CIA's watchdog: No problem with NYPD partnership (AP)

WASHINGTON ? The CIA said Friday its internal watchdog found nothing wrong with the spy agency's close partnership with the New York Police Department.

The agency's inspector general concluded that no laws were broken and there was "no evidence that any part of the agency's support to the NYPD constituted `domestic spying'," CIA spokesperson Preston Golson said.

The inspector general decided to do a preliminary investigation after a series of stories by The Associated Press revealed how after the 9/11 attacks the CIA helped the NYPD build domestic intelligence programs that were used to spy on Muslims. A CIA officer also directed intelligence collection and reviewed reports, according to former NYPD officials involved.

The revelations troubled some members of Congress and even prompted the U.S. director of national intelligence, James Clapper, to remark that it did not look good for the CIA to be involved in any city police department. Thirty-four lawmakers have asked for the Justice Department to investigate but so far that request has gone nowhere.

New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has maintained the NYPD's relationship with the CIA was proper. Under an executive order the CIA is allowed to assist local law enforcement.

"Operating under this legal basis, the CIA has advised the police department on key aspects of intelligence gathering and analysis that have greatly benefited our counterterrorism mission and protected lives in New York City," Kelly said earlier this year.

David Buckley, the CIA's inspector general, completed his review in late October. It's not clear if his report opens the door for other municipal police departments nationwide to work closely with the CIA in the war on terror.

The CIA's deep ties to the NYPD began when CIA Director George Tenet dispatched a widely respected officer, Larry Sanchez, to New York, where he became the architect of the police department's secret spying programs. At the NYPD, Sanchez worked side by side with David Cohen, a former senior CIA officer who became head of the department's intelligence division just months after 9/11.

Sanchez also hand-picked an NYPD detective to attend the "Farm," the CIA's training facility where its officers are turned into operatives. The detective, who completed the course but failed to graduate, returned to the police department where he works today armed with the agency's famed espionage skills.

Sanchez was on the CIA payroll from 2002 to 2004 and then took a temporary leave of absence to become deputy to Cohen.

In 2007, Sanchez left the CIA, staying on at the NYPD until late 2010. He now works as a security consultant in the Persian Gulf region.

Earlier this year, one of the CIA's most experienced clandestine operatives was detailed to the NYPD as special assistant to the deputy commissioner of intelligence.

Kelly has said the CIA operative provides "technical information" to the NYPD but "doesn't have access to any of our investigative files."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111223/ap_on_go_ot/us_nypd_intelligence2nd_ld_writethru

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Prep QB inspiring others after leg was amputated

In this Sept. 18, 2010, photo, Woodberry Forest's Jacob Rainey breaks away from Bishop Ireton defenders for a rushing touchdown during a high school football game in Orange, Va. On Sept. 3, 2011, Rainey suffered a severe knee injury and a severed artery after being tackled during a scrimmage, requiring part of his right leg to be amputated a week later. The once-promising quarterback is now using his courage rather than his athletic prowess to inspire, moving the likes of Alabama coach Nick Saban, Green Bay Packers linebacker Clay Matthews and Denver quarterback Tim Tebow. (AP Photo/The Daily Progress, Andrew Shurtleff)

In this Sept. 18, 2010, photo, Woodberry Forest's Jacob Rainey breaks away from Bishop Ireton defenders for a rushing touchdown during a high school football game in Orange, Va. On Sept. 3, 2011, Rainey suffered a severe knee injury and a severed artery after being tackled during a scrimmage, requiring part of his right leg to be amputated a week later. The once-promising quarterback is now using his courage rather than his athletic prowess to inspire, moving the likes of Alabama coach Nick Saban, Green Bay Packers linebacker Clay Matthews and Denver quarterback Tim Tebow. (AP Photo/The Daily Progress, Andrew Shurtleff)

Jacob Rainey is inspiring people all across the sports world.

The Virginia prep quarterback who had to have part of his right leg amputated has moved the likes of Alabama coach Nick Saban, Green Bay Packers linebacker Clay Matthews and Denver quarterback Tim Tebow.

