Weaver ants help flowers get the best pollinator

MOST flowers don't want pesky ants hanging around scaring away would-be pollinators. Not so the Singapore rhododendron - the first flower found to recruit ants to chase poor pollinators away.

Francisco Gonzálvez at EEZA, the arid zone experimental station in Almeria, Spain, and colleagues studied flowers frequented by large carpenter bees (Xylocopa) and a much smaller solitary bee, Nomia. The larger bees seemed to be better pollinators - setting far more fruit than the smaller bees.

The team found that Nomia avoided plants with weaver ant patrols, and when they did dare to land, were chased away or ambushed by the ants. Being so much bigger, carpenter bees weren't troubled by the ants (Journal of Ecology, DOI:10.1111/1365-2745.12006).

Plants usually produce chemical repellents to scare off insects that prey on their pollinators. But lab tests suggested Gonzálvez's flowers were actively attracting weaver ants, although how remains a mystery. The team thinks carpenter bees choose flowers with ants so they don't have to compete with Nomia.

Michael Kaspari of the University of Oklahoma in Norman says this is a new kind of plant-ant interaction, and that the team makes a "strong case" for the rhododendron manipulating the behaviour of weaver ants to ward off inefficient pollinators.

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Football: Michu brace drops Arsenal down to 10th

LONDON: Swansea piled on the misery for Arsenal as Michu scored twice in the closing minutes to clinch a shock 2-0 win at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday.

Spanish forward Michu underlined his growing reputation as the bargain buy of the season with a pair of clinical finishes on the counter attack, prompting Arsenal's fans to unleash a torrent of abuse at manager Arsene Wenger and his players at full-time.

Arsenal have now won just one of their last six Premier League matches and this defeat dropped the Gunners to 10th place in the table.

The north London club are now five points off the top four and to add insult to injury in-form Swansea climbed above them into seventh spot.

There was an early scare for Arsenal when they struggled to deal with Jonathan de Guzman's free-kick into the box and the ball fell to Swansea captain Ashley Williams in front of goal but a defender was in the way of the shot that followed.

Arsenal replied with a wayward effort from Carl Jenkinson but were soon back under pressure and needed goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny to make a double save to deny Angel Rangel.

The full-back arrived at the back post to cap a superb passing movement that had seen almost every outfield player involved and Arsenal chasing shadows.

Arsenal moved Lukas Podolski from the left flank to the central striking position and the Germany forward saw a shot blocked by a defender before Santi Cazorla headed straight at goalkeeper Gerhard Tremmel from Jenkinson's cross.

Seconds later, Swansea came even closer to taking the lead after Michu's header sent Nathan Dyer sprinting for goal, only for Thomas Vermaelen to slide in and block just as the winger unleashed his shot.

The half ended with Gervinho putting a free header so wide that Theo Walcott had to retrieve it from near the corner flag, and the home fans booed Arsenal off as soon as the whistle went.

The second half saw Jack Wilshere set Cazorla up for a low drive that Tremmel was able to block and referee Mark Clattenburg was not interested in awarding a penalty when Chico Flores body-checked Gervinho.

Swansea soaked up the pressure and replied with a shot from Itay Shechter that was deflected behind, before Rangel hit the side-netting after Cazorla had appeared guilty of a dive in the box at the other end.

Wenger made a double change in the 67th minute, with Olivier Giroud and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain replacing Gervinho and Lukas Podolski.

Giroud went down straight away as Flores challenged but referee Clattenberg ruled the defender had got the ball.

Arsenal were applying strong pressure but Tremmel was behind Cazorla's volley.

Yet Swansea had not given up hope of snatching a winner and again Arsenal had Szczesny to thank for a smart save to deny Dwight Tiendalli after the substitute had moved into a shooting position on the right of the box.

Tremmel kept out Vermaelen's header at the other end and Swansea took full advantage of that escape as Michu netted with just two minutes remaining.

The Spaniard played a one-two with substitute Luke Moore which was deflected back into his path and he slotted calmly past Szczesny.

Swansea sealed the win in stoppage-time when Dyer caught Jenkinson in possession to send Michu away and again he made no mistake with only Szczesny to beat.

The final whistle was greeted by loud jeers from the home support as the away supporters celebrated a famous and fully deserved victory.

- AFP/fa

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HTC's budget-friendly Windows Phone 8S not coming to U.S.

A pack of Windows Phone 8S devices in different colors.

(Credit:
Brian Bennett/CNET)

HTC won't be making its budget-minded Windows Phone handset, the 8S, available in the United States.

In a statement to Engadget yesterday, the company called its higher-end device, the 8X, its "signature Windows Phone" and said that with its focus on that handset, the 8S "is not currently planned for distribution in the U.S. market."

Sources told The Verge that the 8S was originally tagged as a lower-cost phone for T-Mobile but that Microsoft decided to prioritize testing of the Qualcomm 8960 chipset that's found in the 8X (as well as in Nokia's Lumia 820 and 920 Win Phone devices) over the chipset that's in the budget 8S. That may well mean the 8S has missed its window of opportunity for official carrier support.

HTC announced both the 8S and 8X on September 19, and the 8X went on sale in the U.S. in November with AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and T-Mobile The 8X has been positioned by Microsoft as the flagship launch phone for Windows Phone 8.

Engadget notes that the 8S may crop up unlocked and unsubsidized on various e-tail sites accessible to U.S. buyers.

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Photos: Kilauea Lava Reaches the Sea

• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Into the Sea

  Photograph by Hugh Gentry, Reuters

  A spectacular natural phenomenon was on display early this week as lava from a vent in Hawaii's Kilauea volcano flowed into the ocean, sending up plumes of steam as it made contact with the waves.

  Though lava can still be viewed from Kalapana near the Big Island's Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, ocean entry is no longer occurring, according to the National Park Service.

  Published November 30, 2012

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Sea of Fire

  
  Photograph by Hugh Gentry, Reuters
  

  The lava traveled 7 miles (11 kilometers) from Kilauea’s Pu'u O'o vent to the ocean. When lava reaches the water, it cools and hardens, forming a lava delta that can be dangerous to nearby onlookers, according to Reuters.

  The news service reported that no communities on the Big Island were threatened by the lava flow.

  Published November 30, 2012

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Volcanic Flare

  
  Photograph by Hugh Gentry, Reuters
  

  A burst of volcanic activity erupts from Kilauea’s crater in Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park on November 27.

  The volcano has been erupting continuously for nearly 30 years. No major damage has been suffered by a town since 1986, according to Reuters.

