Holmes 'Delighted' by Creepy Self-Portraits: Victims

After two days of apparent indifference, accused Aurora shooter James Holmessmiled and smirked at disturbing self-portraits and images of weapons shown in court today, according to the families of victims who watched him.

"When he sees himself, he gets very excited and his eyes crinkle," Caren Teves said outside of the courthouse, after the hearing. "Your eyes are the window to the soul and you could see that he was very delighted in seeing himself in that manner."

Teves' son Alex Teves, 24, died in the shooting.

Prosecutors showed photos that Holmes took of himself hours before he allegedly carried out a massacre at a Colorado movie theater. He took a series of menacing self-portraits with his dyed orange hair curling out of from under a black skull cap and his eyes covered with black contacts. In some of the photos, guns were visible.

Those haunting photographs, found on his iPhone, were shown in court today on the last day of a preliminary testimony that will lead to a decision on whether the case will go to trial. The hearing concluded without Holmes' defense calling any witnesses.

The judge's decision on whether the case will proceed to trial is expected on Friday.

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Holmes, 25, is accused of opening fire on a crowded movie theater in Aurora, Colo., on July 20, 2012, killing 12 people and wounding dozens others during a showing of "Dark Knight Rises."

The court room's set-up kept members of the media from being able to see Holmes' face as the photos were displayed, but victims and their families could watch him.

Teves said that Holmes was "absolutely smirking" when images of his weapons and the iPhone photos he took of himself were shown in court.

"I watched him intently," Caren Teves' husband Tom Teves said. "I watched him smile every time a weapon was discussed, every time they talked about his apartment and how he had it set up (with booby traps), and he could have gave a darn about the people, to be quite frank. But he's not crazy one bit. He's very, very cold. He's very, very calculated."

Holmes' has exhibited bizarre behavior after the shooting and while in custody. His defense team has said that he is mentally ill, but have not said if he will plead insanity.

"He has a brain set that no one here can understand and we want to call him crazy because we want to make that feel better in our society, but we have to accept the fact that there are evil people in our society that enjoy killing any type of living thing," a frustrated Tom Teves said. "That doesn't make them crazy. And don't pretend he's crazy. He's not crazy."

The photos presented in court showed Holmes mugging for his iPhone camera just hours before the shooting.

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

Half-a-dozen photos showed Holmes with his clownish red-orange hair and black contact lenses giving the photos a particularly disturbing edge.

In one particularly odd image, he was making a scowling face with his tongue out. He was whistling in another photo. Holmes is smiling in his black contacts and flaming hair in yet another with the muzzle of one of his Glock pistols in the forefront.

Yet another photo showed him dressed in black tactical gear, posing with an AR-15 rifle.

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GAO calls on Postal Service to prefund retiree benefits

U.S. Postal Service officials and postal unions have long pushed Congress to relieve the agency of its obligation to prefund retiree health benefits. It’s a burden other agencies don’t share and one that officials say the Postal Service can’t afford. Defaults on prefunding payments total $11.1 billion.

But not everyone agrees that removing or substantially reducing the prefunding requirement is the best way out of the USPS hole.

A recent Government Accountability Office report says the “USPS should prefund its retiree health benefit liabilities to the maximum extent that its finances permit.”

The GAO said that deferring the prefunding payments “could increase costs for future ratepayers and increase the possibility that USPS may not be able to pay for some or all of its liability.”

The report said the Postal Service’s financial condition makes it difficult for the agency “to fully fund the remaining $48 billion unfunded liability over the remaining 44 years of the schedule” set up by the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act.

USPS officials say they can pay $0.00. The Postal Service is losing $25 million a day.

“If Congress was to eliminate the requirement for USPS to pay down its unfunded liability on retiree health care, taxpayers would almost certainly pick up the bill,” said House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.). “USPS needs to cut costs, not cheat taxpayers or its own employees.”

The GAO report gives something to both sides, saying that the USPS should prefund its retiree health benefits, while acknowledging that it currently is too broke to do it.

