PARIS – Authorities have recorded France's first death from the European E. coli outbreak.
Health officials in Bordeaux said the 78-year-old woman died early Saturday morning.
She had been hospitalized in Bordeaux since June 24 with hemolytic uremic syndrome — the rare kidney condition that the most seriously ill victims of the outbreak are suffering from.
When an Amsterdam court acquitted far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders of all charges of discrimination and inciting hatred against Muslims on June 23, it seemed a fitting climax to a week that saw the end of the decade-long Dutch experiment with integration. Judges ruled that although the comments the politician made in the Dutch press and on the internet between October 2006 and March 2008 comparing Islam to Nazism may be offensive, they are nonetheless legal and part of a legitimate government debate - one that's taken on tones that were unthinkable - or at least unspeakable - only a few years ago.
"The good news is it's legal to be critical about Islam," Wilders told reporters after his acquittal. "And this is something that we need because the Islamization of our societies is a major problem and a threat to our freedom. And I'm allowed to say so." (See pictures of Muslims in America.)
"I'm very disappointed," said Dutch Moroccan Zenap al-Garboni, as she smeared cream cheese on her children's bagels in a restaurant near the courthouse shortly after the verdict. "He's creating hate against Islam." Added her 11-year-old daughter Amra: "When I see him speaking on TV it really scares Me ... for all the children, it's really scary to see and I think it shouldn't be like that."
Wilders has never shied away from attacking Islam, despite having to live under constant protection since 2004, when controversial Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was murdered by a Muslim extremist. Wilders has called for a ban on the Koran - which he compared to Hitler's Mein Kampf - and a "head-rag tax." He's also on record as saying the Netherlands should close its doors to Muslim immigrants and even take away the nationality of some who are already there. And his short film Fitna juxtaposes images of the 9/11 attacks and other terrorist acts with verses from the Koran. (See pictures of the rise of Hitler)
In court last week, Presiding Judge Marcel van Oosten called some of those comments "crude and denigrating," but ruled that they fall within the scope of protected speech - especially because his remarks were made during the country's heated debates on multiculturalism.
Others disagree. "He got away with Islamaphobic expressions that, in light of the U.N. Convention against Racism, should have fallen within the scope of our criminal law," says Egbert Dommering, a lawyer and professor at the University of Amsterdam. While Wilders has declared his acquittal a victory for free speech, Dommering says "it's a victory for free speech for himself, but it will lead to a deterioration in the quality of debate and a legitimization of using strong language against the Muslim religion which is in fact aimed against people." Wilders has always maintained he's against Islam and not its practitioners, a distinction that's legal under Dutch law.
Wilders' acquittal seems to be a sign that his once radical views have become mainstream in a country that for decades was viewed as one of the most liberal and tolerant in the world. "The judgment doesn't turn the tide," says Dommering, "but it's symbolic of what's going on in the Netherlands." Wilders is already an enormously popular politician - many analysts say the ruling will only make him more so - and his PVV party is the third largest in parliament. Although not a formal partner in the ruling conservative coalition, PVV's backing is crucial in giving it a voting majority. In turn, the government supports many of Wilders' anti-immigrant positions - from limiting immigration to banning face-covering attire. (Read: "The New Dutch Government: An End to Tolerance?")
The verdict came just days after Dutch ministers backed away from current integration policy and announced plans to cut funding for programs designed to help immigrants. Saying Dutch values must come first, Home Affairs Minister Piet Hein Donner told parliament that the government "will distance itself from the relativism contained in the model of a multicultural society." A June 19 poll found that three-quarters of the Dutch support the cabinet's slashing of funds that go toward aiding immigrants.
"In the 1990s, saying a multicultural society should end was ruled discriminatory," says Channa Samkalden, a lawyer at the firm BOhler Advocaten who specializes in free speech and freedom of religion. She's referring to the case of another anti-immigration politician, Hans Janmaat, who was prone to saying "full is full" and "our people first." Says Samkalden: "We've simply changed our minds on what's allowable." (See more on Wilders.)
For Ronnie Eisenmann, head of the board of the Amsterdam Jewish Community, the latest twists in the Dutch culture wars reek of political strategy. "The fact that politicians say multiculturalism has failed doesn't mean you can ignore that a multicultural society exits," he says. "They're saying it because they want to cut funding." Muslim and Jewish organizations have recently come together to oppose a ban to ritual slaughter that parliament members approved on Tuesday - a ban that Wilders supports. (Read about the march to the Far Right.)
But while Amsterdam's politicians may be declaring the death of multiculturalism, the picture on the streets tell a different story. At Sunday's Roots Festival in the Oosterpark - a musical celebration of all things cultural not rooted in Western Europe - stands selling Turkish kebabs co-exist happily with Dutch herring sellers and African artists. "I think the politicians don't know what they're talking about," said Amsterdam student Shola Verschuren. Originally from Nigeria, she is currently taking government-funded Dutch lessons, classes that would get the axe under the cabinet's current plans. "I will be angry if they're cut," she says. "Integration rocks."
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When an Amsterdam court acquitted far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders of all charges of discrimination and inciting hatred against Muslims on June 23, it seemed a fitting climax to a week that saw the end of the decade-long Dutch experiment with integration. Judges ruled that although the comments the politician made in the Dutch press and on the internet between October 2006 and March 2008 comparing Islam to Nazism may be offensive, they are nonetheless legal and part of a legitimate government debate - one that's taken on tones that were unthinkable - or at least unspeakable - only a few years ago.
"The good news is it's legal to be critical about Islam," Wilders told reporters after his acquittal. "And this is something that we need because the Islamization of our societies is a major problem and a threat to our freedom. And I'm allowed to say so." (See pictures of Muslims in America.)
"I'm very disappointed," said Dutch Moroccan Zenap al-Garboni, as she smeared cream cheese on her children's bagels in a restaurant near the courthouse shortly after the verdict. "He's creating hate against Islam." Added her 11-year-old daughter Amra: "When I see him speaking on TV it really scares Me ... for all the children, it's really scary to see and I think it shouldn't be like that."
Wilders has never shied away from attacking Islam, despite having to live under constant protection since 2004, when controversial Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was murdered by a Muslim extremist. Wilders has called for a ban on the Koran - which he compared to Hitler's Mein Kampf - and a "head-rag tax." He's also on record as saying the Netherlands should close its doors to Muslim immigrants and even take away the nationality of some who are already there. And his short film Fitna juxtaposes images of the 9/11 attacks and other terrorist acts with verses from the Koran. (See pictures of the rise of Hitler)
In court last week, Presiding Judge Marcel van Oosten called some of those comments "crude and denigrating," but ruled that they fall within the scope of protected speech - especially because his remarks were made during the country's heated debates on multiculturalism.
Others disagree. "He got away with Islamaphobic expressions that, in light of the U.N. Convention against Racism, should have fallen within the scope of our criminal law," says Egbert Dommering, a lawyer and professor at the University of Amsterdam. While Wilders has declared his acquittal a victory for free speech, Dommering says "it's a victory for free speech for himself, but it will lead to a deterioration in the quality of debate and a legitimization of using strong language against the Muslim religion which is in fact aimed against people." Wilders has always maintained he's against Islam and not its practitioners, a distinction that's legal under Dutch law.
