface is worse than at any of the 20 Premier League grounds. "When you build a new stadium, the first priority is that the pitch is good," said Wenger on Tuesday. "If that's not right the whole stadium is bad. "Before everybody wanted to play at Wembley because the pitch was so special. Now, nobody wants to play at Wembley." Although the FA acknowledge they will still need to change the pitch at regular intervals, the organisation is optimistic the work should at least allow Wembley to restore its previous reputation for a surface of the highest standard. A statement read: "Wembley Stadium is a multi-purpose venue and needs to be able to offer both a quality playing surface and a quality calendar of events. "The pitch has always been and will continue to be at the heart of the stadium and of the business."

The controversial pitch at the new Wembley stadium to be dug up immediately . Pitch has received widespread criticism since the stadium reopened in 2007 . The number of non-footballing events at the stadium has taken toll on surface .

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(CNN) -- A man in northern Idaho says he has seen a massive hand of God in his life, and he is willing to share it with the highest bidder. Paul Grayhek says the "Hand of God" appeared in his backyard in March. Paul Grayhek, 52, listed the rock formation he dubbed the "Hand of God Rock Wall" on the online auction Web site eBay. The highest bid was $250 early Sunday, with three days left to go in the auction. The hand-like formation, approximately 9 feet tall and 4 feet wide, appeared in Grayhek's backyard after a rockfall during Lent on March 8, he said. The Coeur d'Alene resident said he faced tough times after losing his job, and believed the rock was a sign. "I prayed between licking my wounds and looking for a job," he said. "We rarely get rockfalls and this formation is 20 feet from my house. It's definitely a symbol of the hand of God in my life." However, the winning bidder on eBay should not start clearing out his backyard. Grayhek is not planning to part with the formation. The buyer will "basically be buying the rights, complete and exclusive rights" to the rock, including literary and movie rights, according to Grayhek. Grayhek said he plans to use the money from the sale to pursue an unpaid internship in counseling when he graduates with a master's degree in social work in two years. "People think I'm some holier-than-thou person trying to get rich. I'm not," Grayhek said. "The purpose is to spread the story of God and eBay is just a vehicle."

Idaho man places "Hand of God" rock for sale on eBay . Paul Grayhek says hand-like formation appeared in his backyard during Lent . Winning bidder on eBay would get "exclusive rights" to rock .

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BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- Scores of boat people who fled Myanmar and are now in Thailand are to be sent back despite human rights groups' concerns they could be tortured or killed upon return. A photograph released by the Thai navy shows a group of men captured on December 12. "They will have to be sent back, according to our law," Thailand's Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva told CNN. "They are entering the country illegally. We do what they would do." The 12 boys and 66 men who arrived are among thousands of members of the Rohingya minority who have fled Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, because of persecution and in search of a better life. Many of them make it across a dangerous sea crossing in crowded boats to Thailand where they are housed in camps. But the Thai navy has been accused of forcing the boats back out to sea. The 78 people targeted for deportation are being held in Ranong, in southern Thailand. Two remain in hospital and no date has been set for the forced repatriation, an immigration official said. But human rights groups are concerned about what will happen to the men and boys when they return. Watch how crowded boats were towed out to sea and abandoned » . "We know as a point of fact that there are Rohingya who've been returned to Myanmar who have ended up in prison," Benjamin Zawacki, from Amnesty International, said. "The Myanmar government has interviewed these 78. Our fear is that if these people are sent back, the government has a record of who they are, where their families are," Zawacki said. "They may be tortured and or they could even be killed. That wouldn't be out of the question -- that is the real fear." Sunai Phasuk, Thailand-Burma researcher for Human Rights Watch, said that the Rohingya had the "unenviable distinction of being the most blighted" people in Myanmar. "Denied citizenship, subject to tight restrictions on movement, employment and religious freedoms, this Muslim minority have been the target of abuses by the Burmese military for decades," he said. "Today they face serious risks of state violence and coercion, in part arising from preparations to build a pipeline through their region that will deliver offshore gas to China. Already reports are emerging of forced relocations and other abuses tied to gas exploitation." The Myanmar government has not responded to CNN's request for an interview, but the plight of the Rohingya will be discussed at this weekend's ASEAN summit of South-East Asian nations, which the Myanmar prime minister and foreign minister are expected to attend. However, the man that effectively runs the country, Senior General Than Shwe, will not attend. Thai Prime Minister Vejjajiva has stressed the need for regional cooperation to help solve the problem of the thousands of Rohingya fleeing Myanmar. His government views them as economic migrants rather than political refugees and said it cannot accommodate them in Thailand. A recent CNN investigation found evidence that the Thai army was towing boatloads of Rohingya out to sea and cutting them adrift. Hundreds are thought to have died as a result. Vejjajiva said the practice has stopped and insisted the Rohingya were given supplies of food and water. "We regret some of the incidents that have happened in the past. They are now being corrected," he said.

Thailand to deport nearly 80 men and boys . They are among thousands of a minority to flee Myanmar amid reports of persecution . Human rights groups fear the Rohingya will face murder, torture if sent back .

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(CNN) -- Judging by the hysterical reaction in some quarters, to President Obama's handshake with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, or his bow to Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, you would think that America's national security rested solely on body language not sound policy. The presidential handshake between Barack Obama and Hugo Chavez spurred many comments. But just for the record, let's not forget that President George W. Bush kissed and held hands with the same Abdullah after 9/11, while also looking deep into the soul of Vladimir Putin. And a generation earlier, egged on by British Prime Minister "Iron Lady" Margaret Thatcher, President "Tear Down That Wall" Ronald Reagan, decided that indeed Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev was a man he could do business with: the business of ending the Cold War. While Obama has not managed in 100 days to defeat Islamic militants, usher in a Middle East peace treaty or disarm North Korea, on these and other issues he has laid down some important groundwork. Most importantly, the global polls following his first overseas trip show he has begun restoring America's name and reputation, key ingredients to successful policy making. Even before stepping onto foreign soil, Obama began by ordering the infamous Guantanamo Bay detention center closed, thus returning the United States to upholding the very same rule of law it preaches to other nations. He also has stated over and over again that "America does not torture," thus returning the United States to leading on human rights, not cherry-picking them. To those such as former Vice President Dick Cheney who claims this will make America more vulnerable, even some former Bush administration officials now concede that rigorous but patient above-board interrogation has proven to yield better, more reliable intelligence than a rush to the waterboard. Obama has kept a campaign pledge and given a fixed date for ending the unpopular U.S. war in Iraq. "Let me say this as plainly as I can: By August 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end," he announced. Yet the perils are clear. Hundreds of Iraqi civilians have been killed in Baghdad and other cities in a surge of sectarian violence since January. The Obama administration and U.S. military leaders are playing it down, blaming the suicide bombings on a few militant cells. That brings back memories of Cheney and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld blaming a "handful of dead-enders" as the original insurgency was getting into full swing. Much work still needs to be done to stabilize Iraq militarily and politically. Drawing down in Iraq means surging in Afghanistan, which along with Pakistan is still viewed as the central front on terror. "If the Afghanistan government falls to the Taliban or allows al-Qaeda to go unchallenged," Obama said in March, "that country will again be a base for terrorists." So he has ordered 21,000 new U.S. troops there by summer. But for all the talk of more boots on the ground, negotiating with moderate Taliban and beefing up Afghan security forces, danger will persist unless the Afghan people see more of a peace dividend. As Obama himself recognizes, "There will be no lasting peace unless we expand spheres of opportunity for the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan." Watch highlights from Obama's first 100 days » . Dire poverty still stalks the land and people desperate to feed their families will lay an IED for cash if they cannot farm or find a decent paying job. Although the Taliban had less than 8 percent support in Afghanistan at the end of 2007, according to an ABC poll, Afghan public opinion is turning against the U.S.-led coalition partly because of the rising number of civilian casualties as the U.S. military hunts down terrorists with airstrikes. The same is happening in Pakistan. When unmanned drones and other airstrikes target militants but cost many civilian lives, it turns people against the United States. One month ago, President Obama unveiled an Afghan-Pakistan strategy for stabilizing the region, and yet things have gotten so much worse in the weeks since that now he, British officials and other world leaders openly fear the Talibanization of nuclear-armed Pakistan. A furious Pakistan government accuses the United States of sowing panic among the people and insists it's in full control of its country and its nuclear arsenal. But it is hard to overdramatize the danger as this U.S. ally concedes land and appeases the Taliban, then watches as it reneges on a so-called "peace deal" and rolls ever closer to the capital, Islamabad. On May 6 and 7, Obama will be meeting in Washington with the presidents of Pakistan and Afghanistan. In the fight to deny the militants a tipping point momentum, the military tells me 2009 will be crucial. As for Iran, which even two years ago candidate Obama said would be directly engaged by his administration, there is nothing formal yet between the two sides. After 30 years of enmity, President Obama offered Iran "the promise of a new beginning" in a Persian New Year video message, and since then has clearly signaled the United States was over regime-change. The Iranian government and leadership have responded in kind, saying they are ready to engage with America if the administration is really committed to changing its Iran policy. However, much of this good will has been over the airwaves and direct or back-channel talks have yet to start. Into this vacuum are stepping all the sundry pro- and anti-Iran interest groups, experts, analysts and nations, with their often-conflicting advice and sometimes confused understanding. Yet it is widely acknowledged that a strategic realignment with Iran would benefit U.S. and regional security and stability. The new Israeli government wants to see no such thing, and wants people to believe it will bomb Iran's nuclear facilities, a belief it fosters with background briefings to journalists in the United States and presumably elsewhere. In an ironic twist, Israel's Arab neighbors are bringing their dire warnings about Iran to the White House. Meantime, Obama has named a new Middle East Peace envoy, former Sen. George Mitchell, signaling he wants to take negotiations out of the deep freeze and committing to the two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians. Trouble is new Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not signed on to the two-state solution and is trying to fend off this pressure, even suggesting Israel won't engage with the Palestinians until the United States takes care of Iran. Last week, Obama told Jordan's King Hussein at the White House, "My hope would be that over the next several months you start seeing gestures of good faith on all sides." He added, "We can't talk forever; at some point, steps have to be taken so that people can see progress on the ground." The president has invited the leaders of Israel, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority to the White House in coming weeks. iReport.com: Grade Obama's first 100 days . The second hundred days in foreign policy will be filled with mini-summits at the White House and major summits abroad -- Russia in July and China sometime later. With all this activity, Obama is clearly shifting the United States away from the "isolate and punish" policy of his predecessor. He is signaling that clearheaded meetings to discuss issues of mutual concern are better than hiding your head in the sand and hoping they'll go away. So amid the frothing and fulminating over Fidel, Hugo and Mahmoud, remember Nixon went to China.

Obama has laid important groundwork in key areas, Amanpour says . President has acted on some campaign promises, but outcome still uncertain . Next 100 days will see key meetings at White House, summits abroad . Body language has caused chatter, but Nixon went to China, reminds Amanpour .

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Barack Obama is planning to issue three executive orders Thursday, including one demanding the U.S. military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay be closed within a year, according to a senior administration official and a congressional aide. A guard keeps watch from a tower at the military facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. A second executive order will formally ban torture by requiring the Army field manual be used as the guide for terror interrogations, essentially ending the Bush administration's CIA program of enhanced interrogation methods. A third executive order, according to the officials, will order a systematic review of detention policies and procedures and a review of all individual cases. The officials said new White House Counsel Greg Craig was briefing congressional Republicans Wednesday afternoon about the three executive orders. "We've always said the process would include consultation," the senior administration official said of the closed-door meeting informing Republicans of the moves. The detention facility at Guantanamo Bay became a lightning rod for critics who charged that the Bush administration had used torture on terror detainees. President George W. Bush and other senior officials repeatedly denied that the U.S. government had used torture to extract intelligence from terror suspects. Obama's move will set off a fierce legal struggle over where the prison's detainees will go next. Watch experts debate the Gitmo dilemma » . "The key question is where do you put these terrorists," House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said in a statement issued Wednesday. "Do you bring them inside our borders? Do you release them back into the battlefield?" The meeting with Craig did not address how the administration plans to handle Guantanamo detainees, said Rep. Bill Young of Florida, the top Republican on the Defense Appropriations Committee. The executive orders "will leave some wiggle room for the administration," he said. Young said he has "quite a bit of anxiety" about transferring detainees to United States facilities. "Number one, they're dangerous," he said. "Secondly, once they become present in the United States, what is their legal status? What is their constitutional status? I worry about that, because I don't want them to have the same constitutional rights that you and I have. They're our enemy." Watch what may happen to Gitmo's inmates » . He said he asked Craig what the government plans to do with two recently built facilities at Guantanamo, which he said cost $500 million. He said Craig had no answer, but pledged to discuss the issue further. Young said he suggested reopening Alcatraz, the closed federal prison on an island outside San Francisco, California -- in Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's district. "Put them in Alcatraz, where supposedly they can't escape from," Young said, but added the suggestion "didn't go over well." The revelation coincided with a judge's decision on Wednesday to halt the September 11 terrorism cases at the behest of President Obama. On Tuesday, he directed Defense Secretary Robert Gates to ask prosecutors to seek stays for 120 days so terrorism cases at the facility can be reviewed, according to a military official close to the proceedings. CNN's Susan Candiotti and Laurie Ure contributed to this report.

NEW: Obama to issue 3 orders Thursday that break from Bush administration . NEW: Order 2 will ban torture by requiring use of Army field manual for interrogations . NEW: 3rd order will mandate review of detention policies and procedures . Military judge grants Obama's request to stay cases for 120 days .

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(CNN) -- Multiple Oscar winning film "Slumdog Millionaire" has brought the plight of India's slum dwellers to the rest of the world. But up to a million slum dwellers in the economic capital Mumbai are set for upheaval as the city is poised for a radical makeover . Dharavi, where parts of "Slumdog Millionaire" were filmed, is one of the largest slums in the world. Five years after the regional government announced its intention to redevelop Dharavi, the vast Mumbai slum where parts of "Slumdog Millionaire" were filmed, developers are finally submitting their blueprints for the project. Nineteen consortiums from around the world are vying to redevelop the 500-plus acres of land occupied by Dharavi and the bulldozers could move in within six months. The scheme is the brainchild of Mukesh Mehta, an Indian architect who made his name in the U.S. His vision is to use private money to redevelop the slum and turn Mumbai into an international business destination. "If effectively designed and well planned Dharavi could be not very different from London's Canary Wharf. If we plan creatively and bring in the best architects in the world we could create a new language of architecture and buildings for Mumbai," he told CNN. What's novel about Mehta's plan is that rather than seeing a need to entice developers into slum regeneration, he views the land as a resource that developers will pay handsomely to get their hands on. The plan is for developers to demolish the slum and build apartments on the site, which will be given free of charge to 57,000 families currently living in Dharavi. The incentive? For every 100 sq ft of apartment space the developers give away, they will get to build 133 sq ft of commercial space, which they can sell at market rates. Back in 1997, it was Mehta who realized that Dharavi's location made it an asset. In the heart of Mumbai, Dharavi is connected by all three of the city's railway lines. The two highways that link Mumbai to the rest of India both start nearby and just half a kilometer away is the Bandra Kurla complex, Mumbai's emerging financial hub, where land prices are astronomical. Mehta estimates that the government could end up making $2 to $3 billion, the developers stand to make huge profits and Dharavi's residents will get real homes with running water. So why has the scheme taken 12 years to get off the ground? Part of the problem is the word 'slum.' Dharavi is terribly overcrowded, with a chronic lack of clean water and a dearth of toilets. Sewage runs freely and the stench of feces is ever present. But there is a real sense of community, the streets are buzzing with activity and thriving cottage industries, such as pottery and recycling workshops, operate from the ground floor of people's homes. "The Dharavi redevelopment should not be thought of as just a housing project. Almost every house is involved with some kind of economic activity," says Sundar Burra, an advisor to the Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Entrees, which has been campaigning for years to ensure Dharavi's residents don't lose out in the redevelopment. Burra says it is essential that residents can continue to work from their homes in the new Dharavi, or they won't be able to afford the maintenance costs of their new apartments. "If this is not considered, people will sell and the area will become gentrified. Even though new housing stock will be added to the city, the people for whom it is meant will not be able to benefit," he told CNN. In June 2007, some 15,000 Dharavi residents marched against the proposals, which they felt benefited developers at their expense. Mehta says planners have been listening to people's concerns. The new apartment buildings will incorporate communal spaces where residents can carry on their trades and thousands of businesses currently operating illegally in Dharavi will be legalized. Following objections from residents, the floor space allocated to each family has been increased from 225 sq ft to 300 sq ft. But not everyone in Dharavi stands to benefit. Many residents lease the upper floor of their homes and their tenants are not eligible for the free apartments. Neither is anyone who moved to Dharavi after 1999, nor the laborers who sleep in Dharavi's workshops. There is only one place for these people to go -- other slums. Burra concedes that no one knows how many people will be forced out, but it could be tens of thousands. Although some are still fighting the plan, Mehta considers it a fait accompli. He predicts that work will begin after the summer monsoon and will take five to seven years to complete. With over a billion people living in slums globally, Mehta sees this involvement of private money as essential for slum regeneration around the world. "Every major university and design and planning institute in the world is studying this model," he says. "Developing countries in Asia and Africa have invited me to have similar projects in their country. This is the future."

Dharavi, in the heart of Mumbai, is one of the biggest slums in the world . The massive redevelopment of Dharavi could begin within six months . 57,000 families will be rehoused on site, but many others will have to move on . Scheme is "a model that can be used to rehabilitate slums around the world"

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(CNN) -- The three mothers hail from the same province in China, but they'd never met until a reckless driver in central Ohio killed their only children. From left, Sun "Zoe" Yan, Bian "Jack" Jin and Xue "Jo" Bing were students at Urbana University in Ohio. Two years later, the women wade through a cultural morass, struggling with American laws and language as they work to recoup the tens of thousands of dollars they borrowed to educate, and bury, their children. They've also lost their pride and possibly their future. In China, a family's future often rides on the education of its youngest member, and parents routinely mortgage the present for a brighter retirement. The three mothers have no good news for friends and relatives who stop by their homes in northeast China, sometimes for hours, asking for their money. The mothers face the cultural shame of not being able to repay them, and many of their creditors don't believe them when they explain they've received little compensation for their losses. "Even after I die, I could not close my eyes," Cai Tie Juan said, describing her stress and exhaustion through a translator. On March 8, 2007, Cai's son, Bian Jin, 27, better known to his American counterparts as Jack, was returning from a spring break shopping trip with Sun Yan and Xue Bing, both 24. Learn more about students » . According to the Dayton Daily News, Bian was driving. Sun, aka Zoe, and Bian's girlfriend, Xue -- whose friends called her Jo -- were in the backseat of Bian's Ford Taurus. They were trying to get back in time for Sun's 6:30 p.m. shift at a local Chinese restaurant in Urbana, Ohio, where the three attended graduate school. Witnesses told the newspaper that several cars were waiting at a traffic light when Jason Skaggs, then 34, approached the intersection of Urbana and Moorefield roads. Skaggs crashed his blue Chevy Tahoe into a Buick Skylark at 98 mph (about 158 kph), went airborne and sandwiched Bian's Taurus between the Tahoe and a gold Chrysler, witnesses and police told the paper. The Taurus was reduced to a ball of crumpled metal with tires. Bian, Sun and Xue were killed instantly. Four others, including Skaggs, were injured. See photos of wreck, trial from Dayton Daily News . Skaggs said he had had a seizure before barreling into the intersection, but the jury didn't buy the defense and found him guilty of aggravated vehicular homicide. During the trial, the media uncovered a litany of driving violations committed by Skaggs, including a speeding ticket he received for driving 91 mph in a 65-mph zone just weeks before the wreck. Skaggs also had been jailed for aggravated vehicular homicide in the past, after he had passed a car in a blind curve in 1994, killing a 79-year-old mother and her son, the Daily News reported. A judge in August sentenced Skaggs to the maximum 34 years in prison. The students' parents wonder how Skaggs had a license to begin with. He'd already killed two people and had no insurance. And if epilepsy played a role in the wreck, it only bolsters their belief he shouldn't have been driving in the first place. "Why could somebody let this happen?" Xue's mother, Sun Chun Zhi, asked through a translator. "Obviously, he had a history of driving recklessly and had violated many traffic laws." Chinese laws would've never let someone like Skaggs drive, and more frustratingly, they say, the Chinese government would've stepped in with financial help if this had happened in their homeland. Conversely, it is a Chinese law that has been most devastating. Because the world's most populous nation has for 30 years enforced a one-child-per-couple policy, Bian, Xue and Sun Yan had no siblings, so the families' prospects for the future were crushed in a Ford Taurus at the intersection of Urbana and Moorefield roads. "When you raise a child in China, you are basically insuring your old age," Sun Yan's mother, Yu Ming, said, weeping as she spoke through a translator. Because Bian, Xue and Sun Yan had promising futures, their parents were confident asking friends, relatives, colleagues and even their kids' classmates for money to send them to graduate school at the 1,500-student Urbana University. In China, personal loans from banks aren't as common as they are in the U.S. More commonly, people borrow from friends and family, and you are honor bound to pay them back. There is no poor-mouthing or filing for bankruptcy. The university unveiled a memorial last year among three Lacebark Pines, a native Chinese tree. "You return what you owe. It is the bible of heaven and the ground rule of Earth," Yu said, using a Chinese saying to explain the importance of honoring your debts. Each family borrowed in the neighborhood of 300,000 yuan, almost $44,000, to send their kids 6,500 miles to Urbana University. They each borrowed tens of thousands of dollars more for their children's funerals and several trips to the United States, some to attend Skaggs' trial. They've collectively received about $19,000 from a state victim's fund and $22,000 from a charitable fund established by Urbana University. Another fund set up by the university collected about $36,000, but much of the money went toward the families' funeral and travel bills. The mothers say they appreciate the donations because their pensions and pay are a pittance of what they owe. Xue's father is back home in Dalian City, a trading hub of about 6 million people on the Liaodong Peninsula near North Korea. The retired office manager earns a pension of about 1,600 yuan, or $234, a month. Bian's father and Sun Yan's father live in Shenyang, an industrial base of more than 7 million people, also near North Korea. Bian's father has been working all the overtime shifts he can muster and brings home about 3,500 yuan ($512) a month. Sun Yan's father is a farmer and receives no pension. Meanwhile, the mothers have been in Springfield, Ohio, living in a home donated by a sympathizer since November. They keep their living expenses as low as possible, subsisting off one meal a day to save money. Cai and Yu still collect their respective pensions of about 1,300 yuan ($190) and 700 yuan ($102) a month. Sun Chun Zhi has lost her job as an accountant because of all the trips she has made to the states in the last two years. The women say they are pleading with anyone they think can help -- university officials, the consulate, even a senator. Yu said she and her husband recently sold their cozy apartment in Shenyang and moved in with a niece in China to help pay off their debts, which included about 50,000 yuan ($7,312) that Yu and her four siblings scraped together to pay their father's medical bills from a recent surgery. "It didn't amount to a lot of money," Yu said of the apartment sale. The mothers have considered suing Skaggs, who was represented at trial by a public defender, but lawyers have told them it's not worth it. Friends and family members regularly stop by their homes in China, asking, "How could there possibly be no money? We really need money, too. Can you return it?" Sun Chun Zhi said. "They really don't understand why we didn't get any money. They didn't believe that ... they're not forcing you. They sit there and keep asking for money." Added Yu, "They're not rich, either. They save all this money, and they don't spend like Americans, they save. And then they lend it to me, and now they've lost it, too." The mothers are coping with emotional problems as well. Sun said the death of her daughter has left the family feeling helpless and "emotionally destroyed." Yu, who did not eat for two days after the wreck, said she's lost her "source of energy." And Cai has taken up a regimen of sleeping pills to get some rest at night. "It's not getting better. It also feels like my heart is almost failing me, and I feel my body is almost failing me," Cai said. Sun Chun Zhi said she, Cai and Yu sometimes struggle to grasp "the meaning of why we need to survive" after losing their only children. "But we cannot fall apart now because we are trying to return the money to the people we borrowed it from," said Sun Chun Zhi. "We're trying every possible way to return their money."

Jason Skaggs had vehicular homicide conviction before he killed students . Mothers plead for help paying off thousands they borrowed to send kids to U.S. Mother: "When you raise a child in China, you are basically insuring your old age" Families earn between $102 and $702 a month in pay, pensions in China .

