Space shuttle crew heads home

HOUSTON, Texas — The space shuttle Atlantis began its journey back to Earth early Friday, dipping into the atmosphere after Mission Control gave the seven astronauts the all-clear to end their 11-day mission.

Atlantis commander Charlie Hobaugh and pilot Barry Wilmore aimed for the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, where they were expected to touchdown at 9:44 am (1444 GMT) to cap off their mission to the International Space Station (ISS).

"We look forward to seeing you on the deck pretty soon," Mission Control in Houston, Texas greeted the astronauts as they were awakened five hours before the landing decision.

During their successful voyage, the Atlantis crew delivered nearly 30,000 pounds (13,608 kilograms) of spare parts to the orbiting space station, including a pair of gyroscopes, thermal control system components and robot arm gear.

The outsized delivery was intended to fortify the orbiter for safe operations as well as scientific research long after NASA's shuttle fleet is retired.

Five shuttle missions remain, the last one scheduled for late September. ISS operations are scheduled to conclude by 2016.

However, a White House advisory panel has proposed to extend activities aboard the orbital outpost through 2020, a move supported by NASA's 14 international partners and many in Congress.

As Atlantis touches down, the US space agency will mark its fifth shuttle mission of 2009, the most it has achieved in a single year since the 2003 Columbia tragedy.

The doomed shuttle exploded over Texas in 2003, claiming the lives of seven astronauts, grounding the winged spacecraft for 30 months and interrupting what has become a difficult, 12-year effort to complete the assembly of the space station.

In Florida, sunny skies and a northerly headwinds awaited the return of Atlantis. Mission Control was so confident in the unusually favorable landing forecast that it decided against opening a backup runway at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

Atlantis headed back to Earth with one more astronaut than when it launched on November 16 and a second astronaut eager to hold his newborn daughter for the first time since she was born while he was between spacewalks.

American Nicole Stott will end a 91-day mission as a space station flight engineer.

"It was really sad to leave the station and my crew mates there," said Stott. "But I get to go home and see my family. So, I'm really excited."

Stott said she was craving the Florida sunshine, a slice of New York style pizza and a Coca Cola with ice. Though equipped with three state of the art science labs, the space station lacks an ice maker.

Astronaut Randy Bresnik's wife, Rebecca, gave birth to a daughter, Abigail Mae, on November 21.

"I will be looking forward to that landing and Hobaugh making it as safe as possible probably more than anybody has in the space shuttle program," said Bresnik.

The Marine Corps test pilot launched into space after being assured he could monitor his wife's labor through Mission Control.

"I can't imagine anyone wanting to miss their child's birth, but hopefully when she is older, she will forgive me for being absent," he said.

In addition to the astronauts, Atlantis is also returning with a half-dozen mice that have been aboard the space station since August.

The rodents served as subjects in an experiment that examined the loss of bone and muscle tissues that accompany long exposures to weightlessness. Half of the rodents died during the space study.

On the Net:

• NASA website: http://www.nasa.gov/

Reid health bill helps chiropractors, drugmakers

WASHINGTON — Chiropractors get a lift in the Senate health care bill, thanks to a senator from the state practitioners consider the birthplace of their profession — Iowa.

Search the fine print of the bill unveiled this week by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and you'll find scores of provisions making winners out of some interest groups and losers of others, from makers of costly biological drugs to insurance company executives.

It's not surprising considering the $1 trillion, 10-year price tag of the 2,074-page legislation.

Chiropractors, sometimes criticized as unscientific by medical doctors, could join health teams designed to help primary care physicians coordinate the treatment of patients. Though the precise financial impact is unclear, the language would help steer more patients to a profession whose participation in many federal programs is limited, including Medicare, Medicaid and the medical systems for veterans, the military and civil servants.

"It's important because it just further legitimizes the services that are delivered by a chiropractor, and recognizes they are well received by the patient public," said John Falardeau, lobbyist for the American Chiropractic Association.

