By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

By the Bournemouth University news staff

The diagram compares the planets of the inner solar system to Kepler-62, a five-planet system about 1,200 light-years from Earth.



Scientists have announced the discovery of three planets in two planetary systems that are in or on the edge of the so-called habitable zone, the range that is just the right distance from their stars so they wouldn't be too hot or too cold to have liquid water.

They made these discoveries with NASA's Kepler space telescope.

William Borucki, the Kepler science principal investigator at NASA's Ames Research Center in California, described the Kepler-62 planetary system, which he says is 1,200 light years away.  One light year is 10 trillion kilometers.

Much like our solar system, he said, Kepler-62 is home to two habitable-zone worlds, called Kepler-62e and Kepler-62f.  Those planets are about one-and-a-half times the size of Earth.

"In fact, these two planets are our best candidates for planets that might be habitable, not just in the habitable zone," he told reporters at a news conference at Ames.  "They're part of a planetary system of five planets that we've discovered so far, but these are the two that are most important."  

Borucki said 62e might be a water world, but scientists aren't certain as they only know its radius, not its mass.  He says planet 62f, the smaller of the two, might very well be a rocky planet, and possibly have polar caps, significant land masses and water.     

Planets 62e and 62f orbit a star about two-thirds the size of the sun and one-fifth as luminous.  Borucki said someone standing on 62f,  would find the light to be as bright as a cloudy day on Earth. 

These are the smallest exoplanets found in a habitable zone. 

Lisa Kaltenegger of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, says scientific models indicate that planets about this size could have water.

"The fascinating idea is that maybe we've actually found the first ocean planets, the first water worlds out there, and what it just shows you is the diversity that we're discovering out there," she said.  "And let me say that we only have the radius, so what we infer from the models is very exciting but always has to be taken a little bit with a grain of salt."   

Thomas Barclay, a Kepler scientist at the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute in California, is most excited about the discovery of a planet in another system -- Kepler 69.  He says Kepler-69c is a planet 70 percent bigger than Earth that orbits a sun-like star, and it's just on the edge of the habitable zone.

"The habitable zone is a region between fire and ice.  Well, this is orbiting closer to the fire than the ice," he said.  "We consider this perhaps to be more of a super-Venus than a super-Earth, perhaps."  

The Kepler space telescope explores the structure and diversity of planetary systems.  It finds planets by looking for tiny dips in the brightness of a star that occur when a planet crosses in front of it. 

Kepler was launched in 2009, and it has found more than 100 planets.


Boston church service honors
those killed or injured in blast


Three days after the bombings at the Boston Marathon, President Barack Obama, first lady Michelle Obama, local officials and religious leaders honored those killed and wounded and the spirit of Bostonians at a service in Boston. 

The Obamas were seated in the front pew at Boston's Church of the Holy Cross as religious leaders paid tribute to the dead, wounded, first responders, and the people of Boston.

Rev. Liz Walker of the Roxbury Presbyterian Church spoke about strength of community in the face of evil.

"We are members of one another, a community of resilience, hard-pressed but not defeated, confounded but not consumed," she said.

There were tributes from other Christian denominations, and Jewish and Islamic faith leaders.

Mayor Tom Menino paid tribute to those killed in the attacks: 8-year-old Martin Richard, 29-year-old Krystle Campbell, and 23-year-old Chinese student Lu Lingzi.

Saying nothing can tear down the resilience of Boston, he said the city and its marathon will come back even stronger next year.

"It will push us forward, push us, thousands and thousands and thousands of people, across the finish line next year. Because this is Boston - a city with courage, compassion and strength that knows no bounds," said Menino.

"We will have accountability without vengeance, vigilance without fear, and we will remember, I hope and pray, long after the buzz of Boylston Street is back and the media has turned its attention elsewhere, that the grace this tragedy exposed is the best of who we are," said Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.

Obama called the resolve of the people of Boston the greatest rebuke to those who committed this heinous act.

"If they sought to intimidate us, to terrorize us, to shake us from those values that Deval described, the values that make us who we are as Americans, well it should be pretty clear by now that they picked the wrong city to do it. Not here in Boston," the president said.

