Sundance doc adds new take on hunt for bin Laden


PARK CITY, Utah (AP) The filmmaker behind an Osama bin Laden documentary at the Sundance Film Festival says the debate over the accuracy of Hollywood's take on the story detracts from the deeper moral questions involved.

Greg Barker, director of "Manhunt: The Search for Bin Laden," said criticism over Kathryn Bigelow's Academy Award-nominated "Zero Dark Thirty" is a political issue that's over-simplifying the matter.

"Zero Dark Thirty" has drawn fire from Washington lawmakers who say the film inaccurately depicts torture as integral in producing leads that led to bin Laden's death in a Navy SEALs raid in Pakistan in 2011.

"The fact is, what our special operations do is conduct kill-capture operations all the time, and many people die in those," Barker said. "Maybe that's what we want as a country, but we have to actually address it and understand it to really know what's going on. And so I just think that trying to say, well, was it coercive interrogation? I mean, maybe, probably, is my personal opinion, there was an element of that. Was that all of it? Certainly not. Is that what we should focus on? I don't think so."

"Manhunt," debuting on HBO in May, uses extensive interviews with CIA officers, military operatives and others involved in tracking bin Laden as he rose to power calling for jihad against the United States in the 1990s and in the war on terror after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.

Much of the story parallels events dramatized in "Zero Dark Thirty," starring Jessica Chastain as a CIA analyst named Maya who obsessively pursues bin Laden for years.

Barker and ex-CIA agents interviewed for "Manhunt" said "Zero Dark Thirty" correctly depicts that women in the CIA were at the heart of the bin Laden chase. But it still is a Hollywood distillation made to entertain wide audiences, they said.

"It is entertaining, especially the part about the SEAL raid," said Nada Bakos, who worked as a CIA analyst and later a targeting officer focusing on Iraq. "I understand they have to condense things down to different characters, but Maya's definitely a compilation of a lot of different people who worked at the agency and worked on this over the years."

Marty Martin, a CIA case officer who led the hunt for bin Laden after the Sept. 11 attacks, said interrogations did not occur the way they are shown in "Zero Dark Thirty." Asked if torture produced tips that helped find bin Laden, Martin would only say that he believes "enhanced interrogation techniques" were useful.

Martin said he believes such methods have saved hundreds of thousands of lives.

"This is America. We need to have this debate," Martin said. "If you want to make a decision that 5,000 people can die because you don't want to make a bad guy feel uncomfortable, that's a decision we have. But then, you bear that responsibility, and you'll look in those victims' relatives' eyes after the fact. But the fact is, that debate and that discussion needs to occur, and we live in a free society where that needs to happen."

Ex-CIA analyst Cindy Storer said that right after Sept. 11, she decided she did not want to be involved in coercive methods, yet she concedes that valuable information resulted.

"It doesn't mean I didn't use the information that came from it. It doesn't mean I don't respect the people who made the decision to do that," Storer said. "I know that's useful. So this black-and-white discussion of, it's not useful at all, it's totally useful, it's ridiculous. It is in the gray."

Filmmaker Barker said the debate needs to cut deeper than simple for-or-against opinions about torture. Whether from al-Qaeda or some other source, "we're going to be back in this situation again," Barker said.

"And there will be people in the shadows making decisions on our behalf, and what I'm hoping to do is kind of shed some light by telling a great story, but also shed some light on what those decisions, how those decisions are reached, and the human dimension of that," Barker said. "It's a complex issue, and we're best looking at it dispassionately, and all of us have a discussion about what this last decade was all about to us."

Al Green: Turned down 'Together' time with Obamas


Al Green says if things had worked out, it would have been him serenading President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle at the inaugural ball.

Jennifer Hudson sang Green's classic "Let's Stay Together," leaving many to wonder why the soul legend wasn't singing his own hit for the first couple.

In a statement to The Associated Press, his representative said Green had been asked to sing, but scheduling conflicts prevented him from attending Monday's festivities. Green said he'd be honored to sing for the president in the future.

The Presidential Inaugural Committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Obama famously sang a snippet of the song at an event last year that Green attended.

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Nekesa Mumbi Moody is the AP's global entertainment and lifestyles editor. Follow her at http://www.twitter.com/nekesamumbi

Singer Shakira, soccer star Gerard Pique welcome baby


(Reuters) - Singer Shakira gave birth to her first child, a boy, on Tuesday in Barcelona, the Colombian pop star said on her website.

The "Hips Don't Lie" singer and her boyfriend, the Spanish soccer player Gerard Pique, named the six-pound, six-ounce (three kilograms) boy Milan.

