instruction:
In this task, you are given news articles and you need to generate a highlight, i.e., a short summary, with a maximum length of 10 lines.
question:
(CNN) -- Pakistan's much-awaited military offensive in North Waziristan was launched more than a week ago, and followed an attack on Karachi airport that left at least 36 people dead. Due to the strategic calculations of the Pakistani state, North Waziristan has steadily fallen into the hands of motley militant networks, and has become a mountainous zone for the Pakistani Taliban to recruit, regroup and launch attacks against the country. The Pakistani Army conducted a similar operation in the Swat Valley in 2009, not too far from the tribal areas, that has been a relative success in reclaiming territory. It is unclear which direction the latest operation will go. But a major humanitarian crisis is brewing in the wake of the new offensive. As of Wednesday, the government had registered over 450,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) who have been fleeing the area in view of the aerial bombardments and warnings by military authorities. There are fears the figures could be much higher. Desperate need for shelter . The military has taken extraordinary steps, especially in terms of its public relations efforts, to minimize the fallout in public perception. It's issuing press releases, specifying how many terrorists have been killed, and giving a count of aid distributed. Yet, thousands of families still need immediate support in terms of livelihood, shelter and basic amenities. While the United Nations has stepped in to provide aid, distribution systems have a long way to go in meeting the scale of demand. Beyond North Waziristan, the Pakhtun population follows the age-old custom of accepting and looking after "guests." Predictably, many families fleeing the violence are being absorbed into the towns and villages of Bannu, in neighboring Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province. Bannu town is straining under the pressure of a massive population influx. While local Pakhtuns and civic groups have been engaged, the response of the government authorities has been slow. The disaster management authority (FDMA) in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), underfunded like most government agencies, is battling with the magnitude of the crisis. Government response . The government has established one camp in Bannu, but many more facilities are needed, especially during the hot summer season. A meager grant is being offered to each family for their multifarious needs, but very few have received it so far. The political opposition that rules KP has complained of a funds shortage, and voices in the media have criticized the federal government's inordinate focus on domestic political squabbles and high profile infrastructure projects, ignoring the plight of homeless people. The minister in charge of the government response â€” the Federal Minister for States and Frontier Regions retired Lt Gen Abdul Qadri Baloch -- has said "every reasonable need of the IDPs will be taken care of in the best possible manner and money is not an issue." However, he also urged fellow Pakistanis to "open their pockets." Few places to go . Pakistan's ethnic politics also impedes free movement of IDPs. While the country's constitution allows for freedom of movement for its citizens, the provincial governments of Sindh and Punjab have restricted the inflow of migrants from the north. The provincial government of Sindh says that it is already dealing with two million "aliens" and has attributed the rise of militancy in the port city Karachi due to earlier in-country migrations. Similarly, Punjab, the home province of Pakistan's Prime Minister, has refused to host the displaced people. This policy has been termed illegal by political leaders and has caused resentment not just among the IDPs but Pakistan's Pakhtun population in general. Marginalized population . The people of North Waziristan -- and the tribal region FATA -- have been stranded between the military and the militants for more than a decade. They have dealt with historic marginalization, underdevelopment, high poverty levels and, of late, the polio epidemic. An estimated 160,000 children are vulnerable since the Taliban banned immunization in North Waziristan two years ago, terming immunization as a "Western conspiracy." A major worry nationally is that the polio virus may spread faster than it has in recent months. According to government officials, Pakistan has reported 65 polio cases from FATA this year of which 50 alone pertained to North Waziristan. Challenge and opportunities . These grave challenges require leadership and effective interagency coordination. Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has set up a high level body that monitors the day-to-day situation. But, it is the local authorities that need more funds and broader mandates. The risks of aggravating the already marginalized people are manifold. Increased radicalization is one since the area is an open field for charities affiliated with extremist organizations. There are opportunities as well. Free of Taliban diktat, there is a greater scope for immunization campaigns for the children now. There is also an opportunity to rebuild FATA, which has been governed since the British times as a remote outpost of the Empire with little or no rights for the local population. Earlier reform efforts led nowhere. Political and administrative reforms must follow the military operations. Local governments and courts are needed for the area. Pakistan's tribal belt has to evolve from its current status as a "strategic," semi-colonial arena to a democratic polity. This requires a civil-military consensus. For now, the country must tackle the growing numbers of homeless and avoid another catastrophe in the making. Fleeing Pakistanis crowd border towns, asking 'why weren't we warned?'
answer:
Hundreds of thousands of people are fleeing North Waziristan .
