From beyond the grave: An upstate New York TV station says it received a letter Friday from the man who was to massacre 13 people at an immigration assistance center later that day, before killing himself. “I am Jiverly Wong shooting the people,” opens the disturbing letter, which was dated two weeks before the shooting. Wong also mailed the station his driver’s license, gun permit, and photos of himself posing with his guns. He apologizes for his poor English and asks, “Of course you need to know why I shooting? Because undercover cop gave me a lot of ass during eighteen years.” Wong, 41, rants about the unnamed undercover policemen, who he says caused him to lose his job, ransacked his room, put him under 24-hour surveillance, and staged a car accident with him. The letter suggests Wong, a loner who was frustrated with his lack of English proficiency and had lost a factory job last November, was deranged and possibly suffered from schizophrenia.

In tiny, once peaceful villages, aftershocks are jarring Italians, who are laying out their dead after a massive earthquake—Italy’s worst in 30 years—killed at least 150 people and left tens of thousands more homeless. Many are angry that they weren’t warned of the possibility of the deadly quake, which the Italian government says could not have been predicted. Some villagers have felt tremors in last few weeks: “And that isn’t normal,” said Virgilio Collajani, a resident of Onna, a town near the quake’s epicenter. “This is a seismic area, sure. But no one alive here today has experienced an earthquake.” Worst affected was Onna’s town center, where the delicate 16th- and 17th-century buildings crumbled as the ground shook under them. A neoclassical convent was partially devastated, and its abbess, Mother Gemma Antoniucci, died when the ceiling came tumbling down as she slept.

Echoes of Rummy? Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ predecessor lobbied fiercely for a shift at the Pentagon to better handle asymmetric warfare. Now he may be getting his wish: Gates’ budget for 2010 reflects a new emphasis on the “irregular warfare already seen in Iraq and Afghanistan,” instead of traditional gears of war like the F-22 fighter jet and C-17 airlifter. The budget—which envisions sweeping spending changes and terminates the beleaguered Lockheed Martin VH-71 helicopter program, among others—reflects the waning conflict in Iraq, as well as an effort to reduce the use of military contractors. (Gates says the Pentagon will hire 13,000 new employees in 2010.) Despite the apparent end of orders of the F-22 jet, stocks of military developers Boeing and Lockheed Martin rose at the news.

The rogue pilot who stole a small plane from a Canadian flight school has been captured in southern Missouri after hours of eluding authorities and U.S. military aircraft. Yavuz Burke, a native of Turkey and a Canadian citizen, took off on foot after landing the Cessna 172 but was later caught, federal officials said. U.S. military pilots who tracked and intercepted the aircraft during its erratic, lengthy flight tried to get Burke’s attention earlier in the day; at one point, Burke appeared to see the F-16 fighter jets, according to a spokesman for NORAD, but would not respond. Canadian officials say Burke, who was a student at the flight school but had not clocked many hours before absconding with the plane, is “not a happy individual.” He became a Canadian citizen last year.

While Bernie Madoff’s stony silence and seemingly unrepentant demeanor make him the perfect villain, the less visible J. Ezra Merkin, who allegedly funneled money from nonprofits into Madoff’s clutches while serving as a leader of New York philanthropy, might be just as bad. Merkin, charged Monday with civil fraud, is accused of “investing” $2.4 billion of clients’ funds in Madoff’s Ponzi scheme without their knowledge. “Merkin held himself out to investors as an investing guru ... In reality, Merkin was but a master marketer,” New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo wrote in the complaint. Cuomo says Merkin lied to about 85 percent of his investors about where he was putting their money but does not allege that Merkin knew that Madoff was running a Ponzi scheme.

Seeking to end the perception of a clash of civilizations between the Western and Muslim worlds, President Obama said today in Turkey that the U.S. "is not, and will never be, at war with Islam." According to the Los Angeles Times, the speech was well-received by the Turkish parliament and was closely watched throughout the Middle East. Obama's call for re-engagement with the Muslim world is a stark difference from the Bush era; at one point in 2001 the former president received much criticism for saying "this crusade, this war on terrorism, is going to take awhile." Obama also curried favor in the region by advocating for Turkey to be allowed to join the European Union, in spite of criticism from European leaders.

