Apple uses piles of cash to signal its confidence

Technology giant plans largest buyback program in corporate history

Apple has found a big investor that still has faith in its future: itself.

LUCAS JACKSON/REUTERS The Apple store in Grand Central Terminal in New York. Despite a decline in profit, the company said its share repurchases were set to climb to $60 billion from the $10 billion it committed previously, the largest such plan in history.

On Tuesday, the technology giant announced that it planned to more than double its program to return cash to shareholders through stock buybacks and a higher dividend, spending $100 billion on the effort through the end of 2015. Its share repurchases alone will increase to $60 billion from the $10 billion it committed previously, the largest such plan in history, the company said.

The move to renew investors’ love affair with Apple’s stock came as the company announced its first profit decline in a decade. Apple said its net income had fallen 18 percent in its financial second quarter, as one of the most successful technology franchises in recent years, the iPhone, showed signs of slowing and other, less profitable products began to make up more of its sales.

The rarity of Apple’s profit decline, which was expected, underscores how one of the most remarkable winning streaks in business has come to an end, at least for now. Investors have battered the company’s stock for months, sending its shares down from their peak of more than $700 last year as warning signs have begun to emerge about its growth prospects.

In regular trading Tuesday, Apple shares rose nearly 2 percent to close at $406.13, but they were down more than 1 percent early on Wednesday as investors digested the quarterly earnings news and Apple’s plan to return cash to shareholders. One thing that unsettled investors is that Apple had told them to expect little to no sales growth in this quarter.

‘‘People are concerned they can’t return to growth,’’ said Walter Piecyk, an analyst at BTIG Research, an institutional brokerage firm.

One of the biggest questions facing Apple is whether it can innovate its way out of its funk by delivering a breakthrough new product, perhaps in a category like television, that rekindles growth and investors’ passion.

Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, said in a conference call with analysts that the decline in the stock price had been ‘‘very frustrating to all of us,’’ but that Apple remained strong. ‘‘Our teams are hard at work on some amazing new hardware, software and services that we can’t wait to introduce this fall and throughout 2014,’’ Mr. Cook said.

Mr. Cook even dropped a hint about ‘‘exciting new product categories’’ that Apple could enter, suggesting the company was preparing a move into a new market.

For its financial second quarter, which ended March 30, the company said that its net income had dropped 18 percent to $9.55 billion, or $10.09 a share, from $11.62 billion, or $12.30 a share, during the same period a year earlier.

Revenue rose 11 percent to $43.6 billion from $39.19 billion a year before.

Wall Street analysts expected the company to report earnings of $10.07 a share and revenue of $42.59 billion, according to the average of estimates compiled by Thomson Reuters.

Months ago, Apple sought to brace investors by warning that profit could decline about 20 percent in the quarter. At that time, Apple forecast revenue of $41 billion to $43 billion.

Sales of iPhones, the company’s biggest business, grew only 3 percent to $22.96 billion in the second quarter.

The company has warned that new products like the iPad Mini have lower profit margins than older items like its full-size iPad sibling. It is also selling more of its older model smartphones, like the iPhone 4, which have lower margins. That has stirred up worries that Apple’s efforts to cater to more budget-conscious consumers with low-price products could steadily erode its considerable profits.

Apple is widely thought to be preparing a new low-cost version of the iPhone to compete more aggressively with smartphones based on Google’s Android operating system. A cheaper device could hold special appeal in huge markets like India and China where average incomes are far lower than in the West.

Pushing into inexpensive phones could hurt Apple’s admired profit margins, though. Last year, the company garnered almost 70 percent of the profit in the mobile handset business, according to estimates by Canaccord Genuity.

Apple’s gross profit margins, one of the most closely watched measures of how profitable it is, are already declining, falling to 37.5 percent in the second quarter from 47.4 percent a year ago. This is the fourth consecutive quarter of declining gross margins at Apple, the longest stretch of such declines since 1993, according to Bill Moore, director of corporate development for Bloodhound Investment Research, a provider of online investment management tools.

Apple warned that its gross margins would probably continue to fall in the financial third quarter, dropping between 36 percent and 37 percent.

‘‘Investors would love some sense of when gross margins will stabilize, and unfortunately Apple didn’t give us that,’’ said Rob Cihra, an analyst at Evercore Partners.

As Apple’s holdings of cash and cash equivalents have swelled — the figure is now more than $140 billion — investors have clamored loudly for the company to step up its efforts to buy back shares or issue a bigger dividend.

The company said Tuesday that its board had approved a 15 percent increase in its quarterly dividend. It declared a dividend of $3.05 a common share, which will be paid to shareholders on May 16.

Apple said it planned to borrow cash as part of its plan to return cash to shareholders. Even though Apple has far more capital than it needs in its coffers, much of it is held overseas and would be subject to taxes if the company were to bring it back to the United States. Apple can also help increase its earnings per share by lowering its outstanding share count through stock purchases.

‘‘We believe so strongly that repurchasing our shares represents an attractive use of our capital that we have dedicated the vast majority of the increase in our capital return program to share repurchases,’’ Mr. Cook said in a statement.

Fake Tweet fires panic

Hackers post ‘US blast news’

WASHINGTON: Hackers backing Syria’s regime spooked US markets temporarily after they broke into the Associated Press’s Twitter account and falsely reported President Barack Obama had been injured in two blasts at the White House.

A brief alert on the news agency’s AP account yesterday read: ‘‘Breaking: Two explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured.’’

Almost immediately the wire service posted via its corporate communications feed that its AP Twitter account had been hacked, before promptly suspending the service.

‘‘ Advisory: AP Twitter account has been hacked. Tweet about an attack at the White House is false. We will advise more as soon as possible,’’ AP – CorpComm posted.

AP spokesman Paul Colford later said the wire service had disabled other Twitter accounts following the attack and was working with the micro-blogging site to investigate the breach.

The FBI also said it was investigating the incident. White House spokesman Jay Carney said: ‘‘I can say that the president is fine. I was just with him.’’

Stock markets plunged just as the report came out, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average losing 130 points, or 0.9 per cent, and the S&P 500 dropping 12 points, or 0.8 per cent. Just as quickly they rebounded to where they were before the tweet, all within three or four minutes.

Online activists backing the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad claimed responsibility for the hack.

