Pirate Bay hit with legal action

Pirate Bay hit with legal action
Four men who run one of the most popular file-sharing sites in the world have been charged with conspiracy to break copyright law in Sweden.
The Pirate Bay's servers do not store copyrighted material but offer links to the download location of films, TV programmes, albums and software.

The website is said to have between 10 and 15 million users around the world and is supported by online advertising.

Police seized computers in May 2006, temporarily shutting down the website.

According to the Pirate Bay website, its users are currently downloading close to a million files.

"The operation of The Pirate Bay is financed through advertising revenues. In that way it commercially exploits copywrite-protected work and performances," prosecutor Hakan Roswall said in a statement.

In an interview with the BBC's technology programme Click last year Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde said: "I think it's okay to copy. They get their money from so many places that the sales is just one small part."

FROM DOT.LIFE BLOG

The Pirate Bay is being targeted because it so popular, so high-profile, and so flagrant in its actions

Darren Waters, Technology editor, BBC News website


Read more from the blog

The other three men facing charges are Carl Lundstrom, Frederik Neij and Gottfrid Svartholm Warg.

If convicted, the four men could face a maximum of two years in prison.

The Swedish prosecutor listed dozens of works that had been downloaded through The Pirate Bay site, including The Beatles' Let It Be, Robbie Williams' Intensive Care and the movie Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire.

Plaintiffs in the case include Warner, MGM, Columbia Pictures, 20th Century Fox Films, Sony BMG, Universal and EMI.

John Kennedy, chairman and chief executive of global music body, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industries, said: "The operators of The Pirate Bay have always been interested in making money, not music.

"The Pirate Bay has managed to make Sweden, normally the most law abiding of EU countries, look like a piracy haven with intellectual property laws on a par with Russia."

Indonesian tsunami detector 'was severed': official

Indonesian tsunami detector 'was severed': official

JAKARTA (AFP) - A crucial part of a tsunami detection system placed in Indonesia's busy Sunda Strait has gone missing amid indications that it was deliberately removed, an Indonesian official said Thursday. The device is one of just four installed off Indonesia so far as part of a regional alert system designed to help predict the kind of killer waves that swept the Indian Ocean in December 2004.

It last transmitted data on December 30, 2007, Ridwan Djamaluddin, head of Indonesia's marine technology research centre, told AFP.

The Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunami (DART) uses a sensor on the seabed to send signals to a buoy on the surface, which in turn transmits the information to authorities on land.

Djamaluddin said he suspected that the cable holding the buoy in place was snapped after being dragged by a passing object, possibly a ship.

"The buoy is attached with a steel line to an ocean floor unit. The steel line was severed at a depth of 150 metres," he said, and the ocean floor unit was moved a distance of some two kilometres (1.25 miles).

He added that the buoy was designed to withstand a pulling force of up to six tonnes.

Djamaluddin said he believed the unit was deliberately pulled out from its place, but did not say who would have done it.

The other three DARTs are currently located off the coast of Aceh province on the northern tip of Sumatra island, and at two different points along the western coast of Sumatra.

At least 22 similar devices are planned to be launched as part of the early warning network.

The Indian Ocean region's first DART was deployed off Thailand's Phuket in December 2005.

Indonesia and Thailand were among a dozen nations lashed by a catastrophic earthquake-spawned tsunami in December 2004.

Indonesia, which suffered the highest national death, including 168,000 in Aceh alone, sits on a so-called Pacific Ring of Fire where continental plates collide, meaning earthquakes are a regular and often deadly occurrence.

NASA photos reveal Mercury is shrinking

NASA photos reveal Mercury is shrinking

WASHINGTON - The first pictures from the unseen side of Mercury reveal the wrinkles of a shrinking, aging planet with scars from volcanic eruptions and a birthmark shaped like a spider.Some of the 1,213 photos taken by NASA's Messenger probe and unveiled Wednesday help support the case that ancient volcanoes dot Mercury and that it is shrinking as it gets older, forming wrinkle-like ridges. But other images are surprising and puzzling.

The spidery shape captured in a photo is "unlike anything we've seen anywhere in the solar system," said mission chief scientist Sean Solomon of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. The image shows what looks like a large crater with faint lines radiating out from it.

Mercury, the closest planet to the sun, has often been compared to Earth's dull black-and-white moon. But the new photos, which reveal parts of Mercury never seen, show the tiny planet is more colorful and once had volcanic activity.

With the help of NASA high-tech enhancement, Messenger photos showed baby blues and dark reds.

"It has very subtle red and blue areas," said instrument scientist Louise Prockter of Johns Hopkins University, which runs the Messenger mission for NASA. "Mercury doesn't look like the moon."

The last time a NASA spacecraft went to Mercury was Mariner 10 in 1975. It took pictures of just 45 percent of the planet.

Messenger, which will do a couple more flybys of the planet before going into a long-term orbit, already has taken pictures of another 30 percent of Mercury, Prockter said. The rest will be seen eventually.

Planetary scientist Robert Strom, who was part of both the Mariner 10 and Messenger teams, said, "This is a whole new planet we're looking at."

And Prockter noted "there are some features we haven't been able to explain yet."

Example No. 1 is what scientists are calling "the spider." It is in the middle of a basin formed billions of years ago when space junk bombarded an infant Mercury.

Mariner had only seen part of the crater. When Messenger took a look with sharper cameras and a better angle, it photographed this odd central plateau jutting up, about half a mile high with dozens of tiny ridges radiating out.

It is as if "something is pushed up," said MIT planetary scientist Maria Zuber, who is part of the science team.

Prockter guessed that it could be remnants of a volcano. Other scientists think the leg-like features could be the same ridges seen all over Mercury.

First seen in the 1970s, the ridges now seen more widely provide evidence that Mercury is contracting, the scientists said.

Scientists had theorized that as the core of Mercury cools, it contracts and the whole planet shrinks. That was even a 19th Century theory for why Earth had mountains, but one that later proven wrong, Solomon said. But with Mercury that seems to be the case. As the planet shrinks, a bit of crust is pushed over another, forming what Prockter calls "wrinkle ridges."

Besides having what looks like the leftovers from volcanoes, Mercury has at least one crater that seems to be filled with what would be that planet's version of lava, Prockter said.

NASA launched the $446 million Messenger on its nearly 5 billion-mile mission in 2004. It will fly by Mercury two more times, this October and September 2009, before settling into orbit around in 2011. Messenger will take pictures, measure the planet's tenuous atmosphere, hills and valleys and unusual magnetic field — Mercury is the only solar system planet other than Earth to have a magnetosphere.

Quirky Mercury is one of the bigger question marks in the solar system, probed not nearly as much as Mars, Jupiter, Venus or Saturn.

Strom, a retired University of Arizona scientist who worked on Mariner 10, said that as he awaited Messenger's flyby earlier this month, "I couldn't sleep at all. I was like a kid on Christmas Eve."

Arctic Monkeys lead NME shortlist

Arctic Monkeys lead NME shortlist

Arctic Monkeys have scored a record seven nominations for this year's NME Awards, including best British band, best album and best track.
Other nominees include Klaxons, who are up for four prizes.

But troubled singer Amy Winehouse has been nominated for villain of the year along with Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Tony Blair and George Bush.

Winners are decided by the music weekly's readers and will be announced at a London ceremony on 28 February.

Worst dressed

Winehouse has also been nominated for best solo artist, along with Kate Nash, Jack Penate, Jamie T and Patrick Wolf.

But she is also in the worst dressed category, where she faces competition from Pete Doherty, who is also nominated for the best dressed award.

Competing against the Arctic Monkeys for best British band are Babyshambles, The Cribs, Klaxons and Muse.

Sheffield band Arctic Monkeys have also been voted in the best album category along with Babyshambles, The Enemy, Klaxons and Radiohead.



Since they burst onto the music scene in 2005, Arctic Monkeys have notched up 15 NME award nominations.

They are also up for best live band, best track, best album artwork and best video for their single Teddy Picker, while frontman Alex Turner is a best dressed contender.

The worst album award will go to either James Blunt, The Hoosiers, Mika, Britney Spears or Leona Lewis.

Arcade Fire, Foo Fighters, The Killers, Kings of Leon and My Chemical Romance will compete for best international band.

In the best new band category The Enemy, Foals, Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong, The Pigeon Detectives and The Wombats will battle it out.

My Chemical Romance picked up two nominations, for worst band and best video, although last year the US group picked up the award for best international act.

Fall Out Boy, 30 Seconds To Mars, The Hoosiers and Panic At The Disco are also up for the worst band award.

Last year Arctic Monkeys scooped two awards including best album for Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not and best music DVD.

