NEW YORK: Thirty-four people were injured late Saturday when a charter bus traveling on a highway hit an overpass in Boston, Massachusetts, US media reported.
NBC News said the accident happened on Soldiers Field Road about 7:30 pm (0030 GMT Sunday).
The bus was returning to Pennsylvania from Harvard University with 42 people on board, the network said.
The injured have been taken to local hospitals. One them is reported to have life-threatening injuries.
-AFP/ac
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
(CNN) -- The family of an American woman who went missing in Istanbul nearly two weeks ago is in mourning after learning that Turkish police found her body Saturday.
Steven Sierra wept during a phone call with CNN, as he waited in Istanbul to go with police to identify the body of his wife, Sarai Sierra.
Turkish police found the New York woman's body near ancient stone walls in Istanbul's Sarayburnu district, the semi-official Anatolian Agency reported. Police suspected she had been killed at another location.
Police told CNN's sister network CNN Turk that the body of the 33-year-old mother of two showed signs of stab wounds.
At least nine suspects had been detained in connection with Sierra's disappearance and death, Anatolian reported.
Sierra's family and friends first sounded the alarm last week after she did not arrive on a return flight from Istanbul on January 22.
"The last we heard from my wife was Monday morning on the 21st. She had spoken with her sister and the last thing she said was, 'I'm coming home tomorrow,' and she was excited and put a little smiley face at the end of her statement," said Steven Sierra in an interview with CNN earlier this week.
Steven Sierra spoke to CNN in Istanbul on Wednesday, after he and Sarai Sierra's brother, David Jimenez, traveled to Turkey to assist in the search.
The worried husband was periodically overwhelmed with emotion throughout the interview.
"You're hoping that she's OK wherever she's at, that she's not hurting, that she's not cold, that she's being fed," Steven Sierra said, choking back tears.
"Its difficult what's going through my mind, if our hopes and prayers are not answered. It is difficult when you have two children that look up to you, and you have to do your very best to stay strong regardless of what happens."
Sarai Sierra flew alone to Istanbul on January 7 after a friend at the last minute canceled plans to accompany her.
"She did a lot of researching about the area, about where she was going to stay, the safest places to go and the time of day to travel," friend Magalena Rodriguez said.
Sierrra was an amateur photographer who had amassed more than 3,000 followers since she joined the photo sharing app Instagram last year.
Some people she met through the service encouraged her to visit the ancient Turkish city, her husband said. They offered to act as tour guides. "You're admiring pictures, but you're getting acquainted with people that you've never met before," Steven Sierra said.
Sarai's brother said he had been worried about his sister's solo trip.
"We were nervous. Were just like 'always be mindful of what you do, be aware of your surroundings. Don't get too comfortable to the point where you drop your guard down,'" David Jimenez said.
But Jimenez and Sierra's husband said Sarai was determined to complete challenges that she set for herself.
As an example, they described how she competed in a triathlon several years ago, despite being a weak swimmer, and despite the fact that she did not own a bicycle. Instead, Sarai completed the cycling leg of the competition by borrowing a mountain bike from her husband.
After arriving in Istanbul, Sierra's photo feed displayed images of Istanbul's beautiful skyline and historic landmarks.
She also squeezed in an excursion to Amsterdam in the Netherlands and to Germany, starting January 15.
"She chose to go to Amsterdam for the graffiti," her husband said. "She informed me as far as how her time was out there. And she also had a tour guide that was helping her out there as well, who I know about and who I've spoken with personally."
Sierra returned to Istanbul on January 19. Three days later, she went missing.
Sierra had rebooked her flight to arrive back early, on January 22, in part to surprise her two sons, 9 and 11.
Days before her scheduled trip home, Sierra spoke with her father, Dennis Jimenez, via Skype to remind him of her flight number and arrival time.
When Dennis Jimenez went to the Newark, New Jersey, airport to pick Sierra up, she didn't show, he said.
The airline told him she had never checked in for the flight.
"She kept in contact with us all the time," Sierra's mother, Betzaida Jimenez, said. "And then not to hear from her? It's not like her."
After the tourist went missing, Turkish police released a surveillance camera video of Sarai at a shopping mall in Istanbul, flipping through her iPad.
