Court seeks 'Stand Your Ground' answer from Goerge Zimmerman

By Barbara Liston

ORLANDO (Reuters) - Prosecutors in Florida want George Zimmerman to state publicly at a court hearing on Tuesday whether he will pursue his immunity defense in the 2012 shooting death of teenager Trayvon Martin on the basis of the state's "Stand Your Ground" law, or waive his right to use it.

Prosecutors asked Judge Debra Nelson in a motion to remind Zimmerman "that should defendant in fact wish to waive any pre-trial immunity challenge under this statute, he may not attempt to do so later, particularly once trial has commenced."

Zimmerman will attend Tuesday's hearing, according to his lawyer, Mark O'Mara. However, O'Mara told Reuters he hadn't decided what he will do if the judge tries to question his client.

"I know the state would like to have that information, it seems. I don't feel compelled to advise anybody of my strategy in this case," O'Mara said.

Zimmerman goes on trial June 10 on a second-degree murder charge for shooting Martin after prosecutors say he profiled and confronted the unarmed black teenager, despite a police dispatcher instructing him not to do so.

Zimmerman, 29, was a neighborhood watch volunteer at the time and Martin was walking back to a town home in the gated community in Sanford, Florida, with snacks to eat while watching a televised basketball game in February last year.

O'Mara has talked publicly about pursuing immunity for Zimmerman under Florida's controversial "Stand Your Ground" statute, which bars prosecution of someone who is in fear of his life and shoots rather than retreats. O'Mara canceled a scheduled hearing earlier this month to make the case, but told Reuters he believes he has the right to raise the immunity defense at any time during the trial.

"If you can convince someone, a judge, by preponderance of evidence that you acted in self defense, then you're immune, and that can happen however it happens," O'Mara said.

Prosecutors want to pin Zimmerman down on the record over waiving his right to pursue immunity in order to pre-empt the possibility that he might try to revive it after trial if he is found guilty, according to the motion. O'Mara said it would be difficult to raise the issue post-conviction.

Nelson also will hear a defense request to unseal a settlement between Martin's parents and the homeowner's association at The Retreat at Twin Lakes subdivision where Martin was killed.

The association's insurance company at one point offered its policy limit of $1 million to the family, according to correspondence between the insurance company and association attached to the motion. The defense argues that the jury should be able to consider the financial interest of potential witnesses in the case.

(Editing by David Adams and Christopher Wilson)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/florida-teenagers-shooter-faces-deadline-court-110517464.html

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Photo artist draws on tragic current events and kids for inspiration

OTTAWA - For Picasso's masterpiece Guernica, it was the German bombing of a Spanish town. For Ottawa art photographer Jonathan Hobin's Twins, it was 9/11.

Current events have always inspired art and Hobin's latest instalment in his controversial series "In the Playroom" is an arresting modern example.

Each of his photos depicts children at play re-enacting tragic public events.

Hobin, 33, has portrayed familiar stories, such as a Halloween-inspired Abu Ghraib prison scene, a portrait of the late North Korean dictator Kim Jong il, and JonBen?t Ramsay dressed in a pageant gown, among others.

He says the child models in his photographs are unpaid volunteers, and are either the children of friends and family, or models from agencies.

"I definitely would never have photographed a child unless I fully communicated what I was going to do," he said in an interview.

Parents "had to believe in what I was doing if I was going to photograph their child."

The idea for the series came after Hobin witnessed the repeated and unforgettable images of the planes striking the World Trade Center towers on 9/11.

"I started to think: 'I'm an adult and I can kind of handle what that means,'" he said.

"But with someone who is not as equipped as I am with problem-solving or just life experiences, how are they going to see that sort of thing? How are they going to comprehend what that means?"

By portraying children acting out headline-grabbing news events, Hobin explores how young minds deal with the unsettling side of the modern media-scape.

"It goes back to this whole notion that children always have incorporated things they see in popular culture into their play," he said.

"In fact, science shows that children need to physically re-enact things in order to process them. There's a tactile nature to their minds."

In one of Hobin's newest photographs, GOT HIM!, a marine with a toy gun shoots Osama Bin Laden in a messy ketchup-blood scene beside a kitchen fridge.

Hobin says his work has been polarizing. In between critical praise and gifts from fans, he's received death threats and accusations of pedophilia.

"It was quite a surprise, but I'd rather have people be excited and energetic about what I'm doing than really blas? about the whole thing."

Asked whether he would depict the recent Boston Marathon bombings, Hobin said such events need time to play out in the culture before he can consider reflecting the stories visually.

"It took probably about six or seven years before I did the 9/11 attacks. You kind of let the dust settle and see how it plays out," he said.

He says that while kids use play as a tool to process, it also reflects their emotional resilience versus the fragility of adulthood.

"They might be better equipped to survive the emotional side of what's happening at this age than we are as adults."

Starting Thursday, 17 of Hobin's images from "In the Playroom" will be released as a feature exhibition in Toronto's Contact photography festival at the Gladstone Hotel, in partnership with the Patrick Mikhail Gallery.

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On the web: www.jhobin.com

Source: http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/Photo+artist+draws+tragic+current+events+kids/8306764/story.html

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HTC 608t spied, brings dual speakers to a One SV-like design

HTC might be gearing up for a wider audio assault. Just days after the 606w made a pass through China's TENAA with stereo sound, a 608t cousin has made the agency rounds carrying its own pair of front speakers. If the 608t looks familiar, it should -- it's effectively a spin on the One SV body (or rather, the somewhat similar One ST from China) with both the reworked audio as well as the same navigation layout that first appeared on the One. While we can't verify rumors that the 608t will step up to Jelly Bean, a quad-core chip and an 8-megapixel rear camera, the TENAA report does show that it will include TD-SCDMA for China Mobile as well as GSM and WiFi. However subtle an upgrade the phone will be, about all that's left is for HTC to orchestrate a formal launch.

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Win of the day: Weather Channel pummels interns with 'tornado'

Tornado Week kicked off today for the Weather Channel ? both on screen and in the network's office.?

