Chrissy Amphlett of Australian band the Divinyls, known for their hit I Touch Myself, has died at the age of 53.
Husband and former Divinyls drummer Charley Drayton said Chrissy Amphlett died after battling breast cancer and multiple sclerosis.
Russell Crowe, who starred alongside Chrissy Amphlett in a 1988 production of Blood Brothers in which she played his mother, has led tributes.
The Oscar-winning Australian said he will remember The Oscar-winning Australian “loving life and reciting verse”.
Russell Crowe said: “Dear Chrissie, the last time I saw you was in the Botanic Gardens… That’s how I’ll remember you, your boy, R.”
Chrissy Amphlett founded the Divinyls in 1980 in Sydney and they went on to record five studio albums between 1982 and 1996, when they split.
Chrissy Amphlett died after battling breast cancer and multiple sclerosis
I Touch Myself was released in 1991 and was a No 1 hit in their native Australia. It climbed the charts in Britain to No 10 and No 4 in the US Billboard Hot 100.
The song was featured in the 1992 film Prelude to a Kiss and 1997’s Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. Pop singer Pink covered the song in 2009 on her Funhouse Tour.
“Chrissy’s light burns so very brightly,” said Charley Drayton.
“Hers was a life of passion and creativity; she always lived it to the fullest”.
The statement on the Australian Recording Industry Association’s (ARIA) website added: “With her force of character and vocal strength she paved the way for strong, sexy, outspoken women.”
Chrissy Amphlett announced she had multiple sclerosis (MS) in 2007 and made public her battle with breast cancer in 2010.
The singer wrote on her Facebook page last March: “Unfortunately the last 18 months have been a real challenge for me, having breast cancer and MS and all the new places that will take you.
“My illnesses have really exhausted this little body of mine that I have thrown from one end of a stage to another and performed thousands of shows.”
“Chrissy expressed hope that her worldwide hit I Touch Myself would be utilized to remind all women to perform annual breast examinations,” said Charley Drayton.
Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were “failed” by their parents, especially their “controlling” mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, who encouraged their move towards Islamic radicalization, claims their uncle.
Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev looked up to their mother as an “angel” but, according to one of their uncles, she was the one who allowed them to be introduced to hardline Islamic views.
Boston marathon bombers’ uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, claimed that Zubeidat Tsarnaeva allowed a firebrand cleric into their house to give one-on-one sermons to Tamerlan over the kitchen table during which he claimed he could talk to demons and perform exorcisms.
It appears that the boys’ father, Anzor Tsarnaev never stood up to his wife as she was the “boss” of their house.
Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s story began in the mid 1980s when a young Kazakh soldier called Anzor Tsarnaev, now 47, met his future wife Zubeidat , now 45, whilst completing his two years of military service.
Anzor Tsarnaev was aged 19 or 20 at the time and Zubeidat 17 or 18. She was from Dagestan, which borders Kazakhstan to the West.
They got married and had four children.
The oldest child was Tamerlan, followed by daughters Bella, now 24, Alilina, now 22, and finally Dzhokhar.
In 2002 Anzor Tsarnaev and Zubeidat Tsarnaeva came to the US on tourist visas with a young Dzhokhar and claimed asylum.
The rest of the family joined them a year later, having spent 12 months living with Ruslan Tsarni at his home in Almaty, the capital of Kazakhstan, where they used to go to private school and were visited every week by the grandmother.
Ruslan Tsarni recalled Tamerlan Tsarnaev being a “joyful guy with a lot of ambition” during that time.
The boys’ uncle said: “They grew up nice because their grandmother was close to them, our family was close to them.
“Grandmother kept them so they were always under supervision.”
When the Tsarnaevs moved to Cambridge their new life was not much of an American dream.
With minimal language skills their parents had to take whatever work they could get so their mother began offering facials in their cramped home.
At one point there were at least seven people living in a humble semi-detached property.
Another uncle, Alvi Tsarnaev, did minimum wage shifts whilst Anzor started working two jobs including at a car mechanic.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev tried to make a career out of being a boxer but failed and dropped out of Bunker Hill Community College.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev however seemed to excel at school and eventually won a place at the University of Massachusetts where he was studying Marine Biology.
According to Alvi Tsarnaev, Dzhokhar led a quiet life and never went anywhere other than his home on Norfolk St and his school.
Ruslan Tsarni had always had Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s ear and said that like the other children he “came to America for a bright future”.
He remembers seeing him in 2006 when he was 21 and had just graduated high school.
Rusland Tsarni said: “He was asking me questions and I was happy to give him the answers. I told him the best way to start your way in a country, I’d start with the Army. Give [your country] something.
“We’ve not been brought here, give to it.
“I told him that you don’t have good English so you can’t make it to a good school, but later. He can go there, while you serve you improve your English and with English you improve your education and the Army will give you the path.
“At the time he seriously considered it. And in 2009 when I said why are you doing nothing, join the Army, why don’t you be useful, he laughed at me for killing our brother Muslims.”
That year turned out to be a turning point.
After that Ruslan Tarni could no longer act as a proxy parent as he always had done.
Ruslan Tsarni said: “The change of the older boy, one of the biggest causes is her.
“First she started playing into this religious c*** they say is a devotion to Islam.”
Ruslan Tsarni dismissed Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, who was arrested last year for stealing $1,600 of lingerie from a department store, as a “bad character”.
Life took a bad turn for one of her daughters who, according to reports, was set up by Zubeidat Tsarnaeva in an arranged marriage.
It fell apart two years later after her husband supposedly beat her up. Zubeidat Tsarnaeva’s other daughter was also married but got divorced too. Both have one child that lives with the father’s family.
Ruslan Tsarni said: “I never liked her, but not for personal reasons. These kids, I thought she’s not doing enough. She’s not doing them right, especially when they grew up.”
Zubeidat Tsarnaeva may encouraged her sons Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev move towards Islamic radicalization
According to Ruslan Tsarni, Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s radicalization was well underway by 2007 – right under the nose of his mother.
He claimed that the man responsible was a cleric aged around 30 called Misha and that he was an Armenian who, unusually for such a largely Christian people, had converted to Islam.
As far as he knew Misha was based in a mosque that was a short drive from Cambridge and that he was new to Islam.
A leader from the 50,000 strong Armenian community in Boston however cast doubt on the claim.
The Rev Gregory Haroutunian said he be “stunned” if anyone in the area would have had such hatred for America.
Ruslan Tsarni said: “People who lack morals but have big ambition always want some attention to themselves or certain respect to themselves.
“All they do is just change a tyre. You wear a hijab and you start dropping every other word Insha’Allah and all of a sudden that makes you a godly person.
“She [Zubeidat Tsarnaeva] supported it [in the boys), some really bad person [started it].
“She was not able to teach them anything. The introduction came from new Muslim convert of Armenian descent.
“He claimed to be an exorcist who is fighting with demons.”
It was in 2007 one evening around midnight as Anzor Tsarnaev came home from work to find the cleric in his kitchen, claimed Ruslan Tsarni.
“It was all the same talking, God, God, how he’s talking to demons, how he’s an exorcist, how he’s healing people. Tamerlan was absolutely in his possession. All around people considered him just another prick.
“Then my brother comes in from work, very late and Anzor is talking to his wife saying what is this person doing here so late?
“Tell him to get the hell out. And she says: <<You’d better shut up, this person is teaching wise things to your son>>. This is the mother. After that Tamerlan went over his place, he changed his views. It started from people like that.”
