Estonian pleads guilty in U.S. court to Internet advertising scam

NEW YORK (Reuters) – An Estonian man pleaded guilty on Friday in U.S. federal court for his role in a massive Internet scam that targeted well-known websites such as iTunes, Netflix and The Wall Street Journal.

The scheme infected at least four million computers in more than 100 countries, including 500,000 in the United States, with malicious software, or malware, according to the indictment. It included a large number of computers at data centers located in New York, federal prosecutors said.

Valeri Aleksejev, 32, was the first of six Estonians and one Russian indicted in 2011 to enter a plea. They were indicted on five charges each of wire and computer intrusion. One of the defendants, Vladimir Tsastsin, was also charged with 22 counts of money laundering.

In U.S. District Court in Manhattan on Friday, Aleksejev pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. He faces up to 25 years in prison, deportation and the forfeiture of $ 7 million.

The scam had several components, including a “click-hijacking fraud” in which the malware re-routed searches by users on infected computers to sites designated by the defendants, prosecutors said in the indictment. Users of infected computers trying to access Apple Inc’s iTunes website or Netflix Inc‘s movie website, for example, instead ended up at websites of unaffiliated businesses, according to the indictment.

Another component of the scam replaced legitimate advertisements on websites operated by News Corp’s The Wall Street Journal, Amazon.com Inc and others with advertisements that triggered payments for the defendants, prosecutors said.

The defendants reaped at least $ 14 million from the fraud, prosecutors said. However, Aleksejev’s lawyer, William Stampur, said in court on Friday that Aleksejev has no assets.

Estonian police arrested Aleksejev and the other Estonians in November 2011. One other Estonian, Anton Ivanov, has been extradited, and the extradition of the other four is pending, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan. The Russian, Andrey Taame, remains at large, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

Aleksejev told Magistrate Judge James Francis he assisted in blocking anti-virus software updates on infected computers. Francis asked Aleksejev if he knew what he was doing was illegal.

“I thought it was wrong,” Aleksejev said in broken English after a long pause. “But of course I didn’t know all the laws in the U.S.”

Francis set a tentative sentencing date of May 31 for Aleksejev.

The case is USA v. Tsastsin et al, U.S. District Court in Manhattan, No. 11-00878.

(Reporting by Bernard Vaughan; Editing by Dan Grebler)

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Beyonce electrifies at Super Bowl halftime show

If naysayers still doubted Beyonce's singing talents — even after her national anthem performance this week at a press conference — the singer proved she is an exceptional performer at the Super Bowl halftime show.

Beyonce opened and closed her set belting songs, and in between she danced hard and heavy — and better than most contemporary pop stars.

She set a serious tone as she emerged onstage in all black, singing lines from her R&B hit "Love on Top." The stage was dark as fire and lights burst from the sides. Then she went into her hit "Crazy In Love," bringing some feminine spirit to the Superdome as she and her background dancers did the singer's signature booty-shaking dance. Beyonce ripped off part of her shirt and skirt. She even blew a kiss. She was ready to rock, and she did so like a pro.

Her confidence — and voice — grew as she worked the stage with and without her Destiny's Child band mates during her 13-minute set, which comes days after she admitted she sang to a pre-recorded track at President Barack Obama's inauguration less than two weeks ago.

Beyonce proved not only that she can sing, but that she can also entertain on a stage as big as the Super Bowl's. The 31-year-old was far better than Madonna, who sang to a backing track last year, and miles ahead of the Black Eyed Peas' disastrous set in 2011.

Beyonce was best when she finished her set with "Halo." She asked the crowd to put their hands toward her as she sang the slow groove on bended knee — and that's when she the performance hit its high note.

"Thank you for this moment," she told the crowd. "God bless y'all."

Her background singers helped out as Beyonce danced around the stage throughout most of her performance. There was a backing track to help fill in when Beyonce wasn't singing — and there were long stretches when she let it play as she performed elaborate dance moves.

She had a swarm of background dancers and band members spread throughout the stage, along with videotaped images of herself dancing that may have unintentionally played on the live-or-taped question. And the crowd got bigger when she was joined by her Destiny's Child band mates.

Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams popped up from below the stage to sing "Bootylicious." They were in similar outfits, singing and dancing closely as they harmonized. But Rowland and Williams were barely heard when the group sang "Independent Woman," as their voices faded into the background.

They also joined in for some of "Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)," where Beyonce's voice grew stronger. That song featured Beyonce's skilled choreography, as did "End of Time" and "Baby Boy," which also showcased Beyonce's all-female band, balancing out the testosterone levels on the football field.

