Blame game erupts over probe of Fort Hood suspect

WASHINGTON — Finger-pointing erupted between federal agencies Tuesday over Fort Hood shooting suspect Nidal Hasan. Government officials said a Defense Department terrorism investigator looked into Hasan's contacts with a radical imam months ago, but a military official denied prior knowledge of the Army psychiatrist's contacts with any Muslim extremists.

The two government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case on the record, said the Washington-based joint terrorism task force overseen by the FBI was notified of communications between Hasan and a radical imam overseas, and the information was turned over to a Defense Criminal Investigative Service employee assigned to the task force. The communications were gathered by investigators beginning in December 2008 and continuing into early this year.

That defense investigator wrote up an assessment of Hasan after reviewing the communications and the Army major's personnel file, according to these officials. The assessment concluded Hasan did not merit further investigation — in large part because his communications with the imam were centered on a research paper about the effects of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan and the investigator determined that Hasan was in fact working on such a paper, the officials said.

The disclosure came as questions swirled about whether opportunities were missed to head off the massacre in which 13 died and 29 were wounded last Thursday — a familiar, early stage in the investigation of headline-grabbing crimes when public officials involved in a case often speak anonymously as they try to shift any blame to rivals in other agencies.

The disclosure Tuesday of the defense investigator's role suggested that the U.S. military was aware of worrisome behavior by the massacre suspect long before the attack. Just hours later, a senior defense official, also demanding anonymity, directly contradicted that notion.

The senior defense official said neither the Army nor any other part of the Defense Department knew of Hasan's contacts with any Muslim extremists. But the defense official carefully conceded this view was based upon what the Pentagon knows now.

Hours later, the same senior defense official reiterated flatly that the Defense Department was not notified before the Fort Hood massacre of investigations into Hasan, despite the participation of two Defense Department investigators on two joint task forces run by the FBI that looked at Hasan. This defense official asserted that the task force ground rules barred any members from telling their home agency about task force findings without approval of the other investigators and wasn't aware of whether there was ever any discussion of doing that.

FBI officials were not immediately available to comment on what ground rules prevailed in the joint task forces or whether they were applied in this situation or not. One government official, however, pointed out that to complete the assessment the Defense Criminal Investigative Service representative had to access Hasan's Defense Department personnel file and determine what research he was conducting at the time.

The FBI has launched its own internal review of how it handled the early information about Hasan. Military, law enforcement and intelligence agencies also are defending themselves against tough questions about what each of them knew about Hasan before he allegedly opened fire in a crowded room at the huge military base in Texas.

Hasan has not been formally charged but officials plan to charge him in military court, not a civilian one, a choice that suggests his alleged actions are not thought to have emanated from a terrorist organization. He could face the death penalty.

Investigators believe Hasan acted alone, despite his communications with Anwar al-Awlaki, an imam released from a Yemeni jail last year who has used his personal Web site to encourage Muslims across the world to kill U.S. troops in Iraq. Because the communications between Hasan and al-Awlaki did not contain threats or advocacy of violence, no formal investigation was opened into Hasan, they said.

Officials said the content of those messages was "consistent with the subject matter of his research," part of which involved post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from U.S. combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A law enforcement official said the communications consisted primarily of Hasan posing questions to the imam as a spiritual leader or adviser, and the imam did respond to at least some of those messages.

Investigative officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case on the record. Republican Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Michigan, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said it was his understanding Hasan and the imam exchanged e-mails that counterterrorism officials picked up.

Born in New Mexico, al-Awlaki is a former imam at a Falls Church, Va., mosque where Hasan and his family occasionally worshipped. In 2001, al-Awlaki had contact with two of the Sept. 11 hijackers. That contact was investigated by the FBI, but no charges were brought against al-Awlaki.

On Monday, al-Awlaki's Web site praised Hasan as a hero. A Brea, Calif.,-based company, New Dream Network LLC, which had been hosting the site, declined to answer questions about al-Awlaki, citing customer privacy Tuesday.