Wilders' acquittal seems to be a sign that his once radical views have become mainstream in a country that for decades was viewed as one of the most liberal and tolerant in the world. "The judgment doesn't turn the tide," says Dommering, "but it's symbolic of what's going on in the Netherlands." Wilders is already an enormously popular politician - many analysts say the ruling will only make him more so - and his PVV party is the third largest in parliament. Although not a formal partner in the ruling conservative coalition, PVV's backing is crucial in giving it a voting majority. In turn, the government supports many of Wilders' anti-immigrant positions - from limiting immigration to banning face-covering attire. (Read: "The New Dutch Government: An End to Tolerance?")
The verdict came just days after Dutch ministers backed away from current integration policy and announced plans to cut funding for programs designed to help immigrants. Saying Dutch values must come first, Home Affairs Minister Piet Hein Donner told parliament that the government "will distance itself from the relativism contained in the model of a multicultural society." A June 19 poll found that three-quarters of the Dutch support the cabinet's slashing of funds that go toward aiding immigrants.
"In the 1990s, saying a multicultural society should end was ruled discriminatory," says Channa Samkalden, a lawyer at the firm BOhler Advocaten who specializes in free speech and freedom of religion. She's referring to the case of another anti-immigration politician, Hans Janmaat, who was prone to saying "full is full" and "our people first." Says Samkalden: "We've simply changed our minds on what's allowable." (See more on Wilders.)
For Ronnie Eisenmann, head of the board of the Amsterdam Jewish Community, the latest twists in the Dutch culture wars reek of political strategy. "The fact that politicians say multiculturalism has failed doesn't mean you can ignore that a multicultural society exits," he says. "They're saying it because they want to cut funding." Muslim and Jewish organizations have recently come together to oppose a ban to ritual slaughter that parliament members approved on Tuesday - a ban that Wilders supports. (Read about the march to the Far Right.)
But while Amsterdam's politicians may be declaring the death of multiculturalism, the picture on the streets tell a different story. At Sunday's Roots Festival in the Oosterpark - a musical celebration of all things cultural not rooted in Western Europe - stands selling Turkish kebabs co-exist happily with Dutch herring sellers and African artists. "I think the politicians don't know what they're talking about," said Amsterdam student Shola Verschuren. Originally from Nigeria, she is currently taking government-funded Dutch lessons, classes that would get the axe under the cabinet's current plans. "I will be angry if they're cut," she says. "Integration rocks."
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(CNN) -- Six people were killed when a tractor-trailer truck slammed into a Chicago-to-California Amtrak passenger train at a railroad crossing east of Reno, Nevada, authorities said late Saturday.
The death toll was released just as federal authorities said they were trying to account for passengers missing from the passenger train that was struck Friday at a railroad crossing near Lovelock, Nevada.
"No names are being released pending positive identification and notification of families," the Churchill County, Nevada, sheriff's department said in a written statement.
The National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating, is trying to account for passengers listed on the manifest but not located after the crash, Earl Weener of the NTSB told reporters during a news conference late Saturday night in Sparks, Nevada.
In some cases, it is believed people got off the train earlier or bought a ticket but did not take the train, he said.
"There are a number of reasons that the manifest and that number don't jibe," Weener said.
The 10-car train, which was on its way to Emeryville, California, was carrying 204 passengers and 14 crew members, Amtrak said in a statement released Friday.
It was not immediately clear how many people were injured. Amtrak said that numerous people aboard the train had been taken to area hospitals for treatment.
Amateur video taken after the crash showed huge plumes of black smoke billowing from the train as a fire burned. Passengers and crew members stood outside.
One voice on the video can be heard telling people to get away from the smoke. Another tells a woman, out of view, to "hang and jump." A third voice asks someone, "Are you OK?"
"Next thing I know, we get hit by something. A big ball of fire comes in. I jumped out the window," passenger Justin Rhine told CNN affiliate KOLO-TV in Reno. "I saw people flying on the other side of the train."
Skid marks show the driver of the truck slammed on his brakes, sliding more than 300 feet before hitting the train, sparking a fire, Weener said. The fire burned the truck and two train cars, he said.
The initial investigation found the signal light and crossing guard arms were working, and that there was good visibility of the train tracks from the road, he said.
The truck was the lead in a three-truck convoy as it approached the train tracks, Weener said.
The two following saw the train signal and slowed to stop, "waiting for him to come to stop," he said.
Though the driver of the truck has not been identified, Weener said the truck belonged to John Davies Trucking of Battle Mountain, Nevada.
The trucking company, which advertises itself as family-owned business that hauls concrete, did not immediately respond to a CNN request for comment.BEIRUT – Hundreds of Syrians, some with gunshot wounds, have crossed into neighboring Lebanon in search of a refuge from the growing violence in their homeland, a Lebanese security official said Saturday.
Most arriving at the border came shortly after Syrian security forces opened fire on anti-government protesters across Syria on Friday. Syrian activists said 20 people were killed, including two children aged 12 and 13.
The Local Coordination Committees, a group tracking the Syria protests, said most of the deaths occurred in the Barzeh neighborhood of the capital, Damascus, and in the suburb of al-Kaswa. Others died when security forces opened fire in the central city of Homs, sending residents fleeing to the Lebanese border 20 miles (30 kilometers) away.
The Syrian opposition says some 1,400 people have been killed as the government has cracked down on a movement demanding an end to four decades of Assad family rule — a popular uprising renewed each Friday after weekly Muslim prayers.
The violence has prompted thousands of Syrians to seek a safe haven in neighboring countries. Up to 1,000 crossed Friday and overnight into northern Lebanon's Akkar region, near Wadi Khaled, a Lebanese security official said. Most crossed into the border village of Kneiseh from the Syrian village of al-Quseir, where Syrian activists said security forces fired on protesters Friday
At least six Syrians with gunshot wounds were among the arrivals, the Lebanese official said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations. The wounded were receiving treatment in Akkar hospitals.
The new arrivals join thousands of other Syrians who fled to Lebanon in May and early June, most during the Syrian military's crackdown on the border town of Talkalakh, a few minutes' walk from Lebanon's Wadi Khaled.
Unlike the earlier exodus, when the displaced Syrians camped out on the Lebanese side of the border, many new arrivals were staying with relatives or elsewhere in Beirut, the Lebanese official said.
The military's recent sweep through northwestern Syria, where armed resistance flared in early June, also has sent more than 11,700 refugees fleeing across the border to refugee camps in Turkey.
Defying government guns, thousands of Syrian protesters poured down city streets Friday to press demands for President Bashar Assad's ouster.
"Our revolution is strong! Assad has lost legitimacy!" a YouTube video showed protesters chanting Friday in Zabadani, a suburb of Damascus, the Syrian capital.
Such reports on the protests and violence are difficult to verify independently, since Syria has barred foreign correspondents from the country and restricted reporting by local journalists.
Syria's streets have become the stage for a test of endurance between a 3-month-old pro-democracy movement, bloodied but resilient, and an iron-fisted but embattled regime. The latest round of protests and killings came as international pressure mounted on President Bashar Assad.
"We will not stand by while the Syrian regime uses violent repression to silence its own people," British Foreign Secretary William Hague said after the European Union expanded sanctions — asset freezes and travel bans — to more members of the Syrian leadership.
Have you heard the one about the dog who walked into a rabbinical court?
Here's how the BBC reported it: A pooch made its way into a beth din in Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim. One of the judges, believing the dog to be the reincarnation of a now-deceased lawyer whom the court had cursed some two decades earlier, sentenced the dog to death by stoning, and ordered that the sentence be carried out by children. The dog escaped before the sentence could be carried out. Dog-lovers have filed a complaint against the court.
This story has it all. Religious zealots! Animal rights activists! Blood libel! Children! Ingredients that tend to nourish the more primitive regions of our minds and starve the rest. Best of all, it runs under 200 words and stars a dog.