Before the game, Alicia Keys performed a lounge-y, piano-tinged version of the national anthem that her publicist assured was live. The Grammy-winning singer played the piano as she sang "The Star Spangled Banner" in a long red dress with her eyes shut.

She followed Jennifer Hudson, who sang "America the Beautiful" with the 26-member Sandy Hook Elementary School chorus. It was an emotional performance that had some players on the sideline on the verge of tears. Hudson also sang live, her publicist said.

The students wore green ribbons on their shirts in honor of the 20 first-graders and six adults who were killed in a Dec. 14 shooting rampage at the school in Newton, Conn.

The students began the song softly before Hudson, whose mother, brother and 7-year-old nephew were shot to death five years ago, jumped in with her gospel-flavored vocals. She stood still in black and white as the students moved to the left and right, singing background.

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Follow Mesfin Fekadu on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MusicMesfin

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U.S.-Mexico trade war over tomatoes appears to have been averted

American and Mexican tomato growers appear to have avoided a trade war — the U.S. Commerce Department has released a draft of an agreement governing the price of tomato imports from Mexico.

U.S. growers in Florida had accused their Mexican counterparts of selling their tomatoes below fair market value, a practice known as dumping.

The new agreement, which sets a minimum wholesale price for tomatoes, would replace a trade pact that went into effect 17 years ago.

Francisco Sanchez, the undersecretary of commerce for international trade, said in a statement Saturday that the agreement puts in place "robust enforcement that will allow American workers and the U.S tomato industry to compete on a level playing field."

In the last decade, U.S. growers found themselves competing heavily with Mexico. That country's exports of tomatoes to the U.S. reached $1.81 billion in 2011, more than quadruple the $412 million in 2000.

Eager to continue exports and sales of their tomatoes, Mexican tomato growers and importers worked with Commerce Department officials on drafting an agreement.

The plan, open to public comment until Feb. 11, would raise the wholesale price for tomatoes and strengthen anti-dumping enforcement.

One provision of the agreement, expected to take effect March 4, creates a reporting mechanism to monitor the price of production by Mexican growers.

Martin Ley, a Mexican tomato grower involved in the negotiations, said the agreement was made possible by steep concessions on the part of Mexican tomato producers.

"Getting to this moment no doubt required significant compromise by the Mexican growers," he said in a statement. "Even though no dumping or injury to the U.S. industry was demonstrated by our competitors, over the last year our growers worked with our government to overhaul the whole Mexican industry, broaden the coverage and develop tough enforcement schemes.

"While concessions on price will impose hardships on our industry, we are hopeful that over the long run we will be able to continue to supply the United States with what are acknowledged to be the best tomatoes in the market."

Late last month, a study, paid for by a Mexican tomato trade group, predicted that the price of winter tomatoes would have doubled if Mexican imports were excluded from the U.S. market. The study, released by the Fresh Produce Assn. of the Americas, projected that the price of hothouse round tomatoes, for instance, would have risen from $2.02 a pound to almost $4 a pound.

U.S. growers appeared to back the agreement but held firm to their assertion that Mexico was dumping its tomatoes.

With the agreement, "we're hopeful and optimistic that we'll be able to compete under fair trade conditions," Edward Beckman, president of Certified Greenhouse Farmers, said in a statement. "Much work remains to have the agreement fully and faithfully implemented, and continuous monitoring and enforcement will be critical."

ricardo.lopez2@latimes.com

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China May (or May Not) Be Behind the Twitter Hack

You may not have heard, but roughly 250,000 Twitter accounts may have been compromised by hackers. There’s a theory that — if you read between the lines — Twitter is implying the Chinese are to blame for compromising their security. 

RELATED: The Chinese Want to Know Why Their News Is on Twitter and They Aren’t

Twitter revealed that roughly a quarter million accounts may have been compromised by hackers in a blog post Friday evening. (A classic Friday evening news dump if there ever was one; they got a $ 10 billion valuation the same day.) 

RELATED: A Punk Prince, Women in the Military, a New Tennis Controversy

Bandits might have made away with “usernames, email addresses, session tokens and encrypted/salted versions of passwords – for approximately 250,000 users.” They think. A Twitter representative stressed to the Verge that they’re still investigating; there’s a chance we’re all safe. 

RELATED: World Languages Mapped by Twitter

But was China behind it all?! That’s an emerging theory. We don’t know who was behind it. Twitter doesn’t say directly. None of the usual suspects have claimed ownership of the attack. (Yet.)

