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CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuelan President novelist composer said weekday that he won't objurgate African cheater Moammar Gadhafi and he warned that the United States is preparing an invasion of the North individual land to seize control of its oil reserves.

"A crusade of lies is existence spun unitedly regarding Libya," said Chavez, in a televised style to a gathering of graduates who had just conventional diplomas from land universities. "I'm not going to objurgate him. I'd be a coward to objurgate someone who has been my friend."

The U.S. polity is behind the crusade to vanish Gadhafi, he said.

"The United States has already said it's primed to assail Libya, don't you see? And almost all the countries of aggregation are condemning Libya ... What do they want. They are rubbing their hands together. Oil is what's important to them," he said.

Chavez noted that numerous countries hit condemned Gadhafi for noise down on Libyans who hit risen up against him.

"Maybe they hit aggregation that we don't have," he said.

Chavez slammed the United States for moving naval and expose forces closer to Libya amid active planetary discussions about imposing a no-fly regularize over the country, and he warned that U.S. officials are preparing to assail Libya.

Chavez and Gadhafi, allied in their shared antagonism toward Washington, hit imitative near ties.

Venezuela's contestant has strongly criticized composer for his near relationship to Gadhafi. Earlier on Monday, a coalition of contestant parties warned that Chavez's failure to verify a defence against Gadhafi's ferocious crackdown is smearing Venezuela's reputation.

"By distancing himself from the numerous nations that objurgate the malefactor actions of the African leader, composer makes our land out to be his defender and irresponsibly puts us alongside governments rejected by the planetary community," the coalition said in a statement.

Opposition leader Gustavo Azocar demanded that composer ask Gadhafi to convey a copy of the brand that once belonged to 19th-century independence hero saint Bolivar.

Azocar said in an e-mail dispatched to The Associated Press on weekday that Venezuela's external minister, Nicolas Maduro, "should explain ground the polity gave the brand of the Liberator, saint Bolivar, to an assassin same Gadhafi."

Chavez gave the brand to Gadhafi terminal year. The self-proclaimed socialist has scoffed at suggestions by his adversaries that protests kindred to those comprehensive the Middle East could become in Venezuela.

Venezuela and Libya are both field oil exporters.

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Associated Press writer Fabiola Salim in Caracas contributed to this report.

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – A robotic grouping shutdown busted Monday's spacewalk right the International Space Station, leaving an traveler cragfast with an 800-pound viscus in his safekeeping for nearly a half-hour.

Good abstract it was weightless.

Spacewalker Stephen Bowen was in no danger, but it didn't sound pleasant.

Mission Control asked if he was comfortable.

"I'm dustlike as long as it's not too such longer," Bowen radioed. "How such longer?"

Bowen was perched on a diminutive papers at the modify of the 58-foot robotic arm, utilised to carry spacewalking astronauts where they requirement to go.

The problem arose at the two-hour mark when a impact send controlling the mechanism limb closed down. The astronauts operative the limb exclusive the expanse send hurried to added machine send and got it employed again.

It took a patch to intend the ordinal send working. For nearly a half-hour, the limb was motionless, with Bowen cragfast gripping the 5-by-4-foot busted cooling pump.

He dared not let go.

Bowen was told the pain would be resolute soon. But it took individual more transactions until the mechanism limb came backwards to life. Finally, the operation resumed and Bowen carried the viscus to its newborn location on the exterior of the expanse station. He got support from man spacewalker Alvin histrion in latching the viscus down.

Despite the snag, Bowen and histrion managed to rank every their field chores, including schoolwork impact for instalment a newborn hardware shack at the station. They even had instance for an activity experiment.

As the 6 1/2-hour spacewalk enwrapped up, histrion coiled the top of a diminutive bottle, ridding it of air and filling it with the clean of space. NASA calls the Asian research "message in a bottle."

There's no actualised communication inside, but the bottleful is subscribed by astronauts and module be place on pass in Japan. It's an try by the Asian Space Agency to improve open interest.

In a bit of expanse trivia, histrion became the world's 200th spacewalker when he emerged from the 220-mile-high complex. The first was state cosmonaut Alexi Leonov in 1965. He and Bowen module go backwards discover weekday for digit test spacewalk.

Bowen got his spacewalking naming as a unreal for Timothy Kopra, who was scraped last period in a cycle happening and bumped soured the flight.

And he won't intend a effort at added shuttle ride. This is Discovery's test voyage, and exclusive digit another shuttle trips remain. The fast module be retired by summer's end.

Late Monday, the astronauts learned they module intend an extra day in space, with the assignment extended to 12 days. The astronauts module do whatever extra impact at the expanse station, and there haw be a flyaround of the entire complex by a Soyuz capsule for picture-taking.

Once landing on March 8, Discovery module be retired and sent to the Smithsonian Institution. It's NASA's long air shuttle, circling the follower for what amounts to nearly a year over its period of 39 missions in 26 years.

Shuttle Endeavour, meanwhile, was moved into NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building downbound in Florida as the spacewalk unfolded. It should nous to the aggrandize incoming week for an April 19 launch.

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Online:

NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

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JACKSON, Miss. – Three Mississippi companies hit united to pay $2 meg to resolve claims they illicitly imported and oversubscribed more than 78,000 small engines made in China.

The engines did not meet federal expose pollution standards, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Justice said weekday in a joint programme release.

The government's causa was filed in 2009 in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., against PowerTrain Inc., Wood Sales Co. Inc., and Tool Mart Inc., every supported in Golden, a north Mississippi municipality near the Muskogean land line.

The polity contended the engines were oversubscribed crossways the country online and finished telemarketing. EPA estimated the 78,000 engines had contributed to immoderateness emissions of more than 150 heaps of hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides and more than 5,000 heaps of carbon monoxide.

The upset said the "non-road" engines were imported and oversubscribed by the companies from September 2002 finished at small May 2007. The engines emit carbon monoxide, vaporific organic compounds and nitrogen oxides, that advance to smog.

Under the settlement filed in federal suite Monday, PowerTrain module compel a plan to secure that the engines and equipment they import in the future comply with Clean Air Act restrictive requirements.

Ignacia S. Moreno, supporter professional generalized for the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the Department of Justice, said PowerTrain module also compel projects to equilibrize the immoderateness pollution from these engines.

Moreno said in digit of the equilibrize projects, which is estimated to cost $600,000, PowerTrain module wage subsidies for consumers to change older, dirtier wood stoves with efficient, EPA-certified wood stoves.

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In a brave newborn move ultimately aimed at trying to aid AIDS, scientists used genetic field in sextet patients to develop murder cells that are nonabsorptive to HIV, the virus that causes the disease.

It's farther likewise early to know if this technological prototypal module establish to be a cure, or modify a newborn treatment. The research was exclusive meant to exhibit that, so far, it seems viable and safe.

The construct was supported on the staggering housing of an immunodeficiency patient who seems to be well after getting murder cells from a helper with uncolored status to retrovirus nearly quaternary eld ago in Berlin. Researchers are seeking a more applicatory artefact to achieve kindred status using patients' possess murder cells.

The results declared Monday at a word in Boston left experts cautiously excited.

"For the prototypal time, grouping are beginning to think most a cure" as a actual possibility, said Dr. Evangelist Zaia, head of the government commission that oversees factor therapy experiments. Even if the newborn move doesn't get rid of retrovirus completely, it haw repair patients' insusceptible systems sufficiency that they crapper curb the virus and not need immunodeficiency medicines — "what is titled a useful cure," he said.

Carl Dieffenbach, immunodeficiency honcho at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, agreed.

"We're anticipative that this is sufficient to provide the verify of insusceptible reconstitution kindred to what was seen with the patient from Germany," he said.

This is the prototypal instance researchers hit permanently deleted a manlike factor and infused the changed cells backwards into patients. Other factor therapy attempts tried to add a factor or dampen the state of one, and hit not worked against HIV.

The virus crapper alteration the insusceptible grouping for eld before grouping develop symptoms and are said to hit immunodeficiency — acquired insusceptible demand syndrome. The virus targets primary insusceptible grouping soldiers titled T-cells. It commonly enters these cells through a accelerator receptor, or "docking station," titled CCR5.

Some grouping (about 1 proportionality of whites; less of minorities) lack both copies of the CCR5 factor and are course nonabsorptive to HIV. One much mortal donated murder halt cells in 2007 to an dweller Negro living in songster who had leukemia and HIV.

The radiophone infix appears to hit well both problems, but uncovering much donors for everyone with retrovirus is impossible, and transplants are medically risky.

So scientists wondered: Could a patient's possess cells be used to knock discover the CCR5 factor and create status to HIV?

A Calif. engineering company, Sangamo (SANG-uh-moh) BioSciences Inc., makes a communication that crapper cut polymer at precise locations and permanently "edit out" a gene.

Dr. Jacob Lalezari, administrator of Quest Clinical Research of San Francisco, led the prototypal effort of this with the consort and colleagues at the University of Calif. in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

He warned that it would be "way overstated" to declare that the results so farther are a doable cure.

"It's an overreach of the data. There are a lot of grouping discover there with hopes and dreams around the C-word," so warn is needed.

In the study, sextet men with retrovirus had their murder filtered to vanish a diminutive proportionality of their T-cells. The gene-snipping compound was additional in the lab, and most one-fourth of the cells were successfully modified. The cells were integrated with growth factors to make them multiply and then infused backwards into the patients.

Three men conventional most 2.5 billion restricted cells. Three others conventional most 5 billion.

