Hugo Best: May 2012

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Swim lessons help kids break cycle

The Josh Project has helped more than 1,000 children in Ohio learn to swim

Most of them are minorities, according to Wanda Butts, whose son drowned in 2006

Statistics show that minority children are less likely than white children to know how to swim

Do you know a hero? Nominations are open for 2012 CNN Heroes

Toledo, Ohio (CNN) -- Wanda Butts dropped the phone and screamed when she heard the news that her son was dead.

Josh had drowned while rafting on a lake with friends. The 16-year-old didn't know how to swim, and he wasn't wearing a life jacket.

"I couldn't believe it, I didn't want to believe it: that just like that, my son had drowned and he was gone," she said, recalling the 2006 tragedy.

Butts had worried about her son's safety when it came to street violence or driving, and she said she had always warned him of those dangers. But water accidents never crossed her mind.

"It did not occur to me that my son would drown because he didn't know water safety," she said. "Josh was never taught the basic life skill of learning how to swim."

Josh was not alone in the black community. According to USA Swimming, 70% of African-American children cannot swim, compared with nearly 60% for Hispanic children and 42% for white children. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, African-American children between the ages of 5 and 14 are three times more likely to drown than white children in the same age range.

As Butts tried to make sense of her son's tragedy, she realized she had passed her own inexperience to her son. Her father had witnessed a drowning when he was young and instilled in her a fear of water.

Giving kids a lifesaving skill

"So as a child, I never went around water," said Butts, 58. "I never went swimming. I didn't know anything about water or life jackets and water safety."

Because of this fear, Butts raised Josh without any exposure to water. But today, she is determined to prevent other mothers from doing the same. In 2007, she started the Josh Project, a nonprofit that provides low-cost swimming lessons for children in Toledo, Ohio.

"After losing my son, I wanted to do something to help other people, to help another mother not have to suffer the way I do every day from the loss of a child drowning," she said.

To date, the Josh Project has helped more than 1,000 children learn how to swim.

"All children are at risk of drowning, but the majority of the children that the Josh Project serves are minority children, who we have found are more at risk," Butts said.

Several cultural and historical factors can help explain why that is. One is the segregation of swimming pools during the 20th century, according to Jeff Wiltse, author of "Contested Waters: A Social History of Swimming Pools in America." Relatively few swimming pools were built to serve the black community back then, so much of a generation was denied the opportunity to swim, Wiltse told the BBC.

Also, if parents can't swim, their children are far less likely to learn how, according to a recent study conducted by the University of Memphis. The study, sponsored by USA Swimming, found that a fear of drowning and a fear of injury prevent many African-American parents from putting their children in swimming lessons. It also found that many avoid swimming for cosmetic reasons, such as the effect chlorinated water has on their hair.

Do you know a hero? Nominations are open for 2012 CNN Heroes

For some families today, it's still tough to find an accessible pool.

"The public pools near our home have been closed in the past, and other places were not affordable," said Lisa Haynes, whose 14-year-old son, Joshua, is one of 60-plus students in the Josh Project this season.

The swimming lessons take place at a local high school over four Saturdays for a total cost of $10.

"I am less worried if (Joshua) is near water because he has the basics of how to swim," Haynes said. "And we're thankful for that."

Butts is doing much more, however, than just providing swimming lessons.

"She ups the awareness, and that is half the battle," said Shaun Anderson, a swimming coach who was so inspired by her story that he created a Josh Project swimming program at Norfolk State University in Virginia. "Once these communities learn how to swim, they will pass it down, which results in future generations that know how to swim."

Butts said she has two goals for the future: One is to change the drowning statistics of minority children, and the other is to have an aquatic center where the children can swim daily instead of just once a week.

"The joy on the faces of those children -- when they see that they can learn, once they get it -- they are so happy with themselves," she said. "And it's like all of them are my children. It's like I didn't lose my son."

Want to get involved? Check out the Josh Project website at www.joshproject.org and see how to help.

Source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_world/~3/n9cTm7WzYX0/index.html

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Young refugees find footing in U.S.

Adapting to a new country can be difficult, stressful for child refugees

A program in California is offering free tutoring and social support through soccer

Founder Mark Kabban says sports can build confidence, new friendships

Do you know a hero? Nominations are open for 2012 CNN Heroes

El Cajon, California (CNN) -- Khalid Yohana was 7 years old when war reached his hometown of Mosul, Iraq.

For years, even the simplest activities, like walking to school, were an ordeal.

"It was too scary to go outside much," Yohana, now 16, remembers. "If you walk on the street ... you're nervous you'd get killed."

A group of men once tried to kidnap his father, a chef at a Baghdad restaurant that catered to Americans. The attempt failed, but a threatening letter arrived at his family's home that same night.

"They warned us to get out of the country or they would kill us. ... I was really scared," Yohana said.