Ruslan Tsarni said he offered to send Tamerlan Tsarnaev to a school in Almaty and pay for it, but he declined. He gave him $3,000 to buy a car and drive to his home in Maryland just to watch over the house, but he did not do it.
The uncle said he tried “anything but not to be with his parents” because his opinion of them was so low.
He said that he would get phone calls from Ailina Tsarnaeva’s college saying she was in detention, having already been told by Zubeidat that she was in the library. Similar instances happened with Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
By 2009, Ruslan Tsarni had had enough. He told Zubeidat Tsarnaeva and her family they were no longer welcome in his home. Only his brother would be allowed in were they to visit.
It was the last time he would speak to his nephew.
A family friend said that the split happened because Ruslan Tsarni became frustrated when his attempts to change the direction of Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s life fell on deaf ears.
As Muslims, the way they traditionally resolved such disputes was that men would talk to men and that words would be said to the wife and the children.
As Zubeidat Tsarnaeva was in command in her house, such pleas fell on deaf ears when made to Anzor Tsarnaev.
A family friend said: “It drove a wedge between them. Ruslan couldn’t help Tamerlan because Anzor told him to stay away from his wife and not tell her what to do.
“It was very upsetting for Ruslan. He loves Dzhokhar and Tamerlan so much and to not be able to do anything really upset him.
“Anzor is so in love with his wife that he will do anything that she says. He will go to the ends of the Earth to be with her.
“For Anzor, them being together is more important to him than anything else.”
At some point Anzor Tsarnaev appears to have moved back to Kazakhstan, or possibly Dagestan.
Some reports have suggested Anzor Tsarnaev and Zubeidat Tsarnaeva separated but relatives claimed that they are still together.
The last time Ruslan Tsarni spoke to Tamerlan Tsarnaev was in August 2009. He did not even go to his wedding to Katherine Russell, with whom Tamerlan Tsarnaev has a 3-year-old daughter, and found out about it a year or so later.
Reflecting on their last conversation, Ruslan Tsarni said: “I asked him why he wasn’t at work, what happened with your college, why are you not in college.
“He changed his life views and he’s on the path of God…he was all the time in the path of Jihad.
“My brother lost control of it [his family] a long time ago. The mother was very influential. She says they would share everything with her, she had a very strong influence over them. She was controlling them.
“Tamerlan absolutely controlled Dzhokhar, he was under his influence. This is how in our tradition, the older one has to control but take care of the younger ones.
“The taking care didn’t happen and he wasted his brother’s life and he made him involved in this massacre.
“Me as an uncle I hold responsible for what turned out with these kids, the parents. Had Tamerlan been closer to me, had I heard any of his talking I would have cut it and been harsh with him.”
With no uncle to watch over him, Tamerlan Tsarnaev appears to have become even more radical and, on a personal level, more angry with the world.
In 2009 Tamerlan Tsarnaev was arrested after slapping his girlfriend and leaving her crying “hysterically”, according to the arrest report, because she suspected he was cheating on her.
In 2012, Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his brother Dzhokhar began attending a local mosque, the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Centre, but were not regulars.
About three months ago Tamerlan Tsarnaev was thrown out after he shouted at the imam during a Friday prayer service because he held up a picture of Martin Luther King Jr. and said he was a good man who they should emulate.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev called him a Kaffir, or non-believer, and said: “You cannot mention this guy because he’s not a Muslim!”
Alvi Tsarnaev said that Ruslan Tsarni gave Tamerlan and Dzhokhar a great start in life and ‘put those children in a good place’.
But he also agreed that when it came to family affairs, they treated their mother “like an angel” – and that what she said was the law.
Alvi Tsarnaev said: “They would do anything for their mother. They are not going to listen to their father but they are going to listen to their mother.
“They are very close to their mother….she is the family boss. She is the boss in the family.
“Usually in Muslim people the boss is the man, but in their family, she is the boss.”
Alvi Tsarnaev also revealed that the hate which swept up his two nephews is now reached his doorstep too.
Since the bombings he has received a string of voicemail messages which have left him deeply disturbed.
He has deleted most of them, but the one he has saved is a man’s voice which says: “Leave our country you Cechnic Chechen Muslim motherf******s.”
For her part Zubeidat Tsarnaeva is unrepentant about encouraging Tamerlan to become more religious and even brags about how it has “changed” her for the better.
Zubeidat Tsarnaeva told the Wall St Journal that at Tamerlan’s request she wore Islamic clothes around the house, even though her husband did not want her to.
She said: “I told Tamerlan that we are Muslim, and we are not practicing our religion, and how can we call ourselves Muslims?
“And that’s how Tamerlan started reading about Islam, and he started praying, and he got more and more and more into his religion.
“I started reading and started learning, I started reading with my Tamerlan.”
In fact their bond was so close, that it was her that Tamerlan Tsarnaev chose to phone in the early hour of Friday morning in the middle of the gun battle with police that would claim his life.
With a suicide vest round his neck and explosions going off around him, Tamerlan Tsarnaev dialed his mother’s number and said: “The police, they have started shooting at us, they are chasing us.”
Then, finally, before hanging up Tamerlan Tsarnaev said: “Mama, I love you.”
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev , the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings, has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction, the US Department of Justice has announced today.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, who was charged in hospital, could face the death penalty.
A White House spokesman has said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will not be treated as an “enemy combatant”, as suggested by some Republican members of Congress.
The twin bomb attack near the Boston Marathon finishing line killed three people, and injured more than 180.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured on Friday evening after a huge manhunt during which his older brother and suspected fellow bomber, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, died.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev , the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings, has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction
He has been unable to speak because of a throat wound, though he has reportedly responded to questions in writing.
As well as a count of using a weapon of mass destruction, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev faces one count of malicious destruction of property resulting in death, the Department of Justice said in a statement.
In addition to federal charges, prosecutors for the state of Massachusetts, which does not have the death penalty, could file their own.
“He will not be treated as an enemy combatant,” said White House spokesman Jay Carney.
“We will prosecute this terrorist through our civilian system of justice.”
The city of Boston is due to observe a moment of silence for the victims at 14:50 local time, exactly one week after the attack.
Also on Monday, a private funeral was being held for 29-year-old restaurant worker Krystle Campbell, who was killed at the marathon finish line after going to watch the race with a friend.
A memorial service was scheduled later for another victim, Lu Lingzi, a 23-year-old graduate student from China.
Dutch police have arrested a suspect following a threat, posted on the internet, to carry out a shooting at a school in the city of Leiden.
The suspect has been identified as a former pupil of the British School, which has a site in neighboring Voorschoten.
More than 20 schools were told to stay closed on Monday in Leiden in response to the threat posted on internet forum 4chan.
The anonymous writer said they would shoot their teacher “and as many students as I can”.
He or she said they would be carrying a 9 mm Colt Defender gun and a note “which will explain why I did it”.
The threat was picked up by Swiss police during internet checks at the weekend, Dutch media report.
Dutch police have arrested a suspect following a threat, posted on the internet, to carry out a shooting at a school in the city of Leiden
Dutch police said on Monday morning that some 22 secondary schools – covering the 12 to 16 age group – had been closed for the day.
Some schools, such as the Da Vinci College and Driestar College, had police officers outside them.
Following reports of an arrest, the British School in the Netherlands issued a statement saying: “We have been informed that a former student… has been arrested in connection to threats made against a Dutch school in Leiden.”
The school said the suspect left its senior school in October 2011 as a result of inappropriate behavior, Dutch broadcaster NOS reports.