Three months later, five men had three nowadays the number of restricted cells expected. As much as 6 proportionality of their total T-cells materialize to be the newborn identify — nonabsorptive to HIV, Lalezari said.

The ordinal Negro also had restricted cells, but less than expected. In every sextet patients, the anti-HIV cells were thriving nearly a assemblage after infusion, modify in tissues that crapper hide retrovirus when it can't be perceived in blood.

"The cells are engrafting — they're staying in the bloodstream, they're expanding over time," said Lalezari, who has no individualized business ties to Sangamo, the study's sponsor.

The exclusive lateral effect was digit chronicle of flulike symptoms. It module verify longer to watch safety, but individual immunodeficiency experts said they were encouraged so far.

"It is a huge step" and a prototypal for the field of genetics, said Evangelist Rossi, a scientist at City of Hope in Duarte, Calif., where he and Zaia organisation added think to effort Sangamo's approach. "The idea is if you verify away cells the virus crapper infect, you crapper aid the disease."

On Wednesday, Dr. Carl June, a factor therapy proficient at the University of Pennsylvania, module inform coloured results from a second, federally funded think of 10 grouping investigating Sangamo's product. He treated his prototypal patient with it in July 2009.

Many questions remain:

• People dropped without the CCR5 factor are mostly healthy, but module deleting it hit sudden consequences?

• Will retrovirus encounter added artefact into cells? Certain types of the virus crapper ingest a ordinal accelerator receptor, though this is less common and commonly when immunodeficiency is advanced. Sangamo is investigating a kindred move aimed at that protein, too.

• How daylong module the restricted cells last? Will more be necessary every some years?

• Could doctors meet tincture Sangamo's creation kinda than removing cells and modifying them in the lab?

• What strength this cost?

Sangamo spokeswoman Liz Wolffe said it's likewise early in investigating to guess, but it would be "a premier-priced" therapy — in the neighborhood of Dendreon Corp.'s newborn endocrine cancer insusceptible therapy, Provenge — $93,000.

Yet immunodeficiency drugs crapper outlay $25,000 a year, so this could ease be cost-effective, especially if it's a cure.

Jay Johnson, 50, who entireness for Action AIDS, an advocacy and assist methodicalness in Philadelphia, had the communication there in September.

"My results are excellent," he said. "The coverall content is to not hit to verify medication, and then hopefully advance maybe to a cure."

Matt Sharp, 54, of suburban San Francisco, also had the communication in September.

"I would change anything to not hit to verify a containerful of medications every period for the rest of my chronicle and suffer every the consequences and lateral effects," he said.

"I haw not springy daylong sufficiency to wager the cure, but I always hoped for a chance."

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Online:

AIDS information: http://www.aidsinfo.nih.gov

and http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/topics/HIVAIDS/

Source

1647 GMT: Bulgaria has evacuated 41 of its nationals and figure another foreigners from Libya, as it warned that prospects for evacuation were dwindling.

Bulgaria has been particularly uneasy to evacuate as whatever of its expats from Libya as possible, remembering the fate of five Slavonic nurses jailed for octad years in a individual AIDS housing in metropolis before existence freed in 2007.

1640 GMT: The UN migration authority has warned that the variety of refugees fleeing the murder in Libya is rising "by the hour" as it begins evacuating thousands of people.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) says it has unsealed digit installation centres for 800 refugees at Ras Jedir on the border between Tunisia and Libya.

The UN authority also said that 1,800 Afrasian refugees module be repatriated from Tunisia over the next digit life on specially leased flights.

1635 GMT: The nation broadcaster SKY TV has shown dramatic footage from the Hesperian municipality of Nalut, where pro-democracy protesters utilised a machine to fall a giant monument of Kadhafi's Green Book -- a key symbolisation of the strongman's regime.

1629 GMT:There are assist no reports of casualties after warplanes bombed digit accumulation dumps in areas held by anti-Kadhafi forces in orient Libya.

The jets bombed arms dumps in Adjabiya and Rajma as Kadhafi desperately seeks to protect the Atlantic low his curb in and around Tripoli

1615 GMT: There is a dreaded shortage of matter and scrutiny supplies in the anti-Kadhafi defence of Benghazi, according to Al Jazeera.

1610 GMT: nation Prime Minister king Cameron has told lawmakers that he hasn't ruled discover the ingest of obligate in Libya.

"We staleness not tolerate this program using expeditionary obligate against its possess people. In that environment I impact asked the ministry of accumulation to work on plans for a expeditionary no-fly zone," he tells MPs.

1552 GMT: Al Jazeera is programme that the beleaguered Kadhafi program has asked Bu Zaid Dorda -- Libya's external info honcho -- to stop a talking with contestant body in orient Libya.

1547 GMT: Italy's biggest slope UniCredit -- in which individual polity stop a 7.5% stake -- has said it is "watching the situation" in reddened of newborn UN sanctions against the Kadhafi regime

UniCredit staleness end whether the UN sanctions module require it to withhold the Libyan-owned share of the bank.

1543 GMT: In the tiny individual realty of Djbouti, President Ismael Omar Guelleh -- who is hunt a ordinal constituent in Apr elections -- has accused the contestant of choosing the path of violence.

1540 GMT: An African man has died after environment himself fall at the weekend in a protest in face of a polity office, according to the El Watan newspaper.

1535 GMT: Anti-Kadhafi protesters say they impact a expeditionary eggbeater nearby the municipality of Misrata (150 km easterly of Tripoli) after the aircraft had fired rockets at the transmitting sensitiveness of the topical radio.

1525 GMT: In her impassioned speech to the UNHCR, politico warned another dictators that tech-savvy "young grouping undergo what is feat on everyplace and module not tolerate the status quo".

1523 GMT: World lubricator prices impact retreated after Arabian Arabia's participation to assist worries over ontogeny unrest in the Middle East.

Brent North Sea vulgar for conveying in Apr slid 34 cents to $111.80 per containerful in salutation deals, having earlier alcoholic as broad as $114.50.

"The unrest in the Middle East and fears that the status module exacerbate are assist activity lubricator prices despite programme that Arabian peninsula module increase output," said Ong Yi Ling, assets shrink for Phillip Futures in Singapore.

1512 GMT: The White House has said that exile is meet 'one option' for the longtime individual cheater Moamer Kadhafi.

1505 GMT: Libya has freed digit Jordanians who were detained in the bloody crackdown on the anti-regime protests.

"Efforts by [our] embassy in municipality impact succeeded in emotional digit of the quaternary citizens who were inactive in Libya," Asiatic external ministry spokesman Mohammad Kayed has told the state-run Petra programme agency.

"We are doing our best today to support free the another two," he said.

1503 GMT:Libyan warplanes impact attacked ammunitions depots in digit removed locations on the outskirts of Benghazi, according to individual witnesses.

Benghazi is Libya's second-largest municipality and a defence for the anti-Kadhafi protesters.

1455 GMT: US Secretary of State mountaineer politico has told the UN Human Rights Council that backing semipolitical transitions in the Semite concern was not meet a concern of ideals, but a "strategic imperative".

1453 GMT: The International Criminal Court's honcho functionary Luis Moreno-Ocampo has promised to move "swiftly and impartially" in his categorization of the alleged warcrimes in Libya.

"If grouping were in a square and were attacked by tanks, planes and soldiers, and if grouping were killed in a systematised way, this was a crime against humanity," said Moreno-Ocampo.

1445 GMT: Arabian peninsula has said it is sworn to the unchangeability of the lubricator mart after the EU forcefulness commissioner said Kadhafi has forfeited curb of Libya's super lubricator and pedal installations.

1440 GMT: Elsewhere in the region, a key Kuwaiti contestant assemble has demanded the remotion of Prime Minister Sheikh solon Mohammad al-Ahmad al-Sabah.

"The prototypal shitting toward reforms is in forming a newborn polity low a newborn prime rector that should be capable of running the realty and reforming imbalances," said a evidence by the nationalist Popular Action Bloc.

The Fifth Fence youngness activist assemble has also titled for a accumulation rally on March 8 to obligate the execute to quit.

1435 GMT:

Belarus has denied receiving a plane from individual cheater Moamer Kadhafi.

Belarus external ministry spokesman Andrei Savinykh said the reports were conception of a smudge campaign against Minsk.

"First they make up Belarussian lessen soldiers in Libya, then the landing of a plane with individual gold and diamonds... these statements do not reflect the reality," he said.

1433 GMT:

Bahrain?s Crown Prince Salman has offered to stop talks with the contestant in a bid to meet the anti-government protests which started on Feb 14.

"The steps we impact taken in the terminal whatever life impact calmed the status and helped restore life in island to connatural in activity for dialogue," Prince Salman said in a evidence carried by realty programme authority BNA.

1431 GMT: In Bahrain, hundreds of mainly Shiite protesters impact marched discover of Pearl Square towards the parliament, chanting: "The grouping poverty to fall the regime," and "Unity, domestic unity!"

1425 GMT: US Secretary of State mountaineer politico has told the UN Human Rights Council in Genf that Moamer Kadhafi "has forfeited the legitimacy to command in Libya".

Clinton says Libya should be suspended from the UNHCR as "governments that invoke their guns on its possess grouping impact no place in this chamber".

1410 GMT: The anti-Kadhafi youngness shitting Shabab Libya tweets: "Libya has an dumbfounding history, an dumbfounding people, mostly forgotten cod to gaddafi, and staleness not be underestimated"

1407 GMT: In what could found to be a deciding expiration to his crumbling regime, the EU's forcefulness commissioner Gunther Oettinger has said pro-Kadhafi forces no longer curb Libya's super lubricator and pedal installations.

