Boston Marathon bombing suspect out of hospital

Vehicles are parked at the Devens Federal Medical Center (FMC) in Devens, Mass., Friday, April 26, 2013. The U.S. Marshals Service said Friday that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, charged in the April 15, 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, had been moved from a Boston hospital to the federal medical center at Devens, about 40 miles west of the city. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Vehicles are parked at the Devens Federal Medical Center (FMC) in Devens, Mass., Friday, April 26, 2013. The U.S. Marshals Service said Friday that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, charged in the April 15, 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, had been moved from a Boston hospital to the federal medical center at Devens, about 40 miles west of the city. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

This Friday, April 26, 2013 photo shows the entrance of the Devens Federal Medical Center (FMC) in Devens, Mass. The U.S. Marshals Service said Friday that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, charged in the April 15, 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, had been moved from a Boston hospital to the federal medical center at Devens, about 40 miles west of the city. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

BOSTON (AP) ? The surviving Boston Marathon bombings suspect has been released from a civilian hospital and transferred to a federal medical detention center in central Massachusetts.

The U.S. Marshals Service said Friday that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev left Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center overnight and was taken to the Federal Medical Center Devens, about 40 miles west of Boston.

The facility, on the decommissioned Fort Devens U.S. Army base, treats federal prisoners and detainees who require specialized long-term medical or mental health care.

The 19-year-old Tsarnaev is recovering from a gunshot wound to the throat and other injuries suffered during his attempted getaway.

The Massachusetts college student was charged with setting off the shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs that killed three people and wounded more than 260 at the marathon finish line April 15.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-04-26-Boston%20Marathon-Suspect/id-e6d7c58f78c5445cb9bee48625a38f5c

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Bush hopes for legacy rehab

Bush at his new library on Wednesday (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

DALLAS?More than four years after George W. Bush left the White House, there seems to be one word the former president has adopted to describe how he feels about the decisions he made in office: ?comfortable.?

Bush has repeatedly used the word in interview after interview over the last several days as he returned to the spotlight to promote Thursday?s opening of his presidential library here on the campus of Southern Methodist University.

"I'm comfortable with what I did," Bush told the Dallas Morning News in an interview published last week. "I'm comfortable with who I am."

Asked about one of the most controversial aspects of his presidency?his decision to invade Iraq?Bush upped the ante even further, telling ABC?s Diane Sawyer that he?s ?very comfortable? with that decision.

?I am comfortable in the decision-making process. I think the removal of Saddam Hussein was the right decision for not only our own security but for giving people a chance to live in a free society,? Bush declared.

Indeed, those closest to him insist Bush is not someone who second-guesses the decisions he made as president. But that doesn?t mean he is not concerned about his legacy and the way the public perceives him.

Aides say the 43rd president personally played a role in choosing what went into ?every single exhibit? at his library. He and his supporters hope the facility will encourage the public to reassess his presidency?particularly on domestic issues that were overshadowed by controversy over his handling of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

?He literally looked at every exhibit and said, ?I want this, I want that,'? said Mark Langdale, who, as head of Bush?s private foundation, oversaw construction of the library. ?He views this as a way for the public to get all the facts so that they can make an educated decision about how they regard him and what he did in office.?

In some ways, it appears that at least some of that reassessment has already started. An ABC News/Washington Post poll released earlier this week found 47 percent of those polled approve of Bush. That?s the highest approval rating he?s received in seven years. Still, the former president?s numbers remain dismal at best. A CNN poll released Wednesday found that 55 percent of those polled believe Bush?s presidency was a ?failure.? That is, however, an improvement over 2009, when 68 percent thought he was a ?failure.? When he left office, Bush dismissed his low poll numbers and insisted history would be his ultimate judge?a statement he?s repeated again this week as he prepares to open the doors of his library.

While those close to him insist Bush does not ?fret? about how the public regards him, he is concerned about Americans having what he sees is an ?accurate picture? of his presidency, one aide says.

?If you know George W. Bush, you know that he?s comfortable in his skin,? says Margaret Spellings, a longtime Bush adviser who served as his secretary of education. ?Does he fret and worry about this stuff? I would say very, very little. He really believes that history in its full context, if it?s understood, will certainly bode well for the era and the decisions that he made. And that?s what he wants.?

Still, there have been signs of the tension the Bush family has felt as Democrats and even some Republicans have continued to trash his presidency. While the family has mostly stayed silent about the attacks, Jeb Bush, the president?s brother, last summer used his speech at the Republican National Convention to condemn President Barack Obama for blaming his brother for the nation?s struggling economy instead of taking responsibility for what he had done over the last four years.

"Mr. President, it's time to stop blaming your predecessor for your economic problems," the former Florida governor declared. "You were dealt a tough hand, but your policies have not worked."

In an emotional voice, he added, ?I love my brother. He is a man of integrity, courage and honor. And during incredibly challenging times, he kept us safe."

Jeb Bush?s remarks were giving voice to what those close to George W. Bush say is frustration among his friends and family that the former president hasn?t gotten his due credit on some issues. Those include education reform, his work to stop the spread of AIDS in Africa, and his successful push to offer prescription drug coverage to those covered by Medicare?an accomplishment that was initially unpopular but has come to be praised by both Democrats and Republicans. The library touts all of these issues, as well as Bush?s efforts to prod his party to be friendlier to Latinos by embracing immigration reform.

But Karen Hughes, a longtime Bush adviser, says the new library should not be viewed as a ?defense? of her former boss?s presidency?though she said she?s glad that its opening might prompt a reassessment of his legacy.

?I am glad that?s happening,? Hughes said. ?Obviously those eight years of the Bush presidency were very consequential years full of lots of shock?from the financial shock of 2008 to the shock and horror of the September 11th attacks to the worst natural disaster with Hurricane Katrina. They were very consequential years for our country.?

But, she added, ?I think as time passes and emotions even out that people will take a much more objective look, especially as they walk through this museum, of the many, many, very incredibly positive and good things that President Bush did to both meet the threat of terrorism but also shape the future.?

But even Bush has acknowledged it may take years, possibly even decades, for the public to view his presidency in a more positive light.

In his interview with ABC, Bush insisted he feels he made the right calls with the information he had at the time?especially on the war in Iraq.

?But history will ultimately decide that, and I won't be around to see it,? he said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/library-opens-bush-hopes-reassessment-legacy-111102605--politics.html

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Melatonin delays ALS symptom onset and death in mice

Apr. 25, 2013 ? Melatonin injections delayed symptom onset and reduced mortality in a mouse model of the neurodegenerative condition amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. In a report published online ahead of print in the journal Neurobiology of Disease, the team revealed that receptors for melatonin are found in the nerve cells, a finding that could launch novel therapeutic approaches.

