Arias Called Boyfriend 4 Times After Killing Him

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Jodi Arias tried to cover her tracks after killing her ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander, by making a flurry of phone calls to his cell phone and hacking into his voice mailbox, prosecutors alleged today.


Phone records presented in court today showed Arias persistently calling Alexander in the days before the killing. Ten calls were made from Arias' cell phone to Alexander's cell phone in the days leading up to his death, Verizon Wireless records expert Jody Citizen testified. Many of the calls were forwarded by Alexander straight to voice mail, Citizen said.


After Arias killed Alexander around 5:30 p.m. on June 4, 2008. , Arias called his phone four more times. The first call was made just hours after the killing at 11:37 p.m., the records showed. At least one of the calls was made as late as June 15, nearly a week after Alexander's body was found by friends.


At one point, Arias dialed into his voice mail system for 16 minutes, which indicated she was accessing his voice mail messages, Citizen said.


"If a person is in his phone for 16 minutes and they're not leaving a message what is going on?" prosecutor Juan Martinez asked.












Jodi Arias Trial: Jurors See Photos of Bloody Handprint Watch Video





"Somebody is listening to messages," Citizen answered.


See Full Coverage of Jodi Arias Trial


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Arias' attorneys, who argue that she killed her ex-boyfriend out of self-defense, said that she could have been recording a message, and then listening to it and deleting it before recording again, accounting for the 16 minutes spent on the voice mail system.


"On Verizon, is it possible to change your voice mail, to erase it and do it over again?" defense attorney Kirk Nurmi asked Citizen. "Could someone have been doing that for a 16 minute phone call?"


"Yes," Citizen said.


Nurmi pointed out that phone records showed that two days before his death Alexander also called Arias, initiating two phone calls that lasted nearly 20 minutes and more than 40 minutes in the middle of the night.


The defense has said that Alexander was controlling and abusive toward Arias and was a "sexual deviant" whom she had to kill in self defense.


The prosecution, however, alleges that Arias was obsessed with Alexander, stalked him, and killed him out of jealousy after spending the afternoon having sex with him and taking naked photos of one another. She is accused of stabbing Alexander 27 times, slashing his throat, and shooting him in the head.


Arias could face the death penalty if convicted.


The jury returned to court today for the seventh day of testimony in the murder trial, after watching a series of graphic sexual photos of Arias and Alexander displayed on Monday, including the last photos of Alexander alive. The photos show both individuals lying naked on Alexander's bed, separately, and then Alexander naked in the shower.


The final photo shows a body part covered in blood around 5:30 p.m., which the prosecution alleges is when the attack on Alexander began and the camera fell to the floor.



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"Fantastic" New Flying Frog Found—Has Flappy Forearms

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Scientists have stumbled across a new species of flying frog—on the ground.

While hiking a lowland forest in 2009, not far from Ho Chi Minh City (map), Vietnam, "we came across a huge green frog, sitting on a log," said Jodi Rowley, an amphibian biologist at the Australian Museum in Sydney and lead author of a new study on the frog.

Rowley later discovered that the 3.5-inch-long (9-centimeter-long) creature is a relatively large new type of flying frog, a group known for its ability to "parachute" from tree to tree thanks to special aerodynamic adaptations, such as webbed feet, Rowley said. (Also see "'Vampire Flying Frog' Found; Tadpoles Have Black Fangs.")

Rowley dubbed the new species Helen's flying frog, in honor of her mother, Helen Rowley, "who has steadfastly supported her only child trekking through the forests of Southeast Asia in search of frogs," according to a statement.

The newfound species—there are 80 types of flying frogs—is also "one of the most flying frogs of the flying frogs," Rowley said, "in that it's got huge hands and feet that are webbed all the way to the toepad."

"Females even have flappy skin on their forearms to glide," added Rowley, who has received funding from the National Geographic Committee on Research and Exploration. (National Geographic News is part of the National Geographic Society.) "The females are larger and heavier than males, so the little extra flaps probably don't make much of a difference," she said.

As Rowley wrote on her blog, "At first it may seem strange that such a fantastic and obvious frog could escape discovery until now—less than 100 kilometers [60 miles] from an urban centre with over nine million people."

Yet these tree dwellers can easily escape notice—they spend most of their time in the canopy, she said.

Flying Frog on the Edge

Even so, Helen's flying frog won't be able to hide from development near Ho Chi Minh City, which may encroach on its existing habitats.

So far, only five individuals have been found in two patches of lowland forest hemmed in by rice paddies in southern Vietnam, Rowley said. The animals can probably tolerate a little bit of disturbance as long as they have large trees and temporary pools, she added.