The channel has announced a Twitter campaign to promote its upcoming mega-block of tornado-centric programming. Weather Channel interns will be buffeted by a "Twitter-powered tornado" throughout the day, which can be seen on a live feed streaming to the web. The more tweets referencing the campaign's #TornadoWeek hashtag, the harder the artificial wind blows. Should the campaign notch one million mentions, the winds will hit?EF-5 levels. On the Enhanced Fujita Scale, EF-5 is the fiercest type of tornado, with winds topping 200 miles per hour.

By midafternoon, the campaign had racked up thousands of tweets ? many of them, perhaps unsurprisingly, snarky ? as curious Twitter users sought to make things more interesting for themselves, and for those wind-battered interns.

You can watch the live stream above. If you get bored, you know what to do.

Source: http://theweek.com/article/index/243432/win-of-the-day-weather-channel-pummels-interns-with-tornado

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Lonely year for French president at time of crisis

PARIS (AP) ? The sounds of raucous protest echo in the Presidential Palace, unemployment is rising to levels not seen in over a decade, and his country's economy has been called a potential time bomb at the heart of Europe.

Francois Hollande, among the most unpopular French leaders in modern history, remains calm.

Lacking the early-career charisma of President Barack Obama or the hard-nosed reputation of Germany's Angela Merkel, Hollande rose to power in the Socialist Party as a consensus-builder ? someone who went out of his way to avoid confrontation. But the amiability that propelled him to the presidency a year ago is turning against Hollande, as poll after poll finds deep disappointment among many who believe he is incapable of the swift, determined choices needed to yank France out of a malaise he himself says threatens generations to come.

"I remain solid and serene," Holland told a handful of journalists in his office at the Presidential Palace, above the shouts of a crowd demonstrating against his plan to legalize gay marriage. Without camouflaging the difficulties, he admitted it's been a trying year. "I grasp the seriousness ? it's the task of the president to remain steady and to see further than the storms of a moment. It's called perseverance."

Judgment, he said in the interview earlier this month, will come only at the end of his five-year term.

But, seated comfortably in his office armchair, Hollande insisted he was anything but indecisive.

"My will is to pull the country together and restore its confidence. This will take time, but I have no other goal," he said. "You can criticize my decisions, think that I'm on the wrong path, say I'm foundering, but if there's one thing I'm sure of, it's that I've made major choices for France in the past year."

He cited the accord reached in January between unions and business leaders to relax some of France's famously strict labor protections. Hollande had championed the agreement, saying the costs and difficulties of hiring in France were hurting its ability to compete globally. But unemployment has only risen since then, and the brief optimism generated by the agreement ? which is expected to become law by next month ? has since faded. This week, it reached 10.6 percent, the highest level since 1999.

Hollande talks a lot about the French intervention in Mali, by far his most popular act in office. But, despite Hollande's best efforts, France was alone among European countries in sending soldiers, and French forces outnumbered any Africans sent to win Mali back from the militants who threatened to seize the entire country.

"I became president at an exceptional time," said Hollande, who tends to speak deliberately and formally even in relaxed settings. "Exceptional on the economic front: a long crisis, a recession in Europe, unemployment at historic levels. Exceptional because I was forced to engage France in Mali. Exceptional because populism is taking hold, not just in France, but throughout Europe."

Bernard Poignant, a Socialist who is Hollande's friend of 30 years and also one of his advisors, said the president started his term at a hugely difficult moment for his leftist base.

"Traditionally the left, when it comes to power, is generous, redistributive of wealth," he said. "Today, it's the reverse. The right emptied the coffers and now the left must fill them."

Economists say that France's predicament stems neither from the country's right or left, but from generations of benefits that few politicians are willing to take away. Hollande's predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, only half-heartedly tried to raise the work week from 35 hours, then pulled back even before strong opposition emerged.

Hollande cautiously broached the idea of pulling back some of the subsidies that now go to all parents of young children, exempting families who earn high incomes. But the 35-hour work week remains in place, as does the retirement age of 62. Health care remains universal and nearly all treatments are reimbursed at least partially. Hollande has said he will not thin the ranks of government employees. France will remain among the countries with the highest percentage of public workers in the world ? about 20 percent of the workforce gets a government paycheck and a government pension.

Hollande was elected as "president normal," an unassuming contrast to Sarkozy's flashy, aggressive style, and his dramatic divorce and marriage to the model and singer Carla Bruni. But a year into his term, his amiability has managed to turn most of the country against him, even within his own camp. Numerous Socialist lawmakers are openly speaking against him, for example, for demanding they publish their assets.

The president appears to relish simple, easy contact with the French. He can spend hours happily shaking hands, telling stories, joking. But those moments are becoming increasingly rare.

"He is consumed by his responsibilities, too consumed, in my opinion," said Poignant. "The political climate is such that the president is becoming the target of protests. We have to protect him for security reasons: It is very difficult for him to be close to the French."

Only about one in four French approve of the job Hollande is doing, lower than either of his conservative predecessors.

He says he is willing to wait for that to change, describing his five-year term in two phases: things will be very difficult in the first phase, then a return to growth and the Socialist preference toward more government spending. His advisors ? and most economists ? say privately they don't expect much good news for France before 2015.

"The French have always turned to the president. He is accountable to them, and that's as it should be. My actions are measured at this particular moment in our country's history," he said. "I remain in control of myself, confident in what I think."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-04-28-France-Lonely%20President/id-a7f135f72b184747b451efdf84e291ba

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Gunmen kill 10 Iraqi security forces in 2 attacks

BAGHDAD (AP) ? Gunmen killed 10 people in Iraq, including five soldiers near the main Sunni protest camp west of Baghdad, the latest in a wave of violence that has raised fears the country faces a new round of sectarian bloodshed.

The attack on the army intelligence soldiers in the former insurgent stronghold of Ramadi drew a quick response from Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whose Shiite-led government has been the target of rising Sunni anger over perceived mistreatment.

