Newly spotted comet to buzz Mars in 2014

Lisa Grossman, physical sciences reporter

A Martian sunset, as seen by NASA's Spirit rover in 2005.
(Image: Mars Exploration Rover Mission, Texas A&M, Cornell, JPL, NASA)

There's a new comet in town, and it is making a beeline for Mars. If projections of its orbit are correct, the icy visitor will buzz the Red Planet in October 2014.

Dubbed C/2013 A1, the comet was discovered on 3 January by prolific comet hunter Robert McNaught at Siding Spring Observatory in New South Wales, Australia. Colleagues at the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona found images of the comet in their catalogue that date back to 8 December 2012, giving additional information about its movements.

These observations allowed astronomers to trace the comet's likely path around the sun. The calculated trajectory has C/2013 A1 crossing Mars' orbit on 19 October 2014, according to Australian blogger Ian Musgrave.

That doesn't necessarily mean a collision will occur. The best estimates right now have the comet passing a safe distance of 900,000 kilometres from the Martian surface. Asteroid 2012 DA14 got much closer to Earth last week, skimming by at a distance of 34,400 kilometres. But with so little data in hand, the calculations are not precise. It's possible the comet will miss Mars by as much as 36 million kilometres - or it could smack right into the planet. "An impact can't be ruled out at this stage," Musgrave wrote.

From Earth, we should be able to see the comet and Mars sitting side by side through small telescopes. And from Mars, the comet could be as spectacular as the expected "supercomet" ISON, which will come into view this year and could outshine the full moon.

Assuming the comet's orbit brings it close enough - but not too close - to Mars, the object should be visible either by rovers on the surface or the armada of Mars-orbiting satellites, which have a history of snapping spectacular shots of the Red Planet and its neighborhood.

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Ferrari goes up in flames at Teban Gardens

SINGAPORE: A red Ferrari went up in flames near Teban Gardens Road on Wednesday.

A Channel NewsAsia viewer was having his lunch at a coffee shop in the vicinity when he heard an explosion.

According to the viewer, the red Ferrari had stopped in front of block 54 Teban Gardens Road, along Penjuru Road.

The Chinese male driver had gotten out of the car before the explosion.

The driver did not appear to have been injured.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) arrived five minutes later and put out the fire.

SCDF confirmed that there were no reported injuries and that no other vehicle was involved in the incident.

The cause of the fire is being investigated.

- CNA/ck

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Doomed balloon riders nearly landed, then shot upward

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: Conflicting reports emerge over company's safety record


• A British passenger and the pilot are hospitalized


• The balloon carried tourists from the UK, Hong Kong, Japan, France and Hungary


• A gas explosion caused the balloon to fall about 300 meters (almost 1,000 feet)

Were you there? Have you taken such a trip before in Egypt? Send us your experiences.

(CNN) -- The view from above southern Egypt is stunning, a contrast of beige desert valley giving way to green farmland, including fields of sugar cane. Tourists soak in the sight by hiring hot air balloons that have large baskets to carry passengers hundreds of feet above the countryside.

Tuesday morning, as one of the balloons prepared to land, an explosion pierced the air, followed by a spreading billow of smoke.

"My first thought was that it was sugar cane that was burning," said Christopher Michel, a photographer who was a passenger in another balloon at the time.

Smoke from the burning sugar cane painted the ancient city of Luxor below with an eerie haziness.

But the concern shown by the balloon pilot and the blaring sirens from emergency vehicles told Michel that something was wrong. He could not imagine the extent: One of the balloons had exploded, and its 21 passengers and operators plummeted about 1,000 feet (300 meters) to the ground.

By Tuesday afternoon, the number of dead had climbed to 19, making it the world's deadliest hot air balloon accident in at least 20 years.

"This juxtaposition of this great beauty and this wonderful country and this horrible tragedy is just really shocking," Michel told CNN. "We all feel terrible."

It was an early, dark morning, Michel said, and uneventful for 45 minutes until they started to descend. He was overlooking mud-brick buildings and fields, with the Valley of the Kings in the distance, when the explosion shattered the quiet of the morning.

