Ex-FEMA official to plead guilty in Gallup case

By Michael IsikoffNBC News

A former top official of the Federal Emergency Management? Agency will plead guilty to a? felony conflict of interest charge for helping arrange millions of dollars in contracts to the Gallup Organization at the same time he was negotiating a $175,000 job with the polling firm.

A nine-page ?criminal information? document filed by federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C., this week charges that Timothy Cannon, 64, who served as the director of FEMA?s ?human capital division? between 2007 and 2009, ?knowingly and willfully? participated in the award of contracts to Gallup while he was arranging to accept employment? with the firm.

Lawyers familiar with the matter?say the new case against Cannon is?noteworthy because it provides an unusual window into the world of federal contracts ? complete with explicit email exchanges among Cannon and Gallup executives, including the firm?s chief executive officer, James Clifton.?

---

?Ah, yes, I got another 500k put on the contract. Cool huh?? Cannon emailed one unidentified?Gallup employee on Jan. 6, 2009, just six days before a job interview with the firm in which he?discussed salary terms, according to the criminal complaint.

?Tim has had a distinguished career in the military and as a federal employee,? his lawyer, David Schertler, said Thursday. ?To get this matter behind him, he?s agreed to plead guilty to one felony count.? He added that his client ?has accepted responsibility for his conduct.?

The filing by prosecutors is the latest development in a widening federal probe into Gallup?perhaps the world?s most venerable and best known polling firm --? prompted by a whistleblower lawsuit filed by Michael Lindley, who previously served as its director of client services. The Justice Department last summer joined the lawsuit, accusing Gallup of bilking the government ?? including routinely inflating bills by? tens of millions of dollars for polling for FEMA, the U.S. Mint and the U.S. Passport Agency.

Gallup said in a statement at the time that the charges in the Justice Department civil suit were based ?on the false allegations of a former disgruntled employee.??

The criminal complaint against Cannon does not identify Gallup by name, referring only to a ?Company A.? But three legal sources familiar with the case, who spoke with NBC News on condition of anonymity, said that the company in question is Gallup and that the CEO quoted in the emails is the polling firm?s top executive, Clifton. In addition, the same conduct outlined in the criminal information has already been publicly?described in the amended Justice Department civil suit that identifies both Gallup and Clifton by name.?

Asked about the charges, Gallup emailed a statement from William E. Kruse, its vice president for law, stating:? ?Today?s filing was not against Gallup, but rather DOJ?s allegations against a former FEMA employee. As such, there is nothing Gallup can comment on in regards to this development.?

The complaint alleges that Cannon first had discussions with Gallup officials in 2007 about the firm providing services for a FEMA project called the ?BEST Workforce Initiative.? The following summer, Gallup, was awarded the contract ? originally valued at about $6 million over five years --? to poll FEMA employees and provide training to FEMA managers.

By then, Cannon had already had multiple discussions with Gallup about a job and his interest had come to the attention of Clifton, the firm?s CEO.

?If (Cannon)? gets us a big deal at FEMA? i (sic) think we should hire him ? because he will be a ?client? hire ? which might be good,? the Gallup CEO wrote in an April 25, 2008 email. Later in the same email chain, Clifton asked, ?Is the ink dry yet on our deal with fema (sic)??

Then, on or about Nov. 18, 2008, another Gallup employee wrote in an email to Clifton: ?I talked to Tim today. He asked for a job.?

Clifton? replied: ?What about ethics? are we okay with all of that ? he is a significant client ? am sure you know rules ?? gee he seems like a winner to me ? I don?t think these guys are as expensive as one might think ? and he has a military background.? (Cannon served for 15 years in the U.S. Army, retiring in in 2001 as a colonel, according to Schertler, his lawyer.)

The criminal complaint charges that,?during a two week period between Jan. 21 and Feb. 3, 2009, Cannon signed five separate forms expanding Gallup?s work with FEMA and giving the firm an additional $1.6 million in business. Gallup then sent Cannon a letter?dated Feb. 5 offering him a post as "partner" in its government division. ?I am very excited about joining (Gallup) and I look forward to working?with you,? he wrote in an email to the firm that same day.

But? the job offer quickly ran into problems. Cannon?retired from FEMA on Feb. 27, 2009, after signing a form on which he checked the ?none? box in response to a question asking if he had any agreement for future employment, according to the complaint.? That same day, he asked Gallup to provide him with a new job offer letter dated Feb. 27 ? to replace the one he had already received on Feb. 5. Gallup responded by sending him a new letter dated March 2, 2009, it said.