Annually about 5,000 people are diagnosed with ALS, which is characterized by progressive muscle weakness and eventual death due to the failure of respiratory muscles, said senior investigator Robert Friedlander, M.D., UPMC Endowed Professor of neurosurgery and neurobiology and chair, Department of Neurological Surgery, Pitt School of Medicine. But the causes of the condition are not well understood, thwarting development of a cure or even effective treatments.

Melatonin is a naturally occurring hormone that is best known for its role in sleep regulation. After screening more than a thousand FDA-approved drugs several years ago, the research team determined that melatonin is a powerful antioxidant that blocks the release of enzymes that activate apoptosis, or programmed cell death.

"Our experiments show for the first time that a lack of melatonin and melatonin receptor 1, or MT1, is associated with the progression of ALS," Dr. Friedlander said. "We saw similar results in a Huntington's disease model in an earlier project, suggesting similar biochemical pathways are disrupted in these challenging neurologic diseases."

Hoping to stop neuron death in ALS just as they did in Huntington's, the research team treated mice bred to have an ALS-like disease with injections of melatonin or with a placebo. Compared to untreated animals, the melatonin group developed symptoms later, survived longer, and had less degeneration of motor neurons in the spinal cord.

"Much more work has to be done to unravel these mechanisms before human trials of melatonin or a drug akin to it can be conducted to determine its usefulness as an ALS treatment," Dr. Friedlander said. "I suspect that a combination of agents that act on these pathways will be needed to make headway with this devastating disease."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Yi Zhang, Anna Cook, Jinho Kim, Sergei V. Baranov, Jiying Jiang, Karen Smith, Kerry Cormier, Erik Bennett, Robert P. Browser, Arthur L. Day, Diane L. Carlisle, Robert J. Ferrante, Xin Wang, Robert M. Friedlander. Melatonin inhibits the caspase-1/cytochrome c/caspase-3 cell death pathway, inhibits MT1 receptor loss and delays disease progression in a mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Neurobiology of Disease, 2013; 55: 26 DOI: 10.1016/j.nbd.2013.03.008

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/695KsaH_dsA/130425091614.htm

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Senate bill ends air traffic controller furloughs

WASHINGTON (AP) ? With flight delays mounting, the Senate approved hurry-up legislation Thursday night to end air traffic controller furloughs blamed for inconveniencing large numbers of travelers.

A House vote on the measure was expected as early as Friday, with lawmakers eager to embark on a weeklong vacation.

Under the legislation, the Federal Aviation Administration would gain authority to transfer up to $253 million from accounts that are flush into other programs, to "prevent reduced operations and staffing" through the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year.

In addition to restoring full staffing by controllers, Senate officials said the available funds should be ample enough to prevent the closure of small airport towers around the country. The FAA has said it will shut the facilities as it makes its share of $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts that took effect last month at numerous government agencies.

The Senate acted as the FAA said there had been at least 863 flights delayed on Wednesday "attributable to staffing reductions resulting from the furlough."

There was no immediate reaction at the White House, although administration officials participated in the negotiations that led to the deal and evidently registered no objections.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, a key participant in the talks, said the legislation would "prevent what otherwise would have been intolerable delays in the air travel system, inconveniencing travelers and hurting the economy."

Senate approval followed several hours of pressure-filled, closed-door negotiations, and came after most senators had departed the Capitol on the assumption that the talks had fallen short.

Officials said a small group of senators insisted on a last-ditch effort at an agreement before Congress adjourned for a vacation that could have become politically problematic if the flight delays continued.

"I want to do it right now. There are other senators you'd have to ask what the hang-up is," Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., said at a point when it appeared no compromise would emerge.

For the White House and Senate Democrats, the discussions on legislation relating to one relatively small slice of the $85 billion in spending cuts marked a shift in position in a long-running struggle with Republicans over budget issues. Similarly, the turn of events marked at least modest vindication of a decision by the House GOP last winter to finesse some budget struggles in order to focus public attention on the across-the-board cuts in hopes they would gain leverage over President Barack Obama.

The Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, a union that represents FAA employees, reported a number of incidents it said were due to the furloughs.

In one case, it said several flights headed for Long Island MacArthur Airport in New York were diverted on Wednesday when a piece of equipment failed. "While the policy for this equipment is immediate restoral, due to sequestration and furloughs it was changed to next-day restoral," the union said.

It added it was "learning of additional impacts nationwide, including open watches, increased restoration times, delays resulting from insufficient funding for parts and equipment, modernization delays, missed or deferred preventative maintenance, and reduced redundancy."

The airlines, too, were pressing Congress to restore the FAA to full staffing.

In an interview Wednesday, Robert Isom, chief operations officer of US Airways, likened the furloughs to a "wildcat regulatory action."

He added, "In the airline business, you try to eliminate uncertainty. Some factors you can't control, like weather. It (the FAA issue) is worse than the weather."

In a shift, first the White House and then senior Democratic lawmakers have signaled a willingness in the past two days to support legislation that alleviates the budget crunch at the FAA, while leaving the balance of the $85 billion to remain in effect.

Obama favors a comprehensive agreement that replaces the entire $85 billion in across-the-board cuts as part of a broader deficit-reduction deal that includes higher taxes and spending cuts.

One Senate Democrat, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, noted that without the type of comprehensive deficit deal that Obama favors, a bill that eases the spending crunch at the FAA would inevitably be followed by other single-issue measures. She listed funding at the National Institutes of Health as one example, and cuts that cause furloughs of civilians who work at military hospitals as a second.

At the same time, Democratic aides said resolve had crumbled under the weight of widespread delays for the traveling public and pressure from the airlines.

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., involved in the discussions, said the issue was big enough so "most people want to find a solution as long as it doesn't spend any more money."

Officials estimate it would cost slightly more than $200 million to restore air traffic controllers to full staffing, and another $50 million to keep open smaller air traffic towers around the country that the FAA has proposed closing.

Across the Capitol, the chairman of the House Transportation Committee, Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., said, "We're willing to look at what the Senate's going to propose."

He said he believes the FAA has the authority it needs under existing law to shift funds and end the furloughs of air traffic controllers, and any legislation should be "very, very limited" and direct the agency to use the flexibility it already has.

In a reflection of the political undercurrents, another House Republican, Rep. James Lankford of Oklahoma, said FAA employees "are being used as pawns by this (Obama) administration to be able to implement the maximum amount of pain on the American people when it does not have to be this way."

The White House and congressional Democrats vociferously dispute such claims.

___

Associated Press writers Joan Lowy, Henry C. Jackson and Alan Fram in Washington and David Koenig in Dallas contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/senate-passes-bill-ease-faa-furloughs-005441034--politics.html

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Hagel: Syria used chemical weapons

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) ? U.S. intelligence has concluded "with some degree of varying confidence," that the Syrian government has used sarin gas as a weapon in its 2-year-old civil war, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Thursday.

Hagel, speaking to reporters in Abu Dhabi, said the White House has informed two senators by letter that, within the past day, "our intelligence community does assess, with varying degrees of confidence, that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons on a small scale in Syria, specifically, the chemical agent sarin."