RELATED: The Good, the Bad, and the Fuzzy of Twitter’s New Censorship Rules

But Twitter mentions the New York Times and Wall Street Journal hacks in their opening paragraph, apropos of nothing, really. It could mean the company was just trying to show they’re not alone in being targeted — look at these bullies picking on these other kids, too. Or it could mean they’re subtly implying China is behind it all. 

RELATED: Did the Berlin Wall’s Fall Save China?

The last paragraph in Twitter’s statement is where the theory really gets its legs. Emphasis ours: 

This attack was not the work of amateurs, and we do not believe it was an isolated incident. The attackers were extremely sophisticated, and we believe other companies and organizations have also been recently similarly attacked. For that reason we felt that it was important to publicize this attack while we still gather information, and we are helping government and federal law enforcement in their effort to find and prosecute these attackers to make the Internet safer for all users. 

So, did they do it? These sophisticated hackers who targeted other companies and organizations sure sounds like they’re implying it was China.

Was it China in the basement with the Cheetos and Red Bull and impressive coding skill? We don’t know for sure, but we’re definitely looking for any and every clue we can find. 

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Timberlake gives Super Bowl-eve comeback concert

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — One of the most anticipated musical moments of the year so far happened in New Orleans and was connected to the Super Bowl — but it had nothing to do with Beyonce.

Instead, it was another superstar, Justin Timberlake, who had the town buzzing as he gave his first performance in nearly five years — a sizzling, hour-long concert that featured the nattily dressed entertainer with a more than 10-piece band and guest appearances by Timbaland and Jay-Z, who's prominently featured on Timberlake's comeback single, "Suit and Tie."

Timberlake hadn't released new music in years, preferring to concentrate on a blossoming acting career that included star turns in movies such as "Friends With Benefits" and the Oscar-nominated "The Social Network."

But when Timberlake took to the stage on Saturday night for DirecTV's Super Bowl-eve bash, it seemed as if he had never left. Timberlake, dressed in a black tux, betrayed no nerves or rust as he appeared with the backing band dubbed "JT & the Tennessee Kids" and dove into the night's first song, "Like I Love You," his signature falsetto in top form.

There was a bit of irony the setting of Timberlake's comeback concert because he is identified with the most infamous Super Bowl performance of them all, 2004's wardrobe malfunction featuring Janet Jackson. He spoke a little about Sunday's big game as he baited Baltimore Ravens fans against San Francisco 49ers followers.

Other than that, had little else to say, letting his music do all the talking. For the most part, his musical statement consisted a rundown of his greatest hits, including "Senorita," ''Cry Me A River," ''Summer Love" and "My Love" (the latter of which included a verse of Jay-Z and Kanye's "... In Paris").

But he did offer at least two new songs that seemed as if they could have been inspired by his recent marriage to Jessica Biel. Both were slow jams: One was called "Push Your Love Girl," while another had the refrain: "I'm in love with that girl ... don't be mad at me."

Timberlake also drew from others' music, performing a cover of INXS' "What You Need" and delivering a spot-on rendition of the Jacksons' "Shake Your Body Down To the Ground," complete with the Jacksons' trademark choreography.

The standing-room crowd — which included Paul McCartney, Sofia Vergara, John Legend and New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft — was dancing most of the night, and by the time Jay-Z came on to deliver his verse for "Suit and Tie," the party was in full throttle.

Timberlake ended the evening with "SexyBack," bringing his sexy —and more importantly his music — back for the public to enjoy.

Timberlake's comeback will reach an even larger audience next Sunday with his performance on the Grammys. His third album, "The 20/20 Experience," is out next month.

___

Online:

http//www.justintimberlake.com

___

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Doctor who admitted dealing drugs to get his license back

A West Hollywood psychiatrist who pleaded guilty to felony drug dealing after pills he prescribed turned up for sale on Craigslist will be able to get his medical license back in a year under an agreement announced Friday by the Medical Board of California.

The sanction, though harsh by board standards, allows Nathan Kuemmerle, 40, a former methamphetamine user, to treat patients again as soon as next February.

As a result of the criminal charges, Kuemmerle had lost his privilege to prescribe controlled substances and must apply to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration if he wants it restored. Kuemmerle agreed to undergo random drug testing, enroll in a physician ethics class and seek psychological counseling, among other conditions.

Kuemmerle was featured in a Dec. 30 Times report on the state's failure to use its vast prescription drug database to identify reckless prescribing by physicians.