At that point, Gallup executives started to have concerns: In one email exchange detailed in the complaint, a Gallup employee stated he was ?getting more red flags about Tim Cannon? and there was speculation among his co-workers at FEMA ?that this is improper. They are pretty mad.? This may get in the way of future business with FEMA.??

On March 26, 2009, Gallup withdrew the job offer, according to the complaint. In September, CEO Clifton forwarded an email about?Cannon to company employees stating: ?This is a guy that was our sponsor at FEMA. When he was applying we broke some of the rules of the US Gov on the ?how? we do it ... so we had to let him go.??

Michael Isikoff is NBC News' national investigative correspondent.

More from Open Channel:

???????????? Follow Open Channel from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook?

?

Source: http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/03/16333287-ex-fema-official-to-plead-guilty-to-steering-contracts-to-gallup-during-job-hunt?lite

super bowl score madonna super bowl performance superbowl commercials best superbowl commercials madonna half time m.i.a super bowl coin toss

How deadly skin cancer spreads into other parts of the body ...

After recently announcing success in eliminating melanoma metastasis in laboratory experiments, scientists at Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center have made another important discovery in understanding the process by which the gene mda-9/syntenin contributes to metastasis in melanoma (the spread of skin cancer) and possibly a variety of other cancers. MDA-9/Syntenin and IGFBP-2 Promote Angiogenesis in Human Melanoma

Published in the journal?Cancer Research, the study demonstrated that mda-9/syntenin is a key regulator of angiogenesis, the process responsible for the formation of new blood vessels in tumors. Mda-9/syntenin was originally cloned in the laboratory of the study?s lead author Paul B. Fisher, M.Ph., Ph.D., Thelma Newmeyer Corman Endowed Chair in Cancer Research and program co-leader of Cancer Molecular Genetics at Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center, chairman of VCU?s Department of Human and Molecular Genetics and director of the VCU Institute of Molecular Medicine.

?Our research brings us one step closer to understanding precisely how metastatic melanoma, a highly aggressive and therapy-resistant cancer, spreads throughout the body,? says Fisher. ?Additionally, analysis of the human genome has indicated that mda-9/syntenin is elevated in the majority of cancers, which means novel drugs that target this gene could potentially be applicable to a broad spectrum of other deadly cancers.?

Fisher?s team discovered that mda-9/syntenin regulates the expression of several proteins responsible for promoting angiogenesis, including insulin growth factor binding protein-2 (IGFBP-2) and interleukin-8 (IL-8). The study is the first to provide proof of the pro-angiogenic functions of IGFBP-2 in human melanoma.

In in vivo and in vitro experiments, the scientists confirmed that mda-9/syntenin binds with the extracellular matrix (ECM) to start a series of biological processes that eventually cause endothelial cells to secrete IGFBP-2. The ECM is the substance that cells secrete and in which they are embedded. Endothelial cells are the cells that line the interior surface of blood vessels throughout the entire circulatory system. The secretion of IGFBP-2, in turn, caused the endothelial cells to produce and secrete vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF-A), a protein that mediates the development of and formation of new blood vessels.

The researchers also noted that IGFBP-2 could potentially serve as a novel biomarker to monitor for disease progression in melanoma patients.

?This is a major breakthrough in understanding angiogenesis and its impact in melanoma metastasis,? says Fisher. ?We are now focusing on developing novel small molecules that specifically target mda-9/syntenin and IGFBP-2, which could be used as drugs to treat melanoma and potentially many other cancers.?

Source: http://floridabiotechnews.com/biotechnology/how-deadly-skin-cancer-spreads-into-other-parts-of-the-body/11660/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-deadly-skin-cancer-spreads-into-other-parts-of-the-body

college football ncaa football brian van gorder blazing saddles lsu alabama lsu game lsu game

Risk genes for Alzheimer's and mental illness linked to brain changes at birth

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Some brain changes that are found in adults with common gene variants linked to disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, and autism can also be seen in the brain scans of newborns.

"These results suggest that prenatal brain development may be a very important influence on psychiatric risk later in life," said Rebecca C. Knickmeyer, PhD, lead author of the study and assistant professor of psychiatry in the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. The study was published by the journal Cerebral Cortex on Jan. 3, 2013.

The study included 272 infants who received MRI scans at UNC Hospitals shortly after birth. The DNA of each was tested for 10 common variations in 7 genes that have been linked to brain structure in adults. These genes have also been implicated in conditions such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, autism, Alzheimer's disease, anxiety disorders and depression.