"It violates every convention of warfare," Hagel said.

No information was made public on what quantity of chemical weapons might have been used, or when or what casualties might have resulted.

President Barack Obama has said the use of chemical weapons would be a "game-changer" in the U.S. position on intervening in the Syrian civil war, and the letter to Congress reiterates that the use or transfer of chemical weapons in Syria is a "red line for the United States." However, the letter also hints that a broad U.S. response is not imminent.

White House legislative director Miguel Rodriguez, who signed the letter, wrote that "because the president takes this issue so seriously, we have an obligation to fully investigate any and all evidence of chemical weapons use within Syria."

The letters went to Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Carl Levin, D-Mich.

The assessment, Rodriguez says, is based in part on "physiological samples."

He also said the U.S. believes that the use of chemical weapons "originated with the Assad regime." That is consistent with the Obama administration's assertion that the Syrian rebels do not have access to the country's stockpiles.

In Washington, McCain quoted from the letter the White House sent to several senators who had pressed the administration about Syria's possible use of chemical weapons.

"We just received a letter from the president in response to our question about whether Assad had used chemical weapons," McCain told reporters following a closed briefing with Secretary of State John Kerry on Syria and North Korea.

___

AP White House Correspondent Julie Pace and AP writer Donna Cassata contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hagel-says-syria-used-chemical-weapons-155008837--politics.html

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Health Habits of the Living Presidents

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The five living presidents, who gathered today for the opening of the George W. Bush Presidential Center at Southern Methodist University, have managed to stay pretty healthy despite enduring some serious stress in the White House.

Here, a look at how diet and lifestyle could be sustaining our past and present leaders.

Health Habits of the Living Presidents

The 43rd president, George W. Bush, loves to ride his mountain bike. Today, his wife, Laura, said he recently helped push a wounded veteran up a hill during a bike race. And when he's not cycling, the 66-year-old Texan works hard to clear the network of bike trails through his ranch.

Health Habits of the Living Presidents

The 42nd president was known for his morning jog around the South Lawn. But it was emergency heart surgery in 2004 that convinced Bill Clinton to make big changes. In 2011, the 66-year-old adopted a vegan diet free of meat, eggs and dairy, which he credits for his 20-pound weight drop.

Health Habits of the Living Presidents

After a string of health scares starting late last year, 88-year-old George H.W. Bush appeared at today's ceremony in a wheelchair because of a form of Parkinson's disease. But the 41st president has been very active throughout his life. In 2009, the avid golfer jumped out of a plane for his 85th birthday.

Health Habits of the Living Presidents

Jimmy Carter, 88, has been working with Habitat for Humanity since 1984, helping to build homes in countries around the world and needy neighborhoods across the U.S. In 2012, the 39th president was pictured wearing a red bandana around his neck and a tool belt around his waist while carrying long planks of wood at a building site in Haiti.

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Facebook Messenger for Android: now with free stickers

Emojis not giving that missive the right oomph? A Facebook Messenger for Android update has brought stickers into that mix with characters like cats and aliens, lending your chat head conversation just the right dose of nuance. It popped up yesterday as a hidden feature, but now you can download the final version at Google Play (at the source) -- then, just click on the smiley icon in the text input box to start dropping the cute bombs.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Software, Mobile, Facebook

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Via: Phandroid

Source: Facebook (Google Play)

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/TXALB4MIeCA/

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New York drops damages claim in suit against ex-AIG chief

By Jessica Dye

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York's attorney general is dropping a claim for damages in a high-profile civil lawsuit accusing the former chief executive of American International Group Inc, Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, of defrauding investors, according to a letter sent by the attorney general's office on Thursday.

The 2005 lawsuit filed by then-Attorney General Eliot Spitzer against Greenberg and former AIG chief financial officer Howard Smith sought as much as $6 billion in damages.

In an April 25 letter to the New York Court of Appeals, New York Solicitor General Barbara Underwood wrote that the state would still be pursuing the civil fraud case against the defendants but would not be seeking damages, in order "to avoid further delay and expedite the trial of the state action."

The office will continue to pursue other remedies against the defendants, including a potential ban on working in the securities industry or serving as an officer or director of a public company, the letter said.

"Attorney General (Eric) Schneiderman feels strongly that individuals in the financial services industry who perpetrate fraud, no matter how wealthy or powerful, must be held publicly accountable, and that is why we believe justice will best be served by proceeding to a long overdue trial of Mr. Greenberg as quickly as possible," New York attorney general spokesman Damien LaVera said in a statement.

A lawyer for Greenberg, David Boies of Boies Schiller & Flexner, said in a statement that the action "finally brings down the curtain on a series of issues of claims that were never justified and should never have been brought in the first place."

The decision to withdraw the claim for damages in state courts follows an April 10 order approving a $115 million settlement reached by AIG shareholders with Greenberg and other defendants over alleged accounting improprieties at the insurance giant.

Lawyers for Greenberg argued that the $115 million settlement in federal court would effectively preclude Schneiderman from seeking "duplicative damages" from Greenberg in state court.

The attorney general's lawsuit centered around two reinsurance transactions in 1999 and 2000. It was brought under the Martin Act, a law that allows New York's top state prosecutor to pursue criminal or civil fraud cases involving suspected corporate wrongdoing.

The case is currently pending before the New York Court of Appeals, the state's highest court.

The case is People v. Greenberg et al, Supreme Court of the State of New York, New York County, No. 401720/05.

(Reporting by Jessica Dye; Editing by Edmund Klamann)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/york-drops-damages-claim-suit-against-ex-aig-025803123--finance.html

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5 people murdered in small Illinois town, suspect dead

By Mary Wisniewski, Reuters

Five people were slain early on Wednesday in Manchester, Ill., and a suspect died after a shootout with police, Illinois State Police said.

State Police spokeswoman Monique Bond confirmed the killings and also said that a 6-year-old girl had been injured and taken to a hospital. Initial reports were that the victims had been shot, but Bond could not confirm this.?

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A suspect fled in a white Chevy Lumina, police said, citing witnesses. At about 7:13 a.m., the car was spotted and chased by state and local police who exchanged gunfire with the suspect, state police said.?

About 15 minutes later, the suspect was arrested and taken to a hospital, and later pronounced dead, Bond said. Police did not release the person's name.?

Police said there was no reason to believe that the 300 or so residents of Manchester were in danger.?

"Scott County is a small community. Fortunately, this type of thing doesn't happen very often, but this is proof they can happen," Scott County State's Attorney Michael Hill said at the news conference.?

"It's been a very tragic scene," said Larry Balthis, pastor of the Manchester Baptist Church. Balthis said he knew the people involved, but he declined additional comment.?

Jacksonville School District 117 was closed for the day, according to Debbie McKean, secretary to Superintendent Steve Ptacek. The school district covers 222 square miles and includes the area where the suspect was reportedly apprehended, McKean said.?

