With campaign, Mark Sanford goes from Appalachian Trail to comeback trail

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BLUFFTON, S.C. — In the annals of political redemption stories, it is hard to top the one that former governor Mark Sanford (R) is attempting to write in South Carolina.


After a spectacular 2009 scandal that destroyed his marriage, spawned impeachment proceedings and saddled him with the biggest ethics fine in state history, Sanford is making a new start right back where he started his once-promising political career two decades ago — running for Congress in South Carolina’s 1st District.


The most amazing part: He’s got a good chance of winning.

“For all the obvious reasons, I thought politics was forever over for me,” Sanford said in an interview.

But in December, Jim DeMint shocked the state by leaving the Senate for a job running the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. Then, Rep. Tim Scott (R) was named to fill DeMint’s seat, leaving an opening in Sanford’s old House district.

“It’s sort of a generational event. It never happens in South Carolina politics. A U.S. senator retires, and then a governor appoints, and then my phone lines light up,” Sanford said.

At the moment, Sanford is still one of 16 who are seeking the Republican nomination in a special election to fill the seat.

That means the man once touted as a GOP presidential prospect is spending his evenings in places like the Golden Corral family buffet here, where 13 of the contenders were making their cases at a Beaufort County Republican Party candidate forum Thursday night.

With each of them allotted only five minutes, Sanford, the first to speak, had an advantage that few of his rivals had, which is that people in the audience actually knew who he was.

Among his opponents was a high school economics teacher from Mount Pleasant, S.C., named Teddy Turner. He devoted his presentation to convincing the conservative audience that he had nothing in common with his father, CNN founder Ted Turner, or his former stepmother Jane Fonda, whom the younger Turner referred to as “Hanoi Jane.”

“How many of you get to pick your parents?” Turner lamented.

A few candidates later into the program, Tim Larkin, an engineer, looked around the room and declared: “I think the only folks I know here are my competitors.”

Even his opponents concede the former governor is all but certain to come in first in the March 19 primary, after which he will face the second-place finisher in a runoff two weeks later.

In a district that went nearly 60 percent for Mitt Romney in the last presidential contest, the winner of the GOP primary will have a big advantage in the May 7 special election. But that race, too, has a splash of excitement, given that the Democratic nominee is expected to be Elizabeth Colbert Busch, the sister of Comedy Central star Stephen Colbert.

As he acknowledged, Sanford is the beneficiary of a unique set of circumstances — a short race, a big field, a hefty campaign treasury (including more than $120,000 in leftover funds from his congressional races, and, with some restrictions, more than $1 million donated to his gubernatorial campaigns) and the fact that pretty much everyone in the district has seen his name on the ballot five times before.

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US state sounds alarm over nuclear waste leaks

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LOS ANGELES - At least six tanks containing radioactive waste in the US state of Washington are leaking, the state said Friday, urging more federal help to clean up a site used to make Cold War-era bombs.

Washington governor Jay Inslee said that the extent of the leaks at the Hanford site -- which first produced fuel for nuclear bombs in World War II and closed down 25 years ago -- was "disturbing."

"There is no immediate or near-term health risk associated with these newly discovered leaks, which are more than five miles from the Columbia River," he said, after meeting US Energy Secretary Steven Chu in Washington DC.

"But nonetheless this is disturbing news for all Washingtonians," he said.

He noted that Chu, the outgoing US energy secretary, told him a week ago that only one tank was leaking, but admitted "his department did not adequately analyze data it had that would have shown the other tanks that are leaking."

"This certainly raises serious questions about the integrity of all 149 single-shell tanks with radioactive liquid and sludge at Hanford.

"I believe we need a new system for removing waste from these aging tanks, and was heartened to hear that the Department of Energy is looking at options for accelerating that process."

The Hanford nuclear site, 300km southeast of Seattle, was used to produce plutonium for the bomb that brought an end to World War II.

Output grew after 1945 to meet the challenges of the Cold War, but the last reactor closed down in 1987. Its website says: "Weapons production processes left solid and liquid wastes that posed a risk to the local environment."

