(CNN)The last three defendants prosecuted in the hazing death of Florida A&M drum major Robert Champion were convicted Friday of manslaughter and hazing with the result of death, reported CNN affiliate WFTV. A jury deliberated about 2½ hours before returning guilty verdicts against Benjamin McNamee, 25; Aaron Golson, 22; and Darryl Cearnel, 28. They will be sentenced June 26, according to Orange County, Florida, online court records. Until then, they'll be held in the county jail. Champion, 26, died in November 2011 after a band hazing ritual in which he was beaten aboard a school bus after a football game in Orlando, Florida. The initiation required pledges to run down the center of the bus while being punched, kicked and assaulted by senior members, band members have said. A medical examiner ruled Champion's death a homicide and said he died within an hour of being beaten. Champion suffered multiple blunt trauma blows, the medical examiner said. A total of 15 defendants were charged originally, but most took plea deals, WFTV reported. Last October, Dante Martin stood trial and was convicted of the same charges. He was sentenced to 77 months in prison.

Florida A&M drum major Robert Champion died in 2011 after a hazing ritual aboard a bus . A jury convicted the last three defendants of manslaughter and hazing with the result of death .


(CNN)"Sopranos" theorists now have a little more to chew on. Show creator David Chase went through the famous final scene for DGA Quarterly and revealed the reasoning behind each shot. What he didn't reveal, however, was whether series protagonist Tony Soprano lives or dies. Chase's details are a master class on how to build tension in a seemingly nondescript situation, however. 'Sopranos' ending? Let it be . For those who don't recall the finale, which aired in June 2007, mobster Tony Soprano is meeting his family for dinner at Holsten's, a real-life diner and ice cream parlor in Bloomfield, New Jersey. He picks a song on the jukebox: Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'." As the music plays, he waits in a booth, watching his wife and later his son come through the front door. His daughter is running late. It's a seemingly harmless get-together, one that could have happened any time in Tony's life, but it's fraught with tension, Chase observes. The Journey song "starts to build and build into something"; a bell rings every time someone walks through the door, and Tony looks up each time. And then there's the man in the Members Only jacket who walks in just ahead of A.J., Tony's son. He could be anybody, but given Tony's life, he could a hitman assigned to kill Tony. "The tension is quite high now, but if you think about it, for no real reason," Chase told DGA Quarterly. "Who's in the place? A guy in a jacket, Cub Scouts, a young couple, a trucker in a hat, a couple of black guys in there to buy some candy. There's no real reason for the tension to ratchet up. But it does. And that's what I love, how you make that." There are nods to other films, Chase observed. The way the scene is cut recalls the final bedroom scene of Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey," with Tony seeing himself at the next spot in time. The Members Only guy going to the bathroom is a nod to the famous scene in "The Godfather" when Michael Corleone shoots Sollozzo and McCluskey. The scene ends, of course, with Tony looking up as Journey's Steve Perry sings "Don't stop --" and then a cut to black. The public reaction caught Chase by surprise. "I thought the ending would be somewhat jarring, sure. But not to the extent it was, and not a subject of such discussion," he said. "The biggest feeling I was going for, honestly, was don't stop believing." Still, if anybody is hoping that Chase reveals whether Tony survives, they'll have to keep digging. The end is deliberately uncertain and existential, Chase said. "Whether this is the end here, or not, it's going to come at some point for the rest of us," he said. "I'm not saying that (he was killed). But obviously he stood more of a chance of getting shot by a rival gang mob than you or I do because he put himself in that situation. "All I know," he added, "is the end is coming for all of us."

David Chase walks through the ending of "The Sopranos" The use of particular shots and "Don't Stop Believin' " build tension . Chase still doesn't reveal Tony Soprano's fate .


(The Hollywood Reporter)Geoffrey Lewis, a prolific character actor who appeared opposite frequent collaborator Clint Eastwood as his pal Orville Boggs in "Every Which Way But Loose" and its sequel, has died. He was 79. Lewis, the father of Oscar-nominated actress Juliette Lewis, died Tuesday, family friend Michael Henderson said. No other details were immediately available. Lewis began his long association with Eastwood in "High Plains Drifter" (1973). He also appeared with the actor in "Thunderbolt and Lightfoot" (1974), "Bronco Billy" (1980), "Pink Cadillac" (1989) and "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" (1997). Lewis scored a Golden Globe nomination for playing bartender Earl Tucker on the 1980s CBS sitcom "Flo," the spinoff of "Alice" that starred Polly Holliday, and he had recurring roles on such series as "Falcon Crest" and the syndicated "Land's End." Hollywood Reporter: "Fast 8" nowhere near starting line . Lewis portrayed real-life Prohibition-era gangster Harry Pierpont in "Dillinger" (1973), and his résumé also includes such notable films as "The Great Waldo Pepper" (1975), "The Wind and the Lion" (1975), "Lucky Lady" (1975), "The Return of a Man Called Horse" (1976), "Heaven's Gate" (1980), "Catch Me If You Can" (1989), "The Lawnmower Man" (1992), "The Man Without a Face" (1993), "Maverick" (1994) and "The Devil's Rejects" (2005). Hollywood Reporter: Acclaimed satirist Stan Freberg dies . The actor also stood out as a gravedigger turned vampire in the 1979 Tobe Hooper CBS miniseries "Salem's Lot," an adaptation of the Stephen King novel. Lewis had appeared on such 1970s TV shows as "Then Came Bronson," "Bonanza" and "The Name of the Game" before scoring a minor role as a cowhand in "The Culpepper Cattle Co." (1972). Later, he showed up on such series as "Mod Squad," "The Waltons," "Police Woman," "Mork & Mindy," "Lou Grant," "Gun Shy," "Magnum, P.I." and "The X-Files." Lewis was a co-founder of the spoken-word performance group Celestial Navigations, working with musician and songwriter Geoff Levin. People we've lost in 2015 . ©2015 The Hollywood Reporter. All rights reserved.

Geoffrey Lewis appeared in many movies, TV shows . Actor was frequently collaborator with Clint Eastwood . Actress Juliette Lewis, his daughter, called him "my hero"


(CNN)Film critic Richard Corliss, whose populist passion for all genres of movies illuminated Time magazine's coverage of cinema for 35 years, died Thursday night in New York City. He was 71. Corliss died a week after suffering a major stroke, according to a tribute on Time's website by colleague Richard Zoglin, who called him "perhaps the magazine's most quoted writer of all time." Unlike some critics, Corliss appreciated all kinds of movies -- from the arty drama of Ingmar Bergman to the epic fantasy of "The Lord of the Rings." His all-TIME top 100 movies list, which he compiled with fellow Time critic Richard Schickel, contained everything from "Pulp Fiction" to "Finding Nemo" to Jackie Chan's "Drunken Master II." "He savored it all: the good, the bad, the indifferent. Except that he was indifferent to nothing," Zoglin wrote. "To any fan or friend who would ask whether a new movie was 'worth seeing,' Corliss had a stock, succinct reply: 'Everything is worth seeing.' " But Corliss was not afraid to puncture hype around big movies he found overrated, including "Titanic" ("dead in the water") and even -- blasphemy! -- "Star Wars," about which he wrote, "The movie's 'legs' will prove as vulnerable as C-3PO's." He also didn't care much for sentimental, uplifting movies that often become mainstream hits and win Oscars. "There are movies whose feel-good sentiments and slick craft annoy me so deeply that I know they will become box-office successes or top prizewinners," he once wrote. "I call this internal mechanism my Built-In Hit Detector." A graceful and prolific writer, Corliss reviewed more than 1,000 movies, penned many Time cover stories and authored four books on film, including "Mom in the Movies: The Iconic Screen Mothers You Love (and a Few You Love to Hate)," published just last year. (It was a partnership with Turner Classic Movies, which, like CNN, is owned by Turner Broadcasting.) Some credit him with coining the phrase "drop-dead gorgeous" to describe actress Michelle Pfeiffer in a review of her 1985 film, "Into the Night." He also cleverly, and subtly, gave away the big plot spoiler of "The Crying Game" by spelling it out with the first letters of each paragraph of his review. Born in Philadelphia, Corliss moved to New York after college and began writing film reviews for a variety of publications before joining Time in 1980. He served as editor of Film Comment, the movie journal of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, for 20 years, was a frequent guest on Charlie Rose's talk show and made annual pilgrimages to film festivals in Cannes, Toronto and Venice. "It's painful to try to find words, since Richard was such a master of them," Time editor Nancy Gibbs wrote in a note Friday to her staffers. "They were his tools, his toys, to the point that it felt sometimes as though he had to write, like the rest of us breathe and eat and sleep. It's not clear that Richard ever slept, for the sheer expanse of his knowledge and writing defies the normal contours of professional life." He is survived by his wife, Mary, a noted film critic in her own right, whom he married in 1969. People we've lost in 2015 .

Veteran Time magazine film critic Richard Corliss died Thursday night in New York City . Corliss reviewed more than 1,000 movies and authored four books on film .


Hong Kong (CNN)Cathay Pacific was forced to cancel a scheduled flight from London to Hong Kong after one of the pilots was arrested after trying to board the airliner with knives in his luggage. The pilot, who has not been identified, was stopped during security checks as the flight prepared to depart on Saturday night, the Metropolitan Police said in a statement Monday. "At around 21:10 hours police at Heathrow Airport were called to a staff search area. "Officers attended and subsequently the member of flight crew, a man, was arrested on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon in a public place and possession of a knife blade / sharp pointed article in a public place." He was then taken into custody at a local police station where he was later bailed and ordered to return in May pending an investigation, the police statement added. Cathay Pacific, which is headquartered in Hong Kong, told CNN in an email that it would cooperate with authorities, but that it was unable to provide further details as the incident is being investigated by police. It apologized to the 262 people on board Flight CX254, which eventually departed on Sunday, adding that it assisted passengers with overnight accommodation in London and alternative flight arrangements. Passengers were forced to wait in the seats on board the Boeing 777 for more than two hours before the service was canceled. "They just told us there were crew issues. The captain said 'apologies for everything that has happened'. He said they tried to get another pilot but they couldn't get there on time," one passenger on the flight told the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post.

