Saturday, 2 January 2016

Bill Cosby charged with indecent assault

Media captionBill Cosby made no comment as he arrived at court

Prosecutors in the US have charged comedian Bill Cosby with aggravated indecent assault over an alleged incident in 2004.

It is the first time Mr Cosby, 78, has been charged with any offence after months of accusations.

Andrea Constand says she was drugged then assaulted at the Philadelphia home of the former US television star.

Dozens of women have accused him of sexual assault, dating back to the 1970s, but he has denied wrongdoing.

Mr Cosby made no comment as he arrived at court to be formally charged. He did not enter a plea at the hearing where a judge set bail at $1m (£675,000).

Later, his lawyer said in a statement that he would "mount a vigorous defence against this unjustified charge".

Prosecution allegations

Single charge of aggravated indecent assault
Incident occurred at Cosby's home in 2004
Victim "frozen, paralyzed, unable to move"
Charge punishable by five to 10 years behind bars and a $25,000 fine
Will formally be charged in court on Wednesday

Cosby 'drugged his victim': what the criminal complaint says

Earlier this month Mr Cosby opened a lawsuit against seven of the women, accusing them of defamation.

It is the second time there has been an investigation into Ms Constand's complaint against the actor, who won acclaim for playing a family doctor and model father in The Cosby Show.

In 2005, after no charges were brought when she first made the accusation, she sued him and settled for an undisclosed sum.

He has previously said under oath he had a consensual sexual encounter with her.

Mr Cosby befriended Ms Constand through her job at Temple University and she came to think of him as "a mentor and a friend" before he allegedly made two sexual advances that were rejected, said prosecutors.

Documents from her lawsuit against the star were sealed until this summer, when damaging testimony was revealed as more women came forward.

The 12-year statute of limitations was only days away from expiring, in January 2016.

Andrea Constand's claims and those of dozens of other women were largely ignored by the media until recently.

It was a comedian labelling him as a rapist which made the headlines in 2014. Hannibal Buress mocked him during a stand-up routine and the recording went viral. Then came the damning deposition.

Bill Cosby was questioned under oath during a civil case brought by Andrea Constand in 2005. A judge was persuaded to unseal the document a decade after it was written. In it he admits to using drugs to dope women with whom he wanted to have sex - but insisted it was with their knowledge. He also admits to paying women to keep quiet.

More women, from the world of modelling, acting and other entertainment fields came forward, all with similar stories. For most, it is too late to bring charges - but not in in this case.

Kevin Steele, a district attorney in Montgomery County near Philadelphia, said his office had reopened the Constand case after "new information came to light".

The prosecutors re-interviewed witnesses, examined evidence from the civil case and spoke to other alleged victims before they decided to file criminal charges, Mr Steele's office said in a statement.

In testimony seen by the New York Times and published in July, Mr Cosby admitted he had given women a sedative, Quaaludes, when he wanted to have sex with them, but not without their knowledge.

At the height of his fame from The Cosby Show, the comedian was the highest paid entertainer on US television.

Tel Aviv shooting: Manhunt under way for gunman who killed two

Israeli police in Tel Aviv, Israel, on 1 January 2016 — Image captionSecurity forces have been carrying out searches in the city

A manhunt is under way in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv after a gunman killed two people outside a popular bar.

Seven people were also wounded, four of them seriously, when the man opened fire with an automatic rifle, letting off at least 15 shots before fleeing the scene.

Security forces carried out searches throughout the night.

The incident took place in Dizengoff Street, a busy part of the city centre filled with bars and cafes.

Jump media player

Media player help

Out of media player. Press enter to return or tab to continue.

Media captionCCTV cameras captured the moment the shooting began

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said on Friday: "From what we know until now and as part of the ongoing investigation, there's a strong possibility that it was in fact a terrorist attack."

Security camera footage showed the gunman taking a weapon out of his backpack and then shooting at people in the street.

The two victims have been identified as Alon Bakal, 26, who was a manager at the bar targeted, and Shimon Ruimi, 30.

The suspect, a 29-year-old Israeli Arab from northern Israel, had stolen the gun from his father, who works in security, Haaretz newspaper reported.

The father recognised him son from media reports and contacted the police, the newspaper said.

Friday's shootings follow a wave of Palestinian attacks against Israelis over the past few months.

As of 23 December, at least 21 Israelis had been killed in the recent violence, most of them in stabbings and shooting attacks by Palestinians.

