Jumat, 31 Mei 2013
Senin, 27 Mei 2013
Mexican Cave Art Offers Peek into Pre-Spanish Past
In the mountains of northeastern Mexico, archaeologists have unearthed thousands of ancient paintings on the walls of caves and ravines from a time before Spanish rule.
The rock art offers rare evidence from native cultures living in the area around the Sierra de San Carlos, a mountain range in Mexico's state of Tamaulipas, researchers say.
Almost 5,000 of these paintings were found across 11 different sites in the region, the researchers said. Created with red, yellow, black and white pigments, the images show animals from deer to lizards to centipedes, as well as people. Depictions of tents, hunting, fishing and possibly astronomical charts also offer a glimpse into the life of this mysterious culture.
The findings document the presence of pre-Hispanic groups, "where before it was said that there was nothing, when in fact it was inhabited by one or more cultures," archaeologist Gustavo Ramirez, of the Mexican National Institute of Anthropology and History, said in a statement.
The ancient people who once inhabited the mountains of Tamaulipas left very little behind for modern archaeologists to pore over. There is little known of their languages, rituals and customs, besides references to them by conquistadors and friars who colonized and Christianized the region.
Another archaeologist, Martha Garcia Sanchez, said these people were able to resist Spanish rule by living in the mountains, "where they had water, plants and animals to feed themselves."
The rock art was rediscovered in 2006, and archaeologists first started studying the site two years ago. Researchers have not yet been able to precisely date the paintings but further testing on samples of the pigments could reveal the age of the rock art.
"We have not found any ancient objects linked to the context, and because the paintings are on ravine walls and in the rainy season the sediments are washed away, all we have is gravel," said Ramirez.
The findings were presented during the Second Conference of Archaeological History in Mexico City.
Follow Megan Gannon on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com.
Gallery: Europe's Oldest Rock Art Amazing Caves: Pictures of the Earth's Innards In Photos: Enormous Ancient Mexican Temple Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The rock art offers rare evidence from native cultures living in the area around the Sierra de San Carlos, a mountain range in Mexico's state of Tamaulipas, researchers say.
Almost 5,000 of these paintings were found across 11 different sites in the region, the researchers said. Created with red, yellow, black and white pigments, the images show animals from deer to lizards to centipedes, as well as people. Depictions of tents, hunting, fishing and possibly astronomical charts also offer a glimpse into the life of this mysterious culture.
The findings document the presence of pre-Hispanic groups, "where before it was said that there was nothing, when in fact it was inhabited by one or more cultures," archaeologist Gustavo Ramirez, of the Mexican National Institute of Anthropology and History, said in a statement.
The ancient people who once inhabited the mountains of Tamaulipas left very little behind for modern archaeologists to pore over. There is little known of their languages, rituals and customs, besides references to them by conquistadors and friars who colonized and Christianized the region.
Another archaeologist, Martha Garcia Sanchez, said these people were able to resist Spanish rule by living in the mountains, "where they had water, plants and animals to feed themselves."
The rock art was rediscovered in 2006, and archaeologists first started studying the site two years ago. Researchers have not yet been able to precisely date the paintings but further testing on samples of the pigments could reveal the age of the rock art.
"We have not found any ancient objects linked to the context, and because the paintings are on ravine walls and in the rainy season the sediments are washed away, all we have is gravel," said Ramirez.
The findings were presented during the Second Conference of Archaeological History in Mexico City.
Follow Megan Gannon on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com.
Gallery: Europe's Oldest Rock Art Amazing Caves: Pictures of the Earth's Innards In Photos: Enormous Ancient Mexican Temple Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Ohio man, 87, skydives to aid sick great-grandson
WAYNESVILLE, Ohio (AP) An 87-year-old World War II veteran has parachuted from a plane in an Ohio to support his ailing great-grandson.
Clarence Turner of Fairfield made the jump Saturday with an instructor. He says he wanted to generate attention for the plight of 10-month-old Julian Couch, who suffers from a lung disease that could require a transplant.
WLWT of Cincinnati reports that (http://bit.ly/14RYHF1) Julian is hospitalized in Columbus. A fundraiser is planned for June 2.
Turner also made a jump at age 85 to fulfill a goal to experience freefalling and landing as he did in the Army. He served from 1944-47, and his last jump was in Japan.
Turner says he also hopes to someday make a parachute jump at an older age than former President George H.W. Bush, who's 88.
Spin Zone: Physicists Get 1st Look at Strange Quantum Magnetism
Using super-chilled atoms, physicists have for the first time observed a weird phenomenon called quantum magnetism, which describes the behavior of single atoms as they act like tiny bar magnets.
Quantum magnetism is a bit different from classical magnetism, the kind you see when you stick a magnet to a fridge, because individual atoms have a quality called spin, which is quantized, or in discrete states (usually called up or down). Seeing the behavior of individual atoms has been hard to do, though, because it required cooling atoms to extremely cold temperatures and finding a way to "trap" them.
