T-Mobile Galaxy S4 now available online

$149.99 up-front, then $20 per month on 24-month not-a-contract

Following AT&T and Sprint's launch last week, the Samsung Galaxy S4 is now available from T-Mobile USA. Right now the device is only available online -- brick-and-mortar stores won't begin stocking the T-Mobile Galaxy S4 until May 8.

T-Mo's GS4, which comes with 16GB of storage in "white frost" and "black mist" color options, will run you $149.99 up-front, followed by installments of $20 for the next two years. That's a total of $629.99, and under the carrier's new pricing arrangements, you'll need to add a service plan on top of that.

Naturally, the Galaxy S4 also includes support for T-Mo's burgeoning 4G LTE network in addition to its more widespread 42Mbps DC-HSDPA.

For more on the Galaxy S4, be sure to read our full review. And if you're ordering a T-Mobile Galaxy S4 today, shout out and make yourself known in the comments.

Source: T-Mobile

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Italian policemen shot near new gov't swearing-in

ROME (AP) ? In the very moments Italy's new coalition government was being sworn in, ending months of political paralysis in a country hoping to revive a bleak economy, a middle-aged unemployed bricklayer opened fire Sunday in the square outside the premier's office, seriously wounding two policemen, authorities said.

The alleged gunman from Calabria, a southern region plagued by joblessness and organized crime, told investigators he wanted to shoot politicians. But finding none in the square, he instead shot at Carabinieri paramilitary police.

A bullet pierced one of the policemen in the neck, passing through his spinal column, doctors said, adding it wasn't yet known if the 50-year-old officer would have any paralysis. The other one was shot in the leg and suffered a fracture.

The newly sworn in interior minister, Angelino Alfano, said a preliminary investigation indicated the shooting, which also slightly injured a pregnant bystander, amounted to a "tragic criminal gesture of a 49-year-old unemployed" man.

But the shooting was also a violent expression of social tensions in Italy, where unemployment is soaring, an increasing number of businesses are shutting their doors permanently and new political corruption scandals make headlines nearly every day.

Politicians described the attack as a disturbing call to fix Italy's economy.

"From what we understand, it's mainly personal problems, work, personal debts" that fueled the gunman's attack, said Guglielmo Epifani, a top official in Premier Enrico Letta's center-left Democratic Party.

Epifani said in a state TV interview that while the financial crisis has caused some to commit suicide, "this is the first time someone shoots to kill" someone else "in a place filled with innocent people."

"The symbolism is there," he said. The political world "must highlight its responsibility during the crisis before the country," he said.

In brief comments to reporters after paying a hospital visit to the more seriously wounded policeman, Letta said, "it is a moment in which each must do one's own duty."

The 46-year-old Letta will speak to Parliament on Monday, laying out his strategy to reduce joblessness while still sticking to the austerity measures needed to keep the eurozone's No. 3 economy from descending into a sovereign debt crisis. He will then face confidence votes needed to confirm his government.

Prosecutors identified the gunman as Luigi Preiti. Jobless, with a broken marriage and reportedly burdened by gambling debts he couldn't pay, Preiti had recently returned from Italy's affluent north, where he could no longer find work. He moved into his parents' home in Rosarno, a bleak Calabrian farm town where unemployment was already endemic before the last years of stagnation and recession sent youth unemployment soaring to nearly 40 percent nationwide.

His intended target was politicians, but with none in the square, he shot at the Carabinieri paramilitary police, Rome Prosecutor Pierfilippo Laviani told reporters, citing what he said Preiti told him when he questioned him.

Preiti, who was taken to the hospital for bruises, confessed to the shooting and didn't appear mentally unbalanced, Laviani said.

"He is a man full of problems, who lost his job, who lost everything," the prosecutor said. "He was desperate."

Mired in recession and suffering from soaring unemployment, Italy had been in political deadlock since an inconclusive February election. Social and political tensions have been running high among voters divided among a center-left bloc, conservative parties and an anti-establishment protest movement, which capitalized on public disgust with politicians to become Parliament's No. 3 force in its first national election bid.

The leader of the protest 5 Star Movement, comedian-turned-politician Beppe Grillo, has been criticized for inflammatory statements in the past, including saying during a campaign rally that the Parliament building could be a bombing target. He incessantly derides mainstream politicians as the root of Italy's ills.

"Words thrown like stones can become bullets," Rome's right-wing mayor, Gianni Alemanno, said after the shooting.

Grillo swiftly moved to distance what he describes as a grass-roots political movement from any calls to violence.

"The movement isn't at all violent," Grillo said.

Sunday was supposed to be a hopeful day with a new government, which, only a day earlier, was forged out of two bitter political enemies. Letta's forces, with strong roots in a former Communist party as well as centrist Christian Democrats, and media mogul Silvio Berlusconi's center-right bloc had agreed after days of negotiations to a kind of truce coalition intent on economic, political and electoral reform.

Then the sound of shots pierced the happy chatter in Piazza Colonna, near a busy shopping street shortly just as Letta and his new ministers were taking their oaths at the sumptuous hall of the Quirinal presidential palace, about a kilometer (half mile) away.

Sky TG24 TV and RAI state TV each showed a split screen, on one side, the chaos of panicked people fleeing the square; on the other side, smiling ministers taking the oath of office to work for the good of the nation.

"When I heard the first shot, I turned around and saw a man standing there, some 15 meters (50 feet) away from me. He held his arm out and I saw him fire another five, six shots," AP Television cameraman Fanuel Morelli, who was amazed at what appeared to be the man's deliberate calm, said. "He was firing at the second Carabiniere, who was about 4 meters (13 feet) in front of him."

The gunman was immediately wrestled to the ground by police outside Chigi Palace, which houses the premier's office. The new ministers arrived at the premier's office about 90 minutes later, for their first Cabinet meeting, some of them coming by foot as a way to reassure the public the area was safe.

The shooting panicked tourists and locals in the square on a rare sunny day at the end of a four-day holiday weekend.

A video surveillance camera on the Parliament building caught the attacker on film just before and during the shooting, Italian news reports said. In the film, the shooter is seen walking at a steady pace along a narrow street that leads from near Parliament's lower house to the edge of Colonna Square, where police officers appear to have stopped him to ask where he was going. Shortly after that, the man begins firing, the surveillance camera showed, according to the reports.

Alfano said Preiti wanted to kill himself after the shooting, but ran out of bullets. He said six shots were fired in all. Laviani said the assailant had obtained his weapons on the black market. Sky reported that Preiti had taken a train to Rome from Calabria on Saturday, and that police found his car parked at a southern train station.

The interior minister said security was immediately stepped up near key venues in the Italian capital, but added authorities were not worried about possible related attacks.

"Our initial investigation indicates the incident is due to an isolated gesture, although further investigations are being carried out," he said.

The ministers were kept briefly inside for security reasons until it was clear there was no immediate danger.

Preiti's uncle, interviewed by Sky, said the alleged gunman had moved back to his parents' home in Calabria because he could no longer find work as a bricklayer. "He was a great worker. He could build a house from top to bottom," the uncle, Domenco Preiti, said.

The shooting revived ugly memories of the 1970s and 1980s in Italy, when domestic terrorism plagued the country during a time of high political tension between right-wing and left-wing blocs.

