Mars Rover Curiosity Completes First Full Drill

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For the first time in history, humans have drilled a hole into rock on Mars and are collecting the powdered results for analysis, NASA announced Saturday.

After weeks of intensive planning, the Mars rover Curiosity undertook its first full drill on Friday, with NASA receiving images on Saturday showing that the procedure was a success.

Curiosity drilled a hole that is a modest 2.5 inches (6.35 centimeters) deep and .6 inches (1.52 centimeters) wide but that holds the promise of potentially great discoveries. (Watch video of the Mars rover Curiosity.)

"The most advanced planetary robot ever designed now is a fully operating analytical laboratory on Mars," John Grunsfeld, NASA associate administrator for the agency's Science Mission Directorate, said in a statement on Saturday.

"This is the biggest milestone accomplishment for the Curiosity team since the sky-crane landing last August."

Read: Asteroid to Make Closest Flyby in History

The site of the much-anticipated penetration is a flat section of Mars rock that shows signs of having been underwater in its past.

Called Yellowknife Bay, it's the kind of environment where organic materials—the building block of life—might have been deposited and preserved long ago, at a time when Mars was far wetter and warmer than it is today.

The contents of the drilling are now being transferred into the rover's internal collection system, where the samples will be sieved down to size and scoured to minimize the presence of contamination from Earth. (Watch video of Curiosity's "Seven Minutes of Terror.")

Then the sample will be distributed to the two instruments most capable of determining what the rocks contain.

The first is the Sample Analysis on Mars (SAM), which has two ovens that can heat the powdered rock to almost 2000°F (1093°C) and release the rock's elements and compounds in a gaseous form.

The gases will then be analyzed by instruments that can identify precisely what they are, and when they might have been deposited. Scientists are looking for carbon-based organics believed to be essential for any potentially past life on Mars.

Powder will also go to the Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument for a related analysis that looks especially at the presence of minerals—especially those that can only be formed in the presence of water.

Louise Jandura, chief engineer for Curiosity's sample system at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said that designing and testing a drill that can grab hold of Martian rock and commence first a percussive shallow drilling and then dig a deeper hole was difficult.

The drill, which is at the end of a 7-foot arm, is capable of about 100 discrete maneuvers.

"To get to the point of making this hole in a rock on Mars, we made eight drills and bored more than 1,200 holes in 20 types of rock on Earth," Jandura said in a statement.

Results from the SAM and CheMin analyses are not expected for several days to weeks.


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LAPD Reopens Case of Suspected Cop-Killer's Firing

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The Los Angeles Police Department announced today it will reopen the case of the firing of Christopher Dorner, but said the decision was not made to "appease" the fugitive former cop suspected of killing three people.


Dorner, a fired and disgruntled former Los Angeles police officer, said in the so-called "manifesto" he released that he was targeting LAPD officials and their families and will keep killing until the truth is known about his case.


"I have no doubt that the law enforcement community will bring to an end the reign of terror perpetrated on our region by Christopher Jordan Dorner and he will be held accountable for his evil actions," LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said in a statement released tonight.


He spoke of the "tremendous strides" the LAPD has made in regaining public trust after numerous scandals, but added: "I am aware of the ghosts of the LAPD's past and one of my biggest concerns is that they will be resurrected by Dorner's allegations of racism within the Department."


To do that, he said, full re-investigation of the case that led to Dorner's firing is necessary.


"I feel we need to also publicly address Dorner's allegations regarding his termination of employment, and to do so I have directed our Professionals Standards Bureau and my Special Assistant for Constitutional Policing to completely review the Dorner complaint of 2007; To include a re-examination of all evidence and a re-interview of witnesses," he said. "We will also investigate any allegations made in his manifesto which were not included in his original complaint.






Irvine Police Department/AP Photo











Hundreds of Officers on Hunt for Alleged Cop Killer Watch Video











Christopher Dorner Manhunt: Ex-Cop Suspected in Killings Watch Video





"I do this not to appease a murderer. I do it to reassure the public that their police department is transparent and fair in all the things we do."


PHOTOS: Former LAPD Officer Suspected in Shootings


As police searched for Dorner today in the San Bernardino Mountains, sources told ABC News that investigators found two AR-15 assault rifles in the burned-out truck Dorner abandoned.


