Israel hands over bodies of dead Palestinian militants

  IBRAHIM BARZAKGAZA STRIP -- Israel on Thursday handed over to the Palestinian government the remains of 91 militants, including suicide bombers, in an effort to induce Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to renew long-stalled peace talks.

All 91 were killed carrying out attacks on Israeli targets, Palestinian officials said. At least one of the attacks dated back to the 1970s.

The bodies had been buried in coffins in Israel and were dug up for the transfer. The Palestinian official in charge of Thursday's transfer, Salem Khileh, said Israeli officials handed over the remains to Palestinian liaisons in the Jordan Valley.

Seventy-nine bodies were then transported to Ramallah, and 12 to the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

Dozens of armed Islamic Jihad fighters and families holding framed pictures of their dead relatives welcomed the 12 coffins as they entered Gaza, draped with Palestinian national flags.

Women ululated, and threw rice and sugar over the coffins. Hamas police officers fired 21 shots into the air in salute.

Two armed men, clad in black uniforms and bandanas, kissed the forehead of a suicide bomber's mother as the vehicle carrying his body arrived. Her 21-year-old son, Ramzi Obaied of Islamic Jihad, killed 24 Israelis in a 1996 attack in Tel Aviv.

"My son was a hero," said the black-clad woman, who identified herself as Um Hidar. "The enemy feared him even after his death, for they kept his body."

Mirvat Zaoul's husband, Mohammed Zaoul, killed four Israelis in a 2004 suicide attack in Jerusalem. She said she thought her 11-year-old son would be sad to hear that his father's remains would be returned to the West Bank.

"But he was happy," she said. "He said, 'I'm going to visit his grave every day and put a flower there for him.'" Palestinian government ceremonies honoring the dead militants were to be held in the West Bank and Gaza later Thursday.

"We hope that this humanitarian gesture will serve both as a confidence-building measure and help get the peace process back on track," Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said.

"Israel is ready for the immediate resumption of peace talks without any preconditions whatsoever," Regev added.

Abbas has given no sign that the gesture would persuade him to return to talks.

On Thursday, he said the "major obstacles to resuming negotiations" were Israel's refusal to freeze all settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, and to negotiate on the basis of the lines Israel held before capturing those territories in 1967.

Palestinians see those areas as the core of a future state that would also include Gaza.

Israel rejects that demand. Israeli-Palestinian talks stalled more than three years ago and have failed to take off again despite U.S. mediation, primarily because of the dispute over settlement construction.

---
GET THE LATEST NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL NEWS FROM ABCNEWS.COM

---
Get Eyewitness News Delivered

Facebook | Twitter | Newsletters | Text Alerts

(Copyright ©2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) Get more U.S. & World News »

u.s. & world news

View the original article here

Flesh-eating victim to lose both hands, feet

  Eyewitness NewsAUGUSTA, Ga. -- Faced with the prospect of losing both hands and her one remaining foot, a young Georgia woman battling to survive a case of flesh-eating bacteria that has already claimed one leg mouthed the words "Let's do this."

Aimee Copeland, 24, "shed no tears, she never batted an eyelash," her father, Andy Copeland, wrote on Facebook on Friday about the conversation he and his wife had with their daughter the day before.

"I was crying because I am a proud father of an incredibly courageous young lady," Copeland wrote.

It was not immediately clear Friday whether the surgeries had already been performed. A hospital spokeswoman referred questions to the father's online post.

The story of Copeland's battle to survive has inspired an outpouring of support from around the world. The University of West Georgia student developed a rare condition called necrotizing fasciitis after suffering a deep cut in her leg in a May 1 fall from a homemade zip line over the Little Tallapoosa River.

She has been hospitalized in critical condition at an Augusta hospital, battling kidney failure and other organ damage. She had been on a breathing tube until recently, when doctors performed a tracheotomy, her father said.

Until Thursday, Aimee Copeland did not know the full extent of her condition, only that her hands were badly infected.

Andy Copeland said he told his daughter about what had happened since the accident, how her one leg had been amputated. Doctors had once characterized her survival as "slim to none."

"We told her of the outpouring of love from across the world," her father said. "We told her that the world loved and admired her. We explained that she had become a symbol of hope, love and faith. Aimee's eyes widened and her jaw dropped. She was amazed."

