CBS News correspondent Bob Simon, 1941-2015

CBS News correspondent Bob Simon, 1941-2015

Last Updated Feb 11, 2015 11:37 PM EST

NEW YORK -- Bob Simon, the longtime "60 Minutes" correspondent and legendary CBS News foreign reporter died suddenly Wednesday night in a car accident in New York City.

The award-winning newsman was 73.

"Bob Simon was a giant of broadcast journalism, and a dear friend to everyone in the CBS News family. We are all shocked by this tragic, sudden loss. Our thoughts and prayers are with Bob's extended family and especially with our colleague Tanya Simon," said CBS News President David Rhodes.

"It's a terrible loss for all of us at CBS News," 60 Minutes Executive Producer Jeff Fager said in a statement. "It is such a tragedy made worse because we lost him in a car accident, a man who has escaped more difficult situations than almost any journalist in modern times.

"Bob was a reporter's reporter. He was driven by a natural curiosity that took him all over the world covering every kind of story imaginable," Fager said. "There is no one else like Bob Simon. All of us at CBS News and particularly at 60 Minutes will miss him very much."

60 Minutes Overtime

Life and times of a foreign correspondent

Here in America, he's known as Bob Simon, the CBS News correspondent who covered the Arab-Israel conflict for 40 years. But in Israel, he's known...

Simon was riding in the backseat of a livery cab around 6:45 p.m. Wednesday on New York City's West Side Highway when the car rear-ended another vehicle and crashed into barriers separating north- and southbound traffic, the New York Police Department said in a statement. Unconscious with head and torso injuries, Simon was transported to St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital where he died. The livery cab driver was taken to another hospital with injuries to his arms and legs. Police were investigating but made no arrests.

Over a 47-year career at CBS News, Simon earned more than 40 major awards, including 27 Emmys, believed to be the most ever earned for a field reporter and four Peabody Awards.

Simon's five-decade career took him through most major overseas conflicts spanning from the late 1960s to the present. He joined CBS News in 1967 as a New York-based reporter and assignment editor, covering campus unrest and inner city riots. Simon also worked in CBS News' Tel Aviv bureau from 1977-81, and worked in Washington D.C. as the network's State Department correspondent.

But Simon's career in war reporting was extensive, beginning in Vietnam. While based in Saigon from 1971-72, his reports on the war -- and particularly the Hanoi 1972 spring offensive -- won an Overseas Press Club award award for the Best Radio Spot News for coverage of the end of the conflict. Simon was there for the end of the conflict and was aboard one of the last helicopters out of Saigon in 1975.

CBS Evening News

Bob Simon recalls first moment he saw freed Nelson Mandela

Simon reported on Nelson Mandela's release from prison in 1990; he spoke with Scott Pelley about Mandela's first days of freedom

He also reported on the violence in Northern Ireland in from 1969-71 and also from war zones in Portugal, Cyprus, the Falkland Islands, the Persian Gulf, Yugoslavia and American military actions in Grenada, Somalia and Haiti.

Simon was named CBS News' chief Middle East correspondent in 1987, and became the leading broadcast journalist in the region, working in Tel Aviv for more than 20 years.

During the early days of the Persian Gulf War in 1991, Simon was imprisoned and tortured by the Iraqi army along with three CBS News colleagues. He later chronicled the experience in a book, "Forty Days."

"...This was the most searing experience of my life," Simon told the Los Angeles Times. "...I wrote about it because I needed to write about it."

In 1996, he won one more OPC Award, a Peabody Award and two Emmy Awards for coverage of the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. CBS News received an RTNDA Overall Excellence in Television Award in 1996 largely because of Simon's reporting from war-torn Sarajevo.

Newsmakers

Saving the Children

In one of the more remarkable humanitarian stories of WWII, Briton Nicholas Winton helped save hundreds of mostly Jewish children from Nazi-occup...

Moving into the 21st century, he was able to get two major interviews for 60 Minutes, including the first Western interview with extremist Iraqi cleric Muqtada al Sadr, and another with his Shiite Muslim rival, the Ayatollah al-Hakim, who was killed shortly after the interview.

Simon also lent his skills to CBS's Olympics coverage. For the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, he reported on the failed attempt of Israel's secret intelligence organization, the Mossad, to avenge the attack on Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics, for which he won an Emmy.

For the coverage of the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, he gave a 30-minute report on Louis Zamperini, an American Olympian who survived as a prisoner of war, held by the Japanese during World War II. The story won him a Sports Emmy.

Simon's most-recent piece for 60 Minutes aired last weekend, his conversation with Ava DuVernay, the director of the Academy Award-nominated film "Selma." He was working on a story for Sunday's broadcast with his daughter, Tanya, a 60 Minutes producer, about the Ebola virus and the search for a cure.

Simon was born on May 29, 1941, in the Bronx, N.Y., and was graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Brandeis University in 1962 with a degree in history. He served as an American Foreign Service officer (1964-67). He was a Fulbright scholar in France and a Woodrow Wilson scholar.

Simon is survived by his wife, Françoise, and their daughter, Tanya, her husband, Dr. Evan Garfein, and his grandson Jack, described by Fager and Rhodes as "the joy of his life, pictures of whom adorned his office."

CBS News correspondent Bob Simon, 1941-2015

Last Updated Feb 11, 2015 11:37 PM EST

NEW YORK -- Bob Simon, the longtime "60 Minutes" correspondent and legendary CBS News foreign reporter died suddenly Wednesday night in a car accident in New York City.

The award-winning newsman was 73.

"Bob Simon was a giant of broadcast journalism, and a dear friend to everyone in the CBS News family. We are all shocked by this tragic, sudden loss. Our thoughts and prayers are with Bob's extended family and especially with our colleague Tanya Simon," said CBS News President David Rhodes.

"It's a terrible loss for all of us at CBS News," 60 Minutes Executive Producer Jeff Fager said in a statement. "It is such a tragedy made worse because we lost him in a car accident, a man who has escaped more difficult situations than almost any journalist in modern times.

"Bob was a reporter's reporter. He was driven by a natural curiosity that took him all over the world covering every kind of story imaginable," Fager said. "There is no one else like Bob Simon. All of us at CBS News and particularly at 60 Minutes will miss him very much."

60 Minutes Overtime

Life and times of a foreign correspondent

Here in America, he's known as Bob Simon, the CBS News correspondent who covered the Arab-Israel conflict for 40 years. But in Israel, he's known...

Simon was riding in the backseat of a livery cab around 6:45 p.m. Wednesday on New York City's West Side Highway when the car rear-ended another vehicle and crashed into barriers separating north- and southbound traffic, the New York Police Department said in a statement. Unconscious with head and torso injuries, Simon was transported to St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital where he died. The livery cab driver was taken to another hospital with injuries to his arms and legs. Police were investigating but made no arrests.

Over a 47-year career at CBS News, Simon earned more than 40 major awards, including 27 Emmys, believed to be the most ever earned for a field reporter and four Peabody Awards.

Simon's five-decade career took him through most major overseas conflicts spanning from the late 1960s to the present. He joined CBS News in 1967 as a New York-based reporter and assignment editor, covering campus unrest and inner city riots. Simon also worked in CBS News' Tel Aviv bureau from 1977-81, and worked in Washington D.C. as the network's State Department correspondent.

But Simon's career in war reporting was extensive, beginning in Vietnam. While based in Saigon from 1971-72, his reports on the war -- and particularly the Hanoi 1972 spring offensive -- won an Overseas Press Club award award for the Best Radio Spot News for coverage of the end of the conflict. Simon was there for the end of the conflict and was aboard one of the last helicopters out of Saigon in 1975.

CBS Evening News

Bob Simon recalls first moment he saw freed Nelson Mandela

Simon reported on Nelson Mandela's release from prison in 1990; he spoke with Scott Pelley about Mandela's first days of freedom

He also reported on the violence in Northern Ireland in from 1969-71 and also from war zones in Portugal, Cyprus, the Falkland Islands, the Persian Gulf, Yugoslavia and American military actions in Grenada, Somalia and Haiti.

