Colo. Suspect Bought Ticket 12 Days Before Shooting

Accused Aurora movie theater gunman James Holmes bought his movie ticket 12 days before the shooting, it was revealed in court today during the emotional first day of a preliminary hearing.

Aurora Police Department homicide detective Matthew Ingui testified that there is no video surveillance of the actual shooting, but there are several photos of Holmes checking into the theater kiosk with his cellphone. He scanned his phone three times.

Surveillance footage shown in court for the first time also showed Holmes lingering by the concession stand for about three minutes before entering theater nine dressed in dark pants, a light colored shirt and a skull cap. He would later be caught wearing a bullet proof vest and a gas mask.

Another video showed the lobby the moment theater staff heard shots ring out. Some of them ducked behind counters as people started streaming out of the front door.

Ingui also testified about the positions of the bodies in the theater, strewn across seats and aisles.

Click here for full coverage of the Aurora movie theater shooting.

Holmes is accused of killing 12 people and wounding dozens more in the movie theater massacre.

Earlier in the day, two veteran police officers broke down on the stand, with one officer choking up when he described finding the body of a 6-year-old girl inside the theater.

Sgt. Gerald Jonsgaard needed a moment to compose himself as he described finding the little girl, Veronica Moser Sullivan, in the blood splattered theater.

Police Testify at Hearing for Accused Colorado Gunman Watch Video

James Holmes Tries to Harm Himself, Sources Say Watch Video

Aurora, Colorado Gunman: Neuroscience PhD Student Watch Video

An officer felt for a pulse and thought Veronica was still alive, Jonsgaard said, but the officer then realized he was feeling his own pulse.

The officers wiped away tears as they described the horror they found inside of theater nine.

Officer Justin Grizzle recounted seeing bodies lying motionless on the floor, surrounded by so much blood he nearly slipped and fell.

Grizzle, a former paramedic, says ambulances had not yet made it to the theater, so he began loading victims into his patrol car and driving to the hospital.

"I knew I needed to get them to the hospital now, " Grizzle said, tearing up. "I didn't want anyone else to die."

Grizzle drove six victims in four trips, saying that by the end there was so much blood in his patrol car he could hear it "sloshing around."

An officer who took the stand earlier today described Holmes as "relaxed" and "detached" when police confronted him just moments after the shooting stopped.

The first two officers to testify today described responding to the theater and spotting Holmes standing by his car at the rear of the theater on July 20, 2012. He allegedly opened fire in the crowded theater during the midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises."

Officer Jason Oviatt said he first thought Holmes was a cop because he was wearing a gas mask and helmet, but as he got closer realized he was not an officer and held Holmes at gunpoint.

Throughout the search and arrest, Holmes was extremely compliant, the officer said.

"He was very, very relaxed," Oviatt said. "These were not normal reactions to anything. He seemed very detached from it all."

Oviatt said Holmes had extremely dilated pupils and smelled badly when he was arrested.

Officer Aaron Blue testified that Holmes volunteered that he had four guns and that there were "improvised explosive devices" in his apartment and that they would go off if the police triggered them.

Holmes was dressed for the court hearing in a red jumpsuit and has brown hair and a full beard. He did not show any reaction when the officers pointed him out in the courtroom.

This is the most important court hearing in the case so far, essentially a mini-trial as prosecutors present witness testimony and evidence -- some never before heard -- to outline their case against the former neuroscience student.

The hearing at the Arapahoe County District Court could last all week. At the end, Judge William Sylvester will decide whether the case will go to trial.

Read More..

Ex-governor in North Korea with Google chief; seeks American's release

SEOUL (Reuters) - Former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt began a controversial private mission to North Korea on Monday that will include an effort to secure the release of an imprisoned American.

The trip comes after North Korea carried out a long-range rocket test last month and as, according to satellite imagery, the reclusive state continues work on its nuclear testing facilities, potentially paving the way for a third nuclear bomb test.

Footage from North Korean state television showed Richardson and Schmidt at the Pyongyang airport on Monday evening.

"We are going to ask about the American who's been detained. A humanitarian private visit." Richardson said.

