2nd Miss. man investigated in ricin case

Federal agents wearing hazmat suits inspect the grounds around the house owned by Everett Dutschke, in connection with the recent ricin attacks, as one of his dogs howls Tuesday, April 23, 2013 in Tupelo, Miss. No charges have been filed against Dutschke and he hasn?t been arrested. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

Federal agents wearing hazmat suits inspect the grounds around the house owned by Everett Dutschke, in connection with the recent ricin attacks, as one of his dogs howls Tuesday, April 23, 2013 in Tupelo, Miss. No charges have been filed against Dutschke and he hasn?t been arrested. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

A federal agent wearing a hazmat suit secures a container used during a search of the Tupelo, Miss., home of Everett Dutschke, Tuesday, April 23, 2013 in connection with the recent ricin attacks. No charges have been filed against Dutschke and he hasn?t been arrested. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

Federal authorities wear hazmat suits as they search the home of Everett Dutschke, Tuesday, April 23, 2013 in Tupelo, Miss., in connection with the recent ricin attacks. No charges have been filed against Dutschke and he hasn?t been arrested. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

Federal agents wearing hazardous material suits and breathing apparatus inspect the home and possessions in the West Hills Subdivision house of Paul Kevin Curtis in Corinth, Miss., Friday, April 19, 2013. Curtis is in custody under the suspicion of sending letters covered in ricin to the U.S. President Barack Obama and U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

Paul Kevin Curtis, right, who had been in custody under the suspicion of sending letters which tested positive for ricin to U.S. President Barack Obama and U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and his brother Jack Curtis walk to a press conference in Oxford, Miss. on Tuesday, April 23, 2013. The charges were dismissed without prejudice, which means they could be re-instated if prosecutors so choose. (AP Photo/Oxford Eagle, Bruce Newman)

TUPELO, Miss. (AP) ? A second Mississippi man investigated in connection to ricin-laced letters sent to the president and a U.S. senator said Wednesday that investigators tore his house apart during an hours-long search the previous day after charges were dropped against another man in the case.

No investigators appeared to be at the Tupelo home Wednesday morning, and Everett Dutschke said he'd gone to a friend's house to rest. Piles of items could be seen all over the floor through the window. The home was searched Tuesday by dozens of officials, some in hazmat suits, from early in the afternoon until about 11 p.m. CDT. Officials declined to comment on what they had found or on the next phase of the investigation.

At one point, two FBI agents and two members of the state's chemical response team left Dutschke's property and began combing through ditches, culverts and woods about a block away from his house in the neighborhood of single-family detached homes.

Dutschke (DUHST'-kee), who spoke with The Associated Press by telephone during the search, said his house was also searched last week. He said he and his wife had gone to a friend's Wednesday because they didn't feel safe at their home.

"They ripped everything out of the house," he said Wednesday morning, adding: "I haven't slept at all."

No charges have been filed against Dutschke and he hasn't been arrested. Both he and Paul Kevin Curtis, who had faced charges in the case, say they have no idea how to make the poisonous ricin and had nothing to do with sending the letters to President Barack Obama, U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Mississippi county judge Sadie Holland.

Curtis, a 45-year-old celebrity impersonator, has maintained his innocence since his arrest.

Referring to investigators' questions for him about the case, Curtis said after he was released from custody Tuesday afternoon, "I thought they said rice and I said, 'I don't even eat rice.' ... I respect President Obama. I love my country and would never do anything to pose a threat to him or any other U.S. official."

A one-sentence document filed by federal prosecutors said charges against Curtis were dropped, but left open the possibility they could be reinstated if authorities found more to prove their case. Prosecutors were not immediately available for comment, but the document said the ongoing investigation had revealed new information. It did not elaborate.

Dutschke and Judge Holland know each other: In 2007, he lost his Republican bid for a seat in the Mississippi House of Representatives to Holland's son, Democratic state Rep. Steve Holland, who was the incumbent.

Steve Holland previously said that during a political rally in the small town of Verona in 2007, Dutschke gave a speech disparaging the Holland family, including him, his mother and his wife.

Holland said his mother, who spoke just after Dutschke at the rally, called him back on the stage and said, "You're not going to disparage me. Now, you apologize to me."