Pilot stopped during security checks as the flight prepared to depart on Saturday night . Cathay Pacific runs regular flights between its Hong Kong hub and London . The male pilot has been bailed pending an investigation .


(CNN)Anthony Doerr's "All the Light We Cannot See," a novel centered on the World War II bombing of St.-Malo, France, and two characters on opposite sides of the war, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction Monday. Doerr's novel had received rave reviews upon its release last spring. "I must blame Anthony Doerr for lost sleep, because once I started reading his new novel, 'All the Light We Cannot See,' there was no putting it down," wrote William T. Vollmann in The New York Times Book Review. Doerr's work was also a finalist for the National Book Award. It's his second novel and fourth work of fiction, including two short story collections. 2015 Pulitzer Prize winners in journalism named . "Between Riverside and Crazy," a play by Stephen Adly Guirgis, won the Pulitzer for drama. An earlier Guirgis work, "The Motherf***** with the Hat," ran on Broadway in 2011. Elizabeth Kolbert's "The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History" won the Pulitzer for general nonfiction. Kolbert, a New Yorker staff writer, tackles the idea that we're at the beginning of another mass die-off. "As the planet warms up, and carbon dioxide acidifies the oceans, all bets are off -- except the ones hinging on mass extinctions," wrote Nicholas Lazard in The Guardian. Despite that prospect, he added, "Kolbert's book is not, thankfully, as depressing as you might think. She has a good grip on her subject and uses a light touch when it is most needed." Other winners in arts and letters categories include "Encounters at the Heart of the World: A History of the Mandan People" by Elizabeth A. Fenn (history); "The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe" by David I. Kertzer (biography/autobiography); "Anthracite Fields" by Julia Wolfe (music); and "Digest" by Gregory Pardlo (poetry). The Pulitzer Prizes are administered by Columbia University and are considered some of the most prestigious honors in journalism and literature.

Anthony Doerr's "All the Light We Cannot See" wins Pulitzer for fiction . Elizabeth Kolbert's "The Sixth Extinction" wins general nonfiction prize .


(CNN)Americans on the United States' no-fly list will now be privy to information about why they have been banned from commercial flights and be given the opportunity to dispute their status, according to court documents filed by the Justice Department this week. The revised policy comes in response to a June ruling by a federal judge that said the old process was in violation of the Fifth Amendment's guarantee of due process. The decision was part of an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit brought on behalf of 13 Americans on the list. But the ACLU isn't satisfied with the government's new policy, outlined in documents filed Monday in federal courts in Oregon (PDF) and Virginia (PDF). "After years of fighting in court for complete secrecy and losing, it's good that the government is finally now going to tell people of their status on the No Fly List," said Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU National Security Project and the lead attorney on the case, in a statement. "Unfortunately, we've found that the government's new redress process falls far short of constitutional requirements because it denies our clients meaningful notice, evidence, and a hearing. The government had an opportunity to come up with a fair process but failed, so we're challenging it in court again." People on the no-fly list, managed by the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center, are prohibited from boarding a commercial flight for travel into or out of the United States. The number of people on the list is classified. An official with knowledge of the government's figures told CNN in 2012 that the list contained about 21,000 names, including about 500 Americans. Before the change, American citizens and permanent residents who inquired with the government about being denied aircraft boarding received a letter that neither confirmed nor denied their inclusion on the no-fly list. Now, they'll be made aware of their status if they apply for redress, with an option to request further information. "The U.S. government is making enhancements to the Department of Homeland Security Traveler Redress Inquiry Program (DHS TRIP) to provide additional transparency and process for U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents who have been denied boarding on a commercial aircraft because they are on the No Fly List," the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement. In cases in which travelers included on the list request to receive or submit more information about their status, the government will provide a second, more detailed response, identifying "specific criterion under which the individual has been placed on the No Fly List," according to the court documents. An unclassified summary of that information will be provided "to the extent feasible, consistent with the national security and law enforcement interests at stake," court papers said. Those who appear on the no-fly list will then have further opportunity to dispute their status in writing, with supporting materials or exhibits, and will receive a final written decision from the Transportation Security Administration. The 2014 ruling that prompted the policy changes had called for passengers on the list to be given the opportunity to dispute their status before a judge.

Americans on the no-fly list will now get info about why they've been banned from flights . ACLU says the policy still denies "meaningful notice, evidence, and a hearing"


(CNN)Korea's buddae-jjigae -- or "army stew" as it's often called -- dates back to the scarce years of the Korean War when local cooks had to get inventive with U.S. Army rations. While jiigae can refer to any variety of stews, this particular version just happens to feature a variety of canned, precooked meat, most notably SPAM in all its glazed and gelatinous glory. "It's, in fact, a classic example of necessity being the mother of deliciousness," Anthony Bourdain says of the dish during the premiere episode of "Parts Unknown" on Sunday, April 26, at 9 p.m. ET/PT. The host of CNN's "Parts Unknown" recently stopped by Anderson Cooper's kitchen to cook up the spicy and funky stew, and talk about his 24 intoxicating hours in the country's capital of Seoul. So, it's probably a good thing budda-jiigae is also a storied hangover cure. Budae-jjigae . (Serves 2-4) Courtesy of Choi Ji-hwang . Ingredients: . 1 12-oz can of Spam, cut into ½-inch slices . 1½ cups tong baechu kimchi, or traditional fermented cabbage (can be found in a well-stocked supermarket or Korean specialty store) 8 oz. sliced Korean rice cakes (can be found in a well-stocked supermarket or Korean specialty store) 1 white onion, thinly sliced . 2 spring onions, thinly sliced . 5 garlic cloves, crushed . 3 hot dogs, thinly sliced . 8 oz. ground pork . 3 tablespoons soy sauce . 2 tablespoons gochujang, or hot pepper paste (can be found in a well-stocked supermarket or Korean specialty store) 3 tablespoons gochukaru, or hot pepper flakes (can be found in a well-stocked supermarket or Korean specialty store) 3 tablespoons cheongju, or a clear rice wine similar to sake . 3 cups anchovy kelp broth (recipe below) 3 tablespoons baked beans . 1½ cups water . 1 package ramen noodles (just the noodles) For the anchovy kelp broth: . 1 dried shiitake mushroom . 4 large dried anchovies, heads and guts removed, wrapped in cheesecloth . 1 5x3" sheet of dried, edible kelp or kombu (can be found in a well-stocked supermarket or Korean specialty store) 4 cups water . ½ teaspoon salt . Cooking instructions: . 1. Place the ingredients for the anchovy broth in a pot and simmer for 20-30 minutes until the flavors are fully infused. Strain and set aside. 2. Place the Spam, kimchi, rice cakes, onions, garlic, hot dogs and ground pork in small separate piles in the bottom of a shallow pot. 3. Add the soy, gochujang, gochukaru and cheongju to the pot and slowly pour the anchovy kelp broth in. Put the baked beans on top and add the water. Place pot over high heat and bring contents to a steady simmer. 4. Cook for 5-10 minutes, then add the ramen noodles. Ladle broth over the noodles to help them break apart. Continue to cook for 2-3 minutes until noodles are just about cooked through, but definitely still chewy. Serve with steamed rice or enjoy on its own.

Anthony Bourdain teaches Anderson Cooper a Korean recipe . Budae-jiigae is a stew made with all sorts of canned meat, including Spam .


(CNN)This is week three of an ongoing series: A Catholic Reads the Bible. Read week one and week two. When I started this project, my brother texted me, "Wait until you get to Lot." By Sunday afternoon, I understood what he meant. I am horrified by the story of Lot in Genesis. Lot and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was new to me. I actually hadn't put two and two together that Sodom is the origin of the word sodomy. (Feel free to call me dense as you read this). Lot is the central character in the grim story of Sodom and Gomorrah's demise in Chapter 19. You are introduced to the city by Abraham who tries to save the town. In the preceding chapter, Abraham asks God to agree that if he can find 10 good people in the town, God won't smite it. God agrees. Lot is visited by divine emissaries to investigate if there are indeed enough good people to save the town. The men of the town come to seek out the new visitors for "intimacies." Ahem. Yeah. Hospitable bunch, huh? Those "intimacies," we are meant to understand, account for Sodom's wickedness. And I guess meant that the town was doomed. ("Intimacies" is the term used in my 1991 edition of the New American Bible. The revised edition refers to "sexual relations.") To protect the emissaries from the mob, Lot offers up his virginal daughters. Which. Ugh. Anyway, it doesn't work. There apparently aren't enough good men to save Sodom, which leads to God destroying yet another population in Genesis. Oh, and while Lot's chosen family members flee the destruction, Lot's wife turns around and is turned to salt. She had been warned not to look back. After God destroys Sodom, Lot's daughters worry that there aren't any men left, so they get their father good and drunk and have sex with him. They need to have children to keep the human race going, the logic goes, I guess. After reading that section, I put my Bible down. I couldn't read anymore. Then I read it again. What was I reading? What are the morals, the meaning, I'm supposed to get from these ghastly stories? This is not the God that I have known for nearly 42 years. It's not the version of the God I pray to daily. I truly don't believe in a God that wipes out a town in general because of sexuality. Why are they wicked? I don't believe that my God that would go after one group -- any group. The God that I pray to doesn't punish the "wicked" like this. I can't comprehend this version of God. I can't believe in that kind of God. There were much easier things to write about this week in the pages that I read. But, I want to be truthful with you, my readers. The Lot story struck me -- hard. I wish that I had answers for you as to why this happened or how it was written many years ago. But I don't. It could be that it was a tale told to make sure that people only had sex to have children. Or it could be a morality tale for the times. The truth is: I don't really know. I just know that my faith doesn't include the idea of such a punitive God. I now fully understand how you could devote your life to reading and analyzing the Bible. And when I read this rough draft to my brother, he said to me, "You have just hit the tip of the iceberg." So, I will continue reading.

This is week three of an ongoing series: A Catholic Reads the Bible. Read week one and week two. This week's reading is a Lot to take in. Literally.


