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Hawaii pilot spots badly injured whale
A humpback whale with an apparently broken back has been spotted in waters near Hawaii, a newspaper reports.
Gerry Charlebois, who takes student pilot/tourists for coastal excursions in ultralight aircraft, spotted the injured whale from the air Monday in shallow water near Kauai.
"He wasn't moving his fluke and was just staying near the surface and sort of limping down the coast," he said. "It's kind of sad to see a full adult whale in that condition. ... It's definitely something he's not recovering from."
"This is one of the most disturbing sights I've ever experienced while photographing whales," Charlebois, the owner of Birds in Paradise Flight School, told The Garden Island Newspaper. "It was freaky. The whale was bent in half. Obviously some kind of blunt force trauma on the side. The poor guy was in trouble."
A large boat or ship must have struck the whale, which hasn't been seen since Monday, he said. Humpbacks normally are pretty agile, so this one may have been old or sick an unable to move out of a ship's way, he said.
Birds in Paradise manager Kirk Johnson said Charlebois and others on the flight first thought they'd seen an albino whale, but when they came around to take another look, they could see that it was discolored instead.
Ed Lyman of the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary on Maui told the paper the whale appeared to be in poor health - emaciated, shedding skin and surrounded by parasites - and there is no established method for euthanizing a large whale.
These big whales tend to die slowly, Charlebois said. When they do, they sink to the bottom until decomposition gases make them float to the surface, where they attract large numbers of hungry sharks, he said.
"It's amazing to see these 15-foot sharks all feeding on a whale," Charlebois said. "You don't want to be snorkeling around there. You don't want to be in that neighborhood."
Charlebois said he and his three other pilots would look for signs of the injured whale again today.
About 2,000 humpback whales live in the waters off Alaska, and many of them migrate to Hawaii's warm waters between November and May, according to Earthtrust.org. Whale watching is a major part of Hawaii's tourism industry. Adult humpbacks range in size from 35 to 48 feet, and weigh about 1 ton per foot.
Wednesday's intriguing people
Abu Bakar Bashir
More than 1,200 police will be at the ready as radical Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir goes on trial on terrorism charges Thursday in Jakarta, according to reports from Indonesia.
Hundreds of the cleric's supporters were expected to rally outside the court Thursday, but only a few will be allowed inside the courtroom, the Jakarta Post reported.
Bashir, 72, faces charges including funding and inciting others to terrorism and planning and attempting acts of terrorism. Under Indonesia's anti-terrorism law, some of these charges carry the maximum penalty of death, according to a statement by the attorney general's office.
The charges stem from the discovery in February 2010 of a camp in Indonesia's Aceh province that was allegedly training agents for terrorist attacks on Western targets in Jakarta.
Bashir has been through two previous terrorism trials, over the 2002 bombings in Bali that killed more than 200 people and the 2003 JW Marriott bomb attack in Jakarta that left a dozen dead.
The courts found him guilty of relatively minor charges in the Bali case. He was released in June 2006 after serving 25 months in jail.
Unrest in Egypt: President Mubarak dissolves Cabinet after night of protests
Read full coverage of the unrest in Egypt updated continually by CNN reporters worldwide.
Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Egypt's major cities on Friday, prompting the government to deploy the army to keep the peace for the first time since unrest began Tuesday. Protesters are demanding an end to President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year-rule. Here are the latest developments as confirmed by CNN.
[Updated 7:40 p.m. (0240 in Egypt)] A senior U.S. State Department official said Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak "was not particularly forthcoming" in his speech early Saturday. "Our initial impression is that he emphasized security far more than reform," said the official, who wasn't authorized to speak on the record.
A senior Muslim Brotherhood leader echoed those sentiments in an interview with Al Jazeera Arabic, saying that Mubarak has to step down and the military should intervene, according to Al Jazeera.
[Updated 6:40 p.m. (0140 in Egypt)] U.S. President Barack Obama called on Egyptian authorities Friday to refrain from violence and to reverse any actions they have taken to limit access to the internet in the wake of protests there.
Obama said he spoke to the Egyptian president after he announced plans to dissolve his government and take steps with a new cabinet to implement reforms that will revitalize the economy and create more jobs.
"I told him he has a responsibility to give meaning to those words, to take concrete steps and actions that deliver on that promise."
[Updated 6:15 p.m. (0115 in Egypt)] President Mubarak's announcement that he was going to dissolve the government Saturday did not sit well with some protesters.
"Mubarak just blamed the government. We will continue our demonstrations until we get our full demands. We want him to leave. His time is over," said Ahmed, a 19-year-old law student demonstrator in Central Alexandria's Raml Square.
"We are one of the richest Arab countries and we want to live. Let a new government form but if we don't get what we ask for, we will go back to the streets again and again," said Mohammed, a 20- year-old student.
[Updated 5:45 p.m. (0045 in Egypt)] Protesters in the streets of Cairo are calling for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to leave, chanting in unison "we don't want him." The people in the streets represent all walks of life, from young people to families with children, CNN's Frederik Pleitgen reports.
[Updated 5:31 p.m. (0031 in Egypt)] Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak says he has asked the government to resign so he can appoint a new government Saturday. He gave no indication that he would step down or leave the country.
[Updated 5:27 p.m. (0027 in Egypt)] President Hosni Mubarak said he is "on the side of the people" and vowed to take steps to guarantee the rights and freedom of Egyptians, develop job opportunities and to "stand by the poor."
He said early Saturday he sees a fine line "between freedom and chaos" and that he would work to secure both freedom and security in Egypt.
I assure you that I'm working for the people and giving freedoms of opinion as long as you are respecting the law, there is a very little line between freedom and chaos," he said.
"I am absolutely on the side of the freedom of each citizen and at the same time I am on the side of the security of Egypt, and I would not let anything dangerous happen that would threaten the peace and the law and the future of the country."
Wednesday's intriguing people
Alex Lambert
The "American Idol" Season 9 semifinalist created a buzz Tuesday with a rant on Twitter that seemed to say he was homeless:
"O my goodness yall! I have been crashin behind buidings and sleepin outside but I dont want nobody to feel sorry for me! I'm a grown (expletive) man"
Naturally, people understood that to mean the 20-year-old singer from Texas was living full-time on the streets.
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