Article:
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Deputy commissioner Nick Kaldas, NSW Police: "We've certainly opened up the lines of communication"

 Scotland Yard has been in touch with Australian police over the death of a nurse from the hospital where the Duchess of Cambridge was being treated for morning sickness.

 Jacintha Saldanha, 46, died on Friday, days after she answered a prank phone call from Australian DJs pretending to be the Queen and Prince Charles.

 An inquest into the apparent suicide is due to be opened this week.

 The DJs responsible have been taken off air and are receiving counselling.

 Southern Cross Austereo, owner of 2Day FM, held an emergency board meeting on Sunday, but made no comment afterwards.

 It has suspended all advertising on the station until Monday, while DJs Mel Greig and Michael Christian are on indefinite leave.

 The pair are said to be in a fragile condition and receiving "intense counselling", because of the hostile reaction to their prank.

 Meanwhile, the Duke of Cambridge has cancelled his appearance at the British Military Tournament at Earl's Court in London on Sunday.

 A St James's Palace spokesman said he would spend the day "privately with the duchess instead".

 Regarding official contact, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: "Officers have been in contact with Australian authorities."

 Analysis Legal experts say that Australian DJs Mel Greig and Michael Christian are unlikely to be prosecuted at home or in the UK over the tragic royal hospital prank because they hadn't shown "guilty intent." However, the radio pair may well have violated the Surveillance Devices Act in the state of New South Wales. It prohibits the broadcasting of private conversations acquired using a "listening device". Sanctions could also be imposed by the Australian Communications and Media Authority. It is investigating whether 2Day FM breached its licence conditions or industry rules. ACMA could strip the station of its right to broadcast, although that is unlikely. Station bosses continue to stress that no laws were broken and that the pre-recorded spoof interview had been scrutinised and approved by lawyers before it was aired. Any pain the commercial radio network will feel will probably be financial, in the short term at least. Several anxious advertisers have already abandoned 2Day FM in response to a largely hostile reaction from the Australian public.

 In certain circumstances, including when a death is sudden or unexpected, police report deaths to a coroner and can be involved in investigating the circumstances.

 The deputy commissioner for New South Wales Police, Nick Kaldas, said: "They haven't actually asked us to do anything yet, but we've certainly opened up the lines of communication and obviously we're happy to assist in any way we can."

 He added: "All I can say at the moment is that it's been indicated that the London Metropolitan Police may wish to speak to the people involved in the matter from 2Day FM.

 "But we haven't been asked to do anything yet, and we certainly have not been asked to interview anyone, or line up any interviews for the Met."

 Legal experts say that the DJs are unlikely to be prosecuted in Australia or the UK because they had not shown "guilty intent," reported BBC correspondent Phil Mercer in Sydney.

 However, the radio pair may well have violated the Surveillance Devices Act in the state of New South Wales. It prohibits the broadcasting of private conversations acquired using a "listening device".

 Station bosses say no laws were broken and that the pre-recorded spoof interview had been approved by lawyers before it was aired.

 The company board, including chairman Max Moore-Wilton, met on Sunday, but are not expected to release a statement until Monday.

 They discussed the strongly worded letter received from the chairman of King Edward VII's Hospital, where Catherine was being treated for acute morning sickness last week.

 In it, Lord Glenarthur said it was "truly appalling" that the call, in which Mrs Saldanha transfers the caller to the duchess' nurse believing it to be the Queen, was approved by radio management before broadcast.

 Image caption Jacintha Saldanha was married with two children

 Lord Glenarthur also said in his letter: "The immediate consequence of these premeditated and ill-considered actions was the humiliation of two dedicated and caring nurses who were simply doing their job tending to their patients.

 "The longer term consequence has been reported around the world and is, frankly, tragic beyond words."

 He urged Mr Moore-Wilton to ensure such an incident was never repeated.

 A bouquet of flowers was left outside the hospital accommodation where Mrs Saldanha was found on Friday. An attached note said: "We bless your soul."

 While Mrs Saldanha's husband and two children were being comforted at their home in Bristol, her extended family in her native India were coming to terms with her death.

 Her sister-in-law told AFP news agency from south-west India: "We were shocked to hear from her husband that Jacintha was no more. He did not tell us that she committed suicide."

 She added: "Today we are going to the church to pray for her soul and for her children, who are going through a bad time."

 Royal College of Nursing chief executive Peter Carter said the death was "a tragedy that was avoidable".

 "This is the fallout from these hoaxes. We've seen them in the past. Rarely does it have the dramatic effect that it has had on this occasion." ||||| The two DJs at the centre of the royal hospital hoax call tragedy "have expressed a desire to speak" to the media.

 Crisis talks are under way at the company that owns 2Day FM, whose presenters Mel Greig and Michael Christian duped Jacintha Saldanha into helping reveal details about the Duchess of Cambridge's health.

 It led to Ms Saldanha's apparent suicide days later.

 A spokesman for Southern Cross Austereo - 2Day FM's parent company - said: "They have expressed a desire to speak. We haven't ascertained when they're ready for that and how we're going to organise that, but they certainly want to."

 Ms Saldanha was found dead days after the prank call

 The firm also said it was reviewing its broadcast processes.

 It comes as the Duke of Cambridge pulled out of attending the British Military Tournament on Sunday night so he can spend time with Kate.

 She is recuperating after receiving hospital treatment for severe morning sickness.

 The royal couple had both originally been due to attend tonight's event, billed as "the largest display of military theatre in the world".

 But all of Kate's forthcoming public engagements were cancelled after she spent three nights at the King Edward VII's Hospital suffering from hyperemesis gravidarum.

 A St James's Palace spokesman said: "The Duke of Cambridge will no longer attend the British Military Tournament at Earl's Court this evening, but will spend Sunday privately with the Duchess instead.

 "It is well known that hyperemesis gravidarum often recurs and, until further notice, to allow the Duchess a degree of privacy during her pregnancy, we do not intend to offer regular condition checks or advise of routine developments associated with it."

 Meanwhile police in Australia have been contacted by Scotland Yard over the death of Ms Saldanha.

 New South Wales Police Deputy Commissioner Nick Kaldas said officers had been in touch - but emphasised there was no suggestion that a crime had been committed.

 He said: "There has been a request for assistance from London's Metropolitan Police to the New South Wales Police through the Australian Federal Police.

 "The request has gone to the city central command - the area where the 2Day FM office is."

 The radio station has responded in writing to a strongly worded protest from the hospital about the prank. The hospital accused the station of humiliating the tragic nurse in the "appalling" stunt.

 The radio station response reads: "We are all saddened by the events of the last few days. They are truly tragic.

 "It is too early to know the full details leading to this tragic event and we are anxious to review the results of any investigation that may be madeavailable to us or made public.

 "We can assure you that we will fully cooperate with all investigations. As we have said in our own statements on the matter, the outcome was unforeseeable and very regrettable.

 "I can assure you we are taking immediate action and reviewing the broadcast processes involved.

 "Our company joins with you, all at the King Edward VII's Hospital and Mrs Saldanha's family and friends in mourning their tragic loss." |||||Summary:

– Scotland Yard is hoping to take the investigation into the tragic royal prank call Down Under: As the BBC reports, UK police have reached out to their Australian counterparts about investigating the radio DJs who prank-called the hospital where Kate Middleton was being treated for morning sickness. "They haven't actually asked us to do anything yet," says a New South Wales police spokesman, "but we've certainly opened up the lines of communication and obviously we're happy to assist in any way we can." DJs Mel Greig and Michael Christian wouldn't be likely targets for prosecution because they showed no "guilty intent," but they could be targeted under Aussie law that prevents public airing of private conversations caught on a "listening device." King Edward VII's Hospital has slammed 2Day FM, calling it "truly appalling" that both management and a station lawyer had approved the prank. Greig and Christian, who were suspended and are said to be undergoing "intense counseling," have "expressed a desire to speak," Sky News reports. "We haven't ascertained when they're ready for that and how we're going to organize that, but they certainly want to," says a spokesman for the radio station's parent company.


Here is a news article: UPDATE: Shia LaBeouf was released from custody early Friday, and has a court date slated for July 24; keep it right here on Radar for new developments in this story, as they occur.

 Actor Shia LaBeouf had quite the Thursday night, getting booted from a Broadway show, arrested on multiple charges, and telling police officers “I’ll f**k you up,” calling one a “f*g” in a station house blowup, Radar reports.

 Here’s how it all went down: The Transformers star was “disruptive during Act 1″ of “Cabaret” at Manhattan’s Studio 54, a show spokesman said, in cursing and making a scene, then was kicked out at the musical’s intermission.

 PHOTOS: Shia LaBail! Actor LaBeouf Gets Out Of Jail After Wild Night In The City

 Police in New York City said the “incoherent” and “very agitated” 28-year-old Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull star was subsequently taken into custody in connection with disorderly conduct and criminal trespass. At Studio 54, the Disturbia actor was smoking and smacking playgoers at the venue on their rear ends and back of heads.

 Police said that as they approached LaBeouf, he fell down. While in custody at the Midtown-North station, insiders told the NY Post, the Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps star had to be placed into a mask after he began spitting toward cops on duty when he was upset they wouldn’t take his handcuffs off.

 PHOTOS: Booked & Beautiful? Even More Of The Best And Worst Celebrity Mug Shots!

 He told them, “F–k you, I’ll f–k you up,” and called one a “f*g” in his extended diatribe, sources told the paper.