The British School in the Netherlands has four schools based in and around The Hague. The senior school site is based in Voorschoten, close to Leiden.
Earlier Leiden Mayor Henri Lenferink said the decision to close the schools had been taken because police had not been able to immediately establish the perpetrators of the threat following the tip-off from Zurich.
“It could just be a morbid joke but we don’t want to take any risk,” Henri Lenferink told Dutch broadcaster NOS.
But some questioned the police decision to close the schools, which affected thousands of students.
“Every idiot who sticks a threat on the internet can paralyze half of society,” said Ton Duif, chairman of head teachers’ association AVS.
Leiden lies some 13 miles north-east of The Hague, and is home to the Netherlands’ oldest university.
French Yoann Galeran has managed to escape a saltwater crocodile that latched on to his head as he swam in Australia’s Northern Territory.
Yoann Galeran, 29, said he was “very lucky” to have survived the attack.
He was swimming from shore in the remote town of Nhulunbuy to retrieve a dinghy when the crocodile – estimated to be 8ft in length – attacked him on Sunday.
The Frenchman needed stitches for bite wounds on his head, neck and shoulders.
Yoann Galeran, a deckhand, said he kept punching the crocodile as it tried to roll and drown him.
“It went straight away to the top of my head and diving under the water he tried to do that spinning thing,” he said.
Yoann Galeran has managed to escape a saltwater crocodile that latched on to his head as he swam in Australia’s Northern Territory
But he fought his way free and made it to the dinghy, and then back to shore.
“I just feel that I’ve been lucky and I just think [if it was] a bigger crocodile, I maybe wouldn’t have any head,” he told ABC News.
A Northern Territory official echoed Yoann Galeran’s sentiment, saying the outcome could have been “a lot more dire”.
Lisa Heathcote, Yoann Galeran’s boss, said the crocodile had been in the area for weeks.
“We’ve walked out on the back deck and Jo’s [Yoann] standing there with a big grin on his face and blood pouring out of him,” Lisa Heathcote told ABC News.
Fatal attacks in Australia by saltwater crocodiles – a protected species since the 1970s – remain rare.
But the crocodiles are especially abundant in the Northern Territory, where deadly encounters have been reported.
A boy was killed in December after he was dragged into the water by a crocodile at a swimming spot. Weeks before the incident, human remains were found in a crocodile’s stomach in the state after a girl disappeared.
Nike has decided to remove its T-shirts emblazoned with “Boston Massacre” from shelves after outcry over their insensitivity in the wake of the city’s bombings.
The T-shirts, worn by Yankees fans, show blood-splattered lettering – a reference to when the team overcame a massive game deficit to beat the Boston Red Sox and win the World Series in 1978.
The insensitive garments were brought to Nike’s attention when Eric Stangel, an executive producer and writer for the Late Show with David Letterman, tweeted an image of the shirt.
“Saw this @ Nike Outlet,” Eric Stangel, who lives in New York, wrote on Saturday.
Nike has decided to remove its T-shirts emblazoned with “Boston Massacre” from shelves after outcry over their insensitivity in the wake of the city’s bombings
“Told them they shouldn’t be selling it.”
Eric Stangel added that a staff member responded, somewhat cryptically: “We’ve been taking them down. But somehow they keep ending up back on the rack.”
“Who thought that was a good idea?” one follower wrote.
Another said: “Rip off the rack!”
Many others questioned the point of the T-shirt before the even massacre occurred.
Among the responses on Twitter, Eric Stangel also heard from a representative from Nike, Heidi Burgett.
“Thank you Eric,” she wrote.
“We took action earlier this week to remove the shirts. We are immediately on it again thanks to your tweet.”
The T-shirt has a double meaning; the name “Boston Massacre” was originally used to describe an attack by the British Army in 1770, in an incident which left five civilian men dead and six injured.
The phrase was later adopted by baseball fans to refer to a series between the Red Sox and the Yankees in 1978, when the Yankees battled back from a 14-game deficit to equal the Sox.
After winning a one-game playoff against the Boston team, the Yankees played the Los Angeles Dodgers and won the World Series.
Boston is still recovering following the bombings at the finish line of the marathon, which left three dead and injured more than 180 people a week ago.
One suspected bomber, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was later killed in a police shoot out, while the second, his 19-year-old brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, is recovering in hospital with a throat wound after apparently trying to kill himself.
Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev told a man whose Mercedes SUV they hijacked on Thursday night that they planned to go to New York, it has emerged.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and his younger brother Dzhokhar, 19, seized a Mercedes-Benz SUV and held the driver hostage as they sought to flee from police late on Thursday.
Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev told a man whose Mercedes SUV they hijacked on Thursday night that they planned to go to New York
The Boston Marathon bombers told the driver that they planned to head to New York, a senior official revealed, but it is not clear if they told the man what they intended to do there, the New York Timesreported.
The latest detail emerged as police confirmed Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev likely planned more attacks, and suggests they could have wrought even greater devastation on the US after being undetected by the FBI.
Boston police commissioner, Edward Davis, said on Sunday that police believed they had planned more attacks beyond the bombings at the marathon finish line.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev may have also murdered his “only American friend” Brendan Mess in an unsolved triple killing in 2011, it emerged today.
Brendan Mess was found with his “throat slit” alongside two other men in a Massachusetts apartment in 2011 in what police described as a “very graphic crime scene”.
Former associates of Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev didn’t initially suspect him of carrying out the gruesome attack, but thought it was strange he didn’t attend his friend’s funeral.
Now one man who knew Tamerlan Tsarnaev through the gym where they trained said some of their social circle “without even speaking about it beforehand have all been thinking” he could be involved.
One friend, who gave his name only as Ray, told BuzzFeed Politics: “At the time, none of us would have thought it was Tam.
“It was just so emotional and we thought we had someone else who had done it.”
Brendan Mess was found with his “throat slit” alongside two other men in a Massachusetts apartment in 2011
But since Tamerlan Tsarnaev was identified as the suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings that killed three and injured 180, Ray believes his sudden disappearance after Brendan Mess’s death may be a clue.
“Tam wasn’t there at the memorial service, he wasn’t at the funeral, he wasn’t around at all,” Ray said.
“And he was really close with Brendan. That’s why it’s so weird.”
Ray said he met Tamerlan Tsarnaev in 2010 when they were part of a social circle that centered on the Wai Kru Mixed Martial Arts gym in Allston, Massachusetts, where Tsarnaev trained as a boxer and had a shared interest in the Boston hip-hop group FlyRidaz.
He said they had a friendly, but not particularly close relationship and described Tamerlan Tsarnaev as a “normal guy who wore regular American-ish clothes”.
Their contact stopped when Brendan Mess and two other men – Raphael Teken and Erik Weissman – were murdered on September 12, 2011.
Their bodies were found covered in marijuana in an apartment in Waltham, Massachusetts, and had their throats slit with a knife or ice pick and around $5,000 was left at the scene.
Brendan Mess’s girlfriend discovered the bodies, she ran from the house screaming.
Initially police said two other people had been there on the day and they were looking to question them, although no one has ever been charged.
Ray said there had been no forced entry, so police believe the killer was known the victim and was let into the apartment.
Investigators at the time said the murders were “targeted and not a random act of violence”.
Middlesex District Attorney Gerard Leone issued a statement soon after the murders saying: “Based on the present state of the investigation, it is believed that the victims knew the assailant or assailants, and the attacks were not random.”