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(CNN) -- Pontiac lovers are feeling nostalgic and mournful Monday amid General Motors announcement that it will end production of the car. Pontiac models, such as the 1969 GTO, helped usher in the era of the muscle cars, enthusiasts say. Jean Lindsay of western New York fondly recalls the muscle cars in her family's driveway: Two 1967 GTOs. "I had two brothers, and they each had one of these cars," she said. "The GTO represented the suburban culture of its time, heavily laden with root beer and plain beer." "Those were the days of Bob's Big Boy [hamburger restaurant], when girls wore skates. Back then we pleasantly wasted gas looking for fun. It was a social thing." Debuting in 1964, the Pontiac GTO is widely regarded as the original muscle car. It was a risky model in that it featured a big-block engine in an intermediate-size frame. The GTO's success not only buoyed GM but helped jumpstart the high-performance market for Detroit's Big Three automakers -- and ushered in the era of the vehicle as status symbol. Watch GM's CEO explain why the company is cutting Pontiac » . "It was a chick magnet, for God's sake. Even from a girl's standpoint," Lindsay said. Pontiac's other emblematic performance car, the Firebird Trans Am, featured the outline of a firebird on the hood -- the whole hood. It enjoyed a rise in popularity and brisk sales after being featured in the "Smokey and the Bandit" movie franchise beginning in the late 1970s. But like even the most sturdy odometer, the numbers, years ago, had begun to work against Detroit. After years of watching their market share erode to foreign automakers, GM, Ford and Chrysler were beset by a perfect storm of declining sales, slow innovation and a dogged recession. While all three shed jobs, GM and Chrysler took bailouts to survive; Ford chose to rely on its cash reserves to ride out the storm. In February, GM announced the end of the Saturn and Hummer lines while casting a ray of hope for Pontiac enthusiasts by saying that the brand would survive but be scaled back to a niche product. GM could file bankruptcy as a June 1 deadline looms. In the midst of pressure from the Obama administration to present a restructuring plan that shows the company's long-term viability, the automaker recently released a statement to downplay fears that brands Americans have patronized for generations are on the chopping block. "General Motors has not announced any changes to its long-term viability plan or to the future status of any of its brands," the automaker said Friday in a statement on its Web site. Pontiac fans said on Friday that contemplating the closure of Pontiac feels like a longtime friend pulling out of the driveway for the last time. "I think it's crazy [to end the brand]," Max Thompson of Huntsville, Alabama, said. "I think they ought to streamline versions of Pontiac. Just take it to a few models. Make it special, but not get rid of it because it's too iconic." ireport.com: See Thompson describe his wheels . Thompson, 46, said his 1973 Firebird Formula had him sold when he saw the stylistic front end. "The hood of it looked cool," Thompson said. "Just the front of it, it was a sexy-looking vehicle. It had a very sleek look for the time." Thompson said he doesn't drive his Firebird anymore, preserving it as a memento with 65,000 miles on it. The Pontiac brand didn't just appeal to baby boomers. The younger generation seems to have bonded with the brand during their time behind the wheel, too. Brian Hemgesberg of Flint, Michigan, said one of the reasons why he purchased his 2008 Pontiac G6 last year was because of what's under the hood. "I like the engine, I only got the V6. ... I want to get the G8," Hemgesberg said. When asked if he pushed the engine, Hemgesberg, 22, let out a telling laugh. "Yeah," he said. Like other Pontiac owners, Hemgesberg doesn't want to see the brand die. "I think it'd be a pretty big mistake. I won't stop buying GM, I'd just buy Chevy. I think [Pontiac] is just a very good brand of car."

Pontiac owners say bye to glory days of muscular iconic car . The GTO, which debuted in 1964, is widely considered the original muscle car . GM may face bankruptcy if restructuring plan is not approved by feds .

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- It was an odd collection of vehicles on display on Capitol Hill, ranging from a bucket truck used for repairing power lines to something resembling an enclosed golf cart to a pair of hot-looking, two-seater sports cars. Lawmakers eyeball one of several alternative-energy vehicles parked this week on Capitol Hill. What they had in common was alternative energy: The cars run on electricity and biofuels as well as gasoline. Tuesday's display attracted some U.S. senators who couldn't resist taking the vehicles for a spin. "I'm about to have claustrophobia!" laughed Sen. Thomas Carper, D-Delaware, as he folded himself into a yellow, low-slung vehicle known by the initials ENVI, developed by the Chrysler Corporation. "Evan Bayh [Democratic senator from Indiana] and I were talking about taking a road trip in the van down there," said Carper, pointing to a nearby offering from General Motors. "That's probably better for a road trip than this!" Carper then spotted Democratic colleague Tom Harkin, and joked that the sports car might draw too much attention in the Iowa senator's corn country. Undeterred, Harkin climbed in next and asked to take a test drive. But instead of starting with a growling engine and a roar of exhaust, the little yellow coupe simply rolled quietly out of its parking space. It is an electric vehicle. The display, titled "The Energy and Environmental Showcase," was intended to demonstrate for lawmakers actual production models of vehicles that may cut the nation's reliance on petroleum-based fuels. An unusual aspect of the show was that traditional Detroit nameplates such as General Motors sat next to competitors from other countries. The event was organized by Bright Automotive, a small carmaker from Anderson, Indiana, to showcase its IDEA, a new, 100-mpg plug-in hybrid electric vehicle that it hopes to market for government and commercial fleets. In a statement, the company said it has applied for funding through the federal Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Loan Program. Other manufacturers took advantage of the opportunity to bring their own vehicles to the public display, in a parking lot near the Russell Senate Office Building. During the Bush administration, Japanese automakers complained they weren't invited to a similar demonstration near the Treasury Department, despite having brought their alternative-energy cars more swiftly to the U.S. market than the Detroit automakers. But neither the competition nor the threat of bankruptcy held back the enthusiasm of a General Motors product spokesman at Tuesday's display. "If anything, it's just a little bit of noise in the background," said Tony Posawatz, a GM vehicle line director. He told CNN the automaker places high on its recovery agenda the line of Volt electric cars expected to come to market by November 2010. A silver GM sedan on display nearby uses electric batteries and a self-contained recharging engine powered by a variety of fuels. "I would like people to stop talking mpg," Posawatz said, leading a reporter toward a van powered by a hydrogen fuel cell. The Chevy Equinox on display is one of 100 now in private hands. Instead of miles per gallon, the energy plant supplies electricity and a calculation of cruising range while driving. For now, however, drivers might still be impressed by the ZENN, a little car claiming 280 miles per gallon. The car's cruising range of about 40 miles translates to about 280 miles per gallon, according to the Canadian automaker. "ZENN" stands for Zero Emission No Noise, said a worker who was buffing away some tree pollen that had settled on the car during the breezy afternoon. The car's top speed is about that of a strong gust of wind -- 35 mph. "It's supposed to be your third car in the driveway," explained ZENN spokesman Daniel Stiller. "Most people drive less than 20 miles from home on streets with speed limits of 35 miles per hour or less." He acknowledged that the car may qualify as street-legal only on local, low-speed roads. But Stiller said the ZENN is a dramatic improvement in both safety and driveability, compared with the golf carts often seen around retirement communities. Among the other alternative energy vehicles on display were cars from Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, Honda and the Smart car company. Another brand shown to lawmakers is named after Nikola Tesla, an inventor who helped develop the practical use of electricity a century ago. Tesla's system of alternating current eventually displaced Thomas Edison's use of direct current in the nation's early power grid. The red, two-seater electric sports car on display might have been a good fit for Tesla, a lifelong bachelor. Carper, the Delaware senator, suggested the two sports cars were classic "chick magnets." Tesla spokesman Joe Powers told CNN his company now has about 400 of the sleek, aerodynamic cars in private hands. "We've created a viable car, and we came out with this model first to help draw attention to the Tesla brand," he said. The California-based company also is developing a a sedan that will use the same advanced battery technology as the sports car, which costs about $109,000. "It will be the kind of car you can take on a trip, and carry four passengers and their luggage," Powers said. It uses 7,000 lithium-ion cells of the same chemistry now powering cell phones and laptop computers. "We are working on a battery exchange program that will cut the cost of these vehicles by about $35,000," Powers said, describing a leasing program where owners can swap a used-up battery back for a new one. Most of the vehicles on display qualify for a new $7,500 federal rebate intended to encourage car buyers to consider alternative-energy vehicles. Perhaps the vehicle that caused the most double-takes Tuesday was a bucket truck from the local electric utility company serving the Washington, D.C., area. The Pepco vehicle, the kind seen repairing downed power lines, runs on biofuels that range from discarded cooking grease to soybean oil. The truck was apparently not for sale, and there were no representatives nearby to answer questions.

An eclectic assortment of alternative-energy vehicles hit Capitol Hill this week . The display attracted U.S. senators who couldn't resist taking the cars for a spin . The event was organized by a carmaker from Indiana to showcase its plug-in hybrid . Display included cars from GM, ZENN, Bright Automotive and Smart, among others .

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(CNN) -- Icelandic Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir of the center-left Social Democratic Alliance has claimed victory in general elections triggered by the collapse of the Nordic nation's economy. Sigurdardottir celebrates victory on Saturday night. Sigurdardottir's party, which has headed an interim government since February 1, was on course to win around 30 percent of the vote or 20 parliamentary seats, according to state broadcaster RUV. The Left-Green Movement, the Social Democratic Alliance's coalition ally, was expected to win 14 seats, giving the coalition a controlling 34-seat block in the 63-member Icelandic parliament, the Althing. "I believe this will be our big victory," Sigurdardottir told supporters, according to Reuters.com. "I am touched, proud and humble at this moment when we are experiencing this great, historic victory of the social democratic movement." Sigurdardottir's electoral success marks a change of direction for Iceland, a nation 300,000 people, which has traditionally leaned to the right on political matters. Sigurdardottir, the world's first openly gay leader and Iceland's first female premier, has pledged to take the Atlantic island into the European Union and to join the euro common currency as a viable way to rescue Iceland's suffering economy. But that ambition could bring Sigurdardottir into conflict with the Left-Green Movement which favors a currency union with Norway as an alternative to EU membership. Iceland has been in political turmoil since October, when its currency, stock market and leading banks crashed amid the global financial crisis. The country's Nordic neighbors sent billions of dollars to prop up the economy, as did the International Monetary Fund in its first intervention to support a Western European democracy in decades. But weekly demonstrations -- some verging on riots -- finally forced Prime Minister Geir Haarde and his Independence Party-led center-right coalition to resign en masse on January 26. The Independence Party was projected to win 16 seats in Saturday's vote, according to RUV.

Center-left secures re-election in Icelandic vote triggered by financial crisis . Johanna Sigurdardottir, world's first openly gay premier, set to continue as PM . Iceland in turmoil since currency, stock market, leading banks crashed last year .

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(Mental Floss) -- Agatha Christie was a painfully shy girl, so her mom homeschooled her even though her two older siblings attended private school. President Woodrow Wilson didn't learn to read until age 12. Pearl S. Buck was born in West Virginia, but her family moved to China when she was just three months old. She was homeschooled by a Confucian scholar and learned English as a second language from her mom. Alexander Graham Bell was homeschooled by his mother until he was about 10. It was at this point that she started to go deaf and didn't feel she could properly educate him any more. Her deafness inspired Bell to study acoustics and sound later in life. If Thomas Edison were around today, he would probably be diagnosed with ADD -- he left public school after only three months because his mind wouldn't stop wandering. His mom homeschooled him after that, and he credited her with the success of his education: "My mother was the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me; and I felt I had something to live for, someone I must not disappoint." Mental Floss: Jefferson vs. Adams and the birth of negative campaigning . Ansel Adams was homeschooled at the age of 12 after his "wild laughter and undisguised contempt for the inept ramblings of his teachers" disrupted the classroom. His father took on his education from that point forward. Robert Frost hated school so much he would get physically ill at the thought of going. He was homeschooled until his high school years. Woodrow Wilson studied under his dad, one of the founders of the Southern Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS). He didn't learn to read until he was about 12. He took a few classes at a school in Augusta, Georgia, to supplement his father's teachings, and ended up spending a year at Davidson College before transferring to Princeton. Mental Floss: 8 tuition-free colleges . Mozart was educated by his dad as the Mozart family toured Europe from 1763-1766. Laura Ingalls Wilder was homeschooled until her parents finally settled in De Smet in what was then Dakota Territory. She started teaching school herself when she was only 15 years old. Louisa May Alcott studied mostly with her dad, but had a few lessons from family friends Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Can you imagine? For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.

Inventor of the telephone was homeschooled until his mother went deaf . Poet Robert Frost got physically ill at the thought of going to school . President Woodrow Wilson didn't learn to read until age 12 . Photographer Ansel Adams exhibited "undisguised contempt" for teachers .

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(CNN) -- A former University of Georgia professor, wanted in the fatal shootings of his wife and two other people over the weekend, purchased a plane ticket to the Netherlands for May 2, authorities said Monday. An alert on the UGA Web site says professor George Zinkhan is a suspect in an off-campus shooting. A nationwide manhunt for George Zinkhan, 57, extended into a third day with no sign of him, authorities said. Zinkhan was a marketing professor at the university's Terry College of Business, but was terminated on Sunday, the day after the shootings, university officials said. Zinkhan had previously purchased the plane ticket to the Netherlands, said Gregory Jones, special agent in charge for the FBI's Atlanta, Georgia, office. Authorities say Zinkhan owns a home in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The FBI is working with its agents overseas and police in the Netherlands, Jones said. A nationwide alert for Zinkhan has been issued by Athens-Clarke County police. The shootings took place at a community theater group's reunion Saturday in Athens, Georgia, just off campus. Police Capt. Clarence Holeman identified the victims as Marie Bruce, 47, Zinkhan's wife and a prominent Athens attorney; Tom Tanner, 40; and Ben Teague, 63. The university terminated Zinkhan on Sunday, President Michael Adams told reporters on Monday. Police said Zinkhan has relatives in Texas and owns a home in Amsterdam, Netherlands. He was last seen driving a red, 2005 Jeep Liberty after the shootings Saturday. Authorities do not believe Zinkhan is still on campus or in the city of Athens, University Police Chief Jimmy Williams said Monday. As a precaution, he added, security has been beefed up on campus, including officers on foot patrols carrying semiautomatic weapons. The victims were all associated with the Town and Gown Players, a theater group that was holding a reunion picnic at the time of the shootings. "The three people we lost (Saturday) were a part of the rich 50-year history of this theater and, more than that, were vital members of the Town and Gown family," the organization said Sunday on its Web site. The site described Bruce as "the binding force that held the Town and Gown community together." "Having worked with Town and Gown for over 20 years, at one time or another she served in every capacity at the theater, artistically and administratively, from leading lady to president of the board to chief cook and bottle washer." Holeman said Saturday, "It appeared (Zinkhan) and his wife (Bruce) were having problems." Meanwhile, the university said that classes would be held Monday, as the school term enters its final week. In a letter "to the members of the University of Georgia community" posted on the school's Web site, Adams said operations would continue uninterrupted. But, "I urge everyone to continue to exercise caution until the suspect is apprehended," Adams said. Adams' letter said counseling would be available to any member of the faculty or staff and to students. The university's annual end-of-year campus memorial service, in which those lost over the past year are remembered, is scheduled for Tuesday night, Adams said. Victims of Saturday's shooting will be honored at that service. Police said Zinkhan was not at the Town and Gown event originally but arrived and, according to Holeman of the Athens police, got into "a disagreement" with his wife. He left the scene, and police believe he went to his car, where the couple's children apparently were waiting, and returned with two handguns. The shootings "only took a few minutes," Holeman said. Police found eight shell casings. After the shooting, Zinkhan left the scene with his children -- ages 8 and 10 -- still in the vehicle, police said. He drove to a neighbor's home in nearby Bogart, Georgia, where he lived and left the children there. The neighbor, Bob Covington, told CNN that Zinkhan arrived at his home shortly after noon with the two children. "He rang the doorbell, asked me if I could keep his kids for about an hour," Covington said. "I said sure, and he said there'd been some type of emergency, and he took off." Zinkhan seemed hurried and agitated but that seemed consistent with an emergency, Covington said. He didn't question Zinkhan about the emergency, Covington said, adding that it wasn't unusual for someone in his family to watch the children. An hour or so later, he said, police arrived and took the children. Police searched Zinkhan's home on Saturday, but there was no indication of what evidence they might have gathered there. University police were assisting Athens-Clarke County police in their investigation, officials said Monday. The university activated its alert system following the shooting with a description of the suspect, said spokesman Tom Jackson. Statistics show the university was able to reach 82 percent of the 64,000 people it attempted to contact, he said, adding that some of the calls went to university offices unstaffed on weekends. An alert was also posted on the school's Web site, and an all-campus e-mail was sent Saturday night. Adams said the university's provost and deans would determine how to handle the remainder of classes and exams for the classes -- one graduate and one undergraduate -- taught by Zinkhan.

NEW: Plane ticket to Netherlands dated May 2, FBI says . Nationwide alert issued for UGA marketing professor George Zinkhan . Zinkhan suspected in shooting deaths of wife, two others, at theater reunion . Suspect apparently dropped children off at a neighbor's house before fleeing .

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Editor's note: CNN Contributor Bob Greene is a bestselling author whose current book is "When We Get to Surf City: A Journey Through America in Pursuit of Rock and Roll, Friendship, and Dreams." Bob Greene says John Madden has had a great perk: seeing America on his own bus. (CNN) -- You've undoubtedly heard that John Madden has left the football broadcast booth. What you may not have heard is that he's not leaving his bus. "It's been such a great ride," Madden said as he announced his retirement. But the truly great ride -- the one he will not relinquish -- wasn't his long career as a National Football League broadcaster. The best ride was the literal one. Madden's aversion to flying in airplanes led him to perhaps the grandest business perk in all of American life: He was given his own bus, with his own professional drivers. He crisscrossed the country, on his way from one big game to another, on what came to be known as the Maddencruiser, the cost of which eventually was underwritten by corporate sponsorship. Now. . .you may think that being stuck in a bus for days and nights on end must be a lousy way to lead a life. Not when you're the only passenger -- you, or whatever buddies and colleagues you choose to invite along. Not when there's food and drink onboard, and television sets with DVD players at the ready, and plenty of room to stretch out and observe the country as it passes by. And those amenities leave out the most beautiful lure of all. Let President Obama explain it. He did, inadvertently, the other week. He wasn't talking about Madden -- he was talking about plans for a new high-speed rail system. These were the president's words: . "No racing to an airport and across a terminal, no delays, no sitting on the tarmac, no lost luggage, no taking off your shoes [at the metal detector]. . . . " That's the gift Madden gave himself, by working out the bus deal -- the gift of avoiding the endless headaches of travel the rest of the world has to endure. Departure time? Whenever he wants. Flight cancellations? No such thing. Cramped seats? Nope. Security lines? There are none. It can make for a pretty peaceful life. A football game to see every week, the country winding gloriously out ahead of you between stadiums, your main decision boiling down to how to chop up the miles, where to eat and where to sleep and where to stop for a few hours just to talk to people. . . . There is a hotel on the west coast of Florida where I have stayed quite often, and during football season Madden would sometimes stay there too. If there had been a game in, say, Miami, and the next one was in Dallas, he might ask his bus driver to stop for the night at this place, which features outlying cottages on the Gulf of Mexico. Talk about a guy who seemed tranquil -- I know his on-air image was always sort of loud and animated, but I'd see Madden having a serenely silent and unhurried meal by himself in the restaurant, leisurely flipping through the sports pages; I'd see him in the little sandwich shop/deli in the morning, a quiet and amiable fellow standing in line with everyone else, waiting to pay for his breakfast pastries; I'd see him, on departure day, strolling blissfully toward his bus, an overnight bag in his hand, having decided that this was the time that he'd like to roll out. . . . Who would ever have thought that a fantasy life could revolve around something as seemingly mundane as a bus? But in a chaotic and confused world, full of noise and anger and deadlines, the allure of cruising in splendid solitude through the country, seeing America mile by mile, the journey itself being the ultimate victory. . . . Madden is the grand champion of bus riders, the winner of the lifetime achievement award. And for those who thought that Madden must have felt trapped on that bus for all these years, the truth -- I can promise you this -- is that rolling through the country that way is the opposite of being trapped. The highway begins to feel like a best friend; as well as you may have thought you knew America before, you begin to understand it in ways you never even considered. Block by block, town by town, state by state, you appreciate anew: There are still so many things to see. So I wasn't surprised when Madden, after declaring that the football life he is leaving had been a great ride, said that, by the way, he's keeping the bus. When he travels, that's how he will do it, with or without a corporate sponsor, even now that there will be no game waiting on the other end. And of course, after all these years there is a certain remarkable aura that has formed around the man and that bus of his. At the place in Florida where he would sometimes stay, I was coming back from dinner one night and saw two local police squad cars on the property. This was highly unusual; the town was a quiet dot on the map. I asked the police officers if there had been a crime committed. They appeared a little sheepish. They exchanged glances, as if deciding whether to tell me their real reason for being there. Finally one of them laughed, and said: . "We just wanted to look at John Madden." The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Bob Greene.

Bob Greene: John Madden's retiring as a broadcaster but keeping his bus . He says football expert had the ultimate perk for traveling the country . Greene: Highway becomes your best friend as you discover America block by block .

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LONDON, England (CNN) -- British military investigators interviewed a woman who claimed to have met a man from another planet while she was walking her dog, newly released Ministry of Defence files have revealed. The woman said she had been approached by a man with a "Scandinavian-type accent" dressed in a flying suit-style outfit while out walking on a sports field near Norwich, eastern England, in 1989. She claimed to have been "completely terrified" during the 10-minute encounter. Running home, she said she had then seen a large glowing object rising vertically from behind some nearby trees. The woman called a local military base to report the encounter the following day. A cover note on the file of the incident describes it as "one of our more unusual UFO reports." The incident is just one of around 1,200 sightings recorded by investigators between 1987 and 1993, according to the files released by the National Archives on Sunday. On another occasion, military officials took the unusual step of briefing ministers about an unidentified flying object photographed in the sky over Scotland alongside an RAF fighter jet. Witnesses claimed to have seen the large diamond-shaped object hanging in the air for about 10 minutes before it ascended vertically at high speed. Fearing intense media interest, investigators also commissioned detailed drawings of the object. The files also reveal that the Ministry of Defence abandoned plans to build a computer database of sightings out of fears of a public relations disaster should details of its existence ever be revealed. "I personally doubt that the the MoD would lose much if we filed UFO reports in 'WPD' (the waste paper basket)," one unnamed official wrote of the project.

National Archives releases details of recorded UFO sightings from 1987 to 1993 . One woman claimed to have met a man from another planet while walking dog . Officials briefed ministers about 1990 UFO sighting over Scotland . Ministry of Defence abandoned plans for UFO database fearing PR disaster .

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LIMA, Peru (CNN) -- Doctors in Peru started a 48-hour strike Tuesday over pay and other benefits they say the government agreed to last year but has not delivered. The Medical Federation of Peru's Julio Vargas says, "The stoppage ... will require the cooperation of all doctors." The doctors' union, the Medical Federation of Peru, called the strike after meeting Monday with Prime Minister Yehude Simon, news sources reported. "The stoppage that we will implement ... will require the cooperation of all doctors and that they suspend their external consults, although we will reinforce intensive and emergency care," union President Julio Vargas was quoted as saying in El Comercio newspaper. Health Minister Oscar Ugarte said the government has complied with all the agreements reached last year and the doctors have no reason to strike, RPP radio reported. Ugarte also warned doctors they will not be paid while on strike, the Andina news agency and El Comercio said. "You can't stop working and later come and say, 'Pay me,' " Ugarte said in El Comercio. "That is immoral and does not conform with professional ethics." At issue are pay for special work and more equal pay among state doctors, the news reports said. Salaries for doctors in Peru have decreased to one-fourth of 1976 levels, The Lancet professional medical journal reported in May 2008. As a result, physicians often hold two or more jobs to make ends meet. An average doctor's salary in Lima, the capital, is the equivalent of $670 a year, The Lancet said. A 2007 survey of 202 interns in Lima showed that 38 percent were thinking about migrating to a developed country to practice medicine, the publication said. Salary was one of the main reasons given.

Doctors' union calls for 48-hour strike after meeting with Peru's prime minister . Doctors say government has failed to deliver on agreements last year . Health minister says doctors have no reason to go on strike . Medical journal: Salaries for doctors have decreased to one-fourth of 1976 levels .

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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (CNN) -- Search operations resumed Monday for six U.S. citizens missing since their small plane crashed Sunday evening off the north coast of Puerto Rico. The U.S. Coast Guard found debris late Sunday night in the area where the single-engine Cessna 206 went down, half a nautical mile from the shoreline of the city of Quebradillas. But despite five searches Sunday and two others throughout the night, rescue crews were not able to find the pilot or the five passengers from the plane, the Coast Guard said Monday. Three searches are planned for Monday, said Coast Guard spokesman Ricardo Castrodad. The private plane, chartered by Tropical Aviation Corp., took off from the Dominican Republic and was on its way to an airport in Puerto Rico when it went down Sunday evening, officials said. Three male and two female passengers were returning to Puerto Rico after spending the weekend in the Dominican Republic, said Noemi Corporan, service manager for Tropical Aviation Corp. The passengers were San Juan residents and had flown to the Dominican Republic on Friday, she said. Four HH-65 Dolphin helicopters from Coast Guard Air Station Borinquen and the Coast Guard Cutter Matinicus are taking part in the search, said spokesman Castrodad. The airplane took off from Casa de Campo International Airport in the Dominican Republic and was supposed to land at the Luis Muñoz Marin International Airport in Carolina to clear U.S. Customs before going on to the Isla Grande Airport in San Juan, the Coast Guard said. A 911 emergency operator notified the Coast Guard at 6:51 p.m. Sunday that an aircraft had crashed into the waters off Quebradillas. The debris field was found around 10:30 p.m.

NEW: Three searches are planned for Monday, according to Coast Guard . Coast Guard found debris that might come from downed Cessna . Rescue crews have yet to find Americans despite seven searches . The pilot and five passengers took off from the Dominican Republic .