 LaBeouf, sources told the paper, told one officer, “I have millions and millions of dollars and attorneys — I’m going to ruin your career!”

  ||||| Photo

 The actor Shia LaBeouf was removed from the Studio 54 theater in Midtown on Thursday and arrested after disrupting a performance of the musical “Cabaret.”

 Mr. LaBeouf, the former star of the “Transformers” movie franchise, was smoking and yelling during the performance, the police said. Officers escorted him out of the show during intermission.

 Mr. LaBeouf, 28, was charged with one count of criminal trespassing and two counts of disorderly conduct, according to the police. He remained in police custody Thursday night.

 A spokesman for the producer of “Cabaret,” the Roundabout Theater Company, said the actor was disruptive during the first act of the two-act musical.

 Benj Pasek, who was nominated for a 2014 Tony Award for his work on the score of “A Christmas Story,” wrote on Twitter that he saw Mr. LaBeouf handcuffed and in tears as six officers surrounded him outside the theater.

 A lawyer for Mr. LaBeouf did not immediately return an email seeking comment on Thursday night.

 The outburst on Thursday followed a string of erratic behavior attributed to the actor.

 Mr. LaBeouf, whose films include “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” and “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,” was set to make his Broadway debut in spring 2013 opposite Alec Baldwin in “Orphans,” but withdrew before the show’s opening because of creative differences with the show’s producers.

 In January, he wrote on Twitter that he was retiring from public life after he was accused of plagiarizing a comic in his screenplay, “HowardCantour.com.” The film, which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival before it was released in December, contained uncredited passages from “Justin M. Damiano” by Daniel Clowes.

 Mr. LaBeouf apologized on Twitter, saying that he got lost in the creative process and failed to credit the writer. ||||| Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

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 Troublemaking actor Shia LaBeouf went berserk in the audience at the Broadway musical “Cabaret” Thursday night and was hauled off in handcuffs to a station house — where he told cops, “I’ll f–k you up,” called an officer a “f-g,” and was muzzled with a face mask for spitting, sources said.

 The “Nymphomaniac” star was slapping people on the behind and in the back of the head while smoking at around 9:30 p.m. in the Studio 54 theater, according to law-enforcement sources.

 When cops approached him, he was “incoherent” and “very agitated,” they said.

 He tried to quickly walk away from officers but fell flat on his face, the sources said.

 Police hauled him out, his hands cuffed behind him, as theatergoers looked on.

 At the Midtown-North station house, he allegedly became belligerent, demanding the cuffs be removed.

 “F–k you. I’ll f–k you up!” the 28-year-old LaBeouf said, according to the sources.

 Cops decided to not take the cuffs off the agitated “Transformers” star, and he allegedly started spitting, prompting officers to put a face mask on him.

 LaBeouf then unloaded on the arresting officer and used a homophobic slur.

 “I have millions and millions of dollars and attorneys,” the unhinged actor said. “I’m going to ruin your career,” he added, then allegedly called the cop a “f-g.”

 One police source said the actor smelled terrible and lied about being in the Army.

 He was charged with criminal trespass, harassment and disorderly conduct, according to the sources.

 “Just saw Shia LaBeouf in handcuffs in tears surrounded by 6 police officers outside of CABARET the musical,” tweeted Benj Pasek.

 The actor has had his share of bizarre incidents in the past.

 In January, he was videotaped head-butting a man during a bar brawl in London, according to ABC.

 In February, he was seen disheveled, with a paper bag over his head, at the Berlin Film Festival.

 He was arrested at a Chicago Walgreens in 2007 for refusing to leave the store.

 After Thursday night’s bust, one “Cabaret” actor reportedly joked about it on social media.

 “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your places call for Act II. Also, to let you know, Shia LaBeouf has just been escorted from the building in handcuffs. Yep, that just happened,” cast member Danny Burstein wrote on Facebook, according to the website Just Jared. |||||
A summary of this is?

– More weirdness from Shia LaBeouf: The Transformers star was handcuffed by police and hauled out of the Broadway show Cabaret at Studio 54 last night, ABC reports. Sources tell the New York Post that the actor was smoking in the theater, yelling during the performance, and slapping random people on the back of the head. Witnesses saw him in tears outside the theater, but he was allegedly belligerent at the precinct, spitting and swearing at police officers, sources say. He has been charged with one count of criminal trespassing and two counts of disorderly conduct, reports the New York Times. The increasingly erratic 28-year-old head-butted somebody in a brawl at a London bar earlier this year—and appeared at a press conference with a paper bag over his head the next month. (Click for more on Shia's night—he reportedly really freaked out at the police station.)


Article:
The younger sister of the Duchess of Cambridge has been the subject of a fierce bidding war by some of Britain’s largest publishers for her first book. It is understood that publisher Michael Joseph, an imprint of Penguin books, last week signed her up to a publishing deal worth £400,000.

 According to industry sources, the negotiating process involved delicate discussions about the book’s timing.

 Ms Middleton will wait for the launch of her first book until after the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations next summer so that she is not seen to be cashing in on her royal connections.

 She is keen for the book to be released next year but is determined that she is not seen to be making money from her closeness to the royal family. Therefore the book is likely to be launched late next autumn, after the summer celebrations around the Queen’s Jubilee but in time for the Christmas market.

 “She wanted to publish it next year, but it will be timed to come out after the Jubilee,” said one book industry insider.

 The book will be a guide to being the perfect party hostess. It will include recipes, anecdotes and details of how to throw a range of different types of event.

 The fact that Ms Middleton’s agent David Godwin, whose DGA company also represents Vikram Seth and William Dalrymple, has secured such a high six-figure advance shows that the industry is expecting high sales.

 “It is a massive amount of money, particularly in the current environment,” said one agent.

 According to its website, Michael Joseph publishes “highly commercial, popular fiction and non-fiction, principally interested in publishing Top Ten bestsellers”. Other authors on its roster include Jamie Oliver, Jeremy Clarkson and Ant and Dec.

 Publishers who were also keen on the book are thought to include Harper Collins and Cornerstone, a branch of Random House.

 Ms Middleton has toured around different publishing houses pitching the book over the last few months. Book executives said that she went down a storm.

 Publishers believe that her experience as a professional party-planner at Table Talk, a London-based company, and her regular contributions to The Party Times, the online newsletter of her parent’s Party Pieces firm, make her perfectly positioned to write an authoritative book.

 A spokesman for Michael Joseph was unavailable for comment. ||||| Pippa Middleton's butt is in trouble. Don't worry, not her actual buttocks, but you know figuratively speaking, Pippa's ass is on the line. After word got around that the world's most famous little sister (take that Ashlee, Ali, and Solange) was getting $1.5 million to pen a book about party planning and etiquette, people were kind of pissed off. The Telegraph reports that Pips' been in talks with publishers for a while now and that things are getting serious.

 The "Pippa factor" may have sold a few handbags and launched a few fan blogs, but this party planning book may be the one thing that could burst that bubble.

 It's not like she planned the royal wedding, after all. And etiquette, hmm. Wasn't she photographed dancing with a dude in her bra with bottles of booze in the background? Sounds fun, but ... that doesn't really necessarily display the characteristics of someone who's a supposed expert on manners, decorum, and propriety.

 Her family owns a party supplies business so Pippa is no stranger to the game, but to say that Kate has nothing to do with this humongous book deal would be a bit unfair. There are plenty of successful, well-known party planners in this world who could actually share tried and true tips on throwing the best fete, but Pippa isn't one of them. She's a perma-tanned beauty and pseudo-royal who's in the spotlight because of her relatives, not because of her expertise.

 And I'm not the only one who thinks this is a bad idea; not many people are fans of Pippa's alleged contract. The U.K. economy is not that great and to hand over money for a fluff piece written by someone related to Kate Middleton is ticking off a lot of Britons. And I'd have to agree that it's midly perturbing. Pippa seems like a smart, beautiful and resourceful woman -- she doesn't need anything handed to her. Kate's coattails probably look like a lot of fun to ride, but she shouldn't hop on just because it's easy. Pippa seems better than that.

 Do you think Pippa should write a party planning book?

 Photo via Splash News |||||Summary:

– When do you get paid six figures to write a party planning book? When you’re Pippa Middleton, of course. Her Royal Hotness has officially signed a book deal worth more than $620,000 to write the guide, which will be out by next Christmas, the Telegraph reports. She was originally rumored to be in talks for a deal worth more than twice that amount, which, of course, led to some uproar. Hilariously, the Telegraph notes that Middleton’s book will be released after the Queen’s summertime Diamond Jubilee celebration so that Pippa “is not seen to be cashing in on her royal connections.” To be fair, she does have professional party planning experience, and she regularly contributes to her parents’ online party planning newsletter. That would totally get most normal people a book deal! The guide will reportedly include recipes and stories, as well as instructions for hosting many different events.


Write a summary based on this article:

NASA is asking everyday terrestrials to come up with cosmic solutions to a very down-to-earth problem: how to deal with human waste when you’re trapped in a space suit for up to a week.

 The American space agency has launched a competition for participants to invent a hands-free system that routes and collects waste away from the astronaut’s body for up to six days. Inventors have the chance of winning $30,000, and have until Dec. 20 to submit their best “space poop” ideas.

 “I can tell you that space flight is not always glamorous,” said astronaut Rick Mastracchio, a veteran of Space Shuttle Soyuz, and Space Station missions speaking in a video promoting NASA’s call to action. “People need to go to the bathroom even in a spacecraft.”

 During spaceflight astronauts can be in their suits for more than 10 hours at a time. But with NASA planning on sending humans deeper into space, future missions will require the advancement of new technology to keep the astronauts alive and well.

