'Blade Runner' Oscar Pistorius Charged with Girlfriend's Murder

Breaking News

By Stephen M. Silverman

UPDATED
02/14/2013 at 06:45 AM EST

• Originally published 02/14/2013 at 06:30 AM EST

Oscar Pistorius – the "Blade Runner" who made history last year as the first Paralympian to compete in the able-bodied Olympics – was charged with murder Thursday after his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp, was found shot dead inside his home in South Africa.

CNN reports that neighbors reported an incident at the house and a pistol was recovered at the scene, according to police. Early news reports said Steenkamp was planning a Valentine's surprise for Pistorius, 26, but that it went horribly wrong.

Police spokeswoman Denise Beukes said, "There is no other suspect involved" and that there had been "previous incidents" at Pistorius's home.

The suspect (who initially was not named, per South African law) was being cooperative and undergoing blood alcohol and forensic tests, said Beukes, adding that he requested to be brought to court immediately and that an application for bail would be refused.

A spokeswoman for Pistorius declined to comment, said CNN. The athlete's father, Henke, told the South African Broadcasting Corporation that his son was "sad at the moment."

Henke Pistorius added, "It will be extremely obnoxious and rude to speculate. I don't know the facts."

Check back: story developing ...

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Morning-after pill use up to 1 in 9 younger women

NEW YORK (AP) — About 1 in 9 younger women have used the morning-after pill after sex, according to the first government report to focus on emergency contraception since its approval 15 years ago.

The results come from a survey of females ages 15 to 44. Eleven percent of those who'd had sex reported using a morning-after pill. That's up from 4 percent in 2002, only a few years after the pills went on the market and adults still needed a prescription.

The increased popularity is probably because it is easier to get now and because of media coverage of controversial efforts to lift the age limit for over-the-counter sales, experts said. A prescription is still required for those younger than 17 so it is still sold from behind pharmacy counters.

In the study, half the women who used the pills said they did it because they'd had unprotected sex. Most of the rest cited a broken condom or worries that the birth control method they used had failed.

White women and more educated women use it the most, the research showed. That's not surprising, said James Trussell, a Princeton University researcher who's studied the subject.

"I don't think you can go to college in the United States and not know about emergency contraception," said Trussell, who has promoted its use and started a hot line.

One Pennsylvania college even has a vending machine dispensing the pills.

The morning-after pill is basically a high-dose version of birth control pills. It prevents ovulation and needs to be taken within a few days after sex. The morning-after pill is different from the so-called abortion pill, which is designed to terminate a pregnancy.

At least five versions of the morning-after pills are sold in the United States. They cost around $35 to $60 a dose at a pharmacy, depending on the brand.

Since it is sold over-the-counter, insurers generally only pay for it with a doctor's prescription. The new Affordable Care Act promises to cover morning-after pills, meaning no co-pays, but again only with a prescription.

The results of the study were released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It's based on in-person interviews of more than 12,000 women in 2006 through 2010. It was the agency's first in-depth report on that issue, said Kimberly Daniels, the study's lead author.

The study also found:

—Among different age groups, women in their early 20s were more likely to have taken a morning-after pill. About 1 in 4 did.

—About 1 in 5 never-married women had taken a morning-after pill, compared to just 1 in 20 married women.

—Of the women who used the pill, 59 percent said they had done it only once, 24 percent said twice, and 17 percent said three or more times.

A woman who uses emergency contraception multiple times "needs to be thinking about a more regular form" of birth control, noted Lawrence Finer, director of domestic research for the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit group that does research on reproductive health.

Also on Thursday, the CDC released a report on overall contraception use. Among its many findings, 99 percent of women who've had sex used some sort of birth control. That includes 82 percent who used birth control pills and 93 percent whose partner had used a condom.

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Online:

CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/

Emergency contraception info: http://ec.princeton.edu/index.html

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Couple recounts harrowing Dorner ordeal

Fugitive former police officer Christopher Jordan Dorner was apparently holed up inside a Big Bear area condo for as many as five days before the husband and wife who own the property surprised him and then were tied up and gagged, the couple said Wednesday night.

Dorner bound the husband's and wife's hands with plastic zip ties, stuffed small towels in their mouths so they couldn't scream and covered their heads with pillowcases that he tied with electrical cords, they said.