The story's only deficiency is that it comes up short in the being-factually-true department.
RELATED: Top 10 political misquotations
As it turns out, the BBC, along with Agence France Presse, Time Magazine, and a handful other news outlets got the story from Ynet, the website for Yediot Ahronot, Israel's second-largest newspaper. Ynet's story says that the head of the court denied that such an incident had taken place, a detail that was left out of the original BBC, Time, and AFP stories. The paper is also alone in noting that there was no official ruling, just a rabbi telling kids to throw rocks at a dog.
Ynet didn't do any original reporting. They got the story from this in Behadrei Hadarim, a small Hebrew-language news outlet for Israel's ultra-Orthodox community. The Bhadrei Hadarim's reports that it got the story from someone who was present, but it doesn't bother to give that person's name.
Israel's third-largest paper, which doesn't have an English edition, also ran the story. They subsequently ran an apology, noting what the court said actually happened: A dog walked into a courtroom, and someone called the dogcatcher.
How did a story get from a single, unattributed source in a community news outlet to appearing on some of the world's most respected news outlets, with apparently nobody making any attempts to verify it?
After all, it's not the first time this sort of thing has happened. Just a few weeks ago, The New York Times, CNN, The Guardian, BBC, Agence France Presse, and Reuters all reported the discovery of dozens of bodies buried on a farm outside Houston. It turns out that police were investigating a tip from a self-described psychic, who not surprisingly turned out to be completely wrong.
"In the frenzied first 30 minutes of activity, one news organization after another built its wrong reporting upon the wrong reporting of others – The Times citing Reuters citing 'local media' citing, in some cases, nobody," writes media critic Bob Garfield on Mashable.
Garfield has a point: Repeating what has been said by other news outlets doesn't create knowledge. It just remixes it, sometimes with heavy distortion and amplification.
As budgets and news cycles shrink, piggybacking on other people's reporting, however sketchy, becomes inevitable. When this is done without verification, errors become increasingly frequent. So while "rabbi stones dog" may not be a true story, it's a useful cautionary tale for journalists, and that includes us. After all, you know what they say about those who live in glass houses.
RELATED: Top 10 political misquotations
(CNN) -- Four more people have died in Germany, health officials said Sunday, bringing the total number of deaths from an E. coli outbreak to 35.
All but one of the deaths were in Germany, with the other occurring in Sweden, according to the World Health Organization and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.
The number of people infected with E. coli as of Sunday was 3,256, according to the European center (ECDC). Of those, 812 have the severe form of the intestinal illness.
All but five people had traveled to or lived in Germany during the incubation period for infection, typically three to four days after exposure, the WHO said.
German authorities have indicated that food items including bean sprouts and other vegetables originating from a producer in Lower Saxony, Germany, are the most likely source of the infection. German health authorities have declared that all food products originating from the producer be pulled from the market, according to the ECDC.
The agricultural ministry in Lower Saxony said Sunday that it is still not clear how sprouts from a farm in the state became contaminated with the bacteria.
"It is not clear whether an employee brought the bacteria into the company or whether it was brought in with seeds which then contaminated the worker," the ministry said in a statement.
"Finding this out is important, however, so that we can create early warning systems to prevent such outbreaks in the future," the statement said.
Investigators found bean sprouts were the cause of the outbreak when 17 people became ill after eating at the same restaurant, said Reinhard Burger, president of the Robert Koch Institute, which is responsible for disease control and prevention in Germany. Only those who ate food containing the sprouts became ill, he said.
Farmers in Spain, France, the Netherlands and Belgium have been seeking compensation for their losses. The European Commission has proposed that the European Union pay about $300 million, but Spain alone claims about $600 million in losses.
In Spain, the produce exporter Frunet filed suit last week over the Hamburg state government's initial claims that Spanish produce was to blame for the outbreak. The company, based in Spain's southern Malaga province, expects to file another suit against the government seeking 1 million euros, or $1.4 million, in losses from fresh produce it had to destroy, Frunet owner Antonio Lavao told CNN. Health officials first blamed Frunet's organic cucumbers for the outbreak.CNN's Al Goodman and Frederik Pleitgen contributed to this report.(CNN) -- A top al Qaeda operative in East Africa, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, was killed at a Somali checkpoint in Mogadishu, Kenyan and U.S. officials told CNN Saturday.
Mohammed, a citizen of both Kenya and Comoros, was long sought in Somalia for his alleged role in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Mohammed's death "a significant blow to al Qaeda, its extremist allies and its operations in East Africa."
"It is a just end for a terrorist who brought so much death and pain to so many innocents in Nairobi, Dar es Salaam and elsewhere -- Tanzanians, Kenyans, Somalis, others in the region and our own embassy personnel," she said.
Mohammed was stopped at a roadblock manned by forces of the Somali transitional government, but he sped through, sparking the troops to shoot him, a senior official in neighboring Kenya said.
"We commend the good work by the (transitional government). Fazul's death removes one of the terrorist group's most experienced operational planners in East Africa and has almost certainly set back operations," said a senior U.S. official, who was not authorized to speak on the record.
Meanwhile, the commander of Somalia's government forces confirmed that two men driving through a checkpoint southwest of Mogadishu late Wednesday were killed when both opened fire on soldiers there.
One of the men was a foreigner and his identity was under investigation, Gen. Abdikarin Dhega Badans said.
Somalia's information minister, Abdirahman Omar Osman, confirmed Saturday to CNN that Mohammed was one of the dead, calling it a "huge success" for his country's security forces.
But Osman said despite the success, Somalia needs "the support of the international community to beat Al-Shabab," referring to an al Qaeda-linked group that controls large parts of the country.
A woman accompanying Mohammed was later arrested after the shooting, according to Somali government sources. The woman told authorities that the men thought they were crossing an Al-Shabab checkpoint rather than a government-run checkpoint.
The sources said the two men appeared to have modern weapons in their possession along with $40,000 in cash.
The bodies were then turned over to American authorities for DNA testing, the sources said.
The United States considers Mohammed a senior al Qaeda operative in East Africa, accusing him of being an architect of the embassy bombings that killed 225 people.
American officials also believe Mohammed was involved in attacks on an Israeli-owned hotel and airliner in Kenya in 2002, and have offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his apprehension or conviction.
U.S. President Barack Obama's adviser on national security issued a statement Saturday calling Mohammed's death "another huge setback to al Qaeda and its extremist allies."
John Brennan added that the death "provides a measure of justice to so many who lost loved ones because of the actions of this terrorist."
In the past, Mohammed has managed to escape capture several times. He dodged a 2008 police raid in the Kenyan coastal town of Malindi. And in early 2007, a U.S.-led airstrike in Somalia failed to kill him. In 2003, Kenyan police also said he escaped authorities.
In December 2007, the U.N. Security Council amended a list of 25 al Qaeda suspects subject to sanctions, including Mohammed. The description of Mohammed offered numerous aliases and said he had "reportedly undergone plastic surgery."
The FBI description says Mohammed was born in the Comoros Islands, which are east of Mozambique, and has used birth dates indicating he was born in either 1972 or 1974.CNN's Zain Verjee and Ed Henry and journalist Mohammed Amiin Adow contributed to this report.(CNN) -- Potential jurors in Casey Anthony's first-degree murder trial were asked during jury selection in May if they could look at the remains of a victim as simply evidence and not let their emotions sway them one way or the other.
This week, jurors in the Florida mother's trial for the death of her daughter, Caylee, were put to the test.
