2 police shot outside Italian premier's office

AAA??Apr. 28, 2013?8:37 AM ET
2 police shot outside Italian premier's office
By FRANCES D'EMILIOBy FRANCES D'EMILIO, Associated Press??

A wounded Carabinieri paramilitary police officer lies on the ground after being shot outside the Chigi Premier's office, in Rome, Sunday, April 28, 2013. Two paramilitary police officers were shot and wounded Sunday in a crowded square outside the Italian premier's office as the new leader Enrico Letta was sworn in about a kilometer (half-mile) away. It was unclear if there was any connection between the events. (AP Photo/Mauro Scrobogna, Lapresse) ITALY OUT

A wounded Carabinieri paramilitary police officer lies on the ground after being shot outside the Chigi Premier's office, in Rome, Sunday, April 28, 2013. Two paramilitary police officers were shot and wounded Sunday in a crowded square outside the Italian premier's office as the new leader Enrico Letta was sworn in about a kilometer (half-mile) away. It was unclear if there was any connection between the events. (AP Photo/Mauro Scrobogna, Lapresse) ITALY OUT

A wounded Carabinieri paramilitary police officer lies on the ground after being shot outside the Chigi Premier's office, in Rome, Sunday, April 28, 2013. Two paramilitary police officers were shot and wounded Sunday in a crowded square outside the Italian premier's office as the new leader Enrico Letta was sworn in about a kilometer (half-mile) away. It was unclear if there was any connection between the events. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

A man believed to be the assailant lies on the ground detained by police after a shootout outside the Chigi Premier's office, in Rome, Sunday, April 28, 2013. Reports say two paramilitary police officers were shot and wounded outside the Italian premier's office as the new leader Enrico Letta was sworn in about a kilometer (half-mile) away. It was unclear if there was any connection between the events. (AP Photo/Mauro Scrobogna, Lapresse) ITALY OUT

A wounded Carabiniere paramilitary police officer is assisted after being shot at outside the Chigi Premier's office, in Rome, Sunday, April 28, 2013. The shootout took place as Italy's new premier, Enrico Letta, was been sworn into office with his Cabinet at the nearby Quirinale presidential palace. News reports said a paramilitary policeman was shot and wounded about a kilometer (half-mile) away in the square outside the premier's office. Sky TG24 TV said an assailant had been detained by police. It was unclear if there was any connection between the events. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia) (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

A wounded Carabiniere paramilitary police officer is assisted after being shot at outside the Chigi Premier's office, in Rome, Sunday, April 28, 2013. The shootout took place as Italy's new premier, Enrico Letta, was been sworn into office with his Cabinet at the nearby Quirinale presidential palace. News reports said a paramilitary policeman was shot and wounded about a kilometer (half-mile) away in the square outside the premier's office. Sky TG24 TV said an assailant had been detained by police. It was unclear if there was any connection between the events. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia) (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

ROME (AP) ? Italy's interior minister says the shooting that seriously wounded two policemen in a square outside the premier's office in Rome was a "tragic criminal gesture by an unemployed man."

A female passer-by was slightly injured in the shooting, which happened just as Premier Enrico Letta and his new government were being sworn in Sunday elsewhere in the city.

Interior Minister Angelino Alfano told reporters the alleged gunman ? Luigi Preiti, a 49-year-old Italian ? wanted to kill himself after the shooting but ran out of bullets. The minister says Preiti fired six shots.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-04-28-Italy-Politics/id-4b69c15d7fee425688da2bdc32a8004f

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Russia caught bomb suspect on wiretap

ALTERNATIVE CROP OF MOSB114 The mother of the two Boston bombing suspects, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, speaks at a news conference in Makhachkala, the southern Russian province of Dagestan, Thursday, April 25, 2013. The father of the two Boston bombing suspects said Thursday that he is leaving Russia for the United States in the next day or two, but their mother said she was still thinking it over. At right is her sister-in-law Maryam. (AP Photo/Musa Sadulayev)

ALTERNATIVE CROP OF MOSB114 The mother of the two Boston bombing suspects, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, speaks at a news conference in Makhachkala, the southern Russian province of Dagestan, Thursday, April 25, 2013. The father of the two Boston bombing suspects said Thursday that he is leaving Russia for the United States in the next day or two, but their mother said she was still thinking it over. At right is her sister-in-law Maryam. (AP Photo/Musa Sadulayev)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Russian authorities secretly recorded a telephone conversation in 2011 in which one of the Boston bombing suspects vaguely discussed jihad with his mother, officials said Saturday, days after the U.S. government finally received details about the call.