The group — the so-called Syrian Electronic Army — hacked the Twitter feeds of high- profile news organisations AFP and CBS News earlier this year.

WITNESS MUST REMOVE NIQAB

TORON TO • A Muslim woman must remove her niqab before testifying against two men accused of sexually assaulting her three decades ago, an Ontario judge ruled Wednesday.

The landmark decision by Justice Norris Weisman comes after years of legal wrangling, pitting the accused’s right to a fair trial against the complainant’s freedom of religion. how to download from youtube color codes The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, where a split decision effectively sent it back to the lower court.

While Judge Weisman wrestled with the implications of making the woman — who can be identified only as N.S. — choose between her religious convictions and her desire to seek justice, he ultimately gave greater weight to the potential negative consequences for the accused.

“On a broader societal level, should the niqab impede effective cross-examination of the complainant by the accused’s counsel, they will not be able to assess the witness’s demeanour and tailor the thrust and direction of their questions accordingly,” Judge Weisman noted in his ruling. “Wrongful convictions could ensue with resulting loss of public confidence in the justice system.”

Lawyer David Butt, who represents N.S., confirmed his client would appeal, saying the decision sets a poor precedent.

“It risks sending the message that people who have how to download from youtube color codes  certain religious beliefs and practices are excluded from the justice system,” Mr. Butt said in an interview. “That’s the wrong message to send.” Muslim Canadian Congress president Salma Siddiqui, meanwhile, said it was “about time” for such a milestone ruling.

“The fact is the niqab has created a lot of issues, and it’s not a religious requirement… There’s no need for it in Canada,” Ms. Siddiqui said, calling the decision “a great victory for freedom and liberty.”

The case dates back to the mid-1980s, when N.S., now 37, alleges the two accused sexually abused her over a fiveyear period, starting when she was just six years old. The preliminary hearing is scheduled to commence next week.

In coming to his decision, Judge Weisman accepted that the complainant’s wish to wear the niqab was based on a “sincere religious belief ”; she had been wearing the garment for the past decade, he noted, in an effort to avoid creating a sexualized atmosphere around men who were not her relatives.

“N.S. asserts that testifying without her niqab would be a jarring, overwhelming negative experience… On a broader societal level, there is the risk that victims of sexual offences with religious beliefs similar to those of N.S. may be reluctant to report transgressions and turn to the justice system to redress their grievances,” Judge Weisman wrote.

But on the flip side, he noted, the ability how to download from youtube color codes to see the face of a witness remains “an important feature of a fair trial” — particularly with the two accused facing lengthy terms of incarceration if convicted. Allowing N.S. to cover her face with a niqab would create a “real and substantial risk” to the accused’s Charter rights, the judge found.

“She is the key witness in the Crown’s case,” Judge Weisman wrote. “Her credibility is very much in issue and unfortunately, no accommodation of the parties’ conflicting Charter rights is possible.”

Marathon bombing suspect influenced by mysterious radical

WASHINGTON—In the years before the Boston Marathon bombings, Tamerlan Tsarnaev fell under the influence of a new friend, a Muslim convert who steered the religiously apathetic young man toward a strict strain of Islam, family members said.

Under the tutelage of a friend known to the Tsarnaev family only as Misha, Tamerlan gave up boxing and stopped studying music, his family said. He began opposing the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He turned to websites and literature claiming that the CIA was behind the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and Jews controlled the world.

“Somehow, he just took his brain,” said Tamerlan’s uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, who recalled conversations with Tamerlan’s worried father about Misha’s influence. Efforts over several days by The Associated Press to identify and interview Misha have been unsuccessful.

Tamerlan’s relationship with Misha could be a clue in understanding the motives behind his religious transformation and, ultimately, the attack itself. Two US officials say he had no tie to terrorist groups.

Throughout his religious makeover, Tamerlan maintained a strong influence over his siblings, including Dzhokhar, who investigators say carried out the deadly attack by his older brother’s side, killing three and injuring 264 people.

“They all loved Tamerlan. He was the eldest one and he, in many ways, was the role model for his sisters and his brother,” said Elmirza Khozhugov, 26, the ex-husband of Tamerlan’s sister, Ailina. “You could always hear his younger brother and sisters say, ‘Tamerlan said this,’ and ‘Tamerlan said that.’ Dzhokhar loved him. He would do whatever Tamerlan would say.

Khozhugov said he was close to Tamerlan when he was married and they kept in touch for a while but drifted apart in the past two years or so. He spoke to the AP from his home in Almaty, Kazakhstan. A family member in the United States provided the contact information.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in a police shootout Friday. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was charged Monday with using a weapon of mass destruction to kill, and he could face the death penalty if convicted.

Based on preliminary written interviews with Dzhokar in his hospital bed, US officials believe the brothers were motivated by their religious views. It has not been clear, however, what those views were.

Death penalty threat for Boston bombing suspect

Tsarnaev charged at bedside with using weapon of mass destruction

The teenage suspect in the Boston bombings faces a possible death penalty after he was charged at his hospital bed yesterday with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction in an attack that horrified America and caused the deaths of three people and injured nearly 200.


The charges were announced a week after the two devices were detonated close to the finish line of the Boston Marathon.

A magistrate judge read the charges to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, the younger of two brothers suspected in the bombing, as he lay seriously injured with gunshot wounds to his head, neck, legs and hand at Beth Israel Deaconess hospital in Boston. His brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died in a gun battle with police after a chase through the streets of the city.

“Although our investigation is ongoing, today’s charges bring a successful end to a tragic week for the city of Boston and for our country,” said the attorney general, Eric Holder.

The US attorney for Massachusetts, Carmen Oritz, said the impact of the crimes had been “far-reaching, affecting a worldwide community that is looking for peace and justice”.

The charges, revealed in the US district court in Massachusetts, include one count of using and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction – an improvised explosive device or improvised explosive device – against persons and property within the United States resulting in death, and one count of malicious destruction of property by means of an explosive device, resulting in death.

“The statutory charges authorise a penalty, upon conviction, of death or imprisonment for life or any term of years,” the US justice department said.

According to the criminal complaint, which refers to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as Bomber Two, video footage shows him stopping in front of the Forum restaurant and dropping his backpack to the ground. He then is seen to use his mobile phone, finishing the call just seconds before the first explosion.

