Sources say that what began as a drug ripoff ended in a triple homicide when Tsarnaev and friend Ibragim Todashev realized their victims would later be able to identify them.

Todashev was killed by a federal agent while giving a statement on his role on Wednesday in Orlando, Fla.
The man who was shot, Todashev, 27, allegedly attacked an agent with a knife while confessing to the 3-year-old slayings. He was not suspected of having played any role in the bombing that killed three people and injured scores more in April, but he did confess to being involved in a brutal Boston-area slaying two years ago, investigators said.

In this May 4, 2013 police mug provided by the Orange County Corrections Department in Orlando, Fla., shows Ibragim Todashev after his arrest for aggravated battery in Orlando.

Law enforcement officials said Todashev was being questioned as part of the FBI’s effort to find and talk to anyone who had any contact with Tsarnaev, the older bombing suspect killed in a shootout with police.
The shooting occurred in the early morning hours on Wednesday, the FBI said in a statement.

“The agent, two Massachusetts State Police troopers, and other law enforcement personnel were interviewing an individual in connection with the Boston Marathon bombing investigation when a violent confrontation was initiated by the individual,” the statement said.

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The attorney general said that in conducting U.S. counterterrorism operations against al-Qaida and its associated forces, the government has targeted and killed one American citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki.

In a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, Holder says the U.S. is also aware of three other American citizens who have been killed in such counterterrorism operations over the same time period.

Anthony D. Weiner, once a rising star of New York politics whose career cratered over revelations of his sexually explicit life online, announced an improbable bid on Wednesday for the job he has long coveted: mayor.

After a rocky re-emergence into public life over the past few weeks, marked by circuslike scenes of tabloid photographers chasing him onto the subway, Mr. Weiner opted to declare his candidacy from the safe remove of a video.

The two-minute video was posted online overnight, apparently prematurely, and then announced by Mr. Weiner in a 5 a.m. e-mail. It makes an oblique and glancing reference to the scandal that prompted him to resign from Congress; Mr. Weiner asks voters for “a second chance,’’ but does not apologize for his conduct.

“Look, I made some big mistakes, and I know I let a lot of people down,” he says. “But I’ve also learned some tough lessons.”

NYT

Jodi Arias: Death Penalty Would Cause More Pain

In a surprise jailhouse interview just hours after a jury began deliberating her fate, Jodi Arias spoke out Tuesday about her murder trial, her many fights with her legal team and her belief that she “deserves a second chance at freedom someday.”

Arias spoke to The Associated Press as part of a series of interviews with media outlets. She repeated many of her claims from previous interviews, testimony on the witness stand and her statements to the jury earlier Tuesday as she pleaded for mercy.

But she provided some new information about her case and how she believed her lawyers let her down by not calling more witnesses who could have bolstered her claims that she was a victim of domestic violence at the hands of Travis Alexander.

Retired international tax attorney Michael Durst suggested to Bloomberg that the various world governments allowed multinationals to perform these tax maneuvers by funneling cash through other countries, with the result being “eroding public confidence in the fairness of tax systems in the United States and around the world.”

Google uses the tax laws in Ireland and the Netherlands, termed a “Double Irish” and “Dutch Sandwich” by tax attorneys, to push cash into accounts located in Bermuda, a country without corporate income tax, in order to avoid around $2 billion in income tax each year. Yahoo uses a Netherlands-based accountant and stores funds in Mauritius and Switzerland, as well as operating an Irish subsidiary that is claimed to be a tax resident of the Cayman Islands. Cisco is alleged to have shifted half of its global profits to a unit in Switzerland, also avoiding billions in taxes.

In order to combat the “stateless income” that large companies have used to avoid taxes, a number of organizations are stepping in to work on the problem. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, at the request of a number of countries, is working on an “action plan” to prevent the loss of tax revenues via profit shifting, with a view to publishing it in July. The US Treasury Department listed a number of global tax loopholes that need to be closed, some of which have failed to close despite legal efforts.

Source: Bloomberg News

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Google Costs U.S. Billions With Stateless Income Strategy

One man is dead and two others are injured after an alleged machete attack in London.

The victim was attacked by two others who were shot by police officers. The victim is believed to be a British soldier.

BBC News

On this dreary Tuesday at the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Wash., executives are on stage to share news and a glimpse of the new Xbox One console.

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[source: nbc news]

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[source: nbc news]

The officials say to please donate blood, or send help via the Red Cross, Salvation Army, or several other organizations

msnbc

America’s East Coast is bracing for a cacophonous summer as hordes of flying insects emerge for a once-in-a-generation phenomenon popularly known as “Swarmageddon”.

After 17 years underground growing from larva to bug, billions of cicadas are about to revel in the final four climactic weeks of their unusual life cycle.

At some point over the next few weeks, when the temperature at eight feet below ground reaches a steady 64F, the nymphs, as juvenile cicadas are called, will scramble out of the ground.

They will then embark on their noisy, short-lived adult life in pursuit of a mate. Males flex their tymbals, drum-like organs in their abdomens, making a distinctive clicking sound. Female cicadas answer by snapping their wings.

AP