Millions of gallons of leftover waste is contained in 177 tanks at the site, according to the Department of Energy, which in 1989 agreed a deal with Washington state authorities to clean up the Hanford site.

Governor Inslee urged federal authorities to act quickly to ensure that looming US budget constraints do not jeopardize extra measures for the nuclear waste site.

"Secretary Chu has a long-standing personal commitment to the clean-up of Hanford. He has assured me he will do all he can to address the issue of the leaking tanks," he said.

But he added: "Frankly, the state Department of Ecology is not convinced that current storage is adequate to meet legal and regulatory requirements.

"With potential sequestration and federal budget cuts looming, we need to be sure the federal government maintains its commitment and legal obligation to the clean-up of Hanford."

A Department of Energy spokesman, Lindsey Geisler, confirmed that "there are six tanks at the Hanford site...including the one announced last week, that show declining levels of fluid."

"There is no immediate public health risk. The Department is working with the State of Washington and other key stakeholders to address the issues associated with these tanks," he added.

Details of exactly what kind of waste was involved were not immediately available.

A spokeswoman for governor Inslee, Jaime Smith, said: "It's nuclear waste. Different tanks have slightly different kinds of waste that they're holding. We're not clear yet on exactly what has been leaking for how long."

Washington state authorities hoped for more information about the leaking tanks soon, the spokeswoman told AFP.

"The Department of Energy has committed to try and get us more information pretty quickly, hopefully within the next week or so. So we should have more information soon," she said.

- AFP/ir



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Hyderabad, hotbed of home-grown terror, under lens

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NEW DELHI: For the veterans of security establishment the bomb blasts have revived concerns about the critical nature of Hyderabad and surroundings in the growth of home-grown terrorism in India.

Officials point out that Hyderabad has been intricately linked to the growth of the present phase of domestic terrorism. When the first definite information about Muslim youth going to Pakistan for terror camps emerged more than a decade ago, with Hyderabad resident Shahid Bilal as a key figure, the government was alarmed at the highest levels. Once India confirmed that over 60 youth have gone across to Pakistan from Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka in 2005-06 the issue was taken up with Bangladeshi and Nepalese governments because most of them were going via either of these countries.

"Even if the bombers are from outside, they have received local logistical support," says one official. "There is a history here," he says about Hyderabad's brush with blasts as well as with fringe sympathisers.

A day before the twin blasts, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had, in fact, filed its first charge sheet in the case of Bangalore-Hubli-Nanded terror module run from Saudi Arabia by LeT-HuJI handlers. One name among the 12 accused stood out: Obaidur Rehman. The 26-year-old Hyderabad resident is the nephew of Maulana Mohammed Naseeruddin, a radical preacher presently languishing in a Gujarat jail in connection with the murder of Gujarat home minister Haren Pandya.

The charge sheet also mentioned the man handling the group from Saudi Arabia as Farhatullah Ghori, maternal uncle of slain HuJI operative Shahid Bilal. Both belong to Hyderabad.

The blasts that followed the charge sheet have only come as a grim reminder of the Andhra Pradesh capital having become a favourite recruiting ground for terror groups. In fact, the city has been in terror crosshairs for close to a decade and a half providing strong base to both LeT and HuJI.

According to intelligence agencies, Hyderabad first came on terror radar in late '90s with several radical religious organizations becoming a springboard to youth taking to terror. While there was an entrenched sense of victimhood and injustice post Babri masjid demolition among Muslims in the state, their anger was first organized and harnessed by Mohammed Abdul Shahid alias Shahid Bilal under aegis of HuJI.

The first effects of this endeavor manifested itself in the terror attack on the office of Hyderabad Special Task Force in 2003. Bilal's maternal uncle Farhatullah Ghori's name prominently cropped up in the investigations. He was also a suspect in the Akshardham Temple attack in Gujarat in 2002.

