Courtney Cash, grandniece of Johnny Cash, found dead in a box

 Courtney Cash, the grandniece of musician Johnny Cash, was found dead in a box in her home in Tennessee, and a friend is charged in her death, according to Putnam County sheriff's officials.

Wayne Gary Masciarella, who is in custody, is charged with first-degree murder, and more charges are expected, Sheriff David Andrews told CNN.

Masciarella apparently had gone out Tuesday night with Cash and her boyfriend, William Austin Johnson. The couple lived together, and when all three returned to the apartment early Wednesday, there was an altercation. Cash and Johnson were both stabbed, officials say.

 

 

Wayne Gary Masciarella has been charged with first degree murder in the death of Courtney Cash.

Johnson managed to get away from the apartment and gave a statement to investigators at a local hospital.

Based on his statement, the sheriff said authorities arrested Masciarella within a couple of hours.

Johnson remains hospitalized at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.

Cash's grandfather, Tommy Cash, who is Johnny Cash's brother, said on Facebook: "We ask for your prayers for the Cash family at this time. Courtney and her boyfriend are beloved members of

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Australia Spots Possible Debris from Malaysia Jetliner

 

Royal Australian Air Force Airborne Electronics Analyst Flight Sergeant Tom Stewart from 10 Squadron watching a radar screen for signs of debris on board an AP-3C Orion over the Southern Indian Ocean during the search for missing Malaysian Airlines flight

Australia announced it has located possible debris from a missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner in the southern Indian Ocean.

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Lung cancer rates among women in the UK increase by 73%

Cancer Research UK says smoking trends have caused a rise in lung cancer among women and a fall among men

Lung cancer rates among women in the UK have risen by 73% since 1975, while

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Libya asks world to help it fight 'terrorism'

Appeal comes after wave of bombings and assassinations, and clashes between government and militias.

A wave of bombings has hit the eastern city of Benghazi [Reuters]

The Libyan government has called on the United Nations and international community to help fight what it called a war on terrorism as it struggles to stop the country sliding into widening chaos and instability.

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Dozens killed in another bloody day for Iraq

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More than 100 immigrants found at suspected stash house in Texas

(CNN) -- Police in Houston rescued more than 100 immigrants Wednesday from a suspected stash house where they were being held against their will.

A total of 94 men and 15 women, including children, were discovered inside the one-story, roughly 1,500 square-foot home, according to police spokesman John Cannon.

A pregnant woman was taken to a hospital for medical attention, but most of the others appeared healthy.

"No one looked to be serio

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Eight missing as cargo ships collide outside of Tokyo Bay

The location of the collision, which occured in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Tokyo, Japan (CNN) -- Two cargo ships collided just outside Tokyo Bay, according to the Japanese Coast Guard.

The Panamanian-flagged Beagle III crashed into another vessel, the South Korean-registered Pegasus Prime, causing it to sink. The incident occurred southeast of the Miura Peninsula in Kanagawa Prefecture.

Of the 20 crew members -- all of whom are Chinese nationals -- aboard Beagle III, 12 have been found and eight are still missing.

Of the rescued crew members, six have slight injuries. The Chief Engineer of he ship was found drifting and seriously injured on Tuesday, He was taken to the nearby Miura City Hospital in a "state of cardiopulmonary arrest," but was confirmed dead Tuesday, the Japan Coast Guard confirmed.

The 14 crew aboard the other vessel, Pegasus Prime, are all accounted for, according to the Coast Guard.

The two ships collided at 3:20 a.m. Tuesday.

Japan's Transportation Safety Board has dispatched five marine accident investigators to look into the cause of the accident.

The area the collision occurred is the entrance of Tokyo Bay, a well-known sea route for more than 400 vessels that use the port in Tokyo or Yokohama.

Beagle III, a 12,630-ton general cargo ship, last reported its position as just south of the entrance to Tokyo Bay. It is currently reported as "out of range." Its last known port was nearby Yokohama. The Coast Guard has confirmed that it had departed Yokohama and was heading to Kobe.

The 7,406-ton Pegasus Prime had departed Kunsan, South Korea and was heading to Tokyo.

The Chinese Embassy reported that the search and rescue operation is comprised of 10 ships and a helicopter. The statement also indicated that "emergency mechanisms" were in place between the Japanese and Chinese authorities in Tokyo to ensure proper cooperation and continued efforts to search for the remaining missing crew members.

The Japan Coast Guard is continuing search operations by patrol boats and aircraft, but there have been no clues regarding the missing crew members yet, they said Wednesday.

