Washington (CNN)One former employee of the private Blackwater Worldwide security company was sentenced Monday to life in prison and three others to 30 years each behind bars for their roles in a 2007 mass shooting in Baghdad that left 17 people dead. A federal jury convicted the four in October after a lengthy trial that saw some 30 witnesses travel from Iraq to testify against the security contractors. Prosecutors accused the men of illegally unleashed "powerful sniper fire, machine guns and grenade launchers on innocent men, women and children." Senior U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth sentenced Blackwater sniper Nicholas Slatten to a term of life in prison, mandatory for his first-degree murder conviction. Blackwater workers Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard were sentenced to 30 year each, plus one day. Slough was convicted of 13 counts of voluntary manslaughter, 17 counts of attempted manslaughter and a firearms offense. The jury convicted Liberty of eight counts of voluntary manslaughter, 12 counts of attempted manslaughter and a firearms offense. Heard was found guilty of six counts of voluntary manslaughter, 11 counts of attempted manslaughter and a firearms offense. According to prosecutors, the four were among seven Blackwater employees who opened fire in the Nusoor Square traffic circle in Baghdad, killing 17 people. An FBI investigation found 14 of the deaths unjustified, according to rules of engagement for private security contractors in Iraq. Slatten was accused of firing the first shots. Survivors of shooting tell FBI their stories in 2007 . Blackwater said its convoy came under attack, and defense attorneys said in court that witness accounts were fabricated. But witnesses testified that the contractors opened fire without provocation. "It was horror," said Hasan Jaber, an attorney who was driving to work when he was shot three times. "People running out of their cars were being shot at. ... Anything that moved in Nusoor Square was shot. Women, children, young people, they shot everyone." Among the dead were two boys, 9 and 11, a doctor, a used car salesman, a truck driver, a businessman, an Iraqi soldier, a gardener, a taxi driver and an aspiring doctor taking his mother to an appointment, according to prosecutors. The parents and brothers of the 9-year-old victim were present in court during the sentencing hearing and spoke. Ali Razzaq's father looked at the defendants and yelled in broken English: "If I kill anyone in his family, what he do?! Today, we will see who will win, the law or Blackwater," he said. "Blackwater killed my son." Dad in 2007: Blackwater blew up son's and wife's 'skulls' The defense presented character witnesses, family members and former colleagues who testified to the defendants' capacity to work under fire and willingness to help others. Each defendant also gave a closing statement. Slatten addressed the court last, taking the opportunity to declare his innocence. Lamberth rejected his argument. The judge said that the punishments reflected the seriousness of the crimes. He said that the U.S. government "should be commended for finding and exposing the truth of what happened." Blackwater incident witness in 2007: 'It was hell' A few gasps were heard in the courtroom, and some crying. The case was initially dismissed in 2008 after a judge found the Justice Department withheld key evidence and violated the rights of the contractors. A federal appeals court reversed the ruling, paving the way for the two-month trial that ended in convictions for the four. Another contractor, Jeremy Ridgeway, pleaded guilty in 2008 to voluntary manslaughter and attempt to commit manslaughter and testified for the government. He has not yet been sentenced. Blackwater lost its $1 billion contract with the State Department to protect American diplomatic personnel in 2009, after the Iraqi government refused to renew the company's operating license. The company was later renamed and sold, and now operates as ACADEMI, providing protection services and training. 2007 congressional report: Blackwater most often shoots first . Wesley Bruer reported in Washington. Michael Pearson reported and wrote in Atlanta.

Blackwater sniper Nicholas Slatten is sentenced to life in prison, mandatory for his first-degree murder conviction . Three others get 30 years plus one day in the 2007 shooting in Baghdad that left 17 dead .


(CNN)A grand jury in Dallas County, Texas, has decided not to indict two officers in the fatal shooting of Jason Harrison, a schizophrenic man whose mother had called police for help getting him to the hospital. "This particular case was reported out as a 'no bill,' from the grand jury," said Cristal Retana, a spokeswoman for the Dallas County District Attorney's Office. The grand jury's decision not to indict means Officers John Rogers and Andrew Hutchins won't face criminal prosecution in the case. But the officers are still facing a wrongful death lawsuit from Harrison's family. The incident occurred in June, and Harrison's family filed a lawsuit in November. The release of video from one of the officer's body cameras put the shooting back in the headlines last month. In it, Harrison's mother answers the door for police and nonchalantly walks outside. "Oh, he's just off the chain," she says. "You can hear him, talking about chopping up people." It was a fairly routine occurrence for her to call the police for assistance with her son. An officer asks who she's talking about, and she replies, "My son, bipolar, schizo," as Jason Harrison appears in the doorway behind her. He is twiddling a screwdriver between his fingers. One of the two officers called to the scene tells Harrison to drop the tool, a command the officers repeat at least four times as Harrison's mom screams, "Jay! Jay! Jay!" Within five seconds of that first command, the 39-year-old schizophrenic man is shot five times -- including twice in the back as he crashes headlong into the home's garage door, just a few feet from his mother. Video from one officer's body camera fades to black as Harrison's mother wails, "Oh, they killed my son! Oh, they killed my son!" The officers continue to tell Harrison to drop the weapon. The Harrison family's lawsuit against Rogers and Hutchins says they should have used nonlethal means of defusing the situation instead of choosing to engage "in unlawful vicious attacks" when they and the department were aware of Harrison's condition. The suit also claims the officers violated Harrison's civil rights. The officers, however, said in affidavits that they were forced to shoot an armed man who they deemed dangerous after he failed to comply with repeated orders to drop a screwdriver. CNN's Matthew Stucker and Catherine E. Shoichet contributed to this report.

Police in Dallas shot and killed Jason Harrison last year . A grand jury has decided not to indict the officers . The officers are still facing a civil lawsuit filed by Harrison's family .


(CNN)The Red Cross on Saturday called for an immediate 24-hour ceasefire in battle-torn Yemen, saying many more people recently wounded in airstrikes and ground fighting will die if not tended to soon. The call came just before the U.N. Security Council met late Saturday morning to discuss the situation in the Arabian Peninsula nation, where Shiite rebels are pitted against external Arab air forces and fighters loyal to Yemen's displaced Sunni president. A pause was needed especially in and near the southern Yemeni port city of Aden, where intense fighting has happened in the past two weeks, the International Committee of the Red Cross said. Food, water, medical items and personnel need to get into these areas, the group said. "Otherwise, put starkly, many more people will die. For the wounded, their chances of survival depend on action within hours, not days," Robert Mardini, the ICRC's head of operations in the Near and Middle East, said. Another Red Cross official said people are running out of food, water and fuel. "Medical supplies need to be here yesterday. The situation is difficult,"said Marie-Claire Feghali, a spokeswoman for the ICRC who is in the capital, Sanaa. "We need to save the lives that can be saved." Meanwhile, residents of Sanaa, witnessed the fiercest Saudi strikes since the air assault started last week. Military facilities, including two bases, within the city limits have been targeted, three senior security officials in Sanaa said. At the Security Council, Russia submitted a draft resolution calling for a halt to the airstrikes that a nine-country regional coalition, led by Saudi Arabia, has been conducting against the rebels in Yemen for more than a week. The meeting adjourned with no decision announced. One diplomat said the draft was missing what the envoy called key elements. It doesn't call for the Houthis to stop fighting, and it does not call for political talks between the belligerents, the diplomat told CNN on condition of anonymity. Yemen has been descending into chaos in the weeks since 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. The Houthis put Hadi under house arrest when they overtook Sanaa in January. But Hadi escaped in February, fled to Aden and declared himself to still be president. Houthis and their allies, including those loyal to Hadi's predecessor, then fought Hadi's forces in the Aden area. Hadi fled Aden in late March, ultimately for Saudi Arabia, when the rebels and their military allies advanced on the city. The conflict prompted Saudi Arabia, a predominately Sunni nation and Yemen's northern neighbor, and other Arab nations to hit the rebels in Yemen with airstrikes. A Saudi source told CNN that special forces supplied weapons and communication equipment to Yemeni fighters in Aden loyal to Hadi. The Houthis were retreating from areas in the center of the city, including the presidential palace there, the source said. Saudi special forces help oppose Houthi rebels in Yemen, source says . The United Nations said Thursday that at least 519 people have been killed in Yemen in the past two weeks. An additional 1,700 have been wounded. Tens of thousands have fled to nearby Somalia and Djibouti. In Aden alone, fighting has killed 58 people and injured 200 more in the past two days, Yemeni security officials said. At least 24 of the dead were Houthis. Complicating matters in Yemen is that al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula -- not the Houthis or Hadi-loyal forces -- holds sway in the country's east. AQAP is considered one of the most ruthless branches of the terrorist organization. Also late this week, photos circulating on social media purported to show senior al Qaeda leader Khaled Batarfi  -- whom Yemeni defense officials said militants busted out of jail on Thursday -- posing in a presidential residence in southern Yemen. Sunni Islamist fighters freed Batarfi with some 270 prisoners when they overran the town of al Mukallah. On Saturday, the French military evacuated 44 people, including some French nationals, from the eastern Yemeni port city of Balhaf. CNN's Don Melvin, Trey Haney, David Shortell and Richard Roth contributed to this report.

Saudi Arabia airstrikes on the capital increase as jets hit military facilities in Sanaa . The U.N. Security Council meets to discuss the situation . Social media: A senior al Qaeda commander stands in a presidential residence after a jail break .