President Barack Obama wished the new Italian government well. The White House press office said Obama was looking forward to working closely with Letta's government "to promote trade, jobs, and growth on both sides of the Atlantic and tackle today's complex security challenges."

There was no direct reference to the shooting in the White House statement.

Trying to renew Italy's largely discredited political class, Letta brought many political newcomers into his Cabinet, including an eye surgeon who is a Congo native, and now is Italy's first black minister, in charge of integration issues involving the growing immigrant population.

But the new premier also sought to reassure European central bankers and EU officials anxious that his government will stay the austerity course set by Mario Monti, who replaced Berlusconi in 2011 to save Italy from sliding deeper into the sovereign debt crisis. Letta picked the Italian central bank's director general, who formerly worked at the International Monetary Fund, to hold the crucial economy ministry.

While the coalition's bitter rival blocs might be enjoying a truce, relations could deteriorate. Berlusconi has insisted that the government's first act should be undoing a highly unpopular property tax Monti established to help the state's coffers.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/italian-policemen-shot-near-govt-swearing-201756998.html

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Beyonce's 'Back To Black' Helps Make 'The Great Gatsby' A Bit 'Darker'

Jay-Z enlisted his superstar wife to put her spin on Amy Winehouse's classic tune.
By Jocelyn Vena, with reporting by Josh Horowitz

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1706513/beyonce-back-to-black-great-gatsby-soundtrack.jhtml

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Manchin: Gun bill to be reintroduced

WASHINGTON (AP) ? One of the architects of failed gun control legislation says he's bringing it back.

Sen. Joe Manchin on Sunday said he would re-introduce a measure that would require criminal and mental health background checks for gun buyers at shows and online. The West Virginia Democrat says that if lawmakers read the bill, they will support it.

Manchin sponsored a previous version of the measure with Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania. It failed.

Manchin says there was confusion over what was in the bill.

In the wake of last year's school shooting in Newtown, Conn., Congress took up gun control legislation, but it was blocked by supporters of the powerful pro-gun lobby, the National Rifle Association.

Manchin appeared on "Fox News Sunday."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-04-28-US-Gun-Control-Manchin/id-78decde1215e445cb3a06ce2255b5b65

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Edward Jay Epstein: The Amanda Knox Circus -- Again

Amanda Knox, even while appearing on prime time television in America to promote her book Waiting to Be Heard, is facing yet another murder trial in Italy for a crime -- of which, in 2011, after spending four years in prison, she was found innocent by an Italian appeals court. In throwing out the murder case against her, that court declared that the prosecution's charges were "not corroborated by any objective element of evidence." The revival of the baseless charges against Knox, and the tabloid frenzy it will no doubt stoke, proceeds from a five-year-long judicial circus in Italy.

Amanda Knox's ordeal began on November 1, 2007 with the brutal murder of Meredith Kercher, a 21-year-old British exchange student, in a ground-floor flat in a cottage shared by four young women in Perugia, Italy. When police arrived the next morning, they found Kercher's body with several knife wounds, her clothing strewn around, and a broken window. They did not find a murder weapon. It was a holiday weekend; the seven other tenants of the cottage -- including four men in the basement flat -- all claimed to have been away on the night of the murder, including one other exchange student who was there when the police arrived: Amanda Knox. Knox, an angel-faced 20-year-old student from Seattle, Washington, told police that she had spent the night at the home of her new boyfriend Raphaele Sollecito. Sollecito, who was standing with her, confirmed her alibi.

While the police investigators had no immediate witnesses to the murder and no murder weapon, they had a blood-stained bedroom in which the coroner determined that the victim was sexually assaulted and stabbed to death. This crime scene was crucial to solving the case since as the great French criminologist Edmond Locard suggested nearly a century ago, even the most careful criminal is likely to leave behind a hair, clothing fiber, a fingerprint or other trace of himself or herself. The crime scene in Perugia contained more than enough such clues fully to identify the assailant. There were 14 identifiable fingerprints in the room, a palm print on the blood-stained pillow under the victim's body, a sneaker print in the blood on the floor. DNA of a person other than Sollecito or any other tenant was found inside Kercher's vagina and on her purse. (Kercher's money was missing from that purse.) All those clues were marks of a single individual, though it took over a month to identify him. He was Rudy Guede, a 20-year-old drifter from the Ivory Coast, who had broken into other homes in the area. Less than a week before the murder, Guede had even been temporarily detained by police in Milan for breaking into a nursery and stealing an 11-inch kitchen knife.

The crime scene could establish from Guede's fingerprints that he had been inside the victim's room, from his DNA inside Kercher's vagina that he had had sexual contact with her, and from his sneaker impression found on the floor in her blood, his palm print found in her blood on the pillow, and his DNA found on her purse, that he had been in the room after she was stabbed. His description, moreover, fit that of a black man whom two witnesses had seen on the street running away from the cottage that night

Shortly after the murder, Guede had fled to Germany. It took more than a month to capture him. He was then extradited to Italy, tried, and in October of 2008, convicted of both the sexual assault upon Kercher and Kercher's murder.

The belated identification of a local burglar as the intruder and sexual assailant did not, however, end the ordeal of Amanda Knox. In the interim, the chief prosecutor, Giuliano Mignini had developed a theory that Knox - whom he described as a "she-devil" -- had murdered her roommate and staged the evidence of a break-in. Knox had been imprisoned. For Mignini to abandon his "she-devil" theory, even after Guede's arrest, could prove an embarrassment. In an earlier, so-called "Monster of Florence case," he had already advanced a "Satanic theory" -- in which he attributed a string of unsolved murders to a Satanic cult who killed young women to use their body parts in black masses. His efforts in that pursuit of a non-existent cult resulted in him being criminally indicted for prosecutorial misconduct. (He was still under that indictment in 2007.) If his "she-devil" characterization of Knox were to fail as well, the prosecutor might be further discredited.

The solution Mignini now found was to expand the "she-devil" theory to include Guede, and to claim that Knox teamed up with Guede and her boyfriend to kill her flat mate after a sex game.

The initial crime scene investigation had not produced a shred of evidence that Knox had been in the room at the time of the murder. Under interrogation, Knox had, however, lied to police. She had falsely told them that she had witnessed the Congolese-born owner of a nearby bar, Patrick Lumumba, murder Kercher. Knox had worked part-time for that bar. Lumumba denied having ever been at the cottage. He was, nonetheless, arrested -- as were Knox and her boyfriend Sollecito. Lumumba was fortunate enough to have a solid alibi for the night of the murder. He was released. Knox repudiated her accusation. In her new book, Waiting to Be Heard, she says the accusation was a pure fabrication, induced by police intimidation.

The false statement makes Knox a liar, but not at all, by implication, a murderer. A recent study of criminal justice in the U.S. by law professor Brandon Garrett shows it is not uncommon for innocent people to lie under police pressure; indeed no fewer than 40 people out of 250 who were convicted and later exonerated by DNA evidence, had falsely confessed to crimes they did not commit.

In Knox's case, Italian prosecutors in their subsequent investigation did find two bits of DNA that could support a conspiracy theory. The first was taken from a knife found in Sollecito's kitchen and matched Knox's DNA. The second bit of DNA was taken from Kercher's bra clasp and matched Sollecitto's DNA. As it turned out, both DNA samples were later invalidated by the appeals court because of a serious flaw: the police technician who examined them had failed to change her lab gloves between examining DNA samples, raising the possibility of cross-contamination. That "evidence" was invalidated, leaving none. In the absence of any physical evidence against them, Knox and Sollecito were acquitted by the appellate court.