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger's run-in with a flock of Canada geese may be the most famous man-versus-nature story in recent months. But a federal database opened to the public Friday reveals just how commonplace airplanes' encounters with wildlife are. A feather found inside one of the engines of the plane that ditched in the Hudson River. At New York's LaGuardia Airport, where Sullenberger's US Airways flight originated, planes hit birds nearly once a week on average, according to the records. But the number has grown from 16 hits in 1990 to 86 in 2008, according to the database. Nationwide, there were 98,328 reports of aircraft striking birds or other wildlife since January of 1990, although the actual numbers probably are far higher. The Federal Aviation Administration said only 20 percent of incidents are reported under the voluntary system of data collection. The database shows strikes resulted in "substantial damage" to aircraft on about 3,000 occasions. Eleven people died in incidents relating to bird strikes. The FAA initially fought to keep its database closed, saying publication of the details might discourage the industry from reporting information. After it was made public, an airline industry organization was quick to say the data could wrongly lead some people to believe flying is unsafe. "While bird strikes have attracted a lot of attention, they are, of course, rare events. The vast majority of cases result in little or no aircraft damage," said the Air Transport Association of America. A top pilots union -- the Air Line Pilots Association -- also had argued to keep the database closed. But the National Transportation Safety Board recommended opening up the data to the public. It also says reporting wildlife strikes should be mandatory. "If you strike a bird you really don't have to report this to the FAA, which means we're really not getting the full picture," said Mark Rosenker, acting chairman of the safety board. The database includes information on more than 2,000 airports and 500 airlines and aircraft companies. When possible, it identifies the types of wildlife involved, chronicling the misadventures of 460 species. While bird strikes account for the majority of the mishaps, the database contains numerous aircraft encounters with deer, moose, caribou and even fish. According to the records, a fish hit a US Airways aircraft landing in Warwick, Rhode Island, in May of 2000. The fish had been dropped by an osprey. The FAA opted to make the database public after being pelted with criticism from passengers, media organizations and the National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates crashes. Interest in aviation bird strikes has been heightened by several recent incidents in addition to Sullenberger's flight -- the January 15 ditching of US Airways Flight 1549 in New York's Hudson River. All on board survived. The transportation safety board says a bird strike may have preceded the crash of a Sikorsky helicopter near Morgan City, Louisiana, just 11 days earlier. The crash killed eight of the nine people aboard.

Planes hit birds nearly once a week on average at LaGuardia Airport . Number has grown from 16 hits in 1990 to 86 in 2008, the database shows . Strikes resulted in "substantial damage" to aircraft on about 3,000 occasions . Officials say database likely only includes 20 percent of actual strikes .

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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (CNN) -- Colombo has been hit by a second bomb blast in only 24 hours following the fall of the Tamil Tigers' capital to government troops. Police and army officials at the site of a suicide bombing in Sri Lanka's capital Colombo Friday. Two people were wounded and a store damaged in the Petard commercial district Saturday. A day earlier a suicide bomber on a motorcycle blew himself up outside an air force headquarters in Colombo, killing two air force police officers and a member of the bomb-disposal unit. Another 30 people were injured. The attacks come after President Mahinda Rajapaksa urged the Tigers to lay down their arms and end a quarter-century of civil war. He made his call after government troops retook the separatists' capital, Kilinochchi. In a televised statement Friday evening, Rajapaksa called the recapture of Kilinochchi "a victory against separatism." "The time is not far off when people of the north can breathe freedom again," Rajapaksa said. He invited the Tigers -- who have fought for an independent homeland for Sri Lanka's ethnic Tamil minority since 1983 -- to surrender as government troops closed in on their last remaining strongholds. Rajapaksa's announcement was met with fireworks in Colombo, and Friday's news prompted celebrations in other cities as well. The Tamil Tigers ran a parallel administration from Kilinochchi with their own police force, courts, prisons and taxes, and they had declared government plans to retake the city a "daydream." But after Sri Lanka launched a new offensive against the rebels in the fall, the insurgents moved their nerve center and logistics bases to Mullaitivu, on the northeastern coast. Sri Lankan troops have been on the outskirts of Kilinochchi, about 580 km (360 miles) north of Colombo, for more than a month. They took a key highway junction and a town outside the city Thursday. The civil war has left more than 65,000 people dead. The U.S. State Department has designated the Tamil Tigers a terrorist organization.

Suicide bomber strikes in Colombo, injuring two and damaging store . Second blast in the capital in 24 hours following capture of rebel capital . President Mahinda Rajapaksa calls on rebels to lay down arms .

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CNN -- Cancer is one of the leading causes of death in the world, particularly in developing countries. Tobacco use is one of the largest causes of cancer in the world. In 2008 a report by the International Agency for Research on Cancer revealed that, until recently, cancer was considered a disease of westernized, industrialized countries. Today the situation has changed dramatically, with the majority of the global cancer cases now found in the developing world. However, myths and misconceptions about cancer still abound. Below CNN's Vital Signs has compiled facts from the World Health Organization about this killer disease. -- There are more than 100 types of cancers; any part of the body can be affected. -- Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide: In 2007, it accounted for 7.9 million deaths (around 13 per cent of all deaths) in 2007. -- The five most common types of cancer that kill men worldwide are (in order of frequency): lung, stomach, liver, colorectal and esophagus. -- While for women worldwide the five most common types of cancer are: breast, lung, stomach, colorectal and cervical. -- About 72 per cent of all cancer deaths in 2007 occurred in low- and middle-income countries. -- Deaths from cancer worldwide are projected to continue rising, with an estimated 12 million deaths in 2030. -- The WHO estimates that 30 per cent of cancers can be prevented, mainly by not using tobacco, having a healthy diet and being physically active. -- Tobacco use is the single largest preventable cause of cancer in the world. -- A third of cancers could be cured if detected early and treated adequately. -- A fifth of all cancers in the world are caused by a chronic infection, for example human papillomavirus (HPV) causes cervical cancer and hepatitis B virus (HBV) causes liver cancer. Source: The World Health Organization .

The majority of cancer cases are now found in developing countries . 72 per cent of all cancer deaths in 2007 occurred in poorer countries . By 2030, WHO estimates there will be 12 million cancer related deaths worldwide . A third of cancers can be cured if detected early and treated adequately .

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(CNN) -- Same-sex couples in California may be able to obtain marriage licenses on June 17, state officials said Wednesday. Marriage licenses for same-sex couples may be available in June, officials said. The California Supreme Court struck down the state's ban on same-sex marriage as unconstitutional in a May 15 ruling, clearing the way for the state to become the second to legalize such marriages. The state Department of Public Health -- which serves as State Registrar and oversees vital records -- said in an announcement that June 16 is the last day the state Supreme Court can rule on any requests for re-hearing. It released new marriage license forms for counties to use beginning the following day. The new forms, which were also released, have lines for "Party A" and "Party B." However, the "general information" page for California marriage licenses still stated as of Wednesday that "only an unmarried male and an unmarried female may marry in California." The California Supreme Court issued the ruling in a consolidated case involving several gay and lesbian couples, along with the city of San Francisco and gay rights groups. A lower court had ruled San Francisco acted illegally in issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in 2004. In its 4-3 ruling, the state Supreme Court called marriage a "basic civil right." Opponents of same-sex marriage have said a constitutional marriage amendment should be placed on the November ballot, and that national efforts should be made to generate a federal marriage amendment. A constitutional amendment initiative that would specify marriage is only between a man and a woman is awaiting verification by the California Secretary of State's office after its sponsors said they had gathered enough signatures to place it on a statewide ballot. Massachusetts legalized same-sex marriages in 2004, and gay couples need not be state residents there to wed. However, then-Gov. Mitt Romney resurrected a 1913 law barring non-resident marriages in the state if the marriage would be prohibited in the partners' home state. Subsequent court and agency decisions have determined that only residents of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Mexico may marry in Massachusetts, unless the parties say they plan to relocate there after the marriage. New Hampshire, Vermont, New Jersey and Connecticut permit civil unions, while California has a domestic-partner registration law. More than a dozen other states give same-sex couples some legal rights, as do some other countries.

Court officials said licenses could be given out next month . California Supreme Court struck down the state's ban on same-sex marriage . That ruling earlier this month found the ban unconstitutional . June 16 is the last day the state Supreme Court can rule on a re-hearing .

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States is keeping a close eye on Pakistan after this week's Taliban surge into the Buner district brought them just 60 miles from the capital, Islamabad. A Taliban fighter in the district of Buner, which is only 96 kilometers from Islamabad. A Pakistani government official said Friday that the insurgents had completely withdrawn from the district by the end of the week, but a human rights group said people in Buner were reporting that local Taliban remained in the district. And senior U.S. officials cautioned that any withdrawal by the Taliban was likely meaningless and that the fundamentalist group now holds large areas of the country with the government seemingly unable to stop them. "We're certainly moving closer to the tipping point," Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said on NBC's "Today" show Friday. In the interview from Afghanistan, Mullen said he was "extremely concerned" about indications the Taliban is moving closer to Pakistan's capital of Islamabad. Syed Mohammed Javed, commissioner of the Malakand Division that includes Buner, said the Taliban withdrew on Friday without any conditions. Earlier in the day, Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan told CNN that the militants would pull back from the district. Pakistani Express TV showed live footage of armed and masked Taliban militants in Buner, loading pickup trucks and driving away. Sufi Muhammed, an Islamist fundamentalist leader who has been negotiating on behalf of the Taliban, was on scene overseeing the withdrawal, police said. U.S. military commander Gen. David Petraeus credited about 300 Pakistan's Frontier Corps with driving Taliban militants out of Buner. The U.S. Central Command chief spoke to CNN on Friday after testifying before a Congressional panel about the need for the United States to boost its support for Pakistani counterinsurgency troops such as the Frontier Corps. But Amnesty International's regional chief said people in Buner are reporting a different situation. "What we're hearing from people in Buner ... is that the Taliban that have moved out are the non-local ones," Sam Zarifi, Amnesty's Asia Pacific director, told CNN. "So the local branch of the Taliban are still in place in Buner." Amnesty International is concerned that those local Taliban will continue to enforce the Taliban's "abusive and repressive" control of Buner. Girls over the age of 7 are forced to wear a burka, a head-to-toe covering that the Taliban say is required of Muslims under its radical interpretation of Islamic law, or sharia. "I think we're going to see those harsh edicts stay," Zarifi said. The Taliban installed strict Islamic law when it took over Afghanistan after a two-year fight with warlords, many of whom surrendered without a fight. They fought with a coalition of some of those warlords known as the Northern Alliance from 1996 until U.S. forces, seeking the leadership of al Qaeda after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, added bombing raids to Northern Alliance ground operations and successfully drove the Taliban out of most of Afghanistan. iReport: Should the U.S. intercede in Pakistan? But the Taliban regrouped in 2004, launching a guerrilla war against the Afghan government while operating from the tribal areas of that country and Pakistan. Meanwhile, senior U.S. officials said that the "retreat" was likely meaningless. Control was the impetus behind the Taliban move into Buner, and the fundamentalist group now controls large areas of Pakistan, they said. The officials said, however, that they did not believe the Taliban's goal was to take over the government of Pakistan but rather to create instability by taking advantage of Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari's apparent inability to cope with the situation. Zardari, they said, does not understand the gravity of the situation, remains distracted by domestic politics and appears unable to make critical decisions to deploy the army to stabilize the country. State Department envoy Richard Holbrooke has been on the phone "nonstop" with officials in Islamabad and Washington, the officials said, providing frequent information to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Obama. Holbrooke's read on the situation, officials familiar with the conversation said, is that the Pakistani government does not know how to handle the situation and is looking to the United States for direction. A senior military official, however, presented a more dire case. Pakistan is "rapidly deteriorating," he said. He said that he could not rule out the possibility of a military takeover in Islamabad, although he added that such a prospect was not in the immediate future. As for Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, he said the weapons "are safe for now" but that the United States is monitoring the safety systems in place. Administration officials said that the Pakistani military had assured the United States it would not act without an express order from the civilian leadership. Earlier this week, Clinton warned that nuclear-armed Pakistan was in danger of falling into terrorist hands. Before the Taliban's apparent withdrawal Friday, a local Pakistani official expressed doubt about whether the militants would leave, as they pledged to local elders on Thursday. "Nobody can trust them," Sardar Hussain Babik, the provincial education minister, said by phone from Buner. The Taliban have broken promises before and probably would do so again, he said. Militants who swarmed into Buner subsequently locked up courthouses, seized court documents and battled Pakistani troops who were sent to protect residents. The militants said they took control of the district to ensure that Islamic law was properly imposed. The Pakistani government called the land grab a breach of a recent peace agreement. CNN's Barbara Starr, Elise Labott, Ivan Watson, Tricia Escobedo and Samson Desta contributed to this report.

NEW: Pakistan situation "rapidly deteriorating," says senior U.S. military official . NEW: U.S. officials: Any Taliban withdrawal from Pakistani territory likely meaningless . NEW: Fundamentalists hold large areas of the country, military officials say . Pakistan had reported Taliban withdrawal from captured district 60 miles from capital .

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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan launched an offensive against the Taliban on Saturday, the biggest military push against militants in Pakistan's northwestern tribal region since a civilian government took power in March. A Pakistan army vehicle patrols a troubled district of South Waziristan, in the northwest of Pakistan. Army spokesman Gen. Athar Abbas said the operation occurred in the Khyber section of the tribal region, west of Peshawar, the capital of the North-West Frontier Province. And it comes as the new administration announced that it would get tough with radicals in the region. There had been reports that Peshawar was being threatened by militants. Although Abbas said the reports were exaggerated, the military determined that the conditions in the area necessitated action. Troops cleared three militant outposts and pushed the insurgents west, Abbas said. There were no immediate reports of militant resistance or any casualties. The area is not far from the Afghan-Pakistan border. The Taliban militant movement has a strong presence in the tribal region and in neighboring Afghanistan, and there also have been numerous attacks on that restive border in recent weeks. U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said this week that he hopes a newly announced Pakistani effort to clamp down on Islamic militants in its northwestern tribal districts will improve the situation in Afghanistan. "What has happened is that as various agreements have been negotiated or were in the process of negotiation with various groups by the Pakistani government ... the pressure was taken off of these people and these groups, and they've therefore been more free to be able to cross the border and create problems for us," he said at the Pentagon. Meanwhile, the the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan reported that 32 militants had been killed two days ago during Afghan and coalition operations in southern Afghanistan. The fighting occurred in Uruzgan province and the report comes amid Pentagon warnings of a "resilient insurgency" by the Taliban. Afghan and coalition forces were ambushed Thursday during a patrol. They returned fire and called in airstrikes that killed three militants. Soon after, the militants again attacked the patrol. The forces then killed 29 insurgents. "During this engagement, insurgents attempted to disguise themselves in women's clothing in order to escape," the coalition said. A child and two police officers were wounded. This is the latest report of fighting across Afghanistan, where there has been an uptick in Taliban militant activities in the south, the east, and the Afghan-Pakistan border region. On Friday, a coalition service member was killed in Farah province. The death toll of U.S. and allied troops killed in Afghanistan in June has reached 40, the highest monthly toll of the war. Also, NATO's International Security Assistance Force were attacked in Paktika and Kunar provinces. Strikes in Kunar killed two civilians and wounded 11 others. Insurgents in both Pakistan and Afghanistan fired rockets at the Paktika base, but there were no casualties reported. A Pentagon report on security in Afghanistan underscored the tenacity of the Taliban. It said that although there has been some progress in battling the Taliban, setbacks are expected. Although NATO and Afghan force operations kept the insurgency down in 2007 by killing or capturing key leaders and clearing out Taliban safe havens, the report predicted that the Taliban would be back in 2008.

Pakistani forces launch major offensive against Taliban fighters in Khyber region . Military action is first taken by new government amid concern over threat to Peshawar . 32 militants killed in clashes with coalition forces in Afghanistan, coalition says .

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FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (CNN) -- Richard Barboza sits behind the steering wheel, patiently working a crossword puzzle. There's no rush. Time is one thing Barboza has plenty of. Richard Barboza, left, and John Nilsen are among those struggling in the current economic recession. It's just after sun-up. The streaks of light shimmer off the car windows. In the back of the Ford Explorer John Nilsen stirs. This is home. Clothes are kept in a suitcase. Food is wherever they can find it. "It's definitely not something that you ever see yourself being, homeless," Nilsen says. But homeless they have been for the past six weeks, ever since the money ran out and they were evicted from the Fort Lauderdale, Florida, apartment they shared. Nilsen had lost his job, and Barboza is waiting for disability checks to start arriving. The line of homeless men and women has already started to form at the food bank when the two men walk up. The faces are always the same, with a few more added every day. Michael is a regular. He makes grasshoppers out of palm fronds, then sells them when he can for whatever he can get. James says he once played professional football for the Miami Dolphins. No one believes him. Nilsen and Barboza wait quietly for their turn to get in the front door. "There's a lot of emotional and mental turmoil when you're in a situation like this," Nilsen says. Breakfast at the Cooperative Feeding Program is rushed. There are so many to feed. Seats at the tables are a premium. Nilsen and Barboza eat quickly their meal of sausage patties, an orange wedge, some cake and coffee. They want to get moving. It's back in the car and off to the County Library. They can charge their cell phone there and use the public computers for an hour. Nilsen checks Facebook to see how his friends are doing That's how he stays in touch. The two men then begin searching for places to rent on Florida's West Coast. "Big old double-wide trailer," Nilsen snickers. A two-bedroom catches their eyes. "I like the location," whispers Nilsen, "It's just north of Tarpon Springs." If they can get enough money together, Barboza says they'd like to get out of Fort Lauderdale. "After having spent 20 years here I'm due for a change anyway." Nilsen agrees. "We've agreed that we're going to go together, that we're going to stick together. We've been through enough as it is. It's easier to have someone you trust with you when you're in a situation like this." In the afternoons, the two men try making a few bucks. Nilsen got $25 for participating in a food tasting. Barboza has an opportunity to be in a focus group that will pay him $75. Nilsen had been donating plasma twice a week, but now that he's homeless they can't use him anymore. Barboza made about $20 by panhandling on an Interstate 95 exit ramp for about an hour. He stopped after some other homeless men threatened to kill him for working their turf, he says. It's not easy finding work when your address is a license plate number. For Nilsen and Barboza, it's doubly difficult. Both men have disabilities. Barboza was injured in a car wreck. Nilsen had a blood clot in his right leg when he was 16. He walks with a limp and uses a cane. "When we pull ourselves out of this," Nilsen says, "it's gonna be something you can look back on and draw from and say, 'You know what, if I was able to get through that ...' " The long days together living in a car don't allow for much space and not much alone time. "We're at the point now when I know when not to say anything and he knows not to say anything. And he knows when I'm in a bad mood," Nilsen says with a laugh. "He's got his strengths and weaknesses," adds Barboza, "and I've got mine. We balance each other out." By the time five o'clock rolls around, the two are getting hungry. There was no lunch today. A nearby church is serving dinner. It's time to stand in another line. They know most of the people here from breakfast at the Cooperative. Many are longtime homeless. "If they know better than I do how to survive, then let me ask and let me get the knowledge I need to survive for however long it's gonna be," Nilsen says. Outside the church a van pulls up The homeless are handed bags of toiletries. You take what you can get because you don't know how long it's gonna be before you get more, Nilsen says. A sliver of a moon shines now. "The toughest part of the day for us," Barboza says, "is once it gets dark until we go to the place where we sleep at night." For the next few hours the two men drive the neon sign-lit Fort Lauderdale streets. There are very few places, they say, where they can stop and park without police chasing them off. Once in a while they pull into a local park for a couple hours until the lights on the fields are turned off and the gates closed. At least here, they're not wasting gas. Every night is a challenge making it until 11 p.m., they say, when they can finally drive to their secret spot and bed down in the back of the old SUV.

Two men evicted from their apartment when their money ran out . Home for the disabled pair is now an old Ford Explorer . Men wait in line with other homeless people for free meals . They say police often chase them off when they park their vehicle .

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(CNN) -- Luciano Pavarotti died Thursday at the age of 71 after suffering from pancreatic cancer. I-Report contributors shared their memories of the famed opera tenor. Here is a selection of those stories: . Annamaria Capicchioni shared this snapshot from the 1993 Pavarotti San Marino Grand Prix in Modena, Italy. Leslie Oakley of Davenport, Florida I grew up in a small town in Kentucky where opera didn't exactly fit in the scheme of things. My family wasn't at all musical either but seeing as though I took an interest in it, my parents indulged me with opera recordings. One of the first ones I received was The Three Tenors. Luciano Pavarotti was to me what Michael Jordan was to other children. He was my hero. I even did a report on him one year in high school. I can remember sitting in my room listening to his voice, closing my eyes and seeing the operas unfold in my mind. He inspired me to teach myself to sing, and I went on to win awards in high school and to sing for three professional groups out of college. Singing has enriched my life immeasurably, and I owe it all to that beautiful voice that so entranced me as a child. I have many fond memories of Pavarotti. His voice always moves me to tears. It is the feeling of being given a glimpse of the divine that I will most remember about him. My prayers and thoughts are with his family and friends. There will never be another Pavarotti. Edmund Chua of Singapore Maestro's voice was truly a blessing. That exciting, that fascinating quality, that, sigh ... too many adjectives. Of course, there was that unforgettable personality. Personally, (don't know if this is a right thing to say but) I saw Italy in him, so to speak, always loving life. Knew he was fighting cancer but always thought he'd recover. I was hoping I'd be able to watch him live but I guess it'll only be in the footage. He's indeed a legend lost, a legacy remembered. ... We'll miss him. Tina Minges of Woodland, California I never cared for opera ... then I heard Pavarotti ... and from that point I loved it. Sandra Miser of Dallas, Texas I consider him the greatest singer ever. His voice had a quality like no others. I cried going to work this morning when I heard he was gone. When I listen to his music I can disappear into the beauty of it and be a peace. He will be greatly missed. Thank goodness for CDs so that we will never be without his voice. George Wendy of Eatons Neck, New York We had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Pavarotti sing a few times. His recital with James Levine at the Metropolitan Opera House was remarkable. I could not imagine feeling more emotion from listening to someone sing. Ciao, Luciano! Shannon Broussard of Springfield, Missouri Heaven now has a tenor for its choir. Chris Nissen of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania I heard Pavarotti perform twice in Philadelphia during the years he sponsored an operatic competition for young performers. I still have goose bumps thinking about the brilliance of those two evenings. Not only was his performance breathtaking, but his genuine joy in sharing the stage with the winners of the competition was obvious and written all over his face with a grand smile. Whenever I need to feel inspired with my own work I go and dig out my Pavarotti CDs. Bravo to the great one! Reynaldo O. Arcilla, Philippines Even Mt. Etna wept when Luciano Pavarotti, one of the greatest opera singers of all time, died. Marelize, South Africa In the mid-'90s, Luciano Pavarotti came to South Africa and performed in the town of Stellenboch. It was a very exclusive open-air concert. The tickets were very expensive and all the rich and famous in South Africa were there. Next to the stadium is a river that runs through the town. On the night, crowds of people gathered along the banks of the river. Like me, they could not afford the concert. From where we stood we could see the beautiful mountains, see the lights of the stadium and we could not see him, but we could hear his amazing voice. I looked at the people around me, they all had an expression of sheer wonder on their faces. He gave us all a wonderful gift that night. I will never forget it! He made us fall in love with opera! Edgardo J. Tria Tirona, Philippines This great tenor's death is like the dimming of a star at the break of dawn. But, as in the final strains of Nessun Dorma "All'alba vincero!" - at daybreak, he [again] conquers! The world's loss is now heaven's gain. Barry, New York City As a former employee of the New York Metropolitan Opera, it was my pleasure and "thrill of a lifetime" to watch and listen to "the Maestro" sing from the wings of the stage. I still get goose bumps thinking about that glorious voice, golden tenor. Ozonato, Kuala Lumpur Luciano Pavarotti's death was a shock, I attended his concerts in Hong Kong (SAR) 2005. Wife Nicoletta Mantovani [and his] daughters should have courage to bear the loss. I like the power of his strength of music. He was famous during his lifetime, may he rest in the Lord. Mario Rizzotti of Lincolnwood, Illinois ARRIVEDERCI GRANDE LUCIANO!!!!!! In your honor all the opera houses in USA should have the Half-Staff Flag. Sei stato grande. Your Italian Friends that fell in love with your singing and used your singing to make ladies fall in love, will always remember you. Now you rest in peace you can say:" VINCEROOOOOOOOO." E-mail to a friend .

Opera singer Luciano Pavarotti died Thursday at his home in Modena, Italy . CNN.com readers recall the tenor's "amazing voice" and "strength" of music . "The world's loss is now heaven's gain," one user writes .

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(CNN) -- For actress Kyra Sedgwick, it's the public's approval that makes it worth being away from her family for six months to tape her critically acclaimed series "The Closer." Kyra Sedgwick and her husband, Kevin Bacon, at the 66th annual Golden Globe Awards this month. But she may be getting more approval from her peers, too. Sedgwick will walk the red carpet again Sunday night at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, where she is nominated for a fourth consecutive year for outstanding performance by a female actor in a drama series for her role as Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson. She's also won a Golden Globe for her performance, in 2007. The TNT series resumes Monday night where it left off in September with what Sedgwick called "a fantastic five episodes." (TNT is a unit of Time Warner, as is CNN.) "I said to the writers, 'I really want a lot of personal stuff for Brenda,' " Sedgwick said. "I feel like there's some of those personal quiet moments with her alone, is something that I've been missing as an actor, and I feel like the audience has been missing, too. "She is such a complicated, fascinating character, and watching her growth and lack of growth is something that is really interesting," she said. When CNN asked whether the new episodes might include a wedding for her character, Sedgwick laughed. "That might very well happen," she said. "That's pretty insightful of you. I'm just going to just say that." A marriage for Brenda Johnson would be "a complicated, difficult situation," she said, because "she's basically married to her work." Sedgwick's job also complicates her real-life marriage to Bacon, since the show is produced in Los Angeles and the couple lives in Connecticut with their two children. That's where the approval -- whether on the street from fans or at award shows -- has "been a wonderful phenomenon for me," she said. "On a personal level, that's really good for me, because I really miss my family when I'm working on the show six months in L.A.," she said. "As much as I try to get my kids to move to L.A. and my husband, they just wouldn't have it. "It's challenging, and I'm glad that people are watching, because otherwise it would be kind of hard to go to work," Sedgwick said. Sedgwick has moved into an executive producer's role on the show, which she said she expects to continue for at least two more years. "I love being with a group where there's not a power struggle," she said. "I have a lot of say, and I always have. And that feels really good." CNN Radio's Jackie Howard contributed to this report .

