(CNN)One of the biggest TV events of all time is being reimagined for new audiences. "Roots," the epic miniseries about an African-American slave and his descendants, had a staggering audience of over 100 million viewers back in 1977. Now A&E networks are remaking the miniseries, to air in 2016. A&E, Lifetime and History (formerly the History Channel) announced Thursday that the three networks would simulcast a remake of the saga of Kunta Kinte, an African who was captured, shipped to America and sold into slavery to work on a Virginia plantation. LeVar Burton, who portrayed Kinte in the original, will co-executive produce the new miniseries. A press release describes the new version as "original" and "contemporary" and will draw more from Alex Haley's classic novel, "Roots: The Saga of an American Family." Producers will consult scholars in African and African-American history for added authenticity. "We are proud to bring this saga to fans of the original, as well as to a new generation that will experience this powerful and poignant tale for the first time," said Dirk Hoogstra, History's executive vice president and general manager. "Audiences will once again feel the impact of Kunta Kinte's indomitable spirit." Executive producer Mark Wolper, son of the original's producer David L. Wolper, added, "Kunta Kinte began telling his story over 200 years ago and that story went through his family lineage, to Alex Haley, to my father, and now the mantle rests with me. Like Kunta Kinte fought to tell his story over and over again, so must we." The remade "Roots" will encounter a new generation of viewers who have witnessed Barack Obama make history as the nation's first African-American president and "12 Years a Slave" win the Oscar for Best Picture, but also widespread racial unrest over police treatment of black suspects in many U.S. cities. "My career began with 'Roots' and I am proud to be a part of this new adaptation," said Burton. "There is a huge audience of contemporary young Americans who do not know the story of 'Roots' or its importance."

The A&E networks are remaking the blockbuster "Roots" miniseries, to air in 2016 . The epic 1977 miniseries about an African-American slave had 100 million viewers .


(CNN)We did it again, in another American city. We set Baltimore on fire this time. We brutalized black bodies. We turned a funeral into a riot. We let things get out of hand. We looted. We threw stones at policemen. We threw stones at citizens. We created camera-ready chaos, and we replayed the images. We created a culture of such deep distrust and disrespect that violence seemed the inevitable response. We let the violence flow. We let the violence stand for everything that's wrong with the things we already didn't like. By now you may be asking, "Who's we?" You may be saying with some irritation, "Don't lump me in with them. I didn't have anything to do with it." To which the only real answer can be: Stop kidding yourself. The word "we" is one of the great American words. We the People. Yes we can. We are family. I use "we" a lot when I talk about our country's achievements. I like to say we won the Second World War, we put a man on the moon, we invented the Internet, we gave the world jazz. Well, if I -- a son of immigrants whose family had nothing to do with any of those accomplishments -- if I get to claim those aspects of American history, then surely I have to claim the unsavory aspects too. "We" cuts both ways. We enslaved Africans. We cut Reconstruction short and made a mockery of equal citizenship. We supported Jim Crow, then redlined, subordinated, and ghettoized African-Americans. We cut blacks out of the New Deal. We created a polity in which racial inequity and economic inequality magnify each other unrelentingly. We tried to put a lid on it with heavy policing and a War on Drugs. We failed. We are the authors of every page of Baltimore's story. Don't tell me it's not your responsibility or mine. About how slavery and its legacy are artifacts of a time past. Someone else's problem. No, we own them all. And we all have to face that before we can fix anything in Baltimore or beyond. But there's another dimension of the story of "we" that matters as well. It's about progressives and conservatives and their competing stories of how we got here. Every time protests and violence break out in response to police brutality, the same depressing pattern breaks out. The event becomes simply a Rorschach test for left and right, and each side sees in the rioting confirmation of its prior views. For the left, it's about the deep structural root causes of the alienation and violence. Liberals gravitate on social media to commentaries or reactions that reinforce this frame, like the surprisingly astute comments from the Baltimore Orioles executive who spelled out why a long history of racial injustice and economic disenfranchisement made rioting nearly inevitable. Conservatives gravitate to their own frames, about a lack of personal responsibility or role models among poor urban blacks, about the failures of Great Society and Democratic programs, and about how it all comes back to a president (who happens to be black) who has divided us by focusing so much on race. What gets lost in this Groundhog Day replay of left-right frames is a simple reality that we all have to recognize: Both longstanding structural racism and personal irresponsibility are on display this week. Both a history of police brutality and a present crisis of street violence. Both an inherited, multigenerational lack of opportunity and a dearth of leaders willing to address it. We cannot separate out the aspects of the problem that don't fit our preferred explanation -- not if we are sincere about solving the problem. And until more people can see this, we will not see progress. We can't judge looters for their antisocial behavior without judging a color-caste structure and a school-to-prison pipeline that has flushed them away like so much refuse. By the same token, we can't keep opining about root causes without also supporting the parents and pastors and neighbors who, in their own small ways, are organizing each other to break the cycle of brokenness. I'm of the left. But it cannot possibly be that only those with whom I disagree are responsible for what is happening in Baltimore. It cannot possibly be that only my worldview contains all the solutions. Whatever our political perspective, we need to open our eyes to what is actually happening in Baltimore and other cities in the United States in the second decade of the 21st century. It is an abomination. We should all be able to say that. It's time to push each other out of our ideological and identity comfort zones and build unlikely coalitions to create more opportunity. It's time to act like we are all in charge. Because we are. And there is no other "we" waiting in the wings.

In Baltimore, after the death of Freddie Gray, riots erupted, cars were set on fire and 200 arrests were made . Eric Liu: Liberals and conservatives react predictably, see the riots as confirmation of their views . It's time to push each other out of our ideological and identity comfort zones and change the status quo, he says .


(CNN)The underwater search area for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 looks set to double in size. Teams are scouring the depths of a remote part of the southern Indian Ocean for the remains of the passenger jet that disappeared more than a year ago with 239 people on board. So far, they've covered about 60% of the priority search zone without reporting any trace of the airliner. Families of passengers and crew members still have no answers about what happened to their loved ones. If the searchers haven't found anything by the time they've covered the entire 60,000-square-kilometer priority zone, the search will stretch into a new equally vast area, government officials from Malaysia, Australia and China announced Thursday. "Ministers remain committed to bring closure and some peace to the families and loved ones of those on board Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370," the three countries said in a joint statement. The search of the current priority zone is expected to be completed in May. Covering the new zone could take as long as a year. At that point, "all high probability search areas would have been covered," the governments said Thursday. The size of the doubled search area, the equivalent of more than 46,000 square miles, would be bigger than the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Flight 370 vanished after taking off from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on March 8, 2014, bound for Beijing. Officials are still trying to figure out why it veered dramatically off course over the sea between Malaysia and Vietnam and where exactly it ended up. An international team of experts used satellite data to calculate that the plane eventually went down in the southern Indian Ocean, far off the coast of Western Australia. The people on board the  Boeing 777 came from various nations, but the majority were Chinese. CNN's Elizabeth Joseph contributed to this report.

Malaysia, Australia and China announce possible new phase of hunt for missing plane . The search of the current priority zone is expected to be completed in May .


(CNN)It's a girls' universe. On Wednesday, DC Entertainment, Warner Bros. and Mattel announced a partnership to launch DC Super Hero Girls, featuring familiar superheroes and supervillains as "relatable teens," according to a press release. (Like CNN, DC and Warner Bros. are units of Time Warner.) The characters involved include Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Batgirl, Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy, among others. Though initial reaction on social media appeared favorable -- "My daughter will be a big fan I think," wrote NerdGallagher -- praise wasn't universal. "Just let us into the old universes!" tweeted Kathleen E. Kennedy. And Jenna Busch, writing for Legion of Leia, was concerned the initiative was another way of keeping girls separate. "Targeting them as 'for girls only' is just another way to be exclusive," she wrote. "Look, I appreciate the effort, but drawing yet another line between men and women is not the way to go. So, where are you going to put these products in Target? On the pink side of the toy section or the blue side?" DC Super Hero Girls is aimed at girls ages 6-12 and will include online content, toys, books and TV specials. Mattel is the toy licensee and Random House Books for Young Readers will publish books based on the franchise. The first elements will roll out in the fall.

DC, partners introduce DC Super Hero Girls, intended for girls 6-12 . Reaction mostly favorable -- but some caveats .