The scenes from January 20 are the last known images of her.
The manager of the small private hotel where Sierra was staying reported last seeing her the day the surveillance video was shot. That was a Sunday.
Her Skype account, which she avidly used, went silent a day later. A day after that was when she missed her flight home.
The time she last talked with her family, Sierra was planning on January 21 to see the Galata Bridge and visit the Asian side of Istanbul, her husband said.
The former capital of the Byzantine and East Roman empires straddles the continents of Europe and Asia.
After Sierra's family raised the alarm that she was missing, some of her belongings -- including her passport and medical cards -- were found in her room in Istanbul, though her iPhone and iPad were not there, according to her husband.
Since Sierra's disappearance, Turkish police detained a Turkish man she had been in contact with who was identified only by the first name Talan, according to CNN Turk.
Millions of foreign tourists visit Turkey every year.
While it is not unusual to hear about foreigners being targeted by pickpockets and bag snatchers, violent crime involving foreign tourists is relatively rare.
Updated 9:45 PM ET
MIDLAND CITY, Ala. As the police standoff with an Alabama man accused of holding a 5-year-old boy hostage continued Saturday, a nearby community prepared to bury the beloved bus driver who was shot to death trying to protect children on his bus when the episode began days earlier.
Charles Albert Poland Jr., 66, who was known around town as Chuck, was described by folks in his hometown of Newton as a humble hero. Hundreds of people attended a viewing service for Poland on Saturday evening. His funeral was set for Sunday afternoon.
"I believe that if he had to do it all over again tomorrow, he would," said Poland's sister-in-law, Lavern Skipper, earlier Saturday. "He would do it for those children."
Authorities said Jim Lee Dykes boarded a stopped school bus filled with 21 children Tuesday afternoon and demanded two boys between 6 and 8 years old. When Poland tried to block his way, the gunman shot him several times and took one 5-year-old boy — who police say remains in an underground bunker with Dykes.
Dale County Sheriff Wally Olson said in a briefing with reporters Saturday that Dykes has told them he has blankets and an electric heater in the bunker on his property. Authorities have set up a command post at a church and have been communicating with Dykes through a ventilation pipe to the underground bunker.
Olson also said Dykes has allowed police to deliver coloring books, medication and toys for the boy.
"I want to thank him for taking care of our boy," Olson said. "That's very important."
The shooting and abduction took place in Midland City, a small town near Dothan, Ala., in the state's southeastern corner.
Newton is about three miles away, a small hamlet with fewer than 2,000 residents. It sits amid cotton farms and rolling hills sprinkled with red earth; most of the residents commute to Dothan or to a nearby Army post.
William Lisenby, a school bus driver who also taught Sunday School with Poland, was flanked by other area bus drivers as he arrived at Saturday night's viewing service for his friend at a local funeral home.
Lisenby spoke in Biblical terms when referring to Poland.
Bus driver Charles Albert Poland Jr. is seen in this undated picture released by the Dale County Board of Education.
"If you'll notice the similarities there, of what Chuck did was the same thing that Jesus Christ did. These children, even though they were not Chuck's, he laid down his life to defend those children. My hat's off to him for that."
"He was a bus driver just like we are," Lisenby said. "But for the grace of God that could have been us."
Others spoke of the loss of a good man, and their hope that the little boy being held captive is alive and well and will be released soon.
"The community is real concerned," said Fred McNab, mayor of Pinckard, Ala. "You can tell by the food that's been carried over there to the church. It's just devastating. We want it to come to a resolution. We want to save that little child."
Earlier Saturday, local residents remembered Poland as a friendly, giving person.
"He's probably the nicest guy you'll ever meet," said Lonnie Daniels, the 69-year-old owner of the NAPA Auto Parts store, one of three establishments in town that was open Saturday.
Daniels last saw his friend Tuesday morning, when Poland agreed to buy a car from him. The two men shook hands and closed the deal "like gentlemen," Daniels said. Poland was to return after working his bus route to pay for the car.
"He never came back," Daniels said quietly.