Sanaa, Yemen (CNN)As soon as the buses parked, the people scrambled onto the airport tarmac. They carried duffel bags, plastic bags full of clothes and small suitcases. They'd already abandoned larger bags in a mound. Only carry-on luggage was allowed on this Air India plane. The passengers were mostly Indian nationals, plus Yemenis and people from other countries who had been working in Yemen's capital, Sanaa. They sprinted or walked with deliberation to the airplanes. The stress of living in a war zone showed on the passengers' faces. Nobody wanted to be left behind. They climbed the steps to the airliner and were greeted by the Air India crew, all wearing pressed uniforms, the flight attendants fully made up. After takeoff, the flight attendants went up and down the aisle offering drinks to the 188 evacuees as if they were on a vacation flight. But some passengers were already fast asleep, exhausted by the push to get out of Yemen, site of some of the most chaotic fighting in the Mideast. This scene has been repeated in recent days as countries work to get their citizens out of Sanaa during a small window when Saudi planes are not bombing the city in an attempt to drive out the Houthis, a Shiite group that has taken over the capital. Air India is especially active because so many Indian nationals work in other nations. Over the last few days, India has evacuated some 2,500 people from Yemen, said Gen. Vijay Kumar Singh, the Indian deputy foreign minister who's overseeing the evacuation. The flights are going to Djibouti, the small African nation nearly 430 kilometers (267 miles) away. Some evacuees are fleeing on boats at port cities such as Aden. People are leaving behind much more than luggage. Damodar Thakur, a professor at Sanaa University, lived in the capital 34 years and built a life there. He loved living in Yemen. "I never felt like a foreigner," he said. Like the others, he was exhausted and jangled by the shelling and lack of electricity for long stretches. "At night, my goodness!" he said. "Gunshots being fired every minute. Sometimes the sky full of sparkling lights. Some women crying, children terrified. Really bad." The Houthi rebels control Sanaa, including the airport. But the Saudis are bombing the city and thus control air access in a way, so getting people out requires coordination. The Saudi air force gave Air India a four-hour window to go to and from Sanaa and a specific travel route for a safe landing. As the plane approached the city, the crew could see the scars of the fighting. There were no cars on the roads. Dozens of buildings were destroyed. At the airport, the landing strips and airport terminal were untouched by Saudi bombs, but buildings on the outskirts of the airport and planes along the airstrip had been blown to bits. The loading of passengers was swift. They approached the planes carrying boarding passes -- another touch of normalcy in the otherwise abnormal event. They didn't  pay for the flight, though they had to purchase exit visas from the Houthis. Children sat on their parents' laps to maximize the number of people on the plane. Some passengers fell asleep as soon as they took their seats before takeoff. Everyone seemed to carry the weight of war, especially nurses who had tended the wounded. From Djibouti, the evacuees will most likely disperse to their home nations. "Now I can only pray for Yemen and those we left behind," Thakur said.

Air India has evacuated 2,500 people in recent days from Yemen, Indian official says . Passengers could only bring carry-on luggage onto the airplane . The Saudis have not destroyed the airstrips, which are controlled by Houthis .


Garissa, Kenya (CNN)Freshly laundered clothes still hang Friday in the dormitory at Garissa University College. Stuffed animals remain in one room. On the wall in another hangs a poster on proper preparation for Muslim prayer. These small reminders of college life at this Kenyan school belie the horror of what happened here: the slaughter of at least 147 people, many of them students who lived in this building. On Friday afternoon, more than 36 hours after the attack, investigators and Kenya Red Cross crews were finishing up the task of removing the bodies of dead students. The corpses of four Al-Shabaab attackers -- dressed head to toe in black and still clutching their AK-47s -- remained where they fell, their bodies shattered in a torrent of bullets. Kenya terrorist attack: 6 things you need to know . Investigators marked the locations of students' bodies with numbered tags before Red Cross workers came in to send them off to morgues. They would call out to each other with the locations of the dead, reducing once promising lives, for the time being at least, to numbers. 221. 214. 216. 217. Sometimes, the cell phones of the dead would ring, taking the workers aback. Beyond the bodies, evidence of what had happened at the dormitory was everywhere. Shattered glass and shell casings littered the floor. Walls and ceilings were marred by bullet holes. In some places, the blood was as thick as mud. The problems plaguing Kenya's security efforts . According to students and authorities, militants burst onto the campus around 5 a.m. Thursday. The gunmen, from the Al-Shabaab terror group, first stormed a Christian prayer service, killing some students, taking others hostage. They rampaged across the campus, shooting non-Muslims, sparing Muslims, a witness said. One student, Hellen Titus, told CNN she hid inside a wardrobe for nearly an hour before the gunmen came for her. Come out, they told her, you won't be shot. "They were lying," she said. The gunmen herded her and maybe three dozen other students into a community room where they'd usually hang out and watch television. They were told to lie down, lectured about how the Quran forbids killing women. And then the men, Titus said, were shot in the head. One of the gunmen egged on the others. "Shoot them! Shoot them!" he would say, according to Titus. More lecturing: the land, the gunmen said, didn't belong to nonbelievers. We, the gunmen said, have just two missions: to kill, and be killed. And then they started shooting the women. "Anyone who is breathing, shoot them," Titus said the gunman in charge said. "We just lay there hopelessly, because we know automatically we're going to be killed," Titus said. It was then she saw the blood of a fellow student coursing toward her on the floor. She smeared it onto her face and body to make it appear she, too, was dead. "In the time of shooting, they skipped me," she said. She survived with only a hand wound. Many of the other students were shot in the back of the head, a medic told CNN. Others had been beheaded, according to people who had viewed bodies at the morgue in Chiromo. Even longtime relief workers such as Reuben Nyaora with the International Rescue Committee said they were shocked at what they saw. "I have seen many things," Nyaora told Agence France-Presse, "but nothing like that." Opinion: A weakened Al-Shabaab lashes out . CNN's Michael Pearson wrote from Atlanta. CNN's David McKenzie and Lillian Leposo reported from Kenya. CNN's Dominique van Heerden and Soni Methu contributed to this report.

Shell casings, glass and blood stains litter dorm at Garissa University College . At least 147 died in Thursday attack at the Kenyan college .


(CNN)They may not be "Star Trek"-type extraterrestrials, but we may be close to finding evidence of alien life, a NASA scientist says. "I think we're going to have strong indications of life beyond Earth within a decade, and I think we're going to have definitive evidence within 20 to 30 years," NASA chief scientist Ellen Stofan said Tuesday during a panel discussion on water in the universe. "We know where to look. We know how to look," she said. "In most cases, we have the technology, and we're on a path to implementing it. And so I think we're definitely on the road." NASA released a graphic noting that scientists have found evidence or indications of water on a number of celestial bodies, including the dwarf planet Ceres and Jupiter's moon Europa. The Hubble Space Telescope has been key to the discoveries, NASA said in a news release. "Scientists using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope recently provided powerful evidence that (Jupiter's moon) Ganymede has a saltwater, sub-surface ocean, likely sandwiched between two layers of ice," the agency noted. There are some caveats involved, of course. NASA isn't talking about intelligent alien civilizations from the Alpha Quadrant; it's referring to microorganisms. "We are not talking about little green men," Stofan said at the panel. "We are talking about little microbes." Still, former astronaut John Grunsfeld said it's an exciting time -- and he thinks it's just a matter of time before we find life outside our solar system as well. "I think we're one generation away in our solar system, whether it's on an icy moon or on Mars, and one generation on a planet around a nearby star," he said. And, he added, who knows what that life will look like? "Once we get out beyond Mars, the likelihood that it's similar to Earth because we share that material gets very, very low," he said. "And I think that's where it starts getting exceptionally exciting."

NASA chief scientist Ellen Stofan believes we're close to finding alien life . Indications within a decade; definitive evidence within "20 to 30 years," she said . Finding water on other celestial bodies is key to determination .


(CNN)ISIS fighters seized several districts in the Iraqi city of Ramadi in an hours-long assault Friday that included suicide and car bombs, an Iraqi provincial official said. At least 10 Iraqi security forces were killed in the attacks, according to Faleh al-Essawi, the deputy head of Iraq's Anbar provincial council. And the head of the Iraqi military operation in Anbar province, Gen. Qassim al-Muhammadi, was wounded. The northern Ramadi districts of Albu Faraj, Albu Essa and Albu Risha were in the hands of ISIS by the time the day was done. Located about 70 miles (110 kilometers) west of Baghdad, Ramadi has seen intense and persistent fighting for months. ISIS took over parts of that western Anbar city in the first half of 2014, and it's been part of a tug of war ever since. Iraqi security forces discovered tunnels in February that they say could have led opposition fighters to a central government compound in the city.  But they didn't find all of them: A few weeks later, ISIS detonated hundreds of homemade bombs from a tunnel underneath an army headquarters there, according to Sabah Al-Karhout, the head of the Anbar provincial council. More than 40 Iraqi soldiers died in that explosion. Iraqi and allied forces have made inroads in recent weeks, beating back the group that calls itself the Islamic State, which took over vast swaths of Iraq and neighboring Syria last year. Their most high-profile victory, for instance, was the recapture of Tikrit. And U.S.-led airstrikes have already made a difference, according to officials in Washington and beyond. Still, ISIS remains a formidable force and, as the Ramadi assault shows, one that's still capable and willing to go on offense to take territory. That may be best illustrated by the case of Mosul, Iraq's second largest city and the site of one of its biggest embarrassments when Iraqi soldiers and police dropped their weapons and fled their posts as ISIS forces advanced last June. A U.S. official said in February that up to 25,000 Iraqis troops were expected to return to the key northern Iraqi city in April or May. But, on Thursday, a senior official in U.S. President Barack Obama's administration appeared to back away from that timeline -- saying an Iraqi-led assault on Mosul "might be some time from now (or) might be soon." Calling for "patience," an administration official said that winning Mosul is a complex endeavor. The same could be said for the entire effort to defeat ISIS. It will "take a lot of capacity," the official said, "and some time to build." CNN's Kim Acosta contributed to this report.

Anbar provincial official: Suicide and car bombs were part of the ISIS assault . Iraqi and allied forces have had recent success, but ISIS remains powerful .


