Investors Raid IRAs, 401(k)s ? Raising Broker & Adviser Risk ...

[ by Melanie Gretchen and Howard Haykin ]

Anyone looking to check the pulse of the American economy might want to check out the status of retirement accounts.? What might be a little known secret might have some serious impacts on the welfare of customers and clients of broker-dealers and investment advisers.? And when their welfare, and well-being is at risk, multiple risks arise for Wall Street firms.? Of course, there's no reason any financial services firms must sit around and wait to see how it all turns out.? There are plenty of PRO-ACTIVE steps that can be taken.

So where are we getting the idea that many Americans are not waiting for retirement before they hit their savings?? Well, that would be Wall Street Cheatsheet, which points out that:? Amid stagnant wages and rising expenses, more Americans are raiding their retirement accounts.

And with all the billions in liquidity that the Federal Reserve appears to be pumping into the financial system ? at record levels, no less ? no much of that liquidity is reaching its intended target.? As Americans are getting "tapped out," they are resorting to tapping their retirement accounts ? before their retirement.? Wells Fargo confirms this phenomenon:? a bank survey found that 1 in 5 workers are using their 401k plans for loans.? To date, the average new loan balance jumped 7% from $6,662 to $7,126 in the same period.

"While the increase in loan activity is concerning, we know that loans are not the biggest driver of leakage from retirement savings.? In fact, employees cashing out their 401k's when they leave an employer are a greater concern. Those dollars are often spent whereas with loans the funds are often repaid and stay in the retirement nest egg." ? Laurie Nordquist, director of Wells Fargo Retirement, in a press release.

Wall St. Cheatsheet scratched the surface when it said, "it is generally considered a bad idea to take a loan out from your 401k plan."? Aside from diminished long-term gains or the very real threat of being laid off (at which point entire loan typically becomes due within a few months), what we're looking at is an entire population of sitting ducks.

Ramifications On The Financial Services Industry.? We'll let you in on a little secret ? but you'll have to promise to follow our logic.? If you agree with us so far ? i.e., agree with Wall Street Cheatsheet ? then many customers and clients of broker-dealers and investment advisers are hurting.? If the investor keeps his or her retirement account with your firm, perhaps you've already noticed a significant decline in balances.? But it wouldn't be so apparent if the account or accounts were held, say, at a custodian chosen by the employer.

Anyway, it would be prudent to take the worst case scenario and presume anticipate your customers or clients are having difficulty.? When people are experiencing net outflows, they sorely feel in need of a quick fix.? That need can be filled by investing an individual's remaining funds in speculative securities ? e.g., penny stocks, out-of-the-money options, junk bonds.? If the stars are aligned, any of those can result in a meaningful return.? Of course, it's not uncommon for such securities to become worthless or fall to a fraction of their former value.?

How does that impact those in financial services??

• Suitability, suitability, suitability!
• Investors may try and win it all back all at once.? But should firms let their customers and clients follow their own leads?? It's probably akin to a bartender who serves a last drink to someone who's already reached his or her limit.? If anything happens to that person, the bartender can be held responsible.
• What about the investments that you and your firm have been soliciting.? In your opinion, they were suitable for your customers a couple of months ago ? so why not now?? Well, if they're down on their luck, they no longer have the risk tolerance or investment objective that they had a short while ago.? If you push those securities on customers and they lose, regulators can come after you.?
• And because regulators also are aware that investors are raiding their retirement accounts, they're likely to revise the scope of their examinations, and see if firms like yours have changed the way they do business/

Proactive Strategy. ? First things first, it's essential to learn how your customers and clients are doing.? Every broker and adviser needs to ascertain what changes have occurred in the lives of their customers and clients, and whether the firm's profiles need to be revised.? Managers and supervisors should work closely with their charges and review all findings.?

It probably would be best to design a standard template for all personnel to fill out.? This will ensure consistency of information and facilitate reviews.?

Supervisors should meet or speak with selected customers or clients ? along with the broker or adviser, or separately.? The key is to know whether the brokers and advisers are asking the right questions and clarifying answers where follow-ups are needed.

Benefits of Elevating Customer/Client Contacts.?? Several benefits come to mind.

• Customers and clients will likely appreciate the additional attention and concern.? This not only can strengthen working relationships but it might also provide troubled investors with an ally ? or someone they can turn to for guidance.?
• Regulators will appreciate the care and concern that the firm exhibits for its customers and clients.? And, by retaining copies of the interviews and updates to customer records, as necessary, it's likely that regulators will reduce the scope of testing because they're satisfied that the firm has gone the extra yard to "do the right thing."
• Finally, the risk of suitability arbitrations and lawsuits are significantly reduced because the reviews are documented and presumably subsequent investment decisions are in line with the new findings.

Seriously ? it really is simply prudent/prescient/just good business to be on the crisis-averse side.

For further details, go to [Wall St. Cheatsheet, 4/18/13].

Source: http://www.compliance-insights.com/perspectives/investors-raid-iras-401ks-raising-broker-adviser-risk

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Mother of bomb suspects insists sons are innocent

In this image taken from a video, an undated family photo provided by Patimat Suleimanova, the aunt of USA Boston bomb suspects, shows Anzor Tsarnaev left, Zubeidat Tsarnaev holding Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Anzor's brother Mukhammad Tsarnaev. Now known as the angry and grieving mother of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects, Zubeidat Tsarnaev is drawing increased attention after federal officials say Russian authorities intercepted her phone calls, including one in which she vaguely discussed jihad with her elder son. In another, she was recorded talking to someone in southern Russia who is under FBI investigation in an unrelated case, U.S. officials said. (AP Photo/Patimat Suleimanova)

In this image taken from a video, an undated family photo provided by Patimat Suleimanova, the aunt of USA Boston bomb suspects, shows Anzor Tsarnaev left, Zubeidat Tsarnaev holding Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Anzor's brother Mukhammad Tsarnaev. Now known as the angry and grieving mother of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects, Zubeidat Tsarnaev is drawing increased attention after federal officials say Russian authorities intercepted her phone calls, including one in which she vaguely discussed jihad with her elder son. In another, she was recorded talking to someone in southern Russia who is under FBI investigation in an unrelated case, U.S. officials said. (AP Photo/Patimat Suleimanova)

FILE - This April 25, 2013 file photo shows the mother of the two Boston bombing suspects, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, left, speaking at a news conference in Makhachkala, the southern Russian province of Dagestan. Two government officials tell The Associated Press that U.S. intelligence agencies added the Boston bombing suspects' mother to a federal terrorism database about 18 months before the attack. At right is her sister-in-law Maryam. (AP Photo/Musa Sadulayev, File)

BOSTON (AP) ? The angry and grieving mother of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects insists that her sons are innocent and that she's no terrorist.

