Venezuela court endorses Chavez inauguration delay


CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's top court endorsed the postponement of Hugo Chavez's inauguration this week and ruled on Wednesday that the cancer-stricken president remained the South American OPEC nation's leader.


The 58-year-old socialist has not been seen in public nor heard from in almost a month following surgery in Cuba. The government says he is in a delicate condition and cannot attend Thursday's scheduled swearing-in for a new six-year term.


"Right now we cannot say when, how or where the president will be sworn in," Supreme Court Chief Judge Luisa Morales told a news conference.


"As president re-elect there is no interruption of performance of duties ... The inauguration can be carried out at a later date before the Supreme Court."


Both Chavez and his heir apparent, Vice President Nicolas Maduro, would remain in the roles after January 10, she added in a judgment quashing opposition appeals for a caretaker president to be named.


Government leaders insist Chavez is fulfilling his duties as head of state, even though official medical bulletins said he suffered multiple complications after the surgery, including a severe pulmonary infection, and has had trouble breathing.


It was his fourth operation since being diagnosed with an undisclosed type of cancer in June 2011.


The government has called for a massive rally outside the presidential palace on Thursday, and allied presidents including Uruguay's Jose Mujica and Bolivia's Evo Morales have confirmed they will visit Venezuela that day despite Chavez's absence.


The president's resignation or death would upend politics in the oil-rich nation, where he is revered by poor supporters thankful for his social largesse.


His critics denounce him as an autocrat who has squandered billions of dollars from crude sales while dashing the independence of state institutions.


(Reporting by Eyanir Chinea, Marianna Parraga and Diego Ore, Writing by Daniel Wallis, Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Doina Chiacu)



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Banking sector became 'too arrogant' and must change: UBS






LONDON: The banking sector "needs to change" after it became "too arrogant" in the run-up to the infamous Libor rate-rigging scandal, the head of the investment bank division of Swiss lender UBS told British lawmakers here on Wednesday.

"We all got probably too arrogant, too self-convinced that things were correct the way they were. I think the industry needs to change," Andrea Orcel told the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards, which was set up to examine the Libor crisis.

"There are certainly elements of our cultures which are negative and that we need to root out. We are in the process of rooting out," he told the Commission, which is a scrutiny panel composed of lawmakers from parliament's upper and lower houses.

The Commission, established by British finance minister George Osborne, is looking into banking standards and culture in the wake of the Libor rate-rigging scandal that has rocked Barclays and UBS.

US, British and Swiss authorities last month hit Switzerland's largest bank with US$1.5 billion in fines -- the second-largest banking penalty ever -- for massive misconduct in the setting of the Libor rate.

"We are very focused on recovering the honour and standing the organisation had in the past," Orcel added on Wednesday.

"I am convinced that we have made a lot of progress. I am also convinced that we still need to do more."

The Libor rate is used as a benchmark for global financial contracts worth about US$300 trillion, and revelations that it had been rigged have harmed the reputation of the City of London financial centre, though the misconduct is believed to have occurred elsewhere as well.

The crisis erupted last June after British bank Barclays was fined £290 million by British and US regulators for attempted manipulation of Libor and Euribor interbank rates between 2005 and 2009.

Libor is calculated daily, using estimates from banks of their own rates. However, the system has been found to be open to abuse, with some traders lying about borrowing costs to boost trading positions or make their bank seem more secure.

The London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) is a flagship instrument used all over the world, affecting what banks, businesses and individuals pay to borrow money. Euribor is the eurozone equivalent.

- AFP/jc



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Google removes Maps redirect for Windows Phone



As it said it would, Google has removed a redirect that prevented Windows Phone users from accessing Google Maps via the mobile version of Internet Explorer and that instead sent them to Google.com.


The redirect generated headlines last week, with various news outlets suggesting that it was not about poor functionality on the part of mobile IE (as Google maintained) but was more about competitive behavior on the part of Google that ironically was beginning to resemble past behavior by Microsoft.



