Officials: Bomb suspect acknowledges role

BOSTON (AP) ? The surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings acknowledged to the FBI his role in the attacks but did so before he was advised of his constitutional rights to keep quiet and seek a lawyer, officials said Wednesday.

It is unclear whether those statements before the Miranda rights warning would be admissible in a criminal trial and, if not, whether prosecutors even need them to win a conviction. Officials said physical evidence, including a 9 mm handgun and pieces of a remote-control device commonly used in toys, was recovered from the scene.

The suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, told authorities that his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, only recently recruited him to be part of the attack, two U.S. officials said. The CIA, however, named Tamerlan to a terrorist database 18 months ago, officials said Wednesday, an acknowledgment that will undoubtedly prompt congressional inquiry about whether investigators took warnings from Russian intelligence officials seriously enough.

The U.S. officials who spoke to The Associated Press were close to the investigation but insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case with reporters.

Tamerlan, whom authorities have described as the driving force behind the plot, was killed in a shootout with police. Dzhokhar is recovering in a hospital from injuries sustained during a getaway attempt.

Authorities had previously said Dzhokhar exchanged gunfire with them for more than an hour Friday night before they captured him inside a boat covered by a tarp in a suburban Boston neighborhood backyard. But two U.S. officials said Wednesday that he was unarmed when captured, raising questions about the gunfire and how he was injured.

More than 4,000 mourners at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology paid tribute to a campus police officer who authorities say was gunned down by the bombing suspects.

Among the speakers in Cambridge, just outside Boston, was Vice President Joe Biden, who condemned the bombing suspects as "two twisted, perverted, cowardly, knockoff jihadis."

Investigators have said the brothers appeared to have been radicalized through jihadist materials on the Internet and have found no evidence tying them to a terrorist group.

Dzhokhar told the FBI that they were angry about the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the killing of Muslims there, officials said.

How much of those conversations will end up in court is unclear. The FBI normally tells suspects they have the right to remain silent before questioning them so all their statements can be used against them.

Under pressure from Congress, however, the Department of Justice has said investigators may wait until they have gathered intelligence about other threats before reading those rights in terrorism cases. The American Civil Liberties Union has expressed concern about that.

Regardless, investigators have found pieces of remote-control equipment among the debris and were analyzing them, officials said. One official described the detonator as "close-controlled," meaning it had to be triggered within several blocks of the bombs.

An FBI affidavit said one of the brothers told a carjacking victim during their getaway attempt, "Did you hear about the Boston explosion? I did that."

Officials also recovered a 9 mm handgun believed to have been used by Tamerlan from the site of a Thursday night gunbattle that injured a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority officer, two U.S. officials said.

The officials told the AP that no gun was found in the boat. Boston police Commissioner Ed Davis said earlier that shots were fired from inside the boat.

Asked whether the suspect had a gun in the boat, Davis said, "I'm not going to talk about that."

Kurt Schwartz, director of the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, did respond to the report.

"Within half a mile of where this person was captured, a police officer was shot. And I know who shot him." Schwartz said. "And there were three bombs that went off, and I know where those bombs came from. ... To me, it does not change anything. This guy was captured alive and will survive. True or not true, it doesn't change anything for me."

Dzhokhar's public defender had no comment on the matter Wednesday. His father has called him a "true angel," and an aunt has insisted he's not guilty.

The suspects' parents, Anzor Tsarnaev and Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, plan to fly to the U.S. from Russia on Thursday, the father was quoted as telling the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti. The family has said it wants to take Tamerlan's body back to Russia.

In Russia, U.S. investigators traveled to the predominantly Muslim province of Dagestan and were in contact with the brothers' parents, hoping to gain more information.

Investigators are looking into whether Tamerlan, who spent six months in Russia's turbulent Caucasus region in 2012, was influenced by the religious extremists who have waged an insurgency against Russian forces in the area for years. The brothers have roots in Dagestan and neighboring Chechnya but had lived in the U.S. for about a decade.

A spokesman for the Office of Health and Human Services in Massachusetts confirmed a Boston Herald report Wednesday that Tamerlan, his wife and their daughter had received welfare benefits until last year, when he became ineligible based on family income.

The state also said Tsarnaev and his brother received welfare benefits as children through their parents while the family lived in Massachusetts.

At MIT, bagpipes wailed as students, faculty and staff members and throngs of law enforcement officials paid their respects to MIT police Officer Sean Collier, who was ambushed in his cruiser three days after the bombing.

The line of mourners stretched for a half-mile. They had to make their way through tight security, including metal detectors and bomb-sniffing dogs.

Boston native James Taylor sang "The Water is Wide" and led a sing-along of "Shower the People."

