Jodi Arias' Friends Believe in Her Innocence

Accused murderer Jodi Arias believes she should be punished, but hopes she will not be sentenced to death, two of her closest friends told ABC News in an exclusive interview.

Ann Campbell and Donavan Bering have been a constant presence for Arias wth at least one of them sitting in the Phoenix, Ariz., courtroom along with Arias' family for almost every day of her murder trial. They befriended Arias after she first arrived in jail and believe in her innocence.

Arias admits killing her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander and lying for nearly two years about it, but insists she killed Alexander in self defense. She could face the death penalty if convicted of murder.

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Nevertheless, she is aware of the seriousness of her lies and deceitful behavior.

The women told ABC News that they understand that Arias needs to be punished and Arias understands that too.

"She does know that, you know, she does need to pay for the crime," Campbell said. "But I don't want her to die, and I know that she has so much to give back."

Catching Up on the Trial? Check Out ABC News' Jodi Arias Trial Coverage

The lies that Arias admits she told to police and her family have been devastating to her, Bering said.

""She said to me, 'I wish I didn't have to have lied. That destroyed me,'" Donovan said earlier this week. "Because now when it's so important for her to be believed, she has that doubt. But as she told me on the phone yesterday, she goes, 'I have nothing to lose.' So all she can do is go out there and tell the truth."

During Arias' nine days on the stand she has described in detail the oral, anal and phone sex that she and Alexander allegedly engaged in, despite being Mormons and trying to practice chastity. She also spelled out in excruciating detail what she claimed was Alexander's growing demands for sex, loyalty and subservience along with an increasingly violent temper.

Besides her two friends, Arias' mother and sometimes her father have been sitting in the front row of the courtroom during the testimony. It's been humiliating, Bering said.

"She's horrified. There's not one ounce of her life that's not out there, that's not open to the public. She's ashamed," she said.

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Mood-sensing smartphone tells your shrink how you feel

PEOPLE with anxiety, depression or stress are often asked to record their mood changes throughout the day, helping psychologists fine-tune their treatment. But they often forget, recording only sparse information at best. Now an emotion-sensing smartphone app that automatically generates someone's "mood diary" could give psychologists all the data they need.

It's the brainchild of Matt Dobson and Duncan Barclay, founders of speech recognition firm EI Technologies, based in Saffron Walden, UK. Instead of relying on people writing diaries, the app, called Xpression, listens for telltale changes in a person's voice that indicate whether they are in one of five emotional states: calm, happy, sad, angry or anxious/frightened. It then lists a person's moods against the times they change, and automatically emails the list to their psychologist at the end of the day.

To work, the app has to be always on, listening out for the user's voice once every second, whether they are talking to family, friends, colleagues or even pets. It also listens in on phone calls. If the user is silent, the app does nothing. Crucially for the users' privacy, it doesn't record their words, instead seeking out telltale acoustic features – like pitch – that are indicative of emotional state.

This kind of emotion recognition via voice pattern already works well and is a "hot area" of research, says Stephen Cox, head of the speech processing lab at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK, who is scientific adviser for the firm.

Initially, Xpression will send 200-millisecond-long acoustic snapshots to a remote server where a machine-learning system will work out a person's emotional state before sending it back to the app for storage. Factors like voice loudness, intensity, changes in pitch and speaking pace allow the system to accurately estimate somebody's emotional state. "We extract acoustic features and let the machine-learning system work it out," says Cox. This ability will be built into the app itself eventually, says Dobson.

There's a strong need for this kind of technology, says Adrian Skinner, a clinical psychologist with the UK's National Health Service in Harrogate, North Yorkshire. "With conditions like depression, people tend to stop doing things like filling in mood diaries. If this app gives us more complete diaries it could help us better find the day-to-day triggers that raise or lower a patient's mood," he says.

The firm is a finalist in a UK government competition to identify the nation's top mobile tech company, to be judged on 26 February. An insurance company has already expressed an interest in using the app to ensure the workplace stress therapy it pays for is effective. Clinical trials are due to take place later this year.

This article appeared in print under the headline "We know how you really feel"

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Singapore trade expands 1.1% in 2012

SINGAPORE: Singapore's total external trade rose by 1.1 per cent in 2012, a contrast to the 8.0 per cent rise seen in the previous year.

The trade growth is lower than the previously projected range of between 3.0 and 4.0 per cent, said IE Singapore in its news release on Friday.

