Royal hoax DJs taken off air amid anger over death

SYDNEY: Two Australian radio presenters who made a hoax call to the hospital treating Prince William's pregnant wife Catherine were taken off the air on Saturday after the nurse who took the call was found dead in a suspected suicide.

Jacintha Saldanha answered the phone when presenters from Sydney's 2Day FM called, pretending to be Queen Elizabeth II and William's father Prince Charles, before passing it onto a colleague who divulged details of Kate's condition.

Saldanha was found dead on Friday, with police saying her death was not being treated as suspicious. Her employers, London's private King Edward VII hospital, refused to comment on media reports that she had taken her own life.

News of the death prompted a furious outpouring against the radio station and the two presenters involved, Mel Greig and Michael Christian, who are said to be "deeply shocked" by the turn of events.

"It's fair to say they are completely shattered," Rhys Holleran, chief executive of Southern Cross Austereo which owns 2Day FM, said of the pair, who had only been presenting together for a couple of weeks.

Holleran said the station and the hosts had decided that their show will not return "until further notice out of respect of what can only be described as a tragedy".

The radio station's Facebook page has been bombarded with thousands of comments on the death, many attacking the presenters and calling for them to be sacked, while at least one major company has withdrawn its advertising.

"Not so darn funny now is it? A British nurse is DEAD for the sake of a couple of cheap laughs. Shame on you!" wrote Kim Wilson.

Police said they had been called to an address close to the hospital on Friday morning following reports that a woman was unconscious, but she was pronounced dead at the scene.

"The death is being treated as unexplained," a statement said, while a spokesman said results of a post-mortem were due this weekend.

The family of the nurse, who reportedly had two children, appealed for privacy while they came to terms with her death.

"We as a family are deeply saddened by the loss of our beloved Jacintha," they said in a statement.

More than 13,650 comments had hit the 2Day FM page by Saturday afternoon, some saying Greig and Christian had blood on their hands and calling angrily for them to be dismissed.

For some the incident had echoes of Prince William's mother Diana, Princess of Wales, who died in a car crash in Paris in 1997 while being pursued by paparazzi.

"One would think... the death of Princess Diana would have taught the media a lesson about invasion of privacy of the royal family, but I guess not," said one commentator, posting as Lora LB.

Prince William and Kate have said they were "deeply saddened" by Saldanha's death, while Australia's Prime Minister Julia Gillard said it was a "terrible tragedy".

The hoax caused a global media storm, coming barely a day after the palace revealed the 30-year-old royal was pregnant following her admission to hospital on Monday with severe morning sickness where she stayed three nights.

Greig and Christian apologised after an uproar in Britain but the station initially milked the publicity as the "biggest royal prank ever".

In the phone call, in which Greig impersonated Queen Elizabeth II, Saldanha is heard saying, "Oh yes, just hold on, Ma'am", before putting her through to another nurse who revealed that Kate "hasn't had any retching with me since I've been on duty and she has been sleeping on and off".

The royals did not complain about the incident but it sparked intense media coverage and the chief executive of the hospital, John Lofthouse, said staff had been trying to help Saldanha "through this very difficult time".

The Australian presenters had insisted their hoax was lighthearted and even Prince Charles joked about the incident, saying to reporters asking him about Kate's condition on Thursday: "How do you know I'm not a radio station?"

But the joke divided the public in Australia, with some seeing it as "a bit of harmless fun" and others saying a line had been crossed and everyone had a right to privacy.

The widespread shock at the nurse's death is a sharp contrast with the excitement that greeted the announcement of a new royal heir this week. William and Kate's first child will be third in line to the British throne.

- AFP/xq

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Apple and Google making joint bid for Kodak patents, report says

Apple and Google might be opponents competing for smartphone and
tablet customers, but according to a Bloomberg report they have joined forces to acquire Eastman Kodak's 1,000 imaging patents for more than $500 million. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the possible alliance in August. Previously, the Journal reported that Apple and Google were each leading separate consortiums to purchase the patents in the range of $150 million to $250 million.