In Copeland's case, the necrotizing fasciitis was caused by bacteria known as Aeromonas hydrophila, which is found in warm rivers and streams. Many people exposed to the bacteria don't get sick. Only a handful of necrotizing fasciitis infections caused by the bacteria have been reported in medical journals in recent decades.

Under the condition, the bacteria emit toxins that destroy muscle, fat and skin tissue.

Andy Copeland said he learned Thursday that doctors wanted to amputate his daughter's hands and remaining foot. Doctors were concerned she could develop respiratory problems and if her hands released an infection in her body there was a risk she could become septic again, her father said.

"We had a window of opportunity to perform the amputations and have a successful outcome," he said. "As they usually do, the doctors were presenting us with a medical no-brainer. We had to do what is necessary to save Aimee's life."

At that point, the family decided to share the situation with their daughter.

Copeland said he showed his daughter her hands, told her they were not healthy and were hampering her progress.

"Aimee, I do not want anything to happen to you," Copeland said he told his daughter. "Your mind is beautiful, your heart is good and your spirit is strong. These hands can prevent your recovery from moving forward. The doctors want to amputate them and your foot today to assure your best possible chance of survival."

Aimee Copeland nodded her understanding.

Her father explained that she would eventually be fitted with prosthetics to help her get around and she nodded again.

Then she smiled, raised her hands up and looked at the damage. She then turned to her family, gathered by her bedside and mouthed the words: "Let's do this."

Her father said he left the room with tears in his eyes.

"I wasn't crying because Aimee was going to lose her hands and foot, I was crying because, in all my 53 years of existence, I have never seen such a strong display of courage," Copeland said.

---
Online:

http://uwgpsychology.org/2012/aimee-copeland/

---
GET THE LATEST NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL NEWS FROM ABCNEWS.COM

---
Get Eyewitness News Delivered

Facebook | Twitter | Newsletters | Text Alerts

(Copyright ©2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) Get more U.S. & World News »

u.s. & world news

View the original article here

Ga. woman sees bacteria-ravaged hands

By RUSS BYNUM Associated Press SAVANNAH, Ga. May 17, 2012 (AP)abcnws_fw_params = {siteSectionId: 'nws_health', siteSectionIdType: 0, siteSectionNetworkId: 168234, siteSectionFallbackId: 109523, customVisitor:'', keyValues:'pageType=wirestory'}; pc.fwSeg();pc.fwAppendKeyValues('show=gma');pc.getSWID();pc.subsectionOverride();function fw_config(){return abcnws_fw_params;}if (tq.videoOverrideContext != null) {jsvideoViewEventProp16Value = tq.videoOverrideContext;} else {jsvideoViewEventProp16Value = "none";}if (jsvideoViewEventProp16Value == "none") { jsvideoViewEventProp16Value = ""; }jsvideoViewEventEvar20Value = jsvideoViewEventProp16Value;kdp_embed_default = {doKdpEmbed : function() {// Should only be changed if you are running Kaltura On Prem / Kaltura CE:var service_url = "http://cdnapi.kaltura.com/";// logic cascade for deciding which entry to loadvar entry_id = this.getEntryIdFromUrl() || this.getEntryIdFromDataAttr() || this.fallback_entry;flashembed(this.placeholder_id,{// attributes and params:id :"kaltura_player_default",src : service_url + "/index.php/kwidget/wid/_" + kdp_embed_default.partner_id + "/uiconf_id/" + kdp_embed_default.uiconf_id + "/entry_id/" + entry_id,height :361,width :640,bgcolor :"#000000",allowNetworking : "all",version :[10,0],expressInstall :"http://cdn.kaltura.org/apis/seo/expressinstall.swf",wmode: "transparent"},{// flashvars (double-quote the values)externalInterfaceDisabled : "false",jsInterfaceReadyFunc :"jsInterfaceReady",contentType: "video",//"restrictUserAgent.restrictedUserAgents": "GoogleTV",referer : "http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/flesh-eating-bacteria-victims-spirits-high-aimee-copeland-smiling-laughing-16357255","omniture.videoViewEventEvar15Value" : "player|storypage","omniture.videoViewEventProp18Value" : "player|storypage","omniture.videoViewEventProp16Value" : jsvideoViewEventProp16Value,"omniture.videoViewEventEvar20Value" : jsvideoViewEventEvar20Value,"omniture.adStartEvar15Value" : "player|storypage","omniture.adStartEvar20Value" : jsvideoViewEventEvar20Value,noThumbnail: true,"abcnews.displayEndCard":false,"shareBtnControllerScreen.enabled" : "true",//"video.stretchThumbnail":true,//"volumeBar.initialValue":0.75,//"volumeBar.forceInitialValue":true,debugMode: true})},onFail : function() {alert("FLASH EMBEDDING FAILED");},getEntryIdFromUrl : function() {if(location.hash.indexOf(kdp_embed_default.url_param_name) != -1) {// get the entry id from the url document fragment (aka hash):return location.hash.split("#")[1].substring((kdp_embed_default.url_param_name.length+1));}else if(location.search.indexOf(kdp_embed_default.url_param_name) != -1) {// get the entry id from the url parameters (aka querystring):return location.search.split("?")[1].substring((kdp_embed_default.url_param_name.length+1));}else {// use the default video defined in "fallback_entry" below://return kdp_embed_default.fallback_entry;return false;}},getEntryIdFromDataAttr : function() {var data_attr_val = document.getElementById(this.placeholder_id).getAttribute("data-entryid");if(data_attr_val && !(data_attr_val