(CNN)The cover-up is often worse than the crime. Henry Louis Gates stands accused of scrubbing part of a segment in his PBS documentary series "Finding Your Roots" because the actor Ben Affleck put pressure on him. Affleck's concern was that the segment would have aired his family's dirty laundry, which includes a slaveholding ancestor, Benjamin Cole. Affleck said, in a statement posted on Facebook, that he "didn't want any television show about my family to include a guy who owned slaves. I was embarrassed." And Gates later explained that he subbed that part of the segment for another that made for more "compelling television." But providing a window into the importance of slavery's past to America's present should never just be about what makes for good television. Gates missed an opportunity. And Affleck's initial reluctance to acknowledge his truth (an impulse, he said on Facebook, he regrets) is surprising. Last month, Affleck lent his star power to support continued foreign assistance for the Democratic Republic of Congo by testifying before Congress. He isn't shy about aligning himself with causes and issues. What more could he do if his instinct is also to tackle issues closer to home: the legacy of slavery in his own family tree and how it is possible -- necessary -- to reject the racism passed through generations even today. He should have shown the courage to stay in an uncomfortable place. What a teachable moment for the country. In any case, why did he agree to do a television show if he was concerned about what might be discovered? He could have paid a genealogist to uncover his ancestry, if privacy was what he wanted. The irony here is that none of this would have ever been found out if Sony's emails had not been hacked and if Gates hadn't written to Michael Lynton, CEO of Sony Entertainment, for advice. In the leaked exchange, Lynton advised: "I would take it out if no one knows, but if it gets out that you are editing the material based on this kind of sensitivity then it gets tricky." Gates acknowledges that to delete the segment at the request of a guest "would be a violation of PBS rules." Then he does it anyway. Gates, however, denies doing this. After the story came to light, he released a statement saying that he "maintained editorial control" and decided what made "for the most compelling program." For Affleck's "Finding Your Roots" segment, he substituted a Revolutionary War ancestor instead of the slave-owning one. If Gates thought there was no need for the slavery segment because it didn't make for good television, there would have been no need to consult with Lynton; Gates could have given Affleck what he wanted because he made the assessment of how strong Affleck's story was. The original script, reprinted on Gawker and elsewhere, makes it clear, however, that the slave-owner angle makes for better television. Here are some excerpts: . Gates sets up the segment describing Benjamin Cole as living in Savannah, Georgia. Affleck responds that he has a house in Savannah. Gates says "Really?" and asks whether he knew he had roots there. Affleck says he had no idea he had any Southern roots at all. Then the voice-over lowers the boom: "We wanted to see if we could learn how Ben's ancestor felt about (slavery)." Gates shows the slave schedule of the 1850 Census to Affleck, who says, "There's Benjamin Cole, owned 25 slaves." Affleck says, "It gives me a kind of sagging feeling to see, uh, a biological relationship to that. But you know, there it is, part of our history." Gates then says: "But consider the irony, in your family line. Your mom went back fighting for the rights of black people in Mississippi, 100 years later. That's amazing." Affleck then observes: "Indeed, people like my mother and many others who have made a much better America than the one that they were handed." What a great line. What a great story. And indeed when a public figure -- a celebrity -- chooses to confront the past like this, instead of ignoring it, he can provide a powerful example to a country that struggles daily with the roots of racism in its present. This is the kind of enlightened approach Gates and PBS should have been interested in facilitating. White Americans' lack of comfort in talking about slavery, race and the places in our society where racism continues to fester is at the heart of why even with a black president, we are still, as a country, far from post-racial. Affleck's segment had the potential to continue an important dialogue -- but the brand management part of Affleck won, and the rest is history. The fallout continues. Gates has to deal with PBS and WNET's internal review. He should not walk away without consequences. If you're going to run with the megastars, you need to have mega-ethics.

Dorothy Brown: Ben Affleck and Henry Louis Gates scrubbed segment about Affleck's slave-owning ancestors from TV show . She says they two missed a chance to discuss racial issues that still fester in this country .


(CNN)A white police officer claims he feared for his life and is justified in killing an unarmed black man. A police chief supports the police officer, who is ultimately exonerated, and a predominantly black community seethes with rage because it knows that an injustice was done. We've seen this movie before. Spoiler Alert: Cop gets away with it. Routine stops for walking in the middle of the street or driving with a broken taillight -- these should not result in anyone's death. But time and again it ends with a black man dead in the street and the community has no recourse. This time the stage was set in North Charleston, South Carolina, a city of about 100,000 people. Walter Scott was stopped by Officer Michael Slager for a broken taillight, and within minutes Scott was dead. According to the incident report, Slager said: "Shots fired, and the subject is down. He took my Taser." His attorney at the time, David Aylor, said that Slager "felt threatened and reached for his department-issued firearm and fired his weapon." But then came the video. We watched in horror as we saw Slager shoot Scott in the back multiple times. Then we saw Slager pick up something from one location and place it near Scott's lifeless body. On Tuesday, the officer was arrested on murder charges. North Charleston police Chief Eddie Driggers told reporters, "I have watched the video, and I was sickened by what I saw." Apparently so was Slager's attorney, who announced after the video was made public that he was no longer representing the officer. After the video became public, the officials in North Charleston deftly handled the situation. However, it was an easy case. There is no plausible evidence that Slager feared for his life when Scott is seen running away. In Ferguson, the video we have in the death of Michael Brown is of press conferences with police Chief Tom Jackson, who refused to release the police officer's name, but did release a video that appeared to show Michael Brown stealing cigars. We have the video of the military weapons deployed by the police in Ferguson that were trained on its residents and the press. The world seethed. North Charleston's police force is about 80% white, with a population of 47% black and 37% white in the city. Ferguson's police force is 94% white (only three of the 53 police officers are black), and the city is 67% black and 29% white. Both North Charleston and Ferguson have police forces that are not representative of the population they serve, yet because of a video North Charleston's police force got in front of the story. I'm not sure North Charleston gets here without learning something from the mistakes of Ferguson. I have heard many commentators say the North Charleston shooting doesn't have anything to do with race.  I don't buy it. I wonder how many whites in North Charleston with broken taillights get pulled over? Being pulled over for driving while black is a well-known phenomenon, which I discuss in my "Critical Race Theory" casebook. Racial profiling by Slager could have been the catalyst for Scott being pulled over in the first place. Yes, the North Charleston officials behaved differently than the officials in Ferguson. I don't think it's because race had nothing to do with it. It is that perhaps the North Charleston officials are better than those in Ferguson when it comes to racially charged situations -- especially given the instructive fallout from Brown's shooting. And, of course, the video. It remains to be seen whether Slager will be convicted of murder. Strange things can happen in a jury room. Recall how the Rodney King videotape allowed a Simi Valley, California, jury to acquit the Los Angeles police officers, but a federal jury later convicted the officers of violating King's civil rights. What a video proves can sometimes be in the eye of the beholder.

Dorothy Brown: Shooting by cop might have followed usual narrative of blaming black suspects . But video in Walter Scott's fatal shooting showed the truth, Brown says . With hindsight from Michael Brown case, North Charleston did the right thing with arrest .


(CNN)A top al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula leader -- who a few years ago was in a U.S. detention facility -- was among five killed in an airstrike in Yemen, the terror group said, showing the organization is vulnerable even as Yemen appears close to civil war. Ibrahim al-Rubaish died Monday night in what AQAP's media wing, Al-Malahem Media, called a "crusader airstrike."  The Al-Malahem Media obituary characterized al-Rubaish as a religious scholar and combat commander. A Yemeni Defense Ministry official and two Yemeni national security officials not authorized to speak on record confirmed that al-Rubaish had been killed, but could not specify how he died. Al-Rubaish was once held by the U.S. government at its detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In fact, he was among a number of detainees who sued the administration of then-President George W. Bush to challenge the legality of their confinement in Gitmo. He was eventually released as part of Saudi Arabia's program for rehabilitating jihadist terrorists, a program that U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama, characterized as "a failure." In December 2009, Sessions listed al-Rubaish among those on the virtual " 'Who's Who' of al Qaeda terrorists on the Arabian peninsula ... who have either graduated or escaped from the program en route to terrorist acts." The United States has been active in Yemen, working closely with governments there to go after AQAP leaders like al-Rubaish. While it was not immediately clear how he died, drone strikes have killed many other members of the terrorist group. Yemen, however, has been in disarray since Houthi rebels began asserting themselves last year. The Shiite minority group even managed to take over the capital of Sanaa and, in January, force out Yemeni President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi -- who had been a close U.S. ally in its anti-terror fight. Hadi still claims he is Yemen's legitimate leader, and he is working with a Saudi-led military coalition to target Houthis and supporters of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Meanwhile, Yemen has been awash in violence and chaos -- which in some ways has been good for groups such as AQAP. A prison break earlier this month freed 270 prisoners, including some senior AQAP figures, according to a senior Defense Ministry official, and the United States pulled the last of its special operations forces out of Yemen last month, which some say makes things easier for AQAP. CNN's Anas Hamdan and Merieme Arif contributed to this report.

AQAP says a "crusader airstrike" killed Ibrahim al-Rubaish . Al-Rubaish was once detained by the United States in Guantanamo .


(CNN)Sen. Elizabeth Warren insists she's not running for president. But her description of a 2016 "dream" presidential candidate sounds a lot like, well, her. Warren, during an appearance Friday on CNN's "New Day," said she wanted to see someone willing to fight for the middle class and "make Washington work for families again." Warren says she feels that Washington functions well for special interest groups and the well-connected but leaves out the rest of the nation. "(I've) spent my whole life studying what's happening to America's middle class and watching year by year, one blow after another," she said. "We live in an America now where the game is rigged, where Washington works really great for those who hire armies of lobbyists, armies of lawyers. It's just not working so well for the rest of America." Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, also got specific with her wish list, mentioning that a candidate willing to lower the interest rates on student loans and shore up Social Security would get high marks from her. What the economy means for 2016 . She wouldn't say which of the slew of declared or yet-to-declare candidates fit that bill, but she did want to give all of them a chance as the 2016 campaign kicks off. "I really want to give everybody who gets in this race a chance to get out there and put their agenda in front of us," she said. However, Warren said the two Republican candidates who have gotten into the race -- Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul -- have already disqualified themselves in her eyes because of how they've voted in Congress. "I've watched them vote," Warren said. "They voted against the Social Security benefits increase. They voted against reducing the interest rate on student loans." Opinion: Can Democrats really take on Wall Street? Warren, a former special adviser for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is something of a political rock star in the eyes of many liberal and progressive voters because of her populist leanings and her passionate calls for an end to income inequality. Many of them want her to get into the race and become a viable challenger to Democratic frontrunner Hilary Clinton. When asked, yet again, if she was going to run, Warren didn't exactly say no. "I want to see who else gets in this race," she said. "And I want to see what the issues are that they push."