Simon was named CBS News' chief Middle East correspondent in 1987, and became the leading broadcast journalist in the region, working in Tel Aviv for more than 20 years.

During the early days of the Persian Gulf War in 1991, Simon was imprisoned and tortured by the Iraqi army along with three CBS News colleagues. He later chronicled the experience in a book, "Forty Days."

"...This was the most searing experience of my life," Simon told the Los Angeles Times. "...I wrote about it because I needed to write about it."

In 1996, he won one more OPC Award, a Peabody Award and two Emmy Awards for coverage of the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. CBS News received an RTNDA Overall Excellence in Television Award in 1996 largely because of Simon's reporting from war-torn Sarajevo.

Newsmakers

Saving the Children

In one of the more remarkable humanitarian stories of WWII, Briton Nicholas Winton helped save hundreds of mostly Jewish children from Nazi-occup...

Moving into the 21st century, he was able to get two major interviews for 60 Minutes, including the first Western interview with extremist Iraqi cleric Muqtada al Sadr, and another with his Shiite Muslim rival, the Ayatollah al-Hakim, who was killed shortly after the interview.

Simon also lent his skills to CBS's Olympics coverage. For the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, he reported on the failed attempt of Israel's secret intelligence organization, the Mossad, to avenge the attack on Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics, for which he won an Emmy.

For the coverage of the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, he gave a 30-minute report on Louis Zamperini, an American Olympian who survived as a prisoner of war, held by the Japanese during World War II. The story won him a Sports Emmy.

Simon's most-recent piece for 60 Minutes aired last weekend, his conversation with Ava DuVernay, the director of the Academy Award-nominated film "Selma." He was working on a story for Sunday's broadcast with his daughter, Tanya, a 60 Minutes producer, about the Ebola virus and the search for a cure.

Simon was born on May 29, 1941, in the Bronx, N.Y., and was graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Brandeis University in 1962 with a degree in history. He served as an American Foreign Service officer (1964-67). He was a Fulbright scholar in France and a Woodrow Wilson scholar.

Simon is survived by his wife, Françoise, and their daughter, Tanya, her husband, Dr. Evan Garfein, and his grandson Jack, described by Fager and Rhodes as "the joy of his life, pictures of whom adorned his office."

US loosens embargo on Cuba

US loosens embargo on Cuba

In this March 22, 2013 file photo, miniature flags representing Cuba and the U.S. are displayed on the dash of an American classic car in Havana, Cuba. (AP)

The Obama administration began to chip away at the U.S. embargo against Cuba, announcing new changes taking effect Friday that will allow more trade and travel between the two countries. 

The changes were announced despite concerns from members of Congress that the landmark shift in U.S.-Cuba relations is a "one-sided deal" that will benefit the Castro regime. 

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They come three days after U.S. officials confirmed the release of 53 political prisoners Cuba had promised to free. But some of those prisoners reportedly are still facing restrictions and being monitored. 

Announced Thursday, the new Treasury and Commerce Department regulations are the next step in President Obama's goal of re-establishing diplomatic relations with the government of Cuban President Raul Castro, Fidel's younger brother. 

Only Congress can end the five-decade embargo. But the measures make a number of changes weakening it. 

Among them, they would allow U.S. citizens to start bringing home small amounts of Cuban cigars after more than a half-century ban. 

They would give permission for Americans to use credit cards in Cuba and U.S. companies to export telephone, computer and Internet technologies. Investments in some small business are permitted. General tourist travel is still prohibited, but Americans authorized to visit Cuba need no longer apply for special licenses. 

Obama vowed to soften the embargo last month and begin restoring diplomatic ties with Havana, saying "these 50 years have shown that isolation has not worked." The deal was the product of 18 months of secret talks that culminated in the exchange of imprisoned spies and release of Alan Gross, a U.S. government contractor who had been imprisoned in Cuba for five years. 

The sudden rapprochement between Cold War foes has divided U.S. lawmakers across party lines and interests. 

Among Republicans and Democrats in Congress, Cuban-Americans such as Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Bob Menendez of New Jersey have been particularly vocal in opposition. 

Rubio on Thursday questioned whether the changes were even legal. 

"This is a windfall for the Castro regime that will be used to fund its repression against Cubans, as well as its activities against U.S. national interests in Latin America and beyond," he said in a statement. "Given existing U.S. laws about our Cuba policy, this slew of regulations leave at least one major question President Obama and his administration have failed to answer so far: what legal authority does he have to enrich the Castro regime in these ways?" 

He said the "one-sided deal is enriching a tyrant and his regime at the expense of U.S. national interests and the Cuban people." 

But White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the changes would help "empower the Cuban population to become less dependent upon the state-driven economy, and help facilitate our growing relationship with the Cuban people." 

"We firmly believe that allowing increased travel, commerce, and the flow of information to and from Cuba will allow the United States to better advance our interests and improve the lives of ordinary Cubans," he said in a statement. 

Some pro-business types have welcomed the opportunity to open up a new export market in a country so close to American shores. The head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, for example, said Wednesday it was better for the U.S. to sell computers, smartphones and cars to Cuba than to cede such business to countries like Russia and China. Still, the embargo as a whole appears unlikely to fall anytime soon. 

Starting Friday, U.S. companies will be able to export mobile phones, televisions, memory devices, recording devices, computers and software to a country with notoriously poor Internet and telecommunications infrastructure. 

Americans permitted to travel to Cuba for family visits, official U.S. government business, journalism, research, education, religious activity and other reasons fall under a U.S. general license and don't need to apply for a separate license. A limit on remittance payments to family members in Cuba will be raised to $8,000 per year, from $2,000 per year. Americans visiting Cuba will be allowed to bring home $100 in alcohol and tobacco products, and $400 in total goods. 

Other changes include: 

--Travel agents and airlines can fly to Cuba without a special license. 

--Insurance companies can provide coverage for health, life and travel insurance policies for individuals residing in or visiting Cuba. 

--Financial institutions may open accounts at Cuban banks to facilitate authorized transactions. 

--Investments can be made in some small businesses and agricultural operations. 

U.S. and Cuba are scheduled to hold migration talks in Havana next week, the next step in their normalization process. Leading the American delegation is Roberta Jacobson, the top U.S. diplomat for Latin America. Her visit marks the highest-level trip to Cuba by a U.S. official since 1980. 

Further down the road, Washington envisions reopening the U.S. Embassy in Havana. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

US loosens embargo on Cuba

In this March 22, 2013 file photo, miniature flags representing Cuba and the U.S. are displayed on the dash of an American classic car in Havana, Cuba. (AP)

The Obama administration began to chip away at the U.S. embargo against Cuba, announcing new changes taking effect Friday that will allow more trade and travel between the two countries. 

The changes were announced despite concerns from members of Congress that the landmark shift in U.S.-Cuba relations is a "one-sided deal" that will benefit the Castro regime. 

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

They come three days after U.S. officials confirmed the release of 53 political prisoners Cuba had promised to free. But some of those prisoners reportedly are still facing restrictions and being monitored. 

Announced Thursday, the new Treasury and Commerce Department regulations are the next step in President Obama's goal of re-establishing diplomatic relations with the government of Cuban President Raul Castro, Fidel's younger brother. 

Only Congress can end the five-decade embargo. But the measures make a number of changes weakening it. 

Among them, they would allow U.S. citizens to start bringing home small amounts of Cuban cigars after more than a half-century ban. 

They would give permission for Americans to use credit cards in Cuba and U.S. companies to export telephone, computer and Internet technologies. Investments in some small business are permitted. General tourist travel is still prohibited, but Americans authorized to visit Cuba need no longer apply for special licenses. 

Obama vowed to soften the embargo last month and begin restoring diplomatic ties with Havana, saying "these 50 years have shown that isolation has not worked." The deal was the product of 18 months of secret talks that culminated in the exchange of imprisoned spies and release of Alan Gross, a U.S. government contractor who had been imprisoned in Cuba for five years. 