Week 3 of the trial began with forensic testimony about how someone searched for "chloroform" and "neck-breaking" on the computer in the home Anthony shared with her parents in Orange County. By Thursday, panelists were fully immersed in the physical reality of the 2-year-old's death: bones, decomposition, odor and all.
The prosecution called key forensic witnesses, who described in graphic detail, the state of Caylee's remains when she was found in a wooded area on Dec. 11, 2008, six months after she went missing.
"This is the skull with the hair and tape along with some leaf litter and other debris that was received at the same time as the other specimens," Orange County Chief Deputy Medical Examiner Dr. Gary Utz said on Thursday as he described a photo of Caylee's remains.
Jurors saw images of the tiny, decaying shorts and Winnie the Pooh blanket found with Caylee's remains. Animals had chewed up Caylee's bones by the time law enforcement discovered them, according to testimony.
At times, the typically stone-faced defendant bowed her head and tried to avoid looking at graphic images of her daughter's remains. On Thursday, Anthony broke into tears and was deemed "ill" by Judge Belvin Perry. Court ended abruptly to allow her to recover.
Anthony, 25, faces seven counts in Caylee's death, including first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and misleading investigators. If convicted, she could face the death penalty.
Anthony has denied having anything to do with her daughter's death. Her defense team asserts Caylee's death was an accidental drowning that "snowballed out of control." Defense lawyer Jose Baez attorney said in his opening statement the Caylee drowned in the family pool shortly after her family last reported seeing her and that Casey Anthony and her father, George Anthony, panicked on discovering the body and covered up her death. George Anthony denied that scenario in his testimony the first week of the trial.
Beginning Thursday, jurors saw dozens of photos and heard hours of testimony on the remains.
Despite objections from the defense, jurors saw a video in which images of Caylee's skull and the duct tape found across the front of it at the scene were superimposed over a photo of a Caylee alive, smiling, with her mother.
The prosecution argued the video showed how the duct tape could have covered both Caylee's nose and mouth, while the defense argued it was only designed to appeal to juror emotions.
Dr. Jan Garavaglia, star of the Discovery Channel's "Dr. G. Medical Examiner" and chief medical examiner in the case, offered some of the most compelling testimony of the week. Garavaglia, who examined the child's remains, testified Friday she could not say for sure how Caylee died .
But, homicide is "the only logical conclusion," she said.
During cross-examination, defense attorney Cheney Mason questioned Garavaglia's method of evaluating the manner of death, suggesting that forensic evidence, and not outside facts of the case, should determine her conclusion. Garavaglia defended her method, saying the cause of death can rarely be determined without outside information.
"The fact that it's tossed in a field to rot in bags is a clear indication that the body was trying to be hidden," Garavaglia said during cross examination. "It being put in a bag is a very big red flag for homicide, never seen in an accidental death for a child, and the fact that there's duct tape attached anywhere to that child's face is to me indication of a homicide."
The trunk
By Saturday, testimony reached discussion of bugs and larvae found in Anthony's trunk, where the prosecution alleges Caylee's body was kept in garbage bags for days after her mother knocked her out with chloroform and taped her nose and mouth.
While forensic entomologist Neal Haskell credited the bugs to decomposition, the defense argued and Haskell admitted the bugs could be attributed to a trash bag found in the trunk.
The prosecution also called Arpad Vass, a senior research scientist at Tennessee's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, who testified Monday about his examination of items from the trunk.
Vass said he was "shocked" by the high level of chloroform in the trunk carpet sample and had an immediate reaction when he opened the can containing the sample.
"I essentially jumped back a foot or two," Vass said, before confirming to Assistant State Attorney Jeff Ashton that he believed the smell was human decomposition. "The odor was extremely overwhelming. I was shocked that that little bitty can could have that much odor associated with it."
During a combative cross-examination, defense lawyer Baez attempted to cast doubt on Vass' testimony, accusing him of having a financial interest in the case and questioning his testing methods. Vass acknowledged that he has a pending patent on a device designed to detect clandestine graves. But he rejected the suggestion that his testimony in the high-profile trial could potentially inspire interest in the device and its applications.
The dogs
Tuesday and Wednesday brought key testimony of the four-legged variety. Deputy Jason Forgey of the Orange County Sheriff's Office, and Sergeant Kristin Brewer of the Osceola County Sheriff's Office, detailed the efforts of cadaver dogs Gerus and Bones, who searched critical areas in search of human remains.
Gerus detected human decomposition in both Anthony's car and in the Anthony's back yard, Forgey testified.
Brewer told jurors that Bones picked up the possible presence of human remains in the backyard near Caylee's playhouse. Images of Caylee's bright plastic playhouse were shown to jurors for demonstration.
During cross examination, Forgey and Brewer agreed that the dogs are not infallible when it comes to identifying remains and, "like humans," are imperfect.
The computers
Though Wednesday and Thursday's testimony on computer forensics was less graphic compared to what was to come, it represented some of the prosecution's most critical evidence so far.
Through the testimony of three computer experts, the prosecution worked to establish premeditation, a factor essential to convicting Anthony of first-degree capital murder.
Searches conducted on the Anthony family computer on March 17 and 21 of 2008 included "chloroform," "how to make chloroform," "household weapons" and "neck-breaking," according to testimony.
"Chloroform" was searched for 84 times, according to the testimony of John Bradley, who developed the computer program used by investigators to locate the searches.
During cross examination, Bradley agreed it is impossible to know for sure how much time was spent on each page viewed, and that some of the terms searched, like "hand-to-hand combat" and "self defense," appeared to have no relation to a case involving the death of a 2-year-old.
Week 4 is expected to bring the close of the prosecution's case and possibly the start of the defense. Only a few prosecution witnesses remain, including a trace-evidence analyst and a tattoo artist Casey Anthony visited in the weeks following her daughter's disappearance.(CNN) -- The European Union on Wednesday agreed to pay 210 million euros ($307 million) to farmers who suffered losses due to the E.coli outbreak that has killed at least 25 people, mostly in Germany.
The figure is up considerably from the 150 million euros EU agriculture officials proposed Tuesday, and Dacion Ciolos, the EU's agriculture commissioner, said that figure may change again.
"This envelope will enable us to respond to the compensation requests for the period from the 26th of May through to the end of June," Ciolos said. "We will then take stock of the situation and see whether we need to adjust these figures."
Farmers in several European countries are seeking to be paid back for losses they suffered after being wrongly blamed for the outbreak. Farmers who grow cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, zucchini and lettuce will be eligible to receive up to 50 percent of the average market price they would have received, based on figures from 2008-2010, the EU said.
Some producers could get up to 70 percent of market prices when funds from EU-supported producer organizations are included, Ciolos said.
The planned settlement still needs to be accepted by EU member states on June 14, Ciolos said. Spain alone has sought more than 400 million euros ($600 million) in lost farm exports of cucumbers, tomatoes and other produce from the past few weeks, and farmers in Belgium, France, Holland and even Germany say they have millions in losses, too.
The death toll from the outbreak rose to 25 on Wednesday as German health authorities confirmed two more E.coli fatalities there. All but one of the 25 were in Germany, while the remaining victim died in Sweden after a having visited Germany.
Local officials in the German state of Lower Saxony said another man, aged 73, also died, but he had other health problems as well, so they are not certain his death was due to E. coli.
There are a total 2,648 cases of E. coli infection in Germany, according to the Robert Koch Institute, Germany's top health authority. But Health Minister Daniel Bahr said Wednesday the number of new cases of infection has been falling significantly.
There have also been a handful of infections in a dozen other European countries, but they appear to be linked to northern Germany.