Daniels said Poland had been married to his wife for 43 years. Poland was from Idaho, but his wife was from Newton. The couple lived there for decades in a small mobile home, and Poland enjoyed gardening and clearing brush from his property.
"I knew that he was always there if I needed," said Daniels, adding that Poland was an excellent mechanic with an array of tools that he lent to people in town.
Neighbors and friends said Poland did various acts of kindness for people in town, from fixing someone's tractor to tilling the garden of a neighbor who had a heart attack.
"You don't owe me anything," Poland once told a recipient of his good deed. "You're my neighbor."
Skipper said Poland and his wife would often sit on their porch, drinking coffee, praying and reading the Bible.
"They loved to be together," Skipper said.
On Saturday morning, Poland's wife wasn't home. A rack of worn trucker's caps sat on hooks on the porch, and two freshly baked pies were laid atop a cooler.
The victim's son, Aaron Poland, told NBC News that he wasn't surprised by his father's act to protect the kids on the bus.
"He considered them his children," Poland said, choking back tears. "And I know that's the reason why my dad took those shots, for his children, just like he would do for me and my sister."
1/2
It took the mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, to prompt lawmakers to call for stricter gun legislation. But the reality is that in a city like Chicago, where 515 murders took place last year and more than 100 shooting incidents have occurred since January 1, gun violence is an ongoing issue and it has been for years. Only, these shootings have become so common that they don't make national headlines.
"We lost a classroom full of children in Connecticut which sparked national outrage that needs to be translated into action, but in Chicago, we sometimes lose a dozen or more young people every weekend," Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Illinois), who serves the Chicago area, said in a statement. "Too many bullets and too many guns are killing the next generation and we have got to make it stop."
Gutierrez, like many others, believe that any debate about gun violence shouldn't just take into account mass shootings that make headline news. It should also consider the chronic gun violence that takes place on a daily basis across the U.S.
In Chicago's case, many of the victims are young minorities growing up in poor, gang-ridden neighborhoods on the south and west side of the city.
Just earlier this week a 15-year-old girl who performed at President Barack Obama's recent inauguration was gunned down, The Washington Post reported.
The teen, Hadiya Pendleton, was hanging out in a park with about a dozen other young people when she was shot. Two other victims were reportedly wounded. By all accounts she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Reports indicate that the gunman was not even aiming at her.
And Pendleton is just the latest example. Chicago police officer Ron Holt lost his son, Blair, to gun violence in the spring of 2007. The 16-year-old was shot and killed while riding a bus after school.
Holt now works with young people in the community, particularly minorities at an increased risk of engaging in dangerous behavior, to encourage them to focus on their education instead of turning to violence.
"I explain to them that if they continue to ascribe to this diabolical idea of resolving conflict with firearms they're depleting the most precious natural resource in the community, and that is them," Holt said.
What's clear is that the root of the gun problem is not just the guns. There are several factors that play a role, many of which are rarely discussed. For example, for minority youth living in urban communities characterized by poverty, violence, particularly gun violence, tends to be chronic. And the groups largely impacted tend to be African American and Hispanic.
A lot of that has to do with acculturation, according to Rahsmia Zatar, executive director of Strong Youth, a gang prevention and intervention organization. There is a sense that it's difficult to move beyond one's cultural sphere.
As a result, minorities often tend to gravitate toward other young minorities in similar situations, and turn to violence to gain a sense of control, however false it really is.
Charles Rex Arbogast/AP Photo
"It's easy to fall victim to feeling a sense of empowerment through violence," Zatar said. "They feel they have limited opportunities and they don't have a sense of 'I can achieve,' [or] that there is something here for me that's better."
According to the 2011 American Community Survey by the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 30 percent of Chicago's African-American population and nearly 27 percent of Hispanics live below the poverty line. Perhaps more importantly, blacks and whites remain largely segregated, with African-Americans making up the vast majority of neighborhoods in the south, and whites comprising most of the north. Latinos are somewhat more mixed, often living in "buffer" communities between blacks and whites, which could exacerbate the pressure to conform to two cultures, neither of which is entirely comfortable.
These various enclaves also suffer from a distinct gang problem. Chicago Police Commissioner Garry McCarthy told Reuters the city is plagued by the breakup of larger more established gangs into new factions that are fighting over everything from turf to money.
