Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread
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1 US deaths in Iraq approach 4,000
By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 38 minutes ago
| BAGHDAD – A roadside bomb killed three American soldiers north of Baghdad on Saturday, pushing the U.S. death toll in the five-year conflict to nearly 4,000.
Also Saturday, Iraqi authorities reported that a U.S. airstrike north of the capital killed six members of a U.S.-backed Sunni group – straining relations with America’s new allies in the fight against al-Qaida.
Two Iraqi civilians also died in the roadside bombing, which occurred as the Americans were patrolling an area northwest of the capital, the U.S. military said in a statement. |
2 China official paper: crush protesters
By JOE McDONALD, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 32 minutes ago
| BEIJING – The communist government’s leading newspaper called Saturday to “resolutely crush” Tibetan demonstrations against Chinese rule.
The statement came as international criticism against the crackdown on Tibetan protesters swelled.
A senior EU official said European countries should not rule out threatening China with an Olympic boycott if violence continues in Tibet. Republican presidential hopeful John McCain and House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi also joined the growing chorus of critics. |
3 Bhutto party announces candidate for Pakistani PM
By Augustine Anthony, Reuters
45 minutes ago
| ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – The party of assassinated former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto nominated on Saturday former National Assembly speaker Yousaf Raza Gilani as its candidate for prime minister.
President Pervez Musharraf has asked the National Assembly to reconvene on Monday to elect the prime minister.
Gilani, a vice chairman of Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party, is all but guaranteed to win the vote with the support of his party, which won the most seats in a February 18 parliamentary election, and its coalition allies. |
4 Taiwan’s Ma wins election
By Ralph Jennings, Reuters
Sat Mar 22, 11:18 AM ET
| TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan’s main opposition Nationalist Party won the presidential election by a landslide on Saturday, heralding improved ties with giant neighbor China which claims the self-ruled island as its own.
But President-elect Ma Ying-jeou said he would only consider signing a peace deal with China, an offer Beijing has made with conditions, if it stopped aiming missiles at Taiwan.
China has claimed Taiwan as its territory since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949 and has threatened to bring the island under its control — by force if necessary. Taiwan says China has more than 1,000 missiles aimed at the island. |
5 California’s fiscal crisis hits schools
By Daniel B. Wood, The Christian Science Monitor
Fri Mar 21, 4:00 AM ET
| Los Angeles – California, home to 1 in 9 American schoolchildren, is on the brink of what may be the biggest public education crisis in state history. Facing a $16 billion state budget shortfall, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed $4.8 billion in school-funding cuts, or 10 percent of education spending.
In the past week, over 20,000 preliminary pink slips were sent by school districts to teachers and administrators state wide, according to the California Teachers Association. The association estimates another 87,000 (of a total 350,000 public school teachers) could come if Governor Schwarzenegger holds to his budget cut request.
Some say the request is a cry of “wolf” intended to draw public attention and force stalemated politicians to reconsider the cuts – or raise taxes. Others say fiscal reality will push the cuts through as presented. |
6 Can U.S. avert a Japan-style economic bust?
By Mark Trumbull, The Christian Science Monitor
Fri Mar 21, 4:00 AM ET
| From Japan to Sweden, other nations have traveled from real estate busts to financial crises in recent years, leaving behind a simple lesson: Effective policy makes the difference between a long or a slow recovery.
For US policymakers, Japan is the case study in what not to do when a credit bubble is followed by a real estate bust. Regulatory delay resulted in a “lost decade” of economic stagnation there.
Sweden faced similar challenges but now serves as a model for how decisive action can mend a banking system. |
7 Same war. Same platoon. Two paths since leaving Iraq.
By Jill Carroll, The Christian Science Monitor
Fri Mar 21, 4:00 AM ET
| Silver Spring, Md. – Vincent Emanuele thinks of his teenage self growing up in Indiana and recalls being interested in three things: “girls, beer, and sports.” About that same time, out in California, Travis Pinn was looking for adventure: scuba diving, shooting guns, and jumping out of planes.