McCain, Romney set for Florida showdown

McCain, Romney set for Florida showdown

TAMPA, Fla. - Republicans John McCain and Mitt Romney spent a week hammering each other on the economy and national security heading into the Florida presidential primary that could solidify one man as the party's front-runnerAll that was left to do Tuesday was urge people to vote.

Critical phone calls, negative radio ads, and bitter, personal exchanges marked the final hours before the primary. The contest offers the winner the state's 57 delegates to GOP nominating convention and serves as a gateway to the 20-plus states with nominating contests on Feb. 5.

Recent polls show McCain, the Arizona senator, and Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, in a dead heat; both hope a Florida win will provide a burst of energy heading into the virtual national primary a week later.

Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor who has lost six straight contests, is seeking a win to remain a viable candidate. But he is far behind in the polls, and a poor showing could force him to abandon his bid. Also lagging is Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor who hasn't won since the Iowa caucuses nearly a month ago and hardly competed in Florida.

The contest is so tight that just about any factor could tip the balance.

More so than his rival, Romney has a get-out-the-vote effort as well as early and absentee voting programs. He's spent considerable time and money in the state in the past year. The recent focus on the economy works in his favor; he's been pushing his private-sector credentials and arguing that he's the most capable to turn the country away from the brink of recession.

Conversely, McCain is backed by Florida's top two Republican elected officials, Sen. Mel Martinez and Gov. Charlie Crist, and has endorsements from a slew of Florida newspapers. The former Vietnam prisoner of war also has universal name recognition, as well as ownership of an issue important to the large number of veterans and active military in the state — national security.

McCain is expected to do well in areas with a strong military presence — Pensacola, Jacksonville, Tampa. He's also hoping for a strong turnout in Miami, with its heavy Cuban-American population, and Orlando, a melting pot. Romney is fighting for the southwest part of the state around Fort Myers and Sarasota; it's much like the Midwest, where he was raised. Another likely stronghold, Palm Beach and Broward County, home to many Northeastern transplants.

Labels deny deals on file sharing

Labels deny deals on file sharing

Three major record labels have denied signing deals allowing their music to feature on a new file-sharing service offering unlimited free downloads.
The service, Qtrax, boasted it would carry up to 30 million tracks from "all the major labels".

But Warner, EMI and Universal all say they have not licensed their music.

Qtrax said it expected an agreement to be reached with Warner and that terms had been agreed with the others even if deals had not been formally signed.

Discussions ongoing

Qtrax aims to allow users to download music from the major labels for free, with advertising revenue used to pay licensing fees.

But Warner says it "has not authorised the use of our content on Qtrax's recently-announced service".

And Universal and EMI said discussions with Qtrax were still ongoing but that licensing deals were not in place.

A spokesman for Sony BMG - the other "big four" record label - was not available for comment.

Amazon store

Qtrax president Allan Klepfisz said that, while a deal with Warner had not been signed, he expected terms to be agreed "shortly".

"With everyone else, we have agreed on all terms," he said.

In some cases, deals had not been formally signed, he added.

Online retailer Amazon, meanwhile, has announced the international rollout of its digital music store.

The store, which is already operating in the US, allows customers to download music without any digital copying protection.

Millions of songs will be sold without Digital Rights Management (DRM) software, allowing - for example - customers to burn their own CDs freely.

Amazon says it is the only retailer to offer DRM-free MP3s for the four major record labels as well as thousands of independent record labels.

Action needed' on home emissions

'Action needed' on home emissions

European governments and the European Commission are being urged to hasten the development of housing that produces no greenhouse gases.

The European Energy Network (ENR), which includes energy advisory bodies across the EU, says better enforcement of green building codes is also needed.

Less than a quarter of EU states have introduced certification schemes for houses, as required under EU law.

European governments have agreed to boost energy efficiency by 20% by 2020.

The ENR report, a snapshot of legislation and other action across member states, will be formally released on Tuesday.

"One implication of our findings is that the European Commission needs to take some leadership and set a timetable for all new buildings around Europe to be zero-carbon," said Philip Sellwood, chief executive of Britain's Energy Saving Trust (EST), an ENR member.

The average UK home has the potential to save £300 per year by just installing the most effective measures

Philip Sellwood
For national governments, ENR says, a priority should be to introduce energy performance certificates that give houses an "energy rating", a key requirement of the Energy Performance in Buildings Directive.

The report describes lack of progress on this issue as "disappointing".

Simple savings

Some countries, the report says, are making considerable progress on improving energy efficiency, which many experts agree is the simplest way to slash fossil fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions.

Britain has introduced energy performance certificates and set a target of building only zero-carbon homes from 2016.

Even so, Mr Sellwood says the government has not set up the support mechanisms needed to encourage householders to invest in energy saving measures.

"In the UK, the average home has the potential to save £300 per year by just installing the most effective measures such as loft insulation and modern heating controls," said Mr Sellwood.



Energy supply companies are under an obligation to help their customers become more energy efficient; but lots of householders don't trust their energy companies.

"So we have these schemes within national government, local authorities and supply companies; what we don't have is a long term strategy for sustainable housing."

Where the UK has fallen down in the past, EST notes, is on the enforcement of building codes.

In Germany, economic factors meant that until recently, energy efficiency was not generally a priority, according to Markus Kratz of Project Management Juelich, a research consultancy engaged by the national government.

"Industry did not want to lose any of its market, and there was some public resistance against energy efficiency when energy prices were low," he said.

"Now prices are rising, and that is changing."

Regional differences

Few European countries have seen such rapid economic growth in recent times as Ireland, where the "Celtic tiger" phenomenon stimulated the house-building industry, with demand and prices quickly rising.

Joe Durkan from the House of Tomorrow Programme, a project of the government agency Sustainable Energy Ireland, believes the introduction of energy performance certificates in this thriving house-building sector has raised the profile of energy efficiency.

"There's lots of information about it, and lots of excitement," he told BBC News.

"Builders are now using it as a marketing tool; the certificates have a sliding scale from A to G, and developers are now competing to offer A1 certificates on the properties they have for sale."

The ENR report comes at the beginning of European Sustainable Energy week, which will see a series of events and seminars on various aspects of the issue convened by the European Commission.

3rd avalanche victim found in California

3rd avalanche victim found in California

LOS ANGELES - A brief hiatus from nearly a week of stormy weather was interrupted by deadly avalanches, flooded streets and mud and rock slides in rain-soaked Southern California.
Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties braced for another bout of heavy rain as flash flood watches were in effect through Sunday because of thunderstorms, possible hail and wind gusts as high as 50 mph.

Heavy showers arrived late Saturday, a day after a break in the storms enabled workers to find the body of a third skier killed by a snow slide and rescue a missing snowboarder who survived a frigid night in the San Gabriel Mountains.

National Weather Service meteorologist Richard Thompson said up to 8 inches of rain could fall in the hills outside Los Angeles on Sunday, while 2 to 4 inches were expected in coastal and valley areas. Ski resorts could be pounded by as much as 3 feet of powder.

"The heaviest rains will fall Sunday morning," Thompson said. "It will be pretty steady all through the day into the afternoon." Rain should taper off Sunday night, he said.

Christopher Allport, 60, of Santa Monica, was found Saturday morning, one of two people reported missing Friday after a trio of avalanches swept through off-trail canyons outside the Mountain High ski resort in Wrightwood.

A family member confirmed Allport had died but declined to give her name or comment further. Allport was a veteran character actor who had appeared on such TV shows as "ER," "Felicity," and "Matlock."

The missing snowboarder was found Saturday after spending the night on the mountain. Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy Luis Castro said officials were confident no one else was missing and called off search efforts.

Oscar Gonzales Jr., 24, of Westminster, told the Riverside Press-Enterprise that he got lost when he left the marked ski trails at the resort. "I made the wrong decision about going out of bounds," he said. "I hit a rock."

Gonzales said he was not hurt but he walked at least 13 miles overnight to keep warm, thinking of his 5 1/2-year-old daughter, Jaden Ann.

"I didn't think about anything else," Gonzales said. "I couldn't stand leaving my daughter."

Gonzales told the newspaper he eventually found an old airplane fuselage and slept there until about 4:30 a.m., when he went to an open field and waited until he was rescued by a sheriff's helicopter.

The avalanches a day earlier killed Michael McKay, 23, an off-duty member of the resort's ski patrol, and Darin Bodie Coffey, 31, both of Wrightwood. Both were skiing out of the resort boundaries.

Avalanches are unusual in the San Gabriel Mountains, authorities said, but so was the 3 feet or more of new snow that hit the region in a matter of days this week.