The truck had a broken axle, which may be the reason he decided to set fire to it, the police sources said.


A man identifying himself as Dorner taunted the father of Monica Quan four days after the former LAPD officer allegedly killed her and just 11 hours after he allegedly killed a police officer in Riverside, Calif., according to court documents obtained by ABC News


A man claiming to be Dorner called Randall Quan and told him that that he "should have done a better job of protecting his daughter," according to the documents.


In his 6,000-word "manifesto," Dorner named Randal Quan, a retired LAPD captain and attorney who represented him before a police review board that led to Dorner's dismissal from the force.


"I never had an opportunity to have a family of my own, I'm terminating yours," Dorner wrote, and directed Quan and other officials to "[l]ook your wives/husbands and surviving children directly in the face and tell them the truth as to why your children are dead."


Monica Quan and her fiancé Keith Lawrence were gunned down last Sunday in their car in the parking of their Irvine, Calif., condominium complex. Both were struck with multiple gunshot wounds.


The call, according to court records, was traced to Vancouver, Wash., but law enforcement officials do not believe Dorner was there at the time at the call.


Dorner is believed to have made the call early Thursday afternoon, less than half a day after he is suspected of killing a police officer and wounding two others early that morning, sparking an unprecedented man hunt involving more than a thousand police officers and federal agents spanning hundreds of miles.


FULL COVERAGE: Christopher Jordan Dorner






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Japan mulls disclosing evidence on China radar lock

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TOKYO: Japan said on Saturday it was considering disclosing evidence to bolster its claim that a Chinese frigate locked its weapon-targeting radar on a Japanese ship, after Beijing rejected the charge.

The incident, which Japan said happened last week, marked the first time the two nations' navies have locked horns in a territorial dispute that has some commentators warning about possible armed conflict.

The neighbours -- also the world's second and third-largest economies -- have seen ties sour over uninhabited Japanese-controlled islands in the East China Sea known as Senkaku in Tokyo and Diaoyu by Beijing, which claims them.

"The government is considering the extent of what can be disclosed," Japan's Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera said on a television programme Saturday.

The comment came a day after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe demanded that Beijing apologise and admit the incident had happened.

Tokyo also charges that in the middle of last month a Chinese frigate's radar locked on to a helicopter, in a procedure known as "painting" that is a precursor to firing weaponry.

On both January 19 and January 30, China's defence ministry said in a statement faxed to AFP, the Chinese ship-board radar maintained normal operations and "fire-control radar was not used".

Japan hit back, with Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida saying he "cannot accept" the explanation and Prime Minister Abe demanding an apology from Beijing.

The Japanese premier on Thursday called the radar incident "extremely regrettable", "dangerous" and "provocative" but also said that dialogue must remain an option.

- AFP/xq



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Parliament House attack case convict hanged to death at 8am

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NEW DELHI: Parliament House attack case convict Afzal Guru was hanged to death at Tihar Central Jail on Saturday morning.

The hanging took place in complete secrecy at around 8am with only a very select group of officials and home minister Sushilkumar Shinde knowing the operation to execute his death sentence.

His mercy plea, which had been pending since 2006, was rejected by the President Mukherjee late last month after getting the file from the home ministry on January 23.

Afzal Guru was convicted for his role in the attack on Parliament in 2001.

His hanging took place in as secret an operation as it had happened in the case of the hanging of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack case convict Mohammed Ajmal Kasab who was hanged to death in a Pune jail in November last year.

Afzal Guru was given the death sentence by the Supreme Court in 2004. His hanging, scheduled for October 2006, was stayed after his wife filed a mercy petition on his behalf to the President.

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Space Pictures This Week: Sun Dragon, Celestial Seagull

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Northeast Shuts Down as Blizzard Batters Millions

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A blizzard of possibly historic proportions began battering the Northeast today, and could bring more than two feet of snow and strong winds that could shut down densely populated cities such as Boston and New York City.


A storm from the west joined forces with one from the south to form a nor'easter that will sit and spin just off the East Coast, affecting more than 43 million Americans. Wind gusts were forecast to reach 50 to 60 mph from Philadelphia to Boston.