The attackers stopped a vehicle carrying the soldiers near the protest camp, prompting a gunbattle that left the five soldiers dead and two of the attackers wounded, police officials said.

Al-Maliki vowed his government would not keep silent over the killing of the soldiers. Iraqi officials have repeatedly claimed that insurgent groups, such as al-Qaida in Iraq and supporters of former Iraqi leader Saddam regime, have infiltrated the Sunni demonstrations.

"I call upon the peaceful protesters to expel the criminals targeting military and police," al-Maliki said in a statement posted on his official website.

Authorities announced a curfew in the whole province of Anbar. They also gave the protest organizers in Ramadi, the provincial capital, a 24-hours deadline to hand over the gunmen responsible for killing the soldiers or face a "firm response," said Maj. Gen. Mardhi Mishhin al-Mahalawi, the army's Anbar operations chief.

Members of Iraq's Muslim Sunni minority have been rallying for the past four months in several Iraqi cities to protest what they describe as unfair treatment by al-Maliki's government.

Tensions spiked earlier this week when fighting broke out in the northern town of Hawija during a security crackdown on a protest encampment. That provoked a series of clashes nationwide that left more than 170 people dead over the past five days.

In Cairo, Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood group, from which Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi hails, condemned the Iraqi government's actions in the crackdown. The Sunni political and religious organization decried the Iraqi government's "violence in dealing with the peaceful demonstrators and protesters that resulted in the killing and wounding of many innocent people, which is rejected by Islam and humanity."

It added: "this is not the way people are governed or the way to achieve security and reform." Morsi's government has itself come under criticized as scores of Egyptian protesters have been killed or wounded in police crackdowns and street clashes since the Islamist leader was elected after Hosni Mubarak's ouster in 2011.

For many Iraqi Shiites, the months of protests coupled with the latest unrest raise worrying parallels to the civil war engulfing neighboring Syria.

There, Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime is fighting largely Sunni rebels who draw support from Turkey and Sunni Gulf states. Assad's Alawite sect is a branch of Shiite Islam, and his regime is backed by Shiite powerhouse Iran, which also has significantly bolstered ties with Iraq in the years since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

In a speech Saturday, al-Maliki warned that sectarianism is an "evil thing" that can swiftly spread from country to country in the Islamic world ? an apparent reference to the divisions in Syria.

"If sectarianism erupts in one place, then it will erupt elsewhere too," he said. "And it is returning to Iraq because it has erupted in another area in the region."

That echoed previous concerns raised by the Iraqi premier. In a February interview with The Associated Press, al-Maliki predicted a victory for rebels in Syria would destabilize the wider Middle East, sparking sectarian wars in his own country and in Lebanon.

In further violence Saturday, gunmen also opened fire on a checkpoint manned by government-allied Sunni fighters, killing five of them, near the city of Tikrit, 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of Baghdad.

The militiamen, known as Sahwa, are among those who joined forces with U.S. troops to fight al-Qaida during the Iraq war. Since then, the group has been a target for Sunni insurgents who consider its members to be traitors.

Hospital officials confirmed the casualties. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

___

Associated Press writers Adam Schreck in Baghdad, and Maamoun Youssef in Cairo contributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gunmen-kill-10-iraqi-security-forces-2-attacks-133149811.html

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Taliban bombs targeting politicians offices kill 9

PARACHINAR, Pakistan (AP) ? Pakistani Taliban detonated bombs at the campaign offices of two politicians in the country's northwest on Sunday, police said, killing at least nine people in an escalation of attacks on secular, left-leaning political parties.

In first attack, on the outskirts of Kohat city, a bomb ripped through the office of Syed Noor Akbar, killing six and wounding 10 people, police official Mujtaba Hussain said.

A second bomb targeted a campaign office of another candidate, Nasir Khan Afridi, in the suburbs of Peshawar city. That attack killed three people and wounded 12, police official Saifur Rehman Khan said.

Both politicians, who were not in the offices at the time of the blasts, are running as independent candidates for national assembly seats to represent constituencies in Pakistan's lawless tribal areas, where scores of militant groups operate including some with links to al-Qaida. The general elections will be held on May 11.

Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan claimed responsibility for both attacks, as well as two others against secular political parties in the southern port city of Karachi.

"We are against all politicians who are going to become part of any secular, democratic government," he told The Associated Press by telephone from an undisclosed location.

The Taliban previously announced a strategy to target three political parties, including the Awami National Party (ANP), the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) and the Pakistan People's Party (PPP). All three are perceived as liberal, having earned the Taliban's ire by opposing the insurgency and extremism during their time in the outgoing government.

The onslaught has forced many of the parties to change their campaign strategy and has raised questions about whether the vote can be considered valid if some mainstream parties can't properly take part.

Such attacks have killed at least 28 people in just last four days.

One of the most serious attacks occurred on April 21, when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a meeting of the ANP in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing 16 people. The Taliban said the target of the attack was Haroon Ahmad Bilour, whose father, a senior party leader, was killed in a suicide bombing in Peshawar in December. He escaped unscathed, but his uncle, Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, suffered minor injuries.

In the capital, Islamabad, Pakistani officials said they planned to seal the border with Afghanistan and restrict the movement of Afghan refugees on election day.

Officials at the Interior Ministry and the election commission have said that the measure is aimed at preventing terrorist attacks during the vote. However, officials did not say how they would restrict the movement of hundreds of thousands of people spread out across the country or block crossings along the porous border. Pakistan announced similar measures in the past but failed to take action.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.

The Islamist and center-right political parties have been spared by the Taliban and have been holding big public rallies without fear of being attacked. They largely support peace talks with the Taliban instead of military offensives.

The leaders of the political parties under Taliban attack have said the violence amounts to election rigging. But they have, so far, decided not to boycott the vote.

____

Associated Press Writers Riaz Khan and Rasool Dawar in Peshawar contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/taliban-bombs-targeting-politicians-offices-kill-9-092306216.html

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North Korea Says It Will Indict An American Citizen For Alleged Hostile Acts Against Country

PYONGYANG, North Korea ? North Korea said Saturday it will soon put a detained American on trial for allegedly trying to overthrow the government, further complicating already fraught relations between Pyongyang and Washington.