"I really thought it could be the end," Karen Reynolds, 56, told reporters gathered outside her condominium.

She and husband Jim Reynolds, 66, provided new details on some of Dorner's movements in the apparent final hours of his life. He is believed to have died Tuesday in a cabin fire after a mountainside gun battle with officers.

Law enforcement authorities previously said Dorner had held two cleaning women hostage. The Reynoldses spoke to reporters to end the confusion.

The couple said Dorner had been at the condo in the 1200 block of Club View Drive since as early as Friday, when they arrived to do maintenance in the yard. He told them he watched them — and even said they were "hardworking, good people." The couple slept at another property nearby.

When they entered the condo about noon Tuesday, the couple said, they were surprised to find the fired Los Angeles police officer inside the home, which is near the command post where authorities provided media briefings. They said they were held captive for about 15 minutes by Dorner, whom they recognized immediately.

The Reynoldses stumbled on the suspected killer when they went upstairs. Once they saw him, they said, he brandished a "big gun" and yelled, "Stay calm!"

Karen Reynolds said she tried to run down the stairs, but Dorner chased after her and caught her. He then took the couple to a bedroom, where he tied them up.

Dorner was a menacing presence but at other times tried to reassure the couple that he did not want to harm them, they said.

"He tried to calm us down, saying very frequently, he would not kill us," said Jim Reynolds, who has owned the condo with his wife for 12 years. "He huddled down beside me and said, 'You're going to be quiet right? Not make a fuss and let me get away?' "

Dorner identified himself as the man wanted by law enforcement authorities. "I know you know who I am, I know you've been seeing the news," Karen Reynolds recalled him saying.

Karen Reynolds said Dorner left the condo and stole their purple Nissan. About two minutes after they heard the car leave, Karen Reynolds propped herself up and shuffled to her cellphone. She grabbed it with her bound hands and called 911, using the speaker function.

"Dorner tied us up and he's in Big Bear," she recalled telling the dispatcher.

The couple, who have been married for 36 years, said they were "happy to be alive." They said they had mixed feelings about Dorner, whom they described as calm, alert and methodical. Karen Reynolds said she wasn't expecting to see any of the $1-million-plus reward money offered in the Dorner case. "We heard nobody was getting that because he needed to be captured and convicted," she said.

They said they found evidence that someone had been staying in the cabin, including a gallon of milk in the fridge, but that they didn't know if a previous tenant had left it behind. The last guests were there on Jan. 29.

All of the units are equipped with cable television and Internet. There was no sign of a forced entry.

It was Karen Reynolds' 12:20 p.m. 911 call that set in motion the chain of events that led to a shootout between Dorner and a state Fish and Wildlife warden, then to the standoff at another cabin where he is believed to have exchanged hundreds of rounds in the gun battle with officers before dying.

As the couple described their harrowing ordeal, they recalled that Dorner was insistent about what he wanted to do.

"I don't have a problem with you," he told them. "I just want to clear my name."

adolfo.flores@latimes.com

robert.lopez@latimes.com

Flores reported from Big Bear, Lopez from Los Angeles. Times staff writers Andrew Blankstein and Rong-Gong Lin II contributed to this report.

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Letter from India: Executions as a Matter of Opinion

NEW DELHI — When Indian cops take defendants to court, they walk holding hands, as if they were grim lovers. In photographs and video footage of Muhammad Afzal, also known as Afzal Guru, he can be seen being led in this manner by a man in uniform. But the state had no affection for Mr. Afzal.

He was found guilty of helping terrorists who attacked the Indian Parliament in 2001, and thus of “waging war against India,” among other serious charges. His was a long and complicated case, with gaping holes in the police investigation; even the Supreme Court, the highest in India, found that he was implicated not by direct evidence, but by a clutch of circumstances that pointed to his involvement.

Though the courts found Mr. Afzal to be complicit in the attack on Parliament, it remains unclear just how significant his role in the plot was.

Last Saturday morning, he was hanged in secrecy in the Tihar jail in New Delhi. According to the newspaper The Hindu, the 43-year-old was informed of his fate on the morning of the hanging, and after regaining his composure he wrote a letter to his wife and son, which he handed to a jail official as he emerged from his cell for the short walk to the gallows.