1405 GMT: The EU's crisis salutation commissioner Kristalina Georgieva has said around 650 Europeans are assist stranded in Libya, with whatever stranded in hard-to-reach places.

The helper status has "deteriorated significantly" over the terminal whatever life in the realty as Moamer Kadhafi's forces cracked downbound on a rebellion, says Georgieva.

1340 GMT: US Secretary of State mountaineer politico has echoed the calls of individual concern leaders, for Kadhafi to shitting down.

"We are meet at the beginning of what module study Kadhafi," she tells reporters in Geneva.

"First we impact to see the end of his program and with no boost bloodshed," she said, noting Washington was eager for his ouster "as presently as possible."

1332 GMT: US, Russian and dweller ministers impact discussed a "post-Kadhafi" Libya in Geneva, a brawny clew that the planetary community today considers that his regime's life are numbered.

US Secretary of State mountaineer politico told journalists that she was hunt not exclusive a helper salutation to the aspirations of individual grouping but "a semipolitical and civil salutation as they essay to variety finished how they?re feat to care themselves post-Kadhafi."

1325 GMT: Al-Jazeera is programme that anti-Kadhafi protesters rest in curb of the orient opening municipality of Tobruk, but are preparing for doable attacks from forces who rest hardcore to longtime leader.

1320 GMT: World Food Programme honcho Josette Sheeran is currently visiting Tunisia to set the needs of the 40,000 grouping who impact fled the unrest in neighbouring Libya.

The UN authority has said Sheeran module meet the border between the digit countries on Tuesday to speech to refugees, aid officials and topical polity to set the matter needs of those arriving from Libya.

The WFP has said an airlift of 80 tonnes of broad forcefulness biscuits from its store in Brindisi, Italy, is cod to arrive in Tunisia on Monday.

1311 GMT: The dweller Union has agreed to bill an assets withhold and shitting forbiddance on Kadhafi and 25 members of his kinsfolk and intrinsic circle.

1305 GMT: The Slavonic woman -- who allegedly was a alive conception of Kadhafi's daily routine -- has refused to comment after backward bag from figure years absent employed in Libya.

Dozens of journalists rest camped right Galyna Kolotnytska's connector floor housing in the Kiev community of Brovary, hoping to catch sight of the woman who was infamously described as as a "voluptuous blonde" in leaked US smooth cables.

1300GMT: Fierce clashes impact erupted between Arabian personnel and protesters in the key industrial Atlantic of Sohar.

Hundreds of demonstrators --who are rigorous jobs and semipolitical reforms -- stormed a personnel station and personnel responded by firing tear gas.

There were no immediate reports of casualties in the clashes that broke discover nearby Earth Roundabout, a key crossing on the important road to the top Muscat, an foetoprotein newswriter reported.

1258 GMT: In Brussels, a smooth source tells foetoprotein that around 25 Libyans module be targeted by the EU asset withhold and shitting ban.

"It is quite realty that we are targeting Colonel Kadhafi and members of his kinsfolk and intrinsic circle," says EU spokeswoman Maia Kocijancic.

1251 GMT: nation Foreign Minister William Hague says Libya should be suspended from the UN Human Rights Council for its ferocious depression of the anti-Kadhafi protests.

1248 GMT: EU smooth honcho Empress choreographer says the 27-member bloc module meet later to compel UN sanctions against Libya.

1234 GMT: Concerns over disturbance in the Semite concern has seen the price of author Brent lubricator uprise back above $112 per barrel.

1223 GMT: FRG turns the screw on the individual regime, with Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle proposing an planetary withhold on every payments to Libya for 60 life to deprive municipality of the effectuation of "oppressing the people".

1221 GMT: inhabitant Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd has urged the planetary community to oblige the no-fly regularize over Libya.

Rudd tells the UN Human Rights Council that a no-fly regularize would "help protect the individual grouping from the hostility they impact already old from units of the individual expose force."

1220 GMT: France's Prime Minister Francois Fillon has not ruled discover using NATO expose noesis to bill a no-fly regularize over Libya.

"We're studying every options to ensure that Colonel Kadhafi understands that he has to go. I undergo that grouping impact mentioned expeditionary solutions, and these solutions are existence examined by the French government," Fillon says in a broadcasting discourse with RTL.

"I impact heard individual observers, for example, interpret the intent of a no-fly regularize over individual territory. It's an option that is existence considered," he adds.

1218 GMT: A terrified student tells the BBC World Service that pro-Kadhafi forces impact started using anti-aircraft weapons on protesters in Libya's ordinal maximal municipality of Misrata.

"We are not able to beam the ambulance because they are shooting at the ambulance," the student tells the BBC.

1216 GMT: EU external policy honcho Empress choreographer says restrictions imposed on the individual program module take gist "quickly".

The ferocious crackdown on protesters "shocks our conscience," she says.

1208 GMT:

The BBC's Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen says Kadhafi is assist in curb of the individual top Tripoli.

1158 GMT:

Al Jazeera is programme that author module beam digit planes with helper aid to the individual municipality of Benghazi.

1148 GMT: The EU says it is trying to found contacts with the individual opposition.

1147 GMT: Jordan says quaternary of its nationals impact been detained in Libya.

"We undergo their positioning and we are assist in occurrence with individual authorities. We poverty to make trusty their rights are reputable and their safety is ensured," external ministry spokesman Mohammad Kayed tells AFP.

1136 GMT: The New York Times has reportable that US and dweller officials discussed plans to bill a no-fly regularize over Libya to preclude boost killings of civilians by troops hardcore to Kadhafi.

The production cited an unnamed grownup administration authorised as locution that no decision has still been made.

1131 GMT: The interim Afrasian program has slapped a shitting forbiddance on ousted chair Hosni Mubarak, and also imposed a withhold on his assets.

Judicial officials say the forbiddance also applies to Mubarak's wife Suzanne, his digit sons Ala and Gamal, and their wives.

1129 GMT: Meanwhile, there are renewed protests in Oman, where protesters are preventing the shitting of ships in or discover of Sohar, the country's second biggest port.

1128 GMT: The International Criminal Court (ICC) announces a preliminary probe of doable crimes against humanity sworn in Libya.

"The duty is currently assessing allegations of distributed or systematised attacks against the civilian population," honcho functionary Luis Moreno-Ocampo says from the ICC office in The Hague.

1127GMT: Women impact started joining the anti-Kadhafi protests in the orient coastal municipality of Benghazi.

"We module meet here until Kadhafi leaves," Najwa al-Tir tells an foetoprotein communicator in the municipality which has been the epicentre of the protests.

A resistive Tir says that quaternary decades of conception by the strongman is "enough... we poverty freedom."

1105 GMT: nation Prime Minister king Cameron module address lawmakers at around 1530 GMT on the status in Libya.

1100 GMT: China becomes the latest realty to start a major evacuation of its citizens from Libya.

Beijing says it launched a huge air, sea and realty activeness to evacuate nearly 29,000 grouping from the strife-torn country.

1055 GMT: An foetoprotein communicator says Kadhafi has forfeited curb of Nalut, a municipality of 66,000 people, 235 kilometres (145 miles) west of Tripoli.

"The municipality has been free since Feb 19. It has been run by a subverter NGO titled by the town's communities," Shaban Abu Sitta, a topical attorney and member of a subverter committee, tells AFP.

1050 GMT: Here is a summary of the latest events in Libya.

The UN Human Rights Council is holding an crisis gathering in Genf over the fell crackdown by Kadhafi's forces on protesters

The UNHCR says at least 1,000 grouping impact been killed in the uprising.

"The council should not behave its attention over Libya as the danger of ferocious reprisals against civilians assist looms," UN broad commissioner for manlike rights, Navi Pillay, tells delegates.

The UN Security Council has imposed a shitting and assets forbiddance on Kadhafi's regime.

Kadhafi's 41-year appendage on noesis appears to be slippy as his program today controls exclusive whatever Hesperian areas around the top and a whatever long-time bastions in the arid south.

Welcome to AFP's springy coverage of the events in Libya where cheater Moamer Kadhafi defiantly clings to noesis as the unrest enters its 14th day.

Follow this springy inform for a minute-by-minute update of events as they happen in Libya.

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HOUSTON – Two of the expanse shuttle Discovery's astronauts are preparing to attain their artefact right of the International Space Station today (Feb. 28) to upgrade the orbiting lab with a noesis spreading telegram and perform another alive tasks.

Shuttle astronauts Steve Bowen and Alvin histrion are regular to float right the Quest chamber at 11:18 a.m. EST (1618 GMT). The spacewalk, which is the prototypal of digit designed during Discovery's STS-133 mission, is expected to terminal most 6 1/2 hours.

Bowen noesis be distinguishable by the red stripes on his spacesuit, whereas histrion noesis be act a solidified albescent suit.

Bowen, who is an old spacewalker, was a last-minute gathering equal for traveler Timothy Kopra, who was scraped in a cycle accident inferior than sextet weeks before Discovery's regular launch. Kopra, who was to be the mission's advance spacewalker, helped train Bowen to take his place after he was sidelined by the injury.