“Virtually every head turns to the east (towards the finish line) and stares in that direction in apparent bewilderment and alarm,” the complaint says. “Bomber Two, virtually alone among the individuals in front of the restaurant, appears calm.”

Tsarnaev, according to the complaint, then moved rapidly to the west. Ten seconds later, the second blast occurred at the spot where he left his bag. “I can discern nothing in that location in the period before the explosion might have caused that explosion, other than Bomber Two’s knapsack,” wrote Daniel Genck, the FBI special agent in whose name the complaint is filed.

Dzhokhar, a naturalised US citizen and resident of Cambridge, Massachusetts, escaped authorities on Thursday after the shootout that left his elder brother dead. He was captured in a boat on Friday evening after a lockdown in the city.

The complaint offers chilling new details of the carjacking that began Thursday night’s dramatic chase and shootout. The victim, who is not named in the complaint, said that when one of the suspects got into his car, he pointed a gun and said: “Did you hear about the Boston explosion? ... I did that.” He then removed the magazine from the gun to show the victim there was a bullet in it, adding: “I am serious.”

Shortly before the charges were announced, the White House said Tsarnaev would be tried in the US civilian court system, despite pressure from Republicans for him to be treated as an enemy combatant in the “war on terror”. White House spokesman Jay Carney said: “We have a long history here of successfully prosecuting terrorists and bringing them to justice and the president fully believes that the process will work in this case.”

Carney said the decision was taken by Holder and supported by Barack Obama’s national security advisers. “We had no choice under the law,” said Carney. “He is a US citizen.”

The Tsarnaevs’ father, Anzor Tsarnaev, has said he will fly from Russia to the US to seek “justice and the truth”. His wife, Zubeida Tsarnaeva, told journalists yesterday that the family would try to bring Tamerlan’s body back to Russia.

In addition to the federal charges, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is likely to face state charges in connection with the fatal shooting of Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier.

In Massachusetts yesterday, Governor Deval Patrick asked residents to observe a moment of silence at 2.50pm, the time the first of the two bombs exploded.

The first funeral of a victim took place yesterday. Krystle Campbell, a 29-year-old restaurant worker, was one of three killed in the explosions. A memorial service was due to be held last night at Boston University for 23-year-old Lu Lingzi, a graduate student from China, who also died. Two very disparate commentators, Ali Abunimah and Alan Dershowitz, have raised serious questions about a claim that has been made over and over about the Boston bombing – namely, that this was an act of terrorism. Dershowitz, citing the lack of knowledge about motive, said: “It’s not even clear under the federal terrorist statutes that it qualifies as an act of terrorism.” Abunimah questioned whether the bombing fits the US government’s definition of terrorism, noting that “no evidence has emerged that the suspects acted ‘in furtherance of political or social objectives’” or that their alleged act was “intended to influence or instigate a course of action that furthers a political or social goal”.

Over the last two years, the US has witnessed at least three other episodes of mass, indiscriminate violence: the Tuscon shooting by Jared Loughner in which 19 people were shot, six of whom died; the Aurora shooting by James Holmes in which 70 people were shot, 12 of whom died; and the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting by Adam Lanza in which 26 people (20 of whom were children) were killed. The word “terrorism” was almost never used in those cases, and none of the perpetrators was charged with terror-related crimes.

In the Boston case, however, the opposite dynamic prevails. Particularly since the identity of the suspects was revealed, the word “terrorism” is being used by virtually everyone, including Obama, who initially refrained from using it. But as Abunimah notes, there is no evidence that either suspect was involved with any designated terrorist organisation.

More significantly, there is no known evidence about their motives. All we really know is that they identified as Muslim, and that the older brother allegedly watched extremist YouTube videos and was suspected by the Russians of religious extremism ( by contrast, virtually everyone who knew the younger brother has said that he never evinced extremism).

It’s possible that it will turn out that, if they are guilty, their motive was political or religious. But it’s also possible that it wasn’t: that it was some combination of mental illness, alienation, or other forms of apolitical instability and rage.

My players attitude has handed United the title, says Mancini

Roberto Mancini has questioned the attitude of his Manchester City players, wondering whether it has been the equal of their Manchester United counterparts as his club prepared to hand over the Premier League title to their cross-town rivals.

John Sibley/action Images
Gareth Bale bisects Joe Hart’s outstretched arms to score Tottenham’s third goal of an extraordinary second-half comeback

City’s 3-1 defeat at White Hart Lane by a Tottenham Hotspur team that made a dramatic statement about their Champions League credentials meant that United will secure their 20th league championship with a home win over Aston Villa tonight.

Mancini was as bewildered as many others in north London yesterday afternoon as City failed to build on an early lead and then surrendered a position of comfort in the closing stages. Inspired by Gareth Bale and three highly effective substitutions by André Villas-Boas, Tottenham scored three goals in seven minutes to reignite a top-four dream that appeared to have faded.

As Villas-Boas looked ahead to Tottenham’s final five matches, with the decisive one to come at Chelsea, Mancini was left to reflect on his players’ desire, which he suggested had to be the problem as there was nothing to choose between them and United in technical terms.

“We don’t have a gap [to United],” said Mancini, the City manager. “The last two or three years … every time we have played United, we have played better, also when we have lost the game. We lost in the last minute [earlier in the season]. Last year we beat them easily. The reason there is a gap like today [in the league] … probably there is more attitude, they wanted. They started the season and they wanted to win after last year. There are many reasons why we lose but I repeat, they deserve to win it.”

Mancini was asked whether he thought City had handed United the title. “Sometimes we probably did,” he replied. “I think the 13- or 15-point gap is not reality for this championship. They are not a better team but they deserve to win this title because we lost a lot of points in games we probably didn’t deserve to lose. United won a lot of games in a row with goals and they deserve to win the title.

“The race was finished three or four weeks ago. Will I watch the Villa game? If I am at home, why not? It will mean nothing to us. We wanted to win this championship. What can we do? We can maybe say only congratulations to them. When you win, you deserve to win it. You always need a bit of luck in football. It is like life. But they did not win by luck. They had a better attitude because they lost last year.”

Mancini appeared to revisit an old grievance when he spoke of United buying “some new players in the summer and they scored a lot of goals.” He had been determined to sign the striker Robin Van Persie from Arsenal, only for the Dutchman to join United and deliver 21 league goals so far this season.