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Chinese media: Kindergartens suspected of drugging students to boost attendance

Chinese parents gather in front of the Fanglin Kindergarten in Jilin city, over the school's feeding of a prescription drug to their children on March 17.

(CNN) -- Kindergartens in three Chinese provinces are accused of giving prescription drugs to children without their parents' knowledge, according to Xinhua, China's state-run news agency.

The drugs were given to prevent the children from getting sick in order to boost attendance, the news agency reported. The schools get paid based on attendance.

The scandal started last week in one kindergarten in the city of Xi'an and has now spread to several in the country, prompting China's education and health ministries to require its local branches to check all kindergartens and primary schools for illegally administered drugs, according to the Global Times newspaper.

Almost 2,000 children who attended the suspected kindergartens are receiving medical attention as some reported side effects from the medication, such as dizziness, stomachaches, leg pains and genital swelling, Xinhua said.

In an article Tuesday, state media called it a "crisis of confidence in kindergarten managers." It said that many parents are fed up with private kindergartens "which are poorly funded, poorly managed and frequently in a bad state of repair." China's preschools have been riddled with what the state media called "a long history of avoidable problems" such as food safety and physical abuse.

Some angry parents of the affected kindergartens rallied in front of the facilities and local government buildings.

First incidents

Last week, Xinhua reported that a parent accused a kindergarten in Xi'an, in Shaanxi province of administering an antiviral drug to children.

One parent told the Global Times that several kindergarteners had been complaining about stomachaches or night sweats. When their parents took them to the doctors, they found abnormal results in urine and blood tests -- traces of possible damage to the kidney or liver, the parent told Chinese media. The doctors were stumped over the diagnosis.

Local authorities said that the administrators at the Fengyun Lanwan Kindergarten had given children moroxydine ABOB, a medicine which can cause side effects such as sweating, loss of appetite and hypoglycemia since 2008. The prescription drug is used to treat the flu.

"Teachers told my child the pill was good for him but should be kept secret," one parent, identified as Zhang told Xinhua. "They have been taking it for nearly three years."

Another kindergarten in Xi'an, called Hongji Xincheng has also been suspected of following the same practice, Xinhua said. Together, the two kindergartens have 1,455 students.

Little known about drug in question

Dr. Nelson Lee, professor of infectious diseases at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said not much is known about moroxydine ABOB.

The drug was produced in the 1950s and could have some antiviral effects such as suppressing the flu virus, but there are no reports or clinical trials in English.This means doctors know little about how helpful or harmful it could be.

For kindergartens to administer such a drug with little research or data is something Lee said he has never heard of.

"I think the most effective, suitable way to prevent flu infection is to ask the students to get flu vaccines every year. It's the proven, safest way to prevent flu, rather than taking long-term medication with unknown side effects and efficacy."

Similar incident in Jilin province

Days later, another kindergarten came under scrutiny, this time in the northeastern province of Jilin.

Investigators told Xinhua that a branch of the Fanglin Kindergarten in Jilin City had given some children the same drug -- moroxydine ABOB -- to prevent them from catching colds and infectious diseases. The kindergarten staff were reported to have said they were using the drug to improve attendance.

Three administrators have been arrested, according to Xinhua.

The kindergarten's 375 students are getting checked at hospitals, it reported.

Latest incident in Hubei province

The parents of children who had been attending Xingang Kindergarten in Hubei province, had become suspicious, telling Xinhua that their children developed symptoms such as stomachaches, irregular heartbeats, itching, vomiting and dizziness. Kindergarteners told their parents that they were forced to swallow "white, bitter-tasting pills."

The principal and vice principal of the kindergarten "admitted to having fed pupils an over-the-counter anti-fever drug and vitamins to boost their immunity and improve attendance," reported Xinhua on Tuesday.

The kindergarten, located in Yichang City, was shut and about 200 students are receiving medical check-ups, according to China's state media.

Authorities are looking into where the schools got their supply of prescription medication.

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Malaysia Airlines Flight 370: Southern search area seen as most likely

(CNN) -- The missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is more likely to be in the southern search area identified by investigators, which stretches far into the Indian Ocean, a U.S. government official familiar with the investigation told CNN on Wednesday.

"This is an area out of normal shipping lanes, out of any commercial flight patterns, with few fishing boats and there are no islands," the official said, warning that the search could well last "weeks and not days."

The search for the passenger jet and the 239 people on board is now in its 12th day, covering a total area roughly the size of the continental United States.

