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New Delhi (CNN) — At 17, Sonali Mukherjee had everything going for her. She was a beautiful, intelligent and ambitious young woman, dedicated to excelling in her studies.

She was president of the Student Union, captain of the National Cadet Corps and an honor student set to pursue a PhD in sociology despite her modest family background — her father used to work as a security guard in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand and her mother was a housewife.

“I had seen my parents struggle for the most basic things, so I strived to achieve something big so that I could give my family a better life,” she said.

However, Mukherjee’s life changed after three male students from her college started harassing her. She didn’t respond to their advances, so they threatened to destroy her.

Helping acid attacks victims heal

Afghan girls attacked with acid

At first, she wasn’t intimidated. During her time in the cadet corps, an organization in all schools and colleges in India aimed at grooming students to join the military, Mukherjee had won several prizes for her shooting skills.

On a hot summer day when Mukherjee was fast asleep on the roof of her house, the three men threw a jug of acid on her. For the first few seconds she was in shock and didn’t know what had happened.

“All I could feel was this tremendous amount of pain, it was burning, like someone had thrown me into a fire,” she tells CNN 10 years after the 2003 attack.

In the fraction of a second it took for the acid to melt her face and part of her upper chest, Mukherjee lost her ability to see, hear, eat, walk and talk.

READ: Pakistani Taliban target female students with acid attack

Mukherjee, now 27, said she looked and felt like a corpse.

“I had hardly even lived my life, but that one incident changed the entire meaning of my life. It felt like the light had gone out all of a sudden, and darkness had surrounded me on all sides. I had no hope, I didn’t know what to do,” she says.

Mukherjee’s heartbroken grandfather died soon after and her mother fell into depression — only her father remained resilient.

“I can’t tell you how much it hurts me to see my daughter in this state but being the head of the family I couldn’t afford to break down,” Charan Das Mukherjee says.

And with sheer willpower and determination both father and daughter continue their fight for justice and for recovery.

“I decided I don’t want to die like this, or live like this. I decided I can’t give up, I have to get better, I have to punish those guys and I have to support my family. I held my father’s hand and crawled back to life.”

Her father sold their family’s ancestral land, gold and spent every penny of savings on her treatment — she recently underwent her 27th reconstructive surgery.

In 2012: Two children killed in Afghanistan acid attack

In 2012, Mukherjee decided to participate in the country’s most popular game show — the Indian edition of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?”

She took part because she needed the money and she wanted the world to know her plight as a victim of an acid attack.

“I’ve grown up watching your films and now I can’t see you but I can feel you,” she told host Amitabh Bachchan, who is also India’s biggest superstar.

She won the $40,000 jackpot, enabling her to move to the Indian capital, New Delhi, for better medical treatment.

“When she came to us she had 98% burns. She had no ears, no eyes, no eyelids, no nose, no lips, no scalp and no chest,” said her doctor, BLK Hospital’s Sanjeev Bagai.

Bagai and his medical team have managed to reconstruct her lips, eyelids, nose, but the challenge now is to give her “some kind of a normal face, somewhere close to what a normal human being would look like,” he says.

The men who scarred her for life were freed after just two years in jail.

Mukherjee has appealed the court’s decision but years on she’s yet to get a date in court.

“My father spent every penny, hoping I would get justice. But in the end we lost everything, while the criminals are out there.”

India passed a new law in April that punishes perpetrators of acid attacks with 10 years to life in prison, along with a fine.

In 2012: Gunmen spray Afghan woman with acid after refusing marriage

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/21/world/asia/india-acid-attack/index.html?eref=edition

(CNN) — Nico Rosberg claimed his third consecutive pole, finishing fastest in qualifying Saturday for the Monaco Grand Prix. Now the question is: Can Rosberg and Mercedes win a race?

Rosberg was also on Pole in Bahrain and Spain but the team’s tire issues meant he was unable to land on the podium.

The good news for Rosberg, however, is that in eight of the past nine races in Monaco, the pole sitter has triumphed. Monaco, the shortest and slowest circuit on the calendar, provides few opportunities to overtake.

If Rosberg does prevail Sunday, it would come 30 years after his father, Keke, won in the glamorous principality on the Cote d’Azur.

“It’s always nice to hear statistics like that,” Rosberg said. “But it doesn’t change much for tomorrow.

“Of course I’m very happy. But in Barcelona we were struggling such a lot in the race and I finished 70 seconds behind the winner. We’re improving step by step but there are still a lot of questions remaining. It’s still our weakness.”

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Rosberg, a German raised in Monte Carlo, posted a time of one minute 13.876 seconds to edge teammate Lewis Hamilton, a Monaco resident, by 0.091 seconds. Much of qualifying took place in the rain.

Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull completed the top three, barely missing out on second. Through five races, Vettel leads the standings.

