Poisoned Lottery Winner's Kin Were Suspicious

Urooj Khan had just brought home his $425,000 lottery check when he unexpectedly died the following day. Now, certain members of Khan's family are speaking publicly about the mystery -- and his nephew told ABC News they knew something was not right.

"He was a healthy guy, you know?" said the nephew, Minhaj Khan. "He worked so hard. He was always going about his business and, the thing is: After he won the lottery and the next day later he passes away -- it's awkward. It raises some eyebrows."

The medical examiner initially ruled Urooj Khan, 46, an immigrant from India who owned dry-cleaning businesses in Chicago, died July 20, 2012, of natural causes. But after a family member demanded more tests, authorities in November found a lethal amount of cyanide in his blood, turning the case into a homicide investigation.

"When we found out there was cyanide in his blood after the extensive toxicology reports, we had to believe that ... somebody had to kill him," Minhaj Khan said. "It had to happen, because where can you get cyanide?"

In Photos: Biggest Lotto Jackpot Winners

Authorities could be one step closer to learning what happened to Urooj Khan. A judge Friday approved an order to exhume his body at Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago as early as Thursday to perform further tests.

Lottery Winner Murdered: Widow Questioned By Police Watch Video

Moments after the court hearing, Urooj Khan's sister, Meraj Khan, remembered her brother as the kind of person who would've shared his jackpot with anyone. Speaking at the Cook County Courthouse, she hoped the exhumation would help the investigation.

"It's very hard because I wanted my brother to rest in peace, but then we have to have justice served," she said, according to ABC News station WLS in Chicago. "So if that's what it takes for him to bring justice and peace, then that's what needs to be done."

Khan reportedly did not have a will. With the investigation moving forward, his family is waging a legal fight against his widow, Shabana Ansari, 32, over more than $1 million, including Urooj Khan's lottery winnings, as well as his business and real estate holdings.

Khan's brother filed a petition Wednesday to a judge asking Citibank to release information about Khan's assets to "ultimately ensure" that [Khan's] minor daughter from a prior marriage "receives her proper share."

Ansari may have tried to cash the jackpot check after Khan's death, according to court documents, which also showed Urooj Khan's family is questioning if the couple was ever even legally married.

Ansari, Urooj Khan's second wife, who still works at the couple's dry cleaning business, has insisted they were married legally.

She has told reporters the night before her husband died, she cooked a traditional Indian meal for him and their family, including Khan's daughter and Ansari's father. Not feeling well, Khan retired early, Ansari told the Chicago Sun-Times, falling asleep in a chair, waking up in agony, then collapsing in the middle of the night. She said she called 911.

"It has been an incredibly hard time," she told ABC News earlier this week. "We went from being the happiest the day we got the check. It was the best sleep I've had. And then the next day, everything was gone.

"I am cooperating with the investigation," Ansari told ABC News. "I want the truth to come out."

Ansari has not been named a suspect, but her attorney, Steven Kozicki, said investigators did question her for more than four hours.

Read More..

Video games take off as a spectator sport

Editorial: "Give video games a sporting chance"

EVERY sport has its idols and superstars. Now video gaming is getting them too. Professional gaming, or e-sports, exploded in popularity in the US and Europe last year.

The scene has been big in Asia - particularly South Korea - for about a decade, with top players such as Lim Yo-Hwan earning six-figure salaries and competing for rock-star glory in Starcraft tournaments that attract audiences in the hundreds of thousands.

The phenomenon is taking off in the West partly because of improved video-streaming technology and large financial rewards. Video games are becoming a spectator sport, with certain players and commentators drawing massive online audiences.

And where people go, money follows. The second world championship of League of Legends - a team-based game in which players defend respective corners of a fantasy-themed battle arena - was held in Los Angeles in October. The tournament had a prize pool of $5 million for the season, with $1 million going to winning team Taipei Assassins, the largest cash prize in the history of e-sports.

League of Legends has also set records for spectator numbers. More than 8 million people watched the championship finals either online or on TV - a figure that dwarfs audience numbers for broadcasts of many traditional sports fixtures.

