The Pentagon will send hundreds of additional spies overseas as part of an ambitious plan to assemble an espionage network that rivals the CIA in size, U.S. officials said.
The project is aimed at transforming the Defense Intelligence Agency, which has been dominated for the past decade by the demands of two wars, into a spy service focused on emerging threats and more closely aligned with the CIA and elite military commando units.
KOSHU, Japan: At least seven people were trapped inside a highway tunnel in Japan after it collapsed on Sunday, setting a car ablaze and raising fears of another cave-in that forced a halt to rescue efforts.
Two vehicles were crushed in the original collapse and one other was set ablaze when large concrete ceiling panels fell in inside one of Japan's longest motorway tunnels at nearly five kilometres long.
A comprehensive rescue effort was launched but more than five hours after the incident, workers pulled out of the tunnel because of concerns that more of the roof might collapse, a fire official told AFP.
The cave-in happened on Tokyo-bound lanes of the Sasago tunnel on the Chuo Expressway, 80 kilometres (50 miles) west of the capital, at around 8:00 am (2300 GMT Saturday), an official at the expressway traffic police said.
"Concrete ceiling panels, 20 centimetres (8 inches) thick, collapsed over 50-60 metres (yards)," an official from the East Yamanashi Fire Department told AFP by telephone.
"At least two vehicles were trapped under the debris. Another, a light vehicle, caught fire but the fire was under control, meaning almost extinguished, as of 11:00 am (0200 GMT)," he said.
NHK footage from inside the tunnel showed a white ambulance and several firefighters wearing protective gear, working in a section shrouded in smoke. A number of cars with their lights flashing were also seen.
"According to information from local fire authorities, seven people are missing but the number has not been confirmed," an official at the government's Fire and Disaster Management Agency told AFP.
The fire department official said emergency crews had pulled out of the tunnel shortly before 1:00 pm "due to the possibility of a secondary collapse".
A 28-year-old woman was taken to hospital by ambulance after she emerged from the tunnel by herself, a traffic police official said.
The woman told the fire rescue unit she had been travelling in a rented van with five other people, fire department official Kazuya Tezuka told AFP by telephone.
"I have no idea about what happened to the five others. I don't know how many vehicles were ahead and behind ours," she was quoted as saying.
The tunnel, which passes through hills not far from Mount Fuji, is one of the longest in Japan at 4.7-kilometres (three miles) long, according to the highway operator, and sits on a major road connecting Tokyo with the centre and west of the country.
One of the fire department officials told AFP that emergency workers had taken two women to hospital.
"Both were conscious. One of them, 28, suffered injuries to the head, face and and both hands. The other, 37, suffered bruising," he said.
"A truck driver inside the tunnel called a colleague for help. So he appeared to be trapped in his vehicle. An ambulance is on its way to him," he added.
A reporter for NHK said he happened to be driving through the tunnel on his way to Tokyo when it started to disintegrate.
"I managed to drive through the tunnel but vehicles nearby appeared to have been trapped," he said. "Black smoke was coming and there seemed to be a fire inside the tunnel."
Thick smoke inside the tunnel had hampered rescuers' attempts to reach the caved-in point, two kilometres (one mile) from the Tokyo-side exit, the fire department's Tezuka said.
Aerial footage on NHK showed several red trucks from the local fire department waiting outside the Tokyo side of the tunnel.
Dozens of people were seen waiting at an expressway bus stop just outside the exit. They were believed to have exited from the tunnel, NHK said.
A man in his 30s, who was just 50 metres (yards) ahead of the caved-in spot when the incident happened, recounted details of the terrifying experience.
"A concrete part of the ceiling fell off all of a sudden when I was driving inside. I saw a fire coming from a crushed car. I was so frightened I got out of my car right away and walked one hour to get outside," he told NHK.
"The traffic was not so heavy," he added.
A stream of people was seen coming out of the other exit after abandoning their vehicles in the tunnel, the broadcaster said.
- AFP/xq
BJP vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said on Saturday that voting inside the parliament would decide as to who is in favour of national interest and who is working for international interests.
"The government feels that their responsibility is to safeguard the interest of international market mafias instead of national interest and for saving the interest of international market mafias, the government is ready to compromise with national interests. Now, the parliament will decide as to who is in support of international market mafias and who are supporting national interests," said Naqvi.
The government's decision to allow foreign supermarket chains such as Wal-Mart had triggered protest not only from opposition parties but also from some of its allies.
BJP had sought debate on the issue of allowing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the retail sector, under the rule that entails voting after discussions.
Meanwhile, Minister in the Prime Minister Office (PMO), V Narayanaswamy said the government would answer all the queries raised by the opposition parties in the parliament and will explain the benefits of allowing FDI in retail sector.
The lower house of parliament has set December 04 and 05 as the date to vote and debate on FDI. The dates for the upper house are yet to be decided.
Narayanaswamy said the government is confident of becoming victorious in the debate.
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
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
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
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
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
(Brendan Smialkowski/AFP/Getty Images)
Bradley Manning’s former guards testified today that they did not intimidate the man accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of classified cables to the anti-secrets website Wikileaks during a Jan. 18, 2011 incident that resulted in Manning being placed on a temporary suicide risk watch.
Manning’s attorneys cite the event as a key reason why his pre-trial confinement at the Marine brig in Quantico, Va., was unlawful and warrants the dismissal of the charges against him.
