SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Silicon Valley has tried to distance itself from the controversial U.S. surveillance programs exposed by Edward Snowden, but there is a long history of close cooperation between technology companies and the intelligence community.

Former U.S. officials and intelligence sources say the collaboration between the tech industry and spy agencies is both broader and deeper than most people realize, dating back to the formative years of Silicon Valley itself.

As U.S. intelligence agencies accelerate efforts to acquire new technology and fund research on cybersecurity, they have invested in start-up companies, encouraged firms to put more military and intelligence veterans on company boards, and nurtured a broad network of personal relationships with top technology executives.

And they are using those connections to carry out specific espionage missions, current and former officials say, even as they work with the tech industry to avoid overt cooperation that might raise the hackles of foreign customers.

Joel Harding, an intelligence officer for the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the 1990s who went on to work at big defense contractors Computer Sciences Corp and SAIC, said spy agencies have at times persuaded companies to alter their hardware and software products to enable monitoring of foreign targets.

In one instance several years ago, an intelligence agency paid a tech company supervisor $50,000 to install tampered computer chips in machines bound for a customer in a foreign country so that they could be used for espionage, Harding said, declining to provide specifics. "They looked exactly the same, but they changed the chips," he said.

A current U.S. intelligence operative, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the government often works through third parties, in part to shield the big tech companies from fallout if the operations are discovered.

He cited a case more than a decade ago in which the government secretly created a computer reselling company to sell laptops to Asian governments. The reseller bought laptops from a company called Tadpole Computer, which made machines based on Sun Microsystems processors. The reseller added secret software that allowed intelligence analysts to access the machines remotely.

Tadpole was later bought by defense contractor General Dynamics Corp in 2005. General Dynamics declined to comment. Sun's new owner, Oracle Corp, did not respond to an inquiry.

Despite these secret collaborations, former intelligence officials and company executives say the great fear of overseas customers that widely used U.S. technology products contain a "back door" accessible only to the National Security Agency or Central Intelligence Agency - is exaggerated. They said computers and communications overseas are captured by other means, including third parties such as the laptop reseller and special software developed by the agencies.

Defense contractors offer the government the means to break in to the products of virtually every major software vendor, according to a product catalogue reviewed by Reuters that was described as typical for the industry. [ID:nL2N0DQ35M] The NSA did not respond to a request for comment.

More massive cooperation is rare because big tech companies sell to many countries and have too much business at stake in markets like China to risk installing a back door that could be discovered, said one intelligence veteran who had worked for Microsoft Corp.

"Microsoft is technically a U.S. company, but it's an international conglomerate with tons of subsidiaries," he said. "It's a major part of Microsoft strategy to sell to China." A spokeswoman for the company declined to comment.

Silicon Valley's relationship with U.S. intelligence agencies is under scrutiny after Snowden, a former contractor for the NSA, last month exposed a top secret Internet monitoring program known as Prism that relied on customer data supplied by major technology companies.

Google Inc, Microsoft, Facebook Inc and others scrambled to assure their customers that they only handed over data for specific intelligence investigations involving foreign targets, and they denied giving the NSA access to wholesale client data.

But last weekend, the European Union demanded that Washington explain its surveillance programs and some European politicians said there were grounds to break off trade talks. Others urged citizens to stop relying on U.S. providers.

HISTORY OF SHARED INTERESTS

The close and symbiotic relationship between U.S. tech companies and government defense and intelligence agencies is frequently underplayed in the mythology of Silicon Valley. Defense contracts were its lifeblood through much of the 1950s and 1960s. Frederick Terman, who led Allied radio-jamming efforts in World War II, came to Stanford University with grant money and counted the founders of Hewlett-Packard Co among his students.

Varian Associates and other startups, many with ties to Stanford, got their start in the 1950s with military contracts for microwave and vacuum-tube technologies that were used in aerospace projects. In the 1960s, government space and defense programs, especially the Minuteman missile effort, were the biggest customers for the Valley's expensive integrated circuit computer chips. Database software maker Oracle Corp's first customer was the CIA.