In Italy, prosecutors have the right to appeal an acquittal. On March 25, 2013, at the request to the prosecutor, a court of Cassation overturned the acquittal of Knox, ordering her to be tried again for a crime, which an appellate court had found there was absolutely no evidence that she committed. The United States Constitution, under its double jeopardy provisions, protects individuals from being retried for crimes of which they have been acquitted. It would be a violation of Knox's constitutional rights as a United States citizen to return her to Italy to be tried again. It would also, of course, be a travesty of justice for an Italian prosecutor to use her case as a means to revive a his reputation, as an advocate of Satanic and "she-devil" conspiracy theory.

Edward Jay Epstein is the author of Annals of Unsolved Crimes

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ed-epstein/amanda-knox-italy_b_3174771.html

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Rebels attack sprawling air base in northern Syria

BEIRUT (AP) ? Syrian rebels attacked a sprawling military air base in the country's northwest on Saturday, while opposition forces assaulted a string of army checkpoints and positions in the south, activists said.

The raids follow nearly two weeks of advances by Syrian troops, mostly in the suburbs of the capital, Damascus, and in areas near the Lebanese border in the central province of Homs.

In Moscow, Syria's Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi denied recent U.S. charges that Syrian troops used chemical weapons against the rebels, saying Washington had leveled the accusation as a result of the latest victories by the army.

"The American hysteria about the use of chemical weapons was caused by the success of the Syrian Arab Army in striking terrorists," al-Zoubi was quoted by state TV as saying. The government refers to rebels as "terrorists."

The Obama administration said Thursday that intelligence indicates that government forces likely used the nerve gas sarin in two attacks.

Washington's declaration was its strongest on the topic so far, although the administration said it was still working to pin down definitive proof of the use of chemical weapons. It held back from saying Damascus had crossed what President Barack Obama has said would be a "red line" prompting tougher action in Syria.

The rebels accuse regime forces of firing chemical agents on at least four occasions since December, killing 31 people in the worst of the attacks. They say world inaction would only encourage Assad to use the weapons on a larger scale.

The regime countered that it was the rebels who fired chemical weapons ? pointing to their capture of a chemical factory last year as proof of their ability to do so.

In Saturday's fighting at the Abu Zuhour air base in northwestern Idlib province, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said there were casualties on both sides. The base has been under siege from the rebels for months.

The Observatory and the Local Coordination Committees said the Syrian air force conducted several air raids during the fighting to ease pressure on government troops inside the air base.

The state-run news agency SANA quoted a military official as saying the troops repelled the attack and inflicted "great losses" on the attackers.

Rebels control much of Idlib province, which borders Turkey, although government forces still hold some areas, including the provincial capital of the same name.

Elsewhere, the Aleppo Media Center said rebels had entered the Kweiras military air base in Aleppo province and destroyed its operations room. The base has been under siege for months.

The media center said battles inside the air base continued Saturday afternoon and that the Syrian air force had bombarded the facility.

The Observatory said a rebel commander, who headed the Two Shrines Brigade, was killed in the fighting around the base. It added that six government troops were also killed in the clashes.

In the southern province of Daraa, also known as the Houran plains, the Observatory and the LCC said rebels had launched a new offensive called "the Houran Volcano" in which they are targeting army checkpoints and positions.

The Observatory said there were an unknown number of casualties on both sides.

An amateur video posted online showed rebel artillery fire hitting al-Khudr military base, located on a hill near the town of Dael, also in the province. The crackle of gunfire could be heard in the distance.

The video appeared genuine and corresponded to other AP reporting on the events depicted.

The Observatory reported shelling and clashes in other areas, including Damascus and its suburbs as well as the central province of Homs and Deir el-Zour to the east that borders Iraq.

Syria's conflict started with largely peaceful anti-government protests in March 2011 but eventually turned into a civil war. More than 70,000 people have been killed, according to the United Nations.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch said Saturday that recent Syrian government air and missile strikes have caused civilian casualties in opposition-held areas in Aleppo province "in violation of the laws of war." It said the attacks left at least 84 people dead.

The rights group said its team in the province, which investigated recent attacks, said dozens of civilian homes also had been destroyed "without damaging any apparent opposition military targets."

During a recent seven-day mission to Aleppo, Human Rights Watch researchers documented five attacks between March 18 and April 7. It said that of the 84 killed in these attacks, 36 were children.

"In all the new cases, witnesses told Human Rights Watch that the only people killed or injured by the strikes had been civilians, and that only civilian buildings had been hit," the group said.

"In attack after attack in Aleppo, it is only civilians and civilian homes that are hit by government airstrikes," said Anna Neistat, associate program and emergencies director at Human Rights Watch. "The Syrian Air Force knows very well that using cluster bombs and raining down missiles and bombs indiscriminately on urban areas violates the laws of war."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rebels-attack-sprawling-air-northern-syria-095343787.html

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Mini-stroke could limit Algeria president ambition

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, right, shakes hands with his South African counterpart Jacob Zuma as they pose for photographers prior to their meeting at the presidential palace in Algiers, Algeria, Monday, April 15, 2013. (AP Photo/Anis Belghoul)

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, right, shakes hands with his South African counterpart Jacob Zuma as they pose for photographers prior to their meeting at the presidential palace in Algiers, Algeria, Monday, April 15, 2013. (AP Photo/Anis Belghoul)

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) ? The mini-stroke suffered by Algeria's president has cast fresh doubt on his perceived ambition to run for a fourth term next year as leader of one of Africa's largest and richest countries.

The possibility that President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, 76, could step down could affect the stability of this key U.S. ally in the fight against terror but might also open up its long-stagnant politics.

Bouteflika on Saturday had a brief blockage of a cerebral blood vessel known as a transient ischemic attack, which authorities said he quickly recovered from and had no lasting complications. He was sent to a military hospital in Paris for tests, however, and remained there Sunday night.

Algeria's state news agency has been uncommonly open about the president's latest health problem but insisted he will be back to work soon.

"He has not had any lasting damage and no motor or sensory function has been impaired," Rachid Bougherbal, the director of the institute of sports medicine, told the state news agency.

Such mini-strokes ? known as TIAs ? have symptoms of confusion and disorientation. They are quite brief but can re-occur. In a third of the cases, a full stroke can happen within a year, according to the American Stroke Association.

The mini-stroke has come during a delicate time in Bouteflika's 14-year-reign, as rumors over his poor health have proliferated and he has rarely appeared in public.

Charges of corruption have also dogged his administration. Terrorist groups, including one that carried out a massive attack on an Algerian gas field in January, are also known to be in remote desert areas along Algeria's borders.

There has also been a great deal of social unrest in this North African nation of 37 million, especially over Algeria's high unemployment rate.

Despite announcing that he would step down at the next presidential election, it is widely believed that Bouteflika wants to run for a fourth term in April 2014.

So convinced are residents of this unspoken desire of the president that there has been no talk of other candidates, only when he will make his announcement.

"This totally ends the chances of his fourth term," said Chafik Mesbah, a political analyst and former member of the military intelligence.