Cape Cod, Mass., could possibly see 75 mph gusts. Boston and other parts of New England could see more than two feet of snow by Saturday.


The storm showed the potential for such ferocity that Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick declared a state of emergency Friday afternoon and signed an executive order banning vehicular traffic on roads in his state effective at 4 p.m. ET. It was believed that the last time the state enacted such a ban was during the blizzard of 1978. Violating the ban could result in a penalty of up to a year in jail and a $500 fine.


"[It] could definitely be a historic winter storm for the Northeast," said Adrienne Leptich of the National Weather Service in Upton, N.Y. "We're looking at very strong wind and heavy snow and we're also looking for some coastal flooding."


Airlines began shutting down operations Friday afternoon at major airports in the New York area as well as in Boston, Portland, Maine, Providence, R.I., and other Northeastern airports. By early evening Friday, more than 4,300 flights had been cancelled on Friday and Saturday, according to FlightAware. Airlines hoped to resume flights by Saturday afternoon, though normal schedules were not expected until Sunday.


The snow fell heavily Friday afternoon in New York City and 12 to 14 inches were expected. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said clearing the roads was his main concern, and the city readied 1,700 snow plows and 250,000 tons of salt to clear the streets.










Hurricane Sandy Victims Hit Again, Survivors Prepare for Worst Watch Video









Weather Forecast: Blizzard Headed for Northeast Watch Video





New York City was expecting up to 14 inches of snow, which started falling early this morning, though the heaviest amounts were expected to fall at night and into Saturday. Wind gusts of 55 mph were expected in New York City.


"Stay off the city streets. Stay out of your cars and stay at home while the worst of the storm is on us," Bloomberg said Friday.


Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy declared a state of emergency, deploying National Guard troops across the state to assist in rescues and other emergencies. Schools and state courthouses were closed, and all flights after 1:30 p.m. at Bradley Airport, north of Hartford, Conn., were cancelled. The state's largest utility companies planned for the possibility that 30 percent of customers -- more than 400,000 homes and businesses -- would lose power.


Malloy also directed drivers to stay off the state's major highways.


"Please stay off of 95, 91, 84, Merritt Parkway and any other limited-access road in the state," he said Friday evening.


PHOTOS: Northeast Braces for Snowstorm


Boston, Providence, R.I., Hartford, Conn., and other New England cities canceled school today.


"Stay off the streets of our city. Basically, stay home," Boston Mayor Tom Menino warned Thursday.


On Friday, Menino applauded the public's response.


"I'm very pleased with the compliance with the snow emergency," he said. "You drive down some of the roadways, you don't see one car."


As of 4:30 p.m. Friday, according to the Department of Defense, 837 National Guard soldiers and airmen under state control had been activated in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York in anticipation of the storm -- 552 in Massachusetts, 235 in Connecticut and 50 in New York. The extra hands were helping with roadways, transportation, making wellness checks on residents and other emergency services.


Beach erosion and coastal flooding is possible from New Jersey to Long Island, N.Y., and into New England coastal areas. Some waves off the coast could reach more than 20 feet.


Blizzard warnings were posted for parts of New Jersey and New York's Long Island, as well as portions of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, including Hartford, New Haven, Conn., and Providence. The warnings extended into New Hampshire and Maine.


To the south, Philadelphia was looking at a possible 4 to 6 inches of snow.


In anticipation of the storm, Amtrak said its Northeast trains would stop running this afternoon.






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Lawmakers divided on Postal Service plan

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Lawmakers wrestled Thursday with how to address Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe’s announcement that the U.S. Postal Service plans to end Saturday mail delivery in August.


Donahoe moved to circumvent Congress’s long-standing resistance to the proposal for five-day delivery, a move the Postal Service thinks will save about $2 billion annually and help ease its financial losses. The agency lost $15.9 billion in the last fiscal year.


The postmaster took advantage of legislators’ own dysfunction over budget matters this week, gambling that lawmakers will not thwart his plan after Congress’s temporary spending measure expires March 27.

The spending plan includes language requiring six-day delivery, but lawmakers have not said whether they will insist on the language in the next spending bill.