"We do work routinely with law enforcement on the local, national and international level in an expedient manner," New Dream Network said in a statement.

By Tuesday, that Web site was offline and it appeared the site may have been hijacked, possibly by Internet pranksters.

Al-Awlaki's Web address was being directed to a new hosting account at Media Temple Inc., a Culver City, Calif.-based company. The account had been created earlier in the day but no content had yet been posted online, company vice president Alex Capehart said late Tuesday.

Hasan's electronic interactions with al-Awlaki have drawn new attention to the imam, who is well known among intelligence circles, a former senior U.S. intelligence official told The Associated Press. Al-Awlaki is considered to have deep and close links with al-Qaida but is not understood to be an al-Qaida operative, the official said.

The Senate has already launched its own inquiry into the Hasan case. Sens. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, plan to hold a hearing on the shootings next week.

Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor, Eileen Sullivan and Pamela Hess in Washington and Angela K. Brown at Fort Hood contributed to this story.

Grant MacEwan theatre arts founder dies

Tim Ryan, the founder and program director of the theatre arts program at Grant MacEwan University in Edmonton, died Thursday night from complications of the H1N1 virus after entering hospital last week with a heart condition. He was 62.

"It's a very sad day here at MacEwan," said university spokesman David Beharry. "We talked to the students this morning and told them Tim had passed away, and there were a lot of tears and a lot of sadness."

Ryan founded the program in 1979 and faculty and students are now coming to terms with the loss of a man who colleagues say had a huge impact on the Edmonton and Canadian theatre community.

"It's impossible to talk about Grant MacEwan theatre without thinking of Tim Ryan in the same breath," said Edmonton playwright and director Ken Brown, who has been on the faculty since he joined Grant MacEwan as an acting instructor in 1983.

"I think Edmonton is left much the richer from Tim's legacy. He really brought to us a kind of theatre Edmonton was really kind of unaware of."

The program was also responsible for training students who have had an impact in theatres in New York and all across Canada, said Colin McLean, who covered theatre and the arts community in Edmonton for CBC for years.

"There are graduates from Grant MacEwan now who are singing in the West End [of London] and on Broadway, on the tour boats," McLean said. "They're singing in Las Vegas, in road shows, and they all can look back and say, 'It was because of Tim Ryan and Grant MacEwan that I am here.' And there are hundreds of them."

Expert in American musical theatre

Ryan held a B.A. in Theatre and Music from the University of Dayton, and an M.A. in Drama and Theatre from the University of London.

He had been directing and performing in Ohio when he moved to Edmonton to found the theatre arts program at what was then called Grant MacEwan College.

Ryan was an expert in American musical theatre, and he changed the way people in Edmonton viewed that tradition, Brown said.

"There was a time when the musical equated to a kind of … low-brow, cheerful entertainment," he said. "If there's one person who single-handedly made Edmonton aware of the great writers of the modern American music theatre — people like Sondheim, for example — it's Tim Ryan."

Ryan leaves behind his wife, Laurie Fumagalli, a former musical director, and two daughters who are both local actors.

Afghan future depends on Karzai anti-graft fight

KABUL — In a country where corruption affects almost every aspect of daily life, a pledge by Afghanistan's reinstated President Hamid Karzai to clean up graft is being met with widespread scepticism.

Since being named president on Monday by an election commission staffed by his appointees, Karzai has come under pressure from Western allies to eradicate what he called the "stain of corruption" from his government.

As US President Barack Obama considers requests from military commanders to deploy tens of thousands more troops to fight the Taliban insurgency, he urged Karzai to back his words with deeds.

Congratulations have poured in from world leaders, though many have attached warnings that Karzai must make substantial, rapid progress on eradicating corruption.

The top US military officer Wednesday demanded decisive action from Karzai against what he called "endemic" corruption, saying tainted officials had to be prosecuted.

Closer to home, Afghan analysts and activists warn a lack of action could further undermine what is widely perceived as an illegitimate government.

"The government will have a very short life if they don't take very serious action on corruption," said independent activist Orzala Ashraf.