  Published November 30, 2012

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Fiery Encounter

  Photograph by Hugh Gentry, Reuters

  “Ocean entries are beautiful but dangerous,” said Janet Babb, spokeswoman for the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, in a statement reported by Reuters. She warned that the steam could be more hazardous than it appears.

  Published November 30, 2012

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Point of Contact

  
  Photograph by Matt Northam, My Shot
  

  A plume of smoke billows where lava from Kilauea meets the sea in this aerial photo taken November 27.

  Published November 30, 2012

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Photograph by Peter Vancoillie, Your Shot

  Published November 30, 2012

  
  

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KC Chiefs Player Dead in Apparent Murder-Suicide

A Kansas City Chiefs football player committed suicide today in front of his coaches and police outside of the team's stadium, just as officers investigating the shooting of the player's girlfriend arrived on the scene, police said.

The name of the 25-year-old player has not yet been released.

Kansas City Police were first alerted something was wrong by the girlfriend's mother.

"The individual that called, the mother of the victim, stated that her daughter's boyfriend is the one who shot her and he is a Chiefs player," Kansas City Police spokesman Darin Snapp told ABC News Radio.

Visions of America/UIG via Getty Images

Idaho Teacher Accused of Locking Boy, 5, in Dark Closet Watch Video

Shortly thereafter, Snapp said the player drove to Arrowhead Stadium and police were called.

"When the officers arrived, when they were pulling up, they actually observed a black male who had a gun to his head and he was talking to a couple of coaches out in the parking lot," Snapp said. "As officers pulled up, and began to park, that's when they heard the gunshot and it appears the individual took his own life."

Kansas City is scheduled to host the Carolina Panthers on Sunday. It was not yet determined whether the game would be postponed.

In a statement issued to ESPN, the Kansas City Chiefs said they are "cooperating with authorities in their investigation."

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Dinosaurs might have once gazed into the Grand Canyon

Joanna Carver, reporter

(Image: John Burcham/NGS)

Picture the scene. It's late in the Cretaceous period, 70 million years ago. A group of dinosaurs have gathered at the rim of what will become known as the Grand Canyon. They're gawping over the edge, just as humans will in millennia to come.

That might not be complete fantasy. It had been thought that the canyon formed 6 million years ago. But now two geologists have evidence it is actually closer to 70 million years old.

Rebecca Flowers at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and Ken Farley at the California Institute of Technology calculated the canyon's age by examining helium levels in the mineral apatite in the rocks under the western part of the canyon's floor. Apatite contains uranium and thorium, which decay into helium over time. At high temperatures, like those found deep underground, helium can dissipate. But if surface erosion brings these rocks closer to the surface, as happened at the Grand Canyon, then the cooler temperatures they are exposed to can cause the mineral to hold on to its helium.

Based on higher than expected helium levels, Flowers and Farley concluded that the erosion that shaped the canyon began 70 million years ago. That will be debated among geologists, but if there is one thing that could add to the wonder of the canyon - up to 29 kilometres wide, 446 kilometres long, 1800 metres deep and very, very old - it is the thought of it filled with dinosaurs.

Journal reference: Science, doi.org/jvq

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Strauss-Kahn, maid don't have deal yet: lawyers

NEW YORK: Lawyers for Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the disgraced former IMF chief, shot down reports Friday that he was ready to pay $6 million to a Manhattan maid accusing him of sexual assault -- but confirmed that he was negotiating.

In a statement seeking to dampen media speculation over an out-of-court settlement of the maid's civil suit, the lawyers stressed that Strauss-Kahn was talking, but had yet to ink a deal.

"The parties have discussed a resolution but there has been no settlement. Mr Strauss-Kahn will continue to defend the charges if no resolution can be reached," attorneys William Taylor and Amit Mehta said in a brief statement.

The attorneys repeated an earlier denial of a report in French daily Le Monde specifying that Strauss-Kahn, once seen as France's likely next president, was prepared to pay off Sofitel room cleaning lady Nafissatou Diallo.

"Media reports that Dominique Strauss-Kahn has agreed to pay $6 million to settle the civil case are flatly false," Taylor and Mehta said.

According to Le Monde, Strauss-Kahn was to raise the money by borrowing $3 million from a bank and the rest from his estranged wife, Anne Sinclair, a well-known former newsreader who inherited a fortune from her art dealer father.

Diallo's legal team did not comment, but an earlier statement from Strauss-Kahn's legal team had already called the Le Monde report "imaginary and mistaken."

The latest statement did make official that Strauss-Kahn is negotiating with Diallo to end the sordid 18-month legal saga, a development first reported late Thursday by The New York Times, quoting unidentified sources.

Until now, Strauss-Kahn's lawyers repeatedly said they would not agree to a deal, while Diallo's legal team insisted she wanted her day in court to confront her alleged abuser.

Judge Douglas McKeon, who is presiding over the civil case in New York, told AFP "there may be a court session as early as next week," but declined to comment further.

Diallo's allegation of attempted rape in May 2011 triggered a stunning fall from grace for Strauss-Kahn, who had been seen as close to announcing he would run in an upcoming French presidential election.

Criminal charges were thrown out when Manhattan prosecutors said Diallo's testimony wouldn't stand up in court. She then filed her own civil lawsuit in a Bronx court, alleging that the 63-year-old leapt on her, naked, and forced her into oral sex.

Strauss-Kahn, who says a hurried but consensual sex act took place in his luxury room, returned immediately to France after the criminal case disintegrated.

However, by then Strauss-Kahn's career was in tatters, his marriage was on the rocks and he soon faced a string of other sex-related investigations by French authorities.

In France, Strauss-Kahn will learn December 19 if he is to face further investigation into pimping charges arising from allegations that he and associates arranged sex parties with prostitutes in the northern French city of Lille.

His lawyers have filed a request for the charges to be dismissed.

French prosecutors last month dropped an investigation into Strauss-Kahn's alleged participation in a gang rape after the woman involved said she had consented and was not pressing charges.

Strauss-Kahn has also been accused by 32-year-old author Tristane Banon of trying to rape her in 2002.

French investigating magistrates questioned Strauss-Kahn and his accuser and concluded that while there appeared to be evidence of a sexual assault, the alleged attack had occurred too long ago to be prosecuted.

-AFP/ac

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Cyber Monday rings up record U.S. sales (week in review)

This year's Cyber Monday was one for the record books.

Market analyst ComScore reported that spending in the U.S. on Monday reached $1.465 billion, up 17 percent from a year ago, "representing the heaviest [U.S.] online spending day in history and the second day this season (in addition to
Black Friday) to surpass $1 billion in sales."

ComScore said that the top category for sales was digital content and subscriptions (up 28 percent), followed by consumer electronics (up 24 percent and "buoyed by gains in smartphone sales"), computer hardware (up 22 percent, boosted by
tablet sales), video games, consoles and accessories (up 18 percent) and jewelry and watches (up 17 percent).

