Shuttle rolls into L.A.

The trip began Friday morning Endeavour should reach the science museum late Saturday The trip is called a once-in-a-liftime event NASA ended its shuttle program last year Los Angeles (CNN) -- Retired U.S. space shuttle Endeavour inched through the streets Southern California on Saturday, a poignant and patriotic trip to its final resting place. Thousands have gotten a peek at the huge spacecraft, wheeled through the roads and highways of Inglewood and Los Angeles. It is expected to arrive late Saturday at the California Science Center, where it will be put on permanent display. "This once-in-a-lifetime event is a cause for celebration," Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said. The 12-mile slow trek started early Friday from Los Angeles International Airport. The space shuttle Endeavour is transported to the California Science Center in Exposition Park from Los Angeles International Airport on Friday, October 12, in Los Angeles. Over the next two days, the 170,000-pound shuttle will travel at no more than 2 mph along a 12-mile route from Los Angeles International Airport to its final home at the California Science Center. Endeavour moves down a main road lined with onlookers. Endeavour was flown cross-country atop NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft from Kennedy Space Center in Florida to LAX on September 21. Workers escort Endeavour on its journey. Completed in 1991, Endeavour was built to replace the space shuttle Challenger, which disintegrated during a catastrophic re-entry accident. This fifth and final space shuttle orbiter circled the Earth 4,671 times and traveled nearly 123 million miles during its 25 missions from 1992 to 2011. Endeavour passes businesses and crowds on its way to permanent display at the California Science Center. Endeavour makes its way past restaurants and shopping centers in Los Angeles. Spectators come to watch the space shuttle Endeavour as it rests at Westchester Square during its final ground journey in Los Angeles on Friday. A dog joins the crowd turned out to see Endeavour on Friday. The space shuttle Endeavour is parked in a mall parking lot on its way to the California Science Center. Spectators take pictures of Endeavour during its journey through Los Angeles. People pose with a street sign that was removed to make way for the space shuttle Endeavour during its transport from LAX to the California Science Center. Workers check the space shuttle Endeavour as it rests at Westchester Square on Friday. People get a close view of the space shuttle Endeavour in a misty rain during a break in its journey on Friday. Tree trimmers cut large branches of a tree that was protruding toward the street in a last-minute effort to clear hurdles along the space shuttle Endeavour's route on Friday. Spectators crowd for a view of Endeavour as it passes through Los Angeles on Friday. CNN iReporter Wes Smith and other space enthusiasts got a close-up view of the space shuttle Endeavour early Friday as it makes its final journey from Los Angeles International Airport to the California Science Center. Smith says he saw the shuttle about 5 a.m. after waiting in a Los Angeles parking lot across from Endeavour's overnight holding area. Computer-controlled transporters help move Endeavour across Los Angeles International Airport early Friday. Spectators take pictures of the shuttle Friday at the Los Angeles airport. Once it reaches the science museum, the shuttle will be on display for posterity. It had its first launch in 1992. Bystanders watch as Endeavour moves out of the Los Angeles airport and onto a public street. Members of the crowd reach over a fence for a glimpse of the shuttle. Endeavour, along with Discovery, Enterprise and Atlantis, became a museum piece after NASA ended its 30-year shuttle program last year. All four shuttles have been permanently retired from service. Firefighters and other spectators document the move early Friday. Fan Vivian Robinson rides her bicycle covered in shuttle memorabilia, American flags and an alien doll outside the Los Angeles airport as she waits to see Endeavour. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Photos: Space shuttle Endeavour's last trip Shuttle Endeavour on parade Endeavour rolls toward new home Endeavour's road trip The shuttle was to stop at the Forum in Inglewood on Saturday morning for a celebration in the arena's parking lot. Authorities estimate that 10,000 to 14,000 spectators can be accommodated. It will stop at the intersection of Crenshaw and Martin Luther King boulevards in south Los Angeles in the afternoon. Officials for months planned the logistics of the move for months and are most concerned about public safety. The removal of utility lines and streetlights and the controversial felling of some trees have made the journey possible. Police expected large crowds and heavy traffic, and urged spectators to come early and be prepared to stand long hours. Are you there? Send your images Endeavour, along with Discovery, Enterprise and Atlantis, became a museum piece after NASA ended its 30-year shuttle program in July 2011. All four shuttles have been permanently retired from service. Named for the first ship commanded by British explorer James Cook, Endeavour rolled out of an assembly plant in Palmdale, California, in 1991 at a cost of $1.7 billion. It was the baby of the shuttle fleet, built as a replacement for Challenger, which had exploded shortly after its 10th launch. Over the next 20 years, Endeavour flew some of the highest-profile shuttle missions, covering nearly 123 million miles in 25 flights. It flew a Spacelab mission and numerous International Space Station assembly missions and rendezvoused with Russia's Mir Space Station. The science museum has been trumpeting the arrival of the shuttle, saying on its website that it is building a new addition to its facility and plans to begin displaying Endeavour on October 30. CNN's Sara Weisfeldt and Joe Sterling contributed to this report