Neighbors described Brendan Mess and his two roommates as quiet, nice people who were a welcome change of pace from previous residents who often had loud parties late into the evening.
Indeed, at the time of the killing, police and Brendan Mess’ friends suspected his girlfriend, an immigrant from Somalia that Ray describes as a “transient” who “latched onto Brendan”.
Ray described her as having a good relationship with Tamerlan Tsarnaev and that they would have “conversations about religious things and lifestyles”.
In 2008, Erik Weissman was charged with marijuana possession and intent to distribute, according to a report.
Police pulled Erik Weissman over for failing to yield and smelled marijuana smoke in the vehicle.
When asked about it, Erik Weissman said: “I knew you would smell it,” and handed the officer a brown paper bag filled with bags of marijuana, police said.
A year earlier, Tamerlan Tsarnaev claimed to have just one American friend despite spending much of his life in the US.
Indeed, Tamerlan Tsarnaev introduced Brendan Mess as his best friend to the owner of the gym.
Wai Kru Mixed Martial Arts center owner John Allan said Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Brendan Mess used to work out at his gym together but Tsarnaev stopped coming after Mess was murdered.
The event clearly still haunted Tamerlan Tsarnaev as recently as last week when he suddenly returned to his old gym and started acting unusually.
The business owner who was traveling in Thailand at the time said he received an e-mail saying Tamerlan Tsarnaev had been in, but acted rudely and disrespectfully to other gym-users.
“It was a clear indication that something was up,” John Allan told the Boston Globe.
Federal authorities have asked to speak with Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, wife of suspected Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, her lawyer said.
Amato DeLuca also offered new details on Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s movements in the days after the bombings, saying “he was home” when Katherine Russell Tsarnaev left for work on the last day she saw him alive.
Katherine Russell Tsarnaev learned her husband Tamerlan Tsarnaev was a suspect by seeing it on TV, Amato DeLuca told The Associated Press.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and his brother, Dzhokhar, 19, two ethnic Chechen brothers from southern Russia, are accused of planting two explosives near the Boston Marathon finish line on April 15, killing three and injuring more than 180.
Katherine Russell Tsarnaev learned her husband Tamerlan Tsarnaev was a suspect by seeing it on TV
Katherine Russell Tsarnaev did not speak to federal officials who came to her parents’ home yesterday evening, where she has been staying since Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed during a getaway attempt on Friday.
Amato DeLuca said he spoke with the federal officials, but he would not offer further details.
“We’re deciding what we want to do and how we want to approach this,” the lawyer said.
When asked whether anything seemed amiss to Katherine Russell Tsarnaev following the bombings, Amato DeLuca said: “Not as far as I know.”
Amato DeLuca said his client did not suspect her husband of anything.
He said Katherine Russell Tsarnaev had been working 70 to 80 hours, seven days a week as a home health care aide. While she was at work, Tamerlan Tsarnaev cared for their 3-year-old daughter, Zahara, Amato DeLuca said.
“When this allegedly was going on, she was working, and had been working all week to support her family,” he told the AP.
Katherine Russell Tsarnaev’s awareness of Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s movements, thoughts and plans is under intense scrutiny as her relation to him and her proximity to both brothers makes her a key witness – witting or otherwise.
The eldest of three daughters, to emergency physician Dr. Warren Russell and nurse Judith, Katherine Russell Tsarnaev had an upbringing steeped in the values of family and education.
Amato DeLuca said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was off at college and Katherine Russell Tsarnaev saw him “not at all” at the apartment they shared with her mother-in-law.
Katherine Russell was attending university in Boston when friends introduced her to her future husband Tamerlan Tsarnaev at a nightclub, Amato DeLuca added.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Katherine Russell dated on and off, then married in 2009 or 2010, the lawyer said.
Katherine Russell was raised Christian, but at some point after meeting Tamerlan Tsarnaev, she converted to Islam, he said.
When asked why she converted, Amato DeLuca said: “She believes in the tenets of Islam and of the Koran. She believes in God.”
Kim Kardashian has only been divorced a few days ago, but she has revealed she is ready to tie the knot again.
Kim Kardashian, 32, who was famously married to NBA player Kris Humphries for just 72 days, said she would wed again during a special Kardashian family interview with Ryan Seacrest.
The revelations came during the hour-long special that promised to be a no-holds barred look at “a unique family with no filter” and saw Ryan Seacrest sit down for interviews with the different members of the famous Kardashian clan.
“I do think I would get married again,” Kim Kardashian, 32, said.
Kim Kardashian, who was famously married to Kris Humphries for just 72 days, said she would wed again
“That’s what I’ve always wanted. And just because you think you find it and you realize that’s not it, I think I was brave enough to realize that quickly and not waste time.
“I found what I really wanted. So I think I definitely do want that.”
“You can tell by the smile on her face,” said her 28-year-old sister Khloe Kardashian.
Kim Kardashian also claimed her boyfriend Kanye West – who did not appear on the special – was a big fan of the show.
Kanye West, 35, has been accused of being leaving Kim Kardashian to manage her pregnancy alone while he records a new album in Paris.
“He loves watching the show. He travels so much that it’s just not a reality for him to be there, and be on but he loves to watch it. He loves the whole experience.”
However, Kim Kardashian insisted she has held back from revealing too much about her private life since the Kris Humphries debacle, that was filmed for the show.
“I’ve changed a little bit on showing relationships,” the reality star said.
“I felt like I gave so much of myself publicly. And when you make mistakes it’s embarrassing. I’m going to be a mum, so I feel myself getting really protective.”
Meanwhile her older sister, Kourtney Kardashian, and her partner Scott Disick said they had no plans to wed immediately, despite having been together for almost seven years and having two kids together.
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” said Scott Disick.
“We’re decently happy. I feel like I used to want to get married more than she did.”
Scott Disick, 29, said he drew the line when Kourtney Kardashian, 34, began talking about having a “yoga” wedding.
But Kourtney Kardashian said that after 10 years they might tie the knot, while Scott Disick suggested 20 years.
Kim Kardashian, who is expecting her first child with rapper Kanye West later this summer, admitted to Ryan Seacrest in a special Kardashian family interview that her pregnancy has been far from what she had expected.
Unlike her mother Kris Jenner and sister Kourtney whose pregnancies were easy, Kim Kardashian, 32, has been struggling with severe pain, so much so she has been warning sister Khloe not to get pregnant.
“Mine has been a little bit different,” Kim Kardashian said in the E! special aired on Sunday night.
Kim Kardashian has struggled with severe pain during her pregnancy and she has warned sister Khloe not to get pregnant
“A little bit? No, it’s scaring me to death,” said Khloe Kardashian.
“I’ll call her and say <<Don’t do it! You’re so lucky>>,” said Kim Kardashian.
Khloe Kardashian , 28, said Kim has been urging her to adopt or get a surrogate – or do anything to avoid being pregnant.
“[She says] I hate this!” Khloe Kardashian said.
“I’ve had a lot of pain, everywhere. I’m in pain, physically,” Kim Kardashian said.
“I get really paranoid [and] I start Googling things, the things that come up are really scary. It just freaks me out all the time.
“I was waiting for this amazing experience where I can just do whatever I want, eat what ever I want, feel great, and it hasn’t been that way.”
“Her back hurts, her breasts hurt, her stomach hurts, her feet hurts, her head hurts, her eyes hurt, her nails hurt. She cries all the time, too,” said Khloe Kardashian.
The revelations came during the hour-long special that promised to be a no-holds barred look at “a unique family with no filter” and saw Ryan Seacrest sit down for interviews with the different members of the famous Kardashian clan.