The family fled to a small village north, but when Yohana's school was bombed a year later, they left Iraq for good. They traveled to Beirut, Lebanon, and applied for refugee status so they could move to the United States legally.

In 2010, Yohana and his family arrived in San Diego. The family appreciated the safety of their new home, but they also encountered new problems. Yohana's father struggled to find work, and the entire family found it challenging to navigate a new country and culture.

"It was really hard because we (didn't) speak the language," Yohana said. He was often so discouraged by his poor English that he wouldn't even try to do his homework.

Mark Kabban remembers how tough it was for him to adjust to the United States when he was a child.

The social isolation was worse.

"It was really hard to find friends," Yohana said. "I was just sitting at home."

While working as a refugee case manager for a nonprofit, Mark Kabban saw many families like Yohana's struggle to find their footing in the United States.

"You lose a lot of your dignity when you become a refugee," Kabban said. "You have to flee your country, depend on others. You lose your self-esteem."

Kabban said the transition can be particularly challenging for children, who face educational and social barriers. The stress they endure often puts them at risk of getting on the wrong track.

"Their families have sacrificed everything for them to get here. So if (their kids) don't succeed, that's the biggest tragedy," said Kabban, 25. "It's something that I'm not going to allow."

To help support young refugees, Kabban started the YALLA program in 2009. The name is an acronym for Youth And Leaders Living Actively, but in Arabic it simply means "Let's go." YALLA provides free tutoring and soccer training to 200 boys and girls in the San Diego area.

While soccer is what mostly motivates the players, it's just a carrot to Kabban. Many of his players have missed years of formal schooling on their road to the United States, so the mandatory twice-a-week tutoring sessions are an integral part of the program.

"When they get here, they're years behind, and they're years behind in a different language," Kabban said. "So the need is just immense. We're working to get them literate in English, getting them ... caught up."

The YALLA staff also makes sure the players are registered to receive 25 hours of one-on-one tutoring from a statewide program. When necessary, YALLA also provides additional tutoring to those who are struggling. The hope is to help everyone get up to grade level and on a path to college.

Do you know a hero? Nominations are open for 2012 CNN Heroes

According to the U.S. State Department, more than 10,000 refugees from around the world have moved to the San Diego area legally since 2007, making it one of the largest refugee resettlement areas in the country.

Many of those newcomers, like Yohana, are Iraqis who are under 18. The vast majority live in El Cajon, a city in San Diego County where YALLA is based. Mark spreads the word about the group by visiting area schools.

Most of the players in the program are Iraqi, but the group has players from across the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Sometimes ethnic and religious differences can lead to conflict, but Kabban says that as the soccer season progresses, the differences fall by the wayside.

"Their families have endured the same struggles," Kabban said. "When they realize that ... they become like brothers and sisters."

Their families have endured the same struggles. When they realize that ... they become like brothers and sisters.
CNN Hero Mark Kabban

Some children have lost more than their homeland. Some have witnessed one of their parents being killed, or they've been kidnapped and tortured themselves. Kabban, who helps run many of the practices, tries to keep the atmosphere serious but fun so that time on the field is a much-needed escape.

"Soccer is (the) best therapy," Kabban said. "They have an hour or two to forget about everything and just be kids."

Kabban cares deeply because he faced many of the challenges the refugees are experiencing. He was never officially a refugee, but his family left Beirut during Lebanon's 15-year civil war, a conflict in which three members of his extended family were killed.

Kabban's family lived in several places -- including the United States, where his father attended college -- before permanently immigrating to the San Diego area when Kabban was 9. For him, the social adjustment was particularly rough.

"I had all the wrong clothes on, and I got made fun of," he said. "They called me 'poor kid.' My self-esteem was really, really low."

That changed when he discovered American football, scoring a touchdown the first time he got the ball.

"Sports was the way I got confident, made friends and felt I was like other kids," he said. He went on to earn a football scholarship at Baker University, a small private school in Kansas where he studied foreign relations.

After graduating in 2008, Kabban planned to go to Egypt to get a graduate degree in refugee studies. But on a visit home that summer, he learned about the large influx of refugees that San Diego had experienced in recent years.

"I started thinking to myself, 'Why am I going halfway across the world to learn about refugees when they're all here in my own hometown?' " he said.

Instead of going to graduate school, Kabban got a job with Catholic Charities, helping refugees settle into their new lives. He was troubled to see so many children sitting at home, alienated, but he also noticed how they lit up when they saw a soccer ball.

One day, he brought a ball with him while making a home visit. As he approached the apartment complex, he heard a boy yell the Arabic word for ball. Kabban began kicking it around with him, and within minutes, 20 kids had joined the game. That moment gave Kabban the inspiration for YALLA's approach.

Although the organization is relatively new, YALLA has managed to get funding from local foundations and businesses. Everything -- tutoring, soccer and occasional field trips -- is provided at no cost, something the kids appreciate, as nearly all of them know that money is tight at home.