In another conversation, the mother of now-dead bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was recorded talking to someone in southern Russia who is under FBI investigation in an unrelated case, officials said.

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.

As it was, Russian authorities told the FBI only that they had concerns that Tamerlan and his mother were religious extremists. With no additional information, the FBI conducted a limited inquiry and closed the case in June 2011.

Two years later, authorities say Tamerlan and his brother, Dzhohkar, detonated two homemade bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three and injuring more than 260. Tamerlan was killed in a police shootout and Dzhohkar is under arrest.

In the past week, Russian authorities turned over to the United States information it had on Tamerlan and his mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva. The Tsarnaevs are ethnic Chechens who emigrated from southern Russia to the Boston area over the past 11 years.

Even had the FBI received the information from the Russian wiretaps earlier, it's not clear that the government could have prevented the attack.

In early 2011, the Russian FSB internal security service intercepted a conversation between Tamerlan and his mother vaguely discussing jihad, according to U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation with reporters.

The two discussed the possibility of Tamerlan going to Palestine, but he told his mother he didn't speak the language there, according to the officials, who reviewed the information Russia shared with the U.S.

In a second call, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva spoke with a man in the Caucasus region of Russia who was under FBI investigation. Jacqueline Maguire, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Washington Field Office, where that investigation was based, declined to comment.

There was no information in the conversation that suggested a plot inside the United States, officials said.

It was not immediately clear why Russian authorities didn't share more information at the time. It is not unusual for countries, including the U.S., to be cagey with foreign authorities about what intelligence is being collected.

Nobody was available to discuss the matter early Sunday at FSB offices in Moscow.

Jim Treacy, the FBI's legal attache in Moscow between 2007 and 2009, said the Russians long asked for U.S. assistance regarding Chechen activity in the United States that might be related to terrorism.

"On any given day, you can get some very good cooperation," Treacy said. "The next you might find yourself totally shut out."

Zubeidat Tsarnaeva has denied that she or her sons were involved in terrorism. She has said she believed her sons have been framed by U.S. authorities.

But Ruslan Tsarni, an uncle of the Tsarnaev brothers and Zubeidat's former brother-in-law, said Saturday he believes the mother had a "big-time influence" as her older son increasingly embraced his Muslim faith and decided to quit boxing and school.

After receiving the narrow tip from Russia in March 2011, the FBI opened a preliminary investigation into Tamerlan and his mother. But the scope was extremely limited under the FBI's internal procedures.

After a few months, they found no evidence Tamerlan or his mother were involved in terrorism.

The FBI asked Russia for more information. After hearing nothing, it closed the case in June 2011.

In the fall of 2011, the FSB contacted the CIA with the same information. Again the FBI asked Russia for more details and never heard back.

At that time, however, the CIA asked that Tamerlan's and his mother's name be entered into a massive U.S. terrorism database.

The CIA declined to comment Saturday.

Authorities have said they've seen no connection between the brothers and a foreign terrorist group. Dzhohkar told FBI interrogators that he and his brother were angry over wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the deaths of Muslim civilians there.

Family members have said Tamerlan was religiously apathetic until 2008 or 2009, when he met a conservative Muslim convert known only to the family as Misha. Misha, they said, steered Tamerlan toward a stricter version of Islam.

Two U.S. officials say investigators believe they have identified Misha. While it was not clear whether the FBI had spoken to him, the officials said they have not found a connection between Misha and the Boston attack or terrorism in general.

___

Associated Press writer Adam Goldman in Washington and Michael Kunzelman in Boston contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-04-28-Boston%20Marathon-Russia/id-ce5c3ddf55d643ec8a3b0007c1494f00

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EPA: Alaska mine project could hurt salmon streams

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) -- Build-out of a large-scale mine near the headwaters of a world-class salmon fishery in Alaska could wipe out as many as 90 miles of streams and alter flows in other waterways, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in a revised assessment released Friday.

The report said mining activity would claim at least 24 miles of streams in the Bristol Bay region, based on the scenarios evaluated, with the loss of wetlands ranging from 1,200 to 4,800 acres.

The EPA focused on the Pebble deposit and took into account information related to the proposed Pebble Mine but also noted the potential for multiple mines in the region, given the resource base, which would lead to further elimination or blocking of streams and wetland losses.