Eastman Kodak, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January, needs to sell the patents to help pay down a $950 million loan from Citigroup. The company said that it expects to exit bankruptcy in 2013. Court documents earlier this year revealed that the company valued its patent portfolio in the range of $2.6 billion.

Read: Foss Patents: Rumors of Apple-Google alliance to buy Kodak patents show smartphone giants' auction fatigue

Apple and Google were on opposite sides in another contest for high-stakes technology patents. In July 2011, a consortium of technology companies comprising Apple, EMC, Ericsson, Microsoft, Research In Motion, and Sony bought some 6,000 patents and patent applications from Nortel Networks for $4.5 billion. Rivals Google and Intel reportedly began the bidding for the intellectual property, which included patents and patent applications for wireless, wireless 4G, data networking, optical, voice, Internet, and semiconductor technologies, at $900 million.

The digital imaging patents, which are relevant to cameras, smartphones and other devices, could help both Apple and Google who are engaged in numerous patent disputes. Apple has been embroiled in patent disputes with Samsung and other Google
Android-based vendors. The joint effort to procure the patents could auger a less litigious atmosphere in the future.

Don Reisinger and Steven Musil contributed to this report.

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Plants Grow Fine Without Gravity

When researchers sent plants to the International Space Station in 2010, the flora wasn't meant to be decorative. Instead, the seeds of these small, white flowers—called Arabidopsis thaliana—were the subject of an experiment to study how plant roots developed in a weightless environment.

Gravity is an important influence on root growth, but the scientists found that their space plants didn't need it to flourish. The research team from the University of Florida in Gainesville thinks this ability is related to a plant's inherent ability to orient itself as it grows. Seeds germinated on the International Space Station sprouted roots that behaved like they would on Earth—growing away from the seed to seek nutrients and water in exactly the same pattern observed with gravity. (Related: "Beyond Gravity.")

Since the flowers were orbiting some 220 miles (350 kilometers) above the Earth at the time, the NASA-funded experiment suggests that plants still retain an earthy instinct when they don't have gravity as a guide.

"The role of gravity in plant growth and development in terrestrial environments is well understood," said plant geneticist and study co-author Anna-Lisa Paul, with the University of Florida in Gainesville. "What is less well understood is how plants respond when you remove gravity." (See a video about plant growth.)

The new study revealed that "features of plant growth we thought were a result of gravity acting on plant cells and organs do not actually require gravity," she added.

Paul and her collaborator Robert Ferl, a plant biologist at the University of Florida in Gainesville, monitored their plants from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida using images sent from the space station every six hours.

Root Growth

Grown on a nutrient-rich gel in clear petri plates, the space flowers showed familiar root growth patterns such as "skewing," where roots slant progressively as they branch out.

"When we saw the first pictures come back from orbit and saw that we had most of the skewing phenomenon we were quite surprised," Paul said.

Researchers have always thought that skewing was the result of gravity's effects on how the root tip interacts with the surfaces it encounters as it grows, she added. But Paul and Ferl suspect that in the absence of gravity, other cues take over that enable the plant to direct its roots away from the seed and light-seeking shoot. Those cues could include moisture, nutrients, and light avoidance.

"Bottom line is that although plants 'know' that they are in a novel environment, they ultimately do just fine," Paul said.

The finding further boosts the prospect of cultivating food plants in space and, eventually, on other planets.

"There's really no impediment to growing plants in microgravity, such as on a long-term mission to Mars, or in reduced-gravity environments such as in specialized greenhouses on Mars or the moon," Paul said. (Related: "Alien Trees Would Bloom Black on Worlds With Double Stars.")

The study findings appear in the latest issue of the journal BMC Plant Biology.

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Federal Agencies Brace for Deep Cuts Post-'Cliff'

Dec 7, 2012 4:22pm

Toby Jorrin/AFP/Getty Images

With the “fiscal cliff” quickly approaching, federal agencies are stepping up preparations for deep automatic budget cuts that will kick in Jan. 2 unless the White House and Congress can reach a deal.

The Office of Management and Budget told ABC News that a memo went out to federal agencies earlier this week seeking “additional information and analysis” in order to finalize spending cuts required if we go off the cliff.