NYT: Benghazi attacks had no private security backup

WASHINGTON — Lost amid the election-year wrangling over the militants' attack on the United States Mission in Benghazi, Libya, is a complex back story involving growing regional resentment against heavily armed American private security contractors, increased demands on State Department resources and mounting frustration among diplomats over ever-tighter protections that they say make it more difficult to do their jobs. Only on NBCNews.com Female vets coming home: Will US welcome them? Bachelor party rescued after wine cruise hits rocks Woman dining with family dies after car hits pizzeria Biden brings the heat Gay teen denied Eagle Scout: 'Change is happening' Police: Secret Service agent found drunk in street Chicago public schools chief out in wake of teachers strike The Benghazi attacks, in which the United States ambassador and three other Americans were killed, comes at the end of a 10-year period in which the State Department — sending its employees into a lengthening list of war zones and volatile regions — has regularly ratcheted up security for its diplomats. The aggressive measures used by private contractors eventually led to shootings in Afghanistan and Iraq that provoked protests, including an episode involving guards from an American security company, Blackwater, that left at least 17 Iraqis dead in Baghdad's Nisour Square. The ghosts of that shooting clearly hung over Benghazi. Earlier this year, the new Libyan government had expressly barred Blackwater-style armed contractors from flooding into the country. "The Libyans were not keen to have boots on the ground," one senior State Department official said. That forced the State Department to rely largely on its own diplomatic security arm, which officials have said lacks the resources to provide adequate protection in war zones. On Capitol Hill this week, Democrats and Republicans sparred at a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing over what happened in Benghazi, whether security at the mission was adequate, and what — if anything — could have been done to prevent the tragedy. But amid calls for more protection for diplomats overseas, some current and former State Department officials cautioned about the risks of going too far. "The answer cannot be to operate from a bunker," Eric A. Nordstrom, who until earlier this year served as the chief security officer at the United States Embassy in Tripoli, Libya, told the committee. Barbara K. Bodine, who served as ambassador to Yemen when the destroyer Cole was bombed in 2000, said: "What we need is a policy of risk management, but what we have now is a policy of risk avoidance. Nobody wants to take responsibility in case something happens, so nobody is willing to have a debate over what is reasonable security and what is excessive." For the State Department, the security situation in Libya came down in part to the question of whether it was a war zone or just another African outpost. Even though the country was still volatile in the wake of the bloody rebellion that ousted Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, the State Department did not include Libya on a list of dangerous postings that are high priority for extra security resources. Only the American Embassies in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan are exempted from awarding security contracts to the lowest bidder. Dangerous posts are allowed to consider "best value" contracting instead, according to a State Department inspector general's report in February.   The large private security firms that have protected American diplomats in Iraq and Afghanistan sought State Department contracts in Libya, and at least one made a personal pitch to the ambassador, J. Christopher Stevens, who was killed in the militants' attack in Benghazi on Sept. 11, according to a senior official at one firm. But given the Libyan edict banning the contractors, the Obama administration was eager to reduce the American footprint there. After initially soliciting bids from major security companies for work in Libya, State Department officials never followed through. "We went in to make a pitch, and nothing happened," said the security firm official. He said the State Department could have found a way around the Libyans' objections if it had wanted to. Instead, the department relied on a small British company to provide several unarmed Libyan guards for security at the mission in Benghazi. For the personal protection of the diplomats, the department largely depended on its Diplomatic Security Service. The wrangling over protection is part of a larger debate that has been under way for years within the State Department over how to balance security with the need of American diplomats to move freely. Many diplomats rankle at the constraints imposed on them by security officials, who demand that they travel around foreign capitals in heavily armored convoys that local civilians find insulting and that make it nearly impossible for the envoys to meet discreetly with foreign