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Spacecraft Voyager 1 is closer to being the first human-made object to leave the solar system ? but what exactly ?closer? means is still unknown.
Researchers are waiting for Voyager 1, launched some 35 years ago and now more than 11 billion miles away, to exit the heliosheath,?a region that extends past all the planets in our solar system by about 8 billion miles, into interstellar space. But ?about? is the critical word here, because the trouble is that scientists don?t know exactly how big that region is.?
Still, three papers, published in Science, report that scientists have observed one of the signs that they expect to see as Voyager 1 nears the solar system?s edge: the total disappearance of charged particles, known as termination shock particles, that had been steadily present for seven years.
That means Voyager 1 entered a previously unknown space region called the magnetic highway, or the depletion region, on August 25th, 2012, when the disappearance was observed. In that zone, the charged particles travel in and out of the heliosheath along a smooth magnetic field line. Scientists believe that it is the final zone through which the spacecraft must pass before it reaches the heliopause, the exact boundary between the heliosheath and interstellar space.?
?We entered an entirely new region on August 25th,? Ed Stone, lead project scientist for the Voyager spacecraft told the Monitor. ?We think this is the zone that connects to interstellar space.?
Scientists have not yet seen the critical third sign that would mark Voyager 1?s actual passage into interstellar space: a shift in the direction of the magnetic field. The heliosheath's queen is our sun, and the sun?s east-west magnetic field governs the zone. As the space probe exits the solar system, scientists would expect to see a magnetic shift as it enters a regional field with a completely different orientation.
Another sign that Voyager 1 is still in our solar system is that the cosmic rays the craft has begun to detect from interstellar space are traveling unevenly in multiple directions. In interstellar space, scientists expect those rays to be distributed uniformly, Stone said.
Voyager 1 was launched with its sibling, Voyager 2, in 1977, and both craft have already made tours of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune before veering toward interstellar space in 1990. Even though it was launched 15 days earlier, Voyager 2 is some 2 billion miles Voyager 1.
Voyager 1?s triumphant departure has been heralded before. In December 2004, the Voyager reached what is now known as the termination shock boundary, where particles blown outward from the sun suddenly slow down.?
Voyager 1 saw this solar wind hit a dead calm in April 2010, which again suggested that the craft was coming tantalizingly close to the edge of the solar system. That region is now known as the stagnation zone. At that time, the existence of the depletion zone up ahead was unknown.
Scientists aren?t being deliberately cruel by repeatedly announcing that Voyager 1 has departed. The heliosheath is a baffling, mysterious place, and information about its outer reaches is collected only as Voyager 1 continues its unprecedented journey.
So we don't know how long it will be before Voyager 1 leaves for good.
?It could be several more months, or it could also be several more years,? said Stone. ?There could be things we still don?t know about out there. Almost every day we?re learning something new.?
?That?s the nature of exploration ? you find out how nature really does things,? he said.
SEATTLE (Reuters) - Just because they're both emblems of American pride doesn't mean fireworks and bald eagles should share the same skyline.
The floating launch pad for next week's July Fourth fireworks display in suburban Seattle is being moved from its usual site to avoid frightening a pair of baby bald eagles nesting in a tree on the shore of Lake Washington, sponsors of the event said on Thursday.
A spokeswoman for the local National Audubon Society chapter said the two eaglets, still too young to fly, might be so startled by the pyrotechnics that they would jump out of their nest and plunge to the ground, leaving them injured or vulnerable to predators.
The fledgling national symbols, apparently unaware they are complicating the Independence Day festivities in the city of Kirkland, east of Seattle, currently spend their days perched in a tall lakeside Douglas fir in the town's Heritage Park.
They are believed to be six to eight weeks old, and probably won't start to fly until the beginning of August, said Mary Brisson, a board member and spokeswoman for Eastside Audubon.
The town's annual fireworks usually are set off from a barge floating in the lake near the park, and Brisson said her group recently asked that the display be moved from its traditional location for the sake of the young raptors. Organizers agreed.
As a result, the pyrotechnics company will relocate its launch site some 350 yards (meters) farther away from the nest, said Penny Sweet, founder of the civic group, Celebrate Kirkland, which oversees the fireworks.
The company also promised to tailor next Thursday's show to emphasize visual displays with less explosive noise to further minimize disturbing the eagle family.
"That's good for dogs and old people like me," Sweet said wryly.
She added that the new barge site will make the fireworks visible to more of the city as a whole.
Brisson said the revised plan adheres to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service guidelines requiring fireworks displays to be located at least a half-mile from an active bald eagle nest.
As an added attraction, the Audubon Society plans to set up a July Fourth observation site at Heritage Park allowing visitors to view the eaglets and their parents through spotting scopes after the annual holiday parade and before the fireworks.