But Zubeidat Tsarnaeva is drawing increased attention after federal officials say Russian authorities intercepted her phone calls, including one in which she vaguely discussed jihad with her elder son. In another, she was recorded talking to someone in southern Russia who is under FBI investigation in an unrelated case, U.S. officials said.

In photos of her as a younger woman, Tsarnaeva wears a low-cut blouse and has her hair teased like a 1980s rock star. After she arrived in the U.S. from Russia in 2002, she went to beauty school and did facials at a suburban day spa.

But in recent years, people noticed a change. She began wearing a hijab and cited conspiracy theories about 9/11 being a plot against Muslims.

Tsarnaeva insists there is no mystery and that she's just someone who found a deeper spirituality. She fiercely defends her sons ? Tamerlan, who was killed in a gunfight with police, and Dzhokhar, who was wounded and captured.

"It's all lies and hypocrisy," she told The Associated Press in Dagestan. "I'm sick and tired of all this nonsense that they make up about me and my children. People know me as a regular person, and I've never been mixed up in any criminal intentions, especially any linked to terrorism."

At a news conference in Dagestan with her ex-husband Anzor Tsarnaev last week, Tsarnaeva appeared overwhelmed with grief one moment, defiant the next. "They already are talking about that we are terrorists, I am terrorist," she said. "They already want me, him and all of us to look (like) terrorists."

Amid the scrutiny, Tsarnaeva and Anzor say they have put off the idea of any trip to the U.S. to reclaim their elder son's body or try to visit Dzhokhar in jail. Tsarnaev told the AP on Sunday he was too ill to travel to the U.S. Tsarnaeva faces a 2012 shoplifting charge in a Boston suburb, though it was unclear whether that was a deterrent.

Tsarnaeva arrived in the U.S. in 2002, settling in a working-class section of Cambridge, Mass. With four children, Anzor and Zubeidat qualified for food stamps and were on and off public assistance benefits for years. The large family squeezed itself into a third-floor apartment.

Zubeidat took classes at the Catherine Hinds Institute of Esthetics, before becoming a state-licensed aesthetician. Anzor, who had studied law, fixed cars.

By some accounts, the family was tolerant.

Bethany Smith, a New Yorker who befriended Zubeidat's two daughters, said in an interview with Newsday that when she stayed with the family for a month in 2008 while she looked at colleges, she was welcomed even though she was Christian and had tattoos.

"I had nothing but love over there. They accepted me for who I was," Smith told the newspaper. "Their mother, Zubeidat, she considered me to be a part of the family. She called me her third daughter."

Zubeidat said she and Tamerlan began to turn more deeply into their Muslim faith about five years ago after being influenced by a family friend, named "Misha." The man, whose full name she didn't reveal, impressed her with a religious devotion that was far greater than her own, even though he was an ethnic Armenian who converted to Islam.

"I wasn't praying until he prayed in our house, so I just got really ashamed that I am not praying, being a Muslim, being born Muslim. I am not praying. Misha, who converted, was praying," she said.

By then, she had left her job at the day spa and was giving facials in her apartment. One client, Alyssa Kilzer, noticed the change when Tsarnaeva put on a head scarf before leaving the apartment.

"She had never worn a hijab while working at the spa previously, or inside the house, and I was really surprised," Kilzer wrote in a post on her blog. "She started to refuse to see boys that had gone through puberty, as she had consulted a religious figure and he had told her it was sacrilegious. She was often fasting."

Kilzer wrote that Tsarnaeva was a loving and supportive mother, and she felt sympathy for her plight after the April 15 bombings. But she stopped visiting the family's home for spa treatments in late 2011 or early 2012 when, during one session, she "started quoting a conspiracy theory, telling me that she thought 9/11 was purposefully created by the American government to make America hate Muslims."

"It's real," Tsarnaeva said, according to Kilzer. "My son knows all about it. You can read on the Internet."

In the spring of 2010, Zubeidat's eldest son got married in a ceremony at a Boston mosque that no one in the family had previously attended. Tamerlan and his wife, Katherine Russell, a Rhode Island native and convert from Christianity, now have a child who is about 3 years old.

Zubeidat married into a Chechen family but was an outsider. She is an Avar, from one of the dozens of ethnic groups in Dagestan. Her native village is now a hotbed of an ultraconservative strain of Islam known as Salafism or Wahabbism.

It is unclear whether religious differences fueled tension in their family. Anzor and Zubeidat divorced in 2011.

About the same time, there was a brief FBI investigation into Tamerlan Tsarnaev, prompted by a tip from Russia's security service.

The vague warning from the Russians was that Tamerlan, an amateur boxer in the U.S., was a follower of radical Islam who had changed drastically since 2010. That led the FBI to interview Tamerlan at the family's home in Cambridge. Officials ultimately placed his name, and his mother's name, on various watch lists, but the inquiry was closed in late spring of 2011.

After the bombings, Russian authorities told U.S. investigators they had secretly recorded a phone conversation in which Zubeidat had vaguely discussed jihad with Tamerlan. The Russians also recorded Zubeidat talking to someone in southern Russia who is under FBI investigation in an unrelated case, according to U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation with reporters.

The conversations are significant because, had they been revealed earlier, they might have been enough evidence for the FBI to initiate a more thorough investigation of the Tsarnaev family.

Anzor's brother, Ruslan Tsarni, told the AP from his home in Maryland that he believed his former sister-in-law had a "big-time influence" on her older son's growing embrace of his Muslim faith and decision to quit boxing and school.

While Tamerlan was living in Russia for six months in 2012, Zubeidat, who had remained in the U.S., was arrested at a shopping mall in the suburb of Natick, Mass., and accused of trying to shoplift $1,624 worth of women's clothing from a department store.