That followed Black Friday's record online sales, which surpassed $1 billion for the first time, a 26 percent increase of last year's Black Friday.

•  Amazon: Kindle's Cyber Monday sales beat last year

More headlines

Apple launches redesigned iTunes 11 after delay

New software brings redesigned interface and new playback features. Update goes out to users after a monthlong delay.

•  iTunes 11 surprise: Apple sneaks in a gift card scanner

Blackout: Syria vanishes from Internet

An outage shuts down all Syrian access to the Web. Phone lines also appear to be down, and airlines are canceling flights.
•  Anonymous declares war on Syrian government Web sites

Commenters push Facebook policy changes to public vote

For the third time in Facebook history, the social network will put a vote about how it does business to its members. And if history is any guide, turnout will be low.

•  Privacy watchdogs aren't happy about Facebook's site changes

•  Viral post won't copyright your Facebook updates

iPad still dominates tablets, but Android grabs market share

Apple's tablets made up 55 percent of third-quarter shipments, but it lost 14 percent to
Android competitors, according to new research.

•  iPad Mini, iMac to face supply shortages, report claims

Google gets punked by fake news of ICOA acquisition

A press release on PRWeb says the search giant bought Wi-Fi technology provider ICOA for $400 million, but ICOA says the news is false.

•  PRWeb finally takes down fake Google press release


•  Did someone try to make a quick buck on ICOA this morning?

Obama opposes Silicon Valley firms on immigration reform

White House announcement before congressional vote on STEM Jobs Act puts president in opposition to many of the Silicon Valley firms and executives who bankrolled his re-election campaign.

Conservative groups dump on Pandora's royalty legislation

Citizens Against Government Waste joins the likes of artists such as Rihanna and Katy Perry in opposing the Internet Radio Fairness Act.

•  Songwriters remind Pandora: You're profiting from our songs

Samsung finds no child labor, promises fixes to supply chain

The company says that it found "several instances of inadequate practices," including excessive overtime and a fine policy for lateness or absences.

•  Samsung accused of labor violations by watchdog group

Also of note

•  Apple's new iMac line arrives

•  NASA confirms rumors about Mars discovery 'incorrect'

•  Groupon decides to keep Andrew Mason as CEO

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Pictures: Inside the World's Most Powerful Laser

Photograph courtesy Damien Jemison, LLNL

Looking like a portal to a science fiction movie, preamplifiers line a corridor at the U.S. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's National Ignition Facility (NIF).

Preamplifiers work by increasing the energy of laser beams—up to ten billion times—before these beams reach the facility's target chamber.

The project's lasers are tackling "one of physics' grand challenges"—igniting hydrogen fusion fuel in the laboratory, according to the NIF website. Nuclear fusion—the merging of the nuclei of two atoms of, say, hydrogen—can result in a tremendous amount of excess energy. Nuclear fission, by contrast, involves the splitting of atoms.

This July, California-based NIF made history by combining 192 laser beams into a record-breaking laser shot that packed over 500 trillion watts of peak power-a thousand times more power than the entire United States uses at any given instant.

"This was a quantum leap for laser technology around the world," NIF director Ed Moses said in September. But some critics of the $5 billion project wonder why the laser has yet to ignite a fusion chain reaction after three-and-a-half years in operation. Supporters counter that such groundbreaking science simply can't be rushed.

(Related: "Fusion Power a Step Closer After Giant Laser Blast.")

—Brian Handwerk

Published November 29, 2012

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Mo. Couple Wins Half of Powerball Jackpot

The lucky winners of half of the record $587.5 million Powerball jackpot have been identified as Mark and Cindy Hill of Dearborn, Mo., their working-class lives suddenly taking a turn to the financial stratosphere.

Cindy Hill, who with her husband has three adult sons and a 6-year-old daughter adopted from China, purchased the ticket at a Trex Mart gas station in Dearborn.

"I called my husband and told him, 'I think I am having a heart attack,'" Cindy Hill, 51, said, according to the Missouri Lottery. "I think we just won the lottery!"

Cindy, who worked as an office manager but was laid off in 2010, said that when she learned that a winning ticket was sold in Missouri, she dropped her daughter off at school, went to a convenience store for a winning numbers report, and checked her tickets in her car, according to the Missouri State Lottery.

"I was just telling my daughter the night before, 'Honey, that probably never happens (people winning)," Cindy said. "It's really going to be nice to spend time – not have to work – and be able to take trips with our family."

Cindy did mention that her husband has mentioned one extravagance -- a red Camaro, but today he said that he plans on keeping his same old pick-up truck.

The winning ticket was one of five Cindy purchased, for a total of $10. She let the computer quick-pick choose the numbers, according to the Missouri Lottery. As soon as she saw that she had a winning ticket, Cindy had her mother-in-law and husband double check it.

"You know it's the Show Me State, so he said, 'Show me,'" she said.

Appearing at a press conference today in Dearborn along with their three sons, aged 28, 30, 31, and their 6-year-old daughter, the Hills appeared overjoyed.

"We were blessed before we ever won this," Cindy said. "We want to go back to China, Ireland of course -- we're Irish, and wherever the win takes us."

Cindy said that she bought the winning ticket Wednesday at about 4:45 p.m.

"I stuck it in my car, and it stayed there all night," she said. "Now that I know that it was a winner I wouldn't have done that!"

Powerball Winners: Did Missouri Man Play Baseball Jersey Numbers? Watch Video

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Powerball Winners: Video Out of Possible Winners Watch Video

The Hills will take home $193,750,000 in lump sum payout -- which works out to $396,000 for each person in Dearborn, a town of 496.

The couple say that they will remain in Dearborn, and plan on launching a scholarship at the local high school.

Speculation began running wild in the small town when 52-year-old Hill, a factory worker, updated his Facebook account late Thursday, writing, "We are truly blessed, we are lucky winners of the Powerball."

Within hours, his family began celebrating, telling ABC News Hill is one of the two big winners.

"Just shocked. I mean, I thought we were all going to have heart attacks," Hill's mother, Shirley, said Thursday.

Hill's mother says her son and his wife have been struggling financially. Hill works in a hot dog and deli packaging factory, but it was unclear whether he showed up for work Thursday night.

"I'm very happy for him. He's worked hard in his life; well, not anymore," Hill's son Jason said. "Well, I hope we all stay very grounded, stay humble and don't forget who we are."

Missouri Lottery official Susan Goedde confirmed to ABC News Thursday that one of the winning tickets was purchased at a Trex Mart in Dearborn, about 30 miles north of Kansas City.