TAKING ACTION: Pope Francis took a key step Wednesday toward reforming the troubled Vatican bank, naming a five-person commission of inquiry to look into its activities amid a new money-laundering probe and continued questions about the very nature of the secretive financial institution.
WHAT ELSE: Last year there were revelations in leaked documents that told of dysfunction, petty turf wars and allegations of corruption in the Holy See's governance.
CHANGE AT THE TOP: Francis, who has made clear he has no patience for corruption and wants a "poor" church, has already named a separate commission of cardinals to advise him on the broader question of reforming the Vatican bureaucracy.
Stocks closed higher on Thursday, for a third-straight day, lifted by a string of upbeat economic reports and following several speeches from Federal Reserve policymakers suggesting the central bank has time before it starts reducing its bond-buying.
(Read More: US Economy Could Grow 5% in Late 2014: Fund Manager)
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 114.35 points, to close at 15,024.49, boosted by Boeing and Hewlett-Packard, logging its first three-day rally since late April. The blue-chip index posted its 15th triple-digit move of the 19 trading sessions in June, the most in a month since October 2011.
The S&P 500 advanced 9.94 points, to finish at 1,613.20. And the Nasdaq jumped 25.64 points, to end at 3,401.86.
"If we consolidate during the next couple of sessions, the bulls need to hold the 1,600 line or this inverse head and shoulders formation will be negated," wrote Elliot Spar, market strategist at Stifel Nicolaus.
The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, ended below 17.
Most key S&P sectors finished in positive territory, led by financials and consumer discretionary, while materials dipped.
Upbeat economic data from China also helped bolster sentiment. Industrial profits unexpectedly rose 15 percent in May year-on-year, defying expectations of a slowdown. Japan's Nikkei rallied nearly 3 percent, logging its biggest percentage gain in 13 sessions, while the Shanghai Composite Index finished flat.
"Any China data carries significant weight these days as investors are desperate for signs that the world's second biggest economy is still ticking along," wrote Stan Shamu, market strategist at IG.
On the economic front, weekly jobless claims fell 9,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 346,000, according to the Labor Department, largely in line with expectations. The four-week moving average for new claims fell 2,750 to 345,750. And consumer spending rebounded 0.3 percent in May, matching estimates, after a revised 0.3 percent decline in the prior month, according to the Commerce Department.
"I think it makes the Fed even more confident that they're doing the right thing," said Drew Matus, senior U.S. economist and managing director at UBS. "And if you look at these numbers, they suggest that the second quarter's going to be better than the first quarter."
And pending home sales for May soared 6 percent to hit a six-year high, according to the National Association of Realtors.
New York Fed president William Dudley said the central bank's asset purchases would be more aggressive than the timeline Chairman Ben Bernanke outlined last week if economic growth and the labor market turn out weaker than expected.
Dudley added that the recent market forecasts for an earlier rate gain are "quite out of sync" with the statements and expectations of the policy-making Federal Open Market Committee. Dudley is a voting member of the FOMC.
Fed Board Governor Jerome Powell agreed that markets over-reacted to the central bank's statements on tapering.
"Market adjustments since May have been larger than would be justified by any reasonable reassessment of the path of policy," Powell said in a speech. "To the extent the market is pricing in an increase in the federal funds rate in 2014, that implies a stronger economic performance than is forecast either by most FOMC participants or by private forecasters."
Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank President Dennis Lockhart, meanwhile, said the U.S. economy's path will determine the fate of the central bank's bond buying, but it would be appropriate to pull back a bit if the economy performs as expected.
"There is no 'predetermined' pace of reductions in the asset purchases, nor is the stopping point fixed," Lockhart said in remarks prepared for delivery to the Kiwanis Club of Marietta. "The pace of purchases, the composition of purchases and the ultimate size of the Fed's balance sheet still depend on how economic conditions evolve."
Markets have been fixated on Fed commentary this week, after Bernanke said last week that the central bank could begin to wind down its $85 billion monthly bond purchases before the end of the year. That sent already rising yields higher and sent stocks on a roller-coaster ride.
Treasury prices extended their gains as yields tumbled to session lows following the data and after the auction of $29 billion in seven-year notes saw healthy demand.
JOHANNESBURG (AP) ? The South African presidency says the health condition of Nelson Mandela has become critical.
The office of President Jacob Zuma said that the president had visited the 94-year-old anti-apartheid leader on Sunday evening and was informed by the medical team that Mandela's condition had become critical in the past 24 hours.
Zuma says in a statement that the doctors are "doing everything possible to get his condition to improve."
Mandela, who became South Africa's first black president after the end of apartheid in 1994, was hospitalized on June 8 for what the government said was a recurring lung infection.