Holland said Dutschke returned to the stage and at Judge Holland's instruction, got down on his knees and apologized, but Dutschke disputed that Tuesday.

"That's just Steve Holland being Steve Holland," he said, adding that he did not get down on his knees and apologize for anything. "He's a bit grandiose about the way he describes things."

Since Curtis' arrest at his Corinth, Miss., home on April 17, his attorneys have said their client didn't do it and suggested he was framed. An FBI agent testified in court this week that no evidence of ricin was found in searches of Curtis' home.

The dismissal is the latest twist in a case that has been strange from the beginning and rattled the country during the same week as the Boston Marathon bombing and a fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas.

Dutschke and Curtis are no strangers to each other. Dutschke said the two had a disagreement and the last contact they had was in 2010. Dutschke said he threatened to sue Curtis for saying he was a member of Mensa, a group for people with high IQs.

Hal Neilson, an attorney for Curtis, said the defense gave authorities a list of people who may have had a reason to hurt Curtis.

"Dutschke came up," he said. "They (prosecutors) took it and ran with it. I could not tell you if he's the man or he's not the man, but there was something there they wanted to look into."

An FBI intelligence bulletin obtained by the AP said the two ricin-laced letters addressed to Obama and Wicker said: "To see a wrong and not expose it, is to become a silent partner to its continuance." Both were signed, "I am KC and I approve this message."

Curtis was already well known to Wicker because he had written to the Republican senator and other officials. Curtis also wrote a novel called "Missing Pieces," about black-market body parts he claimed to have found while working at a hospital ? a claim the hospital says is untrue. Curtis posted similar language on his Facebook page and elsewhere. The documents indicate Curtis had been distrustful of the government for years. He told the AP on Tuesday that he realizes his writings made him an easy target.

Multiple online posts under the name Kevin Curtis on various websites that could be seen by anyone refer to the conspiracy he claimed to uncover when working at a local hospital from 1998 to 2000. In one post, Curtis said he sent letters to Wicker and other politicians. He signed off: "This is Kevin Curtis & I approve this message."

Christi McCoy, another attorney for Curtis, said she doesn't know what new information prosecutors have, but said the plot to frame her client was "very, very diabolical."

Curtis, dressed after his release Tuesday in a black suit, red shirt, necktie and sunglasses, said he met Dutschke in 2005 but that for some reason Dutschke "hated" and "stalked" him. "To this day I have no clue of why he hates me."

Ricin is derived from the castor plant that makes castor oil. There is no antidote and it is at its deadliest when inhaled. It can be aerosolized, released into the air and inhaled. The Homeland Security handbook says the amount of ricin that fits on the head of a pin is enough to kill an adult if properly prepared.

Dutschke said agents asked him about Curtis, whether Dutschke would take a lie-detector test and if he had ever bought castor beans, which can be used to make the potent poison.

"I'm a patriotic American. I don't have any grudges against anybody. I did not send the letters," Dutschke said.

After charges were dropped against Curtis, he said: "I'm a little shocked."

Dutschke said his attorney wasn't with him and he didn't know whether he was going to be arrested.

Tuesday's events began when the third day of a preliminary and detention hearing was canceled without officials explaining the change. Within two hours, Curtis had been released, though it wasn't clear why at first.

FBI Agent Brandon Grant said in court Monday that searches last week of Curtis' vehicle and house in Corinth, found no ricin, ingredients for the poison, or devices used to make it. A search of Curtis' computers found no evidence he researched making ricin. Authorities produced no other physical evidence at the hearings tying Curtis to the letters.

All the envelopes and stamps were self-adhesive, Grant said Monday, meaning they won't yield DNA evidence. One fingerprint was found on the letter sent to a Lee County judge, but the FBI doesn't know who it belongs to, Grant said.

The experience, Curtis said, has been a nightmare for his family. He has four children ? ages, 8, 16, 18 and 20. It also has made him reflect deeply on his life.

"I've become closer to God through all this, closer with my children and I've even had some strained relationships with some family and cousins and this has brought us closer as a family," he said.

___

Wagster Pettus reported from Jackson. Associated Press writers Holbrook Mohr in Oxford, Jack Elliott in Jackson, Miss., and Pete Yost in Washington contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-04-24-Suspicious%20Letters/id-25c55335ce0648f9abc4cde75668ac9b

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State tax reform efforts snarled by politics but backers persist

By Nanette Byrnes

(Reuters) - From Louisiana to Ohio, Massachusetts and Nebraska, bold proposals to upend state tax laws are losing momentum in the face of political squabbles and special interest opposition.

