Commander: Al-Qaida in Iraq is at its weakest

By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer

1 hour, 10 minutes ago

MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. - The al-Qaida terror group in Iraq appears to be at its weakest state since it gained an initial foothold in the aftermath of the U.S.-led invasion five years ago, the acting commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East said Wednesday in an Associated Press interview

Army Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, who assumed interim command of U.S. Central Command on March 28, acknowledged that al-Qaida remains a relentless foe and has not disappeared as a serious threat to stability. But he said an accelerated U.S. and Iraq campaign to pressure al-Qaida has paid big dividends.

"Our forces and the Iraqi forces have certainly disrupted al-Qaida, probably to a level that we haven't seen at any time in my experience," said Dempsey, who served in Iraq in the initial stages as a division commander and later as head of the military organization in charge of training Iraqi security forces.

"They can regenerate, and do from time to time," he added in the interview in his office at Central Command headquarters.

Dempsey was in Iraq last week on a journey that also took him to Lebanon, where he consulted with the government and military commanders on their approach to dealing with Iranian-backed Hezbollah fighters.

In separate remarks at a military conference just a few miles from Dempsey's headquarters in Tampa, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the Islamic extremist movements like al-Qaida have been "built on an illusion of success" yet in some ways pose a more daunting challenge today than on Sept. 11, 2001.

Gates described these extremist groups as more diffuse and less reliant on a single figure like Osama bin Laden.

"It has become an independent force of its own, capable of animating a corps of devoted followers without direct contact," Gates told an international conference sponsored by U.S. Special Operations Command. He said this adversary is now "capable of inspiring violence without direct orders."

Dempsey, who was the Central Command deputy until Adm. William Fallon abruptly resigned amid reports that his views on Iran differed with those of the White House, is expected to remain as the acting commander until Gen. David Petraeus shifts from his post as top commander in Iraq, probably in September. Petraeus's Senate confirmation hearing is scheduled for Thursday.

Earlier Wednesday, the Army general who oversees U.S. commando operations in the Middle East said that al-Qaida in Iraq has yet to be vanquished but is increasingly running out of places where local Iraqis will accommodate the group's extremist ideology.

"Is he still a lethal and dangerous threat to us? Absolutely," Maj. Gen. John Mulholland said in an interview with reporters at the headquarters of U.S. Special Operations Command, the organization with global responsibility for providing Army Green Berets, Navy SEALs and other commandos to combat terrorism.

Of the approximately 155,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, about 5,000 are special operations forces, who not only hunt and attack terrorist targets but also help train Iraqi security forces and work with local Iraqi governments.

Mulholland acknowledged that al-Qaida, which U.S. intelligence says is led by foreign terrorists but is populated mainly by local Iraqis seeking to establish a radical Islamic state, still poses a major challenge in the Mosul area of northern Iraq and has occasionally slipped back into areas like Anbar province in western Iraq.

"Do we think he can at least try to regain a foothold in Anbar province? Yes, we do think he's trying to do that," Mulholland said.

While U.S. officials do not believe al-Qaida is succeeding in re-establishing a significant presence in Anbar — which the group was forced to abandon a year ago as local Sunni Arabs turned violently against it — it does appear that small al-Qaida cells can still slip into isolated areas and make trouble, he said.

"I don't want to paint a picture — or to convey to you in any way — that al-Qaida in Iraq is being completely destroyed or rendered irrelevant, because that's not the case," he said. "They are still potentially a threat capable of death and destruction against the Iraqi people and our own forces there. But it is not something he can do easily any more."

Separately, Adm. Eric Olson, the commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, told a group of reporters that "the nature of the threat" posed by Iran's support for anti-U.S. forces in Iraq is unclear.

He made the remark in response to a question about the ability of U.S. special operations forces to meet the Iranian challenge.

"It's clear that there is some lethal aid originating from across the Iranian border," Olson said. "We can't say what the origin or the source of that is. So we are uncertain about our overall ability because we are uncertain of the nature of the threat. But I would say in general that special operations forces are well prepared and well equipped to meet the nation's expectations in that regard."