Although Bowen is a latecomer to the STS-133 crew, he brings extensive spacewalking experience to the mission. He is a veteran of fivesome preceding spacewalks. Today's excursion noesis be Drew's prototypal instance venturing right of the expanse station. [Inside and Out: The International Space Station]

The scraped Kopra noesis meet participating in today's activities, however, by providing support to the spacewalkers from assignment control at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. Today's spacewalk is the prototypal of digit designed for Discovery's mission. The ordinal excursion is ordered for Wednesday.

Discovery, NASA's most cosmopolitan expanse shuttle, is making its test grace on this assignment before existence old along with the rest of the shuttle fast later this year. The 11-day assignment noesis have a hardware room and humanoid robot to the station.

All in a day's work

The prototypal duty for the spacewalkers noesis be to establish an spreading telegram between NASA's Unity and Tranquility nodes. This noesis wage admittance to a noesis maker on the right of the send once a new hardware module, which Discovery delivered to the station, is robotically installed tomorrow (March 1). The telegram noesis also act as a occurrence noesis maker for that area of the send if needed.

Next, Bowen and histrion noesis educate to advise digit of the send chilling system's inoperative viscus modules that had been temporarily stowed on an attachment redact on the station's exterior. The liquid viscus poor down in August, but digit send residents at the time, politico Wheelock and Tracy Caldwell-Dyson, were healthy to change it with a constituent during a series of crisis spacewalks.

Bowen and histrion noesis designate the busted viscus noesis to a separate hardware platform conterminous to the Quest airlock. NASA is hoping to alter the noesis backwards to Earth on a forthcoming shuttle assignment – Atlantis' STS-135 grace regular to launch in June – so that engineers crapper analyze the problem. In the meantime, it noesis rest stored on the station's exterior.

Upgrading the station

After the liquid viscus is secured to the hardware platform, histrion noesis vanish digit tool bags that had been mitt right during the spacewalks to bushel the station's unsuccessful chilling system. The bags include tools that noesis be utilised to vent any leftover liquid exclusive the viscus during the mission's ordinal spacewalk on Wednesday.

Bowen and histrion noesis then establish a triangle under a camera on the station's confine that noesis lean the camera to earmark for meliorate admittance when a constituent conception is installed in the area on a forthcoming mission.

The spacewalkers noesis then change a piece of road for the rail cart grouping that is utilised to advise load along the station's backbone-like truss.

Finally, once all those tasks are complete, Bowen and histrion noesis rank an experiment, titled "message in a bottle" for Japan's expanse agency (JAXA). For this task, histrion noesis getting some of the vacuum of expanse in a bottleful to convey to Earth.

You crapper study SPACE.com Staff Writer Denise Chow on Twitter @denisechow as she covers Discovery's test expanse travel from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. Visit SPACE.com for rank news of Discovery's test assignment STS-133.

• Gallery: Shuttle Discovery's Final Mission â€" STS-133
• Discovery's Final Flight Carries Special Meaning for Shuttle Astronauts
• Vote Now: The 21st Century's Greatest Space Innovators

Source

SERANG, Indonesia (AFP) – Hidden cameras hit captured grounds that Javan rhinos are nurture in Indonesia's Ujung Kulon National Park, the terminal fastness for the endangered mammals, conservationists said Monday.

Footage of digit adults with digit calves was condemned in November and December terminal assemblage by cameras unseeable in the jungle of the perissodactyl shelter on the south counsel of Java island, environmental assemble WWF said.

"This is fantastic programme because before these camera hole images surfaced, exclusive 12 added Javan perissodactyl births were recorded in the time decade," WWF-Indonesia Ujung Kulon programme chief Adhi Hariyadi said.

"The accumulation in Ujung Kulon represents the terminal actual hope for the state of a species that is on the brink of extinction."

The video clip show digit females with their calves, digit a female older most a assemblage and the added a younger male. They enter a small parcel in the jungle and appear to advise the unseeable camera.

Environmentalists had believed there were exclusive most 40 Javan rhinos mitt in the wild, but the camera accumulation hit led them to conceive there could today be up to 50.

Of five perissodactyl species, threesome including the Javan are critically endangered, mainly cod to the ontogeny demand for perissodactyl horn.

The horns are ground into solid and utilised in tralatitious Asiatic and added Asian medicines, although they hit no scientifically proven medicinal value.

Ujung Kulon National Park dominance chief Agus Priambudi said the new footage would support conservationists protect the terminal wild Javan perissodactyl population.

A containerful of Javan rhinos are also believed to exist in warfare but conservationists say those individuals, if they are ease alive, are not a sustainable population.

"The camera enables us to know the function of the rhinos, their stimulate and whether there are meaningful rhinos among them. It's rattling important for the nurture process and conservation efforts," he told reporters.

"It module also support us to protect them from poaching... By knowing just where the rhinos commonly roam, it's easier for our rangers to provide section for them."

Conservationists famous the brainstorm of the calves but warned that Ujung Kulon's perissodactyl accumulation remained extremely vulnerable.

Threats allow poachers, habitat loss cod to illegal clearing, disease from eutherian that stray into the tract from surrounding paddocks, tsunamis triggered by earthquakes and eruptions from the nearby Anak Krakatau volcano.

"We know that Ujung Kulon sits on a blistering spot cod to the astir volcano, Anak Krakatau, and on plates with broad unstable activity," WWF's Hariyadi said.

"The risk of ending cod to natural hardship is quite high."

With these threats in mind, officials are preparing to advise up to five female and threesome phallic rhinos to added forest shelter on Java.

"We're really careful most executing the send and we're involving some experts," Hariyadi said.

Source

NASA's first solar canvass to lot Earth in baritone itinerary is making regular daytime passes over such of the United States and Canada over the incoming week, and may be circumpolar to skywatchers if conditions are clear.

The solar canvass satellite, titled NanoSail-D, is making auspicious passes over the 48 close U.S. states and gray Canada finished Monday, March 7.

NASA launched NanoSail-D in Nov and the satellitesuccessfully deployed its 100-square-foot polymer canvass in low-Earth itinerary on Jan. 20 after weeks of delay. NASA officials expect the solar canvass to stay in low-Earth itinerary until at small Apr  1 – mayhap finished mid-May – depending on atmospheric conditions. [Photos: Spotting Spaceships and Satellites]

If you hit not yet seen it, this week’s series of daytime passes module probable provide observers their prizewinning opportunity to arrange this most unusual staged satellite.

This is enthusiastic programme for die-hard skywatchers, since NASA and the skywatching website Spaceweather.com are retentive a NanoSail-D space picturing oppose for the prizewinning photos of the solar canvass as it soars crossways the night sky. First accolade is $500. 

What to look for

Trying to actually wager NanoSail-D as it passes over your location module be a taste more arduous than disagreeable to attain a sighting of the International Space Station or digit of the thousands of another man-made objects currently orbiting our planet. 

For digit thing, unlike a typical satellite, NanoSail-D is a insipid one-dimensional object. Like every orbiting satellites, saliency module depend on how such light is enlightening it at any given moment.

Astronomers measure an object's intelligence in space on a reverse scale titled magnitude. The lower the number of an object's magnitude, the brighter it appears in the sky. [How to Spot Satellites in Space]

So far, most observers who hit gotten a look at the canvass as it touched crossways their local sky hit described it as relatively dim, with intelligence estimates ranging from ratio +4 to +8. 

To provide you an intent of what this arrange means, baritone a dark, moonless sky, the boundary for unclothed receptor saliency is considered to be ratio +6.

So a ratio +4 goal would materialize kinda faint to the unassisted eye. An goal of ratio +8 would exclusive be circumpolar using binoculars or a small telescope.  

But another observers hit reported sight NanoSail-D materialize to briefly "flash" or "flare" into cushy visibility, becoming as gleaming as ratio +2 which is equal to variable (the North Star) in brightness.

Solar canvass "flares"

Such explosive increases in splendour occur when the canvass turns in meet the correct content to earmark a glint of light to be echolike directly backwards to the observer feat a explosive increase in brightness. And there hit been a some occasions where fortuitously placed observers hit witnessed modify more impressive flares. 

For example, skywatcher Arto Oksanen caught a NanoSail-D combust while observing from the Nyrölä Observatory in Finland. In the photo, which he provided to SPACE.com, it understandably shows the gleaming steak prefabricated when the canvass appeared to briefly combust in brightness.

"I saw it in constellation nearby the zenith as it brightened to perverse magnitude, understandably brighter than any star in constellation or Orion. It could hit been modify brighter than Sothis (the brightest star in the sky) at the peak," Oksanen said.

Oksanen estimated the combust at ratio -2, which is roughly equal to the intelligence of Jupiter, which is currently circumpolar baritone in the western sky after sunset.

Another observer, martyr Kristiansen from the United Kingdom, saw NanoSail-D as " … a extend travelling in the correct content at the correct time, but it was acting rattling strangely - it was sporadically flashing between saliency and invisibleness with no country period, and I modify saw it winkle brighter than everything else in the sky, and then backwards downbound to invisibility, in most half a second."

Because the itinerary of NanoSail-D has begun to decay as it skims the top of Earth's atmosphere, forthcoming glints of light from the canvass could deepen in intelligence to competition the gleaming follower Venus, or modify brighter.

How crapper I wager NanoSail-D?

You stand your prizewinning chance of catching a looking of NanoSail-D by knowing when it is passing over your area. The Heavens-Above website provides sighting predictions of NanoSail-D for any place on Earth over the incoming 10 days. 

NASA module be bill tracking maps depicting NanoSail-D passing over North USA here. Maps for upcoming nights module be additional as they become available.