 Currently, crews wear an absorbent diaper but these would not be suitable for flights longer than a day, according to a description on the contest’s website HeroX. While it goes without saying that nobody in their right mind would want to wear a diaper for a week, the issue is more than a matter of squeamishness, it’s a matter of life or death.

 Mastracchio said it is vital that the waste needs to be treated otherwise it could harm or even kill the astronaut. “Given enough time, infection, and even sepsis can set in. This is the problem we are asking you to help us with.”

 NASA said it aims to test the winning ideas in the next year and roll out successful systems in the next three. ||||| NASA vowed to award up to three $30,000 prizes for the most promising in-suit waste management systems When you've got to go, but you're out there in space, zipped up in a spacesuit, with no toilet in sight and a crew of other astronauts around, what do you do?

 NASA has launched a contest for inventors to solve this uncomfortable issue, and promises to award $30,000 to the best "space poop" solutions.

 Inventors have until December 20 to submit designs for a personalized waste-wicking system that will handle everything, hands-free, for a period of up to six days.

 "The old standby solution consisted of diapers," said the description of contest details at www.herox.com/SpacePoop.

 "However, the diaper is only a very temporary solution, and doesn't provide a healthy/protective option longer than one day."

 Sometimes, astronauts have to wait even longer. The two men and one woman who packed themselves into a Russian Soyuz space capsule last week had to wait two full days between launching from Kazakhstan and arriving at the International Space Station.

 The Soyuz is equipped with a portable toilet, which looks like an air-powered pee jug.

 On future missions to deep space destinations like an asteroid or Mars, NASA suspects it could take up to 144 hours, or six days, to get to a proper toilet.

 In emergency situations, astronauts may need to zip themselves into a fully pressurized, bulky orange spacesuit, complete with helmet and gloves.

 "While sealed, it is impossible for an astronaut to access their own body, even to scratch their nose," NASA said.

 That's where the inventors come in. Astronauts need some way to clear away urine, fecal matter and menstrual blood efficiently, or they risk infection.

 The problem is that in weightlessness, fluids can blob up and stick to surfaces, while solids float in the air.

 "You don't want any of these solids and fluids stuck to your body for six days," NASA said, recalling how easy babies can get diaper rash.

 Currently, while at the International Space Station, astronauts use a toilet contraption that includes a vacuum and a tube to help evacuate fecal matter.

 To urinate, they use a funnel attached to a hose that can be adapted for a sitting or standing position, and uses air to move urine away.

 NASA vowed to award up to three $30,000 prizes for the most promising in-suit waste management systems.

 The goal is to test them within a year and fully implement them within three years.

 NASA says the first human missions to Mars could take place by the 2030s.

 Explore further: Soyuz capsule docks with International Space Station ||||| These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites. ||||| Why would you ever need to know? Because of the Space Poop Challenge, that’s why. It’s a $30,000 incentive prize for a NASA-worthy system for spacesuits that routes human waste away from the body, hands-free. It could be the difference between life and death for astronauts in emergency situations that require extended (like days) periods of time spent contained to their spacesuit. Check out the challenge guidelines to learn more about the details of this challenge, and read on for some interesting factoids about dealing with bodily functions in space.

 Space is an extreme and unsafe environment even before you consider the issue of, um, using the bathroom. But that’s just it -- we have to consider that issue. So before you go running off to make space travel history by drumming up new solutions, let’s talk about the current situation in space.

 There are two space-age toilets on the ISS, located in the Tranquility and Zvezda modules. The second commode was put in just a few years ago, after the first unit was having some problems. Effectively managing human waste is critical for the health and safety of astronauts in space.

 Our terrestrial toilets use gravity to flush everything away, but doing your business in the weightlessness of outer space gets tricky.

 So, how exactly does one go number one, or number two, in space?

 The Amazing Zero-G John

 The toilets on the ISS are so different from yours, astronauts actually need some supplemental potty training to figure them out. And they're astronauts.

 Without getting into the nitty-gritty, let’s just say that relieving oneself in space these days is a lot better than it used to be. Today, going to the restroom in zero-g is a quick process, but it looks more complicated than using a car. Luckily, they get to practice on training toilets before blastoff (pun intended).

 There seem to be a lot of steps involved, so you probably don't want to be in a hurry. Liquid and solid waste are handled differently: there's a somewhat normal-looking toilet seat, along with what's known as a “urine hose.”

 The hole in the toilet seat is smaller than usual, so apparently, it can be a bit tough to get the alignment right at first. Women and men are equal here when it comes to number two, using the same setup, but urinating requires different … attachments.

 Space toilets use suction instead of gravity, for both urine and solid waste. You don't really sit in space, because you don't weight anything, so astronauts need to either strap themselves in or use handles to hold themselves down.

 You can actually check out a guided tour of the toilet cabin on the ISS, given by Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti:

 Out of Sight, Out of Mind?

 On Earth, we get to flush our waste away and never see it again (unless something goes horribly wrong). But on the ISS, it's not that simple.

 Urine and solid waste are collected and dealt with separately. Urine and other waste water goes through a very advanced filtration and purification process, before it ends up being used again for - you guessed it - drinking water. In case you needed more proof, the space program really isn’t for the faint of heart. Think you could swing it? Before you answer, you should also know that the water they end up drinking is actually purer than the water most of us drink on a daily basis. I guess that's worth the view.

 Solid waste ends up getting packed up, compressed and sent off to burn up in the atmosphere like a shooting star. Make a wish!

 Astronauts try to take care of all their business on the space station, rather than in their spacesuits. But when nature calls on a spacewalk, they have to use the equivalent of an adult diaper for space travelers.

 Wearing a diaper is a reasonable solution for short term waste management for launch, reentry, and spacewalks, but future long distance missions might require astronauts to remain in a protective suit for up to 6 days. That’s a long time no matter how you slice it, and a diaper is simply not a safe or sustainable waste management tool. NASA is working on this challenge themselves, but as we prepare our species for interplanetary travel, they could use some help from the crowd with these kinds of details!

 The Space Poop Challenge

 As hard as it is for astronauts to use the toilet in the pressurized environments like ISS, it is an even bigger challenge when you have to wear a spacesuit (particularly if you have to wear it for more than a few hours), This is why the Space Poop Challenge is offering up to $30,000 for the best ideas to create a system that will collect waste and route it away from an astronaut's body, hands-free, while wearing a spacesuit. Check out the Space Poop Challenge page to learn more, get registered, and take your place in the annals of space travel history! ||||| NASA has initiated a "Space Poop Challenge," and is calling on innovators to come up with new designs for a spacesuit waste management system.

 Sometimes the "call of nature" is really urgent – and if you're in a spacesuit, you can't easily rush to the bathroom.

 That's why NASA has created the "Space Poop Challenge." The agency is asking innovators to create fecal, urine and menstrual management systems for spacesuits, that would work for up to six days. Up to $30,000 in prize money is up for grabs.

 NASA astronauts wear diapers to take care of their bodily needs while they're launching, landing or spacewalking. However, these diapers are only good for a few hours; sitting in poop, urine or menstrual fluid for more than that is bad for your health, and your backside, besides. [How to Pee in Space (and What to Do If the Toilet Breaks)]

 "Future missions may require long-duration waste management for use by a pressurized suited crew member," NASA wrote in a statement on HeroX, a website where people or organizations can host incentive-based competitions.

 "In the event of cabin depressurization or other contingency, crew members may need to take refuge in their launch and entry suits for a long-duration: 144 hours," according to the statement. "The crew member will have less than 60 minutes to get into and seal their spacesuit. To ensure the crew member's safety, the solution [proposed system] needs to take no more than five minutes [to set up and integrate with the spacesuit]."

 Further complicating the challenge is the requirement that the system work in microgravity, in a pressurized spacesuit. This means would-be designers need to contend with floating water and debris that everybody really, really wants to keep far away from human orifices or vital spacesuit systems.

 The new system will be designed for NASA's Modified Advanced Crew Escape Suit, an improvement on the orange spacesuit used for shuttle launches and landings. That suit is expected to be used by astronauts on the Orion spacecraft.

 The submission deadline for the Space Poop Challenge is Dec. 20, and winners will be announced Jan. 31, 2017. You can see all the guidelines and rules on this website. https://herox.com/SpacePoop/

 Follow Elizabeth Howell @howellspace, or Space.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com. ||||| Published on May 8, 2015

 ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti shows how to use the most unglamorous but often asked-about part of living on the International Space Station: the toilet.

 A fan creates suction to avoid smells and floating waste. Solid waste is stored and put in cargo ferries to burn up when the spacecraft leaves the Space Station. The astronaut urine is recycled – into drinking water.

 Follow Samantha via http://samanthacristoforetti.esa.int/ ||||| Challenge Overview

 The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) seeks proposed solutions for urine, fecal and menstrual management systems to be used in the crew’s launch and entry suits over a continuous duration of up to 144 hours. An in-suit waste management system would be beneficial for contingency scenarios or for any long duration tasks.

 Waste management systems should address fecal, urine, and/or menstrual waste management in a pressurized survival suit environment for six days while protecting the safety and health of crew members. Solutions should provide for urine collection of up to 1L per day per crew member, for a total of 6 days. Fecal collection rates should be targeted for 75 grams of fecal mass and 75 mL fecal volume per crewmember per day for a total of 6 days duration. Menstrual collection systems should handle up to 80 mL over 6 days.

 NASA will award the Solutions it judges to be the most promising for implementation and use on missions in the next three or four years. NASA will consider collaborating with winners and/or other competitors, subject to NASA rules and regulations for contract procurement.