The agencies are considering which workers to furlough, projects to put on hold and offices that will have to close.

The request follows the administration’s release of a 400-page report in September that outlined the budget areas to be impacted by the $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts and what percentages they would be slashed.

READ MORE: White House Details ‘Doomsday’ Budget Cuts

Billions of dollars could be slashed from defense operations and maintenance programs. Medicare would take a two-percent hit, trimming millions in payouts to health care providers. Scientific research programs would be gutted. Aid for the poor and needy would be sharply curtailed.

The report also detailed operations that would be exempt from any cuts, including active-duty military operations, nuclear watchdogs, homeland security officials, veterans care and other critical areas.

READ: Pentagon Begins Planning for ‘Cliff’ Cuts

Asked about the agency preparations underway, White House spokesman Jay Carney said Wednesday that OMB “must take certain steps to ensure the administration is ready to issue such an order should Congress fail to act.”

“Earlier this week, OMB issued a request to federal agencies for additional information to finalize calculations on the spending reductions that would be required,” Carney said.

“This action should not be read … as a change in the administration’s commitment to reach an agreement and avoid sequestration.  OMB is simply ensuring that the administration is prepared, should it become necessary to issue such an order,” he said. “OMB will continue to consult with agencies and will provide additional guidance as needed.  This is just acting responsibly because of the potential for this happening.”

Get more pure politics at ABCNews.com/Politics and a lighter take on the news at OTUSNews.com.

More ‘Fiscal Cliff’ Coverage From Today:

SHOWS: World News

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Captured: the moment photosynthesis changed the world

BILLIONS of years ago, a tiny cyanobacterium cracked open a water molecule - and let loose a poison that wrought death and destruction on an epic scale. The microbe had just perfected photosynthesis, a process that freed the oxygen trapped inside water and killed early Earth's anaerobic inhabitants.

Now, for the first time, geologists have found evidence of the crucial evolutionary stage just before cyanobacteria split water. The find offers a unique snapshot of the moment that made the modern world. With the advent of photosynthesis came an atmosphere dominated by oxygen and, ultimately, the diversity of life forms that we know today.

"This was the biggest change that ever occurred in the biosphere," says Kevin Redding at Arizona State University in Tempe. "The extinction caused by oxygen was probably the largest ever seen, but at the same time animal life wouldn't be possible without oxygen."

Photosynthesis uses light and a source of electrons to generate energy and power an organism. In the world as we know it, that source of electrons is water, with oxygen the waste product. But there are no signs that oxygen was being formed when photosynthesis first appeared around 3.4 billion years ago, so early photosynthesisers probably scavenged electrons by splitting other molecules like hydrogen sulphide instead.

That had changed by about 2.4 billion years ago, when deposits of oxidised minerals tell us that oxygen was beginning to accumulate in the atmosphere. Photosynthesis as we know it had evolved.

To help work out how this happened, Woodward Fischer at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and his colleagues studied South African rocks that formed just before the 2.4-billion-year mark. Their analysis shows that although the rocks formed in the anoxic conditions that had prevailed since Earth's formation, all of the manganese in the rock was deposited in an oxidised form.

In the absence of atmospheric oxygen, manganese needs some sort of catalyst to help it oxidise - it won't react without a bit of help. The best explanation, say Fischer's team, is that a photosynthetic organism was using manganese as an electron source. That left unstable manganese ions behind, which reacted with water to form the oxides. Fischer presented the findings at the American Geophysical Union's conference in San Francisco on 6 December.

Every researcher contacted by New Scientist has hailed the significance of the study, in part because the evidence exactly matches what evolutionary theories have predicted.

A close look at today's plants and algae shows that manganese oxidation is still a vital part of photosynthesis. Within their photosynthetic structures are manganese-rich crystals that provide the electrons to drive photosynthesis. The crystals then snaffle electrons from passing water molecules to restore their deficit. It is this electron raid that cracks open water molecules and generates the oxygen we breathe.