Rumi: Government has been slow to act to avert humanitarian crisis .
Army launched strikes in retaliation for Pakistan Taliban attack on airport .
Civilians caught in the crackdown are crowding nearby town of Bannu .


question:
The gunman who held hostages for more than 16 hours in a Sydney cafe was no stranger to police -- and was on bail for violent criminal offenses at the time of the siege. Man Haron Monis, an Iranian-born refugee who was granted political asylum in Australia in 2001, had "a long history of violent crime, infatuation with extremism and mental instability," Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott told reporters. "It's pretty obvious that the perpetrator was a deeply disturbed individual," he said at a press conference Tuesday, adding that the 50-year-old was "well known" to federal and state police, as well as the Australian Security Intelligence Organization. "But I don't believe he was on a terror watch list at this time." New South Wales Premier Mike Baird said authorities were investigating why Monis -- who was killed in the siege -- was at large, given his criminal background. "We're all outraged that this guy was on the street," he told reporters. "We need to understand why he was. We also need to understand why he wasn't picked up." What we know, what we don't know . Accessory to murder, sex charges . The self-styled Muslim cleric, also known as Sheikh Haron, was facing dozens of charges at the time of the siege, including two counts of being an accessory to the murder of his ex-wife, according to the Attorney General of New South Wales. Noleen Hayson Pal was found dead with multiple stab wounds in a stairwell, and her body had been set on fire, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. "They should have put him away and thrown away the key," the dead woman's godfather, Ayyut Khalik, told NBC News. He said Monis used to beat Pal, forcing her to wear a hijab all the time and forbidding her from talking to "outsiders." Court documents show Monis was also facing 45 sex-related charges, including sexual intercourse without consent and aggravated indecent assault. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the initial charges, laid in May 2014, related to an alleged sexual assault on a woman in western Sydney in 2002, before other sex-related charges were added regarding six additional victims. Monis was using the name Mohammad Hassan Manteghi -- his birth name, according to Iran's state news agency IRNA -- and claimed to be a "healer," according to the report. Monis also pleaded guilty last year to writing offensive "poison pen" letters to the families of Australian soldiers who died in Afghanistan, and was sentenced to 300 hours of community service. The letters were "sadistic, wantonly cruel and deeply wounding," one High Court judge said at the time, according to CNN affiliate Seven News. But the criminal accusations against him began even before he came to Australia. Monis fled his homeland in 1995 while being sought for allegedly committing fraud, Iran's semi-official Fars News reported. A spokesperson at Iran's embassy in Canberra told CNN that Tehran had officially requested Monis's extradition but nothing had come of it. Monis had been granted political asylum in 2001 and had had no further contact with his birth country, the spokesperson said. Who were the victims? An extremist theology . Manny Conditsis, a lawyer who acted for Monis in relation to the accessory to murder and letter-writing charges, told CNN his former client had been a cleric in Shiite Iran, but had become critical of the Islamic Republic's government in the late 1990s, and fled to Australia "because he was going to be killed." He had left behind a wife and two children, who he believed Monis had not seen since. Throughout the 2000s, said Conditsis, Monis "became sympathetic to what he perceived ... was the victimization of Muslims and Islamists around the world, and partly at least took up that cause." His broader cause, he said, was lobbying governments around the world, particularly Australia, not to wage wars on Muslim soil. "He was so blinded by that objective that it would seem he had lost sight of objectivity and rationality and acted in extreme ways," he said, describing his former client as "intensely conflicted and contradicted and inconsistent." While older footage of Monis preaching shows him dressed in typical Shiite cleric's attire, in his social media posts, he appears to embrace a radical Sunni extremist theology. He used the Internet to spread extremist beliefs, garnering nearly 13,000 likes on his Facebook page. During the siege, Abbott said, the hostage-taker "sought to cloak his actions with the symbolism of the (ISIS) death cult," Abbott said. On his website, which has now been taken