Richardson's efforts to seek the release of Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American tour guide who was detained last year will mark the latest in a series of high-profile visits over the years to free Americans detained by Pyongyang.

The delegation comprised Schmidt, his daughter, Richardson and Google executive Jared Cohen, according to South Korean news media and it arrived in Pyongyang on a flight from the Chinese capital, Beijing.

The mission has been criticized by the United States due to the sensitivity of the timing. The United States does not have diplomatic relations with North Korea and the isolated and impoverished state remains technically at war with U.S. ally South Korea.

"We continue to think the trip is ill-advised," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in Washington. Last week she said the main U.S. objection was that the trip came so soon after North Korea's much-criticized December 12 rocket launch.

South Korea is in the midst of a transition to a new president who will take office in February, while Japan, another major U.S. ally in the region, has a new prime minister.

A U.S. official said the trip's timing was particularly bad from the Obama administration's point of view because it comes as the U.N. Security Council ponders how to respond to the North Korean missile launch.

"We are in kind of a classical provocation period with North Korea. Usually, their missile launches are followed by nuclear tests," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"During these periods, it's very important that the international community come together, certainly at the level of the U.N. Security Council, to demonstrate to North Korea that they pay a price for not living up to their obligations."

Richardson, a former ambassador to the United Nations, has made numerous trips to North Korea in the past that have included efforts to free detained Americans. The reasons for Schmidt's involvement in the trip are not clear, though Google characterized it as "personal" travel.

Schmidt did not respond to requests for comment.

Richardson told CBS television last Friday that he had been contacted by Bae's family and that he would raise the issue while in North Korea.

Pyongyang's most notable success was securing a visit from former President Bill Clinton in 2009 to win the release of two American journalists.

Last year, Jared and Schmidt met defectors from North Korea, a state that ranks bottom in an annual survey of Internet and press freedom by Reporters Without Borders.

Media reports and think tanks say that officials from the North Korean government went to Google's headquarters in 2011, something the U.S. technology giant declined to comment on.

(Additional reporting by Cho Meeyoung and WASHINGTON Bureau; Editing by Michael Perry, Ron Popeski and David Brunnstrom)

Read More..

Samsung tips record Q4 profit of US$8.3b

SEOUL: South Korea's Samsung Electronics said Tuesday it expected to post a record operating profit of 8.8 trillion won ($8.3 billion) in the fourth quarter of 2012.

The predicted operating profit for October-December represents an 89 per cent rise from a year earlier, and would beat the record of 8.1 trillion won set in the previous quarter.

Samsung, the world's largest technology firm by revenue, was giving earnings guidance before announcing official results later this month.

Fourth-quarter sales were estimated at 56 trillion won, up 18.4 per cent from a year earlier, according to the company, which did not provide figures for each of its business divisions.

Samsung, also the world's leading smartphone and memory chip maker, did not disclose its net profit estimate.

For Samsung, 2012 was a watershed year that saw it take a giant bite out of Apple Inc as it carved out a dominant position in the global mobile computing market.

Having ended Nokia's 14-year rule as the world's top cell phone manufacturer, Samsung saw its share of the lucrative smartphone market surge to 31.3 per cent in the third quarter of 2012, up from just 3.3 per cent in late 2009.

It extended its lead over main rival Apple as the top maker of smartphones worldwide, according to research firm IHS iSuppli, which gave Samsung 28 per cent of the market in 2012, up from 20 per cent the previous year.

Apple's share rose to 20 per cent in 2012 from 19 per cent, IHS said.

While Apple continues to rely mainly on its iPhone series, Samsung produces dozens of smartphone models every year that address all segments of the market, from the high-end to the low-end.

- AFP/ac

Read More..

Sony at 2013 CES: Join us Monday, 5 p.m. PT (live blog)

Join CNET for live coverage of Sony's CES 2013 press conference, which starts at 5 p.m. PT Monday. Our live blog will bring you live video, news updates, photos, and running commentary.

LAS VEGAS--Expectations are high for Sony, which tomorrow will hold its press conference at the 2013 International CES. The event kicks off at 5 p.m. PT (8 p.m. ET) on Monday and CNET will be there to cover it live. We'll have a live video stream, along with a live blog full of news and analysis.