The language was approved earlier this year by the Senate health committee. Falardeau said that panel's chairman, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, was largely responsible for getting it included by Reid, who wrote the final Senate bill behind closed doors. The lobbyist said numerous chiropractors and their patients contacted Harkin and other senators to push for the language.

"I like to call Iowa the Cooperstown of chiropractic," said Falardeau, alluding to the site of Baseball's Hall of Fame. He noted that Iowa is where the discipline began and is home to the Palmer College of Chiropractic, where many practitioners are trained.

Less fortunate were well-paid officials of health insurance companies. Reid included language Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., got into the Senate Finance Committee version of the bill. The wording eliminates companies' tax deductions for the portion of insurance executives' pay that exceeds $500,000.

Lincoln faces a difficult re-election campaign next year, and is among a handful of moderate Democratic senators who have not said whether they will support Reid's bill. Health insurance companies have been repeatedly vilified by President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats, and axing an industry tax break could have populist appeal.

Robert Zirkelbach, spokesman for America's Health Insurance Plans, the industry's trade group, said his group has done no lobbying on the provision.

In the latest round of a bitter struggle over the country's $46 billion market for biological drugs, the Senate bill extends the protection some brand-name manufacturers would get from generic competitors.

The drugs, made from living cells, are a growing part of the pharmaceutical market. Benefiting from a well-financed lobbying campaign and influential supporters, the manufacturers won language in the Senate health committee bill — and in the House-passed health overhaul legislation — giving them 12 years of protection from generic competitors.

Reid's bill would add another six months of protection for drugmakers who also test those products for use by children. Generic companies want to be able to compete immediately.

Kathleen Jaeger, president of the Generic Pharmaceutical Association, said Reid's decision represents "a total hijack" by drug manufacturers that she said will keep consumers' costs higher for a longer time. Ken Johnson, a senior vice president for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, said drugmakers pursued the issue with senators and that the extra six months of protection gives companies an incentive to make products for children.

The bill also has language prohibiting the government from discriminating against health care providers that refuse to provide services for assisted suicides.

Similar provisions were included in earlier versions by Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. The legal status of the practice is murky in much of the country, with Oregon and Washington the only states with voter-approved assisted suicide laws and a court case pending in Montana.

Reid's bill also allows Medicaid coverage for babies delivered in the roughly 300 birth centers that operate outside hospitals around the country, mostly for low-income women or those in remote areas.

Jurassic Park By Michael Crichton

Splash! NASA moon crash struck lots of water

LOS ANGELES — Suddenly, the moon looks exciting again. It has lots of water, scientists said Friday — a thrilling discovery that sent a ripple of hope for a future astronaut outpost in a place that has always seemed barren and inhospitable.

Experts have long suspected there was water on the moon. Confirmation came from data churned up by two NASA spacecraft that intentionally slammed into a lunar crater last month.

"Indeed, yes, we found water. And we didn't find just a little bit. We found a significant amount," said Anthony Colaprete, lead scientist for the mission, holding up a white water bucket for emphasis.

The lunar crash kicked up at least 25 gallons and that's only what scientists could see from the plumes of the impact, Colaprete said.

Some space policy experts say that makes the moon attractive for exploration again. Having an abundance of water would make it easier to set up a base camp for astronauts, supplying drinking water and a key ingredient for rocket fuel.

"Having definitive evidence that there is substantial water is a significant step forward in making the moon an interesting place to go," said George Washington University space policy scholar John Logsdon.

Even so, members of the blue-ribbon panel reviewing NASA's future plans said it doesn't change their conclusion that the program needs more money to get beyond near-Earth orbit. The panel wants NASA to look at other potential destinations like asteroids and Mars.

"This new and terrific result reassures us about lunar resources, but ... the challenges currently facing the human spaceflight program remain," Chris Chyba, a Princeton astrophysicist who is on the panel, said in an e-mail.

