Thailand urges vigilance as flooding woes continue

Thailand urges vigilance as flooding woes continue

Bangkok, Thailand (CNN) -- Thai officials warned residents in the capital to be vigilant and expect disruptions with electricity and tap water as the Asian nation battles its worst flooding in decades.

Central Bangkok avoided major flooding, but districts around it were covered in waist-deep water.

The danger was particularly pronounced at high tides. Several districts in Bangkok -- which barely sits above flood level -- are facing serious flooding, including one tied to a break in a flood barrier at Klong Mahasawat, according to the MCOT news agency.

The Thai government has set up more than 1,700 shelters nationwide, and more than 113,000 people have sought refuge in them, including 10,000 in Bangkok, according to Gov. Sukhumbhand Paribatra.

Government authorities are preparing to evacuate more people all across the municipality.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said Saturday that flood waters would likely reduce by the first week of November if relevant agencies control the drainage.

Government officials have made preparations to rehabilitate public, agricultural and industrial sectors, the news agency reported.

The prime minister urged stores not to stockpile consumer goods -- hoping this will address panic buying that residents said has led to a shortage of food and bottled water.

Thais have questioned whether resources may be dwindling, including whether electricity and tap water will be available to residents.

The Metropolitan Waterworks Authority announced that it reduced the amount of tap water processed for residents from 900,000 to 400,000 cubic meters per day.

The reason is high algae counts at one plant that are affecting the filtering process, the utility said in a statement.

But the prime minister assured residents Saturday tap water and electricity would be available, but with disruptions.

She said they are speeding up the process of draining water into Bangkok's canals and into the sea, expressing confidence that the situation would improve by Monday as long as there are no breaks in flood barriers.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Public Health transferred 280 of the capital's 520 patients in severe condition to 22 hospitals upcountry, the news agency reported. Remaining patients will be taken to hospitals in other provinces, it said.

The floods, caused by monsoon rains that saturated rivers, have killed at least 373 people nationwide and affected more than 9.5 million people.

The government has called the flooding the worst in the nation in half a century and said it might take more than a month before the waters recede.

Overall damage from the floods could exceed $6 billion, the Thai Finance Ministry has said.

Fall Storm: October Nor'easter Blamed for at Least Three Deaths

Fall Storm: October Nor'easter Blamed for at Least Three Deaths

People walk through the snow in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan on October 29, 2011 in New York City. 

A strong storm system moving up the East Coast has already dumped more than two feet of snow in some parts of New England today, leaving more than 2 million homes and businesses without power and causing at least three deaths.

The storm dumped record amounts of snow from New Jersey through New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. The governors of New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts all declared states of emergency.

An 84-year-old man in Pennsylvania died this afternoon when a tree weighed down by snow fell on his home.

In Colchester, Conn., one person died in a traffic accident blamed on the snow, Gov. Dannel Malloy said.

A 20-year-old man in Springfield, Mass., was electrocuted by a downed power line he stepped on after getting out of his car.

Parts of the Berkshires in western Massachusetts had more than two feet of snow by this evening, with total accumulation expected to pile up more than 30 inches.

Newark-Liberty Airport had 3.8 inches by this evening, surpassing the previous high total for an October day of 0.3 inches on Oct. 20, 1952.

While coastal areas were soaked with frigid mixes of rain and snow, inland areas snow pile up as though it were midwinter.

By early evening, West Milford, N.J., saw 15.5 inches; Bristol, Conn., had 11 inches; and Plainfield, Mass., had 14.3 inches.

Parts of West Virginia also reported as much as three or four inches of snow accumulation.

"Kind of unbelievable that we've already gotten snow this year," Berkley, W.Va. resident Tyler Easterday said.

A state of emergency was declared in New Jersey, where Gov. Chris Christie said the heavy snow left approximately 600,000 homes and businesses without power.

"We expect the number is going to continue to go up before it goes back down," Christie said. "The problem is that there are trees just down everywhere because of the snow, the wet, heavy snow."

Approximately 125,000 customers were without power in Pennsylvania this evening, according to First Energy spokesman Scott Surgeoner said.

"We have about six to eight inches where I live right now and it's the first time I can remember an October snow storm," he said. "Normally when you do get into winter, the leaves have left the trees or they're shed by the trees, that's not the case this time and that's what's causing most of our problems, if not all our problems."

