(CNN)Sarah Brady, who with her husband, James Brady, pushed for stricter gun control laws, including the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, died Friday, her family said. Brady, 73, died of pneumonia, the family said. "Sarah courageously stepped up after Jim was shot to prevent others from enduring what our family has gone through, and her work has saved countless lives," their statement said. James Brady, President Ronald Reagan's press secretary, was shot in the head by John Hinckley Jr. during his attempt to assassinate Reagan in 1981. Brady spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair, advocating against gun violence. He died in August. Sarah Brady was also involved in gun violence prevention for the past 30 years. She was the chairwoman of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence from 2000 until she died. The National Rifle Association said its thoughts and prayers were with the Brady family. "Although we disagreed on public policy, Sarah Brady was an honorable American who we always respected," the gun rights organization said. People we've lost in 2015 . On the Brady Campaign's website, she said she got involved in gun control after her young son picked up what she thought was a toy gun on the seat of a friend's pickup. Her son started to wave it around and she took it from him. It was not a toy, she said, and she fumed over what she imagined could have happened. The loaded gun was much like the one used to shoot her husband. "It just hit me like a ton of bricks," she told CNN in 2013. "So I asked Jim if he felt comfortable with me speaking out, and he said, 'Of course.'" After that, the Bradys made it their business to be gun control activists. Despite budgets that were just a fraction of the gun lobby's, the Bradys and their colleagues helped pass federal and state laws, including Maryland's 1988 ban on cheap handguns known as Saturday night specials, 1993's Brady law requiring background checks on certain kinds of gun purchases and a ban on manufacturing and future sales of some military-style firearms, which lasted from 1994 to 2004. Read Sarah Brady's 2014 op-ed for CNN.com . Former President Bill Clinton, who signed the Brady bill in 1993, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a joint statement Saturday that the Bradys "were fierce champions of sensible gun legislation." Sarah Brady "transformed tragedy into a courageous campaign, and because of her work and her remarkable life, American families are safer today," the Clintons said. Brady Campaign and Center President Dan Gross said in a written statement that few people are responsible for saving as many lives as Sarah and James Brady. "Our nation has lost a great hero, and I have lost a dear friend," he said. "I am certain that she would want nothing more than to know we are carrying on her and Jim's legacy with the same fiery compassion and dedication that made her so remarkable." Sen Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat who helped write the Brady bill, concurred. "She was strong and forceful, sweet and kind, and someone I considered a friend and patriot for decades," he said. "She was a true hero and will be missed by America." James Brady was one of four people wounded in Reagan's shooting outside a Washington hotel. Suffering a head wound, it was erroneously reported at one point that Brady had died. He was, however, left partially paralyzed. Reagan, severely wounded as well, also survived the attack and served two terms as President. Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the shooting and has spent the ensuing years in a psychiatric hospital. The Brady bill was fiercely fought over for seven years before Congress approved it and President Bill Clinton signed it into law in 1993. CNN's Kevin Bohn and Thom Patterson contributed to this story.

NRA says although it disagreed with Sarah Brady, she was an honorable and respected woman . Sarah Brady became involved in campaigns against gun violence after her son to picked up a loaded gun . Her husband died in August, having spent the last part of his life in a wheelchair from being shot .


Nairobi, Kenya (CNN)Kenyan Deputy President William Ruto on Saturday gave the United Nations' refugee agency three months to relocate refugees from the Dadaab camp -- the world's largest -- to Somalia, or "we shall relocate them ourselves." "The way America changed after 9/11 is the way Kenya will change after Garissa," Ruto said in Nyeri, according to a statement from his office. Al-Shabaab gunmen stormed Garissa University College in eastern Kenya this month, killing 147 people. Kenya's government says that attack was masterminded by senior Al-Shabaab leader Mohamed Mohamud, whose "extensive terrorist network within Kenya" extends into the sprawling Dadaab complex, according to a Kenyan government document given to CNN. Students wake to Islamist militants' terror . Ruto, who is the second highest-ranking person in Kenya's government behind President Uhuru Kenyatta, said his government has had discussions with United Nations officials about what to do with the camp. On Saturday, a U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees officer said the agency had not received any formal request from Kenya's government about moving Dadaab. The U.N. refugee agency manages the Dadaab complex, having set up the first camps there in late 1991 amid Somalia's civil war. The agency and the governments of both Kenya and Somalia agreed in 2013 on a process for the repatriation of Somali refugees. But that was supposed to be mutually agreed-upon and voluntary, in accordance with the refugees' "freely expressed wish and their relevant knowledge of the conditions" where they'd end up, according to the pact. None of those things, it seems, applies now to the move pushed by Ruto on Saturday. It's not clear where he expects the refugees to go, other than somewhere into Somalia and out of Kenya. Any mass move would be a monumental task, disrupting the already difficult lives of more than 600,000 Somalis who call the camp their home. Simply meeting basic needs is a challenge in the vast complex, which has seen devastating droughts, contagious diseases and other travails that have tested its residents and those trying to help. Still, as tough as conditions there are, they are seen as a better alternative to life back in Somalia, where Al-Shabaab is based and has carried out violent attacks for years. Yet the Islamist extremist group hasn't confined its terror to its homeland, as illustrated by the Garissa attack and the 2013 siege of Nairobi's upscale Westgate Mall, which ended with at least 67 dead. The Dadaab complex came under government scrutiny after the Westgate Mall attack, too. But just a few weeks later, CNN's Nima Elbagir managed to go from Somalia to the Dadaab refugee camp undetected by taking one of the panya, or "rat routes," just like many others have done, Al-Shabaab sympathizers among them. Such illicit travel along porous borders as well as police officers' willful ignorance of migrants' fake IDs, as acknowledged by then-Interior Minister Ole Lemku, illustrates Kenya's challenge in keeping out threats from Somalia. That's why, in addition to moving the Dadaab camp, Kenya is building of a 435-mile (700-kilometer) wall covering most of the Somali border from Mandera to Kiunga -- a wall that Ruto says has begun to prevent Al-Shabaab elements from getting into Kenya. The deputy president also vowed that any businesses collaborating with the militant group will be shut down. These measures are in addition to Kenyan airstrikes on Al-Shabaab camps in Somalia in the days after the Garissa massacre. "We must secure this country at whatever cost, even if we lose business with Somalia," Ruto said Saturday. "No politics, no games, no half-measures should apply, as the death of the 147 students must touch all Kenyans." CNN's Lillian Leposo reported from Nairobi, and CNN's Greg Botelho reported and wrote this story from Atlanta.

The Dadaab refugee camp is the world's largest, with more than 600,000 people . Kenya will change "the way America changed after 9/11," deputy president says . William Ruto adds that "we must secure this country at whatever cost"


(CNN)Greenpeace activists have climbed aboard a Shell oil rig to protest the company's plans to drill in the Arctic near Alaska. The six protesters used ropes and harnesses Monday to scale the huge platform in the Pacific Ocean, tweeting images of their daunting climb as they went. "We made it! We're on Shell's platform. And we're not alone," wrote Aliyah Field, an American activist taking part in the protest. "Everyone can help turn this into a platform for people power!" The rig, the Polar Pioneer, is on its way to the Arctic via Seattle. The environmental activists caught up with it about 750 miles northwest of Hawaii, Greenpeace said. They plan to occupy the underside of the rig's main deck and say they have enough supplies to stay there for several days. Shell didn't immediately respond to CNN's request for comment late Monday. But company spokeswoman Kelly Op De Weegh told Agence France-Presse that the boarding was illegal and jeopardized the safety of the activists and the crew. Greenpeace is furious over a decision last week by U.S. authorities to lift the suspensions on leases to drill for oil and gas in the Chukchi Sea, which lies between northern Alaska and Russia. Shell and several other oil companies bought exploration leases for the sea in 2008. The U.S. government's decision "means that in 100 days, Shell could begin drilling in the Alaskan Arctic," Greenpeace said. Federal agencies still have to review and approve companies' plans before exploratory drilling can start. Shell's work in the Arctic has suffered some setbacks in the past, including a drilling barge that ran aground off southern Alaska on December 31, 2012. Greenpeace has repeatedly used the occupation of drilling-related vessels to bring attention to its cause. One group of its activists was detained for months by Russian authorities in 2013. In the current episode, the activists pursued the Polar Pioneer, which Shell is leasing from Transocean, as it traveled thousands of miles aboard a transport vessel from Malaysia, Greenpeace said. Besides the American protester Field, the activists come from Australia, Austria, Germany, New Zealand and Sweden. The U.S. Coast Guard wasn't immediately available for comment late Monday on the incident. CNN's Dave Alsup contributed to this report.

Six protesters scale the Polar Pioneer, hundreds of miles northwest of Hawaii . Greenpeace opposes Shell's plans to drill for oil in the Arctic .