Powerful gene-editing tool appears to cause off-target mutations in human cellsPublic release date: 23-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Sue McGreevey smcgreevey@partners.org 617-724-2764 Massachusetts General Hospital
Results indicate need to improve precision of CRISPR-Cas RNA-guided nucleases
In the past year a group of synthetic proteins called CRISPR-Cas RNA-guided nucleases (RGNs) have generated great excitement in the scientific community as gene-editing tools. Exploiting a method that some bacteria use to combat viruses and other pathogens, CRISPR-Cas RGNs can cut through DNA strands at specific sites, allowing the insertion of new genetic material. However, a team of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers has found a significant limitation to the use of CRISPR-Cas RGNs, production of unwanted DNA mutations at sites other than the desired target.
"We found that expression of CRISPR-Cas RGNs in human cells can have off-target effects that, surprisingly, can occur at sites with significant sequence differences from the targeted DNA site," says J. Keith Joung, MD, PhD, associate chief for Research in the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Department of Pathology and co-senior author of the report receiving online publication in Nature Biotechnology. "RGNs continue to have tremendous advantages over other genome editing technologies, but these findings have now focused our work on improving their precision."
Consisting of a DNA-cutting enzyme called Cas 9, coupled with a short, 20-nucleotide segment of RNA that matches the target DNA segment, CRISPR-Cas RGNs mimic the primitive immune systems of certain bacteria. When these microbes are infected by viruses or other organisms, they copy a segment of the invader's genetic code and incorporate it into their DNA, passing it on to future bacterial generations. If the same pathogen is encountered in the future, the bacterial enzyme called Cas9, guided by an RNA sequence the matches the copied DNA segment, inactivates the pathogen by cutting its DNA at the target site.
About a year ago, scientists reported the first use of programmed CRISPR-Cas RGNs to target and cut specific DNA sites. Since then several research teams, including Joung's, have succesfully used CRISPR-Cas RGNs to make genomic changes in fruit flies, zebrafish, mice and in human cells including induced pluripotent stem cells which have many of the characteristics of embryonic stem cells. The technology's reliance on such a short RNA segment makes CRISPR-Cas RGNs much easier to use than other gene-editing tools called zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs) and transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs), and RGNs can be programmed to introduce several genetic changes at the same time.
However, the possibility that CRISPR-Cas RGNs might cause additional, unwanted genetic changes has been largely unexplored, so Joung's team set out to investigate the occurrence of "off-target" mutations in human cells expressing CRISPR-Cas RGNs. Since the interaction between the guiding RNA segment and the target DNA relies on only 20 nucleotides, they hypothesized that the RNA might also recognize DNA segments that differed from the target by a few nucleotides.
Although previous studies had found that a single-nucleotide mismatch could prevent the action of some CRISPR-Cas RGNs, the MGH team's experiments in human cell lines found multiple instances in which mismatches of as many as five nucleotides did not prevent cleavage of an off-target DNA segment. They also found that the rates of mutation at off-target sites could be as high or even higher than at the targeted site, something that has not been observed with off-target mutations associated with ZFNs or TALENs.
"Our results don't mean that RGNs cannot be important research tools, but they do mean that researchers need to account for these potentially confounding effects in their experiments. They also suggest that the existing RGN platform may not be ready for therapeutic applications," says Joung, who is an associate professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School. "We are now working on ways to reduce these off-target effects, along with methods to identify all potential off-target sites of any given RGN in human cells so that we can assess whether any second-generation RGN platforms that are developed will be actually more precise on a genome-wide scale. I am optimistic that we can further engineer this system to achieve greater specificity so that it might be used for therapy of human diseases."
###
Jeffry D. Sander, PhD, of the MGH Molecular Pathology Unit is co-senior author of the Nature Biotechnology report. Additional co-authors are lead author Yanfang Fu, PhD; Jennifer Foden, Cyd Khayter, Morgan Maeder and Deepak Reyon, PhD, all of MGH Molecular Pathology. Support for the study includes National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director's Pioneer Award DP1 GM105378; NIH grants R01 GM088040 and P50 HG005550, DARPA grant W911NF-11-2-0056, and the Jim and Ann Orr MGH Research Scholar Award.
Massachusetts General Hospital, founded in 1811, is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The MGH conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the United States, with an annual research budget of more than $775 million and major research centers in AIDS, cardiovascular research, cancer, computational and integrative biology, cutaneous biology, human genetics, medical imaging, neurodegenerative disorders, regenerative medicine, reproductive biology, systems biology, transplantation biology and photomedicine. In July 2012, MGH moved into the number one spot on the 2012-13 U.S. News & World Report list of "America's Best Hospitals."