“I’m not happy because I like to win the championship,” Mancini added. “This was our target. I’m not happy with the season because I want always the maximum. But we have another chance to win the FA Cup and I think the FA Cup is important. And we can be in second position. If that is not good enough, then every manager should be sacked.” It was a turn- around so startling as to seem faintly ridiculous. For 75 minutes Tottenham Hotspur huffed and puffed, Gareth Bale was anonymous and the club’s Champions League dream looked ready to absorb a body blow. Manchester City’s first-half superiority had been total and they were comfortable after the interval. Vincent Kompany, the captain, had been imposing to the point of frightening.

But in seven crazy, impossible-to-foresee minutes Tottenham revived spectacularly and City were left to consider that their grip on the Premier League title might not last beyond Manchester United’s home fixture against Aston Villa tonight.

In the battle to make sense of it all, André Villas-Boas emerged with credit. Each of the Tottenham manager’s three substitutes played a part, while the switch to a 4-3-3 formation allowed his team to chisel out a foothold, which grew into something glorious.

It would be remiss to overlook the contribution of the goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, whose first-half saves to deny Edin Dzeko and the outstanding Carlos Tevez allowed Tottenham to cling on. But, as so often, the headline-hogger was Gareth Bale.

Back after a two-week injury absence that had seemed rather longer, he had been peripheral in his starting position behind the striker and, again, for the majority of the second half, for which he was moved to the right flank. But everything changed when he sculpted a low cross with the outside of his left boot and, with Kompany inexplicably freezing, Clint Dempsey tapped home the equaliser.

Tottenham felt belief course through their bodies and they located the jugular when one substitute, Lewis Holtby, found another, Jermain Defoe. Confronted by Kompany, whose sudden vulnerability reflected that of his team, the striker jinked inside and unfurled a curler to the far corner for his first club goal of the year. Nobody could quibble about the timing.

The stadium dissolved into frenzy but there was more to come and, inevitably, it came from Bale. Villas-Boas’s other substitute, Tom Huddlestone, released him and he exploded clear of the City back-line before slowing down to craft a clipped finish over Joe Hart.

City had contributed fully to the spectacle but, in keeping with the theme of their title defence, they were left with regrets. In the 90th minute the manager, Roberto Mancini, withdrew the left-back Gaël Clichy and introduced the centre-half Joleon Lescott as a centre-forward but the bamboozlement had already occurred.

For so long it had looked certain to end differently. Mancini’s intent had been plain from the way he lined up his team, with Tevez deployed close to Dzeko and menace across the midfield. City put down the early marker. There appeared little on as Tevez scuttled to win the ball and hold it up by the corner flag, with Jan Vertonghen at his back. But he worked a little room, turned and slipped a pass inside Scott Parker for the on rushing James Milner. His pull-back invited Nasri to volley into the corner of the net.

City’s form has come too late for their title defence but they have regularly been good to watch in recent weeks and there was a lot to like about their game in the first half. Tevez was relentless, epitomising the team’s work ethic, and he dovetailed seamlessly with Dzeko, who scored four times in this fixture last season.

Nasri was elusive in a good way, although his studs-up, over-the-ball connection with Kyle Walker’s shin in the eighth minute was an ugly moment. The only conclusion to draw about the lack of censure was that the referee, Lee Mason, cannot have seen it. On another day he could have been sent off.

The game might have been over at the interval. Pablo Zabaleta and Tevez combined to release Nasri and, as white shirts converged, he poked narrowly wide of the far post while Lloris proved once again why he has been such an important addition to the Tottenham squad. After Tevez had set Dzeko in between Michael Dawson and Vertonghen, the goalkeeper flung out his right hand to block and then, from Tevez’s header, his reflexes were first-rate.

Tottenham had first- half flickers. Dempsey weighted a pass inside Nasri for Walker but Hart left his line quickly – the full-back’s shot flew off him – while Dempsey directed a free header over the crossbar from a corner in the 44th minute.

The second half had seemed seismic at the outset for Tottenham. If they were to make a statement regarding their Champions League aspirations, it surely needed to come here. But as City pressed and stifled, and Villas-Boas’ players appeared to have few options in possession, it was easy to see the game drifting from them. Where was the inspiration coming from?

The answer was obvious. Bale refused to be suppressed and, if his assist for Dempsey was the spark, the marvellous finish for his 23rd goal of the club season was the clinching moment. Spurs will approach their final matches with renewed vigour. They are back in business. Man of the match Gareth Bale (Tottenham Hotspur)

Suspects had ‘capacity and intent,’ police say 8

toron to • An al-Qaeda-linked plot to derail a VIA Rail passenger train on the New York-to-Toronto route was disrupted by police Monday, when two foreign nationals were arrested following an eight-month counter-terrorism investigation that was aided by members of Canada’s Muslim community.

Police investigate the home of terror suspect Raed Jaser at 359 Cherokee Street in Toronto Monday. Jaser was charged in a plot to attack a Via Rail train.

Chiheb Esseghaier, a 30-year-old Tunisian living in Montreal on a student visa, and Raed Jaser, 35, a Palestinian with landed immigrant status who lives in Toronto, were to appear in a downtown Toronto courtroom Tuesday to face charges of conspiracy to commit murder in association with a terrorist group.

The attackers had allegedly received what police called “direction and guidance” from the core of al-Qaeda, operating out of Iran, where some members of Osama bin Laden’s terrorist group have operated since fleeing Afghanistan. There was no evidence the plot was sponsored by the Iranian regime. The RCMP said the plot was in the planning stages but not imminent.

“Had this plot been carried out, it would have resulted in innocent people being killed or seriously injured,” RCMP Assistant Commissioner James Malizia told reporters. Together with the FBI, Canadian police and security agencies had thwarted the plot “early and effectively,” he said.

Following the arrests, imams and Muslim community leaders from across Toronto were summoned by phone and email to a 2:30 p.m. briefing with RCMP officers. Those who attended said after they were told of the arrests, some participants had raised concerns about the potential backlash against Canadian Muslims.