In 2009, Kuemmerle was the state's most prolific prescriber of Adderall, a widely abused stimulant, records show. His prescribing drew scrutiny only after Redondo Beach narcotics detectives arrested a suspected drug dealer peddling Adderall pills on Craigslist. The suspect identified Kuemmerle as the source of the prescriptions.

Two months later, a second suspected drug dealer arrested in Arizona also pointed authorities to Kuemmerle. When drug agents checked the state's prescription drug database, known as CURES, they discovered that in 2009 Kuemmerle prescribed nearly four times as many of the highest-dose Adderall pills as the No. 2 doctor on the list, records show. Additionally, records show, he was the state's No. 2 prescriber of the most highly controlled narcotic painkillers.

Kuemmerle was arrested and pleaded guilty in 2011 to drug dealing and was sentenced to three years' probation.

Federal agents had alleged that Kuemmerle was selling prescriptions to people he had never seen, much less examined, records show. Kuemmerle wrote an average of 15 prescriptions per day for controlled substances over a four-year period, a figure a medical expert described as "remarkably high," records show.

Narcotics detectives said they were amazed that Kuemmerle was able to prescribe so many drugs undetected for so long, even though state authorities had access to a database that collected a record every time a pharmacy dispensed one.

Kuemmerle could not be reached for comment.

The types of drugs Kuemmerle prescribed are fueling an epidemic of overdose deaths that has drawn the attention of drug enforcement agencies, lawmakers and medical authorities. The response has largely focused on illicit sources of prescription drugs, such as pharmacy robberies and teens stealing from home medicine cabinets.

But a Times investigation of more than 3,700 prescription drug deaths in Southern California found that nearly half of the decedents had a doctor's prescription for one or more of the medications that caused or contributed to their deaths.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has urged states to mine prescription drug monitoring databases to identify and stop reckless prescribers. At least six states do so. California does not.

lisa.girion@latimes.com

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GS: Ignore the chatter, BlackBerry rebound is coming

BlackBerry’s (RIMM) next-generation BlackBerry 10 platform has received mixed reviews out of the gate, but most seem to agree that the new OS and first two BlackBerry 10 smartphones will do little to attract interest from users of rival platforms. But as analysts continue to back off BlackBerry and investors lose confidence, Goldman Sachs sees a big opportunity for clients.

[More from BGR: Here comes the PlayStation 4: Sony announces February 20th PlayStation event [video]]

In a recent research note to clients picked up by Barron’s, Goldman Sachs analyst Simona Jankowski urged investors to take advantage of BlackBerry’s recent slide and buy shares at a discount.

[More from BGR: BlackBerry 10 browser smokes iOS 6 and Windows Phone 8 in comparison test [video]]

“We continue to see significant upside to estimates over the next three quarters, as BB10 devices drive upside to the Street’s ASP and margin forecasts,” Jankowski wrote. ”With 110 carriers completing lab testing by February, 50 carriers offering integrated billing, and Verizon getting an exclusive for the white Z10, we continue to see strong carrier support for BB10. Consumer adoption will decide the ultimate outcome, but estimate revisions should be a positive catalyst in the meantime.”

Jankowski also noted that BlackBerry Z10 sales could reach roughly 1 million units in the UK and Canada alone. The analyst believes BlackBerry World is off to a solid start with more than 70,000 available BlackBerry 10 apps, and the new platform includes a number of novel features that will attract attention.

“Consistent with BB10s browser superior performance on industry benchmarks – the Ringmark and HTML 5 tests – our preliminary tests show it to be much faster than leading competitive offerings. Additionally, while the company provided a full demo of the BB10 OS, we believe the details around Hub, Flow, Peek, and Balance were largely known. BlackBerry believes its Keyboard functionality will be a key differentiator, with the capability to ‘flick’ entire words to the screen with a single thumb. It can also recognize multiple languages within a single text or email.”

She continued, adding that the new BBM, BlackBerry Remember, Story Maker and enhanced camera functionality are all compelling features that will draw attention to the new platform.

Jankowski reiterated a Buy rating on BlackBerry shares with a $ 19 price target.

This article was originally published on BGR.com

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Ferrol Sams, Doctor Turned Novelist, Dies at 90

Ferrol Sams, a country doctor who started writing fiction in his late 50s and went on to win critical praise and a devoted readership for his humorous and perceptive novels and stories that drew on his medical practice and his rural Southern roots, died on Tuesday at his home in Lafayette, Ga. He was 90.

