The crush of the spotlight awaits miners

(CNN) -- As the rescue capsule brought each Chilean miner to the surface, they sprang from obscurity into the global spotlight -- a type of attention that they never sought.

The 33 miners, who had been stuck for nearly 70 days inside a mine near Copiapo, Chile, will likely feel the crush of media requests and offers from book publishers, movie and television producers.

They will probably be peppered with questions from family, friends, neighbors, strangers and reporters.

When ordinary people are thrust into the spotlight, it can be disorienting and stressful. How they handle that attention could progress or hinder their recovery, experts said.

Mario Sepulveda, the second miner extracted, said he hoped to maintain a low-key profile.

CNN

Nigeria's Dokpesi sues secret police over bomb arrest

Nigerian media mogul Raymond Dokpesi has lodged a lawsuit against the secret police over his arrest in connection with the Independence Day Abuja bombings.

Mr Dokpesi, election campaign chief to a rival of the president in elections due next year, wants 100m naira ($660,000; £410,000) in damages.

He was one of nine people arrested in Nigeria over the twin car-bombings which killed at least 12 people.

He says the arrest was "malicious".

Mr Dokpesi was freed at least nine hours after being detained on 4 October - three days after the bombing.

He owns the Africa Independent Television network, one of Nigeria's biggest, and is running the campaign of former military ruler Gen Ibrahim Babangida.

Gen Babangida is challenging President Goodluck Jonathan for the right to become Nigeria's governing party's presidential candidate.

On Monday, another candidate for the People's Democratic Party nomination - the former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar - called for an international inquiry into the 1 October bombings to ensure the investigations were not manipulated for political reasons.

BBC News

Hague and Lavrov call for closer UK-Russian ties

William Hague has said he wants closer economic and security ties with Russia despite unresolved differences over the murder of Alexander Litvinenko.

On his first trip to Russia as UK foreign secretary, Mr Hague said the killing of the former spy in London in 2006 remained a "big problem".

Russia has rejected an extradition request for the main suspect.

But Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said the case should not be an obstacle to improved co-operation.

Relations between the two countries deteriorated markedly after the poisoning of Mr Litvinenko with the radioactive substance polonium-210 and have still not fully recovered.

UK investigators suspect former KGB agent Andrei Lugovoi of the murder and their 2007 request for his extradition to stand trial in the UK still stands.

BBC News

Chinese veteran politicians call for reform

A group of 23 Communist Party elders in China has written a letter calling for an end to the country's restrictions on freedom of speech.

The letter says freedom of expression is promised in the Chinese constitution but not allowed in practice.

They want people to be able to freely express themselves on the internet and want more respect for journalists.

The call comes just days after the Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo was awarded this year's Nobel Peace Prize.

Mr Liu was sent to prison for 11 years in 2009 for expressing his desire to see peaceful political change in China.

The letter's release also comes ahead of a key party meeting that is expected to promote future leaders and shape policy for the next few years.

BBC News

Gates warns over abrupt halt to 'Don't ask, don't tell'

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has warned a court-ordered halt of a ban on openly gay military personnel could have "enormous consequences".

A day after a judge halted the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy, Mr Gates said he preferred that Congress, not a court, settle the issue.

Under the policy, gay people can serve in the military but face expulsion if their sexuality is revealed.

A legislative bid to overturn the ban failed in the US Senate last month.

Policy 'to end'

"I feel strongly this is an action that needs to be taken by the Congress and that it is an action that requires careful preparation, and a lot of training," Mr Gates said. "It has enormous consequences for our troops".

Mr Gates' comments aboard a military aircraft came a day after US District Judge Virginia Phillips, in California, issued a permanent injunction forbidding the US military from enforcing the 17-year-old ban.

At the White House on Wednesday, spokesman Robert Gibbs described "don't ask, don't tell" as "a policy that is going to end". But he declined to answer whether the Obama administration preferred to seek a stay of the injunction and appeal against the ruling.

The US Department of Justice has 60 days to appeal but may opt not to do so.

President Barack Obama has said repeatedly he favours scrapping the ban, and Mr Gibbs reiterated the administration would prefer it be done in Congress rather than the court system.

The US House has already passed a repeal, but the bill stalled in the Senate last month amid staunch Republican opposition. Republicans are poised to make gains in both chambers in the upcoming mid-term election.

"The political balance of power is going to shift after these elections," said Richard Socarides, former gay and lesbian policy adviser to President Bill Clinton. "It's only going to get harder".

BBC News

Two porn companies postpone filming over HIV test

An actor's positive HIV test has caused two of the US adult film industry's largest studios to postpone filming.

Wicked Pictures and Vivid Entertainment told The Los Angeles Times that production had stopped as a precaution.

The unnamed actor was a member of the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation.

Clinic spokeswoman Jennifer Miller said efforts were being made to notify other performers who may have had sexual contact with the actor.