The Massachusetts senator says Washington works well for special interests and the well-connected but leaves out the rest of the nation . She says that in her eyes, two declared GOP candidates have already disqualified themselves .


(CNN)Looting, fires and violence descended on Baltimore. Like most who know and love that city, I was heartbroken. I was once a cop in Baltimore. Police, trying to save their city last weekend, were blamed both for doing too little and for doing too much. The ghetto, and I'm talking class and not race, was on full display by Monday. The whole nation saw beautiful Baltimore at its worst. The protests started in response to the death of Freddie Gray in police hands. We still don't know what happened to Freddie Gray. Something bad happened. There's an investigation. Maybe the investigation should be going faster. But maybe rushing the investigation would compromise prosecution. (And forced testimony can't be used in prosecution; police officers too have constitutional rights as criminal defendants.) I don't know. Here's the thing: Police officers who weren't there don't know what happened to Freddie Gray. If there are criminally guilty cops, police have no problem with justice. But those who caused destruction on Monday had little, if anything, to do with Freddie Gray protests. They were, as the mayor put it, thugs. Call them what you will, normally what happens in the hood stays in the hood. Those who cut fire hoses and burned down homes and businesses? Police deal with them every day, literally. Those criminals didn't just appear on Monday, and they won't be gone tomorrow. They live there, without jobs, education, mainstream social skills, or hope. They don't come from stable families. They don't go to church. Most violent criminals are actively or passively involved in the drug trade. In Baltimore this year -- just like last year and just like next year -- police will arrest tens of thousands of poor black men, mostly on drug charges. From the same pool, 200 will be shot and killed. Another 200 will do the killing. These are communities, like the Baltimore's Eastern District, in which more than 10% of men are murdered.  If all of America had homicide levels found in parts of Baltimore, there would be over 300,000 murders per year (as opposed to the still shamefully high 12,000 homicides in America). And yet some continue to think of police as the main problem rather than part of the solution. But Baltimore is not Ferguson. The police department is 50% non-white. The mayor is black. So is the police commissioner. The city is 65% African-American. So imagine you're a young white cop, as I was, in a rough neighborhood. A nice retired African-American gentleman calls 911 because the kids in front of his house, also black, are rowdy, breaking bottles, selling drugs, and otherwise being disrespectful. Just out of the police academy, I pulled up to countless of these situations. What to do? Usually I stopped, stared, and they moved on. Sometimes I would get out of my car. But I shouldn't have to. We all played by the same rules. It's about respect. Sometimes I would ask politely. Sometimes I had to order rudely. Sometimes I would ask for ID. Sometimes I would frisk, search, or arrest. That's what cops do. Every day. That's what I did. I had to. That was my job. Ultimately police are in a no-win situation. And when things go wrong, they go wrong fast. People run. There are fights. Guns. People get hurt. Sometimes people die. Sometimes -- not very often -- it's the police officer's fault. But even if there were no racist or brutal cops -- if every cop were a polite, fit, college-educated, bilingual, African-American gentleman or woman -- this wouldn't solve the greater problems of the ghetto or even police abuse. Police abuse has less to do with race than poverty and class. And police will never solve the problems of absent parents, mass incarceration, or a violence culture centered around the economics of drug prohibition. Even so, rather than face up to our problems, we calls for the cops to do something, anything. Yes, bad cops need to be punished. But it's too easy to blame police for all our problems. Problems police did not cause and cannot solve. And then when a cop makes a mistake, as one inevitably will, we jump on all police with a confident smugness and unbecoming glee. The problems in policing mirror the problems of society. We can and should improve police. The best way to do that is to improve society. True justice requires us to look both inward for blame and outward to the suffering around us. The worst thing we could do is nothing at all.

Peter Moskos: When man died in police custody, many unfairly blamed all Baltimore cops. But cops are in a no-win situation . He says those who trashed city are part of larger societal woes of poverty and class. In just blaming cops, we ignore source of strife .


(CNN)Seven minutes after an Aurora, Colorado, theatergoer called 911 to report a massacre in progress, suspect James Holmes surrendered to police, a dozen dead bodies allegedly in his wake. On Monday, jurors will thoroughly examine those seven minutes in a trial that experts say could last months. The prosecution has said it will seek the death penalty. Holmes has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Jurors will also be asked to consider events that occurred before and after the July 20, 2012, shooting -- namely, evidence that appears to show Holmes planned his attack, even going so far as to buy his movie ticket 12 days before, along with police allegations that officers who arrived to search Holmes' apartment had to navigate booby traps incorporating gasoline and grenades. According to police, Holmes attended the midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises" at the Century Aurora 16 Multiplex Theater but left through a rear door alongside the movie screen, propping it open behind him. Holmes returned in "head-to-toe protective gear," including a gas mask, about 18 minutes into the movie, police said, and threw two tear gas canisters into the theater before opening fire with an AR-15 rifle, a 12-gauge shotgun and at least one .40-caliber handgun. The attack killed 12 people and wounded another 70, a level of violence not seen in Colorado since the Columbine High School shooting. Five days later, authorities discovered a package in a University of Colorado-Denver mail room that police say Holmes apparently sent. Colorado authorities had no previous contact with Holmes, outside of a 2011 speeding summons, and he graduated in 2010 from the University of California, Riverside, with highest honors and a bachelor's degree in neuroscience. He enrolled as a doctoral candidate in the University of Colorado School of Medicine's neuroscience program in 2011 but dropped out the following year without providing a reason, according to a university spokeswoman. Holmes faces 165 counts, including murder and attempted murder charges, but there have already been some notable legal battles in the run-up to the actual trial. In March 2013, Holmes offered to plead guilty so he could avoid the death penalty, a deal the district attorney declined. A few months later, a judge ruled that Holmes had to be restrained during the trial, via a hidden harness anchored to the floor. The defense filed an objection, conceding that Holmes exacted the violence but blaming his actions on mental illness. "Mr. Holmes suffers from a severe mental illness and was in the throes of a psychotic episode when he committed the acts that resulted in the tragic loss of life and injuries sustained by movie goers on July 20, 2012," the motion said. Judge Carlos Samour last year ordered Holmes to submit to an additional sanity exam, saying that the previous test, conducted in 2013 at the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo, was "incomplete and inadequate." Jury selection began in January, and after a four-month process, 12 jurors and alternates, composed of 19 women and five men, were selected.

James Holmes has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in the 2012 theater shooting . His trial begins Monday, and Homes faces 165 counts, including murder and attempted murder .


(CNN)Launching rockets is a complicated thing. Landing them upright on a platform floating in the ocean? Well, that's never been done before. SpaceX, the private space exploration company founded by billionaire Elon Musk, hopes to give it a try. But weather forced it to scrub Monday's plan to launch. SpaceX said on Twitter that Tuesday at 4:10 p.m. ET will be the next opportunity for the company to launch a two-stage Falcon 9 rocket carrying an uncrewed cargo spacecraft called Dragon on a flight from Cape Canaveral, Florida, to the International Space Station. That will be the easy part. After the launch, SpaceX will try to guide the bottom stage of the rocket upright onto a platform, or what it calls an autonomous spaceport drone ship, in the Atlantic Ocean off Florida. Usually booster rockets burn up in Earth's atmosphere or, like NASA's space shuttle boosters, they fall back into the ocean. So why try to land one? Musk wants to cut costs. On his company's website, he says that if anyone can figure out how to "reuse rockets just like airplanes, the cost of access to space will be reduced by as much as a factor of a hundred." SpaceX tried to land a Falcon 9 on the drone ship in January, but the rocket hit at an angle and exploded. The company has previously said the odds of a successful landing are about 50%. If you want to see how it goes, it will post photos online throughout the mission and will put video on YouTube. And if the landing doesn't work? SpaceX says it will keep trying and, after it masters landing at sea, hopes to someday land rockets on the ground. What about the rest of the rocket and the Dragon? The smaller, top part of the rocket will carry the Dragon into orbit and then break away from the cargo ship and burn up in Earth's atmosphere. The Dragon will dock with the space station a couple of days after launch to deliver more than 4,300 pounds (1,950 kilograms) of supplies, including research equipment and ISSpresso, an espresso maker that astronauts can use to make coffee and tea. The space station crew will spend about five weeks unpacking the Dragon. They'll then stuff it with over 3,000 pounds of science experiments, trash and other stuff to send back to Earth. When they're done, Dragon will leave the space station and mission controllers will guide it to splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off California. This is the sixth SpaceX mission to the International Space Station. The company was the first private space contractor to dock with the station. CNN's Catherine E. Shoichet contributed to this report.

SpaceX says weather forced it to delay its rocket launch plan . The company plans to launch a two-stage rocket to the International Space Station . After the launch, SpaceX will try to guide the bottom stage upright onto the platform .


