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– Ah, Independence Day fireworks: What could be more ... Chinese? Yep, despite strong "Buy American" sentiments in other fields (the US military must fly made-in-America flags, for example), China still manufactures at least 98% of consumer fireworks and 75% of "display" fireworks (for big shows) sold in America, Politico reports. The US needs them because fireworks production is "very, very labor-intensive," says a pyrotechnics expert. "Basically everything is still made by hand." What's more, she says, US safety and environmental regulations would make home-made fireworks about 10 times costlier for consumers. China began grabbing the US fireworks market after Washington reestablished trade ties in 1979; by last year, the US was importing $213 million in fireworks, nearly all from China. Federal authorities grew alarmed in the 1980s and early 1990s over the lack of safety standards in Chinese fireworks, but now the American Fireworks Standards Laboratory has imposed stricter rules and says it inspects fireworks shipments before they leave China. Despite all this Chinese know-how, the US Army is making "greener" pyrotechnics that produce less hazardous smoke and leave behind fewer possibly toxic residues, NBC News reports. "Our goal is to spin this off to commercial applications," says an Army pyrotechnics chief. (Read about the connection between fireworks and war.)

On Independence Day, celebrations across the United States depend on China.

 The sparklers, bottle rockets and Roman candles you’ll be using this Fourth of July almost certainly came from there. So did the professional-grade pyrotechnics that’ll be launched above the Washington Monument on Friday night.

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 It’s a quirky exception to “Buy American” sentiments that are otherwise going strong and picking up steam in Washington and corporate America, especially around patriotic events.

 (PHOTOS: 15 historic Independence Day events)

 After all, Congress passed a law this year requiring flags flown by the U.S. military to be made in America. Ralph Lauren, meanwhile, scrambled ahead of this year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi to make sure that Team USA’s uniforms were all manufactured in the United States. And first lady Michelle Obama used U.S.-grown iris and quince blossoms at a state dinner for France in May, departing from the White House’s typical practice of using imported flowers.

 But fireworks? No change there. Over the past 35 years, China has grabbed nearly the entire U.S. market — with 98 to 99 percent of what consumers will buy this year being made there, as well as 75 percent of the “display” fireworks, which are used in big, public shows.

 Fireworks are a big business, with $675 million in sales just to consumers who will shoot off their own products expected this year, said Julie Heckman, the American Pyrotechnics Association’s executive director. Chinese imports are necessary, she said, because it’s “very, very labor-intensive to make fireworks. Basically everything is still made by hand.”

 (Also on POLITICO: Why the Civil Rights Act couldn't pass today)

 Environmental and safety regulations in the United States, she said, would force domestically made versions of the same fireworks to retail for 10 times as much as the Chinese imports, she estimated.

 The industry’s shift to Chinese production came about shortly after the United States and China reestablished trade ties in 1979. By the early 1990s, the country was generating more than $60 million in annual sales from pyrotechnic exports to the United States. By 2013, the United States was importing $213 million worth of fireworks — virtually all from China.

 The trend won’t be changing anytime soon, fireworks industry experts said.

 Thailand accounts for some of the small fraction of fireworks used in the United States that weren’t made in China, as do U.S. companies and European manufacturers of larger pyrotechnics used in professional shows, according to John Rogers, executive director of the American Fireworks Standards Laboratory, which conducts safety inspections before fireworks are shipped from China to U.S. buyers.

 (Also on POLITICO: Reforming the VA one step at a time)

 In the 1980s and early 1990s, Rogers said, the Chinese imports fell short of U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Department of Transportation safety standards, largely because manufacturers there lacked quality control procedures and “because there was nobody really checking — nobody was monitoring to make sure they were meeting U.S. manufacturing and safety standards.”

 The good news, Rogers said, is that the quality of China’s fireworks is improving. Starting in 1994, the American Fireworks Standards Laboratory, which counts nearly all major U.S. fireworks importers among its clients, started inspecting tens of thousands of shipments each year before they left China.

 The group also imposed its own standards, such as a rule intended to prevent sparklers’ particles from falling onto children’s clothing and starting fires, Rogers said.

 U.S. fireworks importers typically make several trips to China each year, and manufacturers there have retooled their production to meet U.S. standards, Heckman said.

 She acknowledged that China has earned a “bad rep” over imported tires, agricultural products and more, but said: “In the fireworks industry, it’s very different. The industry has worked hand in hand with China, and many of these relationships go back four, five, six generations, much like the generational family businesses in the United States.” ||||| When you look up at those Fourth of July fireworks, say hooray for the red and white — but give a special cheer for the blue.

 "People have been trying to make a good blue for 500 years, and they haven't quite perfected it," John Conkling, a chemistry professor emeritus from Washington College in Maryland, told NBC News. "Purples we're getting good at. Pinks are decent. But blues are a big challenge."

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 Conkling should know: He literally wrote the book on the chemistry of pyrotechnics, and is featured in a new video on the subject from the American Chemical Society. The way Conkling sees it, scientists still have a lot to learn about the science of fireworks, thousands of years after the Chinese invented them.

 Even today, the Chinese are setting the pace in the global fireworks industry. "More and more of the product these days is made in China, so if there was a lot of research and development, it'd be going on in China," Conkling said.

 But there's still something to be said for American know-how: Every year, specialty fireworks manufacturers in the United States come up with fresh twists — with a big assist from the U.S. Army.

 "Pyrotechnics is one leg of a four-legged stool in the energetics field," said James Wejsa, chief of the pyrotechnics technology and prototyping division at the Army's Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey. "We also have the propellants, the explosives and the warheads. The military is the one who really drives the technology in this area, and usually what you have are spin-offs in the commercial sector."

 'Greener' fireworks from the Army

 For example, Picatinny has been working on more environmentally friendly ingredients for the pyrotechnics that produce colored signals as a means of non-verbal communication on the battlefield.

 "Getting new dyes and new ways to burn the formulations with different fuels is a challenge," Wejsa said. "The last thing you want is to have a soldier saying, 'Is that red smoke or violet smoke?' It could be the difference between 'shoot me' and 'don't shoot me,' you know what I'm saying?"

 It turns out that the new formulations just might improve your neighborhood Fourth of July fireworks show as well. The Army has been working on a spin-off with Fireworks by Grucci, one of the biggest companies in the business.

 "These formulations burn brighter and they burn clearer because there's less smoke," Wejsa said. "It's almost like going to high definition, because you don't have the smoke obscuring the color."

 Wejsa and his team are making fireworks "greener" in more ways than one: They've developed a technique to produce a bright green flare using boron carbide rather than toxic barium compounds, a smoke grenade that emits less hazardous smoke, timing fuses and other pyrotechnics that don't leave potentially toxic perchlorate residues, and explosive primers that don't use lead.

 "Our goal is to spin this off to commercial applications," Wejsa said.

 The future of fireworks

 So what's next? "The newest thing has been to try to perfect colors that normally people don't see in fireworks," Conkling said. Like a bright true blue, or really good orange.

 "All the blues we see now have a copper compound that's at the heart of the reaction," Conkling explained. "The battle you're fighting here is that colored fireworks are brightest at high temperatures, but the copper emitter is not stable at high temperatures. So you have to play a game of 'The Price Is Right.'"

 To produce an especially orange blast, chemists try blending run-of-the-mill sodium yellow-orange with red, but the job requires a lot of experimentation. The resulting recipes are closely held. "The old U.S. fireworks makers used to say there were some formulas they wouldn't even tell their grandmothers," Conkling said.

 NBC News file

 Another frontier for fireworks has to do with creating shapes in the sky. "It's common to see the heart pattern, the five-pointed star, multiple rings," Conkling said. "The logical extension of that would be letters, and being able to orient the letter up in the sky so you could spell out 'NBC' or something like that."

 Fireworks by Grucci is already experimenting with a couple of technologies called PixelBurst and SkyEtching to create complicated patterns, letters and numbers. The technique was used for the countdown in Grucci's Dubai New Year's Eve display — and although the numbers are a bit hard to read, Conking is confident pyrotechnicians will work out the bugs. "It isn't like putting a man on the moon to do that," he said.

 Will your fireworks be rained out? A guide for East Coasters

 Besides the military, theme parks are the main drivers for innovation in fireworks displays — and sometimes it's not strictly about the fireworks. For example, the "Frozen" spectacular that's due to make its debut at Disney's Hollywood Studios in Florida this week will supplement the evening sky show with a video projection of social-media "selfies" submitted by parkgoers during the day.

 When Conkling attends the Fourth of July festivities with his four grandchildren in Chestertown, Maryland, he'll be watching for the blues in the red-white-and-blue. But like most fans of the Fourth, he recognizes that a fireworks display isn't just a chemistry experiment. The winning formula also requires a healthy dose of flag-waving — and a flair for drama.

 "One thing I like is a well-paced show," he told NBC News. "There should be no dead spots in it, and there should be some variety in it. It's not just the same thing over and over again."

 IN-DEPTH

 First published July 4 2014, 8:45 AM |||||


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Is sexual addiction the real deal?

 Nicole Prause

 Controversy exists over what some mental health experts call "hypersexuality," or sexual "addiction." Namely, is it a mental disorder at all, or something else? It failed to make the cut in the recently updated Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM-5, considered the bible for diagnosing mental disorders. Yet sex addiction has been blamed for ruining relationships, lives and careers.