The tragedies didn't keep skiers and snowboarders from swarming to the resort 80 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. About 6,000 people jammed the slopes Saturday, officials said.

Disabled spy satellite threatens Earth

Disabled spy satellite threatens Earth

WASHINGTON - A large U.S. spy satellite has lost power and could hit the Earth in late February or early March, government officials said Saturday.The satellite, which no longer can be controlled, could contain hazardous materials, and it is unknown where on the planet it might come down, they said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the information is classified as secret. It was not clear how long ago the satellite lost power, or under what circumstances.

"Appropriate government agencies are monitoring the situation," said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council, when asked about the situation after it was disclosed by other officials. "Numerous satellites over the years have come out of orbit and fallen harmlessly. We are looking at potential options to mitigate any possible damage this satellite may cause."

He would not comment on whether it is possible for the satellite to perhaps be shot down by a missile. He said it would be inappropriate to discuss any specifics at this time.

A senior government official said that lawmakers and other nations are being kept apprised of the situation.

The spacecraft contains hydrazine — which is rocket fuel — according to a government official who was not authorized to speak publicly but spoke on condition of anonymity. Hydrazine, a colorless liquid with an ammonia-like odor, is a toxic chemical and can cause harm to anyone who contacts it.

Such an uncontrolled re-entry could risk exposure of U.S. secrets, said John Pike, a defense and intelligence expert. Spy satellites typically are disposed of through a controlled re-entry into the ocean so that no one else can access the spacecraft, he said.

Pike also said it's not likely the threat from the satellite could be eliminated by shooting it down with a missile, because that would create debris that would then re-enter the atmosphere and burn up or hit the ground.

Pike, director of the defense research group GlobalSecurity.org, estimated that the spacecraft weighs about 20,000 pounds and is the size of a small bus. He said the satellite would create 10 times less debris than the Columbia space shuttle crash in 2003. Satellites have natural decay periods, and it's possible this one died as long as a year ago and is just now getting ready to re-enter the atmosphere, he said.

Jeffrey Richelson, a senior fellow with the National Security Archive, said the spacecraft likely is a photo reconnaissance satellite. Such eyes in the sky are used to gather visual information from space about adversarial governments and terror groups, including construction at suspected nuclear sites or militant training camps. The satellites also can be used to survey damage from hurricanes, fires and other natural disasters.

The largest uncontrolled re-entry by a NASA spacecraft was Skylab, the 78-ton abandoned space station that fell from orbit in 1979. Its debris dropped harmlessly into the Indian Ocean and across a remote section of western Australia.

In 2000, NASA engineers successfully directed a safe de-orbit of the 17-ton Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, using rockets aboard the satellite to bring it down in a remote part of the Pacific Ocean.

In 2002, officials believe debris from a 7,000-pound science satellite smacked into the Earth's atmosphere and rained down over the Persian Gulf, a few thousand miles from where they first predicted it would plummet.

___

Astronaut survey: no launch day drinking

Astronaut survey: no launch day drinking

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA said Wednesday that a survey of astronauts and flight surgeons found no evidence of launch day drinking by crew members, despite a report last year of two cases of drunkenness.The anonymous survey uncovered a single case of "perceived impairment" by someone just a day or more from blasting into space, and it turned out to be a reaction between prescription medicine and alcohol.

NASA officials, citing medical privacy, refused to say when or where the episode occurred, only that it happened on one of the final days leading up to launch but not on launch day. The crew member ultimately was cleared for flight and rocketed into space.

The officials said they did not know whether the specified case was one of the two alleged cases of astronaut drunkenness cited in a report by outside medical experts last summer.

NASA has yet to receive any proof or information about astronauts drinking heavily in the 12 hours before liftoff, said Ellen Ochoa, deputy director of Johnson Space Center in Houston.

"We really never understood from the beginning exactly what might have led to the comment in the health care report," Ochoa, a former shuttle astronaut, said at a news conference. "We've tried to run it to ground. We haven't uncovered anything. I don't know of any issues associated with alcohol before flight."

None of those surveyed last fall — 87 of 98 astronauts and all 31 flight surgeons — reported seeing a crew member drinking alcohol on launch day.

No policy changes are planned for either drinking or handling medication; the 12-hour ban on drinking remains in effect. A new astronaut code of conduct, though, is almost complete.

The allegations of drunken astronauts arose last July, just months following the arrest of one-time shuttle flier Lisa Nowak. She chased her astronaut-boyfriend's new girlfriend from Houston to Florida last February, and ended up in jail. She's yet to stand trial.

Because of the Nowak scandal, NASA established a panel of aerospace medicine experts to look into astronaut mental health. The experts, citing unidentified sources, reported heavy drinking by two astronauts right before their respective launches, one from Cape Canaveral and one from Kazakhstan. Doctors' concerns about the astronauts' inebriated state were supposedly overruled by management.

The panel's report stated that flight surgeons' medical opinions were not valued by NASA managers, and that astronauts and flight surgeons were reluctant to report improper conduct.

In the survey, however, astronauts and flight surgeons indicated they were not afraid to raise concerns of flight safety, and that their relationship was healthy and had improved significantly over time. But a small number of respondents acknowledged that some astronauts still have the perception they could lose out on a space assignment if expressing concerns.

As for the Nowak case, NASA is in a better position today than it was a year ago to detect serious behavioral health problems facing astronauts, and to intervene before it's too late, said Dr. Richard Williams, NASA's chief health and medical officer.

A Whole New View: Hubble Overhaul to Boost Telescope's Reach

A Whole New View: Hubble Overhaul to Boost Telescope's Reach

When astronauts overhaul the Hubble Space Telescope this summer, they will leave behind a vastly more powerful orbital observatory to scan the universeSet to launch aboard NASA's shuttle Atlantis on Aug. 7, the Hubble servicing mission will be the fifth - and final - sortie to upgrade the aging space telescope.


"We're not only going up to Hubble to refurbish it, but also to expand its grasp tremendously," said Alan Stern, associate administrator for NASA's science mission directorate, in a recent briefing. "We expect to make the very best discoveries of the entire two-decade plus Hubble program with the new instruments to be installed."


A deeper look


In addition to performing vital repairs, astronauts will add two new instruments to Hubble's observation platform ? Wide Field Camera-3 and the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph ? that will drastically boost its vision range.


"This refurbished Hubble [will be] a new telescope," said astronomer Sandra Faber of the University of California, Santa Cruz. "We estimate that at the end of this repair Hubble will be 90 times more powerful than when it was first launched."


That means that Hubble will be able to see at least 90 times more objects in deep space than it could when it was deployed in April 1990, she added.


With its ability to scan the universe at wavelengths ranging from the near-infrared, visible spectrum to the near-ultraviolet, the new Wide Field Camera-3 should allow Hubble to see objects that formed fewer than 800 million years after the beginning of the universe.


"To follow galaxy formation to times that are even earlier than this, we need a camera that can take sharp pictures efficiently at longer wavelengths," Faber said. "And that's exactly what Wide Field Camera-3 is going to do."


The new camera has better resolution than its Wide Field Planetary Camera-2 predecessor and a wider field of view than Hubble's current NICMOS spectrometer, and could reveal objects that formed when the universe was just 400 or 500 million years old, she added.


"A difference like this makes a huge difference in the structure and formation of the galaxies that we'll see," Faber said. Astronomers currently estimate that the universe is about 13.7 billion years old.


Hubble's new Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, meanwhile, will scan the universe in the ultraviolet range with about 10 times more sensitivity than the observatory's current tools.


"I believe it's the most sensitive UV spectroscopic capability ever to fly in space for astronomical purposes," said Hubble senior project scientist David Leckrone of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. "It's designed, because it's so sensitive, to go as deep as possible out across the universe as fast as possible."


Researchers hope the new spectrograph will map the so-called cosmic web, the universe's large-scale structure made up of strands of galaxies that branch out in three dimensions like an astronomical spider's web.


"It is amazing to me how we've been able to reinvent the Hubble Space Telescope with each of these missions," said astronaut John Grunsfeld, who will serve as the lead spacewalker for the telescope's last overhaul.


Full power ahead


Hubble service astronauts will also replace failed gyroscopes, fine guidance sensor and aged batteries, and make unprecedented repairs to the space telescope's main camera and a vital spectrograph.


"When the astronauts leave Hubble for the last time, it will be at the apex of its capabilities," said Leckrone. "It will be the first time since 1993 that there will be five working instruments aboard."

Spacewalkers will replace Hubble's cracked thermal insulation and replace each of its 16-year-old batteries among other hardware.

They will also repair the observatory's Space Telescope Imaging Spectroscope and the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), both of which were never designed to be fixed in orbit. Spacewalkers will remove more than 111 tiny screws to repair the two units.