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By BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Writer Wed May 21, 4:46 PM ET

By BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Writer

Wed May 21, 4:46 PM ET

NEW YORK - Two weeks before the final primary in their marathon battle, Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton were campaigning hard Wednesday. Both were in Florida, but their goals could hardly have been more different — or said more about how each one hopes to bring their historic race to a close.

Obama, feeling sure of the Democratic nomination, was trying to stake an early claim to a state that could be crucial in the general election against Republican John McCain. Clinton, insisting she can still be her party's nominee, was making an impassioned plea for the state's disputed primary results to be counted.

Obama plans to contest the final three primaries in Puerto Rico, South Dakota and Montana, but he is already moving on, well into the early stages of a general election plan that will take him to other critical swing states in the coming weeks.

His campaign was offering some new delegate math — before the last votes were cast.

Because of how the party allocates its delegates, Obama almost certainly cannot win the nomination based on the 86 pledged delegates yet to be claimed in the final three contests. But his advisers project that he needs just 25 to 28 more superdelegates to come aboard by the end of the primaries to put him over the top.

The campaign's estimate were confirmed through a separate tabulation by The Associated Press.

As for Clinton, aides said she has two immediate goals: to see the results of the Florida and Michigan primaries restored, and to persuade the remaining uncommitted superdelegates that she would be the better candidate in November against McCain.

While she has signaled that the race will soon end after the final primaries June 3, Clinton is also counting on a meeting of the Democratic Party's rules committee May 31 to bring an end to the dispute over Michigan and Florida, whose delegates were striped after they violated party rules by moving up their contests.

If the committee does not satisfactorily resolve the matter, the New York senator hinted Wednesday she would support a drawn-out battle that could go to the party's convention in August.

"Yes I will. I will, because I feel very strongly about this," Clinton said in an interview with The Associated Press when asked whether her campaign would support Michigan and Florida if they pressed the issue into the summer.

Still, all signs overwhelmingly indicate that Obama will emerge as the Democratic standard-bearer.

A handful of superdelegate endorsements Wednesday on top of primary results in Kentucky and Oregon have brought him within striking distance of claiming the nomination — the Illinois senator is 64 delegates from the 2,026 needed under Democratic Party rules as well as close to becoming the first black nominee of a major party.

In the past, primary results have touched off a wave of superdelegates. It was just a few Wednesday. Privately, Obama strategists said they believed a number were still inclined to wait until after the primaries are over out of respect for the Clintons, who remain major figures within the party.

Joe Andrew, a former DNC chairman and superdelegate who switched allegiance from Clinton to Obama, said that while Obama reaching the majority of pledged delegates was a symbolic moment, "delegates aren't just looking for moments. They are looking for reasons to make a decision that many of them know that is probably inevitable."

He added that until the race ends, "I think they will portray themselves as genuinely torn. I don't mean to say they are play acting. I think most of them in their gut have made their decision. I think they are torn about how to explain that decision and when they should announce."

With Obama's near-certain victory in sight, both sides are now urging unity with the hope of putting the often rancorous primary season behind them.

While little formal outreach has gone on between the two camps — Obama's out of caution for appearing disrespectful, Clinton's because she is still campaigning — advisers on both sides said they will be ready to talk when the time comes.

"I don't know anyone in either the Hillary Clinton or the Obama worlds who has not publicly said and privately believed that we will all come together for the sake of the Democratic nominee," Clinton national finance co-chairman Hassan Nemazee said.

But, he added, "There's a dance that goes on in this. The Obama people in recent weeks have become far more careful in what they say and do in a way that is not overly presumptive."

Several major fundraisers for both campaigns have already joined forces to raise money for the Democratic National Committee that will go toward promoting the eventual nominee. An event in New York honoring former Vice President Al Gore will take place May 31 co-chaired by prominent Obama and Clinton backers, with all proceeds going to the DNC.

At least one committed Clinton hand — her former campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle — has spoken to the Obama campaign about coming aboard after he secures the nomination. But most of her staff and close advisers remain deeply loyal to the New York senator and say they plan to stay with her as long as she is in the race.

As is traditional for the presidential nominee of each party, Obama has already moved to put his own staff in place at the Democratic National Committee. His advisers said Paul Tewes, who planned and ran Obama's victorious Iowa caucus strategy, is Obama's choice to take the reins at the committee once the Illinois senator wins the nomination.