At 3:20 p.m., one of the suspects arrived at Buttonville Municipal Airport north of Toronto. Wearing jeans, a windbreaker and sneakers, he emerged from a plane in handcuffs and shackles, escorted by an officer. He was then bundled into a black Chevy Suburban with tinted windows and whisked from the tarmac. Meanwhile, police were searching a house in northeast Toronto. A neighbour said police had arrived at about 1 p.m. to search a basement apartment, where a couple with no children had been living for about a year. Another neighbour said Mr. Jaser regularly worked out in the backyard with four or five other men who wore traditional Muslim clothing.

According to sources close to the investigation, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service had initially developed concerns about the pair. A member of the Toronto Muslim community later came forward, alarmed by the extremist rhetoric one of them was spouting.

“This is something that I hope all Canadians understand, that the Muslim community in Canada is a partner in making Canada more safe and secure, and this arrest, but for the cooperation of the Muslim community, would not have happened,” said Hussein Hamdani of North American Spiritual Revival, who attended the police briefing.

The suspects had allegedly scouted possible places along the VIA Rail tracks to derail a train arriving from New York, trying to select a site that would cause maximum civilian casualties. While the pair had allegedly considered bombing the train tracks, they had also looked into simpler methods of derailing the train.

“I want to reassure our citizens that while the RCMP believed the accused had the capacity and intent to carry out these criminal acts, there was no imminent threat to the general public, rail employees, train passengers or infrastructure,” the RCMP assistant commissioner said.

The targeting of a train coming into Toronto from New York would fit al-Qaeda’s mission to attack the United States at weak points, although the passengers would have certainly also included many Canadians and citizens of other countries. Al-Qaeda has repeatedly targeted mass transit in an attempt to induct terror by killing large numbers of civilians.

The involvement of the core of al-Qaeda, if proven, would be unusual. The terror group has suffered significant losses since the 9/11 attacks and intelligence officials have been reporting that the major terrorist threat had shifted to regional al-Qaeda affiliates. Michael Peirce, the CSIS Assistant Director of Intelligence, testified last month that groups like Al Shabab in Somalia, the North African-based al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen were the new “sites of power and sites of activity” for al-Qaeda.

‘Criminal Code is not a holy book,’ suspect says

TORON TO • As a man with possible ties to two terror suspects in Canada was being held in New York, the Tunisian who allegedly sparked the investigation told a judge that criminal law was “imperfect” because it was not derived from a holy book.

Despite being warned by the Ontario court judge to watch what he said, Chiheb Esseghaier, a 30-year-old Montreal doctoral student, insisted on making a statement in which he referred to the Criminal Code as a “creation” that could not be relied upon.

It was the second time Mr. Esseghaier had spoken out during his preliminary court appearances. His comment came after the judge had asked if he understood the charges against him and ordered his detention.

“I have just one comment,” he said, after speaking with his lawyer. “First of all, my comment is the following because all of those conclusions was taken out based on Criminal Code and all of us we know that this Criminal Code is not holy book, it’s just written by set of creations,” he said.

“And the creations, they’re not perfect because only the creator is perfect, so if we are basing our judgment … we cannot rely on the conclusions taken out from these judgments.” Meanwhile, a U.S. official confirmed a related case was expected to be dealt with in the Southern District of New York, which prosecutes cases within Manhattan and the Bronx, as well as six other New York counties. Officials with the FBI’s New York office, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Attorney’s office declined to comment on the case.

No new details about the alleged plot to derail a VIA Rail passenger train were released during Mr. Esseghaier’s court appearance, but according to a source familiar with the case, the Tunisian was the initial focus of the investigation that eventually became Project Smooth.

A student of bionanotechnology, Mr. Esseghaier came to Canada in 2008 on a student visa, according to several sources. He became a permanent resident of Canada sometime in the last year through Quebec’s skilled worker program.

After meeting Raed Jaser, a Toronto resident of Palestinian heritage who had adopted what one Muslim leader called “rigid” Islamic views, the pair allegedly began plotting a terrorist attack near Toronto.

By the time a Toronto imam came forward last year to raise concerns about Mr. Jaser’s extremist rhetoric, authorities were already aware of both men. The RCMP said it launched Project Smooth in August.

The suspects allegedly scouted the rail line used by passenger trains travelling from New York to Toronto, looking for a suitable location to sabotage the tracks. They had allegedly considered explosives but also simpler methods for derailing the train.

The RCMP said the plot was in the planning stages but not imminent. The charge sheet shows the alleged conspiracy took place between April 1 and Sept. 25, 2012. Mr. Esseghaier has also been charged with instructing an unnamed person to carry out activity for the benefit of a terrorist group between Sept. 7 and Dec. 20, 2012.

The plot was “al-Qaedasupported” and the attackers had received “direction and guidance” from al-Qaeda in Iran, the RCMP said. While the Iranian regime is a major state sponsor of terrorism, police said there was no indication Tehran was behind the Toronto plot.

REESE: I HAD ONE DRINK TOO MANY

Reese Witherspoon apologises after she’s handcuffed in drunken row with police

OSCAR- winning actress Reese Witherspoon today apologised to police and said she was “deeply embarrassed” after being arrested for disorderly conduct.
“Embarrassed”: police mugshots of Reese Witherspoon and her husband Jim Toth and, left, the couple leaving their New York hotel. Far left, the star at the Mud premiere the day after her arrest and, inset, in hit movie Legally Blonde

The Legally Blonde star admitted she was drunk and had been “disrespectful” to an officer who stopped her husband Jim Toth on suspicion of drink-driving in the US city of Atlanta, Georgia.

Mother- of-three Witherspoon, 37, reportedly said: “Do you know who I am?” to the police officer and repeatedly disobeyed orders to stay in the car before being handcuffed and arrested. She and Toth were briefly jailed before being released on bail in the early hours of Saturday morning. Toth, 42, has been charged with driving under the influence and Witherspoon is facing a charge of di s orderly conduct.

After flying to New York to attend last night’s premiere of her new film Mud, the actress released a statement saying: “Out of respect for the ongoing legal situation, I cannot comment on everything that is being reported right now. But I do want to say, I clearly had one drink too many and I am deeply embarrassed about the things I said. “It was definitely a scary situation and I was frightened for my husband, but that is no excuse. I was disrespectful to the officer who was just doing his job. I have nothing but respect for the police and I’m very sorry for my behaviour.” The normally squeakyclean star’s arrest has stunned Hollywood. Her police mugshot has been released in which she is seen looking down and smirking while her agent husband looks glassy-eyed.