For some polymorphisms ? such as a variation in the APOE gene which is associated with Alzheimer's disease ? the brain changes in infants looked very similar to brain changes found in adults with the same variants, Knickmeyer said. "This could stimulate an exciting new line of research focused on preventing onset of illness through very early intervention in at-risk individuals."

But this was not true for every polymorphism included in the study, said John H. Gilmore, MD, senior author of the study and Thad & Alice Eure Distinguished Professor and Vice Chair for Research and Scientific Affairs in the UNC Department of Psychiatry.

For example, the study included two variants in the DISC1 gene. For one of these variants, known as rs821616, the infant brains looked very similar to the brains of adults with this variant. But there was no such similarity between infant brains and adult brains for the other variant, rs6675281.

"This suggests that the brain changes associated with this gene variant aren't present at birth but develop later in life, perhaps during puberty," Gilmore said.

"It's fascinating that different variants in the same gene have such unique effects in terms of when they affect brain development," said Knickmeyer.

###

University of North Carolina Health Care: http://www.med.unc.edu

Thanks to University of North Carolina Health Care for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 67 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/126117/Risk_genes_for_Alzheimer_s_and_mental_illness_linked_to_brain_changes_at_birth

Malware Monday First Row Sports American flag Happy 4th of July 4th Of July Desserts fireworks fireworks

Indigenous leader assassinated at family New Year party ...

An indigenous leader has been murdered during a party at his home in central Colombia shortly after midnight on January 1, a local indigenous organization said Tuesday.

Reinaldo Domico?was killed as he changed the music on the stereo at a New Years party he was giving for family and friends.?According to his wife the assassin entered the house at the back, went straight up to Domico and shot him four times in the head, neck and back.

The assassin, who is described as "non-indigenous" and dressed in a hood and black clothes, escaped on a motorbike, according to the communique from the Indigenous Organization of Antioquia (OIA).

Reinaldo Domico was a leader of Embera indigenous communities in the area of Dabeiba and had also acted as advisor to other indigenous groups around Colombia.

The OIA reports that Domico had received a threat by telephone warning him to "be careful'?during elections in 2011. The caller claimed to be from the "Gaitanistas", a neo-paramilitary group also known as the "Urabe?os."

Indigenous leaders are frequent victims of Colombia's armed conflict, often caught between groups fighting over land that indigenous communities have traditionally occupied.

Source: http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/27558-indigenous-leader-assassinated-at-family-new-year-party.html

mothers day ovechkin one world trade center bks new dark knight rises trailer khloe and lamar oklahoma city thunder

Putin grants Depardieu Russian citizenship

MOSCOW (AP) ? Gerard Depardieu, the French actor who has been sparring with his native country over taxes, has been granted Russian citizenship.

A brief announcement on the Kremlin website said President Vladimir Putin signed the citizenship grant on Thursday.

Depardieu is angered by French President Francois Hollande's attempt to raise taxes on the mega-rich to 75 percent. Russia has a flat income tax of 13 percent.

A representative for Depardieu declined to say whether he had accepted the offer and refused all comment.

Depardieu has made more than 150 films, among them the 1991 comedy "Green Card" about a man who enters into a marriage of convenience in order to get U.S. residency.

Depardieu said in an open letter published in mid-December that he would turn over his passport and French social security card.

Hollande wants to tax incomes of the ultra-rich at 75 percent to reduce the debt and deficit, and Depardieu's subsequent decision to move to tax-friendly Belgium was slammed by Hollande's government.

"I'm a true European, a citizen of the world," Depardieu wrote in the letter.

The tax on millionaires was struck down by France's highest court Dec. 29, but the government has promised to resubmit the law in a slightly different form soon.

Depardieu was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as Cyrano de Bergerac in the 1990 film by the same name.

He's well known in Russia, where he appears in an ad for Sovietsky Bank's credit card and is prominently featured on the bank's home page.

France's Civil Code says one must have another nationality in order to give up French citizenship because it is forbidden to be stateless. Thursday's decision by the Kremlin appears to fulfill that requirement.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/putin-grants-depardieu-russian-citizenship-092220569.html

front door alyssa bustamante protandim weightless ellen degeneres jcpenney yeardley love nba all star reserves

Video: President Obama Delivers a Statement on Fiscal Cliff Deal (Little green footballs)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/274299869?client_source=feed&format=rss

charlie st cloud celtics nba playoffs rosario dawson young jeezy world wildlife fund gsa

Congress Extends Mortgage Debt Relief Act! | CDPE Blog

On January 1, 2013, as part of the so-called fiscal cliff negotiations, Congress passed an extension of the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act. This extension of this act, which has saved homeowners more than $1 billion dollars in taxes, is great news for struggling homeowners nationwide, and for the agents that represent them.

