Nelson Mandela Taken To Hospital, In 'Serious' Condition

JOHANNESBURG — South Africans on Saturday said their thoughts were with former President Nelson Mandela, who was in "serious but stable" condition after being taken to a hospital to be treated for a recurring lung infection.
Mandela, who is 94 years old, was treated in a hospital several times in recent months, with the last discharge coming on April 6 after doctors diagnosed him with pneumonia and drained fluid from his lung area. He has been particularly vulnerable to respiratory problems since contracting tuberculosis during his 27-year imprisonment under apartheid.
A small girl and her father stood outside Mandela's Johannesburg home with a stone on which was written a get-well message for Mandela, who helped end white racist rule and became the country's first black president in all-race elections in 1994. A young boy brought a bouquet of flowers that he handed over to guards at the house.
Elsewhere in the city, some worshippers prayed for Mandela during an outdoor gathering.
"If the time comes, we wish for him a good way to go," said Noel Ngwenya, a security officer who was in the congregation.
"During the past few days, former President Nelson Mandela has had a recurrence of lung infection," said a statement from the office of President Jacob Zuma. "This morning at about 1:30 a.m., his condition deteriorated and he was transferred to a Pretoria hospital."
It said Mandela was receiving expert medical care and "doctors are doing everything possible to make him better and comfortable."
Zuma wished Mandela a quick recovery on behalf of the government and the nation and requested that the media and the public respect the privacy of the former leader and his family, the statement said.
Mandela's wife, humanitarian activist Graca Machel, canceled an appearance at an international forum on hunger and nutrition in London on Saturday, citing "personal reasons," said Colleen Harris, a spokeswoman for the meeting.

Presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said Machel had canceled her attendance at the London meeting on Thursday, and had accompanied Mandela to the hospital on Saturday morning, the South African Press Association reported.
"We need to hold our thoughts and keep him in our minds," Maharaj said. "He is a fighter, he has recovered many times from very serious conditions and he will be with us. Let's pray for him and help him to get better."
The African National Congress, the ruling party that has dominated politics in South Africa since the end of apartheid, said it hoped Mandela, known affectionately by his clan name Madiba, would get better soon.
"We will keep President Mandela and his family in our thoughts and prayers at this time and call upon South Africans and the peoples of the globe to do the same for our beloved statesman and icon, Madiba," the party said in a statement.
On April 29, state television broadcast footage of a visit by Zuma and other ANC leaders to Mandela at his Johannesburg home. Zuma said at the time that Mandela was in good shape, but the footage - the first public images of Mandela in nearly a year - showed him silent and unresponsive, even when Zuma tried to hold his hand.
"Nelson Mandela is a father to South Africa and South Africans; every time he is admitted to hospital we feel saddened along with the rest of our country," the Democratic Alliance, the main political opposition party, said in a statement.
South Africans expressed hope that Mandela would recover from his latest setback.
"He is going to survive," said Willie Mokoena, a gardener in Johannesburg. "He's a strong man."
Another city resident, Martha Mawela, said she thought the former president would recover because: "Everybody loves Mandela."
Mandela was robust during his decades as a public figure, endowed with charisma, a powerful memory and an extraordinary talent for articulating the aspirations of his people and winning over many of those who opposed him.
In recent years, however, he has become more frail and last made a public appearance at the 2010 World Cup soccer tournament, where he didn't deliver an address and was bundled against the cold.
In another recent hospitalization, Mandela was treated for a lung infection and had a procedure to remove gallstones in December. In March, he spent a night in a hospital for what authorities said was a scheduled medical test.

