Boy Rescued in Ala. Standoff 'Laughing, Joking'

The 5-year-old boy held hostage in a nearly week-long standoff in Alabama is in good spirits and apparently unharmed after being reunited with his family at a hospital, according to his family and law enforcement officials.

The boy, identified only as Ethan, was rescued by the FBI Monday afternoon after they rushed the underground bunker where suspect Jimmy Lee Dykes, 65, was holding him. Dykes was killed in the raid and the boy was taken away from the bunker in an ambulance.

Who Is Jimmy Lee Dykes?

Officials have not yet provided any further details on the raid, citing the ongoing investigation.

"I've been to the hospital," FBI Special Agent Steve Richardson told reporters Monday night. "I visited with Ethan. He is doing fine. He's laughing, joking, playing, eating, the things that you would expect a normal 5- to 6-year-old young man to do. He's very brave, he's very lucky, and the success story is that he's out safe and doing great."

Ethan is expected to be released from the hospital later today and head home where he will be greeted by birthday cards from his friends at school. Ethan will celebrate his 6th birthday Wednesday.

Ala. Hostage Standoff Over: Kidnapper Dead, Child Safe Watch Video

Alabama Hostage Standoff: Jimmy Lee Dykes Dead Watch Video

Officials were able to insert a high-tech camera into the 6-by-8-foot bunker to monitor Dykes' movements, and they became increasingly concerned that he might act out, a law enforcement source with direct knowledge told ABC News Monday. FBI special agents were positioned near the entrance of the bunker and used an explosive charge to gain access and neutralize Dykes.

"Within the past 24 hours, negotiations deteriorated and Mr. Dykes was observed holding a gun," the FBI's Richardson said. "At this point, the FBI agents, fearing the child was in imminent danger, entered the bunker and rescued the child."

Richardson said it "got tough to negotiate and communicate" with Dykes, but declined to give any specifics.

After the raid was complete, FBI bomb technicians checked the property for improvised explosive devices, the FBI said in a written statement Monday afternoon.

The FBI had created a mock bunker near the site and had been using it to train agents for different scenarios to get Ethan out, sources told ABC News.

Former FBI special agent and ABC News consultant Brad Garrett said rescue operators in this case had a delicate balance.

"You have to take into consideration if you're going to go in that room and go after Mr. Dykes, you have to be extremely careful because any sort of device you might use against him, could obviously harm Ethan because he's right there," he said.

Still, Monday's raid was not the ending police had sought as they spent days negotiating with the decorated Vietnam veteran through a ventilation shaft. The plastic PVC pipe was also used to send the child comfort items, including a red Hot Wheels car, coloring books, cheese crackers, potato chips and medicine.

State Sen. Harri Anne Smith said Ethan's mother asked police a few days ago not to kill Dykes.

"She put her hand on the officer's heart and said, 'Sir, don't hurt him. He's sick,'" Smith said Monday.

Taylor Hodges, pastor of the Midland City Baptist Church, said, "Many people here don't keep their doors locked. Things are going to change, especially for our school system."

The outcome of the situation drew praise from the White House.

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Doubts remain that the Leicester body is Richard III

Douglas Heaven, reporter

(Image: Leicester University)

Hacked, sliced, stripped, slung over a horse and stabbed in the bottom. Tradition tells us that Richard III - the last Plantagenet king of England - met an especially bloody end in the battle of Bosworth Field on 22 August 1485. Now we may have a body to go with the legend.

Anticipation started building last year when an interesting skeleton was unearthed from beneath a car park in Leicester, UK. Today a team of researchers from the University of Leicester announced that, "beyond reasonable doubt", the body is that of Richard III. They draw on multiple strands of evidence to back their claim: as well as the expected wounds, the skeleton shows signs of scoliosis, a disease that curves the spine, which fits with accounts of the king being "hunchbacked".

But the clincher - for the researchers, at least - is newly revealed DNA evidence from two of Richard's living maternal descendants.

Michael Ibsen, a furniture-maker originally from London, and his
distant cousin, who wishes to remain anonymous, were tracked down using genealogical records. Geneticist Turi King
of the University of Leicester then matched traces of mitochondrial DNA extracted from the skeleton
with samples taken from the purported relatives. Since Ibsen and his
cousin are both the last of their lines, this could have been the last
chance for such evidence to be obtained.

Mitochondrial DNA is
passed down the maternal line and has 16,000 base pairs in total.
Typically, you might expect to get 50 to 150 fragments from a 500-year-old skeleton, says Ian Barnes
at Royal Holloway, University of London, who was not involved
in the research. "You'd want to get sequences from lots of those
fragments," he says. "There's a possibility of mitochondrial mutations
arising in the line from Richard III."

"It's intriguing to be
sure," says Mark Thomas at
University College London. It
is right that they used mitochondrial DNA based on the maternal line, he
says, since genealogical evidence for the paternal lineage cannot be
trusted.