Following this, Bilal was found to be instrumental in conducting several blasts across south India between 2004 and 2007. During this period he also helped 26/11 accused and LeT operative Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal escape to Pakistan via Bangladesh along with his associate Fayyaz Kagzi after the 2006 Aurangabad arms haul in Maharashtra. In October 2007, Bilal was himself killed in Karachi along with his brother Samad. However, sources say, he has five more brothers who are in Pakistan and elsewhere. And the network he has left behind across India, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia keeps recruiting people for Jihadi activities.

In 2008, Maulana Naseeruddin's son, Riyazuddin Nasir, was arrested in Dharwad, Karnataka for planning to carry out terror strikes in the state. In 2012, with Obaidur Rehman's arrest in the Bangalore terror module, the city again struggled to shake off the terror tag.

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Space Pictures This Week: Space Rose, Ghostly Horses

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Jodi Arias' Friends Believe in Her Innocence

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Accused murderer Jodi Arias believes she should be punished, but hopes she will not be sentenced to death, two of her closest friends told ABC News in an exclusive interview.


Ann Campbell and Donavan Bering have been a constant presence for Arias wth at least one of them sitting in the Phoenix, Ariz., courtroom along with Arias' family for almost every day of her murder trial. They befriended Arias after she first arrived in jail and believe in her innocence.


Arias admits killing her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander and lying for nearly two years about it, but insists she killed Alexander in self defense. She could face the death penalty if convicted of murder.








Jodi Arias Testimony: Prosecution's Cross-Examination Watch Video









Jodi Arias Remains Calm Under Cross-Examination Watch Video









Jodi Arias Doesn't Remember Stabbing Ex-Boyfriend Watch Video





Nevertheless, she is aware of the seriousness of her lies and deceitful behavior.


The women told ABC News that they understand that Arias needs to be punished and Arias understands that too.


"She does know that, you know, she does need to pay for the crime," Campbell said. "But I don't want her to die, and I know that she has so much to give back."


Catching Up on the Trial? Check Out ABC News' Jodi Arias Trial Coverage


The lies that Arias admits she told to police and her family have been devastating to her, Bering said.


""She said to me, 'I wish I didn't have to have lied. That destroyed me,'" Donovan said earlier this week. "Because now when it's so important for her to be believed, she has that doubt. But as she told me on the phone yesterday, she goes, 'I have nothing to lose.' So all she can do is go out there and tell the truth."


During Arias' nine days on the stand she has described in detail the oral, anal and phone sex that she and Alexander allegedly engaged in, despite being Mormons and trying to practice chastity. She also spelled out in excruciating detail what she claimed was Alexander's growing demands for sex, loyalty and subservience along with an increasingly violent temper.


Besides her two friends, Arias' mother and sometimes her father have been sitting in the front row of the courtroom during the testimony. It's been humiliating, Bering said.


"She's horrified. There's not one ounce of her life that's not out there, that's not open to the public. She's ashamed," she said.






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Group releases list of 90 medical ‘don’ts’

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Don’t use feeding tubes in patients with advanced dementia. Don’t use drugs to aggressively treat diabetes in those older than 65. Don’t automati­cally use imaging technology for minor head injuries in children and headaches in adults. And don’t give antacids to babies with reflux.


Those are among the 90 medical “don’ts” on a list being released Thursday by a coalition of doctor and consumer groups. They are trying to discourage the use of tests and treatments that have become common practice but may cause harm to patients or unnecessarily drive up the cost of health care.


It is the second set of recommendations from the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation’s “Choosing Wisely” campaign, which launched last year amid nationwide efforts to improve medical care in the United States while making it more affordable.

The recommendations run the gamut, from geriatrics to opthalmology to maternal health. Together, they are meant to convey the message that in medicine, “sometimes less is better,” said Daniel Wolfson, executive vice president of the foundation, which funded the effort.

“Sometimes, it’s easier [for a physician] to just order the test rather than to explain to the patient why the test is not necessary,” Wolfson said. But “this is a new era. People are looking at quality and safety and real outcomes in different ways.”

The guidelines were penned by more than a dozen medical professional organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Obstetricians and ­Gynecologists.