Then there's the city's illicit gun issue, which is bigger than New York's or Los Angeles' despite strict laws to limit weapons. Gun shops are actually outlawed in Chicago, as are assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Handguns were even banned until 2010.
Still, in a place like Chicago it's handguns doing the most damage. According to statistics from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, most of the guns they recovered in Illinois were pistols, followed by revolvers and rifles. Machine guns come in a distant sixth.
Why so many guns? Gun laws in neighboring communities are not as strict, and firearms make their way into the city. According to a recent article by The New York Times, officials "seized 7,400 guns [in Chicago] in crimes or unpermitted uses last year (compared with 3,285 in New York City), and have confiscated 574 guns just since Jan. 1 — 124 of them last week alone."
And while Chicago residents are required to report the loss or theft of a handgun, that same law does not apply to all of Illinois, so a stolen firearm could easily make its way into Chicago without the owner ever reporting it missing.
The dynamics created in poor minority communities like those in Chicago combined with the sheer number of guns that make their way into such a city bear out in the overall statistics.
According to the Bureau of Justice's National Crime Victimization Survey, African Americans were disproportionately represented among homicide victims and offenders between 1980 and 2008. They were six times more likely than whites to be homicide victims and seven times more likely than whites to commit homicides.
Latinos don't fare much better. According to the National Council of La Raza, the nation's largest Hispanic advocacy organization, "Today in America, every three hours a young person is killed by firearm violence. Every 14 hours, that teen or child is Latino."
Young Latinos are especially likely to be impacted by gang violence in places like Chicago. Nationally, Hispanics are also more likely than non-Hispanics to be victims of violent crimes committed by gang members.
The impact of guns on the Latino community may explain why they're inclined to favor increased gun control. According to the Pew Research Center, while 57 percent of whites think it's more important to protect the rights of Americans to own guns than to protect gun ownership, only 29 percent of Latinos feel the same way.
Holt would certainly like to see something change. Several days after his son was killed, he received a voicemail. It was then-Senator Barack Obama. The young lawmaker had called Holt to express his condolences and to promise that if there was anything he could do in the future to help curb gun violence, he was prepared to do it. The two never spoke on the phone, but Holt remembers the message.
Astrophile is our weekly column on curious cosmic objects, from the solar system to the far reaches of the multiverse
Object: Titanium oxide snow
Location: The hot-Jupiter planet HD 209458b
There is something magical about waking up to discover it has snowed during the night. But there's no powdery white blanket when it snows on exoplanet HD 209458b. Snow there is black, smoky and hot as hell – resembling a forest fire more than a winter wonderland. Put it this way: you won't be needing mittens.
HD 209458b belongs to a family called hot Jupiters, gas-giant planets that are constantly being roasted due to their closeness to their sun. By contrast, the gas giants in our immediate neighbourhood, including Jupiter, are frigid, lying at the solar system's far reaches.
HD 209458b is also noteworthy because it is tidally locked, so one side is permanently facing towards its star while the other is in perpetual night. On the face of it, these conditions wouldn't seem to invite snow: temperatures on the day side come close to 2000° C, while the night side is comparatively chilly at around 500° C.
Snow made of water is, of course, impossible on this scorched world, but the drastic temperature differential sets up atmospheric currents that swirl material from the day side to night and vice versa. That means that any substances with the right combination of properties might be gaseous on the day side and then condense into a solid on the night side, and fall as precipitation. Say hello to titanium oxide snow.
Although oxides of titanium make up only a small component of a hot Jupiter's atmosphere, these compounds have the right properties to fall as snow. But there was a snag that could have put a stop to any blizzards. Older computer models of hot Jupiters suggested that titanium oxides condensing in the air on the night side would snow – and remain on the relatively cool surface forever. "Imagine on Earth if you had no mechanism to evaporate water, it would never rain," says Vivien Parmentier of the Côte d'Azur Observatory in Nice, France.
Now he and colleagues have created a more detailed 3D computer model that shows that the snow can become a gas again as it falls and the temperature and pressure increase. Strong updraughts can then blow the titanium oxides back to the upper atmosphere. "The gas can come back on the top layers and snow again and again," says Parmentier.