Both joined the Marine Corps in 2002 as the US prepared to invade Iraq. Assigned to the same platoon, they fought and lived side by side in Iraq’s stark western plains. Now, six years later, both have left the Marines, profoundly changed by their time at war.
But their shared experiences have set the two veterans on different paths. Mr. Emanuele, the former teenage jock, is an intellectually curious antiwar activist who aspires to make big changes in the world. Mr. Pinn, the daredevil, is introspective, starting a career as a set painter for Hollywood and trying to live life at a slower, simpler pace. Of the two, Emanuele’s is the more unusual evolution, and veterans who speak out against the wars in which they fought have a storied and somewhat controversial history in American history. |
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8 China might bar Tiananmen broadcasts
By CHARLES HUTZLER, Associated Press Writer
Sat Mar 22, 1:08 AM ET
| BEIJING – China might bar live television broadcasts from Tiananmen Square during the Beijing Olympics, apparently unnerved by the recent outburst of unrest among Tibetans and fearful of protests in the heart of the Chinese capital.
A ban on live broadcasts would disrupt the plans of NBC and other major international networks, who have paid hundreds of millions of dollars to broadcast the Aug. 8-24 games and are counting on eye-pleasing live shots from the iconic square.
The rethinking of Beijing’s earlier promise to broadcasters comes as the government has poured troops into Tibetan areas wracked by anti-government protests this month and stepped up security in cities, airports and entertainment venues far from the unrest. |
9 Colo. city’s water is bacteria source
By CATHERINE TSAI, Associated Press Writer
Sat Mar 22, 3:14 AM ET
| DENVER – It could be three more weeks before residents of a southern Colorado town can drink water straight from the tap after dozens of cases of salmonella poisoning were linked to municipal water, putting seven people in the hospital.
An analysis indicates the municipal water system in Alamosa is the source of the bacterial outbreak, as suspected, said Ned Calonge, chief medical officer for the state health department.
Gov. Bill Ritter declared an emergency Friday in Alamosa County, activating the National Guard and providing as much as $300,000 for response efforts. |
10 Signs of possible deal on new ID rules
By DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 6 minutes ago
| WASHINGTON – There are signs of a potential compromise to end the Bush administration’s standoff with states resisting new standards for driver’s licenses. For people who live in those holdout states, the dispute raises the specter of hassles at airports and federal buildings.
At issue is a law known as Real ID that would require new security measures for state-issued driver’s licenses. The Bush administration says the law, passed after the Sept. 11 attacks, will hinder terrorists, con artists and illegal immigrants. Opponents say it will cost too much and weaken privacy protections.
Unless holdout states send a letter by the end of March seeking an extension, their residents no longer can use a driver’s licenses as valid identification to board airplanes or enter federal buildings beginning in May, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has warned. They would have to present a passport or be subjected to secondary screening. |
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11 Truckers slowing down to save fuel
By JAMES MacPHERSON, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 11 minutes ago
| BISMARCK, N.D. – Coast-to-coast trucker Lorraine Dawson says fellow drivers used to call her “Lead Foot Lorraine.” But with diesel fuel around $4 a gallon, she and other big-rig drivers have backed off their accelerators to conserve fuel.
“I used to be a speed demon, but no more,” said Dawson, based at Tacoma, Wash. “Most drivers have cut their speed considerably.”
Dawson said she’s cut her speed by five to 10 miles per hour to save money for her company. Many independent owner-operators have slowed even more, she said. |
12 Tibetans expect little help from world
By GAVIN RABINOWITZ, Associated Press Writer
43 minutes ago
| DHARMSALA, India – Nearly six decades of struggle against the might of China has taught the Tibetans one thing: Ask the world for little, expect less.
As Tibetans rose up in recent weeks against China’s harsh rule over the Himalayan region and China sent forces to quell the protests, Tibet’s government-in exile-sent its envoys to far-flung capitals with appeals for help.