Sources close to the FBI investigation claim that Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev did not act alone and were part of a 12-man terror sleeper cell.
According to a source, the FBI was working furiously to track down the cell amid concerns that further attacks on American soil are being planned and carried out.
On Saturday afternoon, two 19-year-old men from Kazakhstan named by neighbors by their first names Azmat and Diaz and thought to be friends of Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were arrested – as it was revealed the pair drove around in a black BMW with vanity plates that read “Terorrista#1”.
Sources close to the FBI investigation claim that Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev did not act alone and were part of a 12-man terror sleeper cell
“We have no doubt the brothers were not acting alone. The devices used to detonate the two bombs were highly sophisticated and not the kind of thing people learn from Google,” said the source to the UK’s Daily Mirror.
“They were too advanced. Someone gave the brothers the skills and it is now our job to find out just who they were. Agents think the sleeper cell has up to a dozen members and has been waiting several years for their day to come.”
However, the Boston Mayor Tom Menino says the briefings he has been privy to assure him that the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing acted alone.
Tom Menino told ABC’s This Week that he agreed with the decision to lock down Boston all day Friday, based on what officials knew at the time.
He did admit though that a pipe bomb has been found at another location and that another person has been taken into custody, although at this time he would not elaborate.
Azmat and Diaz, who are said to be friends with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were taken into custody again on Saturday.
This time the two foreign nationals were arrested over alleged immigration violations in the Massachusetts town, New Bedford, where police say the surviving suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, may have once lived.
Horacio Cartes has been elected as the new president of Paraguay.
Wealthy businessman and political newcomer Horacio Cartes beat the Liberal Party’s Efrain Alegre by nine percentage points.
The result restores the Colorado Party to power after its defeat by the left-wing candidate Fernando Lugo in 2008.
Horacio Cartes faces the challenge of fighting high levels of poverty and of ending the country’s isolation in the region following last year’s disputed impeachment of President Fernando Lugo.
Regional bodies Mercosur and Unasur suspended Paraguay over the issue.
Horacio Cartes won 45.8% of the votes, compared to 36.9% for Efrain Alegre of the governing Liberal Party. Efrain Alegre conceded defeat shortly after the results were announced.
In his victory speech, Horacio Cartes said that that he would lead Paraguay in “a new direction”.
With tears in his eyes and the Paraguayan flag wrapped around his neck, Horacio Cartes said he would be the president of all Paraguayans.
“I didn’t come to work alone, this country is going to make strong progress once we all realize we have to work together,” he said.
Horacio Cartes has been elected as the new president of Paraguay
Horacio Cartes is a newcomer to politics, who only joined the Colorado Party in 2009.
He is a powerful businessman with controlling stakes in dozens of companies, including a bank, Paraguay’s largest tobacco company and a variety of agricultural businesses.
He is also the chairman of Libertador Football Club, which won last year’s Paraguayan championship.
Horacio Cartes was inspired to join politics in 2009 because he was “disappointed and restless about the political course of Paraguay under a left-oriented-Chavista-inspired government”, he said, referring to the government of President Fernando Lugo and its closeness to the late leader of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez.
During his campaign, Horacio Cartes had to confront accusations of fraud and links with drug trafficking.
He dismissed them all, saying that while he had spent time in prison on allegations of fraud in 1989, all charges against him had eventually been dropped.
Horacio Cartes has also been accused of homophobia after telling a radio station that talk of legalizing same-sex marriage made him think of “the end of the world”.
Fellow Colorado members have described him as “efficient” and determined to give the Colorado Party a “fresh start”.
The party, which came to power in 1947, governed Paraguay for 60 years. It played a key part in supporting the military rule of General Alfredo Stroessner from 1954 to 1989.
In 2008, it was beaten by a left-wing coalition headed by Fernando Lugo.
Fernando Lugo was controversially impeached in June 2012.
The move followed a land eviction at a farm that led to the deaths of 11 farmers and six police officers.
The incident sparked a nationwide outcry and the opposition declared President Fernando Lugo responsible.
Fernando Lugo was replaced by Vice-President Federico Franco of the Liberal Party in less than 48 hours.
Neighboring countries recalled their diplomats calling the impeachment a “congressional coup”.
Paraguay was suspended from regional trade organization Mercosur and Unasur.
Horacio Cartes said he would make rejoining them one of his priorities.
On Monday, Uruguayan President Jose Mujica, who currently holds the rotating presidency of Mercosur, invited Horacio Cortes to attend the next Mercosur meeting in June.
An unreleased surveillance video from the Boston Marathon attack shows Dzhokhar Tsarnaev dropping his backpack and calmly walking away from it before the bomb inside it exploded, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick said Sunday.
The video clearly puts 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev at the scene of the attack, the governor said on NBC.
“It does seem to be pretty clear that this suspect took the backpack off, put it down, did not react when the first explosion went off and then moved away from the backpack in time for the second explosion,” Deval Patrick said.
“It’s pretty clear about his involvement and pretty chilling, frankly.”
Three people were killed and more than 180 injured when the two bombs exploded Monday at the finish line of the Boston Marathon
The governor added, however, that he hasn’t viewed all the tapes but had been briefed by law enforcement about them.
Investigators have determined the bombs were fashioned from pressure cookers packed with explosives, nails and ball bearings and hidden in black backpacks.
Three people were killed and more than 180 injured when the two bombs exploded Monday at the finish line of the Boston Marathon about four hours into the race.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured Friday after being pulled bloody and wounded from David Henneberry’s backyard boat in Watertown.
The suspect is being guarded by armed officers while he recovers at a Boston hospital.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is in serious condition but now he is conscious and able to communicate with investigators in writing.
His 26-year-old brother and alleged accomplice, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, died earlier Friday after a gunbattle with police in Watertown.
Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev are also suspected of killing an MIT police officer Thursday and severely injuring a transit officer.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev called his mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, during his final moments to as he engaged in a furious gun battle with police early on Friday morning, it has emerged.
“The police, they have started shooting at us, they are chasing us,” Tamerlan Tsarnaev reportedly told his mother Zubeidat Tsarnaeva.
At the time the Boston bomber was hurling pressure cooker bombs at officers in the suburb of Watertown as he and his brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev fired more than 200 rounds.
Then, finally, before hanging up, Tamerlan Tsarnaev said: “Mama, I love you.”
When he ran out of bullet, police say Tamerlan Tsarnaev charged at police, before officers tackled him and he was finally run over by his brother Dzhokar.
Days earlier, reports The Wall Street Journal, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva had called her son after the bombings, concerned about his safety.
Shockingly, Tamerlan Tsarnaev had merely shrugged off her concern.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev called his mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, during his final moments to as he engaged in a furious gun battle with police
“Mama, why are you worrying?” he laughed.
This was not, however, the first time Tamerlan Tsarnaev dealt in troubling telephone calls.
Zubeidat Tsarnaeva and her husband Anzor Tsarnaev have claimed that their son Tamerlan received a call from the FBI accusing him of the attack, to which he responded: “That’s your problem.”
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, who was killed following a shoot out with the police on April 19, called his mother two or three days after the Boston Marathon bombings to tell her about the call from the FBI, his father claimed.
Five people have been reportedly killed in a shooting at an apartment complex in Federal Way, near the city of Seattle.
According to police, a man and a woman were found dead in a search of the complex, Associated Press reports.