"This is ultimately a good thing," he added, explaining that the army and the intelligence services were increasingly upset over the rising tide of corruption.

Bouteflika's last term has seen a proliferation of corruption charges that have embroiled many of his former ministers and associates, mostly revolving around bribes paid by foreign companies to win lucrative oil or infrastructure contracts.

The charges had even reached up to the president's brother, Said Bouteflika, who had been amassing power as the leader's main adviser until he was forced to resign.

Even before the latest scare, the president's diminished health had been slowing down the pace of government, said analyst Mohammed Saidj.

"The council of ministers, which is an important institution for transmitting laws, hasn't met since December," he said. "All these absences can only be explained by one thing: his health doesn't allow him to assume the full duties of the president."

Bouteflika was elected in 1999 to a country with a devastated economy that had been savaged by years of civil war with Islamists. He is widely credited with ending the war and putting the country back on its feet, aided by soaring energy prices.

Algeria weathered the 2011 Arab Spring protests partly because of a lack of organized opposition but also because of massive sums spent on increasing subsidies and raising salaries to keep residents happy.

But as his health has declined, Bouteflika has become a shadow of his former energetic self when he was the world's youngest foreign minister in 1963 after Algeria won independence from France and became one of the faces of the non-aligned movement.

He doesn't seem to be ready, however, to let the next generation take over.

University of Algiers political professor Rachid Tlemcani said, like most authoritarian rulers, "he wishes to die in power."

But Tlemcani says Bouteflika stepping down would be a good thing for Algeria.

"I think the political game would be open, which would be really good," he said. "It can only be positive for Algeria ? the game has been very closed so far."

Life on the streets of Algiers, the capital, went on as usual the day after the president's health scare. Most people seemed more focused on the country's upcoming soccer club final.

Walking through Algiers' El Biar neighborhood, Achou Slimani shrugged.

"It's normal that he fell sick, it's not the first time," he said. "He was already sick, he recovered, he came back."

______

Associated Press writer Aomar Ouali contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-04-28-Algeria-President-Stroke/id-a4792c79ccc74021aec212dd11b44e27

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N. Korea charges U.S. man in plot to overthrow regime

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) ? North Korea announced Saturday that an American detained for nearly six months is being tried in the Supreme Court on charges of plotting to overthrow the government, a crime that could draw the death penalty if he is convicted.

The case involving Kenneth Bae, who has been in North Korean custody since early November, further complicates already fraught relations between Pyongyang and Washington following weeks of heightened rhetoric and tensions.

The trial mirrors a similar situation in 2009, when the U.S. and North Korea were locked in a standoff over Pyongyang's decision to launch a long-range rocket and conduct an underground nuclear test. At the time, North Korea had custody of two American journalists, whose eventual release after being sentenced to 12 years of hard labor paved the way for diplomacy following months of tensions.

Bae was arrested in early November in Rason, a special economic zone in North Korea's far northeastern region bordering China and Russia, according to official state media. In North Korean dispatches, Bae, a Korean American, is called Pae Jun Ho, the North Korean spelling of his Korean name.

The exact nature of his alleged crimes has not been revealed, but North Korea accuses Bae, described as a tour operator, of seeking to overthrow North Korea's leadership.

"In the process of investigation he admitted that he committed crimes aimed to topple the DPRK with hostility toward it," the state-run Korean Central News Agency said Saturday. "His crimes were proved by evidence. He will soon be taken to the Supreme Court of the DPRK to face judgment."

DPRK is the acronym for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. No timing for the verdict issued at the austere Supreme Court in Pyongyang was given.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the U.S. government is "aware of reports that a U.S. citizen will face trial in North Korea" and that officials from the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang had visited Bae on Friday. She said she had no other information to share.

Because Washington and Pyongyang do not have diplomatic relations, the Swedish Embassy in North Korea represents the United States in legal proceedings.

Friends and colleagues described Bae as a devout Christian from Washington state but based in the Chinese border city of Dalian who traveled frequently to North Korea to feed the country's orphans.

At least three other Americans detained in recent years also have been devout Christians. While North Korea's constitution guarantees freedom of religion, in practice only sanctioned services are tolerated by the regime.

Under North Korea's criminal code, crimes against the state can draw life imprisonment or the death sentence.

In 2009, American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee were sentenced to hard labor for trespassing and unspecified hostile acts after being arrested near the border with China and held for four months.

They were freed later that year to former President Bill Clinton, who flew to Pyongyang to negotiate their release in a visit that then-leader Kim Jong Il treated as a diplomatic coup.

Including Ling and Lee, Bae is at least the sixth American detained in North Korea since 2009. The others eventually were deported or released.

"For North Korea, Bae is a bargaining chip in dealing with the U.S.," said Koh Yu-hwan, a professor of North Korean Studies at Dongguk University in Seoul, South Korea. "The North will use him in a way that helps bring the U.S. to talks when the mood slowly turns toward dialogue."

As in 2009, Pyongyang is locked in a standoff with the Obama administration over North Korea's drive to build nuclear weapons.

Washington has led the campaign to punish Pyongyang for launching a long-range rocket in December and carrying out a nuclear test, its third, in February.

North Korea claims the need to build atomic weapons to defend itself against the United States, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea and over the past two months has been holding joint military drills with South Korea that have included nuclear-capable stealth bombers and fighter jets.

Diplomats from China, South Korea, the U.S., Japan and Russia have been conferring in recent weeks to try to bring down the rhetoric and find a way to rein in Pyongyang before a miscalculation in the region sparks real warfare.

South Korean defense officials said earlier in the month that North Korea had moved a medium-range missile designed to strike U.S. territory to its east coast.

The Korean Peninsula remains in a technical state of war because the three-year Korean conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, in 1953.

___

Associated Press writers Jean H. Lee in Pyongyang; Sam Kim and Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, South Korea, and Tom Strong in Washington contributed to this report. Follow Lee, AP's Korea bureau chief, at www.twitter.com/newsjean and Sam Kim at www.twitter.com/SamKim_AP.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nkorea-charges-us-man-plot-overthrow-regime-185113441.html

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Man named in ricin mailing case goes into hiding

SALTILLO, Miss. (AP) ? As investigators searched a Mississippi man's house earlier this week as part of their probe of poisoned letters sent to the president and others , Everett Dutschke answered reporters' questions but remarked, "I don't know how much more of this I can take."

The answer was apparently: Not much more.

On Thursday, Dutschke (pronounced DUHS'-kee), who has not been charged with a crime, had slipped from public view and stopped talking to the news media as investigators searched a home where he'd spent part of Wednesday. The home is about 20 miles away from his primary residence and former business in Tupelo, Miss., which had been searched earlier in connection with the letters that allegedly contained ricin.

Dutschke just needed to get away from all the media attention, a friend told The Associated Press on Thursday. Kirk Kitchens said he and Dutschke stayed at a home for a while Wednesday before slipping out through the woods to rendezvous with someone who drove Dutschke elsewhere.

"I just helped him get out of the spotlight," Kitchens said at his home in nearby Saltillo.

Although Dutschke has apparently gone into hiding, the man's attorney said he is cooperating and the FBI knows how to reach him.

As a plane circled overhead for much of the day, investigators on Thursday looked through the home where Dutschke spent time a day earlier.

