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Evacuation Slide Deploys Midair on United Flight
A United Airlines flight was forced to land in Wichita, Kansas, after the evacuation slide accidentally deployed midair Sunday, the airline said.
The Boeing 737 was carrying 96 passengers and five crew members. It was on its way from Chicago O'Hare International Airport to John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California.
"I heard this pop. I turn around and the slide was open," passenger Michael Schroeder said.
There were no injuries, United spokeswoman Christen David said.
"All passengers were seated at the time the slide deployed. A passenger did not attempt to open the door in flight," David said.
Schroeder said the plane didn't appear to lose cabin presser and "the crew was pretty calm about it."
"Every landing you walk away from is a good one," he added.
Iraq's Parliament Called to Meet Amid Worsening Crisis
Iraq's vice president issued a decree Thursday calling for parliament to meet next week to start the process of creating a new government as the Iraqi military battles Sunni extremist militants.
Vice President Khader al Khuzaei, acting on behalf of Iraq's President, made the directive amid calls for political action to tackle sectarian tensions that have fueled violence as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, advances toward Baghdad.
On Thursday evening, seven people were killed and 36 others injured in an explosion in the capital's northern neighborhood of Kadimiyah, Iraqi police told CNN. There were conflicting reports about whether a suicide bomber or car bomb was responsible.
In a televised speech this week, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki vowed to stick to a Tuesday deadline to begin creating a new government. But the Iraqi leader also spent time in Wednesday's TV address accusing Sunnis of "coordinating" the crisis.
Al-Maliki accused Sunnis of collaborating with ISIS and blasted a call to have a national salvation government that would remove him from power.
He also appealed to Shiites by saying he is adhering to the wishes of Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, the religious leader who called for volunteers to support the Iraqi army and government.
Many have accused al-Maliki of marginalizing Iraq's Sunni and Kurd minorities in favor of his fellow Shiites.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday played down al-Maliki's rejection of a salvation government, saying it wasn't something the United States had talked to him about specifically.
To the contrary, he said, al-Maliki is committed to the electoral process and creation of a new government that the United States has supported.
"And he (is) committed to moving forward with the constitutional processes of government formation, and that is precisely what the United States was encouraging," Kerry said. "He also called on all Iraqis to put aside their differences, to unite in their efforts against terrorism."
After talks Thursday in Paris with his French counterpart, Laurent Fabius, Kerry said the two agreed they want to see the formation of an Iraqi government "as rapidly as possible that represents unity for the country."
Kerry said he and the French diplomat are also deeply concerned about the challenge of Syria.
Fabius said that ISIS had shown "terrible ferocity and brutality" and that Iraq must unite to combat it.
"It's a necessity not only for Iraq but the whole region. Because it's a menace for Iraq, for the region, for Europe and the United States as well," he said.
Kerry will meet Friday in Saudi Arabia with Syrian opposition leader Ahmad Jarba, a senior State Department official said Thursday.
UK Foreign Secretary William Hague, on a visit to Baghdad on Thursday, also urged the swift formation of an inclusive government, saying Iraqi political leaders must put sectarian division aside.
"The Iraqi state is facing an existential threat, with huge ramifications for the future stability and freedom of this country," he said. "The single most important factor that will determine whether or not Iraq overcomes this challenge is political unity."
Hague said this would be the focus of his discussions with al-Maliki and Kurdish regional leader Masoud Barzani.
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MH370 Search Moves Farther South
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was "highly likely" to have been on autopilot as it flew into the southern Indian Ocean, Australian officials said Thursday, divulging new details about the missing plane's probable fate.
The comments were made during a news conference to announce a southward shift in the underwater search for the Boeing 777, which disappeared March 8 with 239 people on board.
Searchers have found no trace of the jetliner or its passengers, making the case probably the biggest mystery in aviation history and leaving the families of those on board bereft of answers.
The Australian officials said they believe the plane was on autopilot throughout its journey over the Indian Ocean until it ran out of fuel. They cited the straight track on which the aircraft flew, according to electronic "handshakes" it periodically exchanged with satellites.
"It is highly, highly likely that the aircraft was on autopilot, otherwise it could not have followed the orderly path that has been identified through the satellite sightings," Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss told reporters in Canberra.