The Chris Brown-Rihanna beating saga continues: The pop star this evening pleaded not guilty to two felony counts—assault and making criminal threats—stemming from the alleged beating of his girlfriend. On Feb. 8, hours before Rihanna’s scheduled Grammy performance, Brown allegedly punched, choked and threatened to kill her after the two began fighting over a text message he received from another woman. If convicted, the 19-year-old R&B singer, who legal experts expect to accept a plea deal, faces up to four years and eight months in prison.

Tell us how you really feel. Allen Stanford, the eccentric Texas financier accused of defrauding investors of $8 billion, cried, vehemently proclaimed his innocence, and even threatened to punch a reporter in the face in a new interview. “I would die and go to hell if it’s a Ponzi scheme,” he said of the allegations. “It makes me madder than hell and it touches the core of my soul.” Stanford says he expects to be indicted by a federal grand jury in the next few weeks, but in the meantime, the SEC has frozen his assets, with truly tragic results. Stripped of all but a few changes of clothes and access to his six private jets, Stanford was—brace yourself—forced to fly on a commercial airplane for the first time in almost 20 years. “They make you take your shoes off and everything, it’s terrible,” a tearful Stanford said of the experience. The self-described “maverick” threatened violence when asked about his alleged connection to Mexican drug cartels. “If you say that to my face again, I will punch you in the mouth,” he said.

In an attempt to crack down on political corruption in Russia—ahem—President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin have released their personal financial records and decreed that all public servants must release their own income and assets, as well as those of their families. Medvedev’s records reveal modest savings of about $85,000 and an annual salary of little more than a quarter of President Obama’s, while Putin reports savings of $111,000 and an annual salary of $60,000. Such modest earnings might possibly appear a bit fishy: Journalists have caught Medvedev sporting a Breguet watch and Putin flashing Breguet and Patek Philippe watches, luxury brands that sell for tens of thousands of dollars. The statesmen’s wives, known for loving designer brands, also reveal few assets and savings: Svetlana Medvedeva reports $4,045 in savings, a 10-year-old Volkswagen, and zero in earnings, though she has been photographed wearing a $20,000 watch of her own.

On the eve of the release of his new album, I Feel a Change a Comin’ On, Bob Dylan is waxing poetic to The Times of London about (what else?) the liquid times in which we live and our president. Dylan—as only Dylan can—mythologizes Obama’s life, lending a folksy allure to the stories in the president’s autobiography, Dreams from My Father. “He’s like a fictional character, but he’s real,” Dylan says. “First off, his mother was a Kansas girl... And then his father. An African intellectual. Bantu, Masai, Griot type heritage—cattle raiders, lion killers. I mean it’s just so incongruous that these two people would meet and fall in love. You kind of get past that though. And then you’re into his story. Like an odyssey except in reverse.”

After 18 years of censorship, the media has been granted access to the somber ceremonies that return fallen soldiers to their families. Since the days of the first Bush administration, the ban had been in place that prohibited the media from covering the arrival of casualties of war in flag-draped coffins. President Obama reversed the policy, allowing the soldiers' families to decide whether the media can attend. The first person to have a public ceremony, Sgt. Phillip A. Myers, 30, of Hopewell, VA, was killed in Afghanistan on Saturday by an IED, according to the Washington Post. The training for the soldiers in charge of "the dignified transfer" is quite intense: one of the final exams requires that the trainee stand at attention for 90 minutes without batting an eye while superiors try to goad them into flinching through lewd jokes and silly songs.

So much for happily ever after: Police are looking into reports of violence at Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen’s repeat nuptials in Costa Rica over the weekend. Photographers angling for a snap of the wedding say they were forced to duck for cover when the couple’s armed bodyguards opened fire, People reports. One photographer tells the magazine, “I’ve been shot at before, but only when I was covering the war in Iraq or when I was in Israel. This is ridiculous!” Yuri Cortez, Central American bureau chief for Agence France-Presse, says he was harassed by security guards who wanted him to show the photos he’d taken. As he sped away in his SUV, he said, a bullet tore through the back window and windshield, nearly missing him and another photographer.