Searchers from 26 countries are trying to pinpointing the plane's location somewhere along two vast arcs, one stretching deep into the Asian landmass, the other far out into the Indian Ocean.

 

Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said at a news conference Wednesday that both search areas are of equal importance.

Here are other highlights from the news conference:

-- Some data had been deleted from the flight simulator found at the home of the pilot, Hishammuddin said. Forensic work is under way to try to recover it, he said.

-- Malaysian authorities have received background information from all countries with passengers on board the plane except Russia and Ukraine. So far, no information of significance has been found about any passengers, Hishammuddin said.

-- Malaysia has received some radar data from other countries, he said, but "we are not at liberty to release information from other countries."

-- Reports that the plane was sighted by people in the Maldives are "not true," Hishammuddin said, citing the Chief of the Malaysian Defense Force who contacted his counterpart in the Maldives.

Ticking clock

The latest news conference took place as the clock ticked on search efforts.

The box containing the flight-data and cockpit-voice recorders of the missing plane has batteries designed to keep it sending out pings for 30 days. That leaves 18 days until the batteries are expected to run out.

Investigators hope the recorders may reveal vital information about why the passenger jet carrying 239 people veered dramatically off course and disappeared from radar screens. But they have to find them first.

"The odds of finding the pinger are very slim," said Rob McCallum, an ocean search specialist. "Even when you know roughly where the target is, it can be very tricky to find the pinger. They have a very limited range."

How do passenger jets change flight paths?

Technology put to use

Some of the nations involved in the hunt are deploying an impressive array of technology, including satellites and high-tech submarine-hunting planes, as they try to narrow the search area.

They're also trawling through existing radar and satellite data for clues.

Australia said Wednesday that the area of the southern Indian Ocean where it is searching for the plane has been "significantly refined."

 

The new area is based on work done by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board on "the fuel reserves of the aircraft and how far it could have flown," said John Young of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority.

But Australian ships and aircraft have so far seen nothing connected to the missing plane, Australian authorities said.

Small details emerge

Much of what has emerged in recent days has filled in a few more details about the early part of the missing Boeing 777-200's flight.

But clear information on what went on in the cockpit and where exactly the errant jet went after it vanished from Malaysian military radar remains frustratingly elusive.

On Tuesday, for example, a law enforcement official told CNN that the aircraft's first major change of course was almost certainly programmed by somebody in the cockpit. The change was entered into the plane's system at least 12 minutes before a person in the cockpit, believed to be the co-pilot, signed off to air traffic controllers.

But that disclosure only left more questions about the reason behind the reprogrammed flight path.

Some experts said the change in direction could have been part of an alternate flight plan programmed in advance in case of emergency; others suggested it could show something more nefarious was afoot.

And Hishammuddin said Wednesday that "there is no additional waypoint on MH370's documented flight plan, which depicts normal routing all the way to Beijing."

The Thai military, meanwhile, said it had spotted the plane turning west toward the Strait of Malacca early on March 8. That supports the analysis of Malaysian military radar that has the plane flying out over the Strait of Malacca and into the Indian Ocean.

But it didn't make it any clearer where the plane went next. Authorities say information from satellites suggests the plane kept flying for about six hours after it was last detected by Malaysian military radar.

Why were there no phone calls?

Who was at the controls?

Malaysian authorities, who are coordinating the search, say the available evidence suggests the missing plane flew off course in a deliberate act by someone who knew what they were doing.

Figuring out who that might be has so far left investigators stumped.

Particular attention has focused on the pilot and first officer on Flight 370, but authorities are yet to come up with any evidence explaining why either of them would have taken the jetliner off course.

 

And some experts have warned against hastily jumping to conclusions about the role of the pilots.

"I've worked on many cases were the pilots were suspect, and it turned out to be a mechanical and horrible problem," said Mary Schiavo, a CNN aviation analyst and former inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation. "And I have a saying myself: Sometimes an erratic flight path is heroism, not terrorism

China says it has found nothing suspicious during background checks on its citizens on the flight -- a large majority of the plane's passengers.

Searchers face deep ocean

Hishammuddin, the country's public face of the search efforts, has repeatedly said at news conferences that little is likely to be established about the mysterious flight until the plane is found.

But in the Indian Ocean, where Australia and Indonesia have taken the lead in the hunt, some of the depths searchers are dealing with are significant.

The Bay of Bengal, for example, which lies between Myanmar and India, has depths of between about 4,000 and 7,000 meters (13,000 feet and 23,000 feet), according to McCallum.