President George W. Bush had proposed a more than $100 billion plan to return astronauts to the moon, then go on to Mars; a test flight of an early version of a new rocket was a success last month. President Barack Obama appointed the special panel to look at the entire moon exploration program. The decision is now up to the White House, and NASA's lunar plans are somewhat on hold until then.

As for unmanned exploration, previous missions had detected the presence of hydrogen in lunar craters near the moon's poles, possible evidence of ice. In September, scientists reported finding tiny amounts of water in the lunar soil all over the moon's surface.

But it was NASA's Oct. 9 mission involving the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, LCROSS, that provided the stunning confirmation announced Friday — water, in the forms of ice and vapor.

"Rather than a dead and unchanging world, it could in fact be a very dynamic and interesting one," said Greg Delory of the University of California, Berkeley, who was not involved in the mission, led by NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif.

The LCROSS spacecraft only hit one spot on the moon and it's unclear how much water there is across the entire moon.

The October mission involved two strikes into a permanently shadowed crater near the south pole. First, an empty rocket hull slammed into the Cabeus crater. Then, a trailing spacecraft recorded the drama live before it also crashed into the same spot four minutes later.

Though scientists were overjoyed with the plethora of data beamed back to Earth, the mission was a public relations dud. Space enthusiasts who stayed up all night to watch the spectacle did not see the promised giant plume of debris.

NASA scientists had predicted the twin impacts would spew six miles of dust into the sunlight. Instead, images revealed only a mile-high plume, and it was not visible to many amateur astronomers peering through telescopes.

Scientists spent a month analyzing data from the spacecraft's spectrometers, instruments that can detect strong signals of water molecules in the plume.

"We've had hints that there is water. This was almost like tasting it," said Peter Schultz, professor of geological sciences at Brown University and a co-investigator on the LCROSS mission.

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who in 1969 made his historic Apollo 11 moonwalk with Neil Armstrong, was pleased to hear the latest discovery, but still believes the U.S. should focus on colonizing Mars.

"People will overreact to this news and say, `Let's have a water rush to the moon,'" Aldrin said. "It doesn't justify that."

Mission scientists said it would take more time to tease out what else was kicked up in the moon dust.

AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein contributed to this report.

Broken cross removed from N.B. cenotaph site as city readies for Remembrance Day

FREDERICTON — Part of a cenotaph broken by vandals in Fredericton has been removed from the site, but officials say Remembrance Day ceremonies will go ahead as planned on Wednesday.

The chunks of the heavy granite cross were lifted onto a flatbed trailer Tuesday and carted away into storage.

City official Harold Boone said they're hoping the cross - which stands several metres high - can be repaired and returned to its place at the side of the provincial cenotaph.

"It sounds like it can be put back together with some steel rods and a special type of adhesive," Boone said Tuesday.

"It's going to take some time and it will probably be spring before it finds its way back onto its base, but hopefully we can get ... a good, high-quality repair."

Boone said the city has received a number of calls from organizations and businesses interested in donating money or expertise in restoration work.

"It's struck a nerve in Fredericton. I think people have really responded," he said.

"And I think we're going to see a big turnout at the cenotaph (on Wednesday) in support of our veterans."

It's believed that vandals toppled the cross over the weekend, breaking the object into several pieces.

Const. Ralph Currie of the city police force said Tuesday officers are still investigating the incident, but so far they have no suspects.

Currie said they're hoping that video surveillance cameras at nearby buildings, including the provincial legislature and an art gallery, may have captured people in the area.

Currie also said it's an unfortunate crime in the sense that there are so many victims.

"In this particular case, with a war monument, the victims fall under the category of anyone who has family or friends who fought in these wars and represent what the monument stands for."

He encouraged anyone with information about the incident to phone the police or Crime Stoppers.

Vancouver Aquarium invites Canadians to name its baby beluga

VANCOUVER, B.C. — The Vancouver Aquarium is offering Canadians a whale of an opportunity.

The aquarium has announced it's holding a naming contest for a baby beluga that was born in July. The aquarium says the name must reflect the Arctic origin of beluga whales, while also honouring Inuit culture and language.