Many Republicans have tried to distance themselves from Dick Cheney’s sniping about Obama making America less safe—but not Newt Gingrich. The former House speaker is doing just the opposite, backing up the former VP’s belief that the GOP protects the homeland better than Democrats. “Between the court decisions about terrorists and the administration actions, the United States is running greater risks of getting attacked than we were under President Bush,” Gingrich said in a chat on Politico. Gingrich, rumored to be a potential presidential candidate in 2012, also blasted Obama for his handling of the North Korean missile launch, saying it was a “vivid demonstration of weakness in foreign policy...Not since Jimmy Carter have we had an administration this out of touch with reality.” Gingrich also scoffed at Obama’s call for nuclear disarmament, though an attentive questioner pointed out that Gingrich’s “hero,” Ronald Reagan, shared the same goal.

Giampaolo Giuliani, an Italian researcher in nuclear physics, might have been channeling Cassandra. The Times of London reports that Giuliani anticipated yesterday's earthquake near Rome, which has killed more than 100 and left more than 50,000 homeless, by studying concentrations of radon gas around seismically active areas. Giuliani was reported to police for "spreading alarm" and was forced to remove his predictions from the internet, save one YouTube interview. The head of Italy's National Geophysics Institute poo-pooed Guiliani's predictions. "Every time there is an earthquake there are people who claim to have predicted it," he said. "It is not possible to predict earthquakes." Giuliani is demanding an official apology from authorities.

Well, it might be comforting for NY Governor David Paterson to consider that he isn't as unpopular as Dick Cheney. A new poll shows Paterson trailing State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo 61 to 18 in a hypothetical matchup. 60 percent of New Yorkers disapprove of the job Paterson is doing, and a majority also believe he should go ahead and announce he will not be running for a full term in 2010. Rudy Giuliani, meanwhile, tops Paterson 53-32 in a general election matchup, while Cuomo beats Giuliani 53 to 36.

Frightening news from the last day of the president’s overseas trip: A man with an Al-Jazeera press pass plotted to stab Obama at the Summit of Civilizations in Turkey, CBS News reports. After being arrested by Turkish authorities, the Syrian man confessed to the plot and said he had three other accomplices. The suspect had been “regularly attending all the conferences and events relating to the Middle East” in Istanbul. It is unclear whether the man actually did work for Al-Jazeera or if the pass was a forgery.

The New Yorker's Jon Lee Anderson gives an incisive account of the political situation inside Iran running up to its presidential election. Among Anderson's revelations: Iran's political structure is opaque--the president wields a certain amount of clout, but so does Ayatollah Ali Khameni, Iran's Supreme Leader, yet even he is constrained by a web of relationships. No matter the candidate, Iran's desire for nuclear armaments will likely be a core national issue for years to come, and derives from the country's need for respect. Ahmadinejad's appeal--he's the Islamic equivalent of a born-again Christian who knows how to talk to the common people--distinguishes him from the opposition. Anderson also explains how Obama's branch of peace may help scuttle Ahmadinejad's reelection bid by creating a debate between president and people about how to engage with the U.S.

Apparently, theirs was a fire that burned too bright. Lindsay Lohan has ended her relationship with Samantha Ronson, according to several people as well as Lohan's Twitter account. The situation came to a head over the weekend as Lohan was barred from entering a party thrown by Ronson's sister in Hollywood. Of course, the Lohan camp tells it differently, saying the Ronson family purposely rented a hotel room under hers, and then "blasted music and would not let Samantha leave the room to meet Lindsay." Lohan's tweet reveals the tension between the hard-partying duo: "PLEASE leave me ALONE. and stop staying in the room below me, you've woken me and my mother up. go to bed. keep cheating u win." In today's wired world, getting dumped over the telephone seems kind of antiquated. Lohan denies the split so perhaps there's hope.

Hope springs eternal on Opening Day, when all 30 Major League Baseball teams have unblemished records and dreams of World Series glory. The main storyline this year, of course, is Alex Rodriguez, who will have to recover from a steroid scandal and hip surgery while enduring the hyper-vigilant NYC media. Other teams to watch include the Yankees, who ignored the sour economy and went on a wild spending spree to get them back to the World Series; the Cubs, who are once again projected to be contenders despite over a century of failure; and the Dodgers, who have re-signed the enigmatic Manny Ramirez to a two-year contract.

Two polls released today reveal diverging opinions about President Obama’s performance in his early days in office. Obama received high marks for his work on the international stage during his foreign trip; 79 percent of those polled by CNN said that “people in other countries will have a more positive view of the U.S. because of Obama.” Interestingly, the poll did not find that people perceived the president as having won any concrete diplomatic concessions; rather, his gains were in perception. Another poll, released by the Pew Research Center, found that despite all his efforts at bipartisanship, Obama has the “most polarized early job approval ratings of any president in the past four decades.” He’s even more unpopular with Republicans than George W. Bush was with Democrats after roughly three months in office.