(CNN)The overturned convertible was smoldering, when police pulled up to it on a New Jersey roadway. The driver was pinned inside -- and unconscious. Not knowing when the car might burst into full flame, they scrambled to save her, while a police dash cam rolled. CNN obtained the footage from affiliate WPIX. Kinnelon Police Officers Mark Ehrenburg and Ricky Ferriola cut the seat belt from her, then dragged the woman's limp body away from the crash to start emergency medical care. Not a minute later, flames licked out of the car. Two more minutes -- an explosion. All three were lucky to escape the flames. The rescue started when someone reported an erratic driver on Thursday, and the officers sped off to investigate. When they pulled up at the scene, the 2006 Toyota Solara convertible was already a smoking wreck. Its horn was blaring. The officers ran over to the flipped over car, and shouted over the honking horn at the driver, "Can you hear me?" No response, not even a gesture, the video showed. It took them two minutes to cut off the seat belt, as smoke kept rising. Once they had her in safety, the officers hooked the driver up to a defibrillator and started CPR. The woman, identified by the Kinnelon Police Department as Dawn Milosky, 45, of Beachwood, New Jersey, was airlifted to Morristown Medical Center and survived. She's been charged with driving while intoxicated, having an open container of alcohol in the vehicle, reckless driving and with failure to stay in her lane, according to WPIX. Kinnelon Police Sgt. Chris Carbone told WPIX that they released the video to show that the driver may have died, if others had not informed the police. As for his colleagues' bravery, he said, "A lot of times, we don't think of our own safety doing this job." CNN's Ben Brumfield and Jackie Castillo contributed to this report .

The overturned car was smoldering on a New Jersey roadway when police arrived . It burst into flames shortly after they pulled out the unconscious driver .


(CNN)Actress Mindy Kaling's brother says that he posed as a black man years ago to get into medical school and that the experience opened his eyes to what he calls the hypocrisy of affirmative action. The revelation comes as Vijay Chokal-Ingam, who is of Indian descent, is pitching a book about his experiences as a "hard-partying college frat boy who discovered the seriousness and complexity of America's racial problems while posing as a black man." On his website, AlmostBlack.com, Chokal-Ingam says he hatched the plan in 1998 after realizing in college that his grades weren't going to be good enough to get into med school as an Indian-American. "So, I shaved my head, trimmed my long Indian eyelashes, and applied to medical school as a black man," he wrote on the website. "My change in appearance was so startling that my own fraternity brothers didn't recognize me at first." He says he joined an organization for black students and applied to schools using his middle name, JoJo. The plan had some drawbacks, said Chokal-Ingam, who describes himself now as a "professional resume writer, interview coach, and graduate school application consultant." "Cops harassed me. Store clerks accused me of shoplifting. Women were either scared of me or couldn't keep their hands off me," he wrote. "What started as a devious ploy to gain admission to medical school turned into a twisted social experiment." He says it worked. Despite a relatively mediocre 3.1 college grade-point average and a good-but-not-great score of 31 on the Medical College Admission Test, Chokal-Ingam claims he was wooed by several top medical schools. He even posts documents on his website to bolster his claims, including an enthusiastic letter from a dean at the Emory University School of Medicine congratulating him on his "excellent scores" on the MCAT. But there's little evidence to suggest his posturing as a "black" applicant helped him get into these schools. First, there is no point of comparison: Chokal-Ingam never applied to medical schools as an Indian-American. Ultimately, he told CNN he applied at 22 medical schools and interviewed at 11. He was wait-listed at four schools and got into only one. Chokal-Ingam eventually attended Saint Louis University Medical School, dropping out after two years. Affirmative action has been in the news a lot the past few years, with a 2013 Supreme Court ruling that tightened how affirmative action admissions programs have to be structured and a 2014 ruling that upheld the University of Michigan's ban on the use of race in admissions. Chokal-Ingam says his story shows how affirmative action "destroys the dreams of millions of Indian-American, Asian American, and white applicants for employment and higher education." "It also creates negative stereotypes about the academic abilities and professional skills of African-American and Hispanic professionals, who don't need special assistance in order to compete with other minority groups," he wrote. But a Saint Louis University spokeswoman disputed the account, telling the Huffington Post that race never played a role in Chokal-Ingam's admission. "His MCAT scores and science grade point average met SLU's criteria for admission at that time, and his race or ethnicity did not factor into his acceptance into the University," the website quoted SLU spokeswoman Nancy Solomon as saying. As might be expected, Chokal-Ingam's claim hasn't gone over well in some quarters. "How does @VijayIngam disprove the benefits of #affirmativeaction when he never gained admission to SLU based on it?" one Twitter user asked. Some were more blunt. One said Chokal-Ingam "is an idiot." "Whatever you feel about affirmative action, let's consider that one person's experience over a decade and a half ago -- an experience that ultimately didn't yield any deluge in acceptance letters anyway -- is not really indicative of the current state of college admissions," wrote Salon's Mary Elizabeth Williams. "Nor is it necessarily an exemplary window into the complex and mysterious vetting process of elite institutions," she added. "Instead, Chokal-Ingam's story is one of a successful woman's brother liberally using her name to drum up attention and controversy." Chokal-Ingam's sister, formerly of "The Office" and current star of TV's "The Mindy Project," is among those who aren't on board, he wrote on his website. She "strongly disapproves of my book," he wrote, arguing that it will bring shame on the family. But others said they don't see what all the fuss is about. "I don't blame this guy at all he earned the right to get into that school via hardwork and wasn't getting it and felt like others were getting what he wanted to so he did what he had to," Twitter user josephdiano77 said.

Vijay Chokal-Ingam says he pretended to be black to get into medical school . He says the experience showed him that affirmative action is a flawed system .


(CNN)It was a busy week for trending stories. If you weren't online much, here's some of the best of what you missed: . After the New York area received a large amount of rain, four rainbows appeared to stretch across the early morning sky on Tuesday. Amanda Curtis, CEO of a fashion company, snapped the lucky shot. In rural China, hiring exotic dancers to perform at wakes is an increasingly common practice. Until now. Families will have to find a new way to cheer up mourners, because the strippers are the latest focus of the country's crackdown on vice. RDJ grew increasingly agitated as a Channel 4 interviewer from the UK asked about his private life on Tuesday. Oh, those Kardashians. They seem to spawn a new trend every other week. The latest: Lip plumping. By sucking on a jar. To look like Kylie Jenner. Seriously. It even has a hashtag: #KylieJennerChallenge. With help from some filmmakers, 102-year-old Alice Barker went back in time. A prom-posal that referenced bombs? One school wouldn't have it, but the prom-poser accuses administrators of racism. Ewan McGregor to play Lumiere in 'Beauty and the Beast' This cast continues to draw lots of interest on social media. Johnny Depp is nearly unrecognizable in the 'Black Mass' trailer . This chameleon strikes again. Here's one way to announce you're pregnant: reference "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air." And a military dad photobombs his son? Kudos for originality this week.

What do funeral strippers, a quadruple rainbow and Kylie Jenner have in common? They all trended this week!


Washington (CNN)This week is the 100th anniversary of what many historians acknowledge as the Armenian genocide -- the Turkish massacre of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians . And it's also the seventh year in a row President Barack Obama has broken his promise to use the word "genocide" to describe the atrocity. It's a moral position taken by Pope Francis, actor George Clooney and even by the Kardashians. On the 2008 campaign trail, Obama promised to use the word "genocide" to describe the 1915 massacre by Turks of Armenians -- a pledge he made when seeking Armenian-American votes. Back then, he held up his willingness to call it a "genocide" as an example of why he was the kind of truth-telling candidate the nation needed. 8 things to know about the mass killings of Armenians 100 years ago . In 2006, after the U.S. Ambassador to Armenia was asked to resign for using the term Armenian genocide, then-Sen. Obama hammered the Bush administration for not taking a stand. "The Armenian genocide is not an allegation, a personal opinion, or a point of view, but rather a widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence," he said. But that was then. And now, as was the case with Bush, Obama regards Turkey -- the only Muslim majority country in NATO -- as a more crucial ally than Armenia. Turkey has the second-largest military in NATO, behind only the U.S., and is a crucial ally when it comes to Syria, ISIS, Iran and other Middle East issues. And Turkey denies this history. "We cannot define what happened in 1915 as a genocide," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told CNN on Tuesday. Why Turkey won't say the G-word when it comes to the Armenians . In her Pulitzer Prize-winning book about genocide, Obama's current Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power hammered U.S. policy makers for not acknowledging or acting to stop such atrocities. "No U.S. president has ever made genocide prevention a priority, and no U.S. president has ever suffered politically for his indifference to its occurrence. It is thus no coincidence that genocide rages on," she wrote.

Obama promised Armenian-Americans he would call the atrocity genocide during the 2008 campaign. The White House views Turkey as a more crucial ally than Armenia. Pope Francis, actor George Clooney, and even the Kardashians have taken the moral position, calling it the Armenian genocide.