He's also brought aboard a couple of notable staff hires, including Linda Douglass, a former ABC news correspondent who will serve as a message strategist and spokeswoman. Her appointment was seen as a smart move for a campaign with few women in visible roles.

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China declares 3 days' mourning for quake victims

By AUDRA ANG, Associated Press Writer

1 hour, 3 minutes ago

BEICHUAN, China - China declared three days of national mourning for earthquake victims and ordered a suspension of the Olympic torch relay, as the search for survivors of the disaster grew bleak Sunday.

A

The State Council said the mourning period would start Monday and include three minutes of silence observed nationwide at 2:28 p.m., the time the quake struck.

Beijing Olympic organizers said in a statement that the torch relay would be suspended "to express our deep mourning to the victims of the earthquake."

The relay already had resumed last week after the quake on a more somber note, with runners starting with a minute of silence and asking for donations along the route. Organizers have said the relay would go on as planned in quake-hit Sichuan province next month.

In the disaster zone, efforts appeared to shift Sunday from searching for buried survivors to clearing corpses from shattered buildings as the government said the confirmed death toll rose to 32,476.

Another 220,109 people suffered injuries, according to a statement from the State Council, China's Cabinet. The government has said it expects the final death toll will surpass 50,000.

Near the quake's epicenter, few hopeful relatives were seen in Beichuan, where several dozen corpses in blue body bags lay in a street. Soldiers regularly pulled more dead from the wreckage.

"It will soon be too late" to find trapped survivors, said Koji Fujiya, deputy leader of a Japanese rescue team that pulled 10 bodies from a flattened school Sunday. "We hope with our hard work we will find more people alive."

A "slightly bruised" man was pulled out alive from a collapsed hospital Sunday after being trapped for 139 hours, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Experts say buried earthquake survivors can live a week or more, depending on factors including the temperature and whether they have water to drink.

A Malaysian rescue team in the town of Muyu, further north, sifted slowly and methodically through the wreckage. However, they were not tapping on the debris in hopes that survivors would hear and respond as other crews had done earlier — instead using giant cutters to split steel girders.

Dozens of students were buried in new graves dotting a green hillside overlooking the rubble, the small mounds of dirt failing to block the pungent smell of decay wafting from the ground. Most graves were unmarked, though several had wooden markers with names scribbled on them.

Zhou Bencen, 36, said he raced to the town's middle school after the earthquake, where relatives who arrived earlier had dug out the body of his 13-year-old daughter, Zhou Xiao, crushed on the first floor.

Zhou cradled his wife in his arms, holding her hand and stroking her back while she sobbed hysterically. "Oh God, oh God, why is life so bitter?" Liao Jinju wailed, over and over. The couple's 9-year-old son survived.

Chinese President Hu Jintao has urged rescue teams to reach remote villages battered by the earthquake where the level of damage remained unknown, according to Xinhua.

That was reinforced by a group of about 15 people who surrounded an Associated Press reporter at a gasoline station in Mianyang city Sunday, appealing for help for their village, Xiushui.

"The government is doing nothing to help us," said one man, who identified himself only by his surname, Chen. "If I gave you my complete name the government would track me down."

Chen did not say how many people lived there. He handed over a note signed "by the people of Xiushui," reading: "Please go to our village of Xiushui to cover the situation. The government is doing nothing to help us get water or housing."

More international aid was arriving, with two U.S. Air Force cargo planes loaded with tents, lanterns and 15,000 meals landing Sunday in the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu.

The World Health Organization said conditions for homeless survivors were ripe for outbreaks of disease and called for quick action to supply clean water and proper hygiene facilities. Chinese health officials have not reported any disaster-related outbreaks so far.

Also in the quake area, three giant pandas were missing from the world's most famous reserve for the endangered animals.

All the pandas at the Wolong Nature Reserve were first reported safe Tuesday, but an official with the State Forestry Administration now says three are missing, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported Sunday.

Panda houses at the reserve were severely damaged and five staff members there were killed, forestry spokesman Cao Qingyao told Xinhua.

The 60 other giant pandas at the Wolong Nature Reserve were safe, according to the agency. The reserve is 18 miles from the epicenter of the earthquake.