The new finding, detailed in the May 24 issue of the journal Science, also opens the door to better understanding physical phenomena, such as superconductivity, which seems to be connected to the collective quantum properties of some materials. [Twisted Physics: 7 Mind-Blowing Findings]
Spin science
The research team at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich focused on atoms' spin, because that's what makes magnets magnetic all the spins of the atoms in a bar magnet are pointed the same way.
To get a clear view of atoms' spin behaviors, the researchers had to cool potassium atoms to near absolute zero. That way, the random thermal "noise" basically background radiation and heat didn't spoil the view by jostling the potassium atoms around.
The scientists then created an "optical lattice" a crisscrossing set of laser beams. The beams interfere with each other and create regions of high and low potential energy. Neutral atoms with no charge will tend to sit in the lattice's "wells," which are regions of low energy.
Once the lattice is built, the atoms will sometimes randomly "tunnel" through the sides of the wells, because the quantum nature of particles allows them to be in multiple places at the same time, or to have varying amounts of energy. [Quantum Physics: The Coolest Little Particles in Nature]
Another factor that determines where the atoms lie in the optical lattice is their up or down spin. Two atoms can't be in the same well if their spins are the same. That means atoms will have a tendency to tunnel into wells with others that have opposite spins. After a while, a line of atoms should spontaneously organize itself, with the spins in a non-random pattern. This kind of behavior is different from materials in the macroscopic world, whose orientations can have a wide range of in-between values; this behavior is also why most things aren't magnets the spins of the electrons in the atoms are oriented randomly and cancel each other out.
And that's exactly what the researchers found. The spins of atoms do organize, at least on the scale the experiment examined.
"The question is, what are the magnetic properties of these one-dimensional chains?" said Tilman Esslinger, a professor of physics at ETH whose lab did the experiments. "Do I have materials with these properties? How can these properties be useful?"
Quantum magnetism
This experiment opens up possibilities for increasing the number of atoms in a lattice, and even creating two-dimensional, gridlike arrangements of atoms, and possibly triangular lattices as well.
One debate among experts is whether at larger scales the spontaneous ordering of atoms would happen in the same way. A random pattern would mean that in a block of iron atoms, for instance, one is just as likely to see a spin up or down atom in any direction. The spin states are in what is called a "spin liquid" a mishmash of states. But it could be that atoms spontaneously arrange themselves at larger scales.
"They've put the foundation on various theoretical matters," said Jong Han, a professor of condensed matter physics theory at the State University of New York at Buffalo, who was not involved in the research. "They don't really establish the long-range order, rather they wanted to establish that they have observed a local magnetic order."
Whether the order the scientists found extends to larger scales is an important question, because magnetism itself arises from the spins of atoms when they all line up. Usually those spins are randomly aligned. But at very low temperatures and small scales, that changes, and such quantum magnets behave differently.
Han noted that such lattices, especially configurations where the potential wells connect to three others, rather than two or four, would be especially interesting. Esslinger's lab showed that atoms tend to jump to potential wells where the spins are opposite; but if the wells are arranged so that the atom can jump to two other atoms, it can't "choose" which well to go to because one of the two atoms will always be in the same spin state.
Esslinger said his lab wants to try building two-dimensional lattices and explore that very question. "What happens to magnetism if I change the geometry? It's no longer clear if spins should be up or down."
Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com.
The 9 Biggest Unsolved Mysteries in Physics Gallery: Dreamy Images Reveal Beauty in Physics What's That? Your Physics Questions Answered Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Quantum magnetism is a bit different from classical magnetism, the kind you see when you stick a magnet to a fridge, because individual atoms have a quality called spin, which is quantized, or in discrete states (usually called up or down). Seeing the behavior of individual atoms has been hard to do, though, because it required cooling atoms to extremely cold temperatures and finding a way to "trap" them.
The new finding, detailed in the May 24 issue of the journal Science, also opens the door to better understanding physical phenomena, such as superconductivity, which seems to be connected to the collective quantum properties of some materials. [Twisted Physics: 7 Mind-Blowing Findings]
Spin science
The research team at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich focused on atoms' spin, because that's what makes magnets magnetic all the spins of the atoms in a bar magnet are pointed the same way.
To get a clear view of atoms' spin behaviors, the researchers had to cool potassium atoms to near absolute zero. That way, the random thermal "noise" basically background radiation and heat didn't spoil the view by jostling the potassium atoms around.
The scientists then created an "optical lattice" a crisscrossing set of laser beams. The beams interfere with each other and create regions of high and low potential energy. Neutral atoms with no charge will tend to sit in the lattice's "wells," which are regions of low energy.
Once the lattice is built, the atoms will sometimes randomly "tunnel" through the sides of the wells, because the quantum nature of particles allows them to be in multiple places at the same time, or to have varying amounts of energy. [Quantum Physics: The Coolest Little Particles in Nature]
Another factor that determines where the atoms lie in the optical lattice is their up or down spin. Two atoms can't be in the same well if their spins are the same. That means atoms will have a tendency to tunnel into wells with others that have opposite spins. After a while, a line of atoms should spontaneously organize itself, with the spins in a non-random pattern. This kind of behavior is different from materials in the macroscopic world, whose orientations can have a wide range of in-between values; this behavior is also why most things aren't magnets the spins of the electrons in the atoms are oriented randomly and cancel each other out.