(CNN)Panic. Tears. Fear. All those feelings and more permeated cities, villages and camps around Nepal on Saturday, after a massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck around midday. Hours later, after a wave of relentless aftershocks, many people still were too scared to go back inside any buildings. Others crowded around rubble, including men and women racing to rescue those trapped. And then there are the hundreds already confirmed dead, not to mention the hundreds more who suffered injuries. Below are some accounts from witnesses in the mountainous Asian nation, in their own words. Fast Facts: Earthquakes . Anderson, an American who was in Nepal for trekking and meditation, was in his hotel room when the quake struck. "I went outside five minutes after the major tremors stopped. I went to a parking lot nearby for one hour or so, then walked down the main road," he said. He took a series of photos on the main road between Thamal and Durbar Squares, that he shared via CNN iReport. Kumar posted a photo of people in his neighborhood sheltering in a makeshift tent after the quake. He sent updates via Twitter about what he was seeing in the Lalitpur District of Kathmandu. "It's getting dark, no power and no water supply in Lalitpur area, but people are helping each other with food and other items . "Almost everyone staying outside home...Hard time for small kids & older people . "People are very worried & are planning to stay out on the street overnight, but they lack sufficient food & water." Joshi is a UNICEF communication officer who was on the ground at the time of the quake. "The shake was like nothing I have experienced in my 57 years. It was strong and it shook for a long time." Old monuments and temples fell, Joshi wrote of his experience. There were fears that other buildings would collapse. "When I went out in the evening, I saw many people preparing to camp out in the main open parade ground in the middle of the street. Relatives were crying in the main government hospital where the dead were being lined up in front of the hospital building. "My family is traumatised. We are 5 generations living under one roof -- from a 100 year old grandmother to my 16 month old granddaughter. Strong aftershocks are keeping most of us up!" "Some of the historical sites are completely devastated. "Most of the people -- a lot of the people -- are walking through the city. They're confused and scared. A lot of people are crying. "They're out with their pets and their families and a lot of locals are volunteering in rescue operations. "In several parts of Kathmandu, a lot of people seem trapped under the rubble. Locals are trying to rescue these people because they can still hear them." Are you in Nepal or have loved ones affected? Please share with us if you are in a safe place. "We are scared and waiting for the tremors to end. We are all sitting outside because there is more news of another quake. "There is no power and families are listening to the FM radio inside their cars. News of multiple building collapses. "I've seen many cracked walls and roads and buildings. "The Dharahara was packed with people a while ago. There are police everywhere trying to move rubble to make space on the roads for ambulances. Everyone is very scared. " "I see many cracked buildings and people are panicked and all running down to the streets. "The main landmark in Kathmandu is a spire, Dharahara, and it has fallen down, it is about 140 feet high in the center city. "Another aftershock is hitting now, it is really strong. "Airplanes are circling now overhead and helicopters are flying and not clear if the airport is open.  We hear it is damaged." How are earthquakes measured? "Many historic buildings have collapsed in the city. "In all my years I have never seen such a big earthquake here. "There are sometimes small shaking, sometimes bigger but this is the worst and my home has been cracked and it is a relatively strong house." "Around where I am, people are in open spaces. There have been several aftershocks, I think they're all waiting, hoping they know what to do. "You can see glass walls, portions of buildings and cracks in the building. People are confused. they're staying out in the open." Can wild animals help us predict earthquakes? CNN's Mariano Castillo, Henry Hanks and Greg Botelho contributed to this report.

Massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake has struck Nepal near its capital, Kathmandu . As the death toll rises, witnesses describe devastation and panic .


(CNN)Is America a nation divided?  And has Ohio found a better way to bridge those divisions? It's hard not to be concerned with these questions given the constant drumbeat of news about the issues that tear us apart as a nation: immigration, community and police relations, poverty, education and dozens of other crucial matters facing America. Adding to our divisions is a harsh public atmosphere where politicians are preoccupied with how they can win the next election or give the best sound bite, and where lobby groups work to protect their narrow self-interests while ignoring a broader vision of what is best for our country. In Ohio, we have been able to drive meaningful change on many thorny issues that have held our state back in the past -- social services, criminal justice, economic competiveness, infrastructure -- and I've enjoyed sharing our state's winning formula with others in my travels. In 2011, I returned to public service -- after earlier serving for 18 years in Congress in the 1980s and '90s.  Over the intervening years, Ohio had lost its way and was hurting. I felt called to help after knowing that members of 350,000 Ohio families had lost their jobs and were looking to get back on their feet. Ohio is much stronger today. And that turnaround and success are worth being excited about and sharing. For example, we have gone from 89 cents in our rainy day fund and an $8 billion shortfall to now having one of the nation's strongest state budgets and a nearly $2 billion surplus. We've gone from losing 350,000 private-sector jobs to creating about 340,000 new ones. We've gone from very high taxes across the board to the largest tax cuts in of any state in America, including tax cuts for the working poor. We're seeing wages grow faster than the national average and Ohio's unemployment rate drop to the lowest level in more than a decade. Getting Ohio back on track wasn't easy. It required big ideas, going against the status quo and tuning out those who worry only about protecting their own special interests. Yes, we have a great success story to tell about our state. And we need to make Ohio's success contagious. The leadership style that helped us turn around Ohio is needed in Washington, where America's $18 trillion debt ticks higher each day and our congressional leaders would struggle even to pass a resolution saluting Mother's Day if it required their action. Great leaders are not primarily guided by polls, political parties, focus groups, re-election, special interests or protecting the status quo. Instead they bring teams of people together, challenge them to innovate and engage both sides to work together to fashion solutions based on common sense and the common good. As the chairman of the House Budget Committee in Congress in the 1990s, I helped craft the first balanced budget since man walked on the moon. We worked in a bipartisan effort that doesn't happen enough. There were, of course, disagreements along the way, but they never overshadowed the shared values we had to guide our work and the shared goal of fiscal responsibility and seeing our country live within its means. Given the polarizing issues facing our country, America needs a leader who believes in a common set of fundamental values necessary to bring about change that will unite our country without being blinded by the many distractions that ego, selfishness and power produce. Leaders who focus only on themselves and their own good have rejected this value-driven approach and make it impossible to make progress on our most pressing issues such as balanced budgets, tax cuts, welfare reform, border security, immigration and health care. We see it every day. There are certain values that guide great countries: . • Personal responsibility: It obligates us to be accountable for ourselves so we can then do our duty for our families and our communities. • Empathy: It allows us to walk in someone else's shoes, so that in times of disagreement we might consider for a moment that there might be another, better way that makes all of us stronger. • Teamwork: It sets ego aside and demands that we all pull in the same direction to win. • Faith: It tells us we are made special in the image of God with unique gifts that enable our mission here on earth. These values allow us to develop policy solutions that solve problems in new and creative ways for the good of all Americans instead of producing rhetoric, sound bites and press releases that too often pass for true reform. In Ohio we've implemented this winning strategy. It's worked there, and it will work for the nation as well.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich: Washington is gridlocked, but states can make a difference . He says Ohio has gone from a budget deficit to surplus, from losing jobs to creating them .


(CNN)Two of the best actresses on television are back on "The Big Bang Theory" -- one of our six suggested things to watch this week. 1. "The Big Bang Theory," Thursday 8 p.m. ET, CBS . Sheldon and Leonard's moms are back, and that ought to make for one of the best episodes this season. TV's top comedy will see the return of Christine Baranski and Laurie Metcalf as the mothers of Leonard and Sheldon, respectively. Seeing as they're two of the most talented actresses on television, we should be in for a great episode, as the pair drive their sons crazy. 2. "Saturday Night Live," Saturday May 2 at 11:30 p.m., NBC . Scarlett Johannsson is the host, the day after her new blockbuster "Avengers" movie opens nationwide. 3. "Mom," Thursday 9:30 p.m., CBS . Allison Janney continues to deliver Emmy-worthy performances in this underrated Chuck Lorre dramedy. The season finale is this week. 4. "Backstrom," Thursday 9 p.m., Fox . Time will tell if the Rainn Wilson crime drama comes back in the fall, but fans of the quirky series won't want to miss the season finale. 5. "Blue Bloods," Friday 10 p.m., CBS . The Tom Selleck drama concludes its two-part season finale, although its future is in question. 6. "Younger," Tuesday 10 p.m., TV Land . This charming comedy from the creator of "Sex and the City" just got picked up for a second season. Now is a great time to tune in as Sutton Foster and Hilary Duff deal with a secret generation gap that one of them doesn't know exists.

The two moms from "Big Bang Theory" guest star this week . "Backstrom," "Blue Bloods" are among the week's season finales . Comedy "Younger" is gaining big buzz .


(CNN)Fast-food outlet Burger King will sponsor the wedding of an Illinois couple. Not just any couple -- these are the nuptials of Joel Burger and Ashley King. They accepted the restaurant chain's offer to pay for their July affair on Monday. "We are very appreciative of Burger King and can't thank them enough for their generosity!" said King. It all started after their engagement in October. The couple had a little fun with the name coincidence and posed by a Burger King restaurant sign for a photo. They were interviewed by reporter Dave Bakke of the State Journal-Register in Springfield, the state capital. Burger King got wind of the article and was immediately interested in the happy couple, tweeting for help to locate them. They were invited on Skype on Monday to learn of a surprise: Burger King will pay for their whole wedding. "We were shocked (and still are)," said King. The fast food romance was many years in the making. Burger, now 24, and King, 23, met in kindergarten and grew up together in New Berlin. In fifth grade, classmates Joel Burger and Ashley King were asked to stand as student council representatives during an assembly with a motivational speaker. "He said our names to the school," King told CNN, "and then laughed and pronounced that together we were Burger King." The motivational speaker wasn't too far off -- a merger was in the works. The two became friends by high school, then dated in college. When the time came to propose, "Joel took me out on his boat to go fishing, and he popped the question while we were on the water." Burger King's message for the happy couple: "Congratulations, Joel and Ashley on falling in love your way."

Joel Burger and Ashley King have been engaged since October . Their engagement photo with a Burger King sign attracted, and the company offered to pay for their wedding .


(CNN)One of the biggest stars in mixed martial arts is wanted for questioning after a hit-and-run crash in New Mexico. Jon "Bones" Jones, the reigning UFC light heavyweight champion, is wanted for "his possible involvement in a hit-and-run accident" Sunday morning, Albuquerque police said. A pregnant woman in her 20s who was driving another vehicle suffered minor injuries in the accident, police said. "Officers attempted to contact Mr. Jones at his residence Sunday evening, but were unsuccessful," Albuquerque police said in a statement. "We have also reached out to his lawyer, but as of now, have not heard back." Police stressed that they cannot confirm whether Jones was involved in the crash. CNN Sports has reached out to Ultimate Fighting Championship and Jones' attorney for comment. Jones, 27, is arguably UFC's biggest star in the sport's most respected weight class. But he has also had his struggles. In January, Jones entered a drug rehabilitation center after testing positive for cocaine in a test administered by the Nevada Athletic Commission. He checked himself out of rehab after one day of treatment. Jones is scheduled to fight Anthony Johnson in UFC 187 on May 23 in Las Vegas.