Wreckage and bodies of passengers from Air France Flight 447, which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009, were found at depths of around 12,000 feet by unmanned submarines.

It took four searches over the course of nearly two years to locate the bulk of the wreckage and the majority of the bodies of the 228 people on board Flight 447. It took even longer to establish the cause of the disaster.

Right now, authorities don't even know for sure if the missing Malaysian plane crashed or landed -- or where.

CNN has talked to more than half a dozen U.S. military and intelligence officials who emphasize that while no one knows what happened to the plane, it is more logical to conclude it crashed into the Indian Ocean

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Experts answer #370Qs tweets about missing Malaysian flight

(CNN) -- The mystery of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 raises countless questions. CNN analysts, contributors and correspondents have been searching for answers.

Here are some of the viewer questions posted to Twitter with the hashtag #370Qs and addressed by a panel assembled by CNN's Don Lemon.

@markydcote asked, "The Himalayas are vast. Is it possible the plane could have crashed there where radar coverage may be spotty?"

CNN correspondent Martin Savidge checked out that possible path in a flight simulator: "Well, essentially here's the scenario we set up. These are the Himalayan Mountains, and what we're trying to do is simulate flying through them. Apparently trying to do it below radar. In other words, using the mountain as kind of cover. The 777 was never designed to be a fighter aircraft, and even though we're in a simulator and even though I know that none of this is real, I've got to say that the way that the whole horizon keeps banking and yanking here is really uncomfortable. The aircraft is doing over 230 knots, as we find our way through the steep, narrow mountain passes here. You can hear all the alarms going off warning that we're way too low, and even though we're 1600 feet in the air, we're actually only 320 feet off the deck." "It is a simulation, but if somebody was trying to do this at night, there's no way. You would end up on one of these mountainsides here. So, it's impressive to watch, but really, this is just fantasy here. There's no way an aircraft like this would fly this low in the Himalayan Mountains."

Who was in command of missing airplane?

Data deleted from pilot's simulator?

See officials remove screaming mothers

 

Photos: The search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

@sharma_thakur99 asked, "Is there a possibility that it caught fire and radar, etc., wasn't manually shut off but an accident?"

CNN Reporter Stephanie Elam spoke with former Trans World Airlines captain Barry Schiff about this: "You know, what we're given here is a large jigsaw puzzle that has 1,000 pieces and someone tossed 20 pieces at us and said, "Here figure out what this is supposed to represent,'" Schiff said, who flew jet liners for 34 years. His theory about what happened on flight 370? A problem on board. "If you have a serious problem aboard a jetliner like a fire, one thing you're going to want to do is get on the ground as soon as possible. And turning back towards Malaysia, towards a large airport is the first thing I would do. The most imperative thing is to take care of that fire. The last thing you're going to do is communicate unless you have the time to do it because no one on the ground can help you." He doesn't believe the idea that the pilots tried a water landing. "I seriously doubt that anyone would try to land a jetliner in the water at night. Imagine hitting the water at 100, 200, 300 miles an hour. It's going to make the airplane splatter into pieces."

@fstaylor asked, "Anyone been able to investigate the men traveling on the passports yet, any connection to the pilots?"

Jeff Beatty, national security expert: "I think that really leads to the question of: 'Were there people that were helping the pilots.'" "Obviously, there was no duress signal given from the pilots to the people they were communicating with." "There is a way to communicate duress not only with the transponder codes but also what you say verbally. So, if, in fact...(had they) been coerced and unwillingly turned the airplane, they could have given a verbal distress indicator... They didn't do that." "Perhaps they did have other people on the airplane with them; they willfully made this course deviation, and when we look at, well, who's suspicious? The mere act of taking and traveling with false passports certainly makes those people suspicious."

How do passenger jets change flight paths?

@742carol asked, "Often thieves get away with big heists. 777 would (be) worth money in the black market."

Science writer Jeff Wise: "There's a secondary market. You can go online and find them listed, and they are not worth a gigantic amount of money. It's like $50 million for a secondhand 777. Bear in mind that is not one that is hot. You've got to file off the serial numbers and so forth. So there's probably easier ways to get your hands on a few million bucks."

@michaelbuis asked, "What intelligence value (is there) to the employees of Semiconductor China Telecom and business machines ZTE and Huawei (being on the plane)?"