 Now, for the first time, UCLA researchers have measured how the brain behaves in so-called hypersexual people who have problems regulating their viewing of sexual images. The study found that the brain response of these individuals to sexual images was not related in any way to the severity of their hypersexuality but was instead tied only to their level of sexual desire.

 In other words, hypersexuality did not appear to explain brain differences in sexual response any more than simply having a high libido, said senior author Nicole Prause, a researcher in the department of psychiatry at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA.

 "Potentially, this is an important finding," Prause said. "It is the first time scientists have studied the brain responses specifically of people who identify as having hypersexual problems."

 The study appears in the current online edition of the journal Socioaffective Neuroscience and Psychology.

 A diagnosis of hypersexuality or sexual addiction is typically associated with people who have sexual urges that feel out of control, who engage frequently in sexual behavior, who have suffered consequences such as divorce or economic ruin as a result of their behaviors, and who have a poor ability to reduce those behaviors.

 But, said Prause and her colleagues, such symptoms are not necessarily representative of an addiction — in fact, non-pathological, high sexual desire could also explain this cluster of problems.

 One way to tease out the difference is to measure the brain's response to sexual-image stimuli in individuals who acknowledge having sexual problems. If they indeed suffer from hypersexuality, or sexual addiction, their brain response to visual sexual stimuli could be expected be higher, in much the same way that the brains of cocaine addicts have been shown to react to images of the drug in other studies.

 The study involved 52 volunteers: 39 men and 13 women, ranging in age from 18 to 39, who reported having problems controlling their viewing of sexual images. They first filled out four questionnaires covering various topics, including sexual behaviors, sexual desire, sexual compulsions, and the possible negative cognitive and behavioral outcomes of sexual behavior. Participants had scores comparable to individuals seeking help for hypersexual problems.

 While viewing the images, the volunteers were monitored using electroencephalography (EEG), a non-invasive technique that measures brain waves, the electrical activity generated by neurons when they communicate with each other. Specifically, the researchers measured event-related potentials, brain responses that are the direct result of a specific cognitive event.

 "The volunteers were shown a set of photographs that were carefully chosen to evoke pleasant or unpleasant feelings," Prause said. "The pictures included images of dismembered bodies, people preparing food, people skiing — and, of course, sex. Some of the sexual images were romantic images, while others showed explicit intercourse between one man and one woman."

 The researchers were most interested in the response of the brain about 300 milliseconds after each picture appeared, commonly called the "P300" response. This basic measure has been used in hundreds of neuroscience studies internationally, including studies of addiction and impulsivity, Prause said. The P300 response is higher when a person notices something new or especially interesting to them.

 The researchers expected that P300 responses to the sexual images would correspond to a person's sexual desire level, as shown in previous studies. But they further predicted that P300 responses would relate to measures of hypersexuality. That is, in those whose problem regulating their viewing of sexual images could be characterized as an "addiction," the P300 reaction to sexual images could be expected to spike.

 Instead, the researchers found that the P300 response was not related to hypersexual measurements at all; there were no spikes or decreases tied to the severity of participants' hypersexuality. So while there has been much speculation about the effect of sexual addiction or hypersexuality in the brain, the study provided no evidence to support any difference, Prause said.

 "The brain's response to sexual pictures was not predicted by any of the three questionnaire measures of hypersexuality," she said. "Brain response was only related to the measure of sexual desire. In other words, hypersexuality does not appear to explain brain responses to sexual images any more than just having a high libido."

 But debate continues over whether sex addiction is indeed an addiction. A study published in 2012 by Prause's colleague Rory Reid, a UCLA assistant professor of psychiatry, supported the reliability of the proposed DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for hypersexual disorder. However, Prause notes, that study was not focused on the validity of sex addiction or impulsivity, and did not use any biophysiological data in the analysis.

 "If our study can be replicated," she said, "these findings would represent a major challenge to existing theories of a sex 'addiction.' "

 Other authors on the study included Dr. Timothy Fong, associate professor of psychiatry at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA and director of the UCLA Impulse Control Disorders Clinic; Vaughn R. Steele of the University of New Mexico; and Cameron Staley of Idaho State University. Funding was provided by an Idaho State University Graduate Student Committee grant (Staley).

 The UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences is the home within the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA for faculty who are experts in the origins and treatment of disorders of complex human behavior. The department is part of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, a world-leading interdisciplinary research and education institute devoted to the understanding of complex human behavior and the causes and consequences of neuropsychiatric disorders. ||||| Photos by Andy Lyons/Getty Images, Andrew Kelly/Reuters, Vincent Kessler/Reuters, and Caroline McCredie/Getty Images

 Does sex addiction really exist? A new study published in last week’s journal of Socioaffective Neuroscience and Psychology suggests that maybe it doesn’t—bad news for celebrities like Tiger Woods and Russell Brand who have made it trendy in recent years to claim a clinical addiction to sex as an explanation for sexual misbehavior.

 The study (which, amazingly, is the first of its kind) measured how the brains of people who struggle with sexually compulsive behavior respond to sexual images. If sex can be addictive in the clinical sense, scientists theorized, then the neural response of sex addicts to pornography should mimic the neural responses of drug or alcohol addicts to their drugs of choice. Instead, researchers found that hypersexual brains don’t react in the same way as other addicts’ brains—in fact, the neural responses to pornography only varied based on levels of sexual libido, rather than on measures of sexual compulsivity. People with higher libidos had more active brain reactions to the sexual images than people with lower libidos, but that was the only correlation. Degrees of sexual compulsivity did not predict brain response at all. If the results of this first study can be replicated, it would represent a major challenge to the notion that sex and pornography can be literally addictive.

 “This is controversial territory because it represents a substantial shift in the way we view mental illness,” Dr. Nicole Prause, an assistant research scientist in the department of psychiatry at UCLA and one of the investigators involved with the study, told me. “Most people describe high-frequency sexual problems as an ‘addiction’—that’s how the public and even many clinicians talk about it. But this data challenges the addiction model and forces us to reconsider how we think and talk about these problems.”

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 For the study, researchers recruited 52 people (39 men and 13 women) who reported having difficulties controlling their use of pornography and used electroencephalography (EEG) to measure their brain responses to various images. Some images were sexual in nature, such as kissing, nudity, and penetrative sex, while others were designed to be neutral or even unpleasant, such as pictures of skiers and dismembered bodies. Researchers analyzed brain response to the pictures in the first 300 milliseconds after the images appeared, commonly called a “P300.” Hundreds of neuroscience studies have relied on P300 measurements to analyze the brain’s response to various stimuli; for example, Prause said, several studies of substance addicts found increased P300 responses to images of their drugs of choice as compared to neutral images.

 “We expected the brain response to sexual stimuli to be consistent with other drugs of addiction, or even other behavioral addiction studies,” said Prause. “But we just don’t see that at all. We weren’t able to find evidence for any relationship between the measures of high-frequency sexual problems and the brain response to sexual images.”

 In a 2010 Psychology Today blog post, Dr. Michael Bader provocatively argued that “the addiction made me do it” is merely an excuse for people who want to avoid the difficult psychological thought and introspection required to address the real issues behind sexually compulsive behavior. Now this study has reignited the ongoing debate about whether sex and other so-called behavioral addictions—also known as process addictions, such as shopping and tanning—should be considered pathological alongside substance addictions such as nicotine, alcohol, and drugs. The third edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, released in 1987, included the term “sex addiction” under the category “Sexual Disorder—Not Otherwise Specified,” but that term was removed in subsequent editions. Hypersexual disorder was considered for inclusion in the recently released DSM-5 but was removed by the final draft.

 So here’s where we stand: Despite the familiarity of sex addiction in pop culture, hypersexual disorder is not an officially categorized diagnosis—and studies like this suggest that won’t change anytime soon. Nevertheless, mental health professionals around the world have reported patients who come to them seeking help with sexually compulsive behavior. So a problem does exist, and people who want treatment and support deserve access to it. But the debate about sex addiction underlines important questions about how psychiatrists should categorize the difference between a clinical mental illness that can be demonstrated in a lab, such as substance addiction, and other forms of mental distress, which deserve equal care and compassion but don’t necessarily indicate a medical mental illness. If we turn every single quirk of human sexuality into a “disease,” after all, then we’re all screwed.

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 “We don't have a lot of information about what constitutes normative sexual behavior, so how can we conclusively determine what is deviant?” said Dr. Rory Reid, a neuropsychologist at UCLA and the principal investigator for the DSM-5 field trial on hypersexual disorder. “I don’t think there is enough evidence to conclude that patterns of hypersexual behavior constitute a bona fide disorder in the scientific realm, but we also don’t have enough evidence to dismiss that possibility. It certainly warrants further research and discussion.”

 Dr. Eli Coleman, who directs the program in human sexuality at the University of Minnesota Medical School, argues that any study that looks at compulsive sexual behavior from a traditional addiction model may be missing the mark.