 Background

 Spaceflight launch and entry suits are worn for launch and entry activities to protect the crew from any off-nominal events. Up until now, a crew member could be in their launch and entry suit for more than 10 hours at a time leading up to either a launch or landing scenario, and former astronauts have worn diapers in case they need to relieve themselves. The diaper is only used temporarily until the crew has successfully launched from or returned to Earth. It is eventually removed along with the launch and entry suit.

 Future missions may require long-duration waste management for use by a pressurized suited crew member. In the event of cabin depressurization or other contingency, crew members may need to take refuge in their launch and entry suits for a long-duration (144-hour). The crew member will have less than 60 minutes to get into and seal their spacesuit. To ensure the crew member’s safety, the Solution needs to take no more than 5 minutes of that time. The crew member will remain in their suit at a pressure of 4.3 PSID and in 100% oxygen environment, with a few tasks to complete inside the depressurized vehicle prior to vehicle. A system to route and collect human waste away from the body without the use of hands, that operates in the prescribed environment, is being sought to keep astronauts alive and healthy over 144 hours.

 Current commercial products that provide urine waste management utilize gravity to route and collect urine away from the body. Some require the use of hands, and most are not meant to be used for 144 hours. No commercial products have been found that provide fecal waste management for a 144-hour period with or without the use of hands. While the implemented Solution can be discarded after each mission, it does have to function well for 6 days and multiple bowel and bladder evacuations.

 ABOUT POOPING IN SPACE….

 This challenge does not require you to be working in a field involving microgravity or to fully understand how the body and fluids work in a microgravity environment. We are going to tell you a bit about what ‘s different.

 First, microgravity is what you might call “Zero Gravity”. Think vacuum. In a vacuum, solids, liquids and gases do not act the way they do on earth, where they are influenced by earth’s gravity. You probably have no problem imagining things floating around in space. Yes, sometimes solids, liquids, and gases do this. But they also might cling to the nearest surface due to surface tension. Imagine taking a shower up in space and having a glob of water under your armpit. Also, on earth, solids and liquids would likely mix together at least a little when in contact. Maybe not in microgravity.

 As for your bodily functions. Well, in space there is no gravity to direct your urine away from your body when you release it. Same for poop. There is no gravity to pull it away when you release it. Menstrual fluid? At least some of it will exit a woman’s body. You don’t want that traveling around your suit. And don’t forget, you can’t always count on poop being solid, especially if you are up in space and nervous about the fact that your vehicle cabin has depressurized.

 You don’t want any of these solids and fluids stuck to your body for 6 days. If you have ever taken care of a baby, you know how easy it is to get diaper rash. Left untreated, that can turn into a dangerous infection. You don’t want fecal matter getting into the urethra or the vagina, causing urinary tract or vaginal infections. Of course, you don’t want them to migrate to mouth, nose, ears or cuts. The point? Your Solution has to keep all of these materials away from the body, its orifices, and the spacesuit air inlet/outlet orifices.

 How has NASA handled this in the past? Well, for one thing, they weren’t handling it for 6 days. Maybe a few hours. In the recent past, astronauts have worn an extremely absorbent adult diaper. Most of the time the diaper is there for emergencies. Prior to that, men wore Urine Collection and Transfer Assembly (UCTA) and Fecal Collection Systems (FCS). Women have never had anything besides the adult diaper while wearing a suit. When not wearing a suit, but within the vehicle, women had a choice of 3 versions of cup-type urine collection systems that used air flow to effectively cause urine to swirl away from a woman’s body. No matter how you look at it, getting rid of wastes has been complicated, crude, uncomfortable, and messy, even with the use of hands. And now we are saying that you don’t have use of your hands – at least not inside the suit next to your body.

 ABOUT THE SPACE SUIT

 You will design a solution that can be incorporated into the orange Modified Advanced Crew Escape Suit (MACES). MACES has been adapted for missions of longer duration than the original Advanced Crew Escape Suit (ACES) was designed for.

 The whole suit, including the gloves, is pressurized to 4.3 PSID to enable the body to function properly. Without pressure the body swells, loses most of its circulation, and of course, causes extreme pain. The gloves are attached by metal bearings to the sleeves to ensure a proper seal. Once the suit is sealed, it must remain sealed until the astronaut enters another pressurized environment. While sealed, it is impossible for an astronaut to access their own body, even to scratch their nose.

 Gas (100% oxygen) enters at 4.5 cubic feet per minute through a waist level connector to fill the 2” space between the astronaut’s body and the suit, and circulates out through another waist level connector to be cleaned and brought back to the suit. A mesh cover protects against particles getting into the air connectors. If they did get inside, they could easily block the flow of air.

 This gas supply is clearly a very precious commodity. While a very small amount is lost to leakage, the Solution must not add to this leakage. However, careful use of 1000 cubic centimeters per minute (0.01 cubic feet per minute) over a period of 3 minutes per use would not jeopardize the integrity of the suit.

 The suit allows the astronauts to move around, get into tight spaces, and sit down and buckle up for long periods of time. Your Solution should be comfortable in all of these situations.

 Finally, a small power sources of up to 28V with current below 100mA could be provided inside or outside of the suit.

 To learn more about the functionality of space suits in general, see NASA’s What is a Space Suit and Wikipedia’s Space Suit. To read the detailed specifications of the MACES, click here.

 PLANS FOR THE WINNING SOLUTIONS

 NASA is ideally looking for Solutions that are comprised of technologies at a minimum Technical Readiness Level (TRL) of level 4, such that the Solution can be tested within 1 year and fully implemented within 3 years. However, for breakthrough innovations, NASA will consider Solutions that are at a lower TRL and therefore a longer implementation timeline.

 NASA will consider collaborating with winners and/or other competitors, subject to NASA rules and regulations for contract procurement.

 Prizes

 The challenge offers up to $30,000 USD in prizes to innovative solutions for long duration waste management in a microgravity environment. NASA will award up to three prizes for the best ideas.

 NASA will award the Solutions it judges to be the most promising for implementation and use on missions in the next three or four years.

 How do I win?

 To be eligible for an award, the solution must, at minimum:

 Keep urine and/or fecal waste away from a crew member’s body for a minimum of 144 hours while in a space suit

 Operate in a microgravity scenario

 Operate within a full launch and entry suit at an internal pressure of 4.3 PSID and 100% oxygen environment which cannot be opened for manual access within the 144 hour time period

 Operate while a crew member is moving, bending, and/or seated and strapped into a chair

 Manage at least one of the three following human wastes for up to 6 days Manage up to 1L per day of urine per crew member (based on planned liquid intake during mission) Manage up to 75 grams of fecal mass and 75mL fecal volume per crew member (based on planned food intake during mission). Fecal matter may range from liquid to solid, but the Solution is not required to handle uncontrollable, ongoing diarrhea. Manage up to 80 mL of menstrual fluid over 6 days

 Require less than five minutes for a crew member to, on their own, set up and secure the Solution to their body, prior to, or along with, getting into their launch and entry suit.

 Operate effectively for both men and women of varying size and weight within the range of 1% to 99% on the Airforce ANSUR anthropometric database. Please refer to the Resource Page and this document for ranges in relevant measurements for your solution, which might include, but not be limited to: waist circumference (24.2 to 43.5”), Buttock circumference (33.1 to 45.2”), Hip breadth, sitting (31.5 to 46.5”), Waist back (15.4 to 22”) and Waist depth (5.9” to 11.8”).

 The Solution may include a variety of approaches, including, but not limited to:

 Using different management systems for urine versus fecal versus menstruation output and/or males versus females or by size or weight

 Integrating all hardware into one garment that is easy to don

 Keeping collected urine and fecal matter inside the suit or routing it outside the suit, allowing for customization for each crew member, etc.

 The judging panel will rank the eligible Solutions submitted against the following criteria:

 Criteria Description Percent Importance Soundness and Technical Readiness of the design Likelihood that the Solution will work as described to satisfy the minimum requirements with a minimum of risk. This includes the technical readiness level (TLR) of the design. 20 Gas Conservation Effectiveness at ensuring the conservation of gas in the crew member’s suit 10 Health and Safety Level of health and safety the Solution will provide to the crew member including dryness and prevention of pain, infection and permanent injury 15 Suit Integrity Effectiveness ensuring the integrity of the crew member’s suit, including the number of entry/exit points required 15 Speed Ease and feasibility of integrating the Solution with the body and the suit within 5 minutes. 10 Ease of Use/ Constraints Ease of use given the constraints required for using (e.g., clean shaven, limitations on timing of waste elimination, requirement to be near a specific technology, etc.) 10 Comfort Level of physical, emotional, and psychological comfort the crew member will experience using the Solution, including while donning, moving around, and seated and strapped in 10 Ease of Incorporation Ease of incorporating into existing suits and vehicle, 5 Other Benefits Other benefits that the judges identify or the competitor points out that do not fall into the above categories. Could also include judge preferences, such as for simplicity. 5

 Participation Eligibility:

 The Prize is open to individuals, age 18 or older, private teams, public teams, and collegiate teams. Individual competitors and teams may originate from any country, as long as United States federal sanctions do not prohibit participation (see: https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Programs/Pages/Programs.aspx). If you are a NASA employee, a Government contractor, or employed by a Government Contractor, your participation in this challenge may be restricted.

 Submissions must be made in English. All challenge-related communication will be in English.

 No specific qualifications or expertise in the field of microgravity or waste management is required. Prize organizers encourage outside individuals and non-expert teams to compete and propose new solutions.

 To be eligible to compete, you must comply with all the terms of the challenge as defined in the Challenge-Specific Agreement, which will be made available upon registration.