TNT resumes Sedgwick's series "Closer" where it left off in September . Sedgwick is also up for two SAG awards Sunday . Sedgwick expects to be in the executive producer's role for at least two more years .

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LONDON, England (CNN) -- Several hundred Sri Lankan Tamil protesters shouted slogans at the British Parliament for a second day Tuesday, urging it to act to end the "genocide" against their people in Sri Lanka. Police clash with Tamil protesters outside the Houses of Parliament. "Stop the genocide!" they shouted. "Stop the war!" They waved the red flag of Tamil Eelam, the Tamils' traditional homeland in northern and eastern Sri Lanka. The flag is emblazoned with a yellow roaring tiger. Most of the protesters slept overnight on the streets around Parliament Square after beginning their unauthorized protest Monday afternoon. At one point, the protesters blocked the street leading to Westminster Bridge over the River Thames, police said. That led to road closures around Parliament. By Tuesday morning, a solid ring of police had hemmed the protesters in Parliament Square across the street from the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. Roads were open again, but the protest and police presence caused traffic congestion in the area. Hariram Shan, 24, is a Sri Lankan Tamil who said he has lived in Britain for six years. He said the protesters hope the British government will intervene to stop Sri Lanka's crackdown on Tamil Tiger rebels, which he said harms civilians. "They can force economic sanctions," Shan told CNN. Dushyanthy Sukumar, 47, said the Sri Lankan government is retaliating against innocent civilians. "The Sri Lankan government has now cornered the rebels, the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam), and what they are doing is killing the people," she said. Sukumar, who said she has lived in Britain since leaving her homeland in 1987, said she is angry at the British government for supporting Sri Lanka. "The Sri Lankan government is doing their dirty work through this government," she said. The Sri Lankan military said Sunday that it had captured the last rebel stronghold and killed five rebel leaders after three days of gunbattles. It said more rebels could still be hiding in a 20-square-kilometer "safety zone," but that it would not enter the area because it is home to some 50,000 people. The Tamil Tigers have fought since 1983 for an independent homeland for the country's ethnic Tamil minority. The civil war has left more than 70,000 people dead.

Several hundred Tamil protesters demonstrate outside UK parliament . Protesters urge UK lawmakers to "act to end the genocide in Sri Lanka" Tamil Tiger separatists have fought since 1983 for an independent homeland . Sri Lankan military said Sunday it had captured last rebel stronghold .

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Iceland's new prime minister wants her country to join the European Union and adopt the euro as its official currency to help lift the Nordic nation from financial ruin, a spokesman said Tuesday. Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir took office earlier this week. The announcement by Johanna Sigurdardottir, 66, came just two days after she was sworn in as prime minister and a week after the Cabinet resigned in the fallout from Iceland's financial collapse. She is Iceland's first female prime minister and the world's first openly gay leader. Iceland has been in political turmoil since October, when its currency, stock market and leading banks crashed amid the global financial crisis. The island nation's Nordic neighbors sent billions of dollars to prop up the economy, as did the International Monetary Fund in its first intervention to support a Western European democracy in decades. Sigurdardottir touted EU membership at a joint news conference Tuesday with Finance Minister Steingrimur Sigfusson, whose Left-Green Movement teamed up with the prime minister's Social Democratic Alliance to form the new two-party minority government. The Alliance party was until recently the only movement in Iceland's five-party parliament to push EU membership as a viable way to rescue Iceland's suffering economy. However, Sigfusson and his party aren't convinced that the country should join the EU's 27 other members. Instead, he said he is considering a monetary union with Norway, meaning Iceland would adopt the Norwegian krone as its currency. Iceland's newly instated minority government will only be in power for 80 days and elections are scheduled for April 25. Until then, no decisions about the country possibly joining the European Union will be made -- though the question could be important during the elections, Sigurdardottir's spokesman, Kristjan Kristjansson, said. CNN's Per Nyberg contributed to this report.

No decision on joining EU will be made before April elections . Prime minister wants nation to adopt euro as official currency . Iceland's stock market, banks crashed last autumn during financial crisis .

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano apologized Friday for a department assessment that suggested returning combat veterans could be recruited by right-wing extremist groups. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says she offered her "sincere apologies for any offense." She met with American Legion National Commander David Rehbein at Homeland Security headquarters. "The secretary started the meeting with an apology to me personally, to the American Legion and to the entire veterans community," Rehbein told reporters after the meeting. In a statement issued by the department, Napolitano said, "We connected meaningfully about the important issues that have emerged over recent days, and I offered him my sincere apologies for any offense to our veterans caused by this report. ... I pledge that the department has fixed the internal process that allowed this document to be released before it was ready." The report was an unclassified assessment sent to law enforcement agencies. It was titled "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment." The mention of combat veterans surfaced on a conservative radio program earlier this month, and it drew the scorn of commentators and conservative members of Congress. Rep. John Carter, R -Texas, called on Napolitano to resign. Rehbein said Friday it is time to move forward. "In the mind of the American Legion, I think her apology was sufficient," he said. "The way the Vietnam veterans were treated once they came home, that's what drives the sensitivity to this, because those things start small and then grow from there, and we need to make sure anytime something like that happens we need to step on that and make sure it goes away very quickly."

Homeland Security report says veterans could be recruited by right-wing extremists . Homeland Security chief apologizes for "any offense caused by this report' Napolitano says document was released before it was ready . American Legion commander accepts apology, says it's time to move on .

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(CNN) -- Nursing school seemed like a good idea to Tracy Kidd, but not just because she was interested in medicine. Tracy Kidd, 37, just started nursing school. Nurses are high in demand, despite the souring economy. Kidd, 37, and her husband recently took a massive pay cut -- the painting business they own in Mesa, Arizona, once brought in about $70,000 a month. Now they're lucky to get $800 a month. They have moved in with Tracy's father because their house was foreclosed on. "I knew that nurses are always needed, and I didn't want what just happened to us to ever happen again," said Kidd, who started a licensed practical nurse (LPN) program two weeks ago that will allow her to work while finishing her registered nurse (RN) degree. Kidd's logic squares with the numbers: While industries such as manufacturing have had decreasing job openings, there continues to be a deep need for health care positions such as nurses, physician assistants, pharmacists and primary-care physicians. See how health job openings compare with other industries » . With the unemployment rate at 8.1 percent and thousands of Americans getting laid off every day, the employment landscape looks bleak. But some experts say there are many job opportunities in the health care sector. Nursing . The number of nurses usually goes up when the economy goes down, said Beverly Malone, CEO of the National League for Nursing. Irrespective of this recession, the number of nurses has been growing anyway because of high demand. Nearly 182,000 new students in 2006-2007 entered prelicensure RN programs, which prepare students to sit for the RN licensing exam, according to the National League for Nursing. This represents a 9 percent increase over the previous year. There are about 2.9 million nurses eligible to practice, with 2.6 million in the workforce, she said. As of May 2007, a registered nurse in the United States earned on average $62,480 per year, according to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. View a map of jobs and unemployment in the U.S. At the associates level, a student usually takes at least two years to earn a degree, while a Bachelor of Science in Nursing takes at least four years. Nurse educators are in huge demand, in part because they earn less than practicing nurses, Malone said. A master's degree is required for these positions, and sometimes a doctorate. Physician assistants . Jobs for physician assistants have also stayed steady, as these medical practitioners help offset the national physician shortage, said Cindy Lord, president of the American Academy of Physician Assistants. Like doctors, physician assistants see patients individually, diagnose conditions, and in some cases even write prescriptions. They must at least have telecommunication with a physician, because they are technically working in a team. Employment for physician assistants is projected to grow much faster than average because health care institutions increasingly use these practitioners to contain costs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Rural and inner-city clinics are especially good for job opportunities, the bureau said. The average salary for a new graduate from a physician assistant program -- which takes an average of 27 months to complete -- is $75,000 to $80,000 per year, she said. Those who have been practicing longer or specialize in specific fields earn around $90,000, she said. To get into a program, many schools require at least two years of college and some health care experience, and college-level biology, chemistry and math courses are sometimes necessary before matriculation. Visit CNNhealth.com, your connection to better living . Satisfaction with the profession is high -- one survey found that 88 percent of physician assistants would choose that career again, Lord said. "I would do this over a hundred times," she said. "The privilege and honor of practicing medicine is very rewarding." The hospital scene . Hospitals say they are still hiring, although there are fewer openings now than normally. Massachusetts General Hospital has fewer vacancies now than at any point in the last 10 years, as well as the lowest turnover, said Jeff Davis, senior vice president of human resources. That's because people who have jobs don't want to leave them, he said. Still, there are about 400 openings available at the hospital, which has about 20,000 workers including physicians. Nursing jobs are available, and the more skill a job requires, the more it's in demand at Mass General, he said. People looking to change careers can take accreditation courses to become X-ray technologists or professionals involved in patient care, but the more skills you can get, the better, Davis said. With the population of Massachusetts aging, more people are likely to utilize the health care system. Davis said he would encourage people to become registered nurses or physical therapists in response to that demand. The UCLA Health System in Los Angeles, California, has fewer openings than last year or the year before, but is still hiring, said Robin Ludewig, director of recruitment. Some of these positions do not require much formalized training. Positions in demand include clinical lab scientists, which requires a four-year degree and an internship. Sterile processing technicians, who prepare surgical equipment, are also needed, and can get training in community colleges. "It doesn't really matter how the economy is. People still get ill," she said. For anyone interested in changing careers to health care, experts recommend exploring courses at local community colleges and vocational schools. Some schools offer short courses in medical terminology to get things started. With talk of reforming the health care system, it is uncertain how those changes would affect the health care job market. Still, there will always be a need for skilled individuals to practice medicine, experts said. A recent CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll showed that 9 percent of Americans think health care is the most important issue facing the country. The telephone poll of 1,019 adults had a sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. As for nursing student Kidd, she says she's optimistic about her future, and recognizes that life has its ebbs and flows. "We just happen to have caught ourselves in a bad situation," she said. "My husband and I, we're not stupid people. We just really were victims of the economy."

Despite recession, there continues to be a deep need for health care workers . The number of nurses in the United States continues to grow . Some positions in demand do not require much course work . Massachusetts General Hospital has about 400 jobs open .

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BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- A new boatload of Rohingya refugees washed up on the shores of Thailand early Tuesday, raising questions about the type of treatment they would receive. Male refugees show scars they say were caused by beatings at the hands of the Myanmar navy. The boat was carrying about 78 people, Thai police said, and many had severe burns from a fire that broke out on board. Most were members of neighboring Myanmar's Rohingya minority, which has been fleeing persecution by the country's hard-line government for years. Other members of the Rohingya have allegedly been abandoned at sea after being rounded up by Thai authorities. A recent CNN investigation found evidence that the Thai military towed hundreds of refugees into open waters only to abandon them. CNN obtained several photos of this activity including one photo that shows the Thai army towing a boatload of some 190 refugees far out to sea. CNN also interviewed a refugee who said he was one of the few that survived after his group of six rickety boats were towed back to sea and abandoned by Thai authorities in January. Watch Dan Rivers' BackStory on the investigation » . The Thai army has denied this allegation, while the Thai government has launched an inquiry. But one source in the Thai military, after extensive questioning, did confirm to CNN that the Thai army was operating a dump-at-sea policy. The source defended it, insisting that each boatload of refugees was given sufficient supplies of food and water. That source claimed local villagers had become afraid of the hundreds of Rohingya arriving each month, accusing the refugees of stealing their property and threatening them. That source claimed local villagers had become afraid of the hundreds of Rohingya arriving each month, and that they were accusing the refugees of stealing their property and threatening them. The Rohingya, a minority in Myanmar, have been fleeing their country in make-shift boats for years in search of a better life, and maintain that they are fleeing persecution by the regime in Myanmar, formerly Burma. The Thai government maintains that "there are no reasonable grounds to believe" that the Rohingya are fleeing Myanmar out of fear of persecution. "Their profile and their seasonal travel further support the picture that they are illegal migrants, and not those requiring international protection," it said in a statement released Tuesday by the foreign ministry. In that statement, the Thai government maintained that its policies in dealing with all illegal migrants are in accordance with its laws and international guidelines. It said "basic humanitarian needs" are given to the migrants before they are returned home. "We have upheld our humanitarian tradition and ensured that new arrivals are adequately provided with food, water and medicines, with necessary repairs to their boats," the ministry's statement said. The government noted that Thailand has already been inundated with as many as 20,000 illegal migrants -- most of them Rohingyas -- and "accepting those arriving in an irregular manner would simply encourage new arrivals." The government "categorically denied" media reports blaming Thai authorities for mistreating the illegal migrants, and intentionally damaging their boats. It said it would seriously investigate such cases if any "concrete evidence" is presented. -- CNN's Dan Rivers and Kocha Olarn contributed to this report.

The latest boat was carrying about 78 people, Thai police say . Thai army denies setting refugees adrift; government has launched an inquiry . Thailand: No grounds to believe Rohingya fleeing Myanmar out of fear of persecution . Statement added that "basic humanitarian needs" are given to the migrants .

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CNN -- When Maria Rubeo closed her arm, she felt something "very big -- like a lemon." Although Hispanic women have a lower incidence rate for breast cancer, they often get the diagnosis at later stages. Her doctor said the lump in her breast was nothing, so Rubeo, who didn't have health insurance, didn't seek a second opinion. With two jobs and two kids, she was busy and didn't go to the doctor's office for another year. During her next visit, with a different doctor, Rubeo learned she had breast cancer -- and the tumor had been there for a while. Her story may not be particularly rare. Research suggests that breast cancer may be harder to treat in Hispanic women because they wait longer to receive care. Women in the fastest-growing minority group in the United States face issues such as language and cultural barriers, lifestyle choices and lack of insurance that could affect their health and medical care, according to research released Wednesday at the Science of Cancer Health Disparities Conference. Like Rubeo, about half of women in a study of 230 Mexican-American breast cancer patients in Arizona and Texas noticed changes in their breasts, but waited more than a month to seek medical attention, according to research presented at the conference hosted by the American Association for Cancer Research. "We asked what the reasons were," said Rachel Zenuk, a graduate student at the University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, who spoke about the study. "A third cited they didn't have insurance or were unable to afford medical care. Or they thought it was not important to report the medical finding to a professional." Other factors included fear of the results and difficulty scheduling an appointment, she said. More than a decade after her mastectomy, Rubeo urges Hispanic women in the San Francisco, California, Bay area not to wait after seeing changes in their breasts. "I explain: Take time for you to see the doctor," she said. "[Some women] don't have insurance, don't speak English, it's very difficult." Hispanics are the largest U.S. minority group, constituting 14 percent of the nation's total population. While Hispanic women have a lower incidence rate for breast cancer than whites, blacks and Asians, they have a less favorable prognosis because of delayed treatment. "They're not getting more breast cancer than other women, but they're less likely to survive as long," said Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez, a member of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation's National Health Advisory Council and chairwoman of the Komen Foundation National Hispanic/Latino Advisory Council. "The reason is they're diagnosed at a later stage of the cancer." "We're seeing them at later stages, so the cancer is more advanced. Their five-year survival rates are lower than non-Hispanic whites," Ramirez said. Data also showed that about two-thirds of breast cancer cases in the 230 Mexican-American women were found through self-detection, which suggests that the women were not receiving routine mammogram or exams. Rubeo said that when she first noticed the lump, she "had no time for me to take care of myself. Only work, work, running, no time to eat. Sometimes you forget yourself, so there's time for everybody and not enough for yourself." At the Latina Breast Cancer Agency in San Francisco, she tells other women how she didn't take care of herself while working two jobs, 16 hours a day. "I explain to the ladies my experience. Sometimes they cry and say it's true," Rubeo said. She now runs support groups for breast cancer patients, talking about health screenings, accompanying women to the hospital and helping them with paperwork. Aside from the pressures of being a busy, working mother, there are language and cultural barriers for Latina women. "For women we work with, our focus is breast health," said Olivia Fé, founder and executive director of the Latina Breast Cancer Agency. "Within Latino culture, within family, the husband doesn't want the wife to see a male doctor. ... That is a big deal." The group partnered with public hospitals in San Francisco and San Mateo counties and made sure the medical staff who work with Hispanic breast cancer patients are female and speak Spanish. Hispanic women don't take advantage of the free breast health screenings, because there's a lack of awareness, Fé said. Many women speak only Spanish, so prevention messages in English don't get through. Research showed that the women with more education and exposure to English-language media, such as television and radio, were more likely to have had a mammogram. Ramirez said there are now public service announcements in Spanish that target Hispanic women of all ages, so the younger ones will know the importance of family history and the older ones will become informed about the importance of mammograms. The Komen Foundation funds local efforts to increase enrollment of Hispanic women in clinical trials, provide medical interpretive and transportation services, and have Spanish peer support for 24-hour breast cancer hotlines. Lifestyle choices have an important role in breast cancer development, said Esther John, a research scientist and epidemiologist at the Northern California Cancer Center. One study that examined 2,533 Hispanic women found that the women born in foreign countries had 50 percent less risk of developing breast cancer than women born in the United States. This San Francisco Bay Area Breast Cancer Study compared the known breast cancer risks such as obesity, use of hormones, alcohol consumption, fat intake and lack of physical activity between the two groups and found women born in the United States had greater risk. "The pattern suggests that when Hispanic women move to the U.S., there are important changes from the traditional lifestyle to the Americanized lifestyle," John said. "There are lifestyle factors that increase risks of breast cancer."

Hispanic women learn of breast cancer at later stages, research shows . Language, cultural barriers and lack of insurance may impede medical care . Other factors include fear of results and difficulty scheduling an appointment .

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LONDON, England (CNN) -- Picture this: The European champions and current highest-ranked soccer team in the world, Spain, are beaten 3-0...by a team of robots. On the way: Robots are developing steadily towards the goal of beating humans at football. It may sound ridiculous, but robot developers in Asia, the U.S. and Europe are dreaming of that very goal. Working under the umbrella organizations FIRA (Federation of Robot-Soccer Association) and the RoboCup Federation, researchers and developers are aiming to advance robot technology to the point that a team of humanoids can beat the best humans in the sport by 2050. Since robot soccer competitions began in the mid-1990s, researchers have already made significant developments towards their goal. Phil Culverhouse of the Center for Robotics and Intelligent Systems at the University of Plymouth told CNN that the first robots in competition were controlled by humans and many were on wheels or four-legged, but that is changing. "Since 2007 the team have progressed to bipedal robots that have cameras on board," he said. "Our robots are autonomous -- they have no control from outside sources. The cameras try to work out where the goal is, where the ball is and where the other players are." Further robotic developments appear to be close. Researchers at Carlos III University of Madrid released a study in the March 2009 online edition of 'Expert Systems with Applications,' showing they had refined a technique known as machine-learning. Basically, the scientists were able to teach a virtual player simple reactions to visual stimuli -- based upon how real humans react in the same situation. Do you think robots will one day be able to beat humans at football? Sound Off box below. This year robots will go head-to-head at both the RoboCup event in Austria in June/July and the FIRA RoboWorld Cup in Korea in August. The most advanced classes at present are the bipedal classes for 'humanoid' robots. Co-chair of RoboCup 2009, Gerald Steinbauer, told CNN this year's event was the 13th edition of the cup, and he was impressed by progress by advances since the competitions began. "At the last RoboCup in China 2008 we had games of teams of three humanoid playing attractive soccer. They walk on two feet, fight for the ball and of course score... so we are approaching the goal," he said. Culverhouse said interest in both events had steadily grown, especially since the two-legged robots had been introduced. This year up to 3,000 competitors from 40 countries are expected at RoboCup. "This has been extremely effective in gaining interest. These are much more exciting to watch. We have seen a steep level of change in interest from not just young people but everybody." Despite the increasing profile, Culverhouse said there are still plenty of major challenges before the humanoids can seriously compete with humans. "This is still a long way from competing against humans. The next big challenge to be met is to get robots walking like humans and then running like humans. "One of the most challenging things is getting a robot to walk on uneven terrain without falling over," he said, explaining that some fall over after kicking at goal. (Although, it's not hard to think of professional footballers who have suffered the same problem.) The University of Plymouth team is currently researching how robot's feet can be improved, and hope to release a concept later this year that could usher in a new era of in foot design. For Steinbauer, the critical issues are that of perception and cognitive abilities. "Perception is one of our major problems. It is important that a robot is able to understand a scene like a human does. If you enter a complete unknown room you are able to recognize the important things like furniture and also relations and functions of objects very fast," he said. "Despite huge progress in this area we are far behind the capabilities of animals or humans. "And of course there's cognitive capabilities. To reason about new, uncertain or even inconsistent facts is easy for a human but very hard for a robot," Steinbauer said. Size and cost are other limiting issues. "In order to make this affordable we are developing robots 50 to 60 centimeters high. At that size each robot costs about 10,000 pounds to make. At full human size each would cost about 50,000 pounds," Culverhouse said. Soccer is an ideal testing ground for robotics as it encompasses many different elements including movement, vision and strategy, Steinbauer said. But the applications developed in these robots could serve a greater purpose. Steinbauer said robot technologies could be used for entertainment or performing simple tasks around the home and office. They also could be used in rescue scenarios -- where robots could be sent into dangerous situations in place of humans, he said.

FIRA and RoboCup organizations promoting development of robots . Robots have been competing in regular soccer contests since the mid-'90s . Scientists hope to be able to beat world's top team of humans by 2050 . Robotics developments tested in robo-soccer have uses in other fields .

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LONDON, England (CNN) -- Chelsea and England defender Ashley Cole has apologized to London police for a foul-mouthed tirade that led to him being arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct in the early hours of Thursday morning. Ashley Cole, pictured signing an autograph at a charity event in London Wednesday. In a statement released by the left-back, Cole said he swore out of his frustration with the paparazzi and insisted he would never disrespect the police. However, Cole admits he did not heed their warnings to calm down and regrets not taking their advice. He also made it clear that he had not consumed a vast amount of alcohol. Cole declared: "I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to the police officers on duty last night for my language. "I felt I was being harassed by paparazzi and while complaining to the police about this at the scene they did warn me to calm down, a warning that I regrettably did not heed. "I fully appreciate that whatever frustrations I may have had with others that it was completely inappropriate to vent those in conversations with the police. "However, I do want to make clear that I swore in frustration at the paparazzi's behavior. I would never disrespect police officers in anyway. "I take very seriously my responsibilities as a professional footballer, this includes keeping my body in the best condition. Although I had consumed some alcohol earlier in the evening on a night out with friends it had not been excessive. "But I accept that the language I used on this occasion was wrong. I regret my actions and how it reflects on myself and Chelsea Football Club." The 28-year-old was arrested in Brompton Road in the upmarket west London area of South Kensington, close to Chelsea's Stamford Bridge ground, at about 2.15am on Thursday morning after emerging from the Collection nightclub. Police sources said the officers were already on patrol in the street and were not called to any disorder. One source denied reports they were following up a complaint from a photographer over an alleged bust-up with Cole. Cole was taken to a central London police station and issued with an £80 fixed penalty notice for being drunk and disorderly before being released shortly after 5.30am. Cole is likely to be fined by Chelsea. Before his arrest, Cole had joined Chelsea's first-team squad and more than 300 charity workers, celebrities and supporters for the second annual Chelsea FC and Armani charity fundraiser. Cole, who previously played for Arsenal before joining Chelsea in 2006, is married to the Girls Aloud singer and reality TV judge Cheryl Cole, who is currently on a charity climb on Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro.

Chelsea defender Ashley Cole apologizes after his arrest on Thursday morning . 28-year-old England left-back was charged with drunk and disorderly conduct . Cole blames his frustration at paparazzi for swearing at London police officers . Cole is married to the Girls Aloud singer and reality TV judge Cheryl Cole .

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HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- Watching the news out of Mexico is causing a case of déjà vu for Dr. Lo Wing-Luk. The sight of people wearing masks became common in Hong Kong after the SARS outbreak of 2003. "Seeing the people in masks today reminds me of Hong Kong during SARS," said Lo, an epidemiology expert who was among those on the frontline during the outbreak of SARS in Hong Kong in 2003, which within three months infected 8,000 and killed nearly 800 in Hong Kong, China, Taiwan and Toronto. Historically, Hong Kong has been center stage for recent infections that threatened to spiral across the world, such as SARS and Avian Influenza, which first struck and killed people here in 1997. Southern China -- with the close proximity of its rural agriculture to population centers and globally connected transportation -- has been an ideal conduit for past animal diseases that spread to humans and then to the rest of the world. But with the outbreak of swine flu in Mexico and the United States, Hong Kong suddenly finds the world looking to it for lessons on how to stop the spread of disease. "Managing a (potential) pandemic can't be from the top down, it must be from the ground up," said Lo, a former Hong Kong legislator representing the medical community. In the early days of SARS, cooperation was lax between Hong Kong health officials and public officials across the border in mainland China, where the live animal wet markets in Guangdong province is suspected in the virus' jump to humans. "One of the most important lesson of SARS was the importance of good communication," says Dr. KY Yuen, head of the microbiology department of Hong Kong University, which found the first human cases of Avian Influenza in 1997 and first identified SARS in 2003. "There were outbreaks in the middle to late November in Guangdong Province, but the first cases were reported in Hong Kong three months later," he said. "We could have reduced the impact (of SARS) if there had been better communication" between Hong Kong and mainland China health authorities. The communication channels have improved between China and Hong Kong, health officials said, as well as better surveillance of the disease. Every visitor who comes through Hong Kong International Airport now is scanned by infrared monitors and immediately isolated if suffering from a fever or respiratory illness. "Quarantine and isolation of people (suspected to be ill) is crucial now," Yuen said. As the disease spreads, there is a conflict between the need for a quick response and the time required for appropriate scientific study -- which can result in some bad decisions, Yuen said. For example, in the case of SARS health experts wore full-body protection suits because of initial hunches the disease was being spread by airborne causes. More people were exposed to the disease because of the harried medical staff's improper use of the cumbersome equipment. "It turned out globes, masks and hand washing were far more effective" than a breathing apparatus, Yuen said. "Presumptions are dangerous," he added. If Hong Kong is any example, governments who fail to meet the challenges of an outbreak will face rising public heat. In July 2003, half a million Hong Kong residents took to the streets to protest the government, in part because of frustrations over the response to the SARS outbreak, says Cecilia Chan, director of the Center of Behavioral Health at Hong Kong University -- adding to the woes of the already beleaguered administration of former Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee Wah, who later stepped down in the middle of his second five-year appointment.