The sudden rapprochement between Cold War foes has divided U.S. lawmakers across party lines and interests. 

Among Republicans and Democrats in Congress, Cuban-Americans such as Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Bob Menendez of New Jersey have been particularly vocal in opposition. 

Rubio on Thursday questioned whether the changes were even legal. 

"This is a windfall for the Castro regime that will be used to fund its repression against Cubans, as well as its activities against U.S. national interests in Latin America and beyond," he said in a statement. "Given existing U.S. laws about our Cuba policy, this slew of regulations leave at least one major question President Obama and his administration have failed to answer so far: what legal authority does he have to enrich the Castro regime in these ways?" 

He said the "one-sided deal is enriching a tyrant and his regime at the expense of U.S. national interests and the Cuban people." 

But White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the changes would help "empower the Cuban population to become less dependent upon the state-driven economy, and help facilitate our growing relationship with the Cuban people." 

"We firmly believe that allowing increased travel, commerce, and the flow of information to and from Cuba will allow the United States to better advance our interests and improve the lives of ordinary Cubans," he said in a statement. 

Some pro-business types have welcomed the opportunity to open up a new export market in a country so close to American shores. The head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, for example, said Wednesday it was better for the U.S. to sell computers, smartphones and cars to Cuba than to cede such business to countries like Russia and China. Still, the embargo as a whole appears unlikely to fall anytime soon. 

Starting Friday, U.S. companies will be able to export mobile phones, televisions, memory devices, recording devices, computers and software to a country with notoriously poor Internet and telecommunications infrastructure. 

Americans permitted to travel to Cuba for family visits, official U.S. government business, journalism, research, education, religious activity and other reasons fall under a U.S. general license and don't need to apply for a separate license. A limit on remittance payments to family members in Cuba will be raised to $8,000 per year, from $2,000 per year. Americans visiting Cuba will be allowed to bring home $100 in alcohol and tobacco products, and $400 in total goods. 

Other changes include: 

--Travel agents and airlines can fly to Cuba without a special license. 

--Insurance companies can provide coverage for health, life and travel insurance policies for individuals residing in or visiting Cuba. 

--Financial institutions may open accounts at Cuban banks to facilitate authorized transactions. 

--Investments can be made in some small businesses and agricultural operations. 

U.S. and Cuba are scheduled to hold migration talks in Havana next week, the next step in their normalization process. Leading the American delegation is Roberta Jacobson, the top U.S. diplomat for Latin America. Her visit marks the highest-level trip to Cuba by a U.S. official since 1980. 

Further down the road, Washington envisions reopening the U.S. Embassy in Havana. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Ohio terror suspect a peace-loving "momma's boy," his father says

Ohio terror suspect a peace-loving "momma's boy," his father says

CINCINNATI -- A 20-year-old Ohio man's Twitter posts sympathizing with Islamic terrorists led to an undercover FBI operation and the man's arrest on charges that he plotted to blow up the U.S. Capitol and kill government officials. But the man's father called him "one of the most peace-loving people I know."

CBS Evening News

Feds foil plot to attack U.S. Capitol

An American supporter of ISIS is under arrest for allegedly planning to bomb the U.S. Capitol and shoot members of Congress. Investigators made t...

Christopher Lee Cornell, also known as Raheel Mahrus Ubaydah, told an FBI informant they should "wage jihad," and showed his plans for bombing the Capitol and shooting people, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Ohio Wednesday. The FBI said Cornell expressed his support for the Islamic State.

Cornell's arrest came only days after a grand jury indictment charged another Cincinnati-area resident with threatening to murder House Speaker John Boehner.

Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said in a statement Wednesday: "Once again, the entire Congress owes a debt of gratitude to the FBI and all those who keep us safe."

The complaint against Cornell charges him with attempting to kill officers and employees of the United States.

CBS News correspondent Jeff Pegues reports that Cornell had been under FBI surveillance for months b ut it wasn't until Cornell attempted to purchase the weapons required to carry out his plans that police finally closed in.

CBSN

Special report: Ohio man indicted in plot to blow up U.S. Capitol

Federal authorities have charged an Ohio man with plotting to blow up the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. CBS News' Bob Orr and Jeff Pegues repo...

Moments after leaving the Point Blank range and gun shop, Cornell was arrested. Pegues reports that the store manager said he had been asked to cooperate with law enforcement before Cornell arrived.

"If I hadn't been warned ahead of time, there wasn't anything about him that would suggest he is involved in anything like this," manager John Dean said.

According to documents obtained by CBS News, Cornell was arrested after he allegedly purchased two "semiautomatic rifles" and approximately "600 rounds of ammunition." They say he had researched "the construction of pipe bombs," which he planned to "build, plant and detonate ... at and near the U.S. Capitol," after which he would "use firearms to shoot and kill" employees and officials.

The public was never in danger, said John Barrios, acting special agent in charge of the FBI's Cincinnati division.

A phone message and an email were left Wednesday for attorney Karen Savir, a federal public defender li sted in court records as Cornell's attorney. A working phone number could not be found for Cornell's family.

Crime

Father of Capitol attack suspect: "He was definitely set up"

John Cornell, the father of Christopher Lee Cornell, the Ohio man arrested for allegedly plotting to attack the U.S. Capitol, is speaking out abo...

His father, John Cornell, told The Cincinnati Enquirer in a story for Thursday's editions that his son was a "momma's boy who never left the house." He said his son endured frequent incidents of abuse as a practicing Muslim.

"Everything you're hearing in the media right now, they've already painted him as some kind of terrorist," John Cornell told the newspaper. ... "They've painted him as some kind of jihadist. ... (Christopher) is one of the most peace-loving people I know."

The complaint alleges that an FBI informant began supplying agents with information about Cornell last year. The informant and Cornell, who lives in Green Township, first began communicating through Twitter in August 2014 and then through an instant messaging platform separate from Twitter, according to the complaint.

"I believe we should meet up and make our own group in alliance with the Islamic State here and plan operations ourselves," Cornell wrote in an instant message, according to the court document.

The two met in October in Cincinnati and again in November, the complaint states. Cornell told the informant at the November meeting that he considered the members of Congress as enemies and that he intended to conduct an attack on the Capitol, according to the complaint. The document says Cornell discussed his plan for them to travel to Washington and conduct reconnaissance of the security of government buildings including the Capitol before executing "a plan of attack."

Cornell planned for the two to detonate pipe bombs at and near the Capitol and then shoot and kill employees and officials, and Cornell had saved money to fund the attack, according to the complaint.

CBS This Morning

Bartender allegedly plotted to poison Speaker Boehner

Former Ohio bartender Michael Hoyt faces charges of plotting to kill House Speaker John Boehner. Hoyt was an employee at Boehner's country club a...

On Tuesday, authorities had disclosed that Cincinnati-area bartender Michael R. Hoyt, who has a history of mental illness, had been charged with threatening to kill Boehner at a country club near his home with a gun or a poisoned drink. A grand jury indictment against Hoyt was filed in U.S. District Court in Ohio on Jan. 7.

Hoyt has told authorities that he had been fired from the West Chester, Ohio, country club where Boehner was a member and "did not have time to put something in John Boehner's drink," according to court documents made available Tuesday. The documents also said Hoyt told authorities he was Jesus Christ and was going to kill Boehner because Boehner was mean to him at the country club and was responsible for Ebola.

Hoyt, 44, is being held for mental evaluation and treatment at a federal medical center in Massachusetts.

Messages and emails left for an attorney listed for Hoyt have not been returned.

Ohio terror suspect a peace-loving "momma's boy," his father says

CINCINNATI -- A 20-year-old Ohio man's Twitter posts sympathizing with Islamic terrorists led to an undercover FBI operation and the man's arrest on charges that he plotted to blow up the U.S. Capitol and kill government officials. But the man's father called him "one of the most peace-loving people I know."

CBS Evening News

Feds foil plot to attack U.S. Capitol

An American supporter of ISIS is under arrest for allegedly planning to bomb the U.S. Capitol and shoot members of Congress. Investigators made t...

