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Slain pregnant Marine laid to rest with unborn child

VANDALIA, Ohio (AP) — Family and friends wept and prayed Saturday at a funeral Mass for a pregnant Marine found slain in North Carolina.

The service for Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach drew hundreds of mourners to St. Christopher Catholic Church near Dayton.

Four uniformed marines wheeled Lauterbach’s coffin down the aisle to the strains of Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory.

A small silver casket bearing Lauterbach’s unborn child, who she had named Gabriel, was placed next to it.

Federal authorities have said the man suspected of killing her, Marine Cpl. Cesar Laurean, has likely fled to Mexico.

Lauterbach failed to show up for work in mid-December, and last month her burned remains were found with those of her fetus in a fire pit in the backyard of Laurean’s house in Jacksonville, North Carolina. See a timeline of the case

The Lauterbach family sat together in the front row. Lauterbach’s mother, Mary, dabbed her eyes with tissues and her father, Vic, comforted Maria’s young brother.

The mourners included uniformed Marines and military veterans.

During his sermon, the Rev. Francis Keferl said Lauterbach had a strong spirit: We remember her athleticism and her competitive spirit. We remember that she wanted to serve her country as a Marine.

Outside the church, about 200 members of the Patriot Guard, veterans who ride their motorcycles to military funerals, lined the drive and stood at attention as the hearse arrived. A makeshift sign made of plastic foam cups read: We Miss You, Maria.

Later, mourners stood solemnly around the hearse when it arrived at Calvary Cemetery in Dayton. Six Marines saluted and carried Lauterbach’s flag-draped casket to her grave site. A Marine unit gave Lauterbach a 21-gun salute and Taps was played.

Lauterbach, 20, had accused Laurean of rape in May, a charge he denied. Both were stationed at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

Lauterbach’s family issued a statement Friday reiterating concerns about how authorities handled her rape claim.

Naval investigators have said they had no evidence to corroborate the claim, but Lauterbach and Laurean’s regimental commander was intent on taking the case to a hearing that could have led to a trial.

Published reports and official statements have included some assertions that are inconsistent, illogical, and misleading, Lauterbach’s family said in the statement, issued through attorneys. There are many unanswered questions, and we are continuing to review and evaluate the information that has been released.

The family has previously said Lauterbach had been harassed at Camp Lejeune and accused the Marines of not protecting her.

Despite lingering questions, the family said it was confident that civilian and military authorities would conduct a complete investigation of Lauterbach’s rape claim, her disappearance and Laurean’s flight.

Laurean, who was born in Mexico, is being sought on an indictment charging first-degree murder. He fled North Carolina after leaving a note for his wife saying Lauterbach cut her own throat and that he had buried her body, authorities said.

Capt. Rick Sutherland of the Onslow County, North Carolina, sheriff’s office said Friday the office was committed to apprehending the person responsible for Lauterbach’s death.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of Maria this weekend during the Mass of the Christian burial of Maria and her child, Sutherland said.
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Chad: Rebel attack being beaten back

(CNN) — Chad’s ambassador to the U.S. has insisted that a rebel uprising is being quashed by government troops amid reports that at least 400 rebels had entered the city and had broken in to the presidential palace.

Heavy fighting was reported around the presidential palace, the defense ministry and the official radio station building as rebels streamed into the capital from several directions, a high-ranking German diplomatic source and security sources told CNN.

Security sources in N’Djamena said at least 400 rebels troops were in the city.

The sources added that they had received varying reports about the whereabouts of Chad’s President Idriss Deby — some indicating he was holed up in the presidential palace under heavy guard, and other reports claiming he has fled to nearby Gabon. Watch as chaos sweeps Chad

Chadian Ambassador to the U.S. Mahamoud Adam Bechir told CNN, however, that the government was in control of the situation and that rebel forces were fleeing the city.

Bechir claimed the rebels, whom he characterized as mercenaries, were abandoning their vehicles and their military uniforms in an attempt to avoid capture.

A high-ranking German diplomatic source told CNN earlier that that gunfire could be heard ringing around the city. Although the gunfire had since died down, the official said, the country’s parliament building was now being ransacked, the source said.

It was unclear if the building was being looted by locals or rebels opposed to the government forces, the source added.

However, the German source said witnesses told him that rebels were already in the palace and there were fires around the district where the government is headquartered.