EPA initiated the review process in response to concerns raised by tribes and others about the impact large-scale mining could have on Bristol Bay fisheries.

Pebble Limited Partnership, the group behind the proposed Pebble Mine, has called the mine deposit one of the largest of its kind in the world, with the potential of producing 80.6 billion pounds of copper, 107.4 million ounces of gold and 5.6 billion pounds of molybdenum over decades.

EPA regional administrator Dennis McLerran said the revised report generally affirms conclusions reached in the initial report last year while including more details on transportation corridors, possible culvert failures and other factors.

It noted, for example, that culvert blockages or other failures would inhibit fish passage. It said production of fish could be lost or diminished if blockages occurred during adult salmon immigration or juvenile salmon emigration and were not cleared for several days.

Extended blockages aren't likely during mine operations, but there could be a greater impact once mine operations end, the report states.

The report also noted that salmon could be affected by in-stream copper levels because leaching could occur during routine mine operations.

Tailing storage facilities and dams to hold mine waste are likely to be in place for hundreds to thousands of years because there is no plan for removal when mining operations end, according to the report. A tailings dam failure could wipe out or degrade rivers and streams for decades, though the risk of that is considered fairly low, the report states.

Conservationists said it was clear the mine would harm salmon and destroy streams, even if nothing ever goes wrong.

"Pebble is far bigger and more threatening to renewable resource jobs than any other mine proposal in Alaska and it's planned for the worst location possible," Tim Bristol, director of Trout Unlimited's Alaska program, said in a news release.

The new report updates an assessment EPA released last year and is meant to address concerns that were raised about things like missing data and incomplete information.

For example, rather than using a hypothetical mine scenario, EPA said it drew from plans developed for Northern Dynasty Minerals, which has a stake in the Pebble Mine; data collected by Pebble Limited Partnership; and its own experts to come up with three different mine scenarios.

EPA said the scenarios realistically represent the type of development expected to happen in the Bristol Bay region. McLerran said it also accounts for modern mining techniques. He said the focus has been on getting the science right so informed decisions can be made in the future.

Critics of the EPA review ? including the state of Alaska and the Pebble Partnership ? fear it could lead to the agency vetoing mining activity in the region.

U.S. Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, said he opposes a pre-emptive veto of the Pebble Mine or other projects and added "an open, public process that answers Alaskans' questions and puts better science on the table is a good thing."

The revised assessment will undergo a new round of peer review and public comment before EPA releases a final report that could affect permitting decisions for the proposed mine.

___

Follow Becky Bohrer on Twitter at http://twitter.com/beckybohrerap .

___

Online:

EPA's Bristol Bay assessment: http://www2.epa.gov/bristolbay

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/epa-alaska-mine-project-could-180650677.html

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The Bird That Struts Its Stuff

The Greater sage-grouse is a large bird that makes its living in sagebrush habitats across the western U.S. and Canada. Every year at this time, male sage-grouse perform a striking dance routine each morning at dawn. Jason Robinson, upland game coordinator for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, breaks down the dance and describes challenges the birds face in Utah.

Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=179224941&ft=1&f=1007

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Rush to help airlines, travelers could crack open U.S. budget door

By David Lawder and Doug Palmer

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congress got rid of a headache on Friday when it rescued the flying public from flight delays caused by its budget cutting. But in the view of many U.S. lawmakers, the pain is just about to begin.

Members of Congress and groups representing people hit by across-the-board budget cuts, ranging from cancer patients to welfare recipients, say the quick action on air traffic control staffing underscored the importance of being visible to millions of Americans.

"What are we going to do, every time there's a fire we're going to put it out by moving some funds around? That's a shell game," said Representative Gerald Connolly, a Democrat from northern Virginia.

"I'm going to predict that there's going to be more weeping and gnashing of teeth, as sequestration sets in and we're going to continue to approach this on a piecemeal basis," he said.

Next in line for individual funding relief will be advocates for national parks, low-income housing, AIDS funding, meals on wheels and Community Development Block Grants, Connolly said, adding that budget cuts for these and other safety-net services will be felt severely by local communities.

Representatives for some of these other programs said it was the television images of lines in airports and the interviews with angry passengers that led to action, combined with the lobbying power of the travel industry.

"It means we worry about who's going to scream the loudest now," said Chris Hansen, president of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, which has been lobbying against cuts in federal funding of medical research.