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

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MetroPCS shareholders vote to approve T-Mobile merger

It hit a few snags along the way, but T-Mobile's merger with MetroPCS now appears to be all but a done deal. Bloomberg is reporting that MetroPCS shareholders voted to approve the deal this morning, following a recommendation from two previously opposed shareholder advisory firms that the merger be approved last week -- and approval from the board before that. According to Bloomberg, the final terms of the deal give T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom a 74 percent stake in the new company, with MetroPCS shareholders receiving a $1.5 billion cash payment. Most notably for T-Mobile, the deal brings nine million new prepaid customers into the fold, as well as the all-important wireless spectrum that MetroPCS currently owns.

Filed under: Mobile, T-Mobile

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Source: Bloomberg

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/KqJrYcLAkb8/

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Russian protest leader: trial will show innocence

KIROV, Russia (AP) ? A prominent Russian opposition leader on trial for embezzlement said Wednesday that his innocence will be obvious for all to see by the end of the proceedings, even if the court finds him guilty.

Alexei Navalny, who led protests against President Vladimir Putin and exposed alleged corruption in his government, is accused of heading an organized criminal group that embezzled 16 million rubles ($500,000) worth of timber from a state-owned company while working as an adviser to the Kirov provincial governor in 2009.

The charges, which strike at the essence of Navalny's image as an anti-corruption activist, threaten to send him to prison for 10 years and would ban him from running for public office. Navalny has declared his intent to run for president.

Navalny insists the charges are an act of revenge for his exposure of high-level corruption and are intended to silence him.

"At the end of the trial, we will certainly win," Navalny said when he arrived in the northwestern city of Kirov on the overnight train from Moscow. "I'm sure that a lack of guilt will be established. Even if it is not formally acknowledged by the court, it will be clear for everyone who attends the trial."

A Navalny supporter put up a large white sign in front of the courthouse saying "Putin is a Thief" in large letters.

The trial began a week ago, but was quickly adjourned until Wednesday at the request of the defense, which said Navalny and his legal team had not been given enough time to read the case files.

The judge called a recess on Wednesday after Navalny's lawyers insisted that the case be sent back to prosecutors, citing a lack of specifics and inconsistencies. The trial was to resume later in the afternoon.

"The investigators have become confused and can't even determine what damage was caused," said Ilya Yashin, a prominent opposition activist who was among a group of Navalny supporters who traveled to Kirov from Moscow. "The numbers are different and they are contradictory."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/russian-protest-leader-trial-show-innocence-095833474.html

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HR Business Partner - Initial 12 month contract role - Jobs in HR

Melbourne,?Victoria,?Australia Posted: 2013-04-23

Advertiser: HR Partners Melbourne

?

• Lead the HR Function
• Initial 12 month contract role
• Circa $125,000 Package (including car)

?

Our client, a Not for Profit business renowned for their delivery of programs and services to the community are currently seeking an experienced HR Business Partner to lead their team located in Inner Melbourne. Partnering closely with the CEO and as a member of the senior leadership team, you will be seen as a trusted advisor providing strategic business partnering solutions while managing the HR function. You will consider yourself values driven, passionate; enjoy a challenge and an experienced HR professional, who has considerable experience in developing high quality HR solutions to enable a business to achieve its key drivers.?

?

Leading by example you will foster and develop an organisational culture of high levels of communication, to support people who genuinely care about helping others, and optimise employee engagement.

?

Having previously led a HR function, you will be able to demonstrate your strong influencing skills and give examples of how you have achieved the following key deliverables:

?

Effective business partnering with key stakeholders??????

Enrolment in EBA negotiations

Employee Relations????

Talent management & Succession planning

Change management

Coach and mentor senior managers in contemporary HR??????

Promotion of HR best practice across the business?

?

You will be a highly visible HR Professional and provide proactive leadership and coaching to your client group. To be successful in this opportunity you will require a high level of energy and drive.? You will be capable of leveraging support from senior stakeholders and have a pragmatic approach to achieving organisational goals.?
??
Degree qualified in Business and/or Human Resources, your experience will have been gained in a similar HR Business Partnering role.?? Please apply online, or contact Andrew Paatsch for a confidential conversation on (03) 8621 5700 quoting Reference Number 14-47705.???

HR Partners
Level 2, 607 Bourke St
Melbourne, VIC, 3000
P: 03 8621 5700
F: 03 9670 6072
www.hrpartners.com.au

Apply for this job

Email this advertiser

Source: http://www.jobsinhr.com.au/browse-hr-jobs/hr-business-partner-20130423120401/

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Biden to join thousands honoring slain Boston officer

By Scott Malone and Samuel P. Jacobs

BOSTON/CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (Reuters) - Thousands of law enforcement agents from around the United States were to attend a memorial on Wednesday for a university police officer who authorities say was shot dead by the Boston Marathon bombing suspects, with Vice President Joe Biden to speak at the ceremony.

The service at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology honors Sean Collier, 26, who police say was killed by brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on campus on Thursday night. Tamerlan, 26, was killed in a separate shootout with police. Dzhokhar, 19, was captured and criminally charged from a hospital bed where he is recovering from gunshot wounds.

U.S. officials say the ethnic Chechen brothers planted and detonated two pressure-cooker bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15, killing three people and injuring 264. Ten people lost limbs in the bombing.

Attention has turned to whether U.S. security officials paid enough heed to Tamerlan Tsarnaev having been flagged as a possible Islamist radical by Russia. The FBI interviewed him in 2011 but did not find enough cause to continue investigating.

His name was listed on the U.S. government's highly classified central database of people it views as potential terrorists, sources close to the bombing investigation said. The list is vast, including about 500,000 people, which means that not everyone on the list is closely monitored.

Members of Congress briefed by law enforcement and media reports citing unidentified sources indicate Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has told investigators from his hospital bed that the brothers grew radical from anti-U.S. material on the internet and acted without assistance from any foreign or domestic militant groups.

"That basically seems to be the story, but I don't see how we can accept that," Representative Peter King, a New York Republican on House Homeland Security Committee, told CNN.

"It may end up being the truth, but here's a person who is a mass murderer, he's a person who can barely speak at all. I don't see why he would be giving up any accomplices he may have or talking about any connections his brother may have had in Chechnya or Russia," King said on Wednesday.

In an impromptu hearing on Monday before a federal magistrate judge in Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was charged with two crimes that could result in the death penalty if he were convicted.

He is being represented by Miriam Conrad, the Boston area's top public defender, who has handled prior cases involving men accused of plotting to fly an explosive-laden remote-controlled plane into the Pentagon and helping to finance a 2010 planned car bomb attack in New York's Times Square.

MIT canceled Wednesday's classes in Collier's honor. Authorities released videos and photos of the suspects, still unidentified at the time, on Thursday. Hours later, Collier, who had worked at MIT since January 2012, was shot and killed.

Collier and the youngest victim of the bombing attack, 8-year-old Martin Richard, were buried in private ceremonies on Tuesday.

