Postmaster takes case for five-day mail delivery to skeptical senators

Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe took his controversial plan for five-day mail delivery before a congressional hearing Wednesday, where he told senators that the Postal Service “needs your help.”

Donahoe’s refrain was familiar.

●The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is losing $25 million a day.

●Last year, the Postal Service lost $15.9 billion.

●It defaulted on $11.1 billion owed to the Treasury.

As he has before, Donahoe pleaded with Congress, this time the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, to approve comprehensive postal reform legislation. Now, more than before, it looks as though Congress will do so.

Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (Md.), the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, told the Senate panel that after two months of negotiations, “we are close, very close” to agreement on a bipartisan, bicameral bill.

Without some assistance from Congress, said Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), chairman of the Senate committee, “the Postal Service will drift toward insolvency and, eventually, the point at which it must shut its doors. . . . We have never been closer to losing the Postal Service.”

Although in some ways Donahoe’s appearance echoed his many other pleas for congressional action, this hearing drew a standing-room-only crowd on the third floor of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. That was probably influenced by all the attention generated by his surprise announcement last week that Saturday mail delivery will end in August.

Donahoe’s written testimony outlined several key legislative goals, but five-day mail delivery was not specifically listed among them. After repeatedly urging Congress to end the six-day requirement, Donahoe said postal officials had determined that he could take that action without congressional approval.

Moving to five-day delivery would close just 10 percent of the postal budget gap, Donahoe said, yet the controversy surrounding it stole the focus from other important financial issues.

Among them is a controversial proposal to move postal employees from the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, which serves all federal workers, to a health insurance program run by the USPS.

Donahoe presented an updated health insurance proposal, but it received little attention compared with his five-day delivery plan.

Last year the Senate approved legislation, co-sponsored by Carper, that would allow five-day delivery two years after its enactment. The delay was designed to allow the Postal Service to study the impact of five-day delivery. Carper was among those who have expressed disappointment with Donahoe’s plan to implement it unilaterally.

“We are taking every reasonable and responsible step in our power to strengthen our finances immediately,” Donahoe told the committee. “We would urge Congress to eliminate any impediments to our new delivery schedule.

“Although discussion about our delivery schedule gets a lot of attention, it is just one important part of a larger strategy to close our budgetary gap,” he added. “It accounts for $2 billion in cost reductions while we are seeking to fill a $20 billion budget gap.”

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Athletics: 'Blade Runner' Pistorius charged in girlfriend's murder

PRETORIA: South African police held Olympic amputee sprint star Oscar Pistorius in custody Thursday after charging him with the Valentine's Day murder of his model girlfriend, who was shot four times with a gun registered in his name.

Blonde cover girl Reeva Steenkamp died after suffering wounds to the head and hand in the shooting in the early hours of Thursday.

Police played down reports that the 29-year-old was mistaken for a burglar. They had earlier said she was aged 30.

Twenty-six-year-old Pistorius -- known globally as "Blade Runner" because of his carbon fibre prostheses -- was to appear in court early Friday to answer formal murder charges.

The sprinter became an international celebrity during last year's London Olympics, when he became the first double-amputee to line up on the starting blocks beside able bodied competitors.

He was publicly adored in his native South Africa, though questions had been raised about his colourful private life that was replete with glamorous girlfriends, guns and fast cars.

Police were called to Pistorius's upscale Pretoria home at around 4:00 am by neighbours who heard gunshots inside the gated community.

Police spokeswoman Denise Beukes said the 9mm pistol used in the shooting was registered to Pistorius, who authorities have said is the only suspect in the case.

The police said they would oppose any request for bail.

His arrest has rocked South Africa, where he had been considered a hero.

"Obviously we are shocked," his father Henke Pistorius told AFP. "He is with the police and the matter is in the hands of the authorities."

Steenkamp, once a FHM cover girl, was described as "the kindest, sweetest human being; an angel on earth," by Sarit Tomlins of her management agency.