"The good news is we're going to try and repair ACS. The bad news is we've never done it before," said Grunsfeld. "It's very tricky."

Grunsfeld and his six crewmates plan to stage five spacewalks to service Hubble during their STS-125 mission. NASA initially canceled the spaceflight following the 2003 Columbia tragedy, but later reinstated the mission after a detailed risk analysis.

The result, researchers said, is about five extra years of science for Hubble before its controlled deorbit sometime after 2020. To prepare for the space telescope's eventual demise, spacewalkers will also attach a connecting port that will allow a robotic tug to dock with Hubble.

Japan urges legal action against anti-whaling activists: ministry

Japan urges legal action against anti-whaling activists: ministry
TOKYO (AFP) - Japan urged Australia Tuesday to take legal action against two anti-whaling protestors who climbed aboard a Japanese whaler in Antarctic seas last week, a foreign ministry statement said. The activists, from the US environmental group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, were held on the Japanese harpoon boat for two days after they delivered a letter protesting the slaughter of whales.

Only an hour after the two men were handed to an Australian customs boat on Friday, the crew of a Sea Shepherd ship hurled butyric acid bombs, or "stink bombs," onto the deck of the harpoon boat.

Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura told Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean in Tokyo that the actions of the group posed a danger and he urged cooperation to prevent "the recurrence of such an incident," according to the ministry statement.

He also asked Canberra to "take appropriate action" under national laws "should the Sea Shepherd boat call at an Australian port."

Crean, during talks here on bilateral ties, regional cooperation and the whaling issue, said the Australian Federal Police are investigating the case and that his government would decide on a response based on the results.

But as he did so, Australia moved to film Japanese ships in a bid to launch a legal challenge against the hunt's activities.

Australia has long opposed the hunt in the area, which includes a self-declared sanctuary, but has stopped short of physically intervening.

A customs ship tracked down the whalers and sent officers in smaller boats to gather video and photographic evidence, said a spokeswoman for Home Affairs Minister Bob Rebus.

"They are trying to get closer to see what the whaling fleet is doing," she said on condition of anonymity.

The customs ship, Oceanic Viking, had lost contact with the whalers after picking up the two activists after last week's stand-off.

Australia's Labor government vowed when elected last year to collect evidence of Japanese whaling in Antarctic waters, stepping up pressure on Tokyo to end its annual hunt.

On Tuesday, meanwhile, an inflatable boat from another group, Greenpeace, temporarily blocked a Japanese whaling ship from being refuelled by a Panamanian-flagged oil ship in Antarctic waters, the Japanese Fisheries Agency said.

"Despite warnings from the Nisshin Maru, Greenpeace went ahead with the interference, resulting in a moment of danger as the rubber boat temporarily tangled with wires of the refuelling ship," the agency said in a statement.

Ships from the environmental groups have been in the icy waters off Antarctica to prevent six Japanese whalers from carrying out their annual whale hunt which this year will see about 1,000 of the giant creatures slaughtered.

New Russian space base to send manned flights by 2018

New Russian space base to send manned flights by 2018

MOSCOW (AFP) - Russia, whose space programme relies heavily on a base in neighbouring Kazakhstan, is to build its own launch site for manned flights by 2018, First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov was quoted as saying Wednesday.The new Vostochny base in the Amur region of southeast Russia, bordering China, will be an alternative to the Baikonur base, a Soviet-built facility that Russia now leases from Kazakhstan.

"To use a military term, we will open a 'second front,'" Ivanov said, Russian news agencies RIA Novosti and Interfax reported.

"By 2016 the new cosmodrome should be ready for rocket launches of any type and by 2018 it is planned that we will also be able to make manned flights from there," Ivanov said.

"It is linked to ensuring our country's independent access to space. In fact we are building not just a special facility in the Amur region, but a true city."

Russia and the United States run the world's most active space programmes, with manned flights from Baikonur or Cape Canaveral in Florida.

China's Jiuquan Space Centre is the third facility capable of handling manned missions.

The Vostochny base is to be built on the site of unfinished facility previously known as Svobodny at the settlement of Uglegorsk, which is located in a restricted zone.

In 1994, Russia agreed to rent Baikonur from Kazakhstan for 115 million dollars (91 million euros) annually, and this will continue until 2050 under a new agreement signed in 2004 by President Vladimir Putin and his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Brain surgery lets woman listen to music

Brain surgery lets woman listen to music

GARDEN CITY, N.Y. - Now that surgeons have operated on Stacey Gayle's brain, her favorite musician no longer makes her ill. Four years after being diagnosed with epilepsy, Gayle recently underwent brain surgery at Long Island Jewish Medical Center to cure a rare condition known as musicogenic epilepsy. Gayle, a 25-year-old customer service employee at a bank in Alberta, Canada, was suffering as many as 10 grand mal seizures a day, despite being treated with medications designed to control them. The condition became so bad she eventually had to quit her job and leave the church choir where she sang.

Eighteen months ago, she began to suspect that music by reggae and hip-hop artist Sean Paul was triggering some of her seizures. She recalled being at a barbecue and collapsing when the Jamaican rapper's music started playing, and then remembered having a previous seizure when she heard his music.

Her suspicions were confirmed on a visit to the Long Island medical center last February, when she played Paul's hit "Temperature" on her iPod for doctors. Soon after, she suffered three seizures.

"Being that the seizures could be triggered by the music, this was a very interesting opportunity to study Stacey's brain," said Dr. Ashesh Mehta, the hospital's director of epilepsy surgery.

During the first surgery, doctors implanted more than 100 electrodes in the right side of her brain to pinpoint the abnormal area of her brain.

The surgeons followed that procedure with a second surgery to remove the electrodes, along with parts of her brain suspected of causing the seizures.

"We used the latest techniques, including image guidance, to pinpoint the areas of abnormality, and the operating microscope to perform the procedure during a four-hour operation," Mehta said.

Within three days, the woman was released from the hospital and has not experienced a seizure since.

Plane lands short of runway in England

LONDON - A passenger jet landed short of the runway at Heathrow airport on Thursday, forcing Prime Minister Gordon Brown to delay his trip to China as his plane was on the runway waiting to take off. Three people were reported injured.


Brown's plane was not involved but those on board could see the incident in the distance.

The plane that landed short was a British Airways flight BA38 from Beijing to London, British Airways said. The Boeing 777 made an emergency landing and all passengers were evacuated, airport operator BAA PLC. Fire trucks surrounded the aircraft and emergency evacuation chutes were deployed.

Three passengers had minor injuries, London Ambulance Service said.

The Boeing appeared to have landed just yards from a busy perimeter road, Britain's Press Association reported. The impact wrecked the undercarriage and caused extensive damage to both wings, it said.

The prime minister's plane was carrying a delegation of business leaders including Virgin chairman Richard Branson.

Planes were still taking off and landing on Heathrow's northern runway, air traffic control company Nats said. Heathrow has two runways.

Beetles may wipe out Colo. lodgepoles

Beetles may wipe out Colo. lodgepoles

DENVER - Strands of distressed, red pine trees across northern Colorado and the Front Range are a visible testament to the bark beetle infestation that officials said will kill most of the state's lodgepole pine trees within 5 years. The infestation that was first detected in 1996 grew by half-million acres last year, bringing the total number of acres attacked by bark beetles to 1.5 million, state and federal forestry officials said Monday.

"This is an unprecedented event," said Rick Cables, Rocky Mountain regional forester for the U.S. Forest Service.

The fire potential will increase as trees retain their needles for a couple of years after beetles attack, said Bob Kane, regional entimologist with the Rocky Mountain Region of the U.S. Forest Service. When the needles fall, the danger will decrease, and spike again when the trees fall in about 10 years, Kane said.

Officials said the infestation has been concentrated in five northern Colorado counties straddling the Continental Divide and has since spread to the Front Range and southern Wyoming. The counties affected are Boulder, Chaffee, Clear Creek, Gilpin, Lake and Larimer counties.

Boulder and Larimer counties, both east of the divide, had a 1,500 percent increase in the number of acres taken over by the beetles last year, which are preying on the tall, slender lodgepoles left vulnerable by warm winters and drought.

About 8 percent of forest landscape in Colorado are lodgepoles, said Ingrid Aguayo, forest entimologist with the Colorado State Forest Service. Aguayo said the epidemic doesn't mean it's the end for lodgepoles, but rather part of the regeneration process.

"A lot of people think this is the end of the forest, but as an entimologist, I see it as the beginning," she said, pointing out seedlings about five inches tall are already sprouting in parts where the beetles have run their course.