But mitochondrial DNA is not especially good for
pinpointing identity. "I could have the same mitochondrial DNA as
Richard III and not be related to him," says Thomas.

The
researchers used the two living descendents to "triangulate" the DNA
results. The evidence will rest on whether Ibsen and his cousin have
sufficiently rare mtDNA to make it unlikely that they both match the
dead king by chance.

They must also not be too closely related.
If Richard III's living descendants shared a common female ancestor even
150 years ago, their DNA could still be too close for the pair to count
as distinct samples, says Thomas.

We'll have to wait for the results to be published to know for sure, says Barnes.

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WP's Lee Li Lian holds first Meet-the-People session

SINGAPORE: Ms Lee Li Lian of the Workers' Party headed straight to her Meet-the-People session after Monday's Parliament sitting.

The session was held at Blk 135 Rivervale Street.

About 30 residents were in the queue to speak to Ms Lee about housing and parking issues.

The Workers' Party's (WP) Secretary-General Low Thia Khiang also turned up.

Ms Lee was sworn in as the Member of Parliament for Punggol East on Monday.

Ms Lee beat the People's Action Party's Dr Koh Poh Koon, the Reform Party's Kenneth Jeyaretnam and the Singapore Democratic Alliance's Desmond Lim in a four-cornered by-election on January 26.

Ms Lee won the seat with 54.5 per cent of the votes cast.

She is the seventh elected WP member in the House.

- CNA/xq

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Foxconn launches effort to increase employee union participation

Foxconn workers in 2011.

(Credit:
Apple)

Foxconn Technology Group is implementing a plan to increase employee participation in its labor union, the company said today in a statement obtained by CNET.

"As a part of efforts to implement the Action Plan that was developed together with the Fair Labor Association (FLA) following the assessment they conducted in early 2012, Foxconn is introducing measures to enhance employee representation in the Foxconn Labor Union and to raise employees' awareness of the organization," the company wrote today in a statement.

Apple brought in the FLA last year to inspect Foxconn's facilities and determine if there were any labor violations. The FLA determined that Foxconn would need to make a host of changes to its operation, including reduce overtime and increase wages. Foxconn has already implemented many of the FLA's recommendations.

In its statement, Foxconn pointed out that it has had union employee representative elections since 2008. Its first and head union, the Foxconn Federation of Labor Unions, was established in 2007. The employee's representatives are chosen in elections by their peers, and those votes are held every three years.

Foxconn's focus with its latest initiative is to increase the number of junior employees in its union. The company claims to have instituted a number of reforms to achieve that goal, and they will be printed in a pamphlet for employees, entitled "The Guidelines for Junior Employee Representative Election Process."

Foxconn's union efforts have been criticized on numerous occasions. In November, for example, the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank that focuses on the needs of low- and middle-income families, wrote a paper criticizing Foxconn for, among other things, representation issues on the union leadership committee.

For its part, Foxconn argues that it was already providing a representative union and its latest efforts will only support those previous efforts.

"Our employees are our greatest asset and we are fully committed to ensuring that they have a positive and satisfactory working environment, which includes greater involvement in the Foxconn Labor Union and a more effective representation of their interests in the union," the company said. "Our hope is that our efforts in implementing these reforms will not only benefit Foxconn, but also help to lift the standards and practices for our industry in China."

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King Richard III Bones Found, Scientists Say

The search for the long-vilified English King Richard III, who died in battle in 1485 and whose image as a nasty tyrant was immortalized by William Shakespeare, appears to have ended.

In a dramatic Monday morning press conference, researchers from England's University of Leicester announced they had identified "beyond all reasonable doubt" Richard III's skeletal remains. The remains had been unearthed last August by an archaeological team from beneath a parking lot where the friary that reportedly held Richard III's body once stood.

For nearly 40 minutes on Monday, a team of scientists and historians reported the results of detailed medical, historical, genealogical, and genetic studies conducted after archaeologists discovered a skeleton that they believed to be Richard III. (Related: "Shakespeare's Coined Words Now Common Currency.")

Turi King, a geneticist at the University of Leicester, and Kevin Schürer, a genealogist at the school, turned up the most compelling evidence. By poring over historical records and documents, Schürer conclusively identified two of Richard III's living descendants: Michael Ibsen, a furniture maker in London, England, and a second individual who now wishes to remain anonymous.

King took DNA samples from the two descendants and compared them to a sample of ancient DNA obtained from the skeleton from the friary. "There is a DNA match," King told reporters, "so the DNA evidence points to these being the remains of Richard III."

Richard III died at age 32 of injuries he sustained at the Battle of Bosworth in August 1485, and the new evidence fits closely with these records.

University of Leicester osteologist Jo Appleby showed two gruesome head injuries that Richard received in his last moments—one likely inflicted from behind by an assailant bearing a halberd, a medieval weapon consisting of an axe blade topped with a spike. In addition, Appleby found several other wounds that she described as "humiliation injuries," likely inflicted on Richard's dead body.