The cause, said his son Ferrol Sams III, also a doctor, was that he was “slap wore out.”

“He lived a full life,” his son said. “He didn’t leave anything in the tank.”

Dr. Sams grew up on a farm in the rural Piedmont area of Georgia, seven mud-road miles from the nearest town. He was a boy during the Depression; books meant escape and discovery. He read “Robinson Crusoe,” then Mark Twain and Charles Dickens. One of his English professors at Mercer University, in Macon, suggested he consider a career in writing, but he chose another route to examining the human condition: medical school.

When he was 58 — after he had served in World War II, started a medical practice with his wife, raised his four children and stopped devoting so much of his mornings to preparing lessons for Sunday school at the Methodist church — he began writing “Run With the Horsemen,” a novel based on his youth. It was published in 1982.

“In the beginning was the land,” the book begins. “Shortly thereafter was the father.”

In The New York Times Book Review, the novelist Robert Miner wrote, “Mr. Sams’s approach to his hero’s experiences is nicely signaled in these two opening sentences.”

He added: “I couldn’t help associating the gentility, good-humored common sense and pace of this novel with my image of a country doctor spinning yarns. The writing is elegant, reflective and amused. Mr. Sams is a storyteller sure of his audience, in no particular hurry, and gifted with perfect timing.”

Dr. Sams modeled the lead character in “Run With the Horsemen,” Porter Osborne Jr., on himself, and featured him in two more novels, “The Whisper of the River” and “When All the World Was Young,” which followed him into World War II.

Dr. Sams also wrote thinly disguised stories about his life as a physician. In “Epiphany,” he captures the friendship that develops between a literary-minded doctor frustrated by bureaucracy and a patient angry over past racism and injustice.

Ferrol Sams Jr. was born Sept. 26, 1922, in Woolsey, Ga. He received a bachelor’s degree from Mercer in 1942 and his medical degree from Emory University in 1949. In his addition to his namesake, survivors include his wife, Dr. Helen Fletcher Sams; his sons Jim and Fletcher; a daughter, Ellen Nichol; eight grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren.

Some critics tired of what they called the “folksiness” in Dr. Sams’s books. But he did not write for the critics, he said. In an interview with the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame, Dr. Sams was asked what audience he wrote for. Himself, he said.

“If you lose your sense of awe, or if you lose your sense of the ridiculous, you’ve fallen into a terrible pit,” he added. “The only thing that’s worse is never to have had either.”

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Making his own waves

The gig: Steve Pezman and his wife, Debbee, quit key roles at Surfer magazine in 1992 to try to create a National Geographic for wave-riding grown-ups. As other surf pubs focus on big-bucks competitions and apparel ads, the Surfer's Journal still runs long stories and lavish photo spreads celebrating surf history, lore and lifestyle. Published six times annually, sold in surf shops for $15.95 a pop and to subscribers for $63 a year, the magazine runs just six ads in each 128-page edition. Total circulation: 30,000.

Personal: Pezman, 71, took to the waves in the 1950s when his family moved from Brentwood to Long Beach. He got his first surfboard in 1957, two years before the movie "Gidget" created a surf craze. Pezman rode big waves on Oahu's North Shore in 1962. He was a Huntington Beach board shaper in the late 1960s when he began writing magazine articles. Twin sons Shaun and Tyler, 25, are accomplished recreational surfers. Steve and Debbee are major supporters of a Costa Mesa soup kitchen that her mother opened 25 years ago; Someone Cares serves 300 meals a day to homeless and low-income people.

Giant break: "I fell into the publisher's chair at Surfer when the founder, John Severson, sold to a holding company and looked around for a replacement in 1970. It got down to me being convenient, and I made the best of it, with an already staffed 10-year-old surf magazine propping me up until I learned the ropes. The surfboard ad-based surf market had slumped during Vietnam when I stepped in. Then the lifestyle surf-clothing boom started growing right under me, so I was suddenly the golden boy to the new owners."

Inside info: Debbee, 58, Pezman's second wife, is "the systems designer, marketing, people person who really runs the business. I was and am more about the content and our unique relationship surfer-to-surfer with our readers." Their staff of 16, not all full time, includes son Shaun, who has a business degree from San Diego State and manages finances. Son Tyler "is a welder, ceramicist, painter, sculptor who currently works for a civilian defense contractor, working on hovercraft at Camp Pendleton, where he keeps an eye on the surf." Other key players include photo editor Jeff Divine, 61; editor Scott Hulet, 51; and designer Jeff Girard, 60. But a new wave of 20-somethings are "phasing in, as we older ones are phasing out."