In a response included in the GAO report, Joseph Corbett, the USPS chief financial officer and executive vice president, said the Postal Service “does not have the financial resources to make the prefunding payments required by current law.”

He criticized the GAO for releasing a report that did not include the controversial USPS proposal to sponsor its own health-care plan, outside of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan that now covers postal workers.

“Allowing the Postal Service to gain control of its own health care program would save money, reduce or eliminate the current unfunded liability, and allow for better management of health care costs going forward,” Corbett said.

Fredric Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, called on Congress to “reject the GAO’s policy myopia. . . . Government records show that 80 percent of all the USPS red ink stems directly from prefunding.”

Report: Close the digital divide

Uncle Sam needs to get with the digital program.

That’s the takeaway from a report — with the appropriate title #ConnectedGov — on the government’s use of technology and social media. It is being released Wednesday by the Partnership for Public Service, in collaboration with the Booz Allen Hamilton consulting firm.

The report identifies innovative digital programs in seven agencies, demonstrating that “there are places in government that are doing immensely creative and impactful things,” said Max Stier, president and chief executive of the Partnership.

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Restaurant patrons relieve stress by smashing beer mugs

SINGAPORE: We're only just into the new year.

But if you're already stressed out and need some release - you might as well have a smashing good time while you're at it!

Over at District 10 restaurant at Star Vista, patrons have the option to booze... and lose some steam.

And without having to break the bank either!

A glass of beer goes for S$8 dollars - and once it's washed down - just step into the acrylic booth, take aim - and let go!

The restaurant is only offering beer mugs for now, but customers can order as many as they're game to smash.

About 300 mugs were prepared for Tuesday's launch.

And as anticipated, nearly all were reduced to smithereens!

If response is good, the restaurant says the event may extend beyond its initial three-month target.

You could say it's a pint-sized solution, that packs a punch - and you can even bring a picture, for inspiration.

One of the patrons even brought his ex-wife's picture.

"I feel that my stress for the day is gone, and I think it's a very, very good way to de-stress at the end of the day," he said.

- CNA/de

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Planned suburbanization required in India: Kamal Nath

KOCHI: The country requires planned suburbanisation to deal with the pressure of urbanization and subsequent transport requirements, said Kamal Nath, minister for urban development.

Addressing the convention of the International Federation of Asian and Western Pacific Contractors' Association (IFAWPCA), the minister said that the suburbanization taking place in the country is by default and not a planned one. The minister also emphasised on infrastructure development.

"The development of infrastructure, including roads, bridges, airports and ports, to meet growth requirements is a major challenge for the government," said Kamal Nath.

The minister added that urbanization is more profound in tier II and tier III cities.

While addressing the convention, Ajith Gulabchand, president, IFAWPCA, said that the sector is concerned of implementation of risks, especially in emerging countries.

"There should be some amount of predictability as in many occasions contracts awarded for companies were cancelled in a later stage due to various issues. Apart from it, players in the sector have to frequently go to capital cities for getting various approvals, which is not very easy. The rules should be amended in a way to meet expected boom in the construction sector," said, Gulabchand

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Pictures: Wildfires Scorch Australia Amid Record Heat

Photograph by Jo Giuliani, European Pressphoto Agency

Smoke from a wildfire mushrooms over a beach in Forcett, Tasmania, on January 4. (See more wildfire pictures.)

Wildfires have engulfed southeastern Australia, including the island state of Tasmania, in recent days, fueled by dry conditions and temperatures as high as 113ºF (45ºC), the Associated Press reported. (Read "Australia's Dry Run" inNational Geographic magazine.)

No deaths have been reported, though a hundred people are unaccounted for in the town of Dunalley, where the blazes destroyed 90 homes.

"You don't get conditions worse than this," New South Wales Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons told the AP.

"We are at the catastrophic level, and clearly in those areas leaving early is your safest option."

Published January 8, 2013

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Dead Lotto Winner's Wife Seeks 'Truth'

The wife of a $1 million Chicago lottery winner who died of cyanide poisoning told ABC News that she was shocked to learn the true cause of his death and is cooperating with an ongoing homicide investigation.