 “One of the big problems with the term ‘sex addiction’ is that it immediately assumes that you can apply the same kinds of research methodologies and treatments that you would use for substance addiction,” said Coleman. “There are no sex receptors in the brain to develop tolerance and dependence, as there are with alcohol and drug addiction.” Hypersexuals don’t experience seizures or other physical symptoms of withdrawal when they abstain, for example, like alcohol and drug addicts do. Coleman suggests that for many people, hypersexual behavior seems to be a problem of impulse control or compulsive drive rather than a neural addiction. But, he added, even that explanation is probably too simplistic: Some people use sexual behavior to modulate mood states, and in others hypersexuality looks almost like attention deficit disorder. “It’s really very complex,” said Coleman. “And there has not been enough research to fully examine all of the underlying mechanisms.”

 Previous investigations into sex addiction have only measured the brains of sexual compulsives at rest (that is, without exposure to sexual imagery) or relied entirely on self-reported questionnaires, which are likely to be influenced by social ideas about what constitutes “normal” degrees of sexual behavior or desire. This new study is the first time that scientists have measured the active responses of hypersexual brains to sexual stimuli, which seems closer to the mark if scientists want to prove or dispel the clinical case for sex addiction.

 “The field is very strange, because experimental work is very rare in this area. Many people report feeling out of control sexually, but when we actually look for evidence of that in a lab, we can’t find it,” said Prause. “That’s why I’m aghast that we’re not doing more research in this area. Questionnaires are valuable, but we need to do more work to determine if what people are reporting is actually true.”

 Prause points out why there haven’t been funds directed toward scientific research that might challenge the existence of sex addiction: If something is a disease, there is money to be made from treating it. (One Christian organization, for example, charges $1,275 for a three-day seminar called “Every Man’s Battle” that claims to treat men who “find themselves pulled into the use of pornography” or who “seek out sexual gratification through compulsive masturbation.”) |||||

– The term "sex addiction" might get tossed around a lot these days as a way to explain some not-so-classy behavior of the Anthony Weiner-Tiger Woods variety, but is it really an addiction on par with drugs or alcohol? The first study to explore brain responses in people who describe themselves as hypersexual suggests otherwise, reports UCLA. Researchers there showed the subjects—39 men and 13 women—sexual images, and discovered that their brains didn't respond in the same way that, say, a cocaine addict would respond to images of cocaine. “Most people describe high-frequency sexual problems as an ‘addiction’—that’s how the public and even many clinicians talk about it," one of the researchers tells Slate. "But this data challenges the addiction model and forces us to reconsider how we think and talk about these problems.” The subjects have higher libidos, or sexual desire, but not necessarily a clinical medical problem. They still need help, but if further studies verify this first one, then the type of help they'll get will be affected. All of which might be OK, writes Jillian Keenan at Slate. "If we turn every single quirk of human sexuality into a 'disease,' after all, then we’re all screwed." The study is in the journal Socioaffective Neuroscience & Psychology.


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(Aaron Schock is challenging you to lose weight and get healthier this summer. Take the Fit for Life Summer Challenge and see the program that will help you drop 10, 20, or 30 pounds and slash your risk of heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and many other diseases dramatically!)

 "When I first saw it I kind of laughed," Schock says of Horton's training regimen. "I didn't think you could get a real workout from a DVD. But at 6:30 a.m., it helps to have somebody talking you through your workout."

 For a Washington politician, Aaron Schock's approach to governing is as unconventional as his approach to fitness. That's not because of his policy positions—he's a party-line Republican with a middle-class, Rust Belt background. And it's not because of his controversial statements and stances—his biggest national showdown involved a chummy ride on Air Force One during which President Barack Obama lobbied him to vote for the stimulus bill. (Schock politely declined.) And given that he's at least half a decade too young to run for the presidency, nobody fears his entry into the race for the White House in 2012 (or 2016, for that matter). No, what makes Aaron Schock so different in the Washington world is that he's committed to helping his generation embrace health and fitness as a personal responsibility—and he's doing it not just with words, but actions.

 To understand just how unusual Schock's body politic is, consider this: The average age of a member of Congress is 57. The combined age of the two U.S. senators representing Hawaii is 172. Schock—the first U.S. rep born in the 1980s—is young enough to be the son of most of his peers, and the grandson of many. When Michigan congressman John Dingell was celebrating his 25th year in office, Schock was still in utero. And Schock has already been in politics for longer than a decade; he won his first election at 19, as a write-in candidate for a position on his local school board. His candidacy was an act of protest against the board's decision to prevent him from graduating early; he trounced his opponent with 60 percent of the vote.

 Schock's apple-pie looks serve only to emphasize his youth; combine that with his conservative views and it's hard to miss his resemblance to a certain Alex P. Keaton. "The biggest misconception people have about me is that when they see how young I am, they think, 'Oh, this guy must have always wanted to be in politics, his parents must have been politically connected,' " Schock says. "I'm a finance major and always intended to go into business. We would read the newspaper at home, but that was about as politically involved as my family got. I'd never even been to the state capital until I joined the school board."

 But instead of shrinking from the two characteristics that Ronald Reagan famously described as liabilities—his "youth and inexperience"—Schock embraces them. And that's perhaps his most radical position. He feels a special responsibility to young people, and he's focused on major issues that will affect his own generation the most: energy and the environment, the budget deficit, spiraling health-care costs, and a growing obesity crisis. He notes that members of Congress in their 60s, 70s, and 80s won't be around to suffer the consequences of their misguided policies, while Schock and his generation will feel the negative effects of bad policy for the rest of their lives. Schock is a committed deficit hawk who favors tax incentives to spur investment in alternative energy and infrastructure; but his greatest personal investments are in two areas: obesity and health-care costs.

 In fact, this month Schock is launching an initiative—the Fit for Summer, Fit for Life challenge to help Americans take control of their health. (To sign up, go to MensHealth.com/schock.)

 "One of my favorite quotes is from Ben Franklin, who said, 'A good example is the best sermon,' " Schock says. "And I think if you want to start talking about healthy lifestyles and staying in shape, then you yourself should do your best to try to be a model, an example to people you're trying to convince to do the same."

 And model he does. When he strolls into a New York City studio for his photo shoot, Schock isn't sporting the typical boxy clothes that Beltway insiders wear in order to hide what's stretching their belts. Instead, he's decked out in a form-fitting Zegna suit and tapered shirt that show off both his musculature and his fashion savvy. He looks more like a hit man from a European spy thriller than a boring politician.

 In other words, Aaron Schock is pretty fly for a Republican from Peoria. For much of the past few decades, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama have laid claim to cool for the Democrats. Aaron Schock might just steal it back.Pumping Iron in a Pressure Cooker

 Schock's lead-by-example ethos is a nonpartisan position. "I think Michelle Obama is on the right track with her Let's Move campaign to bring down childhood obesity," he says. "She and I come from the same state, Illinois, which is number four in the nation for obese children. One out of five Illinois children are considered obese. Not overweight, obese. And two-thirds of Americans are either overweight or obese. When people hear that, they're shocked, and rightfully so."

 But Schock isn't one of those lifelong fitness buffs who think we all have 2 hours a day to spend in the gym. He was a scrawny, sports-averse kid in high school. Fitness was never part of his original game plan. "I didn't start working out until college," Schock says. "But in college I could feel my body changing, and I knew that if I didn't make some changes, I was going to go in the wrong direction." So he understands that for an American public struggling with body issues, a health club can be an intimidating place.

 "A lot of people don't think they have the time or the knowledge [to become physically fit], or they feel embarrassed to walk into a gym for the first time," he admits. "It takes courage to walk into a gym and ask for help, and say, 'Hey, I want to lose some weight and get in shape.' " Schock's strategy was to build muscle as a way of keeping fat at bay; he's bulked up from 145 pounds in college to his current weight of 165.

 Maintaining a physique like Schock's isn't easy under any circumstance, but in the constantly bubbling pressure cooker of politics, it's particularly daunting. Consider, for example, an underreported phenomenon in Washington: the hors d'oeuvres horror show.

 Since 2007 it's been illegal for lobbyists to treat U.S. reps to meals. Yet in the fungible world of Washington, legislators and industry reps have found a compromise: If it's on the end of a toothpick, it's not a meal. So healthconscious pols like Schock now run a gauntlet of Inigo Montoya wannabes who wield tiny wooden sabers in an effort to curry favor and influence policy.

 "You can pack a lot of calories on the end of a toothpick," Schock insists. "You have a drink and a few hors d'oeuvres and you've just downed hundreds of calories." If you're health conscious, it's an issue. So Schock doubles down on exercise.

 "Exercise is more important than diet for me because it's a twofer. It keeps me in good physical shape, and it relieves stress. And when you're a representative of the public, there's never a shortage of things to do."

 Future Schock

 Schock's approach to health care may be to turn the political issue into a personal one, but that's his stance on a lot of things. Indeed, the congressman places a tremendous amount of faith in the notion that planning, discipline, and a little elbow grease can solve just about any problem. "My advice to people in my age group is to think strategically," he says. " 'Someday I would like to...retire, have children, change careers, start a business...' All of these take planning. Think about what you'd like to do, and then think about what it's going to take to get you there."