The winning numbers were 5, 23, 16, 22 and 29; Powerball was 6.

Hill did not respond to ABC News' requests for comment.
Meanwhile, employees and customers at Marlboro Village Exxon in Upper Marlboro, Md., said a tall, black, bald man held the winning ticket purchased in Arizona, according to ABC News affiliate WJLA-TV.

Surveillance cameras at the Upper Marlboro gas station captured the apparent winner walking into the store Thursday afternoon, digging into his chest pocket for his lottery tickets. After a few seconds of scanning the wad of tickets, the man began jumping up and down, pumping his arms.

The man gave the tickets to store manager Nagassi Ghebre, who says the six Powerball numbers were on the ticket, which the apparent winner said he bought in Arizona.

"And then he said, 'I got to get out of here,'" employee Freddie Lopez told WJLA.

But before leaving, the possible winner felt the need to check again to see whether he really had the ticket that millions of Americans dreamed of having.

"He says, 'Is this the right number? I don't know.' And I said, 'Yeah that's the numbers. You got them all,'" customer Paul Gaug told WJLA.

Employees and customers said the main stuck around for a few more seconds shouting, "I won," before leaving.

"He came back a minute later and said, 'I forgot to get my gas. What am I thinking?'" Lopez said.

The man drove out of the gas station in a black car and on a full tank of gas with a cash payout of $192.5 million coming his way.

"He said he lives in Maryland. I'm pretty sure," Gaug said.

The possible jackpot winner was wearing bright neon clothing and store employees told WJLA that he appeared to be a highway or construction worker.

Arizona lottery officials told WJLA that if the man does have the winning ticket, it needs to be redeemed within 180 days of the drawing in Arizona.

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Leaping shark scores big air, but no dinner

Flora Graham, deputy editor, newscientist.com

(Image: Dana Allen/Caters news)

Despite its spectacular leap, this great white shark is going home with an empty stomach. The seal that it has crushed in its jaws is a rubber decoy, created by the photographer, Dana Allen, to tempt it out of the sea.

The shark was pictured in False Bay, off Cape Town in South Africa. It's common for great whites to leap out of the water in this area, but it took three days of dangling his decoy for Allen to capture this perfect moment on film.

"We were getting ourselves settled, preparing for a long wait and then whoosh! In an instant the 4-metre great white shark was up and out of the water, right in front of our eyes," said Allen. "It almost seemed like slow motion and I remember seeing the eyes and the teeth as the shark leaped up."

Some shark chasers get far closer to their prey. Last year, Dorien Schröder's shark study took a twist when a 3-metre great white jumped into her boat. 

"I heard a splash behind me and turned around to see a great white hovering in the air," said Schröder of her close shark shave. Happily, despite an hour out of the water, Schröder's shark survived after being craned back into the water.

Neither close encounter of the shark kind happened by chance. Like Allen, Schröder was also attracting sharks to her boat - with fish oils. She was documenting their distinctive dorsal fins - which unfortunately make them the target of a bloody worldwide market in shark fins.

If you'd rather keep Jaws and its kin away, there are chemical shark repellents that may do the trick - although not dragging a rubber seal behind you while spreading fish oil is a good place to start. You can also read our handy guide to shark body language to ensure you appear as un-delicious as possible.

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Long hard road for Spain in recession: OECD

MADRID: Spain is engulfed in a long recession with little hope of a quick recovery and its towering unemployment rate will soar further, the OECD club of industrialised nations said Thursday.

Spain must quickly fix its banks to avert the "substantial risk" of being cut off from external financing and plunging into an even deeper recession, the body warned in a report.

"The economy is undergoing a prolonged recession," the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said in a report, citing the 2008 global financial crisis and the bust of a Spanish housing boom.

"The prospect of an immediate recovery remains remote," the OECD said, noting that people and businesses were struggling to repay loans and the nation was stuck in a debt crisis.

OECD secretary-general Angel Gurria called for Spain's European partners to make a declaration that they would support Madrid in any bailout request, though it has staunchly resisted making such a call over recent months.

Addressing Spain's 25-percent unemployment rate, the OECD urged drastic labour market changes, on top of much-protested reforms already taken by conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy that make it cheaper to fire staff.

It called for cutting compensation for unfair dismissal, considering abolishing an extension of industry-wide collective bargaining, and more training and job-search help for the young.

Gurria highlighted the level of youth unemployment -- more than 52 percent among 16 to 24-year-olds. The OECD forecast the overall jobless rate would reach 26.9 percent in 2013.

Spain's economy has been shrinking for 15 months, with output slumping 0.3 percent in the third quarter, according to official data, and the recession is expected to last right through 2013.

Spain's "immediate policy priority" is to restore trust in banks by fixing weak balance sheets, making orderly resolution of non-viable banks, and shifting bad assets into a new bad bank, the body said.

"In the short-term, there is a substantial risk that the economy, notably the banks, will remain cut off from external funding," it said.

"This would deepen the recession, especially if measures taken at the European level provide ineffective in easing tensions in interbank and sovereign markets."

Spain's banks are struggling with loans turned sour after the property crash.

Eurozone powers agreed in June to extend to Madrid an emergency rescue loan of up to 100 billion euros ($129 billion) to fix their balance sheets and reform the sector.

Now, Spain also is pondering whether to apply to the eurozone's bailout fund for a sovereign rescue, which would open the way for the European Central Bank to buy Spanish bonds and curb Madrid's borrowing costs.

"The thing we need now is to ask that Spain's European partners, given its performance, make an unequivocal declaration that in case Spain asks for support, that this support will be given," Gurria told a news conference.

The ECB's offer to make unlimited purchases of stricken states' bonds if they accept strict conditions has brought down Spain's interest rates even before Madrid decides whether to seek the help.

On another sensitive reform that has fuelled mass street protests, the OECD urged the Spanish government to broaden a hike in sales tax to more goods and services and increase tax on fuel.

The Madrid stock exchange strengthened Thursday, with the IBEX-35 index closing 1.74 higher as tensions eased over Greek debt. Banks' shares picked up after sharp losses Wednesday linked to their restructuring.

-AFP/ac

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Military judge accepts plea terms in Bradley Manning case

Bradley Manning, the U.S. Army private accused of sharing documents with WikiLeaks that were eventually released on the Internet, is now one step closer to handling some of the claims brought against him.

Military judge Colonel Denise Lind today accepted the language used to describe seven charges to which Manning could plead guilty. The charges include Manning willfully sending videos, war logs, and other classified materials to WikiLeaks.

The Associated Press was first to report on the ruling.