Kabban has also made it a priority to reach out to those who aren't refugees.

When refugees started arriving in the area, there was tension in schools between them, Latinos and African-Americans. To counteract this, Kabban started the Peacebuilders League, a soccer league open to everyone in the area.

"We wanted to bring them all together and start making a community," he said. "Now it looks like the World Cup here every Sunday."

Ultimately, Kabban hopes to build a "peace-building" charter school for refugees, immigrants and marginalized youth that would use soccer in a formal college prep program.

Kabban's commitment to the organization is so strong that for more than a year he has worked full-time without a salary, living off his savings. The kids at YALLA know he quit his job for them, and they're quick to acknowledge the huge difference he has made in their lives.

"I don't know the way (to) say thank you to Coach Mark," Yohana said. "They helped me to find friends, and they (taught) me how to speak English. ... Now, with YALLA and Coach Mark, it's a fun life."

Stories like that are what push Kabban to keep going.

"This country gave my family the chance to succeed," he said. "I want to help these kids do the same thing."

Want to get involved? Check out the YALLA website at www.yallasd.com and see how to help.

Source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_world/~3/qmP4NrM5jPI/index.html

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Syria rebels say they're preparing for war

QUSAIR, Syria ? Sitting on a tennis court at a summer villa in the Syrian countryside, 22 would-be rebel fighters watched as a young man took apart and reassembled a machine gun he had picked from a small spread of arms on a plastic lawn table.

"OK, Saeed," said the instructor, 1st Lt. Nazir Jabir, 25, calling on a student in the back row. "What's the name of this machine gun? Stand up."

Saeed stood up, hands clasped behind his back as if in a proper classroom. "PKC," he said, and then a little louder, "PKC."

In the distance, beyond the sparkling pool and the red, pink and orange roses growing unchecked, shelling and gunfire could be heard.

"Is it Russian-made?" asked Jabir, a defector from President Bashar Assad's army, not in uniform but in jeans and an old volleyball camp T-shirt that declared on the back, "Steppin' it up."

"It is Russian," Saeed affirmed.

"Now the grenade launcher," Jabir said, moving on to the next weapon.

Syria's rebels are girding for more war.

The country is technically under a cease-fire and ostensibly in the process of implementing a U.N.-backed peace plan that is to end a 14-month conflict in which at least 10,000 people have died. But fighters, activists and civilians here in the hotbed province of Homs, as in much of Syria, have lost faith in the diplomatic effort led by former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Instead, rebels see this moment as an opportunity to rearm, regroup and prepare for what they regard as the inevitable escalation of fighting once the cease-fire, violated by both sides, is declared dead.

In the wake of Friday's massacre of more than 100 civilians, many of them children, in Houla, some rebels are asking whether that time has come. In a video posted online Saturday, Free Syrian Army spokesman Col. Qassim Saad Eddine said it was no longer possible to comply with the peace plan.

"The battle is coming, and it will be bigger and will take longer," said one defector, former army Sgt. Basil Idriss, who now heads a militia in Qusair. Many rebels escaping the battered Baba Amr neighborhood of Homs fled to Qusair, less than 20 miles away. "Annan's plan will fall apart. It may fall apart tomorrow or next week, or it may take longer."

Massive bombings in the capital and elsewhere have raised the specter of Al Qaeda involvement either in the rebel ranks or in independent cells in the country. But in the gardens and fields surrounding Qusair, the rebels insist they are on their own, making bombs, gathering weapons and scoping out army checkpoints and tank positions.

Occasionally people still ask, "Where is America?" or "Where is NATO?" but increasingly it comes off as rhetorical. "We only have God" has become a common refrain.

"We grew sick of the political solutions a long time ago," said Maj. Ibrahim "Abu Al-Noor" Mutawi, another defector, who heads the Al Mughawir militia, one of several in Qusair. "We didn't see anything to hold on to in this political path."

On a recent Monday, a woman threw rice and flower petals, as if welcoming a bridegroom, as the bodies of two men wrapped in white shrouds were carried through the streets of Qusair.

The two had been abducted five days earlier, allegedly by soldiers, and tortured to death. Their nails had been pulled out, bruises covered their bodies, there were signs of strangulation and one man's head was partially smashed in.

"We present our martyrs as proof to Kofi Annan and to the world!" a man yelled into a megaphone. "Isn't torture not allowed? Isn't killing by tanks not allowed, oh Kofi Annan?"

Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-syria-rebels-rearm-20120531,0,2380016.story?track=rss

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Blind activist urges U.S. to push China on rule of law

By Michelle Nichols | Reuters�?�21 mins ago

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Blind Chinese rights activist Chen Guangcheng urged the United States on Thursday to "try harder" to promote rule of law in his homeland as he described his brother and nephew being so badly beaten in an attack he blamed on local officials that thick axe handles being used as weapons broke.