At least 131 Palestinians have also been killed. More than half were said by Israel to be attackers. Others have been killed in clashes with Israeli forces.

Tip for Keeping New Year’s Resolutions: Turn Them into Questions

by Eddy Albert | January 02. 2016 1:02pm ET

A page in a notebook shows places for making a list of resolutions

If you normally have trouble sticking to your New Year's resolutions, a new study may help: Psychologists have found that asking questions and then answering them, instead of making statements, is one key to sticking with your promises.
For example, you are more likely to actually exercise more if you ask yourself "Will I exercise more?" and then say, "Yes," instead of just telling yourself "I will exercise more." The researchers found that people tend to be more successful in changing their behaviors when they pose their goals as questions instead of statements, according to the study.
In the study, the researchers analyzed the results of 104 previous studies done over about eight years. The studies were looking into this effect of asking questions in a variety of contexts, such as eating healthier or going out to vote. Most of the analyzed studies found that questions, particularly questions with a yes or no answer, tended to be stronger behavior influencers than statements were.

In most of the studies, the participants were questioned by another person, and only had to answer the question, said Eric Spangenberg, co-author on the paper and professor of marketing and psychology at the University of California, Irvine. However, there were also studies that looked at people who used self-questioning, and the researchers determine that this technique was also effective.
"One of the things people suggest is that maybe you could team up with a friend," when setting New Year's resolutions, he said. "It has the added benefit of making the commitment somewhat public." Committing to something in public makes people more likely to engage in the behavior, he told Live Science.
Although psychologists don't know exactly why questions are better at influencing behavior change than statements, Spangenberg speculated that questioning creates a type of pressure to follow through, or a sense of obligation, discomfort or guilt, and that helps motivates behavior change.
The researchers said they suspect that the reason yes or no questions tended to be more effective was because they were more definitive — you either are or are not going to exercise more in the future. However, Spangenberg said, that questions designed to influence behavior didn't have to be yes or no questions to affect a change in behavior. Spangenberg and his colleagues also noted that while questions are generally more effective at changing behaviors, the effect is strongest when the questions encourage behaviors that are considered "social norms," such as recycling or working out regularly.
Other research has suggested that making just a few resolutions, instead of a whole slew, keeping a diary about your progress and making up your mind to persevere even if you slip up can also help.
The study suggests that if you're trying to change for the better this coming year, grab a friend and ask each other some yes or no questions, which will help you both to stick to your guns.
The findings were published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology on Dec 28.

Disney's New Robot Scales Walls…Like Spidey

by Eddy Albert | January 02, 2016 09:28am ET

If Spider-Man had a robot sidekick, this would be it.
A new four-wheeled bot named VertiGo looks like a remote-controlled car that a kid might build. But the little machine can drive vertically, straight up walls.

Researchers at Disney Research Zurich worked together with mechanical engineering students at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH) to design and build the gravity-defying bot. The robot's front wheels are steerable — like the front wheels of an automobile — which lets the person who controls the bot change its direction as it zooms around. But it is VertiGo's two propellers, which can be controlled independently of each other, that enable the bot to scale buildings without falling to the ground.
To climb a wall, the bot's rear propeller must be tilted outward behind it in such a way so that the thrust (propulsive force) from the propeller pushes the bot toward the wall. At the same time, the bot's front propeller applies thrust downward, pushing the bot upward and enabling it to go from a horizontal position to a vertical position, according to the researchers who built VertiGo. (You can see this process in action at the 25-second mark in the video above.)
It's not clear why Disney decided to build a wall-climbing robot, but in a statement outlining the bot's functionality, the researchers noted that VertiGo's ability to drive on both floors and walls "extends the ability of robots to travel through urban and indoor environments." The researchers also said the robot can keep its footing when traversing rough surfaces, like brick walls.
The body, or chassis, of the bot is made of carbon fiber, while its more complex parts — like the wheel- suspension system and the wheels — are made of 3D-printed parts and carbon rods. The chassis also houses the robot's electronic components, which include the computer that allows the person operating VertiGo to control the bot in the same way as a remote-controlled car. The computer receives data from onboard sensors (like accelerometers and gyroscopes), as well as infrared distance sensors that estimate the bot's orientation in space.
The computer then uses this data, along with input from the person controlling the bot, to direct the motors that power the bot's propellers and wheels. In other words, the person controlling the bot doesn't have to figure out exactly how to tilt the propellers to get the bot to stay put on the wall; the robot can figure that out for itself.
Although the video only shows the robot zooming over the ground and climbing a flat wall, the researchers said the little bot might also be able to drive on the ceiling. So VertiGo might be able to keep up with Spider-Man, should the two ever get together.