But gamers don't need to compete at the international level to earn money. Video-streaming software like Twitch makes it easy for players to send live footage to a website, where the more popular ones can attract upwards of 10,000 viewers - enough for some to make a living by having adverts in their video streams. Gamers can go pro without leaving their homes.

Currently, e-sports productions are handled by gaming leagues - but that could soon change. Last November saw two moves that will make it even easier to reach a global online audience. First, Twitch announced it would be integrating with Electronic Arts's Origin service, a widely used gaming platform. This would let gamers stream their play at the click of a button, making it easy for people around the world to watch.

Also in November came the latest release from one of gaming's biggest franchises, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, which has the ability to live-stream via YouTube built into the game itself. Another feature allows the broadcast of in-game commentary for multiplayer matches.

"I think we will reach a point, maybe within five years, where spectator features are a necessity for all big game releases," says Corin Cole of e-sports publishing company Heaven Media in Huntingdon, UK.

David Ting founded the California-based IGN Pro League (IPL), which hosts professional tournaments. He puts the popularity of e-sports down to the demand for new forms of online entertainment. "After 18 months, IPL's viewer numbers are already comparable to college sports in the US when there's a live event," he says. "The traffic is doubling every six months."

Ting sees motion detection, virtual reality and mobile gaming coming together to make physical exertion a more common aspect of video games, blurring the line between traditional sport and e-sports. "Angry Birds could be this century's bowling," says Ting.

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Football: Everton waste chance to boost top-four bid

LIVERPOOL: Everton wasted a chance to boost their challenge for a top-four finish in the Premier League as Swansea held on for a 0-0 draw at Goodison Park on Saturday.

David Moyes' fifth-placed side would have moved within one point of fourth-placed Tottenham with a victory, but the visitors delivered a composed display to frustrate the Toffees in front of Spain coach Vicente del Bosque, who was in England to check on the form of influential Swansea forward Michu.

Del Bosque stated before Christmas that Michu will be handed a place in his squad for the friendly clash with Uruguay at the start of February, recognition for the outstanding first half of the season enjoyed by the 26-year-old.

The former Real Madrid boss will have left Merseyside equally impressed by Spanish centre-back Chico Flores and the other Swansea defenders as they kept Everton at bay.

Playing almost exclusively on the counter attack, the visitors came closest to breaking the first half deadlock when Nathan Dyer intelligently played Michu clear, threading a pass between two Everton defenders after 35 minutes.

Michu instantly attempted an audacious chip, from 20 yards, which the Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard did well to push onto his crossbar via a fingertip save.

That opening aside, the game was one of almost exclusive Everton domination, although Swansea defended the chances with relative comfort.

Steven Pienaar sent over an accurate ninth minute cross which the lively Nikica Jelavic placed just the wrong side of the left-hand post, then Leighton Baines' corner was met by a twisting header from Jelavic, with full-back Dwight Tiendalli required to clear off the Swansea line.

Just before the half hour, Ashley Williams made another goal-line clearance for the visitors, this one from Victor Anichebe's effort after Marouane Fellaini had nodded down a Phil Jagielka through-ball.

The second half opened in similar fashion with Everton midfielder Phil Neville making a rare foray close to the opposition goal and winning a corner after Michel Vorm saved his effort at the foot of his near post.

Anichebe also threatened, rising powerfully to meet a left-flank Baines corner and heading just over the Swansea goal.

Pienaar almost managed to play Jelavic clean through, at the end of a neat passing move by Everton, but Swansea's defensive organisation was first-class and the Welsh side looked well capable of ending the home side's run of having scored in 18 consecutive Premier League games.

The home crowd's growing frustration saw them join Jelavic in appealing loudly for a penalty after the forward went down following contact with Williams, an appeal which referee Phil Dowd rejected.

Seamus Coleman's deep cross from the right was headed goalwards by Jelavic and controlled by Fellaini on his chest, just two yards from the line. But the Belgian international was unable to turn and more solid defending cleared the threat.