Manning faces life imprisonment on charges that he leaked the classified military and diplomatic cables to Wikileaks. Details of those charges will come at a trial scheduled for February and are not being discussed at this week’s hearing, which is focused on his nine-month confinement at Quantico from July 2010 to April 2011.
On Jan. 18, 2011 Manning was being moved to his daily “recreation call” in a room at the brig when he experienced an apparent anxiety attack. Manning said Thursday the guards escorting him seemed to have an aggressive attitude that made him feel nervous and ultimately feel faint.
Manning testified Thursday that he “lost my demeanor” during a later discussion with brig officials about the incident that led them to place him on temporary suicide risk watch.
Former Marine guards Lance Corporal Joshua Tankersly and Lance Corporal Jonathan Cline testified today that Manning had been moving around while his hand and leg restraints were placed on him for the escort to the exercise room. They said they reminded Manning that he should respond properly to their orders by referring to their ranks when he answered them.
When Manning entered the recreation room they described a situation in which Manning fell backwards and landed on his backside.
They then said that when out of his leg restraints Manning ran to a weightlifting machine, hid behind it and began to cry. Both Cline and Tankersly said they could not explain Manning’s behavior. Both guards were ordered to leave the room and were replaced by two other guards who escorted Manning back to his cell.
Cline said he was puzzled when a supervisor later told him “we intimidated him or something like that.”
Each guard said he could not recall if they sounded harsh when they talked to Manning on the way to the exercise room.
They both said that aside from the January incident, Manning was courteous and professional in his interactions with them. Both described him as an average prisoner, though Tankersly acknowledged that Manning was a high profile detainee who had the attention of high-ranking officials at the base.
“It’s hard to put ‘average’ on such a high profile, when you have higher ups on base come and check through to that see all was OK,” Tankersly said.
Gunnery Sgt. William Fuller, one of the senior officers at the brig, also testified today about his participation in a Classification and Assessment board that routinely assessed whether Manning’s Maximum Custody and Prevention of Injury status should be downgraded. The board never reduced Manning’s status during his stay.
Fuller acknowledged that before the January incident he and another brig official had considered a downgrade because Manning was “doing pretty good.”
He said the Jan. 18incident “kind of reset things … we had to keep him on Prevention of Injury.”
Fuller also cited Manning’s quiet interactions with him as a reason for keeping Manning on that status.
According to Fuller “he wouldn’t communicate … it seemed like he didn’t really want to talk” and that concerned him, given training he had received that being withdrawn could be an indicator of suicidal behavior.
Fuller admitted that the conversations were really just quick interactions to see how Manning was doing.. When asked to provide examples of longer exchanges he had with other prisoners, Fuller provided brief sentences. That led David Coombs, Manning’s defense attorney to say sarcastically, “so if he’d thrown in more words then he would have classified as a Chatty Patty?”
Manning’s attorneys claim that a protest on Jan. 17 by Manning supporters, at the entrance to the base, may have motivated an aggressive attitude towards the detainee.
Cline recalled other guards “were annoyed” by the protest” because it would close parts of the base and hinder or interrupt how they got home.” But Tankersly said the protest had no impact on Manning’s treatment.
The three Republican senators emerged grim-faced from a basement meeting room in the Capitol on Tuesday and took turns before a bank of televisions cameras, blasting away at the Obama administration for its handling of the deadly attack on an American outpost in Benghazi, Libya.
The first two were prominent national security heavyweights, Arizona’s John McCain and Lindsey O. Graham of South Carolina. Then the third senator, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, stepped forward. A freshman in her second year and ranked 99th in seniority, Ayotte said she had not been swayed by the administration’s efforts to explain how and why U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice had initially suggested the attack was the result of a spontaneous street protest, instead of a coordinated terrorist attack.
NEW YORK: Ford Motor Company on Friday issued a recall of more than 89,000 vehicles in the United States and Canada amid concerns on engine fires.
The automaker said the voluntary recall affects SE and SEL models of the 2013 Escape and 2013 Fusion that are equipped with a 1.6-litre engine.
"Ford is voluntarily recalling these vehicles because of reports of engine overheating, resulting in engine fires while the engine is running. No injuries have been reported," it said in a statement.
2013 Escape or 2013 Fusion models with other engines are not affected.
In total, Ford estimates that about 73,320 Escapes and 15,833 Fusions with the engine in question have been produced and distributed for sale in both the United States and Canada, with most in the US market.
"Ford is working on a repair procedure," it said.
In July, the Dearborn, Michigan-based manufacturer recalled 11,500 2013 model Escape SUVs, sold in North America, with the same 1.6-litre engine, also amid fire concerns.
- AFP/xq
"Curfew has been lifted from all nine police station areas of Srinagar city as the situation remained peaceful following imposition of restrictions on Wednesday," a police spokesman said.
Curfew was imposed in Nowhatta, M R Gunj, Safakadal, Khanyar, Rainawari, Nigeen, Lal Bazaar, Zadibal and Parimpora police station areas on Wednesday after sectarian clashes broke out in Hawal area of the city.
Hawal, Gojwara and adjoining areas have become flash points for sectarian violence over the past couple of years during Muharram processions.
With the lifting of the curfew, normal life resumed in all parts of the city with schools, colleges, shops, offices and business establishments opening.
