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   BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — President Barack Obama will appeal to Northern Ireland's youth to sustain their peace in his first opportunity to highlight the role the United States has played helping bring about reconciliation in the country.

   Obama arrived at Belfast on Monday morning. After his Belfast speech he will attend a two-day summit of the Group of Eight industrial economies.

   Later Monday he was to meet on the sidelines of the summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Topics for the two leaders range from Syria to arms control. Russia has criticized Obama's decision to arm Syrian rebels and has dismissed U.S. claims that President Bashar Assad's regime has used chemical weapons against Syrians.

   Russia is a member of the G-8. So are Canada, Japan, Britain, France, Italy and Germany.

As KTRS first reported Tuesday--the man accused of spying for the CIA in Russia has ties to St. Louis and has been expelled from Russia.  

Ryan Fogle, a 2002 graduate of Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School, was arrested in Moscow Monday by Russia's Federal Security Service, known as the FSB.  His mother, Patty, who lives here in St. Louis, refused comment to the Wall Street Journal. 

   Russian authorities say Fogle was wearing a blond wig, carrying special technical equipment and a large amount of cash when he was arrested.  U .S. Ambassador Michael McFaul was summoned today to the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow, and left without saying anything to journalists. FSB officials say Fogle had been posing as a third secretary at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow as a cover while trying to recruit a Russian counter-terrorism officer to spy for the U.S.   The Russian officer specializes in Chechnya and Dagestan, the region where the Boston bombing suspects were born.  Fogle was expelled from Russia yesterday (Tuesday).  U.S. officials are declining comment. 

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Earlier on KTRS:

TUESDAY, 5-14-13 

The US diplomat from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow being detained in Russia attended Mary Institute Country Day School and graduated in 2002. 

Ryan C. Fogle, the third secretary in the political section at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, was detained in the night hours stretching from Monday to Tuesday and subsequently released to U.S. diplomats, Russia's Federal Security Service—the FSB—said in a statement.

Fogle is accused of being an undercover Central Intelligence Agency officer attempting to recruit a member of the Russian intelligence services.

A photo provided by Russia's Federal Security Service to US news outlets claims to show St. Louis native, Ryan Fogle, an American diplomat that Russia has accused of being an undercover CIA officer attempting to recruit a member of the Russian intelligence services.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said "such provocative actions in the spirit of the "Cold War" in no way help to strengthen mutual trust. The ministry said Mr. Fogle had been declared persona non grata and Russia demanded his immediate departure in a meeting Tuesday with U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul.

According to FSB the statement, which accused Mr. Fogle of operating as an undercover CIA officer, the American diplomat was found with special technical equipment, a recruitment note written to a Russian citizen, a large sum of money and products designed to change a person's appearance.

"The U.S. intelligence community recently has made repeated attempts to recruit employees of Russia's law-enforcement bodies and special agencies, which have been recorded and monitored by [Russia's] counterespionage forces," the FSB said. The CIA declined to comment.

Russia's Foreign Ministry summoned U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul for an urgent meeting to discuss Mr. Fogle's detention. Mr. McFaul declined to comment on the matter in a Twitter question-and-answer session Tuesday. The FSB announcement was released just as the previously scheduled session on U.S. support for Russian civil society began. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Moscow also declined to comment.

Reached by phone at her home in St. Louis by the Wall Street Journal, Fogle's mother, Patty Fogle, said, "I have nothing to say."

The diplomatic incident comes less than a week after the White House and the Kremlin attempted to patch up a damaged relationship with a high-level meeting between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The U.S., which has failed to "reset" its relations with Russia after repeated attempts, is seeking the Kremlin's help in ending the protracted war in Syria.

The detention of Mr. Fogle may throw a wrench in the White House's plans to rebuild trust with the Kremlin. It also comes almost three years after the U.S. exposed a network of Russian sleeper agents that included the redheaded Anna Chapman, who later returned to Russia to become a model and minor celebrity.