Born in Cape Town, she grew up in Port Elizabeth where she graduated with a degree in law from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.

Authorities poured cold water on media reports that she had snuck up on her lover, suggestions that were fuelled by her tweet the day before.

"What do you have up your sleeve for your love tomorrow??? #getexcited #ValentinesDay", she wrote.

"We were surprised by allegations that the deceased had been perceived to be a burglar," police spokeswoman Beukes said.

Police said they were talking to neighbours who heard disturbances on Wednesday evening and around the time of the shooting.

There had been previous allegations of domestic disputes at Pistorius's home.

"There were always rumours attracted to Oscar Pistorius, but most of them I just put down to him being a celebrity," said Kyle Wood, a 25-year-old fellow resident of the Silverlakes community.

In 2009 Pistorius spent a night in jail after allegedly assaulting a 19-year-old woman at a party.

He has often spoken publicly about his fondness for guns.

Last year he told a newspaper he sleeps with a pistol, machine gun, cricket bat and baseball bat for fear of burglars.

He once took a reporter to a nearby shooting range with his 9mm handgun after learning that the journalist had never fired a shot.

There are an estimated 1.5 million gun owners in South Africa, where crime remains a major problem.

Many residents keep weapons at home and equip their houses with electric fences and panic buttons that summon heavily armed guards within minutes.

In November, Pistorius tweeted about arriving home and hearing the washing machine on "and thinking it's an intruder to go into full combat recon mode into the pantry! waa."

His right to have a gun was called into question by South Africa's anti-firearms lobby.

To be licensed as a gun owner, Pistorius would have had to seek a competency certificate that requires knowledge of gun laws and interviews with his neighbours to rule out issues around addiction, mental illness or violence.

"With Oscar's case it is quite interesting because it does appear that there was a history of abuse and possible alcohol misuse," said Claire Taylor of Gun Free South Africa.

Pistorius was also known as an adrenaline junkie, with a love of speed reflected in a passion for motorbikes. Four years ago he crashed his boat in a river south of Johannesburg, breaking two ribs, an eye socket and his jaw.

Empty alcohol bottles were found in the boat, but his blood alcohol content was not tested.

Until now his problems off the track had been eclipsed by his success on it.

The Johannesburg-born athlete won gold in the 4x100m relay and the 400m individual at the Paralympic Games in London. He was triple gold medallist in the Beijing games in 2008.

He was named by Time Magazine last year as one of the world's 100 most influential people.

He had both legs amputated below the knee when he was 11-months-old after being born without lower leg bones. But he played sports unhindered while growing up, switching to running after fracturing a knee playing rugby.

At high school, he was so good that his personal fitness coach said she was unaware for six months that he ran on prosthetic legs.

Already a South African pay television channel has canned a campaign featuring the runner.

There was no immediate comment from global sports giant Nike on its sponsorship of Pistorius, who it featured in an advert showing the runner setting off from the starting blocks with the line "I am the bullet in the chamber".

- AFP/jc

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Abhishek Verma’s firm acted as brokers for AgustaWestland

NEW DELHI: Controversial arms dealer AbhishekVerma is back in the headlines. On a day when a Delhi court denied Verma and his wife interim bail in a case involving alleged violations of the Official Secrets Act, television channel Times Now cited documents to suggest that his firms had acted as deal-brokers for AgustaWestland, though not in the VVIP helicopter deal.

Times Now said that Swiss lobbying firm NJT Sarl had sent an email to the office of the CEO of AgustaWestland and its parent Italian firm Finmeccanica, Giuseppe Orsi, in June 2009 offering its services in helping the Italian arms manufacturer secure business in India.

The mail, dated June 19, 2009, sent by one Christian Curato said NJT Sarl was acting on behalf of Atlas Defence Systems, a Mauritius-based firm that was part of Verma's Atlas group. It boasted of how its "allies" had closed defence deals worth $5.5 billion in the previous four years. Promising to "provide political exposure in India at the highest level" and asserting that it had strong allies in government, media and "corridors of power", NJT sought a meeting with Orsi.