Arthur Rosenberg, aviation lawyer, aviation engineer and pilot: "It's my understanding those employees actually had a background in sophisticated radar, and there may have actually been at least one of those employees who had some piloting experience. So, the fact that they were actually on this plane, I think, is significant." "I have to say, at 1:07, when the ACARS system reported that there was a program change for the heading in the airplane, followed by 12 minutes later when the pilot made his infamous remark 'all right, good night'... pilots don't make their change in course mid-flight without getting permission from air traffic control. They had 12 minutes to talk to air traffic control...and did not do that. I think that this -- this was a well-laid plan."

@tristanrachman asked, "Why would one program a computer system if they didn't plan on landing somewhere?"

Mary Schiavo: "Ordinarily, you program your flight computers for places you don't intend to land, because you have to have secondary airports, and you have to have emergency plans before you ever take off. You have to have enough fuel to get to your primary and secondary (destinations) in case something happens. So, you actually...program and have flight coordinates for airports other than the ones that you're going to, but it's to deal with emergencies or weather or problems at the airport." "So, it's just a backup plan."

@bibisir asked, "Could pilot depressurize plane to cause passengers to pass out?"

CNN aviation analyst and retired commercial pilot Jim Tilmon: "Yes, it can deprive the cabin of oxygen. And they don't have to do it for a very long time because you just cannot survive -- just a matter of minutes -- without oxygen. You go into kind of a hypoxia sleep, and you just don't wake up. And the crew has, of course, oxygen masks. They have a different source of oxygen that they can use, and they can put that mask on. It's a full face mask, and they can indeed breathe 100% oxygen for a while. It's far-fetched. It's awful to think of, but it is possible ... The masks would drop automatically. They do when you go through a certain altitude in the cabin. They automatically drop. The thing is that you have a tiny canister in each one of those overhead bins, and they are your oxygen generators. They only run for a relatively short length of time. That's why the protocol is if you do have an oxygen problem, you immediately go into a descent to get down into breathable oxygen, so that your passengers are going to be all right. And that's a pretty good drop -- that's a controlled dive, you might say, to about 14,000 feet."

@HerbOkam asked, "Is there any possibility of the airplane being completely intact at the bottom of the ocean hence the reason for no floating debris?"

Science writer Jeff Wise: "If it was in one piece, that would imply that the pilot had come in and done a gentle sort of Sullenberger kind of landing like he did on the Hudson where everything is in one piece. The problem with that is that you get the life rafts, deploying the life rafts, which are equipped with emergency locator beacons. In a way, It's either that or you do a high speed sort of supersonic descent where the thing just breaks into a million pieces. And if your goal is to leave no trace, then you'd be better off like that. That leaves millions of tiny pieces floating around. It's hard to imagine a scenario in which you ditch or crash in the ocean and there isn't some trace left."

@Bevie246 asked, "Are the authorities looking at the possible scenarios should the plane be intact and in the hands of hijackers?"

Former Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Transportation Mary Schiavo: "I certainly hope that they're looking at that, because there were so many lessons in the investigations after September 11. But one that was clear in the investigation following September 11 and that was the plot, the hints, the clues, it was imagined and imaginable. We had a lot of intelligence, and as soon as it happened, evidence starting pouring in. I got two key pieces of evidence in plain brown envelopes delivered to my office anonymously. Just everyone wanted to help. And here we don't have that, which is disconcerting, so the authorities, governments around the world really have to dig deep because there doesn't seem to be any information forthcoming. I've called it an eerie silence right now."

@AdSecurity asked, "Is it possible someone 'stole' the plane to use if later on in a terror attack and they wanted us all to believe that it crashed in the ocean?"

Jim Tilmon: "Yes, that's possible, but there's so many possibilities that we just have to put this on a long list."

Former CIA counter-terrorism officer Jeff Beatty: "That certainly is one of the possibilities. There's about three other scenarios that I'd like to just highlight. One of them could be a high-value cargo. The aircraft might have been taken for a high-value cargo. Now that cargo could possibly be people, high-value people that are on board, or that cargo could possibly be something of great value in the hold. The second one is in the past, we've actually had aircraft become the venue for murder ... and finally, there's always ransom."

@Lavender4CC asked, "What have we been told about the absence of #MH370 cell phone contact? No photos, texts, calls ... That's incredible!"

Mary Schiavo: "The first question is why not the calls from the plane or calls to and from the plane and that's because this plane was not equipped with the most modern equipment to have on board wifi and cell phone service, so that means that these cell phones would have to rely upon going near a tower. Now, the plane did pass back over Malaysia, and that was a possibility but it would have had to hit a tower just like anyone else driving around on the ground or being lucky to get a tower. And then, actually, some phone company officials have said that the cell phone ringing was not indicative that the phone was still working, but merely that it was simply ringing through to the area or the switching station to go ahead and meet the cell phone. It didn't mean the cell phone itself was working."