Phone calls to the state forestry administration and to the forestry bureau in Sichuan province rang unanswered Sunday night. Fixed phone lines to the reserve remained down. Officials have been able to call the reserve only by satellite phone.

Meanwhile, flood threats from rivers blocked by landslides from the quake appeared to have eased after three waterways near the epicenter overflowed with no problems, Xinhua said. County officials diverted released water as a precaution.

The quake damaged some water projects, such as reservoirs and hydroelectric stations, but no reservoirs had burst, Liu Ning, engineer in chief with the Ministry of Water Resources, told Xinhua.

Nuclear facilities jolted by the quake were confirmed safe and troops were sent to reinforce security there, air force Maj. Gen. Ma Jian, deputy chief of operations for the military's General Staff Headquarters, told reporters in Beijing.

China has a research reactor, two nuclear fuel production sites and two atomic weapons sites in Sichuan province, the French nuclear watchdog has said, all located 40 to 90 miles from the epicenter.

___

Associated Press writers Tini Tran in Muyu and William Foreman in Mianyang contributed to this report.

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Top UN official warns of increasing Darfur violence

By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer

Wed May 14, 8:35 PM ET

UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. peacekeeping chief warned Wednesday of an alarming increase in violence in Darfur that has spread to the Sudanese capital and could escalate further.
Undersecretary-General for Peacekeeping Jean-Marie Guehenno urged all actors — the disparate rebel groups and feuding Sudanese and Chadian governments — to "move away from the brink of going into another cycle of violence" and start negotiations to end the Darfur conflict.
In a briefing to the U.N. Security Council, Guehenno said the surprise rebel attack on Khartoum last weekend, which took place "during an alarming increase of violence in Darfur itself," has implications for the operations of the joint African Union-United Nations peacekeeping force.
The attack by rebels from the Justice and Equality Movement, based hundreds of miles to the west in Darfur, also has implications for the efforts to revitalize political negotiations on Darfur, Chad-Sudan relations, and Sudanese national politics, he said.
"This great deterioration of security ... (is) a major challenge for all of us," Guehenno told reporters afterwards. "Our great concern is that it doesn't lead to further escalation."
Guehenno told the council that the U.N.-AU force has received unconfirmed reports that another Darfur rebel group, SLA-Unity, "is gathering forces with over 40 vehicles near Khor Abeche to attack El Fasher," the capital of North Darfur and headquarters for UNAMID.
"In addition, there have been reports of JEM and Chadian armed elements crossing the border and assembling in West Darfur," he said.
Guehenno said he's urging the peacekeepers to be on high alert.
"Unfortunately there is no place in Darfur that can claim to be safe from possible violence," he said.
He expressed concern that the attack on Khartoum's twin city of Omdurman over the weekend took both peacekeepers and the government by surprise.
"The incident underscores the serious shortfalls in the mission's resources, especially aerial reconnaissance capabilities," he said.
The U.N.-AU force took over peacekeeping duties in Darfur in January from a beleaguered AU force. It only has about 7,500 troops and fewer than 2,000 police on the ground, out of a total of 26,000 that have been authorized.
Guehenno laid out the U.N. plan to get 80 percent of the force into Darfur by the end of the year.
Ethnic Africans in Darfur took up arms against the Arab-dominated government in 2003 to fight discrimination. The U.N. says 2.5 million people have been forced from their homes during the five-year conflict — including 150,000 since the beginning of the year — and the death toll could be as high as 300,000.
The ongoing violence, and the hijacking of 38 commercial trucks with food from the World Food Program, has forced the U.N. agency to halve rations beginning in May, Guehenno said. He added that "malnutrition indicators remain at extremely worrying levels in many areas of the region."