Del Bosque had seen enough, leaving his seat in the Goodison directors' box after 77 minutes, and it proved the right call as the match petered out.

-AFP/ac

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A headphone amp and USB digital-to-analog converter for just $99 each

The Schiit Magni and Modi (left) and Schiit Asgard (right).

(Credit:
Steve Guttenberg/CNET)

Schiit Audio's very first product, the Asgard headphone amplifier, left me shaken and stirred back in 2010. It sold for $249, looked and sounded amazing, and to top things off, it was made in the U.S. -- not just assembled here. Most of the Asgard's parts are sourced from U.S. companies.

The Asgard is still in company's product line, and it's still $249. But Schiit has grown since then, and now offers a full line of more expensive headphone amps and USB digital-to-analog converters (DACs) -- which is great. But the company's most recent offerings sell for just $99 each! The Magni headphone amp and the Modi DAC are also made in America, and they sound spectacular.

They're both the same ultra-compact size, just 5x3.5x1.25 inches, and they each weigh about a pound. Both feature an all-metal case, and the design looks pretty serious. The Magni amp puts out up to 1.2 watts, so it's considerably more powerful than your average AV receiver's headphone amp. And unlike those built-in headphone amps, the Magni is not a chip-based amp that costs 20 cents. Most headphones don't need all that power -- but some headphones, like my Hifiman HE-400s, really come alive with more potent amps.

Yes, what you plug your headphones into can make or break their sound. Heck, most $1,000 receivers have marginal headphone amps. (They're not a big priority for most buyers.) But the Magni's innards feature fully discrete FET/bipolar, Class AB circuitry. That means the Magni is built like a miniature high-end speaker amplifier. I don't know of another headphone amp built that way for less than $250, and most $250-$500 amps aren't built as well as the Magni. The amp has just one set of RCA analog inputs on its backside, and a 6.3mm headphone jack on the front panel.

The Magni amp uses an external wall wart power supply; the Modi DAC is powered via the USB 2.0 asynchronous input connection. The USB is the only digital input -- there's no coaxial or Toslink optical inputs, but there's a pair of RCA analog outputs on the rear panel. The DAC handles up to 96kHz/24-bit digital audio. The Modi features switched-capacitor filtering and an active filter section, so you can run long analog cables from the Modi back to your hi-fi system without any loss of quality.

I played the Magni and Modi together, and loved the sound. Like the bigger Schiit amps I've tested, the sound is rich, with lots of detail and oomph. I started with my old Sennheiser HD 580 and Grado RS-1 headphones, and moved onto the brand-new Yamaha PRO 500, Sony MDR-1R, Noontec Zoro, and Koss Porta Pro over-the-ear and on-ear headphones, plus a few in-ear models, including Ultimate Ears UE 900s. I have quite a few more expensive desktop amps on hand, including the other Schiits at my disposal. But there was nothing about the sound of the Magni/Modi combo that I found wanting. They deliver bona-fide high-end sound quality. A lot of desktop headphone amps aren't quiet enough to use with in-ear headphones, but the Magni is.

Then I compared the Modi with the $449 Schiit Bifrost DAC, and it was easy to hear the difference. The Modi is sweet and mellow and very tolerant of cruddy-sounding low bit-rate files and streaming audio sources. But when I played great-sounding CDs, the Bifrost was a lot more transparent and detailed. There's less standing between my ears and the music. But as I did the Modi vs. Bifrost shootout, my respect for the Magni amp's sound went up. The $99 amp easily resolved the differences between the two DACs over my Hifiman HE 400 headphones. Stepping up from the Magni to the Asgard produced similar improvement, but to a much smaller degree. The Magni would still be an outstanding value for double the price.

The Magni and Modi come with two-year warranties. That's twice the coverage of most desktop components in their price range. Schiit has a 15-day return policy, so you can still send it back for a refund if you're not happy with the sound, but there is a 15 percent restocking fee.