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Powerful gene-editing tool appears to cause off-target mutations in human cellsPublic release date: 23-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Sue McGreevey smcgreevey@partners.org 617-724-2764 Massachusetts General Hospital
Results indicate need to improve precision of CRISPR-Cas RNA-guided nucleases
In the past year a group of synthetic proteins called CRISPR-Cas RNA-guided nucleases (RGNs) have generated great excitement in the scientific community as gene-editing tools. Exploiting a method that some bacteria use to combat viruses and other pathogens, CRISPR-Cas RGNs can cut through DNA strands at specific sites, allowing the insertion of new genetic material. However, a team of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers has found a significant limitation to the use of CRISPR-Cas RGNs, production of unwanted DNA mutations at sites other than the desired target.
"We found that expression of CRISPR-Cas RGNs in human cells can have off-target effects that, surprisingly, can occur at sites with significant sequence differences from the targeted DNA site," says J. Keith Joung, MD, PhD, associate chief for Research in the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Department of Pathology and co-senior author of the report receiving online publication in Nature Biotechnology. "RGNs continue to have tremendous advantages over other genome editing technologies, but these findings have now focused our work on improving their precision."
Consisting of a DNA-cutting enzyme called Cas 9, coupled with a short, 20-nucleotide segment of RNA that matches the target DNA segment, CRISPR-Cas RGNs mimic the primitive immune systems of certain bacteria. When these microbes are infected by viruses or other organisms, they copy a segment of the invader's genetic code and incorporate it into their DNA, passing it on to future bacterial generations. If the same pathogen is encountered in the future, the bacterial enzyme called Cas9, guided by an RNA sequence the matches the copied DNA segment, inactivates the pathogen by cutting its DNA at the target site.
About a year ago, scientists reported the first use of programmed CRISPR-Cas RGNs to target and cut specific DNA sites. Since then several research teams, including Joung's, have succesfully used CRISPR-Cas RGNs to make genomic changes in fruit flies, zebrafish, mice and in human cells including induced pluripotent stem cells which have many of the characteristics of embryonic stem cells. The technology's reliance on such a short RNA segment makes CRISPR-Cas RGNs much easier to use than other gene-editing tools called zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs) and transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs), and RGNs can be programmed to introduce several genetic changes at the same time.
However, the possibility that CRISPR-Cas RGNs might cause additional, unwanted genetic changes has been largely unexplored, so Joung's team set out to investigate the occurrence of "off-target" mutations in human cells expressing CRISPR-Cas RGNs. Since the interaction between the guiding RNA segment and the target DNA relies on only 20 nucleotides, they hypothesized that the RNA might also recognize DNA segments that differed from the target by a few nucleotides.
Although previous studies had found that a single-nucleotide mismatch could prevent the action of some CRISPR-Cas RGNs, the MGH team's experiments in human cell lines found multiple instances in which mismatches of as many as five nucleotides did not prevent cleavage of an off-target DNA segment. They also found that the rates of mutation at off-target sites could be as high or even higher than at the targeted site, something that has not been observed with off-target mutations associated with ZFNs or TALENs.
"Our results don't mean that RGNs cannot be important research tools, but they do mean that researchers need to account for these potentially confounding effects in their experiments. They also suggest that the existing RGN platform may not be ready for therapeutic applications," says Joung, who is an associate professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School. "We are now working on ways to reduce these off-target effects, along with methods to identify all potential off-target sites of any given RGN in human cells so that we can assess whether any second-generation RGN platforms that are developed will be actually more precise on a genome-wide scale. I am optimistic that we can further engineer this system to achieve greater specificity so that it might be used for therapy of human diseases."
###
Jeffry D. Sander, PhD, of the MGH Molecular Pathology Unit is co-senior author of the Nature Biotechnology report. Additional co-authors are lead author Yanfang Fu, PhD; Jennifer Foden, Cyd Khayter, Morgan Maeder and Deepak Reyon, PhD, all of MGH Molecular Pathology. Support for the study includes National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director's Pioneer Award DP1 GM105378; NIH grants R01 GM088040 and P50 HG005550, DARPA grant W911NF-11-2-0056, and the Jim and Ann Orr MGH Research Scholar Award.
Massachusetts General Hospital, founded in 1811, is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The MGH conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the United States, with an annual research budget of more than $775 million and major research centers in AIDS, cardiovascular research, cancer, computational and integrative biology, cutaneous biology, human genetics, medical imaging, neurodegenerative disorders, regenerative medicine, reproductive biology, systems biology, transplantation biology and photomedicine. In July 2012, MGH moved into the number one spot on the 2012-13 U.S. News & World Report list of "America's Best Hospitals."