Santa Monica Gunman Planned Attack, Had Rifle & 1,300 Rounds Of Ammunition

SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Police investigating why a heavily armed gunman plotted a rampage that killed four people and wounded several others were focused Saturday on how the violence began: directed at his own family.
What started as domestic violence led to a chaotic street shooting spree and ended less than 15 minutes later in a college library where the gunman was killed Friday by police as students studying for finals ran for cover or hunkered down to avoid whizzing bullets.
Investigators were looking at family connections to find a motive because the killer's father and brother were the first victims, an official briefed on the probe who requested anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly told The Associated Press.
The killer, who died a day shy of his 24th birthday, was connected to the home that went up in flames after the first shootings, said Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks. She refused to elaborate or name the suspect because a surviving family member was out of the country and couldn't immediately be notified.
At an afternoon news conference next to the weapons and ammo found at multiple crime scenes, Seabrooks said the "cowardly murderer" planned the attack and was capable of firing 1,300 rounds.
"Any time someone puts on a vest, of some sort, comes out with a bag full of loaded magazines, has an extra receiver, has a handgun and has a semi-automatic rifle, carjacks folks, goes to a college, kills more people and has to be neutralized at the hands of the police, I would say that that's premeditated," she said.
The killer had a run-in with police seven years ago, but Seabrooks wouldn't offer more details because he was a juvenile at the time.
His father, Samir Zawahri, 55, brought his family to the neighborhood of small homes and apartment buildings tucked up against Interstate 10 in the mid-1990s, according to property records.
Not long after arriving on Yorkshire Avenue, the couple went through a difficult divorce and split custody of their two boys, said Thomas O'Rourke, a neighbor.
"It was not an easy breakup," O'Rourke said. "It was a bitter divorce."
When the sons got older, one went to live with his mother while the other stayed with the father.
"The father was a very nice gentleman," O'Rourke said. "But the boys just kind of kept to themselves. Didn't really socialize with any of the neighbors."

Francis Gets Personal: 'I Didn't Want To Be Pope'

Pope Francis attends his weekly audience in St. Peter's Square on June 5, 2013 in Vatican City, Vatican. This Wednesday Pope Francis dedicated his general audience with thousands of pilgrims and visitors to St Peter's square to the UN World Environment Day. (Photo by Franco Origlia/Getty Images)

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis revealed Friday that he never wanted to be pope and that he's living in the Vatican hotel for his "psychiatric" health.
Francis showed a personal and spontaneous side as he met with thousands of children from Jesuit schools across Italy and Albania. Tossing aside his prepared remarks, Francis surprised the kids by asking them if they'd like to ask him some questions instead.
"Yes!" they shouted to cheers and applause – and the concern of teachers who fretted that no one had prepared anything.
Answering their questions one by one, Francis told them the decision to become a priest had been difficult and that he had suffered "moments of interior darkness" when "you feel dry, without interior joy."
But he said he went ahead because he loved Christ.
One of the most touching moments came when Teresa, a bright-eyed redhead no more than six, asked Francis flat out if he had wanted to be pope.
Francis joked that only someone who hated himself would ever want to be pope. But then he became serious: "I didn't want to be pope."
Someone else asked him why he had renounced the papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace in favor of his spare suite in the Vatican hotel, where he has been living ever since the March conclave that elected him the first Jesuit pope and first pontiff from the Americas.
It wasn't so much a question of luxury as personality, he said. "I need to live among people," he said. "If I was living alone, isolated, it wouldn't be good for me. A professor asked me the same question, `why don't you go and live there (in the Papal apartments)'? And I replied: `Listen to me professor, it is for psychiatric reasons,'" he said chuckling.
This week, the Vatican confirmed that Francis wouldn't vacation at the papal summer retreat at Castel Gandolofo, in the hills south of Rome, and would instead remain in the Santa Marta hotel with a reduced work schedule. Francis' predecessors have all decamped for at least a few weeks each summer to the estate, where the lush gardens, lakeside perch and cool breezes provide a welcome respite to the oppressive summer heat of Rome. The estate, which by acreage is bigger than Vatican City, is entirely walled in, making it a perfect escape for a pope who wants isolation and solitude – but not one who wants to eat breakfast each morning with a group of fellow priests, as Francis does in the communal dining room of the Vatican hotel.
Francis has shown himself to be remarkably comfortable around children, taking up to an hour each Wednesday to greet mostly young people in the crowds at his general audience: He caresses and kisses the dozens of babies handed to him by his bodyguards; and he tousles the hair of older teens and pats them on the back, asking them to pray for him.
He showed a similar ease on Friday as he engaged in a good 30 minutes of banter with the schoolchildren, casually making the points he has made in his homilies and speeches: about the "scandal" of poverty and how the world frets when the stock market dips but cares nothing when a homeless person dies, and how everyone should learn a lesson from the poor.
Once or twice a year, Pope Benedict XVI would take questions from young people, but the questions were always submitted in advance so he could prepare a response.
The questions on Friday were clearly spontaneous. One little boy from Sicily asked Francis if he had ever visited Sicily. (No, Francis said, but he recently saw a beautiful film about the island.) A teacher from Spain asked the pope about "compromised" politicians. (Francis said all Christians had an obligation to be involved in politics.)
His final message to the kid was upbeat: "Don't let anyone rob you of hope.