"He (Karzai) has no choice but to show improvement in the very short term, he has to do something about it because if there is a non-functioning government, what will happen on the humanitarian side? If there is no transparency, what will happen to security?"

At his first public appearance since being confirmed, Karzai was flanked by Vice-President Mohammad Qasim Fahim, widely accused of rights abuses, as he said: "Afghanistan's image has been tainted by corruption. We will strive, by any means possible, to eradicate this stain."

Karzai was declared president for another five years after the Independent Election Commission cancelled a November 7 run-off following the withdrawal of the only challenger, Abdullah Abdullah.

Turnout for the August 20 poll was as low as five percent in some areas due to Taliban threats of violence and a UN-backed electoral watchdog found more than one million fake votes -- most cast for Karzai.

Abdullah says Karzai's presidency is illegal and as such his government cannot deliver on anti-corruption pledges.

Corruption is endemic at every level of Afghan society, from traffic policemen who demand cash at ubiquitous road blocks, to officials and their relatives implicated in large-scale drug trafficking.

Kabul is experiencing a building boom founded on the proceeds of opium production -- the world's highest -- with massive houses dubbed "poppy palaces" springing up across the capital.

There is little to show for the billions of aid dollars that has poured in since the repressive Taliban regime was overthrown in 2001.

The deputy head of the government's anti-corruption office, Ershad Ahmadi, blames a culture in which Afghans are unwilling to take responsibility for their actions.

"The blame game of 'You are corrupt,' 'Yes, but you are corrupt too,' has to end. Both the Afghan government and the international community must build their moral authority," Ahmadi wrote in British newspaper The Times.

Their expanding influence has been aided, diplomats say, by inept, corrupt and, in some places, non-existent police and judiciary.

"Who would you rather go to if your house is broken into or your sheep is stolen? The local cop who demands money and does nothing, or the Taliban who gets your sheep back and punishes the thief?" said a Western diplomat.

Political analyst Waheed Mujda said Karzai must prove his commitment to fighting corruption by creating a "strong, honest and clean (cabinet) team."

"In the past Karzai was afraid of working with strong persons who could help end corruption but if he wants to fight and eliminate corruption he needs those type of people," he said.

Michael Jackson movie tops the box office with $21.3 million

LOS ANGELES - "Michael Jackson's This Is It" pulled in $101 million worldwide in its first five days, and distributor Sony is extending the farewell performance film beyond its planned two-week run.

The film was the No. 1 Halloween thriller domestically with a $21.3 million opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The previous weekend's No. 1 movie, Paramount's low-budget horror sensation "Paranormal Activity," slipped to No. 2 with $16.5 million, lifting its total to $84.8 million.

"This Is It" raised its domestic total to $32.5 million. The movie pulled in $68.5 million overseas, including $10.4 million in Japan, $6.3 million in Germany, $5.8 million in France and $3.2 million in China.

"He's just loved everywhere on the planet," said Rory Bruer, head of distribution for Sony. "It doesn't matter if it's Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, South America. Every continent in the world loved him and his music."

In Britain, where Jackson had planned a marathon series of 50 London concerts starting last July, the movie earned $7.6 million.

"This Is It" captures Jackson in behind-the-scenes performances in the weeks before his death last June, as he rehearsed his biggest hits for the London shows.

"This Is It" originally was scheduled for a theatrical run of only two weeks. The studio has extended it a few more weeks domestically, leaving it in theatres through Thanksgiving weekend, one of the year's busiest moviegoing times.

Sony plans to extend the run of "This Is It" overseas on a country-by-country basis, with most territories probably getting one to three weeks of extra playing time, Bruer said.

The studio paid $60 million for film rights to Jackson's rehearsal footage, an investment the movie recouped in days.

"They bet $60 million on this and got $101 million in just five days," said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. "It was a gamble and a bet that paid off."

The movie fell far short of last year's $31.1 million opening weekend domestically for "Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert." But Bruer said "This Is It" has a shot at surpassing the $65.3 million domestic total during the entire run of Cyrus' movie, which tops the all-time charts for music documentaries.