But guided by the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, they kept their requests modest. They know few countries have little appetite to cross China, particularly at a time the world is counting on the emerging superpower to keep the global economy ticking as the United States appears headed into a recession. |
13 Over 100 anti-war protesters arrested at NATO HQ
By Yvonne Bell and Darren Ennis, Reuters
Sat Mar 22, 10:35 AM ET
| BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Around 100 anti-war protesters were arrested trying to force their way into NATO’s headquarters in Belgium on Saturday, police said.
Police in riot gear and on horses clashed with over 500 activists from across Europe — opposed to military action in Iraq and Afghanistan and the use of nuclear weapons — outside NATO’s Brussels hub.
Water cannons were used to prevent most of the protesters from gaining entry to the large security compound situated on the outskirts of the Belgian capital and close to Brussels national airport. |
14 Falling oil production a challenge for Venezuelan leader
By Jack Chang and Kevin G. Hall, McClatchy Newspapers
Fri Mar 21, 12:07 PM ET
| CARACAS, Venezuela – For the better part of a decade, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has spent billions of dollars of his country’s oil revenue to challenge U.S. interests, build influence around the world and fund a self-styled socialist revolution at home.
Yet as Chavez moves from one international crisis to another- most recently a near military confrontation with neighboring Colombia , an important U.S. ally- many wonder how long his oil-funded wild ride will last.
Not long, analysts in Venezuela and abroad said, if production continues to decline at the country’s state-run energy company, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. , known by its Spanish initials PDVSA . |
15 Kosovo’s unity under threat; world powers reconsider plans
By Nicole Itano, McClatchy Newspapers
Fri Mar 21, 5:32 PM ET
| MITROVICA, Kosovo – One month after Kosovo declared independence, the unity of the former Serbian province is under serious threat as its Serb minority, actively backed by Serbia, tests how far the international community will go to ensure its current borders.
Heavily armed Serb protesters fought international forces here Monday in a clash that left a Ukrainian police officer dead and a French NATO soldier critically injured. Seven other French troops and dozens of UN policemen were seriously hurt, some requiring amputations from the blasts of at least 30 grenades.
The level of violence, on the one-month anniversary of Kosovo’s independence, and the direct involvement of the government in Belgrade shocked the international community. The major powers are now re-evaluating plans to transition power to the new Kosovo government, Western and UN officials said. |
16 For Feinstein and her husband, China’s crackdown in Tibet is personal
By David Whitney, McClatchy Newspapers
Sat Mar 22, 6:00 AM ET
| WASHINGTON – For California Sen. Dianne Feinstein and her husband, Richard Blum , the worsening Chinese crackdown on anti-government dissidents in Tibet is a horrific vision of their failed public and private diplomatic efforts on behalf of the Dalai Lama.
China blames the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader for violence that erupted March 14 , the bloodiest conflict in Tibet in decades. A Communist Party official in Tibet, Zhang Qingli, was quoted Thursday as calling the Dalai Lama “a wolf in monk’s robes, a devil with a human face but the heart of a beast.”
That’s not the Dalai Lama that Feinstein and Blum, a wealthy international investor and Himalayan philanthropist, said they’ve come to know. Friends for 30 years, they say the Dalai Lama is a peacemaker who’s trying to preserve the cultural and religious institutions of an estimated 6 million oppressed Tibetans. |
17 McCain’s Paris Romance
By BRUCE CRUMLEY/PARIS, Time Magazine
Sat Mar 22, 3:25 AM ET
| If Senator John McCain wasn’t the secret favorite of French President Nicolas Sarkozy among all American candidates to the White House, he certainly should be now. In comments to the press following their meeting at the ElysÉe Friday, McCain spoke in such high praise of Sarkozy that it seemed as though he was on the stump for the Frenchman’s re-election rather than acting on his own political ambitions. Indeed, McCain was so laudatory of Sarkozy’s actions and role in improving the ties between the two nations that he predicted “our relationship with France will continue improving now no matter who becomes President of the United States.” McCain’s huddle with around 40 journalists in the courtyard of the ElysÉe Palace only avoided becoming a full-out love fest due to one reason: Sarkozy wasn’t there. |
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18 US ad bashes McCain as ‘hero of France’
AFP
Fri Mar 21, 9:36 PM ET
| WASHINGTON (AFP) – A US liberal group Friday released an advertisement that rails on Republican White House nominee John McCain for backing a US Air Force decision to award a huge contract to Europe’s Airbus.