The hanging of Mr. Afzal, which surprised the nation and shocked his family, led to expressions of joy from politicians of various parties, as well as ordinary citizens. The world that Mr. Afzal was found unfit to live in was also a world that had the capacity to celebrate a human death. But there were also many who were disgusted, and who protested — and not merely in the Kashmir Valley, Mr. Afzal’s birthplace, where a curfew was imposed — because the execution has raised a number of deep concerns. Taken together, they point to a disturbing question: Is the Indian justice system competent, consistent and fair enough to grant the state the moral authority to terminate a human life?

On Dec. 13, 2001, five armed men in a car drove into the outer fringes of the Parliament compound and opened fire, killing eight security personnel and a civilian. All five attackers, about whom no substantial information has been made public, were soon killed.

According to the police, a trail led from the dead militants to Mr. Afzal and three others — two of whom were also sentenced to death by lower courts, before the Supreme Court, insufficiently impressed by the evidence, overturned one conviction and commuted the other man’s sentence to 10 years.

But the Supreme Court upheld Mr. Afzal’s death sentence, making an observation that would be extraordinary in any mature democracy: “The incident, which resulted in heavy casualties, had shaken the entire nation, and the collective conscience of the society will only be satisfied if capital punishment is awarded to the offender.”

The question is not whether the esteemed court is competent to gauge the “collective conscience of the society” but whether that conscience, whatever it might be, should influence the court’s judgment in the first place. And if it should, then it is hard to overlook a huge body of educated, patriotic and law-abiding Indians who have been saying through all available channels that their “conscience” will be satisfied only if their nation ends the practice of executing people.

Also, there is the matter of inconsistency. There are people who have been sentenced to death for assassinations or for waging war against the state who have yet to be hanged, even though they were sentenced long before Mr. Afzal was. There is no logic that explains why one man in India must hang before another man. The state can, through the sheer force of technicalities, prolong the life of a person on death row, while in a less fortunate person’s case using its discretion to rush through the formalities. In this way, political calculations have been allowed to seep into what should be a purely judicial process.

Indian courts are supposed to impose the death penalty only in the “rarest of rare” cases. But this qualifier has proved to be highly subjective. Recently, the Supreme Court spared the life of a man who had killed his wife and daughter while out on parole; he had been in prison for raping that daughter when she was a minor. The court believed he could be reformed. A few days later, another Supreme Court bench sentenced a man to death for the murder of a 7-year-old boy, having taken into account the fact that the boy was his parents’ “only male child.”

There is outrage, of course, over the implication that those parents’ anguish would have been less, and therefore the crime less heinous, if the child had been a girl.

But there are times, it appears, when the Indian justice system does not wish to satisfy “the collective conscience of the society.”

Manu Joseph is editor of the Indian newsweekly Open and author of the novel “The Illicit Happiness of Other People.”

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Study questions kidney cancer treatment in elderly

In a stunning example of when treatment might be worse than the disease, a large review of Medicare records finds that older people with small kidney tumors were much less likely to die over the next five years if doctors monitored them instead of operating right away.

Even though nearly all of these tumors turned out to be cancer, they rarely proved fatal. And surgery roughly doubled patients' risk of developing heart problems or dying of other causes, doctors found.

After five years, 24 percent of those who had surgery had died, compared to only 13 percent of those who chose monitoring. Just 3 percent of people in each group died of kidney cancer.

The study only involved people 66 and older, but half of all kidney cancers occur in this age group. Younger people with longer life expectancies should still be offered surgery, doctors stressed.

The study also was observational — not an experiment where some people were given surgery and others were monitored, so it cannot prove which approach is best. Yet it offers a real-world look at how more than 7,000 Medicare patients with kidney tumors fared. Surgery is the standard treatment now.

"I think it should change care" and that older patients should be told "that they don't necessarily need to have the kidney tumor removed," said Dr. William Huang of New York University Langone Medical Center. "If the treatment doesn't improve cancer outcomes, then we should consider leaving them alone."

He led the study and will give results at a medical meeting in Orlando, Fla., later this week. The research was discussed Tuesday in a telephone news conference sponsored by the American Society of Clinical Oncology and two other cancer groups.

In the United States, about 65,000 new cases of kidney cancer and 13,700 deaths from the disease are expected this year. Two-thirds of cases are diagnosed at the local stage, when five-year survival is more than 90 percent.