Santa Monica College Shooting Leaves At Least Seven Dead, Several Others Wounded

Santa Monica College was placed on lockdown Friday after reports that a suspect fired a gun inside a campus building just before noon.
Seven people -- including the gunman -- were confirmed dead, the Los Angeles Times and CBS report.

Two of the victims, found in a burning Santa Monica house, are believed to be the brother and father of the gunman, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Jacqueline Seabrooks, Chief of the Santa Monica Police Department, described the incident as a series of shootings that began on a residential block and ended on the Santa Monica College campus. Two bodies were found in a house on the 2000 block of Yorkshire Avenue just before noon and a home was on fire, Seabrooks said at a press conference at 4:30 p.m. PST. Then the gunman moved westward toward campus, firing at cars, including a bus and police vehicle and killing at least two people, the Los Angeles Times and AP report.
Police officers exchanged gunfire with the suspect on campus, before the suspect ran into the college library, Seabrooks said. The suspect allegedly shot a woman and accosted other patrons of the library before officers shot at him in the building. He retreated, and authorities shot and killed him on campus.
An evacuee named Daniel Kraft tweeted a photo of an unidentified body on campus grounds. It's unknown whether the body is dead or alive, but Kraft told CNN that he believes he took a photo of the alleged shooter.

Gloria C. Mackenzie, Powerball Lottery Winner, Claims $590 Million May 18 Jackpot

 
A Florida woman has claimed a $590 million jackpot, state lottery officials announced at a press conference Wednesday.
Gloria C. Mackenzie, 84, bought the winning ticket for the May 18 drawing, which was the largest jackpot ever in the multi-state lottery's history. Mackenzie did not appear at the news conference.
Florida ABC affiliate WFTS reported that a woman claiming to have won the multimillion dollar jackpot reported to the state's lottery headquarters around noon on Wednesday.

Mackenzie, a resident of Zephyrhills, Fla., had agreed to split the winnings with her son, Scott. Mackenzie released a statement that was read at the state lottery news conference.
"While in line at Publix, another lottery player was kind enough to let me go ahead of them in line to purchase the winning Quick Pick ticket," Mackenzie said in the statement. "We are grateful for this blessing of winning the Florida Lottery Powerball jackpot and appreciate the interest of the public, the State of Florida and the lottery."
The $590 million jackpot, which was purchased at a Publix Supermarket in Zephyrhills, Fla., remained unclaimed for more than two weeks.
Prior to the announcement, the town of about 13,000 residents was abuzz with speculation about who the winner might be. Under Florida law, the winner of the lottery cannot remain anonymous.
"Being in a small town, everybody knows everybody and in some cases, everybody's business," Dave Walters, a reporter for the Zephyrhills News community newspaper, told the Associated Press. "It's hard to keep a secret in this town, but this is one of the biggest mysteries we've had in a long, long time."

In November 2012, a $587 million prize was split between two winning tickets.
This story has been updated to include Gloria Mackenzie's statement.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post misspelled the town of which Mackenzie is a resident. It is Zephyrhills, Fla.

Leslie Van Houten, Charles Manson Follower Convicted In Tate-LaBianca Murders, Denied Parole For 20th Time

Leslie Van Houten speaks during her parole hearing in this June 28, 2002, file photo taken at the California Institution for Women in Corona, Calif.

