Cuba to turn over Florida couple and children

HAVANA (AP) ? Cuba said Tuesday that it will turn over to the United States a Florida couple who allegedly kidnapped their own children from the mother's parents and fled by boat to Havana, ending days of drama that recalled the Elian Gonzalez custody battle of more than a decade ago.

Foreign Ministry official Johana Tablada told The Associated Press in a written statement Tuesday that Cuba had informed U.S. authorities of the country's decision to turn over Joshua Michael Hakken, his wife Sharyn, and their two young boys.

She did not say when the handover would occur, but reporters saw Sharyn Hakken leaving the dock of Havana's Hemingway Marina in the back seat of a Cuban government vehicle and workers later said that all four Hakkens had been taken away.

An AP reporter spotted the family earlier Tuesday beside their boat at the marina. A man who resembled photographs of Joshua Michael Hakken yelled out "Stop! Stay back!" as the reporter approached, but there was no outward sign of tension or distress between the family members.

Tablada said the Foreign Ministry had informed U.S. diplomats on the island "of the Cuban government's willingness to turn over ... U.S. citizens Joshua Michael Hakken, his wife Sharyn Patricia and their two minor sons."

She said Cuba tipped the State Department off to the Hakkens' presence on Sunday and that from that moment "diplomatic contact has been exchanged and a professional and constant communication has been maintained."

U.S. authorities say Hakken kidnapped his sons, 4-year-old Cole and 2-year-old Chase, from his mother-in-law's house north of Tampa. The boys' maternal grandparents had been granted permanent custody of the boys last week.

The U.S. and Cuba share no extradition agreement and the island nation is also not a signatory of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, an international treaty for governmental cooperation on such cases.

Cuba has harbored U.S. fugitives in the past, though most of those cases date back to the 1960s and 70s, when the island became a refuge for members of the Black Panthers and other militant groups. More recently, dozens of Cuban Medicare fraud fugitives in the U.S. have tried to escape prosecution by returning to the island.

But Cuba has also cooperated with U.S. authorities in returning several criminal fugitives in recent years.

Hakken lost custody of his sons last year after a drug possession arrest in Louisiana and later tried to take the children from a foster home at gunpoint, authorities said. A warrant has been issued for his arrest on two counts of kidnapping; interference with child custody; child neglect; false imprisonment and other charges.

According to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, Hakken entered his mother-in-law's Florida house last Wednesday, tied her up and fled with his sons. Federal, state and local authorities searched by air and sea for a boat Hakken had recently bought. The truck Hakken, his wife and the boys had been traveling in was found Thursday, abandoned in Madeira Beach, Florida.

"He'll have to face in Hillsborough county the charges he has with the sheriff's office," spokeswoman Cristal Bermudez Nunez Nunez said. She said she did not know how the family would be returned or what will happen when they arrive on U.S. soil.

Terri Durdaller, a spokeswoman at the Florida Department of Children and Families, said it was not clear where the children will ultimately be placed.

"Louisiana is the ultimate decision maker on where these children will reside. It's likely they will be placed back in Florida with the grandmother," she said.

The Hakkens' flight to Cuba recalls the child custody case that set Cold War foes Washington and Havana feuding in 1999. That year, 5-year-old Elian Gonzalez was found clinging to an inner tube off Florida after his mother and others drowned while fleeing Cuba toward American soil. The boy was taken to Miami to live with relatives, but his father in Cuba demanded the boy be sent back.

U.S. courts ultimately ruled Gonzalez should be sent back, though his Miami relatives refused to return him. In April 2000, U.S. federal agents raided the family's home and he was returned to Cuba soon after. He has since grown into a young man and joined a military academy.

At the Havana marina on Tuesday, the family showed no sign they knew a decision about their fate had been made. The four strolled by an outdoor restaurant as security officials kept reporters at a distance.

The youngest child was seated in a stroller and the elder boy sat down on a curb. A woman who resembled Sharyn Hakken was seen on the boat.

Cuban officials told reporters not to take pictures of the family or the boat, which bore the name Salty and had a paw print on its side.

Andrew Zych, a Canadian docked in a sailboat steps away from the Hakkens, said the family had arrived recently and seemed normal.

"I liked the way they played with the kids," he said, adding he was surprised to learn of events in the U.S.

_____

Associated Press writers Christine Armario, Curt Anderson and Kelli Kennedy in Miami; Kevin McGill in New Orleans; and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

_____

Paul Haven on Twitter: www.twitter.com/paulhaven

Follow Peter Orsi on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Peter_Orsi

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cuba-turn-over-florida-couple-children-205730128.html

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NBC renews Carson Daly's show for 13th season

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? NBC is keeping Carson Daly's show in its late-night lineup.