“A message of thanks to John McCain from the French people,” says the video ad, which is in French with English subtitles and was issued by the Campaign for America’s Future, a self-described “progressive” think tank.
“John McCain, hero of France,” reads a banner on the Arc de Triomphe in the opening scene, and later McCain is depicted as wearing a beret and a curly mustache. |
19 US Olympic tourists warned about monitoring in hotels
AFP
Fri Mar 21, 3:48 PM ET
| WASHINGTON (AFP) – Americans traveling to China for the Olympic Games in August can expect their hotel rooms there to be monitored, the State Department warned on its website.
“All visitors should be aware that they have no reasonable expectation of privacy in public or private locations,” according to the State Department site.
“All hotel rooms and offices are considered to be subject to on-site or remote technical monitoring at all times. Hotel rooms, residences and offices may be accessed at any time without the occupant’s consent or knowledge,” it said. |
20 Access to Passport Files Gets Easier
By BRIAN BENNETT/WASHINGTON, Time Magazine
Sat Mar 22, 12:00 PM ET
| The State Department is under fire for the revelation that employees or contractors for the agency were snooping through the passport records of three presidential candidates, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain, at different points over the last year. But at the same time agency workers were breaching the files of those high-profile individuals, it turns out that the Bush Administration was in the process of greatly expanding the number of agencies and foreign governments that have routine access to that same database. Called Passport Records, the sensitive computer system includes all documents, photographs and information attached to passport applications and renewals. |
21 ‘Star Wars’ and the Phantom Menace
By MARK THOMPSON/WASHINGTON, Time Magazine
Sat Mar 22, 12:00 PM ET
| Perhaps it is fitting that the 25th anniversary of President Ronald Reagan’s “Star Wars” speech falls on Easter Sunday. After all, many had believed Reagan’s grand plan for a system that would render Moscow’s nuclear-tipped missiles “impotent and obsolete” died along with the Soviet Union. But “Star Wars” has been resurrected, and has been standing guard over America’s skies since 2004. But the more than $120 billion spent over 25 years to build the “Star Wars” missile shield has not left the U.S. less vulnerable to attack – some would argue that it has done exactly the opposite, by diverting resources away from dealing with more urgent and plausible threats. |
22 Pentagon will not send Adm. Fallon to Congress on Iraq
Reuters
Fri Mar 21, 1:12 PM ET
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Adm. William Fallon, who is resigning after a magazine reported he was challenging the White House over Iran, will not appear before Congress to discuss the war in Iraq, the Pentagon said on Friday.
Only Gen. David Petraeus, top U.S. officer in Iraq, and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker will go to Capitol Hill in April to update lawmakers on the war, said Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell.
“I know there have been requests in fact from members of Congress to have Admiral Fallon testify with Gen. Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker and I can tell you Admiral Fallon will not be testifying,” Morrell said. |
23 Fed’s moves bring praise, new scrutiny
By TOM RAUM, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 24 minutes ago
| WASHINGTON – The Federal Reserve has taken its boldest action since the Great Depression, invoking rarely used powers in an effort to contain a panic threatening to undermine the economy. The central bank acted with speed the White House and Congress only could envy.
The Fed is largely free from many constraints that bog down other policymakers. Also, it is the only U.S. institution with the authority and ability to create money out of thin air.