It was a gas explosion, state-run EgyNews reported.

Fatal hot air balloon crash

HIDE CAPTION

Passengers in the balloon included 19 foreign tourists: nine from Hong Kong, four from Japan, three from Britain, two from France and one from Hungary, officials said.

An Egyptian pilot and another Egyptian also were on board, Luxor province spokesman Badawi al-Masri said.

Two people -- a Briton and the pilot -- are hospitalized.

Balloon rides offering panoramic aerial views of the Nile River and the ancient temples of Karnak and Hatshepsut are a popular tourist attraction in Luxor, about a nine-hour drive southeast of Cairo.

"You can see Valley of the Kings in the background bordered by farmland," Pauline Liang of Vancouver, Canada, told CNN's iReport last year. "Below were banana farms, and behind us was the city of Luxor. There was a great contrast between desert landscape, lush farmland and urban development."

Tuesday's crash prompted Gov. Izzat Saad of Luxor province to ban all hot air balloon flights until further notice.

Conflicting reports emerged about the company that operated the doomed balloon, Sky Cruise.

The head of the country's civil aviation authority said the company was licensed and working legally, EgyNews reported.

The agency has begun an investigation of the incident, Mohammed Ibrahim Sharif said.

According to Sharif, a fire broke out in the balloon while the workers were trying to land it, just feet from the ground. The balloon then shot upwards again, he said.

The balloon's basket was divided into four parts, he said, each holding five passengers.

Meanwhile, Luxor's chamber of tourism said the company had previous violations, EgyNews reported.

Several balloon companies had terminated contracts with the local meteorological service after the Egyptian revolution, Tharwat Agami, chairman of the chamber of tourism, said.

Sky Cruise and other companies were known to violate safety and security instructions by flying out of East Luxor, instead of the recommended West Luxor, he said.

Comparing it to a previous hot air balloon experience in another country, Michel noted that there was no safety briefing before the Luxor balloons lifted off the ground, but added that he felt safe during the trip.

From what he could tell, the doomed balloon was not overloaded, he said on his Twitter account.

Luxor is among Egypt's top tourist draws. Visitors go to see ancient temples and tombs, and travel sites often recommend the hot air balloon trips.

The last hot air balloon accident in Luxor occurred in 2009, when 16 foreign tourists were injured after a balloon struck a cell phone transmission tower.

Until Tuesday's incident, the deadliest accident in recent memory took place in 1989, when 13 people were killed as two hot air balloons collided in Australia.

Egyptian government spokesman Alaa Hadidi announced that the Cabinet will form a committee from the Ministry of Civil Aviation to investigate Tuesday's accident, EgyNews said.

CNN's Housam Ahmed and Hamdi Alkhshali, along with journalist Adam Makary in Cairo, contributed to this report.

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Two cops, suspect dead in Calif. shootings

Updated 1:50 a.m. EST

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. Two police officers were shot and killed Tuesday while investigating a sexual assault, and a suspect was also fatally shot, authorities said.

Santa Cruz police Chief Kevin Vogel says Sgt. Loren Butch Baker and Detective Elizabeth Butler were gunned down in mid-afternoon Tuesday as they followed up on a sexual assault investigation. He says Baker was a 28-year veteran of the department and Butler had been with the department 10 years. Vogel says Baker was married and the father of two daughters, while Butler leaves behind two young sons.

A suspect, identified as 35-year-old Jeremy Goulet, was shot and killed a short time later while authorities were pursuing the gunman, the Santa Cruz County sheriff's office said.

Residents on the adjoining streets where the shootings occurred received an automatic police call warning them to stay locked inside. About half an hour later, more than a dozen semi-automatic shots echoed down the streets in a brief shootout that killed the suspect.

Witnesses described hearing a "multitude of gunfire" - with 20 or more shots fired during that gun battle between the suspect and law enforcement, reports CBS San Francisco station station KPIX-TV.

