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Thursday, September 1, 2016

"Troubled individual:" Mother Teresa no saint to her critics

(CNN)When Pope Francis canonizes the late Mother Teresa at the Vatican on September 4th,she will officially be recognized as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church.

For her followers, the title is a mere formality. They believe the world renowned humanitarian displayed saintly qualities throughout a life dedicated to serving the poor.

But saintly is not a word everyone uses for Mother Teresa.Her critics say she was anything but.

"Scene from World War 2"

Disillusioned former volunteer Hemley Gonzalez didn"t meet her in person, but what he calls the "horrific remnants of her legacy" have left him deeply uncomfortable. After visiting the facilities she"s responsible for starting, he feels only a "troubled individual" could have set them up.

After the financial crisis of 2008, Gonzalez took a break from his real estate business in Miami and headed to India, where he spent two months volunteering at Nirmal Hriday, a home for the dying run by Mother Teresa"s Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta"s (now Kolkata) crowded Kalighat area.

Gonzalez says he was appalled at the poor level of hygiene and medical care he saw there. He says the organization didn"t vet him or the other volunteers. None, including himself, had any medical experience or received any training before working at the hospice.

He claims he saw nuns routinely reuse needles after washing them in tap water, that clothes -- sometimes soiled with urine and feces -- and cooking utensils were hand washed side by side in the same room.

Patients suffering from respiratory diseases had to bathe in freezing water because a single water heater wasn"t barely enough for one bath, he says. And he claims there was not a single doctor or medically trained nurse at the hospice.

"It was a scene out of a World War II concentration camp," says Gonzalez.

Gonzalez says attempts to raise a red flag or offer to install a water heater were always met with the same response by the nuns. "We don"t do that here. This is the way Jesus wants it,they"d say,"Gonzalez tells us.

Basic care for poorest of poor

Chhanda Chakraborti is part of a group of local Kolkata volunteers who has been associated with the Missionaries of Charity for over 25 years.She served at Nirmal Hriday for several years before Gonzalez did.

Museum of poverty, or place of service?

As these controversies rage on, life inside Mother Teresa"s homes carries on as usual, with the same simplicity and routine that"s been in place for decades.

According to Gonzalez, it"s a "museum of poverty." To some, it"s a place of selfless service.

A group of nuns will travel to the Vatican for the canonization ceremony in September, and those who remain in Kolkata will mark the day with prayers of thanks.

For them and other devout followers around the world, Mother Teresa was and will forever be, a saint, and no amount of controversy can change that.

25 Japanese foods we can"t live without

(CNN)Japan is often called a "Galapagos" when it comes to technology, as the country"s cultural isolation tends to produce innovations found nowhere else in the world.

The same can be said about its food.

Japan is a culinary wonderland thanks to its unique heritage, a national obsession with cuisine and an almost religious embrace of freshness and perfect production.

The result is the following 25 edible treasures that we can never get enough of.

Tonkatsu

Breaded, deep-fried until crisp and golden brown, then drizzled with a sweet and piquant sauce, meat doesn"t get any better than tonkatsu.

At Tonki, they don"t take reservations.

The lines are long, but the succulent hire tonkatsu, served with a mound of shredded cabbage to assuage your guilt, is well worth the wait.

Maisen is also an unbeatable stand-by.

Sushi

Kabayaki is a skewer of unagi eel that has been filleted, dunked in a thick, sweet soy-based sauce and then grilled.

We can"t verify the purported stamina-enhancing properties that make it popular in summer, but we love it for its intense, smoky-sweet flavor.

Connoisseurs swear by Obana in Minami-Senju, one of the oldest unagi shops in the city.

READ: Japan"s 31 most beautiful places

Ochazuke

Chicken soup for the Japanese soul.

Ochazuke is about as far from haute cuisine as you can get.

It"s a bowl of plain white rice and green tea mixed with dashi kelp broth, usually topped with salmon flakes, nori or umeboshi pickled plums: just the thing you crave when you"re feeling sick, hungover or down in the dumps.

This humble dish gets a stylish makeover atBar Zuzu, where ochazuke is made with healthy brown rice and toppings like soy-sauce-marinated tuna (690, or $6.90).

Matcha sundae

Not everyone has the daily luxury of enjoying a kaiseki dinner and a proper matcha tea ceremony.

Thank goodness, therefore, for matcha sundae.

A matcha sundae usually consists of layers of sweet azuki bean paste, chewy mochi rice balls and crunchy toasted rice, topped with some silky matcha ice cream.

