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(CNN) — It was like any other day. If anything, it might have been a little better than usual — with more deserved honors for the kids, more jokes and songs, more smiles. Even Mother Nature, after storms the previous day, seemed at first to cooperate as the sun shone brightly.

But things changed quickly.

And in Oklahoma, where adults and children alike habitually practice what to do if a tornado strikes, change can prove deadly.

Things are different, more heartbreaking now for students and staff at Plaza Towers and Briarwood elementary schools in Moore, both of them leveled by a tornado.

“A lot of pain, a lot of tears, very little food and very little sleep is the way you get through it,” Plaza Towers principal Amy Simpson said Friday.

The memories linger. They are not just of the horrible moments when the twister tore through their schools, but the minutes before as teachers did what they could to keep their students safe and in control as it approached, the short time before that as frenzied parents rushed in looking for their sons and daughters, and the hours before that when everything seemed perfect.

“What started off as a normal day at Plaza Towers tuned into a horrible, horrible thing for seven families,” said Simpson, referring to the seven of her students killed by the storm.

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A frenzied, yet controlled few horrific minutes

Each school week at Plaza Towers starts with “Rise and Shine.” It’s a chance for students to see their teachers and counselors, to sing and recite the school creed, and to honor youngsters’ accomplishments inside and outside school.

“During that morning meeting, we celebrate kids,” the school’s principal said.

On Monday, the celebrations didn’t end there. Simpson recalled then heading to an hour-long award ceremony for first and second graders to toast their many achievements, then to a practice for sixth-graders’ commencement exercises.

After that, kids started filing into the cafeteria for the first of six lunch sessions the school has.

“Everything in the morning went exactly as it has for the last 170 days,” Simpson recalled.

It was after lunch that teachers first got word to be on alert for severe weather.

Still, at that point, no one knew a twister was heading their way. Simpson continued to go about her business, interviewing a candidate for a pre-kindergarten position, when she noticed heavy thunderstorms roll through.

Simpson ended the interview and noticed parents starting to stream in to pick up their kids. This happens often when it rains heavily, but the principal sensed something abnormal was up as parents rushed in faster and in greater numbers than usual.

“At that point, I made a decision that you didn’t have to check out your child the formal way,” Simpson recalled, saying she stood out front to see who was coming and going.

Some parents were noticeably scared. One father, Simpson said, was “in a panic.” She told him that he had to calm down — so as not to alarm any students — before he went through the hallways to retrieve his child.

This steady stream lasted 5 or 6 minutes before the sirens went off, indicating a tornado on the ground. Simpson got on the intercom and told everyone to do what they’d practiced in all those drills. Then she walked up and down the hallways. (She couldn’t get to where her second andthird-graders were, however, as they were in a different building.)

Some teachers tracked the twister on mobile devices, until Simpson asked them to turn them off. She did another walk-through and saw her staffers rubbing the backs of their students, some of whom — with their heads down and hands over their heads — sang.

When the principal got back to the front of the school, the tornado was nearly on top of them. She got on the intercom one more time.

“It’s here.”

Rising from the rubble

Simpson huddled in a bathroom with four other women. “The only time I yelled (I said), ‘In God’s name, go away, go away.’ I said it about four times.”

Debris was still flying when Simpson pushed out the door, stepped over a sink, and noticed “the whole neighborhood was gone.”

Somehow, her phone rang. It was her mother, and she told her to call 911.

There were no more walls left in her school. The bumper of a car sat between the pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students.

“I could see the kids peeking around what used to be a corner,” Simpson said.

Justin Ayres, a fifth-grade teacher who was the first to spot the twister, was the first one out on one side of what had been the school. Men and women, meanwhile, were running foward to help.

Within minutes, Simpson recalled, the pre-K, kindergarten and first graders were safely out. Her husband soon arrived and put his hand on her shoulder.

“I said, ‘Go help second and third grade,’” referring to those students who were in a different, nearby building. “I haven’t seen any of them yet.”

More and more students emerged, some of them heading to a nearby church. But what had been the second- and third-grade building was precarious, at best.

“I made my way around there, then I begged and pleaded for the human chain to get me up there,” Simpson said. “They did. And they were pulling out students and teachers.”

All seven killed at Plaza Towers died in that rubble.

“The rest of the evening was a nightmare.”

‘They grew up really fast’

Briarwood Elementary Principal Shelley Jaques-McMillin’s first impression of Monday?

“I remember thinking, “Yeah, it’s sunny! So we’re going to be able to go outside.”

School started, as it always does, with what’s called the Grizzly Growl — a time for singing, dancing, celebrating.

“(I remember) the happy faces, how excited they were, just seeing them smile,” said Jaques-McMillin. And there was laughter when a special guest — a sheep — made a special appearance. Staffers had to give it a kiss, because a group of students had reached their reading goal.

Lunchtime that day was especially fun.

“This is what school is about,” Jaques-McMillin remembered saying at the time. “This is why we do what we do. They’re so happy.”

The next few hours went by in a blur — in some ways, much like at Plaza Towers. There were the students and staff doing what they’d practiced in tornado drills — the sirens, and more.

Jaques-McMillin felt stronger, more resolute this time than when the last EF5 tornado — the strongest such classification — came through Moore. When that happened, she was alone and horrified.

This time was different. She had a sense of purpose, beyond simply making sure they survived.

“I have 675 students that I promise their parents every single day, I will protect your kids,” Jaques-McMillin said. “I’ll feed them, they’ll be safe, and I’ll give them back at the end of the day.”

Briarwood Elementary didn’t survive the tornado, but everyone who had been inside did.

They included 4-year-olds and students set to move onto seventh grade, though they were still kids at heart.

Yet on Monday, one of them reached down to a teacher, who was trapped in the rubble with water from a busted pipe blowing in her face.

“He grabbed her hand and said, ‘Calm down, I’m going to dig you out.”

And he did, just a few days after letting loose during a “Glow in the Dark” party.

“Here they were, being silly on Friday night, … dancing, being sixth-graders,” Jaques-McMillin said. “They grew up really fast.”

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/25/us/oklahoma-tornado-school-day/index.html?eref=edition

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(CNN) — One was a “nice guy,” who was “friendly and very polite” and “just wanted to help everybody.”

Then there was the “crazed … animal” — someone who’d brutally hack to death a man in broad daylight on the streets of London, then tried to justify it and suggested there was more violence to come.

Two vastly descriptions, for one person: Michael Adebolajo.

While British police have not named any of the men arrested in connection with Wednesday’s gory slaying of British soldier Lee Rigby, one of them didn’t hide his identity at the time. That man — toting a meat cleaver and large kitchen knife in his bloody hands — sought out a cell phone camera minutes after the attack to justify what he and another man allegedly had just done.

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“The only reason we killed this man … is because Muslims are dying daily,” he said in a video later aired by CNN affiliate ITN. “This British soldier is an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”

He was not done. The man insisted British people should force their government to remove troops from “our lands” — an apparent reference to largely Islamic countries like Iraq and Afghanistan — or else they’d see more bloodshed.

“You will never be safe,” he said.

Friends, acquaintances and British media identified the man of this video as Adebolajo. He hasn’t been heard from in public since he made those remarks, as Rigby’s mutilated body lay behind him.

He and the 22-year-old with him rushed at armed police when they arrived at the site of the attack on southeast London’s Woolwich neighborhood. Both were wounded by gunfire, and are now under guard in South London hospitals.

Others, though, have spoken about the 28-year-old Adebolajo — explaining who he was and, in some cases, why he allegedly did what he did.

“He was dedicated to Islam and wanted to put himself at its service and defend it,” said one of his former associates in Al-Muhajiroun, a British group of Islamic extremists virulently opposed to UK intervention in Iraq and openly supportive of al Qaeda.

Described as polite, passionate about Islam

A British national of Nigerian descent, Adebolajo was born into a Catholic family, according to this former associate. At least a decade ago, he converted to Islam.

The Guardian newspaper reported that he attended Marshalls Park School, Havering Sixth Form College, then Greenwich University.

A former girlfriend told the Independent that Adebolajo was “really friendly and really polite,” saying she didn’t detect anything that may suggest he was capable of horrific violence.

Syrian cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed, who founded Al-Muhajiroun in the late 1990s, said by phone from Tripoli, Lebanon, that he was acquainted with the man he knew by his Muslim name, Mujahid.

Adebolajo had been particularly impressed that Islam was a brotherhood between all races “whites, black and Arabs,” Bakri said.

He described him as “quiet and shy” and highly respectful.

Adebolajo had two wives, whom he married at the same time during a religious ceremony, said the former associate, who said he was among the attendees. At the time, Al-Muhajiroun frequently conducted marriage ceremonies for followers who were not registered with the British government.