However, most kidney tumors these days are found not because they cause symptoms, but are spotted by accident when people are having an X-ray or other imaging test for something else, like back trouble or chest pain.

Cancer experts increasingly question the need to treat certain slow-growing cancers that are not causing symptoms — prostate cancer in particular. Researchers wanted to know how life-threatening small kidney tumors were, especially in older people most likely to suffer complications from surgery.

They used federal cancer registries and Medicare records from 2000 to 2007 to find 8,317 people 66 and older with kidney tumors less than 1.5 inches wide.

Cancer was confirmed in 7,148 of them. About three-quarters of them had surgery and the rest chose to be monitored with periodic imaging tests.

After five years, 1,536 had died, including 191 of kidney cancer. For every 100 patients who chose monitoring, 11 more were alive at the five-year mark compared to the surgery group. Only 6 percent of those who chose monitoring eventually had surgery.

Furthermore, 27 percent of the surgery group but only 13 percent of the monitoring group developed a cardiovascular problem such as a heart attack, heart disease or stroke. These problems were more likely if doctors removed the entire kidney instead of just a part of it.

The results may help doctors persuade more patients to give monitoring a chance, said a cancer specialist with no role in the research, Dr. Bruce Roth of Washington University in St. Louis.

Some patients with any abnormality "can't sleep at night until something's done about it," he said. Doctors need to say, "We're not sticking our head in the sand, we're going to follow this" and can operate if it gets worse.

One of Huang's patients — 81-year-old Rhona Landorf, who lives in New York City — needed little persuasion.

"I was very happy not to have to be operated on," she said. "He said it's very slow growing and that having an operation would be worse for me than the cancer."

Landorf said her father had been a doctor, and she trusts her doctors' advice. Does she think about her tumor? "Not at all," she said.

___

Online:

Kidney cancer info: http://www.cancer.net/cancer-types/kidney-cancer

and http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/types/kidney

Study: http://gucasym.org

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Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP

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Dorner manhunt leads to deadly standoff

When authorities hemmed in the man they suspected of killing three people in a campaign of revenge that has gripped Southern California, he responded as they had feared: with smoke bombs and a barrage of gunfire.

The suspect, who police believe is fugitive ex-cop Christopher Dorner, shot to death one San Bernardino County sheriff's deputy and injured another Tuesday. He then barricaded himself in a wood cabin outside Big Bear in the snow-blanketed San Bernardino Mountains, police said.

Just before 5 p.m., authorities smashed the cabin's windows, pumped in tear gas and called for the suspect to surrender. They got no response. Then, using a demolition vehicle, they tore down the cabin's walls one by one. When they reached the last wall, they heard a gunshot.

Then the cabin burst into flames. By late Tuesday evening, the smoldering ruins remained too hot for police to enter, but authorities said they believed Dorner's body was inside.

The standoff appeared to end a weeklong hunt for the former L.A. police officer and Navy reserve lieutenant, who is also suspected of killing an Irvine couple and a Riverside police officer. But Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said he would not consider the manhunt over until a body was recovered and identified as Dorner.

"It is a bittersweet night," said Beck as he drove to the hospital where the injured deputy was undergoing surgery. "This could have ended much better, it could have ended worse. I feel for the family of the deputy who lost his life."

According to a manifesto Dorner allegedly posted on Facebook, he felt the LAPD unjustly fired him in 2009, when a disciplinary panel determined that he lied in accusing his training officer of kicking a mentally ill man during an arrest. Beck has promised to review the case.

Dorner, 33, vowed to wage "unconventional and asymmetrical warfare" against law enforcement officers and their families, the manifesto said. "Self-preservation is no longer important to me. I do not fear death as I died long ago."

Last week, authorities had tracked Dorner to a wooded area near Big Bear Lake. They found his torched gray Nissan Titan with several weapons inside. The only trace of Dorner was a short trail of footprints in newly fallen snow.

On Tuesday morning two maids entered a cabin in the 1200 block of Club View Drive and ran into a man who they said resembled the fugitive, a law enforcement official said. The cabin was not far from where Dorner's singed truck had been found and where police had been holding press conferences about the manhunt.