 That's exactly the way he wishes the government behaved. "It's all about long-term strategic thinking, which doesn't happen enough in Washington," he says. "What's frustrating is that there's not enough attention and engagement in politics from people in my generation, and they will benefit or suffer the most from the government decisions that are being made now. President Eisenhower had a vision for the future and made a bold decision to create our interstate highway system from scratch. Imagine if our government at that time was shortsighted and focused only on the next year. We desperately need long-term strategies on energy, health, education, and a fresh water supply 20 years from now. Too much thinking in Washington focuses on immediate crises at the expense of long-term strategic objectives. That is the biggest overriding failure of American government in the past 20 years.

 "The big issue for young people is America's competitiveness," Schock says. In addition to a growing national debt and an expanding national waistline, here's a list of issues he wishes other people in their 20s would become more concerned about.

 Energy independence

 "There is nothing more dangerous than relying on foreign countries for energy." He points to France as an example of a nation that set a goal—to generate all its own electricity—and has nearly reached it. "I am all for doing whatever possible to get to a greater degree of energy independence as quickly as we can," Schock says, "with an understanding that it's a short game—we have to develop renewable energy in the long run."

 Clean water

 "Outside of this country, it's a huge problem. But already in the state of Georgia there are communities where wells are drying up," he says. "It's happening in Florida, California, and the American West, too. And we don't have a long-term strategy for how we're going to manage this."

 Education

 "We're not producing enough math and science majors for our companies to hire. It's not about spending more, it's about spending more wisely and being open minded about adapting to successful teaching methods. How economically competitive in the world our country will be in the future depends on the quality of education in America. It's that simple and that important."

 But these problems are not insurmountable, he insists. Schock, an irrepressible optimist, believes that success in politics looks exactly like success in the gym: have a goal, a strategy, and be disciplined in making it happen.

 And what does Aaron Schock see as his personal long-term goal? Might he one day be among those senior senators serving well into their 80s? "People ask me where I see myself in 10 years. Well, 10 years ago I was in high school," he laughs.

 "Public service is a great honor, but it tends to be all-consuming," Schock says. "When I look at that Capitol dome and no longer feel that tingle, then I'll know it's time to go."

 The Schock-Your-Body Workout

 Want tricked-out traps? Dominating delts? Abs the size of a woman's fist? And all while holding down a high-stress day job? Set your alarm a little earlier, and try Rep. Aaron Schock's workout routine.

 5 to 7 days a week, choose from...

 *a 60-to 75-minute P90X training session

 *a 60-to 75-minute weight routine, focusing on high-weight, low-rep exercises, and alternating upper-and lower-body days

 *3 sets of 30 pushups and 30 situps; plus a run (5 miles) or swim (1 mile) ||||| Rep. Aaron Schock: 'Hottest freshman' in Congress pushes beyond his media-friendly profile

 Already busy in committees, Schock 'has already established himself as a leader,' House GOP whip says

 Aaron Schock hasn't wanted for attention since being elected to the House of Representatives last fall as a 27-year-old from Illinois. He has bounced from Stephen Colbert's show to CNN, while his own videos go viral on YouTube.

 WASHINGTON — He is the Republican "Dream Date," a smooth-speaking, polished product of Peoria, as comfortable with Facebook as a face-to-face. John McCain's daughter gushed over him as the future of the party. Readers of the liberal Webzine Huffington Post voted him the hottest freshman in Congress. TMZ trails him like a pop star.

 Much of the interest stems from his unlined face and full head of brown hair. (He recently brushed aside a request from host Howard Kurtz on CNN that he take off his jacket and show more of his physique.)

 Schock offers an alternative to the GOP tent poles, such as McCain, House Republican leader John Boehner and Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate.

 Other GOP fresh faces include Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia. But Schock can top them all in one respect: He's Capitol Hill's first Reagan Baby, born while the Republican lodestar was in his first term. Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), the House's longest-serving member, had been in Congress for 26 years when Schock was born. At 82, he's 55 years Schock's senior.

 Congress is one place where the simple quality of being young is newsworthy. The average age of a member of Congress this session is 57. But away from the Beltway, the young dominate the culture. The NBA's LeBron James is 24. Golfer Tiger Woods is 33. Arguably the hottest author in America, Stephanie Meyer of the "Twilight" series, is 35. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is 24. Millionaires, all.

 But in his world, Schock remains an outlier. And he is prepared to take full advantage of that. Other politicos might be mortified -- or feel trivialized -- if they are ambushed by TMZ's cameras or win a "most attractive" poll. But for the media-centric Schock, it's all about keeping the channel open.

 "First, you've got to get their attention," Schock said last week outside the House chamber before he entered for a vote on the budget. "Step one in getting anyone's vote is getting their attention."

 That may be part of the long-term plan. Schock's Internet reputation belies his serious, even wonky approach to his new job. On Thursday, he hosted a conference call for reporters to discuss his plan for a payroll tax holiday for small businesses. At his request, he serves on three committees, more than most freshmen are allowed in their first term.

 He has joined the Republican Study Committee, a home for deficit hawks. This week, he will go on his first overseas congressional trip. (The location is undisclosed because of security concerns.)

 Cantor, the House's rising Republican strategist and party whip, named Schock a deputy whip, making him part of the leadership team. Already, he has campaigned for other Republicans, such as Jim Tedisco in the special congressional election held in upstate New York last week. (Balloting in that race was so close that the winner is not yet known.)

 Cantor calls Schock one of his "young guns" and said, "In only a few short months in Washington, he has already established himself as a leader." |||||

– Republican Rep. Aaron Schock has already been named the "hottest freshman" in Congress—and now Men's Health declares that he's also the fittest. The Congressman from Illinois flaunts his abs on the magazine's June cover, and can brag that he's the first politician to appear shirtless in the mag—though President Obama has appeared in it, fully clothed, twice, the Chicago Tribune reports. Schock, who at nearly 30 is also the first US Congressman born in the 1980s, has already found himself featured on TMZ wearing only a bathing suit. A desire to use that chiseled-chest notoriety for a positive purpose led him to Men's Health, which dubbed him "pretty fly for a Republican from Peoria" and noted that "he looks more like a hit man from a European spy thriller than a boring politician." His appearance is meant to promote Fit for Life Summer Challenge, a healthy lifestyle campaign that urges Americans to lose 30 pounds by Labor Day.


Article:

Mary Anne Forster was attacked by a koala while walking her dogs. Photo: 7News.

 A woman has been left bloodied and required a four-day stay in hospital after being attacked by a koala north of Adelaide.

 But despite her injuries, she says she doesn’t blame the animal for the brutal attack.

 Williamstown woman Mary Anne Forster said she was walking her two dogs a fortnight ago when they pulled her towards a koala at the base of a tree.

 “Obviously the koala felt very threatened because it attached itself with its mouth, jaws, to my leg and bit very hard, bit very deeply,” she said.

 After a struggle, she managed to break free.

 “Because it wouldn’t let go, I put my fingers in its mouth and pried its jaws open to release my leg,” Ms Forster said.

 The assistant principal hobbled more than two kilometres home and was then taken to hospital.

 Ms Forster was taken to hospital after the koala bite. Photo: Supplied.

 She needed 12 stitches.

 “All wild animals have dirty bites and so it was a matter of covering with the antibiotics because it became very infected, it was very swollen and painful,” she said.

 Environmental experts have warned people to keep their distance if they spot a koala out in the wild.

 “Just leave them alone, certainly don’t let dogs go near them because they will fight back, they’ve got big claws and big teeth,” Dr Deb Kelly from the Environment Department said. ||||| A koala attack in South Australia left one woman, who was walking her dogs at the time, bitten and bloodied.

 Mary Anne Forster took her two dogs for a walk two weeks ago and when they pulled her toward a koala at the base of a tree, 7News Adelaide reported Wednesday. The koala launched into an attack on the dogs, but Forster got caught in the middle.

 “Obviously the koala felt very threatened because it attached itself with its mouth, jaws, to my leg and bit very hard, bit very deeply,” she told 7News.

 The koala latched on to Forster's leg and would not let go, causing a bite that required 12 stitches. In a desperate attempt to get the animal off her leg, she put her fingers in its mouth to get it to release its jaw. It finally released its grip and she stumbled 2km home before being admitted to hospital.

 The wound on Forster's leg. Image: 7News Adelaide

 Although koalas and dogs have a history of fighting, with 110 koalas killed each year by dog attacks, it is rare for a humans to be involved.

 "It should also be remembered that koalas are capable of defending themselves. They have sharp teeth and claws capable of causing deep wounds and any dog that attacks a koala may risk serious injury," the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection states on its website. |||||
What is a summary?

– It wasn't the koala's fault, says an Australian woman who was savaged by one of the planet's cutest and most cuddly-appearing creatures. According to 7News Adelaide, Mary Anne Forster was walking her two dogs a couple of weeks ago when they dragged her toward a koala at the bottom of a tree; she got caught in the middle when the koala attacked the dogs. "Obviously the koala felt very threatened because it attached itself with its mouth, jaws, to my leg and bit very hard, bit very deeply," she says. Forster, who had to put her fingers in the koala's mouth to make it let go, needed 12 stitches and spent four days in the hospital after the attack. The bite "became very infected, it was very swollen and painful," she says. The koala had good reason to feel threatened, Mashable reports: Australian authorities estimate that 110 koalas are killed in dog attacks every year, and an environmental department spokesperson warns that people who see them in the wild should "just leave them alone—certainly don't let dogs go near them because they will fight back, they've got big claws and big teeth." (Scientists using thermal cameras have discovered why koalas hug trees.)