A highlight film of Rainey on YouTube shows why college coaches had taken notice. It shows the once-promising quarterback at Woodberry Forest School throwing a 40-yard dart for a touchdown, running into the line on a quarterback sneak, then emerging from the pile and sprinting 40 yards for a TD. There is also of clip of him running a draw for another 35-yard score.

All that was taken away, without warning when he was tackled during a scrimmage on Sept. 3. He suffered a severe knee injury and a severed artery and part of his right leg had to be amputated.

Now it's his courage that has people taking notice.

Saban has sent Rainey a Crimson Tide jersey with his name and number on it, along with a note encouraging him to "keep fighting." Matthews sent him an autographed jersey and Tebow will meet him this weekend.

The Denver quarterback's foundation is flying Rainey and his family to Buffalo this weekend "to hang out with me before and after" the Broncos-Bills game, Tebow said. The foundation has brought a child and his family to every Broncos game this season.

"What an amazing kid and what an amazing outlook that he has," Tebow said of the 6-foot-3, 215-pound Rainey, whose playing style was frequently compared to Tebow. "I'm so proud to have the opportunity to spend time with him and his family. We're very excited about that."

With football gone, Rainey isn't sure what's next ? but he knows what isn't: Moping around.

"I don't know why me," he said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "I've never really asked myself that question. I think that would just make me feel sorry for myself, and that's the last thing I want to do."

A week after he suffered the injury ? and after several surgeries ? part of Rainey's right leg was amputated on Sept. 10.

His high school teammates say they were worried, until they talked to Rainey.

"I think talking to him right after surgery was when I really realized that everything was going to be ok because he was still joking and cutting up and kind of making everyone realize that he was still the same person," said Nathan Ripper, one of Rainey's closest friends on the team.

Rainey returned to school after Thanksgiving break having missed the entire first trimester, and said putting others at ease about his situation seems like the right approach to take.

"I feel like if I was in their shoes, I'd feel awkward about it and stuff, like talking about it, so I kind of joke about it," Rainey said. "I mean, it is what it is. I can't change anything. There's no point (complaining) about it, so I think it makes everyone more comfortable about it if I just joke about it like it's alright. That's how it's always been."

Seeing his friend adapt has made Ripper realize that things will only get better.

"He's the last person I ever would have wanted this to happen to, but if I had to pick one person that I know could get through it, it would be him just because he's going to work hard to do rehab, work hard to get used to whatever has changed," he said, noting that he and Rainey spent a good deal of time together over the summer, working to get ready for the football season.

Rainey had 4.6 speed in the 40, and "a cannon for an arm," Ripper said. Rainey was on the recruiting radar of several major schools, and this season was going to be important. He had drawn the attention of college recruiters, who were likely going to watch him closer this season to determine if he was a BCS-level prospect.

His highlight clips on YouTube have been seen nearly 200,000 times. And with such a bright future, Rainey's teammates initially didn't want to believe the news.

Rainey had told Ripper and another teammate, Greg McIntosh, that amputation would be necessary via text message the night before his operation. The football team was on a bus back to campus after a season-opening victory against Benedictine in Richmond.

McIntosh was stunned by the message, and went and found Ripper on the bus.

Ripper had worn Rainey's jersey in the victory. He and Rainey both transferred to Woodberry Forest from St. Anne's Belfield, a private school nearby.

"I figured that Jacob was just pulling some kind of sick joke on us all, so I texted Jacob and that's when he told me that all the tissue had died from lack of blood flow," Ripper said.

Once Rainey confirmed to Ripper that he wasn't joking, they told a few other teammates. McIntosh said he and Ripper "just sat the rest of the way back crying in each other's arms."

Back at school, coach Clint Alexander gathered the team in the gym and told them all.

"It was very emotional," Ripper said. "Most people were broken down and just sobbing and everyone else was just consoling those people. It was a pretty mournful time for everybody."

Suddenly, that narrow 16-13 opening victory meant little.

"Just everything stops," McIntosh said. "I just didn't think that that was something that could actually happen. I just felt that sinking feeling in my heart."

Rainey's recollections of his week in the hospital before the surgery are fuzzy, but there are some things he recalls.