It's a trip: At Surfer, Pezman interviewed psychedelic guru Timothy Leary, who saw humans "evolving to become purely aesthetic beings ... surfing across the universe on cosmic waves. Leary saw surfers as the throw-aheads of mankind, in that we already had figured out that the dance was the object of the game rather than gathering and guarding more acorns than we could eat."

On his 21,000 subscribers: "Our business is based on making it for $5 and selling it for $10, like the book business, but selling subscriptions instead of single copies. Magazines typically make it for $5, sell it for $3, and have ad revenue overcome the loss. Readers buy the Journal for an unusually high price in return for an unusually high level of content. The revenue we receive from our [advertising] sponsors is important but secondary, and if we had to, we could live without it. The sponsors are mostly big businesses that are run by surfers, and their support of the soul of surfing exhibits that their own soul is still alive."

On plans to eventually sell the magazine and retire: "These things are like living organisms and you keep feeding them and changing their diapers long after they've grown up. If properly parented, they can and should be able to thrive without Mommy and Daddy hovering over them."

scott.reckard@latimes.com

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Former N.Y. Mayor Ed Koch dies at 88

NEW YORK—

Former Mayor Ed Koch, the combative, acid-tongued politician who rescued the city from near-financial ruin during a three-term City Hall run in which he embodied New York chutzpah for the rest of the world, died Friday. He was 88.

Koch died at 2 a.m., spokesman George Arzt said. The funeral will be Monday at Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan.

After leaving City Hall in January 1990, Koch battled assorted health problems and heart disease.

The larger-than-life Koch, who breezed through the streets of New York flashing his signature thumbs-up sign, won a national reputation with his feisty style. “How'm I doing?” was his trademark question to constituents, although the answer mattered little to Koch. The mayor always thought he was doing wonderfully.

Bald and bombastic, paunchy and pretentious, the city's 105th mayor was quick with a friendly quip and equally fast with a cutting remark for his political enemies.

“You punch me, I punch back,” Koch once memorably observed. “I do not believe it's good for one's self-respect to be a punching bag.”

The mayor dismissed his critics as “wackos,” waged verbal war with developer Donald Trump (”piggy”) and mayoral successor Rudolph Giuliani (”nasty man”), lambasted the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and once reduced the head of the City Council to tears.

“I'm not the type to get ulcers,” he wrote in “Mayor,” his autobiography. “I give them.”

When President George W. Bush ran for re-election in 2004, Koch, a Democrat, crossed party lines to support him and spoke at the GOP convention. He also endorsed Mayor Michael Bloomberg's re-election efforts at a time when Bloomberg was a Republican. Koch described himself as “a liberal with sanity.”

He was also an outspoken supporter of Israel, willing to criticize anyone, including President Barack Obama, over decisions Koch thought could indicate any wavering of support for that nation.

In a WLIW television program “The Jews of New York,” Koch spoke of his attachment to his faith.

“Jews have always thought that having someone elevated with his head above the grass was not good for the Jews. I never felt that way,” he said. “I believe that you have to stand up.”

Under his watch from 1978-89, the city climbed out of near-financial ruin thanks to Koch's tough fiscal policies and razor-sharp budget cuts, and subway service improved enormously. But homelessness and AIDS soared through the 1980s, and critics charged that City Hall's responses were too little, too late.

Koch said in a 2009 interview with The New York Times that he had few regrets about his time in office but still felt guilt over a decision he made as mayor to close Sydenham Hospital in Harlem. The move saved $9 million, but Koch said in 2009 that it was wrong “because black doctors couldn't get into other hospitals” at the time.

“That was uncaring of me,” he said. “They helped elect me, and then in my zeal to do the right thing, I did something now that I regret.”

Among his favorite moments as mayor was the day in 1980 when, seized by inspiration, he walked down to the Brooklyn Bridge during a rare transit strike and began yelling encouragement to commuters walking to work.

“I began to yell, `Walk over the bridge! Walk over the bridge! We're not going to let these bastards bring us to our knees!' And people began to applaud,” he recalled at a 2012 forum. His success in rallying New Yorkers in the face of the strike was, he said, his biggest personal achievement as mayor.

His mark on the city has been set in steel: The Queensboro Bridge — connecting Manhattan to Queens and celebrated in the Simon and Garfunkel tune “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)” — was renamed in Koch's honor in 2011.

Koch was a champion of gay rights, taking on the Roman Catholic Church and scores of political leaders.

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