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Red Cross: Up to 128,000 may have died in Myanmar

1 hour, 22 minutes ago

YANGON, Myanmar - The Red Cross estimated Wednesday that the cyclone death toll in Myanmar could be as high as 128,000 — a much larger figure than the government tally. The U.N. warned a second wave of deaths will follow unless the military regime lets in more aid quickly.
The grim forecast came as heavy rains drenched the devastated Irrawaddy River delta, disrupting aid operations already struggling to reach up to 2.5 million people in urgent need of food, water and shelter.
"Another couple of days exposed to those conditions can only lead to worsening health conditions and compound the stress people are living in," said Shantha Bloemen, a spokeswoman for UNICEF.
A tropical depression in the Bay of Bengal added new worries, but late in the day forecasters said it was weakening and unlikely to grow into a cyclone.
Myanmar's government issued a revised casualty toll Wednesday night, saying 38,491 were known dead and 27,838 were missing.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, however, said its estimate put the number of dead between 68,833 and 127,990. The Geneva-based body said the range came from a compilation based on other estimates from 22 different organizations, including the Myanmar Red Cross Society, and on media reports.
Even though the figures seemed precise, spokesman Matthew Cochrane said they were not based on body counts, but were only rough estimates designed to provide Red Cross donors and partner organizations with an idea of the numbers being discussed within the aid community.
U.N. officials have said there could be more than 100,000 dead.
The Red Cross estimated the number of people needing help after cyclone surged over the low-lying delta on May 3 at between 1.64 million and 2.51 million.
But the junta still refused to accept help from foreign aid experts, who have vast experience in handling humanitarian crises.
It insisted Myanmar can handle the disaster on its own — a stance that appeared to stem not from the isolationist regime's ability but from its deep suspicion of most foreigners, who have frequently criticized its human rights abuses and crackdowns on democracy activists.
Meanwhile, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he secured support from Myanmar to increase the flow of relief aid.
"In view of the magnitude of this crisis, much more needs to be done," Ban told reporters after a nearly two-hour meeting in New York with Myanmar, its neighbors and key donors. The "Myanmese ambassador has assured that the Myanmese government will do all to assist."
Ban also said that during the meeting aimed at boosting aid to the stricken nation he was also able to win backing from the groups for a high-level conference to raise funds for disaster aid this month.
Myanmar's prime minister, Lt. Gen. Thein Sein, told visiting Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej on Wednesday that the government was in control of the situation and didn't need foreign experts.
"They have their own team to cope with the situation," Samak said after returning to Bangkok. He said the junta gave him a "guarantee" that there was no starvation or disease outbreaks among survivors.
But critics say the government is woefully lacking in helicopters, trucks and boats as well as planning expertise needed to distribute aid to survivors, who have jammed into monasteries and relief centers or are camping outside.
U.N. agencies and other voluntary groups have been able to reach only 270,000 of the affected people, said Elisabeth Byrs of r the U.N. Office for Humanitarian Affairs in Geneva.
She said the World Food Program would need 55,000 tons of rice to feed 750,000 people for three months, but the agency had been able to ship in only 361 tons so far.
On Thursday, aid agencies were preparing or moving in a wide-range of relief supplies including material for temporary shelters, rice, drinking water, kitchen utensils and medicines including 2,000 anti-snake bite kits. The U.N. World Health Organization says an increase in snake bites is feared in coming days.
The junta did grant approval Wednesday for a Thai medical team to visit the delta, said Dr. Thawat Sutharacha of Thailand's Public Health Ministry. If the team goes as scheduled Friday, it will be the first foreign aid group to work in the ravaged delta.
Myanmar has limited the few international aid workers in the country to Yangon, the country's biggest city, and used police to keep foreigners from going to the delta.
The U.N. has also expressed concern this week that some of the food and aid donated by international groups isn't making it to the most needy, but is being diverted by officials or the military. And some aid workers and survivors said that in many cases spoiled or poor-quality food was being given to survivors.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the American ambassador to the U.N. has said the U.S. is concerned about the issue and wants to make sure that that aid goes to the people that are intended to be the recipients.
The government gave a little ground to demands that it let in more experts. It announced it would allow in 160 relief workers from neighboring countries — India, China, Bangladesh and Thailand. Except for the Thais, it was not clear whether they would be permitted to go to the delta. The U.N. also said that an emergency rapid assessment team from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations was being assembled for movement into Myanmar within the next 24 hours.
In New York, U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes welcomed the junta's move to let in the Asian relief workers. But he said it was not enough and demanded that Myanmar open its borders to foreign relief specialists and let outsiders work in the Irrawaddy delta.
"The relief getting through under the kind of restrictions we're operating under is by no means adequate to the task, and it's hard to see how just continuing with the status quo can ever be sufficient in the current critical time period that we're working in," Holmes said.
While it has kept out all but a few foreign aid workers, the regime has accepted tons of provisions sent by international donors, including the United Nations and the United States.
Five U.S. C-130 military transport planes delivered drinking water, blankets, mosquito nets and plastic sheets Wednesday. Lt. Col. Douglas Powell said 197,080 pounds of provisions had been sent in on eight U.S. flights since Monday.
Adm. Timothy J. Keating, head of the U.S. Pacific Command, said he did not get the junta's formal approval for American aid flights when he met with the Myanmar navy commander Monday in Yangon. But he said Myanmar officials were allowing the planes to fly in.
"In approving our flight plans, they are giving us permission — it is kind of implicit permission," Keating said in an interview with National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" program.
The State Department renewed an appeal for the junta to allow in outside disaster relief experts and more assistance. "This is not a political issue. This really is simply a humanitarian issue," said deputy spokesman Tom Casey.
The European Union's top aid official, Development Commissioner Louis Michel, said he was not opposed to the idea of parachuting aid into Myanmar, but said he did not think it was workable. Others have suggested unilateral air drops to circumvent the junta's restrictions