"I want the truth to come out in the investigation, the sooner the better," said Shabana Ansari, 32, the wife of Urooj Khan, 46. "Who could be that person who hurt him?

"It has been incredibly hard time," she added. "We went from being the happiest the day we got the check. It was the best sleep I've had. And then the next day, everything was gone."

Ansari, Khan's second wife, told the Chicago Sun-Times that she prepared what would be her husband's last meal the night before Khan died unexpectedly on July 20. It was a traditional beef-curry dinner attended by the married couple and their family, including Khan's 17-year-old daughter from a prior marriage, Jasmeen, and Ansari's father. Not feeling well, Khan retired early, Ansari told the paper, falling asleep in a chair, waking up in agony, then collapsing in the middle of the night. She called 911.

Khan, an immigrant from India who owned three dry-cleaning businesses in Chicago, won $1 million in a scratch-off Illinois Lottery game in June and said he planned to use the money to pay off his bills and mortgage, and make a contribution to St. Jude Children's Research Center.

"Him winning the lottery was just his luck," Ansari told ABC News. "He had already worked hard to be a millionaire before it."

Illinois Lottery/AP Photo

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Jimmy Goreel, who worked at the 7-Eleven store where Khan bought the winning ticket, described him to The Associated Press as a "regular customer ... very friendly, good sense of humor, working type of guy."

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Khan's unexpected death the month after his lottery win raised the suspicions of the Cook County medical examiner. There were no signs of foul play or trauma so the death initially was attributed to arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease, which covers heart attacks, stroke or ruptured aneurysms. The medical examiner based the conclusion on an external exam -- not an autopsy -- and toxicology reports that indicated no presence of drugs or carbon monoxide.

Khan was buried at Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago.

However, several days after a death certificate was issued, a family member requested that the medical examiner's office look further into Khan's death, Cook County Medical Examiner Stephen Cina said. The office did so by retesting fluid samples that had been taken from Khan's body, including tests for cyanide and strychnine.

When the final toxicology results came back in late November, they showed a lethal level of cyanide, which led to the homicide investigation, Cina said. His office planned to exhume Khan's body within the next two weeks as part of the investigation.

Melissa Stratton, a spokeswoman for the Chicago Police Department, confirmed it has been working closely with the medical examiner's office. The police have not said whether or not they believe Khan's lottery winnings played a part in the homicide.

Khan had elected to receive the lump sum payout of $425,000, but had not yet received it when he died, Ansari told the AP, adding that the winnings now are tied up as a probate matter.

"I am cooperating with the investigation," Ansari told ABC News. "I want the truth to come out."

Authorities also have not revealed the identity of the relative who suggested the deeper look into Khan's death. Ansari said it was not her, though she told the AP she has subsequently spoken with investigators.

"This is been a shock for me," she told ABC News. "This has been an utter shock for me, and my husband was such a goodhearted person who would do anything for anyone. Who would do something like this to him?

"We were married 12 years [and] he treated me like a princess," she said. "He showered his love on me and now it's gone."

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Obama’s failure to nominate women for two top Cabinet posts questioned

President Obama brought his top Pentagon and Central Intelligence Agency chiefs together Monday with their potential replacements, and some critics noticed one thing that stood out: Each of them was a white man.

Obama, who made women’s issues a core of his reelection bid, has nominated men to serve in three of his most prominent national security positions, including secretary of state, where Sen. John F. Kerry (D) was named last month to replace Hillary Rodham Clinton. The president on Monday announced former senator Chuck Hagel for the defense job and counterterrorism adviser John O. Brennan to head the CIA.

The moves have disappointed some supporters who said they fear, with Clinton’s departure, a paucity of females among Obama’s top advisers, particularly in the traditionally male-dominated field of defense and security.

Thomas Donilon, the president’s national security adviser, was in the audience, as outgoing Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and acting CIA director Michael J. Morrell joined their possible successors and the president.

The pattern is particularly striking for a president who was elected with majority support from women and racial minorities and focused heavily during his reelection campaign on women’s health concerns and equal pay in the workplace. Obama won 55 percent of the female vote to Republican rival Mitt Romney’s 44 percent.