And that's exactly what the researchers found. The spins of atoms do organize, at least on the scale the experiment examined.
"The question is, what are the magnetic properties of these one-dimensional chains?" said Tilman Esslinger, a professor of physics at ETH whose lab did the experiments. "Do I have materials with these properties? How can these properties be useful?"
Quantum magnetism
This experiment opens up possibilities for increasing the number of atoms in a lattice, and even creating two-dimensional, gridlike arrangements of atoms, and possibly triangular lattices as well.
One debate among experts is whether at larger scales the spontaneous ordering of atoms would happen in the same way. A random pattern would mean that in a block of iron atoms, for instance, one is just as likely to see a spin up or down atom in any direction. The spin states are in what is called a "spin liquid" a mishmash of states. But it could be that atoms spontaneously arrange themselves at larger scales.
"They've put the foundation on various theoretical matters," said Jong Han, a professor of condensed matter physics theory at the State University of New York at Buffalo, who was not involved in the research. "They don't really establish the long-range order, rather they wanted to establish that they have observed a local magnetic order."
Whether the order the scientists found extends to larger scales is an important question, because magnetism itself arises from the spins of atoms when they all line up. Usually those spins are randomly aligned. But at very low temperatures and small scales, that changes, and such quantum magnets behave differently.
Han noted that such lattices, especially configurations where the potential wells connect to three others, rather than two or four, would be especially interesting. Esslinger's lab showed that atoms tend to jump to potential wells where the spins are opposite; but if the wells are arranged so that the atom can jump to two other atoms, it can't "choose" which well to go to because one of the two atoms will always be in the same spin state.
Esslinger said his lab wants to try building two-dimensional lattices and explore that very question. "What happens to magnetism if I change the geometry? It's no longer clear if spins should be up or down."
Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com.
The 9 Biggest Unsolved Mysteries in Physics Gallery: Dreamy Images Reveal Beauty in Physics What's That? Your Physics Questions Answered Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Minggu, 26 Mei 2013
Asian stocks still shaky as Nikkei slides 3 percent
By Ian Chua
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Japan's Nikkei index slid 3.0 percent in early trade on Monday, following on from a 3.5 percent slide last week in breath-taking volatility that no doubt left many investors shaken.
"Last week's shock will probably last throughout this week," said Kenichi Hirano, a strategist at Tachibana Securities. "But the Japanese market's fundamentals in the mid-to-long term have not changed, so there still is upside in the longer term."
Other Asian stock markets got off to a cautious start on Monday, having suffered their biggest weekly drop in around a year as investors fretted about the possibility of the Federal Reserve dialing down its stimulus program as well as a slowing Chinese economy.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan edged down 0.3 percent. It skidded 2.6 percent last week to one-month lows, posting its biggest fall since May 2012.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index slipped 0.5 percent, but South Korea's KOSPI managed to eke out a 0.1 percent gain.
"Markets are starting to price the removal of unprecedented policy stimulus provided by the Federal Reserve following the global financial crisis," analysts at Barclays Capital wrote in a note.
"Investors have faced this situation several times in recent years, but... the edginess of markets to ebbs and flows in the data and Fed communications in recent months suggests this time is different. Market movements are saying the Fed's exit is now more 'when' than 'if'."
Supporting the view that the Fed may soon scale down its massive stimulus program, data on Friday showed orders for US-made durable goods rose more than expected in April, a hopeful sign that a sharp slowdown in factory output could soon run its course.
That should be music to the ears of dollar bulls. Indeed, figures on Friday showed currency speculators increased bets in favor of the greenback to the highest since at least June 2008.
The dollar index, which tracks the greenback's performance against a currency basket, hit a three-year high last week before succumbing to a bit of pressure. It was last down 0.1 percent at 83.633 .
Much of the excitement in currency markets last week centered on the yen as turbulence in the Nikkei prompted investors to book profits on bearish yen positions.
That saw the dollar recoil from a 4-1/2 year high of 103.74 yen set on May 22. It was last down 0.1 percent at 101.13, not far off a two-week trough of 100.66 plumbed Friday.
Still, traders expect the yen's downtrend to remain intact after the Bank of Japan (BOJ) last month unleashed the world's most intense burst of stimulus.
On Sunday, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said the bank will be vigilant to any signs of overheating of asset prices or excessive risk-taking by financial institutions, adding that there were no signs of that now.
Commodity markets were subdued with UK and U.S. financial markets closed on Monday for public holidays. There is also little in the way of major economic news due out of Asia.
(Additional reporting by Ayai Tomisawa in Tokyo; Editing by Eric Meijer)
Sabtu, 25 Mei 2013
NYPD investigating actress Bynes allegations
NEW YORK (AP) Internal Affairs officers on Saturday were looking into allegations made by actress Amanda Bynes that New York Police Department officers sexually assaulted her when she was charged with heaving a marijuana bong out the window of her 36th-floor Manhattan apartment.