Police say they can't confirm whether Jones was involved in the crash, which injured a pregnant woman . Jones is the reigning UFC light heavyweight champion .


(CNN)There will be no hate crime charges for two males arrested in the beating of a man that may have been sparked by a question about the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown. St. Louis police have charged Ronald Williams, 21, with assault.  A 15-year-old has also been arrested, according to authorities. There had been speculation that the suspects might be charged with a hate crime because the victim was white and the people who attacked him were black.  And because the punches were thrown following the Michael Brown reference. But that won't be happening. "Specifically, when put in context, it did not support the finding that the acts in this case met the elements of the hate crime statute in the state of Missouri, specifically proving the motivating factor behind the individual that we have charged, Ed Postawko with the St. Louis Circuit Attorney's Office told CNN affilaite KMOV. The beating, which occurred on a MetroLink light rail train, was caught on surveillance cameras and a passenger's cell phone camera. The passenger posted the video online, and it went viral. The victim, 43, said he was commuting home when a young black man asked to use the victim's cell phone. He declined, and the young man asked his opinion about the shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed teenager killed by a police officer in nearby Ferguson, Missouri, last summer, the man said. That shooting raised questions nationwide about use of deadly force by police. "The next thing I know, he sucker punches me right in the middle of my face," the victim told CNN affiliate KMOV. The video showed a male unleashing a barrage of punches at the head of the victim, who covered himself with his hand and forearms. Two other males joined in, police said. The attackers fled. The man, who asked not to be identified, was treated at the scene for injuries and didn't go to the hospital.

The two males arrested are 21 and 15 years old, St. Louis police say in a tweet . A video that went viral showed three black males attacking a white man .


(CNN)Nine of ten mostly foreign prisoners on death row in Indonesia have been given 72 hours notice ahead of their execution, according to a spokesperson for the Attorney General's office. "Seventy-two hours notification means three days, at least, to go to the execution. It may be longer. In other words, there will be no execution less than 72 hours after notification," Tony Spontana told CNN by phone Sunday. Though Indonesian officials said all 10 would be executed at the same time, Spontana said French national Serge Atlaoui had filed a challenge to the State Administrative Court on Thursday so his sentence has been delayed. Meanwhile, Edre Olalia, a lawyer acting for Philippines maid Mary Jane Veloso, told CNN Sunday that Veloso had telephoned her sister on Saturday at about 5:30 p.m. local time and said her execution will take place on Tuesday, April 28.  Officials at the Philippines Embassy in Jakarta confirmed the same information. According to her lawyers, Veloso unknowingly carried drugs into Indonesia, and that she was set up by members of a drug syndicate. On Friday, Indonesian officials advised relevant consular officials to travel to Indonesia's "execution island" -- Nusa Kambangan -- where the ten are being held -- a sign that the sentences may be carried out soon. They will face a firing squad. OPINION: Why executions won't win Indonesia's drug war . The ten on death row, which also include two Australian citizens Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran -- members of the so-called "Bali Nine" smuggling ring -- as well as prisoners from Ghana, Brazil, Nigeria and Indonesia, had their petitions for clemency denied by President Joko Widodo in late 2014. A statement Sunday from Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said the Australian government had been notified that the execution of Chan and Sukumaran would be carried out "imminently." "I spoke to Mr. Sukumaran's mother Raji yesterday and assured her the government would continue to seek clemency from Indonesian President Widodo for both men. "They have been rehabilitated in a most remarkable way over the past ten years and are genuinely remorseful for their serious crimes. "Nothing can be gained and much will be lost if these two young Australians are executed. "I again respectfully call on the President of Indonesia to reconsider his refusal to grant clemency. It is not too late for a change of heart." The two Australians, convicted for their role in a failed 2005 heroin smuggling plot, tried to challenge the President's decision earlier this month but lost an appeal for the State Administrative Court to hear their case. Their lawyers have since filed another review at the Constitutional Court. The Attorney General's office has said they would respect all ongoing court proceedings but insisted the inmates have exhausted all their legal options. Australia has repeatedly appealed for clemency for the pair and has unsuccessfully proposed a prisoner swap with Indonesia as a way of avoiding their deaths. On Saturday, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on Indonesia's government to reverse their decision. "The Secretary-General appeals to the government of Indonesia to refrain from carrying out the execution, as announced, of 10 prisoners on death row for alleged drug-related crimes," a spokesman for Ban said, according to various reports. Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch says President Widodo "has an important opportunity to signal Indonesia's rejection of the death penalty by sparing the lives of the 10 people facing looming execution." "Widodo can demonstrate true leadership by ending capital punishment as unacceptable state brutality," said Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, in a statement Saturday. "President Widodo should recognize that the death penalty is not a crime deterrent but an unjustifiable and barbaric punishment. Widodo should promote Indonesia as a rights-respecting democracy by joining the countries that have abolished capital punishment."

Australian and Philippines governments given notice their nationals will be executed in 72 hours . They include Philippines maid Mary Jane Velos and Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran . Australia has repeatedly appealed for clemency for the pair .


(CNN)At least four people are missing after a severe storm capsized sailboats Saturday afternoon during a regatta in Mobile Bay, Alabama, Coast Guard spokesman Carlos Vega said. Five people were initially reported missing, but one of them has since been been rescued, the Coast Guard said. More than 100 sailboats took part in the Dauphin Island Race and as many as 50 people in all were rescued from the water, the Coast Guard said. Jeff Carter, deputy director of Mobile County Emergency Management, said his department is reporting that one person may have died. Besides overturned sailboats, one vessel hit a bridge, he said. Search and rescue efforts are ongoing, the Coast Guard said. Coast Guard Sector Mobile received a report at approximately 4:30 p.m. that a sailing regatta in Mobile Bay had been struck by severe weather, causing several vessels to capsize and leaving a number of people in the water. The Coast Guard and other agencies were on the scene Saturday night, Vega said. The Fairhope Yacht Club sponsors the Dauphin Island Race, according to the club website. The club says this is the 57th year for the event.

Coast Guard says about 50 people were rescued from Mobile Bay . More than 100 sailboats took part in the Dauphin Island Race, an annual event .


(CNN)You probably never knew her name, but you were familiar with her work. Betty Whitehead Willis, the designer of the iconic "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign, died over the weekend.  She was 91. Willis played a major role in creating some of the most memorable neon work in the city. The Neon Museum also credits her with designing the signs for Moulin Rouge Hotel and Blue Angel Motel . Willis visited the Neon Museum in 2013 to celebrate her 90th birthday. Born about 50 miles outside of Las Vegas in Overton, she attended art school in Pasadena, California, before returning home. She retired at age 77. Willis never trademarked her most-famous work, calling it "my gift to the city." Today it can be found on everything from T-shirts to refrigerator magnets. People we've lost in 2015 .

Willis never trademarked her most-famous work, calling it "my gift to the city" She created some of the city's most famous neon work .


(CNN)Hey, look what I did. That small boast on social media can trigger a whirlwind that spins into real-life grief, as a Texas veterinarian found out after shooting a cat. Dr. Kristen Lindsey allegedly shot an arrow into the back of an orange tabby's head and posted a proud photo this week on Facebook of herself smiling, as she dangled its limp body by the arrow's shaft. Lindsey added a comment, CNN affiliate KBTX reported. "My first bow kill, lol. The only good feral tomcat is one with an arrow through it's head! Vet of the year award ... Gladly accepted." Callers rang the phones hot at Washington County's Animal Clinic, where Lindsey worked, to vent their outrage. Web traffic crashed its website. High price of public shaming on the Internet . Then an animal rescuer said that Lindsey's prey was probably not a feral cat but the pet of an elderly couple, who called him "Tiger." He had gone missing on Wednesday, the same day that Lindsey posted the photo of the slain cat. CNN has not been able to confirm the claim. As the firestorm grew, Lindsey wrote in the comments underneath her post: "no I did not lose my job. Lol. Psshh. Like someone would get rid of me. I'm awesome!" That prediction was wrong. The clinic fired Lindsey, covered her name on its marquee with duct tape, and publicly distanced itself from her actions. "Our goal now is to go on and try to fix our black eye and hope that people are reasonable and understand that those actions don't anyway portray what we're for here at Washington Animal Clinic," said Dr. Bruce Buenger. "We put our heart and soul into this place." The clinic told WBTX that Lindsey was not available for comment. CNN is reaching out to her. She removed her controversial post then eventually shut down her Facebook page. Callers also complained to the Brenham Police Department and Washington County Animal Control, as her Facebook post went viral. The sheriff's office in Austin County, where the cat was apparently shot, is investigating, and Lindsey could face charges. Its dispatchers were overloaded with calls, the sheriff posted on Facebook. "We are asking you to please take it easy on our dispatchers. As soon as the investigation is complete, we will post the relevant information here on this page," the post read. Animal rights activists are pushing for charges. "Animal cruelty must be taken seriously, and the guilty parties should be punished to the fullest extent of the law," said cat advocacy activist Becky Robinson. Her organization, Alley Cat Allies, is offering a $7,500 reward for evidence leading to the arrest and conviction of the person who shot the cat. But others stood up for Lindsey. "She's amazing. She's caring," said customer Shannon Stoddard. "She's a good vet, so maybe her bad choice of posting something on Facebook was not good. But I don't think she should be judged for it." She dropped off balloons at the animal clinic for Lindsey with a thank you note. CNN's Jeremy Grisham contributed to this report.

Dr. Kristen Lindsey has since removed the post of her holding the dead cat by an arrow . Her employer fired her; the sheriff's office is investigating . Activist offers $7,500 reward .