Chen, who arrived in New York nearly two weeks ago to study, told the Council on Foreign Relations that his key concern was that Chinese law was still being "trampled on," illustrating his point by recounting the retaliation against his family since his escape from 19 months of house arrest last month.

When asked what Washington could do to push the rule of law in China, the self-taught lawyer said: "They can try harder."

"It's a very complicated thing this diplomacy between big countries, but no matter how you put it human rights is a very basic human value," said Chen, who traveled to the United States with his wife and two young children.

"If you can't even care about such fundamental human values the other interests are very superficial by comparison. We say in China you don't want to care only about the branches and forget about the core," he said.

After four years in jail on what he and his supporters say were trumped-up charges designed to end his activism, Chen was released in 2010 and put under house arrest in eastern Shandong province, his home a fortress of walls, cameras and guards.

Chen had accused Shandong officials in 2005 of forcing women to have late-term abortions and sterilizations to comply with China's strict family-planning policies. He was charged with whipping up a crowd that disrupted traffic and damaged property.

After his escape, Chen sought refuge at the U.S. embassy in Beijing for six days, embarrassing China and creating an awkward backdrop for U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to improve ties between the world's two biggest economies.

"I didn't know there was a strategic dialogue going to happen because I had been cut off from communications with everyone. I was just isolated from the rest of the world so that was a total coincidence," Chen said.

"IS THERE ANY JUSTICE?"

Chen is going to study as a fellow at New York University School of Law under a deal reached between the United States and China to resolve his situation.

"The central government is letting me come to the U.S. to study, that is unprecedented. Regardless of what they did in the past as long as they are beginning to move in the right direction we should affirm it," Chen said.

"Liberating our thinking is in our constitution, I think (the central government) will do it," he said. "Some local authorities, they are very backward and I think it's going to take more time to change them."

In an interview with Reuters last week and during his appearance at the Council on Foreign Relations on Thursday, Chen expressed concern for the plight of his family, particularly his brother and nephew.

His nephew, Chen Kegui, who has been charged with "intentional homicide" and accused of using knives to fend off local officials who burst into his home the day after they discovered his uncle had escaped house arrest. His lawyers, who have been denied access to him, said he did not kill anyone.

"The local authorities ... hired thugs with axe handles and busted their way into the home of my older brother and his son," Chen said. "They were very severely beaten and the axe handles, the thick handles, they broke ... as they were beating them."

"In that kind of situation my nephew really had no choice but to take a kitchen knife and fight back," he said. "My nephew, who was about to be killed if he didn't fight back, is now being accused of intentional killing. Is there any justice, is there any rationale in any of this?"

Chen's eldest brother, Chen Guangfu, fled his village last week, evading a security clamp-down to seek help from lawyers for his son. He recounted to Reuters details of his own torture and reprisals by authorities since his brother's escape but has since returned to his home.

"These are all illegal activities but nobody is going after them for that," Chen said. "The moral standards here are at rock bottom because any person of conscience would say this is wrong. And as far as I understand the retaliation is continuing."

"I still hope the central government will be able to live up to their promise and investigate this," Chen said. "They gave me this promise more than once. They stressed it."

(Editing by Vicki Allen)

Play Video
Chen Guangcheng: 'Historic transition'�?

AP
Blind activist Chen Guangcheng is pictured�?

Reuters
Activist Chen urges China to prosecute�?

Reuters
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China Demands Apology From U.S. Over�?

CBS 2 New York

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Russia computer experts who detected Flame malware issue warning

MOSCOW ? Computer virus experts at Kaspersky Lab, acting with the blessing of the United Nations, were searching for a villain dubbed the Wiper when they came across a much more menacing suspect requiring a new moniker: Flame.

The malicious program left experts all but certain that a government sponsor intent on cyber warfare and intelligence gathering was behind some suspicious activity, in part because of the likely cost of such a sophisticated endeavor.

"We entered a dark room in search of something and came out with something else in our hands, something different, something huge and sinister," Vitaly Kamlyuk, a senior antivirus expert at Kaspersky Lab, said in an interview Wednesday.

Kamlyuk said Flame can copy and steal data and audio files, turn on a computer microphone and record all the sounds in its vicinity, take screen shots, read documents and emails, and capture passwords and logins.

The program can communicate with other computers in its radius via the infected computer's Bluetooth capability and locate their whereabouts even without an Internet connection, he said.

"We haven't figured out yet whether it can carry out some destructive actions but we can say with confidence that it is a powerful universal set of tools for cyber espionage," Kamlyuk said.

"Many people still think that cyber warfare is a myth and a fantasy but as we reassemble and study one by one the numerous components and modules of this unique program we see that it is a real weapon of this undeclared war that is already going on."