The cause of the 10-day-old crisis still has not been conclusively identified. There was no trace of E. coli in a pack of bean sprouts in a household in Hamburg, where a man had become infected, health authorities there told CNN Tuesday.
The sprouts came from the farm which officials believe could be the source of the outbreak. But initial tests showed no sign of E. coli there, agriculture officials in the German state of Lower Saxony said Monday.
But authorities said that does not mean their suspicions were wrong; they would not expect to find evidence of E. coli if the tainted sprouts were no longer in the supply chain.
And Wednesday, Lower Saxony agriculture officials said three workers at the suspect farm had diarrhea in early May and at least one has been diagnosed with the dangerous strain of E.coli.
Authorities have also found that a cafeteria in the town of Cuxhaven, where 18 people came down with the infection, had also received sprouts from the farm in question, said Natascha Manski, a spokeswoman for the state agriculture ministry.New Zealanders were mourning the loss of the country's most famous sheep Tuesday, a shaggy national icon named Shrek who was renowned for avoiding being shorn for years.
Shrek captured the public's imagination in 2004 after he evaded the annual shearing roundups for the previous seven years by hiding in caves on his farm on the South Island. When finally found, he was clad in an astonishing 60 pounds (27 kilograms) of wool.
That's about five times a typically annual shearing from Shrek's breed, the Merino sheep prized for some of the softest wool.
In a country where sheep outnumber people by nearly 10 to one, Shrek's story of stubbornness and guile appealed to many. After his capture, Shrek was shorn on live TV in a broadcast that was picked up around the world. His story inspired three books.
"He was quite an elderly statesman," said owner John Perriam. "He taught us a lot."
Until becoming sick three weeks ago, Shrek toured the country, commanding $16,000 for appearances and getting the star treatment wherever he went. In one appearance, Shrek was shorn atop a large iceberg that was floating near the South Island coast.
Shrek was one of about 17,000 sheep on the the 27,000-acre (11,000-hectare) Bendigo farm in the small town of Tarras. Perriam believes Shrek was able to survive the winters and avoid detection by moving about a series of sheltered caves and by munching on small native shrubs.
"It's bizarre that we missed him seven years in a row," Perriam said. "But from his point of view, it was the perfect environment."
After Shrek became a star, Perriam gave him his own barn and showroom. Shrek even had a personal caregiver look after him when he became sick, before the sheep was euthanized Monday at age 17.
Perriam said that as well as laying claim to being New Zealand's woolliest sheep, Shrek may also have been its oldest. Most sheep live for no more than six years before being slaughtered.
Since Shrek's death, tributes have been pouring in online, including on the Facebook page "R.I.P Shrek the Sheep."
Perriam is planning a funeral service and will ask a friend to scatter Shrek's ashes atop Mt. Cook, New Zealand's tallest mountain.
(CNN) -- A California teen accused of taking part in a triple-shooting that killed a 3-month-old boy -- an act police now believe may be a case of mistaken identity -- is expected to make his first court appearance Tuesday, an East Palo Alto police official said.
Police Capt. Jeff Liu said authorities are not releasing the 17-year-old suspect's name because he is a minor. Police also have not named a second "person of interest" in the case because he is 16 years old.
The 17-year-old has been arrested on suspicion of murder; the other teen is being held on weapons charges, Liu said.
Two people opened fire on a family driving home from a baby shower shortly after midnight Sunday. Three-month-old Izak Jesus Jimenez Garcia was killed, while his father and mother suffered serious, but not life-threatening, wounds.
The infant's 4-year-old brother, who was also in the car when the shooting occurred, was not harmed, according to authorities.
Liu said the gunmen opened fire on the vehicle in a case of mistaken identity in retaliation for a gang beating a week earlier.
"What we understand is that on May 31st in Redwood City there was an altercation between the Sureno street gang and the individual we have arrested," Liu said. "During the altercation, the suspect was beaten up. The suspect saw two individuals on Wisteria who he believed were in Redwood City (and took part in the beating)."
"Arming himself and with an accomplice, they went to Wisteria believing those two individuals were in the car."
The child's mother, Ivonne Garcia Lopez, repeatedly wept as she recounted the ordeal at a Monday news conference. Lopez told reporters that, the moment she heard gunfire, she covered her older son with her body.
Lopez said she then reached for her other son.
"I took him out of the car seat and he had a hole in his head," said Lopez, bursting into tears. "They (the gunmen) destroyed my family. They killed my baby and killed part of my soul too."
"He was such a precious angel, my little angel. He was my everything, and I was really happy to have him in my life," Lopez said. "Today my (other) son still has flashbacks of it."
Lopez also had a message for the parents of the alleged killers of her child.
"Pay attention to them (your children)," Lopez said. "Give them love because if they don't do it, they'll find it on the streets and they hang out with the wrong people and they end up being killed ... destroying families."(CNN) -- Chilean authorities will launch an investigation into the 1973 death of writer Pablo Neruda, a judge ruled Thursday.
Judge Mario Carroza ordered the investigation Thursday, noting that police, witness and medical records would be examined, Chile's judicial authority said in a statement.
The Nobel Prize-winning poet's death certificate says he died of prostate cancer, CNN Chile reported. But officials with the country's Communist Party asked officials this week to probe his death.
Neruda died on September 23, 1973, just 12 days after a right-wing military coup that overthrew the South American country's government.
"We are not accusing anybody, a priori. What we want is that the courts to fully clarify the situation," Communist Party President Guillermo Teillier told reporters Tuesday.
But human rights lawyer Eduardo Contreras said that the circumstances surrounding Neruda's death reported in local media differed from descriptions on his death certificate.
"Without a doubt, Neruda in exile would have been something very difficult for the dictatorship," he told reporters.
A biography of the poet on the website of the Neruda Foundation, which Neruda's widow founded to promote and preserve his legacy, notes the coup as a significant date in his life.
"The majority of Neruda's friends were made prisoners or had to hide or seek political asylum in other countries," it says.
Neruda, a member of Chile's Communist Party, was also a lawmaker in the South American country and served as its ambassador to France.
But internationally, he is most well-known for his poetry.
Neruda received the Nobel Prize in Literature 1971 "for a poetry that with the action of an elemental force brings alive a continent's destiny and dreams."
The investigation into his death comes as Chilean authorities probe the death of another high-profile figure in the nation's history: former Chilean President Salvador Allende.
Last week forensic experts exhumed Allende's remains as part of an investigation into whether he killed himself or was assassinated during the 1973 coup.
Official accounts ruled the leftist leader's death a suicide, saying that he shot himself -- with a gun that was reportedly a gift from Fidel Castro -- as Gen. Augusto Pinochet's troops closed in on the presidential palace.
But some of Allende's supporters have long doubted that account. Carroza ordered the exhumation in April as part of a massive investigation of 726 reported human rights violations during Pinochet's rule, CNN Chile reported.CNN's Catherine E. Shoichet contributed to this report.(CNN) -- The number of victims from last month's devastating tornado in Joplin, Missouri, has risen to 138 after four people died as a result of injuries they received during the storm, the Missouri Department of Public Safety announced Thursday.
The ages of the victims range from a 1-year-old boy to a 94-year-old woman.
The death toll could continue to rise, public safety spokesman Seth Bundy said Wednesday.
"We have a lot of critically injured folks that we're hoping and praying they'll pull through, but there could be additional deaths attributed to this storm," he told CNN.
State officials said Wednesday that the number of people missing in the tornado-ravaged city had reached zero after authorities located all unaccounted for individuals or confirmed their deaths.