Google, of course, just dodged an antitrust bullet from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, and it continues to face an investigation by the European Union.


Google answered the recent Maps headlines with a statement issued Saturday that said in part, "In our last test, IE mobile still did not offer a good maps experience with no ability to pan or zoom and perform basic map functionality. As a result, we chose to continue to redirect IE mobile users to Google.com where they could at least make local searches." The company said it was working to remove the redirect.


According to various news reports, the Web-based Maps service on Windows Phone is now working just fine.


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Holmes posed playfully with gun before shootings

CENTENNIAL, Colo. The hearing to determine whether the suspected gunman in last year's Colorado theater shooting ended Wednesday with one last detail from police: James Holmes used a cell phone to take self-portraits the night of the attack, sticking out his tongue, smiling and posing with a Glock pistol

The defense decided not to call witnesses to talk about Holmes' mental health. They are expected to present an insanity defense.




23 Photos


The Aurora shooting victims



Police also showed the court photos of the theater they say Holmes took a month before the attack, which left 12 dead and at least 58 injured in one of the country's worst mass shootings.

The judge said he will rule by Friday on whether Holmes should stand trial. If the judge decides he should be tried, Holmes could enter a plea that day. Cases rarely advance to this stage without a judge agreeing to set a trial.

Prosecutors this week have argued that Holmes acted with deliberation and extreme indifference.

Defense attorneys decided not call any witnesses, saying the rules of the hearing severely limited what evidence they could present. They had been granted permission to call two people to talk about Holmes' mental state.




16 Photos


The Colorado massacre suspect



His lawyers have previously stated that Holmes, 25, is mentally ill. Defense lawyer Tamara Brady pointedly asked a federal agent in court Tuesday whether any Colorado law prevented "a severely mentally ill person" from buying the 6,295 rounds of ammunition, body armor and handcuffs that Holmes purchased online.

The hearing was dominated by prosecutors' details of Holmes' preparations. Police and authorities said he spent months amassing tear gas grenades, two Glock handguns, a shotgun and an AR-15 rifle, along with the 6,295 rounds of ammunition, targets, body armor and chemicals. He also purchased chemicals including improvised napalm, as well as thermite, a substance which burns so hot that water can't extinguish the blaze.

Holmes' purchases were for two planned attacks, prosecutors said - the theater shooting and his apartment, which would have blown up if anyone had entered. The traps weren't triggered.

Holmes, clad from head to toe in body armor, was found standing by his car outside the theater. He told investigators that the apartment was an effort to pull police away from the theater. He didn't expect to see officers so quickly.

Police said he volunteered information about the apartment traps. Authorities went to the apartment and carefully dismantled them.




Play Video


Aurora 911 calls played at Holmes hearing



On Tuesday, police played a 911 call from a teenage cousin of 6-year-old Veronica Moser-Sullivan, the youngest person killed. A dispatcher tried to talk her through CPR but she sounded panicked and said she couldn't hear.

"My two cousins, they are sitting on the floor," 13-year-old Kaylan told the dispatcher, according to CBS correspondent Barry Petersen. "One of them is not breathing."

If Holmes is found sane, goes to trial and is convicted, his attorneys can try to avoid a possible death penalty by arguing he is mentally ill. Prosecutors have yet to say whether they will seek the death penalty.

If he's found not guilty by reason of insanity, he would likely be sent to the state mental hospital, not prison. Such a defendant is deemed not guilty because he didn't know right from wrong and is therefore "absolved" of the crime, said former Jefferson County District Attorney Scott Storey.

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Holmes Took Disturbing Photos Before Massacre













Hours before James Holmes 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.


A prosecutor told the court after the photographs were shown that Holmes had a "depravity of human heart."


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.


Holmes, 25, is accused of opening fire on a crowded movie theater in Aurora, Colo., on July 20, 2012, killing 12 people and wounding 58 others during a showing of "Black Knight Rises."