(CNN)Indonesia has a tough stance on drug smugglers, and since assuming office in October, President Joko Widodo has made it clear he intends to show no mercy toward those found guilty of such crimes. That tough stance casts a further pall on two Australian drug smugglers, part of the so-called "Bali Nine." They are waiting to learn whether they will be put to death by firing squad after an Indonesian court rejected a last ditch effort to gain clemency from Widodo on Monday. April marks a decade on death row for Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran for their part in a failed heroin smuggling plot. The 31-year-old Chan has been called the ringleader and 33-year-old Sukumaran has been described as his collaborator.  The seven others who took part in the operation are serving lengthy prison sentences for trafficking the drugs. The members of the Bali Nine were arrested after Indonesian police received a tip from Australian Federal Police. Four members of the group were caught at Denpasar International Airport with more than 8 kilograms of heroin strapped to their bodies.  Four others, including Sukumaran, were arrested at a hotel in the village of Kuta.  Although he wasn't carrying any drugs, Chan was detained after boarding a plane to Sydney.  He was named by others as the mastermind of the smuggling plot. While the purported ringleaders have received media attention for years, the other seven members of the Bali Nine have rarely been in the spotlight. Here's a quick look at the other members of the group: . Scott Rush . Indonesian prosecutors asked for and received a sentence of life in prison for several of the Bali Nine, who were identified as drug couriers in the operation. That includes Scott Rush of Brisbane, Australia. Rush was 19 when he was captured in Indonesia. He was arrested at Denpasar Airport with more than 1 kilogram of heroin strapped to his body. Michael Czugaj . Life in prison was the original sentence for 29-year-old Michael Czugaj, also of Brisbane. Nineteen at the time of his arrest, Czugaj is one of five of the Bali Nine whose sentence was reduced to 20 years in prison, then reinstated at life again.  During his trial, Czugaj testified he was lured into the drug scheme with the promise of a free holiday to Bali. He was quoted in news reports as saying his life was threatened, as well as his family's, if he refused to cooperate with the heroin smuggling operation. Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen . Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen from Brisbane, who is now 31, was one of four drug couriers in the case. He was found in a hotel room on Bali's Kuta Beach with a small amount of heroin and drug paraphernalia. Si Yi Chen and Matthew Norman . The others are Si Yi Chen, 30 and Matthew Norman, 28, both from Sydney.  Foreignprisoners.com quotes Chen as saying he deeply regrets his actions and did not mean to hurt others, especially his family.   Norman is quoted on the same website expressing remorse for his actions and hopes that people back home, "don't judge me too harshly."  He says he has two sisters including a twin. Foreignprisoners.com is run by Foreign Prisoner Support Service, a nonprofit organization based in South Africa. Martin Stephen and Rena Lawrence . The same website details information about Martin Stephens, now 39, and the only woman in the Bali Nine, 37-year-old Renae Lawrence. Stephens was a former bartender from Towradgi, a suburb of Wollongong in New South Wales. He claims he was forced to travel to Bali and take part in the drug smuggling operation after death threats against his family. Lawrence, from Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia, was arrested with heroin strapped to her body.  She claims Chan threatened her life if she did not take part in the scheme.  During her court appeal, Lawrence apologized to Indonesia for her actions.  Her original life sentence was also reduced to 20 years. During a court appearance in 2006, Chan denied threatening anyone.  He told the Denpasar District Court before his sentencing in February of that year:  "A lot of lies have been said against me, but the true reality is I'm not what people put me out to be. I've never threatened anybody in my life." The Denpasar District Court also dismissed claims that Chan made threats against Lawrence and Rush when the two were sentenced in 2006. Australia has repeatedly called for clemency for Chan and Sukumaran. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said Monday, "The Government is disappointed at today's decision by the State Administrative Court of Jakarta to reject the appeals of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran. We understand that the legal team for Mr. Chan and Mr. Sukumaran is considering other legal options." In a news release posted to the Australian government's website, Bishop cited the "extensive rehabilitation" both men have undergone and said she will continue to appeal to her counterpart while Australia continues to "use all diplomatic options to seek a stay of execution."

Two Australian drug smugglers, part of the Bali Nine, await word whether they'll face a firing squad . Less is known about the seven other members of the group .


(CNN)The abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls a year ago this week captured global attention and inspired the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls, but the horrors for Nigeria's children are widespread. "Around 800,000 children have been forced to flee their homes as a result of the conflict in northeast Nigeria between Boko Haram, military forces and civilian self-defense groups," UNICEF said Monday. The "number of children running for their lives within Nigeria, or crossing over the border to Chad, Niger and Cameroon, has more than doubled in just less than a year." UNICEF released a report on the crisis titled "Missing Childhoods." It also launched a social media campaign using the hashtag #bringbackourchildhood. The campaign has "leading Snapchat artists" sharing images based on drawings from children in Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon.  Artwork can also be seen on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr. More than 1.5 million people have fled their homes due to the violence, UNICEF said. About 1.2 million are displaced internally, while others have crossed into Cameroon, Chad and Niger. "The vast majority of the displaced -- more than 880,000 -- are staying with host communities with little access to humanitarian support, putting additional strains on already stretched health, education and social services," it said. The April 14, 2014, kidnappings at a girls school in Chibok by the Islamist group Boko Haram "is only one of endless tragedies being replicated on an epic scale across Nigeria and the region," said Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF regional director for West and Central Africa. "Scores of girls and boys have gone missing in Nigeria -- abducted, recruited by armed groups, attacked, used as weapons, or forced to flee violence. They have the right to get their childhoods back." Kids are being used by Boko Haram as combatants, cooks, and lookouts, UNICEF said. "Young women and girls are being subjected to forced marriage, forced labor and rape," it said. At least 196 teachers and 314 schoolchildren were killed in 2014, and more than 300 schools were damaged or destroyed.

More than 1.5 million people are displaced, including 800,000 children, UNICEF says . The kidnappings that inspired #BringBackOurGirls were a year ago this week . UNICEF is launching a #bringbackourchildhood campaign .


New York  (CNN)New York's iconic Statue of Liberty and Liberty Island will reopen to the public Saturday -- one day after a bomb threat that led to its evacuation was declared unfounded, officials said. The NYPD bomb squad on Friday examined a locker thought to contain a suspicious package and found it was empty, a law enforcement official said. Police declared the scene clear at 3:15 p.m. Other lockers checked as a precautionary measure, the law enforcement source said. Images posted on social media showed crowds of visitors walking on ramps to awaiting ferries. All civilians were evacuated and only emergency personnel remained on Liberty Island, according to police. The fire department had EMS units there as a precaution. Mike Burke, the head of Statue Cruises, which operates the ferry to the island, said: "Our first priority is the safety and well being of all of our visitors." Burke said about 2,700 people were safely transported from the island and offered full refunds. Service to Liberty Island is to resume at 8:30 a.m. Saturday. Shortly after 11 a.m., the National Park Service was informed that a 911 caller made a threat to blow up the Statue of Liberty -- which led to the evacuation, according to park service spokeswoman Mindi Rambo. A sweep by U.S. Park Police canine units "alerted on an area of interest near the lockers at the base" of the Statue of Liberty, Rambo said. Park police had notified the NYPD, which dispatched its bomb squad, officials said. It is not uncommon to get false positives from the bomb-sniffing dogs. "Following their investigation, it was determined that there was not an explosive device," Rambo said. Approximately 3.5 million people visit the Statue of Liberty every year. Visitors must pass through security screening similar to airport security procedures, according to the National Park Service. Previously, the statue closed in November 2012 because of significant damage sustained from Superstorm Sandy. It reopened on July 4, 2013, with a ribbon cutting ceremony and long lines of tourists. The last time the island shut down to the public was in October 2013, when it closed for 12 days because of the a government shutdown. The statue was dedicated by President Grover Cleveland on October 28, 1886. It was a gift to the United States from the people of France to commemorate 100 years of Franco-American friendship as well as the centennial of America's independence.

Statue of Liberty to reopen Saturday . Locker thought to have a suspicious package was empty, police say . Statue of Liberty evacuated after bomb threat, officials say . The evacuation came after a phoned threat, sources say .


Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN)It is a strangely detached scene for the close of America's longest war: military trainers bouncing between multi-million dollar, high security bases, on Black Hawks, miles from the front line. But it is how Washington wants this to be. And even though the departure of American troops will be fractionally slower, they will all be inside the U.S. Embassy by the end of next year, making these some of their last weeks outside of the wire. We are near Jalalabad, at a regional logistics hub for the Afghan police force -- a generous facility that was originally intended to resupply the entire east of the country with uniforms, ammunition, even fuel for vehicles. The intentions, first hatched in 2011 when the U.S. had tens of thousands of troops and still large ambitions for their war here, were large in scale. But the project has been handed between rotations of U.S. officers and is perhaps a little distant from its first conception. We are taken on a proud tour of a series of clean and newly painted blocks. Dozens of Afghan police gather there, and mill around, waiting for their commanders to arrive. Nick Paton Walsh's Afghanistan series: Afghan forced to marry her rapist . Yet a few problems are immediately visible. There are no doorhandles on the outer doors -- we're told they've been removed while a new master key is being sought. There seem to be few supplies in the actual hub. We ask the Afghan policemen how many of them get resupplied there, at this stage, four months since it opened, and they say: none. About 20 units a month file paperwork for resupply in the base, but supplies often still come from where they did before -- Kabul. U.S. officials told us they are optimistic the logistical road ahead can be smoothed -- that in the 18 plus months they have left they can get the Afghan army and police up to furnishing themselves with the supply lines they need. But here, now, that seems far away. As does the base, incidentally. It's quite a rough drive from the main road, surrounded by hills, and with at best patchy cellphone coverage -- far from ideal for a transit hub. Nick Paton Walsh's Afghanistan series: ISIS recruits in Taliban territory . And it is far away in terms of its cost. Like so much in the most costly of wars, its price tag may have made sense in briefings on Capitol Hill, where effectiveness is gauged in millions, but here in dusty eastern Afghanistan, it seems exorbitant. This as-yet, partially functional resupply hub cost $21 million, a price that presumably includes new doorhandles. There are about fifty Afghan police currently on the base -- meaning each one has so far cost $400,000 to the US taxpayer. But this is an unfair way of representing the challenge the U.S. trainers here face: working, as they are, against a clock, with diminishing resources and public interest, in an endlessly complex and often corrupt land where, when the Taliban aren't thriving, ISIS are waiting in the wings to fill the gap. With the clock ticking in the background, U.S. officer Colonel JB Vowell remains upbeat: "It's going to be a challenge, to get all those little hubs and spokes -- logistics to maintenance, supplies, resupply. I'm optimistic though; much of this didn't exist in November." On the outskirts of the base are the relics of the U.S.'s military involvement in a conflict that still continues to kill Afghan security forces at an accelerated  rate. SUVs, even old American Humvees -- now gifted to Afghan police to drive around -- lie disabled by mine strikes. The Americans were hoping the police could stack the vehicles here, assess their resupply needs, or cannibalize the damaged vehicles for spare parts. Throughout, the surreal changes in how this war was, and continues to be, fought are omnipresent. Years ago, the threat would have mostly been from insurgents taking potshots at an American base. Now we are far from the threat, but another has taken its place. Surrounding our crew at all times are "Guardian Angels" -- U.S. soldiers on guard duty, protecting their own from rogue Afghan police or soldiers, trying to prevent the newest and most serious scourge -- "green on blue" attacks, in which Afghan security forces turn their guns on Americans. It is a strange experience to be protected from those who America seeks to hand the country over to. But this is how the war ended. Not with ideological victories, or dramatic withdrawals, just the slow and deliberate stepping to one side.

Final troop pullout oddly detached as U.S. military operations die down in Afghanistan . Ambitious projects, like a police logistics center in Jalalabad, may not live up to their potential .


Sao Paulo, Brazil (CNN)Hundreds of thousands of Brazilians are taking to the streets in protests across the country, lashing out against President Dilma Rousseff as she struggles with an economic downturn and a massive bribery scandal. The demonstrators have called for the President to be impeached. On the other side Rousseff's base is holding rallies in her support. There are a number of issues at play. One of the biggest: an investigation into a multimillion-dollar kickback scheme at the state-run oil company Petrobras. Petrobras was long considered the corporate jewel in Brazil's crown, one of the biggest companies in the world by market capitalization. But last year, investigators launched a sweeping investigation. According to suspects-turned-witnesses, construction companies paid bribes to executives at Petrobras as well as politicians to secure lucrative contracts. Most of the politicians accused in the investigation belong to the President's Workers Party and its allies. During many of the years that the alleged corruption took place, Rousseff was the chairwoman of Petrobras. There hasn't been any evidence she was involved with the scheme, and her supporters say the position is merely a figurehead. Rousseff has defended Brazilians' right to protest and acknowledged the need to clean up corruption at Petrobras -- but denied any prior knowledge of it. But Brazilians are still outraged. Rousseff won re-election with just over 50% of valid votes in October, but her approval rating plummeted to 13% after the protests last month. Compounding the frustration is the economy, which is expected to contract this year. Inflation is stubbornly high, and the currency has lost more than 20% of its value against the dollar this year alone. Both sides are. The country was already sharply divided during presidential elections in October. Roughly half of the voting population didn't vote for Rousseff, and many of those same people joined protests immediately after elections. Rousseff's supporters like to characterize the protesters as Brazilian elite and right-wingers, and some small groups do carry signs calling for a military intervention to oust the President. But with the Petrobras scandal growing and the economy sinking, the protests have gotten bigger and broader, with many demonstrators saying they initially voted for Rousseff. Protesters say Rousseff should be impeached for failing to halt the corruption at Petrobras. On the other hand, labor unions, social activists and groups such as the Landless Workers Movement who support the government have organized their own marches. The demonstrations are meant as a show of force for democracy, with participants saying the President was democratically elected and cannot be impeached. But participation has not been consistently strong. The President has said Petrobras should be cleaned up. Has she done anything about it? She says she's given prosecutors and the Federal Police free rein to investigate the Petrobas scandal. Some of her allies who have been implicated in the investigation think Rousseff should do more to protect them. This scandal has been known publicly for at least a year, and during Rousseff's election campaign, she said she would root out corruption. The Brazilian economy was booming for the good part of a decade, bolstered by voracious demand for its commodities from China. But with China's economy cooling, Brazil has failed to find a successful alternative to promote growth and shore up investor confidence. Now, with the President's approval rating abysmally low, it will be difficult to implement the savings needed to get the economy back on track. Rousseff has appointed a market-friendly economy minister, Joaquim Levy, to try and fix the country's fiscal problems. But in the current political crisis, he hasn't been able to make much progress.

Protesters angry over bribery scandal involving state-run oil company Petrobras . Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff also is struggling with an economic downturn .


Tikrit, Iraq (CNN)ISIS is gone, but the fear remains. As Iraqi forces, aided by Shiite militiamen, took control Wednesday of the northern city of Tikrit, they found vehicles laden with explosives and buildings that might be booby-trapped. CNN senior international correspondent Arwa Damon, who was in Tikrit on Tuesday, saw a large mechanical digger packed with explosives that Iraqi forces had to disarm. The troops, she said, were cautious when they entered buildings in case they were wired to explode. Plumes of smoke rose from burning buildings in the background. Near former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's presidential palaces compound -- Tikrit is Hussein's birthplace -- the CNN team also saw a destroyed truck with a large machine gun mounted on the back. Iraqi forces said they had fired an RPG at the truck, killing three ISIS fighters. ISIS was ejected from the palaces compound in fierce fighting, they said, adding that there may still be booby traps. Federal police said they dismantled hundreds of IEDs (improvised explosive devices) Wednesday. CNN heard at least 16 explosions, some very loud, which police said were controlled. The potential booby traps were political as well as physical. Officials are concerned about the behavior of the conquerors, particularly the Iranian-backed Shiite militiamen who helped Iraqi troops. Officials fear the militiamen might take "scorched earth" reprisals for the reported massacre of Shiite air force cadets by ISIS fighters in Tikrit last year. Much of the population of Tikrit is, like ISIS, Sunni Muslim. And officials fear that reprisals by Shiite militias against the Sunni population could stoke local anger, jeopardizing the government's ability to hold onto Tikrit and pull the country together. Sectarian resentment helped fuel the rise of ISIS in the first place. 'Where are our sons?' demand families of soldiers captured by ISIS . Still, the liberation of Tikrit from the terrorist group, which is also known as ISIL and calls itself the Islamic State, represented a significant victory for the Iraqi government, which had tried -- and failed -- to retake the city many times before. Iraqi  Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi arrived Wednesday to claim the victory, which took place a year after the city was first attacked by ISIS. Al-Abadi, who is also Iraq's top military commander, had announced the previous evening on Iraqiya TV that the city was under the control of Iraqi forces. Iraqi forces continued to clean out pockets of resistance Wednesday, said Interior Minister Mohammed al-Ghabban, who was also in the city. But he said the Iraqi government would be in full control shortly. "The enemy has been defeated, and it has lost all its capabilities," al-Ghabban said. "In the coming hours, the battle will end." Iraqi security said that the few ISIS militants left in the city are hiding inside houses hoping to escape in the dark. ISIS' nine-month dominion over Tikrit was marked by brutality. In addition to the reported massacre of the 1,500-plus air force cadets at Camp Speicher in June, ISIS is believed to have buried victims in mass graves and to have destroyed an Assyrian church that had graced Tikrit since the eighth century. The push into Tikrit came days after U.S.-led airstrikes targeted ISIS bases around the city. Al-Abadi said those tactics would now be replicated in other areas. Brett McGurk, the U.S. deputy special presidential envoy to the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL, tweeted that the coalition's airstrikes had destroyed numerous ISIS shelters. "We will continue to support courageous Iraqi forces operating under Iraqi command as they work to reclaim their territory from #ISIL," McGurk tweeted. The key to victory in Tikrit this time, the Prime Minister said, was surprise. But help from the coalition of Shiite militiamen and volunteers also played a part. The militia members, estimated to number around 20,000, are backed by Iran. The offensive marked the first open participation of Iranian advisers on the front lines in Iraq. The victory in Tikrit sets the stage for Iraqi forces to take back an even bigger prize -- Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city. A U.S. official said in February that up to 25,000 Iraqi troops plan to return to Mosul in April or May in an effort to retake the city. Don Melvin wrote this report in London. Arwa Damon and Hamdi Alkhshali reported from Tikrit and Jomana Karadsheh from Baghdad.

Tikrit is under the control of Iraqi forces, Iraqi Prime Minister says . ISIS departs, leaving city strewn with booby traps, explosive-filled vehicles . Officials hope to avoid Shia reprisals for ISIS slaughter of air force recruits .