Hong Kong at center of recent infections that threatened to spiral across world . First human cases of Avian Influenza reported in 1997, SARS identified in 2003 . Disease expert: Managing a (potential) pandemic can't be from the top down . Lack of good communication during SARS outbreak was a key failing .

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(CNN) -- Sri Lanka ordered an end to combat operations against Tamil Tiger rebels in the country's north, the president's office said Monday. But the rebels accused the military of continuing to bomb civilians. Sri Lankan soldiers stand guard next to a tank captured from the Tamil Tigers. "Our security forces have been instructed to end the use of heavy-caliber guns, combat aircraft and aerial weapons which could cause civilian casualties," according a statement from the Presidential Secretariat. A rebel Web site, Tamilnet.com, immediately accused the government of violating its own order and "deceiving the international community." "Two Sri Lanka air force fighter bombers continued to bomb civilian targets in Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal after the announcement by the Sri Lankan forces that it would not deploy heavy weapons or carry out air attacks," Tamilnet said, citing S. Puleedevan, director of the Tamil Peace Secretariat. "Obviously we need to see what that means in practice," John Holmes, the head of U.N. humanitarian operations, said about the government announcement to end combat operations. "But, on the face of it, I think it's good news." The military will now concentrate on "saving" and "rescuing civilians," who have been caught in the fighting between government forces and rebel fighters, the presidential statement said. The government's decision followed an unscheduled meeting of the National Security Council called by President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The session included the commanders of the army, navy and air force. The developments came a day after Sri Lankan officials rejected a proposed cease-fire from the Tamil rebels, warning instead that government troops would continue a new offensive until the group surrendered, a senior government official told CNN. "The government is firm that (the rebels) lay down their arms and surrender. We do not recognize this so-called offer," said Lakshman Hulugalle, director of Sri Lanka's Media Center for National Security. The Tiger leadership had asked the international community to "pressure the Sri Lankan government to reciprocate" on the cease-fire offer. The United States, the United Nations, the European Union and India have called for a cease-fire. The foreign ministers of three nations are due in Sri Lanka on Wednesday -- David Miliband of the United Kingdom, Bernard Kouchner of France and Carl Bildt of Sweden. The rebels' proposed cease-fire came six days after the Sri Lankan army launched a new offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE). Government troops made significant advances into rebel-held territory on Friday and Saturday, according to Sri Lankan army sources. A government-imposed deadline for the Tigers to surrender passed last Tuesday. Tens of thousands of displaced civilians currently remain wedged in a dwindling swath of territory controlled by the Tigers along the country's northeastern coast. Government troops say they have rescued 39,000 civilians trapped in the area, but a U.N. refugee agency said Friday that a wave of "fresh displacement" now exceeds 100,000 people. Watch civilians describe what they are experiencing » . Fifty metric tons of relief supplies -- which landed in Colombo on Monday -- will be sent by UNICEF to the north to help displaced residents. UNICEF, which called the situation in the north a "catastrophe for children," said the displaced lack food, water and basic medical supplies. The rebels estimate the number of civilians still located in the territory at more than 160,000. The Sri Lankan military said it "freed 3,254 civilians from LTTE clutches" in operations Sunday. The Tigers have been fighting for an independent state in Sri Lanka's northeast since 1983. As many as 70,000 people have been killed since the civil war began, and the group has been declared a terrorist organization by 32 countries, including the United States and the European Union.

Tamil rebels say Sri Lankan forces ignoring orders to end military operations Sri Lanka: Forces ordered to cease use of heavy-caliber guns, combat aircraft Rebels say fighter bombers continued to bomb civilian targets after announcement . Developments come after Sri Lankan officials reject rebels' cease-fire offer .

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(CNN) -- Amber Easton has gone from $80,000 a year in salary to scrambling for work. At a time in her life when she should be scaling the corporate ladder, she has instead spiraled into a deep depression. She recently lost her car and now faces eviction from her apartment. Job fairs have been on the rise amid the nation's hard economic times. Just last week, the 35-year-old longtime working professional attended two job fairs with friends in the Detroit area. They stood in line for over three hours with hundreds of professionals of all types. "It was a real eye-opener to see the caliber of people we were in line with -- very educated with vast skill sets," Easton said in an e-mail. "Afterwards, we went to the restaurant located in the same hotel and it was filled with unemployed professionals sharing their story, from engineers to graphic designers to marketing professionals." Easton's saga began in July 2007 when she traded in her job as a corporate compliance officer to attend law school, what she thought would help advance her career. But after a year of law school, she decided it wasn't for her. By then, her old job was gone and the job market had shrunk. "It's hard not to be depressed during a time like this," she wrote iReport.com. "I never imagined in a million years that I would be in such a situation at my age and at this point in my career. I am humiliated. I am praying for everyone else out there is who are facing the same problems." She has applied to 70 different companies but gotten few leads. She recently went through a rigorous interview process for one job in another state, but to no avail. Share your economic survivor story . Every day, she searches for new job possibilities and every day results in more desperation. She estimates she's making $20,000 -- "if that" -- as a contract employee working from her home. "I just haven't made enough to keep up." Her Detroit neighborhood a couple years ago was booming, she said, but now "it's like a ghost town around here." "It's bad everywhere, but it's so, so bad here," she said. Across the nation, people like Easton are feeling the pinch. Good jobs have evaporated. Former full-time employees are now working part-time contract positions just to get by. Nearly 2.6 million jobs were lost during 2008, the highest yearly total since the end of World War II in 1945. This week alone, major corporations have announced more than 80,000 job cuts, bringing this year's total to well over 200,000. Dr. Rosalind Dorlen is a clinical psychologist in Summit, New Jersey, an area she calls a "Wall Street ghetto" where formerly high-flying executives are out of work. "Here, the people earn millions of dollars with bonuses that are astronomical," said Dorlen, who is also the public education coordinator in New Jersey for the American Psychological Association. "There is a demoralizing aspect to having a huge salary and a huge bonus and then having to look for a job that is going to pay much, much less." She added, "What I'm hearing is a terrible sense of betrayal, anxiety and people experiencing lots of stress." That, in turn, can lead to an increase in unhealthy coping behaviors, such as an uptick in alcohol consumption, unhealthy eating and worse sleeping habits. Dorlen has several tips for people out of work: . • Don't panic; . • Find a support group, even if it's just an informal group of friends; . • Seek employment counseling when available; . • Be professional in your job hunt; . • Network with other professionals; . • Take time to exercise during hard times; . • Spend valuable time with your family. On a practical note, she said people should contact their creditors to let them know the situation. She also advises people to do volunteer work and to cultivate a "spirit of optimism." "Bad times pass, and it's sometimes hard to see that when you're in the throes of a terrible place," she said. "I think we do need to hold onto a spirit of optimism and a sense of confidence." See Top companies: They're hiring! "I think we're getting mired in the gloom and doom, and we need to hold on to the fact that lots of people are working." CNN's user-generated site, iReport.com, has been flooded with messages from people out of work. One woman held up her husband's résumé and said, "Please, please, please take him off my hands." Watch woman plead case for hubby . "My husband can knock out a honey-do list like nobody's business, and he meets my great, high standards every day. Don't let my husband slip through your hands. He would be a great addition to your team," the woman said under the headline "Wife Seeking Job for Husband." In Delaware, Manoj Philip, 24, said he had a full-time job in 2007 with Agilent Technologies making about $55,000 a year, including all the perks and benefits that came with it. But in July 2007, he quit that job to pursue a career in real estate. "I knew it wasn't going to be easy, but I didn't think it would be this tough," he said. By September 2008, Philip needed a second income because of the withering housing market. He picked up a full-time contracting job and continues to do real estate about 20-30 hours per week. It was a shock, he said, to return to full-time work while putting his real estate dreams on hold. "It took a lot for me to change that mental outlook. Because before I would've thought of it as something holding me back," Philip said. "But I don't look at it like that anymore." He's since learned the value of living within his means, budgeting and making every dollar he spends count for something. "These are really important lessons to learn. I'm glad I learned it at such a young age." In Detroit, Easton said she knows America will bounce back at some point, but "in the meantime, people are losing everything." "That's what scares me," she said.

Detroit woman goes to job fair; stunned by the hundreds of professionals in line . "I never imagined in a million years that I would be in such a situation" Clinical psychologist advises people not to panic, to try to remain optimistic . "Bad times pass, and it's sometimes hard to see that," Dr. Rosalind Dorlen said .

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(CNN) -- World number one Rafael Nadal continues to prove unbeatable on his favorite clay-court surface, as he won his fifth Barcelona Open title in a row with a straight sets victory over fellow-Spaniard David Ferrer on Sunday. Rafael Nadal lifts the massive Barcelona Open trophy for the fifth year in a row after his win over David Ferrer. The 22-year-old Nadal, who last week secured his fifth Monte Carlo title in succession, repeated that feat on home soil by winning 6-2 7-5 in a repeat of the 2008 final. The victory gave Nadal his 35th career title (24 of them coming on clay) and meant the Barcelona tournament was won by a home player for a seventh straight year. "I could have never have imagined that I would win here for a fifth time," a beaming Nadal said after the match. "Congratulations to David also. Even if it was impossible for him to win today, he had a great tournament. For me, this is much more than a dream," he added. Nadal will have no time to celebrate as he heads directly for the Rome Masters which begins on Monday. Last year, an obviously exhausted Nadal lost in his opening match to compatriot Juan Carlos Ferrero.

Rafael Nadal defeats David Ferrer in straight sets to lift Barcelona Open title . World number one wins 6-2 7-5 to take the trophy for a fifth year in succession . The title was Nadal's 35th of his career with 24 of those coming on clay-courts .

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(CNN) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Friday he appreciated U.S. President Barack Obama's friendly gestures at last weekend's Summit of the Americas, but said they don't change his view of the United States as an imperialist nation. Hugo Chavez had handshakes and smiles for President Obama at the Summit of the Americas last weekend. Chavez's fiery diatribes against the United States have included referring to former President George W. Bush as the devil. He was photographed with Obama at least twice at the summit -- once when Obama shook hands with him and other leaders, and again when he approached Obama to give him a book. "The hand[shake], yes. And the smile, yes -- one time and a second time and a third time and a fourth time," Chavez said during a televised address. "But nobody should be mistaken. The empire is there, alive and kicking." The book Chavez presented to Obama as cameras rolled is titled "Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent." The book chronicles Europe's and the United States' role in "the effects and causes of capitalist underdevelopment in Latin America," according to one reviewer. As he has in the past, Chavez noted Obama's historic role as the first black U.S. president. "I hope Obama, for the dignity of his race, may be the last president of an imperialist United States," he said.

Venezuelan president in TV interview: [U.S.] "empire is there, alive and kicking" Friendly exchanges with Obama didn't change his view of U.S., Chavez says . Chavez: "I hope Obama ... may be the last president of an imperialist United States"

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(CNN) -- Carl Edwards, one of NASCAR's elite, makes a living traveling at speeds upwards of 200 mph and is on the road more than 200 days a year. So when he wants to slow down, he heads to his hometown of Columbia, Missouri. NASCAR driver Carl Edwards grew up in Columbia, Missouri. He grew up in Columbia and couldn't wait to get out of town, but after living in North Carolina for three years, he was ready to come back. "I realized after being away, there just aren't many places cooler than this," Edwards said. "So I moved back, and now I live here and I'm really proud to live here." He competes in both the Nationwide Series and the Sprint Cup Series for NASCAR. He won a Busch Series Cup in 2007, finished last year's Sprint Cup Series in second, and is fiercely fighting for Sprint Cup honors this year. Edwards has recovered from a frightening crash-ending to his last race in Talladega, Alabama, and is looking forward to racing in Richmond, Virginia, this week, hoping for his first trip of the season to victory lane. His fans are eagerly awaiting that trademark victory back flip. But through all of the excitement and acclaim, Edwards remains grounded and true to his Missouri roots. He took CNN home with him to Columbia -- which is between Kansas City and St. Louis -- to share some of his favorite spots. The day started at Rock Bridge State Park, 2,273 acres of natural beauty and serenity that is hard to believe is only 10 minutes from the bustling center of this college town. "This park is one of Columbia's best secrets. It's a beautiful place to come mountain biking, hiking. There's a cave that runs under this ground that goes for over 50 miles." The park boasts 15 miles of trails and endless possibilities for adventure, from hiking and biking to canoeing and even cave exploration. When Edwards gets the need for speed at home, he opts for two wheels instead of four. He grabs his bicycle and heads to the Katy Trail, just up the road from Rock Bridge Park. "This used to be an old railroad, and now it's a state park. It's 10 feet wide, it's over 200 miles long, and all of this is open to the public." Edwards also showed us one of his favorite trail features: a beautiful giant bur oak tree simply referred to by Missouri natives as "the big bur oak." Edwards says it's one of the oldest in the state and thinks that it is one of the coolest spots along the trail. All that exercise and fresh air can certainly rev up an appetite, and Edwards has two favorite places to cure that. For what he calls the best burger in the world, he heads to Booches Billiard Hall, one of his high school hangouts. "We used to come here in high school when we probably should have been in school. We'd shoot pool, eat booch burgers and just have a good time," he said. We were greeted by one of the owners, Charlie Kurry, who poked a little fun at Edwards' trademark backflip celebration. "The only thing flipping in here is the burgers," Kurry said. Booches has been in operation in Columbia since 1884. Next up is Shakespeare's Pizza, which has been serving slices in Columbia for more than 35 years. "They can make you anything you want. They've got whole wheat crust if you're into the health stuff like I am. And it's so good, they even catered my wedding." These are just some of the hidden gems of Carl Edwards' Columbia, but this town has much more to offer. There are museums, festivals and parades, and the University of Missouri has provided a lot of athletic excitement with its football and basketball teams over the past few years. It's a perfect weekend getaway from its larger surrounding cities. And if you live farther away than that, it's worth the trip!

NASCAR driver Carl Edwards shares his favorite spots in Columbia, Missouri . He's a fan of Rock Bridge State Park, only 10 minutes from the center of town . Edwards also frequents Booches Billiard Hall for the "best burger in the world"

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Over-the-counter painkillers and fever reducers will now carry new labels warning consumers of the potential risks of liver damage and internal bleeding associated with the drugs, according to a final ruling Tuesday by the Food and Drug Administration. The new warning labels will affect over-the-counter pain relievers including Tylenol, aspirin and ibuprofen. The new rule covers acetaminophen, the popular pain medicine also known as Tylenol, and a class of drugs known as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or NSAIDs. The most commonly used NSAIDs include aspirin, ibuprofen (the main ingredient in Motrin and Advil), naproxen and ketoprofen. The modified labeling also applies to all products that contain these ingredients, such as cough and cold medicines. Under the new rule, package labels and bottles must prominently state in highlighted text the drug's ingredients. For acetaminophen, the label must include bold lettering warning patients about severe liver damage. The new labeling also instructs patients using the blood thinner warfarin to consult their doctor before using acetaminophen. Bold lettering on NSAIDs labels must warn of severe stomach bleeding. "Acetaminophen and NSAIDs are commonly used drugs for both children and adults because they are effective in reducing fevers and relieving minor aches and pain, such as headaches and muscle aches," said Dr. Charles Ganley, director of nonprescription drugs in the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. "However, the risks associated with their use need to be clearly identified on the label so that consumers taking these drugs are fully aware of the potential harm they can cause. It is important that they know how to take these medications safely to reduce their risk." The new labeling for acetaminophen also warns against taking multiple drugs that contain acetaminophen at the same time and exceeding the recommended dosage of the drug. And, it warns that drinking alcohol -- three or more drinks a day -- while using the painkiller can increase the risk of liver damage. For NSAIDs, the new labels will also caution users that alcohol use and taking the drugs for longer than directed can increase the risk of stomach bleeding. The agency says the use of blood thinning drugs or steroids while taking NSAIDs can also increase the risk of internal bleeding. The American Pain Foundation is pleased with the new rule. "This ruling will not only help protect consumers using OTC pain medication on a periodic basis," APF said, "But will be especially meaningful for people suffering from chronic pain who may face co-morbid conditions and are taking OTC pain medication along with their prescribed pain medication." According to the FDA, some manufacturers have already voluntarily started listing some of these risks on their product labels. The new rule gives manufacturers one year from today's date to re-label their products.

FDA requires OTC painkillers to carry new warnings on liver damage, bleeding risks . New rule covers acetaminophen (Tylenol) and NSAIDs (aspirin and ibuprofen) Ibuprofen is the main ingredient in Motrin and Advil, naproxen and ketoprofen . Manufacturers have one year from today's date to re-label their products .

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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- In radio broadcasts and sermons, Taliban militants have been promoting themselves as Islamic Robin Hoods, defending Pakistan's rural poor from a ruling elite that they describe as corrupt and oppressive. Mohammed Daoud, with his son Faisal, is among those who have embraced the Taliban's message. That message has been resonating throughout the Pakistani countryside, where the culture is deeply conservative and the people are desperately poor. In farmlands just 15 miles (24 kilometers) from the center of Islamabad, Mohammed Daoud and his 15-year-old son Faisal eke out a living by cutting grass for their four water buffalo. They feed their family of seven, earning the equivalent of around $50 a month by selling buffalo milk. Two months ago, Daoud said, the government bulldozed his family's house, probably because they were illegally squatting on property they did not own. "Justice [in Pakistan] is only for people who have money," Daoud said, while slicing through handfuls of grass with a small scythe. "We are illiterate," he added, "but we are hoping that with Islamic sharia law, our lives will get better." Across this overwhelmingly Muslim country, there is widespread hope that adopting a strict code of law based on the Koran will transform a society where corruption is rampant and where at least a quarter of the population lives under the poverty line. Watch why the Taliban's message would resonate . Enforcement of sharia law is the platform the Taliban have been using to justify recent land-grabs, such as last week's armed occupation of the district of Buner, some 60 miles from the Pakistani capital. In an interview with CNN, Muslim Khan, the Taliban spokesman in the militant stronghold of Swat Valley, denounced the Pakistani government, calling the prime minister and lawmakers "un-Islamic." "They're making money like in a supermarket," Khan said, adding that under sharia law both the rich and the poor would be treated equally. Militants have slowly taken over territory in northwestern Pakistan by first targeting unpopular landlords and bureaucrats, according to Amnesty International, the human rights watchdog. "Its systematic. The Taliban move into an area, they use local existing resentments. They often go in with the guise of being Robin Hoods," said Amnesty International representative Sam Zarifi. "They scare away some local thieves, they impose very, very quick justice, very harsh justice, and initially in some places they are even welcomed." The Taliban's promise of Islamic justice would be welcomed in farm fields on the outskirts of Islamabad. Rows of wheat -- along with the posh villas of Pakistan's ruling elite -- are within sight of Islamabad's iconic white Faisal Mosque. "In the present judicial system, even the innocent people are punished," said Sajeet Hussein, as he and a group of farmers shared lunch under the shade of a tree. The group explained that they were losing a court battle to stop the government from seizing their land, because they claimed they couldn't afford to bribe policemen and judges. "Every part of the country should have sharia law, like in Saudi Arabia," said Hussein's brother Babar, who sported a long bushy beard. "Then poor and rich people will be equal." "We love the Taliban," announced one Pashtun farmer who asked not to be named. He called the militants heroes. Sports star-turned-politician Imran Khan summed up his response to the Taliban in Pakistan by saying, "The poorer section of society is joining them...this is now developing into a battle between the 'haves' and the 'have-nots.' "What the Taliban are giving them is cheap -- in fact, free -- accessible justice at the village level," he added. "This is what Pakistan should be doing for its own people." But if farmer Babar Hussein has his way, Taliban justice would mean taking away freedoms from Pakistani women, like the right to have a driver's license. "Women should not even come out of their houses. That's against Islam" he said, while complaining about the un-Islamic fashions he saw women wearing in Islamabad. When Taliban militants overran Buner last week, they told women to stay indoors, warned men to stop shaving their beards, and threatened shopkeepers who sold movies and music. In Pakistan's rural society, male strangers are not even supposed look at local women. And yet, some farmers enjoy blaring Bollywood music and even dancing on trailers full of hay, while driving their gaudily-decorated tractors. If the Taliban's rural revolt succeeds, it could bring silence to the Pakistani countryside.

Amnesty International: Taliban first targets unpopular landlords, bureaucrats . Taliban spokesman in Swat Valley calls Pakistani government as "un-Islamic" Islamabad's Faisal Mosque surrounded by posh villas of Pakistan's ruling elite . Imran Khan: Battle shaping up as one "between the 'haves' and the 'have-nots' "

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(CNN) -- A one-of-a-kind bicycle belonging to U.S. cycling legend Lance Armstrong was stolen from a team truck in California just hours after he rode it Saturday on the first day of a nine-day race. Lance Armstrong is racing in the California Amgen Tour as he attempts a comeback after retiring in 2005. Cancer survivor and seven-time Tour de France champion Armstrong is racing in the Amgen Tour of California this week as he continues his latest comeback after retiring from the sport in 2005. Armstrong's first comeback came in 1998, two years after he was diagnosed with advanced testicular cancer that had spread to his lungs and brain. Doctors gave him a less than 50 percent chance of survival. Armstrong announced the bike theft on his Twitter account Sunday morning and posted a photograph. "There is only one like it in the world therefore hard to pawn it off. Reward being offered," the Texan wrote before going out and finishing fifth in Sunday's testing first stage won by Spain's Francisco Mancebo. Swiss Olympic champion Fabian Cancellara, who started the day in the yellow jersey after winning Saturday's time-trial prologue, pulled out midway through the stage feeling unwell. Armstrong improved from 10th to fifth overall, one minute five seconds adrift, with Astana teammate Levi Leipheimer, the two-time defending champion, in second place behind Mancebo. "Holy hell. That was terrible," commented Armstrong who had a puncture. "Maybe one of the toughest days I've had on a bike, purely based on the conditions. I'm still freezing." The bicycle that was stolen is not the one that Armstrong rides every day during the race. The stolen bike is used only for time trials, a race in which cyclists ride individually at staggered intervals over a set distance and try to get the best time. The thieves took four bikes from a truck Armstrong's Astana team had parked behind a hotel in Sacramento. The other three bicycles belonged to team members Janez Brajkovic, Steve Morabito and Yaroslav Popovych, Astana said. Armstrong, 37, won the Tour de France, considered the premiere bicycle race in the world, a record seven times from 1999-2005. The 750-mile Amgen Tour of California ends Sunday. It is the second major race in which Armstrong has participated since announcing his comeback in September. He raced last month in the Tour Down Under in Australia, finishing 29th. Armstrong said he is aiming for another Tour de France victory this summer and was not expected to contend in the Australian race, which he used to gauge his fitness level after more than three years out of the saddle.

Lance Armstrong's one-of-a-kind bicycle stolen from team truck in California . Four bicycles stolen from truck Armstrong's Astana team parked behind hotel . Cancer survivor Armstrong is currently fifth overall in Amgen Tour of California . Armstrong won the Tour de France a record seven times from 1999-2005 .

