Mardi 05 juillet 2011

A week into his new job

TOKYO (AP) — A week into his new job, Japan's disaster reconstruction minister resigned Tuesday after making remarks widely criticized as offensive during a visit to the tsunami-devastated northeastern coast, where he refused to shake a governor's hand, scolded the official and threatened to withhold aid. In meetings with local governors over the weekend, Ryu Matsumoto's words were regarded as arrogant and uncaring, angering local residents and political opponents. He told the governor of Iwate, one of the hardest-hit prefectures, that the government would not help municipalities that did not have good ideas aboutmonster beats studio rebuilding. To Miyagi Gov. Yoshihiro Murai, Matsumoto expressed irritation that he was made to wait for the tardy governor. Matsumoto refused to shake Murai's hand when he entered the room and scolded the visibly surprised governor. "When a guest comes to visit, do not call up the guest until you have arrived in the room," he told Murai. "Do you understand?" He then warned journalists in the room not to report his words. They were widely reported in the media, and a video of the exchange was posted on the Internet. The resignation is a new blow beats studioto Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who is likely to face renewed pressure to step down himself. The March 11 earthquake, tsunami and ensuingbeats studio headphones nuclear crisis brought out deep rifts within Kan's party and strengthened the largest opposition bloc, which has denounced his response as dithering and poorly coordinated. Kan's appointment of 60-year-old Matsumoto to the newly created post of disaster reconstruction minister was an effort to bolster his administration against criticism of its handling of the crises. Jin Sato, the outspoken mayor of badly damaged Minami Sanriku, said the minister's comments deeply upset disaster victims already frustrated with the recovery process. "I have been saying all along that this government has no sense of speed," he said on public broadcaster NHK. "My frank opinion is that this resignation drama is another misstep." Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edanobeats pro told reporters that Kan accepted Matsumoto's resignation and hoped to appoint a replacement as soon as possible. At a hastily arranged news conference Tuesday, Matsumoto apologized for his comments. He also stepped down from his second post of disaster management minister. "I felt that I was the person closest to the disaster victims," a teary-eyed Matsumoto said. "But I sincerely apologize that my words hurt their feelings because they were insufficient or rough." The disaster devastated Japan's northeastern coast, destroying towns, homes and businesses. More than 22,600 people are dead ormonster beats pro missing. Kan took office just over a year ago. He is Japan's fifth leader in four years. He has said he is willing to step down, but only after major steps are made toward putting Japan's recovery on solid footing. He has also set several preconditions, including the passage of budget bills and a renewablemonster beats pro energy measure. Matsumoto's resignation will not affect the length of the prime minister's tenure, Edano said. With so much work to do, it would be "irresponsible" for Kan to step away now, he said.
Par effect - 0 commentaire(s)le 05 juillet 2011

The government tried everything to figure out

WASHINGTON (AP) — dre beats graffitiAfter Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden, the White House released a photo of President Barack Obama and his Cabinet inside the Situation Room, watching the daring raid unfold. Hidden from view, standing just outside the frame of that now-famous photograph was a career CIA analyst. In the hunt for the world's most-wanted terrorist, there may have been no one more important. His job for nearly a decade was finding the al-Qaida leader. The analyst was the beats studio graffitifirst to put in writing last summer that the CIA might have a legitimate lead on finding bin Laden. He oversaw the collection of clues that led the agency to a fortified compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. His was among the most confident voices telling Obama that bin Laden was probably behind those walls. The CIA will not permit him to speak with reporters. But interviews with former and current U.S. intelligence officials reveal ajustbeats story of quiet persistence and continuity that led to the greatest counterterrorism success in the history of the CIA. Nearly all the officials insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters or because they did not want their names linked to the bin Laden operation. The Associated Press has agreed to the CIA's request not to publish his full name and withhold certain biographical details so that he would not become a target for retribution. Call him John, his middle name.justbeats solo John was among the hundreds of people who poured into the CIA's Counterterrorism Center after the Sept. 11 attacks, bringing fresh eyes and energy to the fight. He had been a standout in the agency's Russian and Balkan departments. When Vladimir Putin was coming to power in Russia, for instance, John pulled