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Strange noise, then fiery crash: 2 dead as copter falls near Seattle's Space Needle

 

 

(CNN) -- Several times a day, helicopters land and take off from the helipad above Seattle's Fisher Plaza.

But this time was different.

The abnormal sound -- what the lead investigator described as an "unusual noise" -- gave away Tuesday morning that something was amiss. What followed immediately afterward proved it, as a news helicopter spiraled not skyward but into the ground, bursting into flames with those flames spreading to several parked cars in its path.

"I looked and the helicopter was almost immediately pitched sideways and off balance," recalled construction worker Bo Bain to CNN affiliate KING. "And he kind of just nose-dove over the trees, and clipped the top of the trees and crashed just on the other side of the street there."

The two people aboard the helicopter died in the crash, and another person who'd been in one of the three vehicles that caught fire was critically burned, officials said.

  News helicopter crashes in Seattle

The scary incident also rattled a vibrant part of the Emerald City, falling a few feet from the iconic Space Needle and not much further from the Experience Music Project, Children's Museum and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation offices about a quarter-mile away.

What happened, and why? Authorities offered little clarity in the immediate aftermath of the crash, expect to promise to someday get an answer.

"We want to understand what actually happened, so we can understand what we can do in the future to prevent this from happening," Mayor Ed Murray said.

Man leaves car 'in flames,' bleeding

Owned and operated by Helicopters Inc. -- a company that specializes in providing news-gathering choppers for media -- the 2003, Texas-built Eurocopter AS350 was in the midst of a seemingly normal Tuesday morning. While KING indicated on its website that it sometime made use of the helicopter, it was being leased at the time by CNN affiliate KOMO.

The helicopter had just come from Covington, Washington, and was planning to head next to Renton, said Dennis Hogenson with the National Transportation Safety Board, which is leading the investigation. Bain recalled that it spent "a minute or two" on the launching pad outside KOMO's offices when it tried to set off again.

"A witness described as the helicopter lifted off from the building and began to rotate counterclockwise and subsequently crashed," said Hogenson.

One of them, Daniel Alejandro Gonzalez, told CNN affiliate KIRO that he had gone outside to smoke a cigarette when he heard the helicopter's engine turn over. "About 15, 20 seconds later, I heard it, it sounded like in the movies -- when it goes into slow motion, when you hear the ding, ding, ding ... and after that I heard it collapse. I heard it hit the ground, and that's when I looked up."

Within a couple of seconds, the scene was ablaze.

Video showed what was left of the helicopter immersed in flames, as well as a line of fire in the street that engulfed several vehicles.

One man emerged from was once a red car, but was now ablaze, with "his shirt ... in flames, his head ... bleeding," Gonzales said.

"He walked about 20 feet and he collapsed."

The injured man -- in his late 30s -- was taken to Harborview Medical Center in critical condition, with burns over 50% of his body, said fire department spokesman Kyle Moore.

A hospital spokeswoman, Susan Gregg, said doctors at the level-one trauma center had sedated the man, put him on a ventilator and were administering fluids. They were still trying to determine the extent and severity of the burns, she added.

Gregg said the man may have helped reduce the severity of his injuries by rolling on the grass, extinguishing the flames.

Media mourn loss of their own

Bain described the next few minutes as "chaotic," with people abandoning their cars and one driver who "made a U-turn and got out of Dodge as quickly as possible." The area was already abuzz with commuters heading to work but, thankfully, not many tourists as the Space Needle was still a little over two hours from opening.

Still, while it could have been worse, the crash had a devastating effect -- especially among those who knew the victims.

Several media members were visibly shaken, with Murray describing KOMO workers "in a state of shock."

KOMO identified the victims as Bill Strothman, a former KOMO photographer, and Gary Pfitzner, the helicopter's pilot.

Strothman had earned 14 Emmy Awards during his career and was working as a freelancer after having retired from KOMO. His son still works as a photographer for the station.

"He was a guy who really knew how his pictures could tell a million words," said an emotional KOMO News Anchor Dan Lewis of Strothman, who also worked for the helicopter leasing company that was operating the aircraft. "... He was such a gentleman, a true gentleman."

Pfitzner too was a familiar face at the station. "He always had a smile on his face," said anchor and reporter Molly Shen. "He loved what he did, loved to be able to fly and be up there above the city and see things from a perspective that most of us don't get to see."