Biden told the Collier family that no child should die before his or her parents, but that, in time, the grief will lose some of its sting.

"The moment will come when the memory of Sean is triggered and you know it's going to be OK," Biden said. "When the first instinct is to get a smile on your lips before a tear to your eye."

The vice president also sounded a defiant note.

"The purpose of terror is to instill fear," he said. "You saw none of it here in Boston. Boston, you sent a powerful message to the world."

In another milestone in Boston's recovery, the area around the marathon finish line was reopened to the public, with fresh cement still drying on the repaired sidewalk. Delivery trucks made their way down Boylston Street under a heavy police presence, though some damaged stores were still closed.

"I don't think there's going to be a sense of normalcy for a while," Tom Champoux, who works nearby, said as he pointed to the boarded-up windows. "There are scars here that will be with us for a long time."

___

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

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/officials-suspect-described-plot-miranda-013406616.html

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Secret Police

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/TZY6xR5iY30/viewtopic.php

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Mellowest State Has Obama Connection

Apr 24, 2013 3:54pm

If your nerves are a bit frazzled chances are you live in West Virginia. According to the new Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index released earlier today, residents of this state are the most stressed out in the nation.

Gallup has been tracking the daily stress levels of Americans since 2008. To find out how much the average citizen feels emotional and psychological stress and enjoys life on a daily basis, they polled more than 350,000 people by phone ? despite the fact that numerous studies show increased phone usage can increase anxiety.

Besides West Virginians, more people who live in Rhode Island, Kentucky, Utah and Massachusetts reported a case of frayed nerves the previous day. In all those states over 40 percent of those surveyed admitted they felt some level of stress the day before being interviewed.

West Virginia is ranked the most stressed state in the nation. Photo credit: Getty Images.

And more people from Rhode Island, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York, and West Virginia seem to be having a miserable time. Nearly 20 percent of people in those states told interviewers they did not enjoy themselves the day before.

Hawaiians, on the other hand, are mellow compared with those who live in the lower 48. For the second year in a row, they seemed to be the most immune to emotional stress and more likely to feel enjoyment. A mere 32 percent of Hawaiians reported feeling stressed out and nearly 90 percent said they were enjoying life. (President Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii.)

Other states with the fewest anxious residents included Louisiana, Iowa, Mississippi and Wyoming. After Hawaii, the states with the highest reported enjoyment levels were Wyoming, Utah, North Dakota and Idaho.

The researchers aren?t clear what the association is between stress and enjoyment but many of the states with the highest stress levels were also states where people seemed to be having the least fun. And rankings have remained fairly consistent, with stress levels in all states remaining statistically unchanged in 2012 compared with 2011.

For example, Hawaii has ranked as the state with the lowest percentage of residents reporting stress on the prior day all five years the survey has been conducted. West Virginia, Kentucky, and Utah, have each ranked within the top five most stressed states for the past five years. West Virginia ranked as the most stressed state in 2012, Kentucky was the top state for stress in 2008 and 2011, and Utah was the top state for stress in 2009 and 2010.

Residents in other high-stress states, Kentucky and West Virginia, were also among the least likely to experience enjoyment. Both of these states have appeared among the bottom five states for experiencing enjoyment at least three times since Gallup began reporting this measure, including last year?s poll.

Regionally, states with stress levels at or above 42 percent were clustered in the Northeast and Midwest, but also included Utah, Oregon, and Washington. Utah is unique in that it routinely ranks among both the highest stress and highest enjoyment states. The researchers said they believed this underscores the complex relationship between stress and other emotions.

On average, 40.6 percent of Americans reported feeling stressed ?yesterday? in this year?s survey and almost 85 percent reported feeling enjoyment ?yesterday.? To see where your state ranked, click here.

SHOWS: Good Morning America

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2013/04/24/the-mellowest-state-has-obama-connection/

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Liverpool's Suarez gets 10-game ban for biting

By Martyn Herman

LONDON (Reuters) - Liverpool striker Luis Suarez was handed a 10-match suspension by the Football Association (FA) on Wednesday following his bite on Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic at the weekend.

Suarez accepted a charge of violent conduct after the incident in the 2-2 Premier League draw at Anfield on Sunday but disputed the FA view that it merited more than a three-game ban.

An Independent Regulatory Commission met in London on Wednesday to decide the Uruguayan international's fate and added seven games to the usual ban for violent conduct.

The suspension begins immediately, meaning Liverpool's leading scorer will miss his side's last four games of the season and the first six at the beginning of next term.

Liverpool, who expressed their shock at the Commission's decision, have until Friday (1100 GMT) to appeal.