The man tied up the maids, and he took off in a purple Nissan parked near the cabin. About 12:20 p.m., one of the maids broke free and called police.

Nearly half an hour later, officers with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife spotted the stolen vehicle and called for backup. The suspect turned down a side road in an attempt to elude the officers but crashed the vehicle, police said.

A short time later, authorities said the suspect carjacked a light-colored pickup truck. Allan Laframboise said the truck belonged to his friend Rick Heltebrake, who works at a nearby Boy Scout camp.

Heltebrake was driving on Glass Road with his Dalmatian, Suni, when a hulking African American man stepped into the road, Laframboise said. Heltebrake stopped. The man told him to get out of the truck.

"Can I take my dog?" Heltebrake asked, according to his friend.

"You can leave and you can take your dog," the man said. He then sped off in the Dodge extended-cab pickup — and quickly encountered two Department of Fish and Wildlife trucks.

As the suspect zoomed past the officers, he rolled down his window and fired about 15 to 20 rounds. One of the officers jumped out and shot a high-powered rifle at the fleeing pickup. The suspect abandoned the vehicle and took off on foot.

Police said he ended up at the Seven Oaks Mountain Cabins, a cluster of wood-frame buildings about halfway between Big Bear Lake and Yucaipa. The suspect exchanged gunfire with San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies as he fled into a cabin that locals described as a single-story, multi-room structure.

The suspect fired from the cabin, striking one deputy, law enforcement sources said. Then he ducked out the back of the cabin, deployed a smoke bomb and opened fire again, hitting a second deputy. Neither deputy was identified by authorities. The suspect retreated back into the cabin.

The gun battle was captured on TV by KCAL 9 reporter Carter Evans, who said he was about 200 feet from the cabin. As Evans described on air how deputies were approaching the structure, he was interrupted by 10 seconds of gunfire.

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IHT Rendezvous: IHT Quick Read: Feb. 12

NEWS North Korea appeared to conduct its third, and probably largest, nuclear test on Tuesday, according to American and Asian officials, posing a new challenge for the Obama administration in its effort to keep the country from becoming a full-fledged nuclear power. David E. Sanger reports from Washington, and Choe Sang-hun from Seoul.

Pope Benedict XVI’s surprise announcement on Monday that he will resign on Feb. 28 sets the stage for a succession battle that is likely to determine the future course of a church troubled by scandal and declining faith in its traditional strongholds around the world. Rachel Donadio and Elisabetta Povoledo report from Vatican City.

Flying is becoming safer: It will be four years on Tuesday since the last fatal crash in the United States, a record unmatched since propeller planes gave way to the jet more than half a century ago. Jad Mouawad and Christopher Drew report.

Thousands of Afghans have built homes and careers on an influx of foreign money and are fearful that their lives could implode as Western forces disappear. Graham Bowley reports from Kabul.

There are many ways of striking it rich in Brazil, but one strategy may come as a particular surprise in today’s economic climate: securing a government job. Simon Romero reports from São Paulo.

Critics in France say a proposal to add school classes on Wednesdays fails to address concerns that French students are trailing those of other European countries. Nicola Clark reports from Paris.

Concern over the euro moved to the forefront Monday as finance ministers of the countries using the currency held their monthly meeting. But this time, with the European Union’s recession continuing, the topic was the strength of the euro rather than its many weaknesses. James Kanter reports from Brussels.

The troubled Olkiluoto 3 nuclear plant in Finland will probably not start operating before 2016, the power utility behind the plant said Monday, another delay to a project that is already four years overdue. David Jolly reports.

FASHION As the Metropolitan Museum of Art announces “Punk: Chaos to Couture,” the story fits neatly with the winter 2013 season. Suzy Menkes writes from New York.

ARTS “No,” the Chilean entry in this year’s foreign-film race of the Academy Awards, has received praise but also criticism in its home nation. Larry Rohter reports.

SPORTS Women tennis players, with a few exceptions, have not transitioned successfully from the top of the college game to the top levels of the WTA Tour. Ben Rothenberg reports from Charlottesville, Virginia.

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The Bachelor's Sean Lowe Blogs About His Dates in St. Croix

Sean Lowe is the star of season 17 of The Bachelor, which airs Mondays on ABC. The hunky Dallas businessman and entrepreneur is blogging about his romantic journey for PEOPLE.com.

