Cops Break Down as They Describe Aurora Horror

Two veteran police officers broke down on the stand today during a preliminary hearing for accused movie theater gunman James Holmes, 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 in Aurora, Colo.

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.

A preliminary hearing for Holmes began today in Colorado, with victims and families present. He is accused of killing 12 people and wounded dozens more in the movie theater massacre. One of Veronica's relatives likened attending the hearing to having to "face the devil."

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."

Arapahoe County Sheriff/AP Photo

James Holmes Tries to Harm Himself, Sources Say Watch Video

Aurora, Colorado Gunman: Neuroscience PhD Student Watch Video

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."

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

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, Holes 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 in Centennial, Colo., could last all week. At the end, Judge William Sylvester will decide whether the case will go to trial.

Read More..

Lines drawn in gun-control debate

Lawmakers kept up the renewed debate over the nation’s gun laws Sunday, with the Senate’s leading Republican arguing that the matter must wait until pressing fiscal issues are addressed in Congress and one Senate Democrat warning against “extreme” restrictions on guns.

“The biggest problem we have at the moment is spending and debt,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos.” “That’s going to dominate the Congress between now and the end of March. None of these issues, I think, will have the kind of priority that spending and debt are going to have over the next two or three months.”

An Obama administration task force led by Vice President Biden plans to offer recommendations this month on how to curb gun violence in the wake of the mass shooting at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school. The working group is weighing measures broader and more comprehensive than simply reinstating the expired ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. President Obama has said he favors reinstating such a ban.

Other measures under consideration include regulations that would require universal background checks for firearm buyers, track the movement and sale of weapons through a national database, strengthen mental health checks, and stiffen penalties for carrying guns near schools or giving them to minors.

Freshman Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) expressed concern that the Obama administration was considering such a sweeping gun-control approach.

“That’s way, way in extreme of what I think is necessary or even should be talked about. And it’s not going to pass,” Heitkamp said on “This Week.”

Heitkamp received an “A” rating from the National Rifle Association, the nation’s largest gun-rights group. She said that addressing mental-health issues should be an important part of curbing mass shootings.

“To me, one of the issues that I think comes — screams out of this — is the issue of mental health and the care for the mentally ill in our country, especially the dangerously mentally ill. And so we need to have a broad discussion before we start talking about gun control,” Heitkamp said.

On Capitol Hill, members on both sides of the debate introduced a handful of measures last week involving guns. Most of the measures were aimed at stepping up gun control, though a couple of the bills proposed turning back the federal regulation designating school zones as gun-free areas.

New York Democratic Sens. Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand sent a letter to Biden on Sunday urging his task force to include a pair of measures they authored in its final recommendations. The measures would create a federal law defining gun trafficking, require states and the federal government to send records on felons, drug abusers, the seriously mentally ill and other dangerous individuals to the FBI-run system for background checks on gun buyers, and close a loophole that allows background checks to be waved in purchases of firearms at gun shows. 

“As you move forward on developing recommendations with the newly formed Interagency Task Force to Reduce Gun Violence, we urge you to consider both the role that illegal guns play in gun crimes committed across America and the failures of the current federal background check system in preventing illegal gun sales,” the senators wrote.

The renewed debate has revealed a stark divide between those who favor tightening restrictions and those, such as officials at the NRA, who have said that arming qualified Americans is the best way to reduce violent outbreaks.

On Sunday, two former members of the House who returned to Congress after being elected again last November, disagreed about the need for a renewed ban on assault weapons.

“I’m a hunter, believe in Second Amendment rights. But you know what? I don’t need an assault weapon to shoot a duck,” said Rep. Rick Nolan (D-Minn.) on CBS’s “Face The Nation.” “And I think they ought to be banned, and I think we need to put a ban on the amount of shells you can carry in a magazine and I think we have to strengthen our background checks.”

Rep. Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.) said on the same program, “I do not support the assault-weapon ban.”