 Intellectual Property

 Innovators who are awarded a prize for their submission must agree to grant NASA a royalty free, non-exclusive, irrevocable, world-wide license in all Intellectual Property demonstrated by the winning/awarded submissions. See the Challenge-Specific Agreement, which will be made available upon registration, for full details on intellectual property.

 Registration and Submissions:

 Submissions must be made online (only), via upload to the HeroX.com website, on or before 11:59pm EST on December 20th, 2016. All uploads must be in PDF format. No late submissions will be accepted.

 Selection of Winners:

 Based on the winning criteria, prizes will be awarded per the weighted Judging Criteria section above.

 Judging Panel:

 The determination of the winners will be made by HeroX based on evaluation by relevant NASA specialists.

 Additional Information |||||

– Pooping in space "isn't glamorous, but it is necessary for survival," an astronaut explains—yet it's presenting quite a challenge for NASA. See, while the International Space Station has a pretty fancy toilet, an astronaut must wear a diaper during launch and landing activities or while spacewalking. But as NASA looks toward future missions in deep space, it's also looking for a way for astronauts to relieve themselves while remaining in their space suits for up to six days, reports Time. That's where you come in. The agency is offering a $30,000 prize in a "space poop challenge" if someone can create "a system inside a space suit that collects human waste for up to 144 hours and routes it away from the body, without the use of hands." There are plenty of stipulations. For example, the system "needs to take no more than five minutes [to set up]" as an astronaut might be forced to jump into their suit quickly in an emergency, per Space.com. While such a challenge might seem humorous, a solution "could be the difference between life and death," notes the contest website. "You don't want any of these solids and fluids stuck to your body for six days," NASA adds in a release. "Given enough time, infection, and even sepsis can set in," says astronaut Rick Mastracchio in a video. Inventors have until Dec. 20 to submit their entries. NASA plans to test the top entries next year, with a solution executed within three years. (A scientist thinks humans could get to Mars in a month.)


News article:

White House officials offered few details and no timeline for a possible attack on Syria during a 90-minute conference call on Thursday evening for members of Congress, according to a congressional source who participated in the call.

 The call appears to have done little to change anybody’s mind. Members issued statements afterward reiterating their long-held views on Syria.

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 Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said the White House should seek international support for “limited, targeted strikes” against Syria, once again urging the administration to “increase the military pressure on the [Bashar] Assad regime by providing lethal aid to vetted elements of the Syrian opposition.”

 (PHOTOS: Scenes from Syria)

 Meanwhile, the committee’s ranking Republican, Sen. Jim Inhofe, was undeterred in his opposition to military operations in Syria until there’s a clear plan to pay for them.

 “As I have said before, no red line should have even been drawn without first preparing a strategic plan and assessing our resources,” the Oklahoma Republican said following the unclassified briefing.

 “The administration owes it to Congress and to the American people to lay out how they will fund their military action,” Inhofe said. “Is it going to be more furloughs?”

 On the call, White House officials told lawmakers the president is still weighing his options on Syria, according to the congressional source. Several officials were on the call representing the administration, including Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, Secretary of State John Kerry, White House National Security Adviser Susan Rice, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Sandy Winnefeld.

 (Also on POLITICO: Congress: Obama needs Syria OK from us)

 In a statement, the White House said 15 members of Congress asked questions during the call and that it would continue reaching out to lawmakers.

 “The views of Congress are important to the president’s decision-making process, and we will continue to engage with members as the president reaches a decision on the appropriate U.S. response to the Syrian government’s violation of international norms,” the White House said.

 Members of Congress pressed the officials about a range of issues, the congressional source said, including how military operations in Syria would be funded. The officials offered no answer, the source noted, saying Hagel agreed it was an important question pledged to provide additional information before or soon after any attack was launched.

 (PHOTOS: International response to Syria)

 Even with such questions unanswered, however, advocates continued to push for military action.

 Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) said in a statement that “the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime requires a decisive response.”

 “This is not a moment to look the other way, to blind ourselves to the horrifying images in Syria, and to send the dangerous message to the global community that we would allow the use of a chemical weapons attack to take place with impunity,” Menendez said.

 And Rep. Eliot Engel of New York, the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he agrees “with the president that the use of these weapons not only violates international norms, but is a national security threat to the United States.”

 “The president’s national security team said that he is still weighing his options and will continue to consult with Congress,” Engel said. “The president’s team agrees that this type of action cannot go without consequences.” ||||| WASHINGTON—The Obama administration presented its case for possible military action against Syria to congressional leaders, including evidence from an intercepted phone call involving a high-level Syrian official, which a lawmaker said officials offered as proof of a government chemical-weapons attack.

 The evidence was part of a 90-minute, unclassified briefing delivered to the congressional leaders in a conference call Thursday evening.

 The administration officials made clear that its focus in Syria was on "preventing [President Bashar] al-Assad from using chemical weapons again," said a Democratic aide briefed on the call.

 The administration wasn't deterred by Thursday's vote in the British parliament that prompted the government to drop its own military plans.

 "The administration is figuring out the best way to do that and is seeking as much international support as possible, but won't let that dictate what our policy will be," the aide said.

 Several lawmakers said they came away from the briefing with a conviction that the Assad regime was behind the attack, but that President Barack Obama must do more to persuade the country military action is needed and to rally international support.

 Rep. Eliot Engel (D., N.Y.) said officials told the lawmakers in the call that they had intercepted a phone call from a high-level Syrian official discussing the attacks, which was proof the Assad regime was responsible for the chemical-weapons attack.

 Mr. Engel, the senior Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, didn't say whether the officials elaborated on the evidence.

 The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that the U.S. had such evidence, from Israeli spy services that obtained intelligence on a special Syrian unit overseeing Mr. Assad's chemical weapons.

 Mr. Engel said in an interview that the administration officials made it clear the U.K. vote wouldn't determine what course of action the U.S. takes.

 "The president will make a decision based on what is best for the U.S. and not what other countries would do," Mr. Engel said administration officials said on the call.

 He said he agreed with this sentiment. "I don't think the U.K. ought to have a veto on what the U.S. does or doesn't do," he said.

 In a statement after the briefing, Sen. Carl Levin (D., Mich.), the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, called for a continuing effort to win international support for strikes against the Assad regime.

 "I have previously called for the U.S. to work with our friends and allies to increase the military pressure on the Assad regime by providing lethal aid to vetted elements of the Syrian opposition," Mr. Levin said. "Tonight, I suggested that we should do so while UN inspectors complete their work and while we seek international support for limited, targeted strikes in response to the Assad regime's large-scale use of chemical weapons against the Syrian people."

 Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.), the senior Republican member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he opposed deploying American troops in Syria but would support "surgical, proportional military strikes, given the strong evidence of the Assad regime's continued use of chemical warfare."

 He said he welcomed the consultation with key lawmakers in Congress, but said the administration would be "far better off if they seek authorization based upon our national interests, which would provide the kind of public debate and legitimacy that can only come from Congress."

 Sen. Bob Menendez (D., N.J.), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement that the briefing by the administration "reaffirmed for me that a decisive and consequential U.S. response is justified and warranted to protect Syrians, as well to send a global message that chemical-weapons attacks in violation of international law will not stand."

 Congressional leaders on the call heard from Secretary of State John Kerry, National Security Advisor Susan Rice, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and Navy Adm. James A. Winnefeld Jr., the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

 Unease among members of Congress about the prospect of U.S. involvement in a new military conflict in the Middle East continued to escalate on Thursday.

 The numbers of lawmakers signing a letter to Mr. Obama calling on him to subject any potential military action to an authorization vote by Congress increased Thursday to 137 signatories, up from 116 on Wednesday.

 Write to Corey Boles at corey.boles@dowjones.com and Janet Hook at janet.hook@wsj.com |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– The specifics of President Obama's plans for Syria don't seem much clearer after a conference call with Congressional leaders. The call didn't include information on when a strike would occur, Politico notes, nor did it appear to sway lawmakers who had doubts about military action. During the call, which involved top officials including John Kerry, Chuck Hagel, and Susan Rice, the administration discussed an intercepted phone call it called proof the Syrian government used chemical weapons, the Wall Street Journal reports—though the call doesn't directly implicate Bashar al-Assad, the New York Times notes. The White House's goal is "preventing Assad from using chemical weapons again," a Democratic aide said. As to the British vote against using force, the administration said that "the president will make a decision based on what is best for the US and not what other countries would do," said Rep. Eliot Engel, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "I don't think the UK ought to have a veto on what the US does or doesn't do." Officials said Obama still hadn't settled on a course of action—but the Times says "all indications" suggest a strike on the heels of the UN's departure from Damascus tomorrow. But we may know more soon: A senior administration official tells CNN the administration will today release declassified intelligence supporting the claim that the Syrian regime launched a chemical attack.


Article:

An AirAsia jet with 162 people on board disappeared Sunday while flying from Indonesia's second-largest city to Singapore on a scheduled two-hour flight. Here is a look at the key developments.

 Passengers queue for their flights at the AirAsia check-in counter in Changi International Airport on Sunday, Dec. 28, 2014 in Singapore. In the third air incident connected to Malaysia this year, an... (Associated Press)

 Passengers queue at the AirAsia service counter at the Changi International Airport on Sunday, Dec. 28, 2014 in Singapore. In the third air incident connected to Malaysia this year, an AirAsia plane with... (Associated Press)

 __ Air Asia Flight 8501 takes off from Surabaya, Indonesia's second-largest city, at 5:31 a.m. Sunday (2231 GMT Saturday), bound for Singapore.