Battered Remains of Medieval Knight Discovered in UK Cathedral

by Eddy Albert | January 02, 2016 09:19am ET

The skeleton of the medieval man, a possible knight, in his stone grave.
Credit: Headland Archaeology

View full size image

The battered remains of a medieval man uncovered at a famous cathedral hint that he may have been a Norman knight with a proclivity for jousting.
The man may have participated in a form of jousting called tourney, in which men rode atop their horses and attacked one another, in large groups, with blunted weapons.
Archaeologists uncovered the man's skeleton, along with about 2,500 others — including a person who had leprosy and a woman with a severed hand — buried at Hereford Cathedral in the United Kingdom. The cathedral was built in the 12th century and served as a place of worship and a burial ground in the following centuries, said Andy Boucher, a regional manager at Headland Archaeology, a commercial archaeology company that works with construction companies in the United Kingdom.

A few years ago, the Heritage Lottery Fund, which is financed by the national lottery in the United Kingdom, awarded money to the cathedral for the landscaping and restoration of its grounds. But first, workers had to relocate the thousands of skeletons, many of which were near the ground's surface. [See Images of the Burial of Another Medieval Knight]
"By church law, anybody who died in the parish had to be buried in the cathedral burial ground," almost continuously from the time the cathedral was built until the early 19th century, Boucher told Live Science.
From 2009 to 2011, his team respectfully removed the human remains. But one stood out — a 5-foot-8-inch (1.7 meters) man with serious trauma on his right shoulder blade, 10 of his right ribs and left leg.
"He's the most battered corpse on the site," Boucher said. "He had the largest number of broken bones."
The man was about 45 years or older when he died, according to a bone analysis. He was buried in a stone-lined grave, a type of grave that was used between the 12th and 14th centuries, the researchers said.
Four of the man's ribs showed healed fractures that may have occurred simultaneously, suggesting a single instance of trauma, researchers wrote in the pathology report. Another four ribs were in the process of healing, indicating that the man was still recovering from the injuries when he died. The other two damaged ribs also show evidence of trauma, and his left lower leg has an unusual twisting break, one that could have been caused by a direct blow or a rolled ankle, according to the report.
In addition, the man had lost three of his teeth during his lifetime. Achemical analysis of his other teeth that matched different isotopes (a variation of an element) to foods and water samples from different geological locations showed that the man likely grew up in Normandy and moved to Hereford later in life, Boucher said.
Jousting battle
It's impossible to know what wounded the man, but his injuries are in line with those that nobility got through tourney, or jousting, the researchers said.

Ten of the man's right ribs showed signs of fractures, including several that were not yet healed.
Credit: Headland Archaeology

View full size image

"Tourney, the true form of jousting, is open combat between large groups of people in fields — basically, a mock battle," Boucher said. "They just laid into each other with blunted weapons, which is another reason we think he might be a knight, because none of the wounds to him are caused by sharp weapons. They're all caused by blunt-force trauma."
Perhaps the man injured his leg during a horse ride during one of these tourneys, if the foot had gotten stuck in the stirrup, Boucher said. Moreover, the injuries to his right shoulder and ribs could have happened if he fell from his horse, or was hit with a blunt weapon on the right side of his body, according to the report.
However, the man may have sustained his injuries in other ways. The coroner's files show that men older than age 46 who died of accidental deaths during medieval times were likely to die while traveling or transporting goods, according to the report. [8 Grisly Archaeological Discoveries]
The archaeologists also found several other intriguing human remains, including those of a man with leprosy and a woman with a severed hand.
The man with leprosy, likely about 20 years old at the time of his death, stood about 5 feet 5 inches (1.7 m) tall. People with this disease, which causes skin lesions and nerve damage, were usually buried in separate grounds because of stigma toward the condition. But perhaps the medieval bishop at the time, known to have suffered from leprosy, felt sympathy for this person and allowed for his burial at the cathedral, Boucher said.
The researchers aren't sure what happened to the woman. The punishment for thieves of that era was to cut off their hand, but it's unclear why a thief would have been buried at the cathedral, Boucher said.
"She's a shroud burial, so she's probably medieval — sometime between 1100 and 1600," he said.
The archaeologists are storing the exhumed skeletons in a clean and dry place, and will treat them in accordance with the cathedral's wishes, Boucher said.