RFK daughter acquitted in drugged driving case

RFK daughter acquitted in drugged driving case 

Kerry Kennedy, second from left, walks with her mother, Ethel Kennedy, third from left, as she leaves the Westchester County Courthouse, Friday, Feb. 28, 2014 in White Plains, N.Y. Kerry Kennedy was acquitted Friday of driving while impaired. after she accidentally took a sleeping pill on July 13, 2012 and then sideswiped a truck in a wild highway drive she said she didn't remember. The trial centered on whether or not she realized she was impaired and should have stopped.

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) -- Kerry Kennedy was swiftly acquitted Friday of drugged driving in a case that her lawyers said would never have been brought if she were simply "Mary Housewife" rather than a member of one of America's most glamorous political families.

After four days of testimony, a six-person jury took a little over an hour to find Kennedy not guilty of driving while impaired. She was arrested in 2012 after swerving into a tractor-trailer on an interstate highway in her Lexus.

The 54-year-old human-rights advocate - the daughter of Robert F. Kennedy, niece of President John F. Kennedy and ex-wife of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo - testified she mistakenly took a sleeping pill instead of her daily thyroid medication the morning of the wreck.

If convicted, she could have been sentenced to a year in jail, though that would have been unlikely for a first-time offender.

Her lawyers made sure that the jurors knew all about her famous family. But after the acquittal, they said she should have been treated like "Mary Housewife." And they accused prosecutors of giving her special treatment by refusing to drop the case.

The district attorney's office denied the accusation. And Kennedy herself said she wasn't angry about being put on trial.

In a show of the Kennedy clan's famous loyalty, the defendant's 85-year-old mother, Ethel Kennedy, attended the trial daily. Nearly a dozen other members of the family came by, including three brothers, two sisters, a sister-in-law and three daughters.

Laurence Leamer, who has written three books about the Kennedys, said: "The Kennedys are very loyal to each other in a crisis. ... It's one of the most admirable things about them." He said there's no way to gauge the effect on the jury, but "Kennedys or not, it's Defense 101 to have family members sitting there for the jury to see."

Tobe Berkovitz, a political media consultant and professor of advertising at Boston University, said: "The Kennedys saw this as a DA overreaching, making a big case out of a silly mistake. So they absolutely played every Camelot trump card they had in the deck. They had the family. They had questions about her losing her father as a young girl."

He added, "When the legacy is being challenged, they all step up and fight."

The trial drew so much attention that it was moved from a small-town courtroom to the county courthouse in White Plains.

Kennedy testified that she had no memory of the wild ride on the highway. "If I realized I was impaired, I would have pulled over," she told the jury.

Prosecutors acknowledged she unintentionally took the drug zolpidem, but they told jurors she had to have known she was impaired and should have stopped driving.

When the jury forewoman read the verdict, Kennedy smiled broadly, hugged one attorney and clasped hands with another. Her family and friends applauded.

The charge was a misdemeanor that rarely goes to trial, but Kennedy was unwilling to settle the case and two judges refused to dismiss it.

Her family's storied and sorrowful history crept into the trial when one of her lawyers asked about her upbringing and her work as president of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights.

"My mother raised us because my father died when I was 8," she said. "He was killed when he was running for president."

Kennedy's lawyer Gerald Lefcourt told jurors in his closing argument that Kennedy was "not seeking advantage because of her family."

Another one of her lawyers, William Aronwald, said Friday that prosecutors told her they could not dismiss the case because "it would create the impression that Kerry Kennedy received special treatment because of her name." He said prosecutors "were the ones who treated her differently because of who she is."

The Westchester County district attorney's office disputed the suggestion. "We prosecute 2,500 impaired driving cases annually in Westchester County," the office said in a statement. "This case was treated no differently from any of the others."

When Kennedy was asked after the verdict if she was angry that the case was pursued, she said: "Anger is the last feeling I've got right now."

At a news conference outside, she noted that few people have the resources to fight such a charge.

"We need to take a hard look at our criminal justice system in the United States and make sure it really is just and everyone in our country has true access to justice," Kennedy said.

Teen helps scientists study her own rare disease

Teen helps scientists study her own rare disease 

This handout photo taken Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2014, provided by The Rockefeller University, shows Elana Simon, 18, of New York, pictured in a laboratory at The Rockefeller University in New York. The teen survivor of a rare liver cancer spearheaded a study, published Thursday in the journal Science, that led a team of researchers to find a gene flaw involved with the disease.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- First the teenager survived a rare cancer. Then she wanted to study it, spurring a study that helped scientists find a weird gene flaw that might play a role in how the tumor strikes.

Age 18 is pretty young to be listed as an author of a study in the prestigious journal Science. But the industrious high school student's efforts are bringing new attention to this mysterious disease.

"It's crazy that I've been able to do this," said Elana Simon of New York City, describing her idea to study the extremely rare form of liver cancer that mostly hits adolescents and young adults.

Making that idea work required a lot of help from real scientists: Her father, who runs a cellular biophysics lab at the Rockefeller University; her surgeon at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; and gene specialists at the New York Genome Center. A second survivor of this cancer, who the journal said didn't want to be identified, also co-authored the study.

Together, the team reported Thursday that they uncovered an oddity: A break in genetic material that left the "head" of one gene fused to the "body" of another. That results in an abnormal protein that forms inside the tumors but not in normal liver tissue, suggesting it might fuel cancer growth, the researchers wrote. They've found the evidence in all 15 of the tumors tested so far.

It's a small study, and more research is needed to see what this gene flaw really does, cautioned Dr. Sanford Simon, the teen's father and the study's senior author.

But the teen-spurred project has grown into work to get more patients involved in scientific research. Scientists at the National Institutes of Health are advising the Simons on how to set up a patient registry, and NIH's Office of Rare Diseases Research has posted on its web site a YouTube video in which Elana Simon and a fellow survivor explain why to get involved.

"Fibrolamellar Hepatocellular Carcinoma. Not easy to pronounce. Not easily understood," it says.

Simon was diagnosed at age 12. Surgery is the only effective treatment, and her tumor was caught in time that it worked. But there are few options if the cancer spreads, and Simon knows other patients who weren't so lucky.

A high school internship during her sophomore year let Simon use her computer science skills to help researchers sort data on genetic mutations in a laboratory studying another type of cancer.

Simon wondered, why not try the same approach with the liver cancer she'd survived?

The hurdle: Finding enough tumors to test. Only about 200 people a year worldwide are diagnosed, according to the Fibrolamellar Cancer Foundation, which helped fund the new study. There was no registry that kept tissue samples after surgery.