A worker at the Kempinski Hotel in the capital told CNN by phone that the rebels had faced little resistance as they came into the capital.

The staff member, who gave his name as Tigalta, said: This morning I was in my room, and I saw many rebel groups entering the city in Japanese cars. They were not fighting. They entered the town freely. They found the population welcoming them — the people of the town.

A leader of Chad’s main opposition alliance, which is unarmed and not associated with the rebels, told The Associated Press the shooting started after rebels entered the city around 8 a.m. but appeared to die down two hours later.

Ibni Oumar Mahamat Saleh said about 12:45 p.m. that there were no soldiers near him and state radio was off the air.

At the moment we are not hearing any firing … The rebels are in the city. Civilians are in the streets. They are watching what is happening, Saleh told AP.

The French and U.S. embassies were working on preparations to evacuate their staff and citizens, but fighting near the airport prevented anyone from leaving by plane, he said.

Growing conflict

Chad’s president, who himself seized power in a rebel uprising in 1990, has been contending with a growing conflict centered in eastern Chad.

The rebellion in the east is closely linked with the civil war in neighboring Sudan’s Darfur region.

Around 240,000 have crossed the border to Chad to flee the fighting in Darfur, where Sudan’s government and government-supported Arab militias have been accused of widespread atrocities against the civilian population.

Both the Sudanese and Chadian governments have accused one another of fomenting the violence in their countries by giving support to the rebels groups.

David Martinon, a French presidential spokesman, said the French leader Nicolas Sarkozy had held a long telephone conversation with President Deby Saturday.

In a statement, Martinon said that Sarkozy held an emergency meeting Saturday to discuss the unfolding situation in Chad.

The spokesman said the French leader held talks with members of his Cabinet including Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and Defense Minister Hervi Morin.

A spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping mission said most of its 300 hundred staff had already been moved to Cameroon and that a small contingent of peacekeepers remained at a hotel in the capital under the protection of French forces.

The French government said it opposed the actions of the rebels. You cannot try to use force to change a sovereign government, said Nicolas Princen, a spokesman for the office of the French president.

The French army is preparing a plane in Paris to be flown out to Chad to repatriate French citizens in the capital, according to Princen.

French nationals have been asked to assemble at several points across the city, he added.

The French Defense Ministry said Friday it was sending 140 soldiers from Gabon to N’Djamena as a precaution to protect French citizens after fighting escalated.

The French move came as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said he was deeply concerned at the resumption of fighting in Chad.

Ban’s spokesman said he deplores any action that could worsen the already grave humanitarian situation especially in eastern Chad where the international community is actively engaged in activities to provide relief and secure the voluntary, safe and sustainable return of refugees and displaced persons in eastern Chad and north-eastern Central African Republic.

On Thursday, after a series of armed attacks in the eastern Chadian town of Guereda, four staff members with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and 28 local and international staff members of UNHCR’s implementing partners were relocated to Abeche, about 300 miles to the southwest. Local authorities do not have the necessary means to protect the aid workers, UNHCR said.

Only essential UNHCR staff remain in Guereda for the time being, operating in conjunction with refugee leaders at two camps, Mile and Kounoungou, where up to 30,000 Darfurian refugees reside.

Speaking from Abeche, UNHCR spokeswoman Annette Rehl described Guereda as a place without law and order (where) people act with impunity. She cited car-jacking as the most pressing security concern there: They need cars and telecommunications equipment.
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Rebels move in on Chad capital

(CNN) — Heavy gunfire was heard in Chad’s capital Ndjamena Saturday as rebel fighters entered the city from several directions and moved on the presidential palace, reports say.

A high-ranking German diplomatic source told CNN by telephone that the country’s parliament building was also being ransacked. It was unclear if the building was being looted by locals or rebels opposed to the government forces, the source added.

However, the source said witnesses told him that rebels were already in the palace and there were fires around the district where the government is headquartered.

There was no information about the whereabouts of Chad’s President Idriss Deby.

David Martinon, a French presidential spokesman, said the French leader Nicolas Sarkozy had held a long telephone conversation with President Deby Saturday.

A leader of Chad’s main opposition alliance, which is unarmed and not associated with the rebels, told The Associated Press the shooting started after rebels entered the city around 8 a.m. but appeared to die down two hours later.