"Both the club and player are shocked and disappointed at the severity of today's Independent Regulatory Commission decision," Liverpool managing director Ian Ayre said in a statement on the club's website (www.liverpoolfc.com).

"We await the written reasons tomorrow (Thursday) before making any further comment."

Suarez's bite on Ivanovic's arm at Anfield was missed by referee Kevin Friend but television replays showed him sinking his teeth into the Serbian.

WIDELY CONDEMNED

The 26-year-old Suarez, who was banned for biting an opponent while with Dutch club Ajax before joining Liverpool in 2011, apologized after the game and was fined a reported 200,000 pounds ($305,700) by the club.

However, he was widely condemned for his behavior with some reports suggesting he was in danger of being sacked by the club, although Liverpool said this week that they wanted the Uruguayan to see out his four-year contract.

The FA said a three-match ban was "clearly insufficient" for the serious nature of the offence.

There was widespread support for the length of the punishment imposed with former Liverpool player Graeme Souness telling Sky Sports News: "I think 10 games is about right.

"What he did on Sunday is something I've never seen in a game anywhere before."

Former Liverpool midfielder Jamie Redknapp agreed.

"I think you have to accept that the crime that he committed probably warranted a 10-game ban," he said.

"It was an awful act of brutality really what he did and now he won't play for such a long time - it's is going to hit him where it hurts because he wants to play football."

Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) chief executive Gordon Taylor said the length of the sanction sent out a "strong message" but that it was important that the player received counseling to make sure it did not happen again.

Not everyone backed the FA's decision.

"Players who break peoples' legs, who do horrible tackles, get a three-game ban," former Liverpool striker John Aldridge told Sky Sports News.

"It's inconsistent. For me, it's not right, it's over the top."

Controversy has followed Suarez since he joined Liverpool, with his antics often overshadowing his impact on the pitch.

He served an eight-match ban for racially abusing Manchester United's Patrice Evra last season and later angered United manager Alex Ferguson by failing to shake the French defender's hand before their league match in February last year.

He has also been regularly accused of diving to win penalties and free kicks, while in an FA Cup tie this season against minor league Mansfield Town he was again criticized for scoring a goal despite a blatant handball.

Until Manchester United forward Robin Van Persie's hat-trick against Aston Villa on Monday that secured the title, Suarez was leading scorer in the league with 23 goals and he is included on a six-player shortlist for PFA Player of the Year.

($1 = 0.6542 British pounds)

(Reporting by Martyn Herman and Sonia Oxley; Editing by Ed Osmond)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/suarez-banned-10-games-biting-ivanovic-142650697--sow.html

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Another China official dies during party detention

BEIJING (AP) ? A senior official at a city court in central China died under mysterious circumstances, his body bruised after 11 days in the custody of anti-graft investigators of the ruling Communist Party, his family said.

Jia Jiuxiang, who was vice president of the Sanmenxia City Intermediate People's Court in Henan province, is the second case in two weeks to surface of an official dying while being held in the party's secret detention system, which is not regulated by law.

Jia's relatives say they suspect he was tortured in detention.

His brother-in-law, Zhou Qiang, said Jia was detained April 12 by the local party's discipline inspection committee and turned up in a local hospital Monday night and died Tuesday morning after attempts to save him failed.

Jia's wife, who was allowed to see the body, said his face had turned blue and his body was covered in bruises, Zhou said.

"We think that in handling the case, the discipline inspection committee used cruel tactics against him," Zhou said. He said that Jia, 49, had been in good health.

Another relative, Ma Weihua, who identified himself as Jia's nephew, confirmed details of Zhou's account and said local officials told the relatives that they would conduct an investigation into Jia's death.

A man at the party's Sanmenxia politics and law committee surnamed Song said officials at the committee were aware of the case, but he had no further details.

Ma also said he had heard that Jia was taken in by anti-graft investigators because he had been implicated by another court official who was being investigated. The court could not be reached for comment.

Earlier this month, a senior engineer at a government investment company in the eastern city of Wenzhou died after 38 days in the custody of anti-graft officials. The official, Yu Qiyi, has become a rallying point for reformers who want to do away with the party's secret detention system that is prone to abuse but which Chinese leaders depend on to keep members in line.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/another-china-official-dies-during-party-detention-005236027.html

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Alleged Boston Bomber Was an Ardent Reader of Radical Jihadist Websites and Extremist Propaganda

WASHINGTON (TheBlaze/AP) -- In the years before the Boston Marathon bombings, Tamerlan Tsarnaev fell under the influence of a new friend, a Muslim convert who steered the religiously apathetic young man toward a strict strain of Islam, family members said.

