Pastor Accused of Killing Wives Faces Trial

Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday for Pastor Arthur Schirmer, who is accused of killing his second wife and then staging a car accident to hide it.

Schirmer, 64, also faces a second trial at a later date for the death of his first wife. He has said he is innocent of all charges.

In 2008, the pastor and his wife, Betty, were involved in what appeared at the time to be a car crash. Schirmer told police at the time that he had been driving 55 mph and swerved to miss a deer, causing him to drive off the road, according to a police affidavit obtained by ABC News.

Schirmer also said at the time that his wife's head had come forward and struck the windshield, according to the affidavit. Betty died a day later and her body was cremated at the request of Schirmer.

It wasn't until a grisly suicide in 2010 inside Schirmer's office that authorities decided to revisit the case of Betty Schirmer's death and arrest the pastor.

The man who broke in and shot himself at the desk in Schirmer's office at the Reeders United Methodist Church, Joseph Mustante, was the husband of the pastor's secretary, Cynthia Mustante, Poconos Township Police Detective James Wagner said.

Pocono Record, David Kidwell/AP Photo

Mustante's suicide was prompted by the discovery that his wife and the pastor had apparently been having an affair, Wagner said. He was alone at the time of his death.

Investigators looking into the suicide say that several church parishioners had concerns about the deaths of Schirmer's two wives.

"That suicide eventually exposed the affair publicly and subsequent to that, questions arose about the loss of [Schirmer's] wives and his character became questionable," Wagner said.

Relaunching the investigation into the two deaths, Wagner said he quickly suspected that "foul play existed, and the car crash was staged," allegedly, by Schirmer. Wagner said investigators also believed there was something "suspicious" about the first wife's death, a marriage that investigators had not known about prior to the suicide.

Investigators Look Into Deaths of Rev. Arthur Schirmer's Wives

Schirmer's first wife, Jewel, died in April 1999 from a traumatic brain injury after she purportedly fell down a flight of stairs in Lebanon, Pa., Wagner said.

Lebanon is about 100 miles southwest of Reeders, where Schrimer later moved with his second wife.

At the time of Jewel's death, Wagner said, a relative told police that he suspected Schirmer may have had a hand in his wife's death but that the investigation was "never completed."

On Dec. 11, 2012 -- more than 13 years after Jewel died, a Lebanon County judge ruled Schirmer would be tried for her murder.

When investigators looked at the death of Betty Schirmer, they saw inconsistencies, Wagner said.

"There was no airbag deployment and it simply looked like a car that had driven off the road at a very low speed," Wagner said. "It didn't match the injuries to [Betty's head].

"I know there are people out there who probably know him and feel like there is absolutely no way he would be capable of doing this," Wagner of Schirmer. "But they clearly don't know him."

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Silent Skype calls can hide secret messages

Got a secret message to send? Say it with silence. A new technique can embed secret data during a phone call on Skype. "There are concerns that Skype calls can be intercepted and analysed," says Wojciech Mazurczyk at the Institute of Telecommunications in Warsaw, Poland. So his team's SkypeHide system lets users hide extra, non-chat messages during a call.

Mazurczyk and his colleagues Maciej Karaś and Krysztof Szczypiorski analysed Skype data traffic during calls and discovered an opportunity in the way Skype "transmits" silence. Rather than send no data between spoken words, Skype sends 70-bit-long data packets instead of the 130-bit ones that carry speech.

The team hijacks these silence packets, injecting encrypted message data into some of them. The Skype receiver simply ignores the secret-message data, but it can nevertheless be decoded at the other end, the team has found. "The secret data is indistinguishable from silence-period traffic, so detection of SkypeHide is very difficult," says Mazurczyk. They found they could transmit secret text, audio or video during Skype calls at a rate of almost 1 kilobit per second alongside phone calls.

The team aims to present SkypeHide at a steganography conference in Montpellier, France, in June.

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ECB to ring in New Year with rates on hold

FRANKFURT: The European Central Bank will usher in 2013 with steady interest rates at its first policy meeting this year to keep up the pressure on governments to solve the debt crisis, analysts predict.