Article:
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – A Trader Joe’s store assistant manager was killed by gunfire from Los Angeles police officers during a chase and shootout with a suspect in Silver Lake Saturday.

 LAPD Chief Michel Moore told reporters at a news conference Tuesday that investigators have determined that one of two officers accidentally shot 27-year-old Melyda Corado while engaging in a shootout with the suspect, 28-year-old Gene Evin Atkins.

 “I’m sorry to report that we’ve now determined through our forensic investigation, that one of the officers’ rounds struck Ms. Corado as she was exiting the market and was in close proximity to Atkins,” Moore said. “Ms. Corado ran back into the store and collapsed behind the manager’s desk.”

 According to Moore, Atkins’ car had slammed into a light pole outside the entrance of the Trader Joe’s, located in the 2700 block of Hyperion Avenue.

 Upon hearing the crash, Corado was one of several people who ran to the front door of the store, at the same time that an armed Akins himself ran towards the entrance.

 “As he did so, witness statements and physical evidence from the scene support that Atkins fired multiple rounds from a semiautomatic pistol at the officers,” Moore said. “The two Los Angeles police officers who had been pursuing Atkins returned fire in defense of their lives and to protect Atkins from harming other individuals.”

 The officers fired eight rounds in returning Atkins’ gunshots, Moore said.

 The fatal bullet first hit Corado’s arm, then entered her body.

 Atkins appeared in court Tuesday to face more than 30 charges, including one count of murder, six counts of attempted murder, 13 counts of false imprisonment of hostages and one count of felony evading. His arraignment was postponed to Aug. 14. His bail was set at $18.7 million.

 The slaying is attributed to Atkins even though he did not fire the fatal bullet because he is held to have caused the entire situation.

 Moore also released dash-cam video leading up to the chase. Watch it below.

 Before Saturday’s shootout at Trader Joe’s, Atkins allegedly shot and wounded his grandmother, who remains hospitalized, and 17-year-old girlfriend. He then led police on a chase, ending at the store.

 The Trader Joe’s store remained closed Monday, while a memorial of signs and flowers in memory of Corado continued to grow outside the building.

 Although Atkins was booked on suspicion of murder, he could potentially face charges including attempted murder for the roughly 1:30 p.m. Saturday shooting of his 76-year-old grandmother — Mary Elizabeth Madison — in the home they shared in the 1600 block of East 32nd Street. Authorities said the woman was shot as many as seven times and remains hospitalized in critical condition.

 Atkins’ cousin, Charleo Egland, said she didn’t know exactly what prompted the shooting, but said the grandmother did not want Atkins’ girlfriend in the home, and that likely led to a fight that ended with the shooting.

 Police said Atkins’ girlfriend was also wounded in the shooting, and Atkins forced her into his grandmother’s car then drove away with her in the passenger seat.

 Using a LoJack system, police traced the 2015 Toyota Camry sedan to the Hollywood area and gave chase, leading to Silver Lake, where Atkins crashed the Toyota into a power pole around 3:30 p.m. in front of the Trader Joe’s supermarket, Moore said.

 Atkins got out of the car and ran into the store, firing toward officers as he ran, police said.

 A short time later, a woman now known to be Corado was seen being dragged away from the store’s entryway and then unsuccessfully treated by paramedics trying to revive her.

 Moore said about 40 people were in the store when Atkins entered. As Atkins ran inside, employees and customers inside scrambled for cover.

 Some were seen escaping through a window toward the rear of the business and crawling down a ladder to safety.

 Police were also seen carrying several children away from the building.

 Atkins’ girlfriend, who had been in the passenger seat of the Toyota when it crashed in front of the store, was taken to a hospital in fair condition. Fire officials described her as a 20-year-old woman.

 Police amassed outside the store, and around 5:30 p.m., at least three people who appeared to be customers came out of the store with their hands in the air — apparently hostages who were released or shoppers who had managed to elude the gunman.

 Atkins surrendered at about 6:30 p.m. He was taken to a hospital to be treated for a gunshot wound to his left arm.

 Margaret Stewart of the Los Angeles Fire Department said paramedics treated 10 people at the scene of the Trader Joe’s, including Atkins, his girlfriend and Corado. A 12-year-old boy, a 41-year-old woman, a 70-year- old woman and an 81-year-old woman were hospitalized with minor injuries and listed in fair condition, Stewart said. Three other people were evaluated, but declined to be taken to hospitals.

 Moore returned to the crime scene Tuesday to be among the mourners.

 “This is about, frankly, an opportunity to pay some respects to a family and to a loss,” Moore said, appearing to become emotional at times. “This young lady, by every description, had so much to live for, and to a father that has lost, I’m sure it’s (indescribable).”

 Reaction to the revelation that officers had accidentally killed Corado was mixed.

 “I kind of blame the police because they were shooting directly towards the store,” nearby business owner Peter Hakopyan said.

 Hakopyan told CBS2 he knew Corado and witnessed the shootout.

 “It’s a grocery, and there’s people around,” Hakopyan added. “I would think the police would have more restraint.”

 Still, some appreciated the precarious situation in which the officers found themselves.

 “The police did what they felt they had to do in the moment. They couldn’t know,” said longtime Silver Lake resident Miranda Birch. “I think it’s tragic, but I think it’s a mistake to blame the police.”

 A GoFundMe page set up to help cover Corado’s funeral expenses had raised nearly $25,000 as of midday Monday.

 (©2018 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.) ||||| 2:30 p.m.: This article was updated with details on Atkins’ appearance in court.

 12:15 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from the victim’s brother, a statement from Trader Joe’s and details of the charges against the suspect.

 11:40 a.m.: This article was updated with comments from Mayor Eric Garcetti and details from police camera footage.

 8:50 a.m.: This article was updated with additional comments from Chief Moore.

 This article was originally published at 8:15 a.m. ||||| A Trader Joe's employee killed during a crime-spree in Los Angeles last weekend was struck by a police bullet -- not the suspect's bullet -- Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore said at a news conference Tuesday.

 Moore said the officers are "devastated" that Trader Joe's employee Melyda Corado, 27, died from their efforts to stop the gunman.

 "I believe my officers' actions were taken to defend themselves and in direct response to the deadly threat," Moore said. "I believe it's what they needed to do in order to defend the people of Los Angeles."

 The chief said the officers will forever in their minds debate their actions.

 Damian Dovarganes/AP

 "I am truly sorry," Moore said. "As a father, as an individual, it is unimaginable, the pain of the Corado family, and everyone that knew her. And we share that pain today."

 Moore called it a "heartbreaking reminder" of the split-second decisions officers make every day.

 "I believe it's what they needed to do in order to defend the people of Los Angeles," he said of the officers.

 AP

 The suspect, 28-year-old Gene Atkins, first shot his grandmother and a teenage girl on Saturday before kidnapping the teenage girl, police said.

 Atkins then led police on a 15-minute car chase as he fired his gun through the back window at the pursuing officers - who did not return fire at that time, authorities said.

 Atkins then crashed into a light-pole outside a Trader Joe's in Los Angeles' Silver Lake neighborhood, stormed the store and continued to fire at officers, police said.

 That's when police returned fire and Corado was fatally shot, according to Moore.

 Corado, who heard the car crash, had been fleeing the store as Atkins was going inside, Moore said.

 She was hit by one round that went from her left arm and into her body, Moore said.

 AP

 Atkins, meanwhile, held a standoff inside the Trader Joe's for three hours until he surrendered to authorities, police said. During that time several employees and customers were able to escape and Atkins released others at various points during the ordeal, police said.

 The teenage girl was rescued from the car and was taken to a hospital with a gunshot wound to her head, police said.

 The grandmother was also hospitalized.

 The LAPD on Tuesday also released dramatic body camera and dash camera video from the deadly encounter, showing officers in pursuit while the suspect was firing at them through his back window.

 The two officers involved were not named on Tuesday. They have been with the department for two years and six years.

 Thirty-one counts were filed against Atkins, including murder, premeditated attempted murder and kidnapping.

 Atkins, who was shot in the arm during the shootout, appeared in court on Tuesday for an initial appearance. Atkins' bail was set at $18.775 million and his next court appearance is scheduled for August 14.

 It was not immediately clear whether or not Atkins had retained an attorney.

 "We remain heartbroken over the tragic death of Melyda Corado and the trauma our Crew Members and customers have suffered," Trader Joe's said in a statement.