The 27-year-old former child star first alleged during her arraignment on Friday that police illegally entered her apartment after being called to her midtown building. But in a Twitter message believed to be from the troubled actress posted Saturday, Bynes alleged that her arresting officer also sexually assaulted her.
"As it would with any such allegation, regardless of its credibility, IAB is investigating it," said the NYPD's chief spokesman, Paul Browne, referring to the internal affairs bureau.
The Twitter handle used to make the sexual assault allegations Saturday does not appear to be verified by the social network but Bynes' friend, former Hollywood publicist Jonathan Jaxson, said Saturday the tweet was made from Bynes' account. Twitter did not immediately return a request for comment.
In court on Friday, the former "Hairspray" star made no mention of the sexual assault allegations, though she did complain of illegal entry to her apartment. She's been charged with reckless endangerment, attempted tampering with evidence and unlawful possession of marijuana.
A law enforcement official who spoke to the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because of an ongoing investigation said the building manager was with officers at Bynes' apartment when they arrived Thursday night. The official said officers were kept waiting approximately five minutes before she opened the door to them. The same official said the building manager told internal affair investigators nothing untoward happened.
Bynes was released by Chief New York County Judge Neil Ross on her own recognizance because, Ross said, he did not believe her to be a flight risk. But in releasing her, Ross also issued a stern warning to Bynes, telling her not to get rearrested or miss any court dates. She's due back in court on July 9.
Attempts to reach Bynes' arraignment lawyer were unsuccessful Saturday evening.
Bynes rose to fame starring in Nickelodeon's "All That" and has also starred in several films, including 2010's "Easy A." But she has been in the news more recently because of several scrapes with the law and bizarre public behavior.
Bynes was arrested Thursday night after building officials called police to complain she was rolling a joint and smoking pot in the lobby. The officers went to her apartment where they saw heavy smoke and a bong sitting on the kitchen counter. They said she tossed the bong out the window in front of them, prosecutors said Friday.
__
Associated Press writer Colleen Long contributed to this report.
Search for pilot in deadly NY Angel Flight ongoing
EPHRATAH, N.Y. (AP) The search for the pilot of a volunteer Angel Flight that crashed in upstate New York, killing at least two people, ended unsuccessfully Saturday, a town official said.
Town of Ephratah County Board Supervisor Todd Bradt said rescue workers will resume their efforts Sunday to find the third person who was aboard the twin-engine plane that crashed Friday evening in Ephratah, about an hour west of Albany.
He said divers would go back into a large pond where much of the small plane has been submerged, using sonar because visibility is so bad.
"It's so muddy and murky, they can't see nothing," Bradt said. He said a piece of the plane was removed from the pond Saturday but wasn't sure which piece or how much is still under water.
Fulton County Sheriff Thomas Lorey has said the flight's two passengers were found dead Friday near where the twin-engine plane crashed in a wooded area and that the bulk of the plane was found submerged in a pond.
Lorey did not return messages seeking comment Saturday.
Angel Flight is a nonprofit group that arranges free air transportation for sick patients from volunteer pilots. Larry Camerlin, president and founder of Angel Flight Northeast, said the organization was "tremendously saddened" by news of the crash.
The twin-engine Piper PA 34 had departed from Hanscom Field in Bedford, Mass., and was headed to Rome, N.Y., before it crashed just after 5 p.m., Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said.
Officials haven't yet identified the passengers or pilot.
Witnesses described the destruction that started in the air above Ephratah, a sleepy town of about 700 people.
The parking lot of Granny's Ice Cream Shanty, which is less than a mile from the crash site, was filled with emergency vehicles Saturday morning. Owner Joan Dudley told The Associated Press that she and her employees were among the first at the scene Friday night.
"We were just leaving to get something to eat, and we heard this noise," Dudley said.
"We looked up and saw the plane flipping in the air. Then it fell apart," she said. "Parts and pieces of it were flying through the sky, and a body fell out."
They called 911 as they parked their car and ran to the crash site in the rain to see if they could rescue anyone.
"Airplane parts were all over the place," she said. "They were picking them up all over last night."
Ephratah resident Roger Berry, 75, said he was outside chopping wood when the plane crashed.
"When I heard it, I knew something was wrong," Berry said. "It made one circle and came back around."
Berry said he heard a bang, then saw pieces of the plane fall out of the air. Although most of the plane landed in the pond, Berry said pieces, including the engine, scattered about the area.
"My neighbor, she was sleeping in her bedroom," Berry said. "The motor fell 50 feet from her bedroom."
Berry said he ran home to get his raincoat, then assisted rescuers by directing traffic.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating what might have caused the crash.
Visibility at the time in Rome was 10 miles, said National Weather Service meteorologist Brian Montgomery. It was slightly raining with winds of 13 to 14 mph.
Angel Flight Northeast said it has set up free air transportation and medical care for more than 65,000 children and adults on about 60,000 flights covering more than 12 million miles. It was founded in 1996.