The examinations being conducted by the University of Kashmir were also held on Saturday after two days. The examinations scheduled for Thursday and Friday were cancelled due to curfew and will now be held at a later date.
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
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
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
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
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
Nov 30, 2012 1:45pm
AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster
The outlook for reaching some sort of bipartisan agreement on the so-called “fiscal cliff” before the Dec. 31 deadline is looking increasingly grim. Shortly after noon today, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, appeared before the cameras to say the talks had reached a “stalemate.”
But there may be a glimmer of hope. There are currently 33 outgoing members of Congress — they’re either retiring or were defeated last month — who have signed the Grover Norquist pledge stating that they will not raise taxes. Those members, particularly the ones who have traditionally been somewhat moderate, could hold the key to that stance softening.
“You have 33 people who do not have to worry about the future political consequences of their vote,” said ABC political director Amy Walter. “These are people who theoretically can vote based purely on the issue rather than on how it will impact their political future.”
One outgoing member has publicly indicated a willingness to join with Obama and the Democrats on a partial deal.
“I have to say that if you’re going to sign me up with a camp, I like what Tom Cole has to say,” California Republican Rep. Mary Bono Mack said on CNN on Thursday. Cole is the Republican who suggested that his party vote to extend the Bush tax-rates for everyone but the highest income earners and leave the rest of the debate for later. Mack’s husband, Connie, however, also an outgoing Republican member of Congress, said he disagreed with his wife.
But in general, among the outgoing Republican representatives with whom ABC News has made contact, the majority have been vague as to whether or not they still feel bound by the pledge, and whether they would be willing to raise tax rates.
“[Congressman Jerry Lewis] has always been willing to listen to any proposals, but there isn’t,” a spokesman for Rep. Lewis, Calif., told ABC News. “He’s said the pledge was easy because it goes along with his philosophy that increasing tax doesn’t solve any problems. However, he’s always been willing to listen to proposals.”
“Congressman Burton has said that he does not vote for tax increases,” a spokesman for Dan Burton, Ind., said to ABC.
“With Representative Herger retiring, we are leaving this debate to returning members and members-elect,” an aide for Wally Herger, Calif., told ABC News.
The majority of Congress members will likely wait until a deal is on the table to show their hand either way. However, it stands to reason that if any members of Congress are going to give in and agree to raise taxes, these would be the likely candidates.
An agreement will require both sides to make some concessions: Republicans will need to agree to some tax increases, Democrats will need to agree to some spending cuts. With Republicans and Democrats appearing to be digging further into their own, very separate territories, the big question is, which side will soften first?
SEOUL: Fresh analysis of new satellite imagery confirms apparent North Korean preparations for an imminent long-range missile test -- perhaps as early as next week -- a US think tank said on Friday.
Speculation over a new test, following a failed launch in April, has intensified in recent weeks and drew a sharp warning on Thursday from the UN Security Council to Pyongyang.
The US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University said new images provided by satellite operator DigitalGlobe clearly pointed to advanced launch preparations at the Sohae satellite launch station.
"If Pyongyang follows past practice in preparing for a launch, it could be ready to fire a rocket as early as the end of the first week in December," Nick Hansen, an expert on imagery analysis, wrote on the institute's website 38 North.
The analysis highlighted images showing trailers used for carrying the first two stages of an Unha-3 rocket parked near the main missile assembly building.
"(This is) a clear indicator that the rocket stages are being checked out before moving to the pad for an eventual launch," Hansen said.
Empty tanks spotted at four locations indicated that the propellant buildings at the pad have likely been filled in preparation for fuelling the rocket, he added.
In Seoul, a senior government official said South Korea believed preparations for a test had "entered a final stage".
"But there is no telling whether or when it would go ahead," the official, who declined to be identified, told AFP.
North Korea is known to have an inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) in development -- the Taepodong-2 -- but it has never been tested successfully.
In April, North Korea failed with a much-hyped launch of an Unha-3 that Pyongyang said was aimed at placing a satellite in orbit.
The United States and United Nations insisted it was a disguised ballistic missile test using a three-stage variant of the Taepodong-2.
The April test put a halt to the latest international effort to engage North Korea, with the United States calling off plans to deliver badly-needed food assistance.
On Thursday, the UN Security Council warned North Korea against carrying out another launch bid.
"We all agree it would be extremely inadvisable to proceed with the test," the head of the North Korea sanctions committee at the council, Portuguese Ambassador Jose Filipe Moraes Cabral, told reporters.
The latest satellite images were taken on November 23 and 26, and several experts suggested Pyongyang had accelerated test preparations ahead of a rocket launch by South Korea scheduled for November 29.
The South's launch was postponed at the last minute due to a technical problem and a new mission date has yet to be finalised.
US analysts like Scott Snyder, a senior fellow of Korea studies at the Council for Foreign Relations (CFR), say Pyongyang is particularly sensitive to what it sees as a double standard on missile and rocket testing.
"The fact that South Korea is able to pursue such launches while North Korea is prohibited from doing the same under UN Security Council Resolutions, is perceived in North Korea as exhibit number one of a discriminatory US policy," Snyder wrote on the CFR website.
- AFP/xq
"The party has given everything to me. And I have sacrificed my life to build my previous party (BJP)", he said, fighting back tears.