CHINO, Calif. — A parole panel refused an emotional bid by former Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten to release her from prison 44 years after she participated in a notorious set of murders.
The denial came at the 63-year-old's 20th parole hearing on Wednesday, where the panel heard from relatives of the victims who were opposed to her release.
Board of Parole Hearings Commissioner Jeffrey Ferguson told Van Houten she had failed to explain how someone as intelligent and well-bred as she was could have committed the "cruel and atrocious" murders of Leno and Rosemary La Bianca. She won't be eligible to ask for parole again for five years, but Ferguson said she could request another hearing sooner if circumstances change.
"The crimes will always be a factor," he said. "The question is whether the good will ever outweigh the bad. It certainly didn't today."
Van Houten was convicted of murder and conspiracy for her role in the slayings of wealthy Los Angeles grocers Leno and Rosemary La Bianca. They were stabbed to death in August 1969, one night after Manson's followers killed actress Sharon Tate and four others. Van Houten was 19 at the time.
Van Houten did not participate in the Tate killings but went along the next night when the La Biancas were slain in their home. During the penalty phase of her trial she confessed to joining in stabbing Mrs. La Bianca after she was dead.
"I know I did something that is unforgiveable, but I can create a world where I make amends," Van Houten said before the decision.
With survivors of the LaBiancas sitting behind her at the California Institution for Women, Van Houten acknowledged participating in the killings ordered by Manson.
"He could never have done what he did without people like me," said Van Houten, who has been in custody for 44 years.
The ruling came after a full-day hearing at which six representatives of the La Bianca family spoke in anguish about the loss of the couple.
"Today after 44 years, your crimes still instill fear in innocent people," said Ferguson. "The motive was the worst I can imagine, to incite a race war. Your crimes were gruesome and bloody."
During her comments, Van Houten repeatedly said that she was traumatized by her parents' divorce when she was 14, her pregnancy soon after and her mother's insistence that she have an abortion.
"Many people have traumatic childhoods," said Ferguson. "You have failed to explain at this time what would cause you to commit such horrific atrocities."
Van Houten showed no reaction to the ruling and quickly was escorted out of the room.
In her final statement, Van Houten apologized to everyone she harmed.
"I know that the pain goes on generationally. I want the victims to know I'm deeply ashamed of what I have done," she said.
After years of therapy and self-examination, she said, she realizes that what she did was "like a pebble falling in a pond which affected so many people."
"Mr. and Mrs. La Bianca died the worst possible deaths a human being can," she said.
Arguing to the board, Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Patrick Sequiera said some crimes may be an exception to the law guaranteeing the possibility of parole.
"There are certain crimes that are so heinous, so atrocious, so horrible that it should cause denial of parole," he said, elaborating on Van Houten's contradictions over the years.
In response, Van Houten's lawyer, Michael Satris, said his client "sank to the depths of Dante's inferno and she put herself there by consorting with the devil himself, Charles Manson."
However, Satris said his client has totally reformed herself.
"Leslie committed a great sin, a great crime in 1969, and in that time (in prison) she has developed into the equal of a saint," he said. "Everything she does is for humanity."
Van Houten was portrayed at trial by her defense lawyers as the youngest and least culpable of those convicted with Manson, a young woman from a good family who had been a homecoming princess and showed promise until she became involved with drugs and was recruited into Manson's murderous cult.
Now deeply wrinkled with long gray hair tied back in a ponytail, Van Houten at times seemed near tears but did not break down at the Wednesday hearing.
She said that when she heard the Manson family had killed Tate and others, she felt left out and asked to go along the second night.
Asked if she would have done the same had children been involved, she answered, "I can't say I wouldn't have done that. I'd like to say I wouldn't, but I don't know."
Asked to explain her actions, she said, "I feel that at that point I had really lost my humanity and I can't know how far I would have gone. I had no regard for life and no measurement of my limitations."
Van Houten has previously been commended for her work helping elderly women inmates at the California Institution for Women. She earned two college degrees while in custody.
Other members of Manson's murderous "family" have lost bids for parole.
One former follower, Bruce Davis, was approved for parole last year only to have Gov. Jerry Brown veto the plan in March, saying he wanted the 70-year-old Davis to reveal more details about the killings of a stunt man and a musician. Davis was not involved in the slayings of Sharon Tate and six others.
Manson, now 78, has stopped coming to parole hearings, sending word that prison is his home and he wants to stay there.

Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert and Florida Georgia Line Win Big at CMT Music Awards!

If you didn't watch the CMT Music Awards, then you totally missed out!

Not only was the show packed with appearances from just about every country singer out there, but it was also filled with spectacular performances, great speeches and eye-catching fashion.

Some of the best moments of the night came from country music's leading ladies: Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood and Miranda Lambert!

Taylor didn't impress us with her red carpet outfit but she did stun us during her "Red" performance on stage. What was even more surprising was that she didn't take home any awards!

Miranda was at the show without her husband Blake Shelton, who was working in Los Angeles. Not only did she perform and win two awards, but she presented and accepted an award for her hubby too. If you asked her, the best part of her night was probably when Lenny Kravitz kissed her!

Carrie seemed like she was definitely the leading lady of the night though. She gave a very moving performance for the victims of the recent Oklahoma tornadoes. She also won the award for Video of the Year, which is decided by voting fans, and gave it to her husband Mike Fisher who was there with her on his 33rd birthday.

The biggest male winners of the night were newcomers, Florida Georgia Line, who took home TWO awards and performed with rapper Nelly!

What was your favorite part of the night?