There were more than 265,000 customers without power in New York State, more than 530,00 without power in Connecticut, more than 367,000 in the dark in Pennsylvania, more than 226,000 in Massachusetts and 61,000 in New Hampshire.

In Brookline, Mass., the inclement weather was too much for some high school students in a soccer game. Police Sgt. Bobby Murphy said five of the players were taken to a hospital, suffering from hypothermia.

The rare October Nor'easter hit at least 10 states from North Carolina to Maine.

Flights Delays and Power Out

The winter-like weather created delays for air transportation throughout the northeast.

Newark International Airport in New Jersey reported an average of six-hour delays late today and Philadelphia International Airport travelers could expect delays of up to three hours.

ABC News' Max Golembo, ABC News Radio and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Relief as 'Dirty War' officers jailed in Argentina

Relief as 'Dirty War' officers jailed in Argentina

Marianela Galli, 35, holds photographs of family members who were tortured and killed during Argentina's "Dirty War."

Buenos Aires, Argentina (CNN) -- Marianela Galli waited 34 years for the men who killed her family to be punished. On Wednesday night, inside a packed courtroom in downtown Buenos Aires, she learned their fates.

"We have justice and these people are going to jail and I can finally walk in the streets without them," she said.

Sixteen former Argentine military officers received sentences ranging from 18 years to life in prison for their roles in human rights abuses committed during Argentina's 1976 to 1983 dictatorship. The bloody era, when the military used kidnapping, torture and murder to silence dissidents, became known as the "Dirty War." The seven-year junta claimed an estimated 30,000 lives.

Marianela's parents and grandmother were among the victims.

On June 12, 1977, 16-month-old Marianela, her mother, Patricia, her father, Mario, and her grandmother, Violeta, were kidnapped from their home in Buenos Aires. They were taken to the Argentine Naval Mechanics School, known as ESMA, the largest and most notorious of dozens of detention centers operated by the Argentine military at that time.

After three days in captivity, the military released Marianela and gave her to her father's family. Her parents and grandmother remained inside the ESMA, where they endured two months of torture before being drugged and then thrown alive from an airplane into the chilly waters of the South Atlantic.

Thousands perished in the weekly Wednesday "death flights," and most of their bodies were never recovered.

"I don't have my parents with me. I don't have my grandmother with me. They changed my life against my will and there is nothing I can do about it," she said.

Marianela Galli´s story is remarkable, but it is not unique. Five-thousand people passed through the white-washed walls of the ESMA. Most were never seen again.

The conclusion of the two-year ESMA trial on Wednesday night provided a sense of closure for victims' family members and friends, thousands of whom braved chilly spring temperatures outside the courthouse to watch a judge read the sentences on a big-screen television.

"This trial took many years to happen, but thankfully our former president, Nestor Kirchner, embraced the human rights cause. That is why we are here today," said Tati Almeida, a member of the human rights groups Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, whose son, Alejandro, was "disappeared" by the military.

The silent marches staged by victims' mothers and grandmothers first brought the world's attention to the atrocities taking place in Argentina in the late 1970s. They have continued their efforts to seek justice for the victims ever since.

"This is a very emotional moment for me. It will take me several days to process it. Because from the first accounts I gave years ago up until now, repeatedly testifying and testifying, we now finally have the first sentences," said Munu Actis, a survivor of the ESMA detention center.

As Judge Daniel Obligado read out the sentences, the loudest jeers were reserved for Alfredo Astiz, a former Navy captain whose boyish looks and deceitful ways earned him the nickname the "Blonde Angel of Death."

Astiz worked as a Navy spy, gaining the trust of human rights activists and then choosing which ones to target for disappearance. Astiz has been unrepentant for his actions, saying he was simply following orders.

"This is not justice, this is a lynching," he said shortly before his sentencing.

Astiz received a life sentence for his role in the deaths of renowned Argentine writer and journalist Rodolfo Walsh, French nuns Alice Domon and Leonie Duquet, and Azucena Villaflor, one of the founders of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo.

Mario Galli, Marianela's father, had come up in the naval ranks together with Astiz before deciding to leave the military because of their increasingly violent tactics. It was a decision that ultimately cost him his life.

A French court sentenced Astiz to life in prison in 1990 for the kidnapping and killing of two French nuns. But he remained free for more than a decade. For many years, an amnesty law in Argentina giving former military officials immunity from prosecution over human rights abuses protected him.