Toth was pulled over shortly after midnight on Friday in a silver Ford Focus for allegedly swerving across the yellow lines in the middle of the road in Atlanta, where he and Witherspoon are living while she shoots another film, The Good Lie.

Police said she became increasingly agitated after being told to wait in the car while he was given a breath test.

The arresting officer said she leaned out of the window and said she did not believe he was a real policeman. He added: “I told Mrs Witherspoon to sit on her butt and be quiet.” But she got out and “I put my hands on Mrs Witherspoon’s arms to arrest her. Mrs Witherspoon was resistant but I was able to put handcuffs on her without incident due to Mr Toth calming her down.”

A court hearing was being held later today in Atlanta, although the couple are not expected to attend. She shot to fame in Legally Blonde and won the 2005 best actress Oscar as country star June Carter Cash in Walk The Line.

Chechen refugees built lives in U.S.

With their baseball hats and sauntering gaits, they appeared to friends and neighbors like ordinary American boys. But the Boston bombing suspects were refugees from another world — the blood, rubble and dirty wars of the Russian Caucasus.

ANNE REARICK /AGENCE VU Tamerlan Tsarnaev. seen in 2006, began boxing once in the United States. By 2009, he was in the National Golden Gloves tournament.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was a southpaw heavyweight boxer who represented New England in the National Golden Gloves and talked about competing on behalf of the United States. His tangle-haired 19-year-old brother, On Friday night, police apprehended Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, a suspect in the Boston bombings. Dzhokhar, was a skateboarder who listened to rap and seemed easygoing to other kids in his Cambridge, Mass., neighborhood.

Tamerlan is now dead, killed in a shootout with police. Police said Friday night they had taken Dzhokhar into custody after he was cornered in a boat stored in a back yard in Watertown, Mass., after a massive manhunt. Hidden behind the lives they had been leading in Massachusetts is a biography containing old resentments that appear to have mutated into radical Islamic violence.

The brothers who are alleged to have planted bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday reached the United States in 2002 after their ethnic Chechen family fled the Caucasus. They had been living in the Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan and were prevented from resettling in war-racked Chechnya.

In speaking about his boxing career in 2009, Tamerlan told a photographer that in the absence of an independent Chechnya he would rather compete for the United States than for Russia, a hint that past troubles were not forgotten. He appeared increasingly drawn to radical Islam. On a YouTube channel, he recently shared videos of lectures from a radical Islamic cleric; in one, voices can be heard singing in Arabic as bombs explode.

“My son Tamerlan got involved in religious politics five years ago,” his mother, Zubeidat K. Tsarnaeva, told Russia Today television in an interview from Dagestan, the Russian republic bordering Chechnya where she and her husband live. “He started following his own religious aspects. He never, never told me he would be on the side of jihad.”

FBI officials confirmed Friday that they questioned Tamerlan in 2011 at the request of the Russian government about possible connections to Chechen extremists. He was interviewed by the FBI in Boston, and the investigation found “no derogatory information.”

His younger brother, who was widely known as “Jahar,” may have followed in his footsteps. “He talked about his brother in good ways,” said Pamala Rolon, who was the residential adviser in the dorm where Dzhokhar lived at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. “I could tell he looked up to his brother.”

Although terrorists from the Caucasus have struck in Moscow and other parts of Russia, the conflict in the region has never led to attacks in other countries. One possible explanation for the Boston bombings, said Aslan Doukaev, an expert on the Caucasus who works for Radio Liberty in Prague, is that the brothers were motivated by radical jihadism, not Chechen separatism.

As the war in Chechnya wound down after Russian forces withdrew — they left formally in 2009 — violence has spilled into neighboring republics such as Dagestan, where the Tsarnaev family once found shelter and where the brothers’ parents now live. That conflict is increasingly marked by radical Islamic terrorism in an often vicious cycle of attack and reprisal between insurgents and Russian security forces. Tamerlan visited Dagestan last year, according to an official with knowledge of his travels.

Speaking to journalists in Dagestan on Friday, the brothers’ father, Anzor Tsarnaev, said his sons never had any interest in weapons. “I believe my children were set up,” he said.

Ramzan Kadyrov, the Chechen leader, said in a statement that attempts “to draw a parallel between Chechnya and the Tsarnaevs, if they are guilty, are futile. They grew up in the U.S., and their views and beliefs were formed there. The roots of the evil should be looked for in America.”

When the brothers were young, the family lived in Kyrgyzstan, a former republic of the Soviet Union in Central Asia, home to a small Chechen diaspora. Dzhokhar, the younger brother, was reportedly born there, although his older brother was born in Russia, according to some news reports.

The family lived in Tokmok, a town of about 55,000 people in northern Kyrgyzstan, near the border with Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz National State Security Committee said in a statement Friday. Kyrgyz officials said the family left the country about 12 years ago for Dagestan, and after a year there immigrated to the United States.

Anzor Tsarnaev and his wife arrived in the United States in early 2002 after gaining refugee status. Their two sons and two daughters followed a short time later with an aunt.

The father worked as an auto mechanic. Jerry Siegel, owner of Webster’s Auto Body, in Somerville, Mass., said that the elder Tsarnaev worked for him for about 18 months and that he was an excellent mechanic who spoke very little English.

“He was just a hard-working, strong, tough guy,” Siegel said. “He would get under a car in the middle of winter, did whatever I asked.”

Siegel said Anzor left about four years ago for another mechanic’s job. Sometime after that, Anzor got sick and returned to Russia, according to other officials.

His wife is registered as a cosmetologist. If she returns to the United States, she is facing a criminal trial in Natick, Mass., after police said they arrested her last year trying to steal up to nine women’s dresses from a Lord & Taylor store at a local mall.

Tamerlan studied accounting at Bunker Hill Community College for three semesters as a part-time student between the fall of 2006 and the fall of 2008, according to Patricia Brady, a college spokeswoman.

When Tamerlan dropped out of school, his father was “desperate,” according to Anzor’s sister, Maret.

“The father had very high expectations for his son,” she said at a news conference in Toronto.