officials. Many American diplomats have also grown deeply frustrated by the constraints imposed on them by working in the new, highly secure embassies that have been constructed around the world over the past decade. After the 1998 bombings of two American embassies in East Africa by Al Qaeda, the State Department began a multibillion-dollar program to replace many embassies with hardened and highly secure facilities. American construction companies with experience in building prisons and military barracks won many of the contracts to build cookie-cutter buildings that look more like fortresses than diplomatic outposts. Between 2001 and 2010, 52 embassies were built, and many others are now under construction or being designed. Often located in remote suburban areas far from crowded streets, the buildings are designed to withstand truck bombs, but they also require local security forces and heavily armed guards to resist the type of attack that the militants staged in Benghazi. But many diplomats say the fortified embassies make it difficult for them to do their jobs, forcing them to find ways around them. Ronald E. Neumann, who served as the ambassador in Afghanistan from 2005 to 2007, and who worked in Baghdad before that, said that many foreign officials refuse to come into American Embassies because they are insulted by the intrusive security measures, and they do not want American officials coming to their homes with huge convoys. "So you meet people in hotels," said Mr. Neumann, now the president of the American Academy of Diplomacy in Washington. The security "has forced you to get more creative." That can mean taking more risks. "A lot of people are simply violating the security regulations to do their jobs," said Anthony H. Cordesman, a national security analyst at the Center for International and Strategic Studies in Washington. "They have to find ways to get out, and sometimes they end-run the security officer, or sometimes the security officer will turn a blind eye." In fact, just as the Benghazi attack occurred, the State Department's building department was beginning to address some of the frustrations by proposing more open and accessible designs for embassies. Under the new policy, embassies will still have to meet the same security standards, but the State Department will require that a higher priority be given to the visual appearance of buildings and will try to situate them in more central locations so that they are not so isolated. It is unclear whether the Benghazi crisis will force the State Department to abandon the new design policy. "The problem is that embassies no longer function as public buildings," said Jane Loefller, the author of "The Architecture of Diplomacy," a history of the design and construction of American embassies. "They used to be public, but no longer." For the State Department, finding the right balance between security and diplomacy has become increasingly difficult in a political environment. Perhaps no one understands that as well as Patrick F. Kennedy. Five years ago, Mr. Kennedy, then the under secretary of state for management in the Bush administration, was caught up in a high-profile Congressional investigation of the episode in Nisour Square. Democratic lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee criticized the department for lax management of overly aggressive security contractors. This week, Mr. Kennedy, who has the same job in the Obama administration, faced Republicans on the same House committee, who criticized the State Department for lax management and failing to provide more aggressive security in Benghazi. This report, "After Benghazi attack, private security hovers as an issue," first appeared in the New York Times. Copyright © 2012 The New York Times

Opinion: Taliban are cowards

The world's worst cowards are the members of the Pakistani Taliban, says Frida Ghitis They are terrified of Malala Yousufzai, the 14-year-old girl they shot, Ghitis says They want to subjugate the local population, particularly women, she says Ghitis: They have reawakened Pakistanis to the threat posed by extremists Editor's note: Frida Ghitis is a world affairs columnist for The Miami Herald and World Politics Review. A former CNN producer and correspondent, she is the author of "The End of Revolution: A Changing World in the Age of Live Television." Follow her on Twitter: @FridaGColumns. (CNN) -- Just days before the Nobel committee announces the winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize, the world found out who stands at the opposite extreme on the quest for peace and justice. We have discovered who the biggest cowards on the planet are today. The competition for the mark of shame is hard fought, but the title goes to the men who approached a van carrying girls home from school in Pakistan on Tuesday and asked for one very special 14-year-old. Then shot her in the head. The world's worst cowards are the members of the Pakistani Taliban. Perhaps they believe their thick dark beards, dangerous weapons and fanatical religious pronouncement make them fierce warriors. But their actions tell the true story: The Pakistani Taliban are terrified of a 14-year-old girl named Malala Yousufzai. And why are they so afraid of Malala? Mostly, because she is not afraid of them. And because Malala is a relentless advocate of education for girls, something the Taliban find very threatening. The Taliban, with all their bravado, seem to fear women most of all. Taliban gunmen shot teen activist News: Pakistan enraged over