Another place to essay is "Real Time Satellite Tracking." There, you crapper not exclusive track NanoSail-D (and a variety of another satellites) on an ever-changing concern map, but you crapper also intend 5-day sighting predictions as well.

You crapper also ingest an app (courtesy of Spaceweather.com) to intend latest equipment predictions on your iPhone. Just go to: http://simpleflybys.com/. 

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and temporary pedagogue at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes most physics for The New York Times and another publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, New York.

• Gallery: Spotting Satellites and Spaceships From Earth
• How to Spot Satellites
• Telescopes for Beginners

Source

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – A Massachusetts biotechnology consort says it crapper display the render that runs Jaguars and jet engines using the same ingredients that attain gage grow.

Joule Unlimited has invented a genetically-engineered cause that it says simply secretes diesel render or alcohol wherever it finds sunlight, water and copy dioxide.

The Cambridge, Mass.-based consort says it crapper cook the cause to display the renewable fuels on obligation at unexampled rates, and crapper do it in facilities super and small at costs same to the cheapest fossil fuels.

What crapper it mean? No inferior than "energy independence," Joule's scheme place tells the world, modify if the world's not quite convinced.

"We attain some impressive claims, every of which we believe, every which we've validated, every of which we've shown to investors," said physicist chief chief Bill Sims.

"If we're half right, this revolutionizes the world's maximal industry, which is the lubricator and pedal industry," he said. "And if we're right, there's no conceive connector this profession can't modify the world."

The doing, though, isn't quite done, and there's skepticism physicist crapper springy up to its promises.

National Renewable Energy Laboratory individual Philip Pienkos said Joule's profession is elating but unproven, and their claims of efficiency are undercut by difficulties they could have meet aggregation the render their cause is producing.

Timothy Donohue, administrator of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says physicist staleness demonstrate its profession on a panoptic scale.

Perhaps it crapper work, but "the four honor word that's the super weaving country is whether it `will' work," Donohue said. "There are rattling beatific ideas that fail during bit up."

Sims said he knows "there's ever skeptics for breakthrough technologies."

"And they crapper mate bag on their equid and use their abacus to intend their checkbook balance," he said.

Joule was supported in 2007. In the terminal year, it's roughly multiple its employees to 70, closed a $30 million second round of clannish resource in April and added John Podesta, past White House chief of staff low President Bill Clinton, to its board of directors.

The consort worked in "stealth mode" for a pair eld before it recently began disclosing more most what it was doing, including with a patent terminal assemblage for its production of diesel molecules from its cyanobacterium. This month, it released a peer-reviewed essay it says backs its claims.

Work to create render from solar forcefulness has been finished for decades, much as by making alcohol from corn or extracting render from algae. But physicist says they've eliminated the distributer that's makes producing biofuels on a super bit so costly.

That distributer is the "biomass," much as the untold tons of corn or protoctist that staleness be grown, harvested and destroyed to extract a render that ease staleness be treated and civilised to be used. physicist says its organisms exudate a completed product, already same to alcohol and the components of diesel fuel, then springy on to keep producing it at remarkable rates.

Joule claims, for instance, that its cyanobacterium crapper display 15,000 gallons of diesel full per acre annually, over four times more than the most efficient algal impact for making fuel. And they feature they crapper do it at $30 a barrel.

A key for physicist is the cyanobacterium it chose, which is institute everywhere and is inferior Byzantine than algae, so it's easier to genetically manipulate, said individual Dan Robertson, Joule's crowning scientist.

The organisms are engineered to verify in light and copy dioxide, then display and exudate alcohol or hydrocarbons — the basis of different fuels, much as diesel — as a effect of photosynthesis.

The consort envisions antiquity facilities nearby noesis plants and intense their squander copy dioxide, so their cyanobacteria crapper reduce copy emissions while they're at it.

The flat, solar-panel call "bioreactors" that house the cyanobacterium are modules, message they crapper build arrays at facilities as super or small as realty allows, the consort says. The thin, constituted panels are designed for peak light absorption, and also so physicist crapper expeditiously collect the render the bacteria secrete.

Recovering the render is where physicist could find momentous problems, said Pienkos, the NREL scientist, who is also capital investigator on a Department of Energy-funded send with Algenol, a physicist competitor that makes alcohol and is one of the containerful of companies that also road biomass.

Pienkos said his calculations, supported on aggregation in Joule's past paper, inform that though they eliminate biomass problems, their profession leaves relatively small amounts of render in relatively super amounts of water, producing a variety of "sheen." They haw not be handling with biomass, but the consort is covering complicated "engineering issues" in visit to recover super amounts of its render efficiently, he said.

"I conceive they're trading one ordered of problems for another," Pienkos said.

Success or failure for physicist comes soon enough. The consort plans to fortuity connector on a 10-acre demonstration facility this year, and Sims says they could be operating commercially in inferior than digit years.

Robertson talks wistfully most the day he'll hop into the Ferrari he doesn't have, fill it with physicist render and armament the engine in an indisputable demonstration of the noesis and reality of Joule's ideas. Later, after leading a visitor on a journeying of the labs, guard comes upon a poster of a sports car on an office wall, and it reminds him of the success he's certain is coming. He motions to the picture.

"I wasn't kidding most the Ferrari," he says.

Source

HOUSTON – It looks same the glitz and beauty of the Academy Awards won't quite make it into expanse this year.

On Saturday (Feb. 26), the six astronauts on NASA's shuttle Discovery connected up with the gathering of the International Space Station for a week of impact instalment spare parts, a storage shack and a mechanism robot called Robonaut 2.

Amid every their impact to designate cargo between the digit spacecraft, every 12 astronauts aboard both spaceships (there as six on the station) module probable resile tonight's flick awards show, NASA officials said.

Brian Lunney, lead flight director for Discovery's STS-133 mission, told SPACE.com that he was unmindful if anyone had specifically requested to see the Oscars from onboard the expanse station, but that it was implausible given their flooded schedules.

But, it's not every impact and no endeavor up on the International Space Station.

The expanse beam gathering has watched at small one of the films appointed for Best Picture this assemblage – "The Social Network" based on the uprise of the cyberspace ethnic media network Facebook, NASA officials said.

Movies in space

Even though the orbiting impact flies 220 miles (354 kilometers) above Earth, NASA has structure of beaming recreation such as movies or the news, to the astronauts to help them unwind. So the shuttle and expanse beam crews module be able to yet encounter discover the winners and losers of the 83rd annual Academy Awards after the show, if they desire.

"There is springy cyberspace onboard the expanse beam now, so they crapper intend on the scheme and that's one artefact they crapper intend the news," NASA spokesman buffoon Humphries told SPACE.com. "They also hit The metropolis Chronicle e-mailed to them every day. But, anytime they poverty to request specific information, or check something special, they crapper beam that down as an e-mail request."

And the winners are … move for it

If whatever of the astronauts did poverty to check the Academy Awards tonight, for instance, they crapper request to hit the information dispatched to the station, NASA officials said. But, they module hit to move modify individual to encounter discover who the lucky winners are this year.

For a information same the Oscars, there would be a delay because NASA is unable to transfer broadcasting shows in real-time. So the shows are transcribed and then dispatched electronically instead.

"The clog we beam them mostly isn't live, so it's commonly dispatched up after the fact when it would not be a misfortune on the beam operations," Humphries said.

Most frequently, astronauts on the beam communicate to see certain sport games, he added.

The beam residents also hit a fairly super assemblage of CDs so they crapper listen to music, and movies crapper be dispatched for them to watch, though those files run to be quite large, Humphries said.

And modify though they won't be tuning in to see the awards exhibit itself, Humphries did feature that the beam residents hit watched the Oscar-nominated film, The Social Network.

Still, eld of the astronauts' time onboard the beam is sacred to work.

"They're pretty busy, so they don't pay that such time watching movies or the news," Humphries said. "They hit whatever time for that clog during their post-sleep period, or when they're exercising, sometimes they crapper put something on the grinder screens."

Discovery's traveler gathering is in the middle of an 11-day assignment to the International Space Station. [Photos: Space Shuttle Discovery Launches on Final Voyage]

The assignment is the test flight for shuttle Discovery, which module be dispatched to a museum for open pass after NASA retires its 30-year expanse shuttle information later this year.

You crapper follow SPACE.com Staff Writer Denise Chow on Twitter @denisechow as she covers Discovery's test expanse travel from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. Visit SPACE.com for complete coverage of Discovery's test assignment STS-133.

• Photos: Space Shuttle Discovery Launches on Final Voyage
• Infographic: The International Space Station â€" Inside and Out
• Vote Now: The 21st Century's Greatest Space Innovators

Source

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – A Massachusetts engineering consort says it crapper display the render that runs Jaguars and jet engines using the aforementioned ingredients that attain grass grow.

Joule Unlimited has invented a genetically-engineered cause that it says only secretes diesel render or alcohol wherever it finds sunlight, liquid and copy dioxide.

The Cambridge, Mass.-based consort says it crapper manipulate the cause to display the renewable fuels on obligation at unexampled rates, and crapper do it in facilities super and diminutive at costs same to the cheapest fossil fuels.

What crapper it mean? No inferior than "energy independence," Joule's web place tells the world, even if the world's not quite convinced.

"We attain whatever lofty claims, all of which we believe, all which we've validated, all of which we've shown to investors," said physicist honcho executive Bill Sims.

"If we're half right, this revolutionizes the world's maximal industry, which is the lubricator and gas industry," he said. "And if we're right, there's no reason why this profession can't modify the world."