I'd developed really strong feelings for the final six women on The Bachelor – and I could hardly wait to take them to St. Croix. Our previous week in Canada was great! My heart and head were back on track, and I felt as though the women put their focus back on me. And because of that, each of my relationships grew stronger.

But it was time to leave the cold weather behind and move on to some sandy beaches. This was a huge week for all of us because I would have to decide whose family I was ready to meet.

I had three one-on-one dates and one group date in St. Croix. I decided to give the one-on-one dates to women I had questions for – and the group date went to the women whose hometowns I was ready to visit.

My first date was with AshLee, who was a front-runner in my mind since we visited the theme park back in Los Angeles. She is sweet, loving and compassionate, and I knew she truly wanted to give her heart over to me. But I was still left with doubts about our relationship because I didn't seem to have as much fun with her as I did with the other women.

Given her traumatic childhood, it's understandable why AshLee has control issues. But I think that was preventing her from really letting go and allowing herself to have fun. I really want a partner that I can laugh uncontrollably with and someone who can make even mundane tasks feel exciting. I hoped AshLee had that quality in her, or that I brought it out in her, and I was ready to find out.

After taking the catamaran to the island, AshLee decided to take one for the team and tell me everything I needed to know about Tierra. Until that point, I had only heard the women say they didn't like Tierra, but they never gave specific reasons. It was actually a huge relief to hear all that AshLee had to say. It took a lot of courage for her to bring it up.

That evening, we ended our date with an oceanside dinner where she screamed her love for me while standing on a chair. For the first time, I felt like AshLee was finally letting go and stepping out of her comfort zone for me. I left that date thinking once again that AshLee might be the woman for me.

Connecting with Tierra

Next was my long-awaited date with Tierra. I had a lot of fun with her that day walking around the streets of St. Croix, but I couldn't shake what AshLee had told me. That night, as we had a romantic dinner in an old sugar mill, I tried to really figure out what my feelings were for Tierra, and if I could see a future for us.

I was nervous that if I ended up with Tierra, drama would follow her into our everyday lives. But when she told me she was falling in love with me, I softened a bit. She was always kind when she was with me, and I wanted to believe that the drama was circumstantial and that once she wasn't around a bunch of girls dating the same guy, she would be drama-free. I still ended the evening with questions, but remembering that my connection with Tierra was strong.

Group Date

The following day was the group date with Des, Lindsay and Catherine. I didn't have a lot of questions for these three women. They all have one thing in common: I always have fun with them. Since the beginning I've said that I want to marry my best friend, and they definitely fit that criterion.

We spent the day traveling and touring the island in a Jeep. At the end of the day, I really didn't know who I would give the rose to because they were all so deserving. But I decided to give it to Lindsay because she was so supportive, patient and encouraging throughout this entire journey.

My last date of the week was with Lesley. She was another person who fit the best-friend criteria, but I needed to see more from her. Lesley had a wall up and I always felt like she couldn't be completely vulnerable with me.

Our date was fun, but I needed more than fun. I desperately wanted to see her open up emotionally and allow me to see her true feelings, but that never happened. I was shocked to hear her say on TV that she loved me, and I was left confused as to why she didn't tell me that during our date. Had she told me, it could have changed everything.

Sisterly Advice

I flew my sister, Shay, to St. Croix for her birthday. She loves the show (she signed me up for The Bachelorette!), and I thought it would be a cool present for her. She is also a great judge of character and she knows me better than anyone else.

My sister's advice before I left Dallas for L.A. was to avoid the girl whom drama surrounded. After hearing everything that AshLee had to say about Tierra, I thought it would be a good idea to have my sister sit down and visit with Tierra so I could get her opinion.

I had no idea what I was walking into upon entering the women's suite. I was not aware of the big blowout AshLee and Tierra just had. I found Tierra crying on her bed with her head in her hands. I had already figured by this point that Tierra was not the woman I was going to marry, so when I saw how distraught she was, I knew I had to end it right then and there.

I still believe Tierra has more good in her than people see, but I also recognize that she doesn't have the maturity or social skills necessary to make it on The Bachelor.

When it came time to send someone home at the rose ceremony, I felt confident in my decision. As much as I enjoyed spending time with Lesley, I knew I had to send her home because she never allowed herself to open up emotionally.