The network announced Wednesday that it's renewing "Last Call with Carson Daly" for the show's 13th season.

NBC lauded Daly for creating what the network called "a unique late-night format." His program airs at 1:35 a.m. Eastern time.

Daly says he's proud of "Last Call" and grateful to continue with it. He also hosts the NBC singing contest "The Voice."

NBC previously announced plans to shake up the "Tonight Show," replacing Jay Leno with Jimmy Fallon next year. The network hasn't said who will take Fallon's place as host of "Late Night."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nbc-renews-carson-dalys-show-13th-season-224618390.html

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The Afters - Every Good Thing (Lyric Video) - Christian Music ...

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Source: http://www.crosswalk.com/culture/music/the-afters-every-good-thing-lyric-video.html

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Report: Virgin America best US airline in 2012

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Virgin America did the best job for its customers among leading U.S. airlines last year, a report said Monday, as carriers overall had their second best performance in the more than the two decades since researchers began measuring quality of service.

The report ranked the 14 largest U.S. airlines based on on-time arrivals, mishandled bags, consumer complaints and passengers who bought tickets but were turned away because flights were over booked.

Airline performance in 2012 was the second highest in the 23 years that Wichita State University in Kansas and Purdue University in Indiana have tracked the performance of airlines. The airline's best year was 2011.

Besides being the overall leader, Virgin America, headquartered in Burlingame, Calif., also did the best job on baggage handling and had the second-lowest rate of passengers denied seats due to overbookings. United Airlines, whose consumer complaint rate nearly doubled last year, had the worst performance. United has merged with Continental Airlines, but has had rough spots in integrating the operations of the two carriers.

This is the first year Virgin America, created in 2007, has been large enough to be included in the rankings. United carries roughly 18 times more passengers than Virgin America, and has 702 planes, compared to 52 for the smaller carrier.

The number of complaints consumers filed with the Department of Transportation overall surged by one-fifth last year to 11,445 complaints, up from 9,414 in 2011.

"Over the 20-some year history we've looked at it, this is still the best time of airline performance we've ever seen," said Dean Headley, a business professor at Wichita State University in Kansas, who has co-written the annual report. The best year was 2011, which was only slightly better than last year, he said.

Despite those improvements, it's not surprising that passengers are getting grumpier, Headley said. Carriers keep shrinking the size of seats in order to stuff more people into planes. Empty middle seats that might provide a little more room have vanished. And more people who have bought tickets are being turned away because flights are overbooked.

"The way airlines have taken 130-seat airplanes and expanded them to 150 seats to squeeze out more revenue, I think, is finally catching up with them," he said. "People are saying, 'Look, I don't fit here. Do something about this.' At some point airlines can't keep shrinking seats to put more people into the same tube," he said.

The industry is even looking at ways to make today's smaller-than-a-broom closet toilets more compact in the hope of squeezing a few more seats onto planes.

"I can't imagine the uproar that making toilets smaller might generate," Headley said, especially given that passengers increasingly weigh more than they use to. Nevertheless, "will it keep them from flying? I doubt it would."

The rate of complaints per 100,000 passengers also rose to 1.43 last year from 1.19 in 2011.

United's 2012 ranking doesn't reflect its experience over the past six months, in which the airline has made significant improvements in performance, company spokesman Rahsaan Johnson said

"Customer satisfaction is up, complaints are down dramatically and we are improving our customers' experience," he said in an email.

In recent years, some airlines have shifted to larger planes that can carry more people, but that hasn't been enough to make up for an overall reduction in flights.

The rate at which passengers with tickets were denied seats because planes were full rose to 0.97 denials per 10,000 passengers last year, compared with 0.78 in 2011.

It used to be in cases of overbookings that airlines usually could find a passenger who would volunteer to give up a seat in exchange for cash, a free ticket or some other compensation with the expectation of catching another flight later that day or the next morning. Not anymore.

"Since flights are so full, there are no seats on those next flights. So people say, 'No, not for $500, not for $1,000,' " said airline industry analyst Robert W. Mann Jr.

Regional carrier SkyWest had the highest involuntary denied-boardings rate last year, 2.32 per 10,000 passengers.

But not every airline overbooks flights in an effort to keep seats full. JetBlue and Virgin America were the industry leaders in avoiding denied boardings, with rates of 0.01 and 0.07, respectively.

United Airlines' consumer complaint rate was 4.24 complaints per 100,000 passengers. Southwest had the lowest rate, at 0.25. Southwest was among five airlines that lowered complaint rates last year compared to 2011. The others were American Eagle, Delta, JetBlue and US Airways.