Snowfall on HD 209458b would be like none you've ever seen. Though titanium dioxide is white and shiny, for example, the snowflakes would also contain silica oxides from the atmosphere, making them black. Since the atmosphere is also dark, snowstorms on the planet would be a smoky affair, the opposite of the white-outs we get on Earth. "It would be like being in the middle of a forest fire," says Parmentier.
Although the team studied a particular hot Jupiter, their model should apply equally to other planets of this type, suggesting hot snow is a common occurrence. Parmentier says we may have already spotted snow clouds on another hot Jupiter, HD 189733b, as spectral analysis of the planet suggests the presence of microscopic particles in its atmosphere
.
David Sing of the University of Exeter, UK, who helped identify such particles on HD 189733b, says the team's new model goes a long way to explaining how titanium oxides behave on hot Jupiters. "We're pretty used to water condensing on Earth; there it is titanium because the temperatures are so much hotter."
Hot, black snow – now that would be something to wake up to.
Reference: http://arxiv.org/abs/1301.4522
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WASHINGTON: The United States will have to keep up an open-ended drone war against Al-Qaeda militants in Pakistan and elsewhere to prevent another terror attack on America, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said.
The assassination of Al-Qaeda figures in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia with unmanned, robotic aircraft has provoked widespread criticism from human rights groups and some US allies, but Panetta said the US campaign has been effective.
Asked if the CIA "targeted killings" should be curtailed in coming years, Panetta told AFP in an interview Friday that there was still a need to continue the drone strikes more than a decade since the attacks of September 11, 2001.
"I think it depends on the nature of the threat that we're confronting. We are in a war. We're in a war on terrorism and we've been in that war since 9/11.
"The whole purpose of our operations were aimed at those who attacked this country and killed 3,000 innocent people in New York as well as 200 people here at the Pentagon," said Panetta, who is days away from retiring as Pentagon chief.
Before taking over as defense secretary, Panetta oversaw a dramatic increase in drone raids in Pakistan as head of the CIA from 2009-2011.
"I think we had a responsibility to use whatever technology we could to be able to go after those who not only conducted that attack but were planning to continue to attack this country," he said.
"It's been an important part of our operations against Al-Qaeda, not just in Pakistan, but also in Yemen, in Somalia and I think it ought to continue to be a tool we ought to use where necessary," he said.
"And also where we can use it in conjunction with other countries that are pursuing the same goal," said Panetta, citing Yemen's strong support for drone strikes.
The CIA drone bombing raids, by Predator and Reaper aircraft armed with Hellfire missiles, have caused an unknown number of civilian casualties and prompted accusations that Washington is carrying out extrajudicial killings in the shadows with no genuine oversight by courts or lawmakers.
Panetta, who as CIA director presided over the successful raid that killed Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, said the campaign still needed to be regularly reviewed but did not say he favored turning over the spy agency's drone war to the military.
Some critics have called for giving the US military authority over the drone air strikes, which would require openly reporting every operation.
"Having said that, we always need to continue to look at it, to make sure we develop the right standards, that we're abiding by the laws of this country, that we're doing it in a way that hopefully can be a little more transparent with the American people."
But he said "to protect this country" it was not enough to have operations carried out openly by the military.
Secret action led by the CIA was also needed "when you got those kind of operations where, because of the nature of the country you're in or the nature of the situation you're dealing with, it's got to be covert."
According to the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism, between 2,627 and 3,457 people have been reportedly killed by US drones in Pakistan since 2004, including between 475 and nearly 900 civilians.
-AFP/ac
By Michael Martinez and Kyung Lah, CNN
updated 10:06 PM EST, Fri February 1, 2013
Bruce Davis was sent to prison on April 21, 1972, for the 1969 first-degree murders of two men.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
(CNN) -- California Gov. Jerry Brown is considering whether to grant parole to a convicted murderer who followed notorious killer Charles Manson, a spokeswoman for the governor said.
Brown's office received a formal recommendation from the state board parole Friday to release Bruce Davis, 70, who would be the first Manson "family" member to secure freedom solely for good behavior.