Christopher Lee Cornell, also known as Raheel Mahrus Ubaydah, told an FBI informant they should "wage jihad," and showed his plans for bombing the Capitol and shooting people, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Ohio Wednesday. The FBI said Cornell expressed his support for the Islamic State.

Cornell's arrest came only days after a grand jury indictment charged another Cincinnati-area resident with threatening to murder House Speaker John Boehner.

Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said in a statement Wednesday: "Once again, the entire Congress owes a debt of gratitude to the FBI and all those who keep us safe."

The complaint against Cornell charges him with attempting to kill officers and employees of the United States.

CBS News correspondent Jeff Pegues reports that Cornell had been under FBI surveillance for months b ut it wasn't until Cornell attempted to purchase the weapons required to carry out his plans that police finally closed in.

CBSN

Special report: Ohio man indicted in plot to blow up U.S. Capitol

Federal authorities have charged an Ohio man with plotting to blow up the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. CBS News' Bob Orr and Jeff Pegues repo...

Moments after leaving the Point Blank range and gun shop, Cornell was arrested. Pegues reports that the store manager said he had been asked to cooperate with law enforcement before Cornell arrived.

"If I hadn't been warned ahead of time, there wasn't anything about him that would suggest he is involved in anything like this," manager John Dean said.

According to documents obtained by CBS News, Cornell was arrested after he allegedly purchased two "semiautomatic rifles" and approximately "600 rounds of ammunition." They say he had researched "the construction of pipe bombs," which he planned to "build, plant and detonate ... at and near the U.S. Capitol," after which he would "use firearms to shoot and kill" employees and officials.

The public was never in danger, said John Barrios, acting special agent in charge of the FBI's Cincinnati division.

A phone message and an email were left Wednesday for attorney Karen Savir, a federal public defender li sted in court records as Cornell's attorney. A working phone number could not be found for Cornell's family.

Crime

Father of Capitol attack suspect: "He was definitely set up"

John Cornell, the father of Christopher Lee Cornell, the Ohio man arrested for allegedly plotting to attack the U.S. Capitol, is speaking out abo...

His father, John Cornell, told The Cincinnati Enquirer in a story for Thursday's editions that his son was a "momma's boy who never left the house." He said his son endured frequent incidents of abuse as a practicing Muslim.

"Everything you're hearing in the media right now, they've already painted him as some kind of terrorist," John Cornell told the newspaper. ... "They've painted him as some kind of jihadist. ... (Christopher) is one of the most peace-loving people I know."

The complaint alleges that an FBI informant began supplying agents with information about Cornell last year. The informant and Cornell, who lives in Green Township, first began communicating through Twitter in August 2014 and then through an instant messaging platform separate from Twitter, according to the complaint.

"I believe we should meet up and make our own group in alliance with the Islamic State here and plan operations ourselves," Cornell wrote in an instant message, according to the court document.

The two met in October in Cincinnati and again in November, the complaint states. Cornell told the informant at the November meeting that he considered the members of Congress as enemies and that he intended to conduct an attack on the Capitol, according to the complaint. The document says Cornell discussed his plan for them to travel to Washington and conduct reconnaissance of the security of government buildings including the Capitol before executing "a plan of attack."

Cornell planned for the two to detonate pipe bombs at and near the Capitol and then shoot and kill employees and officials, and Cornell had saved money to fund the attack, according to the complaint.

CBS This Morning

Bartender allegedly plotted to poison Speaker Boehner

Former Ohio bartender Michael Hoyt faces charges of plotting to kill House Speaker John Boehner. Hoyt was an employee at Boehner's country club a...

On Tuesday, authorities had disclosed that Cincinnati-area bartender Michael R. Hoyt, who has a history of mental illness, had been charged with threatening to kill Boehner at a country club near his home with a gun or a poisoned drink. A grand jury indictment against Hoyt was filed in U.S. District Court in Ohio on Jan. 7.

Hoyt has told authorities that he had been fired from the West Chester, Ohio, country club where Boehner was a member and "did not have time to put something in John Boehner's drink," according to court documents made available Tuesday. The documents also said Hoyt told authorities he was Jesus Christ and was going to kill Boehner because Boehner was mean to him at the country club and was responsible for Ebola.

Hoyt, 44, is being held for mental evaluation and treatment at a federal medical center in Massachusetts.

Messages and emails left for an attorney listed for Hoyt have not been returned.

Obama orders higher fuel standards for larger US trucks

Obama orders higher fuel standards for larger US trucks

UPPER MARLBORO, Maryland (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Tuesday directed federal agencies to develop higher fuel standards for medium-sized and heavy trucks, another step in his efforts to slash oil consumption and carbon emissions blamed for global warming.

Obama made the announcement in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, about 20 miles from Washington, at a distribution center for Safeway grocery stores, next to a trucking rig that had been redesigned to increase fuel economy.

"Everybody who says you can't grow the economy while bringing down pollution, it's turned out they've been wrong," Obama said.

Automakers are already working to nearly double the average fuel economy of new U.S. cars and light trucks to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025, under rules that took effect in 2012.

The administration will now direct the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Transportation to develop new rules for medium- and heavy-duty vehicle fuel efficiency by March 2016, with a draft due a year before that.

EPA chief Gina McCarthy and Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx were on hand for Obama's announcement.

The new rules will build on standards already in place for model years 2014-18 for those larger vehicles, including semi-trailers and "big rigs" as well as so-called vocational vehicles, which include delivery trucks, buses and garbage trucks, and heavy-duty pickup trucks and vans.

The White House estimates that the first phase of fuel efficiency standards for trucks will save a projected 530 million barrels of oil.

The second phase "will take us well into the next decade," Obama said. "The goal we're setting is ambitious, but these are areas where ambition has worked out really well for us so far. Don't make small plans, make big plans."

In 2010, heavy-duty vehicles represented just 4 percent of registered vehicles on the road in the United States, but they accounted for approximately 25 percent of on-road fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector.

News of the new fuel standards was welcomed by some of the biggest operators of truck fleets in the United States, who have formed an informal alliance, the Heavy Duty Fuel Efficiency Leadership Group.

The new standards "will be an important milestone that should result in significant benefits to our economy, the trucking industry and the environment," said Douglas Stotlar, president and chief executive officer of Con-way Inc, the nation's third-largest freight company.

Among the other companies in the fuel efficiency group are engine-maker Cummins Inc.; transmission systems manufacturer Eaton Corp; global courier Fedex Corp; Wabash National Corp, a large semi-trailer maker; and Waste Management Inc., which operates the largest U.S. fleet of garbage and wa ste trucks.

Navistar International Corp, a maker of commercial trucks, praised the administration's decision to consult industry at the outset of the rule-making process and said the push for increased economy was one that truck buyers and operators supported.

"Our customers continue to look for every percent of fuel economy improvement and that makes finding new solutions an ongoing priority for us," said Denny Mooney, Navistar's group vice president for global product development.

The large combination trucks commonly known as 18-wheelers haul about 70 percent of all freight tonnage in the United States, according to White House estimates.

"The fuel costs associated with shipping goods cross-country heavily impact the price of everything from a carton of milk to a pair of shoes," said Mark Cooper, director of research with t he Consumer Federation of America.

Domestic oil refiners would not necessarily suffer if the new standards reduced U.S. fuel usage outright or slowed demand in the next decade.

The three largest U.S. independent refiners - Valero Energy Corp, Philips 66 and Marathon Petroleum Corp - have increased refined product export capacity at their U.S. Gulf of Mexico plants. Export demand is surging on a lack of refining capacity in some countries.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the United States exported 3 million barrels per day of refined products in November 2013. The United States became a net exporter of refined products in 2011 for the first time in 49 years.

FLURRY OF CLIMATE ANNOUNCEMENTS

Development of new truck fuel standards is another sign of the administration's e fforts to address climate change and convince Americans of the urgent need to take action.

By ordering federal agencies to develop new standards, Obama is able to act on his own and sidestep Congress, which remains divided on climate policy.