“The conditions were all over the place,” Rosberg said. “Then it started drizzling again so the lap times got a lot slower. It was changing so much. You have to be on the right tires at the right time. Everything went to plan and the last lap went okay.”

Despite Rosberg’s success in practice — he was first in all three sessions — Hamilton expressed surprise in coming second in his Mercedes.

“I’ve struggled all weekend,” Hamilton said. “I’ve struggled with the car and this is the first time that’s happened since 2005. It’s been a difficult weekend so I’m happy to have been able to lock out the front row for the team.

“It’s been a massive improvement for me.”

Last year’s winner, Red Bull’s Mark Webber, Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus — second to Vettel in the standings — and Fernando Alonso of Ferrari rounded out the top six.

Alonso, who won in front of his home fans in Spain, is bidding to become the first racer to capture the Monaco Grand Prix with three different teams.

Read: Alonso victorious at home

If Alonso faces a difficult task given his spot on the grid, it’s almost mission impossible for his Ferrari teammate, Felipe Massa.

Massa crashed in practice earlier on Saturday and couldn’t participate in qualifying because his car couldn’t be fixed in time, sending him to last on the grid. He was unharmed.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/25/sport/motorsport/monaco-grand-prix-qualifying/index.html?eref=edition

(CNN) — Do 41,363 days sound like much time? You very likely won’t live that long, but James Sisnett did.

That’s long enough to have seen the first silent movie, when it came out, provided a movie theater even existed back then on the island of Barbados, where Sisnett spent his life.

He was three years old the first time Orville Wright took the first ever flight in an airplane and barely a teenager when World War I broke out.

When he died Thursday, Sisnett was the oldest man in the Western Hemisphere, whose age had been validated, according to the Gerontology Research Group. He was likely the second oldest man on the planet.

GRG is a private organization that verifies the ages of centenarians, people over 100 years of age, and supercentenarians, people over 110.

Living as long as Sisnett did is quite a feat, but since women outlive men on the whole, there are a few women still alive between Canada and Argentina, who are even older than he was, according to GRG.

Five of them live in the United States.

The verified oldest living person in the world is Jiroemon Kimura of Japan. He turned 116 in April, GRG said.

The oldest person who ever lived was Louise Calment of France, a woman who topped 122 years, the Guinness Book of World Records reports.

On the island of Barbados, which is less than 30 miles long, Sisnett was a celebrity, family member Gerard Sisnett told CNN.

He was considered a living reference for historic events there, where he was known under the nickname “Grandad.” As a symbol of honor, he was given the keys to the capital of Bridgetown when he turned 100. That was well over a decade ago.

The government may make the national stadium available for his funeral, Gerard Sisnett said.

James Sisnett was born in the last year of the 19th century, on February 22, 1900, and was 113 years and 90 days old, when he passed away in his sleep, Gerard Sisnett said. That’s 41,363 days, including 28 extra days for leap years.

Originally a blacksmith by trade, Grandad retired in 1970.

He was about 70 years of age then. That’s nearly three years more than the average lifespan in the United States.

Seventy years add up to 25,550 days, not including extra days from leap years.

Seize one, while you can.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/25/world/americas/barbados-supercentenarian/index.html?eref=edition

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Syrian army soldiers take control of the village of Western Dumayna north of the rebel-held city of Qusayr on Monday, May 13. Syrian troops captured three villages in Homs province, allowing them to cut supply lines to rebels inside Qusayr town, a military officer told AFP. Tensions in Syria first flared in March 2011 during the onset of the Arab Spring, eventually escalating into a civil war that still rages. This gallery contains the most compelling images taken since the start of the conflict.

Syrian troops move into Dumayna on May 13.

Rebel fighters fire at government forces in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on Sunday, May 12.

Smoke rises from an explosion in a Syrian village near the Israeli border on Tuesday, May 7.

Multiple explosions hit a Syrian village near the Israeli border on May 6.

A photo released by the Syrian Arab News Agency shows destruction from what is said was bomb attack in the Al-Hama area of Damascus on Sunday, May 5. According to the Syrian government, Israel launched an attack on a research center in the Damascus suburbs early Sunday.

People run for cover after what activists said was shelling by forces loyal to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad in Syria’s Raqqa province, on May 3.

People walk past a damaged building and multiple destroyed cars at the site of an explosion in Damascus where at least 13 were killed on April 30.

Cleaning takes place following another explosion in an upscale Damascus neightborhood on Monday, April 29. Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi survived the bombing targeting his motorcade.

A smoke cloud rises from shelling on the the al-Turkman mountains in Syria’s Latakia province on Thursday, April 25.

Searchers use a flashlight as they look for survivors among the rubble created by what activists say was a missile attack from the Syrian regime, in Raqqa province, Syria, on April 25.