"The birth of Silicon Valley was solving defense problems," said Anup Ghosh, whose cybersecurity firm Invincea Inc was launched in 2009 with funding from the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

DARPA, which initially funded what became the Internet out of a desire for a communications network that would survive a nuclear attack, has intensified its work on Internet security in recent years and recently launched a "fast-track" program to get smaller amounts of money to startups more quickly.

Federal cybersecurity spending is expected to reach $11.9 billion next year, up from $8.6 billion in 2010, according to budget analysts at Deltek.

BUMPS IN THE RELATIONSHIP

The relationship between the Valley and the government has had its bumps. A low point came in the mid-1990s, when then-President Bill Clinton pressed the industry to include in its products a device called the Clipper Chip, which had an NSA-designed back door to allow for law enforcement eavesdropping if authorities obtained a warrant.

Civil liberties groups and such technology leaders as Microsoft and Apple Inc objected, in part because the code could be broken and presented a security risk, and eventually the administration backed down.

Stung by that setback, Washington tried harder to learn the Valley's language. Its most visible initiative was the creation of In-Q-Tel, a venture capital fund intended to finance companies whose products were of interest to the CIA and other agencies.

In-Q-Tel's portfolio now includes security companies such as FireEye and data analysis firms like Palantir Technologies, which counts the CIA as a major customer. In-Q-Tel often makes modest investments in exchange for companies adding specific features to their products, former employees said. In-Q-Tel declined to comment.

Government agencies often demand the right to review the software code of their technology vendors, said former McAfee Chief Technology Officer Stuart McClure. That could allow them to spot vulnerabilities that they can use to penetrate the software when it is installed at other locations.

In other cases, officials and executives said, companies give the government advance notice of software vulnerabilities, even before they have warned their own customers - information that could be used for defense, offense or both.

"The vulnerabilities that are discovered as well as the potential risks to the infrastructure are now shared at levels that have never had sharing before," said Dave DeWalt, chief executive of FireEye and chairman of closely held security firm Mandiant. DeWalt was previously CEO of No. 2 security software vendor McAfee, which he said gave early threat warnings to intelligence agencies.

Chuck Mulloy, a spokesman for current McAfee owner Intel Corp, said the organization works with governments around the world but declined to discuss specifics.

In a more formal effort at coordinated defense, NSA Director Keith Alexander is leading a regular gathering called the Enduring Security Framework, in which CEOs are given temporary security clearances.

One outcome of those meetings: a cross-industry effort to improve the security of the boot-up process on personal computers, say several people familiar with the project.

"It's a seriously dangerous game they all play," former Pentagon intelligence officer Harding said of the tech companies. "They want to help their government, but if it comes out, it's a serious problem. They are teetering and tottering, and if they teeter too far, they are going to lose."

(Reporting by Joseph Menn; Editing by Jonathan Weber, Tiffany Wu and Tim Dobbyn)

"The deep has even more cool stuff than space," said Eric Stackpole, a researcher at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif.

For instance, there's a possibility that alien life exists on , but scientists know for sure that hundreds or thousands of undiscovered species lurk beneath the waves, Stackpole said Sunday (May 19) here at the 2013 Maker Faire Bay Area, a two-day celebration of DIY science, technology and engineering. []

And its not just scientists who can do the discovering: Interested amateurs could launch an army of these DIY submarines to reveal the .

Stackpole is the co-founder of OpenROV, an organization that has created an open-source, underwater vehicle that can explore up to 328 feet (100 meters) beneath the ocean's surface.

Theis the size of a shoebox and is made with off-the-shelf, $10 electronics, such as thrusters and motors, and laser-cut acrylic. It wirelessly connects to a remote controller, and can descend at 3.28 feet (1 meter) per second.

So far, these rovers have plumbed the depths of the flooded Hall City Cave in northern California, which is rumored to harbor gold, and spent time at the Aquarius Underwater Laboratory off Key Largo, Fla., where aquanauts spend 10 days underwater. An open remotely operated vehicle (ROV) has even dived beneath the ice in the Ross Sea in Antarctica, where penguins also got cozy with the underwater vehicle.