While in California on Friday, touring part of that state's severe drought zone, Obama warned that a warming planet is intensifying the severity of droughts and other extreme weather events.

"Unless and until we do more to combat carbon pollution that causes climate change, this trend is going to get worse," he said.

The trucking announcement also followed a climate-focused speech by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Jakarta on Sunday. And on Wednesday, U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz is scheduled to make what has been termed a "major announcement" on the administration's energy strate gy.

Obama also renewed his appeal for Congress to end $4 billion a year in subsidies to the oil and gas industry and urge lawmakers to establish a $2 billion "energy security trust" to support development of advanced vehicles that run on electricity, homegrown biofuels, hydrogen, and domestically produced natural gas.

The $2 billion in spending would be drawn from revenues generated by federal oil and gas development.

(Additional reporting by Steve Holland in Washington, Kristen Hays in Houston, and James Kelleher in Chicago; Editing by Paul Tait, Ros Krasny and Jonathan Oatis)

Obama orders higher fuel standards for larger US trucks

UPPER MARLBORO, Maryland (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Tuesday directed federal agencies to develop higher fuel standards for medium-sized and heavy trucks, another step in his efforts to slash oil consumption and carbon emissions blamed for global warming.

Obama made the announcement in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, about 20 miles from Washington, at a distribution center for Safeway grocery stores, next to a trucking rig that had been redesigned to increase fuel economy.

"Everybody who says you can't grow the economy while bringing down pollution, it's turned out they've been wrong," Obama said.

Automakers are already working to nearly double the average fuel economy of new U.S. cars and light trucks to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025, under rules that took effect in 2012.

The administration will now direct the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Transportation to develop new rules for medium- and heavy-duty vehicle fuel efficiency by March 2016, with a draft due a year before that.

EPA chief Gina McCarthy and Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx were on hand for Obama's announcement.

The new rules will build on standards already in place for model years 2014-18 for those larger vehicles, including semi-trailers and "big rigs" as well as so-called vocational vehicles, which include delivery trucks, buses and garbage trucks, and heavy-duty pickup trucks and vans.

The White House estimates that the first phase of fuel efficiency standards for trucks will save a projected 530 million barrels of oil.

The second phase "will take us well into the next decade," Obama said. "The goal we're setting is ambitious, but these are areas where ambition has worked out really well for us so far. Don't make small plans, make big plans."

In 2010, heavy-duty vehicles represented just 4 percent of registered vehicles on the road in the United States, but they accounted for approximately 25 percent of on-road fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector.

News of the new fuel standards was welcomed by some of the biggest operators of truck fleets in the United States, who have formed an informal alliance, the Heavy Duty Fuel Efficiency Leadership Group.

The new standards "will be an important milestone that should result in significant benefits to our economy, the trucking industry and the environment," said Douglas Stotlar, president and chief executive officer of Con-way Inc, the nation's third-largest freight company.

Among the other companies in the fuel efficiency group are engine-maker Cummins Inc.; transmission systems manufacturer Eaton Corp; global courier Fedex Corp; Wabash National Corp, a large semi-trailer maker; and Waste Management Inc., which operates the largest U.S. fleet of garbage and wa ste trucks.

Navistar International Corp, a maker of commercial trucks, praised the administration's decision to consult industry at the outset of the rule-making process and said the push for increased economy was one that truck buyers and operators supported.

"Our customers continue to look for every percent of fuel economy improvement and that makes finding new solutions an ongoing priority for us," said Denny Mooney, Navistar's group vice president for global product development.

The large combination trucks commonly known as 18-wheelers haul about 70 percent of all freight tonnage in the United States, according to White House estimates.

"The fuel costs associated with shipping goods cross-country heavily impact the price of everything from a carton of milk to a pair of shoes," said Mark Cooper, director of research with t he Consumer Federation of America.

Domestic oil refiners would not necessarily suffer if the new standards reduced U.S. fuel usage outright or slowed demand in the next decade.

The three largest U.S. independent refiners - Valero Energy Corp, Philips 66 and Marathon Petroleum Corp - have increased refined product export capacity at their U.S. Gulf of Mexico plants. Export demand is surging on a lack of refining capacity in some countries.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the United States exported 3 million barrels per day of refined products in November 2013. The United States became a net exporter of refined products in 2011 for the first time in 49 years.

FLURRY OF CLIMATE ANNOUNCEMENTS

Development of new truck fuel standards is another sign of the administration's e fforts to address climate change and convince Americans of the urgent need to take action.

By ordering federal agencies to develop new standards, Obama is able to act on his own and sidestep Congress, which remains divided on climate policy.

While in California on Friday, touring part of that state's severe drought zone, Obama warned that a warming planet is intensifying the severity of droughts and other extreme weather events.

"Unless and until we do more to combat carbon pollution that causes climate change, this trend is going to get worse," he said.

The trucking announcement also followed a climate-focused speech by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Jakarta on Sunday. And on Wednesday, U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz is scheduled to make what has been termed a "major announcement" on the administration's energy strate gy.

Obama also renewed his appeal for Congress to end $4 billion a year in subsidies to the oil and gas industry and urge lawmakers to establish a $2 billion "energy security trust" to support development of advanced vehicles that run on electricity, homegrown biofuels, hydrogen, and domestically produced natural gas.

The $2 billion in spending would be drawn from revenues generated by federal oil and gas development.

(Additional reporting by Steve Holland in Washington, Kristen Hays in Houston, and James Kelleher in Chicago; Editing by Paul Tait, Ros Krasny and Jonathan Oatis)

Two members of Pussy Riot detained in Sochi for four hours, complain of rough ...

Two members of Pussy Riot detained in Sochi for four hours, complain of rough ...

One by one, the detained were released, all without charges. After four hours inside the station, the Pussy Riot women appeared, singing their latest song â€" “Putin will teach you how to love your Motherland.” They were wearing their familiar ski masks â€" unseen since their imprisonment. A crowd of journalists had dashed over from Olympic Park, waiting in the rain to hear their story.

It was a dramatic one.

The environmentalists and human rights defenders who live here, however, call it a typical tale of the repressive measures imposed since Olympic construction began in Sochi.

“The city is under total police and security control,” Tolokonnikova, 25, said after their release. They had arrived Sunday evening, she said, and had been constantly stopped. On Tuesday, she said, they were roughly treated. Although they planned to make a video of their Putin song in support of suppressed protesters, she said, they were doing nothing provocative when they were stopped.

Sochi has been a closed city since early January, an Olympic security measure. President Vladimir Putin has banned all protests, except for a designated spot in a park seven miles from the Olympics, where permits are required. And police have been quick to prevent any sign of demonstrations. An Italian transgender activist, Vladi­mir Luxuria, was hustled out of the Olympic Park on Monday when she tried to go to a hockey game wearing a bright rainbow headdress.

On Tuesday, the Pussy Riot group was near the Church of St. Michael the Archangel, Sochi’s oldest Orthodox church, when they were loaded into police vans.

“M aybe that’s what made the police nervous,” Olga Noskovets, an environmentalist here, said later. “Maybe they thought they would dash into the church and cause a scandal.”

Noskovets had taken the group around the city by car Monday. Not far from the Olympic Park, they were stopped by border police, she said, who demanded to know whether they had permission to be in the city.

“We were in a residential neighborhood,” she said, “and there were so many police people came out of their houses to watch.”

Eventually, the police let them go, except for Noskovets, who got in trouble because she did not have her passport with her and was taken to the police station, fingerprinted, put in a database and fined about $15.

Another environmentalist, David Khakim, was with the Pussy Riot group Tuesday and was also picked up. On Monday, Khakim was sentenced to 30 hours of labor for holding up a sign in support of Evgeny Vitishko, an environmentalist sen tenced to three years in a labor colony.

“I think the police were afraid they would perform,” Khakim said.

Semyon Simonov, a human rights defender who has been working on behalf of migrant workers employed in Olympic construction, was also detained with the women. He asserted that the stolen purse case had been fabricated.

“Everyone knows how easy it is to bring false charges,” he said.