But the officials said they weren't sure exactly when the autopilot had been turned on.
And they declined to talk about the causes behind the errant flight path, saying those are questions for the Malaysian authorities in charge of the overall investigation.
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5 Things We Learned From Tuesday's Primaries
The establishment struck back.
Two weeks after House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's primary loss to a little-known and underfunded tea party challenger rocked the Republican Party, incumbent and mainstream GOP candidates came out on top in several high-profile primary showdowns.
In Tuesday's marquee race, longtime Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi narrowly fended off a fierce primary challenge from state Sen. Chris McDaniel, who edged Cochran in the primary three weeks ago. Cochran's victory might have come from crossover Democratic voters - courted by the senator - who cast ballots in the runoff.
Cochran was joined by Rep. James Lankford, who easily won the primary in Oklahoma over two other major candidates who enjoyed tea party support in the race to succeed a retiring senator. Former Rep. Bob Beauprez, considered the mainstream pick in Colorado's GOP gubernatorial primary, topped three other candidates. And former South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster, the ultimate insider, won a landslide victory in the state's Republican lieutenant governor runoff.
In another high-profile showdown, Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel of New York, who was first elected to Congress 44 years ago, claimed victory in what he says will be his last campaign. But Rangel's opponent, state Sen. Adriano Espaillat, who nearly ousted Rangel in the Democratic primary two years ago, wasn't conceding the tight race early Wednesday morning.
And in Maryland, outgoing Gov. Martin O'Malley, a potential 2016 Democratic presidential contender, wasn't on the ballot but might have been the biggest winner of the night.
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Iraq, Militants Fight for Oil Refinery
The sprawling offensive by militants in Iraq has now reached the country's largest oil refinery - but it's unclear who has control over the strategic target.
On Tuesday morning, the state-run Iraqiya news agency said Iraqi security forces still control the Baiji oil refinery.
The report also said Iraqi special forces have killed the militant leader who led the attacks against the refinery and goes by the name of " Abu Qutada."
But hours earlier, militant fighters believed to be from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) seized the refinery, several Iraqi security sources told CNN.
CNN cannot independently confirm either claim.
The Baiji refinery, in the northern Salaheddin province, is a crucial resource because it refines much of the fuel needed for domestic consumption. Long lines have already formed at many gas stations across the country.
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John Kerry Arrives in Iraq as More Cities Fall
As radical Sunni militants snatch city after city in their march to Baghdad, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Iraq on Monday during the country's tensest time since the U.S. withdrawal of troops.
He'll meet with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, the man some say needs to step down.
With al-Maliki's Shiite-led government losing more ground to militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Kerry has implored the leader to rise above "sectarian motivations" to become more inclusive and more representative of its population.
Kerry will also meet with Iraq's foreign minister as well as both Shiite and Sunni leaders.
His trip will "emphasize our highest-level commitment to Iraq during this time of crisis," a State Department official said.
Kerry will also speak with key leaders about forming a new government "in line with the constitutional timeline that they're on."
But outside the rooms of high-level talks, parts of Iraq are falling by the day.
See the latest on the crisis that is spilling far beyond Iraq's borders from CNN.com.
300 U.S. Advisers Heading for Iraq, But What Will They Actually Do?
How big of a threat is ISIS really?
The White House wants to find out and is deploying as many as 300 military advisers to Iraq to assess the might of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
The jihad group's rash battlefield successes make them look extremely fierce.
They have surged over from northern Syria to blitz major cities in Iraq's Sunni region, taking Tal Afar and Mosul then moving quickly south. Hundreds of thousands of civilians fled from their path, creating a new refugee crisis.
They have advanced on Baquba, just north of Baghdad and are threatening to attack the capital.
The Obama administration has said there will be no more American boots on the ground after the drawdown of all American troops - tens of thousands of them.
It's up to the advisors to help Iraqi security forces vanquish ISIS on their own.
Washington has said little about what they'll actually be doing - and expert opinions on that and on whether they should be in Iraq at all are split.
Who are they?
They are high-ranking officers. They are Navy SEALs and Army Rangers, said retired Marine Sgt. Adam Banotai.
