Blake Shelton delays tour to mourn father

Sad news for Blake Shelton.

The 35-year-old country superstar and "The Voice" mentor is grieving the Wednesday passing of his father, Dick.

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"Mr. Shelton, who was in declining health this past year, was surrounded by loved ones in Oklahoma upon his passing this evening," a rep for Shelton told Us Weekly in a statement late Wednesday.

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As the singer mourns with his family, he has announced plans to reschedule four dates through next week on his Well Lit & Amplified tour. His stops in Bismark, N.D., Rapid City, S.D., Bozeman, Mont. and Billings, Mont. will be delayed until late March.

PHOTOS: Blake's romance with wife Miranda Lambert

"I appreciate your understanding during this difficult time and thank you for all your prayers. Your support means the world to me. I love you guys," Shelton told Us in a statement.

For more information on Shelton's makeup dates, visit his website, BlakeShelton.com.

Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/46040519/ns/today-entertainment/

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Giants ace Lincecum asks for $21.5 million

FILE - In this May 4, 2011, file photo, San Francisco Giants' Tim Lincecum (55) delivers a pitch during the first inning of a baseball game against the New York Mets at Citi Field in New York. Lincecum is expected to set records for the highest salaries asked for and received in arbitration. The two-time NL Cy Young Award winner made $13.1 million last season, completing a two-year deal worth $23.2 million. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)

FILE - In this May 4, 2011, file photo, San Francisco Giants' Tim Lincecum (55) delivers a pitch during the first inning of a baseball game against the New York Mets at Citi Field in New York. Lincecum is expected to set records for the highest salaries asked for and received in arbitration. The two-time NL Cy Young Award winner made $13.1 million last season, completing a two-year deal worth $23.2 million. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)

(AP) ? Giants ace Tim Lincecum asked for $21.5 million in salary arbitration Tuesday and was offered $17 million by the club.

The two-time NL Cy Young Award winner's request neared the record amount sought in arbitration. Houston pitcher Roger Clemens asked for $22 million in 2005.

San Francisco's offer was the highest in arbitration history, topping the $14.25 million the New York Yankees proposed for shortstop Derek Jeter in 2001.

"I'm overall optimistic that we'll find common ground without a hearing room," Bobby Evans, Giants vice president of baseball operations, said before seeing Lincecum's filing numbers. "It's a process that begins long before today in terms of conversations about possible deals that work for both sides. That process has continued in a mutual fashion. At this point we haven't reached a conclusion."

Also Tuesday, the Giants and slugger Pablo Sandoval agreed on a $17.15 million, three-year contract. The 25-year-old third baseman became an All-Star last season after losing nearly 40 pounds during a rigorous offseason regimen. He batted .315 with 23 home runs and 70 RBIs in 2011.

Lincecum, the winning pitcher in the Game 5 World Series clincher at Texas in 2010, earned $13.1 million last season when he completed a two-year deal worth $23.2 million.

San Francisco's front office would like to lock up the 27-year-old Lincecum and fellow starter Matt Cain with long-term deals. Lincecum seems set on keeping his options open in the near future on a shorter contract.

"We know we'll at least have a one-year deal," Evans said. "I can't really predict where it will end up. In this process your two parties are always filing to try to come to a midpoint. The negotiation is really about the midpoint."

With Lincecum earning a hefty contract, Evans joked, "I usually leave off the final three zeroes because it's easier to calculate."

If the past is any indication, the sides will do their best to reach agreement before spring training and before an arbitration hearing.

In February 2010, Lincecum agreed to a $23 million, two-year contract ahead of the scheduled hearing. He had been set at that time to ask for $13 million.

That last contract was quite a raise for the undersized, hard-throwing pitcher his teammates call "Franchise" and "Freak" after he earned $650,000 in 2009.

"We're looking at different player contracts that give us an idea where we think Tim should be," Evans said. "There is not ever a player that's exactly like the one you have. Ultimately there is only one guy that looks just like him."

Lincecum ? the 10th overall draft pick out of Washington in 2006 ? has been an All-Star in each of the past four seasons. He went 13-14 with a 2.74 ERA last year for his first losing record. The Giants scored no runs while he was in the game in seven of 33 starts, had one run six times and two runs five times, according to STATS LLC.

Also Tuesday, the Giants reached one-year agreements to avoid arbitration with outfielders Melky Cabrera and Nate Schierholtz and reliever Santiago Casilla.

Cabrera agreed to a $6 million deal.

San Francisco, which sold out every game in 2011 but missed the playoffs, will have a payroll of around $130 million.