She failed to appear in court to answer the charges that fall, and instead left the country.

___

Seddon reported from Makhachkala, Russia. Associated Press writers Eileen Sullivan and Matt Apuzzo contributed to this report from Washington.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-04-29-Boston%20Marathon-Suspects'%20Mother/id-26c47ee09dfc4b6489722eb602fa6ee1

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Motherhood, Humility and Empty Vessels | - Generation Cedar

It?s the one and only two preggo pictures for this, my 10th baby. You know you gotta have one. When I say ?tenth baby? it?s so hard for me to believe I have ten children. I?m glad and thankful, just surprised and never imagined it for my life. It doesn?t feel like it sounds, apparently. Because when I?m out by myself and someone asks me ?is this your first baby? and I say ?no?, and then it?s inevitable that I must answer the hyper-ventilating-invoking question, the response feels more dramatic than my life feels.

I understand the surprise, that ten children is not exactly common. But compared with my actual life, we?re just a regular family who drives a small bus. And shares clothes. And hugs more than the average times per day. And doesn?t stress anymore about germs. And, oddly enough, is more excited at the announcement of a new baby than just about anything else on earth. And shares the housework so that really, everybody probably does less work than normal. And has to take turns talking or it can get a little out of hand at the dinner table.

But other than that, I don?t feel different until we all go out in public.

Mostly, at this stage in my life, I?m humbled more than ever. And where I?m not, I?m praying to be. Andrew Murray said, in his book our family is reading again?Humility:

?True humility comes when before God we see ourselves as nothing, have put aside self, and let God be all. The soul that has done this, and can say, ?I have lost myself in finding You,? no longer compares itself with others.?

I think a lot about how motherhood can be so ?emptying? and how maybe that?s why our culture has become a consistent enemy of motherhood, at least of the motherhood that would threaten to empty. As my husband read that sentence, I thought of how contrary it is to every message around us?even to our own flesh, and why then, there is such a gulf between what God has said is ?right and good? and what everything else poses as ?right and good?.

Pregnancy (since I?m here in this time of reflection) is, literally speaking, a body who ?empties? part of itself to contain another human being. It?s a perfect picture of a ?life-giving vessel?, emptied so it can be filled.

And so it is with us in spirit. God can only fill an empty vessel, a surrendered heart. And then, the miracle of that filling! It is only when we can reach our hands to Heaven and say with Christ, ?Not my will, but Thine be done?, that we can walk in perfect peace, knowing He truly orders our steps.

So when another person says to me, ?pregnancy is just so hard on your body?, intending to persuade me that I?ve ?done? a silly thing by carrying another person, I can exhale with a calm knowing of the greater rewards of being emptied. I?ve had similar, encouraging epiphanies about motherhood and broken vessels. When my back hurts and round ligament pain makes me wince, I tell my children, I did it for you and it was so worth it. I don?t want pain to always be associated with something to be avoided.

Today is the anniversary of the tornado that ripped away all our earthly things. Emptying. Painful. And I can truly say I?m grateful for that life-changing event. It has helped me empty my hands of the more meaningless things in life (although I?m still working on it), to be able to hold what is most dear. I whisper a word of praise to the Father for that too, His perfect will. As a side note, I looked at some of those posts and re-read your comments the other day. Tears just streamed down my face?I probably wasn?t completely cognizant the first time I read them?and they were SUCH a huge blessing to me, two years later, as I reflected on your love and God?s goodness to put things in our lives in order to reveal such love. Thank you again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Along the lines of equipping ourselves to see past this world?s idea of success or happiness?to become WOMEN OF VISION?I highly recommend ?The Best of Visionary Womanhood?. Packed with articles full of wisdom, solid truth and a burning vision, it will help you keep focused when all around you seem to be getting off track.

BUT?even though you can buy it now for $5.00, why not wait until Monday when you can get 96 additional, INCREDIBLE books for $29.97?! Keep them all, give some as gifts, but it?s a deal you don?t want to pass up.

Related posts:

1. Motherhood, Fear & Resolving to Fight
2. ?When Motherhood Feels Too Hard? (Ebook) is FINALLY HERE!
3. Humility: The Only True Mark
4. Loving Motherhood in an ?I?m Bored? Society
5. Joyful Motherhood

Source: http://www.generationcedar.com/main/2013/04/motherhood-humility-and-empty-vessels.html

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Movie Review: Michael Bay Lightens Up with True Crime Comedy ...

A group of bodybuilding criminals fumble their way through mayhem in this "visual extravaganza."

Pain & Gain is rated R and runs 129 minutes. It is now playing at?Aurora Cineplex and Studio Movie Grill. For more theater information, show times and pricing, click the links above.

Here's what the critics are saying:

"This weekend, "Pain and Gain" opens nationwide, for both muscle-building juiceheads and those of us who try to make it to yoga a couple of times a week because we want to age gracefully, like Helen Mirren. The true-life story of kidnapping and murder stars Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as a pair of criminals who were part of what was known as the Sun Gym gang ?- bodybuilders whose criminal activity eventually extended into kidnapping, extortion, and murder." Drew Taylor, Moviefone. Full Review

"Memo to director Michael Bay: Stick to movies with massive pyrotechnics and minimally developed characters. Blending sharp wit and brutality is a tough proposition. Best to leave such a feat in the nimbler hands of Quentin Tarantino, the Coen brothers, Guy Ritchie and Martin McDonagh. Bay's Pain & Gain is a badly constructed, blood-spattered caper that comes unglued early on." Claudia Puig, USA TODAY. Full Review

"[Bay's] big-budget popcorn productions like Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, and the Transformers films have always strained to give audiences an excess of bang for their buck, but you never got the sense that he could tell a joke. If anything, Bay seemed like the type of guy who was incapable of figuring out whether audiences were laughing with him or at him. But with Pain & Gain, his surprising true-crime comedy, Bay has finally decided to lighten up a bit." Chris Nashawaty, EW.com. Full Review

Do you plan on seeing this movie? Leave a review of the film with a comment below after you do.