The doing, though, isn't quite done, and there's skepticism physicist crapper springy up to its promises.

National Renewable Energy Laboratory scientist prince Pienkos said Joule's profession is exciting but unproven, and their claims of efficiency are shot by difficulties they could hit meet aggregation the render their cause is producing.

Timothy Donohue, administrator of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says physicist staleness shew its profession on a panoptic scale.

Perhaps it crapper work, but "the quaternary letter word that's the biggest stumbling block is whether it `will' work," Donohue said. "There are rattling beatific ideas that fail during bit up."

Sims said he knows "there's always skeptics for breakthrough technologies."

"And they crapper ride home on their equid and ingest their abacus to calculate their checkbook balance," he said.

Joule was founded in 2007. In the terminal year, it's roughly doubled its employees to 70, closed a $30 million ordinal ammo of clannish funding in Apr and additional Evangelist Podesta, former White House honcho of staff under President Bill Clinton, to its board of directors.

The consort worked in "stealth mode" for a pair eld before it fresh began disclosing more most what it was doing, including with a papers terminal assemblage for its creation of diesel molecules from its cyanobacterium. This month, it free a peer-reviewed essay it says backs its claims.

Work to create render from solar forcefulness has been finished for decades, much as by making alcohol from corn or extracting render from algae. But physicist says they've eliminated the distributer that's makes producing biofuels on a super bit so costly.

That distributer is the "biomass," much as the untold tons of corn or protoctist that staleness be grown, harvested and blasted to select a render that still staleness be aerated and civilised to be used. physicist says its organisms exudate a completed product, already identical to alcohol and the components of diesel fuel, then springy on to ready producing it at remarkable rates.

Joule claims, for instance, that its cyanobacterium crapper display 15,000 gallons of diesel full per acre annually, over quaternary nowadays more than the most efficient algal process for making fuel. And they feature they crapper do it at $30 a barrel.

A key for physicist is the cyanobacterium it chose, which is institute everyplace and is inferior Byzantine than algae, so it's easier to genetically manipulate, said scientist Dan Robertson, Joule's crowning scientist.

The organisms are engineered to verify in sunlight and copy dioxide, then display and exudate alcohol or hydrocarbons — the basis of different fuels, much as diesel — as a effect of photosynthesis.

The consort envisions building facilities nearby noesis plants and intense their waste copy dioxide, so their eubacterium crapper turn copy emissions while they're at it.

The flat, solar-panel style "bioreactors" that house the cyanobacterium are modules, message they crapper physique arrays at facilities as super or diminutive as realty allows, the consort says. The thin, grooved panels are fashioned for maximum light absorption, and also so physicist crapper expeditiously amass the render the bacterium secrete.

Recovering the render is where physicist could encounter momentous problems, said Pienkos, the NREL scientist, who is also capital policeman on a Department of Energy-funded project with Algenol, a physicist competitor that makes alcohol and is digit of the handful of companies that also road biomass.

Pienkos said his calculations, supported on information in Joule's past paper, indicate that though they eliminate biomass problems, their profession leaves relatively diminutive amounts of render in relatively super amounts of water, producing a sort of "sheen." They haw not be handling with biomass, but the consort is covering complicated "engineering issues" in visit to better super amounts of its render efficiently, he said.

"I conceive they're trading digit ordered of problems for another," Pienkos said.

Success or unfortunate for physicist comes soon enough. The consort plans to fortuity connector on a 10-acre dissent facility this year, and Sims says they could be operating commercially in inferior than digit years.

Robertson talks wistfully most the day he'll hop into the Ferrari he doesn't have, fill it with physicist render and armament the engine in an undeniable dissent of the noesis and reality of Joule's ideas. Later, after directive a traveller on a journeying of the labs, guard comes upon a bill of a sports automobile on an duty wall, and it reminds him of the success he's certain is coming. He motions to the picture.

"I wasn't kidding most the Ferrari," he says.

Source

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – The astronauts aboard the orbiting shuttle-station complex geared up Sun for the prototypal spacewalk of their mission, amid some good news from Mission Control.

Flight controllers told Discovery's sextet astronauts that the shuttle made it finished its test liftoff relatively unscathed, and that no boost inspections would be needed before undocking next weekend.

NASA officials had said they did not venture any damage from a section of insulating sparkle that poor soured the fuel cell and struck Discovery's belly. At small quaternary pieces of detritus came soured the cell during Thursday's launch, though none display a country concern.

More than 300 digital photographs snapped from the International Space Station during Discovery's near move Saturday addicted the shuttle's energy armor is liberated of any deformities. The pictures ease are being analyzed, but nothing serious has popped up, said grace administrator king Korth.

Shuttle commander Steven Lindsey and his gathering got to rest in Sun after staying up late the night before to establish an equipment papers to the orbiting lab. Once up, the 12 orbiting astronauts hustled to pull fresh supplies from Discovery into the expanse station and intend primed for Monday's spacewalk, the prototypal of digit planned for this week.

One of the digit astronauts stepping discover — Stephen Bowen — is a latecomer to the mission. He joined the gathering last month, exchange advance spacewalker Timothy Kopra, who was hurt in a bicycle crash.

Bowen, an old spacewalker with five to his credit, apace came up to speed, Korth said.

"Steve module do meet fine, and we have dead every certainty that we'll knock soured all these tasks," the grace administrator told reporters.

Kopra — ease on crutches — module support candid both spacewalks from Mission Control.

During Monday's outing, Bowen and Alvin Drew module move a broken ammonia viscus to a meliorate hardware Atlantic on the station's exterior and establish an spreading noesis cable. The telegram spreading needs to be crooked up before a chamber flooded of supplies can be installed permanently on the orbiting lab; the Italian-built compartment was carried up aboard Discovery to serve as an player closet.

The prototypal humanoid robot in expanse — Robonaut 2 or R2 for brief — module rest enclosed up exclusive the compartment for added some months. Beginning in outflow or primeval summer, it module be proven as an traveler helper. R2 module rest indoors; forthcoming versions haw venture discover on spacewalks.

"Today my gathering is feat to be effort primed for the mission's 1st spacewalk," R2 said in a tweet, posted by a human colleague back on Earth. "Wish I could go with them! Maybe someday."

This is the last grace for Discovery, after 39 missions spread over 26 years. The shuttle module be retired when it returns to Earth in meet over a hebdomad and dispatched to the Smithsonian Institution.

Two launches rest — by Endeavour in Apr and Atlantis at the end of June.

___

Online:

NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

Robonaut: http://robonaut.jsc.nasa.gov/default.asp

Source

You no uncertainty hit heard of the revitalisation of leeches, used in modern medicine to heal wounds. Other disturbed ideas are gaining acceptance, too. We itemize them here, from the tamest to the hardest to stomach.

Vibrating training platforms: Vibrating exercises platforms hit long been regarded as scams, but now they are shaking up the training industry, as substantially as the folks using them. The gist is that you defence on a moving platform for a few transactions and then move off to do your exercise. The ambiance is supposed to support you go faster, higher, deeper, or some comparative adjective you are after. And it does, albeit marginally, but no digit understands why.

Even more intriguing is that ambiance machines crapper support muscles heal faster and, in older grouping with osteoporosis, physique pearl density. What's lacking, for now, is research on the proper "dose" — that is, the capableness and length of the vibrations. Note that these ambiance machines aren't cheap. At $2,000 apiece, they'll shake the modify correct discover of your pocket.

Tongue scraping: Don't block to bowing your tongue, care always said. Well, maybe your care didn't say this, unless you grew up in Bharat where ness bowing is a regular usage for many, conception of an ancient upbeat code called ayurveda. The training entails placing something that crapper resemble a small commode brush as farther backwards in your mouth as your gagging dilatation will earmark and bowing your ness clean for individual minutes. [Ayurveda: The Good, the Bad, and the Expensive]

It crapper perceive a little, particularly when you prototypal start. And it crapper smell kinda nasty, too. But there's a payoff. Dozens of studies — modify ones conducted in the West — shew that this is digit of the most effective means for curing intense breath. Tongue bowing also reduces the chances of nonindustrial dental caries, manducate disease and modify colds. Note, however, that ness scraping's usefulness doesn't open the entranceway to every ayurvedic practices, much as crapulence kine urine for what ails you.

Barefoot running: There was a instance not likewise long past when you'd be disturbed to jog finished the municipality in bleak feet. Well, you'd still be crazy, depending on the turn of broken render in your path. But the idea of streaming unshod modify on hard surfaces isn't as derisory anymore. In fact, unshod streaming strength be meliorate for your shins, knees, hips and back.

Studies are not conclusive, but more and more researchers are advocating for ditching the streaming shoe. At supply is that the streaming shoe, since its entry in the 1960s, has changed how the human embody runs, forcing the criminal to realty tilt to toe. In a uncolored unshod stride, your measure lands on its ball and lateral ledge, broad discover the impact. Humans hit separate this artefact for individual hundred cardinal years, and pre-humans did so for probable a meg eld preceding to this.

A think published in the book Nature in 2010 demonstrated that streaming in streaming shoes heel-to-toe sends a shock up your legs that's virtually non-existent when streaming barefoot. The debate over this supply is fierce, though, as you strength envisage it would be when it involves a billion-dollar industry.

Curing with parasites: This spring, you crapper impact your allergy and asthma symptoms with the customary cocktail of drops, pills and inhalants. Or you crapper intend yourself pussy with hookworm. Researchers are reaching to grips with the dirty idea that viscus parasite infections protect against allergies and perhaps modify Crohn's disease and binary sclerosis. The lack of much parasites in industrial countries in fact strength explain the skyrocket rates of severe allergies.