With ECB interest rates currently at record lows and its latest anti-crisis weapon ready and primed for action, central bank chief Mario Draghi will not pass up the opportunity to insist once again that only governments can resolve the long-running crisis, economists said.

"Whilst a (rate) cut cannot be entirely ruled out, we do not expect the governing council to change interest rates at its meeting on Thursday," said Commerzbank economist Michael Schubert.

"On the one hand, ECB executive board members have tried to dampen rate cut speculation over recent weeks, and on the other, important sentiment indicators have increased once again," he said.

On Friday, the closely watched Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for the entire euro area hit a nine-month high, offering hope the single currency area could be moving out of its deep double-dip recession.

Recent data for Germany, Europe's biggest economy, have also come in better than expected.

And German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble even went so far as to say he believed the embattled eurozone was now past the peak of its three-year-long debt crisis.

Market tensions have indeed eased since the ECB unveiled its anti-crisis bazooka in September, the so-called OMT bond-purchase programme.

The scheme is credited with marking a turning point in financial market sentiment towards the crisis-wracked euro even though it has not actually been used.

With markets now calmer, the ECB has been able to keep its gunpowder dry, keeping interest rates at their all-time low of 0.75 per cent and holding fire on other emergency anti-crisis measures as well, after pumping vast amounts of liquidity into the markets at the beginning of last year.

Nevertheless, at last month's meeting, ECB chief Draghi appeared to open the door to further rate cuts, crucially revealing that there had been "wide discussion" of such a move on the decision-making governing council and that the decision to keep rates on hold was anything but unanimous.

Commerzbank's Schubert pointed out, however, that top board members -- such as Yves Mersch, Peter Praet and Joerg Asmussen -- have all sought to play down possible rate cuts recently.

Deka Bank chief economist Ulrich Kater was similarly convinced that Draghi would not announce any monetary easing at his first press conference of the year.

"The policy of low interest rates is finally making itself felt in the periphery countries, thereby taking the pressure off the monetary policy actors to come up with new stimulus measures," he said.

"For the time being, there is no immediate need to act," he said.

In the United States, the US Federal Reserve hinted last week that its own huge programme of stimulus measures was under review and could be brought to an end sometime this year.

Capital Economics economist Jonathan Loynes cautioned, however, that "having prevented catastrophe in 2012 by pledging to do whatever it takes to save the euro, the ECB will have to follow words with actions in 2013".

While Loynes said he was expecting no policy changes to be announced on Thursday, "the pressure for action may soon be irresistible".

Postbank economist Thilo Heidrich said the likelihood of a rate cut was "wide open", but that he was betting on a further quarter-point reduction in the key refi rate to 0.5 per cent in the early months of this year and the ECB would keep it there "for some time to come".

Loynes at Capital Economics said that "despite the sizeable challenges facing the ECB (in 2013), it appears unlikely that it will take any steps towards meeting them at its meeting in January.

"No doubt Draghi will reaffirm that the ECB is ready to implement OMTs... and he may even show signs of warming to the idea of a cut in interest rates," Loynes said.

"Either way, though, he is likely to keep the onus on governments by stressing once again that the ECB cannot solve the region's debt crisis single-handedly," he concluded.

- AFP/fa

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Armstrong's lawyer: No mea culpa talks

By Jillian Martin and Chelsea J. Carter

updated 1:06 PM EST, Sat January 5, 2013

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• The New York Times report cites unnamed associates and doping officials in its report


• Cyclist's lawyer says his client was not in discussion with U.S. or world anti-doping agencies


• Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned for life


• Cyclist has repeatedly denied using banned performance-enhancing drugs

(CNN) -- Lance Armstrong's attorney denied his client was in discussion with the U.S. or world anti-doping agencies following a report by The New York Times that the disgraced cycling icon was contemplating publicly admitting he used illegal performance-enhancing drugs.

Attorney Tim Herman in an email to CNN Sports late Friday did not address whether Armstrong told associates -- as reported by the newspaper -- that he was considering the admission as a way to restore his athletic eligibility.

Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned for life last year after the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency found there was overwhelming evidence that he was directly involved in a sophisticated doping program.

Silence falls as Austin awaits Armstrong's 'last word'

Lance Armstrong over the years

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Disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong is the subject of annual Bonfire Night celebrations in the British town of Edenbridge. An effigy of Armstrong will be burned during the celebrations, which mark the foiling of Guy Fawkes' "gunpowder plot" to blow up the Houses of Parliament and kill King James I in 1605. The Edenbridge Bonfire Soceity has gained a reputation for using celebrity "Guys," including Tony Blair, Jacques Chirac and Saddam Hussein.

Up in flames

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Armstrong has repeatedly and vehemently denied that he used banned performance-enhancing drugs as well as illegal blood transfusions during his cycling career.

In the past, Armstrong has argued that he took more than 500 drug tests and never failed. In its 202-page report that detailed Armstrong's alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs and blood transfusions, the USADA said it had tested Armstrong less than 60 times and the International Cycling Union conducted about 215 tests.

The agency did not say that Armstrong ever failed a test, but his former teammates testified as to how they beat tests or avoided the tests altogether.

The New York Times, citing unnamed associates and anti-doping officials, said Armstrong has been in discussions with USADA officials and hopes to meet with David Howman chief of the World Anti-Doping Agency. The newspaper said none of the people with knowledge of Armstrong's situation wanted to be identified because it would jeopardize their access to information on the matter.

Under World Anti-Doping Agency rules, an athlete who confesses to using performance-enhancing drugs may be eligible for a reinstatement.

Armstrong has been an icon for his cycling feats and celebrity, bringing more status to a sport wildly popular in some nations but lacking big-name recognition, big money and mass appeal in the United States.

He fought back from testicular cancer to win the Tour from 1999 to 2005. He raised millions via his Lance Armstrong Foundation to help cancer victims and survivors, an effort illustrated by trendy yellow "LiveSTRONG" wristbands that helped bring in the money.

The cyclist's one-time high-profile relationship with singer Sheryl Crow also kept him in the public eye.

But Armstrong has long been dogged by doping allegations, with compatriot Floyd Landis -- who was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title after failing a drug test -- making a series of claims in 2011.

Armstrong sued the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency last year to stop its investigation of him, arguing it did not have the right to prosecute him. But after a federal judge dismissed the case, Armstrong said he would no longer participate in the investigation.

In October 2012, Armstrong was stripped of his titles and banned. Weeks later, he stepped down from the board of his foundation, Livestrong.

It is unclear whether Armstrong would face criminal prosecution for perjury should he confess. Armstrong was involved in several cases where he gave sworn testimony that he never used banned drugs.

Armstrong and his publicist did not immediately respond to a CNN requests late Friday and early Saturday for comment on The New York Times report.

Armstrong's demise: How he fell from grace

Part of complete coverage on

Lance Armstrong

updated 1:21 PM EDT, Mon October 22, 2012

Lance Armstrong's feat of winning seven consecutive Tour de France titles was like the demigod Hercules achieving his "Twelve Labors."

updated 3:40 PM EDT, Mon October 22, 2012

The International Cycling Union announces hat Lance Armstrong is being stripped of his seven Tour de France titles.

updated 11:45 AM EST, Thu December 6, 2012

Forty days alone in the wilderness was enough for Jesus, but Lance Armstrong is facing an altogether longer period of solitude.

updated 4:43 PM EST, Wed November 7, 2012

Lance Armstrong's fall from grace has left one of the cyclist's former sponsors not only "sad" -- but also without one of its biggest marketing tools.

updated 2:15 PM EDT, Fri October 26, 2012

Lance Armstrong has been asked to return all prize money from his seven annulled Tour de France victories by the sport's governing body.

updated 2:57 PM EDT, Wed October 24, 2012

For years, as Lance Armstrong basked in the glow of an adoring public, his critics frequently were banished to the shadows, dismissed by the cycling legend and his coterie as cranks or worse.

updated 4:55 PM EDT, Sat October 20, 2012

Connie and Daniel Roddy did all they could to support Livestrong, raising tens of thousands of dollars for the cancer charity. Now they want their money back.