Police were going door-to-door in the neighborhood, searching homes, garages, even closets, although the sheriff said authorities didn't know if another suspect remained at large.

Police, sheriff's deputies and FBI agents filled intersections, some with guns drawn, in what is ordinarily a quiet, residential neighborhood in the community about 60 miles south of San Francisco.

A store clerk a few buildings away from the shooting said the barrage of gunfire was "terrifying."

"We ducked. We have big desks, so under the desks we went," said the clerk, who spoke on condition of anonymity and asked that her store not be identified because she feared for her safety.

She said she remained locked in her store hours after the shooting and was still scared.

Two schools were locked down during the shooting. The students were later evacuated by bus to the County Government Center about half a mile away.

As darkness fell, helicopters and light aircraft patrolled above the neighborhood, which is about a mile from downtown Santa Cruz and the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. The campus of University of California, Santa Cruz, is about five miles away.

The city's mayor, Hilary Bryant, said in a statement that the city was shocked over the shootings.

"Tonight we are heartbroken at the loss of two of our finest police officers who were killed in the line of duty, protecting the community we love," the statement said. "This is an exceptionally shocking and sad day for Santa Cruz and our Police Department."

Santa Cruz has faced a recent spate of violence, and community leaders had scheduled a downtown rally Tuesday to speak out against shootings. That and a city council meeting were canceled after teary-eyed city leaders learned of the deaths.

Those shootings include the killing of Pauly Silva, a 32-year-old martial arts instructor who was shot outside a popular downtown bar and restaurant on Feb. 9.

Two days later, a UC Santa Cruz student waiting at a bus stop was shot in the head during a robbery. She is recovering from her injuries.

Then on Feb. 17, a 21-year-old woman was raped and beaten on the UC Santa Cruz campus. Four days later, a Santa Cruz couple fought off two men who came in their home before dawn and threatened them with a sword.

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Inside Organized Retail Crime Raids

We used to call it shoplifting, but these days the foot soldiers of retail crime rings are known as boosters. Police even have an acronym for these operations: ORC, which stands for Organized Retail Crime.

"It's just like a Fortune 500 company," said Sergeant Eric Lee of the Gardena Police Department in Gardena, Calif. "All of this is just organized."

Watch the full story on "Nightline" TONIGHT at 12:35 a.m. ET

Police say big retail stores, from Walgreens to J.C. Penny, are getting hit by highly sophisticated shoplifting networks that steal and resell everything from underwear to razors to milk. According to the National Retail Federation, theft can amount to annual losses as high as a $37 billion for retail businesses.

"Every store in every city has to go through this," Lee said. "They wait until no one's paying attention and they walk out."

Tide detergent is currently a hot target because it is compact, expensive and easy to sell on the streets for profit, police said. The Street name: "liquid gold."

"Sometimes we get rings that just do alcohol," Lee said. "And then we get some that do just meat and seafood."

Investigators say boosters move the loot for cents on the dollar to fencing operations -- the black market resellers of the stolen goods -- which sell the stolen merchandise in plain sight in stores. Boosters, fencers, Mr. Bigs, all of those involved in these shoplifting operations can potentially make millions a year from boosting and re-selling stolen goods.

Craigslist Crackdown: Cops Go After Thieves Watch Video

And Mike Swett is on the case. A former Riverside County sheriff's deputy in Los Angeles, Swett was badly injured in a car wreck and now works as a full-time private investigator on the ORC beat who has worked with Target, Marshalls, T.J. Maxx. Stores hire him to do his own undercover police work, catching thieves before involving local law enforcement.

"Kind of like working a narcotics case, it's like you've got low-level, mid-level and then top dog," Swett said. "We like to go after the top dog and the only way to get to the top dog is mid-level first."

At his command center -- his apartment -- Swett showed off the boxes upon boxes of tapes and photographs he has collected, the fruits of countless silent stake-out hours.

Swett said he has been casing two joints in L.A. for months, both alleged to be mid-level fencing operations. "Nightline" was invited to ride along with him when he sent undercover agents in for a final reconnaissance mission.