Obama said Bostonians will run again and the country will be with them on their long journey of recovery.

To those who perpetrated the attacks and anyone who would do harm to Americans, he said, "Yes we will find you, and yes you will face justice."

White House officials said the Obamas visited with family members of Krystle Campbell, one of the three killed in the marathon attacks.

Obama also stopped at Massachusetts General Hospital, where many of the wounded from the attacks are undergoing treatment.


Searchers still seek victims
in gigantic Texas explosion


Texas Gov. Rick Perry is calling Wednesday's deadly fertilizer plant explosion a truly nightmare scenario.

Rescue workers are searching still smoldering ruins for survivors of the explosion that leveled homes and businesses in the town of West. 

Police said it is not clear how many people remain trapped in the rubble, but said as many as 15 people may be dead, more than 160 injured. Several are missing.

Police said responders are still in the search and rescue' phase, as they go house to house. About 80 houses within a five-block radius were either heavily damaged or destroyed.

During a news conference, Perry said much of the information about victims remains very preliminary. He said U.S. President Barack Obama has offered to quickly declare West an emergency disaster area eligible for federal aid.

West's 2,800 residents were evacuated. Authorities have not determined the cause of the disaster.

An official with the Texas Department of Public Safety described the scene.

He said, "I can tell you I was there. I walked through the blast area, I searched some houses earlier tonight.  Massive, just like Iraq, just like the Murray building in Oklahoma City. Same kind of anhydrous exploded, so you can imagine what kind of damage we are looking at there."

Authorities said that the deadly explosion ripped through the fertilizer plant injuring more than 100 people, leveling dozens of homes and damaging other buildings including a school and nursing home.

Authorities have not determined how the initial fire started at the plant. Patrick Swanton, spokesman for the Waco police department, said the site is being treated as a crime scene, but insists there is no evidence to suggest it was anything other than an accident. 

A nearby high school football field was turned into an emergency staging area to treat the victims.

Emergency crews from dozens of nearby towns and counties traveled to West to assist with the response. Texas Governor Rick Perry said state resources have been mobilized to provide assistance to local authorities. 


Earth Day organizers seek
photos from around world


More than one billion people around the world mark Earth Day each April 22, making this environmental celebration one of the largest civic observances on the planet.

At its hub is the Earth Day Network, the not-for-profit organization that launched the first Earth Day in 1970 and has helped promote the event ever since.

This year’s theme is The Face of Climate Change. The campaign harnesses the Internet and social media to create a worldwide digital display of people, places and wildlife that have been affected by climate change.

Franklin Russell, director of Earth Day for the Earth Day Network and the Face of Climate Change campaign, wants individual faces on his virtual wall. The network’s 20,000 partner groups are helping spread the word.

“We had a couple of photos coming from India recently, from students who were using recycled plastic bags to make pots for their plants," Russell said. "We had a bunch of people take to the streets in Bulgaria to protest deforestation and to demand the government start taking action.”

The Web-based campaign is collecting thousands of digital photos from Facebook, Instagram and other social media, which link to earthday.org.

“The key is engaging as many people as possible . . .  to take a photo of themselves, depicting either the impact of climate change or even some of solutions that they are engaged in," Russell said, "and share with us and allow us to build this really impressive digital mosaic that we can share with the world to influence change.”

That mosaic, which appears as a scanable wall of photos, is mesmerizing. You can stop on a photo, click on it to turn it over, read more on the back and join a live Twitter feed to comment on what you see.


Negotiated deal for Google
would prevent long case


What's the best way to deal with a complex legal case that threatens to drag on for years while leaving unchecked a dominant player in an economically important market?

For EU antitrust chief Joaquin Almunia, the answer in the case of Google, Inc., was clear. Not the long and winding road of formal charges and a potential fine for the world's most popular search engine, but the quicker route of a settlement.

Google formally submitted its concessions to the European Commission last week, aiming to end the 30-month long case. The regulators said they would market test the proposals soon, indicating they were content with the offer.

While the commission, the EU's competition authority, and the U.S. company may be happy with the result, some of Google's rivals are not so convinced.