Residents of the town of 50,000 have been working to pick up the pieces since the tornado, packing winds of 200 mph, tore through their community May 22.Beijing (CNN) -- Amid deepening public concerns over the country's food safety following a wave of recent scandals, China's highest court has ordered judges nationwide to hand down harsher sentences, including the death penalty, to people convicted of violating food safety regulations.
In a directive released by the state-run Xinhua news agency over the weekend, the Supreme People's Court said in cases where people die from food safety violations, convicted suspects should be given the death sentence, while criminals involved in non-lethal cases should face longer prison terms and larger fines.
It also called for harsher punishment for government officials found protecting food safety violators or accepting bribes from them.
"The overall food safety situation is stable and improving, but incidents that still occur regularly have seriously endangered people's lives and caused strong social reactions," the directive quoted Wang Shengjun, the country's top judge, as saying. "Our task to maintain food safety remains challenging."
From milk laced with melamine, pigs fed with performance-enhancing drugs to watermelons juiced up with growth-stimulating chemicals, a series of recent scandals have outraged Chinese consumers, despite ramped-up government crackdown and state media campaign against food safety violations.
From last September to April this year, Chinese courts have tried and convicted 106 people accused of violating food safety, including two who received life imprisonment last month in a "melamine milk" case, Xinhua reported.
"It's clear that the credibility of the system will suffer," said Peter K. Ben Embarek, the World Health Organization's food safety official. "The (Chinese) consumer will continue to lose confidence in Chinese products and consumers abroad will equally lose confidence in Chinese products."
The latest announcement by China's supreme court, however, seems to run counter to another recent initiative to limit the use of the death penalty by the same court.
In its annual work report, the Supreme People's Court last week instructed lower courts to suspend death sentences for two years if an immediate execution is not deemed necessary.
The Chinese legislature had earlier amended the country's penal code to reduce the number of crimes punishable by death by 13 to 55.
China executes more people than all other countries combined, according to Amnesty International. It estimated the figure, considered a state secret, to be in the thousands last year for "a wide range of crimes that include non-violent offences."
The number of executions elsewhere in the world in 2010 was at least 527, according to the London-based group's annual report released earlier this year.(CNN) -- Missouri authorities have identified additional people killed in last weekend's tornado, bringing the toll of the United States' single deadliest twister ever recorded to 142 deaths, authorities said Saturday.
Among the dead was Will Norton, a recent high school graduate who attracted national attention when he disappeared during the storm.
The 18-year-old was driving home from his graduation Sunday when the tornado destroyed the Hummer H3 he and his father were in.
"Mark (Norton's father) said that he reached over and he grabbed Will with both of his arms ... he held on to him until he possibly couldn't anymore and so he's feeling really bad about that because as a dad you don't want to ever let go of your kids. You want to protect them forever. But at least we know that he did absolutely everything he possibly could," said Tracey Presslor, Norton's aunt, through tears.
Norton's body was found Friday by divers in a pond close to where his vehicle had been.
Meanwhile, 100 persons remain unaccounted for, the Missouri Department of Public Safety said in a statement Saturday.
Deputy Director Andrea Spillars acknowledged earlier that families are frustrated that the identification process hasn't proceeded quickly enough the past week.
Authorities are relying on a scientific identification of the remains, and while that process is slower, it's more reliable than a family member's visual identification, she said.
Authorities are using past X-rays, dental records and body markings to help identify bodies, Spillars said.
"We will go through this process as quickly as possible, knowing how important it is to be accurate," she said, joined by law officers and others behind her. "We know that this has been a community that has been tragically impacted by this. All these people behind me have worked 24 hours a day.
Body ID process adds to Joplin's pain
"It's a very scientific process. It's a very exacting process," Spillars continued. "I can tell you that it's a very respectful process, and I can tell you that someone is with that loved one every step of the way."
More than 50 state troopers are working around the clock on the cases, she added.
Many anxious family members have been waiting to hear what became of missing loved ones in Joplin, the flash point of a wicked tornado last Sunday that has produced the highest death toll from a single tornado in the United States since modern recordkeeping began in 1950.
Joplin City Manager Mark Rohr told reporters Saturday that the death toll has reached 142, up from 132 reported a day earlier.
"We're still in search-and-rescue mode," he said, adding that more than 500 search-and-rescue volunteers were in Joplin Saturday working.
As many as 3,000 volunteers are thought to be in the city in total, he said, helping in a variety of ways.
Roving groups of people with tools and equipment were spotted going door to door -- or lot to lot -- asking what they could do.
Volunteers arrived in cars and vans, pickups and trucks -- many with out-of-state license plates. Some painted their vehicles to announce their intentions. Signs read, "Joplin Bound, "From Plano TX to Joplin" and "Free Chainsaw Work."
The number of people missing from the massive tornado has steadily fallen to 100 -- from 156 on Friday and 232 on Thursday, officials said. Included in the 100 still missing are nine people who were reported dead by their families, but for whom official confirmation is underway.
Still, residents have expressed angst over the time-consuming identification process.
"It's frustrating to the families and it's frustrating to me," Newton County Coroner Mark Bridges said this week. "It just takes time to go through those identifiers and get them to the families."
As of Friday morning, more than 2,500 Missourians affected by Sunday's tornadoes have applied for federal assistance to help with home repairs and cover other personal losses, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The agency reported that more than $2.8 million worth of assistance has already been approved, which is separate from public assistance that the state can receive for emergency response needs and longer-term rebuilding projects like schools, roads and firehouses.
President Barack Obama is expected to tour Joplin on Sunday, meeting with state and local authorities as well as families affected by the devastation. A moment of silence is expected to be observed Sunday too.(CNN) -- The death toll in Friday's violence in Syria rose to as many as 13 Saturday, according to human rights activists.
Syrian security forces fired on anti-government protesters in several southern towns Friday, according to organizers known as local coordination committees. The group issued a list of names in a statement Saturday of all but one of those they claim were killed.
Bullets flew Friday's early morning hours as hundreds took to the streets in Dael to chant for support of the military, separate from the security forces, said the witness, who refused to be named for fear of his safety.
Four people were killed there, according to protest organizers, and three died in the suburbs of Damascus. One death was reported in Al Zabadani, three in Homs and one in the village of Moart Shoreen, where 12-year-old boy lost his life, according to the group.
var currExpandable = "expand14";if(typeof CNN.expandableMap === 'object') {CNN.expandableMap.push(currExpandable);}var currExpandableHeight = 360;mediaObj.lgImage= $(currExpandable).select('img.box-image')[0].readAttribute('src');mediaObj.lgImageX = 640;mediaObj.lgImageY = currExpandableHeight;mediaObj.origImageX = $(currExpandable).select('img.box-image')[0].readAttribute('width'); mediaObj.origImageY = $(currExpandable).select('img.box-image')[0].readAttribute('height');mediaObj.contentType = 'Video';CNN.expElements.expand14Store = mediaObj;The Syrian National Organisation for Human Rights group also confirmed those deaths by name, and added an additional fatality in Jabla, bringing the total to 13.
CNN has not been granted access into Syria and is unable to independently verify witness accounts.
Since March, Syria has been torn by street protests against political repression and a fierce security crackdown against demonstrators.
The government's harsh actions toward marchers and its thousands of mass arrests have drawn widespread criticism.
Roughly 830 people have been killed in the protests, according to the Syrian Human Rights Information Link.
That number does not include security personnel, many of whom have been killed in attacks by "armed groups," according to the Syrian government.