At some stores and shopping malls, clerks do little to stop shoplifters and often let them run, which has contributed to the growing fencing operations.

"[The stores] don't want their employees to get injured," Swett said. "So oftentimes they will call the police, but by the time we get there they are already in their car and they are gone."

This leaves professional investigators like Swett to put the pieces together and bust open the gangs to lead over-stretched police departments to the prey.

When raid day arrived, a motorcade of squad cars departed from the Gardena, Calif., police department and pulled up to one fencing operation. Swett said the merchandise being sold was boosted goods.

"There is Victoria's Secret, expensive Victoria's Secret, the gift sets," he said, pointing down a line of tables. "J.C. Penny, Miramax, its real stuff not counterfeit."

He spotted a bottle of Katy Perry brand perfume, which usually retails for around $90 but one seller had it priced at $59.

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Today on New Scientist: 25 February 2013

First fruits of a groundbreaking art-science tie-up

A pioneering collaboration between two of London's most prestigious cultural institutions shows that sci-art has come of age

The great illusion of the self

Your mind's greatest trick is convincing you of your own reality. Discover the elaborate illusions involved and what they mean in our special feature

Stunning seeds: a biological meteor wreathed in flames

Some seeds have a look that evokes all-consuming fire, says an artist who captures their portraits with a flatbed scanner

Armband adds a twitch to gesture control

The Myo band turns electrical activity in the muscles of a user's forearm into gestures for controlling computers and other devices

Treat malware as biology to know it better

Treating computer viruses as a biological puzzle could help computer scientists get a better handle on the wide world of malware

Take my taxi to the moon

Susmita Mohanty, the founder of India's first private space company, Earth2Orbit, wants India to claim bigger piece of the space-launch pie

How electrodes in the brain block obsessive behaviour

Why deep brain stimulation can help people with OCD was a mystery, but now it seems the treatment fixes brain signalling well beyond the stimulated area

Ancient continent hides beneath Indian Ocean

The sands on Mauritius's beaches are older than the island itself, suggesting a hidden continent is the source

New blood test finds elusive fetal gene problem

Take parents' DNA and make a computer model of their fetus's genome - comparison with the real thing will show up problems that other tests miss

Amazon to open market in second-hand MP3s and e-books

A new market for second-hand digital downloads could let us hold virtual yard sales of our ever-growing piles of intangible possessions

People in a vegetative state may feel pain

Scans have revealed activity in areas of the brain responsible for the emotional aspects of pain in people thought to have no subjective awareness

Sewage solutions: Six alternative toilet technologies

Two-and-a-half billion people don't have access to sanitary toilets, but standard designs aren't an option without a sewer network. See some alternatives here

Rusty rocks reveal ancient origin of photosynthesis

Iron oxide in the world's oldest sedimentary rocks suggest photosynthesis evolved 370 million years earlier than we thought, not long after life began

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SDP to address Budget 2013 "shortcomings" in its own "Shadow Budget"

SINGAPORE: The opposition Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) said it'll address the "shortcomings" of the government's Budget 2013 and propose a more efficient way of prioritising Singapore's expenditure estimates in its own "Shadow Budget".

The party said on Tuesday that the measures in Budget 2013 have failed to address Singapore's long-term needs.

It said while the Budget attempts to address systemic problems, it still falls short of addressing what Singapore really needs.

The SDP welcomes Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam's effort to tackle the problem of income disparity through the Wage Credit Scheme (WCS).

However, it felt that the WCS will not be an effective remedy if the root cause of the income gap is not addressed.

The root cause, the SDP said,, is the continued downward pressure on wages brought about by the importation of lower-wage foreign labour.

The SDP welcomed the move to raise the foreign worker levy for 2014 and 2015 but urged the government to rethink its policy of importing more foreign workers and to introduce minimum wage.

Turning to healthcare, the SDP said it's heartening to note that the Budget will increase funding of Eldercare, a programme which it supports.

However, it wants the 3M-system of Medisave, Medishield and Medifund replaced by a single-payer system, as well as government healthcare expenditure raised from the current 30 per cent to the international norm of about 70 per cent.