 "Mely was a valued and beloved Crew Member. Our sole focus remains on supporting her family and those involved in Saturday’s horrible ordeal." |||||Summary:

– Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore had the toughest of jobs Tuesday: to announce that the Trader Joe's employee killed during a shootout in Los Angeles on Saturday lost her life to a bullet fired by police, not the suspect. "I am truly sorry," Moore said about 27-year-old Melyda Corado's death. "As a father, as an individual, it is unimaginable, the pain of the Corado family, and everyone that knew her. And we share that pain today." He said the officers involved will forever wrestle with the choices they made, though he believes "my officers' actions were taken to defend themselves and in direct response to the deadly threat" and therefore were appropriate. An investigation into the officers' actions is ongoing. ABC News reports he also detailed a timeline of the crime, which was allegedly sparked by a feud between a man and his grandmother over his girlfriend staying at the grandmother's home. Moore said Gene Atkins, 28, shot his grandmother several times and ultimately led police on a chase that ended when his vehicle crashed into a pole outside the grocery store. Moore said Atkins fired at cops as he ran toward the entrance; Corado had come to the same entrance upon hearing the crash and was struck in her left arm in the process. The bullet entered her body. "Miss Corado ran back inside the store and collapsed behind the manager’s desk," Moore said, per the Los Angeles Times. CBS Los Angeles reports that, among other charges, Atkins faces one count of murder in connection with Corado's death.


In this photo released on the official Facebook page of the Syrian Presidency, Syrian President Bashar Assad, fifth left, prays at the dawn Eid al-Adha prayers at the Saad ibn Muaaz Mosque in Daraya,... (Associated Press)

 In this photo released on the official Facebook page of the Syrian Presidency, Syrian President Bashar Assad, fifth left, prays at the dawn Eid al-Adha prayers at the Saad ibn Muaaz Mosque in Daraya, a blockaded Damascus suburb, Syria, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. (Syrian Presidency via Facebook) (Associated Press)

 In this photo released on the official Facebook page of the Syrian Presidency, Syrian President Bashar Assad, fifth left, prays at the dawn Eid al-Adha prayers at the Saad ibn Muaaz Mosque in Daraya, a blockaded Damascus suburb, Syria, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. (Syrian Presidency via Facebook) (Associated Press) In this photo released on the official Facebook page of the Syrian Presidency, Syrian President Bashar Assad, fifth left, prays at the dawn Eid al-Adha prayers at the Saad ibn Muaaz Mosque in Daraya,... (Associated Press)

 BEIRUT (AP) — The Latest on developments in the civil war in Syria where a cease-fire brokered by the United States and Russia is due to start at sundown (all times local):

 7:05 p.m.

 Syria's army says it has begun implementing a U.S.-Russian cease-fire, but the country's most powerful insurgent groups have not yet said whether they will abide by it.

 The Syrian government and its main allies, Russia and Iran, say they will abide by the weeklong truce, which was set to begin at 7 p.m. (1600 GMT) on Monday.

 Half an hour before the truce went into effect, violence was reported in several areas throughout Syria.

 The deal, announced last week by Washington and Moscow, calls for a halt to fighting between the U.S.-backed opposition and the Russian-allied Syrian government.

 If the truce holds for a week, the U.S. and Russia would begin intelligence sharing and target coordination against the Islamic State group and al-Qaida-linked militants.

 ___

 6:45 p.m.

 Russia says it will continue strikes against the Islamic State group and al-Qaida-linked militants in Syria in coordination with the U.S. military as a cease-fire brokered by Moscow and Washington goes into effect.

 Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi of the Russian military's General Staff says the Russian and U.S. militaries will set up a joint executive center to coordinate the strikes.

 He adds that the Russian military will use drones to monitor the observance of the cease-fire, which is set to take effect Monday at sundown.

 U.S. and Russian officials announced the cease-fire early Saturday, saying they hoped it would facilitate humanitarian access to civilians.

 ___

 6 p.m.

 Italy says a Syrian cease-fire could pave the way for political negotiations aimed at ending the long and bloody conflict.

 Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni told reporters after talks with his Cypriot counterpart that a cessation of hostilities must happen before talks can begin.

 He said "a long list" of difficulties had confronted U.S. and Russian officials trying to hammer out the deal, but an agreement was reached, with the cease-fire set to begin in a few hours.

 The deal, announced last week by the U.S. and Russian foreign ministers, calls for a halt to fighting between the U.S.-backed opposition and Russian-supported Syrian government.

 It also allows the government to continue to strike the Islamic State group and al-Qaida-linked militants for another week.

 ___

 5 p.m.

 Russia's deputy foreign minister says peace talks to end Syria's five-year civil war could be resumed next month.

 Mikhail Bogdanov's comments on Monday came hours before a cease-fire was scheduled to go into effect in Syria at sunset.

 Bogdanov told the state-owned RIA Novosti news agency that he expects talks between the Syrian government and opposition groups to resume in early October, adding that Staffan de Mistura, the U.N. envoy to Syria, would name the date.

 The cease-fire, announced Saturday by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, calls for a halt to fighting between the U.S.-backed opposition and the Russian-allied Syrian government.

 ___

 2:35 p.m.

 Syrian President Bashar Assad says his government is determined to "reclaim every area from the terrorists, and to rebuild" the country. His remarks came just hours ahead of the start of a cease-fire brokered by the United States and Russia.

 Assad spoke to the state news agency SANA on the streets of Daraya, a Damascus suburb that surrendered to government authority last month.

 He says: "We call on all Syrians to turn toward reconciliation."

 Earlier in Daraya, Assad joined the prayers for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha in a rare public appearance that sent a strong message to his opponents.

 SANA says no civilians were present in the suburb, once home to nearly a quarter million people, after the last of them were evacuated as part of the surrender agreement.

 ___

 1:55 p.m.

 The U.N. envoy for Syria says his office will monitor the start of a U.S.-Russia-brokered cease-fire in Syria "carefully before making any hurried comments."

 Staffan de Mistura said in a text message to The Associated Press on Monday that no statement from his office about the truce was expected before the following afternoon.

 The cease-fire, announced last week by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, calls for a halt to fighting between the U.S.-backed opposition and Russian-supported Syrian government. It also allows the government to continue to strike the Islamic State group and al-Qaida-linked militants for another week.

 The U.N. offices in Geneva, where de Mistura is based, was closed Monday to honor the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

 ___

 12:45 p.m.

 Activists say Syrian government forces and their allies are bombing opposition areas in the country's north, just hours ahead of the start of a U.S.- and Russia-brokered cease-fire.

 The bombing on Monday came as al-Qaida-linked militants pushed on with an offensive in the country's southern Quneitra province.

 Ahmad Primo, an opposition media activist in the contested city of Aleppo, says airstrikes on the city's rebel-held eastern district "have not let up" since the morning.

 The Local Coordination Committees monitoring group reported airstrikes on the Aleppo neighborhoods and suburbs of Rashiddine, Salihine, and Jazmata.

 The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says 18 militants were killed fighting government forces in the push in the south.

 ___

 12:10 p.m.

 Turkey's president says his country will send food, clothing and children's toys to the contested Syrian city of Aleppo after a U.S.-Russia brokered cease-fire takes effect at sundown in the neighboring country.

 Recep Tayyip Erdogan's pledge came at the start of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha on Monday and the Turkish leader says the aid will be delivered along specific routes at sundown.

 Erdogan said Turkey's Red Crescent, along with the country's disaster and emergency management agency, will try to deliver aid to the northern Syrian towns of al-Rai and Jarablus.

 Ankara's incursion last month into northern Syria has helped Syrian rebels retake Jarablus from the Islamic State group.

 ___

 10:10 a.m.

 A cease-fire brokered by the United States and Russia is set to begin at sunset in Syria amid mixed messages of commitment from various rebel factions but with verbal backing by President Bashar Assad's government.

 Assad made a rare public appearance on Monday, attending prayers for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha at a mosque in the suburb of Daraya, which surrendered last month after four years of government siege.

 The cease-fire deal hammered out between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva last week allows the Syrian government to continue to strike at the Islamic State group and al-Qaida-linked militants, until the U.S. and Russia take over the task in one week's time.

 Rebel factions have expressed deep reservations about the deal. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's Jeremy Bowen drives into west Aleppo ahead of the ceasefire

 A cessation of hostilities has come into effect in Syria, although it is unclear how widely it will be observed.

 The Syrian army says it is implementing the truce, which began at sunset, but rebel groups have been more guarded.

 US Secretary of State John Kerry, who helped broker the deal, warned it could be the last chance for peace in a united Syria.

 Humanitarian groups are hoping to make aid deliveries to the worst-hit areas, especially the war-torn city of Aleppo.

 Mr Kerry, speaking at the state department in Washington, said early reports indicated "some reduction in violence".

 But he said that it was too early to draw a definitive conclusion about how effective the truce would be.

 Just after the ceasefire came into effect at sunset on Monday, the Syrian army announced a seven-day "freeze" on military operations.

 The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group reported that calm appeared to be prevailing on most front lines.

 The deal was struck on Friday in Geneva after months of talks between Russia and the US. It also requires both sides to allow unhindered access for humanitarian aid to besieged areas.

 Image copyright AP Image caption The Free Syrian Army has cautiously welcomed the cessation of hostilities

 If the truce holds for seven days, the US and Russia will carry out co-ordinated air strikes on militant groups.

 The opposition Free Syrian Army group has said that while it will "co-operate positively" with the ceasefire, it was concerned it would benefit the government.

 Another major rebel group, the hardline Islamist Ahrar al-Sham, initially rejected the deal but later appeared to have softened its stance.