This is not the first time the billion dollar industry has faced closures.

In 2004, an HIV outbreak spread panic in the industry and briefly shut down productions at several California studios.

Up to 14 people were believed to have been infected during on-camera sex with a male actor.

Last year, a woman tested positive for HIV immediately after making an adult film.

BBC News

Rescued miner says he saw God, devil during captivity

(CNN) -- Having spent 69 days trapped inside the San Jose mine in Chile before being rescued, Mario Sepulveda says, he is a changed man.

"I buried 40 years of my life down there, and I'm going to live a lot longer to be a new person," he said in a video conference hours after surfacing from half a mile underground.

Sepulveda, the second miner extracted from the mine, has advice for those who take undue risks in their lives.

"I think I have learned a lot of wonderful lessons about taking the good path in life," he said. "For those of you able to call your wives or your husbands, do so".

During the time he was trapped inside the mine, Sepulveda said, he saw both good and evil.

"I was with God, and I was with the devil. They fought, and God won," he said. Sepulveda said he grabbed God's hand and never doubted that he would be rescued.

CNN

Rescued Chilean miner gets Elvis invitation

(CNN) -- A special invitation to visit Elvis Presley's Memphis, Tennessee, home awaited Edison Pena when he emerged from the San Jose mine Wednesday after more than two months below ground.

Pena, a die-hard Elvis fan, led his fellow trapped miners in Elvis sing-alongs to pass time while waiting for their rescue.

"A trip to Graceland in Memphis could be just the escape he needs after such a long period of time underground," said Kevin Kern, the spokesman for Elvis Presley Enterprises.

The company and the Memphis Convention and Visitors Bureau has offered Pena an all-expenses-paid trip for two, Kern said.

Pena, the 12th miner to be rescued, looked fit and exuberant as he emerged Wednesday.

"He's just a true blue Elvis fan," Kern said. "I can only imagine that Graceland would be the trip of a lifetime".

Kern suggested the best time for Pena's visit would be after Christmas decorations go up "inside and out" at Graceland on November 19. They stay up until Presley's birthday on January 8, he said.

"He's welcome to come whenever he feels up to it," Kern said.

He would stay in luxury at the historic Peabody Hotel -- known for its trained ducks -- in downtown Memphis, he said.

Pena would "experience everything Elvis, but also soak up some local culture," Kern said. The city is also known for its barbecue and the role it played in the birth of the blues, soul and rock 'n' roll, he said.

CNN

As they emerge: How each man spent his first moments above ground

Copiapo, Chile (CNN) -- Some gave a thumbs-up, waved Chilean flags, and hugged their loved ones. One dropped to his knees and prayed, while another asked about his dog. One led the crowd in a cheer for Chile. And then they were all wheeled away on stretchers.

This is how the Chilean miners -- emerging from the dark San Jose mine after more than two months -- savored their first moments above ground.

The first miner to reach the surface, Florencio Avalos, beamed and hugged everyone around him as he walked on the earth's surface for the first time in 69 days. He took a few moments to embrace his weeping family before he was taken away for a medical evaluation amid cheers.

As the second miner, Mario Sepulveda, exited the rescue hole, he reached into a large yellow bag and handed out what appeared to be rocks to officials and rescue workers. Sepulveda cracked jokes in his first moments above ground and led the crowd in a cheer for Chile. As the 40-year-old was hauled away on a stretcher for his medical evaluation, he asked his wife, "How's the dog?"

CNN

'Original' Buena Vista Social Club album finally out... 14 years later

London, England (CNN) -- It's been 14 years in the making -- an album combining the sensual rhythms of Cuban music with the desert-inspired sounds of west Africa.

Chance and circumstance delayed its birth -- when the American guitarist Ry Cooder and the British record producer Nick Gold arrived in Havana in the late 1990s intending to record an Afro-Cuban album, they found that the African musicians had, as Cooder said at the time, "got hung up in Paris" with visa problems.

With a studio already booked, the pair thought they should record something anyway, so they asked the singer-songwriter Juan de Marcos González to round up some Cuban musicians.

The resulting album was called the Buena Vista Social Club -- the group eventually played at the Carnegie Hall in New York, won a Grammy, spawned an acclaimed film by the award-winning director Wim Wenders and sold 8 million albums.

Now 14 years later and another chance meeting has resulted in Malian musicians from west Africa and Cuban musicians playing together to record AfroCubism, officially released this week.

"The success of the original albums meant we got sidetracked, but we were always asking ourselves, 'When are we going to do this?' then we were alerted to the fact that Eliades Ochoa and the Malian musicians were going to be in Madrid at the same time," Gold told CNN.

The album was recorded over four days and Cooder helped with the "sequencing" said Gold.

The album features, among others, the veteran Cuban singer-guitarist Eliades Ochoa and the acclaimed Malian singer Kasse-Mady Diabaté.