Your Facebook photos, favorite books and movies, status updates—all are distinctly yours. But believe it or not, they’re Facebook’s property. Until recently, when you shut down your profile on Facebook, you’d retain the rights to all your information there. But a new Facebook privacy clause allows Zuckerberg & Co. to hang on to—and do anything they want with—your personal information. Facebook activists have bemoaned this adjustment to the Terms of Service, and Zuckerberg has attempted to re-democratize the process. But the decision will soon be brought to a user vote after April 20, when users will be invited to decide the site’s privacy terms. But the vote will only become Facebook law if over 30 percent of users—60 million people—cast their virtual ballots. Writes New York magazine’s Vanessa Grigoriadis: “This is a crucial moment for Facebook, and a delicate one, because We, the users, are what Facebook is selling."

George Packer’s column about President Obama in today’s New Yorker may have an unfortunate lede—“Another week, another earthquake”—but it’s well worth the read. After listing off Obama’s accomplishments so far, Packer notes “Well short of Obama’s first hundred days, the dominant characteristic of his Presidency is clear: activist government, on every front. … What underlies so many of Obama’s decisions is an attachment to the institutions that hold up American society, a desire to make them function better rather than remake them altogether.” Packer notes an irony about Obamaism: “It’s also a pretty good description of what used to pass for conservatism—a sense that social relations and institutions are fragile things, and that, while government can’t create wealth or impose equality, at moments like this it has to establish a new equilibrium between individuals and huge economic forces, so that society doesn’t crumble.”

Perhaps someone needs an introduction to Netflix? Fox News columnist Roger Friedman was reportedly fired after blogging about illegally watching the highly-anticipated Hugh Jackman-fronted Wolverine. Good news for the studio—he loved the film. Bad move on Friedman’s part—he raved about Internet piracy. He wrote: “I did find the whole top 10 [movies in theaters], plus TV shows, commercials, videos, everything, all streaming away. It took really less than seconds to start playing it all right onto my computer…Later tonight I may finally catch up with Paul Rudd in I Love You, Man. It’s so much easier than going out in the rain!” News Corp swiftly removed the post and issued a statement saying Friedman was terminated. The entertainment writer alleges that he still has a job and is rumored to be meeting with executives today. Lesson learned?

Not only can Chinese girls aspire to unrealistic body proportions, thanks to the opening of a six-story Barbie flagship store opening in Shanghai, but so can their mothers: The Washington Post reports that Mattel is countering Barbie's flagging sales by pushing into new markets in China. The store is targeted not simply at children, but also at young urban professionals with disposable income. The 35,000-square-foot space includes a spa and restaurant and sells clothing and gourmet chocolate in addition to the dolls. “I just thought, ‘Wouldn't this be great if this was my home?’” said Jiang Xioayun, a 23-year-old administrative assistant

Is Pixar going art house? As Disney prepares its May release of Up, Pixar’s latest about an old man who ties balloons to his house and floats away on an adventure, industry insiders are worried about the film’s financial viability. While Up figures to be a critical success, there are fewer merchandising possibilities for it and its 78-year-old hero, who doesn’t quite scream action figure. Target and Wal-Mart have said they will stock little Up merchandise, and merchandisers, at least, are longing for the hugely profitable films of old, like Cars and Toy Story. Overall, even as acclaim for Pixar’s films rises, revenues have been going down, with its last two films, Wall-E and Ratatouille, delivering its worst sales.

Might bank CEOs soon be heading the way of ousted GM chief Rick Wagoner? In a CBS interview yesterday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said that the Obama administration was prepared to oust senior management at banks to protect American taxpayers and ensure accountability in exchange for federal money. He also denied earlier reports that the Obama administration was channeling the bailout through middlemen to help banks avoid restrictions, saying: “If, in the future, banks need exceptional assistance in order to get through this, then we’ll make sure that assistance comes with conditions.”