But lowland forests are among the most threatened habitats in the world, mostly because they're so accessible to people, and thus chosen for logging and development. (Get the facts on deforestation.)

"While Helen's flying frog has only just been discovered by biologists," Rowley wrote, "unfortunately this species, like many others, is under great threat from ongoing habitat loss and degradation."

The new flying frog study was published in December 2012 in the Journal of Herpetology.


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Obama promises diversity in White House, Cabinet

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(Alex Wong - GETTY IMAGES)
It seemed President Obama might have been a bit defensive, at his press conference Monday, when he was asked about diversity in his Cabinet picks.


His first term had “as diverse... a White House and a Cabinet than any in history,” he said, adding that he “would just suggest that everybody kind of wait until they’ve seen all my appointments... before they rush to judgment.”


The White House confirmed Monday that Department of Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano was staying on in her job. (Ah, we’ve been writing that for some time.)


On the other hand, another very senior woman, Nancy-Ann DeParle, White House deputy chief of staff and a major player in Obama’s health care program, is leaving next week to join the Brookings Institution as a guest scholar in economic studies and will also lecture at Harvard Law School.


Another official said to be leaving is Mike Strautmanis, now counselor to White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett and before that deputy chief of staff in Obama’s Senate office. He’s likely headed to the private sector.





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US student could "doodle" way to college money

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SAN FRANCISCO: Google on Monday launched a competition that will let a US student "doodle" his or her way to cash for college along with landing grant money to fund technology education at their grade school.

The California-based Internet titan announced its sixth annual "Doodle 4 Google" contest in which students from kindergarten to 12th grade vie to create a winning "doodle," a creative design playing off the search page logo.

The doodle contest theme is "My best day ever".

"Each year we have a broad theme to provide some inspiration while letting young artists' imagination roam free," Google said in a blog post.

"We hope to give kids a chance to explore themes that could be imaginary, exploratory or even sentimental, past, present or future."

The winning artwork will be displayed for the Internet world to see at Google.com and its creator will get US$30,000 in scholarship money to help pay for college. Their school will get a US$50,000 technology grant.

Doodles can be submitted between Tuesday and March 22, with judges selecting a top contender from each US state and public voting online to help determine national finalists.

The panel of judges includes puppeteer and Jim Henson company chairman Brian Henson; journalist and author Katie Couric, and graphic novel author and illustrator Kabu Kibuishi.

The winning doodle will be appear on the Google search page a day after an awards ceremony in New York City on May 22 and an exhibit of top entries will go on temporary display at the American Museum of Natural History there.

More than 114,000 doodles were submitted in last year's contest, which was won by a seven-year-old boy's pirate-themed artwork.

- AFP/jc



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Cold wave persists in Himachal

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SHIMLA: Cold wave persisted in most parts of Himachal Pradesh even as mercury rose marginally across the state and stayed close to normal level.

The high-altitude tribal areas and other higher hills had mild snowfall while some places in mid and lower hills had light rains with Nadaun in Hamirpur district recording 3 mm of rainfall.

While tourist spot Manali recorded minimum temperature of minus 0.4 deg C, Mandi and Bhuntar recorded a low of 1.6 deg C and 2.6 deg C, followed by Shimla and Solan at 3.5 deg C each, Sundernagar 4.6 deg C, Una 6.2 deg C and Nahan 7.4 deg C respectively.

Keylong and Kalpa in tribal districts of Lahaul and Spiti and Kinnaur recorded a low of minus 8.6 deg C and minus 3.2 deg C. The high altitude areas reeled under bone chilling cold wave with mercury staying between minus 15 deg C and minus 23 deg C.

The maximum temperature at Una was 22.8 deg C while Sundernagar and Solan recorded a high of 19.8 deg C and 19.5 deg C followed by Bhunter 19 deg C, Nahan 18 deg C, Dharamshala 17.2 deg C, Shimla 15 deg C and Kalpa 9.5 deg C.

The MeT office has predicted dry weather in the region tomorrow but said a fresh western disturbance as an upper air system will affect the western Himalayan region from January 16 onwards. PTI

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Space Pictures: 7 Ways You Could Blast Off by 2023

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Lance Armstrong Apologizes to Livestrong Staff

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Lance Armstrong apologized today to the Livestrong staff ahead of his interview with Oprah Winfrey, a foundation official said.


The disgraced cyclist gathered with about 100 Livestrong Foundation staffers at their Austin, Texas, headquarters for a meeting that included social workers who deal directly with patients as part of the group's mission to support cancer victims.


Armstrong's "sincere and heartfelt apology" generated lots of tears, spokeswoman Katherine McLane said, adding that he "took responsibility" for the trouble he has caused the foundation.