It appeared Thursday that the issue was shaping up among lawmakers like the discussions over the automatic spending cuts, known as sequestration, which are set to kick in March 1.

Legislators questioned the legality of Donahoe’s plan and pointed fingers over Congress’s inability last year to achieve comprehensive postal reform, but none outlined a strategy to prevent the Postal Service’s effort.

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said in a statement Thursday that such a drastic policy move requires congressional approval.

“The Postmaster General relied on flawed legal guidance to claim that he can circumvent Congress’s authority,” he said.

Reid also expressed frustration at lawmakers’ failure last year on postal reform. “This unfortunate scenario could have been wholly prevented if the House had passed the Senate’s bipartisan postal reform bill in the last Congress,” he said.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee and supported the Senate’s bill last year, said, “The Postal Service’s decision to eliminate Saturday delivery is inconsistent with current law and threatens to further jeopardize its customer base.”

Other Republicans applauded Donahoe.

Rep. Darrel Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which oversees the Postal Service, supports the plan. His office said the Postal Service could legally alter Saturday mail services despite any future provisions Congress might enact to require six-day delivery. “In its announced change, USPS is not eliminating a day of delivery, but rather altering what products are delivered on that day,” a spokesman said.

The Postal Service did not respond to requests for comment Thursday. Although it plans to end Saturday mail delivery, it has said that it will continue delivering packages on Saturdays and that post offices will be open to sell stamps and other materials. Post office boxes will receive mail on Saturdays, but magazines and some newspapers, catalogues and Netflix will not reach homes that day.

Sen. Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.), who opposes Donahoe’s decision, said in an interview Thursday that he would fight any effort to remove the six-day-delivery requirement from the next spending bill. But he stopped short of saying he would vote against an appropriations bill that does not include the mandate.

“The future of the Postal Service is very important, but it has to be looked at in a broader context,” Sanders said.

Last year, the House and Senate produced competing bills to help staunch the Postal Service’s financial losses. The Senate approved legislation that would have delayed five-day mail delivery for two years while trying out other cost-saving tactics, but the House never voted on the measure. A House bill that would have ended Saturday delivery right away never reached the floor.

House Appropriations Chairman Harold Rogers (R-Ky.) said he had no idea what his committee would do about the postal plan.

Said Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.): “I think the problem is the will of the Congress has not been expressed. Congress has not acted, and I think that left a vacuum.”

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S Korean activists jailed for unauthorised visit to North

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SEOUL: A South Korean court jailed an elderly left-wing activist for four years on Friday for making an unauthorised trip across the border to North Korea.

Ro Su-Hui, 69, was convicted of violating a strict security law that penalises pro-Pyongyang activity and bans citizens from going to the North without prior permission.

Another activist, Won Jin-Wook, received a three-year prison sentence for communicating with North Korean officials to arrange Ro's trip.

Ro, 69, entered the North via China in March last year for a memorial service marking the 100th day since the death of long-time ruler Kim Jong-Il.

He praised new ruler Kim Jong-Un during his time in Pyongyang and was arrested in July when he returned home.

"Stern punishment is inevitable because he made a secret visit to North Korea without permission and was involved in (pro-North Korean) activities, even if he knew that his activities would be used for propaganda," the court said in its ruling.

Seoul did not send any official representatives to Kim Jong-Il's funeral and approved trips only by two private delegations.

- AFP/xq



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India, UK armies to hold joint exercise in April

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BANGALORE: Great Britain's minster for defence equipment, support and technology, Philip Dune, said on Thursday that a detachment of British army will come to India in April for a joint exercise with the Indian army.

"We plan to increase the joint exercises between the two countries in the near future," the 54-year-old British Conservative Party politician said on the sidelines of Aero India 2013.

Indian army carried out a joint exercise with their British counterparts on British soil for the first time since independence in 2008 when the mechanized infantry detachment visited the British Army's prestigious Land Warfare Centre in Warminster.

The minister also said that talks are currently under way between British companies and the state governments of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra on internal security, border security and port security.

He said that DRDO and its British equivalent DSLT are collaborating on three projects with an agreement on a fourth project last week. The minister didn't provide details citing security reasons. "One of the areas we are looking to work together is counter-terrorism," he said.