Abu Baraa said he’s been friends with Adebolajo for seven years.

In that time, Baraa came to know him as a “very caring” man who “just wanted to help everybody.”

And Adebolajo, who the ex-associate said had children, was especially passionate in his faith, as well as his desire to protect it and his fellow followers.

“He’s always been very vocal and very concerned about the affairs of Muslims and people being oppressed,” Baraa told CNN. “And he could never tolerate anybody believed to really be oppressed.”

Ex-associate: May have been tired of ‘no action’

Adebolajo attended several talks that Bakri Mohammed gave in London from 2003 to 2004, the radical cleric told CNN. In fact, Bakri Mohammed said Adebolajo was at his side at a number of Al-Muhajiroun protests against the war in Iraq around that time.

One talk Adebolajo attended was at a community center in Woolwich — the neighborhood where Rigby was killed — recalled Bakri Mohammed, who noted the group met in such locations because they were not welcomed in mosques.

The vast majority of British Muslims reject the views of Bakri Mohammed — who hasn’t been allowed back in the United Kingdom since the 2005 bombings of London’s transit system. His group has been barred since that time as well, though it’s continued to operate under different guises. Its leaders drum home the idea that the British government is at war with Islam, but have been careful to cross legal red lines that would implicate them for inciting terrorism.

Bakri Mohammed said that, although they did not have many interactions, Adebolajo stood out because he was a new convert to the religion.

The former associate — who was himself “born again” into Islam, but has since shed his radical views — said that “like all of us, (Adebolajo) had a literal understanding of Islam.”

Even after Bakri Mohammed left England, Adebolajo remained active in Islam circles.

British Muslim radical leader Anjem Choudary told CNN that he knew Adebolajo, noting the suspect attended demonstrations and a few lectures organized by Choudary’s group Al-Muhajiroun.

In fact, an ITN video from April 2007 shows Adebolajo standing behind Choudary at a rally protesting the arrest of men who allegedly made inflammatory speeches inside a mosque.

Two or three years ago, Al-Muhajiroun leaders have said that Adebolajo moved away from the group.

The former associate — who last saw Adebolajo in 2005 — suspects this break might be related to this week’s attack in Woolwich.

“What tends to happen is some of the group’s members start to see Al-Muhajiroun as all talk and no action,” he said. “So they leave the group, and then they do something.”

CNN’s Greg Botelho wrote this story from Atlanta, and CNN’s Paul Cruickshank — CNN’s Terrorism Analyst — reported from London. CNN’s Dan Rivers contributed to this report.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/24/world/europe/uk-woolwich-michael-adebolajo/index.html?eref=edition

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Washington (CNN) — Drone strikes are a necessary evil, but one that must be used with more temperance as the United States’ security situation evolves, President Barack Obama said Thursday.

America prefers to capture, interrogate and prosecute terrorists, but there are times when this isn’t possible, Obama said in a speech at the National Defense University in Washington. Terrorists intentionally hide in hard-to-reach locales and putting boots on the ground is often out of the question, he said.

Thus, when the United States is faced with a threat from terrorists in a country where the government has only tenuous or no influence, drones strikes are the only option — and they’re legal because America “is at war with al Qaeda, the Taliban and their associated forces,” Obama said.

He added, however, “To say a military tactic is legal, or even effective, is not to say it is wise or moral in every instance. For the same progress that gives us the technology to strike half a world away also demands the discipline to constrain that power — or risk abusing it.”

Increased oversight is important, but not easy, Obama said. While he has considered a special court or independent oversight board, those options are problematic, so he plans to talk with Congress to determine how best to handle the deployment of drones, he said.

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The nation’s image was a theme throughout the speech, as Obama emphasized some actions in recent years — drone strikes and Guantanamo Bay key among them — risk creating more threats. The nature of threats against the United States have changed since he took office — they’ve become more localized — and so, too, must efforts to combat them, he said.

“From our use of drones to the detention of terror suspects, the decisions that we are making now will define the type of nation and world that we leave to our children,” he said.

Today, al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan and Afghanistan worry more about protecting their own skin than attacking America, he said, but the threat is more diffuse, extending into places such as Yemen, Iraq, Somalia and North Africa. And al Qaeda’s ideology helped fuel attacks like the ones at the Boston Marathon and U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi.

Obama said the use of lethal force extends to U.S. citizens as well.

On Wednesday, his administration disclosed for the first time that four Americans had been killed in counterterrorist drone strikes overseas, including one person who was targeted by the United States.

“When a U.S. citizen goes abroad to wage war against America — and is actively plotting to kill U.S. citizens; and when neither the United States, nor our partners are in a position to capture him before he carries out a plot — his citizenship should no more serve as a shield than a sniper shooting down on an innocent crowd should be protected from a SWAT team,” Obama said.

To stop terrorists from gaining a foothold, drones will be deployed, Obama said, but only when there is an imminent threat; no hope of capturing the targeted terrorist; “near certainty” that civilians won’t be harmed; and “there are no other governments capable of effectively addressing the threat.” Never will a strike be punitive, he said.

Those who die as collateral damage “will haunt us for as long as we live,” the president said, but he emphasized that the targeted individuals aim to exact indiscriminate violence, “and the death toll from their acts of terrorism against Muslims dwarfs any estimate of civilian casualties from drone strikes.”

It’s not always feasible to send in Special Forces, as in the Osama bin Laden raid, to stamp out terrorism, and even if it were, the introduction of troops could mean more deaths on both sides, Obama said.

“The result would be more U.S. deaths, more Blackhawks down, more confrontations with local populations and an inevitable mission creep in support of such raids that could easily escalate into new wars,” he said.

The American public is split on where and how drones should be used, according to a March poll by Gallup.

Although 65% of respondents said drones should be used against suspected terrorists abroad, only 41% said drones should be used against American citizens who are suspected terrorists in foreign countries.

Guantanamo to shut down?

Guantanamo Bay also threatens to create new enemies of the state and diminish the country’s moral standing in the world, Obama said, revisiting a campaign promise he made before his first term.

“The original premise for opening Gitmo — that detainees would not be able to challenge their detention — was found unconstitutional five years ago,” he said. “In the meantime, Gitmo has become a symbol around the world for an America that flouts the rule of law.”

Because of what Gitmo represents, some allies are reluctant to cooperate on investigations with the United States if a suspect might land at the controversial detention center, Obama said.

That’s not to mention the economic implications, the president said. The country spends $150 million annually to imprison 166 suspects, and the Defense Department estimates that keeping Gitmo open may cost another $200 million “at a time when we are cutting investments in education and research here at home,” he said.

Explaining that no prisoner has ever escaped a supermax or military facility — and noting U.S. courts have had no issue prosecuting terrorists, some more dangerous than those at Guantanamo — Obama said he would push again to close the detention center and appoint State and Defense department envoys to make sure the detainees are transferred to other countries.

Seventy percent of respondents to a February 2012 ABC/Washington Post poll said they approve of keeping the facility open for suspected terrorists. Only 24% said it should be closed.

One of his initiatives aims to lift a moratorium on transferring prisoners to Yemen, long a volatile land but now ruled by a government regarded by the United States as a “willing and able partner.” Yemenis make up a significant portion of Guantanamo inmates.

In a statement issued through its embassy in Washington, Yemen’s government welcomed the U.S. decision and vowed to “work with the United States to take all necessary steps to ensure the safe return of its detainees and will continue working towards their gradual rehabilitation and integration back into society.”

Obama said he will insist on judicial review from every Guantanamo detainee, and when it’s appropriate, terrorists will be transferred stateside to stand trial in courts and “our military justice system.”

“Given my administration’s relentless pursuit of al Qaeda’s leadership, there is no justification beyond politics for Congress to prevent us from closing a facility that should never have been opened,” the president said.

There are 86 inmates at Guantanamo who have been cleared for transfer, 56 of them from Yemen.

While Obama worked to close Guantanamo early in his first term, Congress enacted significant restrictions on the transfer of detainees from the prison that made its closure impractical.

This year, the State Department reassigned the special envoy who had been tasked in 2009 with closing the facility and lowered the post’s profile by assigning the job to the department’s legal adviser’s office.

The problem has been exacerbated by the fact more than half the facility’s inmates engaging in various forms of hunger strike, more than 20 of them being force-fed.

New dangers have emerged

Obama made the case that the al Qaeda terror network in the Afghan and Pakistan region has been weakened but that new dangers have emerged as the U.S. winds down operations in Afghanistan after more than a decade of war triggered by the 9/11 attacks.

Threats that have emerged come from al Qaeda affiliates, localized extremist groups and homegrown terrorists, like the two men suspected of attacking the Boston Marathon last month.

