Pope: The Secret World Of The Conclave

By Michelle Clifford, Sky News Correspondent

The cardinals heading into the Conclave in Rome know they won't see the world outside the Vatican walls again until they have chosen a new Pontiff.

The highly secretive process has been experienced by few men over the last century. British Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor is one of them.

In 2005 he helped pick Pope Benedict XVI and the memory of that first day is still etched on to his psyche.

"I can still remember walking in and it looked absolutely magnificent in the Sistine Chapel. The wonderful frescoes of Michelangelo. The Last Judgement on the altar. And the wonderful images around the walls," he said.

Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor recalls the enormity of the task ahead of them. Knowing the choice they made would impact the lives of more than a billion Catholics. And in a blink the moment was upon them.

"And then suddenly the junior Cardinal says: 'Everybody out. Extra Omnes,' and so all the servers, the ministers, the people go.

"And he shuts the huge doors with a big thud. And so there's just 115 of us and we all look at each other and think, well one of us is going to come out not with a scarlet cassock but with a white one".

He remembers the process as a solemn and holy one.

Each cardinal felt the weight of responsibility to make the right choice. And the tension wasn't helped during each round of voting by the fact that every man knew there was a chance, however small, that he could be picked.

The elector cardinals go to the Sistine Chapel in 2005

"The cardinal sitting near me was going rather white. You could tell he was thinking 'gosh, I really don't want this'. And between you and me, I think every cardinal had a name up his sleeve just in case."

He himself had chosen Adrian after the only English Pope and Gregory. He also toyed with Benedict - the name the cardinal he picked for Pope took.

Such is the secrecy around the vote the cardinals go into lockdown inside the Vatican. They vote, eat and live together. And the debate about who should be leader goes on well after they leave the Sistine Chapel each day.

He remembers well the stoves erected in the Sistine Chapel to burn the ballot papers after each round.

Black smoke was sent up if no-one had been elected. But when white smoke emerged from the Sistine chapel chimney the outside world learned what the cardinals inside already knew - a Pope had been selected.

"You could have heard a pin drop as the last votes were counted. It was a very dramatic moment. It felt extraordinary," he said.

The then Cardinal Ratzinger announced the name he had chosen for himself and then disappeared out for a short moment to be transformed.

Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor explained: "There is a tailor outside the door with three cassocks. Small, large and medium. And what is amazing is that he comes back wearing a white cassock and we gave him a great clap and we all went up one by one and kissed his ring.

"And it didn't matter whether you voted for him or not - he is Pope."

Some cardinals say it is a process they would not want to repeat - such is the burden of responsibility.

But Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor would be happy to oblige despite knowing that when he came out his family would ask the same two questions they did the last time.

He said: "My nephew asked what was the food like. I told him good. I then asked him what his other questions was. He said 'How many votes did you get?'"

On that point the Cardinal's lips are sealed.

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Ohio Crash Survivor: 'Driver Was Speeding'

The driver of a 4x4 that flipped into a pond, killing six teenagers in Ohio, was speeding, according to one of the two passengers who survived the crash.

The Honda Passport carrying eight people slammed into a crash barrier on a road in Warren, about 60 miles east of Cleveland, at about 7am on Sunday.

It ended up in a swampy pond and sank with five of the victims trapped inside. A sixth person thrown from the car during the crash was found underneath it.

Two boys escaped from the submerged vehicle after smashing out a rear window.

None of the eight occupants were wearing a seatbelt

Eighteen-year-old Brian Henry told WYTV that the group were being driven home by 19-year-old Alexis Cayson.

"She took it into her hands to speed up. I'd been telling her to slow down," he said.

"Before I turned around and looked at her, the car had jerked out of control. I don't know if she did it on purpose or how fast she was going."

He added that he was not sure what the group had been doing earlier because the others were already in the vehicle when he got in.

The State Highway Patrol says the sport utility vehicle's owner filed a theft report on Monday. The owner is not related to any of the teens involved in the accident, police said.

The authorities have confirmed the driver did not have a valid licence.

Friends of the dead teenagers console each other

None of the eight people were thought to have been wearing seatbelts. The car is designed to hold five occupants.

State police identified the other victims as Andrique Bennett, 14; Brandon Murray, 17; and Daylan Ray, Kirklan Behner and Ramone White who were all 15.

Brian Henry and 15-year-old Asher Lewis were treated for bruising and other injuries and later released.

Authorities have given little detail on where the group of friends had been and why they were out around daybreak on Sunday.

While the father of one of the dead boys said they were coming home from a sleepover at a friend's house, the mother of another boy said her son and his best friend had lied about staying over at each other's homes that evening.