Fleetwood Mac front-woman Stevie Nicks is not, apparently, a fan of Britney Spears. "You have to pay your dues to be a real rock star," Nicks said yesterday. "It's different in that Britney did not join a band when she was 18 and practice every day for five hours Monday through Friday and then play gigs Friday, Saturday and Sunday." Nicks led a famously hedonistic lifestyle in the 1970s and 1980s.

You may soon be able to block out painful memories–without spending money on a shrink. Researchers in Brooklyn have identified the “memory molecule” in the human brain, which will allow them to control the blockage of certain human memories. PKMzeta, a molecule that was activated in cells “when they were put on speed-dial by a neighboring neuron,” has so far been tested only on rats. Scientists found that the rats remember certain things, but with an injection that blocks PKMzeta, forget everything they’ve learned. The implications are vast: Scientists may be able to dim memories of trauma or soothe an addict’s cravings. And the properties of PKMzeta may allow neuroscientists to improve memory, and help people avoid Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.

Remember The Constant Gardener? The Independent reports that Pfizer will pay $74.6 million to Nigerian families to settle a lawsuit that inspired the John Le Carré novel and the film. Allegedly, Pfizer ran drug trials of a broad spectrum antibiotic in the Nigerian slum city of Kano in the middle of a meningitis epidemic without notifying the families of the 200 sick children who participated. Side effects allegedly included organ failure, brain damage, and death. This out-of-court settlement won't close the case however, as the lawsuit has spawned a web of litigation in Connecticut and New York, and elsewhere in Nigeria.

Here’s one positive, unexpected side effect of North Korea’s brazen launch over the weekend: Asian markets felt little consequence and actually climbed in the early hours of trading. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Average gained 1.8 percent while South Korea’s Kospi added 2.1 percent. "Markets have learnt from when [such] incidents happened before, that if it's a short-term fall, then the markets bounce back very quickly. The correct assumption is there are no lingering, or unlikely to be any lingering economic implications," said an Asia strategist about the launch’s significance. Honda, Sony, and Samsung stocks all saw gains. Might this be the beginning of a swift turnaround?

The weekend after a gunman in Binghamton, New York killed 14 people, two more shootings occurred. The first happened in Pittsburgh, where a 22-year-old man shot and killed three police officers. The second took place in Washington, where a father shot five of his children, aged seven to 16, before shooting himself. The shootings are mobilizing gun-control proponents, especially to renew the assault-weapons ban. One advocate lays some of the blame at the feet of the gun lobby, which fanned fears that President Obama would take guns away. “They have a lot of people running out and buying guns in a panic buy. This is unnecessary.”

Six car bombs struck markets, a police convoy, and a group of Shiite workers today across Baghdad, killing 32 and wounding more than 120. The Washington Post writes, “The breadth and coordination of Monday's attacks, from one end of the capital to the other, were reminiscent of the violence from Baghdad's bloodiest days in 2006 and 2007.” None of the attacks appear to have been carried out by suicide bombers, but were instead detonated remotely.

President Obama made good last night on an earlier promise to visit a Muslim country in his first 100 days, as he arrived in Ankara, the capital of Turkey. He’ll spend two days in the country, speaking today before the Turkish Grand National Assembly before heading to Istanbul tomorrow. Before arriving, Obama angered leaders at an EU-US summit by urging the EU to accept Turkey as a member to “ensure we continue to anchor Turkey firmly in Europe.” Obama said, “The United States and Europe must approach Muslims as our friends, neighbors and partners in fighting injustice, intolerance and violence.” His appeal sparked a tough rebuke from French President Nicolas Sarkozy: “I have been working hand in hand with President Obama, but when it comes to the European Union it's up to member states of the European Union to decide" Sarkozy said in Prague. "I have always been opposed to this entry, and I remain opposed.”

North Korea’s missile launch was meant to intimidate the world, but did it embarrass itself instead? The New York Times reports that North Korea’s missile failed to carry its satellite into orbit and instead fell into the sea about 1,300 miles off the coast of Japan. According to the Times, “space experts said the failure represented a blow that in all likelihood would seriously delay the missile’s debut.” The Los Angeles Times notes, however, that the missile launch was more successful than North Korea’s last attempt. Meanwhile, the fallout from the missile launch may not be entirely bad: President Obama seized on it to give a speech about nuclear nonproliferation in Prague. He said, “The need for action, not just this afternoon at the U.N. Security Council, but in our determination to prevent the spread of these weapons.” The United Nations, so far, has failed to agree on a response to North Korea.