Marianela recalls seeing him one night in 1998 when she was working as a waitress at a Buenos Aires restaurant. Astiz walked in at 1 a.m. and ordered a coffee.

"I felt absolutely helpless when I saw him. I couldn't believe that this man who had helped kill my parents was allowed to be free," she said.

The ESMA trial was just one of many taking place in Argentina. Amnesty laws protecting former military officers were stripped in 2005 under the leadership of the late president Nestor Kirchner.

His wife and successor, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, has also been a vocal proponent of putting former officers on trial. This human rights initiative has helped bolster support for Fernandez, who was re-elected to a four-year term on October 23rd with 54 percent of the vote.

"The Kirchners are the ones who have made these trials happen, and I am eternally grateful to them for it," Jorge Morresi said after the sentencing on Wednesday. His cousin was "disappeared" in 1977.

The sentencing of the officers took more than one hour to read. When it was finished, thousands outside the courthouse hugged, cried, danced and sang.

As she embraced her aunt, Monica, who raised her following her parents' death, Marianela Galli reflected on the historic day that she had long hoped would arrive.

"This is a different kind of sensation. I am sad, and very happy because justice is coming, finally," she said.

Amanda Knox: How the four-year court saga unfolded

Amanda Knox: How the four-year court saga unfolded

Washington, with Amanda Knox's name on it.

Her parents bought it in the hope that Knox would be home for Christmas.

They bought it as a leap of faith, hoping she would be legally vindicated of the allegation that she killed her roommate Meredith Kercher.

They were tired of seeing their daughter's name plastered across newspapers around the world with the word murderer alongside it.

But the ticket was never used. In December 2009, that ticket got shredded along with some of the hope her family was clinging to as she was hauled away as a convicted murderer from an Italian court.

Now, as closing arguments in Amanda Knox's appeal come to an end, one thing remains the same for the Knox parents: A plane ticket home. They just hope they'll be able to use it this time.

A fight to clear Amanda Knox's name

In 2009, Curt Knox and Edda Mellas (they divorced in 1989) boarded a plane to Italy for the verdict in their daughter's murder trial. Hope pumped through their veins: a hope that an Italian court would see that their daughter was not a murderer.

They were fighting a legal battle in which the odds were stacked unfairly against their daughter, according to many in Knox's camp.

They were also fighting to preserve their daughter's image by countering what they felt was an unfair media caricature of their daughter as "Foxy Knoxy." The nickname, her parents said, was given to her in school because of her soccer skills, but during the murder trial it became a nickname to portray her as a careless, sex-crazed party girl. Her family told the story of an entirely different Amanda Knox: one who was "nonviolent" and "almost a passive person."

Prosecutors alleged at trial that on the night of November 1, 2007, at a small house in the college town of Perugia, Knox directed her then-boyfriend Rafaelle Sollecito and a third defendant Rudy Guede, to hold Kercher down as Knox played with a knife before slashing Kercher's throat. They said the trio left her in a pool of blood and covered her with her own blanket.

Knox's parents, like her defense attorneys, said their daughter was not involved in the murder and that evidence presented at trial was thin and clouded by shoddy police work.

But at the trial, those arguments fell on deaf ears. Knox was convicted along with Sollecito in the murder of Kercher and sentenced to 26 and 25 years respectively.

Guede was convicted in a separate fast-track trial and is serving 16 years in prison.

Now, two years after Knox's conviction, Knox's parents are fighting a similar battle during her appeal.

Finding 'the truth' of what happened in Perugia

Inside the same Italian courtroom where Knox and Sollecito were convicted and sentenced, they now fight to try and prove the court got it all wrong.

The dispute over forensic evidence has prompted many Knox supporters to question how the Italian court arrived at a conviction.

"From what we have heard (about) first trials here in Italy, a lot of it is related to emotion," Curt Knox told CNN earlier this month.

And he, like many in the Knox camp, wonders why more wasn't done to clarify facts about the evidence at trial in order to avoid his daughter being convicted and imprisoned for two years and 24 more to go.

"When you look at the actual forensic evidence (from the murder trial) -- when you take a look at what the police were saying, which is literally 180 degrees different than what the defense was saying about the forensic evidence, and not have an independent review during the first trial, you can see how the result came out as is," he said.

Disputed evidence at the heart of appeal

Attorneys for Knox and Sollecito, are appealing their convictions together since they were tried and convicted together.

