Judge delays James Holmes arraignment to March

Last Updated 12:11 p.m. ET

CENTENNIAL, Colo. A judge on Friday delayed the arraignment of the man charged with the Colorado theater shooting until March.

District Judge William Sylvester ruled Thursday night that prosecutors had presented sufficient evidence to proceed with charges alleging that James Holmes killed 12 people and injured 70 others at a suburban Denver movie theater on July 20.

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James Holmes trial will proceed, according to Colo. judge

Holmes is charged with multiple counts of first-degree murder and attempted murder.

Holmes won't have to enter a plea until March 12 after the judge granted a defense motion to delay that proceeding.

A majority of the families of the victims objected to the delay.

A majority of the families of the victims objected to the delay.

Steve Hernandez, father of the slain Rebecca Wingo, was seated in the courtroom. At the end of the hearing he yelled out, "Rot in hell, Holmes!"

The judge reconvened court to address this outburst. Hernandez stood before the court and told the judge, "I meant no disrespect to the court or your honor." And then said, "I promise no further outbursts."

Prior to Mr. Hernandez's statement to the court, the judge told him, "I'm terribly sorry for your loss. I can only begin to imagine the emotions this must be raising."

Defense lawyers didn't give a reason for the delay.

One possible reason could be to seek a mental health evaluation by a doctor of their choosing. His lawyers have said Holmes is mentally ill, raising the possibility of an insanity defense.

If Holmes had entered an insanity plea, an evaluation would be done by state doctors.

Holmes' attorneys also objected to news media requests to bring cameras into the courtroom during the arraignment. Cameras have been barred from court since Holmes' initial appearance in July.

If Holmes, 25, is convicted of first-degree murder, he could face the death penalty. Prosecutors have not said whether they would pursue that sentence.

At a preliminary hearing this week, prosecution witnesses testified that Holmes spent weeks amassing an arsenal and planning the attack at a midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises." They also detailed an elaborate setup at Holmes' apartment designed to explode at the same time as the theater attack several miles away.

Prosecution witnesses testified that Holmes began acquiring weapons in early May and by July 6 had two semi-automatic pistols, a shotgun, a semi-automatic rifle, 6,200 rounds of ammunition and high-capacity magazines that allow a shooter to fire more rounds without stopping to reload.

Holmes' lawyers called no witnesses this week. They have said he is mentally ill.

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James Holmes Told to 'Rot in Hell' By Victim's Dad

The father of a young woman allegedly slain by James Holmes in the Aurora movie theater massacre yelled "Rot in hell, Holmes" during a court hearing today.

The outburst by Steve Hernandez prompted judge William Sylvester to have an off-the-record conference with prosecutors and defense attorneys. Sylvester then reconvened court to address the issue while armed court deputies watched over Hernandez at the front of the gallery.

Hernandez's daughter, Rebecca Wingo, was one of Holmes' 12 murder victims when he opened fire in the crowded movie theater July 20 during the midnight showing of "Dark Knight Rises." Wingo, 32, was the mother of two young girls.

"I am terribly sorry for your loss," Sylvester told Hernandez. "I can only begin to imagine the emotions that this is raising."

He then lectured Hernandez about the decorum order in place to prevent outbursts in the courtroom.

"I meant no disrespect," Hernandez apologized, promising there would be no further trouble and he was let go.

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The judge decided on Thursday night that there is enough evidence against Holmes to proceed to trial and scheduled Holmes' arraignment for March 12. Holmes will enter a plea at the arraignment.

In an order posted late Thursday, the judge wrote that "the People have carried their burden of proof and have established that there is probable cause to believe that Defendant committed the crimes charged."

The ruling came after a three-day preliminary hearing this week that revealed new details about how Holmes allegedly planned and carried out the movie theater shooting, including how investigators say he amassed an arsenal of guns and ammunition, how he booby-trapped his apartment to explode, and his bizarre behavior after his arrest.

Holmes is charged with 166 counts, including murder, attempted murder and other charges. His shooting rampage left 12 people dead and 58 wounded by gunfire. An additional 12 people suffered non-gunshot injuries.

Sylvester also ordered that Holmes be held without bail.

Holmes' attorneys have said in court that the former University of Colorado neuroscience student is mentally ill. The district attorney overseeing the case has not yet announced whether Holmes, now 25, can face the death penalty.

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U.S. forces to move to Afghan support role in spring: Obama

Jan 11 (Reuters) - Tiger Woods may guarantee packed galleries but even the oil-rich Qataris cannot afford the former world number one's appearance fee for the only European Tour event in the Gulf state. The American's involvement at the Jan. 23-26 Qatar Masters would cost a whopping $3 million, said Qatar Golf Association president Hassan al Nuaimi. "Tiger Woods demands $3 million just for an appearance, if he were to compete - which is not worth paying for a tournament of $2.5 million prize money," he told the Doha News. ...