The administration has been considering shifting control of lethal drone operations from the CIA to the military. One senior administration official said the “military is the appropriate agency to use force,” not to rule out the range of options needed to deal with threats.

By law, the military is not able to act in the covert way the CIA can in this particular arena and must answer to Congress.

In his confirmation hearing for CIA director, John Brennan expressed a desire to move the agency away from paramilitary operations and back to traditional areas of espionage.

“The CIA should not be doing traditional military activities and operations,” he said.

Obama rejected the idea of a global war on terror in favor of a more focused approach that will engage on specific networks of extremists who threaten the United States.

The administration plans to avoid operations that will cause civilian casualties and wants to work with partners in its operations.

Use of force will be part of a larger strategy to deal with instability and hostility. Obama discussed strategies for promoting democratic governance and economic development and fostering U.S. engagement around the world.

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The president also raised the unpopular topic of foreign aid, presenting it not as charity but as a means of national security. It amounts to less than 1% of the national a budget but is integral to fighting terrorism, he said.

“For what we spent in a month in Iraq at the height of the war, we could be training security forces in Libya, maintaining peace agreements between Israel and its neighbors, feeding the hungry in Yemen, building schools in Pakistan, and creating reservoirs of goodwill that marginalize extremists,” he said.

Republican: Obama speech ‘a victory’ for terrorists

Several Republicans panned Obama’s speech.

Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, criticized the idea of closing the Guantanamo Bay prison and said, “The president’s policies signal a retreat from the threat of al Qaeda.”

“The Obama administration’s return to a pre-9/11 counterterrorism mindset puts American lives at risk,” the Texas Republican said. “This war will continue whether the president acknowledges it or not.”

Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia said that announcing plans to close the facility “sends the message to … detainees that if they harass the dedicated military personnel there enough, we will give in and send them home, even to Yemen.”

“The president’s speech today will be viewed by terrorists as a victory,” Chambliss said.

But at least one Republican, Sen. John McCain, pledged that he’d work with Obama and his administration.

“In light of the president’s speech today, we will pledge our willingness to work with (Obama) to see that Guantanamo Bay is closed,” said the Arizona Republican.

The reproaches didn’t only come from the right.

The American Civil Liberties Union’s leader — even as he cheered plans to close the Guantanamo prison and allow for more oversight on drone strikes — criticized “still insufficient transparency” regarding drones, what he called “unconstitutional military commissions” and the lack of what he’d call a “clear plan” to end “indefinite detention.”

“President Obama’s efforts to repair his legacy in the eyes of future historians will require that he continue to double down if he is to fully restore this nation’s standing at home and abroad,” Anthony Romero said in a statement.

CNN’s Elise Labott, Chris Lawrence, Barbara Starr and Dan Merica contributed to this report.

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(CNN) — It was like any other day. If anything, it might have been a little better than usual — with more deserved honors for the kids, more jokes and songs, more smiles. Even Mother Nature, after storms the previous day, seemed at first to cooperate as the sun shone brightly.

But things changed quickly.

And in Oklahoma, where adults and children alike habitually practice what to do if a tornado strikes, change can prove deadly.

Things are different, more heartbreaking now for students and staff at Plaza Towers and Briarwood elementary schools in Moore, both of them leveled by a tornado.

“A lot of pain, a lot of tears, very little food and very little sleep is the way you get through it,” Plaza Towers principal Amy Simpson said Friday.

The memories linger. They are not just of the horrible moments when the twister tore through their schools, but the minutes before as teachers did what they could to keep their students safe and in control as it approached, the short time before that as frenzied parents rushed in looking for their sons and daughters, and the hours before that when everything seemed perfect.

“What started off as a normal day at Plaza Towers tuned into a horrible, horrible thing for seven families,” said Simpson, referring to the seven of her students killed by the storm.

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A frenzied, yet controlled few horrific minutes

Each school week at Plaza Towers starts with “Rise and Shine.” It’s a chance for students to see their teachers and counselors, to sing and recite the school creed, and to honor youngsters’ accomplishments inside and outside school.

“During that morning meeting, we celebrate kids,” the school’s principal said.

On Monday, the celebrations didn’t end there. Simpson recalled then heading to an hour-long award ceremony for first and second graders to toast their many achievements, then to a practice for sixth-graders’ commencement exercises.

After that, kids started filing into the cafeteria for the first of six lunch sessions the school has.

“Everything in the morning went exactly as it has for the last 170 days,” Simpson recalled.

It was after lunch that teachers first got word to be on alert for severe weather.

Still, at that point, no one knew a twister was heading their way. Simpson continued to go about her business, interviewing a candidate for a pre-kindergarten position, when she noticed heavy thunderstorms roll through.

Simpson ended the interview and noticed parents starting to stream in to pick up their kids. This happens often when it rains heavily, but the principal sensed something abnormal was up as parents rushed in faster and in greater numbers than usual.

“At that point, I made a decision that you didn’t have to check out your child the formal way,” Simpson recalled, saying she stood out front to see who was coming and going.

Some parents were noticeably scared. One father, Simpson said, was “in a panic.” She told him that he had to calm down — so as not to alarm any students — before he went through the hallways to retrieve his child.

This steady stream lasted 5 or 6 minutes before the sirens went off, indicating a tornado on the ground. Simpson got on the intercom and told everyone to do what they’d practiced in all those drills. Then she walked up and down the hallways. (She couldn’t get to where her second and third-graders were, however, as they were in a different building.)

Some teachers tracked the twister on mobile devices, until Simpson asked them to turn them off. She did another walk-through and saw her staffers rubbing the backs of their students, some of whom — with their heads down and hands over their heads — sang.

When the principal got back to the front of the school, the tornado was nearly on top of them. She got on the intercom one more time.

“It’s here.”

Rising from the rubble

Simpson huddled in a bathroom with four other women. “The only time I yelled (I said), ‘In God’s name, go away, go away.’ I said it about four times.”

Debris was still flying when Simpson pushed out the door, stepped over a sink, and noticed “the whole neighborhood was gone.”

Somehow, her phone rang. It was her mother, and she told her to call 911.

There were no more walls left in her school. The bumper of a car sat between the pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students.

“I could see the kids peeking around what used to be a corner,” Simpson said.

Justin Ayres, a fifth-grade teacher who was the first to spot the twister, was the first one out on one side of what had been the school. Men and women, meanwhile, were running foward to help.

Within minutes, Simpson recalled, the pre-K, kindergarten and first graders were safely out. Her husband soon arrived and put his hand on her shoulder.

“I said, ‘Go help second and third grade,’” referring to those students who were in a different, nearby building. “I haven’t seen any of them yet.”

More and more students emerged, some of them heading to a nearby church. But what had been the second- and third-grade building was precarious, at best.

“I made my way around there, then I begged and pleaded for the human chain to get me up there,” Simpson said. “They did. And they were pulling out students and teachers.”

All seven killed at Plaza Towers died in that rubble.

“The rest of the evening was a nightmare.”

‘They grew up really fast’

Briarwood Elementary Principal Shelley Jaques-McMillin’s first impression of Monday?

“I remember thinking, “Yeah, it’s sunny! So we’re going to be able to go outside.”

School started, as it always does, with what’s called the Grizzly Growl — a time for singing, dancing, celebrating.

“(I remember) the happy faces, how excited they were, just seeing them smile,” said Jaques-McMillin. And there was laughter when a special guest — a sheep — made a special appearance. Staffers had to give it a kiss, because a group of students had reached their reading goal.

Lunchtime that day was especially fun.

“This is what school is about,” Jaques-McMillin remembered saying at the time. “This is why we do what we do. They’re so happy.”

The next few hours went by in a blur — in some ways, much like at Plaza Towers. There were the students and staff doing what they’d practiced in tornado drills — the sirens, and more.

Jaques-McMillin felt stronger, more resolute this time than when the last EF5 tornado — the strongest such classification — came through Moore. When that happened, she was alone and horrified.

This time was different. She had a sense of purpose, beyond simply making sure they survived.

“I have 675 students that I promise their parents every single day, I will protect your kids,” Jaques-McMillin said. “I’ll feed them, they’ll be safe, and I’ll give them back at the end of the day.”

Briarwood Elementary didn’t survive the tornado, but everyone who had been inside did.

They included 4-year-olds and students set to move onto seventh grade, though they were still kids at heart.

Yet on Monday, one of them reached down to a teacher, who was trapped in the rubble with water from a busted pipe blowing in her face.

“He grabbed her hand and said, ‘Calm down, I’m going to dig you out.”

And he did, just a few days after letting loose during a “Glow in the Dark” party.