Source: http://roswell.patch.com/articles/movie-review-michael-bay-lightens-up-with-true-crime-comedy-pain-and-gain

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NY college crew team finds giant floating 'head'

In this April 22, 2013 handout photo provided by Marist College crew coach Matthew Lavin, a giant head made of Styrofoam and fiberglass is seen floating in the Hudson River in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Officials at the college in say their crew team was practicing earlier this week when the coach spotted a large object floating near the river's west bank. He hooked a rope to it and towed it to the team's dock on the east bank. (AP Photo/Marist College, Matthew Lavin, HO)

In this April 22, 2013 handout photo provided by Marist College crew coach Matthew Lavin, a giant head made of Styrofoam and fiberglass is seen floating in the Hudson River in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Officials at the college in say their crew team was practicing earlier this week when the coach spotted a large object floating near the river's west bank. He hooked a rope to it and towed it to the team's dock on the east bank. (AP Photo/Marist College, Matthew Lavin, HO)

In this April 22, 2013 handout photo provided by Tyler Sawyer of the Marist College crew team , members of the team stand by a giant head made of Styrofoam and fiberglass found floating in the Hudson River in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Officials at the college say the team was practicing earlier this week when the coach spotted a large object floating near the river's west bank. He hooked a rope to it and towed it to the team's dock on the east bank. (AP Photo/Marist College,Tyler Sawyer, HO)

POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. (AP) ? Anyone lose a giant head made of Styrofoam and fiberglass?

That's what officials at an upstate New York college are asking after the men's crew team found the unusual object floating in the Hudson River.

Officials at Marist College in Poughkeepsie say the team was practicing earlier this week when the coach spotted a large object floating near the river's west bank. He hooked a rope to it and towed it to the team's dock on the east bank.

The object turned out to be a 7-foot-tall replica of a man's head made with Styrofoam and fiberglass. The head has the appearance of a Greek or Roman-style statue.

College officials believe it's a theater prop, but so far no one has come forward to claim the giant head.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/aa9398e6757a46fa93ed5dea7bd3729e/Article_2013-04-25-Giant%20Floating%20Head/id-768682da31e84bf48c280bdb1ca36b83

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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. A memorial service for the officer, 26-year-old Sean Collier, is scheduled for Wednesday. Vice President Joe Biden is expected to speak.

Also Wednesday, Boylston Street, where the blasts occurred, reopened to the public after being closed since the bombings.

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. Tamerlan 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.

Eight-year-old Martin Richard, a Boston schoolboy and the youngest of those killed by the blasts, was laid to rest Tuesday 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.

Secretary of State John Kerry addressed Tsarnaev's travels during a brief session Wednesday with reporters in Brussels. "We just had a young person who went to Russia, Chechnya, who blew people up in Boston. So he didn't stay where he went, but he learned something where he went and he came back with a willingness to kill people," Kerry said.

In Washington, however, 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, but 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. A U.S. Embassy official said Wednesday that a team of U.S. investigators has traveled to Dagestan to speak to the parents. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Family members reached in the U.S. and abroad by The Associated Press said Tamerlan was influenced by 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.

? 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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Tumblr for iOS gets new social sharing features, options to save to Instapaper and Pocket

Ever since going native on iOS, the Tumblr app's been on the receiving end of many, many new features and improvements. Now, continuing its ongoing efforts to make the application as good as can be, the microblogging site has released a new version for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad owners. As of today, Tumblr for iOS will now allow posts to be shared via email and a few major social networks -- including, as you'd expect, Facebook and Twitter. In addition, v3.3.1 brings added integration with Pocket and Instapaper, giving users the ability to save content to either service for offline reading at a later time. Busy couple of days, eh, Tumblr?

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Gut bacteria byproduct predicts heart attack and stroke

Apr. 24, 2013 ? A microbial byproduct of intestinal bacteria contributes to heart disease and serves as an accurate screening tool for predicting future risks of heart attack, stroke and death in persons not otherwise identified by traditional risk factors and blood tests, according to Cleveland Clinic research published today in The New England Journal of Medicine.

The research team was led by Stanley Hazen, M.D., Ph.D., Vice Chair of Translational Research, Chair of the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine for the Lerner Research Institute and section head of Preventive Cardiology & Rehabilitation in the Miller Family Heart and Vascular Institute at Cleveland Clinic, and W.H. Wilson Tang, M.D., Department of Cardiovascular Medicine in the Miller Family Heart and Vascular Institute and Lerner Research Institute.

The current study is an extension of Dr. Hazen's previous work, in which he found that a chemical byproduct called trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) is produced when intestinal bacteria digest the nutrient phosphatidylcholine, commonly known as lecithin. The prior research showed that TMAO levels in the blood were associated with heart disease. Dr. Hazen and colleagues have now confirmed that gut flora are essential in forming TMAO in humans and demonstrated a relationship between TMAO levels and future cardiac events like heart attack, stroke, and death -- even in those with no prior evidence of cardiac disease risk.

To demonstrate the role of gut flora in forming TMAO, human subjects were asked to eat two hard-boiled eggs (a common dietary source of lecithin) and a capsule of labeled lecithin (as a tracer). After ingestion, TMAO levels in the blood increased. However, when these same subjects were given a brief course of broad-spectrum antibiotics to suppress their gut flora, their TMAO levels were suppressed, and no additional TMAO was formed, even after ingesting lecithin. These results demonstrated that the intestinal bacteria are essential for the formation of TMAO.

In the second phase of the study, the researchers measured TMAO levels in a large, independent, clinical cohort -- consisting of more than 4,000 adults undergoing cardiac evaluation at Cleveland Clinic -- over a three-year follow-up period. They found that higher TMAO blood levels were associated with higher future risks of death and nonfatal heart attack or stroke over the ensuing three-year period, independent of other risk factors and blood test results. These results complement those of another recent study of Dr. Hazen's linking gut flora metabolism of a structurally similar nutrient found in animal products, carnitine, to TMAO production and heart attack risk.

"Heart disease remains the No. 1 killer, and while we know how to reduce cholesterol, treat blood pressure, and reduce cardiac risks through diet and other interventions, a substantial residual risk still remains," Dr. Hazen said. "We need to find new pathways to attack heart disease, and these findings strongly suggest that further research into the involvement of gut microbiome in the development of cardiovascular disease could lead to new avenues of prevention and treatment of heart disease."