Obama is committed to “finding the very best people for each job,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said Monday, when asked about the lack of women among the second-term appointments. “And that’s what he’s done today, and that’s what he’ll continue to do.”

Among those passed over to lead the Pentagon was Michele Flournoy, who became the highest-ranking woman to serve in the Defense Department when she was confirmed as undersecretary of defense for policy in 2009. Flournoy, 52, resigned from the role last February, citing a desire to spend more time with her family. But she also served as an adviser to Obama’s reelection campaign and was considered a top candidate.

Instead, Obama chose Hagel — who got to know Obama when he was a senator — though the Nebraska Republican has been criticized by GOP leaders and some Democrats for statements on Israel.

“I think he’s blowing a huge opportunity here for reasons I don’t even get,” said Rosa Brooks, a professor on national security at Georgetown University who spent two years working for Flournoy at the Pentagon.

“It would have been fantastic for this president to appoint the first woman secretary of defense,” Brooks said, “particularly given we are so embroiled at this moment in the ongoing conflict in the Islamic world, where the suppression of women is such a major issue. It was a chance for us to show we’re leading by example.”

Carney noted that Janet Napolitano, head of the Department of Homeland Security, and U.N. Ambassador Susan E. Rice are in top national security roles.

He added that Obama “insists on diversity on the lists that he considers for the job because he believes that in casting a broader net, you increase the excellence of the pool of potential nominees for these positions. But in the end he’ll make the choice that he believes is best for the United States.”

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C. African government, opposition head for talks with rebels

BANGUI, Central African Republic: Central African Republic government and opposition delegations left on Tuesday to join rebels for talks later in the week in the Gabonese capital Libreville to end the conflict in their volatile nation.

A delegation of the rebels who have seized key towns in the impoverished country arrived Monday, while government, opposition and civil society representatives left Bangui early Tuesday, a government official said.

Congo Republic President Denis Sassou Nguesso, who is serving as mediator, has said the peace talks could open later this week, while sources said some one-on-one meetings could take place earlier.

The head of the government delegation, Jean Willybero-Sako, voiced confidence that concessions that Central African President Francois Bozize has made so far -- he has proposed a national unity government and said he would not try to seek an unconstitutional third mandate -- would go a long way toward resolving the conflict.

The concessions "cleared a lot of obstacles," Willybero-Sako told AFP on Sunday, "That showed a certain willingness to go forward, to take into account everyone's concerns."

Minister of Territorial Administration Josue Binoua has said the government would also propose "army reform, an economic stimulus plan and the implementation of a new electoral code" at the talks.

Asked about a persistent rebel demand that Bozize step down, Willybero-Sako replied: "We have struggled -- rebels, opposition and government -- to provide our nation with a constitution that everyone now wants to see respected."

Bozize, a former army general, came to power in a coup in 2003 and has been voted back into office twice, in 2005 and 2011.

He has been suspected of wanting to modify the constitution to be allowed to seek a third term in 2016.

Bozize made a quick trip Monday to Brazzaville to meet with Sassou Nguesso.

At a joint press conference afterward, Sassou Nguesso stressed that a "military solution was not a good one and there must be negotiations."

Bozize, who will be present in Libreville but will not attend the talks, claimed the rebel movement was triggered by "elements coming from outside".

He added: "We consider them as mercenaries manipulated from outside, who attacked the peaceful Central African people."

The rebels have insisted that the departure of Bozize, who has been in power since 2003, should be up for discussion at the talks -- and Sassou Nguesso said the issue would be addressed.

"We cannot interpret, in our role as mediator, the statements of one or the other" side, he said, adding that "all parties have agreed to go to negotiations in Libreville and we will address all these questions among brothers."

Rebel chief Michel Djotodia, who made no statement on arrival in the Gabonese capital on Monday, told AFP earlier on a stopover in Chad: "One doesn't make war without also looking for peace."

The Seleka alliance of three rebel movements launched its assault on December 10 in the north of the Central African Republic, a mineral-rich country of five million that is notorious for coups and army mutinies.