Authorities are trying to determine who sent the letters last week to President Barack Obama, Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi and earlier to an 80-year-old Mississippi judge named Sadie Holland.

Charges were initially filed against an entertainer who is an Elvis impersonator, but then dropped. Attention then turned to Dutschke, who has ties to the former suspect and the judge and senator.

Dutschke has not been arrested or charged in the letters case. The FBI has said nothing about the building searches or Thursday's developments.

Dutschke's lawyer, Lori Nail Basham, said there is no arrest warrant for her client, who he said continues to cooperate with investigators.

Earlier Thursday, Itawamba County Sheriff Chris Dickinson said agents told him Dutschke had been under surveillance, but authorities weren't sure where he had gone. He said they were satisfied he was not at the Ozark property.

Dutschke did not answer a call to his cellphone Thursday from the AP. He had previously kept in touch with AP reporters.

It was yet another strange turn in the case that began when charges were filed against 45-year-old entertainer Paul Kevin Curtis, whose lawyers now say he was set up for the crime.

Charges against Curtis were dropped Tuesday after authorities said they developed new information. His attorney, Christi McCoy, has said she does not know what new information led the FBI to abandon the charges but that the agency acted in good faith and worked from the information it had at the time.

The focus then turned to Dutschke.

"I don't know how much more of this I can take," Dutschke said Tuesday as investigators combed through his house. His business was searched the next day.

Hal Neilson, another attorney for Curtis, said the defense gave authorities a list of people who may have had a reason to hurt Curtis, and Dutschke's name came up. He said prosecutors "took it and ran with it."

Dutschke and Curtis were acquainted. Curtis said they had talked about possibly publishing a book on an alleged conspiracy to sell body parts on a black market. But he claimed they later had a feud.

Judge Holland is a common link between two men who have been investigated and both know Wicker.

Holland was the presiding judge in a case in which Curtis was accused of assaulting a Tupelo attorney in 2004. Holland sentenced him to six months in the county jail. He served only part of the sentence, according to his brother.

Holland's family has had political skirmishes with Dutschke in the past.

Her son, Steve Holland, a state representative, said he believes his mother's only other encounter with Dutschke was at a rally in the town of Verona in 2007, when Dutschke ran as a Republican against Steve Holland.

Holland said his mother confronted Dutschke after he made a derogatory speech about the Holland family. She demanded that he apologize, which he did.

Steve Holland said he doesn't know if his mother remembers Curtis' assault case.

___

Associated Press writers Emily Wagster Pettus and Jeff Amy in Jackson, Miss., contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/man-named-ricin-mailing-case-goes-hiding-074605456.html

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Old standards greet fans on Jazz Fest's 2nd day

NEW ORLEANS (AP) ? At 101 years old, New Orleans jazz trumpeter Lionel Ferbos opened one of 12 stages on the second day of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Billy Joel brought the crowds and ended Day 2.

Couples danced and some sang along to old jazz standards such as "Back Home In Indiana" and "I Can't Give You Anything but Love" on Saturday.

Ferbos is believed to be the oldest actively working musician in the city. He performs regularly at the Palm Court Jazz Club in the French Quarter.

"He epitomizes New Orleans," said New Orleans resident Medora Monigold, a Jazz Fest veteran and fan of Ferbos. "In a day where the elders are not respected, he reminds us that wisdom and talent can exist at any age."

Monigold enjoyed a plate of seafood casserole and fried green tomatoes as she tapped her foot to the music.

Maryruth Senechal, of Hartford, Conn., said Ferbos was excellent. She said she catches his shows often at the Palm Court but prefers his performances at Jazz Fest.

"Here, I can dance and second-line. I love the old traditional brass band jazz," she said.

Senechal and her husband, Jean-Guy, have attended Jazz Fest 14 times and spend most of the festival at the jazz tent, where other acts for the day included trumpeter and singer Wendell Brunious and singer-pianist Tim Laughlin.

Brunious brought couples to their feet as he sang "I Will Never Be the Same" and "Big Chief," an upbeat number commonly performed at Mardi Gras that had many in the crowd dancing and hoisting umbrellas in the tradition known as second line. He closed his set with the New Orleans favorite "When the Saints Go Marching In."

On one of the bigger stages, the brass band Bonerama jammed before a crowd of thousands under sunny skies and a gentle breeze that broke through the warm temperatures.

"The sky is smiling upon us," said Quint Davis, the festival's producer. "We do it rain or shine, but we reach the spirit and zenith when in the sunshine."

Davis said Friday's opening day saw bigger crowds than last year.

That trend seemed to continue Saturday as thousands packed the grass spaces in front of the festival's largest stage to hear the day's final performer, Joel, who opened his set with "Movin' Out." He told the crowd that New York hurt with New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. "After Hurricane Sandy, we're taking inspiration from you guys," he said as the crowd cheered in response.

He also did his classics, "Only the Good Die Young" and "Piano Man."

On a nearby stage, neo-soul singer Jill Scott dazzled fans, singing several of her hits including "It's Love," ''The Way," ''So In Love," and "Quick."

New Orleans native Darnie Williams described herself as Scott's No. 1 fan.

"She's just awesome," she said of Scott in between dancing and singing along with her. "She's just a true soul sister. She's real and her music is so soulful, much like Aretha and Gladys Knight."

Jazz Fest continues through Sunday and then resumes May 2-5. Festival-goers will be treated to traditional jazz, rock 'n roll, Cajun, gospel, blues, hip-hop, funk and zydeco.

Second-weekend headliners include Hall and Oates, Fleetwood Mac, Little Big Town, Aaron Neville and Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews.

___

Associated Press writer Stacey Plaisance in New Orleans contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-04-27-Music-Jazz%20Fest/id-953b6e61009a4364b2574b345b34516b

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Civil Engineering Society honors NYU-Poly professor for service to students

Public release date: 26-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Kathleen Hamilton
hamilton@poly.edu
718-260-3792
Polytechnic Institute of New York University

NEW YORK, April 26, 2013 The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has awarded Jose Miguel Ulerio, an industry professor of civil and urban engineering at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University (NYU-Poly), a certificate of commendation from his outstanding work as the faculty advisor of NYU-Poly's ASCE Student Chapter.

"There is no faculty member with whom I have worked who is more dedicated to the success of his students than Professor Ulerio," said Professor Lawrence Chiarelli, who heads NYU-Poly's Department of Civil and Urban Engineering. "While he does not seek such recognition, it is most certainly deserved. We are lucky to have him on our faculty."

Ulerio, who was nominated by the chapter's student officers, earned his bachelor's degree in civil engineering from what was then Polytechnic Institute of New York in 1978 and his master's degree in transportation planning and engineering in 1980. His research includes highway capacity and level of service, traffic engineering and travel demand forecasting.

ASCE, founded in 1852, is the oldest national professional engineering society in the United States. The leading representative body for civil engineers in the nation. Worldwide, more than 120,000 professionals belong to ASCE, including 8,000 international members in 137 nations and over 15,000 students.

Among its many initiatives, the NYU-Poly Student Chapter regularly participates in the annual ASCE National Concrete Canoe Competition, which requires students to construct water-worthy canoes. The contest, sometimes called the "America's Cup of Civil Engineering," provides them with a practical application of the engineering principles they learn in the classroom, along with important team and project management skills they will need in their careers. Industry Professor Weihua Jin is the team's advisor.