together details overlooked by others and wrote what some colleagues considered the definitive profile of Putin. He challenged some of the agency's conventional wisdom about Putin's KGB background and painted a much fuller portrait of the man who would come to dominate Russian politics. That ability to spot the importance of seemingly insignificant details, to weave disparate strands of information into a meaningful story, gave him a particular knack for hunting terrorists. "He could always give you the broader implications of all these details we were amassing," said John McLaughlin, who as CIA deputy director was briefed regularly by John in the mornings after the 2001 attacks. From 2003, when he joined the counterterrorism center, through 2005, John was one of the driving forces behind the most justbeats headphonessuccessful string of counterterrorism captures in the fight against terrorism: Abu Zubaydah, Abd al-Nashiri, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, Ramzi bin Alshib, Hambali and Faraj al-Libi. But there was no greater prize than finding bin Laden. Bin Laden had slipped away from U.S. forces in the Afghan mountains of Tora Bora in 2001, and the CIA believed he had taken shelter in the lawless tribal areas of Pakistan. In 2006, the agency mounted Operation Cannonball, an effort to establish bases in the tribal regions and find bin Laden. Even with all its money and resources, the CIA could not locate its prime target. By then, the agency was on its third director since Sept. 11, 2001. John had outlasted many of his direct supervisors who retired or went on to other jobs. The CIA doesn't like to keep its people in one spot for too long. They become jaded. They start missing things. John didn't want to leave. He'd always been persistent. In college, he walked on to a Division I basketball team and hustled his way into a rotation full of scholarship players. The CIA offered to promote him and move him somewhere else. John wanted to keep the bin Laden file. He examined and re-examined every powerbeatsaspect of bin Laden's life. How did he live while hiding in Sudan? With whom did he surround himself while living in Kandahar, Afghanistan? What would a bin Laden hideout look like today? The CIA had a list of potential leads, associates and family members who might have access to bin Laden. "Just keep working that list bit by bit," one senior intelligence official recalls John telling his team. "He's there somewhere. We'll get there." John rose through the ranks of the counterterrorism center, but because of his nearly unrivaled experience, he always had influence beyond his title. One former boss confessed that he didn't know exactly what John's position was. "I knew he was the guy in the room I always listened to," the official said. While he was shepherding the hunt for bin Laden, John also was pushing to expand the Predator program, the agency's use of unmanned airplanes to launch missiles at terrorists. The CIA largely confined those strikes to targets along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan. But in late 2007 and early 2008, John said the CIA needed to carry out those attacks deeper inside Pakistan. It was a risky move. Pakistan was an important but shaky ally. John's analysts saw an increase in the number of Westerners training in Pakistani terrorist camps. John worried that those men would soon start showing up on U.S. soil. "We've got to act," John said, a former senior intelligence official recalls. "There's no explaining inaction." John took the analysis to then CIA Director Michael Hayden, who agreed and took the recommendation to President George W. Bush. In the last months of the Bush administration, the CIA began striking deeper inside Pakistan. Obama immediately adopted the same strategy and stepped up the pace. Recent attacks have killed al-Qaida's No. 3 official, Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, and Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud. All the while, John's team was working the list of bin Laden leads. In 2007, a female colleague whom the AP has also agreed not to identify decided to zero in on a man known as Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, a nom de guerre. Other terrorists had identified al-Kuwaiti as an important courier formonster beats studio al-Qaida's upper echelon, and she believed that finding him might help lead to bin Laden. "They had their teeth clenched on this and they weren't going to let go," McLaughlin said of John and his team. "This was an obsession." It took three years, but in August 2010, al-Kuwaiti turned up on a National Security Agency wiretap. The female analyst, who had studied journalism at a Big Ten university, tapped out a memo for John, "Closing in on Bin Laden Courier," saying her team believed al-Kuwaiti was somewhere on the outskirts of Islamabad. As the CIA homed in on al-Kuwaiti, John's team continually updated the memo with fresh information. Everyone knew that anything with bin Laden's name on it would shoot right to the director's desk and invite scrutiny, so the early drafts played down hopes that the courier would lead to bin Laden. But John saw the bigger picture. The hunt for al-Kuwaiti was effectively the hunt for bin