"Milan (pronounced MEE-lahn) means dear, loving and gracious in Slavic; in Ancient Roman, eager and laborious, and in Sanskrit, unification," the star said in a statement posted on her website.

"Just like his father, baby Milan became a member of FC Barcelona at birth," the couple joked in a statement. Pique is a defender for Spanish La Liga runner-up FC Barcelona.

Shakira, 35, announced her pregnancy in September after bowing out of a performance in Las Vegas.

The couple last week asked fans to donate gifts such as mosquito nets and vaccines to help needy children in an online baby shower. Shakira is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.

Shakira has signed on to be a judge on the upcoming season of the hit singing contest "The Voice," which is broadcast by U.S. network NBC. She and R&B singer Usher will replace judges Christina Aguilera and Cee Lo Green.

The singer fist met Pique, 25, in 2010, but only confirmed that they had been in a relationship in March 2011.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey, editing by Elaine Lies)

Did or didn't she? Beyonce questioned on lip sync


WASHINGTON (AP) There's no question Beyonce's rendition of the national anthem was a roaring success. The mystery: was it live or lip synced?

On Tuesday, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Marine Band told news outlets that Beyonce had lip synced at President Barack Obama's inauguration. Master Sgt. Kristin duBois said the band was notified at the last minute that Beyonce would use a pre-recorded voice track.

But by late afternoon, the Marine Corps backed off that statement.

Marine Corps spokesman Capt. Gregory Wolf said that because there was no opportunity for Beyonce to rehearse with the Marine Band, it was determined that a live performance by the band was ill advised. Instead they used a pre-recorded track for the band's portion of the song.

"Regarding Ms. Knowles-Carter's vocal performance," Wolf's statement continued, "no one in the Marine Band is in a position to assess whether it was live or pre-recorded."

A representative for Beyonce did not respond to requests for comment.

DuBois declined to answer further questions. Earlier in the day, she told The New York Times that the rest of the inaugural performance was live and they did not know why a recorded track was used for the national anthem.

"It's not because Beyonce can't sing. We all know Beyonce can sing. We all know the Marine Band can play," she said.

Kelly Clarkson's representative said she sang live to perform "My Country, 'Tis of Thee."

Inaugural organizers did not respond to requests for comment.

All inaugural music is pre-recorded in case weather conditions or other circumstances could interrupt the program.

The use of a recording is typical in big events. In 2009, cellist Yo-Yo Ma was questioned about "hand-syncing" for Obama's first inauguration. Ma said instruments weren't functioning properly in 19-degree weather.

Even in good conditions, producing good sound can be a challenge in a large open space.

Some artists choose to lip-sync. Whitney Houston's memorable performance of the national anthem in 1991 at the Super Bowl was sung to a track.

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Follow Brett Zongker at https://twitter.com/DCArtBeat

Teen Planned to Attack Walmart After Killing Family


The New Mexico teenager who used an assault rifle to kill his mother, father and younger siblings told police he hoped to shoot up a Walmart after the family rampage and cause "mass destruction."

Police said they are also considering charging the shooter's 12-year-old girlfriend.

According to new information released by police today, Nehemiah Griego, the 15-year-old son of an Albuquerque pastor, had plans to kill his family, his girlfriend's family, and local Walmart shoppers for weeks before he acted on the impulse on Sunday.

"Nehemiah said after killing five of his family members he reloaded the weapons so that he could drive to a populated area to murder more people," a police report from the incident stated.

"Nehemiah stated he wanted to shoot people at random and eventually be killed while exchanging gunfire with law enforcement," the report said.

The shooting spree began shortly around 1 a.m. on Sunday, when Griego snuck into his parents' bedroom while his mother, Sara Griego, was asleep. There he raided the closet where the family kept their guns, and immediately used a .22 rifle to kill her, according to the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department.

Griego's 9-year-old brother was sleeping with his mother at the time and woke up. When Griego told the boy his mother was dead, the youngster didn't believe him, according to a police report.

"So Nehemiah picked up his mother's head to show his brother her bloody face," the report states. "Nehemiah stated his brother became so upset so he shot his brother in the head."

He then went into his sisters' bedroom. "Nehemiah stated when he entered he noticed that his sisters were crying and he shot them in the head," the police report states. The girls were 5 and 2 years old.

The teenager waited for his father to come from his overnight shift working at a nearby rescue mission. When his father, Greg Griego, walked into the home around 5 a.m., unaware of what had taken place, Griego shot him multiple times with the AR-15 rifle, Sheriff Dan Houston said today.