attack on teen blogger The cravenness that has come to define the group -- also known as the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP -- is easily matched by Malala's stunning bravery. The fearless activist for girls' education now lies in a hospital bed trying to recover from serious injuries to her head and neck. Overnight doctors performed emergency surgery to remove a bullet near her spinal cord and to relieve swelling in her brain. Malala knew she was on a TTP hit list, but she did not back down. The Taliban, whose religious, social and political views are founded on a brutally anti-woman ideology, cannot countenance even a young girl challenging their ideas on a blog. Shortly after Tuesday's assassination attempt, which also left two of Malala's school friends wounded, TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan acknowledged the group tried to kill her and vowed they will try to do it again if she survives. As is common, he couched the threats in extreme interpretations of Islam and on repression and intimidation of women. "Any female that, by any means, plays a role in the war against the mujahedeen," Ehsan declared, "should be killed." The TTP spokesman called Malala's advocacy for education "a new chapter of obscenity," adding, "We have to finish this chapter." He also accused her of being pro-West and admiring President Barack Obama. Malala started to become a problem for the TTP when she was just 11. The Pakistani Taliban, who hold the same ideology but are not directly affiliated with the Afghan Taliban, had taken over Pakistan's Swat Valley. Pakistani politicians were turning a blind eye to what had become an increasingly brutal regime. They executed their critics, ordered all men to grow beards and whipped women in public as punishment for real, imagined or fabricated offenses. It was all about imposing their will, their version of Islamic law, and subjugating the entire population, but women in particular. The Taliban reportedly had destroyed more than 200 schools and ordered all girls' schools shut down when Malala slowly emerged from obscurity. In 2009, she started writing a blog for the BBC under a pseudonym, talking about her dreams for the future and how the Taliban were pushing those aspirations further and further out of reach. Her story helped bring attention to the disaster befalling the population of the storied Swat Valley. At about the same time, the videotaped beating of a 17-year-old girl by a group of Taliban went viral in Pakistan, adding chilling images to a girl's lament. Until then, Pakistan had treated the fight against the Taliban as an American problem, something going on across the border in Afghanistan. Malala helped Pakistanis realize their own country, their own way of life were threatened by the TTP. The government fought back and regained control of the region. She continued to speak out and was the first recipient of her country's National Peace Award last year. She and her cause became celebrated throughout the country, and increasingly despised by extremists and their supporters. Rural areas of Pakistan and the districts near the Afghanistan border include deeply traditional regions from where the Taliban took much of their social views. Many practices, particularly regarding women, are horrifying to more modern Pakistanis living in places such as the capital, Islamabad. The country has become a dangerous incubator of fanatically enforced prejudice. A prominent politician who opposed Pakistan's controversial blasphemy laws was killed last year. Just last month a Christian girl was sent to prison after her neighbors concocted blasphemy charges against her. The country has become one of the front lines of the struggle between modernity and the deeply intolerant, misogynistic practices dating back centuries. Malala, despite her young age, stands at the battle line of the push for equality. The rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001 showed just how the outcome in Pakistan could affect everyone, but especially women's lives. The TTP aims to impose precisely the kind of rules the Taliban forced on Afghans. Afghan women were barred from working, studying, leaving their homes without a male companion. Even laughing out loud was prohibited. They became nonentities, stoned and beheaded at the local stadium, banned from showing their faces, speaking their voices or earning a living. In 2002, just after the regime was toppled, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study of mental health in the country found a vast majority of Afghan women suffering from depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. A decade later, in bordering Pakistan, in the aftermath of the assassination attempt against Malala, many question if the threat has receded to the extent the authorities claim. By trying to kill a bright and admired young girl in cold blood, the Taliban have revealed not only their own moral makeup. They have also reawakened the Pakistani people to the threat posed by extremists and the choices the country faces. Pakistanis are pressuring their populist politicians to speak out against the crime, to take sides. Pakistan is home to the world's worst cowards. But it's also Malalai's home. Let's hope she makes it, and inspires many to follow in her small but indelible footsteps. There's something -- and someone -- for the Nobel committee to consider. Follow us on Twitter @CNNOpinion. Join us on Facebook/CNNOpinion. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Frida Ghitis.