A handout photograph from Syria’s national news agency SANA shows damage and debris from a mortar attack in the suburb of Jarmana near Damascus, Syria, on Wednesday, April 24. The attack killed seven and wounded more than 25, according to activists and state media. No group claimed responsibility for the mortar fire, which SANA said hit a municipality office and a school building.

A Kurdish fighter from the “Popular Protection Units” (YPG) takes position inside a building in the majority-Kurdish Sheikh Maqsood area of Aleppo, on Apri. 21.

People walk past destroyed houses in the northern Syrian town of Azaz on Sunday, April 21.

Free Syrian Army fighters take positions prior to an offensive against government forces in the Khan al-Assal area, near Aleppo on Saturday, April 20.

Men inspect damage at a house destroyed in an airstrike in Aleppo on April 15.

Syrian and Kurdish rebel fighters walk in the Sheikh Maqsud district of Aleppo on April 14.

A Syrian boy holds an AK-47 assault rifle in the streets of Aleppo on Sunday, April 14.

A female rebel monitors the movement of Syrian government forces in Aleppo’s Sheikh Maqsud neighborhood on April 11.

A rebel runs to avoid sniper fire from Syrian government forces in Aleppo on Thursday, April 11.

Syrian rebels observe the movement of Syrian government forces around Al-Kendi hospital in Aleppo on Wednesday, April 10.

Rescue teams and security forces check out the scene of a deadly car bomb explosion in Damascus on April 8.

The fighting has taken a toll on buildings in Aleppo’s Saladin district, seen here on April 8.

A Syrian rebel runs for cover in Deir ez-Zor on April 2.

A rebel checks for snipers across the street toward the Citadel in Aleppo, Syria, on Saturday, March 30, in this photo taken by iReporter Lee Harper.

A Free Syrian fighter mourns the death of a friend in Aleppo on March 30, in this photo taken by iReporter Lee Harper.

A Syrian opposition fighter runs for cover from Syrian army snipers in Aleppo on Wednesday, March 27.

A Syrian girl covers her face to protect herself from fumes as a street covered with uncollected garbage is fumigated in Aleppo on Sunday, March 24.

A Syrian man and his family drive past damaged buildings in Maarat al-Numan, on Wednesday, March 20.

Syrians carry the body of a Syrian army soldier during a funeral ceremony in Idlib province on Tuesday, March 19.

Syrian rebels take position in Aleppo, the largest city in the country, on March 11.

Syrian men search for their relatives amongst the bodies of civilians executed and dumped in the Quweiq River on March 11.

A Free Syrian Army fighter looks back as smoke rises during fighting between rebel fighters and forces loyal to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad on the outskirts of Aleppo on Saturday, March 2.

Residents read Shaam News newspapers published by the Free Syrian Army in Aleppo on March 2.

A member of the Free Syrian Army reacts to the death of a comrade who was killed in fighting, at Bustan al Qasr cemetery in Aleppo on Friday, March 1.

A rebel fighter throws a home-made grenade at Syrian government forces in Aleppo on February 16.

A member of the Free Syrian Army stands with his weapon as he looks at a rainbow in Aleppo on February 16.

A Syrian woman looks through a bus window in Aleppo on February 14.

Free Syrian Army fighters walk through a dust-filled stairwell in Damascus on February 7.

A Syrian rebel gestures at comrades from inside a broken armored personnel carrier in Al-Yaqubia on February 6.

A rebel fighter throws a hand grenade inside a Syrian Army base in Damascus on February 3.

People stand in the dust of a building destroyed in an airstrike in Aleppo, Syria on February 3.

Free Syrian Army fighters run as they enter a Syrian Army base during heavy fighting in the Arabeen neighborhood of Damascus on February 3.

An unexploded mortar shell fired by the Syrian Army sits lodged in the ground in Damascus on January 25.

Fighters from Fateh al Sham unit of the Free Syrian Army fire on Syrian Army soldiers at a check point in Damascus on January 20.

A Free Syrian Army fighter walks between buildings damaged during Syrian Air Force strikes in Damascus on January 19.

A Syrian rebel fighter tries to locate a government jet fighter in Aleppo on January 18.

Syrian rebels launch a missile near the Abu Baker brigade in Albab on January 16.

A Syrian boy walks near rubbish next to tents at a refugee camp near the northern city of Azaz on the Syria-Turkey border, on January 8.

Syrians look for survivors amid the rubble of a building targeted by a missile in Aleppo on January 7.

A father reacts after hearing of a shelling by forces loyal to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo on January 3.

A patient smokes a cigarette at Dar Al-Ajaza psychiatric hospital in Aleppo on December 18, 2012. The psychiatric ward, housing around 60 patients, has lacked the means to function properly since fighting broke out there in July.

Syrians mourn a fallen rebel fighter at a rebel base in the al-Fardos area of Aleppo on December 8.