The extension is now only awaiting President Obama?s signature.

The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act was originally passed in 2007 to aid the millions of homeowners who suddenly found themselves in danger of losing their homes to foreclosure following the housing market crash.

Under the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act, debt forgiven in a short sale, foreclosure, or loan modification, is exempt from federal taxes on primary residences. For homeowners facing foreclosure, this exemption saves them from paying thousands, or even tens of thousands, in taxes on top of losing their homes.

Now for another year, homeowners can take advantage of this exemption and avoid foreclosure without the fear of an impossible tax liability.

And with banks recognizing the significance of short sales as an effective loss mitigation tool, they?re ramping up for business. Short sales will be the key loss mitigation tool used by mortgage servicers in 2013.

For more on the state of the short sale market in 2013, join CDPE designation author Alex Charfen on Wednesday, January 16 as he interviews Bank of America?s Stephanie Lowe, Senior Vice President of Short Sale Production, about what the bank believes agents should expect in 2013!

Let the world know about this now!

Source: http://www.cdpe.com/blog/congress-extends-mortgage-debt-relief-act/

new england patriots superbowl halftime madonna madonna papa johns guacamole recipe ufc 143 results

Tehran says hoping for nuclear talks "very soon"

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Iran hopes talks with six major powers about its atomic program will begin very soon, the country's top nuclear negotiator said on Wednesday during a trip to India.

Last week, Russian media said the six world powers - the United States, Russia, France, Britain, Germany and China - were still negotiating with the Islamic Republic on a possible date and venue for the talks.

"We gave our proposal to Russia and they expressed their readiness for a restart of the talks. We welcome them," Saeed Jalili, Iran's national security council secretary, said.

"The venue and the time...have not been finalized but we hope that these talks will start very soon," he told reporters after a speech in Delhi.

The six powers want to rein in Tehran's uranium enrichment program, to ensure it is geared only for civilian energy, through a mix of diplomacy and sanctions. Iran denies Western assertions that it is seeking nuclear weapons capability.

The powers so far have failed to achieve a breakthrough in three rounds of talks since April. But neither side has been willing to break off totally, partly because of concerns this could lead to a new war in the Middle East if Israel attacked its arch-foe.

Iran is refining uranium to a fissile concentration of 20 percent, which Western experts worry is a step towards the level required for bombs. Iran says it needs higher-grade uranium to run its medical research reactor in Tehran.

Jalili is the second member of Iran's nuclear team to visit India in the past month. Officials from both countries declined to say whether or not India was involved in getting the nuclear talks restarted.

Later in the week, Jalili is due to meet India's national security adviser, before travelling to Afghanistan.

(Reporting Satarupa Bhattacharjya; Writing by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Michael Roddy)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tehran-says-hoping-nuclear-talks-very-soon-171515989.html

kohls target target walmart nfl nfl best buy

Shocker: Apple is working on iOS 7 and the next iPhone!

Apple is working on iOS 7 and the next generation iPhone 6,1. Shocking, I know, considering Apple has released a new version of iOS and a new iPhone each year, every year, since 2007. However, the web being the web, stories are popping up today, and tips are coming in, helpfully reminding us all of just that.

iMore has seen iOS 7 references in our visitor logs for a while now, and Apple has no doubt been working on it since, well, they launched iOS 6 last year, if not earlier.

If Apple holds to their recent pattern, we'll see a beta six months from now, presumably at WWDC 2013 in June. (Originally Apple ran separate spring iOS preview events, so there's always an outside chance they'll "put the pedal to the metal" and go back to that, but WWDC is a good fit.)

As to iPhone 6,1, before anyone jumps to "iPhone 6! iPhone 6!" conclusions, internal model numbers only coincidentally correlate to release name. The iPhone 5 is indeed iPhone 5,1, but the iPhone 4S was iPhone 4,1, and the iPhone 4 was iPhone 3,1. The iPad 3 was iPad 3,1, but the iPad 4 was "only" iPad 3,4.

Again, if Apple's past behavior is any indicator of future behavior, than iPhone 6,1 could just as easily be called iPhone 5S when it's introduced. If that's this spring, a similar time frame to when the Verizon iPhone 4 was released, then an incremental iPhone 5S makes even more sense. And if there's more than one new iPhone this year, the way there was more than one new iPad last year, then all sorts of interesting new possibilities spring to mind.