Consumer complaints were significantly higher in the peak summer travel months of June, July and August when planes are especially crowded.

"As airplanes get fuller, complaints get higher because people just don't like to be sardines," Mann said.

The complaints are regarded as indicators of a larger problem because many passengers may not realize they can file complaints with the Transportation Department, which regulates airlines.

At the same time that complaints were increasing, airlines were doing a better job of getting passengers to their destinations on time.

The industry average for on-time arrival rates was 81.8 percent of flights, compared with 80 percent in 2011. Hawaiian Airlines had the best on-time performance record, 93.4 percent in 2012. ExpressJet and American Airlines had the worst records with only 76.9 percent of their planes arriving on time last year.

The industry's on-time performance has improved in recent years, partly due to airlines' decision to cut back on the number of flights.

"We've shown over the 20 years of doing this that whenever the system isn't taxed as much ? fewer flights, fewer people, less bags ? it performs better. It's when it reaches a critical mass that it starts to fracture," Headley said.

Passengers appear to be checking fewer bags since the industry's shift in 2008 to charging for fees for extra bags, and carrying more bags onto planes when permitted, industry analysts said.

The industry's mishandled bag rate peaked in 2007 at 7.01 mishandled bags per 1,000 passengers, and has since been declining. It was 3.07 in 2012, down from 3.35 bags the previous year.

The report's ratings are based on statistics kept by the department for airlines that carry at least 1 percent of the passengers who flew domestically last year.

___

AP Airlines Writer Joshua Freed contributed to this report from Minneapolis.

___

Follow Joan Lowy on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/AP_Joan_Lowy

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-04-08-Airline%20Quality/id-cca165f05d2a4dbc9a38f41225ee7502

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Giant John Paul II statute readied for unveiling

CZESTOCHOWA, Poland (AP) ? Workers were putting the finishing touches Tuesday on what its backer says is the world's tallest statue of the late Pope John Paul II.

The 13.8-meter (45.3-foot) white fiberglass figure will tower over the southern Polish city of Czestochowa, home to the predominantly Catholic country's most important pilgrimage site, the Jasna Gora monastery.

Funded by a private investor and put up on private grounds, the Polish-born pontiff appears smiling and stretching his arms to the world. On Tuesday, workers were joining the pieces together and painting them before the official unveiling of the statue Saturday.

Leszek Lyson, who is funding the project, called the pope "a great and good man who has done a lot for the world: ended communism and opened borders in Europe, reached to people in his pilgrimages around the world. His statue "should make everyone stop and think about life."

Its construction comes as the traditionally respected church comes under criticism for its conservative views and as church attendance shrinks.

Born Karol Wojtyla in Wadowice, southern Poland, John Paul was elected in 1978, a surprise choice from communist eastern Europe. In Poland he is credited with inspiring the Solidarity movement that helped end communism in 1989. His death in 2005 was a time of national mourning.

Lyson said that the unveiling ceremony will mark three years since he saved his son from drowning and is a sign of thanks.

He is also trying to get the statue into Guinness Book of Records as the world's tallest of John Paul.

Poland already boasts that it has the world's tallest statue of Jesus, unveiled in 2010 in the western town of Swiebodzin.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/giant-john-paul-ii-statute-readied-unveiling-124018723.html

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Christopher Guest's New HBO Series FAMILY TREE Gets A Trailer ...

That's right, a Christopher Guest series on HBO!

Christopher Guest has a new series on HBO starring Chris O'Dowd as a man exploring his family heritage. Family Tree also stars Guest regulars Ed Begley Jr., Michael McKean, Fred Willard, Don Lake and Bob Balaban, and it's co-written by Jim Piddock, who also stars.

I'm just very excited about enjoying some weekly Christopher Guest whimsy on my TV. Guest hasn't directed a television series since Morton & Hayes in 1991, and I think 22 years is quite long enough. Chris O'Dowd is a newbie to the Guest universe, but something seems perfect about that pairing, like it's meant to be.

Family Tree hits HBO May 12.

Source: http://badassdigest.com/2013/04/08/christopher-guests-new-hbo-series-family-tree-gets-a-trailer

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Google Play redesign confirmed in leaked image

By Larry Fine AUGUSTA, Georgia, April 8 (Reuters) - Guan Tianlang answered questions about his readiness to play the Masters at the record-setting age of 14 when he gave two-times champion Ben Crenshaw a putting lesson at the 18th hole at Augusta National on Monday. The 61-year-old Crenshaw, whose career was built on his ability as a putter, mentored the precocious Chinese during their practice round, advising the Asia-Pacific Amateur champion about the notoriously fast, sloping greens of Augusta. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/google-play-redesign-confirmed-leaked-image-211758103.html

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