In a statement, police said the investigation was real. “They were interrogated in connection with complaints received from the hotel in which they are staying, concerning an incident of theft,” the statement said.

Tolokonnikova, 25, and Alyokhina, 26, were released from prison in December, under an amnesty announced by Putin. Their imprisonment had made them an international cause celebre. Since their release, they have been campaigning for prison reform and considering entering politics.

Their detention raised a torrent of criticism and disb elief on Twitter. “What idiots to detain them in the middle of the Olympics,” tweeted 3 Navalny, an opposition leader in Moscow. Referring to the U.S. public relations firm that represents the Kremlin, he wrote: “No Ketchum agency can help them here.”

From Novosibirsk in Siberia, a tweeter named Alex Voronkov wrote that the Winter Games underway here could well become known as the Pussy Riot Olympics.

The song they were working on, Tolokonnikova said, was in support of protesters who are now on trial or imprisoned. On Tuesday, a trial began in Moscow against Sergei Udaltsov and Leonid Razvozzhayev, accused of inciting mass rioting in connection with a protest on the eve of Putin’s inauguration as president in May 2012. Udaltsov has been under house arrest for more than a year. Razvozzhayev complained that he was kidnapped in Ukraine by Russian security forces and brought to Moscow for trial. A verdict is expected by the end of the week in the trial of several “Bolotnaya” prisoners, accused of violence in the same protest.

The detentions Tuesday, Noskovets said, only brought more attention to Pussy Riot and their cause.

“No one knew they were here,” she said. “Now it’s news No. 1.”

Two members of Pussy Riot detained in Sochi for four hours, complain of rough ...

One by one, the detained were released, all without charges. After four hours inside the station, the Pussy Riot women appeared, singing their latest song â€" “Putin will teach you how to love your Motherland.” They were wearing their familiar ski masks â€" unseen since their imprisonment. A crowd of journalists had dashed over from Olympic Park, waiting in the rain to hear their story.

It was a dramatic one.

The environmentalists and human rights defenders who live here, however, call it a typical tale of the repressive measures imposed since Olympic construction began in Sochi.

“The city is under total police and security control,” Tolokonnikova, 25, said after their release. They had arrived Sunday evening, she said, and had been constantly stopped. On Tuesday, she said, they were roughly treated. Although they planned to make a video of their Putin song in support of suppressed protesters, she said, they were doing nothing provocative when they were stopped.

Sochi has been a closed city since early January, an Olympic security measure. President Vladimir Putin has banned all protests, except for a designated spot in a park seven miles from the Olympics, where permits are required. And police have been quick to prevent any sign of demonstrations. An Italian transgender activist, Vladi­mir Luxuria, was hustled out of the Olympic Park on Monday when she tried to go to a hockey game wearing a bright rainbow headdress.

On Tuesday, the Pussy Riot group was near the Church of St. Michael the Archangel, Sochi’s oldest Orthodox church, when they were loaded into police vans.

“M aybe that’s what made the police nervous,” Olga Noskovets, an environmentalist here, said later. “Maybe they thought they would dash into the church and cause a scandal.”

Noskovets had taken the group around the city by car Monday. Not far from the Olympic Park, they were stopped by border police, she said, who demanded to know whether they had permission to be in the city.

“We were in a residential neighborhood,” she said, “and there were so many police people came out of their houses to watch.”

Eventually, the police let them go, except for Noskovets, who got in trouble because she did not have her passport with her and was taken to the police station, fingerprinted, put in a database and fined about $15.

Another environmentalist, David Khakim, was with the Pussy Riot group Tuesday and was also picked up. On Monday, Khakim was sentenced to 30 hours of labor for holding up a sign in support of Evgeny Vitishko, an environmentalist sen tenced to three years in a labor colony.

“I think the police were afraid they would perform,” Khakim said.

Semyon Simonov, a human rights defender who has been working on behalf of migrant workers employed in Olympic construction, was also detained with the women. He asserted that the stolen purse case had been fabricated.

“Everyone knows how easy it is to bring false charges,” he said.

In a statement, police said the investigation was real. “They were interrogated in connection with complaints received from the hotel in which they are staying, concerning an incident of theft,” the statement said.

Tolokonnikova, 25, and Alyokhina, 26, were released from prison in December, under an amnesty announced by Putin. Their imprisonment had made them an international cause celebre. Since their release, they have been campaigning for prison reform and considering entering politics.

Their detention raised a torrent of criticism and disb elief on Twitter. “What idiots to detain them in the middle of the Olympics,” tweeted 3 Navalny, an opposition leader in Moscow. Referring to the U.S. public relations firm that represents the Kremlin, he wrote: “No Ketchum agency can help them here.”

From Novosibirsk in Siberia, a tweeter named Alex Voronkov wrote that the Winter Games underway here could well become known as the Pussy Riot Olympics.

The song they were working on, Tolokonnikova said, was in support of protesters who are now on trial or imprisoned. On Tuesday, a trial began in Moscow against Sergei Udaltsov and Leonid Razvozzhayev, accused of inciting mass rioting in connection with a protest on the eve of Putin’s inauguration as president in May 2012. Udaltsov has been under house arrest for more than a year. Razvozzhayev complained that he was kidnapped in Ukraine by Russian security forces and brought to Moscow for trial. A verdict is expected by the end of the week in the trial of several “Bolotnaya” prisoners, accused of violence in the same protest.

The detentions Tuesday, Noskovets said, only brought more attention to Pussy Riot and their cause.

“No one knew they were here,” she said. “Now it’s news No. 1.”

UN's North Korea report: Main findings

UN's North Korea report: Main findings

17 February 2014 Last updated at 17:30 A panel of experts said North Koreans had suffered "unspeakable atrocities"

A United Nations panel has accused North Korea of crimes against humanity, including systematic extermination, torture, rape, forced abortions and starvation.

It is recommending prosecution of the country's top leaders by the International Criminal Court.

Below are extracts from the report, outlining its main findings.

Violations of freedom of thought, expression and religion

The commission finds that there is an almost complete denial of the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, as well as of the rights to freedom of opinion, expression, information and association.

The state operates an all-encompassing indoctrination machine that takes root from childhood to propagate an official personality cult and to manufacture absolute obedience to the Supreme Leader, Kim Jong-un.

Virtually all social activities undertaken by citizens of all ages are controlled by the Workers' Party of Korea. The state is able to dictate the daily lives of citizens through the associations run and overseen by the party. Citizens are obliged to be members of these associations.

People are denied the right to have access to information from independent sources: state-controlled media are the only permitted source of information in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

Discrimination

It is a rigidly stratified society with entrenched patterns of discrimination... Discrimination is rooted in the songbun system, which classifies people on the basis of state-assigned social class and birth, and also includes consideration of political opinions and religion. Songbun intersects with gender-based discrimination, which is equally pervasive.

Defectors from North Korea demonstrate in Seoul against human rights abuses in the country

The songbun system used to be the most important factor in determining where individuals were allowed to live; what sort of accommodation they had; what occupations they were assigned to; whether they were effectively able to attend school, in particular university; how much food they received; and even whom they might marry.

This traditional discrimination under the songbun system was recently complicated by increasing marketisation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and by the influence of money, including foreign currency, on people's ability to have greater access to their economic, social and cultural rights.

Violations of the freedom of movement and residence

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

The state has used food as a means of control over the population”

End Quote UN Human Rights Council

The systems of indoctrination and discrimination on the basis of social class are reinforced and safeguarded by a policy of isolating citizens from contact with each other and with the outside world, violating all aspects of the right to freedom of movement.

The state decides where citizens must live and work, violating their freedom of choice... This has created a socioeconomically and physically segregated society, where people considered politically loyal to the leadership can live and work in favourable locations, whereas families of persons who are considered politically suspect are relegated to marginalised areas.

The state imposes a virtually absolute ban on ordinary citizens travelling abroad, thereby violating their human right to leave the country.

Violations of the right to food and related aspects of the right to life

The state has used food as a means of control over the population. It has prioritised those whom the authorities believe to be crucial to maintaining the regime over those deemed expendable.