Aden, Yemen (CNN)It didn't look like much, but we'd been told it was typical of the kind of craft ferrying the route between Djibouti and Aden. Better, everyone advised, to be low key, even if low key meant faded lights and three water pumps chugging at all times. The wooden vessel was called Mecca — after the holy city. We were told we'd be at the port in Aden by the next morning, but as the hours ticked by it soon became apparent that that was wildly optimistic. Morning came and we were still only halfway there. We'd been given a secure route, charted for us by the Djiboutian Coast Guard. It meant hugging the coastline, trying to stay as much as possible out of the deeper water in the middle of the Gulf of Aden where the world's navies seemed to be squaring off. It was almost double the distance of the direct route. Add to that a strong current -- and stomach-churning seas -- and it felt like we would spend an eternity on board. After our second sunset, we were finally close enough for my phone to ping with a Yemeni welcome message. However, we couldn't risk arriving at night; even getting too close to shore would risk being mistaken for a re-supply vessel and potentially taking a Saudi hit. The captain slowed the boat to a crawl so the remaining miles would stretch until daybreak. Finally, morning came. It was time to go into town to see what life was like for the people of Aden. We weren't really sure what to expect but we did know we couldn't stay for long. From the moment we stepped through the gates of the port, we were met by noise and desperation, shoving and shouting. "Where are you going?" "I'll pay, I'll pay" "Are you here to take the Americans?" I shouted back that we'd return soon. We had just five hours on the ground and we needed to visit the hospital, the shuttered markets, the frontlines. There was so much we needed to see. The crowds clustered around our camera lens, asking "Why?" "Why is this happening?" "Why hasn't it stopped?" It felt like no time had passed before we were told we had to go. The shelling had begun. We'd been hearing pops of sniper fire all day but now we could hear rounds of automatic weapons and they were getting louder. As we arrived back at port, we found we weren't leaving alone. After waiting at port, praying a passing ship would dock, ours had become an unexpected lifeline for some of the families caught in the fighting. The Harbor-Master asked if we could take 60 refugees. It didn't feel like the answer could be anything but yes. What we didn't realize until it was too late was that the refugees were being charged $300  a person: An "exit fee." Those who didn't have the money were pushed back behind the wrought iron gates of the port. Those that did shared our day-and-a-half trip home. As the shores of Djibouti grew closer, you could see the uncertainty begin to take over. Many of them had come from comfortable lives, before the war shattered them. They had left homes that once hummed with air conditioners and televisions. Would the camps have TVs, they asked. No, they wouldn't, I said. What I didn't say was that they'd be lucky to have electricity. But woven amid the uncertainty was the relief of escape. Some of the refugees took over our ship's galley -- the kitchen. They'd found a former chef amongst their number who commandeered the store cupboard, sending out a pick and mix of heaped trays. We got tuna spaghetti and more Turkish coffee than our cameraman Byron could possibly drink. Because we'd brought refugees back with us, we were asked by the Djibouti Coast Guard to dock in the country's north, in Obok, so they could be given the proper status while they wait to see what happens back home. The immigration officials were -- understandably -- a little bemused by our presence amongst a boatload of people fleeing Yemen, but to their credit they decided the important thing was that these families were now safe. From there Djibouti Port was just a few hours away, hours that stretched into infinity for the families ringing my phone to check that their loved ones had made it into harbor. Over the last few hours, people had shyly come up to ask if they could borrow our phone to tell their families they were safe. Now a deluge of anxious parents, siblings and partners flooded my ear, asking how it could possibly be that we weren't yet on dry land. But eventually we were, and as we watched the Djiboutian officials unload what remained of people's belongings onto shore, it was a reminder that these were the lucky ones. Thousands more are still waiting back in Yemen, hoping they too will reach a safe port.

CNN's Nima Elbagir describes the boat journey from Djbouti to Aden . Vessel returned with 60 refugees desperate to flee fighting in Yemen .


(CNN)Jamal al-Labani had hoped to bring his pregnant wife and 2-year-daughter back to the United States from war-torn Yemen. But the gas station owner never made it on a flight back to his home Hayward, California. Family members have identified him as a victim killed in mortar strike last week in the southern Yemeni city of Aden. He is believed to be the first U.S. citizen killed in the current violence in Yemen. Early Tuesday evening, the 45-year-old al-Labani was on his way back from mosque prayers when he was hit in the back by shrapnel from a mortar shell, his family said. He died minutes later. Violence quickly escalated in Yemen soon afer al-Labani arrived in February. "When he got (to Aden), after a few weeks he noticed things were starting to get bad and then the (U.S.) Embassy closed," his cousin Mohammed Alazzani told CNN. For the past three weeks, al-Labani had told family members he was concerned about not being able to evacuate as the situation deteriorated in the country, according to his cousin. More than 200 people have been killed in Aden in the past 11 days, according to Naef Al Bakri, Aden's deputy governor. Two days before al-Labani was killed, he told his family the last option was to try to cross the border into Oman and fly to Egypt, but he never made it. "The airports got closed and things got worse and worse," Alazzani told CNN by phone. "People were hoping things would get better, but they only got worse and worse." Yemen has been rocked by violence and political turmoil for months. Houthi rebels -- minority Shiites who have long complained of being marginalized in the majority Sunni country -- forced Yemeni President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi from power in January, placing him under house arrest and taking over Sanaa, the country's capital. Hadi escaped in February, fled to the southern city of Aden and said he remained President. He fled to Saudi Arabia last month as the rebels and their military allies advanced on Aden. Now the violence is intensifying as Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations target the rebels in Yemen with airstrikes. Yemeni-Americans are trapped in the conflict, but haven't gotten enough help from the U.S. government, the Council on American-Islamic Relations told CNN Sunday. Zahra Billoo, a spokeswoman for the advocacy group, said it's helping al-Labani's family and the families of other Yemeni-Americans. "All of these other governments, Russia, China, Ethiopia, India ... they have all been evacuating their citizens. So to say that it's impossible for the U.S. to evacuate their citizens is difficult to grasp," Billoo said. Responding to the criticism, the U.S. State Department told CNN that there are no current plans to evacuate private U.S. citizens from Yemen. "We encourage all U.S. citizens to shelter in a secure location until they are able to depart safely. U.S. citizens wishing to depart should do so via commercial transportation options when they are available," a spokesman for the State Department told CNN in a statement. "Additionally, some foreign governments may arrange transportation for their nationals and may be willing to offer assistance to others." Yemeni-American advocates think more could be done. "There have been travel warnings to Yemen for a few years now. What's not clear is, are they saying 'Be cautious' or 'Don't go at all'?" Billoo asked. "It still it doesn't sit well with many of us civil rights lawyers who believe that U.S. citizenship should be the ultimate protection." Fierce fighting continued across Yemen on Sunday amid an electrical blackout in parts of the country and political moves that could further fracture the already divided military. Intense airstrikes hit Sanaa overnight. Senior security officials in the Yemeni capital said the airstrikes targeted the military intelligence headquarters and the Defense Ministry's central command, military bases and missile depots. The blasts at the military compounds, which are inside the city, shattered the windows of many homes nearby. Meanwhile, some 16 million Yemenis living in provinces under control of Houthi rebels, including Sanaa, remained without power after an electrical blackout that began Saturday night. In the country's south, the Houthis remain in control of Aden's port and other strategic holdings, including the state broadcaster. The International Committee of the Red Cross said Sunday that Saudi Arabia has signed off on the delivery of medical supplies and personnel to Yemen, where the organization had warned that time was running out to save those wounded in airstrikes and ground fighting. CNN's Devon Sayers, Carma Hassan, Jennifer Deaton, Vasco Cotovio, Jason Hanna, Ben Brumfield, Samira Said and Catherine E. Shoichet contributed to this report.

Jamal al-Labani is believed to be the first American killed in current violence in Yemen . He was on his way back from mosque prayers when he was hit in the back by shrapnel, his family said . He went to Yemen in February in hopes of bringing his wife and baby back to the U.S.


(CNN)The justices of the Supreme Court practice politics as much as law -- and that will be clearer than ever when the issue of same-sex marriage comes before the court on Tuesday. Public opinion on same-sex marriage has turned upside down since the Supreme Judicial Court in Massachusetts first legalized the practice in 2003. Overwhelming opposition has turned into substantial majority support, especially among young people of all political persuasions. Even the name of the issue has changed -- to marriage equality. Of course, the Constitution has not changed since 2003, a point that will surely be made by such opponents of same-sex marriage as Justice Antonin Scalia. To originalists like Scalia -- those who believe the Constitution should be interpreted only as it was originally understood by the framers -- the idea of a constitutional right to same-sex marriage is anathema. To them, the Constitution means only what it meant to those who wrote it -- and James Madison (or the authors of the 14th Amendment, just after the Civil War) never gave a thought to whether they were granting gay people the right to marry. But the Supreme Court has always been about a lot more than the intentions of the framers. And public opinion is just one of the extrajudicial factors that the justices sometimes take into consideration. In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that public schools could no longer segregate students by race, even though the authors of the 14th Amendment clearly considered segregated schools to be permissible. Chief Justice Earl Warren, who wrote the opinion in Brown v. Board of Education, recognized that the world had changed, especially in light of the Cold War. Warren knew that segregated schools damaged the United States' reputation in the contest for hearts and minds around the world, and he steered the court accordingly. Warren's motives had nothing to do with the framers' intentions, and little to do with the words of the Constitution itself, but these kinds of motivations have been common throughout the history of the Supreme Court. There are risks, of course, when the justices are guided by more than the text and history of the Constitution. Like everyone else, the justices have imperfect instincts when it comes to measuring public attitudes. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a fervent supporter of abortion rights for women, but she has expressed reservations about the court's decision in Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that required all 50 states to legalize abortion. She has argued that the court interrupted a political process for legalization that was already underway, and that the case ignited a backlash that wound up hurting the cause of abortion rights. Her position is debatable on several scores. Abortion rights were not ascendant everywhere in the '70s, and opponents were already well mobilized. But Ginsburg's misgivings about Roe have served as an important backdrop to the Supreme Court's consideration of same-sex marriage. Still, when it comes to Supreme Court decisions, it is usually safe to bet that a majority of the justices will come down on the side favored by most of the public. In any case, as we head into the argument, it looks like most of the justices have already made up their minds. After the court decided United States v. Windsor in 2013, which invalidated most of the 1996 law known as the Defense of Marriage Act, more than a dozen federal district courts around the county said the reasoning of that case required the legalization of same-sex marriage. These judges allowed these marriages to begin taking place around the country. Supporters of the existing laws went to the Supreme Court and asked for stays of the lower court rulings, because the justices themselves had not yet permitted the marriages to take place. But in each case, the Supreme Court denied the stays and allowed same-sex marriages to proceed -- those marriages are now legal in 37 states and the District of Columbia. In a brief dissenting opinion from the failure to grant the stays, Justice Clarence Thomas suggested the issue had already been settled in the minds of his colleagues. "This acquiescence [in allowing marriages to proceed] may well be seen as a signal of the court's intended resolution of that question," Thomas wrote. "This is not the proper way to discharge our ... responsibilities." But Thomas only drew Scalia to join his dissent, suggesting that even fellow conservatives Chief Justice John Roberts and Samuel Alito saw the writing on the wall. In any case, at oral argument, we'll get a clue what the justices are thinking about the issue. But we already know that their decision, like so many in the court's history, will be based on a great deal more than the text of the Constitution.