You can tune in to the blog and video stream here:

CNET's live coverage of Sony's 2013 CES press conference

The company is expected to unveil news versions of its smartphones, as well as new TVs and cameras.

Paul Sloan

Paul Sloan has been a San Francisco-based correspondent for Fortune magazine, an editor-at-large for Business 2.0 magazine, and a senior producer for CNN. He's now an executive editor at CNET News. When his fingers aren't on a keyboard, they're usually on a guitar. Email him here.

Read More..

NFL Playoffs: Seahawks beat Redskins 24-14

Marshawn Lynch #24 of the Seattle Seahawks scores a fourth quarter touchdown against the defense of Lorenzo Alexander #97 of the Washington Redskins during the NFC Wild Card Playoff Game at FedExField on January 6, 2013 in Landover, Maryland. / Al Bello/Getty Images

LANDOVER, Md. The Seattle Seahawks finally won a road playoff game Sunday, taking a 24-14 NFC wild-card victory over the Washington Redskins, who lost Robert Griffin III to another knee injury in the fourth quarter.

Marshawn Lynch ran for 131 yards, and Russell Wilson completed 15 of 26 passes for 187 yards and ran eight times for 67 yards for the Seahawks, who broke an eight-game postseason losing streak away from home.

24 Photos

NFL Week 18: Playoff highlights

Seattle will visit the top-seeded Atlanta Falcons next Sunday.

Lynch's 27-yard run with 7:08 remaining gave the Seahawks (12-5) the lead. On Washington's next series, Griffin reinjured the right knee he sprained about a month ago while trying to field a bad shotgun snap.

The knee buckled badly, and the Seahawks recovered the fumble and kicked an insurance field goal.

Kirk Cousins replaced Griffin, but Washington (10-7) was unable to come back.

Read More..

Hagel to Be Obama's Defense Secretary Nominee

Jan 6, 2013 4:52pm

(Junko Kimura/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Obama will nominate former senator Chuck Hagel to be his next Secretary of Defense tomorrow.

Senior officials within the administration and Capitol Hill confirmed the pick to ABC News today after the Nebraska Republican had emerged as a frontrunner among potential candidates several weeks ago.

Hagel, 66, is a decorated Vietnam veteran and businessman who served in the senate from 1997 to 2009. After having sat on that chamber’s Foreign Relations and Intelligence Committees,  he has in recent years gathered praise from current and former diplomats for his work on Obama’s Intelligence Advisory Board as well as the policy board of the current Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

But the former lawmaker faces an upscale battle in the coming confirmation hearings in Congress; critics on both sides of the aisle have taken aim at his record toward Israel and what some have called a lack of experience necessary to lead the sprawling Pentagon bureaucracy or its operations.

Progressives have also expressed concern about comments he made in 1998, questioning whether an “openly, aggressively gay” James Hormel could be nominated to an ambassador position by then-President Clinton. Hagel apologized for the comments last month, adding that he also supported gays in the military – a position he once opposed.

Who Is Chuck Hagel? Meet Obama’s Top Pentagon Pick

The friction with his former colleagues has left a degree of uncertainty in the air going into the hearings. Today on ABC’s “This Week,” Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell demurred when asked whether he would support the man who, in 2008, he had championed for his candidness and stature in foreign policy.

“I’m going to wait and see how the hearings go and see whether Chuck’s views square with the job he would be nominated to do,” he told George Stephanopoulos.

Senator Lindsey Graham was more blunt in his opposition to Hagel on CNN. The Georgia Republican called Hagel an “in your face nomination,” and said he “would be the most antagonistic secretary of defense towards the state of Israel in our nation’s history.”

If confirmed, Hagel will join a crop of new cabinet members expected to join the president in his second term, including Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who was nominated in December to replace Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State.

ABC’s Elizabeth Hartfield and Devin Dwyer contributed reporting.

SHOWS: Good Morning America This Week World News

Read More..