Tamerlan began boxing shortly after arriving in the United States. He registered with USA Boxing, the governing body for Olympic-style boxing, as early as 2003 and steadily rose through the ranks. By 2009, he reached the national Golden Gloves tournament in Salt Lake City, where he lost in a threeround decision bout with a boxer from Chicago.

Colleagues all described him as athletic and aggressive. “He was tall, taller than most of the guys, and tough,” said Paul Barry, vice president of the New England Boxing Association in Worcester, Mass., who once judged one of Tamerlan’s bouts.

Tamerlan was arrested in 2009 and charged with domestic assault and battery after allegedly assaulting his girlfriend, according to Spotcrime.com, an online source of crime information.

Tamerlan was married to Katherine Russell, 23, and the couple had a baby daughter, according to neighbors. They met while Katherine was studying at a college in Boston and recently spent considerable time at her childhood home in North Kingstown, R.I., according to neighbors.

Russell’s family gave a typewritten statement to reporters at their home Friday evening that read in part: “We cannot begin to comprehend how this horrible tragedy occurred. In the aftermath of the Patriot’s Day horror, we know that we never really knew Tamerlane [sic] Tsarnaev.” Her mother, Judith Russell, declined to comment further.

In 2011, Dzhokhar graduated high school, where he was the captain of the wrestling team, and went on to study at the University of Massachusetts. He hoped to become a dentist.

Dzhokhar was an avid skateboarder, and the night before the Monday bombings he cruised down Norfolk Street toward the house where his family has lived, said Caprice Ruff, 18, a grocery store cashier who lives about five houses away, across the street, on the same block in Cambridge.

She and family members were on their porch, and one called out a greeting and complimented him on his skateboard about 10:30 p.m., Ruff recalled. He answered something like, “Yeah, thanks,” she said.

Ruslan Tsarni, an uncle of the suspected bombers, said he is ashamed of them and earlier Friday urged Dzhokhar to turn himself in and beg forgiveness from the bombing victims. Asked what provoked his nephews, he replied: “Being losers — hatred to those who were able to settle themselves.”

“We are ethnic Chechens,” he told reporters outside his house in Montgomery Village. “Somebody radicalized them, but it was not my brother. . . . Of course, we are ashamed. They are the children of my brother, who has little influence [over] them.”

"THE SUSPECT IS RIGHT THERE"

An unprecedented manhunt that brought an entire city to a standstill Friday ended after nightfall as police cornered and took into custody the remaining suspect in Monday’s Boston Marathon bombing.

DARREN MCCOLLESTER / GETTY IMAGES An officer removes a child from an area where a suspect was hiding in Watertown, Mass. One area resident said he saw two young men engaged in “constant gunfire” with police.

Just an hour after authorities said 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had escaped their grasp after an early-morning firefight in the Boston suburb of Watertown, more gunfire rang out.

With a helicopter hovering overhead, dozens of police cars sped to residential Franklin Street, where the suspect was found hiding in a boat in the backyard of a house. A man had noticed blood on the boat, lifted up a tarp covering it and noticed a bloodied man inside. Officers and FBI agents responding to the resident’s 911 call and surrounded the boat. There were reports of police using a “flash-bang” device to stun him and at one stage an exchange of gunfire. After a standoff of more than an hour, Boston police tweeted at 8:46 p.m. they had a suspect in custody.

“The hunt is over. The search is done. The terror is over,” the Boston Police Department tweeted.

Police said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had serious injuries believed to have been sustained early Friday morning during a firefight that saw his brother, Tamerlan, killed.

As news of the capture spread, a crowd that had gathered on a central Watertown street corner broke into applause. They continued to cheer as convoys of police cruisers sped down the street.

Josh Silva said he travelled to Watertown from South Boston to show the city would not be cowed by terrorists. “It’s about a call of duty in Boston,” he said. “Some of our own have been hurt, and we answer the call.”

As police moved in on Mr. Tsarnaev, they ordered Keyur and Ankita Patel into their apartment a few blocks from where he was captured, where they watched the activity through the slits of their venetian blinds.

“My heart is pounding right now,” Ms. Patel said. “The suspect is right there and the gunshots could come from anywhere,” Mr. Patel said.

Although there had been fears he was armed with explosives, the suspect was taken alive and transported to a hospital.

The streets of Watertown, a middleclass community along the banks of the Charles River, were filled with police and armoured vehicles for much of the day as 20 city blocks were swept in search of the suspect.

The manhunt for America’s most wanted suspect began after 10 p.m. Thursday when two men robbed a 7-Eleven convenience store in Cambridge, Boston. Police initially said the two bombing suspects were responsible for the robbery, but later said they were checking that.

About 10:30 p.m., police received reports that Sean Collier, a campus security officer at MIT, had been shot while he sat in his police cruiser. He was found with multiple gunshot wounds, according to police. The officer was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Police later called it “an assassination.”

A short time later, police received reports of an armed carjacking of a Mercedes SUV in Cambridge.

“The victim was carjacked at gunpoint by two males and was kept in the car with the suspects for approximately a half-hour,” the statement said.

He was later released, uninjured, at a gas station in Cambridge.

The carjacking victim said the brothers told him they were responsible for the bombing of the Boston Marathon.

Police began to search for the vehicle and pursued it into Watertown. During the chase improvised explosive devices were thrown from the car.

During that exchange, a transit police officer, Richard Donohue, was shot and critically wounded.

Then, about 1 a.m. Friday there was a dramatic shoot-out.

A Watertown resident, Andrew Kitzenberg, 29, said he looked out his third-floor window to see two young men of slight build engaged in “constant gunfire” with police officers. A police SUV “drove towards the shooters,” he said, and was shot at. It rolled out of control, Mr. Kitzenberg said, and crashed into two cars in his driveway.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev got out of the Mercedes and approached police. It was believed he had explosives on him. There was an exchange of gunfire and Tamerlan Tsarnaev was critically injured with gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead at 1:35 a.m at the Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston.

Mr. Kitzenberg said during the gunfight, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev got back into the SUV, turned it toward officers and “put the pedal to the metal.” He escaped, prompting the manhunt.

UMass Dartmouth officials said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev passed an apparently normal day at the school on Wednesday.

Hasty exit for Musharraf after judge revokes his bail

In his latest setback since returning from exile, Pervez Musharraf, the former military ruler of Pakistan, suddenly left a courtroom in dramatic fashion on Thursday after a judge revoked his bail and ordered his arrest.