Under the tutelage of a friend known to the Tsarnaev family only as Misha, Tamerlan gave up boxing and stopped studying music, his family said. He began opposing the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He turned to websites and literature claiming that the CIA was behind the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and Jews controlled the world.

Tamerlan-Tsarnaev-B-W-phto

(FILE)

"Somehow, he just took his brain," said Tamerlan's uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, who recalled conversations with Tamerlan's worried father about Misha's influence. Efforts over several days by The Associated Press to identify and interview Misha have been unsuccessful.

Tamerlan's relationship with Misha could be a clue in understanding the motives behind his religious transformation and, ultimately, the attack itself. Two U.S. officials say he had no tie to terrorist groups.

Throughout his religious makeover, Tamerlan maintained a strong influence over his siblings, including Dzhokhar, who investigators say carried out the deadly attack by his older brother's side, killing three and injuring 264 people.

"They all loved Tamerlan. He was the eldest one and he, in many ways, was the role model for his sisters and his brother," said Elmirza Khozhugov, 26, the ex-husband of Tamerlan's sister, Ailina. "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."

"Even my ex-wife loved him so much and respected him so much," Khozhugov said. "I'd have arguments with her and if Tamerlan took my side, she would agree: `OK, if Tamerlan said it.'"

Khozhugov said he was close to Tamerlan when he was married and they kept in touch for a while but drifted apart in the past two years or so. He spoke to the AP from his home in Almaty, Kazakhstan. A family member in the United States provided the contact information.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in a police shootout Friday. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was charged Monday with using a weapon of mass destruction to kill, and he could face the death penalty if convicted.

"Of course I was shocked and surprised that he was Suspect No. 1," Khozhugov said, recalling the days after the bombing when the FBI identified Tamerlan as the primary suspect. "But after a few hours of thinking about it, I thought it could be possible that he did it."

Based on preliminary written interviews with Dzhokar in his hospital bed, U.S. officials believe the brothers were motivated by their religious views.

As authorities try to piece together that information, they are touching on a question asked after so many terrorist plots: What turns someone into a terrorist?

The brothers emigrated in 2002 or 2003 from Dagestan, a Russian republic that has become an epicenter of the Islamic insurgency that spilled over from the region of Chechnya.

They were raised in a home that followed Sunni Islam, the religion's largest sect. They were not regulars at the mosque and rarely discussed religion, Khozhugov said.

Then, in 2008 or 2009, Tamerlan met Misha, a slightly older, heavyset bald man with a long reddish beard. Khozhugov didn't know where they'd met but believed they attended a Boston-area mosque together. Misha was an Armenian native and a convert to Islam and quickly began influencing his new friend, family members said.

Once, Khozhugov said, Misha came to the family home outside Boston and sat in the kitchen, chatting with Tamerlan for hours.

"Misha was telling him what is Islam, what is good in Islam, what is bad in Islam," said Khozhugov, who said he was present for the conversation. "This is the best religion and that's it. Mohammed said this and Mohammed said that."

The conversation continued until Tamerlan's father, Anzor, came home from work.

"It was late, like midnight," Khozhugov said. "His father comes in and says, `Why is Misha here so late and still in our house?' He asked it politely. Tamerlan was so much into the conversation he didn't listen."

Khozhugov said Tamerlan's mother, Zubeidat, told him not to worry.

"`Don't interrupt them,'" Khozhugov recalled the mother saying. "`They're talking about religion and good things. Misha is teaching him to be good and nice.'"

As time went on, Tamerlan and his father argued about the young man's new beliefs.

"When Misha would start talking, Tamerlan would stop talking and listen. It upset his father because Tamerlan wouldn't listen to him as much," Khozhugov said. "He would listen to this guy from the mosque who was preaching to him."

Anzor became so concerned that he called his brother, worried about Misha's effects.

"I heard about nobody else but this convert," Tsarni said. "The seed for changing his views was planted right there in Cambridge."

It was not immediately clear whether the FBI has spoken to Misha or was attempting to.

Tsarnaev became an ardent reader of jihadist websites and extremist propaganda, two U.S. officials said. He read Inspire magazine, an English-language online publication produced by al-Qaida's Yemen affiliate.

Tamerlan loved music and, a few years ago, he sent Khozhugov a song he'd composed in English and Russian. He said he was about to start music school.

Six weeks later, the two men spoke on the phone. Khozhugov asked how school was going.

"I quit," Tamerlan said.

"Why did you quit?" Khozhugov asked. "You just started."

"Music is not really supported in Islam," he replied.

"Who told you that?"

"Misha said it's not really good to create music. It's not really good to listen to music," Tamerlan said, according to Khozhugov.