A series of emails exchanged between Orsi's office and NJT culminated in the legal head of AgustaWestland, Alaimo Vincenzo, suggesting to the Swiss lobbying firm that a formal commission contract be draw up and signed. The contract, the report said, was finally signed in August 2009, not with the Swiss firm but with another alleged Verma front company, Ganton Ltd, based in New York. The president of Ganton Ltd, US, C Edmonds Allen, signed the contract.

The contract specified that Ganton would be paid an 8% commission on the sale of helicopters to the Delhi Police and 15% on the price of all spare parts that would be provided under the contract. As it happened, the helicopter deal with the Delhi Police finally did not go through.

The Times Now report also cited a letter allegedly written by lawyer Gautam Khaitan on behalf of his law firm O P Khaitan & Co to Atlas Interactive Ltd (AIL) in Mauritius, another Verma-owned firm. It said that Khaitan in this letter told AIL that his company was holding accounts of $145,000 each on behalf of AIL and that he would "dispose" of these funds as per instructions once he returned to Delhi.

This, the Times Now report said, not only proved that Khaitan was very much linked to arms dealers but also raised questions about what the $290,000 was meant for and how it was "disposed" of.

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Cruise Passengers 'Upbeat' as They Near Land

The 4,000 passengers and crew aboard the stricken Carnival Triumph cruise ship will disembark after dark tonight from the fetid cruiser dubbed "the poop deck" on social media, according to officials.

"It will come in. It will not stop," Alabama State Port Authority Director Jimmy Lyons said at a news conference today. "We're going to do everything we can from our standpoint to ensure that this is as smooth as possible."

He estimated the ship would arrive between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. tonight.

Delighted passengers waved at media helicopters that flew out to film the ship and passenger Rob Mowlam told ABCNews.com by phone today that most of the passengers on board were "really upbeat and positive."

Nevertheless, when he gets off Mowlam said, "I will probably flush the toilet 10 times just because I can."

Mowlam, 37, got married on board the Triumph Friday and said he and his wife, Stephanie Stevenson, 27, haven't yet thought of redoing the honeymoon other than to say, "It won't be a cruise."

Lyons said that with powerless "dead ships" like the Triumph, it is usually safer to bring them in during daylight hours, but, "Once they make the initial effort to come into the channel, there's no turning back."

Click here for photos of the stranded ship at sea.

Lt. Cmdr. Paul McConnell/U.S. Coast Guard/AP Photo

Stranded Carnival Cruise Ship On Its Way to Port Watch Video

Carnival Cancels All Scheduled Voyages Aboard the Triumph Watch Video

Carnival Cruise Ship Making Its Way to Port Watch Video

"There are issues regarding coming into the ship channel and docking at night because the ship has no power and there's safety issues there," Richard Tillman of the Mobile Bay Convention and Visitors Bureau told ABCNews.com.

When asked if the ship could be disembarked in the dark of night, Tillman said, "It is not advised. It would be very unusual."

Carnival Cruise Senior Vice President of Marketing Terri Thornton, however, insisted during a news conference at the port of Mobile today, "Our understanding is it will be alongside this evening."

Thornton denied the rumors that there was a fatality on the ship. He said that there was one illness early on, a dialysis patient, but that passenger was removed from the vessel and transferred to a medical facility.

The U.S. Coast Guard is assisting now and there are multiple generators on board. And customs officials will board the ship while it is being piloted to port to accelerate the embarkation, officials said.

After eight miserable days at sea, the ship's owners have increased the compensation for what some on board are calling the vacation from hell.

All 3,143 passengers aboard the 900 foot colossus, which stalled in the Gulf of Mexico after an engine room fire early Sunday, were already being given a full refund for the cruise, transportation expenses and vouchers for a another cruise. Carnival Cruise Lines is now boosting that offer to include another $500 per person. Gerry Cahill, president and CEO of Carnival Cruise Lines, announced the additional compensation Wednesday.