But Simon's pediatric cancer surgeon, Sloan-Kettering's Dr. Michael LaQuaglia, agreed to help, and Simon spread the word to patient groups. Finally, samples trickled in, and Sanford Simon said his daughter was back on the computer helping to analyze what was different in the tumor cells.

At the collaborating New York Genome Center, which genetically mapped the samples, co-author Nicolas Robine said a program called FusionCatcher ultimately zeroed in on the weird mutation.

Sanford Simon said other researchers then conducted laboratory experiments to show the abnormal protein really is active inside tumor cells.

He calls it "an exciting time for kids to go into science," because there's so much they can research via computer.

As for Elana Simon, she plans to study computer science at Harvard next fall.

 

Arizona religious bill that angered gays vetoed

Arizona religious bill that angered gays vetoed 

Arizona Republican Gov. Jan Brewer speaks at a news conference announcing she has vetoed SB1062, a bill designed to give added protection from lawsuits to people who assert their religious beliefs in refusing service to gays, at the Arizona Capitol on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2014, in Phoenix.

PHOENIX (AP) -- Gov. Jan Brewer on Wednesday vetoed a Republican bill that set off a national debate over gay rights, religion and discrimination and subjected Arizona to blistering criticism from major corporations and political leaders from both parties.

Loud cheers erupted outside the Capitol building immediately after Brewer made her announcement.

"My agenda is to sign into law legislation that advances Arizona," Brewer said at a news conference. "I call them like I see them despite the tears or the boos from the crowd. After weighing all the arguments, I have vetoed Senate Bill 1062 moments ago."

The Republican governor said she gave the legislation careful deliberation in talking to her lawyers, citizens, businesses and lawmakers on both sides of the debate. Her office said it received more than 40,000 calls and emails on the legislation, with most of them urging a veto.

Brewer said the bill "could divide Arizona in ways we could not even imagine and no one would ever want." The bill was broadly worded and could result in unintended negative consequences, she added.

The bill backed by Republicans in the Legislature was designed to give added protection from lawsuits to people who assert their religious beliefs in refusing service to gays. But opponents called it an open attack on gays that invited discrimination.

The bill thrust Arizona into the national spotlight last week after both chambers of the state legislature approved it. As the days passed, more and more groups, politicians and average citizens weighed in against Senate Bill 1062. Many took to social media to criticize the bill.

Prominent business groups said it would be another black eye for the state that saw a national backlash over its 2010 immigration-crackdown law, SB1070, and warned that businesses looking to expand into the state may not do so if bill became law.

Companies such as Apple Inc. and American Airlines and politicians including GOP Sen. John McCain and former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney were among those who urged Brewer to veto the legislation. The Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee, which is overseeing preparations for the 2015 Super Bowl in Glendale, Ariz., came out with a statement against the legislation. The Hispanic National Bar Association on Wednesday said it cancelled its 2015 convention in Phoenix over the legislation.

In addition, three Republicans who had voted for the bill reversed course and said it was a mistake. They said in a letter to Brewer that while the intent of their vote "was to create a shield for all citizens' religious liberties, the bill has been mischaracterized by its opponents as a sword for religious intolerance."

SB 1062 allows people to claim their religious beliefs as a defense against claims of discrimination. Backers cite a New Mexico Supreme Court decision that allowed a gay couple to sue a photographer who refused to document their wedding, even though the law that allowed that suit doesn't exist in Arizona.

Sen. Al Melvin, a Republican who is running for governor and voted for the bill, said he is disappointed by the veto.

"I am sorry to hear that Governor Brewer has vetoed this bill. I'm sure it was a difficult choice for her, but it is a sad day when protecting liberty is considered controversial," Melvin said.

Democrats said it was a veiled attempt to legally discriminate against gay people and could allow people to break nearly any law and cite religious freedom as a defense.

Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Phoenix, said would remain vigilant of other legislation that could also target gays.

"The effect is that again we got a black eye," Gallego said. "But it also shows that Arizona can stand united"

Democratic leaders in the legislature thanked the governor for vetoing the bill. But they said it should not have ever made it to her desk.

"It's time to move Arizona forward and make sure that something like Senate Bill 1062 never happens again," Senate Minority Leader Anna Tovar said. "It's time to show the nation and the world what Arizona is truly about."

The Center for Arizona Policy helped write the bill and argued it was needed to protect against increasingly activist federal courts and simply clarifies existing state law.

"It is truly a disappointing day in our state and nation when lies and personal attacks can over shadow the truth," said Cathi Herrod, the leader of the group.

Similar religious-protection legislation has been introduced in Ohio, Mississippi, Idaho, South Dakota, Tennessee and Oklahoma, but Arizona's plan is the only one that has been passed by a state legislature. The legislation was withdrawn in Ohio on Wednesday, and similar bills are stalled in Idaho and Kansas.

The push in Arizona comes as an increasing number of conservative states grapple with ways to counter the growing legality of gay marriage. Arizona has a ban on gay marriage.

Federal judges have recently struck down those bans in Utah, Oklahoma and Virginia, but those decisions are under appeal.

On Wednesday, a federal judge declared Texas' ban on gay marriage unconstitutional, but he left it in place until an appeals court can rule on the case.

 

Couple stumbles upon $10 million in rare coins

Couple stumbles upon $10 million in rare coins

David Hall, co-founder of Professional Coin Grading Service, poses with some of 1,427 Gold-Rush era U.S. gold coins, at his office in Santa Ana, Calif., Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2014. A California couple out walking their dog on their property stumbled across the modern-day bonanza: $10 million in rare, mint-condition gold coins buried in the shadow of an old tree. Nearly all of the 1,427 coins, dating from 1847 to 1894, are in uncirculated, mint condition, said Hall, who recently authenticated them. Although the face value of the gold pieces only adds up to about $27,000, some of them are so rare that coin experts say they could fetch nearly $1 million apiece.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A Northern California couple out walking their dog on their property stumbled across a modern-day bonanza: $10 million in rare, mint-condition gold coins buried in the shadow of an old tree.

Nearly all of the 1,427 coins, dating from 1847 to 1894, are in uncirculated, mint condition, said David Hall, co-founder of Professional Coin Grading Service of Santa Ana, which recently authenticated them. Although the face value of the gold pieces only adds up to about $27,000, some of them are so rare that coin experts say they could fetch nearly $1 million apiece.

"I don't like to say once-in-a-lifetime for anything, but you don't get an opportunity to handle this kind of material, a treasure like this, ever," said veteran numismatist Don Kagin, who is representing the finders. "It's like they found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow."