Historical accounts suggest that Richard's enemies stripped his body after the battle and threw his corpse over a horse "and this," says Appeleby, "would have left his body exposed to [humiliation] injuries."

The osteologist's studies also revealed that Richard was a man of slight build who suffered from a medical condition known as idiopathic adolescent scolosis, a curvature of the spine that developed after ten years of age and that may have brought back pain to the future king.

This emerging scientific picture of Richard fits with a description of the king written by John Rous, a medieval English historian, in the late 15th century. According to Rous, Richard III "was slight in body and weak in strength."

The King's enduring image as a cruel despot was cemented by Shakespeare, who portrayed him as a glowering monster so repugnant "that dogs bark at me as I halt by them."

In Shakespeare's famous play, the hunchbacked king claws his way to the throne and methodically murders most of his immediate family—his wife, older brother, and two young nephews—until he suffers defeat and death on the battlefield at the hands of a young Tudor hero, Henry VII.

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Which Super Bowl Commercial Won the Night?

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Sneaky ninja robot silently stalks its prey

MOVE over David Attenborough. A robot that moves only when it won't be seen or heard might make it easier to sneak up on animals and film them in the wild.

Defence labs have built robots that track people through cities, avoiding well-lit areas. But cities are noisy, so if a robot keeps a certain distance it's unlikely to be heard. Tracking and filming animals in the wild is tougher because they often have keen hearing and the environment is usually quieter. Matthew Dunbabin and his collaborator Ashley Tewes at the CSIRO Autonomous Systems Laboratory in Brisbane, Australia, are teaching a four-wheeled robot to move only when intermittent sounds - like bird or frog calls - will mask its movements.

In tests, the robot picked up the sounds of things like fork-lifts, cellphones and birds, and was able to predict whether they were likely to persist long enough to cover its movement. The robot can also identify its own noise, and guess how it will vary at different speeds and turning angles - calculating what this will sound like to a target up to 50 metres away.

With the help of a camera, laser scanner and the right algorithm, the robot can figure out which vantage points will provide the best cover so it can skulk in the shadows.

This article appeared in print under the headline "Sneaky ninja robot silently films its prey"

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Etch A Sketch creator dies

PARIS: Andre Cassagnes, the French inventor of the Etch A Sketch, a toy beloved of children around the world, has died at the age of 86.

His death in France in mid-January was announced by the Ohio Art Company which has been making the Etch a Sketch since 1960, according to media reports.

The Etch A Sketch, a grey screen with bold red frame, allows children to draw a picture using a stylus and then erase it with the turn of two buttons.

It has sold more than 100 million copies around the world.

- AFP/ck

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LeBron upstages Rogen, Rudd in Samsung's Super Bowl ad

LeBron finishes strong against Rogen and Rudd.

(Credit:
Samsung Screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)

Some brands will make you wait to see their Super Bowl ads.

Not Samsung.

Having teased quite brilliantly with its mockery of the NFL's strict trademark regulations, Samsung has now released the full version of the real thing.

The real thing from The Next Big Thing again features Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd.

More Technically Incorrect

Like Samsung's
Galaxy Note, this ad is a slightly bloated but likable affair, indulgently allowing its stars to free-associate with good humor and not so much dwelling on niceties such as, well, the products.

Mr. Show's Bob Odenkirk again comes along for the ride, puncturing Rogen and Rudd's pretensions to stardom with heartless glee.

The ad asks you consider just how old Rudd really is. It asks you to imagine Rogen in a diaper. It confirms your suspicions that crowdsourcing is the deepest joy of the lazy and the tight-fisted.

There's even a little mockery of Psy and his Gangnam Style.

Then LeBron James appears and you're asked to appreciate what real stardom is about.

It's all enjoyable enough, and well suited to the gout-inducing starfest that is the Big Game.

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Pictures We Love: Best of January

Photograph by Dieu Nalio Chery, AP

The magnitude 7 earthquake that struck near Port au Prince, Haiti, in January 2010 so devastated the country that recovery efforts are still ongoing.

Professional dancer Georges Exantus, one of the many casualties of that day, was trapped in his flattened apartment for three days, according to news reports. After friends dug him out, doctors amputated his right leg below the knee. With the help of a prosthetic leg, Exantus is able to dance again. (Read about his comeback.)

Why We Love It

"This is an intimate photo, taken in the subject's most personal space as he lies asleep and vulnerable, perhaps unaware of the photographer. The dancer's prosthetic leg lies in the foreground as an unavoidable reminder of the hardships he faced in the 2010 earthquake. This image makes me want to hear more of Georges' story."—Ben Fitch, associate photo editor

"This image uses aesthetics and the beauty of suggestion to tell a story. We are not given all the details in the image, but it is enough to make us question and wonder."—Janna Dotschkal, associate photo editor

Published February 1, 2013

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