Just a short time ago, it looked as if several state leaders would show gridlocked Washington, D.C., how to do tax reform. Then some harsh realities set in.

One case in point: Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal.

The Republican rising star grabbed headlines in March with a plan to end his state's corporate and personal income taxes, while replacing lost revenue with higher and wider sales taxes.

Weeks later, his poll numbers sagging and under pressure from businesses and skeptical lawmakers, Jindal backed away from his plan, saying he would leave tax reform to legislators.

In Nebraska, a proposal similar to Jindal's has been shelved in favor of a tax commission study. The story is much the same in Ohio, where a version is being sharply scaled back, as well.

In Massachusetts, Democratic Governor Deval Patrick has gone the opposite direction, proposing to raise income taxes to pay for a sales tax cut, but his plan has met the same stalled fate.

At a time of deep partisan division over fiscal policy, setbacks like these show that overhauling tax laws seems to be just as difficult in America's state capitals as it is on Capitol Hill.

But supporters of change are not giving up.

With powerful and deep-pocketed out-of-state groups involved in some instances, tax experts, lawmakers and advisers said some states could still make big changes before the adjournment of state legislatures, which only meet part-time in most states.

"This is just half-time," said Meg Wiehe, state tax policy director for the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a liberal-leaning Washington think tank.

TARHEEL FIGHT BREWS

In North Carolina, special interest groups are gearing up to fight over an income tax rollback and sales tax increase plan.

Republicans have a veto-proof super-majority in both houses of the legislature and a newly elected governor, Pat McCrory.

Republican legislators expect to introduce a bill this week that they hope will lay the groundwork for cutting the state's income tax rate to zero over the next three to four years from the current range of 6 to 7.75 percent.

Lost revenue would be replaced with sales taxes applied to personal and professional services currently not taxed. Governor McCrory has yet to back it and could opt for more modest change, state political watchers said.

Critics of the plan say that broadening sales taxes would not raise enough new money to offset the revenue lost from curtailing income taxes. As a result, they say, the sales tax rate would have to rise. Now at 4.75 percent, some estimates say it might have to go as high as 12.5 percent.

Critics also say that higher sales taxes hurt working class families, which spend a higher percentage of their income.

As in other states, North Carolina has become a battleground for outside pressure groups in the tax reform war.

Americans for Prosperity North Carolina, a conservative group funded by the billionaire Koch brothers, has pledged to spend $500,000 in support of lower income tax rates, closing tax loopholes and expanded sales taxes. The money will go to TV ads, mailers and voter education, said Dallas Woodhouse, the group's state director.

In opposition is, for instance, the North Carolina Association of Realtors, which is against applying sales tax to real estate transactions. It also opposes any move to eliminate the mortgage interest and property tax deductions.

KANSAS FORGES AHEAD

In Kansas, Republican Governor Sam Brownback has proposed his second major tax overhaul in as many years.

He wants the state to maintain its current 6.3 percent sales tax, eliminate some tax breaks and adopt a "glide path" to zero income tax rates by 2025.

Some polls show weak public support for Brownback and his tax plan, but the legislature is strongly Republican. Supporters and opponents predict the governor will get much of what he wants.

Kansas' 2012 tax cuts - also pushed through under Brownback - have left the state with a $231 million budget deficit this year and a projected $803 million deficit for 2014.

Kansas conservatives' commitment to their tax ideas has not wavered, said David Kensinger, Brownback's former chief of staff and chairman of his policy think tank, Road Map Solutions.

The Kansas legislature, more conservative this year than last, will again give the governor much of what he wants on taxes, Kensinger predicted.

He added he expects other states like Ohio and Louisiana will return to these ideas. "They are losing population to lower tax states and they will be forced to adapt to an environment where people, jobs and capital are more mobile," he said.

(Reporting by Nanette Byrnes; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Cynthia Osterman)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/state-tax-reform-efforts-snarled-politics-backers-persist-181919249.html

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What Does Modern Prejudice Look Like?