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(CNN) -- Meeting planner Gail Murphy heard about the travel warning to Mexico too late in the day on Monday to do anything about her plans to head to Cancun the following day. Alberto Morales wore a mask on his flight from Mexico City to Denver, Colorado, on Monday. "I'm in good health," said Murphy, who is heading to the Eighth Annual Mexico Showcase and Travel Expo from her home in Shelburne, Vermont. "I'm a risk taker, so I'll go anyway." In light of the swine flu, the U.S. State Department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a warning against any non-essential travel to Mexico. The move could potentially devastate an already struggling tourism industry in the country. The World Health Organization urged countries not to restrict international travel or close borders, as such measures would not in themselves stem the outbreak. Efforts to contain the outbreak by restricting travel would be unlikely to work without "draconian measures," said Dr. Keiji Fukuda, the agency's assistant director-general. But he said people who are ill should put off trips abroad, and people who fall ill after a trip should see a doctor. Mexico is the epicenter for the swine influenza virus outbreak. More than 100 deaths in Mexico are being investigated as possibly tied to the outbreak. The WHO confirmed 73 cases of swine flu Monday, but health officials in Scotland, California and Texas confirmed nine more, bringing the worldwide total to 82. Reports of the illness in Mexico couldn't have come at a worse time for the country's tourism industry, which is already grappling with negative publicity about drug-cartel fueled violence. "They were having a terrible time anyway with all of the problems on the border and now to be hit with this, too," said Barbara Nassau, owner of New York-based In House Travel Solutions. She added that the outbreak has the potential to hamper travel similar to the way it was affected when bird flu hit China. iReporter Dyana Pari Nafissi works in international business development in Mexico City and said tourism in the country had already been dealt a blow by fears of violence. iReport.com: Watch Dyana discuss what's happening in Mexico . "We've been on a steady decline since the first U.S. travel warning about the drug cartels," she said. "When you look at the kids that braved [that travel warning], and now they are back [in the U.S.] and they are sick. It's devastating to the economy here." Some of the confirmed cases in the United States were high school students who recently returned from a trip to Mexico. News of the outbreak didn't seem to overly concern travelers arriving Monday at Denver International Airport on a Mexicana flight from Mexico City. Two Mexicana crew members who didn't want to be named said about 60 percent of the passengers wore masks during the flight. Ernesto Vargas, a Mexican businessman, didn't wear a mask. "I thought about carrying one with me, but the crew wasn't wearing a mask. So we asked them, and it seemed quite safe." Alberto Morales, another businessman, said he wore a mask in the Mexico City airport and on the plane. "Yes. I have a mask, and we are using the mask." Is he concerned? "Don't worry, I am OK," he said with a laugh. "People are afraid about the flu, but we have many precautions and the government has a good sense for this trouble," Morales said. Ian Jeffries, a spokesman for Expedia.com, said the company had no data as of Monday on cancellations or changes caused by fear of swine flu, but added that it was prepared to aid any of its customers that had concerns. "Expedia is currently offering to waive Expedia-imposed change and cancel fees for hotel and air reservations originally booked to Mexico," he said. "We will continue to monitor the situation and modify our policy accordingly." Several major U.S. airlines also are waiving fees for those who want to change their travel plans to Mexico. Jeffery Brown arrived at the airport in Atlanta, Georgia, on Monday after spending five days in Cancun with his wife. They saw people in surgical masks but didn't notice any widespread concern. "My wife and I were a little concerned, but you know we haven't seen anybody sick in our resort, and we haven't seen anybody sick at the airport," he said. "Nobody said a word about it [at the resort]." Mexico isn't the only country that potentially has a tourism headache on its hands. Cases of swine flu have also popped up in Canada and Spain as well as the United States and Scotland. Watch how businesses might be affected by swine flu » . Steve Weakland, border security coordinator for the United States Customs and Border Protection Atlanta field office, said all of his personnel have received illness recognition training. If a traveler exhibits symptoms of the disease, CBP employees have been trained to inform the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to further investigate. "Our guys are more the recognition aspect of it," Weakland said. "We wouldn't make any diagnosis or anything along those lines." Teresa Roberts planned to take her mom to Akumal, Mexico, for Mother's Day and said she was more worried about traveling to New York for business than she is about contracting swine flu south of the border. "Just because of the number of different travelers that go through the airports in New York from all around the world," said Roberts who flies about two or three weeks a month from her home in Atlanta, Georgia. "I'm not nervous about going to Mexico at all." Many in the tourism industry appeared to be taking a wait-and-see approach. Disney Cruise Lines, which does not sail into Mexico, said it is closely monitoring the situation, as did officials for theme parks including Universal and Sea World in Orlando, Florida. Meg Barton travels several times a year to Mexico from her home in Round Rock, Texas, and also isn't overly worried. Because of her father's recent heart surgery, she is already an avid hand washer and is always cautious about germs when abroad. "I don't drink a lot of water in Mexico ever, and I am really more concerned about the drug issues in Mexico than I am the swine flue," Barton said. "We take antibiotics and Pepto with us when we travel." Eric Meyer of Lafayette, Colorado, flew in to Minneapolis-St. Paul with his wife and baby to visit family in Minnesota and lamented that "It's out there, but what can you do?" "Wash your hands maybe and call it good," he added. "Put a mask on? [I'm] not gonna go that far and be that guy yet." Rochelle Yates said a client of her New York City-based Yates Travel is planning to take plenty of antiseptic products on an upcoming trip to Cancun. Most seasoned travelers know to guard against infectious disease ordinarily, Yates said. "My clients are people who travel all over the world, and they know that you have to take precautions regardless," Yates said. "You have to wash your hands no matter where you are, if you are on a cruise ship, in a hotel or even in your own house." CNN's Chris Welch, Jim Spellman and Amy Zerba contributed to this story.

U.S. issues an advisory against non-essential travel to Mexico . Tourism industry waiting to see effects of swine flu . Mexico tourism already dealing with reports of violence . Theme parks, cruise lines and others monitoring situation .

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(CNN) -- On Monday night, CNN's Larry King had an exclusive interview with actor George Clooney, who returned from the strife-torn Darfur region of Sudan and just finished meeting with Vice President Joe Biden. George Clooney, left, talks with Vice President Joe Biden at the White House on Monday. King spoke with the activist actor live from the White House on the humanitarian crisis Clooney says we must confront, along with getting a couple of tidbits about what's next for Clooney's acting career. The following is a partial transcript, edited for brevity and clarity: . Larry King: We begin with George Clooney, the Oscar-winning actor and activist. He's traveled to Darfur at the refugee camps near the Sudan/Chad border last week and met with Vice President [Joe] Biden today. He's standing, as you see, in front of the White House, where it's 12 degrees. And we thank him for doing this, because he's freezing to death. George Clooney: I should have worn an overcoat tonight. King: You have no coat on? Clooney: No -- and no pants either ... King: Well, you've always been a little strange, George. Anyway, you met with the vice president today about Darfur. What did you tell him? Clooney: Basically, we were just talking about coming back from Chad, right on the border of Darfur. And we were talking about there's a moment coming up relatively soon, probably by the middle of next week, where the International Criminal Court is going to indict the president of Sudan for war crimes, which has never happened before -- a sitting president. And we talked about this being an opportunity, perhaps, not just for the United States, but all of us together to work with the international community in a real diplomatic effort to try and bring some sort of peace to this region. King: What scale of interest did Biden show? Clooney: Vice President Biden has been incredibly vocal on the issue. We had a long talk about the idea of, first and foremost, appointing a high level, full-time envoy that reports directly to the White House so that it's not just temporary. We need somebody working on this, you know, every day -- getting up every morning with their sole job to find peace in the area. King: What did you see last week? Clooney: It was rough. You know, it's always rough over there. You feel terrible for them. They're hanging on by a thread. We saw an awful lot of fear. There was [also] a tremendous amount of hope. You know, there was a lot of hope that these indictments and this new administration are going to be able to help move the international community toward toward a real peace. King: How do you handle just meeting with these people and seeing this tragedy? Personally, how do you handle it? Clooney: I could tell you a million stories about how it actually affects you personally. But I don't think people should be going there and coming back and saying how it affected them. I think somehow we should all know that these people are hanging on by the skin of their teeth. King: Was your safety in jeopardy? Clooney: Oh, you're talking about the U.N. story. King: Yes. What, they pulled your security, right? Clooney: I was never in jeopardy. I was with journalists who wanted to go into some areas that weren't particularly safe. And we decided that we would go. And that wasn't necessarily part of what the U.N. was looking to do. And so we just went on our own. It was fine. I wanted to say something, also, Larry, which I forgot to say about what I just did today. I delivered 250,000 postcards signed by people all across the country who wanted to help give some political capital to and remind this administration of how important this issue is. It was from the Save Darfur people. But it's from all across the country. And we're probably going to have another 700,000 by the end of the week. King: What specifically, George, do you want Secretary of State Clinton and the administration to do? Clooney: It doesn't appear that the United States is going to send troops in or that the U.N. Is going to send in an army to do this. What it really means is that we're going to need diplomacy. And diplomacy has to start and it has to be aggressive and it has to start soon. We have an opportunity here. King: One other quick thing. Are you going to be in the final presentation of "E.R. ?" Clooney: Actually, I'm doing a remake of "Friends," which -- I didn't want to break the news. King: Oh, my gosh. Clooney: I'm going be playing the Jennifer Aniston role. King: I'm thrilled for you, George. Clooney: Thank you. It's a career move. It's a choice. King: Are you going to be in "E.R.?" Clooney: I am. I'm in the last episode with Susan Sarandon and Julianna Margulies. So it should be fun. King: Thanks, George. Get out of the cold. Clooney: Thank you. It's good to talk to you.

CNN's Larry King talks with George Clooney about his trip to see Darfur refugees . Clooney meets with Vice President Joe Biden, urges aggressive U.S. diplomacy . Actor on Darfur refugees: "They're hanging on by a thread" Clooney says he'll be back on "E.R." for final episode of long-running series .

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(CNN) -- Maybe you had one as a kid, or knew someone who did. It's the iconic little red wagon with the Radio Flyer logo. Radio Flyer is developing a prototype of a wagon with digital controls and an MP3 player dock. If so, you might not recognize the newest product dreamed up by the brain trust at Radio Flyer's Chicago, Illinois, headquarters. This wagon, called the Cloud 9, is equipped with enough high-tech bells and whistles to make the family minivan jealous. "We approached this product much like an automotive company might with a concept car," said Mark Johnson, Radio Flyer's product development manager. Outfitted with 5-point safety harnesses, padded seats, cup holders, foot brakes and fold-out storage containers, the sleek, curved Cloud 9 has every family covered for a ride through the park. But that's just for starters. There's a digital handle that tracks temperature, time, distance and speed -- just in case energetic parents want to track their split times around the playground. And there's a slot for an MP3 player, complete with speakers, for some cruising tunes. That's right: The little red wagon has gone 2.0. "Music is such an important part of kids' and families' lives, we thought it would be great to have a speaker system built in the wagon," said Tom Schlegel, vice president of product development. The Cloud 9 is still a prototype, but it wasn't developed on a whim. The company did extensive market research beforehand, then tested it out on the real experts at home. "We sit down [and] observe how moms and kids are using our products," said Schlegel. "That's where our new ideas come from." To develop those ideas, Radio Flyer's designers are using state-of-the art technology. They use Wacom Cintiq graphic tablets, allowing them to draw directly onto digital renderings of new products. And Radio Flyer also has its own in-house computer numerical control, or CNC, machines that create prototypes right on site. Radio Flyer's blend of cutting-edge design and old-fashioned products appears to be a successful recipe. In an economy where businesses and families alike are tightening their belts, the company is still going strong. "Radio Flyer survived the Great Depression, and this year has been a difficult year for a lot of companies," Schlegel says, "But Radio Flyer is actually growing this year. We're actually looking for engineers and designers in our product development group to keep up with the growth of the company." That's quite a testament for a company nearly 90 years old. Theirs is an American success story that started when Italian immigrant Antonio Pasin started building wooden toy wagons in 1917. He had limited success but was encouraged enough to start the Liberty Coaster Company in 1923. The company changed names seven years later, becoming Radio Steel & Manufacturing. The world was introduced that same year to the first steel wagon, called the Radio Flyer. Since then, Radio Flyer has become perhaps the world's most famous maker of wagons, tricycles and other toys. The company's best-known product even inspired a 1992 movie, "Radio Flyer," about a boy who imagines converting his red wagon into a flying machine to help his little brother flee an abusive stepdad. Whether you grew up on Rock-'em Sock-'em Robots or Xbox, the little red wagon has remained a mainstay of child's play. It's certainly evolved over the years, though -- the rusty metal has been replaced with plastic. But the spirit of Radio Flyer, which conjures memories of a simpler time, remains intact. "One of the most important things about Radio Flyer products is that they really help [keep kids active outdoors]," Schlegel said. "So when we're designing our products, we're really looking at how can we get kids outside and playing, away from the video games and TV screens and computer screens." CNN.com's Brandon Griggs contributed to this story.

Radio Flyer, maker of the classic red toy wagon, is creating a high-tech new product . The Cloud 9 wagon has digital controls, speakers and a dock for an MP3 player . The wagon is still a prototype, developed after extensive market research . Radio Flyer's founder began building wooden toy wagons in 1917 .

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(Parenting.com) -- Bed has always been a place I can't get enough of: the sex; the sleep; cozy afternoons reading; lazy Saturday mornings listening to hyper neighbors mow their lawns. "I learned that Dad really can be interchangeable with Mom, if only I'll let him." After my husband and I had kids, bed also became the object of my dearest fantasies -- the oasis I dreamed about in my late-afternoon stupor, when I knew that many hours still lay between me and the sheets. My covetous view of bed changed, however, midway through my third pregnancy, when some suspicious bleeding led my obstetrician to prescribe bed rest for several days, possibly longer. "But I have two small kids!" I protested. For those of you more gestationally fortunate, "bed rest" means lying there for hour upon idle hour -- or in the worst cases, week upon idle week -- afraid that even taking a quick shower or reaching for the TV remote might make you lose your baby. Parenting.com: 71 new-mom truths . What would my 4-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter do without Mama to attend to them every second of their exhausting days? Who could I get to fill my maternal shoes? Our relatives live far away. Hiring a nanny was financially out of the question. The answer, of course, was that the children's father would have to be their mother (he runs his own company from home), although I must confess I had my doubts. George is a wonderful, involved dad; he changes diapers, does "this little piggy," and pitches baseballs equally well -- and equally willingly. But George has always slept straight through 3 a.m. feedings and bad dreams. I'm the chief of childhood minutiae around here; the one who pours the juice, monitors the wee-wees, and knows what "do the coyote" means (a dry-eye technique for shampooing hair). On top of being both Mama and Daddy, George would have to play nurse to me too. But -- the biggest, overriding but -- the unborn baby's health was paramount. "Get in bed, stay in bed, and don't worry about a thing," George ordered. Parenting.com: How men change, from lover to husband to father . The first few hours went quickly enough. There was the novelty of gliding between fresh sheets in the middle of the day and the welcome release from snack doling and bottom wiping. "Mommy's sick," my husband explained to the kids, closing my door. I read straight through one of those books that ordinarily serve as dust catchers. I napped. With the door closed and the fan whirring, you couldn't even tell there were two tots downstairs. It was so quiet. Quiet usually means trouble's afoot. Did George realize this? "Mommy! Mommy!" I heard them cry. Or did I? My maternal engines idling nervously, I pictured the kids stoned on Cheetos and Popsicles; my daughter's unchanged Pull-Ups sagging to her knees; six straight hours of the Cartoon Network turning their little eyeballs into black-and-white checkerboards. Darn it, why was it so quiet downstairs? "Mommy! Mommy!" It was the kids, bursting through my bedroom doorway with excited squeals. George had taken them out to dinner and bought each child a toy doctor's kit. They were palpably relieved at being able to take an active part in my scary convalescence. Solemnly, they listened to my heartbeat, "tested" my blood pressure, and administered innumerable shots. "You must stay in bed!" admonished the 2-year-old, wagging a pudgy finger. I had to admit that, had the circumstances been reversed, with me filling in for a bedridden George, I'd never have thought of something so clever. Then the object of my admiration appeared. "Okay, you can get up now," he said, handing me my robe. Already? I wondered. Was he throwing in the towel after just a few hours? Then two young muscle-bound guys materialized in the bedroom and began to remove the saggy, full-size, 10-year-old mattress on which I had just been lying. A few minutes later, they marched back up the stairs brandishing a brand-new, ultra-firm king-size model. George put down new sheets and sent me back to bed. Wow! That wasn't all. My dinner that evening arrived on a tray -- stuffed salmon, baked potato, and broccoli on good china, with a chocolate bar on the side. The kids sat with me quietly, impressed and awaiting the chocolate. Now, I don't know what the kitchen looked like or exactly how often my daughter's Pull-Ups were changed, but for the next several days George knocked himself out keeping everyone happy. He rented six movies for me (half based on Jane Austen novels, half starring Harrison Ford). He monitored the kids' frequent visits to give me more "shots" and let them deliver my mail (from which he'd removed all the bills, leaving only the juicy catalogs). They went to the park and the zoo. Blessedly, my bout with bed rest lasted less than a week. The bleeding stopped as mysteriously as it had begun, and four and a half months later my baby daughter was born beautiful and perfect. But the lessons of the episode linger on today. I learned that Dad really can be interchangeable with Mom, if only I'll let him. And that it takes more than one person to keep a family running -- it's a minuet among all its members. When one of us falls back, the others fill in. Parenting.com: How to slow down, relax, and enjoy motherhood . Sometimes now, on particularly long days, when all three kids are crying at once and I begin to unspool, shrieking back at them like the Anti-June Cleaver, my husband will say to me, in an oh-stop-being-a-martyr tone of voice, "Why don't you just go to bed?" And you know what? I do. Try a FREE TRIAL issue of Parenting Magazine - CLICK HERE! Copyright 2009 The Parenting Group. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.

Pregnant mother of two is ordered to mandatory bed rest . She worries kids are eating candy and Pull-Ups never changed . Dad buys kids toy doctor kits to calm their fears over sick mom . He delivers great meals, new bed and takes kids out to play .

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ORLANDO, Florida (CNN) -- Regrowing a fingertip cut off in an accident sounds like something from a futuristic movie. But with innovative technology developed by the U.S. Army, such regrowth is possible today. This remotely controlled robot, called BEAR, could help remove injured soldiers from battlefields. This research project and a hundred others were on display this month at the 26th Army Science Convention. Some the greatest minds in science from around the world gathered at the four-day conference to exchange ideas and showcase collaborative projects between the Army's research laboratories, universities and partner industries. The main goal is to develop technology to make soldiers safer and more effective, said Thomas H. Killion, the Army's chief scientist. The Army's regenerative medicine study combined properties from the intestinal lining and the urinary bladder to create a regenerative substance called Extracellular Matrix. The cream-colored crystallized powder, called "magic dust," boosts the body's natural tendency to repair itself, said U.S. Army Biological Scientist Sgt. Glen Rossman. When the matrix is applied to a missing digit or limb, "the body thinks it's back in the womb," Rossman said. One civilian participated in the regenerative-medicine study after cutting off the tip of his finger in a model plane's propeller. Researchers continually applied the matrix to the wound, and after four weeks, the body grew skin and tissue to replenish the damaged area. The U.S. military branches have begun a consortium with private institutions to develop treatments for severely injured troops. With the help of grants, the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine is studying nerve and vein transplantation, treating burns without scarring and regeneration of tissue, skin and even bone. Through both animal studies and civilian clinical trials, the institute is developing therapies for the large number of soldiers injured by improvised explosive devices and other explosives in Afghanistan and Iraq. "We are working on trying to regenerate limbs, to repair limbs and to keep them from being amputated," institute Project Director Col. Bob Vandre said. Army scientists also have developed an engineered skin substitute made in a laboratory from patients' own cells. A postage stamp-sized patch of skin could grow several times larger than the original sample. The engineered skin could then be placed over a wound or burn, protecting it from infection, and eventually cover large portions of the body that have been damaged. "Our goal is to restore the function to our wounded warriors who have given so much in battle," Vandre said. Armed Forces Institute scientists also say they also have developed a process to rebuild missing or damaged bone. A web-like tube of calcium-phosphate ceramic, called hydroxyapatite, acts as a biodegradable scaffold that is set in place of the missing bone, giving the body a platform on which to rebuild. Scientists say the scaffold allows the body to regrow its own natural tissue, bone and veins so it can support itself. Because of the complexity of the process, researchers so far have regrown only 3 centimeters of bone in clinical trials on rats, but they hope to reach 5 centimeters in two years. With the regrown bone, scientists could avoid placing titanium or other medical devices in the body. Of course, to apply this technology, the Army needs a way to safely remove injured soldiers from combat zones. Enter the Battlefield Extraction Assist Robot, or BEAR, a human-shaped machine with eyes, ears and arms for lifting heavy objects. Built by Vecna Technologies in association with the Army, BEAR is still a prototype. But its potential is promising. BEAR is outfitted with lights, two cameras and infrared abilities, and it can travel up to 10 mph. The device also can lift 250 pounds while balancing on its toes. Vecna robotic engineer Andrew Allen says BEAR can be remotely operated, reducing the chance of injuries to soldiers' human rescuers. "BEAR can easily be replaced; it costs money and not lives," Allen said. Robot technology has exploded in the past six years, said Army scientist John Parmentola. Robot prototypes of all kinds were on display at the conference, and about 10,000 military robots are expected to be deployed in the field in 2009. Robots can be outfitted to accomplish various tasks. One can detect 38 different chemical or biological explosives from a distance of 3 to 5 meters. The robot could be used to scan car doors or truck lids for explosives or chemical residue. Another, called Packbot, is deployed in Iraq for surveillance, reconnaissance and explosives removal. Packbot has been outfitted to react to voice commands, given remotely through an earpiece. Loud background noises do not distort the commands, because the system monitors the vibrations of the operator's jawbone. Finally, some robots come with a retractable apparatus called a Zipper Mast or Situational Awareness Mast, which can be equipped with a camera or antenna and raised to peer over walls or send radio communications. The smallest Zipper Mast is not much bigger than a coffee pot and can extend to a height of 8 feet. Designed by the U.S. Army's Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center, the larger mast is affixed to tanks and can reach heights over 30 feet.

Cutting-edge technology on display at U.S. Army Science Convention . Some of greatest minds in science gathered at four-day conference in Florida . Regenerative-medicine research could help injured soldiers regrow tissue and bone . Remotely controlled robots could help remove wounded from combat zones .

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday federal regulators have the authority to clamp down on the broadcast TV networks that air isolated cases of profanity, known as "fleeting expletives." The Supreme Court ruled federal regulators can stop TV networks from airing profanity. The 5-4 vote was a victory for Bush-era officials who pushed fines and sanctions when racy images and language reached the airwaves. Controversial words have been aired in scripted and unscripted instances on all the major over-the-air networks in the past six years -- dating back to when the Federal Communications Commission began considering a stronger, no-tolerance policy. "It suffices the new policy is permissible under the statute, there are good reasons for it, and the agency believes it to be better," said Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the conservative majority. The high court, however, refused to decide whether the commission's policy violates the First Amendment guarantee of free speech, only the agency's enforcement power. The justices ordered the free-speech aspect to be reviewed again by a federal appeals court. ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox were parties in the case. A federal appeals court in New York had ruled in their favor, calling the commission's policy "arbitrary and capricious." The commission then appealed to the Supreme Court, seeking restoration of its power to penalize the networks airing "indecent" speech, even if it is broadcast only one time, and even if it does not describe a specific sex act. The high court agreed to some extent. "Even when used as an expletive, the F-word's power to insult and offend derives from its sexual meaning," wrote Scalia. Such language is heard with greater, albeit varying frequency on cable television, the Internet, and satellite radio, which do not use public airwaves. But the federal government is charged with responding to viewer complaints when "indecent" language reaches broadcast television and radio, which is subject to greater regulation. That is especially relevant during daytime and early evening hours, when larger numbers of families and younger viewers may be watching. The FCC's acting chairman, Michael Copps, called Tuesday's ruling a "a big win for America's families." The commission formally reversed its policy in March 2004 to declare even a single use of an expletive could be illegal. The changes became known as the "Golden Globes Rule," for singer Bono's 2003 acceptance speech at the awards show on NBC, where he uttered the phrase "really, really, f---ing brilliant." The commission specifically cited celebrities Cher and Nicole Richie for potty-mouth language in the 2002 and 2003 Billboard Music Awards, which aired on Fox. Richie, in an apparent scripted moment said, "Have you ever tried to get cow s--t out of a Prada purse? It's not so f---ing simple." The complaint against ABC involved "NYPD Blue," a now-canceled scripted police drama, and the CBS' complaint involved "The Early Show," a news and interview program. Enforcement of the law had been put on hold while the case was being argued. In dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens said "customs of speech" and context made the Federal Communications Commission's position unworkable. "As any golfer who has watched his partner shank a short approach knows, it would be absurd to accept the suggestion that the resultant four-letter word uttered on the golf course describes sex or excrement and is therefore indecent," he wrote. "But that is the absurdity the FCC has embraced in its new approach to indecency." And Stevens wondered why the agency was going after words that he said had a "tenuous relationship" to sex and bodily functions, while at the same time prime-time commercials "frequently ask viewers whether they, too, are battling erectile dysfunction or are having trouble going to the bathroom." Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg made clear how she viewed the broader free speech questions the high court may be forced to confront in coming years. "There is no way to hide the long shadow the First Amendment casts over what the commission has done," she wrote. The Supreme Court first ventured into the broadcast speech debate in 1978, when it ruled as indecent a monologue by comedian George Carlin on society's taboo surrounding "seven dirty words." The bit had received some radio airplay. Stevens, 89, was the author of that opinion. Justice Clarence Thomas sided with his fellow conservatives on the narrow question presented to the court, but noted the changing landscape of television since Stevens' 31-year-old ruling. He said that and other high court precedents "were unconvincing when they were issued, and the passage of time has only increased doubt regarding their continued validity." He questioned the communication commission's underlying authority as a "deep intrusion into the First Amendment rights of broadcasters." And he noted the four networks no longer have a virtual monopoly on television content. "For most consumers, traditional broadcast media programming is now bundled with cable or satellite services," he said, but the Federal Communications Commission's authority extends only to over-the-air television and radio content. Conservative and family groups called Tuesday's ruling an "incredible victory." "We implore the broadcast networks to abide by today's court's ruling rather than to pursue a path of attempted obstruction with countless legal maneuverings," said Tim Winter, president of the Parents Television Council, which monitors content on the airwaves. "And we encourage the FCC to use today's opinion to break the indecency complaint logjam, and rule on the merits of the tens of thousands of indecency complaints currently awaiting review at the commission." There was no immediate reaction from the broadcast networks, but groups representing the artistic and creative community expressed displeasure. iReport.com: Share your thoughts on indecency on television . "Today's decision is extremely disappointing," said Andrew Jay Schwartzman, head of the Media Access Project. "We remain hopeful that the FCC's restrictive policies will ultimately be declared unconstitutional, but there will be several more years of uncertainty, and impaired artistic expression, while the lower courts address the First Amendment issues which the court chose not to confront today." Time Warner -- the parent company of CNN -- filed a friend of the court brief supporting the networks fined by the communications commission. The company is part owner of the CW broadcast network, and operates several cable networks. The case is FCC v. Fox Television Stations (07-582).