The indictment of Kenneth Bae comes in the middle of something of a lull after weeks of war threats and other provocative acts by North Korea against the U.S. and South Korea. It has expressed rage over U.N. sanctions over a February nuclear test and ongoing U.S.-South Korean military drills, though analysts say Pyongyang's motive is to get its Korean War foes to negotiate on its own terms.

Bae, identified in North Korean state media by his Korean name, Pae Jun Ho, is a tour operator of Korean descent who was arrested after arriving with a tour on Nov. 3 in Rason, a special economic zone bordering China and Russia.

He is the sixth American detained in North Korea since 2009. The other Americans were eventually deported or released after high-profile diplomatic interventions, including some involving former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter. Analysts say the North will likely soon hand Bae a harsh punishment to use him as a bargaining chip in possible negotiations with the United States.

"The preliminary inquiry into crimes committed by American citizen Pae Jun Ho closed," the official Korean Central News Agency said in a brief report. "In the process of investigation he admitted that he committed crimes aimed to topple the DPRK with hostility toward it. His crimes were proved by evidence."

DPRK is the acronym for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Under North Korea's criminal code, terrorist acts include murdering, kidnapping and injuring the country's citizens can lead to a death sentence or life in jail.

North Korea and the United States fought the 1950-53 Korean War and still don't have diplomatic relations. The Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang represents the United States.

KCNA didn't say when Bae's trial will take place or what the charges were.

North Korea's state media and the U.S. government have made little information about Bae public.

But his friends, colleagues and South Korean activists specializing in North Korea affairs said Bae is a Christian missionary based in a Chinese border town who frequently made trips to North Korea to feed orphans there. It is not known whether he tried to evangelize while in North Korea.

Officially, North Korea guarantees freedom of religion. In practice, authorities crack down on Christians, who are seen as Western-influenced threats to the government. The distribution of Bibles and secret prayer services can mean banishment to a labor camp or execution, defectors from the country have said.

In 2009, American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee were arrested and sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for trespassing and unspecified hostile acts. They were freed later that year after former President Bill Clinton visited Pyongyang to negotiate their release.

__

Associated Press reporter Sam Kim contributed from Seoul, South Korea.

Also on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/26/north-korea-indict-american_n_3167485.html

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How to share a podcast with the Podcasts app for iPhone and iPad

If you regularly use the Podcasts app for iPhone or iPad to keep up with your favorite episodes and playlists, you may occasionally come across a podcast series that you think someone you know may be interested in. Instead of sending them a link to iTunes or just giving them a title to look up, the Podcasts app actually gives you the option to share them directly without ever leaving the app.

Here's how:

1. Launch the Podcasts app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Find the podcasts title you'd like to share under the My Podcasts section and tap on its name.
3. Tap on the Share button in the upper right hand corner.
4. Now choose an option to share. Your options will be email, message, Twitter, or Facebook. Tap on the one you'd like and you'll automatically be taken to a message or post auto-filled for you.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/vAjYuAxBxSw/story01.htm

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NKorea charges US man in plot to overthrow regime

In this March 20, 2013 photo, a North Korean flag hangs inside the interior of Pyongyang?s Supreme Court. North Korea says it will soon deliver a verdict in the case of detained American Kenneth Bae it accuses of trying to overthrow the government, further complicating already fraught relations between Pyongyang and Washington. The announcement about Bae comes in the middle of a lull after weeks of war threats and other provocative acts by North Korea against the U.S. and South Korea. Bae, identified in North Korean state media by his Korean name, Pae Jun Ho, is a tour operator of Korean descent who was arrested after arriving with a tour on Nov. 3 in Rason, a special economic zone bordering China and Russia. (AP Photo)

In this March 20, 2013 photo, a North Korean flag hangs inside the interior of Pyongyang?s Supreme Court. North Korea says it will soon deliver a verdict in the case of detained American Kenneth Bae it accuses of trying to overthrow the government, further complicating already fraught relations between Pyongyang and Washington. The announcement about Bae comes in the middle of a lull after weeks of war threats and other provocative acts by North Korea against the U.S. and South Korea. Bae, identified in North Korean state media by his Korean name, Pae Jun Ho, is a tour operator of Korean descent who was arrested after arriving with a tour on Nov. 3 in Rason, a special economic zone bordering China and Russia. (AP Photo)

In this March 20, 2013 photo, a North Korean flag hangs inside the interior of Pyongyang?s Supreme Court. North Korea says it will soon deliver a verdict in the case of detained American Kenneth Bae it accuses of trying to overthrow the government, further complicating already fraught relations between Pyongyang and Washington. The announcement about Bae comes in the middle of a lull after weeks of war threats and other provocative acts by North Korea against the U.S. and South Korea. Bae, identified in North Korean state media by his Korean name, Pae Jun Ho, is a tour operator of Korean descent who was arrested after arriving with a tour on Nov. 3 in Rason, a special economic zone bordering China and Russia. (AP Photo)

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.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-04-27-NKorea-American%20Detained/id-6484a0af30d14174a878e118180b2601

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Will.i.am rebuts accusations of song theft

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. (AP) ? Will.i.am says he's been unfairly accused of stealing a song from a Russian dance producer for use on his new album.

The producer-rapper-singer has acknowledged reaching out to trance producer Arty after hearing his 2011 song with London's Mat Zo, "Rebound." Will.i.am recorded a new version with Chris Brown titled, "Let's Go," which has been met with criticism online from Arty's fans.

He said he emailed Arty, who initially responded positively to an invitation to collaborate. But in recent weeks, the Russian DJ and producer told fans on his Facebook page that there was no final deal between their respective labels and "the matter is under review by our legal teams."

Will.i.am credits Arty, whose real name is Artem Stoliarov, as a writer on the song in the liner notes for his album "(hash)willpower," released this week. He blamed the slow legal clearance process and said he didn't know Arty had worked with another producer on the track. Will.i.am said his legal team was also at work on the issue.