Citizen science

The proliferation ofcould change how scientists explore the deep. The expense of building underwater robots has typically meant that researchers get grant money to answer existing questions about the ocean. But so much of the deep is unexplored that citizens could reveal many different insights simply by chance, Stackpole said.

"I don't think you have to ask questions to get answers," Stackpole told LiveScience. "I think the kind of things that we've discovered just by chance the transistor, penicillin were because people were just [looking] around and saw something interesting."

ROVs could also help researchers answer much bigger scientific questions than they previously could.

For instance, a marine biologist who wants to know what a specific species of sea creature looks like around the world could rally citizen scientists to deploy their ROVs to answer the question.

"We're in 50 countries, and we've been on every continent," Stackpole said. "Lets start exploring."

Follow Tia Ghose onand .FollowLiveScience , & . Original article on.

(Reuters) - Canada is famed as a hotbed of hockey, but basketball dominated headlines in the Great White North after Anthony Bennett became the first Canadian to be taken first overall in the NBA Draft.

With more Canadian talent on the way, Bennett's selection by the Cleveland Cavaliers on Thursday could serve as a red-letter moment in a golden era for Canadian basketball.

Even Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, an avid hockey fan, took to Twitter, writing "Congrats to @AnthonyBennett for being the first Cdn ever drafted #1 overall in the NBA draft. Good luck in Cleveland, we're all behind you."

Bennett will have Canadian company on the Cavs, joining compatriot Tristan Thompson, who had held the distinction of being the highest-drafted player from Canada when he was taken fourth overall last year by Cleveland.

The team's newest forward, who entered the draft out of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, following his freshman year, left New York after the draft to meet reporters in Cleveland.

Bennett thought a moment when asked if there was anything special about his day of non-stop activities. "Yeah, the private jet that I flew in on this morning," he told Reuters with a chuckle in a telephone interview on Friday.

"It's not really something I do, but I can get used to it."

As for reaction from back home, the versatile forward said: "Just been getting a lot of love."

Joining the prime minister with a Twitter reaction was Steve Nash, the two-time NBA Most Valuable Player now of the Los Angeles Lakers, who went 15th overall to the Phoenix Suns in 1996 as the previous top Canadian pick before Thompson.

Wrote Nash, "Proud on Proud!"

INTEREST SKYROCKETED

Bennett was also proud of some other history made Thursday as the selection of British Columbia's Kelly Olynyk, headed to the Boston Celtics as the 13th pick, marked the first time two Canadians were among the top 14 so-called lottery picks awarded to the non-playoff teams.

Canadian basketball is on the rise, according to Bennett.

"For sure. We have a couple of players now in the league, a couple just got drafted and more on the college level and others in high school. I feel like on every level in basketball, there is a strong Canadian group of guys.

"Later on, it's going to be pretty crazy," he said, admitting to dreams of Olympic glory. "Everyone is going to want to bring back a medal."

Popularity of basketball in Canada should not be that surprising.

Canada, after all, can lay claim to its invention as Canadian sports coach James Naismith is credited with devising the game in Springfield, Massachusetts, first played with soccer balls shot into peach baskets hung above a gym floor in 1891.

NBA Canada General Manager Dan Mackenzie said the launch of National Basketball Association (NBA) franchises in Toronto and Vancouver in 1995 had a great impact.

"In '95 the Raptors and Grizzlies hit the floor and this is really the first generation of kids that have grown up having the NBA in their backyard," he told Reuters in a telephone interview.

The Grizzlies lasted only six seasons in Vancouver before they moved to Memphis in 2001, but general interest across Canada in basketball has skyrocketed in recent years.

"Having the league more present both on television and on media platforms and in live events has really had a great impact on kids' desire to pick up a basketball versus a hockey stick," he said.

'MAPLE JORDAN'

Mackenzie pointed to statistics showing that over the last four years basketball was growing faster than soccer and hockey in terms of participation and said Canadians have embraced digital platforms providing nearly non-stop NBA action.