Tamerlan took an interest in Infowars, a conspiracy theory website. Khozhugov said Tamerlan was interested in finding a copy of the book "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," the classic anti-Semitic hoax, first published in Russia in 1903, that claims a Jewish plot to take over the world.

"He never said he hated America or he hated the Jews," Khozhugov said. "But he was fairly aggressive toward the policies of the U.S. toward countries with Muslim populations. He disliked the wars."

One of the brothers' neighbors, Albrecht Ammon, recently recalled an encounter in which Tamerlan argued about U.S. foreign policy, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and religion.

Ammon said Tamerlan described the Bible as a "cheap copy" of the Quran, used to justify wars with other countries.

"He had nothing against the American people," Ammon said. "He had something against the American government."

Khozhugov said Tamerlan did not know much about Islam beyond what he found online or what he heard from Misha.

"Misha was important," he said. "Tamerlan was searching for something. He was searching for something out there."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/alleged-boston-bomber-ardent-reader-radical-jihadist-websites-031221617.html

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U.S. existing homes sales show surprise drop | Mortgages & Real ...

Sales of previously owned U.S. homes unexpectedly dropped in March, showing uneven progress in the industry.

Purchases of previously owned houses, tabulated when a contract closes, fell 0.6% to a 4.92 million annual rate last month, figures from the National Association of Realtors showed today in Washington. The median forecast of 75 economists surveyed by Bloomberg projected sales would increase to a 5 million rate. Prices climbed, reflecting more demand for higher-priced houses.

Historically low mortgage rates, rising property values and employment gains have helped mend the U.S. housing market, a source of strength for the world?s largest economy a boost. At the same time, a drop in the inventory of cheaper properties for sale compared with last year may be restraining the pace of progress in the industry.

?Housing will remain a positive for the economy, but there should be some slowing in the next few months,? David Sloan, a New York-based senior economist at 4Cast Inc., said before the report. ?The slowing is temporary. There is a shortage of supply. The housing market will revive.?

Stocks fell after the report, with the Standard & Poor?s 500 Index declining 0.2% to 1,552.78 at 10:03 a.m. in New York.

Sales estimates in the Bloomberg survey ranged from 4.9 million to 5.2 million. The prior month?s pace was revised to 4.95 million from a previously reported 4.98 million.

Existing-home purchases, counted when contracts close, are recovering from a 13-year low of 4.11 million in 2008. Annual sales peaked at 7.08 million in 2005. A total of 4.66 million previously-owned houses were sold in 2012.

Year Ago

Compared with a year earlier, purchases increased 7.2% in March on an unadjusted basis, today?s report showed.

The median price of an existing home rose 11.8%, the most since November 2005, to $184,300 last month from $164,800 in March 2012.

The number of previously owned homes on the market rose to 1.93 million in March from 1.9 million a month earlier, according to Monday?s report. At the current sales pace, it would take 4.7 months to sell those houses compared with 4.6 months at the end of February. The group has said supply in the six-months range is ?normal.?

The inventory of unsold homes was 2.32 million a year earlier.

The supply of homes is ?plentiful on the upper end of prices. There?s very little inventory on the lower end,? Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said in a news conference today as the figures were released.

Borrowing Costs

Real-estate activity is being stoked by cheaper borrowing costs and an improving labor market. The average rate for a 30- year fixed mortgage fell to 3.41% in the week ended April 18, the third consecutive drop, according to Freddie Mac. The rate declined to a record low of 3.31% in November.

Higher home prices have also boosted household wealth. Property values rose 10.2% in the 12 months through February, the biggest gain in almost seven years, according to Irvine, California-based CoreLogic Inc.

Builders are responding by stepping up construction, providing a boost for the expansion. They broke ground on new homes in March at the fastest pace in almost five years, the Commerce Department said April 16.

Contacts in most districts of the Federal Reserve system said ?residential and commercial real estate improved markedly? with rising property values and demand for home loans that was ?steady to slightly up,? according to its Beige Book business survey, which covers the period from late February to early April.

Furniture Sales

The strength in housing is spilling over into other parts of the economy such as manufacturing.

?We?re encouraged by the sustained improvement in housing sales, new home construction, rising housing prices, reduced inventories, historically low mortgage rates, and the best housing affordability in years, all of which combined to create a positive environment for our company and our industry,? Paul Toms, chief executive officer at Martinsville, Virginia-based furniture maker Hooker Furniture Corp., said on an April 15 earnings call.

Bloomberg.com

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Source: http://business.financialpost.com/2013/04/22/surprise-drop-in-u-s-existing-homes-sales-show-uneven-progress-in-recovery/

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