She said she thinks they went to a party.

"If only he had listened," said Lisa Williamson, mother of 14-year-old Brandon Murray.

"I told him, 'Don't you go nowhere.' But they're kids."

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Facebook 'Likes' Reveal More Than Users Think

Facebook users' online behaviour reveals intimate details about personality which could let strangers predict their sexuality, political views and religion, researchers have claimed.

Experts say that by studying "Likes" - the system used to show approval on the social networking site - it is possible to predict accurately what a person is like in real life.

Whether it is drug users being more inclined to show approval for Big Momma's movies or people with a high IQ showing a taste for curly chips, the patterns are not always immediately obvious to the untrained eye.

But Cambridge University researchers believe they can work out what lies behind the hidden clues.

     "We believe that our results, while based on Facebook Likes, apply to a wider range of online behaviours," said Michal Kosinski, operation director at the University of Cambridge's Psychometrics Centre.

"Similar predictions could be made from all manner of digital data, with this kind of secondary 'inference' made with remarkable accuracy - statistically predicting sensitive information people might not want revealed.

"Given the variety of digital traces people leave behind, it's becoming increasingly difficult for individuals to control."

The 'likes' may be clues as to the user's personalities

The study, based on the Facebook profiles of 58,000 people in the US, found that online behaviour can be used to make surprising accurate predictions about users' race, age, IQ, sexuality, personality, substance use and political views.

After feeding Facebook preferences into an algorithm, they created models which were able to determine male sexuality with 88% accuracy, race with 95% accuracy, political leanings with 85% accuracy and religion 82% of the time.

But few users clicked "Likes" which explicitly revealed these traits.

For example, fewer than 5% of gay users clicked obvious links such as "Gay Marriage" and instead inference was drawn from more popular likes such as music and TV shows.

The finding could be used to direct personalised marketing to web users, but also highlights potential threats to privacy.

Mr Kosinski said: "I am a great fan and active user of new amazing technologies, including Facebook. I appreciate automated book recommendations or Facebook selecting the most relevant stories for my newsfeed.

"However, I can imagine situations in which the same data and technology is used to predict political views or sexual orientation, posing threats to freedom or even life.

"Just the possibility of this happening could deter people from using digital technologies and diminish trust between individuals and institutions."

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Argo: Iran May Sue Over 'Unrealistic' Film

Iranian authorities are reportedly planning to sue Hollywood over the Oscar-winning Argo because of the movie's "unrealistic portrayal" of the country.

Several news outlets, including the pro-reform Shargh daily, said French lawyer Isabelle Coutant-Peyre is in Iran for talks with officials over how and where to file the lawsuit.

Ms Coutant-Peyre is also the lawyer for notorious Venezuelan-born terrorist Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, who is better known as Carlos the Jackal.

The decision on the lawsuit came after a group of Iranian cultural officials and movie critics screened the film in a closed audience in a cinema in Tehran.

The gathering, entitled "The Hoax of Hollywood," apparently discussed various legal aspects of filing a lawsuit.

Affleck accepts the Oscar for Best Picture

But it remains unclear what specific charges Iran could raise and what court Tehran could turn to if the action goes ahead.

Those at the meeting dismissed Argo as a "violation of international cultural norms".

Officials had previously dismissed director Ben Affleck's film as anti-Iranian propaganda and an "advertisement for the CIA".

While Argo has not been officially released in Iran, there has been no shortage of buzz from ordinary Iranians who have seen the movie on bootleg DVDs.

The story is based on the real-life escape of six American hostages from the besieged US Embassy in Tehran in 1979.

City council member Masoomeh Ebtekar - who was one of the students who took part in the occupation - said the film exaggerates the violence among the crowds that stormed the compound.

And the semi-official Mehr news agency said the movie's Oscar for Best Picture was politically motivated, because it had been co-presented from the White House by First Lady Michelle Obama.

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US Town Vetoes Compulsory Gun Ownership Law

Residents of a small town in the far northeastern state of Maine have rejected a proposal that would have required every home to have a gun.

About 50 registered voters in Byron voted against an article that read: "Shall the town of Byron vote to require all households to have firearms and ammunitions to protect the citizens?"

Even Anne Simmons-Edmunds, head of the select board, who initially supported the measure, voted against it.

The measure was proposed by her father, Bruce Simmons. He voted it down too, saying the wording was wrong.

He says it should have read "recommend' rather than "require".

Some of the town's roughly 140 residents say the proposal made the town a laughing stock.

Others resented the proposal, calling it government over-reach.

President Obama tasked Joe Biden with curbing gun violence

The proposal certainly ran counter to the mood nationally where debate about gun restrictions dominates.