This, IE Singapore said, is due to poor trade performance in 4Q 2012.

Total trade reached S$984.9 billion in 2012, higher than the previous year's achievement of S$974.4 billion.

On a year-on-year basis, Singapore's total trade dropped by 2.9 per cent in 4Q 2012, following the previous quarter's decrease of 2.2 per cent due to decreases in both oil and non-oil trade.

Non-oil domestic exports (NODX) rose by 0.5 per cent in 2012, following the preceding year's increase of 2.2 per cent, due to higher shipments of non-electronic exports.

IE Singapore said the 0.5 per cent growth is lower than their projected 2012 growth of 2.0 to 3.0 per cent. This is due to a worse than expected NODX's performance in 4Q 2012.

Looking ahead, IE Singapore said projected total trade for 2013 is maintained at between 3.0 and 5.0 per cent while projected NODX growth for 2013 is kept at between 2.0 and 4.0 per cent.

- CNA/fa

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LG announces Optimus F5, F7 ahead of Mobile World Congress

LG announces the Optimus F series on the eve of Mobile World Congress 2013.

(Credit:
LG)

LG today announced a pair of Optimus F series smartphones on the eve of Mobile World Congress. The two will bridge the gap between the entry-level Optimus L and high-end Optimus G series of phones. Both will run the
Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean and will feature 4G LTE connectivity.

The Optimus F5 features a 4.3-inch qHD (540x960) display, a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB RAM, and 8GB internal storage. Juiced by a 2150mAh battery, the smartphone includes a 5-megapixel rear camera, 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, and microSD expansion slot.

The bigger and more powerful Optimus F7 provides a 4.7-inch HD (720x1280) IPS display, 1.5GHz dual-core processor, and 2GB RAM. Other noteworthy specifications include an 8-megapixel rear camera, microSD expansion, and a 2,540mAh battery.

LG stopped short of announcing exact time frames or carrier support; however, Europe will see the Optimus F5 in the second quarter. The worldwide roll out and Optimus F7 availability will be made clear in the coming weeks.

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Turbulence Ahead for Weather Satellites

Jane J. Lee

Like a celestial version of Pixar's industrious robot Wall-E, environmental-monitoring satellites continually whiz overhead, quietly performing their allotted tasks of taking data and beaming the information down to climate researchers and weather forecasters.

But a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report highlights the fact that this monitoring network—which weather forecasters and climate researchers rely on—is in trouble.

That's because these U.S.-owned satellites are aging, and there are serious concerns about whether their replacements will be ready by the time they start to break down, said J. Marshall Shepherd, president of the American Meteorological Society and a professor at the University of Georgia in Athens. (Read about the history of satellites.)

The replacement program, known as the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS), has suffered under ballooning budgets, mismanagement, and political wrangling. That's partly what prompted the GAO to put weather data on its list of government operations at high risk.

The report stated that "potential gaps in environmental-satellite data beginning as early as 2014 and lasting as long as 53 months have led to concerns that future weather forecasts and warnings—including warnings of extreme events such as hurricanes, storm surges, and floods—will be less accurate and timely."

"But even a 17-month gap, [the shortest estimate for a potential data gap], dramatically affects weather forecast ability, which could lead to challenges to protecting life and property," Shepherd said.

If European models of superstorm Sandy—well known for their accuracy in predicting the monster storm's path—hadn't had information from polar-orbiting satellites, for instance, they would've shown Sandy staying harmlessly out to sea rather than turning inland toward New York and New Jersey. (Read about "Weather Gone Wild" in the September 2012 issue of National Geographic magazine.)

Basic research would also suffer from the loss of data, said Scott Rayder, senior adviser to the president of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. "Long-term weather data is climate data, so these [satellite] sensors are important in figuring out how the atmosphere works."

Cause for Concern

Information forecasters incorporate into their models comes from two sets of satellites run by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA—geostationary satellites and polar-orbiting satellites, the American Meteorological Society's Shepherd explained.

Onboard instruments measure environmental factors including atmospheric moisture, sea surface temperature, and atmospheric ozone. This helps scientists keep tabs on things like precipitation and the health of the planet's ozone layer.

The current concern is focused on replacements for polar-orbiting satellites.

Traveling 517 miles (833 kilometers) above the Earth in a pole-to-pole direction every 90 minutes, NOAA's current crop of Polar Operational Environmental Satellites (POES) are nearing the twilight of their life cycles, Shepherd said.