The recruitment note alleged by the FSB to have been recovered from Mr. Fogle was posted Tuesday in a photograph released by the FSB and published on the website of RT, a state-controlled Russian TV channel. The authenticity of the photos and note released by the FSB couldn't be independently verified.

Written in Russian that appeared to be that of a nonnative speaker, the note was addressed "Dear Friend" and signed "Your Friends." The FSB said the alleged spy offered the would-be recruit €100,000 and provided a picture of a stack of €500 bills it said were taken from the alleged spy.

The note released by the FSB promised $100,000 a year to discuss the would-be recruit's experience and "much more" if the recruit proved willing to answer specific questions of interest.

"In addition, for long-term cooperation, we offer up to $1 million a year with the promise of additional bonuses for information that will help us," it said.

The note instructed the would-be recruit to communicate with U.S. handlers via a G-Mail account accessed either from a public Wi-Fi network or an Internet cafe. State-run media also posted a series of photos released by Russian security services that purportedly showed Mr. Fogle's detention.

One appeared to show Mr. Fogle being handcuffed on the ground while wearing a baseball cap, a light-blue checked shirt and a dirty-blonde wig. The series of photos also included an image of what appeared to be Mr. Fogle's U.S. Embassy identification card and another of his official Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs diplomatic card. The diplomatic card was set to expire on April 29, 2014, three years after its issue date.

Another image shows a table strewed with the items recovered from Mr. Fogle's detention. On the table are two wigs, three pairs of glasses, three Ziploc bags filled with thousands of euros, a microphone, a knife and an RFID Shield, a sleeve that protects passports and credit-cards with computer chips from being read remotely.

 

 

The US diplomat from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow being detained in Russia attended Mary Institute Country Day School and graduated in 2002. 

Ryan C. Fogle, the third secretary in the political section at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, was detained in the night hours stretching from Monday to Tuesday and subsequently released to U.S. diplomats, Russia's Federal Security Service—the FSB—said in a statement.

Fogle is accused of being an undercover Central Intelligence Agency officer attempting to recruit a member of the Russian intelligence services.

A photo provided by Russia's Federal Security Service to US news outlets claims to show St. Louis native, Ryan Fogle, an American diplomat that Russia has accused of being an undercover CIA officer attempting to recruit a member of the Russian intelligence services.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said "such provocative actions in the spirit of the "Cold War" in no way help to strengthen mutual trust. The ministry said Mr. Fogle had been declared persona non grata and Russia demanded his immediate departure in a meeting Tuesday with U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul.

According to FSB the statement, which accused Mr. Fogle of operating as an undercover CIA officer, the American diplomat was found with special technical equipment, a recruitment note written to a Russian citizen, a large sum of money and products designed to change a person's appearance.

"The U.S. intelligence community recently has made repeated attempts to recruit employees of Russia's law-enforcement bodies and special agencies, which have been recorded and monitored by [Russia's] counterespionage forces," the FSB said. The CIA declined to comment.

Russia's Foreign Ministry summoned U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul for an urgent meeting to discuss Mr. Fogle's detention. Mr. McFaul declined to comment on the matter in a Twitter question-and-answer session Tuesday. The FSB announcement was released just as the previously scheduled session on U.S. support for Russian civil society began. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Moscow also declined to comment.

Reached by phone at her home in St. Louis by the Wall Street Journal, Fogle's mother, Patty Fogle, said, "I have nothing to say."

The diplomatic incident comes less than a week after the White House and the Kremlin attempted to patch up a damaged relationship with a high-level meeting between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The U.S., which has failed to "reset" its relations with Russia after repeated attempts, is seeking the Kremlin's help in ending the protracted war in Syria.

The detention of Mr. Fogle may throw a wrench in the White House's plans to rebuild trust with the Kremlin. It also comes almost three years after the U.S. exposed a network of Russian sleeper agents that included the redheaded Anna Chapman, who later returned to Russia to become a model and minor celebrity.