Tokyo (CNN)A bizarre and alarming discovery is raising concerns in Japan about the potential for terrorism involving drones. A drone carrying traces of a radioactive material was found on the rooftop of Japan's equivalent to the White House on Wednesday, police and government officials said. The discovery came on the same day a Japanese court approved a government plan to restart two reactors at the Sendai nuclear power plant in Kagoshima prefecture, more than four years after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's push to restart the reactors is unpopular among many Japanese, who view nuclear energy as too dangerous. A staff member spotted the drone Wednesday morning on the roof of Abe's residence, Tokyo Metropolitan Police said. Dozens of police investigators were dispatched to the roof to investigate the origin of the drone, which had four propeller and was 50 centimeters (20 inches) wide. Police say the drone was equipped with a small camera, smoke flares and a plastic bottle containing small traces of a radioactive material believed to be cesium, a common byproduct of nuclear reactors. Cesium was also discovered in areas around the failed Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant after its 2011 meltdown. Investigators suspect the cesium was placed in the bottle. The amount inside is not immediately harmful to humans. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the discovery is raising concerns about terrorism. "There might be terrorism attempts in the future at the Olympics and G7 Summit using drones," Suga said. "So we need to examine and review continuously the way small unmanned vehicles like drones should be operated and how to cope with the threat of terrorism from drones. The government will do all that we can to prevent terrorism." Japanese law restricts drone flights around airports to prevent problems with aircraft, but there are no flight restrictions for most of Tokyo, including the Prime Minister's residence and local and federal government buildings. Abe was not in his office at the time. He is in Indonesia, attending the Asian-African Conference. CNN's Elizabeth Joseph, Joshua Berlinger and Josh Levs contributed to this report.

The drone is sparking terrorism concerns, authorities say . It was equipped with a bottle containing radioactive material . It was discovered as a court approved a plan to restart two Japanese nuclear reactors .


(CNN)UltraHaptics is a young company with a big dream: changing the way we interact with electronic devices. Their technology creates tactile three-dimensional shapes literally out of thin air, using ultrasound. The company's tagline says it all: "Feeling without touching." Through an emission of sound waves, sensations are projected through the air and to the user. Changes in air pressure are perceived as suspended tactile surfaces, creating invisible -- but tangible -- interfaces. This already sounds quite intriguing, but paired with another rising technology it has the potential to become a game changer. The rising tide of virtual reality seems unstoppable: Facebook's Oculus Rift and Magic Leap are leading the pack, but several other companies are readying devices in a field that could shake the foundations of electronic entertainment. But even though it is incredibly convincing, virtual reality completely bypasses the sense of touch: applying UltraHaptics' technology to it would allow users to not just see the virtual world projected in front of their eyes, but to touch it as well. Tom Carter, UltraHaptics' CTO, sees potential in the merging of these technologies: "The ability to put on your virtual reality goggles and not just explore visually and through your headphones, but also touch what you can see, is a really exciting possibility," he told CNN's Nick Glass. Creating buttons and shapes literally anywhere they're needed opens up a slew of possibilities for more traditional devices as well. "Imagine the dashboard of a car having no buttons, no switches, no ugly controls: just a very nice, sleek dashboard. "If you're driving and you want to have the music up for example, you don't have to take your eyes off the road, you just hold your hand out and the controls stick to your hand, so you can feel them." Smartphones and other popular devices could also see benefits: controlling appliances in the kitchen, using TVs and computers in a style reminiscent of the movie "Minority report", or even snoozing the alarm in the morning would all become just a matter of waving your hands. (This probably wouldn't be the most virtuous application of the technology.) Several devices can already be controlled with gestures, but UltraHaptics add an extra layer of feedback, by generating the sensation of a force field: "Haptics is more than just the sense of touch. It's really all of the information that you get from the sense of touch. What you're feeling, what sort of pressure, the tactile sensation given by an object or surface. You also know where your limbs are and how they're moving, all from the sense of touch. It's all this information that cues how you're interacting with the world," Carter said. To create their invisible buttons, UltraHaptics use a small collection of ultrasonic speakers, concentrating the sound waves to a specific point. Sound travels through air by creating a pressure differential, so by focusing several of these differentials to a target location, the result is a single localized spot of high pressure. "If you put your hand in the way, it actually emits enough of a force on your hand to slightly displace your skin. "We use that and control it to vibrate your skin, and give you this feeling. What you eventually get is a sensation of vibration on your hands," Carter explained. With the current prototype, the smallest point that can be created is 8.5 millimeters in diameter, but the shape can be morphed into a surface, creating different textures over a single "object" by differentiating the pressure levels. Other companies are working on similar projects, such as Elliptic Labs, and the interest around the technology already appears to be strong. UltraHaptics, who have already built several prototypes and have demoed the technology to the public at the last CES in Las Vegas, say they are working with 15 to 20 clients who are looking to incorporate tactile ultrasound into their products. "We have everything from consumer electronics companies making things like speakers, radios, alarm clocks, through home appliance companies making cooker hoods, washing machines, to virtual reality in gaming companies. And we were very surprised at how keen the automotive industry is to work with us," Carter said. "I'd like to believe that the first product featuring our technology will be on the shelves in a year, that's our aim." Read more from Make, Create, Innovate: . Great photos from the world's smallest satellites . So long, transistor: How the 'memristor' could revolutionize electronics . Laser procedure can turn brown eyes blue .

A company called UltraHaptics has developed a technology to create 3D shapes in mid-air . A tactile sensation is provided by ultrasonic waves, which alter air pressure . The technology could be applied to electronic devices, car dashboards, and virtual reality headsets .


(CNN)In the beginning... there was the Bible, and it was a very Good Book. But this Catholic hadn't read it -- at least, not from cover to cover. So, in the middle of Holy Week, I decided to finally take the plunge. Let me explain. My name is Laura Bernardini and I'm a director of coverage at CNN, which means I manage our newsgathering and newsroom in Washington. I'm also a lifelong Catholic. At work this week, I was talking with some colleagues about Pope Francis' upcoming trip to the United States.  During the course of that conversation, I admitted something that has privately bothered me for a long time. I have never read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. This from someone who jokingly refers to herself as the highest-ranking Catholic in the bureau. My excuse always has been that Catholics have their Bible passages read to them at Mass every Sunday. And there are so many people that can so effortlessly quote long and beautiful passages. I love to read, there is no excuse. Still, it made me wonder: Why I had not read the Good Book cover to cover? I took a scriptures class in 9th grade of my Catholic high school, but we moved through that year with only selected passages to journal about. Later, when I graduated, my grandparents gave me a beautiful Bible that has traveled with me from Vermont to Montreal to Atlanta and finally to Washington. But in 24 years, I never so much as cracked the cover, other than to write the date I received the gift. In that newsroom conversation this week, Daniel Burke, the religion editor at CNN.com, suggested I read the Bible each day for a year and chronicle it weekly for Belief. I will admit to being pretty stunned and a little scared at the prospect. I figured that no one would care about my thoughts or my process. I am no scholar, no expert on scripture, as should be obvious. But the more we talked, the more the idea grew on me. I have committed to training regimens for 5Ks and countless diets, so why not try this? I have been looking for a form of meditation in my hectic life. This might just be it. My friends seem excited about this project, sending me some of their favorite passages, which I'm keeping a list of. One Catholic friend offered to join me, suggesting I get a blank journal to help me take notes. The colleague that I sit next to everyday has already sent me his Bar Mitzvah passage and wants to discuss it when I get there. Another friend's daughter is making her first Holy Communion in May, and  has also offered to connect us because her class is reading the Bible in school. So, in a way, I'm going back to first grade in Catholic school. Yay for me. Overall, my friends and family are mainly curious how this journey will end. I am, too. Will I make it all the way to Revelation come next spring? I start on Easter Sunday. I hope you'll join me.

Laura Bernardini is a lifelong Catholic but had never read the Bible from cover to cover . For the next year, she's going to read every word, from Genesis to Revelation .


(CNN)Blinky and Pinky on the Champs Elysees? Inky and Clyde running down Broadway? Power pellets on the Embarcadero? Leave it to Google to make April Fools' Day into throwback fun by combining Google Maps with Pac-Man. The massive tech company is known for its impish April Fools' Day pranks, and Google Maps has been at the center of a few, including a Pokemon Challenge and a treasure map. This year the company was a day early to the party, rolling out the Pac-Man game Tuesday. It's easy to play: Simply pull up Google Maps on your desktop browser, click on the Pac-Man icon on the lower left, and your map suddenly becomes a Pac-Man course. Twitterers have been tickled by the possibilities, playing Pac-Man in Manhattan, on the University of Illinois quad, in central London and down crooked Lombard Street in San Francisco, among many locations: .

Google Maps has a temporary Pac-Man function . Google has long been fond of April Fools' Day pranks and games . Many people are turning their cities into Pac-Man courses .


Washington (CNN)Rick Santorum says he'd hoped Indiana Gov. Mike Pence would veto the "fix" to his state's religious freedom law rather than limiting its scope. The law unleashed an intense backlash against Indiana, led by tech giants like Apple and Salesforce and sports organizations like the NCAA, amid concerns it would allow businesses to turn away gay and lesbian customers. Santorum, the former Republican senator from Pennsylvania, who is likely to mount another presidential campaign in 2016, said on CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday that Pence's decision to sign a follow-up bill -- which made clear the law couldn't be used to refuse services based on sexual orientation -- led to a "limited view" of religious freedom. "It doesn't really open the debate up on some of the more current issues," Santorum said -- a reference to gay rights issues. With the Supreme Court set to rule in June on whether same-sex marriage should be legalized nationwide, social conservatives like Santorum have asserted that Christian bakers, florists and wedding photographers shouldn't be forced to provide their services to same-sex weddings. The Indiana uproar drew nearly all of the GOP's 2016 contenders into the debate, with candidates like Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz rushing to Pence's defense. "Tolerance is a two-way street," Santorum said. "If you're a print shop and you are a gay man, should you be forced to print 'God hates fags' for the Westboro Baptist Church because they hold those signs up?" Santorum said. "Should the government force you to do that?" he said. "And that's what these cases are all about. This is about the government coming in saying, 'No -- we're going to make you do this.' And this is where I think we just need some space to say, 'Let's have some tolerance -- have it be a two-way street.'" Gay rights groups, meanwhile, have used the outrage over Indiana's law -- as well as a similar one that Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed into law -- and debate in at least 14 other states over similar measures this year to renew their calls for state laws that bar discrimination based on sexual orientation. Sarah Warbelow, the Human Rights Campaign's legal director, said the debate could shift to states like Texas and South Carolina, where similar bills have been introduced. She said tech companies like Facebook and Google are increasingly wading into the debate because they're recognizing that "nondiscrimination protections are critical to every area of their employees' lives." Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of the Catholic archdiocese in New York, said on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday that the debate over religious freedom calls for a "delicate balance." "We've got to make sure that the rights of conscience and the ability to publicly exercise one's religion is also balanced with another good -- namely, the rights of people not to be discriminated against," he said. "It's easier to ignore religious freedom than it is, today, the more popular issues," Dolan said. "In a way, I appreciate the fact that we have political leaders like Gov. Pence that are saying, 'Whoa, wait a minute. Without questioning the rights of the gay community, we also have to make sure that the rights of the religious community are protected.'" "I just wish we could do that in a temperate, civil way, instead of screaming at each other," he said.