"When you layer on top of that the macro factors of immigration, we think immigration has been a big part of the growth of the sport here," the NBA executive said.

"We think a lot of that is due to people coming to Canada from countries where basketball is very popular. For our country, the two largest sub-groups of newcomers to Canada are folks from the Philippines and from China. Those are two countries where basketball is very popular."

He said the general hoops interest in Canada combined with "the individual passion, talent and desire of these kids that are starting to excel, it really makes for a great movement."

"When you look at the pipeline of talent coming through, if you look at the NCAA pipeline, high schools in Canada and/or in prep schools in the U.S., the Canadians are coming."

One of the most eagerly anticipated Canadian players, Andrew Wiggins, will be hitting the major U.S. college basketball scene next season as a freshman at Kansas, where Naismith went on to coach basketball at the turn of the 20th Century.

Even Bennett is excited by what Wiggins, who has been dubbed the "Maple Jordan," could accomplish.

"He's just real dominant, can take over games any time he wants," Bennett said. "He's athletic, he can shoot.

"I feel like in the next draft coming up, he can go number one, too, and make history again. Two Canadian players going number one, back-to-back. That would be something else."

(Reporting by Larry Fine in New York; Editing by Frank Pingue)

UPS shares fell 5 percent after the company also cut its full-year earnings forecast to $4.65-$4.85 per share from $4.80-$5.06. Shares of rival FedEx Corpfell 2 percent.

UPS and FedEx, the No.2 package shipper, are considered economic bellwethers because of the massive volume of goods they move around the world.

FedEx said in June it was raising shipping rates and cutting jobs and costs.

UPS's stronger North American domestic ground network puts it in a better position than FedEx, which focuses more on international air shipments.

UPS said on Friday it expected to report second-quarter earnings of $1.13 per share. Analysts on average expected $1.20 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The company said its package volume growth had also slowed due to labor negotiations. It said it had extended an agreement that covers its domestic small-package employees with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

The company is scheduled to report second-quarter results on July 23.

UPS shares were trading at $86.55 before the bell, while FedEx was trading at $102.00.

(Reporting by Sagarika Jaisinghani in Bangalore; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate for the 30-year loan increased to 3.59 percent this week. That's up from 3.51 percent last week. And it is above the rate of 3.31 percent reached in November, the lowest on records dating to 1971.

The average on the 15-year loan jumped to 2.77 percent. That's up from 2.69 percent last week. The record low of 2.56 percent was hit on May 2.

Cheaper mortgages are a key reason home sales have increased this year.

In April, sales of previously occupied homes rose at the fastest pace in three and a half years, the National Association of Realtors reported Wednesday.And sales of newly built homes jumped to the second-highest rate since July 2008.

More demand, along with a tight supply of homes for sale, has helped boost home prices. It has also encouraged builders to break ground on more homes.

Mortgage rates rose sharply this week because they tend to track the yield on the 10-year Treasury note.

The yield rose above 2 percent Wednesday for the first time since March 14 and was at 2.02 percent Thursday. Investors began selling government bonds Wednesday after minutes of the Federal Reserve's last meeting showed several policymakers favored slowing the Fed's bond purchases, perhaps as early as this summer.

The Fed is buying $85 billion a month in Treasury and mortgage bonds, which has pushed down long-term interest rates. Once it slows the bond purchases, interest rates are likely to tick up. That would decrease the value of bonds with lower yields.

To calculate average mortgage rates, Freddie Mac surveys lenders across the country on Monday through Wednesday each week. The average doesn't include extra fees, known as points, which most borrowers must pay to get the lowest rates. One point equals 1 percent of the loan amount.

The average fee for 30-year mortgages was unchanged at 0.7 point last week. The fee for 15-year loans also was steady at 0.7 point.

The average rate on a one-year adjustable-rate mortgage held at 2.55 percent. The fee for one-year adjustable-rate loans was unchanged at 0.4 point.

The average rate on a five-year adjustable-rate mortgage edged up to 2.63 percent from 2.62 percent. The fee was steady at 0.5.