A Georgia graduate student fighting a rare flesh-eating infection has been looking at her ravaged hands and asking about the damage, all without tears, her father said Wednesday.

What Aimee Copeland still doesn't know is that doctors plan to amputate her all of her fingers, just as they had to remove most of her left leg in order to save her life.

"Her fingers are basically mummified. The flesh is dead," Andy Copeland said in a phone interview from Doctors Hospital in Augusta more than two weeks after a zip-lining accident left a gash in his daughter's leg that developed into the infection.

Copeland's father said she held one of her hands close to her face Wednesday and asked family members about it. He said they told her "your hands have been damaged ... and we're trying to bring back as much of the life into the hands as possible."

"She was well accepting," Andy Copeland said. "No tears or anything."

The 24-year-old student from an Atlanta suburb remains in critical condition as she battles an infection called necrotizing fasciitis. Doctors initially feared they might have to remove her remaining foot and both hands. But her father said she now faces losing only her fingers after two days of treatment using a hyperbaric chamber, in which patients breathe pure oxygen to boost white blood cells and accelerate healing. Flesh on her palms that had been purple was turning pink again, he said.

Copeland's father said she was still unaware of plans to amputate her fingers, an emotional disclosure that will likely require a counselor's help.

"We don't know if she's aware of her (amputated) leg yet," he said. "We're in a don't ask, don't tell policy."

The flesh-eating bacteria, Aeromonas hydrophila, emit toxins that cut off blood flow to parts of the body. The affliction can destroy muscle, fat and skin tissue.

Copeland contracted the infection days after she suffered the deep cut May 1 when the zip line snapped over rocks in the Little Tallapoosa River near the University of West Georgia, where she studies psychology.

The bug is found in warm and brackish waters. Many people exposed to these bacteria don't get sick. When illnesses do occur, it's often diarrhea from swallowing bacteria in the water. Flesh-eating Aeromonas cases are so rare that only a handful of infections have been reported in medical journals in recent decades.

In addition to the damage to her extremities, Copeland is on a respirator and a dialysis machine as her lungs and kidneys recover. Doctors also had to remove much of the skin from her torso to keep the infection from spreading, her father said.

Though still heavily medicated, Copeland has become more alert and communicates with her parents and older sister despite the breathing tube in her throat. Her father said Wednesday doctors were removing that tube and inserting another directly into her trachea to make her more comfortable.

"If they take the tube out, I believe reading her lips is going to be a lot easier," he said. "And she might be able to actually cover the tube up and be able to talk."

Andy Copeland said his daughter has been asking for her cell phone, her laptop and a book to read, but is still in no condition to use any of those things. He said her sister, Paige, has been reading to her from a book on meditation.

View the original article here