(CNN)In Russia's tightly-managed democracy, where being an opposition politician can seriously damage your health, chances to question the country's leader are rare. President Vladimir Putin cuts an isolated figure, closely guarded behind the walls of the Kremlin, traveling to-and-fro by helicopter or high-speed motorcade. His almost daily appearances on state television often show him in formal meetings with subordinates, or visiting dignitaries. Interaction with ordinary Russians is usually carefully controlled and fleeting. That is why this annual Q&A session -- in which Putin will spend hours fielding questions from the general public on live television -- is such a widely anticipated event which provokes such excitement. It is direct access to the Russian leader, or at least as direct as most Russians will ever get. In recent years, sitting in a shiny studio surrounded by a hand-picked audience of soldiers, doctors, teachers, factory workers and so on, Putin has held forth on subjects from parenting to food prices, to relations with America. Last year he spoke for three hours and 55 minutes. In 2013, it was a record-breaking 4 hours and 47 minutes. Organizers say this year, public interest is especially strong. At one call center in Moscow, where the public are encouraged to pitch their Putin questions, officials say more than 200,000 questions were submitted in the first hour after lines opened. The Kremlin says they will have to sift through well over 1.7 million emails, video messages and texts to decide who gets to ask what on the big day. A few would-be questions released ahead of the event give us a flavor of what's on Russia's mind. One man, who identifies himself as Vitaly from the Leningrad region, asks: "Vladimir Vladimirovich (Putin's middle name), why are prices going up in the shops but wages are staying the same?" Sanctions and Russia's deep economic crisis, which saw the value of the Russian currency, the ruble, plunge in value by 50% against the dollar, is set to be a major a theme. So too is foreign policy. With Moscow at odds with the West over Ukraine, some of the released questions show how concerned ordinary Russians are about their country's place in the world. One unidentified schoolgirl asks: "Is there a threat to Russia's interests from the United States and Europe? And will there be a new Iron Curtain?" It's not just Russian schoolchildren who want to hear Putin's answer. Critics of the Kremlin, of course, slam this entire event as Russia's imitation of democracy in action. It's hard to imagine a truly critical question, they say, getting aired on national television here. In fact, its best not to look at this event as an opportunity for Russians to question their leader at all. Instead, it is more like a highly produced, highly choreographed chance for their leader to speak to them, and to the world. Sometimes, the Kremlin likes to throw in a nasty surprise, too. Last year saw NSA whistleblower, Edward Snowden, granted asylum in Russia, address Putin by videolink. Who knows who may pop up this time.

Putin to spend hours fielding questions from the general public on live television . Sanctions and Russia's deep economic crisis likely to be a major theme . Critics of the Kremlin slam event as Russia's imitation of democracy in action .


Baghdad, Iraq (CNN)Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a former top deputy to Saddam Hussein and more recently a key figure in Sunni extremist groups battling the Iraqi government, has been killed in a security operation in that country, Iraqi state-run television reported Friday. Al-Douri was the highest-ranking member of Hussein's regime to evade capture -- the "King of Clubs" in a deck of playing cards used by American troops to identify the most-wanted regime officials. He also was a man thought to have led the post-Hussein Sunni extremist group Naqshbandi Army. Military analysis website Globalsecurity.org says the Naqshbandi Army supports ISIS, which has taken over parts of Iraq and Syria. Al-Douri was killed in an operation by Iraqi security forces and Shia militia members in the Hamrin Mountains between Tikrit and Kirkuk, Iraq, Shia militia commander Hadi al-Ameri said. That militia is a predominantly Shiite fighting group that worked with Iraqi troops earlier this month to liberate the Iraqi city of Tikrit from ISIS. The death of al-Douri was also reported by the governor of Salahuddin province, Raid al-Jubouri, who spoke by phone on Iraqi television. Al-Douri's body arrived Friday in Baghdad, where DNA samples were taken to confirm the identity, said the spokesman of another Shiite militia called Hashd Shaabi in an interview with state-run Iraqiya TV. DNA test results could be available in 48 hours, Hashd Shaabi spokesman Yousuf al-Kilabi told the outlet. The U.S. military is aware of the media reports but doesn't have further information to evaluate them, said Col. Patrick Ryder, spokesman for U.S. Central Command. While officials are aware of al-Douri's role in the Hussein regime, Ryder declined to comment about whether the United States or the coalition was targeting any specific individuals. Al-Douri was a military commander and vice chairman of the country's revolutionary command council in Hussein's Sunni-dominated regime -- effectively Hussein's No. 2 man. Hussein's regime fell during a U.S.-led invasion in 2003. The U.S. military had said that after the Iraqi leader's fall, al-Douri helped finance a Sunni insurgency with money he transferred to Syria before the government collapsed. A month before the invasion, al-Douri presided over a military parade in Mosul, an event covered by CNN, and his participation became one of the last times he was seen in public, covered by CNN. Al-Douri saluted troops from the reviewing stand as they marched by. Then, just days before the U.S. invasion, al-Douri addressed an emergency summit of the Organization of the Islamic Conference to discuss ultimately unsuccessful ways to avert the war. Al-Douri accused the United States of aggression and blamed Kuwait for his country's suffering, calling leaders of the neighboring Gulf state "traitors" for cooperating with the United States and Israel. That comment prompted the Kuwaiti representative to stand up and protest, to which al-Douri countered, "Shut up, sit down you small agent [of the U.S.], you monkey!" Kuwaiti television cut away from the heated exchange and rejoined the conference later. Al-Douri's efforts were all in vain. The United States invaded Iraq on March 19, 2003, ousting Hussein, al-Douri and the entire regime. In subsequent years, several claims asserted that al-Douri was either killed or captured during the war and its aftermath. At the same time, a man claiming to be al-Douri released a number of audio messages over the years taunting Iraqi and U.S. officials. In 2012, a series of videos appeared online purporting to show al-Douri deriding the Shiite-led government that took over Iraq after Hussein's ouster. CNN couldn't independently verify the authenticity of those videos on YouTube or the identity of the man speaking, though he bore a striking resemblance to al-Douri. In the clips, the man who claimed to be al-Douri wore an olive military uniform and sat behind a desk with an Iraqi flag in the background. He derided Iraq's Shiite-dominated government, led by then-Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, as well as what he described as meddling by neighboring Iran. Al-Maliki's Dawa party, says al-Douri, "has announced Iraq as the Shiite capital." At that time, nine years had passed since the invasion and, al-Douri claimed that Iraq was still in peril. "Everyone can hear the sounds of danger echoing daily and threatening the country," he said. The videos were posted on what was the 65th anniversary of the Arab Socialist Baath Party, a political party founded in Syria that later provided the political basis for Hussein's now outlawed Baath Party. CNN's Hamdi Alkhshali reported from Baghdad. CNN's Jason Hanna wrote from Atlanta and Michael Martinez from Los Angeles. CNN's Jamie Crawford contributed from Washington, D.C.

U.S. military doesn't have further information to evaluate the Iraqi media reports . Al-Douri's body arrives in Baghdad where DNA samples are taken . Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri was the highest-ranking member of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's regime to evade capture .


(CNN)The Solar Impulse 2, the experimental plane attempting to fly around the world without using a drop of fuel, has been grounded by the weather in China. What was supposed to be an overnight pit stop in the southwestern city of Chongqing has now stretched into a two-and-a-half week stay. It's an unexpected layover that is testing the patience of the pilots and more than 60 team members, just a quarter of the way along a journey that will cover some 35,000 kilometers (21,748 miles) over five months. "You can believe that your will can influence the weather," says pilot Bertrand Piccard, who comes from a long family line of explorers.  But "then you'll be really disappointed because it doesn't work. "Or you just know that it's an adventure you do with the forces of nature." Piccard, along with Andre Borschberg, a Swiss engineer, are taking turns flying the single-seater aircraft, which took off from Abu Dhabi on March 9 and has successfully flown through Oman, India, and Myanmar. There is much at stake. Their mission, which the pilots say is aimed at proving the power of renewable energy, and inspiring innovation, has been 12 years in the making. In many ways, it has become Piccard and Borschberg's raison d'etre. But so far, the Solar Impulse 2 has been spending a lot of time on the ground. The latest setback came when a Thursday takeoff was canceled, because the cross winds in Nanjing, the plane's destination, were forecast to be too strong around its expected landing time. Because of its weight, at just 2,300 kilograms -- about the same as a large SUV -- the aircraft needs near perfect weather conditions, including cross winds of less than 4 knots, or about 7 kilometers an hour, in order to fly. While the team is used to waiting, they are clearly eager to move on. "Our boss is the sun," says Solar Impulse spokeswoman Claudia Durgnat. Durgnat says there may be a tiny window ahead, with the next possible departure from Chongqing on Tuesday. "It's not good before, and the days after don't look very clear." Even with the delay, Durgnat says, the plane technically isn't behind schedule. That's because the team needs to wait until the end of the month for the northern hemisphere days to get longer, before the plane can venture across the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii. With more than 17,000 solar cells along the tops of its wings and fuselage, the Solar Impulse 2 stores up energy during the day, in order to power the motors that carry it through the night, typically at speeds no faster than a car on a highway. Inside a specially constructed tent at the end of the runway at Chongqing International Airport, a skeleton team of less than a dozen people works to complete the day's tasks. The rest of the crew has been waiting for weeks in Nanjing. Even with the extended stay, no time is wasted. Piccard spends a few hours of the afternoon in the cockpit, training to prepare for the Solar Impulse's crossings over the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean, what the team calls "the moment of truth." The plane will then return to Abu Dhabi, where it had taken off. Nearby, two technicians repair a couple of the flight computers, which display critical information in the cockpit, punching extra holes in their casings so they don't overheat. Meanwhile, Borschberg has returned to Switzerland to rest and get medical treatment for a migraine and a skin condition. The team expects him back in China early next week. Borschberg is still scheduled to fly first leg of the Pacific crossing, which could last up to five days and nights. "The airplane is ready. The mission control center is ready. We've been waiting for that moment since so long," says Piccard. Borschberg and Piccard, who piloted an earlier version of the plane across the U.S. in 2013, are no strangers to adventure. Borschberg is a former fighter pilot, and Piccard was part of the first team to circumnavigate the earth nonstop in a balloon in 1999.

Solar plane attempting to be first to circumnavigate world without using fuel is stuck in China . Solar Impulse 2 attempts to prove the power of renewable energy .