"We all offer our thoughts and prayers to the families of those affected," Camerlin said in a statement. "Our volunteer pilots are the most compassionate and generous individuals who donate their time, aircraft and fuel to transport patients and loved ones for free to essential medical care that would otherwise not be readily available to them. There are no words that can adequately express our sorrow."
Town of Ephratah County Board Supervisor Todd Bradt said rescue workers will resume their efforts Sunday to find the third person who was aboard the twin-engine plane that crashed Friday evening in Ephratah, about an hour west of Albany.
He said divers would go back into a large pond where much of the small plane has been submerged, using sonar because visibility is so bad.
"It's so muddy and murky, they can't see nothing," Bradt said. He said a piece of the plane was removed from the pond Saturday but wasn't sure which piece or how much is still under water.
Fulton County Sheriff Thomas Lorey has said the flight's two passengers were found dead Friday near where the twin-engine plane crashed in a wooded area and that the bulk of the plane was found submerged in a pond.
Lorey did not return messages seeking comment Saturday.
Angel Flight is a nonprofit group that arranges free air transportation for sick patients from volunteer pilots. Larry Camerlin, president and founder of Angel Flight Northeast, said the organization was "tremendously saddened" by news of the crash.
The twin-engine Piper PA 34 had departed from Hanscom Field in Bedford, Mass., and was headed to Rome, N.Y., before it crashed just after 5 p.m., Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said.
Officials haven't yet identified the passengers or pilot.
Witnesses described the destruction that started in the air above Ephratah, a sleepy town of about 700 people.
The parking lot of Granny's Ice Cream Shanty, which is less than a mile from the crash site, was filled with emergency vehicles Saturday morning. Owner Joan Dudley told The Associated Press that she and her employees were among the first at the scene Friday night.
"We were just leaving to get something to eat, and we heard this noise," Dudley said.
"We looked up and saw the plane flipping in the air. Then it fell apart," she said. "Parts and pieces of it were flying through the sky, and a body fell out."
They called 911 as they parked their car and ran to the crash site in the rain to see if they could rescue anyone.
"Airplane parts were all over the place," she said. "They were picking them up all over last night."
Ephratah resident Roger Berry, 75, said he was outside chopping wood when the plane crashed.
"When I heard it, I knew something was wrong," Berry said. "It made one circle and came back around."
Berry said he heard a bang, then saw pieces of the plane fall out of the air. Although most of the plane landed in the pond, Berry said pieces, including the engine, scattered about the area.
"My neighbor, she was sleeping in her bedroom," Berry said. "The motor fell 50 feet from her bedroom."
Berry said he ran home to get his raincoat, then assisted rescuers by directing traffic.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating what might have caused the crash.
Visibility at the time in Rome was 10 miles, said National Weather Service meteorologist Brian Montgomery. It was slightly raining with winds of 13 to 14 mph.
Angel Flight Northeast said it has set up free air transportation and medical care for more than 65,000 children and adults on about 60,000 flights covering more than 12 million miles. It was founded in 1996.
"We all offer our thoughts and prayers to the families of those affected," Camerlin said in a statement. "Our volunteer pilots are the most compassionate and generous individuals who donate their time, aircraft and fuel to transport patients and loved ones for free to essential medical care that would otherwise not be readily available to them. There are no words that can adequately express our sorrow."
Canada's Harper says 'very sorry' about expenses scandal
By Mitra Taj
LIMA (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Wednesday said for the first time that he was "very sorry" about a growing expenses scandal that threatens to derail his Conservative government after seven years in power.
Harper is under heavy pressure to explain how he could not have known that Nigel Wright, his chief of staff, had written a personal check for C$90,000 ($87,000) to a senator to help him repay expenses he had improperly claimed.
Wright resigned on Sunday amid howls of protest from opposition legislators who said the secret deal broke ethics rules and made a mockery of the Conservatives' promises to boost accountability in government. The senator, Mike Duffy, resigned from the Conservative caucus on Thursday.
"Obviously, I'm very sorry ... I'm sorry and feel a range of emotions. I'm sorry, frustrated and extremely angry about it," Harper said in his first comments to reporters since the scandal broke on May 14. Harper, who is on a trade mission, spoke at a joint news conference with Peruvian President Ollanta Humala.
Harper had prompted fresh protests from critics and commentators on Tuesday when he told a meeting of Conservative legislators that the affair was a distraction. He said at the time that he was "very upset" with legislators and with his own office but he stopped short of an apology.
The scandal has become one of the biggest crises to hit the Conservatives since they took power in early 2006, promising to clean up Ottawa after a series of ethical problems helped bring down the Liberal government.
Although the next election is not due until October 2015, polls show the Conservatives trailing the Liberals.
When Harper issued a statement on Sunday accepting Wright's resignation, he did not address the issue of whether he had known of or approved of his top aide's actions, but for the first time he was explicit on the issue in his news conference.
"I think we've been very clear that I did not know. ... I learned of this after stories appeared in the media last week speculating on the source of Mr. Duffy's repayments," he said, noting that he accepted the resignation after looking into it.