NEW: FCC's acting chairman calls ruling "a big win for America's families" NEW: Thomas sides with majority, but questions FCC's "underlying authority" NEW: Media Access Project head warns of "impaired artistic expression" Supreme Court ruled 5-4 federal regulators can clamp down on "fleeting expletives"

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(CNN) -- Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos began their "supervised release" Friday after President Bush commuted their sentences in January for convictions related to the shooting of a Mexican drug smuggler. Ignacio Ramos has been out of prison since Febrary after serving time in the shooting of an illegal immigrant. Ramos and Compean were able to remove their electronic monitoring devices and leave their homes in El Paso, Texas, on Friday for the first time since they left prison in February. After spending two "hard, long, lonely" years in prison, the two said they were looking forward to spending time with their families and putting this chapter of their lives behind them. "There are more important things than the people that have done this to us or what we have gone through and I am not going to sit here and dwell on that," Ramos said in an interview with CNN's "Lou Dobbs Tonight." "We are looking ahead. We're optimistic for a very good future and that's what's more important," Ramos said. Their release in February marked a significant turning point in a case that served as a flash point in the debate over immigration and border security. The two were sentenced in 2006 to 11- and 12-year sentences stemming from the February 2005 shooting of Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila near the U.S.-Mexico border south of El Paso, Texas. Critics of U.S. immigration policy rushed to the agents' defense, saying they were merely doing their jobs. Civil liberties advocates argued that Compean and Ramos used excessive force. Ramos credited the outside support with helping him win clemency and keeping his spirits up during his imprisonment. "Members from Congress were speaking about us, people writing us constantly, it felt so good to know that people didn't give up on us and that people constantly believed in us," he said. "How can you give up when people aren't giving up on you?" Compean echoed his sentiments, saying he was shocked to this day over the support he received. "I didn't expect it. I expected people to really forget all about us once we turned ourselves in," he said. Like Ramos, Compean said the most difficult part of going to prison was leaving behind his wife and children. "I think that's been the hardest. When I turned myself in, my son was 4 months old," he said. "There's really nothing special I want to do. The only thing I'm really looking forward to is getting out of the house and going out to dinner with my wife and going to the park with my sons," Compean said. Their legal cases are far from over. The convictions still stand and the two remain felons while appeals are pending, which means they cannot contact one another or reapply for their jobs, something Ramos said he would like to do. Ramos shot Aldrete-Davila in the buttocks after he ditched a vehicle carrying more than 700 pounds of marijuana and fled on foot toward Mexico. The agents said during trial that Aldrete-Davila had brandished a gun while resisting arrest, but Aldrete-Davila said he was unarmed and trying to surrender when Compean attempted to beat him with a shotgun. "In exchange for immunity, Aldrete-Davila agreed to cooperate with the investigation of the shooting, and he returned to the United States so that the bullet could be removed from his body," according to court documents. Ramos and Compean were convicted of assault with a dangerous weapon, lying about the incident and violating Aldrete-Davila's Fourth Amendment right against illegal search and seizure. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, a vocal critic of the decision to grant Aldrete-Davila immunity, said several key pieces of evidence were withheld from the jury that convicted Ramos and Compean. The jury, for instance, never learned that Aldrete-Davila was running drugs at the time of the shooting. Nor did jurors learn that Aldrete-Davila breached his immunity agreement by continuing to smuggle drugs into the United States, Cornyn has said. "Several jurors have since come forward to state that if they had been told about the excluded evidence, they would have changed their verdict," Cornyn wrote in a January plea to Bush, requesting clemency for the agents. Despite Ramos' and Compean's appeals for clemency, a senior Bush administration official said the men were "convicted felons who violated their oaths to uphold the law." Leading Democrats and Republicans, however, supported Bush's commutation, the official said. "The president has reviewed the circumstances of this case as a whole and the conditions of confinement and believes the sentences they received are too harsh and that they and their families have suffered enough for their crimes," the official said.

Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean begin their supervised release Friday . Men say they look forward to being with family, putting incident behind them . "There are more important things than the people that have done this," Ramos says . President Bush in January commuted their sentences for shooting drug smuggler .

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ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- A gaggle of reporters pushed their microphones and cameras toward the North Korean official shortly after he arrived at a college campus here. North Korean diplomat Kim Myong-gil gathered with other officials to discuss North Korea's energy needs . But Kim Myong-gil's comments were off the record -- a sign of the sensitive nature of openly discussing concerns about North Korea's nuclear program. The U.S. State Department's director of Korean affairs, Kurt Tong, also agreed to participate in Thursday's conference as long as his statements were not published. Tong and Kim, a North Korea representative at the United Nations, gathered with others including former diplomats and academics at the Georgia Institute of Technology to discuss North Korea's energy needs and the status of the six-party talks on its nuclear program. Although the two top-level diplomats kept their remarks private, other participants in the conference at the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs aired their opinions openly. Much of the Korea conference focused on the scientific details of North Korea's infrastructure and how it could be improved to handle sources of energy other than nuclear, such as an oil pipeline or utilizing its significant mineral resources. But all those ideas will never be realized without a change in relations between North Korea, its neighbors and the United States, and that is why diplomacy was also part of the discussion. Thursday's conference coincided with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's announcement that her new envoy to North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, will travel to Russia, China, South Korea and Japan next week "to consult on the next steps to move the six-party process forward." Senior administration officials said Bosworth is considering heading to Pyongyang on that visit, but only if the leaders of the other parties involved in the talks are comfortable with that overture. Speaking at a joint news conference with Clinton, Bosworth said there is no doubt the United States plans "to engage with North Korea." "The question as to whether we're going to engage with them on this particular trip remains to be decided," he said. "That will depend upon our consultations in the region, and it will depend upon what we hear back from the North Koreans." Thursday's conference also coincided with reports that North Korea is apparently preparing to test-fire its long-range missile, the Taepodong-2, under the guise of launching a satellite into space. Leon Sigal, a specialist on North Korea who used to work for the State Department, stressed that President Obama is at a "starting point" with North Korea. Mindful that the new U.S. leader is preoccupied with his country's economic recession, Sigal said Obama must act swiftly and decisively with regards to North Korea to avoid the mistakes of the previous administration. "The only way to fix this problem is to negotiate," said Sigal, who is currently director of the Northeast Asia Cooperative Security Project at the Social Science Research Council in New York. Part of Sigal's proposal includes helping North Korea construct conventional power plants as it moves toward denuclearization. He outlined two "troubling questions" facing the Obama administration: how to avoid having to constantly react under pressure to North Korea's provocations, and how the scenario could change, possibly for the worse, if there is a change in leadership, "now that Kim Jong-Il's health is at issue." "It seems to me the answer to both is for Washington to put a bigger deal on the negotiating table now," Sigal proposed. That drew a couple of comments and questions from the audience. One graduate student asked why the United States should "put more oil in a leaky bucket," referring to the idea of sending more fuel oil shipments to North Korea when the previous shipments -- part of an agreement to get Pyongyang to shut down its nuclear facility -- have done little to deter the country from abandoning its nuclear program. North Korea maintains that it is due the oil shipments because it fulfilled its obligation to disable its Yongbyon nuclear complex. The United States has demanded Pyongyang verify that by allowing U.N. inspectors to inspect the facility, which it has refused. At Thursday's conference, former U.S. ambassador to South Korea James Laney cautioned against resorting to the same rhetoric about which side had violated previous agreements. "I can understand how we want to score points ... but there are times when prudence or better wisdom or real strategy dictates that we have to (have) some sort of engagement," he said. Laney, who was instrumental in defusing the North Korean nuclear crisis in 1994, suggested that the United States propose a peace treaty to replace the 1953 armistice which effectively ended the Korean War. "A peace treaty would mean there are two nations on the Korean peninsula," said Laney. "There are two nations now, but a treaty would recognize (this)." Victor Cha, who was the White House's director of Asian affairs under the Bush administration, cautioned against moving forward on securing a peace treaty before North Korea takes further steps toward denuclearization. "Even if there are some (in North Korea) who would want to give up nuclear weapons in exchange for a peace treaty, there may be others that say, 'Once we have a peace treaty ... we can be recognized as a nuclear state,'" according to Cha. Cha, who said he routinely has to apologize for being a member of the Bush administration, praised Obama's government, which he said has "none of the hang-ups" in dealing with North Korea's leadership that the previous administration had. Laney urged the new administration to "move beyond sticks and carrots," which was the stated approach of the Bush administration. While there is no guarantee that a peace treaty or any other overture to North Korea would work, Laney and Sigal said the administration has to try a new approach. "You see, I'm 81 and I want to see something (happen) before I die," said Laney, who worked in U.S. Army counterintelligence before serving in the Korean War. "Fifty-five years is a long time." Sigal concurred, saying that "diplomatic give-and-take is the only policy" for North Korea. "But sustaining diplomacy ... will be difficult," he added.. "Kim Jong-Il wants to force America to be his friend," he said, referring to the North Korean leader. "He seems unwilling to unclench his fist and shake Obama's hand. We may have to settle for a fist bump."

Officials, academics gather to discuss North Korea's energy needs . Diplomacy was part of the discussion at Georgia Tech conference . Conference coincided with reports North Korea is going to test-fire missle .

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(CNN) -- Japan's defense minister has ordered two destroyers to help fight piracy in the waters off Somalia, officials with the defense ministry told CNN. Pirates are caught on camera off the Somalian coast. The Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyers will be dispatched Saturday, the defense ministry said. The order, which the Cabinet approved earlier Friday, marks the first policing action for the MSDF, whose major missions overseas have focused on background support such as transport and refueling, Japan's Kyodo news agency said. A bill approved on the same day allows the MSDF to be deployed in piracy-infested waters as needed. The move comes after Somali pirates released a Panamanian-flagged, Japanese-owned vessel that was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden in November, according to a non-governmental group that monitors piracy. The ship was released last month. The 18 Filipino and five South Korean crew members were reportedly unharmed. It was unclear whether the pirates were paid a ransom to release the ship. Japan Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said the provision would be used on an interim basis, the news agency reported. Two destroyers with about 400 personnel and eight coast guard officers will be aboard the ships, whose escort mission will start in early April after about three weeks of sailing toward Somalia, according to the news agency.

The order marks the first policing action for the MSDF . Mission will start in early April after about three weeks of sailing . Move comes after Somali pirates hijacked Japan-owned vessel in November .

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NEW YORK (CNN) -- A day after publishing a cartoon that drew fire from critics who said it evoked historically racist images, the New York Post apologized in a statement on its Web site -- even as it defended its action and blasted some detractors. A New York Post cartoon has sparked a debate over race and cartooning this week. Many of those critical of the cartoon said it appeared to compare President Obama to a chimpanzee in a commentary on his recently approved economic stimulus package. "Wednesday's Page Six cartoon -- caricaturing Monday's police shooting of a chimpanzee in Connecticut -- has created considerable controversy," the paper said about the drawing, which shows two police officers standing over the body of a chimpanzee they just shot. The drawing is a reference to the mauling of a woman by a pet chimpanzee, which was then killed by police. In the cartoon, one of the officers tells the other, "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill." The Post said the cartoon was meant to mock what it called an "ineptly written" stimulus bill. "But it has been taken as something else -- as a depiction of President Obama, as a thinly veiled expression of racism," reads the statement. "This most certainly was not its intent; to those who were offended by the image, we apologize." Watch reaction to Post's apology » . But the statement immediately swerves to fire back at some of the image's critics. "However, there are some in the media and in public life who have had differences with The Post in the past -- and they see the incident as an opportunity for payback," the statement says. "To them, no apology is due. Sometimes a cartoon is just a cartoon -- even as the opportunists seek to make it something else." Several African-American leaders, including the Rev. Al Sharpton, attacked the image, which was drawn by artist Sean Delonas. Sharpton said Thursday he and the leaders of "various groups" would respond at 5 p.m. Friday outside The Post's offices in midtown Manhattan. "Though we think it is the right thing for them to apologize to those they offended," the statement appeared to blame those who raised the issue "rather than take responsibility for what they did," Sharpton said. He accused the newspaper of having "belatedly come with a conditional statement after people began mobilizing and preparing to challenge the waiver of News Corp in the city where they own several television stations and newspapers." Delonas has made Sharpton the butt of previous cartoons in The Post. In a brief phone interview with CNN, Delonas called the controversy "absolutely friggin' ridiculous." "Do you really think I'm saying Obama should be shot? I didn't see that in the cartoon," Delonas told CNN. "It's about the economic stimulus bill," he added. Col Allan, the Post's editor-in-chief, said Wednesday that the cartoon "is a clear parody of a current news event." "It broadly mocks Washington's efforts to revive the economy. Again, Al Sharpton reveals himself as nothing more than a publicity opportunist," Allan said in a written statement. But Sharpton was not alone in his criticism. Barbara Ciara, president of the National Association of Black Journalists, said The Post showed a "serious lapse in judgment" by running the cartoon. "To think that the cartoonist and the responsible editors at the paper did not see the racist overtones of the finished product should insult their intelligence," Ciara said in a written statement. "Instead, they celebrate their own lack of perspective and criticize those who call it what it is: tone deaf at best, overtly racist at worst." iReport.com: Share your reaction to the N.Y. Post cartoon . "Comparing President Obama and his effort to revive the economy in a manner that depicts violence and racist inferences is unacceptable," said National Urban League President Marc Morial in a statement issued Wednesday. The nearly $800 billion stimulus package was the top priority for Obama, the first black U.S. president, who signed it Tuesday. In an open letter to The Post, musician John Legend criticized the newspaper and called on New Yorkers not to buy it, or talk to its reporters or buy its advertising space. Addressing the newspaper's editors, Legend wrote, "Did it occur to you that our president has been receiving death threats since early in his candidacy? Did it occur to you that blacks have historically been compared to various apes as a way of racist insult and mockery? Did you intend to invoke these painful themes when you printed the cartoon? "If that's not what you intended, then it was stupid and willfully ignorant of you not to connect these easily connectable dots. If it is what you intended, then you obviously wanted to be grossly provocative, racist and offensive." Either way, Legend said, the fact that the cartoon was printed "is truly reprehensible."

Sharpton: "Various groups" would respond at 5 p.m. at Post headquarters . New York Post apologizes on Web site; blasts some "opportunist" detractors . Paper said cartoon was meant to mock what an "ineptly written" stimulus bill . Paper also said "no apology is due" to those who want payback for the past .

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London, England (CNN) -- European officials expressed frustration at Russia and Ukraine's inability to enforce an agreement to resume delivery of natural gas, amid heat and cooking gas shortages and sub-zero temperatures endured by millions of people. A woman passes in front of a manometer set on a gas pipe in the Ukrainian city of Boyarka, near Kiev. German Chancellor Angela Merkel was expected to meet Friday with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Yulia Timoshenko in an emergency meeting in Berlin. Merkel said she was likely to reinforce the EU's position as a natural gas customer. "There is a risk that the confidence in Russia may be lost due to the ongoing disruption," said Merkel. On Thursday European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso urged Ukraine and Russia to quickly implement a compromise that would return natural gas deliveries from Russia's Gazprom's pipelines through the Ukraine as soon as possible. "If the agreement is not honored, it means that Russia and Ukraine are no longer to be considered reliable partners for the EU in matters of energy supply," said Barroso. Ukraine is a major entry point for Russian gas into Europe. Russia and Ukraine's dispute over pricing and contractual terms began nearly a year ago, escalating into the present crisis that has prompted Russia to turn off its taps. Both nations help deliver about 25 percent of Europe's natural gas. In the long term, the EU eyed plans to build a pipeline to purchase natural gas from Central Asia and eventually Iraq and Iran. It was also building up infrastructure to import liquefied gas from North Africa and the Middle East and exploring nuclear energy. During Wednesday's open session, European Parliament members and commissioners lashed out, with EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs saying, "We are living through one of the most serious energy crises yet-comparable with the 1970s oil crisis." "Despite promises and the protocol signed on Monday, gas is not yet flowing from Russia through Ukraine." Piebalgs said Russia had resumed gas deliveries on Tuesday, at one-third of normal flow, but Ukraine had stopped it claiming that Russia had chosen a difficult entry point. Eastern Europe was experiencing a historic low in temperatures and Siberian weather conditions. When Russia's natural gas delivery was halted, it relied on its stockpile, which is quickly running out. Croatia's government has declared pre-alert measures and announced gas shutdowns for everyone except for households, hospitals, schools and kindergartens. In the capital city of Zagreb, businesses are losing money due to the shortage, an estimated 10,000 Euros a day. Five hundred companies have been cut-off so far. Danijel Zadijeloviae, owner of Lipik Glass, said the shortages have lost his business millions of Euros. "If we had lost gas for only a second, it would caused us damages of up to 3 and a half million euros," he said. CNN's Jim Boulden and Matthew Chance contributed to this report.

NEW: Merkel says Russia risks the loss of confidence due to disruption . EU is building up infrastructure to import liquefied gas from North Africa, Mideast . Ukraine government says it has agreed to hold talks with Russia over gas row . Dispute leaves countries across Europe with gas shortages .

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(CNN) -- When Kellogg's dumped its endorsement of Michael Phelps after a photograph surfaced of the Olympic gold medalist using a bong, the company was stuck with thousands of boxes of cereal featuring the swimmer's image. Kellogg's ended its Michael Phelps endorsement, so it sent two tons of cereal with his face on it to a food bank. No problem. The company, based in Battle Creek, Michigan, made short order of the already-printed and filled boxes, donating two tons of cereal to the San Francisco Food Bank late last month. With food banks across the country reporting shortages of food, the donation was a welcome one, said the food bank's director of development, Christopher Wiley. It took only two weeks for about 3,000 boxes to move through warehouse. "Thousands of families benefited from the donation" Wiley said. "It was a surprise to us. We were lacking a lot of cereal. It is a great product many low-income families really need." "The real story for us was not the box but what's inside the box. The food is so valuable for the community. It's making good from bad," Wiley said. The food bank has seen a 6 percent increase in its customer base since the beginning of the year, he said. Phelps, 23, won a record eight gold medals at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China. He admitted "regrettable behavior" after a British newspaper published the controversial photograph in early February. The tabloid News of the World showed Phelps using the bong during what it said was a November party at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. A bong is a device commonly used to smoke marijuana. The Phelps box attracted considerable attention to the food bank. Administrators received several calls from people wanting to get the box as a novelty item. But, said Wiley, all the cereal went to food bank customers. Kellogg's was the only one of Phelps sponsors to drop the athlete, although U.S.A. Swimming, the nation's governing body for competitive swimming, suspended him for three months, withdrew financial support and barred him from competition during the period of his "reprimand." CNN's Jackie Castillo and Mayra Cuevas contributed to this report.

Kellogg's donated two tons of cereal to the San Francisco Food Bank . Company dumped the cereal boxes with Michael Phelps' face after bong incident . Food bank director: Helpful donation is "making good from bad" More than 3,000 boxes of cereal went to help those who were hungry .

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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Barely a year after the country celebrated its return to democracy, Pakistan is ensnared in a new political crisis. Riot police block a street on Thursday leading to a court building in Karachi, Pakistan. Thousands of lawyers planned a four-day march to the country's capital, Islamabad, on Thursday, demanding that the government immediately reinstate judges whom the previous president ousted. The protesters plan a sit-in at the parliament building on Monday, and say they will continue their demonstrations indefinitely until their demands are met. At the same time, the country's main opposition leader and his supporters have joined in the nationwide protests, but for reasons of their own. The government responded by banning political demonstrations in two of the country's biggest provinces -- Punjab and Sindh. It also detained several hundred activists Wednesday. The political chaos has forced the government's attention away from a deadly fundamentalist insurgency in its tribal areas and an economy that's on the verge of collapse. To understand the reasons behind Pakistan's latest political chaos, one needs to keep three central characters in mind: . What do the lawyers want? The lawyers want President Zardari to live up to a promise to reinstate judges sacked by former President Musharraf. Musharraf fired about 60 judges when he declared a state of emergency in November 2007. The fired judges include 14 of 18 judges who sat on the Supreme Court, including Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry. Critics say Musharraf sacked the judges because they were preparing to rule against the legitimacy of his third term in office. He had been re-elected president by a parliament stacked with his supporters, they said. After sweeping into power in parliamentary elections last year, the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party promised to reinstate the judges within 30 days of taking office. The deadline came and went. Why have the judges not been reinstated? One reason behind the delay, some experts have surmised, may be that the Supreme Court was expected to look into the controversial amnesty granted to former PPP leader Benazir Bhutto and her husband and current party head, Zardari, for corruption charges. When Bhutto was prime minister, Zardari was accused many times of corruption, stealing from government coffers and accepting kickbacks. Pakistanis derisively labeled him "Mr. 10 percent." Zardari said the cases were politically motivated. He spent several years in jail on the charges but was never convicted. Bhutto herself faced corruption charges in at least five cases, but was not convicted. In October 2007, with his popularity plummeting and under pressure from the West to hold elections, Musharraf allowed Bhutto to return from exile and participate by granting her and her husband amnesty. Bhutto was assassinated during a campaign rally. Her husband became head of the party and the new president of Pakistan. Why is the opposition protesting? The country's second-biggest party, the Pakistan Muslim League -- N (PML-N), is led by opposition leader and former Prime Minister Sharif. Last month, the Supreme Court ruled that Sharif cannot hold public office, citing a criminal record that dates to the late 1990s. The court also stripped Sharif's brother, Shahbaz, from his post as chief minister of Punjab -- the Sharif party's power center. The Sharifs condemned the court's decision as politically motivated. They accuse the court of acting at the behest of Zardari. Adding to their outrage, Zardari suspended Punjab's parliament and imposed executive rule there for two months. The Zardari administration said the executive rule was needed to maintain stability in the province. Supporters of PML-N have rallied in large numbers opposing the ruling. Why did the court bar Nawaz Sharif from elected office? The case against Sharif dates to the late 1990s, when he was prime minister. At the time, Musharraf was military chief. And Sharif feared Musharraf was plotting his ouster. When Musharraf was returning home from an overseas trip, Sharif refused the airliner to land. That order eventually led to Sharif's conviction for hijacking and treason when Musharraf took power in a bloodless coup. Separately, Sharif also was convicted of corruption. He went into exile instead of prison, but returned to Pakistan to challenge Musharraf's rule in late 2007. However, the election commission barred Sharif from the parliamentary race. His brother, Shahbaz, was shut out because of financial irregularities, the commission said. The Supreme Court upheld the commission's decisions. What does the turmoil mean for Pakistan? The renewed tensions threaten to take the focus away from the government's attempts to quash an escalating pro-Taliban insurgency in the country. At the same time, Pakistan's economy is in shambles. The worsening security situation is part of the reason. Rising food and oil prices have also contributed to the crisis. In November, the International Monetary Fund approved a $7.6 billion loan to Pakistan to help the South Asian country of 170 million people avoid an economic collapse. Many in Pakistan worry that the latest turmoil could once again force the army on to the streets if it worsens. In its 61-year history, Pakistan has been under army rule more than half the time. For now, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani has said he will not interfere in political matters.

Pakistan's main opposition will join protests demanding reinstatement of judges . Political protests may divert attention from efforts against pro-Taliban insurgency . Nation has been under military rule for more than half of its 61-year history .

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(CNN) -- Singer-actress Mandy Moore and rocker Ryan Adams were married this week in Savannah, Georgia, Moore's publicist told CNN on Wednesday. Mandy Moore first found recording success in 1999 with her single "Candy" and is now a well-known actress. The wedding took place Tuesday, said Jillian Fowkes, who gave no further details about the nuptials. Rumors first surfaced almost a year ago that Moore, 24, and Adams, 34, were dating, as paparazzi photos surfaced of the couple out together in Los Angeles, California. Moore's first success as a recording artist came in 1999 with her debut album, "So Real," which went platinum with the help of her top-10 single "Candy." Adams is known for producing rock music with a country influence. He is best known for his song "New York, New York", which appeared on his 2001 release "Gold." Adams is also an author and has produced music for Jesse Malin and Willie Nelson. He recently announced that he was leaving his band, The Cardinals, because of inner ear troubles affecting his balance and hearing. Adams has fronted The Cardinals since 2004.

Mandy Moore and Ryan Adams married quietly in Savannah, Georgia . Couple was first spotted together by paparazzi almost a year ago . He recently announced he is leaving The Cardinals .

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(CNN) -- A German supermarket employee got a surprise this week when she opened two boxes of bananas to find them filled with more than 60 pounds of cocaine worth $2 million, police said. Government-released photos show bananas and packages of what is identified as cocaine. "This is obviously a matter of a logistical mistake," a spokesman for the Bavarian State Bureau of Investigation, based in Munich, told CNN Friday. A 26-year-old employee with the discount chain Lidl in the sleepy town of Illertissen was randomly checking the boxes on Wednesday morning, police said. The fresh bananas had just been taken off a food truck, an hour after the store was open, they said. The employee was suspicious of the boxes because they felt lighter than normal, police said. As she unpacked the bananas to take them into the store's produce section, police said, she found 26 small yellow parcels hidden underneath the fruit. She immediately called police. The investigators established that the substance is cocaine and confiscated the goods, police said. The cocaine totaled 28 kilos, or 61.7 pounds, police said. The German shipper who delivered the bananas also made stops at other stores in southern Germany, but police said no other box with cocaine had been found at those stores yet. The freight had come from Antwerp, Belgium, but originated from Colombia, police said. "The drug courier obviously screwed up. He simply was not quick enough," the Bavarian State Bureau of Investigation spokesman said. He dubbed the finding a "discovery by accident." Police said they did not know why the shipment of illegal drugs was delivered to the particular store in Illertissen, halfway between Munich and Stuttgart. The town is right next to a major highway, a North-South route between Scandinavia in the north and Italy in the south. The freight might have been delivered to the wrong address, the spokesman said. Police were not releasing any further details because of their ongoing inquiries. They said they did not know if a drug cartel or a drug courier was using Illertissen as a hub.