Experts worldwide have been surprised and impressed by the emergence of Flame, which Kaspersky Lab detected after being asked several weeks ago by the United Nations' International Telecommunication Union to check reports of suspicious computer activity. It is believed that a wide variety of computers belonging to individuals and state-related organizations were targeted in the Middle East and North Africa, including Iran, Syria, Lebanon and Sudan.

Kaspersky Lab has uncovered damage to at least 189 computers in Iran, 98 in Israel and the Palestinian territories, 32 in Sudan, 30 in Syria, 18 in Lebanon, 10 in Saudi Arabia and five in Egypt. Many more computers may have been infected by Flame, Kamlyuk said.

Experts are still studying the software program and trying to determine the point of entry.

A previous worm-like malware known as Stuxnet targeted computers in Iran controlling centrifuges at nuclear facilities and was believed to be an effort by Israel, the United States or both.

"Stuxnet's goal was to identify infrastructural ties with industrial systems of Iran and cause material damage," Kamlyuk said. "The malware could reprogram the control of [uranium enrichment] centrifuges, command the speed of the engine, keep it to the maximum without rest and eventually destroy the equipment."

Kaspersky then found a way to oppose that threat and protect its clients but stopped short of identifying the culprit.

Analyzing Flame, which is considered a far more powerful weapon than Stuxnet, may take many months, but Kaspersky experts have little doubt that it is a government-backed program carried out in secrecy.

"Cyber weapons like Stuxnet and Flame can be potentially considered serious threats to national security," Kamlyuk said. "Humankind has entered a new era, the era of cyber war, but we don't want to paint scary scenarios and provide potential clues for current and future perpetrators of such attacks."

Despite the accomplishments of a private company such as Kaspersky Lab, some analysts in Russia said the country remains unprepared for cyber war.

"It is a natural process that all these new breakthrough technologies immediately attract military and intelligence agencies," Leonid Ivashov, vice president of the Academy on Geopolitical Affairs, a Moscow-based think tank, said in an interview.

"And it would be rash and stupid to hope that those who still think of world supremacy will not try to take advantage of these new technologies, which can help them conquer the world without bombs and missiles."

Russia does not have adequate industry, research centers, institutes or expertise to meet the challenges of modern cyber technology, said Ivashov, a former chief of the Russian Defense Ministry's international military cooperation directorate.

Gennady Gudkov, deputy chairman of the security committee of the State Duma, the parliament's lower house, said the country's computer technology, largely dependent on foreign-made software and hardware, leaves it "extremely vulnerable and virtually defenseless in conditions of cyber warfare."

sergei.loiko@latimes.com

Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-russia-flame-cyberwar-20120531,0,4986511.story?track=rss

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In test for euro zone, Ireland votes on fiscal treaty

DUBLIN ? Linked by a common currency but not a common economy, the crisis-battered euro-zone nations are facing a pivotal choice: Either forge more closely together or risk their currency union breaking apart. But are European voters ? some in nations divided by centuries of rivalries ? willing to take that leap toward closer integration?

The fiercely independent Irish are about to offer a window into the answer. Voters here go to the polls Thursday in a referendum on a region-wide fiscal treaty inked in January that would impose strict limits on budget deficits and debt. In effect, the treaty would see the European governments that ratify it surrender a measure of sovereignty over two of their most sacred economic rights ? how much they can borrow and how much they can spend ? to the bureaucrats in the region?s administrative capital of Brussels.

The referendum, in many ways, is shaping up as a litmus test for the will of Europeans to more deeply tie their economic fortunes together. As the region?s crisis deepens, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso underscored the urgency on Wednesday, heightening calls for radical rule changes that would begin to make the 17 member nations of the euro zone act more and more like the 50 U.S. states.

A fund drawn from all euro-zone members, he said, should to be directly used to rescue ailing banks throughout the region, shifting the burden away from national governments. In addition, he called for the adoption of a regional deposit-insurance program, similar to the FDIC in the United States, and the creation of a new regional banking supervisor. He reiterated calls for eurobonds ? or collective debt that could replace national bonds across the 17-nation euro zone, seeing the risk of wobbly nations, such as Greece, Ireland and Spain, offset by the might of the German taxpayer.

One of the biggest obstacles, however, is fiscally conservative Germany, the powerhouse of Europe that is reluctant to use its financial clout to back weaker euro-zone countries that have disastrous finances. Thus, Berlin has called the new fiscal treaty essential. By strictly limiting spending in profligate nations, the Germans contend that the pact will prevent a repeat of the credit-fueled decade that has brought the euro zone to the brink of breakup while allowing Berlin to consider bolder steps toward integration.

Many fear the kind of timetable the Germans are working on ? months on some measures, years on others ? will nevertheless not come fast enough to quell the current crisis.