Kagin, whose family has been in the rare-coin business for 81 years, would say little about the couple other than that they are husband and wife, are middle-aged and have lived for several years on the rural property in California's Gold Country, where the coins were found. They have no idea who put them there, he said.

The pair are choosing to remain anonymous, Kagin said, in part to avoid a renewed gold rush to their property by modern-day prospectors armed with metal detectors.

They also don't want to be treated any differently, said David McCarthy, chief numismatist for Kagin Inc. of Tiburon.

"Their concern was this would change the way everyone else would look at them, and they're pretty happy with the lifestyle they have today," he said.

They plan to put most of the coins up for sale through Amazon while holding onto a few keepsakes. They'll use the money to pay off bills and quietly donate to local charities, Kagin said.

Before they sell them, they are loaning some to the American Numismatic Association for its National Money Show, which opens Thursday in Atlanta.

What makes their find particularly valuable, McCarthy said, is that almost all of the coins are in near-perfect condition. That means that whoever put them into the ground likely socked them away as soon as they were put into circulation.

Because paper money was illegal in California until the 1870s, he added, it's extremely rare to find any coins from before that of such high quality.

"It wasn't really until the 1880s that you start seeing coins struck in California that were kept in real high grades of preservation," he said.

The coins, in $5, $10 and $20 denominations, were stored more or less in chronological order in six cans, McCarthy said, with the 1840s and 1850s pieces going into one can until it was filed, then new coins going into the next one and the next one after that. The dates and the method indicated that whoever put them there was using the ground as their personal bank and that they weren't swooped up all at once in a robbery.

Although most of the coins were minted in San Francisco, one $5 gold piece came from as far away as Georgia.

Kagin and McCarthy would say little about the couple's property or its ownership history, other than it's located in Gold Country, a sprawling, picturesque and still lightly populated section of north-central California that stretches along the western slope of the Sierra Nevada.

The discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill, about 50 miles northeast of Sacramento, set off the California Gold 

Rush of 1848.

The coins had been buried by a path the couple had walked for years. On the day they found them last spring, the woman had bent over to examine an old rusty can that erosion had caused to pop slightly out of the ground.

"Don't be above bending over to check on a rusty can," Kagin said she told him.

They were located on a section of the property the couple nicknamed Saddle Ridge, and Kagin is calling the find the Saddle Ridge Hoard. He believes it could be the largest such discovery in U.S. history.

One of the largest previous finds of gold coins was $1 million worth uncovered by construction workers in Jackson, Tenn., in 1985. More than 400,000 silver dollars were found in the home of a Reno, Nev., man who died in 1974 and were later sold intact for $7.3 million.

Gold coins and ingots said to be worth as much as $130 million were recovered in the 1980s from the wreck of the SS Central America. But historians knew roughly where that gold was because the ship went down off the coast of North Carolina during a hurricane in 1857.

 

Drug lord 'El Chapo' Guzman charged in Mexico

Drug lord 'El Chapo' Guzman charged in Mexico 

An interconnected tunnel in the city's drainage system that infamous drug boss Joaquin Guzman Loera, "El Chapo" used to evade authorities, is shown, in Culiacan, Mexico, Sunday Feb. 23, 2014. A day after troops narrowly missed infamous Guzman in Culiacan, one of his top aides was arrested. Officials said he told investigators that he picked up Guzman from a drainage pipe and helped him flee to Mazatlan but a wiretap being monitored by ICE agents in southern Arizona provided the final clue that led to the arrest of one of the world's most wanted men.

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Mexican authorities have set in motion a legal process that makes it unlikely he will soon face U.S. cases also pending against him.

The Federal Judicial Council said the hemisphere's most powerful drug lord had been formally charged under a 2009 Mexican indictment for cocaine trafficking, an action that could start put him on path for a trial that would put any extradition request on the back burn.

A judge has until Tuesday to decide whether a trial is warranted. Guzman, who is being held in a maximum security prison west of Mexico City, could then appeal the judge's decision, a process that typically takes weeks or months.

Also on Monday, Guzman's lawyers filed a petition asking a court for an injunction to block any extradition request from the United States. In the past, similar appeals by other drug suspects have taken months, and sometimes years, to resolve.

And before considering any extradition request that might come from the U.S., Mexican officials also must weigh whether to renew other charges against Guzman. When he escaped from a Mexican prison in 2001 he was serving convictions for criminal association and bribery, and he was awaiting trial on charges of murder and drug trafficking.

What to do with Guzman is a politically sensitive subject for President Enrique Pena Nieto, who has sought to carve out more control over joint anti-drug efforts with the United States. Analysts said his administration is likely torn between the impulse to move Guzman to a nearly invulnerable U.S. facility and the desire to show that Mexico can successful retry and incarcerate the man whose time as the fugitive head of the world's most powerful drug cartel.

Eduardo Sanchez, the presidential spokesman, did not answer his phone or return messages Monday asking whether the government was considering extraditing Guzman to the U.S.

Prominent trial lawyer Juan Velasquez, who has represented former Mexican presidents, said that if the administration did decide to extradite Guzman, legal appeals would only delay the process because Mexico has removed obstacles to sending its citizens for trial in other countries.

"If the United States asks for a Mexican to be extradited, that Mexican, sooner rather than later, will wind up extradited," said Velasquez, who is not involved in the Guzman case.

U.S. Justice Department spokesman Peter Carr said Monday that extradition "will be the subject of further discussion between the United States and Mexico."

And before making an extradition request, the U.S. government has to sort out where it would want to try Guzman, who faces charges in at least seven U.S. jurisdictions.

"You want number one to be the best shot that you have," said David Weinstein, a former assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of Florida in Miami who helped prosecute several high-profile suspected drug traffickers in his 11 years in the office. "What do they say? If you shoot at the king, you make sure you hit him in the head."

Many in Mexico see extradition as the best way to punish Guzman and break up his empire, given the United States' more certain legal system and better investigation capacities.

"The only option that would allow for dismantling this criminal network is extradition, and that's unfortunate," said Edgardo Buscaglia, an expert on the cartel and a senior research scholar at Colombia University. "Because, in the end, extraditions are an escape valve for Mexico," which has been slow to improve its own investigative police, prosecution and court system.

Security expert Jorge Chabat said, "If he stays in Mexico there are risks he could escape or continue to control his criminal organization from inside prison."

That is not a far-fetched possibility. Velasquez, the trial lawyer, said some Mexican defense attorneys who get involved in such cases often act as messengers for their clients.