"We know it has been a longer journey back than we anticipated at the beginning of the week under very challenging circumstances," he said in a statement. "We are very sorry for what our guests have had to endure. Therefore, in addition to the full refund and future cruise credit already offered, we have decided to provide this additional compensation."

Carnival also said that it has canceled a dozen planned voyages for the Triumph and acknowledged that the crippled ship had been plagued by other mechanical problems in the weeks before an engine-room fire left it powerless in the Gulf of Mexico.

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Asteroid Impacts:10 Biggest Known Hits

There's one physical connection that isn't going down after Valentine's Day this year: Earth and asteroid.

The asteroid known as 2012 DA14 will narrowly miss Earth this Friday, the closest asteroid flyby on record. But the planet has not always been so lucky.

Earth's craters are enduring testaments to direct asteroid hits. And though millions—in some cases billions—of years of erosion have made it difficult to determine the exact size of the meteorites, there is a general scientific consensus around the world's largest craters, which mark the largest asteroid impacts.

Here are the ten biggest known:

1. Vredefort Crater

Asteroid impact date: Estimated 2 billion years ago

Location: Free State, South Africa

Specs: Also known as the Vredefort Dome, the Vredefort crater has an estimated radius of 118 miles (190 kilometers), making it the world's largest known impact structure. This crater was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005.

2. Sudbury Basin

Asteroid impact date: Estimated 1.8 billion years ago

Location: Ontario, Canada

Specs: The Sudbury Basin is considered one of largest impact structures on Earth, with an estimated diameter of 81 miles (130 kilometers). Dating back 1.8 billion years, it is also one of the oldest known impact structures in the world.

3. Acraman Crater

Asteroid impact date: Estimated 580 million years ago

Location: South Australia, Australia

Specs: Located in what is now Lake Acraman, this impact structure has an estimated diameter of 56 miles (90 kilometers).

4. Woodleigh Crater

Asteroid impact date: Estimated 364 million years ago

Location: Western Australia, Australia

Specs: This crater is not exposed at the surface and has led to many discrepancies regarding its actual size. Reports on its diameter vary from 25 to 75 miles (40 to 120 kilometers).

5. Manicouagan Crater

Asteroid impact date: Estimated 215 million years ago

Location: Quebec, Canada

Specs: This impact crater formed what is now Lake Manicouagan. Even with erosion, it's considered one of the largest and best-preserved craters on Earth, with an estimated diameter of 62 miles (100 kilometers).

6. Morokweng Crater

Asteroid impact date: Estimated 145 million years ago

Location: North West, South Africa

Specs: Located near the Kalahari Desert in South Africa, this crater contained the fossilized remains of the meteorite that created it.

7. Kara Crater

Asteroid impact date: Estimated 70.3 million years ago

Location: Nenetsia, Russia

Specs: Now greatly eroded, the Kara crater is a non-exposed impact structure in Russia. Some have claimed that the impact structure actually consists of two adjacent craters: the Kara and the Ust-Kara crater.

8. Chicxulub Crater

Asteroid impact date: Estimated 65 million years ago

Location: Yucatán, Mexico

Specs: Located on the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, many scientists believe that the meteorite that left this crater caused or contributed to the extinction of the dinosaurs. Estimates of its actual diameter range from 106 to a whooping 186 miles (170 to 300 kilometers), which if proved right could mean it's the biggest.

9. Popigai Crater

Asteroid impact date: Estimated 35.7 million years ago

Location: Siberia, Russia

Specs: Russian scientists claim that this crater site contains trillions of carats of diamonds, making it one of the largest diamond deposits in the world. These diamonds have been referred to as "impact diamonds."