“Here they were, being silly on Friday night, … dancing, being sixth-graders,” Jaques-McMillin said. “They grew up really fast.”

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/25/us/oklahoma-tornado-school-day/index.html?eref=edition

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Jim Whittaker, left, and Sherpa Nawang Gombu summited Mount Everest together in 1963. It cemented a bond for the two men. Click through our gallery to see Whittaker’s time on Everest, and how his son, Leif, has followed in his footsteps.

Whittaker summits Mount Everest on May 1, 1963, at 1 p.m.

Jim Whittaker after the climb.

Sherpas, known as high-altitude porters in 1963, carry packs on the 185-mile trek to reach Everest base camp.

Climbers work their way through the dangerous Khumbu Icefall, a shedding glacier just after Everest base camp.

The Khumbu Icefall is also where expedition member Jake Breitenbach lost his life when the ice became unstable and buried him (not pictured).

President John F. Kennedy awards Jim Whittaker the Hubbard Medal.

Whittaker, right, and his son, Leif, near Everest base camp in 2012.

Leif Whittaker captured this photo as Dave Hahn ascends the rocky Geneva Spur between Camp 3 and Camp 4 in 2010. The following images feature his stunning photographry during 2010 and 2012 on Everest.

Mount Everest base camp at night during the 2012 expedition.

Leif Whittaker stands on the summit of Mount Everest on May 26, 2012.

Camp 3, at 24,000 feet above sea level, on the Lhotse Face at sunset during the 2010 expedition.

Expedition member Dave Hahn peers out at the Himalaya from Pumori Camp I in 2012.

A Buddhist stupa on the trail to Mount Everest Base Camp in 2012.

Expedition member Melissa Arnot uses a ladder to cross in the Khumbu Icefall in 2012.

Camp 2, at 21,300 feet, in an Everest featured named the Western Cwm, in 2010.

Jim and Leif pause for a moment on the trail to Mount Everest Base Camp in 2012.

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(CNN) — When Jim Whittaker became the first American to stand on top of Mount Everest 50 years ago, he was anything but elated.

Reaching Earth’s highest point only 10 years after New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary became the first to summit, Whittaker said 50 mph winds were “blowing like hell,” compounding the already outrageous temperature of 35 below zero.

The jetstream blasted Whittaker and Sherpa Nawang Gombu as Whittaker pounded the pick of his American flag into the ice.

But when the two men looked down from their perch, 29,028 feet above sea level, they realized summiting was not their journey’s end. They still had far to go, and they’d just run out of bottled oxygen on top of the world.

Sherpas, climbers sign Everest treaty

Saudi woman makes Everest history

“Oh, boy, we’ve got to get down,” Whittaker thought. “Getting to the summit is half of the climb. You’re working so hard to get up, you don’t really think about anything else.”

Whittaker’s expedition members’ childhoods had been filled with a passion for climbing.

Richard Pownall was bitten by the mountaineering bug in 1943 when an English teacher sent students to the library to pick out a book. After reading about climbing, Pownall got a summer job working at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, but that stint couldn’t sate his curiosity and zeal for exploration.

Whittaker discovered his passion at 14, scaling the peaks of the Northwest U.S. and, later, while guiding people up Mount Rainier in college. After summiting Mount McKinley, the highest U.S. peak, the next natural step was “the big one,” he said.

When the Americans began scaling Everest, their journey was far different from that of today’s climbers. For one, they were the only team on the mountain at the time.

They also had to trek 185 miles through the sweltering Chitwa Jungle, their packs stuffed with cold-weather gear for when the elevation rose. That’s about the distance from Seattle, Washington, to Portland, Oregon, though the Nepalese trek involves pathways along 18,000-foot ridges, Whittaker pointed out.

Today, climbers fly 140 miles into Nepal and trek 40 miles into base camp.

80-year-old Japanese man becomes oldest to climb Mount Everest

Once at Everest, it wasn’t long before Whittaker’s expedition experienced disaster. Two days into the climb, three men were opening a route through the Khumbu Icefall — where descending glaciers break off into jagged, car- and house-sized chunks — when glacier pieces collapsed around them, burying them in ice, Pownall said.

He was able to climb out, but ended his summit attempt.

Jake Breitenbach, a 27-year-old guide from Jackson, Wyoming, didn’t survive. He was buried deep in the ice. His body wouldn’t be recovered until much later.

“You’re halfway around the world,” Whittaker said. “You immediately think of your family.”

They were all shaken, but Everest’s fierce conditions forbade them from dwelling on it. They had to keep moving. They could mourn later.

Though the view from the peak is spectacular, the Himalayas and Nepal unfolding beneath them, Whittaker said his team was more amazed by the scenery on their way back down. After months of living in thin air, they noticed the air became thicker and softer as the oxygen increased.

At one point, they found themselves clustered, looking down at a little blade of grass coming up through the scree.

“This green, emerald green — God, it was just incredible,” Whittaker said. “There is nothing growing up above, no color — it’s all snow, ice and rock. We were in tears. We had lost Jake up on the mountain but now we were coming back into life, this beautiful, lush, gorgeous planet that supports life. A little blade of grass just stunned the whole team.”

Almost 49 years after summiting Everest, Whittaker, then-83, found himself back at base camp in 2012. His son, Leif, 27, wanted to reach the so-called “Head of the Sky” for a second time. Leif Whittaker had done it without his father in 2010.

Whittaker and his son had trekked to a base camp in 2003, but they had no intention of summiting.

First Saudi woman summits Mount Everest

Whittaker said he never encouraged or discouraged his son from mountaineering, but his son discovered it for himself at age 15. After being asked so many times if he’d follow in his dad’s footsteps up the face of Everest, Leif found his answer on their 2003 trip.

“It was the natural power and majesty of that place that I felt some special connection to,” Leif said. “I think we all are affected by landscapes in a different way, and for me, a boy who had grown up with that idea of Mount Everest in his head, seeing Everest for the first time made me want to climb it.”

Whittaker hoped to walk into base camp with his son in 2012, but a day from their destination, he caught an intestinal bug. The seasoned mountaineer who had once conquered Everest was within him, telling him to keep going, but he decided it was too dicey.

Meanwhile, Leif Whittaker faced a different danger: overcrowding. Ten people died on Everest in 2012, raising questions about how many people should receive permits to scale the perilous peak.

Leif waited for more than an hour at 28,700 feet, just below the summit, as 100 people slowly descended the tricky Hillary Step. If it hadn’t been for calm winds May 26, the last window of good weather, he would have been forced back down.

“Each person climbs Everest for different reasons. The reason that I climb is because I love the mountain, I love what comes with it: the view from the top, the camaraderie of good teammates, the personal challenge of the experience, pushing past your own boundaries and growing because of that experience.”

Father and son experienced the magnitude of emotion that comes with being at Everest together, and Whittaker is proud his son reached the summit twice. While the achievement continues the family legacy, Whittaker wanted his children to appreciate the life around them.

“I came back from Everest without ego because you realize how insignificant you are, just a speck in the vast universe,” Whittaker said. “You dwell in the silence of the forest and the high mountains. They are the highest cathedrals in the world.”

Childhood dream leads climber up Everest — twice in one week

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/24/us/everest-1963-expedition-whittaker/index.html?eref=edition

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Robert Sallin poses with the Genesis device prop.

(Credit:
Courtesy of Robert Sallin)

The release of “Star Trek Into Darkness” has not only spurred interest in the “Trek” world in general, but especially in its film daddy, the original Khan-as-villain movie “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.” While the new film takes quite a few detours, it is full of homages to the earlier work.

Let’s look back to 1982. “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” had been released in 1979 and faced a poor critical reception. Paramount, the film’s studio, was gun-shy after the movie nearly doubled its original budget, ending up with a $46 million price tag. Nonetheless, plans for a second movie plodded along.

Into this mix of wariness and hope stepped Robert Sallin. With 2,000 commercials to his name, he was primarily a director, but he signed a deal with Paramount to take on producer duties for “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.” With no script ready, no director on-board, and Paramount keeping a tight clamp on the budget, Sallin had his hands full with steering the film into and through production.

All those trials somehow came out OK in the end. “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” is now often viewed among fans as one of the greatest films (if not the greatest) the franchise ever turned out. Crave caught up with Sallin to get a behind-the-scenes view on this iconic movie.

Q: How did you get involved with “Star Trek II?”
Sallin: I went to UCLA film school back before it was fashionable. One of the people with whom I became friendly was a guy named Harve Bennett. Our paths diverged. I eventually started my own production company, producing and directing about 2,000 commercials for clients all over the world. In the late ’70s, I decided to close my company. I was tired of the 30-second format and really wanted the opportunity to expand creatively. Harve had just signed a deal with Paramount to be involved with three projects. One was “Star Trek.” I decided to come aboard, so Paramount signed me up to be the producer of “Star Trek II.” Harve was busy working on the other things.