Ibni Oumar Mahamat Saleh said about 12:45 p.m. that there were no soldiers near him and state radio was off the air.

At the moment we are not hearing any firing … The rebels are in the city. Civilians are in the streets. They are watching what is happening, Saleh told AP.

The French and U.S. embassies were working on preparations to evacuate their staff and citizens, but fighting near the airport prevented anyone from leaving by plane, he said.

In a statement, Martinon said that Sarkozy held an emergency meeting Saturday to discuss the unfolding situation in Chad.

The spokesman said the French leader held talks with members of his Cabinet including the foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, and the defense minister Hervi Morin.

He said that all efforts were being taken to ensure the safety of French citizens in the country.

The reports came a day after the French Defense Ministry said it was sending 140 soldiers from Gabon to N’Djamena as a precaution to protect French citizens amid renewed fighting between government troops and rebels.

A ministry spokesman said because of rebel activity in the former French colony, the decision was made to reinforce the garrison of French troops stationed in the city to ensure the security of French citizens.

The French move came as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said he was deeply concerned at the resumption of fighting in Chad.

Ban’s spokesman said he deplores any action that could worsen the already grave humanitarian situation especially in eastern Chad where the international community is actively engaged in activities to provide relief and secure the voluntary, safe and sustainable return of refugees and displaced persons in eastern Chad and north-eastern Central African Republic.

On Thursday, after a series of armed attacks in the eastern Chadian town of Guereda, four staff members with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and 28 local and international staff members of UNHCR’s implementing partners were relocated to Abeche, about 300 miles to the southwest. Local authorities do not have the necessary means to protect the aid workers, UNHCR said.

Only essential UNHCR staff remain in Guereda for the time being, operating in conjunction with refugee leaders at two camps, Mile and Kounoungou, where up to 30,000 Darfurian refugees reside.

Speaking from Abeche, UNHCR spokeswoman Annette Rehl described Guereda as a place without law and order (where) people act with impunity. She cited car-jacking as the most pressing security concern there: They need cars and telecommunications equipment.

The situation was brought to a head by tensions that have been brewing in the area since Monday between opposition forces and the Chadian National Army. She also referred to clashes between two ethnic groups, the Zaghawas and the Tamas, as affecting the local population.

Security concerns for refugees in Guereda remain high.

If humanitarian workers are not around, it is impossible to provide adequate protection to the refugees, said Jorge Holly, head of the UNHCR field office in Guereda But the situation here is getting out of control, and we also have to protect our staff and partners.

The U.N. refugee agency has 12 refugee camps, six field offices and over 200 employees in eastern Chad.

Asked when UNHCR staff would return to the camps, Rehl said, We need to see how the situation moves, we are having security meetings. We have to see what happens in the political context. Tomorrow this could change. This is typical of Chad.
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One-on-one with Michelle Obama

By Soledad O’Brien CNN CNN’s Soledad O’Brien talks one-on-one with Michelle Obama, who speaks candidly about the joy of motherhood, campaign fashion, politics: the sport, and the working woman’s impossible juggling act.

CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) — If Michelle Obama is tired, she doesn’t show it.

She arrives at our interview with perfect make-up and public relations person in tow, and laughs about how hard it was to get her husband, presidential candidate Barack Obama, to understand that what she wears on the campaign trail actually matters.

If anything, she comes across as a realist. When I ask if it’s annoying to think about her clothes while she’s out stumping for her husband, she shrugs, it just is.

In fact she says, there’s nothing rational about politics. And it took a little convincing for her to support her husband’s presidential ambitions.

But now she’s in it all the way. And it’s true, you can’t miss the fabulous patent-leather boots. They were a big hit, she tells me, in Iowa.

The first thing you notice about Michelle Obama is her calm demeanor — she seems unflappable; impossible to startle. She laughs easily and doesn’t take herself too seriously. She’s pretty, stands about 6 feet tall, and is thoughtful and passionate.

We compare the ages of our children: Hers are 6 and 9, both girls. My girls are 7 and 5, and my twin boys are 3. Twins? she laughs. Then she gives me a two-handed high-five.

For days, my family and friends bombarded me with e-mails to ask Michelle — ask about race, they say. Ask about the mudslinging, about her kids. Ask if she’s ready to raise young girls in the public eye.