Harvard psychologist Mahzarin Banaji was once approached by a reporter for an interview. When Banaji heard the name of the magazine the reporter was writing for, she declined the interview: She didn't think much of the magazine and believed it portrayed research in psychology inaccurately.

But then the reporter said something that made her reconsider, Banaji recalled: "She said, 'You know, I used to be a student at Yale when you were there, and even though I didn't take a course with you, I do remember hearing about your work.' "

The next words out of Banaji's mouth: "OK, come on over; I'll talk to you."

After she changed her mind, Banaji got to thinking. Why had she changed her mind? She still didn't think much of the magazine in which the article would appear. The answer: The reporter had found a way to make a personal connection.

For most people, this would have been so obvious and self-explanatory it would have required no further thought. Of course, we might think. Of course we'd help someone with whom we have a personal connection.

For Banaji, however, it was the start of a psychological exploration into the nature and consequences of favoritism ? why we give some people the kind of extra-special treatment we don't give others.

In a new book, Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People, Banaji and her co-author, Anthony Greenwald, a social psychologist at the University of Washington, turn the conventional way people think about prejudice on its head. Traditionally, Banaji says, psychologists in her field have looked for overt "acts of commission ? what do I do? Do I go across town to burn down the church of somebody who's not from my denomination? That, I can recognize as prejudice."

Yet, far from springing from animosity and hatred, Banaji and Greenwald argue, prejudice may often stem from unintentional biases.

Take Banaji's own behavior toward the reporter with a Yale connection. She would not have changed her mind for another reporter without the personal connection. In that sense, her decision was a form of prejudice, even though it didn't feel that way.

Mahzarin Banaji is a Harvard professor specializing in social psychology.

Harvard University News Office/Delacorte Press

Mahzarin Banaji is a Harvard professor specializing in social psychology.

Harvard University News Office/Delacorte Press

Now, most people might argue such favoritism is harmless, but Banaji and Greenwald think it might actually explain a lot about the modern United States, where vanishingly few people say they hold explicit prejudice toward others but wide disparities remain along class, race and gender lines.

Anthony Greenwald is a social psychologist and a professor at the University of Washington.

Jean Alexander Greenwald/Delacorte Press

The two psychologists have revolutionized the scientific study of prejudice in recent decades, and their Implicit Association Test ? which measures the speed of people's hidden associations ? has been applied to the practice of medicine, law and other fields. Few would doubt its impact, including critics. (I've written about Banaji and Greenwald's work before, in this article and in my 2010 book, The Hidden Brain.)

"I think that kind of act of helping towards people with whom we have some shared group identity is really the modern way in which discrimination likely happens," Banaji says.

In many ways, the psychologists' work mirrors the conclusion of another recent book: In The American Non-Dilemma: Racial Inequality without Racism, sociologist Nancy DiTomaso asks how it is that few people report feeling racial prejudice, while the United States still has enormous disparities. Discrimination today is less about treating people from other groups badly, DiTomaso writes, and more about giving preferential treatment to people who are part of our "in-groups."

The insidious thing about favoritism is that it doesn't feel icky in any way, Banaji says. We feel like a great friend when we give a buddy a foot in the door to a job interview at our workplace. We feel like good parents when we arrange a class trip for our daughter's class to our place of work. We feel like generous people when we give our neighbors extra tickets to a sports game or a show.

In each case, however, Banaji, Greenwald and DiTomaso might argue, we strengthen existing patterns of advantage and disadvantage because our friends, neighbors and children's classmates are overwhelmingly likely to share our own racial, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds. When we help someone from one of these in-groups, we don't stop to ask: Whom are we not helping?

Banaji tells a story in the book about a friend, Carla Kaplan, now a professor at Northeastern University. At the time, both Banaji and Kaplan were faculty members at Yale. Banaji says that Kaplan had a passion ? quilting.

"You would often see her, sitting in the back of a lecture, quilting away, while she listened to a talk," Banaji says.

In the book, Banaji writes that Kaplan once had a terrible kitchen accident.

"She was washing a big crystal bowl in her kitchen," Banaji says. "It slipped and it cut her hand quite severely."

The gash went from Kaplan's palm to her wrist. She raced over to Yale-New Haven Hospital. Pretty much the first thing she told the ER doctor was that she was a quilter. She was worried about her hand. The doctor reassured her and started to stitch her up. He was doing a perfectly competent job, she says.