Members of Liwa (Brigade) Salahadin, a Kurdish military unit fighting alongside rebel fighters, monitor the area in the besieged district of Karmel al-Jabl in Aleppo on December 6.

A member of Liwa Salahadin aims at a regime fighter in the besieged district of Karmel al-Jabl in Aleppo on December 6.

Two young boys sit underneath a washline in a refugee camp on the border between Syria and Turkey near Azaz on December 5.

The bodies of three children, who were allegedly killed in a mortar shell attack that landed close to a bakery in Aleppo, on December 2, are laid out for identification by family members at a makeshift hospital at an undisclosed location of the city.

Smoke rises in the Hanano and Bustan al-Basha districts in Aleppo on December 1 as fighting continues through the night.

Damaged houses in Aleppo are seen after an airstrike on November 29.

A Syrian rebel mourns the death of a comrade in Maraat al-Numan on November 20.

Syrians protesters stand on Assad’s portrait during an anti-regime demonstration in Aleppo on November 16.

A Syrian rebel takes cover during fighting against Syrian government forces in Aleppo on November 15.

Syrian opposition fighter Bazel Araj, 19, sleeps next to his pistol in Aleppo on November 11.

A rebel fighter fires at a Syrian government position in Aleppo on November 6.

A Syrian rebel leaps over debris left in the street while running across a “sniper alley” near the Salahudeen district in Aleppo on November 4.

Rebels hold their position in the midst of a battle on November 3 in Aleppo.

A man cries while being treated in a local hospital in a rebel-controlled area of Aleppo on October 31.

A man is treated for wounds after a government jet attacked the Karm al-Aser neighborhood in eastern Aleppo on October 31.

A Syrian rebel interrogates a handcuffed and blindfolded man suspected of being a pro-regime militiaman in Aleppo on October 26.

Smoke rises from a fuel station following a mortar attack as Syrian women walk on a rainy day in the Arqub neighborhood of Aleppo on October 25.

A Syrian rebel fires at an army position in the Karm al-Jabal district of Aleppo on October 22.

A wounded Syrian boy sits on the back of a truck carrying victims and wounded people to a hospital following an attack by regime forces in Aleppo on October 21.

A man lies on the ground after being shot by a sniper for a second time as he waits to be rescued by members of the Al-Baraa Bin Malek Battalion, part of the Free Syria Army’s Al-Fatah brigade, in Aleppo on October 20.

Syrian army soldiers run for cover during clashes with rebel fighters at Karam al-Jabal neighborhood of Aleppo on October 20.

Smoke rises after a Syrian Air Force fighter jet fired missiles at the suburbs of the northern province of Idlib on October 16.

A Syrian opposition fighter stands near a post in Aleppo on October 11.

A Syrian man mourns the death of his father, who was killed during a government attack in Aleppo on October 10.

A rebel fighter is carried by his friends and laid on a gurney to be treated for gunshot wounds sustained during heavy battles with government forces in Aleppo on October 1.

Syrian rebels help a wounded comrade to an Aleppo hospital after he was injured in a Syrian army strike on September 18.

Free Syria Army fighters are reflected in a mirror they use to see a Syrian Army post only 50 meters away in Aleppo on September 16.

A Syrian man carrying grocery bags tries to dodge sniper fire as he runs through an alley near a checkpoint manned by the Free Syria Army in Aleppo on September 14.

A woman walks past a destroyed building in Aleppo on September 13.

Free Syrian Army fighters battle during street fighting against Syrian army soldiers in Aleppo on September 8.

A Syrian man wounded by shelling sits on a chair outside a closed shop in Aleppo on September 4.

A woman sits in her wheelchair next to her house, damaged by a Syrian air raid, near Homs on August 26.

Members of the Free Syrian Army clash with Syrian army soliders in Aleppo’s Saif al-Dawla district on August 22.

A man mourns in front of a field hospital on August 21 in Aleppo.

Wounded civilians wait in a field hospital after an air strike on August 21 in Aleppo.

People pray during the funeral of a Free Syrian Army fighter, Amar Ali Amero, on August 21.

A man cries near the graves of his two children killed during a recent Syrian airstrike in Azaz on August 20.

A Syrian woman holds her dead baby as she screams upon seeing her husband’s body being covered following an airstrike by regime forces on the town of Azaz on August 15.

A Syrian rebel runs in a street of Selehattin during an attack on the municipal building on July 23.

Syrian rebels hunt for snipers after attacking the municipality building in the city center of Selehattin on July 23.

Members of the Free Syrian Army’s Mugaweer (commandos) Brigade pay their respects in a cemetery on May 12 in Qusayr.

Syrian rebels take position near Qusayr on May 10.

A Free Syrian Army member takes cover in underground caves in Sarmin on April 9.

Rebels prepare to engage government tanks that advanced into Saraquib on April 9.