Jeffrey Toobin: SCOTUS to decide same-sex marriage as U.S. largely in favor. Did framers intend this? That doesn't always matter . He says originalists on the court may hew to conservative view, but most of the justices have given clues that they see writing on wall .


(CNN)Russian President Vladimir Putin shrugged off repeated questions about the impact of Western sanctions on his nation during a nationally broadcast annual Q&A session. "Sanctions are sanctions," he said. "As far as sanctions are concerned .... (they're) about the need to constrain our development," not just about Ukraine and Crimea. Western sanctions were implemented after Moscow annexed Crimea and pro-Russian separatists battled Ukrainian government forces in the nation's east. Putin predicted the sanctions would not end soon. On the Middle East, the Russian leader defended lifting a ban on the sale of a sophisticated air defense system to Iran. "We need to encourage our Iranian partners," Putin said, referring to a preliminary deal to limit Iran's nuclear program. Sanctions against Iran have had a dramatic impact on the nation's economy. On Israeli and Western fears that such a system would embolden Iran, Putin scoffed. "Iran is not a threat to Israel at all," he said. "It is a defense weapon." Putin's annual exercise is fascinating for ordinary Russians, who normally get him in closely managed doses on state-run television. These sessions are live and can go on and on. Last year, he spoke for three hours and 55 minutes. In 2013, it was a record-setting four hours and 47 minutes. Organizers said public interest was especially strong this year, with 2.4 million questions submitted. Of course, critics of the Kremlin slam the entire event as Russia's imitation of democracy in action. It's hard to imagine a truly critical question, they say, getting aired on national television there. In fact, it's best not to look at this event as an opportunity for Russians to question their leader at all. Instead, it is more like a highly produced, highly choreographed chance for their leader to speak to them, and to the world. Last year, there was a "surprise" appearance by NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden, who was granted asylum in Russia. He addressed Putin by video link, quizzing Putin about Moscow's own surveillance practices.

Putin has spent hours fielding questions from the general public on live television . Sanctions and Russia's deep economic crisis are a major theme .


(CNN)A Lamborghini sports car crashed into a guardrail at Walt Disney World Speedway on Sunday, killing a passenger, the Florida Highway Patrol said. The crash occurred at 3:30 p.m. at the Exotic Driving Experience, which bills itself as a chance to drive your dream car on a racetrack. The 36-year-old passenger, Gary Terry of Davenport, Florida, was pronounced dead at the scene, Florida Highway Patrol said. The driver, 24-year-old Tavon Watson of Kissimmee, Florida, lost control of the vehicle, the Highway Patrol said. He was hospitalized with minor injuries. Petty Holdings, which operates the Exotic Driving Experience at Walt Disney World Speedway, released a statement Sunday night about the crash. "On behalf of everyone in the organization, it is with a very heavy heart that we extend our deepest sympathies to those involved in today's tragic accident in Orlando," the company said. Petty Holdings also operates the Richard Petty Driving Experience -- a chance to drive or ride in NASCAR race cars named for the winningest driver in the sport's history. CNN's Janet DiGiacomo contributed to this report.

Authorities identify the deceased passenger as 36-year-old Gary Terry . Authorities say the driver, 24-year-old Tavon Watson, lost control of a Lamborghini . The crash occurred at the Exotic Driving Experience at Walt Disney World Speedway .


(CNN)Eighteen-month-old twins drowned after their mother tried to fend off a bee and let go of their stroller, which rolled into a canal, Arizona police said. Alexis Keslar was walking with her twin sons, Silas and Eli Keslar, along a canal Friday when she tried to repel a bee, police in Yuma said. "The stroller rolled away from her into the canal, with the boys belted in the seat," police said Monday. Keslar went into the canal and tried to rescue her sons, authorities said, but was hampered by the steep sides of the canal, the depth of the water and the force of the current. The current washed the stroller away. After Keslar got out of the canal, she called for help, police said. The irrigation district that manages the canal slowed the flow of water and reduced the water level to help emergency workers find the boys, authorities said. After more than an hour of searching, the toddlers were found and flown to a hospital, where they were pronounced dead. "No parent should ever have to lose a child, you know, let alone both of them at the same time," family friend Marlene Gleim told CNN affiliate KYMA. "That's what really, really is heartbreaking to me, because those little boys were, you know, meant so much to so many people." Authorities say the paths along Yuma canals are popular for joggers and bicyclists, but can be dangerous. "Many people typically do not comprehend how swift the current in these canals are and how deep the water can be," Yuma police said. "They also do not realize how difficult it is to climb back up many of the canal embankments."

Silas and Eli Keslar, both 18 months old, drowned in an Arizona canal . Their mother was trying to fend of a bee when the stroller rolled away, police say .


(CNN)If that was a tornado, it was one monster of one. Luckily, so far it looks like no one was hurt. With tornadoes touching down near Dallas on Sunday, Ryan Shepard snapped a photo of a black cloud formation reaching down to the ground. He said it was a tornado. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say it looked half a mile wide. More like a mile, said Jamie Moore, head of emergency management in Johnson County, Texas. It could have been one the National Weather Service warned about in a tweet as severe thunderstorms drenched the area, causing street flooding. "To repeat--tornadoes (yes, two) likely W and E of Rio Vista. The one to the E of Rio Vista is a large, damaging tornado," the NWS tweeted. Luckily, it tore through countryside, and there have been no reports of deaths. But surveyors had not been out to check for damage or casualties overnight because the weather was so bad, Moore said. There are reports of damage -- including many roofs ripped off -- in Rio Vista and Grandview, both outliers of Fort Worth. On social media, images circulated of flipped 18-wheelers. Tempestuous clouds created dangerous, awe-inspiring funnels and disks as a front swept through. Residents reported hail the size of softballs and posted photos as proof.

Surveyors did not check for damage or casualties overnight due to bad weather . The National Weather Service sent tweets warning of a large tornado . A resident snapped a photo of what could be a very large tornado .


Hong Kong (CNN)Four months after the end of the massive Occupy protests that clogged Hong Kong's streets in a bid for greater voting rights, another confrontation is heating up in the former British colony. The flashpoint? A controversial Beijing-backed election proposal tabled Wednesday that pro-democracy legislators have already sworn to veto, describing it as "ridiculous." In a speech before the city's legislature, Chief Secretary Carrie Lam said that if approved, the proposal would give Hong Kongers the right to vote for their next leader in 2017. The catch, of course, is candidates would have to be approved by a mostly pro-China committee. Dissenting pro-democracy legislators wearing black marched from the chamber as soon as Lam's speech ended. Some legislators raised yellow umbrellas, a symbol of the Occupy movement. "Their fake universal suffrage is an insult to everybody's intelligence; that's why we refused to stay in the chamber." Hong Kong Democratic Party chairwoman Emily Lau told CNN. Lau said that she and other pro-democracy candidates would cast votes to ensure it does not become law. Hong Kong has become increasingly polarized over the last few years as the city fights over what kind of political system it should have as a Special Administrative Region of China. According to the agreement signed by the United Kingdom that returned the city to Chinese control in 1997, Hong Kong would receive 50 years of "high autonomy" under an arrangement called "One Country, Two Systems." Part of that deal included establishing an election system based on the principles of universal suffrage. But nearly eighteen years after the handover, the city continues to fight over what universal suffrage really means. Hong Kong's leaders argue its latest proposal fulfills the long-awaited promise of universal suffrage by giving each resident the right to cast a vote. All that's left is for the legislature to approve the proposal, and then everyone can go home happy, they say. Pro-democracy Hong Kongers beg to differ. "If it is a genuine election, people should be free to stand and people should be free to vote," said Lau. "Now all you have is a vote, and the candidates must be vetted by a committee consisting of business and political elites. It's horrendous. "To say the majority of Hong Kongers want to support this nonsensical package is a blatant lie.. If nothing is changed, we will definitely vote it down." To become law, the proposal must receive the support of two thirds of Hong Kong's 70 legislators. But Lau and 26 other pro-democracy legislators make up more than a third of the chamber, meaning they can veto the bill. If they do, then the city's electoral reform process will effectively return to square one. Hong Kong's leadership has warned pro-democracy legislators against the veto, saying the city might never again receive a chance for political reform. "We must strive for consensus," Lam told legislators. "We sincerely hope the pan-democrats abandon their passive attitude." But consensus seems unlikely. Hong Kong and Chinese leaders have repeatedly said there is no room for the proposal to change. In response, Lau and other pro-democracy legislators will launch a citywide campaign this weekend to rally public opinion against the proposal. And she did not rule out the possibility of a repeat of last year's massive street protests. "Should people decide to resort to civil disobedience again, its up to them," she said. "Whatever we do, our struggle must be peaceful, orderly, nonviolent. And we will do our best." Wayne Chang and CNN's Vivian Kam contributed reporting.