The POES satellites were built with a two- to three-year operational lifetime in mind, said James Gleason, of NASA's Goddard Spaceflight Center in Maryland.

"And they've lasted a long time, some [for] more than a decade," he said. The most recent POES satellite, NOAA-19, was launched in 2009.

Dire Situation

NOAA has another polar-orbiting satellite, called Suomi NPP, that's also taking weather data. Launched in 2011, it was supposed to be a proof of concept in order to test instruments slated to fly on JPSS, said Shepherd.

But due to repeated delays in the JPSS program, NOAA is using Suomi NPP as an operational satellite. "It's working swimmingly," he said.

"We're pretty sure [Suomi] NPP will last until 2016," said NASA's Gleason, senior project scientist for JPSS.

But JPSS isn't scheduled to launch until early 2017—and that depends on what happens to funding in the federal budget and whether the sequester kicks in, Gleason said.

NOAA is currently working on a plan to bridge any gap, should it occur, in data from their satellites. One possibility includes using a fleet of satellites owned by the U.S. military, called the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, to gather needed weather data.

The agency put out a call last year asking for suggestions on how the community could deal with a gap.

But as it stands right now, the situation is dire, said Shepherd.

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Las Vegas Shooting Launches Multi-State Manhunt

An argument in the valet area of a Las Vegas hotel led to a deadly drive-by shooting on the occupants of a Maserati on Vegas' glitzy strip, initiating a multi-state manhunt for the black Range Rover from which the shots were fired.

Three people were left dead in the attack, including two who died when their taxi was struck by the careening sports car and exploded into flames.

"What happened is not just tragic, but underscores the level of violence we see sometimes here in Las Vegas as well as across America," Las Vegas Metropolitan Sheriff Doug Gillespie said at a news conference today. "Clearly, the suspects in this shooting have no regard for the lives and safety of others."

The altercation took place in the valet area of the Aria resort and casino. Gillespie said there is currently "no indication" what the squabble was about.

Gillespie said that authorities do not know how many people are in the SUV, but that they are considered armed and dangerous. He warned members of the public to stay away from it.

"You should not take action," he said. "Instead, call your local police department and alert them to the whereabouts of the suspect vehicle."

Authorities in Nevada, Utah, Arizona and California are all on alert for the car.

"These individuals will be found," Gillespie said. "They will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law."

Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun/AP Photo

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The Range Rover SUV shot at two people in the Maserati, which caused a multi-car crash. Police have not released the model of the Maserati, but the price of a new Maserati ranges from $123,000 to $142,000.

Police said that they believe a group of men riding in a black Range Rover Sport SUV pulled up alongside the Maserati around 4:20 a.m. today and fired shots into the car, striking the driver and passenger, according to Officer Jose Hernandez of the Las Vegas Metropolitan police department.

The Maserati then swerved through an intersection, hitting at least four other cars. One car that was struck, a taxi with a driver and passenger in it, caught on fire and burst into flames, trapping both occupants, Hernandez said.

The SUV then fled the scene, according to cops.

Gillespie said investigators are in the process of gathering video footage from hotels, casinos and the taxi cabs that were at the intersection.

The driver of the Maserati died from his gunshot wounds at University Medical Center shortly after the shooting, according to Sgt. John Sheahan.

The driver and passenger of the taxi both died in the car fire.

At least three individuals, including the passenger of the Maserati, were injured during the shooting and car crashes and taken to UMC hospital for treatment.

Authorities said the Maserati passenger, identified only as a man, sustained only a minor injury to his arm. He is speaking to and cooperating with police.

They do not yet know whether the cars had local plates or were from out of state.

No bystanders were hit by gunfire, Hernandez said.

"We're currently looking for a black Range Rover Sport, with large black rims and some sort of dealership advertising or advertisement plates," Hernandez said. "This is an armed and dangerous vehicle."

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority had no immediate comment about the safety of tourists in the wake of the shooting today.

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Higgs may spell doom, unless supersymmetry saves us

Lisa Grossman, physical sciences reporter

(Image: CERN)

Is the Higgs boson a herald of the apocalypse? That's the suggestion behind a theory, developed more than 30 years ago, that is back in the headlines this week. According to physicists, the mass of the Higgs-like particle announced last summer supports the notion that our universe is teetering on the edge of stability, like a pencil balanced on its point.