"Because they are lawyers, they have free access to the prison, so more than being lawyers they are, let's say, part of the gang, intermediaries for the gang," he said.

As the extradition question was debated, new details emerged Monday on how the hemisphere's most powerful drug lord was snatched by Mexican marines from a condo in front of his beauty-queen wife and his twin 2 1/2-year-old daughters.

Guzman spent the next 13 years on the run before he was arrested Saturday morning in the Pacific coast city of Mazatlan by Mexican marines acting on U.S. intelligence. Over the preceding week, Guzman had fled through a network of homes in the city of Culiacan that were connected by tunnels. At each house, the Mexican military found the same thing: steel reinforced doors and an escape hatch below a bathtub. Each hatch led to a series of interconnected tunnels in the city's drainage system.

An AP reporter who walked through one tunnel in Culiacan had to dismount into a canal and stoop to enter the drain pipe, which was filled with water and mud and smelled of sewage. About 700 meters (yards) in, a trap door was open, revealing a newly constructed tunnel. Large and lined with wood panels like a cabin, the passage had lighting and air conditioning. At the end of the tunnel was a blue ladder attached to the wall that led to one of the houses Mexican authorities say Guzman used as a hideout.

A day after troops narrowly missed Guzman in Culiacan, top aide Manuel Lopez Ozorio was arrested. The officials said he told investigators that he had picked up Guzman, a woman and the drug lord's communications chief, Carlos Manuel Ramirez, from a drainage pipe and helped them flee to Mazatlan.

In an interview with local media Monday, Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong said no U.S. agents were present at the less-than-luxurious condo in Mazatlan when marines burst in and grabbed Guzman in front of his wife, Emma Coronel, and his U.S.-born twin daughters without any shots being fired. Photos of the condo showed a crib in one of the rooms.

Osorio Chong said of Guzman, "when he saw the marines in front of him, he accepted his detention and immediately let the marines do their job."

"She was there, his wife, and their two daughters were there, but they had nothing to do with it. They were released," Osorio Chong said.

Getting a clearer picture on Netflix-Comcast deal

Getting a clearer picture on Netflix-Comcast deal 

FILE - In this Aug. 6, 2009 file photo, the Comcast logo is displayed on a TV set in North Andover, Mass. After years of bickering, Netflix and Comcast are finally working together to provide their subscribers with a more enjoyable experience when they’re watching movies and old television shows over high-speed Internet connections. The new partnership is part of a breakthrough announced Sunday, Feb. 23, 2014, that requires Comcast’s Internet service to create new avenues for Netflix’s video to travel on its way to TVs and other devices.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- After years of bickering, Netflix and Comcast are working together to provide their subscribers with a more enjoyable experience when they're watching movies and television shows over high-speed Internet connections.

The new partnership is part of a breakthrough announced Sunday that requires Comcast's Internet service to create new avenues for Netflix's video to travel on its way to TVs and other devices. In return for the improved access, Netflix will pay Comcast an undisclosed amount of money for the next few years.

The arrangement represents an about-face for Netflix Inc., which had steadfastly refused to pay high-speed Internet service providers already collecting $40 to $60 per month from its customers. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings had contended that his company's Internet video service is one of the main reasons why households pay for broadband, making it unreasonable for Internet service providers such as Comcast Corp. to demand additional money from content providers.

Comcast and other broadband providers argued Netflix's growing popularity should require the Los Gatos, Calif., company to shoulder some of the financial burden for delivering its video. In evening hours, Netflix's 33 million U.S. subscribers generate nearly a third of the Internet's downloading activity, according to the research firm Sandvine.

Now that Netflix has relented to Comcast, the largest U.S. broadband service, similar deals are more likely to be reached with other Internet providers such as Verizon Communications Inc., AT&T Inc. and Charter Communications Inc.

Here's a closer look at what this shift means for subscribers to Netflix and high-speed Internet services:

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HOW WILL CONSUMERS BE AFFECTED?

Netflix subscribers relying on Comcast should already be seeing fewer interruptions as video streams over the network. The quality of the picture should be better, too. The improvements started to appear Thursday when Comcast and Netflix began working together, though their collaboration wasn't revealed until Sunday. Some analysts believe the alliance might set the stage for Comcast to eventually include an application for Netflix's service on its cable-TV boxes, making it even more accessible.

If the claims of better performance are true, it would reverse how Netflix's video had been performing on Comcast's Internet service - the average speed during prime-time viewing hours fell 25 percent from January 2013 to this January, based on Netflix's own measurements.

---

WHAT WAS THE PROBLEM?

That's a matter of debate. Critics of Internet service providers suspect Comcast and its peers were deliberately slowing Netflix's video as a negotiating tactic aimed at extracting additional fees. But plenty of analysts traced the slowdown to Netflix's increasing viewership and the limited number of ports that Internet service providers have built to receive online content.

Netflix has long been hiring third-party vendors such as Cogent Communications Group Inc., Akamai Technologies Inc. and Level 3 Communications Inc. to deliver its video to the doors of Comcast and other Internet providers - as if Netflix had been hiring a fleet of delivery trucks to transport its products to a store. As more people stream Netflix video, the company had to dispatch more trucks. Meanwhile, other Internet services also were sending trucks with their merchandise.

Like any congested highway, bottlenecks were slowing traffic down as all those trucks carrying digital content tried to get into the entry gates of Internet providers.

Now that it's getting paid extra money, Comcast is going to create special roads for Netflix's video. By bypassing the bottlenecks, Netflix video should stream more smoothly for Comcast subscribers.

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IS NETFLIX THE ONLY SERVICE WITH EXPRESS LANES FOR DEDICATED CONTENT?

No. Google Inc., which owns the YouTube video site, and social networking service Facebook Inc., among others, had already reached similar deals with Comcast and other Internet providers. Netflix is falling in line with other services that generate a lot of traffic.

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WHAT PROMPTED NETFLIX TO ANTE UP?

No one knows for certain, but Comcast's clout probably had a lot to do with it. Comcast already has nearly 21 million broadband subscribers and that number will swell to about 30 million by the end of the year if the Philadelphia company wins regulatory approval to buy rival Time Warner Cable Inc. for $45 billion.

If Netflix's video streaming quality continued to deteriorate on Comcast, Netflix risked alienating its own subscribers. The discontent would have undercut Netflix's subscriber growth and ultimately hurt its stock.

Comcast also may have been more willing to reach a compromise to reduce the chances of Netflix amplifying its complaints about the deteriorating performance of its video service while government regulators scrutinize the Time Warner Cable deal.