10. Chesapeake Bay Crater

Asteroid impact date: Estimated 35 million years ago

Location: Virginia, United States

Specs: Discovered in the early 1980s, the Chesapeake Bay Crater is located approximately 125 miles (201 kilometers) from Washington, D.C. Some estimates suggest this crater is 53 miles (85 kilometers) wide.

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Obama urges a move away from narrow focus on politics of austerity

Just about every argument in Washington since the 2010 midterm elections, which returned control of the House to Republicans, has centered on reducing the federal deficit. On Tuesday night, President Obama leaned into his second term by declaring that a single-minded focus on deficit reduction would jeopardize the nation’s future. And he sounded an urgent call to rebuild.

Reelected by an ascendent coalition, the president spoke from a position of strength in his fourth State of the Union address. The economy is improving. The Republican Party is in disarray. The time has come, Obama indicated, to pivot away from the politics of austerity.

“Most of us agree that a plan to reduce the deficit must be part of the agenda,” he said. “But let’s be clear: Deficit reduction alone is not an economic plan. A growing economy that creates good middle-class jobs — that must be the North Star that guides our efforts.”

The president rejected the fiscal brinkmanship that defined the past two years. Instead, he framed future fiscal debates as opportunities to shape a “smarter government” — one with new investments in science and innovation, with a rising minimum wage, with tax reform that eliminates loopholes and deductions for what the president labeled “the well-off and well-connected.”

Second-term presidents have a narrow window of time to enact significant change before they become lame ducks, and Obama, while echoing campaign themes of reinforcing the middle class, made an urgent case for a more pragmatic version of populism, one that emphasizes economic prosperity as the cornerstone of a fair society.

Over and over, he noted that the time to rebuild is now.

The “Fix-It-First” program that Obama outlined to put people to work on “urgent repairs,” such as structurally deficient bridges, bore echoes of President Bill Clinton’s call in his 1999 State of the Union address to “save Social Security first.” Clinton’s was an effective line, one that stopped — at least until President George W. Bush took office two years later — a Republican drive to use the budget surplus to cut taxes.

Although Obama’s speech lacked the conciliatory notes of some of his earlier State of the Union addresses, he did make overtures to Republicans and cited Mitt Romney, his presidential challenger, by name.

He combined tough talk about securing the border, which brought Republicans to their feet, with a pledge to entertain reasonable reforms to Medicare, the federal entitlement program that fellow Democrats are fighting to protect.

“Those of us who care deeply about programs like Medicare must embrace the need for modest reforms,” he said.

Obama also pledged to cut U.S. dependence on energy imports by expanding oil and gas development. And he singled out one area where he and Romney found agreement in last year’s campaign: linking increases in the minimum wage to the cost of living.

Obama set a bipartisan tone at the start of his speech, quoting from President John F. Kennedy’s address to Congress 51 years earlier when he said, “The Constitution makes us not rivals for power, but partners for progress.”

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Tennis: Federer speeds to opening Rotterdam win

ROTTERDAM, Netherlands: Roger Federer began the defence of his Rotterdam World Tennis title by crushing Slovenia's Grega Zemlja 6-3, 6-1 in just 57 minutes on Wednesday.

Federer advanced effortlessly into the second round over last autumn's Vienna finalist and next faces Dutchman Thiemo de Bakker.

The Swiss top seed, and world number two, improved to 22-5 in Rotterdam as he plays the event for the eighth time, never losing before the quarter-finals.

Zemlja slipped to 1-9 against top 10 opposition after beating number nine Janko Tipsarevic in the Vienna semi-finals before losing to Juan Martin del Potro.

Federer raced through the opening set in 29 minutes with a break in the final game and rolled on in the second, taking a 3-1 led before closing out with a break in the penultimate game and a love game to finish with a service winner.

"I've been here and preparing for a few days, but matches are always different than training," said Federer. "The ball flies a bit and you have to be prepared.

"I'll have to be careful against De Bakker. I played him in the Davis Cup (2012). The local players always get up for home matches. I'll have to approach him carefully and not underestimate him."