Supermarket employee uncovers 28 kilograms worth of cocaine, police say . Packages were discovered in supermarket in southern Germany . Freight came from Belgium, originated in Colombia, authorities say . Town of market is along route between Scandinavia and Italy .

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(Coastal Living) -- Leave behind the mainland and sneak away to these heavenly hideaways. At Petit St. Vincent, 22 understatedly elegant stone cottages overlook the water. Petit St. Vincent, Grenadines . The fantasy: Your own sun-blessed, beach-fringed island in the Caribbean, with sailing, snorkeling and other pastimes available at your whim, and a staff to provide anything from meals to massages. The reality: At Petit St. Vincent, it's the same as the fantasy. Twenty-two understatedly elegant stone cottages, overlooking the water and open to the breezes, scatter across this 113-acre island. With rates starting at $675 a night, Petit St. Vincent qualifies as a splurge, but the price covers all activities and meals. Open November through August; 800/654-9326 or psvresort.com. The Inn on Peaks Island, Maine . Rocky, rustic, small-town New England floats languidly in Casco Bay, two miles from downtown Portland. Summer brings visitors seeking art galleries, nature and relaxation. In winter, you can snuggle up at the inn and enjoy the muted clang of buoys in the bay and the sharp scent of a wood fire. Six pleasantly furnished suites feature fireplaces, private decks and spa tubs. The Pub restaurant serves seafood and locally brewed beers year-round. A 20-minute ferry ride connects Peaks with the shopping, dining and nightlife of Portland. Prices range from $175 to $300; 207/766-5100 or innonpeaks.com. The Inn at Mama's Fish House, Maui, Hawaii . The handful of cottages that make up this hideaway rest under coconut palms on Maui's North Shore, just off the scenic Hana Highway. "Old Polynesia" decor and a low-key atmosphere mark it as a throwback to an era when Hawaii meant tropical exoticism, not real-estate opportunities. Coastal Living: More on Maui . A short drive west takes you to the town of Paia. A short drive east reveals the bright sails of windsurfers swooping just off Hookipa Beach. And simply staying put ensures the pleasures of lounging on the sand in front of your cottage or savoring the seafood at Mama's Fish House Restaurant next door. Rooms from $175; 800/860-4852 or mamasfishhouse.com. The Collier Inn, Useppa Island, Florida . In the early 20th century, northern tycoons made Useppa their winter playground. Today, anyone can share its still-genteel lifestyle at the posh Collier Inn. Seven antiques-filled suites recall the pre-Depression boom years when ad exec and developer Barron Collier held sway over most of Southwest Florida, and gentlemen in white suits competed civilly at croquet. The 80-acre island, accessible only by water and explored mostly by golf cart, contains neither cars nor roads. The Pink Promenade, a pathway of shells and pink sand, winds past banyan trees and tropical flowers. Prices range from $125 to $395; 239/283-1061 or useppa.com. Hotel del Coronado and Glorietta Bay Inn, Coronado Island, California . Technically Coronado is a peninsula, but it has been an island -- at least at high tide. And, true to island character, it feels like a place apart. The red-roof turrets and dormers of the 1888-vintage, beachfront Hotel del Coronado confirm it. Across the street, so does the Glorietta Bay Inn, which incorporates a 1908 Italian Renaissance mansion. Coastal Living: Southern California eateries . Rooms in The Del's rambling original building have more character, but the newer structures (especially the Beach Village cottages and villas) tend to offer nicer accommodations; 800/468-3533 or hoteldel.com. Rooms in the main resort range from $255 to $1,650; Beach Village accommodations range from $450 to $5,400. At the Glorietta, choose the mansion. Rooms start at $185; 800/283-9383 or gloriettabayinn.com. English Country Garden B&B, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia . Only the most spectacular scenery could draw tourists all the way to this remote Atlantic island on the eastern end of Nova Scotia. Cape Breton delivers; ask anyone who has ever driven the Cabot Trail along the coast of the ruggedly glorious Highlands. Accommodations tend to be comfortable but rustic -- except at English Country Garden Bed & Breakfast (at Indian Brook), which opts for comfortable and luxurious. The four rooms include a tiny, secluded log cottage with a porch overlooking a small lake. The breakfasts and the optional, reservation-only dinners are equally sumptuous. Rooms from $120 Canadian (about $98 US); 866/929-2721 or capebretongarden.com. Casita de Maya, Cozumel, Mexico . Don't confuse it with Cancún, the party-hearty spring break destination a few miles north. The laid-back Caribbean island of Cozumel attracts scuba divers and snorkelers, beach bums and honeymooners who prefer quiet togetherness. Coastal Living: Mexico travel tips . Tucked away next to the airport, of all places (but away from the flight paths, so jet noise does not intrude), Casita de Maya provides the perfect headquarters for a getaway. The four rooms, beautifully appointed in earthy colors, open onto a pretty little courtyard with a pool. Owner Dan Komorowsky and his staff can answer any question about the island and arrange expeditions. They also know when to disappear and give guests time for themselves. Rates from $59; 281/214-1122 or casitademaya.com. MacKaye Harbor Inn, Lopez Island, Washington . Like most out-of-the-way places, Lopez (north of Seattle in the San Juan Islands) attracts residents who want to do something different. As you meander the mostly flat roads, you'll encounter organic farmers and winemakers, cattle ranchers, artists and such establishments as the Love Dog Café and Vortex Juice Bar & Good Food. MacKaye Harbor Inn, in a huge restored farmhouse near the south end of the island, lends guests mountain bikes to explore. Of course, you'll want to be back at the inn in time for evening chocolates and spectacular sunsets. Rooms from $135; 888/314-6140 or mackayeharborinn.com. A Water's Edge Retreat, Kelleys Island, Ohio . A 19th-century limestone industry left this Lake Erie island (off Sandusky) with a 21st century legacy of grand Victorian houses. You can't miss this bed-and-breakfast, with its bright coral-and-aqua exterior. Despite the punchy paint job, the rooms are traditional and refined. Guest perks include onsite spa services and sailing trips on Lake Erie. Alas, the inn operates only April through October. But that does cover the summer tourist season, as well as the spring and fall, allowing a chance to catch sight of migrating raptors, waterfowl and songbirds. Rooms from $199; 800/884-5143 or watersedgeretreat.com. Jekyll Island Club Hotel, Jekyll Island, Georgia . You probably don't vacation with an entourage that requires a 25-room mansion, but a century ago you might have -- if you were a Rockefeller. In the late 1800s, America's business elite began gathering at Jekyll Island each year for winter vacation. Some stayed in the extravagant clubhouse; others built grand holiday homes nearby. Coastal Living: What to pack for coastal Georgia . The Jekyll Island Club Hotel now occupies the clubhouse and several other historic buildings, including a couple of the cottages, keeping up the standards splendidly. You can wander the 240-acre Millionaire's Village and envision yourself in the Gilded Age. And you can play golf and tennis, cruise around the island by bicycle, inhale the fresh salt air on the beach, and ride in a horse-drawn carriage. Rooms from $149; 800/535-9547 or jekyllclub.com. Enter to win a monthly Room Makeover Giveaway from MyHomeIdeas.com . Copyright © Coastal Living, 2009 .

Suites at The Inn on Peaks Island in Maine feature fireplaces and spa tubs . A restored farmhouse houses MacKaye Harbor Inn on Washington's Lopez Island . Jekyll Island Club Hotel in Georgia was a retreat for the business elite in the 1800s .

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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Six U.S. soldiers were killed Wednesday in Iraq when a bomb exploded in a booby-trapped house while they were on patrol north of Baghdad, the military announced. U.S. soldiers conduct a house-to-house assessment mission in Baghdad on Wednesday. Four soldiers were also wounded in the attack and evacuated to a coalition forces hospital, Multi-National Corps-Iraq said. The troops were taking part in Operation Iron Harvest -- a new drive against Islamic militants in northern Iraq after a spate of attacks on local anti-insurgent groups. The operation is part of a nationwide push against jihadists loyal to al Qaeda in the provinces of Diyala, Salaheddin, Nineveh, and Tameem. "It will be a difficult fight, but we will continue to execute simultaneous operations in each one of our four provinces," said Maj. Gen. Michael Hertling, commander of U.S. troops in northern Iraq. But resistance in the "breadbasket" region in eastern Diyala so far is "less than anticipated," he said. The offensive -- which has been centered near Muqdadiya -- has left 20 to 30 suspected insurgents dead in the area around that city, Hertling said. About 24,000 U.S. troops, 50,000 Iraqi soldiers and 80,000 local police are based in the region. In addition, about 15,000 Iraqis are taking part in anti-insurgent groups known as Concerned Local Citizens or Awakening Councils. The groups will perform defensive security tasks during the operation, the U.S. military said. The new push comes just short of a year since President Bush ordered almost 30,000 additional troops to Iraq to secure Baghdad and its surrounding provinces. Al Qaeda in Iraq has been deeply rooted in Muqdadiya, about 62 miles north of Baghdad, since about 2004. Wednesday's deaths occurred in an agricultural area on the north side of the Diyala River from the city. The U.S. military has conducted operations there in the past and has frequently come under fire. One recent operation ended with several insurgents killed and a large amount of weapons and explosives seized, a military source told CNN. The bombing Wednesday was the first incident involving multiple deaths of U.S. soldiers in Iraq since September 10, when seven Multi-National Division-Baghdad soldiers died and 11 were injured in a vehicle accident in western Baghdad. The last attack in which so many U.S. troops died from hostile action happened May 28, when six Task Force Lightning soldiers were killed by explosions near their vehicles during operations in Diyala province. Awakening Councils . Iraq's concerned-citizens groups began forming in the country's predominantly Sunni Arab regions in late 2006, and their cooperation with U.S. forces against the jihadists has been credited with much of the decline in violence in Iraq since summer. But that cooperation has made them an increasing target for al Qaeda in Iraq, which Hertling said has launched a campaign of intimidation against the locals. Monday, five severed heads were left on a road leading to Baquba "with Arabic writing in blood on the forehead which said, 'Join the Concerned Citizens and you will end up like this,' " Hertling said. And he played video from an aerial surveillance drone that showed three people in Diyala assassinating another person -- pulling the victim from a vehicle, shooting him and leaving him in a ditch. They were eventually captured, and information was found linking them to al Qaeda in Iraq, he said. Hertling said that even though there has been a reduction in attacks across the country, there has been an increase in "high-profile, spectacular" events in his region, citing a suicide vest attack and a bridge bombing that sparked media attention and made the region look as if it were "reeling." But he said attacks like those will prove to be the jihadists' "Achilles' heel," turning the population against them and driving them toward the concerned citizens' groups. "It's sort of a reverse counterintuitive logic," Hertling said. "They are trying to intimidate people that join them by killing them, and it's causing more people to go against them." And Hertling said Nineveh -- home of the country's third-largest city, Mosul -- is an important geographic region because it borders Syria. Sunni militants long have crossed the border from Syria into Iraq to stage attacks, and Mosul's diverse, cosmopolitan population has made it an easy place for jihadist operatives to hide, he said. E-mail to a friend .

NEW: Troops were taking part in new offensive, dubbed Operation Iron Harvest . Six soldiers die when bomb explodes in booby-trapped house . Blast also leaves 4 U.S. soldiers wounded . It's the first incident involving multiple deaths of U.S. soldiers in Iraq since September .

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TALLAHASSEE, Florida (CNN) -- Softball, drunken orgies and a prison system run like the mafia. That's what Florida's former prison secretary says he inherited when he took over one of the nation's largest prison systems two years ago. This house, on prison grounds in Florida, is described as a party house where prison officials held orgies. In fact, on his first day on the job, James McDonough says he walked into his office -- the same one his predecessor used -- and there was crime scene tape preventing anyone from entering. "That was an indication we had a problem in the department," McDonough told CNN in an exclusive interview before he stepped down last Thursday. McDonough revealed a startling list of alleged abuses and crimes going on inside Florida's prisons: . • Top prison officials admitting to kickbacks; . • Guards importing and selling steroids in an effort to give them an edge on the softball field; . • Taxpayer funds to pay for booze and women; . • Guards who punished other guards who threatened to report them. "Corruption had gone to an extreme," McDonough said, saying it all began at the top. "They seemed to be drunk half the time and had orgies the other half, when they weren't taking money and beating each other up." Watch a corrupted prison system » . He added, "Women were treated like chattel in this department." McDonough described a bizarre prison culture among those that ran the system -- one that he says seemed obsessed with inter-department softball games and the orgies after games. "I cannot explain how big an obsession softball had become," he said. "People were promoted on the spot after a softball game at the drunken party to high positions in the department because they were able to hit a softball out of the park a couple times." "The connection between the softball and the parties and the corruption and the beatings was greatly intertwined." The parties and orgies were often carried out at a waterfront ranch house built on prison grounds for a former warden with taxpayer dollars, McDonough said. The house was complete with a bar, pool table and hot tub. See photos of the "party house" » . McDonough is a former Army colonel who commanded troops in Vietnam and Africa. He served as Florida's drug czar before taking on the job as the head of Florida's prison system, which oversees 90,000 inmates. He left his post last Thursday as secretary of Florida's Department of Corrections because, he says, he feels he has cleaned up the corruption. It's time, he said, "to turn this over to law and order people that have made this their life's goal." A Brooklyn, New York, native, McDonough says he witnessed the way the mafia worked in his youth and it provided him a keen insight into how his prison predecessor, James Crosby, operated. "It reminded me of the petty mafia I saw on the streets of Brooklyn when I was growing up in the late 1950s, early 1960s -- petty, small-minded, thugish, violent, dangerous, outside the law, and completely intolerable for a society such as ours in the United States of America," he said. Crosby would later plead guilty to bribery charges in relation to kickbacks from a prison vendor. He's now locked up in a federal prison. He refused CNN's request for an interview for this report. "He's serving time in a federal prison. I hope he reforms and gets out and prospers," McDonough said. He added, "When you have a rotten guy at the top, or gal at the top, it can be very invasive, and it's a cancer that needs to be excised." And getting rid of this "cancer" is exactly what McDonough says he did. McDonough fired 90 top prison officials -- wardens, supervisors, colonels and majors -- claiming they were corrupt or, at the very least, not to be trusted. He demoted 280 others. Criminal charges were filed against more than 40 others, and most were convicted. In addition to the orgies and other misconduct outside the cell blocks, there were other allegations of prisoners being harmed, McDonough said. "In some of the pockets of corruption that we found, they [prisoners] were being abused," he said. Among those arrested were seven officers accused of beating inmates, including five accused of forcing a prisoner to drink toilet water. All have pleaded not guilty. Tina Hayes, the director of the prison's department initiatives who has worked in the prison system for 28 years, said the atmosphere before McDonough arrived was "a little tense" with workers "always on edge." She said employees who didn't attend softball games or play on the teams were "isolated" and "pushed aside." "I used to tell staff day in and day out: Keep your head high; do what's right; you know what morally is right; you've got some ethics; don't bow down to it," Hayes told CNN. McDonough, she said, brought "standards back into the department." "People can speak out now without being afraid to say what they need to say." McDonough says the majority of the prison system's 28,000 employees were honest, hard-working people who weren't corrupt at all. But he says many of the top prison officials weren't and he believes he has weeded out "an organized vein of corruption." "They were like frat boys out of control." E-mail to a friend .

Former head of Florida's prisons says orgies were common before he arrived . James McDonough also says the system was run like the mafia . "They were like frat boys out of control," McDonough tells CNN . His predecessor is currently in prison after pleading guilty to bribery charges .

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(CNN) -- A lawyer for Howard K. Stern says the longtime partner of late sex symbol Anna Nicole Smith will fight conspiracy charges announced Thursday. Krista Barth, an attorney for Howard K. Stern, says it's not appropriate to talk publicly about details of the case. Stern was Smith's "chief enabler," obtaining a variety of prescription drugs to keep the former Playboy model sedated and compliant, California Attorney General Jerry Brown said in announcing the charges against Stern and two doctors. Lisa Bloom of In Session and guest host Joy Behar questioned Stern's attorney Krista Barth Friday night on CNN's "Larry King Live." BEHAR: Did Howard see this all coming? BARTH: No, we did not see this coming. We knew that there was obviously the raid earlier on Dr. [Sandeep] Kapoor's office. But this was something that we honestly never expected. Watch part of the discussion » . BEHAR: Well, they are very serious charges. There are so many counts here, eight felonies. Will he plead not guilty? What's he going to do? BARTH: Well, he will plead not guilty because he is not guilty. BEHAR: Now, the attorney general, Jerry Brown, called Stern "the principal enabler" in what he says was a conspiracy among three individuals. Do you have a reaction to that? BARTH: I think it's reminiscent of what happened at Duke. I don't think that this was something that should have been stated in a public forum. I think it's contrary to the rules of professional conduct regarding trial publicity. And you have to wonder why such a statement was made. But to say that something like that would not bias my client is beyond me. I can't even be -- I can't even venture a guess. BLOOM: Krista, the difference, though, between the Duke case and this case is that we know that she had at least 11 different medications in her system, the very same medications that are in this criminal complaint. We know that she was taking these drugs for years. We saw her zoned out of her mind with the slurred speech on her reality show and every awards show. So it was pretty common knowledge that Anna Nicole was an addict. And I think your client has even admitted that. There's a substantial amount of evidence here. It doesn't mean your client is guilty. But I think it's enough to raise eyebrows so that ever since she's died, people have wondered: How did she get all of those medications? How was it possible that doctors were giving her all that stuff? BARTH: The most basic tenet of our judicial system is that Mr. Stern is presumed innocent. ... And the concern that I have is that the public nature of the statements by the attorney general in the state of California is a bit troubling. And when I make the analogy to the Duke case, I think you're missing the point, in that that was done during an election campaign. There are sometimes political motivations for things that are done. You have to ask why is this case important to so many when what Attorney General Brown is talking about is a pervasive, over-prescription of prescription drugs. BEHAR: How much responsibility do the tabloids have in this case? I mean, it really was all over the place. BLOOM: I think that's going to be part of the defense, that they got prescriptions under false names because the tabloids were after her and they wanted every detail and she wanted some privacy. And as a celebrity, she may be entitled to that. I think that may be a valid defense as to why they were under false names. But there's no defense that I can see why thousands of pills. BEHAR: Krista, where did she get thousands of pills? BARTH: Well, you know what? Discussing the details of this is not appropriate. I think that the most important thing to focus on here is the way that our judicial system is supposed to work. I mean how often does that happen, that we're talking about a situation, you are not supposed to say, and I'm quoting here, something that you know reasonably should, or reasonably should know will have a substantial likelihood of materially prejudicing an adjudicative proceeding in this matter?

California attorney general's comments are prejudicial, lawyer says . Brown saying too much about Anna Nicole Smith case, Krista Barth says . Barth is attorney for Smith's ex-partner, Howard K. Stern . Stern, two others charged with conspiring to supply Smith with drugs .

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LONDON, England (CNN) -- A sculpture of a giant white horse taller than the Statue of Liberty is set to tower over the countryside as part of an unusual scheme to help revive the fortunes of a depressed region of England. The 50-meter high horse will dominate the landscape around Ebbsfleet. The 50-meter equine artwork was Tuesday announced as the winner of a competition to design a landmark to dominate the skyline of the Ebbsfleet Valley, set to be a new stop on the Eurostar London-to-Paris rail link. Designed by artist Mark Wallinger -- whose previous work has included dressing in a bear suit and wandering around a gallery in Berlin -- the £2 million ($3 million) horse will be one of the largest artworks in the UK. Wallinger's horse -- which echoes ancient white horse symbols carved into hillsides around Britain -- beat a shortlist of designs that included a tower of stacked cubes and giant steel nest. Victoria Pomery, head of the panel that selected the design, described the 33-times normal size horse as "outstanding." "Mark is a superb artist of world renown and his sculpture will become a real landmark for Ebbsfleet Valley and the whole region," she said. It drew a less favorable response from readers of local Web site Kentnews.com, who described it as a "waste of money," an "abomination" and "depressing." One correspondent, Andy Smith, added: "This horse looks extremely silly."

Giant horse announced as winner of competition to design new landmark . Equine artwork is brainchild of conceptual artist Mark Wallinger . Design's selectors describe sculpture as "outstanding," critics say it's "silly"

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Editor's note: CNN writer Alan Duke has had two small voice-only roles in Tyler Perry's TV series, "House of Payne," which airs on CNN's sister network TBS. He has had no relationship with Perry beyond observing him on set. Tyler Perry stars in "Madea Goes to Jail," which is due out Friday. Perry is trying to expand his reach to Europe. ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Tyler Perry wants to take his character Madea to Europe, but he's been told that audiences there won't relate to his stories about African-American lives. The films have made nearly $300 million at U.S. box offices. The challenge to conquer Europe has "sat in my spirit," Perry wrote in a newsletter to his fans. Perry, who just a few years ago was homeless and broke, has made a fortune proving naysayers and critics wrong with a successful string of low-budget movies based on his Christian-themed stage plays. "I was once told [by] someone that my movies only appeal to black people and no one else," Perry wrote. "Now, I know that's not true." When his first movie -- "Diary of a Mad Black Woman" -- debuted in 2005, people who had seen his stage plays in person or on DVD flocked to theaters, making it the week's top movie with almost $22 million in ticket sales. Critics, who consistently pan Perry's productions, were confounded. "They think I don't know what I am doing," he said in a CNN interview. "They think that this is all haphazard, that I am some sort of idiot or something." Watch Perry sound off on "Madea" and other topics » . Perry said he does not write to please the critics, but for a broad audience of all ages. With six films already out and a seventh -- "Madea Goes To Jail" -- coming soon, Perry has never made a box office flop. His movies average nearly $22 million on opening weekends and almost $47 million in total domestic sales. "Tyler Perry has a definite and growing fan base in this country and it's simply a matter of, can he create and grow a fan base in other countries," said independent producer Alex Franklin. Franklin -- a former development executive at Lionsgate, the film company that distributes Perry's films in the United States -- was the first person at that studio to read his script for "Diary of a Mad Black Woman." He agrees that Perry's movies should sell in Europe, but he said there is a tendency by distributors there to avoid films about African-Americans and films without major American stars who are well-known in Europe. While Perry's casts have included Angela Bassett, Janet Jackson and Kathy Bates, many of his characters, including Madea, come from his stage plays, which are known only to a mostly black American audience. But David Mann -- who is "Mr. Brown" in Perry's productions -- said he has seen the audience broaden since the early years of the stage plays. "I can recall when we first started, I would say 90 to 95 percent of the audience would be African-American," Mann said. "But now, you look out there and it's like, 'Wow! It's just a rainbow.' " Perry, in his message to fans, said he sees his stories as universal. "I know that even though I write from an African-American experience and most of the time I have an all-African-American cast, that doesn't mean that other people from other walks of life can't relate," he said. "I think that any human being who goes through what we all go through can relate to my films. "I know and remember that when I'm writing," he continued. "But when this person said that to me, they also said Europeans would never relate, and that sat in my spirit." Perry said he flew to Europe in January -- "to find out for myself" -- with visits to Rome, Madrid and London. It was there that he wrote his letter to his American fans. "So far, all of us seem to be pretty much the same," he said. "We love to laugh, we all have problems, we all want love, and we all have a church in every country. And since these are the things I usually write about, I don't see how that statement can be true. Do you?" Perry could get his answer soon. Lionsgate has not said if "Madea Goes To Jail," which debuts Friday, will be marketed to European audiences. But the company signed a joint venture deal last year with Eros International, an Indian film company, to distribute its films in India -- the second largest English-speaking market in the world. If that arrangement does not take Madea around the world, then perhaps Perry will try it on his own, Franklin said. "He has the money to back up his intentions," he said. "He proved his naysayers wrong in America, with his will and perseverance. There's no reason he can't do the same overseas." CNN's Kara Yates and KJ Matthews contributed to this report.

Tyler Perry hoping to find market for his films in Europe . Perry has already overcome obstacles to get his films seen in America . Latest Perry film, "Madea Goes to Jail," is out Friday .

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(CNN) -- Two crew members were taken to a hospital after a FedEx cargo plane crashed on landing Tuesday morning at the Lubbock, Texas, airport, officials said. A damaged FedEx ATR-42 lies beside a runway early Tuesday at the Lubbock, Texas, airport. The injuries appeared to be minor, said James Loomis, director of Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport. There was a small fire on the plane, the Federal Aviation Administration and FedEx spokeswoman Sandra Munoz said. Munoz said she was not sure about the extent of the damage. The plane is an ATR-42 twin-turboprop aircraft and landed short of the touchdown zone at 4:37 a.m. CT (5:47 ET), Loomis said. Munoz said the plane had been traveling from Fort Worth Alliance Airport and skidded off the runway amid light freezing rain. iReport.com: Are you there? Send photos, video . Neither official could immediately say what caused the accident, and Munoz didn't know why parts of the plane caught fire. The plane was operated by Empire Airways, which is under contract with FedEx Corp., based in Memphis, Tennessee.

Fire reported as plane goes off runway in freezing rain at Lubbock, Texas, airport . Two crew members hospitalized with apparently minor injuries, official says . ATR-42 twin-turboprop operated by Empire Airways under lease to FedEx .

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