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COMCAST SAYS IT ISN'T GIVING NETFLIX PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT. IS THIS REALLY TRUE?

Sort of, but it's a fine and highly technical distinction.

Comcast is referring to the ongoing debate over "Net neutrality." This term refers to the idea that Internet providers should treat all digital content equally, regardless of the originating website. The issue has become especially sensitive since last month when a federal appeals court overturned the Federal Communications Commission's regulations enforcing Net neutrality. That decision raised fears that Internet providers would impose tolls to guarantee websites run at optimal speeds.

But Net neutrality governs the performance of bits and bytes once the digital packages are inside the gates of Internet providers. The Comcast-Netflix alliance is limited to how quickly content gets to those gates.

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WILL NETFLIX RAISE ITS PRICES TO HELP OFFSET THE EXTRA MONEY THAT IT'S PAYING 

COMCAST?

The $8 monthly price for a Netflix subscription in the U.S. may eventually rise, but the increase probably won't be tied to the Comcast deal.

Although the precise terms aren't being spelled out, it appears Netflix may just be reshuffling its expenses for video delivery. The company already had been paying other contractors to handle those deliveries. Now, some of the money is going to be paid to Comcast instead.

In a telling sign that Netflix isn't anticipating dramatically higher expenses, the company didn't revise its profit projections for the first three months of this year when it announced the Comcast deal. Investors interpreted that as a sign that Netflix's expenses aren't going to rise above the levels that management already budgeted. Netflix's stock climbed by about 4 percent to a new all-time high of $449.69 Monday before falling back slightly. The shares closed at $447, a gain of $14.77.

Meanwhile, Netflix is still experimenting with new prices for subscribers who want to be able to simultaneously stream video on more than the current limit of two devices. A plan allowing four simultaneous video streams is being tested at $12 per month. Netflix has emphasized any potential price increases are still many months away.

Taliban says it suspends talks on held US soldier

Taliban says it suspends talks on held US soldier 

FILE - This image made from video released Wednesday April 7, 2010 by the Taliban via the Site Intelligence Group shows U.S. soldier then Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl. Afghanistan's Taliban says it has suspended "mediation" with the United States to exchange captive U.S. soldier Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for five senior Taliban prisoners held in U.S. custody in Guantanamo Bay, halting — at least temporarily — what was considered the best chance yet of securing the 27-year-old's freedom since his capture in 2009. In a terse Pashto language statement emailed to the Associated Press on Sunday, Zabihullah Mujahed blamed the "current complex political situation in the country" for the suspension.

 

ISLAMABAD (AP) -- Afghanistan's Taliban said Sunday they had suspended "mediation" with the United States to exchange captive Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for five senior Taliban prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, halting - at least temporarily - what was considered the best chance yet of securing the 27-year-old soldier's freedom since his capture in 2009.

In a terse Pashto language statement emailed to The Associated Press, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid blamed the "current complex political situation in the country" for the suspension.

A U.S. official with knowledge of the talks said the cause of the suspension was not the result of any issue between the United States and Taliban. He declined to elaborate and spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to journalists.

Bergdahl, of Hailey, Idaho, was last seen in a video released in December, footage seen as "proof of life" demanded by the U.S. Bergdahl is believed to be held in the border regions between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Mujahid said the indirect talks with the U.S. had been mediated by Qatar, where the Taliban established a political office last June. The video of Bergdahl was part of the negotiations which were to lead to the eventual transfer of the five Taliban leaders held since 2002 in Guantanamo Bay.

"The leadership of the Islamic Emirate has decided to suspend the process for some time due to the current complex political situation in the country," the statement read. "The process will remain suspended without the exchange of the prisoners until our decision to resume."

Mujahed did not elaborate on what "political situation" in Afghanistan led to the suspension of talks or say when they might resume. Afghanistan is in the middle of a presidential campaign ahead of an April 5 election. Two-term President Hamid Karzai cannot run again for office under the Afghan constitution.

The U.S. State Department has refused to acknowledge the negotiations, but the U.S. official previously told the AP that indirect talks were underway.

In response to the Taliban statement Sunday, U.S. Embassy spokesman in Afghanistan Robert Hilton said: "Sgt. Bergdahl has been gone far too long, however we can't discuss the efforts we're taking to obtain his return."

Col. Tim Marsano, spokesman for the Idaho National Guard, said he spoke Sunday with Bergdahl's family and said they declined to comment further.

"The family has no more words," Marsano said.

Efforts at a swap are also seen as a concession to Karzai. Washington would like to see him back away from his refusal to sign a security pact that is necessary for the U.S. to leave a residual force behind in Afghanistan. Karzai says he wants Washington to push reconciliation between the Afghan government and the Taliban forward, without offering specifics.

The five Taliban detainees at the heart of the proposal are the most senior Afghans still held at the prison at 

the U.S. base in Cuba. Each has been held since 2002.

They include:

- Mohammad Fazl, whom Human Rights Watch says could be prosecuted for war crimes for presiding over the mass killing of Shiite Muslims in Afghanistan in 2000 and 2001 as the Taliban sought to consolidate their control over the country.

- Abdul Haq Wasiq, who served as the Taliban deputy minister of intelligence and was in direct contact with supreme leader Mullah Omar as well as other senior Taliban figures, according to military documents. Under Wasiq, there were widespread accounts of killings, torture and mistreatment.

- Mullah Norullah Nori, who was a senior Taliban commander in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif when the Taliban fought U.S. forces in late 2001. He previously served as a Taliban governor in two northern provinces, where he has been accused of ordering the massacre of thousands of Shiites.

- Khairullah Khairkhwa, who served in various Taliban positions including interior minister and as a military commander and had direct ties to Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden, according to U.S. military documents. His U.S. lawyers have argued that his affiliation with the Taliban was a matter of circumstance, rather than ideology, and that he had backed away from them by the time of his capture. His lawyers also have argued that he was merely a civil servant and had no military role, though a judge said there was enough evidence to justify holding him at Guantanamo. His lawyers have appealed.

- Mohammed Nabi, who served as chief of security for the Taliban in Qalat, Afghanistan, and later worked as a radio operator for the Taliban's communications office in Kabul and as an office manager in the border department, according to U.S. military documents. In the spring of 2002, he told interrogators that he received about $500 from a CIA operative as part of the unsuccessful effort to track down Mullah Omar. When that didn't pan out, he says he ended up helping the agency locate al-Qaida members.

 

Costly, political, successful: Sochi Olympics end

Costly, political, successful: Sochi Olympics end

Fireworks explode over Olympic Park during the closing ceremony for the 2014 Winter Olympics, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2014, in Sochi, Russia.