Since then, it has moved steadily south, capturing a string of key towns with little or no resistance from the poorly equipped and poorly trained army.

They are now in striking distance of the capital Bangui, near Sibut, 160 kilometres (100 miles) to the north.

At first, the rebels were simply calling on the Bangui government to respect the terms of peace accords signed in 2007 and 2011. As their position strengthened, however, they began calling for Bozize to step down.

The Economic Community of Central African States (CEEAC) will host the Libreville talks. But the regional bloc has also sent more troops to strengthen FOMAC, its multinational intervention force in the CAR.

They are deployed as a buffer force at Damara, 75 kilometres north of the capital Bangui.

-AFP/fl

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Pravasi Bharatiya Divas: Govt determined to turn setbacks into opportunity, PM says

KOCHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said the government was determined to turn any setback into an opportunity to improve legal and regulatory frameworks in the context of a "surge of expectation" from an increasingly empowered and articulate public.

"There is now a surge of expectation from an increasingly empowered and articulate public, for more responsive, transparent, participative, clean and efficient governance," Singh said, inaugurating the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in Kochi, attended by the Indian diaspora.

His remarks apparently come against the backdrop of the nationwide outcry and outrage over various issues, including corruption and the recent Delhi gang-rape incident.

Singh said the government was "determined to turn any setback into an opportunity to improve legal and regulatory frameworks." "I have no doubt that the energy and the passions of our citizens, particularly our youth, will be a force of positive change in our country," he told the gathering where the Mauritius President Rajkeshwur Purryag was the chief guest.

Singh's remarks apparently come against the backdrop of the nationwide outcry and outrage over various issues, including corruption and the recent Delhi gang-rape incident.

Singh told the Indian diaspora that despite an impressive economic performance and change on an enormous scale in the past two decades, the country faced persisting challenges of poverty, equity, sustainability and opportunity.

"Vulnerable sections of society, including our women, face enduring prejudices and continuing problems in a rapidly changing India," he said.

Noting that the world economy has had to deal with the two major financial crises emanating from the developed world in the last four years, Singh said the Indian economy has not been immune to the consequences. "From an impressive average annual GDP growth rate of over eight per cent between 2004-2010, our growth declined to 6.5 per cent in 2011-12 and may fall below six per cent in the current year," he said.

The Prime Minister said despite domestic constraints and challenges, the government was confident that the country's strong economic fundamentals backed by sound policies, would enable it to return to a higher growth path. He said government had recently taken a number of steps to boost domestic and foreign investment, accelerate project implementation and reform capital markets and the tax system. Referring to the 12th five year plan, approved recently, with an "ambition" to sustain eight per cent annual economic growth, Singh said this required enormous resources, reforms in policies and institutions and new models of public-private partnerships, among others.

"New approaches will be needed to address challenges like infrastructure, education, energy, water and agriculture."

Lauding the role of the Indian expatriates, who had become more vulnerable to economic crises, conflicts, civil unrest or "senseless hate crimes", Singh said at a time of turbulence in many parts of the world, safety and security of Indian overseas communities was uppermost in "our minds."

Though the primary responsibility of safety and security of overseas Indian communities rest with the host countries, "when needed, as was the case, last year in Libya, our government will provide prompt and necessary assistance, the Prime Minister said.

He said the government will do "all that is possible" to deepen the connection of Indians overseas with India and advance their interests while inviting them to be a vital partner and participant in India's social and economic development. The Mauritius President recalled the strong cultural bond between his country and India. "The destiny of India and the destiny of diaspora are in many ways intertwined," he said.

An annual event being held since January 2003, the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas convention is the flagship event of the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs to connect India to its vast Indian diaspora and bringing their knowledge, expertise and skills on a common platform.

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Primitive and Peculiar Mammal May Be Hiding Out in Australia

It’d be hard to think of a mammal that’s weirder than the long-beaked, egg-laying echidna. Or harder to find.