Yeddyurappa said he is leaving the party "because of our own (BJP) people. They don't want me to continue in the party; that's why I am resigning from the primary membership as also MLAship".
He is slated to tender his resignation to Speaker KG Bopaiah this afternoon. Yeddyurappa would also fax his resignation from the primary membership, sources said.
"Some people (in BJP) did not want to me to continue as chief minister. They tried to put me in the dock. I tolerated in the past one year with a lot of patience", Yeddyurappa said. "I am leaving the party with deep sadness".
Without naming anybody, he said some state leaders "stabbed me in the back".
Yeddyurappa said he resigned as chief minister following the direction of the party high-command last year as the "disciplined soldier" of the party. "They mistook my goodness as a weakness".
He said he would formally join the Karnataka Janatha Paksha at a public rally in Haveri on December 9.
Yeddyurappa urged MLAs and ministers in the Jagadish Shettar Cabinet supporting him not to resign as he wants the government to complete its full term and he does not want to rock the boat.
"I have asked them not to resign for the time being", he said.
Yeddyurappa said he is not leaving BJP for any selfish reason. He wants to develop Karnataka as a model and welfare state.
The 70-year-old Lingayat leader is credited with bringing BJP to power in Karnataka, making it the first ever party government in the south.
Efforts by top BJP leadership to prevent the exit of Yeddyurapa have failed. He turned more belligerent after BJP rebuffed his repeated attempts to regain chief ministership and refused to at least make him the state unit party chief.
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
Police have arrested a 42-year-old man and charged him with murder in the case of a Florida girl who vanished almost 20 years ago.
Andrea Gail Parsons, 10, of Port Salerno, Fla., was last seen on July 11, 1993, shortly after 6 p.m. She had just purchased candy and soda at a grocery store when she waved to a local couple as they drove by on an area street and honked, police said.
Today, Martin County Sheriff's Department officials arrested Chester Duane Price, 42, who recently lived in Haleyville, Ala., and charged him with first-degree murder and kidnapping of a child under the age of 13, after he was indicted by a grand jury.
Price was acquainted with Andrea at the time of her disappearance, and also knew another man police once eyed as a potential suspect, officials told ABC News affiliate WPBF in West Palm Beach, Fla.
Handout/Martin County Sheriff's Office
"The investigation has concluded that Price abducted and killed Andrea Gail Parsons," read a sheriff's department news release. "Tragically, at this time, her body has not been recovered."
The sheriff's department declined to specify what evidence led to Price's arrest for the crime after 19 years or to provide details to ABCNews.com beyond the prepared news release.
Reached by phone, a sheriff's department spokeswoman said she did not know whether Price was yet represented by a lawyer.
Price was being held at the Martin County Jail without bond and was scheduled to make his first court appearance via video link at 10:30 a.m. Friday.
In its news release, the sheriff's department cited Price's "extensive criminal history with arrests dating back to 1991" that included arrests for cocaine possession, assault, sale of controlled substance, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and violation of domestic violence injunction.
"The resolve to find Andrea and get answers surrounding the circumstances of her disappearance has never wavered as detectives and others assigned have dedicated their careers to piecing this puzzle together," Martin County Sheriff Robert L. Crowder said in a prepared statement. "In 2011, I assigned a team of detectives, several 'fresh sets of eyes,' to begin another review of the high-volume of evidence that had been previously collected in this case."
A flyer dating from the time of Andrea's disappearance, and redistributed by the sheriff's office after the arrest, described her as 4-foot-11 with hazel eyes and brown hair. She was last seen wearing blue jean shorts, a dark shirt and clear plastic sandals, according to the flyer.
The sheriff's department became involved in the case after Andrea's mother, Linda Parsons, returned home from work around 10 p.m. on July 11, 1993, to find her daughter missing and called police, according to the initial sheriff's report.
In the discussions about the “fiscal cliff” consuming Washington, a powerful new group stands out, touting the virtue of bipartisanship and shared sacrifice.
The business leaders who set up the Campaign to Fix the Debt appear nearly every day on network talk shows and have won coveted time with President Obama in pushing for increased tax revenue, reduced government spending, and changes to Social Security and Medicare. The group’s leaders met Wednesday with lawmakers on Capitol Hill and returned, yet again, to the White House.
SINGAPORE: The two pandas from China, Kai Kai and Jia Jia, thrilled hordes of visitors on the opening day of the Giant Panda Forest on Thursday.
They were active, moving playfully around their enclosure, as visitors snapped photographs and filmed every action of the pandas.
Some visitors were at the Singapore Zoo, where the Panda Forest is located, before 8am - one hour before the panda's enclosure opened.
Each adult pays an extra S$5 while a child pays an additional S$3 to visit the pandas.
Each ticket holder has 15 minutes in the enclosure.
Tickets for the first few viewing sessions were quickly snapped up.
For many families, the outing to the Giant Panda Forest was a school holiday treat.
One mother, Madam Joycelyn Chew, said the visit was a reward for her two young daughters who had done well in their school examinations.
Another visitor, Mr Anond Suwanarat, was there at about 9am, hoping to be among the first to see the pandas.
But the tickets had already been snapped up.
He and his family managed to meet the pandas at 10.40am.
Business analyst Ms Manjula Abeyasinghe, who is on a holiday in Singapore with her family, cancelled plans to go to the Universal Studios Singapore when she heard that the panda enclosure would open to the public on Thursday.