I was sad to see Lesley leave, but I felt so confident in my final four. Knowing hometown dates were right around the corner, I was incredibly excited. I loved bringing Emily home to meet my family, and it changed everything for me, so I had really high hopes for the coming week. On to hometowns!

Thanks for watching!
Sean

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Pope shows lifetime jobs aren't always for life

The world seems surprised that an 85-year-old globe-trotting pope who just started tweeting wants to resign, but should it be? Maybe what should be surprising is that more leaders his age do not, considering the toll aging takes on bodies and minds amid a culture of constant communication and change.

There may be more behind the story of why Pope Benedict XVI decided to leave a job normally held for life. But the pontiff made it about age. He said the job called for "both strength of mind and body" and said his was deteriorating. He spoke of "today's world, subject to so many rapid changes," implying a difficulty keeping up despite his recent debut on Twitter.

"This seemed to me a very brave, courageous decision," especially because older people often don't recognize their own decline, said Dr. Seth Landefeld, an expert on aging and chairman of medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Age has driven many leaders from jobs that used to be for life — Supreme Court justices, monarchs and other heads of state. As lifetimes expand, the woes of old age are catching up with more in seats of power. Some are choosing to step down rather than suffer long declines and disabilities as the pope's last predecessor did.

Since 1955, only one U.S. Supreme Court justice — Chief Justice William Rehnquist — has died in office. Twenty-one others chose to retire, the most recent being John Paul Stevens, who stepped down in 2010 at age 90.

When Thurgood Marshall stepped down in 1991 at the age of 82, citing health reasons, the Supreme Court justice's answer was blunt: "What's wrong with me? I'm old. I'm getting old and falling apart."

One in 5 U.S. senators is 70 or older, and some have retired rather than seek new terms, such as Hawaii's Daniel Akaka, who left office in January at age 88.

The Netherlands' Queen Beatrix, who just turned 75, recently said she will pass the crown to a son and put the country "in the hands of a new generation."

In Germany, where the pope was born, Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is 58, said the pope's decision that he was no longer fit for the job "earns my very highest respect."

"In our time of ever-lengthening life, many people will be able to understand how the pope as well has to deal with the burdens of aging," she told reporters in Berlin.

Experts on aging agreed.

"People's mental capacities in their 80s and 90s aren't what they were in their 40s and 50s. Their short-term memory is often not as good, their ability to think quickly on their feet, to execute decisions is often not as good," Landefeld said. Change is tougher to handle with age, and leaders like popes and presidents face "extraordinary demands that would tax anybody's physical and mental stamina."

Dr. Barbara Messinger-Rapport, geriatrics chief at the Cleveland Clinic, noted that half of people 85 and older in developed countries have some dementia, usually Alzheimer's. Even without such a disease, "it takes longer to make decisions, it takes longer to learn new things," she said.

But that's far from universal, said Dr. Thomas Perls, an expert on aging at Boston University and director of the New England Centenarians Study.

"Usually a man who is entirely healthy in his early 80s has demonstrated his survival prowess" and can live much longer, he said. People of privilege have better odds because they have access to good food and health care, and tend to lead clean lives.

"Even in the 1500s and 1600s there were popes in their 80s. It's remarkable. That would be today's centenarians," Perls said.

Arizona Sen. John McCain turned 71 while running for president in 2007. Had he won, he would have been the oldest person elected to a first term as president. Ronald Reagan was days away from turning 70 when he started his first term as president in 1981; he won re-election in 1984. Vice President Joe Biden just turned 70.

In the U.S. Senate, where seniority is rewarded and revered, South Carolina's Strom Thurmond didn't retire until age 100 in 2002. Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia was the longest-serving senator when he died in office at 92 in 2010.

Now the oldest U.S. senator is 89-year-old Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey. The oldest congressman is Ralph Hall of Texas who turns 90 in May.

The legendary Alan Greenspan was about to turn 80 when he retired as chairman of the Federal Reserve in 2006; he still works as a consultant.

Elsewhere around the world, Cuba's Fidel Castro — one of the world's longest serving heads of state — stepped down in 2006 at age 79 due to an intestinal illness that nearly killed him, handing power to his younger brother Raul. But the island is an example of aged leaders pushing on well into their dotage. Raul Castro now is 81 and his two top lieutenants are also octogenarians. Later this month, he is expected to be named to a new, five-year term as president.