Dr. Hazen further suggested, "These studies show that measuring blood levels of TMAO could serve as a powerful tool for predicting future cardiovascular risk, even for those without known risk factors. More studies are needed to confirm that TMAO testing, like cholesterol, triglyceride or glucose levels, might help guide physicians in providing individualized nutritional recommendations for preventing cardiovascular disease. Our goal is not to suggest dietary restrictions of entire food groups. Eggs, meat and other animal products are an integral part of most individuals' diets. Our work shows, however, that when digesting these foods, gut flora can generate a chemical mediator, TMAO, that may contribute to cardiovascular disease."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Cleveland Clinic, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. W.H. Wilson Tang, Zeneng Wang, Bruce S. Levison, Robert A. Koeth, Earl B. Britt, Xiaoming Fu, Yuping Wu, Stanley L. Hazen. Intestinal Microbial Metabolism of Phosphatidylcholine and Cardiovascular Risk. New England Journal of Medicine, 2013; 368 (17): 1575 DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1109400

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/D14BpEQC7uQ/130424185211.htm

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Nintendo won't host a keynote at E3 2013, plans small but focused hands-on events instead

A lot of folks have been wondering just how Nintendo's keynote was going to outshine the launch of two competitor consoles at this year's E3. Turns out, it won't. During Nintendo's Japanese financial results briefing, company President Satoru Iwata revealed the company wouldn't be hosting a Keynote at E3 this year. "We decided not to host a large-scale presentation targeted at everyone in the international audience where we announce new information as we did in the past," Iwata explained. "Instead, at the E3 show this year, we are planning to host a few smaller events that are specifically focused on our software lineup for the US market." Nintendo will be hosting two events, actually -- one for distributors and another for the media. The company president says he won't personally be speaking at either event.

In lieu of the traditional keynote livestream, Nintendo will be releasing Nintendo Direct streams to deliver region specific news to Japanese and overseas fans. It's a bold, and perhaps dangerous move for the Japanese gaming giant. While bowing out of the keynote avoids the yearly squabble over who "won" E3 in the eyes of critics, it also forfeits the opportunities a large presentation provides, namely promotion. Excitable fans may have to wait until Nintendo Spaceworld to get their hype-fix.

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iPhone 5 vs. BlackBerry Q10: Which should you buy?

The BlackBerry Q10 represents the return of the original BlackBerry. And unabashedly so. Sure it runs the same BlackBerry 10 operating system as the full touchscreen BlackBerry Z10, but it packs it into the classic, keyboard package every hardcore communicator and enterprise accomplisher knows and loves. But how does it compare to the iPhone 5, and if you're considering both -- which one should you get?

And you know what? For what it is, it's really really good. I've been using BlackBerry 10 on the Z10 for a month or so, and I've been using Kevin Michaluk's BlackBerry Q10 review unit quite a bit this week. And the experience translates pretty well to the smaller 720x720 display on the Q10. The keyboard is everything you'd expect from the people who pretty much perfected it. It's a real BlackBerry in every way that matters.

On the other hand, the OLED display is sub-optimal and a compromise. It's a concession to battery life, which is the entire focus of a workhorse phone like the Q10. Apps are still sparse, and Android emulation is a stop-gap at best.

It's also a brand new OS, so while it has all the basics, and carries over a lot of the smart ideas from the Z10, but it's still first generation and that means it squeaks a little when it turns around too fast. But that's okay. Every modern mobile OS has been there.

The truth is, the Q10 is a hold-over from a time gone by, and hardware keyboards aren't a growth market anymore. Kids growing up today will be touch-screen native, and the Q10-style BlackBerry will fade as the Z10-style grows to take it's place.

But right now, today, I don't care. Right now, today, it's like watching your favorite hero from the past come out of retirement to kick ass one last time. And it's a hell of a thing to watch.

No one who wants an iPhone will want a Q10, but everyone who wants the BlackBerry will love it.

Go check out CrackBerry's coverage, then come back here and tell me what you think.

• BlackBerry Q10 review

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/qBlp2iKgRsA/story01.htm

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UK to extend flagship credit scheme to boost lending

By Christina Fincher and David Milliken

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will announce a shake-up of its Funding for Lending Scheme on Wednesday in the hope of getting more credit flowing to small and medium-sized firms and kick-starting an economy struggling to show any growth.

The Bank of England said it would make an announcement at 0500 GMT. It gave no further details but sources familiar with the scheme said it would be extended both in scope and duration.

With little room for manoeuvre on fiscal policy and top officials at the central bank deadlocked over extending their government bond-buying scheme, Britain's government is pinning its hopes on alternative means of boosting growth.

The original FLS was launched last August and offers banks cheap credit if they increase lending to households and businesses. Results have been mixed with benefits so far mainly going to banks and homebuyers rather than small businesses.

Chancellor George Osborne is under pressure to find ways to boost the economy. Last week the International Monetary Fund added its voice to calls for new thinking to help growth.

Under Wednesday's shake-up, the pool of lenders able to access cheap funding is likely to be extended to include leasing firms and asset finance groups which are major sources of credit for small businesses, the sources said.

Among the changes, big banks will be allowed to lend to such alternative financing firms as part of credit targets set for participation in the FLS scheme, one of the sources said.

Also, banks which want to use the scheme may be asked to spell out how much they are lending to small businesses.

The deadline for funds to be drawn down will be extended by a year to 2015, sources said.

Brian Hilliard, UK economist at Societe Generale said it was a sensible idea to target the funding subsidy at the institutions closest to small businesses, but that lack of lending was both a supply and a demand issue.

"Expectations should be modest about what it will do for growth in the short term," he said.

Official data shows that banks and building societies drew down nearly 14 billion pounds under the Funding for Lending Scheme between August and December. But overall lending fell - in part because of seasonal factors, and the desire of some banks to reduce lending to meet tougher capital rules.

The central bank argues that the scheme is a success, and without it lending would have fallen by much more. Critics claim there are better ways to support growth, and a bigger response is needed to counter the deleveraging being undertaken by banks, households and the public sector.

British government bond prices underperformed German bunds after the announcement as investors bet a freeing up of credit would make a further gilt-buying spree from the central bank less likely.