SOCHI, Russia (AP) -- Flushed with pride after its athletes' spectacular showing at the costliest Olympics ever, Russia celebrated Sunday night with a visually stunning finale that handed off a smooth but politically charged Winter Games to their next host, Pyeongchang in South Korea.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, these Olympics' political architect and booster-in-chief, watched and smiled as Sochi gave itself a giant pat on the back for a Winter Games that IOC President Thomas Bach declared an "extraordinary success."

The crowd that partied in Fisht Olympic Stadium, in high spirits after the high-security games passed safely without feared terror attacks, hooted with delight when Bach said Russia delivered on promises of "excellent" venues, "outstanding" accommodation for the 2,856 athletes and "impeccable organization." The spectators let out an audibly sad moan when Bach declared the 17-day Winter Games closed.

"We leave as friends of the Russian people," Bach said.

The nation's $51 billion investment - topping even Beijing's estimated $40 billion layout for the 2008 Summer Games - transformed a decaying resort town on the Black Sea into a household name. All-new facilities, unthinkable in the Soviet era of drab shoddiness, showcased how far Russia has come in the two decades since it turned its back on communism. But the Olympic show didn't win over critics of Russia's backsliding on democracy and human rights under Putin and its institutionalized intolerance of gays.

Despite the bumps along the way, Bach was unrelentingly upbeat about his first games as IOC president and the nation that hosted it. One of Sochi's big successes was security. Feared attacks by Islamic militants who threatened to target the games didn't materialize.

"It's amazing what has happened here," Bach said a few hours before the ceremony. He recalled that Sochi was an "old, Stalinist-style sanatorium city" when he visited for the IOC in the 1990s.

Dmitry Chernyshenko, head of the Sochi organizing committee, called the games "a moment to cherish and pass on to the next generations."

"This," he said, "is the new face of Russia - our Russia."

His nation celebrated its rich gifts to the worlds of music and literature in the ceremony, which started at 20:14 local time - a nod to the year that Putin seized upon to remake Russia's image with the Olympics' power to wow and concentrate global attention and massive resources.

Performers in smart tails and puffy white wigs performed a ballet of grand pianos, pushing 62 of them around the stadium floor while soloist Denis Matsuev played thunderous bars from Sergei Rachmaninoff's Concerto No.2.

There was, of course, also ballet, with dancers from the Bolshoi and the Mariinsky, among the world's oldest ballet companies. The faces of Russian authors through the ages were projected onto enormous screens, and a pile of books transformed into a swirling tornado of loose pages.

There was pomp and there was kitsch. The games' polar bear mascot - standing tall as a tree - shed a fake tear as he blew out a cauldron of flames, extinguishing the Olympic torch that burned outside the stadium. Day and night, the flame had become a favorite backdrop for "Sochi selfies," a buzzword born at these games for the fad of athletes and spectators taking DIY souvenir photos of themselves.

"Now we can see our country is very friendly," said Boris Kozikov of St. Petersburg, Russia. "This is very important for other countries around the world to see."

And in a charming touch, Sochi organizers poked fun at themselves. In the center of the stadium, dancers in shimmering silver costumes formed themselves into four rings and a clump. That was a wink to a globally noticed technical glitch in the Feb. 7 opening ceremony, when one of the five Olympic rings in a wintry opening scene failed to open. The rings were supposed to join together and erupt in fireworks.

This time, it worked: As Putin watched from the stands, the dancers in the clump waited a few seconds and then formed a ring of their own, making five, drawing laughs from the crowd.

Raucous spectators chanted "Ro-ssi-ya! Ro-ssi-ya!" - "Russia! Russia!" They got their own Olympic keepsakes - medals of plastic with embedded lights that flashed in unison, creating pulsating waves of color across the stadium.

Athletes said goodbye to rivals-turned-friends from far off places, savoring their achievements or lamenting what might have been - and, for some, looking ahead to 2018. The city where they will compete, Pyeongchang, offered in its segment of the show a teaser of what to expect in four years with video of venues, Korean music and delightful dancers in glowing bird suits.

Winners of Russia's record 13 gold medals marched into the stadium carrying the country's white, blue and red flag. With a 3-0 victory over Sweden in the men's hockey final Sunday, Canada claimed the last gold from the 98 medal events.

Absent were six competitors caught by what was the most extensive anti-doping program in Winter Olympic history, with the IOC conducting a record 2,631 tests - nearly 200 more than originally planned.

Russia's leader had reason to be pleased as the Olympics dubbed the "Putin Games" ended. His nation's athletes topped the Sochi medals table, both in golds and total - 33. That represented a stunning turnaround from the 2010 Vancouver Games. There, a meager three golds and 15 total for Russia seemed proof of its gradual decline as a winter sports power since Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. Russia's bag of Sochi gold was the biggest-ever haul by a non-Soviet team.

Russia's last gold came Sunday in four-man bobsled. The games' signature moment for home fans was Adelina Sotnikova, cool as ice at 17, becoming Russia's first gold medalist in women's Olympic figure skating.

Not every headline out of Sochi was about sport. Going in, organizers faced criticism about Russia's strict policies toward gays, though once they started sliding and skiing and skating, most every athlete chose not to use the Olympic spotlight to campaign for the cause. An activist musical group and movement, Pussy Riot, appeared in public and was horsewhipped by Cossack militiamen, drawing international scrutiny.

And during the last days of competition, Sochi competed for attention with violence in Ukraine, Russia's neighbor and considered a vital sphere of influence by the Kremlin.

In an Associated Press interview on Saturday, Bach singled out Ukraine's victory in women's biathlon relay as "really an emotional moment" of the games, praising Ukrainian athletes for staying to compete despite the scores dead in protests back home.

"Mourning on the one hand, but knowing what really is going on in your country, seeing your capital burning, and feeling this responsibility, and then winning the gold medal," he said, "this really stands out for me."

 

2 popes on hand in historic 1st cardinal ceremony

2 popes on hand in historic 1st cardinal ceremony 

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is greeted by Pope Francis at the end of a consistory inside the St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2014. Benedict XVI has joined Pope Francis in a ceremony creating the cardinals who will elect their successor in an unprecedented blending of papacies past, present and future.

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- In an unprecedented blending of papacies past, present and future, retired Pope Benedict XVI joined Pope Francis at a ceremony Saturday to formally install new cardinals who will one day elect their successor.