To be clear, Col. Lind's ruling is not an acceptance of a guilty plea. Instead, the ruling approves how the charges will be presented in the event Manning pleads guilty to them.

Earlier this month, Manning's attorney, David Coombs, said in a pre-trial hearing that his client would plead guilty to the charges brought before the court today. The attorney said at the time that "Manning is attempting to accept responsibility for offenses that are encapsulated within, or are a subset of, the charged offenses."

Last year, the U.S. military slapped Manning with 22 charges, including an offense that could carry a maximum penalty of life in prison.

According to the Associated Press, if Manning goes through with a guilty plea to the seven charges and the court accepts it, he could face a maximum of 16 years in prison. It's not clear what might happen with the remaining charges if the pleas are accepted.

Read More..

Caterpillar Fungus Has Anti-Inflammatory Properties

In the Tibetan mountains, a fungus attaches itself to a moth larva burrowed in the soil. It infects and slowly consumes its host from within, taking over its brain and making the young caterpillar move to a position from which the fungus can grow and spore again. (Learn about other fungi that invade brains.)

Sounds like something out of science fiction, right? But for ailing Chinese consumers and nomadic Tibetan harvesters, the parasite called cordyceps means hope—and big money. Chinese markets sell the "golden worm," or "Tibetan mushroom"—thought to cure everything from cancer to asthma to erectile dysfunction—for up to $50,000 per pound. Patients, following traditional medicinal practices, brew the fungal-infected caterpillar in tea or chew it raw.

Now the folk medicine is getting scientific backing. A new study published in the journal RNA finds that cordycepin, a chemical derived from the caterpillar fungus, has anti-inflammatory properties.

"Inflammation is normally a beneficial response to a wound or infection, but in diseases like asthma it happens too fast and to too high of an extent," said study co-author Cornelia H. de Moor of the University of Nottingham. "When cordycepin is present, it inhibits that response strongly."

And it does so in a way not previously seen: at the mRNA stage, where it inhibits polyadenylation. That means it stops swelling at the genetic cellular level—a novel anti-inflammatory approach that could lead to new drugs for cancer, asthma, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and cardiovascular-disease patients who don't respond well to current medications.

From Worm to Pill

But such new drugs may be a long way off. The science of parasitic fungi is still in its early stages, and no medicine currently available utilizes cordycepin as an anti-inflammatory. The only way a patient could gain its benefits would be by consuming wild-harvested mushrooms.

De Moor cautions against this practice. "I can't recommend taking wild-harvested medications," she says. "Each sample could have a completely different dose, and there are mushrooms where [taking] a single bite will kill you."

Today 96 percent of the world's caterpillar-fungus harvest comes from the high Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayan range. Fungi from this region belong to the subspecies Ophiocordyceps sinensis, known locally as yartsa gunbu ("summer grass, winter worm"). While highly valued in Chinese traditional medicine, these fungi have relatively low levels of cordycepin. What's more, they grow only at elevations of 10,000 to 16,500 feet (3,000 to 5,000 meters) and cannot be farmed. All of which makes yartsa gunbu costly for Chinese consumers: A single fungal-infected caterpillar can fetch $30.

Brave New Worm

Luckily for researchers, and for potential consumers, another rare species of caterpillar fungus, Cordyceps militaris, is capable of being farmed—and even cultivated to yield much higher levels of cordycepin.

De Moor says that's not likely to discourage Tibetan harvesters, many of whom make a year's salary in just weeks by finding and selling yartsa gunbu. Scientific proof of cordycepin's efficacy will only increase demand for the fungus, which could prove dangerous. "With cultivation we have a level of quality control that's missing in the wild," says de Moor.

She adds: "There is definitely some truth somewhere in certain herbal medicinal traditions, if you look hard enough. But ancient healers probably wouldn't notice a 10 percent mortality rate resulting from herbal remedies. In the scientific world, that's completely unacceptable."

If you want to be safe, she adds, "wait for the medicine."

Read More..

Petraeus Tells Friend He 'Screwed Up Royally'

One of David Petraeus' closest friends says the former CIA director admitted that he "screwed up royally" by having an affair with his biographer Paula Broadwell.

Retired Brigadier Gen. James Shelton has been friends with Petraeus for more than three decades and reached to out to him after he resigned from the CIA. Shelton told ABC News that the former four-star general wrote him a letter recently confessing to the affair.

Petraeus, 60, writes in the letter, "Team Petraeus will survive…. though [I] have obviously created enormous difficulty for us," according to Shelton.

A former spokesman for Petraeus told ABC News that fury was an inadequate description for Holly Petraeus after learning her husband of 38 years had an affair.

But in the letter, Petraeus writes that his wife is "…once again demonstrating how incredibly fortunate I was to marry her."

Shelton said he has shocked when news of the affair broke. Shelton says he has never met Broadwell but talked to her on the phone as she worked on the Petraeus biography, "All In." Broadwell thanked Shelton in the book's acknowledgments as "being wonderfully helpful."

Shelton says he found Broadwell engaging.

David Petraeus Affair: Woman Who Blew the Whistle Watch Video

David Petraeus Affair: Paula Broadwell in Hiding Watch Video

"I don't think she wove a web around Dave and dragged him in, I don't think that at all. I think it was mutual," Shelton told ABC News.

The disgraced general also stuck by his decision to step down as head of the CIA, writing, "I paid the price (appropriately) and I sought to do the right thing, at the end of the day."

Neither Broadwell nor Petraeus would comment when ABC News tried to reach them overnight.

However, there are many in Washington who now wonder if Shelton's talking about this letter is the beginning of a carefully choreographed campaign by Petraeus to rehabilitate his image.

Shelton says while he was disappointed in Petraeus' actions, he thinks it was a one-time mistake.

"I believe that Dave Petraeus was that kind of guy. He wasn't looking for it, it happened," he said.

While it is unclear who may have initiated the affair, what is clear is the scope of their relationship. An FBI investigation has uncovered hundreds if not thousands of emails exchanged between the two.

The 40-year-old author was stripped of her military security clearance after a federal probe alleged she was storing classified military material at her home.

The FBI found classified material on a computer voluntarily handed over by Broadwell earlier in the investigation.

Prosecutors will now have to determine how important the classified material is before making a final decision on how to proceed. Authorities could decide to seek disciplinary action against her rather than pursue charges.

Since announcing his resignation from the CIA last month, Petraeus has kept a low profile only appearing in closed door hearings before the House and Senate intelligence committees to testify about what he learned first-hand about the Sept. 11 attack in the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.

ABC News' Mosheh Gains contributed to this report.