"It's not going to be a moon landscape like a lot of people think," she said.

In some cases entire mountainsides can be turned red as trees struggle to survive the infestation, affecting the scenic vistas along stretches of mountain highways. Eventually the trees will turn grey after the needles fall, Kane said.

It could be up to 50 years before lodgepoles return to their population before the bark beetle infestation, Aguayo said.

Jim Maxwell, a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service, said the lack of trees will increase the water supply by 30 percent on National Forest Lands for about 20 years because trees will no longer be pumping water out of the soil.Susan Gray, group leader for forest health management with the U.S. Forest Service Rocky Mountain Region, said only 20-below-zero temperatures for a sustained period can kill the beetles

Study: Northeast winters warming fast

Study: Northeast winters warming fast

ALBANY, N.Y. - Earlier blooms. Less snow to shovel. Unseasonable warm spells. Signs that winters in the Northeast are losing their bite have been abundant in recent years and now researchers have nailed down numbers to show just how big the changes have been. A study of weather station data from across the Northeast from 1965 through 2005 found December-March temperatures increased by 2.5 degrees. Snowfall totals dropped by an average of 8.8 inches across the region over the same period, and the number of days with at least 1 inch of snow on the ground decreased by nine days on average.

"Winter is warming greater than any other season," said Elizabeth Burakowski, who analyzed data from dozens of stations for her master's thesis in collaboration with Cameron Wake, a professor at the University of New Hampshire's Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space.

Burakowski, who graduated from UNH in December, found that the biggest snowfall decreases were in December and February. Stations in New England showed the strongest decreases in winter snowfall, about 3 inches a decade.

There were wide disparities in snowfall over the eight-state region, with average totals ranging from 13.5 inches at Cape May, N.J., to 137.6 inches at Oswego, N.Y. Some stations on the Great Lakes, where lake-effect storms are common, showed an increase.

The reduction in days with at least an inch of snow on the ground was the most pronounced at stations between 42 and 44 degrees latitude — a band that includes most of Massachusetts, a thick slice of upstate New York and southern sections of Vermont and New Hampshire.

Burakowski cites two likely causes for the reduction in so-called snow-covered days: higher maximum temperatures and "snow-albedo feedback," in which less snow cover to begin with allows more sunshine warmth to be absorbed by the darker ground, making it less conducive to snow cover.

The research has yet to appear in a peer-reviewed journal, though meteorologists who have studied long-term climate trends said the observations appear to be in line with other research.

Richard Heim of the National Climatic Data Center looked at trends in snowfall totals nationwide from 1948 to 2006 and found that patterns varied regionally and seasonally. For the Northeast in winter, he found totals mostly decreasing along coastal areas, with an increasing trend along the Great Lakes. Art DeGaetano, of the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University, said regions around New York state have recorded negative trends in snowfall since 1970.

DeGaetano cautioned that snowfall totals can vary a lot from year to year. Last month, for example, snow totals were well above average for December across much of the Northeast.

Ski center operators also have noticed an incremental increase in temperatures over the decades, said Parker Riehle, president of the trade association Ski Vermont, but he echoed DeGaetano's point that snow totals have gone up and down.

"We've seen some erratic winters in recent years," Riehle said. "The mood swings of Mother Nature, perhaps, are deeper than they used to be."

But while ski slopes can fire up snow-making guns to compensate for lack of flurries, snowmobilers and cross-country skiers have complained about later starts and fewer trails covered with snow.

Cross-country skiers never even get in the right frame of mind during some winters, said Mark Booska of the Hudson Valley Ski Club.

No big bang: Asteroid will miss Mars

No big bang: Asteroid will miss Mars


PASADENA, Calif. - The possibility of a collision between Mars and an approaching asteroid has been effectively ruled out, according to scientists watching the space rock.

Tracking measurements of asteroid 2007 WD5 taken from four observatories have greatly reduced uncertainties about its Jan. 30 close approach to Mars so that the odds of impact have dropped to 1 in 10,000, the Near-Earth Object Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a posting on its Web site Thursday.
Scientists said the best estimate was for the asteroid to pass at a distance of more than 16,000 miles from the surface of Mars, or at worst, no closer than 2,480 miles.
The asteroid was discovered in November. Initial observations of its orbit raised the odds of an impact to as high as 1 in 25 before further refinements came in.
The asteroid is big enough to have blasted a half-mile-wide crater in the cold and dusty Martian surface, an event that astronomers would have liked to observe.
The NEO program normally looks for asteroids and comets that could pose a hazard to Earth.

Astronomers describe violent universe

Astronomers describe violent universe


WASHINGTON - The deeper astronomers gaze into the cosmos, the more they find it's a bizarre and violent universe.

The research findings from this week's annual meeting of U.S. astronomers range from blue orphaned baby stars to menacing "rogue" black holes that roam our galaxy.
"It's an odd universe we live in," said Vanderbilt University astronomer Kelly Holley-Bockelmann. She presented her theory on rogue black holes at the American Astronomical Society's meeting in Austin, Texas, earlier this week.
It should be noted that she's not worried and you shouldn't be either. The odds of one of these black holes swallowing up Earth or the sun or wreaking other havoc is somewhere around 1 in 10 quadrillion in any given year.
"This is the glory of the universe," added J. Craig Wheeler, president of the astronomy association. "What is odd and what is normal is changing."
Just five years ago, astronomers were gazing at a few thousand galaxies where stars formed in a bizarre and violent manner. Now the number is in the millions, thanks to more powerful telescopes and supercomputers to crunch the crucial numbers streaming in from space, said Wheeler, a University of Texas astronomer.
Scientists are finding that not only are they improving their understanding of the basic questions of the universe — such as how did it all start and where is it all going — they also keep stumbling upon unexpected, hard-to-explain cosmic quirks and the potential, but comfortably distant, dangers.
Much of what they keep finding plays out like a stellar version of a violent Quentin Tarantino movie. The violence surrounds and approaches Earth, even though our planet is safe and "in a pretty quiet neighborhood," said Wheeler, author of the book "Cosmic Catastrophes."
One example is an approaching gas cloud discussed at the meeting Friday. The cloud has a mass 1 million times that of the sun. It is 47 quadrillion miles away. But it's heading toward our Milky Way galaxy at 150 miles per second. And when it hits, there will be fireworks that form new stars and "really light up the neighborhood," said astronomer Jay Lockman at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in West Virginia.
But don't worry. It will hit a part of the Milky Way far from Earth and the biggest collision will be 40 million years in the future.
The giant cloud has been known for more than 40 years, but only now have scientists realized how fast it's moving. So fast, Lockman said, that "we can see it sort of plowing up a wave of galactic material in front of it."
When astronomers this week unveiled a giant map of mysterious dark matter in a supercluster of galaxies, they explained that the violence of the cramped-together galaxies is so great that there is now an accepted vocabulary for various types of cosmic brutal behavior.
The gravitational force between the clashing galaxies can cause "slow strangulation," in which crucial gas is gradually removed from the victim galaxy. "Stripping" is a more violent process in which the larger galaxy rips gas from the smaller one. And then there's "harassment," which is a quick fly-by encounter, said astronomer Meghan Gray of the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom.
Gray's presentation essentially showed the victims of galaxy-on-galaxy violence. She and her colleagues are trying to figure out the how the dirty deeds were done.
In the past few days, scientists have unveiled plenty to ooh and aah over:
• Photos of "blue blobs" that astronomers figure are orphaned baby stars. They're called orphans because they were "born in the middle of nowhere" instead of within gas clouds, said Catholic University of America astronomer Duilia F. de Mello.
• A strange quadruplet of four hugging stars, which may eventually help astronomers understand better how stars form.
• A young star surrounded by dust, that may eventually become a planet. It's nicknamed "the moth," because the interaction of star and dust are shaped like one.
• A spiral galaxy with two pairs of arms spinning in opposite directions, like a double pinwheel. It defies what astronomers believe should happen. It is akin to one of those spinning-armed flamingo lawn ornaments, said astronomer Gene Byrd of the University of Alabama.
• The equivalent of post-menopausal stars giving unlikely birth to new planets. Most planets form soon after a sun, but astronomers found two older stars, one at least 400 million years old, with new planets.

Glowing pig passes genes to piglets

Glowing pig passes genes to piglets

BEIJING - A cloned pig whose genes were altered to make it glow fluorescent green has passed on the trait to its young, a development that could lead to the future breeding of pigs for human transplant organs, a Chinese university reported. The glowing piglets' birth proves transgenic pigs are fertile and able to pass on their engineered traits to their offspring, according to Liu Zhonghua, a professor overseeing the breeding program at Northeast Agricultural University.