Five people have been reportedly killed in a shooting at an apartment complex in Federal Way, near the city of Seattle
Another two men were found lying wounded in a car park in Federal Way. Police said they opened fire when one produced a gun.
Both men later died and another man was also later found dead in the car park. Details are still coming in.
“When we arrived, there was a lot of gunfire already being fired and multiple calls, 911 calls of gunfire,” Federal Way police spokeswoman Cathy Schrock said.
The incident is believed to be over and no-one is thought to be in any immediate danger.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is conscious and answering to the FBI questions in writing in his hospital bed.
The 19-year-old Boston Marathon bomber is responding sporadically in writing to questions from investigators regarding other cell members and other unexploded bombs, law enforcement officials said.
Agents are quizzing Dzhokhar Tsarnaev about whether he had any accomplices who helped him carry out his attacks.
The news comes as it is revealed Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is badly wounded in the throat, meekly pulled up his shirt to show officers that he was not wearing a vest strapped with explosives on Friday night as he emerged from David Henneberry’s boat he had been cowering in.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is conscious and answering to the FBI questions in writing in his hospital bed
“At the end they were just making demands of him: Show your hands, lift your shirt. And eventually that’s what he did,” Watertown Police Chief Edward Deveau told ABC News.
“He was very slow and lethargic in every move that he made and they could see that there was no device on his chest. They kept creeping closer to him and then they felt it safe enough to pull him away from the boat.”
Authorities initially said they couldn’t question the terror suspect because of his severe throat wound.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is believed to have shoved his pistol in his own mouth and pulled the trigger in a failed suicide attempt as SWAT officers and federal agents closed in on his backyard hiding place. However, instead of killing him, the bullet simply tore through his neck.
CNN reported earlier today that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was “intubated and sedated” at a Boston hospital.
The Boston police commissioner said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is in “critical but stable” condition on Sunday – which appears to be a downgrade from reports earlier this weekend that his condition was only “serious”.
Boston Mayor Tom Menino had earlier feared that federal agents would never be able to interview Dzhokhar Tsarnaev but it seems that investigators may already be making progress.
All schools in the Dutch city of Leiden have been closed on Monday amid police concerns over a threat to carry out a mass shooting.
The anonymous threat, made on a website, outlined a plan to target a school and teacher in the city, but did not name either.
Police responded by advising all secondary schools and vocational schools to stay closed for the day.
There are reported to be around 22 such schools in the university city.
Two of the main schools, Da Vinci College and Driestar College, had police officers outside them on Monday morning, Dutch media said.
Leiden Mayor Henri Lenferink told Dutch broadcaster NOS: “It could just be a morbid joke but we don’t want to take any risk.”
All schools in the Dutch city of Leiden have been closed on Monday amid police concerns over a threat to carry out a mass shooting
The threat was posted on internet forum 4chan. In English, the writer states: “Tomorrow, I will shoot my Dutch teacher, and as many students as I can.”
He or she goes on to say that they will be carrying a Colt Defender gun and a note with an explanation for the attack when entering the school.
The decision to close the schools – which cover the 12 to 16 age group – was made in close consultation with the mayor, the public prosecutor and the police.
“Police have received mention about a possible school shooting (being planned) in Leiden,” the authorities said in a statement.
“In light of this serious threat, it has been decided not to take any risk and therefore all middle schools will remain closed on Monday.”
Leiden lies some 13 miles north-east of The Hague, and is home to the Netherlands’ oldest university.
Herschel space telescope in Europe has imaged one of the most popular subjects in the sky – the Horsehead Nebula – and its environs.
Horsehead Nebula is a distinctively shaped molecular gas cloud sited some 1,300 light-years from Earth in the Constellation Orion.
It is in a region of space undergoing active star formation – something Herschel has been most keen to study.
The Hubble space observatory has also returned to the Horsehead scene, to celebrate 23 years in orbit.
Together, these two great facilities give scientists a much broader insight into what is taking place in this familiar patch of the heavens.
“You need images at all scales and at all wavelengths in astronomy in order to understand the big picture and the small detail,” said Prof. Matt Griffin, the principal investigator on Herschel’s SPIRE instrument.
“In this new Herschel view, the Horsehead looks like a little feature – a pimple. In reality, of course, it is a very large entity in its own right, but in this great sweep of a picture from Herschel you can see that the nebula is set within an even larger, molecular-cloud complex where there is a huge amount of material and a great range of conditions,” the Cardiff University, UK, researcher said.
To provide a sense of scale, the Horsehead Nebula, also known in the catalogues as “Barnard 33”, is about five light-years “tall”.
Hubble telescope sees the Horsehead in near-infrared light. Herschel, on the other hand, goes to much longer wavelengths. This allows it to see the glow coming directly from cold gas and dust – the material that will eventually collapse under gravity to form the next generation of stars.
Horsehead Nebula is a distinctively shaped molecular gas cloud sited some 1,300 light-years from Earth in the Constellation Orion
Scientists are particularly keen to understand the mechanisms that drive the production of the biggest stars – objects much more massive than our own Sun that form relatively fast, burn bright but brief lives, and interact strongly with their environment, influencing the next round of star formation.
The Orion Molecular Cloud Complex is one of the best and nearest regions in space to study this activity.
Prof. Matt Griffin explained: “You can see all the things we look for in Herschel images – the filaments, the bubbles; the wispy material, the reddish material that hasn’t yet actually started to form stars.
“You can also see nebulosity where material has been lit up from inside by stars; and features like the Horsehead Nebula where that star formation has yet to really get going.”
Hubble telescope’s new view was acquired by its Wide Field Camera-3 instrument, which was installed by astronauts on the last shuttle servicing mission in 2009.
The image was taken to celebrate its 23rd birthday in orbit. It was launched on April 24, 1990.
The much shorter wavelengths at which Hubble works means it can produce finer, sharper detail than Herschel.
It illustrates particularly well the way the ultraviolet glare and stellar winds from nearby stars are sculpting the dusty stellar nursery.
Hubble hopefully has quite a few years of operations left in it. Herschel does not.
Scientists are expecting to lose the telescope any day now.
The superfluid helium it uses to cool its instruments and their detectors is all but gone. When the supply runs completely dry, Herschel will warm from its ultra-low functioning temperature and go blind.
A scholarly paper describing Herschel’s investigation of the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex has been published in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Reese Witherspoon appeared on the red carpet at Mud premiere in NYC just 48 hours after her arrest for disorderly conduct in Atlanta
Reese Witherspoon appeared on the red carpet at Mud premiere in NYC just 48 hours after her arrest for disorderly conduct in Atlanta, Georgia, over the weekend.
Reese Witherspoon, 37, known for her squeaky clean image, released a statement late Sunday apologizing for her behavior to police that began when her husband, Hollywood agent Jim Toth, was arrested early Friday for DUI.
“Do you know my name?” Reese Witherspoon is quoted as saying in a state trooper’s report.
The actress also said: “You’re about to find out who I am’ and ‘You’re about to be on national news,” according to the report.
Reese Witherspoon’s statement said: “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.
“The words I used that night definitely do not reflect who I am. I have nothing but respect for the police and I’m very sorry for my behavior.”
Reese Witherspoon said she can’t comment further “out of respect” for the pending case, and her publicist, Meredith O’Sullivan Wasson, offered no other details.
The Oscar-winning actress posed for cameras on the red carpet at the NYC premiere of her film Mud, but did not stop to talk to reporters.
Reese Witherspoon smiled for the cameras as she would under any normal circumstance, coyly perking up the sides of her mouth as she gave seductive glances to anyone she encountered.