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 curled out from underneath a black skull cap. He wore black contact lenses in some of the pictures.


In one particularly disturbing 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.








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


Victims' families in the courtroom stared straight ahead, showing little emotion while the photos were shown. Tom Teves, whose son Alex was killed in the theater, kept an intense stare on the pictures.


Other photos seized from the iPhone show pictures that a detective testified were taken of the interior of the Aurora movie theater in the days leading up to the attack, on June 29, July 5 and July 11.


Before the prosecution called for the photos, public defender Tammy Brady objected. Prosecutor Karen Pearson said that the photos showed deliberation and extreme indifference. Judge William Sylvester overruled the objection and the photos were released.


In Pearson's closing statement, she said there is an abundance of direct evidence that Holmes "wanted to kill call of them. He knew what he was doing."


She said that Holmes had a "depravity of human heart" and that he "went into the theater without knowing or caring who they are." The prosecutor said he "picked the perfect venue for the perfect crime."


Pearson said prosecutors made a decision not to include all of the people who were in theaters eight and nine that night. If they had, they could have had 1,500 counts against Holmes. Instead, they included anyone who had physical injuries, including those with gunshot wounds and those who were hurt running out of the theater. There are 166 counts in all.


The judge has taken the case under advisement and there will be a status hearing or arraignment on Friday when the judge will decide whether the case will proceed to a full trial. Holmes' attorneys have not yet said whether they plan on using a insanity defense, in which case Holmes could possibly be deemed unfit to stand trial. Another possibility is that the hearing could set the stage for a plea deal.


This week's testimony has included emotional testimony from first responders, details about Holmes' elaborately booby trapped apartment, a rundown of his arsenal of legally purchased weapons and descriptions of his bizarre behavior following the shooting.



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Tunisia frees man held over attack on U.S. consulate in Libya


Tunis (Reuters) - Tunisia has freed, for lack of evidence, a Tunisian man who had been suspected of involvement in an Islamist militant attack in Libya last year in which the U.S. ambassador was killed, his lawyer said on Tuesday.


Ali Harzi was one of two Tunisians named in October by the Daily Beast website as having been detained in Turkey over the violence in which Christopher Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, and three other American officials were killed.


"The judge decided to free Harzi and he is free now," lawyer Anouar Awled Ali told Reuters. "The release came in response to our request to free him for lack of evidence and after he underwent the hearing with American investigators as a witness in the case."


A Tunisian justice ministry spokesman confirmed the release of Harzi but declined to elaborate.


A month ago, Harzi refused to be interviewed by visiting U.S. FBI investigators over the September 11 assault on the U.S. consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi.


The Daily Beast reported that shortly after the attacks began, Harzi posted an update on an unspecified social media site about the fighting.


It said Harzi was on his way to Syria when he was detained in Turkey at the behest of U.S. authorities, and that he was affiliated with a militant group in North Africa.


(Reporting by Tarek Amara; Editing by Mark Heinrich)



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Cricket: 'Passionate' Warne sorry for T20 bust-up






SYDNEY: Australian bowling great Shane Warne apologised Tuesday for the foul-mouthed Twenty20 confrontation that earned him a ban and a fine, and said he hoped he had not tarnished his legacy in the sport.

Warne admitted he had gone too far in his on-field row with West Indian batsman Marlon Samuels in Australia's Big Bash League but defended his right to show "emotion and passion".

"I'm very passionate when I play the game. I overstepped the line and hence I'm missing a game," Warne, 43, told Australian broadcaster Fox Sports.

"I thought it was a pretty harsh penalty but I was more disappointed in my own actions, especially as a captain.

"It was emotion and passion. We sometimes like to see that in sportsmen and not robots.

"I apologise to the fans and I apologise to everyone. Sitting and doing detention, it's not easy to watch the boys."

Melbourne Stars captain Warne, furious after Samuels impeded batsman David Hussey, later confronted the West Indian with an obscenity and in the following over, hurled the ball at his chest.