"Continued development of this technology can be applied to ... the production of special pigs for the production of human organs for transplant," Liu said in a news release posted Tuesday on the university's Web site.

Calls to the university seeking comment Wednesday were not answered.

The piglets' mother was one of three pigs born with the trait in December 2006 after pig embryos were injected with fluorescent green protein. Two of the 11 piglets glow fluorescent green from their snout, trotters, and tongue under ultraviolet light, the university said.

Robin Lovell-Badge, a genetics expert at Britain's National Institute for Medical Research, said the technology "to genetically manipulate pigs in this way would be very valuable."

Lovell-Badge had not seen the research from China's cloned pigs and could not comment on its credibility. He said, however, that organs from genetically altered pigs would potentially solve some of the problems of rejected organs in transplant operations.

He said the presence of the green protein would allow genetically modified cells to be tracked if they were transplanted into a human. The fact that the pig's offspring also appeared to have the green genes would indicate that the genetic modification had successfully penetrated every cell, Lovell-Badge added.

But he said much more research and further trials — both in animals and in humans — would be necessary before the benefits of the technology could be seen.

Other genetically modified pigs have been created before, including by Scotland's Roslin Institute, but few results have been published.

Tokyo's Meiji University last year successfully cloned a transgenic pig that carries the genes for human diabetes, while South Korean scientists cloned cats that glow red when exposed to ultraviolet rays.

International Space station set for busy spell

International Space station set for busy spell
PARIS (AFP) - Three spaceships are set to rendezvous with the International Space Station (ISS) by the end of February, according to the latest programme unveiled by space agenciesThe US shuttle Atlantis, bearing the European Space Agency's science module Columbus, has a launch window starting January 24, although liftoff is likelier between February 2 and 7, NASA said last week. Launch was initially scheduled for December 6 last year.

On February 7, an automated Russian resupply vessel, Progress, is due to be launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

This will be followed "in the second half of February" by the maiden launch of the ESA's own robot supply ship, the head of launch operator Arianespace, Jean-Yves Le Gall, said in Paris on Tuesday.

The launch of ESA's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), baptised Jules Verne, "will be fine-tuned in the coming days, depending on the launch of the shuttle and the Progress," he said.

The ATV will be taken aloft by an Ariane-5 launcher from the European space base in Kourou, French Guiana.

Kourou and Baikonur will shoulder operations to send materials, personnel and supplies to the orbital ISS after the shuttle's scheduled retirement in 2010

NASA delays shuttle flight again

NASA delays shuttle flight again

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA on Thursday delayed the flight of space shuttle Atlantis until late January or, more likely, February to replace a suspect connector in the fuel tank. The connector is believed to be responsible for back-to-back launch postponements last monthDeputy shuttle program manager John Shannon said the mission to the international space station is off until at least Jan. 24.

"Everything has to go exactly right for us to make the 24th," he said.

Shannon said it's more likely that the launch will move into February. The shuttle almost certainly would have to wait until a Russian cargo ship is launched on Feb. 7 and docks two days later.

Atlantis was poised to lift off in early December with a European space station lab named Columbus but fuel gauges in the external tank failed late in the countdown.

The problem reoccurred during a second launch attempt, prompting NASA to conduct a fueling test just before Christmas. That's when the trouble was traced to a connector that feeds wiring through the wall of the fuel tank. The circuitry runs between the fuel gauges in the bottom of the tank and the space shuttle.

The fuel gauges are part of a critical safety system to prevent the shuttle's main engines from running on an empty tank, and have malfunctioned off and on for more than two years. Engineers suspect a design flaw.

NASA removed the external portion of the suspect connector, along with some plugs, over the weekend. It will be another two weeks before the parts are fully analyzed, mimicking the super-cold conditions of fueling, Shannon said.

In the meantime, engineers will replace the external connector and make modifications — essentially soldering pins and changing the material of socket inserts.

"What we're doing ... is addressing what we think is the most probable cause, and there's a lot of information that points to that connector and that this is the right design fix," Shannon said.

Shannon would not estimate how long the delay might be if engineers determine that the interim solution is not enough or something else is at fault.

NASA requires at least five weeks between shuttle launches, which means that a flight by Endeavour to the space station, carrying up the first part of Japan's massive lab, will not occur Feb. 14 as planned.

Until a firm launch date is set for Atlantis, NASA will not address the timing of subsequent flights, Shannon said.

Launch of European and Japanese space labs delayed

Launch of European and Japanese space labs delayed

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Fixing what may be a design problem on the space shuttles will keep European and Japanese laboratory modules destined for the International Space Station grounded for weeks, NASA said on Thursday.The U.S. space agency rescheduled its first flight of the year for no earlier than January 24 but said a more realistic date for launching Europe's Columbus laboratory aboard the shuttle Atlantis will be around February 2, John Shannon, the deputy shuttle program manager told reporters on a conference call.

"Everything has to go exactly right for us to make the 24th," Shannon said.

The first part of Japan's Kibo complex would then fly on shuttle Endeavour about five weeks later. It originally was set for launch on February 14, a date that is no longer possible.

Launch attempts of Atlantis were postponed on December 6 and December 9 due to erratic sensor readings in the spacecraft's hydrogen fuel tank. NASA had hoped to try again on January 10 but decided late last month that it would need more time to fix the problem.

The sensors, which operate like dipsticks to gauge fuel levels, are part of an emergency system to cut off the shuttle's three hydrogen-burning main engines if the tank runs dry because of a leak or other problem during the climb to orbit.

Running the engines without fuel could cause their pumps to break and possibly trigger a catastrophic explosion.

NASA engineers decided the fuel sensor glitch resided in a plug-like connector that relays electrical signals from the sensors in the tank through wiring leading to the shuttle's engine compartment.

They removed the suspect part and took it to the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama for analysis.

A modified connector plate, with soldered rather than plug-in components, will be installed this weekend even though inspections of the defective unit are not complete. If any surprises turn up, additional repairs may be needed.

"If the problem is where we think it is, this will solve that," Shannon said.

NASA also is considering filling the shuttle's tank with fuel to test the repaired sensor circuits prior to launch, which would delay Atlantis' flight to around February

Analysis: Clinton comes out swinging

Analysis: Clinton comes out swinging


MANCHESTER, N.H. - Hillary Rodham Clinton lost the luxury to be polite along with the Iowa caucuses. On the ropes after a third-place finish, Clinton came out swinging against new Democratic front-runner Barack Obama with a vigor she hadn't shown before in the contest she used to lead. She argued that she is the candidate who deserves the mantle of change and not this newcomer Obama.

"I'm not just running on a promise of change. I'm running on 35 years of change," she said in Saturday's Democratic debate, raising her voice and jabbing her finger on the podium to underscore her point.
In return, Clinton got Obama and John Edwards ganging up on her. Edwards apparently decided if he can't beat Obama in New Hampshire, he'll try to join him.
"Both of us are powerful voices for change," Edwards said, rising to Obama's defense. "And if I might add, we finished first and second in the Iowa caucus, I think in part as a result of that."
Edwards didn't mention he only beat Clinton out for second place by three-tenths of a percentage point. But he's calculated that if he can force Clinton out of the race, he might have a chance of beating Obama in a two-man contest.
He has only three days before the New Hampshire primary to make up a lot of ground. A CNN/WMUR poll released Saturday found Clinton and Obama tied at 33 percent each in the state, with Edwards trailing at 20 percent.
After nearly a year of ignoring her rivals when she was on top, Clinton struck back at Edwards as being all talk and no action. She accused Obama of changing his positions and having an inferior health care plan. And again, she rose to the night's buzzword.
"I am an agent of change," she said. "I embody change. I think having the first woman president is a huge change."
All the talk stems from the results in Iowa: 51 percent of those going into the Democratic caucuses said electing someone who can bring change was most important to them, and half of those caucus-goers voted for Obama, with Edwards and Clinton each getting one-fifth. Only 20 percent said electing a candidate with the right experience was most important.
Obama's brightest moment in the presidential debate aired nationwide on ABC came before he even stepped on the stage: He became the focus of a Republican dispute about the best way to run against him. The Republican candidates, appearing just before the Democrats, said they would run against Obama's liberal positions and his lack of experience, but Iowa victor Mike Huckabee warned that Obama has tapped into a desire for new leadership.
"He has excited a lot of voters in this country," Huckabee said. "We'd better be careful as a party, because if we don't give people something to be for, and only something to be against, we're going to lose that next election."

Bradley to endorse Obama for president

Bradley to endorse Obama for president


MANCHESTER, N.H. - Bill Bradley, a former presidential hopeful and senator, planned to endorse Barack Obama for president on Sunday, aides said.