updated 10:59 AM EDT, Mon October 22, 2012

Lou Hablas has supported Livestrong for years and worn the iconic yellow bracelet in honor of his uncle, stepmother and friends who have lost loved ones to cancer.

updated 5:44 AM EDT, Mon October 22, 2012

For years, Lance Armstrong carried a growing burden of doping accusations up increasingly steep hills, accumulating fans, wealth and respect along the way.

updated 9:38 AM EDT, Wed October 17, 2012

Johan Bruyneel has become the first victim of a U.S. government investigation into Lance Armstrong and doping.

updated 8:45 AM EDT, Wed October 17, 2012

The 84 million bright yellow wristbands distributed by Lance Armstrong's cancer charity have become a well-known symbol of strength and perseverance.

updated 5:45 AM EDT, Mon October 22, 2012

The systematic use of performance enhancing substances within Lance Armstrong's former U.S. Postal Service team has been detailed by one cyclist who resisted the temptation to dope.

updated 9:57 PM EDT, Wed October 10, 2012

Cyclist Lance Armstrong was part of "the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen."

updated 5:53 PM EDT, Sat October 13, 2012

A former teammate of Lance Armstrong says there was no question why U.S. Postal Service team members doped during big races.

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Hugo Chavez's allies re-elect legislative chief

CARACAS, Venezuela Allies of cancer-stricken President Hugo Chavez on Saturday chose to keep the same National Assembly president -- a man who could be in line to step in as a caretaker leader in some circumstances.

The vote to retain Diosdado Cabello as legislative leader signaled the ruling party's desire to stress unity and continuity amid growing signs the government plans to postpone Chavez's inauguration for a new term while he fights a severe respiratory infection nearly a month after cancer surgery in Cuba.

The opposition and some legal experts have argued that if Chavez is unable to be sworn in as scheduled on Thursday, the president of the National Assembly should take over on an interim basis.

Cabello's selection quashed speculation about possible political reshuffling in the midst of Chavez's health crisis, and it came as Vice President Nicolas Maduro joined other allies in suggesting that Chavez could remain president and take the oath of office before the Supreme Court later on if he isn't fit to be sworn in on the scheduled date.

"It strikes me that the government has decided to put things on hold, to wait and see what happens with Chavez's health and other political factors, and figure out the best way to insure continuity," said Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank in Washington. "Maduro and Cabello are clearly the key players within Chavismo today, each heading separate factions, but for the time being the idea is to reaffirm both and project a sense of unity."

Cabello, a former military officer who is widely considered to wield influence in the military, was re-elected by a show of hands by Chavez's allies, who hold a majority of the 165 congressional seats.

Pro-Chavez party leaders ignored calls to include opposition lawmakers among the legislative leadership, and opposition lawmaker Ismael Garcia said the choices represented "intolerance." None of the opposition lawmakers supported the new legislative leaders.

Hundreds of Chavez's supporters gathered outside the National Assembly to show their support, some holding flags and pictures of the president.

The Venezuelan Constitution says the presidential oath should be taken Jan. 10 before the National Assembly. It also says that if the president is unable to be sworn in before the Assembly, he may take the oath before the Supreme Court, and some legal experts in addition to Chavez allies have noted that the sentence referring to the court does not mention a date.

"When, it doesn't say. Where, it doesn't say either," Cabello told supporters after the session. Apparently alluding to possible protests by opponents over the issue of delaying the inauguration, Cabello told supporters: "The people have to be alert on the street so that there is no show."

Without giving details, Cabello urged them to "defend the revolution."

Maduro argued that Chavez, as a re-elected president, remains in his post after Jan. 10 regardless of whether he has taken the oath of office on that date. "When he can, he will be sworn in," Maduro said.

The latest remarks by the two most powerful men in Chavez's party sent the strongest signals yet that the government wants to delay the 58-year-old president's inauguration.

Former Supreme Court magistrate Roman Duque Corredor disagreed with Maduro, saying that "the constitution doesn't allow an extension" of a presidential term.