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Pictures: Civil War Shipwreck Revealed by Sonar

Photograph by Jesse Cancelmo

A fishing net, likely only decades old, drapes over machinery that once connected the Hatteras' pistons to its paddle wheels, said Delgado.

From archived documents, the NOAA archaeologist learned that Blake, the ship's commander, surrendered as his ship was sinking. "It was listing to port, [or the left]," Delgado said. The Alabama took the wounded and the rest of the crew and put them in irons.

The officers were allowed to keep their swords and wander the deck as long as they promised not to lead an uprising against the Alabama's crew, he added.

From there, the Alabama dropped off their captives in Jamaica, leaving them to make their own way back to the U.S.

Delgado wants to dig even further into the crew of the Hatteras. He'd like see if members of the public recognize any of the names on his list of crew members and can give him background on the men.

"That's why I do archaeology," he said.

(Read about other Civil War battlefields in National Geographic magazine.)

Published January 11, 2013

Read More..

Poisoned Lottery Winner's Kin Were Suspicious

Urooj Khan had just brought home his $425,000 lottery check when he unexpectedly died the following day. Now, certain members of Khan's family are speaking publicly about the mystery -- and his nephew told ABC News they knew something was not right.

"He was a healthy guy, you know?" said the nephew, Minhaj Khan. "He worked so hard. He was always going about his business and, the thing is: After he won the lottery and the next day later he passes away -- it's awkward. It raises some eyebrows."

The medical examiner initially ruled Urooj Khan, 46, an immigrant from India who owned dry-cleaning businesses in Chicago, died July 20, 2012, of natural causes. But after a family member demanded more tests, authorities in November found a lethal amount of cyanide in his blood, turning the case into a homicide investigation.

"When we found out there was cyanide in his blood after the extensive toxicology reports, we had to believe that ... somebody had to kill him," Minhaj Khan said. "It had to happen, because where can you get cyanide?"

In Photos: Biggest Lotto Jackpot Winners

Authorities could be one step closer to learning what happened to Urooj Khan. A judge Friday approved an order to exhume his body at Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago as early as Thursday to perform further tests.

Lottery Winner Murdered: Widow Questioned By Police Watch Video

Moments after the court hearing, Urooj Khan's sister, Meraj Khan, remembered her brother as the kind of person who would've shared his jackpot with anyone. Speaking at the Cook County Courthouse, she hoped the exhumation would help the investigation.

"It's very hard because I wanted my brother to rest in peace, but then we have to have justice served," she said, according to ABC News station WLS in Chicago. "So if that's what it takes for him to bring justice and peace, then that's what needs to be done."

Khan reportedly did not have a will. With the investigation moving forward, his family is waging a legal fight against his widow, Shabana Ansari, 32, over more than $1 million, including Urooj Khan's lottery winnings, as well as his business and real estate holdings.

Khan's brother filed a petition Wednesday to a judge asking Citibank to release information about Khan's assets to "ultimately ensure" that [Khan's] minor daughter from a prior marriage "receives her proper share."

Ansari may have tried to cash the jackpot check after Khan's death, according to court documents, which also showed Urooj Khan's family is questioning if the couple was ever even legally married.

Ansari, Urooj Khan's second wife, who still works at the couple's dry cleaning business, has insisted they were married legally.

She has told reporters the night before her husband died, she cooked a traditional Indian meal for him and their family, including Khan's daughter and Ansari's father. Not feeling well, Khan retired early, Ansari told the Chicago Sun-Times, falling asleep in a chair, waking up in agony, then collapsing in the middle of the night. She said she called 911.

"It has been an incredibly hard time," she told ABC News earlier this week. "We went from being the happiest the day we got the check. It was the best sleep I've had. And then the next day, everything was gone.

"I am cooperating with the investigation," Ansari told ABC News. "I want the truth to come out."

Ansari has not been named a suspect, but her attorney, Steven Kozicki, said investigators did question her for more than four hours.

Read More..