Bradley, a hall of fame professional basketball player, will campaign on Monday for Obama, Obama aides told The Associated Press.
The aides, speaking on condition of anonymity in advance of the formal announcement, said they hope the endorsement will help Obama end the national front-runner status for Clinton, who placed a disappointing third in Iowa's caucuses last week and is deadlocked with Obama in New Hampshire according to a poll released Saturday.
"Barack Obama is building a broad new coalition that brings together Democrats, independents and Republicans by once again making idealism a central focus of our politics," Bradley said in a release scheduled to be released on Sunday.
"Because of his enormous appeal to Americans of all ages and backgrounds, Obama is the candidate best positioned to win in November. ... His movement for change could create a new era of American politics — truly a new American story."
Obama remains in a tight race with Clinton, both posting 33 percent support in a CNN-WMUR poll conducted two days after Barack Obama's Iowa victory and released Saturday night. A second poll, from The Concord Monitor and Research 2000, shows Obama at 34 and Clinton at 33. Clinton now seeks to stop Obama's momentum in New Hampshire, where the presidential primary is on Tuesday.
Bradley ran in the 2000 presidential primary against Vice President Al Gore. He sought to paint himself as an alternative to the incumbent Gore, appealing to the party's liberal base. He failed to win, however, because many of New Hampshire's largest voting bloc — independents — flocked to Sen. John McCain's first bid.
Bradley briefly considered a 2004 bid but instead stayed a consultant. In that presidential primary, he supported then-Vermont Gov. Howard Dean.
"Bill Bradley has always called on Americans to reach for what is possible in our politics," Obama said in a draft statement. "As a presidential candidate and author, he has continued to challenge us to build a mandate for pragmatic solutions and progressive change, and I am truly grateful that he has endorsed my candidacy."

Academy stresses evolution's importance

Academy stresses evolution's importance


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The National Academy of Sciences on Thursday issued a spirited defense of evolution as the bedrock principle of modern biology, arguing that it, not creationism, must be taught in public school science classes.

The academy, which operates under a mandate from Congress to advise the government on science and technology matters, issued the report at a time when the theory of evolution, first offered in the 19th century, faces renewed attack by some religious conservatives.
Creationism, based on the explanation offered in the Bible, and the related idea of "intelligent design" are not science and, as such, should not be taught in public school science classrooms, according to the report.
"We seem to have continuing challenges to the teaching of evolution in schools. That's something that doesn't seem to go away," Barbara Schaal, an evolutionary biologist at Washington University in St. Louis and vice president of National Academy of Sciences, said in a telephone interview.
"We need a citizenry that's trained in real science."
Evolution is a theory explaining change in living organisms over the eons due to genetic mutations. For example, it holds that humans evolved from earlier forms of apes.
The report stated that the idea of evolution can be fully compatible with religious faith. "Science and religion are different ways of understanding the world. Needlessly placing them in opposition reduces the potential of each to contribute to a better future," said the report.
But teaching creationist ideas in science classes confuses students about what constitutes science and what does not, according to the report's authors.
The report was released by the academy and the Institute of Medicine, which advises policymakers on medical issues. It updates academy publications issued in 1984 and 1999. It was written by a committee headed by University of California-Irvine biology professor Francisco Ayala.
"Biological evolution is one of the most important ideas of modern science. Evolution is supported by abundant evidence from many different fields of scientific investigation. It underlies the modern biological sciences, including the biomedical sciences, and has applications in many other scientific and engineering disciplines," the report stated.
The authors highlighted developments in evolutionary biology, citing its importance in understanding emerging infectious diseases. They noted the discovery, published in 2006, of the remains of a Tiktaalik, a creature described as an evolutionary link between fish and the first vertebrate animals that walked out of water onto land 375 million years ago.
President George W. Bush said in 2005 American students should be instructed about "intelligent design" alongside evolution as competing theories. "Part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought," Bush said.
Advocates of "intelligent design" contend that some biological structures are so complex they could not have appeared merely through natural processes.
A judge in Dover, Pennsylvania ruled in 2005 that the teaching of intelligent design violated the U.S. Constitution, which requires a separation of church and state, because it is based on religious conviction, not science.

Study: Monkeys 'pay' for sex by grooming

Study: Monkeys 'pay' for sex by grooming


SINGAPORE - Male macaque monkeys pay for sex by grooming females, according to a recent study that suggests the primates may treat sex as a commodity.

"In primate societies, grooming is the underlying fabric of it all," Dr. Michael Gumert, a primatologist at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, said in a telephone interview Saturday.
"It's a sign of friendship and family, and it's also something that can be exchanged for sexual services," Gumert said.
Gumert's findings, reported in New Scientist last week, resulted from a 20-month observation of about 50 long-tailed macaques in a reserve in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia.
Gumert found after a male grooms a female, the likelihood that she will engage in sexual activity with the male was about three times more than if the grooming had not occurred.
And as with other commodities, the value of sex is affected by supply and demand factors: A male would spend more time grooming a female if there were fewer females in the vicinity.
"And when the female supply is higher, the male spends less time on grooming ... The mating actually becomes cheaper depending on the market," Gumert said.
Other experts not involved in the study welcomed Gumert's research, saying it was a major effort in systematically studying the interaction of organisms in ways in which an exchange of commodities or services can be observed — a theory known as biological markets.
Dr. Peter Hammerstein, a professor at the Institute for Theoretical Biology at Humboldt University in Berlin and Dr. Ronald Noe, a primatologist at the University of Louis-Pasteur in Strasbourg, France, first proposed the concept of biological markets in 1994.
"It is not a rare phenomenon in nature that males have to make some 'mating effort' in order to get a female's 'permission' to mate," Hammerstein said in an interview, likening the effort to a "fee" that the male pays.
"The interesting result of Dr. Gumert's research on macaque mating is that the mating market seems to have an influence on the amount of this fee," Hammerstein said.
Hammserstein said Gumert's findings indicate the monkeys are capable of adjusting their behavior to "different market conditions."

Baby mammoth could shed light on warming

Baby mammoth could shed light on warming



TOKYO - Frozen in much the state it died some 37,500 years ago, a Siberian baby mammoth undergoing tests in Japan could finally explain why the beasts were driven to extinction — and shed light on climate change, scientists said Friday.

The 6-month-old calf, unearthed in May by a reindeer herder in northern Siberia's remote Yamal-Nenets autonomous region, is virtually intact and even has some fur, though the tail and ear of the animal dubbed "Lyuba" were apparently bitten off.
"Lyuba's discovery is an historic event," said Bernard Buigues, vice president of the Geneva-based International Mammoth Committee. "It could tell us why this species didn't survive ... and shed light on the fate of human beings."
The last of the ancient beasts are thought to have roamed the earth from about 4.8 million years ago to 4,000 years ago, and researchers have debated whether their demise was due to climate change or over-hunting by humans.
"This is what we've all been waiting for — the chance to explain everything about the mammoth," said Naoki Suzuki of the Jikei University School of Medicine, who is leading the first phase of an international study of the carcass's structure.
"Our findings will be a big step toward resolving the mystery of their extinction," Suzuki told a press conference in Tokyo.
The 4-foot gray-and-brown mammoth underwent a computed tomography scan that produced 3-D pictures with an almost surgical view, Suzuki said.
Lyuba, which appeared to have died with no external wounds and was discovered still frozen, is the best preserved mammoth yet unearthed, according to Sergey Grishin, director of the Shemanovsky Yamal-Nenets Museum.
Scientists hope to analyze the 3-D data to get a better picture of the mammoth's internal organs and structure, as well as for clues on the baby's diet and why it died, Grishin said. They will also analyze tiny air samples left in Lyuba's lungs for clues to the earth's atmosphere during the last Ice Age.
Meanwhile, at a display in central Tokyo, children peered into a freezer displaying Lyuba's shriveled body. The mammoth is on display until late February.
"It looked amazing, almost like it was alive," said 10-year-old Chikara Shimizu.
"Maybe they found Lyuba because the ice in Siberia is melting from global warming," said Chikara's father, Misao Shimizu. "I find that very worrying."
Akito Arima, head of the Science Museum in Tokyo where Lyuba is on display, said global warming may be a reason the mammoth was discovered now, but he gave no details.

The Nation's Weather

The Nation's Weather


A severe storm took aim at the West Coast on Friday, threatening to cause flooding rains and paralyzing snow, while freezing temperatures in the East were expected to ease.

