Verizon will be late to the HD Voice game

Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam at his keynote presentation.

(Credit:
CNET)

LAS VEGAS--HD Voice has suddenly become a hot topic at this year's Consumer Electronic Show.

The feature, which significantly enhances call quality by improving voice clarity while blocking out background noise, has been long touted by the wireless carriers. Widely available in Europe for years, the U.S. carriers have lagged behind.

T-Mobile said yesterday that HD Voice was now available on select phones in its lineup. PC Mag reported that AT&T was shooting for a launch some time this year. Now Verizon has stepped in, and told CNET that it would offer the feature in 2014.

Verizon will wait until it moves its voice service to the LTE network, according to Mike Haberman. The company plans to have voice-over LTE by the end of the year or early 2014. Currently, data goes over LTE, while the voice call still runs over its 3G network. Haberman said the carrier would support its 3G network through the rest of the decade.

While one of the key benefits of voice-over LTE is a reduction in cost and traffic, Haberman said the company is more interested in the potential services that can be tied into voice with VoLTE.

As for HD Voice, he said Verizon wouldn't offer it until there was a consistent quality of service.

HD Voice continues to travel on a rocky road to the consumer. Sprint Nextel made it a focal point when it launched the feature in the Evo 4G LTE in April, even having actor Keifer Sutherland record a crystal-clear call in a demonstration. But since then, the initiative has sputtered.

Sprint told CNET that it has completed one trial market, and the users can see a few more markets open up in the coming months.

A key problem with HD Voice is the lack of adoption. HD Voice only works if both phones have the feature and are in an area where the network supports it. Miss one component, and the call goes through without any enhanced features.

So even if the Evo 4G LTE supports it, only other users with the same phone can access the feature, and they both have to be in the single trial market. That narrows down the user base considerably.

T-Mobile has said its HD Voice feature will run nationwide through its HSPA+ network. It's also available on three phones: the Samsung Galaxy S III, HTC One S, and Nokia Astound.

Verizon, however, isn't feeling any heat to bring out HD Voice.

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Armstrong allegedly offered USADA large "donation"

(CBS News) Cyclist Lance Armstrong once offered a large "donation" to the same agency that recently concluded he and his team had used illegal substances, causing him to be stripped of his seven Tour de Frances wins. The brazenly inappropriate gesture made to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency is recounted by the agency's CEO Travis Tygart, who tells Scott Pelley the whole story of his agency's investigation of Armstrong for the first time in an interview to be broadcast on the premiere edition of "60 Minutes Sports," Wednesday, Jan. 9 at 10:00 p.m. on the Showtime network.

Armstrong once gave the International Cycling Union, a regulatory body for his sport, a gift of $100,000. Tygart called that "totally inappropriate." Then someone representing Armstrong tried to give USADA a large sum of money sometime in 2004. "I was stunned," he tells Pelley. "It was clear -- it was a clear conflict of interest for USADA. We had no hesitation in rejecting that offer," says Tygart, who said the amount was "in excess of $150,000." Told by Pelley that "60 Minutes" had learned it was $250,000, Tygart replies, "It was around that ballpark."

It had long been suspected that Armstrong and the U.S. Postal Cycling Team he led had been using substances and illegal treatments to enhance their amazing performances. The U.S. Justice Department investigated the team for two years but refused to charge him. It was a decision that stunned Tygart, especially since he learned about it from reporters. "I don't know [why they failed to charge Armstrong], Scott. It's a good question and one that if you finally answer, let me know," says Tygart.

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In addition to blindsiding him on its refusal to bring charges, the Justice Department also refused to share the results of its investigation with Tygart. Regardless of the message the U.S. government may have been sending with that move, Tygart says, "We have an obligation to clean athletes and the future of sport. This was a fight for the soul of sport."

Tygart describes Armstrong and his team of doctors, coaches and riders as similar to a "Mafia" that kept their secret for years and intimidated riders into silently following their illegal methods. Some of those riders are considered victims by Tygart and he said they were forced to choose between following the doping program or being off the team, dashing the dream they had worked so hard to attain. It's what Tygart says motivates him. "It's our job, Scott, to protect clean athletes. There were victims of doping," he says.