The Giant Panda Forest is the first of the River Safari attractions to open to the public. The rest of the park is expected to be ready by early next year.
- CNA/ir
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.
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 ailments from cancer to asthma to erectile dysfunction—for up to $50,000 (U.S.) 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 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 are of the subspecies Ophiocordyceps sinensis, locally known 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 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.
"There is definitely some truth somewhere in certain herbal medicinal traditions, if you look hard enough," says de Moor. "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."
Ancient Chinese medical traditions—which also use ground tiger bones as a cure for insomnia, elephant ivory for religious icons, and rhinoceros horns to dispel fevers—are controversial but popular. Such remedies remain in demand regardless of scientific advancement—and endangered animals continue to be killed in order to meet that demand. While pills using cordycepin from farmed fungus might someday replace yartsa gunbu harvesting, tigers, elephants, and rhinos are disappearing much quicker than worms.
5-23-16-22-29-Powerball 6: Those are the winning numbers for an estimated $579 million Powerball jackpot -- the biggest in history.
After a feverish day that saw hopeful players buying tickets at the rate of 131,000 every minute, lottery officials in Orlando, Fla., drew the winning sequence shortly after 11 p.m.
The results likely will be announced sometime after 2 a.m. Thursday morning.
Identifying the winner, however, could take days -- if there is a winner.
A prior drawing last Saturday night produced no winner. That fact, plus the doubling in price of a Powerball ticket, accounted for the unprecedented richness of the pot.
"Back in January, we moved Powerball from being a $1 game to $2," said Mary Neubauer, a spokeswoman at the game's headquarters in Iowa. "We thought at the time that this would mean bigger and faster-growing jackpots."
That proved true. The total, she said, began taking "huge jumps -- another $100 million since Saturday." It then jumped another $50 million.
The biggest Powerball pot on record until now -- $365 million -- was won in 2006 by eight Lincoln, Neb., co-workers.
In Photos: Biggest Lotto Jackpot Winners
AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
As the latest pot swelled, lottery officials said they began getting phone calls from all around the world.
"When it gets this big," said Neubauer, "we get inquiries from Canada and Europe from people wanting to know if they can buy a ticket. They ask if they can FedEx us the money."
The answer she has to give them, she said, is: "Sorry, no. You have to buy a ticket in a member state from a licensed retail location."
About 80 percent of players don't choose their own Powerball number, opting instead for a computer-generated one.
Asked if there's anything a player can do to improve his or her odds of winning, Neubauer said there isn't -- apart from buying a ticket, of course.
Lottery officials put the odds of winning the $579 Powerball pot at one in 175 million, meaning you'd have been 25 times more likely to win an Academy Award.
Skip Garibaldi, a professor of mathematics at Emory University in Atlanta, provided additional perspective: You are three times more likely to die from a falling coconut, he said; seven times more likely to die from fireworks, "and way more likely to die from flesh-eating bacteria" (115 fatalities a year) than you are to win the Powerball lottery.
Segueing, then, from death to life, Garibaldi noted that even the best physicians, equipped with the most up-to-date equipment, can't predict the timing of a child's birth with much accuracy.
"But let's suppose," he said, "that your doctor managed to predict the day, the hour, the minute and the second your baby would be born."
The doctor's uncanny prediction would be "at least 100 times" more likely than your winning.
Even though he knows the odds all too well, Garibaldi said he usually plays the lottery.
When it gets this big, I'll buy a couple of tickets," he said. "It's kind of exciting. You get this feeling of anticipation. You get to think about the fantasy."
So, did he buy two tickets this time?
"I couldn't," he told ABC News. "I'm in California" -- one of eight states that doesn't offer Powerball.
When members of Congress need factual information and insights into the effectiveness of the financial laws put in place after the 2008 economic crisis, they regularly turn to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and Orice Williams Brown.
Initially as director and now as managing director of the GAO’s financial markets and community investment section, Brown and her staff have issued dozens of reports examining the flaws and offering recommendations to improve the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) bailout fund, the Wall Street regulatory reform law and the initiatives to prevent housing foreclosures.
SINGAPORE: A senior chef of Hilton Singapore Hotel was charged with two counts of corruption on Wednesday.
Go Choon Heng, 41, allegedly accepted a total of about S$4,500 in bribes, in exchange for furthering the business interests of a seafood supplier, Tay Ee Tiong.
He's alleged to have committed the offences on 13 March 2009 and 18 June 2009.
In exchange, Go allegedly ensured that Hilton Singapore Hotel bought its seafood from Wealthy Seafood Product and Enterprise, owned by Tay.
If convicted, Go faces the maximum fine of S$100,000 and a jail term of five years.
- CNA/ck
In a statement, Zee News accused Delhi Police of acting at the behest of Congress MP Naveen Jindal. The channel accused Naveen Jindal of trying to divert attention from 'coalgate'.
Delhi Police's crime branch arrested two editors of the Zee group on Tuesday, acting on a complaint by Congress MP Naveen Jindal who had accused the two of trying to extort Rs 100 crore worth of advertisements from his company in return for dropping stories linking the Jindal group with coalgate.
The arrested journalists are Sudhir Chaudhary and Sameer Ahluwalia, editorial heads of Zee news and Zee business channels, respectively, a senior police officer said.