Samuels, playing for city rivals the Melbourne Renegades, reacted by tossing his bat towards Australia's record Test wicket-taker and the two squared up before being separated by the umpires.

Warne was banned for one match and fined A$4,500 over the row. But he expressed hope that "one little incident" wouldn't besmirch his reputation among cricket fans.

"I'd like to think of the 25 years I've been playing first-class cricket rather than just one game," he said.

"I'd like to think there's a lot of positive and good things I've done for Australian cricket and all that sort of stuff over the years.

"One little incident here or there (doesn't matter). I do apologise for my behaviour and I'm disappointed in my own reaction."

Warne claimed 708 Test wickets in a celebrated career but he has also courted controversy, notably when he was fined for accepting money from a bookmaker and when he was sent home from the 2003 World Cup for taking a banned diuretic.

The colourful Warne's woes continued on Tuesday when a Scottish court fined him

£500 in absentia for driving at more than 100 miles (160 kilometres) per hour on a road with a 70 mph limit.

Samuels has been replaced in the Renegades team by England batsman Alex Hales after he top-edged a Lasith Malinga delivery into his face during Sunday's eventful game, suffering a suspected fracture of the eye socket.

- AFP/jc



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Qualcomm and Wilocity roll Wi-Fi and WiGig into one chip and demo first Tri-band consumer products




LAS VEGAS--Your laptop might already have dual-band Wi-Fi, but how about Tri-band for a change?


Qualcomm and Wilocity today announced at
CES 2013 the first Tri-band reference design that combines Wireless-N (802.11n), 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and 802.11ad (also known as WiGig) in one single networking product.


The new chip is based on the Qualcomm VIVE 802.11ac Wi-Fi chip, which was launched just a few days ago, and Wilocity 802.11ad WiGig wireless technologies. It's the first chip with tri-band Wi-Fi, meaning it offers wireless networking signals in all three existing bands of the Wi-Fi standard -- 2.4GHz, the 5GHz, and 60GHz -- as well as Gigabit Ethernet.


This is a very significant development for the 60GHz 802.11ad standard, which offers wireless speeds of up to 7Gbps at the expense of range, which is much shorter than what you get from the other two standards. When it's combined with the Wi-Fi family, you get the benefit of the faster speed without having to buy a separate router.



The Dell Ultrabook and the Tri-band Wi-Fi/WiGig add-in card it has on the inside for Wilocity CES 2013 demos.

The Dell Ultrabook and the Tri-band Wi-Fi/WiGig add-in card it has on the inside for Wilocity CES 2013 demos.



(Credit:
Wilocity)



In short, the Tri-band reference design allows consumers to connect to 60GHz-enabled devices, such as docks, displays, and storage, at multigigabit speeds, while maintaining connection with 2.4GHz/5GHz Wi-Fi.


Recently the Wi-Fi Alliance and the WiGigi Alliance announced their merger, presaging the fast adoption of the 60GHz 802.11ad standard in the coming years.


According to Qualcomm, the latest-generation tri-band wireless networking card takes advantage of the new Qualcomm VIVE 802.11ac technology combined with the recently ratified 802.11ad standard that enables multigigabit networking, data syncing, and video and audio streaming, while maintaining its wireless bus extension docking capabilities. The card will be available in two versions: the QCA9006NFC next-generation form factor (NGFF) and the QCA9006WBD half-mini card (HMC) specification.


Wilocity demoed the first commercially available product to use the new Tri-band, which is the new Latitude 6430u Ultrabook. This laptop can connect to any Wi-Fi networks (both 802.11ac and 802.11n) as well as to other 802.11ad devices for muti-gigiabit wireless connection. The demo involved the laptop being connected to its wireless 802.11ad docking station, which then adds more connector to the laptop. The two can maintain a multi-gigabit wireless connection from wtihin some 10 meet of each other.