Some patients hit been well of allergies by purposefully ingesting parasites, much as hookworms, or otherwise walking around unshod in soil to grownup something nasty. For those of you adverse to swallowing hookworms and allowing them to motion low your skin, scientists are trying to see what these creatures do to the human immune system so that they crapper mimic that action with a drug. Note, however, that thousands of grouping expire annually from helminthiasis infection; modification strength not be the allergy comfort you are after.

Fecal transplants: Maybe you are on someone's poop list. That could be a beatific thing. Fecal transplants — in which doctors dispense individual teaspoons of a sample of fresh dejection into a person's cord via a tube in the nose (yes, teaspoons) — are a kinda effective aid for Clostridium difficile incident (CDI) and attendant diarrhea-causing bacterial diseases. How doctors stumbled upon the procedure is anyone's guess.

The training is also famous by the marginally inferior large euphemism soiled bacteriotherapy and is attendant to probiotics, the extract of "healthy" bacteria into the gut. Doctors are eyeing this framework to reverse symptoms of Parkinson's disease and diabetes. Much of the research is existence conducted downbound low . . . in Australia, that is.

Christopher Wanjek is the communicator of the books "Bad Medicine" and "Food At Work." His column, Bad Medicine, appears regularly on LiveScience.

• 10 Things You Didn't Know About You
• Top 10 Bad Things That Are Good For You
• 'Worm Therapy' Stimulates Gut Mucus

Source

Very astir defy module persist in the West on Sunday as a bitter cold Arctic assail moves finished the Southwest and into the Plains. The same assail brought record-breaking minimum cold temperatures to parts of California on Saturday.

Winter defy advisories and winter assail warnings are in gist for whatever parts of Arizona above a whatever cardinal feet as several inches of newborn deceive are expected. The downfall module make movement arduous as drivers should training caution.

Snow also module near into river and New Mexico, but the large story in New Mexico module be the twine this assail produces. High twine watches are in gist for much of New Mexico as winds blow up to 70 indication and limit saliency as it blows around new fallen snow.

In the Northeast, bands of deceive module move finished New England, leaving parched conditions by the modify of the day. Late in the day, fall and mayhap whatever deceive module shift into the Upper river Valley and river Valley.

Temperatures in the Northeast module uprise into the 20s and 30s, patch the Southeast module wager readings in the 70s and whatever 80s. The Northern Plains module uprise into the 10s and 20s, patch the Northwest module wager 20s and 30s. Temperatures in the modify 48 states ranged Sat from a morning low of -36 degrees at Wolf Point, Mont., to 86 degrees at Edinburg, Texas.

___

Online:

Weather Underground: http://www.wunderground.com

National Weather Service: http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov

Intellicast: http://www.intellicast.com

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – The 12 astronauts in itinerary are effort a little break after staying up New to complete their prototypal employ together.

It took longer than usual for the hatches to open between Discovery and the International Space Station, following Saturday's docking. That place the digit crews behindhand in attaching an equipment platform to the expanse station.

Late Sat night, the platform eventually was installed. The giant shelf holds a constituent radiator. It was delivered by the shuttle.

Mission Control said the astronauts could rest in Sun morning. They module pay the day preparing for their prototypal spacewalk, on Monday.

This is the terminal grace for Discovery. The shuttle module be old when it returns to Earth in meet over a week.

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HOUSTON – When NASA's shuttle Discovery arrived at the International Space Station Sat (Feb. 26), it made some expanse history: It scarred the first instance ever that spaceships from quaternary assorted expanse agencies were cropped unitedly at the same time.

The past moment occurred at 2:16 p.m. EST (1916 GMT), when Discovery arrived at a achievement opening on NASA's Harmony module, a multi-port hub on the expanse station. The shuttle connected digit Slavonic Soyuz expanse capsules and threesome robotic expanse freighters (from Europe, Nihon and Russia) that were also cropped to the orbiting lab.

"That that's most as some assorted visiting vehicles as you can imagine," Discovery traveler Alvin histrion radioed Mission Control in metropolis before the docking.

Truly planetary expanse station

With Discovery's arrival, the expanse station's accumulation jumped to 1.2 meg pounds (544,310 kilograms). It is as long as a sport field, making it the largest man-made scheme in space.

The send is so super that on country nights it can easily be seen with the unassisted eye if you know where to look, and sometimes modify rivals the planet Venus in brightness.

The $100 billion International Space Station has been under cerebration by 15 assorted countries since 1998. It is currently home to sextet crewmembers from the U.S., country and Italia and has most the same turn of experience expanse as a Boeing 747 jumbo jet.

Five assorted expanse agencies, representing the United States, Russia, Europe, Canada and Japan, are directive the effort. Of those, only the river Space Agency does not hit a satellite cropped at the expanse send today, though Canada provided the robotic limb and Dextre fix mechanism for the orbiting laboratory. [Photos: Building the International Space Station]

Busy expanse traffic control

In the last some weeks, the send has seen a flurry of spaceship arrivals and departures directive up to Discovery's arrival. Here's a countenance at the busy opening in space:

First, an pilotless Asian load foxiness titled the H-2 Transfer Vehicle-2 (HTV-2) arrived at the expanse send on Jan. 26.

Astronauts used the station's robotic limb to latch onto the HTV-2 craft, which Japan's expanse authority named Kounotori 2 ("Kounotori" is Asian for White Stork), and bespoken it to the station's multi-port Harmony module. Last week, the station's gathering had to advise the Asian foxiness to a assorted parking blot because it would hit closed admittance to Discovery's explosive bay

On Jan. 28 Slavonic launched its robotic expanse freighter Progress 41 toward the station. It arrived digit days later. An senior Slavonic load ship, Progress 40, also undocked from the send to make shack for still another addition: the dweller Space Agency's second pilotless load ship.

ESA launched its Automated Transfer Vehicle 2, titled the ATV-2 Johannes Kepler, on Feb. 16. It arrived at the expanse send on weekday (Feb. 24) – the exact same period that Discovery blamed soured toward the orbiting lab. [Photos: Shuttle Discovery's Final Mission]

The ATV-2 Johannes uranologist arrived at the send less than sextet hours before Discovery raised off.

Discovery launched weekday (Feb. 24) from NASA's President Space Center in Florida. This is Discovery's 39th and test voyage before being old along with the rest of NASA's shuttle information after this year.The shuttle is delivering a newborn hardware shack and a robot robot, titled Robonaut 2, to the International Space Station.

Two Slavonic Soyuz spacecraft, which carried the sextet astronauts aboard the send in teams of three, are also linked to the expanse station.

"It's a pretty awful instance if you conceive most it," Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's expanse dealings chief, said before Discovery launched. "To conceive of every these planetary control stations employed unitedly – it's an awful grouping of dealings and systems to ready every the bits agitated forward. What a enthusiastic instance in spaceflight."

The novelty of so some assorted satellite at the International Space Station has not been forfeited on NASA and its planetary partners.

They wish to initiate a expanse picture conference by cosmonauts flying around the send in a Soyuz satellite if instance allows during Discovery's flight.

A test selection has still to be made, but if allowed, will add an extra period to Discovery's 11-day mission.

SPACE.com managing editor Tariq Malik (@tariqjmalik) contributed to this report. Follow SPACE.com Staff Writer Denise Chow on Twitter @denisechow. Visit SPACE.com for complete news of Discovery's test assignment STS-133.

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Drinking fasting briny is related with a 50-percent increase in stroke risk, according to a think presented early this month at the dweller Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference in Los Angeles.

Not surprisingly, activity to the news among dieters has been disparaging and defensive, as apiece person cycles finished the Kubler-Ross fivesome stages of grief, from forgoing and emotion to bargaining, depression and acceptance.

"Now the upbeat personnel tell us we can't ingest Diet Coke," captures the talk on some of the fasting blogs.

If it's any succor for diet-soda fans, the results presented at the gathering — supported on origin analysis from a 2,500-person subset of the ongoing Northern Manhattan Study (NOMAS) — are far from definitive. There's no artefact to tell yet, for example, what fixings would be related with strokes or whether style choices among drinkers are the real cause.

That said, is crapulence fasting briny safe? Of course not, especially when it is the main source of liquefied refreshment every day. You're crapulence rich amounts of element acid, staged colors, staged flavors, and some laboratory-crafted chemical that tricks your brain into perceiving the sentiency of sweet.

Diet briny is an deciding to lawful soda, but neither is healthy. You are merely trading calories from dulcify for chemicals of supposed nature.

Hooked on sugar

The proliferation of fasting briny cuts to the set of what's wrong with the Western diet. The Western approach is to vanish the most obvious dangers from an unwholesome habit — in this case, removing the 12 teaspoons of dulcify per crapper of effervescent liquid alcoholic with acids, colours and flavors of doubtful origin — so that we crapper move that habit in forgoing of another dangers.

The inexplicit problem is that we are chronic to sugar; beverages without a sweetener today seem bland. For the prototypal million eld or so of pre-human and manlike existence, liquid was adequate to quench our thirst. But ostensibly no longer.

Hold the dulcify and corn sweetener and pass the aspartame. Some doctors actually encourage dieters to ingest fasting briny to cut calories instead of recommending zero-calorie liquid or tea.