So, yeah, everything looks like it's happening as expected. Now if Apple wasn't working on iOS 7 and the next generation iPhone, that'd it big news.

In the meantime, we've been listing out some of the iOS 7 features we want, and next generation iPhone ideas we could see implemented. Feel free to add your wish lists below!

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/BrYVFM4ldvE/story01.htm

nfl draft picks 2012 space shuttle enterprise ryan leaf ryan leaf luke kuechly brad miller chandler jones

Office Communications | Business Brand in Public

Giving assignments to subordinates orally, managers and supervisors often find their subordinates fail to accomplish the given work well. They might forget some parts of the assignment or forget the assignment entirely because they are busy of doing other tasks that they think are more important. On the other hand, subordinates are often responsible for making certain reports and delivering messages to their superiors. When the superiors accept the messages, they say yes but as time goes by they can forget them easily because of piles of work.

So, what kind of communications should be used in the office to ensure the messages are delivered well and the assignments done perfectly?

Emails:
Email is the easiest and cheapest way to communicate with coworkers. It?s easy because it can be sent to many recipients simultaneously so the senders don?t have to give the message multiple times.

It?s cheap because the company doesn?t need to spend extra money for sending messages like sending traditional ones in which we need stamps or pay for the courier service. As long as the users are connected to the internet, they can send and receive emails easily. Besides, for the company email accounts, it can be made as many as possible without limitations, especially when you have your own mail server or buy a service package with unlimited email accounts.

You can also track the email histories easily. To help us avoid forgetting to do the important things, we can mark or flag the emails based on the priorities so we know the things we need to do first. In Microsoft Outlook, you can mark important emails into certain groups based on the colors, such as: red, blue and green.

Memorandums:
The drawback of sending emails is that senders cannot guarantee the recipients receive the message. Some emails are put into Spam folders directly because the content is too short or the sender sends too many messages in a short time. Although it goes to inbox, there?s still a chance that the recipient doesn?t read it because they are focused on reading more important emails he/she chooses based on the email?s subjects or senders.

Although using a memorandum seems old-fashioned and requires more work, it?s effective to guarantee the recipients receive the message. You can ask your secretary or subordinate to give your memos to related people and ask for their signature as proof that they have received the message.

Conference Calls:
A conference call is an effective communication among people that work in different work places. If you want to communicate with coworkers at head office, you can use an audio conference so all of you can discuss the topic clearly and quickly, compared to discussions through emails. To ensure the calls run smoothly, you have to use [conference calls unlimited] so the call won?t stop in the middle of a discussion due to your balance running out. Besides, this is more effective than a conference bridge that requires you to buy the equipment and maintain it regularly. You can Read more about conference call services at ZipConferencing.com

Now, if you don?t use three communication ways above in your company, you should talk to your superiors or managers to implement better communication ways to minimize the number of misunderstandings and unfinished work.

Related posts:

1. Buying Important Furniture for Your Office Paying attention to your office is as important as your...
2. Post-purchase Strategies: Fulfill Orders and Reassure the Customer Most new marketers don?t realize that a certain amount of...
3. The Importance of Communication to Handle Your Children from Distance Working in business sometimes requires you to leave your children...

Source: http://www.mybrandinpublic.com/2013/01/office-communications/

adele lyrics best new artist 2012 grammys foo fighters nikki minaj grammys album of the year

World looks to 2013 after violence, economic woes

Confetti flies over New York's Times Square after the clock strikes midnight during the New Year's Eve celebration as seen from the Marriott Marquis hotel Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013 in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Confetti flies over New York's Times Square after the clock strikes midnight during the New Year's Eve celebration as seen from the Marriott Marquis hotel Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013 in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Fireworks explode over Elizabeth Tower housing the Big Ben clock to celebrate the New Year in London, Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Fireworks light up San Francisco Bay as the west coast city rings in the New Year 2013. The Embarcadero was again the focal point of the New Year's celebrations as people from all over the Bay Area came to ring in the new year on Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013. (AP Photo/San Francisco Chronicle)

Fireworks light up San Francisco Bay as the west coast city rings in the New Year 2013. The Embarcadero was again the focal point of the New Year's celebrations as people from all over the Bay Area came to ring in the new year on Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013. (AP Photo/San Francisco Chronicle)

Confetti and other items from the New Year's festivities litters the street in New York's Times Square early Tuesday morning Jan. 1, 2013. (AP Photo/Tina Fineberg)

NEW YORK (AP) ? As the world rang in 2013 with spectacular fireworks displays and showers of confetti, the specter of economic uncertainty and searing violence dimmed some festivities and weighed on the minds of revelers hoping for a better year.