Timeline of the Knox case

An independent forensic investigation they fought for at trial could help overturn the convictions in the appeal, the attorneys said. During the murder trial, defense attorneys challenged key DNA evidence found on the alleged murder weapon, a knife, and on Kercher's bra clasp, arguing it had been contaminated after being left for weeks at the crime scene.. They asked for an independent examination of the evidence, but it was denied.

During the appeals process the independent examination was allowed and has become the central issue of the appeal.

At trial in 2009 prosecutors said there were traces of Knox's genetic material on the knife handle and traces of Kercher's in a tiny groove on the blade. That DNA was used to tie Knox to the crime scene during the murder trial, though defense attorneys argued there was barely enough DNA to get an accurate reading.

During the appeal, one of the independent forensic experts who studied the original evidence told the court that the DNA alleged to be Kercher's that was on the knife could not have been from blood. That key statement has led to a defense argument that there is now truly no official evidence that links Knox to the scene.

The next battle in the appeal was to dismiss evidence that prosecutors said ties Sollecito to the murder scene.

At trial, the prosecution said a bra clasp found on the bloodied crime scene floor had Sollecito's DNA on it and proved he was in Kercher's room when the murder occurred. Defense attorneys argued the bra clasp had been left on the floor for nearly six weeks before it was collected and was likely contaminated.

In the appeal, two independent forensic experts argued Sollecito DNA allegedly found on the bra clasp should be "inadmissible" because the clasp had not been properly handled. Prosecutors dismissed the theory again during the appeal, specifying it had been moved but not turned over or stepped on at the scene. They said documents showed that proper checks were carried out before and after their DNA tests to verify the quality of the work. But the appeals judge couldn't find the documents in court records and ruled they would not be admissible.

The appeals judge denied prosecution efforts to introduce newly found records about the original testing and to hear a new witness -- all victories for Knox's defense, which opposed the motions.

Curt Knox said he feels there is "no case left" against his daughter. And that's something he said his daughter is clinging to.

Will Knox return to prison -- or back home to Seattle?

The DNA evidence is the primary subject of closing arguments on both sides of the appeal.

Prosecutor Manuela Comodi refuted the testimony from independent forensics experts that cast doubt on the reliability of the evidence, insisting police forensic officers had handled the DNA material properly. She cast doubt on one of the expert who was a professor, rather than a professional in the field and said police had better experience when it came to processing the crime scene than an independent expert.

The review had been "embarrassing, inappropriate, and presented in a hostile way" and was not based on science, she said.

Before asking the jurors to uphold the conviction she told them that the original court had concluded "beyond any reasonable doubt" that blood from both Knox and Kercher found in the bathroom sink had been left there when Knox washed herself after the killing.

Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini, who investigated the original murder and defended the prosecution's case in the appeal, urged the jurors to make their decision on the basis of what they had heard in court, not in the overwhelming media coverage.

But Knox and Sollecito's defense teams are arguing the whole trial was based on DNA evidence "on which mistakes were made," and urged the jury to "abandon imagined fantasies" and acquit the pair.

Sollecito's defense lawyer Giulia Bongiorno also said during closing arguments to remember that the true evidence points to who they believe is the sole killer: Rudy Guede. Guede, who was convicted earlier of the crime, has admitted being in the villa where Kercher was killed, but has said an unknown assailant killed her while he was out of the room during his trial. He later implicated Knox and Sollecito. During his trial prosecutors introduced evidence that showed Guede's handprint in Kercher's blood was found in the room along with his DNA inside her body as well as on her clothing and on her purse.

"The room speaks only of Rudy," Bongiorno said during closing arguments.

Bongiorno also attacked the media portrayal of Knox as a "femme fatale," which he said swayed the outcome of the trial.

Knox's lawyer, Carlo Dalla Vedova, said the court had already seen "there is not trace of Amanda Knox in the room where murder took place."

He told the jury based on the evidence "that the only possible decision to take is that of absolving Amanda Knox."

Speculation is rampant as to whether defense attorneys have cast doubt on the evidence that sent Sollecito and Knox to prison for murder.

Even the prosecutor's office told CNN that its attorneys are less certain of the outcome this time. The prosecution is still confident that the verdict will be upheld, but is aware that it could go either way, the office said.

Curt Knox is more hopeful.

"It really appears to me that they want to find the truth," he said during the appeal. "I'm very hopeful that by the end of the month, we'll be able to bring Amanda and Rafaelle home."