Lance Armstrong declined to comment for this story.

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CIA Nominee May Have 'Zero Dark Thirty' Problem

Navy SEALs are seen fighting through a dust storm in the new thriller directed by Kathryn Bigelow, "Zero Dark Thirty." (Columbia Pictures/AP Photo)

There’s only one White House staffer portrayed in the new movie “Zero Dark Thirty,” and it is someone described in the credits as “National Security Advisor.”

It’s a position that’s possibly filled in real life by John Brennan, the president’s counterterrorism advisor, who President Obama nominated Jan. 7 to be director of C.I.A.. The character in the movie, with references to the C.I.A’s involvement in the flawed intelligence on weapons of mass destruction that led the U.S. into war in Iraq, explains to a frustrated agency representative the difficulty of the president’s decision in acting on partial intelligence.

Spoiler alert: The president does ultimately act on that partial intelligence and Osama bin Laden is nabbed.

The character in real life – Brennan – has been opposed by some for his work at the C.I.A. under President Bush and the “enhanced interrogation” policies like waterboarding that also play a prominent role in the movie.

President Obama makes a cameo in the movie in the form of a “60 Minutes” interview in which he declares that, “America doesn’t torture, and I’m gonna make sure that we don’t torture.”

That declaration is viewed, in the film, by a table full of CIA agents in Pakistan who have been involved in “enhanced” interrogations.

The U.S. used waterboarding on three al Qaeda detainees at secret prisons run by the CIA.  It  ended the practice of using secret prisons in September of 2006 under President Bush and in 2009 President Obama signed executive orders in his first days in office that banned of the use of waterboarding and other “enhanced interrogation” techniques.

But that was after the techniques had already scuttled Brennan’s first chance to head the CIA.  Brennan wasn’t nominated to be CIA director back in the early days of the Obama administration, but he was widely considered to be a front-runner for the job. ABC’s Jake Tapper reported at the time that Brennan withdrew his name for consideration and most of the opposition came as a result of his work at the C.I.A. when those techniques were in use.

And there is indication that they will make his nomination difficult this year.

“I appreciate John Brennan’s long record of service to our nation, but I have many questions and concerns about his nomination to be Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, especially what role he played in the so-called enhanced interrogation programs while serving at the CIA during the last administration, as well as his public defense of those programs,” said Sen. John McCain after Brennan was nominated Monday.  ”I plan to examine this aspect of Mr. Brennan’s record very closely as I consider his nomination.”

The movie has certainly brought “enhanced interrogation” – it’s critics call it torture – back into the conversation about the war on terror, as ABC’s Lee Ferran reported Monday:

Last week three high-powered senators, Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D.-Calif.), Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D.-Mich.) and 2008 Presidential candidate John McCain (R.-Ariz.), revealed they had written two letters to Morell in December demanding to know what impact the CIA may have had on the depiction of enhanced interrogation in the film and whether the agency “misled” the filmmakers into thinking the tactic was effective.

“As you know, the film depicts CIA officers repeatedly torturing detainees. The film then credits CIA detainees subjected to coercive interrogation techniques as providing critical lead information on the courier that led to the [bin Laden] compound,” one letter says. “The CIA cannot be held accountable for how the Agency and its activities are portrayed in film, but we are nonetheless concerned, given the CIA’s cooperation with the filmmakers and the narrative’s consistency with past public misstatements by former senior CIA officials, that the filmmakers could have been misled by information they were provided by the CIA.”

Brennan, for his part, has said he opposed torture techniques, as Jake Tapper reported back in 2008 when Brennan removed his name from consideration for the C.I.A. job in 2008.

In a letter released to the media, apparently by Brennan or someone operating on Brennan’s behalf, the former CIA official wrote, “It has been immaterial to the critics that I have been a strong opponent of many of the policies of the Bush Administration such as the preemptive war in Iraq and coercive interrogation tactics, too include waterboarding. The fact that I was not involved in the decision making process for any of these controversial policies and actions has been ignored. Indeed, my criticism of these policies within government circles why I was twice considered for more senior-level positions in the current Administration only to be rebuffed by the White House.”