Men say prayers during a ceremony in Binnish on April 9.

A young boy plays with a toy gun in Binnish on April 9.

A Free Syrian Army rebel mounts his horse in the Al-Shatouria village near the Turkish border in northwestern Syria on March 16, a year after the uprising began.

Syrian refugees walk across a field before crossing into Turkey on March 14.

A rebel takes position in Al-Qsair on January 27.

A protester in Homs throws a tear gas bomb back towards security forces, on December 27, 2011.

A man stands under a giant Syrian flag outside the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus on December 24, 2011.

A member of the Free Syrian Army looks out over a valley in the village of Ain al-Baida on December 15, 2011.

Members of the Free Syrian Army stand in an valley near the village of Ain al-Baida, close to the Turkish border, on December 15, 2011.

Displaced Syrian refugees walk through an orchard adjacent to Syria’s northern border with Turkey on June 14, 2011, near Khirbet al-Jouz.

A Syrian man holds up a portrait of President Bashar al-Assad during a rally to show support for the president in Damascus on April 30, 2011.

Syrians rally to show their support for President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on April 30, 2011.

A screen grab from YouTube shows thick smoke rising above as Syrian anti-government protesters demonstrate in Moaret Al-Noman on April 29, 2011.

A screen grab from YouTube shows Syrian anti-government protesters run for cover from tear gas fired by security forces in Damascus on April 29, 2011, during the “Day of Rage” demonstrations called by activists to put pressure on al-Assad.

Syrians wave their national flag and hold portraits of al-Assad during a rally to show their support for their leader in Damascus on March 29, 2011.

A woman sits by the hospital bed of a man allegedly injured when an armed group seized rooftops in Latakia on March 27, 2011, and opened fire at passers-by, citizens and security forces personnel according to official sources.

Syrian protesters chant slogans in support of al-Assad during a rally in Damascus on March 25, 2011.

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(CNN) — Hezbollah forces are fighting on the side of the Syrian government in the strategic town of Qusayr against rebels, its leader said Saturday.

“Syria is the backbone of the resistance (in the region) and its main supporter,” Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said in a speech broadcast live on Hezbollah-owned Al Manar Television. “The resistance will never stand by while its backbone is exposed.”

The pro-regime and pro-Iranian Shiite militia, based in Lebanon, is regarded as a terrorist group by the U.S. government and Sunni countries.

Nasrallah’s 75-minute speech marked the first time he has acknowledged Hezbollah forces are fighting; it came shortly after an opposition group said that shelling by Hezbollah fighters had killed at least 30 people in the strategically important western Syrian town of Qusayr.

The Local Coordination Committees of Syria said the fatalities included women and children. Another opposition group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said that 27 of the dead were rebel fighters.

The Free Syrian Army said it had killed 45 members of Hezbollah.

In eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, thousands of Hezbollah supporters watched the speech on a big screen. “Regarding this battle, like all the battles before it, our men are there and we will make victory there,” he said to cheers.

Nashrallah accused the rebel forces of belonging to extremist religious movements, and said Hezbollah forces were acting to protect Lebanon.

“If the armed groups control Syria or specific Syrian provinces, especially those on the Lebanese border, then we consider them a great threat to Lebanon, the unity of the nation and all Lebanese, not just Hezbollah or Shiites in Lebanon.”

Hezbollah fighters represent only a tiny minority of foreign fighters in Syria, Nasrallah said.

“Tens of thousands of (rebel foreign) fighters did not bother the so-called Friends of Syria countries whose representatives met in Amman a couple of days ago,” he said, referring to the opposition umbrella group, which met in Jordan.

“But the interference of a small group from Lebanese Hezbollah was considered a foreign intervention. We never interfered (in Syria) until a few months ago, so I am completely honest with you.”

Nasrallah said the government in Damascus has always been willing to negotiate a peaceful resolution with rebels, but that the opposition — hopeful that President Bashar al-Assad would be ousted — has refused to do so.

For its part, the government-run Syrian Arab News Agency said government forces were carrying out an operation against “armed terrorist groups” in the town, and had killed large numbers of them.

In Istanbul, Turkey, a Syrian opposition leader called for weapons, fighters and other aid.

“In today’s Syria, terrorism is killing tolerance; ignorance is killing logic; barbarity is overwhelming civility,” Syrian National Coalition Acting Chairman George Sabra told reporters.

Referring to Hezbollah forces, he said, “You are heading in the wrong direction. The resistance should not be in the north, in Qusayr or Daraya. Due to sectarianism and blindly following the most tyrant regime in the world, some Lebanese are sent to Syria.”

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/25/world/meast/syria-violence/index.html?eref=edition

Newcastle, England (CNN) — Waving flags and chanting, far-right marchers rallied in northern England on Saturday, their numbers apparently swelled by anger over the slaying of a British soldier by attackers who claimed an Islamist motive.