"I would have to say, they have a valid point," said Bowe, after his debut in Thai kickboxing ended with a thud in the second round. "It's much harder than boxing."

The former world heavyweight boxing champion had hoped to prove his critics wrong and show that he could comeback from retirement into an entirely new sport and revive some of his past glory.

But Bowe is now 45 and weighs 300 pounds, and he looked it Friday in his first fight since 2008.

Slow and out of shape, the fighter known as "Big Daddy" took a big beating from his 30-year-old unheralded Russian opponent Levgen Golovin, who attacked with repeated kicks to the shins that knocked Bowe off his feet five times. The bout ended with a technical knockout after his last fall when Bowe sat on the ground clutching his legs, wincing in pain.

"You can recover from a head shot or a body shot, but when you get kicked in the leg it lasts a long time," Bowe said, as his trainer iced his left shin. "My leg is still hurting. I don't know how long it's been 15 minutes?"

Not once during the brief fight, which ended 2 minutes into the second round, did Bowe land a punch or a kick. But he was happy to trade barbs with reporters afterward showing the wit that made him one of boxing's charismatic personalities during his brief reign as champion two decades ago.

"This ain't a setback it's a getback," Bowe said, referring to his comeback. "I had a lot of fun. I'm going to do it again. Next time it's going to be different."

Like so many boxers, Bowe lost the struggle to stay out of the ring. He had his reasons: He's bored with retirement; his millions are gone and he needs the money; he misses the adoration of fans; he loves to fight and knows little else.

Bowe said he was inspired by the comeback of George Foreman, who won a heavyweight title at age 45. But the comebacks of aging champions don't always go so well. Think of Muhammad Ali, at 38 and two years after retirement, taking punishment round after round from Larry Holmes. There was onetime heavyweight champion Greg Page coming back and nearly losing his life for a few thousand dollars. Heavyweight great Joe Louis paid dearly for his attempt to come back at an advanced age.

Bowe escaped without serious injury and made $150,000 for his Muay Thai debut, organized by Thai promoters trying to increase the international appeal of Thailand's national sport. The money is a far cry from the millions he earned by beating Evander Holyfield in 1992 to become the undisputed heavyweight champion.

In his heyday, Bowe fought on boxing's grandest stages in Las Vegas and New York.

His return to fighting took place at an outdoor ring set up beside the beach in Pattaya, a Thai town best known for its sprawling seaside red-light district.

Surveying the scene before the fight started, Bowe shook his head sadly.

"I should be moving up, but I'm moving backwards here," he said.

His fight was one of a dozen at the venue, which had the atmosphere of a village fairground with loud music and amusement park rides nearby. Promoters had said they hoped to draw about 20,000 people, but a crowd closer to 1,000 turned up even though admission was free.

On a sweltering night, Bowe sat and sweated for hours as he waited his turn to fight. The venue had no changing rooms, so Bowe and other fighters stripped down and changed in open air tents beside the stage.

"I've never seen anything like this," Bowe said, his spirits lifted by fans who came up to ask for autographs and wish him luck.

One American fan stared in awe at Bowe.

"He was such an underrated and great champion," said Jerry Mathison, a former fighter turned songwriter who lives in Thailand. "I can't believe he's here, in Pattaya."

In some ways, Friday's fight is the latest bizarre episode for Bowe, whose life in and out of the ring was marked by drama.

One of his three fights against Holyfield was interrupted by a parachutist who landed beside the ring. A fight against Andrew Golota in 1996 set off a riot in the ring at Madison Square Garden. Bowe left boxing later in 1996 at 29 for a career in the U.S. Marines, but that lasted only a few days. He then served 17 months in prison for interstate domestic violence after going to North Carolina to haul his now-former wife and their five children back home to Maryland.

Despite his loss, Bowe was optimistic before limping away into a car.

"Hey, we're going to do this again. I'll be back soon," he said. "I'm not a quitter. I want to do it until I get it right."