"You can't steal if you credited somebody," will.i.am told The Associated Press in an interview this week. "He and I communicated. ... It's not my fault he didn't tell me about the other guy. So who is to blame? I didn't know."

A message sent to Arty's label, Anjunabeats, was not returned Friday.

Will.i.am, whose real name is William Adams, noted that his album includes collaborations with more well-known electronic dance music producers including Afrojack, Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso.

"I respect that world and in a way helped cross it over for it to be played on radio," he said. "So it's just ? it's just ? it's kind of wack the way this situation has turned out because it's undermined in a way ? not really, it hasn't ? but it's undermined my contributions to that world and my respect to that world. Because the way they're painting it is not the way it is."

Will.i.am, whose group the Black Eyed Peas went on hiatus two years ago, said he faced similar issues with slow legal clearances when Estelle and Kanye West released "American Boy" using the beat from his 2007 song "Impatient."

"I don't mind because I like the song and I'm excited about the collaboration with Kanye and Estelle. And then the paperwork happens after it's out," he said. "That happens a bunch of times where legal takes so long. The creative is instantaneous. You want things to come out."

___

Online:

http://will.i.am/

___

Follow Ryan Pearson on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ryanwrd

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-04-26-US-Music-will-i-am/id-443da25e4bb64e5ea26fd92d74473a79

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Iraq PM's coalition leads in eight of 12 provinces after vote

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's coalition has taken the lead in eight out of the 12 provinces that held provincial elections at the weekend, including the capital Baghdad, preliminary results showed on Thursday.

A Maliki ally also won in Najaf, effectively giving him a lead in a ninth province.

The strong showing by Shi'ite Maliki's State of Law alliance - based on 87 percent of the results - consolidates his position ahead of parliamentary elections due in 2014, when he has hinted it will be time to form a majority government.

Iraqi politics are deeply split along sectarian lines, with Maliki's government in a crisis over how to share power among Shi'ites, Sunni Muslims and ethnic Kurds who run their own autonomous region in the north.

Voting in two Sunni majority provinces was put off until July due to concerns about security, a delay criticized by the United States. The cabinet said the date could be postponed again unless the situation improved.

Violence and suicide bombings have surged since the start of the year with a local al Qaeda wing vowing a campaign to stoke widespread confrontation. More than 100 people have been killed since Tuesday in clashes between militants and security forces.

(Reporting by Raheem Salman; Writing by Isabel Coles; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iraq-pms-coalition-leads-eight-12-provinces-vote-193107853.html

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Melissa Gilbert and Timothy Busfield: Married!

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GOP Lawmakers Hope to Combat Ammunition Stockpiling by Gov?t Agencies With AMMO Act

Cook County Board Proposes Tax On Guns And Ammo

Credit: Getty Images

Republicans in the Senate and House are expected to introduce a joint bill Friday that would limit the amount of ammunition that federal agencies are allowed to buy and stockpile over the next six months, the Washington Free Beacon reports.

The bill, titled the Ammunition Management for More Accountability or "AMMO" Act, is being proposed after several lawmakers have voiced concerns about some federal agencies, like the Department of Homeland Security, seemingly stockpiling large quantities of ammo.

"DHS, for instance, has placed two-years worth of ammunition, or nearly 247 million rounds, in its inventory," the Free Beacon notes.

In a statement provided to the Washington Free Beacon, one of the bill's co-sponsors, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), said federal agencies must provide more "transparency and accountability" in regards to its "stockpiles of ammunition."

"President Obama has been adamant about curbing law-abiding Americans' access and opportunities to exercise their Second Amendment rights...One way the Obama administration is able to do this is by limiting what's available in the market with federal agencies purchasing unnecessary stockpiles of ammunition," the statement adds.

More from the Free Beacon:

[T]he legislation would prevent all government agencies except for the Defense Department from purchasing and storing what lawmakers say is an excess amount of ammunition.

The bill's reach would include DHS and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), two agencies that have found themselves at the center of the ammo controversy.

"As the public learned in a House committee hearing this week, the Department of Homeland Security has two years worth of ammo on hand and allots nearly 1,000 more rounds of ammunition for DHS officers than is used on average by our Army officers," Inhofe said. "The AMMO Act of 2013 will enforce transparency and accountability of federal agencies' ammunition supply while also protecting law-abiding citizens access to these resources."

An agency covered by the legislation would not be permitted to purchase or store more ammunition than that agency retained on average between 2001 and 2009, according to an advance copy of the legislation provided to the Free Beacon.

Additionally, the AMMO Act would encourage the Government Accountability Office to audit federal agencies' ammo purchases.

"The Comptroller General of the United States shall submit to Congress a report regarding the purchasing of ammunition by agencies, which shall include an assessment of the effect of the purchasing of ammunition by agencies on the supply of ammunition available to the public," the bill reads, according to a copy reviewed by the Free Beacon.

There have been more concerns over reports of DHS's plan to purchase another 750 million rounds of ammunition over the next five years, despite having a two-year stockpile saved up. Meanwhile, gun shops across the country are reporting ammunition shortages.

?

Featured image via AP

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gop-lawmakers-hope-combat-ammunition-stockpiling-gov-t-005425316.html

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Gene Studies Could Point to New Alzheimer's Treatments - Health ...

THURSDAY, April 25 (HealthDay News) ? Insight into genes that play a key role in disrupting immune system pathways in the brains of people with Alzheimer?s disease could offer a potential target for new drugs against the disease, two new studies show.

?Defining the precise steps of the inflammatory response crucial to causing Alzheimer?s disease has been elusive. We are pleased to discover these novel insights into that process,? Bin Zhang, lead author of one of the studies and an associate professor of genetics and genomic sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, said in a school news release.

In the study, Zhang?s team analyzed brain tissue samples from deceased Alzheimer?s patients, as well as healthy people who had died. By measuring the activity level of thousands of genes in these tissue samples, the team identified which gene networks are disrupted in diseased brains.