 __ The last communication between the pilot and air traffic control is made at 6:13 a.m. (2313 GMT Saturday), when the pilot asks to turn left and climb to 34,000 feet (10,360 meters) to "avoid clouds," according to Djoko Murjatmodjo, Indonesia's acting director general of transportation, who also said there was no distress signal from the cockpit.

 __ AirAsia says the Airbus A320-200 was on the submitted flight plan route. Murjatmodjo says it is believed to have gone missing somewhere over the Java Sea between Tanjung Pandan on Belitung island and Pontianak, on Indonesia's part of Borneo island.

 __ A search and rescue operation is launched involving Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia. Three Indonesian aircraft are dispatched to the area, while Singapore's air force and navy search with two C-130 planes.

 __ Dozens of relatives of people aboard the plane gather in a room at Surabaya airport to await word about their loved ones.

 __ Malaysian businessman Tony Fernandes, AirAsia's CEO, tweets: "Thank you for all your thoughts and prays. We must stay strong." He later tweets to say he is heading to Surabaya. ||||| This wraps up our coverage of the disappearance of AirAsia flight QZ8501. The plane lost contact with air traffic controllers between Indonesia and Singapore with 162 people on board.

 You can continue to follow the story on the |||||
What is a summary?

– An AirAsia plane with 162 people on board lost contact with ground control today while flying over the Java Sea after taking off from Indonesia for Singapore, initiating a massive search for the third possible aviation disaster to affect the region this year. AirAsia, a regional low-cost carrier based in Malaysia, said the missing Airbus A320 was on its submitted flight plan route. However, it had requested permission to deviate because of weather. "We don't dare to presume what has happened except that it has lost contact," said Indonesia's acting director general of transportation. He said the last contact between the pilot and air traffic control was at 6:13am local time when the pilot asked to go up to 34,000 feet, apparently to avoid stormy weather. It was last seen on radar at 6:16am, and a minute later was no longer there, he said. Darkness has fallen in the region, reports the BBC, and the search has been called off for the night. It will resume in the morning. He said there was no distress signal from Flight QZ8501. The contact was lost about 42 minutes after the single-aisle jetliner took off from Indonesia's Surabaya airport. It still had about an hour to go before arriving in Singapore. The plane had seven crew and 155 passengers, including 16 children and one infant, said the general manager of Surabaya's Juanda airport. There were six foreigners—three South Koreans, including the infant, and one each from Singapore, Britain, and Malaysia. The rest were Indonesians. The 6-year-old plane is believed to have gone missing somewhere over the Java Sea between Tanjung Pandan on Belitung island and Pontianak, on Indonesia's part of Kalimantan island. The AP has a list of key developments in the plane's disappearance here.


– Google's parent Alphabet Inc. says its stratospheric balloons are now delivering the Internet to remote areas of Puerto Rico where cellphone towers were knocked out by Hurricane Maria. Two of the search giant's "Project Loon" balloons are already over the country enabling texts, emails, and basic web access to AT&T customers with handsets that use its 4G LTE network, the AP reports. The balloons—called HBAL199 and HBAL237—are more than 60,000 feet above land, according to FlightRadar24.com. They navigate using an algorithm that puts them in the best position to deliver signal by rising and falling to ride wind currents. They are also solar-powered and only provide signal during the day Several more balloons are on their way from Nevada, and Alphabet has been authorized by the Federal Communications Commission to send up to 30 balloons to serve hard-hit areas, according to Libby Leahy, spokeswoman for Alphabet's X, its division for futuristic technologies. Project Loon head Alastair Westgarth said in a blog post that Project Loon is "still an experimental technology and we're not quite sure how well it will work," though it has been tested since last year in Peru following flooding there. Hurricane Maria devastated the US territory of 3.4 million people last month. Less than a fifth of the island has electricity, and half its cellphone towers are still not functioning,

Expand this summary.

Turning on Project Loon in Puerto Rico

 Last month, Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico as a Category 4 hurricane and caused significant damage to the island’s connectivity infrastructure. In the weeks following this disaster, the Project Loon team has been working with the Government of Puerto Rico, the FCC, the FAA, FEMA, spectrum partners and international aviation authorities to bring balloon powered internet to the island to help. Thanks to their support, we are now collaborating with AT&T to deliver emergency internet service to the hardest hit parts of the island.

 Working with AT&T, Project Loon is now supporting basic communication and internet activities like sending text messages and accessing information online for some people with LTE enabled phones. This is the first time we have used our new machine learning powered algorithms to keep balloons clustered over Puerto Rico, so we’re still learning how best to do this. As we get more familiar with the constantly shifting winds in this region, we hope to keep the balloons over areas where connectivity is needed for as long as possible.

 A Loon balloon getting ready to take flight to Puerto Rico from our launch site in Nevada

 We’ve never deployed Project Loon connectivity from scratch at such a rapid pace, and we’re grateful for the support of AT&T and the many other partners and organizations that have made this possible. Thanks to the Pan-American and Puerto Rican governments’ aviation authorities and air traffic controllers, who enabled us to send small teams of balloons from our launch site in Nevada to Puerto Rico. Thanks also to SES Networks and Liberty Cablevision who helped quickly set up essential ground infrastructure so that the balloons could get internet connectivity.

 We plan to continue to offer emergency internet connectivity in areas where it’s needed for as long as it is useful and we’re able to do so. Project Loon is still an experimental technology and we’re not quite sure how well it will work, but we hope it helps get people the information and communication they need to get through this unimaginably difficult time.

 A Loon balloon on its way to Puerto Rico from Nevada

 About Project Loon

 Project Loon is a network of stratospheric balloons designed to deliver internet connectivity to rural and remote areas worldwide. Loon balloons sail on winds in the stratosphere, extending the reach of our telecommunication partner’s networks into areas that are currently unconnected.

 How Project Loon works

 Since our first sizable tests in New Zealand in 2013, Loon balloons have flown more than 26 million kms around the world. Thanks to improvements in balloon design and durability, many balloons stay airborne for more than 100 days, with our record breaking balloon staying aloft for 190 days. This is the second time that Project Loon has been used to connect people after a disaster. In early 2017, Project Loon delivered basic internet connectivity to tens of thousands of people in flood-affected zones in Peru in partnership with the Peruvian government and Telefonica.

 We’d also like to the thank the following companies for their spectrum support:

 High Tech Communications Services Inc., MilkyWay Communications LLC, North Sight Communications Inc., PDV Spectrum Holding Company, LLC, Space Data Spectrum Holdings, LLC, Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority/PREPA Networks LLC, Sensus Spectrum LLC, and Spok, Inc. ||||| Boundaries of volcanic eruptions and ash clouds impacting aviation.

 Current weather for 3,000 airports in the world overlayed on map.

 Global IR Satellite provides worldwide cloud cover displayed on the map, refreshed every 60 minutes.

 Global Radar provides worldwide areas of intense precipitation on the map, refreshed every 30 minutes.

 Total precipitation shows areas of active precipitation on the map, refreshed 12 times a day.

 AIRMETS/SIGMETS issued by authorities forecasting significant weather events that are potentially hazardous to flights, refreshed every 30 min. Click on an AIRMET/SIGMET to see the full text.

 Forecasted areas of high level significant weather, available for up to a 24-hour period in six hour increments

 Recorded lightning strikes shown on the map, updated every 15 minutes.

 Wind speed and direction on the map, in 1,000 ft increments, refreshed 12 times a day.

 See where it is day and night on the map at a glance.

 Worldwide Flight Information Region and Upper Information Region boundaries overlayed on map.

 Various oceanic tracks, including North Atlantic Tracks overlayed on map.

 At-a-glance altitude and speed information when you hover over any portion of a selected flight's track.

 Navigational waypoints and airways for high and low altitude flight overlayed on map.

 Get an instant overview of the airport delay situation around the world or in a local region.

 Volcanic eruption (when applicable)

 Basic weather

 Cloud

 Total precipitation

 Intense precipitation

 Winds

 Lightning

 Airmets/Sigmets

 High level significant weather

 Please note that multiple active weather layers may increase page load time and decrease page performance. ||||| This Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2017 photo provided by Project Loon shows a stratospheric balloon being prepared for launch from the project site in Winnemucca, Nev. Google's parent Alphabet Inc. said Friday... (Associated Press)

 This Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2017 photo provided by Project Loon shows a stratospheric balloon being prepared for launch from the project site in Winnemucca, Nev. Google's parent Alphabet Inc. said Friday that its stratospheric balloons are now delivering the internet to remote areas of Puerto Rico where... (Associated Press)

 MENLO PARK, Calif. (AP) — Google's parent Alphabet Inc. said Friday that its stratospheric balloons are now delivering the internet to remote areas of Puerto Rico where cellphone towers were knocked out by Hurricane Maria.

 Two of the search giant's "Project Loon" balloons are already over the country enabling texts, emails and basic web access to AT&T customers with handsets that use its 4G LTE network.

 The balloons — called HBAL199 and HBAL237 — are more than 60,000 feet (18,000 meters) above land, according to FlightRadar24.com . They navigate using an algorithm that puts them in the best position to deliver signal by rising and falling to ride wind currents. They are also solar-powered and only provide signal during the day

 Several more balloons are on their way from Nevada, and Alphabet has been authorized by the Federal Communications Commission to send up to 30 balloons to serve the hard-hit area, according to Libby Leahy, spokeswoman for Alphabet's X, its division for futuristic technologies.

 Project Loon head Alastair Westgarth said in a blog post that Project Loon is "still an experimental technology and we're not quite sure how well it will work," though it has been tested since last year in Peru following flooding there.