Officials at the Cambridge mosque where Tamerlan Tsarnaev sometimes worshipped, and was known to have twice disrupted services, said on Tuesday they were unsure if they would offer burial services for him if asked by the family.

Investigators have focused on a trip to Dagestan last year by the older Tsarnaev and whether he became involved with or was influenced by Chechen separatists or Islamist extremists there.

A member of the extended family Tsarnaev said they were victims of a Russian plot to portray them as Chechen terrorists operating on U.S. soil.

The relative, Said Tsarnaev, who lives in Grozny, the capital of Russia's volatile Chechnya region, on Tuesday accused Moscow of sending false information to the United States to frame the suspects.

(Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball, Susan Cornwell and Patricia Zengerle in Washington; Editing by Daniel Trotta and Grant McCool)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-lawmakers-grill-fbi-boston-bombing-investigation-011321908.html

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Star Trek Into Darkness Clip: They're Closing Fast!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/star-trek-into-darkness-clip-theyre-closing-fast/

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Five Zoho apps to help expand your small business | TechRepublic

Takeaway: Zoho has a lot to offer small businesses, but here are five specific Zoho apps that could help immediately.

If you?re looking for a new cloud-based solution for your business, you may have come into contact with Zoho. Zoho is a comprehensive online suite of tools that takes the standard groupware concept and tosses in a handful of extra, business-centric, tools to make it one of the most powerful suites you?ll find. Once you?ve signed up for your Zoho account, you will find out just how much they have to offer. But out of the list of tools on the menu, which should you immediately try to help your small business grow and run more efficiently?

This blog post is also available as a TechRepublic Screenshot Gallery.

Let?s take a glance at five of the Zoho tools that are targeted especially for small businesses. Each of these addon applications can be used from anywhere (with a web browser and a network connection). All of these tools can be used on the free account with limitations (each app will have different limitations). You can upgrade each app to different plans to expand beyond the free version.

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Five Apps

1. CRM

Nearly every small business can benefit from a Customer Resource Management tool. And Zoho has you covered in that area as well. The Zoho CRM enables you to manage: Leads, contacts, accounts, and activities. You can create tasks, events, and calls. With a handy dashboard-like tool called Pulse, you can easily follow leads, contacts, and potentials (you can even adjust the ?Pulse rating? which informs the Pulse tool at what interval to alert you if something is not updated. The free account will get you three users and limited features. The cost of the CRM upgrades are: Professional $12.00/month (unlimited users and extra features such as mass mailing and role-based security) and Enterprise $25.00/month (unlimited users and extra features such as group-level security and auto-responders).

2. Meeting

Meeting is a collaboration tool that allows you to set up meetings with users and then display your desktop to the attendees. You can also allow certain members of the meeting to take control of your desktop. This is a great way to do long-distance training, show off a desktop product, or whatever is necessary. All accounts offer unlimited meeting duration, session reports, embed meetings within your web site, and the ability to switch presenters. With the free account, you get one host and one participant, The Professional account is $173.00/year with an additional monthly cost, depending upon how many users you need.

3. Recruit

Recruit is an applicant tracking system that allows you to keep track of your applications, hires, and more. Although Zoho Recruit is targeted for agency recruitment firms and corporate recruiters and talent acquisition departments, it can easily be applied to any business that has a fast turnover rate or hires a lot of temporary (or seasonal) employees. Recruit offers: Sourcing and resume management, client and contact management, job posting, resume parsing, work flow and candidate experience. The pricing for Recruit is free for one recruiter. Standard will cost $12.00/month per recruiter. The Standard edition also includes branding features, templates, and bulk updates.

4. Invoice

Invoice brings to your business a core function for small businesses. Without invoices, you don?t get paid. Zoho invoice allows you to manage estimates, invoices, customers, recurring invoices, billable expenses, non-billable expenses, products, and more. You can create incredibly custom invoices and email or print/snail mail to clients. The Free Invoice account offers five customers and one user; unlimited invoices and estimates; and one project. The Standard plan ($150.00 USD/year) offers five hundred customers and three users; unlimited invoices and estimates; and unlimited projects. The Professional plan ($300.00 USD/year) offers unlimited customers and users; unlimited invoices and estimates; and unlimited projects.

5. Reports

Reports allows you to generate dashboards, graphs, and other tools to help you analyze your business data. You can import data from spreadsheets and databases, or input directly into empty spreadsheets/databases or create from templates (all within the tool itself) and then generate the reports from there. Reports allows you to: Analyze profits, trends; generate powerful dashboards with custom features; view performance measurements; extract and view OLAP data. The Free plan allows you two users, five databases, 10,000 rows, three query tables, and three scheduled imports. There are four paid plans (Standard - $50.00/month, Professional? $90.00/month, Professional Plus - $140.00/month, and Enterprise - $495.00/month). Each plan has an increasing amount of data allowed as well as extra features.

Bottom line

If you?re looking for a cloud-based groupware tool that can help you grow your business with little cost and even less headache, take a look at Zoho and the additional apps they offer. With the addition of these tools, your business can expand and become far more efficient and reliable than ever.

Also read:

Source: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/five-apps/five-zoho-apps-to-help-expand-your-small-business/1820

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Mac Miller's 'S.D.S.' Single Arrives Before Midnight Release

When the clock struck 12, the Flying Lotus-produced track was going to hit the Net, but the magic happened earlier.
By Rob Markman

Mac Miller
Photo: Getty Images

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1706160/mac-miller-sds-single-leak.jhtml

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Newly Discovered Android Malware Was Downloaded Millions Of Times

Security firm Lookout has detailed a clever new bit of Android Malware lurking in the Google Play store. The good news: unless you're downloading questionable Russian clone apps, you're probably not affected. The bad news: that hasn't kept it from being downloaded a few million times.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Q4E26QxbnIA/

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Mom 'ecstatic' as Marathon victim son opens eyes

Norden family photo via Facebook

Paul Norden (left), shown here with mother Liz and his brother J.P., opened his eyes for the first time since he lost a leg in the Boston Marathon bombing. He is being treated at the same hospital where suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was taken after his capture.

By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News

In one room at a Boston hospital, the marathon bombing suspect was under heavy guard. In another, one of the victims was opening his eyes for the first time since losing his leg.

"Oh my God, it's the best day of my life," said Liz Norden, keeping vigil at her son Paul's bedside in the intensive care unit at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, on Saturday morning.

"I can't even tell you...I was ecstatic."

The 31-year-old roofer was rushed to Beth Israel after Monday's bombing in grave condition. His older brother, J.P., 33, who also lost a leg, was at Brigham & Women's Hospital.

All week, their mother had been shuttling back and forth between the two as they underwent multiple surgeries to repair the traumatic injuries.

Family photo via Facebook

Paul Norden (left), seen here with his brother J.P., opened his eyes for the first time since being wounded in the Boston Marathon bombing. Each brother lost a leg, and Paul is recovering at the same hospital where wounded suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is being treated.