She slimmed up her figure in a loose-fitting black mini dress that drew attention to her toned and trim legs.
Reese Witherspoon also drew attention to her new honey brown hair, which she dyed recently as she is working on The Good Lie in Atlanta, Georgia.
Reese Witherspoon and her husband James Toth were arrested early on Friday morning in Atlanta, Georgia, for disorderly conduct and DUI, respectively.
Reese Witherspoon, 37, was jailed along with James Toth, 42, after he failed to pass a sobriety test.
The city’s Department of Corrections confirmed that Reese Witherspoon and James Toth arrested after Toth was stopped by a patrol car under suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol.
James Toth mugshotReese Witherspoon mugshot
According to a police report which was released on Sunday, Reese Witherspoon was handcuffed and briefly jailed for refusing to obey orders given to her by an officer of the law.
James Toth was also put under arrest for a blood alcohol level reported to be .139, well above the legal limit of 0.08.
Reese Witherspoon and James Toth were released on bail at 3:30 in the morning on Friday.
Before their release, they both posed for mugshots.
Reese Witherspoon, who is currently brunette, is pictured looking down with what appears to be a slight smirk across her face.
Meanwhile, James Toth looks up to the camera in his picture, appearing somewhat glassy-eyed.
Their initial legal hearing for their arrests is set for Monday morning in the Atlanta Municipal court.
But according to Variety, Reese Witherspoon and James Toth are not expected to report to the judge at their court ordered appearance and are anticipated to, through their attorney, request a postponement.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev talked to multiple college friends about the Boston Marathon attack just a day after he allegedly planted the explosive that killed three people and injured more than 170.
“Yeah, man tragedies can happen anywhere in the world. It’s too bad,” Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told one friend at the gym on the campus of the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, according to CNN.
The student, who was not named, told CNN that 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev seemed “tired” but otherwise “fine”.
Another student reported similar behavior from the suspect.
Fellow Dartmouth student Andrew Glasby said that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is suspected of assisting his older brother Tamerlan in the destructive act, lived one floor above him at the campus’s Pine Dale dormitory.
Andrew Glasby said he spoke with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on the campus 24 hours after the marathon explosions became a national terror and was surprised by Tsarneav’s calmness in hindsight.
“I can’t believe he had the balls to come back and act like nothing happened,” Andrew Glasby said.
Sophomore Zach Bettencourt recalled Dzhokhar Tsarnaev telling him on Tuesday evening: “It’s crazy this is happening now. This is so easy to do. These tragedies happen all the time in Afghanistan and Iraq.”
As pictures of the suspects, released by the FBI, flashed onto a television screen being watched by a group of students at Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s dorm, Pine Dale Hall, Zach Bettencourt said he and friends were stunned to realize one of the wanted men might be Tsarnaev.
“’We all thought it looked like him,” said Zach Bettencourt, 20, of Gloucester, Massachusetts.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev talked to multiple college friends about the Boston Marathon attack just a day after he allegedly planted the explosive
“We didn’t believe it was him.”
The group of students wondered aloud if they should walk downstairs and knock on Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s dorm room door.
“What if he had a gun?” Zach Bettencourt said.
A school spokesman declined to say whether at that point on Thursday Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was still on campus, about 60 miles south of Boston.
Just as disturbing, said Zach Bettencourt, was the casual way Dzhokhar Tsarnaev chatted about the bombings during his gym workout.
“I don’t know how he talked about it. I don’t know what was going on in his head,” Zach Bettencourt said.
“I was driving here and thinking <<Wow, he actually did it>>.”
The unnamed student who spoke to ABC said that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was often referred to as Jahar, said blended right back into normal college life and was “convinced” that nothing was off about him.
“I thought as it was just regular old Jahar. We had a typical conversation, he was not startled, he was not scared, he was not anything. He was just the same old Jahar,” he said.
Andrew Glasby said that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had even offered to give him a ride home to Waltham, Massachusetts, on Friday.
But instead, Andrew Glasby spent Friday evacuating the campus, which is about an hour’s drive south of Boston.
A blaring university fire alarm woke Andrew Glasby that morning at around 10 a.m. as Blackhawk helicopters circled overhead, according to ABC.
“I didn’t have time to grab my wallet or my phone. I only had time to grab my sweatpants and my sneakers,” Andrew Glasby said.
“UMass Dartmouth has learned that a person being sought in connection with the Boston Marathon bombing has been identified as a student registered at UMass Dartmouth. The campus is closed. Individuals on campus should shelter in place unless instructed otherwise,” the university wrote on its website.
Andrew Glasby described Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as a regular student who played soccer, enjoyed FIFA soccer video games and frequently smoked marijuana until this year.
“The word that I’ve heard everybody use is <<surreal>>,” said a college official helping students settle back onto the leafy campus of 9,400 students.
“It’s one of those things where you see people committing an alleged crime on stage with cameras from around the world focused on them and a lot of the students just can’t believe their eyes,” the official said.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was apprehended by local authorities and rushed to the hospital in a serious condition at 8:43 pm on Friday evening after an ongoing gun battle with police and SWAT teams in Watertown.
Two days prior, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev partied with college friends on Wednesday night and was said to “look relaxed”.
Hours before the deadly shootout which claimed his brother Tamerlan’s life, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was seen on a night out on campus.
The last batch of tickets for Glastonbury Festival 2013 has sold out, organizers have announced today.
Weekend camping tickets went quickly in just over an hour, before coach packages were snapped up by festival-goers.
The festival’s Twitter feed apologized to people who missed out after “demand far outstripped supply”.
The Rolling Stones, Mumford and Sons and Arctic Monkeys will headline the event in June at Worthy Farm.
Fans could reserve up to four tickets, which cost £205 ($320) plus a booking fee, when the site opened at 09:00 BST.
The last batch of tickets for Glastonbury Festival 2013 has sold out
Glastonbury Festival organizer Emily Eavis tweeted asking for feedback on the ticketing process which has been criticized in the past for not being able to cope with demand.
Tickets for the event, which had a break last year to rest the fields, cost £10 ($16) more than the previous festival.
The Rolling Stones, who play on the Saturday night, will be performing at the festival for the first time.
Lead singer Mick Jagger said he would call U2 singer Bono for advice about their upcoming performance, following the Irish band’s 2011 headline slot.
More than 190 acts will appear at the event, including country star Kenny Rogers, Primal Scream, Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds and Elvis Costello.
New acts Rita Ora and Jake Bugg will appear on the main Pyramid Stage alongside Rufus Wainwright and festival veteran Billy Bragg.
Glastonbury Festival 2013 takes place from 28 to 30 June.
Reese Witherspoon was arrested for disorderly conduct after allegedly resisting the orders of a police officer in Atlanta, Georgia, on Friday night.
Reese Witherspoon, 37, was jailed along with husband CAA agent James Toth after he failed to pass a sobriety test.
The city’s Department of Corrections confirmed that Reese Witherspoon and James Toth were arrested after Toth was stopped by a patrol car under suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol.
According to a police report obtained by Variety, Reese Witherspoon was handcuffed and briefly jailed for refusing to obey orders given to her by an officer of the law.
Reese Witherspoon was arrested for disorderly conduct after James Toth was handcuffed for DUI
James Toth, 42, was also put under arrest for a blood alcohol level reported to be .139, well above the legal limit of 0.08.
Reese Witherspoon and James Toth were released on bail at 3:30 in the morning on Friday.