Beijing (CNN)A day after the Chinese government released five young feminists on bail, their families and supporters expressed mixed emotions on the unexpected development. Wei Tingting, Wang Man, Zheng Churan, Li Tingting and Wu Rongrong were freed from the Haidian Detention Center on the outskirts of Beijing late Monday. The five activists on women's rights -- aged from 25 to 32 -- were picked up by police in three different cities just before March 8, the International Women's Day. They had been planning a campaign against sexual harassment on public transportation. "I'm still speechless and don't know how to react," tweeted Li's girlfriend Suan Xiaola to the couple's friends upon hearing the news. "No tears, no ecstasy... just wondering what we're going to do next." "I can't hide my happiness for the women but being released on bail is not the end of their ordeal," echoed Li's lawyer Yan Xin on Chinese social media. "Without closing their cases, they still can't live without shackles -- we'll have our work cut out for us." Police had recommended last week that prosecutors press charges of "assembling a crowd to disturb public order," which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. The women are still considered suspects in an ongoing criminal investigation and may face charges in the future, Wu's lawyer Liang Xiaojun told CNN. They will be under surveillance for a year with their movements and activities restricted, and police can summon them for questioning at any time, Liang added. "This shouldn't be a moment of celebration," he said. "The arbitrary detention and release of these women really shows the backwardness of China's legal system." Under China's household registration system, only Li is considered a Beijing resident. Police sent the other four back to their hometowns, disrupting their work and lives, according to the women's lawyers. Many have called the five members of Women's Rights Action Group trailblazers. Staging their protests through performance art or flash mobs, they highlighted feminist causes ranging from fighting domestic violence, gender equality at work, to more female public bathrooms -- drawing nationwide attention and even state media praise. Their detention had drawn widespread condemnation, including from the United States. "Each and every one of us has the right to speak out against sexual harassment and the many other injustices that millions of women and girls suffer around the world," said John Kerry, the U.S. Secretary of State, in a statement Friday. "We strongly support the efforts of these activists to make progress on these challenging issues, and we believe that Chinese authorities should also support them, not silence them." Kerry's predecessor Hillary Clinton -- a longtime champion of women's rights who just announced her bid for the U.S. presidency -- called the jailing of the feminists "inexcusable" on Twitter, joining the "free the five" hashtag campaign. China had rejected all international criticisms, insisting it's a country ruled by law and that its judicial sovereignty be respected. Supporters of the woman activists, however, sense the chilling effect of their ordeal on China's nascent civil society, as the ruling Communist Party under President Xi Jinping continues to tighten its grip over the country. "Of course people will feel more afraid," said Wei's lawyer Wang Qiushi. "Women's rights is among the most politically correct issues in China -- now even those who took up that cause ended up in jail."

Wei Tingting, Wang Man, Zheng Churan, Li Tingting and Wu Rongrong freed . They're still considered suspects in an ongoing criminal investigation, may face charges in the future . They will be under surveillance for a year with their movements and activities restricted .


(CNN)A Columbia University student who was accused of rape is suing the New York City school for allowing his accuser to publicly brand him a "serial rapist" According to the lawsuit, Paul Nungesser was cleared of responsibility in Emma Sulkowicz's 2013 rape claim, as well as others that came to light after Sulkowicz went public with her allegations in various media interviews. Her case drew national attention after she started carrying a mattress around campus to protest the school's handling of the complaint, saying she hoped to show how "flawed" the university disciplinary system is when it comes to sexual misconduct cases. CNN does not usually name individuals in sexual assault cases, but in this instance, both parties have spoken publicly about their experience. They have also both said in separate interviews with The New York Times that Nungesser was cleared of responsibility in a disciplinary hearing. Nungesser, an international student from Germany, filed a federal discrimination lawsuit last week against the school; its president, Lee Bollinger; and the visual arts professor who oversaw Sulkowicz's mattress project, "Carry That Weight," as part of her senior thesis. The lawsuit alleges the defendants violated Nungesser's right to an education free of gender-based discrimination by allowing Sulkowicz to speak out against him after he had been cleared of wrongdoing. During an April 2014 news conference at Columbia University, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand stood alongside Sulkowicz as she called Nungesser a "serial rapist" and said she fears for her safety while he's still on campus. The harassment continued, the lawsuit claims, when Columbia visual arts professor Jon Kessler let Sulkowicz "transform her personal vendetta" into a "Columbia-sponsored calumny" by supporting "Carry That Weight" for her senior thesis, allowing her to earn school credit through "this outrageous display of harassment and defamation." Bollinger also commented on the case in a 2014 New York Magazine profile of Sulkowicz, now a senior at Columbia. "This is a person who is one of my students, and I care about all of my students. And when one of them feels that she has been a victim of mistreatment, I am affected by that. This is all very painful." The defendants "had the power, as well as the legal and contractual obligation" to protect Nungesser, who is also a senior, the lawsuit claims. "By refusing to protect Paul Nungesser, Columbia University first became a silent bystander and then turned into an active supporter of a fellow student's harassment campaign by institutionalizing it and heralding it." Columbia University declined to comment on the lawsuit. The school also declined to confirm the outcome of Nungesser's disciplinary proceedings. "As we have said consistently, we do not and have not commented on individual students or disciplinary cases not only because of federal student privacy law, but also because of our ethical responsibility to ensure all current and future students have confidence that the university will never publicly discuss private matters they share when interacting with counselors and support staff, the campus disciplinary process or other resources we provide to them," spokesman Robert Hornsby said in statement. Kessler also declined to comment on the lawsuit. The case has produced dueling narratives from both sides in national media outlets. The most recent came from Nungesser in a Daily Beast article titled, "Columbia Student: I Didn't Rape Her," in which he shared a long exchange of Facebook messages to support his claim that their sex was consensual. Some of those exchanges were included in the lawsuit, but Sulkowicz told CNN they were taken out of context in the suit. She also balked at the idea that Nungesser would sue the school or her professor "for allowing me to make an art piece." "It's ridiculous that he would read it as a 'bullying strategy,' especially given his continued public attempts to smear my reputation, when really it's just an artistic expression of the personal trauma I've experienced at Columbia," Sulkowicz wrote in an email. "If artists are not allowed to make art that reflects on our experiences, then how are we to heal?" The project essentially consists of Sulkowicz carrying a twin-size mattress wherever she goes on campus, but not off campus. She's allowed to accept help carrying the object but does not allow herself to ask for help. . Nungesser's complaint seeks damages to be determined at trial for harm to his reputation, loss of educational opportunities and future career prospects. CNN's Kristina Sgueglia and Camille Cava contributed to this report.

Paul Nungesser says he was target of gender-based harassment campaign . The case drew national attention after his accuser started carrying a mattress around campus .


Panama City (CNN)This was the handshake that shook the Western Hemisphere. President Obama briefly met his Cuban counterpart, Raul Castro, on Friday night at a dinner for the dozens of Latin American leaders convening in Panama City for the Summit of the Americas. This was historic. The two nations have barely been on speaking terms -- officially -- for more than 50 years. The meeting was so important that Bernadette Meehan, National Security Council spokesperson, issued a statement: "At the Summit of the Americas this evening, President Obama and President Castro greeted each other and shook hands." Cuba and the United States had endured a half-century of enmity, the tension worsened by the two nations being only 90 miles apart. Key events of those years include some of the most traumatic in modern U.S. history, such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Bay of Pigs and the Mariel boatlift of 1980. But the two leaders have been building up to the historic face-to-face. Obama spoke by phone Wednesday with the Cuban leader before heading to Panama. They met Friday at the dinner and are expected to spend a lot more time together on Saturday when the summit begins in earnest. Obama arrived in Panama late Thursday for the conference, which in years past was tinged with animosity at Cuba's exclusion. Moments after Marine One, Obama's helicopter, touched down in Panama City, Castro's plane landed on the same tarmac. Panamanian television carried both arrivals live. During their phone call Wednesday, Obama and Castro discussed the ongoing process of normalizing relations between the United States and Cuba, according to Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes. He said it "made sense" for the two leaders to communicate before their anticipated interactions Friday and Saturday. Those run-ins will represent the highest-level talks between the United States and Cuba since a meeting between then-Vice President Richard Nixon and then-Prime Minister Fidel Castro in 1959. "We're in new territory here," Rhodes said on Friday. "The reason we're here is that the President strongly believes that an approach that was focused totally on isolation, focused totally on seeking to cut off the Cuban people from the United States of America had failed." Obama was expecting a warm welcome from the dozens of countries represented at the conference, after announcing in December he was seeking to engage Havana in talks over reopening embassies and removing barriers to commerce and travel. In Panama, Obama is expected to announce he's removing Cuba from the United States' list of countries that sponsor terrorism, a major advance in building diplomatic ties between the two countries. The State Department delivered its report on the designation to the White House on Wednesday; Obama said on Thursday a panel of experts was reviewing it before he makes a final determination. The White House isn't ruling out a final decision before Obama leaves Panama late Saturday night. In remarks during a brief stopover in Jamaica on Thursday, Obama strongly hinted he was ready to remove Cuba from the list, which also includes Iran, Sudan and Syria. "Throughout this process, our emphasis has been on the facts," Obama said. "So we want to make sure that given that this is a powerful tool to isolate those countries that genuinely do support terrorism, that when we make those designations we've got strong evidence that, in fact, that's the case." "As circumstances change, then that list will change as well," he said. While some inside Cuba have expressed dissatisfaction at the pace of the diplomatic thaw, U.S. officials say they're pleased at the progress toward re-establishing diplomatic ties, which the White House argues has helped improve relations with other countries in the region. Obama said in Jamaica he "never foresaw that immediately overnight everything would transform itself." The overtures to Cuba have not been universally popular in the United States; some lawmakers were irate that Obama was seeking to engage what they regard as a corrupt government. Even as Obama landed in Panama the long-standing tensions between pro- and anti-Castro activists was on full display. Dissidents opposed to Castro's regime were violently accosted earlier this week by supporters of the Cuban government. Rhodes said the White House had "expressed serious concerns" about the violence and would continue to speak in support of human rights reforms on the island.

U.S. President Obama, Cuban President Raul Castro meet in Panama City . The two nations -- only 90 miles apart --  have been at odds for more than 50 years .