 Hurricane Maria devastated the U.S. territory of 3.4 million people since making landfall last month. Gov. Ricardo Rossello said Friday the death toll had risen to 49. Less than a fifth of the island has electricity, half its cellphone towers are still not functioning, schools are closed and more than 4,000 are in shelters, according to a government website .

 AT&T spokesman Jeffrey Kobs said the company has set up 14 temporary cell sites, and as of Friday more than 60 percent of the population was connected via mobile network, in part due to the help of humanitarian and government groups and Project Loon.

 Other technology companies such as Cisco, Facebook and Tesla have also pledged help or have sent teams to the island to improve communications and restore power. |||||


News article:

Why smiling won’t help if you are feeling miserable: Experts advise letting unhappiness lift before attempting grin to stop brain linking happy act to sadness

 Smiling when unhappy makes people feel worse because it is just a 'mask'

 Hong Kong professor said forcing a grin makes the brain link it to sadness

 Study suggested waiting for unhappiness to subside before attempting smile

 Next time you think about cheering somebody up when they are upset, perhaps it might be best to just leave them alone.

 Trying to make somebody smile when they are miserable could actually make them feel worse, a study has found.

 If you force a friend to grin when they are in a bad mood then their brain starts to associate it with sadness instead of joy.

 The study found that faking a smile won’t cheer you up because it is just a ‘mask’ to inner sadness (file picture)

 And next time they smile it could bring back miserable memories instead of lifting the bad mood.

 The study suggests that the idea of grinning and bearing it might not be the best solution after all.

 It was carried out by Anirban Mukhopadhyay, an associate professor of marketing at Hong Kong University Science and Technology, who said you should wait until your unhappiness lifts before attempting a grin.

 He said: ‘Making people who are feeling bad smile could backfire and make them feel worse, because they may interpret smiling as trying to become happy.

 ‘Smiling frequently would remind them of being not happy’.

 The research team carried out three experiments: in the first 108 people completed a survey asking how often they smiled and whether they felt good about themselves.

 They also reported how happy they were with their lives in general.

 In the second experiment 63 people were shown funny pictures and were asked if they thought they were amusing.

 If you force someone to grin when they are in a bad mood, their brain starts to associate it with sadness instead of joy, the study by Hong Kong associate professor Anirban Mukhopadhyay found (file picture)

 In the third 85 people were asked to list situations when they felt happy and about their overall life satisfaction.

 They were also asked to perform facial exercises to put their faces in a smile like position.

 The study results showed that if you are faking a smile then it won’t cheer you up and that you are just using it to ‘mask’ your inner sadness.

 Professor Mukhopadhyay wrote: ‘Smiling by itself does not increase happiness, or wellbeing.

 ‘Instead, the belief that one must already be happy when one smiles is what increases happiness, and as a result, wellbeing.’ ||||| "Keep smiling" may not be the best piece of advice or coping strategy for some people after all, suggests new research.

 The researchers found that smiling frequently may actually make people feel worse if they're sort of faking it — grinning even though they feel down. When people force themselves to smile because they hope to feel better or they do it just to hide their negative emotions, this strategy may backfire.

 The bottom line of the study: Whether a wide grin will hurt your emotional well-being depends on the motivation behind it, the researchers said. [Smile Secrets: 5 Things Your Grin Reveals About You]

 "Most commonly, people smile when they are happy, because smiling reflects happiness," said Anirban Mukhopadhyay, an associate professor of marketing at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. "However, people also smile when they are unhappy, to mask negative emotion or to try and become happy."

 In the latter scenario, people may associate the acts of smiling not only with feeling happy, but also with feeling unhappy, he said.

 In the study, the researchers conducted three experiments in which they examined how frequently people smiled and the motivation behind their expression. In one experiment, 108 people completed surveys asking them how frequently they smiled on the day of the experiment and whether they thought that people usually smile to feel good or to force themselves to feel good. The participants also completed questionnaires that examined how satisfied they were with their lives.

 In another experiment, the researchers recruited a group of 63 people and showed them funny pictures, which the researchers said they were testing for use in future studies. They asked the participants to smile if they actually found the pictures funny.

 And, in the third experiment, the researchers asked 85 people to list situations in which they smiled because they felt happy. The investigators asked the participants to perform facial muscular exercises in which they were told to manipulate their facial muscles to create a smilelike or non-smilelike shape. Then they examined the participants' level of life satisfaction.

 When the researchers analyzed the results of the three experiments, they concluded that those people in the study who did not typically smile when they were happy felt worse when they smiled frequently, whereas the people who often smiled when they were happy felt better when they smiled frequently.

 "More generally, we think that making people who are feeling bad smile could backfire and make them feel worse, because they may interpret smiling as trying to become happy," Mukhopadhyay said.

 "Smiling frequently would remind them of being not happy," he said, advising that the best strategy in such cases may in fact be not to smile until the negative emotion that is making a person feel bad gets resolved.

 So who should smile as much as possible and who shouldn’t?

 People who smile frequently because of their naturally cheerful personality should feel free to just keep smiling, as this may indeed make them feel better, Mukhopadhyay recommended. However, people who don't naturally grin should remember that, for them, a smile is likely just "an attempt to become happy," he said.

 "In practice, I think people can think about their own beliefs about smiling, see how they feel about how frequently they smile and adapt either their beliefs or their behaviors to make themselves feel better," he said.

 The study was published in the July issue of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

 Follow Agata Blaszczak-Boxe on Twitter. Follow us @livescience, Facebook& Google+. Original article published on Live Science. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– If you're subscribing to the old adage of "grin and bear it" to mask negative emotions, you're not doing yourself any favors—we're simply not that easily fooled. Researchers say that over time, fake smiling can actually cause people to associate smiling with feeling unhappy, and that people should instead perhaps forgo a smile until whatever negative emotion they're feeling is resolved, reports Live Science. "Smiling by itself does not increase happiness or well-being," one of the researchers writes in the Daily Mail. For the study, published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, researchers conducted three experiments in which they asked people a range of questions, including how happy they are with their lives, how much they smiled that day, whether they thought people more often smile to feel good or to try to feel good, and in which scenarios they recall smiling from happiness. They concluded that those who smile when happy often feel better as a result, while those who smile when they're not happy often feel worse. (Meanwhile, check out five stars whose perfect smiles are fake.)


Summarize this article:

BERLIN (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s new ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, warned German companies to halt activities in Iran after the U.S. leader said Washington was pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal and would reimpose sanctions.

 Grenell, a long-time critic of the 2015 nuclear deal, posted the warning on Twitter just hours after arriving in Berlin and presenting his credentials to the German president.

 Trump made the announcement in a televised address from the White House, in a move that will raise the risk of conflict in the Middle East, upset Germany and America’s other European allies, and unsettle global oil markets.

 “US sanctions will target critical sectors of Iran’s economy,” Grenell said in his first posting on Twitter after arriving in Germany. “German companies doing business in Iran should wind down operations immediately.”

 German industry reacted nervously to the U.S. announcement, warning that European companies could face U.S. fines if their Iranian business partners wound up on U.S. sanctions lists.

 Grenell is starting his job in Berlin nearly 16 months after his predecessor John Emerson left the country.

 A Republican foreign policy writer and avid Twitter user, Grenell was an aide to Trump’s new national security adviser, John Bolton, when Bolton was former Republican President George W. Bush’s ambassador to the United Nations. Grenell served as the U.S. spokesman at the United Nations from 2001 to 2008, and then worked as a contributor to Fox News.

 The U.S. Senate confirmed Grenell on April 26, making him the highest-ranking openly gay official in the Trump administration. The next day, he joined Trump at the White House to welcome Chancellor Angela Merkel for talks that produced little movement on trade disputes or the Iran accord.

 Trump had nominated Grenell in September but key Democrats help up his confirmation, citing concerns about what they called Grenell’s history of making statements insulting to women politicians on the internet and during television appearances.

 Asked about such comments during his confirmation hearing, Grenell said he was trying to be funny, not insulting, and would not have made such statements while serving as a U.S. public official. ||||| Tweet with a location

 You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| President Trump’s new ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, got a grand send-off to his prominent post in Europe, at a party attended by a parade of political power players.

 Guests at the elegant cocktail party — hosted by Bill White and Bryan Eure at their sprawling Chelsea apartment — included Donald Trump Jr., who gave a toast and railed against the Democrats for holding up Grenell’s confirmation.

 Don Jr. continued, “I look forward to you [Richard] going there, because every time . . . I read about what is going on there and everywhere else, I don’t know if I’m reading a newspaper or if I’m reading the Onion. I look forward to seeing someone who is not afraid to speak up and fight for what’s right.”

 He added, “And I look forward to visiting . . . As long as they don’t say I am somehow colluding with the Germans.”

 Grenell — the highest-ranking gay official in the administration — told the crowd, “I really want to thank President Trump for believing in me, and pushing hard when a lot of other people said no . . . I believe not being a part of the Washington culture is the exact reason I am here today.”

 Bill O’Reilly was a surprise guest, and said in a speech to the crowd, which included Sarah Huckabee Sanders, that “heads would have rolled” if he’d been at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, and, “I would love just to get my big hands around Jim Acosta’s neck.”

 O’Reilly told Page Six of the allegations against other newsmen such as Charlie Rose and Tom Brokaw, “I don’t know the specifics, but each case deserves its due course. There is not a lot of sympathy out there [for accused men].”