Matcha in Uji, Kyoto, is so superior that the town"s name has become a synonym for matcha in Japan.

Famous tea shops in Uji including Tsujirihei Honten and Nakamura Tokichi now have outposts around Japan and the world.

Beef tongue

If there is one cut that triumphs others at a yakiniku session, it"s gyutan -- grilled thin slices of beef tongue.

In addition to a strong beef flavor, beef tongue, when grilled, is fragrant with buttery grease and has a slightly chewy texture.

Sendai is said to be the capital and birthplace of gyutan.

Inspired by a beef tongue stew cooked by a French chef, the then-apprentice chef Keishiro Sano decided to prepare it differently to suit Japanese tastes.

He later returned to Sendai and founded Aji Tasuke, a restaurant famous for its grilled beef tongue and oxtail soup.

READ: Welcome to Sendai, beef tongue capital of the world

North Korea Fast Facts

(CNN)Here"s some background information about the Democratic People"s Republic of Korea (DPRK), also called North Korea. It borders China, Russia and South Korea.

About North Korea:
(from the CIA World Factbook)
Area: 120,538 sq km, slightly smaller than Mississippi

Population: 24,983,205 (July 2015 est.)

Median age: 33.6 (2015 est.)

Capital: Pyongyang

Ethnic Groups: Racially homogenous, small ethnic Chinese and Japanese populations

Religion: Traditionally Buddhist and Confucianist, with some Christian and other sects

GDP (purchasing power parity): $40 billion (2014 est.)

GDP per capita: $1,800 (2014 est.)

Other Facts:
North Korea has no diplomatic representation in the United States. They do have a permanent mission to the United Nations.

The United States does not have any diplomatic representation in North Korea. The Swedish Embassy represents the United States as consular protecting power.

Timeline:
1910-1945 - Japan controls the Korean peninsula.

August 1945 - After Japan surrenders in World War II, the US occupies the southern half of the peninsula while the USSR occupies the northern half.

1945-1994 - Kim Il-Sung is the country"s first leader.

1948 - Separate governments for the northern and southern parts of the Korean peninsula are established after an international stalemate fails to resolve the issue.

June 25, 1950 - North Korea invades South Korea. Peace negotiations begin in 1951, but hostilities continue until 1953.

July 8, 1994 - Kim Jong Il becomes the leader of North Korea when Kim Il-Sung, his father, dies.

2000 - Kim Dae Jung, the leader of South Korea, and Kim Jong Il meet for the first time since the country was separated 50 years earlier.

January 10, 2003 - North Korea withdraws from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

April 23, 2003 - North Korea declares it has nuclear weapons.

December 11, 2007 - Freight trains begin crossing the border between North and South Korea, resuming a regular service that last ran in the 1950s.

March 3, 2008 - After the US and South Korea begin six days of joint military exercises, North Korea"s foreign minister denounces the exercises and warns that North Korea will explore all countermeasures necessary for its protection. Approximately 27,000 US troops and aircraft carrier USS Nimitz take part in the exercises.

December 28, 2008 - The freight trains that began crossing between the border of North and South Korea in December 2007 suspend service due to souring relations between the two countries, dashing hopes of reconciliation.

March 8, 2009 - The Supreme People"s Assembly holds elections, delayed since August 2008. Kim Jong Il is unanimously re-elected in his district, with a 100% voter turnout.

June 8, 2009 - The state-run media reports that US journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, accused of spying, have been sentenced to 12 years in a labor prison.

August 4, 2009 - Former President Bill Clinton sits down with Kim Jong Il to discuss the release of American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling. Both Lee and Ling are later given a full pardon from Kim Jong Il and released.

May 20, 2010 - South Korea formally accuses North Korea of firing a torpedo to sink the Cheonan, a South Korean Navy ship, in March, killing 46 sailors. North Korea denies responsibility and warns that any retaliation would lead to "all-out war."

May 24, 2010 - South Korean President Lee Myung-bak severs all trade ties and asks the UN Security Council to punish North Korea.

September 28-29, 2010 - North Korea"s ruling party, the Workers" Party of Korea, meets for the first time since 1980. Kim Jong Il is re-elected as general secretary of the party.

November 23, 2010 - North Korea launches artillery at Yeonpyeong Island in South Korea, killing two South Korean marines.

February 7-9, 2011 - Military officials from both North and South Korea meet at the DMZ to defuse tensions and restart international aid talks without much success.

April 29, 2011 - The US State Department refutes charges by former President Jimmy Carter that the US and South Korea are withholding food aid from North Korea for political motives. The US had suspended aid two years ago to North Korea, because it suspected the donated food was not reaching those most in need.