 Opposition sources quoted by Reuters said a forthcoming statement supporting the cessation "with harsh reservations" would be backed by "the largest groups", including Ahrar al-Sham.

 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption President Bashar al-Assad: "The Syrian state is determined to recover all areas from the terrorists"

 Speaking earlier, President Bashar al-Assad welcomed the deal but said the Syrian state was still "determined to recover every area from the terrorists, and to rebuild".

 The cessation of violence is due to be renewed every 48 hours.

 Big test for US and Russia: BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen

 The strength, or otherwise, of the ceasefire is a big test of what appears to be a less sour, more workable relationship between the foreign ministers of the US and Russia.

 Diplomacy failed in the first, critical years of the war. A major reason for that was diplomatic deadlock between President Bashar al-Assad's ally, Russia, and the US, which demanded his immediate departure from office.

 Since then Russia has become the most influential outside power in Syria. The US and its Western allies have struggled to keep up.

 Perhaps Moscow is now ready to build on a ceasefire, if it lasts, to push President Assad towards a political transition that might end the war.

 Or perhaps, as enemies of President Assad and the Russians believe, the ceasefire will be a chance to regroup and rearm.

 The truce followed a weekend of air strikes by government forces on several rebel areas that killed about 100 people.

 Russian warplanes were also in action in the provinces of Idlib and Aleppo, say Syrian activists.

 Image copyright Abo Anas Image caption Children play on a bomb in the al-Muyaser neighbourhood in Aleppo

 Syrian children celebrate Eid in a warzone

 Such intensification of violence has occurred before other, aborted, ceasefires in Syria.

 Under the plan, Syrian government forces will halt combat missions in specified opposition-held areas.

 Russia and the US will then establish a joint centre to combat jihadist groups, including so-called Islamic State and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (known until recently as the Nusra Front).

 The conflict in Syria, which began with an uprising against Mr Assad, has raged for five years and claimed the lives of more than a quarter of a million people.

 More than 4.8 million have fled abroad, and an estimated 6.5 million others have been displaced within the country, the UN says.

 If the truce holds...

 Image copyright GEORGE OURFALIAN Image caption Government forces have regained ground in Aleppo

 Jihadist groups like so-called Islamic State and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham face the joint might of the Russian and US air forces

 Moderate rebels and civilians in the areas they hold will no longer face the threat of indiscriminate air strikes such as barrel-bombing although the Syrian air force will not be grounded completely; aid deliveries will be allowed to areas currently under siege

 President Assad will be in a stronger position as the US and Russia engage two of his most effective military opponents while moderate rebels observe the truce with his forces

 Syria's history of failed deals

 Image copyright AFP Image caption Can Kerry (left) and Lavrov succeed at last?

 February 2012: Syrian government "categorically rejects" an Arab League plan calling for a joint Arab-UN peacekeeping mission

 June 2012/January 2014/January 2016: Three failed UN-sponsored peace conferences in Geneva

 September 2013: Kerry and Lavrov negotiate a deal to strip the Syrian government of its chemical weapons in return for the US backing away from air strikes. Since then, the government has again and repeatedly been accused of using toxic chemicals against rebel-held areas

 February 2016: World powers agree in Munich on a nationwide "cessation of hostilities" in Syria excluding jihadist groups. There is no agreement on any joint US-Russian operations. The "pause" quickly unravels as Assad promises to regain control of the whole country

 March 2016: President Vladimir Putin declares "mission accomplished" in Syria and orders removal of "main part" of Russia's air army in Syria. Russian air strikes have continued ever since ||||| (CNN) As the sun set in Syria Monday, another ceasefire aimed at ending the country's bloody conflict began. Now the world watches with bated breath.

 The country has faced an apparent intensification of airstrikes in the last 48 hours , a seemingly deliberate attempt by those on the ground to send a message of strength.

 So will this agreement be a pivotal moment in the Syrian civil war or simply another brief hiatus in the death and destruction? Five questions about the latest truce:

 How will it work?

 The US and Russia brokered a pact to pause the violence on Friday after months of back and forth talks. US Secretary of State John Kerry, who negotiated the ceasefire along with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, said the deal would stop Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's air force from flying combat missions anywhere the opposition is present.

 "That should put an end to the barrel bombs, an end to the indiscriminate bombing of civilian neighborhoods," Kerry said

 The ceasefire will also allow for much-needed humanitarian access to besieged cities like Aleppo.

 If the accords hold for seven days, Russia and the US will begin to discuss military options for targeting one-time al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat Fateh Al-Sham, previously known as the al Nusra Front , and ISIS.

 Who does it apply to?

 The deal is supposed to cover everyone involved in the fighting. But in reality that's difficult to enforce because there are so many groups in play.

 The specifics of the agreement call for Assad's troops and the opposition to abide by the ceasefire. Terrorist groups, including ISIS and Jabhat Fateh Al-Sham, are not included in the agreement and military operations against them will continue.

 Syria's opposition has said it welcomes the ceasefire but only "if it is going to be enforced," according to a statement form Bassma Kodmani, a member of the High Negotiations Committee on Saturday.

 "When the cessation of hostilities was installed in February, the opposition -- 100 groups -- respected it. It was violated by the regime," Kodmani said. "So a return to a cessation of hostilities has been our demand."

 The agreement has also been welcomed by the UN and foreign ministers from the UK, Turkey and Germany.

 There is little trust between rebel groups and the regime itself. The rebels, for their part, agree to basic principles such as the creation of humanitarian corridors. But they have raised concerns about how the ceasefire will be monitored and what the consequences of any violations will be. There are also concerns that the deal will actually strengthen the regime and create a much more chaotic scene on the ground.

 Will this push for peace be any different to previous attempts?

 Nobody knows.

 US Secretary of State Kerry stressed in the ceasefire announcement on Friday that this latest set of accords relies on the goodwill and trust of those involved.

 "If the plan is implemented in good faith, if the stakeholders do the things that are available to them to do and are being called on to do, this can be a moment where the multilateral efforts at the diplomatic table, the negotiations could take hold, and you could really provide the people of Syria with a transition," he said.

 JUST WATCHED Kerry: 'Key for Syria agreement will be enforcement' Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Kerry: 'Key for Syria agreement will be enforcement' 08:57

 He also warned that the truce's success depends on Russia actually putting pressure on al-Assad.

 "'We -- the Obama administration, the United States is going the extra mile here because we believe that Russia and my colleague have the capability to press the Assad regime to stop this conflict and to come to the table and make peace," he said.

 This isn't the first time various parties have tried to end the bloody battles that have afflicted Syria since civil war broke out five years ago.

 • In 2011, Syria signed an Arab League proposal aimed at stopping the fight between government forces and protestors but violence continued and the following month, the Arab League suspended its mission in the country.

 • The UN has hosted three separate peace conferences in Geneva in hopes of ending the conflict, but each has ended without a breakthrough.

 • The US and Russia coordinated a partial ceasefire back in February . But human rights groups monitoring the situation reported several airstrikes in the Aleppo region and near Raqqa, ISIS's de facto capital, just days after the truce took effect.

 What are ramifications for disobeying ceasefire?

 It's not immediately clear if there are any penalties in the current framework should any of the parties involved violate the ceasefire.

 Under the terms of the cessation of hostilities in February , the agreement foresaw proportionate response in self-defense, if and when attacked.

 What's at stake?

 The lives of millions of Syrian people. |||||

Write a summary.

– The latest attempt to bring peace to Syria has officially begun: A ceasefire brokered last week by the US and Russia went into effect Monday morning, reports the BBC. However, this being Syria—whose civil war is a many-sided conflict—it remained unclear just how effective it would be. The Syrian government and its main allies, Russia and Iran, say they will abide by the weeklong truce, but the country's most powerful insurgent groups have not yet said whether they will, reports AP. If the truce holds for a week, the US and Russia would begin intelligence sharing and target coordination against the Islamic State and al-Qaeda-linked militants. Meanwhile, Syrian President Bashar Assad vowed that his government would take back all its land from "terrorists." Assad spoke during a rare public appearance that included attending prayers for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha in the Damascus suburb of Daraya, which had surrendered last month and reverted to government control after a four-year siege. "We call on all Syrians to turn toward reconciliation," he said. Italy, meanwhile, says a Syrian cease-fire could pave the way for political negotiations aimed at ending the long and bloody conflict. Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni told reporters after talks with his Cypriot counterpart that a cessation of hostilities must happen before talks can begin. CNN has a primer on the truce.


News article:

Image copyright NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS Image caption The dark patch and white spot magnified on the right are likely the impact site and parachute

 The gouge in the ground probably made by Europe's Schiaparelli probe as it hit the surface of Mars on Wednesday has been imaged by a US satellite.

 The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has identified a large dark patch in the robot's targeted landing zone consistent with a high-velocity impact.

 Schiaparelli is widely thought to have crashed and been destroyed.

 Data transmitted from the probe before it lost contact indicated that its descent systems did not work properly.

 Its parachute was jettisoned too early and its retrorockets, designed to slow the robot to a hover just above the surface, fired only for a few seconds. They should have operated for half a minute.

 The MRO imagery is not quite definitive because the resolution is low - just six metres per pixel. Its context is persuasive, however.