Rick Santorum says "religious freedom" debate is about government telling people what to do . Santorum, a likely 2016 GOP presidential candidate, weighs in on Indiana Gov. Mike Pence's decision .


(CNN)Mao Zedong's "Little Red Book," a selection of the chairman's quotations, was required reading during China's Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and 70s. China has now updated the practice for the digital age -- launching a smartphone app starring its current leader, President Xi Jinping, and featuring his latest speeches, statements and publications. Designed by the Central Party School, which trains Chinese Communist Party leaders, the app aims to "arouse enthusiasm" for socialist ideologies. "With the help of Internet technology, we hope that the theories of socialism with Chinese characteristics will be presented in a way that appeals to web users," Chen Jiancai, the managing editor of the school's official web site, said, according to Xinhua, China's state news agency. The app features the latest news about Xi and allows users to access the traditional texts that Xi quotes from. It even has an interactive map that allows you to pinpoint exactly where he made the speeches. It's unclear how many people have downloaded the app, which is available on Apple's App Store. Willy Lam, a China politics scholar at the Chinese University of Hong Kong told CNN the app forms part of Xi's efforts to cultivate a very different image to his predecessors. Xi is keen to be portrayed as a strong leader and as a man of the people -- he's been photographed eating dumplings and has appeared in three animated cartoons. His down-to-earth behavior has drawn a huge number of fans, who address him as "Xi Dada"--  Big Uncle Xi --  but it's also aroused concern among some China analysts, who believe that Xi is using the state propaganda apparatus to build a cult of personality. "This is the 21st century's Little Red Book," Lam says. "He wants to be the supreme authority and build his prestige. The personality cult campaign will only grow." The app drew mixed reviews online and on social media. One headline on a technology news site read "How can you call yourself Chinese if you don't download it?" Some said the app, called Xuexi Zhongguo, which translates to "study China," would be a handy study tool. "Xuexi Zhongguo is an extremely useful app... for civil servants selection tests," says one Weibo user @afeixiaoxiaozhuai. But others said they would boycott it. "If they introduce an Android version, I'll get an iPhone. And if it's in Apple Store, I'll say I can only afford an Android phone. If they are available on both systems, I'll get a Nokia -- sorry, I can't afford a smartphone," said @Mujia.

Xi Jinping's sayings now available in a new smartphone app . Scholars call it a new version of Mao's "Little Red Book"


(CNN)Aaron Hernandez is known for his swagger. Should he act any differently when he's on trial for murder? When the once rising star for the New England Patriots walks into court each day with what appears to be an air of confidence -- or is it bravado? -- he enters from a connecting holding room. Some court security officers who escort him are as tall and muscular as he is. Besides that certain bounce to his step, there's usually a smile. Jury deliberations resume Wednesday . Watch "Downward Spiral: Inside the Case against Aaron Hernandez" tonight at 9 p.m. ET. It hasn't been there as often in the last couple of weeks when state witnesses have included his fiancée Shayanna Jenkins and his former boss, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who testified Hernandez would usually greet him with a kiss and a hug. Always impeccably dressed in suit and tie brought in by his defense team, Hernandez quickly scans the courtroom, usually starting with the rows of seats directly behind him. The front row is reserved for his family. Some days, none of his relatives is there. But when his mother, fiancée, brother and other friends attend, he winks, nods, smiles, jokes, laughs, flirts with his fiancée and mouths greetings to them including "'thanks for coming' and 'I love you.'" Twice, he nodded his head and smiled at me. It's not unusual for his lawyers to slap him on his back and huddle before court begins, appearing at ease. They've been representing him since June 2013. There was an unfortunate moment. His mother once asked permission from a court officer to touch her son once the jury left the room. Given an OK, she reached over the bar to him, took one of his hands in hers and kissed it. Rules forbid contact. It did not go unnoticed by the family of victim Odin Lloyd. Hernandez does not avoid looking in their direction. He glances at Lloyd's relatives. Lloyd's mother Ursula Ward, who is in court daily, appears to look right back at Hernandez without expression from her usual seat on the end of a row. When one witness, a high school friend, testifies that Hernandez once allegedly talked about carrying a gun, Hernandez appears to glare at him. When his fiancée takes the stand and testifies Hernandez told her to ditch a box from their basement the day after Lloyd's slaying, his eyes are glued on her. She barely glances his way but does appear to say something as she passes the defense table on the way out. When Kraft is asked to officially point out Hernandez in court and describe what he was wearing, I watch Hernandez look down at his shirt and tie as Kraft detailed his outfit. When the team owner leaves the stand -- the same man who signed him to a $40 million bonus in 2012 -- Hernandez turns and watches him walk out of the courtroom. Would it be the last time he'd see him in person? On the last day of testimony when his defense rests its case, he smiles at relatives. But as he walks out the door this time, he doesn't look back.

Aaron Hernandez, even when on trial for murder, keeps that certain bounce in his step . Hernandez seemed to watch his former boss and fiancee closely when they were on the stand .


(CNN)Singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell has been hospitalized in Southern California. Paramedics from the Los Angeles Fire Department were called to her home around 2:30 p.m. PT (5:30 p.m. ET) Tuesday on the report of a medical emergency, spokesman Robert Hinojosa said. "Joni was found unconscious in her home (Tuesday) afternoon. She regained consciousness on the ambulance ride to an L.A. area hospital," according to her official website. "She is currently in intensive care undergoing tests and is awake and in good spirits. More updates to come as we hear them. Light a candle and sing a song, let's all send good wishes her way." Some of Mitchell's best-known songs are "Big Yellow Taxi," "Help Me" and "Free Man in Paris," but she has penned hits for other artists too. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young scored with her anthem "Woodstock," about the 1969 landmark music festival. Judy Collins registered a Top 10 hit in 1967 with Mitchell's "Both Sides Now." Mitchell, 71, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.

Mitchell is best know for her hits "Big Yellow Taxi" and "Free Man in Paris" Paramedics came to her Los Angeles home on Tuesday afternoon .


(CNN)Slamming world powers' framework nuclear deal with Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday demanded that any final deal include a "clear and unambiguous Iranian recognition of Israel's right to exist." Netanyahu has been perhaps the most vocal critic of nuclear talks with Iran, insisting again and again it can't be trusted. He took his case to the U.S. Congress last month, at a time before negotiators had hammered out any sort of agreement, over the objections of President Barack Obama. There's never been any dispute about his take, but the Prime Minister has sharpened his rhetoric in recent days, saying the deal increases the risk of a "horrific war." Iranian President: We will stick to our promises on nuclear deal . Netanyahu has lobbied hard for a deal that dismantles and disassembles Iran's nuclear infrastructure -- rather than limiting its usage or repurposing Iran's facilities -- but such stipulations were not part of the framework agreement. He has also called for the removal of sanctions to be tied to the reduction of what he characterizes as Iran's aggression in the region, not just its moves on its nuclear program . In the absence of both elements, Netanyahu is calling the emerging deal a historic mistake. After an emergency Cabinet meeting Friday afternoon hours before the Jewish holiday of Passover, Netanyahu said the agreement "would pose a grave danger to the region and to the world and would threaten the very survival of the state of Israel." " ... I want to make clear to all: The survival of Israel is non-negotiable," Netanyahu said. "Israel will not accept an agreement which allows a country that vows to annihilate us to develop nuclear weapons, period." Obama called Netanyahu after Thursday's announcement of the framework agreement to reassure him that Israel's security will remain a prime concern in the ensuing negotiations and the final deal, which faces a June 30 deadline. "There is no daylight when it comes to our support for Israel's security," Obama said, reaffirming the American commitment to Israel's security. But Netanyahu said he isn't convinced Israel is safe from Iran. "Just two days ago, Iran said that 'the destruction of Israel is non-negotiable.' And in these fateful days Iran is accelerating the arming of its terror proxies to attack Israel." The Israeli leader added that "this deal would legitimize Iran's nuclear program, bolster Iran's economy and increase Iran's aggression and terror throughout the Middle East and beyond."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slams nuclear framework deal with Iran . He says it would legitimize Iran's nuclear program and bolster its economy .


(CNN)Two passengers found dead on a cruise ship in Puerto Rico appear to have died in a murder-suicide, the cruise line said. Holland America Line said two guests were found dead inside their stateroom on the ms Ryndam at 11:30 a.m. Thursday. "The cabin was immediately secured, and the authorities were notified, including the FBI," Holland America said. "We are cooperating fully with the investigation, and the authorities will make the official determination on what occurred." FBI spokesman Moises Quiñones said authorities were on scene investigating. The ship left Tampa, Florida, on March 29 on a 14-day Southern Caribbean cruise. It's currently in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico Port Authority spokesman Efraín Santiago told El Nuevo Dia newspaper that the cleaning staff on the ship had discovered the deceased passengers after knocking on the cabin's door.