(CNN)The lawyer for a Baltimore community activist whose arrest was broadcast live on CNN said Thursday morning that his client had been released from jail. As viewers watched, Joseph Kent held his hands up and walked in front of a phalanx of police Tuesday night after a citywide curfew had started. Seconds later, several officers in riot gear rushed out of their line and arrested him, just as a Humvee passed between the camera and the police, making social media churn with questions about what happened to Kent. Attorney Stephen Patrick Beatty confirmed he is representing Kent. He was still trying to get in touch with his client after Kent was released. "He wanted me to tell people most that he doesn't want violence in his name," Beatty told CNN's Don Lemon on Wednesday night. The incident unfolded live on CNN about 40 minutes after the 10 p.m. curfew went into effect and as authorities tried to prevent the kind of rioting -- part of protests over the death of Freddie Gray -- that plagued the city Monday. Kent was being held on a charge of curfew violation, according to the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. People on Twitter continued to circulate the name of Kent, a young activist, making #JosephKent and #WhereIsJosephKent hot topics. Investigators made 10 arrests in Baltimore on Tuesday night, city Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said. Seven were for curfew violations, he said. Beatty said he met with Kent on Wednesday afternoon. "He said he's physically OK, not injured. He's safe in there," Beatty said. But even though more than 100 people who had been held at the city's booking center were released earlier in the day, Kent was not one of them. Beatty initially checked on Kent's status, despite not officially representing him. He said Kent was just trying to help with getting people to go home when he was arrested. "He went out there to try to settle things down because he had seen what happened in this city previously," Beatty said. "And the last thing he wanted was any more violence, and he was trying to stop it." Kent once was employed as an intern, through an outside company, at Morgan State University's Entrepreneurial Development and Assistance Center, the school said Wednesday. But Kent is not a student there and, as far as the school can tell, never has been, MSU spokesman Clint Coleman said. A woman who answered the phone at the EDAC said that no one there was available to talk about Kent and that she'd have no further comment. In November, the Baltimore City Paper ran a story about Kent, then 21, and his participation in Baltimore protests over a grand jury's decision not to indict a police officer in the August shooting of teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. He helped lead protesters who walked through Morgan State's campus and eventually to City Hall on November 25, the newspaper reported. "Everyone knows me at Morgan already, organizing and making sure everything (is) running the correct way and peaceful and everything like that," he said, according to the City Paper's article. "So, everybody already knows I'm going to do things the right way, so when everybody else and community people and civilians and people who joined and saw that the Morgan students were looking up to it, before you knew it, the whole city was on my back and I was just carrying the whole city." Complete coverage on the Baltimore protests . CNN's Justin Lear, Evan Perez, Elan Bird and AnneClaire Stapleton contributed to this report.

Joseph Kent's attorney says his client was released from jail . Police in Baltimore detained Kent on live TV after start of curfew . That triggered a wave of interest on social media .


(CNN)The people of Nepal are still trying to recover from two major earthquakes and a mudslide.   Each day is a struggle in many parts of of the country, but there is something you can do to make an impact. We have vetted a list of organizations working in Nepal that have created specific funds for relief efforts, including: . -- Nepal Red Cross Society . -- ActionAid USA . -- Action Against Hunger . --  Adventist Development and Relief Agency International . --  American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee . -- The American Jewish World Service . -- AmeriCares . -- CARE . -- Catholic Relief Services . -- ChildFund International . -- Concern Worldwide . -- Convoy of Hope . -- Direct Relief . -- dZi Foundation . -- Empower Generation . -- Global Giving . -- Habitat for Humanity . -- Handicap International . -- Himalayan HealthCare . -- International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies . -- International Medical Corps . -- International Relief Teams . -- Islamic Relief USA . -- Jewish Federations of North America . -- Lutheran World Relief . -- MAP International . -- Medical Teams International . -- MercyCorps . -- NFCC International . -- Operation Blessing International . -- Operation USA . -- Oxfam International . -- Plan International . -- Real Medicine Foundation . -- Save the Children . -- The Salvation Army . -- Samaritan's Purse . -- Seva Foundation . -- Shelterbox . -- Team Rubicon . -- UNICEF . -- WaterAid . -- The World Food Programme . -- World Vision .

Aid organizations are still working to help the people of Nepal in the wake of  two major earthquakes . Thousands were killed in a magnitude 7.8 earthquake in Nepal on April 25 . A second quake rocked the country less than three weeks later .


(CNN)SpaceX on Tuesday launched a two-stage Falcon 9 rocket carrying an uncrewed cargo spacecraft called Dragon on a flight from Cape Canaveral, Florida, to the International Space Station. That was the easy part. In a difficult bid to land a rocket stage on a floating barge for the first time, the private space exploration company  was unsuccessful. SpaceX founder Elon Musk tweeted: "Ascent successful. Dragon enroute to Space Station. Rocket landed on droneship, but too hard for survival." He later clarified that the rocket landed, but tipped over. SpaceX tried to land a Falcon 9 on the drone ship in January, but the rocket hit at an angle and exploded. SpaceX has said it will keep trying and, after it masters landing at sea, hopes to someday land rockets on the ground. Usually booster rockets burn up in Earth's atmosphere or, like NASA's space shuttle boosters, they fall back into the ocean. So why try to land one? Musk wants to cut costs. On his company's website, he says that if anyone can figure out how to "reuse rockets just like airplanes, the cost of access to space will be reduced by as much as a factor of a hundred." What about the rest of the rocket and the Dragon? The smaller, top part of the rocket will carry the Dragon into orbit and then break away from the cargo ship and burn up in Earth's atmosphere. The Dragon will dock with the space station a couple of days after launch to deliver more than 4,300 pounds (1,950 kilograms) of supplies, including research equipment and ISSpresso, an espresso maker that astronauts can use to make coffee and tea. The space station crew will spend about five weeks unpacking the Dragon. They'll then stuff it with over 3,000 pounds of science experiments, trash and other stuff to send back to Earth. When they're done, Dragon will leave the space station and mission controllers will guide it to splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off California. This is the sixth SpaceX mission to the International Space Station. The company was the first private space contractor to dock with the station. Tuesday's launch was the second attempt for this mission. Monday's planned launch was scrubbed due to weather. CNN's Catherine E. Shoichet contributed to this report.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk: "Rocket landed on droneship, but too hard for survival" This was the second attempt at historic rocket booster barge landing . Dragon spacecraft will head toward International Space Station on resupply mission .


(CNN)The United Nations is appealing for $174 million to help Nigerian refugees who've fled to neighboring nations following militant attacks. Boko Haram has killed thousands in the nation's northeast by attacking villages, schools, churches and mosques. It has also kidnapped students, including more than 200 schoolgirls abducted in April last year. A majority of them remain missing. The militants have attacked relentlessly for six years, sending 192,000 people seeking shelter in Cameroon, Niger and Chad. "Displaced people in northeastern Nigeria and across borders are in a very dramatic situation, they fear for their lives and are at this point unable to return to their homes," said Liz Ahua, who's coordinating Nigerian refugee efforts for the U.N. Aid agencies are scrambling to provide the refugees with clean water, shelter, food and access to education. "In the refugee camps, thousands of school-age refugee children cannot attend school because of lack of classrooms and teachers," Ahua said. Mental health needs are crucial to help the survivors of physical attacks and those who've witnessed violence, according to the U.N.  Some children are separated from their parents amid the trauma. "The conflict has had a devastating impact on children, including many who were forcibly recruited by the insurgents in Nigeria," Ahua said. The appeal encompasses the needs of 23 agencies and nongovernmental organizations helping the refugees. "Adequate funding is crucial to make sure aid agencies can improve the living conditions for refugees in asylum countries and respond to their protection needs," Ahua said. "We relocate refugees away from the conflict border areas, and establish additional refugee camps where needed." The Islamist group has said its aim is to impose a stricter form of Sharia law across Nigeria, which is split between a majority Muslim north and a mostly Christian south. An additional 1.2 million people are displaced within Nigeria as a result of the insurgency. CNN's Pierre Meilhan contributed to this report .

Boko Haram has killed thousands in the nation's northeast since 2009 . Aid agencies are scrambling to provide the refugees with clean water, shelter, food and education .


(CNN)This week brought a dramatic turn of events in a small community outside of Detroit: A man bloodied during a traffic stop was cleared of all charges, the police officer who arrested the motorist is charged with beating him and the community's police chief has stepped down. On Monday, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy announced charges of assault and mistreatment of a prisoner against William Melendez. He's the 49-year-old former Inkster, Michigan, police officer who is seen in police car dashcam video grabbing the unarmed motorist, Floyd Dent, around the neck while he lay on the ground and punching him several times in the head. "The alleged police brutality in this case cannot and will not be tolerated," Worthy said. On Wednesday, drug charges against Dent, 57, were formally dropped in Michigan Circuit Court, clearing the motorist of all wrongdoing. "He busted out crying and was very emotional," said Angela Martin, the assistant to Dent's attorney. In the wake of the reversal of fates, Police Chief Vicki Yost announced Wednesday her resignation, according to Inkster City Manager Richard Marsh. Marsh would not cite a specific reason for Yost's investigation, though she had been the face of the Police Department during the investigation into her former officer. In a statement, Dent and his attorney Greg Rohl told CNN: "We are all ecstatic, especially Mr. Dent. This is another step in the right direction. The system is still working, and we are very hopeful the prosecutor's net will catch even more fish in the near future." Yost did not respond to a request for comment. Dent, a veteran Ford automotive worker, was arrested after the January traffic stop on charges of drug possession, assaulting an officer and resisting arrest. With the court decision Wednesday, all charges from the arrest have been dropped. Melendez pleaded not guilty to the new charges brought against him in an arraignment Tuesday at Inkster District Court, according to his lawyer, David Lee. "We intend to vigorously contest the charges," Lee said. "I can understand how people might be disturbed by looking at [the video]; however; I hope everyone will withhold judgment until all the facts come out where they should in a court of law." Worthy's announcement came after the conclusion of two investigations into the incident by Michigan State Police and the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office. In the police report written after the January arrest, Melendez wrote that he hit Dent only after Dent had threatened him and bit him in the arm. Melendez wrote that as he approached the car, Dent kept his hands from view, looked at him "with a blank stare as if on a form of narcotic," and said, "I'll kill you." Dent told CNN at the time that he had never threatened nor bit the police officer. "I didn't bite anyone. I didn't have time to bite anyone. He was too busy pounding me in my head," Dent said. Rohl also alleged that the cocaine found at the scene had been planted by Melendez. "My client's fingerprints will not be on that bag," Rohl told WDIV.