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Football: West Ham sign Brazilian striker Wellington

LONDON: West Ham on Friday signed Brazilian forward Wellington Paulista on loan from Cruzeiro until the end of the season.

Wellington had been a long-term target for Hammers manager Sam Allardyce and the Premier League club have an option to sign him on a three-year contract if his loan spell proves successful.

The 28-year-old, who has yet to make his Brazil debut, finished last season as Cruzeiro's top scorer with 27 goals and has also played for the likes of Santos, Botafogo and Palmeiras during a much-travelled career.

Wellington is Allardyce's fourth January signing following deals for Joe Cole, Sean Maguire and Marouane Chamakh.

The Sao Paulo-born forward will compete with Chamakh, Andy Carroll and Carlton Cole for a berth in West Ham's attack and insists he is not worried by the pressure of playing in the Premier League.

"I think I can do my best here and I am coming to England to prove to everyone that I am one of the best strikers in Brazil and to get better and better," he told West Ham TV.

"I am strong, I am a fighter and I can score with both feet. I run a lot on the pitch and I can play as either a first or second striker.

"The pressure will not be a problem for me because I am used to it from my time in Brazil, where the fans were really addicted to the club. The manager also put pressure on the players too, so it will be the same playing here."

West Ham co-chairman David Sullivan admits the signing is something of a gamble, but he believes Wellington could have a similar impact to Chelsea's Senegal striker Demba Ba, who made his name with a brief spell at Upton Park.

"He is another exciting player to add to our squad and although he may not be that well-known on these shores, he comes with an excellent track record in Brazil," Sullivan said.

"His arrival is similar to some of the other 'wildcard' players we have signed before like Demba Ba."

-AFP/ac

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Moneual smart table lets you order and pay for your food

LAS VEGAS--Imagine going into a restaurant and browsing the menu, placing your order, and paying for the meal with a credit card, all from the comfort of your table without having to call the waiter. That seems to be the vision of the folks behind Moneual's MTT300 Touch Table PC.

In fact, a company representative at its
CES booth mentioned that depending on customer requirements, the Touch Table PC can be configured to do almost anything a PC can, and is not restricted to use in restaurants only. For example, audio jacks and speakers can be added to enable music playback. Other applications can range from reading magazines/newspapers and watching video to surfing/shopping on the Web and even going on social media.

The concept of the Touch Table PC is pretty simple. It's basically a touch-screen PC built into a table. The tabletop is covered with reinforced glass that adds a layer of protection for the touch screen and PC. According to the brochure, the technical specifications of the PC include an Intel Atom D2700 processor, Nvidia GF119 graphics, 2GB RAM, a 128GB SSD, 22-inch touch-screen and LAN/Wi-Fi. It also runs on
Windows 7.

The company is still in talks with businesses to implement the Touch Table PC and could not provide a firm release date.

(Source: Crave Asia)

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High school shooting wounds 2 in Calif.

Updated at 2:31 p.m. ET

TAFT, Calif. A student was shot and wounded at a rural San Joaquin Valley high school Thursday and another student was taken into custody, officials said.

The shooting occurred about 9 a.m. at Taft Union High School, a community of fewer than 10,000 people amid oil and natural gas production fields about 120 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

The student who was shot was flown to a hospital in Bakersfield, said Ray Pruitt, spokesman for the Kern County Sheriff's Department. There was no immediate word on the victim's condition.

Pruitt said the suspect is a student, and a shotgun was used in the attack.

Kern County Fire Department Eric Coughran told CBS Bakersfield affiliate KBAK-TV that another person suffered some type of injuries in the incident but refused medical attention.

It was not immediately clear how many students are enrolled at the high school, which teaches 9th through 12th grades.

The shooting happened on the second floor of the school's science building, KBAK-TV reports.

The Taft shooting came less than a month after a gunman shot his mother to death at home before carrying out a massacre on 20 children and six women at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., and then killing himself.

That shooting prompted President Obama to promise new efforts to curb gun violence. Vice President Joe Biden, who was placed in charge of the initiative, said Tuesday in Washington, D.C., that he would deliver new policy proposals to the president by next week.

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Biden Hints at Executive Order on Gun Control

Vice President Biden, meeting today with outside groups on gun safety, told reporters he has already started putting together a list of recommendations that he plans to issue next Tuesday.

Biden meets with representatives of the NRA and other supporters of gun rights on the second day of this week's meetings on gun violence.

But he told reporters Thursday, during meeting a with sportsmen, women and wildlife groups, that he would deliver the list of recommendations to the president on Jan. 15, and that an improved system for background checks has emerged as a a priority for the stakeholders he's met so far.