Reform proposal would give Hong Kongers right to vote for their next leader in 2017 . But candidates would have to be approved by a mostly pro-Beijing committee . Pro-democracy legislators have vowed to veto proposal .


(CNN)This week, social media heralded as #motheroftheyear Toya Graham, the Baltimore single mom who pulled her son, who was holding a brick, away from the scene of a riot. A video of Graham yanking young Michael from a group of protesters -- and subsequently pummeling him with her fists and a few slaps upside the head -- went viral. Many called her a hero: a mother determined to stop the cycle of violence. And yet, wasn't she also promoting violence? Her own reaction, after all, was to yell, curse and hit. "Why is America celebrating the beating of a black child?" asked a writer at The Washington Post. Isn't violence at home what leads to violence outside the home? Isn't this why rioting happens? I'm not excusing violence in any form. I wish it didn't exist. But Baltimore isn't on fire because of mothers like Graham. In fact, what we need, not only in communities like Baltimore but also in communities around the country, are more mothers like her. Mothers who will do whatever it takes to protect their children and steer them through the increasingly tricky course of adolescence. I don't see Graham as an abusive mother spreading the gospel, or at least the inevitability, of violence. I don't see her as a hero, either. What I do see in Graham is a woman who is just like millions of other mothers of adolescents, mothers whose daily struggle is focused on guiding their kids in a positive direction while also helping them develop their own identities and independence. Mothers who know the anger and frustration that can result when they catch their teenager in a lie. As Graham told Anderson Cooper, she'd told Michael the night before not to join in any riots. He swore he wouldn't. But her momma bear sense kicked in, and when she heard that school was closing early, she didn't take the chance that he'd stick to his promise. She went to the site of the riots to make sure that she could help him stay the course. She went there so that she could help him keep his promise. And when she got there and saw he hadn't, as she suspected, she reacted in the way that she knew would, in that moment, be most effective to get him out of there. And that's the key here. It's easy to punish a teenager for acting out, just as it's easy to punish Graham for taking out her frustrations on Michael in a physical way. But Graham's actions are evidence of her commitment as a parent. For better or worse, she knows her son. And she knows her community, and her reality. She knows that she's the mother of an adolescent boy living in a city caught up in a very heated, violent moment. And she will do anything to protect her son, including put herself in a dangerous situation to pull him out of there. Can we all say that? Toya Graham raises an important point that's often missing in the discussions of how to curb violence: Moms have power. The world needs more momma bear types -- mothers who might be willing to put themselves between their child and certain danger. Mothers who are willing to defy the "expert" advice telling them that teenagers need the room to make mistakes; that hovering or even trying to anticipate their misbehavior only stunts their development and leads to more misbehavior. Now more than ever, there are exceptions to that rule. Those of us who live in communities that are generally safe can't imagine the level of fear and frustration that must run through the very core of a mother like Graham. We don't all face the same obstacles as the people who live in places like Baltimore. But we all face the same challenges in raising children. Perhaps it's time to recognize that, at least in that sense, we're more alike than we are different.

Peggy Drexler: Video of Toya Graham hitting son as she drags him from protests has raised questions. Was she a hero? Abusive? Neither, she says; she was a mom trying to steer her adolescent in a heated city conflict, and more moms need this kind of commitment .


(CNN)This is week two of an ongoing series: A Catholic Reads the Bible  This week covers the Book of Genesis, chapters 1-11. A week ago, I was worried I wouldn't have anything to write about. Now, I don't even know where to begin. The first step was choosing a Bible. I went with the version that I received for winning the religion award at Rice Memorial High School in South Burlington, Vermont. As I mentioned in the first installment of this series, I'm a lifelong Catholic who finally plans to read the Bible from cover to cover. The Bible I'm reading is "The Deluxe Catholic Bible," published in 1986 by World Bible Publishing. After four days of reading this week, my journal is full of observations and ideas. With my crazy schedule, I found that reading at night was a perfect way to unwind and reflect. And as I started reading, I didn't want to stop. In order to fully process Scripture, I need to slow down and read the footnotes. Footnotes are my friend. First of all, Genesis starts with two separate creation narratives. How did I not know this? The first chapter is the seven days story with God creating the Earth. In the second chapter the Earth is again created and man is formed out of clay. Talking with a CNN colleague, I mentioned how there seems to be fascination in Genesis with dirt and clay. My colleague pointed out that even Adam's name is a play on the Hebrew word "adama," meaning ground. It struck me that the whole first two chapters have everything to do with the Earth and man's place in it, a struggle that we can relate to even now. From the creation of the Garden of Eden to the fall and the banishment, the bounty of the land and the access to it seems to be the area of highest concern. My greatest surprise, though, came when I read about Seth. Seth? Who? I started asking people if they had remembered the story of Seth. My unscientific poll of friends is that 9 out 10 people I asked had no idea who he was. Turns out, Seth is the forgotten son of Adam and Eve who is born after Cain kills Abel. Adam fathered Seth at 130 years old. Yes, we are getting into the part of the Bible with fantastical life spans that allow for the transition from the stories of Adam to Abraham. (Again, thank you footnotes). Unfortunately, we don't learn much more about Seth. When he is mentioned, it's about his descendants. But, because this was my first biblical surprise, I will never forget him. Thank you, Seth. As a woman, though I was waiting to read more about the role of women. Did you know that Eve is the first person named in the Bible? (I expected Adam, but he is called "man" in the first references.) Moving on, we have these tales about the "sons of heaven" seeing Earth's beautiful women and taking them as wives. Um? What? I had never heard that one before. I had to read that passage a few times and, again, the footnotes helped. They say the story is an inclusion from mythology. But why? My first hunch is that it might have been a way to take a story that everyone knew at the time and make it part of a new narrative. Familiarity would lead to followers. Of course,  many Christians don't cite the "sons of heaven" today because it would take too much time to explain. Maybe that's why I don't ever recall hearing this passage read at Mass. With that in mind, I read about Noah, descendent of Seth, with a different perspective, too. I have never believed there was an ark. I never thought that God dictated the dimensions of the boat to save the animals two by two. It is a story told to make you realize the power of God. The explanation for the flood is that man had become more and more wicked, but  I didn't expect, though, that God would "regret" creating man. Ouch! It really makes the reader want to stay on God's good side. This "wickedness" of mankind and the "regret" from God sounds as if God made a mistake and decides to fix it, to start over, in essence. "Never again will I doom the Earth because of man, since the desires of man are evil from the start. ..." That phrase reminded me of my dad's favorite saying, "To err is human but to forgive is divine," which comes from a Pope, but not a Catholic holy man. But enough about that, I have to get back to reading.

Laura Bernardini, a lifelong Catholic, has decided to finally read the Bible from cover to cover. This is week two . Some surprises: Two creation stories, Seth, and what on Earth are the "men of heaven"?


Seoul, South Korea (CNN)Lee Min-bok didn't laugh once when he watched "The Interview."  The North Korean defector calls the Hollywood comedy "vulgar," admitting he couldn't even watch the whole film. Yet he is still sending thousands of copies across the border from South to North Korea in balloons, determined his people will see the movie in which the leader Kim Jong Un is assassinated on screen. "The regime hates this film because it shows Kim Jong Un as a man, not a God," says Lee. "He cries and is afraid like us and then he's assassinated." Kim is portrayed in the movie as a Katy Perry-loving, sensitive soul with daddy issues, clashing with the all-powerful image beamed out by Pyongyang's tightly controlled state media and propaganda machine. At 1 a.m., Lee makes a final check of the wind speed and direction, then heads towards the border with North Korea. He has company. The South Korean police and military drive closely behind. After Pyongyang fired on similar propaganda balloons recently, they are monitoring launches very closely. This irritates Lee. "We can help towards reunification with these balloons," says Lee. "It costs millions of dollars to buy a F-22 fighter jet which the South Korean government insist they need and that's not for peaceful purposes. So why do civilians like me have to do this under cover of darkness?" At 3 a.m., Lee fills the balloons with helium and ties the bundles of DVDs, dollar bills and political leaflets to the bottom. A timer is attached which will release the bundle once safely in North Korean territory. He has no way of knowing what will happen to the goods after that. He doesn't know if ordinary North Koreans will watch the movie and read the leaflets. The fact that Pyongyang acts with fury against these so-called propaganda balloons suggests some information is seeping through to the hermit kingdom. "If you tell the truth in North Korea, you die.  But by using these balloons from here, I can tell the truth in safety," Lee adds. The decision to launch the balloons in the dead of night is not just to avoid confrontation with North Korea, but also with South Korea's local residents. After Pyongyang fired on balloons last October and South Korea returned fire, those living close to the border have been trying to physically stop the launches, arguing they are being put in the line of fire. The chances of at least some North Koreans having watched the film that North Korea sees as "an act of terrorism" is certainly possible.

Defector deploys balloons with "The Interview" to North Korea . Lee Min-bok says he finds the movie vulgar, but sends it anyway .