Activists wary as India rushes to justice after gang rape

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - It's no surprise the Indian street wants faster, harsher justice for sexual crimes after a horrific gang rape that rocked the nation, but some activists worry the government will trample fundamental rights in its rush to be in tune with popular rage.

Last month's rape of a physiotherapy student on a moving bus and her death on December 28 in hospital triggered a national debate about how to better protect women in India, where official data shows one rape is reported on average every 20 minutes.

Many women's rights groups are cautiously hopeful the protests and outrage that followed the crime can be channeled into real change - fast-track courts for sexual offences and a plan to hire 2,500 new women police in Delhi are measures already in the works.

But legal experts and some feminists are worried that calls to make rape punishable with death and other draconian penalties will cramp civil liberties and are unconstitutional. They say India needs better policing and prosecutions, not new laws.

"If there are not enough convictions, it is not because of an insufficiency of law, but it is the insufficiency of material to base the conviction on," said retired Delhi High Court judge R.S. Sodhi.

Five men have been charged with the student's rape and murder and will appear before a New Delhi court later on Monday. They are due to be tried in a newly formed fast-track court in the next few weeks. A teenager also accused will likely be tried in a juvenile court.

Ahead of Monday's court appearance the five still had no defense lawyers - despite extensive interrogations by the police, who have said they have recorded confessions - after members of the bar association in the South Delhi district where the case is being heard vowed not to represent them.

GROUNDS FOR APPEAL

The men will be assigned lawyers by the court before the trial begins, but their lack of representation so far could give grounds for appeal later should they be found guilty - similar cases have resulted in acquittals years after convictions.

"The accused has a right to a lawyer from point of arrest - the investigations are going on, statements being taken, it is totally illegal," said Colin Gonsalves, a senior Supreme Court advocate and director of Delhi's Human Rights Law Network.

Senior leaders of most states on Friday came out in support of a plan to lower to 16 the age that minors can be tried as adults - in response to fury that the maximum penalty the accused youth could face is three years detention.

A government panel is considering suggestions to make the death penalty mandatory for rape and introducing forms of chemical castration for the guilty. It is due to make its recommendations by January 23.

"The more you strengthen the powers of the state against the people, the more the possibility you create a draconian regime," said Sehjo Singh, Programme and Policy Director with ActionAid in India and an expert on Indian women's social movements.

"We want to raise the bar of human rights in India, we want to raise the standards, not lower them."

The Indian Express newspaper warned against "knee-jerk" reaction and said any change to the juvenile law "must come after rigorous and considered debate. It cannot be a reaction to a fraught moment".

Courts are swamped with a backlog of cases in the country of 1.2 billion people and trials often take more than five years to complete, so the launch by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir of six fast-track courts in the capital to deal with sexual offences was widely greeted as a welcome move.

Several other states including Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra are now looking at following Delhi's example.

But Gonsalves says while the courts are a good idea on paper, similar tribunals in the past delivered dubious verdicts and put financial pressure on the rest of the justice system.

FAST TRACK COURTS

India set up 1,700 fast-track courts in 2004, but stopped funding them last year because they turned out to be costly. The courts typically work six days a week and try to reduce adjournments that lead to long delays in cases.

"The record of the fast-track courts is mixed," Gonsalves said. Conviction rates rose, he said, but due process was sometimes rushed, leading to convictions being overturned.

"Fast-track courts were in many ways were fast-track injustice," he said.

The real problem lie with bad policing and a shortage of judges, Gonsalves said. India has about a fifth of the number of judges per capita that the United States has.

Indian police are often poorly trained and underpaid, and have sometimes been implicated in organized crime. Rights groups complain the mostly male officers are insensitive to victims of sexual crimes.

Resources for, and expertise in, forensic science is limited in most of the country's police forces and confessions are often extracted under duress. The judiciary complains it is hard to convict offenders because of faulty evidence.

Human Rights Watch said reforms to laws and procedures covering rape and other sexual crimes should focus on protection of witnesses and modernizing support for victims at police stations and hospitals.

The rights organization has documented the continued use of archaic practices such as the "finger test" used by some doctors on rape victims to allegedly determine if they had regular sex.