For now, the steps orchestrated by Chairman Ben Bernanke, in the first critical test of his leadership since succeeding Alan Greenspan in early 2006, are earning praise from the Bush administration, Congress and presidential contenders Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain. |
24 Wall Street culture not likely to change
By JOE BEL BRUNO, Associated Press
Sat Mar 22, 8:24 AM ET
| NEW YORK – Wall Street investment bankers got another lesson about the dangers of risk-taking this past week with the downfall of Bear Stearns Cos. The question now obviously is, how long will it last?
Those bankers, many of whom lived through market debacles like the dot-com bust at the start of this decade, turned out to have very short memories. And so analysts believe the sale of Bear Stearns to JPMorgan Chase & Co. for a stunning $2 per share ultimately won’t have that much of an impact on how Wall Street conducts business.
In fact, bankers and traders are under even more pressure to reap big returns because of the ongoing credit crisis, and risk is just part of the game. |
25 Air Force prod aids coal-to-fuel plans
By MATTHEW BROWN, Associated Press Writer
Sat Mar 22, 5:04 AM ET
| MALMSTROM AIR FORCE BASE, Mont. – On a wind-swept air base near the Missouri River, the Air Force has launched an ambitious plan to wean itself from foreign oil by turning to a new and unlikely source: coal.
The Air Force wants to build at its Malmstrom base in central Montana the first piece of what it hopes will be a nationwide network of facilities that would convert domestic coal into cleaner-burning synthetic fuel.
Air Force officials said the plants could help neutralize a national security threat by tapping into the country’s abundant coal reserves. And by offering itself as a partner in the Malmstrom plant, the Air Force hopes to prod Wall Street investors – nervous over coal’s role in climate change – to sink money into similar plants nationwide. |
26 BoE, Fed deny mortgage security buyout plan
By Sumeet Desai and Tim Ahmann, Reuters
2 hours, 55 minutes ago
| LONDON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve and Bank of England denied a report on Saturday that they were in talks over possibly using public funds to make mass purchases of mortgage-backed securities to ease the global credit crisis.
However, the Bank of England said it was considering a number of other, unspecified options to address the turmoil in financial markets, which has continued despite the injection by central banks of billions of dollars of liquidity and cuts in interest rates.
The Financial Times, without citing sources, said central banks on both sides of the Atlantic were in talks about the feasibility of buying up mortgage-backed securities — key financial instruments which have plunged in value in recent months, wreaking havoc on banks’ balance sheets and shares. |
27 Goldman, Lehman outlooks cut to “negative” by S&P
By Jonathan Stempel, Reuters
Fri Mar 21, 12:58 PM ET
| NEW YORK (Reuters) – Goldman Sachs Group Inc’s and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc’s credit rating outlooks were cut on Friday by Standard & Poor’s, which said volatile markets could result in lower profit and revenue.
S&P revised its outlook to “negative” from “stable” on Goldman’s “AA-minus” and Lehman’s “A-plus” long-term credit ratings, suggesting a possible downgrade in one to two years.
The ratings are S&P’s fourth- and fifth-highest investment grades, respectively. Lower credit ratings can result in higher borrowing costs. |
28 U.S. Treasury: Fed’s Bear actions help all investors
Reuters
Fri Mar 21, 3:34 PM ET
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve’s actions to lend billions of dollars to prop up and sell off ailing brokerage Bear Stearns will help all Americans by stabilizing capital markets, a senior U.S. Treasury official said.
In a transcript released on Friday of a television interview on C-SPAN to air on Sunday, U.S. Treasury Assistant Secretary for Financial Markets Anthony Ryan said action by the Fed to assume $30 billion in securities obligation from Bear Stearns was among actions done “to facilitate liquidity and orderliness of the markets.”
Under a deal brokered Sunday through the Fed and the Treasury, Bear Stearns agreed to be sold to a much financially stronger J.P. Morgan Chase & Co for a what many considered to be a bargain price of $236 million. |
29 U.S. Justice Department launches probe of Alcoa
By Ilaina Jonas, Reuters
Fri Mar 21, 7:49 PM ET
| NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Justice has launched a criminal investigation into whether Alcoa Inc (AA.N), one of its subsidiaries and people connected with the unit committed fraud, corruption and bribery in its relations with customer Aluminum Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba).