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Europe in 2050: a survivor's guide to climate change

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Italy, China sign deals worth US$1.27b

ROME: Italian and Chinese firms signed deals worth $1.27 billion (984 million euros) on Wednesday in Rome at talks attended by Prime Minister Mario Monti and senior Chinese politburo member Jia Qinglin.

The six deals included agreements between Chinese telecoms giant Huawei and Italian Internet provider Fastweb for $557 million and between China Everbright and Chinese-owned Italy-based yacht company Ferretti for $480 million.

"These agreements show that many sectors of the Italian economy can attract foreign investors, raising the growth potential of the country and expanding its international exchanges," Monti was quoted as saying in a statement.

Monti has sought to raise Italy's status among international investors.

After a visit to Qatar earlier this month, Italy and Qatar set up a two-billion-euro joint venture for making investments in Italy.

The two countries are set to sign another deal soon for a one-billion-euro fund for small and medium-sized enterprises, the government said.

-AFP/ac

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$2.4 million air-conditioned limo submarine perfect for 007

The red paint job makes it faster, right?

(Credit:
U-Boat Worx)

When I get into a submarine, I expect certain amenities like air conditioning, an
iPod sound system, a screaming red paint job, and a plate of caviar. All except the caviar are available with the C-Explorer 5 from U-Boat Worx.

The $2.4 million C-Explorer 5 is being advertised as the "world's first subsea limousine." It holds five people, has an air conditioning system, can dive down to 1,000 feet, and sports a full 360-degree acrylic pressure hull. Cruising speed is 3 knots underwater.

If the standard features aren't enough, you can add to the price tag with options like an iPod sound system, bow-mounted LED lights, a sampling arm, an HD video camera system, imaging sonars, or an underwater modem. Make your next scientific adventure a luxurious one.

Perhaps the best feature of this floating limo is its 96 hours of emergency life support. Hopefully, you won't need to test that time rating personally.

There are a couple of reasons I won't be getting a C-Explorer 5. For starters, I'm not a gazillionaire. I also live in a land-locked state. I don't think this sub will be seeing much action in the Rio Grande. If I do ever see one of these in person, I fully expect James Bond to emerge from it with a martini in hand.

Here's the view from inside.

(Credit:
U-Boat Worx)

(Via Luxury Launches)

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Black Hole Blast Biggest Ever Recorded

Astronomers have witnessed a record-breaking blast of gas and dust flowing out of a monster black hole more than 11.5 billion light years away.

The supermassive gravity well, with a mass of one to three billion suns, lurks at the core of a quasar—a class of extremely bright and energetic galaxies—dubbed SDSS J1106 1939. (See "Black Hole Blasts Superheated Early Universe.")

"We discovered the most energetic quasar outflow ever seen, at least five times more powerful than any that have been observed to date," said Nahum Arav, an astronomer at Virginia Tech and co-author of the study to be published in The Astrophysical Journal.

Using the powerful telescopes of the European Southern Observatory in Chile, Arav and his team were able to clock the speed and other properties of the outflow.

Belching out material as much as 400 times the weight of our sun every year, the blast is located nearly a thousand light years from the quasar and has a velocity of roughly 18 million miles (29 million kilometers) per hour.

"We were hoping to see something like this, but the sheer power of this outflow still took us by surprise," said Arav.

The central black hole in this quasar is true giant dynamo. It's estimated to be upward of a thousand times more massive than the one in the Milky Way, producing energy at rates about a hundred times higher than the total power output of our galaxy. (See black hole pictures.)

Clues to Galaxy Evolution

Supermassive black holes are large enough to swallow our entire solar system and are notorious for ripping apart and swallowing stars. But they also power distant quasars and spew out material at high speeds.

(See "Monster Black Holes Gobble Binary Stars to Grow?")

The outflows have been suspected to play a key role in the evolution of galaxies, explained Arav, but questions have persisted for years in the astronomical community as to whether they were powerful enough.

This newly discovered super outflow could solve major cosmic mysteries, including how the mass of a galaxy is linked to its central black hole mass and why there is a relative scarcity of large galaxies across the universe.

"I believe this is the smoking gun for several theoretical ideas that use the mechanical energy output of quasars to solve several important problems in the formation of galaxies and cluster of galaxies," said Arav.

While Kirk Korista, an astronomer not connected to the study, believes these claims may be a bit premature, the research is expected to shed new light on the most powerful and least understood portions of typical quasar outflows.

"The superb spectroscopic data of this quasar have allowed for a breakthrough in quantifying the energetics of what is probably a typical quasar outflow," said Korista, an astronomy professor at Western Michigan University.

"This definitely is an important step in piecing together the story of galaxy evolution, and in elucidating the role of quasars in that story."

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Susan Rice Made Allies, Enemies Before Benghazi

United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice, on Capitol Hill this week answering questions about her role after the U.S. consulate attack in Benghazi, has become yet another player in the divide between the left and right, with her possible nomination as the next Secretary of State hanging in the balance.

But who was Susan Rice before she told ABC's "This Week" and other Sunday morning shows the attack was a spontaneous response to an anti-Islam film and not a premeditated act of terror? Four Americans died in the September attack.

Unlike many in government, Rice holds a rare claim to Washington, D.C.: she's a local. She hails from a prominent family with deep ties to the Democratic Party. She was born Nov. 17, 1964 to Emmett Rice, a deputy director at the Treasury Department who served as a member of Jimmy Carter's Federal Reserve board, and Lois Dickson Rice, a former program officer at the Ford Foundation who is now a higher education expert at the Brookings Institution.

McCain, Ayotte 'Troubled' After Susan Rice Meeting Watch Video

President Obama to Senator McCain: 'Go After Me' Watch Video

As a high school student at the all-girl National Cathedral School in Washington, Rice was known as an overachiever; valedictorian, star athlete and class president. After graduating high school in 1982, she went on to study history at Stanford, where she graduated as a Truman scholar and junior Phi Beta Kappa. Rice also attended Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.

The family has roots in Maine. In an interview with the Portland Press Herald in 2008, Lois Dickson Rice said that she held the same high expectations for her children as her mother had held for her. According to the paper, Ambassador Rice's drive to achieve spanned generations. Her maternal grandmother, an immigrant from Jamaica, was named Maine State Mother of the Year in 1950. Rice's father was only the second African-American man to be chosen for the Federal Reserve board.

Two years out of Stanford, Rice joined Massachusetts Democrat Michael Dukakis as a foreign policy aide during his 1988 run for president. After his defeat, Rice tried her hand in the private sector, where she went on to work as a management consultant with McKinsey and Company. After President Clinton's election in 1992, she joined Clinton's National Security Council, eventually joining her mentor, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. She served as Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs.

A profile of the diplomat from Stanford paints the Rices and Albrights as old family friends.