"Obviously the revenue that has been generated by our ownership and the support of our fans here makes the payroll level we have possible," Evans said. "We don't take that for granted. We know that with that kind of payroll comes responsibility and expectation."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-01-17-BBN-Giants-Lincecum/id-664762afed2a4389a7a03a15f8e8d63b

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Bayer, Onyx cancer drug shows modest improvement in survival

A colorectal cancer drug under development by Bayer HealthCare modestly improved overall survival in some of the sickest patients in a late-stage trial, partner Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc.?

The median overall survival of patients on experimental regorafenib was 6.4 months. That compares to five months for patients who were given a placebo.

Onyx called the finding, released at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's gastrointestinal cancer meeting in San Francisco, statistically significant. But critics appeared less than wowed by the small improvement.

The companies also said the 760-patient study showed that patients on regorafenib had a better median progression-free survival rate than those on placebo -- 1.9 months versus 1.7 months -- and a better disease control rate.

Source: http://feeds.bizjournals.com/~r/vertical_38/~3/f6CACCRVFvE/bayer-onyx-cancer-drug-shows-modest.html

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Tax return often an issue for White House hopefuls

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney campaigns at the Florence Civic Center in Florence, S.C., Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney campaigns at the Florence Civic Center in Florence, S.C., Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, left, speaks as former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney listen at the South Carolina Republican presidential candidate debate in Myrtle Beach, S.C., Monday, Jan. 16, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, Pool)

(AP) ? Mitt Romney's promise to release his 2011 tax return in April follows the practice of leading presidential candidates that began after Watergate. If history is any lesson, questions and criticism will continue long afterward.

For more than three decades, the major party nominees have released their income tax records. Some offered one year and others more than 10 years of returns. The same has been true for vice presidential candidates, except for Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas when he joined President Gerald Ford on the GOP ticket in 1976.

Former California Gov. Ronald Reagan broke his longstanding rule of keeping his personal finances private in July 1980 when he released his 23-page 1979 income tax return weeks before accepting the GOP nomination. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton weathered weeks of criticism in 2008 for not releasing tax returns showing family income after Bill Clinton left the presidency. She ultimately produced the records in April of that year after taking a pounding from her top party rival, Sen. Barack Obama.

Even after returns are released, controversies persist. Democratic Sen. John Kerry took heat in 2004 after releasing his returns because his wife, heiress to the Heinz Co. food fortune, initially refused to release hers, which were filed separately. Four years later, Republican Sen. John McCain faced similar criticism because his wife didn't release her separately filed returns, which reflected income from a Phoenix-based beer distributing company she inherited. She later released the two top summary pages of one year's return, the same that Kerry's wife had released.

Now it's Romney's turn. Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who released his own tax returns dating back to 1991, urged Romney during a debate Monday to release his. Romney, whose net worth is estimated at roughly $250 million, previously had resisted calls to release his tax returns. Anticipating a key question about his taxes, Romney disclosed Tuesday that he pays an effective federal tax rate of about 15 percent, still higher than the rate paid by many Americans.

Romney said in the debate that he will decide whether to release returns in the coming months.

"I hadn't planned on releasing tax records because the law requires us to release all of our assets, all the things we own. That I have already released," he said. Later, he added, "What's happened in history is people have released them in about April of the coming year and that's probably what I would do."

Romney's right. There is no law requiring presidential candidates to release personal tax information. Since 1978, however, they've had to disclose information about their income and some about their assets, like real estate holdings, investments and outside business interests. But those disclosures only show a range of values for assets, making it impossible to use those forms to identify a candidate's actual wealth.

He's also right that many leading candidates in recent history chose April to release their tax returns.

On Tuesday, Romney gave reporters in South Carolina more insight into his plans, saying he would release one year of his tax returns, not the six previous years that Obama released as a candidate in 2008 or even the two years that McCain released that year.

"People will want to see the most recent year," Romney said.

He said he's paid "closer to the 15 percent rate" in taxes because most of his income has come from investments and not ordinary wages, which have a top tax rate of 35 percent for those with the highest earned income.

When he ran in 2008 Romney refused to release his tax returns, and he previously had filed only state financial disclosures that described his assets in the most general terms.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia has said he will release his tax returns Thursday.

Even when tax returns are released, they offer only a narrow snapshot into a candidate's financial background. But some candidates in the past, like former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter in 1976, have offered more specific breakdowns of their financial worth.

Some of the bigger controversies over tax returns have belonged to vice presidential candidates. Geraldine Ferraro was a little known New York City congresswoman when the Democratic nominee, Sen. Walter Mondale, chose her as his running mate in 1984. The euphoria of that history-making selection of a woman for a major presidential ticket ended abruptly when Ferraro began battling criticism over her husband's refusal to release his separately filed tax returns. After they finally relented, she faced more controversy over accounting errors and other questions in the returns.