French seeds moved smoothly on with number four Richard Gasquet picking up where he left off after winning the Montpellier title at the weekend.

The world number 10 cited the tiebreaker as crucial in a 7-6 (7/3), 6-1 defeat of Serb Victor Troicki to reach the second round.

"Winning the breaker was the key to the match," said Gasquet. "I played well and was then more confident at the start of the second set. It was the perfect start for me."

Gasquet is the first man this season on the ATP Tour to win more than one title after starting out in January with Doha honours.

The last time he won more than one title in a season was 2006 when he claimed three.

"I've only lost once this year," said Gasquet whose year record stands at 15-1.

"Of course I hope to keep going like this. My only defeat was to (Jo-Wilfried) Tsonga in Australia. I'm fighting as much as I can for ranking points, that's why I'm here."

Fifth seed Gilles Simon won his second-round encounter with Italian Matteo Viola 6-3, 6-1 while compatriot Julien Benneteau joined him in the quarter-finals at the Ahoy stadium with a victory over Romanian Victor Hanescu, 6-1, 6-3.

German qualifier Matthias Bachinger earned an upset win over Andreas Seppi, the Italian sixth seed, 6-3, 6-4.

- AFP/jc

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Italian investigators name ex-IAF chief Shashi Tyagi

NEW DELHI: Former IAF chief Shashi P Tyagi on Wednesday categorically denied receiving bribes or indeed playing any role in the acquisition of AW-101 choppers, as alleged by an ongoing Italian probe.

In a preliminary 64-page report filed in the tribunal of Busto Arsizio city, after Finmeccanica CEO Giuseppe Orsi, AgustaWestland head Bruno Spagnolini and two others were arrested, Italian investigators said the money was routed through alleged middlemen — Guido Haschke, Carlo Gerosa and Christian Michel — to India. "They promised and managed to pay, through brothers (Sanjeev) Julie Tyagi, Dosca Tyagi and Sandeep Tyagi, a certain amount of money, not yet quantified, to ACM Shashi Tyagi," said the report. The trio named are Air Chief Marshal Tyagi's cousins.

"I am innocent. These allegations are totally baseless. I deny them categorically," Tyagi told TOI. The technical parameters for the VVIP choppers were "frozen" in 2003-04, much before he became the IAF chief. Moreover, he retired well before the field trials in the project were held in 2008 and the final deal was inked in 2010.

He did admit to meeting Carlo at the residence of his cousin brothers a few times.

Reacting on kickback allegations against him in the VVIP chopper deal, former IAF chief Shashi P Tyagi on Wednesday said, "I am not aware that my cousins are arms dealers...what I know is that they deal with European companies that want to invest in the power sector in India."

Defence minister A K Antony said the "strongest" possible action would be taken against any individual, Indian or foreign, and the company concerned if the allegations against them were proved. "Nobody will be spared whatever may be the consequences," he said. The government also threatened to cancel the deal and blacklist the company if any wrongdoing was established in the case.

The CBI had been told to submit a preliminary report in the case as soon as possible. The agency is likely to lodge the FIR in the case within 24 hours, although its preliminary report may take a couple of months.

The ongoing Italian probe has alleged Italian aerospace and defence giant Finmeccanica bribed ACM (retd) Tyagi, who was the IAF chief from January 2005 to December 2007, to ensure the contract for the 12 three-engine AW-101 helicopters went to its UK-based subsidiary, AgustaWestland. The Italian report alleges that Haschke and Gerosa, through the Tyagi brothers, got the technical specifications in the Indian tender tweaked to ensure AW-101 choppers could qualify in the competition.

For instance, the "operational ceiling", or the altitude at which the helicopters could operate, was reduced from 18,000 to 15,000 feet. "Then they managed to introduce a comparative flight trial with a non-functional engine for the benefit of the AW-101 helicopters, which were the only ones with three engines," it said.