Protesters on the march organized by the far-right English Defence League told CNN that the soldier’s killing in Woolwich, southeast London, had opened their eyes to the country’s situation, and called for Muslims to leave.

Addressing the crowd in Newcastle, EDL leader Tommy Robinson said: “We cannot allow this soldier’s death to be in vain.

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“We are the only ones who dare say it. When did the truth become hate speech?”

Police said between 1,500 and 2,000 people joined the EDL protest — many more than the 300-500 protesters that EDL organizers told CNN they were expecting ahead of the event.

Glass bottles were thrown at one point as EDL protesters skirmished with a group of bystanders opposed to their march.

A counter demonstration was held by a group called Newcastle Unites to coincide with the far-right rally. Police estimate that 350 to 400 people took part in that event.

Dipu Ahad, a Labor councilor in the city and a leader of Newcastle Unites, told CNN the EDL were “opportunists” who were making use of anger over the killing to push their message.

Newcastle Chief Supt. Gary Calvert said the day had passed without major incident.

Police made a number of arrests, mostly alcohol-related or to prevent public order offenses, he said in a statement, but the “vast majority of those taking part were well behaved.”

The march came amid concern over growing anti-Muslim sentiment as evidence emerges of apparent links between one of the two suspected attackers and radical Islamist groups.

Friends, acquaintances and British media have identified 28-year-old Michael Adebolajo, a British national of Nigerian descent, as the suspect seen in a gory video from the scene of the Woolwich killing. He is said to be a Muslim convert.

A self-proclaimed friend of the suspect was arrested Friday night at BBC Broadcasting House after giving an interview in which he said Michael Adebolajo had been approached by Britain’s domestic security service, MI5. Police said the arrest was made under the Terrorism Act and was not connected to the Woolwich inquiry.

Politicians and community leaders have been trying to tamp down tensions in the wake of the murder of the soldier, Drummer Lee Rigby, and police numbers have been boosted in vulnerable areas.

Members of the EDL clashed with police near the scene of the killing late Wednesday. A tweet from its official account proclaimed then that “it’s fair to say that finally the country is waking up!:-) NO SURRENDER!”

Northumbria Police arrested three people on suspicion of posting racist tweets ahead of the EDL rally.

A message posted on the EDL Facebook page Saturday urged members to abide by the law or risk arrest.

“NO swearing, NO incitement to violence, No racist remarks, No threats. Please be very aware that the authorities can, do will monitor these pages it seems from information we are getting are visiting and arresting people. Keep it safe please,” it said.

‘Abused in the street, online’

A group which monitors incidents of anti-Muslim abuse, the Tell Mama project, said Saturday morning it had seen a huge increase in the number of reported incidents.

Fiyaz Mughal, a coordinator of Tell Mama, told CNN Saturday morning that 162 incidents had been reported in the past 48 hours — compared with four to six incidents a day on average before the Woolwich attack.

The latest include street-based incidents like name calling, assaults and materials being thrown at individuals, Mughal said, as well as online incidents, where targeted hate is directed at individuals through the Internet and social media.

Eight incidents of attacks against mosques across Britain are also included in the figure.

Mughal, also director of an interfaith national hate crime reporting project, Faith Matters, said he had observed that people are scared, particularly female Muslims who wear headscarves and have told Tell Mama that they are afraid to go out. “It’s quite endemic,” he said.

Tell Mama recorded 632 incidents of anti-Muslim abuse in the year from March 2012, it said, about three-quarters of which occurred online. More than half were directed at women.

Imams sign letter condemning attack

The apparent increase in abuse comes as Muslim leaders, as well as their Christian counterparts, seek to keep communities calm.

Shaykh Shams Adduha, founder and director of Ebrahim College, which teaches Islamic studies in London, is one of nearly 100 imams and Muslim groups to have signed a letter Friday condemning the “outrageous attack” on Rigby and offering their condolences to his family.

“We share the absolute horror felt by the rest of British society at the sick and barbaric crime that was committed in the name of our religion. We condemn this heinous atrocity in the strongest possible terms. It is a senseless act of pure depravity worthy of nothing but contempt,” it read.

Shams Adduha told CNN Saturday that the Muslim community had reacted promptly and was working hard to defuse tensions.

“First of all we’ve been very open in our condemnation and very open about the fact that there is no place … in Islam for this kind of act,” the imam said.

“At the same time we’ve been calling for calm, we’ve constantly been talking to our communities to make sure that their fears are allayed. But of course the reactions are happening — and they will happen.”

These types of attacks are also a reaction, he said, to problems and grievances among “angry young people out there in the world.”

With regards to the Woolwich attack, he said, Muslim leaders must make clear that what happened is “un-Islamic” and seek to educate young people so they are not susceptible to “fringe voices.”