She had barely registered the fast-breaking developments in the hunt for brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev: the release of their photos, the execution of a campus police officer, a wild bomb-tossing chase, the death of one suspect in a firefight, and the discovery of the second hours later.

But one detail about Dzhokhar Tsarnaev weighed heavily on her: he was now in the same building as her son, who was still fighting for his life.

"I don't understand why they would bring him where my son is," she said, then acknowledged that there was hardly a hospital in the area that didn't have a victim from the two blasts that killed three and injured 176.

The mother of five was unloading groceries at her Wakefield, Mass., home on Monday when Paul called her from an ambulance to say he was "hurt real bad."

Then came the second dose of horrific news: J.P., who had gone with Paul to cheer on a friend running the race, also had a leg amputated.

"I can't even tell you how devastating it's been," she said. "Those two [the bombers] shattered my world."

Since arriving at Beth Israel, Paul had suffered some setbacks, she said without going into specifics. J.P. was in better shape, though he was back in surgery on Saturday.

"All J.P. has done is ask for Paul. He just wants to know if his brother is OK," she said. "We had to be careful about what we told him. And when you'e trying to talk to him and he's sad and crying and just keep asking for Paul, you're dying inside."

But Saturday brought a glimmer of hope. Liz Norden was able to look Paul's eyes and speak to him.

"It was the best," she said, her voice breaking.

When Tsarnaev was brought to the hospital Friday night, wounded from a gun-battle with cops, Norden said she was "angry." The improvement in Paul's condition had calmed her fury.

"As long as my son is alive...," she said. "And today he opened his eyes."

Born just 14 months apart, Paul and J.P. are extremely close. She said her daughter Caitlin called them "tough kids with soft hearts."

"They're amazing boys. "J.P. is preppy and witty and Paul is laid back. Both of them, they would do anything for anybody."

The mom said she didn't want to think about the two other brothers, who were born in Kyrgyzstan and moved to the Boston area with their family a decade ago. She said nothing she learned about them or their motive would change her new reality.

Her goal, she said, was to stay focused on her kids and remain positive. Family and friends had rallied around, and she was confident Paul and J.P. would pull through.

"They will have each other," she said.

Related:

What's next: The interrogation of the Boston bombing suspect

Secret weapon: How thermal imaging helped catch bomb suspect

Parents of suspects say their children were framed

Family of dead suspect's wife: 'Our hearts are sickened'

On social media, Tsarnaev's mixed religious fervor, whimsy

Slain MIT officer's family mourns: 'Our only solace is Sean died bravely'

Obama: 'We've closed an important chapter in this tragedy'

A nation cheers arrest of Boston bombing suspect

Slideshow: Timeline of terror hunt and capture

Boxing photos of dead Boston suspect revealed

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Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2af47dd0/l/0Lusnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A40C20A0C178386730Emom0Eecstatic0Eas0Emarathon0Evictim0Eson0Eopens0Eeyes0Dlite/story01.htm

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Anonymous calls for internet blackout to protest CISPA ? RT USA

The internet is bracing itself for a blackout in protest against CISPA on Monday, as the controversial law makes its way to the US Senate. Hacktivist group Anonymous has urged for the blackout and is now storming Twitter with calls for action.

Anonymous has been calling on all websites to blackout their pages ever since the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) passed the US House of Representatives on Thursday.

In a statement posted on Pastebin.com, the group has asked all the internet users to dedicate ?at least a portion? of their day to help in the fight against CISPA.

If signed into action, the law would allow the US government to extract private information from the internet without a warrant. It would also prevent anyone from suing companies for delivering such information.

?It?s the online equivalent of allowing a police officer to enter your home and start rummaging through your personal files without the permission of a court,? Anonymous compares.

However, the group also stressed the blackouts were necessary to attract attention, while the most important part was spreading awareness about the disputed law, and possible action against it.

The group did not mention planning any cyber-attacks to mark the protest day. Instead, it is up to the websites to decide if they?re going dark for 24 hours on Monday. So far, it has remained unclear how many websites would participate.

Over the weekend, Anonymous-linked accounts have been trying to get the hashtag #CISPABlackout to trend on Twitter, storming the social media outlet with related messages, pictures and video clips.

On January 18, 2012, the internet blackout was used by more than 7,000 websites, including Wikipedia, Reddit and Google, marking the WWW-wide protest against SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act), which were shelved indefinitely just days after the action.

Source: http://rt.com/usa/anonymous-internet-blackout-against-cispa-164/

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SMBC Nikko bets on "Abenomics", plans first new branches in 5 years

By Nathan Layne and Emi Emoto

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's SMBC Nikko Securities will expand its domestic retail branch network by more than 20 percent over the next three years as it bets that the new premier's economic policies will lift the stock market further, the head of the country's third-largest brokerage said.

Tetsuya Kubo, who became president of the brokerage arm of banking group Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc (SMFG) this month, said he wanted to open 25 new branches as part of an effort to increase retail client assets by one-third, to 30 trillion yen ($302 billion), by 2016.

The aggressive shift in strategy for SMBC Nikko, which has 109 branches and has not opened a new one in five years, could also mean tougher competition for Nomura Holdings Inc and Daiwa Securities Group Inc , Japan's two largest securities firms which have about 180 and 120 branches, respectively.

Kubo, 59, said there was a need to invest in the brokerage's retail network after years of tight cost controls under the previous owner Citigroup Inc , which sold the franchise, known as Nikko Cordial, to SMFG in 2009.

"Nikko is strong in retail but for the past several years we didn't really put resources into branches and staff," Kubo, previously chief financial officer of SMFG, told Reuters in an interview last week. His comments were embargoed for release on Monday.

"To be a winner over the long term there is a need to increase staff," Kubo said. Earlier this month, the company announced it would boost overall staffing by 600, to 8,600, under a three-year business plan.

A DIFFERENT LOOK

Kubo said he was confident that bold fiscal and monetary steps under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, aimed at pulling the economy out of deflation, would continue to push stock prices higher.

He would not be surprised, he said, if the Nikkei stock average <.n225> reached 16,000 by the end of 2013. That would be a gain of another 20 percent for the benchmark from its close on Friday at 13,316.48, after already rallying some 50 percent since Abe was tipped as a candidate for premier in mid-November.

Kubo also noted a marked increase in interest from foreign investors during the final months of his tenure as the banking group's CFO, when the aggressive economic stimulus espoused under "Abenomics" set stocks rising and the yen tumbling.

While it was normal to be called on by asset managers in charge of Japan, he also started to get requests for meetings from global managers of equity funds.

"There was a different look in their eyes. They wanted to know what was happening in Japan, what had changed," he said.

Japanese individuals, which park the bulk of their $15 trillion worth of savings in bank deposits and other low-yielding instruments, have been a particularly hard sell for Japanese stock brokers and asset managers. Memories still linger of the collapse of Japan's asset bubble two decades ago, which hit retail investors hard.