"The doctors told me a couple times that I wasn't going to get amputated, so I was feeling pretty good until Friday," the athletic 6-foot-3, 215-pound Rainey said. "I don't remember a lot, but I just remember them telling me it was going to get amputated and I was just like, 'All right, well, that sucks.'"

Doctors told Rainey he had developed compartment syndrome, a painful condition in which swelling cut off blood flow to certain areas, causing the muscles and the nerves to die.

"Once I got compartment syndrome, that changed everything," he said.

The amputation was performed at Fairfax Inova Hospital, and McIntosh, Ripper and several others made the 70-mile trip from Orange.

The trip was positive, for everybody.

"As soon as we walked in the room ? he was very out of it. He was doped up on pain killers, but he recognized us," McIntosh said. "His heart monitor was just doing normal beeps, but when he saw us, it jumped pretty high. He was pretty excited to see us."

Ripper said Rainey has lifted not only himself, but everyone around him.

"Just talking to him and realizing that he has the same personality and he's going to do everything he can to get better and get through this makes us all realize that he's still with us, and what could have happened," Ripper said. "With all that infection, he could not be with us anymore, so just having him around is just a reminder that things are going to be OK."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2011-12-24-FBH-Prep-Quarterback-Amputation/id-4e0092c84f894d8197b4cf14bb9b894e

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China village ends protests after government compromise (Reuters)

WUKAN, China (Reuters) ? A Chinese village protest that tested the ruling Communist Party for over a week ended on Wednesday after officials offered concessions over seized farmland and the death of a village leader, in a rare spectacle of the government backing down to mobilized citizens.

Residents of Wukan, in southern Guangdong province, had fended off police with barricades and held protests over the death in police custody of activist Xue Jinbo, whose family rejects the government's position that he died of natural causes, and against the seizure of farmland for development.

But after talks with officials, village representatives told residents to pull down protest banners and go back to their normal lives -- provided the government keeps to its word.

"Because this matter has been achieved, we won't persist in making noise," village organizer, Yang Semao, told an assembly hall of village representatives and reporters, referring to the protests. He said protest banners would be taken down.

"They've agreed to our initial requests," Yang told Reuters. But he added a caveat: "If the government doesn't meet its commitments, we'll protest again."

Senior officials negotiating with villagers agreed to release three men held over land protests in September, when a government office was trashed, and to re-examine the cause of Xue's death, a village organizer said earlier.

Xue's family and fellow villagers believe he was subjected to abuse that left injuries on his body. But the government said an autopsy showed he died of heart problems. Xue was detained over the land protests that broke out in September.

The concessions showed how eager higher leaders were to avoid the risk of fresh violence and bloodshed, said Ting Wai, political science professor at Hong Kong Baptist University.

"I think the local government did not want to make concessions, and then of course when time goes on, the people became more and more frustrated, and now it is really like a bomb, so in order to prevent the bomb from exploding the provincial government has to do something," he said.

Underscoring government fears of unrest, in a separate protest on Tuesday in Haimen, a town further east up the coast from Wukan, residents demonstrated in front of government offices and blocked a highway over plans to build a power plant.

State media said on Wednesday the government had agreed to suspend construction, though there was another protest which partially blocked a highway.

Chinese officials sometimes make low-key concessions to local protests, especially after they are over, and also punish protest organizers. But Wukan turned negotiations into a rare public spectacle, watched by foreign reporters and discussed within China -- despite domestic censorship of news.

Under a hot afternoon sun, a thousand villagers gathered to hear an organizer, Lin Zuluan, explain the concessions from the government, which they greeted with loud clapping.

He later told reporters that villagers would not suffer retribution for taking part in the protests.

WARY OF GOVERNMENT PROMISES

Some Wukan residents were wary of the government's promises.

"Our hearts are not at ease," said Zhong Xianmei, a resident in her thirties. "The dead body isn't back, are the detained back in their homes? Will their words count?"

Wang Yang, the Communist Party chief of Guangdong, obliquely acknowledged that the villagers had cause to complain, in comments published on Wednesday in the Southern Daily, the official province newspaper.

"This is the outcome of conflicts that accumulated over a long time in the course of economic and social development," said Wang, seen by many analysts as nursing hopes of a spot in China's next central leadership.