But at this moment someone spotted Kaplan. It was a student, who was a volunteer at the hospital.

"The student saw her, recognized her, and said, 'Professor Kaplan, what are you doing here?' " Banaji says.

The ER doctor froze. He looked at Kaplan. He asked the bleeding young woman if she was a Yale faculty member. Kaplan told him she was.

Everything changed in an instant. The hospital tracked down the best-known hand specialist in New England. They brought in a whole team of doctors. They operated for hours and tried to save practically every last nerve.

Banaji says she and Kaplan asked themselves later why the doctor had not called in the specialist right away. "Somehow," Banaji says, "it must be that the doctor was not moved, did not feel compelled by the quilter story in the same way as he was compelled by a two-word phrase, 'Yale professor.' "

Kaplan told Banaji that she was able to go back to quilting, but that she still occasionally feels a twinge in the hand. And it made her wonder what might have happened if she hadn't received the best treatment.

Greenwald and Banaji are not suggesting that people stop helping their friends, relatives and neighbors. Rather, they suggest that we direct some effort to people we may not naturally think to help.

After reading the story about Kaplan, for example, one relative of Greenwald's decided to do something about it. Every year, she used to donate a certain amount of money to her alma mater. After reading Kaplan's story, Banaji says, the woman decided to keep giving money to her alma mater, but to split the donation in half. She now gives half to her alma mater and half to the United Negro College Fund.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2013/04/22/177455764/What-Does-Modern-Prejudice-Look-Like?ft=1&f=1007

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TED Education Wants Your Help Bringing Cool Science to the Classroom

At TED Education, we?re obsessed with learning. Whether it?s about the history of the cell theory, or how to write a slam poem. And since I happen to be obsessed with science, I have a particularly fond place in my heart for our science lessons. Which brings me to you, Scientific American reader, because I know you?re probably obsessed, or at least a little curious, about science too. TED-Ed needs your help. What are you curious about? What do you want to learn about? What do you want to teach the world? We?re looking for your lesson ideas, science or otherwise, to create a whole new set of TED-Ed lessons.

But first, let?s back up. What is TED-Ed? We?re an initiative of TED Conferences, known for TED Talks. Our focus is on creating and sharing lessons to spread great ideas for all educators and learners?mainly high school and college students. So we team up with educators and animators to make short, beautiful and educational videos that anyone who?s curious about the world can enjoy.

Some of my favorite science lessons that we?ve done so far range from pizza physics, to the origins of the universe. To get a taste of TED-Ed, here are a few of those science lessons that I love.

This amazing and wacky animation takes you through the life and times of a blue whale. Why are they so big? How do they even survive?

Why do New Yorkers fold their pizza? And what does that have to do with physics? Let a talking pizza explain it to you:

In a partnership with CERN, we explored the origin of the universe. Tom Whyntie?s conclusion? The universe is a good thing, and it would be awesome if we could figure out how it was formed:

And this beautiful hand-made animation explains why cancer patients hair falls out ? and how cancer works in general.

These lessons came to us from educators of all types ? people like you who are passionate about an idea, who want to teach others about the world. We say educators for a reason, you don?t have to be a traditional teacher to get involved. In fact, we want your ideas, and we want them now! Want to help write a TED-Ed lesson? Send us your lesson ideas here, and you could see your vision in classrooms and computer screens all over the world:

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=4258835d87e62c509e6216f35b1614b3

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Study: chicken, ground beef are riskiest meats

WASHINGTON (AP) ? An analysis of more than 33,000 cases of foodborne illness shows that ground beef and chicken have caused more hospitalizations than other meats.

The report by the Center for Science in Public Interest says chicken nuggets, ham and sausage pose the lowest risk of foodborne illness.

The group used government data on 1,700 outbreaks over 12 years to analyze salmonella, E. coli, listeria and other pathogens that were definitively linked to a certain meat.

To calculate which meats were riskiest, CSPI ranked the foods in which contamination was most likely to cause hospitalizations. Some meats may have had more illnesses but were less likely to cause severe illness.

After ground beef and chicken, CSPI categorized turkey and steak as "high risk" and deli meat, pork, roast beef and beef or pork barbeque as "medium risk."