A heavy dose of lobbying from the airline and travel industry preceded the legislation enacted Friday, which permitted the Federal Aviation Administration to move money to avoid the furloughs of air traffic controllers that were causing the delays.

Sequestration - the $109 billion in automatic across-the-board budget cuts enacted by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama - formally took effect in March and barring Congressional action to replace it may continue for a decade.

Some programs won relief from Congress in March, notably the meat and poultry industry, which fought successfully to prevent furloughs of U.S. Department of Agriculture meat inspectors.

But because the furloughs in other programs, such as the FAA, were not immediately implemented, the impact was slow to build.

TRAVEL LOBBY

The travel industry began to accelerate its lobbying effort after it learned early last week from the FAA that as many as 6,700 flights per day could be delayed, potentially reducing capacity at major airports by 30 to 40 percent.

Nicholas Calio, president of Airlines for America, or A4A, the main airlines industry group, worked the phones throughout the week, said Jean Medina, senior vice president for communications at A4A.

"He certainly was in very close contact with a lot of people to make sure they understood what needed to happen," she said.

Its first course of action was to ask the administration for a 30-day delay.

When that was denied, the industry group began focusing on a legislative fix that would clear both houses with bipartisan support and be signed into law by Obama.

US Airways Chief Executive Doug Parker, who would head the world's largest airline if his carrier's merger with AMR Corp's American Airlines is approved, said he spent the past week making calls to government officials in his airline's hub markets to express concern about the furloughs.

"What I know is we're doing great disservice to the flying public and to the citizens of the United States and we need for this to get resolved," Parker told Reuters from Arizona earlier this week.

The non-profit U.S. Travel Association said it mounted its own "sequester offensive" in response to the furloughs and began a consumer texting campaign that connected travelers who had been delayed at airports to members of Congress.

The association also asked industry workers to contact their representatives in Congress to explain that the travel delays put their jobs at risk.

"We were in frequent contact with Congress urging them to solve this problem as soon as possible," Erik Hansen, director of domestic policy at the U.S. Travel Association, said on Friday. "We were able to generate hundreds of calls and emails to Congress and we're hoping that helped to move the ball forward," Hansen said.

VISIBILITY

Airlines for America reported about $6.3 million in lobbying expenses in 2012 according to the Center for Responsive Politics; the U.S. Travel Association spent about $1.7 million; US Airways and Delta about $2.8 million each.

While other interest groups have a lobbying presence in the national capital, they are hard pressed to match the visibility of air travel.

Compared to "longer lines at airports," said Cynthia Pellegrini, a vice president at the March of Dimes, which raises funds to improve the health of mothers and babies, "you can't see that a child's belly is emptier because her family couldn't get food assistance."

"We are not as well-heeled as the travel industry," said Deborah Weinstein, executive director of the Coalition on Human Needs, an alliance of social welfare organizations. "But I think as more people learn of this appalling choice," that Congress made on Friday, "they will get as mad as I am."

Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, home to a major Delta Air Lines hub in Minneapolis, was among the members backing an FAA budget fix on Thursday when the Senate passed it.

She called it a "practical, pragmatic answer to an immediate problem," but acknowledged that it does nothing to get Congress closer to fixing the problems caused by sequestration. More effects of the cuts, demonstrated dramatically to the public, could do that, she added.

She may not have long to wait. Organizations that have been more quietly protesting the budget cuts were rethinking their strategy on Friday in the wake of Congress' action.

"It is inexplicable why proven and effective Meals on Wheels programs get overlooked from exemption from the sequester when both the business and social case exists," said Ellie Hollander, President and CEO of Meals on Wheels Association of America.

"I guess that's because we need to be a different kind of squeaky wheel."

(Additional reporting by Karen Jacobs, Susan Heavy and Karey Van Hall; Editing by Fred Barbash and Tim Dobbyn)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rush-help-airlines-travelers-could-crack-open-u-235204174.html

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Photo Community 500px Announces New Professional Portfolios, Price Increase Giving Paid Accounts Unlimited Storage

Toronto-based photo-sharing service?500px?is revamping its professional portfolios product, the startup announced today. The new portfolios, which are currently in beta testing, will eventually function more like standalone e-commerce sites for selling photography, and offer more customization options, including things like the ability to edit the CSS, store and blog integration, plus new themes and other additions.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Ysz6rs8Wttw/

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