(CNN)A second individual has been charged with attempting to carry out an "ISIS-inspired" terror plot, Australian police say. Five young men were arrested Saturday in Melbourne, Australia, in what police called a major counterterrorism operation. Two of the teens, 18 and 19, have been released "pending further inquiries," Australia's Federal Police said. Sevdet Besim, 18, was charged with conspiring to commit a terrorist act, and was denied bail Saturday. The person charged Monday is accused of conspiring to commit acts done in preparation for, or planning, terrorist acts. The suspects planned to attack during a major national commemoration in a week, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Saturday. "The act that we believe was in preparation involved attacks against police officers," he said. There was also a risk to the public, police said. Police said the suspects were targeting a ceremony on Anzac Day (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps Day), which is April 25 and this year is the centennial of the Gallipoli Campaign in World War I. Abbott avoided the term ISIS -- or Islamic State -- to call out those who authorities believed influenced the suspects. He instead referred to the group as the "Daesh death cult," employing the acronym that is transliterated from the group's name in Arabic. It's a handle ISIS is known to loathe. Police also distanced the suspects from any ethnic connection. The men "are individuals acting by themselves. They are not representatives of any religious, cultural or national group," Victoria Police Acting Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton said. "I think the entire Australian community should be concerned about the young age of those particular men," Neil Gaughan, acting deputy commissioner of the Australian Federal Police, said. "And this is an issue not just with law enforcement, but for the broader community. ... We need to get better in relation to identifying young men and woman involved in this type of behavior, at the very early stage." CNN's Ralph Ellis and Ben Brumfield contributed to this report.

A second teen has been charged with helping plan an "ISIS-inspired" attack . One 18-year-old suspect has already been charged, report says .


Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN)A suicide bomber detonated his explosives near a group of protesters in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing 17 people and wounding dozens more, police said. An Afghan lawmaker taking part in the protests in the city of Khost was among the 64 people wounded, said Faizullah Ghairat, the provincial police chief. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid denied his group was responsible for the attack. No other organization has so far claimed responsibility. Humayoon Humayoon, an Afghan member of parliament for Khost province, and the other protesters were on their way to join a larger rally against the provincial governor, according to Zahir Jan, an eyewitness. The suicide attack hit the group around 10 a.m. local time, police said. CNN's Masoud Popalzai reported from Kabul, and Jethro Mullen wrote from Hong Kong. CNN's Elizabeth Joseph contributed to this report.

An Afghan lawmaker is among 64 people wounded in the attack, police say . Taliban spokesman denies his group was responsible for the attack .


(CNN)By the time Kim Kardashian set out to "break the internet" in November last year, a photo by 23-year-old Conor McDonnell had already got there -- with a little help from Kim's music superstar husband Kanye West. McDonnell is the self-taught photography star behind Instagram's most liked photo, showing the couple's embrace at their May wedding, which has earned more than 2.4 milllion "likes" to date. The Liverpool native has had a breakneck rise to success since his first Instagram post in November 2011, snapping the likes of Drake, Justin Bieber,  One Direction, Mumford & Sons, Snoop Dogg, and Red Hot Chili Peppers, while traveling the world on private planes. Lasting relationships with stars Ellie Goulding and Rita Ora have followed, and candid snaps of the photographer's globetrotting, access-all-areas life have seen him accumulate over 25,000 followers on his personal account. Not bad for someone who told CNN Ones to Watch he started photography "by accident." Fresh from accompanying Calvin Harris on tour in South America, McDonnell shares his five top tips for anyone who wants to grow their Instagram fan base and take great photos on the go. From finding the right lighting, to which filter to chose: play the Instagram videos below to find out how to supercharge your pictures for social media success. "Good lighting for me makes a shot. If I'm taking a portrait of someone, I'd much prefer to use natural lighting than a light bulb or manufactured lighting!" "I make use of the rule of thirds quite a lot: if you imagine the screen split up in three thirds, you place the subject in one corner. There's a lot you can find about it on the internet." "There's a patch here of very bright light and just behind it there's dark. Trying to expose it right can be tricky but on the iPhone you can do it quite well just by tapping the screen and dragging the exposure up and down." "I'll upload a photo to an app called Snapseed, edit the brightness and contrast in that a little bit, export it. And then open in another app called VSCO Cam, which is my favorite app on my whole phone." "On VSCO Cam there's tons of filters, the one I use the most is probably "P5," then I can edit all sorts... And once I'm done I just export it and post it on Instagram." "I know photographers who use a lot of hashtags, and hashtags can work if you want to build up your follower base, because a lot more people will probably see a photo than if you didn't hashtag it."

Conor McDonnell is the young photographer behind Instagram's most liked photo . 23-year-old has snapped the likes of Calvin Harris, Drake, and Justin Bieber .


(CNN)The Arizona police officer who slammed into an armed suspect with his patrol car told investigators he thought he was too far to take a shot at the man, so he chose the other option, CNN affiliate KVOA reported Wednesday. Officer Michael Rapiejko ran his car into Mario Valencia in February as the suspect carried a rifle he had just fired in the air. Rapiejko sped around another officer as Valencia walked through a business park, hit the man from behind with the left side of his front bumper. Valencia, who flew through this air, survived and faces more than a dozen charges for an alleged crime spree that day. His lawyer has said police used excessive force and could have killed a man who was obviously unstable. The Marana Police Department has defended Rapiejko, saying deadly force was warranted because the suspect had a rifle, ammunition and was walking toward offices where hundreds of people work. Marana is just northwest of Tucson. Officer who drove into suspect justified, chief says . KVOA obtained police inquiry tapes on which Rapiejko tells investigators why he chose his car as a weapon. The officer, who has been a cop for more than a decade but joined the Marana Police Department in 2014, said he was 50 yards away from the suspect and worried a missed shot might hit another officer or bystanders. "There were occupied businesses, and there were two officers at the other side of the street," he says on the recording. "This is what I deem as a lethal force encounter. I have two thoughts that go in my mind: I need to shoot him to stop the threat, or I need to run him over to stop the threat." Another officer, who was slowing trailing Valencia and ahead of Rapiejko, says on another recording that if a civilian had stumbled upon Valencia, the suspect might have taken a hostage or killed the person. Video of the car striking Valencia sparking nationwide debate on what type of force police should use to go after armed suspects. Many people commended the officer. Some people said the police should have set up a perimeter around the man and talked him into surrendering. Valencia faces 15 charges, including three counts of aggravated assault, three counts of armed robbery and possession of a deadly weapon by a prohibited possessor. Valencia's attorney, Michelle Cohen-Metzger, told CNN last week that "it is miraculous that my client isn't dead." Valencia, who is in Pima County Jail, is scheduled to appear in court again on May 18. Authorities chose not to charge Rapiejko. Officer who drove into suspect subject of excessive force lawsuit in New York . CNN's Shane Deitert and Tony Marco contributed to this report.

Officer Michael Rapiejko said he needed to use lethal force to stop the suspect . Mario Valencia was carrying a rifle and fired one round into the air . Rapiejko said two options crossed his mind and it was too far to shoot Valencia .


London (CNN)If you're hunting for the earliest galaxies and clues about potential life on other planets you are going to need a very big mirror and a golf ball of gold. They are both necessary for the construction of The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), intended as the successor to the Hubble instrument that has been operating in space for 25 years. It's going to be a tough act to follow. Hubble has returned spectacular images during the past quarter century but also helped scientists discover that almost every galaxy has a massive black hole at its heart and that the expansion of the universe is speeding up. But there are limits to how far it can see. Now scientists are working on an alternative way to peer into the past and search space for signs of life with JWST -- scheduled to launch in October 2018 on an Ariane 5 rocket from French Guiana. NASA spokesperson Lynn Chandler told CNN that the mission was like opening up the curtains on the universe and peering inside. "Hubble rewrote the text books and we're planning to rewrite the text books again," she said. "JWST will answer the questions which at the moment we can't think to ask." The Webb telescope is a big probe. Hubble is about the size of a school bus but JWST is as big as a tennis court. There isn't a rocket currently capable of carrying that so as Chandler explained: "It has to be folded up like a flower and then unfurled like a transformer." Named after James E. Webb, a former NASA leader, JWST is being designed to study the first stars and galaxies that formed in the early universe. NASA says that to see these objects the telescope will have to detect objects which are 10 to 100 times fainter than Hubble can currently see. Instead of studying visible and ultraviolet light like Hubble, the JWST will work in the infra-red spectrum, allowing scientists to detect more distant targets. The new telescope requires a huge mirror of 25 square meters (about 270 square feet) -- and a golf ball of gold (about 48 grams or 1.7 ounces) to optimize it for infra-red light. It is then coated with glass. But technology like this doesn't come cheap. According to NASA, the mission, which is in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and involves a total of 14 countries, will cost $8.5 billion. NASA says that the project has four main goals -- namely, to search for the first galaxies formed after the Big Bang, find out how galaxies evolved, observe the birth of stars and planets and investigate the potential for life on other planets . Scientists hope the telescope will be able to tell us more about objects that formed 13 billion years ago -- about 700-800 million years after the Big Bang. But closer to home, scientists also believe the new telescope will able to detect planets around nearby stars. NASA says JWST should be able to operate for between five and 10 years, restricted only by the amount of fuel it has to maintain orbit and the ability of the electronics to stand up to the harsh space environment. Opinion: Why astronomy counts on Earth .

Hubble has helped make major discoveries but there are limits to how far it can see into space . The James Webb Space Telescope will work in the infra-red and be able to see objects that formed 13 billion years ago . Scientists also believe the new telescope will be able to detect planets around nearby stars .