At the same time, some Irish are asking whether enshrining austerity in law is really a bright idea, especially as France?s new president, Francios Hollande, is pressing for a pact that shifts the emphasis of Europe?s response from austerity to growth and with German Chancellor Angela Merkel facing tough opposition to treaty ratification in her own parliament. The Irish, in fact, are being asked to make that decision as waves of budget cuts aimed at meeting the terms of their $113�billion bailout from the European Union and International Monetary Fund have already plunged the country back into recession.

Source: http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/click.phdo?i=b9e7240be1fb49d425f0f7831da93af8

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Suspected Seattle Cafe Killer Shoots Self

Police believe a man who opened fire and killed three people at a Seattle cafe today also killed a fourth person during a subsequent confrontation, then shot himself as officers closed in.

Seattle police tweeted that the suspect "is still alive and receiving treatment at Harborview Medical Center" -- though efforts to confirm that information were not immediately successful.

The shootings began at approximately 11 a.m. PST when a gunman opened fire at Cafe Racer Espresso in Seattle's University District north of downtown, setting off a massive manhunt, police said. Two victims, both male, died at the scene. A third died at Harborview Medical Center.

People who were brought to the hospital suffered gunshot wounds to the head, according to Susan Gregg, a hospital spokeswoman.

It was unclear what prompted the cafe shooting.

The area where the suspect shot himself was about seven miles southwest of downtown Seattle. Seattle Deputy Police Chief Nick Metz said it also was about a mile to a mile and a half from where the suspect's vehicle earlier was found abandoned. A gun was found on the vehicle's car seat, according to police.

During a search of the area, a detective spotted the suspect on the street and started watching him, police said. When back-up officers arrived and started moving toward the man, he turned to the officers and the officers ordered him to drop his weapon.

Ted S. Warren/AP

A Seattle Police officer stands outside a...

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Instead, the suspect put a firearm to his head and pulled the trigger, firing one shot, and immediately dropped to the ground.

The second shooting incident occurred in downtown Seattle, about a 15-minute drive from the cafe shootings and about 30 minutes later. An unidentified woman was shot in the head after she was seen arguing with the suspect, police said.

The initial shootings at the cafe spurred a massive manhunt. Police scoured the surrounding area for the suspect and warned people in the area to be on the alert.

"We are asking folks to be on guard and not to open their doors to anybody they don't know," Metz told ABC News' Seattle affiliate, KOMO-TV.

Roosevelt High School, which is near the cafe, was put on lockdown while police armed with rifles continued to search the area.

Two other nearby schools, Greenwood Elementary School and Eckstein Middle School, were put on a modified lockdown, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported.

No one answered the phone at Cafe Racer. A recorded message urged callers to "remember to come visit us, where we keep safety third."

The cafe suspect was described as a thin, white man between 30 and 40 years old. He was approximately 6-foot-1 and had curly, light brown hair and a beard or goatee. Witnesses said he was wearing a white-and-brown plaid shirt and dark pants.

The man who killed the woman in the later confrontation was described as a 35-year-old white man with blonde hair.

"We've had two tragic shootings today that have shaken this city," Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn told reporters.

He said he has asked police to find ways to end the gun violence.

"It's their highest priority to identify the strategies we need to employ to try to bring an end to this wave of gun violence that this city is seeing," he said.

ABC News' John Capell and ABC News Radio contributed to this report.

Source: http://feeds.abcnews.com/click.phdo?i=75caaad35f01378d58d30586f2b59348

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Swim lessons help kids break cycle

The Josh Project has helped more than 1,000 children in Ohio learn to swim

Most of them are minorities, according to Wanda Butts, whose son drowned in 2006

Statistics show that minority children are less likely than white children to know how to swim

Do you know a hero? Nominations are open for 2012 CNN Heroes

Toledo, Ohio (CNN) -- Wanda Butts dropped the phone and screamed when she heard the news that her son was dead.

Josh had drowned while rafting on a lake with friends. The 16-year-old didn't know how to swim, and he wasn't wearing a life jacket.

"I couldn't believe it, I didn't want to believe it: that just like that, my son had drowned and he was gone," she said, recalling the 2006 tragedy.

Butts had worried about her son's safety when it came to street violence or driving, and she said she had always warned him of those dangers. But water accidents never crossed her mind.

"It did not occur to me that my son would drown because he didn't know water safety," she said. "Josh was never taught the basic life skill of learning how to swim."

Giving kids a lifesaving skill

"So as a child, I never went around water," said Butts, 58. "I never went swimming. I didn't know anything about water or life jackets and water safety."

"After losing my son, I wanted to do something to help other people, to help another mother not have to suffer the way I do every day from the loss of a child drowning," she said.

To date, the Josh Project has helped more than 1,000 children learn how to swim.

"All children are at risk of drowning, but the majority of the children that the Josh Project serves are minority children, who we have found are more at risk," Butts said.

Do you know a hero? Nominations are open for 2012 CNN Heroes

For some families today, it's still tough to find an accessible pool.