The US Senate Judiciary Committee is meeting this week to debate a bill broadening the requirement for federal background checks to nearly all firearms buyers.

It also plans to consider banning assault weapons and boosting federal aid for school security.

Requiring near universal background checks was the centrepiece of President Obama's plans for curbing guns that he proposed after the December mass shooting of elementary school students and staff in Newtown, Connecticut.

Currently, background checks are required for sales by federally licenced gun dealers.

Private transactions between individuals do not need the checks.

However, leaders of the Republican-run House have expressed little interest in requiring background checks for private sales.

A ban on assault weapons is being debated at a federal level

Colorado, meanwhile, is forging ahead with its own firearms control package.

One Democrat after another rose on Monday to talk about restricting gun rights, after last July's shooting at a suburban Denver movie theatre.

The vote came on the eve of an expected plea by the alleged gunman, James Holmes, who is accused of killing 12 people and injuring dozens more.

The measures approved by the Senate included a limit on the kinds of high-capacity ammunition magazines Holmes is accused of using.

Democratic Governor John Hickenlooper is expected to sign all the proposals into law once they clear the state House.

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Kim Jong-Un Threatens To 'Wipe Out' Island

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has threatened to "wipe out" a South Korean island as diplomatic tensions between the neighbouring countries escalate.

The communist state has been making noises about nuclear war in response to UN sanctions imposed after its third atomic test last month.

It has also announced its unilateral shredding of the 60-year-old Korean War armistice and non-aggression pacts with Seoul in protest at an ongoing South Korean-US military exercise.

While most of these statements have been dismissed as rhetorical bluster, the latest threat to the border island of Baengnyeong, which has around 5,000 civilian residents, appears credible and carries the weight of precedent.

In 2010, the South Korean naval vessel Cheonan was sunk in the area of Baengnyeong with the loss of 46 lives, and later that year North Korea shelled the nearby island of Yeonpyeong, killing four people.

On a visit to frontline artillery units, Kim Jong-Un briefed officers on their mission "to strike and wipe out the enemies" on Baengnyeong and turn the island into a "sea of fire".

Kim waves to troops as he leaves flashpoint Baengnyeong island

"Once an order is issued, you should break the waists of the crazy enemies, totally cut their windpipes and thus clearly show them what a real war is like," Kim was quoted as saying by the Korean Central News Agency.

The leader toured military facilities with officers and was photographed holding a guitar during talks, before departing the Wolnae Islet defence unit in a wooden boat.

An administrative official on Baengnyeong, Kim Young-Gu, said civilian emergency shelters on the island had been fully stocked and all village councils put on high alert.

"It's not like there's a mass exodus of panicked islanders to the mainland. But to be honest with you, we're a bit scared," he told AFP.

The disputed sea border off the west coast was the scene of deadly naval clashes in 1999, 2002 and 2009.

Residents on a number of frontline islands have reportedly taken to sleeping in their clothes in preparation for a night-time alert.

South Korea's President faces a tricky diplomatic task

The crisis represents an early test for South Korea's new President Park Geun-Hye, who was sworn in only two weeks ago, with concerns about just how far the inexperienced Kim Jong-Un is willing to go.

Defence Ministry spokesman Kim Min-Seok said: "If the North provokes us, we will respond in ways that will cause them more harm."

The United States has risked further provoking Kim by slapping sanctions on North Korea's primary foreign exchange bank and four senior officials.

Past sanctions have failed to persuade Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear programme, but the international community hopes measures targeting financial lifelines can slow down the process and curb proliferation.

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'Cannibal Cop' Convicted In Plot To Eat Women

By Sky News US Team, in New York

A New York City police officer has been convicted of plotting to kidnap, cook and eat women.

The jury reached the verdict at the kidnapping conspiracy trial of Officer Gilberto Valle, a 28-year-old father with an admitted fetish for talking on the Internet about cannibalism.

Valle's lawyers argued that he was just fantasising and noted that none of the women were ever harmed.

Prosecutors countered that an analysis of Valle's computer found he was taking concrete steps to abduct his wife and at least five other women he knew.

They said he looked up potential targets on a restricted law enforcement database, searched the Internet for how to knock someone out with chloroform, and showed up on the block of one woman after agreeing to kidnap her for $5,000 for a man, now awaiting trial.

Valle "left the world of fantasy and entered the world of reality", prosecutor Hadassa Waxman said during closing arguments.

She said the officer's arrest near Halloween last year interrupted a ghoulish plan to "kidnap, torture, rape and commit other horrific acts on young women".

The jury heard Valle's potential victims testify that they were trading innocent-sounding emails and texts with him, unaware he was supposedly scheming to make meals out of them.