Biden told a group of sportsmen and wildlife interest groups that he has "never quite heard so much talk about high-capacity magazines" as he has since last month's mass shooting in Newtown, Conn.

Biden met with gun-violence victims' groups and proponents of gun control on Wednesday. Thursday was his opportunity to get a different side of the story. Biden meets with the National Rifle Association and Attorney General Eric Holder meets with representatives from Wal-Mart, one of the largest sellers of firearms in the country.

Spokesmen for the NRA and Wal-Mart confirmed representatives from their organizations would be included in the meetings Thursday. The NRA said it would be represented by James J. Baker, its top lobbyist. Advocates for sportsmen, women's groups, wildlife groups and gun owners were also invited. The vice president is slated to meet with members of the entertainment industry in the evening.

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In December, the NRA called for armed officers to be placed in every school after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

Wal-Mart initially turned down an invitation to participate in the talks but reversed its decision after it "underestimated the expectation to attend the meeting on Thursday in person," a spokesman said.

"We take this issue very seriously and are committed staying engaged in this discussion as the administration and Congress work toward a consensus on the right path forward," David Tovar, vice president of corporate communications for Wal-Mart, said.

The latest meetings come one day after Biden held a first round of talks this week with gun safety advocacy groups and victims of gun violence. Speaking to reporters before the meeting, the vice president expressed the administration's commitment to develop effective gun policy by considering all ideas. He suggested the administration would be ready to take executive action on the issue, which would not require votes from Congress.

"We're here today to deal with a problem that requires our immediate action, urgent action. And the president and I are determined to take action," Biden told reporters before a meeting in his ceremonial office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. "I want to make it clear that we are not going to get caught up in the notion [that] unless we can do everything, we're going to do nothing."

"There are executive orders, executive action that can be taken. We haven't decided what that is yet, but we're compiling it all with the help the attorney general and all the rest of the cabinet members, as well as legislative action, we believe, is required," Biden said.

Colin Goddard, a survivor of the shooting at Virginia Tech University in 2007, participated in the meeting at the White House Wednesday and said the talks gave the groups "encouragement from the highest office in the country."

"I was really encouraged by seeing how focused and determined the administration is in seeing comprehensive changes to the gun violence in America," Goddard, who is now the assistant director for federal legislation at the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, told ABC News. "It was really great to see even the Vice President of the United States of America supporting us. He wants to see this done to the end and bringing us all to the table to share our personal stories, share our ideas about what our proposals could be."

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String of bombings kill 101, injure 200 in Pakistan

QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - At least 101 people were killed in bombings in two cities in Pakistan on Thursday, officials said, with most casualties caused by sectarian attacks in the city of Quetta.

Two coordinated explosions killed at least 69 people and injured more than 100 in Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan, on Thursday evening, said Deputy Inspector of Police Hamid Shakil.

The first of two coordinated attacks in Quetta on Thursday evening's attack, in a snooker hall, appeared to be a suicide bombing, local residents said. About ten minutes later, a car bomb went off, they said. Five policemen and a cameraman were among the dead from that blast.

The attack happened in a predominately Shia neighborhood and banned sectarian group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed responsibility. The extremist Sunni group targets Shias, who make up about 20 percent of Pakistani's population.

Earlier in the day, a blast in Quetta's market killed 11 people and injured more than 40, mostly vegetable sellers and secondhand clothes dealers, police officer Zubair Mehmood said. A child was also killed.

The United Baloch Army claimed responsibility for that blast. The group is one of several fighting for independence for Balochistan, an arid, impoverished region with substantial gas, copper and gold reserves, which constitutes just under half of Pakistan's territory and is home to about 8 million of the country's population of 180 million.

Sectarian attacks are also on the rise, and militant groups frequently bomb or shoot Shia passengers on buses travelling to neighboring Iran.

In another incident Thursday, 21 were killed and more than 60 injured in a bombing when people gathered to hear a religious leader speak in Mingora, the largest city in the northwestern province of Swat, police and officials at the Saidu Sharif hospital said.

"The death toll may rise as some of the injured are in critical condition and we are receiving more and more injured people," said Dr. Niaz Mohammad.

Police initially said the Swat blast was caused by a gas cylinder but later police chief Akhtar Hayat said it was a bomb.

It has been more than two years since a militant attack has claimed that many lives in Swat.

The mountainous region, formerly a tourist destination, has been administered by the Pakistani army since their 2009 offensive drove out Taliban militants who had taken control.

But the Taliban retain the ability to attack in Swat and shot schoolgirl campaigner Malala Yousufzai in Mingora last October.