down, there was a pledge of allegiance to the so-called Islamic State terror group. The site describes Monis as a Muslim cleric and activist based in Sydney who has "continuously been under attack & false accusation by the Australian government & media since he started his political letter campaign from 2007." There's a graphic photo of slain children at the top of the site. Under the image, it reads, "This is an evidence for the terrorism of America and its allies including Australia. The result of their airstrikes." A description on the site portrayed Monis as a victim of a political vendetta and compares him to Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder who has claimed the sex crime allegations he faces are politically motivated. A YouTube video posted in November shows Monis standing on a street corner, chains draped over him, carrying a sign that says, "I have been tortured in prison for my political letters." Police have refused to comment on that accusation. His last tweet linked to his website, with a haunting message posted the day of his attack on the Sydney cafe: "If we stay silent towards the criminals we cannot have a peaceful society. The more you fight with crime, the more peaceful you are." Conditsis  told Australian public broadcaster ABC that Monis was an isolated figure who was probably acting alone. Crisis in a cafe . Monday's hostage situation began around 10 a.m. Hundreds of police officers, including snipers, took position around the Lindt Chocolate Cafe in Sydney's central business district. Australian media captured haunting images of hostages pressing their hands against the cafe's windows. They were reportedly taking turns holding a black flag with Arabic writing on it that said, "There is no God but God and Mohammed is the prophet of God." The man holding the hostages demanded to speak to Abbott. Police were monitoring social media because hostages appeared to be posting information about the man's demands. Hours into the crisis, at least five hostages managed to escape, running terrified toward police in riot gear. That made the hostage-taker furious, reported Chris Reason, a correspondent for CNN affiliate Seven Network. Reason said he could see the gunman become "extremely agitated" when he realized what had happened, and he "started screaming orders" at the remaining hostages. Gunfire erupted early Tuesday as police stormed the cafe where the gunman had been holding hostages. Two hostages were killed during the standoff. Police later announced that the siege was over and that the lone gunman had been killed.
answer:
Man Haron Monis had history of "infatuation with extremism and mental instability," Abbott says .
Hostage-taker was granted political asylum in Australia in 2001; was on bail for violent offending .
His former lawyer says he campaigned against "the victimization of Muslims and Islamists"
On Monis' apparent website, there is a pledge of allegiance to ISIS .


question:
(CNN) -- A memorial cruise is scheduled to set sail 100 years after the sinking of the Titanic, following the same trans-Atlantic route as the ill-fated ship, according to organizers. A list of first class passengers for the R.M.S. Titanic is one of the artifacts that remains after the sinking. The Titanic Memorial Cruise is to set sail in April 2012, departing from Southampton, England, on April 8, just as the Titanic did. On April 15, the ship -- the Balmoral -- will arrive at the spot in the North Atlantic where the Titanic sank after it collided with an iceberg. Passengers on the 2012 cruise will take part in a memorial service at the site, according to organizer Miles Morgan Travel. Artifacts from the Titanic and a piece of the ship's hull have been recovered, but most of the wreckage remains where the luxury cruise liner sank. The 12-night memorial cruise will then take passengers to Halifax in Nova Scotia, Canada, so they can visit cemeteries where some of the Titanic victims are buried. The trip will end in New York, where the Titanic was headed. Prices for the trip start at $3,900. Millvina Dean, thought to be the last survivor of the Titanic, died in June 2009 at age 97, according to friends. Dean was an infant when the Titanic -- publicized as "practically unsinkable" and as the largest passenger steamship at the time -- struck an iceberg on the night of April 14, 1912, during its maiden voyage from Southampton in southern England to New York. The ship sank less than three hours later, killing more than 1,500 people. Dean's brother and mother also survived the sinking.
answer:

The Titanic Memorial Cruise is to set sail in April 2012, 100 years after the sinking .
It will depart from Southampton, England, on April 8, just as the Titanic did .
The trip will end in New York, where the Titanic was headed .