Inkster, Michigan, Police Chief Vicki Yost resigns in the wake of charges against one of her former officers . William Melendez was caught on police car dashcam video in January beating an unarmed black motorist . Melendez was charged with assault on Monday; all charges against the motorist have been dropped .


Atlanta  (CNN)Silently moving deep beneath the ocean's surface, combat submarines can employ the element of surprise to carry out devastating attacks on naval fleets and land targets. For decades, the U.S. military has maintained its dominance in the depths of the world's oceans by boasting the most technologically advanced submarine fleet. However, officials say China and other nations are rapidly expanding the size and scope of their own submarine forces. And, according to a report by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, the U.S. must rethink the role of manned submarines and prioritize new underwater detection techniques. "We know they are out experimenting and looking at operating, and clearly want to be in this world of advanced submarines," Vice Adm. Joseph Mulloy told the House Armed Services Committee's sea power subcommittee in February. Mulloy, who is deputy chief of naval operations for capabilities and resources, says Chinese submarines are still technologically inferior to those used by the United States, but that margin of difference is shrinking. Concern that China could match U.S. underwater capabilities in the near future has encouraged the development of an unmanned drone ship to independently track enemy ultra-quiet diesel electric submarines over thousands of miles to limit their tactical capacity for surprise. Initiated by a Pentagon research group called the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Vessel (ACTUV) would be able to operate under with little supervisory control but also as remotely controlled or piloted vessels, depending on the circumstances of specific missions. "We're looking for test-ready, multi-sensor approaches that push the boundaries of today's automated sensing systems for unmanned surface vessels," said Scott Littlefield, DARPA program manager. "Enhancing the ability of these kinds of vessels to sense their environment in all weather and traffic conditions, day or night, would significantly advance our ability to conduct a range of military missions." DARPA says the so-called drone ships will be 132 feet long and likely cost about $20 million, significantly less than the billion-dollar manned warships currently in use. The development of the ACTUV aligns with the "culture change" described by Navy Secretary Ray Mabus Tuesday at the Navy League's Sea Air Space symposium at National Harbor, Maryland. "Unmanned systems, particularly autonomous ones, have to be the new normal in ever-increasing areas," Maybus said. Maybus said new staff will be put into place to help streamline, coordinate and champion unmanned systems in "all domains." An ACTUV prototype vessel is already in production and, if testing is successful, the Navy could move to the next phase of development by 2018.

U.S. Navy is developing an unmanned drone ship to track enemy submarines to limit their tactical capacity for surprise . The vessel would be able to operate under with little supervisory control . Advances are necessary to maintain technological edge on Russia and China, admiral tells House panel .


(CNN)Nobel literature laureate Guenter Grass, best known around the world for his novel "The Tin Drum," has died, his publisher said Monday. He was 87. Grass died in a clinic in the city of Luebeck, where he was taken over the weekend, said Steidl publishing spokeswoman Claudia Glenewinkel. German media are reporting he died of pneumonia. Grass focused in much of his work on learning from the horror of war and genocide by exploring motifs from his childhood city of Danzig, which is now Gdansk, Poland. During the Nazi era, ethnic Poles and Jews were persecuted and deported from the multicultural city, at a time when they faced the possibility of mass murder. "In his excavation of the past, Günter Grass goes deeper than most and he unearths the intertwined roots of good and evil," the Nobel committee wrote, when it awarded him the literature prize in 1999. But Grass, an outspoken public figure, has sparked controversy in the last decade. In 2006, he confessed that at the age of 15, in 1943, he volunteered for military service in Germany's war of aggression and ended up in the notoriously bloody Waffen SS. Grass said he had no excuses for his choices back then, and that, as a teen, he may even have been excited about belonging to the unit, which he saw then as an elite group. A year later, he penned a detailed account in The New Yorker on how he spent his war years up to the death of German dictator Adolf Hitler. Three years ago, Grass drew controversy again, when he published a poem in a German newspaper discouraging Germany from selling more submarines to Israel. In "What must be said," Grass accused Germany of selling weapons to a potential aggressor out of guilt over the Holocaust. Grass said Israel could use nuclear weapons to kill masses of Iranians. German commentators pilloried him as subconsciously anti-Semitic. Israel invoked a visa ban, and then-Interior Minister Eli Yishai declared Grass a "persona non grata" in Israel, the Jerusalem Post reported. Grass' novel characters are the forgotten, the downtrodden and the weird, the Nobel committee said. And like Oskar Matzerath, the boy in "The Tin Drum," they often slip into surreal situations. This was a literary innovation, the committee said, which was furthered by other great authors, such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Nadine Gordimer and Salman Rushdie. On Monday, Rushdie tweeted about Grass' death:  "This is very sad. A true giant, inspiration, and friend." "The Tin Drum," which was published in 1959, "breaks the bounds of realism by having as its protagonist and narrator an infernal intelligence in the body of a three-year-old, a monster who overpowers the fellow human beings he approaches with the help of a toy drum," the Nobel committee wrote. The committee praised Grass' mastery of the German language and his ability to artfully exploit its possibilities of creating seemingly endless yet graceful sentences. Grass was an icon in contemporary German culture with an unchanging iconic look -- his broad mustache, his eyes gazing over the top of his glasses, a tobacco pipe a constant companion in hand. In his later years, he became known for his continuing critique of human history in the 20th century -- and of current events. As recently as March, Grass criticized the anti-Islam movement PEGIDA, Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West. He used the opportunity fire a jab at government that he said was corrupted by money interests. "It's not Islam that threatens the Federal Republic (of Germany)," he said in an interview with rp-online.de, "but political lobbying. Democracy has decayed into fake democracy." Grass has also suggested that Germans should be forced to invite refugees from crisis regions to live in their homes as a way of offering more shelter to the world's destitute.

Grass tried in his literature to come to grips with World War II and the Nazi era . His characters were the downtrodden, and his style slipped into the surreal . He stoked controversy with his admission to being a member of the Waffen SS .


(CNN)Feidin Santana, the man who recorded a South Carolina police officer fatally shooting a fleeing, unarmed man, told CNN on Thursday night he was told by another cop to stop using his phone to capture the incident. "One of the officers told me to stop, but it was because I (said) to them that what they did it was an abuse and I witnessed everything," he told CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360˚." Santana told Cooper an officer told him to wait where he was but eventually he left the scene to go to work. In other interviews, Santana has said he feared for his life, which almost kept him from revealing the recording. Santana recalled the moments when he recorded a roughly three-minute video of North Charleston Police officer Michael Slager shooting Walter Scott as Scott was running away Saturday. That evidence led to the officer's firing and arrest on a murder charge. Santana said when he first came on the scene while walking to his job he saw Slager on top of Scott, who was on the ground. He could hear the sound of a Taser in use. At no time did Santana see Scott go after the Taser. He believes Scott was trying to get away. "Mr. Scott never tried to fight," Santana told CNN. Police said Slager used a Taser against Scott, but Slager would also later tell a dispatcher that Scott at some point had grabbed the Taser. After Slager shot Scott five times, the officer went back to pick up something. Santana thinks it was the Taser but said he wasn't 100% sure what it was. Neither the struggle nor the use of a Taser was captured on video, because Santana had yet to begin recording. What we know about Officer Slager . The cell phone video, which Santana revealed this week, reignited national outcries surrounding police treatment of African-Americans and led to a murder charge against Slager, who is white. Scott was black. Police said Slager pulled the 50-year-old Scott over for a nonworking brake light on Saturday morning. Scott, according to a dash cam video, fled from Slager for unexplained reasons, and the officer chased him on foot. When Santana's video begins, Scott starts running away from the officer, with Scott's back to Slager. The video shows Slager shooting at Scott eight times before Scott falls down. Who was Walter Scott? Scott's mother, Judy Scott, told Cooper this week that she would want to thank Santana for coming forward. "He was there. God planned that. He's the ram in the bush -- I truly believe that," Judy Scott said. Santana agreed. "I think she was right," he said. "God put me there for a reason." Judy Scott said she couldn't watch the whole recording. "When I saw my son running and I saw the policeman behind him, I couldn't take it," she said. "I had to turn away. I couldn't handle it. In an interview with NBC's Matt Lauer, Santana suggested that he was giving media interviews in part to protect himself against retribution. "At some point I thought about staying anonymous, and don't show my face, don't talk about it. But ... if I wouldn't show my face, everybody over there knows, including the police, who I am," Santana said. Santana did not say whether he had received threats. His attorney, Todd Rutherford, said Santana's video would be useful in an investigation -- not only into the shooting but also into whether Scott received prompt medical attention. In the last half of the video, a second officer appears to examine Scott with gloved hands. Witness video, official accounts raise questions . Santana said after he stopped recording, he watched for a few more minutes but never saw anyone perform CPR. A police report says a third officer -- not shown in the video -- reported seeing an officer administering first aid, and that the third officer approached and helped that person "with first aid and CPR." On Wednesday, asked whether CPR was performed on Scott, North Charleston police Chief Eddie Driggers said: "In the end of it (the video), what I saw was (what I) believed to be a police officer removing the shirt of the individual and performing some type of life-saving (procedure), but I'm not sure what took place there." A timeline of events . CNN's Jason Hanna, Ashley Fantz and Ray Sanchez contributed to this report. Watch Anderson Cooper 360° weeknights 8pm ET. For the latest from AC360° click here.

Witness who took video of shooting said when he arrived officer was on top of Walter Scott . Feidin Santana says Walter Scott didn't take Michael Slager's Taser . Santana said he never saw officers perform CPR before he left the scene to go to work .