Protesters have set up local coordination committees across Syria to organize the demonstrations, typically on Fridays, though they have been met with brute force on a regular basis.
Every week, the demonstrations have particular themes. May 20 was "Freedom" Friday in honor of the Syrian Kurdish protesters. May 27 was themed around "Homeland Protector," in support of Syrian troops.
An e-mail from the coordination committees to participants says protesters will carry flowers for the soldiers and chant for the soldiers "to stand with them and support them."
"The protesters demand to their army that they should follow the lead of the Tunisian and Egyptian armies and defend the people against a group of mercenaries fighting for the regime."
The memo also warns against an even harsher response from security forces: "Because landlines and Internet are not working in many places, we are worried that the government repression of the demonstrations today may be severe. It will be more difficult than usual to deliver news out of Syria."
The clashes have spurred people to flee to other countries, such as Turkey and Lebanon.
The Syrian government has offered to hear complaints from citizens for four hours, one day a week, according to state media. "Interior Minister Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ibrahim al-Shaar on Friday specified Monday of every week for meeting citizens and listening to their complaints related to the Interior Ministry from 11 AM to 3 PM at the Ministry in Dummar," Syrian state news agency SANA reported Saturday.
Citizens may also "continue" to file "written complaints via the complaint boxes distributed in front of police departments" as well as on the ministry's website, SANA reported.
The United States has imposed sanctions on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and other senior officials. This month, U.S. President Barack Obama singled out Syria for criticism during a speech on the Middle East.
Still, in contrast to the sweeping multi-national push against Libya and its embattled leader Moammar Gadhafi, there has not been any similar movement yet regarding Syria.
Gerard Araud, France's ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters Friday night that it was unlikely that there will be any U.N. Security Council vote on Syria through at least the end of May -- when France's rotation as the council president ends.
Another diplomat on the Security Council said Thursday that members did not want to submit a resolution only to have it vetoed by China or Russia, both permanent members of the council.
"As France, I think we would like a vote as soon as possible," Araud said. "But personally, I don't feel we are there."CNN's Arwa Damon and Richard Roth contributed to this report.In the early afternoon of Sept. 11, 1973, with Chile's presidential palace in the pall of a coup d'Etat's smoke and gunfire, President Salvador Allende, the world's first democratically elected Marxist President, bid his country farewell in a radio address and, after ordering the palace defenders to surrender, entered the Independence Hall alone.
What happened next is the subject of myth and mystery. The official version, cobbled together from bits and pieces of testimony, and an autopsy conducted under extreme duress by two doctors - one of them a gynecologist - says the 65-year-old Allende placed an AK-47 given to him by Fidel Castro under his chin and pulled the trigger. But discrepancies surrounding the autopsy and absence of multiple witnesses have made the tale of his suicide difficult for many to accept. (See TIME's cover featuring Allende's death.)
After 38 years of heated debate, a team of domestic and international forensic specialists will attempt to shed light on what is perhaps the defining event of contemporary Chilean history. On Monday, Allende's body will be exhumed under court order, upon the request of Allende relatives, to set straight once and for all if indeed he did pull the trigger, paying "with my life the loyalty of the people," becoming a martyr. Or was he murdered by General Augusto Pinochet's troops in a bloody coup?
To be clear, says Isabel Allende, the President's daughter and now a Chilean Senator, the family "has no doubt about the suicide of my father," explaining that it was a decision he made to die with dignity rather than surrender. Above all, the exhumation is an opportunity to clear up lingering doubts and conduct an official investigation, which has never been done, and place his death in the context of the violence on that day. "In a sense, Allende is the first disappeared, he's the first victim whether he kills himself or not," said Ariel Dorfman, a Chilean novelist who served as cultural adviser to the President. "It really was his death that inaugurates the time of terror, of lying and of hiding the truth in Chile." (See how Chile's right is trying to shake its dark past.)
Dorfman, like many Allende supporters, once rejected the idea that the President had taken his own life, which he discussed in his memoir Heading South, Looking North. He said he chose to cling to the myth of the good king killed by the treacherous person, embodied in this case by the commander in chief of the army that he had appointed. While the symmetry appealed to Dorfman for a while, he said that over time it wasn't sufficient. After listening to Dr. Patricio GuijOn, a member of Allende's medical staff who claims to have witnessed Allende shoot himself, Dorfman says he has now adopted another myth, that of the king who tells his people that "my sacrifice will not be in vain," taking his own life so that others may live.
According to the government, more than 3,000 people disappeared or were killed by the regime of Pinochet, whose 17-year dictatorship was Latin America's longest. If Allende was among the first victims, his case is also one of the last investigated. But there are others. For years the Group of Families of the Politically Executed pressured Chilean courts to bring to justice the perpetrators of human rights violations and end "the national shame we suffered for years" under judicial cowardice, according to Alicia Lira Matus, the group's president. A current set of judges, led by Judge Mario Carroza, has given the group renewed hope, Lira says, starting with an official investigation into 726 human rights complaints, a number that includes Allende's. (See Pinochet's legacy.)
Carroza requested that Chile's Legal Medical Service review the original autopsy, and based on its report, he authorized Allende's exhumation. Dr. Patricio Bustos Streeter, national director of the service, is wary of getting caught up in the emotionally charged events that are about to transpire. "Although we are an institution, we're also citizens," he says. "We are impartial, but we aren't neutral," he says, looking over his spectacles to emphasize his point.
Time and oxygen will have worn away flesh and ligament, complicating somewhat the job of forensics. It should not prove insurmountable, Bustos says, pointing out that two years ago specialists determined the details of the brutal torture and death of Chilean folk singer Victor Jara, who was killed in 1973 as well.
Still, even with the latest technology, an absolute truth may prove elusive if evidence has been lost, says Dr. Luis Ravanal Zepeda, a forensic specialist in Chile who reviewed the original autopsy report in 2008 for lawyers investigating Dr. JosE Luis VAsquez FernAndez, one of its authors. Ravanal concluded that Allende's wounds "were not compatible with suicide," further clouding the matter. He found that the description of the President's wounds suggested there were two gunshot wounds: one from a smaller weapon, likely a pistol, and a much larger wound, from a rifle like an AK-47. What concerns Ravanal most is that vital skull fragments were lost or thrown out when Allende was transferred from the coastal city of ViNa del Mar to the General Cemetery in Santiago upon the return to democracy in 1990. "If that's the case, they would have thrown in the trash an important part of our country's history," Ravanal says. (Read TIME's 1973 cover story "The Bloody End of a Marxist Dream.")
On one overcast fall afternoon, 74-year-old Juan Rebolledo, groundskeeper at the General Cemetery, lazily piles fallen leaves into an aged wicker basket, the same task he's performed thousands of times before. Rebolledo remembers the wonderful fountain at Patio 40 that Allende's mausoleum replaced, watching as the line of visitors has slowed to a trickle. After a life spent among the dead, he questions the value in disturbing Allende's remains. "If it were my family, I would let the dead rest," Rebolledo says.
Then again, the autopsy is more about the living than the dead. If you have something from the dead, a message, there is a chance at closure, at least to move on in some way, according to Dorfman. As jets bombarded the palace and tanks closed in, Allende may have offered such a message in his final radio address. "These are my last words, and I am certain that my sacrifice will not be in vain, it will be a moral lesson that will punish felony, cowardice and treason."
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When Jane was diagnosed with a muscle-wasting disease five years ago, she was active, physically healthy and had a full-time job. Today, the 70-year-old, who has asked her real name not be used, weighs just 92 pounds. She had to give up her job last year after her foot slipped between the brake and the accelerator on the drive home from work one day; she didn't notice until the car swerved. "I thought I should stop driving before I kill someone," Jane says, from her home in Australia. "As for killing myself, I wouldn't mind."