Specifically, their analysis pinpointed the important role of a gene expressed in immune cells called microglia, which clean up debris and destroy pathogens in the brain.

This gene, called TYROBP, is overactive in the brains of Alzheimer?s patients and plays a major role in disrupting the activity of many other genes that control microglia activation, according to the study, which was published April 25 in the journal Cell.

?As a next step, we will evaluate drugs that impact [this] pathway as potential therapies for the disease,? Zhang said. ?This discovery enables us to design more specific compounds that target these key steps precisely, in contrast to existing anti-inflammatory drugs that may be less ideal for hitting this target.?

Another study, published online April 25 in the journal Neuron, may have uncovered another genetic clue to Alzheimer?s disease.

Researchers looked at brain samples from deceased Alzheimer?s patients and found that higher activity of a gene called CD33 in microglia was linked to higher levels of the beta-amyloid protein plaques that have long been associated with Alzheimer?s disease.

In their experiments with mice, switching off CD33 activity seemed to help microglia sweep away the plaques.

?Our findings suggest that pharmaceutical inactivation of CD33 represents a potentially powerful new therapy for the treatment and prevention of Alzheimer?s disease, and perhaps other neurodegenerative disorders,? senior study author Rudolph Tanzi, of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, said in a journal news release.

Another expert said the findings from both studies may help advance research.

?We have known for a long time that Alzheimer?s disease is characterized by the presence of excessive inflammation in the brain,? said Philippe Marambaud, an investigator at the Litwin-Zucker Research Center for the Study of Alzheimer?s Disease at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in Manhasset, N.Y.

?The role of this inflammatory response in the pathogenic mechanisms of the disease, however, remains unclear,? he said. ?These two studies ? provide concordant evidence that the immune cells microglia actively participate in this disease process.?

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke has more about Alzheimer?s disease.

Source: http://news.health.com/2013/04/25/gene-studies-could-point-to-new-alzheimers-treatments/

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Race and geography may influence late-stage kidney care

By Trevor Stokes

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - At the end of life, black kidney disease patients are more likely than white patients to continue intensive dialysis instead of choosing hospice care, according to a new study.

Researchers also found that racial differences in kidney disease treatments became more extreme in the highest Medicare spending regions of the U.S.

"Racial differences exist; when you add the component of geography, those racial differences widen," said study author Dr. Bernadette Thomas, senior clinical research nephrology fellow at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Racial differences in U.S. health care are well documented - large disparities in rates of leg amputation as a result of poor circulation are one recently reported example (see Reuters Health story of March 20, 2013 here: http://reut.rs/WEzzPF).

Prior research shows that the reasons can be complex, and may include factors ranging from patients' cultural preferences to providers' practice standards, as well as financial or physical access to high quality healthcare resources.

The current study found that whether a kidney disease patient moves from dialysis to hospice near the end of life is affected not only by race, but also geography.

Researchers analyzed records for nearly 101,000 patients from the national kidney registry who started dialysis or had a kidney transplant and died within four years of those events.

White patients were twice as likely as black patients to stop dialysis (32 percent versus 16 percent), an important indicator that treatment was moving toward less intensive care.

Black patients were also half as likely to be referred to hospice care, according to the findings published in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

But location made a difference. Black patients in U.S. regions that spent the least amount on end-of-life treatments were twice as likely to be referred to hospice as blacks living in high-spending regions (24 percent versus 12 percent) and nearly three times as likely to elect to end life-saving dialysis (27 percent versus 11 percent).

Those patterns may reflect more aggressive health care in general in high Medicare spending regions or it could result from patient preferences, Thomas said.

Urban regions with large hospitals tend to have the highest end-of-life Medicare spending, according to data from the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care, which maps out health care spending patterns across the U.S.

Experts noted that higher spending doesn't mean patients are getting the best care, but could reflect treatment intensity.

"This study, because it's using medical data rather than actually interviewing the patients themselves, doesn't tell us whether the obstacle is coming from the side of the doctor or the patient," said Deborah Carr, sociology professor in the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy & Aging Research at Rutgers University, who studies the issue. "On average blacks compared to whites have a greater desire for treatments," Carr told Reuters Health.

Black patients are not part of a growing movement in favor of hospice and palliative care at the end of life instead of maintaining costly treatments associated with a poorer quality death, said Carr, who was not involved in the current study.

Researchers agreed that some black-white disparities in treatments also stem from socioeconomic differences.

Black patients are less likely to have a living will, for example, Carr said, so the default decision for physicians tends to be to continue treatment.

Carr has found evidence that religion also plays a role. In separate studies, she told Reuters Health, the black patients interviewed were more likely to say that God decides when they die, so the doctor should not choose palliative care because it would interrupt God's plan.

"Where does the opposition come from regarding hospice? Is it that the patients are not requesting it or the doctors are not offering it? That's a really important puzzle," Carr said.

Blacks not only fare more poorly at the end of their lives, they have a higher probability of getting kidney disease to begin with and of receiving inadequate treatment, noted Rachel Patzer, assistant professor of transplantation surgery at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta.

Geography is a factor there too, and highly urban or rural regions are often associated with reduced access to care, likely due to complex reasons, according to Patzer, who was not involved in the new study.

The current report didn't examine the socioeconomic status of the patients, nor interview them to determine their attitudes toward end-of-life care before they died.

"There may be cultural differences, family preferences, patient preferences in end-of-life care, which is a very personal issue, that could explain some of these racial differences," Patzer said.

SOURCE: bit.ly/1520DgE Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, online April 11, 2013.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/race-geography-may-influence-stage-kidney-care-145628421.html

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Lawyer: Inspectors clear US horse slaughterhouse - Economy news

ROSWELL, New Mexico (AP) ? The attorney for a proposed horse slaughterhouse in southeastern New Mexico says a federal inspection Tuesday went well and the plant hopes to be in business soon.

Attorney Blair Dunn says agriculture officials found no issues at Valley Meat Co. and told the owners Tuesday they are recommending a grant of inspection be issued immediately. Dunn says he expects final approval for the plant to come in a matter of days.