It was the first time Benedict and Francis have appeared together at a public liturgical ceremony since Benedict retired a year ago, becoming the first pope to step down in more than 600 years. It may signal that after a year of staying "hidden from the world," Benedict may occasionally be reintegrated into the public life of the church.

Benedict entered St. Peter's Basilica discreetly from a side entrance surrounded by a small entourage and was greeted with applause and tears from the stunned people in the pews. He smiled, waved and seemed genuinely happy to be there, taking his seat in the front row, off to the side, alongside the red-draped cardinals.

"We are grateful for your presence here among us," newly minted Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, told Benedict in his introductory remarks.

Francis warmly greeted his predecessor at the start and end of the service, clasping him by his shoulders and embracing him. Benedict removed his white skullcap in a show of respect as Francis approached.

But in a sign that Benedict still commands the honor and respect owed a pope, each of the 19 new cardinals - after receiving his red hat from Francis at the altar - went directly to Benedict's seat to greet him before then exchanging a sign of peace with the other cardinals.

They had, however, already pledged their fidelity to Francis in an oath of obedience.

Saturday's surprise event was the latest in the evolving reality for the church of having two popes living side-by-side in the Vatican. Over the summer, Francis and Benedict appeared together in the Vatican gardens for a ceremony to unveil a statue. But Saturday's event was something else entirely, a liturgical service inside St. Peter's Basilica marking one of the most important things a pope can do: create new cardinals.

Benedict had no formal role whatsoever in the ceremony, but his presence could signal a new phase in his cloistered retirement that began with his Feb. 28, 2013, resignation. Chances are increasing that Benedict might also appear at the April 27 canonization of his predecessor, John Paul II, and Pope John XXIII.

The Rev. Robert Wister, a professor of church history at Seton Hall University, stressed that while it was a unique moment, Benedict was certainly present for the ceremony at Francis' invitation and that Francis was the only actual pope in the basilica elevating cardinals.

He said he didn't think Benedict would gradually return to any major ceremonial role in the church, both because his 86 years make it increasingly difficult for him to get through long services and because doing so would be "highly problematic, given that some cardinals and Curialists (Vatican bureaucrats) yearn for a return to the `good old days.'"

Nevertheless, Wister said he thought it was likely Benedict would attend the April canonizations, when two living popes would be honoring two dead ones.

Benedict's decision to appear at the consistory could also be seen as a blessing of sorts for the 19 men Francis had chosen to join the College of Cardinals, the elite group of churchmen whose primary job is to elect a pope.

Francis' choices largely reflected his view that the church must minister to the peripheries and be a place of welcome and mercy, not a closed institution of rules. In addition to a few Vatican bureaucrats, he named like-minded cardinals from some of the poorest places on Earth, Haiti, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast among them.

In his remarks, Francis told the new cardinals that the church needs their courage, prayer and compassion "especially at this time of pain and suffering for so many countries throughout the world."

"The church needs us also to be peacemakers, building peace by our works, our hopes and our prayers," he said.

Two of the new cardinals hail from Africa, two from Asia and six from Francis' native Latin America, which is home to nearly half the world's Catholics but is grossly underrepresented in the church's hierarchy.

There's Cardinal Chibly Langlois, who isn't even an archbishop but rather the 55-year-old bishop of Les Cayes and now Haiti's first-ever cardinal.

The archbishop of Managua, Nicaragua, Leopoldo Jose Brenes Solorzano, is an old friend who worked alongside the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio in preparing the seminal document of the pope's vision of a missionary church - the so-called Aparecida Document produced by the 2007 summit of Latin American bishops.

Cardinal Andrew Yeom Soo-jung, archbishop of Seoul, South Korea, has serious Catholic chops: His ancestors were among the lay people who brought Christianity to the Korean peninsula in the 19th century, and his great-great grandfather and his wife were executed as part of the Joseon Dynasty's persecution of Christians, the Asian Catholic news agency UCANews reported. Of the six children in his immediate family, three became priests.

Though he hails from Burkina Faso, Cardinal Philippe Nakellentuba Ouedraogo sounded an awful lot like the Argentine Francis in his 2013 Christmas homily. He denounced the "inequality, injustice, poverty and misery" of today's society where employers exploit their workers and the powerful few have most of the money while the poor masses suffer.

One cardinal sat out the ceremony even as he made history by living to see it: Cardinal Loris Francesco Capovilla, aged 98, became the oldest member of the College of Cardinals, but due to his age couldn't make the trip from northern Italy. His was a sentimental choice for Francis: For over a decade, Capovilla was the private secretary to Pope John XXIII, whom Francis will make a saint alongside Pope John Paul II in a sign of his admiration for the pope who convened the Second Vatican Council.

Capovilla, and the emeritus archbishops of Pamplona, Spain and Castries, St. Lucia are all over age 80 and thus ineligible to vote in a conclave to elect Francis' successor.

 

Mexico captures Sinaloa cartel boss 'Chapo' Guzman

Mexico captures Sinaloa cartel boss 'Chapo' Guzman 

Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is escorted to a helicopter in handcuffs by Mexican navy marines at a navy hanger in Mexico City, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2014. A senior U.S. law enforcement official said Saturday, that Guzman, the head of Mexicoís Sinaloa Cartel, was captured alive overnight in the beach resort town of Mazatlan. Guzman faces multiple federal drug trafficking indictments in the U.S. and is on the Drug Enforcement Administrationís most-wanted list.

 

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Mexican authorities captured the world's most powerful drug lord in a resort city Saturday after a massive search through the home state of the legendary capo whose global organization is the leading supplier of cocaine to the United States.

Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, 56, looked pudgy, bowed and much like his wanted photos when he arrived in Mexico City from Mazatlan in Sinaloa state. He was marched by masked marines across the airport tarmac to a helicopter waiting to whisk him to jail.

Guzman was arrested by the Mexican marines at 6:40 a.m. in a high-rise condominium fronting the Pacific without a single shot fired. Mexican officials late Saturday said he was apprehended with a man identified as Carlos Manuel Hoo Ramirez, contradicting earlier reports that he was arrested with a woman.

A U.S. official said that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Marshals Service were "heavily involved" in the capture.

Another federal law enforcement official said intelligence from a Homeland Security Department investigation also helped lead U.S. and Mexican authorities to his whereabouts.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder called the capture a "victory for the citizens of both Mexico and the United States."

Mexican authorities, based on a series of arrests in recent months, got wind that Guzman was moving around Culiacan, capital of his home state for which the cartel is named.

Mexican Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam described an operation that took place between Feb. 13 and 17 focused on seven homes connected by tunnels and to the city's sewer system.