The groups discourage the use of antibiotics in a number of instances in which they are commonly prescribed, such as for sinus infections and pink eye. They caution against using certain sedatives in the elderly and cold medicines in the very young.

In some cases, studies show that the test or treatment is costly but does not improve the quality of care for the patient, according to the groups.

But in many cases, the groups contend, the intervention could cause pain, discomfort or even death. For example, feeding tubes are often used to provide sustenance to dementia patients who cannot feed themselves, even though oral feeding is more effective and humane. And CT scans that are commonly used when children suffer minor head trauma may expose them to cancer-causing radiation.

While the recommendations are aimed in large part at physicians, they are also designed to arm patients with more information in the exam room.

“If you’re a healthy person and you’re having a straightforward surgery, and you get a list of multiple tests you need to have, we want you to sit down and talk with your doctor about whether you need to do these things,” said John Santa, director of the health ratings center at Consumer Reports, which is part of the coalition that created the guidelines.

Health-care spending in the United States has reached 17.9 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product and continues to rise, despite efforts to contain costs. U.S. health-care spending grew 3.9 percent in 2011, reaching $2.7 trillion, according to the journal Health Affairs.

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Uncertainty hangs heavy as Italy braces for elections

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ROME: Italy was poised to hold its most important elections in a generation starting on Sunday, as financial markets warned an unclear outcome could plunge the eurozone's third economy back into crisis.

Italians will cast their ballots as they grapple with the longest recession in two decades and several rounds of austerity cuts that have caused deep resentment and could favour a low turnout and a high number of protest votes.

The most likely outcome is a centre-left government led by Democratic Party leader Pier Luigi Bersani, a cigar-chomping former communist with a down-to-earth manner who now espouses broadly pro-market economic views.

But the result is by no means certain and whether Bersani will be able to form a stable coalition is in doubt. Some fear there may have to be another election within months after a reform of a maddeningly complex electoral law.

With everything at stake, the campaign has been remarkably underwhelming, with few rallies and a lot of back-and-forth in television interviews that have provided little or no detail on sometimes extravagant programme promises.

A case in point was Silvio Berlusconi's promise to refund Italians an unpopular property tax levied by Prime Minister Mario Monti's government in a letter that prompted some to queue up to claim their money back immediately.

European capitals and foreign investors will be watching closely as a return to Italy's free-wheeling public finances could spell disaster for the eurozone.

"We believe that a risk exists that after the February 24-25 elections there may be a loss of momentum on important reforms to improve Italian growth prospects," Standard & Poor's ratings agency said in a report this week.

London-based Capital Economics warned that even with a stable governing majority "huge underlying economic problems suggest that it may only be a matter of time before concerns about the public finances begin to build again."

"And a hung parliament might plunge Italy and the eurozone back into crisis rather sooner," the independent economic research company said this week.

Polls open at 0700 GMT on Sunday and close at 1900 GMT. A second day of voting on Monday begins at 0600 GMT and ends at 1400 GMT, after which preliminary results will begin to trickle through late Monday and into Tuesday.

Wild card

The wild card in the election will be Beppe Grillo, a tousle-haired former comedian whose mix of invective and idealism appeals to protest voters fed up with corrupt politicians. He has spoken to packed squares across Italy.

Bersani has said he will follow the course set by Monti, a former high-flying European commissioner roped in to replace the scandal-tainted Berlusconi who was forced to step down in November 2011.

But Bersani will come under immediate pressure to row back on austerity and do more to create jobs in an economy where an already record-high unemployment rate of 11.2 per cent masks far higher joblessness among women and young people.

A Bersani victory is far from a sure thing mainly because of the rapid rise in the polls of Berlusconi, the irrepressible 76-year-old billionaire tycoon who is still in the game even after 20 tumultuous years in Italian politics.

This is the sixth election campaign for Berlusconi, who has been prime minister three times, has survived multiple court cases, sex scandals and diplomatic gaffes.

One recent poll said he was within 2.5 points of catching up with Bersani.