Seattle's mayor, Murray, met later Tuesday with Strothman's family, having known the father and son given their work in the news business.

"It just brought it home in a very personal way," the mayor told reporters. "... It just reminds us both that we are public servants. And people put themselves at risk in your business."

'Just a part of the tail and burnt-out metal'

Arriving firefighters found lines of blazing fuel in the street and thick, black smoke covering the area, with "wreckage strewn across the lawn along with wreckage across the street," said Moore, the fire department spokesman.

Their and other first responders' prompt and "pretty outstanding" actions, as Murray described them, helped prevent a horrific situation from becoming worse.

Ten tons of sand were dumped in the area to absorb the helicopter's fuel, with vacuum trucks later heading to clean up the site, said the mayor.

The Space Needle closed due to the crash, as did the city's monorail and parts of streets in the area.

The helicopter did not appear to any have struck any nearby buildings before its fiery end.

"What we have left is basically just a part of the tail and burnt-out metal from the main chassis of the helicopter," Moore said.

Investigators began Tuesday morning to interview witnesses, assess the scene and gather the wreckage in order to literally piece together what happened at an off-site location.

Hogenson, from the NTSB, said that his agency should issue a preliminary report in about five days and a full report -- including the probable cause of the crash -- in up to a year.

The president of Helicopters Inc., Stephen Lieber, issued a statement offering his company's condolences.

"We mourn their loss and suffering and our thoughts and prayers are with them," Lieber said. "We will cooperate fully and completely with the National Transportation Safety Board and provide to it whatever information it wants in order to assist it in its work in determining what happened."

CNN's Mary Kay Mallonee contributed to this report.

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The color of valor: 24 minority veterans receive long overdue Medal of Honor

(CNN) -- If not for the hue of their skin or their ethnicity, 24 soldiers who faced death in service to their nation would have received the most prestigious medals for their valor long ago.

But they were born and fought in a time when such deeds were not always fairly acknowledged.

On Tuesday, the U.S. government corrected the oversight.

President Barack Obama honored 24 Army veterans with the Medal of Honor -- the country's highest military award, given to American soldiers who display "gallantry above and beyond the call of duty " -- for their combat actions in Vietnam, Korea and World War II.

"No nation is perfect, but here ... we confront our imperfections and face a sometimes painful past, including the truth that some of these soldiers fought and died for a country that did not always see them as equal," Obama said.

He was honored in 1970 with the Army's Distinguished Service Cross award.

Today, at age 72, Morris -- who is African-American -- received his nation's most esteemed military honor.

"It makes me very proud that they are going back and looking at records," Morris told CNN.

But it was never about a medal for Morris, who joined the Army in 1959.

On September 17, 1969, he was on a search-and-destroy mission with his company when he learned the commander of another company nearby had been killed.

"Immediately it came to me that I had to recover his body," Morris said. "...Leave no man behind under any circumstance."

Morris was shot three times -- in the chest, arm and left ring finger -- as he carried the casualties out of the line of fire. He was then trapped in the firefight.

"The only thing I could do is fight, to hope I could get out," he said.

And fight he did.

He was later evacuated from the battlefield. Less than a year later, he returned to duty in Vietnam where he would be decorated again for his actions in combat.

There are others too.

Men like Santiago J. Erevia, a radiotelephone operator from Texas who in 1969 tended injured comrades in Vietnam's Quang Tin province when his position came under attack. According to the citation, Erevia took out three machine gun bunkers with grenades and gunfire. He then returned to care for his wounded comrades, crawling from one wounded man to another to administer aid.

And there were men like Jose Rodela, who, while commanding a mobile strike force in Vietnam's Phuoc Long province, "was wounded in the back and head by rocket shrapnel while recovering a wounded comrade," according to a military commendation. Still he single-handedly assaulted and knocked out a mortar position before returning to lead his men.

Morris, Rodela and Erevia wore Army uniforms as they accepted the medal, which was placed around their neck by Obama.

"In the thick of the fight all those years ago, for your comrades and your country, you refused to yield," the President said.

In 2002 Congress -- as part of the Defense Authorization Act -- set up a review of Jewish and Hispanic veterans who had served in combat since the middle of the century "to ensure those deserving the Medal of Honor were not denied because of prejudice," explained the White House. The congressional action was later amended to open the door for any serviceman or woman denied the award due to discrimination.

One of those who posthumously received the award is Leonard Kravitz, an assistant machine gunner in the Korean War. He is the uncle and namesake of actor and rock musician Lenny Kravitz

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China says none of its citizens on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 were hijackers

(CNN) -- China says it has found no evidence that any of its citizens on board Malaysia Airlines' missing Flight 370 were involved in hijacking or terrorism.