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who said he spent most of the past month with the families affected by the Newtown shooting, said he disagreed with McConnell’s call to put off a debate in Congress about guns until after the nation’s spending and debt issues have been addressed.

“I don’t think we should wait three months to get this done. I think we should get it done now, and I frankly think that if we did that it would save lives,” Murphy said on “Face The Nation.”

Philip Rucker contributed to this report.

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..

Aadhaar must deliver all subsidy perks: Montek

NEW DELHI: Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, wants to deliver all welfare and subsidy benefits through Aadhaar-based cash transfer scheme, which is touted as UPA's "game-changer" for 2014 parliamentary polls.

Ahluwalia said that it would be left to the discretion of state governments to implement it as was done for FDI in multi-brand retail.

However, he maintained that the proposal to bring the entire gamut of benefits and subsidies, including those provided through the public distribution system (PDS) on Aadhaar platform, as his personal opinion.

The comment came at a time many Opposition-ruled states, including Chhattisgarh, have refused to bring PDS under Aadhar-based cash transfer scheme. Many social activists have also voiced concern over cash transfer in lieu of commodity subsidy that include food and fertilizer scheme.

Ahluwalia argued that while some CMs are opposed to bring commodity subsidy under the scheme, there are many like Delhi chief ministerSheila Dikshit who wants cash transfer to the beneficiaries instead of commodity.

Adopting a cautious approach, the UPA government launched its ambitious direct cash transfer scheme in 20 districts, instead of 43 as was announced earlier, on January 1.

The programme is covering a select 26 schemes such as educational scholarship for SC/ST and OBC, and widow pension.

It has also kept LPG also out of its ambit for now. The government has also kept out food, fertilizers, diesel and kerosene from the scheme's ambit.

Read More..

Best Pictures: 2012 Nat Geo Photo Contest Winners

• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Winner: Places

  Photograph by Nenad Saljic

  A full moon illuminates the Matterhorn peak near Zermatt, Switzerland, in the winning image in the contest's Places category.

  Full moons occur every 29.5 days or so as the moon moves to the side of Earth directly opposite the sun, reflecting the sun's rays off its full face and appearing as a brilliant, perfectly circular disk.

  (Read more about full moons.)

  Published January 4, 2013

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Winner: People

  Photograph by Micah Albert

  A picture of women scavenging refuse from a landfill in Dandora, Kenya, is the winning image in the People category of the National Geographic Photo Contest.

  The Dandora landfill, located in eastern Nairobi, is one of the largest in Africa.

  Published January 4, 2013

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Photograph by Jason Ching

  Published January 4, 2013

  
  

');

---

 $'+ doc.ngstore_price_t +'';
html += ' $'+ doc.ngstore_saleprice_t +'';
} else {
html += ' $'+ doc.ngstore_price_t +'';
}
html += '

';

$("#ecom_43331 ul.ecommerce_all_img").append(html);




o.totItems++;

}// end for loop
} // end if data.response.numFound != 0

if(o.totItems != o.maxItems){
if(o.defaultItems.length > 0){
o.getItemByID(o.defaultItems.shift());
} else if(o.isSearchPage && !o.searchComplete){
o.doSearchPage();
} else if(!o.searchComplete) {
o.byID = false;
o.doSearch();
}
}// end if
}// end parseResults function

o.trim = function(str) {
return str.replace(/^\s\s*/, '').replace(/\s\s*$/, '');
}

o.doSearchPage = function(){
o.byID = false;

var tempSearch = window.location.search;
var searchTerms ="default";
var temp;

if( tempSearch.substr(0,7) == "?search"){
temp = tempSearch.substr(7).split("&");
searchTerms = temp[0];
} else {
temp = tempSearch.split("&");
for(var j=0;j 0){
o.getItemByID(o.defaultItems.shift());
} else if(o.isSearchPage){
o.doSearchPage();
} else {
o.doSearch();
}

}// end init function

}// end ecommerce object

var store_43331 = new ecommerce_43331();





store_43331.init();

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..