Berlusconi has pursued a populist campaign, intimating that Italy's current social misery can be blamed on a "hegemonic" Germany imposing austerity.

The president of the European Parliament, who was once invited to play the role of a Nazi camp guard by Berlusconi during a speech when he was still prime minister, has warned Italians not to vote for the flamboyant tycoon.

"Berlusconi has already sent Italy into a tailspin with irresponsible government action and personal capers," Martin Schulz told German tabloid Bild, adding that Italy should not lose its new found confidence in Europe.

Several polls indicate that Bersani may score only a half-victory by managing to secure a stable majority in the lower house of parliament, the Chamber of Deputies, but failing to get one in the upper house, the Senate.

That would give Monti, a somewhat staid economics professor who is running as head of an eclectic centrist grouping, a crucial role as a coalition partner and could bring him back into a government with a ministerial posting.

An average of the most recent polls, which cannot be published in the two weeks leading up to the election, would give Bersani 34 per cent, Berlusconi 30 per cent, Grillo 17 per cent and Monti between 10 and 12 per cent of the vote.

Coming after the last polls were made public, Pope Benedict XVI's resignation could boost the church-going Monti and stop Berlusconi as it has drawn away the media attention that the showman tycoon has often relied on.

The run-up to the vote has also been marked by a succession of high-profile corruption inquiries against politicians and business leaders in a period similar to one in the early 1990s that brought down an entire political class.

Monti has said that the storm of scandals marks "the end of an era".

- AFP/ck



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Thousands flock to annual MP 'bhoot mela' to get exorcised

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BETUL: It's a mela with a spirited presence. In Malajpur, a village in Betul district some 300 km from Bhopal, an annual fair is devoted to the exorcising of ghosts. Thousands throng here from Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and even Andhra Pradesh for the month-long 'bhoot pret ka mela' that will make their lives easier.

While exorcism is an old practice in some of India's villages, holding a fair for it is rare. The mela is held in a temple on the first day of Paush Poornima and continues till Basant Panchami. Bhikhari lal Yadav, a priest there explains, "Exorcism here is a centuries-old practice. We hold a samadhi of Guru Deoji sant and every evening, after the prayer, we treat those under the spell of ghosts and evil spirits." Guru Deoji, incidentally, was a Rajput with supernatural powers who was born around 1700 AD. His powers included turning sand to sugar, clay to jaggery and restoring eyesight to the blind. His reputation grew when, during droughts, he made the granaries overflow. After his death, a samadhi was made and for the last two-and-a-half centuries, exorcism has been going on here.

It is mainly women who come here to get rid of evil spirits. Psychiatrists say this is because their mental problems are often ignored by their families till it gets worse and they seem 'possessed'. The treatment is free here and devotees offer jaggery if their wishes are fulfilled. This year, more than 1,000 women were exorcised.

The exorcism starts late in the evening after 'aarti' has been performed. While normal people do a 'parikrama' of the temple anti-clockwise, the 'possessed' walk clockwise. Crowds chant, "Guru Maharaj ki jai" and families bring their ill members one-by-one. Amidst the chanting of mantras and sprinkling of holy water, the women become hysterical and flay about wildly before collapsing. Earlier, the priests would wield brooms during the rituals but that's a practice of the past.

Sunita, a Class IX student from Rampur village in Chhindwara district, is one of those believed to have benefited from this ritual. A relative of hers says, " One day, she suddenly fell unconscious and we were convinced she was possessed by an evil spirit. After a session of exorcism, she has started behaving normally."

Families of others too say their wards have got better. However, Rahul Sharma, a clinical psychologist from Gandhi Medical College, Bhopal, says the psyche of those assembled at Malajpur can be termed as a "hysterical" and says that conventional treatments such as psychotherapy, sociotherapy and medicines can also cure this problem.

Such blind practices are being combated, says S R Azad, general secretary of MP Vigyan Sabha. "We often do awareness camps and communicate to the villagers through science. The government should discourage this kind of superstition where poor villagers are exploited."