"Better-targeted policies ... naturally means this kind of credit easing over quantitative easing," said Nomura economist Philip Rush.

Non-bank lenders, he said, might be able to make better use of the scheme since they were less encumbered by bad debts and onerous capital requirements.

Changes to the scheme have been expected for several days.

Osborne said on Friday he would announce changes to the scheme "fairly shortly" - in part due to concerns that its benefits were not reaching small businesses rapidly. And the trade body for British leasing companies, the Finance & Leasing Association, told Reuters on Monday it was in talks with the government about extending the scheme to cover more firms in the sector.

(Additional reporting by Olesya Dmitracova and William Schomberg; Editing by Catherine Evans, Ron Askew)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/uk-announcement-fls-credit-scheme-wednesday-boe-122620510--finance.html

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Credit Suisse beats forecasts, targets 2013 cash payout

ZURICH (Reuters) - Credit Suisse's quarterly earnings beat analysts' expectations and the bank flagged a cash dividend for this year, as the restructuring of its investment banking division starts to bear fruit.

Switzerland's second-largest bank reported first-quarter net profit of 1.303 billion Swiss francs ($1.38 billion), up from 44 million francs a year earlier. The result beat the average estimate of 1.255 billion francs in a Reuters poll Of analysts.

The profit rise was so sharp largely because Credit Suisse had booked a 1.5 billion franc charge on its own debt in the year-ago quarter.

But an accelerated round of cost cuts and a reduction in riskier assets helped keep net revenues stable at Credit Suisse's investment bank, unlike Wall Street's top five banks, which suffered weaker trading revenues.

Credit Suisse said the restructuring would help it pay investors a cash dividend after last year's largely stock payout.

"We are on track to exceed our look-through Swiss core capital ratio target of 10 percent during the middle of this year and have begun to accrue for cash dividends in respect of our 2013 earnings," Chief Executive Brady Dougan said in a statement.

Credit Suisse said its private bank, which targets clients with more than $1 million in bankable assets, won 12 billion francs in fresh money from clients. The bank suffered big outflows of money from clients in Europe, where Swiss banks are under fire for helping tax cheats, but hiked new assets nearly 10 percent in Asia.

The Zurich-based bank said it could not give investors any information on when Swiss government talks - to end a U.S. investigation into it and a host of other banks including Julius Baer in return for expected heavy fines and a transfer of client names - might conclude.

Last week, signs mounted that Swiss and U.S. diplomats were nearing a solution to end their dispute, part of a global crackdown on tax evasion by cash-strapped governments.

Credit Suisse took a 295 million franc provision towards a settlement with U.S. authorities in 2011. ($1 = 0.9418 Swiss francs)

(Reporting By Katharina Bart; Editing by Chris Gallagher)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/credit-suisse-first-quarter-rises-says-track-2013-051332539--finance.html

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Democratic Sen. Baucus rules out 7th term

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Democratic Sen. Max Baucus, the powerful Senate Finance chairman who steered President Barack Obama's health care overhaul into law but broke with his party on gun control, said Tuesday he will not run for re-election.

"I don't want to die here with my boots on. There is life beyond Congress," the 71-year-old Baucus said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

Baucus, who arrived in Washington as a member of the 1974 Watergate class in the House and has been a fixture in the Senate since 1979, said the decision was hard.

"It was probably the most difficult decision in my life," Baucus said.

He faced a tough re-election bid next year, with opposition to the health care law in his state taking a toll on his approval ratings.

A Democrat with an independent streak, Baucus supported the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and Obama's signature 2010 health care law. He broke with his party this year to oppose both the Senate Democratic budget blueprint and a hotly fought effort to beef up background checks for gun purchases.

Baucus, who helped write Obama's health care law, stunned administration officials last week when he told the president's health care chief that he thought the law was headed for a "train wreck" because of bumbling implementation.

"I just see a huge train wreck coming down," Baucus told Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

Baucus was the first top Democrat to publicly voice fears about the rollout of the new health care law, designed to bring coverage to some 30 million uninsured people through a mix of government programs and tax credits for private insurance. Polls show that Americans remain confused by the complex law, and even many uninsured people are skeptical they will be helped by benefits that start next year.

In the interview Tuesday, Baucus said that successful rollout of the health care law will be a top priority, along with tax reform and the farm bill, until he leaves office.

"I want to make sure health care is implemented, and implemented very well," he said.

Baucus' retirement opens up an opportunity for Republicans to claim a Senate seat in a state where GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney easily defeated Obama by 12 percentage points last year. But Democrats have proved resilient in Montana, with Sen. Jon Tester winning re-election last year. The election of Steve Bullock last year is the third term in a row in which Democrats have held the governorship.

Former two-term Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer indicated an interest in the race in an interview with The Associated Press.

"The opportunity to try and get the country moving again like we did in Montana, that's appealing," Schweitzer said. "I'm a fixer."

Tester, who learned of Baucus' plans on Monday in their weekly meeting, said the state's senior senator told him he wanted to return to Montana, and that if he waited until the end of his next term he would be nearly 80.

Baucus, in the interview with the AP, said: "Been here 40 years. No regrets. It is time to do something different."

Tester, in looking at the list of Senate deaths and retirements, surmised that Baucus probably considered the drastically altered Senate lineup. Sens. Tom Harkin D-Iowa, and Carl Levin, D-Mich., have announced plans to retire; Sens. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, died within the last five years.

"These guys are warhorses who've been through the battle. They know what it takes to get legislation passed," Tester said.

Asked how hard it would be for Democrats to hold the seat, Tester said, "Look, it's Montana. You've got to go out to the voters. You've got to talk to voters. I think voters in Montana are less persuaded by party and more persuaded by substance."

Republican campaign officials, who last week seized upon Baucus' comments on the health care law, sought to tar other Democratic Senate candidates in a statement Tuesday responding to Baucus' decision.

"Just days after calling Obamacare a 'train wreck,' its architect Max Baucus waved the white flag rather than face voters," said Rob Collins, executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. "Obamacare has gone from being an 'abstract' discussion to a real life pain for workers and families, which has Democratic candidates like Bruce Braley, Mark Pryor, Mark Begich and Kay Hagan backpedaling. ... The 2014 electoral map is in free-fall for Democrats, who were already facing a daunting challenge."