Guangdong is a prosperous part of China. But the upheavals of urbanization and industrialization have fanned discontent among increasingly assertive citizens, who often blame local officials for corruption and abuses.

Rural land in China is usually owned in name by village collectives. But in fact, government officials can mandate seizing land for development in return for compensation, which villagers often say is inadequate.

Protests in China have become relatively common over corruption, pollution, wages, and land grabs that local officials justify in the name of development.

Chinese experts put the number of "mass incidents," as such protests are known, at about 90,000 a year in recent years.

China's leaders, determined to maintain one-party control, worry that such outbursts might turn into broader and more persistent challenges to their power.

But even in Wukan, villagers professed faith in the central government. On Wednesday morning, about 300 of them lined the sides of a road into the village, preparing to welcome Zhu Mingguo, the main official negotiating with them.

Zhu promised an impartial autopsy for the late Xue, and "transparent" disclosure in the media of how the villagers' grievances are addressed, according to a report in the province's official newspaper, the Southern Daily.

Lin Zuluan, the Wukan organizer, told reporters that officials also agreed that the village can hold democratic elections. In China, village committees are in theory elected, but in practice there are many restrictions -- formal and informal -- on votes.

(Writing by Chris Buckley; Additional reporting by Sisi Tang in Hong Kong and Chris Buckley in Beijing; Editing by Ken Wills, Robert Birsel, Alex Richardson and Ron Popeski)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/china/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111221/wl_nm/us_china_unrest

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Kremlin rights council urges Khodorkovsky review (Reuters)

MOSCOW (Reuters) ? Russia's presidential human rights council on Wednesday recommended to investigators that jailed ex-tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky's second sentence, which will keep him in prison until 2016, be reviewed.

The recommendation is the strongest sign of support from the authorities since Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man and ex-head of oil giant Yukos, was arrested in 2003 after he ran foul of ex-President Vladimir Putin in a case critics said was politically motivated.

"(We) suggest that the Investigative Committee should initiate a new inquiry into newly revealed circumstances (of the case) and study the grounds to review the criminal case due to fundamental violations," a statement from the Kremlin human rights council said.

The council is an advisory board preparing recommendations for the president on key human rights issues. President Dmitry Medvedev wanted the council's lawyers to study Khodorkovsky case, the council head Mikhail Fedotov said in February.

The report by the council is not legally binding and thus will have no impact on Khodorkovsky's fate, said Andrei Piontkovsky, a political analyst.

"As long as Putin remains our country's dictator, Khodorkovsky will stay in jail," he said.

Khodorkovsky's prison sentence was due to expire in 2011. But last year a Russian court handed Khodorkovsky an additional seven years in jail. Later, the term was reduced to six years on appeal.

The conviction and sentencing of Khodorkovsky deepened doubt about Mevdedev's commitment to improve the rule of law and reaffirmed perceptions of Putin's dominance.

Putin, now prime minister, who agreed to swap jobs with Medvedev in September and is almost certain to secure a return to the Kremlin next year, gets irritated when asked questions about Khodorkovsky. He says the ex-tycoon should remain in prison.

His protege Medvedev, whom Putin steered into the Kremlin in 2008 because he was constitutionally barred from serving a straight third term as president, said earlier this year that Khodorkovsky's release from jail would not be dangerous for society.

Days after Medvedev's comment a court reduced the ex-tycoon's 14-year sentence by one year.

A lawyer for Khodorkovksy said the case had to deal with politics rather than justice and thus only a political decision taken at the very top could get him out of prison.

"Of course, the case should be reviewed...but neither the case, nor the sentence have any relation to justice," Karina Moskalenko told Reuters. "(The final decision) does not depend on the presidential council either."

(Writing and reporting by Thomas Grove and Alexei Anishchuk; Editing by Matthew Jones)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111221/wl_nm/us_russia_council_khodorkovsky

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Conservators Keep Last Supper Fresh

60-Second Science | More Science

A sophisticated air purification system protects The Last Supper from Milan's dirty air. Cynthia Graber reports

December 1, 2011?|

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Milan is one of Europe?s most polluted cities. And that puts Leonardo da Vinci?s The Last Supper at risk. The painting has been on the wall of a dining hall in Milan?s Santa Maria Delle Grazie monastery for more than 500 years.