Their initial legal hearing is set for Monday morning in the Atlanta Municipal court.
According to Variety, Reese Witherspoon and James Toth are not expected to report to the judge at their court ordered appearance and are anticipated to, through their attorney, request a postponement.
Reese Witherspoon and James Toth are currently residing in Atlanta to shoot Reese’s new movie The Good Lie.
James Toth was apprehended after midnight on Friday for recklessly weaving across Peachtree Street, in the city of Atlanta.
The police report alleges that he smelled of alcohol and appeared “disheveled”.
After pulling the DUI suspect over, the sobriety test was conducted in a Walgreens parking lot.
Reese Witherspoon is said to have been warned to remain inside her vehicle, while her husband was subjected to the DUI test.
The officer on the scene claims that Reese Witherspoon became clearly agitated and eventually disobeyed his verbal commands.
The officer reported: “Mrs. Witherspoon began to hang out the window and say that she did not believe that I was a real police officer.”
The law enforcer explained in the report: “I told Mrs. Witherspoon to sit on her butt and be quiet.”
But once James Toth was handcuffed, the mother-of-three disembarked from her seat, telling the officer that she was a “US citizen” and that she had the right to “stand on American ground”.
The report then described how Reese Witherspoon resisted him as he grabbed her arms to arrest her.
James Toth is said to have made a verbal attempt to calm his hysterical wife.
The officer’s report further details: “Mrs. Witherspoon asked, <<Do you know my name?>> I answered, <<No, I don’t need to know your name>>. I then added, <<right now>>. Mrs. Witherspoon stated, <<You’re about to find out who I am>>.”
According to the arresting officer: “Mrs. Witherspoon also stated, <<You are going to be on national news>>. I advised Mrs. Witherspoon that was fine.”
James Toth is said to be facing charges for DUI and failure to stay within his lane while on the road.
While Reese Witherspoon’s alleged violation is “disorderly conduct (obstruction)”, which falls under municipal ordinance.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s wife, Katherine Russell, was “an all-American girl who was brainwashed” by her extremist husband, a schoolfriend claimed today.
According to those who knew her best, Katherine Russell was “totally transformed” by Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
Katherine Russell’s high school personal motto was: “Do something about it or stop complaining”.
She dreamed of going to college and joining the Peace Corps.
She urged her friends to “lighten up and enjoy the small things”, in life.
But she met Tamerlan Tsarneav, a disenfranchised man who came to America from his troubled homeland of Chechnya who rapidly had her in his thrall.
By the time she was 21, Katherine Russell had married him and borne his child, Zahara, now 3. She had converted to Islam, hidden her tumble of chestnut hair beneath the hijab and undergone a change so profound that today few friends profess to truly understand it.
Yesterday Katherine Russell, who has been staying at her parents’ home in Rhode Island, returned to the Cambridge, Massachusetts, home which she shared with late husband Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
Dressed in a leopard print hijab Katherine Russell darted into the white shingle house to collect some belongings and her pet cat while her daughter waited in the car.
Today Katherine Russell was back home, accompanied by armed federal agents who first interviewed her and her family on Friday.
Shortly before 6 p.m. on Sunday three law enforcement agents – two men, one woman – all wearing dark sunglasses delivered a package to the Russell’s family home.
Katherine Russell’s mother Judith was initially reluctant to answer the front door, opening it fully only after requesting that the officers, thought to be Federal Agents, showed their credentials.
Their presence raises the question how much did Katherine Russell know about Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s activities and links?
Katherine Russell’s awareness of her then husband’s movements, thoughts and plans is under intense scrutiny as her relation to the Boston bomber and her proximity to both brothers, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, makes her a key witness – witting or otherwise.
After all she was living with Tamerlan Tsarnaev when he travelled to Makhachkala in 2011 – a trip now attracting the interest of investigators trying to establish whether he met with Gaczhimurad Dolgatov at that time.
Gaczhimurad Dolgatov was a Dagestani jihadist who died in 2012 after a vicious stand-off with Russian security services.
As it has already been revealed, Tamerlan Tsarnaev was on the FBI’s radar during that time as they were asked to look into his potential links to extremist groups.
None who knew Katherine Russell as a child could have dreamed that this would be the face she would one day present to the world, nor that her life and those of so many Bostonians would be so violently caught up with two brothers from Chechnya and a cause as unclear as it was brutal.
Katherine Russell’s awareness of Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s movements, thoughts and plans is under intense scrutiny, making her a key witness
As a girl growing up in Rhode Island Katherine Russell was known to her friends as Katie. One school friend who asked not to be named recalled: “I saw her like a few months ago and she was just totally transformed. She was not the same person at all.”
Another agreed: “She was just this All-American girl who was brainwashed by her super-religious husband. Nobody understands what happened to her.
“None of us would have dreamed that she would marry so young or drop out of college and have a baby or convert or be part of any of what’s happened.”
The friend said: “She’s just not the same person at all.”
It would be hard to imagine a childhood more rooted in America’s pilgrim heritage than Katherine Russell’s. It is in there in the names of the towns – Plymouth, Dorset, Greenwich –where many of her friends still live and writ large in the wholesome values of the one-time Honors student’s home life.
The eldest of three daughters, to emergency physician Dr. Warren Russell and nurse Judith, hers is a background steeped in the values of family and education.
Katherine Russell attended Daisyville Middle School, North Kingstown. As a sixth grader she is pictured smiling from the pages of the 2001-2002 yearbook dedicated to The North Kingstown Police and Fire Departments in the wake of 9/11. – a date, the opening dedication reads: “Forever in our minds.”
A section of the book is titled, Enduring Freedom, as the school, along with the rest of the nation, refused to be cowed by the acts of terror that hit the homeland on September 11, 2001.
In 2004, Katherine Russell progressed to North Kingstown High School.
She took part gamely in the school’s Mismatch/Bad Hair Day; she dressed up for Hawaiian day though the occasion fell in a chilly October.
She was a member of the Dance Team and the Art Club. In 11th grade she was awarded a Silver Key for a rather odd image of a cat, lashing out at a mouse in a ballet shoe. Her favorite food was Pad Thai.
Katherine Russell competed with her peers in Class Color Day that ended with a Pep Rally in which seas of the school colors, green, blue, red, black and gold filled the stands at the playing field.
One classmate who remembers Katherine Russell from those early days said: “The thing that’s so shocking is that there was nothing at all that made Katherine different.
“Her parents are nice people, her sisters are great girls. But she met this guy, I guess, and everything changed.”
Katherine Russell was a student at Sussex University, Boston, when she met Tamerlan Tsarnaev, then a promising boxer and athlete.
It was during that time that she converted and her youthful priorities appear to have changed as she left in 2010 without graduating.
By then her relationship with Tamerlan Tsarnaev was intense. Not even his arrest for violently assaulting her in 2009 could change that.
According to Cambridge City Police Department, the incident which took place in July at the Massachusetts home Katherine Russell once shared with Tamerlan Tsarnaev, when interviewed she described him as “a very nice man”.
Certainly Tamerlan Tsarnaev was a man whose influence on Katherine Russell’s life would prove profound.
There is only one odd and unsettling inclusion in her own entry in her graduation High School Yearbook.
Asked to provide a quotation Katherine Russell settled on one that would surely chime with the extremist views of her late husband.
“Don’t take anything for granted,” Katherine Russell advises, before quoting a line from David Bowie’s Quicksand: “Don’t believe in yourself, don’t deceive with belief,” the baffling lines run.