"It may be that the universe we live in is inherently unstable," Joseph Lykken, of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois, said on Monday at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. "At some point, billions of years from now, it's all going to be wiped out."

Physicists have been wringing their hands about this scenario since 1982, when theorists Michael Turner and Frank Wilczek published a paper about it in Nature, NBC News points out. The pair showed that the vacuum of space can be in different energy states, and it will be most stable at its lowest energy. Trouble arises if we're not there yet, and we're inhabiting a temporarily stable state that should ultimately collapse.

"The universe wants to be in a different state, so eventually to realize that, a little bubble of what you might think of as an alternate universe will appear somewhere, and it will spread out and destroy us," Lykken said at AAAS.

Enter the Higgs boson, the particle form of the field that gives mass to several fundamental particles. The Higgs field permeates the vacuum of space, which means the mass of the boson and the stability of the vacuum are closely intertwined. Theory predicted that if the Higgs boson is heavier than about 129 gigaelectronvolts (GeV), the universe should be on safe footing.

But in July 2012 physicists at CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland announced that a particle closely matching the Higgs had been found by experiments in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The much celebrated particle has a mass of about 126 GeV - light enough to raise fears of instability.

There is still hope for the universe as we know it. Some theorists pointed out that the relationship between the Higgs mass and the vacuum of space depends on the mass of a particle called the top quark. If the top quark's mass is different than we think it is, stability might reign.

There are also anomalies with the Higgs measurement, like the fact that it decays into photons more often than predicted. That hints we may yet find particles from the theory of supersymmetry, which says each ordinary particle has heavier "superpartners". If the Higgs has such a relative, it might save us from destruction. But some of these predicted particles, particularly the superpartners of the top quark, can push the universe back into instability.

The worries may remain unconfirmed for a while. The LHC is shutting down for a two-year break so engineers can prepare the machine to shoot higher-energy particle beams, which are needed to probe for superpartners.

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Qantas reports sharp rise in first-half profits

SYDNEY: Australian flag carrier Qantas on Thursday reported that first-half net profit more than doubled to A$111 million (US$114 million), also announcing an upgrade to its fleet.

The result in the six months to December 31 was up 164 percent on the same period in the previous year and in line with guidance, "despite challenging conditions in international and domestic air travel markets."

Underlying profit before tax -- the airline's preferred measure of financial performance -- was A$223 million, up 10 percent.

Qantas also announced an order for five new Boeing 737-800s and the upgrade of 20 Airbus A330-200s and 10 A330-300s.

The additional Boeing 737-800 aircraft are for the flag carrier's domestic service and for delivery during 2014, the company said in a statement, adding that leases on two existing B737-800s would be extended this year.

"The refurbished aircraft will give Qantas International a truly world-class product in global aviation's most dynamic and competitive market," chief executive Alan Joyce told a press conference.

"Growing with Asia is a major priority for the Qantas Group and this investment underpins our commitment to the region."

Joyce said: "Older narrow body Boeing 737-400s will be phased out by the end of 2013 and Boeing 767s by mid-2015.

"We are simplifying our fleet and making better use of the greater flexibility and higher frequencies that the B737-800s provide, while investing in what will be the best domestic onboard product anywhere in the world with the A330s."

The A330 reconfigurations and new orders will not affect planned capital expenditure of A$1.6 billion in 2012/13 and A$1.5 billion in 2013/14.

However, Qantas International reported an underlying before-tax loss of A$91 million in the six-month period, an improvement of A$171 million.

"Qantas International is well advanced in its turnaround plan," Joyce said.

"The 65 per cent improvement in Qantas International's underlying EBIT is testament to the steps taken to remove cost from the businesses, from closing down loss-making routes to retiring aircraft and consolidating operations."

Qantas is planning to broaden its reach in Asia as part of a strategy to turn around its struggling international arm.

The move is a consequence of its global alliance with Dubai-based Emirates, which means services to Asia will no longer be tied to onward links to Europe.

New direct destinations from Australia being considered include Beijing, Seoul, Mumbai, Delhi and Tokyo-Haneda at the same time as increasing capacity and frequency of flights to Hong Kong and Singapore.

Australia's competition watchdog last month gave Qantas and Emirates permission to launch their alliance in which the airlines will coordinate ticket prices and flight schedules.