Possible Republican candidates for the seat are former Gov. Marc Racicot; Denny Rehberg, the former congressman who lost a bitter race last year to Tester; Rick Hill, another former congressman who lost to Bullock; and Steve Daines, the current Montana congressman.

The only Republicans who have declared their intention to run is state Sen. Champ Edmunds of Missoula and former state Sen. and gubernatorial candidate Corey Stapleton.

Democrats in the Senate will be defending 21 seats next year to Republicans 14, with several Democrats running for re-election in GOP-leaning states that Romney won handily. Among the Democrats facing tough challenges next year are Sens. Mark Begich of Alaska, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Mark Pryor of Arkansas.

Democrats also have more retirements than the GOP. Five Democrats in addition to Baucus have announced they will not seek another term: Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, Tim Johnson of South Dakota, Harkin and Levin.

Among Republicans, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia and Mike Johanns of Nebraska have decided to retire.

Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., who heads the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, touted last year's re-election of Tester and said, "We will continue to invest all the resources necessary to hold this seat."

Despite his standing as a top Democrat in Capitol Hill, Baucus sometimes bucked the party line in recognition of Montana being a fundamentally conservative state with voters who want someone willing to base votes on more than party lines.

"I don't focus on labels," he has said. "For me, Montana comes first and partisan labels are a distant second."

He was an architect of the President George W. Bush's prescription drug plan in 2003, one of the few Democrats to back a GOP-led effort to provide prescription drug coverage under Medicare. The law is now widely popular with Republicans and Democrats.

Baucus is from a wealthy Helena ranching family. He practiced law in Montana in the early 1970s until he was elected to the state House in 1973. He first won election to the U.S. House as part of the huge 1974 Watergate class and easily moved up to the Senate in 1978. He has had only one close race since, when he defeated then Lt. Gov. Denny Rehberg with less than 50 percent of the vote in 1996.

Baucus became an advocate for the residents of the Montana town of Libby after news reports in 1999 linked asbestos contamination from a vermiculite mine there to deaths and illnesses. He helped deliver money to those who fell sick and became a vocal critic of both the W.R. Grace Co., and the Environmental Protection Agency for not doing enough to clean up the town.

He also worked to protect the land bordering Glacier National Park by advocating energy companies to retire their leases in the North Fork watershed of Montana's Flathead River.

Baucus voted in favor of invading Iraq, but said later that his vote was a mistake based on faulty intelligence delivered to Congress. After his nephew was killed while deployed in Iraq, Baucus said in later years that the troops should come home as soon as possible.

Baucus ran afoul of his constituents during President Bill Clinton's administration when he supported a handgun-control law and a ban on the sale of some assault-style weapons. Gun ownership is widespread in Montana, and Baucus later supported allowing those laws to expire in 2004.

Baucus came under criticism in February 2009 when he recommended Melodee Hanes for Montana's U.S. attorney post when he was dating her. Hanes withdrew her name from consideration in March and was hired in June as a top official in the Justice Department.

She and Baucus married in June 2011 at the historic Montana ranch north of Helena run by his family.

Baucus attended Stanford University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1964 and a law degree in 1967. He worked as an attorney with the Civil Aeronautics Board from 1967 to 1968, and with the Securities and Exchange Commission from 1968 to 1971. He practiced law in Montana from 1971 to 1974.

He and his ex-wife, Ann Geracimos, have one son, Zeno.

___

Gouras reported from Helena. Associated Press writers Andrew Taylor and Alan Fram in Washington, and Matthew Brown in Billings, Mont., contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/democratic-sen-baucus-rules-7th-term-155541931--finance.html

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Suspect charged in hospital with Boston Marathon bombing

By Scott Malone and Aaron Pressman

BOSTON (Reuters) - Prosecutors formally charged Dzhokhar Tsarnaev with the bombings at the Boston Marathon in a hearing held on Monday in his hospital room, accusing him of crimes that carry the possibility of the death penalty.

The 19-year-old ethnic Chechen can be seen in video taken by security cameras placing a backpack near the finish line of the world-renowned race last Monday, the criminal complaint said, alleging he acted in concert with his older brother, who was killed during a shootout with police early Friday.

The brothers carried two backpacks containing pressure cooker bombs that ripped through the crowd near the finish line, killing three people and wounding more than 200, the complaint said. Ten people lost limbs from the bombs packed with nails and ball bearings.

After a massive manhunt, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured late Friday. He was hospitalized with what the criminal complaint said were gunshot wounds to his head, neck, legs and hand.

The charges came one week after the bombings, as Boston slowly returned to normal, but a fresh security scare arose as Canadian police said they had thwarted an "al Qaeda-supported" plot to derail a passenger train.

U.S. officials said the attack would have targeted a rail line between New York and Toronto, although Canadian police said only that the plot involved a train route in the Toronto area.

Tsarnaev was charged with using a weapon of mass destruction and with malicious destruction of property resulting in death. Each count carries the possibility of the death penalty if he is convicted.

More charges are likely, legal experts said.

The 10-page complaint drew from video and still images captured by security cameras, the media and the public at the race before and after the bombing. It did not mention a motive, leaving that as one of the mysteries of the investigation.

According to a transcript of the bedside legal proceeding, the teenager, mostly unable to speak due to his injuries, nodded when questioned by federal Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler, who asked him if he could answer questions and could follow what was happening. The judge also read him his constitutional rights.

Asked by the magistrate if he could afford a lawyer, Tsarnaev said "No." Three public defenders, appointed by the court, were in the room. They did not respond to requests seeking comment afterward.

'I DID THAT'

A sworn FBI statement in support of the criminal complaint revealed the recollection of a man whose car was allegedly hijacked by the brothers while they tried to escape on Thursday night.

"Did you hear about the Boston explosion?" one of the brothers is said to have told the carjack victim. "I did that."

On Monday, Boston-area hospitals were still treating at least 48 people, with at least two listed in critical condition.

The complaint said that 30 seconds before the first explosion, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev started fidgeting with his cellphone. After the blast, virtually everyone around him turned toward the blast "in apparent bewilderment and alarm," while he appeared calm, it said.