Kubo sees SMBC Nikko's ties to its parent bank, which owns 100 percent of the broker, as a key advantage over independent securities firms such as Nomura and Daiwa in tapping the renewed retail investor interest in stocks.

The brokerage has attracted 1 trillion yen in assets through referrals from SMFG bank clients since becoming part of Japan's third-largest banking group, Kubo said.

Of the 7 trillion yen increase in retail assets the brokerage is targeting over the next three years, it hopes to capture another 1 trillion yen through such referrals from SMFG, which has 10 times the number of accounts as SMBC Nikko, he said.

(Editing by Edmund Klamann)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/smbc-nikko-bets-abenomics-plans-first-branches-5-210237767--sector.html

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Photos Of The Week: April 13 - April 19

Every week, we bring you some of the most fascinating photos from around the world.

This week, we've got celebrations in Israel, a spectacular army parade in Iran and Buddhist prayers in India.

Check them out below and vote for your favorite:

• Young Buddhist monks pray for the speedy recovery of a 5-year-old girl who was raped and tortured in Delhi, in Bodhgaya, India, Saturday, April 20, 2013. Officials say the child is in serious condition after being raped and tortured by a man who held her in a locked room in India's capital for two days. Police say the girl went missing Monday and was found Wednesday by neighbors who heard her crying in a room in the same New Delhi building where she lives with her parents. (AP Photo/Manish Bhandari)

• A Bahraini masked young protester poses during clashes with riot police following a protest against the Formula One Grand Prix on April 19, 2013 in the village of Sanabis, west of Manama. ( MOHAMMED AL-SHAIKH/AFP/Getty Images)

• A village woman reacts after her house was damaged by an earthquake in Lushan county, Ya'an, southwest China's Sichuan province on Saturday, April 20, 2013. The powerful earthquake struck the steep hills of China's southwestern Sichuan province Saturday, nearly five years after a devastating quake wreaked widespread damage across the region. (AP Photo)

• A young Syrian boy holds a bag as he collects plastic and metal items in a garbage dump in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on April 17, 2013. (DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP/Getty Images)

• Taylor Richard, center, of Belmont, Mass., and Alyssa Kohler, 17, of Cambridge, Mass., wrap themselves in the American Flag in Watertown, Mass., Friday, April 19, 2013. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)

• Palestinian youth hurl rocks at Israeli soldiers during clashes following a protest against the expropriation of Palestinian land by Israel in the West Bank village of Silwad, east of Ramallah on April 19, 2013. (ABBAS MOMANI/AFP/Getty Images)

• Iranian army's special forces march during the Army Day parade in Tehran on April 18, 2013. (BEHROUZ MEHRI/AFP/Getty Images)

• In this Thursday, April 18, 2013 photo, students at the Mangyongdae Revolutionary School, in Pyongyang, North Korea sit under portraits of the late leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. The school is run by the military and school administrators say it was originally set up in 1947 for children who had lost their parents during Korea?s fight for liberation from its Japanese occupiers. (AP Photo)

• A South Korean soldier holding his machine gun runs in front of an advertisement board during an anti-terror drills at Government Complex in Sejong, south of Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, April 17, 2013. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

• Isrealis look at fireworks in the Mediterranean coastal city of Netanya, on April 15, 2013 during Israel's 65th Independence Day celebrations. Israel's first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion declared the existence of the State of Israel in Tel Aviv in 1948, ending the British mandate. (JACK GUEZ/AFP/Getty Images)

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/20/photos-of-the-week_n_3122822.html

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Final shootout, then Boston bombing suspect caught

Police stand guard outside Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Friday, April 19, 2013 after an ambulance carrying Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a19-year-old Massachusetts college student wanted in the Boston Marathon bombings, arrived. Tsarnaev is hospitalized in serious condition with unspecified injuries after he was captured in an all day manhunt. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Police stand guard outside Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Friday, April 19, 2013 after an ambulance carrying Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a19-year-old Massachusetts college student wanted in the Boston Marathon bombings, arrived. Tsarnaev is hospitalized in serious condition with unspecified injuries after he was captured in an all day manhunt. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

A police officer reacts to news of the arrest of one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects, Friday, April 19, 2013, in Boston. Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured in Watertown, Mass. The 19-year-old college student wanted in the bombings was taken into custody Friday evening after a manhunt that left the city virtually paralyzed and his older brother and accomplice dead. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

ALTERNATE CROP - This still frame from video shows Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev visible through an ambulance after he was captured in Watertown, Mass., Friday, April 19, 2013.A 19-year-old college student wanted in the Boston Marathon bombings was taken into custody Friday evening after a manhunt that left the city virtually paralyzed and his older brother and accomplice dead. (AP Photo/Robert Ray)

Joseph Eli Libby, 20, of Boston, carries a flag near a makeshift memorial on Boylston Street, near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, Friday, April 19, 2013, in Boston. Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured in Watertown, Mass. The 19-year-old college student wanted in the bombings was taken into custody Friday evening after a manhunt that left the city virtually paralyzed and his older brother and accomplice dead. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Andre Savazoni, 38, of Brazil, who participated in his second Boston Marathon this week, takes a photo of a crowd gathered at Boston Common after the final suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing was arrested, Friday, April 19, 2013, in Boston. Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured in Watertown, Mass. The 19-year-old college student wanted in the bombings was taken into custody Friday evening after a manhunt that left the city virtually paralyzed and his older brother and accomplice dead. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

WATERTOWN, Mass. (AP) ? For just a few minutes, it seemed as if the dragnet that had shut down a metropolitan area of millions while legions of police went house to house looking for the suspected Boston Marathon bomber had failed.

Weary officials lifted a daylong order that had kept residents in their homes, saying it was fruitless to keep an entire city locked down. Then one man emerged from his home and noticed blood on the pleasure boat parked in his backyard. He lifted the tarp and found the wounded 19-year-old college student known the world over as Suspect No. 2.

Soon after that, the 24-hour drama that paralyzed a city and transfixed a nation was over.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's capture touched off raucous celebrations in and around Boston, with chants of "USA, USA" as residents flooded the streets in relief and jubilation after four tense days since twin explosions ripped through the marathon's crowd at the finish line, killing three people and wounding more than 180.

The 19-year-old ? whose older brother and alleged accomplice was killed earlier Friday morning in a wild shootout in suburban Boston ? was in serious condition Saturday at a hospital protected by armed guards, and he was unable to be questioned to determine his motives. U.S. officials said a special interrogation team for high-value suspects would question him without reading him his Miranda rights, invoking a rare public safety exception triggered by the need to protect police and the public from immediate danger.

President Barack Obama said there are many unanswered questions about the Boston bombings, including whether the two men had help from others. He urged people not to rush judgment about their motivations.