(CNN)Tickets will go on sale after an agreement on allocation was reached for the May 2 fight between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. In what Pacquiao's promoter, Bob Arum, dubbed the "fight of the century," disagreements have hampered the release of the tickets because of questions over how many tickets would be allocated to each fighter for the highly-anticipated Las Vegas event. "There was a craze for tickets and under our agreement with Mayweather Promotions, we felt we were being deprived of our fair share of the tickets (from) the standpoint of number and location," Arum told CNN. "It was very, very important to my fighter Manny Pacquiao, to the Philippines people... Manny has friends and family like you can't believe -- that will be in account for 800 or 900 tickets themselves." The cheapest tickets for the bout are priced at $1,500 but demand for the fight is such that some seats could fetch as much as $11,000 on the secondary market. Kenny Bayless has been named as the referee of next month's fight between Mayweather and Pacquiao. The Nevada State Athletic Commission said Bayless, who has officiated more than 100 title contests, would take charge of the most anticipated bout in recent boxing history at the MGM Grand. The 64-year-old Nevada native, who has refereed five of Mayweather's bouts and seven of Pacquiao's, was described as "the best referee out there" by Pacquiao's trainer Freddie Roach. And Nevada State Athletic Commission executive director Robert Bennett said: "Kenny knows the pressure, stress and responsibility. "He's efficient and effective, and has proven to be successful over a number of years working in Las Vegas and other parts of the world. He's one of the best referees in the world." The commission also confirmed that three American judges -- Dave Moretti and Burt Clements of Nevada and Glenn Feldman of Connecticut -- had been appointed for the fight. "I think we have the best judges, and Kenny Bayless is the best referee out there," Roach said. "I think he's going to give us a fair fight." The welterweight world title fight is likely to smash all revenue records and become the richest bout in the sport's history, eclipsing the pay-per-view record of 2.4 million viewers for Mayweather's fight against Oscar De La Hoya in 2007. Speaking when the bout was confirmed in February, Pacquiao said: "I am very happy that Floyd Mayweather and I can give the fans the fight they have wanted for so many years. "They have waited long enough, and they deserve it." Mayweather and Pacquiao have been considered the best pound-for-pound boxers of their generation but a host of issues -- including differences over drug testing protocols as well as revenue splits and broadcaster conflicts -- have stopped the two from meeting in the ring. Both are coming to the end of their careers and have established interests elsewhere. According to Forbes, Mayweather, 38, is the highest paid athlete in world sport. Pacquiao, who is 36, has run for political office in his native Philippines.

Promoter: Manny Pacquiao's has between 800 and 900 friends who want tickets to historic Las Vegas clash . Kenny Bayless named as referee in Mayweather-Pacquiao's bout, dubbed the "fight of the century"


(CNN)If you were mourning the loss of a loved one in China, at least the entertainment might have cheered you up. Until now. In rural China, hiring exotic dancers to perform at wakes is an increasingly common practice, but is now the latest focus of the country's crackdown on vice. Strippers are invited to perform at funerals, often at great expense, to attract more mourners, China's official Xinhua news agency said. Another report suggested another motivation: that the performances "add to the fun." Photos obtained by CNN from an attendee at a village funeral in Cheng'an County in Hebei Province show mourners of all ages, including children, watching the performance. The attendee, who asked not to be identified, said he was visiting family during the Lunar New Year holiday. While he was there, one of the elderly villagers died so he went to the funeral. "I felt something wasn't right," he told CNN. "The performance crossed the line. I had heard about hiring strippers to dance at funerals but had never seen it myself. I was shocked when I saw the strippers." He said the villagers said this kind of performance had been practiced for a while. "They didn't find it shocking or strange. They were used to it. "They told me, 'what if we can't watch (this kind of) performance after it gets exposed by the media?'" In some areas of China, the hiring of professional mourners, known as "kusangren" is commonplace. These can include performances, although in recent times the dance acts have increasingly tended towards the erotic. China's Ministry of Culture issued a statement Thursday announcing a crackdown on these funeral stripteases. It said that the ministry had investigated two separate incidents, one in Handan City, Hebei Province, and the other in Suqian City, Jiangsu Province. Both involved multiple-participant "burlesque" and "striptease" shows as mourners looked on. The Ministry's report said that stripteases undermined "the cultural value of the entertainment business," and asserted that "such acts were uncivilized." The practice has been going on for some time, the report said. Exotic dancing and other forms of pornography are illegal in China. The dancers in the two cases were held in "administrative detention" following the two investigations, the report added. The Ministry of Culture did not respond to CNN requests for comment. Last year, the Chinese Ministry of Public Security ordered police across China to step up efforts to tackle the "three vices" -- prostitution, gambling and drug trafficking -- warning officials they would be held accountable for illegal activities. In February 2014, a massive crackdown on prostitution in the southern manufacturing city of Dongguan, dubbed "Sin City" for its huge vice industry, raided 2,000 establishments and detained more than 900 people.

Funeral strippers in rural China are the latest focus of the country's crackdown on vice . In some areas of China, the hiring of professional mourners is commonplace, but some performances are getting racy . Government report says that stripteases undermine "the cultural value of the entertainment business"


Washington (CNN)Nearly 6 in 10 Americans say that businesses that provide wedding-related services should be required to provide those services to same-sex couples in the same way they would all other customers, even if they have religious objections. A new CNN/ORC poll finds 57% feel businesses such as caterers or florists should be required to serve gay or lesbian couples just as they would heterosexual couples, while 41% say they should be allowed to refuse service for religious reasons. That's a shift from a Pew Research Center poll conducted last fall, which found just 49% thought businesses ought to be required to serve same-sex couples while 47% that they should be allowed to refuse service on religious grounds. Since the Pew poll last fall, Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act, signed into law in late March by Republican governor Mike Pence, sparked a nationwide controversy over whether the law allowed wedding-related businesses to refuse service to gay and lesbian couples. Apple, Walmart and the NCAA all spoke out against the law, while some states and cities with Democratic leaders barred spending public money in Indiana. Pence and other Indiana legislators insisted discrimination was not the law's intent and a bill to change the original law was signed in early April. In the CNN/ORC Poll, most Democrats (70%) and independents (60%) say wedding-related businesses should be required to provide services to same-sex couples as they would different-sex couples, while Republicans break broadly the other way, 67% say religious reasons are a valid justification for refusing service. Full poll results . Looking at Republicans and independents who lean toward the Republican Party, 60% in that group say wedding-related businesses should be allowed to refuse services to same-sex couples, but there are sharp divides within that group by age and ideology. Moderate and liberal Republicans and Republican-leaners broadly say wedding-related businesses should be required to serve all couples the same way (58%) while three-quarters of conservative Republicans favor allowing a caterer or florist to refuse service for religious reasons (74%). Among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents under age 50, 56% say wedding-related businesses should be required to serve same-sex and different-sex couples the same way while among those age 50 or older, 72% think they should not be required to do so. The big gay wedding cake quiz . Age differences hold across party lines, but the generation gap among Republicans and Republican-leaners is larger than that among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents. Overall, white evangelicals are broadly in favor of allowing businesses to refuse service for religious reasons - 62% say they should be able to. But among whites who are not evangelicals, 61% say such businesses should be required to provide services to all couples the same way. The shift from the Pew Center results comes across demographic lines. Men, women, whites, younger adults and senior citizens all are more apt than in the Pew poll to say wedding-related business should be required to serve same-sex couples as they do others. The CNN/ORC International poll was conducted by telephone, April 16-19, among a random national sample of 1,018 adult Americans. Results for the full poll have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. Michigan auto repair shop says yes to gun owners, no to homosexuals .

Most Americans say businesses should not discriminate against same-sex weddings . Public opinion has shifted on the issue since last fall . Indiana passed and later changed its religious freedom law after public outcry .


Rome (CNN)Italy is coping with a rising wave of desperate migrants from Africa and Middle East hoping to make it to Europe. From Friday to Monday, a total of 8,480 migrants were rescued, according to the Italian coast guard, which said it received on Monday -- alone -- SOS calls from 20 boats in distress. On Tuesday, a spokesman with Save the Children told CNN the group fears 400 migrants could be missing, citing testimony from survivors who said their ship carrying 550 people capsized in the Mediterranean Sea about 80 miles off the Libyan coast. The Italian coast guard, however, told CNN that while it is taking the report seriously, it cannot confirm such an incident and has not yet found evidence at sea to indicate a migrant boat carrying approximately 550 has capsized with 145 rescued. An operation that included boats and planes did not find any survivors, nor bodies, nor any evidence to indicate a particular boat capsized, Coast Guard official Filippo Marini said. There has been a recent upsurge in migrant boats crossing the Mediterranean into Italy and an increase in rescues performed by the Italian Coast Guard to aid migrant boats. Why migrants are dying trying to reach Italy . According to the International Organization for Migration, Italy registered more than 10,000 migrants arriving in the first three months of 2015, and about 2,000 were rescued at sea during the first weekend of April in the Channel of Sicily. Most migrants recorded this year come from countries in West Africa as well as Somalia and Syria, the IOM said. They use Libya as a country of transit. At least 480 migrants have died while crossing the Mediterranean since the beginning of the year, often because of bad weather and overcrowded vessels used by smugglers, the IOM said. Sometimes the captains and crews abandon the ships, leaving passengers to fend for themselves. Last week: 978 migrants rescued in one day in Mediterranean Sea . CNN's Ralph Ellis contributed to this report.

The Italian coast guard says 8,480 migrants were rescued from Friday to Monday . Save the Children said Tuesday 400 migrants could be missing from a boat . The Italian coast guard cannot confirm that report .