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My hell - by cleared sex charge man
Exclusive by Lisa Kenyon
9/ 5/2008


A POPULAR village postmaster has spoken of his 18 months of hell after being cleared of sex assaults on a 12-year-old girl and a pregnant woman.
Alan Holden, 60, who has run the Dill Hall Lane Post Office in Church for 18 years, broke down in tears when he won the battle to clear his name after a four-day trial at Burnley Crown Court.
He had denied four charges of indecent assault, said to have occurred between January 1996 and December 1999, and one sexual assault, alleged to have been committed in October 2006.
Mr Holden, who had no previous convictions, told the jury both alleged victims were lying and the jury took just four minutes to return a not guilty verdict.
In an exclusive interview with the Observer, the father-of-two and grandfather of two boys said they were the longest four minutes of his life.
He said: "When the verdict was announced it was such a relief. I felt like I was walking three feet above the ground. It had just been a dark mist until then but now I can look forward to the future.
"Everybody that knows me has been so supportive. That’s what kept me going."
Mr Holden said the 12-year-old girl often came into the shop and helped count pennies and tidy cards before making the shock allegation that he had given her massages, given her money and sweets and talked about taking her to Thailand.
He said: "We had taken her under our wing. She was like the granddaughter my wife Gail and I never had.
"I can’t put into words how I was feeling when she made the complaint. It was devastating. It was like my whole world had collapsed."
The police investigated at the time but no charges were brought.
Then, 18 months ago, Mr Holden said he was invited to feel a 19-year-old customer’s unborn baby kicking in what he described as a totally innocent situation.
But the woman went home and said he had sexually assaulted her.
Mr Holden said: "The woman, who lived next door to the girl who made the initial allegation, told the police that I had pulled her pants down and done something which my barrister proved was impossible.
"The police came and arrested me, which was hugely traumatic. They took my DNA and decided to lump the two incidents together and press charges.
"It has been sheer hell for the past 18 months for me, my wife and my family. It’s been a living nightmare.
"I have always known I was innocent. My family have always known I was innocent. And my friends and customers have known I was innocent. I have received over 100 cards, emails and letters of support and have been totally overwhelmed.
"I have no wish for revenge. I just want to put the whole thing behind me and get my life back to normal."
During the trial Mr Holden, who heard himself described by the prosecution as a sexual predator, told the jury he and his wife were naturists who walked around with nothing on as part and parcel of everyday life.
He added: "That has nothing to do with it. Even the judge said it had no bearing on the case. We have always told the truth about that."
Mr Holden said that throughout the investigation, the families of the "victims" had continued to visit the shop.
He is now looking forward to a short break away with his wife to unwind.
And later this year, they plan to celebrate their ruby wedding anniversary with a trip to New Zealand.
Mr Holden said: "We have a very strong marriage and we have no secrets from each other. This whole ordeal has just proved what a strong family we are."

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