"The Rice and Albright kids went to school together and shared meals at Hamburger Hamlet," Stanford Magazine reported in 2000.

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Banished diseases making a comeback in Europe

A perfect storm of warmer weather, tropical migrants and plummeting health budgets is stoking the resurgence of once-banished, mosquito-borne diseases in Europe.

Several countries have been hit by Europe's financial crisis, and by diseases brought in by human and insect migrants from tropical countries. Now, the Portuguese island of Madeira is in the midst of Europe's first sustained outbreak of dengue fever since the 1920s, with over 1600 cases so far.

Meanwhile, Greece warned last May that public health cuts might undermine its control of malaria. It has contained sporadic outbreaks since 1990, but local cases surged to 20 in 2011, with eight this year. Public health agencies report that healthcare and surveillance must be "kept intact" to keep malaria from becoming permanent.

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

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Experts comb for clues in deadly German blaze

TITISEE-NEUSTADT, Germany: Experts sifted through a fire-ravaged workshop for the disabled in Germany on Tuesday, hunting for the cause of a fierce blaze there that killed 14 people.

Most of the dead from the fire which began on Monday at the centre in the southwestern town of Titisee-Neustadt in Germany's Black Forest region were disabled, police said.

A 50-year-old female carer was also killed, they said, while another nine people were hurt although their injuries are not thought to be life-threatening.

"Fire experts from the criminal police and accident investigators were on site during the night gathering evidence," a police spokesman told AFP.

Hundreds of firefighters backed by helicopters had battled the fire at the workshop run by the Roman Catholic Caritas welfare association for the mentally and physically disabled which made Christmas decorations among other things.

Candles have been placed outside the modern building whose windows were broken, and police stood at the entrance while more officers combed through the blackened interior.

Up to 60 people were in the centre at the time of the fire, which broke out just before 2 pm (1300 GMT) and spread quickly, damaging one floor of the site in Titisee-Neustadt, about 35 kilometres (22 miles) from the city of Freiburg.

Pope Benedict XVI sent his condolences, saying in a telegram he would remember in his prayers the victims of this "tragic accident", according to the Freiburg archbishopric.

A memorial service has been planned for Saturday at a local cathedral, the mayor's office said.

Among the dead were 13 disabled people, of whom 10 were women. They were all aged between 28 and 68, according to a police statement.

The cause of the fire was still unclear. "The investigations are not yet finished" but are continuing "relentlessly", police said.

On Monday police had said an explosion had taken place.

It was not clear whether chemicals were stored in the building but the workshop's activities included the treatment of wood.

Gotthard Benitz, of the Titisee-Neustadt fire service, told AFP that the fire began on the ground floor of the building which also had a basement and an upper floor.

"The victims were all on the same floor where the fire was," he said adding this was the only area to have sustained fire damage and the stairwell had remained smoke-free meaning those on the other two floors had been able to use it.

"We have no evidence that there were any shortcomings in the existing fire safety system," he added.

He also said firefighters were prepared for dealing with an emergency at the workshop as practice fire alarms were regularly carried out there, with the last one having been last year.

Two firefighters were lightly injured by smoke and spent the night under observation in hospital.

On Monday another local fire chief Alexander Widmaier had said firefighters were on the scene within six minutes and that there had been a "massive" amount of smoke that filled the building "extremely quickly".

The head of Caritas in Germany, Peter Neher, told ZDF public television that emergency practice drills were done regularly.

"But everyone knows who has taken part in such a drill, that the practice is one thing and when it's really an emergency situation, everyone reacts very individually," he said.

Local resident Dietlinde Kerler said she had thought a practice drill was underway initially as she watched from her balcony.

"Those in wheelchairs came out of the back and they even carried one... Only then did we notice that it was smouldering, that it was burning, the real thing," she said.

-AFP/ac

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Google fighting German plan for linking fee

Google has kicked off a campaign against a proposed German law that would force search engine providers to pay copyright fees every time they return a news article in their results.

The Leistungsschutzrecht für Presseverleger, or "ancillary copyright for press publishers," would provide an extension of copyright in Germany to cover snippets of articles, such as those that show up in search results so the user can tell what each result is about. It is being proposed by Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition and follows intense lobbying by publishing giant Axel Springer and others.

Google today launched a petition against the plan, arguing that they would make it much harder for Web surfers to find what they are looking for. Google has complained about the Leistungsschutzrecht before, but is now stepping up its opposition due to the fact that the bill will be debated this week in the Bundestag. "Most people have never heard of this proposed legislation," Google country director Stefan Tweraser said in a statement. "Such a law would affect every Internet user in Germany [and] mean less information for consumers and higher costs for companies."

Read more
of "Google launches petition against German 'link tax' proposals" at ZDNet.

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Space Pictures This Week: Space "Horse," Mars Rover, More

• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  High Horse

  Photograph by Greg Parker, Your Shot
  

  The Horsehead Nebula rears its pretty head in a November 17 photograph submitted to National Geographic's Your Shot photo community.

  Taken from the New Forest Observatory in the United Kingdom, the image shows how the nebula's horse head is part of a larger cloud of dust. Situated about 1,500 light-years away, the Horsehead Nebula is visible only because its obscuring dust is silhouetted against another, brighter nebula, according to NASA.

  (See "'Soccer Ball' Nebula Discovered by Amateur Astronomer.")

  Published November 26, 2012

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Green Lit

  Photograph by Jeremy La Zelle, My Shot
  

  Green curtains of aurora stretch over the sky in the Alaska Arctic in a picture submitted to National Geographic's My Shot on November 17.

  "The constantly changing kaleidoscope of colors are reminiscent of a fireworks display—but without sound," photographer Jeremy La Zelle wrote with his submission.

  "All we hear is the quiet peaceful sounds of a freezing Alaska night."

  (See "Aurora Pictures: Best Fall Photos of Northern Lights.")

  Published November 26, 2012

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Martian Vista

  Image courtesy Caltech/NASA
  

  NASA's Curiosity rover snapped this picture after moving 83 feet (25 meters) eastward on November 18—the 102nd Martian day, or sol, of its mission to study whether life once existed on Mars.

  The view shows Yellowknife Bay, part of the Glenelg area of the Gale Crater, which is located near the base of a three-mile-high (five-kilometer-high) mountain rich with layered sediment deposits laid down over hundreds of millions of years.

  (Read more about the Gale Crater.)

  Published November 26, 2012

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Gilded Mountains

  Image courtesy ESA

  The sands of the Sahara appear like golden brush strokes around the Tibesti Mountains in a March 2012 satellite image recently released by the European Space Agency.