Tokyo (CNN)A former school principal in Japan says he paid for sex with more than 12,000 women -- some of them girls as young as 14 -- during repeated visits to the Philippines over more than a quarter of a century, according to police. Now, at the age of 64, he's facing criminal charges. Japanese police say they arrested the man, Yuhei Takashima, on Wednesday over allegations he photographed an obscene act with a girl of 13 or 14 and produced pornography in a hotel room in Manila, the Philippine capital. Police officers seized 147,600 photos that Takashima took of his activities over the years, said Takeshi Akimoto, the police officer in charge of crime involving minors in Kanagawa, a prefecture south of Tokyo. The pictures were kept in more than 400 photo albums, he said. Takashima, who comes from the city of Yokohama, told police that he began paying for sex with women in 1988 when he went to work at a Japanese school in Manila. He said that stepping outside of moral codes relieved the heavy pressure he felt at work, according to police. Takashima told police that he continued to pay for sex because it was so cheap. After the end of his three-year stint at the school in Manila, he frequently returned to the Philippines on vacations in order to buy sex. He said the ages of the prostitutes he hired ranged from 14 to over 70. The Philippines is a notorious destination for sex tourists, including pedophiles. The country's sex industry is tied to human trafficking and feeds off the high poverty rate. Akimoto, the police officer, said Takashima's case had been under investigation since 2013. The incident for which he was arrested is believed to have taken place in Manila in January 2014. Yokohama education authorities said that Takashima became a junior high school teacher in 1975 and was sent to work at the school in Manila between 1988 and 1991. He served as a junior high school principal from 2008 until his retirement in 2011. The education authorities said that the crime was very regrettable, if proven to be true, and that the city government works hard to try to prevent inappropriate actions. CNN's Yoko Wakatsuki reported from Tokyo, and Jethro Mullen wrote from Hong Kong.

Police: Yuhei Takashima, 64, says he had sex with girls as young as 14 in Philippines . Officers seize nearly 150,000 photos that the former principal kept of his activities .


(CNN)When 65 cases of 20-year-old Pappy Van Winkle -- one of the rarest and most expensive bourbons in the world -- were reported missing from a Kentucky distillery in October 2013, it was the crime heard round the whiskey-drinking world. Franklin County Sheriff Pat Melton, the man leading the investigation into the estimated $26,000 in missing Pappy, said at the time that  the high-end heist was "indicative of an inside job." But ever since, the trail went largely cold. Until now. On Tuesday, a Franklin County grand jury indicted "nine members of a criminal syndicate that collaborated to promote or engage in the theft ... and illegal trafficking" of liquor from two different Kentucky distilleries: Frankfort's Buffalo Trace -- makers of Pappy -- and the nearby Wild Turkey Distillery, makers of the eponymous bourbon, according to the indictment. Just like making good bourbon -- a specific type of whiskey synonymous with the Bluegrass State --  Melton's case required time to develop and old-fashioned Kentucky ingenuity. The sheriff's hunch was reflected in the indictment: Of the nine named, two worked at Buffalo Trace and one worked at Wild Turkey. The alleged ringleader, according to Assistant Commonwealth Attorney Zach Becker, is Gilbert "Toby" Curtsinger, a 45-year-old loading dock worker at the Buffalo Trace Distillery. Curtsinger and his wife, Julie, each face eight charges for allegedly engaging in organized crime. Curtsinger -- who has worked at Buffalo Trace for more than 20 years -- was arrested in March after authorities, acting on a tip, found five barrels of bourbon behind a shed on his property, according to CNN affiliate WKYT. Those barrels, weighing more than 500 pounds each and worth up to $6,000 apiece, had recently been stolen from Wild Turkey, Melton told BourbonBlog.com's Tom Fischer. While an additional search warrant allegedly turned up illegal steroids from Curtsinger's home, there was no sign of any Pappy. "He doesn't know anything about (stolen Pappy Van Winkle)," his mother, Teresa Curtsinger, told CNN last month. In fact, she said, once he bonded out of jail, Curtsinger returned to his job at Buffalo Trace. However, according to Melton, "Curtsinger was involved in numerous thefts of Pappy Van Winkle, as well as Eagle Rare bourbon, both in bottles and barrels." Melton said Curtsinger distributed the highly coveted bourbon through a network of connections in his softball league. Teresa Curtsinger did not immediately return a message Tuesday.  But Gilbert Curtsinger's attorney, Whitney Lawson, told the Courier-Journal of Louisville, "we've been waiting patiently for this to happen. We're glad that if they're going to indict that they've indicted so we can get to work." At a press conference announcing the indictments, Melton got emotional as he described the tremendous amount of effort put into the investigation. "(Franklin County detectives) have done an absolute incredible job," he said as he choked back tears. "And I'm thrilled to have been a part of it." Fischer, the whiskey blogger, got a different kind of emotional tug from what flanked the sheriff: several hundred thousand dollars' worth of recovered booze -- including 20 cases of Pappy. Whether those 20 were among the 65 that vanished is not immediately known, but that didn't matter to Fischer. "On behalf of bourbon lovers everywhere, we are thrilled that the Pappy is back!"

9 indicted on organized crime charges related to bourbon thefts . Employees at two Kentucky distilleries among those indicted .


Sao Paulo, Brazil (CNN)Throngs of protesters packed the streets of major Brazilian cities on Sunday, pushing for the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff. Fueled by mounting anger over a corruption scandal that has implicated politicians in Rousseff's party, demonstrators chanted "Out with Dilma" and "Time for change." Police estimated that 275,000 demonstrators marched in Sao Paulo. A sea of protesters dressed in the green and yellow of the Brazilian flag used decades-old rallying cries to fire up their ranks, singing rock songs that date back to protests of the country's one-time military dictatorship. It's the second day of nationwide anti-government demonstrations in less than a month. And protesters vowed that it wouldn't be the last. There are a number of issues at play. One of the biggest: an investigation into a multimillion-dollar kickback scheme at the state-run oil company Petrobras. Most of the politicians accused in the investigation belong to Rousseff's Workers Party and its allies. And during many of the years that the alleged corruption took place, Rousseff was the chairwoman of Petrobras. There hasn't been any evidence she was involved with the scheme, and her supporters say the position is merely a figurehead. Rousseff has defended Brazilians' right to protest and acknowledged the need to clean up corruption at Petrobras but denied any prior knowledge of the alleged kickback scheme. Brazilians are still outraged. Rousseff won re-election with just over 50% of the votes in October, but her approval rating plummeted to 13% after protests began last month. "Many things have changed since the election," Janaina, a protester in Sao Paulo, said on Sunday, noting that even some people who voted for Rousseff were in the crowd. Some protesters said they'd rather see Rousseff step down than push for impeachment, which could be difficult to push through without evidence tying the President directly to the corruption scandal. But Janaina said impeachment remained a realistic option. "Yes, it has to be," she said. "It's our last hope." CNN's Shasta Darlington reported from Sao Paulo. CNN's Marilia Brocchetto, Catherine E. Shoichet and Jessica King contributed to this report.

Police say 275,000 demonstrators marched in Sao Paulo . Many want President Dilma Rousseff to be impeached . A corruption scandal has implicated politicians in her party .


(CNN)In 2001, the Taliban wiped out 1700 years of history in a matter of seconds, by blowing up ancient Buddha statues in central Afghanistan with dynamite. They proceeded to do so after an attempt at bringing down the 175-foot tall sculptures with anti-aircraft artillery had failed. Sadly, the event was just the first in a series of atrocities that have robbed the world of some of its most prized cultural heritage. But historical architecture is also under threat from calamities which might well escape our control, such as earthquakes and climate change. The thought of losing a piece of our collective history is a bleak one. But if loss can't be avoided, technology can lend a hand. Now CyArk, a non-profit company founded by an Iraqi-born engineer, is using groundbreaking laser scanning to ensure that -- at the very least -- incredibly accurate digital versions of the world's treasures will stay with us forever. Ben Kacyra was born in Mosul, Iraq, in 1940. He moved to the United States in 1964, and in the 1990s he was instrumental in the design of the first portable laser scanner. He founded CyArk, a company that specializes in digital preservation of threatened ancient and historical architecture, in 2003. "Two events happened that really influenced me and my wife," he told CNN's Nick Glass, "The Taliban blew up the Buddhas and an earthquake happened in Bam, in Iran. "It demolished a whole mud city. So we looked at each other and we said, you know, sometimes you can't prevent an earthquake, obviously, and it's very expensive to go back and rebuild, but if it had been scanned, our children and grandchildren would get the opportunity to come back and learn the history of that place." Since then, Kacyra has been doing exactly that: in a 2011 TED talk he explained his quest to preserve our "collective treasure", and he has a plan to scan 500 World Heritage sites in five years. So far, the list of completed scans includes Ancient Thebes, Chichen Itza, Fort Laramie, Mesa Verde, Mount Rushmore, Petra, Pompeii, Rapa Nui, the Sydney Opera House, Tikal, and his native Mosul. The idea is not just to protect endangered structures, but to offer free educational access to the digital recreations of important monuments via the web. "We have that data, and if something -- God forbid -- happens to these, the data is there," says Kacyra. In fact, current events have already caught up with the project: the Royal Tombs of Kasubi, in Uganda, were destroyed in 2010 by suspected arson. CyArk had mapped them a year earlier, and that could lead to the reconstruction of what was lost. "I'm constantly looking at what's happening in Iraq and Syria. "I'm so glad that we had already started and developed the tools that allowed us to go and be proactive to capture some of these things before these very unfortunate events." To scan the surroundings, CyArk uses a portable, eye-safe laser device based on a technology called Lidar -- a portmanteau of the words light and radar. It accurately maps a physical area much like a radar, but using lasers instead of radio waves. "We have a very powerful laser that sends a beam of light  pulsing 50,000 times per second," explains Kacyra, "which means that it's collecting 50,000 points of everything that's in front it as it pulses up and down and in a circular fashion, generating the geometry of everything that's in the space around it." In other words, "We gave the world a 3D laser scanner that has revolutionized how reality is captured." Although its focus is in providing open access to cultural heritage, CyArk is also attracting interest for alternative uses of the technology. "We are discovering applications way beyond what we had anticipated," says Kacyra. "For example, the Highway Patrol wants to use it in accident reconstruction on the road or in crime scene investigations. Where did the bullets go, trajectories and all that - this gives you the entire thing in minutes and then you can do all the analysis work." Not even Hollywood is immune from the allure of laser scanning. "Imagine it going all the way to art, the movies, movie sets. My wife got really excited about the first use in the movie field." Before founding CyArk, Kacyra had developed a similar technology called Cyrax, which he then subsequently sold. This technology was first used during the production of the 1997 sci-fi cult movie Starship Troopers, to scan an underground cave. "They found out it was going to cost too much money to measure the cave so they could model it, something like half a million dollars and six weeks. "They had heard about our scanning system so we went there. I think we did it for 20,000 dollars, and in a day or two, and it got used in a movie for the first time. "It's ubiquitous now in the movie industry for virtual sets."