But Brennan did defend the practice in news media interviews when he described the actions of C.I.A. director George Tenet. This is what Brennan told CBS’s Harry Smith about enhanced interrogation in 2007: “The CIA has acknowledged that it has detained about 100 terrorists since 9/11, and about a third of them have been subjected to what the CIA refers to as enhanced interrogation tactics, and only a small proportion of those have in fact been subjected to the most serious types of enhanced procedures….There have been a lot of information that has come out from these interrogation procedures that the agency has in fact used against the real hard-core terrorists. It has saved lives. And let’s not forget, these are hardened terrorists who have been responsible for 9/11, who have shown no remorse at all for the deaths of 3,000 innocents.”

Brennan has also spoken out in support of “rendition” – the practice where the U.S. government captures terror suspects in one country and relocates them to another. That’s a practice still employed by the Obama administration, according to a recent Washington Post investigation.

Related: Watch Martha Raddatz’s Nightline interview with ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ Director Kathryn Bigelow:

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Venezuela postpones inauguration for cancer-stricken Chavez

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela will postpone the inauguration of President Hugo Chavez for a new term due to health problems, the government said on Tuesday, another sign the socialist leader's cancer may be bringing an end to his 14 years in power.

The 58-year-old former soldier who has dominated the South American OPEC nation since 1999 has not been heard from since surgery on December 11 in Cuba - his fourth operation since he was diagnosed with an undisclosed type of cancer in June 2011.

The delay has outraged opposition leaders who insist that Chavez must be sworn in before the National Assembly on January 10 as laid out in the constitution, or temporarily step aside and leave an ally in power.

"The commander president wants us to inform that, based on his medical team's recommendations, the post-operative recovery should extend past January 10," Vice President Nicolas Maduro said in a letter read to the legislature.

"As a result, he will not be able to be present at the National Assembly on that date."

The letter said authorities would seek another date for the inauguration ceremony but did not say when it would take place, nor give any time frame for Chavez's recovery or his return from Havana.

Rather than being sworn in by the legislature, he would take his oath at a later date before the Supreme Court, the letter said, as allowed by the constitution.

Government leaders insist Chavez is completely fulfilling his duties as head of state - even though official medical bulletins say he has a severe pulmonary infection and has had trouble breathing.

The government has called for a massive rally of supporters outside the presidential palace on Thursday, and allies including Uruguayan President Jose Mujica and Bolivian leader Evo Morales have confirmed they will visit Venezuela this week despite Chavez's absence.

But the unprecedented silence by the president - famous for regularly speaking for hours in meandering broadcasts - has left many convinced he could be in his last days.

His resignation or death would upend politics in the oil-rich nation where he enjoys a deity-like status among poor supporters thankful for his social largesse.

His critics call him a fledgling dictator who has squandered billions of dollars from crude sales while dashing the independence of state institutions.

CONSTITUTION DISPUTE

The constitution does not specify what happens if the president does not take office on January 10.

Opposition leaders argue that Congress chief Diosdado Cabello should take over as mandated by the constitution if the president's absence is formally declared. Cabello, a close Chavez ally, has ruled that out, saying the president continues to be in charge.

"Venezuela is not a monarchy. Ours is not the Cuban system where power is passed around without an election," opposition leader Henrique Capriles, who lost to Chavez in the October presidential election, told reporters on Tuesday.

Supporters have held near-daily vigils for Chavez's recovery, while opposition activists accuse the president's allies of a Cuban-inspired manipulation of the situation.

Vice President Maduro, who Chavez named last month as his successor, has taken over the day-to-day running of the government and looks set to continue in the role past Thursday.

The mustachioed former bus driver lacks Chavez's charisma, but he has sought to imitate the president's style with rambunctious attacks on the opposition and televised ribbon-cutting ceremonies.

With the micro-managing Chavez away, major policy decisions in Venezuela, such as a widely expected devaluation of the bolivar currency, appear to be on hold.

Opposition predictions of fighting within the ruling Socialist Party have not materialized, however, with Maduro and Cabello in particular pledging unity despite rumors of rivalry.