"With all the sadness in the country, we're looking for some good changes in 2013," Laura Concannon, of Hingham, Mass., said as she, her husband, Kevin, and his parents joined hundreds of thousands of people who celebrated the new year in Times Square on Monday.

Matias Dellanno, 37, of Buenos Aires, Argentina, stood in the middle of the square with his wife and 3-year-old son. His eyes caught the multicolored lighting illuminating the square just before midnight.

"I feel a completely new hope for 2013," he said. "It can't be any worse than last year, when my business lost clients. It was a rough year for everyone. The new year has to be better!"

Revelers with New Year's hats and sunglasses boasting "2013" packed the streets in the 35-degree cold to count down the first ball drop in decades without Dick Clark, who died in April and was honored with his name printed on confetti and on one of the crystal panels on the Times Square ball.

Syracuse University student Taylor Nanz, 18, said she and a friend had been standing in Times Square since 1:20 p.m. Monday. They hadn't moved from their spot because "if you leave, you lose your place," she said.

"It's the first time ? and the last time," she said. "Never again."

Security in Times Square was tight, with a mass of uniformed police and plainclothes officers assigned to blend into the crowd. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly claimed that Times Square would be the "safest place in the world on New Year's Eve," and officers used barriers to prevent overcrowding and checkpoints to inspect vehicles, enforce an alcohol ban and check handbags.

In the state capital of California, a midnight fireworks show was canceled after a fight at a Sacramento restaurant ended with two people fatally shot and three wounded.

But in Las Vegas, police and about 300 Nevada National Guard troops kept the night peaceful, with only 13 people arrested. Sin City hosted sold-out concerts featuring Beyonce, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Black Keys, and revelers jammed the Strip to watch as seven hotel-casinos unleashed identical eight-minute rooftop fireworks displays at midnight.

The celebrations on the West Coast took place nearly 24 hours after lavish fireworks displays lit up skylines in Sydney, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

In Myanmar, about 90,000 people gathered in a field to watch a countdown for the first time, according to organizers. The reformist government that took office in 2011 in the country, long under military rule, threw its first public New Year's celebration in decades.

In the United Arab Emirates city of Dubai, multicolored fireworks danced up and down the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa.

In Rome, Pope Benedict XVI celebrated with a vespers service in St. Peter's Basilica to give thanks for 2012 and look ahead to 2013. He said that despite all the death and injustice in the world, goodness prevails. A man scaled the scaffolding around St. Peter's Square and draped a banner calling on the pope to "Stop Terrorism."

In Russia, spectators filled Moscow's Red Square as fireworks exploded near the Kremlin. In Rio de Janeiro, revelers dressed head-to-toe in white as dictated by Brazilian tradition flooded onto Copacabana beach for a concert.

In London, the chimes of the clock inside the Big Ben tower counted down the final seconds of 2012 and fireworks dazzled the sky above Parliament Square. Streamers shot out of the London Eye wheel and blazing rockets launched from the banks of the River Thames.

But parts of Europe held scaled-back festivities and street parties, the mood was restrained ? if hopeful ? for a 2013 that is projected to be a sixth straight year of recession amid Greece's worst economic crisis since World War II.

Festivities were canceled across New Delhi, the Indian capital, amid days of mourning and reflection about women's safety after a rape victim died on Saturday.

In Times Square, some revelers checked their cellphones for news of lawmakers' tentative deal to skirt the so-called fiscal cliff, a combination of expiring tax cuts and spending cuts that threatened to reverberate globally. The U.S. Senate approved a bill to avert the cliff well after midnight, though a vote in the House was pending Tuesday or Wednesday.

The recent elementary school massacre in Newtown, Conn., and the devastation from Superstorm Sandy also mingled amid the memories of 2012.

"This has been a very eventful year, on many levels," Denise Norris said as she and her husband, the Rev. Urie Norris, surveyed the Times Square crowd waiting for the countdown show with Ryan Seacrest as host.

Seacrest remembered Clark and his legacy, saying it was one that would be continued, and that Clark himself had told him: "Seacrest, the show must go on."

Yvonne Gomez, 53, a physician from Grand Forks, N.D., glowed as she and her husband, 63-year-old potato farmer Gregg Halverson, took in the festivities in New York.

"I couldn't begin the new year in a more beautiful way," she said. "I married him two weeks ago and here we are in the middle of Times Square celebrating the new year ? two widowers who found each other."

For Elvis Rivera, of Manhattan, who stopped by Times Square to take photos, 2012 a death and job losses in his family. How did he feel about its end?