April 29, 2011 - The UN World Food Programme announces plans to begin emergency food distribution to 3.5 million North Koreans, primarily women and children, who are starving after a harsh winter destroyed crops.

December 17, 2011 - North Korean leader Kim Jong Il dies at the age of 69.

December 31, 2011 - Kim Jong Un, a son of Kim Jong Il, assumes command of the North Korean army.

April 13, 2012 - North Korea"s long-range rocket launch is a failure. Shortly after launch, it breaks apart and falls into the sea.

July 16, 2012 - Ri Yong Ho, the North Korea army chief, is relieved of all government posts, allegedly due to illness.

December 12, 2012 - North Korea successfully launches an Unha-3 long-range rocket from the Sohae Space Center in Cholsan County and puts a "working satellite" into orbit, days after Pyongyang suggested the launch could be delayed.

January 22, 2012 - The UN condemns the recent North Korean rocket launch and expands existing sanctions against North Korea with Resolution 2087.

January 24, 2013 - North Korea"s National Defense Commission says it will continue nuclear testing and long-range rocket launches, all of which are a part of an "upcoming all-out action" aimed at the US, "the sworn enemy of the Korean people."

March 5, 2013 - North Korea threatens to nullify the armistice agreement that ended the Korean War in 1953, citing US-led international moves to impose new sanctions against it over its recent nuclear test.

March 11, 2013 - A spokesman for the North Korean military announces the 1953 armistice is being "scrapped."

March 27, 2013 - North Korea cuts its military hotline with South Korea. Earlier in the month a Red Cross hotline through Panmunjom is cut.

May 18, 2013 - Launches short-range guided missiles off the Korean Peninsula away from South Korean waters.

December 13, 2013 - Kim Jong Un"s uncle, Jang Song Thaek, is executed. Jang had once been considered the second-most powerful person in the country. North Korea"s official news agency accuses Jang of trying to overthrow the state, describing him as "despicable human scum."

February 17, 2014 - The UN Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights publishes a report on widespread human rights abuses in North Korea.

March 9, 2014 - Elections are held. State media reports there is 100% voter turnout, and Kim Jong Un receives 100% of the vote.

December 19, 2014 - The FBI says it has concluded the North Korean government is responsible for a cyberattack on Sony Pictures. In November, hackers broke into Sony"s servers, published private emails and information and threatened to attack movie theaters screening "The Interview," a comedy film about an assassination plot on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

March 2, 2015 - Although the UN bans North Korea from testing missiles, North Korea launches two Scud-type ballistic missiles toward the sea between Korea and Japan.

March 11, 2015 - The Russian Foreign Ministry announces an agreement that 2015 will be a "Year of Friendship" between the two countries and that Kim Jong Un will visit Moscow.

March 26, 2015 - North Korea claims to arrest two South Korean men for "spying" and accuses them of collecting intelligence and military secrets from North Korea.

April 2015 - South Korean lawmaker Shin Kyung-min says that according to an assessment by South Korean intelligence agents, Kim Jong Un has ordered the execution of about 15 senior officials so far this year. Shin further says that four members of the Unhasu Orchestra were also executed in March.

May 12, 2015 - South Korean media reports that North Korea publicly executed Defense Chief Hyon Yong Chol by fire from an anti-aircraft gun. An official with the South Korean Intelligence Service later tells CNN that while the agency was sure Hyon had been "purged," it had not confirmed whether he had been executed.

August 21, 2015 - North Korea orders front-line military units to enter "a wartime state" after an exchange of fire with South Korea, according to the country"s state-run Korean Central News Agency. A day earlier, the two countries traded artillery fire over their heavily fortified border.

January 2, 2016 - Otto Frederick Warmbier, a University of Virginia college student, is detained in North Korea after being accused of a "hostile act" against the government there, according to North Korean state media.

January 5, 2016 - North Korea says it has successfully carried out a hydrogen bomb test.

January 11, 2016 - A man who identifies himself as Kim Dong Chul, a naturalized American, tells CNN in an exclusive interview that he is being held by North Korea on espionage charges. Kim says he was detained in October 2015. CNN can not verify Kim"s claim.

March 2, 2016 - The UN Security Council votes to impose a broad array of sanctions against North Korea because of its recent nuclear test and missile launch -- both of which defied current international sanctions. The resolution aims to cripple parts of the North Korean economy that fuel its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

Poll: Trump trails Clinton by two points

Washington (CNN)Hillary Clinton is clinging to just a two-point national lead over Donald Trump, according to a new poll, a far narrower margin than most other surveys show.