The aquarium's other belugas are named Aurora, Imaq and Qila.

The person whose name is chosen will receive a one-of-a-kind baby beluga encounter, plus an annual family membership to the aquarium and a $200 certificate to the facility's gift shop.

Those who want to enter can do so at www.visitvanaqua.org and watch the aquarium's 24-hour beluga-cam at www.vanaqua.org/belugacam.

Relatives mourn at ND pond where women found dead

DICKINSON, N.D. — Teammates and family members threw roses and softballs Wednesday into the farm pond where three North Dakota college softball players were found dead inside their sunken sport utility vehicle.

But there were few answers to their most troublesome questions: How did the women find themselves trapped in the water? How long did they suffer after frantically calling friends for help?

"I can't believe that my baby is gone. I miss her terribly. I'm just wondering ... What went through her mind while she was still alive in her last moment?" said Claire Gemar, of San Diego, whose 22-year-old daughter, Kyrstin, was among the three Dickinson State University students pulled from the small pond after signals from the phone calls helped lead authorities to the farm.

No foul play is suspected in the deaths Gemar; Afton Williamson, 20, of Lake Elsinore, Calif.; and Ashley Neufeld, 21, of Brandon, Manitoba. The bodies of the women and Neufeld's dog were found inside the SUV Tuesday.

The women were believed to be on a stargazing trip Sunday night and authorities said they likely drove straight into the water in the dark. The pond is surrounded by high grass and shrubs off a narrow gravel road in a pasture north of Dickinson.

"In our minds, all of us have been reliving what we think they probably went through," said Gemar's father, Lenny.

Senior softball player Jody Lantz of St. Walburg, Saskatchewan, said she and fellow students came to the pond Wednesday "to understand it a little more, wrap our heads around it."

"It's going to be weird going onto the field and knowing that they're never going to be there," Lantz said.

Stark County Sheriff Clarence Tuhy said the women's SUV was found resting on its wheels Tuesday in about 10 feet of water with the doors and windows closed.

"When you're not familiar with an area like that it would have been very easy to drive into" the pond, Tuhy said. The sheriff said the students were on private property. He stopped short of saying they were trespassing.

The students were believed to be in the 1997 Jeep Cherokee when two of their friends received telephone calls late Sunday before the lines quickly went dead. Police described the first as a "very scratchy" call for help in which one of the students said they were near water.

Tuhy said the calls, which authorities were able to track to cell phone towers, were critical in leading searchers to the vehicle. He said it wasn't clear if emergency crews might have been able to reach the women had they called 911 instead of their friends.

Police Lt. Rod Banyai said authorities do not expect autopsy results for a week or two. The autopsies will help determine the exact cause of death and whether the women were under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Authorities have said there is no indication they were. The North Dakota Highway Patrol also will examine the Jeep to determine if the vehicle malfunctioned, Banyai said.

Dickinson State University President Richard McCallum said classes were canceled Wednesday and a memorial service was scheduled on the 2,700-student campus Thursday. The Dickinson State staff distributed ribbons in school colors — dark blue and silver — in memory of the three students.

The university listed Gemar as a senior business major who played third base on the softball team. Neufeld was a senior outfielder working on a psychology degree, and Williamson, a junior, was a pitcher majoring in psychology with a minor in coaching.

"I have so many unanswered questions and thoughts," softball coach Kristen Fleury said.

Claire Gemar said Wednesday that she talked to her daughter Sunday afternoon and she could hear her two friends in the background. When she told her daughter goodbye, she remembered, "I said, 'Be safe.' She said, 'I will.'"

The Gemars said they hoped the women's deaths would remind people the importance of knowing their surroundings and letting others know where they are. In the meantime, Lenny Gemar said he knows where he daughter is now.

"We threw out last pitches to each of the girls," he said of the gathering at the pond. "That heavenly softball team someplace where we hope that they all are. We know they hit them out of the park."