The Sierra Nevadas could get up to 10 feet of snow through the weekend, including 2 to 3 feet on Friday alone. Through Friday night, more than 3 inches of rain was expected in the hills of Northern California.
The storm was expected to bring high winds to the region. Gusts topping 60 mph were forecast along the coast, while hurricane-force winds were anticipated in the high elevations of California. Winds could surpass 100 mph along the Sierra Crest.
Temperatures in the East were expected to soar well above Thursday's frigid highs. Highs throughout the Mid-Atlantic were forecast to climb more than 10 degrees, with clear skies lingering under exceptionally strong high pressure. Temperatures were to continue rising through the weekend, topping out in the 60s early next week.

Nature and man jointly cook Arctic

Nature and man jointly cook Arctic

WASHINGTON - There's more to the recent dramatic and alarming thawing of the Arctic region than can be explained by man-made global warming alone, a new study found. Nature is pushing the Arctic to the edge, too.
There's a natural cause that may account for much of the Arctic warming, which has melted sea ice, ice sheets and glaciers, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Nature. New research points a finger at a natural and cyclical increase in the amount of energy in the atmosphere that moves from south to north around the Arctic Circle.

But that energy transfer, which comes with storms that head north because of ocean currents, is not acting alone either, scientists say. Another upcoming study concludes that the combination of both that natural energy transfer increase and man-made global warming serve as a one-two punch that is pushing the Arctic over the edge.

Scientists are trying to figure out why the Arctic is warming and melting faster than computer models predict.

The summer of 2007, like the summer of 2005, smashed all records for loss of summer sea ice in the Arctic Ocean and ice sheet in Greenland. In September, the Arctic Ocean had 23 percent less sea ice than the previous record low. Greenland's ice sheet melted 19 billion tons more than its previous record.

The Nature study suggests there's more behind it than global warming because the air a couple miles above the ground is warming more than calculated by the climate models.

Climate change theory concentrates on warming of surface temperatures and explains an Arctic that is warming faster than the rest of the world as mostly because reduced sea ice and ice sheets means less reflecting solar rays.

Rune Graversen, the Nature study co-author and a meteorology researcher at Stockholm University in Sweden, said a shift in energy transfer explains the thawing more, including what's happening in the atmosphere, but does not contradict consensus global warming science.

Oceanographer James Overland, who reviewed Graversen's study for Nature, said the research dovetails with an upcoming article of his which concludes that the Arctic thawing is a combination of the two.

"If we didn't have the little extra kick from global warming then we wouldn't have gone past the threshold for the change in sea ice," said Overland, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's lab in Seattle.

Other researchers said Graversen's study underestimates the effect of global warming because it relied on older data that stopped at 2001 and wasn't the most accurate.

Overland and scientist Mark Serreze disagree over which effect — man-made or natural — was the big shove that pushed the Arctic over the edge, but they agreed that overall it's a combined effort.

Wall Street wraps up '07 in somber mood

Wall Street wraps up '07 in somber mood

NEW YORK - Wall Street ended a painful year with another steep loss Monday as investors glumly anticipated that 2008 would bring more of the uncertainty and turbulence of 2007.The Dow Jones industrials fell 101 points, the latest in a string of triple-digit moves that became commonplace in the just-ended year amid a continuum of bad news about housing, faltering mortgages and shrinking credit. Thanks to a big first-half advance, they managed to finish 2007 with a respectable increase of 6.43 percent — not as large as the 16.29 percent jump in 2006, but a better performance than the modest loss in 2005.

The Dow's annual gain came even after it posted its worst fourth-quarter drop in 20 years, amid billion-dollar losses at the world's biggest financial firms and falling spending by consumers whose budgets have been crimped by record-high oil prices and declining home prices.

"Considering all that's going on, the market really acted pretty well," said Todd Leone, managing director of equity trading at Cowen & Co.

It's tough to say what the primary market driver of 2008 will be, but the stock market faces a slew of threats: more adjustable-rate mortgage resets, a still-tight credit market and the possibility of accelerating inflation. But Leone said the fourth-quarter earnings season in January should shed some light on how U.S. companies are surviving the recent slowdown and credit crunch.

There was more downbeat news on housing Monday. The National Association of Realtors said November existing home sales rose 0.4 percent to an annual rate of 5 million — the first rise in nine months. However, sales are 20 percent below where they were a year ago, and the median existing home price has dropped 3.3 percent over the past 12 months.

Falling home prices have made it hard for struggling homeowners to refinance their mortgages, and the slump in construction activity has hurt homebuilders and other housing-related industries.

Still, there were some slivers of optimism Monday. The U.K.'s Observer newspaper reported Sunday that Merrill Lynch & Co. was in talks over the weekend to line up capital from investors in China and the Middle East in exchange for portions of the Wall Street firm.

Merrill, like many other financial houses, has seen its portfolio lose billions of dollar in value due to misplaced bets on mortgages. And as Citigroup Inc., UBS AG, Morgan Stanley and Bear Stearns Cos. have done, it has turned to investors in Asia for much-needed capital — Merrill has already gotten $4.4 billion this month from a Singapore fund, which bought a 9.9 percent stake in the U.S. brokerage.

The Dow fell 101.05, or 0.76 percent, to 13,264.82. The blue-chip index remains below its Oct. 9 record high of 14,164.53, at which point it was up more than 13 percent year-to-date.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index and the technology-dominated Nasdaq composite index also declined Monday, but both posted annual gains for the fifth straight year.

The S&P 500 index fell 10.13, or 0.69 percent, to 1,468.36, to end 2007 with a gain of 3.53 percent. It had reached a record close of 1,565.15 on Oct. 9.

The Nasdaq fell 22.18, or 0.83 percent, to 2,652.28, to finish the year with a 9.81 percent gain. Despite the market's volatility, this was the best performance for the Nasdaq, still well below its tech boom highs, since 2003.

Government bonds rose. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, slid to 4.03 percent from 4.12 percent late Friday, and is down nearly 17 percent for the year.

Declining issues narrowly outnumbered advancers on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to a light 1.15 billion shares.

2007 was a remarkable year on Wall Street. The market began the year continuing the rally that propelled the Dow above 12,000 for the first time in October. Then, in late February, came a reminder that stocks were capable of turning tail and plunging — a skid on China's stock market and an ominous economic outlook from former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan sent the Dow down 416 points in one day.

That panic didn't last long. In April, the Dow barreled above 13,000 for the first time and then glided past 14,000 in mid-July. But in late July, however, the market realized that the ongoing slump in housing, and a rise in mortgage foreclosures due to resetting adjustable-rate loans, was taking a toll across the credit markets.

Though the housing market started teetering as early as 2005, few people anticipated how much the downturn could affect the global financial system. Mortgages given to borrowers deemed "subprime" comprised only about an eighth of the $10 trillion U.S. mortgage market — why would that rattle the world markets?

The problem was, these pieces of debt were chopped up, repackaged and woven into larger fixed-income instruments, on which banks and other investors made billion-dollar bets — bets that were extremely profitable during the housing boom, but calamitous when borrowers couldn't keep up with their mortgage payments. When one slice of the instrument defaulted, it pulled the whole thing down with it.

Investors bailed out of anything tied to mortgages, and soon Wall Street discovered that financial institutions in the United States and overseas were holding billions of dollars in assets that were losing value by the day. The biggest names on the Street — Merrill Lynch, Citigroup Inc., Bear Stearns Cos. — announced billions of dollars in writedowns. Merrill and Citi lost their CEOs, and several financial firms sought out billion-dollar investments to clean up their balance sheets.

In the midst of this turmoil, the credit markets all but seized up, and all these interconnected events pummeled stocks. The Dow suffered triple-digit drops, recoveries and then drops again as Wall Street stumbled through months of volatility reminiscent of the terrible days after the 2001 terror attacks.

In August and September the Federal Reserve began to act, with interest rate cuts and injections of liquidity. It helped for a while, and in October, stocks were rallying again taking the Dow to another set of record highs — only to succumb again to fears about the unknown extent of the credit mess.

Wall Street enters 2008 with that same concern, not to mention oil's surge this year of about 60 percent to nearly $100 a barrel, and the U.S. dollar's tumble to record lows against the euro. On Monday, the dollar rose against most other major currencies, gold prices fell, and crude oil prices slipped 2 cents to settle at $95.98 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

"We've seen the return of volatility. I think that will be around for a while, and will govern trading for the new year," said Scott Fullman, director of investment strategy for I. A. Englander & Co. "Stock selection and strategy will play a very important part in the success of anybody who is trading going into the new year. This is not a time where you throw a dart at the board."

In 2007, the technology, energy, industrials and healthcare sectors did well, while the financial industry and small-caps — usually fledgling companies that rely heavily on loans to grow their business — lagged.