Crave: What were your duties as producer?
Sallin: I was a director. I had never produced anything per se, but I ran a commercial company and we were very focused on costs and managing costs. My primary responsibility was mounting the whole production. That meant everything, including selecting all the key department and crew personnel. I was also tasked with supervising the day-to-day production, keeping it on budget, and creating and supervising the visual effects, which involved a lot of going back and forth between ILM (Industrial Light Magic) and Hollywood.

“Star Trek II” poster. (Click to enlarge.)

(Credit:
Paramount)

Crave: How did you find a director?
Sallin: I created a list of 40-plus directors I thought might be interesting, but it turned out nobody wanted to do it. Some people didn’t want to do “Star Trek.” Some people didn’t want to do science fiction. Some people didn’t want to do a sequel. I would have thought people would be dying to do it. I was really astounded. Then, my secretary suggested Nick Meyer and I had liked his film “Time After Time” and admired his script, “The Seven-Per-Cent Solution.”

Nick came on-board well after the visual effects were already in production and dived right in. I have to give Nick substantial credit for rewriting the script in about 10 days. It was his rewrite, uncredited, that we actually shot. He took the disparate elements that Harve was struggling with and he just made it work.

Crave: What were the actors like to work with?
Sallin: Casting Ricardo Montalban as Khan was a major stroke of good luck. He was a consummate gentleman, consummate professional, and one of the nicest people I’ve ever run into. Bill Shatner and Leonard [Nimoy] are top-of-the-line professional actors, they are so talented. But they had been playing their roles for so long, there was a bit of nonchalance as they approached shooting. They knew what they were doing, but there was kind of a casual atmosphere, which is fine. Then, Ricardo arrives on the set and the first thing he does is a 10-minute master shot without a break… and it was perfect! Boy, the next day, suddenly Bill and Leonard are there promptly, and they’ve got their lines learned. It’s not that Ricardo was a better actor, it’s that his whole attitude was so professional, so suddenly the boys had to ratchet it up.

Crave: How were the special effects handled?
Sallin: In “Star Trek I,” all the monitors and all the displays were Super 8 or 16mm film
projectors. They made noise. When it came time to do coverage, you couldn’t sync them to match. I said, that’s going. We’re going to do it with computers. There was a lot of that kind of stuff.

I also pushed ILM to create the very first computer-generated graphics visual effects they or anyone had ever done for a major film at that time. It was the creation of the Genesis planet video report. ILM really got excited and gave the idea full support, even though that short sequence cost nearly a quarter of a million dollars and it came out of their end of the budget.

Crave: Spock’s death started a huge controversy. How did it come about?
Sallin: This is contrary to what everyone says. Harve had a discussion with the major cast members about returning for their roles. Everybody agreed, except for Leonard. Leonard didn’t want to do it. Leonard is one of the most intelligent people I’ve ever run across. To quote him, he didn’t want to put on the ears anymore. I wasn’t a Trekkie and Harve wasn’t a Trekkie, so we said, “Let’s kill him off.” Done. But, despite my attempts to keep the scripts logged in and under tight security, the word got out and the uproar was substantial. Then we had to figure out a way that he wouldn’t really be killed off. That’s when the idea came that he should be shot to the Genesis planet and we could play the rebirth-of-life concept. But, up until that moment, he was really going to be a goner. During that, I got a telephone call on my home phone saying, “If you kill Spock, we’ll kill you.” I had two small children and a wife, so we had enhanced security around our home, though nothing ever happened.

This Ceti Eel concept wasn’t chosen for the final film. (Click to enlarge.)

(Credit:
Courtesy of Robert Sallin)

Crave: Let’s talk about the Ceti Eel. It gave me nightmares as a 6-year-old child.
Sallin: I didn’t mean to traumatize you. The way that came about, the writer suggested a creature that would take control of Chekov and the Paul Winfield character by attaching itself to their necks. I said that it had been done before in a TV episode and was immediately challenged to come up with something better.

Well, the next morning, I went out to pick up my newspaper and there was a slug on the pathway. I thought, what if that slimy thing was able to go into the ear? We had an adviser from the Jet Propulsion Lab, a space guy. He said, sure, we can justify that. I called ILM and asked Ken Ralston to design some creature sketches. He did 15 sketches, I picked one, and that’s what we used. I loved sitting in the theaters when everybody cringed.

It was great fun bringing the Ceti Eel to life. Up at ILM, they engineered a piece of monofilament which moved a little plastic worm covered with slime. You pull one end and it would stretch the little creature and move across Chekov’s face. We also had a huge, oversized model of an ear for the actual insertion. We just tried to make it as gross as possible.

Crave: Was that Montalban’s real chest?
Sallin: Yes. He was in amazing shape. His pectoral muscles and his whole upper body [were] very strong and they emphasized that with the costume. That was real Ricardo.

Crave: Have you seen “Star Trek Into Darkness?”
Sallin: I was invited to a screening, but I didn’t go. There’s part of me that has been there and done that. On the other hand, I’m a huge fan of J.J. Abrams. The guy is so talented and is such a fresh, creative force to take this on and do what he’s done. I’m full of admiration. I’ve seen bits and pieces of the other one and I think he is truly taking “Star Trek” where no man has gone before.

‘Star Trek II’ behind the scenes (pictures)

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Crave: Why didn’t you stay with the “Star Trek” franchise?
Sallin: When I finished “Star Trek II,” I was called up to the executive offices at Paramount and I was asked if I would stay on and produce more “Star Trek” features. I thought about it and I didn’t do it. Part of it had to do with the fact that the man who had brought me into Paramount was Harve Bennett and that would mean taking the franchise away from him. Even though the reality is that I produced “Star Trek II” and he worked on the script, I felt a sense of obligation that I couldn’t do that to him. I should have stayed on, but I didn’t. Over the years, a lot of fans have noticed that the later “Trek” films were inconsistent in creativity and production quality after “Trek II.” I took that as the highest sort of compliment.

Crave: What do you see for the future of “Star Trek?”
Sallin: Most of the fans of the previous films have accepted J.J. Abrams’ new direction and appreciate it. It’s a different time. It’s 30, 40 years later and we have new audiences. You can’t keep dwelling on the old guys and the old things. It has to move ahead. It has been energized through J.J.’s creative vision. I feel that with him in the captain’s chair, the future is truly unlimited. Previous “Star Treks” found their audiences. It will go on for who knows how long. It’s a combination of new blood, younger blood, an enormous amount of talent, and Gene Roddenberry’s core belief that there is always hope.

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Ugandan eco-artist Ruganzu Bruno built an amusement park for children living in one of Kampala’s slums.

Bruno (right) worked with the local community to create the playground in a congested area lacking recreation facilities. “We built the playground together as a team,” he says.

Using thousands of waste bottles, the talented artist turned a school yard in Kampala’s Kireka community into a fun and safe place where children can play and learn.

For his work over the years, the talented artist has won several accolades, including the Ugandan Young Achievers award 2011.

Bruno says the park has had a positive impact on local children. “The attention of children in class has improved; the number of children who are dropping out [is falling] because now they have something to keep them busy there, ” he says.

Other attractions include swings and climbing structures created with recycled materials such as old tires.

Bruno plans to roll out several other eco amusement parks in other parts of Kampala.

A huge board game built inside the school yard in Acholi Quarters, Kireka.

In 2010 Bruno founded Eco Art Uganda, a collective of artists promoting environmental awareness.

He has also developed an eco-artist loan scheme to help the business endeavors of women in Kireka.

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(CNN) — No sooner had Ruganzu Bruno and his troupe of fellow eco-artists arrived at Kampala’s Kawempe area than their presence stirred up questions within the local community.

“What are you doing?” the startled residents asked. “Why are you using all this plastic?” they continued, baffled by the piles of waste bottles that were gradually filling a dusty compound yard in the northwestern suburb of the Ugandan capital.

What the group of artists was doing was creating “The Hand That Speaks,” an enormous structure made of recycled materials to raise awareness about environmental degradation.

“We were trying to bring out the message that the hand is the one which is throwing this trash into the environment and at the same time it could be used to collect [them] and save the environment,” says Bruno.

And once the nine artists started assembling their futuristic creation, using more than 20,000 bottles collected in the slums of Kampala, the local crowds also decided to lend a helping hand.

“At first, the community were confused but then they really loved it,” says Bruno. “They were always getting us bottles.”

Eco Art

That was about four years ago, when Bruno was still a student at the Kyambogo University fine art school. During that time, the talented painter and sculptor discovered that he wasn’t interested in just crafting artworks that would only satisfy his creative needs.