Holland America says two passengers died in an apparent murder-suicide . "The cabin was immediately secured and the authorities were notified," cruise line says . The FBI is investigating the deaths; the ship is in San Juan, Puerto Rico .


(CNN)Most climbers who try don't succeed in summiting the 29,035-foot-high Mount Everest, the world's tallest peak. But they do leave their trash. Thousands of pounds of it. That's why an experienced climbing group from the Indian army plans to trek up the 8,850-meter mountain to pick up at least 4,000 kilograms (more than 8,000 pounds) of waste from the high-altitude camps, according to India Today. The mountain is part of the Himalaya mountain range on the border between Nepal and the Tibet region. The 34-member team plans to depart for Kathmandu on Saturday and start the ascent in mid-May. The upcoming trip marks the 50th anniversary of the first Indian team to scale Mount Everest. "Sadly, Mount Everest is now ... called the world's highest junkyard," Maj. Ranveer Singh Jamval, the team leader, told India Today. "We will target the mountaineering waste from Camp 1 (19,695 feet) to the summit," said Jamval, who has scaled Mount Everest twice. "There are old cylinders, tents, tins, packets, equipment and other mountaineering waste. Apart from our own haversacks weighing 10 kg each, we intend to bring in another 10 kg each on the trip." More than 200 climbers have died attempting to climb the peak, part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Indian expedition isn't the first attempt to clean up the trash left by generations of hikers. Among the cleanup efforts is the Eco Everest Expedition, an annual trip launched in 2008 that is all about climbing "in an eco-sensitive manner," bringing old refuse, in addition to that generated during the trip, down for disposal, according to the Asian Trekking website. Last year, Nepalese tourism authorities started to require hikers to carry out an extra 18 pounds of garbage, in addition to their own trash and human waste, according to the New York Times.

Generations of Everest climbers have left tons of trash . The Indian army plans to remove at least 4,000 kilograms from the peak .


(CNN)Tornadoes, fierce winds and severe thunderstorms with large hail are predicted for the Midwest and for the Plains, from the Ozarks eastward to the lower Ohio Valley, on Thursday and Friday, the National Weather Service said. Severe weather is perilous anytime, of course, but CNN meteorologist Chad Myers says that tornado conditions are more dangerous during the night. "Tornadoes can be more deadly when people are sleeping and not paying attention to the warnings," he said. Scattered storms will soak Illinois and Missouri, and wind and hail will continue to be moderate in those states, the National Weather Service said. By Thursday afternoon, storms will hit parts of Indiana and Kentucky. Earlier this week, severe weather struck the South. Alabama, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Georgia reported large hail. Residents in Shawnee, Oklahoma, were awakened early Wednesday morning by a severe storm producing golf ball-sized hail. "The hail came out of nowhere so it was kind of shocking," Sherri McDonald said to CNN in an iReport. The hail dinged her car.

Thunderstorms with large hail are predicted for the Midwest and the Plains . Tornadoes could strike Thursday night and Friday .


(CNN)Iran's President on Friday hailed the proposed international deal on his country's nuclear program, vowing that Iran will stick to its promises and -- assuming other countries live up to their end of the bargain -- become a more active, engaged player in world affairs. "Some think that we should either fight ... or we should surrender to other powers," President Hassan Rouhani said. "However, we believe none of that. There is a third path. We can cooperate with the world." Rouhani said his government kept its word to Iranians when negotiating the framework deal, which was agreed upon Thursday and sets parameters for talks that could lead to a comprehensive deal by a June 30 deadline. Chief among them is that Iran would keep at least some centrifuges and no longer face international sanctions. He thanked Iranians for their patience and for "resisting" by standing up for the country's rights. As to the rest of the world, the Iranian President said he thinks most now realize that Iran "is pursuing peaceful objectives." That means trying to develop nuclear energy, not nuclear weapons, as many feared. That fear, combined with distrust of Iran's leaders, spurred the sanctions and the Middle Eastern nation's isolation. "We do not lie," Rouhani said, vowing that Iran will be true to its word, "provided the other parties will implement their own promises." What Iranians think of the deal . Those promises include reducing Iran's stockpile of low-enriched uranium by 98% for 15 years and significantly scaling back its number of installed centrifuges. Still, while it will be shrunken and centralized, Iran's nuclear program won't go away. What should happen -- assuming there's a common view that Tehran is doing as required -- is that countries will end their sanctions. That was non-negotiable for Iran, with Rouhani saying the deal shows his government's commitment to removing a major "obstacle ... for business" by addressing the world's worries about its nuclear program. "We need economic productivity, employment for the youth and development of non-oil products," he said. "Thus our people can witness better things for their welfare." It won't be easy, of course, to get Iran and the P5+1 -- the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany -- on the same page regarding the nitty-gritty details of any final agreement, if there is one. After all, it took two extra days past a self-imposed deadline for the parties to reach a framework deal. What's in the deal? 7 key points . That agreement followed about a decade of often failed negotiations and deep-rooted acrimony, particularly between Iran and the United States. Those tensions haven't disappeared, nor is there any guarantee that talks won't fall apart again over the next three months. Even as he applauded what he called a "good deal," President Barack Obama pointed out Thursday that "if Iran cheats, the world will know it." His government is also being pressed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who blasted the agreement Friday as posing a "grave danger" by legitimizing Iran's nuclear program and making it easier for Iran to develop nuclear weapons. On the Iranian side, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has acknowledged that "mutual mistrust" has long plagued talks. He notes Iran still has "serious differences with the United States," even after Thursday's agreement. Still, Rouhani expressed hopes Friday the nuclear negotiations will change that by further opening up Iran to the rest of world, including long-standing adversaries. "We do shake hands with them. ... Even those countries we have tensions with, we would like an end to the animosity," he said. "Cooperation and interaction would be in the interest of everyone." Netanyahu: Iran must recognize Israel's right to exist .

Iranian President says a nuclear deal would remove a major obstacle for business . "We can cooperate with the world," President Hassan Rouhani insists . He says, "We do not lie," and Iran will abide by its promises on nuclear deal .


(CNN)Every week in the heart of Nima, a slum in the Ghanaian capital of Accra, families congregate at a local mosque. When the time comes, young girls say goodbye to their loved ones and part ways, filing up concrete steps leading up to the floor above. There, inside a large room dotted with brown tables, rows of flashing computer screens await for them. "When the parents are praying [downstairs], we are teaching the girls upstairs," explains tech entrepreneur Regina Agyare, who comes here every week to teach local teens how to code. Agyare's first visit to see the girls -- students at education project Achievers Ghana -- was in January 2014. This was supposed to be a one-off seminar as part of her mentorship initiative "Tech Needs Girls" -- however, the students proved quite a draw. "I fell in love with them, so I decided to set up a coding club and started having regular sessions," says Agyare, founder of software development company Soronko Solutions. More importantly, continues Agyare, it offered the opportunity to show "the community the value of educating girls." A predominantly Muslim area in a largely Christian nation, Nima has one of the densest populations in Accra. Agyare says life is often challenging for many  local girls, with some growing up without ever leaving the community. "Girls were being forced to marry early; [denied] their right to go to school. Most of their dreams and aspirations were limited to just what was around them. "I was shocked... I thought we had progressed as a nation. I thought we had gone past that." This, in part, was why Agyare lent her support to Achievers Ghana. Set up by local Amadu Mohammad, the non-profit organization supports 250 girls between the age of six and 18, priming them for formal education through extracurricular classes in reading, math, poetry and information technology. Its goal is to break through social barriers and provide Nima with a generation of female role models, and so the group provides school funding to help the girls shape their own future. The project was bequeathed its classroom above the mosque it shares a building with, and Agyare says the two work closely together. Achievers Ghana met initial resistance from local conservatives, but when the mosque's chief imam Sheik Hussein Abdul Rahman championed Mohammad's vision, few maintained their reservations. Now, with parents paying a nominal fee towards the running of the organization, it is in everyone's interest that the girls succeed. Fourteen months after her first visit, Agyare's coding class is well established. She has set up a mentor scheme as part of "Tech Needs Girls," recruiting and training women at university to act as role models for her younger students in Nima. In each class, around 50 girls are taught HTML and run a blog called "Slum Voices". "I definitely feel [technology] has given them more of a voice," Agyare says. "I feel like it's allowed them to express themselves and interact with others... for them, it's important to be heard." Some girls had never used a computer before the classes began, but Agyare's even-handed approach has brought all her students up to the same standard. Agyare insists that "we don't leave anyone behind." To that end, a few young male faces have found their way into her classroom. This was an accidental revelation, according to Agyare. She details the story of one affronted boy. "He wrote that he didn't like it when he saw girls learning about computers... it was difficult [for him] to see girls being empowered; he wasn't used to that." Agyare realized that by integrating genders in her classroom she could begin to confront gender expectations. For many boys the role of a girl is "to be their wife," Agyare explains, "and she needs to be taken care of." However, by running mixed classes boys from an early age "can learn to see a woman as a contributing person [within society]." Now the hope is that many of the young students will be able to go to university -- and Achievers Ghana is working on a scholarship program to make the prospect attainable. Agyare says the goal is not to turn every girl into software developers but to enable them to "use technology in whatever field they find themselves." She adds: "It would be great if we had some girls that decided to go on and study computer science, but really it's about helping them reach their full potential ... and bring change to the community." Read this: 5 reasons why tech needs geek girls . More from African Start-Up .

Many girls in Nima,one of Accra's poorest slums, receive little or no education . Achievers Ghana is a school funded by the community to give the next generation a better chance of success . Girls are being taught to code by tech entrepreneur Regina Agyare, who believes her students will go far .