George H.W. Bush was Reagan's vice president at the time and became one of Ferraro's biggest critics on the issue, only to face his own controversy that year when he initially declined to release three years of returns. Bush argued he couldn't release them because he had turned his personal financial affairs over to a blind trust when he became vice president. But he ultimately released the returns weeks before the 1984 election.

Dick Cheney, George W. Bush's running mate in 2000, got blasted after releasing his returns for his financial ties to a Dallas-based oil company and for charitable giving that amounted to less than 1 percent of his income. After becoming Obama's running mate in 2008, Sen. Joe Biden faced similar criticism over his charitable giving once his tax returns became public.

In 2008, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's tax returns for two years triggered scrutiny because Palin, then McCain's running mate, did not list per diem payments the state made to her when she stayed in her own home. She later had to pay taxes on the payments.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-01-18-GOP-Tax%20Returns/id-5fe16622d7ae4523b2568606f6c24d1f

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Peace Corps Honduras: Why are all the US volunteers leaving?

Peace Corps Honduras: The 158 Peace Crops volunteers have been ordered out of Honduras. There's also a freeze on new Peace Corps volunteers going to Guatemala and El Salvador.

?The U.S. government's decision to pull out all its Peace Corps volunteers from Honduras for safety reasons is yet another blow to a nation still battered by a coup and recently labeled the world's most deadly country.

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Neither U.S. nor Honduran officials have said what specifically prompted them to withdraw the 158 Peace Corps volunteers, which the U.S. State Department in 2011 called one of the largest missions in the world.

But the wave of violence and drug cartel-related crime hitting the Central American country had affected volunteers working on HIV prevention, water sanitation and youth projects, President Porfirio Lobo acknowledged.

QUIZ: Think you know Latin America? Take the quiz

Last month, The Christian Science Monitor reported that Kristina Edmunson, a Peace Corps spokeswoman in Washington, said the moves stemmed from ?comprehensive safety and security concerns? rather than any specific threat or incident.

Monday's pullout also comes less than two months after U.S. Rep. Howard Berman, a California Democrat, asked Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to reconsider sending police and military aid to Honduras as a response to human rights abuses.

"It's a welcome step toward the United States recognizing that they have a disastrous situation in Honduras," said Dana Frank, a University of California Santa Cruz history professor who has researched and traveled in Honduras.

The decision to pull out the entire delegation came 18 days after a Dec. 3 armed robbery in a bus where a female volunteer was shot in the leg in the violence-torn city of San Pedro Sula.

Hugo Velasquez, a spokesman for the country's National Police, said 27-year-old Lauren Robert was wounded along with two other people. One of the three alleged robbers was killed by a bus passenger, Velasquez said. The daily La Prensa said Robert was from Texas.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/WndQ91_FveE/Peace-Corps-Honduras-Why-are-all-the-US-volunteers-leaving

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108 Photos With Perfect Compositional Balance, Supposedly [Shooting Challenge]

Many call the "rule of thirds" the perfect way to compose an image. You may disagree, but these 108 photos from this week's Shooting Challenge won't be called wrong without a fight. More »


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This Deadly Jet Boat Is a Pirate's Worst Nightmare [Monster Machines]

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DA: Homeless killings suspect stalked victims (AP)

SANTA ANA, Calif. ? The Iraq War veteran would carefully stalk each of his victims from among the thousands of homeless living in Southern California. He would then stab them repeatedly with a knife that could cut through bone, authorities say.

For his fourth and latest victim, they say, Itzcoatl Ocampo selected a homeless man featured in a Los Angeles Times story about a killing spree that terrorized those living on the streets for weeks.

And Ocampo had plans for more, until he was chased down by bystanders Friday night after the fatal stabbing of a 64-year-old homeless man. He was caught with blood on his hands and face, authorities say.

"He was a monster," Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas told reporters at a news conference. "He was a terrible threat, particularly to the homeless people in our community."

Ocampo was charged Tuesday with four counts of murder and special allegations of multiple murders and lying in wait and use of a deadly weapon. Three victims were stabbed more than 40 times with a single-edged blade at least 7-inches long.

Authorities declined to say whether they had identified a motive. Rackauckas said he had no indication that Ocampo was mentally ill.

Ocampo's family said the 23-year-old was a troubled man after he returned from Iraq in 2008. Ocampo was being held in isolation at an Orange County jail while officers keep an eye on him 24 hours a day, officials said.