That's easier said than done.

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Oldest Known Wild Bird Hatches Chick at 62

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Wisdom, the oldest known wild bird, has yet another feather in her cap—a new chick.


The Laysan albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis)—62 years old at least—recently hatched a healthy baby in the U.S. Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, her sixth in a row and possibly the 35th of her lifetime, according to the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) North American Bird Banding Program. (Related: "51-Year-Old Albatross Breaks N. American Age Record [2003].")


But Wisdom's longevity would be unknown if it weren't for a longtime bird-banding project founded by USGS research wildlife biologist Chandler Robbins.


Now 94, Robbins was the first scientist to band Wisdom in 1956, who at the time was "just another nesting bird," he said. Over the next ten years, Robbins banded tens of thousands of black-footed albatrosses (Phoebastria nigripes) and Laysan albatrosses as part of a project to study the behavior of the large seabirds, which at the time were colliding with U.S. Navy aircraft.


Robbins didn't return to the tiny Pacific island—now part of the U.S. Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument—until 2002, when he "recaptured as many birds as I could in hopes that some of them would be the old-timers."


Indeed, Robbins did recapture Wisdom—but he didn't know it until he got back to his office at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel, Maryland, and checked her band number in the database.


"That was real exciting, because we didn't think the chances of finding one that old would be that good," Robbins said Wednesday in an interview from his office at the Patuxent center, where he still works.



Chandler Robbins counts birds.

Chandler Robbins counts birds in Maryland's Patuxent Research Refuge.


Photograph by David H. Wells, Corbis




Albatrosses No Bird Brains


Bigger birds such as the albatross generally live longer than smaller ones: The oldest bird in the Guinness Book of Animal Records, a Siberian white crane (Leucogeranus leucogeranus), lived an unconfirmed 82 years. Captive parrots are known to live into their 80s. (See National Geographic's bird pictures.)



The Laysan albatross spends most of the year at sea, nesting on the Midway Atoll (map) in the colder months. Birds start nesting around five years of age, which is how scientists knew that Wisdom was at least five years old in 1956.



Because albatrosses defend their nests, banding them doesn't require a net or a trap as in the case of other bird species, Robbins said—but they're far from tame.


"They've got a long, sharp bill and long, sharp claws—they could do a job on you if you're not careful how to handle them," said Robbins, who estimates he's banded a hundred thousand birds.


For instance, "when you're not looking, the black-footed albatross will sneak up from behind and bite you in the seat of the pants."


But Robbins has a fondness for albatrosses, and Wisdom in particular, especially considering the new dangers that these birds face.


Navy planes are no longer a problem—albatross nesting dunes were moved farther from the runway—but the birds can ingest floating bits of plastic that now inundate parts of the Pacific, get hooked in longlines meant for fish, and be poisoned by lead paint that's still on some of Midway Atoll's buildings. (Also see "Birds in 'Big Trouble' Due to Drugs, Fishing, More.")


That Wisdom survived so many years avoiding all those hazards and is still raising young is quite extraordinary, Robbins said.


"Those birds have a tremendous amount of knowledge in their little skulls."


"Simply Incredible"


Wisdom's accomplishments have caught the attention of other scientists, in particular Sylvia Earle, an oceanographer and National Geographic Explorer in Residence, who said by email that Wisdom is a "symbol of hope for the ocean." (National Geographic News is part of the National Geographic Society.)


Earle visited Wisdom at her nest in January 2012, where she "appeared serenely indifferent to our presence," Earle wrote in the fall 2012 issue of the Virginia Quarterly Review.


"I marveled at the perils she had survived during six decades, including the first ten or so years before she found a lifetime mate. She learned to fly and navigate over thousands of miles to secure enough small fish and squid to sustain herself, and every other year or so, find her way back to the tiny island and small patch of grass where a voraciously hungry chick waited for special delivery meals."


Indeed, Wisdom has logged an estimated two to three million miles since 1956—or four to six trips from Earth to the moon and back, according to the USGS. (Related: "Albatross's Effortless Flight Decoded—May Influence Future Planes.")