Prime Minister David Cameron stressed Thursday that “the fault lies solely with sickening individuals who carried out this attack,” adding that “nothing in Islam … justifies this truly dreadful act.”

‘Eye for an eye’

One of the attack suspects apparently approached a man filming the gory scene in the Woolwich neighborhood and suggested that Rigby had been targeted only “because Muslims are dying daily” at the hands of British troops like him.

“We must fight them as they fight us. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” he said in the video aired by CNN affiliate ITN.

Britain’s armed forces have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. All its combat troops are due to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

The identity of a second man, aged 22, seized at the scene by armed police has not been released. Both suspects were shot and remain in hospital.

A third man, aged 29, who was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder on Thursday is also still in custody.

Donations flood in

It is understood that the two individuals suspected of carrying out the knife and cleaver attack were known to Britain’s domestic security service. They had featured in previous investigations into other individuals, but were not themselves under surveillance.

CNN understands that one line of inquiry being examined in the Woolwich terror investigation is that suspect Adebolajo might have attempted — but failed — to travel to Somalia some time last year.

The brutal slaying of Rigby near the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, a working-class, multicultural neighborhood, shocked people across the United Kingdom.

The 25-year-old, who was married and had a 2-year-old son, was a machine gunner who became a recruiter. He was also a ceremonial military drummer.

His family spoke Friday of their sorrow at losing a son, husband and brother who was dedicated to his job and devoted to his family.

Help for Heroes, a charity which helps injured military veterans and servicemen and women, said Saturday that nearly £600,000 ($907,590) in public donations had poured in since the news of Rigby’s murder — with more still coming in.

“The nation has rallied behind our Armed Forces in an extraordinary and wonderful display of support,” the charity said.

CNN’s Laura Smith-Spark wrote and reported in London, where Erin McLaughlin also reported. Victoria Eastwood reported from Newcastle. CNN’s Matthew Chance, Bharati Naik, Jonathan Wald and Dan Rivers contributed to this report.

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/25/world/europe/uk-attack-tensions/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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The Sydney Opera House took center stage at the opening of the Vivid Sydney festival.

The festival is in its fifth year and 2013 is the first time the Sydney Harbour Bridge has been lit up as part of the show. There is an interactive programming station that allows the public to control the lights on the bridge.

The festival is anticipated to draw 550,000 people, organizers say.

The festival has three parts: Vivid Light, Vivid Music and Vivid Ideas. Here, the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia gets a new life as part of Vivid Light.

Customs House is another iconic Sydney structure lit up for the festival.

As well as guys in their 60s wearing jumpsuits, the Kraftwerk show came with 3-D effects.

German techno pioneers Kraftwerk headline Vivid Music. They are one of around 25 music performances during the festival. It is music. Non-stop.

Darling Harbour was part of Vivid Light for the first time, transforming the area into a spectacle of dancing water fountains.

Projections onto the water fountains were masterminded by France’s legendary Aquatique Show International.

“Vivid Sydney is now the Southern Hemisphere’s largest festival of light, music and ideas,” NSW Deputy Premier Andrew Stoner said.

The 3-D-mapped light projections on the Opera House’s sails were produced by Australian creative outfit, The Spinifex Group.

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Sydney (CNN) — When winter hits, Sydney becomes something of a ghost town as its 4 million or so residents retreat indoors to acclimatize to the cold.

Yet for the past five years, they’ve been beckoned outside by Vivid Sydney, an 18-day festival of light, music and ideas that takes over after dark May 24 to June 10.

At the core of the carbon-neutral festival is Vivid Light. From 6 p.m. every evening, local and visiting artists use light installations and 3-D projectors to transform the 1,056,000 tiles of the Sydney Opera House, the Museum of Contemporary Art and other category-killing buildings into giant canvases of color and light.

Check out this incredible Sydney Opera House timelapse

Incredible Opera House timelapse

Headlining Vivid Live, the festival’s ticketed live music program, are German electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk. Other acts included Joy Division and Vangelis from the UK and homegrown acts Cloud Control and Empire of the Sun. Bobby Womack called in sick.

Vivid Ideas, the festival’s third and final arm, comprises more than 100 lectures, workshops and debates. Led by global leaders in the fields of fashion, film, publishing, architecture and design, it underlines Sydney’s standing as a global epicenter for creative arts.

“Vivid now leads the world in sheer number and size of buildings projections — no other city lights up its famous landmarks and skyscrapers the way we do,” says creative adviser Ignatius Jones, who co-directed the 2000 Sydney Olympics’ opening ceremony.

“This year we’re going to have 60 light sculptures — nearly twice as many as last year. It’s going to be really, really big.”

A complete list of events and shows, plus ticketing details are accessible here: Vivid Sydney

In sync with the colder clime, Sydneysiders stray from the city’s beaches and harbor to find fun in the retail and entertainment precincts of the inner city and beyond. Here are three of the hippest.