"Prima facie evidence of criminal conspiracy and extortion has been found against the two leading to their arrest," said S B S Tyagi, DCP, crime branch on Tuesday.
The editors had earlier denied the charges, calling it an attempt to target investigative journalism.
Police said the arrests came after forensic experts submitted a report stating the CD submitted by the MP which contained audio and video recording of conversations between the Zee editors and Jindal's officials, was "not doctored". Jindal had claimed to have done a "reverse sting" on the journalists to expose them.
The inter-state cell of crime branch said it had found other conclusive evidence against the Zee journalists.
"The two editors were called for questioning on Tuesday during which they could not give satisfactory answers to our questions. They were informed around 8.30pm about their arrest after four hours of questioning. They will be produced in a Saket court at 2pm on Wednesday," a senior cop said.
The channel accused the Jindal Steel and Power Limited, owned by Congress MP Naveen Jindal, of "using state machinery, controlled by the Congress party both at the centre and Delhi, to muzzle voices of dissent and interfere with the legitimate rights of the Media to divert attention and cloud its illegalities and misdeeds which these editors in the channel sought to highlight in public interest, highlighting the corruption in the coal gate scam after being indicted by CAG, and being investigated by the CBI."
In a statement, the company said: "After over 65 years of independence, now the present Congress-led government is pushing media not to say the truth and gag its mouth. It is practically Emergency revisited in India today on Nov 27, 2012 (this will be known as another black day in Indian history).
"While the matter is sub-judice before the Hon'ble high court of Bombay, to circumvent the judicial process and the orders of the Hon'ble Mumbai high court, the Delhi police at the behest of its Congress MP orchestrated arrests of two senior editors of Zee News Channel, Sameer Ahluwalia and Sudhir Chaudhary, on the basis of a fraudulent and contrived complaint filed on behalf of his company Jindal Steel and Power Limited.
"The arrests have been made to sensationalize the issue and lend a cover to the coalgate scam and in particular to favour of Shri Naveen Jindal, Congress MP and his company M/S Jindal Steel and Power Limited."
"This is a crude and direct attack on the freedom of the press."
"The FIR registered against the two Editors and others, is nothing but a clever attempt to divert attention from its own role in the scam. The channel vehemently denies all allegations levelled against it.
The channel strongly condemns the arbitrary and illegal action of Delhi Police in arresting its two editors and for initiating a malicious, illegal and motivated prosecution. We wish to reiterate that no offence has been committed by members of staff," the statement said.
(With inputs from IANS)
Photograph courtesy Conservation India
A young boy can sell bundles of fresh Amur falcons (pictured) for less than five dollars. Still, when multiplied by the thousands of falcons hunters can catch in a day, the practice can be a considerable financial boon to these groups.
Since discovering the extent of Amur hunting in Nagaland this fall, Conservation India has taken the issue to the local Indian authorities.
"They have taken it very well. They've not been defensive," Sreenivasan said.
"You're not dealing with national property, you're dealing with international property, which helped us put pressure on [them]." (Related: "Asia's Wildlife Trade.")
According to Conservation India, the same day the group filed their report with the government, a fresh order banning Amur hunting was issued. Local officials also began meeting with village leaders, seizing traps and confiscating birds. The national government has also requested an end to the hunting.
Much remains to be done, but because the hunt is so regional, Sreenivasan hopes it can eventually be contained and stamped out. Authorities there, he said, are planning a more thorough investigation next year, with officials observing, patrolling, and enforcing the law.
"This is part of India where there is some amount of acceptance on traditional bush hunting," he added. "But at some point, you draw the line."
(Related: "Bush-Meat Ban Would Devastate Africa's Animals, Poor?")
Published November 27, 2012
Tampa socialite Jill Kelley is fighting back. Today, sources close to the woman who was caught in the media crossfire during the David Petraeus sex scandal have released new letters aimed at reclaiming her reputation.
In a letter released to reporters by Jill Kelley's spokesperson, Kelley's attorney goes after a New York businessman who claimed Kelley was using her connections to Petraeus to broker a deal with the South Korean government.
"It is impossible to overlook your attempt to get your '15 minutes of fame,'" attorney Abbe Lowell wrote to Adam Victor, the president and CEO of TransGas Development Systems. "…You have the right to do that to yourself, but you do not have the right to defame our client.
"This letter is notice to you that statements you have made are false and defamatory and are intended to portray Ms. Kelley in a false light," the letter continued.
Click Here to Read Past Blotter Coverage: Jill Kelley Emails Show Her Eager to Make Multi-Billion Dollar Deal
Victor has claimed that Kelley asked for $80 million in commissions to arrange a deal between Victor and the South Korean government. Kelley was an honorary consul for the Republic of South Korean.
"While it is certainly true that Ms. Kelley communicated with you about a potential business deal, it has nothing to do with General Petraeus or other military," Lowell wrote Victor.
Kelley was stripped of her ceremonial position as honorary consul for South Korea today, according to South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Kyou-hyun.
"It is not suitable to the status of honorary consul that [she] sought to be involved in commercial projects and peddle influence," Kyou-hyun told South Korea's semi-official Yonhap News Agency.
The dealings between Jill Kelley and Adam Victor were detailed in a series of emails between the two made public earlier this month. The emails appeared to confirm the New York businessman's claim that Kelley wanted a huge fee for brokering a transaction with the South Korean government.