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?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
DOHA (Reuters) - Preliminary Afghan peace talks in Qatar between U.S. and Taliban officials are unlikely to take place on Thursday as had been expected, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Asked if the meeting would happen on Thursday, the source replied: "There is nothing scheduled that I am aware of." Asked if that meant they would not happen today, the source added: "Yes that's correct."
A senior U.S. official said on Wednesday that talks with the Taliban were likely to be held within the next few days in Qatar after delays caused by tensions over the naming of a new Taliban office in the capital, Doha.
Senior Afghan officials had accused Washington on Wednesday of breaking assurances to Kabul that the new office would not be used as a de facto mission.
Specifically, they objected to the ceremonial opening of the office - which included a prominent Taliban flag and a banner with the insurgent group's state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan - giving the impression that the Taliban had achieved some level of international political recognition.
A statement on Qatar's foreign ministry website late on Wednesday clarified that the office which opened was called the "Political Bureau for Afghan Taliban in Doha" and not the "Political Bureau for the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan".
The source in Doha told Reuters on Thursday there were no dates set for the talks and that there was no decision from the Afghan government on whether they would take part in the talks.
(Reporting by Amena Bakr, Writing by William Maclean and Yara Bayoumy; editing by Elizabeth Piper)
Utah church shooting: Despite being shot in the head, the victim sustained no brain damage. The shooter was caught and booked and is expected to be charged Tuesday.
By Brady McCombs,?Associated Press / June 17, 2013
A clergyman walks past the sign for St. James Catholic Church in Ogden, Utah, where police say Charles Richard 'Ricky' Jennings Jr. shot his father-in-law, James Evans in front of a congregation of 300 people.
Scott G Winterton / Deseret News / AP
Enlarge
At a quiet moment in the Father's Day Mass at a Utah church, as about 300 people stood up in preparation for communion, a parishioner known as Ricky Jennings entered through the glass doors in back, holding his wife Cheryl's hand.
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Seconds later, police say Jennings fired a single shot at the back of Cheryl's father's head, nearly killing him. The loud bang pierced the silence, sending people diving for cover beneath pews and the priest behind the altar.
"It was echoing in my head so loud," said Rebecca Ory Hernandez, who was only a few feet away from the Evans with her 5-year-old son. She grabbed her son, threw him under the pew and got on top of him. She heard the pastor blurt out an expletive into his microphone. "I was waiting for another gunman," she said.
The shooter ran from the church, the pastor and a half dozen other men close on his heels. Ory Hernandez and other parishioners went to James Evans. They used scarves and a shirt to help soak up the blood, and she cradled his head. His wife, Tara, who had been standing next to him, and others prayed.
"I'm OK, I'm OK," Evans kept saying.
Meanwhile, Charles Richard Jennings Jr., 35, stole a truck from a nearby neighbor at gunpoint and led police on a highway chase, police said. He was caught hours later on foot, after the truck ran out of gas.
As police try to determine why Jennings shot his father-in-law ? police think he may have been drinking or on drugs and say the couple had a history of domestic disputes ? the family is grateful for a small miracle.
Evans, who turns 66 on Tuesday, was struck at the side of his head, the bullet going through near his ear and out his cheek and missing his brain, said Dr. Barbara Kerwin, the director of the intensive care unit at McDay-Dee Hospital in Ogden.
"He turned his head just at the right time," his wife said Monday, crying at a hospital news conference. "If didn't turn his head, he would have been hit in the back of the head and he would have been dead."
He was in critical condition Monday but doctors say he's expected to live, although he'll need reconstructive surgery and rehab to learn to swallow and speak again, Kerwin said. He was awake on Monday, nodding yes and no, writing and using hand signals to communicate.
Jennings was booked on suspicion of attempted aggravated criminal homicide, aggravated robbery, and possession of a firearm by a restricted user. Charges are expected to be filed Tuesday, and Jennings will appear by video for arraignment in Ogden, said Weber County deputy county attorney Dean Saunders.
Court records show Jennings has a criminal record going back to 1996, when he pleaded no contest to several traffic-related misdemeanors. Over the years, he's pleaded no contest to felony charges of failing to yield to police and attempting to receive a stolen vehicle, and misdemeanor charges for traffic violations, criminal trespassing and theft. He's also pleaded guilty to theft charges and a felony charge of attempting to tamper with a witness or juror.
Authorities don't expect to file any charges against Jennings' wife. She was not at Monday's news conference with her mother and another sister at the McDay-Dee Hospital in Ogden. It's not clear whether she knew her husband had the gun, or what she did after he shot her father on Sunday.
After paramedics rushed James Evans to the hospital, the Rev. Erik Richtsteig returned to the brick church that sits on the east side of Ogden at the foot of a steep rock mountain called Jumpoff Canyon, surrounded by middle-class houses with manicured lawns and rose bushes.The congregation is shaken, Richtsteig said Monday: "They were a mess ? they were worshipping God and this man came in and did an act of violence."