This complicated process must have had simpler roots. In 2007, John Allen at Queen Mary, University of London, and William Martin at the University of Düsseldorf, Germany, suggested one scenario (Nature, doi.org/bs65kb). They believe that modern photosynthesis was born when early cyanobacteria by chance floated into a watery environment rich in manganese, and quickly adapted to take advantage of the new source of electrons.

Later, because manganese is a relatively scarce resource that can't be tapped indefinitely, the cyanobacteria evolved a different strategy. They incorporated manganese directly into their photosynthetic structures and used it as a rechargeable battery: draining it of its electrons, but allowing its supplies to be replenished by stealing electrons from another, more plentiful source - water.

What Fischer's team has found is evidence of the initial step in this process: an anoxic environment rich in manganese that has been stripped of electrons and left in an oxidised state, almost certainly by primitive cyanobacteria. "There had to be some intermediate step in the evolutionary process," says Redding.

"This is big news," says Martin. He adds that we can expect publications in the near future that provide more evidence compatible with the theory. "But this somewhat more direct geochemical evidence is really exciting."

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

All comments should respect the New Scientist House Rules. If you think a particular comment breaks these rules then please use the "Report" link in that comment to report it to us.

If you are having a technical problem posting a comment, please contact technical support.

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Fans to get third "A Slice of Life" book

SINGAPORE: "A Slice of Life Volume 3", the third collection of scripts for the popular "A Slice of Life" self-improvement radio programme on Singapore radio station 938LIVE, will be launched on Sunday, 2pm at the &Made by Bruno Menard bistro.

Written by 938LIVE deejay Eugene Loh, "A Slice of Life Volume 3" contains the uplifting anecdotes about life, love and work, which Loh shares on his radio programme "A Slice of Life".

Loh said his book "gives certain pointers to help guide people towards understanding more about themselves, and what they can do to improve things in their life".

He added that putting his stories and observations on life into print helps people digest them more easily.

"I think people like to have something that they can carry with them," said Loh, who will be on hand to sign copies of his new book during the book launch.

"For this kind of theme as well, where it has to do with introspection, soul searching, people like to take their time, read it at their own pace, maybe digest certain phrases or lines in their own time, or maybe re-read certain chapters."

Over 1,000 copies of the book, which retails at S$16, have been pre-ordered so far.

Loh's radio programme "A Slice of Life", which currently airs every weekday between 2-5pm, has spawned a series of CDs and books, since it went on air some 14 years ago on 938LIVE.

-CNA/ha

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My Best Tech Gift Ever: A 133MHz IBM PC 350

A 14-year-old Christopher MacManus (seated) hunches over his beloved computer in 1998. A long-forgotten chum looks on.

(Credit:
Christopher MacManus)

Every day this week, a different CNET writer or editor is recalling a tech or geek-centric present that left a mark. Read past stories by Eric Mack, Jeff Sparkman, Jay Greene, and Dan Ackerman, and look for another installment tomorrow at midnight PT.

On a chilly autumn day in 1997, I came home from school to find that my mom had a brand-new IBM PC 350 in her office. It was an astonishing computer, especially considering our previous machine was a DOS/Windows 3.1 slowpoke that could barely run Wolfenstein 3D.

For its time, the PC 350 had it all -- a screaming Pentium 133MHz processor, a 1.6GB hard drive, 64MB of RAM, and 4MB of video memory. Though my mom bought it for the household and not for me exclusively, it was the best tech gift I ever got, as it truly turned me into a geek and gamer (and therefore the person I am today).

For some reason, that IBM computer changed everything about me. In just a matter of days, I was no longer a mild-mannered suburban kid who stayed outside until dusk and built forts in his spare time. I became obsessed with SimCity, SimTower, and 3D games (such as Star Wars: Rebel Assault II, SubSpace, and The Dig). It wasn't long until my mom made the leap and got 56.6K dial-up Internet service through Mindspring, which turned me into a full-fledged computer nerd.

What's the best tech gift you ever got? Send your stories and photos to crave at cnet dot com (subject line: Best Tech Gift) for possible inclusion in an upcoming feature.