"I think what's more important about this is that not simply that did I not know, but that I was not consulted, I was not asked to sign off on any such thing, and had I, obviously, been consulted or known I would not have agreed with it, and it is obviously for those reasons that I accepted Mr. Wright's resignation."
Harper named Duffy, a former national television reporter, to the Senate in late 2008. He was popular at fund-raising events but the party has now shunned him.
After Duffy repaid the C$90,000, a Senate committee looking into possible expense violations by members closed his case. Late on Tuesday, the committee decided to reopen the probe.
Duffy took his place in the Senate on Wednesday and released a statement expressing confidence that "my actions regarding expenses do not merit criticism."
The Senate is an unelected chamber with 105 members. It is designed to review legislation passed by elected members of Parliament in the House of Commons lower chamber.
Senators, who are chosen by prime ministers, can serve until the age of 75, when they are obliged to retire.
Harper, who has long complained the Senate is unaccountable, wants to bring in changes to have elections of senators to serve a maximum term of eight years.
The official opposition New Democrats on Wednesday repeated calls for the institution to be abolished.
($1=$1.04 Canadian)
(Writing by David Ljunggren and Randall Palmer in Ottawa; editing by Jackie Frank)
Austrian overcomes fear of heights to aim for slackline record
FRANKFURT, May 25 - An Austrian man tip-toed along a line strung 185 meters (607 feet) off the ground in Frankfurt on Saturday, attempting to set a new world record for "highlining" despite his fear of heights.
Reinhard Kleindl, 32, used only his arms to balance as he walked twice along a 30-metre-long polyester rope anchored to the two wings of Frankfurt's U-shaped skyscraper Tower 185 above hundreds of cheering supporters.
Kleindl said he was trying to set a new record for walking the highest urban highline, but no one was immediately available from the World Slackline Federation to confirm if this was a new record.
According to Kleindl, the previous record was set by a group of French adrenaline junkies on a line about 120 meters above the ground, between the Les Mercuriales twin towers in Paris, two years ago.
Unlike tightropes, slacklines are not held rigidly taut, making it harder to balance.
After completing his walks, Kleindl whooped with joy and admitted he was a bit afraid of heights.
"The effect of the height was worse than I had expected. The straight lines of the building just seem to drop down into infinity," said the long-haired and bearded Austrian.
Kleindl, who studied particle physics before becoming a professional slackliner, was due to repeat his walk three times during a two-day skyscraper-themed festival that started on Saturday.
(Reporting by Maria Sheahan; editing by Belinda Goldsmith)
British police arrest man after spy claim in soldier case
By Peter Griffiths
LONDON (Reuters) - British police arrested a man under anti-terrorism laws at BBC headquarters after an interviewee said security services tried to recruit one of the two men arrested after a soldier was hacked to death in a London street.
Michael Adebolajo, 28 and Michael Adebowale, 22, are under armed guard in hospital after being shot and arrested by police on suspicion of the murder of 25-year-old Lee Rigby, a veteran of the Afghan war, on Wednesday.
A man identified by the BBC as Abu Nusaybah told its flagship news programme "Newsnight" that intelligence officers had approached Adebolajo six months ago to see if he would work for them as an informant. He said Adebolajo had refused.
BBC reporter Richard Watson, who conducted the interview, said police were waiting to arrest Nusaybah after the interview had finished on Friday. The pre-recorded interview was broadcast later that evening.
London's Metropolitan Police said counter-terrorism officers had arrested a 31-year-old man at 2030 GMT on "suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism".
A police spokesman said the arrest was made at the BBC building, but did not confirm the man's identity. He also said the arrest was not directly linked to the soldier's murder. He would not comment on the BBC interview.
A source close to the investigation told Reuters earlier this week that both men suspected to have attacked the soldier were known to Britain's MI5 internal security service. However, intelligence officers thought neither man posed a serious threat.
PARLIAMENTARY INQUIRY
Prime Minister David Cameron has said a parliamentary committee will investigate the security services' role.
In his BBC interview, Nusaybah alleged that intelligence officers visited Adebolajo's London home after the suspect made a trip to Kenya last year.
Nusaybah said his friend had been arrested and questioned in Kenya. This assertion was dismissed by the Kenyan government as a "fairy tale".
"He mentioned initially they (MI5) wanted to ask him if he knew certain individuals," Nusaybah told the BBC. "But after him saying that he didn't know these individuals, what he said was they asked him if he would be interested in working for them. He refused to work for them."
Asked about Nusaybah's comments, a Home Office (interior ministry) spokesman said it never commented on security matters.
A Kenyan government spokesman said it had no record of Adebolajo ever visiting the east African country.
"We have never arrested him and we have never interrogated him, because if we had arrested him, we would never have let him go because of our experience of international terrorism," the spokesman said.
"Our conclusion is that this man is an imposter and a charlatan and wants to tarnish the image of our country."
Three days after the soldier's killing, police have yet to bring any charges. Police said Adebolajo and Adebowale are in a stable condition in hospital. The pair were in "no fit state" to be questioned by police, a government source was quoted as saying in the Times newspaper.