A Fox News survey published Wednesday shows Clinton winning 41% of the vote to Trump"s 39%, with third-party candidates Gary Johnson and Jill Stein earning 9% and 4% respectively.

That difference is not statistically significant, and it is a tighter spread than other recent national polls. Two other polls released this week -- by Monmouth and Quinnipiac Universities -- showed Clinton with 7-point leads.

In a two-way race without Johnson and Stein, Fox finds Clinton"s lead extends to six points, 48% to 42%. That is narrower than the 10-point lead that Fox said Clinton had following the Democratic National Convention.

Fox"s polls are included in those used by the Commission on Presidential Debates to determine whether either of the third-party candidates meet the 15% threshold needed to win a spot on the stage next month.

Despite Trump"s recent outreach to voters of color, Clinton holds commanding leads with African Americans and Hispanics, Fox finds. Clinton leads Trump with black voters by 68 points in the four-way ballot test, and by 19 points with Latino voters.

Fox surveyed 1,011 registered voters, and the poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

The people sharing their homes with refugees

(CNN)When hundreds of thousands of refugees began arriving in Berlin last summer, Manuela and Joerg Buisset abandoned plans to rent out their newly-renovated basement, and instead offered it to refugees in need of shelter.

Ahmed and Nourhan and their daughter Alin came to stay for 10 days, carrying all of their belongings in two small plastic bags. More than a year later, they and their new baby are now part of the Buisset family -- though it hasn"t all been easy.

"Ahmed was very insecure and shy, but we thought he was stubborn," recalls Manuela. "He wouldn"t make eye contact with us, which we thought was so impolite, but he thought it was rude to make eye contact ... He later told me he was just completely lost."

"We are so happy here," says Nourhan. Manuela went with Nourhan to all her medical appointments, and was at the hospital when baby Laith was born in July.

"At first I was scared," admits Manuela, "But we really, really like each other now."

Although they feel at home with the Buissets, the family longs to return to Al Quneitra in Syria -- when peace talks were held last November, they began packing their bags in the hope they could go back.

"I feel like I am living in heaven"

When Margarethe Kramer offered a spare room in her home to a refugee, she was expecting a headscarf-wearing woman with traditional views to move in.

"But I was really surprised when I met Souad," the kindergarten teacher says. "She is so independent, so open minded, [so] modern."

Souad Awad, 49, a refugee from Iraq, has been living with Kramer in the Austrian border town of Lavanttal for just a few weeks, but already the pair are firm friends.

"I feel like I am living in heaven now," Souad said. "Margarethe is amazing -- so sweet and her whole family is wonderful. I feel at home. I feel she"s like my sister."

Kramer, 59, says she is pleased to have someone to keep her company while her husband is away working for much of the week.

"The whole experience enriched my life, with friendship and companionship," she says.

Blue skies and police vans: China prepares to host its first G20 summit

(CNN)World leaders touch down in the Chinese city of Hangzhou this week for the G20 summit and Beijing is determined it will proceed without a hitch.

Factories are shuttered, skies are clear and security is tight. Local residents have been given seven days extra vacation time and discounted tours to destinations outside the city to ensure Hangzhou is free of crowds and traffic.

Meanwhile, thousands of migrant workers have left the city due to the halt in their work lives and the growing inconvenience caused by G20 preparation measures.

What will be discussed at the summit? How has China prepared? And why is it in Hangzhou anyway?

Here"s five things you need to know.

China takes the lead

The Hangzhou meeting will be the first G20 China has hosted, and only the second held in Asia since 2008.

The G20"s first high-profile meeting was in Washington D.C. in 2008, after the fall of Lehman Brothers bank and the start of the global financial crisis.

An alternative to the more exclusive G7, it was designed as a way to create conversation at the top levels of international government and try to ensure disasters, like the financial crisis, were avoided in the future.

The Hangzhou summit has been called another "milestone" for a rising China, keen to show its growing dominance on the world stage.

It"s an opportunity for President Xi Jinping to burnish his diplomatic credentials.

He"ll meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and it will likely be his last bilateral meeting with US President Barack Obama.

The elephant in the room?

It"s been less than three months since China lost to the Philippines in an international court case over its contested territorial claims in the South China Sea.

But at the G20 in Hangzhou, the host country will be working hard to keep it off the agenda.

Vice-Foreign Minister Li Baodong said it will be focusing on economic issues, according to government mouthpiece China Daily, rather than security.