Antony, on being asked about the names of ACM Tyagi and the then Special Protection Group (SPG) chief and now Goa governor B V Wanchoo surfacing in the case, said he was not in a position to say anything at the moment. "Let the CBI inquire into the matter. I don't want to say who is right, who is wrong. I am not a judge, nor the investigating officer," he said.

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Dorner Hid Just Steps From Command Center

Christopher Dorner, the fugitive ex-cop who authorities believe died in a fiery standoff with police Tuesday night, was apparently holed up in a snow-covered cabin in the California mountains just steps from where police had set up a command post and held press conferences during a five-day manhunt.

The charred remains of a body believed to be Dorner was removed from another cabin, high in the San Bernadino Mountains near Big Bear, Calif., the site of Dorner's last stand. Cornered inside the mountain cabin, the suspect shot at cops, killing one deputy and wounding another, before the building was consumed by flames.

Police are working to officially identify the body, but "have reason to believe that it is him," said San Bernardino County sheriff's spokeswoman Cynthia Bachman.

The manhunt for Dorner, 33, one of the biggest in recent memory, led police to follow clues across the West and into Mexico, but it ended just miles from where Dorner's trail went cold last week.

Residents of the area were relieved today that after a week of heightened police presence and fear that Dorner was likely dead.

"I'm glad no one else can get hurt and they caught him. I'm happy they caught the bad guy," said Ashley King, a waitress in the nearby town of Angelus Oaks, Calif.

Hundreds of cops scoured the mountains near Big Bear, a resort area in Southern California, since last Thursday using bloodhounds and thermal-imaging technology mounted to helicopters, in the search for Dorner. The former police officer and Navy marksman was being hunted as the suspect who had killed a cop and cop's daughter and had issued a "manifesto" declaring he was bent on revenge and pledged to kill dozens of LAPD cops and their family members.

Carjacking Victim Says Christopher Dorner Was Dressed for Damage Watch Video

Christopher Dorner Manhunt: Inside the Shootout Watch Video

Chris Dorner Manhunt: Fugitive Ex-Cop in Shootout With Police Watch Video

But it now appears that Dorner never left the area, and may have hid out in an unoccupied cabin just steps from where cops had set up a command center.

It was at the cabin Tuesday morning where two women arrived to find a man matching Dorner's description inside. He took the women hostage, tying them up and stealing their car. At 12:20 p.m. PT, one of the woman broke free and called police.

Dorner crashed that car and hijacked a pickup truck as officials from the state Fish and Game Department pursued him.

"I saw some movement in the trees and it was Christopher Dorner and he came out onto the road, out of the snow, and he was dressed in all camouflage and had a big assault, sniper-type rifle and he had a vest on, like a ballistics vest," Rick Heltebrake, the pickup's driver, told ABC News.

"He was dressed up to do some damage it looked like. He said, 'I don't want to hurt you. Just get out and start walking up the road and take your dog with you,'" Heltebrake said.

Dorner then took off into the woods on foot, where sheriff's deputies pursued him to a rental cabin in which he barricaded himself and began firing.

Two deputies were wounded in the firefight and airlifted to a nearby hospital, where one died, police said. The second deputy received non-life threatening injuries, police said.

Some local television stations broadcast police scanner traffic of the firefight, punctuated by the sound of automatic gunfire.

"It was horrifying to listen to that firefight and to hear those words. 'Officer down' is the most gut-wrenching experience that you can have as a police officer," said LAPD spokesman Lt. Andrew Neiman.

Over the course of the next five hours, heavily armed SWAT teams with tank-like vehicles surrounded the cabin, even firing tear gas inside, but never entered the building.

Cops said they heard a single gunshot go off from inside the cabin just as they began to see smoke and fire. Later they heard the sound of more gunshots, the sound of ammunition being ignited by the heat of the blaze, law enforcement officials said.