Dzhokhar and his brother, 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev, were identified by authorities and relatives as ethnic Chechens from southern Russia who had been in the U.S. for about a decade and were believed to be living in Cambridge, just outside Boston. Tamerlan Tsarnaev died early in the day of gunshot wounds and a possible blast injury. He was run over by his younger brother in a car as he lay wounded, according to investigators.

During a long night of violence Thursday and into Friday, the brothers killed an MIT police officer, severely wounded another lawman during a gun battle and hurled explosives at police in a desperate getaway attempt, authorities said.

Late Friday, less than an hour after authorities lifted the lockdown, they tracked down the younger man holed up in the boat, weakened by a gunshot wound after fleeing on foot from the overnight shootout with police that left 200 spent rounds behind.

The resident who spotted Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in his boat in his Watertown yard called police, who tried to persuade the suspect to get out of the boat, said Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis.

"He was not communicative," Davis said.

Instead, he said, there was an exchange of gunfire ? the final volley of one of the biggest manhunts in American history.

The violent endgame unfolded just a day after the FBI released surveillance-camera images of two young men suspected of planting the pressure-cooker explosives at the marathon's finish line, an attack that put the nation on edge for the week.

Watertown residents who had been told Friday morning to stay inside behind locked doors poured out of their homes and lined the streets to cheer police vehicles as they rolled away from the scene.

Celebratory bells rang from a church tower. Teenagers waved American flags. Drivers honked. Every time an emergency vehicle went by, people cheered loudly.

"They finally caught the jerk," said nurse Cindy Boyle. "It was scary. It was tense."

Police said three other people were taken into custody for questioning at an off-campus housing complex at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth where the younger man may have lived.

"Tonight, our family applauds the entire law enforcement community for a job well done, and trust that our justice system will now do its job," said the family of 8-year-old Martin Richard, who died in the bombing.

Queries cascaded in after authorities released the surveillance-camera photos ? the FBI website was overwhelmed with 300,000 hits per minute ? but what role those played in the overnight clash was unclear. State police spokesman Dave Procopio said police realized they were dealing with the bombing suspects based on what the two men told a carjacking victim during their night of crime.

The search by thousands of law enforcement officers all but shut down the Boston area for much of the day. Officials halted all mass transit, including Amtrak trains to New York, advised businesses not to open and warned close to 1 million people in the city and some of its suburbs to unlock their doors only for uniformed police.

Around midday, the suspects' uncle, Ruslan Tsarni of Montgomery Village, Md., pleaded on television: "Dzhokhar, if you are alive, turn yourself in and ask for forgiveness."

Until the younger man's capture, it was looking like a grim day for police. As night fell, they announced that they were scaling back the hunt and lifting the stay-indoors order across the region because they had come up empty-handed.

But then the break came and within a couple of hours, the search was over. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured about a mile from the site of the shootout that killed his brother.

A neighbor described how heavily armed police stormed by her window not long after the lockdown was lifted ? the rapid gunfire left her huddled on the bathroom floor on top of her young son.

"I was just waiting for bullets to just start flying everywhere," Deanna Finn said.

When at last the gunfire died away and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was taken from the neighborhood in an ambulance, an officer gave Finn a cheery thumbs-up.

"To see the look on his face, he was very, very happy, so that made me very, very happy," she said.

Authorities said the man dubbed Suspect No. 1 ? the one in sunglasses and a dark baseball cap in the surveillance-camera pictures ? was Tamerlan Tsarnaev, while Suspect No. 2, the one in a white baseball cap worn backward, was his younger brother.

Chechnya, where the brothers grew up, has been the scene of two wars between Russian forces and separatists since 1994, in which tens of thousands were killed in heavy Russian bombing. That spawned an Islamic insurgency that has carried out deadly bombings in Russia and the region, although not in the West.

The older brother had strong political views about the United States, said Albrecht Ammon, 18, a downstairs-apartment neighbor in Cambridge. Ammon quoted Tsarnaev as saying that the U.S. uses the Bible as "an excuse for invading other countries."

Also, the FBI interviewed the older brother at the request of a foreign government in 2011, and nothing derogatory was found, according to a federal law enforcement official who was not authorized to discuss the case publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The official did not identify the foreign country or say why it made the request.

Exactly how the long night of crime began was unclear. But police said the brothers carjacked a man in a Mercedes-Benz in Cambridge, just across the Charles River from Boston, then released him unharmed at a gas station.

They also shot to death a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer, 26-year-old Sean Collier, while he was responding to a report of a disturbance, investigators said.

The search for the Mercedes led to a chase that ended in Watertown, where authorities said the suspects threw explosive devices from the car and exchanged gunfire with police. A transit police officer, 33-year-old Richard Donohue, was shot and critically wounded, authorities said.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev ran over his already wounded brother as he fled, according to two law enforcement officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation. At some point, he abandoned his car and ran away on foot.

The brothers had built an arsenal of pipe bombs, grenades and improvised explosive devices and used some of the weapons in trying to make their getaway, said Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., a member of the House Intelligence Committee.

Watertown resident Kayla Dipaolo said she was woken up overnight by gunfire and a large explosion that sounded "like it was right next to my head ... and shook the whole house."

"It was very scary," she said. "There are two bullet holes in the side of my house, and by the front door there is another."

Tamerlan Tsarnaev had studied accounting as a part-time student at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston for three semesters from 2006 to 2008, the school said. He was married with a young daughter.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was registered as a student at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Students said he was on campus this week after the Boston Marathon bombing. The campus closed down Friday along with colleges around the Boston area, and it remained closed Saturday as law enforcement continued investigating.

The men's father, Anzor Tsarnaev, said in a telephone interview with the AP from the Russian city of Makhachkala that his younger son, Dzhokhar, is "a true angel." He said his son was studying medicine.

"He is such an intelligent boy," the father said. "We expected him to come on holidays here."

A man who said he knew Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Krystle Campbell, the 29-year-old restaurant manager killed in Monday's bombing, said he was glad Dzhokhar had survived.

"I didn't want to lose more than one friend," Marvin Salazar said.

"Why Jahar?" he asked, using Tsarnaev's nickname. "I want to know answers. That's the most important thing. And I think I speak for almost all America. Why the Boston Marathon? Why this year? Why Jahar?"

Two years ago, the city of Cambridge awarded Dzhokhar Tsarnaev a $2,500 scholarship. At the time, he was a senior at Cambridge Rindge & Latin School, a highly regarded public school whose alumni include Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and NBA Hall of Famer Patrick Ewing.

Tsarni, the men's uncle, said the brothers traveled here together from Russia. He called his nephews "losers" and said they had struggled to settle in the U.S. and ended up "thereby just hating everyone."

___

Sullivan and Associated Press writers Stephen Braun, Jack Gillum and Pete Yost reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Mike Hill, Katie Zezima, Pat Eaton-Robb and Steve LeBlanc in Boston, Rodrique Ngowi in Watertown, Mass. and Jeff Donn in Cambridge, Mass., contributed to this report.

Associated Press

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