The NYU-Poly students also take part in the Student Steel Bridge Competition, sponsored by ASCE and the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC). The contest simulates real-world project experience from conception and design through fabrication, erection, and testing, culminating in a steel structure that meets client specifications and optimizes performance and economy. Roula Maloof and Alfonso Whu, faculty in the NYU-Poly Department of Civil and Urban Engineering, mentor this team.

This year, the NYU-Poly Student Chapter will host the concrete canoe and steel bridge competitions as part of the annual ASCE Metropolitan Regional Conference of Student Chapters April 26 - 28, 2013.

NYU-Poly's Department of Civil and Urban Engineering currently educates more than 500 undergraduate and graduate students and focuses on civil engineering in the urban environment. Programs include construction management, transportation engineering and management, environmental engineering and related fields. It is affiliated with the NYU Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP), with jointly appointed faculty.

###

About Polytechnic Institute of New York University

The Polytechnic Institute of New York University (formerly the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and the Polytechnic University, now widely known as NYU-Poly) is an affiliated institute of New York University, soon to be its School of Engineering. NYU-Poly, founded in 1854, is the nation's second-oldest private engineering school. It is presently a comprehensive school of education and research in engineering and applied sciences, rooted in a 159-year tradition of invention, innovation and entrepreneurship. It remains on the cutting edge of technology, innovatively extending the benefits of science, engineering, management and liberal studies to critical real-world opportunities and challenges, especially those linked to urban systems, health and wellness, and the global information economy. In addition to its programs on the main campus in New York City at MetroTech Center in downtown Brooklyn, it offers programs around the globe remotely through NYUe-Poly. NYU-Poly is closely connected to engineering in NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Shanghai and to the NYU Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP) also at MetroTech, while operating two incubators in downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn. For more information, visit http://www.poly.edu.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 26-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Kathleen Hamilton
hamilton@poly.edu
718-260-3792
Polytechnic Institute of New York University

NEW YORK, April 26, 2013 The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has awarded Jose Miguel Ulerio, an industry professor of civil and urban engineering at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University (NYU-Poly), a certificate of commendation from his outstanding work as the faculty advisor of NYU-Poly's ASCE Student Chapter.

"There is no faculty member with whom I have worked who is more dedicated to the success of his students than Professor Ulerio," said Professor Lawrence Chiarelli, who heads NYU-Poly's Department of Civil and Urban Engineering. "While he does not seek such recognition, it is most certainly deserved. We are lucky to have him on our faculty."

Ulerio, who was nominated by the chapter's student officers, earned his bachelor's degree in civil engineering from what was then Polytechnic Institute of New York in 1978 and his master's degree in transportation planning and engineering in 1980. His research includes highway capacity and level of service, traffic engineering and travel demand forecasting.

ASCE, founded in 1852, is the oldest national professional engineering society in the United States. The leading representative body for civil engineers in the nation. Worldwide, more than 120,000 professionals belong to ASCE, including 8,000 international members in 137 nations and over 15,000 students.

Among its many initiatives, the NYU-Poly Student Chapter regularly participates in the annual ASCE National Concrete Canoe Competition, which requires students to construct water-worthy canoes. The contest, sometimes called the "America's Cup of Civil Engineering," provides them with a practical application of the engineering principles they learn in the classroom, along with important team and project management skills they will need in their careers. Industry Professor Weihua Jin is the team's advisor.

The NYU-Poly students also take part in the Student Steel Bridge Competition, sponsored by ASCE and the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC). The contest simulates real-world project experience from conception and design through fabrication, erection, and testing, culminating in a steel structure that meets client specifications and optimizes performance and economy. Roula Maloof and Alfonso Whu, faculty in the NYU-Poly Department of Civil and Urban Engineering, mentor this team.

This year, the NYU-Poly Student Chapter will host the concrete canoe and steel bridge competitions as part of the annual ASCE Metropolitan Regional Conference of Student Chapters April 26 - 28, 2013.

NYU-Poly's Department of Civil and Urban Engineering currently educates more than 500 undergraduate and graduate students and focuses on civil engineering in the urban environment. Programs include construction management, transportation engineering and management, environmental engineering and related fields. It is affiliated with the NYU Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP), with jointly appointed faculty.

###

About Polytechnic Institute of New York University

The Polytechnic Institute of New York University (formerly the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and the Polytechnic University, now widely known as NYU-Poly) is an affiliated institute of New York University, soon to be its School of Engineering. NYU-Poly, founded in 1854, is the nation's second-oldest private engineering school. It is presently a comprehensive school of education and research in engineering and applied sciences, rooted in a 159-year tradition of invention, innovation and entrepreneurship. It remains on the cutting edge of technology, innovatively extending the benefits of science, engineering, management and liberal studies to critical real-world opportunities and challenges, especially those linked to urban systems, health and wellness, and the global information economy. In addition to its programs on the main campus in New York City at MetroTech Center in downtown Brooklyn, it offers programs around the globe remotely through NYUe-Poly. NYU-Poly is closely connected to engineering in NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Shanghai and to the NYU Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP) also at MetroTech, while operating two incubators in downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn. For more information, visit http://www.poly.edu.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/pion-ces042613.php

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American jihadi in Somalia tweets on kill attempt

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) ? A most-wanted American jihadi in Somalia said Friday that the leader of Islamic extremist rebels in Somali was starting a civil war, just hours after an assassination attempt left the Alabama native with a neck wound.

Omar Hammami posted on Twitter about what he labeled an assassination attempt late Thursday as he was sitting in a tea shop. He posted four pictures, one of which shows his face with blood on his neck and a dark blood-stained t-shirt.

Hammami, one of the two most notorious Americans in overseas jihadi groups, moved from Alabama to Somalia and joined al-Shabab in about 2006. He fought alongside the al-Qaida-linked group for years while gaining fame for posting YouTube videos of jihadi rap songs.

But Hammami had a falling out with al-Shabab and has engaged in a public fight with the group over the last year amid signs of increasing tension between Somalis and foreign fighters in the group. He first expressed fear for his life in an extraordinary web video in March 2012 that publicized his rift with al-Shabab. He said he received another death threat earlier this year that was not carried out.

"Just been shot in neck by shabab assassin. not critical yet," Hammami tweeted late Thursday. On Friday he wrote that the leader of al-Shabab was sending in forces from multiple directions. "we are few but we might get back up. abu zubayr has gone mad. he's starting a civil war," Hammami posted.

Hammami has been a thorn in the side of al-Shabab after accusing the group's leaders of living extravagant lifestyles with the taxes fighters collect from Somali residents. Another Hammami grievance is that the Somali militant leaders sideline foreign militants inside al-Shabab and are concerned only about fighting in Somalia, not globally. Hammami's Friday comment about a civil war could refer to violence between those two groups.

Al-Shabab slapped Hammami publicly in a December Internet statement, saying his video releases are the result of personal grievances that stem from a "narcissistic pursuit of fame." The statement said al-Shabab was morally obligated to stamp out his "obstinacy."

Hammami has enemies on all sides. The U.S. named Hammami to its Most Wanted terrorist list in March and is offering a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture. Al-Shabab fighters are not eligible for the reward.