"An extension of a term can't be discussed," Duque said told The Associated Press a phone interview. "What would be right is to definitively determine what the president's state of health is." He said the Supreme Court should designate a board of doctors to determine whether Chavez's condition prevents him from continuing to exercise his duties temporarily or permanently.

If Chavez dies or is declared incapacitated, the constitution says that a new election should be called and held within 30 days, and Chavez has said Maduro should be the candidate. There have been no public signs of friction between the vice president and Cabello, who appeared side-by-side waving to supporters after the session and vowed to remain united.

"Come here, Nicolas. You're by brother, friend. They don't understand that," Cabello said, hugging Maduro before the crowd. Referring to government opponents, he said: "They're terrified of that, unity."

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Gun Show Near Newtown Goes on Despite Anger

A little more than 40 miles from Sandy Hook Elementary School, where last month 20 first graders and six staff members were massacred, gun dealers and collectors alike ignored calls to cancel a gun show, and gathered for business in Stamford, Conn.

Four other gun shows with an hour of Newtown, Conn., recently cancelled their events in the wake of the shootings, when 20-year-old Adam Lanza broke in to the elementary school with a semi-automatic assault rifle and three other guns.

The organizers in Stamford emphasized their show only displayed antique and collectible guns, not military style assault weapons like the one used by Lanza in Sandy Hook.

Still, Stamford Mayor Michael Pavia had called for the show to close its doors, calling it "insensitive" to hold so close to the murders.

Gun show participant Sandy Batchelor said he wasn't sure about whether going ahead with the show was "insensitive," but said the shooter should be blamed, not the weapons he used.

"I don't have a solid opinion on [whether it is insensitive]," Batchelor said. "I'm not for or against it. I would defend it by saying it wasnt the gun."

In nearby Waterbury, the community cancelled a show scheduled for this weekend.

"I felt that the timing of the gun show so close to that tragic event would be in bad taste," Waterbury Police Chief Chief Michael J. Gugliotti said.

National Rifle Association News Conference Interrupted by Protesters Watch Video

Gugliotti has halted permits for gun shows, saying he was concerned about firearms changing hands that might one day be used in a mass shooting.

Across the state line in White Plains, N.Y, Executive Rob Astorino also canceled a show, three years after ending a had that had been in place since the 1999 Columbine High School shooting in Colorado. He said he felt the show would be inappropriate now.

But across the country, farther away from Connecticut, attendance at gun shows is spiking, and some stores report they can hardly keep weapons on their shelves with some buyers fearful of that the federal government will soon increase restrictions on gun sales and possibly ban assault weapons altogether.

"We sold 50-some rifles in days," said Jonathan O'Connor, store manager of Gun Envy in Minnesota.

President Obama said after the Sandy Hook shooting that addressing gun violence would be one of his priorities and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said she would introduce an assault weapons ban this month.

But it is not just traditional advocates of gun control that have said their need to be changes in gun laws since the horrific school shooting.

Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas and Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, a Democrat but a long-time opponent of gun control who like Hutchison has received an A rating from the NRA, have both come out in support of strengthening gun laws.

In Stamford, gun dealer Stuart English said participants at the gun show there are doing nothing wrong.

"I have to make a living. Life goes on," gun dealer Stuart English said.

ABC News asked English, what he thought about the mayor of Stamford calling the show "insensitive."

"He's wrong," English said. "This is a private thing he shouldn't be expressing his opinion on."

If you have a comment on this story or have a story idea, you can tweet this correspondent @greenblattmark.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Graphic in-car crash warnings to slow speeding drivers

Paul Marks, chief technology correspondent

(Image: Cityscape/a.collection/Getty)

"You would die if you crashed right now." Would such a warning make you take your foot off the accelerator? That's the idea behind a scheme to warn drivers of the consequences of speeding developed by engineers at Japan's Fukuoka Institute of Technology and heavy goods vehicle maker UD Trucks, also in Japan. They are developing what they call a "safe driving promotion system" that warns drivers what kind of crash could ensue if they don't slow down.