He said they had Guzman in their sights several times during that period but were unable to mount an operation earlier because of possible risks to the general public. The house doors were reinforced with steel, which delayed entry by law enforcement, presumably allowing Guzman to flee several attempts at his capture before Saturday.

Murillo Karam didn't say how authorities traced him to Mazatlan.

A U.S. law enforcement official said members of Guzman's security team helped Mexican and U.S. authorities find him after they were arrested earlier this month. The official was not authorized to discuss details of the case by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Guzman faces multiple federal drug trafficking indictments in the U.S. and is on the DEA's most-wanted list. His drug empire stretches throughout North America and reaches as far away as Europe and Australia. His cartel has been heavily involved in the bloody drug war that has torn through parts of Mexico for the last several years.

His arrest followed the takedown of several top Sinaloa operatives in the last few months and at least 10 mid-level cartel members in the last week. The information leading to Guzman was gleaned from those arrested, said Michael S. Vigil, a former senior DEA official who was briefed on the operation.

The Mexican navy raided the Culiacan house of Guzman's ex-wife, Griselda Lopez, earlier this week and found a cache of weapons and a tunnel in one of the rooms that led to the city's sewer system, leading authorities to believe Guzman barely escaped, Vigil said.

As more people were arrested, more homes were raided.

"It became like a nuclear explosion where the mushroom started to expand throughout the city of Culiacan," Vigil said.

Authorities learned that Guzman fled to nearby Mazatlan. He was arrested at the Miramar condominiums, a 10-story, pearl-colored building with white balconies overlooking the Pacific and a small pool in front. The building is one of dozens of relatively modest, upper-middle-class developments on the Mazatlan coastal promenade, with a couple of simple couches in the lobby and a bare cement staircase leading up to the condominiums.

"He got tired of living up in the mountains and not being able to enjoy the comforts of his wealth. He became complacent and starting coming into the city of Culiacan and Mazatlan. That was a fatal error," said Vigil, adding that Guzman was arrested with "a few" of his bodyguards nearby.

Vigil said Mexico may decide to extradite Guzman to the U.S. to avoid any possibility that he escapes from prison again, as he did in 2001 in a laundry truck - a feat that fed his larger-than-life persona.

"It would be a massive black eye on the (Mexican) government if he is able to escape again. That's the only reason they would turn him over," Vigil said.

Because insiders aided his escape, rumors circulated for years that he was helped and protected by former President Felipe Calderon's government, which vanquished some of his top rivals.

In the bilateral assault on organized crime and Mexican drug cartels, Sinaloa had not only been relatively unscathed, but has seen its enemies go down at the hands of the government.

Aggressive assaults by the Mexican military and federal police have all but dismantled the leadership of the Beltran Leyva and Zetas cartels, both huge rivals of Sinaloa, as well as the La Linea gang fighting Sinaloa for control of the border city of Ciudad Juarez.

Calderon congratulated Pena Nieto on the capture Saturday via his Twitter account. Many also noted the huge boost that capture gave to the credibility of the Pena Nieto government, whose commitment to fighting organized crime has been questioned since he took office in late 2012.

But there were rumors circulating for months that a major operation was underway to take down the Sinaloa cartel.

Zambada's son was arrested in November after entering Arizona, where he had an appointment with U.S. immigration authorities to arrange legal status for his wife.

The following month, Zambada's main lieutenant was killed as Mexican helicopter gunships sprayed bullets at his mansion in the Gulf of California resort of Puerto Penasco in a four-hour gunbattle. Days later, police in the Netherlands arrested a flamboyant top enforcer for Zambada as he arrived in Amsterdam.

But experts predict that as long as Guzman's partner, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada is at large, the cartel will continue business as usual.

"The take-down of Joaquin `El Chapo' Guzman Loera is a thorn in the side of the Sinaloa Cartel, but not a dagger in its heart," said College of William and Mary government professor George Grayson, who studies Mexico's cartels. "Zambada ... will step into El Chapo's boots. He is also allied with Juan Jose `El Azul' Esparragoza Moreno, one of most astute lords in Mexico's underworld and, by far, its best negotiator."

Rumors had long circulated that Guzman was hiding everywhere from Argentina and Guatemala to almost every corner of Mexico, especially its "Golden Triangle," a mountainous, marijuana-growing region straddling the northern states of Sinaloa, Durango and Chihuahua.

In more than a decade on the run, Guzman transformed himself from a middling Mexican capo into arguably the most powerful drug trafficker in the world. His fortune has grown to more than $1 billion, according to Forbes magazine, which listed him among the "World's Most Powerful People" and ranked him above the presidents of France and Venezuela.

His Sinaloa Cartel grew bloodier and more powerful, taking over much of the lucrative trafficking routes along the U.S. border, including such prized cities as Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez.

Guzman's play for power against local cartels caused a bloodbath in Tijuana and made Juarez one of the deadliest cities in the world. In little more than a year, Mexico's biggest marijuana bust, 134 tons, and its biggest cultivation were tied to Sinaloa, as were a giant underground methamphetamine lab in western Mexico and hundreds of tons of precursor chemicals seized in Mexico and Guatemala.

His cartel's tentacles now extend as far as Australia thanks to a sophisticated, international distribution system for cocaine and methamphetamine.

Guzman did all that with a $7 million bounty on his head and while evading thousands of law enforcement agents from the U.S. and other countries devoted to his capture. A U.S. federal indictment unsealed in San Diego in 1995 charges Guzman and 22 members of his organization with conspiracy to import over eight tons of cocaine and money laundering. A provisional arrest warrant was issued as a result of the indictment, according to the U.S. State Department.

He also has been indicted by federal authorities in the United States several times since 1996. The charges include allegations that he and others conspired to smuggle "multi-ton quantities" of cocaine into the U.S. and used violence, including murder, kidnapping and torture to keep the smuggling operation running.

In 2013, he was named "Public Enemy No. 1" by the Chicago Crime Commission, only the second person to get that distinction after U.S. prohibition-era crime boss Al Capone.

Growing up poor, Guzman was drawn to the money being made by the flow of illegal drugs through his home state of Sinaloa.

He joined the Guadalajara cartel, run by Mexican Godfather Miguel Angel Gallardo, and rose quickly through the ranks as a ruthless businessman and skilled networker.

After Gallardo was arrested in 1989, the gang split, and Guzman took control of Sinaloa's operations.

An estimated 70,000 people have been killed in drug violence since former President Calderon deployed thousands of soldiers to drug hotspots upon taking office on Dec. 1, 2006. The current government of Pena Nieto has stopped tallying drug-related killings separately.