Salmonella and E. coli, pathogens that contaminate meat and poultry during slaughter and processing, accounted for a third of the illnesses surveyed. Clostridium perfringens, a lesser-known pathogen that usually grows after processing when foods are left at improper temperatures for too long by consumers or food establishments, accounted for another third.

While a large number of chicken illnesses were due to clostridium perfringens, chicken led to many hospitalizations partly because of the high incidence of salmonella in chicken that isn't properly cooked.

Most of the ground beef illnesses were from E. coli, which is found in the intestinal tracts of cattle and can transfer to the carcass if the meat isn't handled properly during slaughter. Ground beef can be riskier than steak and other beef products because pathogens are spread during the grinding process.

According to the report, listeria, salmonella and E. coli required the most hospitalizations.

The group noted that the data is incomplete because so many foodborne illnesses are not reported or tracked. The CDC estimates that as many as 48 million Americans get sick from food poisoning each year.

To reduce foodborne illnesses from meat, CSPI recommends what they call "defensive eating" ? assuming that meat can be unsafe. Safe handling includes not letting meat juices drip onto other food or counters, cleaning cutting boards and plates that have held raw meat, wearing gloves when preparing meat and washing hands often. Cooks should also make sure meat is heated to the proper temperature before eating it.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/study-chicken-ground-beef-riskiest-meats-153533823.html

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Be awed by Skyrim on the Oculus Rift, then let down by its limitations

Here's some exciting news: Skyrim, the game where you hunt and murder dragons, is relatively playable on the Oculus Rift VR headset. Rather, it's workable, and should you have an Oculus dev kit (they're shipping out right now), it's not terribly hard to make the game play nice with the headset. Now here's the sad news: navigating menus is nigh impossible, according to the Penny Arcade Report. Here's PAR's Ben Kuchera on the issue, which he says goes deeper than Skryim:

"The Rift does not do well with menus, in-game text, or any user interfaces that aren't purely graphical. It's a major shortcoming of the hardware, and it makes games like Skyrim that throw many menus of that kind at you intolerable to play in a serious way. You'd have to remove the headset every time you need to read anything, much less compare weapons or assign skills."

In our experience with the Rift headset, menus weren't an issue -- but that's because it's something we never encountered. Given the development nature of the device, demos were always very guided experiences, with games being loaded independently on a separate PC and not something press had to deal with while trying to use the headset. It's possible that games like Skyrim will receive mods that make the (many, many) in-game menus usable, but it's certain that support won't come from the game's publisher, Bethesda Softworks, as it recently finalized production on the game. For a taste of Skyrim running with the Oculus Rift, head past the break.

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

Comments

Source: Penny Arcade Report, YouTube

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/23/oculus-rift-skyrim/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Hospitalized suspect in Boston bombings awaits charges under guard

By Svea Herbst-Bayliss and Ben Berkowitz

BOSTON (Reuters) - Federal prosecutors prepared criminal charges on Sunday against an ethnic Chechen college student suspected in the deadly Boston Marathon bombings as he lay severely wounded, unable to speak and hospitalized under heavy guard two days after his dramatic capture.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, whose tongue was injured in a gunshot to the throat before his arrest, was initially under sedation and incapable of being interviewed by investigators, authorities said. He also had been shot in the leg.

But the ABC and NBC news networks reported late on Sunday that Tsarnaev had regained consciousness and was responding in writing to questions put to him by authorities, who are seeking to determine if the suspects they have identified acted alone.

Much of investigators' attention has focused on a trip to Russia last year by his older brother and fellow suspect, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who is now dead, and whether Chechen separatists or Islamist extremists may have influenced or assisted the siblings.

The two brothers emigrated to the United States a decade ago from Dagestan, a predominantly Muslim region in Russia's North Caucasus mountains.

They are accused of planting and setting off two homemade bombs near the crowded finish line of the Boston Marathon last Monday, killing three people and injuring more than 170 others.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died after a gunfight three nights later with police on the streets of Watertown, the Boston suburb where authorities finally cornered his younger brother, ending a massive manhunt that shut down much of greater Boston on Friday.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was found spattered with blood and hiding inside a covered boat parked in a Watertown back yard on Friday evening.

He apparently was hit by gunfire in the shootout that left his brother dead the day before, but it was not clear whether he suffered additional wounds in a final hail of bullets that preceded his capture.