Today on New Scientist: 11 January 2013

Largest structure challenges Einstein's smooth cosmos

One-twentieth the diameter of the observable universe, a group of galaxies dents the cherished idea that the cosmos is uniform at large scales

Straitjacket drug halts herpes virus's escape stunt

Herpes infections recur as the virus is adept at evading our defences, but a new drug that suppresses enzymes exploited by the virus seems effective

Zoologger: Mouse eats scorpions and howls at the moon

Super-aggressive grasshopper mice are not put off by the deadly venom of the scorpions they feast on - in fact, nothing much seems to scare them

Sand tsunami pictured striking Australian coast

The spectacular wall of sand and dust appears to block out the sun like a giant wave

Astrophile: Zombie stars feed on Earth-like exoplanets

We can now learn what planets around other stars are made of - by looking at the atmospheres of white dwarfs that have swallowed up their worlds

Life will find a way, even in the midst of a hurricane

Not for the faint-hearted: to sample the microbiome of a hurricane, fly a jetliner through it

Physics not biology may be key to beating cancer

Billions of dollars spent on cancer research have yielded no great breakthrough yet. There are other ways to attack the problem, says physicist Paul Davies

Feedback: Return of nominative determinism

The last nominative determinism stories, salads of gizzards and his chestnuts, Australian graduates in outer space, and more

A comeback for virtual reality? Inside the Oculus Rift

The Oculus Rift promises an immersive gaming experience like no other. Niall Firth gets his head in the game and gives it a try

Is the US facing Flu-maggedon?

The US flu season has come early this winter, leaving many hospitals overwhelmed. But is the situation really any worse than usual?

Your body's insights into life and cosmos

The Universe Within by Neil Shubin tells stories from your body about our species, planet and universe. PLUS: a cautionary tale of inspirational scientists

Hands on with Leap Motion's gestural interface

The makers of the ultra-precise gestural interface talk big about killing off the mouse. But it looks like more than just bluster

Personal assistant for your emails streamlines your life

GmailValet aims to use crowdsourcing to give everyone a personal assistant to help deal with their emails - it could cost as little as $2 a day

DNA 'identichip' gives a detailed picture of a suspect

A new microchip-based DNA tester can identify multiple traits of an individual at a time, even where their DNA is scarce

Most fundamental clock ever could redefine kilogram

Physicists have created the first clock with a tick that depends on the hyper-regular frequency of matter itself

Nanomachine mimics nature's protein factory

An artificial ribosome that assembles proteins and peptides could make it much easier to manufacture antibiotics and exotic new materials

Muscle mimic pulls electricity from wet surface

A plastic film that repeatedly curls up and flips over when wet could power devices in remote areas or sensors embedded in sweaty clothing

Read More..

Mali hits back at Islamists with French, African backing

BAMAKO: Mali on Friday declared a state of emergency and unleashed an offensive against Islamists who control the north of the country with military backing from France, Nigeria and Senegal.

President Francois Hollande confirmed in Paris that French forces were involved in an attack aimed at repelling Al-Qaeda-linked radicals who have triggered international alarm with a push south towards the capital Bamako.

In the capital, officers said the first objective was to retake Konna, a central town that was captured by Islamist forces earlier this week, and confirmed that initial exchanges had resulted in casualties on both sides.

"As in any war, the Malian army has suffered losses, the enemy also," Colonel Oumar Dao told a press conference.

The colonel also confirmed that Nigerian and Senegalese troops were helping to support Malian forces who are, on their own, considered too weak and poorly organised to meet the challenge represented by the various Islamist groups who seized control of the north last year, taking advantage of the power vacuum created by a coup in Bamako.

Hollande gave no indication of the scale of French involvement in its former colony but said it would last "for as long as is necessary."

Sources said he had decided to authorise the deployment of French troops on Friday morning following an appeal for help from Mali's interim president Dioncounda Traore.

"Mali is facing a terrorist threat coming from the north, which the world knows for its brutality and fanaticism," Hollande said.

He said Mali's "very existence", the country's population and 6,000 French expatriates were under threat.

"France will always be there when it concerns the rights of a population that wants to live in freedom and democracy."