Brown has 30 days -- or until March 3 -- to either modify, affirm or reverse the parole board's recommendation, a corrections spokeswoman said.
In 2010, Davis secured his first formal recommendation for parole by the state board, but then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger reversed the board's decision.
Charles Manson: The infamous inmate
HIDE CAPTION
Davis was sent to prison on April 21, 1972, for the 1969 first-degree murders of musician Gary Hinman and stuntman Donald "Shorty" Shea. Davis is serving a life sentence.
Michael Beckman, Davis' attorney, urged Brown to grant parole.
If the case were not connected to Charles Manson, Davis would have already been released by now, Beckman said. He called it "not fair."
"He earned it," Beckman said.
"I think the governor should respect the work by his parole board. That hearing took five or six hours. They took into account everything about Bruce. And they didn't grant him parole as a favor. They didn't grant him parole on a whim. They considered it very carefully," Beckman said.
In 2010, the parole board said that Davis had not been disciplined since 1980 and participated in all available education, vocation and self-help programs.
Davis is one of several imprisoned followers of Manson, 78, who is serving a life sentence for nine murders.
Manson led his "family" of followers in a deadly spree in 1969, whose victims included eight-months-pregnant actress Sharon Tate.
Last year, Manson was denied parole for the 12th time.
Manson, whose gruesome killings inspired the best-selling book "Helter Skelter," will be up for parole again 15 years from now, when he would be 92.
CNN's Michael Cary contributed to this report.
#1157946: Twitter bird logo, social networking and microblogging service, graphic element on white / AP Graphics
Twitter said today that it recently detected a series of attempts to hack into user data, and that the attackers may have successfully absconded with some users' information.
In a blog post Friday afternoon, Twitter explained the situation, and the steps it has taken to fight off the hackers.
This week, we detected unusual access patterns that led to us identifying unauthorized access attempts to Twitter user data. We discovered one live attack and were able to shut it down in process moments later. However, our investigation has thus far indicated that the attackers may have had access to limited user information - usernames, email addresses, session tokens and encrypted/salted versions of passwords - for approximately 250,000 users. As a precautionary security measure, we have reset passwords and revoked session tokens for these accounts. If your account was one of them, you will have recently received (or will shortly) an email from us at the address associated with your Twitter account notifying you that you will need to create a new password. Your old password will not work when you try to log in to Twitter.
Twitter said in the post that a very small number of users were affected by the hacking, but it encouraged everyone who uses the service to ensure that they are practicing "good password hygiene, on Twitter and elsewhere on the Internet." Among its suggestions: using unique passwords of at least ten characters, including a mix of upper and lower case letters, numbers, and symbols. Based on attacks on other high-profile tech and media companies, Twitter also said it is recommending the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's recent advisory on disabling Java, among other precautions.
This article originally appeared on CNET under the headline "Twitter says 250,000 users' data compromised in hacking attacks"
This attack was not the work of amateurs, and we do not believe it was an isolated incident. The attackers were extremely sophisticated, and we believe other companies and organizations have also been recently similarly attacked. For that reason we felt that it was important to publicize this attack while we still gather information, and we are helping government and federal law enforcement in their effort to find and prosecute these attackers to make the Internet safer for all users.
The newly-elected attorney general of Pennsylvania is going after the state's governor, Tom Corbett, who was attorney general when child sex allegations against Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky were first brought forward.
Kathleen Kane, a Democrat who was sworn in as attorney general on Jan. 15, said that she will name a special prosecutor in the coming days to investigate Corbett's handling of the Sandusky case. Corbett is a Republican.
The investigation will look specifically at why it took the attorney general's office three years to bring criminal charges against Sandusky while he continued to have access to children.
"Attorney General Kane will appoint a special prosecutor to lead the office's internal investigation into how the Sandusky child abuse investigation was handled by the Office of the Attorney General," Kane's office said in a statement released today.
Corbett's attorney general's office was first notified of the allegations against Sandusky in 2008 when a high school student told his mother and school that Sandusky had molested him. The local district attorney passed the allegation on to the attorney general, then Corbett. Corbett convened a grand jury.