If convicted, Ocampo faces a minimum sentence of life in prison without parole. Authorities have yet to decide whether to seek the death penalty.

Ocampo is expected to be arraigned on Wednesday. It was not immediately known whether Ocampo had an attorney.

The killing spree began in December, prompting police and advocates to fan out across the county known as the home to Disneyland and multimillion-dollar beachfront homes to urge the homeless to sleep in groups or in one of two wintertime shelters.

Ocampo's arrest Friday was the latest violent crime involving a veteran. This month, an Iraq War veteran fatally shot a ranger at Mount Rainier National Park and died later as he fled police across the mountain's snow-covered slopes.

Veterans Affairs officials say such high-profile violence can paint an inaccurate picture of returning veterans. The cases, however, raise the issue of veterans having a difficult time adjusting back into civilian life.

To help, the VA created a program to assist veterans in adjusting to their new lives and avoid repeated brushes with the law. "We've seen over and over again that once they access those services, we can help them," VA spokesman Josh Taylor said.

A neighbor who is a Vietnam veteran and Ocampo's father both tried to push him to get treatment at a VA hospital, but he refused. His father, Refugio Ocampo, said, his son came back from his deployment a changed man. He said his son expressed disillusionment and became ever darker as he struggled to find his way.

After he was discharged in 2010 and returned home, his parents separated. The same month, one of his friends, a corporal, was killed during combat in Afghanistan. His brother said Ocampo visited his friend's grave twice a week.

Like the men Ocampo is accused of preying on, his father is homeless. His father lost his job and ended up living under a bridge before finding shelter in the cab of a broken-down big-rig he is helping repair.

Days before his arrest, Ocampo visited his father, warning him of the danger of being homeless. He showed him a picture of one of the slain men, his father said.

"He was very worried about me," his father said. "I told him, `Don't worry. I'm a survivor. Nothing will happen to me.'"

Itzcoatl Ocampo followed a friend into the Marine Corps right out of high school in 2006. He now lives with his mother, uncle, younger brother and sister in a rented house on a horse ranch surrounded by the sprawling suburbs of Yorba Linda.

His family described a physical condition he suffered in which his hands shook and he suffered headaches. Medical treatments helped until he started drinking heavily, they said.

As fear spread through the homeless community, police in the last week set up road blockades to seek help from members of the public in tracking down a suspect. Ocampo, who appeared to relish the media spotlight, passed through the checkpoints twice but did not draw attention to himself, Rackauckas said.

Ocampo was arrested Friday night when witnesses chased him down after John Berry was stabbed to death outside a fast-food restaurant in Anaheim, about 26 miles southeast of Los Angeles, authorities said.

A day before he died, Berry had filed a report with police saying he believed someone was trying to follow him. It was one of nearly 600 leads and tips that officers received.

"It is unfortunate that we didn't get to him before the suspect did," Anaheim Police Chief John Welter said.

In addition to Berry, James Patrick McGillivray, 53, was killed near a shopping center in Placentia on Dec. 20 and Lloyd Middaugh, 42, was found near a riverbed trail in Anaheim on Dec. 28. The third victim, Paulus Smit, 57, was stabbed to death outside a library in Yorba Linda on Dec. 30.

Smit became homeless last year after his girlfriend's home was shuttered by code enforcement officers because of hoarding and clutter. Ever since, the father of three had moved between the homes of two of his children and spent some time on the streets, his daughter Julia Smit-Lozano said.

Smit-Lozano, who spent the Christmas holiday with her father days before he was killed, welcomed the news of Ocampo's arrest. "I'm glad the streets are a little safer for the rest of the homeless," she said.

___

Associated Press writer Kevin Freking in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120117/ap_on_re_us/us_homeless_homicides

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Amazon makes life a little easier for PC users with Send to Kindle plugin (Digital Trends)

Kindle is great for books and all, but some folks would like to be able to get personal documents onto their Kindle or Kindle Library and up until now, it?s been a less-than-simple task. The option of a new plugin, however, is going to make the task a lot easier for PC users, and eventually Mac users, too. Send to Kindle for PC is a simple application that will allow users to easily send personal documents to both their online Kindle and their Kindle library for access on any Kindle-enabled devices.?

Once the plugin is downloaded, all users have to do is right-click on a document in Windows Explorer or look under ?Print? options in any Windows application. In both pull-down menus, a new ?Send to Kindle? option will now show up. After that, the documents are archived, meaning you can easily download them to any of your Kindle-enabled devices at any time. Conveniently, notes and highlights are also saved and will be the same across all of your devices. Make a note on a document on your smartphone and it will automatically show up on the document when you open it in Kindle on your PC. The only exception here is that the Whispersync notes and highlights won?t work with PDF documents.?