Particulates in the air from motor vehicles can accumulate and damage works of art. In response, Italian authorities installed a high-tech system of heating, ventilation and air conditioning.

To test its efficacy, researchers installed air monitors throughout the room housing the masterpiece, and outdoors. Over a year, they found that fine particulates were reduced indoors by 88 percent, and coarse particulates by 94 percent, compared to the levels outside. The research was published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology. [Nancy Daher et al., "Chemical Characterization and Source Apportionment of Fine and Coarse Particulate Matter Inside the Refectory of Santa Maria Delle Grazie Church, Home of Leonardo Da Vinci?s Last Supper"]

The scientists say that?s a huge success.

The painting has been threatened before?by Napoleon?s army, by the poor attempts of previous conservators, by bombs during World War II. Even airborne lipids from visitors? skin can pose a danger, mitigated by a strict regulation on the number of viewers.

But if conservation measures are successful, The Last Supper should feed art lovers for centuries to come.

?Cynthia Graber

[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=2d7999b84242a984f7ee3d3f53cc4e0b

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Judge orders Mindy McCready: Return son to Florida (AP)

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. ? Country singer Mindy McCready said Thursday she would not bring her 5-year-old son back from Tennessee to Florida, despite violating a custody arrangement and a judge's order.

McCready took the boy during a recent visit at her father's southwest Florida home and a judge signed an order Thursday ordering authorities to take the boy into custody and return him. It's not yet clear whether she could face criminal charges.

"I'm doing all this to protect Zander, not stay out of trouble," McCready wrote in an email to The Associated Press on Thursday. "I don't think I should be in trouble for protecting my son in the first place."

McCready says she is in Tennessee and it is looking less likely that she will bring her son back to Florida. She says she cannot travel because she's nearly seven months pregnant with twins. There was no answer at a Nashville address for McCready.

The judge's order means law enforcement anywhere can pick up Zander and bring him back to Florida.

McCready and her mother have had a long custody battle over the boy. Until recently, the boy was living with McCready's mother. Her mother was awarded guardianship in 2007. McCready says her son has suffered abuse at her mother's house; her mother, Gayle Inge, denies the abuse allegations.

"Once the child is located, we will pick him up and bring him back to Florida," said Terri Durdaller, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Children and Families. "Although these circumstances are unfortunate for a young child, his safety and well-being are our number one priority."

Durdaller said any criminal charges would come at the discretion of law enforcement or the Lee County (Fla.) State Attorney's office.

McCready provided a series of emails to the AP with Lee County Judge James Seals' ruling to return the boy and correspondence with her attorney. Seals wrote to McCready's lawyer that once the boy is back in Florida "we'll pick up the pieces."

"Mom has violated the court's custody order and we are simply restoring the child back into our custody," the judge wrote. "Nothing more. Nothing less. The court makes no judgment about whether Mom will or will not competently care for the child while in her custody. It only wants the child back where the court placed him."

McCready was born in Florida and found fame in Nashville as a singer in the mid-1990s, including a No. 1 hit, "Guys Do It All the Time." She has lived a complicated life in recent years.

In August, she filed the libel suit in Palm Beach County against her mother and the National Enquirer's parent company, American Media Inc., over a story published in the tabloid newspaper that quoted Inge.

In July 2007, she was accused of scuffling with Inge and resisting arrest at her mother's home in Florida. She was sentenced to jail for 60 days for a probation violation and released; she served 30 days in jail. She also lost custody of her son.

And in 2008, McCready was admitted to a Nashville hospital after police said she cut her wrists and took several pills in a suicide attempt.

During the TV show "Celebrity Rehab 3" in 2010, McCready came off as a sympathetic figure, and host Dr. Drew Pinsky called her an angel in the season finale.

Also in 2010, police went to Inge's home for a report of an overdose, and McCready was taken to a Florida hospital. However, neither the hospital nor McCready's publicist would say why the singer was hospitalized.

McCready also fought the release of a tape in which she reportedly talked about former Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens, with whom she had an affair as a teenager.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111202/ap_on_en_mu/us_people_mccready

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