GOP dissension over debt-ceiling strategy

There are early signs of division within the Republican Party over how to approach the upcoming debate over raising the federal debt ceiling.

On Friday, a top Senate Republican signaled that members of his party should be prepared to play hardball and be willing to accept the kind of consequences in each previous fight they’ve threatened but managed to avoid.

At the same time, House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) likewise insisted that Republicans hold the line, telling his members they must insist that every dollar they raise the debt limit be paired with commensurate spending cuts.

But other Republicans counseled caution, warning that pressure from the business community and the public to raise the $16.4 trillion federal borrowing limit renders untenable any threats not to do so and will weaken the GOP’s hand if their stance is perceived to be a bluff.

In an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) on Friday came out against the strategy of waging a showdown over the debt ceiling, calling the move a “dead loser” for the GOP.

Some Republicans on Capitol Hill are similarly hesitant to entertain the possibility of using a government shutdown or the debt ceiling as bargaining chips.

Rep. Billy Long, a Missouri Republican who first won election in the 2010 tea party wave, voted in favor of the 2011 debt-limit deal in part because “no one knows the ramifications of not passing a debt ceiling increase and this plan prevents us from finding out,” according to a statement he released at the time.

In an interview Friday, Long lamented that the only way Congress seems to do business is in 11th-hour deals and balked at the notion of shutting down the government.

“When you’re fighting two wars, it’s just not very practical,” he said of a potential shutdown.

Their remarks came on the heels of an op-ed by Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) published Friday in the Houston Chronicle. In it, Cornyn argued that Republicans should be prepared to force a partial government shutdown in order to extract concessions from Democrats on significant spending cuts and entitlement reform.

“It may be necessary to partially shut down the government in order to secure the long-term fiscal well being of our country, rather than plod along the path of Greece, Italy and Spain,” Cornyn wrote. “President Obama needs to take note of this reality and put forward a plan to avoid it immediately.”

Two other prominent GOP conservatives, Sen. Pat Toomey (Pa.) and newly elected Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas), have made similar arguments in recent days.

Toomey spokeswoman Nachama Soloveichik explained that Toomey’s argument is the same as the one he made in early 2011 — that failing to raise the debt ceiling would not lead to a U.S. default in the short term and that the Treasury Department would rather have to prioritize payments made by the federal government, which could lead to a partial shutdown.

It wasn’t immediately clear from the comments made by Cornyn and Cruz whether they back that argument, which Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner has rejected in the past.

Read More..

Football: Wolves sack Solbakken after FA Cup exit

LONDON: Stale Solbakken was sacked as manager of Championship side Wolves on Saturday, just hours after the club had been dumped out of the FA Cup by non-league Luton.

The struggling side, who were relegated from the Premier League last season, also terminated the contracts of assistant manager Johan Lange and Patrick Weiser, the first team coach.

Wolves are currently 18th in the Championship, having won just three out of their last 16 league games and a disappointing run of results culminated in Saturday's FA Cup third round 1-0 defeat to Luton Town.

Solbakken had only been in charge at Molineux for six months.

"Kevin Thelwell, head of football development and recruitment, will take charge of first team training until a new manager is appointed, assisted by development coach, Steve Weaver," said a club statement.

"The club would like to offer their thanks and best wishes to Stale, Johan and Patrick."

The 44-year-old Solbakken, who had previously been in charge of German side Cologne, replaced Terry Connor in the Wolves hotseat last summer.

He becomes the 10th Championship manager to leave his club this season while Wolves now search for their fourth boss in under a year.

Speaking after Saturday's match, the Norwegian had said he was not "embarrassed" by the defeat.

"There will be a lot of questions over me but that is normal, that's football and I have to take that, it's no problem," he said.