Valley Meat Co. has become ground zero for an emotional, national debate in America over a return to domestic horse slaughter that has divided horse rescue and animal humane groups, ranchers, politicians and Indian tribes.

Fueling opposition is a recent uproar in Europe over horse meat being found in products labeled as beef. The company hopes the inspection ends a yearlong political drama that has left it idle and made owner Rick De Los Santos and his wife, Sarah, targets of vandalism and death threats.

Valley Meat Co. is a former cattle slaughterhouse whose kill floor has been redesigned for horses to be led in one at a time, secured in a huge metal chute, shot in the head, then processed into meat for shipment overseas.

At issue was whether horses are livestock or pets, and whether it is more humane to slaughter them domestically than to ship tens of thousands of neglected, unwanted and wild horses thousands of miles (kilometers) to be slaughtered in Mexico or Canada.

Front and center of the debate is De Los Santos, who along with his wife, has for more than two decades worked this small slaughterhouse, taking in mostly cows that were too old or sick to travel with larger herds to the bigger slaughterhouses for production.

Now, with cattle herds shrinking amid an ongoing drought, De Los Santos says he and his wife are just trying to transform their business and make enough money to retire by slaughtering domestically some of the thousands of horses that he says travel through the state every month on their way to what are oftentimes less humane and less regulated plants south of the border.

"They are being slaughtered anyway. We thought, well, we will slaughter them here and provide jobs for the economy," De Los Santos said. Instead, Valley Meat has been ensnarled in a yearlong political drama that has left the plant idle and its owners the target of vandalism and death threats ? warnings that increased after humane groups found a video a now-former plant worker posted of himself cursing at animal activists, then shooting one of his own horses to eat.

"People are saying, 'We will slit your throat in your sleep. We hope you die. We hope your kids die,'" De Los Santos said. "Sometimes it's scary. ... And it's all for a horse." Indeed, voice mails left on the company's answering machine spew hate and wishes for violence upon the family.

"I hope you burn in hell," said one irate woman who called repeatedly, saying, "You better pack your (expletive) bags (expletive) and get out of there because that place is finished." The couple have hired security and turned over phone records to federal authorities.

"It's complicated, this industry of feeding the world," Sarah De Los Santos says matter-of-factly. The meat would be processed for human consumption and exported to countries in eastern Europe and Asia.

The Obama administration wants to prohibit horse slaughter. The administration's 2014 budget request excludes money for inspectors for horse slaughter plants, which would effectively keep them from operating.

Humane groups and politicians including Gov. Susana Martinez and New Mexico Attorney General Gary King strongly oppose the plant. They argue that horses are iconic animals in the West, and that other solutions and more funding for horse rescue and birth control programs should be explored over slaughter.

Still others are pushing for a return to domestic slaughter. Proponents include several Native American tribes, the American Quarter Horse Association, some livestock associations and even a few horse rescue groups that believe domestic slaughter would be more humane than shipping the animals elsewhere.

Follow Jeri Clausing at https://twitter.com/jericlausing

Share article: Lawyer: Inspectors clear US horse slaughterhouse

Source: http://www.mail.com/int/business/economy/2039896-lawyer-inspectors-clear-us-horse-slaughterhouse.html

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Lawmakers ask who knew what about bomb suspect

BOSTON (AP) ? Lawmakers are asking tough questions about how the government tracked suspected Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev when he traveled to Russia last year, renewing criticism from after the Sept. 11 attacks that failure to share intelligence may have contributed to last week's deadly assault.

Following a closed-door briefing on Capitol Hill with the FBI and other law enforcement officials on Tuesday, Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said it doesn't appear yet that anyone "dropped the ball." But he said he was asking all the federal agencies for more information about who knew what about the suspect.

"There still seem to be serious problems with sharing information, including critical investigative information ... not only among agencies but also within the same agency in one case," said committee member Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.

Lawmakers intensified their scrutiny as funerals were held Tuesday for an 8-year-old boy killed in the bombings and a campus police officer who authorities said was shot by Tsarnaev and his younger brother days later. While family said that the older Tsarnaev had been influenced by a Muslim convert to follow a strict type of Islam, brother 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev remained hospitalized after days of questioning over his role in the attacks. Tsarnaev, 26, was killed in a shootout with police last week.

Conflicting stories appeared to emerge about which agencies knew about Tamerlan Tsarnaev's six-month trip to Russia last year how they handled it. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told the Senate Judiciary Committee on immigration legislation that her agency knew about Tsarnaev's journey to his homeland.

But Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said the FBI "told me they had no knowledge of him leaving or coming back."

Information-sharing failures between agencies prompted an overhaul of the U.S. intelligence system after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

Meanwhile, evidence mounted that Tsarnaev had embraced a radical, anti-American strain of Islam. Family members blamed the influence of a Muslim convert, known only to the family as Misha, for steering him toward a strict type of Islam.

"Somehow, he just took his brain," said Tamerlan's uncle, Ruslan Tsarni of Montgomery Village, Md., who recalled conversations with Tamerlan's worried father about Misha's influence.

Authorities don't believe Tsarnaev or his brother had links to terror groups. However, two U.S. officials said that Tsarnaev frequently looked at extremist websites, including Inspire magazine, an English-language online publication produced by al-Qaida's Yemen affiliate. The magazine has endorsed lone-wolf terror attacks.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly.

A memorial service was scheduled Wednesday for Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier, 26, who authorities said was shot to death by the Tsarnaev brothers three days after the bombings. Vice President Joe Biden was expected to speak.

Funerals were held Tuesday for Collier and 8-year-old Martin Richard. Martin, a schoolboy from Boston's Dorchester neighborhood, the youngest of those killed by blasts near the marathon finish line, was laid to rest after a family-only funeral Mass.

"The outpouring of love and support over the last week has been tremendous," the family said in a statement. "This has been the most difficult week of our lives."