As for other activities, I spent a lot of time chatting with people at Decipher's Star Wars: Customizable Card Game Palace server (which I'm awkwardly doing in the above picture). I also spent a lot of time playing a Star Wars multiuser dungeon, which is a text-based adventure game. As a precursor to years of running successful Web sites, I built my first Web site on Geocities through that computer. Gee, that doesn't sound geeky at all.

The PC 350 also kicked off my interest in computer hardware. Sometimes when Mom was asleep I would take the computer into my room and unscrew the hinges of the case, just so I could look at all the components inside. I just had to know what everything did. I even upgraded the RAM from 32MB to 128MB without ever telling my mom -- well, until now.

Find a memorable gift for the people in your life by visiting CNET's 2012 Holiday Gift Guide.

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Space Pictures This Week: Lunar Gravity, Venusian Volcano

• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Cassiopeia’s Bubble

  Image courtesy T.A. Rector, UAA/WIYN/NOAO/NSF

  A new camera called the One Degree Imager, located at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona, is responsible for this enticingly crisp image of the Bubble Nebula. Released on December 4, this closeup highlights the sphere of gas blown out by the nebula's central star, which is 45 times larger than our own sun.

  Located in the constellation Cassiopeia, the Bubble Nebula is ten light-years across. Intense radiation from the massive star causes the otherworldly glow that lights up what looks like a celestial soap bubble.

  (Related: "Amazing Hubble Images.")

  Published December 6, 2012

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Midnight Light

  Photograph by Frank Olsen, My Shot

  Delicate green auroras light up the water at Buksnesfjord, Norway, in a picture taken just after midnight on December 4.

  (See pictures of auroras sparked by a massive solar flare.)

  Published December 6, 2012

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Great Escape

  Image courtesy SDO/NASA

  Sheets of plasma—or superheated gas—break off from the surface of the sun in this image taken in extreme ultraviolet light. Before floating free, the plasma rose up and danced along pathways determined by magnetic fields. These unseen forces pushed and pulled the gas into contorted shapes.

  (Learn about the sun.)

  Published December 6, 2012

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  New Look

  Image courtesy NASA

  What looks like a jawbreaker is actually a gravity map of the moon. Red areas indicate places with higher gravity fields while blue areas indicate lower gravity fields.

  (Learn about lunar exploration.)

  Twin probes circling the moon—part of NASA's GRAIL mission—since 2011 have been recording changes in gravity as they fly over peaks and valleys on the lunar surface. As one probe flies over an area with a greater gravity field, the washing-machine-size instrument speeds up slightly, increasing the distance between it and its sister probe. These minute changes in position have enabled scientists to construct this very detailed view of local changes in the moon's gravity.

  (How well do you know your moon myths? Take our quiz.)

  Published December 6, 2012

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Grainy Picture

  Illustration courtesy L. Calçada, ESO/NAOJ/NRAO
  

  In this artist's conception of fine-grained particles around a brown dwarf—or a failed star—bits of debris are on their way to becoming a rocky planet.

  Current thinking on Earthlike, rocky planet formation says that random collisions between tiny debris occur in the disc of material surrounding newborn stars. But the recent discovery of such a disc surrounding a brown dwarf has some astronomers rethinking that hypothesis. If planets can form from the debris around these failed stars, then rocky planets may be much more common than previously thought.

  (Related: "Coldest Star Found-No Hotter Than Fresh Coffee.")

  Published December 6, 2012

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Night Vision

  Image courtesy Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon, Suomi NPP/NASA

  The Suomi NPP satellite captured this nighttime image of the aurora australis over the Antarctic coast south of South Africa. Despite the winter darkness and a waning crescent moon, the auroras produced enough light for sensors on board the new NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite to capture the boundary between the ice shelf and what some scientists call the Southern, or Antarctic, Ocean (dark line across the bright center swirl).

  Launched last year, Suomi NPP enables scientists to capture nighttime images of the Earth's atmosphere and surface. The new sensor is so sensitive, it can capture the lights from one ship at sea.

  (Learn about Antarctica.)