Mario Tama; Patrick Smith/Getty Images
It wasn't until 2011 that sex abuse charges were filed against Sandusky while Corbett had since become governor. Sandusky was convicted on 45 counts of sex abuse in June 2012.
The charges sent shockwaves throughout Pennsylvania, as Penn State's president, two top officials, and legendary coach Joe Paterno all lost their jobs over the scandal.
"Why did it take 33 months to get Sandusky off the streets? Was the use of a grand jury the right decision? Why were there so few resources dedicated to the investigation? Were the best practices implemented?" the statement from Kane's office read.
"At the end of this investigation, we will know the answers to these questions and be able to tell the people of Pennsylvania the facts and give them answers that they deserve," the statement said.
Describing an interview Kane gave the New York Times, the Times said Kane suggested that Corbett did not want to upset voters or donors in the Penn State community before his gubernatorial run in 2009.
Corbett has denied those suggestions. His office did not immediately return calls for comment.
Kane's office preemptively fought back against the idea that the investigation is politically motivated. Kane, a Democrat, defeated the incumbent attorney general, Linda Kelly, a Republican in November 2011. Corbett is a Republican.
"The speculation that this is about politics is insane," a staff member in Kane's office told ABC News today. "You go anywhere in Pennsylvania and anywhere across the country and you'll find individuals asking, 'why did it take three years? Why was there a grand jury? Why make these kids talk to 30 different people about what happened?"
Birds of a feather flock together and now so do brainless, inanimate blobs. Made of microscopic particles, the artificial swarms could shed light on the mysterious mechanisms behind the natural swarming seen in fish and birds. They might also lead to materials with novel properties like self-healing.
Animals such as birds, fish and even humans that move together in swarms have individual intelligence, but Jérémie Palacci of New York University and colleagues wondered whether inanimate objects could also swarm. "From a physicist's point of view, if many different systems behave in the same way there must be an underlying physical rule," he says.
To explore this idea, the team created microscopic plastic spheres, each one with a cubic patch of haematite, an iron oxide, on its surface. When submerged in hydrogen peroxide, the spheres spread out in a disordered fashion. The team then shone blue light on the particles, causing the haematite cubes to catalyse the breakdown of any nearby hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen. As hydrogen peroxide concentration dropped temporarily in these regions due to the reaction, osmotic forces cause more hydrogen peroxide to flow into them, and that in turn buffets the spheres. The whole process then repeats.
When two spheres come close enough to each other, the balance of chemical forces shifts so that the two spheres are attracted. If there are enough spheres in the same place they will cluster together to form shapes of symmetrically arranged particles, which the team call crystals (see video, above). These crystals continue to be buffeted by the movement caused by the breakdown of hydrogen peroxide – but now they move together as one object, replicating a life-like swarm. Switch off the light, however, and the reaction stops, causing the crystal to lose the forces that hold it together, and the particle distribution becomes disordered once again.
"This system shows that even though the particles have no social interaction or intelligence, you can exhibit collective behaviour with no biology involved," says Palacci. Since the haematite is magnetic, it is even possible to steer the crystals in one direction by applying a magnetic field. Such control might be useful if the artificial swarms are to be harnessed for applications.
As the particles automatically fill any gaps that form in the crystal, again thanks to the chemical dynamics of the system, they could be used to create a self-assembling, self-healing material. The work is published in the journal Science today.
Iain Couzin of Princeton University says these kinds of systems are very useful for studying biological collective behaviour because researchers have complete control over their interactions – unlike natural systems.
His team has its own swarming experiment published in the same issue of Science, based on schools of fish that prefer to stay in shade. Their paper shows that shining a light on some of the fish in the school causes them to speed up, to get away from the light. But as a result, non-illuminated fish also speed up, even though, if acting purely as individuals, they would have had no reason to do so. "We show just by using simple interactions that schools can have a sense of responsiveness to the environment that individuals do not have," he says.
Couzin sees no reason why such behaviour should be limited to natural systems. "In future it may be possible to create systems of particles that can make collective decisions – something we often think of as only possible in biological systems," he says.
Journal references: Living crystals: Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.1230020; Fish: Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.1225883
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