The Richards family said they would hold a public memorial service for Martin in the coming weeks.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's condition was upgraded from serious to fair Tuesday as investigators continued building their case against him.

He could face the death penalty after being charged Monday with joining forces with his brother in setting off shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs. Three people were killed and over 260 injured. About 50 were still hospitalized.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured hiding in a tarp-covered boat in a suburban Boston backyard on Friday.

In Washington, Senate Intelligence Committee member Richard Burr, R-N.C., said after his panel was briefed by federal law enforcement officials that there is "no question" that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was "the dominant force" behind the attacks, and that the brothers had apparently been radicalized by material on the Internet rather than by contact with militant groups overseas.

The brothers' parents are from Dagestan, a predominantly Muslim province in Russia's Caucasus, where Islamic militants have waged an insurgency against Russia.

Family members reached in the U.S. and abroad by The Associated Press said Tamerlan was influenced by a Muslim convert known only as Misha.

After befriending Misha, Tamerlan gave up boxing, stopped studying music and began opposing the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to family members, who said he turned to websites and literature claiming that the CIA was behind 9/11.

"You could always hear his younger brother and sisters say, 'Tamerlan said this,' and 'Tamerlan said that.' Dzhokhar loved him. He would do whatever Tamerlan would say," recalled Elmirza Khozhugov, the ex-husband of Tamerlan's sister. He spoke by telephone from his home in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

The brothers, who came to the U.S. from Russia a decade ago, were raised in a home that followed Sunni Islam, the religion's largest sect, but were not regulars at the mosque and rarely discussed religion, Khozhugov said.

Then, in 2008 or 2009, Tamerlan met Misha, a heavyset bald man with a reddish beard. Khozhugov didn't know where they met but believed they attended a Boston-area mosque together.

Napolitano said Tuesday that her agency knew of Tamerlan Tsarnaev's trip to Russia. She said that even though the suspect's name was misspelled on a travel document, redundancies in the system allowed his departure to be captured by U.S. authorities in January 2012.

Meanwhile, a U.S. Embassy official said U.S. investigators traveled to southern Russia to speak to the brothers' parents, hoping to learn more about their motives.

In other developments:

? A lawyer for Tamerlan Tsarnaev's wife, Katherine Tsarnaeva, said his client "is doing everything she can to assist with the investigation," although he would not say whether she had spoken with federal authorities. Another lawyer for Tsarnaeva said the 24-year-old deeply mourned the loss of innocent victims in the bombings.

? The Massachusetts state House turned aside a bid by several lawmakers to reinstate the death penalty in certain cases, including the murder of police officers. In a 119-38 vote, the House sent the proposal to a study committee rather than advance it to an up-or-down vote.

? In New Jersey, the sisters of the suspects, Ailina and Bella Tsarnaeva, issued a statement saying they were saddened to "see so many innocent people hurt after such a callous act." Later, in brief remarks to several news outlets, Ailina described her elder brother as a "kind and loving man." She said of both brothers: "I have no idea what got into them" and also that "at the end of the day no one knows the truth."

? Phantom Fireworks of Seabrook, N.H., said Tamerlan Tsarnaev bought 48 mortar shells at the store in February. Company Vice President William Weimer, however, said the amount of gunpowder that could be extracted from the fireworks would not have been enough for the Boston bombs.

? Boylston Street, where the blasts occurred, was scheduled to reopen to the public at 3 a.m. Wednesday. It had been closed since the bombings.

? A fund created to benefit the victims of the Boston Marathon attacks has generated $20 million. Mayor Thomas Menino said more than 50,000 donors from across the world have made donations to One Fund Boston.

___

Dozier reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Bridget Murphy and Bob Salsberg in Boston, Lynn Berry in Moscow, and Adam Goldman, Eric Tucker, Matt Apuzzo, and Eileen Sullivan in Washington contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lawmakers-ask-knew-bomb-suspect-064344186.html

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TSX steady as lackluster data, earnings drag

By John Tilak

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index closed little changed on Tuesday as sluggish economic data from China, Germany and the United States revived concerns about the global recovery.

Lackluster earnings reports from some Canadian companies also weighed down investor sentiment.

The latest Purchasing Managers' Indexes for the euro area showed business activity in Germany shrank for the first time in five months in April, while China's April HSBC flash PMI fell. Also, U.S. manufacturing grew at its most sluggish pace in six months as domestic demand dried up.

The resource-heavy index, which is sensitive to global growth trends because of their impact on commodity prices, was up for the fourth straight session, but is down about 3 percent on the year.

"The market?s got this rally going, but we don't think we're out of the woods yet," said Robert McWhirter, president and portfolio manager at Selective Asset Management. "There is probably another 2 to 3 months of pullback to occur."

The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index <.gsptse> closed up 0.26 of a point at 12,090.94.

Last week, the index posted its second-biggest weekly decline of the year, triggered by a rout in commodity prices, including the biggest single-day drop in gold prices ever.

"Commodities are under pressure," said Kevin Headland, director, portfolio advisory group, at Manulife Asset Management. "The Asian growth story that we're seeing is slower than we're used to."

Headland does not see too many catalysts for commodity prices, but still expects the index to end the year higher.

A 1 percent fall in the price of gold and a decline in Teck Resources Ltd hurt some material stocks.

Teck was down 1.6 percent at C$25.60 after the miner reported a 40 percent fall in first-quarter adjusted profit due to lower coal prices. The company said economic uncertainty might affect prices and shipments.

Goldcorp Inc fell 3 percent to C$28.44.

Among energy companies, EnCana Corp lost 1.7 percent to C$18.96 after the natural gas producer reported a 25 percent fall in first-quarter operating profit due to hedging losses.

Rogers Communications Inc declined 3.5 percent, a day after it reported first-quarter results.

TransAlta Corp was down 2.6 percent at C$13.70 after the power generation company reported a first-quarter loss, hurt in part by a one-time charge related to pension funding obligations.

(Reporting by John Tilak; Editing by Andre Grenon)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tsx-may-open-higher-helped-corporate-earnings-123850702--finance.html

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