(CNN)"It really depends what you want. Boy? Girl? Young? Old?" The man on the phone was offering us young children with the casualness of a market trader. After a week of back and forth phone calls, his initial caginess had given way to greed. He'd heard my foreign accent and clearly decided I would pay more than the domestic rate. "We can get," he said. We'd been put in touch with the man through a contact on the ground. We were told he was one of the men running this "unofficial" displaced camp -- one of the many that has mushroomed in the town of Yola as the influx of people fleeing Boko Haram has grown beyond the capacity of the official camps. It had all been heartbreakingly simple. We'd asked who had children available to "foster" -- a catch-all code word designed to conceal the true intent of those offering up the orphaned children. The man on the phone was the end result of those inquiries. When our colleague want to see them, he was shown a group of children and asked which one he wanted to take. One, two maybe? He escaped by saying he needed to check with his "madam" -- me. I called. The man picked up and began referring to me as "sister." I told him we wanted to know what we'd need to do, if we decided we did want to "foster" the children. He told me, "Sister, Jesus will reward me," so the "fostering" was free, he said. No need for any pesky paperwork -- just a reassurance from me that the children, if I chose to take them, would "live in my heart." If I could also then find it "in my heart" to donate to those still in the camp, then that would be "God's work." In spite of the harsh measures the Nigerian government has put in place to punish human traffickers, by the government's own admission, 8 million children are currently engaged in forced labor. The Global Slavery Index says Nigeria has the highest number of people in modern slavery of any sub-Saharan country. Paradoxically, the group also rates Nigeria's anti-trafficking agency, Naptip, as one of the strongest government responses on the continent -- but it's clearly overwhelmed by the realities of working in what is now a zone of military operations, Nigeria's north. As the insecurity in the region has spiraled, the worry is that more and more children are falling through the cracks. And as Boko Haram increases its reliance on child suicide bombers, concerns are growing that orphaned children could end up in the hands of the terror group. At the camp where we finally met the man face to face, there was no attempt at subterfuge. We spoke in normal tones in full view of the children playing. I could have had one of them, I was told, but because I'd specified a younger child, they'd only identified one so far -- a 3-year-old. Did I want to consider an older girl? A 12-year-old maybe? She could look after the 3-year-old, and cook and clean. Either way, two girls would be ready tomorrow, he said. I could see them then. Our last phone conversation revolved around what an appropriate "donation" would be in exchange for the children. He couldn't, he said, bargain for it. He then proceeded to do just that, laughing down the phone at my first tentative guess of $200. Laughing again at $300. We finally found a figure he didn't find funny -- $500. I put the phone down and we traveled back to the capital that day to show Naptip what we'd found.

CNN team finds a man at "unofficial" displaced camp willing to provide children to be "fostered" He says he can't take money for them, but eventually demands $500 for two girls .


Garissa, Kenya (CNN)First came the gunshots. Then the footsteps, as Al-Shabaab militants followed her into her dorm room. Cynthia Cheroitich went into a closet, covering herself with clothes. Her two roommates hid under their beds, until the gunmen called them out. "(The gunmen) told them if you don't know to read to them in the Muslim word, whatever, and then you lie down," Cheroitich told CNN. "And then, if you know, you go to the other side." The 19-year-old student at Kenya's Garissa University College didn't see what happened next, but she heard more than enough. "They were shooting everywhere," she said. "I didn't want to open my eyes." For the next two days, Cheroitich didn't budge. Unable to get to water, she hydrated by drinking body lotion. When police went into her room -- well after the carnage was done, with 147 dead at the school -- she didn't believe them. Only a visit by the head of the university convinced her that, finally, it was safe to come out. "I was scared so much," she recalled. Cheroitich's survival story, which she recounted to CNN on Saturday, is a rare bright spot in what has been a horrific week in Garissa, a town about 90 miles from the Somali border, and throughout Kenya. It is all due to Al-Shabaab, the Islamist extremist group that is based in Somalia but hasn't confined its terrorism to there -- as evidenced by Thursday's university attack and the 2013 siege of Nairobi's upscale Westgate Mall. Saturday, the terrorist group warned that more carnage is coming as it promised "another bloodbath" in Kenya. The threat drew a sharp response from Nadif Jama, the governor of Garissa county. "The fallacy and satanic mindset of Al-Shabaab is that in Somalia, they kill Muslims and Somalis," Jama said. "They cross the border here and then say they are killing non-Muslims. That is a tricky way of doing business." Jama said the militants were "bent on nothing but destruction" and aimed to sow division between Muslims and non-Muslims. "But that is something we need to fight," Jama said. Police in Garissa on Saturday paraded the bodies of men they said had carried out the attack. The corpses -- locked in a macabre embrace and partially wrapped in an orange tarp -- were piled on the back of a pickup truck and driven to a primary school soccer pitch for viewing. A large crowd gathered, despite the baking sun and foul stench. The truck drove up next to the onlookers, so that they could inspect the bodies. Anger seethed in the crowd. "These gunmen, they killed innocent children. We want to burn these people," one man told CNN. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta also had some harsh words Saturday for Al-Shabaab, as well as any those who supported them. Five arrested in Kenya attack . In a nationally televised speech, Kenyatta said the nation's fight against terrorism "has been made all the more difficult by the fact that the planners and the financiers of this brutality are deeply embedded in our communities and were seen previously as ordinary, harmless people." Kenyatta condemned "corruption of the worst and most criminal kind (when) Kenyans ... finance, hide and recruit on behalf of Al-Shabaab." "There is no form of legal penalty, social shaming and godly condemnation that they do not deserve, to the fullest extent," the President said. Describing Al-Shabaab as an "existential threat to our republic," Kenyatta urged his fellow Kenyans to "tell those that believe a caliphate is possible in Kenya that we are one indivisible, sovereign and democratic state." "That fight will never change," he added. "Our forefathers bled and died for this nation. And we will do everything to defend our way of life." Kenyatta declared three days of national mourning for the victims of the attack. Inside Garissa University College dorm's scene of slaughter . Christian Purefoy reported from Garissa. CNN's David McKenzie, Jethro Mullen and Jessica King contributed to this report.

Bodies of suspected gunmen paraded in front of crowd in Garissa . Kenya's President slams those who finance and support groups like Al-Shabaab . Al-Shabaab threatens "another bloodbath" in Kenya .


(CNN)A Florida judge denied a motion by two women to join a lawsuit against Prince Andrew and a prominent U.S. lawyer that alleged  underage sex crimes. Lawyer Alan Dershowitz  was accused of having sex with minors with help from billionaire Jeffrey Epstein. Buckingham Palace denied the allegations, which surfaced in a court filing in January. So did Dershowitz. In his decision, U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth Marra denied a motion by the alleged victims -- "Jane Doe 3 and Jane Doe 4" -- to join a lawsuit accusing the federal government of violating their rights by negotiating a nonprosecution agreement with Epstein without consulting them. Marra wrote in the decision that the "lurid details" of alleged abuse were unnecessary to determining whether the victims could join the lawsuit. "The factual details regarding with whom and where the Jane Does engaged in sexual activities are immaterial and impertinent to this central claim ... especially considering that these details involve non-parties who are not related to the respondent Government. These unnecessary details shall be stricken." Speaking of the allegations against him, Dershowitz said Tuesday: "I hope that people will now understand that they were completely false and made up, and, nobody should believe them." Buckingham Palace, which in January emphatically denied any form of sexual contact between the Duke of York and a victim it identified as Virginia Roberts,  said Prince Andrew was informed of the latest developments. "He is spending this week privately, before resuming his schedule of public engagements next week. Further details will be announced in due course," the palace said in a statement. Roberts' attorneys were not immediately available for comment. The federal court filing alleged that "Doe 3" was forced to have sex with several men when she was a teenager. Virginia Roberts made the allegations in a civil motion filed earlier this year in U.S. District Court in southern Florida, joined by another unnamed woman. While Roberts was not identified by name in the filing, her name was widely reported in the British news media, and Buckingham Palace included it in a statement. Along with Britain's Prince Andrew and others, Dershowitz was named in the federal court filing as one of the prominent people who had sexual contact with teenage girls through Epstein. Epstein, an investment banker, pleaded guilty some years ago in Florida to a state charge of prostitution solicitation, but there were no federal charges after he and authorities signed a non-prosecution agreement. But some of Epstein's alleged victims aren't on board with the deal, thinking he should face stiffer charges and penalties. Four of them took federal prosecutors to court, suing them to reopen the case because they believed their rights under the Crime Victims' Rights Act were violated by the agreement. Two of them entered the discussion in January, including the one described as Jane Doe 3. The filing alleged she was a minor when Epstein made her a "sex slave" and made "her available for sex to politically connected and financially powerful people." Those big names allegedly included Prince Andrew and Dershowitz. According to the filing, "Epstein required Jane Doe #3 to have sexual relations with Dershowitz on numerous occasions while she was a minor, not only in Florida but also on private planes, in New York, New Mexico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands." The celebrity lawyer and professor subsequently issued an adamant public denial, saying the case "is all about money" and "completely made up." He went further in his court filings, including a sworn affidavit in which he said "lawyers for Jane Doe #3 ... leveled totally false and outrageous charges against me that have been reported around the world and threaten to damage my reputation irrevocably." "Never under any circumstance have I ever had any sexual contact of any kind, which includes massages or any physical contact whatsoever, with Jane Doe #3," he said. Dershowitz said, for instance, that his wife and daughter accompanied him on his sole visit to Epstein's Caribbean island as well as the one time he went to Epstein's New Mexico house -- at which point it was under construction and no girls were visible. "Let me assert categorically, without reservation and with full awareness of the risks of perjury," he stated, "that I did not ever, under any circumstances, have any sexual contact of any kind with Jane Doe #3." CNN's Greg Botelho, Steve Almasy, Javier de Diego, Josh Levs contributed to this report.

Judge also throws out bombshell sex claims against lawyer Alan Dershowitz . He asks a federal court to "strike" sex-related allegations against him . A court filing says Dershowitz had sex with minors via Jeffrey Epstein; he denies it .