Laden, and he was not afraid to say so. The revised memo was finished in September 2010. John, by then deputy chief of the Pakistan-Afghanistan Department, emailed it to those who needed to know. The title was "Anatomy of a Lead." As expected, the memo immediately became a hot topic inside CIA headquarters and Director Leon Panetta wanted to know more. John never overpromised, colleagues recall, but he was unafraid to say there was a good chance this might be the break the agency was looking for. The CIA tracked al-Kuwaiti to a walled compound in Abbottabad. If bin Laden was hiding there, in a busy suburb not far from Pakistan's military academy, it challenged much of what the agency had assumed about his hideout. But John said it wasn't that far-fetched. Drawing on what he knew about bin Laden's earlier hideouts, he said it made sense that bin Laden had surrounded himself only with his couriers and family and did not use phones or the Internet. The CIA knew that top al-Qaida operatives had lived in urban areas before. A cautious Panetta took the information to Obama, but there was much more work to be done. The government tried everything to figure out who was in that compound. In a small house nearby, the CIA put people who would fit in and not draw any attention. They watched and waited but turned up nothing definitive. Satellites captured images of a tall man walking the grounds of the compound, but never got a look at his face. Again and again, John and his team asked themselves who else might be living in that compound. They came up with five or six alternatives; bin Laden was always the best explanation. This went on for months. By about February, John told his bosses, including Panetta, that the CIA could keep trying, but the information was unlikely to get any better. He told Panetta this might be their best chance to find bin Laden and it would not last forever. Panetta made that same point to the president Panetta held regular meetings on the hunt, often concluding with an around-the-table poll: How sure are you that this is bin Laden? John was always bullish, rating his confidence as high as 80 percent. Others weren't so sure, especially those who had been in the room for operations that went bad. Not two years earlier, the CIA thought it had an informant who could lead him to bin Laden's deputy. That man blew himself up at a base in Khost, Afghanistan, killing seven CIA employees and injuring six others. That didn't come up in the meetings with Panetta, a senior intelligence official said. But everyone knew the risk the CIA was taking if it told the president that bin Laden was in Abbottabad and was wrong. "We all knew that if he wasn't there and this was a disaster, certainly there would be consequences," the official recalled. John was among several CIA officials who repeatedly briefed Obama and others at the White House. Current and former officials involved in the discussions said John had a coolness and a reassuring confidence. By April, the president had decided to send the Navy SEALs to assault the compound. Though the plan was in motion, John went back to his team, a senior intelligence official said. "Right up to the last hour," he told them, "if we get any piece of information that suggests it's not him, somebody has to raise their hand before we risk American lives." Nobody did. Inside the Situation Room, the analyst who was barely known outside the close-knit intelligence world took his place alongside the nation's top security officials, the household names and well-known faces of Washington. An agonizing 40 minutes after Navy SEALs stormed the compound, the report came back: Bin Laden was dead. John and his team had guessed correctly, taking an intellectual risk based on incomplete information. It was a gamble that ended a decade of disappointment. Later, Champagne was uncorked back at the CIA, where those in the Counterterrorism Center who had targeted bin Laden for so long celebrated. John's team reveled in the moment. Two days after bin Laden's death, John accompanied Panetta to Capitol Hill. The Senate Intelligence Committee wanted a full briefing on the successful mission. At one point in the private session, Panetta turned monster beats studioto the man whose counterterrorism resume spanned four CIA directors. He began to speak, about the operation and about the years of intelligence it was based on. And as he spoke about the mission that had become his career, the calm, collected analyst paused, and he choked up. .
Par effect - 0 commentaire(s)le 05 juillet 2011

information some years before about it being closed