The recruitment note alleged by the FSB to have been recovered from Mr. Fogle was posted Tuesday in a photograph released by the FSB and published on the website of RT, a state-controlled Russian TV channel. The authenticity of the photos and note released by the FSB couldn't be independently verified.

Written in Russian that appeared to be that of a nonnative speaker, the note was addressed "Dear Friend" and signed "Your Friends." The FSB said the alleged spy offered the would-be recruit €100,000 and provided a picture of a stack of €500 bills it said were taken from the alleged spy.

The note released by the FSB promised $100,000 a year to discuss the would-be recruit's experience and "much more" if the recruit proved willing to answer specific questions of interest.

"In addition, for long-term cooperation, we offer up to $1 million a year with the promise of additional bonuses for information that will help us," it said.

The note instructed the would-be recruit to communicate with U.S. handlers via a G-Mail account accessed either from a public Wi-Fi network or an Internet cafe. State-run media also posted a series of photos released by Russian security services that purportedly showed Mr. Fogle's detention.

One appeared to show Mr. Fogle being handcuffed on the ground while wearing a baseball cap, a light-blue checked shirt and a dirty-blonde wig. The series of photos also included an image of what appeared to be Mr. Fogle's U.S. Embassy identification card and another of his official Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs diplomatic card. The diplomatic card was set to expire on April 29, 2014, three years after its issue date.

Another image shows a table strewed with the items recovered from Mr. Fogle's detention. On the table are two wigs, three pairs of glasses, three Ziploc bags filled with thousands of euros, a microphone, a knife and an RFID Shield, a sleeve that protects passports and credit-cards with computer chips from being read remotely.

 

BOSTON (AP) —In May of 2011, Dzhokhar A. then a senior at a prestigious high school, was awarded a $2,500 scholarship from the city of Cambridge, Mass., to pursue higher education. Now, Tsarnaev is on the run, described as "armed and dangerous" and suspected of the Boston Marathon bombing.

Two brothers, one now dead, one alive and at large. After hours of only grainy images of two men in baseball caps to go on, a portrait gradually started emerging Friday of the men suspected in the attack.

Tsarnaev, 19, and his older brother, Tamerlan, who was killed during a violent night in Cambridge, had been living together on Norfolk Street in Cambridge. An uncle, Ruslan Tsarni of Montgomery Village, Md., told The Associated Press that the men lived together near Boston and have been in the United States for about a decade. They came from the Russian region near Chechnya, which has been plagued by an Islamic insurgency stemming from separatist wars.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's page on the Russian social networking site Vkontakte says he attended Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, graduating in 2011, the year he won the scholarship, which was celebrated with a reception at City Hall, according to a news release issued at the time. Before moving to the United States, he attended School No. 1 in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, a predominantly Muslim republic in Russia's North Caucasus that has become an epicenter of the Islamic insurgency that spilled over from Chechnya. On the site, he describes himself as speaking Chechen as well as English and Russian. His world view is described as "Islam" and he says his personal goal is "career and money."

Tsarnaev appeared in the video released by authorities on Thursday, identified as Suspect Number 2, striding down a sidewalk, unnoticed by spectators who were absorbed in the race. He followed Tamerlan by about 10 feet. He wore what appeared to be a gray hoodie under a dark jacket and pants, and a white baseball cap facing backward and pulled down haphazardly.

Tamerlan was stockier, in khaki pants, a light T-shirt, and a dark jacket. The brim of his baseball cap faced forward, and he may have been wearing sunglasses.

According to the website spotcrime.com, Tamerlan was arrested for domestic violence in July 2009, after assaulting his girlfriend.

He was an amateur boxer, listed as a competitor in a National Golden Gloves competition in 2009.

___

   MOSCOW (AP) — The organizers of the World Athletics Championship in Moscow say they will beef up security in the wake of deadly explosions at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.

   The August 10 to 18 event is seen as a dress rehearsal for the 2014 Winter Games in Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi.