- CNA/ck

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Senate Republican: Pentagon overstating forced cuts

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said the overall amount of defense spending will actually still rise despite the cuts.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Texas senator believes cuts may not be as bad for defense as the Pentagon says


• John Cornyn could face criticism from fellow Republicans with GOP strong on defense


• Pentagon would absorb half of the automatic, government-wide spending cuts


• Cuts due to take effect on Friday absent congressional action to avert them

Washington (CNN) -- Anticipating possible political backlash if forced federal spending cuts kick in as expected later this week, the Senate's No. 2 Republican said Monday that he is preparing a message he plans to hit hard: The cuts are not going to have as negative an impact as the Pentagon and others in the Obama administration are saying.

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said he plans to make the case to other Republicans and the public that despite warnings from the Pentagon that the mandated cuts will be devastating, the overall amount of defense spending will actually still rise.

Cornyn conceded that until now he had been parroting what Defense Secretary Leon Panetta continuously warns -- that automatic, government-wide cuts could jeopardize national security.

But the veteran senator said he looked into it and will now argue that even if the cuts go through on March 1, the Pentagon will still see its budget go up.

Cornyn's preview of what he hopes will be a Senate GOP argument is significant since defense cuts are usually something Republicans adamantly oppose. He will surely run up against some in his party who strongly disagree.

To be sure, Cornyn called himself a defense "hawk" and did say the role of the federal government should be first and foremost to protect American citizens.

But he also believes that the deficit should be paramount since the United States has ended its fighting in Iraq and is winding down the war in Afghanistan.

He added that if "God forbid" another 9/11 happens, Congress would act.

Still, Senate Republicans are considering a proposal this week that could alleviate some impacts of the cuts by giving the president flexibility to decide where they would occur.

However, GOP sources tell CNN that Republicans have not yet worked out among themselves whether their measure would give the president that flexibility on all domestic agencies and programs or just on defense.

GOP sources say they are likely to work that out when Senate Republicans huddle for their regular lunch on Tuesday.

The $85 billion in forced spending cuts were written into law intentionally to be indiscriminate.

The law does not allow, for example, the Pentagon to keep funding going for a ship building program by shifting money being spent on a military golf course. And it does not allow the Health and Human Services Department to keep children in Head Start programs by cutting deeper in another agency.

Part of the reason Senate GOP leaders have not decided yet how broad that flexibility should be -- whether it should apply just to the defense cuts, as many Republicans want, or to domestic cuts as well — is due to differences in opinion among Republicans over how much power to give the president.

But it is a key decision, since granting the president flexibility in cuts across the board could make it hard for conservative Democrats, such as those from defense industry-rich Virginia, to oppose.

That's because such an approach could soften the political burden for those Democrats who would be able to argue to their constituents they did everything possible -- including providing flexibility to the White House -- if economic damage ripples through their states.

But one influential Republican senator told CNN on Sunday that he opposes giving the president so much flexibility because it undermines the decision-making authority of Congress.

"I say to my Republican friends, if you want to give the president flexibility as to how to exact these cuts in defense spending, then why don't we go home and just give him the money? I am totally opposed to that," Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, said on CNN's "State of the Union." "We spent too long on defense authorization and finding out what this country needs to secure this country without saying, 'Hey, well we'll just let the president have the, quote, flexibility.'"

A competing Senate Democratic proposal would replace the automatic spending cuts with a mix of tax increases on wealthier Americans and more targeted spending reductions than those currently required. Democratic leaders believe it will get more than 50 votes -- so they will be able to claim it won a majority in the chamber -- but will fall short of the 60 it would need to win Senate approval.

In the meantime, both sides are preparing for no change -- and for forced spending cuts to take effect Friday.

Democratic leadership sources admit that whether or not they can ultimately do anything to change the way across-the-board cuts are enacted will depend on the level of public outcry -- and media coverage.

Democrats admit the impact may not be felt for at least a month, maybe more.