"Reforms in the rape laws - these are needed. But not in terms of enhancing punishment," said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia Director of Human Rights Watch.

"Why they are not investigated, why there are not enough convictions, those are the things that need to be addressed."

(Additional reporting by Satarupa Bhattacharjya, Shashank Chouhan and Annie Banerji; Editing by Alex Richardson)

Read More..

New highs for SGX's derivatives & commodities markets in 2012

SINGAPORE: The Singapore Exchange's derivatives and commodities markets achieved record highs in 2012.

However as in most global markets, trading activities declined.

Turnover dropped 12 per cent in 2012 to S$321.5 billion.

However securities market performance, as measured by the Straits Times Index, was up 20 per cent last year.

In December, turnover was up 39 per cent from a year earlier at S$23.2 billion.

Meanwhile, derivatives volume in 2012 reached a new high of 80.2 million contracts, up 11 per cent.

The volume of agri-commodity futures also grew 56 per cent in 2012 to 255,815 contracts.

- CNA/jc

Read More..

How to sell your phone for cash (Smartphones Unlocked)

In last month's Smartphones Unlocked, I shared what happens to your smartphone when it ceases to be yours.

Although I listed resources for getting rid of your phone (and took a poll of what CNET readers usually do with their old handsets,) it's high time I offered up some tips for how to go about selling your phone...or any other consumer electronic, for that matter.

Don't count on a Hawaiian vacation for your efforts, but depending on how much you hoard or how savvy you sell, the dollars could really add up.

1. Raid the closet

When's the last time you've slid open desk drawers or checked under the bed? Chances are that you have at least one ancient flip phone hiding out in a closet somewhere.

Holding onto a phone you're no longer planning to use makes good sense. You never know when you or a family member or friend will need a spare, but at some point when you upgrade to the next big thing, you can turn the one you've got into cash.

When you add up the old cell phones, cameras, and laptops you have at home, you might find a nice little stash to sell.

2. Don't stress if it's broken

How much money would you expect to get for a cruddy old model? Through many Web sites and trade-in programs, the answer is: nothing. yHowever, if you're smart and don't mind a little driving, you're almost guaranteed to get at least a little pocket change through one vendor.

EcoATM is a physical kiosk where you can sell your cell phones, and soon your
tablets (this is in trial.) There are currently 300 units in malls across America, with outlets continuing to mushroom.

Four ways to ditch your old electronics

In a nutshell, EcoATM scans your phone and compares it with a database to make an offer based on the phone's market value and current condition. If you accept -- and yes, you can also decline -- the machine spits out money on the spot.

It does require a driver's license and a thumbprint scan to use, and it also takes a picture of you as well for security measures, to help guard against theft and fraud.

Yes, couch potatoes, you will need to trudge all the way over to the mall to use EcoATM, but it's often the only option that will pay for your very old or broken phones.

3. Shop around. Really

EcoATM is a terrific new resource, but it isn't the only one. In fact, the electronics resale space is positively packed. Big box retailers like Best Buy, Radio Shack, Amazon, and Game Stop have all launched buy-back programs, and many major carriers have also launched trade-in programs of their own.

Unfortunately for the lazy seller (me,) no one service is more reliable or offers a better deal than all the others. Plain and simple, you just have to shop around. EcoATM may be the only game in town for older phones, but it won't necessarily offer you the best price across the board.

Prices vary by condition and by demand -- you'll get less for water damage, and more if it's a flawless phone right out of the box. Expect to take home a larger amount for newer phones than for older ones.

iPhone 4S (16GB)	$160	$300	$132	$226	$205
iPhone 4S (16GB), Broken	$65	$0	$0	$91	$80
Samsung Galaxy S3 (16GB)	$130	$250	$195	N/A	$274
Motorola Razr, 3rd ed.	$55	$0	$0.5	$0	N/A

To illustrate the fluctuations, I checked the price of four phones on five different services: two iPhone 4Ses (16GB), a Samsung Galaxy S3 (16GB), and a third-edition Motorola Razr. In all cases but one, I listed the phones in good condition; that is, no water damage and they turn on. The second
iPhone 4S I listed as broken. When asked, I chose AT&T as the common carrier.