(CNN)It would have made Thomas Jefferson proud. Established on the birthday of the American founding father, Liberland -- the world's newest micronation -- is founded on a firm belief in liberty and noninterference from the powers-that-be. A tiny, 7 square-kilometer parcel of land, marked on maps as Gornja Siga, its territory abuts the Danube on the border between Serbia and Croatia. The victim of a border dispute between Serbia and Croatia, it is claimed by neither side -- effectively a no-man's land. No one lives on this patch of land, which is heavily forested and contains only badly-maintained access roads and a run-down house, abandoned for decades. This is where Euroskeptic Czech politician Vit Jedlicka stepped in. On April 13 he planted his newly-designed yellow and black flag in the territory, declaring the area the Free Republic of Liberland -- a tiny sliver of a country, bigger only than the Vatican and Monaco. He tells CNN that the country will be formally founded on May 1 and is inviting, through the media, the world's heads of state to attend a formal ceremony marking the presumptive nation's birth. He says that he will also invite 7,500 of the 300,000 applicants that applied to become citizens of Liberland to the ceremony, where he will grant them citizenship. "I will grant citizenship if they can make it to the party," he told CNN by phone. "It's short notice but a good challenge, and also for  the presidents (and other heads of state) if they can make it to the founding of our country." Jedlicka, an active member of the Czech Republic's Party of Free Citizens, opposes excessive government interference. He says his attempts to enact change in his home country led him to the political experiment that is Liberland. "I would describe it as a global revolution. It's just the beginning," he tells CNN via Skype. Founded on staunchly libertarian principles -- its motto is "To live and let live" -- its website describes its system of governance as being a "constitutional republic with elements of direct democracy." It will use a form of cryptocurrency -- similar to Bitcoin -- as its national currency, bypassing the need for a central bank and will, according to its constitution, keep government's noses out of everything possible, from the banks to prostitution. "Liberland prides itself on personal and economic freedom of its people, which is guaranteed by the Constitution, which significantly limits the power of politicians so they could not interfere too much in the freedoms of the Liberland nation," the world's newest constitutional document states. Financial regulation will be minimal, if at all present. Jedlicka says almost 300,000 applications for citizenship have been received, about 20 of which have been accepted. "Thousands of Americans, Swiss people. Also a lot of Arabic peoples who feel oppressed by the regimes there." He envisions, ultimately, a community of around 35,000 Liberlanders, not all of whom will be full-time residents. He says he expects trouble from his neighbors, whose land he has effectively annexed. "From Serbia, Croatia, we expect some trouble but we expect international laws will applied and any movement against us would be an attack on a sovereign nation, and we will offer nothing but passive resistance. For now, (though) we will make roads, docks." For its part, the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement to CNN that stated that Liberland would not theoretically impinge upon its border, which is delineated by the Danube, but "the Ministry also considers this a frivolous act which needs no further comment." Croatia's counterpart was similarly dismissive. "Virtual quips, however interesting they occasionally sound, remain what they are -- virtual quips, and for them we have no official comment."

Vit Jedlicka, the first president of Liberland, tells CNN that the country will be formally founded on May 1 . On April 13, Jedlicka declared an area between Croatia and Serbia "the Free Republic of Liberland" Jedlicka says that almost 300,000 applications for citizenship have so far been received .


(CNN)They were huddled in the back of a tugboat. Some were without shoes. Their coats and jackets, still wet, were piled up in a huge container behind them. The 117 migrants, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, arrived in the port of Augusta, Sicily, around 1p.m. Tuesday, after being picked up by the tugboat off the coast of Libya. The two boats they had been in were barely seaworthy, the tug's Montenegrin captain told me. The discarded coats, he said, would be thrown away. We had flown to Sicily from Rome following news that as many as 400 migrants had been lost at sea. The tragedy adds to the mounting death toll among those fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East. So far this year as many as 900 have lost their lives. Last year at least 3,200 died making the journey. Since 2000, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), almost 22,000 people have died fleeing across the Mediterranean. Thousands may have died, but even more have succeeded in making the treacherous journey. This small group in Augusta were among nearly 10,000 migrants who have arrived on Italian shores since the weekend, according to the Italian Coast Guard. With the onset of spring and calmer seas, it appears that the flow of migrants is not relenting. The group, which included 31 women, was composed mostly of Nigerians and Gambians. As they filed off the boat, representatives of the Italian Red Cross did a quick visual inspection, checking for fever, scabies, any sign of illness. One woman, they discovered, was two months pregnant. Timothy, in his mid-20s from Nigeria, told me he left his home nine months ago. He paid human traffickers in Tripoli 1,000 Libyan dinars, more than $700, for the voyage. For him, it's a fortune. I asked 28-year-old Jibril, from Gambia, why he had left his home. "It's not like in Europe," he told me. "After 20, 25 years, you have to make a future for yourself. But in Gambia, I couldn't. My family, they don't have nothing. They are poor people." Mercy, from Kano in northern Nigeria, seemed shell-shocked. In a faint voice she told me she had left Kano because her family feared she that would be taken by Boko Haram. "I was scared," 25-year-old Al-Haji from Gambia told me about the journey from Libya. "I was taking a big risk. Either I enter Europe or I die." Another man, from Liberia, told me he had lived and worked in Libya for 15 years, but was terrified at the prospect of ISIS gaining even more territory. An Egyptian translator working for the Italian police told me they had information that a large group of Syrians were gathered in a Tripoli warehouse, and were expected to make the journey to Italy in the coming days. It seems that all the victims of the multiple tragedies and woes of Africa and the Middle East -- grinding poverty, war and the rise of ISIS -- are washing up on the shores of Italy. The wars, unrest, upheaval, misery and injustice I've covered over the last 20 years, in Syria, in Libya, in West Africa and elsewhere, seem to be coming together to remind those who have enjoyed Europe's relative peace and prosperity that no man is an island. The small group of migrants in Augusta has been taken in by the Italian authorities. They've been fed, clothed, received medical treatment, and will be taken to migrant camp in northern Italy. Most will then try move further north, to countries like France, Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK, where economic opportunities are better than in austerity-wracked Italy. Others will stay in Italy, trying to eke out a living in the twilight economy as street vendors and beggars. And as they settle in, somehow or other, more and more will come to Italy's shores.

Migrants rescued in Augusta, Italy tell CNN why they fled . They were packed onto two barely seaworthy boats, tug captain said .


(CNN)He's been part of a wildly popular superhero team since its very beginning. But there's something we never knew about Bobby Drake, aka Iceman of the X-Men. Wednesday's issue of "All-New X-Men" No. 40 reveals the truth: Bobby is gay. "There are thousands if not millions of stories of people who, for many different reasons, felt the need to hide their sexuality," Brian Michael Bendis, who wrote the issue, said in a statement to CNN. "The X-Men, with the conceit of time travel, give us a fascinating platform in which to examine such personal journeys. This is just the first little chapter of a much larger story that will be told." Iceman's outing happens in an unusual manner. In the "All-New X-Men" storyline, members of the X-Men team travel to the past, as younger versions of themselves. Mind-reading mutant Jean Grey (also an X-Men original) asks Bobby why he calls women "hot," when she knows he is gay. In comic book pages provided to CNN, Bobby doesn't immediately acknowledge that she is telling the truth. The character of Iceman is perhaps best known for his appearances in many of the "X-Men" films, as well as the 1981 animated series "Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends." The "X-Men" series of comics have long been progressive in terms of diversity, with a black female character, Storm, appearing in the 1970s, and the first gay mainstream comic book character, Northstar (who later married in the pages). DC Comics has also had prominent gay characters in recent years, like Batwoman and the original Green Lantern of Earth 2. Catwoman recently came out as bisexual, and Harley Quinn is portrayed that way as well. Bendis further shared his thoughts on Twitter about the attention surrounding the story when it leaked on Tuesday: "i swear on my dogs, i wanted the issue to come out and just be. no press. no sensational headlines. no leaks. oh, well..."

"X-Men" original character Bobby "Iceman" Drake is revealed to be gay in latest issue . "All-New X-Men" No. 40 has psychic Jean Grey discovering Drake's sexuality . Iceman has been in Marvel Comics for over 50 years .


(CNN)Discovery of the body of a young girl who may have been dead for weeks has led to the arrest of her teen sister -- herself a mother -- and a search for the girls' parents, who may be in California with five other children, police in North Las Vegas, Nevada, said. The investigation began Wednesday when the 4-month-old infant of the 17-year-old was taken to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center in suburban Las Vegas, authorities said. Police arrested the teen mother on one count of child abuse with substantial bodily harm. She was taken to a juvenile facility. Police department spokesman Aaron Patty told CNN affiliate KVVU that the "infant did not receive the proper care and nourishment that she needed at the time, which is what led to the arrest of the 17-year-old." A day later, a search warrant was served at the family's home. That's when police found the body of the 3-year-old girl, who had apparently been dead "for at least a few weeks," according to police. The teen mother was then arrested on one count of child abuse with death in connection with her younger sister's death, according to a police statement. The parents left the home several months ago with the other five children, ranging in age from 1 to 9 years old, but, according to Patty, "they left the 3-year-old child and the 17-year-old sister at the residence alone." Authorities are seeking the parents, 39-year-old Jondrew Lachaux and 38-year-old Kellie Phillips. Police say the five children with them may be in danger. "We believe that they went to California at some time and may have gone back and forth during this multiple month process when they left," Patty said. No Amber Alert was issued, according to police, because the 4-month-old did not die. Lachaux and Phillips, who are the child's grandparents, are being sought for questioning. "We are asking for the assistance of the public in locating these two individuals," said Patty. "We believe they can answer many questions on what led up to the death of this child." The 4-month-old infant was last reported to be hospitalized in critical condition. Her mother's name was not disclosed.

Parents wanted for questioning after girl's body found at home . North Las Vegas police: 3-year-old had been dead for at least a few weeks . 17-year-old sibling is held in case .