(Editing by Daniel Wallis and Eric Beech)

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Judge reduces possible sentence for WikiLeaks suspect

FORT MEADE: A US judge on Tuesday reduced the potential sentence for WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning by 112 days because of his harsh treatment at a military jail, where he was held in isolation despite advice from psychiatrists.

Judge Denise Lind said the US Army private's detention conditions were "excessive" and at times illegal, going beyond what was needed to ensure his safety and prevent the risk of suicide.

But the judge rejected a request by defence lawyers to dismiss all charges against Manning because of his nine-month detention at the US Marine Corps prison in Quantico, Virginia.

The ruling paves the way for a trial in March in which the army private is accused of "aiding the enemy" by passing a trove of secret government files to the WikiLeaks website.

Defence attorney David Coombs had argued the court should drop all charges against Manning on the grounds that he suffered illegal punishment at the Quantico jail, where he was held in a solitary cell 23 hours a day, kept under a strict suicide watch and often ordered to strip naked.

Prosecutors had said strict measures were necessary because Manning posed a suicide risk.

The judge concluded that the government had to ensure Manning did not take his life given his mental health history, as he had reported suicidal thoughts while detained in Kuwait.

"Preventing a detainee suicide is in the legitimate interest of the government," she said.

But she ruled prison authorities at Quantico should not have kept Manning under a "rigorous" super-strict suicide watch regime after military psychiatrists advised he was not suicidal.

Prison officers had no reason to take away Manning's underwear at one point as "no new threat" had emerged and it was "no longer reasonable to withhold the underwear," she said.

She cited a seven-day period in which Manning was assessed by psychiatrists as "no longer at risk" of suicide but was kept under strict isolation, saying it constituted "unlawful pre-trial punishment."

If convicted on 22 charges, Manning would receive credit for his time behind bars in Quantico, with his potential sentence reduced by 112 days, Lind said.

But the judge was not ready to call off the trial over Manning's treatment at the Quantico jail as "the charges are serious in this case," she said.

The 25-year-old private faces a slew of charges, including "aiding the enemy," for allegedly leaking hundreds of thousands of sensitive US military and diplomatic documents to Julian Assange's anti-secrecy site WikiLeaks.

He was arrested in May 2010 while serving as an intelligence analyst near Baghdad and subsequently charged over the largest leak of restricted documents in American history.

Manning was sent briefly to a US jail in neighbouring Kuwait, before being transferred to the Marine Corps jail in Quantico, Virginia in July 2010.

After nine months in the brig, he was moved in April 2011 to a US Army prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where he was allowed to interact with other detainees as detention conditions were eased.

If convicted, Manning could spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Before the ruling, the defence and prosecution clashed over whether the court should permit evidence in the trial on Manning's motive in leaking the classified files.

In leaking secret documents, Manning "selected information that could not be used to the harm of the United States or any foreign country," Coombs, the defence lawyer, told the court.

Coombs portrayed his client as a whistle-blower who was trying to inform the public instead of "aiding the enemy" as he is charged.

But prosecutors told the judge Manning's motives for the leak, the largest in US history, were irrelevant.

"The accused knew that he was dealing directly or indirectly with an enemy of the United States," prosecutor Captain Angel Overgaard said.

"He knew that the information would be published on the Internet and was accessible to the enemy," Overgaard said.

Coombs has argued that the case against Manning is virtually unprecedented as usually US authorities prosecute soldiers or government employees who pass secrets directly to an adversary -- and not those who leak information to a media outlet or website.

- AFP/jc

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Mauz goes all 'Minority Report' as a mouse replacement

Mauz is currently up as a Kickstarter project.

(Credit:
Amanda Kooser/CNET)

LAS VEGAS--We tech writers are constantly comparing real products to what we've seen in sci-fi movies. I'm still waiting for my Hoverboard, but at least we're inching a little closer to some "Minority Report"-style computer interfaces with the Mauz, a device that turns your iPhone into a mouse with special skills.

The hardware portion of Mauz is reasonably discreet. (Click to enlarge.)

(Credit:
Amanda Kooser/CNET)

Mauz is like a combination of the
Wii remote, the Kinect, and a desktop mouse. It involves a small device that plugs into your iPhone and an app that makes the magic happen.