"Relieved," Rivera said.

___

Associated Press writers Hannah Drier in Las Vegas; Colleen Long in New York; Aye Aye Win in Yangon, Myanmar; Silvia Hui in London, and Ashok Sharma in New Delhi contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-01-01-New%20Year's%20Celebrations/id-51da9eade4d5430488a7c4127f8bdbea

felicia day nfl 2012 draft st louis rams miami dolphins buffalo bills pittsburgh steelers seattle seahawks

A lesson in pop culture via Guantanamo

In this undated photo taken by the International Red Cross and provided by the family of Muhammed Rahim al-Afghani, Muhammed Rahim al-Afghani poses for a photo at Guantanamo Bay prison at the U.S. Naval Base in Cuba. Rahim who is being held with the most significant terrorism suspects in U.S. custody has apparently gained extensive knowledge of western pop culture in Guantanamo's Camp 7: the top secret prison-within-a-prison in Guantanamo Bay. Nearly five years ago, Rahim became the last prisoner sent to Guantanamo. He was accused of helping Osama bin Laden elude capture. (AP Photo/International Red Cross via Rahim family)

In this undated photo taken by the International Red Cross and provided by the family of Muhammed Rahim al-Afghani, Muhammed Rahim al-Afghani poses for a photo at Guantanamo Bay prison at the U.S. Naval Base in Cuba. Rahim who is being held with the most significant terrorism suspects in U.S. custody has apparently gained extensive knowledge of western pop culture in Guantanamo's Camp 7: the top secret prison-within-a-prison in Guantanamo Bay. Nearly five years ago, Rahim became the last prisoner sent to Guantanamo. He was accused of helping Osama bin Laden elude capture. (AP Photo/International Red Cross via Rahim family)

In this undated photo taken by the International Red Cross and provided by the family of Muhammed Rahim al-Afghani, Muhammed Rahim al-Afghani poses for a photo at Guantanamo Bay prison at the U.S. Naval Base in Cuba. Rahim who is being held with the most significant terrorism suspects in U.S. custody has apparently gained extensive knowledge of western pop culture in Guantanamo's Camp 7: the top secret prison-within-a-prison in Guantanamo Bay. Nearly five years ago, Rahim became the last prisoner sent to Guantanamo. He was accused of helping Osama bin Laden elude capture. (AP Photo/International Red Cross via Rahim family)

This Oct. 8, 2012 photo taken by the International Red Cross and provided by the family of Muhammed Rahim al-Afghani, shows Muhammed Rahim al-Afghani at Guantanamo Bay prison at the U.S. Naval Base in Cuba. Rahim who is being held with the most significant terrorism suspects in U.S. custody has apparently gained extensive knowledge of western pop culture in Guantanamo's Camp 7: the top secret prison-within-a-prison in Guantanamo Bay. Nearly five years ago, Rahim became the last prisoner sent to Guantanamo. He was accused of helping Osama bin Laden elude capture. (AP Photo/International Red Cross via Rahim family)

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) ? An Afghan man who is being held with the most significant terrorism suspects in U.S. custody has apparently gained extensive knowledge of western pop culture in an unlikely place: the top secret prison-within-a-prison in Guantanamo Bay.

Nearly five years ago, Mohammed Rahim al-Afghani became the last prisoner sent to Guantanamo. He was accused of helping Osama bin Laden elude capture, and the CIA had interrogated him for months at an undisclosed location before he was locked away in Guantanamo's Camp 7, a prison unit shrouded in secrecy that holds about 15 men who have been designated "high value" detainees by the U.S. government.

With no court appearances, or even charges filed, nothing was heard from Rahim and he has remained largely a mystery. So, it was a surprise when his lawyer, Carlos Warner, released letters from the detainee described by the head of the CIA as a "tough, seasoned jihadist." More surprising still was the content: quirky notes peppered with references to Howard Stern, Fox News and the global video hit of South Korean singer PSY.

"Dear Mr. Warner," he wrote. "I like this new song Gangnam Style. I want to do the dance for you but cannot because of my shackles."

In another letter, the multilingual Rahim shows some familiarity with American slang. He tells his lawyer, most likely in jest, that he has adopted a banana rat, a rodent commonly spotted around the U.S. base in Cuba. "Tell the guards to leave my friend alone. They need to chillax."

It's hardly what one would expect from a middle-age Afghan who has never been to the U.S. While there is still little public information about Rahim, the letters provide some insight into the man ? and suggest that the prisoners in Camp 7, a group that includes five charged with aiding and orchestrating the Sept. 11 terror attack, are not completely isolated from the outside world.