Scientists long thought the animal, which has a spine-covered body, a four-headed penis, and a single hole for reproducing, laying eggs, and excreting waste, lived only in New Guinea. The population of about 10,000 is critically endangered. Now there is tantalizing evidence that the echidna, thought to have gone extinct in Australia some 10,000 years ago, lived and reproduced there as recently as the early 1900s and may still be alive on Aussie soil.

The new echidna information comes from zoologist Kristofer Helgen, a National Geographic emerging explorer and curator of mammals at the Smithsonian Institution. Helgen has published a key finding in ZooKeys confirming that a skin and skull collected in 1901 by naturalist John T. Tunney in Australia is in fact the western long-beaked echidna, Zaglossus bruijnii. The specimen, found in the West Kimberley region of Western Australia, was misidentified for many years.

(More about echidnas: Get to know this living link between mammals and reptiles.)

Helgen has long been fascinated by echidnas. He has seen only three in the wild. “Long-beaked echidnas are hard to get your hands on, period,” he said. “They are shy and secretive by nature. You’re lucky if you can find one. And if you do, it will be by chance.” Indeed, chance played a role in his identification of the Australian specimen. In 2009, he visited the Natural History Museum of London, where he wanted to see all of the echidnas he could. He took a good look in the bottom drawer of the echidna cabinet, where the specimens with less identifying information are often stored. From among about a dozen specimens squeezed into the drawer, he grabbed the one at the very bottom.

(Related from National Geographic magazine: “Discovery in the Foja Mountains.”)

“As I pulled it out, I saw a tag that I had seen before,” Helgen said. “I was immediately excited about this label. As a zoologist working in museums you get used to certain tags: It’s a collector’s calling card. I instantly recognized John Tunney’s tag and his handwriting.”

John Tunney was a well-known naturalist in the early 20th century who went on collecting expeditions for museums. During an Australian expedition in 1901 for Lord L. Walter Rothschild’s private museum collection, he found the long-beaked echidna specimen. Though he reported the locality on his tag as “Mt Anderson (W Kimberley)” and marked it as “Rare,” Tunney left the species identification field blank. When he returned home, the specimen was sent to the museum in Perth for identification. It came back to Rothschild’s museum identified as a short-beaked echidna.

With the specimen’s long snout, large size, and three-clawed feet, Helgen knew that it must be a long-beaked echidna. The short-beaked echidna, still alive and thriving in Australia today, has five claws, a smaller beak, and is half the size of the long-beaked echidna, which can weigh up to 36 pounds (16 kilograms).

As Helgen began tracing the history and journey of the specimen over the last century, he crossed the path of another fascinating mind who had also encountered the specimen. Oldfield Thomas was arguably the most brilliant mammalogical taxonomist ever. He named approximately one out of every six mammals known today.

Thomas was working at the Natural History Museum in London when the Tunney echidna specimen arrived, still misidentified as a short-beaked echidna. Thomas realized the specimen was actually a long-beaked echidna and removed the skull and some of the leg bones from the skin to prove that it was an Australian record of a long-beaked echidna, something just as unexpected then as it is now.

No one knows why Thomas did not publish that information. And the echidna went back into the drawer until Helgen came along 80 years later.

As Helgen became convinced that Tunney’s long-beaked echidna specimen indeed came from Australia, he confided in fellow scientist Mark Eldridge of the Australian Museum about the possibility. Eldridge replied, “You’re not the first person who’s told me that there might be long-beaked echidnas in the Kimberley.” (That’s the Kimberley region of northern Australia.) Scientist James Kohen, a co-author on Helgen’s ZooKeys paper, had been conducting fieldwork in the area in 2001 and spoke to an Aboriginal woman who told him how “her grandmothers used to hunt” large echidnas.

This is “the first evidence of the survival into modern times of any long-beaked echidna in Australia,” said Tim Flannery, professor at Macquarie University in Sydney. “This is a truly significant finding that should spark a re-evaluation of echidna identifications from across northern Australia.”

Helgen has “a small optimism” about finding a long-beaked echidna in the wild in Australia and hopes to undertake an expedition and to interview Aboriginal communities, with their intimate knowledge of the Australian bush.

Though the chances may be small, Helgen says, finding one in the wild “would be the beautiful end to the story.”

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