Qantas will shift its hub for European flights to Dubai from Singapore and end a partnership with British Airways. The tie-up is seen as vital to the sustainability of Qantas, which last year posted its first annual deficit since privatisation in 1995 due to tough regional competition and high fuel costs.

- AFP/ac

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Sony pushes streaming and sharing with PS4

Sony's new PlayStation 4 will focus on streaming games across a network of devices and tapping into social gaming, executives said today.

This means faster downloading times, video clip share buttons, and the ability to take over a friend's controller when they are in need of assistance, the company highlighted at its event in New York today.

Mark Cerny, the lead system architect for
PS4, said the console system's OnLive network will have a seamless upload experience. This means players can start playing the first part of a game before it is done downloading.

Additionally, PS4 boasts integration third party and services, phones, and
tablets -- you'll be able to use your smartphone to view gameplay videos and challenge friends.

Along with Cerny's announcement, Sony featured cloud-gaming firm Gaikai's contributions to PS4. Gaikai CEO Dave Perry said your friends will be able to virtually look over your shoulder and interact with you as you play, as well as post comments on their screens.

He said the network will actually learn from your behavior and give you a better experience.

"The PlayStation network will get to know you by understanding your preferences and the preferences of your community," he said.

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The True Story of History's Only Known Meteorite Victim

The Russian meteorite, whose sonic boom damaged buildings and injured more than a thousand last week, is not the first to shatter a human life. (See pictures: "Meteorite Hits Russia.")

Take the true story of Ann Hodges, the only confirmed person in history to have been hit by a meteorite.

On a clear afternoon in Sylacauga, Alabama (see map), in late November 1954, Ann was napping on her couch, covered by quilts, when a softball-size hunk of black rock broke through the ceiling, bounced off a radio, and hit her in the thigh, leaving a pineapple-shaped bruise.

Ann's story is particularly rare because most meteorites usually fall into the ocean or strike one of Earth's vast, remote places, according to Michael Reynolds, a Florida State College astronomer and author of the book Falling Stars: A Guide to Meteors & Meteorites.

"Think of how many people have lived throughout human history," Reynolds said.

"You have a better chance of getting hit by a tornado and a bolt of lightning and a hurricane all at the same time."

Out of This World

Before the meteorite slammed into Ann's living room, people in tiny Sylacauga and across eastern Alabama had reported seeing "a bright reddish light like a Roman candle trailing smoke," according to the web publication "The Day the Meteorite Fell in Sylacauga," which was produced by the Alabama Museum of Natural History in 2010.

Others saw "a fireball, like a gigantic welding arc," accompanied by tremendous explosions and a brown cloud. (See video: "Predicting Meteorite Impacts.")

A government geologist working in a nearby quarry was called to the scene and determined the object was a meteorite, but not everyone in town was so sure, according to the museum publication. Many thought a plane had crashed—others suspected the Soviets.

So many people flocked to Hodges's house that when her husband Eugene Hodges, a utility worker, returned home from work, he had to push gawkers off the porch to get inside.

Ann was so overwhelmed by the crowd that she was transferred to a hospital. With Cold War paranoia running high, the Sylacauga police chief confiscated the black rock and turned it over to the Air Force.

After the Air Force confirmed it was a meteorite, the question then was what to do with it. The public demanded the space rock be returned to Ann, and she agreed.

"I feel like the meteorite is mine," she said, according to the museum. "I think God intended it for me. After all, it hit me!"

Simple Country People

But there was a hitch. Ann and Eugene were renters, and their landlady, a recently widowed woman named Birdie Guy, wanted the meteorite for herself.

Guy obtained a lawyer and sued, claiming the rock was hers since it had fallen on her property. The law was actually on her side, but public opinion wasn't.

Guy settled out of court, giving up her claim to the meteorite in exchange for $500. Eugene was convinced the couple could make big money off the rock and turned down a modest offer from the Smithsonian.

But no one bit, and so the Hodges donated the meteorite to the natural history museum in 1956, where it's still on display. (Related: "Meteorites: Best Places to See Them Up Close.")

Ann later suffered a nervous breakdown, and in 1964 she and Eugene separated. She died in 1972 at 52 of kidney failure at a Sylacaugan nursing home.

Eugene suspects the meteorite and frenzy that followed had taken its toll on Ann. He said "she never did recover," according to the museum.

Ann "wasn't a person who sought out the limelight," added museum director Randy Mecredy. "The Hodges were just simple country people, and I really think that all the attention was her downfall."

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