  Published December 6, 2012

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Pearl Islands

  Image courtesy Michael Taylor, Landsat/NASA

  In NASA's Landsat 5 satellite image, the Mergui Archipelago shows off the vibrant greens of its rain forests and the brilliant blues of the surrounding tropical ocean. Located along the southern border of Myanmar (Burma), next to Thailand, the area is known for valuable pearl oysters (Pinctada maxima) and a highly diverse concentration of plants and animals.

  (See photos of Myanmar.)

  Published December 6, 2012

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Venusian Volcano

  Illustration courtesy AOES Medialab/ESO

  The Venusian atmosphere is made mostly of carbon dioxide, along with periodic spikes in sulfur. Recent research has found that volcanoes on the planet's surface, seen here in an artist's conception, are likely injecting that sulfur into the upper atmosphere. Direct confirmation is difficult, however, since Venus's thick atmosphere precludes a peek at its peaks.

  Published December 6, 2012

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Image courtesy SSI/ISA/ESA/NASA

  Published December 6, 2012

  
  

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John McAfee Out of Hospital, Back in Cell

Software millionaire John McAfee has been returned to an immigration detention cell in Guatemala after being rushed to a Guatemala City hospital via ambulance.

McAfee, 67 -- who soon may be deported back to Belize, where authorities want to question him about the shooting death of his neighbor -- was reportedly found prostrate on the floor of his cell and unresponsive.

He was wheeled into the hospital on a gurney. Photographers followed in pursuit right into the emergency room, but as emergency workers eased McAfee's limp body from the gurney and onto a bed and began to remove his suit, he suddenly spoke up, saying, "Please, not in front of the press."

Earlier today, McAfee had complained of chest pains, raising concerns he might be having a heart attack.

However, that did not appear to be the case. Hours after his emergency, hospital officials sent McAfee back to the detention center, telling ABC News they found no reason to keep him overnight.

In a phone interview overnight, McAfee told ABC News, "I simply passed out, everything went black."

He said he hit his head on the floor when he collapsed. McAfee explained that for the past 48 hours he hasn't eaten and had very little to drink.

McAfee had been scheduled to be deported to Belize, ABC News has learned. But a judge could stay the ruling if it is determined that McAfee's life is threatened by being in Belizean custody, as McAfee has claimed in the past several weeks.

McAfee's attorneys hope to continue delaying the deportation by appealing to the Guatemala's high court on humanitarian grounds.

Raphael Martinez, a spokesman for the Belize government, said that if McAfee is deported to Belize, he would immediately be handed over to police and detained for up to 48 hours unless charges are brought against him.

"There is more that we know about the investigation, but that remains part of the police work," he said, hinting at possible charges.

He added that a handover by Guatemala would be "the neighborly thing to do."

A spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Guatemala said that "due to privacy considerations," the embassy would "have no comment on the specifics of this situation," but that, "U.S. citizens are subject to the laws of the countries in which they are traveling or residing, and must work within the host countries' legal framework."

Guatemala's National Police/AP Photo

Software Founder Breaks Silence: McAfee Speaks on Murder Allegations Watch Video

John McAfee Interview: Software Mogul Leaves Belize Watch Video

Just hours before McAfee's arrest, he told ABC News in an exclusive interview Wednesday he would be seeking asylum in Guatemala. McAfee was arrested by the Central American country's immigration police and not the national police, said his attorney, who was confident his client would be released within hours.

"Thank God I am in a place where there is some sanity," said McAfee before his arrest. "I chose Guatemala carefully."

McAfee said that in Guatemala, the locals aren't surprised when he says the Belizean government is out to kill him.

"Instead of going, 'You're crazy,' they go, 'Yeah, of course they are,'" he said. "It's like, finally, I understand people who understand the system here."

But McAfee added he has not ruled out moving back to the United States, where he made his fortune as the inventor of anti-virus software, and that despite losing much of his fortune he still has more money than he could ever spend.

In his interview with ABC News, a jittery, animated but candid McAfee called the media's representation of him a "nightmare that is about to explode," and said he's prepared to prove his sanity.

McAfee has been on the run from police in Belize since the Nov. 10 murder of his neighbor, fellow American expatriate Greg Faull.