 The roughly 15m by 40m dark patch, which is probably dust and rock fragments thrown out from the impact, is sited some 5.5km west of Schiaparelli's expected touchdown point in the equatorial Meridiani Plain.

 Tellingly, the feature is not present in previous MRO pictures of the location.

 The clincher, though, may be the artefact 1km to the south of the patch. This white blob looks to be Schiaparelli's 15m-wide parachute which would have floated down behind the probe. Again, this was not present in earlier pictures.

 Image copyright ESA Image caption Artwork: Things started to go wrong at the end of the descent's parachute phase

 The European Space Agency (Esa) and MRO's operator, the US space agency (Nasa), are confident the features described do indeed represent the scene of Schiaparelli's contact with the surface.

 Engineers continue to analyse the telemetry the probe transmitted through the various phases of its descent before dropping radio contact unexpectedly about 50 seconds before the anticipated touchdown time.

 They want to establish precisely why the parachute and rocket thrusters behaved the way they did. In due course, they hope also to be able to identify the height above the surface that each event occurred.

 Ultimately, the investigation should tell us at what stage in the descent sequence Schiaparelli went into freefall - somewhere between two and four km up - and the speed with which it smacked into the ground. This is estimated to be greater than 300km/h.

 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Schiaparelli's landing sequence - stage by stage

 Further photographic insights will come from MRO next week when it flies back over the scene with its high-resolution (HiRISE) camera.

 Generally, this can distinguish objects on the ground a mere 30cm to 60cm across, and can achieve even better when special processing techniques are employed.

 Schiaparelli was part of Esa's ExoMars programme - a joint venture with the Russians - which is endeavouring to search for evidence of past or present life on the Red Planet.

 The 600kg robot was conceived as a technology demonstrator - a project to give Europe the learning experience and the confidence to go ahead with the landing on Mars in 2021 of an ambitious six-wheeled rover.

 This future vehicle will use some of the same technology as Schiaparelli, including its doppler radar to sense the speed and distance to the surface on descent, and its guidance, navigation and control algorithms.

 Esa director-general, Jan Woerner, said the fact that Schiaparelli returned 80% of its anticipated descent telemetry makes it a success, irrespective of what happened in its last seconds.

 "[The 80%] means we will obtain information from a close analysis of the data that Schiaparelli was built for, notably on the performance of elements such as the heat shield, parachute, radar, thrusters and so on," he wrote on his blog.

 "This information can subsequently be used to improve the design of the [2021] Exomars mission, since in that mission the survival of the descent module will be of real scientific relevance."

 Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos ||||| Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter view of Schiaparelli landing site

 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter views Schiaparelli landing site

 NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has identified new markings on the surface of the Red Planet that are believed to be related to ESA’s ExoMars Schiaparelli entry, descent and landing technology demonstrator module. Schiaparelli entered the martian atmosphere at 14:42 GMT on 19 October for its 6-minute descent to the surface, but contact was lost shortly before expected touchdown. Data recorded by its mothership, the Trace Gas Orbiter, are currently being analysed to understand what happened during the descent sequence. In the meantime, the low-resolution CTX camera on-board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) took pictures of the expected touchdown site in Meridiani Planum on 20 October as part of a planned imaging campaign. The image released today has a resolution of 6 metres per pixel and shows two new features on the surface when compared to an image from the same camera taken in May this year.

 Schiaparelli landing site One of the features is bright and can be associated with the 12-m diameter parachute used in the second stage of Schiaparelli’s descent, after the initial heat shield entry. The parachute and the associated back shield were released from Schiaparelli prior to the final phase, during which its nine thrusters should have slowed it to a standstill just above the surface. The other new feature is a fuzzy dark patch roughly 15 x 40 metres in size and about 1 km north of the parachute. This is interpreted as arising from the impact of the Schiaparelli module itself following a much longer free fall than planned, after the thrusters were switched off prematurely. Estimates are that Schiaparelli dropped from a height of between 2 and 4 kilometres, therefore impacting at a considerable speed, greater than 300 km/h. The relatively large size of the feature would then arise from disturbed surface material. It is also possible that the lander exploded on impact, as its thruster propellant tanks were likely still full. These preliminary interpretations will be refined following further analysis. A closer look at these features will be taken next week with HiRISE, the highest-resolution camera onboard MRO. These images may also reveal the location of the front heat shield, dropped at higher altitude.

 MRO image of Schiaparelli – before Since the module’s descent trajectory was observed from three different locations, the teams are confident that they will be able to reconstruct the chain of events with great accuracy. The exact mode of anomaly onboard Schiaparelli is still under investigation. The two new features are located at 353.79 degrees east longitude, 2.07 degrees south latitude on Mars. The position of the dark mark shows that Schiaparelli impacted approximately 5.4 km west of its intended landing point, well within the nominal 100 x 15 km landing ellipse. Meanwhile, the teams continue to decode the data extracted from the recording of Schiaparelli descent signals recorded by the ExoMars TGO in order to establish correlations with the measurements made with the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT), an experimental telescope array located near Pune, India, and with ESA’s Mars Express from orbit. A substantial amount of extremely valuable Schiaparelli engineering data were relayed back to the TGO during the descent and is being analysed by engineers day and night.

 MRO image of Schiaparelli – after The ExoMars TGO orbiter is currently on a 101 000 km x 3691 km orbit (with respect to the centre of the planet) with a period of 4.2 days, well within the planned initial orbit. The spacecraft is working very well and will take science calibration data during two orbits in November 2016. It will then be ready for the planned aerobraking manoeuvres starting in March 2017 and continuing for most of the year, bringing it into a 400-km altitude circular orbit around Mars. The TGO will then begin its primary science mission to study the atmosphere of Mars in search of possible indications of life below the surface, and to act as a telecommunications relay station for the ExoMars 2020 rover and other landed assets.

 For further information, please contact: Thierry Blancquaert

 ExoMars EDM Manager

 Email: Thierry.Blancquaert@esa.int Markus Bauer

 ESA Science and Robotic Exploration Communication Officer

 Tel: +31 71 565 6799

 Mob: +31 61 594 3 954

 Email: markus.bauer@esa.int ||||| Italian Space Agency President Roberto Battiston holds a pamphlet reading in Italian 'Colonize Mars, Friday, Oct. 19, 2016, in front of a rendering showing the Schiaparelli Space Module and the planet... (Associated Press)

 BERLIN (AP) — Europe's experimental Mars probe hit the right spot — but at the wrong speed — likely ending up in a fiery ball of rocket fuel when it struck the surface at high speed, scientists said Friday.

 Pictures taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show a black spot in the area where the Schiaparelli lander was meant to touch down Wednesday, the European Space Agency said. The images end two days of speculation following the probe's unexpected radio silence 50 seconds before the planned landing.

 Schiaparelli was meant to test technology for a more ambitious European Mars landing in 2020, and scientists say the data it sent back before going silent will prove highly useful for that mission. ESA also stressed that Schiaparelli's mother ship was successfully placed into orbit Wednesday and will begin analyzing the Martian atmosphere in search for evidence of life.

 Still, the crash-landing is a painful reminder of how hard it is to put a spacecraft on the surface of the red planet. Europe's Beagle 2 probe reached the surface in 2003 but failed to deploy properly. Only NASA has repeatedly succeeded in landing several robotic vehicles on Mars, including the Opportunity and Curiosity rovers.

 ESA said that, according to what its scientists have been able to piece together so far, Schiaparelli suffered problems during the last 50 seconds of its descent through the harsh Martian atmosphere.

 Instead of achieving a soft landing it probably plummeted the last 2-4 kilometers (1.4-2.4 miles) onto the surface, therefore impacting at a considerable speed, greater than 300 kilometers (186 miles) per hour.

 The pictures taken by NASA suggest that the probe's thrusters — which were meant to slow its final descent — failed, causing it to hit the surface with almost fully loaded tanks of rocket fuel and explode on impact.

 While Schiaparelli was able to beam back some 600 megabytes of data before the crash, scientists won't get any of the close-up photos the probe took during its descent. Those were meant to be transmitted after the landing.

 ___

 ExoMars mission: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/ExoMars |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– We now have the most definitive sign yet—courtesy of a NASA orbiter—that the European Space Agency's Mars lander crashed onto the planet's surface in what the AP describes as a "fiery ball of rocket fuel." ESA lost contact with the Schiaparelli lander Wednesday, approximately 50 seconds before it was supposed to land on Mars. What exactly happened to the lander has been a mystery, but a crash seemed likely. Now, images from a NASA orbiter released Friday show an approximately 6,500-square-foot dark patch on the Martian surface a few miles from where the lander was supposed to touch down, the BBC reports. That spot is likely the result of an exploding lander. ESA reports the lander's parachute deployed then released as planned (it's probably the small light spot in the new image). But the lander's nine thrusters fired for only a few seconds instead of half a minute for some reason. The lander probably free-fell for up to 2.5 miles before hitting Mars at more than 185mph. And since the thrusters didn't use much of the stored rocket fuel, a decent-sized explosion was probably the result. NASA plans to get a better picture of the crash site next week. The lander was meant to be testing technology for another ESA landing in 2020. Its failure means NASA is still the only agency to successfully land a robotic vehicle on Mars, having done so several times.