Instead, he wanted his art to have a positive impact on his community.

“When we are trying to achieve things in life we are self-centered, and as artists we tend to make work for ourselves,” explains Bruno, 30.

“I kind of felt a change within myself to think about others,” he adds. “From then on I could not only paint — I decided to work on work that was beneficial to my community.”

Driven by a desire to influence his surroundings, Bruno then became involved in eco-art projects, devising innovative ways to deal with Kampala’s acute waste management problem.

In 2010 he founded Eco Art Uganda, a collective of artists promoting environmental awareness by transforming anything from discarded bottles and cast-aside metal to broken TVs and computers into contemporary and functional pieces of art.

Read this: Specs ‘give trash a second chance’

“I was looking for materials that were not expensive and easily available,” says the soft-spoken artist, who hails from southwest Uganda.

“I really found that this trash and rubbish could actually become a really positive way of communicating to people,” adds Bruno, who’s won several accolades for his work, including the Ugandan Young Achievers award 2011.

Amusement park

In April last year, Bruno also won the $10,000 City 2.0 Award at the TEDx summit in Doha, Qatar, for his idea to create an amusement playground for children living in Kampala’s congested slums.

Using an array of recycled materials, Bruno went on to transform a school yard in Kampala’s Kireka community into a fun and safe place where children can play and learn.

The eco-park, which was completed last September, is dotted with whimsical structures attracting dozens of children each day — from a colorful helicopter and life-size board games made of bottles to recycled swings and climbing frames crafted from old tires.

Bruno says the entire community, which lacked a recreation facility, embraced the project wholeheartedly.

Read this: Boy’s flashy invention scares off lions

“I talked to the head of the school, and together with the parents and the students, they are the ones who collected the bottles,” says Bruno, who is also a lecturer in the department of Art Design at Kyambogo University.

“So we built the playground together as a team and they know how to repair it — this is very important in terms of sustainability.”

But more importantly, Bruno, who was orphaned at a young age, says the project has had a positive impact on the children.

“The attention of children in class has improved; the number of children who are dropping out [is falling] because now they have something to keep them busy there, ” he adds. “There is a really good progress and it has also helped them to express themselves in class.”

Legacy

Bruno says his goal is to recreate “as many as 100″ similar amusement parks in other parts of Uganda.

He is also using the prize money to grow an eco-artist loan scheme he’s developed, aimed at supporting the business endeavors of creative women in Kireka.

It’s all part of his continuous efforts to be an artist whose work will serve his community’s needs.

“I think a man will always be remembered by his work, “says Bruno. “I’m an advocate now of the environment; I’m an advocate for play for children; I’m an artist …who wants his work to have an effect on the people.”.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/24/world/africa/playground-trash-ruganzu-bruno-uganda/index.html?eref=edition

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The victim killed in a cleaver attack on May 22 was identified as Drummer Lee Rigby of 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. The brutal killing of Rigby shocked the United Kingdom, with Prime Minister David Cameron saying the act appears to have been a terrorist attack.

Left to right: mother of the slain soldier Lyn Rigby, stepfather Ian Rigby and Lee’s wife Rebecca Rigby grieve as Ian reads a family statement on Friday, May 24 in Bury, England.

Flowers have been laid close to the scene where Rigby was killed on May 24, in London.

A man places flowers near the scene on May 24.

A police officer stands with flowers in a storm on Thursday, May 23, close to the crime scene in front of Woolwich Barracks in southeast London.

A man contemplates the makeshift memorial outside Woolwich Barracks in London.

Flowers lie outside Woolwich Barracks on May 23.

Soldiers walk outside Woolwich Barracks on Thursday, May 23, near where the soldier was killed.

Notes and shirts sit outside Woolwich Barracks on May 23. The slain soldier was wearing a “Help for Heroes” shirt when he was killed.

British soldiers stand guard outside the barracks on May 23.

Britain’s prime Minister David Cameron addresses media representatives at 10 Downing Street in London on May 23, a day after a soldier who was hacked to death in a London street by two suspected Islamist extremists.

Members of the far-right English Defence League wear balaclavas as they gather outside a pub in Woolwich on Wednesday, May 22.

EDL supporters confront police in Woolwich on May 22.

EDL leader Tommy Robinson joins supporters at the crime scene on May 22.

A police officer guards a tent that’s been set up at the crime scene as investigations continue late May 22.

Mary Warder brings flowers to the scene of the crime on May 22 to pay respects to the victim.

Men place flowers near the scene on John Wilson Street.

A police officer guards a blocked-off area in Woolwich on May 22.

A general view of Woolwich Barracks, near the scene of the crime.

Police officers block off a road in Woolwich.

Forensic officers investigate the crime scene on May 22.

Police walk to the scene in Woolwich on May 22.

A still frame from video shows a man outside the Woolwich Barracks in London holding a cleaver and addressing the camera directly, moments after a serving soldier was hacked to death in the street on May 22. The man in the video swore “by almighty Allah” to keep fighting.

People stand around the body of the victim in the streets of Woolwich on May 22.

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London (CNN) — A soldier lies in a pool of blood in the middle of a nondescript inner-city London street. His two apparent killers brandish bloodied kitchen knives and meat cleavers. One of them rants at a passer-by who films the whole extraordinary encounter on a mobile phone.

These shocking images are unlike anything seen before on the streets of Britain, where the murder rate is one of the lowest in the world and where police officers do not routinely carry guns.

London attack: Terrorists targeting soldiers at home again?

There is little sense of panic among the dozens of witnesses, some of whom argue rationally with the suspected killer. If the British can still be characterized as being hard to panic with stiff upper lips, this street scene was a bizarre illustration.

Others mill round taking photos — as if a celebrity has arrived. At one point a woman with a shopping trolley even walks past the man without changing course as he makes his radical statement. In the distance is the sound of police sirens: later the men will be shot — although both survive — by armed officers.

London attack suspect caught on video

Tensions running high in London

This is suburban London on a quiet day in May 2013.

The attack, which is being treated as a suspected terrorist incident by the UK government, begins in a fairly anonymous road in Woolwich, a deprived largely blue-collar neighborhood in comparison to its historic neighbors Greenwich and Blackheath.

The area was hit hard, as was much of London, by the summer riots of 2011, when several shops and properties were burned to the ground. But beyond that violence is rare: thousands of visitors attended Olympic shooting events last year at the army barracks where the soldier was heading, without incident.

At 2.20pm on Wednesday, a small blue Vauxall Tigra hatchback with blacked-out windows mounts the sidewalk of Artillery Place and mows down a soldier.

Read more: London attack mirrors plot to behead Muslim soldier

The soldier, later named as Lee Rigby, 25, a father of a 2-year-old boy, is wearing a T-shirt bearing the logo of “Help for Heroes,” a military charity that in little more than five years has raised well over £100 million ($150 million) for members of the Armed Forces wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The two attackers get out of the car, then fall on Rigby, stabbing and slashing him to death with their knives and cleavers before they drag his body into the middle of the road.

The murder brings the mid-afternoon traffic on Artillery Place, just yards from the busy arterial John Wilson Street, to a standstill. From the relative safety of a stationary bus, passengers start to film: later the footage will be broadcast by the world’s media.

One clip starts by showing the car smashed into a lamp-post: then the camera pans round to show that this is no ordinary traffic accident. The footage reveals that the victim lying in the road being tenderly stroked by a passer-by. We do not know at this stage at what point Rigby died.

Watch: Terrorism analyst on soldier killing

About 50 yards behind the commotion a silent crowd of people has gathered to watch proceedings. One woman, apparently oblivious to the unfolding carnage, casually walks past the scene carrying her shopping bag.

In one clip that will later be streamed on a newspaper website, one bus passenger feels sufficiently emboldened to leave the vehicle while filming — even though it is far from clear that the attackers will not strike out at other people. Then, amazingly, one of the two suspected assailants walks up to the camera in an agitated state. He is dressed in black and wearing a black beanie hat, his hands drenched in blood. In his left hand he grips a knife and machete.

Opinion: The real enemy in London hacking death

The suspect begins to address the camera, as if explaining himself to a wider audience that goes beyond those gathered on the street.

“The only reason we killed this man today is because Muslims are dying daily by British soldiers,” he begins. “And this British soldier is one. It is an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. I apologize that women had to witness this today but in our lands our women have to see the same. You people will never be safe. Remove your governments. They don’t care about you. You think David Cameron is going to get caught in the street when we start busting our guns, you think politicians are going to die?”

At this point in his rant, an elderly woman pulling a shopping trolley bustles past the man without even slowing and continues on her way. Both ignore each other.