In a motion filed Thursday with the U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh, the Justice Department asked the court to put a temporary hold on a Alba’s civil suit against Alcoa, the world’s largest supplier of alumina, the principal raw material used in making aluminum.
The suit also names affiliate Alcoa World Alumina LLC, former Alcoa World Alumina Vice President of Marketing William Rice and Victor Dahdaleh, an agent of Alcoa and Alcoa World Alumina, as defendants. |
30 IMF endorses wealth fund guide plan
By Lesley Wroughton
Fri Mar 21, 9:42 PM ET
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund on Friday endorsed staff plans to develop best practice guidelines for sovereign wealth funds and said it would meet with wealth funds in April to start working on an initial draft.
IMF Director of Monetary and Capital Markets Jaime Caruana said the IMF would establish an international working group of wealth funds and the April meeting would delve into technical details. Current plans are to release the first draft by October meetings of the IMF.
He said the set of best practices would not “be prescriptive code,” but would help allay concerns about the increasing size of wealth funds, many of whom reveal very little about their investment strategies and assets. |
31 Societe Generale vows vigorous challenge to US law suit
AFP
Fri Mar 21, 3:43 PM ET
| PARIS (AFP) – French bank Societe Generale vowed Friday to mount a “vigorous” challenge to a New York lawsuit accusing it of misleading investors and failing to clamp down on a rogue trader who ran up massive losses.
The bank — one of the largest in Europe — said it “took note” of the class action law suit filed March 12 in a federal court in New York.
“These complaints relate principally to alleged failures of Societe Generale concerning information provided on its exposure to the (US) subprime crisis and to internal controls regarding the recent fraud of which Societe Generale was a victim,” the bank said in a statement. |
32 Early life on Earth – no predators, plenty of sex
Reuters
Fri Mar 21, 12:45 AM ET
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Sexual reproduction may be nearly as old as animal life itself, according to researchers who discovered a new species of organism that lived 540 million years ago.
The tube-like creatures called Funisia dorothea anchored themselves in abundant flocks onto the shallow, sandy seabed of what is now the Australian outback.
Nothing appears to have evolved yet to eat them, so they lived peaceful lives, reproducing sexually at times and by asexual methods such as budding at other times, Mary Droser of the University of California Riverside and colleagues reported in the journal Science. |
33 British minister defends embryo research bill
Reuters
Sat Mar 22, 6:11 AM ET
| LONDON (Reuters) – The British government is right to push through hybrid human-animal embryo legislation after a Roman Catholic cardinal attacked the government for “endorsement of experiments of Frankenstein proportion,” Health Minister Ben Bradshaw has told the BBC.
The leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland cardinal Keith O’Brien has called for a proposed new law — the Human Fertilization and Embryology Bill — to outlaw the practice and wants the government to allow a free vote on the legislation.
“I think if it was about the things the cardinal referred to, creating babies for spare parts or raiding dead people’s tissue then there would be justification for a free vote,” Bradshaw told the BBC Radio 4’s “Any Questions” on Friday. |
34 Saturn’s moon Titan may harbor underground ocean
By Will Dunham, Reuters
Thu Mar 20, 4:44 PM ET
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A vast ocean of water and ammonia may lurk deep beneath the surface of Titan, the intriguing, orange moon of Saturn already known for its blanket of clouds and dense atmosphere, scientists said on Thursday.
Astronomers have not directly observed this ocean. But they said observations made by the Cassini spacecraft of Titan’s rotation and shifts in the location of surface features suggest an ocean exists perhaps 60 miles under the surface.