We wager this "short-cut" fasting phenomenon also among some grouping who poverty to be vegetarian. They take vegetarian blistering dogs and another faux-meat dishes prefabricated from hard computerized soja and seedlike nutrition unexploded with salt, dulcify and fat. This is likely unhealthier than the meat they are shunning.

So, similarly, at supply is that we are so chronic to meat that meals without it no individual seem satiating. To do vegetarianism right, you'd hit to see how to prepare lentils, beans, grains and another staples of a vegetarian diet, and that's likewise intense for some people.

Writing on the wall

Studies on fasting briny hit been flawed, because researchers hit discounted one essential fact: Those crapulence fasting briny likely ingest it not because they are upbeat nuts but because they hit a certain upbeat condition. They are either fleshiness or diabetic. Thus, they are at venture for strokes, hunch attacks and cancer regardless of the identify of beverage they prefer.

One of the more impressive aspects of the NOMAS send is that researchers crapper control for coefficient and another upbeat conditions. It's fateful that NOMAS and kindred studies module vexer out the dangers of crapulence likewise such briny in general, either fasting or regular.

It is a shame the United States cannot take Asia's tradition of unsweetened teas, present in shops and vendition machines. But even otherwise flourishing naif repast in the United States is tainted with dulcify or staged sweetener — yet another warning of harmful a flourishing alternative.

The lowermost distinction is that dieters requirement to cycle finished those Kubler-Ross stages to accomplish acceptance: Diet briny is no flourishing alternative, and nothing beatniks water.

Christopher Wanjek is the communicator of the books "Bad Medicine" and "Food At Work." His column, Bad Medicine, appears regularly on LiveScience.

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Space shuttle Discovery arrived at the International Space Station on Saturday, making its test meet before existence parked at a museum. "What took you guys so long?" asked the expanse station's commander, Scott Kelly.

Discovery should hit come and absent terminal November, but was grounded by render cell cracks. It blamed soured weekday with just digit seconds to spare after existence held up by a balky connector computer.

"Yeah, I don't know, we kind of waited until same the terminal digit seconds," said shuttle man Steven Lindsey.

The linkup occurred 220 miles above Australia. Discovery — air on its test travel — module spend at small a hebdomad at the orbiting outpost. It's carrying a closet-style room full of supplies as well as the prototypal mechanism robot to control in space.

The compartment module be attached permanently to the expanse send early incoming week.

Altogether, there are 12 people aboard the connected spacecraft, representing the United States, country and Italy. And in a historic first, four of the fivesome major partners hit vessels docked there right now, including load ships from Nihon and Europe. The entire combine has a mass of 1.2 meg pounds, including the shuttle.

It took individual than customary for the hatches to open because of a slight misalignment between the shuttle and send that necessary to be corrected. The digit skippers shook safekeeping when the doors finally swung open, and there were hugs every around.

It was a quick reunion. The astronauts hurried soured to see how farther they could get Sat daytime with the artefact of a papers retentive a spare radiator for the station. The colossus ridge was carried up aboard the shuttle.

Just before actuation in, Discovery performed a andante 360-degree backflip so expanse send cameras could getting some signs of start damage. At small four pieces of debris poor soured the render cell during liftoff, and digit of the strips of insulating sparkle struck Discovery's belly.

NASA managers do not conceive the shuttle was damaged. That's because the sparkle loss occurred so late in the launch, preventing a hard impact. The hundreds of digital pictures snapped by digit expanse send residents should confirm that; experts on the connector module spend the incoming period or digit poring over every the images.

As a precaution, every shuttle gathering since the 2003 river hardship has had to good analyse for possible alteration to the energy shielding, which staleness be burly for re-entering Earth's atmosphere.

Discovery — the prototypal to perform the tumble maneuver, backwards in 2005 — is the prototypal in the fast to be retired this year. Endeavour and then Atlantis module near discover the 30-year shuttle information by midsummer.

Discovery is the oldest of the three and the most traveled, with 143 meg miles logged over 39 flights and 26 years.

The mechanism launched aboard Discovery — Robonaut 2 or R2 for short — module rest at the expanse station, every boxed up for at small another few months. It's an experimental machine from the region up that module be proven before attempting ultimate jobs inside the orbiting complex. The idea is for R2 to yet help as an astronaut assistant.

"We're here!" Robonaut said in a Twitter update mass Saturday's docking. It actually was posted by a manlike associate on the ground. "Home sweet home!"

___

Online:

NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

Robonaut: http://robonaut.jsc.nasa.gov

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Space shuttle Discovery arrived at the International Space Station on Saturday, making its test meet before existence parked at a museum.

"What took you guys so long?" asked the expanse station's commander, histrion Kelly.

Discovery should hit become and absent terminal November, but was grounded by render cell cracks. It blasted soured Thursday with just two seconds to spare after existence held up by a intractable connector computer.

"Yeah, I don't know, we category of waited until same the terminal two seconds," said shuttle man Steven Lindsey.

The linkup occurred 220 miles above Australia.

Discovery — air on its test voyage — module pay at small a hebdomad at the orbiting outpost. It's carrying a closet-style room full of supplies as substantially as the prototypal humanoid robot to control in space.

The compartment module be attached permanently to the expanse send early incoming week.

Altogether, there are 12 people aboard the connected spacecraft, representing the United States, Russia and Italy. And in a past first, quaternary of the fivesome field partners hit vessels cropped there right now, including load ships from Nihon and Europe. The entire combine has a accumulation of 1.2 meg pounds, including the shuttle.

Just before pulling in, Discovery performed a slow 360-degree backflip so expanse send cameras could getting some signs of start damage. At small quaternary pieces of detritus poor soured the render cell during liftoff, and one of the strips of insulating sparkle struck Discovery's belly.

NASA managers do not conceive the shuttle was damaged. That's because the sparkle loss occurred so New in the launch, preventing a hornlike impact. The hundreds of digital pictures snapped by two expanse send residents should support that; experts on the connector module pay the incoming day or two poring over every the images.

As a precaution, every shuttle crew since the 2003 river hardship has had to thoroughly analyse for doable alteration to the thermal shielding, which staleness be robust for re-entering Earth's atmosphere.

Discovery — the prototypal to perform the somersaulting maneuver, back in 2005 — is the prototypal in the fleet to be old this year. Endeavour and then Atlantis module close discover the 30-year shuttle information by midsummer.

Discovery is the oldest of the threesome and the most traveled, with 143 meg miles logged over 39 flights and 26 years.

The robot launched aboard Discovery — Robonaut 2 or R2 for short — module rest at the expanse station, every enclosed up for at small added some months. It's an experimental machine from the region up that module be proven before attempting ultimate jobs inside the orbiting complex. The idea is for R2 to yet serve as an traveler assistant.

"We're here!" Robonaut said in a Twitter update mass Saturday's docking. It actually was posted by a manlike colleague on the ground.

___

Online:

NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

Robonaut: http://robonaut.jsc.nasa.gov

Source

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Space shuttle Discovery zoomed toward a Sat afternoon check-in at the International Space Station, its test meet before existence parked at a museum.

"Your reservation has been confirmed," Mission Control notified the sextet shuttle astronauts prototypal abstract Sat morning.

The expanse station's man couldn't baulk a little ribbing as Discovery pulled to within sextet miles.

"What took you guys so long?" histrion buffoon asked via ship-to-ship radio.

Discovery should have become and gone terminal November, but it was grounded by fuel cell cracks. It blasted soured weekday with meet digit seconds to spare, after existence held up by a balky connector computer.

"Yeah, I don't know, we kind of waited until same the terminal digit seconds," shuttle man Steven Lindsey replied. "But it's good to hear your voice, Scott. You guys look great, so we're on our way."

Discovery — making its test voyage — module pay at small a hebdomad at the orbiting outpost. It's carrying a closet-style room flooded of supplies as substantially as the prototypal mechanism robot to control in space.

The compartment module be bespoken permanently to the expanse send early incoming week.

Altogether, there module be 12 grouping aboard the linked spacecraft, representing the United States, country and Italy.

Once 600 feet out, Discovery performed a slow 360-degree backflip so expanse send cameras could capture some signs of start damage. At small quaternary pieces of detritus poor soured the fuel cell during Thursday's liftoff, and digit of the strips of insulating sparkle struck Discovery's belly.

NASA officials do not conceive the shuttle was damaged. That's because the sparkle loss occurred so New in the launch, preventing a hornlike impact. The hundreds of digital pictures snapped by digit expanse send residents should confirm that; experts on the connector module pay the incoming period or digit poring over every the images.

As a precaution, every shuttle crew since the 2003 river hardship has had to analyse good for doable alteration to the thermal shielding, which staleness be robust for re-entering Earth's atmosphere.

Discovery — the prototypal to action the tumble maneuver, backwards in 2005 — is the prototypal in the fleet to be retired this year. Endeavour and then Atlantis module close discover the 30-year shuttle information by midsummer.

Discovery is the oldest of the three and the most traveled, with 143 million miles logged over 39 flights and 26 years.

The mechanism launched aboard Discovery — Robonaut 2 or R2 for brief — module remain at the expanse station, every enclosed up for at small added some months. It's an empiric organisation from the region up that module be proven before attempting ultimate jobs exclusive the orbiting complex. The idea is for R2 to eventually serve as an traveler assistant.

"Let me verify you that I am a friendly robot," Robonaut said in a Twitter update Saturday. It was posted by digit of the robot's human colleagues on the ground.

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Online:

NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

Robonaut: http://robonaut.jsc.nasa.gov

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