Dorner is accused of killing four people, including the deputy shot on Tuesday. Last Thursday he allegedly gunned down Riverside police officer Michael Crain, who was laid to rest today.

Crain's shooting and the discovery of an online manifesto pledging to kill dozens of cops launched the dragnet.

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Owl Monkeys Shed Light on Evolution of Love

It may not seem like monkey business, but emotional bonds in animals such as primates may have evolved into love as we know it.

Take owl monkeys, tiny tropical tree-dwellers that treat every day like it's Valentine's Day. A male and a female stick together as long as possible, never cheat, and never "divorce" their mates—extremely unusual behavior, even among people. (Also see "Male Monkeys Wash With Urine to Attract Females?")

Sometimes, though, young adult owl monkeys that can't find mates—monkeys that scientists call floaters—pick vicious fights with established pairs, eventually kicking one of them out.

Now, new research shows that the monkeys forced to take on new partners have fewer babies than owl monkeys that haven't been broken up, said Eduardo Fernandez-Duque, a biological anthropologist at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia who led a new study on owl monkey relationships.

The results show how monogamy helps owl monkeys—and may even shed light on how human relationships evolved.

"Call it love, call it friendship, call it marriage—there is something in our biology that leads to this enduring, emotional bond between two individuals that is widespread among human societies," Fernandez-Duque said in a statement.

Trouble in Paradise

Only about 5 percent of mammals are monogamous, and the phenomenon most often arises when both parents are needed to raise offspring, as in the case of people.

With owl monkeys, fathers take on most of the childcare after a baby is born, relying on the mother only for milk. (See video: "Owl Monkey Fathers Know Best?")

But floaters—which Fernandez-Duque and colleagues first noticed in 2003 in Argentina's Chaco region (map)—can spell trouble in paradise.

Drawing on nearly two decades of observations of 18 owl monkey groups, the team discovered that pairs that stay intact produce 25 percent more babies than monkeys in severed pairs.

The exiled animal from those broken relationships, meanwhile, is usually injured and often dies.

Since the team studied more than 150 animals, "I felt very confident that what he was telling us is a real phenomenon—it's not a flash in the pan," noted Patricia Wright, who was one of the first people to study owl monkeys in the 1980s.

"He had the goods on the animals. I was really excited about that," said Wright, an anthropologist at Stony Brook University in New York.

Wright said she was personally pleased that the study reinforced findings that owl monkeys stay true to one another unless forced to separate.

"I knew that these little monkeys didn't fool around," she said.

Chemistry of Love

Why monkeys that are broken up have fewer babies is unknown, though Fernandez-Duque suspects there's an emotional component. (See more pictures of all-star animal dads.)

Just as a man and a woman need time to get to know each other and form a deep connection, so do owl monkeys. So when a marauding monkey enters into a new relationship, there's a delay in mating—usually about a year, Fernandez-Duque  said.

In fact, pair bonding in monogamous animals, such as owl monkeys, may be "sort of evolutionary antecedent to love in humans," said Larry Young, a behavioral neuroscientist at Emory University in Atlanta and author of the new book The Chemistry Between Us: Love, Sex, and the Science of Attraction.

Young, who studies the brain chemistry of love and emotion, does most of his research on monogamous prairie voles.

Though human love is a rich emotion reflective of our advanced brains, he said, "the foundation of that emotion is very similar to the neuromechanisms that are causing the bond between these two prairie voles."

For instance, experiments have shown that if a vole loses its partner, the "widowed" animal shows depressive symptoms—measured by a lack of willingness to escape a dangerous situation.

According to Young, our brains are in the love seat, so to speak: The organs "have evolved the mechanism to produce an emotional attachment," he said.

That attachment is spurred by oxytocin—produced during intimate contact in both people and animals—and dopamine, which is responsible for feelings of exhilaration and happiness.

So, many splendored as it is, love, he said, "is really the result of a cocktail of chemicals."

The owl monkey study was published January 23 in the journal PLoS ONE.

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