 Other guests included former press secs Ari Fleischer and Dana Perino, former Gov. George Pataki, Terry Allen Kramer, and Fox News’ Martha MacCallum, Harris Faulkner, Kimberly Guilfoyle and Greg Gutfeld — plus Wayne Newton, who serenaded all with (thankfully, but hilariously) just one verse of his ’60s hit “Danke Schoen.” |||||

– Richard Grenell's first day on the job may not have gone exactly how he imagined it. The brand new US ambassador to Germany arrived in Berlin on Tuesday, and in the span of little more than an hour, three things occurred: Grenell handed his credentials to Germany's president, President Trump announced the end of America's participation in the Iran nuclear deal, and Grenell raised some German ire. It's all due to this tweet, made shortly after Trump spoke: "As @realDonaldTrump said, US sanctions will target critical sectors of Iran’s economy. German companies doing business in Iran should wind down operations immediately." Reuters notes Grenell has himself long-opposed the nuclear deal. That sentiment aligns with the White House's—indeed, Grenell, a former Fox News contributor who Page Six notes had an "A-list" going away bash, subsequently tweeted that he directly lifted the language from documentation provided to him by the administration. But the Washington Post observes that "the timing and tone struck some German politicians, journalists and businessmen as offensive and inappropriate." It characterizes the tweet as coming off as a threat and rounds up plenty of reaction, including this from the leader of the country's Social Democratic party: "It’s not my task to teach people about the fine art of diplomacy, especially not the US ambassador. But he does appear to need some tutoring." Grenell, the administration's top-ranking openly gay official, fills an ambassadorship that has been empty for 16 months.


News article:

The U.S. and Pakistan agreed Monday to work together in any future actions against "high value targets" in Pakistan, even as U.S. Sen. John Kerry defended Washington's decision not to tell Islamabad in advance about the American raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

 The pledge, which was made in a joint statement, could help mollify Pakistani officials and citizens, who were enraged that one of the country's most important allies would conduct a unilateral operation on its soil. But details of the promised cooperation were unclear.

 Kerry said Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will soon announce plans to visit Pakistan _ a sign of confidence in the relationship _ and announced that he and Pakistani leaders have agreed to a "series of steps" to improve relations. But he did not specify what those steps were.

 Kerry is the most high-profile American emissary to visit Pakistan since the May 2 raid in the northwest garrison city of Abbottabad, Pakistan, which killed the al-Qaida chief and four others. His comments during the visit mixed defiance with promises to work to rebuild the relationship between the two countries.

 "My goal in coming here is not to apologize for what I consider to be a triumph against terrorism of unprecedented consequence," said Kerry. "My goal in coming here has been to talk about how we manage this important relationship."

 Kerry, who chairs the U.S. Senate's Foreign Relations Committee, said he understood why Pakistanis were upset at the American raid, but emphasized "the extraordinary circumstances behind the mission against bin Laden."

 "When I spoke with the leaders of Pakistan last night and today, I explained that the extreme secrecy surrounding every aspect of the raid in Abbottabad was essential to protecting the lives of the professionals who were involved and ensuring they succeeded in capturing or killing the man responsible for so much death in so many places," said Kerry.

 But he also said that bin Laden and other foreign fighters who followed him to Pakistan from Afghanistan were the ones "who truly violated Pakistan's sovereignty."

 "They inspired and conspired with the extremists responsible for the deaths of 35,000 Pakistani citizens and the deaths of more than 5,000 Pakistani soldiers," said Kerry.

 He said he was pleased the Pakistani government has committed "to explore how increased cooperation on joint operations and intelligence sharing can maximize our efforts ... to defeat the enemies we face."

 Kerry also announced that Pakistan had agreed to return the tail of a stealth U.S. helicopter that American commandos had to destroy during the bin Laden raid because it malfunctioned. ||||| Pakistan has agreed to return the tail of the U.S. military helicopter that was damaged during the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) said here Monday, part of what he called a “specific series of steps” aimed at reducing tensions between Islamabad and Washington.

 The helicopter was damaged after making a hard landing at bin Laden’s compound. Navy SEALs destroyed part of it before leaving, in an effort to keep the latest U.S. military technology a secret. But the tail remained intact, and photos of it quickly made their way into public view. In the days after the operation, Pakistani intelligence officials said China had expressed interest in it.

 The handover of the helicopter tail, to be made Tuesday, is one result of several high-level meetings Kerry said he held with Pakistani officials to alleviate strains between the two allies. The long-fraught relationship has reached one of its worst points after U.S. commandos killed bin Laden in a Pakistani garrison city.

 Pakistan has chafed at not being informed of the raid in advance, while U.S. officials have openly questioned whether Pakistani officials colluded with bin Laden.

 Kerry sought Monday to play down those allegations, saying he was in Pakistan to “recalibrate” the relationship, not judge whether Pakistan harbors terrorists. But he said he and Pakistani officials had discussed several points of contention, including Pakistan’s alleged support for Afghan insurgents based on its soil and for Lashkar-i-Taiba, a Pakistani militant organization that has been accused of carrying out attacks in India and Afghanistan.

 Kerry, whose name is attached to a major U.S. economic assistance package to Pakistan, said he conveyed to the Pakistanis that they must demonstrate a commitment to fighting Islamist militancy to address the concerns of members of Congress who, after the bin Laden killing, have called for the end to U.S. aid.

 “The make-or-break is real,” said Kerry, who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the most senior U.S. envoy to visit Pakistan since bin Laden’s death. “There are members of Congress who aren’t confident that [the relationship] can be patched back together again. That is why actions, not words, are going to be critical to earning their votes.”

 Kerry did not specify other steps agreed to during his meetings, although he said commitments were made to increase U.S.-Pakistan intelligence sharing and joint intelligence operations — areas that had come to a near standstill in recent months. A joint U.S.-Pakistan statement issued Monday said the countries would cooperate in operations against “high-value targets” in Pakistan.

 In coming days, senior White House officials will visit Pakistan to discuss implementation of what Kerry called the “road map.” Those discussions will determine whether Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will move forward with plans to visit Pakistan this month, said Kerry, although he suggested there is little prospect that the nations would break ties.

 The United States uses Pakistan as a key supply route for U.S. troops in Afghanistan, and Pakistan’s assistance is viewed as crucial to a potential negotiated end to the war there. At worst, some U.S. officials say, cutting ties with Islamabad could destabilize the government to the point that Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal falls into the hands of Islamists.

 Pakistan, meanwhile, needs U.S. assistance to help arm its military and shore up its teetering economy. And although anti-U.S. sentiment is widespread, Pakistan also depends on the cachet of being allied with a superpower — particularly in view of poor relations with its neighbors.

 On Tuesday, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani began a four-day visit to China, an old, trusted ally of Pakistan with superpower aspirations of its own.

 A continued downward spiral in U.S.-Pakistan ties, Kerry said, “is a very dangerous road for everybody — dangerous for Pakistan, dangerous for our interests, dangerous for the people of this country and for the region.”

 In recent days, Pakistani civilian and military officials have coalesced around anger about the bin Laden raid, which they characterize as a violation of sovereignty. On Friday, Parliament passed a resolution condemning the operation, calling for an end to CIA drone strikes and threatening to cut off NATO supply routes through Pakistan.

 Kerry said he emphasized to Pakistani leaders that the secrecy surrounding the Abbottabad operation was not a reflection of U.S. distrust. Having narrowly failed to reach bin Laden in Afghanistan in 2001, the United States was determined this time to avoid leaks at all costs, Kerry said, and few senior U.S. officials were told in advance about the raid.

 “My goal in coming here was not to apologize for what I consider to be a triumph against terrorism,” Kerry said of the raid on bin Laden’s compound. He added: “Faced with a second chance to capture Osama bin Laden, no American president could conceivably have afforded to take even the slightest chance that he might again slip through our hands.”

 The joint statement said Kerry had also assured Pakistan that the United States has “no designs” on its nuclear arsenal. It did not mention drone strikes, which Pakistan tacitly allows but publicly protests. One such strike in the border area of North Waziristan killed seven people Monday, according to the Associated Press.

 The militant threat in Pakistan was highlighted earlier in the day in the southern port of Karachi, where gunmen on a motorbike fatally shot a Saudi diplomat as he was driving. A senior police official in Karachi said investigators were trying to determine whether militants related to al-Qaeda, which opposes the Saudi regime, had carried out the attack to avenge the killing of the Saudi-born bin Laden.

 But the official said the assassination of the diplomat, which came two days after hand grenades were lobbed at Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Karachi, might also have been carried out by Shiites angry that the kingdom had sent troops to Bahrain to suppress Shiite protests there.

 Special correspondent Shaiq Hussain contributed to this report. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– The US and Pakistan have agreed to work together in the future against "high value targets" in Pakistan, the countries announced in a joint statement today. The news comes after Sen. John Kerry arrived in Pakistan last night, intending to send a strong message following the death of Osama bin Laden: Cooperate more when it comes to rooting out terrorists, or face "profound" changes in the US-Pakistan relationship—which could include kissing billions in aid goodbye. Kerry is the most senior US official to go to Pakistan since bin Laden's death, but since issuing the joint pledge, he said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will soon announce her own plans to visit, the AP reports. Kerry's meetings with Pakistani leaders began last night, the Washington Post reports. Many in Washington think Pakistan is harboring Islamist militants, and some members of Congress are calling for the US to sever the billions of dollars in aid it provides to Pakistan. Kerry is in Pakistan to lay out the new stakes following bin Laden's death, and question officials about how bin Laden was able to hide in Pakistan for years. In Kabul, Kerry said there is "some evidence" that the Pakistan government has knowledge of insurgent activities, calling it "very disturbing."