Visiting Mauz at
CES 2013, I caught the team looking pretty stressed as they struggled with getting Mauz to work over Wi-Fi at the same time 50 gajillion other exhibitors were weighing down the network. They did get it up and running to show off using the phone like a traditional mouse with touch-screen clicks; like a Wii by manipulating a 3D model on-screen by waving the iPhone in the air; and like a Kinect by switching between tabs on a browser by waving a hand in the air above it.

So how does this experience compare with Tom Cruise waving his hands around and getting things done in "Minority Report?" It's not really very close, but you can see the potential. Mauz uses the iPhone's front-facing camera to detect hand movement. That means you can wave your hand over it to change channels, for example. It's far away from the super-detailed work we saw Cruise do, but for right now, we'll take what we can get.

The Mauz demo I saw was conducted with a production-ready prototype. The electronic innards are all ready to go and the app is running. A freshly launched Kickstarter project is aiming to get the funding together to go into production. The early-bird pledge price for a Mauz is $45. The Mauz team estimates it will take about six months to get the device into production.

A lot of the potential for the Mauz centers around harnessing the capabilities of the iPhone. Users can set shortkeys and the app can could be extremely customized to work with specific devices and programs. It also frees you from the flat surface of your desk, giving you an opportunity for a more natural interface with your computer. Plus, you can pretend you're Tom Cruise if you're into that sort of thing.

Mauz works up in the air as well as down on a desk.

(Credit:
Amanda Kooser/CNET)

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Judge rules suspected Oikos gunman unfit for trial

One Goh appears in an Alameda County Superior courtroom in Oakland, Calif., Monday, April 30, 2012. / AP Photo/Paul Sakuma

OAKLAND, California A judge ruled on Monday that a man accused of killing seven people at a small Northern California Christian college is not mentally fit for trial.

15 Photos

Shootings at Oikos University

A public defender representing defendant One Goh said a psychiatrist has determined that Goh suffers from paranoid schizophrenia that dates back several years.

Alameda County Assistant Public Defender David Klaus has said the condition causes Goh to distrust people, including those trying to help him.

Klaus has said he and his co-counsel have had trouble talking with Goh because of his mental state.

Goh is charged with seven counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder in the April 2 attack at Oikos University in Oakland. He has pleaded not guilty.

Authorities have said Goh, a former Oikos student, planned the killing spree at the school that caters to Korean immigrants after becoming angry with school officials over a tuition dispute. He previously decided to drop out of the school's nursing program.

A judge ordered Goh to return to court Jan. 28.

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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.

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Five accused in India rape case charged in court

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Five men accused of raping and murdering an Indian student were read the charges in a near-empty courtroom on Monday after the judge cleared out lawyers for bickering over whether the men deserved a defense.

The 23-year-old physiotherapy student died two weeks after being gang-raped and beaten on a moving bus in New Delhi, then thrown bleeding onto the street. Protests followed, along with a fierce public debate over police failure to stem rampant violence against women.

With popular anger simmering against the five men and a teenager accused in the case, most lawyers in the district where the trial will be held refuse to represent them.

Before the men arrived for a pre-trial hearing on Monday, heckling broke out in a chamber packed with jostling lawyers, journalists and members of the public after two of the lawyers, Manohar Lal Sharma and V. K. Anand, offered to defend the men.

"We are living in a modern society," declared Lal Sharma, defending his decision. "We all are educated. Every accused, including those in brutal offences like this, has the legal right ... to defend themselves."

One woman lawyer prodded V. K. Anand in the chest, saying: "I'll see how you can represent the accused."

Unable to restore order, presiding magistrate Namrita Aggarwal ordered everyone to leave except the prosecution, and set police to guard the entrance.

She said the trial would now be held behind closed doors because of the sensitivity of the case.

FACES COVERED

Reuters video images showed the men stepping out of a blue police van that brought them from Tihar jail and walking, their faces covered, through a metal detector into the South Delhi court building.

The court was across the street from the cinema where the victim watched a film before she was attacked on her way home.

Aggarwal gave the men copies of the charges, which include murder, rape and abduction, a prosecutor in the case told Reuters.