The swimming lessons take place at a local high school over four Saturdays for a total cost of $10.

"I am less worried if (Joshua) is near water because he has the basics of how to swim," Haynes said. "And we're thankful for that."

Butts is doing much more, however, than just providing swimming lessons.

Want to get involved? Check out the Josh Project website at www.joshproject.org and see how to help.

Source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_world/~3/n9cTm7WzYX0/index.html

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WikiLeaks? Julian Assange loses Supreme Court appeal but wins chance to try again

LONDON? WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange lost his appeal before the British Supreme Court on Wednesday, paving the way for his extradition to Sweden where he is accused of rape, sexual assault and unlawful coercion.

At a short hearing in central London, the president of the Supreme Court, Nicholas Phillips, said the court dismissed the defense team?s argument that the warrant that led to Assange?s arrest was flawed.

Speaking to a packed courtroom, Phillips said the case had ?not been simple to resolve,? and was decided by a majority of 5 to 2.

Immediately after the judgment was read, Assange?s legal team asked ? and was granted ? two weeks to consider lodging an application to reopen the case.

Assange, who shot to international fame when his anti-secrecy Web site spilled official state secrets in the form of Afghanistan and Iraq military reports and a mammoth cache of diplomatic cables, did not appear in court on Wednesday.

Swedish authorities want to question Assange ? no charges have been laid ? about separate encounters he had with two WikiLeaks volunteers who say they had consensual sex with Assange, but at some stage, it became non-consensual. One of the women, described in the courts here as ?Miss B,? accused Assange of having unwanted sex with her while she was asleep.

While Assange insists the sex was consensual, his case before the Supreme Court hinged on a single technicality: was the Swedish prosecutor who issued the European arrest warrant that led to his arrest in December 2010 a valid judicial authority?

Only a ?competent judicial authority? can issue a European arrest warrant, a system ushered in to speed up extradition between European nations.

In a 161-page judgment, the Supreme Court haggles over what, exactly, is meant by the words ?judicial authority,? ultimately rejecting Assange?s arguments that this can?t include a public prosecutor.

While the Supreme Court is Britain?s highest appellate court for civil cases, Assange has not yet exhausted all of his legal options.

Assange can still appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, which would decide within two weeks whether or not to take the case. If that court declines to take the case, Assange will be extradited to Sweden ?as soon as arrangements can be made,? according to a statement by the Crown Prosecution Service. If the European Court accepts the case, analysts say, his long-running legal battle could drag on for weeks or months longer.

In February 2011, a lower court in Britain granted Sweden's extradition request. Assange appealed the ruling and lost, but won permission to appeal to the Supreme Court, which agreed to hear the case before seven judges ? two more than normal ? because, the court said, of the ?great public importance of the issue raised, which is whether a prosecutor is a judicial authority.?

Assange?s lawyers have argued that the allegations lodged against him are politically motivated and that they fear Swedish authorities may hand him over to the United States to face charges under the Espionage Act for leaking State Department diplomatic cable.

Over the next two weeks, Assange will remain in Britain under his current bail terms that include wearing an electronic tag around his ankle and checking in daily with local police.

Such is the worldwide interest in the case that the Supreme Court issued a statement last week encouraging visitors not attending the Assange judgment to ?choose another day to visit the building.?

Source: http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/click.phdo?i=b74ece0c9ebc8c8673edbbc03b1a5fb7

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How a U.S. Radar Station in the Negev Affects a Potential Israel-Iran Clash

U.S. Army

On a desert hilltop in the remote southwest of Israel stands a compelling argument against any notion that the Jewish state will launch an attack on Iran without the United States. The discreet complex atop Mt. Keren is a U.S. military installation, and the 100 U.S. service members who staff it are the only foreign troops stationed in Israel. Most are guards; a few are support. The technicians are recognizable by the protective suits they wear to shield them from the extraordinary amounts of radiation generated by the no less extraordinary apparatus the base is built around.

The small, rectangular-shaped portable radar peeking around a concrete blast wall is so advanced it can see over the horizon, and so sensitive it can spot a softball tossed in the air from 2,900 miles away. (Tehran is a mere 1,000 miles away to the northwest.) On Mt. Keren, the X-band radar is indeed pointed northwest, toward Iran, where it could detect a Shahab-3 missile launched toward Israel just seconds into its flight ? and six to seven minutes earlier than Israel would know from its own radar, called Green Pine.

(LIST: Five Tips for President Obama on Nuclear Negotiations with Iran)

The extra time means a great deal. Six additional minutes increases by at least 60% the time Israeli officials would have to sound sirens that will send civilians scrambling into bomb shelters. It also substantially increases the chances of launching interceptors to knock down the incoming missile before it reaches Israel, hiking the likelihood its wreckage or warhead falls in, say, the wastes of the Jordanian desert rather than Israel's heavily populated coastal plain. And should the interceptor miss, the extra time might allow for the launch of a second one.