Ory Hernandez says she has cried, enraged that violence came to the house of worship, and was at a loss for words when her son told her, "I didn't know there were any bad guys in this town, mommy."
But it won't stop her from coming back to church.
"The bad guy doesn't get to win this time," she said.
As doctors operated on James Evans, who had recently accompanied the priest on a trip to the Holy Land in Jerusalem, Richtsteig told his congregation who the shooter was, and asked them to pray for the couple and their 3-year-old son.
Then, for those who stayed, he finished the Mass, explaining his reasons matter-of-factly, Ory Hernandez said.
SYDNEY (AP) ? Airborne laser technology has uncovered a network of roadways and canals, illustrating a bustling ancient city linking Cambodia's famed Angkor Wat temple complex.
The discovery was announced late Monday in a peer-reviewed paper released early by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The laser scanning revealed a previously undocumented formally planned urban landscape integrating the 1,200-year-old temples.
The Angkor temple complex, Cambodia's top tourist destination and one of Asia's most famous landmarks, was constructed in the 12th century during the mighty Khmer empire. Angkor Wat is a point of deep pride for Cambodians, appearing on the national flag, and was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Archaeologists had long suspected that the city of Mahendraparvata lay hidden beneath a canopy of dense vegetation atop Phnom Kulen mountain in Siem Reap province. But the airborne lasers produced the first detailed map of a vast cityscape, including highways and previously undiscovered temples.
"No one had ever mapped the city in any kind of detail before, and so it was a real revelation to see the city revealed in such clarity," University of Sydney archaeologist Damian Evans, the study's lead author, said by phone from Cambodia. "It's really remarkable to see these traces of human activity still inscribed into the forest floor many, many centuries after the city ceased to function and was overgrown."
The laser technology, known as lidar, works by firing laser pulses from an aircraft to the ground and measuring the distance to create a detailed, three-dimensional map of the area. It's a useful tool for archaeologists because the lasers can penetrate thick vegetation and cover swaths of ground far faster than they could be analyzed on foot. Lidar has been used to explore other archaeological sites, such as Stonehenge.
In April 2012, researchers loaded the equipment onto a helicopter, which spent days crisscrossing the dense forests from 800 meters (2,600 feet) above the ground. A team of Australian and French archaeologists then confirmed the findings with an on-foot expedition through the jungle.
Archaeologists had already spent years doing ground research to map a 9-square-kilometer (3.5-square-mile) section of the city's downtown area. But the lidar revealed the downtown was much more expansive ? at least 35 square kilometers (14 square miles) ? and more heavily populated than once believed.
"The real revelation is to find that the downtown area is densely inhabited, formally-planned and bigger than previously thought," Evans said. "To see the extent of things we missed before has completely changed our understanding of how these cities were structured."
Researchers don't yet know why the civilization at Mahendraparvata collapsed. But Evans said one theory is that possible problems with the city's water management system may have driven people out.
The next step for researchers involves excavating the site, which Evans hopes will reveal clues about how many people once lived there.
Iranian presidential candidate Hasan Rowhani, the country's former top nuclear negotiator, casts his ballot in the presidential election at a polling station in downtown Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 14, 2013. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Iranian presidential candidate Hasan Rowhani, the country's former top nuclear negotiator, casts his ballot in the presidential election at a polling station in downtown Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 14, 2013. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) ? Just weeks after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's election victory in 2005, Iran's top nuclear negotiator Hasan Rowhani stepped down from the post after quarrelsome meetings with the new president.
The decision cemented Rowhani's reputation as a moderate who rejected Ahmadinejad's combative approach in world affairs in favor of the more nuanced philosophy of Ahmadinejad's leading political foe, former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
Rafsanjani was rejected by Iran's election guardians from Friday's presidential ballot. But for many reformists and liberals in Iran, the 64-year-old Rowhani is somewhat of a mirror image of the elder Rafsanjani by reflecting his outlook that Iran can maintain its nuclear program and ease tensions with the West at the same time.
Rowhani held a wide lead in early vote counting Saturday.
"Rafsanjani was really the only choice to re-energize reformists," said Rasool Nafisi, an Iranian affairs analyst at Strayer University in Virginia. "Rowhani only got their support because he is seen as Rafsanjani's man and a vote for Rowhani was a vote for Rafsanjani."
This deep connection between the two men could give a potential Rowhani presidency a dual nature: Rowhani as the public face and Rafsanjani behind the scenes as its powerful godfather and protector.
Although all key policies such the nuclear program are directed by the ruling clerics, the alliance with Rafsanjani may give Rowhani more latitude to put his stamp on Iran's negotiation tactics with world powers after four rounds of talks since last year have failed to make any significant headway.