Greg Griego was a former church pastor at Calvary Church in Albuquerque, and worked as a chaplain at a local jail where he counseled convicts. The family was very involved in the church, according to its website.

The complaint said Griego took a photo of his dead mother and "sent it to his girlfriend."

Griego then packed up the guns, including two shotguns, as well as ammunition for the rifles, and planned to drive to a Walmart to shoot additional people.

Houston said today that Griego called his 12-year-old girlfriend Sunday and ended up spending the entire day with her rather than going to the Walmart. Around 8 p.m. on Sunday, the pair drove to Calvary Church, and Griego said his family had died in a car crash. Someone on the church's staff then called 911, Houston said.

"At this time, Nehemiah had been contemplating this for some time. The information that Nehemiah had contemplated going to the local Walmart and participating in a shooting in there is accurate," Houston said. "There is no information at all that he went to church to cause anyone bodily harm there. The suspect also contemplated killing his girlfriend's parents."

The girlfriend's name was not released, but police are investigating whether to press any charges against her, Houston said. Houston said she had some knowledge about the deaths during the day Sunday.

Griego told cops he sent a picture of his dead mother to his girlfriend after the murder.

Sheriff's deputies were dispatched to the Griego home around 9:15 p.m. on Sunday and arrived 10 minutes later, where they found the five bodies.

Griego lied to investigators about the attack, telling them he came home around 5 a.m. that morning and found his family dead. He said he then took the guns to protect himself.

Griego quickly admitted to the crime when pressed by police, telling investigators he was "frustrated" with his mother. Deputies said he was "unemotional" and "very stern" during the confession.

Teen Who Killed Family Wanted to Shoot People at a Walmart "The motive was purely that he was frustrated with his mother. He could not articulate to our investigators any farther," Houston said. "In the time our investigators spent with him, it was a very casual (statement), he was just frustrated with how things were, and would not even articulate any further details of that frustration."

"It's horrific," Houston added.

A police report from the incident shows that Griego admitted to having "homicidal and suicidal thoughts" in the time leading up to the incident.

Griego reportedly gushed to police about his love for violent video games during the interrogation, Houston said. He told police he loved to play Modern Warfare and Grand Theft Auto.

"The suspect was involved heavily in games, violent games, it's what he was into," Houston said. "He was quite excited as he discussed this with our investigators."

Houston said that Griego had occasionally lost touch with his family and then reconnected with them multiple times in his life. He told investigators that his father had taught him how to shoot the weapons and the pair had practiced shooting them together.

Griego has five older siblings who were not living at the home at the time of the shooting and were unharmed.

He is facing murder and child abuse charges and will be tried as an adult, according to police.

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Steve Harvey to host Feb. 1 NAACP Image Awards


LOS ANGELES (AP) Steve Harvey is hosting next month's NAACP Image Awards.

The organization said Tuesday that presenters will include "Django Unchained" nominees Samuel L. Jackson and Jamie Foxx. Queen Latifah and Tony Goldwyn also will be among the presenters. Dennis Haysbert will be the announcer for the live broadcast.

Comedian-TV talk show host Harvey said he's honored to host the ceremony and promised "great things in store for the night."

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Image Awards honor diversity in the arts. Contenders for the top movie prize are "Flight," ''Django Unchained," ''Beasts of the Southern Wild," ''Red Tails" and "Tyler Perry's Good Deeds."

The 44th annual ceremony is scheduled to air Feb. 1 on NBC.

Chipmaker AMD's revenue tops estimates, forecast misses


(Reuters) - Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices' quarterly revenue topped estimates but its forecast for the current quarter fell short as it struggles with falling PC sales and consumers' growing preferences for smartphones and tablets.

Like larger rival Intel, AMD is trying to refocus its business as sales of laptops languish and consumers increasingly depend on more mobile gadgets.

Microsoft Corp's long-awaited launch of Windows 8 in October brought touch screen features to laptops but failed to spark a resurgence in sales that AMD, Intel and many PC manufacturers had hoped for.

AMD posted fourth-quarter revenue of $1.16 billion, compared to $1.69 billion in the year-ago quarter.

In its report on Tuesday, AMD estimated revenue in the current first quarter would fall 9 percent from the fourth quarter, plus or minus 3 percent. The mid-point of AMD's revenue forecast is about $1.056 billion.

Analysts had expected $1.149 billion in revenue for the December quarter and $1.108 billion in revenue for the current quarter, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

AMD had a net loss of $473 million, or 63 cents a share, compared to a net loss of $177 million, or 24 cents a share, in the same quarter the year before.

Shares of AMD rose 2.45 percent in extended trade after closing down 0.41 percent at $2.45.