Currently, there are not any Tri-band access point/routers on the market yet and the only use of the 60Ghz band is to connect two device in a pair. Once an access point/router is available, which is sometime this year, multiple 802.11ad devices can connect to one another, just like the way they do with regular Wi-Fi standards.


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Concordia capt. "painted worse than bin Laden"

Ahead of the one-year anniversary of the Costa Concordia disaster, in which 32 people were killed when the cruise ship ran aground off the Italian island of Giglio, the captain of the ship told an Italian newspaper that he "was painted worse than bin Laden."





82 Photos


Luxury cruise ship runs aground




Francesco Schettino said in an interview with the Turin newspaper La Stampa that he is tormented by the disaster.


"It is sincere pain from the bottom of my heart," he said.



The 950-foot-long Costa Concordia struck rocks and capsized on January 13 last year. Thirty-two people aboard were killed and hundreds injured in the panicked evacuation.



Prosecutors have accused Shettino of sailing the luxury liner too close to shore. He faces multiple charges of manslaughter and of abandoning ship during the evacuation of the 4,200 passengers and crew on board.


Italian media have referred to Schettino as "Captain Coward,"



He complained to the paper that the press' characterization of him and his actions "ridicules not just 30 years of my work, my experience in the whole world, but also the image of our country, which has been exposed to the criticism, often unjust, of the entire planet."



The Costa Concordia cruise ship is seen on its side near the Italian island of Giglio, January 7, 2013.


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FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/Getty Images

Schettino - who told the paper that he did not intentionally abandon ship, but slipped and fell into a lifeboat when the Concordia listed to its side - says he may have made a mistake by sailing too close to land, but he was not given exact information, and should not be the only one to get the blame.



In fact, eight others (including the ship's first officer and four other crew members, and three members of a crisis unit set up by the cruise ship's owner) also face possible criminal charges following the Italian prosecutors' investigation, which concluded last month.





Play Video


Costa Concordia: Salvaging a shipwreck




Last Thursday at a Naples courtroom, Schettino brought a case against Costa Cruises, the ship's operator, for wrongful dismissal.



Efforts by salvage crews to right the ship are underway.

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Jodi Arias: Who Is the Admitted Killer?













Jodi Arias is a woman that many can't keep their eyes off of--a soft-spoken, small-framed 32-year-old who last year won a jailhouse Christmas caroling contest. But she is also an admitted killer who is now on trial in Arizona for the 2008 murder of her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander.


Sitting in a Maricopa County court, Arias, whose trial resumes today, cries every time prosecutors describe what she admits she did -- stab her one-time boyfriend Travis Alexander 27 times, slit his throat and shoot him in the head.


Arias grew up in the small city of Yreka, Calif. She dropped out of high school, but received her GED while in jail a few years ago. She was an aspiring photographer; her MySpace page includes several albums of pictures, one of which was called "In loving memory of Travis Alexander."


FULL COVERAGE: Jodi Arias Murder Trial








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"Jodi wanted nothing but to please Travis," defense attorney Jennifer Wilmot said in her opening statements, but added that there was another reality – that Arias was Alexander's "dirty little secret."


Arias' attorneys want the jury to believe she killed Alexander in June of 2008 in self defense, that he abused her, and she feared for her life when she attacked him in the shower of his Mesa, Ariz., home.


Alexander's family and friends say Arias was a stalker who killed him in cold blood. They say the 30-year-old was a successful businessman who overcame all the odds. His parents were drug addicts, and he grew up occasionally homeless until he converted to Mormonism and turned his life around.


Jodi Arias Trial: A Timeline of Events in the Arizona Murder Case


"He actually had everything going for him," said Dave Hall, one of Alexander's friends. "A beautiful home, a beautiful car, a great income."


Alexander kept a blog, and in a haunting last entry, just two weeks before his murder, he wrote about trying to find a wife.


"This type of dating to me is like a very long job interview," he wrote. "Desperately trying to find out if my date has an axe murderer penned up inside of her."


Alexander did date a killer. It's now up to the jury to decide if she killed in self defense.



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