Along with Adam Gadahn in Pakistan ? a former Osama bin Laden spokesman ? Hammami is one of the two most notorious Americans in jihad groups. He grew up in Daphne, Alabama, a bedroom community of 20,000 outside Mobile. He is the son of a Christian mother and a Syrian-born Muslim father.

Hammami regularly chats on Twitter with a group of American terrorism experts, conversations that are so colloquial and so infused with Americana that many in the counter-terror field have formed a type of digital bond with Hammami.

After Hammami publicized the assassination attempt, one of his Twitter followers, a counter-terrorism expert from Canada, wrote that Hammami had nine lives. Hammami responded with an apparent reference to the movie The Blues Brothers. "'I'm on a mission from God.' minus the blues music," Hammami wrote.

After the shooting, American terrorism expert J.M. Berger, who has a long-running Twitter relationship with Hammami, posted that it looks like Hammami came within a quarter-inch of death. "Perhaps it's time to come in now," Berger tweeted.

Berger wrote on his blog, Selectedwisdom.com, that the attack proves that Hammami should fear for his life. Berger said Hammami's anti-Shabab social rants were annoying the militant group and he predicted conflict between Somali militants and foreign fighters.

"If there is going to be a war inside Shabaab, I'm guessing it will happen soon," Berger wrote.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/american-jihadi-somalia-tweets-kill-attempt-092939991.html

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Marathon deaths prompt review of security policy

In this photo taken Wednesday, April 24, 2013, a security guard checks the backpack of a fan entering AT&T Park before a baseball game between the San Francisco Giants and the Arizona Diamondbacks in San Francisco. Major League Baseball's previously scheduled security meeting in New York took on added importance in the aftermath of the marathon bombs. Each team sets its own security standards, although clubs might consider cutting the size of the general major league limitation on bags from 16x16x8 inches to something less.(AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

In this photo taken Wednesday, April 24, 2013, a security guard checks the backpack of a fan entering AT&T Park before a baseball game between the San Francisco Giants and the Arizona Diamondbacks in San Francisco. Major League Baseball's previously scheduled security meeting in New York took on added importance in the aftermath of the marathon bombs. Each team sets its own security standards, although clubs might consider cutting the size of the general major league limitation on bags from 16x16x8 inches to something less.(AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

In this photo taken Tuesday, April 23, 2013, fans have their backpacks searched by security personnel prior to entering AT&T Park for a baseball game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the San Francisco Giants in San Francisco. Major League Baseball's previously scheduled security meeting in New York took on added importance in the aftermath of the marathon bombs. Each team sets its own security standards, although clubs might consider cutting the size of the general major league limitation on bags from 16x16x8 inches to something less. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

In this photo taken Tuesday, April 23, 2013, security personnel check bags as fans enter the American Airlines Arena before the start of Game 2 of the first-round NBA basketball playoff series between the Miami Heat and the Milwaukee Bucks in Miami. NBA spokesman Tim Frank said, "We regularly practice a wide range of state of the art security measures in all of our arenas." (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

In this photo taken April 23, 2013, a New York City police officer watches as fans stop to have their bags checked by security before entering Citi Field for a baseball game between the New York Mets and the Los Angeles Dodgers in New York. Major League Baseball's previously scheduled security meeting in New York took on added importance in the aftermath of the marathon bombs. Each team sets its own security standards, although clubs might consider cutting the size of the general major league limitation on bags from 16x16x8 inches to something less. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek)

Left unattended, no accessory looks as menacing these days as a backpack.

At the airport. On the subway. At a sports event.

And, as a result of the two backpack-encased bombs that exploded near the finish line at the Boston Marathon, sports teams and leagues around the world are rethinking what kind of bags, satchels, purses and, yes, black nylon backpacks should be allowed inside stadiums and arenas.

The packs will even be the focal point of a conference this summer of stadium-security personnel in Orlando .

"After what happened ... I wouldn't be surprised if the number of people eliminating backpacks would increase," said Lou Marciani, director of the National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security, founded in 2006 and based at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg.

Next Saturday, more than 165,000 people are expected at Churchill Downs for the Kentucky Derby. Backpacks, duffel bags and large purses have been banned from the track since 2002 ? part of the clamp-down that followed the Sept. 11 attacks. Still, Derby officials have told fans their bags will undergo increased security checks for this year's race.

No matter where the world ends up on the bag-check spectrum, some fans may never again regard the pack slung across their body quite the same way.

"I never really thought about backpacks until last week, and now you notice backpacks all over the place," said Ryan Hershberger of Hartwell, Ga., as he headed into a Colorado Rockies game carrying a black backpack. "It makes you think."

Down the street, at the Denver Nuggets game, a handful of fans shared the same sentiment.

"I've been thinking about it all day," Joel Cross said on the concourse at the Pepsi Center in Denver. He and his wife traveled from Harrisburg, Neb., to attend Tuesday night's Nuggets playoff game. "We're from a community where our whole county only has 600 people in it. Nobody is going to bomb us because there's no one there. But we're coming to a populated area."

The NFL beefed up security for thousands of fans attending its annual draft, which runs through Saturday, with metal detectors, pat-downs and about 20 percent more personnel in place than previous years. Backpacks are banned. The league said it would consider what, if any, changes might be made for the 2013 season, which ends with the Super Bowl in New York next February.

Major League Baseball's security officials met Thursday but Commissioner Bud Selig said no changes are expected in the rules on bags fans can bring to ballparks, generally limited to 16x16x8 inches. The meeting was scheduled before the Boston explosions that killed three and injured more than 260/

"I wouldn't say that Boston has changed anything," Selig said. "Each club makes its own decision."

At Yankee Stadium, for example, briefcases, coolers and other hard-sided bags or containers are not permitted. At Kansas City's Kauffman Stadium, wrapped presents are banned along with cameras with lenses of 12 or more inches. The Baltimore Orioles ban bags with wheels at Camden Yards.

Boston and San Francisco were among the teams opting to use metal-detecting wands on fans and their possessions this week.

"We've added people, and people are getting in faster now, so we're going to stick with the plan," Giants president and CEO Larry Baer said.

Though the marathon bombings caught the attention of the world, not every event or championship, especially overseas, is beefing up or changing security measures.

For instance, officials at Manchester United, the FA Cup final and the European Champions League say their policies, which either ban large bags or strongly discourage them, are under constant review but not set to change.

"We did, of course, contact the police in the aftermath of the Boston bombings, as part of our commitment to the security of fans and visitors to the stadium," Manchester United said in a statement.

At Wimbledon, where tennis action starts in June, no changes are planned.

"It was a terrible event, but we have no reason to believe it's something that has a direct impact on Wimbledon," All-England Club chief executive Richard Lewis said, referring to the Boston explosions.

At the Summer Olympics in London, soft-sided bags were required to fit under seats and couldn't hold more than 25 liters (6 gallons).

Sebastian Coe, who led London's organizing committee, says a ban on backpacks at sports events would not be justified.

"We have to make some pretty tough decisions in the way we want to live our lives," he said. "It's very easy to draw all sorts of conclusions (from the Boston bombings). Do we want to live in a world where people can't wear backpacks to sporting events? I'm not sure we do."