Their patent-pending system uses the battery of radar, ultrasound sonar and laser sensors found in modern cars and trucks to work out the current kinetic energy of a vehicle. It also checks out the distance to the vehicle in front and keeps watch on its brake lights, too. An onboard app that has learned the driver's reaction time over all their previous trips then computes the likelihood of collision - and if the driver's speed is risky, it displays the scale of damage that could result.

The warning that flashes up could vary from something like a potential whiplash injury due to a rear-end shunt to a fatal, car-crushing collision with fire. The inventors hope this kind of in-car advice will promote safety more forcefully than current warning systems, which merely display the distance to the vehicle in front. "A sense of danger will be awakened in the driver that makes them voluntarily refrain from dangerous driving," they predict.

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Singapore, Turkey reaffirm excellent bilateral ties

ANKARA: The foreign ministers of Singapore and Turkey reaffirmed the excellent state of relations between their countries during talks in the Turkish capital, Ankara on January 4.

Singapore's Foreign Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam and his Turkish counterpart, Professor Ahmet Davutoglu, also discussed ways to further broaden and deepen bilateral cooperation.

In particular, they looked forward to enhancing trade and investment flows, as well as more high-level exchanges, between their countries.

Mr Shanmugam welcomed Turkey's interest to step up its engagement of ASEAN.

Mr Shanmugam, who is on an official visit to Turkey from January 3 to 5, also welcomed the opening of Singapore's embassy in Ankara.

- CNA/fa

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Feds: 2nd inmate who escaped Chicago jail captured

This undated photo provided by the FBI shows , Kenneth Conley one of two inmates who escaped from the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Chicago Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2012.

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AP Photo/FBI,HONS

(AP) CHICAGO -- The second of two bank robbers who escaped last month from a high-rise federal jail in downtown Chicago was captured Friday at an apartment complex across the street from a suburban police department, authorities said.

Kenneth Conley was arrested in Palos Hills, according to U.S. Marshals Service spokeswoman Belkis Cantor. She said someone called local police Friday morning thinking they recognized Conley. FBI spokeswoman Joan Hyde said the Palos Hills Police Department took him into custody.

Conley fled the Metropolitan Correctional Center last month with Joseph "Jose" Banks, apparently by smashing a hole in a wall at the bottom of a narrow cell window and squeezing through before scaling down about 20 stories using a knotted rope made out of bed sheets. Banks was arrested without incident two days later at a home on the city's North Side.

A man who answered the phone at a number listed for Conley's brother, Nicholas Conley, in Orland Hills refused to answer questions and asked that the family be left alone. A message left for Conley's mother was not immediately returned.

This undated photo provided by the FBI shows Jose Banks, one of two inmates who escaped from the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Chicago Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2012. Chicago Police Sgt. Michael Lazarro says their disappearance was discovered at about 8:45 Tuesday morning. Lazarro says the pair used a rope or bed sheets to climb from the building. (AP Photo/FBI,HONS

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Uncredited

Jail officials did not notice for hours on the morning of the escape that Banks and Conley were gone. Surveillance video from a nearby street showed the two hopping into a cab shortly before 3 a.m. on Dec. 18. They had changed out of their orange jail-issued jumpsuits.

When the facility did discover the two men were gone around 7 a.m., what was found revealed a meticulously planned escape, including clothing and sheets shaped to resemble a body under blankets on beds, bars inside a mattress and even fake bars in the cells.

A massive manhunt involving state, federal and local law enforcement agencies was launched, as SWAT teams stormed into the home of a relative of Conley only to learn the two escapees had been there and left. The authorities searched other area homes and businesses -- even a strip club where Conley once worked.

Law enforcement officials left a host of questions unanswered, including how the men could collect about 200 feet of bed sheets and what they might have used to break through the wall of the federal facility.

Conley, 38, pleaded guilty last October to robbing a Homewood Bank last year of nearly $4,000. He wore a coat and tie during the robbery and had a gun stuffed in his waistband.

Banks, 37, known as the Second-Hand Bandit because he wore used clothes during his heists, had been convicted of robbing two banks and attempting to rob two others. Authorities say he stole almost $600,000, and most of that still is missing.

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