All this is possible, however, only if U.S. officials choose to share the information, because only Americans have eyes on the radar. And if it's difficult to imagine a U.S. commander-in-chief choosing to withhold an early warning that could save civilian lives of a close ally, both sides recognize that if the Iranian missiles were launched in retaliation for an Israeli air strike, the onus might be on the Israeli government that set such events in motion. In any event, military officials and outside analysts say that uncertainty can only inhibit any Israeli impulse to "go it alone."

The setting of the unmarked U.S. compound, in a stretch of desert barely five miles from the Egyptian border, captures the situation. The state-of-the-art radar is tucked into a landscape buzzing with Israeli military posts and training operations. Israeli infantry drill on broken ground to either side of the road approaching the hilltop installation, which is surrounded by a chain link fence and a yellow metal gate. The guards who come out to meet visitors are plainclothes members of the Israeli Ministry of Defense agency responsible for security at Israel's most sensitive sites, including the Dimona nuclear facility to the north.

(MORE: Why Netanyahu's Visit to Discuss Iran Puts Obama in a Political Minefield)

Inside the wire, however, the chain of command is American. In the one-story building beside the radar, technically called the Army-Navy Transportable Surveillance Radar, or AN/TPY-2, the data flows first to technicians' readouts, then on to California, where the U.S. Missile Defense Agency also registers feeds from satellites and sea-borne sensors. If their computers recognize an ascending fireball as a hostile missile launch, U.S. commanders may pass the information to their Israeli counterparts.

The entire system is of course built on the assumption that they will. The American and Israeli militaries have meshed their missile defense systems so snugly that they operate a joint command center, located on an Israeli military base near Tel Aviv. The Arrow interceptor missile that would be launched to knock down the attack is itself a joint-effort of the Pentagon and the Kirya, as Israeli's defense headquarters is known. Come October, some 5,000 American troops will travel to Israel for their largest joint exercise ever, one constructed entirely around missile defense.

But the Israelis are keenly aware that, in this case, information is power, and Washington has the right to withhold it. "We share a lot, but there's a valve on the pipeline, and it's a one-way valve," says a Western military official involved in the program.

The workaday reality of the U.S. radar ? it has been operating since 2009 ? also undercuts the notion of Israel launching a surprise attack on Iran that would also take Washington unawares. Not only does it see all traffic at Israeli air bases, it would certainly detect any large scale or other unusual patterns, including preparations for a massive air assault. Allowing the Americans that capability was a trade-off Israeli officials conceded only grudgingly, as TIME reported when the radar installation was announced in 2008.

"It's about the United States hugging the Israelis," says an American missile expert outside of government. The intense military cooperation between Washington and Jerusalem, which both sides agree is the closest it's ever been, not only helps assure Israel's security. It also tethers Israel's military to the Pentagon. Sometimes the benefits are frankly political: When Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system won the heart of the Israeli public by downing short-range rockets out of the Gaza Strip, sparing Israeli cities, Congress quickly authorized $200 million to purchase nine more.

(MORE: What Lies? Beneath the Mysterious History of an Iranian Nuclear Site)

But the X-band radar installation offers both obvious advantages and what one Israeli official termed "golden handcuffs."

"It's a very sophisticated, eye-watering type of system, with a very powerful capability of precision," says the U.S. missile expert. "It was an X-band radar which was used in Operation Burnt Frost when we shot down that satellite from an Aegis ship several years back that was in a low, decaying orbit. We didn't just hit a bullet with a bullet, we hit a spot on a bullet."

The Negev base was outfitted and staffed by the U.S. European Command, which covers Israel. "For security reasons we can't talk too much about that gadget," says Capt. John Ross, a EUCOM spokesman. Declining a TIME reporter's request to visit the facility, the command insted issued a statement that seems calculatingly bland, at least until the final sentence: "The United States and Israel have a long-standing partnership in addressing issues of regional and global security. Consistent with our partnership and with our commitment to the security of our partners in the region and around the world, and at the request of the Government of Israel, the U.S. military has deployed a defensive radar system to Israel to help maintain regional security and provide a useful deterrent to any missile attacks. The Army Navy Transportable Surveillance Radar (or AN/TPY-2) is considered to be one of the most powerful systems available to track medium- to long-range ballistic missiles. The AN/TPY-2 will remain U.S. owned and operated."

COVER STORY: Will Netanyahu Choose War or Peace?

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/time/world/~3/NRY7Tfs7CNM/0,8599,2115955,00.html

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Wednesday, May 30, 2012

In test for euro zone, Ireland votes on fiscal treaty

Many fear the kind of timetable the Germans are working on ? months on some measures, years on others ? will nevertheless not come fast enough to quell the current crisis.

Source: http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/click.phdo?i=b9e7240be1fb49d425f0f7831da93af8

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