Tsarnaev was shot in the throat, U.S. Senator Dan Coats, a member of the Intelligence Committee, told ABC. A source close to the investigation told Reuters he had damage to his tongue.

INTENSIVE CARE UNDER ARMED GUARD

The suspect was placed under armed guard in the intensive care unit of Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where his brother was pronounced dead early on Friday.

U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz, the federal prosecutor for the Boston area, was preparing criminal charges, according to Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis. It was not clear when charges would be filed. Prosecutors did not plan any news conference or announcements on Sunday.

Whether prosecutors ultimately decide to seek the death penalty if Tsarnaev were convicted hinges on various factors, such as his age, his apparent lack of a prior criminal history and whether he might have information leading to other suspects, legal experts say.

Photographs of the two brothers, allegedly in the act of planting bombs at the Boston Marathon, were circulated by the FBI on Thursday, with an appeal to the public for help in locating the then-unidentified pair.

The suspects surfaced late that night when they allegedly shot a campus police officer to death at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, then hijacked a sport utility vehicle before opening fire and hurling explosives at pursuing law enforcement.

During this confrontation, according to police, a transit cop was badly injured and the older Tsarnaev, walking toward officers and firing until he ran out of ammunition, was tackled by a police sergeant, only to be struck by the SUV as his brother sped away.

The younger Tsarnaev later abandoned the vehicle and vanished, leading authorities to impose a lockdown on the city of Boston and its suburbs before he was found and arrested in Watertown some 20 hours later.

Students returning to campus on Sunday at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was enrolled, recalled seeing him back in the dorm, at class and even working out in the gym a day or two after the bombings before realizing he was suspected in the crime.

Boston's police commissioner said investigators discovered at least four unexploded devices, including one similar to the two pressure cooker bombs detonated at the Boston Marathon.

"I personally believe they were (planning other attacks)," he said Sunday on CBS television's "Face the Nation."

Later on CNN, Davis said he was "confident" the two brothers "were the two major actors in the violence that occurred."

The men's parents, who moved back to southern Russia, have said their sons were framed.

Runners in the London Marathon observed 30 seconds of silence before starting their race on Sunday, while people from the greater Boston area remembered the victims in church services.

"We must be people of reconciliation and not revenge," Roman Catholic Cardinal Sean O'Malley told a packed Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston. "The crimes of the two young men must not be justification for violence against Muslims."

In the neighboring city of Cambridge, police stationed themselves across from a home where various members of the Tsarnaev family had lived, advising bystanders to move on.

Patricia McMillan, who lives two doors down, said she last saw Tamerlan Tsarnaev in the neighborhood the Wednesday before the bombing, noting he had shaved off his beard and that he was smoking.

TRIP TO RUSSIA

Tamerlan Tsarnaev traveled to Moscow in January 2012 and spent six months in the region, a law enforcement source said.

That trip, combined with Russian interest in Tamerlan communicated to U.S. authorities and an FBI interview of him in 2011, have raised questions whether danger signals were missed.

It was unclear if he could have had contact with militant Islamist groups in southern Russia's restive Caucasus region.

A group leading an Islamist insurgency against Russia said on Sunday it was not at war with the United States, distancing itself from the Boston bombings.

"We are fighting with Russia, which is responsible not only for the occupation of the Caucasus but for monstrous crimes against Muslims," said a statement from Caucasus Emirate militants operating in Dagestan.

The insurgency is rooted in two separatist wars that Russian troops waged against Chechen separatists following the fall of the Soviet Union.

The brothers spent their early years in a small community of Chechens in the central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan, a mainly Muslim nation of 5.5 million. They moved in 2001 to Dagestan, a southern Russian province where their parents now live.

Neighbors said they noticed nothing unusual about Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who this summer helped his father renovate his first floor apartment in Makhachkala, a bustling city in Dagestan.

"They say he was a fanatic. I didn't see that," said Madina Abdulayeva, 45, who runs a small grocery shop across the pot-holed street where he used to come to chat. "We're all Muslim here. We're all part of Islam. We all pray.

(Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball in Washington; Writing by Daniel Trotta and Steve Gorman; Editing by Vicki Allen, Doina Chiacu and Eric Beech)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hospitalized-suspect-boston-bombings-awaits-charges-under-guard-004558605.html

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