During his three-week journey, said McAfee, he disguised himself as handicapped, dyed his hair seven times and hid in many different places during his three-week journey.

He dismissed accounts of erratic behavior and reports that he had been using the synthetic drug bath salts. He said he had never used the drug, and said statements that he had were part of an elaborate prank.

Investigators said that McAfee was not a suspect in the death of the former developer, who was found shot in the head in his house on the resort island of San Pedro, but that they wanted to question him.

McAfee told ABC News that the poisoning death of his dogs and the murder just hours later of Faull, who had complained about his dogs, was a coincidence.

McAfee has been hiding from police ever since Faull's death -- but Telesforo Guerra, McAfee's lawyer in Guatemala, said the tactic was born out of necessity, not guilt.

"You don't have to believe what the police say," Guerra told ABC News. "Even though they say he is not a suspect they were trying to capture him."

Guerra, who is a former attorney general of Guatemala, said it would take two to three weeks to secure asylum for his client.

According to McAfee, Guerra is also the uncle of McAfee's 20-year-old girlfriend, Samantha. McAfee said the government raided his beachfront home and threatened Samantha's family.

"Fifteen armed soldiers come in and personally kidnap my housekeeper, threaten Sam's father with torture and haul away half a million dollars of my s***," claimed McAfee. "If they're not after me, then why all these raids? There've been eight raids!"

Before his arrest, McAfee said he would hold a press conference on Thursday in Guatemala City to announce his asylum bid. He has offered to answer questions from Belizean law enforcement over the phone, and denied any involvement in Faull's death.

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Celebrities turn to encryption to keep phones private

CELLPHONE hacking sparked the inquiry that led Lord Justice Leveson to conclude that the press "wreaked havoc in the lives of innocent people" in his long-awaited report to the British government last week. But those in the public eye aren't counting on heavier press regulation to stop future hackers. Instead, they are increasingly placing their bets on emerging smartphone technologies that foil eavesdroppers by encrypting voice and text data in real time.

One such technology hails from GSMK, based in Berlin, Germany. Its CryptoPhones are commercial smartphones that use military-grade encryption algorithms to ensure that calls, texts and voicemails - when passing between people with similar secure devices - are all but unhackable. These cost around €2000 per handset. But now a rival has entered the fray with a much cheaper approach.

Silent Circle of Washington DC launched its real-time call encryption app Silent Phone for the iPhone in October, and next week it releases a version for Android. CEO Mike Janke, a former security expert with the US Navy Seals, claims demand for the service, which costs £13 per month, has taken him by surprise: "A-list Hollywood celebrities, special forces operatives, diplomats from nine nations, and a clutch of Fortune 100 companies have signed up to use our service in our first 40 days," he says.

For firms worried that their industrial secrets could be stolen, securing transmissions by phone is paramount. To do this, GSMK - which has 10,000 smartphones in use - replaces Windows, Linux or Android operating systems with its own, more secure operating system. Both GSMK and Silent Circle use "end-to-end" encryption that takes place in the phone, so there's no hackable server that carries out the encryption. When a call is made, two code words appear on the phone's screen that both parties have to speak out loud. If they match, they know they are safe to proceed.

Both Silent Circle and GSMK doubly encrypt their messages using two encryption methods, including one called AES256, so even if one scheme is broken there's still the other to deal with. "It's a very paranoid design," says GSMK founder Bjoern Rupp.

But Janke concedes that, as Silent Phone is app-based, it is vulnerable to attack from other, malicious apps that could pilfer voice and text data before it is encrypted. While Silent Phone's securely received texts can self-delete a set time after they have been read, they can be saved as a phonecam's screenshot. GSMK's operating system prevents screenshot-taking by default, says Rupp.

It's not all about cash: both GSMK and Silent Circle donate phones to human rights groups that need to be able to make secure calls. It's all encouraging stuff, says Eric King of London pressure group Privacy International. But he adds that the onus should be on phone networks to do more to prevent interception. "Phone hacking would not have happened if networks had generated a random PIN for voicemail accounts in the same way a bank does."

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