Other leaders who are still working:

—England's Queen Elizabeth, 86.

—Abdullah bin Abd al-Aziz al-Saud, king of Saudi Arabia, 88.

—Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, emir of Kuwait, 83.

—Ruth Bader Ginsburg, U.S. Supreme Court associate justice, 79.

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Associated Press writers Paul Haven in Havana, Cuba; David Rising in Berlin; Seth Borenstein, Mark Sherman and Matt Yancey in Washington, and researcher Judy Ausuebel in New York contributed to this report.

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Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP

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Ex-Bell officials defend themselves as honorable public servants

Less than three years ago, they were handcuffed and taken away in a case alleged to be so extensive that the district attorney called it "corruption on steroids."

But on Monday, two of the six former Bell council members accused of misappropriating money from the small, mostly immigrant town took to the witness stand and defended themselves as honorable public servants who earned their near-$100,000 salaries by working long hours behind the scenes.

During her three days on the stand, Teresa Jacobo said she responded to constituents who called her cell and home phone at all hours. She put in time at the city's food bank, organized breast cancer awareness marches, sometimes paid for hotel rooms for the homeless and was a staunch advocate for education.

"I was working very hard to improve the lives of the citizens of Bell," she said. "I was bringing in programs and working with them to build leadership and good families, strong families."

Jacobo, 60, said she didn't question the appropriateness of her salary, which made her one of the highest-paid part-time council members in the state.

Former Councilman George Mirabal said he too worked a long, irregular schedule when it came to city affairs.

"I keep hearing time frames over and over again, but there's no clock when you're working on the council," he said Monday. "You're working on the circumstances that are facing you. If a family calls … you don't say, '4 o'clock, work's over.' "

Mirabal, 65, said he often reached out to low-income residents who didn't make it to council meetings, attended workshops to learn how to improve civic affairs and once even made a trip to a San Diego high school to research opening a similar tech charter school in Bell.

"Do you believe you gave everything you could to the citizens of Bell?" asked his attorney, Alex Kessel.

"I'd give more," Mirabal replied.

Both Mirabal and Jacobo testified that not only did they perceive their salaries to be reasonable, but they believed them to be lawful because they were drawn up by the city manager and voted on in open session with the city attorney present.

Mirabal, who once served as Bell's city clerk, even went so far as to say that he was still a firm supporter of the city charter that passed in 2005, viewing it as Bell's "constitution." In a taped interview with authorities, one of Mirabal's council colleagues — Victor Bello — said the city manager told him the charter cleared the way for higher council salaries.

Prosecutors have depicted the defendants as salary gluttons who put their city on a path toward bankruptcy. Mirabal and Jacobo, along with Bello, Luis Artiga, George Cole and Oscar Hernandez, are accused of drawing those paychecks from boards that seldom met and did little work. All face potential prison terms if convicted.

Prosecutors have cited the city's Solid Waste and Recycling Authority as a phantom committee, created only as a device for increasing the council's pay. But defense attorneys said the authority had a very real function, even in a city that contracted with an outside trash company.

Jacobo testified that she understood the introduction of that authority to be merely a legal process and that its purpose was to discuss how Bell might start its own city-run trash service.

A former contract manager for Consolidated Disposal Service testified that Bell officials had been unhappy with the response time to bulky item pickups, terminating their contract about 2005, but that it took about six years to finalize because of an agreement that automatically renewed every year.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Edward Miller questioned Mirabal about the day shortly after his 2010 arrest that he voluntarily told prosecutors that no work was done on authorities outside of meetings.

Mirabal said that if he had made such a statement, it was incorrect. He said he couldn't remember what was said back then and "might have heed and hawed."

"So it's easy to remember now?" Miller asked.

"Yes, actually."

"More than two years after charges have been filed, it's easier for you to remember now that you did work outside of the meetings for the Public Finance Authority?"

"Yes, sir."

Miller later asked Mirabal to explain a paragraph included on City Council agendas that began with the phrase, "City Council members are like you."

After some clarification of the question, Mirabal answered: "That everybody is equal and that if they look into themselves, they would see us."

corina.knoll@latimes.com

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