Witnesses said two men used a car to run down Rigby outside Woolwich Barracks in southeast London and then attacked him with a meat cleaver and knives, before being shot by police.
The pair told bystanders they were acting in revenge for British wars in Muslim countries.
(Additional reporting by Drazen Jorgic in Nairobi; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Spotted: 1st Evidence of Leopard Eating Chimp
Only rarely have people seen what happens when chimpanzees and leopards come into close quarters in the wilds of Africa. On these occasions, chimpanzees have made loud, fearful calls, or played the aggressor: In one case, chimps even surrounded a leopard den and killed a cub.
But the big-brained primates don't always win: For the first time, scientists have found evidence of a leopard eating a chimpanzee.
In Tanzania's Mahale Mountains National Park, researchers spent 41 days collecting African leopard scat from June to August 2012 (summer internship, anyone?). In one of the cat's "offerings," scientists found several chimpanzee patella and phalanges, corresponding to kneecaps and toe bones, respectively. DNA analysis showed that the bones came from an adult female chimp.
The researchers can't be entirely certain that the leopard hunted down the chimp, because the cats occasionally eat dead animals; in other words, it's possible the chimp keeled over and then became leopard chow. However, the finding has led scientists to re-examine three mysterious wounds incurred by three different chimps in Mahale over the last few years. The wounds were deeper than thought to be possible from fights with other chimps, which is what scientists previously thought had happened.
A 2009 study suggested that chimpanzees face only negligible pressure from predators. If it's indeed true that the leopard ate a live chimp, scientists may need to rethink this view and further examine how predation from leopards, or other animals, might have driven the chimpanzee's evolution, the researchers said. One study from 1993 found evidence of lions eating four chimpanzees, also in Mahale Mountains National Park. The park is one of the few places with ongoing research where the range of leopards and chimpanzees overlap, which helps explain why this was witnessed there.
The new research was published online May 21 in the Journal of Human Evolution.
Email Douglas Main or follow him on Twitter or Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook or Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com.
8 Humanlike Behaviors of Primates Image Gallery: 25 Primates in Peril Image Gallery: One-of-a-Kind Places on Earth Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
But the big-brained primates don't always win: For the first time, scientists have found evidence of a leopard eating a chimpanzee.
In Tanzania's Mahale Mountains National Park, researchers spent 41 days collecting African leopard scat from June to August 2012 (summer internship, anyone?). In one of the cat's "offerings," scientists found several chimpanzee patella and phalanges, corresponding to kneecaps and toe bones, respectively. DNA analysis showed that the bones came from an adult female chimp.
The researchers can't be entirely certain that the leopard hunted down the chimp, because the cats occasionally eat dead animals; in other words, it's possible the chimp keeled over and then became leopard chow. However, the finding has led scientists to re-examine three mysterious wounds incurred by three different chimps in Mahale over the last few years. The wounds were deeper than thought to be possible from fights with other chimps, which is what scientists previously thought had happened.
A 2009 study suggested that chimpanzees face only negligible pressure from predators. If it's indeed true that the leopard ate a live chimp, scientists may need to rethink this view and further examine how predation from leopards, or other animals, might have driven the chimpanzee's evolution, the researchers said. One study from 1993 found evidence of lions eating four chimpanzees, also in Mahale Mountains National Park. The park is one of the few places with ongoing research where the range of leopards and chimpanzees overlap, which helps explain why this was witnessed there.
The new research was published online May 21 in the Journal of Human Evolution.
Email Douglas Main or follow him on Twitter or Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook or Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com.
8 Humanlike Behaviors of Primates Image Gallery: 25 Primates in Peril Image Gallery: One-of-a-Kind Places on Earth Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Ukraine's first gay march held under police protection
KIEV (Reuters) - About 100 Ukrainian gay rights activists held the country's first gay rally on Saturday, helped by police who arrested 13 people for trying to break up the march.
The activists walked for about 250 meters (yards) along Victory Avenue in the capital Kiev while Orthodox Christian activists nearby chanted slogans denouncing them.
"Ukraine is not America. Kiev is not Sodom,' shouted one anti-gay demonstrator over a loudspeaker.
A church activist broke through the police cordon briefly and slapped down banners calling for an end to discrimination against homosexuals before he was seized by police.
There is little public acceptance of homosexuality in predominantly Orthodox Ukraine, as in other former Soviet republics. On May 17, large crowds of protesters broke up gay rights rallies in Georgia and Russia.
The march in Kiev lasted only 40 minutes but was a small victory for the former Soviet republic's gay community.
A year ago, gay activists canceled plans for a rally in Kiev, saying they had received threats of violence. One would-be organizer was beaten up by a group of men the same day.
Organizers hailed the march on Saturday as a breakthrough.
"This event will go down in the history of Ukraine as one of the key developments in the fight for equal human rights," said Olena Semenova, one of the organizers, expressing gratitude to the police and the authorities for their action.
The rally almost came to nothing when city authorities raised security concerns and a court issued an order to ban it.