At campaign rallies, Rowhani has pledged to seek "constructive interaction with the world" that includes efforts to ease Western concerns about Iran's program and lift punishing international sanctions that have pummeled the economy. The West and its allies fear Iran could be moving toward development of a nuclear weapon. Iranian officials, including Rowhani, insist that the country only seeks nuclear reactors for energy and medical applications.
"We won't let the past eight years be continued," Rowhani told a cheering crowd last week in a clear reference to Ahmadinejad's back-to-back terms. "They brought sanctions for the country. Yet, they are proud of it. I'll pursue a policy of reconciliation and peace. We will also reconcile with the world."
Rowhani ? the only cleric in the six-candidate presidential field ? started religious studies at a teenager. He soon established himself as an outspoken opponent of the Western-backed shah, traveling frequently for anti-monarchy speeches and sermons that caught the attention of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the eventual leader of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Rowhani later graduated from Tehran University with a law degree in 1972. He then went abroad to Glasgow Caledonian University for a master's degree in legal affairs, according to his campaign biography.
While outside Iran, the stirrings of the Islamic Revolution were growing stronger. Rowhani returned to Iran and stepped up his denunciations of the shah, but fled the country to avoid arrest. He then joined up with Khomeini, who was in self-exile in France, and the rest of his inner circle, including Rafsanjani.
After the revolution, Rowhani rose quickly with various roles, including reorganizing the military, serving in the new parliament and overseeing the state broadcaster, which became a valued mouthpiece for Khomeini.
He strengthened his ties to Rafsanjani during the 1980-88 war with Iraq and, later, as Rafsanjani's top national security adviser during his 1989-97 terms. Rowhani continued the role with reformist President Mohammad Khatami, who also appointed Rowhani as the country's first nuclear envoy.
Rowhani took over the nuclear portfolio in 2003, a year after Iran's 20-year-old nuclear program was revealed. Iran later temporarily suspended all uranium enrichment-related activities to avoid possible sanctions from the U.N. Security Council.
Ahmadinejad strongly opposed any such concessions and deal-making. He also had carry-over friction with Rowhani, who backed his mentor Rafsanjani against Ahmadinejad in the 2005 race.
Rowhani resigned as nuclear negotiator and head of the Supreme National Security Council after a few testy postelection meetings with Ahmadinejad.
In his campaign stops, Rowhani had been careful not to directly confront authorities over crackdowns since Ahmadinejad's disputed 2009 election. But Rowhani was seen as clearly siding with Ahmadinejad's reform-minded opponent four years ago, Green Movement leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, who was placed under house arrest in early 2011 along with fellow opposition candidate Mahdi Karroubi.
Taking a page from Mousavi's color-branded campaign, Rowhani adopted purple for his run for the presidency. It also brought some backlash, including several supporters arrested at a rally that brought cries from the crowd for the release of Mousavi and Karroubi.
At Rowhani's final campaign event earlier this week, chants rang out: "Love live reforms."
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) ? Women in Film is turning 40, and the organization celebrated its milestone birthday at its annual Crystal + Lucy Awards. But while the night was one of celebration, honorees and guests said women's move toward equality in the entertainment industry remains slow, even after four decades of organized efforts.
"There certainly is a wider diversity of roles available to women, (and) careers don't instantly end at 29 anymore," said 49-year-old Laura Linney, who received the Crystal Award for excellence in film. "But the progress in every other area has been so slow, very slow. So there's a long way to go, and not just in this industry, but in every industry."
Host Jenna Elfman agreed.
"The roles are getting better and more interesting and more abundant, but it's slow going still," she said. "And not just (for) actresses, but cinematographers, sound editors, everything."
She said she hopes for the day when billboards for comedies feature just as many women as men.
Debra Messing said it would help to have more women writing, as well.
"I would love to see more female writers in the rosters of all the nominations as the big nominations come out," she said. "We're still underrepresented, and for some reason, there's a belief that women can't open a film, and 'Bridesmaids' proved that that's not the case. I think it's time for everything to equalize and to realize there's enough diversity of taste out there that there's a place for everyone to be."
"At Women in Film, we believe 40 is the new kick ass," Elfman said as she opened the Wednesday night program at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
Sophia Coppola, who received the director's award from Nancy Meyers, said she's seen women's progress since making her first feature in 1999.
"There's more women directors and more women executives than when I started, so you feel like that voice is being represented more and more," she said. "It's just great to have as much diversity in what we see and see different people's experiences, so I hope to see more female ones too."
George Lucas was lauded for his humanitarian work, and for putting women in positions of power on and off screen. He accepted his award from the woman he named to the helm of Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy.