Banotai, who scrapped through the brutal battle for Fallujah during the Iraq war, thinks the term 'adviser' is misplaced.
"It is political semantics," he said. "We are calling them adviser now...instead of combat troops or boots on the ground." said retired Sgt. Adam Banotai.
"They are the most elite fighters we have," he added. "So, if they aren't going to be combat troops - I'm not quite sure who the president is going to refer to as combat troops."
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Sources: Chorus Grows That Al-Maliki Has to go for Iraq's Sake
There's a growing chorus - both in Washington and in the Arab world - that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has to go if there's any hope of unifying Iraq as Islamic militants advance south toward Baghdad.
While some on Capitol Hill aren't shy about saying his days as the Iraqi leader should come to an end, at the White House it's more of a whisper.
Senior U.S. officials tell CNN that the Obama administration is of the belief that Maliki is not the leader Iraq needs to unify the country and end sectarian tensions.
The officials, along with Arab diplomats, say the White House is now focused on a political transition that would move the Iraqis toward a more inclusive government - one without Maliki, but which includes Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish factions.
Whatever the action, something needs to happen fast.
The lightning-fast advance by Sunni fighters for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, has toppled large portions of northern Iraq and brought the militant push to within 40 miles of Baghdad. ISIS wants to establish a caliphate, or Islamic state, that would stretch from Iraq into northern Syria.
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Benghazi Suspect on Slow Boat to U.S.
The capture of Ahmed Abu Khatallah could be compared to a large group of trappers quietly snaring rare and dangerous prey.
For days, Army Delta Force commandos, the FBI and U.S. intelligence agencies lay in wait for one of the alleged masterminds behind the deadly September 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
Then on Tuesday, they lured Abu Khatallah to a point south of the eastern city and nabbed him. U.S. officials said he did not put up a fight. Not a shot was fired.
But Abu Khatallah had a reputation for hiding out in the open, relaxed and self-assured.
In an interview to CNN's Arwa Damon last year, he said he was ready to talk to U.S. investigators but "not as an interrogation."
He will now have that conversation; just not on his own terms.
Where he is now
Abu Khatallah is now on a slow boat to the United States - a U.S. Navy ship in the Mediterranean, where he is facing interrogators.
They're taking him by sea, rather than by air, in order to give investigators "maximum time to question him," U.S. officials said.
Such interviews typically are done by the FBI-led High Value Detainee Interrogation Group, or HIG, that includes agents from multiple law and intelligence agencies.
Where he is headed
When he arrives, Abu Khatallah is very likely headed to a federal trial.
That's what the Obama administration wants, a position at odds with some of the President's Republican critics.
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina wants to postpone criminal prosecution to give interrogation more time.
"We should have some quality time with this guy. Weeks and months," he said. "Don't torture him, but have some quality time with him."
Arizona Sen. John McCain wants to see Abu Khatallah in the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
"Where else can you take him to?" McCain said
Gitmo may be out of the question. It's a prison the Obama administration has been trying to shutter. And no detainees have been added there since the President took office, said national security spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden.
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Deadly Tornadoes Tear Through Towns
It was a menacing sight - two powerful tornadoes swirling side by side through the countryside of northeastern Nebraska.
At one point, the twin twisters straddled a state highway.
"It was terribly wide," Marianne Pesotta told CNN affiliate KETV in the town of Pilger. "I drove east (to escape). I could see how bad it was. I had to get out of there."
The decision to flee may have saved her life.
Stanton County Sheriff Mike Unger said up to three-quarters of Pilger, a town of about 350 people, was destroyed Monday. The severe weather also caused damage in the towns of Wisner, Stanton and Pender.
All four communities are within about 40 miles of each other, about and hour and a half northwest of Omaha.
The aftermath was almost too much to take for some like Marilyn Andersen, another Pilger resident
"I've never been through this before," she told affiliate KMTVthrough tears. "It was an experience, and I don't want to go through it again."
Two deaths were reported. Stanton County Sheriff Mike Unger said a five-year-old was killed in Pilger, but didn't say how. Another person died outside of town, he said.
Faith Regional Health Services in Norfolk said 16 people were critically injured by the storm system.
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