McLane declined to say whether Armstrong's comments included an admission of doping, just that the cyclist wanted the staff to hear from him in person rather than rely on second-hand accounts.


Armstrong then took questions from the staff.


Armstrong's story has never changed. In front of cameras, microphones, fans, sponsors, cancer survivors -- even under oath -- Lance Armstrong hasn't just denied ever using performance enhancing drugs, he has done so in an indignant, even threatening way.






Riccardo S. Savi/Getty Images|Ray Tamarra/Getty Images













Lance Armstrong Doping Charges: Secret Tapes Watch Video









Lance Armstrong's Winfrey Interview: Expected to Admit to Doping Watch Video





Today, sources tell ABC News, will be different. Today Armstrong is expected to rewrite his own, now infamous story, to Winfrey. So what should she ask? There are enough questions to fill a book, but here's our shot at five, for starters, all based on the belief that his first words will be an admission. Feel free to comment and add your own.


1) Witnesses have told the U.S. Anti Doping Agency that after recovering from cancer, you increased your use of performance enhancing drugs, but swore off one of them—Human Growth Hormone—specifically noting your cancer as a reason to avoid it. Do you believe your cancer may have been caused by performance enhancing drug use?


2) Some people seem able to forgive or rationalize the use of performance enhancing drugs, but what troubles them is the vicious cover-up. Why did you feel it necessary to go beyond denials, to attack and even threaten and file legal claims against those who accused you of drug use, even to the point of causing serious harm to people's lives and reputations?


3) In 1996, while recovering from cancer, your former close friend Frankie Andreu and his wife Betsy say they were in the hospital room when you told doctors you'd used several different performance enhancing drugs during your career. They testified under oath about this, but you always denied it and vilified them. This caused the Andreus great harm. Did it happen?


4) What do you tell your kids?


5) Up until today, everything you've said and done—even that picture on twitter of you and your yellow jerseys—has said to the world that you're not sorry, and that you're the real winner of seven Tours. Aren't you just coming forward now to help yourself, rather than to come clean or set the record straight?


Whatever the answers, a small army of lawyers and even criminal investigators will be listening closely. Will Armstrong's interview be the start of his redemption or the beginning of even bigger problems?



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Senate is losing its lions

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The Senate is losing its lions.




Jay Rockefeller’s retirement from the Senate, which the West Virginia Democrat announced Friday morning, is the latest in a series of departures — by death, defeat or choice — that has rapidly sapped the world’s greatest deliberative body of many of the personalities that dominated the institution, and American politics, for the better part of the three decades.


Since the 2008 election, here is just a sampling of the senators who have gone: Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), John Warner (R-Va.), Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), Arlen Specter (R-then-D-Pa.), Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), and, of course Vice President Joe Biden (D-Del.)

Virtually every major moment you can think of in the Senate over the past 50 years happened because of the men and women listed above. These are senators about whom books have been written and about whom many more will be written. They are people who will be remembered as prime movers in the chamber.

In their place are a huge number of newcomers who have replaced not only the lions, but also the backbench members in recent elections. Since 2008, 40 — yes, 40 — new senators have been elected; that number includes 20 Democrats and 20 Republicans, a remarkable bit of symmetry.

Some have quickly made their marks. For Republicans, Sen. Rob Portman (Ohio) was on the short­list to be Mitt Romney’s vice president, while Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) is regarded as one of the front-runners for the 2016 GOP nomination. (Of course, that is using the Senate as a springboard rather than a destination in and of itself.) On the Democratic side, Sen. Michael Bennet (Colo.) has been entrusted with leading the party’s campaign arm in the 2014 election, while Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) has emerged as a leading centrist voice in a chamber increasingly devoid of them.

Still, no one would dispute that the Senate is not filled with the sort of major figures that roamed its halls even a decade ago. The bigger question is why.

Some of the change is, of course, natural attrition. The Senate has never been a particularly youthful institution and death comes for us all — as it did for the likes of Kennedy, Byrd and Inouye in recent years. The last World War II veteran serving in the chamber is New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D), 88.

But, it’s also clear when looking at who has left, and why, that the Senate — and the process to get there — is fundamentally different than in decades past.

Take Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.), a respected voice on foreign policy, who had comfortably won reelection for several decades. In 2012, however, he underestimated the seriousness of a challenge from his ideological right. Lugar lost the primary, while the man who beat him, state Treasurer Richard Mourdock, lost the general election to now-Sen. Joe Donnelly (D). (Two years earlier, Utah Sen. Bob Bennett (R) lost his own reelection bid in much the same manner.)

Or Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) who, despite facing no serious opposition in 2012, decided not to seek reelection, citing the “atmosphere of polarization and ‘my way or the highway’ ideologies [that] has become pervasive in campaigns and in our governing institutions.”