In a separate editorial, the Global Times wrote the Hangzhou summit "shouldn"t be distracted by sea spat."

Trump announces surprise meeting with Mexican president

(CNN)Donald Trump announced Tuesday night that he will meet Wednesday with the President of Mexico just hours before he is set to deliver a speech focused on immigration policy.

"I have accepted the invitation of President Enrique Pena Nieto, of Mexico, and look very much forward to meeting him tomorrow," Trump tweeted as reports swirled that Trump was mulling a last-minute trip to Mexico.

The office of the Mexican President confirmed in a tweet late Tuesday night that Trump had accepted Pea Nieto"s invitation and that the two will meet privately on Wednesday.

"In the past days, the President @EPN invited both U.S. presidential candidates to a dialogue on the bilateral relations between Mexico and the United States. Mr. @realDonaldTrump has accepted the invitation and will meet tomorrow in private with the President @EPN."

A meeting between Trump and Pea Nieto would be extraordinary, given Trump"s continued pledges to build a wall on the border with Mexico and make Mexico pay for it. Trump has also stoked fierce criticism in Mexico and in the Hispanic community at large for his at-times inflammatory rhetoric in discussing illegal immigration.

The Washington Post first reported Trump was mulling a meeting with Pea Nieto before Trump confirmed it.

At a Tuesday night rally, Trump stuck to his tough-talking rhetoric.

"We are also going to secure our border and stop the drugs from pouring in and destroying our country. And I"ll be talking about that tomorrow night in Arizona, big speech on immigration," he said in Everett, Washington.

Will Trump wall create illegal immigration?

The visit follows months of warring words between Trump and Mexico"s leaders, including when Pea Nieto compared Trump to brutal dictators Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.

Trump in the early months of his campaign also leveled unfounded accusations that the Mexican government was intentionally sending its unwanted citizens across the border and into the United States

But both Trump and Nieto have publicly expressed a willingness in recent weeks to meet with one another.

"Mrs. Hillary Clinton and Mr. Donald Trump, I would like to express to both of them my greatest respect, my deepest respect. And from right now, I propose going into a frank, open dialogue with whomever is elected," Nieto said in July during a joint news conference with President Barack Obama at the White House.

Criminals and "rapists"

But if Trump and Pea Nieto were to meet, they would have their differences to discuss.

Trump launched his presidential campaign last summer in controversy by characterizing undocumented Mexican immigrants as criminals and "rapists" and accused the Mexican government of "sending people that have lots of problems" into the US.

"When Mexico sends its people, they"re not sending their best. They"re not sending you. They"re not sending you. They"re sending people that have lots of problems, and they"re bringing those problems with us. They"re bringing drugs. They"re bringing crime. They"re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people," he said.

The wall

And Pea Nieto has repeatedly asserted that his country will not pay for the border wall Trump plans to build on the border between their two countries.

In a wide-ranging July interview with CNN"s Fareed Zakaria, Pea Nieto shot down Donald Trump"s campaign promise that he"s going to build a wall and Mexico will foot the bill.

"We also have to bear in mind that the security of the United States is linked with the security of its neighboring countries," he said. "And this is what we have built. And I"ll say it again, this is what we have been doing with the US government. We have a relationship of coordination, of collaboration and of cooperation in the area of security, precisely in order to have security in Mexico, to have security in the US and ... we are journey companions. We are strategic partners working for security in North America."

"There is no way that Mexico can pay [for] a wall like that," he said.

In a March interview with a Mexican newspaper, Pea Nieto compared Trump"s "strident rhetoric" to Hitler and Mussolini"s.

"That"s how Mussolini got in, that"s how Hitler got in. They took advantage of a situation, a problem perhaps," the Mexican president said, according to an English translation by Reuters.

Pea Nieto explained those comments during a news conference in June.

"Hitler, Mussolini, we all know the result," he said, according to Reuters. "It was only a call for reflection and for recognition, so that we bear in mind what we have achieved and the great deal still to achieve."

"No way" Mexico will pay for wall, its president says

Pea Nieto added that the world is at times "presented with political actors and political leaders who assume populist and demagogic positions."

While Trump has wavered in the last week on whether he will seek to deport all the undocumented immigrants living in the US back to their countries, he has stuck by his pledge to build a wall on the border with Mexico and make the country pay for it.

Trump has previously said he would pay for the wall by leveraging Mexico"s economic gains through its trade with the US. He has also threatened to withhold remittance payments immigrants in the US send to relatives in Mexico and increasing fees for Mexican visa applicants.