Titan is Saturn’s largest moon and the second biggest in the solar system, only slightly smaller than Jupiter’s moon Ganymede. Titan’s diameter of about 3,200 miles is larger than the planet Mercury and the dwarf planet Pluto. |
35 Gas-belching volcanoes may have killed dinosaurs
by Ben Hirschler, Reuters
Thu Mar 20, 2:04 PM ET
| LONDON (Reuters) – Gas-belching volcanoes may be to blame for a series of mass extinctions over the last 545 million years, including that of the dinosaurs, new evidence suggested on Thursday.
A series of eruptions that formed the Deccan Traps in what is now India pumped huge amounts of sulfur into the atmosphere 65 million years ago, with likely devastating repercussions for the Earth’s climate, scientists said.
Gigantic eruptions, forming so-called “flood basalts,” are one of two leading explanations for a series of mass extinctions that have killed off species periodically throughout history. |
36 The Monarch butterfly’s mysterious migration to Mexico
by Jennifer Gonzalez, AFP
1 hour, 55 minutes ago
| OCAMPO, Mexico (AFP) – Each autumn, millions of Monarch butterflies embark on a treacherous journey across North America to the same forest in central Mexico — a migration that baffles scientists as much as it enthralls nature lovers.
Taking wing in an unrelenting stream from Canada, the orange and black “flying flowers” return like clockwork to an ancestral homeland they have never seen 4,500 kilometers (2,800 miles) away, where they will lay their eggs to carry on the species.
Mexico’s National Commission for Natural Protected Areas (CONANP) has published scores of studies on the migrating and wintering habits of the species scientifically known as Danaus plexippus, but exactly why they take their flight of instinct to the volcanic hills of the state of Michoacan is shrouded in mystery. |
37 Cosmic blast 7.5 billion years old, seen with naked eye
AFP
Thu Mar 20, 10:55 PM ET
| WASHINGTON (AFP) – NASA has detected the brightest cosmic explosion ever recorded — a massive burst of energy 7.5 billion light years away that could be seen with the naked eye from Earth, the US space agency said Thursday.
The explosion, a gamma ray burst older than Earth itself, was monitored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Swift satellite and shattered the record for the most distant object seen without visual aid.
“No other known object or type of explosion could be seen by the naked eye at such an immense distance,” said Swift team member Stephen Holland of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in the eastern state of Maryland. |
38 X Prize Announces New Challenge: A ‘Green’ Car
Andrea Thompson, LiveScience Staff Writer
Thu Mar 20, 10:32 AM ET
| And they’re off! A new challenge to build an eco-friendly, efficient car (for a $10 million purse) will begin today with an announcement of the details of the Automotive X Prize at the New York Auto Show.
The latest X Prize Foundation challenge for aspiring innovators is to design a “viable, clean and super-efficient” car that people actually want to buy and that will “help break our addiction to oil and stem the effects of climate change,” according to the Foundation.
So far, 60 international teams have signed up for the challenge, sponsored by Progressive Casualty Insurance Co. Their rolling inventions will compete for a $10 million purse in the culmination of the challenge: two long-distance stage races to be held in 2009 – the Qualifying Race and the Grand Prize Final. |
39 Fossil of Oldest Rabbit Relative Found
Jeanna Bryner, LiveScience Staff Writer
Fri Mar 21, 10:50 AM ET
| Just in time for Easter, the oldest rabbit relation is bounding onto the scientific scene.
Tiny foot bones from a 53 million-year-old rabbit ancestor represent the oldest known record of hippity-hoppity mammals and their closest evolutionary relations, according to a new study.
The ankle and heel bones were discovered in a coal mine in Gujarat, in west-central India, and recently found by a team of paleontologists to belong to the Lagomorpha, a classification of mammals that includes modern-day rabbits, hares and pikas (pikas are hamster-sized rabbit cousins).
“This is 35 million years older than anything that’s ever been called a lagomorph on India, totally unexpected,” said lead researcher Kenneth Rose, a professor in the Center for Functional Anatomy and Evolution at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. “Undoubtedly it’s a new species; undoubtedly it’s a new genus; it could even be a new family.” |