RE, Ill. (AP) — Charles "Chuck" Ridulph always assumed the person who stole his little sister from the neighborhood corner where she played and dumped her body in a wooded stretch some 100 miles away was a truckerbeats by dre or passing stranger — surely not anyone from the hometown he remembers as one big, friendly playground. And, after more than a half century passed since her death, he assumed the culprit also had died or was in prison for some other crime. On Saturday, he said he was stunned by the news that a one-time neighbor had been charged in the kidnapping and killing that captured national attention, including that of the president and FBI chief. Prosecutors in bucolic Sycamore, a city of 15,000 that's home to a yearly pumpkin festival, charged a former police officer Friday in the 1957 abduction of 7-year-old Maria Ridulph after an ex-girlfriend's discovery of an unused train ticket blew a hole in his alibi.dre headphones Jack Daniel McCullough, 71, has been held in Seattle on $3 million bail. A judge overseeing a Saturday court appearance for him said he had been taken to a regional trauma center but did not elaborate. She rescheduled his bail hearing for 12:30 p.m. Monday. "I just can't believe that after all these years they'd be able to find this guy," Chuck Ridulph told The Associated Press at his duplex in Sycamore, about 50 miles west of Chicago. A 65-year-old minister who mainly serves his area's senior citizens, Ridulph once shared a bedroom with his sister and already has his headstone placed on a burial plot next to her grave. With McCullough's arrest, he worries about a drawn-out legal process that will dredge up bad memories but also perhaps answer some nagging, stomach-churning questions about what happened to the little girl cheap monster beats headphoneswho loved to play dress up. "It's in my every thought, even in my dreams," he said of his sister's death. "It was just like it was yesterday. It comes up all the time in conversation." Sycamore Police Chief Donald Thomas was reluctant to discuss the case when found at home Saturday. But he said, "we believe we know who did it. We believe we have a strong case." His department's breakthrough was a long time coming. Maria disappeared Dec. 3, 1957, while doing what kids in Sycamore did then — playing. Maria's friend, Kathy Chapman, who was 8 at the time, recalled that she and Maria were under a corner streetlight when a young man she knew monster beatsas "Johnny" offered them a piggyback ride. Chapman, now 61 and living in St. Charles, Ill., told the AP she ran home to get mittens and that when she returned, Maria and the man were gone. "She was my best friend," Chapman told the AP on Saturday. "We played every day. We were always together." The search for Maria grew to involve more than 1,000 law enforcement officers and numerous other community members, ultimately catching the eye of President Dwight D. Eisenhower and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, who requested daily updates. "Things never went back to normal," Chapman said. "It was always a struggle. I didn't have a normal childhood after that." Christmas came and went, with amonster beats solo pogo stick wrapped as a gift for Maria remaining unopened, her brother remembered. Then in April 1958, two people foraging for mushrooms found her remains. Police suspected McCullough, who lived less than two blocks from the Ridulphs and who fit the description of the man said to have approached the girls, Thomas said Friday. But McCullough seemed to have an alibi, claiming he took the train from Rockford to Chicago the day of the abduction. His story fell apart last year after investigators reinterviewed a woman who dated him in 1957 and asked her to search through some personal items, the Seattle Times reported, citing court documents. She found an unused train ticket from Rockford to Chicago dated the day the girl went missing. "Once his alibi crumbled, we found about a dozen other facts that helped us build our case," Thomas said. The Times reported investigators also determined a collect phone call McCullough purportedly made to his then-girlfriend from Chicago actually came from his Sycamore home the day Maria vanished — and he gave a ride to a relative when he should have been on the train. Chapman said police never showed her a photo of McCullough in the days and months after Maria was kidnapped. But in September of last year, she said investigators came to her with a photo of a teenage McCullough. She monster beats soloidentified him as the "Johnny" who approached her and Maria the night her friend vanished. At the time, McCullough's name was John Tessier. Chapman was shocked to learn the case was still being investigated. She said she had received information some years before about it being closed. When she got the news that McCullough was charged, she said she was "just ecstatic, could not be happier." "We've been waiting a long, long time for this," said Chapman, who has three children and three grandchildren. By Saturday, word of McCullough's arrest had swept throughout Sycamore, its main street adorned by American flags tethered to parking meters and lined by mom-and-pop shops. The prospect of reliving one of the most upsetting moments in the town's history during a trial was already weighing on Dick Larson, a rural mail carrier who went to school with Chuck Ridulph. "It breaks my heart to think we have to go through this again. This is 54 years ago. It just brings back a whole river flow of memories," the 65-year-old said before crying. He doesn't believe a conviction will bring closure or help the town heal. "That's a standard way of thinking, that there's justice and closure," he said. "The people who go through it, they deal with it forever."
Par effect - 0 commentaire(s)le 05 juillet 2011

one of the greatest treasures ever recovered from the sea.