He then left his backpack on the ground and walked away, the complaint said. About 10 seconds later the second explosion ripped through the crowd.

At 2:50 p.m. (1850 GMT) on Monday, the city paused to mark the moment a week earlier when the bombs exploded. A funeral was held for Krystle Campbell, a 29-year-old restaurant manager who was killed in the bombings, as was a memorial service for another victim, Chinese graduate student Lingzi Lu, 23.

An 8-year-old boy, Martin Richard, was also killed.

Police on Monday searched a parking area in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where an owner of an auto service business across the street said the Tsarnaevs' father used to work on cars.

Officials did not say what police were looking for.

Near the site of the bombings, Kevin Brown, a 59-year-old carpenter minding one of the many makeshift memorials to the victims, said he hoped Tsarnaev would be convicted and face the death penalty.

"His bomb was the second one which killed that little boy," he said. "He doesn't deserve to live."

Tsarnaev's capture capped a tense 26 hours after the FBI released the first pictures of the two bombing suspects, still unidentified, on Thursday.

Five hours after their faces appeared on TV screens and websites around the world, the brothers shot and killed a university policeman, carjacked a Mercedes and sought to evade police by hurling bombs during a shootout in a Boston suburb, police said.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was shot in an exchange of gunfire with police and run over by his younger brother, police said. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev later abandoned the car and fled on foot, evading police for nearly 20 more hours until he was found hiding and bleeding in a boat.

'TRAGIC WEEK'

"Although our investigation is ongoing, today's charges bring a successful end to a tragic week for the city of Boston, and for our country," U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement.

In choosing the civilian justice system, U.S. authorities opted against treating Tsarnaev, a naturalized U.S. citizen, as an enemy combatant.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, a legal U.S. resident, visited relatives in the volatile region of Chechnya for two days during his six-month trip out of the United States last year, his mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva and aunt, Patimat Suleimanova, told Reuters in Dagestan on Monday.

U.S. authorities were investigating whether he became radicalized and if he was involved with or was influenced by Chechen separatists or Islamist extremists there.

That trip, combined with Russian interest in Tamerlan Tsarnaev communicated to U.S. authorities and an FBI interview of him in 2011, have raised questions whether danger signals were missed.

U.S. lawmakers planned to question senior security officials this week about whether the FBI mishandled information on the elder brother, who was flagged by Russia as a possible Islamist radical.

The Tsarnaev brothers emigrated to the United States a decade ago from Dagestan, a predominantly Muslim region in Russia's Caucasus. Their parents, who moved back to southern Russia some time ago, have said their sons were framed.

The elder brother twice disrupted sermons to challenge views expressed by preachers leading services at a Cambridge mosque, the Islamic Society of Boston said on Monday.

But neither brother "expressed any hint of violent sentiments or behavior," the group said in a statement. "If they had, the FBI would have immediately been called."

Neither was a member or regular attendee of the Cambridge mosque, it said.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was married, and a crowd of reporters and photographers gathered on Monday outside the home of his wife in North Kingston, Rhode Island. Several family members came and went without making any comment.

(Additional reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel in Makhachkala and Svea Herbst-Bayliss, Tim McLaughlin, Scott Malone and Samuel P. Jacobs in Boston; Writing by Daniel Trotta and Ellen Wulfhorst; Editing by Frances Kerry and Eric Beech)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/suspect-charged-hospital-boston-marathon-bombing-013608113.html

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HBT: Pujols says he's 'hurting real bad'

You?d never know it if you looked at his stats ? the Angels? slugger is hitting .317 with eight extra-base hits ? but Albert Pujols has been bothered by plantar fasciitis in his left foot. With another start at DH this afternoon, he has now started more games as the DH (nine) than as the first baseman (eight). Pujols himself admits the injury is bothering him.

?I?m dying,? Pujols said according to Bill Shaikin. ?It?s hurting real bad.?

The Angels will continue to use Pujols until he cannot handle the pain anymore.

?You?re always picking at a scab a little bit, when you?re trying to play and trying to run,? Manager Mike Scioscia said. ?Certainly, you don?t want it to regress. He?s swinging the bat real well.

?You want to keep it to where he can still DH and hopefully get him to first base at some point.?

The Angels have used Mark Trumbo at first base when Pujols has been the DH, which should be the case for the foreseeable future.

Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/04/21/albert-pujols-is-hurting-real-bad/related/

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Exclusive: Bernanke to skip Jackson Hole due to scheduling conflict

By Alister Bull

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will miss the annual Jackson Hole monetary policy symposium this year due to a scheduling conflict, skipping the prestigious event for the first time since taking the helm of the central bank in 2006.

The conference, held in late August in the splendor of the Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, draws top central bankers from around the world. Bernanke's absence would mark the first time in 25 years that a Fed chairman has not attended.

A Fed spokeswoman, responding to a Reuters enquiry, said the chairman was currently not planning to attend because of a personal scheduling conflict.

Bernanke, and former Fed chair Alan Greenspan, whom he succeeded in 2006, have periodically used the setting to preview important U.S. central bank actions. For instance, Bernanke hinted at the impending launch of a third round of massive bond purchases by the Fed - dubbed QE3 - at the conference last August.

In 2008, the conference effectively became the site of an economic war room as top policymakers huddled to figure out how to tamp down a virulent financial crisis as investment bank Lehman Brothers hurtled toward collapse.

This year's meeting would have been viewed as an excellent opportunity for Bernanke to signal that the central bank might be leaning toward tapering bond purchases, if the economy continues to recover as officials hope.

The Fed is currently buying $85 billion worth of U.S. Treasury and mortgage-backed bonds every month, and is expected to vote to maintain that pace at its upcoming meeting on April 30-May 1.

The Jackson Hole event is the foremost monetary policy conference in the annual global central banking calendar and gathers a who's who of policy thinkers and practitioners.

Started by the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank in 1978, the symposium is held in the park's Jackson Lake lodge, overlooking the majestic Teton mountain range.

(Reporting by Alister Bull; Editing by Tim Ahmann)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-bernanke-skip-jackson-hole-due-scheduling-conflict-013718791--business.html

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FAA Cuts Threaten to Worsen Air Delays (WSJ)

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