The man continues. “No, it’s going to be the average guy like you, and your children. So, get rid of them. Tell them to bring our troops back so we can all live in peace.”

He then walks back up the road, towards the victim and a second man with whom he has a conversation. They make no attempt to flee the scene. Instead they walk up and down the street, having heated conversations with passers-by, some of whom plead with the pair to refrain from further violence.

One such bystander, Ingrid Loyau-Kennett, will later tell the Guardian newspaper she spoke to one of the attackers. “He was very excited and he told me not to get close to the body. I didn’t really feel anything. I was not scared because he was not drunk, he was not on drugs. He was normal. I could speak to him and he wanted to speak and that’s what we did.”

Loyau-Kennett, a passenger on the bus, will tell reporters that she asked the suspect what he was going to do next. “He said it was a war and if the police were coming, he was going to kill them. I asked him if that was a reasonable thing to do but it was clear that he really wanted to do that. He talked about war but he did not talk about dying and then he left to speak to someone else.”

But the violence is not yet over. Fourteen minutes after the attack, police say, armed officers arrive. According to eyewitnesses, the two attackers, one of whom was brandishing a handgun, charged at the officers who opened fire, wounding both of the men.

The men are left at the scene while crowds surge around them, according to media reports. A police helicopter then arrives to take the men under armed guard to separate London hospitals. A large section of Woolwich is sealed off for the evening by forensics officers who comb the area around Artillery Place for evidence.

Wednesday’s attack is not the first time that soldiers in Woolwich have been visited with violence. In 1974 a bomb was thrown through the window of the King’s Arms pub at the far end of Artillery Place, killing a gunner as well as a sales clerk.

The Provisional IRA claimed responsibility for that attack — but unlike the two attackers on Wednesday, they were far less brazen. They fled after the bombing and went on to kill more than 30 others in a 14-month campaign across London before surrendering to police in December 1975 following a six-day siege.

Wednesday’s killing is the first jihadist attack that has killed a victim since the July 7, 2005 bombings in London that killed 52 people and the four bombers. Just like the 1970s IRA bombing campaign and the 7/7 attacks, it is likely to resonate in London and the wider British society for a long period.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/23/world/europe/london-attack-color/index.html?eref=edition

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewsRipplesWeb/~3/kF9wGW6fny8/surreal-scene-of-cleaver-attack

Johannesburg (CNN) — “This shouldn’t be happening” — these were the words of a visibly nervous and frustrated sheriff of the court as he rang the outside bell and knocked at the gate belonging to a woman still considered by many in South Africa as the “mother of the nation.”

Joe Maluleke and two other officials arrived at Winnie Mandela’s house in Soweto on Tuesday to execute a court order granting a Johannesburg school permission to auction her belongings and pay an old debt. Among the goods meant to go under the hammer were 50 paintings, a round table, chairs and a silver tea set.

The problems started when the ex-wife of Nelson Mandela, the country’s first black president and an international icon, registered her great niece, Nobantu Vutela, as a boarding student at Abbotts College in Northcliff, Johannesburg, according to court papers filed in 2008.

The accommodation fees for the year were 40,000 South African rand — the equivalent of about $4,000 today. Winnie Mandela, 76, who earns an annual salary of around $90,000, as a member of parliament, was given six months to pay the full amount. It’s unclear why she and not the girl’s own parents enrolled her into the private school.

Despite the documents stipulating that R10,000 ($1000) be paid up front, lawyers representing the school say Mrs Mandela never paid a cent. They started instituting proceedings against her in October 2008. The case dragged on for five years. A lawyer acting on behalf of the school told CNN Mrs Mandela made her first payment last year but that she still owes nearly $5,000 with interest included. Mrs Mandela’s lawyer is disputing the interest amount.

With dozens of journalists surrounding him, not a single bidder in sight, and Mrs Mandela’s bodyguards stationed on the other side of the wall, Sheriff Maluleke knocked in vain. People could be seen moving around inside and outside the house, but nobody came out to let the sheriff in. At one point a car sped out of the premises using a side entrance. It is unclear who was in the car.

Maluleke was instructed by lawyers to get a locksmith and force his way into Mandela’s house, but he was understandably reluctant. At one point a spectator shouted, “Why don’t you climb over the wall?” The sheriff’s irritated retort: “And get shot at?”

The tense standoff lasted for about two hours. Maluleke left Winnie Mandela’s property empty-handed and dejected. He later admitted that the task he was expected to carry out was a difficult one. “Is it because she is the mother of the nation?” he was asked. “Exactly,” he responded.

Read this: How South Africa avoided ‘bloody racial war’

Outrage at pictures of ailing Mandela

2012: Nelson Mandela’s early years

Nelson Mandela’s family wine venture

Celebrating Mandela at 94

On Monday night Winnie Mandela’s lawyer Yandisa Dudula had been frantically trying to stop the auction from going ahead.

“Mrs. Mandela has given me a check for R16,000 ($1,696), and another R4,000 ($212) has been given to the sheriff,” he told CNN. “The auction is not necessary.”

The school’s lawyers insisted on getting the money in cash, failing which, they said the sale of her goods would go ahead as planned.

Confused neighbors looked on as the spectacle at Mandela’s property unfolded.

“We thought she had money, it is very surprising that her goods are now having to be auctioned in order to recoup funds for a debt,” one of them told CNN.

When asked what it is like to live next door “the mother of the nation,” the neighbor said, “We never see her. When the old man (Nelson Mandela) lived in Soweto he would walk around, shake people’s hands, greet and talk to them, he even invited us into his home.”

“Winnie keeps to herself, but we still call her ‘mother of the nation’ and no-one wants to see her humiliated,” the neighbor said.

Commentators say Winnie Mandela has become increasingly isolated, not only by her political family, the ruling African National Congress, but seemingly by her biological family as well.

“Internal tensions within the family could have played a role in no one coming to Mrs Mandela’s aid,” political analyst Somadoda Fikeni told CNN. “The family is fragmented and recent squabbles over money have further emphasized these divisions.”

Two of Nelson Mandela’s daughters — Makaziwe Mandela and Zenani Dlamini — are currently embroiled in a legal battle over the former political prisoner’s money. They have filed court papers in an attempt to remove Mandela’s longtime lawyer and friend, 84-year-old George Bizos, and others as directors of companies owned by the Mandela Trust.

The children’s legal battle over their iconic father’s monies has come under heavy criticism in South Africa. Bizos told local media the lawsuit is “a ploy to resuscitate the sale of Mandela’s artworks” whose proceeds go to the companies at the center of the dispute.

Andrew Mlangeni, who was incarcerated on Robben Island with Mr Mandela, told CNN: “This is a matter that should have been resolved internally within the family.”

Makaziwe recently rebutted accusations that her intentions are motivated by greed, telling the New York Times: “This issue that we are greedy, that we are wanting this money before my dad passes away is all nonsense.”

The feud over Nelson Mandela’s millions and now the threat of an auction at his former wife’s residence underscore the contradictions and complexities in what many consider South Africa’s political “royal family.”

Read this: Big brands target South Africa’s middle class

This is by no means Winnie Mandela’s first brush with the law, although for years many saw her as untouchable.

The former freedom fighter was implicated in the 1980s murder of 14-year-old anti-apartheid activist Stompie Seipei. Her then-husband, Nelson Mandela, stood by her, despite a mountain of damning evidence. In 1991 she was convicted of kidnapping Seipei and for being an accessory to assault, but her six-year jail term was reduced on appeal to a fine and a suspended sentence.

In 2003 Mrs Mandela was convicted for theft and fraud in connection with an elaborate bank loan scheme where the ANC party letterhead was used to obtain loans for bogus employees including her youngest daughter Zinzi. The conviction carried a jail term, but that sentence too was suspended.

A few months ago police confirmed that they have reopened the murder case of two more former freedom fighters, allegedly last seen at her house more than 20 years ago. Their bodies were exhumed in March.

Musical tribute to Nelson Mandela

Securing the release of Nelson Mandela

Securing the release of Nelson Mandela

From prison number to fashion line

In recent years, “the mother of the nation’s” influence in the country and within the ruling party has waned, and the protection she once enjoyed along with it. Last year she was voted second-last in the party’s national executive committee. She had been top of the list at the previous ANC conference in 2007.

Still, respected columnist and journalist Justice Malala says he is astonished Winnie Mandela couldn’t get help from a single one of her former comrades.

Malala told CNN: “It’s great that she was paying for her great niece’s school fees but I’m surprised that firstly she didn’t feel she could raise the money from her own salary and secondly that no-one in the ANC was willing to help her. She could have also approached the Mandela Trust. Mandela has given money to president Jacob Zuma before when he was in trouble.”