Bowe's opponent shook his head in disbelief when told the aging boxer plans to return to Muay Thai.

"It would be a big mistake. It's not for him," said Golovin, a trim and fit 220 pounds. "He's too slow and a bit too old."

For Allmendinger, it was another step toward rebuilding his racing career after sitting out part of last season because of a violation of NASCAR's substance-abuse policy. It also was a return to victory lane at Road America for Allmendinger, who won at the four-mile road course in Central Wisconsin in the Champ Car Series in 2006.

Allgaier finished second, followed by Parker Kligerman, Owen Kelly and Sam Hornish Jr.

Billy Johnson led on a restart with eight to go, but he slid wide in Turn 5 and was passed by Allgaier and Allmendinger. Allmendinger then made the decisive move one lap later, snatching the lead from Allgaier at the top of the hill in Turn 6.

He'd have to defend his lead on three more restarts, fending off a charge from Allgaier with three laps to go and then facing two green-white-checkered finishes -- NASCAR's version of overtime.

Allmendinger once again took the lead, only to watch another caution come out for Michael Annett's accident to trigger a second overtime.

With drivers facing concerns about having enough fuel left on the second green-white-checkered restart, Allmendinger held on again to take the checkered flag and stop in Turn 5 to celebrate in front of the fans.

Allmendinger started from pole position and led early, but made a mistake on lap seven and briefly slipped off the track. He regained control and got back on track but lost two places in the process, going from first to third.

That gave the lead to Johnson, a California native with a background in sports car racing. But Johnson was penalized for entering pit road too fast on lap 14, sending him to the back of the field.

Kligerman then slid off track while in the lead on lap 19, allowing Kelly to take the lead with Allmendinger right on his back bumper.

Defending race winner Nelson Piquet Jr. then had a rough moment before the race's halfway point, plowing into the back of Brian Scott's car. Piquet's hood crumpled in the crash, costing him any chance of contention.

Allmendinger then retook the lead on lap 26, bumping his way past Kelly on the exit of Turn 5. Allmendinger pulled away and quickly built a lead of more than two seconds -- and then Kelly lost second place when he came to a stop on the back side of the track, apparently out of fuel. After getting a push back to the pits from a safety vehicle, Kelly was able to get back in the race.

Most of the leaders then pitted with 19 laps to go -- right at the outer edge of most teams' fuel windows, making it unclear whether they had enough to make it to the end.

Allmendinger retook the lead on a restart on lap 34 as Johnson climbed back into contention from his earlier pit road speeding penalty, taking third place on the restart and surging to second on lap 35.

Johnson then would charge past Allmendinger on lap 39 after a restart, muscling his way into the lead as Allmendinger lost several spots. Meanwhile, Kenny Habul caused a moment of levity when he veered off course on the restart and collected a large advertising sign, which stuck to his nose for the better part of a lap before another caution came out.

It was a big step for Allmendinger, whose racing career took a wrong turn last year when he failed a NASCAR drug test, resulting in a suspension and the loss of his ride at Penske Racing.

Allmendinger, who said he took a pill offered by a friend that turned out to be Adderall, was reinstated after completing a NASCAR-affiliated recovery program, and now is getting a limited second chance with the Penske team this year.

Alnylam shares rose 14 percent to $42.80 in premarket trade.

The study was testing a subcutaneously administered version of the drug, ALN-TTR, to treat genetic disorder amyloidosis, which is caused by deposits of protein in tissues and organs.

The therapy is based on Alnylam's gene silencing technology that works by "switching off" certain disease-causing genes and is widely believed to hold immense potential for treating diseases ranging from cancer to HIV.

(Reporting by Esha Dey in Bangalore; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

After a press conference featuring remarks from this group, participants will read the names of thousands of gun violence victims from across the country. This will last until 12:38 a.m. on Saturday, July 20th, when there will be a moment of silence at the exact time of the July 2012 shooting.

Every day, 33 Americans are murdered with guns in this country. "No More Names: National Drive to Reduce Gun Violence" is part of Mayors Against Illegal Guns' ongoing, national effort to continue raising awareness to the issue of gun violence in America and most importantly, to urge elected officials to prioritize the safety of the people they represent.