Assuming no legislation is passed to alter the cuts this week, sources in both parties say they are already looking ahead to the next big deadline on March 27, when the funding for the government runs out.

A Democratic congressional source tells CNN that at this point, Democrats do not believe the White House wants to use that debate to revisit forced spending cuts, but the source said that could change depending on public reaction to the cuts.

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Gaza militants fire rocket into Israel, police there say

JERUSALEM Israeli police say a rocket has been fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel. A police spokesman says there was damage to a road but no injuries.

It's the first such rocket from the Palestinian territory to land in Israel since Israeli-Gaza fighting last November.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says the remains of a rocket were found on Tuesday near the city of Ashkelon, in southern Israel.

There have been protests throughout the West Bank in recent days in support of Palestinians held in Israeli jails. This weekend, Palestinian prisoner Arafat Jaradat, 30, died under disputed circumstances, prompting more protests.

A statement from the Palestinian president's office says President Mahmoud Abbas has instructed Palestinian security officials to preserve order in the West Bank, but he blames Israel for the violence.

Thousands attended Jaradat's funeral procession in the West Bank of Hebron, Monday.

Palestinian officials say autopsy results show Jaradat was tortured by Israeli interrogators, while Israeli officials say there's no conclusive cause of death yet and that more tests are needed.

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Americans Targeted for Allegedly Running Underage Prostitution in Philippines

Arthur Benjamin is sitting at the edge of a small stage, wearing a lavender Hawaiian shirt and nursing a bottle of San Miguel Light beer. The 6-foot-6 mustachioed Texan lazily watches the half dozen or so girls dancing rather unenergetically around the stage's pole.

"I forgot your gift again, it's in the car," Benjamin says to one of the girls on stage, shouting above the pop music blaring from the speaker system.

The small, dingy bar, which Benjamin says he owns, is called Crow Bar. It's in a rundown part of the picturesque Subic Bay in the western Philippines, about a three hour drive from the capital, Manila. Home for 50 years to a United States naval base, Subic Bay has become synonymous with foreigners looking for sex in the long string of bars that line the main road along the coast.

Watch the full story on "Nightline" TONIGHT at 12:35 a.m. ET

The bars in this area are often packed with older foreign men ogling the young Filipina women available for the night for a "bar fine" of around 1,500 Filipino pesos, or just over $35. Many of the bars are owned and operated by Americans, often former military servicemen who either served on the base or whose ships docked here until the base was shuttered under political pressure in 1992.

Most of the prostitutes working in the bars are indeed 18 or older. But in the Philippines, just a small scratch to the surface can reveal a layer of young, underage girls who have mostly come from impoverished rural provinces to sell their bodies to help support their families.

Benjamin, 49, is, according to his own statements, one of the countless foreigners who has moved beyond just having sex with underage girls to owning and operating a bar where girls in scantily-clad outfits flaunt their bodies for patrons.

"My wife recently found out that I have this place," he tells an ABC News "Nightline" team, unaware they are journalists and recording the conversation on tiny hidden cameras disguised as shirt buttons.

Benjamin said that a "disgruntled waitress" had written his wife on Facebook, detailing his activities in Subic Bay.

"She sent her this thing saying that I have underage girls who stayed with me, that I [have anal sex with them], I own a bar, I've got other girls that I'm putting through high school, all this other crap," he said.

"All of which is true," he laughed. "However, I have to deny."

He sends a text message summoning his current girlfriend, a petite dark-skinned girl called Jade, who he said is just 16 years old. Benjamin says he bought the bar for her about a year ago and while most still call it Crow Bar, he officially re-named it with her last name.

"She needed a place to stay, I needed a place to do her. I bought a bar for her," he says, explaining that she lives in a house out back by the beach.

"You're not going to find anything like this in the States, not as a guy my age," he said as he looked down at Jade. "Ain't going to happen."

Benjamin is the latest target of Father Shay Cullen, a Catholic priest with a thick Irish brogue and fluency in the local language, Tagalog. Through his non-profit center called Preda, he's been crusading against underage sex trafficking in the Philippines for 40 years.

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