The new application is free to download and we have word that a version for Mac users will be on the way shortly. 

This article was originally posted on Digital Trends

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/personaltech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/digitaltrends/20120117/tc_digitaltrends/amazonmakeslifealittleeasierforpcuserswithsendtokindleplugin

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Pakistan Taliban leader believed dead: intelligence officials (Reuters)

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) ? The leader of the Pakistani Taliban, the militant movement that poses the gravest security threat to the country, is believed to have been killed by a U.S. drone strike, four Pakistan intelligence officials told Reuters on Sunday.

The officials said they intercepted wireless radio chatter between Taliban fighters detailing how Hakimullah Mehsud was killed while travelling in a convoy to a meeting in the North Waziristan tribal region near the Afghan border.

A senior military official told Reuters there was no official confirmation that the Pakistani state's deadliest enemy had been killed. The Pakistani Taliban issued a denial. U.S. officials, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, could not confirm his death.

If Hakimullah did die, it could ease pressure on security forces, who have struggled to weaken the group, which is close to al Qaeda and has been blamed for many of the suicide bombings across one of the world's most unstable countries.

But it may not ease violence in the long term in Pakistan, which is seen as critical for U.S. efforts to fight global militancy, most crucially in neighboring Afghanistan.

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or see http://link.reuters.com/kac58m

Pakistan blog: http://blogs.reuters.com/pakistan/

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The death of Hakimullah's predecessor, Baitullah Mehsud, in a drone strike in 2009 raised false hopes that the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, could be broken.

"Six to seven TTP members were talking to each other through wireless radio in the conversations we heard, talking about Hakimullah Mehsud being hit by a drone when he was heading to a meeting at a spot near Miranshah," said one of the intelligence officials.

"They referred to him by his codename."

Officials refused to disclose Mehsud's codename.

"Based on our intercepts, Mehsud was heading to a meeting in Nawa Adda," said another intelligence official. Nawa Adda is a village in the Dattakhel area of North Waziristan.

PREVIOUS REPORTS OF HAKIMULLAH'S DEATH FALSE

The Pakistani Taliban said Hakimullah was still alive, but the denial was far less assertive than one issued in 2010 after media reports said he had been killed in a drone strike.

"There is no truth in reports about his death. However, he is a human being and can die any time. He is a holy warrior and we will wish him martyrdom," said TTP spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan.

"We will continue jihad if Hakimullah is alive or dead. There are so many lions in this jungle and one lion will replace another one to continue this noble mission."

The TTP launched an insurgency in 2007 after the military began a major crackdown on militants.

Fighters were particularly incensed when Pakistani security forces stormed the Red Mosque complex run by hard-line clerics in the capital, Islamabad. The government said 102 people were killed in fighting in the incident.

The TTP delivered on threats to carry out revenge attacks in Pakistan after U.S. special forces killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in a secret raid in a Pakistani town in May last year.

More recently, some senior Taliban commanders said the umbrella group had started exploratory peace talks with the government. But it is not clear if all factions were on board.

Hakimullah was not only in danger of being killed by the drone campaign that President Barack Obama has escalated, or by Pakistani military operations. He and his powerful deputy, Wali-ur-Rehman, were at each other's throats and hostilities were close to open warfare, Taliban sources say.

Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afganistan have been trying to sort out differences between Pakistani Taliban commanders so they can aid their fight against U.S.-led NATO forces across the border in Afghanistan.

Any division within the TTP could hinder the Afghan Taliban and al Qaeda's struggle in Afghanistan against the United States and its allies, making it tougher to recruit young fighters and disrupting safe havens in Pakistan that Washington says are used by the Afghan militants.

Hakimullah, who has a sharp face framed by shaggy hair and a disarming grin, is considered to be one of the most ruthless Taliban commanders. He is also ambitious. Under his leadership, the Taliban has vowed to expand its violent campaign overseas to hit Western targets.

A suicide bombing at a U.S. base in Afghanistan's Khost province in 2009 killed seven CIA employees. In video footage released after the attack, the bomber was shown sitting with Hakimullah Mehsud.

Shortly afterwards, the United States added the TTP to its list of foreign terrorist organizations and set rewards of up to $5 million for information leading to Hakimullah Mehsud or Wali-ur-Rehman.

A Pakistani-born American who tried to set off a car bomb in New York's Times Square in 2010 told a U.S. court he received bomb-making training and funding from the Pakistani Taliban.

(Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball and Phil Stewart in Washington; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Peter Graff and Peter Cooney)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120115/wl_nm/us_pakistan_taliban_leader

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