What: Remembrance Event to Mark One-Year Anniversary of Aurora Theater Shooting

Where:Smokey Hill ShelterCherry Creek State Park (East Entrance)4201 S. Parker RoadAurora, Colorado 80014

When: Friday, July 19th Press Conference Time: 12:00 p.m. MT

Reading of names of gun violence victims to follow press conference and continue until moment of silence at 12:38 a.m. MT (Saturday morning) when the shooting occurred.

Since its creation in April 2006, Mayors Against Illegal Guns has grown from 15 members to more than 950 mayors from across the country. We have more than 1.5 million grassroots supporters, making us the largest gun violence prevention advocacy organization in the country. The bipartisan coalition, co-chaired by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, has united the nation's mayors around these common goals: protecting communities by holding gun offenders accountable; demanding access to crime gun trace data that is critical to law enforcement efforts to combat gun trafficking; and working with legislators to fix weaknesses and loopholes in the law that make it far too easy for criminals and other dangerous people to get guns.Learn more at

The coalition includes : Golden Mayor and Mayors Against Illegal Guns Colorado Chairwoman Marjorie Sloan; Boulder Mayor Matthew Appelbaum; Denver Mayor Michael B. Hancock; Englewood Mayor Randy P. Penn; Lafayette Mayor Carolyn Cutler; Lakewood Mayor Bob Murphy; Louisville Mayor Robert Muckle; Manitou Springs Mayor Marc A. Snyder; Nederland Mayor Joe Gierlach; Northglenn Mayor Joyce Downing; Salida Mayor Don Stephens; Superior Mayor Andrew Muckle; and Telluride Mayor Stuart Fraser.

CONTACTS Alex Katz:or 617-721-3779Stacey Radnor:or 202-870-6668Stefanie Clarke:or 303-941-4844

SOURCE Mayors Against Illegal Guns

A fourth woman has accused Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain of sexual harassment--this time in public. Sharon Bialek told reporters in a press conference Monday that Cain groped her and exhibited "sexually inappropriate" behavior toward her when he was head of the National Restaurant Association.

Bialek, a former NRA employee who worked for the association in between 1996 and 1997, said the encounter occurred shortly after she was laid off from the group's education fund in July 1997.

She said she had approached Cain for help in looking for a new job and had traveled to Washington, D.C., where she had dinner with the then-NRA head. She told reporters that upon her arrival in D.C. she discovered that Cain had secretly upgraded her hotel room to a suite.

After dinner, the two were sitting in his car when she claimed he "suddenly reached over and put his hand on my leg under my skirt and reached for my genitals" and moved her head toward his crotch.

"I was surprised and shocked, and I said, what are you doing? You know I have a boyfriend," Bialek recalled saying. "This is not what I came here for."

Bialak claimed that when she protested, Cain replied, "You want a job, right?

She told reporters Cain backed off after she asked him to stop, and he drove her back to her hotel.

Bialek, who identified herself as a stay-at-home single mom who lives in Chicago and is a registered Republican, said she didn't file a complaint with the NRA in part because she was no longer formally employed by the group--and also because she was "very embarrassed." She was joined at the press conference by her attorney, celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred, who offered sworn affidavits from two friends to whom Bialek spoke shortly after the alleged encounter.

"I was very very surprised and very shocked," Bialek said, adding that she had come forward to be a "face" for women who had been harassed by Cain. "I want you, Mr. Cain, to come clean. Just admit what you did. Admit you were inappropriate to people ... I implore you. Make this right."

The Cain campaign issued a statement denying Bialek's claims.

"All allegations of harassment against Mr. Cain are completely false," the campaign said in a statement. " Mr. Cain has never harassed anyone."

Bialek is the fourth woman to accuse Cain of sexual harassment when he was head of the NRA, but she's the only accuser who has spoken publicly.

More popular Yahoo! News stories:

Want more of our best political stories? Visitor connect with usand follow us .