KEY WEST, Florida (Reuters) - Divers in the Florida Keys have recovered a large emerald ring and two silver spoons believed to come from Nuestra Senora de Atocha, a shipwrecked Spanish galleon that has already yielded one of the greatest treasures ever recovered from the sea. Employees of Mel Fisher's Treasure,beats by dre solo the salvage company that has worked the shipwreck site since 1969, believe the latest haul signals they are close to finding the sterncastle, a key missing portion of the ship. "The sterncastle is where the clergy and elite were with their personal items," said Sean Fisher, spokesman for the family business and grandson of its late founder, Mel Fisher. The Atocha was headed back to Spain with a load of gold and silver from the New World when it sank and broke up in a hurricane not far from Key West in September 1622. After a 16-year-search, Mel Fisher and his crew found the "mother lode" of the shipwreck in September 1985. They hauled up more than 40 tobeats by dre solonnes of gold and silver, including more than 100,000 Spanish silver coins known as "Pieces of Eight," along with Colombian emeralds and other artifacts. The company estimated its worth at nearly $500 million. Since then, Sean Fisher said the crew has made many other discoveries within a ten-mile (16-km) spread of the original site, and in a straight line. "This tells us we are moving in the right direction," he said. "We have virgin territory around our search area and will be in there next." After the original wreck, currents and additional hurricanes moved the broken parts around. "It broke in two and then banged around for hundreds of years and that is why what we are finding is scattered," Fisher said. RING VALUED INITIALLY AT $500,000 He was on the company's salvage ship JB Magruder on June 23 when diver Tim Meade came up with the large square emerald mounted in a gold ring, whose worth the company estimates at $500,000. Divers also came up with two beats solo headphonessilver spoons and other artifacts that will have to be treated at the Fisher labs in Key West before being exposed to fresh air. Unlike the gold ring, the other items are encrusted and a value can't be placed on them at this time. "I think one item is a hinge and another is a lid, so it's possibly pieces from a jewelry box," Fisher said. He has a copy of the Atocha's manifest and going by it, he expects to find at least 100,000 coins, 400 silver bars and personal jewelry at the sterncastle location. "We have already found more gold than is on the manifest," he said with a smile. "There was a lot of smuggling so the clergy and nobility wouldn't have to pay the king's tax. We expect there will be many items aroundmonster beats solo hd the sterncastle that are not on the manifest." Fisher described the thrill of seeing and touching the treasure, and being the first person to do so in almost 400 years. "I was 15 when I found my first silver," Fisher said. "I was 17 when I first found gold. Silver is great, but gold shines, even after more than 300 years in the water." The dive for treasure is a group effort, Fisher said. Two divers search the selected area at a time, while other crew members stay on deck. The whole crew participates and when the value of the search is determined, bonuses arebeats by dre solo hd given out. Fisher said 90 percent of treasure hunting involved finding out where the treasure isn't. "Technology has helped us above the water," he said. "Below the water our search hasn't changed much over the years." The company uses "mailboxes," large round tubes on the stern of the salvage ship that force air below the waterline to blow away the beats by dre solo hdtop layer of debris and sand on the bottom. The Magruder pulled into its slip at Safe Harbor Marina, outside Key West, last Thursday after discovering the ring and other artifacts about 35 miles away. Fisher popped open a champagne bottle to celebrate even as the company's other 100-foot (30-meter) salvage ship, Dare, prepared to go out to continue the treasure hunt. Each ship has a crew of six or eight and stays out about 10 days at a time, weather permitting.
Par effect - 0 commentaire(s)le 05 juillet 2011

see in the dark sky at higher settings

Finding the right balance between capturing enough of the explosion's beauty and not ending up with a washed-out blur or a grainy mess can be tricky. Play with your camera's settings and experimentmonster tour with different shutter speed and aperture settings to see what works best. Since you're using a tripod, you should be able to select a relatively low ISO setting of 100-400 — remember that you're not exposing for the dark sky, but for the bright flashes of color. Fireworks over Seattle While you could use a higher ISO, you don't need to. The fireworks are bright enough to be captured by your camera sensor, and using a lower ISO will reduce the digital noise you'd see in the dark sky at higher settings. Bear in mind, though, that a higher ISO will let you use a smaller aperture, which will give you a larger depth of field. That gives you a bit more wiggle room in terms of focusing, which is incredibly helpful for moving subjects like fireworks. So aim for the 200-400 range, but experiment and see what works best for your camera.The beauty of fireworks isn't just in the explosion itself, but in the trails of light that blossom out and slowly fade away as they fall. You'll have to use relatively slow shutter speeds to capture the whole show. Luckily, you'll probably have a bit of warning, as most fireworks make some sound monster beats turbineas they shoot into the sky, but takes practice and a bit of luck to get the timing right. If you have a bulb setting on your camera, which makes the shutter will stay open exactly as long as