Space shuttle Endeavour to complete final journey

LOS ANGELES — Why did the space shuttle cross the road? To get to the other side … of the 405. Or at least, that was the case for the shuttle Endeavour, which overnight Friday was towed by a Toyota Tundra truck over the Los Angeles freeway to complete its first day on its trip to the California Science Center (CSC) for display. Endeavour, which flew 25 times to space between 1992 and 2011, has launched on the CSC's "Mission 26," a two-day, 12-mile journey through the city streets of LA and Inglewood. Endeavour is expected to arrive at the science center on Saturday night. Leaving Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) almost 12 hours earlier, the shuttle Endeavour spent nearly 15 hours idling in a shopping center parking lot and then outside a donut shop waiting for crews to raise power lines, clearing its route to reach the Manchester Boulevard Bridge by midnight. Video: Endeavour's final voyage (on this page) Much of the day's trip was made with the shuttle riding on a modified NASA overland transporter driven by four self-propelled, computer-controlled vehicles. To cross the 405 freeway however, the 155,000-pound Endeavour needed a tow. Gallery: On the Road with Endeavour Who do you recruit to drive a space shuttle across an LA bridge in a scene made for TV? A professional stuntman and an astronaut, of course! Seated behind the 2012 Tundra's steering wheel was Matt McBride, a precision driver whose credits include Toyota commercials as well as Hollywood blockbusters, such as last year's "Transformers: Dark of the Moon." Seated to McBride's right was astronaut Garrett Reisman, who launched aboard Endeavour for his first spaceflight in 2008. "I do not know how many times I have drove through this intersection going back and forth to LAX," Reisman told collectSPACE.com before the tow. "If you told me one day that Endeavour would be sitting here next to Randy's Donuts, I'd say you were crazy, but here she is." "It's weird, very, very weird, but also really, really cool," he said. Though Toyota's cameras were rolling, the tow was more than just an excuse to shoot an advertisement. To better distribute the space shuttle's weight and to meet with road restrictions, Endeavour's custom transport was moved out and wheeled dollies took the place of the four vehicles. A silver Toyota Tundra CrewMax half-ton pickup provided the horsepower to tug the orbiter over the freeway. Toyota said the truck was not modified or enhanced in any way to accomplish the tow. Tow and tweet Toyota's participation towing the space shuttle was in support of an existing partnership between Toyota Motor Sales USA, Inc., and the California Science Center to provide support the education of the public through exhibits and programs. Toyota currently has a Tundra truck on display at the science center in an exhibit demonstrating the physics of leverage. The Tundra that was used to tow Endeavour Friday will replace the Tundra now on exhibit and will be on display after the shuttle's pavilion opens on Oct. 30. To further support the move, Toyota developed a website to provide behind the scenes videos, photos, activities for children, and details about the Tundra Endeavour project. Visitors to the website can share the content, subscribe to email alerts and use Twitter to the spread word about the Toyota Tundra's role in Endeavour's delivery. For the first 10,000 "re-tweets" sent through the website, Toyota will donate $50 to the California Science Center to support building the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center, the permanent home for the space shuttle Endeavour. See shuttles.collectspace.com for continuing coverage of the delivery and display of NASA's retired space shuttles. Follow collectSPACE on Facebook and Twitter @collectSPACE and editor Robert Pearlman @robertpearlman. Copyright 2012 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved. Space Shuttle Endeavour's L.A. Street Road Trip (Pictures)L.A.'s California Science Center: Final Home of Shuttle Endeavour (Photos)Where to See America's Greatest Spaceships (Infographic) Copyright 2012 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Severe thunderstorms, tornadoes threaten central US