Of the last question, she says: I think my 9-year-old is a little, has a little trepidation because of that … and we are going to do our best to make sure that we protect them and make sure that they continue to be the center of our lives even in the midst of all this turmoil.

In fact, If Michelle Obama wants to be identified as anything, it is a devoted mother. That might be a tough sell, considering her education (Princeton, Harvard Law School).

Her job as a hospital executive at the University of Chicago is on hold while she’s on the campaign trail, and I ask her if it’s been hard to give up her career. Before I finish the question, she says no. What gives her joy is her role of mother.

What would she do as first lady? She doesn’t aspire to an official adviser position in her husband’s administration. In fact, Michelle Obama says, I don’t have any burning desire to be involved in policy. She thinks she could do more, in her role as first lady, by focusing on the impossible juggling act working women, like the two of us, try to pull off every day.

And if we’re struggling, just imagine with folks who are getting up, working shift jobs where they don’t have the flexibility to go see their kids’ ballet performances, where they don’t get sick days off, where they don’t have insurance, they don’t have access to quality and affordable childcare, she says. Watch Michelle Obama talk with Soledad O’Brien

If you watched Thursday’s presidential debate, you probably noticed that the tone of the two top Democratic candidates’ campaigns has changed a lot lately, from less mean to almost laughably civil. Obama won’t take the bait when I ask her about former President Bill Clinton’s comment that electing her husband was a risk, a roll of the dice. She deflects. It’s politics as a game, it’s a sport. What I get impatient with is politics as a game.

Yet she speaks about the other candidates — um, that would be Hillary Clinton, I say. She smiles but won’t name names. I don’t want to be criticized, she says, but in a way, that shows she’s really not too worried about being criticized.

She’s on message about Barack, whom she loves and supports and admires, and she wants the world to know more about him: There is no one in this race who can bring about a whole different view of who we are and how the rest of the world sees us. That’s just a fact, she smiles, in my unbiased opinion, she laughs.
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China warns of ‘grim’ situation

(CNN) — Chinese authorities are warning that the continuing snow storms would still crush the hopes of many people desperate to see their families during their only break of the year.

The most difficult period is still not over yet. The situation remains grim, the Chinese cabinet said in a statement reported on Saturday by The Associated Press. More snow and sleet were forecast across southern and central China.

The warning came as millions of Chinese began preparations for next week’s Lunar New Year holiday period.

On Friday, heartbreaking video from the southern city of Guangzhou showed crowds of people — many of them migrant workers –screaming, elbowing each other, in some cases sobbing and collapsing in the rush to get a slot on a train.

Police battled to keep order in chaotic scenes in the capital of southern Guangdong province. One officer lifted a small child above the crowd as the child’s mother clutched the officer’s coat. A woman who fainted was carried over the mob to receive medical help.

State-run news agency Xinhua reported that 95 percent of rail traffic had returned to normal. But conditions were far from normal, with nearly a week’s worth of travelers wanting to climb on board.

Local reports said hundreds of thousands of people were massed like a herd of humanity into a huge, makeshift corral larger than a football field.

Xinhua said 400,000 people were stranded at Guangzhou Railway Station on Friday, down about half from the height of the crisis.

The winter storm — China’s worst in 50 years — has already been blamed for at least 63 deaths around the country, including at least 25 when a bus plunged off a slippery mountain road in the southwestern Guizhou province. The government has reported $7.5 billion in damage from the storm.

The government also announced a $700 million plan to help farmers whose crops have been destroyed.

After transportation around the country began to be shut down Saturday, authorities called on millions of migrant workers to forgo their annual Lunar New Year trip home.

For the sake of their safety, and relieving the stress on transport, I advise migrant workers to stay in the cities where they work, Zheng Guogang, chief of the China Meteorological Administration, told the state newspaper China Daily.

But for an estimated 200 million people, the annual trek is sometimes the only opportunity to see family that they have left behind — and the vast majority travel by train. This year, the holiday begins February 6.

The storm has spiraled into a crisis in some areas, with authorities worried about potential loss of critical supplies. Some have already lost power, and local authorities say diesel and even rice could run out in a matter of days.

Weather forecasts suggest more wintry precipitation is on the way for Saturday, with a possible break on Sunday.
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