Bruce Peterjohn, chief of the North American Bird Banding Program, called Wisdom's story "simply incredible."


"If she were human, she would be eligible for Medicare in a couple years—yet she is still regularly raising young and annually circumnavigating the Pacific Ocean," he said in a statement.


Bird's-Eye View


As for Robbins, he said he'd "love to get out to Midway again." But in the meantime, he's busy going through thousands of bird records in an effort to trace their life histories.


There's much more to learn: For instance, no one has ever succeeded in putting a radio transmitter on an albatross to follow it throughout its entire life-span, Robbins noted.


"It would be [an] exciting project for someone to undertake, but I'm 94 years old," he said, chuckling. "It wouldn't do much for me to start a project at my age."


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Arias Challenged On Pedophilia Claim

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Accused murderer Jodi Arias was challenged today by phone records, text message records, and her own diary entries that appeared to contradict her claim that she caught her ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander, looking at pictures of naked boys.


Arias had said during her testimony that one afternoon in January 2008, she walked in on Alexander masturbating to pictures of naked boys. She said she fled from the home, threw up, drove around aimlessly, and ignored numerous phone calls from Alexander because she was so upset at what she had seen.


The claim was central to the defense's accusation that Alexander was a "sexual deviant" who grew angry and abusive toward Arias in the months after the incident, culminating in a violent confrontation in June that left Alexander dead.


Arias claimed she killed him in self-defense. She could face the death penalty if convicted of murder.


Catching Up on the Trial? Check Out ABC News' Jodi Arias Trial Coverage


Today, prosecutor Juan Martinez, who has been aggressive in questioning witnesses throughout the trial, volleyed questions at her about the claim of pedophilia, asking her to explain why her and Alexander's cell phone records showed five calls back and forth between the pair throughout the day she allegedly fled in horror. Some of the calls were often initiated Arias, according to phone records.








Jodi Arias Doesn't Remember Stabbing Ex-Boyfriend Watch Video









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Arias on Ex-Boyfriend's Death: 'I Don't Remember' Watch Video





She and Alexander also exchanged text messages throughout the afternoon and evening at a time when Arias claims the pedophilia incident occurred. In those messages they discuss logistics of exchanging one another's cars that night. Alexander sends her text messages about the car from a church social event he attended that night that she never mentioned during her testimony.


Arias stuck by her claim that she saw Alexander masturbating to the pictures, and her voice remained steady under increasingly-loud questioning by Martinez.


But Martinez also sparred with Arias on the stand over minor issues, such as when he asked Arias detailed questions about the timing and order of events from that day and Arias said she could not remember them.


"It seems you have problems with your memory. Is this a longstanding thing? Since you started testifying?" Martinez asked.


"No it goes back farther than that. I don't know even know if I'd call it a problem," Arias said.


"How far back does it go? You don't want to call them problems, are they issues? Can we call them issues? When did you start having them?" he asked in rapid succession. "You say you have memory problems, that it depends on the circumstance. Give me the factors that influence that."


"Usually when men like you or Travis are screaming at me," Arias shot back from the stand. "It affects my brain, it makes my brain scramble."


"You're saying it's Mr. Martinez's fault?" Martinez asked, referring to himself in the third person.


"Objection your honor," Arias' attorney finally shouted. "This is a stunt!"


Timeline of the Jodi Arias Trial


Martinez dwelled at one point about a journal entry where Arias wrote that she missed the Mormon baptism of her friend Lonnie because she was having kinky sex with Alexander. He drew attention to prior testimony that she and Alexander used Tootsie Pops and Pop Rocks candy as sexual props.


"You're trying to get across (in the diary entry) that this involved a sexual liaison with Mr. Alexander right?" he asked. "And you're talking about Tootsie Pops and Pop Rocks?"


"That happened also that night," Arias said.


"You were there, enjoying it, the Tootsie Pops and Pop Rocks?" he asked again, prompting a smirk from Arias.


"I enjoyed his attention," Arias said.






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