Background checks on all passengers from the Chinese mainland on the plane has found nothing to support such suspicions, Huang Huikang, the Chinese ambassador to Malaysia, said Tuesday, according to the state-run Chinese news agency Xinhua.

Authorities have said they are investigating all 239 people who were on board the Boeing 777-200, which disappeared over Southeast Asia more than 10 days ago en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

According to the airline, 154 of the 227 passengers on board the plane came from mainland China or Hong Kong.

Malaysia says the evidence gathered so far suggests the plane was deliberately flown off course, turning west and traveling back over the Malay Peninsula and out into the Indian Ocean.

But they so far don't know who was at the controls or why whoever it was took the plane far away from its original destination.

They're also not sure where it ended up, saying its last known location detected by a satellite is somewhere along two wide arcs, one stretching north over Asia and the other south into the Indian Ocean. The plane's last electronic connection with the satellite was about six hours after it last showed up on Malaysian military radar.

By effectively ruling out suspicions for a large majority of the passengers, Chinese authorities appear to have significantly shortened the list of possible suspects.

The Chinese ambassador's statement is also likely to greatly dampen speculation that Uyghur separatists from China's far western region of Xinjiang might have been involved in the plane's disappearance. One of the two long corridors where authorities say the plane was last detected stretched over Xinjiang, and unconfirmed reports had suggested the possibility that Uyghur's might be connected to the case.

Malaysian officials weren't immediately available to comment on the Chinese ambassador's comments.

China said Tuesday that it had begun to search for the plane in the parts of its territory that fall under the northern corridor.

The pilot and co-pilot of the missing plane, both them Malaysian, have come under particular scrutiny in the search for clues. Investigators say that whoever flew the plane off course for hours appeared to know what they were doing.

But officials have so far reported no evidence to tie the pilots to the plane's disappearance


By Jethro Mullen, CNN

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At least 10 killed in car bombing at Libyan military base, Health Ministry says

(CNN) -- A car bomb at a military base has killed at least 10 people in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, in the latest violence to wrack the cradle of the North African country's uprising.

The blast occurred as new graduates left a technical school at the base, Libya's state news agency LANA reported, quoting a military source in the city.

The car was loaded with a large amount of explosives, it added.

Speaking on Libyan television, Ammar Mohammed, a spokesman for the Libyan Health Ministry, said the bombing killed at least 10 people and wounded 23. LANA said at least seven soldiers were killed and nine people were wounded.

Benghazi is where the 2011 uprising against longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi began. Three years later, it is the scene of almost daily attacks and targeted assassinations, specifically against security officials.

While no one has claimed responsibility for the violence that has gripped the city for more than a year, many residents and officials blame it on Islamist extremist groups operating in eastern Libya.

Benghazi is the largest city in eastern Libya, where some groups want more autonomy and a greater share of the region's oil wealth.

SOURCE:

By Jomana Karadsheh and Marie-Louise Gumuchian, CNN

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Suicide car bomb kills two in Lebanon

 

Lebanese security forces inspect the site of a suicide car bomb attack near Nabi Uthman on March 16, 2014.

 (CNN) -- A suicide bomb explosion killed two people and injured 14 on a highway near Nabi Uthman in Lebanon's Bekaa valley, according to Lebanon's official news agency NNA.

The suicide bomber was speeding and raised the suspicion of a number of young men, NNA reports. When he stopped, the bomb exploded.

A group called "Free Sunni Brigade in Baalbek" was the first to claim responsibility for the bombing on Twitter.

The Al-Nusra Front in Lebanon, an offshoot of the Syrian rebel group, also claimed on Twitter that is was responsible for the suicide attack and called the "Free Sunni Brigade" a fraud.

The Free Sunni Brigade also addressed the Lebanese Army and Hezbollah saying, "Be prepared for the battle of Yabroud inside Lebanon!"

Hezbollah fighters have been helping the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in that country's civil war.

Syrian government forces have taken full control of the embattled town of Yabroud, once considered a rebel stronghold, Syrian state TV said Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Islamic Front, an alliance of Islamist rebel groups involved in the fighting in Yabroud, said via Twitter that fighting continues at the entrance of the town and disputes government accounts that the town is in full control of the Syrian military.

Yabroud is located near the Lebanese border, is considered a vital supply route for rebels and is a key strategic access road between Lebanon and Syria.

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