   The R-Sport news agency on Tuesday quoted Valentin Balakhnichev, president of the Russian Athletics Federation, as saying that the organizers "will draw conclusions" from the Boston bombings.

   Balakhnichev said the security standards they adhere to are high but the organizers "will take tougher measures" to ensure security.

CHELYABINSK, Russia (AP) -- A small army of workers set to work Saturday to replace the estimated 200,000 square meters (50 acres) of windows shattered by the shock wave from a meteor that exploded over Russia's Chelyabinsk region. The astonishing Friday morning event blew out windows in more than 4,000 buildings in the region, mostly in the capital city of the same name and injured some 1,200 people, largely with cuts from the flying glass. Fifteen of the injured remained hospitalized on Saturday, one of them in a coma, the regional health ministry said, according to the Interfax news agency. Regional governor Mikhail Yurevich on Saturday said damage from the high-altitude explosion - estimated to have the force of 20 atomic bombs - is estimated at 1 billion rubles ($33 million). He promised to have all the broken windows replaced within a week. But that is a long wait in a frigid region. The midday temperature in Chelyabinsk was minus-12 C (10 F), and for many the immediate task was to put up plastic sheeting and boards on shattered residential windows. More than 24,000 people, including volunteers, have mobilized in the region to cover windows, gather warm clothes and food and make other relief efforts, the regional governor's office said. Crews from glass companies in adjacent regions were being flown in. In the town of Chebarkul, 80 kilometers (50 miles) west of Chelyabinsk city, divers explored the bottom of an ice-crusted lake looking for meteor fragments believed to have fallen there, leaving a six-meter-wide (20-foot-wide) hole. Emergency Ministry spokeswoman Irina Rossius told Russian news agencies the search hadn't found anything. Police kept a small crowd of curious onlookers from venturing out onto the icy lake, where a tent was set up for the divers. Many of them were still trying to process the memories of the strange day they'd lived through. Valery Fomichov said he had been out for a run when the meteor streaked across the sky shortly after sunrise. "I glanced up and saw a glowing dot in the west. And it got bigger and bigger, like a soccer ball, until it became blindingly white and I turned away," he said. In a local church, clergyman Sexton Sergei sought to derive a larger lesson. "Perhaps God was giving a kind of sign, so that people don't simply think about their own trifles on earth, but rather look to the heavens once in a while."

MOSCOW (AP) -- A meteor streaked across the sky above Russia's Ural Mountains on Friday morning, causing sharp explosions and injuring more than 1000 people, many of them hurt by broken glass.

"There was panic. People had no idea what was happening. Everyone was going around to people's houses to check if they were OK," said Sergey Hametov, a resident of Chelyabinsk, about 1500 kilometers (930 miles) east of Moscow, the biggest city in the affected region.

"We saw a big burst of light then went outside to see what it was and we heard a really loud thundering sound," he told The Associated Press by telephone.

Fragments of the meteor fell in a thinly populated area of the Chelyabinsk region, the Emergency Ministry said in a statement.

Interior Ministry spokesman Vadim Kolesnikov said more than 400 people had sought medical treatment after the blasts, and at least three had been hospitalized in serious condition. Many of the injuries were from glass broken by the explosions.

Kolsenikov also said about 600 square meters (6000 square feet) of a roof at a zinc factory had collapsed.

Reports conflicted on what exactly happened in the clear skies. A spokeswoman for the Emergency Ministry, Irina Rossius, told The Associated Press that there was a meteor shower, but another ministry spokeswoman, Elena Smirnikh, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying it was a single meteorite.

Amateur video broadcast on Russian television showed an object speeding across the sky about 9:20 a.m. local time (0320 GMT), leaving a thick white contrail and an intense flash.

Russian news reports noted that the meteor hit less than a day before the asteroid 2012 DA14 is to make the closest recorded pass of an asteroid -- about 17,150 miles (28,000 kilometers). There was no immediate demonstrable connection.

Russia Today posted videos of the meteorite streaking over Chelyanbinsk.