Pervez Musharraf, the former president of Pakistan, leaving the High Court in Islamabad on Thursday after his bail was revoked.

 Mr. Musharraf and his security detail hustled through a large crowd outside the Islamabad High Court following the hearing, then quickly drove off in a convoy of sport-utility vehicles as angry lawyers chased behind, shouting insults.

The hasty exit, unimaginable just a few years ago, was the latest twist in Mr. Musharraf ’s quixotic bid to return to Pakistani politics, which has been dogged by a series of mishaps and humiliations.
It could also presage a wider clash. Never before has a retired army chief faced imprisonment in Pakistan, and analysts said the move against Mr. Musharraf could open a new rift between the courts and the military.
After leaving the court, Mr. Musharraf drove to his luxury villa on the outskirts of the capital, which is protected by high walls and a contingent of retired and serving soldiers — a reflection of repeated Taliban threats to kill him.
For now, however, the imminent danger to Mr. Musharraf, a general who ruled Pakistan between 1999 and 2008, stems from the courts.

At the hearing Thursday, a High Court justice, Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui, declined to extend Mr. Musharraf ’s bail in a case that focuses on his decision to fire and imprison the country’s top judges when he imposed emergency rule in November 2007.
Resentment toward the former army chief and president still runs deep in the judiciary, which was at the center of the protest movement that led to his ouster in 2008. On Thursday evening, the court demanded to know why the police had failed to arrest Mr. Musharraf as he left the court, Pakistani television stations reported.

A spokesman for Mr. Musharraf ’s party described the court order as ‘‘seemingly motivated by personal vendettas,’’ and hinted at the possibility of a looming clash with the military, warning that it could ‘‘result in unnecessary tension amongst the various pillars of state and possibly destabilize the country.’’
At a news conference in Islamabad on Thursday evening, leaders of Mr. Musharraf ’s party denied that he had fled from the courtroom.

‘‘No attempt was made to arrest Mr. Musharraf,’’ said Muhammad Amjad Chaudhry, a senior party leader. ‘‘No police officer asked Mr. Musharraf to surrender after the court order was passed. Mr. Musharraf returned to his residence from the court. He is not in hiding.’’

Mr. Musharraf ’s lawyers lodged an appeal with the Pakistani Supreme Court, which said it would hear the case on Friday. One widely touted possibility is that the Supreme Court could declare Mr. Musharraf ’s villa a ‘‘sub-jail,’’ and place him under house arrest.
The court drama marks the low point of a troubled homecoming for the swaggering former general, who has vowed to ‘‘take the country out of darkness’’ after returning from four years of selfimposed exile in Dubai, London and the United States.

But instead of the public adulation he apparently was expecting, Mr. Musharraf has been greeted by stiff legal challenges, political hostility and — perhaps worst of all — a widespread sense of public apathy.
Influential Pakistani television channels have given scant coverage to Mr. Musharraf since his return, and his party has had difficulty finding strong candidates to field in the general election scheduled for May 11.
Mr. Musharraf had hoped to run for Parliament, for which his All Pakistan Muslim League party said it would field candidates across Pakistan.
On Tuesday, the national election commission disqualified Mr. Musharraf from the contest. He had intended to seek election in four different constituencies.

Mr. Musharraf is facing criminal charges in three cases — one related to the sacking of the judges, and two others related to the deaths of Benazir Bhutto, a former prime minister, and Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, a Baluch tribal leader. Attempts by some opponents to have him charged with treason have not succeeded.
Then last week he stoked controversy in an interview with CNN when he admitted to having authorized U.S. drone strikes in the Pakistani tribal region — a statement that contradicted years of denials of complicity in the drone program, and which was considered politically disastrous in a country where the drones are widely despised.

In returning to Pakistan in such an apparently ill-considered manner, Mr. Musharraf has placed himself at the mercy of some of his most bitter enemies. The favorite to win the coming election is Nawaz Sharif, the onetime prime minister whom Mr. Musharraf overthrew to seize power in 1999.

Obama, US senator get deadly poison by mail

WASHINGTON—The FBI arrested a Mississippi man on Wednesday in connection with letters sent to President Barack Obama and two other officials that are believed to have contained the deadly poison ricin, the US Justice Department said.

Paul Kevin Curtis was arrested at his home in Corinth, Mississippi, and is “believed to be responsible for the mailings of the three letters sent through the US Postal Inspection Service which contained a granular substance that preliminarily tested positive for ricin,” the Justice Department said in a statement.

The letters were addressed to a US senator, the White House and a Mississippi justice official, the statement said.

The ricin poison scare hit Washington after bombings at the Boston Marathon killed three people and injured 176 on Monday, but the FBI said there was no indication the incidents were connected.

The FBI said the envelope sent to Obama was received at a mailscreening facility outside the White House and was immediately quarantined. Preliminary tests showed it contained the deadly poison ricin, the FBI said.

Washington was put on edge on Tuesday evening when news emerged that authorities had intercepted a letter sent to Republican Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi that had initially tested positive for ricin.

Following the arrest, Wicker issued a statement thanking the FBI and Capitol Police “for their professionalism and decisive action in keeping our family and staff safe from harm.”

Earlier on Wednesday, a flurry of reports of suspicious letters and packages rattled the US capital and caused the temporary evacuation of parts of two Senate buildings. Most of the reports quickly proved to be false alarms, and business was only temporarily disrupted on Capitol Hill.

The letters to Obama and Wicker had identical language, included the phrase, “To see a wrong and not expose it, is to become a silent partner to its continuance.” They were signed, “I am KC and I approve this message,” according to an FBI operations bulletin reviewed by Reuters.

Two law enforcement sources said investigators believed the man arrested was the same person as Kevin Curtis, who they say has posted rants on the Internet and performed as an entertainer and Elvis Presley impersonator.

In an online comment on an Elvis blog post in 2007, a Kevin Curtis complained that several Elvis contests in several states “were rigged with hosts and judges getting kickbacks.” The signature was: “This is Kevin Curtis and I approve this message.”

Northern District Mississippi Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley, who said he was related to Elvis Presley, told Reuters that Curtis contacted him via Facebook late on Sunday asking him if he was a relative of the late rock singer.