you hold the button down, that might be the most useful. If not, try using the shutter priority mode and setting the exposure time for 1 to 3 seconds. In almost all fireworks photography, you should keep the flash turned off. You might want to use it to briefly illuminate a subject in the foreground while still allowing the fireworks themselves to light up the background. This can be tricky, though, and works best with an external flash. The other thing you'll want to turn off is your camera's auto-focus function. A bright, moving object in a dark sky will utterly confuse your camera, which will spend so long whirring and stuttering to try to find something to focus on that you'll miss your shot! Turn it to manual, and set the focus to infinity (or focus on an object in the foreground, if that suits your composition). As with most low-light photography, you'll get the best results if you use a tripod. This is especially important when photographing beats bu dre turbinefireworks, as the long exposure times needed to capture the spectacle will also capture any movement of your camera. In a pinch, you can always try setting your camera on something like the hood of your car or a bench, but a tripod is definitely the best way to go. You'll also probably want to use a remote release of some sort — either a remote control or a wired shutter release — for the same reason. You could just use the self-timer function, but since it's sometimes hard to predict when the most beautiful fireworks will light up the sky, timing your shots right will be difficult. While the colorful explosions are beautiful to watch and provide lovely photos, pictures focusing only on the bursts aren't terribly exciting in and of themselves. Consider including scenery in your pictures, both to offer a sense of scale and to keep your compositions interesting. Obviously, you want an unobstructed view of the sky, but trees and other objects can provide interesting framing beats turbine headphonesfor your compositions. Being lucky enough to be somewhere the fireworks will reflect in a body of water like a lake, bay, or pond can result in stunning photographs. Also consider whether you want people in your photographs. Including spectators can be a great way to capture the excitement of a fireworks display and gives you the opportunity to play around with techniques such as silhouetting. You could also consider including buildings, monuments, and similar structures as an addition to the fireworks themselves. Where you decide to shoot from will depend on the location of the fireworks and what sort of shots you're going for. Ask around or look online to determine where the fireworks will be launched, so you can figure out ahead of time the best place to be to photograph them. The ideal position would be some distance away, at a vantage point above ground level — a balcony, a hillside, or even just standing on a picnic table or other raised object. The elevation and distance result in nice, wide-open shots of the fireworks themselves, as well as the scene around and beneath them. Try to avoid external light sources like street beats by dre diddy lamps, if possible. They won't necessarily ruin your photos, but they will detract from the fireworks themselves. It's also a good idea to check the speed and direction of the wind so that, ideally, the wind blows the smoke from the fireworks away from you and your camera. that's definitely worth trying out. To figure out if your camera has this option, hunt around in the settings for a small icon that looks like a burst of fireworks (hopefully it will be labeled). This mode will automate much of dre diddy beatsthe challenge of capturing bright bursts of light at night, ideal if you'd prefer to kick back and let your camera do the legwork. It should be noted that "night mode" is not the same as "fireworks mode" — the former will use the camera's flash, which isn't helpful for shooting fireworks, so make sure you turn off the flash if you use that setting. If you don't have a fireworks mode and you aren't comfortable delving into the more advanced settings, you might want to try landscape mode; it will set your focus to infinity and give you a nice, wide depth of field.
Par effect - 0 commentaire(s)le 05 juillet 2011

witnesses showed maggots found in the trunk

DO, Fla. (AP) — Casey Anthony briefly wept Sunday as prosecutors told jurors during closing arguments that she murdered her 2-year-old daughter Caylee to reclaim the carefree life she had before the girl was monster beats diddy born. Prosecutors portrayed Anthony as a young mother who killed her daughter because she got in the way of her love life. "Something needed to be sacrificed, that something was either the life she wanted or the life thrust upon her. She chose to sacrifice her child," prosecutor Jeff Ashton said during his 90-minute argument. Defense attorney Jose Baez said the prosecutors' case was so weak they tried to portray Anthony as "a lying, no-good slut" and that their forensic evidence was based on a "fantasy." He said Caylee's death was "an accident that snowballed out of control." Prosecutors contend Caylee was suffocated with duct tape by her mother, who then crafted elaborate lies to mislead investigators and her parents. Defense attorneys countered that the toddler accidentally drowned in the family swimming pool, and that Casey in fact was hiding emotional distress caused by alleged sexualcheap monster beats butterfly abuse from her father. Her father has denied that claim. Judge Belvin Perry ruled Sunday morning that there was no evidence of such abuse and that the defense could not allude to it in closing arguments. Jury deliberations are now expected to begin Monday after the prosecution gives its rebuttal arguments. Baez