Worldwide, "This Is It" already has shot past Cyrus' concert film. Cyrus mainly appeals to American teens, and her movie got only a limited release overseas, where it took in about $5 million to give the film a global total of just over $70 million.

"This Is It" played in 3,481 theatres domestically, about five times the number for Cyrus' movie. But "Best of Both Worlds" ran in 3-D, for which theatres typically charge a few dollars more.

And Cyrus' young fans are an audience segment that tends to rush out to see movies over opening weekend, the movie doing nearly half its business in the first few days.

Sony hopes for a longer shelf life for "This Is It," which drew older crowds that catch movies on their own schedule, with less regard for the opening-weekend frenzy. Fans older than 25 accounted for 62 per cent of the audience, according to Sony.

While "Paranormal Activity" led Halloween's scary movies, an established horror franchise lost its fear factor as Lionsgate's "Saw VI" fell sharply in its second weekend after an anemic debut.

"Saw VI" came in at No. 5 this weekend with $5.6 million, raising its total to just $22.8 million after 10 days. Previous sequels in the serial-killer series all had topped $30 million during opening weekend alone.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theatres, according to Hollywood.com; final figures will be released Monday:

1. "Michael Jackson's This Is It," $21.3 million.

2. "Paranormal Activity," $16.5 million.

3. "Law Abiding Citizen," $7.3 million.

4. "Couples Retreat," $6.1 million.

5. "Saw VI," $5.6 million.

6. "Where the Wild Things Are," $5.1 million.

7. "The Stepfather," $3.4 million.

8. "Astro Boy," $3.04 million.

9. "Amelia," $3 million.

10. "Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant," $2.8 million.

Mother of folksinger killed by coyotes thanks fans for condolences

HALIFAX, N.S. — The mother of Taylor Mitchell, a young folksinger who was killed by coyotes in Nova Scotia, says her daughter was a passionate environmentalist who would have opposed the killing of the two animals responsible for the attack.

Emily Mitchell of Toronto issued a statement Thursday on the shocking death of her 19-year-old daughter in Cape Breton Highlands National Park.

"When the decision had been made to kill the pack of coyotes, I clearly heard Taylor's voice say, 'Please don't, this is their space,"' Mitchell said.

"She wouldn't have wanted their demise, especially as a result of her own."

Mitchell said media accounts of her daughter's death noted that the young woman was hiking alone in the remote park Tuesday afternoon when she was mauled.

She described her daughter as "a seasoned naturalist" who was experienced at wilderness camping.

"She loved the woods and had a deep affinity for their beauty and serenity," Mitchell said. "Tragically, it was her time to be taken from us so soon."

Taylor Mitchell was on a tour of Atlantic Canada when she went for a hike on the park's popular Skyline Trail.

Two nearby hikers and a Parks Canada worker called 911 as Mitchell was being mauled and an RCMP officer arrived to shoot one of the animals, apparently wounding it. Both managed to flee.

Mitchell was bleeding heavily from multiple bite wounds when paramedics arrived. She died early the next day after being airlifted to hospital in Halifax.

Her mother expressed thanks for the outpouring of condolences from her daughter's friends and fans, and also thanked the hikers, police and doctors and nurses who tried to save her life.

She said details will be finalized in the coming days about a funeral service and concert in her daughter's memory.

"There are no words to describe my grief," Mitchell said in her release. "Taylor was my shining light, my baby, my confidante and best friend.

"My world is turned upside down and forever transformed without her. I don't know how to move forward from here but I know that she would want that for me and I will try to do that in her memory and celebrate her life in the way she lived it - with passion, commitment and an unbridled loving heart."

Armed Parks Canada officers continued to search Thursday for the coyotes responsible for the attack but an official said a widespread kill of animals wouldn't occur.

U2 returning to North America in 2010 with shows in Edmonton, Toronto, Montreal

TORONTO — More U2 shows are on the horizon for North American fans.