Perhaps the most astonishing part of the tale is why her children and grandchildren appear to have stood by and watched as threats of an auction became more serious.

Two of her grandchildren, Zaziwe and Swati Dlamini have recently launched a reality show in the U.S. called “Being Mandela.” They also have a clothing line named “Long Walk to Freedom” after their grandfather’s autobiography. Their mother Zenani Dlamini, Winnie’s eldest daughter, is South Africa’s ambassador to Argentina.

Despite the family’s many ventures and connections, Winnie’s lawyer says money isn’t always readily available.

Winnie Mandela has often courted controversy, but she is still adored by many in South Africa.

She endured years of torture, torment, banishment and imprisonment by the apartheid regime while fighting resolutely for racial equality in the country.

And despite her legal and financial troubles over the years, very few South Africans are celebrating her downfall. Many of them took to Twitter to express their solidarity. “We cannot forget Winnie Mandela who stood tall for three decades” wrote one person.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/24/world/africa/winnie-mandela-sheriff-auction/index.html?eref=edition

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewsRipplesWeb/~3/p6I-JDAotGg/winnie-mandela-and-the-debt-collectors

Johannesburg (CNN) — “This shouldn’t be happening” — these were the words of a visibly nervous and frustrated sheriff of the court as he rang the outside bell and knocked at the gate belonging to a woman still considered by many in South Africa as the “mother of the nation.”

Joe Maluleke and two other officials arrived at Winnie Mandela’s house in Soweto on Tuesday to execute a court order granting a Johannesburg school permission to auction her belongings and pay an old debt. Among the goods meant to go under the hammer were 50 paintings, a round table, chairs and a silver tea set.

The problems started when the ex-wife of Nelson Mandela, the country’s first black president and an international icon, registered her great niece, Nobantu Vutela, as a boarding student at Abbotts College in Northcliff, Johannesburg, according to court papers filed in 2008.

The accommodation fees for the year were 40,000 South African rand — the equivalent of about $4,000 today. Winnie Mandela, 76, who earns an annual salary of around $90,000, as a member of parliament, was given six months to pay the full amount. It’s unclear why she and not the girl’s own parents enrolled her into the private school.

Despite the documents stipulating that R10,000 ($1000) be paid up front, lawyers representing the school say Mrs Mandela never paid a cent. They started instituting proceedings against her in October 2008. The case dragged on for five years. A lawyer acting on behalf of the school told CNN Mrs Mandela made her first payment last year but that she still owes nearly $5,000 with interest included. Mrs Mandela’s lawyer is disputing the interest amount.

With dozens of journalists surrounding him, not a single bidder in sight, and Mrs Mandela’s bodyguards stationed on the other side of the wall, Sheriff Maluleke knocked in vain. People could be seen moving around inside and outside the house, but nobody came out to let the sheriff in. At one point a car sped out of the premises using a side entrance. It is unclear who was in the car.

Maluleke was instructed by lawyers to get a locksmith and force his way into Mandela’s house, but he was understandably reluctant. At one point a spectator shouted, “Why don’t you climb over the wall?” The sheriff’s irritated retort: “And get shot at?”

The tense standoff lasted for about two hours. Maluleke left Winnie Mandela’s property empty-handed and dejected. He later admitted that the task he was expected to carry out was a difficult one. “Is it because she is the mother of the nation?” he was asked. “Exactly,” he responded.

Read this: How South Africa avoided ‘bloody racial war’

Outrage at pictures of ailing Mandela

2012: Nelson Mandela’s early years

Nelson Mandela’s family wine venture

Celebrating Mandela at 94

On Monday night Winnie Mandela’s lawyer Yandisa Dudula had been frantically trying to stop the auction from going ahead.

“Mrs. Mandela has given me a check for R16,000 ($1,696), and another R4,000 ($212) has been given to the sheriff,” he told CNN. “The auction is not necessary.”

The school’s lawyers insisted on getting the money in cash, failing which, they said the sale of her goods would go ahead as planned.

Confused neighbors looked on as the spectacle at Mandela’s property unfolded.

“We thought she had money, it is very surprising that her goods are now having to be auctioned in order to recoup funds for a debt,” one of them told CNN.

When asked what it is like to live next door “the mother of the nation,” the neighbor said, “We never see her. When the old man (Nelson Mandela) lived in Soweto he would walk around, shake people’s hands, greet and talk to them, he even invited us into his home.”

“Winnie keeps to herself, but we still call her ‘mother of the nation’ and no-one wants to see her humiliated,” the neighbor said.

Commentators say Winnie Mandela has become increasingly isolated, not only by her political family, the ruling African National Congress, but seemingly by her biological family as well.

“Internal tensions within the family could have played a role in no one coming to Mrs Mandela’s aid,” political analyst Somadoda Fikeni told CNN. “The family is fragmented and recent squabbles over money have further emphasized these divisions.”

Two of Nelson Mandela’s daughters — Makaziwe Mandela and Zenani Dlamini — are currently embroiled in a legal battle over the former political prisoner’s money. They have filed court papers in an attempt to remove Mandela’s longtime lawyer and friend, 84-year-old George Bizos, and others as directors of companies owned by the Mandela Trust.

The children’s legal battle over their iconic father’s monies has come under heavy criticism in South Africa. Bizos told local media the lawsuit is “a ploy to resuscitate the sale of Mandela’s artworks” whose proceeds go to the companies at the center of the dispute.

Andrew Mlangeni, who was incarcerated on Robben Island with Mr Mandela, told CNN: “This is a matter that should have been resolved internally within the family.”

Makaziwe recently rebutted accusations that her intentions are motivated by greed, telling the New York Times: “This issue that we are greedy, that we are wanting this money before my dad passes away is all nonsense.”

The feud over Nelson Mandela’s millions and now the threat of an auction at his former wife’s residence underscore the contradictions and complexities in what many consider South Africa’s political “royal family.”

Read this: Big brands target South Africa’s middle class

This is by no means Winnie Mandela’s first brush with the law, although for years many saw her as untouchable.

The former freedom fighter was implicated in the 1980s murder of 14-year-old anti-apartheid activist Stompie Seipei. Her then-husband, Nelson Mandela, stood by her, despite a mountain of damning evidence. In 1991 she was convicted of kidnapping Seipei and for being an accessory to assault, but her six-year jail term was reduced on appeal to a fine and a suspended sentence.

In 2003 Mrs Mandela was convicted for theft and fraud in connection with an elaborate bank loan scheme where the ANC party letterhead was used to obtain loans for bogus employees including her youngest daughter Zinzi. The conviction carried a jail term, but that sentence too was suspended.

A few months ago police confirmed that they have reopened the murder case of two more former freedom fighters, allegedly last seen at her house more than 20 years ago. Their bodies were exhumed in March.

Musical tribute to Nelson Mandela

Securing the release of Nelson Mandela

Securing the release of Nelson Mandela

From prison number to fashion line

In recent years, “the mother of the nation’s” influence in the country and within the ruling party has waned, and the protection she once enjoyed along with it. Last year she was voted second-last in the party’s national executive committee. She had been top of the list at the previous ANC conference in 2007.

Still, respected columnist and journalist Justice Malala says he is astonished Winnie Mandela couldn’t get help from a single one of her former comrades.

Malala told CNN: “It’s great that she was paying for her great niece’s school fees but I’m surprised that firstly she didn’t feel she could raise the money from her own salary and secondly that no-one in the ANC was willing to help her. She could have also approached the Mandela Trust. Mandela has given money to president Jacob Zuma before when he was in trouble.”

Perhaps the most astonishing part of the tale is why her children and grandchildren appear to have stood by and watched as threats of an auction became more serious.

Two of her grandchildren, Zaziwe and Swati Dlamini have recently launched a reality show in the U.S. called “Being Mandela.” They also have a clothing line named “Long Walk to Freedom” after their grandfather’s autobiography. Their mother Zenani Dlamini, Winnie’s eldest daughter, is South Africa’s ambassador to Argentina.

Despite the family’s many ventures and connections, Winnie’s lawyer says money isn’t always readily available.

Winnie Mandela has often courted controversy, but she is still adored by many in South Africa.

She endured years of torture, torment, banishment and imprisonment by the apartheid regime while fighting resolutely for racial equality in the country.

And despite her legal and financial troubles over the years, very few South Africans are celebrating her downfall. Many of them took to Twitter to express their solidarity. “We cannot forget Winnie Mandela who stood tall for three decades” wrote one person.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/24/world/africa/winnie-mandela-sheriff-auction/index.html?eref=edition

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NewsRipplesWeb/~3/OTT-azsixHE/has-winnie-mandela-fallen-on-hard-times