But in his letter to Victor, Lowell denies that Kelley wanted anything close to $80 million, and says the full chain of emails reveal that "it was you (Victor) who were trying to capitalize on her contacts, and not the other way around."
Kelley and Victor were introduced at the Republican National Convention in Tampa in August by Kelley's friend, Tampa real estate developer Don Phillips. In an interview with ABC News, Phillips said he suggested that Kelley and Victor should meet because Kelley could help Victor land a deal for a coal gasification plant in South Korea.
Phillips claimed that Kelley said that Victor tried to "proposition" her "almost immediately," and said he had to cajole her into flying to New York for a second meeting with Victor.
After she met with Victor in New York, Phillips said, Kelley reported that she was no longer interested in pursuing the deal. According to Phillips, she said, "As a result of my personal investigations and business intelligence this is just not going anywhere, Don, and you just don't want to associate with this guy."
Victor, who denies propositioning Kelley, claimed she continued pushing for the deal after their meeting in New York. But sources close to Kelley say that telephone voice messages Victor left for Kelley reveal that he was the one who continued to seek Kelley's involvement, even after the Petraeus affair came to light.
Victor also claims that Kelley told him Petraeus arranged for her to be named honorary consul, and that she could use her connections with high-level Korean officials to help land the coal plant deal.
None of the emails that Victor showed to ABC News mention Petraeus. Kelley's friend Don Phillips told ABC News that Kelley has not "in any way tried to profit" from her relationship with Petraeus.
When members of Congress need factual information and insights into the effectiveness of the financial laws put in place after the 2008 economic crisis, they regularly turn to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and Orice Williams Brown.
Initially as director and now as managing director of the GAO’s financial markets and community investment section, Brown and her staff have issued dozens of reports examining the flaws and offering recommendations to improve the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) bailout fund, the Wall Street regulatory reform law and the initiatives to prevent housing foreclosures.
SINGAPORE: All one- and two-room owner-occupiers of HDB homes do not need to pay property tax in 2013, similar to 2012.
For a majority of other HDB flat types, the property tax bill for 2013 will increase by between S$40 and $50, after taking into account a new S$40 rebate.
The increase in property tax comes after the revision of Annual Values (AVs) of HDB flats with effect from 1 January 2013, reflecting the rise in market rentals.
To mitigate the increase in the property tax payable by lower and middle-income households as a result of the AV revision, the government will give a one-off rebate of S$40 to owner-occupied HDB flats.
The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) reviews the AVs of all properties - including HDB flats - annually.
The AV, which is based on the estimated annual market rent of a property if it were to be let out, applies to all homes, including owner-occupied homes. It is used as a basis to compute the property tax payable.
Property tax is calculated at 10% of the AV for non owner-occupied homes. For owner-occupied homes, the property tax payable is calculated based on concessionary tax rates (see table).
Since the last revision of AVs of all HDB flats on 1 January 2012, market rentals of HDB flats have risen by 8% to 13%. Accordingly, the AVs of all HDB flats will be revised from 1 January 2013.
To mitigate the impact of the increase in property tax payable, all owners of owner-occupied HDB flats will be given a one-time rebate of S$40. It will be automatically set off against the property tax payable in 2013. This rebate will not apply to non owner-occupied HDB flats which are currently taxed at 10%.
94% of HDB flat owners will receive this rebate.
All one- and two-room HDB owner-occupiers will not need to pay any property tax in 2013 as their revised AVs remain below S$6,000.
The revised property tax bills of other owner-occupied flat types, after taking into account the property tax rebate, are shown in the table below.
Her move came against the backdrop of Monday's Supreme Court suggestion that an amicable solution to the Cauvery row could be thrashed out if both Tamil Nadu and Karnataka chief ministers sat and discussed the issue together.
However, the court did not issue any direction to both the states but adjourned the matter for further hearing on Friday to know the feasibility and time schedule for a possible meeting between the two CMs.
However, an official release from the TN government said that as per the suggestion of the Supreme Court, Jayalalithaa will meet Jagadish at Bangalore and would hold discussions on the issue.
The state government's decision also comes in the wake of a worsening situation in the delta districts where a farmer committed suicide, upset over possible crop loss.
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
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
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
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
A company that makes clothes for Sean Combs' clothing brand ENYCE and other U.S. labels reassured investors that a factory fire that killed 112 people over the weekend would not harm its balance sheet, and also pledged to pay the families of the dead $1,200 per victim.
In an announcement Monday, Li & Fung Ltd., a middleman company that supplies clothes from Bangladesh factories to U.S. brands, said "it wishes to clarify" that the deadly Saturday night blaze at the high-rise Tazreen Fashions factory outside Dhaka "will not have any material impact on the financial performance" of the firm.
The fire broke out on the ground floor of the nine-floor building as hundreds of workers were upstairs on a late-night shift producing fleece jackets and trousers for the holiday rush at American stores, including Wal-Mart, according to labor rights groups. Fire officials said the only way out was down open staircases that fed right into the flames. Some workers died as they jumped from higher floors.
PHOTOS from the factory fire.
After reassuring investors about its financial health, Li & Fung's statement went on to express "deepest condolences" to the families of the dead, and pledge the equivalent of $1,200 to each family. The company also said it would set up an educational fund for the victims' children.