The state has practised discrimination with regard to access to and distribution of food based on the songbun system. In addition, it privileges certain parts of the country, such as Pyongyang, over others.

The UN says hunger and malnutrition continue to be widespread in North Korea

Even during the worst period of mass starvation, the state impeded the delivery of food aid by imposing conditions that were not based on humanitarian considerations.

While acknowledging the impact of factors beyond state control over the food situation, the commission finds that decisions, actions and omissions by the state and its leadership caused the death of at least hundreds of thousands of people and inflicted permanent physical and psychological injuries on those who survived.

While conditions have changed since the 1990s, hunger and malnutrition continue to be widespread. Deaths from starvation continue to be reported.

Arbitrary detention, torture, executions and prison camps

The police and security forces of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea systematically employ violence and punishments that amount to gross human rights violations in order to create a climate of fear that pre-empts any challenge to the current system of government and to the ideology underpinning it. The institutions and officials involved are not held accountable. Impunity reigns.

The personality cult of the Kim family continues to pervade life with the rule of Kim Jong-un

The use of torture is an established feature of the interrogation process in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, especially in cases involving political crimes.

Persons who are found to have engaged in major political crimes are "disappeared", without trial or judicial order, to political prison camps (kwanliso).

In the political prison camps of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the inmate population has been gradually eliminated through deliberate starvation, forced labour, executions, torture, rape and the denial of reproductive rights enforced through punishment, forced abortion and infanticide. The commission estimates that hundreds of thousands of political prisoners have perished in these camps over the past five decades.

As a matter of state policy, the authorities carry out executions, with or without trial, publicly or secretly, in response to political and other crimes that are often not among the most serious crimes.

Abductions and enforced disappearances from other countries

Since 1950, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has engaged in the systematic abduction, denial of repatriation and subsequent enforced disappearance of persons from other countries on a large scale and as a matter of state policy.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea used its land, naval and intelligence forces to conduct abductions and arrests.

Family members abroad and foreign states wishing to exercise their right to provide diplomatic protection have been consistently denied information necessary to establish the fate and whereabouts of the victims.

Family members of the disappeared have been subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. They have been denied the right to effective remedies for human rights violations, including the right to the truth. Parents and disappeared children have been denied the right to family life.

UN's North Korea report: Main findings

17 February 2014 Last updated at 17:30 A panel of experts said North Koreans had suffered "unspeakable atrocities"

A United Nations panel has accused North Korea of crimes against humanity, including systematic extermination, torture, rape, forced abortions and starvation.

It is recommending prosecution of the country's top leaders by the International Criminal Court.

Below are extracts from the report, outlining its main findings.

Violations of freedom of thought, expression and religion

The commission finds that there is an almost complete denial of the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, as well as of the rights to freedom of opinion, expression, information and association.

The state operates an all-encompassing indoctrination machine that takes root from childhood to propagate an official personality cult and to manufacture absolute obedience to the Supreme Leader, Kim Jong-un.

Virtually all social activities undertaken by citizens of all ages are controlled by the Workers' Party of Korea. The state is able to dictate the daily lives of citizens through the associations run and overseen by the party. Citizens are obliged to be members of these associations.

People are denied the right to have access to information from independent sources: state-controlled media are the only permitted source of information in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

Discrimination

It is a rigidly stratified society with entrenched patterns of discrimination... Discrimination is rooted in the songbun system, which classifies people on the basis of state-assigned social class and birth, and also includes consideration of political opinions and religion. Songbun intersects with gender-based discrimination, which is equally pervasive.

Defectors from North Korea demonstrate in Seoul against human rights abuses in the country

The songbun system used to be the most important factor in determining where individuals were allowed to live; what sort of accommodation they had; what occupations they were assigned to; whether they were effectively able to attend school, in particular university; how much food they received; and even whom they might marry.

This traditional discrimination under the songbun system was recently complicated by increasing marketisation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and by the influence of money, including foreign currency, on people's ability to have greater access to their economic, social and cultural rights.

Violations of the freedom of movement and residence

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

The state has used food as a means of control over the population”

End Quote UN Human Rights Council

The systems of indoctrination and discrimination on the basis of social class are reinforced and safeguarded by a policy of isolating citizens from contact with each other and with the outside world, violating all aspects of the right to freedom of movement.

The state decides where citizens must live and work, violating their freedom of choice... This has created a socioeconomically and physically segregated society, where people considered politically loyal to the leadership can live and work in favourable locations, whereas families of persons who are considered politically suspect are relegated to marginalised areas.

The state imposes a virtually absolute ban on ordinary citizens travelling abroad, thereby violating their human right to leave the country.

Violations of the right to food and related aspects of the right to life

The state has used food as a means of control over the population. It has prioritised those whom the authorities believe to be crucial to maintaining the regime over those deemed expendable.

The state has practised discrimination with regard to access to and distribution of food based on the songbun system. In addition, it privileges certain parts of the country, such as Pyongyang, over others.

The UN says hunger and malnutrition continue to be widespread in North Korea

Even during the worst period of mass starvation, the state impeded the delivery of food aid by imposing conditions that were not based on humanitarian considerations.

While acknowledging the impact of factors beyond state control over the food situation, the commission finds that decisions, actions and omissions by the state and its leadership caused the death of at least hundreds of thousands of people and inflicted permanent physical and psychological injuries on those who survived.

While conditions have changed since the 1990s, hunger and malnutrition continue to be widespread. Deaths from starvation continue to be reported.

Arbitrary detention, torture, executions and prison camps

The police and security forces of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea systematically employ violence and punishments that amount to gross human rights violations in order to create a climate of fear that pre-empts any challenge to the current system of government and to the ideology underpinning it. The institutions and officials involved are not held accountable. Impunity reigns.

The personality cult of the Kim family continues to pervade life with the rule of Kim Jong-un

The use of torture is an established feature of the interrogation process in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, especially in cases involving political crimes.

Persons who are found to have engaged in major political crimes are "disappeared", without trial or judicial order, to political prison camps (kwanliso).

In the political prison camps of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the inmate population has been gradually eliminated through deliberate starvation, forced labour, executions, torture, rape and the denial of reproductive rights enforced through punishment, forced abortion and infanticide. The commission estimates that hundreds of thousands of political prisoners have perished in these camps over the past five decades.

As a matter of state policy, the authorities carry out executions, with or without trial, publicly or secretly, in response to political and other crimes that are often not among the most serious crimes.

Abductions and enforced disappearances from other countries

Since 1950, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has engaged in the systematic abduction, denial of repatriation and subsequent enforced disappearance of persons from other countries on a large scale and as a matter of state policy.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea used its land, naval and intelligence forces to conduct abductions and arrests.

Family members abroad and foreign states wishing to exercise their right to provide diplomatic protection have been consistently denied information necessary to establish the fate and whereabouts of the victims.

Family members of the disappeared have been subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. They have been denied the right to effective remedies for human rights violations, including the right to the truth. Parents and disappeared children have been denied the right to family life.

Passenger: Hijacker threatened to crash plane

Passenger: Hijacker threatened to crash plane

The Boeing 767-300 took off from the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa on an overnight flight to Milan and Rome, but an Ethiopian official said it sent a distress message over Sudan that it had been hijacked. Once the plane was over Europe, two Italian fighter jets and later French jets were scrambled to accompany it.

The plane, which was supposed to go to Milan first, landed in Geneva at about 6 a.m. (0500 GMT). Officials said no one on the flight was injured and the hijacker was taken into custody after surrendering to Swiss police.

“The pilot went to the toilet and he (the co-pilot) locked himself in the cockpit,” Geneva airport chief executive Robert Deillon told reporters. “(He) wanted asylum in Switzerland.”

It wasn’t immediately clear why the co-pilot, a 31-year-old Ethiopian man, chose Switzerland, where voters recently demanded curbs on immigration. Italy, however, has a reputation among many Africans as not being hospitable to asylum seekers.