Ali Addeh refugee camp, Djibouti (CNN)Henol and Mebratu emerge from their current home, a modest structure with plastic sheeting serving as its roof, carrying the "master folder." One of the most important documents on the camp, it's a record of each Eritrean's name and their case -- whether they've been granted refugee status, whether they've had their resettlement interview, whether they've attempted the journey to Europe by sea, and whether they've survived it. By the rows of names, red dots are marked to signify the dead. In the past few days, news -- from the network of friends and family across the world -- came in that 20 new dots needed to be scratched in -- for the 20 friends who'd drowned off the shores of Italy. For 25 years, Ali Addeh refugee camp has been a holding point for those fleeing into Djibouti, which borders Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia in the Horn of Africa. For the camp's 10,000 residents, who mostly come from these countries, this is supposed to be just the first stop on their journey to resettlement through the United Nations. Many though say it's been years and they're tired of waiting. For those willing to pay, there's another route to a new life. Across the Ethiopian border, through to Sudan and then up and across into Libya -- from where the migrant ships operated by human traffickers set sail at high tide. Henol's friend Soloman was among the hundreds who lost their lives this week when their boat capsized in the Mediterranean en route to Europe, he tells me. They'd grown up together -- even made the risky journey to Djibouti together. When the time came for Soloman to travel, Henol says he was asked to go too but said no. He hoped to give the legal route a little longer. It was the first time they'd been separated in years. I ask Henol if he still believes in the legal route. "I can see now that we've been forgotten by the world," he says.  "There is no solution here. No solution back home -- what can we do? We are living in limbo." He tells me he now plans to follow his friend. Even though he died trying, I ask? "Yes," he replies. Eritrea is ranked as one of the most repressive countries in the world, with an aging dictator enforcing a brutal regime of forced conscription to the army that rights groups believe is a cover for mass exploitation. Elected by the country's national assembly in 1993, Isaias Afewerki runs what is essentially a one-party state. One young man at the camp comes over on crutches to show us his disfigured knee. The commander of his military unit, he says, accused him of insubordination and with a viscous kick left him disabled for life -- just a few months shy of his 17th birthday. He asks that we not reveal his name. These are the things no one here will talk about on camera. Back in Djibouti we find a man who is willing to speak, as long as we obscure his identity. With his face in shadow he haltingly tells us that the last time he saw his father was 20 years ago -- the night his mother was killed trying to stop the men who came to take him away. He believes they were working for the security forces. As soon as he was old enough, he says he made his first attempt at crossing into Djibouti. He was discovered and wounded by gunfire. As soon as he'd recovered though, he tried again, knowing that if he was caught this time he'd be killed. Despite a wound that had barely healed, he made it into Djibouti after four days of walking day and night. This is where he's been for the last seven years, waiting to be resettled through the UN. The uncertainty is agony. He understands why others have pinned their hopes on people smugglers and leaky vessels. "People risk their lives," he says, "for a better life. "All this that is happening [in Europe] is because of the neglect of the international community. "People come to Djibouti and look at someone like me who's been waiting so long and think there is no hope. It's better to put ourselves in the hands of God." If he had the money, he says, he would too.

For 25 years, Ali Addeh refugee camp has been a holding point for those fleeing into Djibouti . Many come from Somalia, Ethiopia and especially Eritrea -- which is ruled by a one-party state . Despite the risks, Eritrean refugees say they'd risk their lives with people smugglers .


(CNN)A mom furious at her son for apparently taking part in the Baltimore riots has become a sensation online. In video captured by CNN affiliate WMAR, the woman is seen pulling her masked son away from a crowd, smacking him in the head repeatedly, and screaming at him. As he tries to walk away, she follows him, screaming, "Get the f--- over here!" Eventually, he turns toward her, his face no longer covered.  The boy is dressed in dark pants and a black hoodie, with a dark backpack on. WMAR reports that the woman saw her son on television throwing rocks at police. The name of the woman dressed in light blue jeans, a yellow lace tunic and a cropped yellow jacket was not immediately known. But Police Commissioner Anthony Batts thanked her in remarks to the media. "And if you saw in one scene you had one mother who grabbed their child who had a hood on his head and she started smacking him on the head because she was so embarrassed," he said Monday.  "I wish I had more parents that took charge of their kids out there tonight."

The mom saw her son on TV throwing rocks at police, CNN affiliate reports . Police praise her actions .


Kathmandu, Nepal (CNN)We came on a commercial flight to Kathmandu. Blue tarps were visible from the sky for people to hide under -- signs that there was something wrong. We had to circle the airport for a couple of hours. There were a couple of issues. There was an aftershock this afternoon, so they were checking the runway for damage. Military and aid flights have priority, and a few military planes -- Indian military planes -- were going in, trying to bring in aid. Whether they did is unclear. When we landed at the airport, it was wet and cold. A couple of thousand people were lining the road to the entrance to the airport trying to get out. But there's no way to get out, really. There were torrential rainstorms for a couple of hours, and with the strong aftershock a couple of hours ago, no one wants to go inside. The residents of Kathmandu sure don't. You can see some structural damage to buildings. Most buildings are not up to high construction standards. Fallen: Nepal's historic landmarks . Driving through the city, there's not a huge amount of visible damage. There's some damage to houses and buildings, but it's not as visual as the Haiti earthquake (of 2010). We were able to drive the main road to the hotel we're staying at, but they're not allowing anyone inside because of the aftershocks. The guests are in a big tent used for functions on the lawn. People are squeezed in. There are probably about 100 people in there. The tents are covered, but water is seeping in from streets puddled with water, especially around the edges of the tent. So people are outside in the rain with no shelter. It's visually stark, with people in the streets. It's colder than usual this time of year. I'm cold and damp. When it's almost May, it's usually much hotter. There's very little power in the city -- no power to speak of, no drinking water. For the residents, it's really bad. Very soon, they will need shelter. Temporary shelters have been put up, but very few -- 16 -- by the government. It looks like a city where buildings have been abandoned. People are hanging out in public squares and at intersections to avoid rubble from buildings. Those who survived -- and those who didn't . There are issues with fuel in the city, and driving in, all the stores were shuttered. You occasionally see a cart with food or a few bottles of drinking water, but for the most part, nothing is being sold in the city. I don't think they're very concerned about looting, and there's no military in the streets, but they will have to get water and food in the city soon. Communal kitchens have been set up for cooking. Not by the government -- people set them up on their own. People are beside themselves in shock. Their biggest concern now is the structures, needing a place for shelter, to hide from the elements and sleep. Food will become the biggest concern in the coming days. Kathmandu isn't the epicenter though. No one's sure what it's like at the epicenter. People haven't been able to get to outlying areas. We haven't been able to corroborate this, but the people we're talking to here say there's damage to the villages outside Kathmandu -- thousands of houses damaged to the north, closer to the epicenter. CNN's Ingrid Formanek reported from Kathmandu and Mark Morgenstein wrote in Atlanta.

The earthquake that struck Nepal has left thousands of Nepalis without shelter . Torrential rains making situation worse; food and drinking water supplies could become a serious issue soon . It's unclear how bad conditions are closer to the epicenter .


(CNN)Gunshots were fired at rapper Lil Wayne's tour bus early Sunday in Atlanta. No one was injured in the shooting, and no arrests have been made, Atlanta Police spokeswoman Elizabeth Espy said. Police are still looking for suspects. Officers were called to a parking lot in Atlanta's Buckhead neighborhood, Espy said. They arrived at 3:25 a.m. and located two tour buses that had been shot multiple times. The drivers of the buses said the incident occurred on Interstate 285 near Interstate 75, Espy said. Witnesses provided a limited description of the two vehicles suspected to be involved: a "Corvette style vehicle" and an SUV. Lil Wayne was in Atlanta for a performance at Compound nightclub Saturday night. CNN's Carma Hassan contributed to this report.

Rapper Lil Wayne not injured after shots fired at his tour bus on an Atlanta interstate, police say . No one has been arrested in the shooting .


Boston (CNN)Sending Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to prison for the rest of his life would bring years of punishment and rob him of martyrdom, jurors were told Monday. "We have seen more pain and more horror and more grief in this courtroom than any of you would have thought possible," attorney David Bruck said as Tsarnaev's defense team began what could be a two-week campaign to avoid the death penalty. "No punishment could ever be equal to the terrible effects of this crime on the survivors and the victims' families," he said. "There is no evening of the scales. There is no point of trying to hurt him as he hurt because it can't be done. All we can do, all you can do is make the best choice." Bruck told jurors there are only two punishments for them to choose from: death, or life in prison without any possibility of parole. "We are asking you to punish Jahar by imprisoning him for the rest of his life." Showing the court a photo of the federal Supermax prison in Colorado, Bruck said: . "This is where the government keeps other terrorists who used to be famous but aren't anymore. ... He goes here and he's forgotten. No more spotlight, like the death penalty brings. "No interviews with the news media, no autobiography, no messages from Jahar on the Internet. No nothing. "No martyrdom. Just years and years of punishment, day after day, as he grows up to deal with the lonely struggle of dealing with what he did. "The evidence will show that if you sentence Jahar to a lifetime of thinking about what he did, you'll both punish him and protect society." Tsarnaev, 21, was convicted this month of all 30 counts against him; 17 of those counts carry the death penalty for the murders of four -- Krystle Campbell, 29; Lingzi Lu, 23; Martin Richard, 8; and Sean Collier, 26. In deciding whether the former college student is executed for his crimes or spends the rest of his days in a high-security federal prison, jurors must weigh the heinousness of his crime and the toll on his victims against so-called mitigating factors, such as his relative youth, mental health and family background, and whether or not he is remorseful. He has shown no emotion as he sits in court, and he has avoided eye contact with maimed bombing survivors and relatives of the dead. Last week, federal prosecutors presented three days of gut-wrenching victim impact testimony, including an array of images showing the victims as happy, active people and edited videos that added a soundtrack featuring a loud explosion, screams and panicked voices to the horrific bombing scene outside the Forum restaurant, where Richard and Lu died. Lead defense attorney Judy Clarke -- a nationally known death penalty opponent -- has acknowledged that Tsarnaev and his brother, Tamerlan, set off the bombs and shot MIT campus cop Collier. But she is expected to build a narrative showing her client as a puppet of his dominant older brother. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was 26, died in a gunbattle with Watertown, Massachusetts, police three days after the bombings. Clarke's colleague, Bruck, began that narrative in his opening statement by noting, "The man who conceived, planned and led this crime is beyond our power to punish. Only the 19-year-old younger brother who helped is left. "He was 19, nearly 20. But he was still at an age still legally too young to buy a beer. And an age when people make horribly bad, destructive decisions. What each of you will have to decide for yourself is how to weigh his young age as a mitigating factor." Bruck tried to use a photo prosecutors introduced last week -- showing Tsarnaev raising his middle finger at a surveillance camera in his federal courthouse cell -- to make his point. "I could almost hear you gasp" when that photo was displayed between images of bombing victims, Bruck said. "It turned out that shocking gesture wasn't quite as advertised. "What did he mean? It meant he was acting as an immature 19-year-old." Several members of Tsarnaev's family arrived in Boston over the weekend, but the defense is closely guarding its witness list. The relatives, who are at an undisclosed location after being forced to leave a suburban hotel, apparently do not include his parents, who divorced and returned to Dagestan before the April 15, 2013, bombings. Court filings indicate that the defense plans to call expert witness Janet Vogelsang, a sociologist, to explain Tsarnaev's difficult upbringing as the overlooked child of immigrants -- displaced Russian Muslims whose American dream failed. Under federal law, the jury's decision must be unanimous. A deadlocked jury would result in an automatic life sentence for Tsarnaev -- which means the defense only needs to convince one juror to spare his life. The Boston Globe reported over the weekend that fewer than 20% of those polled in Massachusetts favor the death penalty for Tsarnaev. The number is down substantially since the days after the bombings.