Organizers in Brazil aren't making any radical changes to their backpack policy for the upcoming Confederations Cup or next year's World Cup. So far, the extensive list of prohibited items includes "unwieldy" bags ? no more than 10x10x10 inches and too big to fit under a seat.

Officials in Russia, which hosts the 2018 World Cup, said that whenever a sports-related tragedy occurs, they review what happened "to ensure that our own regulations and procedures are sufficiently covering such potential tragedies or risks."

In Sochi, Russia, site of February's Winter Olympics, security for test events was so stringent that the president of the international skiing federation, Gian Franco Kasper, cracked, "The only moment they didn't inspect our athletes was during the race."

International Olympic Committee member Dick Pound of Canada said one strategy might be to push back security boundaries.

"I remember in Vancouver and other places, the tension between the organizers and the events and the security folks was over the size of the perimeter," Pound said. "If you can move the perimeter back 50 or 100 meters, a backpack bomb is going to have less lethal effect."

In the U.S., NBA spokesman Tim Frank wouldn't comment on specific security practices, beyond saying: "We regularly practice a wide range of state of the art security measures in all of our arenas." The Nuggets have long used wands and searched bags. But Cross' wife, Shelly, said she noticed a more extensive security presence at Tuesday's game than the last time they made the trip to Denver.

"We were here not too long ago and we don't remember this," she said.

At least one backpack developer said she was unaware of any pending changes to basic designs. She also thought the bombings were unlikely to create a need for see-thru or clear backpacks.

"I don't think people want to share their belongings with everyone. Everyone wants their privacy," said Annelies Mertens, a member of the Samsonite development team in Belgium. "I don't think this will have an influence on the way backpacks are made. I don't see that happening."

While the Boston Marathon presented its own set of difficult challenges ? securing a 26-mile course dotted with trash cans and spectators on almost every block ? one expert says there's no such thing as perfect security guidelines, regardless of venue.

"A no-backpack policy is fine if it applies to everyone," said Derek Catsam, an associate professor at University of Texas of the Permian Basin in Odessa who has studied the safety issue in stadiums. "But then you start making exceptions for people with kids, and for the elderly and for women with purses and people in expensive seats. Where does it end? You can have a policy or not have a policy. But once you start selectively enforcing it, that's going to be problematic."

After the bombings, the NHL's Boston Bruins added metal-detecting wands to their security regimen and checked cars parking in a garage underneath the arena. Security measures vary by arena in the NHL. The New York Islanders, for example, don't allow backpacks; the Detroit Red Wings ban oversized bags and search all bags that are allowed in.

Catsam said security can always be ratcheted up, but then comes the issue of how much convenience people are willing to give up for the sake of safety.

"They could start saying you can bring whatever kind of backpack you want but you have to go through an X-ray system like you do at the airport," he said. "It would take forever and we'd adjust, but I'm not sure what we'll discover or if we'll be making anything really safer."

Marciani, on the other hand, envisions a day when backpacks are as obsolete at a stadium as the bulky transistor radios that fans once brought along so they could listen to play-by-play as they watched the game.

"I think it's just one less aggravation we'd have to put up with," he said. "I'd just say, 'Why backpacks at a stadium?' I don't think we need them."

___

AP Sports Writers Pat Graham in Denver, Howard Fendrich in Washington, Stephen Wilson, Rob Harris, Steve Douglas and Chris Lehourites in London, Tales Azzoni in Sao Paolo, Brazil, Janie McCauley in San Francisco, Jon Krawczynski in Minneapolis, Graham Dunbar in Geneva, Jimmy Golen in Boston, Ben Walker and Ron Blum in New York, David Ginsburg in Baltimore and Bernie Wilson in San Diego and Associated Press reporter Peter Banda contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-04-26-Sports-Security-Backpacks/id-b6e1a6a956644ccbb00dd2e3865f6019

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Guardians of the Galaxy Villain Update: Lee Pace to Play the Role?

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/guardians-of-the-galaxy-villain-update-lee-pace-to-play-the-role/

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The problem isn't just illegal immigration, it's legal immigration, too ...

• 

The people of Boston are no longer being terrorized by the Marathon bombers, but amnesty supporters sure are.

On CNN?s ?State of the Union? last weekend, Sen. Lindsey Graham?s response to the Boston Marathon bombers being worthless immigrants who hate America ? one of whom the FBI cleared even after being tipped off by Russia ? was to announce: ?The fact that we could not track him has to be fixed.?

Track him? How about not admitting him as an immigrant?

As if it?s a defense, we?re told Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (of the Back Bay Tsarnaevs) were disaffected ?losers? ? the word used by their own uncle ? who couldn?t make it in America. Their father had already returned to Russia. Tamerlan had dropped out of college, been arrested for domestic violence and said he had no American friends. Dzhokhar was failing most of his college courses. All of them were on welfare.

(Dzhokhar was given everything America had to offer, and now he only has one thing in his future to look forward to ? a tenured professorship.)

My thought is, maybe we should consider admitting immigrants who can succeed in America, rather than deadbeats.

But we?re not allowed to ?discriminate? in favor of immigrants who would be good for America. Instead of helping America, our immigration policies are designed to help other countries solve their internal problems by shipping their losers to us.

The problem isn?t just illegal immigration. I would rather have doctors and engineers sneaking into the country than legally arriving ditch-diggers.

Teddy Kennedy?s 1965 immigration act so dramatically altered the kinds of immigrants America admits that, since 1969, about 85 percent of legal immigrants have come from the Third World. They bring Third World levels of poverty, fertility, illegitimacy and domestic violence with them. When they can?t make it in America, they simply go on welfare and sometimes strike out at Americans.

In addition to the four dead and more than 100 badly wounded victims of the Boston Marathon bombing, let?s consider a few of the many other people who would be alive, but for Kennedy?s immigration law:

? The six Long Island Railroad passengers murdered in 1993 by Jamaican immigrant Colin Ferguson. Before the shooting, Ferguson was unemployed, harassing women on subways, repeatedly bringing lawsuits against police and former employers, applying for workman?s compensation for fake injuries and blaming all his problems on white people. Whom he then decided to murder.

? The two people killed outside CIA headquarters in 1993 by Pakistani illegal immigrant Mir Qazi. He had been working as a driver for a courier company. (It?s nearly impossible to find an American who can drive.)

? Christoffer Burmeister, a 27-year-old musician killed in a mass shooting by Palestinian immigrant Ali Hassan Abu Kamal in 1997 at the Empire State Building. Hassan had immigrated to America with his family two months earlier at age 68. (It?s a smart move to bring in immigrants just in time to pay them Social Security benefits!)

? Bill Cosby?s son, Ennis, killed in 1997 by 18-year-old Ukrainian immigrant Mikhail Markhasev, who had come to this country with his single mother eight years earlier ? because we were running short on single mothers.

Markhasev, who had a juvenile record, shot Cosby point-blank for taking too long to produce his wallet. He later bragged about killing a ?n*gger.?

? The three people murdered at the Appalachian School of Law in 2002 by Nigerian immigrant Peter Odighizuwa, angry at America because he had failed out of law school. At least it?s understandable why our immigration policies would favor a 43-year-old law student. It?s so hard to get Americans to go to law school these days!

Source: http://dailycaller.com/2013/04/24/the-problem-isnt-just-illegal-immigration-its-legal-immigration-too/

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