A company called CyArk specializes in digital preservation of threatened ancient and historical architecture . Founded by an Iraqi-born engineer, it plans to preserve 500 World Heritage sites within five years .


(CNN)Working as a warden in Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park, home to the endangered mountain gorilla, Edwin Sabuhoro was determined to do whatever was necessary to protect the animals he was committed to defend -- including putting himself in harm's way. Following a series of incidents in 2004 where wildlife had been lost, Sabuhoro volunteered to infiltrate poachers on their own turf by disguising as a potential buyer for a baby gorilla. The mission was successful and the culprits were put to prison. "I felt so bad that I had put these people in jail -- but I felt so good that I saved a baby gorilla," recalls Sabuhoro, whose next move was to visit the jailed poachers, as well as their families, to apologize for tricking them and find the reasons behind their actions. What he heard was stories of starvation and desperation. Poaching, he found, was the only way for these people to survive. "That's when I decided that what I was doing was not part of giving a solution to what is wanted outside the park," says Sabuhoro. He quickly decided to quit the job and come up with an idea to help poachers make a living -- a plan that didn't include killing wildlife. "I thought of an idea of turning poachers to farmers," says Sabuhoro, who took all of his savings -- $2,000 -- and divided it to poachers to rent land, buy seeds and start farming. "I left them with that and they started farming, and when I came back six months after I found they had harvested enough -- they had enough food at home, but they were [also] selling more in the markets." But Sabuhoro wasn't finished. While talking to tourists who came to visit the volcanoes, Sabuhoro came up with an idea to capitalize on their interest in the area, and provide work for former poachers. "I started a tour company called Rwanda Eco Tours, and I said for tourism to thrive in the country we need eco-tourism where tourists can give back to the community and then the communities will have an incentive to conserve the park. So we built a cultural village in 2006 -- before we finished, we had tourists visiting us." he says. "In 2010, we got $30,000 net income from the cultural village and put this back to different activities in the village level." Sabuhoro, whose work with the cultural village has received international recognition, including a chance to briefly meet U.S. president Barack Obama as a Young African Leader, is now trying to take his idea further to other national parks across Africa where poaching is causing similar problems. "If we can work together, on a regional level, continent level, we can save these species," he says. "Because these are the last species that we have. And as human beings we can't afford to fail the wildlife." Watch this: Meeting the men who poach Rwanda's gorillas . Watch this: Flourishing community protects gorillas . More from African Voices .

Conservationist Edwin Sabuhoro founded a cultural village in Rwanda . The village provides work for poachers and unemployed youth .


(CNN)ISIS operatives have executed two groups of prisoners, believed to be Ethiopian Christians, in Libya, according to a video released Sunday by the terror network's media arm. The Ethiopian government confirmed Monday that 30 of its citizens were among the two groups, according to the Ethiopian News Agency. The al-Furqan Media video -- which is highly produced and titled "Until There Came to Them Clear Evidence" -- shows two groups of men, one in orange jumpsuits and the other in black, being killed at different locations in Libya, according to the video's narrator. One group is beheaded on a beach along the Mediterranean Sea, while the other group is shot in Southern Libya, hundreds of miles away. "All praise be to Allah, the Lord and cherisher of the world and may peace and blessings be upon the Prophet Mohammed. To the nation of the cross, we are back again on the sands, where the companions of the Prophet, peace be upon him, have stepped on before, telling you: Muslim blood that was shed under the hands of your religion is not cheap," the narrator says in Arabic on the 39-minute video. The narrator continues, "In fact, their blood is the purest blood because there is a nation behind them (which) inherits revenge. And we swear to Allah: the one who disgraced you by our hands, you will not have safety, even in your dreams, until you embrace Islam." Quoting Mohammed, the narrator says that those who "perform prayer and pay alms" will have "their blood and property" protected by the Prophet unless Islam dictates otherwise. "You pay (tax) with willing submission, feeling yourselves subdued. Our battle is a battle between faith and blasphemy, between truth and falsehood, until there is no more polytheism -- and obedience becomes Allah's on its entirety," the narrator says. Earlier in the video, a different speaker says Christians in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul were given the choice to embrace Islam or maintain their Christian faith and pay a tax. "The Islamic state has offered the Christian community this many times and set a deadline for this, but the Christians never cooperated," the speaker says. At the beginning of the video, a man who appears to be a judge in a court enforcing Islam's Sharia law holds up documents and says a Syrian Christian had owed a Syrian Muslim 550,000 Syrian pounds (about $2,900) since 2004, but the Muslim was unable to obtain the money under President Bashar al-Assad's regime. "After applying to the Islamic court he got his money back within one month," the man says. The law cited throughout the video comes from the Quran's Surah 9:29, whose exact translation is an area of dispute among religious scholars. The gist is that Muslims are commanded to fight those who don't believe in Allah or the Last Day (Islam's equivalent of Judgment Day) unless the nonbelievers pay a tax or tribute. In February, ISIS released a video of 21 Coptic Christians from Egypt being executed on a Libyan beach. Those captives, too, wore orange jumpsuits. In that video, released by al-Hayat Media Center, another ISIS media arm, a masked man references the killing of Osama bin Laden and his burial at sea. "The sea you have hidden Sheikh Osama bin Laden's body in, we swear to Allah, we will mix it with your blood," he threatens in English. CNN's Anas Hamdan, Christine Theodorou and Brian Walker contributed to this report.

Footage shows groups of captives in jumpsuits executed at 2 locations, narrator says . Video makes numerous references to Christians failing to pay tax or tribute to Muslims .


(CNN)As art, film stills are often overlooked. The photographers tend to be anonymous; it's easy to imagine their work done by the director or cinematographer. Their images are often lumped in with the promotional machinery: Whether documenting the stars frolicking on set or getting down to business, it's just another form of salesmanship. Which is why the work of Ernst Haas is so striking. Haas, one of the 20th century's great photojournalists and image-makers -- an early member of the great Magnum Photos cooperative who was famous enough in his prime to have been the subject of a Museum of Modern Art exhibit in 1962 -- was also a regular on movie sets. It was a necessity in those early days, said John Jacob, the editor of a new book of Haas' movie photography, "Ernst Haas: On Set." "Working on film sets was really important to Magnum, and all of the photographers working with Magnum in the '50s did films," says Jacob, now the McEvoy Family Curator for Photography at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Not only did the work pay off financially, but the photographers also established relationships with members of the industry, he said. And the stars and directors knew what they were getting: some of the best in the field. Photographers such as Haas were entrusted to bring their talent and style to the work. The photographers "are definitely producing work for posterity, that very much has their own fingerprint on it," Jacob said. Such distinction is obvious from looking at Haas' work -- some of which is as famous as the movies he worked on. There's a striking picture of Orson Welles in 1949's "The Third Man," hemmed in by the darkness in a way that suggests the shadowy themes of the classic film. Another, of Gregory Peck and Chuck Connors in 1958's "The Big Country," is as dramatic as any full-scale movie duel. (Westerns were a specialty.) But Haas also has a way of documenting the artificiality of film work, whether it's capturing the sprawling, workaday set of 1965's "The Greatest Story Ever Told" or snapping a relaxed picture of Barbara Streisand as Dolly Levi in 1969's "Hello, Dolly!" Social media . Follow @CNNPhotos on Twitter to join the conversation about photography. The former is particularly interesting: an image of actors splayed on crosses for the crucifixion scene, surrounded by ladders, a camera crane, a painted scrim and several casually dressed crew members. Jacob observes that in each of Haas' images there's an eye for the unusual. The black-and-white work from "The Greatest Story Ever Told," for example, is almost prayerful, while the color images call attention to the artificiality of film. And some of Haas' other color images, especially his work for 1961's "West Side Story," fit in neatly with others in his catalog, as Haas was known for an impressionistic blur of hues that Jacob calls "the Haas effect." Haas died in 1986, and despite being celebrated during his life, his name is somewhat forgotten these days. Jacob hopes that "Ernst Haas: On Set" reminds people just what a master he was. "A lot of these are familiar images, but you don't necessarily associate them with Haas," he said. "On the other hand, people who know Haas well don't actually know this work, because it was work for hire and wasn't ever put together in this way before." Ernst Haas was an Austrian photographer who passed away in 1986. He was a member of Magnum Photos.

Ernst Haas, a celebrated 20th-century photographer, was a regular on movie sets . His work from the industry has been brought together in a new book, "Ernst Haas: On Set"


(CNN)Like phone booths and typewriters, record stores are a vanishing breed -- another victim of the digital age. Camelot Music. Virgin Megastores. Wherehouse Music. Tower Records. All of them gone. Corporate America has largely abandoned brick-and-mortar music retailing to a scattering of independent stores, many of them in scruffy urban neighborhoods. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. Yes, it's harder in the Spotify era to find a place to go buy physical music. But many of the remaining record stores are succeeding -- even thriving -- by catering to a passionate core of customers and collectors. On Saturday, hundreds of music retailers will hold events to commemorate Record Store Day, an annual celebration of, well, your neighborhood record store. Many stores will host live performances, drawings, book signings, special sales of rare or autographed vinyl and other happenings. Some will even serve beer. To their diehard customers, these places are more than mere stores: They are cultural institutions that celebrate music history (the entire Duran Duran oeuvre, all in one place!), display artifacts (Aretha Franklin on vinyl!), and nurture the local music scene (hey, here's a CD by your brother's metal band!). They also employ knowledgeable clerks who will be happy to debate the relative merits of "Blood on the Tracks" and "Blonde on Blonde." Or maybe, like Jack Black in "High Fidelity," just mock your lousy taste in music. So if you're a music geek, drop by. But you might think twice before asking if they stock "I Just Called to Say I Love You."