The government also sought to drive home the point that Valle was more of a threat because he was a police officer.

The trial opened a window on strange online underworld where people share sick and twisted fantasies of torture, murder, dismemberment and cannibalism.

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Pope Election: Cardinal Conclave To Begin

Voting Cardinals Tweet Goodbyes

Updated: 8:42am UK, Tuesday 12 March 2013

Cardinals entering the Vatican on Tuesday ahead of a conclave to elect the next pope took to Twitter to say goodbye to their online flock before they are cut off from the outside world.

"Last tweet before conclave: May Our Father hear and answer with love and mercy all prayers and sacrifices offered for fruitful outcome. God bless!" South African cardinal Wilfrid Napier told his thousands of followers.

Cardinals will be completely isolated inside the Vatican walls for the duration of the conclave, which could last up to a few days.

Jamming devices in the Sistine Chapel block all communications and the Vatican has said anyone caught tweeting will be excommunicated.

Before moving to the Vatican residence where the 115 cardinal electors will eat and sleep during the conclave, US cardinal Roger Mahony wrote: "Last tweet before moving to Casa Santa Martha, and mass to elect a pope.

"First conclave meeting late Tuesday afternoon. Prayers needed," he said.

Pierre Durieux, spokesman for France's Philippe Barbarin, tweeted to say that the three French cardinals had entered the Vatican and now: "A big silence".

Sister Mary Ann Walsh, spokeswoman for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, expressed concern on her account saying: "In this electronic age, I worry some cardinals may go into iPad and Twitter withdrawal."

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Sinkhole In One! Golfer Rescued From Pit

A golfer has had to be rescued from a sinkhole that swallowed him up at an Illinois fairway.

Mark Mihal was with three friends playing the 14th hole at Annbriar Golf Course near Waterloo last Friday.

But when the 43-year-old's buddies looked round he was nowhere to be seen. 

They heard him moaning and followed the noise back to where he had been standing.

His wife Lori wrote up Mark's words on his Golfmanna.com website.

A 12ft ladder turned out to be too short for the rescue effort

"I felt the ground start to collapse and it happened so fast that I couldn't do anything," he said.

"I reached for the ground as I was going down and it gave way, too. It seemed like I was falling for a long time.

"The real scary part was I didn't know when I would hit bottom and what I would land on."  

The fall had left him with a dislocated shoulder.

The pit that swallowed him up turned out to be 18ft deep and 10ft wide.

A ladder brought from the clubhouse was too short and Mark only had the use of one arm to pull himself up.

His friend Ed decided he would have to climb into the hole to get him out, spurred on by the recent death of a man in a Florida sinkhole.

"The thoughts of being buried alive were running through Mark's mind because of that horrifying story," Lori Mihal wrote.

Mark and Lori Mihal

"Dirt was falling on his head the whole time he was down below."

The mortgage broker from Creve Coeur, in neighbouring Missouri was eventually hoisted to safety with a rope and taken to a local hospital.

Although he still considers the course one of his favourites, he is having second thoughts about returning.

"It'd be kind of strange playing that hole again, for sure," he told the St Louis Post-Dispatch.

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Chicago Baby Shot During Nappy Change Dies

A six-month-old Chicago girl who was shot five times while her father was changing her nappy has died.

The Cook County Medical Examiner's office says Jonylah Watkins died at Comer Children's Hospital a day after she and her father were shot.

The girl's father, Jonathan Watkins, remains in critical condition at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

Police say he has an extensive criminal background and is a gang member.

Mr Watkins was changing his daugher in this minivan (Credit: WFLD-TV)

Officers are not sure whether he will decide to cooperate with them.

Police are scouring the South Side neighbourhood of Woodlawn, where the attack happened.

They have surveillance video of a blue van believed to be the gunman's getaway vehicle.

Witnesses said the gunman approached Jonathan Watkins at around 1pm local time and opened fire on him while he was standing beside his minivan and changing his daughter's nappy. She was on the front seat.

Mr Watkins was shot in the side and buttocks, and suffered a graze wound to his face.

It was not  the family's first brush with Chicago's gun violence. The girl's mother, Judy Watkins, was shot in the knee while she was pregnant with Jonylah, according to the woman's mother, Mary Young.

"There's too much shooting over there," Ms Young told reporters. Speaking of her granddaughter, she added: "She's nothing but six months old. How could anybody - what kind of heart?"

Chicago has seen a recent rise in gun violence - much of it gang-related - and registered at least 500 homicides last year for the first time since 2008. In 2011, there were 435 homicides.

Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said homicides were down 26% this year, compared with the same period a year earlier.

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