As reported on "ABC World News with Diane Sawyer" earlier this year, Bangladesh has become a favorite of many American retailers, drawn by the cheapest labor in the world, as low as 21 cents an hour, producing clothes in crowded conditions that would be illegal in the U.S. In the past five years, more than 700 Bangladeshi garment workers have died in factory fires.
READ the original ABC News report.
WATCH the original 'World News' report on deadly factories.
"[It's] the cheapest place, the worst conditions, the most dangerous conditions for workers and yet orders continue to pour in," said Scott Nova, executive director of Worker Rights Consortium, an American group working to improve conditions at factories abroad that make clothes for U.S. companies. Nova said the fire was the most deadly in the history of the Bangladesh apparel industry, and "one of the worst in any country."
Today, U.S. companies extended condolences to the families of the victims, and scrambled to answer questions about the dangerous factory that had been making their clothes.
Wal-Mart inspectors had warned last year that "the factory had violations or conditions which were deemed to be high risk," according to a document posted on-line.
Yet Wal-mart clothing continued to be made at the factory, according to workers groups who found clothing with Wal-Mart's private label, Faded Glory, in the burned out remains along with clothing for a number of other U.S. labels, including ENYCE, Dickies and a brand associated with Sears.
Wal-Mart confirmed Monday that its clothes were being made at the Tazreen factory. Even though Wal-Mart is famed for maintaining tight control over its supply chain, the company said its clothes were being made at the plant without its knowledge.
SINGAPORE: Singapore manufacturing output fell more than expected in October as production of electronics and pharmaceuticals slipped.
Output fell 2.1 per cent in October from the same month the previous year, led by declines of 6.0 per cent and 11.7 per cent respectively in the electronics and biomedical sectors.
Economists had forecast a year-on-year drop in total manufacturing output for October of around 1 per cent.
The Economic Development Board (EDB) said in a statement most segments of the electronics industry continued to contract because of weak export demand.
Electronics output slumped 11.6 per cent in the first ten months of 2012.
The EDB said a 12.9 per cent on-year rise in output of medical technology was not enough to offset a 15.3 per cent contraction in pharmaceuticals.
Excluding biomedical, total manufacturing output grew by 0.6 per cent in October from a year earlier.
On a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis, Singapore manufacturing output rose 3.3 per cent. Excluding biomedical manufacturing, output increased 2.3 per cent in October from September 2012.
- CNA/ck
Orbiting at the frozen edges of our solar system, the mysterious dwarf planet Makemake is finally coming out of the shadows as astronomers get their best view yet of Pluto's little sibling.
Discovered in 2005, Makemake—pronounced MAH-keh MAH-keh after a Polynesian creation god—is one of five Pluto-like objects that prompted a redefining of the term "planet" and the creation of a new group of dwarf planets in 2006. (Related: "Pluto Not a Planet, Astronomers Rule.")
Just like the slightly larger Pluto, this icy world circles our sun beyond Neptune. Researchers expected Makemake to also have a global atmosphere—but new evidence reveals that isn't the case.
Staring at a Star
An international team of astronomers was able for the first time to probe Makemake's physical characteristics using the European Southern Observatory's three most powerful telescopes in Chile. The researchers observed the change in light given off by a distant star as the dwarf planet passed in front of it. (Learn how scientists found Makemake.)
"These events are extremely difficult to predict and observe, but they are the only means of obtaining accurate knowledge of important properties of dwarf planets," said Jose Luis Ortiz, lead author of this new study and an astronomer at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, in Spain.
It's like trying to study a coin from a distance of 30 miles (48 kilometers) or more, Ortiz added.
Ortiz and his team knew Makemake didn't have an atmosphere when light from the background star abruptly dimmed and brightened as the chilly world drifted across its face.
"The light went off very abruptly from all the sites we observed the event so this means this world cannot have a substantial and global atmosphere like that of its sibling Pluto," Ortiz said.
If Makemake had an atmosphere, light from the star would gradually decrease and increase as the dwarf planet passed in front.
Coming Into Focus
The team's new observations add much more detail to our view of Makemake—not only limiting the possibility of an atmosphere but also determining the planet's size and surface more accurately.
"We think Makemake is a sphere flattened slightly at both poles and mostly covered with very white ices—mainly of methane," said Ortiz.
"But there are also indications for some organic material at least at some places; this material is usually very red and we think in a small percentage of the surface, the terrain is quite dark," he added.
Why Makemake lacks a global atmosphere remains a big mystery, but Ortiz does have a theory. Pluto is covered in nitrogen ice. When the sun heats this volatile material, it turns straight into a gas, creating Pluto's atmosphere.
Makemake lacks nitrogen ice on its surface, so there is nothing for the sun to heat into a gas to provide an atmosphere.
The dwarf planet has less mass, and a weaker gravitational field, than Pluto, said Ortiz. This means that over eons of time, Makemake may not have been able to hang on to its nitrogen.
Methane ice will also transform into a gas when heated. But since the dwarf planet is nearly at its furthest distance from the sun, Ortiz believes that Makemake's surface methane is still frozen. (Learn about orbital planes.)
And even if the methane were to transform into a gas, any resulting atmosphere would cover, at most, only ten percent of the planet, said Ortiz.
The new results are detailed today in the journal Nature.
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