Insider guide to Sydney

Surry Hills

During the Great Depression, Surry Hills was a Dickensian slum known for brothels and razor-wielding street gangs. But demand for city-fringe housing has seen the suburb embark on a journey of gentrification that transformed it into Sydney’s Soho district.

Starting at the junctures of Oxford Street, Sydney’s celebrated gay district, vintage clothing stores like Grandma Takes a Trip, Wheels Dollbaby and Strawberry Hills (+612 9380 8809) make Surry Hills Sydney’s capital of alternative fashion. For contemporary threads, check out Japanese-Danish boutique Mushu, Via Alley Shop and Gallery and Flight 001, a travel store shaped like the inside of a jumbo jet.

New York-style warehouse bars like Toko, The Winery and Shortgrain buzz with life on wintry weekends, while neon green spirits are served with aplomb at The Absinthe Salon.

The home of Australia’s most innovative theater company, Belvoir Street Theatre is where Hollywood heavyweights Cate Blanchett and Geoffrey Rush cut their teeth. From May 28 to July 14, Belvoir presents “Angles in America,” a two-part Pulitzer Prize-winning play featuring Marcus Graham of David Lynch’s “Mulholland Dr.”

To get a sense of Surry Hills’s working-class past, order a beer on tap or at The Cricketers Arms, Hollywood Hotel or any of the suburb’s un-renovated pubs. Adherents of the if-it-isn’t-broken-don’t fix-it school of design, they are windows into Surry Hill’s indissoluble bohemian heart.

The Inner West

When it comes to noisy and unsightly motorways, Parramatta Road, Sydney’s major east-west artery, takes the cake. But a select number of its side streets and adjoining suburbs are vibrant hubs for food, fashion and art.

At the very start of Parramatta Road, the castle-like buildings of Sydney University were modeled on London’s Westminster Abbey. Walk though its neogothic sandstone quadrangle to King Street, Newtown, an eclectic meeting place for students, rockabillies and steampunks. Lined with old pubs, cinemas and multicultural eats like Rowda Ya Habibi (+612 9557 5368), Sydney’s best kebab joint, King Street is a people-watchers’ paradise and then some.

Across from Sydney University is Glebe Point Road, home to Gleebooks, Sydney’s most popular independent bookstore. On Saturday mornings, Glebe Markets provides a showcase for emerging artists with recycled fashion and bands on the side.

A mile west of here on Parramatta Road is Deus ex Machina’s House of Simple Pleasures. A hanger-size oasis of retro style, it combines a custom motorcycle showroom, the Deus boutique and a pseudo-industrial function space that hosts everything from weddings to rock concerts.

Continue another mile and a half and you’ll find Sydney’s Little Italy on Norton Street, Leichhardt. With around 50 restaurants and cafés, the strip stakes a claim as one of Sydney’s great ethic culinary hubs.

Discover your favorite Leichhardt eatery on a Buon Appetito walking tour. Run by Italian-Australian advocacy group Co.As.It, it visits Leichhardt’s best food outlets, teaches the history of Italians in the area and culminates in a cooking demonstration and Sicilian lunch.

Woollahra

An Aboriginal word meaning ‘camp’, Woollahra is one of the eastern Sydney’s most affluent suburbs. Its streets are lined with elm trees, grand Victorian terraces and a village-like retail hub home to some of Australia’s most prestigious art galleries.

The Gallery Walk starts near the corners of Oxford and Queen Street at The Art of Dr Seuss for limited-edition prints by the author of the “Cat in the Hat” series. Continue along Queen Street to Bewoulf Gallery for exotic and ethnographic ceramics. A detour through Hallis Lane leads to the Tim Olsen Gallery and Richard Martin Art on Jersey Road, where Sydney’s art cognoscenti attend regular exhibitions.

Tucked behind rows of square hedges around the corner on Ocean Street is Chiswick, a glasshouse-inspired eatery with shaded outdoor seating. TV chef Matt Moran sources herbs from Chiswick’s own vegetable patch, lamb from his own farm and small goods from Victor Churchill, a Woollahra butcher of distinction established in 1876.

Back on Queen Street, across the road from luxury perfumery Jo Malone, is Life.Style — the boutique-gallery hybrid of global cosmetics tsar Napoleon Perdis. Trading from the heritage-listed original Woollahra Post Office building, it stocks IONIA porcelain dinnerware from Greece, Lucite and Perspex accessories from France plus lithographs and garments from the US.

“Woollahra is a micro cosmos that epitomizes the idea of Sydney as a city of villages,” Perdis says. “It’s not just a tourist attraction, it’s the way we live.”

Article source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/25/travel/sydney-vivid-light-festival/index.html?eref=edition