began his closing argument by telling jurors they have more questions than answers, including the biggest: How did Caylee die? Neither prosecutors nor the defense have offered firm proof of how Caylee died. "It can never be proven," he said. Baez spent most of his four-hour argument attacking the prosecution's forensic evidence. He said the prosecution's air beats by dre butterflyanalysis of the trunk of Anthony's car, which allegedly showed air molecules consistent with decomposition, could not be duplicated. He said no one could prove a stain found in the trunk was caused by Caylee's body decomposing there. And witnesses showed maggots found in the trunk came from a bag of trash that was found there, he said. "They throw enough against the wall and see what sticks. That is what they're doing ... right down to the cause of death," Baez said. He later conceded his client had told elaborate lies and invented imaginary friends and even a fake father for Caylee, but he said that doesn't mean she killed her daughter. He also attacked Anthony's father, George Anthony, as unreliable. He said that a suicide note that George Anthony wrote in January 2009 that claimed no knowledge of what happened to Caylee was self-serving and that the attempt was a fraud. He said George Anthony claimed he was going to kill himself with a six-pack of beats butterfly headphonesbeer and some high-blood pressure medicine. Earlier during prosecution's closing argument, Casey Anthony appeared mostly stone-faced for about the first 45 minutes, but she began to cry when Ashton said the story that Caylee drowned was also false. Ashton, the prosecutor, said Caylee's death wasn't an accident because three pieces of duct tape were placed on her face — one on the mouth, one on the nose and one over those to be "thorough." The case has played out on national TV since Caylee's disappearance in the summer of 2008 and continued through her mother's trial, with spectators traveling from all over the U.S. to jockey for coveted seats in the courtroom gallery. Anthony, a single mother, was 22 when her daughter died. No one has come forward as the father of Caylee. Ashton began his closing argument by showing a video of Anthony playing with Caylee, causing Anthony to apparently choke back tears. But she quickly regained her composure. He then told the jury that Anthony worried Caylee was getting to the age where she would have told Anthony's parents that the woman was spending her days and nights with her boyfriend — not going to work and leaving Caylee with a nanny. "Casey is very bright," Ashton said. "Her lies are very detailed. ... But when Casey wants to do what Casey wants to do, she finds a way." The prosecutor then described the lies Anthony told her parents, George and Cindy Anthony, about why she couldn't come home and why she couldn't produce Caylee after the toddler was last seen June 16, 2008: that she was with a nanny named Zanny, a woman who doesn't exist; that Anthony and her daughter were spending time in Jacksonville with a rich boyfriend who doesn't exist; and that Zanny had been hospitalized after an out-of-town traffic accident and that they were spending time with her. It only fell apart, Ashton said, a month later when a junk yard told George and Cindy Anthony their daughter's car had been towed. When they picked it up, they discovered a foul odor — George Anthony, a former police beats in earofficer, and the tow yard operator said it smelled like human decomposition. Cindy Anthony then tracked down her daughter. When she couldn't produce Caylee, her parents called police. Casey Anthony then told investigators she worked at Universal Studios theme park as an event planner. She went so far as to take them there, talk her way past security, take them to an office building. She gave up the lie as she was walking down the hall. Ashton then attacked the defense contention that Caylee drowned and that George Anthony helped Casey Anthony cover it up. No one faced with an accidental drowning would do that instead of calling 911, Ashton said. "It is a trip down a rabbit hole into a bizarre world where men who love their granddaughters find them drowned and do nothing," Ashton said. "Where men who love their granddaughters take an accident, a completely innocent act, and make it look like a murder for no reason. A world where a man who buries his pets will take the granddaughter who was the love of his life and throw her in a swamp." Baez conceded that Anthony told elaborate lies, but he said those inventions should have signaled to investigators that "there's something wrong with this girl." "Instead, they had a murder case, and that was it. That was all they were interested in was evidence of murder. There's nothing sexy about a drowning," Baez said. Judge Perry angrily stopped Baez's closing arguments after he referred to Ashton as "this laughing guy." Television showed Ashton smiling behind his hand at Baez's contention that the prosecution's forensic evidence was based on fantasy. One of Perry's written orders is that the attorneys not show emotion to the other side's statements. Ashton apologized and said he tried to hide his expressions. Baez also apologized. Perry warned all of the attorneys that any other incidents would result in that attorney's removal from the trial. Casey Anthony has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. She could face a possible death sentence or life in prison if convicted of that charge. Anthony also is charged with aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter of a child and four counts of providing false information to law enforcement. The child abuse and manslaughter charges each carry a 30-year prison term if convicted. ..
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