France had earlier advised its nationals in Mali to leave the country.

Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian held talks with US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and was due to talk to his British and German counterparts later in the day.

The offensive came a day after Mali's government appealed to France and the United Nations for help in pushing back the Islamists.

As well as capturing Konna, the rebel forces had moved about 1,200 fighters to within 20 kilometres (12.5 miles) of Mopti, a strategically important town on the frontier between rebel-held and government-held territories.

Hollande said France's support for Mali's action was legitimate in international law and in line with the wishes of the UN Security Council.

The Security Council has already given its blessing for a 3,000-strong African force to be sent to Mali but it will not be ready to deploy before September at the earliest.

That created pressure on France to act quickly and Hollande acknowledged earlier in the day that the situation had become critical.

"They are trying to deliver a fatal blow to the very existence of this country," he said. "France, like its African partners and the whole of the international community, cannot accept this.

Traore will visit Paris on Wednesday for talks with Hollande.

The Islamists' advance has exacerbated fears of Mali becoming an Afghanistan-style haven for extremists within easy reach of Western Europe.

France has led calls for an international response but had, until Friday, insisted its involvement would be limited to providing logistical support for the force being prepared, slowly, by the West African regional bloc ECOWAS.

That stance changed when the Islamists seized Konna, an advance that opened the door to an assault on the capital, according to French defence minister Le Drian.

"Given the political situation in Bamako, it would not take much for the country to fall into the most total anarchy," Le Drian said.

Le Drian said he had been struck by the level of coordination and military organisation shown by the rebels at Konna.

-AFP/ac

Read More..

Math wins the Mobile App Showdown at CES 2013

The team at Vision Objects were proud of the victory for MyScript Calculator.

(Credit:
Photo by Jason Parker/CNET)

LAS VEGAS--Every year at CES, the Mobile Apps Showdown pits dozens of downloads against one another to see which mobile app emerges as the best. This year's event was the biggest yet, and based on the excitement we saw at the event, we think it will only continue to grow.

Here's how it works: a panel of judges first narrows the pool of entrants down to 10 finalists. The developers of the finalists are then invited to present their apps to a live audience at the Mobile Apps Showdown here in Las Vegas, and the app that receives the loudest applause is crowned the winner.

This year, the 10 finalists in contention were:

At the end of the 10 presentations, the hosts of the event -- comedians, Jon Hein and Gary Dell'Abate -- did a quick roll call with their applause-o-meter. When all was said and done, it was clear by the deafening cheers and applause that the winner of the coveted award was MyScript Calculator, a groundbreaking tool that lets you perform mathematical operations with freehand writing of expressions on your touch screen.

MyScript Calculator may not sound all that sexy, but the handwriting recognition technology that powers it is unquestionably incredibly impressive. It can recognize radical symbols, trigonometric functions, and of course basic arithmetic operations. It can even solve for variables. For more details on MyScript Calculator, check out CNET's First Take.

Also, this is the first year that a single app won both the in-person App Showdown award and the online People's Choice award -- a noteworthy achievement, indeed.

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Space Pictures This Week: Australia Burns, Pulsars Wobble

Image courtesy P. Kalas, U. California, and ESA/NASA

This new Hubble Space Telescope image of a nearby star, Fomalhaut, and its surrounding disc of debris have made astronomers sit up and take notice. That's because the picture, released January 8, reveals that the debris field—made of ice, dust, and rocks—is wider than previously thought, spanning an area 14 to 20 billion miles from the star.

Scientists have also used the image to calculate the path of a planet, Fomalhaut b, as it makes its away around the star. It turns out that the planet's 2,000-year elliptical orbit takes it three times closer to Fomalhaut than previously thought, and that its eccentric path could send it plowing through the rock and ice contained in the debris field.

The resulting collision, if it happens, could occur around the year 2032 and result in a show similar to what happened when the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 crashed into Jupiter, astronomer Paul Kalas, of the University of California at Berkeley, said in a statement.

Published January 11, 2013

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