Police have conducted extensive interrogations and say they have recorded confessions, even though the men have no lawyers.

If the men, most of them from a slum neighborhood, cannot arrange a defense, the court will offer them legal aid before the trial begins.

Two of them, Vinay Sharma and Pawan Gupta, have offered to give evidence against the others - Mukesh Kumar, Ram Singh and Akshay Thakura - possibly in return for a lighter sentence.

Mohan, describing what he called a heinous crime, said: "The five accused persons deserve not less than the death penalty."

The case has sharpened long-standing anger against the government and police for a perceived failure to protect women.

A male friend who was assaulted with the woman on December 16 said on Friday that passers-by left her unclothed and bleeding in the street for almost an hour and that, when police arrived, they spent a long time arguing about where to take them.

The woman lived for two weeks after her attack, dying in a Singapore hospital where she had been taken for treatment.

FAST-TRACK COURT

Aggarwal said the next hearing would be on January 10. The case is due to move later to another, fast-track court set up since the woman was attacked to help reduce a backlog of sex crime cases in Delhi.

Legal experts say the lack of representation for the five men may give grounds for appeal if they are found guilty. Convictions in similar cases have often been overturned years later.

Some legal experts have also warned that previous attempts to fast-track justice in India in some cases led to imperfect convictions that were later challenged.

The sixth member of the group alleged to have lured the student and a male friend into the private bus is under 18 and will be tried in a separate juvenile court.

The government is aiming to lower the age at which teenagers can be tried as adults, acknowledging public anger that the boy will face a maximum three-year sentence.

The victim was identified by a British newspaper at the weekend but Reuters has opted not to name her.

Indian law generally prohibits the identification of victims of sex crimes. The law is intended to protect victims' privacy and keep them out of the glare of media in a country where the social stigma associated with rape can be devastating.

The dead woman's father repeated on Monday that he wanted her identified and said he would be happy to release a photograph of her.

"We don't want to hide her identity. There is no reason for that. The only condition is it should not be misused," he told Reuters.

He said he was confident the trial would be quick and reiterated a call that the perpetrators be hanged.

(Writing by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Robert Birsel and Tom Pfeiffer)

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US Dollar falls ahead of ECB meeting

NEW YORK: The US dollar retreated Monday against the euro and other major currencies as financial markets girded for a meeting later this week of the European Central Bank.

The euro was valued at US$1.3115 dollars at 22H00 GMT Monday, up from Friday's value of US$1.3067 at the same time.

The US dollar was also lower against the Japanese yen, trading at 87.89 Monday instead of the 88.15 level on Friday night.

The quarterly earnings season unofficially kicks off Tuesday with the report from aluminium producer Alcoa. Several US Federal Reserve officials have public appearances this week.

Given the lack of US economic data to be released this week, "we believe that the US dollar will take its cue from earnings and comments from the Fed officials," said Kathy Lien of BK Asset Management.

After focusing heavily on the US due to the much-touted debate on the fiscal cliff, financial markets were beginning to turn to the euro again with Thursday's meeting of the ECB.

That said, Thursday's ECB meeting "offers little reason to be bullish (about) the euro," said Christopher Vecchio, currency analyst at DailyFX.

Vecchio noted that the euro had fallen after the November and December ECB meetings, which followed a September announcement by ECB President Mario Draghi of a program to keep Italian and Spanish borrowing costs down.

The euro did, however, pick up support on news that former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi would not seek election during the Italian elections next month.

Watchers of the Federal Reserve will be looking for signs later this week in public appearances by the presidents of the Fed banks of Kansas City, Philadelphia and Richmond.

Minutes released by the Federal Reserve last week showed that the US central bank is considering ending its aggressive stimulus plan more quickly than expected. But some market watchers say the Fed will be unlikely to pull the plug on the program given last week's weak jobs report.

"The confusion created by the FOMC minutes makes this week's comments from Fed presidents extremely important because investors want to know how serious the central bank is about phasing out" its stimulus program, Lien said.

The US dollar fell against the Swiss currency, to 0.9212 francs from 0.9246 francs late Friday, while the pound rose to US$1.6114 from US$1.6068.

- AFP/jc

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