"I can put it right. I'm not embarrassed by the result, I can't fault the players' effort. First half we did well, but second half we didn't because our physical presence in the box was not enough."

- AFP/de

Read More..

Mamata breathes fire in Jangalmahal

MIDNAPORE: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday threatened to launch an agitation against the Centre and take it to New Delhi, if necessary, to demand an interest waiver on the state's over Rs 2 lakh crore debt. Mamata held out the threat while addressing youngsters from Jangalmahal at the Midnapore College Ground.

On April 21 last year, Mamata had served a 15-day ultimatum to the centre for a three-year moratorium on interest payable on debt. Though the Trinamool was in UPA II then, the centre refused to yield to that threat despite the chief minister's "enough is enough" warning. So the result of her latest threat, that too sans the three-year time-frame, isn't likely to be any different after Trinamool's exit from the alliance.

Mamata again gave the same justification for her demand—that the debt had been incurred by the Left Front government and passed on to her. "Bengal can't be ignored," said Mamata while giving a call for an anti-centre stir in Delhi. Mamata had earlier agitated in the capital on the FDI issue with NDA ally Sharad Yadav in tow.

Bengal's annual interest liability is Rs 22,000 crore and its revenue generation is 21,000 crore. Mamata has consistently raised the state's poor fiscal health since coming to power, citing that she had inherited an empty coffer from the Left. Debt and interest apart, Mamata reiterated that during Left Front rule, West Midnapore's villages were turned into killing fields by CPM harmads. "Even today, you just have to dig a little and you will find skeletons in different villages of Midnapore," the CM said from the dais of the Jangalmahal Vivek Chhatra Yuba Utsab.

Read More..

Best Pictures: 2012 Nat Geo Photo Contest Winners

• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Winner: Places

  Photograph by Nenad Saljic

  A full moon illuminates the Matterhorn peak near Zermatt, Switzerland, in the winning image in the contest's Places category.

  Full moons occur every 29.5 days or so as the moon moves to the side of Earth directly opposite the sun, reflecting the sun's rays off its full face and appearing as a brilliant, perfectly circular disk.

  (Read more about full moons.)

  Published January 4, 2013

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Winner: People

  Photograph by Micah Albert

  A picture of women scavenging refuse from a landfill in Dandora, Kenya, is the winning image in the People category of the National Geographic Photo Contest.

  The Dandora landfill, located in eastern Nairobi, is one of the largest in Africa.

  Published January 4, 2013

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Photograph by Jason Ching

  Published January 4, 2013

  
  

');

---

 $'+ doc.ngstore_price_t +'';
html += ' $'+ doc.ngstore_saleprice_t +'';
} else {
html += ' $'+ doc.ngstore_price_t +'';
}
html += '

';

$("#ecom_43331 ul.ecommerce_all_img").append(html);




o.totItems++;

}// end for loop
} // end if data.response.numFound != 0

if(o.totItems != o.maxItems){
if(o.defaultItems.length > 0){
o.getItemByID(o.defaultItems.shift());
} else if(o.isSearchPage && !o.searchComplete){
o.doSearchPage();
} else if(!o.searchComplete) {
o.byID = false;
o.doSearch();
}
}// end if
}// end parseResults function

o.trim = function(str) {
return str.replace(/^\s\s*/, '').replace(/\s\s*$/, '');
}

o.doSearchPage = function(){
o.byID = false;

var tempSearch = window.location.search;
var searchTerms ="default";
var temp;

if( tempSearch.substr(0,7) == "?search"){
temp = tempSearch.substr(7).split("&");
searchTerms = temp[0];
} else {
temp = tempSearch.split("&");
for(var j=0;j 0){
o.getItemByID(o.defaultItems.shift());
} else if(o.isSearchPage){
o.doSearchPage();
} else {
o.doSearch();
}

}// end init function

}// end ecommerce object

var store_43331 = new ecommerce_43331();





store_43331.init();

Read More..