With their current tour set to wrap up on Wednesday in Vancouver, the Irish rockers have announced another stadium trek in 2010. The band will hit Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium on June 23 and Toronto's Rogers Centre on July 3.

U2 will also perform in Montreal on July 16, with the venue still to be determined.

The band is touring in support of "No Line on the Horizon," which has been certified double platinum in Canada since its February release.

Tickets go on sale for the shows in Toronto and Edmonton on Nov. 2.

Taylor Swift first U.S. tour dates sell in minutes

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Tickets to four of country singer Taylor Swift's 2010 tour dates sold out in two minutes after going on sale on Friday, her publicists said.

All tickets released on Friday for 15 U.S. shows in the 19 year-old singer's 2010 Fearless tour sold "within minutes". The four shows in the New York area were the fastest to go, her representatives said.

Swift, the biggest selling U.S. artist of 2008, will play 37 shows in the United States and Canada in 2010 and seven in Australia starting in February.

The teen star, whose hits include "You Belong with Me" and "Love Story", has seen her popularity soar since September, when rapper Kanye West hijacked her acceptance speech for a best music video trophy at the MTV Video Music Awards show and said it should have gone to R&B singer Beyonce instead.

Swift was nominated for a leading six American Music Awards earlier this month and will perform on and host the popular U.S. late night TV sketch show "Saturday Night Live" on November 7.

West, on the other hand, canceled a planned concert tour of the United States and Canada earlier this month and was the subject of an Internet death hoax earlier this week which falsely claimed he had died in a Los Angeles car crash.

Former KISS drummer: men get breast cancer too

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Peter Criss, founding member of rock band KISS, knows that many of his male fans are macho, so he is making the rounds to tell them even tough rocker guys like him can suffer from a disease usually associated with women -- breast cancer.

Criss, who was the New York rock band's drummer on and off from its founding in 1972 until 2004 and the voice on some of their most beloved classics, including the 1976 Top Ten hit "Beth" and "Hard Luck Woman", said too many men don't seek treatment and think breast discomfort will go away on its own.

But Criss, who discovered a lump in his left nipple in December 2007, said men need to get over their perception that breast cancer is a woman's disease.

"It can happen to you, and when it does, if you don't deal with it right away, with your 'dude' and your metal and your tattoos, you'll go in the box and we'll see you," Criss told Reuters during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Criss, 63, underwent a lumpectomy in February 2008 and a mastectomy the following month under the care of Dr. Alex Swistel, director of the Weill Cornell Breast Center in New York, and he often felt odd as the only man in the waiting room.

While breast cancer among men is one hundred times less common than among women, it can be deadly. The American Cancer Society estimated there will be 1,910 new cases of male breast cancer in 2009, and about 440 U.S. men will die this year from the disease.

Criss, who is now cancer free, acknowledged that the treatment was unpleasant.

"Whoever invented (mammogram machines) had to do it in the medieval days," he said, adding that it was nearly impossible to fit a small male breast into the machine. He called the pain "excruciating" but a worthwhile price to pay to be healthy.

Criss, who is currently working on an autobiography as well as a new rock album, said his bout with cancer had affected his songwriting.

"My lyrics are not so deep and dismal," he said. One of the tracks on the album, expected next spring, is called "Hard Rock Knockers."

Criss said he is sanguine about the fact that his old KISS bandmates, Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, are currently on a North American tour of arenas with two new band members, one in the make-up of Criss' "Catman" character and the other as ex-guitarist Ace Frehley's "Spaceman."

In its 1970s heyday with Criss and Frehley, KISS cranked out hit albums such as "Alive!," and its live performances that were filled with pyrotechnics rocked audiences.

"You want to put two clones up there in our makeup, that's great," he said. "Must I keep putting spandex and makeup on at 70 -- I don't think I really want to do that."

Still, Criss said he hopes his heavy metal credentials will help mitigate the stigma around breast cancer for men.

"You are no more manly a guy than me -- I grew up in Brooklyn," Criss said.