They see it as a missed opportunity by regulators to tackle what they regard as a dominant player determined to crush smaller rivals and thwart any chances they have to grow.

For his part, Almunia defends the approach he has taken, which was designed to secure a resolution of the case without having to prove guilt and adjudicate a fine. In that way, consumers benefit more quickly from the resolution, rather than having to wait for years as in past EU cases against Microsoft Corp. and Intel Corp.

"We. . . prefer to conclude cases swiftly when this brings the most benefits to the markets. In certain industries, such as high-tech and fast-moving markets, it is important that competition is restored quickly and effectively," the EU commissioner said earlier this month.

Almunia had been concerned that Google may have broken the rules by promoting its services over those of rivals, copying competitors' travel and restaurant reviews without permission and restricting advertisers from moving to competing services.

In trying to settle the case, the EU competition commissioner has a point, given the length of earlier proceedings against Microsoft and Intel, said Nicolas Petit, law professor at the University of Liege in Belgium.

"The first Microsoft case took six years and even then the remedies were only applicable two years later. The Intel case took nine years from when the complaints were filed to the prohibition decision," he said.

Given the complexity of the EU case and the fact that U.S. regulators found no wrongdoing in their own investigation of Google's core search business, Almunia is just being pragmatic, said Edmon Oude Elferink at law firm CMS Derks Star Busmann.

"From the legal and strategic point of view, it's the thing to do. If a case is not clear-cut, going for a hardline approach is risky. The risk of losing face is very serious," he said, referring to the Commission's settlement procedure. "Article 9 is a comfortable road. The commission can claim that it has dealt with the case without running too many risks."


Lawyers leave Rios Montt
sitting by himself in court


A session in the genocide trial of former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt ended abruptly Thursday, as his lawyers tried to suspend proceedings over a legal technicality and stormed out, leaving him sitting alone in court.

Rios Montt, who ruled between 1982-83, was ordered to trial for genocide and crimes against humanity in January to answer for a counterinsurgency plan that killed more than 1,700 members of the Ixil indigenous group during Guatemala's long civil war.

The 86-year-old's lawyers contend that the judge who ordered the trial should not have presided over pre-trial hearings, but rather another judge, and are seeking to annul the proceedings.

The case must return to the pre-trial phase,' defense lawyer Cesar Calderon said before walking out of the court. "We can't have two judicial processes at the same time. This trial must be annulled.''

That left Rios Montt sitting alone in the courtroom without legal counsel. He tried to reach his lawyers by telephone, but got no answer. Judge Yasmin Barrios suggested he appoint a public defender, before calling off the day's hearing and ordering both sides to reconvene today.

Prosecutors dismissed the walkout by Rios Montt's lawyers.

"It's all a political show,'' attorney Hector Reyes told reporters. "What the defense team is showing is that they have no legal arguments to defend their client and that they have no way to prove his innocence.''

Prosecutors allege that Rios Montt, an army general before becoming head of a junta that ruled Guatemala, turned a blind eye during the country's civil war as soldiers used rape, torture and arson to rid Guatemala of leftist insurgents during the 1960 to 1996 civil war.

His defense team has argued Rios Montt had no control over battlefield operations and that genocide did not take place.


Monetary Fund chief haled
into court over last job


International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde has been summoned to appear before a French court next month in connection with her handling of a political scandal during her past job as French finance minister.

The summons could pave the way for a formal investigation of Ms. Lagarde, whose Paris apartment was raided by French police last month. The French court is seeking to determine whether Ms. Lagarde misused public funds when she helped broker a $520 million settlement for businessman Bernard Tapie to end a long-running legal battle between him and the state.

Tapie was a friend of former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who was Ms. Lagarde's boss when she served as finance minister. She has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

Ms. Lagarde has earned widespread praise as the Fund's first female head. Among other issues, she has been a key player in bailout talks with indebted European countries. She took over the job from another Frenchman, Dominique Strauss Kahn, who resigned amid a sexual assault scandal in New York. Those charges were later dropped.

Cruz Roja photo

New Cruz Roja facility

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Special to A.M. Costa Rica