But on Saturday police offered protection to the small march, held away from the city center.
Church activist Ioksana Keresten, who protested against the rally, said: "We are trying to protect family values. We want to protect our children from homosexual propaganda. This parade popularizes homosexuality. It can influence our children for their whole life."
At the end of the rally, the gay activists stepped into the grounds of a local film studio and climbed onto buses that drove them away, avoiding the risk of further confrontation.
Ukraine's parliament last year shelved the second reading of a bill that would have criminalized the "promotion of homosexuality". But it has also delayed passing legislation to outlaw discrimination against homosexuals in the workplace.
(Additional reporting by Mykhailo Yelchev of Reuters television and Gleb Garanich of Reuters pictures; writing By Richard Balmforth; editing by Tom Pfeiffer)
IMF chief named key witness in French payoff case
PARIS (AP) After two days of intense questioning from French magistrates, International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde said Friday a court named her as a key witness in an investigation into a controversial payoff to an outspoken businessman that was arranged while she was France's finance minister stopping short of charging her outright.
Lagarde, seemingly relieved and insisting it's time to return to work, said the Paris court handed her the status of "assisting witness" in its probe of her role in a 400 million euro ($520 million) pay-off to a flamboyant tycoon, Bernard Tapie. Under French law, that status means she still could be later charged in the case, but can have legal representation and access to court files as the probe continues a process that could take months or even years.
The case centers on the payment made to Tapie, a well-connected magnate, in a private arbitration process to settle a dispute with state-owned bank Credit Lyonnais over the botched sale of Adidas in the 1990s. The deal is seen by many in France as an example of the cozy relationship between big money and power in France.
Investigators opened an inquiry in 2011 into possible charges of "complicity to embezzlement of public funds" and "complicity to forgery." The probe may not result in a trial. If it does, and if Lagarde were to be charged and then convicted, she could face up to 10 years in prison, according to prosecutors.
Tanned, relaxed and seemingly unfazed, Lagarde said in a brief statement to reporters outside the court that the questioning had allowed her to "demonstrate that I have always acted in the best public interest and in accordance with the law ... Now, it's time for me to go back to work in Washington, and I will of course be briefing my board."
Still, Friday's decision by the special court for government ministers prolongs the legal question-mark over her head.
At the very least, the closed-door hearings took Lagarde away from her international duties. So far, the Washington-based IMF has stuck by her. She has earned praise for her negotiating skills as its managing director during Europe's debt crisis, and is seen as a trailblazer for female leaders.
After the ruling, IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said in a statement: "The Executive Board has been briefed on this matter several times and on each occasion expressed confidence in the Managing Director's ability to effectively carry out her duties. The Board will be briefed again in the coming days."
Lagarde lawyer Yves Repiquet said "assisting witness" was "the best possible status she could get" because under French law, she could not be considered as a simple witness. Being an assisted witness affords her access to the legal files in the case, and allows her right to have a lawyer attributes not afforded a simple witness under the law, he said.
"My reaction is one of satisfaction, because as I have always said Madame Lagarde has two weapons: the truth, and her conscience," he told The Associated Press by phone, acknowledging that the 24 hours at the court over two days was long. "It took a while, if only to transcribe, re-read, and validate her answers."
"Her legal fate is not definitively decided, but still ... it's not finished, but it's not going to hover over her," Repiquet said. "We can very much have peace of mind."
When the payment was made, Tapie was close to then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was then Lagarde's boss. Critics say the deal was too generous to Tapie at the expense of the French state, and that the case shouldn't have gone to a private arbitration authority because it involved a state-owned bank.
Lagarde and the IMF were aware of the probe when she took over as managing director of the fund from Dominique Strauss-Kahn in 2011. In March, French investigators searched Lagarde's Paris home. Her lawyer said at the time that she welcomed the search as a step toward proving her innocence.
The case could also tarnish France's image: Strauss-Kahn is also French. He resigned after a New York hotel maid accused him of trying to rape her.
___
Angela Charlton and Bastien Inzaurralde in Paris, and Marjorie Olster in Washington contributed to this report.
Japan government says unaware of ghosts at PM residence: paper
TOKYO (Reuters) - A delay in Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife moving into their official residence, the site of past assassinations, has revived talk of ghosts in the corridors, prompting the government to deny any knowledge of hauntings.
Abe has not moved into the prime minister's official residence for five months since he took power.
Asked by an opposition lawmaker about the reported hauntings, the government issued a formal statement on Friday saying it was not aware of ghost sightings, Asahi newspaper and other media reported.
The residence, formerly the prime minister's office, was built in 1929 and was the site of military rebellions, including in 1932 when then-Prime Minister Tsuyoshi Inukai was assassinated.
Talk of ghosts has long haunted the building, remodeled in the early 2000s. It has served as the official residence for the prime minister and the premier's family since 2005.
Abe has given no explanation for the delay in moving in, but it is not uncommon for the premier to take some time before taking up residence.
(Reporting by Linda Sieg and Yoko Kubota; Editing by Ron Popeski)
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