Ochoa had been Cooder and Gold's original choice to record with the Malians.

Gold says the inspiration for this album originally came from hearing Malian musicians playing "languid" Cuban music in an outdoor club in Bamako, the Malian capital.

There is a long history of fusing Malian and Cuban music -- during the 1960s the former Cuban president Fidel Castro was a close ally of a newly-independent Mali, resulting in the promotion of Cuban music there and some musical cross-pollination.

In the end it also transpires that the special relationship between Cuba and Mali meant that the Malian musicians did not even require a visa to enter Havana from Paris all those years ago.

AfroCubism begins a world tour in November, including dates in London, New York and Boston, Mass.

CNN

UEFA promise full investigation into violence at Italy-Serbia match

(CNN) -- UEFA have promised a "full and thorough investigation" into the violence that forced Italy's Euro 2012 qualifying match with Serbia to be abandoned on Tuesday night.

Disturbances around the ground in Genoa meant kick-off had to be put back 35 minutes and once the match started Serbian supporters threw flares onto the pitch and let off fireworks.

Referee Craig Thomson stopped play after just six minutes when visiting fans hurled a flare towards Italy goalkeeper Emiliano Viviano and the match was quickly called off.

Police and firefighters struggled to contain the Serbian fans, who threw objects at their Italian counterparts, cut protective netting and tried to smash Perspex barriers.

AFP reported that 16 people had been hospitalized and 17 arrested on what Italy coach Cesare Prandelli told reporters had been a "night of torment".

On Wednesday AFP said Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini told reporters: "I have just received a phone call from Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic, who presented a formal apology from the government".

CNN

Facebook rolls out new security tools, talks safety

(CNN) -- Facebook users will be able to log off the site from their cell phone and get a temporary password to use on public computers under new security changes.

The updates, announced Tuesday on Facebook's official blog, come as the social networking juggernaut observes National Cyber Security Awareness Month.

"From our standpoint, safety and security is a core part of Facebook and a core part of the user experience," Joe Sullivan, Facebook's chief security officer, told CNN in a telephone interview. "It's a core part of the ways we innovate as a company".

The "one-time passwords" will be available to users when they're on computers at libraries, hotels or other public places where they feel their regular password might be compromised.

Users can now text "otp" to 32665 on their mobile phones. They'll immediately get a password that can be used only once and expires in 20 minutes.

The feature is being rolled out gradually and should be available to all Facebook members in the next few weeks, according to the blog.

A new tweak also will let users find out if they're logged on to Facebook on another computer.

"Have you ever borrowed a friend's phone to use Facebook and then forgotten to log out before you handed it back?" read a blog post from last month promoting the pending feature. "Maybe you logged in from a public computer, but accidentally walked away with your Facebook session still active".

Users will now be able to go to their Account Settings page, find a list of all the computers on which they are currently logged in and shut down the unauthorized log-ins.

That feature is already available to all users.

CNN

Apple patents 'anti-sexting' technology

(CNN) -- Apple has patented technology that could be used by parents to prevent their kids from sending sexually explicit text messages -- or "sexting".

The technology, which has not been commercialized, would let a phone's administrator block an iPhone from sending or receiving texts with certain words.

Messages containing blocked material either would not be received or would have the objectionable content redacted. Unlike other text blockers, Apple's version would also be able to filter content based on a child's grade level and claims to filter abbreviated words that maybe missed by other programs.

The patent, awarded Tuesday, does not address the sending or receiving of explicit images.

The U.S. patent, which Apple filed for in January 2008, could also turn these filters into educational tools, according to the patent document.

Parents of kids who are studying Spanish, for example, could be required to send a certain number of messages per month in that language, according to the document. If kids did not meet the foreign language quota, their texting privileges could be automatically revoked until they send more Spanish-language text messages.

Grammarians may cheer this innovation. The texting interface also could prod kids toward better grammar, requiring them to identify and fix spelling, punctuation and grammar mistakes before sending a message.

So maybe the Apple texting tool will be the end of LOL-speak.

CNN

Rescue only the first step in Chilean miners' recovery process

Copiapo, Chile (CNN) -- The process of extracting 33 miners from a Chilean mine, where they have been trapped for more than two months, is going better than expected, the nation's health minister told reporters Wednesday.

"Things are going extraordinarily well so far," said Health Minister Jaime Manalich.

However, the miners' rescue is only the first step in a longer recovery process, workers with NASA have said. Health concerns linger regarding their lack of sunlight, nutrition, effects of their confinement, lack of sleep and sanitation.

Mental health is also a concern. They must be reintroduced to their families and society and deal with their sudden celebrity status.

Dr. Michael Duncan, deputy chief medical officer at Johnson Space Center, said, "The work is just beginning when the miners get out of the mine".

CNN