Not every service takes every phone. Gazelle.com, for instance, focuses on Apple products. Amazon doesn't have offers up yet for the Samsung Galaxy S3, presumably because the phone is still so new that not enough of their customers are trying to offload it.

If you're planning to sell a bundle of phones and you don't mind putting in the research time, check three or four online spots before hitting an EcoATM, your carrier, or another brick-and-mortar store.

Armed with comparison pricing, you'll be able to decide on the spot whether to take the offer in person or take the digital sale. (I've never tried negotiating with a brick-and-mortar against online pricing, but if you have, let me know how that goes.)

4. Know how you're getting paid

Before you sell a phone or any electronic, consider how you want to receive the funds. Several online vendors may offer you a check, a cash card, or an infusion to your PayPal account. Retailers like Best Buy will more commonly hand you an in-store gift card, or cash if you have a receipt proving you bought the item there.

Cell phone carriers apply the value of your trade-in to your next phone, or might assign you credit. EcoATM deals only in cash that, fittingly, is stored inside the locked-down machine, ATM-style.

One important thing to keep in mind: if you opt for an online vendor, you'll have to wait a few weeks to get paid. After you box up the good and ship them, employees will match the device to its actual condition, to keep any fibbers honest. Only then will they authorize your payment.

5. Never throw old phones away

in the event that you have electronics that nobody else will pay you for, take the high road and recycle. Almsot every resaler that takes phones will do it for you, archaic chargers and all.

The benefits of donating old phones are threefold: it clears old gadgets out of your home, it could improve someone else's life, and you won't be directly responsible for throwing toxic chemicals into the dump.

Read also: Your smartphone's secret afterlife

6. Plan ahead

The cell phone's lifespan is typically much shorter than any other category of consumer electronics. Most of us ditch our phones after 18 months, which means that there's plenty of time to plan how you'll keep or dispose of your future phones.

Resellers -- the guys who initially buy your phones from you before -- see a boom right around the winter holidays. If you opt to sell a lot of used electronics online, timing the eventual receipt of your payment with an extra-large bill or purchase could work out in your favor.

Resources: Sell or donate your cell phone

There are many ways to pass on unwanted cell phones after they've served their purpose, but here are a few resources to get you started.

Online sales and trade-ins
BuyMyTronics
Gazelle
YouRenew
NextWorth
FlipSwap
Cash For Smartphones
Best Buy Online Trade-In
Amazon
Target
Swappa (Marketplace, more like e-Bay)
eBay
Craiglist
Your carrier's buy-back program

Physical sales and national recycling outlets
Best Buy
RadioShack
Costco
EcoATM

National charities
Cell Phones for Soldiers
Hope Phones
Hope Line Phones (Verizon)

Local charities
City drives - check with your city government
Local domestic violence centers

Smartphones Unlocked
is a monthly column that dives deep into the inner workings of your trusty smartphone.

Read More..

Houston beats Bengals 19-13 in wild-card playoff

Houston Texans quarterback Matt Schaub passes the ball against the Cincinnati Bengals during the first quarter of an NFL wild card playoff football game Saturday, Jan. 5, 2013, in Houston. / AP Photo/Dave Einsel

HOUSTON Arian Foster ran for 140 yards and a touchdown, and the Houston Texans used a stifling defensive effort for a 19-13 win over the Cincinnati Bengals on Saturday in an AFC wild-card playoff game.

The Texans will next play at New England on Jan. 13.

Foster became the first player in NFL history to have 100-yard games in each of his first three playoff games.

The Texans (13-4) had trouble finishing drives all day and mustered only three field goals in the first half. Houston struck first after the break, with Foster scoring the game's only offensive touchdown on a 1-yard run in the third quarter to make it 16-7.

In his first playoff start, Matt Schaub had an interception returned for a touchdown by Leon Hall before halftime.

Johnathan Joseph had an interception and J.J. Watt had a sack as the Texans beat the Bengals (10-7) in the wild-card round for the second straight year. Cincinnati hasn't won a playoff game since 1991, the league's longest current streak.

Read More..