A Taliban spokesman said they were not responsible for Thursday's bombing.

(Additional reporting by Jibran Ahmad in Peshawar, Pakistan; Writing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Jason Webb)

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Worst storms in decade bring Mideast to near standstill

BEIRUT: The worst storms in a decade left swathes of Israel and Jordan under a blanket of snow and parts of Lebanon blacked out on Thursday, bringing misery to a region accustomed to temperate climates.

Freezing temperatures and floods since Sunday have claimed at least 11 lives across the region and exacerbated the plight of hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees huddled in tented camps in Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon.

The United Nations issued an urgent appeal for funds to help refugees in the northern Jordanian camp of Zaatari, which was almost entirely flooded on Wednesday, with residents battling mud and sub-zero temperatures.

"The next 72 hours will be a critical test of our ability to meet the basic needs of children and their families at Zaatari," UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) Jordan representative, Dominique Hyde said in a statement on Thursday.

The education ministry in war-hit Syria announced mid-term exams postponed until further notice as snow blanketed Damascus.

Students in other countries also got a break as authorities ordered schools and universities closed in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Israel and some towns in Iraqi Kurdistan.

In Jordan, a blizzard brought the country to a near halt. King Abdullah II ordered the army to help clear roads across the usually parched nation and help those stranded by the snow. Thursday was also declared a holiday.

The storm triggered power blackouts in several countries including Lebanon, where electricity has been rationed since the 1975-1990 civil war. Several areas were plunged into darkness, leaving those who rely on electricity to heat their homes shivering.

"Our boiler works with electricity, so of course we have no hot water," said Elsa, a Beirut housewife.

Officials and residents blamed the outage on the storm and an open-ended strike by employees of the state-run Electricite du Liban power company over salaries and pension issues.

Energy and Water Minister Gebran Bassil told AFP: "There is a storm, and there is a problem in the grid. The electricity workers are on strike, and they're not letting anyone fix the problem."

A Beirut international airport weather expert said the storm was the worst ever to hit Lebanon, while other met officials in the region said it was the worst in 10 years.

Media reports said the cold weather originated in Russia, with one daily dubbing the storm "Olga," and authorities urged citizens to remain indoors.

In Jerusalem, at least 10 centimetres of snow blanketed the Holy City by dawn, turning the pine-covered hills into what looked like an Alpine ski resort picture postcard.

In the West Bank town of Ramallah, young and old alike rushed outside to make snowmen and engage in snowball fights.

But at least 11 people have reportedly died in the region because of the weather.

Among them were a man who froze to death after he fell asleep drunk in his car in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley and a baby swept away in a flash flood in the centre of the country.

In the Palestinian territories, officials reported five fatalities since Tuesday, including a West Bank woman who died from a fire she started in her home to keep warm.

The storm also crippled many businesses, took a heavy toll on regional economies and, in Israel, put on hold campaigning for the January 22 general election.

The Manufacturers Association of Israel said the storm looked set to cost industry at least 300 million shekels (US$80 million) in damage, most of it from flooding.

Three days of driving rain and strong winds that struck normally warm Egypt paralysed activity, including in most ports, with the commercial harbour in Alexandria on the Mediterranean sea worst affected, officials said.

Snowfall in the normally arid Sinai Peninsula was blamed for an accident in which four French tourists were slightly injured.

Snow even capped the northwestern Tabuk region of the desert kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where roads leading to Mount Alluz were packed with motorists excited at the sight of rare snow.

- AFP/jc

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Soft headphones meant for sleeping go wireless

The wireless version is expected to look similar to the current corded headset (pictured).

(Credit:
Reuben Lee/CNET Asia)

LAS VEGAS--As their name suggests, SleepPhones (tagline: "pajamas for your ears") are designed for those who want to lie down while listening to music with a pair of headphones. Traditional headphones or earphones tend to get in the way or feel uncomfortable, especially when you rest on your side.

The current version of the SleepPhones, released in 2007, is essentially a pair of earphones hidden within a soft fleece headband. Most people will probably wear it like a hairband, though I can see the product being used as an eye mask for sleeping on a plane. Over the years, the material and speakers have been improved, but the cord remains. This limitation somehow doesn't give as much freedom in terms of head movement, and you have to keep the player close by.

Come April, however, the company will release a wireless Bluetooth version of the SleepPhones. It will retail at $79.95 (the cord version goes for $39.95). Its battery life is expected to range from 5 to 7 hours and the headset will automatically go into sleep mode once the music stops playing.

For those concerned about maintaining the SleepPhones, the speakers and battery can be removed from the fleece headband, which is washable.

The speakers and battery of the Bluetooth version, without the headband.

(Credit:
Reuben Lee/CNET Asia)

(Source: Crave Asia)

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