(Reporting by Noel Randewich; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)

Canada may have to review future RIM handset unit sale


OTTAWA (Reuters) - The Canadian government might have to review any sale of BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd's handset business to a foreign buyer, Industry Minister Christian Paradis told Reuters on Tuesday.

Asked if he would allow such a sale to a foreign company, Paradis said: "It's speculation and each decision on each case is based on its own merit, so it would premature for me to speculate on any of these kinds of cases.

"So if something was going to occur, then we would have to determine if it was reviewable or not, depending on the threshold (of the value of the transaction), and then we go with the net-benefit test."

He was referring to a provision in the Investment Canada Act that requires the government to determine whether certain foreign investments in Canada are of net benefit to the country.

The markets have gained renewed excitement over RIM because of its new BlackBerry 10 operating system and because Chief Executive Thorsten Heins said its strategic review could potentially lead to the sale of its handset business.

"We hope to see RIM remain a global leader and player, and make sure it can grow organically," Paradis said by phone from Germany, where he is meeting with industrial leaders to promote Canada as a place to invest and to learn how they innovate.

Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper told Reuters last February that he wanted to see RIM grow "as a Canadian company." He singled out hostile takeovers and bids for what he described as "critical technology" companies as ones that Ottawa might block.

On a separate topic, Paradis said the government did not intend at present to lift foreign ownership restrictions on Canada's large telephone companies.

In March it eliminated foreign ownership restrictions on telecommunications carriers with a market share of 10 percent or less. But the rules remained for large companies including BCE Inc, Rogers Communications Inc, Telus Corp and Shaw Communications Inc.

For such companies, foreign ownership is limited to 20 percent of voting shares and indirect control to 46.7 percent.

He said if Canada were to change rules for the large telecom carriers, it would get tangled up with separate rules on broadcasting companies, which are required to have a minimum of Canadian broadcasting content.

"This is not in the cards of our government to go further down this road as we speak," he said.

(Reporting by Randall Palmer; Editing by W Simon and Jeffrey Benkoe)

James Franco explores sex in Sundance films

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Exclusive: Harrowing Tale of Algeria Hostage Crisis Survivor


By CLAYTON SANDELL and CAROL McKINLEY

The wife of one of the Americans who survived the hostage crisis at the BP facility in Algeria said that her husband hid from armed terrorists for more than two days, even as the gunmen paced feet away, before deciding to make a run for his life.

"They were alive and in hiding," Kristi Wysocki told ABC News in an exclusive interview, referring to her husband, Steven, and two of his international colleagues in the facility. "They got the impression that the terrorists had figured out there was somebody hiding in that building."

Speaking from her Elbert, Colorado home, Kristi said that she first knew something was dreadfully wrong at her husband's workplace when she got a mysterious, alarming text message in the middle of the night last week.

"I love you, bad problems, will talk later," was all it said, according to Kristi. "I texted back and said, 'What does this mean?' and he texted back 'Terror attack, ok now, hope to talk soon.'"

What the Colorado woman didn't know was that al Qaeda-linked terrorists had stormed the facility and would hold it for four days. By the time it was all over Saturday, 37 civilian hostages would lose their lives, including three Americans. Steven, however, wasn't one of them.

Kristi said her husband described having no food and only drinking a pint of water the entire time - he was afraid of having to urinate, which could give him away. He and his colleagues were able to move around some, but whenever Steven heard the terrorists enter their building, he hid under his desk.

"He told me that when he felt someone was close, that was the only time he could quit shaking," he said."That he managed something inside of him to not shake when they were nearby."

Several times he held his breath while a patrolling terrorist walked by just feet away. Kristi refrained from texting him, fearing even the faint buzz of the phone could put him in danger.

At one point the group was able to barricade themselves in a room where the terrorists tried to get in but couldn't.

Then, after outsmarting the armed gunmen for more than two days, Steven and his colleagues decided to make a break for it early Friday.

"They started to leave as soon as there was enough light," she said. "They didn't want to run for it in the dark because they thought the [Algerian] military might shoot them."

Eventually the group ran across an Algerian military unit, which took them in. The next day, those forces launched an operation to take the terrorists out - killing 29 of them and capturing three others.

Steven and six other Americans had survived the ordeal.

"He's the air I breathe. It was a miracle he was unhurt," Kristi said. "He feels very fortunate to be alive."

But Kristi said Steven mourns the loss of his co-workers who did not survive, one a very close friend and other colleagues.

"His heart is broken," she said. "It's a very bittersweet homecoming for him."

As such, the Wysocki family is flying their American flag at half-staff.

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