Canadian gigs for Guns N' Roses

Guns N' Roses will play a series of concerts in Canada next year as part of their first tour since 2008 album Chinese Democracy.

The Canadian shows will begin in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on 13 January, before moving on to cities including Toronto and Ottawa.

According to Rolling Stone magazine, the Canadian dates will be preceded by gigs in south-east Asia in December.

Chinese Democracy was the band's first album for 15 years.

It went to number three in the US and number two in the UK, despite mixed reviews.

Earlier this month, it emerged that the band were being sued by German musician Ulrich Schnauss over claims they sampled two of his tracks on Chinese Democracy's Riad N' The Bedouins.

In a statement, they said they "vigorously" contested the claims.

The band, whose only original member is singer Axl Rose, last toured in 2007.

'Ghostbuster' Dan Aykroyd says supernatural interest drawn from family seances

TORONTO — "Ghostbusters" star Dan Aykroyd says he is often asked where he got the inspiration for his blockbuster '80s comedy. He says it's simple - his own family.

Aykroyd's father, Peter, and great-grandfather, Samuel, regularly held seances in the parlour of their eastern Ontario home in a bid to contact the dead.

Samuel recorded their experiences in pencil-scrawled notes that were found in a locked trunk after his death.

Peter reworked the material in his new book, "A History of Ghosts" (Rodale).

"If you ever wanted to know anything about seances, mediums, everybody from (spiritual investigators) Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to Oliver Lodge to (Sir William) Crookes, (Emmanuel) Swedenborg, this is the encyclopedia," Dan Aykroyd said Thursday as he accompanied his 87-year-old father to Toronto for a media blitz.

"This is the absolute definitive book for anybody who is interested in mediumship today or in the past."

Having inherited an intense curiosity about the paranormal from his grandfather, Peter says he sought out to craft something that was part memoir and part primer on the supernatural.

The book features a foreword by Dan and mixes family tales with an introduction to ghostly terms like "glossolalia" (speaking in a language unknown to the speaker or listener) and "clairhambiance" (the ability of a medium to experience a taste associated with a spirit).

It also introduces the term "ectoplasm," which entered the mainstream lingo after being featured prominently in "Ghostbusters."

The comedian says he definitely believes that mediums exist and can communicate with the dead.

"What I do believe after reading this book is that there are people and have been people on this planet who can and are willingly able to submit to a control entity beyond this reality that we live in, a control entity being another spirit, a spirit from the other side," Aykroyd said in a booming voice reminiscent of his alter ego as the Super Bass-O-Matic pitchman on "Saturday Night Live."

"There are some people who can go into a trance and give themselves up and be controlled and speak as this being, as this spirit entity."

Dan, who lives in the renovated Kingston homestead where the family seances took place, said he's never experienced a supernatural event himself but freely discussed his spiritual leanings with his "Ghostbusters" collaborators.

"Harold Ramis was a complete non-believer, skeptic and agnostic full-on. Billy (Murray) of course is Irish and he knows ghosts exist and sometimes the dead do linger in the land of the living. Ivan Reitman, he's Jewish so he knows ... there's a lot of paranormal in the Kabbalah," he said.

"Sony Pictures - our other partner - they just saw a good movie and then they made it."

Dan says he's hoping the team can reunite to put together another sequel to the box office hit, noting there's plenty of audience appetite for ghostly fare.

"Look at 'Ghost Whisperer,' look at our culture," he says.

"You have TV shows, syndicated shows, we had one that lasted for four years called 'PSI Factor' based upon events of an engineering group that was studying this stuff out west. It's just in our culture and I look at it all through the filter of an entertainer."

Peter Aykroyd says his own research notes, and the journals of his grandfather, will be donated to the University of Manitoba for anyone to peruse.

"The University of Manitoba is becoming the locus for material on the paranormal of Canadian origin," says the white-haired author, who arrived at the interview with the aid of a cane.

"It's a very very rich archive," he says, noting it also contains the papers of Winnipeg psychic researcher Glen Hamilton.

"A History of Ghosts" is in bookstores now.