Saturday is Record Store Day, celebrated at music stores around the world . Many stores will host live performances, drawings and special sales of rare vinyl .


Cairo (CNN)Mohamed Morsy went from prison to the presidency. And now he's going back to prison. The ousted President was convicted on charges of violence and inciting violence and sentenced to 20 years in prison for the torture of protesters outside the presidential palace in December 2012. But he was acquitted of murder in the deaths of protesters. He stood trial with 14 co-defendants, including some of his presidential staff. All 14 co-defendants were also convicted of violence and inciting violence, and all were also acquitted of murder. Morsy, who became Egypt's first democratically elected President in June 2012, was deposed by a popularly backed military coup in July 2013. After the sentencing, his Freedom and Justice Party called the trial a "travesty of justice." "This is a sad and terrible day in Egyptian history," the party said in a statement Tuesday. "Coup leaders have sentenced Mohamed Morsi to decades in prison for nothing more than championing the democratic will of the people." But Ramy Ghanem, a civil plaintiff lawyer representing one of the torture victims, said the conviction was fair. "This is a very appropriate and clear verdict on people that committed the crime," he said. "This, in fact, was the maximum sentence for the charges. The surprise was the acquittal." Hoda Nasrallah, a lawyer representing two torture victims, called the outcome of the case typical for Egypt. "All the cases involving big gatherings and demonstrations in which protesters were killed usually see the culprits walk free. This case is a manifestation of this," she said. "The public will always see the verdicts as politicized because there is no regime put on trial before falling, so everyone sees it as settling scores. It's not about Morsy only, but it also applies to (former Egyptian President Hosni) Mubarak and others. This is the status quo in Egypt. We wish we could see the trial of a regime when it is in power, not after that." Nasrallah called for a "fair trial," criticizing the fact that seven men killed during the December 2012 clashes were not included in this case, because they were affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, and that the involvement of other sides, including police, wasn't investigated. Morsy can appeal his conviction. But Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Mohamed Montasser has already issued an ominous warning on Twitter: . "Sentencing the president won't pass," he said. "The revolution will be ignited, popular anger will increase and we promise you unexpected revolutionary surprises." At various points in the trial, Morsy said that he was still the President of Egypt and refused to recognize the court as legal. Attorney Mohamed Selim El-Awa cited constitutional articles to the court that stipulated the steps for removing a president and putting him on trial -- something that required the approval of two-thirds of the parliament and a special court made of the country's top judges. A judge on Tuesday rejected the argument presented by El-Awa and court-appointed lawyer El-Sayed Hamed that the court had no jurisdiction. Hamed was appointed by the court after Morsy's defense team withdrew. He told CNN he met with Morsy about three times over the past 16 months. He praised the "neutrality of the court," rebuffing accusations of politicization. "Before the case reached the court, it was dominated by politics more than the law, and I said this in my argument at the court. But by reaching the court, the court examined the documents from the legal aspect and saw that they were innocent of accusations of murder and guilty of other charges. Consequently, we will appeal this sentence," he told CNN. Early in the trial, Morsy and his co-defendants were held in a metal cage in court. Later, that cage was enclosed in soundproof glass. This is the first trial Morsy was referred to after his removal from power. He is also standing trial in three other cases, including two on charges of espionage. The third trial involves a 2011 jailbreak. Morsy and 18 other members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood allegedly broke out of the  Wadi-Natroun prison, Egyptian state-run media reported. In that trial, Morsy and his 130 co-defendants, who include 71 Palestinians tried in absentia, are accused of collaborating with the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and the Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah to break into several prisons across Egypt in January 2011 and facilitating the escape of Morsy and 20,000 others. In May, Morsy is scheduled to start a fifth trial -- this one on charges of insulting the judiciary. Sarah Sirgany reported from Cairo; Holly Yan wrote from Atlanta. CNN's Bharati Naik contributed to this report.

Ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy is convicted of charges involving violence against protesters . But he is acquitted of murder . "We promise you unexpected revolutionary surprises," a Muslim Brotherhood spokesman says .


(CNN)Ever had a headache so big, you felt like drilling a hole in your head to let the pain out? In Neolithic times trepanation -- or drilling a hole into the skull -- was thought to be a cure for everything from epilepsy to migraines. It could even have been a form of emergency surgery for battle wounds. But while there is still conjecture about the real reasons behind the mysterious procedure, what is known is that the implement often used to carry out the primitive surgery was made from one of the sharpest substances found in nature -- obsidian. Obsidian -- a type of volcanic glass -- can produce cutting edges many times finer than even the best steel scalpels. At 30 angstroms -- a unit of measurement equal to one hundred millionth of a centimeter -- an obsidian scalpel can rival diamond in the fineness of its edge. When you consider that most household razor blades are 300-600 angstroms, obsidian can still cut it with the sharpest materials nano-technology can produce. Even today, a small number of surgeons are using an ancient technology to carry out fine incisions that they say heal with minimal scarring. Dr. Lee Green, professor and chair of the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Alberta, says he routinely uses obsidian blades. "The biggest advantage with obsidian is that it is the sharpest edge there is, it causes very little trauma to tissue, it heals faster and more importantly it heals with less scarring," he said. "It makes for the best cosmetic outcome." He explained that steel scalpels at a microscopic level have a rough cutting edge that tears into tissue, a function of the crystals that make up the metal. Obsidian, meanwhile, cleaves into a fine and continuous edge when properly cut. Dr. Green said he once helped documentary makers produce a program on surgical technology in ancient Egyptian, setting up a blind test on the cutting power of obsidian. Using cultured-skin burn dressing, a substance composed of skin cells, he made an incision with a modern scalpel and a parallel incision with an obsidian scalpel. The host of the program was then invited to look at the cuts under a video microscope and tell the difference. "It wasn't hard to tell the difference at all -- as soon as he turned around everyone in the studio was like 'Ohhh'," Dr. Green said. "Under the microscope you could see the obsidian scalpel had divided individual cells in half, and next to it the steel scalpel incision looked like it had been made by a chainsaw." Modern obsidian scalpels look nothing like the decorative flint-knapped knives of Neolithic man, often resembling their modern counterparts in everything except for the blade edge, but Dr. Green said they are a very different animal. "The feel is very different because obsidian has no 'bite,'" he said. "If you look under the microscope at a steel scalpel edge it looks almost like a saw, it has teeth, whereas obsidian is smooth even microscopically. "It's a very different feel to work with and you have to practice before you start using it in surgery. "You also have to be careful not to nick yourself with it because you don't even feel it!" And Dr. Green believes incisions made with these blades heal faster. He said a colleague who needed a mole removed agreed to undergo an experiment where half the procedure was carried out with an obsidian scalpel and the other half was removed with steel. "What's really fun is seeing it heal," he said. "Four weeks later the difference was quite remarkable -- there was very much a difference in scarring." In Germany, the manufacturer Fine Science Tools produces obsidian scalpels which can be used in situations where the patient may have an allergy to steel or metal. "For studies where trace metals from ordinary scalpel blades cannot be tolerated, these very special obsidian scalpels may provide the answer," the company says. At €99 per scalpel ($107.40), they represent a considerable saving on their diamond cousins which the company prices at €712.50 ($772.60). But there has been little academic research into the efficacy of obsidian blades compared to steel scalpels, and they do have disadvantages: Obsidian scalpels are not Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved, and they are extremely brittle and prone to breaking if lateral forces are applied -- meaning they are unlikely to ever be in widespread use. Dr. Green, whose scalpels were manufactured for him by an expert flint-knapper and archaeologist Errett Callahan, concedes the Stone Age scalpels are not for everyone. "If it was let loose on the market there'd be far too many injuries from it," he said. "It's very fragile and it's very easy to break pieces off."

Obsidian can produce cutting edges many times finer than even the best steel scalpels . Some surgeons still use the blades in procedures today .


Cairo (CNN)An Egyptian court has sentenced 71 people to life in prison for their role in the August 2013 burning of a Christian church in the Giza province village of Kafr Hakim, state news reports. The Virgin Mary Church was torched and looted by a mob, some of whom chanted against Coptic Christians and called for Egypt to become an "Islamic state," one of at least 42 churches and many more businesses and homes targeted that August, the advocacy group Human Rights Watch reports. Others attacked included St. George Church in Sohag, a city south of Cairo on the Nile River, and Prince Tadros Church in Fayoum, which is southwest of Cairo, according to reports. In addition to those getting life sentences, two minors were sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined 10,000 Egyptian pounds (about $1,300), Egypt's official Egynews reported. Most of those sentenced -- 52 of the 73 defendants -- were tried in absentia, with 21 already in prison, according to Egynews. Some blamed the church and other attacks on supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist movement that backed Mohamed Morsy. Morsy became Egypt's first democratically elected president following the ouster of longtime leader Hosni Mubarak. Morsy was pushed out by Egypt's military. Morsy was sentenced to 20 years in prison earlier this month after being convicted on charges related to violence outside the presidential palace in December 2012. But he was acquitted of murder in the deaths of protesters. Christian churches across Egypt stormed, torched . Journalist Sarah Sirgany reported from Cairo and CNN's Greg Botelho reported and wrote this story from Atlanta.

2 minors were sentenced to 10 years in prison, in addition to adults getting life . 52 of the 73 defendants were sentenced in absentia . The Virgin Mary Church was burned along with dozens of others in August 2013 .