Jane's disease, a form of severe peripheral neuropathy, means that most times when she sits or stands, she is in pain. Soon, she'll lose the ability to walk and eventually to speak. Painkillers haven't helped - she is in agony if she so much as bumps against a table leg - and her days go by slowly. Like many who suffer from chronic degenerative diseases, Jane says that if euthanasia were legal in Australia, she would take the opportunity to die. "I think of death as peaceful."
If she was ill in 1996, then her wish may have been granted. That year, the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act came into effect in Australia's Northern Territory, under which four people chose to end their lives with the help of physician Philip Nitschke and his computer-aided consent system dubbed "the deliverance machine." Religious groups were outraged, and demanded the law be repealed. The Australian Medical Association also issued a statement that physician-assisted suicide was unethical. Within less than a year, the act was overridden on a legal technicality based on the Northern Territory not being a state. Nitschke, and his pro-euthanasia organization Exit International have been trying to reverse the decision ever since.
Drafting euthanasia legislation has always been a minefield. Questions over whether the practice itself is ethical, whether it should be exclusively for those that are dying, who should make the decision to grant someone the right to die, and how to ensure that patients aren't pressured by family members into assisted suicide are difficult to cover in any law. It's legal in a number of countries including Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, and Luxembourg. In Oregon, Washington and Montana, physician aid in dying is allowed, whereby the medication is prescribed by the doctor but must be administered by the patient. The Dignitas clinic in Zurich is the only place in the world where foreign citizens can go to die, and those that do do not have to be terminally ill. In 2009, Daniel James, a British 23-year-old who was paralyzed after a rugby injury, flew to Switzerland to die with the help of his parents. (Read about the euthanasia debate in the U.K.)
This year, Nitschke, who has advocated for euthanasia abroad, might succeed in bringing the practice back to Australia. In March, the Premier of Tasmania Lara Giddings told The Australian that she will be working with the Greens Party on preparing a new bill for voluntary euthanasia. (A bill that was proposed last year by the Tasmanian Greens failed in the state's House of Assembly.) For Nitschke, Giddings' move is historic. "[She is] the first premier to really taken a strong position in supporting euthanasia," he says. In the state of South Australia, another bill put tabled in March by Labor Party MP Stephanie Key would provide a legal defense for doctors that administer medication requested by the patient which could lead to their death. The bill wouldn't make assisting suicide legal per se, but it would provide a legal protection for medical practitioners. A final vote on this is expected later this year.
Advocates of euthanasia say the law is long overdue in Australia. "We would be charged with animal cruelty if we treated our pets this way," says Frances Coombe the president of the South Australian Voluntary Euthanasia Society (SAVES). "We need legislation that will allow us to at least talk about death and address our end of life options." Coombe's organization does not work with Nitschke, and although she supports the help he provides for those that are desperate she often feels that on occasion he hurts the cause with his headline-grabbing behavoir. On a recent visit to Adelaide, for instance, the media widely reported that Nitschke was publicly scouting locations for euthanasia clinics. "This feeds into the minds of the opposition and encourages hysteria," says Coombe. Her group is not the only one to feel that he goes too far: Nitschke says that the Victoria-based group Dying with Dignity also broke ties with him because he supports euthanasia for those who aren't terminally ill.
Further points of controversy around Nitschke's work have been his "Peaceful Pill Handbook," a guide to euthanasia and assisted suicide which is now banned from Australia. His organization's website also used to feature a video called "Do it yourself with Betty" in which Betty, a retired nurse, demonstrates how to make an 'exit bag,' a large-sized oven bag with a drawstring for suffocation. "If you want to look nice you better go get your hair done, because this does mess your hair up," she jokes after she threaded elastic through the bag. Then there is the barbiturate testing kit, still sold on his website which helps people test that their dose of medicine is lethal enough. "Terminally ill people don't have time to fool around," he explains.
Some legal experts are concerned at the prospect of euthanasia again being legalized down under. Andrew McGee, a law lecturer at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, believes it may encourage suicide in those that wouldn't otherwise consider it. "There are people in nursing homes that already feel like a burden. ... They already feel guilty and embarrassed but cannot help themselves because of their distress and acute discomfort. They may be made to feel that they should end their lives so as not to feel a burden." HOPE, an anti-euthanasia network, shares McGee's concerns. "It will end up hurting those that are most vulnerable," says Paul Russell, HOPE's director. And, he adds, "There could be circumstances where it will be applied without the consent of the individual."
Still, Nitschke is not without his supporters. Since 1996, euthanasia has become more accepted in Australia: a 2007 Newspoll found that 80% of Australians now support voluntary euthanasia. When he last gave an Exit International talk in Sydney, the mostly elderly crowd of 130 people cheered at his accomplishments, and laughed at his jokes. When speaking to TIME at a cafe in Sydney's Kings Cross, a young man walked past to congratulate him for his good work. "I just want people to have a choice," Nitschke says. "For all I know, I will want to exhaust every medical intervention possible, no expense spared, to give myself an extra ten minutes. I don't know, but I want the right to decide for myself."
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(CNN) -- Olympic marathon gold medalist Samuel Wanjiru died early Monday from injuries sustained after jumping from the balcony of his Nyahururu home in central Kenya, a senior police official said.
Wanjiru jumped from the second-floor of his home late Sunday after his wife caught him in the company of another woman, said Jasper Ompati, a police official in Nyahururu.
Wanjiru's wife, Tereza Njeri, and another woman were taken to the police station to give statements but were not considered suspects, Ompati said. The death remains under investigation, he said.
Njeri, who lives in Nairobi, returned home unexpectedly to find the two together, Ompati said. Wanjiru is believed to have jumped after his wife locked him inside a bedroom on the second floor, making it impossible for him to leave, he said.
Wanjiru achieved worldwide fame when he became Kenya's first Olympic marathon champion at the Beijing Games in 2008.
Kenyans were mourning the death of Wanjiru, who was considered a national hero. Hundreds were lining up to view his body at a Nyahururu funeral home.
Athletics Kenya, the governing athletic body, said the country lost a great athlete. The association said it had pinned its hopes on Wanjiru to win another medal at the London Olympics in 2012.
"He's left a gap that will be hard to fill," said David Okeyo, the secretary-general of Athletics Kenya.
The International Olympic Committee praised Wanjiru as an accomplished runner who will be remembered for winning his country's first Olympic gold medal in the marathon and setting a new Olympic record in the process.
"Our thoughts are with his family and friends," the IOC said in a written statement sent to CNN.
At 21, Wanjiru was the youngest gold medal winner in the marathon at an Olympics since 1932.
After his Beijing triumph, Wanjiru has set about dominating the marathon distance, claiming a number of victories in races.
It helped him be crowned the men's champion in the 2009 and 2010 world marathon majors series.
In recent years, Wanjiru has had a number of troubles.
In December 2010, Wanjiru was charged with making death threats against his wife and illegally possessing an AK47 rifle. At the time, prosecutors alleged Wanjiru was drunk when he made the threats.
Wanjiru pleaded innocent to the charges during a court appearance in his home town of Nyahururu. His wife later dropped the charges, though he still faced a weapons charge.
Wanjiru was forced to withdraw from the London Marathon, a premier running event ahead of the 2012 Olympics, after he was involved in an automobile accident in January in Kenya.Journalist Lillian Leposo contributed to this story.