To Warner, a federal public defender for the Northern District of Ohio, the letters humanize a man who he contends has been demonized by U.S. authorities, who allege he worked as a translator and assistant to bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders. The lawyer says the letters demonstrate a surprising amount of resilience.

"It shows he's different and he's intelligent," Warner said. "Just think that he's doing this under all the restrictions that's he's under down there. He has an incredibly good sense of humor."

There have been letters released to the media in the past from other detainees at Guantanamo, often providing valuable information about a prison that will have been open for 11 years on Jan. 11. Sami al-Haj, an Al-Jazeera journalist when he was captured and sent to Guantanamo, provided detailed accounts of a hunger strike before he was eventually released. Shaker Aamer, the last resident of Britain still held at the prison, has given an insider's view on confinement conditions.

Rahim's are different because he is in Camp 7, and the content departs so sharply from what one might expect from a jihadist. "I want you to contact Amanda Palmer," he wrote Nov. 6, referring to the American singer. "... Ask her to write a song about me and my family."

Warner and U.S. officials are prohibited from publicly discussing Rahim's life and the allegations against him, but the broad outlines are in a public document filed in federal court by the government in response to Warner's filing of a civil writ of habeas corpus seeking the prisoner's release.

The document says Rahim is about 47 and was born in eastern Afghanistan. He fled with his family over the border to Pakistan when the Soviet Union invaded in 1979. Rahim has told authorities that he returned temporarily to fight the invaders, a war that killed two of his brothers, and moved back permanently once they retreated from the country.

A younger brother, Abdul Basit, told The Associated Press in London, where he is seeking asylum, that Rahim eventually got a job working for an Afghan government committee responsible for eradicating opium poppies, but that he was forced from the job by members of the Taliban, the Islamic fundamentalist movement that emerged in the 1990s.

Basit, who was detained by the U.S. military for five years in Afghanistan, says his brother is a well-educated man who was not particularly interested in global politics. He suggests his brother is being held more for who he might know rather than what he has done. "There is no reason to put him in Guantanamo for this long time," Basit said in broken English.

The Justice Department document says Rahim began helping the Taliban in the 1990s and that job morphed into working for al-Qaida. It cites two other prisoners and an undisclosed source identifying Rahim as a close associate of bin Laden. Rahim was captured in Pakistan in 2007 and turned over to the CIA, in whose custody he was subjected to prolonged sleep deprivation. He was transferred to Guantanamo in March 2008.

In photos taken by the Red Cross at Camp 7, and obtained by the AP from the prisoner's family in Afghanistan, Rahim has a long flowing beard. In one, he smiles broadly at the camera.

The first letters from Rahim released by Warner were in June, including one in which he disclosed that Majid Khan, a former Maryland resident who pleaded guilty to aiding al-Qaida, had acquired a cat at Camp 7, which AP reported at the time. The Pentagon and prison officials declined comment and said they could not discuss conditions of confinement for high-value detainees, although they added that prisoners are not permitted to have pets.

The rest of the letters came during or after subsequent visits by Warner, who had them cleared by the military before releasing them to the AP. None are more than a few sentences, and contain many typographical errors, which have been corrected for this story for the sake of clarity.

In one, Rahim returns to the theme of his fellow prisoner's alleged cat. "I want a dog," he writes. "I will train my dog to chase Majid Khan's cat."

In separate notes, he asks Warner to appeal for help from radio personality Howard Stern. "If he is the 'King of All Media' he can help me."

In another, he criticizes Fox News' "Fair and Balanced" slogan, writing that if that were true the channel "would not have to say it every five minutes."

How he came by this information is not clear. A prison spokesman, Navy Capt. Robert Durand, won't discuss life in Camp 7 but he says that "where satellite television and radio is available for detainees," they have access to a wide variety of channels in Arabic, Farsi, English, Russian, Spanish and other languages. The line-up, however, apparently does not include Howard Stern or Fox.

With no Internet access, he could have picked up such information from other shows or through Warner, who has spent hours with him and delivered magazines such as Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated and The Economist.

The U.S. military will not say when or if Rahim will be charged. His name does not appear on the list of detainees who have been cleared for release from Guantanamo and his name was not among those mentioned as possible candidates for an exchange with the Taliban as part of a peace deal.

___

Associated Press writer Paisley Dodds in London contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-12-31-CB-Guantanamo-Prison-Letters/id-d68b7c6e64d2487385082fec1cd4ff16

2012 nfl draft kevin durant jazz fest zurich classic selena lamichael james lamichael james