"George Lucas gave us a fast-talking, blaster-toting spitfire by the name of Princess Leia," Kennedy said.
Carrie Fisher, the actress who portrayed Leia, said via video that the character was one of the first women and girls could truly look up to.
Lucas said he "turned my whole life over" to Kennedy after being schooled throughout his life in the power of women, first by his sisters, then by his daughters.
"In the end, you will win," he said.
Wednesday's program, which serves as a fundraiser for Women in Film, also included honors for actress Hailee Steinfeld, cinematographer Rachel Morrison and the Lucy Award for excellence in television for the women of "Mad Men."
Women in Film president Cathy Schulman said it's critical to achieve fair gender representation in Hollywood because "we are the keepers of the planet's storytelling, and it's up to all of us to spin accurate pictures of our lives, our histories and our imaginations."
"Women need to sit at decision-making tables and hold gatekeeping positions on films and television," she said, "because only gender equality can bring about nonbiased decision making, and thus nonbiased storytelling."
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AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen is on Twitter: www.twitter.com/APSandy.
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AP Entertainment Writer Marcela Isaza contributed to this report.
TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) ? Libya's first independent TV station says a hand grenade was hurled at its building in the eastern city of Benghazi.
An employee at the Libya Al-Hurra, Tareq el-Issawi, said on Friday that a colleague was injured in the attack overnight outside the TV's offices.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Libya Al-Hurra is the first independent TV channel to emerge from the uprising that toppled Moammar Gadhafi.
Libya's culture ministry strongly condemned the attack and any attempts to intimidate media.
It was the latest violent incident in Benghazi, Libya's second largest city and the site of an attack last year on the U.S. consulate that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.
This week, 31 people were killed in protests against militias in Benghazi.
Lem Barney was one of the greatest to ever play the game of football.
But the Hall of Fame cornerback said Friday while speaking at a football camp, that if he had to do it all again, he?d rather be a cab driver.
?People often ask me do I miss the game, do I wish I could still play with all the money they?re making today. Even with all of that, I?d say ?Heck no,?? Barney said, via Mark Snyder of the Detroit Free Press. ?The game is becoming more deadly today. It?s a great game, and I think it?s the greatest game if you like gladiators. It?s the greatest game for yesteryear?s gladiators.
?But in the next 10 to 20 years, society will alleviate football altogether because of how strong it?s becoming, how big it?s becoming and the tenacity that it already is. And it?s only going to get worse.?
Barney has become a vocal critic of the game in recent years, one of the thousands suing the league over concussions. He said upon the death of fellow Hall of Famer Deacon Jones that he thought head injuries likely played a part.
He said he told his son years ago he didn?t want him playing football, and repeated that advice to his grandson, who is going to play at Jackson State (Barney?s alma mater) this fall.
Barney was speaking at the Sound Mind Sound Body Camp in Southfield, Mich., alongside Michigan coach Brady Hoke and Michigan State?s Mark Dantonio.
Both coaches were apparently shocked by the comments, and talked about using proper instruction to make the game safer ? which is probably more in line with what the kids at the football camp were expecting.
And while Barney?s stature in the game makes his opinion worth listening to, it?s also the opinion of a plaintiff in a court case, which has to be considered as well.
After spending the past three years engaged in both legal battles and work on a new game, the "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare" co-creator has returned to the Electronic Entertainment Expo to debut "Titanfall," the first title from Respawn Entertainment, the studio he launched with partner Jason West after they were fired by Activision-Blizzard Inc. in 2010.
"This development for 'Titanfall' has been rough," he acknowledged Wednesday at the booth of Electronic Arts Inc. "We started a new studio. We had no technology. We had no ideas. It was a team of hugely talented developers put together in a room ? very strong and outspoken ? who all want their idea to come to forefront. It's a battle of what idea is the best."
Ultimately, that idea turned out to be a shoot-'em-up multiplayer game where players portray futuristic soldiers who can run up walls and man giant robots dubbed titans. (The name "Titanfall" refers to the moment they dramatically fall from the sky when players call them.) Unlike previous games he's worked on, "Titanfall" is an online-only experience.
Zampella closed out Microsoft's presentation Monday by debuting "Titanfall" for the first time. The game is set for release next year for Microsoft's next-generation Xbox One console, as well as the current-generation Xbox 360 and PC. He noted that Xbox One's cloud computing capabilities will make for stronger artificial intelligence in the game.
"It's not bots," said Zampella. "It doesn't replace the human element. It puts in this extra layer of believability. It brings the world to life. We do that on the cloud. There's no host advantage. It's a very balanced experience. It allows us to focus on rendering abilities on the box itself and host the game on the cloud."
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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Derrik J. Lang on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/derrikjlang .
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Public release date: 23-Jun-2013
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