Ethiopian Airlines is owned by Ethiopia’s government, which has faced persistent criticism over its rights record and its alleged intolerance of political dissent. Geneva police said the co-pilot claimed he felt threatened in Ethiopia.

An Italian passenger on board, Francesco Cuomo, told the Italian news agency ANSA that some passengers woke up shortly after midnight when the plane started to “bounce.”

“The pilot was threatening to open the cockpit door and tried to knock it down without succeeding,” said Cuomo, a 25-year-old economist.

“At this point, a message was transmitted by the loudspeakers in poor English, but the threat to crash the airplane was clearly understood,” he added.

Oxygen masks then came down, he said, making everyone on the plane very tense.

“We had no clue about the hijacking, but got scared when the plane sud denly started diving, it seemed like it was falling from the sky,” Italian passenger Diego Carpelli, 45, told the Corriere della Sera newspaper. Carpelli was returning to his native Rome from a vacation in Kenya with his family.

“Someone in an intimidating tone said we should put on our oxygen masks,” Carpelli said, adding that he was terrified for the rest of the flight.

Ethiopia’s communications minister, Redwan Hussein, named the alleged hijacker as Hailemedhin Abera and said the man had worked for Ethiopian Airlines for five years. He said Ethiopia will seek his extradition.

“His action represents a gross betrayal of trust that needlessly endangered the lives of the very passengers that a pilot is morally and professionally obliged to safeguard,” Redwan said.

Redwan said the plane was carrying 200 people, including seven crew members. They included 139 Italians, 11 Americans, 10 Ethiopians, five Nigerians and four French citizens.

Swiss authorities at first thought the Ethiopian plane just wanted to land in Geneva for an emergency refueling before realizing it was being hijacked, Geneva police spokesman Eric Grandjean said.

A few minutes after landing in Geneva, the co-pilot left the cockpit using a rope, then went to police forces close to the aircraft and “announced that he was himself the hijacker,” Grandjean said.

Police escorted the plane’s passengers out one by one, their hands over their heads, from the taxied plane to waiting vehicles. Geneva airport was closed down for about two hours.

Geneva prosecutor Olivier Jornot said the co-pilot will be charged with taking hostages, a crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison. The Swiss federal prosecutors’ office said later Monday that it had taken over the case.

Jornot said the hijacker’s chances of winning asylum were slim.

“Technically there is no connection between asylum and the fact he committed a crime to come here,” he said. “But I think his chances are not very high.”

Both Italy and Switzerland, however, do not extradite those who may face the death penalty at home.

The leader of Ethiopia’s opposition Blue party, Yilikal Getnet, said he believed the hijacker was trying to make a statement about the political situation in Ethiopia, where the late strongman Meles Zenawi’s party has dominated politics since the 1990s.

“I think he took the measure to convey a message that the ... government is not in line with the public,” he said.

Human Rights Watch says Ethiopia’s human rights record “has sharply deteriorated” over the years. The rights group says authorities severely restrict basic rights of freedom of expression, association and assembly. The government has also been accused of targeting journalists, opposition members and minority Muslims.

There have been at least eight hijackings by Ethiopians or involving Ethi opian planes in the last 25 years.

The deadliest came in 1996, when hijackers stormed the cockpit of a flight from Ethiopia to Ivory Coast via Kenya, demanding that the plane go to Australia. The plane ran out of fuel and crashed off the island nation of Comoros, killing 125 of the 175 people aboard.

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Associated Press writers Frank Jordans and Geir Moulson in Berlin; Rodney Muhumuza in Kampala, Uganda; Elias Meseret in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; and Carley Petesch in Johannesburg contributed to this report.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Passenger: Hijacker threatened to crash plane

The Boeing 767-300 took off from the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa on an overnight flight to Milan and Rome, but an Ethiopian official said it sent a distress message over Sudan that it had been hijacked. Once the plane was over Europe, two Italian fighter jets and later French jets were scrambled to accompany it.

The plane, which was supposed to go to Milan first, landed in Geneva at about 6 a.m. (0500 GMT). Officials said no one on the flight was injured and the hijacker was taken into custody after surrendering to Swiss police.

“The pilot went to the toilet and he (the co-pilot) locked himself in the cockpit,” Geneva airport chief executive Robert Deillon told reporters. “(He) wanted asylum in Switzerland.”

It wasn’t immediately clear why the co-pilot, a 31-year-old Ethiopian man, chose Switzerland, where voters recently demanded curbs on immigration. Italy, however, has a reputation among many Africans as not being hospitable to asylum seekers.

Ethiopian Airlines is owned by Ethiopia’s government, which has faced persistent criticism over its rights record and its alleged intolerance of political dissent. Geneva police said the co-pilot claimed he felt threatened in Ethiopia.

An Italian passenger on board, Francesco Cuomo, told the Italian news agency ANSA that some passengers woke up shortly after midnight when the plane started to “bounce.”

“The pilot was threatening to open the cockpit door and tried to knock it down without succeeding,” said Cuomo, a 25-year-old economist.

“At this point, a message was transmitted by the loudspeakers in poor English, but the threat to crash the airplane was clearly understood,” he added.

Oxygen masks then came down, he said, making everyone on the plane very tense.

“We had no clue about the hijacking, but got scared when the plane sud denly started diving, it seemed like it was falling from the sky,” Italian passenger Diego Carpelli, 45, told the Corriere della Sera newspaper. Carpelli was returning to his native Rome from a vacation in Kenya with his family.

“Someone in an intimidating tone said we should put on our oxygen masks,” Carpelli said, adding that he was terrified for the rest of the flight.

Ethiopia’s communications minister, Redwan Hussein, named the alleged hijacker as Hailemedhin Abera and said the man had worked for Ethiopian Airlines for five years. He said Ethiopia will seek his extradition.

“His action represents a gross betrayal of trust that needlessly endangered the lives of the very passengers that a pilot is morally and professionally obliged to safeguard,” Redwan said.

Redwan said the plane was carrying 200 people, including seven crew members. They included 139 Italians, 11 Americans, 10 Ethiopians, five Nigerians and four French citizens.

Swiss authorities at first thought the Ethiopian plane just wanted to land in Geneva for an emergency refueling before realizing it was being hijacked, Geneva police spokesman Eric Grandjean said.

A few minutes after landing in Geneva, the co-pilot left the cockpit using a rope, then went to police forces close to the aircraft and “announced that he was himself the hijacker,” Grandjean said.

Police escorted the plane’s passengers out one by one, their hands over their heads, from the taxied plane to waiting vehicles. Geneva airport was closed down for about two hours.

Geneva prosecutor Olivier Jornot said the co-pilot will be charged with taking hostages, a crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison. The Swiss federal prosecutors’ office said later Monday that it had taken over the case.

Jornot said the hijacker’s chances of winning asylum were slim.

“Technically there is no connection between asylum and the fact he committed a crime to come here,” he said. “But I think his chances are not very high.”

Both Italy and Switzerland, however, do not extradite those who may face the death penalty at home.

The leader of Ethiopia’s opposition Blue party, Yilikal Getnet, said he believed the hijacker was trying to make a statement about the political situation in Ethiopia, where the late strongman Meles Zenawi’s party has dominated politics since the 1990s.

“I think he took the measure to convey a message that the ... government is not in line with the public,” he said.

Human Rights Watch says Ethiopia’s human rights record “has sharply deteriorated” over the years. The rights group says authorities severely restrict basic rights of freedom of expression, association and assembly. The government has also been accused of targeting journalists, opposition members and minority Muslims.

There have been at least eight hijackings by Ethiopians or involving Ethi opian planes in the last 25 years.

The deadliest came in 1996, when hijackers stormed the cockpit of a flight from Ethiopia to Ivory Coast via Kenya, demanding that the plane go to Australia. The plane ran out of fuel and crashed off the island nation of Comoros, killing 125 of the 175 people aboard.

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Associated Press writers Frank Jordans and Geir Moulson in Berlin; Rodney Muhumuza in Kampala, Uganda; Elias Meseret in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; and Carley Petesch in Johannesburg contributed to this report.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.