He said: "We are looking forward to partner with India in indigenous manufacture projects. The collaboration between technology-rich Britain and high production capacity India would be not only in research and development but also in its applications."

The minister praised ministry of defence for placing a transparent and thorough defence procurement policy. However, he expressed his disappointment that Eurofighter Typhoon, which was one of the two final bidders for MRCA tender for the supply of 126 multi-role combat aircraft to the Indian Air Force, lost out to Dassault Rafale.

"We have to behave like adults and not cry over spilled milk," he said, adding, "If Rafale's bid doesn't get through, we will consider bidding again."

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Asteroid to Make Closest Flyby in History

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Talk about too close for comfort. In a rare cosmic encounter, an asteroid will barnstorm Earth next week, missing our planet by a mere 17,200 miles (27,700 kilometers).

Designated 2012 DA14, the space rock is approximately 150 feet (45 meters) across, and astronomers are certain it will zip harmlessly past our planet on February 15—but not before making history. It will pass within the orbits of many communications satellites, making it the closest flyby on record. (Read about one of the largest asteroids to fly by Earth.)

"This is indeed a remarkably close approach for an asteroid this size," said Paul Chodas, a research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory Near Earth Object (NEO) program office in Pasadena, California.

"We estimate that an asteroid of this size passes this close to the Earth only once every few decades."

The giant rock—half a football field wide—was first spotted by observers at the La Sagra Observatory in southern Spain a year ago, soon after it had just finished making a much more distant pass of the Earth at 2.6 million miles (4.3 million kilometers) away.

This time around however, on February15 at 2:24 pm EST, the asteroid will be passing uncomfortably close—ten times closer than the orbit of the moon—flying over the eastern Indian Ocean near Sumatra (map). (Watch: "Moon 101.")

Future Impact?

Chodas and his team have been keeping a close eye on the cosmic intruder, and orbital calculations of its trajectory show that there is no chance for impact.

But the researchers have not yet ruled out future chances of a collision. This is because asteroids of this size are too faint to be detected until they come quite close to the Earth, said Chodas.

"There is still a tiny chance that it might hit us on some future passage by the Earth; for example there is [a] 1-in-200,000 chance that it could hit us in the year 2080," he said.

"But even that tiny chance will probably go away within the week, as the asteroid's orbit gets tracked with greater and greater accuracy and we can eliminate that possibility."

Earth collision with an object of this size is expected to occur every 1,200 years on average, said Donald Yeomans, NEO program manager, at a NASA news conference this week.

DA14 has been getting closer and closer to Earth for quite a while—but this is the asteroid's closest approach in the past hundred years. And it probably won't get this close again for at least another century, added Yeomans.

While no Earth impact is possible next week, DA14 will pass 5,000 miles inside the ring of orbiting geosynchronous weather and communications satellites; so all eyes are watching the space rock's exact trajectory. (Learn about the history of satellites.)

"It's highly unlikely they will be threatened, but NASA is working with satellite providers, making them aware of the asteroid's pass," said Yeomans.

Packing a Punch

Experts say an impact from an object this size would have the explosive power of a few megatons of TNT, causing localized destruction—similar to what occurred in Siberia in 1908.

In what's known as the "Tunguska event," an asteroid is thought to have created an airburst explosion which flattened about 750 square miles (1,200 square kilometers) of a remote forested region in what is now northern Russia (map).

In comparison, an impact from an asteroid with a diameter of about half a mile (one kilometer) could temporarily change global climate and kill millions of people if it hit a populated area.

Timothy Spahr, director of the Minor Planet Center at Cambridge, Massachusetts, said that while small objects like DA14 could hit Earth once a millennia or so, the largest and most destructive impacts have already been catalogued.

"Objects of the size that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs have all been discovered," said Spahr. (Learn about what really happened to the dinosaurs.)

A survey of nearly 9,500 near-Earth objects half a mile (one kilometer) in diameter is nearly complete. Asteroid hunters expect to complete nearly half of a survey of asteroids several hundred feet in diameter in the coming years.

"With the existing assets we have, discovering asteroids rapidly and routinely, I continue to expect the world to be safe from impacts in the future," added Spahr.


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