  Located in Chad and Libya, the mountains' highest peak is Emi Koussi-pictured above as a circular structure in the lower-right portion of the dark area.

  Lava flows can be seen extending from the westernmost volcano, Toussidé.

  (See volcano pictures.)

  Published November 26, 2012

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Photograph by Quang Nguyen Luong and F. Motte, Herschel SPIRE/ESA

  Published November 26, 2012

  
  

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GOP Senators More Troubled After Rice Meeting

Emerging from a closed-door meeting, three Republican senators said Tuesday they are more troubled than ever with comments made days after the deadly Sept. 11 raid in Libya by Susan Rice, the U.N. ambassador and President Barack Obama's possible choice for secretary of state.

Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Kelly Ayotte met privately with Rice and acting CIA Director Michael Morell for more than an hour on her much-maligned explanations of the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.

Ayotte said Rice told the lawmakers that her comments in a series of national television interviews five days after the attack were wrong. However, that failed to mollify the three lawmakers, who have talked about blocking her nomination if the president taps her to succeed Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

"We are significantly troubled by many of the answers that we got and some that we didn't get concerning evidence that was leading up to the attack on the consulate and the tragic death of four brave Americans and whether Ambassador Rice was prepared, or informed sufficiently, to give the American people the correct depiction of the events that took place," McCain told reporters.

Said Graham: "Bottom line I'm more disturbed now than I was before that 16 September explanation."

Sen. Lindsey Graham and Sen. Dick Durbin on 'This Week' Watch Video

The three insisted that they need more information about the Libyan raid before they even consider Rice as a possible replacement for Clinton.

"I'm more troubled today," said Ayotte, who argued that it was clear in the days after the attack that it was terrorism and not a spontaneous demonstration prompted by an anti-Muslim video.

Despite lingering questions over her public comments after the Benghazi attack, Rice has emerged as the front-runner on a short list of candidates to succeed Clinton, with Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., seen as her closest alternative.

The strong statements from the three senators clouded Rice's prospects only two days after Republican opposition seem to be softening. Rice planned meetings on Wednesday with Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, who is in line to become the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.

Corker said Tuesday that he had concerns with a possible nomination.

"When I hear Susan talk she seems to me like she'd be a great chairman of the Democratic National Committee," Corker said. "There is nobody who is more staff supportive of what the administration does. That concerns me in a secretary of state."

Rice's series of meetings on Capitol Hill will be a critical test both for Republicans, who will decide whether they can support her, and the administration, which must gauge whether Rice has enough support to merit a nomination.

A senior Senate aide said the administration was sounding out moderate members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, such as Corker and Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga. Assessing the prospects for Rice before Obama makes any announcement would avoid the embarrassment of a protracted fight with the Senate early in the president's second term and the possible failure of the nominee.

Rice is scheduled to meet with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., her most vocal critic on Capitol Hill, and Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H. McCain and Ayotte are members of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Read More..

Arafat's bones could reveal polonium poisoning

The body of Yasser Arafat is set to be exhumed tomorrow in an effort to determine whether his death in 2004 was caused by polonium-210 poisoning. Tests earlier this year found unusually high levels of the radioactive material on the former Palestinian leader's clothes and toothbrush, but it's still unclear whether Arafat was murdered. Could tests on his bones eight years after his death finally solve the mystery?

Why is Arafat's death such a puzzle?
When Arafat died at a French military hospital, his doctors could not establish a cause of death. Medical records obtained by The New York Times in 2005 suggest he died from a stroke resulting from a bleeding disorder caused by an unknown infection. But Swiss scientists working with the Al Jazeera news organisation tested a urine stain on Arafat's underwear for radioactive polonium-210 and found that it measured 180 millibecquerels (mBq). They also found 54 mBq on his toothbrush. A control garment belonging to Arafat measured just 6.7 mBq.

Those results were deemed inconclusive, as Arafat's possessions could have been contaminated after his death. However, after hearing a deposition from Arafat's widow, Suha, French prosecutors decided to open a murder inquiry in August that is still ongoing.

What is polonium-210, and what can it do to the body?
Polonium-210 is normally created in nuclear reactors. It is highly radioactive, and ingesting even small doses can be fatal. After entering the bloodstream, it goes predominantly to the liver and kidneys along with the bone marrow, says Patrick Regan, who studies radiation physics at the University of Surrey in Guildford, UK.

Former Soviet spy Alexander Litvinenko, who died from the first documented case of polonium poisoning in 2006, was initially admitted to hospital with severe diarrhoea and vomiting. His hair later fell out and his skin turned yellow, indicating liver problems before his death. Arafat was also vomiting and had flu-like symptoms when he went into hospital.

Why choose polonium-210 instead of another poison?
Polonium-210 can be rendered tasteless in a solution as a citrate, nitrate or other salt, making it easy to slip into a drink undetected. It also emits short-range alpha radiation, which cannot be picked up by airport scanners, making it very easy to smuggle into a country.

Who will exhume the body, and what will they do?
Arafat's widow Suha Arafat requested his exhumation from his mausoleum in Ramallah, to which the Palestinian Authority has agreed. Swiss, French and Russian scientists will take samples from Arafat's bones, says Tawfik Tirawi, who heads the Swiss-Palestinian team investigating the death alongside the French investigation. Arafat will then be reburied the same day.

Can they really detect a deadly dose after all this time?
Polonium-210 has a half-life of 138 days, meaning the radioactivity of a sample drops by half during that period. Arafat died more than eight years ago, equivalent to around 22 half-lives. That means just one part in 2.5 million of the original source would remain, says Regan. "That sounds tiny, but if he had enough in him to kill him, it is very measurable," he says. "If there is a significant amount above background in his bones, that would be pretty convincing."

Where would any purported assassins get polonium-210 from?
The main source is a specific type of Russian nuclear facility called a molten bismuth-cooled reactor. However, tracing the exact origin of any polonium-210 found in Arafat's bones would be very difficult, says Regan – that is where the science ends and police work begins.

So if they find it in Arafat's bones, does that definitely mean he was murdered?
If investigators find elevated levels of polonium-210 similar to those found on Arafat's clothes, it would point to poisoning as a likely cause of death. "If he came into contact with polonium, it is likely to have been an attempt at poisoning," says Roger Jewsbury, a chemist at the University of Huddersfield, UK. On the other hand, low levels of polonium-210 exist in nature, so the presence of only trace amounts would seem to rule out foul play.

The results can be further corroborated by looking for accompanying natural radiation sources such as lead-210, lead-214 or bismuth-214, which are part of the natural polonium-210 decay chain and so would not be present if Arafat had been poisoned. Tirawi did not specify when results would be announced, but he says it could take months.

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