By NBC News staff Severe thunderstorms with damaging winds, large hail and isolated tornadoes are threatening a swath of the central United States from Iowa to parts of Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, forecasters warned. Chris Dolce and Jon Erdman, of weather.com, said the Midwest would be likely hit by storms and showers Saturday morning, but the "greatest concern for severe storms will be from the afternoon through evening." "While the primary severe threats look to be damaging straight-line winds and large hail, the degree of low-level wind shear and instability may spawn isolated tornadoes in these areas," they added. Weather.com said the storm system would continue moving eastward on Sunday. "Scattered severe storms may flare again along the cold front with spotty damaging wind gusts and possibly a tornado from the southern Great Lakes southwestward to the Ohio Valley, lower-Mississippi Valley and southeastern Texas," Dolce and Erdman added. More content from NBCNews.com: Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. under federal investigation over alleged financial improprieties Gay teen denied Eagle Scout: 'Change is happening' over Boy Scouts anti-gay policy Jerry Sandusky letter to judge: 'Goliath won, and I must deal with the outcome' Chicago public schools chief out in wake of teachers strike Video: Aggressive Biden on the attack in Ryan debate Two toddlers critically injured in attack by aunt's Rottweilers Follow US news from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

Clapton sells painting for record $34M

Gerhard Richter's 'Abstraktes Bild (809-)' is one in a sequence of four by the artist. Oil on canvas painting by Gerhard Richter fetches $34 million An unnamed telephone bidder made the winning offer The painting sold for one-tenth as much in 2001 The work of two other artists fetched career record sums (CNN) -- British guitarist Eric Clapton added a few million pounds to his fortune Friday, when a painting out of his private collection garnered a record sum at auction in London. "Abstraktes Bild (809-4)" by German painter Gerhard Richter sold for more than $34 million, the highest price ever for work by a living artist, Sotheby's said. The record sum ballooned the monetary value of the painting by over tenfold from its previous auction price in 2001, when it sold within a group of three paintings from the 809 series that together fetched a total of $3,415,750. In a five-minute bidding battle, an unnamed caller beat out two competitors, who also phoned in their offers, to take Richter's work, which translates into English as "Abstract Picture (809-4)", for up to double the sum the auction house estimated it would take. Sotheby's originally placed the current value of the 1994 oil on canvas work at anywhere between $14 and $19 million, well below the final record bid of $34,190,756. The old record for a work by a living artist was set in May 2010, when American artist Jasper John's painting "Flag," a depiction of the Stars and Stripes, sold for $28,642,500 at Christie's in New York, the auction house said. The record-breaking painting Another from Richter's 809 series, "Abstraktes Bild (809-2)" fetched $3,119,403 at the same auction on Friday, Sotheby's said. Two additional artists achieved career record sums for their works at the auction, though nowhere near the mammoth figure Richter's 809-4 took. A painting titled "MLR" by German artist Isa Genzken went for $425,355 and "Endless Knott" by Tibetan artist Gonkar Gyatso pulled down $271,409. Richter, who is 80, is famous for dreamlike photo realistic paintings but also for colorful abstract works. He created his 809 series by painting abstract images with mainly primary colors then scraping over them with a squeegee-like object. Richter has compared art to "the religious search for God," in a collection of his quotes published on his website. Richter holds all artists in the highest religious esteem: "Now there are no priests or philosophers left, artists are the most important people in the world," according to a quote on his website from 1966. As to who may be the most important living artist - at least now the money is on Richter.