Aliens target Earth again in "V" revival

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – After about 25 years, those sneaky, lizard-like aliens are back. Once again, they want to take over Earth and, maybe, destroy or consume the populace. But so what? In exchange for their malevolence, they promise to provide a world of fast-paced, eye-catching action and provocative drama.

"V" was a popular miniseries when NBC aired it in the pre-Fox and early cable year of 1983. It worked so well that creator Kenneth Johnson had a sequel the following year, "V: The Final Battle." That proved so popular that NBC, disregarding the "Final" part of the title, reintroduced "V" as a weekly series that fall. That's when it stopped working.

And that's too bad, because the idea behind "V" -- a modern retelling of how the Nazis rose to power in Germany -- is a powerhouse concept that combines conflict, suspense and imagination with some heavy-duty philosophical issues. Johnson, in fact, said his original inspiration was the Sinclair Lewis novel, "It Can't Happen Here," and he came up with something that is less science fiction than political science fiction.

This latest update, airing Tuesday at 8 p.m. EST/PST, preserves the original framework but shifts the atmosphere to accommodate contemporary concerns. Based on the pilot, the militaristic notes will be more subdued. Instead, there will be more of a post-September 11 emphasis on questions of trust and terror.

"V" is short for Visitors, which is what the aliens call themselves. They announce their presence while simultaneously hovering in huge unassailable spaceships above 29 of Earth's major cities, including New York, where the series is set.

Alien leader Anna (Morena Baccarin), the very picture of sweetness and innocence, promises to share advanced technology and live in peace. Many Earthlings are eager to believe her, including young adults who sign up for the Peace Ambassador program (analogous to Hitler Youth).But there are skeptics. These include FBI agent Erica Evans (Elizabeth Mitchell), whose son joins the Ambassador program, and Father Jack (Joel Gretsch). Complicating things is the wave of Visitors who came to Earth years earlier and are working incognito. At the same time, though, other secret Visitors have become disillusioned and join the resistance.

Somewhere in between is news anchor Chad Decker (Scott Wolf). In exchange for exclusive interviews with Anna, he makes an uncomfortable bargain to ask only softball questions.

It could be complicated, but Scott Peters' tightly written teleplay makes it easy to follow. In addition, the pilot raises provocative issues without getting didactic. That, combined with mythology less dense than, say, ABC's "Lost," should make this an attractive viewing option.

Frankenstein By Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Facebook outlines new privacy policy

WASHINGTON — Facebook outlined changes to its privacy policy on Thursday and asked for feedback from the social network's more than 300 million users.

Vice president of communications and public policy Elliot Schrage, in a post on the Facebook blog, said members will have until November 5 to send in their comments about the proposed changes.

"This is the next step in our ongoing effort to run Facebook in an open and transparent way," he said. "After the comment period is over, we'll review your feedback and update you on our next steps."

Some of the changes to Facebook's privacy policy are the result of pressure from Canada, whose privacy czar conducted an investigation into its handling of personal information.

"In this revision," Schrage said, "we're fulfilling our commitment to the privacy commissioner of Canada to update our privacy policy to better describe a number of practices.

"Specifically, we've included sections that further explain the privacy setting you can choose to make your content viewable by everyone," he said.

Schrage said the changes also clarify the difference between deactivating and deleting an account and "the process of memorializing an account once we've received a report that the account holder is deceased."

Facebook said it will save profile information such as friend lists and photos from a deactivated account in case a member decides to reactivate it later but the material will not be viewable by other users.

It said a deleted account is "permanently deleted."

Facebook said information from a deleted account may still be viewable on the pages of other users if it was shared or copied and stored by them.

"However, your name will no longer be associated with that information on Facebook," it said, and will be attributed to an "anonymous Facebook user."

Facebook also stressed that personal data is not provided to advertisers. "The information we provide to advertisers is 'anonymized,' meaning that it can't be traced back to you as an individual in any way," Schrage said.