To be clear, none of the examples cited above — with the possible exception of Snowe — are perfect cases against the Senate. Lugar never went home to Indiana, which badly hurt him. Bennett fell victim to a nominating process dominated by conservative activists.

But, the totality of the departures — regardless of the reason — has clearly made the Senate a place of smaller statesmanship and decreased national sway than in years past. The loss of so many long-standing senators also has robbed the Senate of much of its institutional wisdom and sense of self. The intractability that has dominated Senate proceedings in recent years — and led to aggressive efforts to reform filibuster rules — seems to be directly traceable to the fact that the Senate we once knew — and the men and women who populated it— are gone.

Of course, all lions were cubs once. And there are already signs that some of the newly elected senators are in it for the long haul. But, it’s hard to dispute that the golden age of the Senate is passing — if it has not passed already.

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Tennis: Australian Open to start in Melbourne

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MELBOURNE: Novak Djokovic will seek an unprecedented third straight title and Serena Williams is hot favourite for the women's trophy when the Australian Open gets under way in Melbourne on Monday.

Play starts at 11:00 am local time at Melbourne Park tennis complex for the year's first Grand Slam, with Djokovic in action on day one.

The Serb takes to centre court, the Rod Laver Arena, where he faces France's Paul-Henri Mathieu as he seeks to become the first man in the professional era to win the Australian Open three times in a row, with record prize money of US$2.56 million awaiting the singles winners.

"I feel this is a point where everybody starts from the same line, so I don't really put myself in a position to have more pressure than the others have, to be honest," Djokovic said.

"I've been faced with this particular kind of pressure, defending the title in major events, a few times. So I know how it feels like, what I need to do.

"As I said, I'm trying to keep it very simple, take it day to day, see how far I can go."

Andy Murray is considered Djokovic's biggest threat after winning his maiden Grand Slam at the US Open last year, but the Briton must battle through a difficult draw including a possible semi-final with Roger Federer.

Last year, Djokovic won a titanic final against Rafael Nadal which clocked in at 5hr 53mins, the longest Grand Slam decider in history. But Nadal is a no-show this year, extending a six-month absence through injury and illness.

In the women's draw, Williams is the clear favourite after sweeping to the Wimbledon, Olympic, US Open and WTA Championships titles last year and losing just twice since April.

Williams, tipped for the first calendar-year Grand Slam since 1988, did her best to dampen expectations before she begins her bid for a sixth Australian Open title, and 16th major win, against Edina Gallovits-Hall on Tuesday.

"Well, for me, my goal is just to do the best I can. Like I love playing. I want to be out there on centre court hopefully doing the best I can," said the American.

"I set my goals per tournament, go with it from there."

Top seed Victoria Azarenka is defending a Grand Slam title for the first time and Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska is on a hot streak after winning two titles already this year.

Maria Sharapova plays fellow Russian Olga Puchkova on Monday as she starts her bid for a fifth Grand Slam title, while China's former French Open winner Li Na, the 2011 runner-up in Melbourne, is also among the top contenders.

Despite weeks of hot weather and bushfires in Australia, cool temperatures are forecast for Monday's start, with 22 degrees C expected in Melbourne.

- AFP/jc



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President rejects mercy plea of man who killed wife, daughter

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NEW DELHI: President Pranab Mukherjee has rejected the mercy petition of murder convict Saibanna Ningappa Natikar, making it the second mercy petition that he was rejected so far. Natikar was convicted of killing his wife and daughter. Mukherjee took the decision on January 4. The rejection comes at a time when there is growing concern over crimes against women after the December 16 gang-rape of a 23-year-old physiotherapist in Delhi.

Natikar murdered his wife and 18-month-old daughter and was sentenced to death. His sentence was confirmed by the Supreme Court in 2005.

In November 2012, Mukherjee rejected the mercy petition of Mumbai terror attack accused Ajmal Kasab. The rejection and hanging was done in secrecy with information about the death row prisoner being released only after the hanging.

The President has sent nine petitions including that of Mohammed Afzal Guru back to the home ministry for further consideration. Guru is listed at number eight in precedence.

Article 72 of the Constitution empowers the President to pardon, grant reprieve or suspend, remit, commute sentence of a person convicted for any offence. The President is guided and advised by the home minister and the council of ministers in his decision. There is no timeframe in which the President has to make the decision which is subject to judicial review.

Former President Pratibha Patil granted clemency to 35 convicts and rejected three pleas. Her disposal rate was about 200% unlike KR Narayanan who only disposed of one petition of the 10 he received and APJ Abdul Kalam who had a disposal rate of 12.5%.

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