Defense expected to show Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as a puppet of his dominant older brother . A deadlocked jury would result in an automatic life sentence for Tsarnaev .


Kathmandu, Nepal (CNN)The clamor and chaos of the previous day has dissipated by the time we arrive at Kathmandu's only airport. The mad rush of 24 hours previously, in those first confusing, cacophonous hours following the 7.8-magnitude earthquake near the Nepali capital, had died down. Now, families sit, camped out, silent and patiently waiting, but for now abandoned. At the airport, at passport control, we meet a Nepalese man, who is unable to contact his family. They live in a village 20 km from the epicenter. He also has two cousins on Everest, he says. He has no way to reach any of them. Follow the latest coverage of Nepal earthquake . Stepping out of the terminal building, the devastation is apparent. It is an overwhelming introduction to this city that, less than 48 hours ago, was hit by the worst earthquake this country has experienced in 80 years. The death toll has skipped past 3,000 and climbs, inexorably. Taking into account the fact that many rural areas, just as badly affected but isolated and vulnerable, have yet to be evaluated, the human cost is staggering. Across town the bus station is a hive of activity as scores try urgently to leave the city, to make it out to the outlying areas so badly affected by this quake. Communications are down and so many here are desperate to make it out to their stricken families, and discover their fate. The scene is repeated at every gas station; snaking lines of Indian-made Tata cars, and motorcycles, waiting to fill up. People are clambering aboard buses, into cars, trying to get as far away from this devastation as possible. Remaining inside Kathmandu, neighbors stare forlornly at their former homes, now collapsed piles of rubble. We visit a Montessori school, mercifully empty as the children had the Saturday off. A seven-story building behind it, however, was home to a small church, and housed a congregation of between 40 and 50 when tragedy occurred. The pastor's son Nakul Tamang clambers up a ladder, looking for an entrance into the ruined facade, looking to retrieve his father, not knowing if he will find him alive or dead. Rescue teams stop him before he reaches the top. The building is not secure, but Tamang doesn't care. "It's sad, it's hard," he says. Six bodies had already been pulled from the concrete and steel wreckage. A nearby five-story structure has collapsed in on itself. It was pink, with wrought balconies. Now it is pancaked, reduced to a third of its height and a mess of rubble and reinforced steel. One woman has been pulled out of the wreckage, and rescuers continue to work in a precarious hollow scooped out from the fallen bricks. Officials tell the onlookers that there is a chance that survivors may have been protected in a corridor as the building came down around them. A day after the earthquake struck, they found a woman under the rubble. Unhurt; in shock, but alive. It is this hope that keeps Narayan Gurung going: the belief that his wife and 7-year-old are still alive. "I raced here after the earthquake. I haven't slept for days," he says. Workers dig painstakingly, slowly removing piles of stone and debris. They spot someone's hair, but can't yet reach the body or tell if it's male or female. Wherever there is rubble in this city, there is a police or military presence. They are not necessarily commanding the digs but they keep onlookers from getting too close, or directing traffic as best they can. For their part, the onlookers look shell shocked -- there is little outpouring of grief, no sobbing or wailing, but rather a solemn, dazed, collective sense of disbelief. Tundikhel Park was, just two days ago, a vast, open green oasis in the city, but is now a mess of tents. Some have made their own, the army is setting up others. Metal bleacher-style seating has been set up, with dozens of people sitting, waiting, makeshift blue tarp tents pitched underneath. People bring in fresh fruit, and there are water sellers -- although clean bottled water is becoming hard to to find. People queue endlessly for food and water. There is a mobile government field hospital here, and those treated wait listlessly outside, a collection of crushed hands, broken legs, strapped ankles. One little boy was hit by a falling brick. "I felt something like a fire, and I ran, and then something hurt me a lot." he says. "I am still scared." And so is everybody else: those who survived clinging to those they love. Arwa Damon and Gul Tuysuz reported from Nepal, while Euan McKirdy wrote from Hong Kong.

Tremors subside finally in Kathmandu, but after-effects of Saturday's staggering tragedy will be felt for years . Arwa Damon and Gul Tuysuz take tour of devastated city as locals struggle to cope . Workers dig painstakingly, slowly removing piles of stone and debris .


(CNN)A professor at Texas A&M Galveston said in an email to his strategic management students that they were a disgrace, that they lacked maturity -- and that he would fail the entire class. Irwin Horwitz, an instructional associate professor in the university's department of maritime administration, told CNN affiliate KPRC that he had finally reached a breaking point. "Enough was enough," Horwitz said. "It became apparent that they couldn't do just some of the most simple and basic things that they should've been able to do at that point." In the email to students, KPRC reported, Horwitz said: "I have seen cheating, been told by students to 'chill out,' 'get out of my space,' 'go back and teach' refuse to leave the room after being told to do so following inappropriate conduct, called a 'f*****g moron' several times by a student to my face..." Horwitz added that students spread hurtful rumors about him, his wife and colleagues, and that he felt the need for police protection in class. John Shaw, a senior at Texas A&M Galveston and student in Horwitz's class, told KPRC he was worried about the job he has lined up after graduation. "Just ridiculous, because, I mean, I had never had a problem in the class," Shaw said. "I thought I had done pretty well, done pretty well on the first test and everything else that's going on. I get an email saying I am going to get an F in the class, and just kind of -- it was overwhelming." Texas A&M Galveston is a part of the Texas A&M University System; its more than 2,000 students focus on marine and maritime studies. Patrick Louchouarn, the vice president for academic affairs and chief academic officer, told KPRC that the university will not necessarily stand by the failing grades Horwitz planned to hand out. University officials said the department head will take over teaching the strategic management class. "None of them have failed until the end of the class, meaning the only reason a student would fail is because he or she hasn't performed the actual, you know, with the expectations for that particular class," Louchouarn said. University officials have not yet responded to CNN's request for comment.

A Texas A&M Galveston professor said in an email to students he would fail the entire class . University officials won't necessarily stand by failing grades, CNN affiliate KPRC reports .


(CNN)It is not hard to imagine the conversations inside the Hillary Clinton camp prelaunch: How do we take the best known woman in the world and make her seem like less of a big shot? How can the people in Iowa and New Hampshire get to know the "real Hillary," the Midwestern Methodist? (As a friend told me, she's someone who "likes to sing 'God Bless America' on New Year's Eve.") And how to open the minds of people about someone everyone already has an opinion about? Same questions, no doubt, that the staff asked in 2008 when she ran against the newbie Barack Obama, and same questions they asked when, as first lady, she ran for the Senate in New York. In that race, she ended up spending a lot of all-ears quality time in upstate New York. In this race, she could be spending a lot of all-you-can-eat time at Diners, Drive-ins and Dives — just like the TV show. (Except Guy Fieri would probably have been recognized by the crowd at Chipotle. Just sayin.' ) Dining aside, it's hard -- almost impossible -- to soft-launch a campaign with a superstar politician.  All the gauzy ads and the small classrooms and the coffee shops can't mask the Houdini-like effort Hillary Clinton is making to escape the inescapable reality -- that even her "Scooby-Doo" van is followed by throngs of press. (I half imagined an O.J. moment with a helicopter hovering as she made her way down I-80.) Try as she might to launch with a humble start — not entitled to anything — she still is who she is. Virtually unchallenged. Not to mention famous, accomplished and controversial. In watching it all unfold, it's hard to underestimate the task at hand. It's also hard to figure out whether it's actually going to work. Hillary Clinton — and her experienced campaign team — are disciplined and relentlessly on message. That's usually a good thing when you're running a presidential campaign. But when you're sitting at a community college in Iowa and you tick off your rationale for running and your resume — unprompted — it seems less effective and more oddly incongruent. (Especially when the former secretary of state described her tenure in five words — as "standing up for our country." Short shrift, it seems to me.) Maybe it's that the old lessons of message discipline don't work in the informal environment the campaign is trying to create — at least not with this candidate. The hardest combination in politics is that just-right mixture of spontaneity and discipline. The ability to understand exactly what you have to say (over and over) and then say it as if you have never said it before. And look like you're having a great time doing it. We like to call it authenticity, but it's probably not. It's a honed skill that combines connection and gravitas, both of which the voters demand in a president. (A majority of voters -- 53% --  say they want to vote for someone who has been financially successful, as opposed to someone who has not.) So there's this balance: If you're too much like them, you're nothing special to vote for. But if you're too different, you're not relatable. It's a balance that doesn't come easily to Hillary Clinton. But she's not alone. When President George H.W. Bush was running for re-election in 1992, he was facing his own image issues. His populist challengers were calling him insensitive to middle class woes in the struggling state of New Hampshire. Bush tried mightily to drop the presidential persona, did some town halls, and famously declared:  "Message: I care." Some said he actually read it from a cue card, but he also said this: "I don't know what I have to do to convince people here that I really care about this (the economy). I do." He lost. To an empathetic I-feel-your-pain Bill Clinton. And the rest, as they say, is history. Or, in Hillary's case, at least trying to make history.

Gloria Borger: Hillary Clinton's team is doing all it can to make her appear relatable to ordinary people . She asks if the most famous woman in the world can really connect with ordinary voters?